The King did not regret Montespan more than he did La Fontange.  The Duc d’Antin, her only legitimate child, was also the only one who wept at her death.  When the King had the others legitimated, the mother’s name was not mentioned, so that it might appear Madame de Montespan was not their mother.

[Madame de Montespan had eight children by Louis XIV.  The Duc du Maine; Comte Vegin; Mademoiselle de Nantes, married to the Duc de Bourbon; Mademoiselle de Tours, married to the Regent Duc d’Orleans; the Comte de Toulouse, and two other sons who died young.]

She was once present at a review, and as she passed before the German soldiers they called out: 

“Konigs Hure!  Hure!” When the King asked her in the evening how she liked the review, she said:  “Very well, but only those German soldiers are so simple as not to call things by their proper names, for I had their shouts explained to me.”

Madame de Montespan and her eldest daughter could drink a large quantity of wine without being affected by it.  I have seen them drink six bumpers of the strong Turin Rosa Solis, besides the wine which they had taken before.  I expected to see them fall under the table, but, on the contrary, it affected them no more than a draught of water.

It was Madame de Montespan who invented the ‘robes battantes’ for the purpose of concealing her pregnancy, because it was impossible to discover the shape in those robes.  But when she wore them, it was precisely as if she had publicly announced that which she affected to conceal, for everybody at the Court used to say, “Madame de Montespan has put on her robe battante, therefore she must be pregnant.”  I believe she did it on purpose, hoping that it commanded more attention for her at Court, as it really did.

It is quite true that she always had a Royal bodyguard, and it was fit that she should, because the King was always in her apartments by day and night.  He transacted business there with his Ministers, but, as there were several chambers, the lady was, nevertheless, quite at liberty to do as she pleased, and the Marshal de Noailles, though a devout person, was still a man.  When she went out in a carriage, she had guards, lest her husband should, as he had threatened, offer her some insult.

She caused the Queen great vexation, and it is quite true that she used to ridicule her; but then she did the same to everybody besides.  She, however, never ventured upon any direct or remarkable impertinence to Her Majesty, for the King would not have suffered it.