A cousin of hers, the Archbishop of Rouen, who created so much trouble with respect to the Constitution, followed his dear cousin into the other world exactly a week afterwards, on the same day, and at the same hour.

Nobody, knows what the King said to Maintenon on his death bed.  She had retired to St. Cyr before he died.  They fetched her back, but she did not stay, to the end.  I think the King repented of his folly in having married her, and, indeed, notwithstanding all her contrivances, she could not persuade him to declare their marriage.  She wept for the King’s death, but was not so deeply afflicted as she ought to have been.  She always flattered herself with the hope of reigning together with the Duc du Maine.

From the beginning to the end of their connection, the King’s society was always irksome to her, and she did not scruple to say so to her own relations.  She had before been much accustomed to the company of men, but afterwards dared see none but the King, whom she never loved, and his Ministers.  This made her ill-tempered, and she did not fail to make those persons who were within her power feel its effects.  My son and I have had our share of it.  She thought only of two things, her ambition and her amusement.  The old sorceress never loved any one but her favourite, the Duc du Maine.  Perceiving that the Dauphine was desirous of acting for herself and profiting by the king’s favour, that she ridiculed her to her attendants, and seemed not disposed to yield to her domination, she withdrew her attention from her; and if the Dauphine had not possessed great influence with the King, Maintenon would have turned round upon her former favourite; she was therefore very soon consoled for this Princess’s death.  She thought to have the King entirely at her disposal through the Duc du Maine, and it was for this reason that she relied so much upon him, and was so deeply afflicted at his imprisonment.

She was not always so malicious, but her wickedness increased with her years.  For us it had been well that she had died twenty years before, but for the honour of the late King that event ought to have taken place thirty-three years back, for, if I do not mistake, she was married to the King two years after the Queen’s death, which happened five-and-thirty years ago.

If she had not been so outrageously inveterate against me, she could have done me much more injury with the King, but she set about it too violently; this caused the King to perceive that it was mere malice, and therefore it had no effect.  There were three reasons why she hated me horribly.  The first was, that the King treated me favourably.  I was twenty-five years of age when she came into power; she saw that, instead of suffering myself to be governed by her, I would have my own way, and, as the King was kind to me, that I should undeceive him and counsel him not to suffer himself to be blindly led by so worthless a person.  The second reason was that,