knowing how much I must disapprove of her marriage with the King, she imagined I should always be an obstacle to her being proclaimed Queen; and the third was, that I had always taken the Dauphine’s part whenever Maintenon had mortified her.  The poor Dauphine did not know what to do with Maintenon, who possessed the King’s heart, and was acquainted with all his intentions.  Notwithstanding all the favour she enjoyed, the old lady was somewhat timid.  If the Dauphine could have summoned courage to threaten Maintenon, as I advised her, to hint that her previous life was well known, and that unless she behaved better to the Dauphine the latter would expose her to the King, but that if, on the contrary, she would live quietly and on good terms, silence should be kept, then Maintenon would have pursued a very different conduct.  That wicked Bessola always prevented this, because then she would have had no more tales to tell.

One day I found the Dauphine in the greatest distress and drowned in tears, because the old woman had threatened to make her miserable, to have Madame du Maine preferred to her, to make her odious to the whole Court and to the King besides.  I laughed when she told me all this.

“Is it possible,” I said, “with so much sense and courage as you possess that you will suffer this old hag to frighten you thus?  You can have nothing to fear:  you are the Dauphine, the first person in the kingdom; no one can do you any mischief without the most serious cause.  When, therefore, they threaten you, answer boldly:  ’I do not fear pour menaces; Madame de Maintenon is too much beneath me, and the King is too just to condemn without hearing me.  If you compel me I will speak to him myself, and we shall see whether he will protect me or not.’”

The Dauphine was not backward in repeating this word for word.  The old woman immediately said, “This is not your own speech; this proceeds from Madame’s bad advice; you have not courage enough to think thus for yourself; however, we shall see whether Madame’s friendship will be profitable to you or not.”  But from that time forth she never threatened the Princess.  She had introduced the name of the Duchesse du Maine adroitly enough in her threats to the Dauphine, because, having educated the Duke, she thought her power at Court unlimited, and wished to chew that she could prefer the last Princess of the blood before the first person in France, and that therefore it was expedient to submit to her and obey her.  But Bessola, who was jealous of me, and could not bear that the Dauphine should confide in me, had been bought over by the old woman, to whom she betrayed us, and told her all that I had said to console the Princess; she was commissioned, besides, to torment and intimidate her mistress as much as possible, and acquitted herself to a miracle, terrifying her to death, and at the same time seeming to act only from attachment, and to be entirely devoted to