he felt, be his ruin.  This perplexity, for those who were aware of it, gave rise to continual scenes.  I was then a constant visitor of Madame de Blansac, at Paris, and of the Marechale de Rochefort, at Versailles; and, through them and several other ladies of the Court, with whom I was intimate, I learnt, day by day, everything that passed.  In addition to the fact that nothing diverted me more, the results of this affair might be great; and it was my especial ambition to be well informed of everything.  At length, all members of the Court who were assiduous and enlightened understood the state of affairs; but either through fear or from love to the Duchess, the whole Court was silent, saw everything, whispered discreetly, and actually kept the secret that was not entrusted to it.  The struggle between the two ladies, not without bitterness, and sometimes insolence on the part of Madame de la Vrilliere, nor without suffering and displeasure gently manifested on the part of Madame de Bourgogne, was for a long time a singular sight.

Whether Nangis, too faithful to his first love, needed some grains of jealousy to excite him, or whether things fell out naturally, it happened that he found a rival.  Maulevrier, son of a brother of Colbert who had died of grief at not being named Marshal of France, was this rival.  He had married a daughter of the Marechal de Tesse, and was not very agreeable in appearance—­his face, indeed, was very commonplace.  He was by no means framed for gallantry; but he had wit, and a mind fertile in intrigues, with a measureless ambition that was sometimes pushed to madness.  His wife was pretty, not clever, quarrelsome, and under a virginal appearance; mischievous to the last degree.  As daughter of a man for whom Madame de Bourgogne had much gratitude for the part he had taken in negotiating her marriage, and the Peace of Savoy, she was easily enabled to make her way at Court, and her husband with her.  He soon sniffed what was passing in respect to Nangis, and obtained means of access to Madame de Bourgogne, through the influence of his father-in-law; was assiduous in his attentions; and at length, excited by example, dared to sigh.  Tired of not being understood, he ventured to write.  It is pretended that he sent his letters through one of the Court ladies, who thought they came from Tesse, delivered them, and handed him back the answers, as though for delivery by him.  I will not add what more was believed.  I will simply say that this affair was as soon perceived as had been the other, and was treated, with the same silence.

Under pretext of friendship, Madame de Bourgogne went more than once—­on account of the speedy departure of her husband (for the army), attended some, times by La Maintenon,—­to the house of Madame de Maulevrier, to weep with her.  The Court smiled.  Whether the tears were for Madame de Maulevrier or for Nangis, was doubtful.  But Nangis, nevertheless, aroused by this rivalry, threw Madame de la Vrilliere into terrible grief, and into a humour over which she was not mistress.