The King is piqued to see his secret known by him from whom, above all, he wished to hide it; he replies to Louvois, with a very serious air, that the appointment is not yet made, dismisses him, and reseats himself at the council.  A moment after it breaks up.  The King leaves to go to mass, sees Puyguilhem, and passes without saying anything to him.  Puyguilhem, much astonished, waits all the rest of the day, and seeing that the promised declaration does not come, speaks of it to the King at night.  The King replies to him that it cannot be yet, and that he will see; the ambiguity of the response, and the cold tone, alarm Puyguilhem; he is in favour with the ladies, and speaks the jargon of gallantry; he goes to Madame de Montespan, to whom he states his disquietude, and conjures her to put an end to it.  She promises him wonders, and amuses him thus several days.

Tired of this, and not being able to divine whence comes his failure, he takes a resolution—­incredible if it was not attested by all the Court of that time.  The King was in the habit of visiting Madame de Montespan in the afternoon, and of remaining with her some time.  Puyguilhem was on terms of tender intimacy with one of the chambermaids of Madame de Montespan.  She privately introduced him into the room where the King visited Madame de Montespan, and he secreted himself under the bed.  In this position he was able to hear all the conversation that took place between the King and his mistress above, and he learned by it that it was Louvois who had ousted him; that the King was very angry at the secret having got wind, and had changed his resolution to avoid quarrels between the artillery and the war department; and, finally, that Madame de Montespan, who had promised him her good offices, was doing him all the harm she could.  A cough, the least movement, the slightest accident, might have betrayed the foolhardy Puyguilhem, and then what would have become of him?  These are things the recital of which takes the breath away, and terrifies at the same time.

Puyguilhem was more fortunate than prudent, and was not discovered.  The King and his mistress at last closed their conversation; the King dressed himself again, and went to his own rooms.  Madame de Montespan went away to her toilette, in order to prepare for the rehearsal of a ballet to which the King, the Queen, and all the Court were going.  The chambermaid drew Puyguilhem from under the bed, and he went and glued himself against the door of Madame de Montespan’s chamber.

When Madame de Montespan came forth, in order to go to the rehearsal of the ballet, he presented his hand to her, and asked her, with an air of gentleness and of respect, if he might flatter himself that she had deigned to think of him when with the King.  She assured him that she had not failed, and enumerated services she had; she said, just rendered him.  Here and there he credulously interrupted her with questions, the better to entrap her; then, drawing near her, he told her she was a liar, a hussy, a harlot, and repeated to her, word for word, her conversation with the King!