But a spectacle of another sort, that I could paint forty years hence as well as to-day, so strongly did it strike me, was that which from the summit of this rampart the King gave to all his army, and to the innumerable crowd of spectators of all kinds in the plain below.  Madame de Maintenon faced the plain and the troops in her sedan-chair-alone, between its three windows drawn up-her porters having retired to a distance.  On the left pole in front sat Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne; and on the same side in a semicircle, standing, were Madame la Duchesse, Madame la Princesse de Conti, and all the ladies, and behind them again, many men.  At the right window was the King, standing, and a little in the rear, a semicircle of the most distinguished men of the Court.  The King was nearly always uncovered; and every now and then stooped to speak to Madame de Maintenon, and explain to her what she saw, and the reason of each movement.  Each time that he did so she was obliging enough to open the window four or five inches, but never half way; for I noticed particularly, and I admit that I was more attentive to this spectacle than to that of the troops.  Sometimes she opened of her own accord to ask some question of him, but generally it was he who, without waiting for her, stooped down to instruct her of what was passing; and sometimes, if she did not notice him, he tapped at the glass to make her open it.  He never spoke, save to her, except when he gave a few brief orders, or just answered Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, who wanted to make him speak, and with whom Madame de Maintenon carried on a conversation by signs, without opening the front window, through which the young Princess screamed to her from time to time.  I watched the countenance of every one carefully; all expressed surprise tempered with prudence and shame, that was, as it were, ashamed of itself:  every one behind the chair and in the semicircle watched this scene more than what was going on in the army.  The King often put his hat on the top of the chair in order to get his head in to speak; and this continual exercise tired his loins very much.  Monseigneur was on horseback in the plain with the young Princes.  It was about five o’clock in the afternoon, and the weather was as brilliant as could be desired.

Opposite the sedan-chair was an opening with some steps cut through the wall, and communicating with the plain below.  It had been made for the purpose of fetching orders from the King, should they be necessary.  The case happened.  Crenan, who commanded, sent Conillac, an officer in one of the defending regiments, to ask for some instructions from the King.  Conillac had been stationed at the foot of the rampart, where what was passing above could not be seen.  He mounted the steps; and as soon as his head and shoulders were at the top, caught sight of the chair, the King, and all the assembled company.  He was not prepared for such a scene, and it struck him with such astonishment,