Duke with his cruel, piercing, unsatisfied eyes” was so busily penning.  Says Vallee:  “He filled a unique position at Court, being accepted by all, even by the King himself, as a cynic, personally liked for his disposition, enjoying consideration on account of the prestige of his social connections, inspiring fear in the more timid by the severity and fearlessness of his criticism.”  Yet Louis XIV. never seems to have liked him, and Saint-Simon owed his influence chiefly to his friendly relations with the Dauphin’s family.  During the Regency, he tried to restrain the profligate Duke of Orleans, and in return was offered the position of governor of the boy, Louis XV., which he refused.  Soon after, he retired to private life, and devoted his remaining years largely to revising his beloved “Memoirs.”  The autograph manuscript, still in existence, reveals the immense labour which he put into it.  The writing is remarkable for its legibility and freedom from erasure.  It comprises no less than 2,300 pages in folio.

After the author’s death, in 1755, the secret of his lifelong labour was revealed; and the Duc de Choiseul, fearing the result of these frank revelations, confiscated them and placed them among the state archives.  For sixty years they remained under lock and key, being seen by only a few privileged persons, among them Marmontel, Duclos, and Voltaire.  A garbled version of extracts appeared in 1789, possibly being used as a Revolutionary text.  Finally, in 1819, a descendant of the analyst, bearing the same name, obtained permission from Louis XVIII. to set this “prisoner of the Bastille” at liberty; and in 1829 an authoritative edition, revised and arranged by chapters, appeared.  It created a tremendous stir.  Saint-Simon had been merciless, from King down to lady’s maid, in depicting the daily life of a famous Court.  He had stripped it of all its tinsel and pretension, and laid the ragged framework bare.  “He wrote like the Devil for posterity!” exclaimed Chateaubriand.  But the work at once became universally read and quoted, both in France and England.  Macaulay made frequent use of it in his historical essays.  It was, in a word, recognised as the chief authority upon an important period of thirty years (1694-1723).

Since then it has passed through many editions, finally receiving an adequate English translation at the hands of Bayle St. John, who has been careful to adhere to the peculiarities of Saint-Simon’s style.  It is this version which is now presented in full, giving us not only many vivid pictures of the author’s time, but of the author himself.  “I do not pride myself upon my freedom from prejudice—­impartiality,” he confesses—­“it would be useless to attempt it.  But I have tried at all times to tell the truth.”

VOLUME 1.

CHAPTER I