I have said, that when Cardinal d’Estrees quitted Spain, the Abbe d’Estrees was left behind, so that France should not be altogether unrepresented in an official manner at the Court of Madrid.  Madame des Ursins did not like this arrangement, but as Madame de Maintenon insisted upon it, she was obliged to accept it with as good grace as possible.  The Abbe, vain of his family and of his position, was not a man much to be feared as it seemed.  Madame des Ursins accordingly laughed at and despised him.  He was admitted to the council, but was quite without influence there, and when he attempted to make any representations to Madame des Ursins or to Orry, they listened to him without attending in the least to what he said.  The Princess reigned supreme, and thought of nothing but getting rid of all who attempted to divide her authority.  At last she obtained such a command over the poor Abbe d’Estrees, so teased and hampered him, that he consented to the hitherto unheard-of arrangement, that the Ambassador of France should not write to the King without first concerting his letter with her, and then show her its contents before he despatched it.  But such restraint as this became, in a short time, so fettering, that the Abbe determined to break away from it.  He wrote a letter to the King, without showing it to Madame des Ursins.  She soon had scent of what he had done; seized the letter as it passed through the post, opened it, and, as she expected, found its contents were not of a kind to give her much satisfaction.  But what piqued her most was, to find details exaggerating the authority of D’Aubigny, and a statement to the effect that it was generally believed she had married him.  Beside herself with rage and vexation, she wrote with her own hand upon the margin of the letter, ‘Pour mariee non’ ("At any rate, not married"), showed it in this state to the King and Queen of Spain, to a number of other people, always with strange clamouring, and finally crowned her folly by sending it to the King (Louis XIV.), with furious complaints against the Abbe for writing it without her knowledge, and for inflicting upon her such an atrocious injury as to mention this pretended marriage.  Her letter and its enclosure reached the King at a very inopportune moment.  Just before, he had received a letter, which, taken in connection with this of the Princesse des Ursins, struck a blow at her power of the most decisive kind.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Some little time previously it had been thought necessary to send an army to the frontiers of Portugal to oppose the Archduke.  A French general was wanted to command this army.  Madame des Ursins, who had been very intimate with the King of England (James II.) and his Queen, thought she would please them if she gave this post to the Duke of Berwick, illegitimate son of King James.  She proposed this therefore; and our King, out of regard for his brother monarch, and from a natural affection for bastards, consented to the appointment; but as the Duke of Berwick had never before commanded an army, he stipulated that Pursegur, known to be a skilful officer, should go with him and assist him with his counsels and advice.