But alas! it was soon followed by sad disappointment and grievous sorrow.

CHAPTER LVIII

The death of Monseigneur, as we have seen, made a great change in the aspect of the Court and in the relative positions of its members.  But the two persons to whom I must chiefly direct attention are the Duchesse de Bourgogne and the Duchesse de Berry.  The former, on account of her husband’s fall in the opinion of his father, had long been out of favour likewise.  Although Monseigneur had begun to treat her less well for a long time, and most harshly during the campaign of Lille, and above all after the expulsion of the Duc de Vendome from Marly and Meudon; yet after the marriage of the Duc de Berry his coldness had still further increased.  The adroit Princess, it is true, had rowed against the current with a steadiness and grace capable of disarming even a well-founded resentment; but the persons who surrounded him looked upon the meeting of them as dangerous for their projects.  The Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne were every day still further removed in comparative disgrace.

Things even went so far that apropos of an engagement broken off, the Duchesse resolved to exert her power instead of her persuasion, and threatened the two Lillebonnes.  A sort of reconciliation was then patched up, but it was neither sincere nor apparently so.

The cabal which laboured to destroy the Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne was equally assiduous in augmenting the influence of the Duc de Berry, whose wife had at once been admitted without having asked into the sanctuary of the Parvulo.  The object was to disunite the two brothers and excite jealousy between then.  In this they did not succeed even in the slightest degree.  But they found a formidable ally in the Duchesse de Berry, who proved as full of wickedness and ambition as any among them.  The Duc d’Orleans often called his Duchess Madame Lucifer, at which she used to smile with complacency.  He was right, for she would have been a prodigy of pride had she not, had a daughter who far surpassed her.  This is not yet the time to paint their portraits; but I must give a word or two of explanation on the Duchesse de Berry.

That princess was a marvel of wit, of pride, of ingratitude and folly—­ nay, of debauchery and obstinacy.

Scarcely had she been married a week when she began to exhibit herself in all these lights,—­not too manifestly it is true, for one of the qualities of which she was most vain was her falsity and power of concealment, but sufficiently to make an impression on those around her.  People soon perceived how annoyed she was to be the daughter of an illegitimate mother, and to have lived under her restraint however mild; how she despised the weakness of her father, the Duc d’Orleans, and how confident she was of her influence over him; and how she had hated all who had interfered in her marriage—­merely