This declaration of her marriage was always her most ardent desire.  She wished above all things to be proclaimed Queen; and never lost sight of the idea.  Once she was near indeed upon seeing it gratified.  The King had actually given her his word, that she should be declared; and the ceremony was forthwith about to take place.  But it was postponed, and for ever, by the representations of Louvois to the King.  To this interference that minister owed his fall, and under circumstances so surprising and so strange, that I cannot do better, I think, than introduce an account of them here, by way of episode.  They are all the more interesting because they show what an unlimited power Madame de Maintenon exercised by subterranean means, and with what patient perseverance she undermined her enemies when once she had resolved to destroy them.

Lauvois had gained the confidence of the King to such an extent, that he was, as I have said, one of the two witnesses of the frightful marriage of his Majesty with Madame de Maintenon.  He had the courage to show he was worthy of this confidence, by representing to the King the ignominy of declaring that marriage, and drew from him his word, that never in his life would he do so.

Several years afterwards, Louvois, who took care to be well informed of all that passed in the palace, found out that Madame de Maintenon had been again scheming in order to be declared Queen; that the King had had the weakness to promise she should be, and that the declaration was about to be made.  He put some papers in his hand, and at once went straight to the King, who was in a very private room.  Seeing Louvois at an unexpected hour, he asked him what brought him there.  “Something pressing and important,” replied Louvois, with a sad manner that astonished the King, and induced him to command the valets present to quit the room.  They went away in fact, but left the door open, so that they could hear all, and see all, too, by the glass.  This was the great danger of the cabinets.

The valets being gone, Louvois did not dissimulate from the King his mission.  The monarch was often false, but incapable of rising above his own falsehood.  Surprised at being discovered, he tried to shuffle out of the matter, and pressed by his minister, began to move so as to gain the other cabinet where the valets were, and thus deliver himself from this hobble.  But Louvois, who perceived what he was about, threw himself on his knees and stopped him, drew from his side a little sword he wore, presented the handle to the King, and prayed him to kill him on the spot, if he would persist in declaring his marriage, in breaking his word, and covering himself in the eyes of Europe with infamy.  The King stamped, fumed, told Louvois to let him go.  But Louvois squeezed him tighter by the legs for fear he should escape; represented to him the shame of what he had decided on doing; in a word, succeeded so well, that he drew for the second time from the King, a promise that the marriage should never be declared.