Madame de Maintenon meanwhile expected every moment to be proclaimed Queen.  At the end of some days disturbed by the silence of the King, she ventured to touch upon the subject.  The embarrassment she caused the King much troubled her.  He softened the affair as much as he could, but finished by begging her to think no more of being declared, and never to speak of it to him again!  After the first shock that the loss of her hopes caused her, she sought to find out to whom she was beholden for it.  She soon learned the truth; and it is not surprising that she swore to obtain Louvois’s disgrace, and never ceased to work at it until successful.  She waited her opportunity, and undermined her enemy at leisure, availing herself of every occasion to make him odious to the King.

Time passed.  At length it happened that Louvois, not content with the terrible executions in the Palatinate, which he had counselled, wished to burn Treves.  He proposed it to the King.  A dispute arose between them, but the King would not or could not be persuaded.  It may be imagined that Madame de Maintenon did not do much to convince him.

Some days afterwards Louvois, who had the fault of obstinacy, came as usual to work with the King in Madame de Maintenon’s rooms.  At the end of the sitting he said, that he felt convinced that it was scrupulousness alone which had hindered the King from consenting to so necessary an act as the burning, of Treves, and that he had, therefore, taken the responsibility on himself by sending a courier with orders to set fire to the place at once.

The King was immediately, and contrary to his nature, so transported with anger that he seized the tongs, and was about to make a run at Louvois, when Madame de Maintenon placed herself between them, crying, “Oh, Sire, what are you going to do?” and took the tongs from his hands.

Louvois, meanwhile, gained the door.  The King cried after him to recall him, and said, with flashing eyes:  “Despatch a courier instantly with a counter order, and let him arrive in time; for, know this:  if a single house is burned your head shall answer for it.”  Louvois, more dead than alive, hastened away at once.

Of course, he had sent off no courier.  He said he had, believing that by this trick the King, though he might be angry, would be led to give way.  He had reckoned wrongly, however, as we have seen.

From this time forward Louvois became day by day more distasteful to the King.  In the winter of 1690, he proposed that, in order to save expense, the ladies should not accompany the King to the siege of Mons. Madame de Maintenon, we may be sure, did not grow more kindly disposed towards him after this.  But as it is always the last drop of water that makes the glass overflow, so a trifle that happened at this siege, completed the disgrace of Louvois.

The King, who plumed himself upon knowing better than anybody the minutest military details, walking one day about the camp, found an ordinary cavalry guard ill-posted, and placed it differently.  Later the same day he again visited by chance the spot, and found the guard replaced as at first.  He was surprised and shocked.  He asked the captain who had done this, and was told it was Louvois.