This is, in truth, how the King conducted himself with his ministers, always completely governed by them, even by the youngest and most mediocre, even by the least accredited and the least respected—­yet always on his guard against being governed, and always persuaded that he succeeded fully in avoiding it.

He adopted the same conduct towards Madame de Maintenon, whom at times he scolded terribly, and applauded himself for so doing.  Sometimes she threw herself on her knees before him, and for several days was really upon thorns.  When she had appointed Fagon physician of the King in place of Daquin, whom she dismissed, she had a doctor upon whom she could certainly rely, and she played the sick woman accordingly, after those scenes with the King, and in this manner turned them to her own advantage.

It was not that this artifice had any power in constraining the King, or that a real illness would have had any.  He was a man solely personal, and who counted others only as they stood in relation to himself.  His hard-heartedness, therefore, was extreme.  At the time when he was most inclined towards his mistresses, whatever indisposition they might labour under, even the most opposed to travelling and to appearing in full court dress, could not save them from either.  When enceinte, or ill, or just risen from child birth, they must needs be squeezed into full dress, go to Flanders or further, dance; sit up, attend fetes, eat, be merry and good company; go from place to place; appear neither to fear, nor to be inconvenienced by heat, cold, wind, or dust; and all this precisely to the hour and day, without a minute’s grace.

His daughters he treated in the same manner.  It has been seen, in its place, that he had no more consideration for Madame la Duchesse de Berry, nor even for Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne—­whatever Fagon, Madame de Maintenon, and others might do or say.  Yet he loved Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne as tenderly as he was capable of loving anybody:  but both she and Madame la Duchesse de Berry had miscarriages, which relieved him, he said, though they then had no children.

When he travelled, his coach was always full of women; his mistresses, afterwards his bastards, his daughters-in-law, sometimes Madame, and other ladies when there was room.  In the coach, during his journeys, there were always all sorts of things to eat, as meat, pastry, fruit.  A quarter of a league was not passed over before the King asked if somebody would not eat.  He never ate anything between meals himself, not even fruit; but he amused himself by seeing others do so, aye, and to bursting.  You were obliged to be hungry, merry, and to eat with appetite, otherwise he was displeased, and even showed it.  And yet after this, if you supped with him at table the same day, you were compelled to eat with as good a countenance as though you had tasted nothing since the previous night.  He was as inconsiderate in other and more delicate matters; and ladies, in his long drives and stations, had often occasion to curse him.  The Duchesse de Chevreuse once rode all the, way from Versailles to Fontainebleau in such extremity, that several times she was well-nigh losing consciousness.