chamber hoping to surprise them as they went to bed; but he found the doors closed, and would not allow them to be opened.  The marriage-fetes spread over several days.  On the Sunday there was an assembly in the apartments of the new Duchesse de Bourgogne.  It was magnificent by the prodigious number of ladies seated in a circle, or standing behind the stools, gentlemen in turn behind them, and the dresses of all beautiful.  It commenced at six o’clock.  The King came at the end, and led all the ladies into the saloon near the chapel, where was a fine collation, and the music.  At nine o’clock he conducted Monsieur and Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne to the apartment of the latter, and all was finished for the day.  The Princess continued to live just as before, and the ladies had strict orders never to leave her alone with her husband.

On the Wednesday there was a grand ball in the gallery, superbly ornamented for the occasion.  There was such a crowd, and such disorder, that even the King was inconvenienced, and Monsieur was pushed and knocked about in the crush.  How other people fared may be imagined.  No place was kept—­strength or chance decided everything—­people squeezed in where they could.  This spoiled all the fete.  About nine o’clock refreshments were handed round, and at half-past ten supper was served.  Only the Princesses of the blood and the royal family were admitted to it.  On the following Sunday there was another ball, but this time matters were so arranged that no crowding or inconvenience occurred.  The ball commenced at seven o’clock and was admirable; everybody appeared in dresses that had not previously been seen.  The King found that of Madame de Saint-Simon much to his taste, and gave it the palm over all the others.

Madame de Maintenon did not appear at these balls, at least only for half an hour at each.  On the following Tuesday all the Court went at four o’clock in the afternoon to Trianon, where all gambled until the arrival of the King and Queen of England.  The King took them into the theatre, where Destouches’s opera of Isse was very well performed.  The opera being finished, everybody went his way, and thus these marriage-fetes were brought to an end.

Tesse had married his eldest daughter to La Varenne last year, and now married his second daughter to Maulevrier, son of a brother of Colbert.  This mention of La Varenne brings to my recollection a very pleasant anecdote of his ancestor, the La Varenne so known in all the memoirs of the time as having risen from the position of scullion to that of cook, and then to that of cloak-bearer to Henry IV., whom he served in his pleasures, and afterwards in his state-affairs.  At the death of the King, La Varenne retired, very old and very rich, into the country.  Birds were much in vogue at that time, and he often amused himself with falconry.  One day a magpie perched on one of his trees, and neither sticks nor stones could dislodge it.  La Varenne and a number of sportsmen gathered around the tree and tried to drive away the magpie.  Importuned with all this noise, the bird at last began to cry repeatedly with all its might, “Pandar!  Pandar!”