50 MEMOIRS OF THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON.

new wing, as I was coming from M. de Beauvilliers, turning
towards the steps in the middle of the gallery. He was alone,
without torches or valets, with Alberoni, followed by a man I
did not know. I saw him by the light of my torches; we
saluted each other politely, though we had not much acquaint-
ance one with the other. He seemed chagrined, and was going
to M. du Maine, his counsel and principal support.

Next day he passed an hour with the King at Madame de
Maintenon's. He remained eight or ten days at Versailles or
at Meudon, and never went to the Duchesse de Bourgogne's.
This was nothing new for him. The mixture of grandeur and
irregularity which he had long affected seemed to him to have
freed him from the most indispensable duties. His Abbe Albe-
roni showed himself at the King's mass in the character of a
courtier with unparalleled effrontery. At last they went to
Anet. Even before he went he perceived some diminution in
his position, since he lowered himself so far as to invite people
to come and see him,—he, who in former years made it a favour
to receive the most distinguished persons. He soon perceived
the falling-^ff in the number of his visitors. Some excused
themselves from going; others promised to go and did not.
Every one made a difficulty about a journey of fifteen leagues,
which, the year before, was considered as easy and as necessary
as that of Marly. Vend6me remained at Anet until the first
voyage to Marly, when he came; and he always came to Marly
and Meudon, never to Versailles, until the change of which I
shall soon have occasion to speak.

The Marshal de Boufflers returned to court from his firm
but unsuccessful defence of Lille, and was received in a
triumphant manner, and overwhelmed with honours and
rewards. This contrast with Vendome was remarkable: the
one raised by force of trickery, heaping up mountains like the
giants, leaning on vice, lies, audacity, on a cabal inimical to
the state and its heirs,* a factitious hero, made such by will in

* Observe the curious identification'of the State and the King :—I'Mat
et ses JiSritiers. This illustrates the probably apocryphal saying—"L'Utat
c'est Moi"