52 MEMOIRS OF THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON.

expense for carriages, servants, and so on. He confided
project to the King, under a strict promise that it should be
kept secret from Madame de Maintenon. He feared, and -with
reason, that if she heard of it she would object to being
separated from the King for such a long time as would be
necessary for the siege. Chamillart was warned that if he
acted thus, hiding his plan from Madame de Maintenon, to
whom he owed everything, she would assuredly ruin him, but
he paid no attention to the warning. He felt all the danger
he ran, but he was courageous; he loved the State, and, if I
may say so, he loved the King as a mistress. He followed liis
own counsels then, and made the King acquainted with Ms
project.

The King was at once delighted with it. He entered into
the details submitted to him by Chamillart with the liveliest in-
terest, and promised' to carry out all that was proposed. He
sent for Boufflers, who had returned from Lille, and having, as
I have said, recompensed him for his brave defence of that place
with a peerage and other marks of favour, despatched him
privately into Flanders to make preparations for the siege.
The abandonment of Ghent by our troops, after a short and
miserable defence, made him more than ever anxious to carry
out this scheme.

But the King had been so unused to keep a secret from
Madame de Maintenon, that he felt himself constrained in
attempting to do so now. He confided to her, therefore, the
admirable plan of Chamillart. She had the address to hide Ler
surprise, and the strength to dissimulate perfectly her vexation;
she praised the project; she appeared charmed with it; she
entered into the details; she spoke of them to Chamillart;
admired his zeal, his labour, his diligence, and, above all, his
ability, in having conceived and rendered possible so fine and
grand a project.

From that moment, however, she forgot nothing in order to
ensure its failure. The first sight of it had made her tremble.
To be separated from the King during a long siege; to abandon
him to a minister to whom he would be grateful for all the