76 MEMOIRS OF THE DXJKE OF SAINT-SIMOK

CHAPTER VIII.

Death, of Pere La Chaise—His infirmities in old age—Partiality of the
King-— Character of P£re La Chaise—The Jesuits—Choice of a new
Confessor—Fagon's opinion—Destruction of Port Royal—Jansenists
and Molinists—Pascal—Violent oppression of the inhabitants of Port
Royal.

IT is time now to retrace my steps to the point from which I
have been led away in relating all the incidents which arose out
of the terrible winter and the scarcity it caused.

The Court at that time beheld the renewal of a ministry,
which from the time it had lasted was worn down to its very
roots, and which was on that account only the more agreeable
to the King. On the 20th of January, the P&re La Chaise,
the confessor of the King, died at a very advanced age. He
was of good family, and his father would have been rich had
he not had a dozen children. Pfere La Chaise succeeded in
1675 to Pere Ferrier as Confessor of the King, and occupied
that post thirty-two years. The festival of Easter often caused
him politic absences during the attachment of the King for
Madame de Montespan. On one occasion he sent in his place
the P&re Deschamps, who bravely refused absolution. The
Pere La Chaise was of mediocre mind but of good character,
just, upright, sensible, prudent, gentle, and moderate, an enemy
of informers, and of violence of every kind. He kept clear of
many scandalous transactions, befriended the Archbishop of
Cambrai as much as he could, refused to push the Port Royal
des Champs to its destruction, and always had on his table a
x;opy of the New Testament of P&re Quesnel, saying that he