THE DAUPHINE'S DRESS. 195

the King, before whom all trembled, but whose anxieties did
not extend beyond his own lifetime, during which and very
reasonably, he feared nothing.

Before I go any further, let me note a circumstance charac-
teristic of the King. Madame la Dauphine went every day to
Marly to see him. On the day after the death of Monseigneur
•she received, not without surprise, easily understood, a hint
from Madame de Maintenon. It was to the effect that she
should dress herself with some little care, inasmuch as the negli-
gence of her attire displeased the King! The princess did not
think that dress ought to occupy her then ; and even, if she had
thought so, she would have believed, and with good reason,
that she was committing a grave fault against decorum, a fault
which would have been less readily pardoned, since in every
way she had gained too much by what had just occurred not
to be very guarded in her behaviour. On the next day she
took more pains with her toilette; but what she did riot being
found sufficient, the day following she carried with her some
things and dressed herself secretly in Madame de Maintenon's
rooms; and resumed there her ordinary apparel before returning
to Versailles. Thus she avoided offence both to the King and to
society. The latter certainly would with difficulty have been
persuaded that in this ill-timed adornment of her person, her
own tastes went for nothing. The Comtesse de Mailly, who
invented the scheme, and Madame de Nogaret, who both liked
Monseigneur, related this to me arid were piqued by it. From
this fact and from the circumstance that all the ordinary plea-
sures and occupations were resumed immediately after the
death of Monseigneur, the King passing his days without any
constraint,—it may be assumed that if the royal grief was
bitter its evidences were of a kind to promise that it would not
be of long duration.

M. le Dauphin, for, as I have said, it is by that title I shall
now name M.onseigneur le Due de Bourgogne—M. le Dauphin, 1

I say, soon gained all hearts. In the first days of solitude fol-
lowing upon the death of Monseigneur, the King intimated
to M. de Beauvilliers that he should not care to see the new