238 MEMOIRS OJT THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON.

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old; but in spite of the "blind and prodigious favour lie had
enjoyed, that favour had never been able to make aught but a
cabal hero out of a captain who was a very bad general, and a
man whose vices were the shame of humanity. His death
restored life and joy to all Spain.

Aguilar, a friend of the Due de Noailles, was accused of
having poisoned him; but took little pains to defend himself,
inasmuch as little pains were taken to substantiate the ac-
cusation. The Princesse des Ursins, who had so well profited
by his life in order to increase her own greatness, did not profit
less by his death. She felt her deliverance from a new Don
Juan of Spain who had ceased to be supple in her hands, and
who might have revived, in the course of time, all the power
and authority he had formerly enjoyed in France. She was
not shocked then by the joy which burst out without constraint;
nor by the free talk of the Court, the city, the army, of all
Spain. But in order to sustain what she had done, and cheaply
pay her court to M. du Maine, Madame de Maintenon, and
even to the King, she ordered that the corpse of this hideous,
monster of greatness and of fortune, should be carried to the
Escurial. This was crowning the glory of M. de Yendome in
good earnest; for no private persons are buried in the Escurial,.
although several are to be found in St. Denis. But meanwhile,
until I speak of the visit I made to the Escurial—I shall do so-
if I live long enough to carry these memoirs up to the death
of M. d'Orleans,—let me say something of that illustrious,
sepulchre.

The Pantheon is the place where only the bodies of Kings,
and Queens who have had posterity are admitted. In a separate
place, near, though not on the same floor, and resembling a
library, the bodies of children, and of queens who have had no
posterity, are ranged. A third place, a sort of antechamber to
the last named, is rightly called " the rotting room ;" whilst the
other improperly bears the same name. In this third room,
there is nothing to be seen but four bare walls and a table in
the middle. The walls being very thick, openings are made in
them in which the bodies are placed. Each body has an