310 MEMOIRS OF THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON.

advantage. The rights of the two disputants were compared.
In the one they were found sacred, in the other they could not
be found at all. The two persons were compared. Both were
found odious, but M. d'Orleans was deemed superior to M. du
Maine. I speak only of the mass of uninstructed -people, and
of what presented itself naturally and of itself. The better in-
formed had even more cause to arrive at the same decision.

M. d'Orleans was stunned by the blow; he felt that it fell
directly upon him, but during the lifetime of the King he saw
no remedy for it. Silence respectful and profound appeared to
him the sole course open; any other would only have led to an
increase of precautions. The King avoided all discourse with
Mm upon this matter; M. du Maine the same. M. d'Orleans
was contented with a simple approving monosyllable to both,
like a courtier who ought not to meddle with anything; and
lie avoided conversation upon this subject, even with Madame
la Duchesse d'Orleans, and with anybody else. I was the sole
person to whom he dared to unbosom himself; with the rest of
the world he had an open, an ordinary manner, was on his
guard against any discontented sign, and against the curiosity
of all eyes. The inexpressible abandonment in which he was,
in the midst of the Court, guaranteed him at least from all re-
marks upon the will. It was not until the health of the King
grew more menacing that he began to speak and be spoken to
thereon.

As for M. du. Maine, despite his good fortune, he was not to
be envied. At Sceaux, where he lived, the Duchesse du Maine,
his wife, ruined him by her extravagance. Sceaux was more
than ever the theatre of her follies, and of the shame and em-
barrassment of her husband, by the crowd from the Court and
the town, which abounded there and laughed at them. She
herself played there Athalie (assisted by actors and actresses)
and other pieces several times a week. Whole nights were
passed in coteries, games, f£tes, illuminations, fireworks,—in a
word, fancies and fripperies of every kind and every day. She
revelled in the joy of her new greatness—redoubled her follies;
and the Due du Maine, who always trembled before her, and