378 MEMOIRS OF THE OF DUKE SAINT-SIMOK

though, to say truth,, he had already given too much to a crea-
ture of this kind! Never did M. le Mar&hal de Lorges forget
these words; and he has always repeated them to me and
others precisely as they are given here, so struck was he with
them, and much more after all that he saw since, so astonish-
ing and so contradictory. Madame de Montespan stopped
short, very much troubled by having too far pressed the King.

M. du Maine was extremely lame; this was caused, it was
said, by a fall he had had from his nurse's arms. Nothing done
for him succeeded; the resolution was then taken to send him
to various practicians in Flanders, and elsewhere in the realm>
then to the waters, among others to Bareges. The letters that
the governess wrote to Madame de Montespan, giving an
account of these journeys, were shown to the King. He
thought them well written, relished them, and the last ones
made his aversion for the writer diminish.

The ill humour of Madame de Montespan finished the
work. She had a good deal of that quality, and had become
accustomed to give it full swing. The King was the object
of it more frequently than anybody; he was still amorous;
but her ill humour pained him. Madame de Maintenon re-
proached Madame de Montespan for this, and thus advanced
herself in the King's favour. The King, by degrees, grew
accustomed to speak sometimes to Madame de Maintenon; to
"unbosom to her what he wished her to say to Madame de
Montespan; at last to relate to her the chagrins this latter
caused him, and to consult her thereupon.

Admitted thus into the intimate confidence of the lover and
the Toistress, and this by the King's own doing, the adroit wait-
ing woman knew how to cultivate it, and profited so well by her
industry that by degrees she supplanted Madame de Montespan,
who perceived, too late, that her friend had become necessary
to the Bang. Arrived at this point, Madame de Maintenon made,
in her turn, complaints to the King of all she had to suffer, from
a mistress who spared even him so little; and by dint of these
mutual complaints about Madame de Montespan, Madame de
Maintenon at last took her place, and knew well how to keep it.