File:Versailles and the court under Louis XIV (1905) (14579578549).jpg

Identifier: versaillescourtu00farm (find matches)
Title: Versailles and the court under Louis XIV
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Farmer, James Eugene, 1867-1915
Subjects: Versailles (France) -- Description France -- Court and courtiers
Publisher: New York, The Century co.
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellesley College Library

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meal. Her age,her rarity at court, her dress, and her face provoked theprincesses to make fun of her in whispers with their fair vis-itors. She perceived this, and, without being embarrassed,took them up so sharply that they were silenced and lookeddown. But this was not all; after the collation she began totalk so freely and yet so humorously about them that theywere frightened, and went and made their excuses, and veryfrankly asked for quarter. Madame de Gesvres was goodenough to grant them this, but said it was only on conditionthat they learned how to behave. ... At Marly one eveningafter the king had gone to bed, and while Monseigneur wasplaying cards in the salon, the Duchesse de Chartres andMme. la Duchesse, who were bound together by their mutualaversion for the Princesse de Conti, sat down to a supper inthe chamber of the first-named. Monseigneur, upon retiringlate to his own room, found them smoking pipes, which theyhad sent for from the Swiss Guards! Knowing what would 330
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Mademoiselle de Blois, La Grande Princesse de Conti The Kings Children happen if the smell were discovered, he made them leave off,but the smoke had betrayed them. Next day the king scoldedthem severely, at which the Princesse de Conti triumphed.Nevertheless, these broils multiplied, and the king at lastgrew so weary of them that one evening he called the prin-cesses before him, and said that if they did not improve hewould banish them all from court. This measure had itseffect; calm and decorum returned, and supplied the place offriendship. * The Due du Maine, eldest son of the king and Madame deMontespan, was always a favorite with Madame de Mainte-non, who had been his governess from his birth. He wasprobably not as black as Saint-Simon has painted him; butwith the army he was a craven, and showed the white featherin disgraceful fashion, and at court he was a tale-bearer anda sneak. He was devoured by ambition, and in the kings oldage he joined hands with Madame de Maintenon in for

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