Part 21 (1/2)

CHAPTER XLVIII

Madame de Montausier and the Phantom--What She Exacts from the Marquise--Her Reproaches to the Duke--Bossuet's Complacency

Those spiteful persons who told the Queen how obliging the duchesse de Montausier had shown herself towards me were also so extremely kind as to write an account of the whole affair to the Marquis de Montespan

At that time he was still in Paris, and one day he went to the duchess just as she was getting out of bed In a loud voice he proceeded to scold her, daring to threaten her as if she were soht hold of her and endeavoured to strike her

The King would not allow M de Montausier to obtain redress froe pension to the duchess, and appointed her husband preceptor to the Dauphin

Such honours and emoluments partly recompensed the duchess, yet they scarcely consoled her She considered that her good name was all but lost, and what afflicted her still more was that she never recovered her health She used to visit ether, but it was easy to see that confidence and friendshi+p no longer existed

One day, when passing along one of the castle corridors, which, being so glooht at all hours, she perceived a tall white phanto, vanished She was utterly prostrated, and on returning to her apart The doctors perceived that her brain was affected; they ordered palliatives, but we soon saw that there was no counting upon their re

Half an hour before she died the duchess sent for iven instructions that we should be left alone, and that there should be no witnesses Her intense e of its pleasant expression

”It is because of you, and through you,” she exclaimed in a feeble, broken voice, ”that I quit this world while yet in the pris are so horribly exacting Everything that hteous folk must consent to do their pleasure, or suffer the penalty of being disgraced and neglected, and of seeing their long years of service lost and forgotten

”During that unlucky journey in Brabant, you sought by redoubling your coquetry and fascinations to allure La Valliere's lover Youot hiue, and lendremains a secret The Queen arned, and for a while would not believe her informants But your husband, with brutal ieous fashi+on

He tried to dragstate, froht upon me such scandalous insults

”Ready to appear before my God, who has already summoned me by a spectre, I have a boon to ask of you, Madathless, tre hands Do not deny me this favour, or I will cherish ie to visit you with grievous punish her tears ”Leave so sensual a being; the slave of his passions, the ravisher of others' good

The porandeur which surround you and intoxicate you would see did you but look at them as now I do, upon ht She despises me, and justly, too I shall elude her hatred and disdain, which weigh thus heavily upon n to pardon me when ned bymy confession and excuses”

As she uttered these words, Madaan to vomit blood, and I had to summon her attendants With a last movement of the head she bade me farewell, and I heard that she called for her husband

Next day she was dead Her waiting-maid came to tell me that the duchess, conscious to the last, had overnor to the Dauphin, and withdraw to his estates, where he was to do penance M de Meaux, a friend of the fa, to which the duchess made response, and three minutes before the final death-throe, she consented to let hiy of herself and her husband

When printed and published, this discourse was thought to be a fine piece of eloquence

Over certain things the Bishop passed lightly, while exaggerating others