Part 33 (1/2)
”The Co, Honorinde learnt of her old serving-o deposited the little one This good mother proceeded there, and the monks, after some hesitation, confessed what had become of it She wished to see it; they showed it her At its aspect she felt the same inward coroaned, fainted, burst into tears, and never had the courage and firratitude was not less lively and sincere; she handed a considerable su theood work and charity
”The reverend Prior, reflecting that his hideous inreat property, resolved to procure it as a wife for his nephew He sounded the young man, who looked fixedly at his future bride, and avowed that he was satisfied
”She is a good Christian,” he replied to his uncle, since you have baptised her here She is of a good faly as she is to be seen who still find husbands I will put a pretty ive oes, is well-made; I hope to have fine children ill talk
”The Prior co the to noise abroad this existence, was coe of the young she-ht She did not kno to sit at table, and would only eat out of a trough She needed neither an armchair, a sofa, nor a couch; she stretched herself out on the sand or on the pavement
”Her husband, in despair, dee; and as the courts did not proceed fast enough for his impatience, he killed his companion, Benedicte, with a pistol-shot, at thehim before witnesses
”Honorinde had her buried at Fontevrault, and over her tomb, at the end of the year, she built a convent, to which her iiven, where she retired herself as a simple nun, and of which she was appointed first abbess by the Pope who reigned at the ti, ”is the soin of the illustrious abbey which your sister rules with such eclat You must have remarked the boar's head, perfectly i history of the noble community of Fontevrault, where more than a hundred Benedictine monks obey an abbess”
CHAPTER XI
Fine Couples Make Fine Children--The Dauphine of Bavaria--She Displeases Mada to Mada--Conversation between the Two Marquises
The King, in his moments of effusion and abandonment (then so full of pleasantness), had said more than once: ”If I have any physical beauty, I owe it to the Queen, hters have any beauty, they owe it to et fine children”
When I saw hineur le Dauphin, I re, and answered me: ”Chance, too, sometimes works its ; my politics cohter of the Elector of Bavaria, whose portrait I will show you She is not beautiful, like you; she is prettier than Benedicte, and I hope that she will not bite Monseigneur le Dauphin in her capricious transports”
The portrait that the King showed eneral, all these preliminary samples For all that, the Princess seereeable, especially about her eyes, that portion of the face which confirneur will never love that wo ”That constrained look in the pupil, those drooping eyes,--they make my heart ache”
”My son, happily,” his Majesty answered, ”is not so difficult as you and I He has already seen this likeness, and at the second look he was taken; and as we have assured hi person is well made, he cries quits with her face, and proposes to love her as soon as he gets her”
”God grant it!” I added; and the King told es he was going to compose his household The eternal Abbe Bossuet was to beco the tutor-in-chief to the Dauphin; the duchesse de Richelieu, for her great na to be lady of honour; and the two posts of ladies in waiting were destined for the Marquise de Rochefort, wife of the Marshal, and for Madaesture of disapproval which escaped ave his Majesty pain
”Why this air of conte colour ”Is it to the Marechale de Rochefort or the Marquise de Maintenon that you object? I esteem both the one and the other, and I am sorry for you if you do not esteem them too”
”The Marechale de Rochefort,” I replied, without taking any fright, ”is aged, and al her appearance will make a contrast with her office As to the other, she still has beauty and elegance; but do you iine, Sire, that the Court of Bavaria and the Court of France have forgotten, in so short a time, the pleasant and burlesque naet what I have forgotten,” replied the King, ”and what et, I aetting”
”She has taken care of my children since the cradle, I ad iven her a marquisate for recompense, and a superb hotel completely furnished at Versailles I do not see that she has any cause for complaint, nor that after such bounty there is ht into the world, madame, she has reared and attended perfectly to six,” replied the King ”The estate of Maintenon has, at the in, whose childhood was so onerous And for the remainder of my little family, what have I yet done that deserves mention?”
”Give her a second estate and money,” I cried, quite out of patience, ”since it is money which pays all services of that nature; but what need have you to raise her to great office, and keep her at Court? She dotes, she says, on her old chateau of Maintenon; do not deprive her of this delight Byher”