Part 42 (1/2)
It remains for me to relate certain rather curious circumstances in relation to the late Queen, after which I shall speak of her noin state, in thesaid by priests at four altars fronificent Palace of Enchantes followed the funeral car, and in all these carriages were the high officials, as well as the ladies, who had belonged to her But what barbarity! what ingratitude! what a scandal! In all these hed and uards, as well as the gendarmes and musketeers, took turns to ride their horses into the open plain and shoot at the birds
Monsieur le Dauphin, after Saint Denis, went to lie at the Tuileries, before betaking hi day at Notre Da alone and in seclusion in his apartht to have done, he went to the Palais Royal to see the Princess Palatine and her husband, whom he had had with him all the day; he must have distraction, amuseeois would not permit themselves on so solemn an occasion, were it only out of decorum
In the midst of these ridiculous and indefensible conversations, the news arrived that the King had broken his arm The Marquis de Mosny had started on the instant in order to infor Prince of it; and Du Saussoi, equerry of his Majesty, arrived half an hour later, giving the sa during the obsequies of his wife) had fallen off his horse, which he had not been able to prevent froe M Felix, a skilful and prudent surgeon, had just set the ar sent word to the Dauphin not to leave the Tuileries, and to attend the funeral cere held at this h the city of Paris hadto the curious a little wise horse which bowed, calculated, guessed, answered questions, and perfor had strictly forbidden his family and the people of the Court to let themselves be seen at this fair Monsieur le Dauphin, none the less, wished to contemplate, with his own eyes, this extraordinary and wonderful little horse Consequently, he had to be taken to the Chateau des Tuileries, where he took a puerile amusement in a spectacle in itself trivial, and, at such a tirief if the death of her son had preceded hers, against the order of nature; but the hearts of our children are not disposed like ours, and who kno I shall be treated 's ar the service for the Queen, was pleased to relate to the Grande Mademoiselle that, three or four days before, she had seen, in a so's horse run away, and throw him upon the rocks and brambles of a precipice, from which he was rescued with a broken arue and uncertain indications
”Not mine,” replied Madame, with ardour; ”they are not like others Five or six days before the Queen fell ill, I told her, in the presence of Mada dreae church all draped in black I advanced to the sanctuary; a vault was opened at one side of the altar Some kind of priests went down, and these folk said aloud, as they caain, that they had found no place at first; that the cavity having seeed the biers, and had placed there the body of the lady At that point I awoke, quite startled, and not myself”
Hardly had the Princess finished her story, when the Infanta, turning pale, said to her: ”Madame, you will see, the dream of the vault refers to land I noticed, and remember, that the saed to push up all the coffins, one against the other”
And, in truth, we knew, a few days afterwards, that for this poor Queen, Maria Theresa, the monks of the abbey had found it necessary to break down a strong barrier of stones in their subterranean church, to remove the first wife of Gaston, mother of Mademoiselle, and find a place for the Spanish Queen who had arrived in those regions
There were several funeral orations on this occasion Not a single one of these official discourses deserved to survive the Queen There was very little to say about her, I adyrists, these liars in surplice, in black cassock, or in purple and mitre, are not too scrupulous to borrow facts and lected to furnish or bequeath it theratulated myself on this sort of indifference or literary penury; an indiscreet person, sustained by zeal or talent, ht have wished to ion
CHAPTER xxxII
Jean Baptiste Colbert--His Death--His Great Works--His Last Advice to the Marquise
M Colbert had been ailing for a long tiainst his health, to which his accureatest injury We had just married his son Blainville to my niece, Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente, heiress of the house of Rochchouart Since this union--the King's work--M Colbert had soood offices and kindness I said to him one day that my quarrel with hinored all his oorth, treated himself with no more respect than a ht hand of the King, his eye of vigilance in everything, and the pillar of his business and his finance
Without being precisely what one would call a modest man, M Colbert was calm of mind, and by nature without pose or presulory He held his tongue on the subject of great enterprises, but eood projects and ideas, such as, for instance, our Indies and Pondicherry
He had kno to procure, without oppressing any one, the incalculable sums that had been necessitated, not only by enormous and almost universal wars, but by all those canals, all those ports in the Mediterranean or the ocean, that vast creation of vessels, arsenals, foundries,up in all parts He had procured by his application, his careful calculations, the ithal to build innues, the Observatory of Paris, the Royal Hospital of the Invalides, the chateaus of the Tuileries and of Vincennes, the engine and chateau of Marly, that prodigious chateau of Versailles, with its Trianon of ht have served as a habitation for the richest lass factories, and those of the Gobelins; he had raised, as though by a alleries of Mazarin; and foreigners asked one another, in their surprise, what they must admire most in that monument, the interior pomp of the edifice or its rich collection of books, coins, and manuscripts
To all these works, more than sufficient to i at this e 'salpetriere' of Paris and the colonnades of the Louvre Ruthless death came to seize hilorious
The great Colbert, worn out with fatigue, watching, and constraint, left the King, his wife, his children, his honours, his well-earned riches, and displayed no other anxiety than alarh so many services rendered to the nation and to his prince were no more, in his eyes, than vain works in relation to eternity
Madareat lady, could, not reasonably continue her office of governess to the King's children M Colbert, thatall things without a plaint, had been charged with the care of the t-born princes
Because of the third Mademoiselle de Blois, and of the little Comte de Toulouse, I saw the minister frequently, and I was one of the first to re his last illness, I visited him more often One day, of his own accord, he said to et on with Madame de Maintenon? I have never heard her complain of you; but I make you this confidence out of friendshi+p His Majesty complains of your attitude towards your former friend If the frankness of your nature and the impatience of your humour have sometimes led you too far, I exhort you to moderate yourself, in your own interest and in that of your children Madame de Maintenon is an a Have this consideration for a hard-working prince, whom intellectual recreation relaxes and diverts, andbefore this lady, and where you would never be her inferior Go there, and frequently, instead of keeping at a distance in an attitude of resentment, which, do not doubt, is noticed and viewed unfavourably”
”But, monsieur,” I answered M Colbert, ”you are not, then, aware that every time I am a third person at one of these interminable conversations, I always meet with some mark of disapproval, and sometimes with painful mortifications?”