Part 48 (1/2)
When this letter was finished, the King said:
”I have never seen, the famous pyramid; one of these days I will escape, so that I can see it without being observed” And then his Majesty asked ht of the petition I answered that I did not understand the inconsistency of M de Sully, who, after consenting to the return of the Jesuits, had left in its place the monument which accused and branded them I put it on Sully, the minister, because I dared not attack Henri IV hience such as that in every governrandfather was vivacity itself He was easily irritated; he grew calm in the same way For my part, I think that he pardoned the Jesuits, as he had the Leaguers, in the hope that his cle them all into peaceful disposition; in which he was certainly succeeding when a ive her opinion, expressed herself in these terms: ”Sire, this petition cannot be other than extremely well done, since a society of clever minds have taken the work in hand We have not the trial of Jean Chatel before our eyes, with his interrogatories; it is impossible for us, then, to pronounce on the facts In any case, there is one thing very certain: the Jesuits who are living at present are innocent, and most innocent of the faults of their predecessors
”The sentences and anathee the pyraer of passers-by and the populace, for these inscriptions, which I have read, are in bad Latin
This ant in itself, is placed upon the site of the destroyed house of the assassin Chatel The norant of your Parisians knows this circuood that the people see every day before their eyes this solitary pyra's assassins are punished and what is done with the houses in which they were born
”King Henri IV, for all his gaiety, had wits enough for four; he left the pyrareat lawsuit, but do not on that account destroy the evidence and documents
”This monument, besides, is the work of the Parliament of Paris; that illustrious asseht see what it has once done for a good cause”
The King s, and said to both of us: ”This is between us three, I pray you, ladies; I will keep Pere de la Chaise amused with promises some day”
Madame de Maintenon, for a brief time in her first youth a Calvinist, cherished always in the bottoood share of those suspicions that Calvin's doctrine is careful to inspire against the Jesuits
On the other hand, she retained ae number of friends whom she had known formerly at M Scarron's, the son of a counsellor of the chamber I understood that in those circuentlemen of Parliaood hands, and that she would not abandon her friends of the Place Royale and the Marais for all the Jesuits and all the pyramids in the world
The Parliament, which was inforood-will for it The first president, decorated with his blue riband, caed her to accept in perpetuity a key of honour to the High Chamber
[In famous and unusual causes, princes, ambassadors, and keys of honour caant and well furnished tribunes, frorand hall of the Parliament could be seen]
The Jesuits, for perseverance and tenacity, can be coain every instant at a daood fathers knew that their petition had not triumphed offhand, they struck out for so learnt that an alderman, full of enthusiasm, had just proposed in full assembly at the Hotel de Ville to raise a triumphal monument to the Peacemaker of Europe, and to proclaim him Louis the Great at a most brilliant fete, the Jesuit Fathers cleverly took the initiative, and whilst the Hotel de Ville was deliberating to obtain his Majesty's consent, the College of Clerht out its annual thesis, and dedicated it to the King,--Louis the Great (Ludovico Magno)
On the following day the e, erased the original inscription--which consisted of the words: ”College of Clerold: ”Royal College of Louis the Great” These ite received them with visible satisfaction, and if only Pere de la Chaise had kno to profit at the time by the emotion and sentiment of the prince, he would have carried off the tall pyrareat circumspection, dared not force his penitent's hand; he was tactful with his, and the society had the trouble of its faaold pieces in sufficient plenty
Some days afterwards the monarch, of his own accord and without any incentive, re pyramid; but Madame de Maintenon reminded him that it was desirable to wait, for scoffers would not be wanting to say that this deain
The King relished this advice At the Court one otten, a few minutes' delay is sufficient
[This pyramid was taken doo or three years before the Revolution by the wish of Louis XVI, after having stood for two hundred years--EDITOR'S NOTE]
CHAPTER XLIII
Little Opportune--M and Mada Moor Weaned--The Good Cure--The Blessed Virgin--Opportune at the Augustinians of Meaux--Bossuet Director--Madeht of Opportune--Her Threats of Suicide--Visit of the Marquise--Prudence of the Court
The poor Queen had had several daughters, all divinely well ood health up to their third or fourth year; they went no further It was as though a fate was over these char and Queen trehter instead of a son
My readers reress as born to the Queen in the early days,--she whoated, disinherited, unacknowledged, deprived of her rank and name the very day of her birth; and who, by a freak of destiny, enjoyed the finest health in the world, and surmounted, without any precautions or care, all the difficulties, perils, and ailments of infancy
M Bonteuardian, or curator; even he acted only through the efforts andPrincess should be ignorant of her birth, and in this I agree that, in thekept his natural hu able, to appear at Court, it was better, indeed, to keep her frohts, in order to deprive her, at one stroke, of the distress of her conformation, the hardshi+p of her repudiation, and the despair of captivity The King destined her for a convent when he saw her born, and M Bontee of three, she ithdrawn from the hands of her nurse, and Madame Bontems put her to be weaned in her own part of the world