blood royal and the peers of the realm, and it was doubtless under the influence of her dislike for the duke of Orleans that the king drew up his will, leaving the personal care of his successor to the duke of Maine, and hampering the duke of Orleans by a council of regency. On or even before her husband's death she retired to St Cyr, and had the chagrin of seeing all her plans for the advancement of the duke of Maine overthrown by means of the parliament of Paris. However, the regent Orleans in no way molested her, but, on the contrary, visited her at St Cyr and continued her pension of 48,000 livres. She spent her last years at St Cyr in perfect seclusion, but an object of great interest to all visitors to France, who, however, with the exception of Peter the Great, found it impossible to get an audience with her. On the 15th of April 1719 she died, and was buried in the choir at St Cyr, bequeathing her estate at Maintenon to her niece, the only daughter of her brother Charles and wife of the maréchal de Noailles, to whose family it still belongs. L. A. la Beaumelle published the _Lettres de Madame de Maintenon_, but much garbled, in 2 vols. in 1752, and on a larger scale in 9 vols. in 1756. He also, in 1755, published _Mémoires de Madame de Maintenon_, in 6 vols., which caused him to be imprisoned in the Bastille. All earlier biographies were superseded by Théophile Lavallée's _Histoire de St Cyr_, reviewed in _Causeries du lundi_, vol. viii., and by his edition of her _Lettres historiques et édifiantes_, &c., in 7 vols. and of her _Correspondance générale_, in 4 vols. (1888), which latter must, however, be read with the knowledge of many forged letters, noticed in P. Grimblot's _Faux autographes de Madame de Maintenon_. Saint-Simon's fine but biased account of the court in her day and of her career is contained in the twelfth volume of Chéruel and Regnier's edition of his _Mémoires_. See also Mademoiselle d'Aumale's _Souvenirs sur Madame de Maintenon_, published by the Comte d'Haussonville and G. Hanotaux (Paris, 3 vols., 1902-1904); an excellent account by A. Geffroy, _Madame de Maintenon d'après sa correspondance authentique_ (Paris, 2 vols., 1887); P. de Noailles, _Histoire de Madame de Maintenon et des principaux évènements du règne de Louis XIV._ (4 vols., 1848-1858); A. de Boislisle, _Paul Scarron et Françoise d'Aubigné d'après des documents nouveaux_ (1894); É. Pilastre, _Vie et caractère de Madame de Maintenon d'après les oeuvres du duc de Saint-Simon et des documents anciens ou récents_ (1907); A. Rosset, _Madame de Maintenon et la révocation de l'édit de Nantes_ (1897). (H. M. S.)