Still keener, in some respects, was the loss he experienced in the death of the Duke of Burgundy, who passed away February 18, 1712. The ties between them were of the closest description, and the long separation of fifteen years had made no difference in their mutual affection. When the young man—fifteen years old at the time of Fénelon’s banishment in 1697—heard of the sad event, he ran to his grandfather and flung himself at his feet, and implored with tears his clemency, and as a proof of Fénelon’s doctrine appealed to the change in his own conduct and character. Louis was deeply affected, but said that what he solicited was not a matter of favor; it concerned the purity of the Church, of which Bossuet was the best judge. All intercourse between the two was interdicted, and as both were closely watched by spies, it was four years before the slightest communication could pass between them. Then the duke contrived to send a letter in which he declared his unshaken love, saying that indeed his friendship but increased with time, and that he was proceeding more steadily than before in the path of virtue. When, in 1702, Louis gave the Duke of Burgundy command of the army in Flanders, he petitioned with great earnestness that he might be allowed in his passage to the army to see Fénelon. The king consented only on condition that the interview should be in public. They met at a public dinner, where, of course, but little could be said, as everything was closely watched. But the duke in a loud voice exclaimed, in the hearing of all present, “I am sensible, my Lord Archbishop, what I owe to you, and you know what I am.” Fénelon writes concerning the interview as follows: “I have seen the Duke of Burgundy after five years’ separation, but God seasoned the consolation with great bitterness. I saw him only in public for a short quarter of an hour. One must take things as they come and give one’s self up unreservedly to God’s providence.” After this, there was opportunity for a more frequent correspondence, and it is most creditable to both parties, filled with affection and profoundest deference on the part of the younger man, and with the deepest solicitude and wisest counsels on the part of the elder.