Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jane Robins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net _By ARVEDE BARINE_ =The Youth of La Grande Mademoiselle 1627-1652= Authorized English Version. Octavo. Fully Illustrated. (By mail, $3.25.) Net, $3.00 =Louis XIV. and La Grande Mademoiselle 1652-1693= Authorized English Version. Octavo. Fully Illustrated. (By mail, $3.25.) Net, $3.00 =_G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS_= =_New York_= =_London_= [Illustration: Cliche Braun, Clement & Cie. =MADEMOISELLE DE MONTPENSIER= She is holding the portrait of her father, Gaston D'Orleans From the painting by Pierre Bourgnignon in the Musee de Versailles. By permission of Messrs. Hachette & Co.] Louis XIV and La Grande Mademoiselle 1652-1693 By Arvede Barine Author of "The Youth of La Grande Mademoiselle" _Authorised English Version_ G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1905 COPYRIGHT, 1905 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS The Knickerbocker Press, New York PREFACE In the volume entitled _The Youth of La Grande Mademoiselle_ I have tried to present the conditions of France during the period in which the ancient liberties of the people and the turbulent society which had abused its privileges suffered, in the one case death, in the other extinction. As is always the case, a lack of proper discipline had prepared the way for absolute rule, and the young King who was about to assume full power was an enigma to his subjects. The nearest relatives of Louis had always found him impenetrable. The Grande Mademoiselle had been brought up side by side with her cousin, but she was entirely ignorant of his real character, knowing only that he was silent and appeared timid. In her failure to understand the King, Mademoiselle showed herself again a true child of her century. At the moment in which the Prince assumed full power, his true disposition, thoughts, and beliefs were entirely hidden from the public, and Saint-Simon has contributed to this ignorance by prolonging it to posterity. Louis XIV. was over fifty when this terrible writer appeared at Court. The _Memoires_ of Saint-Simon present the portrait of a man almost old; this portrait however is so powerful, so living that it obliterates every other. The public sees only the Louis of Saint-Simon; for it, the youthful King as he lived during the troubled and passionate period of his career, the period that was most interesting, because most vital, has never existed. The official history of the times aids in giving a false impression of Louis XIV., figuring him in a sort of hieratic attitude between an idol and a manikin. The portraits of Versailles again mask the Louis of the young Court, the man for whose favour Moliere and the Libertines fought with varying chances of success.