[Footnote 273: The letter from Saint-Mars (March 23, 1680) giving an account of the communications between the dungeons has never been found, any more than that telling of the flight of Lauzun.] [Footnote 274: Louvois to Saint-Mars, November 28, 1679.] [Footnote 275: Leopold von Ranke, _Histoire de France_.] [Footnote 276: _Journal d'Olivier Lefevre d'Ormesson._] [Footnote 277: Two years after this warning Louis XIV. gave at Versailles, in honour of Mme. de Montespan, a fete for which special buildings were created. The ballroom, only used _one night_, was marble and porphyry; the rest in accordance.] [Footnote 278: A loss of more than 100,000 crowns was not rare at the gaming table of the King. March 6, 1670, Mme. de Montespan lost 400,000 pistoles in one night; at eight in the morning she regained 500,000. The pistole is worth about ten francs. In 1682, three years after her disgrace, she lost at one time 700,000 crowns which she did not regain. The King paid her debts.] [Footnote 279: Letter of Mme. de Chatrier, attached to the House of Conde; _De La Valliere a Montespan_, by Jean Lemoine and Andre Lichtenberger.] [Footnote 280: Letter from Colbert to the Intendant de Rochefort (April 16, 1678).] [Footnote 281: _Memoires de la Fare._] [Footnote 282: _Memoires de Mlle. de Montpensier._] [Footnote 283: _Memoires de l'Abbe de Choisy._] [Footnote 284: _Souvenirs sur Mme. de Maintenon._--_Les Cahiers de Mlle. d'Aumale_, with an introduction by M. G. Hanotaux.] [Footnote 285: _Ibid._] [Footnote 286: Letter to the Marquis de Trichateau.] [Footnote 287: Note by La Reynie (December 27, 1679). The documents of the _Affaire des poisons_ form more than 1300 pages of the _Archives de la Bastille_, and they are not complete. Certain especial depositions, particularly compromising for Mme. de Montespan, are lacking, and were probably burned by order of Louis XIV.] [Footnote 288: Louvois to Boucherat, President of the _Chambre_, February 4, 1680.] [Footnote 289: It included the Comtesse de Soissons, the Marquise d'Alluye (the King saved both), the Duc de Luxembourg (victim of an error), the Vicomtesse de Polignac, the Marquis de Feuquieres, the Princesse de Tingry, the Marechale de la Ferte, the Duchesse de Bouillon, etc.] [Footnote 290: Cf. _Archives de la Bastille_, the "_Note autographe_" of La Reynie, dated September 17, 1679. Was this the first time that these names had appeared? The destruction of portions of the testimony through the orders of the King does not permit the real truth to be disclosed.] [Footnote 291: Louvois to M. Robert, January 15, 1680.] [Footnote 292: She died there September 8, 1686. Cato seems to have been dismissed, although she had been placed with Mme. de Montespan by La Voisin.] [Footnote 293: Marie-Anne-Christine de Baviere, coming to marry the Grand Dauphin.] [Footnote 294: Cf. _Les souvenirs de Mme. de Caylus_ and--among others--the letter of Mme. de Sevigne dated July 17, 1680.]