saintliness, was dominant in her, and to be achieved at any cost. She earnestly desired his conversion, possibly if only to silence the hideous music of the ditty, whose refrain he was for ever chanting in the streets, echoed by so many ribald tongues— “Tu n’as que les restes, Toi! Tu n’as que nos restes!” Since the chronicle goes on to tell that Louis the king was concealed behind the tapestry during the interview of Madame and her old friend Ninon, the appearance of d’Aubigné, with his string of furious reproach, was of course singularly inopportune; and at last the king, unable any longer to restrain his wrath, dashed aside the concealing Gobelins, and white with anger, and his eyes blazing with indignation, ordered the culprit’s arrest by the guards, and carrying off to the Bastille. Confounded by the unexpected apparition, d’Aubigné’s sober sense returned, and he promised everything required of him with the humblest contrition, adding that if he might suggest the homely proverb in that august presence, there was nothing like washing one’s soiled linen at home. The king’s silence yielded consent, and d’Aubigné was permitted to depart from his brother-in-law’s presence a free man, on condition of making St Sulpice his headquarters. It was at least preferable to a lodging in one of the Bastille towers, he said, but any restraint or treachery on the part of Françoise, or of Louis, in the way of his coming and going into what he called that black-beetle trap of St Sulpice, would be at once signalised. And thus the difficulty was adjusted, a compromise being effected by appointing a certain Abbé Madot to shadow the ways of d’Aubigné when he took his walks abroad. But for Ninon the malice of her old friend took on virulence, and it was found later that Françoise charged her with having planned the scandalous scene, in so far as bringing d’Aubigné into it; that she had connived at his coming just at that moment. Yet exactly, except for the king’s concealed presence, what overwhelming harm would have ensued, is not apparent, and certainly for that situation, Ninon could not have been responsible. Henceforth all shadow of friendship between the two women died out, and enmity and bitterness were to supervene when opportunity should be ripe. CHAPTER XXIV The Falling of the Leaves—Gallican Rights—“The Eagle of Meaux”—Condé’s Funeral Oration—The Abbé Gedouin’s Theory—A Bag of Bones—Marriage and Sugar-plums—The Valour of Monsieur du Maine—The King’s Repentance—The next Campaign—La Fontaine and Madame de Sablière—MM. de Port Royal—The Fate of Madame Guyon—“Mademoiselle Balbien.”