The fierce light that beats upon the lives of kings and queens was at its fiercest when cast upon the life of the Sun-King. His marriage with the Spanish princess was one of policy and convenience, and as such there have been unions more disastrous. If love played no great part in it, at least the king was true to the dignity and a certain gentle courtesy and good-nature underlying the pomp and extravagant display with which he was pleased to surround himself; and Maria Théresa’s record of a queen’s life bears no startling evidence of unhappiness or discontent—something indeed to the contrary. CHAPTER XV _Réunions_—The Scarrons—The Fête at Vaux—The Little Old Man in the Dressing-gown—Louise de la Vallière—How the Mice Play when the Cat’s Away—“Pauvre Scarron”—An Atrocious Crime. The return of St Evrémond brought about the restoration of the old pleasant Monday and Friday _réunions_ of the rue des Tournelles—whose regularity so many untoward events had greatly and for so long interfered with. Ninon could afford to dispense with the less interesting society of the Louvre, where, except for Madame de Choisy’s friendship, no very cordial hand had ever been extended to her; while the cultured, refined Bohemianism of her salon was probably more acceptable to many of her distinguished friends. They at all events gathered there numerously. Monsieur de la Rochefoucauld, ever faithful to the beautiful Duchesse de Longueville; Condé; the brilliant society doctor of his day and memoir writer, Guy Patin; Monsieur de la Châtre, also a chronicler of his period; Monsieur de Villarceaux, Corneille, whose tragedy of _Œdipus_ brought him back in high-heaped measure the success which had waned since the production of _The Cid_, so greatly that he had nearly lost heart for dramatic work; Molière—these two the brightest and best-beloved stars of Ninon’s firmament. Monsieur Voiture was now no more. His empty niche was filled by Boileau, who introduced to her his young friend, Racine. Occasionally, by kind permission only of Madame de la Sablière, came la Fontaine. Among the ladies of her company were Madame de la Fayette, the authoress of _Zaïde_ and of the _Princesse de Clèves_; Madame Deshoulières, called “the French Calliope”; and, as healing Time’s wings now and again bring, it was Molière himself who effected pleasant relations once more with Julie de Rambouillet, now Duchesse de Montausier; Madeleine de Scudéri, the distinguished _précieuse_, held aloof.