She continues:— "Am I sunk so low in your esteem that you mention me in the same breath with a Montespan, a Fontanges? Alas, I have soiled my good name to serve you, and is _this_ then my recompense?" As she speaks, in a hard resolute voice, her reproachful eyes rivet themselves upon Louis. "Do you forget, Sire, that I am the woman whom your sainted Queen specially esteemed? On whose bosom she expired? To whom, as she drew her dying breath, she gave this ring?" She takes from her finger the nuptial ring which Maria Theresa had given her. It was a single diamond of remarkable brilliancy. After contemplating it for an instant she drops it on the floor, midway between herself and Louis, then, with a stately gesture, she rises to depart. The impress of many passions is visible on the countenance of the aged monarch. Love and pride are written there. Pride is on his broad forehead—in the carriage of his head—in his arched and bushy eyebrows—in his still erect form—in the action of his hands and arms, as they grasp the chair on which he sits upright. Pride, intense, inflexible pride. But his dark eyes glow with passion. Those eyes devour Madame de Maintenon, as she stands erect before him, her eyes turned towards heaven, the ring at her feet. His mouth, around which deep wrinkles gather, works—as did his father's—with a nervous spasm; but the parted lips seem to pant for the beloved object before him. At length he raises himself slowly from his chair—stoops—picks up the nuptial ring of his first wife—kisses it, and places it on the finger of Madame de Maintenon. "_Mon amie_," he says, with solemnity, "do not leave me. As your husband I will defend you." Even in the reign of Louis XIV. public opinion made itself heard. Placards appeared upon the walls of Paris to this effect:— "LOST—The Royal Sceptre. The finder will be well rewarded." The next day was announced, in the same place: "The Sceptre found—Discovered on the toilette of a hypocrite. "The Scales of Justice, also lost, found hidden in the sleeve of a Jesuit." Other placards followed; they ran as follows: GRAND SPECTACLE. HIS MAJESTY .... MARIONETTES. _In the Chapel of Versailles._ GRATIS! On a day to be hereafter announced. Louis XIV. will fill the part of Gargantua; Madame de Maintenon, Madame Gigogne; the Abbé Gobélin, Pierrot; Père la Chaise, Satan (the lover of Madame Gigogne). CHAPTER XXXI. QUEEN MAINTENON.