She had by Louis XIV seven children, whom the Parlement was to legitimatise and declare royal children of France. The oldest, the Duke de Maine, received the principality of Dombes and the county of Eu; in 1675, when five years old, he was appointed to the infantry regiment of Marshal Turenne; in 1682, the king gave him the governorship of Languedoc; on September 15, 1688, the office of general of the galleys and the lieutenant-generalship of the Levant. The elder of the daughters, Mademoiselle de Nantes, married the Duke de Bourbon; the second, Mademoiselle de Blois, made a still more brilliant match. 'The king,' says Saint-Simon, 'determined to marry Mademoiselle de Blois to the Duke de Chartres; this was the king's only nephew, and far higher than the princes of the blood.' Madame Palatine[9] said of the Marquise de Montespan: 'She is more ambitious than dissipated.' There is justice in the saying. She had an immeasurable pride. Mademoiselle de la Vallière loved the king as a mistress, Madame de Maintenon as a governess, Madame de Montespan as a tyrant. * * * * * It was in 1666 that historians note the first signs of Madame de Montespan's ambition. She was then aspiring to the king's love, and it is precisely at this time that La Reynie, in commenting on the proceedings of the Chambre Ardente, places her first visits to the sorceresses. Marguerite Monvoisin, La Voisin's daughter, spoke thus before the judges: 'Every time that anything fresh happened to Madame de Montespan, or she feared any diminution in the favour of the king, she told my mother, so that she might provide a remedy; and my mother at once had recourse to priests whom she got to say masses, and gave my mother powders to be given to the king.' La Voisin's daughter explained that these powders were for love, composed now in one way, now in another, according to the various formulae of witchcraft. Among the ingredients were cantharides, the dust of dried moles, blood of bats, and other vile substances. Of these a paste was made, which was placed under the chalice during the sacrifice of the mass, and blessed by the priest at the moment of the offertory. Louis XIV swallowed this compound mixed with his food. 'My mother,' said the girl, 'several times took to Madame de Montespan at Saint-Germain, Versailles, and Clagny, these love-powders to give to the king--some which had passed under the chalice and others which had not; my mother sent some to Madame de Montespan by the hand of the demoiselle Desoeillets (one of her waiting-maids), and I myself gave her some in the church of the Petits Pères, and another time on the road to St. Cloud.'