[73] Ed. Chéruel, XII. c. vii; ed. Boislisle, XXVIII. 242-281. Saint-Simon’s account of Mme de Maintenon (XII. cc. vi-viii) is strongly coloured by prejudice, but this hardly at all affects that part of it which relates to her daily life and habits. To arrive at a fair estimate we should study her in her correspondence, of which there is an excellent selection by A. Geffroy, _Mme de Maintenon d’après sa correspondance_, 2 vols. 1887. See especially II. 43-52 for her _entretien_ with Mme Glapion in 1705, in which she gives a detailed account of her daily round. Further light on her character may be obtained from the memoirs of Mme de Caylus, her niece _à la mode de Bretagne_ (_Souvenirs et correspondance_, ed. E. Raunié, 1889), and of Mlle d’Aumale, a _demoiselle_ of Saint-Cyr (D’Haussonville and Hanotaux, _Souvenirs sur Mme de Maintenon_, I. 1901). Françoise d’Aubigné was born November 27, 1635, in the prison of Niort, where her father Constant d’Aubigné, the unworthy son of the stout Huguenot leader and distinguished writer Agrippa d’Aubigné, was incarcerated. She was baptised as a Catholic, but she was brought up in the Protestant faith by her aunt the Marquise de Villette, the favourite daughter of Agrippa d’Aubigné. In 1645, her father having been released on the death of Richelieu three years previously, she went with her parents to the Island of Martinique, and nearly died on the voyage. On her father’s death she returned to France with her mother (1647) and was again intrusted to the care of Mme de Villette. But by order of Anne of Austria she was handed over to her godmother, Mme de Neuillant, who tried in vain to convert her to Catholicism. She was then sent to an Ursuline Convent at Paris, where, harshness and persecution having failed, she finally yielded to gentler methods. She now rejoined her mother and shared her poverty till her death in 1650. In 1652 Mme de Neuillant arranged for her a marriage with the poet Scarron, who was forty-two and a helpless cripple. He died in 1660, leaving debts which more than swallowed up his small estate, and all that his widow had to live on was a pension of 2000 _livres_ bestowed on her by the Queen-Mother. As Scarron’s wife she had played hostess to many people of wit and fashion, and with these she kept up her relations. Especially she frequented the salons of Mme d’Albret and Mme de Richelieu, where she made friends with Mme de Montespan, a relative of Mme d’Albret. This led to her accepting the post of governess to the children whom that haughty favourite had borne to Louis XIV. In 1674, with her own savings and with 200,000 _livres_ given her by the King for her services, she bought the estate of Maintenon, which was made a Marquisate in the following year. Her influence over Louis began in January,