s much as you will; let it turn your
heads; say, we 'lie,' if you please; that it's a pretty joke; that
it's 'tiresome;' that we are a 'parcel of ninnies;' we give you leave;
we have done just the same to others. Adieu! The letters that come by
the post will show whether we have been speaking truth or not."

Once more with her to Paris, and listen to the graphic description
which she gives her daughter of the French court:--

"PARIS, Wednesday, _July 24th, 1676_.

"We have a change of the scene here, which will gratify you as
much as it does all the world. I was at Versailles last Saturday
with the Villarses. You know the queen's toilet, the mass, and the
dinner? Well, there is no longer any need of suffocating ourselves
in a crowd to get a glimpse of their majesties at table. At three,
the king, the queen, monsieur, madame, mademoiselle, and every
thing else which is royal, together with De Montespan and train,
and all the courtiers, and all the ladies, all, in short, which
constitutes the court of France, is assembled in that beautiful
apartment of the king's which you remember. All is furnished
divinely; all is magnificent. Such a thing as heat is unknown; you
pass from one place to another without the slightest pressure. A
game at _reversis_ gives the company a form and a settlement. The
king and Madame de Montespan keep a bank together; different
tables are kept by monsieur, the queen, Dangeau and party, &c.;
every where you see heaps of _Louis d'ors_; they have no counters.
I saw Dangeau play, and thought what fools we were beside him. He
dreams of nothing but what concerns the game; he wins where others
lose; he neglects nothing, and profits by every thing; never has
his attention diverted; in short, his science bids defiance to
chance. Two hundred thousand francs in ten days--a pretty
memorandum to put down in his pocket-book! He was kind enough to
say that I was partner with him, so that I got an excellent seat.
I made my obeisance to the king, as you told me; and he returned
it as if I had been young and handsome. The queen talked to me
about my illness; the duke said a thousand pretty things, without
minding a word he uttered. Marechal de Lorges attacked me in the
name of the Chevalier de Grignan; in short, all the company. You
know what it is to get a word from every body you meet. Madame de
Montespan talked to me of Bourbon, and asked me how I