found himself a widower, and which
betrayed itself in very disagreeable actions.

[57] Memoirs of Saint Philippe, tom. iii., p. 88.

Saint Simon tells us that, after the death of Marie Louise of Savoy,
Madame des Ursins usually supped with the King, and had him transferred
from the palace of the Buen-Retiro, in which the Queen had died, to that
of Medina Coeli. There she caused a corridor to be constructed, leading
from the King's cabinet to the apartments of the young princes, wherein
she was lodged; and it was not, as may be imagined, to facilitate
communications between a bereaved father and his children, who had
become doubly dear to him, but, according to our authority, in order
that it might never be known whether the King was alone or with her. She
was in such haste to see this secret passage completed, that, to the
great scandal of Catholic Spain, she had the work carried on during
Sundays and saints' days as well as upon ordinary days. This was pushed
to such an extent, that a great number of pious persons no less than
thrice asked Father Robinet, the most exemplary of the confessors Philip
V. ever had, if he were not aware of such unlawful labour, and when it
was that he intended it should cease. To which the subtle Jesuit, who
was unwilling to be accused of laxity in morals, replied that the King
had not spoken to him upon the subject, alluding to his relations with
Philip as his Confessor, in which relation alone he wished it to be
understood that he was to be considered--always adding, for their
satisfaction, that if he had been consulted in the matter, he would not
have failed to say that, to complete that criminal corridor, work should
never have been so permitted, but that to effect its destruction, the
labourers might have worked at it even on Easter Day.[58]

[58] Memoires de Saint Simon, tom. xx., p. 171, 172.

This statement of Saint Simon, quite insupportable as it is, would
nevertheless leave subsisting, in the melancholy position of the
children and their father, a means of justification to Madame des
Ursins, did not Duclos deprive her of it; and who, less charitable than
the authority whom he generally cites when treating of this celebrated
woman, tells us purely and simply that she desired to facilitate the
communication of her own apartments with those of the King, which leaves
ample room for slander and suspicion. He goes still further. Improving
upon Saint Simon, and showing himse