ess of Conti, but that is enough for a
Carmelite. In real truth, this dress and this retirement are a great
dignity for her." The king never saw her again, but it was at her side
that Madame de Montespan, in her turn forced to quit the court, went to
seek advice and pious consolation. "This soul will be a miracle of
grace," Bossuet had said.

[Illustration: Madame de Montespan 12]

It was no longer the time of "this tiny violet that hides itself in the
grass," as Madame de Sevigne used to remark. Madame de Montespan was
haughty, passionate, "with hair dressed in a thousand ringlets, a
majestic beauty to show off to the ambassadors: "she openly paraded the
favor she was in, accepting and angling for the graces the king was
pleased to do her and hers, having the superintendence of the household
of the queen whom she insulted without disguise, to the extent of
wounding the king himself. "Pray consider that she is your mistress," he
said one day to his favorite. The scandal was great; Bossuet attempted
the task of stopping it. It was the time of the Jubilee: neither the
king nor Madame de Montespan had lost all religious feeling; the wrath of
God and the refusal of the sacraments had terrors for them still. Madame
de Montespan left the court after some stormy scenes; the king set out
for Flanders. "Pluck this sin from your heart, Sir," Bossuet wrote to
him; "and not only this sin, but the cause of it; go even to the root.
In your triumphant march amongst the people whom you constrain to
recognize your might, would you consider yourself secure of a rebel
fortress if your enemy still had influence there? We hear of nothing but
the magnificence of your troops, of what they are capable under your
leadership! And as for me, Sir, I think in my secret heart of a war far
more important, of a far more difficult victory which God holds out
before you. What would it avail you to be dreaded and victorious
without, when you are vanquished and captive within?" "Pray God for me,"
wrote the bishop at the same time to Marshal Bellefonds, "pray Him to
deliver me from the greatest burden man can have to bear, or to quench
all that is man in me, that I may act for Him only. Thank God, I have
never yet thought, during the whole course of this business, of my
belonging to the world; but that is not all; what is wanted is to be a
St. Ambrose, a true man of God, a man of that other life, a man in whom
everything should speak, with