iry's wand; if she could entertain him this
evening at supper; if she were familiar with all his tastes,
there would, perhaps, be sufficient reason for you to tremble
for your power. But Princes are, above all, pre-eminently the
slaves of habit. The King's attachment to you is like that he
bears to your apartment, your furniture. You have formed yourself
to his manners and habits; you know how to listen and reply to
his stories; he is under no constraint with you; he has no fear
of _boring_ you. How do you think he could have resolution to
uproot all this in a day, to form a new establishment, and to
make a public exhibition of himself by so striking a change in
his arrangements?" The young lady became pregnant; the reports
current among the people, and even those at Court, alarmed Madame
dreadfully. It was said that the King meant to legitimate the
child, and to give the mother a title. "All that," said Madame
de Mirepoix, "is in the style of Louis XIV.--such dignified
proceedings are very unlike those of our master." Mademoiselle
Romans lost all her influence over the King by her indiscreet
boasting. She was even treated with harshness and violence, which
were in no degree instigated by Madame. Her house was searched,
and her papers seized; but the most important, those which
substantiated the fact of the King's paternity, had been withdrawn.
At length she gave birth to a son, who was christened under the
name of Bourbon, son of Charles de Bourbon, Captain of Horse.
The mother thought the eyes of all France were fixed upon her,
and beheld in her son a future Duc du Maine. She suckled him
herself, and she used to carry him in a sort of basket to the
Bois de Boulogne. Both mother and child were covered with the
finest laces. She sat down upon the grass in a solitary spot,
which, however, was soon well known, and there gave suck to her
royal babe. Madame had great curiosity to see her, and took me,
one day, to the manufactory at Sevres, without telling me what
she projected. After she had bought some cups, she said, "I want
to go and walk in the Bois de Boulogne," and gave orders to the
coachman to stop at a certain spot where she wished to alight.
She had got the most accurate directions, and when she drew near
the young lady's haunt she gave me her arm, drew her bonnet over
her eyes, and held her pocket-handkerchief before the lower part
of her face. We walked, for some minutes, in a path, from whence
we could see th