e of the Court, and she
spoke like a queen to all. She treated everybody with much respect, and
was treated so in turn. I have mentioned in its proper place, that a
short time before her death, the King gave her a hundred thousand francs
to buy an estate; but this present was not gratis, for she had to send
back a necklace worth a hundred and fifty thousand, to which the King
made additions, and bestowed it on the Duchesse de Bourgogne.

The last time Madame de Montespan went to Bourbon she paid all her
charitable pensions and gratuities two years in advance and doubled her
alms. Although in good health she had a presentiment that she should
return no more. This presentiment, in effect, proved correct. She felt
herself so ill one night, although she had been very well just before,
that she confessed herself, and received the sacrament. Previous to this
she called all her servants into her room and made a public confession of
her public sins, asking pardon for the scandal she had caused with a
humility so decent, so profound, so penitent, that nothing could be more
edifying. She received the last sacrament with an ardent piety. The
fear of death which all her life had so continually troubled her,
disappeared suddenly, and disturbed her no more. She died, without
regret, occupied only with thoughts of eternity, and with a sweetness and
tranquillity that accompanied all her actions.

Her only son by Monsieur de Montespan, whom she had treated like a
mother-in-law, until her separation from the King, but who had since
returned to her affection, D'Antin, arrived just before her death. She
looked at him, and only said that he saw her in a very different state to
what he had seen her at Bellegarde. As soon as she was dead he set out
for Paris, leaving orders for her obsequies, which were strange, or were
strangely executed. Her body, formerly so perfect, became the prey of
the unskilfulness and the ignorance of a surgeon. The obsequies were at
the discretion of the commonest valets, all the rest of the house having
suddenly deserted. The body remained a long time at the door of the
house, whilst the canons of the Sainte Chapelle and the priests of the
parish disputed about the order of precedence with more than indecency.
It was put in keeping under care of the parish, like the corpse of the
meanest citizen of the place, and not until a long time afterwards was it
sent to Poitiers to be placed in the family tomb,