At that time my brow was not so big; you will find the crown
small, I tell you."

Then one of the monks, in the most serious manner, said, "It's not as
small as it was; your Majesty has enlarged it a good deal."

Madame de Maintenon burst out laughing, and I was not slow to follow her
example; we saw that the King could hardly maintain his gravity. He said
to the priest, "My father, you turn a pretty compliment in a most
praiseworthy manner; you ought to have belonged to the Jesuits, not to
the Benedictines."

We burst out laughing anew, and this convent-deputation, the
gloomiest-looking, most funereal one in the world, managed to cause us
some diversion, after all.

To make amends for our apparent frivolity, his Majesty himself took them
to see his splendid cabinet of medals and coins, and sent them back to
their abbey in Court carriages.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

M. de Lauzun Proposes for the Hand of Mademoiselle de Thianges.--Letter
from the Duc de Lorraine.--Madame de Thianges Thinks that Her Daughter
Has Married a Reigning Prince.--The King Disposes Otherwise.--The Duc de
Nevers.

The brilliant Marquis de Lauzun, after paying court to myself, suddenly,
turned his attention to Mademoiselle de Thianges,--my sister's child. If
a fine figure and a handsome face, as well as the polished manners of a
great gentleman, constitute a good match, M. de Lauzun was, in all
respects, worthy of my niece. But this presumptuous nobleman had but a
slender fortune. Extravagant, without the means to be so, his debts grew
daily greater, and in society one talked of nothing but his lavish
expenditure and his creditors. I know that the purses of forty women
were at his disposal. I know, moreover, that he used to gamble like a
prince, and I would never marry my waiting-maid to a gambler and a rake.

Both Madame de Thianges and myself rejected his proposals, and though
resolved to let him have continued proofs of our good-will, we were
equally determined never to accept such a man as son-in-law and nephew.

Hereupon the letter which I am about to transcribe was sent to me by a
messenger:

PRINCE CHARLES DE LORRAINE TO MADAME LA MARQUISE DE MONTESPAN.

MADAME:--My unfortunate uncle and I have always loved France, but France
has forced us both to break off all relations with her and to become
exiles!!! Despite the kindness and generosity wherewith the Imperial
Court seeks to comfort us in our misfortune, the perpetual cry of our