g, are applauded by your Majesty, always win most
applause from the public afterwards."

"Is Racine in easy circumstances?" asked the King.

"He is not well off," replied Moliere, "but the tragedies which he has in
his portfolio will make a rich man of him some day; of that I have not
the least doubt."

"Meanwhile," said the King, "take him this draft of six thousand livres
from me, nor shall this be the limit of my esteem and affection."

Five or six months after this interview, poor Moliere broke a
blood-vessel in his chest, while playing with too great fervour the title
part in his "Malade Imaginaire." When they brought the news to the King,
he turned pale, and clasping his hands together, well-nigh burst into
tears. "France has lost her greatest genius," he said before all the
nobles present. "We shall never have any one like him again; our loss is
irreparable!"

When they came to tell us that the Paris clergy had refused burial to
"the author of 'Tartuffe,'" his Majesty graciously sent special orders to
the Archbishop, and with a royal wish of that sort they were obliged to
comply, or else give good reasons for not doing so.

Racine went into mourning for Moliere. The King heard this, and publicly
commended such an act of good feeling and grateful sympathy.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

Madame de Montausier and the Phantom.--What She Exacts from the
Marquise.--Her Reproaches to the Duke.--Bossuet's Complacency.

Those spiteful persons who told the Queen how obliging the Duchesse de
Montausier had shown herself towards me were also so extremely kind as to
write an account of the whole affair to the Marquis de Montespan.

At that time he was still in Paris, and one day he went to the Duchess
just as she was getting out of bed. In a loud voice he proceeded to
scold her, daring to threaten her as if she were some common woman; in
fact, he caught hold of her and endeavoured to strike her.

The King would not allow M. de Montausier to obtain redress from the
Marquis for such an insult as this. He granted a large pension to the
Duchess, and appointed her husband preceptor to the Dauphin.

Such honours and emoluments partly recompensed the Duchess, yet they
scarcely consoled her. She considered that her good name was all but
lost, and what afflicted her still more was that she never recovered her
health. She used to visit me, as our duties brought us together, but it
was easy to see that confidence and friendship