, and whose arrest
followed quickly upon her own, who had not her strength of character.
Among these were La Filastre and the magician Lesage. When it was found
that these two corroborated each other in the incredible things which
they related, the Chambre Ardente took fright. La Reynie, who presided
over it, laid the matter before the King, and the King, horror-stricken
by the discovery of the revolting practices in which the mother of
his children had been engaged, suspended the sittings of the Chambre
Ardente, and commanded that no further proceedings should be taken
against Lesage and La Filastre, and none initiated against Romani,
Bertrand, the Abbe Guibourg, and the scores of other poisoners and
magicians who had been arrested, and who were acquainted with Madame de
Montespan's unholy traffic.

But it was not out of any desire to spare Madame de Montespan that the
King proceeded in this manner; he was concerned only to spare himself
and his royal dignity. He feared above all things the scandal and
ridicule which must touch him as a result of publicity, and because
he feared it so much, he could impose no punishment upon Madame de
Montespan.

This he made known to her at the interview between them procured by his
minister Louvois, at about the time that the sittings of the Chambre
Ardente were suspended.

To this interview that proud, domineering woman came in dread, and in
tears and humility for once. The King's bearing was cold and hard. Cold
and hard were the words in which he declared the extent of his knowledge
of her infamy, words which revealed the loathing and disgust this
knowledge brought him. If at first she was terror-stricken, crushed
under the indictment, yet she was never of a temper to bear reproaches
long. Under his scorn her anger kindled and her humility was sloughed.

"What then?" she cried at last, eyes aflash through lingering tears. "Is
the blame all mine? If all this is true, it is no less true that I
was driven to it by my love for you and the despair to which your
heartlessness and infidelity reduced me. To you," she continued,
gathering force at every word, "I sacrificed everything--my honour, a
noble husband who loved me, all that a woman prizes. And what did you
give me in exchange? Your cruel fickleness exposed me to the low mockery
of the lick-spittles of your Court. Do you wonder that I went mad, and
that in my madness I sacrificed what shreds of self-respect you had left
me? An