d its scandals. Most exacting,
yet never satisfied, she had no regard for the interests or honor of
the weak king, to whose lower nature only she appealed.

Mme. de Montespan was of noble birth, being the youngest daughter of
Rochechouart, first Duke of Mortemart. She was born in 1641, at the
grand old chateau of Tonnay-Charente, and was educated at the convent
of Sainte-Marie. Brought up religiously, she at first evinced a much
greater tendency toward religion than toward worldly ambition and
vanity. Mme. de Caylus, in her _Souvenirs_, wrote that "far from being
born depraved, the future favorite had a nature inherently disinclined
to gallantry and tending to virtue. She was flattered at being
mistress, not solely for her own pleasure, but on account of the
passion of the king; she believed that she could always make him
desire what she had resolved never to grant him. She was in despair at
her first pregnancy, consoled herself for the second one, and in all
the others carried impudence as far as it could go."

She was known first as Mlle. Tonnay-Charente, and was maid of honor
to the Duchess of Orleans. When, at the age of twenty-two, she married
the Marquis de Montespan and became lady in waiting to the queen, her
beauty, wit, and brilliant conversational powers at once made her the
centre of attraction; for several years, however, the king scarcely
noticed her. Upon secretly becoming his mistress in 1668 and openly
being declared as such two years later, her husband attempted to
interfere, and was unceremoniously banished to his estates; in 1676 he
was legally separated from her. She persuaded the king to legitimatize
their children, who were confided to Mme. Scarron,--afterward Mme. de
Maintenon,--who later influenced the king to abandon his mistress.

Mme. de Montespan's power, lasting fourteen years, was almost
unlimited, and was the epoch of courtiers intoxicated with passion
and consumed by vice, infatuated with the king and his mistress,
whose title as _maitresse-en-titre_ was considered an official one,
conferring the same privileges and demanding the same ceremonies and
etiquette as did a high court position. The only opposition incurred
was from the clergy, who eventually, by uniting their forces with
the influence of Mme. de Maintenon, brought about the disgrace of the
mistress.

When, in 1675, she desired to perform her Easter duties publicly at
Versailles, the priest refused to grant absolution until