eroy's acquirements. He was profoundly ignorant both of
books and of business. At the Council Board he never opened his mouth
without exposing himself. For war he had not a single qualification
except that personal courage which was common to him with the whole
class of which he was a member. At every great crisis of his political
and of his military life he was alternately drunk with arrogance
and sunk in dejection. Just before he took a momentous step his
selfconfidence was boundless; he would listen to no suggestion; he would
not admit into his mind the thought that failure was possible. On
the first check he gave up every thing for lost, became incapable of
directing, and ran up and down in helpless despair. Lewis however loved
him; and he, to do him justice, loved Lewis. The kindness of the master
was proof against all the disasters which were brought on his kingdom
by the rashness and weakness of the servant; and the gratitude of the
servant was honourably, though not judiciously, manifested on more than
one occasion after the death of the master. [601]

Such was the general to whom the direction of the campaign in the
Netherlands was confided. The Duke of Maine was sent to learn the art of
war under this preceptor. Maine, the natural son of Lewis by the Duchess
of Montespan, had been brought up from childhood by Madame de Maintenon,
and was loved by Lewis with the love of a father, by Madame de Maintenon
with the not less tender love of a foster mother.

Grave men were scandalized by the ostentatious manner in which the King,
while making a high profession of piety, exhibited his partiality for
this offspring of a double adultery. Kindness, they said, was doubtless
due from a parent to a child; but decency was also due from a Sovereign
to his people. In spite of these murmurs the youth had been publicly
acknowledged, loaded with wealth and dignities, created a Duke and Peer,
placed, by an extraordinary act of royal power, above Dukes and Peers of
older creation, married to a Princess of the blood royal, and appointed
Grand Master of the Artillery of the Realm. With abilities and courage
he might have played a great part in the world. But his intellect was
small; his nerves were weak; and the women and priests who had educated
him had effectually assisted nature. He was orthodox in belief, correct
in morals, insinuating in address, a hypocrite, a mischiefmaker and a
coward.

It was expected at Versailles that Fl