hould be given to his mother.

Madame held thus a high position, and if, in spite of that position, she
had no political influence, the reason was that the regent made it a
principle of action never to allow women to meddle with state affairs.
It may be also, that Philippe the Second, regent of France, was more
reserved toward his mother than toward his mistresses, for he knew her
epistolary inclinations, and he had no fancy for seeing his projects
made the subjects of the daily correspondence which she kept up with the
Princess Wilhelmina Charlotte, and the Duke Anthony Ulric of Brunswick.
In exchange for this loss, he left her the management of the house and
of his daughters, which, from her overpowering idleness, the Duchesse
d'Orleans abandoned willingly to her mother-in-law. In this last
particular, however, the poor palatine (if one may believe the memoirs
written at the time) was not happy. Madame de Berry lived publicly with
Riom, and Mademoiselle de Valois was secretly the mistress of Richelieu,
who, without anybody knowing how, and as if he had the enchanted ring of
Gyges, appeared to get into her rooms, in spite of the guards who
watched the doors, in spite of the spies with whom the regent surrounded
him, and though, more than once, he had hidden himself in his daughter's
room to watch.

As to Mademoiselle de Chartres, whose character had as yet seemed much
more masculine than feminine, she, in making a man of herself, as one
may say, seemed to forget that other men existed, when, some days before
the time at which we have arrived, being at the opera, and hearing her
music master, Cauchereau, the finished and expressive singer of the
Academic Royal, who, in a love scene, was prolonging a note full of the
most exquisite grace and feeling, the young princess, carried away by
artistic enthusiasm, stretched out her arms and cried aloud--"Ah! my
dear Cauchereau!" This unexpected exclamation had troubled her mother,
who had sent away the beautiful tenor, and, putting aside her habitual
apathy, determined to watch over her daughter herself. There remained
the Princess Louise, who was afterward Queen of Spain, and Mademoiselle
Elizabeth, who became the Duchesse de Lorraine, but as to them there was
nothing said; either they were really wise, or else they understood
better than their elders how to restrain the sentiments of their hearts,
or the accents of passion. As soon as the prince saw his mother appear,
he thou