there
were most holy, most saintly people, and--"

"Then, what do you conclude from that, Duke?" asked Madame de Maintenon.

"Why, that Madame will do well to respect his Majesty the King as her
father-confessor."

"Oh, Duke, you shock me! What dreadful advice, to be sure!" cried the
governess.

"I have not the least wish to shock you, madame; but my veneration for
D'Aubigne, your illustrious grandfather--is too great to let me think
that he is among the damned, and he never attended confession at all."

[Theodore Agrippa, Baron d'Aubigne, lieutenant-general in the army of
Henri IV. He persevered in Calvinism after the recantation of the
King.--EDITOR'S NOTE.]

"Eternity hides that secret from us," replied Madame de Maintenon. "Each
day I pray to God to have mercy upon my poor grandfather; if I thought he
were among the saved, I should never be at pains to do this."

"Bah, madame! let's talk like sensible, straightforward people," quoth
the General. "The reverend Pere de la Chaise--one of the Jesuit
oracles--gives the King absolution every year, and authorises him to
receive the Holy Sacrament at Easter. If the King's confessor--thorough
priest as he is--pardons his intimacy with madame, here, how comes it
that the other cleric won't tolerate madame's intimacy with the King? On
a point of such importance as this, the two confessors ought really to
come to some agreement, or else, as the Jesuits have such a tremendous
reputation, the Marquise is entitled to side with them."

Hemmed in thus, Madame de Maintenon remarked "that the morals of Jesuits
and lax casuists had never been hers," and she advised me to choose a
confessor far removed from the Court and its intrigues.

The next day she mentioned a certain village priest to me, uninfluenced
by anybody, and whose primitive simplicity caused him to be looked upon
as a saint.

I submitted, and ingenuously went to confess myself to this wonderful
man; his great goodness did not prevent him from rallying me about the
elegance of my costume, and the perfume of my gloves, and my hair. He
insisted upon knowing my name, and on learning it, flew into a passion. I
suppress the details of his disagreeable propositions. Seated sideways
in his confessional, he stamped on the floor, abused me, and spoke
disrespectfully of the King. I could not stand such scandalous behaviour
for long; and, wearing my veil down, I got into my coach, being
thoroughly determined tha