hdraw with his beautiful bride to his ample estates in Provence.
She, however, entirely devoted to pleasure, and absorbed in her
ambitious designs, refused to accompany him, pleading the duty she
owed her royal mistress. He went alone. Madame de Montespan was thus
relieved of the embarrassment of his presence.

Louis XIV., while apparently immersed in frivolous and guilty
pleasures, was developing very considerable ability as a sovereign. It
daily became more clearly manifest that he was not a man of pleasure
merely; that he had an imperial will, and that he was endowed with
unusual administrative energies.

The Duke de Mazarin, a relative and rich heir of the deceased
cardinal, and who assumed an austere and cynical character, ventured
on one occasion, when displeased with some act of the king, to
approach him in the presence of several persons and say,

"Sire, Saint Genevieve appeared to me last night. She is much offended
by the conduct of your majesty, and has foretold to me that if you do
not reform your morals the greatest misfortunes will fall upon your
kingdom."

The whole circle stood aghast at his effrontery. But the king,
without exhibiting the slightest emotion, in slow and measured
accents, replied,

"And I, Monsieur de Mazarin, have recently had several visions, by
which I have been warned that the late cardinal, your uncle, plundered
my people, and that it is time to make his heirs disgorge the booty.
Remember this, and be persuaded that the very next time you permit
yourself to offer me unsolicited advice, I shall act upon the
mysterious information I have received."

The duke attempted no reply. Such developments of character
effectually warded off all approaches of familiarity.

The fugitive and needy Charles II. had sold to Louis XIV., for about
one million of dollars, the important commercial town of Dunkirk, in
French Flanders. The king, well aware of the importance of the
position, had employed thirty thousand men to fortify the place.

Louis now sent an army of thirty-five thousand men, in the highest
state of military discipline, to seize the coveted Spanish provinces
of Flanders and Franche-Comte. At the same time, he sent a reserve of
eight thousand troops to Dunkirk. The widowed Queen of Spain, acting
as regent for her infant son, could make no effectual resistance. She
had but eight thousand troops, in small garrisons, scattered over
those provinces. The march of the French army was