ompleted. The marchioness gave it the name
of St. Joseph. One room was sumptuously furnished for her private
accommodation. She appointed the abbess. The great bell of the convent
was to ring twenty minutes whenever she visited the sisterhood. As the
founder of the community, she was to receive the honors of the incense
at high mass and vespers. The marchioness richly enjoyed this
adulation, and was a frequent visitor at the convent.

The king, having recovered from his illness, decided upon a journey to
Flanders. Oppressed with ennui, he sought amusement for himself and
his court. He wished also to impress his neighbors by an exhibition of
his splendor and power. The queen, with the dauphin and dauphiness,
attended by their several suites, accompanied him on this expedition.
Madame de Montespan was excessively chagrined in finding her name
omitted in the list of those who were to make up the party. But the
name of Madame de Maintenon headed the list of the attendants of the
princess.

The gorgeous procession, charioted in the highest appliances of regal
splendor, swept along through cities and villages, every where
received with triumphal arches, the ringing of bells, the explosions
of artillery, and the blaze of illuminations till the sea-port of
Dunkirk was reached. Here there was a sham-fight between two frigates.
It was a serene and lovely day. The members of the royal suite, from
the deck of a bark sumptuously prepared for their accommodation,
witnessed with much delight the novel spectacle. At the close, the
king repaired to one of the men-of-war, upon whose deck a lofty throne
was erected, draped with a costly awning. Here the splendor-loving
monarch, surrounded by that ceremonial and pageantry which were so
dear to him, received the congratulations of the dignitaries of his
own and other lands upon his recent recovery from illness. At the end
of a month the party returned to Versailles.

Devoted as Louis XIV. was to his own selfish gratification, he was
fully aware of the dependence of that gratification upon the
aggrandizement of the realm, which he regarded as his private
property. Upon this tour of pleasure he invested the city of
Luxembourg with an army of thirty thousand men, and took it after a
siege of eight days. He then overrun the Electorate of Treves,
demolished all its fine fortifications, and by the energies of
pillage, fire, and ruin, rendered it impossible for the territory
hereafter to rende