Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/520

tress?" She thought it, however, more easy to appease than to replace, and informed her of what he had said. Hurt and indignant at being considered so lightly, she declared she would resign her situation. Madame Montespan was alarmed: she sought to appease her; but only at the wish of the king, to whom, for the future, she was alone to be accountable, she consented to remain. In the conversations which ensued, she began, at the age of forty-eight, to win the affections of Lewis. Though still handsome, it was ta her sense and mental accomplishments that this extraordinary woman was chiefly, if not wholly, indebted for the conquest of a monarch ever volatile and inconstant, till fixed by her. In her conversation, in which sallies of wit and precepts of virtue were judiciously blended, he discovered charms before unknown. During an intercourse of several years, and for the last four, of the most intimate nature, she completely won his affections. The more she was known, the more she was valued; and at length, partly from esteem, and partly from religious scruples, Lewis, by the advice of his confessor, the Jesuit La Chaise, lawfully married her, Jan. 1686, when she was in her fifty-second year, and he in his forty-eighth. No contract was signed, no settlement made; the nuptial benediction was bestowed by Harlai de Chamvalon, archbishop of Paris. La Chaise was present at the ceremony; Montchevreuil, and Bontemps, first valet-de-chambre to the king, attended as witnesses. Madame de Maintenon, for she never assumed any other title, proved herself worthy of the high station by her disinterestednesss, virtue, and moderation. She exerted her credit with extreme circumspection, never interfered in political intrigues, and betrayed a greater desire to render the king happy than to govern the state. Her aggrandizement by no means tended to in-

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