At the outset of his reign, and when, on the death of Cardinal Mazarin,
he took the reins of power in hand, Louis XIV. had resolved to establish
about him, in his dominions and at his court, "that humble obedience on
the part of subjects to those who are set over them," which he regarded
as "one of the most fundamental maxims of Christianity." "As the
principal hope for the reforms I contemplated establishing in my kingdom
lay in my own will," says he in his Memoires, "the first step towards
their foundation was to render my will quite absolute by a line of
conduct which should induce submission and respect, rendering justice
scrupulously to any to whom I owed it, but, as for favors, granting them
freely and without constraint to any I pleased and when I pleased,
provided that the sequel of my acts showed that, for all my giving no
reason to anybody, I was none the less guided by reason."

[Illustration: THE GRAND MONARCH IN HIS STATE ROBES----9]

The principle of absolute power, firmly fixed in the young king's mind,
began to pervade his court from the time that he disgraced Fouquet and
ceased to dissemble his affection for Mdlle. de La Valliere. She was
young, charming, and modest. Of all the king's favorites she alone loved
him sincerely. "What a pity he is a king!" she would say. Louis XIV.
made her a duchess; but all she cared about was to see him and please
him. When Madame de Montespan began to supplant her in the king's favor,
the grief of Madame de La Valliere was so great that she thought she
should die of it. Then she turned to God, in penitence and despair.
Twice she sought refuge in a convent at Chaillot. "I should have left
the court sooner," she sent word to the king on leaving, "after having
lost the honor of your good graces, if I could have prevailed upon myself
never to see you again; that weakness was so strong in me that hardly now