others.

I read it over again, and understood that if the King recommended me to
be firm, it was because he needed to be firm himself. I soon mastered my
emotion, and looked at things in their real light. It was easy to see
that sanctimonious fanatics had forced the King to act. Bossuet was not
sanctimonious, but, to serve his own ends, proffered himself as spokesman
and emissary, being anxious to prove to his old colleagues that he was on
the side of what they styled moral conduct and good example.

For a while I walked up and down my salon; but the least exertion
fatigues me. I resumed my armchair or my settee, leaving the man there
like a sort of messenger, whom it was not necessary to treat with any
respect. He was bold, and asked me for a definite answer which he could
take back to his Majesty. I stared hard at him for about a minute, and
then said: "My Lord Bishop of Condom, the clerics who have been advising
the King are very pleased that he should set an example to his people of
self-sacrifice. I am of their opinion; I think as they do, as you do, as
the Pope does; but feeling convinced that to us, the innocent sheep, the
shepherds ought first to show an example, I will consent to break off my
relationship with his Majesty when you, M. de Condom, shall have broken
off your intimacy with Mademoiselle de Mauleon des Vieux!"

By a retort of this kind I admit that I hoped greatly to embarrass the
Bishop, and enjoy seeing his face redden with confusion. But he was
nowise disconcerted, and I confess to-day that this circumstance proved
to me that there was but little truth in the rumours that were current
with regard to this subject.

"Mademoiselle de Mauleon!" said he, smiling half-bitterly,