the least doubt."

"Meanwhile," said the King, "take him this draft of six thousand livres
from me, nor shall this be the limit of my esteem and affection."

Five or six months after this interview, poor Moliere broke a
blood-vessel in his chest, while playing with too great fervour the title
part in his "Malade Imaginaire." When they brought the news to the King,
he turned pale, and clasping his hands together, well-nigh burst into
tears. "France has lost her greatest genius," he said before all the
nobles present. "We shall never have any one like him again; our loss is
irreparable!"

When they came to tell us that the Paris clergy had refused burial to
"the author of 'Tartuffe,'" his Majesty graciously sent special orders to
the Archbishop, and with a royal wish of that sort they were obliged to
comply, or else give good reasons for not doing so.

Racine went into mourning for Moliere. The King heard this, and publicly
commended such an act of good feeling and grateful sympathy.




CHAPTER XLVIII.

Madame de Montausier and the Phantom.--What She Exacts from the
Marquise.--Her Reproaches to the Duke.--Bossuet's Complacency.