Carmelites in the Rue Saint Jacques could easily do without her; her two
poor little children could not. The King confided them, I am well aware,
to governors and governesses who were prudent, attentive, and capable;
but all the governors and preceptors in the world will never replace a
mother,--above all, in a place of dissipation, tumult, and carelessness
like the Court.

M. le Comte de Vermandois was only seven years old when exaggerated
scruples and bad advice deprived him of his mother. This amiable child,
who loved her, at first suffered much from her absence and departure. He
had to be taken to the Carmelites, where the sad metamorphosis of his
mother, whom he had seen so brilliant and alluring, made him start back
in fright.

He loved her always as much as he was loved by her, and in virtue of the
permission formally given by the Pope, he went every week to pass an hour
or two with her in the parlour. He regularly took there his singing and
flute lessons; these were two amiable talents in which he excelled.

About his twelfth year he was taken with the measles, and passed through
them fairly well. The smallpox came afterwards, but respected his
charming brown face. A severe shower of rain, which caught him in some
forest, made him take rheumatism; the waters of Vichy cured him; he
returned beaming with health and grace.

The King loved him tenderly, and everybody at Court shared this
predilection of the monarch. M. de Vermandois, of a stature less than
his father, was none the less one of the handsomest cavaliers at the
Court. To all the graces of his amiable mother he joined an ease of
manner, a mixture of nobility and modesty, which made him noticeable in