him, in short--in short, I was glad to see such an excess of
skill. He it is who really knows "le dessous des cartes."

`At ten o'clock they get into their carriages: _THE KING, MADAME
DE MONTESPAN_, the Duke of Orleans, and Madame de Thianges, and
the good Hendicourt on the dickey, that is as if one were in the
upper gallery. You know how these calashes are made.

`The queen was in another with the princesses; and then everybody
else, grouped as they liked. Then they go on the water in
gondolas, with music; they return at ten; the play is ready, it
is over; twelve strikes, supper is brought in, and so passes
Saturday.'

This lively picture of such frightful gambling, of the adulterous
triumph of Madame de Montespan, and of the humiliating part to
which the queen was condemned, will induce our readers to concur
with Madame de Sevigne, who, amused as she had been by the scene
she has described, calls it nevertheless, with her usual pure
taste and good judgment, _l'iniqua corte_, `the iniquitous
court.'

Indeed, Madame de Sevigne had ample reason to denounce this
source of her domestic misery. Writing to her son and daughter,
she says:--`You lose all you play for. You have paid five or six
thousand francs for your amusement, and to be abused by fortune.'

If she had at first been fascinated by the spectacle which she so
glowingly describes, the interest of her children soon opened her
eyes to the yawning gulf at the brink of the flowery surface.