During the hundred years that followed the entrance of Marie Therese on
the scene at Versailles, many extraordinary women came, shone and
passed away. The Hall of Mirrors, had it the power to reflect the
past, would afford a gallery of brilliant portraits. There would be,
first, the devout Queen herself, virtuous, kind, considerate, loved by
all her people and gently resigned to her fate. Then would follow a
glittering train of proud and brilliant mistresses, some compelling by
their beauty and gayety, others by their wit and sense. Sweet Madame
de La Valliere had scarcely passed into obscurity when the haughty and
imperious Marquise de Montespan assumed supremacy and became "the
center of pleasures, of fortune, of hope and of terror to all that were
dependent on the Court." No one could rightly claim to be an intimate
of Montespan except the King, and at times he did not understand her.
While apparently frank and free in her enjoyment of life and in her
dealings with associates in the Court, Montespan always withheld enough
to keep her best friends guessing. No one knew all her romance. She
had experienced both extremes of fortune and when she gained favor with
Louis she had acquired a confidence and a command of herself that
influenced the King to a degree that even he would not have
acknowledged. But the Court knew well the influence of Montespan and
also the ministers, generals of the army and foreign ambassadors.
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