Then, too, she was pious
and devout, she wished to withdraw the King from the world and give him
to God; she had no ambitions (!), she desired to meddle in nothing, she
was grateful when her husband took her into his confidence, but she
longed only to save his soul. It seemed almost too wonderful to be
true. It was not true."
Madame de Maintenon was determined to be Queen of France, and she
became so in soul as well as in fact. During her latter years she
ruled, and the King was content to follow her advice and do her will.
When the King was dying and she could gain no more at his hands, Madame
de Maintenon effected a most satisfactory settlement for herself at St.
Cyr, where she ended her days in piety and serene repose.
Saint-Amand has observed truly that the women of Versailles were
interesting not only from the moral point of view and as subjects of
study, but on account of what he called the "symbolical importance of
their relations to the history of France." Each seemed to be the
living expression of the spirit of her day. Madame de Montespan was
just such a superb, luxurious and magnificent beauty as Versailles
needed to display to all the ambassadors that came to bask in the
glitter of the Sun King's Court. She was the dazzling mistress that
ruled imperiously over the gay and brilliant life of the palace, the
very incarnation of haughty and triumphant France at the culminating
point of the reign of Louis XIV.
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