Forthwith the King compelled her to discard this truly ridiculous author’s name, and styled her before everybody Madame de Maintenon.

I must do her the justice to state that her gratitude for the King’s liberality was well-nigh exaggerated, while no change was perceptible in her manners and bearing.  She had, naturally, a grand, dignified air, which was in strange contrast to the grotesque buffoonery of her poet-husband.  Now she is exactly in her proper place, representing to perfection the governess of a king’s children.

Spiteful persons were wont to say that I appeared jealous on seeing her made a marquise like myself.  Good gracious, no!  On the contrary, I was delighted; her parentage was well known to me.  The Duchesse de Navailles, my protectress, was a near relative of hers, and M. d’Aubigne, her grandfather, was one of King Henri’s two Chief Gentlemen of the Chamber.

Madame de Maintenon’s father was, in many respects, greatly to blame.  Without being actually dishonest, he squandered a good deal of his fortune, the greater part being pounced upon by his family; and had the King forced these harpies to disgorge, Madame de Maintenon could have lived in opulence, eclipsing several of the personages at Court.

I am glad to be able to do her justice in these Memoirs, to the satisfaction of my own self-respect.  I look upon her as my own handiwork, and everything assures me that this is her conviction also, and that she will always bear it in mind.

The King said to us, “Go and see the Chateau de Maintenon, and then you can tell me all about it.  According to an old book, I find that it was built in the reign of Henri II. by Nicolas de Cointerot, the King’s minister of finance; a ‘surintendant’s’ castle ought to form a noteworthy feature of the landscape.”

Madame de Maintenon hereupon told us a most extraordinary story.  The lady who sold this marquisate had retired two years previously to the island of Martinique, where she, at the present moment, owned the residence of Constant d’Aubigne, the same house where the new Marquise de Maintenon had spent her childhood with her parents, so that while one of these ladies had quitted the Chateau de Maintenon in order to live in Martinique, the other had come from Martinique in order to reside at the Chateau de Maintenon.  Truly, the destinies of some are strange in this world.

The chateau appeared to be large, of solid proportions, and built in a grandly simple style, befitting a minister of dignity and position.  The governess shed tears of emotion when setting foot there for the first time.  The six priests, whom the surintendant had appointed, officiated in the large chapel or little church attached to the castle.

They approached us in regular procession, presenting holy water, baskets of flowers and fruit, an old man, a child, and two little lambs to the Marquise.  The villagers, dressed out with flowers and ribbons, also came to pay, their respects to her.  They danced in the castle courtyard, under our balcony, to the sound of hautbois and bagpipes.