warmth, that on the instant he was seized with a fit, tottered, stammered, his throat swelled, his eyes seemed starting from his head, and his tongue from his mouth.  Madame de Saint-Simon and the other ladies who were present flew to his assistance; one unfastened his cravat and his shirt-collar, another threw a jug of water over him and made him drink something; but as for me, I was struck motionless at the sudden change brought about by an excess of anger and infatuation.  Charost was soon restored, and when he left I was taken to task by the ladies.  In reply I simply smiled.  I gained this by the occurrence, that Charost never committed himself again upon the subject of M. de La Trappe.

Before quitting this theme, I will relate an anecdote which has found belief.  It has been said, that when M. de La Trappe was the Abbe de Rance he was much in love with the beautiful Madame de Montbazon, and that he was well treated by her.  On one occasion after leaving her, in perfect health, in order to go into the country, he learnt that she had fallen ill.  He hastened back, entered hurriedly into her chamber, and the first sight he saw there was her head, that the surgeons, in opening her, had separated from her body.  It was the first intimation he had had that she was dead, and the surprise and horror of the sight so converted him that immediately afterwards he retired from the world.  There is nothing true in all this except the foundation upon which the fiction arose.  I have frankly asked M. de La Trappe upon this matter, and from him I have learned that he was one of the friends of Madame de Montbazon, but that so far from being ignorant of the time of her death, he was by her side at the time, administered the sacrament to her, and had never quitted her during the few days she was ill.  The truth is, her sudden death so touched him, that it made him carry out his intention of retiring from the world—­an intention, however, he had formed for many years.

The affair of M. de Cambrai was not finally settled until the commencement of the following year, 1699, but went on making more noise day by day.  At the date I have named the verdict from Rome arrived Twenty-three propositions of the ‘Maximes des Saints’ were declared rash, dangerous, erroneous—­’in globo’—­and the Pope excommunicated those who read the book or kept it in their houses.  The King was much pleased with this condemnation, and openly expressed his satisfaction.  Madame de Maintenon appeared at the summit of joy.  As for M. de Cambrai, he learnt his fate in a moment which would have overwhelmed a man with less resources in himself.  He was on the point of mounting into the pulpit:  he was by no means troubled; put aside the sermon he had prepared, and, without delaying a moment, took for subject the submission due to the Church; he treated this theme in a powerful and touching manner; announced the condemnation of his book; retracted the opinions he had professed; and concluded his sermon