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Updated: June 3, 2025
A large arm-chair stood by the side of the burnt-out fire, shadowed over by the huge marble mantel-piece, the back of which was carried up twining and curving into a thousand arabesque and armorial devices until it blended with the richly painted ceiling. In one corner a narrow couch with a rug thrown across it showed where the faithful Bontems had spent the night.
At the Court one must make haste to obtain anything; but to be forgotten, a few minutes' delay is sufficient. Little Opportune. M. and Madame Bontems. The Young Moor Weaned. The Good Cure. The Blessed Virgin. Opportune at the Augustinians of Meaux. Bossuet Director. Mademoiselle Albanier and Leontine. Flight of Opportune. Her Threats of Suicide. Visit of the Marquise. Prudence of the Court.
There came a discreet tap at the door to break in upon her prayer. "It is Bontems, madame," said Mademoiselle Nanon. "He says that the king is ready." "Then we shall not keep him waiting. Come, mademoiselle, and may God shed His blessing upon what we are about to do!" The little party assembled in the king's ante-room, and started from there to the private chapel.
He strode through the rapidly increasing group of people in the corridor with an air of proud humility as befitted a man who, if he was a valet, was at least the king of valets, by being the valet of the king. Close by the door stood a line of footmen, resplendent in their powdered wigs, red plush coats, and silver shoulder knots. "Is the officer of the oven here?" asked Bontems.
Should she come, I say, you will gently bar her way, with courteous words, you understand, but on no account is she to be permitted to enter the royal room." "Very good, Bontems." "And now we have but three minutes."
This poor child not being meant, and not being able, to appear at Court, it was better, indeed, to keep her from all knowledge of her rights, in order to deprive her, at one stroke, of the distress of her conformation, the hardship of her repudiation, and the despair of captivity. The King destined her for a convent when he saw her born, and M. Bontems promised that it should be so.
A general supervision was undertaken by Memin's sister, the wife of Moussant, who was thus closely connected with two of the greatest enemies of the accused, and to her Bontems' wife told all that the superior needed to know about Grandier. Such was the manner of the sequestration! The choice of physicians was no less extraordinary.
The following week Madame de Maintenon, entirely cured of her scratch, consented to the King's will, which she had opposed in order to excite it, and in the presence of the Marquis and Marquise de Montchevreuil, the Duc de Noailles, the Marquis de Chamarante, M. Bontems, and Mademoiselle Ninon, her permanent chambermaid, was married to the King of France and Navarre in the chapel of the chateau.
This La Queue was seigneur of the place of which he bore the name, distant six leagues from Versailles, and as much from Dreux. He had married a girl that the King had had by a gardener's wife. Bontems, the confidential valet of the King, had brought about the marriage without declaring the names of the father or the mother of the girl; but La Queue knew it, and promised himself a fortune.
Bontems looks on the ground for it, the King meanwhile trying to open the door from the inside, and finding it double- locked. Of course all three are much astonished and much annoyed; the conversation is carried on through the door, and they cannot determine how this accident has happened. The King exhausts himself in efforts to force the door, in spite of its being double-locked.
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