Produced by David Widger
MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV AND HIS COURT AND OF THE REGENCY
BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON
VOLUME 10.
CHAPTER LXX
The reign of Louis XIV. was approaching its conclusion, so that there isnow nothing more to relate but what passed during the last month of hislife, and scarcely so much. These events, indeed, so curious and soimportant, are so mixed up with those that immediately followed theKing's death, that they cannot be separated from them. It will beinteresting and is necessary to describe the projects, the thoughts, thedifficulties, the different resolutions, which occupied the brain of thePrince, who, despite the efforts of Madame de Maintenon and M. du Maine,was of necessity about to be called to the head of affairs during theminority of the young King. This is the place, therefore, to explain allthese things, after which we will resume the narrative of the last monthof the King's life, and go on to the events which followed his death.
But, as I have said, before entering upon this thorny path, it will be aswell to make known, if possible, the chief personage of the story, theimpediments interior and exterior in his path, and all that personallybelonged to him.
M. le Duc d'Orleans was, at the most, of mediocre stature, full-bodiedwithout being fat; his manner and his deportment were easy and verynoble; his face was broad and very agreeable, high in colour; his hairblack, and wig the same. Although he danced very badly, and had but illsucceeded at the riding-school, he had in his face, in his gestures, inall his movements, infinite grace, and so natural that it adorned evenhis most ordinary commonplace actions. With much ease when nothingconstrained him, he was gentle, affable, open, of facile and charmingaccess; the tone of his voice was agreeable, and he had a surprisinglyeasy flow of words upon all subjects which nothing ever disturbed, andwhich never failed to surprise; his eloquence was natural and extendedeven to his most familiar discourse, while it equally entered into hisobservations upon the most abstract sciences, on which he talked mostperspicuously; the affairs of government, politics, finance, justice,war, the court, ordinary conversation, the arts, and mechanics. He couldspeak as well too upon history and memoirs, and was well acquainted withpedigrees. The personages of former days were familiar to him; and theintrigues of the ancient courts were to him as those of his own time.To hear him, you would have thought him a great reader. Not so. Heskimmed; but his memory was so singular that he never forgot things,names, or dates, cherishing remembrance of things with precision; and hisapprehension was so good, that in skimming thus it was, with him,precisely as though he had read very laboriously. He excelled inunpremeditated discourse, which, whether in the shape of repartee orjest, was always appropriate and vivacious. He often reproached me, andothers more than he, with "not spoiling him;" but I often gave him praisemerited by few, and which belonged to nobody so justly as to him; it was,that besides having infinite ability and of various kinds, the singularperspicuity of his mind was joined to so much exactness, that he wouldnever have made a mistake in anything if he had allowed the firstsuggestions of his judgment. He oftentimes took this my eulogy as areproach, and he was not always wrong, but it was not the less true.With all this he had no presumption, no trace of superiority natural oracquired; he reasoned with you as with his equal, and struck the mostable with surprise. Although he never forgo