“Was I not right when I said you were abandoning me?” exclaimed the king. “Oh! this exceeds all endurance. But so it is: there was only one woman for whom my heart cared at all, and all my family is leagued together to tear her from me; and my friend, to whom I confided my distress, and who helped me to bear up under it, has become wearied of my complaints and is going to leave me without even asking my permission.”
Saint-Aignan began to laugh. The king at once guessed there must be some mystery in this want of respect. “What is it?” cried the king, full of hope.
“This, sire, that the friend whom the king calumniates is going to try if he cannot restore to his sovereign the happiness he has lost.”
“Are you going to let me see La Valliere?” said Louis XIV.
“I cannot say so, positively, but I hope so.”
“How—how?—tell me that, Saint-Aignan. I wish to know what your project is, and to help you with all my power.”
“Sire,” replied Saint-Aignan, “I cannot, even myself, tell very well how I must set about attaining success; but I have every reason to believe that from to-morrow—”
“To-morrow, do you say! What happiness! But why are you changing your rooms?”
“In order to serve your majesty to better advantage.”
“How can your moving serve me?”