[99] Michel de Chamillart succeeded Pontchartrain as Controller-general in 1699, and on the death of Barbezieux in 1701 was appointed Secretary of State for War. He was conciliatory, industrious, and honest, but his lack of intelligence and his obstinacy made him a thoroughly incompetent minister. He was dismissed in 1709. See II. 420-421, VI. 439.
[100] Louis Phélypeaux, grandson of a Secretary of State under Louis XIII, was appointed Controller-general in 1689 and Chancellor ten years later. See II. 226.
[101] Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Torcy, son of Charles Colbert, Marquis de Croissy (brother of the great Colbert), succeeded his father as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1696. He married a daughter of Simon Arnauld, Marquis de Pomponne, who was Foreign Minister from 1671 to 1679. His Mémoires are an important source of information for the period 1697-1713.
[102] Advantage, a metaphor from tennis.
[103] Guy Fagon succeeded Daquin, a converted Jew, in 1693, through the influence of Mme de Maintenon. His great talent was combined with fearless honesty and much charm of manner. Saint-Simon did not like him, but he recognised his merits and attainments. See I. 105-6. Like William III, who once consulted him, he was an “asthmatic skeleton,” and like William’s opponent, Luxembourg, he was hunch-backed.
[104] Monseigneur is the Dauphin, and Monsieur the king’s brother. The latter’s son, the Duc d’Orléans, afterwards Régent, had the title of Duc de Chartres till his father’s death in 1701.
[105] Ed. Chéruel, VI. 203-204; ed. Boislisle, XVI. 470-473. The plan on [page 66] is reproduced from Dussieux, Le château de Versailles, 2 vols. Versailles, 1881, I. plan 7. It will be seen that the two antechambers are there represented as nearly square. The appartement de jour of the Duc de Bourgogne is apparently the same as the hall of the Queen’s Guard (H). The salon de marbre is marked I on the plan.
[106] Ed. Chéruel, XII. c. ix; ed. Boislisle, XXVIII. 330-381.
[107] Saint-Simon began to write his memoirs in 1694.
[108] First almoner to Monsieur, “médiocre prêtre, mais fort brave et fort bon homme.” He was killed at the battle of Turin in 1706.