And time passed on—passed on. The brilliant century was in its sere and yellow leaf, and one of the best and most amiable of the glorious band, le Nôtre, the gardener par excellence, faded and died, to the great grief of Louis, who dearly loved his company, and would walk by his chair in the garden of Versailles, when the invalid’s limbs had failed him. Ninon keenly felt the loss of the kindly friend, who had been one of the party to Rome with Santeuil—who had nearly missed the papal benediction on his hymns, as he always believed, by his witticisms about the carp. And now the good canon was to die, victim of a practical joke on the part of the young Duc de Condé, who amused himself with emptying the contents of his snuff-box into his guest’s glass of champagne. Unawares, Santeuil drained the glass; and the hideous concoction produced a fit of such convulsive sickness, that he died of it. Bitterly enough Condé repented, but that did not bring back his friend.
About the time that the zenith of Louis’s power was attained, when his very name was uttered on the bated breath of admiration, hatred and terror—and the yoke of the widow Scarron had not yet entangled him—and while the Doge of Genoa was compelled by Duquesne to sue for mercy at the feet of the French monarch—accused of complicity with the pirates of the Mediterranean—the Court of Rome was compelled to yield to the demands of the Church in France, in the matter of the régale. This right, which had ever been the strength and mainstay of religious Catholic independence in France, had fallen in later days somewhat into abeyance; and when, some nine years earlier, it had been put into active force again, the pope opposed it. To establish it on a firm footing was the work of Bossuet, who set forth and substantiated with the bishops of the dioceses of France the existing constitution of the Gallican Church under the ruling of the four famous articles: 1. That ecclesiastical power had no hold upon the temporal government of princes. 2. That a General Council was superior to the pope. 3. That the canons could regulate apostolical power and general ecclesiastical usage. 4. That the judgment of the Sovereign Pontiff is only infallible after the universal and general consent of the Church.
The pope and the Court of Rome had no choice but finally to accept these propositions; but unpalatable as they were, they came between the worse evil threatening Catholic Unity, of a schism such as it had suffered in England under Elizabeth and Henry.
The splendid gifts of Bossuet place his memory on a lasting and lofty eminence, as it placed him, living, in distinguished positions, Bishop of Meaux, preacher at the Louvre, preceptor to the Dauphin. From his profound theological learning welled forth the splendid eloquence which thrilled the vast assemblages flocking to drink in his orations. One of the most magnificent among these was that at the obsequies of the great Condé, beginning—
“Cast your gaze around; see all that magnificence and piety has endeavoured to do, to render honour to the hero: titles, inscriptions, vain records of what no longer exists, the weeping figures around the tomb and fragile images of a grief which Time, with all the rest, will bear away with it, columns which appear to lift to high heaven their magnificent testimony to him who is gone; and nothing is lacking in all this homage but him to whom it is given.... For me, if it is permitted to join with the rest in rendering the last duties beside your tomb, O Prince! noble and worthy subject of our praise and of our regrets, you will live eternally in my memory. I shall see you always, not in the pride of victory ... but as you were in those last hours under God’s hand, when His glory was breaking on you. It is thus I shall see you yet more greatly triumphing than at Fribourg and at Rocroi.... And in the words of the best-beloved disciple, I shall give thanks and say—‘The true victory is that which overcometh the world—even our faith.’”
A noble purity of spirit and deep conviction inspired Bossuet’s eloquence. His knowledge was limited by his Jesuit training, though he studied anatomy at a later period, by the king’s desire, in order to instruct the Dauphin in the science; but with science generally and physics he was unacquainted. As a Jesuit he was opposed to Jansenism and the Port-Royalists; but for long the gentle piety of Fénelon retained the respect and admiration of Bossuet’s more fiery spirit. Both these great men gave instruction at St Cyr, by the desire of Madame de Maintenon and the king.
Time must indeed have passed lightly by Ninon; for once again, at the age of eighty years, she inspired a young abbé, named Gedouin—a distant relative on the maternal side—with deep fervent admiration. Ninon at first believed that he was jesting with her, and rebuked him severely; but it was a very serious matter on his part, and though she told him of her fourscore years, he declared that it in no way altered his sentiments. “What of that?” he said; “wit and beauty know nothing of age,” and the Abbé Gedouin’s pleading, which was not in vain, terminated Ninon’s last liaison with an affectionate and endearing friendship. When he was rallied on his conquest, the abbé’s rejoinder was that—
“Ah, mes amis, lorsqu’une tonne