First, she
escaped from the torture of witnessing the king's passion for Madame de
Montespan, by hiding herself among the Benedictine sisters at St. Cloud.
Thence the king fetched her in person, threatening to order the cloister
to be burnt. Next, Lauzun, by the command of Louis, sought her, and
brought her _avec main forte_. The next time she fled no more; but took
a public farewell of all she had too fondly loved, and throwing herself
at the feet of the queen, humbly entreated her pardon. Never since that
voluntary sepulture had she ceased, during those long and weary years,
to lament--as the heart-stricken can alone lament--her sins. In deep
contrition she learned the death of her son by the king, and bent her
head meekly beneath the chastisement.
Three years before her death the triumphant Athenee de Montespan had
breathed her last at Bourbon. If Louis XIV. had nothing else to repent
of, the remorse of these two women ought to have wrung his heart.
Athenee de Montespan was a youthful, innocent beauty, fresh from the
seclusion of provincial life, when she attracted the blighting regards
of royalty. A _fete_ was to be given; she saw, she heard that she was
its object.
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