Chapter XIV: Letter III: PARIS, Thursday, February 12, 1671

This is only a line precursory, for I shall not write to you till to-morrow; but I wish you to know what I have just heard.

Yesterday the president, Amelot, after having made a great number of visits, toward night found himself a good deal out of order, and was soon afterward seized with a violent apoplectic fit, of which he died about eight o’clock this morning. I would have you write to his wife; the whole family are in the greatest affliction.

The Duchess de la Vallière sent a letter to the king, the contents of which have not transpired, and then a message by the Marshal de Bellefond, to say, “that she would have quitted the court, after having lost the honor of his good opinion had she been able to prevail with herself to see him no more, but that her weakness on that head had been so great that she was scarcely capable, even now, of making a sacrifice of it to her God; she was resolved, however, that the remains of the passion she had felt for him should constitute part of her penance, and, as she had devoted her youth to him, it could not be thought much if the rest of her life were spent in cares for her own salvation.” The king wept bitterly, and sent Monsieur Colbert to Chaillot, to beg her to come directly to Versailles, that he might speak to her once more. Monsieur Colbert accordingly conducted her thither. The king had a whole hour’s conversation with her, and wept a great deal. Madame de Montespan ran with open arms, and tears in her eyes, to receive her. We do not rightly understand all this. Some say she will remain at Versailles, and continue about the court; others that she will return to Chaillot. We shall see.