Louis XIV.
made her a duchess; but all she cared about was to see him and please him.

When Madame de Montespan began to supplant her in the king's favor, the grief of Madame de La Valliere was so great that she thought she should die of it.

Then she turned to God, in penitence and despair.
Twice she sought refuge in a convent at Chaillot.

"I should have left the court sooner," she sent word to the king on leaving, "after having lost the honor of your good graces, if I could have prevailed upon myself never to see you again; that weakness was so strong in me that hardly now am I capable of making a sacrifice of it to God; after having given you all my youth, the rest of my life is not too much for the care of my salvation." The king still clung to her.

"He sent M.Colbert to beg her earnestly to come to Versailles, and that he might speak with her.
M.Colbert escorted her thither; the king conversed for an hour with her, and wept bitterly.