in, ignorance of the secret correspondence still kept up between the king and Madame de Montespan.
"I have been to see her," added the prelate.

"I find her pretty calm; she occupies herself a great deal in good works.

I spoke to her as well as to you the words in which God commands us to give Him our whole heart; they caused her to shed many tears; may it please God to fix these truths in the bottom of both your hearts, and accomplish His work, in order that so many tears, so much violence, so many strains that you have put upon yourselves, may not be fruitless." The king was on the road back to Versailles; Madame de Montespan was to return thither also, her duties required her to do so, it was said; Bossuet heard of it; he did not for a single instant delude himself as to the emptiness of the king's promises and of his own hopes.

He determined, however, to visit the king at Luzarches.

Louis XIV.