lady. The contest was for some time doubtful; but she at last prevailed.
This happened in the year 1673; but in 1675 she retired from court, and, though not long absent, yet was not able, by all the methods her invention could suggest, to recover the king's affections, who was now wholly devoted to madame de Maintenon. She however came back to court, where she had an important employment, namely, the superintendance of the queen's houshold; and still preserved some interest with the king, by her children, by habit, and long established interest. Friendship and respect continued to be shewn her; she had no professed rival; yet she found herself treated with great coldness and indifference, and while Madame de Maintenon was increasing and de Montespan declining in the royal favour, they saw each other every day; sometimes with a secret bitterness, at other times with a transient confidence, which the necessity of speaking, and the weariness of constraint, rendered unavoidable. They agreed each of them to write memoirs of all that passed at court; but the work was not carried to any great length. Madame de Montespan, in the last years of her life, used to divert herself and her friends, by reading some passages out of these memoirs. In the mean time, devotion, which mingled itself with all these intriguer, confirmed Madame de Maintenon in favour, and removed her to an absolute distance. This lasted till 1685, when Madame de Mantes, the king's daughter by Madame de Montespan, married the grandson of the great Condé. After this, the king married two other children he had by her, Madame de Blois, to the duke de Chartres, and Louisa-Benedicta to the duke de Maine. Madame de Montespan, after
