Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #36 — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

et AA, cs tate “- ar) + “tf z eu 2. a8 ) w — . - _ . . at - st to his country seat, and, later, from France, s Havine-seceived Pion a hint that Louis was intending to settle his score with . i By that time Madame de Montespan was firmly established as se at esse en titre, and in January of 1669 she gave birth to the Duke _ of Maine, the first of the seven children she was to bear the King. wv “Nagp yn & -arliament was to legitimize them all, declaring them royal children _ of France, and the country was to provide titles, dignities, and royal ent-rolls for them and their heirs forever. Do you wonder that there ow was a revolution a century later, and that the people, grown weary _ of the parasitic anachronism of _royalty, should have risen to throw off the intolerable burden it imposed upon them? Be ‘The splendour of Madame de Montespan in those days was some- ey hing the like of which had never been seen at the Court of France. On her estate of Clagny, near Versailles, stood now a magnificent ie chateau. Louis had begun by building a country villa, which satisfied | ee not at all. “That,” she told him, “might~do very -qell) for an opera-girl”; vy yhereupon the infatuated monarch had no alternative but to com- | _ mand its demolition, and call in the famous architect, Mansard, to | _ erect in its place an ultra-royal residence. ee Bien with ten rooms on the second floor, Madame de Montespan : a was installed in twice that number on the first; and whilst a simple _ page sufficed to carry the Queen’s train at Court, nothing less than - the wife of a marshal of France must perform the same office for - the ‘ favourite. She kept royal state as few queens have ever kept it. ES She was assigned a troop of royal bodyguards for escort, and when she travelled there was a never-ending train to follow her six-horse coach, and officers of State came to receive her with royal honours reves she passed. a In her immeasurable pride she became a tyrant, even over the ty ing himself, _ “Thunderous and triumphant,” Madame de Sévigné describes her 2% “ Re A 7 a . Py ae. slave. — But constancy is not a Jovian virtue. Jupiter grew restless, and | sa com ebooks . ie ee te —— s es Npere - SS es | ele = Se 4 eye Pe ae sie : - : fas uf ay tee oe. Sen a hae Sie SE Ps. ~ *) = ie, ix Oy 4% . re ag” .) ; ty a peas peor: x i PAR he a ae Th: i .- tr P ie - ‘ - r © ig 3 » "4 . ~~ al ne Ve ‘ 7 9 _ At Versailles itself, whilst the long-suffering ates had to be. ot those days when the Sun-King was her utter and almost timid. . i 4 nen » shaking off all restraint, plunged into inconstancy of the most - ‘CO “Ps ie» im os: 3 SIRs Os So ae