Lives of the last four princesses of the royal house of Stuart

1670.] JEALOUSY AND UNKINDNESS OF MONSIEUR. 305
on. the 26tli of June; the ill humour of Monsieur, was
powerfully excited, by surprising the King in earnest
conversation with Madame, which suddenly ceased on his
entrance. On his demanding the purport of their dis-
course, they imprudently replied, it was not fit for him
to know. In an irrepressible fit of rage, he commanded
his wife to leave Versailles with him, immediately, and
took her back to St. Cloud bathed in tears. Yet her
temper was so sweet, that overlooking all provocations, she
set about conciliating her waspish, unkind husband, by
every means in her power, and persuaded him to invite all
the company he liked to the brilliant soirees at St. Cloud,
arranged by her to celebrate her return from England.
She made no objection to some of his female friends,
though not of a class or character with whom it was quite
proper for her to associate. This mightily dulcified his
manners, though he was still discontented with her refusal
to confide to him the particulars of her secret mission to
England, and her positive determination not to procure the
pardon and recal of the Chevalier de Lorraine.
Her health had become uncertain, and she appeared
more thoughtful than she had ever been, since her marriage,
on matters of religion. She lamented to Bossuet, when he
came to see her, her past carelessness and neglect of her
duties towards God; and that she had been too much
taken up with the pleasures of the world, and the things
of time, to think of those of eternity ; and begged him
to come more frequently to see her, and converse with
her in private, on subjects connected with the salvation
of her soul, on which she had long since desired to be
instructed.
Her friend and biographer, Madame de la Fayette, for
whom she had sent on her return to St. Cloud, on her
arrival after supper, found Madame walking in the gardens,
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