Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/522

508 a lieutenant-general of long standing, would have been made a marshal of France, but his indolent temper made the king wisely provide for him in a common way, as he was unfit for that high office. His daughter married the duke de Noailles. Two other nieces of Madame de Maintenon were married, the one to the marquis de Caylus, the other to the marquis de Villette. A moderate pension, however, which Lewis XIV. gave to Madame de Caylus, was almost all her fortune: the others had nothing but expectation.

The marriage was, however, kept very secret, and the only outward mark of her elevation was, that at mass she sat in one of the two little galleries or gilded domes which appeared designed for the king and queen. Besides this, she had not any exterior appearance of grandeur. The piety and devotion with which she had inspired the king became gradually a sincere and settled disposition of mind, which age and affliction confirmed. She had already, with him and the whole court, acquired the merit of a foundress, by assembling at Noissy a great number of women of quality; and the king had already destined the revenues of the abbey of St. Denis for the maintenance of this rising community. St. Cyr was built at the end of the park at Versailles in 1686. She then gave the form to this new establishment, which was for the education of three hundred young girls, of noble families, till they attained the age of twenty; and, together with Godet Desmarets, bishop of Chartres, made the rules, and was herself superior of the convent. Thither she often went to pass away some hours; and if we say, that melancholy determined her to this employment, it is what she herself has said. "Why cannot I," says she, in a letter to Madame de la Maisonfort, "why cannot I give you my experience? Why cannot