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Beautiful, witty, fascinating, she was chosen to be one of the ladies-in-waiting to the queen, and became the companion of Mile, de la Valliere, who occupied the same posi tion and was mistress of the king. Madame de Sdvigne describes the advent of this

Devoured by ambition, and more than merely alive to her great charms, she set herself the well-defined object of becoming the king's only mistress, if not his wife. Imbued with a strong belief in the virtues of the "black art," she sought out La Voisin

MLLE. r,E LA VALLIERE. woman to the court as " thunderous and triumphant," and adds : " Her beauty is marvellous, and her get-up is as wonderful as her beauty, and her gaiety as her get-up." In January, 1663, she married the Marquis de Montespan and by him had a son. In 1668, when twenty-seven years of age, Louis openly acknowledged both her and Mile, de la Valliere as his mistresses.

and became a regular attendant at the cele brations of the " Black Mass." At her first celebration, her own body being the altar on which the sacrifice took place, she had prayed for "the affection of the king and the dauphin, that the queen might be barren, that the king might leave La Valliere and look no more upon her; and that the queen being repudiated, she