Produced by David Widger
To return now to the date from which I started. On the 6th of August,1695, Harlay, Arch-bishop of Paris, died of epilepsy at Conflans. He wasa prelate of profound knowledge and ability, very amiable, and of mostgallant manners. For some time past he had lost favour with the King andwith Madame de Maintenon, for opposing the declaration of her marriage—of which marriage he had been one of the three witnesses. The clergy,who perceived his fall, and to whom envy is not unfamiliar, took pleasurein revenging themselves upon M. de Paris, for the domination, althoughgentle and kindly, he had exercised. Unaccustomed to this decay of hispower, all the graces of his mind and body withered. He could find noresource but to shut himself up with his dear friend the Duchesse deLesdiguieres, whom he saw every day of his life, either at her own houseor at Conflans, where he had laid out a delicious garden, kept sostrictly clean, that as the two walked, gardeners followed at a distance,and effaced their footprints with rakes. The vapours seized theArchbishop, and turned themselves into slight attacks of epilepsy. Hefelt this, but prohibited his servants to send for help, when they shouldsee him attacked; and he was only too well obeyed. The Duchesse deLesdiguieres never slept at Conflans, but she went there every afternoon,and was always alone with him. On the 6th of August, he passed themorning, as usual, until dinner-time; his steward came there to him, andfound him in his cabinet, fallen back upon a sofa; he was dead. Thecelebrated Jesuit-Father Gaillard preached his funeral sermon, andcarefully eluded pointing the moral of the event. The King and Madame deMaintenon were much relieved by the loss of M. de Paris. Various placeshe had held were at once distributed. His archbishopric and hisnomination to the cardinalship required more discussion. The King learntthe news of the death of M. de Paris on the 6th. On the 8th, in going asusual to his cabinet, he went straight up to the Bishop of Orleans, ledhim to the Cardinals de Bouillon and de Fursternberg, and said to them:-"Gentlemen, I think you will thank me for giving you an associate like M.d'Orleans, to whom I give my nomination to the cardinalship." At thisword the Bishop, who little expected such a scene, fell at the King'sfeet and embraced his knees. He was a man whose face spoke at once ofthe virtue and benignity he possessed. In youth he was so pious, thatyoung and old were afraid to say afoul word in his presence. Althoughvery rich, he appropriated scarcely any of his wealth to himself, butgave it away for good works. The modesty and the simplicity with whichM. d'Orleans sustained his nomination, increased the universal esteem inwhich he was held.
The archbishopric of Paris was given to a brother of the Duc de Noailles-the Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne—M. de Noailles thus reaping the fruit ofhis wise sacrifice to M. de Vendome, before related. M. de Chalons wasof singular goodness and modesty. He did not wish for this preferment,and seeing from far the prospect of its being given to him, hastened todeclare himself against the Jesuits, in the expectation that Pere laChaise, who was of them, and who was always consulted upon theseoccasions, might oppose him. But it happened, perhaps for the firsttime, that Madame de Maintenon, who felt restrained by the Jesuits, didnot consult Pere la Chaise, and the preferment was made without hisknowledge, and without that of M. de Chalons. The