JEALOUSY OF DE HARLAY. 29 entirely with his quiet and unconspicuous duties among the Nouvelles Catholiques. So little did he trouble himself about the affairs of the outer world, that it was merely by accident that he heard of his own appointment to the See of Poitiers, and of its immediate revocation. This was a piece of spite on the part of de Harlay, who was increasingly jealous of the Abbé de Fénelon, and who, finding that he could not succeed in making him be forgotten, as he had promised, was at least determined to keep him out of the higher dignities of the Church, if possible. The next year the Archbishop was again successful in his unworthy manœuvres. The Bishop of Rochelle had been greatly impressed by the zeal and gentle wisdom of the young missioner, and he now came to Paris, without giving Fénelon any hint of his intention, to ask the King to appoint him as Coadjutor-Bishop of Rochelle. De Harlay did not hesitate to insinuate to the King that the attraction between the two men was a mutual leaning to Jansenism, and as this was always a bête noire to Louis XIV., he at once refused to make the appointment. Fénelon might easily have refuted these assertions, which his close friendship with Bossuet, Tronson, etc., pretty well answered; but he did not take the trouble to do so. He was not ambitious of dignities, and he was occupied at this moment in publishing his two books-on Education and on the Ministry. These works were eagerly read and appreciated, and de Harlay's opposition fell unnoticed by its subject. He was content to look forward to a life spent in teaching God's Truth in a humble sphere, by writing, preaching, and ministering. But God in His own time called His servant forth to a more extensive scene of labour, although probably he never again knew so peaceful and unanxious a season as that which closed with his appointment as Preceptor to the Duc de Bourgogne in August 1689. COURT APPOINTMENTS. 31 CHAPTER II. ΤΗ HE time had come when the little grandson of Louis XIV., the hope of France (for his father the Dauphin was an uninteresting, heavy person, unlikely ever to be a fitting successor to the Grand Monarque, and wont to say himself that he was content to be the son and father of kings, without becoming one himself), required to pass from the hands of nurses under a masculine rule. The King seems to have taken all arrangements into his own hands, almost without consulting the Dauphin, who, if asked, would probably have said, "Give my son just the contrary of all that was given to me." Poor man, he had had a brilliant and intellectual household enough, but he was too dull and unimpressionable to care for or benefit much by that; and the tenderness and elasticity which might possibly have developed something more in him were wanting. The Duc de Montausier and Bossuet had been selected to bring up the Dauphin, as the greatest and most celebrated men of their day, but the Duke was a dry, stiff man, whose Cato-like virtues and ducal robes enfolded a dry, pedantic nature, as Sainte-Beuve says;' and Bossuet, though he tried to be kind and patient with the stupid little boy, had not Fénelon's intimate acquaintance with child-nature, and endeavoured to make him good and intellectual by writing profound treatises and magnificent discourses, which failed in their effect upon their original object, however much they may have benefited the world at large. Probably the King himself had somewhat altered his views about education, and Madame de Maintenon, whose influence was by this time telling materially upon him, threw its weight into an altogether different channel. It was most likely that influence which led to the appointment of the Duc de Beauvilliers as Governor to the royal grandson. Paul Duc de Beauvilliers had been at Court nearly all his life, having early succeeded Marshal Villeroi as head of the Conseil des Finances, and being also First Gentleman of the Chamber. He had been Governor of Havre, and, in 1688, Louis XIV. sent him with the Dauphin to the siege of Philisburg, practically in charge of that not very able prince. He was acknowledged on all sides as a man of remarkable piety and Nouveaux Lundis, "Louis XIV. et le Duc de Bourgogne." DE BEAUVILLIERS. 33 purity of life, and as a courtier sans reproche-no common thing in those days. Saint Simon enlarges upon his personal attractions and courtesy, as well as his goodness, and Madame de Sevigné remarks that Saint Louis himself could not have made a wiser choice. The Duke had married Colbert's second daughter, her two sisters marrying the Ducs de Chevreuse and Mortemart, men of his own stamp, and the three families lived in a close union of principle and action, which gave them great strength amid a profligate, time-serving Court. Madame de Maintenon had always been closely allied with them; they had steadily refused to bow before Madame de Montespan in her day of ascendancy, although M. de Mortemart was her nephew; but they acknowledged and respected the difference of Madame de Maintenon's position, and rejoiced in being able to resume their proper place at Court and about the Monarch when a more decent state of things was initiated.3 Twice a week regularly Madame de Maintenon used to dine at the Hôtel de Beauvilliers, where the society was at once select, intellectual, and devout, and she can hardly be accused of consulting mere personal friend I Correspondence, vol. xi. p. 200, "Discours sur l'Éducation |