Memoirs of Louis XIV, vol 6 | Page 9

own country, well received everywhere. Being
informed that these respites would never cease, he lived thus several
years, and died very old, a natural death. The other prisoners were
equally well treated. It was in this expedition that the King of England
first assumed the title of the Chevalier de Saint George, and that his
enemies gave him that of the Pretender; both of which have remained
to him. He showed much will and firmness, which he spoiled by a
docility, the result of a bad education, austere and confined, that
devotion, ill understood, together with the desire of maintaining him in
fear and dependence, caused the Queen (who, with all her sanctity,
always wished to dominate) to give him. He asked to serve in the next
campaign in Flanders, and wished to go there at once, or remain near
Dunkerque. Service was promised him, but he was made to return to
Saint Germain. Hough, who had been made a peer of Ireland before
starting, preceded him with the journals of the voyage, and that of
Forbin, to whom the King gave a thousand crowns pension and ten
thousand as a recompense.
The King of England arrived at Saint Germain on Friday, the 20th of
April, and came with the Queen, the following Sunday, to Marly,
where our King was. The two Kings embraced each other several times,
in the presence of the two Courts. But the visit altogether was a sad one.
The Courts, which met in the garden, returned towards the Chateau,
exchanging indifferent words in an indifferent way.
Middleton was strongly suspected of having acquainted the English
with our project. They acted, at all events, as if they had been informed
of everything, and wished to appear to know nothing. They made a
semblance of sending their fleet to escort a convoy to Portugal; they got
in readiness the few troops they had in England and sent them towards
Scotland; and the Queen, under various pretexts, detained in London,
until the affair had failed, the Duke of Hamilton, the most powerful
Scotch lord; and the life and soul of the expedition. When all was over,
she made no arrests, and wisely avoided throwing Scotland into despair.
This conduct much augmented her authority in England, attached all
hearts to her, and took away all desire of stirring again by taking away
all hope of success. Thus failed a project so well and so secretly

conducted until the end, which was pitiable; and with this project failed
that of the Low Countries, which was no longer thought of.
The allies uttered loud cries against this attempt on the part of a power
they believed at its last gasp, and which, while pretending to seek peace,
thought of nothing less than the invasion of Great Britain. The effect of
our failure was to bind closer, and to irritate more and more this
formidable alliance.
CHAPTER XL
Brissac, Major of the Body-guards, died of age and ennui about this
time, more than eighty years old, at his country-house, to which he had
not long retired. The King had made use of him to put the Guards upon
that grand military footing they have reached. He had acquired the
confidence of the King by his inexorable exactitude, his honesty, and
his aptitude. He was a sort of wild boar, who had all the appearance of
a bad man, without being so in reality; but his manners were, it must be
admitted, harsh and disagreeable. The King, speaking one day of the
majors of the troops, said that if they were good, they were sure to be
hated.
"If it is necessary to be perfectly hated in order to be a good major,"
replied M. de Duras, who was behind the King with the baton, "behold,
Sire, the best major in France!" and he took Brissac, all confusion, by
the arm. The King laughed, though he would have thought such a sally
very bad in any other; but M. de Duras had put himself on such a free
footing, that he stopped at nothing before the King, and often said the
sharpest things. This major had very robust health, and laughed at the
doctors--very often, even before the King, at Fagon, whom nobody else
would have dared to attack. Fagon replied by disdain, often by anger,
and with all his wit was embarrassed. These short scenes were
sometimes very amusing.
Brissac, a few years before his retirement, served the Court ladies a
nice turn. All through the winter they attended evening prayers on
Thursdays and Sundays, because the King went there; and, under the

pretence of reading their prayer-books, had little tapers before them,
which cast a light on their faces, and enabled the King to recognise
them as he passed. On the evenings when