The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, vol 7 | Page 6

has
proved it to: you so many times?"
"My memory, recalls to me all that his munificence: has done for my
talent in a thousand instances," went on the painter; "but his edicts, his
cruel decrees, have upset my heart, and the persecutor of the true
Christians no longer merits my consideration or good-will."
I had been ignorant hitherto of the faith which this able man professed;
he informed me that he worshipped God in another fashion than ours,
and made common cause with the Protestants.
"Well," said I to him then, "what have you to complain of in the new
edicts and decrees? They only concern, so far, your ministers,--I should
say, your priests; you are not one, and are never likely to be; what do
these new orders of the Council matter to you?"
"Madame," resumed Petitot, "our ministers, by preaching the holy
gospel, fulfil the first of their duties. The King forbids them to preach;
then, he persecutes them and us. In the thousand and one religions
which exist, the cause of the priests and the sanctuary becomes the
cause of the faithful. Our priests are not imbecile Trappists and
Carthusians, to be reduced to inaction and silence. Since their tongues
are tied, they are resolved to depart; and their departure becomes an
exile which it is our duty to share. If you will entrust me with your
portraits which have been commenced, with the exception of that of
Heliogabalus, I will finish them in a hospitable land, and shall have the
honour of sending them to you, already fired and in all their

perfection."
Petitot, until this political crisis, had only exhibited himself to me
beneath an appearance of simplicity and good-nature. Now his whole
face was convulsed and almost threatening; when I looked at him he
made me afraid. I did not amuse myself by discussing with him matters
upon which we were, both of us, more or less ignorant. I did all that
could be done to introduce a little calm into his superstitious head, and
to gain the necessary time for the completion of my five portraits. I was
careful not to confide to the King this qualification of Heliogabalus; but
as his intervention was absolutely necessary to me, I persuaded him to
come and spend half an hour at this chateau of Clagny, which he had
deserted for a long time past.
"Your presence," I said to him, "will perhaps take the edge off the
theological irritation of your fanatical painter. A little royal amenity, a
little conversation and blandishment, a la Louis XIV., will seduce his
artistic vanity. At the cost of that, your portrait, Sire, will be terminated.
It would not be without."
The surprise of his Majesty was extreme when he had to learn and
comprehend that the prodigious talent of Petitot was joined to a
Huguenot conscience, and this talent spoke of expatriating itself. "I will
go to Clagny to-morrow," replied the prince to me; and he went there,
in fact, accompanied by the Marquise de Montchevreuil and Madame la
Dauphine, in an elaborate neglige.
"Good-day, Monsieur Petitot," said the monarch to our artist, who rose
on seeing him enter. "I come to contemplate your new masterpieces. Is
my little miniature near completion?"
"Sire," replied Petitot, "it will not be for another six weeks. All these
affairs and decrees have deprived me of many hours; my heart is heavy
over it!"
"And why do you busy yourself with these discussions, with which
your great talent has no concern?" said the King to him, gently.
"Sire, it is my religion that is more concerned than ever. I am a
Christian, and my law is dear to me."
"And I am Most Christian," answered his Majesty, smiling. "I profess
the religion, I keep the law that your ancestors and mine kept before the
Reformation."
"Sire, this reform has been adopted by a great number of monarchs,--a

proof that the Reformation is not the enemy of kings, as is said."
"Yes, in the case of wise and honest men like yourself, my good friend
Petitot; but just as all your brothers have not your talents, so they have
not your rectitude and loyalty, which are known to me."
"Sire, your Majesty overwhelms me; but I beg you to be persuaded that
my brothers have been calumniated."
"Yes, if one is to accuse them in the mass, my dear Petitot; but there are
spoil-alls amongst your theologians; intercepted correspondences
depose to it. The allied princes, having been unable to crush me by
their invasions and artillery, have recourse to internal and clandestine
manoeuvres. Having failed to corrupt my soldiers, they have essayed to
corrupt my clergy, as they did at Montauban and La Rochelle, in the
days of Cardinal Richelieu."
"Sire, do not believe