PARIS, Thursday, February 12, 1671.
This is only a line precursory, for I shall not write to you till
to-morrow; but I wish you to know what I have just heard.
Yesterday the president, Amelot, after having made a great number of
visits, toward night found himself a good deal out of order, and was
soon afterward seized with a violent apoplectic fit, of which he died
about eight o’clock this morning. I would have you write to his wife;
the whole family are in the greatest affliction.
The Duchess de la Vallière sent a letter to the king, the contents
of which have not transpired, and then a message by the Marshal de
Bellefond, to say, “that she would have quitted the court, after having
lost the honor of his good opinion had she been able to prevail with
herself to see him no more, but that her weakness on that head had been
so great that she was scarcely capable, even now, of making a sacrifice
of it to her God; she was resolved, however, that the remains of the
passion she had felt for him should constitute part of her penance,
and, as she had devoted her youth to him, it could not be thought much
if the rest of her life were spent in cares for her own salvation.”
The king wept bitterly, and sent Monsieur Colbert to Chaillot, to beg
her to come directly to Versailles, that he might speak to her once
more. Monsieur Colbert accordingly conducted her thither. The king had
a whole hour’s conversation with her, and wept a great deal. Madame de
Montespan ran with open arms, and tears in her eyes, to receive her.
We do not rightly understand all this. Some say she will remain at
Versailles, and continue about the court; others that she will return
to Chaillot. We shall see.