Louis the Well Beloved by Jean Plaidy

Author:Jean Plaidy [Plaidy, Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical
ISBN: 9780099493365
Publisher: Arrow Books
Published: 1972-01-01T13:00:00+00:00

At Saint-Léger he continued to mourn.

He would sit for hours brooding over his brief love affair with that remarkable woman. He told himself that there could never be anyone like her; and although the motherliness of Madame de Toulouse and the unselfish devotion of Madame de Mailly comforted him they could not bring him out of his melancholy.

He felt sick with horror when he heard that, when the corpse of his beloved mistress had been taken, wrapped in its shroud, from the Palace, a mob of people in the streets had seized it and mutilated it.

The people remembered their sufferings, and they believed that the extravagances of King’s mistresses added to these. They did not blame their handsome King who, in their eyes, could do no wrong; but with bread scarce and large families to be fed, there must be a scapegoat.

Louis’ grief subsided into melancholy. Madame de Mailly would have given him comfort which she well knew how to give, but he denied himself this.

From now on, he had decided, he would change his mode of life. He was going to live virtuously. Her death had shown him what he must do. Had she not always influenced his actions?

‘Glad I am, my dear,’ he said to Madame de Mailly, ‘of your friendship, but the relationship between us must not go beyond that. From now on I shall abstain from all fleshly pleasures. I hope that by so doing I may expiate her sins . . . and my own.’

Thus passed several weeks at Saint-Léger.

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