The Road to Compiegne by Jean Plaidy

plan was to be put into operation. If it failed, what would the relationship between herself and the King become?
    But it must not fail. It merely needed delicate handling, and she could trust herself – and Louis – to see that it received it.
    Madame du Hausset hovered about her, pale and tense, wondering how long it would be before they left Court for ever. The Marquise could smile, contemplating her companion.
    ‘Something has to be done,’ she said. ‘You know matters cannot continue as they are. You yourself have told me often enough that I am killing myself.’
    ‘But this . . .’
    ‘This, dear Hausset, is the only way. I know that. If it were not, rest assured I should not take it.’
    ‘But what position will you, a great lady, be putting yourself into, that’s what I ask!’
    ‘A great lady,’ mused the Marquise. ‘The outcome of this matter may well decide my greatness. So far I have done little but raise myself to an envied position and amuse the King.’
    Madame du Hausset said: ‘How is the King?’
    The Marquise smiled sadly. ‘He is deeply repentant of his behaviour towards Louise-Julie de Mailly.’
    ‘The saint of Paris!’ murmured Madame du Hausset cynically.
    ‘Oh, she was good to the poor. She visited them and sewed for them . . . and had so little for herself.’
    ‘She did not visit them nor sew for them when she was in favour with the King, did she?’
    ‘My dear Hausset, amusing the King, as you know, gives a woman little time for aught else. Now do not look so despondent, I beg of you. Let me tell you this: when I was nine years old a fortune-teller told me I should be the King’s mistress. That came true. Sometimes I think that between us my mother and I made it come true. Now I will tell you something else: I am going to die, the King’s very dear friend. I am as certain of that as I was that I should one day be his mistress. And oh, Hausset, I could so much more happily be his dear friend than his mistress. I would be his confidante , the friend to whom he would come to discuss everything . . . State matters, scandal, plans for building . . . everything. That is what I would be to the King, Hausset. And at night I would retire to my apartment here in Versailles, and sleep and sleep that I might be fresh the next day to entertain the King.’
    Madame du Hausset shook her head. ‘There would be those to provide the nightly entertainments, and they would be the ones who would get their wishes fulfilled. Depend upon it, the first of those wishes would be to have you dismissed from Court. Did not Madame de Châteauroux, who seemed secure in his affection, demand the dismissal of Madame de Mailly, even though she was her own sister?’
    ‘There is no need, Hausset, to follow in the footsteps of one’s predecessors. One travels along untrodden paths. Therein lies success.’ The Marquise laughed, but Madame du Hausset detected a note of nervousness in the laugh. ‘My enemies are all about me. My reception in Paris . . . to what is it due? To the poissonades . And who writes the poissonades ?’
    ‘We said it was the Comte de Maurepas until you had him dismissed from Court.’
    ‘Depend upon it, he writes them still. He can do so as easily in exile at Bourges as he could in favour at Versailles. Others no doubt write them too. The Dauphin’s party are my enemies. They circulate stories about me in the streets. They plan to have me ousted from the Court.’
    ‘If you drew the King’s attention to those meetings in the Dauphin’s apartments . . .’
    ‘I should merely irritate Louis. He knows of the meetings. He is angry because the Dauphin and he are no longer good friends. It is not my task to remind the King of what he wishes to forget. This is my battle – mine alone, Hausset; and alone I must fight it.’
    ‘And the Church party is against you!’
    ‘The Church party is the Dauphin’s party, and at times such as this – Holy Year itself, with the Jesuit Père