"You  will  pardon  me,  Madame,  if  I  say
that  I  am  quite  unable  to  understand  what
bearing  my  personal  feelings  may  have  upon
this  matter ;  but  since  you  ask  it,  I  must  admit
that  the  treatment  I  have  received  at  the  hands
of  the  Jesuits  has  not  been  such  as  to  win  my
friendship."

"  The  bearing  of  your  personal  feelings  is
that  you  are  about  to  return  to  New  France,

[194]


POWER    BEHIND    THE    THRONE

and  I  would  have  you  go  back  as  one  of  them
and  not  against  them.  If  you  have  aught  of
which  to  complain  in  their  treatment  of  you,  it
is  due  to  your  own  shortcomings  ;  for  our  faith
is  the  true  faith  and  the  faith  of  God."

"  What  you  ask  is  not  possible,  Madame ;  I
have  suffered  too  much  and  too  long,  and  I  am
too  familiar  with  the  tenets  of  their  faith  to  be
able  to  embrace  it."

"  But  it  is  necessary  that  you  do  so,  Sieur  de
La  Salle,  for  the  King  will  have  it  so.  His
Majesty  regards  the  souls  of  his  subjects  with
even  more  concern  than  his  own  temporal
power ;  and  what  I  ask  for  myself  I  command
in  his  name  1 "

"  I  cannot  accept  that  command,  Madame,
and  were  the  King  here  I  must  needs  tell  him
the  same."

"  Then  you  defy  the  King,  sir  ? "

"  Not  so,  Madame.  The  King  has  no  more
loyal  subject,  but  no  man  can  know  what  I
know  and  accept  the  faith  of  the  Jesuits."

Madame  de  Maintenon  was  not  angry ;  she
was  inconceivably  shocked.  With  tears  in  her
eyes  she  pointed  toward  the  prie-dieu.
