Note 132 — IV MADAME AND MME DE MAINTENON[128]

M. de Boislisle says that Saint-Simon’s informant was probably not Mme de Ventadour, with whom he was on bad terms, but Mme de Clérembault, widow of the Maréchal de Clérembault, who was one of Madame’s ladies-in-waiting, and whom Saint-Simon frequently met at her cousins’, the Pontchartrains. For an amusing portrait of her see III. 243-245, and for some additional touches, XIX. 84-85. Out of doors and in the galleries at Versailles she always wore a black velvet mask to preserve her complexion. She was passionately fond of cards, but being very miserly did not like high play. She had a wide knowledge of history, was well informed on other subjects, and had more esprit than any woman of her day.