The Press.
London, England, 1853-08-27 00:00:00

Xittrattrt.

Sermon sous Louis X fV. Par L. F. Bun-
. gener. Paris : Cherbulicz et Cic.
The Preacher and the King ; or, Bourdaloue in
the Court of Louis XIV. With an Introduc
tion by the Rev. George Potts, D.D. New
York : Triibner and CO.
WHETHER original literature will in the end be
served by the "cheap-publisher" system is a
question admitting of various solutions. Like
other speculative subjects, it has its two sides,
one taken by the sanguine votaries of " popu-
larity," and the other embnteed by those scep-
tical observers who believe that the mob of
readers are not coMpetent to discern supe-
riority. In support Of these conflicting views
it would be easy to marshal facts on either
side. Without now discussing this interest-
ing topic, we will permit ourselves to express
a very strong opinion upon one part of the
subject. We decidedly think that the pur-
veyors of cheap fiction have been singularly
slow in discerning works of merit adapted for
popular circulation. The charming tales of
the Countess d'Arbouville received scarcely
any critical notice until we called attention
to their issue in America. And again it is
our province to record the filet that so
interesting a historical novel as Monsieur
Bungeuer's "Sermon sous Louis Quatorze
should first appear in an English dress amongst
our transatlantic cousins.

The " Sermon under Louis the Fourteenth"
combines the interest of a historical novel with
the graver merits of the liter►uy essay. While
painting characters and describing manners it
lays bare with philosophic clearness the
springs of action that swayed the Gallica!' di-
vines in their very peculiar relations with
Louis XIV. It explores with research some
portions of French society which have not
been titirily described, and displays great inge-
nuity in blending the didactic with the de
seriptive. Its author is a French Protestant
clergyman, who has also written the history
of the Council of Trent. But his philosophi-
cal novel now before us is his most interest►ng
performance. We will condense the narrative
of his ingenious work into the form of a histo-
rical anecdote, and even in that shape we hope
to give our readers some insight into the
merits of this able exereitation.

----- -
The interest of the tale is made from the
very first page to converge upon the simple
fact of the renowned pulpit orator, Father
Bourdaloue, being about to preach the Good
Friday sermon at Versailles. The reader will
be apt to wonder how a plot can be woven on
so slender a tissue. But surrounding circum-
stances make that simple incident intensely
dramatic, invest it with colour, and envelop it
in the fears and hopes that spring from the
human heart. For mark ! The sermon is to
be preached by an illustrious orator, whose
morality equals his genius, and that sermon is
to be ad ,ressed to a powerful King, at the
very time when Madame de Montespan—
ah! c'est vt ! A Jesuit, a Royal lover, and a
pretty naughty woman—a priest, a petticoat.
and a King—these ingredients can be worked
into nominee, as they have often been already.
But not easily, we reply, with such etreet
as in the 1 eculiar and perfectly original
method followed by Monsieur Bungener.
Here is the way at which he arrives at what
dramatists would call "the compound action"
of his story.
One fine Sunday in the spring of 1675 two
persons were walking together in the park at
Versailles, and conversing in an animated num
ner. The younger of the two appeared to be
relating some anecdotes of great interest, and
at intervals he was vehemently intempted by
his elder companion. If we could have heard
the speaker we might have been charmed with
his voice, and his lively method of talking
about the Court, the Grand Monarque, and the
scandals of the day. His talk was not in the
trivial, twaddling style of a quidnunc, but was
enlivened with sentiment, and dictated by
good taste. Nor was that wonderful, when
Abbe de Fenelon was the speaker, and
when the subject of his conversation with his

THE PRESS.

high-spirited uncle was the fact that Madame
de Montespan had actually been refused abso•
lution, and would not be allowed to receive the
sacrament, at the approaching Easter!
It was decidedly a step in advance that the
King's mistress should at last be discounte
flamed in adultery. But shrewd folk whispered
that the scandal would be hushed, and that
some clever ruse would be played off, by which
the King might still indulge in breaking the
seventh commandment, and preserve a decent
conformity with external religion. For, as the
young Abbe de Fenelon remarked, " Even the
highest dignitaries of the Church thronged
Madame de Montespan 's antechamber; and
it was only at her very last soiree—" "At
which I told you not to be present, my
nephew," said the Marquisde Fenelon, where-
upon, while the nephew was reassuring the uncle
that his commands had been faithfully kept,
there came in sight a large party of persons,
dressed in ecclesiastical costume, and with a
livery servant walking in the rear carrying a
large bible. It was one of the walking parties
of Bossuet and his friends, who used thus to
read and comment together upon a chapter in
the Bible. There was the Abbe de Ilenaudot,
a profound Orientalist; and De Langeron, deep
in general history; and Fleury, in the annals of
the Church; and Cordemoy, in dogmatic theo-
. logy ; and Heath', and De la Brune, and some
others ; and, greatest of them all, the Bishop
of Condom himself, afterwards to be still more
famous as Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux. These
persons were called in derision by the Court
Lea Philoaop►hea ; but a century later France
wept tears of blood at the sayings and doings
of philasop►hes of another kind.
The Fenelons joined Bossuet's party, and
the old marquis, in bantering tone, complained
to the Bishop of Condom how fine his nephew,
the young abbe, was in his criticism upon
Bourdalouc. Now, Bossuet was, to some ex-
tent, jealous of the thine of Bourdaloue as a
great preacher, and he listened to the young
Abbe de Fenelon criticising the style of Bour-
daloue as too purely logical and deficient in
the entrainnuent of genuine eloquence. Vastly
interesting was the conversation that followed
on the art of preaching, as reported in this
chronicle of Monsieur Bungener; and we
never read more judicious strictures on some
branches of the " art of the pulpit" than in
these semi-historical dialogues. The old Mar-
quis do Fenelon then continued to lead the
conversation with Bossuet to the scandal of
the day, and told the Bishop of Condom how
people wondered at the fact that the clergy
did not dare to rebuke the King, but addressed
him as usual in the style of flattery from the
preacher's chair. The old marquis, a liberal
Catholic, even relates how Arnauld of Pont
Royal was beginning to speculate on the grave
account that the Catholic divines would have
to render to God. " Ha!" cried Bossuet, "and
so you know the schismatic Arnauld?" "He
is the first man in the Church of France,"
replied the marquis, pausing as he saw the
frown on Bossuet's brow, and adding, with
courtly grace, " apres vous !" But, while they
were entering on this matter, they were inter-
rupted by a page in the royal livery with the
words, " His Majesty commands the attend
ance of Monsieur de Condom," and, as Bossuet
turned round to obey the order, he suddenly
found himself in presence of the King.
At the desire of Louis they went to the
palace, and the topic of the day, the audacity
of a priest in refusing absolution to Madame
de Montespan, was opened up by the King.
who expressed his haughty displeasure at the
insolence of an obscure priest sitting in judg-
ment on his Sovereign. Bossuet told him
that the priest only did his duty. "Very well,
then," said Louis, affecting to trifle ; "it only
comes to this, that Madame de Montespan
will not go to communion ; neither shall I."
Bossuet tries to soothe him, and reminds the
King how readily, as Bishop of Condom, he
would defend the Galilean liberties against
the excommunication of the Papacy ; but,
" pronounced or not, there is another excom-
munication that is written in heaven." "Which
you think I have incurred r asked the King,
as if in sonic alarm. " Thou shalt not conm►it
adultery," sternly repeated Bossuet, and the
word " adultery " actually came with novel
effect on the King's ear. It was the first time

SATURDAY,

that any one within his hearing had presumed
to call his liaison an adultery ! Bossuet with
great trouble succeeded so far as to get the
King to express a desire that Madame de
Montespan should go away from the Court.
Potent as he was, Louis stood in awe of his
haughty mistress, who ruled him with her
frown, and he resolved to send Bossuet to her,
and with much hesitation the bishop accepted
the mission of persuading De Montespan to
retire, and to her chambers he accordingly re-
paired.
At that time Madame de Montespan ruled
almost supreme over the courtiers. And Boa
suet found tout le monde assembled in her part
of the palace, but the mistress had not yet made
her appearance for the day. At last in she
came, followed by twenty ladies, and was re-
ceived with universal homage. Soon after an-
other door opened, and a lady came in with a
suite of dames d 'honneur, and was looked on
with indifference by the crowd. It was only
the Queen of France !
Before many minutes had elapsed it appeared
that Madame de Montespan wished the com-
pany to retire. " She was indisposed, and would
not receive visitors to-day." The crowd vu
nished, except Bossuet. In the authority of
the King's name he found instant admission
to her, and then took place a keen encounter
of wits between the rival tongues of the artful
orator and the not less arttnl woman. She
commenced the battle with asking, with an air
of vehemence, " When will Madame La Val-
Here make her profession, and who is to preach
the sermon ?" "In about two months, said
Bossuet, " and probably I'll preach the ser-
mon." The lady paused, looked sarcastically
at the prelate, and said, "Ah ! and you have
come to tell me, Monsieur de Condom, that
this one sermon might he made to answer for
two ? Eh ! is it so ?" It was a masterstroke
on her part, and would have succeeded with
many persons ; but Bossuet met the taunting
thrust with the shield of assumed frigidity,
and told her that her guess was not far wrong.
Then she became excited, and brought into
action all the fiery vehemence of her arrogant
nature. She railed at the absurdity of having
two measures of conscience—one for the King,
another for the woman : the male sinner, for-
sooth, was to be absolved, and the female one to
be excommunicated, or sent to a nunnery ! She
even denounced Bossuet as trying to be a Riche-
lieu under Louis XIV., and she gave him by her
outburst an opportunity of seeing how natural
passion can often approach the invective of
art. Exhausted by her effort, she then burst
into tears. Now it was Bossuet's turn to re-
proach her with ambition, and he taunted her
with loving not the man but the King; and he
implored her, if she really did love Louis, to
fly from the Court. She was softened, and in
a yielding, submissive mood, when a noise was
heard outside, and in came ladies to the rescue
of Montespan ; it would sound strange that one of
them was a nun, and a mother abbess ! But it
was even so. They were her own sisters, Ma-
dame de Thianges and the Abbess of Pontou•
rault. The latter, who wore her cross of office,
was accustomed to frequent the rooms of her
sister, having taken the part of affecting never
to see or hear anything particular. Their arri-
val was the signal of Bossuet's retreat.
- -

She saw at a glance that the sisters would
support the mistress—that Montespan would
again conquer the man—and the man in turn
triumph over the King. He resolved to fall
back on Bourdaloue, and induce this renowned
preacher to set tradition at defiance, and assail
the King, face to face, in his Good Friday ser-
mon ! The idea was bold, but it was easier to
think of than to execute. He repaired to
Bourdaloue's residence, and could see the sha.
dow of a mau falling upon the walls of his
chamber inside. "Ah ! Bourdaloue him-
self, walking up and down, getting his sermon
by heart." liossuet knocked, and a lacquey
appeared. "Is Pere Bourdaloue at home?"
"Nos, monseigneur, it ext sorti." "Did the
good father desire you to tell lies ? Well!
We must see him, however," Bossuet as-
cended, and was received in a very different
manner than what he expected. Scarcely had
he appeared at the preacher's door than Bour-
daloue sprang forward, and saluted him with—
." Welcome, Monsieur Claude. I am very happy