Madame de Maintenon. By Emily Bowles. (Kegan Paul and Co.)—It
is impossible to accept the writer's portrait of Madame de Maintenon as a true likeness of the original, and still less are we able to adopt her judgment of Louis XIV. and of the theologi- cal controversies of the period. The saying that the King "held religion in regard above all other things," is said to be most true; but the piety of Louis, if we read history aright, was not that of a Christian, but of a bigot who had the fear of the devil before his eyes. It did not lessen his selfishness, his injustice, his sole regard for his own glory; it did not hinder him from sanctioning the ruthless devastation of the Palatinate ; and it led to a deed which has eternally disgraced his name. It is said, and we believe with truth, that the responsibility for the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, an act which the biographer is con- tent to mention without comment in a note, rests chiefly upon Madame de Maintenon. " The King," his wife writes, "is rejoicing in all the couriers who come bringing news of millions of conversions ;" but Miss Bowles says not a word as to the way in which the conversions were brought about. It is possible that neither the King nor Madame de Maintenon knew of the atrocious cruelties inflicted on the Protestants ; but the author of this volume cannot plead ignorance as an excuse for omitting all mention of them in her story. The volume has much in it that is interesting, and some aspects of Madame de Maintenon's character are placed in a new light; but faults of omission and commission make the book untrustworthy as an authority. The author's estimate of Jansenism is alone sufficient to show her incapacity to form an impartial judgment.
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