"What is not spoken of is supposed to be put an end to," said Madame de Maintenon.

The camp at Compiegne, in 1698, surpassed in splendor all that had till then been seen; the enemies of Louis XIV.

in Europe called him "the king of reviews." Meanwhile the King of Spain, Charles II., dying as he was, was regularly besieged at Madrid by the queen, his second wife, Mary Anne of Neuburg, sister of the empress, as well as by his minister, Cardinal Porto-Carrero.

The competitors for the succession were numerous; the King of France and the emperor claimed their rights in the name of their mothers and wives, daughters of Philip III.

and Philip IV.; the Elector of Bavaria put up the claims of his son by right of his mother, Mary Antoinette of Austria, daughter of the emperor; for a short time Charles II.