to Marshal Boufflers, "that, as you are very zealous for my service, you will be sorry for the death of a man who served me well." "Louvois," said the Marquis of La Fare, "should never have been born, or should have lived longer." The public feeling was expressed in an anonymous epitaph: "Here lieth he who to his will Bent every one, knew everything Louvois, beloved by no one, still Leaves everybody sorrowing." The king felt his loss, but did not regret the minister whose tyranny and violence were beginning to be oppressive to him.

He felt himself to be more than ever master in the presence of the young or inexperienced men to whom he henceforth intrusted his affairs.

Louvois' son, Barbezieux, had the reversion of the war department; Pontchartrain, who had been comptroller of finance ever since the retirement of Lepelletier, had been appointed to the navy in 1690, at the death of Seignelay.

"M.

de Pontchartrain had begged the king not to give him the navy," says Dangeau ingenuously, "because he knew nothing at all about it; but the king's will was absolute that he should take it.