He preserved silence amid the commendations and criticisms of the _Telemaque_.

"I have no need and no desire to change my position," he would say; "I am beginning to be old, and I am infirm; there is no occasion for my friends to ever commit themselves or to take any doubtful step on my account.

I never sought out the court; I was sent for thither.

I staid there nearly ten years without obtruding myself, without taking a single step on my own behalf, without asking the smallest favor, without meddling in any matter, and confining myself to answering conscientiously in all matters about which I was spoken to.
I was dismissed; all I have to do is to remain at peace in my own place.
I doubt not that, besides the matter of my condemned work, the policy of _Telemaque_ was employed against me upon the king's mind; but I must suffer and hold my tongue." Every tongue was held within range of King Louis XIV.

It was only on the 22d of December, 1701, four years after Fenelon's departure, that the Duke of Burgundy thought he might write to him in the greatest secrecy: "At last, my dear archbishop, I find a favorable opportunity of breaking the silence I have kept for four years.