CHAPTER VI.

The Count de Vermandois--His Portrait--Mademoiselle de la Vallière, his Mother--Anecdote from the _Mémoires Secrets pour servir à l’Histoire de Perse_--Father Griffet adopts its Conclusions--Arguments that he advances--Motives which render certain of Mademoiselle de Montpensier’s Appreciations suspicious--Improbability of the Story in the _Mémoires de Perse_--Illness of the Count de Vermandois--Reality of his Death attested by the most authentic Despatches--Magnificence of his Obsequies--Pious Endowments at Arras 65