For when we examine carefully we see that his position in the House of
Conde improved as time went on. He got rid of his rivals, the other
tutors; when the Grand Conde died, La Bruyere got rid of his dreadful
pupil as well. We find him no longer "precepteur," but "gentilhomme de
M. le Duc,"--no longer, that is, a mere scholastic drudge, but a sort
of lord-in-waiting. He had probably a large increase of salary, since
in 1687 he seems to have resigned his "charge" at Caen. Instead of
being pinned to the dark apartment in the recesses of the Cite, he now
revolved in ceaseless movement between Chantilly and Fontainebleau,
Paris and Versailles. He became a sort of confidential reader to the
Duke and Duchess, an essential part of the suite. After the first
years, he had a great deal of leisure. He could retire to the security
of a handsomely furnished apartment--upholstered in green--on the
second floor of the Hotel de Conde, opposite the Luxembourg, and he
had another set of rooms at Versailles. The bondage became, I expect,
no real bondage at all.
But why had he, so long completely his own master, consented to become
the servant even of famous Royal princes? I think that as mothers
accept irksome situations for the support of their children, so La
Bruyere became the serf of the Condes for the sake of his book.
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