up the conversation, and
advised M. de Richelieu to leave him to himself as little as possible;
it was, therefore, agreed that we should cause the duc de Duras to be
constantly surrounded by persons of our party, who should keep those of
our adversaries at a distance.

We had not yet lost all hope of seeing his majesty restored to health;
nature, so languid and powerless in the case of poor Anne, seemed
inclined to make a salutary effort on the part of the king.

Every instant of this day and the next, that I did not spend by the
sick-bed of Louis XV, were engrossed by most intimate friends, the ducs
d'Aiguillon, de Cosse, etc., mesdames de Mirepoix, de Forcalquier, de
Valentinois, de l'Hopital, de Montmorency, de Flaracourt, and others.
As yet, none of my party had abandoned me; the situation of affairs was
not, up to the present, sufficiently clear to warrant an entire defect
Mathon, whom chance had conducted to Versailles during the last week,
came to share with Henriette, my sisters-in-law, and my niece, the
torments and uncertainties which distracted my mind. We were continually
in a state of mortal alarm, dreading every instant to hear that the king
was aware of his malady, and the danger which threatened, and our fears
but too well proclaimed our persuasion that such a moment would be the
death-blow to our hopes. It happened that in this exigency, as it most
commonly occurs in affairs of great importance, all our apprehensions
had been directed towards the ecclesiastics, while we entirely
overlooked the probability that the abrupt la Martiniere might, in one
instant, become the cause of our ruin. All this so entirely escaped us,
that we took not the slightest precaution to prevent it.

No sooner was the news of the king being attacked with small-pox
publicly known, than a doctor Sulton, an English physician, the
pretended professor of an infallible cure for this disease, presented
himself at Versailles, and tendered his services. The poor man was
simple enough to make his first application to those medical attendants
already intrusted with the management of his majesty, but neither of
them would give any attention to his professions of skill to overcome
so fatal a malady. On the contrary, they treated him as a mere quack,
declared that they would never consent to confide the charge of their
august patient to the hands of a stranger whatever he might be. Sulton
returned to Paris, and obtaining an audience of th