mple cure of the chapel to take their place; the lords in waiting and
other officers shrunk from the duties of their office, and with their
eyes fixed on a time-piece eagerly awaited the hour which should free
them from it. The princesses, who perceived this impatience,
durst make no complaint, while the king, occasionally recovering his
senses, uttered broken sentences, expressive of the religious terror
which had seized his mind. At length, at a few minutes past three
o'clock, Lemonnier, in his capacity of first physician, said, after
laying his hand upon the heart of the patient, and placing a glass
before his lips, 'The king is dead.' At these words all present strove
with indecent haste to quit the chamber; not a single sigh, not one
regret was heard. The princesses were carried insensible to their
apartments.

"The extinction of a _bougie_ which had been placed in a certain window,
announced the accession of the dauphin ere the duc d'Aumont had informed
him of the decease of his august grandsire."

This letter wrung from me some bitter tears, as well for the king, who
had so lavishly bestowed his affections upon me, as for myself. What
would now be my fate? Alas! I knew not; all my brilliant prospects were
buried in the coffin of my late protector.

The duc d'Aiguillon arrived at Ruel about midnight; he, as well as the
other ministers who had been about the late monarch during his last
illness, being prohibited by etiquette from following the present
monarch to Choisy, whither the whole of the royal family had retired
for a few days. He told us that the duc d'Aumont, having commanded
La Martiniere to proceed with the embalming of the royal corpse, that
physician replied, "Certainly, my lord, it shall be done if you command
it, but, in that case, the duties of your office compel you to receive
his majesty's bowels in a golden dish; and I protest, that such is the
state of the body, that of all who may assist at the operation, not one
will survive eight days. It is for your grace to determine what shall be
done."

M. d'Aumont thought no more of embalming his late master, but gave
orders for the body being immediately placed in a leaden coffin, from
which here still issued frightful effluvia.

Up to the moment of my quitting Ruel madame de Mirepoix gave me no token
of recollection: I heard that herself and the prince de Beauvau were
reconciled, and for her sake I rejoiced at it. No person came near us
the whol