on, though none ventured to
give utterance to the surmise. For four days she grew worse, with
frequent seasons of delirium. The dauphin was almost frantic. The king
sat in anguish, hour after hour, at her bedside.

No remedies were of any avail. Her sufferings were so great that the
dauphin could not remain in her dying chamber to witness her agony.
She was greatly surprised when informed that she must die. All the
offices of the Church were attended to. She received the rite of
extreme unction, and, in the wildness of delirium, lost all
recognition of those who were around her. The king, bowed down with
anguish, was with difficulty prevailed upon to retire. He had but
reached the door of the palace when she expired.

The king was now a world-weary, heart-stricken old man, who had
numbered more than his threescore years and ten. He seemed crushed
with grief, and his eyes were flooded with tears as he returned, with
Madame de Maintenon, to Marly. The apartment which the dauphin paced
in agony was immediately above the dying chamber. As soon as the
death-struggle was over, he was induced to retire to Marly, that he
might be spared the anguish of witnessing the preparations for the
funeral.

As the dauphin entered the chamber of the king, the monarch was
startled in witnessing the change which had taken place in his
appearance. His face was flushed with fever; his eyes were dilated and
inflamed, and livid stains covered his face. It was manifest that the
same disease, whatever it was, which had stricken down the
dauphiness, had also attacked the dauphin. The malady made rapid
progress. In the intensity of his anguish, the sufferer declared his
entrails were on fire. Conscious that his dying hour had come, he, on
the night of the 17th, partook of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper,
and almost immediately expired.

The dreadful tidings were conveyed to the king as he sat in the
apartment of Madame de Maintenon, with the younger brother of the
dauphin, Charles, the duke de Berri, by his side. The king,
anticipating the announcement, sat with his head bent down upon his
breast, and clasping almost convulsively the hand of the prince who
sat at his feet. Throwing his arms around the neck of the Duke de
Berri, the king exclaimed, in accents of despair, "Alas! my son, you
alone are now left to me."

The Duke of Burgoyne had buried three children. There were two then
living. The eldest, the Duke of Bretagne, was five years