sented a bed whose
pillowed luxury exhibited haggard death in the strongest possible
contrast.

Upon this gorgeous bed the gray-haired king reclined, wrinkled and
wan, and with a countenance which bore the traces both of physical
suffering and of keen remorse. The velvet hangings of the bed were
looped back with heavy tassels of gold. A group of nobles in gorgeous
court costumes were kneeling around the bed. Dispersed over the vast
apartment were other groups of courtiers and ladies, in picturesque
attitudes of real or affected grief. The gilded cornices, the
richly-painted ceilings, the soft carpet, yielding to the pressure of
the foot, the lavish display of the most costly and luxurious
furniture, all conspired to render the dimmed eye, and wasted cheek,
and palsied frame of the dying more impressive.

At a gesture from the king nearly all retired. For a few moments there
was unbroken silence. The king then requested his great grandchild,
who was to be his successor, to be brought to him. A cushion was
placed by the side of the bed, and the half-frightened child, clinging
to the hand of his governess, kneeled upon it. Louis XIV. gazed for a
few moments with almost pitying tenderness upon the infant prince, and
then said,

"My child, you are about to become a great king. Do not imitate me
either in my taste for building or in my love of war. Live in peace
with the nations. Render to God all that you owe him. Teach your
subjects to honor His name. Strive to relieve the burdens of your
people, in which I have been so unfortunate as to fail. Never forget
the gratitude you owe to the Duchess de Ventadour."[AC]

[Footnote AC: The Duchess de Ventadour, by the most careful nursing,
to which she entirely devoted herself, had rescued the infant Duke of
Anjou from the effect of the poison to which his father, mother, and
brother had fallen victims.]

"Madame," said the king, addressing Madame de Ventadour, "permit me to
embrace the prince."

The dauphin was placed upon the bed. The king encircled him in his
arms, pressed him fondly to his breast, and said, in a voice broken by
emotion,

"I bless you, my dear child, with all my heart." He then raised his
eyes to heaven, and uttered a short prayer for God's blessing upon the
boy.

The next day, after another night of languor and suffering, the
restless, conscience-stricken king again summoned the dignitaries of
the court to his bedside, and said to them, in the presenc