her:  “My love, I have got the smallpox, and my illness is very dangerous on account of my age and other disorders.  I ought not to forget that I am the most Christian King, and the eldest son of the Church.  I am sixty-four; the time is perhaps approaching when we must separate.  I wish to prevent a scene like that of Metz.” (when, in 1744, he had dismissed the Duchesse de Chateauroux.) “Apprise the Duc d’Aiguillon of what I say, that he may arrange with you if my sickness grows worse; so that we may part without any publicity.”  The Jansenists and the Duc de Choiseurs party publicly said that M. d’Aiguillon and the Archbishop had resolved to let the King die without receiving the sacrament rather than disturb Madame du Barry.  Annoyed by their remarks, Beaumont determined to go and reside at the Lazaristes, his house at Versailles, to avail himself of the King’s last moments, and sacrifice Madame du Barry when the monarch’s condition should become desperate.  He arrived on the 3d of May, but did not see the King.  Under existing circumstances, his object was to humble the enemies of his party and to support the favourite who had assisted to overcome them.

A contrary zeal animated the Bishop of Carcassonne, who urged that “the King ought to receive the sacrament; and by expelling the concubine to give an example of repentance to France and Christian Europe, which he had scandalised.”—­” By what right,” said Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon, a complaisant courtier with whom the Bishop was at daggers drawn, “do you instruct me?”—­“There is my authority,” replied the Bishop, holding up his pectoral cross.  “Learn, monseigneur, to respect it, and do not suffer your King to die without the sacraments of the Church, of which he is the eldest son.”  The Duc d’Aiguillon and the Archbishop, who witnessed the discussion, put an end to it by asking for the King’s orders relative to Madame du Barry.  “She must be taken quietly to your seat at Ruelle,” said the King; “I shall be grateful for the care Madame d’Aiguillon may take of her.”

Madame du Barry saw the King again for a moment on the evening of the 4th, and promised to return to Court upon his recovery.  She was scarcely gone when the King asked for her.  “She is gone,” was the answer.  From that moment the disorder gained ground; he thought himself a dead man, without the possibility of recovery.  The 5th and 6th passed without a word of confession, viaticum, or extreme unction.  The Duc de Fronsac threatened to throw the Cure of Versailles out of the window if he dared to mention them, but on the 7th, at three in the morning, the King imperatively called for the Abbe Maudous.  Confession lasted seventeen minutes.  The Ducs de la Vrillilere and d’Aiguillon wished to delay the viaticum; but La Martiniere said to the King:  “Sire, I have seen your Majesty in very trying circumstances; but never admired you as I have done to-day.  No doubt your Majesty will immediately finish what you have so well begun.”  The King had his confessor Maudoua called back; this was a poor priest who had been placed about him for some years before because he was old and blind.  He gave him absolution.