Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 313 pages of information about Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Complete.

Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 313 pages of information about Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Complete.
sent for her to Choisy, and hid her in a mill without anything to eat or drink; for it was a fast day, and the Dauphin thought there was no greater sin than to eat meat on a fast day.  After the Court had departed, all that he gave her for supper was some salad and toast with oil.  Raisin laughed at this very much herself, and told several persons of it.  When I heard of it I asked the Dauphin what he meant by making his mistress fast in this manner.

“I had a mind,” he said, “to commit one sin, but not two.”

I cannot bear that any one should touch me behind; it makes me so angry that I do not know what I do.  I was very near giving the Dauphin a blow one day, for he had a wicked trick of coming behind one for a joke, and putting his fist in the chair just where one was going to sit down.  I begged him, for God’s sake, to leave off this habit, which was so disagreeable to me that I would not answer for not one day giving him a sound blow, without thinking of what I was doing.  From that time he left me alone.

The Dauphin was very much like the Queen; he was not tall, but good-looking enough.  Our King was accustomed to say:  “Monseigneur (for so he always called him) has the look of a German prince.”  He had, indeed, something of a German air; but it was only the air; for he had nothing German besides.  He did not dance well.  The Queen-Dowager of Spain flattered herself with the hope of marrying him.

He thought he should recommend himself to the King by not appearing to care what became of his brothers.

When the Dauphin was lying sick of the small-pox, I went on the Wednesday to the King.

He said to me, sarcastically, “You have been frightening us with the great pain which Monseigneur would have to endure when the suppuration commences; but I can tell you that he will not suffer at all, for the pustules have already begun to dry.”

I was alarmed at this, and said, “So much the worse; if he is not in pain his state is the more dangerous, and he soon will be.”

“What!” said the King, “do you know better than the doctors?”

“I know,” I replied, “what the small-pox is by my own experience, which is better than all the doctors; but I hope from my heart that I may be mistaken.”

On the same night, soon after midnight, the Dauphin died.

SECTION XV.—­THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, THE SECOND DAUPHIN.

He was quite humpbacked.  I think this proceeded from his having been made to carry a bar of iron for the purpose of keeping himself upright, but the weight and inconvenience of which had had a contrary effect.  I often said to the Duke de Beauvilliers he had very good parts, and was sincerely pious, but so weak as to let his wife rule him like a child.  In spite of his good sense, she made him believe whatever she chose.  She lived upon very good terms with him, but was not outrageously fond, and did not love him

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.