Monday, the 19th, and Tuesday, the 20th of August, passed much as the previous days, excepting that on the latter the King supped in his dressing-gown, seated in an armchair; and that after this evening he never left his room or dressed himself again.  That same day Madame de Saint-Simon, whom I had pressed to return, came back from the waters of Forges.  The king, entering after supper into his cabinet, perceived her.  He ordered his chair to be stopped; spoke to her very kindly upon her journey and her return; then had himself wheeled on by Bloin into the other cabinet.  She was the last Court lady to whom he spoke.  I don’t count those who were always near him, and who came to him when he could no longer leave his room.  Madame de Saint-Simon said to me in the evening that she should not have recognised the King if she had met him anywhere else.  Yet she had left Marly for Forges only on the 6th of July.

On Wednesday, the 21st of August, four physicians saw the King, but took care to do nothing except praise Fagon, who gave him cassia.  For some days it had been perceived that he ate meat and even bread with difficulty, (though all his life he had eaten but little of the latter, and for some time only the crumb, because he had no teeth).  Soup in larger quantity, hash very light, and eggs compensated him; but he ate very sparingly.

On Thursday, the 22nd of August, the King was still worse.  He saw four other physicians, who, like the first four, did nothing but admire the learned and admirable treatment of Fagon, who made him take towards evening some Jesuit bark and water and intended to give him at night, ass’s milk.  This same day, the King ordered the Duc de la Rochefoucauld to bring him his clothes on the morrow, in order that he might choose which he would wear upon leaving off the mourning he wore for a son of Madame la Duchesse de Lorraine.  He had not been able to quit his chamber for some days; he could scarcely eat anything solid; his physician slept in his chamber, and yet he reckoned upon being cured, upon dressing himself again, and wished to choose his dress!  In like manner there was the same round of councils, of work, of amusements.  So true it is, that men do not wish to die, and dissimulate from themselves the approach of death as long as possible.  Meanwhile, let me say, that the state of the King, which nobody was ignorant of, had already changed M. d’Orleans’ desert into a crowded city.

Friday, the 23rd of August, the night was as usual, the morning also.  The King worked with Pere Tellier, who tried, but in vain, to make him fill up several benefices that were vacant; that is to say, Pere Tellier wished to dispose of them himself, instead of leaving them to M. le Duc d’Orleans.  Let me state at once, that the feebler the King grew the more Pere Tellier worried him; so as not to lose such a rich prey, or miss the opportunity of securing fresh creatures for his service.  But he could not succeed.  The King declared to him that he had enough to render account of to God, without charging himself with this nomination, and forbade him to speak again upon the subject.