Upon arriving, she found the danger great.  Madame la Duchesse de Berry had been bled in the arm and in the foot on the 10th, and her confessor had been sent for.  But the malady still went on increasing.  As the pain which had so long afflicted her could not induce her to follow a regimen necessary for her condition, or to think of a future state, relations and doctors were at last obliged to speak a language to her, not used towards princesses, except at the most urgent extremity.  This, at last, had its effect.  She submitted to the medical treatment prescribed for her, and received the sacrament with open doors, speaking to those present upon her life and upon her state, but like a queen in both instances.  After this sight was over, alone with her familiars, she applauded herself for the firmness she had displayed, asked them if she had not spoken well, and if she was not dying with greatness and courage.

A day or two after, she wished to receive Our Lord once more.  She received, accordingly, and as it appeared, with much piety, quite differently from the first time.

At the extremity to which she had arrived, the doctors knew not what to do; everybody was tried.  An elixir was spoken of, discovered by a certain Garus, which made much stir just then, and the secret of which the King has since bought.  Garus was sent for and soon arrived.  He found Madame la Duchesse de Berry so ill that he would answer for nothing.  His remedy was given, and succeeded beyond all hopes.  Nothing remained but to continue it.  Above all things, Garus had begged that nothing should, on any account, be given to Madame la Duchesse de Berry except by him, and this had been most expressly commanded by M. le Duc and Madame la Duchesse d’Orleans.  Madame la Duchesse de Berry continued to be more and more relieved and so restored, that Chirac, her regular doctor, began to fear for his reputation, and taking the opportunity when Garus was asleep upon a sofa, presented, with impetuosity, a purgative to Madame la Duchesse de Berry, and made her swallow it without saying a word to anybody, the two nurses standing by, the only persons present, not daring to oppose him.

The audacity of this was as complete as its villainy, for M. le Duc and Madame la Duchesse d’Orleans were close at hand in the salon.  From this moment to that in which the patient fell into a state worse than that from which the elixir had drawn her, there was scarcely an interval.  Garus was awaked and called.  Seeing this disorder, he cried that a purgative had been given, and whatever it might be, it was poison in the state to which the princess was now reduced.  He wished to depart, he was detained, he was taken to Madame la Duchesse d’Orleans.  Then followed a great uproar, cries from Garus, impudence and unequalled hardihood of Chirac, in defending what he had done.