Now came the question between the Regent, the Cardinal, and the cure, which should announce this determination to Madame la Duchesse de Berry, who in no way expected it, and who, having confessed, expected every moment to see the Holy Sacrament enter, and to take it.  After a short colloquy urged on by the state of the patient, the Cardinal and the cure withdrew a little, while M. le Duc d’Orleans slightly opened the door and called Madame de Mouchy.  Then, the door ajar, she within, he without, he told her what was in debate.  La Mouchy, much astonished, still more annoyed, rode the high horse, talked of her merit, and of the affront that bigots wished to cast upon her and Madame la Duchesse de Berry, who would never suffer it or consent to it, and that she would die—­in the state she was—­if they had the impudence and the cruelty to tell it to her.

The conclusion was that La Mouchy undertook to announce to Madame la Duchesse de Berry the resolution that had been taken respecting the sacraments—­what she added of her own may be imagined.  A negative response did not fail to be quickly delivered to M. le Duc d’Orleans through the half-opened door.  Coming through such a messenger, it was just the reply he might have expected.  Immediately after, he repeated it to the Cardinal, and to the cure; the cure, being supported by his archbishop, contented himself with shrugging his shoulders.  But the Cardinal said to M. le Duc d’Orleans that Madame de Mouchy, one of the two who ought to be sent away, was not a fit person to bring Madame la Duchesse to reason; that it was his duty to carry this message to her, and to exhort her to do her duty as a Christian shortly about to appear before God; and the Archbishop pressed the Regent to go and say so to her.  It will be believed, without difficulty, that his eloquence gained nothing.  This Prince feared too much his daughter, and would have been but a feeble apostle with her.

Reiterated refusals determined the Cardinal to go and speak to Madame la Duchesse de Berry, accompanied by the cure, and as he wished to set about it at once, M. le Duc d’Orleans, who did not dare to hinder him, but who feared some sudden and dangerous revolution in his daughter at the sight and at the discourses of the two pastors, conjured him to wait until preparations could be made to receive him.  He went, therefore, and held another colloquy through the door with Madame de Mouchy, the success of which was equal to the other.  Madame la Duchesse de Berry flew into fury, railed in unruly terms against these hypocritical humbugs, who took advantage of her state and their calling to dishonour her by an unheard-of scandal, not in the least sparing her father for his stupidity and feebleness in allowing it.  To have heard her, you would have thought that the cure and the Cardinal ought to be kicked downstairs.

M. le Duc d’Orleans returned to the ecclesiastics, looking very small, and not knowing what to do between his daughter and them.  However, he said to them that she was so weak and suffering that they must put off their visit, persuading them as well as he could.  The attention and anxiety of the large company which filled the room were extreme:  everything was known afterwards, bit by bit, during the day.