I experienced, shortly after this, at Fontainebleau, one of the greatest afflictions I had ever endured.  I mean the loss of M. de La Trappe, These Memoirs are too profane to treat slightly of a life so sublimely holy, and of a death so glorious and precious before God.  I will content myself with saying here that praises of M. de La Trappe were so much the more great and prolonged because the King eulogised him in public; that he wished to see narrations of his death; and that he spoke more than once of it to his grandsons by way of instruction.  In every part of Europe this great loss was severely felt.  The Church wept for him, and the world even rendered him justice.  His death, so happy for him and so sad for his friends, happened on the 26th of October, towards half-past twelve, in the arms of his bishop, and in presence of his community, at the age of nearly seventy-seven years, and after nearly forty years of the most prodigious penance.  I cannot omit, however, the most touching and the most honourable mark of his friendship.  Lying upon the ground, on straw and ashes, in order to die like all the brethren of La Trappe, he deigned, of his own accord, to recollect me, and charged the Abbe La Trappe to send word to me, on his part, that as he was quite sure of my affection for him, he reckoned that I should not doubt of his tenderness for me.  I check myself at this point; everything I could add would be too much out of place here.

VOLUME 3.

CHAPTER XVIII

For the last two or three years the King of Spain had been in very weak health, and in danger of his life several times.  He had no children, and no hope of having any.  The question, therefore, of the succession to his vast empire began now to agitate every European Court.  The King of England (William III.), who since his usurpation had much augmented his credit by the grand alliance he had formed against France, and of which he had been the soul and the chief up to the Peace of Ryswick, undertook to arrange this question in a manner that should prevent war when the King of Spain died.  His plan was to give Spain, the Indies, the Low Countries, and the title of King of Spain to the Archduke, second son of the Emperor; Guipuscoa, Naples, Sicily, and Lorraine to France; and the Milanese to M. de Lorraine, as compensation for taking away from him his territory.

The King of England made this proposition first of all to our King; who, tired of war, and anxious for repose, as was natural at his age, made few difficulties, and soon accepted.  M. de Lorraine was not in a position to refuse his consent to a change recommended by England, France, and Holland.  Thus much being settled, the Emperor was next applied to.  But he was not so easy to persuade:  he wished to inherit the entire succession, and would not brook the idea of seeing the House of Austria driven from Italy,