He could not deny it, for the two nurses had been questioned, and had told all.  Madame la Duchesse de Berry drew near her end during this debate, and neither Chirac nor Garus could prevent it.  She lasted, however, the rest of the day, and did not die until about midnight.  Chirac, seeing the death-agony advance, traversed the chamber, made an insulting reverence at the foot of the bed, which was open, and wished her “a pleasant journey” (in equivalent terms), and thereupon went off to Paris.  The marvel is that nothing came of this, and that he remained the doctor of M. le Duc d’Orleans as before!

While the end was yet approaching, Madame de Saint-Simon, seeing that there was no one to bear M. le Duc d’Orleans company, sent for me to stand by him in these sad moments.  It appeared to me that my arrival pleased him, and that I was not altogether useless to him in relieving his grief.  The rest of the day was passed in entering for a moment at a time into the sick-chamber.  In the evening I was nearly always alone with him.

He wished that I should charge myself with all the funeral arrangements, and in case Madame la Duchesse de Berry, when opened, should be found to be enceinte, to see that the secret was kept.  I proposed that the funeral should be of the simplest, without show or ceremonial.  I explained my reasons, he thanked me, and left all the orders in my hands.  Getting rid of these gloomy matters as quickly as possible, I walked with him from time to time in the reception rooms, and in the garden, keeping him from the chamber of the dying as much as possible.

The night was well advanced, and Madame la Duchesse de Berry grew worse and worse, and without consciousness since Chirac had poisoned her.  M. le Duc d’Orleans returned into the chamber, approached the head of the bed—­all the curtains being pulled back; I allowed him to remain there but a few moments, and hurried him into the cabinet, which was deserted just then.  The windows were open, he leaned upon the iron balustrade, and his tears increased so much that I feared lest they should suffocate him.  When this attack had a little subsided, he began to talk of the misfortunes of this world, and of the short duration of its most agreeable pleasures.  I urged the occasion to say to him everything God gave me the power to say, with all the gentleness, emotion, and tenderness, I could command.  Not only he received well what I said to him, but he replied to it and prolonged the conversation.

After we had been there more than an hour, Madame de Saint-Simon gently warned me that it was time to try and lead M. le Duc d’Orleans away, especially as there was no exit from the cabinet, except through the sick-chamber.  His coach, that Madame de Saint-Simon had sent for, was ready.  It was without difficulty that I succeeded in gently moving away M. le Duc d’Orleans, plunged as he was in the most bitter grief.  I made him traverse