On leaving the chamber of Louis xv., the Duc de Villequier, first gentleman of the bedchamber for the year, ordered M. Andouille, the King’s chief surgeon, to open the body and embalm it.  The chief surgeon would inevitably have died in consequence.  “I am ready,” replied Andouille; “but while I operate you shall hold the head; your office imposes this duty upon you.”  The Duke went off without saying a word, and the corpse was neither opened nor embalmed.  A few under-servants and workmen continued with the pestiferous remains, and paid the last duty to their master; the surgeons directed that spirits of wine should be poured into the coffin.

The entire Court set off for Choisy at four o’clock; Mesdames the King’s aunts in their private carriage, and the Princesses under tuition with the Comtesse de Marsan and the under-governesses.  The King, the Queen, Monsieur, the King’s brother, Madame, and the Comte and Comtesse d’Artois went in the same carriage.  The solemn scene that had just passed before their eyes, the multiplied ideas offered to their imaginations by that which was just opening, had naturally inclined them to grief and reflection; but, by the Queen’s own confession, this inclination, little suited to their age, wholly left them before they had gone half their journey; a word, drolly mangled by the Comtesse d’Artois, occasioned a general burst of laughter; and from that moment they dried their tears.

The communication between Choisy and Paris was incessant; never was a Court seen in greater agitation.  What influence will the royal aunts have,—­and the Queen?  What fate is reserved for the Comtesse du Barry?  Whom will the young King choose for his ministers?  All these questions were answered in a few days.  It was determined that the King’s youth required a confidential person near him; and that there should be a prime minister.  All eyes were turned upon De Machault and De Maurepas, both of them much advanced in years.  The first had retired to his estate near Paris; and the second to Pont Chartrain, to which place he had long been exiled.  The letter recalling M. de Machault was written, when Madame Adelaide obtained the preference of that important appointment for M. de Maurepas.  The page to whose care the first letter had been actually consigned was recalled.

The Duc d’Aiguillon had been too openly known as the private friend of the King’s mistress; he was dismissed.  M. de Vergennes, at that time ambassador of France at Stockholm, was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs; Comte du Muy, the intimate friend of the Dauphin, the father of Louis XVI.[??  D.W.], obtained the War Department.  The Abbe Terray in vain said, and wrote, that he had boldly done all possible injury to the creditors of the State during the reign of the late King; that order was restored in the finances; that nothing but what was beneficial to all parties remained to be done; and that the new Court was about to enjoy the advantages of the regenerating