suet to console her in that supreme moment. She desired that after
her decease an emerald ring should be given to him which she had
reserved for that purpose.

By degrees, however, the unfortunate Duchess found herself left almost
alone. The King had taken his departure, after manifesting great
emotion, and the Duke also in tears. All the Court had disappeared.
Mademoiselle de Montpensier was too much affected to bid her farewell.
She was sinking fast, felt an inclination to sleep, woke up suddenly,
inquired for Bossuet, who placed a crucifix in her hand, and, whilst in
the act of embracing it, she expired. The clock at that moment struck
three, and the first faint light of dawn was visible (June 29th, 1670).

The English Ambassador expressed a desire to be present at the
_post-mortem_ examination, and the doctors did not fail to pronounce the
cause of her death to be an attack of _cholera morbus_ (so Mademoiselle
de Montpensier states), and that mortification had for some time past
set in. He was not the dupe of such opinion; neither was Charles II.,
who, at first, indignantly refused to receive the letter addressed to
him by the Duke of Orleans. But to persevere in such a line of conduct
would have been to bring about a rupture of the pending negotiation and
the loss of the French subsidy. He calmed down, therefore, and pretended
to believe the explanations that were offered him. It was, however,
remembered that the Chevalier de Lorraine, the Duke's unworthy
favourite, had openly accused _Madame_ as the instigator of his
banishment; and Saint-Simon asserts that the King, before consenting to
his brother marrying again, was resolved to know whether he had really
had the Duchess poisoned, and with that view summoned Furnon,
Henrietta's master of the household. From him he learned that the
poison had been sent from Italy by the Chevalier de Lorraine to
Beauveau, equerry to the Duchess, and to D'Effiat, her captain of the
guard, but without the knowledge of the Duke. "It was that
_maitre-d'hotel_ who himself related it," says Saint-Simon, "to M. Joly
de Fleury, from whom I had it."

A story but too probable. But that which appears incredible, and which
nevertheless is quite certain, was that the poisoners were perfectly
successful, that shortly after the crime the King permitted the
Chevalier de Lorraine to serve in the army, appointed him
marshal-de-camp, and allowed him to return to Court. What explanation,
what pall