"Monsieur supped with me," says Mdlle. de
Montpensier, "and we had the twenty-four violins; he was as gay as if
MM. Cinq-Mars and De Thou had not tarried by the way. I confess that I
could not see him without thinking of them, and that in my joy I felt
that his gave me a pang." The prisoners and exiles, by degrees,
received their pardon; the Duke of Vendome, Bassompierre, and Marshal
Vitry had been empowered to return to their castles, the Duchess of
Chevreuse and the ex-keeper of the seals, Chateauneuf, were alone
excepted from this favor. "After the peace," said the declaration
touching the regency, which the king got enregistered by the Parliament
on the 23d of April. The little dauphin, who had merely been sprinkled,
had just received baptism in the chapel of the Castle of St. Germain.
The king asked him, next day, if he knew what his name was. "My name is
Louis XIV.," answered the child. "Not yet, my son, not yet," said the
king, softly.

Louis XIII. did not cling to life: it had been sad and burdensome to him
by the mere fact of his own melancholy and singular character, not that
God had denied him prosperity or success. He had the windows opened of
his chamber in the new castle of St. Germain looking towards the Abbey of
St. Denis, where he had, at last, just laid the body of the queen his
mother, hitherto resting at Cologne. "Let me see my last resting-place,"
he said to his servants. The crowd of courtiers thronged to the old
castle, inhabited by the queen; visits were made to the new castle to see
the king, who still worked with his ministers; when he was alone, "he was
seen nearly always with his eyes open towards heaven, as if he talked
with God heart to heart." [_Memoires sur la Mort de Louis XIII.,_ by his
valet-de-chambre Dubois; _Archives curieuses,_ t. v. p. 428.] On the
23d of April, it was believed that the last moment had arrived: the king
received extreme unction; a dispute arose about the government of
Brittany, given by the king to the Duke of La Meilleraye and claimed by
the Duke of Vendome; the two claimants summoned their friends; the queen
took fright, and, being obliged to repair to the king, committed the
imprudence of confiding her children to the Duke of Beaufort, Vendome's
eldest son, a young scatter-brain who made a great noise about this
favor. The king rallied and appeared to regain strength. He was
sometimes irritated at sight of the courtiers who filled his chamber.
"