very sorry not to have done for you what I should
have liked to do. The bad times are the cause of that. I request of
you, on my great-grandson's behalf, the same attention and fidelity that
you have shown me. It is a child who will possibly have many crosses to
bear. Follow the instructions my nephew gives you; he is about to govern
the kingdom, and I hope that he will do it well; I hope also that you
will all contribute to preserve unity. I feel that I am becoming
unmanned, and that I am unmanning you also; I ask your pardon. Farewell,
gentlemen; I feel sure that you will think of me sometimes."

The princesses had entered the king's closet; they were weeping and
making a noise. "You must not cry so," said the king, who asked for them
to bid them farewell. He sent for the little dauphin. His governess,
the Duchess of Ventadour, brought him on to the bed. "My child," said
the king to him, "you are going to be a great king. Render to God that
which you owe to Him; recognize the obligations you have towards Him;
cause Him to be honored by your subjects. Try to preserve peace with
your neighbors. I have been too fond of war; do not imitate me in that,
any more than in the too great expenses I have incurred. Take counsel in
all matters, and seek to discern which is the best in order to follow it.
Try to relieve your people, which I have been so unfortunate as not to
have been able to do." He kissed the child, and said, "Darling, I give
you my blessing with all my heart." He was taken away; the king asked
for him once more and kissed him again, lifting hands and eyes to Heaven
in blessings upon him. Everybody wept. The king caught sight in a glass
of two grooms of the chamber who were sobbing. "What are you crying
for?" he said to them; "did you think that I was immortal?" He was left
alone with Madame de Maintenon. "I have always heard say that it was
difficult to make up one's mind to die," said he; "I do not find it so
hard." "Ah, Sir," she replied, "it may be very much so, when there are
earthly attachments, hatred in the heart, or restitutions to make!"
"Ah!" replied the king, "as for restitutions to make, I owe nobody any
individually; as for those that I owe the kingdom, I have hope in the
mercy of God."

[Illustration: The Death-bed of Louis XIV.----50]

The Duke of Orleans came back again; the king had sent for him. "When I
am dead," he said, "you will have the young king taken to Vincennes;