ich he took as the
consequences of my concern for his indisposition, appeared greatly to
affect him; and he sought to comfort me by the assurance of his being
considerably better. This was far from being true, but he was far from
suspecting the nature of the malady to which his frame was about to
become a prey. The physicians had now pronounced with certainty on the
subject, nor was it possible to make any mystery of it with me, who had
seen Anne on her sick-bed.

In common with all who knew the real nature of the complaint, I sought
to conceal it from the king, and in this deception the physicians
themselves concurred. In the course of the morning a consultation took
place; when called upon for their opinion, each of them endeavoured
to evade a direct answer, disguising the name of his majesty's disease
under the appellation of a cutaneous eruption, chicken-pox, etc., etc.,
none daring to give it its true denomination. Bordeu and Lemonnier
pursued this cautious plan, but La Martiniere, who had first of
all pronounced his decision on the subject, impatient of so much
circumlocution on the part of those around him, could no longer repress
his indignation.

"How is this, gentlemen!" exclaimed he, "is science at a standstill with
you? Surely, you cannot be in any doubt on the subject of the king's
illness. His majesty has the small-pox, with a complication of other
diseases equally dangerous, and I look upon him as a dead man."

"Monsieur de la Martiniere," cried the duc de Duras, who, in quality of
his office of first gentleman of the bed-chamber, was present at this
conference, "allow me to remind you that you are expressing yourself
very imprudently."

"Duc de Duras," replied the abrupt La Martinier, "my business is not to
flatter the king, but to tell him the truth with regard to his health.
None of the medical gentlemen present can deny the truth of what I have
asserted; they are all of my opinion, although I alone have the courage
to act with that candour which my sense of honour dictates."

The unbroken silence preserved by those who heard this address, clearly
proved the truth of all La Martiniere advanced. The duc de Duras was but
too fully convinced of the justice of his opinion.

"The king is then past all hope," repeated he, "and what remains to be
done?"

"To watch over him, and administer every aid and relief which art
suggests," was the brief reply of La Martiniere.

The different physicians, when