I was behind, in a chaise, with Gourbillon, Madame
de Pompadour's valet de chambre. We were surprised in a short time by
the King stopping his carriage. Those which followed, of course stopped
also. The King called a groom, and said to him, "You see that little
eminence; there are crosses; it must certainly be a burying-ground; go
and see whether there are any graves newly dug." The groom galloped up
to it, returned, and said to the King, "There are three quite freshly
made." Madame de Pompadour, as she told me, turned away her head with
horror; and the little Marechale gaily said, "This is indeed enough to
make one's mouth water."

[The Marechale de Mirepois died at Brussels in 1791, at a very advanced
age, but preserving her wit and gaiety to the last. The day of her
death, after she had received the Sacrament, the physician told her that
he thought her a good deal better. She replied, "You tell me bad news:
having packed up, I had rather go." She was sister of the Prince de
Beauveau. The Prince de Ligne says, in one of his printed letters: "She
had that enchanting talent which supplies the means of pleasing
everybody. You would have sworn that she had thought of nothing but you
all her life."--En.]

Madame de Pompadour spoke of it when I was undressing her in the
evening. "What a strange pleasure," said she, "to endeavour to fill
one's mind with images which one ought to endeavour to banish,
especially when one is surrounded by so many sources of happiness! But
that is the King's way; he loves to talk about death. He said, some
days ago, to M. de Fontanieu, who was, seized with a bleeding at the
nose, at the levee: 'Take care of yourself; at your age it is a
forerunner of apoplexy.' The poor man went home frightened, and
absolutely ill."

I never saw the King so agitated as during the illness of the Dauphin.
The physicians came incessantly to the apartments of Madame de Pompadour,
where the King interrogated them. There was one from Paris, a very odd
man, called Pousse, who once said to him, "You are a good papa; I like
you for that. But you know we are all your children, and share your
distress. Take courage, however; your son will recover." Everybody's
eyes were upon the Duc d'Orleans, who knew not how to look. He would
have become heir to the crown, the Queen being past the age to have
children. Madame de ----- said to me, one day, when I was expressing my
surprise at the King's grief, "It