File:Versailles and the court under Louis XIV (1905) (14786083503).jpg

Identifier: versaillescourtu00farm (find matches)
Title: Versailles and the court under Louis XIV
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Farmer, James Eugene, 1867-1915
Subjects: Versailles (France) -- Description France -- Court and courtiers
Publisher: New York, The Century co.
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellesley College Library

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th expressive personages. Whoever hadeyes, without any knowledge of the court, could see the inter-ests of all interested painted on their faces, and the indiffer-ence of the indifferent; these tranquil, the former penetratedwith grief, or gravely attentive to themselves to hide theiremancipation and their joy. For my part, my first care wasto inform myself thoroughly of the state of affairs, fearinglest there might be too much alarm for too trifling a cause;then, recovering myself, I reflected upon the misery commonto all men, and that I myself should find myself some day atthe gates of death. Joy, nevertheless, found its way throughthe momentary reflections of religion and humanity by whichI tried to master myself. My own private deliverance seemedso great and so unhoped for that it appeared to me that thestate must gain everything by such a loss; and with thesethoughts I felt, in spite of myself, a lingering fear lest thesick man should recover, and was extremely ashamed of it. 264
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Monseigneur Wrapped up thus in myself, I did not fail, however, to castclandestine looks upon each face, to see what was passingthere. I saw Mme. la Duchesse dOrleans arrive, but hercountenance, majestic and constrained, said nothing. Shewent into the little cabinet, from which she presently issuedwith the Due dOrleans, whose activity and turbulent airmarked his emotion at the spectacle more than any othersentiment. They went away, and I notice this expressly onaccount of what happened afterward in my presence. SoonI caught a distant glimpse of the Due de Bourgogne, whoseemed much moved and troubled, but the glance with whichI probed him rapidly revealed nothing tender, and told merelyof a mind profoundly occupied with the bearings of what hadtaken place. Valets and femmes de chambre were alreadyindiscreetly crying out, and their grief showed well that theywere about to lose something. A little after midnight we hadnews of the king, and immediately after the Duchesse deBourgogne came

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