Marshal Villars, returning from his most disastrous campaign. It was a
bitter reflection upon himself which had put these words into the king's
mouth. After the most brilliant, the most continually and invariably
triumphant of reigns, he began to see Fortune slipping away from him,
and the grievous consequences of his errors successively overwhelming the
state. "God is punishing me; I have richly deserved it," he said to
Marshal Villars, who was on the point of setting out for the battle of
Denain. The aged king, dispirited and beaten, could not set down to men
his misfortunes and his reverses; the hand of God Himself was raised
against his house. Death was knocking double knocks all round him. The
grand-dauphin had for some days past been ill of small-pox. The king had
gone to be with him at Meudon, forbidding the court to come near the
castle. The small court of Monseigneur were huddled together in the
lofts. The king was amused with delusive hopes; his chief physician,
Fagon, would answer for the invalid. The king continued to hold his
councils as usual, and the deputation of market-women (_dames de la
Halle_), come from Paris to have news of Monseigneur, went away,
declaring that they would go and sing a Te Deum, as he was nearly well.
"It is not time yet, my good women," said Monseigneur, who had given them
a reception. That very evening he was dead, without there having been
time to send for his confessor in ordinary. "The parish priest of
Meudon, who used to look in every evening before he went home, had found
all the doors open, the valets distracted, Fagon heaping remedy upon
remedy without waiting for them to take effect. He entered the room, and
hurrying to Monseigneur's bedside, took his hand and spoke to him of God.
The poor prince was fully conscious, but almost speechless. He repeated
distinctly a few words, others inarticulately, smote his breast, pressed
the priest's hand, appeared to have the most excellent sentiments, and
received absolution with an air of contrition and wistfulness."
[Memoires de St. Simon, ix.] Meanwhile word had been sent to the king,