.CHANGE OF A CONFESSOR. 211

the mission of the parish of Versailles. He was a man much
esteemed, but not altogether free from the suspicion of Jan-
senism. Bailly, as it happened, had gone to Paris. This being
told her, the Dauphine asked for Father Noel, who was instantly
sent for.

The excitement that this change of confessor made at a
moment so critical may be imagined. All the cruelty of the
tyranny that the King never ceased to exercise over every
member of his family was now apparent. They could not have
a confessor not of his choosing! What was his surprise and
the surprise of all the Court, to find that in these last terrible
moments of life the Dauphine wished to change her confessor,
whose Order even she repudiated !

Meanwhile the Dauphin had given way. He had hidden his
own illness as long as he could, so as not to leave the pillow of
his Dauphine. Now the fever he had was too strong to be
dissimulated; and the doctors who wished to spare him the
sight of the horrors they foresaw, forgot nothing to induce him
to stay in his chamber, where, to sustain him, false news
was, from time to time, brought him of the state of his
spouse.

The confession of the Dauphine was long. Extreme unction
was administered immediately afterwards; and the holy
viaticum directly. An hour afterwards the Dauphine desired
the prayers for the dying to be said. They told her she was
not yet in that state, and with words of consolation exhorted
her to try and get to sleep. Seven doctors of the Court and of
Paris were sent for. They consulted together in the presence
of the King and Madame de Maintenon. All with one voice
were in favour of bleeding at the foot; and in case it did not have
the effect desired, to give an emetic at the end of the night.
The bleeding was executed at seven o'clock in the evening. The
return of the fever came and was found less violent than the
preceding. The night was cruel. The King came early
next morning to see the Dauphine. The emetic she took at
about nine o'clock had little effect. The day passed in symptoms
each more sad than the other; consciousness only at rare

14—2