Twelve or fifteen persons belonging to the Court thought it their duty to visit her there; their liveries were observed, and these visits were for a long time grounds for disfavour.

More than six years after the King's death one of these persons being spoken of in the circle of the royal family, I heard it remarked, "That was one of the fifteen Ruelle carriages." The whole Court went to the Chateau; the oiel-de boeuf was filled with courtiers, and the palace with the inquisitive.

The Dauphin had settled that he would depart with the royal family the moment the King should breathe his last sigh.

But on such an occasion decency forbade that positive orders for departure should be passed from mouth to mouth.

The heads of the stables, therefore, agreed with the people who were in the King's room, that the latter should place a lighted taper near a window, and that at the instant of the King's decease one of them should extinguish it.
The taper was extinguished.