But from the most trustworthy accounts it appears that he was insensible to all that was passing around him.

[24] As soon as Lewis was again at Marli, he repeated to the Court assembled there the announcement which he had made at Saint Germains.

The whole circle broke forth into exclamations of delight and admiration.
What piety! What humanity! What magnanimity! Nor was this enthusiasm altogether feigned.

For, in the estimation of the greater part of that brilliant crowd, nations were nothing and princes every thing.

What could be more generous, more amiable, than to protect an innocent boy, who was kept out of his rightful inheritance by an ambitious kinsman?
The fine gentlemen and fine ladies who talked thus forgot that, besides the innocent boy and that ambitious kinsman, five millions and a half of Englishmen were concerned, who were little disposed to consider themselves as the absolute property of any master, and who were still less disposed to accept a master chosen for them by the French King.
James lingered three days longer.