After the reception come the visits. Those who by their rank are entitled to receive as well as to pay visits, flutter backwards and forwards, with painful activity. Madame la Duchesse or Madame la Princesse rushes out of one door and in at another, shouldering her train, to salute a royal personage and return before more company arrive to visit herself. Sometimes a call of ceremony is arranged to Saint-Germain, situated about two miles from Marly, where the unhappy James II. and his Queen, Mary of Modena, reside, as annuitants on the royal bounty. Here the question as to who should wear mantles and who mantelets, who should have _fauteuils_ and who _tabourets_, complicates itself to such an extent (the etiquette of the English Court having also to be duly considered) that even his Majesty grows embarrassed. He cuts the Gordian knot by not sitting down at all. He exchanges a few casual phrases with the exiled Stuarts _standing_, and forthwith returns to the _rural retreat_ of Marly. CHAPTER XXXIII. "THE END." On St. Louis day, 25th of August, 1715, the King, then seventy-seven years old, felt seriously indisposed. The disease from which he suffered was at first called sciatica. On the 15th he dined in his bedroom at one o'clock. Later he was able to rise and was carried into the saloon of Madame de Maintenon, where he met his ministers. Next day he presided at the council of state held in a room adjoining his bedroom. On the 25th he was sensibly worse. On the 28th, in consequence of fatal symptoms, his surgeon Maréchal proposed to amputate his leg. The aged King scanned the surgeon's face attentively. "How long should I last then?" he asked. Maréchal's hand was on Louis's wrist. His pulse did not vary while he waited for an answer. "In that case," returned Maréchal, "your Majesty might hope to survive some days, perhaps some weeks longer." "Then it is not worth while," was the reply in a steady voice. "How long can I live _now_, Maréchal? Tell me the truth." "Till Wednesday most probably, your Majesty." "Ah! my death is to be on Wednesday. It is well. It is not so hard to die as I had thought."