of the Dauphin, and then his own death; predictions of which I have seen in letters under his own hand to the king. CH. XXVII.—Of the Obsequies and Funeral of King Charles VIII., and the Coronation of his Successor Louis XII.; with the Genealogies of the Kings of France to King Louis XII.—1498. The distemper of which the king died was an apoplexy, or a catarrh, which the physicians hoped would have fallen down into one of his arms, and, though it might have taken away the use of that member, they were in no fear of his death. His majesty had four physicians about him, but his greatest confidence was in him that had the least knowledge and experience in physic; and by his directions he was so entirely governed, that the other three durst not give their judgments, though they saw the indications of death, and would gladly have ordered him a purge three or four days before. All people addressed themselves to the Duke of Orleans immediately, as next heir to the crown; but the gentlemen of King Charles’s bed-chamber buried him in great pomp and solemnity. As soon as he was dead, service was begun for his soul, which continued day and night; for when the Canons had done the Cordeliers began; and when they had ended, the Bons-hommes or Minims took it up, for they were an order of his own foundation. He lay eight days at Amboise, part of the time in a chamber very richly hung, and part in the church. In short, he lay in great state, and the whole solemnity was more costly than the funeral of any of his predecessors had been. The gentlemen of his bed-chamber, all that had waited on his person, and all the officers of his court, never stirred from his corpse, but watched it constantly; and the service continued till his body was interred, which was about a month after[515]; and, as I have been told by some of the officers of his exchequer, this ceremony cost forty-five thousand francs. I came to Amboise two days after his death, went to pay my devotions upon his bier, and stayed there five or six hours. To speak impartially, I never saw so solemn a mourning for any prince, nor one that continued so long; and no wonder, for he had been more bountiful to his favourites, to the gentlemen of his bed-chamber, and to ten or twelve gentlemen of his privy-chamber, had treated them better, and given them greater estates than any king had ever done before; and indeed he gave them too much. Besides, he was the most affable and sweetest natured prince in the world. I verily believe he never said a word to any man that could in reason displease him; so that he could never have died in a better hour to make himself memorable in history, and lamented by all who had served him. I do really think I was the only person in the whole world to whom he was unkind; but, being sensible that he was in his youth, and my treatment not at all his own doing, I could not resent it.