Madame de Noailles entered, and was the first to salute the queen by her
title of Queen of France, and begged their Majesties to quit their
apartments, to receive the princes and great lords of the court desirous
to pay their homage to the new sovereigns. Leaning on her husband's arm, a
handkerchief to her eyes, in the most touching attitude, Marie Antoinette
received these first visits.
On quitting the chamber where the dead king lay, the Due de Villequier
bade Mr. Anderville, first surgeon of the king, to open and embalm the
body: it would have been certain death to the surgeon.
"I am ready, sir," says he; "but while I am operating, you must hold the
head of the corpse; your charge demands it."
The Duke went away without a word, and the body was neither opened nor
embalmed. A few humble domestics and poor workmen watched by the remains,
and performed the last offices to their master. The surgeons ordered
spirits of wine to be poured into the coffin.
They huddled the king's body into a postchaise; and in this deplorable
equipage, with an escort of about forty men, Louis, the Well-beloved, was
carried, in the dead of night, from Versailles to Saint-Denis, and then
thrown into the tombs of the kings of France!
If any man is curious, and can get permission, he may mount to the roof of
the palace, and see where Louis XVI.
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