Bouquet.
Louis IX. ("Saint Louis," canonized by Pope Boniface VIII. in 1297), 1215-1270. "I will enter now into the house of the Lord."
Some authorities say his last words were "We will go to Jerusalem."
Louis XIII. (son of Henry IV. and Marie de Médicis), 1601-1643. "Well, my God, I consent with all my heart," to his physician who told him he had but two hours to live.
Louis XIV. (surnamed Le Grand, often called Louis Quatorze, the most magnificent of the Bourbon Kings), 1638-1715. "Why weep ye? Did you think I should live forever?" then after a pause, "I thought dying had been harder." Some say his last words were: "O God, come to mine aid! O Lord, make haste to help me!"
On Sunday, August 31, towards eleven o'clock in the evening, the prayers for the dying were said for Louis XIV. He recited them himself in a louder voice than any of the spectators; and seemed still more majestic on his death-bed than on his throne. When the prayers were ended he recognized Cardinal de Rohan and said to him, "These are the graces of the Church." Several times he repeated: "Nunc et in hora mortis." Then he said, "O God, come unto mine aid; O Lord, make haste to help me." These were his last words. The agony was beginning. It lasted all night, and on Sunday, September 1, 1715, at a quarter past eight in the morning, Louis XIV., aged seventy-seven years lacking three days, during sixty-two of which he had been a king, yielded his great soul to God.
Imbert de Saint-Amand.
Louis XV. (of France), 1710-1774. "Repeat those words Monsieur the almoner, repeat them," to Cardinal de La Roche-Aymon, who read aloud the public apology made by the sovereign to his people.
Some authorities give his last words thus: "I have been a great sinner, doubtless, but I have ever observed Lent with a most scrupulous exactness; I have caused more than a hundred thousand masses to be said for the repose of unhappy souls, so that I flatter myself I have not been a very bad Christian."
A candle burning in the King's chamber, which was to be extinguished at the same moment as the life of the King, was the signal agreed on for the measures to be taken and the orders to be given as soon as he should have breathed his last. The candle was put out at two o'clock in the afternoon of May 10, 1774. Instantly a great tumult, comparable to a clap of thunder, shook the arches of Versailles. It was the crowd of courtiers leaving the antechambers of the dead man and noisily hastening to meet the new monarch.