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Paradoxically, some members of the Court were relieved, since the disease was well-known and they were sure the king would pull through.

To avoid all risk of contagion the Royal family was kept away. Never having caught it earlier, he had developed no immunity.

By 10.30 am, however, there was no longer any doubt: the king had smallpox. In his bedchamber, lying on a camp bed surrounded by a crowd of doctors and health specialists quarrelling over the diagnosis and treatment to apply, the first blood-letting was carried out on the morning of the 29th. On the 28th La Martinière, his First Surgeon, was summoned, and ordered him to be moved to Versailles on the pretext that “Versailles is the place in which to be ill”. Overnight and through the next day his conditioned worsened. Still indisposed that evening, he went to bed without eating dinner.

The following day he felt unwell when he woke, suffering aches and pains and a headache, but he nevertheless intended to keep to the planned hunting trip. On 26 April the king went to the Petit Trianon with Mme Du Barry and a few members of his close circle.

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