Portrait of the Dauphine of France, Princess Marie Adélaïde of Savoy with her son, the future Louis XV.
On her deathbed, the duchess of Burgundy heard one of her servants lament:
“God cannot deprive you of life so soon! You are too precious to the nation.”
The duchess replied: “I am a princess today, nothing tomorrow, and will be completely forgotten the day after tomorrow.”
Edmond Guérard, Dictionnaire encyclopédique d’anécdotes (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1872), Vol. 1, p. 526 (Nobility.org translation).
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 406
