Quite a few of the people who worked in this garden came from Sèvres Town. It was not far from either Versailles or Saint Luke, and they sometimes heard rumors from the palace.
At the Palace of Versailles, illness and death were nothing unusual. Once a member of the royal family drew their last breath, his or her gilded bedroom became a butcher's shop. The nobles and maids who had attended the deceased all their lives were often overwhelmed with grief, but whether they were truly mourning the dead or worrying about their own futures, they had no choice but to stand by the bed and witness the body being cut to pieces.
The doctors had to determine the cause of death: poison or illness. If it was death caused by a contagious disease, that was one thing; if it was poison, none of those attendants could escape suspicion. And to prevent anyone from claiming they had been framed, they had to witness the autopsy.
Usually, a lamp was placed nearby. After the belly was cut open, the liver was removed first. The liver showed the clearest signs of poisoning. If nothing was wrong with it, it was placed on a silver tray and handed to a duchess. Next came the heart. Seven or eight doctors recorded their findings before announcing the cause of death.
Besides the abdominal cavity, the skull had to be opened as well. When Louis XIV died, the Prince of Condé was found to have a tumor in his brain, which explained the madness and terrifying behavior of his later years.
Yet that sort of madness was nothing compared to the women of the harem, because they all knew that winning the king's favor meant gaining everything. Absolute royal power could exercise every authority and possess