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Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  10460 Appendix John Bartlett

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

10460 Appendix John Bartlett

 
NUMBER:10460
AUTHOR:Appendix
QUOTATION:The King is dead! Long live the King!
ATTRIBUTION:The death of Louis XIV. was announced by the captain of the bodyguard from a window of the state apartment. Raising his truncheon above his head, he broke it in the centre, and throwing the pieces among the crowd, exclaimed in a loud voice, “Le Roi est mort!” Then seizing another staff, he flourished it in the air as he shouted, “Vive le Roi!”—Pardoe: Life of Louis XIV., vol. iii. p. 457.