From April 1774, Madame Sophie and her sisters attended to their father Louis XV on his deathbed until his death from smallpox on 10 May. Despite the fact that the sisters never had smallpox, and the male members of the royal family, as well as the crown princess, was kept away because of the high risk of catching the illness, the "Mesdames" were allowed to attend to him until his death, being female and therefore of no political importance because of the Salic Law. After the death of Louis XV, he was succeeded by his grandson Louis Auguste as Louis XVI, who referred to his aunts as "Mesdames Tantes". The sisters were in fact infected by their father and fell ill with smallpox (which they however recovered from), and were kept in quarantine on a little house near the Palace of Choisy, to which the court evacuated after the death of the king until recovery.