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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 12
+by Duc de Saint-Simon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 12
+       And His Court and of The Regency
+
+Author: Duc de Saint-Simon
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2004 [EBook #3871]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV., ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+          MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV AND HIS COURT AND OF THE REGENCY
+
+                        BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 12.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVIII
+
+The Abbe Alberoni, having risen by the means I have described, and
+acquired power by following in the track of the Princesse des Ursins,
+governed Spain like a master.  He had the most ambitious projects.  One
+of his ideas was to drive all strangers, especially the French, out of
+the West Indies; and he hoped to make use of the Dutch to attain this
+end.  But Holland was too much in the dependence of England.
+
+At home Alberoni proposed many useful reforms, and endeavoured to
+diminish the expenses of the royal household.  He thought, with reason,
+that a strong navy was the necessary basis of the power of Spain; and to
+create one he endeavoured to economise the public money.  He flattered
+the King with the idea that next year he would arm forty vessels to
+protect the commerce of the Spanish Indies.  He had the address to boast
+of his disinterestedness, in that whilst working at all manner of
+business he had never received any grace from the King, and lived only
+on fifty pistoles, which the Duke of Parma, his master, gave him every
+month; and therefore he made gently some complaints against the
+ingratitude of princes.
+
+Alberoni had persuaded the Queen of Spain to keep her husband shut up,
+as had the Princesse des Ursins.  This was a certain means of governing a
+prince whose temperament and whose conscience equally attached him to his
+spouse.  He was soon completely governed once more--under lock and key,
+as it were, night and day.  By this means the Queen was jailoress and
+prisoner at the same time.  As she was constantly with the King nobody
+could come to her.  Thus Alberoni kept them both shut up, with the key of
+their prison in his pocket.
+
+One of the chief objects of his ambition was the Cardinal's hat.  It
+would be too long to relate the schemes he set on foot to attain his end.
+He was opposed by a violent party at Rome; but at last his inflexible
+will and extreme cunning gained the day.  The Pope, no longer able to
+resist the menaces of the King of Spain, and dreading the vengeance of
+the all-powerful minister, consented to grant the favour that minister
+had so pertinaciously demanded.  Alberoni was made Cardinal on the 12th
+of July, 1717.  Not a soul approved this promotion when it was announced
+at the consistory.  Not a single cardinal uttered a word in praise of the
+new confrere, but many openly disapproved his nomination.  Alberoni's
+good fortune did not stop here.  At the death, some little time after,
+of the Bishop of Malaga, that rich see, worth thirty thousand ecus a
+year, was given to him.  He received it as the mere introduction to the
+grandest and richest sees of Spain, when they should become vacant.
+The King of Spain gave him also twenty thousand ducats, to be levied upon
+property confiscated for political reasons.  Shortly after, Cardinal
+Arias, Archbishop of Seville, having died, Alberoni was named to this
+rich archbishopric.
+
+In the middle of his grandeur and good luck he met with an adventure that
+must have strangely disconcerted him.
+
+I have before explained how Madame des Ursins and the deceased Queen had
+kept the King of Spain screened from all eyes, inaccessible to all his
+Court, a very palace-hermit.  Alberoni, as I have said, followed their
+example.  He kept the King even more closely imprisoned than before, and
+allowed no one, except a few indispensable attendants, to approach him.
+These attendants were a small number of valets and doctors, two gentlemen
+of the chamber, one or two ladies, and the majordomo-major of the King.
+This last post was filled by the Duc d'Escalone, always called Marquis de
+Villena, in every way one of the greatest noblemen in Spain, and most
+respected and revered of all, and justly so, for his virtue, his
+appointment, and his services.
+
+Now the King's doctors are entirely under the authority of the majordomo-
+major.  He ought to be present at all their consultations; the King
+should take no remedy that he is not told of, or that he does not
+approve, or that he does not see taken; an account of all the medicines
+should be rendered to him.  Just at this time the King was ill.  Villena
+wished to discharge the duties attached to his post of majordomo-major.
+Alberoni caused it to be insinuated to him, that the King wished to be at
+liberty, and that he would be better liked if he kept at home; or had the
+discretion and civility not to enter the royal chamber, but to ask at the
+door for news.  This was language the Marquis would not understand.
+
+At the end of the grand cabinet of the mirrors was placed a bed, in which
+the King was laid, in front of the door; and as the room is vast and
+long, it is a good distance from the door (which leads to the interior)
+to the place where the bed was.  Alberoni again caused the Marquis to be
+informed that his attentions were troublesome, but the Marquis did not
+fail to enter as before.  At last, in concert with the Queen, the
+Cardinal resolved to refuse him admission.  The Marquis, presenting
+himself one afternoon, a valet partly opened the door and said, with much
+confusion, that he was forbidden to let him enter.
+
+"Insolent fellow," replied the Marquis, "stand aside," and he pushed the
+door against the valet and entered.  In front of him was the Queen,
+seated at the King's pillow; the Cardinal standing by her side, and the
+privileged few, and not all of them, far away from the bed.  The Marquis,
+who, though full of pride, was but weak upon his legs, leisurely
+advanced, supported upon his little stick.  The Queen and the Cardinal
+saw him and looked at each other.  The King was too ill to notice
+anything, and his curtains were closed except at the side where the Queen
+was.  Seeing the Marquis approach, the Cardinal made signs, with
+impatience, to one of the valets to tell him to go away, and immediately
+after, observing that the Marquis, without replying, still advanced, he
+went to him, explained to him that the King wished to be alone, and
+begged him to leave.
+
+"That is not true," said the Marquis; "I have watched you; you have not
+approached the bed, and the King has said nothing to you."
+
+The Cardinal insisting, and without success, took him by the arm to make
+him go.  The Marquis said he was very insolent to wish to hinder him from
+seeing the King, and perform his duties.  The Cardinal, stronger than his
+adversary, turned the Marquis round, hurried him towards the door, both
+talking the while, the Cardinal with measure, the Marquis in no way
+mincing his words.  Tired of being hauled out in this manner, the Marquis
+struggled, called Alberoni a "little scoundrel," to whom he would teach
+manners; and in this heat and dust the Marquis, who was weak, fortunately
+fell into an armchair hard by.  Angry at his fall, he raised his little
+stick and let it fall with all his force upon the ears and the shoulders
+of the Cardinal, calling him a little scoundrel--a little rascal--
+a little blackguard, deserving a horsewhipping.
+
+The Cardinal, whom he held with one hand, escaped as well as he could,
+the Marquis continuing to abuse him, and shaking the stick at him.  One
+of the valets came and assisted him to rise from his armchair, and gain
+the door; for after this accident his only thought was to leave the room.
+
+The Queen looked on from her chair during all this scene, without
+stirring or saying a word; and the privileged few in the chamber did not
+dare to move.  I learned all this from every one in Spain; and moreover I
+asked the Marquis de Villena himself to give me the full details; and he,
+who was all uprightness and truth, and who had conceived some little
+friendship for me, related with pleasure all I have written.  The two
+gentlemen of the chamber present also did the same, laughing in their
+sleeves.  One had refused to tell the Marquis to leave the room, and the
+other had accompanied him to the door.  The most singular thing is, that
+the Cardinal, furious, but surprised beyond measure at the blows he had
+received, thought only of getting out of reach.  The Marquis cried to him
+from a distance, that but for the respect he owed to the King, and to the
+state in which he was, he would give him a hundred kicks in the stomach,
+and haul him out by the ears.  I was going to forget this.  The King was
+so ill that he saw nothing.
+
+A quarter of an hour after the Marquis had returned home, he received an
+order to retire to one of his estates at thirty leagues from Madrid.  The
+rest of the day his house was filled with the most considerable people of
+Madrid, arriving as they learned the news, which made a furious sensation
+through the city.  He departed the next day with his children.  The
+Cardinal, nevertheless, remained so terrified, that, content with the
+exile of the Marquis, and with having got rid of him, he did not dare to
+pass any censure upon him for the blows he had received.  Five or six
+months afterwards he sent him an order of recall, though the Marquis had
+not taken the slightest steps to obtain it.  What is incredible is, that
+the adventure, the exile, the return, remained unknown to the King until
+the fall of the Cardinal!  The Marquis would never consent to see him, or
+to hear him talked of, on any account, after returning, though the
+Cardinal was the absolute master.  His pride was much humiliated by this
+worthy and just haughtiness; and he was all the more piqued because he
+left nothing undone in order to bring about a reconciliation, without any
+other success than that of obtaining fresh disdain, which much increased
+the public estimation in which this wise and virtuous nobleman was held.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIX
+
+I must not omit to mention an incident which occurred during the early
+part of the year 1718, and which will give some idea of the character of
+M. le Duc d'Orleans, already pretty amply described by me.
+
+One day (when Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans had gone to Montmartre, which
+she quitted soon after) I was walking alone with M. le Duc d'Orleans in
+the little garden of the Palais Royal, chatting upon various affairs,
+when he suddenly interrupted me, and turning towards me; said, "I am
+going to tell you something that will please you."
+
+Thereupon he related to me that he was tired of the life he led, which
+was no longer in harmony with his age or his desires, and many similar
+things; that he was resolved to give up his gay parties, pass his
+evenings more soberly and decently, sometimes at home, often with Madame
+la Duchesse d'Orleans; that his health would gain thereby, and he should
+have more time for business; that in a little while I might rely upon it
+--there would be no more suppers of "roues and harlots" (these were his
+own terms), and that he was going to lead a prudent and reasonable life
+adapted to his age and state.
+
+I admit that in my extreme surprise I was ravished, so great was the
+interest I took in him.  I testified this to him with overflowing heart,
+thanking him for his confidence.  I said to him that he knew I for a long
+time had not spoken to him of the indecency of his life, or of the time
+he lost, because I saw that in so doing I lost my own; that I had long
+since despaired of his conduct changing; that this had much grieved me;
+that he could not be ignorant from all that had passed between us at
+various times, how much I desired a change, and that he might judge of
+the surprise and joy his announcement gave me.  He assured me more and
+more that his resolution was fixed, and thereupon I took leave of him,
+the hour for his soiree having arrived.
+
+The next day I learned from people to whom the roues had just related it,
+that M. le Duc d'Orleans was no sooner at table than he burst out
+laughing, and applauded his cleverness, saying that he had just laid a
+trap for me into which I had fallen full length.  He recited to them our
+conversation, at which the joy and applause were marvellous.  It is the
+only time he ever diverted himself at my expense (not to say at his own)
+in a matter in which the fib he told me, and which I was foolish enough
+to swallow, surprised by a sudden joy that took from me reflection, did
+honour to me, though but little to him.  I would not gratify him by
+telling him I knew of his joke, or call to his mind what he had said to
+me; accordingly he never dared to speak of it.
+
+I never could unravel what fantasy had seized him to lead him to hoax me
+in this manner, since for many years I had never opened my mouth
+concerning the life he led, whilst he, on his side, had said not a word
+to me relating to it.  Yet it is true that sometimes being alone with
+confidential valets, some complaints have escaped him (but never before
+others) that I ill-treated him, and spoke hastily to him, but all was
+said in two words, without bitterness, and without accusing me of
+treating him wrongfully.  He spoke truly also; sometimes, when I was
+exasperated with stupidity or error in important matters which affected
+him or the State, or when he had agreed (having been persuaded and
+convinced by good reasons) to do or not to do some essential thing, and
+was completely turned from it by his feebleness, his easy-going nature
+(which he appreciated as well as I)--cruelly did I let out against him.
+But the trick he most frequently played me before others, one of which my
+warmth was always dupe, was suddenly to interrupt an important argument
+by a 'sproposito' of buffoonery.  I could not stand it; sometimes being
+so angry that I wished to leave the room.  I used to say to him that if
+he wished to joke I would joke as much as he liked, but to mix the most
+serious matters with tomfoolery was insupportable.  He laughed heartily,
+and all the more because, as the thing often happened, I ought to have
+been on my guard; but never was, and was vexed both at the joke and at
+being surprised; then he returned to business.  But princes must
+sometimes banter and amuse themselves with those whom they treat as
+friends.  Nevertheless, in spite of his occasional banter, he entertained
+really sincere esteem and friendship for me.
+
+By chance I learnt one day what he really thought of me.  I will say it
+now, so as to leave at once all these trifles.  M. le Duc d'Orleans
+returning one afternoon from the Regency Council at the Tuileries to the
+Palais Royal with M. le Duc de Chartres (his son) and the Bailli de
+Conflans (then first gentleman of his chamber) began to talk of me,
+passing an eulogium upon me I hardly dare to repeat.  I know not what had
+occurred at the Council to occasion it.  All that I can say is that he
+insisted upon his happiness in having a friend so faithful, so unchanging
+at all times, so useful to him as I was, and always had been; so sure, so
+true, so disinterested, so firm, such as he could meet with in no one
+else, and upon whom he could always count.  This eulogy lasted from the
+Tuileries to the Palais Royal, the Regent saying to his son that he
+wished to teach him how to make my acquaintance, as a support and a
+source of happiness (all that I relate here is in his own words); such as
+he had always found in my friendship and counsel.  The Bailli de
+Conflans, astonished at this abundant eloquence, repeated it to me two
+days after, and I admit that I never have forgotten it.  And here I will
+say that whatever others might do, whatever I myself (from disgust and
+vexation at what I saw ill done) might do, the Regent always sought
+reconciliation with me with shame, confidence, confusion, and he has
+never found himself in any perplexity that he has not opened his heart to
+me, and consulted me, without however always following my advice, for he
+was frequently turned from it by others.
+
+He would never content himself with one mistress.  He needed a variety in
+order to stimulate his taste.  I had no more intercourse with them than
+with his roues.  He never spoke of them to me, nor I to him.  I scarcely
+ever knew anything of their adventures.  His roues and valets were always
+eager to present fresh mistresses to him, from which he generally
+selected one.  Amongst these was Madame de Sabran, who had married a man
+of high rank, but without wealth or merit, in order to be at liberty.
+There never was a woman so beautiful as she, or of a beauty more regular,
+more agreeable, more touching, or of a grander or nobler bearing, and yet
+without affectation.  Her air and her manners were simple and natural,
+making you think she was ignorant of her beauty and of her figure (this
+last the finest in the world), and when it pleased her she was
+deceitfully modest.  With much intellect she was insinuating, merry,
+overflowing, dissipated, not bad-hearted, charming, especially at table.
+In a word, she was all M. le Duc d'Orleans wanted, and soon became his
+mistress without prejudice to the rest.
+
+As neither she nor her husband had a rap, they were ready for anything,
+and yet they did not make a large fortune.  One of the chamberlains of
+the Regent, with an annual salary of six thousand livres, having received
+another appointment, Madame de Sabran thought six thousand livres a year
+too good to be lost, and asked for the post for her husband.  She cared
+so little for him, by the way, that she called him her "mastiff."  It was
+she, who, supping with M. le Duc d'Orleans and his roues, wittily said,
+that princes and lackeys had been made of one material, separated by
+Providence at the creation from that out of which all other men had been
+made.
+
+All the Regent's mistresses had one by one their turn.  Fortunately they
+had little power, were not initiated into any state secrets, and received
+but little money.
+
+The Regent amused himself with them, and treated them in other respects
+exactly as they deserved to be treated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XC
+
+It is time now that I should speak of matters of very great importance,
+which led to changes that filled my heart with excessive joy, such as it
+had never known before.
+
+For a long time past the Parliament had made many encroachments upon the
+privileges belonging to the Dukes.  Even under the late King it had begun
+these impudent enterprises, and no word was said against it; for nothing
+gave the King greater pleasure than to mix all ranks together in a
+caldron of confusion.  He hated and feared the nobility, was jealous of
+their power, which in former reigns had often so successfully balanced
+that of the crown; he was glad therefore of any opportunity which
+presented itself that enabled him to see our order weakened and robbed of
+its dignity.
+
+The Parliament grew bolder as its encroachments one by one succeeded.
+It began to fancy itself armed with powers of the highest kind.  It began
+to imagine that it possessed all the authority of the English Parliament,
+forgetting that that assembly is charged with the legislative
+administration of the country, that it has the right to make laws and
+repeat laws, and that the monarch can do but little, comparatively
+speaking, without the support and sanction of this representative
+chamber; whereas, our own Parliament is but a tribunal of justice, with
+no control or influence over the royal authority or state affairs.
+
+But, as I have said, success gave it new impudence.  Now that the King
+was dead, at whose name alone it trembled, this assembly thought that a
+fine opportunity had come to give its power the rein.  It had to do with
+a Regent, notorious for his easy-going disposition, his indifference to
+form and rule, his dislike to all vigorous measures.  It fancied that
+victory over such an opponent would be easy; that it could successfully
+overcome all the opposition he could put in action, and in due time make
+his authority secondary to its own.  The Chief-President of the
+Parliament, I should observe, was the principal promoter of these
+sentiments.  He was the bosom friend of M. and Madame du Maine, and by
+them was encouraged in his views.  Incited by his encouragement, he
+seized an opportunity which presented itself now, to throw down the glove
+to M. le Duc d'Orleans, in the name of the Parliament, and to prepare for
+something like a struggle.  The Parliament of Brittany had recently
+manifested a very turbulent spirit, and this was an additional
+encouragement to that of Paris.
+
+At first the Parliament men scarcely knew what to lay hold of and bring
+forward, as an excuse for the battle.  They wished of course to gain the
+applause of the people as protectors of their interests--likewise those
+who for their private ends try to trouble and embroil the State--but
+could not at first see their way clear.  They sent for Trudaine, Prevot
+des Marchand, Councillor of State, to give an account to them of the
+state of the Hotel de Ville funds.  He declared that they had never been
+so well paid, and that there was no cause of complaint against the
+government.  Baffled upon this point, they fastened upon a edict,
+recently rendered, respecting the money of the realm.  They deliberated
+thereon, deputed a commission to examine the matter, made a great fuss,
+and came to the conclusion that the edict would, if acted upon, be very
+prejudicial to the country.
+
+Thus much done, the Parliament assembled anew on Friday morning, the 17th
+of June, 1718, and again in the afternoon.  At the end they decided upon
+sending a deputation to the Regent, asking him to suspend the operation
+of the edict, introduce into it the changes suggested by their body, and
+then send it to them to be registered.  The deputation was sent, and said
+all it had to say.
+
+On the morrow the Parliament again assembled, morning and afternoon, and
+sent a message to the Regent, saying, it would not separate until it had
+received his reply.  That reply was very short and simple.  The Regent
+sent word that he was tired of the meddling interference of the
+Parliament (this was not the first time, let me add, that he experienced
+it), that he had ordered all the troops in Paris, and round about, to
+hold themselves ready to march, and that the King must be obeyed.  Such
+was in fact true.  He had really ordered the soldiers to keep under arms
+and to be supplied with powder and shot.
+
+The message did not intimidate the Parliament.  The next day, Sunday, the
+Chief-President, accompanied by all the other presidents, and by several
+councillors, came to the Palais Royal.  Although, as I have said, the
+leader of his company, and the right-hand man of M. and Madame du Maine,
+he wished for his own sake to keep on good terms with the Regent, and at
+the same time to preserve all authority over his brethren, so as to have
+them under his thumb.  His discourse then to the Regent commenced with
+many praises and much flattery, in order to smooth the way for the three
+fine requests he wound up with.  The first of these was that the edict
+should be sent to the Parliament to be examined, and to suffer such
+changes as the members should think fit to introduce, and then be
+registered; the second, that the King should pay attention to their
+remonstrances in an affair of this importance, which they believed
+prejudicial to the State; the third, that the works recently undertaken
+at the mint for recasting the specie should be suspended!
+
+To these modest requests the Regent replied that the edict had been
+registered at the Cour des Monnaies, which is a superior court, and
+consequently sufficient for such registration; that there was only a
+single instance of an edict respecting the money of the realm having been
+sent before the Parliament, and then out of pure civility; that the
+matter had been well sifted, and all its inconveniences weighed; that it
+was to the advantage of the State to put in force this edict; that the
+works of the Mint could not be interfered with in any way; finally, that
+the King must be obeyed!  It was quite true that the edict had been sent
+to the Parliament out of courtesy, but at the suggestion of the Regent's
+false and treacherous confidants, valets of the Parliament, such as the
+Marechals de Villeroy, and Huxelles, and Besons, Canillac, Effiat, and
+Noailles.
+
+Notwithstanding the decisive answer they had received, the Parliament met
+the very next day, and passed a decree against the edict.  The council of
+the regency, at its sitting on the afternoon of the same day, abrogated
+this decree.  Thus, since war was in a measure declared between the
+Regent's authority and that of the Parliament, the orders emanating from
+the one were disputed by the other, and vice versa.  A nice game of
+shuttlecock this, which it was scarce likely could last long!
+
+The Regent was determined to be obeyed.  He prohibited, therefore, the
+printing and posting up of the decree of the Parliament.  Soldiers of the
+guards, too, were placed in the markets to hinder the refusal of the new
+money which had been issued.  The fact is, by the edict which had been
+passed, the Louis worth thirty livres was taken at thirty-six livres, and
+the crown piece, worth a hundred sous, at six livres instead of five.  By
+this edict also government notes were made legal tender until the new
+money should be ready.  The finances were thus relieved, and the King
+gained largely from the recasting of the coin.  But private people lost
+by this increase, which much exceeded the intrinsic value of the metal
+used, and which caused everything to rise in price.  Thus the Parliament
+had a fine opportunity for trumpeting forth its solicitude for the public
+interest, and did not fail to avail itself of it.
+
+During the night a councillor of the Parliament was surprised on
+horseback in the streets tearing down and disfiguring the decree of the
+Regency Council, which abrogated that of the Parliament.  He was taken to
+prison.
+
+On Monday, the 27th of June, the Chief-President, at the head of all the
+other presidents, and of forty councillors, went to the Tuileries, and in
+the presence of the Regent read the wire-drawn remonstrance of the
+Parliament upon this famous edict.  The Keeper of the Seals said that in
+a few days the King would reply.  Accordingly on Saturday, the 2nd of
+July, the same deputation came again to the Tuileries to hear the reply.
+The Regent and all the Princes of the blood were there, the bastards
+also.  Argenson, who from lieutenant of police had been made keeper of
+the seals, and who in his former capacity had often been ill-used--nay,
+even attacked by the Parliament--took good care to show his superiority
+over that assembly.  He answered that deputation in the name of the King,
+and concluded by saying that the edict would in no way be altered, but
+would receive complete application.  The parliamentary gentlemen did not
+expect so firm a reply, and withdrew, much mortified.
+
+They were not, however, vanquished.  They reassembled on the 11th and
+12th of August, and spat forth all their venom in another decree
+specially aimed at the authority of the Regent.  By this decree the
+administration of the finances was henceforth entirely to be at the mercy
+of the Parliament.  Law, the Scotchman, who, under the favour of M. le
+Duc d'Orleans, had been allowed some influence over the State money
+matters, was to possess that influence no longer; in fact, all power on
+the part of the Regent over the finances was to be taken from him.
+
+After this the Parliament had to take but one step in order to become the
+guardian of the King and the master of the realm (as in fact it madly
+claimed to be), the Regent more at its mercy than the King, and perhaps
+as exposed as King Charles I. of England.  Our parliamentary gentlemen
+began as humbly as those of England, and though, as I have said, their
+assembly was but a simple court of justice, limited in its jurisdiction
+like the other courts of the realm, to judge disputes between private
+people, yet by dint of hammering upon the word parliament they believed
+themselves not less important than their English brethren, who form the
+legislative assembly, and represent all the nation.
+
+M. and Madame du Maine had done not a little to bring about these
+fancies, and they continued in secret to do more.  Madame du Maine, it
+may be recollected, had said that she would throw the whole country into
+combustion, in order not to lose her husband's prerogative.  She was as
+good as her word.  Encouraged doubtless by the support they received from
+this precious pair, the Parliament continued on its mad career of
+impudent presumption, pride, and arrogance.  It assembled on the 22nd of
+August, and ordered inquiry to be made of the Regent as to what had
+become of all the state notes that had been passed at the Chamber of
+justice; those which had been given for the lotteries that were held
+every month; those which had been given for the Mississippi or Western
+Company; finally, those which had been taken to the Mint since the change
+in the specie.
+
+These questions were communicated to the Regent by the King's officers.
+In reply he turned his back upon them, and went away into his cabinet,
+leaving these people slightly bewildered.  Immediately after this
+occurrence it was rumoured that a Bed of justice would soon be held.  The
+Regent had not then thought of summoning such an important assembly, and
+his weakness and vacillation were such that no one thought he would dare
+to do so.
+
+The memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, of Joly, of Madame Motteville, had
+turned all heads.  These books had become so fashionable, that in no
+class was the man or woman who did not have them continually in hand.
+Ambition, the desire for novelty, the skill of those who circulated these
+books, made the majority of people hope to cut a figure or make a
+fortune, and persuaded them there was as little lack of personages as in
+the last minority.  People looked upon Law as the Mazarin of the day--
+(they were both foreign)--upon M. and Madame du Maine, as the chiefs of
+the Fronde; the weakness of M. le Duc d'Orleans was compared to that of
+the Queen-mother, and so on.
+
+To say the truth, all tended towards whatever was extreme--moderation
+seemed forgotten--and it was high time the Regent aroused himself from a
+supineness which rendered him contemptible, and which emboldened his
+enemies and those of the State to brave all and undertake all.  This
+lethargy, too, disheartened his servants, and made all healthy activity
+on their part impossible.  It had at last led him to the very verge of
+the precipice, and the realm he governed to within an inch of the
+greatest confusion.  He had need, indeed, to be up and doing!
+
+The Regent, without having the horrible vice or the favourites of Henry
+III., had even more than that monarch become notorious for his daily
+debauches, his indecency, and his impiety.  Like Henry III., too, he was
+betrayed by his most intimate councillors and domestics.  This treachery
+pleased him (as it had pleased that King) because it induced him to keep
+idle, now from fear, now from interest, now from disdain, and now from
+policy.  This torpor was agreeable to him because it was in conformity
+with his humour and his tastes, and because he regarded those who
+counselled it as good, wise, and enlightened people, not blinded by their
+private interests, but seeing clearly things as they were; while he was
+importuned with opinions and explanations which would have disclosed the
+true state of affairs and suggested remedies.
+
+He looked upon such people as offered these opinions and explanations as
+impetuous counsellors, who hurried everything and suggested everything,
+who wished to discount the future in order to satisfy their ambition,
+their aversion, their different passions.  He kept on his guard against
+them; he applauded himself for not being their dupe.  Now, he laughed at
+them; often he allowed them to believe he appreciated their reasoning,
+that he was going to act and rouse from his lethargy.  He amused them
+thus, gained time, and diverted himself afterwards with the others.
+Sometimes he replied coldly to them, and when they pressed him too much
+he allowed his suspicions to peep out.
+
+Long since I had perceived M. le Duc d'Orleans' mode of action.  At the
+first movements of the Parliament, of the bastards, and of those who had
+usurped the name of nobility, I had warned him.  I had done so again as
+soon as I saw the cadence and the harmony of the designs in progress.  I
+had pointed out to him their inevitable sequel; how easy it was to hinder
+them at the commencement; how difficult after, especially for a person of
+his character and disposition.  But I was not the man for such work as
+this.  I was the oldest, the most attached, the freest spoken of all his
+servitors; I had given him the best proofs of this in the most critical
+times of his life, and in the midst of his universal abandonment; the
+counsels I had offered him in these sad days he had always found for his
+good; he was accustomed to repose in me the most complete confidence;
+but, whatever opinion he might have of me, and of my truth and probity,
+he was on his guard against what he called my warmth, and against the
+love I had for my dignity, so attacked by the usurpations of the
+bastards, the designs of the Parliament, and the modern fancies of a sham
+nobility.  As soon as I perceived his suspicions I told him so, and I
+added that, content with having done my duty as citizen and as his
+servitor, I would say no more on the subject.  I kept my word.  For more
+than a year I had not of myself opened my mouth thereon.  If he was
+sometimes spoken to before me, and I could not keep quite silent without
+being suspected of sulking or pique, I carelessly said something
+indefinite, with as little meaning in it as possible, and calculated to
+make us drop the subject.
+
+Judge of my surprise, therefore, when as I was working as usual one
+afternoon with the Regent, he interrupted me to speak with bitterness of
+the Parliament.  I replied with my accustomed coldness and pretended
+negligence, and continued my business.  He stopped me, and said that he
+saw very well that I would not reply to him concerning the Parliament.
+I admitted it was true, and added that he must long since have perceived
+this.  Pressed and pressed beyond measure, I coldly remarked that he
+could not but remember what I had said to him of the Parliament both
+before and after his accession to the regency, that other counsels had
+prevailed over mine, and that finding my opinions were misinterpreted by
+him, I had resolved to hold my tongue, and had done so.  As the subject
+was now reopened I reminded him of a prophecy I had uttered long before,
+that he had missed the opportunity of governing the Parliament when he
+might have done so with a frown, and that step by step he would allow
+himself to be conducted by his easy-going disposition, until he found
+himself on the very verge of the abyss; that if he wished to recover his
+position he must begin at once to retrace his steps, or lose his footing
+for ever!
+
+Such strong words (from my mouth they had been rare of late), pronounced
+with a slow, firm coldness, as though I were indifferent to the course he
+might adopt, made him feel how little capable I believed him of vigorous
+and sustained action, and what trifling trouble I took to make him adopt
+my views.  Dubois, Argenson, and Law had also spoken to him, urging him
+to take strong measures against the Parliament; the effect of my speech
+was therefore marvellous.
+
+It was indeed high time to do something, as I have before remarked.
+The Parliament, we found, after passing its last decree, had named a
+commission to inquire into the financial edict; this commission was
+working in the utmost secrecy; a number of witnesses had already been
+examined, and preparations were quietly making to arrest Law some fine
+morning, and hang him three hours after within the enclosure of the
+Palais de justice.
+
+Immediately this fact became known, the Duc de la Force and Fagon
+(Councillor of State) went to the Regent--'twas on the 19th of August,
+1718--and spoke to him with such effect, that he ordered them to assemble
+with Law that very day at my house in order to see what was to be done.
+They came, in fact, and this was the first intimation I had that the
+Regent had begun to feel the gravity of his position, and that he was
+ready to do something.  In this conference at my house the firmness of
+Law, hitherto so great, was shaken so that tears escaped him.  Arguments
+did not satisfy us at first, because the question could only be decided
+by force, and we could not rely upon that of the Regent.  The safe-
+conduct with which Law was supplied would not have stopped the Parliament
+an instant.  On every side we were embarrassed.  Law, more dead than
+alive, knew not what to say; much less what to do.  His safety appeared
+to us the most pressing matter to ensure.  If he had been taken it would
+have been all over with him before the ordinary machinery of negotiation
+(delayed as it was likely to be by the weakness of the Regent) could have
+been set in motion; certainly, before there would have been leisure to
+think of better, or to send a regiment of guards to force open the Palais
+de justice; a critical remedy at all times, and grievous to the last
+degree, even when it succeeds; frightful, if instead of Law, only his
+suspended corpse had been found!
+
+I advised Law, therefore, to retire to the Palais Royal, and occupy the
+chamber of Nancre, his friend, then away in Spain.  Law breathed again at
+this suggestion (approved by de la Force and Fagon), and put it in
+execution the moment he left my house.  He might have been kept in safety
+at the Bank, but I thought the Palais Royal would be better: that his
+retirement there would create more effect, and induce the Regent to hold
+firm to his purpose, besides allowing his Royal Highness to see the
+financier whenever he pleased.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCI
+
+This done I proposed, and the others approved my proposition, that a Bed
+of Justice should be held as the only means left by which the abrogation
+of the parliamentary decrees could be registered.  But while our
+arguments were moving, I stopped them all short by a reflection which
+came into my mind.  I represented to my guests that the Duc du Maine was
+in secret the principal leader of the Parliament, and was closely allied
+with Marechal de Villeroy; that both would oppose might and main the
+assembling of a Bed of justice, so contrary to their views, to their
+schemes, to their projects; that to hinder it they, as guardians of the
+young King, would plead on his behalf, the heat, which was in fact
+extreme, the fear of the crowd, of the fatigue, of the bad air; that they
+would assume a pathetic tone in speaking of the King's health, calculated
+to embarrass the Regent; that if he persisted they would protest against
+everything which might happen to His Majesty; declare, perhaps, that in
+order not to share the blame, they would not accompany him; that the
+King, prepared by them, would grow frightened, perhaps, and would not go
+to the Parliament without them; that then all would be lost, and the
+powerlessness of the Regent, so clearly manifested, might rapidly lead to
+the most disastrous results.
+
+These remarks stopped short our arguments, but I had not started
+objections without being prepared with a remedy for them.  I said, "Let
+the Bed of justice be held at the Tuileries; let it be kept a profound
+secret until the very morning it is to take place; and let those who are
+to attend it be told so only a few hours before they are to assemble.
+By these means no time will be allowed for anybody to object to the
+proceeding, to plead the health of the King, the heat of the weather,
+or to interfere with the arrangement of the troops which it will be
+necessary to make."
+
+We stopped at this: Law went away, and I dictated to Fagon the full
+details of my scheme, by which secrecy was to be ensured and all
+obstacles provided against.  We finished about nine o'clock in the
+evening, and I counselled Fagon to carry what he had written to the Abbe
+Dubois, who had just returned from England with new credit over the mind
+of his master.
+
+The next day I repaired to the Palais Royal about four o'clock.  A moment
+after La Vrilliere came and relieved me of the company of Grancey and
+Broglio, two roues, whom I had found in the grand cabinet, in the cool,
+familiarly, without wigs.  When M. le Duc d'Orleans was free he led me
+into the cabinet, behind the grand salon, by the Rue de Richelieu, and on
+entering said he was at the crisis of his regency, and that everything
+was needed in order to sustain him on this occasion.  He added that he
+was resolved to strike a heavy blow at the Parliament; that he much
+approved my proposition respecting the Bed of justice at the Tuileries,
+and that it would be held exactly as I had suggested.
+
+I was delighted at his animation, and at the firmness he appeared to
+possess, and after having well discussed with him all the inconveniences
+of my plan, and their remedy, we came at last to a very important matter,
+the mechanical means, so to speak, by which that plan was to be put in
+force.  There was one thing to be provided for, which may appear an
+exceedingly insignificant matter, but which in truth was of no light
+importance.  When a Bed of justice is held, seats one above another must
+be provided for those who take part in it.  No room in the Tuileries
+possessed such seats and how erect them without noise, without exciting
+remarks, without causing inquiries and suspicions, which must inevitably
+lead to the discovery and perhaps thereby to the failure of our project?
+I had not forgotten this difficulty, however, and I said to the Regent
+I would go in secret to Fontanieu, who controlled the crown furniture,
+explain all to him, and arrange matters with him so that these seats
+should be erected at the very last moment, in time for our purpose, but
+too late to supply information that could be made use of by our enemies.
+I hurried off accordingly, as soon as I could get away, in search of
+Fontanieu.
+
+I had already had some relations with him, for he had married his
+daughter to the son of the sister of my brother-in-law, M. de Lauzun.
+I had done him some little service, and had therefore every reason to
+expect he would serve me on this occasion.  Judge of my annoyance when
+upon reaching his house I learned that he had gone almost to the other
+end of the town, to the Marais, to conduct a suit at law, in which
+Monsieur and Madame de Lauzun were concerned, respecting an estate at
+Rondon they claimed!
+
+The porter seeing me so vexed at being obliged to journey so far in
+search of Fontanieu, said, that if I would go and speak to Madame
+Fontanieu, he would see if his master was not still in the neighbourhood,
+at a place he intended to visit before going to the Marais.  I acted upon
+this suggestion and went to Madame Fontanieu, whom I found alone.  I was
+forced to talk to her of the suit of Monsieur and Madame de Lauzun, which
+I pretended was the business I came upon, and cruelly did I rack my
+brains to say enough to keep up the conversation.  When Fontanieu
+arrived, for he was soon found, fortunately, I was thrown into another
+embarrassment, for I had all the pains in the world to get away from
+Madame Fontanieu, who, aided by her husband, begged me not to take the
+trouble to descend but to discuss the subject where I was as she was as
+well informed upon the case as he, I thought once or twice I should never
+escape her.  At last, however, I led away Fontanieu, by dint of
+compliments to his wife, in which I expressed my unwillingness to weary
+her with this affair.
+
+When Fontanieu and I were alone down in his cabinet, I remained some
+moments talking to him upon the same subject, to allow the valets who had
+opened the doors for us time to retire.  Then, to his great astonishment,
+I went outside to see if there were no listeners, and carefully closed
+the doors.  After this I said to Fontanieu that I had not come concerning
+the affair of Madame de Lauzun, but upon another very different, which
+demanded all his industry, a secrecy proof against every trial, and which
+M. le Duc d'Orleans had charged me to communicate to him; but that before
+explaining myself he must know whether his Royal Highness could certainly
+count upon him.
+
+It is strange what an impression the wildest absurdities leave if they
+are spread abroad with art.  The first thing Fontanieu did was to tremble
+violently all over and become whiter than his shirt.  With difficulty he
+stammered out a few words to the effect that he would do for M. le Duc
+d'Orleans as much as his duty would permit him to do.  I smiled, looking
+fixedly at him, and this smile warned him apparently that he owed me an
+excuse for not being quite at ease upon any affair that passed through my
+hands; he directly made me one, at all events, and with the confusion of
+a man who sees that his first view has dazzled the second, and who, full
+of this first view, does not show anything, yet lets all be seen.
+
+I reassured him as well as I could, and said that I had answered for him
+to M. le Duc d'Orleans, and afterwards that a Bed of justice was wanted,
+for the construction of which we had need of him.
+
+Scarcely had I explained this, than the poor fellow began to take breath,
+as though escaping from stifling oppression, or a painful operation for
+the stone, and asked me if that was what I wanted?
+
+He promised everything, so glad was he to be let off thus cheaply, and in
+truth he kept to his word, both as to the secret and the work.  He had
+never seen a Bed of justice, and had not the slightest notion what it was
+like.  I sat down on his bureau, and drew out the design of one.  I
+dictated to him the explanations in the margin, because I did not wish
+them to be in my handwriting.  I talked more than an hour with him; I
+disarranged his furniture, the better to show to him the order of the
+assembly, and explained to him what was to be done, so that all might be
+carried to the Tuileries and erected in a very, few moments.  When I
+found I had made everything sufficiently clear, and he had understood me,
+I returned to the Palais Royal as though recollecting something, being
+already in the streets, to deceive my people.
+
+A servant awaited me at the top of the staircase, and the concierge of
+the Palais Royal at the door of M. le Duc d'Orleans' room, with orders to
+beg me to write.  It was the sacred hour of the roues and the supper,
+at which all idea of business was banished.  I wrote, therefore, to the
+Regent in his winter cabinet what I had just done, not without some
+little indignation that he could not give up his pleasure for an affair
+of this importance.  I was obliged to beg the concierge not to give my
+note to M. le Duc d'Orleans unless he were in a state to read it and to
+burn it afterwards.
+
+Our preparations for the Bed of justice continued to be actively but
+silently made during the next few days.  In the course of the numberless
+discussions which arose upon the subject, it was agreed, after much
+opposition on my part, to strike a blow, not only at the Parliament, but
+at M. du Maine, who had fomented its discontent.  M. le Duc, who had been
+admitted to our councils, and who was heart and soul against the
+bastards, proposed that at the Bed of justice the education of the young
+King should be taken out of the control of M. du Maine and placed in his
+hands.  He proposed also that the title of Prince of the Blood should be
+taken from him, with all the privileges it conferred, and that he should
+be reduced to the rank of a simple Duke and Peer, taking his place among
+the rest according to the date of his erection; thus, at a bound, going
+down to the bottom of the peerage!
+
+Should these memoirs ever see the light, every one who reads them will be
+able to judge how such a proposition as this harmonised with my personal
+wishes.  I had seen the bastards grow in rank and importance with an
+indignation and disgust I could scarcely contain.  I had seen favour
+after favour heaped upon them by the late King, until he crowned all by
+elevating them to the rank of Princes of the Blood in defiance of all
+law, of all precedent, of all decency, if I must say the word.  What I
+felt at this accumulation of honours I have more than once expressed;
+what I did to oppose such monstrous innovations has also been said.  No
+man could be more against M. du Maine than I, and yet I opposed this
+proposition of M. le Duc because I thought one blow was enough at a time,
+and that it might be dangerous to attempt the two at once.  M. du Maine
+had supporters, nay; he was at the head of a sort of party; strip him of
+the important post he held, and what might not his rake, his
+disappointment, and his wounded ambition lead him to attempt?  Civil war,
+perhaps, would be the result of his disgrace.
+
+Again and again I urged these views, not only upon M. le Duc d'Orleans,
+but upon M. le Duc.  Nay, with this latter I had two long stolen
+interviews in the Tuileries Gardens, where we spoke without constraint,
+and exhausted all our arguments.  But M. le Duc was not to be shaken, and
+as I could do no more than I had done to move him, I was obliged at last
+to give in.  It was resolved, however, that disgrace should fall upon M.
+du Maine alone; that his brother, the Comte de Toulouse, an account of
+the devotion to the State he had ever exhibited, and his excellent
+conduct since the death of the late King, should, when stripped of his
+title like the other, receive it back again the moment after, in
+acknowledgment of the services he had rendered to the Regent as
+Councillor of State, and as an expression of personal good feeling
+towards him, which his excellent qualities so justly merited.
+
+I returned home from my last interview with M. le Duc, and went to mass
+at the Jacobins, to which I entered from my garden.  It was not without a
+distracted mind.  But I prayed to God sincerely and earnestly to guide my
+steps, so that I might labour for His glory and the good of the State
+without private ends.  My prayer was heard, and in the sequel I had
+nothing to reproach myself with.  I followed the straight road without
+turning to the right or to the left.
+
+Fontanieu was waiting for me in my house as I returned home from mass,
+and I was obliged to listen to his questions and to reply to them, as
+though I had nothing on my mind.  I arranged my chamber like a Bed of
+Justice, I made him understand several things; connected with the
+ceremonial that he had not under stood before, and that it was essential
+he should in no way omit.  Thus everything went on satisfactorily, and I
+began to count the hours, by day as well as by night, until the great day
+was to arrive on which the arrogant pride of the Parliament was to
+receive a check, and the false plumage which adorned the bastards was to
+be plucked from them.
+
+In the midst of the sweet joy that I felt, no bitterness entered.  I was
+satisfied with the part I had played in this affair, satisfied that I had
+acted sincerely, honestly, that I had not allowed my own private motives
+to sway me; that in the interests of the State, as opposed to my own
+interests, I had done all in my power to save the Duc du Maine.  And yet
+I did not dare to give myself up to the rosy thoughts suggested by the
+great event, now so rapidly approaching.  I toyed with them instead of
+allowing myself to embrace them.  I shrunk from them as it were like a
+cold lover who fears the too ardent caresses of his mistress.  I could
+not believe that the supreme happiness I had so long pined for was at
+last so near.  Might not M. le Duc d'Orleans falter at the last moment?
+Might not all our preparations, so carefully conducted, so cleverly
+planned, weigh upon his feebleness until they fell to the ground?  It was
+not improbable.  He was often firm in promises.  How often was he firm in
+carrying them out?  All these questions, all these restless doubts--
+natural as it appears to me under the circumstances--winged their way
+through my mind, and kept me excited and feverish as though life and
+death were hanging on one thread.
+
+In the midst of my reflections, a messenger from M. le Duc d'Orleans,
+Millain by name, arrived at my house.  It was on the afternoon of
+Thursday, the 25th of August, 1718.  His message was simple.  M. le Duc
+d'Orleans was in the same mood as ever, and I was to join him at the
+Palais Royal, according to previous agreement, at eight o'clock in the
+evening.  The Bed of justice was to be held on the morrow.
+
+Never was kiss given to a beautiful mistress sweeter than that which I
+imprinted upon the fat old face of this charming messenger!  A close
+embrace, eagerly repeated, was my first reply, followed afterwards by an
+overflow of feeling for M. le Duc, and for Millain even, who had worthily
+served in this great undertaking.
+
+The rest of the day I passed at home with the Abbe Dubois, Fagon, and the
+Duc de la Force, one after the other finishing up our work.  We provided
+against everything: If the Parliament refused to come to the Tuileries,
+its interdiction was determined on: if any of the members attempted to
+leave Paris they were to be arrested; troops were to be assembled in
+order to carry out the Regent's orders; we left no accident without its
+remedy.
+
+The Abbe Dubois arranged a little code of signals, such as crossing the
+legs, shaking a handkerchief, or other simple gestures, to be given the
+first thing in the morning to the officers of the body-guards chosen to
+be in attendance in the room where the Bed of Justice was to be held.
+They were to fix their eyes upon the Regent, and when he made any of the
+above signals, immediately to act upon it according to their written
+instructions.  The Abbe Dubois also drew out a sort of programme for M.
+le Duc d'Orleans, of the different orders he was to give during the
+night, fixing the hour for each, so that they might not arrive a minute
+too soon or a minute too late, and secrecy thus be maintained to the very
+latest moment.
+
+Towards eight o'clock in the evening I went to they Palais Royal.  I was
+horror-struck to find M. le Duc d'Orleans in bed with fever, as he said;
+I felt his pulse.  Fever, he had, sure enough; perhaps from excitement
+caused by the business in hand.  I said to him it was only fatigue of
+body and mind, of which he would be quit in twenty-four hours; he, on his
+side, protested that whatever it might be, he would hold the Bed of
+justice on the morrow.  M. le Duc, who had just entered, was at his
+pillow; the chamber lighted by a single wax candle.  We sat down, M. le
+Duc and I, and passed in review the orders given and to give, not without
+much apprehension on account of this fever, come so strangely out of
+season to the healthiest man in the world, and who had never had it
+before.
+
+I exhorted the Regent to take as much repose as he could, so that he
+might be fully able to execute the great work of the morrow, the safety
+of the Regency itself being at stake.  After this I felt his pulse again,
+not without fear.  I assured him, however, his illness would be nothing;
+without, it is true, being too sure of it myself.  I took my leave about
+ten o'clock, and went out of the room with Millain.  When I found myself
+alone with him in the cabinet, through which we passed, I embraced him
+with an extreme pleasure.  We had entered by the backstairs; we descended
+by the same, so as not to be observed.  It was dark, so that on both
+occasions we were obliged to grope our way.  Upon arriving at the bottom
+I could not refrain from again embracing Millain, so great was my
+pleasure, and we separated each to his home.
+
+The arrangements respecting the troops and for summoning the Parliament,
+etc., were all carried out to the letter during the night and early
+morning.  At the hours agreed upon M. le Duc d'Orleans gave the various
+orders.  About four o'clock in the morning the Duc du Maine, as colonel-
+general of the Swiss guards, was aroused.  He had not been in bed above
+an hour, having just returned from a fete given at the arsenal by Madame
+du Maine.  He was doubtless much astonished, but contained himself, hid
+his fear, and sent at once to instruct his companies of Swiss guards of
+the orders they were to execute.  I don't think he slept very well after
+this, uncertain as he must have been what was going to happen.  But I
+never knew what he or Madame du Maine did after being thus rudely
+disturbed.
+
+Towards five o'clock in the morning drums began to be heard throughout
+the town, and soon soldiers were seen in movement.  At six o'clock a
+message was sent to the Parliament requesting it to attend at the
+Tuileries.  The reply was that the request should be obeyed.  The members
+thereupon debated whether they should go to the Tuileries in coaches or
+on foot.  The last mode was adopted as being the most ordinary, and in
+the hope of stirring the people and arriving at the Tuileries with a
+yelling crowd.  What happened will be related in its place.
+
+At the same time, horsemen went to all the Peers and officers of the
+Crown, and to all the chevaliers of the order, the governors and
+lieutenant-governors of the provinces (who were to accompany the King),
+informing them of the Bed of Justice.  The Comte de Toulouse had been to
+supper at the house of M. de Nevers, near Saint-Denis, and did not return
+until late into the night.  The French and Swiss guards were under arms
+in various quarters; the watch, the light horse, and the two companies of
+musketeers all ready in their barracks; the usual guard at the Tuileries.
+
+If I had slept but little during the last eight days, I slept still less
+that night, so near to the most considerable events.  I rose before six
+o'clock, and shortly after received my summons to the Bed of justice, on
+the back of which was a note that I was not to be awakened, a piece of
+politeness due to the knowledge of the bearer, who was aware that this
+summons would teach me nothing I did not know.  All the others had been
+awakened, surprised thereby to an extent that may be imagined.
+
+Towards eight o'clock in the morning a messenger from M. le Duc d'Orleans
+came to remind me of the Regency Council at eight o'clock, and to attend
+it in my mantle.  I dressed myself in black, because I had only that suit
+with a mantle, and another, a magnificent one in cloth of gold, which I
+did not wish to wear lest it should cause the remark to be made, though
+much out of season, that I wished to insult the Parliament and M. du
+Maine.  I took two gentlemen with me in my coach, and I went in order to
+witness all that was to take place.  I was at the same time full of fear,
+hope, joy, reflection, and mistrust of M. le Duc d'Orleans' weakness, and
+all that might result from it.  I was also firmly resolved to do my best,
+whatever might happen, but without appearing to know anything, and
+without eagerness, and I resolved to show presence of mind, attention,
+circumspection, modesty, and much moderation.
+
+Upon leaving my house I went to Valincourt, who lived behind the hotel of
+the Comte de Toulouse.  He was a very honourable man, of much intellect,
+moving among the best company, secretary-general of the navy, devoted to
+the Comte de Toulouse ever since his early youth, and possessing all his
+confidence.  I did not wish to leave the Comte de Toulouse in any
+personal fear, or expose him to be led away by his brother.  I sent
+therefore for Valincourt, whom I knew intimately, to come and speak to
+me.  He came half-dressed, terrified at the rumours flying over the town,
+and eagerly asked me what they all meant.  I drew him close to me and
+said, "Listen attentively to me, and lose not a word.  Go immediately to
+M. le Comte de Toulouse, tell him he may trust in my word, tell him to be
+discreet, and that things are about to happen to others which may
+displease him, but that not a hair of his head shall be touched.  I hope
+he will not have a moment's uneasiness.  Go! and lose not an instant."
+
+Valincourt held me in a tight embrace.  "Ah, Monsieur," said he, "we
+foresaw that at last there would be a storm.  It is well merited, but not
+by M. le Comte, who will be eternally obliged to you."  And, he went
+immediately with my message to the Comte de Toulouse, who never forgot
+that I saved him from the fall of his brother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCII
+
+Arrived at the grand court of the Tuileries about eight o'clock without
+having remarked anything extraordinary on the way.  The coaches of the
+Duc de Noailles, of Marechal de Villars, of Marechal d'Huxelles, and of
+some others were already there.  I ascended without finding many people
+about, and directed the two doors of the Salle des Gardes, which were
+closed, to be opened.  The Bed of justice was prepared in the grand ante-
+chamber, where the King was accustomed to eat.  I stopped a short time to
+see if everything was in proper order, and felicitated Fontanieu in a low
+voice.  He said to me in the same manner that he had arrived at the
+Tuileries with his workmen and materials at six o'clock in the morning;
+that everything was so well constructed and put up that the King had not
+heard a sound; that his chief valet de chambre, having left the room for
+some commission about seven o'clock in the morning, had been much
+astonished upon seeing this apparatus; that the Marechal de Villeroy had
+only heard of it through him, and that the seats had been erected with
+such little noise that nobody had heard anything.  After having well
+examined everything with my eyes I advanced to the throne, then being
+finished; wishing to enter the second ante-chamber, some servants came to
+me, saying that I could not go in, all being locked up.  I asked where I
+was to await the assembling of the Council, and was admitted to a room
+upstairs, where I found a good number of people already congregated.
+
+After chatting some time with the Keeper of the Seals, the arrival of M.
+le Duc d'Orleans was announced.  We finished what we had to say, and went
+downstairs separately, not wishing to be seen together.
+
+The Council was held in a room which ever since the very hot weather the
+King had slept in.  The hangings of his bed, and of the Marechal de
+Villeroy's were drawn back.  The Council table was placed at the foot of
+one of the beds.  Upon entering the adjoining chamber I found many people
+whom the first rumours of such an unexpected occurrence had no doubt led
+there, and among the rest some of the Council.  M. le Duc d'Orleans was
+in the midst of a crowd at the end of the room, and, as I afterwards
+learned, had just seen the Duc du Maine without speaking to him, or being
+spoken to.
+
+After a passing glance upon this crowd I entered the Council chamber.  I
+found scattered there the majority of those who composed the Council with
+serious and troubled looks, which increased my seriousness.  Scarcely
+anybody spoke; and each, standing or seated here and there, kept himself
+in his place.  The better to examine all, I joined nobody.  A moment
+after M. le Duc d'Orleans entered with a gay, easy, untroubled air, and
+looked smilingly upon the company.  I considered this of good augury.
+Immediately afterwards I asked him his news.  He replied aloud that he
+was tolerably well; then approaching my ear, added that, except when
+aroused to give his orders, he had slept very well, and that he was
+determined to hold firm.  This infinitely pleased me, for it seemed to me
+by his manner that he was in earnest, and I briefly exhorted him to
+remain so.
+
+Came, afterwards, M. le Duc, who pretty soon approached me, and asked if
+I augured well from the Regent, and if he would remain firm.  M. le Duc
+had an air of exceeding gaiety, which was perceptible to those behind the
+scenes.  The Duc de Noailles devoured everything with his eyes, which
+sparkled with anger because he had not been initiated into the secret of
+this great day.
+
+In due time M. du Maine appeared in his mantle, entering by the King's
+little door.  Never before had he made so many or such profound
+reverences as he did now--though he was not usually very stingy of them--
+then standing alone, resting upon his stick near the Council table, he
+looked around at everybody.  Then and there, being in front of him, with
+the table between us, I made him the most smiling bow I had ever given
+him, and did it with extreme volupty.  He repaid me in the same coin, and
+continued to fix his eyes upon everybody in turn; his face agitated, and
+nearly always speaking to himself.
+
+A few minutes after M. le Duc came to me, begging me to exhort M. le Duc
+d'Orleans to firmness: then the Keeper of the Seals came forth for the
+same purpose.  M. le Duc d'Orleans himself approached me to say something
+a moment afterwards, and he had no sooner quitted my side than M. le Duc,
+impatient and troubled, came to know in what frame of mind was the
+Regent.  I told him good in a monosyllable, and sent him away.
+
+I know not if these movements, upon which all eyes were fixed, began to
+frighten the Duc du Maine, but no sooner had M. le Duc joined the Regent,
+after quitting me, than the Duc du Maine went to speak to the Marechal de
+Villeroy and to D'Effiat, both seated at the end of the room towards the
+King's little door, their backs to the wall.  They did not rise for the
+Duc du Maine, who remained standing opposite, and quite near them, all
+three holding long discourses, like people who deliberate with
+embarrassment and surprise, as it appeared to me by the faces of the two
+I saw, and which I tried not to lose sight of.
+
+During this time M. le Duc d'Orleans and M. le Duc spoke to each other
+near the window and the ordinary entrance door; the Keeper of the Seals,
+who was near, joined them.  At this moment M. le Duc turned round a
+little, which gave me the opportunity to make signs to him of the other
+conference, which he immediately saw.  I was alone, near the Council
+table, very attentive to everything, and the others scattered about began
+to become more so.  A little while after the Duc du Maine placed himself
+where he had been previously: the two he quitted remained as before.
+M. du Maine was thus again in front of me, the table between us: I
+observed that he had a bewildered look, and that he spoke to himself more
+than ever.
+
+The Comte de Toulouse arrived as the Regent had just quitted the two
+persons with whom he had been talking.  The Comte de Toulouse was in his
+mantle, and saluted the company with a grave and meditative manner,
+neither accosting nor accosted: M. le Duc d'Orleans found himself in
+front of him and turned towards me, although at some distance, as though
+to testify his trouble.  I bent my head a little while looking fixedly at
+him, as though to say, "Well, what then?"
+
+A short time afterwards the Comte de Toulouse had a conversation with his
+brother, both speaking with agitation and without appearing to agree very
+well.  Then the Count approached M. le Duc d'Orleans, who was talking
+again to M. le Duc, and they spoke at some length to each other.  As
+their faces were towards the wall, nothing but their backs could be seen,
+no emotion and scarcely a gesture was visible.
+
+The Duc du Maine had remained where he had spoken to his brother.  He
+seemed half dead, looked askance upon the company with wandering eyes,
+and the troubled agitated manner of a criminal, or a man condemned to
+death.  Shortly afterwards he became pale as a corpse, and appeared to me
+to have been taken ill.
+
+He crawled to the end of the table, during which the Comte de Toulouse
+came and said a word to the Regent, and began to walk out of the room.
+
+All these movements took place in a trice.  The Regent, who was near the
+King's armchair, said aloud, "Now, gentlemen, let us take our places."
+Each approached to do so, and as I looked behind mine I saw the, two
+brothers at the, door as though about to leave the room.  I leaped, so to
+speak, between the King's armchair and M. le Duc d'Orleans, and whispered
+in the Regent's ear so as not to be heard by the Prince de Conti:
+
+"Monsieur, look at them.  They are going."
+
+"I know it," he replied tranquilly.
+
+"Yes," I exclaimed with animation, "but do you know what they will do
+when they are outside."
+
+"Nothing at all," said he: "the Comte de Toulouse has asked me for
+permission to go out with his brother; he has assured me that they will
+be discreet."
+
+"And if they are not?" I asked.
+
+"They will be.  But if they are not, they will be well looked after."
+
+"But if they commit some absurdity, or leave Paris?"
+
+"They will be arrested.  Orders have been given, and I will answer for
+their execution."
+
+Therefore, more tranquil, I sat down in my place.  Scarcely had I got
+there than the Regent called me back, and said that since they had left
+the room, he should like to tell the Council what was going to be done
+with respect to them.  I replied that the only objection to this, their
+presence, being now removed--I thought it would be wrong not to do so.
+He asked M. le Duc in a whisper, across the table, afterwards called to
+the Keeper of the Seals; both agreed, and then we really seated
+ourselves.
+
+These movements had augmented the trouble and curiosity of every one.
+The eyes of all, occupied with the Regent, had been removed from the
+door, so that the absence of the bastards was by no means generally
+remarked.  As soon as it was perceived, everybody looked inquiringly
+around, and remained standing in expectation.  I sat down in the seat of
+the Comte de Toulouse.  The Duc de Guiche, who sat on the other side of
+me, left a seat between us, and still waited for the bastards.  He told
+me to approach nearer to him, saying I had mistaken my place.  I replied
+not a word, looking on at the company, which was a sight to see.  At the
+second or third summons, I replied that he, on the contrary, must
+approach me.
+
+"And M. le Comte de Toulouse?" replied he.
+
+"Approach," said I, and seeing him motionless with astonishment, looking
+towards the Duc du Maine's seat, which had been taken by the Keeper of
+the Seals, I pulled him by his coat (I was seated), saying to him, "Come
+here and sit down."
+
+I pulled him so hard that he seated himself near me without understanding
+aught.
+
+"But what is the meaning of all this?"  he demanded; "where are these
+gentlemen?"
+
+"I don't know," replied I, impatiently; "but they are not here."
+
+At the same time, the Duc de Noailles, who sat next to the Duc de Guiche,
+and who, enraged at counting for nothing in preparations for such a great
+day, had apparently divined that I was in the plot, vanquished by his
+curiosity, stretched over the table in front of the Duc de Guiche, and
+said to me:
+
+"In the name of Heaven, M. le Duc, do me the favour to say what all this
+means?"
+
+I was at daggers-drawn with him, as I have explained, and had no mercy
+for him.  I turned, therefore, towards him with a cold and disdainful
+air, and, after having heard him out, and looked at him, I turned away
+again.  That was all my reply.  The Duc de Guiche pressed me to say
+something, even if it was only that I knew all.  I denied it, and yet
+each seated himself slowly, because intent only upon looking around, and
+divining what all this could mean, and because it was a long time before
+any one could comprehend that we must proceed to business without the
+bastards, although nobody opened his mouth.
+
+When everybody was in his place M. le Duc d'Orleans after having far a
+moment looked all around, every eye fixed upon him, said that he had
+assembled this Regency Council to hear read the resolutions adopted at
+the last; that he had come to the conclusion that there was no other
+means of obtaining the registration of the finance edict recently passed
+than that of holding a Bed of justice; that the heat rendering it
+unadvisable to jeopardise the King's health in the midst of the crowd of
+the Palais de justice, he had thought it best to follow the example of
+the late King, who had sometimes sent for the Parliament to the
+Tuileries; that, as it had become necessary to hold this Bed of justice,
+he had thought it right to profit by the occasion, and register the
+'lettres de provision' of the Keeper of the Seals at the commencement of
+the sitting; and he ordered the Keeper of the Seals to read them.
+
+During this reading, which had no other importance than to seize an
+occasion of forcing the Parliament to recognize the Keeper of the Seals,
+whose person and whose commission they hated, I occupied myself in
+examining the faces.
+
+I saw M. le Duc d'Orleans with an air of authority and of attention, so
+new that I was struck with it.  M. le Duc, gay and brilliant, appeared
+quite at his ease, and confident.  The Prince de Conti, astonished,
+absent, meditative, seemed to see nothing and to take part in nothing.
+The Keeper of the Seals, grave and pensive, appeared to have too many
+things in his head; nevertheless, with bag, wax, and seals near him, he
+looked very decided and very firm.  The Duc de la Force hung his head,
+but examined on the sly the faces of us all.  Marechal Villeroy and
+Marechal de Villars spoke to each other now and then; both had irritated
+eyes and long faces.  Nobody was more composed than the Marechal de
+Tallard; but he could not hide an internal agitation which often peeped
+out.  The Marechal d'Estrees had a stupefied air, as though he saw
+nothing but a mist before him.  The Marechal de Besons, enveloped more
+than ordinarily in his big wig, appeared deeply meditative, his look cast
+down and angry.  Pelletier, very buoyant, simple, curious, looking at
+everything.  Torcy, three times more starched than usual, seemed to look
+at everything by stealth.  Effiat, meddlesome, piqued, outraged, ready to
+boil over, fuming at everybody, his look haggard, as it passed
+precipitously, and by fits and starts, from side to side.  Those on my
+side I could not well examine; I saw them only by moments as they changed
+their postures or I mine; and then not well or for long.  I have already
+spoken of the astonishment of the Duc de Guiche, and of the vexation and
+curiosity of the Duc de Noailles.  D'Antin, usually of such easy
+carriage, appeared to me as though in fetters, and quite scared.  The
+Marechal d'Huxelles tried to put a good face on the matter, but could not
+hide the despair which pierced him.  Old Troyes, all abroad, showed
+nothing but surprise and embarrassment, and did not appear to know where
+he was.
+
+From the first moment of this reading and the departure of the bastards,
+everybody saw that something was in preparation against them.  What that
+something was to be, kept every mind in suspense.  A Bed of justice, too,
+prepared in secret, ready as soon as announced, indicated a strong
+resolution taken against the Parliament, and indicated also so much
+firmness and measure in a Prince, usually supposed to be entirely
+incapable of any, that every one was at sea.  All, according as they were
+allied to the Parliament or to the bastards, seemed to wait in fear what
+was to be proposed.  Many others appeared deeply wounded because the
+Regent had not admitted them behind the scenes, and because they were
+compelled to share the common surprise.  Never were faces so universally
+elongated; never was embarrassment more general or more marked.  In these
+first moments of trouble I fancy few people lent an ear to the letters
+the Keeper of the Seals was reading.  When they were finished, M. le Duc
+d'Orleans said he did not think it was worth while to take the votes one
+by one, either upon the contents of these letters or their registration;
+but that all would be in favour of commencing the Bed of justice at once.
+
+After a short but marked pause, the Regent developed, in few words, the
+reasons which had induced the Council at its last sitting, to abrogate
+the decree of the Parliament.  He added, that judging by the conduct of
+that assembly, it would have been to jeopardise anew the King's
+authority, to send for registration this act of abrogation to the
+Parliament, which would assuredly have given in public a proof of formal
+disobedience, in refusing to register; that there being no other remedy
+than a Bed of justice, he had thought it best to assemble one, but in
+secret, so as not to give time or opportunity to the ill-disposed to
+prepare for disobedience; that he believed, with the Keeper of the Seals,
+the frequency and the manner of the parliamentary remonstrances were such
+that the Parliament must be made to keep within the limits of its duty,
+which, long since, it seemed to have lost sight of; that the Keeper of
+the Seals would now read to the Council the act of abrogation, and the
+rules that were to be observed in future.  Then, looking at the Keeper of
+the Seals, "Monsieur," said he, "you will explain this better than I.
+Have the goodness to do so before reading the decree."
+
+The Keeper of the Seals then spoke, and paraphrased what his Royal
+Highness had said more briefly; he explained in what manner the
+Parliament had the right to remonstrate, showed the distinction between
+its power and that of the Crown; the incompetence of the tribunals in all
+matters of state and finance; and the necessity of repressing the
+remonstrances of Parliament by passing a code (that was the term used),
+which was to serve as their inviolable guide.  All this explained without
+lengthiness, with grace and clearness, he began to read the decree, as it
+has since been printed and circulated everywhere, some trifling
+alteration excepted.
+
+The reading finished, the Regent, contrary to his custom, showed his
+opinion by the, praises he gave to this document: and then, assuming the
+Regent's tone and air he had never before put on, and which completed the
+astonishment of the company, he added, "To-day, gentlemen, I shall
+deviate from the usual rule in taking your votes, and I think it will be
+well to do so during all this Council."
+
+Then after a slight glance upon both sides of the table, during which you
+might have heard a worm crawl, he turned towards M. le Duc and asked him
+his opinion.  M. le Duc declared for the decree, alleging several short
+but strong reasons.  The Prince de Conti spoke in the same sense.  I
+spoke after, for the Keeper of the Seals had done so directly his reading
+was finished.  My opinion was given in more general terms so as not to
+fall too heavily upon the Parliament, or to show that I arrogated to
+myself the right to support his Royal Highness in the same manner as a
+prince of the blood.  The Duc de la Force was longer.  All spoke, but the
+majority said but little, and some allowed their vexation to be seen, but
+did not dare to oppose, feeling that it would be of no use.  Dejection
+was painted upon their faces; it was evident this affair, of the
+Parliament was not what they expected or wished.  Tallard was the only
+one whose face did not betray him; but the suffocated monosyllable of the
+Marechal d'Huxelles tore off the rest of the mask.  The Duc de Noailles
+could scarcely contain himself, and spoke more than he wished, with
+anguish worthy of Fresnes.  M. le Duc d'Orleans spoke last, and with
+unusual force; then made a pause, piercing all the company with his eyes.
+
+At this moment the Marechal de Villeroy, full of his own thoughts,
+muttered between his teeth, "But will the Parliament come?" This was
+gently taken up.  M. le Duc d'Orleans replied that he did not doubt it;
+and immediately afterwards, that it would be as well to know when they
+set out.  The Keeper of the Seals said he should be informed.  M. le Duc
+d'Orleans replied that the door-keepers must be told.  Thereupon up jumps
+M. de Troyes.
+
+I was seized with such a sudden fear lest he should go and chatter at the
+door with some one that I jumped up also, and got the start of him.  As I
+returned, D'Antin, who had turned round to lay wait for me, begged me for
+mercy's sake to tell him what all this meant.  I sped on saying that I
+knew nothing.  "Tell that to others!  Ho, ho!" replied he.  When he had
+resumed his seat, M. le Duc d'Orleans said something, I don't know what,
+M. de Troyes still standing, I also.  In passing La Vrilliere, I asked
+him to go to the door every time anything was wanted, for fear of the
+babbling of M. de Troyes; adding, that distant as I was from the door,
+going there looked too peculiar.  La Vrilliere did as I begged him all
+the rest of the sitting.
+
+As I was returning to my place, D'Antin, still in ambush, begged me in
+the name of heaven, his hands joined, to tell him something.  I kept
+firm, however, saying, "You will see."  The Duc de Guiche pressed me as
+resolutely, even saying, it was evident I was in the plot.  I remained
+deaf.
+
+These little movements over, M. le Duc d'Orleans, rising a little in his
+seat, said to the company, in a tone more firm, and more like that of a
+master than before, that there was another matter now to attend to, much
+more important than the one just heard.  This prelude increased the
+general astonishment, and rendered everybody motionless.  After a moment
+of silence the Regent said, that the peers had had for some time good
+grounds of complaint against certain persons, who by unaccustomed favour,
+had been allowed to assume rank and dignity to which their birth did not
+entitle them; that it was time this irregularity should be stopped short,
+and that with this view, an instrument had been drawn up, which the
+Keeper of the Seals would read to them.
+
+A profound silence followed this discourse, so unexpected, and which
+began to explain the absence of the bastards.  Upon many visages a sombre
+hue was painted.  As for me I had enough to do to compose my, own visage,
+upon which all eyes successively passed; I had put upon it an extra coat
+of gravity and of modesty; I steered my eyes with care, and only looked
+horizontally at most, not an inch higher.  As soon as the Regent opened
+his mouth on this business, M. le Duc cast upon me a triumphant look
+which almost routed my seriousness, and which warned me to increase it,
+and no longer expose myself to meet his glance.  Contained in this
+manner, attentive in devouring the aspect of all, alive to everything and
+to myself, motionless, glued to my chair, all my body fixed, penetrated
+with the most acute and most sensible pleasure that joy could impart,
+with the most charming anxiety, with an enjoyment, so perseveringly and
+so immoderately hoped for, I sweated with agony at the captivity of my
+transport, and this agony was of a voluptuousness such as I had never
+felt before, such as I have never felt since.  How inferior are the
+pleasures of the senses to those of the mind! and how true it is that the
+balance-weight of misfortunes, is the good fortune that finishes them!
+
+A moment after the Regent had ceased speaking, he told the Keeper of the
+Seals to read the declaration.  During the reading, which was more than
+music to my ears, my attention was again fixed on the company.  I saw by
+the alteration of the faces what an immense effect this document, which
+embodied the resolutions I have already explained, produced upon some of
+our friends.  The whole of the reading was listened to with the utmost
+attention, and the utmost emotion.
+
+When it was finished, M. le Duc d'Orleans said he was very sorry for this
+necessity, but that justice must be done to the peers as well as to the
+princes of the blood: then turning to the Keeper of the Seals asked him
+for his opinion.
+
+This latter spoke briefly and well; but was like a dog running over hot
+ashes.  He declared for the declaration.  His Royal Highness then called
+upon M. le Duc for his opinion.  It was short, but nervous, and polite to
+the peers.  M. le Prince de Conti the same.  Then the Regent asked me my
+opinion.  I made, contrary to my custom, a profound inclination, but
+without rising, and said, that having the honour to find myself the
+eldest of the peers of the Council, I offered to his Royal Highness my
+very humble thanks and those of all the peers of France, for the justice
+so ardently desired, and touching so closely our dignity and our persons,
+that he had resolved to render us; that I begged him to be persuaded of
+our gratitude, and to count upon our utmost attachment to his person for
+an act of equity so longed for, and so complete; that in this sincere
+expression of our sentiments consisted all our opinion, because, being
+pleaders, we could not be judges also.  I terminated these few words with
+a profound inclination, without rising, imitated by the Duc de la Force
+at the same moment; all the rest of the Council briefly gave their
+opinions, approving what the majority of them evidently did not approve
+at all.
+
+I had tried to modulate my voice, so that it should be just heard and no
+more, preferring to be indistinct rather than speak too loudly; and
+confined all my person to express as much as possible, gravity, modesty,
+and simple gratitude.  M. le Duc maliciously made signs to me in smiling,
+that I had spoken well.  But I kept my seriousness, and turned round to
+examine all the rest.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the aspect of the company.  Nothing
+was seen but people, oppressed with surprise that overwhelmed them,
+meditative, agitated, some irritated, some but ill at ease, like La Force
+and Guiche, who freely admitted so to me.
+
+The opinions taken almost as soon as demanded, M. le Duc d'Orleans said,
+"Gentlemen, it is finished, then justice is done, and the rights of
+Messieurs the Peers are in safety.  I have now an act of grace to propose
+to you, and I do so with all the more confidence, because I have taken
+care to consult the parties interested, who support me; and because, I
+have drawn up the document in a manner to wound no one.  What I am going
+to explain to you, regards the Comte de Toulouse alone.
+
+"Nobody is ignorant how he has disapproved all that has been done in
+favour of him and his brother, and that he has sustained it since the
+regency only out of respect for the wishes of the late King.  Everybody
+knows also his virtue, his merit, his application, his probity, his
+disinterestedness.  Nevertheless, I could not avoid including him in the
+declaration you have just heard.  Justice furnishes no exception in his
+favour, and the rights of the Peers must be assured.  Now that they are
+no longer attacked, I have thought fitly to render to merit what from
+equity I have taken from birth; and to make an exception of M. le Comte
+de Toulouse, which (while confirming the rule), will leave him in full
+possession of all the honours he enjoys to the exclusion of every other.
+Those honours are not to pass to his children, should he marry and have
+any, or their restitution be considered as a precedent to be made use of
+at any future time.
+
+"I have the pleasure to announce that the Princes of the Blood consent to
+this, and that such of the Peers to whom I have been able to explain
+myself, share my sentiments.  I doubt not that the esteem he has acquired
+here will render this proposition agreeable to you."  And then turning to
+the Keeper of the Seals, "Monsieur, will you read the declaration?"
+
+It was read at once.
+
+I had, during the discourse of his Royal Highness, thrown all my
+attention into an examination of the impression it made upon the
+assembly.  The astonishment it caused was general; it was such, that to
+judge of those addressed, it seemed that they understood nothing; and
+they did not recover themselves during all the reading.  I inwardly
+rejoiced at success so pleasingly demonstrated and did not receive too
+well the Duc de Guiche, who testified to me his disapprobation.  Villeroy
+confounded, Villars raging, Effiat rolling his eyes, Estrees beside
+himself with surprise, were the most marked.  Tallard, with his head
+stretched forward, sucked in, so to speak, all the Regent's words as they
+were proffered, and those of the declaration, as the Keeper of the Seals
+read them.  Noailles, inwardly distracted, could not hide his
+distraction; Huxelles, entirely occupied in smoothing himself, forgot to
+frown.  I divided my attention between the declaration and these persons.
+
+The document read, M. le Duc d'Orleans praised it in two words, and
+called upon the Keeper of the Seals to give his opinion.  He did so
+briefly, in favour of the Comte de Toulouse.  M. le Duc the same; M. le
+Prince de Conti the same.  After him, I testified to his Royal Highness
+my joy at seeing him conciliate the justice and the safety of the peers
+with the unheard-of favour he had just rendered to the virtue of M. le
+Comte de Toulouse, who merited it by his moderation, his truthfulness,
+his attachment to the State; thus the more he had recognised the
+injustice of his elevation to the rank to which he was raised, the more
+he had rendered himself worthy of it, and the more it was advantageous to
+the peers to yield to merit, (when this exception was confined solely to
+his person, with formal and legal precautions, so abundantly supplied by
+the declaration) and voluntarily contribute thus to an elevation without
+example, (so much the more flattering because its only foundation was
+virtue), so as to incite that virtue more and more to the service and
+utility of the state; that I declared therefore with joy for the
+declaration, and did not fear to add the very humble thanks of the peers,
+since I had the honour to be the oldest present.
+
+As I closed my mouth I cast my eyes in front of some, and plainly saw
+that my applause did not please, and, perhaps, my thanks still less.  The
+others gave their opinion with heavy heart, as it were, to so terrible a
+blow, some few muttered I know not what between their teeth, but the
+thunderbolt upon the Duc du Maine's cabal was more and more felt, and as
+reflection succeeded to the first feeling of surprise, so a bitter and
+sharp grief manifested itself upon their faces in so marked a manner,
+that it was easy to see it had become high time to strike.
+
+All opinions having been expressed, M. le Duc cast a brilliant leer at
+me, and prepared to speak; but the Keeper of the Seals, who, from his
+side of the table did not see this movement, wishing also to say
+something, M. le Duc d'Orleans intimated to him that M. le Duc had the
+start of him.  Raising himself majestically from his seat, the Regent
+then said: "Gentlemen, M. le Duc has a proposition to make to you.  I
+have found it just and reasonable; I doubt not, you will find it so too."
+Then turning towards M. le Duc, he added, "Monsieur, will you explain
+it?"
+
+The movement these few words made among the company is inexpressible.
+'Twas as though I saw before me people deprived of all power, and
+surprised by a new assembly rising up from the midst of them in an asylum
+they had breathlessly reached.
+
+"Monsieur," said M. le Duc, addressing himself to the Regent, as usual;
+"since you have rendered justice to the Dukes, I think I am justified in
+asking for it myself.  The deceased King gave the education of his
+Majesty to M. le Duc du Maine.  I was a minor then, and according to the
+idea of the deceased King, M. du Maine was prince of the blood, capable
+of succeeding to the crown.  Now I am of age, and not only M. du Maine is
+no longer prince of the blood, but he is reduced to the rank of his
+peerage.  M. le Marechal de Villeroy is now his senior, and precedes him
+everywhere; M. le Marechal can therefore no longer remain governor of the
+King, under the superintendence of M. du Maine.  I ask you, then, for M.
+du Maine's post, that I think my age, my rank, my attachment to the King
+and the State, qualify me for.  I hope," he added, turning towards his
+left, "that I shall profit by the lessons of M. le Marechal de Villeroy,
+acquit myself of my duties with distinction, and merit his friendship."
+
+At this discourse the Marechal de Villeroy almost slipped off his chair.
+As soon, at least, as he heard the Words, "Superintendence of the King's
+education," he rested his forehead upon his stick, and remained several
+moments in that posture.  He appeared even to understand nothing of the
+rest of the speech.  Villars and D'Effiat bent their backs like people
+who had received the last blow.  I could see nobody on my own side except
+the Duc de Guiche, who approved through all his prodigious astonishment.
+Estrees became master of himself the first, shook himself, brightened up,
+and looked at the company like a man who returns from the other world.
+
+As soon as M. le Duc had finished, M. le Duc d'Orleans reviewed all the
+company with his eyes, and then said, that the request of M. le Duc was
+just; that he did not think it could be refused; that M. le Marechal de
+Villeroy could not be allowed to remain under a person whom he preceded
+in rank; that the superintendence of the King's education could not be
+more worthily filled than by M. le Duc; and that he was persuaded all
+would be of one voice in this matter.  Immediately afterwards, he asked
+M. le Prince de Conti to give his opinion, who did so in two words; then
+he asked the Keeper of the Seals, whose reply was equally brief; then he
+asked me.
+
+I simply said, looking at M. le Duc, that I was for the change with all
+my heart.  The rest, M. de la Force excepted (who said a single word),
+voted without speaking, simply bowing; the Marshals and D'Effiat scarcely
+moved their eyes, and those of Villars glistened with fury.
+
+The opinions taken, the Regent turning towards M. le Duc, said,
+"Monsieur, I think you would like to read what you intend to say to the
+King at the Bed of Justice."
+
+Therefore M. le Duc read it as it has been printed.  Some moments of sad
+and profound silence succeeded this reading, during which the Marechal de
+Villeroy, pale and agitated, muttered to himself.  At last, like a man
+who has made up his mind, he turned with bended head, expiring eyes, and
+feeble voice, towards the Regent, and said, "I will simply say these two
+words; here are all the dispositions of the late king overturned, I
+cannot see it without grief.  M. du Maine is very unfortunate."
+
+"Monsieur," replied the Regent, in a loud and animated tone, "M. du Maine
+is my brother-in-law, but I prefer an open enemy to a hidden one."
+
+At this great declaration several lowered their heads.  The Marechal de
+Villeroy nearly swooned; sighs began to make themselves heard near me, as
+though by stealth; everybody felt by this that the scabbard was thrown
+away.
+
+The Keeper of the Seals, to make a diversion; proposed to read the speech
+he had prepared to serve as preface to the decree to be read at the Bed
+of justice, abrogating the Parliament decrees; as he was finishing it,
+some one entered to say he was asked for at the door.
+
+He went out, returning immediately afterwards, not to his place, but to
+M. le Duc d'Orleans, whom he took into a window, meditative silence
+reigning around.  The Regent having returned back to his place, said to
+the company, he had received information that the Chief-President of the
+Parliament, notwithstanding the reply previously made, had proposed that
+the Parliament should not go to the Tuileries, asking, "What it was to do
+in a place where it would not be free?" that he had proposed to send a
+message to the King, stating that "his Parliament would hear his wishes
+in their ordinary place of meeting, whenever it should please him to come
+or to send."  The Regent added that these propositions had made
+considerable sensation, and that the Parliament were at that moment
+debating upon them.  The Council appeared much astounded at this news,
+but M. le Duc d'Orleans said, in a very composed manner, that he did not
+expect a refusal; he ordered the Keeper of the Seals, nevertheless, to
+propose such measures as it would be best to take, supposing the motion
+of the Chief-President should be carried.
+
+The Keeper of the Seals declared that he could not believe the Parliament
+would be guilty of this disobedience, contrary to all law and usage.
+He showed at some length that nothing was so pernicious as to expose the
+King's authority to a formal opposition, and decided in favour of the
+immediate interdiction of the Parliament if it fell into this fault.
+M. le Duc d'Orleans added that there was no other course open, and took
+the opinion of M. le Duc, which was strongly in his favour.  M. le Prince
+de Conti the same, mine also, that of M. de la Force and of M. de Guiche
+still more so.  The Marechal de Villeroy, in a broken voice, seeking big
+words, which would not come in time to him, deplored this extremity, and
+did all he could to avoid giving a precise opinion.  Forced at last by
+the Regent to explain himself, he did not dare to oppose, but added that
+he assented with regret, and wished to explain the grievous results of
+the proposed measure.  But the Regent, interrupting him, said he need not
+take the trouble: everything had been foreseen; that it would be much
+more grievous to be disobeyed by the Parliament than to force it into
+obedience; and immediately after asked the Duc de Noailles his opinion,
+who replied that it would be very sad to act thus, but that he was for
+it.  Villars wished to paraphrase, but contained himself, and said he
+hoped the Parliament would obey.  Pressed by the Regent, he proposed to
+wait for fresh news before deciding; but, pressed more closely, he
+declared for the interdiction, with an air of warmth and vexation,
+extremely marked.  Nobody after this dared to hesitate, and the majority
+voted by an inclination of the head.
+
+A short time afterwards it was announced to M. le Duc d'Orleans that the
+Parliament had set out on foot, and had begun to defile through the
+palace.  This news much cooled the blood of the company, M. le Duc
+d'Orleans more than that of any one else.
+
+After this the Regent, in a cheerful manner, called upon the Presidents
+of the Councils to bring forward any business they might have on hand,
+but not one had any.  The Marechal de Villars said, however, that he had
+a matter to produce, and he produced it accordingly, but with a clearness
+which, under the circumstances, was extraordinary.  I fancy, however,
+that very few knew what he was talking about.  We were all too much
+occupied with more interesting matters, and each voted without speaking.
+Bad luck to those who had had business to bring forward this day; they
+who conducted it would have known but little what they said: they who
+listened, still less.
+
+The Council finished thus, from lack of matter, and a movement was made
+to adjourn it as usual.  I stepped in front of M. le Prince de Conti to
+M. le Duc d'Orleans, who understood me, and who begged the company to
+keep their seats.  La Vrilliere went out by order for news, but there was
+nothing fresh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIII
+
+It was now a little after ten.  We remained a good half-hour in our
+places, talking a little with each other, but on the whole rather silent.
+At the end some grew fidgety and anxious, rose and went to the windows.
+M. le Duc d'Orleans restrained them as well as he could; but at length
+Desgranges entered to say that the Chief-President had already arrived,
+in his coach, and that the Parliament was near.  So soon as he had
+retired, the Council rose by groups, and could no longer be kept seated.
+M. le Duc d'Orleans himself at last rose, and all he could do was to
+prohibit everybody from leaving the room under any pretext, and this
+prohibition he repeated two or three times.
+
+Scarcely had we risen when M. le Duc came to me, rejoiced at the success
+that had hitherto been had, and much relieved by the absence of the
+bastards.  Soon after I quitted him the Duc d'Orleans came to me,
+overpowered with the same sentiment.  I said what I thought of the
+consternation of every one; and painted the expression of M. d'Effiat, at
+which he was not surprised.  He was more so about Besons.  I asked if he
+was not afraid the bastards would come to the Bed of justice; but he was
+certain they would not.  I was resolved, however, to prepare his mind
+against that contingency.
+
+I walked about, slowly and incessantly without fixing myself on any one,
+in order that nothing should escape me, principally attending to the
+doors.  I took advantage of the opportunity to say a word here and a word
+there, to pass continually near those who were suspected, to skim and
+interrupt all conversations.  D'Antin was often joined by the Duc de
+Noailles, who had resumed his habit of the morning, and continually
+followed me with his eyes.  He had an air of consternation, was agitated
+and embarrassed in countenance--he commonly so free and easy!  D'Antin
+took me aside to see whether he could not, considering his position, be
+excused from attending the Bed of Justice.  He received permission from
+the Regent on certain conditions.
+
+I went then to break in upon the colloquy of D'Effiat and his friends,
+and taking them by surprise, caused D'Effiat to say that he had just
+heard strange resolutions, that he did not know who had advised them,
+that he prayed that M. d'Orleans would find them advantageous.
+I replied, agreeing with him.  The Marechal de Villeroy sighed, muttered,
+and shook his wig, Villars spoke more at length, and blamed sharply what
+had been done.  I assented to everything, being there not to persuade but
+to watch.
+
+Nevertheless we grew weary of the slowness of the Parliament, and often
+sent out for news.  Several of the Council tried to leave the room,
+perhaps to blab, but the Regent would allow no one but La Vrilliere to go
+out, and seeing that the desire to leave increased, stood at the door
+himself.  I suggested to him that Madame d'Orleans would be in a great
+state of uneasiness, and suggested that he should write to her; but he
+could not be persuaded to do it, though he promised.
+
+At last the Parliament arrived, and behold us!  like children, all at the
+windows.  The members came in red robes, two by two, by the grand door of
+the court, which they passed in order to reach the Hall of the
+Ambassadors, where the Chief-President, who had come in his carriage with
+the president Haligre, awaited them.
+
+The Parliament being in its place, the peers having arrived, and the
+presidents having put on their furs behind the screens arranged for that
+purpose in an adjoining room, a messenger came to inform us that all was
+ready.  The question had been agitated, whether the King should dine
+meanwhile, and I had it carried in the negative, fearing lest coming
+immediately after to the Bed of justice, and having eaten before his
+usual hour, he might be ill, which would have been a grievous
+inconvenience.  As soon as it was announced to the Regent that we could
+set out, his Royal Highness sent word to the Parliament, to prepare the
+deputation to receive the King; and then said aloud to the company, that
+it was time to go in search of his Majesty.
+
+At these words I felt a storm of joy sweep over me, at the thought of the
+grand spectacle that was going to pass in my presence, which warned me to
+be doubly on my guard.  I tried to furnish myself with the strongest dose
+of seriousness, gravity, and modesty.  I followed M. le Duc d'Orleans,
+who entered the King's room by the little door, and who found the King in
+his cabinet.  On the way the Duc d'Albret made me some very marked
+compliments, with evident desire to discover something.  I put him off
+with politeness, complaints of the crowd, of the annoyance of my dress,
+and gained thus the King's cabinet.
+
+The King was dressed as usual.  When the Duc d'Orleans had been a few
+moments with him, he asked him if he would be pleased to go: and the way
+was instantly' cleared, a procession formed, and the King moved towards
+the Hall of the Swiss Guard.
+
+I now hastened to the chamber, where the Bed of justice was to be held.
+The passage to it was tolerably, free.  The officers of the body-guard
+made place for me and for the Duc de la Force, and Marechal de Villars,
+who followed me, one by one.  I stopped a moment in the passage at the
+entrance to the room, seized with joy upon seeing this grand spectacle,
+and at the thought of the grand movement that was drawing nigh, I needed
+a pause in order to recover myself sufficiently to see distinctly what
+I looked at, and to put on a new coat of seriousness and of modesty.
+I fully expected I should be well examined by a company which had been
+carefully taught not to like me, and by the curious spectators waiting to
+see what was to be hatched out of so profound a secret, in such an
+important assembly, summoned so hastily.  Moreover, nobody was ignorant
+that I knew all, at least from the Council of the Regency I had just
+left.
+
+I did not deceive myself.  As soon as I appeared, all eyes were fixed
+upon me.  I slowly advanced towards the chief greffier, and introducing
+myself between the two seats, I traversed the length of the room, in
+front of the King's people, who saluted me with a smiling air, and I
+ascended over three rows of high seats, where all the peers were in their
+places, and who rose as I approached the steps.  I respectfully saluted
+them from the third row.
+
+Seated in my elevated place, and with nothing before me, I was able to
+glance over the whole assembly.  I did so at once, piercing everybody
+with my eyes.  One thing alone restrained me; it was that I did not dare
+to fix my eyes upon certain objects.  I feared the fire and brilliant
+significance of my looks at that moment so appreciated by everybody: and
+the more I saw I attracted attention, the more anxious was I to wean
+curiosity by my discreetness.  I cast, nevertheless, a glittering glance
+upon the Chief-President and his friends, for the examination of whom I
+was admirably placed.  I carried my looks over all the Parliament,
+and saw there an astonishment, a silence, a consternation, such as I had
+not expected, and which was of good augury to me.  The Chief-President,
+insolently crest-fallen, the other presidents disconcerted, and attentive
+to all, furnished me the most agreeable spectacle.  The simply curious
+(among which I rank those who had no vote) appeared to me not less
+surprised (but without the bewilderment of the others), calmly surprised;
+in a word, everybody showed much expectation and desire to divine what
+had passed at the Council.
+
+I had but little leisure for this examination, for the King immediately
+arrived.  The hubbub which followed his entrance, and which lasted until
+his Majesty and all who accompanied him were in their places, was another
+singularity.  Everybody sought to penetrate the Regent, the Keeper of the
+Seals, and the principal personages.  The departure of the bastards from
+the cabinet of the Council had redoubled attention, but everybody did not
+know of that departure; now everybody perceived their absence.  The
+consternation of the Marechals--of their senior--(the governor of the
+King) was evident.  It augmented the dejection of the Chief-President,
+who not seeing his master the Duc du Maine, cast a terrible glance upon
+M. de Sully and me, who exactly occupied the places of the two brothers.
+In an instant all the eyes of the assembly were cast, at the same time,
+upon us; and I remarked that the meditativeness and expectation increased
+in every face.  That of the Regent had an air of gentle but resolute
+majesty completely new to it, his eyes attentive, his deportment grave,
+but easy.  M. le Duc, sage, measured, but encircled by I know not what
+brilliancy, which adorned all his person and which was evidently kept
+down.  M. le Prince de Conti appeared dull, pensive, his mind far away
+perhaps.  I was not able during the sitting to see them except now and
+then, and under pretext of looking at the King, who was serious,
+majestic, and at the same time as pretty as can be imagined; grave, with
+grace in all his bearing, his air attentive, and not at all wearied,
+playing his part very well and without embarrassment.
+
+When all was ready, Argenson, the Keeper of the Seals, remained some
+minutes at his desk motionless, looking down, and the fire which sprang
+from his eyes seemed to burn every breast.  An extreme silence eloquently
+announced the fear, the attention, the trouble, and the curiosity of all
+the expectants.  The Parliament, which under the deceased King had often
+summoned this same Argenson, and as lieutenant of police had often given
+him its orders, he standing uncovered at the bar of the house; the
+Parliament, which since the regency had displayed its ill-will towards
+him so far as to excite public remark, and which still detained prisoners
+and papers to vex him; this Chief President so superior to him, so
+haughty, so proud of his Duc du Maine; this Lamoignon, who had boasted he
+would have him hanged at his Chamber of justice, where he had so
+completely dishonoured himself: this Parliament and all saw him clad in
+the ornaments of the chief office of the robe, presiding over them,
+effacing them, and entering upon his functions to teach them their duty,
+to read them a public lesson the first time he found himself at their
+head!  These vain presidents were seen turning their looks from a man who
+imposed so strongly upon their pride, and who annihilated their arrogance
+in the place even whence they drew it, and rendered them stupid by
+regards they could not sustain.
+
+After the Keeper of the Seals (according to the manner of the preachers)
+had accustomed himself to this august audience, he uncovered himself,
+rose, mounted to the King, knelt before the steps of the throne, by the
+side of the middle of the steps, where the grand chamberlain was lying
+upon cushions, and took the King's orders, descended, placed himself in
+his chair and covered himself.  Let us say it once for all, he performed
+the same ceremony at the commencement of each business, and likewise
+before and after taking the opinion upon each; at the bar of justice
+neither he nor the chamberlain ever speaks otherwise to the King; and
+every time he went to the King on this occasion the Regent rose and
+approached him to hear and suggest the orders.  Having returned back into
+his place, he opened, after some moments of silence, this great scene by
+a discourse.  The report of the Bed of justice, made by the Parliament
+and printed, which is in the hands of everybody, renders it unnecessary
+for me to give the discourse of the Keeper of the Seals, that of the
+Chief-President, those of the King's people, and the different papers
+that were read and registered.  I will simply content myself with some
+observations.  This first discourse, the reading of the letters of the
+Keeper of the Seals, and the speech of the Advocate-General Blancmesnil
+which followed, the opinions taken, the order given, sometimes reiterated
+to keep the two double doors open, did not surprise anybody; served only
+as the preface to all the rest; to sharpen curiosity more and more as the
+moment approached in which it was to be satisfied.
+
+This first act finished, the second was announced by the discourse of the
+Keeper of the Seals, the force of which penetrated all the Parliament.
+General consternation spread itself over their faces.  Scarcely one of
+the members dared to speak to his neighbour.  I remarked that the Abbe
+Pucelle, who, although only counsellor-clerk, was upon the forms in front
+of me, stood, so that he might hear better every time the Keeper of the
+Seals spoke.  Bitter grief, obviously full of vexation, obscured the
+visage of the Chief-President.  Shame and confusion were painted there.
+
+After the vote, and when the Keeper of the Seals had pronounced, I saw
+the principal members of the Parliament in commotion.  The Chief-
+President was about to speak.  He did so by uttering the remonstrance of
+the Parliament, full of the most subtle and impudent malice against the
+Regent, and of insolence against the King.  The villain trembled,
+nevertheless, in pronouncing it.  His voice broken, his eyes constrained,
+his flurry and confusion, contradicted the venomous words he uttered;
+libations he could not abstain from offering to himself and his company.
+This was the moment when I relished, with delight utterly impossible to
+express, the sight of these haughty lawyers (who had dared to refuse us
+the salutation), prostrated upon their knees, and rendering, at our feet,
+homage to the throne, whilst we sat covered upon elevated seats, at the
+side of that same throne.  These situations and these postures, so widely
+disproportioned, plead of themselves with all the force of evidence, the
+cause of those who are really and truly 'laterales regis' against this
+'vas electum' of the third estate.  My eyes fixed, glued, upon these
+haughty bourgeois, with their uncovered heads humiliated to the level of
+our feet, traversed the chief members kneeling or standing, and the ample
+folds of those fur robes of rabbit-skin that would imitate ermine, which
+waved at each long and redoubled genuflexion; genuflexions which only
+finished by command of the King.
+
+The remonstrance being finished, the Keeper of the Seals mentioned to the
+King their wishes, asking further opinions; took his place again; cast
+his eyes on the Chief-President, and said: The King wishes to be obeyed,
+and obeyed immediately.
+
+This grand speech was a thunder-bolt which overturned councillors and
+presidents in the most marked manner.  All of them lowered their heads,
+and the majority kept them lowered for a long time.  The rest of the
+spectators, except the marshals of France, appeared little affected by
+this desolation.
+
+But this--an ordinary triumph--was nothing to that which was to follow.
+After an interval of some few minutes, the Keeper of the Seals went up
+again to the King, returned to his place, and remained there in silence
+some little time.  Then everybody clearly saw that the Parliamentary
+affair being finished, something else must be in the wind.  Some thought
+that a dispute which the Dukes had had with the Parliament, concerning
+one of its usurpations, was now to be settled in our favour.  Others who
+had noticed the absence of the bastards, guessed it was something that
+affected them; but nobody divined what, much less its extent.
+
+At last the Keeper of the Seals opened his mouth, and in his first
+sentence announced the fall of one brother and the preservation of the
+other.  The effect of this upon every one was inexpressible.  However
+occupied I might be in containing mine, I lost nothing.  Astonishment
+prevailed over every other sentiment.  Many appeared glad, either from
+hatred to the Duc du Maine, or from affection for the Comte de Toulouse;
+several were in consternation.  The Chief-President lost all countenance;
+his visage, so self-sufficient and so audacious, was seized with a
+convulsive movement; the excess alone of his rage kept him from swooning.
+It was even worse at the reading of the declaration.  Each word was
+legislative and decreed a fresh fall.  The attention was general; every
+one was motionless, so as not to lose a word; all eyes were fixed upon
+the 'greffier' who was reading.  A third of this reading over, the Chief-
+President, gnashing the few teeth left in his head, rested his forehead
+upon his stick that he held in both hands, and in this singular and
+marked position finished listening to the declaration, so overwhelming
+for him, so resurrectionary for us.
+
+Yet, as for me, I was dying with joy.  I was so oppressed that I feared I
+should swoon; my heart dilated to excess, and no longer found room to
+beat.  The violence I did myself, in order to let nothing escape me, was
+infinite; and, nevertheless, this torment was delicious.  I compared the
+years and the time of servitude; the grievous days, when dragged at the
+tail of the Parliamentary car as a victim, I had served as a triumph for
+the bastards; the various steps by which they had mounted to the summit
+above our heads; I compared them, I say, to this court of justice and of
+rule, to this frightful fall which, at the same time, raised us by the
+force of the shock.  I thanked myself that it was through me this had
+been brought about.  I had triumphed, I was revenged; I swam in my
+vengeance; I enjoyed the full accomplishment of desires the most vehement
+and the most continuous of all my life.  I was tempted to fling away all
+thought and care.  Nevertheless, I did not fail to listen to this
+vivifying reading (every note of which sounded upon my heart as the bow
+upon an instrument), or to examine, at the same time, the impressions it
+made upon every one.
+
+At the first word the Keeper of the Seals said of this affair, the eyes
+of the two bishop-peers met mine.  Never did I see surprise equal to
+theirs, or so marked a transport of joy.  I had not been able to speak to
+them on account of the distance of our places; and they could not resist
+the movement which suddenly seized them.  I swallowed through my eyes a
+delicious draught of their joy, and turned away my glance from theirs,
+lest I should succumb beneath this increase of delight.  I no longer
+dared to look at them.
+
+The reading finished, the other declaration in favour of the Comte de
+Toulouse was immediately commenced by the 'greffier', according to the
+command of the Keeper of the Seals, who had given them to him both
+together.  It seemed to complete the confusion of the Chief-President and
+the friends of the Duc du Maine, by the contrast between the treatment of
+the two brothers.
+
+After the Advocate-General had spoken, the Keeper of the Seals mounted to
+the King, with the opinions of the Princes of the Blood; then came to the
+Duc de Sully and me.  Fortunately I had more memory than he had, or
+wished to have; therefore it was exactly my affair.  I presented to him
+my hat with a bunch of feathers in the front, in an express manner very
+marked, saying to him loudly enough: "No, Monsieur, we cannot be judges;
+we are parties to the cause, and we have only to thank the King for the
+justice he renders us."
+
+He smiled and made an excuse.  I pushed him away before the Duc de Sully
+had time to open his mouth; and looking round I saw with pleasure that my
+refusal had been marked by everybody.  The Keeper of the Seals retired as
+he came, and without taking the opinions of the peers, or of the bishop-
+peers, went to the marshals of France; thence descended to the Chief-
+President and to the 'presidents a mortier', and so to the rest of the
+lower seats; after which, having been to the King and returned to his
+place, he pronounced the decree of registration, and thus put the
+finishing touch to my joy.
+
+Immediately after M. le Duc rose, and having made his reverences to the
+King forgot to sit down and cover himself to speak, according to the
+uninterrupted right and usage of the peers of France; therefore not one
+of us rose.  He made, then, slowly and uncovered, the speech which has
+been printed at the end of the preceding ones, and read it not very
+intelligibly because his organ was not favourable.  As soon as he had
+finished, M. le Duc d'Orleans rose, and committed the same fault.  He
+said, also standing and uncovered, that the request of M. le Duc appeared
+to him just; and after some praises added, that M. le Duc du Maine was
+now reduced to the rank given to him by his peerage, M. le Marechal de
+Villeroy, his senior, could no longer remain under him, which was a new
+and very strong reason in addition to those M. le Duc had alleged.  This
+request had carried to the highest point the astonishment of the assembly
+and the despair of the Chief-President, and the handful of people who
+appeared by their embarrassment to be interested in the Duc du Maine.
+The Marechal de Villeroy, without knitting his brow, had a disturbed
+look, and the eyes of the chief accuser oftener were inundated with
+tears.  I was not able to distinguish well his cousin and intimate friend
+the Marechal d'Huxelles, who screened himself beneath the vast brim of
+his hat, thrust over his eyes, and who did not stir.  The Chief-
+President, stunned by this last thunder-bolt, elongated his face so
+surprisingly, that I thought for a moment his chin had fallen upon his
+knees.
+
+However, the Keeper of the Seals having called upon the King's people to
+speak, they replied that they had not heard the proposition of M. le Duc,
+therefore his paper was passed to them from hand to hand, during which
+the Keeper of the Seals repeated very kindly what the Regent had added
+upon the seniority of the Marechal de Villeroy over the Duc du Maine.
+Blancmesnil merely threw his eyes upon the paper of M. le Duc, and spoke,
+after which the Keeper of the Seals put it to the vote.  I gave mine loud
+enough, and said, "As for this affair I vote with all my heart for giving
+the superintendence of the King's education to M. le Duc."
+
+The votes being taken, the Keeper, of the Seals called the chief
+'greffier', ordered him to bring his paper and his little bureau near
+his, so as to do all at once; and in presence of the King register
+everything that had been read and resolved, and signed also.  This was
+done without any difficulty, according to forms, under the eyes of the
+Keeper of the Seals, who never raised them: but as there were five or six
+documents to register they took up a long time.
+
+I had well observed the King when his education was in question, and I
+remarked in him no sort of alteration, change, or constraint.  This was
+the last act of the drama: he was quite lively now the registrations
+commenced.  However, as there were no more speeches to occupy him, he
+laughed with those near, amused himself with everything, even remarking
+that the Duc de Louvigny had on a velvet coat, and laughed at the heat he
+must feel, and all this with grace.  This indifference for M. du Maine
+struck everybody, and publicly contradicted what his partisans tried to
+publish, viz., that his eyes had been red, but that neither at the Bed of
+justice, nor since, he had dared to show his trouble.  The truth is he
+had his eyes dry and serene the whole time, and pronounced the name of
+the Duc du Maine only once since, which was after dinner the same day,
+when he asked where he had gone, with a very indifferent air, without
+saying a word more, then or since, or naming his children, who took
+little trouble to see him; and when they went it was in order to have
+even in his presence their little court apart, and to divert themselves
+among themselves.  As for the Duc du Maine, either from policy or because
+he thought it not yet time, he only, saw the King in the morning,
+sometimes in his bed, and not at all during the rest of the day, except
+when obliged by his functions.
+
+During the registration I gently passed my eyes over the whole assembly.,
+and though I constantly constrained them, I could not resist the
+temptation to indemnify myself upon the Chief-President; I perseveringly
+overwhelmed him, therefore, a hundred different times during the sitting,
+with my hard-hitting regards.  Insult, contempt, disdain, triumph, were
+darted at him from my eyes,--and pierced him to the very marrow often he
+lowered his eyes when he caught my gaze once or twice he raised his upon
+me, and I took pleasure in annoying him by sly but malicious smiles which
+completed his vexation.  I bathed myself in his rage, and amused myself
+by making him feel it.  I sometimes played with him by pointing him out
+to my two neighbours when he could perceive this movement; in a word, I
+pressed upon him without mercy, as heavily as I could.
+
+At last the registration finished, the King descended the throne, and was
+followed by the Regent, the two Princes of the Blood, and the necessary
+gentlemen of the suite.  At the same time the Marshals of France
+descended, and while the King traversed the room, accompanied by the
+deputation which had received him, they passed between the seats of the
+councillors opposite us, to follow him to the door by which his Majesty
+departed; and at the same time the two bishop-peers, passing before the
+throne, came to put themselves at our head, and squeezed my hands and
+my head (in passing before me) with warm gratification.
+
+We followed them two by two according to seniority, and went straight
+forward to the door.  The Parliament began to move directly afterwards.
+Place was made for us to the steps.  The crowd, the people, the display
+contrasted our conversation and our joy.  I was sorry for it.
+
+I immediately gained my coach, which I found near, and which took me
+skilfully out of the court, so that I met with no check, and in a quarter
+of an hour after leaving the sitting, I was at home.
+
+I had need of a little rest, for pleasure even is fatigue, and happiness,
+pure and untroubled as it may be, wearies the spirit.  I entered my
+house, then, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, intending to repose
+myself, and in order to do so in security, I closed my door to everybody.
+
+Alas!  I had not been many minutes at home when I was called away to
+perform one of the most painful and annoying commissions it was ever my
+ill fortune to be charged with.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIV.
+
+A little while before leaving the Cabinet of the Council for the Bed of
+Justice, M. le Duc d'Orleans had begged me to go to the Palais Royal with
+the Keeper of the Seals immediately after the ceremony had ended.  As I
+saw that nothing had been undertaken, I thought myself free of this
+conference, and was glad to avoid a new proof that I had been in a
+secret which had excited envy.  I went, therefore, straight home,
+arriving between two and three.  I found at the foot of the steps
+the Duc d'Humieres, Louville, and all my family, even my mother, whom
+curiosity had drawn from her chamber, which she had not left since the
+commencement of the winter.  We remained below in my apartment, where,
+while changing my coat and my shirt, I replied to their eager questions;
+when, lo!  M. de Biron, who had forced my door which I had closed against
+everybody, in order to obtain a little repose, was announced.
+
+Biron put his head in at my door, and begged to be allowed to say a word
+to me.  I passed, half-dressed, into my chamber with him.  He said that
+M. le Duc d'Orleans had expected me at the Palais Royal immediately after
+the Bed of justice, and was surprised I had not appeared.  He added that
+there was no great harm done; and that the Regent wished to see me now,
+in order that I might execute a commission for him.  I asked Biron what
+it was?  He replied that it was to go to Saint-Clerc to announce what had
+taken place to Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans!
+
+This was a thunder-bolt for me.  I disputed with Biron, who exhorted me
+to lose no time, but to go at once to the Palais Royal, where I was
+expected with impatience.  I returned into my cabinet with him, so
+changed in aspect that Madame de Saint-Simon was alarmed.  I explained
+what was the matter, and after Biron had chatted a moment, and again
+pressed me to set out at once, he went away to eat his dinner.  Ours was
+served.  I waited a little time in order to recover myself, determined
+not to vex M. le Duc d'Orleans by dawdling, took some soup and an egg,
+and went off to the Palais Royal.
+
+It was in vain that, using all the eloquence I could command and all the
+liberty I dared employ, I protested against being employed for this duty.
+I represented to the Regent what an ill-chosen messenger I should be to
+carry to Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans news of the disgrace of her brother
+the Duc du Maine; I, who had always been such an open and declared enemy
+to the bastards!  I represented to him that people would say I went on
+purpose to triumph over her at what had been done, and that she herself
+would look upon my presence as a kind of insult.  In vain! in vain! were
+my arguments, my entreaties, my instances.  M. le Duc d'Orleans had
+determined that I should go on this errand, and go I must.
+
+As I left his house to execute my luckless commission, I found one of
+Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans' pages, booted and spurred, who had just
+arrived from Saint-Cloud.  I begged him to return at once, at a gallop,
+and say, on arriving, to the Duchesse Sforze (one of Madame la Duchesse
+d'Orleans' ladies) that I should be there soon with a message from M. le
+Duc d'Orleans, and to ask her to meet me as I descended from my coach.
+My object was to charge her with the message I had to deliver, and not to
+see Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans at all.  But my poor prudence was
+confounded by that of the page, who had not less than I.  He took good
+care not to be the bearer of such ill news as he had just learned at the
+Palais Royal, and which was now everywhere public.  He contented himself
+with saying that I was coming, sent by M. le Duc d'Orleans, spoke not a
+word to the Duchesse Sforze, and disappeared at once.  This is what I
+afterwards learned, and what I saw clearly enough on arriving at Saint-
+Cloud.
+
+I went there at a gentle trot, in order to give time to the page to
+arrive before me, and to the Duchesse Sforze to receive me.  During the
+journey I applauded myself for my address, but feared lest I should be
+obliged to see Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans after Madame Sforze.  I could
+not imagine that Saint-Cloud was in ignorance of what had occurred, and,
+nevertheless, I was in an agony that cannot be expressed, and this
+increased as I approached the end of my journey.  If it is disagreeable
+to announce unpleasant news to the indifferent, how much more is it to
+announce them to the deeply interested!
+
+Penetrated with this dolorous sentiment I arrived in the grand court of
+Saint-Cloud, and saw everybody at the windows, running from all parts.
+I alighted, and asked the first comer to lead me to the Duchesse Sforze,
+the position of whose apartments I am unacquainted with.  I was told that
+Madame Sforze was in the chapel with Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans.  Then
+I asked for the Marechale de Rochefort, and after a time she arrived,
+hobbling along with her stick.  I disputed with her, wishing to see
+Madame Sforze, who was not to be found.  I was anxious at all events to
+go to her room and wait, but the inexorable Marechale pulled me by the
+arm, asking what news I brought.  Worn out at last, I said, "News?  news
+that you are acquainted with."
+
+"How, acquainted with?" she asked.  "We know nothing, except that a Bed
+of justice has been held, and we are expiring to know why, and what has
+passed there."
+
+My astonishment at this ignorance was extreme, and I made her swear and
+repeat four times over that nothing was known at Saint-Cloud.  I told her
+thereupon what had happened, and she, in her turn, astonished, almost
+fell backwards!  But where was Madame Sforze?  she came not, and do what
+I must, say what I might, I was forced to carry, my message to Madame la
+Duchesse d'Orleans.  I was sorely loth to do so, but was dragged by the
+hand almost as a sheep is led to the slaughter.
+
+I stood before Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans after having passed through
+an apartment filled with her people, fear painted upon all their faces.
+I saluted her; but, oh! how differently from my usual manner!  She did
+not perceive this at first, and begged me, with a cheerful natural air,
+to approach her; but seeing my trouble, she exclaimed, "Good Heavens,
+Monsieur, what a face you wear!  What news bring you?"
+
+Seeing that I remained silent and motionless, she became more moved, and
+repeated her questions.  I advanced a few steps towards her, and at her
+third appeal, I said: "Madame, you know nothing then?"
+
+"No, Monsieur; I simply know that there has been a Bed of justice: what
+has passed there I am quite ignorant of."
+
+"Ah, Madame," I replied, half turning away; "I am more unhappy, then,
+than I thought to be."
+
+"What is the matter?" exclaimed she; "what has happened?" (rising and
+sitting bolt upright on the sofa she was stretched upon.)  "Come near and
+sit down!"
+
+I approached; stated that I was in despair.  She, more and more moved,
+said to me, "But speak; better to learn bad news from one's friend than
+from others."
+
+This remark pierced me to the heart, and made me sensible of the grief I
+was going to inflict upon her.  I summoned up courage, and I told her
+all.
+
+The tears of Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans flowed abundantly at my
+recital.  She did not answer a word, uttered no cry, but wept bitterly.
+She pointed to a seat and I sat down upon it, my eyes during several
+instants fixed upon the floor.  Afterwards I said that M. le Duc
+d'Orleans, who had rather forced upon me this commission, than charged me
+with it, had expressly commanded me to tell her that he had very strong
+proofs in his hands against M. du Maine; that he had kept them back a
+long time, but could no longer do so now.  She gently replied to me that
+her brother was very unfortunate and shortly afterwards asked if I knew
+what his crime was.  I said that M. le Duc d'Orleans had not told me; and
+that I had not dared to question him upon a subject of this nature,
+seeing that he was not inclined to talk of it.
+
+More tears shortly afterwards filled her eyes.  Her brother must be very
+criminal, she said, to be so treated.
+
+I remained some time upon my seat, not daring to raise my eyes, in the
+most painful state possible, and not knowing whether to remain or go
+away.  At last I acquainted her with my difficulty; said I fancied she
+would like to be alone some little time before giving me her orders, but
+that respect kept me equally in suspense as to whether I should go or
+stay.  After a short silence, she said she should like to see her women.
+I rose, sent them to her, and said to them, if her Royal Highness asked
+for me, I should be with the Duchesse Sforze, or the Marechale Rochefort;
+but I could find neither of these two ladies, so I went up to Madame.
+
+She rose as soon as I appeared, and said to me, with eagerness, "Well,
+Monsieur, what news?"  At the same time her ladies retired, and I was left
+alone with her.
+
+I commenced by an excuse for not coming to see her first, as was my duty,
+on the ground that M. le Duc d'Orleans had assured me she would not
+object to my commencing with Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans.  She did not
+object, in fact, but asked me for my news with much eagerness.  I told
+her what had happened.  Joy spread over her face.  She replied with a
+mighty, "At last!" which she repeated, saying, her son long since ought
+to have struck this blow, but that he was too good.  I mentioned to her
+that she was standing, but for politeness she remained so.  After some
+further talk she begged me to state all the details of this celebrated
+morning.
+
+I again recalled to her mind that she was standing, and represented that
+what she desired to learn would take a long time to relate; but her ardor
+to know it was extreme.  I began then my story, commencing with the very
+morning.  At the end of a quarter of an hour, Madame seated herself, but
+with the greatest politeness.  I was nearly an hour with her, continually
+telling and sometimes replying to her questions.  She was delighted at
+the humiliation of the Parliament, and of the bastards, and that her son
+had at last displayed some firmness.
+
+At this point the Marechale de Rochefort entered, and summoned me back to
+Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans.  I found that princess extended upon the
+sofa where I had left her, an inkstand upon her knees and a pen in her
+hand.  She had commenced a reply to M. le Duc d'Orleans, but had not been
+able to finish it.  Looking at me with an air of gentleness and of
+friendship, she observed, "Tears escape me; I have begged you to descend
+in order to render me a service; my hand is unsteady, I pray you finish
+my writing for me;" and she handed to me the inkstand and her letter.  I
+took them, and she dictated to me the rest of the epistle, that I at once
+added to what she had written.
+
+I was infinitely amazed at the conciseness and appropriateness of the
+expressions she readily found, in the midst of her violent emotion, her
+sobs, and her tears.  She finished by saying that she was going to
+Montmartre to mourn the misfortunes of her brother, and pray God for his
+prosperity.  I shall regret all my life I did not transcribe this letter.
+All its expressions were so worthy, so fitting, so measured, everything
+being according to truth and duty; and the letter, in fact, being so
+perfectly well written, that although I remember it roughly, I dare not
+give it, for fear of spoiling it.  What a pity that a mind capable of
+such self-possession, at such a moment, should have become valueless from
+its leaning towards illegitimacy.
+
+After this I had another interview with Madame, and a long talk with my
+sure and trusty friend Madame Sforze.  Then I set out for Paris, went
+straight to the Palais Royal, and found M. le Duc d'Orleans with Madame
+la Duchesse de Berry.  He was delighted when he heard what Madame had
+said respecting him; but he was not particularly pleased when he found
+that Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans (who after telling me she would go to
+Montmartre, had changed her mind), was coming to the Palais Royal.
+
+I learned afterwards that she came about half an hour after I left.  At
+first she was all humility and sorrow, hoping to soften the Regent by
+this conduct.  Then she passed to tears, sobs, cries, reproaches,
+expecting to make him by these means undo what he had done, and reinstate
+M. du Maine in the position he had lost.  But all her efforts proving
+vain, she adopted another course: her sorrow turned to rage,--her tears
+to looks of anger.  Still in vain.  She could gain nothing; vex and annoy
+M. le Duc d'Orleans as she might by her conduct.  At last, finding there
+was no remedy to be had, she was obliged to endure her sorrow as best she
+might.
+
+As for me, I was erased entirely from her books.  She looked upon me as
+the chief cause of what had occurred, and would not see me.  I remained
+ever afterwards at variance with her.  I had nothing to reproach myself
+with, however, so that her enmity did not very deeply penetrate me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCV
+
+It was scarcely to be expected, perhaps, that M. du Maine would remain
+altogether quiet under the disgrace which had been heaped upon him by the
+proceedings at the Bed of Justice.  Soon indeed we found that he had been
+secretly working out the most perfidious and horrible schemes for a long
+time before that assembly; and that after his fall, he gave himself up
+with redoubled energy to his devilish devices.
+
+Towards the end of this memorable year, 1718, it was discovered that
+Alberoni, by means of Cellamare, Spanish Ambassador at our Court, was
+preparing a plot against the Regent.  The scheme was nothing less than to
+throw all the realm into revolt against the government of M. le Duc
+d'Orleans; to put the King of Spain at the head of the affairs of France,
+with a council and ministers named by him, and a lieutenant, who would in
+fact have been regent; this self-same lieutenant to be no other than the
+Duc du Maine!
+
+This precious plot was, fortunately, discovered before it had come to
+maturity.  Had such not happened, the consequences might have been very
+serious, although they could scarcely have been fatal.  The conspirators
+counted upon the Parliaments of Paris and of Brittany, upon all the old
+Court accustomed to the yoke of the bastards, and to that of Madame de
+Maintenon; and they flung about promises with an unsparing hand to all
+who supported them.  After all, it must be admitted, however, that the
+measures they took and the men they secured, were strangely unequal to
+the circumstances of the case, when the details became known; in fact,
+there was a general murmur of surprise among the public, at the
+contemptible nature of the whole affair.
+
+But let me relate the circumstances accompanying the discovery of M. du
+Maine's pitiable treachery.
+
+Cellamare, as I have said, was Spanish Ambassador at our Court.  He had
+been one of the chief movers in the plot.  He had excited, as much as lay
+in his power, discontent against the Regent's government; he had done his
+best to embroil France with Spain; he had worked heart and soul with M.
+du Maine, to carry out the common end they had in view.  So much
+preparation had been made; so much of the treason train laid, that at
+last it became necessary to send to Alberoni a full and clear account of
+all that had been done, so as to paint exactly the position of affairs,
+and determine the measures that remained to be taken.  But how to send
+such an account as this?  To trust it to the ordinary channels of
+communication would have been to run a great risk of exposure and
+detection.  To send it by private hand would have been suspicious, if the
+hand were known, and dangerous if it were not: Cellamare had long since
+provided for this difficulty.
+
+He had caused a young ecclesiastic to be sent from Spain, who came to
+Paris as though for his pleasure.  There he was introduced to young
+Monteleon, son of a former ambassador at our Court, who had been much
+liked.  The young ecclesiastic was called the Abbe Portocarrero, a name
+regarded with favour in France.  Monteleon came from the Hague, and was
+going to Madrid.  Portocarrero came from Madrid, and was going back
+there.  What more natural than that the two young men should travel in
+company?  What less natural than that the two young men, meeting each
+other by pure accident in Paris, should be charged by the ambassador with
+any packet of consequence, he having his own couriers, and the use, for
+the return journey, of those sent to him from Spain?  In fact, it may be
+believed that these young people themselves were perfectly ignorant of
+what they were charged with, and simply believed that, as they were going
+to Spain, the ambassador merely seized the occasion to entrust them with
+some packet of no special importance.
+
+They set out, then, at the commencement of December, furnished with
+passports from the King--(for Alberoni had openly caused almost a rupture
+between the two Courts)--with a Spanish banker, who had been established
+in England, where he had become bankrupt for a large amount, so that the
+English government had obtained permission from the Regent to arrest him,
+if they could, anywhere in France.  It will sometimes be perceived that I
+am ill-instructed in this affair; but I can only tell what I know: and as
+for the rest, I give my conjectures.  In fact, the Abbe Dubois kept
+everybody so much in the dark, that even M. le Duc d'Orleans was not
+informed of all.
+
+Whether the arrival of the Abbe Portocarrero in Paris, and his short stay
+there, seemed suspicious to the Abbe Dubois and his emissaries, or
+whether he had corrupted some of the principal people of the Spanish
+Ambassador and this Court, and learned that these young men were charged
+with a packet of importance; whether there was no other mystery than the
+bad company of the bankrupt banker, and that the anxiety of Dubois to
+oblige his friends the English, induced him to arrest the three
+travellers and seize their papers, lest the banker should have confided
+his to the young men, I know not: but however it may have been, it is
+certain that the Abbe Dubois arrested the three travellers at Poitiers,
+and carried off their papers, a courier bringing these papers to him
+immediately afterwards.
+
+Great things sometimes spring from chance.  The courier from Poitiers
+entered the house of the Abbe Dubois just as the Regent entered the
+opera.  Dubois glanced over the papers, and went and related the news of
+this capture to M. le Duc Orleans, as he left his box.  This prince, who
+was accustomed to shut himself up with his roues at that hour, did so
+with a carelessness to which everything yielded, under pretext that
+Dubois had not had sufficient time to examine all the papers.  The first
+few hours of the morning he was not himself.  His head, still confused by
+the fumes of the wine and by the undigested supper of the previous night,
+was not in a state to understand anything, and the secretaries of state
+have often told me that was the time they could make him sign anything.
+This was the moment taken by Dubois to acquaint the Regent with as much
+or as little of the contents of the papers as he thought fit.  The upshot
+of their interview was, that the Abbe was allowed by the Duc d'Orleans to
+have the control of this matter entirely in his own hands.
+
+The day after the arrival of the courier from Poitiers, Cellamare,
+informed of what had occurred, but who flattered himself that the
+presence of the banker had caused the arrest of the young men, and the
+seizure of their papers, hid his fears under a very tranquil bearing, and
+went, at one o'clock in the day, to M. le Blanc, to ask for a packet of
+letters he had entrusted to Portocarrero and Monteleon on their return to
+Spain.  Le Blanc (who had had his lesson prepared beforehand by the Abbe
+Dubois) replied that the packet had been seen; that it contained
+important things, and that, far from being restored to him, he himself
+must go back to his hotel under escort, to meet there M. l'Abbe Dubois.
+The ambassador, who felt that such a compliment would not be attempted
+with out means having been prepared to put it in execution, made no
+difficulty, and did not lose for a moment his address or his
+tranquillity.
+
+During the three hours, at least, passed in his house, in the examination
+of all his bureaux and his boxes, and his papers, Cellamare, like a man
+who fears nothing, and who is sure of his game, treated M. le Blanc very
+civilly; as for the Abbe Dubois, with whom he felt he had no measure to
+keep (all the plot being discovered), he affected to treat him with the
+utmost disdain.  Thus Le Blanc, taking hold of a little casket, Cellamare
+cried, "M. le Blanc, M. le Blanc, leave that alone; that is not for you;
+that is for the Abbe Dubois" (who was then present).  Then looking at
+him, he added, "He has been a pander all his life, and there are nothing
+but women's letters there."
+
+
+[Illustration: Search Of The Spanish Ambassador--Painted by Maurice Leloir--front3]
+
+
+The Abbe Dubois burst out laughing, not daring to grow angry.
+
+When all was examined, the King's seal, and that of the ambassador, were
+put upon all the bureaux and the caskets which contained papers.  The
+Abbe Dubois and Le Blanc went off together to give an account of their
+proceedings to the Regent, leaving a company of musketeers to guard the
+ambassador and his household.
+
+I heard of the capture effected at Poitiers, at home, the morning after
+it occurred, without knowing anything of those arrested.  As I was at
+table, a servant came to me from M. le Duc d'Orleans, summoning me to a
+council of the regency, at four o'clock that day.  As it was not the
+usual day for the council, I asked what was the matter.  The messenger
+was surprised at my ignorance and informed me that the Spanish ambassador
+was arrested.  As soon as I had eaten a morsel, I quitted my company, and
+hastened to the Palais Royal, where I learnt from M. le Duc d'Orleans all
+that I have just related.  Our conversation took up time, and, when it
+was over, I went away to the Tuileries.  I found there astonishment
+painted upon several faces; little groups of two, three, and four people
+together; and the majority struck by the importance of the arrest, and
+little disposed to approve it.
+
+M. le Duc d'Orleans arrived shortly after.  He had, better than any man I
+have ever known, the gift of speech, and without needing any preparation
+he said exactly what he wanted to say, neither more nor less; his
+expressions were just and precise, a natural grace accompanied them with
+an air of proper dignity, always mixed with an air of politeness.  He
+opened the council with a discourse upon the people and the papers seized
+at Poitiers, the latter proving that a very dangerous conspiracy against
+the state was on the eve of bursting, and of which the Ambassador of
+Spain was the principal promoter.  His Royal Highness alleged the
+pressing reasons which had induced him to secure the person of this
+ambassador, to examine his papers, and to place them under guard.  He
+showed that the protection afforded by the law of nations did not extend
+to conspiracies, that ambassadors rendered themselves unworthy of that
+protection when they took part in them, still more when they excited
+people against the state where they dwelt.  He cited several examples of
+ambassadors arrested for less.  He explained the orders he had given so
+as to inform all the foreign ministers in Paris of what had occurred, and
+had ordered Dubois to render an account to the council of what he had
+done at the ambassador's, and offered to read the letters from Cellamare
+to Cardinal Alberoni, found among the papers brought from Poitiers.
+
+The Abbe Dubois stammered out a short and ill-arranged recital of what he
+had done at the ambassador's house, and dwelt upon the importance of the
+discovery and upon that of the conspiracy as far as already known.  The
+two letters he read left me no doubt that Cellamare was at the head of
+this affair, and that Alberoni had entered into it as far as he.  We were
+much scandalised with the expressions in these letters against M. le Duc
+d'Orleans, who was in no way spared.
+
+This prince spoke again, to say he did not suspect the King or Queen of
+Spain to be mixed up in this affair, but that he attributed it all to the
+passion of Alberoni, and that of his ambassador to please him, and that
+he would ask for justice from their Catholic Majesties.  He showed the
+importance of neglecting no means in order to clear up an affair so
+capital to the repose and tranquillity of the kingdom, and finished by
+saying, that until he knew more he would name nobody who was mixed up in
+the matter.  All this speech was much applauded, and I believe there were
+some among the company who felt greatly relieved when they heard the
+Regent say he would name nobody nor would he allow suspicions to be
+circulated until all was unravelled.
+
+Nevertheless the next day, Saturday, the 10th of December, more than one
+arrest was made.  Others took place a few days afterwards.
+
+On Tuesday, the 13th of December, all the foreign ministers went to the
+Palais Royal, according to custom; not one made any complaint of what had
+happened.  A copy of the two letters read at the council was given to
+them.  In the afternoon, Cellamare was placed in a coach with a captain
+of cavalry and a captain of dragoons, chosen to conduct him: to Blois,
+until Saint-Aignan, our ambassador in Spain, should arrive in France.
+
+The position of our ambassador, Saint-Aignan, at Madrid, was, as may be
+imagined, by no means agreeable.  The two courts were just upon the point
+of an open rupture, thanks to the hatred Alberoni had made it a principle
+to keep up in Spain against M. le Duc d'Orleans, by crying down his
+actions, his government, his personal conduct, his most innocent acts,
+and by rendering suspicious even his favourable proceedings with regard
+to Spain.  Alberoni for a long time had ceased to keep on even decent
+terms with Saint-Aignan, scandalising thus even the most unfavourably
+disposed towards France.  Saint-Aignan only maintained his position by
+the sagacity of his conduct, and he was delighted when he received orders
+to return to France.  He asked for his parting audience, and meanwhile
+bade adieu to all his friends and to all the Court.  Alberoni, who every
+moment expected decisive news from Cellamare respecting the conspiracy,
+wished to remain master of our ambassador, so as, in case of accident,
+to have a useful hostage in his hands as security for his own ambassador.
+He put off therefore this parting audience under various pretexts.  At
+last, Saint-Aignan, pressed by his reiterated orders (orders all the more
+positive because suspicion had already begun to foresee a disturbance
+ever alarming), spoke firmly to the Cardinal, and declared that if this
+audience were not at once accorded to him, he would do without it!
+Therefore the Cardinal, in anger, replied with a menace, that he knew
+well enough how to hinder, him, from acting thus.
+
+Saint-Aignan wisely contained himself; but seeing to what sort of a man
+he was exposed, and judging rightly why he was detained at Madrid, took
+his measures so secretly and so well, that he set out the same night,
+with his most necessary equipage, gained ground and arrived at the foot
+of the Pyrenees without being overtaken and arrested; two occurrences
+which he expected at every moment, knowing that Alberoni was a man who
+would stick at nothing.
+
+Saint-Aignan, already so far advanced, did not deem it advisable to
+expose himself any longer, bothered as he would be among the mountains by
+his carriages.  He and the Duchess, his wife, followed by a waiting-woman
+and three valets, with a very trusty guide, mounted upon mules and rode
+straight for Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port without stopping a moment more on
+the road than was necessary.  He sent on his equipages to Pampeluna at a
+gentle pace, and placed in his carriage an intelligent valet de chambre
+and a waiting-woman, with orders to pass themselves off as the ambassador
+and ambassadress of France, and in case they were arrested to cry out a
+good deal.  The arrest did not fail to happen.  The people despatched by
+Alberoni soon came up with the carriage.  The pretended ambassador and
+ambassadress played their parts very well, and they who had arrested them
+did not doubt for a moment they had made a fine capture, sending news of
+it to Madrid, and keeping the prisoners in Pampeluna, to which the party
+returned.
+
+This device saved M. and Madame de Saint-Aignan, and gave them means to
+reach Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port; as soon as they arrived there they sent
+for assistance and carriages to Bayonne, which they gained in safety, and
+reposed after their fatigue.  The Duc de Saint-Aignan sent word of all
+this to M. le Duc d'Orleans by a courier, and, at this arrival in
+Bayonne, despatched a message to the Governor of Pampeluna, begging him
+to send on his equipages.  Alberoni's people were very much ashamed of
+having been duped, but Alberoni when he heard of it flew into a furious
+rage, and cruelly punished the mistake.  The equipages were sent on to
+Bayonne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCVI
+
+To return now to what took place at Paris.
+
+On Sunday, the 25th of December, Christmas Day, M. le Duc d'Orleans sent
+for me to come and see him at the Palais Royal, about four o'clock in the
+afternoon.  I went accordingly, and after despatching some business with
+him, other people being present, I followed him into his little winter
+cabinet at the end of the little gallery, M. le Duc being present.
+
+After a moment of silence, the Regent told me to see if no one was
+outside in the gallery, and if the door at the end was closed.  I went
+out, found the door shut, and no one near.
+
+This being ascertained, M. le Duc d'Orleans said that we should not be
+surprised to learn that M. and Madame du Maine had been mixed up all
+along with this affair of the Spanish Ambassador Cellamare; that he had
+written proofs of this, and that the project was exactly that which I
+have already described.  He added, that he had strictly forbidden the
+Keeper of the Seals, the Abbe Dubois, and Le Blanc, who alone knew of
+this project, to give the slightest sign of their knowledge, recommended
+to me the same secrecy, and the same precaution; and finished by saying
+that he wished, above all things, to consult M. le Duc and me upon the
+course he ought to adopt.
+
+M. le Duc at once went to the point and said M. and Madame du Maine must
+at once be arrested and put where they could cause no apprehension.  I
+supported this opinion, and showed the perilous annoyances that might
+arise if this step were not instantly taken; as much for the purpose of
+striking terror into the conspirators, as for disconcerting their
+schemes.  I added that there was not a moment to lose, and that it was
+better to incur uncertain danger than to wait for that which was certain.
+
+Our advice was accepted by M. le Duc d'Orleans, after some little debate.
+But now the question arose, where are the prisoners to be put?  The
+Bastille and Vincennes both seemed to me too near to Paris.  Several
+places were named without one appearing to suit.  At lasts M. le Duc
+d'Orleans mentioned Dourlens.  I stopped him short at the name, and
+recommended it warmly.  I knew the governor, Charost, and his son to be
+men of probity, faithful, virtuous, and much attached to the state.  Upon
+this it was agreed to send M. du Maine to Dourlens.
+
+Then we had to fix upon a place for his wife, and this was more
+difficult; there were her sex, her fiery temper, her courage; her
+daring,--all to be considered; whereas, her husband, we knew, so
+dangerous as a hidden enemy, was contemptible without his mask, and would
+fall into the lowest state of dejection in prison, trembling all over
+with fear of the scaffold, and attempting nothing; his wife, on the
+contrary, being capable of attempting anything:
+
+Various places discussed, M. le Duc d'Orleans smiled, and proposed the
+chateau of Dijon!  Now, the joke of this suggestion was, that Dijon
+belonged to M. le Duc, and that he was nephew of Madame du Maine, whom
+the Regent proposed to lock up there!  M. le Duc smiled also, and said it
+was a little too bad to make him the gaoler of his aunt!  But all things
+considered, it was found that a better choice than Dijon could not be
+made, so M. le Duc gave way.  I fancy he had held out more for form's
+sake than for any other reason.  These points settled, we separated, to
+meet another time, in order to make the final arrangements for the
+arrest.
+
+We met accordingly, the Monday and Tuesday following, and deliberated
+with the same secrecy as before.  On Wednesday we assembled again to put
+the final touch to our work.  Our conference was long, and the result of
+it was, that M. and Madame du Maine were to be arrested on the morrow;
+all the necessary arrangements were made, and, as we thought, with the
+utmost secrecy.  Nevertheless, the orders given to the regiment of the
+guards, and to the musketeers somehow or other transpired during the
+evening, and gave people reason to believe that something considerable
+was in contemplation.  On leaving the conference, I arranged with Le
+Blanc that, when the blow was struck, he should inform me by simply
+sending a servant to inquire after my health.
+
+The morrow, about ten o'clock in the morning, having noiselessly and
+without show placed the body-guard around Sceaux, La Billardiere,
+lieutenant of the regiment, entered there, and arrested the Duc du Maine
+as he was leaving his chapel after hearing mass, and very respectfully
+begged him not to re-enter the house, but to mount immediately into a
+coach which he had brought.  M. du Maine, who had expected this arrest,
+and who had had time to put his papers in order, mad not the slightest
+resistance.  He replied that he had anticipated this compliment for some
+days, and at once moved into the coach.  La Billardiere placed himself by
+his side, and in front was an exempt of the bodyguards, and Favancourt,
+brigadier in the first company of musketeers, destined to guard him in
+his prison.
+
+As these two latter persons did not appear before the Duc du Maine until
+the moment he entered the coach, be appeared surprised and moved to see
+Favancourt.
+
+He would not have been at the exempt, but the sight of the other
+depressed him.  He asked La Billardiere what this meant.  Billardiere
+could not dissimulate that Favancourt had orders to accompany him, and to
+remain with him in the place to which they were going.  Favancourt
+himself took this moment to pay his compliments as best he might to the
+Duc du Maine, to which the Duke replied but little, and that in a civil
+and apprehensive manner.  These proceedings conducted them to the end of
+the avenue of Sceaux, where the bodyguards appeared.  The sight of them
+made the Duc du Maine change colour.
+
+Silence was but little interrupted in the coach.  Now and then M. du
+Maine would say that he was very innocent of the accusation which had
+been formed against him; that he was much attached to the King, and not
+less so to M. le Duc d'Orleans, who could not but recognise it; and that
+it was very unfortunate his Royal Highness should put faith in his
+enemies (he never named anybody).  All this was said in a broken manner,
+and amid many sighs; from time to time signs of the cross; low mumblings
+as of prayers; and plunges at each church or each cross they passed.  He
+took his meals in the coach, ate very little, was alone at night, but
+with good precautions taken.  He did not know until the morrow that he
+was going to Dourlens.  He showed no emotion thereupon.  All these
+details I learnt from Favancourt, whom I knew very well, and who was in
+the Musketeers when I served in that corps.
+
+At the moment of the arrest of M. du Maine, Ancenis, captain of the body-
+guard, arrested the Duchesse du Maine in her house in the Rue St.
+Honore.  A lieutenant, and an exempt of the foot body-guards, with other
+troops, took possession of the house at the same time, and guarded the
+doors.  The compliment of the Duc d'Ancenis was sharply received.  Madame
+du Maine wished to take away some caskets.  Ancenis objected.  She
+demanded, at the least, her jewels; altercations very strong on one side,
+very modest on the other: but she was obliged to yield.  She raged at the
+violence done to a person of her rank, without saying anything too
+disobliging to M. d'Ancenis, and without naming anybody.  She delayed her
+departure as long as she could, despite the instances of d'Ancenis, who
+at last presented his hand to her, and politely, but firmly, said she
+must go.  She found at her door two six-horse coaches, the sight of which
+much shocked her.  She was obliged, however, to mount.  Ancenis placed
+himself by her side, the lieutenant and the exempt of the guard in front,
+two chambermaids whom she had chosen were in the other coach, with her
+apparel, which had been examined.  The ramparts were followed, the
+principal streets avoided; there was no stir, and at this she could not
+restrain her surprise and vexation, or check a tear, declaiming by fits
+and starts against the violence done her.  She complained of the rough
+coach, the indignity it cast upon her, and from time to time asked where
+she was being led to.  She was simply told that she would sleep at
+Essonne, nothing more.  Her three guardians maintained profound silence.
+At night all possible precautions were taken.  When she set out the next
+day, the Duc d'Ancenis took leave of her, and left her to the lieutenant
+and to the exempt of the body-guards, with troops to conduct her.  She
+asked where they were leading her to: he simply replied,
+"To Fontainebleau."  The disquietude of Madame du Maine augmented as she
+left Paris farther behind, but when she found herself in Burgundy, and
+knew at last she was to go to Dijon, she stormed at a fine rate.
+
+It was worse when she was forced to enter the castle, and found herself
+the prisoner of M. le Duc.  Fury suffocated her.  She raged against her
+nephew, and the horrible place chosen for her.  Nevertheless, after her
+first transports, she returned to herself, and began to comprehend that
+she was in no place and no condition to play the fury.  Her extreme rage
+she kept to herself, affected nothing but indifference for all, and
+disdainful security.  The King's lieutenant of the castle, absolutely
+devoted to M. le Duc, kept her fast, and closely watched her and her
+chambermaids.  The Prince de Dombes and the Comte d'Eu (her sons) were at
+the same time exiled to Eu, where a gentleman in ordinary always was near
+them; Mademoiselle du Maine was sent to Maubuisson.
+
+Several other people were successively arrested and placed either in the
+Bastille or Vincennes.  The commotion caused by the arrest and
+imprisonment of M. and Madame du Maine was great; many faces, already
+elongated by the Bed of justice, were still further pulled out by these
+events.  The Chief-President, D'Effiat, the Marechal de Villeroy, the
+Marechal de Villars, the Marechal d'Huxelles, and other devoted friends
+of M. du Maine, were completely terrified; they did not dare to say a
+word; they kept out of the way; did not leave their houses except from
+necessity; fear was painted upon their faces.  All their pride was put
+aside; they became polite, caressing, would have eaten out of your hand;
+and by this sudden change and their visible embarrassment betrayed
+themselves.
+
+As for the Comte de Toulouse he remained as upright and loyal as ever.
+The very day of the double arrest he came to M. le Duc d'Orleans and said
+that he regarded the King, the Regent, and the State as one and the same
+thing; that he should never be wanting in his duty or in his fidelity
+towards them; that he was very sorry at what had happened to his brother,
+but that he was in no way answerable for him.  The Regent stated this to
+me the same day, and appeared, with reason, to be charmed with such
+straightforward honesty.
+
+This arrest of M. and Madame du Maine had another effect.  For some time
+past, a large quantity of illicit salt had been sold throughout the
+country.  The people by whom this trade was conducted, 'faux sauniers',
+as they were called, travelled over the provinces in bands well armed and
+well organized.  So powerful had they become that troops were necessary
+in order to capture them.  There were more than five thousand faux
+saumers, who openly carried on their traffic in Champagne and Picardy.
+They had become political instruments in the hands of others, being
+secretly encouraged and commanded by those who wished to sow trouble in
+the land.  It could not be hidden that these 'faux sauniers' were
+redoubtable by their valour and their arrangements; that the people were
+favourable to them, buying as they did from them salt at a low price, and
+irritated as they were against the gabelle and other imposts; that these
+'faux sauniers' spread over all the realm, and often marching in large
+bands, which beat all opposed to them, were dangerous people, who incited
+the population by their examples to opposition against the government.
+
+I had proposed on one occasion the abolition of the salt tax to the
+Regent, as a remedy for these evils; but my suggestion shared the fate of
+many others.  It was favourably listened to, and nothing more.  And
+meanwhile the 'faux sauniers' had gone on increasing.  I had no
+difficulty in discovering by whom they were encouraged, and the event
+showed I was right.  Directly after the arrest of M. and Madame du Maine,
+the 'faux sauniers' laid down their arms, asked, and obtained pardon.
+This prompt submission showed dearly enough by whom they had been
+employed, and for what reason.  I had uselessly told M. le Duc d'Orleans
+so long before, who admitted that I was right, but did nothing.  It was
+his usual plan.
+
+Let me finish at once with all I shall have to say respecting M. and
+Madame du Maine.
+
+They remained in their prisons during the whole of the year 1719,
+supplied with all the comforts and attentions befitting their state, and
+much less rigorously watched than at first, thanks to the easy
+disposition of M. le Duc d'Orleans, whose firmness yielded even more
+rapidly than beauty to the effects of time.  The consequence of his
+indulgence towards the two conspirators was, that at about the
+commencement of the following year, 1720, they began to play a very
+ridiculous comedy, of which not a soul was the dupe; not even the public,
+nor the principal actors, nor the Regent.
+
+The Duc and Duchesse du Maine, thanks to the perfidy of the Abbe Dubois,
+had had time to hide away all their papers, and to arrange together the
+different parts they should play.  Madame du Maine, supported by her sex
+and birth, muffled herself up in her dignity, when replying to the
+questions addressed to her, of which just as many, and no more, were read
+to the replying counsel as pleased the Abbe Dubois; and strongly accusing
+Cellamare and others; protected as much as possible her friends, her
+husband above all, by charging herself with all; by declaring that what
+she had done M. du Maine had no knowledge of; and that its object went no
+farther than to obtain from the Regent such reforms in his administration
+as were wanted.
+
+The Duc du Maine, shorn of his rank and of his title of prince of the
+blood, trembled for his life.  His crimes against the state, against the
+blood royal, against the person of the Regent, so long, so artfully, and
+so cruelly offended, troubled him all the more because he felt they
+deserved severe punishment.  He soon, therefore, conceived the idea of
+screening himself beneath his wife's petticoats.  His replies, and all
+his observations were to the same tune; perfect ignorance of everything.
+Therefore when the Duchess had made her confessions, and they were
+communicated to him, he cried out against his wife,--her madness, her
+felony,--his misfortune in having a wife capable of conspiring, and
+daring enough to implicate him in everything without having spoken to
+him; making him thus a criminal without being so the least in the world;
+and keeping him so ignorant of her doings, that it was out of his power
+to stop them, to chide her, or inform M. le Duc d'Orleans if things had
+been pushed so far that he ought to have done so!
+
+From that time the Duc du Maine would no longer hear talk of a woman who,
+without his knowledge, had cast him and his children into this abyss; and
+when at their release from prison, they were permitted to write and send
+messages to each other, he would receive nothing from her, or give any
+signs of life.  Madame du Maine, on her side, pretended to be afflicted
+at this treatment; admitting, nevertheless, that she had acted wrongfully
+towards her husband in implicating him without his knowledge in her
+schemes.  They were at this point when they were allowed to come near
+Paris.  M. du Maine went to live at Clagny, a chateau near Versailles,
+built for Madame de Montespan.  Madame du Maine went to Sceaux.  They
+came separately to see M. le Duc d'Orleans at Paris, without sleeping
+there; both played their parts, and as the Abbe Dubois judged the time
+had come to take credit to himself in their eyes for finishing their
+disgrace, he easily persuaded M. le Duc d'Orleans to, appear convinced of
+the innocence of M. du Maine.
+
+During their stay in the two country-houses above named, where they saw
+but little company, Madame du Maine made many attempts at reconciliation
+with her husband, which he repelled.  This farce lasted from the month of
+January (when they arrived at Sceaux and at Clagny) to the end of July.
+Then they thought the game had lasted long enough to be put an end to.
+They had found themselves quit of all danger so cheaply, and counted so
+much upon the Abbe Dubois, that they were already thinking of returning
+to their former considerations; and to work at this usefully, they must
+be in a position to see each other, and commence by establishing
+themselves in Paris, where they would of necessity live together.
+
+The sham rupture had been carried to this extent, that the two sons of
+the Duc du Maine returned from Eu to Clagny a few days after him, did not
+for a long time go and see Madame du Maine, and subsequently saw her but
+rarely, and without sleeping under her roof.
+
+At last a resolution being taken to put an end to the comedy, this is how
+it was terminated by another.
+
+Madame la Princesse made an appointment with the Duc du Maine, at
+Vaugirard on the last of July, and in the house of Landais, treasurer of
+the artillery.  She arrived there a little after him with the Duchesse du
+Maine, whom she left in her carriage.  She said to M. du Maine she had
+brought a lady with her who much desired to see him.  The thing was not
+difficult to understand; the piece had been well studied.  The Duchesse
+du Maine was sent for.  The apparent reconcilement took place.  The three
+were a long time together.  To play out the comedy, M. and Madame du
+Maine still kept apart, but saw and approached each other by degrees,
+until at last the former returned to Sceaux, and lived with his wife as
+before.
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARK:
+
+He was often firm in promises
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Memoirs Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, v12
+#12 in our series by The Duc de Saint-Simon
+#34 in our series Historic Court Memoirs
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+Title: The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, v12
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+
+          MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV AND HIS COURT AND OF THE REGENCY
+
+                        BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON
+
+  
+                              VOLUME 12.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVIII
+
+Policy and Schemes of Alberoni.--He is Made a Cardinal.--Other Rewards
+Bestowed on Him.--Dispute with the Majordomo.--An Irruption into the
+Royal Apartment.--The Cardinal Thrashed.--Extraordinary Scene.
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIX
+
+Anecdote of the Duc d'Orleans.--He Pretends to Reform --Trick Played upon
+Me.--His Hoaxes.--His Panegyric of Me.--Madame de Sabran.--How the Regent
+Treated His Mistresses.
+
+
+CHAPTER XC
+
+Encroachments of the Parliament.--The Money Edict.--Conflict of Powers--
+Vigorous Conduct of the Parliament.--Opposed with Equal Vigour by the
+Regent.--Anecdote of the Duchesse du Maine.--Further Proceedings of the
+Parliament.--Influence of the Reading of Memoirs.--Conduct of the
+Regent.--My Political Attitude.--Conversation with the Regent on the
+Subject of the Parliament.--Proposal to Hang Law.--Meeting at My House.--
+Law Takes Refuge in the Palais Royal.
+
+
+CHAPTER XCI
+
+Proposed Bed of Justice.--My Scheme.--Interview with the Regent.--
+The Necessary Seats for the Assembly.--I Go in Search of Fontanieu.--
+My Interview with Hini.--I Return to the Palace.--Preparations.--
+Proposals of M. le Duc to Degrade M. du Maine.--My Opposition.--My Joy
+and Delight.--The Bed of Justice Finally Determined On.--A Charming
+Messenger.--Final Preparations.--Illness of the Regent.--News Given to
+M. du Maine.--Resolution of the Parliament.--Military Arrangements.--I Am
+Summoned to the Council.--My Message to the Comte de Toulouse.
+
+
+CHAPTER XCII
+
+The Material Preparations for the Bed of Justice--Arrival of the Duc
+d'Orleans:--The Council Chamber.--Attitude of the Various Actors.--The
+Duc du Maine.--Various Movements.--Arrival of the Duc de Toulouse.--
+Anxiety of the Two Bastards.--They Leave the Room.--Subsequent
+Proceedings.--Arrangement of the Council Chamber.--Speech of the Regent.
+--Countenances of the Members of Council.--The Regent Explains the Object
+of the Bed of Justice.--Speech of the Keeper of the Seals.--Taking the
+Votes.--Incidents That Followed.--New Speech of the Duc d'Orleans.--
+Against the Bastards.--My Joy.--I Express My Opinion Modestly.--Exception
+in Favour of the Comte de Toulouse.--New Proposal of M. le Duc.--Its
+Effect.--Threatened Disobedience of the Parliament.--Proper Measures.--
+The Parliament Sets Out.
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIII
+
+Continuation of the Scene in the Council Chamber.--Slowness of the
+Parliament.--They Arrive at Last.--The King Fetched.--Commencement of the
+Bed of Justice.--My Arrival.--Its Effect.--What I Observed.--Absence of
+the Bastards Noticed.--Appearance of the King. The Keeper of the Seals.--
+The Proceedings Opened.--Humiliation of the Parliament.--Speech of the
+Chief-President.--New Announcement.--Fall of the Duc du Maine Announced.
+--Rage of the Chief-President.--My Extreme joy.--M. le Duc Substituted
+for M. du Maine.--Indifference of the King.--Registration of the Decrees.
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIV
+
+My Return Home.--Wanted for a New Commission.--Go to the Palais Royal.--
+A Cunning Page.--My journey to Saint-Cloud.--My Reception.--Interview
+with the Duchesse d'Orleans.--Her Grief.--My Embarrassment.--Interview
+with Madame.--Her Triumph.--Letter of the Duchesse d'Orleans.--She Comes
+to Paris.--Quarrels with the Regent.
+
+
+CHAPTER XCV
+
+Intrigues of M. du Maine.--And of Cellamare, the Spanish Ambassador.--
+Monteleon and Portocarrero.--Their Despatches.--How Signed.--The
+Conspiracy Revealed.--Conduct of the Regent.--Arrest of Cellamare.--His
+House Searched.--The Regency Council.--Speech of the Duc d'Orleans.--
+Resolutions Come To.--Arrests.--Relations with Spain.--Alberoni and
+Saint-Aignan.--Their Quarrel.--Escape of Saint-Aignan.
+
+
+CHAPTER XCVI
+
+The Regent Sends for Me.--Guilt of the Duc de Maine.--Proposed Arrest.--
+Discussion on the Prison to Be Chosen.--The Arrest.--His Dejection.--
+Arrest of the Duchess.--Her Rage.--Taken to Dijon.--Other Arrests.--
+Conduct of the Comte de Toulouse.--The Faux Sauniers.--Imprisonment of
+the Duc and Duchesse du Maine.--Their Sham Disagreement.--Their
+Liberation.--Their Reconciliation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVIII
+
+The Abbe Alberoni, having risen by the means I have described, and
+acquired power by following in the track of the Princesse des Ursins,
+governed Spain like a master.  He had the most ambitious projects.  One
+of his ideas was to drive all strangers, especially the French, out of
+the West Indies; and he hoped to make use of the Dutch to attain this
+end.  But Holland was too much in the dependence of England.
+
+At home Alberoni proposed many useful reforms, and endeavoured to
+diminish the expenses of the royal household.  He thought, with reason,
+that a strong navy was the necessary basis of the power of Spain; and to
+create one he endeavoured to economise the public money.  He flattered
+the King with the idea that next year he would arm forty vessels to
+protect the commerce of the Spanish Indies.  He had the address to boast
+of his disinterestedness, in that whilst working at all manner of
+business he had never received any grace from the King, and lived only
+on fifty pistoles, which the Duke of Parma, his master, gave him every
+month; and therefore he made gently some complaints against the
+ingratitude of princes.
+
+Alberoni had persuaded the Queen of Spain to keep her husband shut up,
+as had the Princesse des Ursins.  This was a certain means of governing a
+prince whose temperament and whose conscience equally attached him to his
+spouse.  He was soon completely governed once more--under lock and key,
+as it were, night and day.  By this means the Queen was jailoress and
+prisoner at the same time.  As she was constantly with the King nobody
+could come to her.  Thus Alberoni kept them both shut up, with the key of
+their prison in his pocket.
+
+One of the chief objects of his ambition was the Cardinal's hat.  It
+would be too long to relate the schemes he set on foot to attain his end.
+He was opposed by a violent party at Rome; but at last his inflexible
+will and extreme cunning gained the day.  The Pope, no longer able to
+resist the menaces of the King of Spain, and dreading the vengeance of
+the all-powerful minister, consented to grant the favour that minister
+had so pertinaciously demanded.  Alberoni was made Cardinal on the 12th
+of July, 1717.  Not a soul approved this promotion when it was announced
+at the consistory.  Not a single cardinal uttered a word in praise of the
+new confrere, but many openly disapproved his nomination.  Alberoni's
+good fortune did not stop here.  At the death, some little time after,
+of the Bishop of Malaga, that rich see, worth thirty thousand ecus a
+year, was given to him.  He received it as the mere introduction to the
+grandest and richest sees of Spain, when they should become vacant.
+The King of Spain gave him also twenty thousand ducats, to be levied upon
+property confiscated for political reasons.  Shortly after, Cardinal
+Arias, Archbishop of Seville, having died, Alberoni was named to this
+rich archbishopric.
+
+In the middle of his grandeur and good luck he met with an adventure that
+must have strangely disconcerted him.
+
+I have before explained how Madame des Ursins and the deceased Queen had
+kept the King of Spain screened from all eyes, inaccessible to all his
+Court, a very palace-hermit.  Alberoni, as I have said, followed their
+example.  He kept the King even more closely imprisoned than before, and
+allowed no one, except a few indispensable attendants, to approach him.
+These attendants were a small number of valets and doctors, two gentlemen
+of the chamber, one or two ladies, and the majordomo-major of the King.
+This last post was filled by the Duc d'Escalone, always called Marquis de
+Villena, in every way one of the greatest noblemen in Spain, and most
+respected and revered of all, and justly so, for his virtue, his
+appointment, and his services.
+
+Now the King's doctors are entirely under the authority of the majordomo-
+major.  He ought to be present at all their consultations; the King
+should take no remedy that he is not told of, or that he does not
+approve, or that he does not see taken; an account of all the medicines
+should be rendered to him.  Just at this time the King was ill.  Villena
+wished to discharge the duties attached to his post of majordomo-major.
+Alberoni caused it to be insinuated to him, that the King wished to be at
+liberty, and that he would be better liked if he kept at home; or had the
+discretion and civility not to enter the royal chamber, but to ask at the
+door for news.  This was language the Marquis would not understand.
+
+At the end of the grand cabinet of the mirrors was placed a bed, in which
+the King was laid, in front of the door; and as the room is vast and
+long, it is a good distance from the door (which leads to the interior)
+to the place where the bed was.  Alberoni again caused the Marquis to be
+informed that his attentions were troublesome, but the Marquis did not
+fail to enter as before.  At last, in concert with the Queen, the
+Cardinal resolved to refuse him admission.  The Marquis, presenting
+himself one afternoon, a valet partly opened the door and said, with much
+confusion, that he was forbidden to let him enter.
+
+"Insolent fellow," replied the Marquis, "stand aside," and he pushed the
+door against the valet and entered.  In front of him was the Queen,
+seated at the King's pillow; the Cardinal standing by her side, and the
+privileged few, and not all of them, far away from the bed.  The Marquis,
+who, though full of pride, was but weak upon his legs, leisurely
+advanced, supported upon his little stick.  The Queen and the Cardinal
+saw him and looked at each other.  The King was too ill to notice
+anything, and his curtains were closed except at the side where the Queen
+was.  Seeing the Marquis approach, the Cardinal made signs, with
+impatience, to one of the valets to tell him to go away, and immediately
+after, observing that the Marquis, without replying, still advanced, he
+went to him, explained to him that the King wished to be alone, and
+begged him to leave.
+
+"That is not true," said the Marquis; "I have watched you; you have not
+approached the bed, and the King has said nothing to you."
+
+The Cardinal insisting, and without success, took him by the arm to make
+him go.  The Marquis said he was very insolent to wish to hinder him from
+seeing the King, and perform his duties.  The Cardinal, stronger than his
+adversary, turned the Marquis round, hurried him towards the door, both
+talking the while, the Cardinal with measure, the Marquis in no way
+mincing his words.  Tired of being hauled out in this manner, the Marquis
+struggled, called Alberoni a "little scoundrel," to whom he would teach
+manners; and in this heat and dust the Marquis, who was weak, fortunately
+fell into an armchair hard by.  Angry at his fall, he raised his little
+stick and let it fall with all his force upon the ears and the shoulders
+of the Cardinal, calling him a little scoundrel--a little rascal--
+a little blackguard, deserving a horsewhipping.
+
+The Cardinal, whom he held with one hand, escaped as well as he could,
+the Marquis continuing to abuse him, and shaking the stick at him.  One
+of the valets came and assisted him to rise from his armchair, and gain
+the door; for after this accident his only thought was to leave the room.
+
+The Queen looked on from her chair during all this scene, without
+stirring or saying a word; and the privileged few in the chamber did not
+dare to move.  I learned all this from every one in Spain; and moreover I
+asked the Marquis de Villena himself to give me the full details; and he,
+who was all uprightness and truth, and who had conceived some little
+friendship for me, related with pleasure all I have written.  The two
+gentlemen of the chamber present also did the same, laughing in their
+sleeves.  One had refused to tell the Marquis to leave the room, and the
+other had accompanied him to the door.  The most singular thing is, that
+the Cardinal, furious, but surprised beyond measure at the blows he had
+received, thought only of getting out of reach.  The Marquis cried to him
+from a distance, that but for the respect he owed to the King, and to the
+state in which he was, he would give him a hundred kicks in the stomach,
+and haul him out by the ears.  I was going to forget this.  The King was
+so ill that he saw nothing.
+
+A quarter of an hour after the Marquis had returned home, he received an
+order to retire to one of his estates at thirty leagues from Madrid.  The
+rest of the day his house was filled with the most considerable people of
+Madrid, arriving as they learned the news, which made a furious sensation
+through the city.  He departed the next day with his children.  The
+Cardinal, nevertheless, remained so terrified, that, content with the
+exile of the Marquis, and with having got rid of him, he did not dare to
+pass any censure upon him for the blows he had received.  Five or six
+months afterwards he sent him an order of recall, though the Marquis had
+not taken the slightest steps to obtain it.  What is incredible is, that
+the adventure, the exile, the return, remained unknown to the King until
+the fall of the Cardinal!  The Marquis would never consent to see him, or
+to hear him talked of, on any account, after returning, though the
+Cardinal was the absolute master.  His pride was much humiliated by this
+worthy and just haughtiness; and he was all the more piqued because he
+left nothing undone in order to bring about a reconciliation, without any
+other success than that of obtaining fresh disdain, which much increased
+the public estimation in which this wise and virtuous nobleman was held.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIX
+
+I must not omit to mention an incident which occurred during the early
+part of the year 1718, and which will give some idea of the character of
+M. le Duc d'Orleans, already pretty amply described by me.
+
+One day (when Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans had gone to Montmartre, which
+she quitted soon after) I was walking alone with M. le Duc d'Orleans in
+the little garden of the Palais Royal, chatting upon various affairs,
+when he suddenly interrupted me, and turning towards me; said, "I am
+going to tell you something that will please you."
+
+Thereupon he related to me that he was tired of the life he led, which
+was no longer in harmony with his age or his desires, and many similar
+things; that he was resolved to give up his gay parties, pass his
+evenings more soberly and decently, sometimes at home, often with Madame
+la Duchesse d'Orleans; that his health would gain thereby, and he should
+have more time for business; that in a little while I might rely upon it
+--there would be no more suppers of "roues and harlots" (these were his
+own terms), and that he was going to lead a prudent and reasonable life
+adapted to his age and state.
+
+I admit that in my extreme surprise I was ravished, so great was the
+interest I took in him.  I testified this to him with overflowing heart,
+thanking him for his confidence.  I said to him that he knew I for a long
+time had not spoken to him of the indecency of his life, or of the time
+he lost, because I saw that in so doing I lost my own; that I had long
+since despaired of his conduct changing; that this had much grieved me;
+that he could not be ignorant from all that had passed between us at
+various times, how much I desired a change, and that he might judge of
+the surprise and joy his announcement gave me.  He assured me more and
+more that his resolution was fixed, and thereupon I took leave of him,
+the hour for his soiree having arrived.
+
+The next day I learned from people to whom the roues had just related it,
+that M. le Duc d'Orleans was no sooner at table than he burst out
+laughing, and applauded his cleverness, saying that he had just laid a
+trap for me into which I had fallen full length.  He recited to them our
+conversation, at which the joy and applause were marvellous.  It is the
+only time he ever diverted himself at my expense (not to say at his own)
+in a matter in which the fib he told me, and which I was foolish enough
+to swallow, surprised by a sudden joy that took from me reflection, did
+honour to me, though but little to him.  I would not gratify him by
+telling him I knew of his joke, or call to his mind what he had said to
+me; accordingly he never dared to speak of it.
+
+I never could unravel what fantasy had seized him to lead him to hoax me
+in this manner, since for many years I had never opened my mouth
+concerning the life he led, whilst he, on his side, had said not a word
+to me relating to it.  Yet it is true that sometimes being alone with
+confidential valets, some complaints have escaped him (but never before
+others) that I ill-treated him, and spoke hastily to him, but all was
+said in two words, without bitterness, and without accusing me of
+treating him wrongfully.  He spoke truly also; sometimes, when I was
+exasperated with stupidity or error in important matters which affected
+him or the State, or when he had agreed (having been persuaded and
+convinced by good reasons) to do or not to do some essential thing, and
+was completely turned from it by his feebleness, his easy-going nature
+(which he appreciated as well as I)--cruelly did I let out against him.
+But the trick he most frequently played me before others, one of which my
+warmth was always dupe, was suddenly to interrupt an important argument
+by a 'sproposito' of buffoonery.  I could not stand it; sometimes being
+so angry that I wished to leave the room.  I used to say to him that if
+he wished to joke I would joke as much as he liked, but to mix the most
+serious matters with tomfoolery was insupportable.  He laughed heartily,
+and all the more because, as the thing often happened, I ought to have
+been on my guard; but never was, and was vexed both at the joke and at
+being surprised; then he returned to business.  But princes must
+sometimes banter and amuse themselves with those whom they treat as
+friends.  Nevertheless, in spite of his occasional banter, he entertained
+really sincere esteem and friendship for me.
+
+By chance I learnt one day what he really thought of me.  I will say it
+now, so as to leave at once all these trifles.  M. le Duc d'Orleans
+returning one afternoon from the Regency Council at the Tuileries to the
+Palais Royal with M. le Duc de Chartres (his son) and the Bailli de
+Conflans (then first gentleman of his chamber) began to talk of me,
+passing an eulogium upon me I hardly dare to repeat.  I know not what had
+occurred at the Council to occasion it.  All that I can say is that he
+insisted upon his happiness in having a friend so faithful, so unchanging
+at all times, so useful to him as I was, and always had been; so sure, so
+true, so disinterested, so firm, such as he could meet with in no one
+else, and upon whom he could always count.  This eulogy lasted from the
+Tuileries to the Palais Royal, the Regent saying to his son that he
+wished to teach him how to make my acquaintance, as a support and a
+source of happiness (all that I relate here is in his own words); such as
+he had always found in my friendship and counsel.  The Bailli de
+Conflans, astonished at this abundant eloquence, repeated it to me two
+days after, and I admit that I never have forgotten it.  And here I will
+say that whatever others might do, whatever I myself (from disgust and
+vexation at what I saw ill done) might do, the Regent always sought
+reconciliation with me with shame, confidence, confusion, and he has
+never found himself in any perplexity that he has not opened his heart to
+me, and consulted me, without however always following my advice, for he
+was frequently turned from it by others.
+
+He would never content himself with one mistress.  He needed a variety in
+order to stimulate his taste.  I had no more intercourse with them than
+with his roues.  He never spoke of them to me, nor I to him.  I scarcely
+ever knew anything of their adventures.  His roues and valets were always
+eager to present fresh mistresses to him, from which he generally
+selected one.  Amongst these was Madame de Sabran, who had married a man
+of high rank, but without wealth or merit, in order to be at liberty.
+There never was a woman so beautiful as she, or of a beauty more regular,
+more agreeable, more touching, or of a grander or nobler bearing, and yet
+without affectation.  Her air and her manners were simple and natural,
+making you think she was ignorant of her beauty and of her figure (this
+last the finest in the world), and when it pleased her she was
+deceitfully modest.  With much intellect she was insinuating, merry,
+overflowing, dissipated, not bad-hearted, charming, especially at table.
+In a word, she was all M. le Duc d'Orleans wanted, and soon became his
+mistress without prejudice to the rest.
+
+As neither she nor her husband had a rap, they were ready for anything,
+and yet they did not make a large fortune.  One of the chamberlains of
+the Regent, with an annual salary of six thousand livres, having received
+another appointment, Madame de Sabran thought six thousand livres a year
+too good to be lost, and asked for the post for her husband.  She cared
+so little for him, by the way, that she called him her "mastiff."  It was
+she, who, supping with M. le Duc d'Orleans and his roues, wittily said,
+that princes and lackeys had been made of one material, separated by
+Providence at the creation from that out of which all other men had been
+made.
+
+All the Regent's mistresses had one by one their turn.  Fortunately they
+had little power, were not initiated into any state secrets, and received
+but little money.
+
+The Regent amused himself with them, and treated them in other respects
+exactly as they deserved to be treated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XC
+
+It is time now that I should speak of matters of very great importance,
+which led to changes that filled my heart with excessive joy, such as it
+had never known before.
+
+For a long time past the Parliament had made many encroachments upon the
+privileges belonging to the Dukes.  Even under the late King it had begun
+these impudent enterprises, and no word was said against it; for nothing
+gave the King greater pleasure than to mix all ranks together in a
+caldron of confusion.  He hated and feared the nobility, was jealous of
+their power, which in former reigns had often so successfully balanced
+that of the crown; he was glad therefore of any opportunity which
+presented itself that enabled him to see our order weakened and robbed of
+its dignity.
+
+The Parliament grew bolder as its encroachments one by one succeeded.
+It began to fancy itself armed with powers of the highest kind.  It began
+to imagine that it possessed all the authority of the English Parliament,
+forgetting that that assembly is charged with the legislative
+administration of the country, that it has the right to make laws and
+repeat laws, and that the monarch can do but little, comparatively
+speaking, without the support and sanction of this representative
+chamber; whereas, our own Parliament is but a tribunal of justice, with
+no control or influence over the royal authority or state affairs.
+
+But, as I have said, success gave it new impudence.  Now that the King
+was dead, at whose name alone it trembled, this assembly thought that a
+fine opportunity had come to give its power the rein.  It had to do with
+a Regent, notorious for his easy-going disposition, his indifference to
+form and rule, his dislike to all vigorous measures.  It fancied that
+victory over such an opponent would be easy; that it could successfully
+overcome all the opposition he could put in action, and in due time make
+his authority secondary to its own.  The Chief-President of the
+Parliament, I should observe, was the principal promoter of these
+sentiments.  He was the bosom friend of M. and Madame du Maine, and by
+them was encouraged in his views.  Incited by his encouragement, he
+seized an opportunity which presented itself now, to throw down the glove
+to M. le Duc d'Orleans, in the name of the Parliament, and to prepare for
+something like a struggle.  The Parliament of Brittany had recently
+manifested a very turbulent spirit, and this was an additional
+encouragement to that of Paris.
+
+At first the Parliament men scarcely knew what to lay hold of and bring
+forward, as an excuse for the battle.  They wished of course to gain the
+applause of the people as protectors of their interests--likewise those
+who for their private ends try to trouble and embroil the State--but
+could not at first see their way clear.  They sent for Trudaine, Prevot
+des Marchand, Councillor of State, to give an account to them of the
+state of the Hotel de Ville funds.  He declared that they had never been
+so well paid, and that there was no cause of complaint against the
+government.  Baffled upon this point, they fastened upon a edict,
+recently rendered, respecting the money of the realm.  They deliberated
+thereon, deputed a commission to examine the matter, made a great fuss,
+and came to the conclusion that the edict would, if acted upon, be very
+prejudicial to the country.
+
+Thus much done, the Parliament assembled anew on Friday morning, the 17th
+of June, 1718, and again in the afternoon.  At the end they decided upon
+sending a deputation to the Regent, asking him to suspend the operation
+of the edict, introduce into it the changes suggested by their body, and
+then send it to them to be registered.  The deputation was sent, and said
+all it had to say.
+
+On the morrow the Parliament again assembled, morning and afternoon, and
+sent a message to the Regent, saying, it would not separate until it had
+received his reply.  That reply was very short and simple.  The Regent
+sent word that he was tired of the meddling interference of the
+Parliament (this was not the first time, let me add, that he experienced
+it), that he had ordered all the troops in Paris, and round about, to
+hold themselves ready to march, and that the King must be obeyed.  Such
+was in fact true.  He had really ordered the soldiers to keep under arms
+and to be supplied with powder and shot.
+
+The message did not intimidate the Parliament.  The next day, Sunday, the
+Chief-President, accompanied by all the other presidents, and by several
+councillors, came to the Palais Royal.  Although, as I have said, the
+leader of his company, and the right-hand man of M. and Madame du Maine,
+he wished for his own sake to keep on good terms with the Regent, and at
+the same time to preserve all authority over his brethren, so as to have
+them under his thumb.  His discourse then to the Regent commenced with
+many praises and much flattery, in order to smooth the way for the three
+fine requests he wound up with.  The first of these was that the edict
+should be sent to the Parliament to be examined, and to suffer such
+changes as the members should think fit to introduce, and then be
+registered; the second, that the King should pay attention to their
+remonstrances in an affair of this importance, which they believed
+prejudicial to the State; the third, that the works recently undertaken
+at the mint for recasting the specie should be suspended!
+
+To these modest requests the Regent replied that the edict had been
+registered at the Cour des Monnaies, which is a superior court, and
+consequently sufficient for such registration; that there was only a
+single instance of an edict respecting the money of the realm having been
+sent before the Parliament, and then out of pure civility; that the
+matter had been well sifted, and all its inconveniences weighed; that it
+was to the advantage of the State to put in force this edict; that the
+works of the Mint could not be interfered with in any way; finally, that
+the King must be obeyed!  It was quite true that the edict had been sent
+to the Parliament out of courtesy, but at the suggestion of the Regent's
+false and treacherous confidants, valets of the Parliament, such as the
+Marechals de Villeroy, and Huxelles, and Besons, Canillac, Effiat, and
+Noailles.
+
+Notwithstanding the decisive answer they had received, the Parliament met
+the very next day, and passed a decree against the edict.  The council of
+the regency, at its sitting on the afternoon of the same day, abrogated
+this decree.  Thus, since war was in a measure declared between the
+Regent's authority and that of the Parliament, the orders emanating from
+the one were disputed by the other, and vice versa.  A nice game of
+shuttlecock this, which it was scarce likely could last long!
+
+The Regent was determined to be obeyed.  He prohibited, therefore, the
+printing and posting up of the decree of the Parliament.  Soldiers of the
+guards, too, were placed in the markets to hinder the refusal of the new
+money which had been issued.  The fact is, by the edict which had been
+passed, the Louis worth thirty livres was taken at thirty-six livres, and
+the crown piece, worth a hundred sous, at six livres instead of five.  By
+this edict also government notes were made legal tender until the new
+money should be ready.  The finances were thus relieved, and the King
+gained largely from the recasting of the coin.  But private people lost
+by this increase, which much exceeded the intrinsic value of the metal
+used, and which caused everything to rise in price.  Thus the Parliament
+had a fine opportunity for trumpeting forth its solicitude for the public
+interest, and did not fail to avail itself of it.
+
+During the night a councillor of the Parliament was surprised on
+horseback in the streets tearing down and disfiguring the decree of the
+Regency Council, which abrogated that of the Parliament.  He was taken to
+prison.
+
+On Monday, the 27th of June, the Chief-President, at the head of all the
+other presidents, and of forty councillors, went to the Tuileries, and in
+the presence of the Regent read the wire-drawn remonstrance of the
+Parliament upon this famous edict.  The Keeper of the Seals said that in
+a few days the King would reply.  Accordingly on Saturday, the 2nd of
+July, the same deputation came again to the Tuileries to hear the reply.
+The Regent and all the Princes of the blood were there, the bastards
+also.  Argenson, who from lieutenant of police had been made keeper of
+the seals, and who in his former capacity had often been ill-used--nay,
+even attacked by the Parliament--took good care to show his superiority
+over that assembly.  He answered that deputation in the name of the King,
+and concluded by saying that the edict would in no way be altered, but
+would receive complete application.  The parliamentary gentlemen did not
+expect so firm a reply, and withdrew, much mortified.
+
+They were not, however, vanquished.  They reassembled on the 11th and
+12th of August, and spat forth all their venom in another decree
+specially aimed at the authority of the Regent.  By this decree the
+administration of the finances was henceforth entirely to be at the mercy
+of the Parliament.  Law, the Scotchman, who, under the favour of M. le
+Duc d'Orleans, had been allowed some influence over the State money
+matters, was to possess that influence no longer; in fact, all power on
+the part of the Regent over the finances was to be taken from him.
+
+After this the Parliament had to take but one step in order to become the
+guardian of the King and the master of the realm (as in fact it madly
+claimed to be), the Regent more at its mercy than the King, and perhaps
+as exposed as King Charles I. of England.  Our parliamentary gentlemen
+began as humbly as those of England, and though, as I have said, their
+assembly was but a simple court of justice, limited in its jurisdiction
+like the other courts of the realm, to judge disputes between private
+people, yet by dint of hammering upon the word parliament they believed
+themselves not less important than their English brethren, who form the
+legislative assembly, and represent all the nation.
+
+M. and Madame du Maine had done not a little to bring about these
+fancies, and they continued in secret to do more.  Madame du Maine, it
+may be recollected, had said that she would throw the whole country into
+combustion, in order not to lose her husband's prerogative.  She was as
+good as her word.  Encouraged doubtless by the support they received from
+this precious pair, the Parliament continued on its mad career of
+impudent presumption, pride, and arrogance.  It assembled on the 22nd of
+August, and ordered inquiry to be made of the Regent as to what had
+become of all the state notes that had been passed at the Chamber of
+justice; those which had been given for the lotteries that were held
+every month; those which had been given for the Mississippi or Western
+Company; finally, those which had been taken to the Mint since the change
+in the specie.
+
+These questions were communicated to the Regent by the King's officers.
+In reply he turned his back upon them, and went away into his cabinet,
+leaving these people slightly bewildered.  Immediately after this
+occurrence it was rumoured that a Bed of justice would soon be held.  The
+Regent had not then thought of summoning such an important assembly, and
+his weakness and vacillation were such that no one thought he would dare
+to do so.
+
+The memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, of Joly, of Madame Motteville, had
+turned all heads.  These books had become so fashionable, that in no
+class was the man or woman who did not have them continually in hand.
+Ambition, the desire for novelty, the skill of those who circulated these
+books, made the majority of people hope to cut a figure or make a
+fortune, and persuaded them there was as little lack of personages as in
+the last minority.  People looked upon Law as the Mazarin of the day--
+(they were both foreign)--upon M. and Madame du Maine, as the chiefs of
+the Fronde; the weakness of M. le Duc d'Orleans was compared to that of
+the Queen-mother, and so on.
+
+To say the truth, all tended towards whatever was extreme--moderation
+seemed forgotten--and it was high time the Regent aroused himself from a
+supineness which rendered him contemptible, and which emboldened his
+enemies and those of the State to brave all and undertake all.  This
+lethargy, too, disheartened his servants, and made all healthy activity
+on their part impossible.  It had at last led him to the very verge of
+the precipice, and the realm he governed to within an inch of the
+greatest confusion.  He had need, indeed, to be up and doing!
+
+The Regent, without having the horrible vice or the favourites of Henry
+III., had even more than that monarch become notorious for his daily
+debauches, his indecency, and his impiety.  Like Henry III., too, he was
+betrayed by his most intimate councillors and domestics.  This treachery
+pleased him (as it had pleased that King) because it induced him to keep
+idle, now from fear, now from interest, now from disdain, and now from
+policy.  This torpor was agreeable to him because it was in conformity
+with his humour and his tastes, and because he regarded those who
+counselled it as good, wise, and enlightened people, not blinded by their
+private interests, but seeing clearly things as they were; while he was
+importuned with opinions and explanations which would have disclosed the
+true state of affairs and suggested remedies.
+
+He looked upon such people as offered these opinions and explanations as
+impetuous counsellors, who hurried everything and suggested everything,
+who wished to discount the future in order to satisfy their ambition,
+their aversion, their different passions.  He kept on his guard against
+them; he applauded himself for not being their dupe.  Now, he laughed at
+them; often he allowed them to believe he appreciated their reasoning,
+that he was going to act and rouse from his lethargy.  He amused them
+thus, gained time, and diverted himself afterwards with the others.
+Sometimes he replied coldly to them, and when they pressed him too much
+he allowed his suspicions to peep out.
+
+Long since I had perceived M. le Duc d'Orleans' mode of action.  At the
+first movements of the Parliament, of the bastards, and of those who had
+usurped the name of nobility, I had warned him.  I had done so again as
+soon as I saw the cadence and the harmony of the designs in progress.  I
+had pointed out to him their inevitable sequel; how easy it was to hinder
+them at the commencement; how difficult after, especially for a person of
+his character and disposition.  But I was not the man for such work as
+this.  I was the oldest, the most attached, the freest spoken of all his
+servitors; I had given him the best proofs of this in the most critical
+times of his life, and in the midst of his universal abandonment; the
+counsels I had offered him in these sad days he had always found for his
+good; he was accustomed to repose in me the most complete confidence;
+but, whatever opinion he might have of me, and of my truth and probity,
+he was on his guard against what he called my warmth, and against the
+love I had for my dignity, so attacked by the usurpations of the
+bastards, the designs of the Parliament, and the modern fancies of a sham
+nobility.  As soon as I perceived his suspicions I told him so, and I
+added that, content with having done my duty as citizen and as his
+servitor, I would say no more on the subject.  I kept my word.  For more
+than a year I had not of myself opened my mouth thereon.  If he was
+sometimes spoken to before me, and I could not keep quite silent without
+being suspected of sulking or pique, I carelessly said something
+indefinite, with as little meaning in it as possible, and calculated to
+make us drop the subject.
+
+Judge of my surprise, therefore, when as I was working as usual one
+afternoon with the Regent, he interrupted me to speak with bitterness of
+the Parliament.  I replied with my accustomed coldness and pretended
+negligence, and continued my business.  He stopped me, and said that he
+saw very well that I would not reply to him concerning the Parliament.
+I admitted it was true, and added that he must long since have perceived
+this.  Pressed and pressed beyond measure, I coldly remarked that he
+could not but remember what I had said to him of the Parliament both
+before and after his accession to the regency, that other counsels had
+prevailed over mine, and that finding my opinions were misinterpreted by
+him, I had resolved to hold my tongue, and had done so.  As the subject
+was now reopened I reminded him of a prophecy I had uttered long before,
+that he had missed the opportunity of governing the Parliament when he
+might have done so with a frown, and that step by step he would allow
+himself to be conducted by his easy-going disposition, until he found
+himself on the very verge of the abyss; that if he wished to recover his
+position he must begin at once to retrace his steps, or lose his footing
+for ever!
+
+Such strong words (from my mouth they had been rare of late), pronounced
+with a slow, firm coldness, as though I were indifferent to the course he
+might adopt, made him feel how little capable I believed him of vigorous
+and sustained action, and what trifling trouble I took to make him adopt
+my views.  Dubois, Argenson, and Law had also spoken to him, urging him
+to take strong measures against the Parliament; the effect of my speech
+was therefore marvellous.
+
+It was indeed high time to do something, as I have before remarked.
+The Parliament, we found, after passing its last decree, had named a
+commission to inquire into the financial edict; this commission was
+working in the utmost secrecy; a number of witnesses had already been
+examined, and preparations were quietly making to arrest Law some fine
+morning, and hang him three hours after within the enclosure of the
+Palais de justice.
+
+Immediately this fact became known, the Duc de la Force and Fagon
+(Councillor of State) went to the Regent--'twas on the 19th of August,
+1718--and spoke to him with such effect, that he ordered them to assemble
+with Law that very day at my house in order to see what was to be done.
+They came, in fact, and this was the first intimation I had that the
+Regent had begun to feel the gravity of his position, and that he was
+ready to do something.  In this conference at my house the firmness of
+Law, hitherto so great, was shaken so that tears escaped him.  Arguments
+did not satisfy us at first, because the question could only be decided
+by force, and we could not rely upon that of the Regent.  The safe-
+conduct with which Law was supplied would not have stopped the Parliament
+an instant.  On every side we were embarrassed.  Law, more dead than
+alive, knew not what to say; much less what to do.  His safety appeared
+to us the most pressing matter to ensure.  If he had been taken it would
+have been all over with him before the ordinary machinery of negotiation
+(delayed as it was likely to be by the weakness of the Regent) could have
+been set in motion; certainly, before there would have been leisure to
+think of better, or to send a regiment of guards to force open the Palais
+de justice; a critical remedy at all times, and grievous to the last
+degree, even when it succeeds; frightful, if instead of Law, only his
+suspended corpse had been found!
+
+I advised Law, therefore, to retire to the Palais Royal, and occupy the
+chamber of Nancre, his friend, then away in Spain.  Law breathed again at
+this suggestion (approved by de la Force and Fagon), and put it in
+execution the moment he left my house.  He might have been kept in safety
+at the Bank, but I thought the Palais Royal would be better: that his
+retirement there would create more effect, and induce the Regent to hold
+firm to his purpose, besides allowing his Royal Highness to see the
+financier whenever he pleased.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCI
+
+This done I proposed, and the others approved my proposition, that a Bed
+of Justice should be held as the only means left by which the abrogation
+of the parliamentary decrees could be registered.  But while our
+arguments were moving, I stopped them all short by a reflection which
+came into my mind.  I represented to my guests that the Duc du Maine was
+in secret the principal leader of the Parliament, and was closely allied
+with Marechal de Villeroy; that both would oppose might and main the
+assembling of a Bed of justice, so contrary to their views, to their
+schemes, to their projects; that to hinder it they, as guardians of the
+young King, would plead on his behalf, the heat, which was in fact
+extreme, the fear of the crowd, of the fatigue, of the bad air; that they
+would assume a pathetic tone in speaking of the King's health, calculated
+to embarrass the Regent; that if he persisted they would protest against
+everything which might happen to His Majesty; declare, perhaps, that in
+order not to share the blame, they would not accompany him; that the
+King, prepared by them, would grow frightened, perhaps, and would not go
+to the Parliament without them; that then all would be lost, and the
+powerlessness of the Regent, so clearly manifested, might rapidly lead to
+the most disastrous results.
+
+These remarks stopped short our arguments, but I had not started
+objections without being prepared with a remedy for them.  I said, "Let
+the Bed of justice be held at the Tuileries; let it be kept a profound
+secret until the very morning it is to take place; and let those who are
+to attend it be told so only a few hours before they are to assemble.
+By these means no time will be allowed for anybody to object to the
+proceeding, to plead the health of the King, the heat of the weather,
+or to interfere with the arrangement of the troops which it will be
+necessary to make."
+
+We stopped at this: Law went away, and I dictated to Fagon the full
+details of my scheme, by which secrecy was to be ensured and all
+obstacles provided against.  We finished about nine o'clock in the
+evening, and I counselled Fagon to carry what he had written to the Abbe
+Dubois, who had just returned from England with new credit over the mind
+of his master.
+
+The next day I repaired to the Palais Royal about four o'clock.  A moment
+after La Vrilliere came and relieved me of the company of Grancey and
+Broglio, two roues, whom I had found in the grand cabinet, in the cool,
+familiarly, without wigs.  When M. le Duc d'Orleans was free he led me
+into the cabinet, behind the grand salon, by the Rue de Richelieu, and on
+entering said he was at the crisis of his regency, and that everything
+was needed in order to sustain him on this occasion.  He added that he
+was resolved to strike a heavy blow at the Parliament; that he much
+approved my proposition respecting the Bed of justice at the Tuileries,
+and that it would be held exactly as I had suggested.
+
+I was delighted at his animation, and at the firmness he appeared to
+possess, and after having well discussed with him all the inconveniences
+of my plan, and their remedy, we came at last to a very important matter,
+the mechanical means, so to speak, by which that plan was to be put in
+force.  There was one thing to be provided for, which may appear an
+exceedingly insignificant matter, but which in truth was of no light
+importance.  When a Bed of justice is held, seats one above another must
+be provided for those who take part in it.  No room in the Tuileries
+possessed such seats and how erect them without noise, without exciting
+remarks, without causing inquiries and suspicions, which must inevitably
+lead to the discovery and perhaps thereby to the failure of our project?
+I had not forgotten this difficulty, however, and I said to the Regent
+I would go in secret to Fontanieu, who controlled the crown furniture,
+explain all to him, and arrange matters with him so that these seats
+should be erected at the very last moment, in time for our purpose, but
+too late to supply information that could be made use of by our enemies.
+I hurried off accordingly, as soon as I could get away, in search of
+Fontanieu.
+
+I had already had some relations with him, for he had married his
+daughter to the son of the sister of my brother-in-law, M. de Lauzun.
+I had done him some little service, and had therefore every reason to
+expect he would serve me on this occasion.  Judge of my annoyance when
+upon reaching his house I learned that he had gone almost to the other
+end of the town, to the Marais, to conduct a suit at law, in which
+Monsieur and Madame de Lauzun were concerned, respecting an estate at
+Rondon they claimed!
+
+The porter seeing me so vexed at being obliged to journey so far in
+search of Fontanieu, said, that if I would go and speak to Madame
+Fontanieu, he would see if his master was not still in the neighbourhood,
+at a place he intended to visit before going to the Marais.  I acted upon
+this suggestion and went to Madame Fontanieu, whom I found alone.  I was
+forced to talk to her of the suit of Monsieur and Madame de Lauzun, which
+I pretended was the business I came upon, and cruelly did I rack my
+brains to say enough to keep up the conversation.  When Fontanieu
+arrived, for he was soon found, fortunately, I was thrown into another
+embarrassment, for I had all the pains in the world to get away from
+Madame Fontanieu, who, aided by her husband, begged me not to take the
+trouble to descend but to discuss the subject where I was as she was as
+well informed upon the case as he, I thought once or twice I should never
+escape her.  At last, however, I led away Fontanieu, by dint of
+compliments to his wife, in which I expressed my unwillingness to weary
+her with this affair.
+
+When Fontanieu and I were alone down in his cabinet, I remained some
+moments talking to him upon the same subject, to allow the valets who had
+opened the doors for us time to retire.  Then, to his great astonishment,
+I went outside to see if there were no listeners, and carefully closed
+the doors.  After this I said to Fontanieu that I had not come concerning
+the affair of Madame de Lauzun, but upon another very different, which
+demanded all his industry, a secrecy proof against every trial, and which
+M. le Duc d'Orleans had charged me to communicate to him; but that before
+explaining myself he must know whether his Royal Highness could certainly
+count upon him.
+
+It is strange what an impression the wildest absurdities leave if they
+are spread abroad with art.  The first thing Fontanieu did was to tremble
+violently all over and become whiter than his shirt.  With difficulty he
+stammered out a few words to the effect that he would do for M. le Duc
+d'Orleans as much as his duty would permit him to do.  I smiled, looking
+fixedly at him, and this smile warned him apparently that he owed me an
+excuse for not being quite at ease upon any affair that passed through my
+hands; he directly made me one, at all events, and with the confusion of
+a man who sees that his first view has dazzled the second, and who, full
+of this first view, does not show anything, yet lets all be seen.
+
+I reassured him as well as I could, and said that I had answered for him
+to M. le Duc d'Orleans, and afterwards that a Bed of justice was wanted,
+for the construction of which we had need of him.
+
+Scarcely had I explained this, than the poor fellow began to take breath,
+as though escaping from stifling oppression, or a painful operation for
+the stone, and asked me if that was what I wanted?
+
+He promised everything, so glad was he to be let off thus cheaply, and in
+truth he kept to his word, both as to the secret and the work.  He had
+never seen a Bed of justice, and had not the slightest notion what it was
+like.  I sat down on his bureau, and drew out the design of one.  I
+dictated to him the explanations in the margin, because I did not wish
+them to be in my handwriting.  I talked more than an hour with him; I
+disarranged his furniture, the better to show to him the order of the
+assembly, and explained to him what was to be done, so that all might be
+carried to the Tuileries and erected in a very, few moments.  When I
+found I had made everything sufficiently clear, and he had understood me,
+I returned to the Palais Royal as though recollecting something, being
+already in the streets, to deceive my people.
+
+A servant awaited me at the top of the staircase, and the concierge of
+the Palais Royal at the door of M. le Duc d'Orleans' room, with orders to
+beg me to write.  It was the sacred hour of the roues and the supper,
+at which all idea of business was banished.  I wrote, therefore, to the
+Regent in his winter cabinet what I had just done, not without some
+little indignation that he could not give up his pleasure for an affair
+of this importance.  I was obliged to beg the concierge not to give my
+note to M. le Duc d'Orleans unless he were in a state to read it and to
+burn it afterwards.
+
+Our preparations for the Bed of justice continued to be actively but
+silently made during the next few days.  In the course of the numberless
+discussions which arose upon the subject, it was agreed, after much
+opposition on my part, to strike a blow, not only at the Parliament, but
+at M. du Maine, who had fomented its discontent.  M. le Duc, who had been
+admitted to our councils, and who was heart and soul against the
+bastards, proposed that at the Bed of justice the education of the young
+King should be taken out of the control of M. du Maine and placed in his
+hands.  He proposed also that the title of Prince of the Blood should be
+taken from him, with all the privileges it conferred, and that he should
+be reduced to the rank of a simple Duke and Peer, taking his place among
+the rest according to the date of his erection; thus, at a bound, going
+down to the bottom of the peerage!
+
+Should these memoirs ever see the light, every one who reads them will be
+able to judge how such a proposition as this harmonised with my personal
+wishes.  I had seen the bastards grow in rank and importance with an
+indignation and disgust I could scarcely contain.  I had seen favour
+after favour heaped upon them by the late King, until he crowned all by
+elevating them to the rank of Princes of the Blood in defiance of all
+law, of all precedent, of all decency, if I must say the word.  What I
+felt at this accumulation of honours I have more than once expressed;
+what I did to oppose such monstrous innovations has also been said.  No
+man could be more against M. du Maine than I, and yet I opposed this
+proposition of M. le Duc because I thought one blow was enough at a time,
+and that it might be dangerous to attempt the two at once.  M. du Maine
+had supporters, nay; he was at the head of a sort of party; strip him of
+the important post he held, and what might not his rake, his
+disappointment, and his wounded ambition lead him to attempt?  Civil war,
+perhaps, would be the result of his disgrace.
+
+Again and again I urged these views, not only upon M. le Duc d'Orleans,
+but upon M. le Duc.  Nay, with this latter I had two long stolen
+interviews in the Tuileries Gardens, where we spoke without constraint,
+and exhausted all our arguments.  But M. le Duc was not to be shaken, and
+as I could do no more than I had done to move him, I was obliged at last
+to give in.  It was resolved, however, that disgrace should fall upon M.
+du Maine alone; that his brother, the Comte de Toulouse, an account of
+the devotion to the State he had ever exhibited, and his excellent
+conduct since the death of the late King, should, when stripped of his
+title like the other, receive it back again the moment after, in
+acknowledgment of the services he had rendered to the Regent as
+Councillor of State, and as an expression of personal good feeling
+towards him, which his excellent qualities so justly merited.
+
+I returned home from my last interview with M. le Duc, and went to mass
+at the Jacobins, to which I entered from my garden.  It was not without a
+distracted mind.  But I prayed to God sincerely and earnestly to guide my
+steps, so that I might labour for His glory and the good of the State
+without private ends.  My prayer was heard, and in the sequel I had
+nothing to reproach myself with.  I followed the straight road without
+turning to the right or to the left.
+
+Fontanieu was waiting for me in my house as I returned home from mass,
+and I was obliged to listen to his questions and to reply to them, as
+though I had nothing on my mind.  I arranged my chamber like a Bed of
+Justice, I made him understand several things; connected with the
+ceremonial that he had not under stood before, and that it was essential
+he should in no way omit.  Thus everything went on satisfactorily, and I
+began to count the hours, by day as well as by night, until the great day
+was to arrive on which the arrogant pride of the Parliament was to
+receive a check, and the false plumage which adorned the bastards was to
+be plucked from them.
+
+In the midst of the sweet joy that I felt, no bitterness entered.  I was
+satisfied with the part I had played in this affair, satisfied that I had
+acted sincerely, honestly, that I had not allowed my own private motives
+to sway me; that in the interests of the State, as opposed to my own
+interests, I had done all in my power to save the Duc du Maine.  And yet
+I did not dare to give myself up to the rosy thoughts suggested by the
+great event, now so rapidly approaching.  I toyed with them instead of
+allowing myself to embrace them.  I shrunk from them as it were like a
+cold lover who fears the too ardent caresses of his mistress.  I could
+not believe that the supreme happiness I had so long pined for was at
+last so near.  Might not M. le Duc d'Orleans falter at the last moment?
+Might not all our preparations, so carefully conducted, so cleverly
+planned, weigh upon his feebleness until they fell to the ground?  It was
+not improbable.  He was often firm in promises.  How often was he firm in
+carrying them out?  All these questions, all these restless doubts--
+natural as it appears to me under the circumstances--winged their way
+through my mind, and kept me excited and feverish as though life and
+death were hanging on one thread.
+
+In the midst of my reflections, a messenger from M. le Duc d'Orleans,
+Millain by name, arrived at my house.  It was on the afternoon of
+Thursday, the 25th of August, 1718.  His message was simple.  M. le Duc
+d'Orleans was in the same mood as ever, and I was to join him at the
+Palais Royal, according to previous agreement, at eight o'clock in the
+evening.  The Bed of justice was to be held on the morrow.
+
+Never was kiss given to a beautiful mistress sweeter than that which I
+imprinted upon the fat old face of this charming messenger!  A close
+embrace, eagerly repeated, was my first reply, followed afterwards by an
+overflow of feeling for M. le Duc, and for Millain even, who had worthily
+served in this great undertaking.
+
+The rest of the day I passed at home with the Abbe Dubois, Fagon, and the
+Duc de la Force, one after the other finishing up our work.  We provided
+against everything: If the Parliament refused to come to the Tuileries,
+its interdiction was determined on: if any of the members attempted to
+leave Paris they were to be arrested; troops were to be assembled in
+order to carry out the Regent's orders; we left no accident without its
+remedy.
+
+The Abbe Dubois arranged a little code of signals, such as crossing the
+legs, shaking a handkerchief, or other simple gestures, to be given the
+first thing in the morning to the officers of the body-guards chosen to
+be in attendance in the room where the Bed of Justice was to be held.
+They were to fix their eyes upon the Regent, and when he made any of the
+above signals, immediately to act upon it according to their written
+instructions.  The Abbe Dubois also drew out a sort of programme for M.
+le Duc d'Orleans, of the different orders he was to give during the
+night, fixing the hour for each, so that they might not arrive a minute
+too soon or a minute too late, and secrecy thus be maintained to the very
+latest moment.
+
+Towards eight o'clock in the evening I went to they Palais Royal.  I was
+horror-struck to find M. le Duc d'Orleans in bed with fever, as he said;
+I felt his pulse.  Fever, he had, sure enough; perhaps from excitement
+caused by the business in hand.  I said to him it was only fatigue of
+body and mind, of which he would be quit in twenty-four hours; he, on his
+side, protested that whatever it might be, he would hold the Bed of
+justice on the morrow.  M. le Duc, who had just entered, was at his
+pillow; the chamber lighted by a single wax candle.  We sat down, M. le
+Duc and I, and passed in review the orders given and to give, not without
+much apprehension on account of this fever, come so strangely out of
+season to the healthiest man in the world, and who had never had it
+before.
+
+I exhorted the Regent to take as much repose as he could, so that he
+might be fully able to execute the great work of the morrow, the safety
+of the Regency itself being at stake.  After this I felt his pulse again,
+not without fear.  I assured him, however, his illness would be nothing;
+without, it is true, being too sure of it myself.  I took my leave about
+ten o'clock, and went out of the room with Millain.  When I found myself
+alone with him in the cabinet, through which we passed, I embraced him
+with an extreme pleasure.  We had entered by the backstairs; we descended
+by the same, so as not to be observed.  It was dark, so that on both
+occasions we were obliged to grope our way.  Upon arriving at the bottom
+I could not refrain from again embracing Millain, so great was my
+pleasure, and we separated each to his home.
+
+The arrangements respecting the troops and for summoning the Parliament,
+etc., were all carried out to the letter during the night and early
+morning.  At the hours agreed upon M. le Duc d'Orleans gave the various
+orders.  About four o'clock in the morning the Duc du Maine, as colonel-
+general of the Swiss guards, was aroused.  He had not been in bed above
+an hour, having just returned from a fete given at the arsenal by Madame
+du Maine.  He was doubtless much astonished, but contained himself, hid
+his fear, and sent at once to instruct his companies of Swiss guards of
+the orders they were to execute.  I don't think he slept very well after
+this, uncertain as he must have been what was going to happen.  But I
+never knew what he or Madame du Maine did after being thus rudely
+disturbed.
+
+Towards five o'clock in the morning drums began to be heard throughout
+the town, and soon soldiers were seen in movement.  At six o'clock a
+message was sent to the Parliament requesting it to attend at the
+Tuileries.  The reply was that the request should be obeyed.  The members
+thereupon debated whether they should go to the Tuileries in coaches or
+on foot.  The last mode was adopted as being the most ordinary, and in
+the hope of stirring the people and arriving at the Tuileries with a
+yelling crowd.  What happened will be related in its place.
+
+At the same time, horsemen went to all the Peers and officers of the
+Crown, and to all the chevaliers of the order, the governors and
+lieutenant-governors of the provinces (who were to accompany the King),
+informing them of the Bed of Justice.  The Comte de Toulouse had been to
+supper at the house of M. de Nevers, near Saint-Denis, and did not return
+until late into the night.  The French and Swiss guards were under arms
+in various quarters; the watch, the light horse, and the two companies of
+musketeers all ready in their barracks; the usual guard at the Tuileries.
+
+If I had slept but little during the last eight days, I slept still less
+that night, so near to the most considerable events.  I rose before six
+o'clock, and shortly after received my summons to the Bed of justice, on
+the back of which was a note that I was not to be awakened, a piece of
+politeness due to the knowledge of the bearer, who was aware that this
+summons would teach me nothing I did not know.  All the others had been
+awakened, surprised thereby to an extent that may be imagined.
+
+Towards eight o'clock in the morning a messenger from M. le Duc d'Orleans
+came to remind me of the Regency Council at eight o'clock, and to attend
+it in my mantle.  I dressed myself in black, because I had only that suit
+with a mantle, and another, a magnificent one in cloth of gold, which I
+did not wish to wear lest it should cause the remark to be made, though
+much out of season, that I wished to insult the Parliament and M. du
+Maine.  I took two gentlemen with me in my coach, and I went in order to
+witness all that was to take place.  I was at the same time full of fear,
+hope, joy, reflection, and mistrust of M. le Duc d'Orleans' weakness, and
+all that might result from it.  I was also firmly resolved to do my best,
+whatever might happen, but without appearing to know anything, and
+without eagerness, and I resolved to show presence of mind, attention,
+circumspection, modesty, and much moderation.
+
+Upon leaving my house I went to Valincourt, who lived behind the hotel of
+the Comte de Toulouse.  He was a very honourable man, of much intellect,
+moving among the best company, secretary-general of the navy, devoted to
+the Comte de Toulouse ever since his early youth, and possessing all his
+confidence.  I did not wish to leave the Comte de Toulouse in any
+personal fear, or expose him to be led away by his brother.  I sent
+therefore for Valincourt, whom I knew intimately, to come and speak to
+me.  He came half-dressed, terrified at the rumours flying over the town,
+and eagerly asked me what they all meant.  I drew him close to me and
+said, "Listen attentively to me, and lose not a word.  Go immediately to
+M. le Comte de Toulouse, tell him he may trust in my word, tell him to be
+discreet, and that things are about to happen to others which may
+displease him, but that not a hair of his head shall be touched.  I hope
+he will not have a moment's uneasiness.  Go! and lose not an instant."
+
+Valincourt held me in a tight embrace.  "Ah, Monsieur," said he, "we
+foresaw that at last there would be a storm.  It is well merited, but not
+by M. le Comte, who will be eternally obliged to you."  And, he went
+immediately with my message to the Comte de Toulouse, who never forgot
+that I saved him from the fall of his brother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCII
+
+Arrived at the grand court of the Tuileries about eight o'clock without
+having remarked anything extraordinary on the way.  The coaches of the
+Duc de Noailles, of Marechal de Villars, of Marechal d'Huxelles, and of
+some others were already there.  I ascended without finding many people
+about, and directed the two doors of the Salle des Gardes, which were
+closed, to be opened.  The Bed of justice was prepared in the grand ante-
+chamber, where the King was accustomed to eat.  I stopped a short time to
+see if everything was in proper order, and felicitated Fontanieu in a low
+voice.  He said to me in the same manner that he had arrived at the
+Tuileries with his workmen and materials at six o'clock in the morning;
+that everything was so well constructed and put up that the King had not
+heard a sound; that his chief valet de chambre, having left the room for
+some commission about seven o'clock in the morning, had been much
+astonished upon seeing this apparatus; that the Marechal de Villeroy had
+only heard of it through him, and that the seats had been erected with
+such little noise that nobody had heard anything.  After having well
+examined everything with my eyes I advanced to the throne, then being
+finished; wishing to enter the second ante-chamber, some servants came to
+me, saying that I could not go in, all being locked up.  I asked where I
+was to await the assembling of the Council, and was admitted to a room
+upstairs, where I found a good number of people already congregated.
+
+After chatting some time with the Keeper of the Seals, the arrival of M.
+le Duc d'Orleans was announced.  We finished what we had to say, and went
+downstairs separately, not wishing to be seen together.
+
+The Council was held in a room which ever since the very hot weather the
+King had slept in.  The hangings of his bed, and of the Marechal de
+Villeroy's were drawn back.  The Council table was placed at the foot of
+one of the beds.  Upon entering the adjoining chamber I found many people
+whom the first rumours of such an unexpected occurrence had no doubt led
+there, and among the rest some of the Council.  M. le Duc d'Orleans was
+in the midst of a crowd at the end of the room, and, as I afterwards
+learned, had just seen the Duc du Maine without speaking to him, or being
+spoken to.
+
+After a passing glance upon this crowd I entered the Council chamber.  I
+found scattered there the majority of those who composed the Council with
+serious and troubled looks, which increased my seriousness.  Scarcely
+anybody spoke; and each, standing or seated here and there, kept himself
+in his place.  The better to examine all, I joined nobody.  A moment
+after M. le Duc d'Orleans entered with a gay, easy, untroubled air, and
+looked smilingly upon the company.  I considered this of good augury.
+Immediately afterwards I asked him his news.  He replied aloud that he
+was tolerably well; then approaching my ear, added that, except when
+aroused to give his orders, he had slept very well, and that he was
+determined to hold firm.  This infinitely pleased me, for it seemed to me
+by his manner that he was in earnest, and I briefly exhorted him to
+remain so.
+
+Came, afterwards, M. le Duc, who pretty soon approached me, and asked if
+I augured well from the Regent, and if he would remain firm.  M. le Duc
+had an air of exceeding gaiety, which was perceptible to those behind the
+scenes.  The Duc de Noailles devoured everything with his eyes, which
+sparkled with anger because he had not been initiated into the secret of
+this great day.
+
+In due time M. du Maine appeared in his mantle, entering by the King's
+little door.  Never before had he made so many or such profound
+reverences as he did now--though he was not usually very stingy of them--
+then standing alone, resting upon his stick near the Council table, he
+looked around at everybody.  Then and there, being in front of him, with
+the table between us, I made him the most smiling bow I had ever given
+him, and did it with extreme volupty.  He repaid me in the same coin, and
+continued to fix his eyes upon everybody in turn; his face agitated, and
+nearly always speaking to himself.
+
+A few minutes after M. le Duc came to me, begging me to exhort M. le Duc
+d'Orleans to firmness: then the Keeper of the Seals came forth for the
+same purpose.  M. le Duc d'Orleans himself approached me to say something
+a moment afterwards, and he had no sooner quitted my side than M. le Duc,
+impatient and troubled, came to know in what frame of mind was the
+Regent.  I told him good in a monosyllable, and sent him away.
+
+I know not if these movements, upon which all eyes were fixed, began to
+frighten the Duc du Maine, but no sooner had M. le Duc joined the Regent,
+after quitting me, than the Duc du Maine went to speak to the Marechal de
+Villeroy and to D'Effiat, both seated at the end of the room towards the
+King's little door, their backs to the wall.  They did not rise for the
+Duc du Maine, who remained standing opposite, and quite near them, all
+three holding long discourses, like people who deliberate with
+embarrassment and surprise, as it appeared to me by the faces of the two
+I saw, and which I tried not to lose sight of.
+
+During this time M. le Duc d'Orleans and M. le Duc spoke to each other
+near the window and the ordinary entrance door; the Keeper of the Seals,
+who was near, joined them.  At this moment M. le Duc turned round a
+little, which gave me the opportunity to make signs to him of the other
+conference, which he immediately saw.  I was alone, near the Council
+table, very attentive to everything, and the others scattered about began
+to become more so.  A little while after the Duc du Maine placed himself
+where he had been previously: the two he quitted remained as before.
+M. du Maine was thus again in front of me, the table between us: I
+observed that he had a bewildered look, and that he spoke to himself more
+than ever.
+
+The Comte de Toulouse arrived as the Regent had just quitted the two
+persons with whom he had been talking.  The Comte de Toulouse was in his
+mantle, and saluted the company with a grave and meditative manner,
+neither accosting nor accosted: M. le Duc d'Orleans found himself in
+front of him and turned towards me, although at some distance, as though
+to testify his trouble.  I bent my head a little while looking fixedly at
+him, as though to say, "Well, what then?"
+
+A short time afterwards the Comte de Toulouse had a conversation with his
+brother, both speaking with agitation and without appearing to agree very
+well.  Then the Count approached M. le Duc d'Orleans, who was talking
+again to M. le Duc, and they spoke at some length to each other.  As
+their faces were towards the wall, nothing but their backs could be seen,
+no emotion and scarcely a gesture was visible.
+
+The Duc du Maine had remained where he had spoken to his brother.  He
+seemed half dead, looked askance upon the company with wandering eyes,
+and the troubled agitated manner of a criminal, or a man condemned to
+death.  Shortly afterwards he became pale as a corpse, and appeared to me
+to have been taken ill.
+
+He crawled to the end of the table, during which the Comte de Toulouse
+came and said a word to the Regent, and began to walk out of the room.
+
+All these movements took place in a trice.  The Regent, who was near the
+King's armchair, said aloud, "Now, gentlemen, let us take our places."
+Each approached to do so, and as I looked behind mine I saw the, two
+brothers at the, door as though about to leave the room.  I leaped, so to
+speak, between the King's armchair and M. le Duc d'Orleans, and whispered
+in the Regent's ear so as not to be heard by the Prince de Conti:
+
+"Monsieur, look at them.  They are going."
+
+"I know it," he replied tranquilly.
+
+"Yes," I exclaimed with animation, "but do you know what they will do
+when they are outside."
+
+"Nothing at all," said he: "the Comte de Toulouse has asked me for
+permission to go out with his brother; he has assured me that they will
+be discreet."
+
+"And if they are not?" I asked.
+
+"They will be.  But if they are not, they will be well looked after."
+
+"But if they commit some absurdity, or leave Paris?"
+
+"They will be arrested.  Orders have been given, and I will answer for
+their execution."
+
+Therefore, more tranquil, I sat down in my place.  Scarcely had I got
+there than the Regent called me back, and said that since they had left
+the room, he should like to tell the Council what was going to be done
+with respect to them.  I replied that the only objection to this, their
+presence, being now removed--I thought it would be wrong not to do so.
+He asked M. le Duc in a whisper, across the table, afterwards called to
+the Keeper of the Seals; both agreed, and then we really seated
+ourselves.
+
+These movements had augmented the trouble and curiosity of every one.
+The eyes of all, occupied with the Regent, had been removed from the
+door, so that the absence of the bastards was by no means generally
+remarked.  As soon as it was perceived, everybody looked inquiringly
+around, and remained standing in expectation.  I sat down in the seat of
+the Comte de Toulouse.  The Duc de Guiche, who sat on the other side of
+me, left a seat between us, and still waited for the bastards.  He told
+me to approach nearer to him, saying I had mistaken my place.  I replied
+not a word, looking on at the company, which was a sight to see.  At the
+second or third summons, I replied that he, on the contrary, must
+approach me.
+
+"And M. le Comte de Toulouse?" replied he.
+
+"Approach," said I, and seeing him motionless with astonishment, looking
+towards the Duc du Maine's seat, which had been taken by the Keeper of
+the Seals, I pulled him by his coat (I was seated), saying to him, "Come
+here and sit down."
+
+I pulled him so hard that he seated himself near me without understanding
+aught.
+
+"But what is the meaning of all this?"  he demanded; "where are these
+gentlemen?"
+
+"I don't know," replied I, impatiently; "but they are not here."
+
+At the same time, the Duc de Noailles, who sat next to the Duc de Guiche,
+and who, enraged at counting for nothing in preparations for such a great
+day, had apparently divined that I was in the plot, vanquished by his
+curiosity, stretched over the table in front of the Duc de Guiche, and
+said to me:
+
+"In the name of Heaven, M. le Duc, do me the favour to say what all this
+means?"
+
+I was at daggers-drawn with him, as I have explained, and had no mercy
+for him.  I turned, therefore, towards him with a cold and disdainful
+air, and, after having heard him out, and looked at him, I turned away
+again.  That was all my reply.  The Duc de Guiche pressed me to say
+something, even if it was only that I knew all.  I denied it, and yet
+each seated himself slowly, because intent only upon looking around, and
+divining what all this could mean, and because it was a long time before
+any one could comprehend that we must proceed to business without the
+bastards, although nobody opened his mouth.
+
+When everybody was in his place M. le Duc d'Orleans after having far a
+moment looked all around, every eye fixed upon him, said that he had
+assembled this Regency Council to hear read the resolutions adopted at
+the last; that he had come to the conclusion that there was no other
+means of obtaining the registration of the finance edict recently passed
+than that of holding a Bed of justice; that the heat rendering it
+unadvisable to jeopardise the King's health in the midst of the crowd of
+the Palais de justice, he had thought it best to follow the example of
+the late King, who had sometimes sent for the Parliament to the
+Tuileries; that, as it had become necessary to hold this Bed of justice,
+he had thought it right to profit by the occasion, and register the
+'lettres de provision' of the Keeper of the Seals at the commencement of
+the sitting; and he ordered the Keeper of the Seals to read them.
+
+During this reading, which had no other importance than to seize an
+occasion of forcing the Parliament to recognize the Keeper of the Seals,
+whose person and whose commission they hated, I occupied myself in
+examining the faces.
+
+I saw M. le Duc d'Orleans with an air of authority and of attention, so
+new that I was struck with it.  M. le Duc, gay and brilliant, appeared
+quite at his ease, and confident.  The Prince de Conti, astonished,
+absent, meditative, seemed to see nothing and to take part in nothing.
+The Keeper of the Seals, grave and pensive, appeared to have too many
+things in his head; nevertheless, with bag, wax, and seals near him, he
+looked very decided and very firm.  The Duc de la Force hung his head,
+but examined on the sly the faces of us all.  Marechal Villeroy and
+Marechal de Villars spoke to each other now and then; both had irritated
+eyes and long faces.  Nobody was more composed than the Marechal de
+Tallard; but he could not hide an internal agitation which often peeped
+out.  The Marechal d'Estrees had a stupefied air, as though he saw
+nothing but a mist before him.  The Marechal de Besons, enveloped more
+than ordinarily in his big wig, appeared deeply meditative, his look cast
+down and angry.  Pelletier, very buoyant, simple, curious, looking at
+everything.  Torcy, three times more starched than usual, seemed to look
+at everything by stealth.  Effiat, meddlesome, piqued, outraged, ready to
+boil over, fuming at everybody, his look haggard, as it passed
+precipitously, and by fits and starts, from side to side.  Those on my
+side I could not well examine; I saw them only by moments as they changed
+their postures or I mine; and then not well or for long.  I have already
+spoken of the astonishment of the Duc de Guiche, and of the vexation and
+curiosity of the Duc de Noailles.  D'Antin, usually of such easy
+carriage, appeared to me as though in fetters, and quite scared.  The
+Marechal d'Huxelles tried to put a good face on the matter, but could not
+hide the despair which pierced him.  Old Troyes, all abroad, showed
+nothing but surprise and embarrassment, and did not appear to know where
+he was.
+
+From the first moment of this reading and the departure of the bastards,
+everybody saw that something was in preparation against them.  What that
+something was to be, kept every mind in suspense.  A Bed of justice, too,
+prepared in secret, ready as soon as announced, indicated a strong
+resolution taken against the Parliament, and indicated also so much
+firmness and measure in a Prince, usually supposed to be entirely
+incapable of any, that every one was at sea.  All, according as they were
+allied to the Parliament or to the bastards, seemed to wait in fear what
+was to be proposed.  Many others appeared deeply wounded because the
+Regent had not admitted them behind the scenes, and because they were
+compelled to share the common surprise.  Never were faces so universally
+elongated; never was embarrassment more general or more marked.  In these
+first moments of trouble I fancy few people lent an ear to the letters
+the Keeper of the Seals was reading.  When they were finished, M. le Duc
+d'Orleans said he did not think it was worth while to take the votes one
+by one, either upon the contents of these letters or their registration;
+but that all would be in favour of commencing the Bed of justice at once.
+
+After a short but marked pause, the Regent developed, in few words, the
+reasons which had induced the Council at its last sitting, to abrogate
+the decree of the Parliament.  He added, that judging by the conduct of
+that assembly, it would have been to jeopardise anew the King's
+authority, to send for registration this act of abrogation to the
+Parliament, which would assuredly have given in public a proof of formal
+disobedience, in refusing to register; that there being no other remedy
+than a Bed of justice, he had thought it best to assemble one, but in
+secret, so as not to give time or opportunity to the ill-disposed to
+prepare for disobedience; that he believed, with the Keeper of the Seals,
+the frequency and the manner of the parliamentary remonstrances were such
+that the Parliament must be made to keep within the limits of its duty,
+which, long since, it seemed to have lost sight of; that the Keeper of
+the Seals would now read to the Council the act of abrogation, and the
+rules that were to be observed in future.  Then, looking at the Keeper of
+the Seals, "Monsieur," said he, "you will explain this better than I.
+Have the goodness to do so before reading the decree."
+
+The Keeper of the Seals then spoke, and paraphrased what his Royal
+Highness had said more briefly; he explained in what manner the
+Parliament had the right to remonstrate, showed the distinction between
+its power and that of the Crown; the incompetence of the tribunals in all
+matters of state and finance; and the necessity of repressing the
+remonstrances of Parliament by passing a code (that was the term used),
+which was to serve as their inviolable guide.  All this explained without
+lengthiness, with grace and clearness, he began to read the decree, as it
+has since been printed and circulated everywhere, some trifling
+alteration excepted.
+
+The reading finished, the Regent, contrary to his custom, showed his
+opinion by the, praises he gave to this document: and then, assuming the
+Regent's tone and air he had never before put on, and which completed the
+astonishment of the company, he added, "To-day, gentlemen, I shall
+deviate from the usual rule in taking your votes, and I think it will be
+well to do so during all this Council."
+
+Then after a slight glance upon both sides of the table, during which you
+might have heard a worm crawl, he turned towards M. le Duc and asked him
+his opinion.  M. le Duc declared for the decree, alleging several short
+but strong reasons.  The Prince de Conti spoke in the same sense.  I
+spoke after, for the Keeper of the Seals had done so directly his reading
+was finished.  My opinion was given in more general terms so as not to
+fall too heavily upon the Parliament, or to show that I arrogated to
+myself the right to support his Royal Highness in the same manner as a
+prince of the blood.  The Duc de la Force was longer.  All spoke, but the
+majority said but little, and some allowed their vexation to be seen, but
+did not dare to oppose, feeling that it would be of no use.  Dejection
+was painted upon their faces; it was evident this affair, of the
+Parliament was not what they expected or wished.  Tallard was the only
+one whose face did not betray him; but the suffocated monosyllable of the
+Marechal d'Huxelles tore off the rest of the mask.  The Duc de Noailles
+could scarcely contain himself, and spoke more than he wished, with
+anguish worthy of Fresnes.  M. le Duc d'Orleans spoke last, and with
+unusual force; then made a pause, piercing all the company with his eyes.
+
+At this moment the Marechal de Villeroy, full of his own thoughts,
+muttered between his teeth, "But will the Parliament come?" This was
+gently taken up.  M. le Duc d'Orleans replied that he did not doubt it;
+and immediately afterwards, that it would be as well to know when they
+set out.  The Keeper of the Seals said he should be informed.  M. le Duc
+d'Orleans replied that the door-keepers must be told.  Thereupon up jumps
+M. de Troyes.
+
+I was seized with such a sudden fear lest he should go and chatter at the
+door with some one that I jumped up also, and got the start of him.  As I
+returned, D'Antin, who had turned round to lay wait for me, begged me for
+mercy's sake to tell him what all this meant.  I sped on saying that I
+knew nothing.  "Tell that to others!  Ho, ho!" replied he.  When he had
+resumed his seat, M. le Duc d'Orleans said something, I don't know what,
+M. de Troyes still standing, I also.  In passing La Vrilliere, I asked
+him to go to the door every time anything was wanted, for fear of the
+babbling of M. de Troyes; adding, that distant as I was from the door,
+going there looked too peculiar.  La Vrilliere did as I begged him all
+the rest of the sitting.
+
+As I was returning to my place, D'Antin, still in ambush, begged me in
+the name of heaven, his hands joined, to tell him something.  I kept
+firm, however, saying, "You will see."  The Duc de Guiche pressed me as
+resolutely, even saying, it was evident I was in the plot.  I remained
+deaf.
+
+These little movements over, M. le Duc d'Orleans, rising a little in his
+seat, said to the company, in a tone more firm, and more like that of a
+master than before, that there was another matter now to attend to, much
+more important than the one just heard.  This prelude increased the
+general astonishment, and rendered everybody motionless.  After a moment
+of silence the Regent said, that the peers had had for some time good
+grounds of complaint against certain persons, who by unaccustomed favour,
+had been allowed to assume rank and dignity to which their birth did not
+entitle them; that it was time this irregularity should be stopped short,
+and that with this view, an instrument had been drawn up, which the
+Keeper of the Seals would read to them.
+
+A profound silence followed this discourse, so unexpected, and which
+began to explain the absence of the bastards.  Upon many visages a sombre
+hue was painted.  As for me I had enough to do to compose my, own visage,
+upon which all eyes successively passed; I had put upon it an extra coat
+of gravity and of modesty; I steered my eyes with care, and only looked
+horizontally at most, not an inch higher.  As soon as the Regent opened
+his mouth on this business, M. le Duc cast upon me a triumphant look
+which almost routed my seriousness, and which warned me to increase it,
+and no longer expose myself to meet his glance.  Contained in this
+manner, attentive in devouring the aspect of all, alive to everything and
+to myself, motionless, glued to my chair, all my body fixed, penetrated
+with the most acute and most sensible pleasure that joy could impart,
+with the most charming anxiety, with an enjoyment, so perseveringly and
+so immoderately hoped for, I sweated with agony at the captivity of my
+transport, and this agony was of a voluptuousness such as I had never
+felt before, such as I have never felt since.  How inferior are the
+pleasures of the senses to those of the mind! and how true it is that the
+balance-weight of misfortunes, is the good fortune that finishes them!
+
+A moment after the Regent had ceased speaking, he told the Keeper of the
+Seals to read the declaration.  During the reading, which was more than
+music to my ears, my attention was again fixed on the company.  I saw by
+the alteration of the faces what an immense effect this document, which
+embodied the resolutions I have already explained, produced upon some of
+our friends.  The whole of the reading was listened to with the utmost
+attention, and the utmost emotion.
+
+When it was finished, M. le Duc d'Orleans said he was very sorry for this
+necessity, but that justice must be done to the peers as well as to the
+princes of the blood: then turning to the Keeper of the Seals asked him
+for his opinion.
+
+This latter spoke briefly and well; but was like a dog running over hot
+ashes.  He declared for the declaration.  His Royal Highness then called
+upon M. le Duc for his opinion.  It was short, but nervous, and polite to
+the peers.  M. le Prince de Conti the same.  Then the Regent asked me my
+opinion.  I made, contrary to my custom, a profound inclination, but
+without rising, and said, that having the honour to find myself the
+eldest of the peers of the Council, I offered to his Royal Highness my
+very humble thanks and those of all the peers of France, for the justice
+so ardently desired, and touching so closely our dignity and our persons,
+that he had resolved to render us; that I begged him to be persuaded of
+our gratitude, and to count upon our utmost attachment to his person for
+an act of equity so longed for, and so complete; that in this sincere
+expression of our sentiments consisted all our opinion, because, being
+pleaders, we could not be judges also.  I terminated these few words with
+a profound inclination, without rising, imitated by the Duc de la Force
+at the same moment; all the rest of the Council briefly gave their
+opinions, approving what the majority of them evidently did not approve
+at all.
+
+I had tried to modulate my voice, so that it should be just heard and no
+more, preferring to be indistinct rather than speak too loudly; and
+confined all my person to express as much as possible, gravity, modesty,
+and simple gratitude.  M. le Duc maliciously made signs to me in smiling,
+that I had spoken well.  But I kept my seriousness, and turned round to
+examine all the rest.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the aspect of the company.  Nothing
+was seen but people, oppressed with surprise that overwhelmed them,
+meditative, agitated, some irritated, some but ill at ease, like La Force
+and Guiche, who freely admitted so to me.
+
+The opinions taken almost as soon as demanded, M. le Duc d'Orleans said,
+"Gentlemen, it is finished, then justice is done, and the rights of
+Messieurs the Peers are in safety.  I have now an act of grace to propose
+to you, and I do so with all the more confidence, because I have taken
+care to consult the parties interested, who support me; and because, I
+have drawn up the document in a manner to wound no one.  What I am going
+to explain to you, regards the Comte de Toulouse alone.
+
+"Nobody is ignorant how he has disapproved all that has been done in
+favour of him and his brother, and that he has sustained it since the
+regency only out of respect for the wishes of the late King.  Everybody
+knows also his virtue, his merit, his application, his probity, his
+disinterestedness.  Nevertheless, I could not avoid including him in the
+declaration you have just heard.  Justice furnishes no exception in his
+favour, and the rights of the Peers must be assured.  Now that they are
+no longer attacked, I have thought fitly to render to merit what from
+equity I have taken from birth; and to make an exception of M. le Comte
+de Toulouse, which (while confirming the rule), will leave him in full
+possession of all the honours he enjoys to the exclusion of every other.
+Those honours are not to pass to his children, should he marry and have
+any, or their restitution be considered as a precedent to be made use of
+at any future time.
+
+"I have the pleasure to announce that the Princes of the Blood consent to
+this, and that such of the Peers to whom I have been able to explain
+myself, share my sentiments.  I doubt not that the esteem he has acquired
+here will render this proposition agreeable to you."  And then turning to
+the Keeper of the Seals, "Monsieur, will you read the declaration?"
+
+It was read at once.
+
+I had, during the discourse of his Royal Highness, thrown all my
+attention into an examination of the impression it made upon the
+assembly.  The astonishment it caused was general; it was such, that to
+judge of those addressed, it seemed that they understood nothing; and
+they did not recover themselves during all the reading.  I inwardly
+rejoiced at success so pleasingly demonstrated and did not receive too
+well the Duc de Guiche, who testified to me his disapprobation.  Villeroy
+confounded, Villars raging, Effiat rolling his eyes, Estrees beside
+himself with surprise, were the most marked.  Tallard, with his head
+stretched forward, sucked in, so to speak, all the Regent's words as they
+were proffered, and those of the declaration, as the Keeper of the Seals
+read them.  Noailles, inwardly distracted, could not hide his
+distraction; Huxelles, entirely occupied in smoothing himself, forgot to
+frown.  I divided my attention between the declaration and these persons.
+
+The document read, M. le Duc d'Orleans praised it in two words, and
+called upon the Keeper of the Seals to give his opinion.  He did so
+briefly, in favour of the Comte de Toulouse.  M. le Duc the same; M. le
+Prince de Conti the same.  After him, I testified to his Royal Highness
+my joy at seeing him conciliate the justice and the safety of the peers
+with the unheard-of favour he had just rendered to the virtue of M. le
+Comte de Toulouse, who merited it by his moderation, his truthfulness,
+his attachment to the State; thus the more he had recognised the
+injustice of his elevation to the rank to which he was raised, the more
+he had rendered himself worthy of it, and the more it was advantageous to
+the peers to yield to merit, (when this exception was confined solely to
+his person, with formal and legal precautions, so abundantly supplied by
+the declaration) and voluntarily contribute thus to an elevation without
+example, (so much the more flattering because its only foundation was
+virtue), so as to incite that virtue more and more to the service and
+utility of the state; that I declared therefore with joy for the
+declaration, and did not fear to add the very humble thanks of the peers,
+since I had the honour to be the oldest present.
+
+As I closed my mouth I cast my eyes in front of some, and plainly saw
+that my applause did not please, and, perhaps, my thanks still less.  The
+others gave their opinion with heavy heart, as it were, to so terrible a
+blow, some few muttered I know not what between their teeth, but the
+thunderbolt upon the Duc du Maine's cabal was more and more felt, and as
+reflection succeeded to the first feeling of surprise, so a bitter and
+sharp grief manifested itself upon their faces in so marked a manner,
+that it was easy to see it had become high time to strike.
+
+All opinions having been expressed, M. le Duc cast a brilliant leer at
+me, and prepared to speak; but the Keeper of the Seals, who, from his
+side of the table did not see this movement, wishing also to say
+something, M. le Duc d'Orleans intimated to him that M. le Duc had the
+start of him.  Raising himself majestically from his seat, the Regent
+then said: "Gentlemen, M. le Duc has a proposition to make to you.  I
+have found it just and reasonable; I doubt not, you will find it so too."
+Then turning towards M. le Duc, he added, "Monsieur, will you explain
+it?"
+
+The movement these few words made among the company is inexpressible.
+'Twas as though I saw before me people deprived of all power, and
+surprised by a new assembly rising up from the midst of them in an asylum
+they had breathlessly reached.
+
+"Monsieur," said M. le Duc, addressing himself to the Regent, as usual;
+"since you have rendered justice to the Dukes, I think I am justified in
+asking for it myself.  The deceased King gave the education of his
+Majesty to M. le Duc du Maine.  I was a minor then, and according to the
+idea of the deceased King, M. du Maine was prince of the blood, capable
+of succeeding to the crown.  Now I am of age, and not only M. du Maine is
+no longer prince of the blood, but he is reduced to the rank of his
+peerage.  M. le Marechal de Villeroy is now his senior, and precedes him
+everywhere; M. le Marechal can therefore no longer remain governor of the
+King, under the superintendence of M. du Maine.  I ask you, then, for M.
+du Maine's post, that I think my age, my rank, my attachment to the King
+and the State, qualify me for.  I hope," he added, turning towards his
+left, "that I shall profit by the lessons of M. le Marechal de Villeroy,
+acquit myself of my duties with distinction, and merit his friendship."
+
+At this discourse the Marechal de Villeroy almost slipped off his chair.
+As soon, at least, as he heard the Words, "Superintendence of the King's
+education," he rested his forehead upon his stick, and remained several
+moments in that posture.  He appeared even to understand nothing of the
+rest of the speech.  Villars and D'Effiat bent their backs like people
+who had received the last blow.  I could see nobody on my own side except
+the Duc de Guiche, who approved through all his prodigious astonishment.
+Estrees became master of himself the first, shook himself, brightened up,
+and looked at the company like a man who returns from the other world.
+
+As soon as M. le Duc had finished, M. le Duc d'Orleans reviewed all the
+company with his eyes, and then said, that the request of M. le Duc was
+just; that he did not think it could be refused; that M. le Marechal de
+Villeroy could not be allowed to remain under a person whom he preceded
+in rank; that the superintendence of the King's education could not be
+more worthily filled than by M. le Duc; and that he was persuaded all
+would be of one voice in this matter.  Immediately afterwards, he asked
+M. le Prince de Conti to give his opinion, who did so in two words; then
+he asked the Keeper of the Seals, whose reply was equally brief; then he
+asked me.
+
+I simply said, looking at M. le Duc, that I was for the change with all
+my heart.  The rest, M. de la Force excepted (who said a single word),
+voted without speaking, simply bowing; the Marshals and D'Effiat scarcely
+moved their eyes, and those of Villars glistened with fury.
+
+The opinions taken, the Regent turning towards M. le Duc, said,
+"Monsieur, I think you would like to read what you intend to say to the
+King at the Bed of Justice."
+
+Therefore M. le Duc read it as it has been printed.  Some moments of sad
+and profound silence succeeded this reading, during which the Marechal de
+Villeroy, pale and agitated, muttered to himself.  At last, like a man
+who has made up his mind, he turned with bended head, expiring eyes, and
+feeble voice, towards the Regent, and said, "I will simply say these two
+words; here are all the dispositions of the late king overturned, I
+cannot see it without grief.  M. du Maine is very unfortunate."
+
+"Monsieur," replied the Regent, in a loud and animated tone, "M. du Maine
+is my brother-in-law, but I prefer an open enemy to a hidden one."
+
+At this great declaration several lowered their heads.  The Marechal de
+Villeroy nearly swooned; sighs began to make themselves heard near me, as
+though by stealth; everybody felt by this that the scabbard was thrown
+away.
+
+The Keeper of the Seals, to make a diversion; proposed to read the speech
+he had prepared to serve as preface to the decree to be read at the Bed
+of justice, abrogating the Parliament decrees; as he was finishing it,
+some one entered to say he was asked for at the door.
+
+He went out, returning immediately afterwards, not to his place, but to
+M. le Duc d'Orleans, whom he took into a window, meditative silence
+reigning around.  The Regent having returned back to his place, said to
+the company, he had received information that the Chief-President of the
+Parliament, notwithstanding the reply previously made, had proposed that
+the Parliament should not go to the Tuileries, asking, "What it was to do
+in a place where it would not be free?" that he had proposed to send a
+message to the King, stating that "his Parliament would hear his wishes
+in their ordinary place of meeting, whenever it should please him to come
+or to send."  The Regent added that these propositions had made
+considerable sensation, and that the Parliament were at that moment
+debating upon them.  The Council appeared much astounded at this news,
+but M. le Duc d'Orleans said, in a very composed manner, that he did not
+expect a refusal; he ordered the Keeper of the Seals, nevertheless, to
+propose such measures as it would be best to take, supposing the motion
+of the Chief-President should be carried.
+
+The Keeper of the Seals declared that he could not believe the Parliament
+would be guilty of this disobedience, contrary to all law and usage.
+He showed at some length that nothing was so pernicious as to expose the
+King's authority to a formal opposition, and decided in favour of the
+immediate interdiction of the Parliament if it fell into this fault.
+M. le Duc d'Orleans added that there was no other course open, and took
+the opinion of M. le Duc, which was strongly in his favour.  M. le Prince
+de Conti the same, mine also, that of M. de la Force and of M. de Guiche
+still more so.  The Marechal de Villeroy, in a broken voice, seeking big
+words, which would not come in time to him, deplored this extremity, and
+did all he could to avoid giving a precise opinion.  Forced at last by
+the Regent to explain himself, he did not dare to oppose, but added that
+he assented with regret, and wished to explain the grievous results of
+the proposed measure.  But the Regent, interrupting him, said he need not
+take the trouble: everything had been foreseen; that it would be much
+more grievous to be disobeyed by the Parliament than to force it into
+obedience; and immediately after asked the Duc de Noailles his opinion,
+who replied that it would be very sad to act thus, but that he was for
+it.  Villars wished to paraphrase, but contained himself, and said he
+hoped the Parliament would obey.  Pressed by the Regent, he proposed to
+wait for fresh news before deciding; but, pressed more closely, he
+declared for the interdiction, with an air of warmth and vexation,
+extremely marked.  Nobody after this dared to hesitate, and the majority
+voted by an inclination of the head.
+
+A short time afterwards it was announced to M. le Duc d'Orleans that the
+Parliament had set out on foot, and had begun to defile through the
+palace.  This news much cooled the blood of the company, M. le Duc
+d'Orleans more than that of any one else.
+
+After this the Regent, in a cheerful manner, called upon the Presidents
+of the Councils to bring forward any business they might have on hand,
+but not one had any.  The Marechal de Villars said, however, that he had
+a matter to produce, and he produced it accordingly, but with a clearness
+which, under the circumstances, was extraordinary.  I fancy, however,
+that very few knew what he was talking about.  We were all too much
+occupied with more interesting matters, and each voted without speaking.
+Bad luck to those who had had business to bring forward this day; they
+who conducted it would have known but little what they said: they who
+listened, still less.
+
+The Council finished thus, from lack of matter, and a movement was made
+to adjourn it as usual.  I stepped in front of M. le Prince de Conti to
+M. le Duc d'Orleans, who understood me, and who begged the company to
+keep their seats.  La Vrilliere went out by order for news, but there was
+nothing fresh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIII
+
+It was now a little after ten.  We remained a good half-hour in our
+places, talking a little with each other, but on the whole rather silent.
+At the end some grew fidgety and anxious, rose and went to the windows.
+M. le Duc d'Orleans restrained them as well as he could; but at length
+Desgranges entered to say that the Chief-President had already arrived,
+in his coach, and that the Parliament was near.  So soon as he had
+retired, the Council rose by groups, and could no longer be kept seated.
+M. le Duc d'Orleans himself at last rose, and all he could do was to
+prohibit everybody from leaving the room under any pretext, and this
+prohibition he repeated two or three times.
+
+Scarcely had we risen when M. le Duc came to me, rejoiced at the success
+that had hitherto been had, and much relieved by the absence of the
+bastards.  Soon after I quitted him the Duc d'Orleans came to me,
+overpowered with the same sentiment.  I said what I thought of the
+consternation of every one; and painted the expression of M. d'Effiat, at
+which he was not surprised.  He was more so about Besons.  I asked if he
+was not afraid the bastards would come to the Bed of justice; but he was
+certain they would not.  I was resolved, however, to prepare his mind
+against that contingency.
+
+I walked about, slowly and incessantly without fixing myself on any one,
+in order that nothing should escape me, principally attending to the
+doors.  I took advantage of the opportunity to say a word here and a word
+there, to pass continually near those who were suspected, to skim and
+interrupt all conversations.  D'Antin was often joined by the Duc de
+Noailles, who had resumed his habit of the morning, and continually
+followed me with his eyes.  He had an air of consternation, was agitated
+and embarrassed in countenance--he commonly so free and easy!  D'Antin
+took me aside to see whether he could not, considering his position, be
+excused from attending the Bed of Justice.  He received permission from
+the Regent on certain conditions.
+
+I went then to break in upon the colloquy of D'Effiat and his friends,
+and taking them by surprise, caused D'Effiat to say that he had just
+heard strange resolutions, that he did not know who had advised them,
+that he prayed that M. d'Orleans would find them advantageous.
+I replied, agreeing with him.  The Marechal de Villeroy sighed, muttered,
+and shook his wig, Villars spoke more at length, and blamed sharply what
+had been done.  I assented to everything, being there not to persuade but
+to watch.
+
+Nevertheless we grew weary of the slowness of the Parliament, and often
+sent out for news.  Several of the Council tried to leave the room,
+perhaps to blab, but the Regent would allow no one but La Vrilliere to go
+out, and seeing that the desire to leave increased, stood at the door
+himself.  I suggested to him that Madame d'Orleans would be in a great
+state of uneasiness, and suggested that he should write to her; but he
+could not be persuaded to do it, though he promised.
+
+At last the Parliament arrived, and behold us!  like children, all at the
+windows.  The members came in red robes, two by two, by the grand door of
+the court, which they passed in order to reach the Hall of the
+Ambassadors, where the Chief-President, who had come in his carriage with
+the president Haligre, awaited them.
+
+The Parliament being in its place, the peers having arrived, and the
+presidents having put on their furs behind the screens arranged for that
+purpose in an adjoining room, a messenger came to inform us that all was
+ready.  The question had been agitated, whether the King should dine
+meanwhile, and I had it carried in the negative, fearing lest coming
+immediately after to the Bed of justice, and having eaten before his
+usual hour, he might be ill, which would have been a grievous
+inconvenience.  As soon as it was announced to the Regent that we could
+set out, his Royal Highness sent word to the Parliament, to prepare the
+deputation to receive the King; and then said aloud to the company, that
+it was time to go in search of his Majesty.
+
+At these words I felt a storm of joy sweep over me, at the thought of the
+grand spectacle that was going to pass in my presence, which warned me to
+be doubly on my guard.  I tried to furnish myself with the strongest dose
+of seriousness, gravity, and modesty.  I followed M. le Duc d'Orleans,
+who entered the King's room by the little door, and who found the King in
+his cabinet.  On the way the Duc d'Albret made me some very marked
+compliments, with evident desire to discover something.  I put him off
+with politeness, complaints of the crowd, of the annoyance of my dress,
+and gained thus the King's cabinet.
+
+The King was dressed as usual.  When the Duc d'Orleans had been a few
+moments with him, he asked him if he would be pleased to go: and the way
+was instantly' cleared, a procession formed, and the King moved towards
+the Hall of the Swiss Guard.
+
+I now hastened to the chamber, where the Bed of justice was to be held.
+The passage to it was tolerably, free.  The officers of the body-guard
+made place for me and for the Duc de la Force, and Marechal de Villars,
+who followed me, one by one.  I stopped a moment in the passage at the
+entrance to the room, seized with joy upon seeing this grand spectacle,
+and at the thought of the grand movement that was drawing nigh, I needed
+a pause in order to recover myself sufficiently to see distinctly what
+I looked at, and to put on a new coat of seriousness and of modesty.
+I fully expected I should be well examined by a company which had been
+carefully taught not to like me, and by the curious spectators waiting to
+see what was to be hatched out of so profound a secret, in such an
+important assembly, summoned so hastily.  Moreover, nobody was ignorant
+that I knew all, at least from the Council of the Regency I had just
+left.
+
+I did not deceive myself.  As soon as I appeared, all eyes were fixed
+upon me.  I slowly advanced towards the chief greffier, and introducing
+myself between the two seats, I traversed the length of the room, in
+front of the King's people, who saluted me with a smiling air, and I
+ascended over three rows of high seats, where all the peers were in their
+places, and who rose as I approached the steps.  I respectfully saluted
+them from the third row.
+
+Seated in my elevated place, and with nothing before me, I was able to
+glance over the whole assembly.  I did so at once, piercing everybody
+with my eyes.  One thing alone restrained me; it was that I did not dare
+to fix my eyes upon certain objects.  I feared the fire and brilliant
+significance of my looks at that moment so appreciated by everybody: and
+the more I saw I attracted attention, the more anxious was I to wean
+curiosity by my discreetness.  I cast, nevertheless, a glittering glance
+upon the Chief-President and his friends, for the examination of whom I
+was admirably placed.  I carried my looks over all the Parliament,
+and saw there an astonishment, a silence, a consternation, such as I had
+not expected, and which was of good augury to me.  The Chief-President,
+insolently crest-fallen, the other presidents disconcerted, and attentive
+to all, furnished me the most agreeable spectacle.  The simply curious
+(among which I rank those who had no vote) appeared to me not less
+surprised (but without the bewilderment of the others), calmly surprised;
+in a word, everybody showed much expectation and desire to divine what
+had passed at the Council.
+
+I had but little leisure for this examination, for the King immediately
+arrived.  The hubbub which followed his entrance, and which lasted until
+his Majesty and all who accompanied him were in their places, was another
+singularity.  Everybody sought to penetrate the Regent, the Keeper of the
+Seals, and the principal personages.  The departure of the bastards from
+the cabinet of the Council had redoubled attention, but everybody did not
+know of that departure; now everybody perceived their absence.  The
+consternation of the Marechals--of their senior--(the governor of the
+King) was evident.  It augmented the dejection of the Chief-President,
+who not seeing his master the Duc du Maine, cast a terrible glance upon
+M. de Sully and me, who exactly occupied the places of the two brothers.
+In an instant all the eyes of the assembly were cast, at the same time,
+upon us; and I remarked that the meditativeness and expectation increased
+in every face.  That of the Regent had an air of gentle but resolute
+majesty completely new to it, his eyes attentive, his deportment grave,
+but easy.  M. le Duc, sage, measured, but encircled by I know not what
+brilliancy, which adorned all his person and which was evidently kept
+down.  M. le Prince de Conti appeared dull, pensive, his mind far away
+perhaps.  I was not able during the sitting to see them except now and
+then, and under pretext of looking at the King, who was serious,
+majestic, and at the same time as pretty as can be imagined; grave, with
+grace in all his bearing, his air attentive, and not at all wearied,
+playing his part very well and without embarrassment.
+
+When all was ready, Argenson, the Keeper of the Seals, remained some
+minutes at his desk motionless, looking down, and the fire which sprang
+from his eyes seemed to burn every breast.  An extreme silence eloquently
+announced the fear, the attention, the trouble, and the curiosity of all
+the expectants.  The Parliament, which under the deceased King had often
+summoned this same Argenson, and as lieutenant of police had often given
+him its orders, he standing uncovered at the bar of the house; the
+Parliament, which since the regency had displayed its ill-will towards
+him so far as to excite public remark, and which still detained prisoners
+and papers to vex him; this Chief President so superior to him, so
+haughty, so proud of his Duc du Maine; this Lamoignon, who had boasted he
+would have him hanged at his Chamber of justice, where he had so
+completely dishonoured himself: this Parliament and all saw him clad in
+the ornaments of the chief office of the robe, presiding over them,
+effacing them, and entering upon his functions to teach them their duty,
+to read them a public lesson the first time he found himself at their
+head!  These vain presidents were seen turning their looks from a man who
+imposed so strongly upon their pride, and who annihilated their arrogance
+in the place even whence they drew it, and rendered them stupid by
+regards they could not sustain.
+
+After the Keeper of the Seals (according to the manner of the preachers)
+had accustomed himself to this august audience, he uncovered himself,
+rose, mounted to the King, knelt before the steps of the throne, by the
+side of the middle of the steps, where the grand chamberlain was lying
+upon cushions, and took the King's orders, descended, placed himself in
+his chair and covered himself.  Let us say it once for all, he performed
+the same ceremony at the commencement of each business, and likewise
+before and after taking the opinion upon each; at the bar of justice
+neither he nor the chamberlain ever speaks otherwise to the King; and
+every time he went to the King on this occasion the Regent rose and
+approached him to hear and suggest the orders.  Having returned back into
+his place, he opened, after some moments of silence, this great scene by
+a discourse.  The report of the Bed of justice, made by the Parliament
+and printed, which is in the hands of everybody, renders it unnecessary
+for me to give the discourse of the Keeper of the Seals, that of the
+Chief-President, those of the King's people, and the different papers
+that were read and registered.  I will simply content myself with some
+observations.  This first discourse, the reading of the letters of the
+Keeper of the Seals, and the speech of the Advocate-General Blancmesnil
+which followed, the opinions taken, the order given, sometimes reiterated
+to keep the two double doors open, did not surprise anybody; served only
+as the preface to all the rest; to sharpen curiosity more and more as the
+moment approached in which it was to be satisfied.
+
+This first act finished, the second was announced by the discourse of the
+Keeper of the Seals, the force of which penetrated all the Parliament.
+General consternation spread itself over their faces.  Scarcely one of
+the members dared to speak to his neighbour.  I remarked that the Abbe
+Pucelle, who, although only counsellor-clerk, was upon the forms in front
+of me, stood, so that he might hear better every time the Keeper of the
+Seals spoke.  Bitter grief, obviously full of vexation, obscured the
+visage of the Chief-President.  Shame and confusion were painted there.
+
+After the vote, and when the Keeper of the Seals had pronounced, I saw
+the principal members of the Parliament in commotion.  The Chief-
+President was about to speak.  He did so by uttering the remonstrance of
+the Parliament, full of the most subtle and impudent malice against the
+Regent, and of insolence against the King.  The villain trembled,
+nevertheless, in pronouncing it.  His voice broken, his eyes constrained,
+his flurry and confusion, contradicted the venomous words he uttered;
+libations he could not abstain from offering to himself and his company.
+This was the moment when I relished, with delight utterly impossible to
+express, the sight of these haughty lawyers (who had dared to refuse us
+the salutation), prostrated upon their knees, and rendering, at our feet,
+homage to the throne, whilst we sat covered upon elevated seats, at the
+side of that same throne.  These situations and these postures, so widely
+disproportioned, plead of themselves with all the force of evidence, the
+cause of those who are really and truly 'laterales regis' against this
+'vas electum' of the third estate.  My eyes fixed, glued, upon these
+haughty bourgeois, with their uncovered heads humiliated to the level of
+our feet, traversed the chief members kneeling or standing, and the ample
+folds of those fur robes of rabbit-skin that would imitate ermine, which
+waved at each long and redoubled genuflexion; genuflexions which only
+finished by command of the King.
+
+The remonstrance being finished, the Keeper of the Seals mentioned to the
+King their wishes, asking further opinions; took his place again; cast
+his eyes on the Chief-President, and said: The King wishes to be obeyed,
+and obeyed immediately.
+
+This grand speech was a thunder-bolt which overturned councillors and
+presidents in the most marked manner.  All of them lowered their heads,
+and the majority kept them lowered for a long time.  The rest of the
+spectators, except the marshals of France, appeared little affected by
+this desolation.
+
+But this--an ordinary triumph--was nothing to that which was to follow.
+After an interval of some few minutes, the Keeper of the Seals went up
+again to the King, returned to his place, and remained there in silence
+some little time.  Then everybody clearly saw that the Parliamentary
+affair being finished, something else must be in the wind.  Some thought
+that a dispute which the Dukes had had with the Parliament, concerning
+one of its usurpations, was now to be settled in our favour.  Others who
+had noticed the absence of the bastards, guessed it was something that
+affected them; but nobody divined what, much less its extent.
+
+At last the Keeper of the Seals opened his mouth, and in his first
+sentence announced the fall of one brother and the preservation of the
+other.  The effect of this upon every one was inexpressible.  However
+occupied I might be in containing mine, I lost nothing.  Astonishment
+prevailed over every other sentiment.  Many appeared glad, either from
+hatred to the Duc du Maine, or from affection for the Comte de Toulouse;
+several were in consternation.  The Chief-President lost all countenance;
+his visage, so self-sufficient and so audacious, was seized with a
+convulsive movement; the excess alone of his rage kept him from swooning.
+It was even worse at the reading of the declaration.  Each word was
+legislative and decreed a fresh fall.  The attention was general; every
+one was motionless, so as not to lose a word; all eyes were fixed upon
+the 'greffier' who was reading.  A third of this reading over, the Chief-
+President, gnashing the few teeth left in his head, rested his forehead
+upon his stick that he held in both hands, and in this singular and
+marked position finished listening to the declaration, so overwhelming
+for him, so resurrectionary for us.
+
+Yet, as for me, I was dying with joy.  I was so oppressed that I feared I
+should swoon; my heart dilated to excess, and no longer found room to
+beat.  The violence I did myself, in order to let nothing escape me, was
+infinite; and, nevertheless, this torment was delicious.  I compared the
+years and the time of servitude; the grievous days, when dragged at the
+tail of the Parliamentary car as a victim, I had served as a triumph for
+the bastards; the various steps by which they had mounted to the summit
+above our heads; I compared them, I say, to this court of justice and of
+rule, to this frightful fall which, at the same time, raised us by the
+force of the shock.  I thanked myself that it was through me this had
+been brought about.  I had triumphed, I was revenged; I swam in my
+vengeance; I enjoyed the full accomplishment of desires the most vehement
+and the most continuous of all my life.  I was tempted to fling away all
+thought and care.  Nevertheless, I did not fail to listen to this
+vivifying reading (every note of which sounded upon my heart as the bow
+upon an instrument), or to examine, at the same time, the impressions it
+made upon every one.
+
+At the first word the Keeper of the Seals said of this affair, the eyes
+of the two bishop-peers met mine.  Never did I see surprise equal to
+theirs, or so marked a transport of joy.  I had not been able to speak to
+them on account of the distance of our places; and they could not resist
+the movement which suddenly seized them.  I swallowed through my eyes a
+delicious draught of their joy, and turned away my glance from theirs,
+lest I should succumb beneath this increase of delight.  I no longer
+dared to look at them.
+
+The reading finished, the other declaration in favour of the Comte de
+Toulouse was immediately commenced by the 'greffier', according to the
+command of the Keeper of the Seals, who had given them to him both
+together.  It seemed to complete the confusion of the Chief-President and
+the friends of the Duc du Maine, by the contrast between the treatment of
+the two brothers.
+
+After the Advocate-General had spoken, the Keeper of the Seals mounted to
+the King, with the opinions of the Princes of the Blood; then came to the
+Duc de Sully and me.  Fortunately I had more memory than he had, or
+wished to have; therefore it was exactly my affair.  I presented to him
+my hat with a bunch of feathers in the front, in an express manner very
+marked, saying to him loudly enough: "No, Monsieur, we cannot be judges;
+we are parties to the cause, and we have only to thank the King for the
+justice he renders us."
+
+He smiled and made an excuse.  I pushed him away before the Duc de Sully
+had time to open his mouth; and looking round I saw with pleasure that my
+refusal had been marked by everybody.  The Keeper of the Seals retired as
+he came, and without taking the opinions of the peers, or of the bishop-
+peers, went to the marshals of France; thence descended to the Chief-
+President and to the 'presidents a mortier', and so to the rest of the
+lower seats; after which, having been to the King and returned to his
+place, he pronounced the decree of registration, and thus put the
+finishing touch to my joy.
+
+Immediately after M. le Duc rose, and having made his reverences to the
+King forgot to sit down and cover himself to speak, according to the
+uninterrupted right and usage of the peers of France; therefore not one
+of us rose.  He made, then, slowly and uncovered, the speech which has
+been printed at the end of the preceding ones, and read it not very
+intelligibly because his organ was not favourable.  As soon as he had
+finished, M. le Duc d'Orleans rose, and committed the same fault.  He
+said, also standing and uncovered, that the request of M. le Duc appeared
+to him just; and after some praises added, that M. le Duc du Maine was
+now reduced to the rank given to him by his peerage, M. le Marechal de
+Villeroy, his senior, could no longer remain under him, which was a new
+and very strong reason in addition to those M. le Duc had alleged.  This
+request had carried to the highest point the astonishment of the assembly
+and the despair of the Chief-President, and the handful of people who
+appeared by their embarrassment to be interested in the Duc du Maine.
+The Marechal de Villeroy, without knitting his brow, had a disturbed
+look, and the eyes of the chief accuser oftener were inundated with
+tears.  I was not able to distinguish well his cousin and intimate friend
+the Marechal d'Huxelles, who screened himself beneath the vast brim of
+his hat, thrust over his eyes, and who did not stir.  The Chief-
+President, stunned by this last thunder-bolt, elongated his face so
+surprisingly, that I thought for a moment his chin had fallen upon his
+knees.
+
+However, the Keeper of the Seals having called upon the King's people to
+speak, they replied that they had not heard the proposition of M. le Duc,
+therefore his paper was passed to them from hand to hand, during which
+the Keeper of the Seals repeated very kindly what the Regent had added
+upon the seniority of the Marechal de Villeroy over the Duc du Maine.
+Blancmesnil merely threw his eyes upon the paper of M. le Duc, and spoke,
+after which the Keeper of the Seals put it to the vote.  I gave mine loud
+enough, and said, "As for this affair I vote with all my heart for giving
+the superintendence of the King's education to M. le Duc."
+
+The votes being taken, the Keeper, of the Seals called the chief
+'greffier', ordered him to bring his paper and his little bureau near
+his, so as to do all at once; and in presence of the King register
+everything that had been read and resolved, and signed also.  This was
+done without any difficulty, according to forms, under the eyes of the
+Keeper of the Seals, who never raised them: but as there were five or six
+documents to register they took up a long time.
+
+I had well observed the King when his education was in question, and I
+remarked in him no sort of alteration, change, or constraint.  This was
+the last act of the drama: he was quite lively now the registrations
+commenced.  However, as there were no more speeches to occupy him, he
+laughed with those near, amused himself with everything, even remarking
+that the Duc de Louvigny had on a velvet coat, and laughed at the heat he
+must feel, and all this with grace.  This indifference for M. du Maine
+struck everybody, and publicly contradicted what his partisans tried to
+publish, viz., that his eyes had been red, but that neither at the Bed of
+justice, nor since, he had dared to show his trouble.  The truth is he
+had his eyes dry and serene the whole time, and pronounced the name of
+the Duc du Maine only once since, which was after dinner the same day,
+when he asked where he had gone, with a very indifferent air, without
+saying a word more, then or since, or naming his children, who took
+little trouble to see him; and when they went it was in order to have
+even in his presence their little court apart, and to divert themselves
+among themselves.  As for the Duc du Maine, either from policy or because
+he thought it not yet time, he only, saw the King in the morning,
+sometimes in his bed, and not at all during the rest of the day, except
+when obliged by his functions.
+
+During the registration I gently passed my eyes over the whole assembly.,
+and though I constantly constrained them, I could not resist the
+temptation to indemnify myself upon the Chief-President; I perseveringly
+overwhelmed him, therefore, a hundred different times during the sitting,
+with my hard-hitting regards.  Insult, contempt, disdain, triumph, were
+darted at him from my eyes,--and pierced him to the very marrow often he
+lowered his eyes when he caught my gaze once or twice he raised his upon
+me, and I took pleasure in annoying him by sly but malicious smiles which
+completed his vexation.  I bathed myself in his rage, and amused myself
+by making him feel it.  I sometimes played with him by pointing him out
+to my two neighbours when he could perceive this movement; in a word, I
+pressed upon him without mercy, as heavily as I could.
+
+At last the registration finished, the King descended the throne, and was
+followed by the Regent, the two Princes of the Blood, and the necessary
+gentlemen of the suite.  At the same time the Marshals of France
+descended, and while the King traversed the room, accompanied by the
+deputation which had received him, they passed between the seats of the
+councillors opposite us, to follow him to the door by which his Majesty
+departed; and at the same time the two bishop-peers, passing before the
+throne, came to put themselves at our head, and squeezed my hands and
+my head (in passing before me) with warm gratification.
+
+We followed them two by two according to seniority, and went straight
+forward to the door.  The Parliament began to move directly afterwards.
+Place was made for us to the steps.  The crowd, the people, the display
+contrasted our conversation and our joy.  I was sorry for it.
+
+I immediately gained my coach, which I found near, and which took me
+skilfully out of the court, so that I met with no check, and in a quarter
+of an hour after leaving the sitting, I was at home.
+
+I had need of a little rest, for pleasure even is fatigue, and happiness,
+pure and untroubled as it may be, wearies the spirit.  I entered my
+house, then, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, intending to repose
+myself, and in order to do so in security, I closed my door to everybody.
+
+Alas!  I had not been many minutes at home when I was called away to
+perform one of the most painful and annoying commissions it was ever my
+ill fortune to be charged with.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIV.
+
+A little while before leaving the Cabinet of the Council for the Bed of
+Justice, M. le Duc d'Orleans had begged me to go to the Palais Royal with
+the Keeper of the Seals immediately after the ceremony had ended.  As I
+saw that nothing had been undertaken, I thought myself free of this
+conference, and was glad to avoid a new proof that I had been in a
+secret which had excited envy.  I went, therefore, straight home,
+arriving between two and three.  I found at the foot of the steps
+the Duc d'Humieres, Louville, and all my family, even my mother, whom
+curiosity had drawn from her chamber, which she had not left since the
+commencement of the winter.  We remained below in my apartment, where,
+while changing my coat and my shirt, I replied to their eager questions;
+when, lo!  M. de Biron, who had forced my door which I had closed against
+everybody, in order to obtain a little repose, was announced.
+
+Biron put his head in at my door, and begged to be allowed to say a word
+to me.  I passed, half-dressed, into my chamber with him.  He said that
+M. le Duc d'Orleans had expected me at the Palais Royal immediately after
+the Bed of justice, and was surprised I had not appeared.  He added that
+there was no great harm done; and that the Regent wished to see me now,
+in order that I might execute a commission for him.  I asked Biron what
+it was?  He replied that it was to go to Saint-Clerc to announce what had
+taken place to Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans!
+
+This was a thunder-bolt for me.  I disputed with Biron, who exhorted me
+to lose no time, but to go at once to the Palais Royal, where I was
+expected with impatience.  I returned into my cabinet with him, so
+changed in aspect that Madame de Saint-Simon was alarmed.  I explained
+what was the matter, and after Biron had chatted a moment, and again
+pressed me to set out at once, he went away to eat his dinner.  Ours was
+served.  I waited a little time in order to recover myself, determined
+not to vex M. le Duc d'Orleans by dawdling, took some soup and an egg,
+and went off to the Palais Royal.
+
+It was in vain that, using all the eloquence I could command and all the
+liberty I dared employ, I protested against being employed for this duty.
+I represented to the Regent what an ill-chosen messenger I should be to
+carry to Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans news of the disgrace of her brother
+the Duc du Maine; I, who had always been such an open and declared enemy
+to the bastards!  I represented to him that people would say I went on
+purpose to triumph over her at what had been done, and that she herself
+would look upon my presence as a kind of insult.  In vain! in vain! were
+my arguments, my entreaties, my instances.  M. le Duc d'Orleans had
+determined that I should go on this errand, and go I must.
+
+As I left his house to execute my luckless commission, I found one of
+Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans' pages, booted and spurred, who had just
+arrived from Saint-Cloud.  I begged him to return at once, at a gallop,
+and say, on arriving, to the Duchesse Sforze (one of Madame la Duchesse
+d'Orleans' ladies) that I should be there soon with a message from M. le
+Duc d'Orleans, and to ask her to meet me as I descended from my coach.
+My object was to charge her with the message I had to deliver, and not to
+see Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans at all.  But my poor prudence was
+confounded by that of the page, who had not less than I.  He took good
+care not to be the bearer of such ill news as he had just learned at the
+Palais Royal, and which was now everywhere public.  He contented himself
+with saying that I was coming, sent by M. le Duc d'Orleans, spoke not a
+word to the Duchesse Sforze, and disappeared at once.  This is what I
+afterwards learned, and what I saw clearly enough on arriving at Saint-
+Cloud.
+
+I went there at a gentle trot, in order to give time to the page to
+arrive before me, and to the Duchesse Sforze to receive me.  During the
+journey I applauded myself for my address, but feared lest I should be
+obliged to see Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans after Madame Sforze.  I could
+not imagine that Saint-Cloud was in ignorance of what had occurred, and,
+nevertheless, I was in an agony that cannot be expressed, and this
+increased as I approached the end of my journey.  If it is disagreeable
+to announce unpleasant news to the indifferent, how much more is it to
+announce them to the deeply interested!
+
+Penetrated with this dolorous sentiment I arrived in the grand court of
+Saint-Cloud, and saw everybody at the windows, running from all parts.
+I alighted, and asked the first comer to lead me to the Duchesse Sforze,
+the position of whose apartments I am unacquainted with.  I was told that
+Madame Sforze was in the chapel with Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans.  Then
+I asked for the Marechale de Rochefort, and after a time she arrived,
+hobbling along with her stick.  I disputed with her, wishing to see
+Madame Sforze, who was not to be found.  I was anxious at all events to
+go to her room and wait, but the inexorable Marechale pulled me by the
+arm, asking what news I brought.  Worn out at last, I said, "News?  news
+that you are acquainted with."
+
+"How, acquainted with?" she asked.  "We know nothing, except that a Bed
+of justice has been held, and we are expiring to know why, and what has
+passed there."
+
+My astonishment at this ignorance was extreme, and I made her swear and
+repeat four times over that nothing was known at Saint-Cloud.  I told her
+thereupon what had happened, and she, in her turn, astonished, almost
+fell backwards!  But where was Madame Sforze?  she came not, and do what
+I must, say what I might, I was forced to carry, my message to Madame la
+Duchesse d'Orleans.  I was sorely loth to do so, but was dragged by the
+hand almost as a sheep is led to the slaughter.
+
+I stood before Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans after having passed through
+an apartment filled with her people, fear painted upon all their faces.
+I saluted her; but, oh! how differently from my usual manner!  She did
+not perceive this at first, and begged me, with a cheerful natural air,
+to approach her; but seeing my trouble, she exclaimed, "Good Heavens,
+Monsieur, what a face you wear!  What news bring you?"
+
+Seeing that I remained silent and motionless, she became more moved, and
+repeated her questions.  I advanced a few steps towards her, and at her
+third appeal, I said: "Madame, you know nothing then?"
+
+"No, Monsieur; I simply know that there has been a Bed of justice: what
+has passed there I am quite ignorant of."
+
+"Ah, Madame," I replied, half turning away; "I am more unhappy, then,
+than I thought to be."
+
+"What is the matter?" exclaimed she; "what has happened?" (rising and
+sitting bolt upright on the sofa she was stretched upon.)  "Come near and
+sit down!"
+
+I approached; stated that I was in despair.  She, more and more moved,
+said to me, "But speak; better to learn bad news from one's friend than
+from others."
+
+This remark pierced me to the heart, and made me sensible of the grief I
+was going to inflict upon her.  I summoned up courage, and I told her
+all.
+
+The tears of Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans flowed abundantly at my
+recital.  She did not answer a word, uttered no cry, but wept bitterly.
+She pointed to a seat and I sat down upon it, my eyes during several
+instants fixed upon the floor.  Afterwards I said that M. le Duc
+d'Orleans, who had rather forced upon me this commission, than charged me
+with it, had expressly commanded me to tell her that he had very strong
+proofs in his hands against M. du Maine; that he had kept them back a
+long time, but could no longer do so now.  She gently replied to me that
+her brother was very unfortunate and shortly afterwards asked if I knew
+what his crime was.  I said that M. le Duc d'Orleans had not told me; and
+that I had not dared to question him upon a subject of this nature,
+seeing that he was not inclined to talk of it.
+
+More tears shortly afterwards filled her eyes.  Her brother must be very
+criminal, she said, to be so treated.
+
+I remained some time upon my seat, not daring to raise my eyes, in the
+most painful state possible, and not knowing whether to remain or go
+away.  At last I acquainted her with my difficulty; said I fancied she
+would like to be alone some little time before giving me her orders, but
+that respect kept me equally in suspense as to whether I should go or
+stay.  After a short silence, she said she should like to see her women.
+I rose, sent them to her, and said to them, if her Royal Highness asked
+for me, I should be with the Duchesse Sforze, or the Marechale Rochefort;
+but I could find neither of these two ladies, so I went up to Madame.
+
+She rose as soon as I appeared, and said to me, with eagerness, "Well,
+Monsieur, what news?"  At the same time her ladies retired, and I was left
+alone with her.
+
+I commenced by an excuse for not coming to see her first, as was my duty,
+on the ground that M. le Duc d'Orleans had assured me she would not
+object to my commencing with Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans.  She did not
+object, in fact, but asked me for my news with much eagerness.  I told
+her what had happened.  Joy spread over her face.  She replied with a
+mighty, "At last!" which she repeated, saying, her son long since ought
+to have struck this blow, but that he was too good.  I mentioned to her
+that she was standing, but for politeness she remained so.  After some
+further talk she begged me to state all the details of this celebrated
+morning.
+
+I again recalled to her mind that she was standing, and represented that
+what she desired to learn would take a long time to relate; but her ardor
+to know it was extreme.  I began then my story, commencing with the very
+morning.  At the end of a quarter of an hour, Madame seated herself, but
+with the greatest politeness.  I was nearly an hour with her, continually
+telling and sometimes replying to her questions.  She was delighted at
+the humiliation of the Parliament, and of the bastards, and that her son
+had at last displayed some firmness.
+
+At this point the Marechale de Rochefort entered, and summoned me back to
+Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans.  I found that princess extended upon the
+sofa where I had left her, an inkstand upon her knees and a pen in her
+hand.  She had commenced a reply to M. le Duc d'Orleans, but had not been
+able to finish it.  Looking at me with an air of gentleness and of
+friendship, she observed, "Tears escape me; I have begged you to descend
+in order to render me a service; my hand is unsteady, I pray you finish
+my writing for me;" and she handed to me the inkstand and her letter.  I
+took them, and she dictated to me the rest of the epistle, that I at once
+added to what she had written.
+
+I was infinitely amazed at the conciseness and appropriateness of the
+expressions she readily found, in the midst of her violent emotion, her
+sobs, and her tears.  She finished by saying that she was going to
+Montmartre to mourn the misfortunes of her brother, and pray God for his
+prosperity.  I shall regret all my life I did not transcribe this letter.
+All its expressions were so worthy, so fitting, so measured, everything
+being according to truth and duty; and the letter, in fact, being so
+perfectly well written, that although I remember it roughly, I dare not
+give it, for fear of spoiling it.  What a pity that a mind capable of
+such self-possession, at such a moment, should have become valueless from
+its leaning towards illegitimacy.
+
+After this I had another interview with Madame, and a long talk with my
+sure and trusty friend Madame Sforze.  Then I set out for Paris, went
+straight to the Palais Royal, and found M. le Duc d'Orleans with Madame
+la Duchesse de Berry.  He was delighted when he heard what Madame had
+said respecting him; but he was not particularly pleased when he found
+that Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans (who after telling me she would go to
+Montmartre, had changed her mind), was coming to the Palais Royal.
+
+I learned afterwards that she came about half an hour after I left.  At
+first she was all humility and sorrow, hoping to soften the Regent by
+this conduct.  Then she passed to tears, sobs, cries, reproaches,
+expecting to make him by these means undo what he had done, and reinstate
+M. du Maine in the position he had lost.  But all her efforts proving
+vain, she adopted another course: her sorrow turned to rage,--her tears
+to looks of anger.  Still in vain.  She could gain nothing; vex and annoy
+M. le Duc d'Orleans as she might by her conduct.  At last, finding there
+was no remedy to be had, she was obliged to endure her sorrow as best she
+might.
+
+As for me, I was erased entirely from her books.  She looked upon me as
+the chief cause of what had occurred, and would not see me.  I remained
+ever afterwards at variance with her.  I had nothing to reproach myself
+with, however, so that her enmity did not very deeply penetrate me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCV
+
+It was scarcely to be expected, perhaps, that M. du Maine would remain
+altogether quiet under the disgrace which had been heaped upon him by the
+proceedings at the Bed of Justice.  Soon indeed we found that he had been
+secretly working out the most perfidious and horrible schemes for a long
+time before that assembly; and that after his fall, he gave himself up
+with redoubled energy to his devilish devices.
+
+Towards the end of this memorable year, 1718, it was discovered that
+Alberoni, by means of Cellamare, Spanish Ambassador at our Court, was
+preparing a plot against the Regent.  The scheme was nothing less than to
+throw all the realm into revolt against the government of M. le Duc
+d'Orleans; to put the King of Spain at the head of the affairs of France,
+with a council and ministers named by him, and a lieutenant, who would in
+fact have been regent; this self-same lieutenant to be no other than the
+Duc du Maine!
+
+This precious plot was, fortunately, discovered before it had come to
+maturity.  Had such not happened, the consequences might have been very
+serious, although they could scarcely have been fatal.  The conspirators
+counted upon the Parliaments of Paris and of Brittany, upon all the old
+Court accustomed to the yoke of the bastards, and to that of Madame de
+Maintenon; and they flung about promises with an unsparing hand to all
+who supported them.  After all, it must be admitted, however, that the
+measures they took and the men they secured, were strangely unequal to
+the circumstances of the case, when the details became known; in fact,
+there was a general murmur of surprise among the public, at the
+contemptible nature of the whole affair.
+
+But let me relate the circumstances accompanying the discovery of M. du
+Maine's pitiable treachery.
+
+Cellamare, as I have said, was Spanish Ambassador at our Court.  He had
+been one of the chief movers in the plot.  He had excited, as much as lay
+in his power, discontent against the Regent's government; he had done his
+best to embroil France with Spain; he had worked heart and soul with M.
+du Maine, to carry out the common end they had in view.  So much
+preparation had been made; so much of the treason train laid, that at
+last it became necessary to send to Alberoni a full and clear account of
+all that had been done, so as to paint exactly the position of affairs,
+and determine the measures that remained to be taken.  But how to send
+such an account as this?  To trust it to the ordinary channels of
+communication would have been to run a great risk of exposure and
+detection.  To send it by private hand would have been suspicious, if the
+hand were known, and dangerous if it were not: Cellamare had long since
+provided for this difficulty.
+
+He had caused a young ecclesiastic to be sent from Spain, who came to
+Paris as though for his pleasure.  There he was introduced to young
+Monteleon, son of a former ambassador at our Court, who had been much
+liked.  The young ecclesiastic was called the Abbe Portocarrero, a name
+regarded with favour in France.  Monteleon came from the Hague, and was
+going to Madrid.  Portocarrero came from Madrid, and was going back
+there.  What more natural than that the two young men should travel in
+company?  What less natural than that the two young men, meeting each
+other by pure accident in Paris, should be charged by the ambassador with
+any packet of consequence, he having his own couriers, and the use, for
+the return journey, of those sent to him from Spain?  In fact, it may be
+believed that these young people themselves were perfectly ignorant of
+what they were charged with, and simply believed that, as they were going
+to Spain, the ambassador merely seized the occasion to entrust them with
+some packet of no special importance.
+
+They set out, then, at the commencement of December, furnished with
+passports from the King--(for Alberoni had openly caused almost a rupture
+between the two Courts)--with a Spanish banker, who had been established
+in England, where he had become bankrupt for a large amount, so that the
+English government had obtained permission from the Regent to arrest him,
+if they could, anywhere in France.  It will sometimes be perceived that I
+am ill-instructed in this affair; but I can only tell what I know: and as
+for the rest, I give my conjectures.  In fact, the Abbe Dubois kept
+everybody so much in the dark, that even M. le Duc d'Orleans was not
+informed of all.
+
+Whether the arrival of the Abbe Portocarrero in Paris, and his short stay
+there, seemed suspicious to the Abbe Dubois and his emissaries, or
+whether he had corrupted some of the principal people of the Spanish
+Ambassador and this Court, and learned that these young men were charged
+with a packet of importance; whether there was no other mystery than the
+bad company of the bankrupt banker, and that the anxiety of Dubois to
+oblige his friends the English, induced him to arrest the three
+travellers and seize their papers, lest the banker should have confided
+his to the young men, I know not: but however it may have been, it is
+certain that the Abbe Dubois arrested the three travellers at Poitiers,
+and carried off their papers, a courier bringing these papers to him
+immediately afterwards.
+
+Great things sometimes spring from chance.  The courier from Poitiers
+entered the house of the Abbe Dubois just as the Regent entered the
+opera.  Dubois glanced over the papers, and went and related the news of
+this capture to M. le Duc Orleans, as he left his box.  This prince, who
+was accustomed to shut himself up with his roues at that hour, did so
+with a carelessness to which everything yielded, under pretext that
+Dubois had not had sufficient time to examine all the papers.  The first
+few hours of the morning he was not himself.  His head, still confused by
+the fumes of the wine and by the undigested supper of the previous night,
+was not in a state to understand anything, and the secretaries of state
+have often told me that was the time they could make him sign anything.
+This was the moment taken by Dubois to acquaint the Regent with as much
+or as little of the contents of the papers as he thought fit.  The upshot
+of their interview was, that the Abbe was allowed by the Duc d'Orleans to
+have the control of this matter entirely in his own hands.
+
+The day after the arrival of the courier from Poitiers, Cellamare,
+informed of what had occurred, but who flattered himself that the
+presence of the banker had caused the arrest of the young men, and the
+seizure of their papers, hid his fears under a very tranquil bearing, and
+went, at one o'clock in the day, to M. le Blanc, to ask for a packet of
+letters he had entrusted to Portocarrero and Monteleon on their return to
+Spain.  Le Blanc (who had had his lesson prepared beforehand by the Abbe
+Dubois) replied that the packet had been seen; that it contained
+important things, and that, far from being restored to him, he himself
+must go back to his hotel under escort, to meet there M. l'Abbe Dubois.
+The ambassador, who felt that such a compliment would not be attempted
+with out means having been prepared to put it in execution, made no
+difficulty, and did not lose for a moment his address or his
+tranquillity.
+
+During the three hours, at least, passed in his house, in the examination
+of all his bureaux and his boxes, and his papers, Cellamare, like a man
+who fears nothing, and who is sure of his game, treated M. le Blanc very
+civilly; as for the Abbe Dubois, with whom he felt he had no measure to
+keep (all the plot being discovered), he affected to treat him with the
+utmost disdain.  Thus Le Blanc, taking hold of a little casket, Cellamare
+cried, "M. le Blanc, M. le Blanc, leave that alone; that is not for you;
+that is for the Abbe Dubois" (who was then present).  Then looking at
+him, he added, "He has been a pander all his life, and there are nothing
+but women's letters there."
+
+The Abbe Dubois burst out laughing, not daring to grow angry.
+
+When all was examined, the King's seal, and that of the ambassador, were
+put upon all the bureaux and the caskets which contained papers.  The
+Abbe Dubois and Le Blanc went off together to give an account of their
+proceedings to the Regent, leaving a company of musketeers to guard the
+ambassador and his household.
+
+I heard of the capture effected at Poitiers, at home, the morning after
+it occurred, without knowing anything of those arrested.  As I was at
+table, a servant came to me from M. le Duc d'Orleans, summoning me to a
+council of the regency, at four o'clock that day.  As it was not the
+usual day for the council, I asked what was the matter.  The messenger
+was surprised at my ignorance and informed me that the Spanish ambassador
+was arrested.  As soon as I had eaten a morsel, I quitted my company, and
+hastened to the Palais Royal, where I learnt from M. le Duc d'Orleans all
+that I have just related.  Our conversation took up time, and, when it
+was over, I went away to the Tuileries.  I found there astonishment
+painted upon several faces; little groups of two, three, and four people
+together; and the majority struck by the importance of the arrest, and
+little disposed to approve it.
+
+M. le Duc d'Orleans arrived shortly after.  He had, better than any man I
+have ever known, the gift of speech, and without needing any preparation
+he said exactly what he wanted to say, neither more nor less; his
+expressions were just and precise, a natural grace accompanied them with
+an air of proper dignity, always mixed with an air of politeness.  He
+opened the council with a discourse upon the people and the papers seized
+at Poitiers, the latter proving that a very dangerous conspiracy against
+the state was on the eve of bursting, and of which the Ambassador of
+Spain was the principal promoter.  His Royal Highness alleged the
+pressing reasons which had induced him to secure the person of this
+ambassador, to examine his papers, and to place them under guard.  He
+showed that the protection afforded by the law of nations did not extend
+to conspiracies, that ambassadors rendered themselves unworthy of that
+protection when they took part in them, still more when they excited
+people against the state where they dwelt.  He cited several examples of
+ambassadors arrested for less.  He explained the orders he had given so
+as to inform all the foreign ministers in Paris of what had occurred, and
+had ordered Dubois to render an account to the council of what he had
+done at the ambassador's, and offered to read the letters from Cellamare
+to Cardinal Alberoni, found among the papers brought from Poitiers.
+
+The Abbe Dubois stammered out a short and ill-arranged recital of what he
+had done at the ambassador's house, and dwelt upon the importance of the
+discovery and upon that of the conspiracy as far as already known.  The
+two letters he read left me no doubt that Cellamare was at the head of
+this affair, and that Alberoni had entered into it as far as he.  We were
+much scandalised with the expressions in these letters against M. le Duc
+d'Orleans, who was in no way spared.
+
+This prince spoke again, to say he did not suspect the King or Queen of
+Spain to be mixed up in this affair, but that he attributed it all to the
+passion of Alberoni, and that of his ambassador to please him, and that
+he would ask for justice from their Catholic Majesties.  He showed the
+importance of neglecting no means in order to clear up an affair so
+capital to the repose and tranquillity of the kingdom, and finished by
+saying, that until he knew more he would name nobody who was mixed up in
+the matter.  All this speech was much applauded, and I believe there were
+some among the company who felt greatly relieved when they heard the
+Regent say he would name nobody nor would he allow suspicions to be
+circulated until all was unravelled.
+
+Nevertheless the next day, Saturday, the loth of December, more than one
+arrest was made.  Others took place a few days afterwards.
+
+On Tuesday, the 13th of December, all the foreign ministers went to the
+Palais Royal, according to custom; not one made any complaint of what had
+happened.  A copy of the two letters read at the council was given to
+them.  In the afternoon, Cellamare was placed in a coach with a captain
+of cavalry and a captain of dragoons, chosen to conduct him: to Blois,
+until Saint-Aignan, our ambassador in Spain, should arrive in France.
+
+The position of our ambassador, Saint-Aignan, at Madrid, was, as may be
+imagined, by no means agreeable.  The two courts were just upon the point
+of an open rupture, thanks to the hatred Alberoni had made it a principle
+to keep up in Spain against M. le Duc d'Orleans, by crying down his
+actions, his government, his personal conduct, his most innocent acts,
+and by rendering suspicious even his favourable proceedings with regard
+to Spain.  Alberoni for a long time had ceased to keep on even decent
+terms with Saint-Aignan, scandalising thus even the most unfavourably
+disposed towards France.  Saint-Aignan only maintained his position by
+the sagacity of his conduct, and he was delighted when he received orders
+to return to France.  He asked for his parting audience, and meanwhile
+bade adieu to all his friends and to all the Court.  Alberoni, who every
+moment expected decisive news from Cellamare respecting the conspiracy,
+wished to remain master of our ambassador, so as, in case of accident,
+to have a useful hostage in his hands as security for his own ambassador.
+He put off therefore this parting audience under various pretexts.  At
+last, Saint-Aignan, pressed by his reiterated orders (orders all the more
+positive because suspicion had already begun to foresee a disturbance
+ever alarming), spoke firmly to the Cardinal, and declared that if this
+audience were not at once accorded to him, he would do without it!
+Therefore the Cardinal, in anger, replied with a menace, that he knew
+well enough how to hinder, him, from acting thus.
+
+Saint-Aignan wisely contained himself; but seeing to what sort of a man
+he was exposed, and judging rightly why he was detained at Madrid, took
+his measures so secretly and so well, that he set out the same night,
+with his most necessary equipage, gained ground and arrived at the foot
+of the Pyrenees without being overtaken and arrested; two occurrences
+which he expected at every moment, knowing that Alberoni was a man who
+would stick at nothing.
+
+Saint-Aignan, already so far advanced, did not deem it advisable to
+expose himself any longer, bothered as he would be among the mountains by
+his carriages.  He and the Duchess, his wife, followed by a waiting-woman
+and three valets, with a very trusty guide, mounted upon mules and rode
+straight for Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port without stopping a moment more on
+the road than was necessary.  He sent on his equipages to Pampeluna at a
+gentle pace, and placed in his carriage an intelligent valet de chambre
+and a waiting-woman, with orders to pass themselves off as the ambassador
+and ambassadress of France, and in case they were arrested to cry out a
+good deal.  The arrest did not fail to happen.  The people despatched by
+Alberoni soon came up with the carriage.  The pretended ambassador and
+ambassadress played their parts very well, and they who had arrested them
+did not doubt for a moment they had made a fine capture, sending news of
+it to Madrid, and keeping the prisoners in Pampeluna, to which the party
+returned.
+
+This device saved M. and Madame de Saint-Aignan, and gave them means to
+reach Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port; as soon as they arrived there they sent
+for assistance and carriages to Bayonne, which they gained in safety, and
+reposed after their fatigue.  The Duc de Saint-Aignan sent word of all
+this to M. le Duc d'Orleans by a courier, and, at this arrival in
+Bayonne, despatched a message to the Governor of Pampeluna, begging him
+to send on his equipages.  Alberoni's people were very much ashamed of
+having been duped, but Alberoni when he heard of it flew into a furious
+rage, and cruelly punished the mistake.  The equipages were sent on to
+Bayonne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCVI
+
+To return now to what took place at Paris.
+
+On Sunday, the 25th of December, Christmas Day, M. le Duc d'Orleans sent
+for me to come and see him at the Palais Royal, about four o'clock in the
+afternoon.  I went accordingly, and after despatching some business with
+him, other people being present, I followed him into his little winter
+cabinet at the end of the little gallery, M. le Duc being present.
+
+After a moment of silence, the Regent told me to see if no one was
+outside in the gallery, and if the door at the end was closed.  I went
+out, found the door shut, and no one near.
+
+This being ascertained, M. le Duc d'Orleans said that we should not be
+surprised to learn that M. and Madame du Maine had been mixed up all
+along with this affair of the Spanish Ambassador Cellamare; that he had
+written proofs of this, and that the project was exactly that which I
+have already described.  He added, that he had strictly forbidden the
+Keeper of the Seals, the Abbe Dubois, and Le Blanc, who alone knew of
+this project, to give the slightest sign of their knowledge, recommended
+to me the same secrecy, and the same precaution; and finished by saying
+that he wished, above all things, to consult M. le Duc and me upon the
+course he ought to adopt.
+
+M. le Duc at once went to the point and said M. and Madame du Maine must
+at once be arrested and put where they could cause no apprehension.  I
+supported this opinion, and showed the perilous annoyances that might
+arise if this step were not instantly taken; as much for the purpose of
+striking terror into the conspirators, as for disconcerting their
+schemes.  I added that there was not a moment to lose, and that it was
+better to incur uncertain danger than to wait for that which was certain.
+
+Our advice was accepted by M. le Duc d'Orleans, after some little debate.
+But now the question arose, where are the prisoners to be put?  The
+Bastille and Vincennes both seemed to me too near to Paris.  Several
+places were named without one appearing to suit.  At lasts M. le Duc
+d'Orleans mentioned Dourlens.  I stopped him short at the name, and
+recommended it warmly.  I knew the governor, Charost, and his son to be
+men of probity, faithful, virtuous, and much attached to the state.  Upon
+this it was agreed to send M. du Maine to Dourlens.
+
+Then we had to fix upon a place for his wife, and this was more
+difficult; there were her sex, her fiery temper, her courage; her
+daring,--all to be considered; whereas, her husband, we knew, so
+dangerous as a hidden enemy, was contemptible without his mask, and would
+fall into the lowest state of dejection in prison, trembling all over
+with fear of the scaffold, and attempting nothing; his wife, on the
+contrary, being capable of attempting anything:
+
+Various places discussed, M. le Duc d'Orleans smiled, and proposed the
+chateau of Dijon!  Now, the joke of this suggestion was, that Dijon
+belonged to M. le Duc, and that he was nephew of Madame du Maine, whom
+the Regent proposed to lock up there!  M. le Duc smiled also, and said it
+was a little too bad to make him the gaoler of his aunt!  But all things
+considered, it was found that a better choice than Dijon could not be
+made, so M. le Duc gave way.  I fancy he had held out more for form's
+sake than for any other reason.  These points settled, we separated, to
+meet another time, in order to make the final arrangements for the
+arrest.
+
+We met accordingly, the Monday and Tuesday following, and deliberated
+with the same secrecy as before.  On Wednesday we assembled again to put
+the final touch to our work.  Our conference was long, and the result of
+it was, that M. and Madame du Maine were to be arrested on the morrow;
+all the necessary arrangements were made, and, as we thought, with the
+utmost secrecy.  Nevertheless, the orders given to the regiment of the
+guards, and to the musketeers somehow or other transpired during the
+evening, and gave people reason to believe that something considerable
+was in contemplation.  On leaving the conference, I arranged with Le
+Blanc that, when the blow was struck, he should inform me by simply
+sending a servant to inquire after my health.
+
+The morrow, about ten o'clock in the morning, having noiselessly and
+without show placed the body-guard around Sceaux, La Billardiere,
+lieutenant of the regiment, entered there, and arrested the Duc du Maine
+as he was leaving his chapel after hearing mass, and very respectfully
+begged him not to re-enter the house, but to mount immediately into a
+coach which he had brought.  M. du Maine, who had expected this arrest,
+and who had had time to put his papers in order, mad not the slightest
+resistance.  He replied that he had anticipated this compliment for some
+days, and at once moved into the coach.  La Billardiere placed himself by
+his side, and in front was an exempt of the bodyguards, and Favancourt,
+brigadier in the first company of musketeers, destined to guard him in
+his prison.
+
+As these two latter persons did not appear before the Duc du Maine until
+the moment he entered the coach, be appeared surprised and moved to see
+Favancourt.
+
+He would not have been at the exempt, but the sight of the other
+depressed him.  He asked La Billardiere what this meant.  Billardiere
+could not dissimulate that Favancourt had orders to accompany him, and to
+remain with him in the place to which they were going.  Favancourt
+himself took this moment to pay his compliments as best he might to the
+Duc du Maine, to which the Duke replied but little, and that in a civil
+and apprehensive manner.  These proceedings conducted them to the end of
+the avenue of Sceaux, where the bodyguards appeared.  The sight of them
+made the Duc du Maine change colour.
+
+Silence was but little interrupted in the coach.  Now and then M. du
+Maine would say that he was very innocent of the accusation which had
+been formed against him; that he was much attached to the King, and not
+less so to M. le Duc d'Orleans, who could not but recognise it; and that
+it was very unfortunate his Royal Highness should put faith in his
+enemies (he never named anybody).  All this was said in a broken manner,
+and amid many sighs; from time to time signs of the cross; low mumblings
+as of prayers; and plunges at each church or each cross they passed.  He
+took his meals in the coach, ate very little, was alone at night, but
+with good precautions taken.  He did not know until the morrow that he
+was going to Dourlens.  He showed no emotion thereupon.  All these
+details I learnt from Favancourt, whom I knew very well, and who was in
+the Musketeers when I served in that corps.
+
+At the moment of the arrest of M. du Maine, Ancenis, captain of the body-
+guard, arrested the Duchesse du Maine in her house in the Rue St.
+Honore.  A lieutenant, and an exempt of the foot body-guards, with other
+troops, took possession of the house at the same time, and guarded the
+doors.  The compliment of the Duc d'Ancenis was sharply received.  Madame
+du Maine wished to take away some caskets.  Ancenis objected.  She
+demanded, at the least, her jewels; altercations very strong on one side,
+very modest on the other: but she was obliged to yield.  She raged at the
+violence done to a person of her rank, without saying anything too
+disobliging to M. d'Ancenis, and without naming anybody.  She delayed her
+departure as long as she could, despite the instances of d'Ancenis, who
+at last presented his hand to her, and politely, but firmly, said she
+must go.  She found at her door two six-horse coaches, the sight of which
+much shocked her.  She was obliged, however, to mount.  Ancenis placed
+himself by her side, the lieutenant and the exempt of the guard in front,
+two chambermaids whom she had chosen were in the other coach, with her
+apparel, which had been examined.  The ramparts were followed, the
+principal streets avoided; there was no stir, and at this she could not
+restrain her surprise and vexation, or check a tear, declaiming by fits
+and starts against the violence done her.  She complained of the rough
+coach, the indignity it cast upon her, and from time to time asked where
+she was being led to.  She was simply told that she would sleep at
+Essonne, nothing more.  Her three guardians maintained profound silence.
+At night all possible precautions were taken.  When she set out the next
+day, the Duc d'Ancenis took leave of her, and left her to the lieutenant
+and to the exempt of the body-guards, with troops to conduct her.  She
+asked where they were leading her to: he simply replied,
+"To Fontainebleau."  The disquietude of Madame du Maine augmented as she
+left Paris farther behind, but when she found herself in Burgundy, and
+knew at last she was to go to Dijon, she stormed at a fine rate.
+
+It was worse when she was forced to enter the castle, and found herself
+the prisoner of M. le Duc.  Fury suffocated her.  She raged against her
+nephew, and the horrible place chosen for her.  Nevertheless, after her
+first transports, she returned to herself, and began to comprehend that
+she was in no place and no condition to play the fury.  Her extreme rage
+she kept to herself, affected nothing but indifference for all, and
+disdainful security.  The King's lieutenant of the castle, absolutely
+devoted to M. le Duc, kept her fast, and closely watched her and her
+chambermaids.  The Prince de Dombes and the Comte d'Eu (her sons) were at
+the same time exiled to Eu, where a gentleman in ordinary always was near
+them; Mademoiselle du Maine was sent to Maubuisson.
+
+Several other people were successively arrested and placed either in the
+Bastille or Vincennes.  The commotion caused by the arrest and
+imprisonment of M. and Madame du Maine was great; many faces, already
+elongated by the Bed of justice, were still further pulled out by these
+events.  The Chief-President, D'Effiat, the Marechal de Villeroy, the
+Marechal de Villars, the Marechal d'Huxelles, and other devoted friends
+of M. du Maine, were completely terrified; they did not dare to say a
+word; they kept out of the way; did not leave their houses except from
+necessity; fear was painted upon their faces.  All their pride was put
+aside; they became polite, caressing, would have eaten out of your hand;
+and by this sudden change and their visible embarrassment betrayed
+themselves.
+
+As for the Comte de Toulouse he remained as upright and loyal as ever.
+The very day of the double arrest he came to M. le Duc d'Orleans and said
+that he regarded the King, the Regent, and the State as one and the same
+thing; that he should never be wanting in his duty or in his fidelity
+towards them; that he was very sorry at what had happened to his brother,
+but that he was in no way answerable for him.  The Regent stated this to
+me the same day, and appeared, with reason, to be charmed with such
+straightforward honesty.
+
+This arrest of M. and Madame du Maine had another effect.  For some time
+past, a large quantity of illicit salt had been sold throughout the
+country.  The people by whom this trade was conducted, 'faux sauniers',
+as they were called, travelled over the provinces in bands well armed and
+well organized.  So powerful had they become that troops were necessary
+in order to capture them.  There were more than five thousand faux
+saumers, who openly carried on their traffic in Champagne and Picardy.
+They had become political instruments in the hands of others, being
+secretly encouraged and commanded by those who wished to sow trouble in
+the land.  It could not be hidden that these 'faux sauniers' were
+redoubtable by their valour and their arrangements; that the people were
+favourable to them, buying as they did from them salt at a low price, and
+irritated as they were against the gabelle and other imposts; that these
+'faux sauniers' spread over all the realm, and often marching in large
+bands, which beat all opposed to them, were dangerous people, who incited
+the population by their examples to opposition against the government.
+
+I had proposed on one occasion the abolition of the salt tax to the
+Regent, as a remedy for these evils; but my suggestion shared the fate of
+many others.  It was favourably listened to, and nothing more.  And
+meanwhile the 'faux sauniers' had gone on increasing.  I had no
+difficulty in discovering by whom they were encouraged, and the event
+showed I was right.  Directly after the arrest of M. and Madame du Maine,
+the 'faux sauniers' laid down their arms, asked, and obtained pardon.
+This prompt submission showed dearly enough by whom they had been
+employed, and for what reason.  I had uselessly told M. le Duc d'Orleans
+so long before, who admitted that I was right, but did nothing.  It was
+his usual plan.
+
+Let me finish at once with all I shall have to say respecting M. and
+Madame du Maine.
+
+They remained in their prisons during the whole of the year 1719,
+supplied with all the comforts and attentions befitting their state, and
+much less rigorously watched than at first, thanks to the easy
+disposition of M. le Duc d'Orleans, whose firmness yielded even more
+rapidly than beauty to the effects of time.  The consequence of his
+indulgence towards the two conspirators was, that at about the
+commencement of the following year, 1720, they began to play a very
+ridiculous comedy, of which not a soul was the dupe; not even the public,
+nor the principal actors, nor the Regent.
+
+The Duc and Duchesse du Maine, thanks to the perfidy of the Abbe Dubois,
+had had time to hide away all their papers, and to arrange together the
+different parts they should play.  Madame du Maine, supported by her sex
+and birth, muffled herself up in her dignity, when replying to the
+questions addressed to her, of which just as many, and no more, were read
+to the replying counsel as pleased the Abbe Dubois; and strongly accusing
+Cellamare and others; protected as much as possible her friends, her
+husband above all, by charging herself with all; by declaring that what
+she had done M. du Maine had no knowledge of; and that its object went no
+farther than to obtain from the Regent such reforms in his administration
+as were wanted.
+
+The Duc du Maine, shorn of his rank and of his title of prince of the
+blood, trembled for his life.  His crimes against the state, against the
+blood royal, against the person of the Regent, so long, so artfully, and
+so cruelly offended, troubled him all the more because he felt they
+deserved severe punishment.  He soon, therefore, conceived the idea of
+screening himself beneath his wife's petticoats.  His replies, and all
+his observations were to the same tune; perfect ignorance of everything.
+Therefore when the Duchess had made her confessions, and they were
+communicated to him, he cried out against his wife,--her madness, her
+felony,--his misfortune in having a wife capable of conspiring, and
+daring enough to implicate him in everything without having spoken to
+him; making him thus a criminal without being so the least in the world;
+and keeping him so ignorant of her doings, that it was out of his power
+to stop them, to chide her, or inform M. le Duc d'Orleans if things had
+been pushed so far that he ought to have done so!
+
+From that time the Duc du Maine would no longer hear talk of a woman who,
+without his knowledge, had cast him and his children into this abyss; and
+when at their release from prison, they were permitted to write and send
+messages to each other, he would receive nothing from her, or give any
+signs of life.  Madame du Maine, on her side, pretended to be afflicted
+at this treatment; admitting, nevertheless, that she had acted wrongfully
+towards her husband in implicating him without his knowledge in her
+schemes.  They were at this point when they were allowed to come near
+Paris.  M. du Maine went to live at Clagny, a chateau near Versailles,
+built for Madame de Montespan.  Madame du Maine went to Sceaux.  They
+came separately to see M. le Duc d'Orleans at Paris, without sleeping
+there; both played their parts, and as the Abbe Dubois judged the time
+had come to take credit to himself in their eyes for finishing their
+disgrace, he easily persuaded M. le Duc d'Orleans to, appear convinced of
+the innocence of M. du Maine.
+
+During their stay in the two country-houses above named, where they saw
+but little company, Madame du Maine made many attempts at reconciliation
+with her husband, which he repelled.  This farce lasted from the month of
+January (when they arrived at Sceaux and at Clagny) to the end of July.
+Then they thought the game had lasted long enough to be put an end to.
+They had found themselves quit of all danger so cheaply, and counted so
+much upon the Abbe Dubois, that they were already thinking of returning
+to their former considerations; and to work at this usefully, they must
+be in a position to see each other, and commence by establishing
+themselves in Paris, where they would of necessity live together.
+
+The sham rupture had been carried to this extent, that the two sons of
+the Duc du Maine returned from Eu to Clagny a few days after him, did not
+for a long time go and see Madame du Maine, and subsequently saw her but
+rarely, and without sleeping under her roof.
+
+At last a resolution being taken to put an end to the comedy, this is how
+it was terminated by another.
+
+Madame la Princesse made an appointment with the Duc du Maine, at
+Vaugirard on the last of July, and in the house of Landais, treasurer of
+the artillery.  She arrived there a little after him with the Duchesse du
+Maine, whom she left in her carriage.  She said to M. du Maine she had
+brought a lady with her who much desired to see him.  The thing was not
+difficult to understand; the piece had been well studied.  The Duchesse
+du Maine was sent for.  The apparent reconcilement took place.  The three
+were a long time together.  To play out the comedy, M. and Madame du
+Maine still kept apart, but saw and approached each other by degrees,
+until at last the former returned to Sceaux, and lived with his wife as
+before.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARK:
+
+He was often firm in promises
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Memoirs of Louis XIV. and The Regency,
+v12, by the Duc de Saint-Simon
+
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