THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 The Court Series of French Memoirs 
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 
 THE REGENCY
 
 PHILIPPE D'ORLEANS, THE REGENT
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 
 THE REGENCY 
 
 The Minority of Louis XV 
 
 BY 
 
 Charles Pinot Duclos 
 
 Historiographer of France 
 
 Translated from the French by 
 
 E. Jules Meras 
 
 flew H?orfe 
 
 STURGIS & WALTON 
 COMPANY 
 
 1910
 
 Copyright 1910 
 BY STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1910
 
 College 
 Library 
 
 Dt 
 
 1-32 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The name of Regency is particularly applied 
 in the history of France to the government of 
 Philippe d'Orleans, nephew of Louis XIV, dur- 
 ing the minority of Louis XV (1715-1723). 
 It was, from a political point of view, a reaction 
 against the absolutism of Louis XIV, and the 
 period was signalised by a recrudescence in public 
 immorality and by the disastrous financial ventures 
 of John Law. 
 
 Most authors of the period seem to be agreed 
 that Philippe d'Orleans was, of all the descend- 
 ants of Henri IV, the one who resembled him 
 most; " he possessed his valour, his kindness, his 
 indulgence, his gaiety, his quickness, his frank- 
 ness." It is true that awful charges were brought 
 against him, but many are no longer believed and 
 among these the one regarding his relations with 
 his daughter, the Duchesse de Berri. He was, 
 perhaps, not so bad as painted and may have been 
 
 1182969
 
 vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 what his uncle, Louis XIV, termed him : " a 
 braggart of crimes." Nevertheless, the fact re- 
 mains that owing to his immorality, his impiety 
 and his indifference to public opinion, he set an 
 example which caused a general corruption of 
 morals and made the Regency one of the shame- 
 ful periods of the history of France. 
 
 The destiny of Duclos, the author of the 
 " Secret Memoirs of the Regency," may appear 
 strange. He was in his time, as much as his 
 contemporaries Diderot or Voltaire, one of the 
 great personages of the republic of letters; he 
 was, more than any other writer, loaded with 
 titles and honours, a member of the Academic des 
 Inscriptions, secretaire perpetuel of the Academic 
 Franchise, historiographer of France: hardly has 
 his name survived in the memory of men. A 
 charming narrator, a kind moralist, a well-in- 
 formed historian, he wrote excellently that lan- 
 guage so pure and classic of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, but this did not prevent his work from slowly 
 sinking into oblivion. 
 
 Born at Dinan of a family that had become 
 rich in maritime commerce several generations
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 back, Duclos went to college in Paris. On leav- 
 ing college, he began the study of law, which he 
 never completed. Later, he frequented the 
 cafes litteraires. It was already the fashion in 
 which young men enamoured of literature made 
 their debut in letters. 
 
 Of an elegant figure, supplied with money, witty 
 and more conceited than modest, Duclos filled 
 the Procope and Gradot cafes with the sound of 
 his powerful voice, not the least intimidated by the 
 wits of the time nor by the grand lords who were 
 pleased to spend their fortunes in the company of 
 men of letters. Duclos soon became a person- 
 age. 
 
 From a bel esprit of the cafes he became 
 through the protection of some powerful people 
 a bel esprit of the salons; he acquired a sort of 
 vogue and his bon mots, often sharp, were re- 
 peated everywhere. 
 
 From certain circles he progressed into others, 
 being received and entertained by some of the 
 best known people of the period. He frequented 
 the salon of Mme. de Tencin. He knew Mari- 
 vaux, Montesquieu, Mme. du Deffand and Presi-
 
 viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 dent Renault. He was a friend of Bernis and 
 through him of Quesnay, physician to Mme. de 
 Pompadour. 
 
 He became in turn mayor of Dinan, deputy to 
 the Etats of Brittany, member of the Academic 
 Franchise when about forty years of age, histo- 
 riographer of France, then finally, in 1775, secre- 
 taire perpetuel of the Academic. 
 
 In his capacity of historiographer, he had access 
 to all the departments of the administration and 
 specially had at his disposal the papers of the 
 library of the minister of Foreign Affairs. It was 
 not long before he discovered therein some curious 
 works. First a history of Louis XI, begun by an 
 abbe and never published; from this he evolved 
 his own work of the same name; then on the 
 death of Saint-Simon many manuscripts containing 
 secrets of State were seized and from these Duclos 
 drew most interesting Memoirs; those of the 
 Regency written in a lively and at times remarkable 
 style sustain the interest throughout. 
 
 Apart from the secret papers from which he 
 drew, his own experiences were of service to him, 
 for having been born in 1704, and having died at
 
 INTRODUCTION ir 
 
 the age of sixty-eight, he had seen the times and the 
 changes of which he speaks. 
 
 " I have personally known," he says in his own 
 Introduction to the Memoirs, " the greater number 
 of those of whom I shall have occasion to speak; 
 I have lived with several of them, and, having 
 played no part, am able to judge the actors." 
 
 Beside the Memoirs, Duclos has written novels, 
 operas, a Histoire de Louis XI, Recherches sur 
 la langue, Considerations sur les Mceurs: of all 
 these works, which, taken separately, are not with- 
 out merit, the one to live will surely be the 
 Memoirs.
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Philippe d'Orleans, The Regent Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 The Palais Royal 18 
 
 John Law 66 
 
 Peter the Great 96 
 
 Louis XV as a Child 164 
 
 Cardinal Alberoni 192 
 
 The Duchesse du Maine 270 
 
 Cardinal Dubois . 330
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 The r uc d'Orleans had a pleasant and open 
 countenance. He was of medium height, but pos- 
 sessed an ease and grace of bearing which was no- 
 ticeable in all his movements. 
 
 Gifted with rare penetration and sagacity, he 
 expressed himself with animation and precision. 
 His repartee was quick, to the point and brilliant. 
 His first judgments were the most sure; reflection 
 made him waver. Rapid reading, assisted by a 
 good memory, took the place of continued applica- 
 tion; he seemed rather to guess than to study 
 things. He was more than fairly versed in art, 
 music, chemistry and mechanics. 
 
 Possessed of true valour, modest in speaking of 
 himself, and but little indulgent for those whom 
 he suspected as to courage, he would have been 
 a general, if the King had allowed him to be ; but 
 he was always in subjection at Court, and a subor- 
 
 3
 
 '4 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 dinate in the army. A noble familiarity placed 
 him on the same level as those who approached 
 him; he felt that personal superiority made it un- 
 necessary for him to glory in his rank. 
 
 He bore no resentment toward those who had 
 wronged him and made use of this fact to compare 
 himself with Henri IV. His lack of feeling in 
 that respect came from his contempt for men; he 
 supposed that his most devoted servants would 
 have been his enemies had it been to their slightest 
 advantage. He maintained that an honest man 
 was one who knew the art of hiding what he was 
 not; a judgment as unjust to humanity as it is dis- 
 honouring to the one who pronounces it. He had 
 acquired this way of thinking from the most cor- 
 rupt of men, the abbe, afterward cardinal, Dubois, 
 who did not believe in virtue, nor in uprightness. 
 
 The Due d'Orleans had had four tutors suc- 
 cessively; they died at so short a time one from 
 the other that Benserade said that it was impos- 
 sible to raise tutors for this prince. Saint-Laurent, 
 officer of Monsieur, and a man of the highest 
 merit, was his preceptor; but he died too soon for 
 his pupil. He had engaged, to copy the young
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 5 
 
 prince's exercises, Abbe Dubois, half scribe, half 
 valet to the curate of Saint-Eustache. When 
 Saint-Laurent died, the prince was sufficiently 
 grown to allow of the assistant tutors whom 
 Dubois had striven to please dissuading Mon- 
 sieur from engaging a head-master, and Dubois 
 continued the duties of the office. The remem- 
 brance of the tutors and of the preceptor was al- 
 ways dear to the Due d'Orleans, but Dubois made 
 him forget much of their lessons. 
 
 It is rather interesting to know the origin of this 
 singular man. Son of an apothecary of Brive, 
 after having studied for a short time, he became 
 preceptor to the son of President Gourgues. It 
 is claimed that afterwards he married secretly. 
 Poverty, inspiring him with the desire to seek his 
 fortune, with the consent of his wife, whom he left 
 in Limousin, he went to Paris. Concealed by his 
 obscurity, he entered Saint-Michel's College, there 
 to perform the lowest tasks. Born with intel- 
 ligence, he soon acquired enough literature to cause 
 a doctor of the Sorbonne to become interested in 
 him and take him to his home. This first master 
 having died, the curate of Saint-Eustache took him
 
 6 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 in his service. It was there that he became known 
 to Saint-Laurent. Yielding, insinuating, obliging, 
 he won, if not the friendship, at least the compas- 
 sion of Saint-Laurent, who employed him under 
 him, as we have seen. They dressed him properly, 
 so as to give him the appearance of an abbe, im- 
 prove his poor and vulgar exterior a little, and 
 render him presentable. Little by little he insin- 
 uated himself into the mind of the young prince, 
 and ended by taking possession of it after the 
 death of Saint-Laurent. 
 
 As intimacy discloses the character, the abbe 
 felt that he would soon be despised by his pupil, if 
 he did not corrupt him ; he left nothing undone to 
 accomplish this end and unfortunately was but too 
 successful. It was not long before people noticed 
 the influence of the abbe over the prince; but the 
 slight importance of his person saving him at that 
 time from jealousy, people were not sorry to have 
 some one of whom they could make use on occa- 
 sion, as of a tool of no consequence. 
 
 The resolution which the King made to have 
 the Due de Chartres (later Due d'Orleans) marry 
 Mademoiselle de Blois, his natural daughter, set
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 7 
 
 Abbe Dubois to work. However submissive 
 Monsieur might be, the King felt that the propo- 
 sition would be repugnant to him and that the Ger- 
 man haughtiness of Madame would be indignant at 
 it. He therefore bethought himself of securing 
 the consent of the Due de Chartres; and knowing 
 that no one could succeed better than Abbe Du- 
 bois, to him he entrusted this task. 
 
 This became a serious undertaking. It was 
 more difficult to destroy prejudice of pride than 
 of morality, and this prejudice was nevertheless 
 well founded on reason. Dubois succeeded in 
 triumphing over it, however, by frightening the 
 Due de Chartres with the King's power, and by 
 holding out to him the allurement of an increase of 
 credit and of personal dignity by the continuation 
 of the honours of the fits de France, superior to 
 those of petit-fils. 
 
 The marriage was concluded, in spite of the un- 
 certainties of the Due de Chartres, the repugnance 
 of Monsieur, and the fury of Madame, who gave 
 her son a slap the first time he spoke of the matter. 
 
 The Due de Chartres found, however, in the 
 woman he married, face, wit, virtue and nobility
 
 8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 of character ; but she was labouring under a singular 
 delusion with regard to her birth. She imagined 
 that she had done her husband as much honour as 
 she had received from him. Proud of her birth, 
 which she owed to the King, she took no notice 
 whatever of the Marquise de Montespan, her 
 mother. She was rather wittily compared to 
 Minerva, who, recognizing no mother, gloried in 
 being the daughter of Jupiter. This folly did not 
 prevent her, with her brother and sisters, from 
 boasting of the honours which she owed only to her 
 marriage. 
 
 Less sensitive on the subject of love than on that 
 of the respect which she demanded of her husband, 
 she always felt more displeasure than jealousy to- 
 wards the mistresses which he took, and would 
 not have made the slightest advances to bring him 
 back to her. 
 
 So much haughtiness strengthened the Due 
 d'Orleans' taste for a life which at times became 
 grossly vicious. Human, sympathetic, he would 
 have had virtues, if one could have them without 
 principles. Abbe Dubois had made him lose 
 them. The subjection in which the King held him
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 9 
 
 caused him to highly praise English liberty. It is 
 true that that which he wished for himself, he left 
 to others. He at times had rivals who did not 
 conceal the fact. With regard to his associates, 
 he was not particular. Anyone whom he fancied 
 became his equal. In spite of his talent and intel- 
 ligence, he could not for long find resources in him- 
 self ; dissipation, noise, debauch, were necessary to 
 him. He admitted into his intimacy individuals 
 whom no self-respecting man would ever have 
 acknowledged as friends, notwithstanding the 
 noble birth of some of these. The Regent, al- 
 though enjoying their company, did not esteem 
 them any the more for that reason and called them 
 his roues in speaking of them or before them. 
 The licentiousness of his private life was such that 
 the comtesse said to him one day during supper: 
 " God, after having created man, took a bit of mud 
 which was left over and from it formed the minds 
 of princes and lackeys." Instead of getting angry 
 at this remark, the Regent laughed heartily, for it 
 seemed rather witty to him. 
 
 The curate of Saint-Come, Godeau, delivered a 
 sermon which clearly applied to the Regent. The
 
 io SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 prince, to whom the matter was mentioned, said 
 coolly: " What does he meddle with? I do not 
 belong to his parish." 
 
 As to religion, it would be hard to say what 
 that of the Regent was. Without considering 
 that respect for religion should be the duty of 
 princes more than that of anyone else, the Regent 
 publicly affected a scandalous impiety. His ex- 
 cesses and his meannesses betrayed a man anything 
 but firm in his convictions. In seeking to doubt 
 the divinity, he went from one fortune-teller to an- 
 other, and exhibited all the credulous curiosity of 
 an effeminate man. It is very probable, that had 
 he fallen into a lingering illness, he would have 
 had recourse to relics and holy water. Madame, 
 who knew him well, said of him : " The fairies 
 were invited at my lying-in, and each one en- 
 dowed my son with some talent. He had them all. 
 Unfortunately, one fairy had been forgotten who, 
 coming after the others, said : ' He will possess 
 all the talents, except that of making use of 
 them.' " 
 
 Madame loved her son tenderly, although she 
 condemned his conduct severely. This princess,
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY n 
 
 with just sense, was attached to virtue, honour, the 
 proprieties, and the etiquette of her rank. A 
 sturdy health, which kept her from knowing any 
 weakness, made her appear unfeeling for others, 
 whom she considered as healthy as she was herself. 
 Frank even to coarseness, generous, capable of 
 friendship, she did not try to please ; she wished to 
 be loved only by those whom she esteemed. She 
 loved her own nation greatly and it sufficed but to 
 be German to be well received. All her relatives 
 were dear to her, and her affections were regulated 
 by the closeness of blood-ties, even towards those 
 whom she had never seen. She esteemed her 
 daughter-in-law and would have loved her had she 
 been legitimate. Her strictness on the question of 
 duty excited in her the greatest indignation against 
 the Duchess de Berri, her granddaughter. All 
 that could be praised in the latter was her face and 
 grace, for much wit, which she always misused, is 
 not a thing to be lauded! Lacking her father's 
 good qualities, she possessed all his vices and to a 
 more pronounced degree. He had been her pre- 
 ceptor in these matters; she became his imitator 
 and surpassed him.
 
 12 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 We have seen the strange vanity which the Duch- 
 ess d'Orleans drew from her birth; her daughter 
 blushed at owing hers to her. Such opposite ideas 
 and such sameness of pride were not apt to pre- 
 serve harmony between mother and daughter ; their 
 dissensions were therefore continuous and often 
 reached the breaking point. The Duchess d'Or- 
 leans grieved at this, because she was a mother, 
 this sentiment prevented her from hating her 
 daughter; but the latter, who had renounced all 
 good sentiments, did not conceal either her con- 
 tempt or dislike. The Due d'Orleans contented 
 himself with disapproving of her conduct but dared 
 not reprimand her. 
 
 The father and daughter lived in such intimacy 
 that rumours, which at first had been but low mur- 
 murs, became a public topic of conversation, and 
 reached the ears of the Due de Berri. His religion 
 did not permit him to believe them ; but as he loved 
 his wife to distraction, he was annoyed at the per- 
 sistent attentions of his father-in-law; and this 
 troublesome third party put him into a humour 
 which he did not always restrain. He was be- 
 sides frightened at the impious speeches of the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 13 
 
 father and daughter. It was a contest between 
 them as to who could say the most irreligious 
 things and show the greatest contempt for morals. 
 Their impiety was as much a mania as it was a vice. 
 The princess impudently mocked her husband about 
 a devoutness which was the sole preventive against 
 the suspicions which she should have tried to 
 destroy. The only thing the father and daughter 
 had to justify themselves was an excess of foolish 
 imprudence, but the folly of their conduct, and 
 their indifference to public gossip, were not a proof 
 of their innocence; and the Court, which had 
 neither the virtue nor the religion of the Due de 
 Berri, was not so reserved in its judgment. The 
 Due d'Orleans was told of it and was very indig- 
 nant; his daughter was only shocked in her vanity; 
 and neither the one nor the other changed their 
 ways. 
 
 If the Due d'Orleans was enamoured of his 
 daughter, he was not jealous of her, and seemed 
 to look upon the dissoluteness of her life with in- 
 difference. Hardly had she married the Due de 
 Berri when she had love affairs, wherein the respect 
 which was due her station compelled her to make
 
 I 4 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the advances. The liaison which she had with La 
 Haye, her husband's equerry, was carried to an in- 
 credible degree of frenzy. Not satisfied with, 
 showing her passion, she proposed to her lover to 
 take her to Holland. La Haye trembled at the 
 proposition and saw himself obliged, to save him- 
 self, to impart it to the Due d'Orleans. It was 
 necessary in turn to frighten and to flatter that 
 wayward spirit, so that the project should not 
 reach the King's ears. Little by little the duchess 
 calmed down, and that mad woman finally gave 
 way to the impossibility of satisfying her wish or to 
 the fear of the danger to her lover. 
 
 When her husband was attacked at Marly by 
 the sickness of which he died, instead of going 
 from Versailles to see him, she contented herself 
 with asking the permission of the King, who re- 
 plied that, being with child, it would perhaps be 
 imprudent, but that she might do as she pleased. 
 
 She did not go and her husband died without 
 having seen her or having uttered her name. 
 
 The Duchess de Berri, in spite of her vanity, 
 trembled before the King and grovelled in the 
 presence of Mme. de Maintenon. We shall soon
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 15 
 
 see the remainder of her life, which was short, cor- 
 respond to the beginning. 
 
 Let us resume the narration of the events in 
 their order. The day after the King's death, the 
 Parliament assembled to decide on the regency. 
 The Due d'Orleans, the princes and the peers be- 
 took themselves there and as early as eight o'clock 
 all were in their places. 
 
 It is well known that in his will Louis XIV ap- 
 pointed, instead of a Regent, a regency council of 
 which the Due d'Orleans was to be but the head, 
 and that the Due du Maine was to have the com- 
 mand of the troops of the King's Household. 
 
 As the report of this session of September sec- 
 ond, and that of the bed of justice of the twelfth, 
 wherein the young King came to make himself 
 known, are in everyone's hands, I shall content 
 myself with referring the reader to them, and shall 
 only recall certain circumstances which do not ap- 
 pear in the printed record. 
 
 The Due d'Orleans was equally occupied and 
 anxious about so decisive a day. The premier 
 president having sold himself to the Due du 
 Maine, the Due d'Orleans bought the colonel of
 
 16 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY, 
 
 c 
 
 the French guards, the Due de Guiche-Grammont; 
 
 consequently, the regiment quietly occupied all the 
 avenues leading to the palace, and officers with 
 chosen soldiers, but not in uniform, mingled with 
 the people in the halls. Abbe Dubois affected to 
 take into one of the boxes, Stairs, the English 
 ambassador, so as to insinuate that the Court at 
 London, if it were necessary, would support the 
 Due d'Orleans. These different measures were 
 superfluous, the personal character of the oppo- 
 nents decided everything. 
 
 The Due d'Orleans, in claiming the rights of his 
 birth, did not forget to say flattering things of the 
 Parliament. He at first spoke with hesitation, 
 but he recovered his assurance by degrees, as he 
 saw those present seemingly favourable to him. 
 Finally the regency having been bestowed on him, 
 there was more discussion on the guardianship of 
 the young King and on the command of the troops 
 of his Household which gave to the Regent and to 
 the Due du Maine the appearance of clients at the 
 feet of the Court. The friends of the former, 
 feeling that the sole equality of the part degraded 
 him, advised him to postpone the session until the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY a? 
 
 afternoon to settle the other matters. This ad- 
 vice was a party stroke. The Regent closed the 
 sitting and returned to his rooms, where he had 
 time to collect his wits. He sent for the attorney- 
 general, d'Aguesseau, and for the first solicitor- 
 general, Joly de Fleury. These two magistrates, 
 the most enlightened of the Parliament, have not 
 yet had successors. The former, full of wisdom, 
 of knowledge and of probity, sought, saw and al- 
 ways wanted the good. The other, with as much 
 intelligence, but more shrewdness, distinguished 
 at one glance between two good things, the one 
 which suited him best, and knew how to cause it to 
 be looked upon as the best. 
 
 Botf 'inderstood that it was no longer a ques- 
 tion of mining if the execution of the will 
 wouli 1 have been preferable or not to the regency 
 already bestowed on the Due d'Orleans. They 
 felt the danger of separating military authority 
 from political administration. The Regent, sup- 
 ported by the princes and the peers against the 
 legitimated, would have soon made use of the 
 authority which he had already obtained, to take 
 possession of that which might be refused to him,
 
 i8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 a thing which could not be done without disturb- 
 ing the State; whereas the Due du Maine, being 
 stripped of all his timidity, was a guaranty of 
 peace. 
 
 Matters thus arranged at the Palais-Royal no 
 longer found any obstacles in the afternoon sitting. 
 The Parliament thought it best to appoint a Re- 
 gent rather than he should appoint himself. A 
 few, in setting aside the will of Louis XIV, were 
 not sorry of the chance to insult the dead lion, and 
 to appear to grant freely what they felt was bound 
 to slip from them. 
 
 I see in the letters of Prince de Cellamare, am- 
 bassador from Spain to France, that Philip V had 
 flattered himself of obtaining the regency and of 
 having it administered in his name by a repre- 
 sentative. Cellamare writes that he had sounded 
 the dispositions of all those who could serve the 
 King of Spain, and that all had declared that the 
 proposition alone would shock the entire nation; 
 but that all confessed openly that if the infant 
 King should happen to die, Philip V would find no 
 difficulty in passing to the throne of France. Cel- 
 lamare cites, among those whom he approached
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 19 
 
 about the matter, the house of Conde, the Due de 
 Guiche, colonel of the guards; Courtenvaux, cap- 
 tain of the Cent-Suisses; Marshal de Berwick, Car- 
 dinal de Polignac; the Marquis de Torcy, secre- 
 tary of State; the Due de Noailles and Marshal d' 
 Estrees, the last two being particularly attached 
 to the Due d'Orleans. Cellamare's instructions 
 went so far as to order him to protest against any 
 Regent who should be preferred to Philip V; he 
 was wise enough to do nothing in the matter. 
 
 The Due du Maine, who, if the will had stood, 
 was to play a principal part, had a most wretched 
 one. He knew not how to retain authority and 
 allowed himself to be stripped of it. The Duch- 
 esse du Maine, in face a kind of little monster, 
 quick, ambitious, with wit and little judgment, 
 later undertook to restore her husband and almost 
 caused his undoing. 
 
 The Regent, on leaving Parliament, betook 
 himself to Versailles and to the King, and then 
 called on Madame, who said to him : " My son, 
 all I wish is the good of the State and your fame. 
 I have but one thing to ask of you for your honour 
 and I demand your word upon It." He gave it.
 
 " It is never to employ that rascal of Abbe Du- 
 bois, the greatest scoundrel to be found in the 
 world, and who would sacrifice the State and you 
 for the slightest interest." The sequel will show 
 that Madame had more judgment than her son 
 had word. 
 
 The Regent began with great reforms in the 
 household, the buildings and the equipages of the 
 King. Louis XIV had given no orders as to his 
 funeral; the economy which Louis XIII had pre- 
 scribed for his was conformed with. The entrails 
 were taken to Notre-Dame and the heart to the 
 Jesuits. 
 
 Louis XIV had ordered that immediately after 
 his death the young King be conducted to Vin- 
 cennes on account of the salubrity of the air. 
 The Regent wished it, so as to be nearer to Paris 
 and his pleasures. The Court physicians, more 
 comfortably quartered at Versailles than they 
 would have been at Vincennes, considered that 
 the purest air was that of the place most to their 
 liking; and all the servants, for the same reason, 
 approved the medical faculty. The Regent sum- 
 moned the Paris physicians who, for reasons per-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 21 
 
 haps as disinterested as those of the Court phy- 
 sicians, declared themselves in favor of Vincennes; 
 and the King was taken there on the 9th without 
 going through Paris. 
 
 On the same day the body of Louis XIV was 
 borne to Saint-Denis. The gatherings in the 
 plain were tremendous. All sorts of food-stuffs 
 and refreshments were sold there. Everywhere 
 people could be seen dancing, singing, drinking, 
 giving themselves up to scandalous rejoicing, and 
 many were unworthy enough to pour forth insults 
 on seeing the hearse which contained the body pass 
 by. 
 
 The Regent, in his first labours with the secre- 
 taries of State, caused the list of all the lettres de 
 cachet to be shown to him, and they were unable 
 to give him a reason for the existence of many of 
 them. He caused all those who were incarcer- 
 ated for no real crime to be liberated, and many 
 such cases were found; almost all were victims of 
 ministers or of Father Tellier. Among those lib- 
 erated was a Chevalier d'Aremberg, who had been 
 imprisoned for eleven years for having assisted 
 in the escape of Father Quesnel from the Malines
 
 22 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 prison. I have seen him several times since my 
 youth, and although he was not old, the rigours 
 of prison life had given him an air of decrepi- 
 tude. There was found in the Bastille an Italian 
 arrested thirty-five years before, on the day of his 
 arrival in Paris. He argued that at this time 
 a grant of liberty would be his greatest misfor- 
 tune, as probably all his relatives were dead or 
 would not recognise him. The Regent gave or- 
 ders that he be well treated at the Bastille, with 
 liberty to go out and return. The condition in 
 which the prisoners appeared was frightful. 
 
 This first act of justice won the Regent the 
 greatest praise; and it is not useless to remark 
 that the opening of the prisons took place only two 
 days after the funeral of Louis XIV, and conse- 
 quently was not the cause of the joy shown by the 
 people on that occasion, but the wish and hope of 
 better conditions being always the only thing left 
 them, they applaud all revolutions in the govern- 
 ment until they are again undeceived. 
 
 As soon as the King had held his first bed of 
 justice, the Regent restored to the Parliament its 
 right of remonstrance, which had been out of ex-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 23 
 
 istence for a long time. He also named the dif- 
 ferent councils which he had announced. That 
 of .the regency, to which all the others were to be 
 subordinate, was composed in part of members 
 mentioned in the will. La Vrilliere was its sec- 
 retary, Pontchartrain entered into it also, but 
 without office, and both without a vote. Mar- 
 shal Tallard, although named in the will, being 
 unable to have himself named, went about crying 
 that all he had left for his honour was to have the 
 will inscribed on his back. He was admitted 
 later to the council of the regency. 
 
 The public, impressed by the virtue and the 
 persecution suffered by Cardinal de Noailles, ap- 
 plauded his nomination as head of the council of 
 conscience. 
 
 The Parliament was flattered to see d'Agues- 
 seau, Joly de Fleury and the Abbe Pucelle enter 
 the council of conscience, and Roujault, Goeslard 
 and Abbe Minguy in that of the affairs of the in- 
 terior of the kingdom. 
 
 Father Tellier, named confessor by the codicil 
 of Louis XIV, seeing himself without office, in 
 view of the King's age, asked the Regent what
 
 24 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 was his present destination. " That does not 
 concern me," replied the prince; " apply to your 
 superiors." 
 
 The disorder in the finances demanded the seri- 
 ous attention of the government. In the last 
 years so many books, good or bad, have been 
 written about agriculture, commerce and finance, 
 that it is to be hoped that the true principles will 
 at last be known. All we shall have to wish for 
 then will be learned ministers, and some more 
 attached to the State than to their places. With- 
 out entering into a systematic discussion of these 
 matters, I shall limit myself to reporting the events. 
 
 Marshal de Villeroi was the chef de represen- 
 tation of the council of finances, and had never 
 been anything else, whatever post he had held. 
 He had been the possessor of one of the handsom- 
 est faces that could be shown at a ball; he had 
 the air and manners of a grand seigneur, a mind 
 narrow and lacking culture, old-fashioned polite- 
 ness, a Court jargon, arrogance, vain glory, and 
 was rather servile than respectful towards the late 
 King and Mme. de Maintenon. 
 
 The Due, since Marshal de Noailles, president
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 25 
 
 of this same council of finances, was its real mas- 
 ter, and bestowed his confidence principally on; 
 Rouille du Coudray, a perfectly honest man with 
 much wit and with learning, but loving wine to 
 excess, scandalously debauched, and without any 
 restraint whatsoever. 
 
 One day, when before the whole council, and 
 in the presence of the Regent, he was expressing 
 himself with his usual freedom, the Due de 
 Noailles said to him: " Monsieur Rouille, this 
 savours of the bottle." " That may be, Mon- 
 sieur le due," retorted Rouille, " but never of pot 
 de vin " (bribery). 
 
 This dart was the better felt as the Noailles 
 had the reputation of being not over particular 
 in certain matters; and Rouille's hands were so 
 clean that a company of contractors having sub- 
 mitted to him a list of their partners wherein he 
 found blank spaces, he asked them the reason of 
 this; they answered that he might dispose of those 
 places: "But, if I share with you," said he to 
 them, " how shall I be able to have you hanged, 
 in case you turn out to be swindlers?" 
 
 With regard to the Due de Noailles, by an-
 
 26 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 alysmg him, several men might have been found 
 in him and some with a price. He has (for he 
 still lives) much and all kinds of intelligence, a 
 flexible eloquence and one assorted to different 
 subjects; fascinating in his conversation, taking 
 the tone of all those to whom he speaks, and often 
 through this making them adopt his ideas, when 
 they think they are imparting theirs to him; a 
 lively and fertile imagination, more fruitful in 
 projects than in resources. Apt to dazzle him- 
 self, he imagines with fire, begins with warmth, 
 and suddenly leaves the road he was following 
 to take the one which crosses it. He is concerned 
 for his personal interest only, of which he never 
 loses sight. Master of himself, he appears calm 
 when he is most agitated. His conversation has 
 greater value than his writing; for in trying to 
 combine his ideas, through excess of analysis, he 
 causes everything to evaporate. His knowledge 
 is broad and varied, but shallow. He receives 
 men of letters rather well, and made good use of 
 them for memoirs. Devout or libertine, accord- 
 ing to circumstances, he caused himself to be dis- 
 graced in Spain by proposing a mistress to Phi-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 2? 
 
 lippe V. He then followed Mme. de Maintenon 
 to church and kept a soubrette at the beginning of 
 the regency so as to be in the fashion. The de- 
 sire to please all parties has made him play em- 
 barrassing parts, sometimes ridiculous ones, and at 
 others humiliating. A zealous citizen, when 
 his own interests permitted him to be, he applied 
 himself to the reform of finances and would per- 
 haps have succeeded had the Regent allowed him 
 to continue his operations. Whatever fortune 
 the Due de Noailles might have procured for him- 
 self, could be no object to the State. The shock 
 of the pernicious Law system would at least have 
 been avoided ; a system which only enriched scoun- 
 drels, great and small, ruined the middle class, 
 the most honourable and most useful of all, upset 
 conditions, corrupted morals, and changed the 
 national character. 
 
 As there was nothing set in the etiquette and 
 the ceremonial of France, inasmuch as the min- 
 isters are interested that it should be thus, so as to 
 always be masters, on occasions, to decide accord- 
 ing to particular inclinations, the service which 
 took place at Saint-Denis for the late King was the
 
 28 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 occasion of rather lively discussions between the 
 Parliament and the dukes and peers who bore 
 the honours. The Regent was careful not to de- 
 clare himself. He rather liked division between 
 bodies, and said sometimes: Divide et impera; 
 but there was as much weakness as there was pol- 
 itics in his conduct. Besides he affected to hold 
 etiquette in contempt. On many occasions, eti- 
 quette maintains subordination, takes the place 
 of manners and sometimes preserves them. 
 
 Seeing that under the regency one could regu- 
 late one's rights on one's pretensions, the Duchesse 
 de Berri, more authorised than anyone else, took 
 four dames du palais, although no daughter of 
 France had ever had more than a dame d' hon- 
 neur and a dame d f atours. She also decided to 
 have a company of guards. The Regent ex- 
 plained to her but uselessly that never had daugh- 
 ter of France, nor Queen, except the Queen-re- 
 gent, mother of Louis XIV, had such a distinc- 
 tion: it was necessary to satisfy her, but he gave 
 at the same time a similar company of guards to 
 his mother Madame, widow of Monsieur. 
 
 For want of the title of Queen, the Duchesse de
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 29 
 
 Berri, seeking to take to herself its honours and 
 even to surpass them, rode through Paris from 
 the Luxembourg where she dwelt, to the Tui- 
 leries, surrounded by her guards, with trumpets 
 playing. Marshal de Villeroi proved to the Re- 
 gent that this honour belonged only to the King, 
 wherever he may be; now it happened that he 
 then lived at the Tuileries, where he was brought 
 on the 30 December 1715, for the convenience of 
 the councils and of the service. The Duchesse de 
 Berri was therefore obliged to stop at her first 
 trial at trumpets which since then remained at the 
 Luxembourg. She tried to get satisfaction in an- 
 other undertaking in which she was not more suc- 
 cessful. She appeared under a canopy at the 
 Opera, and the next day at the Comedie, four of 
 her guards being on the stage and the others in 
 the pit. There was a general outcry and, in an- 
 ger, she after that locked herself in a small box 
 where she was incognito. Both the opera and 
 the comedies were then given at the Palais-Royal. 
 The Chevalier de Bouillon, who had himself called 
 Prince d'Auvergne, suggested the balls of the 
 Opera, which would divert from private balls,
 
 30 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 where disorder often arose; while a military 
 guard could maintain order at the Opera. The 
 project was approved, and was worth six thou- 
 sand livres of pension to the Prince of Auvergne 
 for his suggestion rights. The proximity of the 
 Regent's apartments were the cause of his often 
 showing himself there after supper, in a condition 
 not quite proper for the administrator of the 
 kingdom. At the very first ball, state councilor 
 Rouille came there intoxicated, because that was 
 his taste and habit ; and the Due de Noailles in the 
 same condition, to pay his court. 
 
 If the Regent had intended to maintain the 
 laws and good order, he would have taken advan- 
 tage of the duel between Ferrand, captain of the 
 King's Regiment, and Girardin, captain of the 
 guards, to make an example; but he contented 
 himself with having them removed from their po- 
 sitions. Without expressing himself too openly, 
 he insinuated that duels had gone too much out of 
 fashion. He permitted Caylus to come and clear 
 himself of his against the Comte d'Auvergne. 
 However, the Regent forbade a duel to the Due 
 de Richelieu, and the Comte de Baviere who, hav-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 31 
 
 ing had words together, had appointed a meeting 
 to settle matters. Shortly after that, the Due de 
 Richelieu and Gace, son of Marshal de Matig- 
 non, fought a duel and wounded each other 
 slightly. The Parliament issued a writ against 
 them and the Regent sent them to the Bastille. 
 Further inquiry being made, they were freed. 
 Some time after that, Jonsac d'Aubeterre and Vil- 
 ette, brother of the Comtesse de Caylus, also 
 fought. The Parliament proceeded against 
 them, but they left the Kingdom. 
 
 More than a year before the death of Louis 
 XIV, Stairs, ambassador from England to 
 France, had sought to become intimate with the 
 future Regent. He felt that if the Due du Maine 
 was in authority, having been brought up with the 
 King's principles, he would be favourable to the 
 House of Stuart. He therefore turned towards 
 the Due d'Orleans, and through Dubois, secured 
 secret conferences, and persuaded the due that 
 King George and he had the same interests. The 
 better to gain his confidence, he agreed that 
 George was a usurper with regard to the Stuarts, 
 but he added that if the feeble offspring of the
 
 32 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Royal family of France should happen to die, all 
 renunciations would not prevent him, the Due d' 
 Orleans, from being looked upon as a usurper with 
 regard to the King of Spain. He could there- 
 fore, said Stairs, have no surer ally than King 
 George. Abbe Dubois, who had the aims which 
 we shall see later, continually strove to inspire 
 these sentiments in his master. 
 
 Hardly had the Due d'Orleans been declared 
 Regent when Stairs came to see him. He spoke 
 to him of a conspiracy real or false which was, 
 said he, about to break out in London against 
 King George, and proposed to him a treaty of 
 guarantee for the successions of France and of 
 England. Whatever the London conspiracy may 
 have been, the Comte de Marr, at the head of a 
 party in Scotland in favour of the pretender, was 
 making sufficient progress for people to advise that 
 prince to go and strengthen him by his presence. 
 He left Bar and was crossing France to go and 
 embark from Brittany. 
 
 Stairs was informed of this and came to ask 
 the Regent to have the prince, who was to pass 
 at Chateau-Thierry, arrested. The Regent, who
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 33 
 
 wished at the same time to foment the disturb- 
 ances in Scotland, and make a show of his zeal 
 for King George, gave, in the presence of Stairs, 
 orders to Contades, major of the guards, to go 
 to Chateau-Thierry and surprise the pretender as 
 he passed through. Contades, an intelligent man 
 and well informed as to the secret intentions of 
 the Regent, went away, fully resolved not to find 
 what he sought. 
 
 Stairs, little trusting the demonstrations of the 
 Regent, resolved to deliver King George of all 
 fear by means of a scoundrelly act. He learned 
 through his spies that the pretender was hidden 
 at Chaillot in the house of the Due de Lauzun, 
 from whence he was to betake himself to Brittany. 
 He commanded Douglas, an Irish colonel in the 
 pay of France, to go and ambush himself at 
 Nonancourt, with three assassins. On arriving 
 there they asked so persistently, if a chaise had 
 not passed, that they became suspicious to a certain 
 Mme. 1'Hopital, the post-mistress, a woman of 
 intelligence and resolution. 
 
 The news of the pretender's voyage had already 
 spread since he had disappeared from Bar, and
 
 34 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the eagerness of these couriers made her think that 
 they had evil designs. In fact, it has been learned 
 since that Douglas' three satellites were de- 
 termined scoundrels who, before leaving London, 
 had arranged a settlement on their family, in case 
 they should be captured and executed after having 
 committed their crime. The post-mistress assured 
 them that for the past days no chaise had passed, 
 that it was impossible for any to pass without re- 
 laying, or at least without being seen, and that 
 they might rest assured that nothing would escape 
 them. Douglas, after having uselessly remained 
 two hours on the threshold, put one of his men 
 on watch, gave his orders to the second, in a 
 whisper, and took the third with him to go for- 
 ward on the road to Brittany. 
 
 The post-mistress immediately sent out one of 
 her servants on the road to Paris to look out for 
 the arrival of the chaise, and to direct it to the 
 house of a trusty friend whom she went to warn 
 by leaving the house through the back door. On 
 her return, she learned that one of the two English- 
 men, who seemed to be the superior of the other, 
 had thrown himself on a bed where he was sleep-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 35 
 
 ing. She told the one at the door that he would 
 be warned as quickly within the house as outside, 
 and suggested that he take a drink. He entered 
 and a trusty postilion having excited him to drink, 
 he became completely intoxicated. At the same 
 time she locked up the one who was in bed asleep 
 and sent for the constabulary; the locked-up 
 Englishman was caught on the bed whereon he 
 slept. He became furious at seeing himself ar- 
 rested and referred to the ambassador. He was 
 told that until he had proven that he belonged to 
 the Comte de Stairs, he would remain in prison, 
 where they also took the intoxicated man. 
 
 During that time the pretender arrived and was 
 conducted to the house where he was expected. 
 Mme. 1'Hopital sought him out there and ex- 
 plained to him what was taking place. The pre- 
 tender, filled with gratitude, did not conceal his 
 identity, and remained hidden at Nonancourt, as 
 a precaution against those who were still free. 
 
 Douglas, soon informed of what had happened 
 to the two Englishmen at Nonancourt, returned to 
 Paris. A few days after, the pretender went 
 away, disguised as an ecclesiastic, in a chaise
 
 36 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 secured by his rescuer. He gave her a letter for 
 the Queen of England, to whom she went to give 
 an account of the whole affair at Saint Germain. 
 The Queen gave her her portrait, the pretender 
 also sent her his own, the situation of the mother 
 and son not permitting them other marks of grati- 
 tude. The good Mme. 1'Hopital, satisfied with 
 the service she had rendered, asked nothing of the 
 Regent for what she had spent, and remained for 
 twenty-five years in charge of the post which her 
 son and daughter-in-law still hold. The auda- 
 cious Stairs, to hide his crime, had the impudence 
 to speak of the imprisonment of his assassins as 
 a violation of the rights of people. He was 
 made to feel how, for the sake of his honour, it 
 would be well for him to keep silent. 
 
 Nesmond, Bishop of Bayeux, died that year. 
 He was a simple and artless man with many vir- 
 tues. He said one day to a priest who was offer- 
 ing excuses for having been at a wedding dinner 
 after the example of Jesus Christ at the wedding 
 of Canaan: "This is not the most beautiful 
 thing in His life." It was only after his death 
 that his numerous charities to the poor families
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 37 
 
 of his diocese became known. He secretly sent 
 thirty thousand livres yearly to King James II. 
 
 Marshal de Chamilli (Bouton), celebrated for 
 his glorious defence of Graves, also died that year. 
 He had been a handsome man, and in his youth 
 had served in Portugal, where he had been much 
 loved by a nun. It is to him that the Lettres 
 Portugalses are addressed. 
 
 Although the Regent had given his word to 
 Madame never to employ Abbe Dubois, he gave 
 him a place as state councilor, to the great horror 
 of the magistracy. What principally determined 
 the Regent, was that no prelate asked for the 
 place, not wishing to be preceded at the Council 
 by Abbe Bignon, a plain churchman. People 
 were not less shocked to see such a character suc- 
 ceed one of the most worthy prelates of the king- 
 dom, Fortin de la Hoquette, Archbishop of Sens. 
 He had declined the Order of the Holy Ghost, 
 " not having," said he, " the birth required by 
 the statutes." It was suggested that his gene- 
 alogy be altered; he replied: " I do not wish to 
 degrade the order by my birth and still less to 
 degrade myself by a lie." The King having
 
 38 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 offered to dispense him from furnishing proofs, 
 he replied that he did not wish to serve as an ex- 
 ample of a violation of rules, and persisted in his 
 refusal. 
 
 If the entrance of Abbe Dubois to the Council 
 showed little consideration for the public, the 
 Regent and the Duchesse de Berri respected it still 
 less by their habits. 
 
 The Regent gave to public affairs a morning 
 more or less long according to the hour at which 
 he had gone to bed. There was a set day for 
 foreign ministers: the other days were divided 
 between the heads of councils; about three o'clock 
 he took chocolate, and everyone entered as is done 
 to-day at the King's levee. After a general con- 
 versation lasting a half hour, he worked again 
 with someone or held a regency council. Before 
 or after this council, or this work, he called upon 
 the King, to whom he always showed greater re- 
 spect than anyone else, a thing which the child 
 noticed very well. 
 
 Between five and six o'clock, all business ceased ; 
 he called upon Madame, either in her winter 
 apartment, or at Saint-Cloud in the fine season,
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 39 
 
 and always showed her much respect. It was 
 seldom that he allowed a day to pass without 
 going to the Luxembourg to see the Duchesse de 
 Berri. Towards the supper hour, he retired with 
 his mistresses, sometimes chorus girls, or others 
 of that class, and ten or twelve of his male in- 
 timates whom he called his roues. The principal 
 ones were Broglie, the eldest son of the marshal 
 of France, due in title; the Due de Brancas, 
 grandfather of the one living to-day ; Biron, whom 
 he made due; Canillac, cousin of the commander 
 of the musqueteers, and a few persons obscure in 
 themselves and distinguished for their wit or 
 debauchery. Every supper was an orgy. There 
 the wildest licence reigned: filth and impiety was 
 the foundation or seasoning of every subject, until 
 total intoxication put the guests out of condition 
 to speak and to hear. Those who could still walk 
 withdrew and the others were carried away; and 
 each day resembled the last. The Regent during 
 the first hour of his levee, was still so dull, so 
 oppressed by the fumes of wine, that he could have 
 been made to sign anything. 
 
 Sometimes, the place of the scenes was the Lux-
 
 40 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 embourg, at the Duchesse de Berri's. This prin- 
 cess, after several passing love affairs, had settled 
 on the Comte de Riom, younger son of the house 
 of Aydie and grand nephew to the Due de 
 Lauzun. He had but little intelligence, a rather 
 vulgar figure and a pimply face which might have 
 been repugnant to many a woman. He had come 
 from his province to try to secure a company, 
 being only, at that time, a lieutenant of dragoons, 
 and he soon inspired in the princess the strongest 
 of passions. 
 
 Riom was magnificently lodged at the Luxem- 
 bourg, surrounded by a profusion of luxury; 
 people went to pay court to him, before calling on 
 the princess, and were always received with the 
 greatest politeness, but he did not treat his 
 mistress in the same manner; there was not a whim 
 which he did not make her endure. Sometimes, 
 she being about to go out, he made her stay in ; he 
 displayed disgust for the dress she wore, and she 
 changed it submissively. 
 
 He had reduced her to a point where she sent 
 to him for his orders as to her dress and her plans 
 for the day; and after having given them, he
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 41 
 
 changed them suddenly, was rough to her, made 
 her weep, and come and ask his pardon for the 
 thoughtless offences of which she had been guilty. 
 The Regent was indignant at his conduct, and was 
 often ready to have Riom thrown out of the win- 
 dows, but his daughter forced him to silence, 
 applied to him the same treatment she received 
 from her lover, and he ended by being as sub- 
 missive towards his daughter as she was towards 
 Riom. If these different scenes had not had so 
 many witnesses they would be incredible. 
 
 What was specially inconceivable, was the 
 politeness of Riom to everyone and his insolence 
 to the princess. He owed this system of conduct 
 to the Due de Lauzun, his uncle. The latter re- 
 joiced in seeing his nephew act, at the Luxem- 
 bourg, the same personage he himself had acted 
 with Mile, de Montpensier, and had convinced 
 him that he would lose his mistress should he 
 spoil her by a respectful tenderness, and that the 
 princess wanted to be reprimanded. Riom had 
 profited by his uncle's lessons and success proved 
 their efficacy. That princess, so haughty with 
 her mother, so imperious with her father, so vain
 
 42 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 with the whole world, cringed in the presence of 
 a Gascon cadet. She had, however, a few pass- 
 ing caprices, notably with the Chevalier d'Aydie, 
 a cousin of Riom ; but they were of short duration, 
 and passion triumphed until the end. 
 
 The suppers, the revels, the morals of the Lux- 
 embourg were the same as at the Palais-Royal, 
 since it was very much the same company. The 
 Duchesse de Berri, with whom only the princess 
 of the blood could eat, dined openly with obscure 
 people whom Riom produced. There was even 
 a certain Father Reiglet, a Jesuit, a fawner, 
 habitual guest and so called confessor. Had she 
 made use of his ministry, she could have dispensed 
 with telling him many things of which he was a 
 witness and participant. 
 
 The Marquise de Mouchy, lady of the bed- 
 chamber of the princess, was her worthy confidant. 
 She lived secretly with Riom, as the duchesse 
 lived openly with him, and that rival, hidden and 
 convenient, reconciled the two lovers when their 
 quarrels promised to go too far. 
 
 A singular thing about the Duchesse de Berri
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 43 
 
 was, that she thought that she was making amends 
 or concealing the scandal of her life by a thing 
 which really aggravated it. She had taken an 
 apartment at the Carmelites of rue Saint- Jacques, 
 where she went from time to time to spend a day. 
 On the eve of great festivals she slept there, ate 
 with the nuns, took part in the day and night 
 services and returned from there to the orgies of 
 the Luxembourg. 
 
 The Regent also tried to edify the public and 
 was no more successful than his daughter. He 
 marched in great solemnity to Saint-Eustache on 
 Easter and took communion there. The contrast 
 between his daily life and this religious act made 
 a very bad impression. 
 
 Although we were at peace with Europe, nego- 
 tiations were not the less brisk. England was 
 treating with both France and Spain at the same 
 time, and strove to extend its commerce to the 
 prejudice of both powers. It was to our interest 
 to take as a model the conduct of the house of 
 Austria, as long as it had ruled over Spain and 
 the Empire, but Abbe Dubois drew the Regent
 
 44 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 towards England, boasting to him of her power 
 and assistance, in case the King should happen 
 to die. 
 
 On the other hand Alberoni, with the sole title 
 of envoy from Parma to Madrid, ruled the 
 Queen, and consequently the monarchy. He was 
 one of those men whom fortune sometimes offers 
 as an object of emulation to the ambitions born 
 in the dust. The son of a gardener, he left his 
 calling when he entered that of the Church, which 
 admits them all and often confounds them. 
 
 The Duke of Parma, having some affair to 
 communicate to the Due de Vendome, general of 
 the Spanish army in Italy, sent him Rancoveri, 
 Bishop of Borgo. The Due de Vendome was in 
 his shirt on his chaise percee, when the bishop was 
 announced. He had him ushered in and did not 
 constrain himself in his presence any more than 
 he did before his army. While speaking of 
 affairs, he continued the different operations of 
 his toilet before the prelate, who was much scan- 
 dalised at it, and who on his return, asserted that 
 he would never reappear at so indecent an 
 audience. The Duke of Parma sought out a man
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 45 
 
 who would have no right to be over particular 
 as to etiquette. Abbe Alberoni was presented to 
 him. The prince having conversed with him, 
 judged that he would be the proper person to 
 carry on the negotiations, and that the Due de 
 Vendome, with the character he had, would be 
 little concerned with the dignity of the personage, 
 who besides was masked in the clerical habit. 
 Alberoni was received as the bishop had been ; but 
 without taking offence at anything, he interrupted 
 the conference with jests appropriate to the occa- 
 sion, and which amused the Due de Vendome 
 greatly. The general, on rising from his chair, 
 presented himself in such a manner that the abbe 
 exclaimed: "Ah! culo di Angela!" The Due 
 de Vendome was so pleased at the abbe's merry 
 humour that he refused to treat with anyone else. 
 The affair of the Due de Parma was soon settled, 
 and the abbe, after having rendered an account 
 of it to his master, came to establish himself in 
 the house of the Due de Vendome. His position 
 was not quite clear. At times he appeared to 
 be a chaplain, a secretary on other occasions, and 
 more frequently a cook, making cheese soups for
 
 46 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the due. He was specially able to amuse him 
 by ribald stories. The subordinate position 
 brought so little consideration to the abbe that 
 one of the officers of the household, offended at 
 his freedom, struck him with a cane one day, with- 
 out the abbe seeming the least degraded by the 
 act, and all that came of the affair was to make 
 the due laugh, and he thought neither more nor 
 less of Alberoni on that account. At the end of 
 the campaign, the abbe followed his master to 
 France, and through his assistance secured a 
 pension of a thousand ecus. He then appeared 
 in the light of an acknowledged secretary, and 
 returned to Italy in the train of the Due de 
 Vendome. The general having died there, 
 Alberoni withdrew to Parma, and his prince, 
 knowing him fit for affairs, appointed him his 
 minister at Madrid. It was there that having 
 taken part in the marriage of the Princess of 
 Parma with Philip V, he began the flight which 
 carried him so high. He successfully set aside 
 all those who might be able to outweigh his credit, 
 and worked to become a cardinal, either by 
 serving Rome, or by making himself feared there.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 47 
 
 The court of Spain was already on rather bad 
 terms with that of Rome with regard to Sicily on 
 which an interdict had been thundered on account 
 of a matter which deserves to be mentioned. 
 
 It is necessary first to recall that about 1125, 
 'Roger, Duke of Sicily, caused his States to be set 
 up as a hereditary kingdom by the pope, on. 
 condition that it would be amenable to the holy 
 see. But by the same decree, it was agreed that 
 there would be in Sicily a perpetually existing 
 tribunal, wholly composed of laymen named by 
 the King, and absolutely independent of the pope; 
 that this tribunal should judge sovereignly and 
 without appeal all civil and criminal cases from 
 layman to layman, from layman to ecclesiastic, 
 and finally between ecclesiastics, archbishops, 
 bishops, priests, monks and chapters, even in 
 cases of censure and excommunication, without 
 that tribunal ever having to render an account of 
 its acts to any one but the King, and never to the 
 pope; and without the King ever being liable to 
 citations, censures and excommunications. 
 
 This tribunal of the monarchy had since its 
 establishment enjoyed all its jurisdiction, when in
 
 48 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 1711, a farmer of the Bishop of Lipari brought 
 peas to the market. The King's tax collectors 
 tried to collect the ordinary tax for exposing the 
 foods for sale. The farmer, without saying who 
 he was, refused payment and had his peas seized. 
 The bishop availing himself of ecclesiastic im- 
 munity which exempted him from paying the tax, 
 excommunicated the collectors, without making 
 an inquiry. The collectors, only through this 
 learning to whom the peas belonged, returned 
 them at once and complained of the farmer who, 
 by a single word, could have prevented the trouble. 
 The bishop demanded such ridiculous amends that 
 the collectors rendered an account of the matter 
 to their superiors, whose remonstrances caused 
 them in turn to be excommunicated. The tribunal 
 of the monarchy attempted to conciliate all parties 
 and were also excommunicated; third excommuni- 
 cation on account of chick-peas. 
 
 The Court of Rome, impatiently enduring this 
 tribunal of Sicily, had tried, in order to destroy 
 it, to take advantage of a new government which 
 it flattered itself to find weaker than the preceding 
 one. The bishop, judging that his dignity would
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY . 49 
 
 not save him from prison, took refuge in Rome. 
 The reception he received there aroused the zeal 
 of several other bishops, and each having hurled 
 his thunderbolt, prudently fled to Rome; and the 
 pope immediately interdicted Sicily. Then a 
 crowd of priests and monks, not daring to ex- 
 pose themselves to the punishment due to those 
 who would observe the interdict, followed the 
 prelates. 
 
 This schism was in full force, when, by the 
 treaty of Utrecht, in 1715, Sicily was ceded to 
 the Duke of Savoy, with the title of King. The 
 pope thought that he did not owe any more con- 
 sideration to Victor than to Philip V; but the 
 new government of Sicily was firm, the more 
 specially because there remained behind enough 
 sensible priests to carry on the services, and be- 
 cause the catholic powers condemned this eccle- 
 siastic undertaking. The Paris Parliament took 
 sides in the matter, and by a decree of the I5th 
 February, 1710, allowed the attorney-general to 
 appeal by writ of error; a thing it had not dared 
 to do during the lifetime of Louis XIV. 
 
 The Jesuits wishing to observe the interdict,
 
 50 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 without giving up their establishments, used all 
 their tricks to foment sedition. The Comte 
 Maffei, viceroy of Sicily, planned matters so well 
 that one night, all the Jesuits, without exception 
 of fathers or brothers, well or ill, were carried 
 away, placed on two vessels, soon landed on the 
 coasts of the ecclesiastic State and abandoned to 
 their good or bad fortune. They went to Rome 
 as best they could. 
 
 The pope, much embarrassed by this deluge 
 of monks, did not become more tractable on that 
 account; but the apostolic chamber soon tiring of 
 supplying sustenance to so many guests, a decree 
 was soon posted in Rome ordering the exiles to 
 leave the city, under the most severe penalty. 
 They were compelled to obey. Hunger cooling 
 fanaticism, they tried to return to Sicily, but Comte 
 Maffei did not permit them to do so. They scat- 
 tered over the countries of Italy, where the 
 majority perished miserably. The King of Sicily 
 was as firm as the pope was stubborn. 
 
 The pontiff, without raising the interdict, dared 
 not use against the prince, nor his ministers, the 
 censures to which he foresaw that but little atten-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 51 
 
 tion would be paid. Matters therefore remained 
 the same until the time when the Emperor be- 
 came master of Sicily through the transfer of 
 Sardinia, of which King Victor took the title. 
 The ecclesiastic pretension vanished; the interdict 
 was raised of its own accord; the tribunal of the 
 monarchy remained in full power of its jurisdic- 
 tion, and the pope found himself very fortunate 
 that the Emperor, already master of Naples and 
 of Milan, condescended to overlook the sequels 
 of the adventure of the chick-peas, and allowed the 
 matter to drop. 
 
 I have not undertaken to write a political his- 
 tory which would demand the greatest details, and 
 fatigue its readers; but I shall recall the different 
 objects of negotiations which may be necessary to 
 make clear, link the facts and make known the 
 character and the interests of those who had a 
 part in affairs. It is but too true that treaties of 
 peace are but truces. Hardly have nations laid 
 down their arms when cabinet war begins. Nego- 
 tiations are carried on, alliances are sought, so as 
 to get into a condition to resume hostilities with 
 more advantage.
 
 52 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Never was the state of ferment of courts 
 greater than during the regency; but the State, 
 much disturbed internally, remained at peace with 
 its neighbours. The different interests of the 
 princes, in crossing one another reciprocally, pre- 
 served peace. 
 
 The pope, seeing with fear a powerful arma- 
 ment of the Turks, feared for Italy, and asked as- 
 sistance of France, Spain, and Portugal. The 
 Emperor was at the same time thinking of defend- 
 ing himself against the Turk and to enlarge his 
 territory in Italy, so that the pope feared him as 
 much as the Turk. 
 
 Spain negotiating with England, had just con- 
 cluded the treaty of Assiento, so favourable to 
 the English, and Holland, having its new treaty, 
 only thought of restoring herself by commerce. 
 
 England, where the succession in the Protestant 
 line was not yet very well established, still feared 
 a revolution. 
 
 Although the pretender had failed in his en- 
 terprise, the Jacobite party was still powerful. 
 The Whigs and the Torys were continually at 
 war with each other. All the powers needed to
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 53 
 
 preserve peace, and the majority, fearing war, 
 were ready to declare it. 
 
 More than anyone else was the Regent anxious 
 to preserve quiet at home and abroad. Stairs 
 and Abbe Dubois, acting in concert, therefore 
 persuaded him that if the King should happen to 
 die, the renunciations would be considered void; 
 that the Regent could only ascend the throne as 
 a usurper, and that then he and King George, 
 having similar rights, had nothing else to do than 
 to form a close alliance to support each other in 
 case of trouble. By this alliance Dubois assured 
 to himself the protection of the King of England, 
 whose credit he knew with the Emperor. He also 
 knew what authority the latter had over the pope, 
 and he promised himself to take advantage of 
 every circumstance which time and intrigue might 
 bring forth. 
 
 The Regent never had much desire to reign; 
 the care he took of the King's health is the most 
 convincing proof of this; but he believed that he 
 would have been in duty bound to support the 
 renunciations should the occasion offer. In ex- 
 onerating him from the horrors with which
 
 54 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 slander has charged him, whose impressions still 
 subsist in the minds of some, I am far from 
 writing a eulogy of him; with all the possible inr 
 telligence and talents, he was always incapable of 
 good government, and the regency, although at 
 peace without, was pernicious to the State, and 
 A specially to morals. 
 
 Wise measures, precautions, a prudent defiance 
 of the House of Austria and of England, a last- 
 ing alliance with Spain: such was the interest of 
 France, but it was not that of Dubois. If he 
 strove to foment discord between two Kings 
 of the same blood, he was ably seconded in that 
 project by Alberoni, another scoundrel of the same 
 cloth. The latter, master of the Spanish mon- 
 archy, awed the pope, and the treaty of Assiento 
 was so favourable to the English, that there 
 seemed to be no doubt that Alberoni had received 
 considerable sums with which he expected to buy 
 the cardinal's hat if he could not earn it. As he 
 had noticed, the inclination that Philip V still had 
 for France, he was careful to expose the renuncia- 
 tions as illusory to that prince; thus Dubois and 
 Alberoni both strove, each one separately, to in-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 55 
 
 spire in the King of Spain and the Regent a dis- 
 like for each other. 
 
 Although negotiations already were begun with 
 England, Stairs continued to give disquieting 
 reports about France, so as to secure for King 
 George subsidies which the Parliament would not 
 have granted, had it considered peace as a cer- 
 tainty. This manoeuvre has often been used by 
 the English ministers and always with success. 
 That minister was labouring at the same time at 
 the making of a seven year Parliament instead of 
 a three year one. The majority of the peers, 
 dissatisfied with the government, were opposed to 
 this project and wished another Parliament of 
 which they would always be sure to be members; 
 while those of the House of Commons wanted an 
 extension which would save them the canvassing 
 which they would be obliged to do to obtain the: 
 votes in a new election of representatives. The 
 tWhigs, who were in power then, had so cruelly 
 persecuted the Torys, tliat they feared their re- 
 sentment should they get the upper hand in the 
 new Parliament. The ministers acted so quickly, 
 on this occasion that the Parliament was extended*
 
 56 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 The Regent, already quite busy with political 
 negotiations, was beside persecuted by the Nuncio 
 Bentivoglio, with regard to the Constitution, while 
 Bissy and Rohan, hurt at the favour shown Car- 
 dinal de Noailles, sought to annoy him. 
 
 They took it into their heads to suggest the 
 blessing anew of the chapel of the Tuileries where 
 the service had always been performed, as long 
 as Louis XIV had remained in Paris, and where 
 the young King daily heard mass since his return 
 from Vincennes. Their object was that Cardinal 
 de Rohan should have the honour of performing 
 the ceremony of that benediction as grand almoner. 
 They did not know that that question already had 
 been decided on the occasion of blessing the 
 chapel of Versailles, whose benediction had been 
 conferred to Cardinal de Noailles against the pre- 
 tensions of the grand almoner, Cardinal de Janson. 
 All Rohan gained by this attempt was to enter his 
 protests. He undertook something else but with 
 no greater success. 
 
 Cardinal de Noailles, in interdicting the 
 Jesuits, had continued the powers to Fathers 
 Gaillard, de la Rue, Lignieres and du Trevoux;
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 57 
 
 the last had the title of confessor to the Regent. 
 The grand almoner has the right to name the 
 preachers of the King's chapel; and the one who 
 preaches on All Saints' Day also preaches 
 at the Advent. 
 
 Rohan on leaving for Strasburg, affected to 
 select for the preaching of the sermon on All 
 Saints' Day Father de la Ferte, related or allied 
 to all the Court, and whose powers ended in 
 August. Cardinal de Noailles could stop him 
 short by interdicting him personally. He did 
 nothing in the matter, but contented himself with 
 writing about it, the day after the sermon, to 
 Cardinal de Rohan, who did not reply, but the 
 cardinal, tired of waiting for that reply, gave 
 notice of a general interdiction to the Jesuits, and 
 to Father de la Ferte. He had become a Jesuit 
 in spite of the marshal, his father who always 
 spoke of it with anger as the basest of acts. The 
 Due de la Ferte having died without children, the 
 Jesuit would have become duke and peer had he 
 not made his vows; and the ill humour he ex- 
 hibited about this at times irritated the Jesuits, who 
 relegated him to La Fleche, where he died.
 
 58 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 To hinder intrigues of the Jesuits, the Regent 
 named as confessor to the King, Abbe Fleury, so 
 celebrated for his ecclesiastical history and 
 specially for the excellent discourses which it con- 
 tains. He had been under-preceptor of the Dues 
 de Bourgogne, d'Anjou and de Berri. 
 
 The Regent, tormented by Stairs, and annoyed 
 by Bentivoglio, could have had both recalled : the 
 first by quieting the anxieties of King George and 
 by the public desertion of the pretender, without 
 making a formal treaty of alliance with England; 
 the second, by informing the pope of the scan- 
 dalous morals of the nuncio. It is true that the 
 pope might answer with an objection to those of 
 the Jesuit Lafiteau, our minister to Rome. The 
 fear of losing the hat, the usual reward of the 
 nunciature of France, would have made him as 
 pliable as the Regent might have wished him to 
 be, but this required more firmness than he had. 
 
 The Duchesse de Berri caused to be given to 
 her the Chateau de la Muette; and its price was 
 paid by the King to d'Armenonville, who secured, 
 besides, the enjoyment of the Chateau de Madrid, 
 in the Bois de Boulogne, the survivorship for his
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 59 
 
 son Morville, and a brevet de retenue of four 
 hundred thousand livres on his office of Secretary 
 of State. The princess obtained besides for La 
 Haye, her former lover, a third place as gentil- 
 homme de la manche du Roi, with six thousand 
 livres pension, and soon a fourth place was 
 created for a protege of Mme. de Ventadour. 
 
 The Duchesse de Berri, irritated at the mourn- 
 ing for Louis XIV, compelled the Regent to re- 
 duce all mournings by half, on the occasion of the 
 death of the Queen-mother of Sweden. 
 
 So as to spend the nights of summer in the 
 garden of the Luxembourg with a freedom which 
 was more in need of accomplices than of witnesses, 
 she had all its gates walled up, with the exception 
 of the principal one, which was closed or opened 
 according to the occasion. 
 
 The Regent bought for his natural son, the 
 Chevalier d'Orleans, the post of general of the 
 galleys, from Marshal de Tesse, who made two 
 hundred thousand livres on it. 
 
 Rouille du Coudray also induced the Regent 
 to recall the Italian comedians who had been ex- 
 pelled by the King for having acted La Fausse
 
 60 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Prude, in which the public thought they recog- 
 nised Mme. de Maintenon. 
 
 The new troop took the name of Comediens du 
 Regent and was, under the inspection of Rouille, 
 independent of the gentils hommes de la chambre. 
 This novelty, for some time, caused the Theatre- 
 Frangais to be deserted, and Italian farces eclipsed 
 the masterpieces of our stage. 
 
 The brevets de retenue were distributed with- 
 out limit and without choice. Among so many 
 favours lavished or prostituted, the Regent ren- 
 dered justice to the merit of Vittemant by naming 
 him under-preceptor to the King. An address 
 which he had delivered to the head of the 
 University, of which he was rector, had made 
 him known to Louis XIV, who gave him the place 
 of reader to the Dauphin. Hardly had he begun 
 his functions as under-preceptor when the young 
 King appeared to become attached to him. The 
 Regent, who noticed it, and who, during his ad- 
 ministration, was always careful to set an example 
 of respect to the King, and to seek what would 
 please him, thought of giving him the pleasure 
 of doing Vittemant a favour.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 61 
 
 He one day brought the King the brevet of an 
 abbey worth fifteen thousand livres income, made 
 out to Vittemant. The child, delighted to per- 
 form personally this master's act, sent for Vitte- 
 mant, and in the presence of the Regent, Marshal 
 de Villeroi and the Bishop of Frejus, gave him 
 the brevet, calling him by the title of the abbey. 
 Vittemant, not understanding at first why the 
 King gave him a new name, the Regent spoke and 
 explained to him the favour which the King be- 
 stowed on him. 
 
 Vittemant lost himself in thanks and said that 
 he was overwhelmed by the King's generosity; that 
 his fortune was already beyond his desires, and 
 that having no needy relatives, he would not know 
 to what use to put an increase of income. " You 
 will give it away to charity," said the Bishop of 
 Frejus. " And why," replied Vittemant, " re- 
 ceive charity to bestow it again? Besides, I am 
 not in a position at Court, to know those who 
 should be assisted; a curate could perform that 
 duty better than I." 
 
 The Regent, Villeroi and the bishop, little ac- 
 customed to such language, first looked upon Vit-
 
 02 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 temant as a clever hypocrite, and smilingly pressed 
 him to accept; but the refusal was serious; nothing 
 could conquer his resistance; they found it neces- 
 sary to seek for this abbey a less peculiar per- 
 sonage and he was not hard to find. The modest 
 Vittemant attended only to his duties while at 
 Court, and when his functions were ended, he 
 withdrew to the Doctrine Chretienne. I could 
 not leave in oblivion the name of so virtuous a 
 man; I shall not have enough such anecdotes to 
 tire the reader. 
 
 The chamber of justice, established by an edict 
 of the month of March, was beginning its opera- 
 tions whose effects were very different from what 
 had been promised. It had been expected that 
 through the taxes immense sums would be drawn, 
 sums which would suffice to the most urgent ex- 
 penditures. It was understood that all the brev- 
 ets de retenue, the military charges, were to be 
 reimbursed, made free, that their sales would be 
 stopped, so that the King would always be in a 
 position to reward merit and encourage emulation. 
 Fine projects, no doubt, but which are only imag-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 63 
 
 ined by those who have not the power to carry 
 them out ! 
 
 All the fruit of that chamber of justice, which 
 subsisted a year, was to open the door to thou- 
 sands of denunciations, real or false. Consterna- 
 tion entered all finance and all allied to it; money 
 was hidden and circulation totally stopped. A 
 few financiers were sacrificed to the public fury. 
 Influence sold, protections bought caused taxes 
 to be remitted or lowered. Those which were 
 paid became the prey of lost or intriguing women 
 and of the Regent's companions in debauch. 
 
 Some went so far as to suggest a general bank- 
 ruptcy. Those who offered this cruel remedy al- 
 leged that it was equally impossible to pay the im- 
 mense debts or to allow the enormous taxes to ex- 
 ist; the weight of the latter crushing down the 
 people. 
 
 Among the creditors of the State many had 
 taken advantage of public misfortune; all the 
 debts, legitimate as well as usurious, were princi- 
 pally limited to the capital; this did not concern 
 the nobility, the peasants nor the artisans. The
 
 64 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 clamours, it was said, would be loud, but the dis- 
 charge of the taxes would arouse applause suffi- 
 cient to drown all clamours. 
 
 At the beginning of the edict, its promoters ex- 
 pected to support their stand by motives of just 
 and specious rights. The crown, they said, is not 
 purely hereditary, as is the property of individ- 
 uals, since women can not succeed to it. It is an. 
 entail from male to male. The King is only a 
 usufructuary who can not bind himself beyond his 
 natural life. The entailed properties of individ- 
 uals are not answerable for debts; could the crown 
 fare worse? The successor is therefore not re- 
 sponsible for the acts of his predecessor; he holds 
 nothing from him, but from the law. If this prin- 
 ciple, they added, can be impressed on the mind of 
 the nation, the State can never again be in the po- 
 sition in which it is now. Each one will be con- 
 vinced that in lending to the King, he can only 
 count on the life and personal honesty of that 
 prince. The King not being in a position to bor- 
 row and to lure by the hope of gain, found himself 
 in the fortunate impossibility of ruining his sub- 
 jects, and forced to an economical government.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 65 
 
 The rentiers would no longer form an idle class in 
 the State. The excessive population of Paris 
 would return to the provinces. It might be feared 
 that a spendthrift prince being unable to borrow, 
 might resort to the multiplication of taxes, but ex- 
 cess in such matters is dangerous to the prince's 
 own person. 
 
 The reply was : 
 
 Is there not the alternative between bankruptcy 
 and the perpetuity of the taxes? Can not a gov- 
 ernment by the suppression of superfluous and 
 abusive expenditures, by an economical administra- 
 tion, by a studied examination, a just distinction 
 of the nature of debts, and specially by proving to 
 the nation the integrity of a new management, and 
 the good faith of the government, inspire confi- 
 dence, re-establish circulation, lighten the burden 
 of taxation, and begin the discharge of legitimate 
 and urgent debts ? Shall no difference be made be- 
 tween those who have sacrificed all to the service of 
 the State, and those who have acquired their for- 
 tunes from its misfortunes? 
 
 The Regent was impressed by this argument, 
 and the project of bankruptcy was rejected. Sym-
 
 66 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 pathy for the legitimate and unfortunate creditors 
 only served as a pretext of the refusal. The true 
 motive was the personal interest of the adminis- 
 trators of finances, who found in the liquidation, 
 in the continuation of taxes, in the renewal of 
 agreements, a thousand means of making creatures 
 and of amassing millions. 
 
 The Law system has made as many and more 
 unfortunates than bankruptcy, has corrupted 
 morals, and has had none of the advantages of 
 the proposed edict. This system, considered by 
 itself, has had its apologists, who have pretended 
 that it was only pernicious through the abusive 
 use made of it and through the ill will of those 
 who had an interest in causing it to fail. Others 
 have always condemned it as indefensible under 
 an absolute monarchy, whatever advantages it 
 might have under a republic and in a mixed gov- 
 ernment. Experience has but too well justified 
 that sentiment. 
 
 Law's best operation was the establishment of 
 the banque generale, composed of twelve hundred 
 shares of three thousand livres each. Its advan- 
 tage was felt at first; circulation was restored and
 
 JOHN LAW
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 63 
 
 its success would have been assured if that banque 
 generale had not degenerated into a banque roy- 
 ale: which soon gave birth to that unfortunate 
 system. 
 
 A few assemblies of Protestants, in Poitou, in 
 Languedoc and in Guienne, caused the govern- 
 ment some anxiety. It was further increased by 
 the discovery of a large number of guns and bayo- 
 nets near a place where the Protestants had as- 
 sembled. The fear of an uprising and the horror 
 of renewing the barbarities which had followed 
 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes strongly 
 agitated the Regent's mind. He was on the point 
 of repealing the edict and recalling the Protes- 
 tants. He conferred about the matter separately 
 with several members of the council and all de- 
 terred him from his idea. Questions for or 
 against liberty, in matters of religion, are usually 
 decided by passion. Irreligion, as well as super- 
 stition, has its fanaticism, and the Regent being 
 very susceptible to the former, he had to be made 
 to see the affair as a statesman and solely from the 
 political side. 
 
 It is indubitable that consciences should be free;
 
 68 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 but does the tranquillity of states allow of cults be- 
 ing the same? The example of England and 
 Holland is not exactly applicable to France in its 
 present condition: First, the two mentioned 
 states have, as we, their national cult, the other 
 religions being only tolerated; second, they are 
 manifold, and it is easier to keep the peace among 
 four or five religions than it is between two that 
 are equally powerful, because divided hatred is 
 weakened and people can then limit themselves to 
 the emulation of good morals; third, in Eng- 
 land and in Holland, the heterodox are as numer- 
 ous as the orthodox. The experience of their ca- 
 lamities of the past makes them fear to see their 
 nation armed against itself. 
 
 In France, the Protestants are few in compari- 
 son to the Catholics. If the Protestants are 
 granted public worship, and in every respect the 
 same privileges as other citizens, their number 
 will increase, the attraction of novelty will bring 
 them converts among the Catholics themselves, 
 dissension will spring up in families, religious zeal 
 will become fanaticism; minds will become in- 
 censed; a popular uprising will be the signal of
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 69 
 
 a civil war; we shall again be thrown into the 
 horrors which we recall only with terror. 
 
 Uniformity of religion would be the greatest 
 blessing of the State, but it is not the work of man. 
 Let us limit ourselves to the efforts of human pru- 
 dence. Let the government, without formally re- 
 pealing the edict of revocation, or placing the 
 Protestants in the position they formerly held, 
 assure them of the rights of citizenship by a duly 
 registered declaration. Let them be free as to 
 their sentiments, let us no longer demand that, by 
 a criminal complacency in their eyes, they come 
 to take part in our worship, but let us not allow 
 them a public one. Let the exercise of their re- 
 ligion take place in and be limited to the home. 
 Let them enjoy all the rights of citizens whose 
 burdens they bear, but let them not aspire to any 
 public office or employment. Let us severely 
 punish whomsoever disturbs their tranquillity. 
 No persecution, much indifference and forgetful- 
 ness: that is death to all sects. That which ex- 
 ists through blind obstinacy merely vegetates in 
 contempt. Truth itself, constantly despised, but 
 not persecuted, would have but few partisans.
 
 70 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 I speak from experience. I have seen in my 
 youth a small town wherein the Protestants were 
 in numbers equal to the Catholics. A nobleman, 
 of beneficent character, who has dominion over 
 it, by rendering exact justice to the Protestants, 
 but by procuring all distinctions to the Catholics, 
 by favouring marriages, has brought matters to a 
 point that there are but two old men remaining 
 who, while persevering in their sect, have them- 
 selves consented to the abjuration of their chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Civil toleration is by right natural; but to im- 
 press it in the mind of a nation, there would be 
 required the long reign of an absolute monarch, 
 preserver of morals by authority and example, 
 strict and respectful observer of the established 
 cult, were he indifferent to all of them. The Re- 
 gent unfortunately possessed but the last of these 
 qualities. It was sufficient to make him favourable 
 to the return of the Protestants, but Abbe Dubois, 
 wishing at all cost to become cardinal, felt that he 
 could ask nothing of Rome after such a scandal; 
 and as he was the Regent's great casuist in affairs
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY fcil 
 
 of politics and religion, he caused him to abandon 
 his design. 
 
 At that time the princes of the blood presented 
 a petition to the King, signed by M. le due (de 
 Bourbon), the Comte de Charolais and the Prince 
 de Conti, against the edict of 1711 and the dec- 
 laration of 1715, which gave to the Due du Maine 
 and to the Comte de Toulouse the rank of princes 
 of the blood and the right of succession to the 
 crown. 
 
 Immediately the dukes and peers presented a re- 
 quest to the King, tending to cause the legitimated 
 princes to be reduced to the rank of their peerage. 
 
 England, while negotiating with the Regent, 
 was also treating with Spain, from which it 
 wished to secure many commercial advantages; 
 and the Regent, who only desired to foster peace, 
 willingly lent himself to the aims of England. 
 To this end, he represented to King George that 
 that which would please Spain most would be the 
 restitution of Gibraltar. George, with a power- 
 ful fleet, and master of Port-Mahon, had but lit- 
 tle use for Gibraltar, and spent considerable on it.
 
 72 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 He therefore consented to this sacrifice, but fear- 
 ing to anger the English, he sent word to the 
 Regent that the affair could succeed only by the 
 greatest secrecy; that it was necessary to have a 
 faithful man, at Madrid, to treat directly with 
 the King of Spain, without the participation of 
 Alberoni. The Regent entrusted the mission to 
 Louville, who had been gentilhomme de la cham- 
 bre of Philip V and, of all Frenchmen, the one 
 whom that prince had most liked. It was known 
 that it was only with regret that he had sacrificed 
 him to the Princesse des Ursins; and no one 
 doubted that Philip, on seeing him again, would 
 be as friendly with him as he had been from in- 
 fancy. 
 
 The motives which caused Louville to be chosen 
 were precisely those which caused the whole affair 
 to fail. 
 
 Provided with his instructions, he departed se- 
 cretly, and arrived in Madrid, at the Due de Saint- 
 Aignan's, our ambassador. Alberoni, notified of 
 this by his spies, of whom he had a great number, 
 conceived the greatest anxiety at so mysterious a 
 voyage, and thought that its sole object was to
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 73 
 
 ruin him in the mind of the King. Hardly had 
 Louville arrived when he received the order to 
 leave Spain at once. He replied that he was pos- 
 sessed of a letter of credence from the King and of 
 another from the Regent which he was to deliver 
 into the hands of His Catholic Majesty, and that 
 he would not leave without having executed his 
 commission. That same night, he had so violent 
 an attack of nephritis that a bath was prepared 
 for him. His reply not being the kind to reas- 
 sure Alberoni, he came in person to the residence 
 of the Due de Saint-Aignan and found Louville 
 in the bath. He told him that the King was much 
 displeased at his arrival, that he absolutely refused 
 to see him, and that all he had to do was to hand 
 him his dispatches and return home at once. Lou- 
 ville replied that his duty forbade him to do the 
 first, and that his condition did not permit him to 
 carry out the second. Alberoni, being unable to 
 doubt Louville's impossibility to resume his jour- 
 ney, pretended to pity him, exaggerated the sup- 
 posed anger of the King, and promised to do all in 
 his power to have an excuse accepted which, how- 
 ever, could only last as long as his malady.
 
 74 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 At the end of three days, Louville again re- 
 ceived orders more absolute than the first. Final- 
 ly seeing that he could not obtain an audience, and 
 suspecting that Alberoni took advantage of the 
 King's name, he risked presenting himself on the 
 King's passage, in the hope of being seen by him 
 and of being able to present his letters. But Al- 
 beroni, who had Louville's every movement 
 watched, rendered this attempt useless by having 
 the King surrounded by a large body of creatures 
 sold to the minister. A moment after, the Secre- 
 tary of State, Gimaldo, came to Louville, and pos- 
 itively ordered him, in the King's name, to leave, 
 threatening to have him removed by force if he 
 delayed an instant. 
 
 The Due de Saint-Aignan, perhaps displeased 
 at not being in the secret of the affair, and fear- 
 ing some violence, pressed Louville to obey. He 
 accordingly departed without having done any- 
 thing, and without the King ever having known 
 what was taking place in his name; and an in- 
 solent minister was the cause of the failure of 
 Spain's only opportunity to recover Gibraltar. 
 
 Measures had been so well taken that if Lou-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 75 
 
 ville could have seen the King of Spain, he would 
 easily have made him accept and sign the but 
 slightly important conditions demanded by King 
 George, and the latter was immediately to send 
 the order to the governor to turn over the place: 
 a body of troops was to appear on the instant to 
 take possession and Gibraltar would have been in 
 the power of the Spanish before the Parliament of 
 England had even heard it rumoured. 
 
 Alberoni knew that he was hateful to the 
 Spaniards, that his sole authority came from the 
 Queen, that he was suspicious to the King, and 
 that that prince would certainly dismiss him if the 
 complaints of his administration should reach him. 
 He therefore spared nothing to remove all those 
 who might reveal his manoeuvres or injure his 
 credit. The two men who disturbed him most 
 at Court were Cardinal del Giudice, prime min- 
 ister in name, great inquisitor and tutor of the 
 Prince des Asturies; the other, the Jesuit d'Auben- 
 ton, confessor to the King. The latter did not 
 like Alberoni; but he did not care to try his 
 strength against a minister dear to the Queen, 
 and recalled that the Princesse des Ursins had
 
 76 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 had him sent away, and did not the less fear the 
 Queen, who did not like the Jesuits and had never 
 wanted one for a confessor. 
 
 Alberoni, covetous of the cardinal's hat, knew 
 that del Giudice was indignant that he should have 
 such a colleague, and was not ignorant of the fact 
 that the pope had great confidence in d'Aubenton, 
 with whom he even corresponded. Consequently, 
 he decided to attach the latter to himself so as 
 to ruin the other; and both worked towards that 
 end in concert, each one in his own way. 
 Alberoni suggested to the Queen that it was dan- 
 gerous for her to leave the heir to the monarchy 
 in the hands of a man who instilled in him the 
 principles of the former government, and would 
 estrange him from a stepmother; so that, if she 
 should happen to lose the King, she would find her- 
 self without consideration, and perhaps relegated 
 to a convent. 
 
 On the other hand, d'Aubenton gave the King 
 to understand that the functions of grand in- 
 quisitor did not allow of Cardinal del Giudice to 
 give the necessary attention to the education of 
 the Prince des Asturies, who had need of a man
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 77 
 
 exclusively engaged in so important a task. The 
 Queen and the confessor acted so efficaciously 
 that the place of tutor to the prince was taken, 
 from the cardinal and given to the Due de 
 Popoli, a Neapolitan, a man of much intelligence, 
 a clever courtier, thoroughly corrupt, with all the 
 exterior graces which, while hiding vice, only ren- 
 der it more dangerous. He was strongly suspected 
 of having poisoned his wife, who belonged to his 
 house, heiress of the elder branch, and whose 
 death left him master of all her property. 
 
 A few days after this, the cardinal received the 
 order to no longer come to the council meetings. 
 He then resigned his place as grand inquisitor and, 
 soon after, retired to Rome. 
 
 Prince de Cellamare, son of the Due de Gio- 
 venazzo, brother of Cardinal del Giudice, was 
 then Spanish ambassador to France. In the fear 
 of being discredited with the powerful and vin- 
 dictive Alberoni, he wrote to him, begging him 
 not to confound him with his uncle, and to con- 
 tinue his protection to him, with the Queen. Al- 
 beroni turned that letter to good account and ex- 
 hibited it with affectation, saying that the cardinal
 
 78 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 must have been guilty of great wrongs since he was 
 abandoned by a nephew so wise and enlightened. 
 This letter only proved the ambition and the base- 
 ness of Cellamare. ' 
 
 D'Aubenton saw himself obliged to write to 
 the pope, to exaggerate the rare qualities, even 
 the virtues of Alberoni; but specially his zeal for 
 the Court of Rome and his power in Spain. This 
 last clause was the most decisive to caution the 
 pope against the accusations of Giudice and the 
 other enemies of the minister. D'Aubenton ex- 
 pected that after having contributed to the car- 
 dinalship of Alberoni, the latter, having nothing 
 else to look to, would assist him to obtain it for 
 himself. It is thus that this precious hat can put 
 in motion a nation's entire clergy, and sometimes 
 that of Europe. Alberoni, knowing its full value, 
 judged that the purple would protect him in all 
 emergencies, and even his downfall has proven 
 that he was not wrong. 
 
 Alberoni, fearing nothing more from the Span- 
 iards near the King, was anxious about the 
 Parmesans whom a curiosity to see the Queen 
 might draw to Madrid, and forgot nothing to
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 79 
 
 keep them away. The ease with which he had 
 subjugated the Queen made him fear that an- 
 other might acquire the same influence over the 
 mind of that princess. He saw with much grief 
 the arrival of the Queen's nurse, with a sort of 
 peasant, her husband, and a capuchin son. This 
 sort of people do not ordinarily appear on the 
 scene; but they sometimes place and displace the 
 actors who play the most important roles. 
 Alberoni had started from too low a rank to have 
 the right not to fear a capuchin, foster-brother to 
 the Queen; fortunately, the latter happened to 
 be a fool; but the nurse, with the coarseness of 
 her original condition, wished to be considered 
 something and succeeded. She was shrewd, 
 clever, and knew how to make use of intrigue and 
 boldness at the proper time; the sequel will prove 
 it. 
 
 The Regent, offended at the insolence of 
 Alberoni with regard to de Louville and still more 
 indignant to see to what extent the King of Spain 
 was under the subjection of an audacious minister, 
 flattered himself to draw this prince from his 
 lethargy, by writing him personally. The letter
 
 8o SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 was strong : the difficulty was to make it reach its 
 destination without Alberoni's knowledge. The 
 Regent requested Father du Trevoux to send it 
 to Father d'Aubenton, who was to deliver it to 
 the King only. D'Aubenton received it; but hav- 
 ing already been almost ruined for having done 
 just such a thing for the pope, he took the letter 
 to the minister. o 
 
 Alberoni felt the effect that the letter might 
 have produced on the King's mind, had he received 
 it without being prepared for it. He consulted 
 with the Queen and began by writing to Monti, 
 who was then in Paris, a letter which he requested 
 him to show to the Regent. In it he said that 
 the King was much displeased with the one which 
 d'Aubenton had delivered, as would be seen by 
 ' the reply. Then, so as to insult the Regent under 
 the name of. others, he vowed infinite respect and 
 attachment to that prince and added that he was 
 in despair at all he. heard reported in Madrid by 
 the foreign ministers; namely, that the Regent's 
 sole ambition- was to assure to himself the throne 
 of France; that, as soon as his plans were per- 
 fected, the person of the King would not be in his
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 81 
 
 way, and that this was the opinion of all Europe. 
 
 Alberoni, in accord with the Queen, managed 
 to suggest to the King a confirmatory reply of 
 the letter written to Monti; and this was no diffi- 
 cult matter. 
 
 The continued retirement in which Philip V 
 lived for a long time and his excesses with the 
 Queen had caused him to sink into a condition 
 which out of respect was called vapours, and which 
 soon deserved another name, at least from those 
 of the inner circle. 
 
 The Queen and Alberoni took advantage of a 
 favourable moment to speak to him of the 
 Regent's letter, and only had to repeat against 
 that prince what they made the foreigner say in 
 the letter to Monti; that touched the sensitive 
 spot. The Queen added that an enlightened 
 King, as absolute as he was, should not tolerate 
 that a Regent of France undertook to meddle 
 with the government of Spain, and that, to im- 
 pose silence on him, it would suffice that the King 
 reply that all was done by his orders and that he 
 wished to be master at home. 
 
 Nothing so much flatters a weak man and keeps
 
 82 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 him better in that state of weakness than the 
 praise bestowed on his firmness. Philip therefore 
 wrote the letter as Alberoni had dictated it to the 
 Queen, who took care to cause to be added to it 
 all possible praise of his minister. 
 
 Alberoni, delivered of his anxiety as regards 
 France, busied himself solely with his promotion 
 to the cardinalship. The pope wished to urge 
 Alberoni, by the prospect of the hat, to settle to 
 the advantage of Rome the differences of that 
 Court with that of Spain, fully resolved after that 
 to make use of shift. But Alberoni, too much of 
 a knave himself not to be suspicious of others, was 
 fully determined not to grant anything, unless he 
 were appointed, subject, after that to evade his 
 promises. This contest of distrust and intrigue 
 lasted a long time; but as it is foreign to these 
 memoirs, I shall not dwell upon them. 
 
 The Regent saw clearly, by the obsession of the 
 King of Spain, that there was nothing to expect 
 from him, and only thought to conclude with 
 England a treaty which, owing to the misunder- 
 standing of France and Spain, became a necessity. 
 
 Abbe Dubois went to meet Stanhope, King
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 83 
 
 George's minister, at The Hague. The articles 
 were decided between them by the end of Novem- 
 ber, but it was agreed to keep the treaty secret, 
 so as to give time to the Dutch to come to a de- 
 cision and consent to it. 
 
 During the night from the ist to the 2nd of 
 February, Chancellor Voisin died suddenly. The 
 Regent having heard of it on arising sent for 
 Attorney-General d'Aguesseau, who was at mass. 
 On his reply that he would go after the service, 
 the Regent was obliged to send him an order to 
 come at once to the Palais-Royal. While these 
 messages were going back and forth, La Roche- 
 pot, Vaubourg and Trudaine, State councilors, the 
 first, the son-in-law, and the other two, brothers- 
 in-law of Voisin, brought the casket of the seals. 
 As soon as d'Aguesseau had arrived, the Regent 
 presented him to the crowd which curiosity had 
 attracted to the apartment: "You see," said he, 
 " a new and worthy chancellor." He at once 
 made him enter a coach with him, took him to 
 the Tuileries to present his respects to the King, 
 who, instructed by the Regent, laid his hand on 
 the casket and gave it to d'Aguesseau.
 
 84 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 The chancellor returned at once to his resi- 
 dence and entered the apartment of his brother, 
 d'Aguesseau de Valjouan. The latter, a man of 
 much wit and knowledge, but lazy, voluptuous, 
 eccentric, and quite indifferent to all events, was 
 still in his dressing-gown quietly smoking his pipe 
 near the fire. u Brother," said d'Aguesseau to 
 him, " I come to announce a piece of news which 
 will please you; I am chancellor." 
 
 " You, chancellor ! " said Valjouan coldly, with- 
 out even moving: " what have you done with the 
 other?" 
 
 " He died suddenly and the King has appointed 
 me to succeed him." 
 
 " Well ! brother, I am very glad of it," con- 
 tinued Valjouan ; " I had much rather that it 
 should be you than I," and he continued to smoke 
 his pipe. 
 
 On the same day the office of Attorney-General 
 was given to Joly de Fleury, first advocate gen- 
 eral. These two selections were the more ap- 
 plauded as no one was in a position to be jealous 
 of them. 
 
 I shall not dwell upon the merits of the new
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 85 
 
 chancellor. His eulogy which I had delivered 
 in my address for the prize of the Academic 
 Franchise, is in everyone's hands; but in the in- 
 terest of truth I am obliged to say that he has 
 been accused of excessive partiality for the long 
 robe. He has screened guilty judges from punish- 
 ment, so as not to bring the bench into disrepute. 
 
 The Due de Grammont, the elder, asking him 
 one day whether there was not a way of cutting 
 down proceedings and reducing expenses : " I have 
 often thought of it," said the chancellor; " I had 
 even begun a regulation on the subject, but I was 
 stopped by the thought of the number of advo- 
 cates, attorneys and bailiffs whom I was going 
 to ruin." What a reply for a statesman to make! 
 
 His taste for science and belles-lettres took up 
 much of his time, to the detriment of his conduct 
 of affairs. He might also be charged with irreso- 
 lution, acquired, either through having excessively 
 practiced the pro and con at the bar of justice, or 
 through his over abundance of learning, which 
 dazzled him at times instead of enlightening him. 
 
 Comte de Cereste-Brancas, soldier councilor of 
 State and friend of the chancellor, told me that
 
 86 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 he one day spoke to him of the slowness of his 
 decisions. " When I consider," replied the mag- 
 istrate, " that a chancellor's decision is a law, I 
 have a right to reflect on it long." 
 
 The Regent, after having so well disposed of 
 the office of chancellor and of that of attorney- 
 general, bestowed a multitude of favours which 
 were not so much approved. 
 
 Princes would be too happy if they had only 
 to concern themselves with politics and the tem- 
 poral government of the State. Unfortunately, 
 Church affairs always mingle with them; and as 
 they are usually a tissue of manoeuvres, bickerings 
 and intrigues, they cause princes more trouble 
 than the most thorny negotiations with foreign 
 powers. The affair of the constitution was pre- 
 cisely one of those cases; and the Regent, who was 
 working to strengthen peace without, desired tran- 
 quillity within the kingdom. 
 
 After having placed Cardinal de Noailles at 
 the head of the council of conscience, removed 
 from office Cardinal Bissy and his cabal, driven 
 some Jesuits from Court, exiled from Paris Tellier, 
 Daucin and the other mischief makers of the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 87 
 
 society, there was nothing else to do than to allow 
 the Parliaments to act supported by the Sorbonne, 
 the universities, the curates, always respected by 
 the people and the honest bourgeoisie. 
 
 The secular and regular societies, the most dis- 
 tinguished in letters and by their establishments, 
 declared themselves loudly in favour of Cardinal 
 de Noailles. Although he had not opposed the 
 destruction of Port-Royal, the hatred against the 
 Jesuits, the opposition to the Court of Rome had 
 brought back to him the Jansenists, among whom 
 there were still some at that time of distinguished 
 reputation. 
 
 It would not have cost the Regent much, in- 
 different as he was on the question of dogma, to 
 display a peaceful neutrality. The pope would 
 have complained, the nuncio would have cried out. 
 Nothing easier than to impose silence on the lat- 
 ter or have him recalled. As to the pope, the 
 Regent could write to him in that tone of respect 
 for his person, with which he could still make him 
 feel the firmness of a mind made up. Clement 
 XI would certainly have supplied the explanations 
 asked for about the bull or it would have im-
 
 88 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 perceptibly fallen into oblivion like so many 
 others. 
 
 If, through what I have stated, I were suspected 
 of Jansenism, those who did suspect me would 
 be much mistaken. The Jansenists of to-day do 
 not recall to mind the idea of Port-Royal, and 
 it would not be desirable to have them get the 
 upper hand. Whatever may be the constitution 
 at bottom, it is so generally accepted that it must 
 be looked upon as good for the tranquillity of 
 the government. The far-off consequences which 
 the popes might draw from them for their pre- 
 tensions, would not go into effect. Henceforth the 
 Court of Rome will not risk those acts which a 
 portion of Europe has repelled only by separating 
 itself from the Church. 
 
 The Regent, in trying to conciliate the two 
 parties which divided it, was unable to keep either 
 in check. That of the constitution went so far 
 as to have it declared a rule of faith by a number 
 of prelates. Immediately four bishops of la 
 Sorbonne issued their appeal to the future as- 
 sembly of prelates and doctors. If Cardinal de 
 Noailles had then caused his to be issued, almost
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 89 
 
 all the bodies of the kingdom would have fol- 
 lowed him. He temporised and lost all advan- 
 tages. 
 
 The Regent, piqued by the sensation of this 
 appeal, at a time when conferences to find com- 
 promises were being held at the Palais-Royal, 
 caused orders to be given to the four bishops to 
 retire to their dioceses. Ravachet syndic de Sor- 
 bonne was exiled to Saint-Brieuc, but on his way 
 there, he died in Rennes at the Benedictines, where 
 he is buried. 
 
 During the war of the constitution, the princes 
 of the blood energetically pushed the one they 
 had declared against the legitimated princes, 
 whom they wanted also to lose the intermediate 
 rank granted by the edict of 1694. 
 
 The Regent did not visibly take sides with the 
 princes of the blood: first so as not to offend the 
 Duchesse d'Orleans, his wife, sister of the legiti- 
 mated; second so as not to appear judge and 
 party in an affair which would be brought to the 
 tribunal of the regency. 
 
 The Duchesse du Maine, princess of the blood 
 herself, furious at seeing the rank of her husband
 
 90 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 and children attacked, had recourse to all the 
 means which so dear an interest could suggest to 
 her. It seems that she should have directed all 
 her efforts against the request of the princes of 
 the blood, because if that rank were continued 
 to her husband, the demand of the dukes collapsed 
 of its own accord. But as she feared to fail in 
 her defence against the princes, she forgot nothing 
 which might delay the judgment. Besides, if she 
 was grieved at the action of the princes, she con- 
 sidered herself insulted in the claims of the dukes 
 in favour of the fatherland. She therefore 
 thought to raise enemies who might avenge her, 
 by attacking them themselves. 
 
 She gave a certain number of nobles to un- 
 derstand that the dukes had made pretensions 
 offensive to the nobility, from which they wished 
 to separate and form among themselves a distinct 
 body. These noblemen easily caught fire, and 
 spread the alarm; their numbers soon increased; 
 everyone hastened to join them; the principals, 
 out of jealousy of the dukes; the others, to show 
 themselves as nobles; there were some among
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 91 
 
 them whom the bourgeoisie could have claimed 
 as. her own. 
 
 The Grand Prior de Vendome persuaded the 
 Knights of Malta who were in Paris, to enter the 
 league. The Bailiff de Mesmes, ambassador of 
 religion and brother to the premier president, 
 co-operated in the wishes of the grand prior and 
 was quietly instigated by the premier president, a 
 great enemy of the dukes, and secretly allied with 
 the Due and the Duchesse du Maine. 
 
 Six of the most prominent members of this 
 confederation presented to the Regent a memorial 
 against the dukes. The Regent received them 
 very coldly, told them he considered such a gath- 
 ering very bad, refused the memorial, and forbade 
 all Knights of Malta to meet except for matters 
 relating to their order; and a decree from the 
 regency council forbade all associations of noble- 
 men, and the signing of any request in common, 
 under penalty of disobedience. 
 
 Several noblemen of the league were not over 
 careful to conceal their anger; Bauffremont said 
 loudly that he wished to destroy the dukes be-
 
 92 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 cause he himself was not one. We have since 
 then seen the Marquis de Chatillon, having be- 
 come duke, wax enthusiastic at that title. In the 
 meantime the princes of the blood continued their 
 action against the legitimated. 
 
 The Regent might perhaps have evaded the 
 decision out of consideration for his wife; but the 
 Duchesse du Maine, carried away by passion, 
 caused her husband to take a step which injured 
 him very much. He presumed to tell the Regent 
 that this affair being one of State, could only be 
 judged by a King of age, or even by the States- 
 generals. 
 
 The Regent felt what a blow such a preten- 
 sion struck at his authority: first it is a maxim 
 that the King is always of age, as to justice; 
 second, what had been done without the inter- 
 vention of the States-generals could be undone 
 without their assistance. Consequently, there 
 was rendered, on the 6th of June, a decree of the 
 regency council which appointed six State coun- 
 cilors to receive the memorials from the princes of 
 the blood and the legitimated respectively and to 
 make a report of them to the council.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 93 
 
 The Duchesse du Maine, dismayed at the ill 
 success of her measure, persuaded thirty-nine 
 noblemen that they could stipulate for the body 
 of the nobility, and induced them to present to 
 the Parliament a request asking that an affair 
 which concerned the succession of the crown be 
 referred to the States-generals. 
 
 It was at least to the King alone to whom they 
 should have applied had they had mission from 
 the order of nobility. It was besides rather sin- 
 gular to see an order which classes the Parliament 
 in the same rank as the Tiers-Etat, head its re- 
 quest : " To our lords of the Parliament, beg, etc." 
 The premier president and the King's people 
 brought it to the Regent, who caused the six prin- 
 cipal noblemen to be sent to the Bastille or to 
 Vincennes. 
 
 The Regent at once resolved to have the affair 
 tried by the council. The princes of the blood, 
 the legitimated and the dukes were excluded as 
 interested parties. The Archbishop of Bordeaux, 
 d'Huxelles, Biron and Beringhen took their 
 places. Saint-Contest read the report and on 
 the ist of July the regency council rendered a
 
 94 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 decree in the form of an edict which revokes and 
 declares void that of 1714 and the declaration of 
 1715, and declares the Due du Maine and the 
 Comte de Toulouse unqualified to succeed to the 
 crown, deprives them of the rank of princes of 
 the blood, and only leaves to them its honours 
 during their lifetime, in view of the long posses- 
 sion. This edict was registered in the Parliament 
 on the 8th of July. 
 
 The honours have since then been continued to 
 the two sons of the Due du Maine, granted to the 
 Due de Penthievre, son of the Comte de Toulouse, 
 and have passed on to the Comte de Lamballe, son 
 of the Due de Penthievre. 
 
 In reporting that which concerns the affair of 
 the legitimated, I have specially named the 
 Duchesse du Maine, because she was the soul of 
 the entire affair. The Due du Maine, in despair 
 at his downfall, but naturally timid, obeyed his 
 wife's every passion. The Comte de Toulouse 
 joined his brother in the defence of their position, 
 but he took part in none of the Duchesse du 
 Maine's intrigues. He had shared his brother's 
 rank without having solicited it; he foresaw its
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 95 
 
 lack of stability, and appeared neither humiliated 
 nor grieved at the change in his state. 
 
 As to the Duchesse du Maine, wild and blind 
 with fury, she only busied herself with projects 
 of vengeance against the Regent, and maintained 
 secret correspondence with that portion of the 
 nobility which she had already excited. We shall 
 soon see her form a badly organised conspiracy 
 which proved fatal to several noblemen and which 
 was almost the undoing of the Due du Maine. 
 
 In the midst of all the affairs with which the 
 Regent was occupied, he was obliged to give his 
 attention to the reception of the Czar, Peter the 
 First, who came to Paris that year. 
 
 The rank and personal merit of the Czar re- 
 quire that I give a sort of abridged journal 
 of his arrival and of his sojourn. The Czar 
 reached the Louvre at 9 o'clock at night, and was 
 taken to the Queen's apartment, which was 
 lighted up and furnished superbly. He found it 
 too handsome, asked for a private house and at 
 once re-entered his coach. He was driven to the 
 de Lesdiguiere's residence, close to the Arsenal. 
 As its furnishings were no less magnificent, he
 
 96 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 saw that he had to make up his mind in the mat- 
 ter. He caused to be taken from a baggage 
 wagon which followed him, a field-bed and had 
 it set up in a closet. 
 
 Verton, one of the stewards of the King's 
 residence, was charged with the maintenance 
 morning and evening, for the prince, of a table 
 of forty covers, without counting those of the 
 officers and servants. Marshal de Tesse had 
 command of the entire household and was to ac- 
 company the Czar everywhere with a detachment 
 of gardes du corps. 
 
 This prince was tall, very well proportioned, 
 rather thin, dark of complexion; his eyes were 
 large and bright, his glance piercing and at times 
 fierce, especially when his face had a sort of con- 
 vulsive twitch which distorted his entire physi- 
 ognomy. This habit was the result of poison 
 given him in his childhood, but when he wished to 
 greet someone, his face took on a laughing aspect, 
 and did not lack charm, although he still retained 
 some little sarmatian majesty. 
 
 His quick and brusk movements revealed the 
 impetuosity of his character and the violence of
 
 PETER THE GREAT
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 97 
 
 his passions. Nothing hindered the activity of 
 his mind, and an air of grandeur mingled with 
 audacity announced a prince who felt himself a 
 master everywhere. 
 
 The habit of despotism was such that his com- 
 mands, his wishes, his fancies succeeded one an- 
 other rapidly and could not bear the least obstacle 
 of time, place or circumstance. Sometimes, im- 
 portuned by the affluence of spectators, but never 
 embarrassed, he dismissed them with a word, a 
 gesture, or left on the instant to go where his 
 curiosity led him. 
 
 If his equipages were not ready, he entered the 
 first carriage he found, were it a public conveyance. 
 He one day took the coach of the Marechale de 
 Matignon, who had come to see him, and caused 
 himself to be driven to Boulogne; on such occasions 
 Marshal Tesse and the guards ran as best they 
 could to follow him. Two or three such adven- 
 tures made it necessary after that to always have 
 coaches and horses ready for him. 
 
 However little conscious he appeared of the 
 etiquette of his rank, there were occasions when 
 he did not neglect it: he showed sometimes, by
 
 98 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 rather fine shades, the distinction of dignities and 
 of persons. Here are some examples : 
 
 Although most impatient to see the city, from 
 the moment of his arrival, he refused to leave his 
 apartment until he had received the King's first 
 visit. The day after the Czar's arrival, the 
 Regent called on him. The Czar came out of 
 his study, took a few steps towards the Regent, 
 embraced him, then pointing to the door of the 
 closet with his hand, he immediately turned and 
 walked ahead, followed by the Regent, then by 
 Prince Kurakin, who acted as interpreter. There 
 were two arm-chairs, the first of which was occu- 
 pied by the Czar; Kurakin remained standing. 
 After a half-hour's conversation, the Czar arose, 
 and stopped where he had received the Regent 
 who, on withdrawing, made a deep bow, to which 
 the Czar replied by a nod. 
 
 On Monday, May roth, the King came to 
 make his call. The Czar came down to the 
 courtyard, received the King at the coach door, 
 and both, walking side by side, the King on the 
 right, entered the apartment where the Czar of- 
 fered the first arm-chair, giving way in everything.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 99 
 
 After being seated a few moments, the Czar 
 arose, took the King in his arms, and embraced 
 him several times, his eyes moist, and with the 
 most marked transports of tenderness. The King, 
 though a child, was not in the least astonished, 
 made a little compliment and submitted to the 
 Czar's caresses with good grace. On leaving, 
 the two princes repeated the same ceremonial as 
 on the arrival. The Czar, while giving the 
 King precedence to the coach, continued to main- 
 tain his bearing of equality, and if he permitted 
 himself at moments and perhaps designedly, a sort 
 of superiority which age may give, he was careful 
 to conceal it by his caresses and his demonstra- 
 tions of affection for the child, whom he took in 
 his arms. 
 
 The next day, the nth, the Czar returned the 
 King's visit. He would have been received at 
 the coach step, but as soon as he perceived under 
 the vestibule of the Tuileries, the King walking 
 towards him, he jumped from the coach, ran to 
 meet the King, took him in his arms, thus mounted 
 the stairs and carried him to the apartment. 
 Everything took place exactly as the evening be-
 
 ioo SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 lore, with the exception of the precedence which 
 the King gave to the Czar. 
 
 As soon as he had received the King's visit, 
 the Czar went about Paris incessantly, entering 
 the stores and workshops, stopping before every- 
 thing which attracted his attention, questioning 
 the artists by means of Kurakin, and everywhere 
 giving evidence of his enlightenment and knowl- 
 edge. Things of taste and adornment interested 
 him but little; but all that was useful, relating to 
 the navy, commerce, the necessary arts, excited his 
 curiosity, attracted his attention, caused admira- 
 tion for the wisdom of a mind broad, just and 
 as prompt to learn as it was eager to know. He 
 only glanced at the diamonds of the crown which 
 were displayed before him, but he admired the 
 works of the Gobelin factories, went twice to the 
 Observatory, lingered long at the Jardin des 
 Plantes, examined the machine room and talked 
 with the carpenters who were building the swing- 
 bridge. 
 
 One easily imagines that such a prince was not 
 over-particular in his dress. A suit of barracan 
 or broad-cloth, a wide belt from which a sabre
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY ice 
 
 hung, a round wig, without powder, which did not 
 pass the neck, a shirt without cuffs, such was his 
 outfit. 
 
 He had ordered a wig. The wigmaker not 
 doubting that he wanted one in fashion which was 
 then to wear them long and thick. The Czar had 
 it clipped all around, to reduce it to the shape of 
 the one he wore. 
 
 Madame, mother of the Regent, the Duchesse 
 de Berri, and the Duchesse d'Orleans had ex- 
 pected to receive the visit of the Czar as soon as 
 he had returned the King's, but not hearing any- 
 thing about the matter, they each sent him their 
 chief equerry to present their compliments. The 
 Czar then went to see them in the order I men- 
 tioned, and he was received as the King would 
 have been. 
 
 The day he called on Madame, Friday the I4th, 
 the Regent joined him there, and took him to the 
 Opera, in the great box, and both sat alone on the 
 same bench. Towards the middle of the per- 
 formance, the Czar asked for beer: the Regent 
 had some brought at once, arose, presenting a 
 goblet on a saucer, and then a napkin. The
 
 102 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Czar drank without rising, returned the goblet 
 and the napkin to the Regent, who was still 
 standing, and thanked him by a smile and a nod. 
 He left the Opera at the fourth act to go to 
 supper. 
 
 He dined at eleven o'clock and had his supper 
 at eight o'clock. The amount of his expenses was 
 i, 800 livres a day. He was always splendidly 
 served although he had ordered curtailments the 
 very first day. It was not on account of sobriety; 
 he was fond of the table and only wished to sup- 
 press its luxury. He ate excessively at dinner and 
 at supper, drank two bottles of wine at each meal, 
 and usually one of liqueur at dessert, without 
 counting the beer and the lemonade which he had 
 between meals. Several of his officers coped with 
 him in this and among them, his almoner, whom he 
 liked and esteemed greatly for that reason. He 
 at times gave himself up to excesses with these 
 men whose consequences were best passed in 
 silence. 
 
 The Czar made a private visit to the Regent, 
 but he made none to any member of the royal 
 house, prince or princess, other than the three I
 
 have just named. He had been told that the 
 princes of the blood would call on him, if he 
 promised to go and see the princesses afterwards. 
 He refused with haughtiness this conditional visit, 
 and it was not again mentioned. 
 
 If the State visits, the plays and the fetes in- 
 terested him but little, it was not the same with 
 things which could improve him. On the same 
 day that he went to the Opera, he had spent the 
 entire morning in the gallery of plans, conducted 
 by Marshal de Villars and followed by the gen- 
 eral officers who happened to be in Paris. The 
 marshal also accompanied him to the Invalides, 
 on the 1 6th, Whitsunday. The Czar asked to 
 see everything there, examine everything and 
 ended by visiting the refectory, where he asked 
 for a drink of the soldiers' wine, drank to their 
 health, treating them as comrades, and slapping 
 the shoulders of those nearest him. 
 
 He noticed among the spectators the Marechale 
 de Villars, whose face was a striking one: he 
 learned who she was and greeted her specially. 
 
 Marshal d'Estrees invited him to dine at his 
 house at Issy, Tuesday the i8th, and pleased him
 
 104 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 much by the charts and naval plans which he 
 showed him. 
 
 The Czar, calling at the Tuileries on the 24th, 
 entered the apartment of Marshal de Villeroi, 
 where the King came as if by chance. All cere- 
 monial was then omitted and the Czar again gave 
 himself up to the liveliest transports of affection. 
 That same evening, he went to Versailles and spent 
 three days visiting the chateau, the menagerie, 
 Trianon, Marly, and specially the machine, more 
 interesting then than it is to-day that the mechan- 
 ism is more perfected. 
 
 He slept at Trianon, where his officers had 
 brought girls, in Mme. de Maintenon's apartment, 
 an act which Blouin, the favourite's old servant, 
 looked upon as a profanation. These morals 
 were, in fact, in singular contrast with the last 
 years of Louis XIV. It has been claimed that the 
 Czar and his officers had reason to remember the 
 company they had taken with them. 
 
 On the 3Oth of May, he went to dine at Petit- 
 Bourg, with the Due d'Antin, who on the same day. 
 took him to Fontainebleau, where the Comte de 
 Toulouse next day gave him the pleasure of the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 10$ 
 
 chase. On returning, the Czar insisted upon eat- 
 ing alone with his own retinue, on the island of 
 FEtang. The Comte de Toulouse and the Due 
 d'Antin must have been grateful to the Czar for 
 having excluded them. The Czar and his retinue 
 had to be carried to their coaches to return to 
 Petit-Bourg, which they reached in a most disgust- 
 ing condition. 
 
 On Tuesday, June ist, the fumes of the evening 
 before having vanished, the Czar embarked on 
 the Seine to go down to Paris. He stopped at 
 Choisy, where the dowager Princesse de Conti re- 
 ceived him. After having visited the gardens, he 
 again entered his gondola, went through Paris, 
 passing under all the bridges, and landed below 
 the Porte de la Conference. 
 
 On the 3rd, he returned to spend a few days 
 at Versailles, at Marly, at Trianon, which he 
 wanted to see more thoroughly. On the nth, he 
 went to Saint-Cyr, saw all the classes, had the ex- 
 ercises of the pupils explained to him, and then 
 went up to the room of Mme. de Maintenon who, 
 having foreseen the visit, had gone to bed. 
 
 The Czar, on entering, drew the curtain of the
 
 106 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 windows, then those of the bed, looked at her 
 attentively, and went out without saying a word 
 and without doing her the slightest act of polite- 
 ness. 
 
 Mme. de Maintenon was to say the least 
 astonished at so strange a visit and must have felt 
 the difference of the times. 
 
 The day he went to the Sorbonne, he showed 
 more consideration to the statue of Cardinal de 
 Richelieu than he had shown to the person of 
 Mme. de Maintenon. 
 
 As soon as he saw the tomb of the cardinal, he 
 ran to embrace the figure of that minister, address- 
 ing these words to it: "I would give one-half of 
 my empire to such a man as you that he might aid 
 me in governing the other half." 
 
 The Czar went to dine on the I5th, at the Due 
 d'Antin's. Mme. la duchesse went there with the 
 princesses, her daughters, to see him once at least 
 before his departure. The Due d'Antin, wishing 
 to satisfy their curiosity, invited the Czar to take 
 a stroll in the garden and led him in front of the 
 ground-floor apartments, where the princesses and
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 107 
 
 their attendants were at the windows. On ap-' 
 preaching them, the Czar was told that Mme. la 
 duchesse was there and of the desire she had to 
 see him. He replied not a word, did not even ask 
 which one she was, walked slowly, looked at them 
 all, bowed to them in general with a nod and 
 passed on. 
 
 The Czar, on entering the dining-room, was 
 surprised on seeing under a canopy the portrait of 
 the Czarina which the Due d'Antin had found 
 some way of procuring. This gallantry pleased 
 him so much that he exclaimed that only French- 
 men could be capable of such an act. He soon 
 experienced another, and a more striking one, 
 which I shall report under its date. 
 
 On the 1 6th, he saw the review of the Maison 
 du Roi. The magnificence of the uniforms seemed 
 to displease him. Without awaiting the end, he 
 left suddenly, and at a gallop, went to Saint- 
 Ouen, where he had supper with the Due de 
 Tresmes. 
 
 The Czar spoke Latin and German with ease; 
 he could have made himself understood in French,
 
 108 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 which he knew fairly well, and he was suspected 
 of making use of an interpreter for the sake of 
 dignity. 
 
 On the 1 8th, he received the Regent's last visit 
 and went to take leave of the King, who, the 
 next day, came to say good-bye to him. No cere- 
 monial was observed, but the same effusion and 
 affection were noticeable in the Czar. 
 
 On the same day, he witnessed from a gallery 
 of the higher court, the trial of a case. The ad- 
 vocate-general, Lamoignon, to-day chancellor, in 
 summing up, spoke of the honour which the Court 
 received on that day and had it recorded. 
 
 In the afternoon, the Czar attended a meeting 
 of the Academic des Sciences, and then another of 
 that of Belles-Lettres, called in special session. 
 These two societies interested him each in its way. 
 He sat at both and requested the academicians to 
 be seated. 
 
 The compliment paid him and which I have 
 mentioned before was at the medal Mint. The 
 Czar, after having examined the structure, the 
 strength and the length of stroke of the coining- 
 engine, joined the workmen in setting it in motion.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 109 
 
 Nothing could equal his surprise when there ap- 
 peared from under the stamp a portrait of him- 
 self, superior as to resemblance and artistic merit, 
 to all the medals which had been struck for him; 
 he also appeared quite satisfied with the reverse 
 side. It was a figure of Renown passing from 
 North to South, with these words of Virgil: Vires 
 acquirit eundo, as an allusion to the knowledge 
 which that prince acquired in his travels. 
 
 The Czar accepted from the King two Gobelin 
 tapestries, and refused a sword studded with 
 diamonds. He gave several gold and silver 
 medals representing the principal events of his life 
 and his portrait ornamented with diamonds to 
 Marshals d'Estrees and de Tesse, to the Due 
 d'Antin and to Verton. He acquired for the lat- 
 ter, who had him served during his sojourn, a 
 singular friendship and asked the Regent to send 
 him to him as charge d'affaires of France in 
 Russia. He had sixty thousand livres distributed 
 to the servants who had waited on him. He ex- 
 pressed the greatest desire to form a friendly 
 alliance with us ; but as this was not in accord with 
 the new political plan of the Regent, or rather of
 
 i io SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Abbe Dubois, he was only answered by vague 
 demonstrations of attachment which had no 
 further result. 
 
 The Czar left here the zoth. of June to go to 
 Spa, where the Czarina was to meet him. He was 
 much affected on leaving as he spoke of France, 
 and he said that it was with grief that he saw that 
 it would soon be ruined by luxury. 
 
 That year an event took place which should 
 serve as an example to those who, abusing a pre- 
 carious authority, often cause legitimate authority 
 to be hated. The inhabitants of Martinique, 
 vexed by the annoyances of la Varennes, the 
 governor-general, and of Ricouart, the commis- 
 sary of that island, had often and use- 
 lessly forwarded their complaints to the minister 
 of France. Fatigued with waiting for a reply, 
 the islanders met secretly and decided upon a plan 
 of action. They sought out the governor and the 
 commissary and found them dining together. 
 They placed them both on board of a ship bound 
 for France, handed the captain a new memo- 
 randum of complaints and protestations of fidelity 
 to the King, made him swear to deliver it faith-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY in 
 
 fully, accompanied the vessel twelve leagues at 
 sea, with two well-armed pirogues, to make sure 
 of the departure, and forbade the two deposed 
 vizirs to ever again set foot on the island. 
 
 The conduct of the islanders after this expe- 
 dition was so quiet and submissive, order so well 
 maintained in the colony, that the Court decided 
 to shut its eyes on what had taken place. The 
 two banished ones were obliged to pocket their 
 affront and, what in France is the greatest of pun- 
 ishment, saw themselves the object of mockeries 
 and ridicules which were not spared them. 
 
 Several successors of la Varennes and of 
 Ricouart have not much profited by the example. 
 We have just seen, in the ease with which Mar- 
 tinique surrendered to the English, how important 
 it is for a government not to render itself odious. 
 
 While the inhabitants of Martinique were tak- 
 ing the law into their own hands, those of Peri- 
 gueux implored that of the Regent against Cour- 
 son, commissary of Bordeaux. He was the son 
 of Lamoignon de Basville, the despot of Langue- 
 doc, and had been commissary of Rouen. The 
 brigandage of his secretaries and the arrogant
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 pretension of his demeanour toward them was the 
 cause of his almost being stoned to death at 
 Rouen, where he was first commissary. He was 
 compelled to flee and his father's credit helped him 
 to be appointed commissary of Guienne. 
 
 The spirit of despotism which he had inherited 
 from his father, without his capacity, led him to 
 levy taxes on his own personal authority. The 
 town of Perigueux complained and, as a reply, he 
 had the aldermen put in prison. The town sent 
 deputies to the Court to appeal against this act 
 of tyranny; but they were more than two months 
 besieging the office of the Due de Noailles, with- 
 out ever being able to go beyond the antechamber. 
 That minister, friend of Courson, wished, by de- 
 lays, to discourage those unfortunates. Besides, a 
 maxim of tyrants and under-tyrants is to always 
 side with superiors. Fortunately, the Comte de 
 Toulouse, a perfectly honest man, heard about the 
 matter. He informed several members of the 
 regency council about it and specially the Due de 
 Saint-Simon, sworn enemy of the Due de Noailles, 
 and who took up everything with the greatest 
 ardour.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 113 
 
 The first time that the Due de Noailles came 
 to report to the regency council, the Due de Saint- 
 Simon asked him when he expected to settle the 
 Perigueux affair, exposing the case succinctly and 
 very vigorously. The Comte de Toulouse sec- 
 onded him in that cold and indignant tone which 
 a denial of justice gives an honest man. 
 
 Everybody turned their eyes towards the Due 
 de Noailles, who said stammeringly that the affair 
 required careful examination and that more im- 
 portant matters had prevented him from attend- 
 ing to it. The Comte de Toulouse and Saint- 
 Simon retorted that there was nothing more 
 important than to clear up charges true or false 
 which for the past three months kept some citizens 
 in irons. 
 
 The Regent therefore ordered the Due de 
 Noailles to report on the matter within a week. 
 Noailles came to the council a week after with a 
 bag full of papers. Saint-Simon asked him if the 
 Perigueux case was in it; Noailles replied ill- 
 humouredly that it was ready, that it would come 
 in its turn, and began by reading another, then, 
 still another. At the end of each report Saint-
 
 iii4 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Simon always asked: " And the Perigueux case? " 
 It was Opera day and the Regent always went 
 there on leaving the council; and Noailles had 
 flattered himself to amuse the council until the 
 hour of the performance and perhaps finally to 
 cause Perigueux to be forgotten. At last, the 
 hour of the Opera having come, Noailles said that 
 the affair in question was all that was left, but that 
 the report on it would be so long that he did not 
 wish to deprive M. le Regent of his recreation 
 and he began to gather up his papers. Saint- 
 Simon, stopping his arm, addressed the Regent and 
 asked him if he cared so much for the Opera, and 
 if he did not prefer to render justice to unfortu- 
 nates who implored it. The Regent resumed his 
 seat and consented to hear the report. 
 
 Noailles therefore began it, with concentrated 
 fury, but Saint-Simon, who was at his side, had his 
 eyes on all the documents, re-read them after 
 Noailles, and, followed the report with the most 
 open and insulting distrust. The affair was 
 so outrageous that Noailles himself asked for the 
 freedom of the prisoners, but he tried to excuse 
 Courson and dwell on the services of Basville, his
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 115 
 
 father. The petulant Saint-Simon interrupted 
 him, saying that not the father's merit but the son's 
 iniquity was in question, and, in conclusion added 
 that the prisoners should be indemnified at the 
 expense of Courson, that the latter should be 
 driven out of the commissariat, and that he should 
 be punished in so signal a manner, that his case 
 would be an example for those like him. The 
 Regent said that he would take care of the in- 
 demnity, that he would rate Courson soundly, al- 
 though he deserved worse, but that the father 
 merited some consideration; that however he an- 
 nulled Courson's ordinances with a warning not 
 to repeat the same offence. Saint-Simon asked 
 that the decision be written at once, " not daring," 
 he said, u to trust to the memory of the Due de 
 Noailles " ; and the Regent so ordered. Noailles, 
 trembling with fury, could barely hold the pen; 
 Saint-Simon, to assist him, began to dictate. 
 When Noailles came to the annulment of the or- 
 dinances with warning not to repeat the same 
 offence, he stopped: " Continue," said Saint-Si- 
 mon; "such is the decree." Noailles looked 
 around at the council to see if there was no miti-
 
 Ii6 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 gation. Saint-Simon put the question to the entire 
 council, which was unanimous in its decision; thus 
 ended the Perigueux affair. 
 
 Shortly after, Courson was recalled, and said, 
 as is usual in such cases, that he had asked for his 
 recall. If that is true, the province showed its 
 gratitude by bonfires. This did not hinder him 
 from later having a place of councilor in the royal 
 council of finances. 
 
 Although this is only a special affair, I thought 
 it well to report it, so as to give an idea of the 
 trickery of the ministers, of the annoyances that 
 are committed in the King's name, of the impunity 
 of which they are assured, except in unique cir- 
 cumstances, such as the chance which brought the 
 matter to the ears of the Comte de Toulouse, whose 
 sense of equity was iroused by the resentment of 
 the Due de Saint-Simon. Besides this, one can 
 still see, by Courson's fortune, that those who 
 have a name in their class succeed much in the 
 same manner, merit or no merit. 
 
 I have forgotten to say that Chancellor 
 d'Aguesseau, although just, was the only one of 
 the council who tried to lighten the decree, because
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 117 
 
 men of the long robe always make common cause 
 when they have no contrary interest, and they fear 
 to weaken the respect for the magistracy. That 
 year he secured nobility to the councilors of the 
 great council, with exemption of the lord's due 
 for estates held from the King. 
 
 Speaking of consideration for the magistracy, 
 the Regent last year, had had a mind to take part 
 in the mid- August procession, for the vow of 
 Louis XIII. The Parliament claimed to have 
 the right side, alleging that Gaston had only 
 walked on the left in a similar ceremony, during 
 the minority of Louis XIV, although Gaston was 
 son of France, and at that time lieutenant-general 
 of the Kingdom. The Regent, without discussing 
 the matter, abstained from the procession. This 
 year, the same desire took possession of him, and 
 he announced that he would precede the Parlia- 
 ment, basing this on the example of the Due de 
 Montpensier, who had preceded it at the procession 
 of Sainte-Genevieve on the loth September, 1570. 
 The Parliament opposed to this that the Due de 
 Montpensier had only had the precedence in 
 virtue of a warrant of the King and to represent
 
 Ii8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 him; it added that the Regent himself being a 
 member of Parliament, could only march between 
 two presidents, if he did not represent the King. 
 The Regent, not wishing to take advantage of 
 his authority nor sacrifice a childish whim, 
 thought he was doing a marvellous thing by mak- 
 ing use of the Due de Montpensier's expedient 
 and he appeared at this ceremony as representing 
 the King, with gardes du corps, cent-suisses, cap- 
 itaine de quartier, first gentleman of the chamber, 
 in short, all the pomp of royalty; this had an 
 ill effect. The malcontents said that the Regent 
 was making a public trial of the crown, so as to 
 accustom the public to it upon an emergency: 
 the prince's friends thought it rather bad that a 
 Regent of France should precede the Parliament 
 only by virtue of a commission which gave him 
 nothing personal. The Parliament was gaining 
 ground and the people only saw in the affair one 
 of those exhibitions which consoles them for every- 
 thing. The fete of Saint-Louis was celebrated at 
 the Tuileries by fireworks, which attracted an in- 
 numerable crowd in the garden and in the court- 
 yards.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 119 
 
 It was on just such occasions that Marshal de 
 Villeroi displayed his great talents for education. 
 He continually took the King from one window to 
 another, saying to him : " See, my master, see that 
 people! well, all that is yours, all belongs to you, 
 you are its master!" Fine lesson! instead of 
 making him notice the love of the people and in- 
 spire him with the gratitude which the King owes 
 them. But the marshal did not know enough for 
 that. 
 
 The Parliament, after having tried equality 
 with the Regent in a procession, undertook some- 
 thing of greater importance in the government; 
 the question of the registration of the suppression 
 of the tenth-tax came up : the Parliament asked 
 for a statement of the revenues and expenses of the 
 King; the Regent refused it and replied that h& 
 would not suffer that the King's authority be at- 
 tacked during the regency. The Parliament 
 could no doubt be of great use to the people, but 
 it usually selects improper occasions for resistance. 
 In this case, for example, there was a question of 
 a suppression which the public awaited with im- 
 patience, and the few changes required in some of
 
 120 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the clauses were not difficult of settlement, so the 
 registration had to be done. Besides schisms oc- 
 curred in the Parliament with regard to the nom- 
 ination of commissaries. The commissions were 
 beginning to suspect that the premier president was 
 a double-faced scoundrel. In truth, the premier 
 president had already twice received his brevet 
 de retenue of five hundred thousand livres and yet 
 did not consider that he was sufficiently paid; we 
 shall later see that he was right. 
 
 While the Regent strove to preserve the peace 
 with our neighbours, he saw with anxiety the war 
 preparations which Spain was making. Alberoni, 
 having settled the differences between his master 
 and the pope, from whom he drew an indult to 
 place an assessment on the clergy of Spain, had 
 prepared a considerable armament and led the 
 pope to understand that it was to oppose the un- 
 dertakings that the Turks might attempt on Italy. 
 Clement XI, in recognition of so many services, 
 gave him at last, although with much repugnance, 
 the hat. The Sacred college complained a great 
 deal, the pope himself wept, but Alberoni was 
 cardinal and then said to his intimates that " hav-
 
 ing nothing to look to for himself, he was now 
 going to work for the King's glory." 
 
 Alberoni's plan was, he said: first to save the 
 honour of the King of Spain; second, to maintain 
 the peace of Italy; third, to assure to the sons of 
 the Queen of Spain the successions of Tuscany 
 and of Parma and to obtain for the King of Spain, 
 Naples, Sicily, and the ports of Tuscany; fourth, 
 to divide the state of Mantua, by giving the city 
 and a part of the country to the Venetians, the 
 other part to the Due de Guastalla; fifth, the 
 Milanese and Monferrat to the Emperor; sixth, 
 Sardinia to King Victor, to compensate him for 
 Sicily; seventh, restore Commachio to the pope; 
 and eighth, divide the Catholic lowlands between 
 France and Holland. 
 
 Alberoni, to establish in time to come an 
 equilibrium and a lasting peace, began by light- 
 ing a fire, without having the means nor the 
 necessary strength to execute his projects. Such 
 is that Alberoni whom some have tried to show 
 as a great man, a title too readily bestowed on 
 extraordinary men, and which they only owe to 
 those who should have the greatest reason for
 
 discrediting them to writers born of the middle 
 class, who are the victims, and bear the burden 
 of all great enterprises. 
 
 The great man is the one who, for objects great 
 and useful, proportions the means to the enter- 
 prises, the crowns by the success, and can con- 
 gratulate himself on the events, since he has fore- 
 seen them, prepared them and brought them about. 
 Even those who are called great geniuses can 
 raise or destroy great States, but they are not 
 always the best fitted for administration. They 
 make unfortunates and to crown all, they excite 
 the emulation of mediocre successors who only 
 cause disasters. 
 
 Alberoni, born in the dust, rises by his intellect, 
 and reaches one of the highest dignities. That 
 is not the act of a common man. But he leads 
 his master into a ruinous war, places him in a posi- 
 tion to make a forced peace and finally has him- 
 self expelled to go to Rome and live in opulence 
 and contempt. He came very near being de- 
 graded, and only avoided it by the interest which 
 cardinals have in rendering the purple invulner-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 123 
 
 able even in those who disgrace it. These are the 
 facts. Let the reader judge. 
 
 As soon as the Spanish fleet reached Sardinia, 
 all the powers were set in motion; each suspected 
 the others of being in league with Spain. The 
 Emperor, proud of his victories in Hungary, re- 
 proached the pope with having granted an indult 
 to the King of Spain on the pretext of arming 
 against the Turk, and of seeing these armies used 
 against Christians. He threatened Clement XI 
 to at once carry war into Italy. The pope, 
 frightened, wept bitterly and said in his grief 
 " that he had damned himself by giving the hat 
 to Alberoni"; to which Cardinal del Giudice re- 
 plied " that he would do himself the honour of 
 following His Holiness everywhere, except in 
 hell." 
 
 England was at that time divided in its in- 
 terior into two opposing parties. The misunder- 
 standing between King George and the Prince of 
 Wales, his son, had become an open hatred. The 
 King, in reviewing his troops, had refused to pass 
 in front of his son's regiment, unless that prince
 
 124 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 withdrew, and he had even just banished him to 
 the village of Richmond, near London. George 
 was incensed to have as a successor a prince whom 
 he did not look upon as his son. No one was 
 ignorant of what had taken place at Hanover 
 before George had received the crown of England. 
 That prince, suspecting a criminal intercourse be- 
 tween his wife and the Comte de Konigsmark, had 
 had the latter thrown into a lime-kiln, and had 
 kept the Electress imprisoned in a chateau. The 
 birth of the Prince of Wales had always been 
 suspicious to King George, who could never bear 
 him. 
 
 Alberoni, in real or apparent security with re- 
 gard to the foreign powers, had a sudden alarm 
 in Spain. The King became dangerously ill. 
 The Queen and Alberoni kept that prince prac- 
 tically as a prisoner. Almost all the officers of 
 the palace, reduced to titles without functions, 
 only saw the prince at moments, at his meals or at 
 chapel. Two gentlemen of the chamber, one of 
 whom was even majordomo to the Queen, and a 
 few absolutely necessary servants, took charge of 
 the entire service.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 125 
 
 The Queen's nurse entered the room alone to 
 put on his shoes, at the moment the King arose, 
 and caused Alberoni great jealousy; but there was 
 no way of excluding her and it was dangerous to 
 attempt it. 
 
 The King's ailment compelled the calling of 
 the head physician and the other health officers. 
 The right and the duty of the chief majordomo 
 was to be present during the preparing and ad- 
 ministering of all remedies; the Marquis de 
 Villena, Due d'Escalone, wishing to perform that 
 duty, came into the room and near the King's bed. 
 Alberoni, piqued, forbade the usher to allow Vil- 
 lena to enter. The latter having presented him- 
 self, the usher partly opened the door, and told 
 him of the order he had received. Villena calls 
 him an insolent fellow, pushes the door, enters, 
 and advances towards the bed of the King, who 
 was too ill to notice anything. The Queen and 
 Alberoni were at the head of the bed and the offi- 
 cers on duty were at a distance. Alberoni seeing 
 the marquis advance, wished to have him leave 
 and took him by the arm to turn him back. Vil- 
 lena, who was very gouty, while struggling against
 
 126 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the cardinal, fell in an arm-chair, but seizing 
 Alberoni by the sleeve, he gave him a number of 
 blows about the shoulders and ears with his cane, 
 calling him a priestling, a little puppy to whom 
 he would teach the respect which he owed him. 
 
 Alberoni, stunned at such treatment admin- 
 istered to a cardinal, and perhaps through a feel- 
 ing of his low origin, only thought of getting rid 
 of the hands of the angry marquis and took refuge 
 near the bed, without the Queen, out of dignity, 
 and the servants, out of secret pleasure, having 
 moved to assist him. After this affair, one of the 
 valets came to help Villena to arise from the arm- 
 chair and leave the room. The King did not 
 notice this scene at all. Hardly had the marquis 
 returned home when he received orders to betake 
 himself to one of his estates. The cardinal dared 
 not have recourse to censure, fearing to make the 
 adventure public, which it nevertheless became. 
 A few months after Villena was recalled, refused 
 all the cardinal's advances and always treated him 
 haughtily. 
 
 The King became so ill that the Queen had him 
 draw up a will by which she was probably ap-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 127 
 
 pointed regent, but its particulars have never been 
 known. Six Spanish grandees certified and signed 
 the will, without however seeing anything of its 
 contents except the signature of the King. This 
 prince's health was restored, but, although he lived 
 nearly thirty years after that (he only died in 
 1746), his mind remained quite weak. If I con- 
 tinue these memoirs until his death, I shall give 
 singular proof of this drawn from the correspond- 
 ence of our ministers at Madrid. 
 
 Alberoni, hated by the people and despised by 
 the nobles, as much as a powerful minister can 
 well be, did not exhibit less assurance in the eyes 
 of all the foreign powers. The Nuncio Aldovan- 
 dri, having received a brief from the pope which 
 revoked the indult, was unable to transmit it to 
 the King, who was always locked up, and he de- 
 livered it to the minister, who paid no attention 
 to it, and pretended, out of derision, no doubt, that 
 the pope should be much obliged to him for hav- 
 ing had the constitution accepted by the bishops of 
 Spain. 
 
 Clement XI, who would have been flattered at 
 such acceptance on the part of France, considered
 
 128 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 it rash in Spain. The Court of Rome maintained 
 that its bulls should be received by the Spanish 
 bishops provoluti ud pedes. 
 
 On the other hand, the Emperor, still treating 
 the pope with haughtiness, asked him and even 
 ordered him to recall Nuncio Aldovandri, to sum- 
 mon Alberoni to Rome or that he be tried in 
 Spain. 
 
 Alberoni was not in the least affected, promis- 
 ing the pope to soon avenge him of the Emperor 
 and asking, in the meantime, a permission to re- 
 side at Malaga, of which he had just been given 
 the bishopric worth ten thousand livres. The 
 pope, knowing that that permission would be a new 
 grievance with the Emperor, refused it in appear- 
 ance; but not daring to offend Alberoni, he sent 
 him word by Father d'Aubenton that he granted 
 him the permission for six months of the year, and 
 that the council of prelates giving him six other 
 months, he would thus have a perpetual licence to 
 reside. 
 
 In the meantime all the powers of Europe were 
 stirring. Never had negotiations been more ac- 
 tive, more variable, nor interests more complicated.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 129 
 
 We shall see what were the results after having 
 reported some of the special events of that year. 
 
 The King, having reached his seventh year on. 
 February I5th, passed into the hands of men. 
 It would be desirable that princes be turned over 
 to them from their birth. It is the duty of women 
 to nurse them, and of men to bring them up, 
 specially when Montandiers, Beauvilliers, Bossuets 
 or Fenelons are chosen. Their equals will be 
 found, will be created, when the public voice is 
 consulted. It is a justice to be rendered to 
 Louis XIV: he has often regulated his choice on 
 renown. Louvois could never set aside Turenne. 
 
 On the occasion of the change from women to 
 men, the first gentlemen claimed their ancient 
 rights of sleeping in the King's chamber. The 
 first valets de chambre pleaded the long possession: 
 in which they were; and the Regent, wishing to 
 humour everybody, referred the decision to the 
 majority, all things remaining in suspense, and 
 they have continued the same since. It is thus 
 that through neglect and non-usage, several offi- 
 cers of the Court are other than they were 
 originally. It is in the same way that the master
 
 130 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 of the horse lost his case against the head of the 
 petite ecurle, who had become successively almost 
 his equal, and has maintained himself in independ- 
 ence. 
 
 The Prince Elector of Saxony, to-day King of 
 Poland, became or declared himself a Catholic that 
 year, so as to prepare his succession to his father's 
 throne. When the latter had become a Catholic, 
 the Electress, his wife, a zealous Protestant, would 
 no longer have any intercourse with her husband, 
 nor receive the honours of a Queen. 
 
 The Chevalier d'Oppede, nephew of Cardinal 
 Janson, died that year. Having no other posses- 
 sion than his face, he had married, out of neces- 
 sity, the Marquise d'Argenton, mistress of the 
 Regent and mother of Chevalier d'Orleans, and 
 for honour's sake kept his marriage secret. I re- 
 port a fact of so little importance only to show 
 that people still wished to contract proper mar- 
 riages. By this I do not mean to condemn mar- 
 riages disproportionate either on account of birth 
 or fortune, but justified by merit. 
 
 Massillon, priest of the Oratory, renowned for 
 his sermons, and specially for his Petit-Car erne t
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 131 
 
 without any other protection than his merit, was 
 appointed to the bishopric of Clermont. He 
 would not have been in a position to accept had 
 not Crozat, the younger, paid the bulls. 
 
 The Duchesse de Berri took among her ladies 
 the Marquise d'Arpajon, daughter of Le Bas de 
 Montargis, treasurer extraordinary of the wars, 
 and mother of the Comtesse de Noailles of to- 
 day. With a face both beautiful and noble, she 
 was still more distinguished for her virtue and her 
 piety. It was by her and the Marquise de la 
 Rochefoucauld, daughter of the financier Prondre, 
 that the Duchesse de Berri was accompanied to the 
 Carmelites, to whom she used to say: " I bring 
 you my three bourgeoises." 
 
 It is claimed that the eye trouble which the Re- 
 gent had about this time was due to the blow of a 
 fan which he had received from the Marquise 
 d'Arpajon, with whom he had attempted to take 
 liberties. These two women were more in their 
 spheres at the Carmelites than they would have 
 been at the suppers which the princess took with 
 the Regent's roues, and from which they had the 
 honour of being excluded.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 The Duchesse de Berri created the place of mas- 
 ter of the wardrobe, which she gave to a Marquis 
 de Bonnivet, bastard of Gouffier and a great 
 fighter. She was very glad, she said, to have a 
 handy man about the house; which did not seem 
 quite the proper piece of furniture for the first 
 princess of France. 
 
 I shall report the matters concerning this prin- 
 cess as the occasions offer. Should one wish to 
 tell all relating to her, the narrative would be too 
 long drawn out. 
 
 Louise Adelaide d'Orleans, her younger sister, 
 took the veil in the Abbey of Chelles, the 3Oth of 
 March. That princess, with beauty and much wit, 
 was rather excitable. Her mother feared the con- 
 sequences and contributed not a little to her daugh- 
 ter's vocation. Her seclusion determined her to 
 give herself up to chemistry, anatomy, and to the 
 study of natural history. She had the greatest 
 facility for all she wished to learn, and found 
 many ways of not being bored. She wrote a let- 
 ter which she signed wife of Jesus Christ, at which 
 the prince said that he thought himself on bad 
 terms with his son-in-law, a jest more worthy of a
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 133 
 
 libertine than of a philosopher, and out of place 
 in a man whose every word was noted. 
 
 The chancellors having had until then no other 
 quarters than their own homes, the Regent as- 
 signed to the Chancellery the house of the place 
 Vendome which formed a part of the assize of 
 Bourvalais. 
 
 The Regent also purchased for the crown the 
 largest and most perfect diamond to be found in 
 Europe. It is called the Regent, and sometimes 
 the Pitt, the name of the seller, brother-in-law of 
 Stanhope, England's secretary of state, and uncle 
 of the celebrated Pitt of to-day. Four millions 
 was asked for it, but owing to lack of purchasers, 
 it was sold for two, including the chips which came 
 from the cutting. It weighs 600 grains. Pitt 
 had acquired it from a workman of the Mogul 
 mines. 
 
 Among those employed in the mines, are free 
 men who sometimes spend years there; but when 
 they wish to leave, those in charge take the pre- 
 caution to purge them and give them an injection 
 to make them cast out what they might have swal- 
 lowed and hidden about their bodies. The work-
 
 134 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 man in question had resorted to the last method, 
 but as soon as he had hidden his booty, he made an 
 incision in his thigh, as if he had fallen on a sharp 
 stone. He then called for help; the quantity of 
 blood with which he was covered caused him to be 
 carried out, without the usual precaution being 
 taken. He was clever enough to take the dia- 
 mond and hide it during the little time he was 
 allowed to rest, after his wound had been 
 dressed. He later pretended to be unfit to 
 work, asked for the money due him, so as not 
 to reveal his fortune, and found a way to get to 
 Europe. 
 
 To make what is to follow more clear, let us 
 begin by giving an idea of the different interests 
 which put the actors in motion. 
 
 The Due and the Duchesse du Maine, in despair 
 at the loss of their suit against the princes of the 
 blood, worked quietly to foment trouble; they 
 carried on a correspondence in Spain and sought 
 to make friends in the Parliament whose premier 
 president was entirely devoted to them. Besides, 
 the Parliament, which had flattered itself of hav- 
 ing a part in the administration, took every oppor-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 135 
 
 tunity to make remonstrances, and the Regent 
 often supplied cause. 
 
 Marshal de Villeroi and all the old Court for- 
 got nothing to discredit him with the public. In. 
 this matter the marshal affected proceedings as 
 improper as they were ridiculous, but which im- 
 pressed the people. He kept under lock and key 
 the linen and the bread of the King, delivered with 
 childish ostentation the most ordinary things of 
 the service, and sought to have people notice his 
 precautions as to the prince's wine. Fools ad- 
 mired; the ill-disposed applauded; sensible people 
 laughed with contempt and felt that if there had 
 been danger, the meats, the drinks and thousand 
 other means of crime would have rendered useless 
 the laughable precautions of the tutor. 
 
 He had the title of chief of the council of 
 finances, and he was incapable of understanding 
 anything about these; he was only the more jealous 
 of the Due de Noailles who, although only the 
 president, was nevertheless the master of all the 
 administration. The latter, in turn, saw with sor- 
 row the credit which Law was acquiring with the 
 Regent.
 
 136 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 This competition in the financial department was 
 an obstacle to the desire which Noailles always 
 had to become prime minister. Abbe Dubois, who 
 from far off aimed at the same office, secretly sup- 
 ported Law, from whom he drew much money. 
 Without stopping to discuss the nature of the sys- 
 tem, I shall simply remark that, in view of the 
 Regent's character, Law pleased him by his in- 
 telligence, and specially by his extraordinary ideas. 
 But for the same reason the latter displeased the 
 chancellor who beside was friendly to the Due de 
 Noailles. The Regent, finding them always op- 
 posed to his new projects, one through interest, the 
 other through integrity, was disgusted with them. 
 The chancellor might be reproached for his irreso- 
 lution, but the most annoying thing about him was 
 his virtue. 
 
 However that may be, the remonstrances of the 
 Parliament of the 26th January were so power- 
 ful, and the chancellor so weak, either through a 
 sentiment of equity, or through his usual considera- 
 tion for the magistracy, that the Regent resolved 
 to take away the seals from him and give them to 
 d'Argenson, then lieutenant of police; and the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 137 
 
 chancellor received an order to withdraw to 
 Fresne. The Due de Noailles, on learning of the 
 chancellor's disgrace, did not doubt that his own 
 was impending, and came at once to tender his 
 resignation from the finance department, whose ad- 
 ministration was given to d'Argenson at the same 
 time as the seals. 
 
 The State did not gain in this change which 
 favoured the unfortunate Law system; but Paris 
 lost the best lieutenant of police it had ever had. 
 D'Argenson, with a frightful face which impressed 
 the populace, had a mind, broad, clear and pene- 
 trating; was firm and possessed all sorts of cour- 
 age. He forestalled or quieted more disorders 
 through the fear which he inspired than through 
 punishment. Many families have owed to him 
 the preservation of their honour and of the fortune 
 of their children which would have been irretriev- 
 ably lost with the King, had not this magistrate 
 hushed many a youthful prank. 
 
 Fontenelle has perfectly described the plan of 
 the Paris police and d'Argenson has carried it out 
 to its fullest extent; but as his fortune was always 
 his principal object, he was more fiscal than a
 
 138 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 magistrate should be. Machault succeeded him in 
 the place of lieutenant of police and did it with 
 greater integrity than intelligence. 
 
 The Regent, to console the Due de Noailles for 
 the loss of the finance department, placed him in 
 the regency council and gave to the son, aged five 
 years, the reversion of the offices of the father. 
 
 The ease which the Regent had of granting all 
 to those who importuned him, induced the Due 
 de Lorraine, his brother-in-law, to come to France 
 incognito under the name of Comte de Blamont. 
 As to the Duchesse de Lorraine, she appeared 
 always under her title of petite-fille de France, of 
 which the rank was decided. They were given all 
 possible entertainment during their two months 
 of sojourn, but the Due de Lorraine had a more 
 important object than that of amusement. He de- 
 sired a ward in Champagne and the title of Royal 
 Highness. 
 
 On the first matter, he was trying to revive 
 old pretensions which had been rejected and re- 
 duced to nothing by the last treaties. He based 
 the second on the claim that the Duke of Savoy, 
 likewise brother-in-law to the Regent, had had the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 139 
 
 title of Royal Highness, which his wife, petite-pile 
 de France and Royal Highness herself, had passed 
 to him, which was not exactly the truth. Victor- 
 Amedee, before having obtained the title of King 
 in 1713, had long been married and Duke of 
 Savoy, without having shared his wife's title. To 
 do so, he revived that of King of Cyprus, obtained 
 in Rome the royal hall for his ambassadors, and 
 at Vienna the treatment of those of crowned-heads, 
 and the same consideration successively at all 
 Courts. This secured, gave him the personal title 
 of Royal Highness, but what contributed most to 
 this was the importance of his States, that of his 
 alliance and his influence in the affairs of Italy. 
 
 The Due de Lorraine alleged his pretended 
 title of King of Jerusalem, but his power was of 
 little account, and he had in common with the 
 Duke of Savoy only the chimerical title of King 
 and having married a petite-pile de France. The 
 fondness of Madame for all that was of Germany, 
 decided all. 
 
 Saint-Contest, who, under a plain and coarse 
 exterior, was the shrewdest man, the cleverest 
 courtier, was charged with reporting to the regency
 
 140 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 council the affair relating to the pretensions of the 
 Due de Lorraine in Champagne. As he had long 
 been commissary at Metz, no one was in a better 
 position to know the inconveniences of what was 
 about to be granted, and consequently to disguise 
 them in his report. He made it as it was wanted, 
 and the affair was passed unanimously in Parlia- 
 ment, which registered it without the least objec- 
 tion. The Due de Lorraine won superiority over 
 the princes of the blood who formerly would not 
 have consented to equality. The union of Lor- 
 raine and France has obviated the subsequent 
 troubles which this decision might have caused, but 
 this could not be foreseen at that time. 
 
 The Grand-Duke of Tuscany, son-in-law of Gas- 
 ton, and whose house has given two queens to 
 France, from one of whom the reigning branch is 
 descended, was not long in asking the Royal High- 
 ness rank. The Duke of Holstein-Gottorp made 
 the same request, but both were refused. Shortly 
 after, the Regent granted the honours of Majesty 
 to the King of Denmark, and the title of high 
 powers to the States-general of Holland. 
 
 The entry of the Due de Noailles to the regency
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 141 
 
 council inspired the other chiefs with a desire to 
 enter it, and they obtained the privilege without 
 losing their other places. Finally there were as 
 many as thirty members in it. It is true that this 
 gave them but little share in the government. 
 Abbe Dubois gradually secured all the secrets of 
 foreign affairs, and those of finance were attended 
 to solely by Argenson and Law, which did not 
 prevent each member from drawing the emolu- 
 ments of these idle titles. 
 
 D' Argenson asked for the tabouret for his wife 
 and obtained it. She was the first who secured 
 it on the claim of wife of keeper of the seals. 
 
 Times of usurpation at Court lead necessarily 
 to bickerings, which often take the place of more 
 important affairs. Marshal de Villars, as chief of 
 the council of war, wrote a circular letter to the 
 colonels. No one would have dared during the 
 life of the late King, to complain of the tone of 
 the State secretaries. 
 
 Marquis de Bauffremont took it upon himself to 
 find it improper on the part of a marshal of 
 France, and replied by so insolent a letter that he 
 was sent to the Bastille, and the marshals of
 
 142 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 France asked besides that he apologise to Marshal 
 Villars. The Regent, who saw the women and 
 all the young people take sides with Bauffremont, 
 feared to offend so respectable a body, and con- 
 tented himself with summoning the young man to 
 the presence of the marshal and to say to the 
 latter that Bauffremont had not intended to offend 
 him, so that Bauffremont, not opening his mouth, 
 the Regent alone made apologies. 
 
 Poirier, who had succeeded Fagon in his place 
 of first physician, the only one to be lost on the 
 death of Kings, having died, the Regent declared 
 that he did not wish to meddle with the selection 
 of a successor, but that he excluded Chirac because 
 he was his own physician, and Boudin for the in- 
 solent statements he had made against him, Due 
 d'Orleans, on the death of the Due de Bourgogne 
 and on that of the other princes. The place 
 was given to Dodart, a man of intelligence, merit 
 and virtue, who has left two sons worthy of him. 
 One is to-day commissary at Bourges, the other 
 serves with distinction in the carabineers. 
 
 On Holy-Thursday, the grand almoner being 
 absent, Cardinal de Polignac, at mass, claimed that
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 143 
 
 it was his duty to hold the gospels for the King to 
 kiss in preference to the first almoner. The edi- 
 fying dispute prevented the King from kissing the 
 gospel and the matter was later decided in favour 
 of the first almoner. 
 
 Abbe de Saint-Pierre, first almoner to Madame, 
 having published his book " Polysynodie," in which 
 he boasted of the advantages of the plurality of 
 councils, the enemies of the regency tried to see in 
 the work a satire on the government of Louis XIV, 
 and attempted to mortify the Regent in an officer 
 of his household. But being unable to do any- 
 thing legal against Abbe de Saint-Pierre, they 
 plotted in the Academic Franchise of which he 
 was a member and had him excluded. He did not 
 continue less the friend of scholarly academicians 
 who maintained that his place would not be filled 
 until his death. 
 
 A very important affair was at that time 
 promptly settled because it was well handled. 
 There were three archbishops, twelve bishops and 
 a number of abbes to whom the pope refused bulls 
 if they did not submit to certain conditions contrary 
 to our liberties. A few of the prelates named
 
 144 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 did not object too much, but others, more French, 
 complained against this servitude. The Regent 
 forbade Cardinal de la Tremouille, our ambassa- 
 dor at Rome, to receive any of these bulls unless 
 all were given, and at the same time named a com- 
 mission taken from the regency council to resolve 
 on the means of doing without the pope, in case of 
 stubbornness on his part. Hennequin, Petitpied 
 and Legros, doctors of the Sdrbonne, supplied to 
 the commissaries some instructive memorials on the 
 matter, but the commission had no occasion to 
 work. Hardly had Rome heard of the affair 
 when it was filled with consternation. The pope 
 sent a messenger immediately, who brought all the 
 bulls. Blank ones would have been sent had they 
 been asked for. 
 
 The negotiations regarding the differences be- 
 tween the Emperor and Spain continued that year 
 with the greatest animation. The Emperor did 
 not wish to give up any of his pretensions on sev- 
 eral States of the Spanish succession. Alberoni, 
 flattering himself to recover all that had belonged 
 to the Spanish branch of the House of Austria, re- 
 ferred to the Emperor in all his manifestos, only
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 145 
 
 as archduke. Alberoni put into his measures a 
 haughtiness which was not of a common soul and 
 which led each one of the powers to believe that 
 that minister might be sure of all the others. 
 
 Alberoni wanted as preliminaries: first, that 
 the Emperor make an absolute renunciation of all 
 the States of which Philip V was actually pos- 
 sessor; second, that the houses of Medicis and of 
 Farnese having died out, the children of the 
 Queen, heiress of these two houses, should suc- 
 ceed to them. He expected finally to drive out 
 all the Germans from Italy and was making the 
 greatest preparations for war. 
 
 The Duchesse de Saint-Pierre, who was ap- 
 pointed to the Queen of Spain by Alberoni, told 
 me that he had assured her that he only made war 
 to obey Philip V; but he certainly deceives: Philip 
 was not in a condition to have a will of his own. 
 Constantly frightened by the image of death, he 
 confessed every moment, and Father d'Aubenton, 
 always near the prince's bed, left him only when 
 he was asleep. Besides, Alberoni displayed the 
 most absolute authority and declared to the State
 
 146 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 secretaries that if they deviated from his orders, 
 they would pay for it with their heads. 
 
 Conditions have so changed, the state of 
 Europe is so different to-day, that the details of 
 the negotiations of those times would now interest 
 no one; but the intrigues, the artifices of ministers, 
 the trickery of Courts being of all places and times, 
 one can, by describing what has occurred, give an. 
 idea of what takes place daily. 
 
 Alberoni having had himself appointed Arch- 
 bishop of Seville, the pope dared not give him any 
 bulls, in the fear of irritating the Emperor more 
 and more; and Alberoni, unable to obtain them, 
 took possession and enjoyed at the same time, the 
 revenues of the churches of Seville and of Malaga. 
 
 The pontiff threatened him with ecclesiastical 
 censures. Alberoni affecting a hypocritical sensi- 
 tiveness at these threats, replied that he thought 
 the Holy-Father too prudent to undertake against 
 the absolute minister of a great monarchy what he 
 dared not do against Cardinal de Noailles, head 
 of a handful of heretics. 
 
 However, he had the fleet leave Spain, and it
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 147 
 
 arrived in Sicily. The Marquis de Lede, who 
 commanded it, took possession of the chateau of 
 Palermo; but as the outcome of the operations did 
 not respond to Alberoni's impetuosity, and as Lede 
 excused himself on the necessity of sparing the 
 soldier, Alberoni humanely wrote to him that 
 soldiers are made to die when required. 
 
 The lack of deference of this minister for the 
 mediation of the different powers caused the con- 
 clusion of the treaty of the quadruple alliance be- 
 tween France, the Emperor, England and Holland. 
 Alberoni, furious against the Regent, sought by 
 all possible means to excite trouble in France and 
 to profit by the dissatisfaction of the Parliament. 
 
 The excitement there was very great, and an 
 edict of the month of May, on the currency, very 
 detrimental to the public, increased it still more. 
 The Parliament having made remonstrances with- 
 out success, forbade by a decree the execution of 
 the edict. The regency council broke the Parlia- 
 ment's decree as an attack on royal authority, but 
 that did not win it more respect. The Parliament 
 sent for the mayor, the six trade bodies and the 
 principal bankers to have them render an account
 
 ;i48 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 of the state of the city's revenues and of the in- 
 conveniences of the edict on the currency, and 
 wanted to go into all the departments of the ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 The public, who think they see protectors in 
 magistrates, applauded their measures; excitement 
 was gaining on all minds, and a circumstance, more 
 important than it seems, contributed to it. The 
 memoirs of Cardinal de Retz had just appeared. 
 Everyone read them with avidity; the majority, 
 possessed by a spirit of liberty, flattered themselves 
 with seeing a renewal of the Fronde and to play 
 a part in it. The Parliament, whose proceedings 
 are not always so regular as its complaints are 
 just, sought to dictate to the Regent. 
 
 The ancient Court of Inquiry being revived, 
 asked as during the ministry of Louis XIV, the an- 
 nexation of the other superior courts. The latter 
 excused themselves and contented themselves with 
 making remonstrances. The Parliament re- 
 doubled its own and omitted nothing to inflame 
 the public mind; but the nation's spirit was no 
 longer the same. An absolute reign of seventy- 
 two years had bent two or three generations to
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 149 
 
 obedience and fear. The most ruinous edicts only 
 produced murmurs and songs. 
 
 Yet the Regent was not at ease; the French 
 people is one that a single instant can either re- 
 generate or corrupt, and the dissolute life of the 
 Regent injured him more than he imagined. His 
 affectation of impiety excited the contempt of the 
 wise, the indignation of religious men, and ac- 
 credited the imputation of the crimes of which he 
 was believed capable. 
 
 The profusion of favours to courtiers embittered 
 the misery of the people and did not win for him 
 the gratitude of anyone; his bounties were at- 
 tributed only to weakness and to fear when they 
 were seen bestowed equally on friends and foes. 
 The majority of his intimates, such as d'Effiat, 
 Canillac, Bezons, Huxelles, had long been friendly 
 with the Due du Maine. 
 
 A habit of respect for the wishes of the late 
 King and the disorder of affairs made people re- 
 gret that the provisions of the will had not been 
 carried out. Fear was entertained for the life 
 of the young King; it would have been considered 
 safer in the hands of a prince not so nearly allied
 
 150 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 to the crown as was the Regent, and his impru- 
 dences authorised the slanders fomented by the 
 partisans of the old Court. The public applauded 
 the undertakings of the Parliament, which they 
 considered as just and necessary in the circum- 
 stances in which the State found itself. 
 
 Premier President de Mesmes strove only to 
 maintain his position between his assembly and the 
 Regent from whom he received prodigious sums 
 of money which he spent with a magnificence 
 which always produces consideration. The 
 Regent knew him well, but he counted upon con- 
 trolling him by dint of money, and that it would 
 only be a question of price. 
 
 He supposed also that that magistrate could 
 also hold back or push his assembly forward, in 
 which matter he was mistaken. Mathieu Mole, 
 with the best intentions known and the respect due 
 to his virtue, was unable to moderate the mass 
 of the Parliament during the Fronde. There- 
 fore it happened that de Mesmes was deserted by 
 the commissions every time he undertook to rule 
 them. He then took advantage of this to draw 
 new sums from the Regent, and only brought back
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 151 
 
 the fugitives by participating in tKeir excesses. 
 
 The Regent must have known that one is never 
 sure of those who sell themselves, and that the 
 premier president had been for all time devoted 
 to the Due du Maine by both taste and interest. 
 Indeed, in the desire which the Parliament showed 
 to share the royal authority, it must have preferred 
 to the Regent the Due du Maine who, not having 
 the same rights of birth, would be at the head of 
 the government only a member or an instrument 
 of the body which had elevated him. What the 
 Regent had already lost of his authority caused 
 his enemies to believe that he could be totally 
 stripped of it; and those who should have been 
 attached to him made arrangements accordingly,, 
 well determined to follow fortune. 
 
 The dissatisfaction of the capital was gaining in 
 the provinces. The Parliament of Rennes had 
 openly declared itself in favour of that of Paris. 
 The Etats of Brittany which were being held then, 
 were very stormy, and the estrangement of minds 
 had tended that way since the preceding year. 
 
 Marshal de Montesquiou, governor in Brit- 
 tany, in holding the Etats at Dinan, began rather
 
 152 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 badly with the nobility. Four or five hundred 
 noblemen went to meet him at some distance from 
 the city. They offered themselves as a cortege, 
 not doubting but that he would mount his horse 
 and ride into the city at their head. He contented 
 himself with saluting them from his chaise and 
 continued on his way without offering the slightest 
 excuse. They were shocked, and with reason, at 
 this first reception. The following day he did as 
 badly. The committee of the three orders having 
 gone on foot to invite him to accompany them 
 to the opening of the Etats, instead of walking at 
 their head, he entered his sedan-chair, leaving the 
 committee to follow him as they had come. From 
 that moment both sides resorted to disagreeable 
 behaviour. 
 
 The day after the opening of the Etats, the re- 
 quest of the free gift is made by the commissary in 
 presence of the commander and of the other King's 
 commissaries; after which they withdraw to allow 
 the Etats to deliberate on the subject. Formerly, 
 before answering the request, the Etats examined 
 the state of their funds and sometimes contested 
 lengthily on the apportionment of the sum. It
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 153 
 
 happened, under governorship of the Due de 
 Chaulnes and in the prosperous days of France, 
 that the Etats, carried away by their zeal, granted 
 the free gift by acclamation and without delibera- 
 tion. This example was imitated in the succeed- 
 ing Etats and became a usage which continued 
 until 1717. Then the Etats, exhausted by the 
 efforts they had made during the war and already 
 disaffected by Marshal de Montesquieu, wished, 
 before granting anything, to examine the state of 
 their affairs. The marshal was offended at this, 
 and for a few days strove to bring the Etats to 
 acclamation and, being unsuccessful in his efforts, 
 he broke up the Assembly. 
 
 Several noblemen of the Etats and Parliament 
 were exiled, which did not pacify the minds of the 
 others. 
 
 However the Etats were re-assembled in 1718, 
 and a middle course was taken which was that the 
 Etats were to deliberate on the free gift during the 
 sitting in which it was called, and that nothing else 
 could be considered until it was granted. This 
 procedure exists to this day. 
 
 If the Etats of 1718 were not broken up, they
 
 154 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 were hardly more tranquil; the attorney-general 
 syndic was exiled and minds were more estranged 
 than ever. We shall see the outcome of this. 
 
 The Parliament of Paris, proud of its success, 
 excited by the public cry, and calculating its efforts 
 on the weakness of the Regent, thought that noth- 
 ing could hinder it, and rendered the celebrated 
 edict of the I2th of August, by which it stopped 
 all operations of the Bank and forbade all fqr- 
 eigners, even naturalised, to meddle in the adminis- 
 tration of the royal money, etc. 
 
 Not content with having rendered this edict, 
 the Parliament sent the King's people to ask of 
 the Regent an account of the bills which had 
 passed at the Chamber of Justice, at the Com- 
 pagnie d'Occident or at the Mint. The Parlia- 
 ment put off for a few days the publication of its 
 decree because it wished secretly to investigate 
 Law's suit. Commissaries, appointed by the 
 judge, had already heard the witnesses, and no less 
 was proposed than to arrest the culprit, end his 
 trial within two hours, hang him in the courtyard 
 of the palace, with the gates closed, and to open 
 them then to exhibit the corpse to the public.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 155 
 
 The decree and the project of the Parliament 
 were revealed to the Regent. It is claimed that 
 this was done by President Dadun who, since, has 
 been controller-general. However that may be, 
 the Regent was informed of it, and when the 
 King's people came, on August 22, to submit to 
 him the proposition with which they were charged 
 with regard to the State bills, he contented himself 
 with listening to them and without replying, re- 
 entered his closet. This cold and contemptuous 
 silence disconcerted them more than a sharp 
 reply. 
 
 On the report of the matter made to the Par- 
 liament, some suspected that the Regent contem- 
 plated a vigorous course, such as having the leaders 
 of the uprising seized, or the holding of a bed 
 of justice. Others maintained that the prince 
 would dare do neither one thing nor the other in 
 the midst of a discontented people. 
 
 The Regent, incensed at the undertakings of 
 the Parliament, had as yet no fixed project. Sev- 
 eral of those who surrounded him, friends of the 
 premier president, kept the Regent in fear of the 
 magistracy, and Marshal de Villeroi sought only
 
 156 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY, 
 
 to render him odious in the eyes of the public. 
 The Due de Noailles, deprived of the finances by 
 the keeper of the seals and by Law, desired the 
 ruin of both. On the other hand, the Due de 
 Saint-Simon, full of furious contempt for the long 
 robe, saw only with anger the Regent's considera- 
 tion for the Parliament, and spoke of it as of an 
 assembly of the bourgeois which the least act of 
 authority could cause to return to their duty. The 
 Regent would have very much liked to see it in 
 the same light, but the advices of Saint-Simon, em- 
 bittered against the Parliament on account of the 
 prerogatives of the dukes, were suspicious to him. 
 The indecision of the Regent threw Law into 
 the most cruel anguish. He feared to be hanged 
 while the means of saving him from this fate were 
 so slowly sought, and, not feeling safe at the Bank, 
 he took refuge in the Palais-Royal. Abbe Du- 
 bois, even more deserving of hanging than Law, 
 felt that he might become the second victim of 
 the public, that all his existence depended solely 
 on his master's power, and that, if it were once 
 destroyed, the dignities of which the minister was
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 157 
 
 invested, far from saving him, would be made his 
 foremost crime. 
 
 The new keeper of the seals was well aware how 
 offended was the Parliament at seeing itself sub- 
 ordinated to him whom it had so long treated as 
 a subaltern. D'Argenson, while lieutenant of 
 police, had on several occasions been summoned to 
 the bar of the court, and there, standing and bare- 
 headed, he had received reprimands with more 
 respect than timidity and with an interior contempt 
 which he was to-day in a position to show. He 
 was the least proud of men, but the most firm, and 
 full of expedients in affairs. The one which 
 naturally presented itself was to destroy in a bed 
 of justice all that the Parliament had done. 
 
 The keeper of the seals, in order to maintain 
 the King's authority, and Abbe Dubois, for less 
 noble motives, but not less powerful, besieging the 
 Regent, made him ashamed of his weakness. The 
 Due de Saint-Simon seconded them earnestly, and 
 M. le Due de Bourbon, joining them through per- 
 sonal interest, the bed of justice was resolved upon. 
 
 Since M. le Due Bourbon was of age, it was
 
 158 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 with great impatience that he saw the superintend- 
 ence of the King's education in the hands of the 
 Due du Maine, claiming that that place only 
 should belong to the first prince of the blood of 
 age, and that since the decree of 1717, the Due 
 du Maine had only the honours of prince, and was 
 no longer prince of the blood. 
 
 The Regent, not daring to refuse him personally, 
 charged Saint-Simon to dissuade him from a pre- 
 tension which only would multiply the malcontents. 
 Vainly did Saint-Simon picture to M. le Due 
 the dangers of a civil war, that the change of 
 superintendent did not require a bed of justice, 
 that the Regent promised, on his honour, and even 
 in writing, to satisfy M. le due, when the affairs of 
 State should be settled: the latter replied that he 
 had no more faith in the writing than he did in 
 the word of the Regent; that he did not wish to 
 give the Due du Maine the opportunity to estab- 
 lish himself in the King's mind, a thing which 
 would infallibly happen if he remained with him 
 until his majority, and that it was the part of the 
 Regent to see whether he preferred a legitimated 
 prince to a prince of the blood whose constant
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 159 
 
 friendship or hatred would be the price of the ac- 
 ceptation or the refusal of his request. 
 
 The most virtuous people of the Court never 
 forget their private interests. The Due de Saint- 
 Simon seeing the obstinacy of M. le due, wished 
 to turn it to his own account. " Monsieur," said 
 he to him, " since no consideration can turn you 
 from your project, I am going to give you some 
 facilities to carry it out. Take away from the 
 legitimated all the outside appearance of princes of 
 the blood, by having them reduced to the rank of 
 their peerage; then the superintendence of educa- 
 tion falls of itself. Marshal de Villeroi can no 
 longer be subordinated to his equal even in the 
 peerage. You will be able, in your request, to 
 make use of this consideration, with a word of 
 praise for Marshal de Villeroi, whose vanity will 
 be flattered by it. In that way you gain a partisan 
 in the person of one of the chiefs of the cabal, you 
 strengthen yourself with the dukes and you attach 
 them all to yourself. Not one of them but will 
 look upon you as the author of the intermediate 
 rank left to the legitimated. M. le Regent, either 
 to excuse himself towards the peers, or to cast
 
 160 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 on you their resentment, has not permitted them 
 to ignore that you alone were opposed to the re- 
 duction of the legitimated to the rank of their 
 peerage, when their right of succession to the 
 throne was taken from them. You are not in- 
 different to having so considerable a body as a 
 friend or an enemy. You have just told me that 
 unalterable resentment or an inviolate attachment 
 to M. le Regent would be the price of the refusal 
 or granting of your request : be assured that all the 
 peers through me make the same protestation with 
 regard to you, on the subject of the reduction of 
 the legitimated." 
 
 M. le due at once agreed to the proposition of 
 the Due de Saint-Simon. " I consent," he added, 
 " to the reduction of the legitimated, but you have 
 shown them to me so formidable, through their 
 establishments and the accumulation of their 
 dignities, that they must be stripped totally and 
 nothing left to them but what shall be necessary to 
 maintain their rank of peer. It is with regret that 
 I sacrifice the Comte de Toulouse, but the danger 
 of allowing the Due du Maine to continue as h 
 is, renders the sacrifice necessary. Besides, I want
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 161 
 
 for my brother, the Comte de Charolais, a gov- 
 ernorship befitting his birth, and there is none 
 vacant; the spoils of the Due du Maine will pro- 
 cure one for him." 
 
 " You are going a little too far, monsieur," re- 
 plied Saint-Simon; " it is unjust to strip any one, 
 without his having been declared a criminal. If 
 such violence should be resorted to, no one in this 
 kingdom could consider himself safe. All those 
 who enjoy the least important places would look 
 upon the cause of the legitimated as their own; 
 I myself would join it and the uprising would be- 
 come general. At the death of the King, the 
 legitimated could have been charged with the 
 crime of lese-majeste against the crown, for hav- 
 ing had themselves declared able to succeed to it. 
 That in allowing them their lives, liberty and 
 property, they should have been granted the sole 
 rank of duke and peer, out of respect for the blood 
 of their father, and that all else should have been 
 taken from them, all was just then. But to-day 
 that their establishments have been confirmed, you 
 can attack them only in the vice of their birth and 
 reduce them to the rank of their peerage. M. le
 
 162 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Comte de Charolais will not lack establishments, 
 and you will be able to procure them for him, with- 
 out having recourse to injustice and to violence. 
 With regard to the Comte de Toulouse, there is 
 a very simple way of distinguishing him from his 
 brother; it is to have them both reduced by an 
 edict, and immediately to re-establish, by a dec- 
 laration, the Comte de Toulouse to the rank which 
 he enjoys to-day, without the honours ever passing 
 to his posterity. In this manner, you do justice to 
 merit, and you disunite the two brothers. What- 
 ever deference the Comte de Toulouse may have 
 for his elder, he is too wise to ally himself to the 
 resentment of his brother and to the fury of the 
 Duchesse du Maine. And, if the Comte de Tou- 
 louse allowed himself to be lured to the extent of 
 forgetting his duty, he would be shorn of all with 
 the approbation of the public." 
 
 M. le due, delighted at being able to reconcile 
 his hatred against the Due du Maine with his 
 friendship for the Comte de Toulouse, consented 
 to all that Saint-Simon proposed, and the latter 
 taking advantage of M. le due's dispositions: 
 " It is not sufficient," said he to him, " to consent;
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 163 
 
 you must make it your own personal affair with the 
 Regent. It is you who have lost the dukes and 
 peers, it is for you to recover them and cause 
 gratitude to follow resentment. I demand your 
 word on the matter because I know that one can 
 depend on it." M. le due gave it and kept it. 
 Saint-Simon came to render to the Regent an ac- 
 count of his conference with M. le due; but he 
 did not at first declare to him the engagement 
 that that prince had taken in favour of the peers, 
 and contented himself with reminding him how 
 often he had made him hope the re-establishment 
 of the peers. The Regent, wishing to make use 
 of subterfuge, promised much more than he 
 thought, transferred the whole matter to M. le 
 due and said that if he consented to it, he, the 
 Regent, would be delighted. The Due de Saint- 
 Simon allowed him to paraphrase his good will for 
 the peers, and when he saw him well involved, he 
 declared to him that M. le due would be the 
 more inclined to it that he wished to unload him- 
 self of the hatred of the peers of which he had 
 been made the object. The Regent suddenly be- 
 came sombre and dreamy. Saint-Simon did not
 
 164 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 give him time to recover, but urged him earnestly, 
 and finally compelled him to say, with the air of 
 a man who is just coming to, that he concurred 
 with pleasure to all that M. le due might wish 
 in favour of the peers. Saint-Simon thereupon 
 left him, counting much less on him, however, than 
 on M. le due. In fact, the latter charged Millain, 
 for a long time secretary to Chancellor de Pont- 
 chartrain, a very intelligent man, and who, since 
 his master's retirement, had attached himself to 
 the house of Conde, to draw up the project of the 
 reduction of the legitimated. 
 
 All that was needed now was to take the neces- 
 sary measures for the bed of justice of which the 
 Parliament was not to be apprised before the morn- 
 ing of the very day. The only ones in the secret 
 were the keeper of the seals, the Dues de Saint- 
 Simon and de la Force, Law, Fagon, and Abbe 
 Dubois. The last, whose only support was the 
 Regent, desired to turn the affair into a negotia- 
 tion, without playing the mediator, and proposed 
 to put off until Saint-Martin's Day the annulment 
 of the decrees of the Parliament. It was to be 
 feared that this advice, so much in accord with the
 
 LOUIS XV AS A CHILD
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 165 
 
 laxity of the Regent, might win, but the keeper 
 of the seals, always firm, Saint-Simon more earnest 
 than ever, and la Force, allied themselves against 
 the abbe, and caused the bed of justice to be de- 
 cided for Friday the 26th, the morrow of Saint- 
 Louis day. 
 
 All obstacles were not brushed away. The 
 thought came that the Due du Maine and Marshal 
 de Villeroi, at the first proposition of a bed of 
 justice, would allege the fear of exposing the 
 King's health to the heat, the fatigue, and the bad 
 air of the city, where there then prevailed a good 
 deal of smallpox; that they would draw up a 
 document of their remonstrances and with it would 
 frighten a child of eight years who would refuse 
 to go to Parliament. These reflections were be- 
 ginning to discourage the committee, when Saint- 
 Simon proposed to hold the bed of justice at the 
 Tuileries. This expedient reanimated all the 
 actors. The King's health was no longer a pre- 
 text. Although master everywhere, he would 
 seem even more so in his palace; the imagination 
 of the magistrates would be more struck by it. 
 They would feel more strange and less assured
 
 166 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 there than in the accustomed seats. Som'e diffi- 
 culties still remained. It was necessary, before the 
 bed of justice, to make a report to the regency 
 council of the decrees, edicts and declarations 
 which were to be recorded. The legitimated were 
 of this council, the majority was devoted to them, 
 resolutions so important required the approval of 
 at least the majority and this could not be counted 
 upon. M. le due claimed that the only thing to 
 be reported to the council was the decree of annul- 
 ment and that nothing was to be said of the 
 others, but there was not the less risk on that ac- 
 count: all the members of the council, who sat at 
 the bed of justice, already opposed to the affair, 
 would be offended at the secrecy. The Due du 
 Maine and his partisans would not fail to declare 
 that nothing had been communicated to the council, 
 and would justify what the Parliament was cease- 
 lessly spreading among the public, that all was 
 done by the sole will of the Regent, in opposition 
 to the authentic promise made to conform himself 
 to the majority of votes, a promise which had 
 served as a foundation of the regency. 
 
 Marshal de Villeroi, it was said, will call to wit-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 167 
 
 ness the ghost of the old King, will shed tears, will 
 talk irrationally, but in pathetic tones more con- 
 tagious than reasons. The daring Villars, the 
 only French general, decorated with victories, 
 author or instrument of the salvation of France at 
 Denain, will arise with a military eloquence quite 
 natural to him, and which persuades and carries 
 away. The Parliament seeing itself supported, 
 will recover its spirits. The presence of an eight- 
 year old King, far from overawing them may per- 
 haps even turn to their advantage. If this child, 
 precious to the State, who will have come to such 
 an assembly as to a spectacle, chances to be 
 frightened at so novel a tumult, if he happens to 
 let himself be moved by the tears of his old tutor, 
 if he himself sheds some, to what account may they 
 not be turned? The Regent will be represented 
 as a tyrant who takes advantage of the name and 
 authority of a child-King. 
 
 These considerations impressed the Regent, who 
 was very near drawing back. M. le due less en- 
 lightened, but with an insurmountable obstinacy, 
 strengthened him in his first decision, declaring 
 that, were a civil war to be the outcome, he pre-
 
 168 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 ferred it much more during a minority than under 
 a King of age. 
 
 It was finally decided that the material for the 
 bed of justice would be collected secretly; that it 
 would be put together only on the very day at the 
 Tuileries, in two hours' time; that the Parliament, 
 the peers and the officers of the crown would only 
 be notified at six o'clock in the morning; that the 
 council would meet at eight, that an account would 
 be rendered of the decree of annulment only; and 
 that the other, all ready and sealed, would only be 
 produced at the bed of justice. 
 
 The fear of the Regent was much allayed by 
 that shown by the Parliament, the Due du Maine 
 and Marshal de Villerol. One side of the scale 
 can not go down without the other rising. The 
 Regent became firm as he noticed his adversaries 
 weaken. The Due du Maine, having asked him 
 through the Comte de Toulouse if there was any 
 foundation in the rumour spread that he, Due du 
 Maine, was to be arrested, showed by that that he 
 had something else to reproach himself for beside 
 an idle dissatisfaction, and the Regent's reply was 
 not the kind to make him feel at ease. Mar-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 169 
 
 shal de Villeroi, with an embarrassed expression, 
 asking enlightenment on the same subject, the Re- 
 gent told him that he might be reassured and per- 
 suaded him but little; therefore he did not wish to 
 dissipate all his fears. The marshal spoke of it to 
 Abbe Dubois, much astonished to see the arrogance 
 of the haughty lord vanish before him. The Par- 
 liament's conduct was even more ridiculous. Law, 
 whom it wished to hang three days before, left his 
 shelter in the Palais-Royal, boldly returned to his 
 house, and there received the advances of Parlia- 
 ment. The Due d'Aumont, as eager for money as 
 his friend the premier president, and seeking to 
 please Law, waited on him, told him that there was 
 but a misunderstanding on the part of Parliament, 
 and that he, Due d'Aumont, wished to smooth 
 over the entire matter. He treated a convulsion 
 in the State as a quarrel of classes and boasted 
 specially of being a disinterested mediator. Law, 
 knowing how matters stood regarding the disin- 
 terestedness of our courtiers, agreed to a meeting 
 with this one for the 2yth, because all was to be 
 ended on the 26th. 
 
 The Regent saw clearly that the cabal was dis-
 
 170 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 concerted. He had a mind to strike at the premier 
 president, but he was made to see that it was bet- 
 ter to make the Assembly suspicious by pretending 
 that he was in league with the Court. 
 
 Thursday the 25th was employed in taking the 
 necessary measures. It was agreed : first, that the 
 bed of justice would be held with open doors, be- 
 cause affairs would then be discussed as at grand 
 audiences, and that the keeper of the seals, taking 
 the votes quietly, would report them as he wished ; 
 second, that M. le due, when the question of super- 
 intendence should come up, would leave the hall as 
 an interested party, which would oblige the legiti- 
 mated to leave also. 
 
 To ward off any trouble, all contingencies had 
 been provided for. If the Parliament refused to 
 come, the interdiction was ready, with the attribu- 
 tion of the causes to the grand council. If a part 
 came, and another did not come, those who stayed 
 away were to be suspended. If the Parliament, 
 having come, refused to concur, to proceed. If, 
 not content with not concurring, it left the hall, 
 hold the bed of justice anyway, and, eight days 
 after, hold another at the grand council, to record
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 171 
 
 all. If the legitimated or anyone of their party 
 should create any disturbance, arrest them at the 
 meeting or on leaving, according to the signals to 
 be agreed upon with the officers of the gardes du 
 corps. 
 
 The orders were given to the commanders of the 
 troops of the Maison du Roi only on the 26th, at 
 four o'clock in the morning. The Due du Maine, 
 who was returning from one of those receptions 
 which were often given to his wife, or which she 
 gave herself, was about to get into bed when Con- 
 tades was announced to him. The due, fearing 
 that it might be to arrest him, asked if Contades 
 was alone and was reassured when he heard that 
 it was to assemble the Swiss guards. 
 
 At five o'clock, the troops took up their posi- 
 tions, and at six the Parliament and all those who 
 were to be at the bed of justice, already awakened 
 by the noise of the drums, received the lettres-de- 
 cachet and the invitations. At eight o'clock, the 
 regency council was already assembled at the Tui- 
 leries. The keeper of the seals was having ar- 
 ranged in a private room all the paraphernalia of 
 the seal and, as cold as if it were only a question of
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 a police audience, breakfasted calmly to prepare 
 himself for the long session which would delay his 
 dinner. 
 
 All had betaken themselves to the council cham- 
 ber; the Regent reached there with a laughing and 
 confident face. All did not seem so much at their 
 ease. The Due du Maine, pale and embarrassed, 
 foresaw that other questions would come up be- 
 sides the annulment of decrees. Several met, dis- 
 cussed, spoke in whispers, sought to guess what was 
 about to take place. 
 
 The Due du Maine and the Comte de Toulouse 
 had come in the peer's cloaks, although they had 
 received no invitations. These had not been sent 
 them, on the pretext that since the decree of 1717, 
 which revoked that of 1714, they no longer wished 
 to attend Parliament. The Regent had flattered 
 himself on that account that they would dispense 
 with the bed of justice, which would have relieved 
 him greatly. That is why, addressing the Comte 
 de Toulouse, he said to him in friendly tones: 
 " I am surprised to see you in your cloak; I did not 
 have you notified, knowing that you did not care to 
 attend the Parliament."
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 173 
 
 " That is true," replied the Comte de Toulouse, 
 " but when it is for the good of the State, I put 
 aside all other considerations." 
 
 The Regent, touched by this reply, took him 
 aside, confided all to him ; and the Comte de Tou- 
 louse, having rejoined his brother, told him enough 
 so that they decided to withdraw. 
 
 The Regent, seeing them go out, judged that 
 there was nothing to hinder the making of a report 
 of all the things which it had been intended to con- 
 ceal. There were twenty at the meeting. 
 
 As soon as all had taken their seats, the Regent, 
 with an air of authority, ordered the keeper of the 
 seals to read his report. The Regent announced 
 each document by a short address which the keeper 
 of the seals paraphrased according to the impor- 
 tance of the matter. 
 
 The Regent, in this meeting, gave his opinion 
 first, in opposition to the usual rule, and always 
 took the votes beginning with the head of the 
 council, so that the previous speakers, of whom he 
 was sure, would make the others anticipate the de- 
 cision to which they should come. 
 
 When the vote was taken on the decree of annul-
 
 174 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 ment, those who were constrained by the obstacles 
 which were put in the way of the Parliament con- 
 tented themselves with nodding their heads, to 
 show their acquiescence to the broached opinion. 
 Marshal de Villeroi simply said in a smothered 
 voice, with regard to the Parliament: " But will 
 it come? " 
 
 " I have no doubt of it," said the Regent drily, 
 and raising his voice: "it has sent me word by 
 des Granges that it would obey." 
 
 The Regent announced the edict of the reduc- 
 tion of the legitimated to their rank in the peerage 
 by a speech in favor of the peers even stronger 
 than the edict itself. The Due de Saint-Simon 
 said, that being an interested party, he could not 
 be judge, and that, as sole opinion, he could only 
 offer thanks for the justice which His Royal High- 
 ness rendered to the peers. The Regent, grasping 
 this idea, did not ask the opinion of the other 
 peers, and those who followed them voted only 
 with a nod. However, the Due de Saint-Simon, to 
 obviate what Marshals-dukes de Villeroi and de 
 Villars might object if they should speak, had
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 175 
 
 placed on the table the request which the peers had 
 presented the year before against the legitimated, 
 and at the bottom of which the two marshals could 
 read their names in large characters. M. le due 
 then began to speak, and addressing the Regent, 
 said that, since justice was being done to the peers, 
 he also claimed the rights of his birth ; that M. du 
 Maine, being no longer prince of the blood, he 
 could not retain the superintendence; that a man 
 of the merit of M. le Marechal de Villeroi should 
 not be preceded by his junior in the peerage; that 
 he, M. le due, to-day of age, asked that place, 
 which could not be refused to his rank, nor to his 
 attachment for the King, and that he would omit 
 nothing to profit by M. de Villeroi's lessons and 
 deserve his friendship. 
 
 The Regent was the first to vote; he said that 
 the request was just, and casting his eyes over all, 
 ordered rather than took the opinions. Marshal 
 de Villeroi, making an effort to speak, said with a 
 sigh : " All the dispositions of the late King are 
 overthrown! I can not see it without sorrow: 
 M. du Maine is very unfortunate! "
 
 176 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 " Monsieur," replied the Regent in quite sharp 
 tones, " M. du Maine is my brother-in-law; but I 
 prefer an open to a concealed enemy." 
 
 These few words, and some looks cast on sev- 
 eral, sent terror into the minds of those who had 
 something of which to reproach themselves. 
 
 At this moment the keeper of the seals was 
 called to the door. He went out, returned imme- 
 diately and whispered to the Regent. The latter, 
 whose firmness increased with the council's con- 
 sternation, said that he was informed that the 
 premier-president had proposed not to go to the 
 Tuileries, where no liberty would be had, and that 
 the question was being deliberated upon. The 
 Regent asked the keeper of the seals what should 
 be done if the Parliament formally disobeyed. 
 The keeper of the seals replied that there was 
 nothing else to do other than to suspend it, and 
 made it clear that all events were anticipated and 
 the remedies ready. 
 
 As soon as the Parliament was seen to enter the 
 Tuileries courtyard, after having crossed the city 
 on foot, the Regent forbade anyone from leaving 
 before the magistrates had taken their places, so
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 177 
 
 that they could not be informed of what the council 
 had decided. A committee went at once to the 
 King, and having invited him, he was conducted to 
 the throne. 
 
 The Regent, wishing to forestall what the Mar- 
 shal de Villeroi might be tempted to say at the bed 
 of justice, and which he had had so much trouble 
 to hold back at the council meeting, sent someone 
 to assure him of his esteem, his confidence, had 
 enough told him to dissipate his fear which some- 
 times makes people bold, and not enough to inspire 
 him with courage. Lamoignon de Blancmesnil, 
 premier counsel general, to-day chancellor, was also 
 enjoined to be prudent : and he was told in a whis- 
 per that his entire fortune depended on the slight- 
 est ambiguity in his decision. 
 
 So much precaution was superfluous. Conster- 
 nation had taken possession of all, from the Due 
 du Maine to the lowest usher of the Parliament. 
 Several counsellors had deserted during the march. 
 President de Blamont, who had so often played 
 the tribune in the meetings of the Parliament, 
 fainted on the stairs of the Tuileries; he was car- 
 ried into the chapel, where the wine from the cruets
 
 a;8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 was used to help him recover consciousness. But, 
 not being in a condition to appear at the session, he 
 had himself taken home. 
 
 I shall not linger over the formalities of a bed 
 of justice ; they can be found everywhere. I shall 
 merely remark that the keeper of the seals, in the 
 midst of a Parliament by which he was detested, 
 was as bold in his steps, in his speeches and his 
 tone of voice as if he had only seen about him so 
 many police officers. 
 
 After the reading of the decree of annulment, 
 the premier president simply asked that it be com- 
 municated to the Parliament, in view of the im- 
 portance of the matter, to deliberate on it. 
 Whereupon the keeper of the seals, having taken 
 the King's order as a matter of form, said: 
 " The King wishes to be obeyed, and obeyed at 
 once." Everything else passed quietly; the regis- 
 try having been made in the King's presence, His 
 Majesty arose, returned to his apartment, and the 
 Parliament slipped away in silence. 
 
 As trifles are better fitted to make known the dis- 
 position of minds and character than important 
 matters, I shall mention two incidents which will
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 179 
 
 show the general opinion in which the Regent was 
 held, and will give an idea of his carelessness of 
 affairs, when his pleasures were in question. 
 
 When the Due de Saint-Simon went to see Fon- 
 tanieu, to arrange with him regarding the bed of 
 justice, he began by telling him that he came for an 
 important matter, but first of all that it was neces- 
 sary to know if His Royal Highness could count 
 on him. Fontanieu became pale, not doubting 
 but that he meant to speak of some tragic business 
 of which he was unfortunately to be the instru- 
 ment; he replied stammering that, so long as his 
 duty would permit ... he would be. ... 
 The Due de Saint-Simon reassured him by a smile 
 and a gesture, half of compassion, half of indig- 
 nation. Fontanieu recovered himself and, by tan- 
 gled excuses, showed the fear he had and of what 
 he believed the Regent capable. 
 
 The second incident is that the Regent, having 
 appeared to be in a great hurry to learn what 
 Saint-Simon might have arranged with Fontanieu, 
 ordered him to come and make a report of it at 
 once. The conference at Fontanieu's having re- 
 quired long details, when Saint-Simon returned, the
 
 i8o SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Regent was in his closet; and it was the roues' 
 hour, the hour during which all had to give way to 
 debauchery. Saint-Simon was compelled to write 
 to him, and besides this, much mystery was re- 
 quired to have the letter reach its destination. 
 And yet, one must not think that this prince did 
 not draw a well-defined line between those who 
 had a share in affairs and his boon companions, 
 which caused the Due de Brancas, one of his 
 roues, to say that he had much favour but no cred- 
 it. Besides this, the Regent had made for himself 
 a system of discretion to which he was faithful 
 even in intoxication. The Comtesse de Sabran, 
 one of the favourites, desiring to take advantage of 
 one of those moments to speak to him on a matter 
 of business, he led her before a looking-glass, and 
 said to her: " Look at yourself, see if so pretty 
 a face should talk business." 
 
 Since I have permitted myself to digress on the 
 domesticity of the Regent, I must not forget a man 
 of rare virtue, who was neither of the rank nor 
 birth of the roues, but who would have had no 
 dealings with them, and did not conceal his con- 
 tempt from them; he was Ibagnet, concierge of
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 181 
 
 the Palais-Royal. Attached to the house of Or- 
 leans since his childhood, he had seen the Regent 
 born, loved him tenderly and served him zealously, 
 spoke to him with the freedom of an old servant, 
 and with the direct manner and truth of a man 
 worthy of being his master's friend. The Regent 
 had for Ibagnet that sort of respect which virtue 
 compels. He would not have dared to propose to 
 him to be the minister of his pleasures : he was sure 
 of refusal. Sometimes, a candle-stick in hand, 
 Ibagnet conducted his master to the door of the 
 room where the orgy took place. One day the Re- 
 gent laughingly asked him to enter: " Mon- 
 sieur," replied Ibagnet, " my service ends here, 
 I do not mingle with such evil company, and I am 
 very sorry to see you in it." At another time he 
 treated as the lowest of beings, Cauche, valet de 
 chambre and Mercury of the Regent, because that 
 servant had seduced a young girl of twelve or thir- 
 teen years to turn her over to his master. 
 
 Let us return to the outcome of the bed of jus- 
 tice. It was ended, but the Duchesse d'Orleans- 
 being at Saint-Cloud with Madame, mother of the 
 Regent, was still ignorant of there having been
 
 182 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 one. Let one recall her folly with regard to her 
 birth, which she believed at least equal to that of 
 her husband, and one will understand what a blow 
 the news of the degradation of the Due du Maine 
 must have been. Yet she had to be informed of 
 it, and the Regent charged the Due de Saint-Simon 
 with this cruel mission. He first told Madame 
 who, raised in the principles, or, if one prefers, 
 in the prejudices of Germany, was delighted to 
 hear it, and said that her son should have come to 
 that decision long ago. As to the Duchesse d' 
 Orleans, she was seized with a mournful grief, re- 
 turned at once to Paris and, laying her pride aside 
 for the first time in her life, she said to the Regent 
 that the extreme honour he had done her in marry- 
 ing her hushed all other sentiment in her heart; 
 that her brother must be very guilty to have drawn 
 to himself the punishment he received and that she 
 was reduced to wish it. 
 
 The two brothers, on leaving the council room, 
 had locked themselves with their intimates in the 
 Due du Maine's closet, at the Tuileries, during 
 the bed of justice. From there, the Comte de
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 183 
 
 Toulouse withdrew to his rooms, where the 
 Duchesse du Maine came with her children. She 
 was in a paroxysm of fury, reproaching the Comte 
 de Toulouse with having been distinguished apart 
 from his brother, and claimed that he could only 
 clear himself by renouncing the unworthy favour 
 done to him. The Comte de Toulouse was de- 
 lighted, but Valincourt, a man of great sense and 
 much attached to the prince, taking him aside,, 
 made him see the outcome of such an act. The 
 Marquis d'O, who had been his tutor, spoke to< 
 him in the same way, and the Chevalier d'Haute- 
 fort, his chief equerry, excited by a more lively in- 
 terest than that of his master, spoke even more 
 efficaciously : " Monseigneur," said he to him, 
 " could you be such a dupe as to associate yourself 
 to the fury of a mad-woman? When you will 
 have been the admiration of fools for three days,, 
 you will be for forty years the laughing stock of 
 sensible people. As for me, in attaching myself 
 to your person, I expected to be with a prince of 
 the blood, real or apparent; on this footing I shall 
 remain with you all my life; but if you wish to>
 
 184 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 cease to be, neither I nor all those of your house- 
 hold who are worth anything will be able to re- 
 main." 
 
 The Comte de Toulouse frightened by the 
 abyss into which he was about to throw himself, 
 allowed the Due and the Duchesse du Maine to 
 leave for Sceaux, on the morrow, paid a sort of 
 visit of thanks to the Regent, and the following 
 Bay appeared at the regency council. 
 
 On Saturday, the 2yth, the Chambers assem- 
 bled; there was more moaning there than de- 
 liberating; there was much complaining regarding 
 the installation of a keeper of the seals, without 
 his having, according to rules, presented his 
 request; action was taken as is usual on such occa- 
 sions, of the lack of liberty; the Assembly was 
 adjourned to Monday, the 29th. But on that 
 day, the Parliament was kept busy with a new 
 topic of deliberation. At three o'clock in the 
 morning, President de Blamont, Faydau de 
 Calande and Saint-Martin, councilors, were car- 
 ried away from their homes, each by eight mus- 
 queteers and an officer, and conducted, the first to
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 185 
 
 the islands of Hyeres, the second to Belle-Isle, the 
 third to the island of Oleron. 
 
 The Parliament immediately sent a*"committee 
 to ask the King for the liberty of her magistrates. 
 The keeper of the seals replied that what had been, 
 done being an affair of State, it required silence, 
 and the conduct of the Parliament would determine 
 the King's- sentiments on that question. The same 
 committee continued its solicitations and always 
 received the same replies, until the close of the 
 Parliament. A few proposed to discontinue the 
 function, and it was suspended for one day ; others, 
 not to take a vacation until satisfaction was ob- 
 tained; but the most prudent preferred to leave 
 Paris freely than to expose themselves to being 
 exiled from it. The Parliament therefore ad- 
 journed and the Chambre des 'vacations was 
 charged to continue to ask for the exiled. 
 
 The Parliament of Brittany wrote in their 
 favour to the Regent, who did not take at all 
 kindly to the action. The foreign ministers, in 
 their masters' name, complimented him for having 
 checked these civilians; the language of princes
 
 who wish that nothing should oppose their will. 
 It is certain that authority should always be re- 
 spected, for the tranquillity of the people them- 
 selves; but if no Body raises its voice in their 
 favour, they will then be surrendered to the despot- 
 ism of ministers and even of clerks. 
 
 It was during the vacation, on October 3rd, 
 that Cardinal de Noailles published his appeal 
 from the Constitution to the future assembly of 
 prelates. The University, almost all the priests of 
 the diocese, and numerous secular societies sub- 
 scribed to the appeal. The cardinal withdrew on 
 the same day from the council of conscience which 
 from that time no longer subsisted, and whose fall 
 brought about that of the other councils. For 
 sometime already it had been but an empty dis- 
 play; Law was sole master in matters of finance, 
 and Abbe Dubois in foreign affairs. The latter, 
 knowing that the cardinal's hat, to which he 
 aspired, would depend on the credit he could se- 
 cure in France, had himself appointed sole min- 
 ister of foreign affairs. Le Blanc was at the same 
 time named secretary of war. All the members 
 of the different councils were dispensed with, and
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 187 
 
 kept their salaries, which were twelve thousand 
 livres. The Marquis de Canillac refused his, but 
 he entered the regency council, where the office 
 was worth twenty thousand livres. All these 
 noble members of the council resembled people, 
 who on leaving a house, take away the furniture. 
 The Comte d'Evreux retained the detail of 
 cavalry; Coigny, that of the dragoons; d'Asfeld, 
 the fortifications and the engineers; the Marquis 
 de Brancas had the breeding-stud; the chief 
 equerry, Beringhen, the department of bridges and 
 highways; the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Bezans, 
 took the stewardship, and so forth. The Regent 
 knew not how to refuse, and what he did not give, 
 was taken from him. He had singular inconsist- 
 encies. The change in the standing of the legiti- 
 mated embarrassed very much the Bishop of 
 Viviers, Chambonas, whose brother and sister-in- 
 law belonged to the house of the Due du Maine. 
 The prelate, chief of the deputation of the Etats 
 of Languedoc, asked the Regent how he should 
 address the Prince de Dombes. The Regent told 
 him to act in the usual manner; consequently, the 
 bishop addressed as Serene Highness the Prince dc
 
 i88 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Dombes, who could no longer lay claim to the 
 title. 
 
 At last the Regent allowed himself to be per- 
 suaded in favour of the exiled. They returned 
 successively and the Parliament, become compliant, 
 gave thanks for it, as for a favour. This 
 did not prevent it from making objections to the 
 registering of the Royal Bank. It was considered 
 very improper to have the King become a banker. 
 Events proved that it was even more unfortunate. 
 
 The stroke of authority struck at the bed of 
 justice had stunned the Regent's enemies, but had 
 not disheartened them. The fury which the 
 Duchesse du Maine was obliged to hide was only 
 the more sharp on that account, and her corre- 
 spondence with Spain the more frequent. The 
 Prince de Cellamare, attentive to all which took 
 place in Paris and in Brittany, sought to make 
 creatures for the King, his master, and many offi- 
 cers had entered into an engagement with him. 
 The project was to make the whole kingdom re- 
 volt against the Regent; to place the King of 
 Spain at the head of the government of France, 
 and under him the Due du Maine.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 189 
 
 The alliance of the Parliament was expected. 
 All had been negotiated rather enigmatically in 
 letters which might be intercepted, but Alberoni, 
 before acting, wanted to see the plans agreed upon 
 and the names of those who were to be used. It 
 was extremely dangerous to confide such details to 
 a messenger whom Abbe Dubois would not have 
 failed to have arrested. 
 
 Cellamare conceived the idea that there could 
 be no one less suspicious than young Abbe de 
 Porto-Carrero, nephew of the cardinal of the same 
 name. This young man had been in Paris for 
 some time. Monteleon, son of the Spanish am- 
 bassador to England, had also come from Hol- 
 land, and these two young men, meeting in Paris, 
 became intimate, sought the same pleasures, bur- 
 dened themselves but little with affairs, and de- 
 cided to return together. 
 
 Cellamare thought that two such messengers 
 would be safe from all suspicion; Abbe Dubois in 
 truth suspected nothing, and yet everything was 
 discovered. 
 
 There was at that time in Paris, a woman 
 named Fillon, a celebrated procuress, consequently
 
 190 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 well known by Abbe Dubois. She even at times 
 appeared at the Regent's audiences, and was not 
 more ill received there than others. A tone of 
 jest covered all indecencies at the Palais-Royal 
 and this has continued to endure in high society. 
 One of Cellamare's secretaries had an appoint- 
 ment with one of the Fillon woman's girls, on the 
 day that the Abbe de Porto-Carrero was to leave. 
 He came to it quite late and excused himself by 
 saying that he had been very busy preparing let- 
 ters which were to be given in charge of our 
 travellers. The Fillon woman left the lovers to- 
 gether and immediately went to give an account of 
 the matter to Abbe Dubois. At once a messenger 
 was sent forward, armed with orders to secure 
 assistance if necessary. He joined the travellers 
 at Poitiers, had them arrested; all their papers 
 were seized and brought back to Paris on Thurs- 
 day the 8th December. This messenger reached 
 Abbe Dubois' s residence precisely at the hour when 
 the Regent was entering the Opera. 
 
 The abbe opened the package, had the time to 
 examine everything and to lay aside all he wished : 
 we shall see why. At the close of the Opera, the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 191 
 
 abbe joined the Regent, and gave him an account 
 of the capture. Any other prince would have been 
 in a hurry to be enlightened ; but it was the precious 
 supper hour and nothing could outweigh that. 
 The abbe had until rather late the next day to 
 take his steps, before conferring with the Regent 
 who, in the first morning hours, his head still heavy 
 with the fumes of the last evening's debauch, was 
 not in a condition to hear about affairs and 
 signed almost mechanically anything presented to 
 him. 
 
 Abbe Dubois, while aspiring to everything, still 
 felt that he was nothing in himself, foresaw the 
 revolutions which might occur through his master's 
 death, and wished to procure some protectors for 
 himself in case of emergency. 
 
 He resolved to take such hold of affairs that 
 he might be able to sacrifice those whose ruin 
 would be of no consequence, and save those with 
 whom he could make a merit of it. The Regent 
 saw nothing in that affair but through the abbe's 
 eyes. The keeper of the seals and Le Blanc were 
 the only confidants of it, and the abbe, possessed 
 of the papers in the case, found himself master of
 
 192 SECRET MEMOIRS OE THE REGENCY 
 
 the condemnation, or of the absolution of the 
 guilty. 
 
 Prince de Cellamare, informed by a private mes- 
 senger of what had happened at Poitiers and 
 flattering himself that the two Spaniards had only 
 been arrested because they were travelling with a 
 fugitive bankrupt banker, affected an air of as- 
 surance and went, on Friday, the 9th, about noon, 
 to call on Le Blanc to claim the package of letters 
 which he had by chance, he said, intrusted to 
 Abbe Porto-Carrero. Abbe Dubois was already 
 at Le Blanc's. They both replied to the ambas- 
 sador that the letters had been read, and that, far 
 from returning them to him, they had orders to 
 examine the papers in his closet and in his presence, 
 and they immediately requested him to enter a 
 coach with them so that they might take the in- 
 ventory together. 
 
 Cellamare, judging that measures were taken, 
 in case of resistance, made no objections, and 
 was brought back to his residence, of which a de- 
 tachment of musqueteers had already taken pos- 
 session. The desks and boxes were opened. The 
 seals of the King and of the ambassador were
 
 CARDINAL ALBERONI
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 193 
 
 placed on all the papers, in proportion as they were 
 examined and assorted. After this had been done, 
 the two ministers withdrew, leaving the ambassa- 
 dor in the keeping of Dulibois, gentleman in 
 ordinary to the King. 
 
 During the examination of the papers, Cella- 
 mare, with an easy air, affected to treat Le Blanc 
 with politeness and the abbe with cold contempt. 
 To the point that when Le Blanc was about to 
 open a small casket: " Monsieur Le Blanc," said 
 the ambassador, " that is not within your province;; 
 it contains letters from women; leave them to the 
 abbe, who all his life has been a maquereau" 
 The abbe smiled and pretended to take it as a. 
 joke. 
 
 In the evening, there was a council meeting 
 where an account of the conspiracy was rendered; 
 letters from Cellamare to Cardinal Alberoni were 
 read and the Regent fully justified his proceedings 
 towards the ambassador who, having himself 
 violated the rights of people, had lost the privi- 
 lege of his title. The letters were printed, spread 
 broadcast; none of the foreign ministers took up 
 the defence of Cellamare, who left Paris, accom-
 
 194 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 panied by Dulibois and two captains of cavalry. 
 They stopped off at Blois, where Cellamare was 
 detained until the arrival in France of Due de 
 Saint-Aignan, our ambassador to Madrid; after 
 which he was permitted to continue on his way 
 freely. 
 
 On Saturday morning the loth, the Marquis de 
 'Pompadour, the last of his name, father of the 
 beautiful Courcillon and grandfather of the Prin- 
 cesse de Rohan, was sent to the Bastille. 
 
 The Comte d'Aydie, cousin, brother-in-law and 
 bearing the same name as Riom, took flight and 
 withdrew to Spain, where he died long after, in 
 rather good circumstances. 
 
 On the very evening that Cellamare was ar- 
 rested, d'Aydie, being at a house where he was to 
 have his supper, was watching a game of chess. 
 Someone enters and reports that Cellamare has 
 been arrested; d'Aydie, very attentive to a piece 
 of news so interesting to him, did not show the 
 least emotion. One of the players having said 
 that he could not continue the game, d'Aydie 
 offered to take it up, was accepted, played calmly 
 and won. When supper was served, he left on the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 195 
 
 plea of indisposition, took the mail coach and 
 went away. 
 
 Foucault de Magny, introducer of the am- 
 bassadors and son of the State counsellor, ran away 
 also: he was a fool whose only wise act was to 
 flee. A certain Abbe Brigault, very deep in this 
 affair, was arrested at Montargis on a description 
 and brought to the Bastille. He did not have to 
 be pressed to confess all he knew, adding that the 
 details of the matter would be found in the papers 
 which he had left with the Chevalier de Menil, 
 who was arrested; but he had already burned the 
 papers, a thing which the Regent regretted very 
 much. Many persons were arrested successively 
 before reaching the Due and the Duchesse du 
 Maine. This took place before long; the due was 
 arrested at Sceaux by la Billarderie, lieutenant of 
 the gardes du corps, conducted to the chateau of 
 Dourlens, in Picardy, and left in charge of Favan- 
 court, corporal of musqueteers. 
 
 The duchesse, in consideration of her birth, was 
 treated with more distinction. It was the Due 
 d'Ancenis, who arrested her in a house of the rue 
 Saint-Honore, which she had taken so as to be
 
 196 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 nearer the Tuileries. The Due d'Ancenis left her 
 at Esonne, from where a lieutenant and an officer 
 of the gardes du corps conducted her to the chateau 
 of Dijon. 
 
 In his misfortune the Due du Maine showed 
 only submission; protested often his innocence and 
 his attachment to the King and to the Regent. 
 As for the duchesse, she complained much of the 
 treatment offered to a princess of the blood, and 
 furiously assailed her nephew, M. le due, when 
 she saw herself in the chateau of Dijon of which 
 he was the governor, and the public did not ap- 
 prove of his being his aunt's jailer. 
 
 All the servants of the house of Maine were 
 arrested at the same time as their master and were 
 locked in the Bastille. Mademoiselle de Launai, 
 who, since, has become Madame de Staal, was 
 among them. Her memoirs deserve to be read: 
 her portraits are quite faithful, with the exception 
 of that of the Chevalier de Menil, whom she 
 loved too much to judge him properly. I have 
 met him a number of times at her house and he 
 appeared to me to be less than mediocre. 
 
 While these things were going on in Paris, the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 197 
 
 Due de Saint-Aignan, our ambassador at Madrid, 
 was rather uncomfortable there. Although noth- 
 ing as yet was known there about what had hap- 
 pened in Paris, the break between the two crowns 
 seemed so near, and the violence of Alberoni so 
 well known, that the Due de Saint-Aignan did not 
 consider himself safe. He left secretly with his 
 wife and a few servants and reached the foot of 
 the Pyrenees. There, not doubting but that 
 Alberoni would send after him, he took trunks for 
 himself, his wife and his valets, but only those 
 absolutely necessary, crossed the mountains and 
 did not stop until he reached Saint-Jean-Pied-de- 
 Port. He had taken the precaution to leave in 
 his coach a valet de chambre and a woman who 
 announced themselves, while continuing their voy- 
 age, as the ambassador and ambassadress. The 
 due had hardly gone a league in the mountains 
 when men sent by Alberoni surrounded the coach. 
 The servants played their parts well, loudly pro- 
 tested against the violence and were brought back 
 to Pampelune. When the Due de Saint-Aignan 
 had arrived at Bayonne, he sent someone to claim 
 his carriage, which was returned to him, and the
 
 198 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 governor sent word of the mistake to the car- 
 dinal-minister, who was in the greatest fury. 
 
 While war was breaking out in the South, the 
 North had the good fortune of being rid of the 
 King of Sweden, Charles XII. A shot from a 
 falconet did away with him at the siege of Frid- 
 erikshall. This prince had estimable qualities 
 which would have made him beloved had he been 
 but a private citizen; a warlike frenzy made of 
 him a scourge of humanity. His father, an ob- 
 scure tyrant, had crushed his subjects, humbled the 
 Senate and the nobility and destroyed the laws. 
 The son, a more brilliant destroyer, was less hated, 
 owing to the glamour of that glory which over- 
 awes the people, senseless admirers of the heroes 
 who cause their misfortunes. Charles was the 
 cause of that of his own States and of his neigh- 
 bours. Thousands of men destroyed by sword 
 and fire were the results of his reign. The devas- 
 tation, the depopulation of Sweden had reached, 
 at the death of Charles XII, such a point that, of 
 males there were left but children and old men. 
 Only women and girls were seen ploughing the 
 earth, carrying the mail and even in the public
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 199 
 
 baths. It was necessary to employ them at all 
 the labours which weakness and decency seem to 
 prohibit to them. I have this information from 
 the Comte de Cereste-Brancas, the most truthful 
 of men and our minister in Sweden immediately 
 after the death of Charles XII. 
 
 The Swedes took advantage of the circumstances 
 to resume their right to elect their sovereigns. 
 Without consideration for the pretensions of the 
 Duke of Holstein, son of the elder sister of 
 Charles, they elected as Queen, Ulrica-Eleonor, 
 his younger sister. They later consented to asso- 
 ciate with her, her husband, the Prince of Hesse, 
 but with such limitation of power in their persons 
 and those of their descendants that despotism can 
 not revive for a long time. 
 
 This year opened with the declaration of war 
 against Spain. It had been preceded by a mani- 
 festo to inform the people's minds on the justice 
 of our motives. The enemies of the government 
 did not forget themselves on this occasion and 
 circulated four seditious documents. The first was 
 a manifesto from the King of Spain, addressed 
 to the three Etats of France. The second, a let-
 
 200 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 ter from Philip V to the King. The third, a 
 circular letter to the Parliaments. And the fourth, 
 an alleged request presented to Philip V by the 
 three Etats of France. The Parliament contented 
 itself with pronouncing a decree suppressing 
 these libels, which deserved much more. 
 
 The officers who were to serve against Spain 
 were named; and a more than mild surprise was 
 caused by seeing Marshal de Berwick, who was 
 decorated with the grandeeship and with the 
 Fleece, and whose son, the Due de Fitz- James, 
 enjoyed the same honours in France, accept the 
 command of an army against Philip V. D'Asfeld, 
 since Marshal of France, acted in exact contrast 
 to Berwick, who asked for him to serve under him ; 
 he went to the Regent: " Monseigneur," said he 
 to him, " I am a Frenchman, I owe you all and 
 expect nothing but from you " ; then showing the 
 Golden Fleece : " What do you wish me to do with 
 this which I have received from the King of Spain ? 
 Dispense me from serving against one of my bene- 
 factors." 
 
 It would have been very strange, if the Regent, 
 yielding in all matters, had resisted only to an
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 201 
 
 act so honourable: therefore did he dispense 
 d'Asfeld from serving and did not esteem him the 
 less for that. The King of Spain was grateful 
 about the matter and the nations applauded. 
 
 The Prince de Conti was given command of 
 the cavalry, drew much money for his equipment, 
 had even his coach expenses paid and that is all 
 the glory he acquired in his campaign. 
 
 Games of chance had been prohibited. The 
 Due de Tresmes claimed, as governor of Paris, 
 to have the right of one of those privileged cut- 
 throat establishments. Lieutenant of police, 
 Machault, who did not see this privilege in the 
 ordinances, declared that he would tolerate all 
 those dens if the governor's was allowed to exist. 
 
 The Regent, so as not to displease anyone, 
 purchased the Due de Tresmes' desistance with a 
 pension of two thousand livres. A few years 
 after, during the ministry of M. le due, the devout 
 Princesse de Carignan obtained permission to 
 have a game in her hotel de Soissons. At once 
 the Due de Tresmes resumed his, keeping his pen- 
 sion. Be-ribboned, be-embroidered and even 
 decorated scoundrels did the honours of those two
 
 202 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 dens, where the children of the bourgeois came to 
 lose what they stole from their families. Several 
 tragic adventures finally made it known that these 
 places were the seminaries of the Place de la 
 Greve. Cardinal de Fleury, having become min- 
 ister, prohibited them. This vile privilege of the 
 governor still exists in several provinces. The 
 protectors do not blush at the infamous source of 
 the income which they draw from it and appar- 
 ently think, like Vespasian, that " money has no 
 odour." 
 
 It was at that time that the Philip-piques, a 
 poem against the Regent, written by La Grange, 
 appeared. This work wherein there are but a 
 few poetical strophes, is a mass of horrors in which 
 the most frenzied calumny is supported by a few 
 truths. Copies of it went all over France. The 
 Regent heard of it and desired to see the book. 
 The Due de Saint-Simon claims that it was he 
 who, pressed by the solicitations of the prince, 
 made him read that frightful libel. He adds that 
 when the Regent reached the place in which he is 
 called the poisoner of the royal family, he shud- 
 dered, almost fainted, and unable to control his
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 203 
 
 tears, he exclaimed : ** Ah ! it is too much ! this 
 horror is more than I can bear! " It took him 
 some time to recover from his despair. 
 
 La Grange was arrested and sent to the lies 
 Sainte-Marguerite, from which he was liberated 
 during the regency and showed himself freely 
 about Paris. I have always believed that this was 
 done to destroy the opinion which existed that the 
 Regent had had him assassinated, otherwise it 
 would have been the height of impudence. An 
 author who would have done one-half as much 
 against a councilor of the Parliament would have 
 been sent to the galleys. 
 
 The reader has been able to see until now that 
 I do not conceal either the depraved morals or 
 the bad administration of the Regent; but I must 
 render justice to his natural goodness. When his 
 humane character is considered, one can not help 
 but regret that he had not more princely virtues. 
 
 As soon as the Due and the Duchesse du Maine 
 were arrested, alarm spread in their party. 
 Marshal de Villeroi lost his arrogance, Villars his 
 audacity, d'Huxelles, Taillard, Canillac, d'Effiat 
 and the premier president showed their fear by
 
 204 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the efforts they made in concealing it. The best 
 protection the accused could have, was the 
 Regent's heart. Good and bad proceedings, 
 services and offences affected him but little ; he gave 
 and did not reward, forgave easily, did not esteem 
 much and hated even less. 
 
 Moreover, Abbe Dubois felt that he would be 
 charged by the public with having encouraged or 
 at least with not having stopped the Regent's 
 severity. The impetuosity of M. le due made it 
 feared that, if he were once freed of the counter- 
 balance of the legitimated or of their partisans, 
 he would raise himself on the ruins of the Regent 
 and alone gather the fruit of all that the latter 
 had done to make authority more firm. The abbe 
 expected, in saving the Due du Maine and the 
 premier president, to create for himself, in case 
 of events, a protection against the Parliament 
 even, which might seek him out some day. What 
 he did for his own safety, he easily persuaded 
 the Regent was done for him alone, frightened 
 him on the character of M. le due, and made him 
 understand that the public did not absolutely look 
 upon the accused as guilty of lese-majeste, but
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 205 
 
 as upon men attached to State who had only 
 sought to place the King's life in safety. The 
 morals of the Regent, his display of irreligion, 
 old and new rumours only favoured these ideas. 
 That prince was impressed: his natural laziness, 
 the fear of disturbing his pleasures combining 
 with his considerations, he left the abbe sole mas- 
 ter of that affair. 
 
 There was no regular proceeding nor referring 
 to the Parliament. The keeper of the seals and 
 Le Blanc questioned the prisoners and every day 
 new ones were brought. It had been seen, 
 through the papers of Cellamare, that this min- 
 ister kept up different correspondence which had 
 no connection with the Duchesse du Maine and 
 which, nevertheless, had reference to Spain, with- 
 out the guilty having any dealings with one an- 
 other. For example, the Due (to-day Marshal) 
 de Richelieu and the Marquis de Saillans 
 (d'Estaing), were sent to the Bastille. On the 
 day they were arrested, the Regent said publicly 
 that he had in his pocket enough to have four 
 heads of the Due de Richelieu cut off, if he had 
 that many. He referred to four letters addressed
 
 206 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 to Cardinal Alberoni, signed by the due and in 
 which he agreed to surrender to Spain, Bayonne, 
 where his regiment and that of de Saillans were at 
 that time garrisoned. This youthful giddy-head, 
 who has hardly changed, expected to be the author 
 of a revolution in the kingdom, and to have as a 
 reward the regiment of the guards. This plot, 
 which the lowest officer of the place could have 
 caused to fail, only excited the laughter of the 
 public. This young man thought himself a per- 
 sonage on seeing himself treated as a prisoner of 
 State, and took his prison with the lightness which 
 he has always shown in his amours, in affairs and 
 in war. The Regent, who considered the matter 
 as rather amusing, caused to be procured for the 
 prisoner all that he asked, valet de chambre, two 
 lackeys, games, instruments; so that instead of 
 liberty, he had all possible licence. 
 
 While the Regent was busy with affairs of 
 State, he was besides disturbed with domestic 
 troubles. The Duchesse de Berri, carried away 
 by the most foolish pride or debased in debauchery, 
 gave public exhibitions of both. 
 
 The ambassador from Venice having called on
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 207 
 
 her, she took it upon herself to receive him in 
 an arm-chair, on a platform with three steps. 
 The ambassador stopped a moment, then advanced 
 with the slowness of a man who meditates a de- 
 cision, made a bow and immediately turned his 
 back and went out without having said a word. 
 On the same day he assembled all the foreign min- 
 isters, and all publicly declared that not one would 
 again set their foot in the princess's house unless 
 they were assured of being received as fitted their 
 station. 
 
 The domestic life of the princess made a 
 strange contrast to her public exhibitions of pride. 
 I have already spoken of the shameful slavery 
 in which the Comte de Riom held her, and he had 
 all the less relaxed from his insolence towards her 
 that he had made a system of it and that his 
 harshness, his whims, his caprices strengthened the 
 constancy of his mistress. Nor has the reader for- 
 gotten that retreats at the Carmelites preceded or 
 followed her orgies. A nun who followed the 
 princess at all the services of the convent, as- 
 tonished at seeing her prostrated, mingling her 
 sighs to the most fervent prayers : " Good Jesus I
 
 208 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Madame, is it possible that the public can speak 
 so scandalously of you? The world is very 
 wicked! you live here as a saint." The princess 
 laughed. These incongruities certainly showed 
 some degree of insanity. It was with the greatest 
 anger that she heard that people dared to censure 
 her conduct. 
 
 She finally became enceinte, and when she was 
 near her delivery, she remained much in doors, 
 and often in bed, under pretext of headaches. 
 But the excesses of wine and strong liquor which 
 she always continued over-heated her blood. In 
 her confinement, a violent fever put her in the 
 greatest danger. This daring, imperious woman, 
 who defied all the proprieties, who had loudly 
 proclaimed her commerce with Riom, flattered 
 herself with hiding its outcome from the public, 
 as if the acts of princes could ever remain un- 
 known ! The only ones to enter her room were 
 Riom, the Marquise de Mouchy, lady of the 
 bed-chamber, worthy confidant of her mistress, 
 and the women necessary to the patient. The 
 Regent himself only entered for moments: al- 
 though it was impossible to suppose him ignorant
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 209 
 
 of his daughter's condition, he feigned in her 
 presence to notice nothing, either through fear of 
 angering her, if he seemed to know, or in the hope 
 that his silence would stop the indiscretion of the 
 others. 
 
 So many precautions did not hinder scandal and 
 was soon to increase it. The danger became so 
 great that it reached the ear of the cure of Saint- 
 Sulpice, Languet. He betook himself to the 
 Luxembourg, saw the Regent there, spoke to him 
 of the necessity of informing the princess of the 
 peril in which she was, to prepare her to receive 
 the sacraments, and added that first of all Riom 
 and the Mouchy woman must leave the palace. 
 
 The Regent, not daring to contradict the cure, 
 nor alarm his daughter by the proposition of the 
 sacraments, still less to excite her by the pastor's 
 request regarding Riom and Mouchy, tried to 
 make the cure understand that the expulsion of 
 those two would cause the greatest scandal. He 
 sought compromises; the cure rejected them all, 
 judging that, in so important an occasion, in the 
 midst of the quarrels of the Constitution wherein 
 he played a part, he would be discredited by the
 
 210 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 opposing party should he not show himself curate 
 in all strictness. The Regent, being unable to 
 persuade the cure, offered to refer the matter to 
 Cardinal de Noailles. Languet consented to this 
 and would perhaps not have been sorry that the 
 complacency of the cardinal, in relieving a sub- 
 ordinate priest, who would have had the honour 
 of a severe lecture, should lay himself open to 
 the party of the Constitution. The cardinal re- 
 quested to present himself at the Luxembourg, 
 reached there, and on the Regent explaining 
 matters to him, he approved the conduct of the 
 cure, and insisted on the dismissal of the two sub- 
 jects of scandal. 
 
 The Mouchy woman, unable to deceive herself 
 as to the dangerous condition of her mistress, 
 thought she had provided against all eventualities 
 by sending for a Franciscan friar, to confess the 
 princess, and did not doubt that after that the 
 cure would bring the Viaticum. She did not sus- 
 pect that she herself was the principal subject of 
 the conference, when the Regent asked for her. 
 She opened the door and the Regent, without 
 entering or making her step out, told her on what
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 211 
 
 condition the sacraments were to be administered. 
 The Mouchy woman stunned at the compliment, 
 yet brazened it out, became excited over the affront 
 made to a woman of honour, assured that her 
 mistress would not sacrifice her to bigots, went in 
 again, and a few moments after, returned to tell 
 the Regent that the princess was furious at so 
 insolent a proposition, and closed the door once 
 more. The cardinal, to whom the Regent brought 
 the reply, explained that it was not to the one 
 who was to be expelled that the message should 
 have been intrusted; that it was the father's duty 
 to exhort his daughter to fulfil her own. The 
 prince, who knew his daughter's violent temper, 
 excused himself, and on his refusal, the cardinal 
 started to enter so as to speak himself. The 
 Regent, fearing that the sight of the prelate and 
 of the cure might cause a revolution in the patient 
 which might kill her, threw himself before the 
 cardinal and begged him to wait that she be pre- 
 pared for such a visit. He had the door opened 
 again and announced to the Mouchy woman that 
 the archbishop and the curate wished to speak 
 absolutely. The patient, who heard him, became
 
 212 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 equally furious at her father and at the priests, 
 saying that those hypocrites took advantage of 
 her condition and of their office to disgrace her, 
 and that her father had the weakness and the 
 stupidity to suffer them, instead of having them 
 thrown out of the window. 
 
 The Regent, more embarrassed than before, 
 came to tell the cardinal that the patient was in 
 such a state that action must be postponed. The 
 prelate, wearied with insisting uselessly, withdrew 
 after having ordered the curate to carefully watch 
 to the duties of his ministry. 
 
 The Regent, much relieved by the retreat of 
 the cardinal, would also have liked to be rid of 
 the cure. But the latter settled himself at the 
 door of the chamber and, during two days and 
 two nights, whenever he went out to rest and take 
 a little food, he had himself replaced by two priests 
 who stood guard. At last, the danger having 
 ceased, this ecclesiastical watch was raised, and 
 the patient only thought of getting well. 
 
 In spite of her fury against the priests, the 
 fear of hell had seized her. And the impression 
 left was the greater because her health did not
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 213 
 
 return entirely and her passion was as strong 
 as ever. Riom, assisted by the advice of the Due 
 de Lauzun, his uncle, resolved to take advantage 
 of his mistress's disposition to bring her to a mar- 
 riage which would quiet her conscience and would 
 assure her pleasures. The Due de Lauzun con- 
 ceived the plan, the means, the expedients, and 
 Riom acted accordingly. 
 
 They found but little resistance in a woman dis- 
 traught with love, afraid of the devil, and long 
 ago subjugated. Riom had only to order to be 
 obeyed; he therefore was, and not four days 
 passed between the project and the execution. A 
 few dates brought together will prove it, and as 
 the Duchesse de Berri died very soon after, I shall 
 at once report that which concerns her. 
 
 That princess became ill on the 26th of March; 
 Easter was on the 9th of April and, on Holy 
 Tuesday, the 4th, she was out of danger. You 
 must know that the custom of the parishes of Paris 
 is to bring communion to all sick persons during 
 Holy Week, even though such sick are not in a con- 
 dition to receive the Viaticum : it suffices that they 
 be unable to receive the Sacrament at church.
 
 214 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 There was therefore a twofold reason to carry the 
 sacraments to the princess, that of her condition 
 and that of the time. Although the public had 
 seen this duty performed, the motives of the refusal 
 had become known, and Easter week was only the 
 more embarrassing to spend in Paris. 
 
 Although the princess was convalescent, she was 
 still far from being in a condition to bear the 
 fatigues of a journey; yet in spite of all arguments 
 offered in the matter, she went away on Easter 
 Monday and settled at Meudon. Her marriage 
 had already taken place, that is to say that she 
 and Riom had received the benediction of a not 
 over-particular and well-paid priest. This sufficed 
 to calm or prevent remorse, but not to establish 
 the marriage of a princess of the blood, grand- 
 daughter of France. 
 
 The Regent knew it and feebly opposed it. He 
 supposed that, if his daughter were again in the 
 condition in which she had been, a confidence made 
 to the cure would make him more pliant and would 
 cause him to avoid scandal. The complacency 
 of the prince is not the less inconceivable, and 
 caused some to think that there had been between
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 215 
 
 father and daughter an intimacy which passed 
 paternal and filial tenderness, and that the father 
 feared an avowal from his daughter in one of her 
 attacks of mad fury. Unfortunately all was be- 
 lievable in two persons so devoid of scruples and 
 principles. Of all the horrors of the Philippiques, 
 the Regent had seemed to be only truly affected 
 by the passage on poison, an act of which he was 
 incapable. 
 
 However that may be, Riom, who had not de- 
 sired the marriage as a matter of conscience, could 
 only satisfy his ambition by publicity. The most 
 important settlements became its necessary out- 
 come. He excited his mistress on the subject and 
 compelled her to importune the Regent about it. 
 In vain did the prince oppose reasons; she replied 
 by transports of rage. 
 
 The altercations between the father and 
 daughter transpired. Madame and Her Royal 
 Highness the Duchesse d'Orleans heard the cause 
 of them. Her Serene Highness was perhaps not 
 over-sorry at the humiliation of a daughter from 
 whose haughtiness she continually suffered. As 
 to Madame, she saw no difficulty, and beside her-
 
 216 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 self with anger, she saw nothing more simple thar 
 to end it all by throwing Riom out of the window 
 or into the river. 
 
 The Regent was the most grieved, and he might 
 have followed Madame's advice, had he not feared 
 the vengeance and perhaps the confession of a 
 frenzied daughter. To avoid her persecutions, he 
 seldom saw her, on the pretext of business and the 
 distance of Meudon, and to gain time, had Riom 
 ordered to join his regiment which was a part of 
 Marshal Berwick's army. All the colonels had 
 already gone and honour did not permit Riom to 
 delay. He obeyed immediately, in spite of his 
 mistress's tears. She was in despair over it and 
 declared to her father, who came to see her a few 
 days after, that she was resolved to announce her 
 marriage; that she was a widow, mistress of her- 
 self and of her property; that she wished to dis- 
 pose of them as she saw fit, and finally repeated 
 all that Riom had told her about Mile, de Mont- 
 pensier. The Regent, tired of his daughter's fits 
 of passion, gave her hopes, asked her for time 
 and left her, well resolved not to return. 
 
 At the end of a few days, the princess, anxious
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 217 
 
 at not seeing her father, feared that the rarity of 
 his visits might appear to be a diminution of credit, 
 had him requested to come to supper at Meudon, 
 where she wished to give him a reception. It was 
 in the early days of May. The Regent having 
 been unable to refuse her, she desired that the sup- 
 per be given on the terrace, in spite of the re- 
 monstrances made her regarding the coolness of 
 the night and the danger of a relapse, in a not 
 very strong convalescence. This was precisely 
 what made her persist, imagining that a night 
 fete, and in the open air, would undeceive the 
 public of the opinion that she had been delivered. 
 
 What had been predicted took place: fever 
 took possession and no more left her. The 
 Regent having excused the rarity of his visits on 
 the plea of affairs, she decided to have herself 
 conveyed to la Muette, where the proximity of 
 Paris would induce her father to see her more fre- 
 quently. 
 
 The journey from Meudon to la Muette ag- 
 gravated still more the symptoms of her illness. 
 She was so ill towards the middle of July that the 
 terrible word death had to be spoken to her. She
 
 2l8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 was not frightened at it, had mass said in her 
 room and received communion with open doors, 
 as she would have given a state audience. Pride 
 inspired or sustained her courage; for as soon as 
 the ceremony was over, she had those present dis- 
 missed, and asked her intimates if that was not 
 dying with grandeur. The same day, she had 
 everyone withdraw, with the exception of the 
 Mouchy woman, ordered her to bring her ring 
 casket, which was worth more than two hundred 
 thousand ecus, and made her a present of it. The 
 Mouchy woman, having received it without wit- 
 nesses, feared that she might be accused of having 
 stolen it, an accusation that her reputation would 
 have been unable to destroy. She thought it 
 proper therefore to declare it while the princess 
 still lived and went with her husband to give an 
 account of the matter to the Regent. The prince, 
 as an answer, asked for the casket, took it, 
 examined if nothing was missing, locked it in a 
 drawer and dismissed her with an order not to re- 
 turn to la Muette. 
 
 During the two days which she still lived, the 
 dying woman did not seem to notice the absence
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 219 
 
 of Mouchy ; solely occupied with her last moments, 
 without ostentation or feebleness, she asked for 
 the last sacraments and received them in the 
 presence of the cure of Passy, from Abbe de Cas- 
 tries, her first almoner, appointed at the time Arch- 
 bishop of Tours, and who has been that of Albi 
 since then. The physicians having no more hope, 
 Garus' elixir was suggested; it was then first in 
 vogue. Garus gave it himself and recommended 
 specially that no purgative be given, as otherwise 
 his elixir would become a poison. In a few 
 moments, the patient seemed revived and her con- 
 dition continued better until the following day; it 
 is claimed that Chirac, from a physician's point 
 of honour, which would sacrifice a patient rather 
 than leave the glory of a cure to an empiric, made 
 the patient take a purgative and immediately she 
 changed for the worse and died during the night 
 of the 2Oth and 2ist of July. Garus charged 
 murder against Chirac, who was not the least 
 affected, looked at the empiric with cold contempt 
 and left la Muette, where there was nothing else 
 for him to do. 
 
 Thus ended, at twenty-four, the life of a
 
 220 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 princess equally celebrated for her wit, beauty, 
 charms, folly and vices. Her mother and grand- 
 mother heard of her death with more satisfaction 
 than sorrow. The father was in the greatest 
 grief; but, perhaps without giving it thought, he 
 soon felt relieved to no longer have to bear the 
 whims and angers of a mad-woman, and the per- 
 secution of an extravagant marriage. The prin- 
 cess was after all regretted by no one, because the 
 pay and lodgings were continued to her entire 
 household, with the exception of the Mouchy 
 woman, who was exiled to her estate. 
 
 The Due de Saint-Simon claims that at the 
 opening of the body of the Duchesse de Berri 
 it was found that she had already become enceinte. 
 At all events, she had lost no time since her con- 
 finement. Saint-Simon must have been well in- 
 formed, for his wife was present at the opening, 
 as lady of honour of the princess. 
 
 The heart was taken to the Val-de-Grace and 
 her body to Saint-Denis. There was no holy 
 water, no ceremony; the funeral was simple, and 
 at the service those in charge prudently abstained 
 from all orations. The King's mourning lasted
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 221 
 
 six weeks, and although the Court wears mourning 
 out of respect only as long as the King, they wore 
 it three months, as long as the Regent did, and 
 the theatres were closed for a week. 
 
 A trifle can give another example of the prin- 
 cess's character. At the beginning of her illness, 
 she dedicated her household to white for six 
 months; and to accomplish that vow, she ordered 
 coach, harness and livery in silver, wishing at least 
 to exalt, by display, this devotion. 
 
 The daughter of the Duchesse de Berri and of 
 the Comte de Riom, whom I saw in my youth, is 
 at the present time a nun at Pontoise, with a pea- 
 sion of three hundred livres. 
 
 A death which did not create so great a sen- 
 sation as that of which I have just spoken was 
 the death of Mme. de Maintenon, whose name 
 had, for thirty-five years, resounded throughout 
 Europe. From the moment she had lost the 
 King, she retired to Saint-Cyr and never left it 
 again. She lived there with the equivocal 
 etiquette of a dowager Queen. When the Queen 
 of England went to dine with her, each: one had 
 her arm-chair; the young pupils of the house
 
 222 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 waited upon them, and everything proclaimed 
 equality. A few former friends of the old Court 
 called on her, and always after having notified her 
 in advance, so that she might appoint the day and 
 hour. Beloved, feared and respected in the 
 house, she divided her days between exercises of 
 piety and the education of a certain number of 
 pupils who were attached to her chamber. 
 
 The Due du Maine was the only one who could 
 call on her without asking her permission. He 
 often paid his respects to her and was received 
 with the tenderness of a mother. She was more 
 affected by the degradation of this adopted son 
 than she had been by the King's death. On learn- 
 ing that he was arrested, she gave way to her 
 grief; she was seized with a fever, and, after 
 lingering for three months, died at eighty-three 
 years of age, Saturday, April i5th. 
 
 Meanwhile the army of France was stirring 
 in Navarre. Fontarabie and Saint-Sebastien were 
 taken and the army of Spain was not in condition 
 to oppose ours. Her fleet had been beaten the 
 year before by Admiral Bing, commander of the 
 English fleet; and Captain Bing, son of Admiral
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 223 
 
 
 Bing, brought this news to Paris. He is the one 
 
 who has since paid with his life the misfortune he 
 had experienced before Mahon at the beginning 
 of the present war. His blood justly or unjustly 
 shed has been the cause of all the English victories. 
 Whatever disasters we may have had, we could 
 rise again some day, if we had learned from those 
 rivals that it is necessary to reward and to punish. 
 While war was being waged on Spain, efforts 
 were being made to discover those who had cor- 
 respondence with Alberoni. The Regent did not 
 wish that a formal proceeding be brought against 
 the Due and the Duchesse du Maine; but he also 
 feared that he might be reproached of having had 
 them arrested out of personal hatred. That is 
 why he demanded that the Duchesse du Maine 
 make a statement of the entire intrigue with Cel- 
 lamare and Alberoni. Whatever evasions she 
 made use of in her confession, the fact still re- 
 mained that the project was to bring about a re- 
 bellion against the Regent in Paris, the provinces 
 and specially in Brittany, where the Spanish shipsi 
 were to be received. To exonerate her husband, 
 she declared that he was too timid to have her ever
 
 224 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 confide to him a design of which he would have 
 been afraid, and which he would surely have re- 
 vealed. If the Due du Maine was relieved at see- 
 ing himself justified, he can not have been much 
 flattered at the reasons. 
 
 She however named all those who had taken 
 part in the conspiracy, among whom were several 
 Breton noblemen. 
 
 I have read the report of the trial of those who 
 were executed at Nantes; I have conversed about 
 this affair several times with some of the judges 
 and with some of those who were hanged in effigy; 
 I have never seen a plot so badly organised. Sev- 
 eral did not even know what it was all about, or 
 were not in accord with one another. The greater 
 number only thought that there was to be a revolu- 
 tion, and promised to assist in it, and many had 
 given their word and their signature without look- 
 ing further into the matter. Some have confessed 
 to me a piece of folly in whicH. I would have 
 thought it impossible to fall into were not their 
 statements confirmed by the declaration of the 
 Duchesse du Maine. They expected, they said, to 
 carry away the King on one of his voyages to Ram-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 225 
 
 bouillet, to take him to Brittany and to dictate 
 terms to the Regent. In following the different 
 links of this affair, a certain Breton found himself 
 implicated whom the name of the Duchesse du 
 Maine had never reached. One could not help 
 but have compassion for certain accomplices whom 
 I have seen, when one considered their little per- 
 sonal worth. 
 
 The Due and the Duchesse du Maine were 
 finally set free, and the Regent successively liber- 
 ated all those who were in the Bastille for the same 
 affair. It is very probable that he would have ex- 
 ercised the same clemency towards the Breton no- 
 blemen, had he not been persuaded to punish some- 
 one. A commission was therefore appointed 
 which went to sit at Nantes to examine the case 
 against the accused. Thus were the most inno- 
 cent or at least the most excusable sacrificed. 
 
 Love of country will not make me partial, nor 
 make me betray the truth, but I shall render justice 
 to a province nobly attached to the King and who 
 was appealing against the violation of its privi- 
 leges. The people most jealous of their rights 
 are the most attached to their duties and the dis-
 
 226 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 satisfaction of the Bretons was well founded. 
 The Etats had asked an accounting from Mon- 
 taran, their treasurer; nothing was more just and 
 interested the State less. The Regent, on the con- 
 trary, should have approved a conduct so regu- 
 lar. Unfortunately for the province, Montaran. 
 had a brother, captain in the guards, a great gam- 
 bler and very well known. Such a subject is an 
 interesting man at Paris. He made use of the 
 credit of several women, who clearly proved that 
 much consideration was due to the brother of a 
 man so useful to society, and the Etats got the 
 worst of their undertaking. After this, displeas- 
 ure took hold of the good citizens and, if they 
 ceased being such, the Regent should have blamed 
 himself as having been the first cause, in sacrificing 
 justice and order to the intrigues of women. We 
 shall see the unfortunate outcome of this, when I 
 shall have reported a few previous events, so as 
 not to reverse too much the order of time. 
 
 The Due de Richelieu was one of the first to 
 obtain his liberty. He did not appear at Court at 
 first, but after two or three months of voyages 
 from one country place to another, he showed him-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 227 
 
 self with a glamour of importance which impris- 
 onment for an affair of State gave him, and the 
 brilliant air of a young man who owes his freedom 
 to love. 
 
 I shall sometimes have occasion to speak of him, 
 if I continue these memoirs to the time I have in 
 view. There will be seen a rather singular man, 
 who always has sought notoriety, and has not suc- 
 ceeded in becoming celebrated, who, employed in 
 negotiations and at the head of armies, has never 
 been looked upon as a statesman, but as the leader 
 of people of fashion of whom he has remained the 
 dean. 
 
 The reader has seen in what his crime consisted. 
 To understand what caused his absolution, it must 
 be known that at the time of the bed of justice, 
 Berthelot de Pleneuf, become rich in furnishing 
 supplies for the army hospitals, fled to Turin. As 
 his mind was not less inclined to intrigue than it 
 was to business, he became intimate with office 
 clerks, insinuated himself little by little with the 
 ministers of that Court, and to create merit for 
 himself which might secure a pleasant return to 
 France, he undertook to negotiate the marriage
 
 of Mile, de Valois with the Prince de Piemont, 
 son of King Victor. When he saw the proposition 
 rather well received at Turin, he directed his wife, 
 whom he had left in Paris, to inform the Regent, 
 who favoured the marriage very much, and charged 
 Abbe Dubois to follow up the matter. He could 
 not have selected worse. The abbe, with the idea 
 of making himself agreeable to the Emperor, 
 whose protection was to procure for him the cardi- 
 nal's hat, favoured the project which that prince 
 had of taking Sicily from King Victor. He was 
 therefore careful not to allow the Regent to enter 
 into any engagement with the Court of Turin. 
 He decided to show much enthusiasm for the suc- 
 cess of the marriage, in fear that the negotiation 
 might be given to someone else, and meanwhile 
 to make it fail. He very cleverly made use of cir- 
 cumstances and of the knowledge he possessed of 
 the character of Madame, the Regent's mother. 
 
 While negotiations were going on for the mar- 
 riage of Mile, de Valois, that princess had fallen 
 in love with the Due de Richelieu; the fatuity of 
 the one, the giddiness of the other caused enough 
 gossip to have the matter come to the ears of Ma-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 229 
 
 dame. She received the information with as much 
 of haughtiness as of virtue, kept her grand- 
 daughter with her as much as possible and had the 
 Due de Richelieu notified that, if he cared for his 
 life, he had better stay away from where she was. 
 
 The Due de Richelieu was prudent enough to 
 profit by the advice; besides he had secured from 
 the adventure what was to him the most precious 
 fruit, the notoriety. 
 
 Abbe Dubois selected this moment to allow the 
 negotiations about the marriage of the Prince de 
 Piemont to transpire. This news reached Ma- 
 dame, who maintained a very friendly correspond- 
 ence with the Queen of Sicily. In the humour in 
 which she was towards her granddaughter, she 
 found nothing better than immediately to write to 
 the Queen that she was too much her friend to 
 make her so bad a present as Mile, de Valois. A 
 few days after, and when the letter must have 
 been to hand, Madame confessed to the Due and 
 the Duchesse d'Orleans the handsome act of frank- 
 ness she had performed. The Duchesse d'Orleans 
 was in despair; Mile, de Valois cared but little, 
 Abbe Dubois pretended to be angry and applauded
 
 230 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 himself secretly for his rascally scheme; the Regent 
 only laughed at his mother's German outburst and 
 troubled himself but little about his wife's grief. 
 However, he thought of disposing of his daughter, 
 fearing that she might follow in the footsteps of 
 the Duchesse de Berri, her sister, and although not 
 over-delicate in the matter of the morals of his 
 family, he wished to prevent errors still more strik- 
 ing in a young woman than in a widow, and was 
 not long in concluding the marriage of Mile, de 
 Valois with the prince, son of the Duke of Mo- 
 dena, who was much honoured by this alliance; 
 and, whatever reports may or may not have 
 reached him about the princess, he had no right to 
 be particular. 
 
 Mile, de Valois did not make up her mind quite 
 so easily; but she had to obey. She demanded at 
 least, as a price of her sacrifice, the pardon of 
 the Due de Richelieu, who secured from love 
 what he would have eventually obtained from the 
 Regent. 
 
 At this rime the Regent was much less en- 
 grossed by his domestic afflictions than by the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 231 
 
 troubles of the Parliament. That assembly, at 
 first dismayed at the bed of justice, had recovered! 
 from its stupefaction; its principle is to consider 
 legal only those of the registerings that had been, 
 made freely and after examination. 
 
 Registry is not, according to its maxims, a sim- 
 ple act of evidence; it thinks, without however 
 saying it formally, that it sanctions a law which it 
 registers, and that all that the King does on his 
 own initiative and without freedom of suffrage, is 
 void. I shall not launch into so delicate a dis- 
 cussion. Still, it is to be desired that there should 
 be, to an absolute authority, a counterpoise to pre- 
 vent it from becoming arbitrary. 
 
 I have at times sought to discuss these principles 
 with men learned in our laws and in our history. 
 One of the most enlightened and zealous parlia- 
 mentarians whom I asked to point out to me the 
 precise limit which separates usurpation from the 
 rights of the Parliaments: "The principles in 
 this matter," he replied, " are quite obscure, but as 
 a fact, the Parliament is strong under a weak King, 
 and weak under a strong King." An honest min-
 
 232 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 ister would perhaps give the same reply if he were 
 obliged to express himself on the royal power, as 
 compared to the nation. 
 
 The Regent, much displeased at the Parlia- 
 ment's resistance against the operations of Law, 
 had decided to get along without registry, but he 
 did not the less feel the necessity of reckoning with 
 public opinion because the public thinks much of 
 Parliament. Yet Law had nothing to desire for 
 the success of his system. The bank notes, the 
 stocks, all the various papers were preferred to 
 money which has a value set by all nations, while 
 on the other hand, paper moneys, having an ideal 
 value, are always susceptible to that which the 
 imagination places upon them. 
 
 It would be hard to-day to make people under- 
 stand the frenzy which possessed all minds. 
 There are follies that are proper only while they 
 are epidemic. Law, who foresaw better than any 
 one else what the ending of his play would be, 
 would have very much liked to strengthen i{ with 
 the approbation of the Parliament, and by that to 
 shelter its author from public prosecution. But 
 the Regent always found the greatest opposition
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 233 
 
 in Parliament, perhaps as much against the novelty 
 as against the folly of the system. 
 
 Law, having no longer hope to succeed with 
 that assembly, conceived the project to destroy it. 
 With the support of Dubois and of the Due de la 
 Force, he persuaded the Regent to reimburse in 
 paper the prices paid for all magistrates' offices. 
 The public, he claimed, would see with pleasure 
 the venality of offices suppressed; the King would 
 thus become master of the Parliament, and each 
 position of president or of councilor would then 
 only be a revocable appointment. 
 
 Whatever may be the venality of offices, one 
 understands, after a careful examination, that it is 
 as dangerous to suppress as to establish certain 
 abuses. 
 
 The reimbursement of prices paid for offices, 
 followed by the new plan of administration which 
 was proposed, destroyed the magistracy, and of 
 what necessity is it not in France? If the Parlia- 
 ment has at times unseasonably hampered the 
 progress of the government, what services has it 
 not rendered? Even those who composed the 
 Parliament of the Ligue declared themselves, in
 
 234 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the midst of the Guises and the Spaniards, in fa- 
 vour of the principles of the monarchy. It is 
 therefore the Parliament which has preserved the 
 crown to the reigning house. However exagger- 
 ated may be his pretensions, if the King makes his 
 power feared, it is the Parliament, which causes it 
 to be respected. What advantage is it not for the 
 King to have a Body whose principles, always sub- 
 sisting, oppose themselves to the enterprises of the 
 Court of Rome, even to those of the clergy of 
 France, secular or regular? What an advantage 
 for the subjects, that this same Body should be able 
 to place obstacles in the way of the excesses of 
 ministerial credit! The Parliament can make up 
 for the weakness of a timid prince and enlighten 
 a King powerful, but superstitious, against the 
 suggestions of a fanatical confessor. On how 
 many occasions can not a King allow a good act to 
 be performed which his prudence prevents him 
 from doing openly ! 
 
 Although appointments to livings are not his- 
 torical events, I shall speak of those which may 
 have something strange in them. Abbe de la 
 Tour-d'Auvergne was named to the archbishopric
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 235 
 
 of Tours. Abbe de Thesul, who was writing the 
 list at the dictation of the Regent: "Ah, Mon- 
 seigneur, what a subject! " he exclaimed, " beware 
 of the scandal." 
 
 "What the devil!" replied the Regent; "I 
 know it, but the Bouillons are persecuting me; I 
 wish to rid myself of them; write ahead." 
 
 Thesul wrote. At the same time there was 
 named as bishop of Sisteron, the Jesuit Laffiteau, 
 charge d' affaires at Rome, where he lived in the 
 same manner as Nuncio Bentivoglio lived in 
 Paris; so that before being consecrated, he was 
 obliged to stay forty days at a surgeon's, which 
 stay served him as a retreat in a seminary. He 
 was one of the great supporters of the Constitu- 
 tion. This, however, is not what made him a 
 bishop. 
 
 Abbe Dubois, having imparted to him the de- 
 sire to become a cardinal, paid him in Rome to pre- 
 pare the way for him. The Jesuit, who had the 
 same aims, took the money and used it in his own 
 interest. Rascals guess one another's aims: the 
 abbe noticed it, and not being yet powerful enough 
 to avenge himself in a manner which would have
 
 236 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 revealed his designs, resolved to get rid of him, 
 on the pretext of rewarding his services. Laffi- 
 teau, so different from the former bishops, became 
 one, as they, in spite of himself. 
 
 Kept away from both Rome and the Court, he 
 saw himself politely relegated to Sisteron. 
 
 Le Blanc, secretary of state, taking advantage 
 of his credit, on the same occasion, caused the 
 bishopric of Avranches to be given to Abbe Le 
 Blanc, his brother, curate of Dammartin, an honest 
 man, and good ecclesiastic. 
 
 Abbe Guerin de Tencin went to replace Laffi- 
 teau at Rome, so that people would not notice that 
 anything had been lost in the change. The 
 former, in many respects, was better than his pred- 
 ecessor. The son of a president in the Parlia- 
 ment of Grenoble, born with an attractive face 
 and intelligence, specially that of intrigue, lacking 
 the scruples and morality of his position, he 
 reached the highest place, since he died Cardinal 
 and Archbishop of Lyons. 
 
 He was excellently assisted in his career by a sis- 
 ter who was a canoness, who made but one with 
 her brother, and who passed to him all the ambi-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 237 
 
 tion she would have had, had her sex permitted it. 
 She kept to herself only gallantry, which she has 
 used as often as a means of success as for her 
 pleasures. I knew her very well; one could not 
 have more wit, and she always took possession of 
 that of the person with whom she had to deal. 
 The brother and sister had imagined a progres- 
 sive system of flattery, and although they were in- 
 discreet enough to confess it, and carried it to the 
 verge of disgust, they were always successful with 
 it. The genius of the cleverest intriguer van- 
 ished before that of the Tencin woman. She was 
 very pretty while young, and retained in advanced 
 age all the attractions of the mind. She was 
 liked even by those who were not ignorant of her 
 adventures. 
 
 Her parents made her a nun against her will in 
 the Convent of Mont-Fleury, near Grenoble. In 
 taking her vows, she thought of a means of break- 
 ing them, and her director was the blind instru- 
 ment she used for her designs. He was a good 
 ecclesiastic, very shallow, who fell in love with her 
 without in the least suspecting it. The penitent 
 made no mistake, cleverly profited by the foible of
 
 238 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the holy man, made him her zealous agent, se- 
 cured from him the necessary information, and 
 when matters reached the point she wished, she 
 protested against her vows, and finally succeeded ia 
 going from her cloister to a chapter at Neuville, 
 near Lyons, as canoness. 
 
 I have all these particulars from her person- 
 ally. She soon was as free as she wished. The 
 liking which Abbe Dubois took to her did the rest. 
 I have heard it said that she had an intrigue with 
 the Regent which did not last; she hurried too 
 much to obtain her ends and disgusted the prince, 
 who only took her as a passing fancy and said 
 that he did not like p s who speak of business 
 between the sheets. She fell from the master to 
 the valet and the influence which she acquired over 
 Abbe Dubois consoled her. This was not her first 
 affair; she already had had a child in 1717 by 
 Destouches, commonly called Destouches-Canon. 
 
 She loved her brother, the Abbe de Tencin, very 
 much, and his advancement became almost the sole 
 object of her intrigues. Not in the least inter- 
 ested, she looked upon money as a means of suc- 
 cess, and not as an aim worthy of satisfying her.
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 239 
 
 She never enjoyed more than a moderate income 
 and wished riches only for her brother, so that it 
 might assist him in his ambition. She was very 
 serviceable when she had no contrary interests. 
 Her great desire was to have the reputation of be- 
 ing a good friend or a declared enemy, cleverly 
 took the opportunity to persuade people of this 
 and thus attached to herself many; persons of 
 merit. 
 
 She did not require all her influence over Du- 
 bois to interest him in favor of Abbe de Tencin. 
 The former soon saw that the other was the work- 
 man he needed. He began by interesting him 
 with an ecclesiastic operation which was not diffi- 
 cult and which yet was to make a noise. This was 
 Law's conversion. This Scotchman already knevr 
 France well enough to realise that culprits who 
 have held high places are seldom punished. Con- 
 sequently, he wished to become controller-general. 
 He could not secure this place without being natu- 
 ralised nor be naturalised without being a Catho- 
 lic. He claimed to be a Protestant and Abbe de 
 Tencin was intrusted with this proselyte. 
 
 After the time supposedly required for such a
 
 240 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 conversion, Law made his solemn renunciation at 
 Melun, for fear that it might be taken as a joke 
 in the capital, and Abbe de Tencin drew from this 
 pious task many shares of stock and bank notes. 
 Yet I see, in one of his letters to his sister, that he 
 complains that his fortune does not respond to 
 public opinion, and much regrets not to have justi- 
 fied it. However that may be, this sort of simony 
 did not bring him into trouble, but he was in- 
 formed against to the Parliament for another, by a 
 certain Abbe de Vessiere, and made a gigantic 
 blunder in this proceeding, where he sat in person 
 during the pleading. Aubry, the opposing coun- 
 sel, having seemingly weakened in his allega- 
 tions, Abbe de Tencin's lawyer wishing to take 
 advantage of this, argued against a charge both 
 vague and destitute of proof, and denied the simo- 
 niacal transaction. Aubry pretended to be em- 
 barrassed. The abbe thought to perform won- 
 ders by seizing the opportunity to confound the 
 calumny and offered to purge himself of it by oath, 
 if the Court permitted it. Immediately Aubry 
 stopped him, said that there was no need of it and 
 produced the original of the agreement. It was
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 241 
 
 most dramatic. The judges showed their indigna- 
 tion; hisses and shouts arose from those present; 
 the abbe, confounded, tried to escape, but some 
 charitable people hindered his passage and allowed 
 him to go only after having exposed him to public 
 view for some little time. 
 
 Abbe de Tencin, having nothing else to keep 
 him in Paris, left for the Rome Embassy. I see 
 in his letters that he never recovered from that 
 affair. We shall soon see him at Rome, profiting 
 by the lesson in prudence he had received in the 
 Parliament, himself show how a signed agreement 
 may be turned to account. 
 
 The motive which has caused me to speak of an 
 appointment to livings, which demanded a few re- 
 marks, prompts me to linger a little over the nam- 
 ing of the cardinals of the same year. Belluga, 
 Bishop of Murcia in Spain, was one. This prel- 
 ate had rendered the greatest services to Philip V 
 in the war of the succession. When this prince 
 was obliged to flee his capital, Belluga exhorted 
 the inhabitants of his diocese to fidelity and, com- 
 bining to a pathetic sermon an example which was 
 even more so, paid out of his own money two
 
 242 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 months' pay to the soldiers, made the army subsist, 
 in short, fired all the Spaniards with a heroism 
 which returned the King to the throne. Belluga, 
 thinking that he had only done his duty, did not 
 appear at Court after the King's restoration, and 
 in his diocese only busied himself with his episcopal 
 duties. 
 
 We have seen that Alberoni, to defray the ex- 
 penses of the war against the Emperor, had asked 
 an indult from the pope through Philip V by virtue 
 of which all ecclesiastic property was taxed. The 
 tax was extended much beyond the indult. Bel- 
 luga, looking upon the over-tax as a misuse of 
 authority, refused to pay. The example of so 
 respected a prelate was followed by the entire 
 clergy. The pope, displeased at Philip V, revoked 
 the indult, and the King, wishing on his own au- 
 thority to continue to levy the assessment, uselessly 
 threatened the Bishop of Murcia, who persisted in 
 his refusal. 
 
 In these circumstances, the pope made a pro- 
 motion of ten cardinals and included Belluga in it. 
 This prelate declared that he would not accept 
 without the permission of the King his master, who
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 243 
 
 was far from giving it. Philip V, considering this 
 appointment as a personal insult, no sooner heard 
 of it than he sent word to Belluga forbidding him 
 to accept; but the refusal had forestalled the 
 King's order. The pope, then more displeased 
 than the prince, wrote to Belluga a brief, bearing 
 the order to take the purple in virtue of holy 
 obedience. Belluga replied to the Holy-Father 
 that it was indifferent to religion whether he be- 
 came cardinal or not, but that it was a part of a 
 subject's duty to obey his prince. The pope 
 threatened the prelate, who was no more affected 
 by the Holy-Father's threats than he had been by 
 those of the King about the tax, did not in the least 
 pride himself of this at Court, and refused the hat 
 as steadily as the assessment. 
 
 Several months after, an arrangement was 
 made between the two courts, without Belluga in- 
 teresting himself in it; then the King sent to Rome 
 his nomination to the cardinalship in favor of Bel- 
 luga, to whom he gave orders at the same time to 
 accept. The cardinal came to Madrid, presented 
 his hat to the King, received it at his hands and 
 returned to his diocese.
 
 244 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 One never would believe that such conduct was 
 that of a Spanish prelate; here is the contrast in a 
 French cardinal of the same promotion. 
 
 Mailly, of an ancient nobility of Picardy, born- 
 poor, and who remained thus a long time, had at 
 last succeeded in becoming Archbishop of Aries 
 and then of Reims. All he lacked to crown 'his 
 fortune, was the cardinal's hat; and he had aspired 
 to this from the time when he was hardly able to 
 dress himself. He kept up a continued corre- 
 spondence with those who held offices in Rome, and 
 held the matter the more secret as he had almost 
 been ruined during the reign of the late King for 
 having written to the pope. It was then a State 
 crime for an ecclesiastic to write to Rome except 
 through the minister of foreign affairs or through 
 the commission-bankers. It required, to save him 
 and to have him appointed to Reims, all the in- 
 fluence of Father Tellier. But as soon as the Con- 
 stitution had caused our principles to be forgotten 
 and the Regent had permitted all licence, Mailly 
 no longer constrained himself. 
 
 Jealous of the consideration enjoyed by Car- 
 dinal de Noailles, he undertook to distinguish him-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 245 
 
 self in the opposition party, and soon left in it 
 behind him the most fanatic partisans, whom he 
 called lukewarm ones. He was so flattered to see 
 one of his pastoral letters burnt by a decree of 
 Parliament that he founded " a mass of thanks- 
 giving, for having been worthy of participating in 
 the opprobrium of Jesus Christ and of suffering 
 for justice." He hoped that the Parliament might 
 attack him in this matter, but it was so clear that 
 he aspired to the title of martyr, whose crown 
 would be the cardinal's hat, that as a punishment 
 he was left in peace. 
 
 Still his outburst did wonders for him at Rome, 
 and he finally won the pope's heart by requesting 
 him to impart his sermons to him, " of which," he 
 said, " people spoke with admiration." It was 
 the sensitive spot of the good Clement XI, who 
 prided himself on writing Latin in a superior man- 
 ner, and that might well be, with the aid of Father 
 Jouvency and others. The pope, delighted at find- 
 ing at the same time so much religion and taste in 
 Mailly, named him cardinal proprio motu. 
 
 The Regent, already much displeased with the 
 archbishop, broke into a most violent anger, and
 
 246 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 at once ordered Villeron, ensign of the gardes du 
 corps, to go to Reims and forbid the archbishop 
 from leaving there and from wearing the hat; to 
 take it away if he saw it on him, and if he met him 
 on the road to make him go back. 
 
 La Vrilliere, nephew of the archbishop, had 
 dispatched a courier to him to warn him of the 
 Regent's anger, and avoid the imprudences which 
 his infatuation for the hat might make him com- 
 mit. This did not prevent him from leaving for 
 Paris and he had already passed Soissons when 
 Villeron met him. Fortunately the archbishop 
 did not have his hat: he was too well warned. 
 Villeron was very glad not to have to do any 
 violence, notified him of his orders, exhorted him 
 to turn back and after much parleying, took him 
 back to Soissons, where they slept. The next day 
 the question came up to continue on towards 
 Reims. The archbishop said to Villeron that it 
 was useless to escort him; that it would cause a 
 disagreeable scandal; that the order was as good 
 as carried out; that while he returned to Reims, 
 Villeron could return to Paris and render an ac- 
 count to the Regent of the obedience with which
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 247 
 
 feis orders had been received. Villeron gave in, 
 but hardly had he left, when the archbishop fol- 
 lowed him slowly enough so as not to catch up to 
 him, and fast enough to reach Paris on the same 
 day. There he went in hiding. 
 
 Abbe de la Fare, an active and talkative in- 
 triguer, always sure of everything, hard to dis- 
 concert and an ideal man to endure Abbe Dubois' 
 first broadside, came to the latter in the name of 
 the archbishop, whose grand vicar he was. 
 Dubois, enraged at seeing two French cardinals 
 named at the same time, feeling that a third hat, 
 to which he aspired without yet daring to say so, 
 would only be the more difficult to obtain, had 
 himself aroused the Regent's anger. From this 
 one can imagine how he received La Fare. The 
 storm was violent : La Fare allowed it to pass en- 
 tirely; then, with an affectionate air, he set forth 
 to Abbe Dubois that it was not proper in a man 
 of his merit, a great minister as he was, worthy of 
 being a cardinal, to oppose the favours of the 
 pope, begged him to think the matter over, and 
 withdrew. 
 
 Abbe Dubois profited by the advice, under-
 
 248 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 stood that sooner or later he would have to 
 reconcile himself to that affair, and that it was 
 much better to make a merit of it at Rome than 
 to leave it to others. Besides he was flattered at 
 the Abbe de la Fare thinking him worthy of the 
 purple! The project was then natural; but he 
 must put no obstacles in the way. 
 
 He sent for Abbe de la Fare, and, without 
 changing too quickly from the fury of the evening 
 before to clumsy endearments, he exhibited only a 
 little ill-humour and embarrassment. La Fare 
 saw through him, resolved to meet him half way by 
 quickly making up his mind : " Monsieur," said 
 he to him, " I am going to speak frankly to you ; 
 I have no resentment for the rough way in which 
 you treated me yesterday; I saw very well that 
 you spoke to me as minister. You, great states- 
 men, can not do otherwise; but you certainly are 
 not sorry to do something agreeable to the pope, 
 of whom you will shortly have need, for it is easy 
 to see that you can not fail to have the hat soon." 
 Then La Fare launched forth into praise, with 
 an affected simplicity of which the minister was 
 the dupe. Abbe Dubois, much pleased at the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 249 
 
 opening which La Fare gave him to get out of 
 difficulty, said to him smiling : " You are too clear- 
 sighted, abbe: I must confess that you have 
 guessed my wishes; let me pacify M. le Regent; 
 only send word to your archbishop to come here 
 secretly, and remain concealed until he hears from 
 me; it will not be long." Our two rascals em- 
 braced, praised one another on their respective 
 penetration and separated well pleased with one 
 another, each applauding himself. La Fare, how- 
 ever, had more reason than Dubois. It was 
 finally agreed that the archbishop would go 
 secretly to the Palais-Royal, would offer the 
 Regent the most respectful apologies; from there 
 would return to Reims, that when there he would 
 take neither the title, nor insignia of the dignity 
 of cardinal; that, in all his letters addressed to 
 the interior of the kingdom, he would sign only 
 Archbishop of Reims, with permission, however, 
 to sign Cardinal de Mailly in those that he should 
 write to foreign lands. 
 
 All was exactly carried out. The archbishop, 
 having returned to Reims, languished there more 
 than three months, with the consolation of daily
 
 350 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 drawing from his pocket the precious calotte, of 
 looking at it, of pressing it to his lips, of trying 
 it on before the mirror, dying of impatience to 
 wear it in public. 
 
 The Regent wished to make the best of this 
 situation to secure, if not peace, at least a truce 
 in the Church. The Cardinal de Noailles had 
 just given a synopsis of a doctrine approved by 
 Cardinals de Rohan and de Bissy, and which they 
 yet had the art of causing to fail later, by a 
 priestly trick. It was necessary to have the ab- 
 sent prelates sign the work. Care should be 
 taken not to forget the Archbishop of Reims, 
 whose signature would make the greater impres- 
 sion on the others as he was known to be an enemy 
 of Cardinal de Noailles ; and that caused a refusal 
 to be feared. 
 
 Abbe Dubois proposed this commission to La 
 Fare, who had remained in Paris as negotiator for 
 his archbishop. La Fare raised as an objection 
 the difficulty of obtaining the signature of a man 
 who had been left for so long in a humiliating 
 position. He added that the only thing to do, 
 to induce him to sign, was to grant him the in-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 251 
 
 signias of his dignity, and give him at the same 
 time a distinction which might make amends for 
 the treatment received. The synopsis of the 
 doctrine was brought to the other prelates only 
 by ecclesiastics of the second class; La Fare sug- 
 gested that it be sent by Languet, Bishop of Sois- 
 sons, first suffragan of Reims; we shall see why. 
 
 The Regent consented to this but to flatter the 
 archbishop's vanity, and at the same time assure 
 himself of the signature, he gave Languet two 
 sealed letters. In one he ordered the archbishop 
 to sign at once, or else he must renounce his hat 
 forever and spend his life in exile. In the second 
 he exhorted him to sign in the most flattering 
 terms, leaving him full liberty, however, and as- 
 suring him that, whether he refused or accepted, 
 he could come and receive his calotte at the King's 
 hands. The archbishop, on reading these two 
 letters, was soon decided. He signed everything 
 asked for, showed the second letter to everyone, 
 suppressed the first, and came to enjoy the object 
 of his desires, by receiving the calotte. 
 
 The design of La Fare, in proposing Languet, 
 had not only been to honour Cardinal de Mailly,
 
 252 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 but to increase his triumph by humiliating the 
 prelate who had most opposed the promotion. 
 If the purple were the reward of fanaticism, Lan- 
 guet was not wholly wrong in being jealous. 
 Mailly had had one charge burnt by the hand of 
 the executioner, but Languet had had two. His 
 zeal was not cooled by this; he continued to serve 
 Rome while disturbing the Church, and finally 
 died, without a calotte, more than thirty years 
 after. 
 
 The promotion of ten cardinals did not make as 
 much noise in Europe as the downfall of Alberoni. 
 
 We have seen the care he took in keeping away 
 from Madrid all the Parmesans so as to have no 
 witnesses of his low origin, or for fear that they 
 might find it easier than others to reach the Queen. 
 He was however unable to prevent that princess 
 from sending for her nurse, Laura Piscatori, 
 whom she made her assafeta, or premiere femme 
 de chambre, a position more distinguished in Spain 
 than in France, where still it gives the credit which 
 always follows domestic intimacy. 
 
 Laura, a peasant woman as shrewd as she was 
 boorish, knowing all that Alberoni had done to
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 253 
 
 prevent her from being sent for, was not the dupe 
 of the outward consideration of the minister; she 
 noticed the hatred and returned it. The cardinal 
 in an underhanded manner insinuated to the 
 Queen the distance she should hold in the confi- 
 dence between herself and her nurse. Laura, 
 without entering in these fine distinctions, brutally 
 attacked the minister, did not sharpen her shafts, 
 but delivered crushing blows. 
 
 The Regent wished to rid himself of Alberoni, 
 his personal enemy. Abbe Dubois, informed by 
 his spies of the influence of Laura over the Queen 
 of Spain, and knowing, by his over his master, 
 how powerful that force is, undertook to make 
 use of it to overthrow the minister. He had 
 offered to Laura all the money she might wish, for 
 she could not lay claim to anything else from his 
 bounty. Therefore interest united with hatred 
 determined the nurse. It was difficult to per- 
 suade her that the good of the State corresponded 
 with hers. Whatever advantageous idea Albe- 
 roni could have given of his projects to Their 
 Catholic Majesties, it was impossible for him to 
 hide his lack of success: the fleet destroyed, towns
 
 354 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 taken, troops beaten or compelled to intrench 
 themselves, a King without allies, obliged to 
 sustain a war both ruinous and unfortunate against 
 the foremost powers, the projects of the minister, 
 great, if you will, but without satisfactory means, 
 and therefore senseless. 
 
 Laura profited by all her advantages, pointed 
 out to the Queen, and through her to the King, 
 the ambition and folly of Alberoni. 
 
 It is a fortunate thing when princes judge, as 
 die people, ministers and generals by their suc- 
 cess : it is the best way. The Queen, dismayed at 
 these disasters, humiliated at her choice, became 
 disgusted with her minister, and as all the mani- 
 festoes of the countries in league against Spain 
 attacked only Alberoni directly, she thought, in 
 sacrificing him, to place the honour of the mon- 
 archy in safety; and Alberoni received, through 
 a note from Philip V, orders to leave Madrid 
 within twenty-four hours, and in two week* 
 Spanish dominion, with prohibition to see anyone, 
 to write to the King or Queen or to anyone else. 
 At the same time he was placed in charge of an
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 255 
 
 officer of the gardes du corps, who was to see him 
 as far as the frontier. 
 
 At Barcelona, the King's lieutenant gave him 
 an escort of fifty horsemen who were of much use 
 to him; for two hundred bandits having attacked 
 him at Trenta-Passos, the cardinal, at the head of 
 the escort and of his servants, faced the brigands 
 and succeeded in driving them away. 
 
 While Alberoni was going away, it was dis- 
 covered at Madrid that he was taking away some 
 important papers, and among these the will of 
 Charles II which instituted Philip V heir to the 
 monarchy. He apparently intended to gain the 
 Emperor's protection by turning over to him so 
 precious a document. Men were dispatched after 
 him and violence had to be resorted to to search 
 him; but the detachment that had defended him 
 against the bandits, then obeying the King's 
 orders, the officer had the cardinal's baggage and 
 chests opened. All, including his person was 
 carefully examined. The will and almost all his 
 papers were seized; and the officer, until that 
 moment respectful for the cardinal, treated him
 
 256 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 as a military executioner, and left him, sending 
 him, in formal terms, a tons les diables. Never 
 had victory caused greater rejoicing in Spain than 
 did the minister's disgrace: each one proclaimed 
 all he knew or knew not. Acts of ministerial 
 despotism are always so common that one is not 
 reduced to cite unjustly. The King was the only 
 one who knew nothing of them; the Queen must 
 have known of them, but, for her honour's sake, 
 she pretended to hear of them for the first time. 
 The foreign powers on this occasion congratulated 
 Their Catholic Majesties, and from that moment 
 peace was considered assured. 
 
 The manner in which Alberoni had been 
 searched and the insults he still feared from Spain 
 caused him to hasten his march towards France 
 and enter there even before he had received the 
 passport for which he had sent. 
 
 Chevalier de Marcieu, who had known him 
 well before his success, received orders to go and 
 meet him on the frontier, under the pretext of 
 politeness and the safety of his person, without 
 permitting, however, that the usual honours be 
 rendered him. He was also to try to get him to
 
 speak about the affairs of Spain, the King, the 
 Queen, the existing ministry, and upon all subjects 
 of importance to us, and to leave him only on his 
 embarking at Antibes, from whence he expected to 
 go into Italy. 
 
 The cardinal, on seeing the Chevalier de 
 Marcieu come to meet him, at once understood 
 what his mission was and frankly told him so. 
 Marcieu denied it, and although the cardinal knew 
 what to think of his presence, he did not restrain 
 himself in speaking of the King and Queen, whom 
 he termed ingrates. " If the Queen," he said, 
 " who has the devil in her, finds a good general, 
 she will disturb Europe: she easily controls her 
 husband who, as soon as he has said in low tones : 
 * I want to be the master,' ends by obeying, and 
 who only requires a devotion-chair and a woman.'* 
 He added that he, Alberoni, far from having 
 caused the war, had always been opposed to it; 
 that he had had no share in the conspiracy of 
 the prince; that the Due du Maine had not ap- 
 peared in it; but that the duchesse was a wicked 
 she-devil, and that the majority of her partisans 
 whom he would never name, was not worth an
 
 258 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 ecu of good silver; that the landing in Brittany 
 was a folly which he had always condemned, that 
 lie had even thwarted the embarkation in Spain; 
 that he would everywhere be for M. le Regent as 
 that prince would wish him to be; and that all 
 papers against the Regency had always been writ- 
 ten in France. He claimed that the ministry he 
 left in Spain would from then on be composed 
 only of ignoramuses, compelled to have considera- 
 tion for all those who were near a weak King. 
 He did not doubt but that an attempt had been 
 made to have him assassinated by the brigands, 
 by obliging him to pass through Catalonia, whose 
 rebellion he had suppressed and punished, instead 
 of allowing him to leave by way of Pampeluna, 
 as he had asked to be permitted to do. 
 
 Chevalier de Marcieu, in pursuance of his 
 orders, had the Custom department of Narbonne 
 secretly requested to scrupulously examine the 
 cardinal's baggage, on the pretext of seeing if he 
 had nothing dutiable. Only twelve hundred 
 pistoles were found and no jewels of value. la 
 view of his style of living later in Rome, he must
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 259 
 
 have had considerable sums invested in foreign 
 countries. 
 
 He wanted to make people believe that he was 
 poor, but that he cared little, as the only relatives 
 he had were a nephew whom he had made a priest, 
 and a niece whom he was making a nun. These 
 details and a few others are to be found in the 
 letters of Chevalier de Marcieu, from January 6, 
 1720, and the following days until the ist of 
 February, when he saw the cardinal embark at 
 Antibes, on a Genoese galley. Before leaving he 
 gave to the chevalier a paper and a letter in which 
 he offered to wage a most dangerous war on Spain. 
 The Regent did not honour him with a reply. 
 
 Alberoni went from Antibes to Leghorn, and 
 betook himself to Parma, where he received all 
 the honours due to his dignity, by order of the 
 Duke of Parma, whose subject he was born. This 
 vain etiquette did not console him for having no 
 other place of refuge than among his countrymen, 
 who had despised him in his extraction, been 
 jealous of him in his rise, hated him in the misuse 
 of his power, which the Italians express by
 
 260 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 prepotenza, and who exulted in his overthrow. 
 He left Parma and was for more than one year a 
 wanderer, a fugitive, as if exiled from the whole 
 earth. 
 
 Respect of the Roman purple did not seem 
 to him a sufficient protection in Rome against 
 the resentment of the pope, whom he had treated 
 insolently. It was only in 1721 that he went to 
 Rome, at the conclave which followed the death 
 of Clement XI. 
 
 Alberoni's greatest grief was not to have ob- 
 tained the bulls of the Archbishopric of Sevilla, 
 after having resigned the bishopric of Malaga; 
 and, as if he had the right to call Heaven to 
 witness, he at times broke out in great anger, ex- 
 claiming that the pope, the Emperor and Their 
 Catholic Majesties would answer for it to God. 
 It is certain that, had he been in possession of an 
 important see, he could, assisted by Spanish super- 
 stition, have contended against the royal power. 
 
 The Regent, assured of peace without, did not 
 enjoy the same quiet within the State; the illusion 
 of the system was beginning to disappear. Peo- 
 ple came gradually to understand that all paper
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 261 
 
 riches were but ideal, if they were not based on 
 real funds, and that operations which may be 
 proper under certain conditions to a free people, 
 are pernicious in a monarchy where the misuse of 
 power depends on a mistress or on a favourite. 
 The profusions of the Regent delighted the Court 
 or ruined the nation. The great people paid 
 their debts with paper, which was only a legal 
 bankruptcy. That which was the fruit of the toil 
 and industry of a whole people became the prey 
 of the idle and greedy courtiers. 
 
 The paper soon lost all vogue, by its super- 
 abundance only: an attempt was made to convert 
 it into specie. 
 
 For want of coin currency, people bought, at 
 any price, specimens of the goldsmith's art, 
 pieces of furniture and generally all that could 
 retain a real value after the decline of the papers. 
 All being equally eager, everything became un- 
 believably expensive, and the rarity of specie 
 caused it to be more and more closely kept. The 
 government, seeing the frenzy passed, and that 
 there was no longer a possibility of beguiling, 
 made use of violence. Gold, silver, precious
 
 262 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 stones were forbidden. It was not allowed to 
 have more than five hundred livres in specie. 
 Searches were instituted even in religious estab- 
 lishments. Confiscations took place: the inform- 
 ers were encouraged and rewarded. Valets be- 
 trayed their masters, the citizen became the spy 
 of the citizen: which caused Lord Stairs to say 
 that no one could doubt the Catholicity of Law 
 since he had established the inquisition, after having 
 already proved transubstantiation, by the chang- 
 ing of specie into paper. 
 
 Even though the system might not have been 
 pernicious in itself, the abuse would have de- 
 stroyed its principles. There was no longer any 
 plan nor determined object, for the Ills of the 
 moment a remedy was being blindly sought, and 
 this remedy became a greater evil. The decrees, 
 the statutes multiplied, the same day saw some 
 appear which annulled others. 
 
 Never more capricious government, never more 
 frenzied despotism were seen under a Regent less 
 firm. The most inconceivable of the prodigies 
 for those who were witnesses of those times, and 
 who to-day look on it as a dream, is that a sud-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 263 
 
 den revolution was not the outcome; that the 
 Regent and Law did not end tragically. They 
 were held in horror, but the people contented 
 themselves with murmuring; a gloomy and timid 
 despair, a stupid consternation had seized all: 
 minds were too debased to be capable of courageous 
 crimes. 
 
 One could hear of nothing but worthy families 
 ruined, secret poverty, shameful fortunes, new- 
 rich astonished at and unworthy of being, con- 
 temptible nobles, senseless pleasures, scandalous 
 luxury. 
 
 The facility, the necessity even of carrying on 
 ene's person considerable sums in paper, to nego- 
 tiate them, rendered robberies very common; as- 
 sassinations were not rare. There was one whose 
 just and necessary punishment caused a sensation 
 throughout a large portion of Europe. 
 
 Antoine- Joseph, Comte de Horn, aged twenty- 
 two, a captain on half-pay in the cornette blanche 
 Laurent de Mille, from Piedmont, a captain on 
 half-pay in the regiment of Brehenne-Allemand, 
 and an alleged Chevalier d'Estampes plotted to 
 assassinate a rich speculator and to steal his
 
 264 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 wallet. They went to rue Quincampoix and, on 
 the pretext of negotiating one hundred thousand 
 ecus of stock, took the broker to a tavern in the 
 rue de Venise, on March 22, Passion Friday, and 
 stabbed him. The unfortunate broker, in his 
 struggles, made enough noise so as to be heard by; 
 a tavern boy who was passing the door, the key of 
 which was on the outside. The boy opened the 
 door, and, seeing a man covered with blood, 
 closed it again, locked it, and shouted, 
 "Murder!" 
 
 The assassins, seeing themselves locked in, 
 jumped from the windows. D'Estampes, who 
 was on watch on the stairs, had run away at the 
 first shout and hastened to a lodging house in rue 
 de Tournon, where the three dwelt, took the 
 things he could most easily carry and fled. Mille 
 went through the whole crowd in the rue Quin- 
 campoix, but, followed by the people, he was 
 stopped at the Halles. The Comte de Horn was 
 arrested as he fell from the window. Believing 
 his two accomplices safe, he had enough presence 
 of mind to say that he had almost been killed in 
 trying to defend the man who had just been
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 265 
 
 murdered. His plan was not very well arranged 
 and became useless on the arrival of de Mille, who 
 was brought back to the tavern and who con- 
 fessed all. Comte de Horn in vain tried to 
 ignore him, the commissary of police ordered him 
 taken to prison. The crime being proven, the 
 trial was not long, and on Holy Tuesday, March 
 26, both were broken on the wheel on the Place 
 de Greve. 
 
 Comte de Horn was apparently the instigator 
 of the plot, for before the execution and while he 
 still breathed on the wheel, he asked the pardon 
 of his accomplice, who was executed last and who 
 died under the blows. 
 
 I have heard from the prison chaplain a cir- 
 cumstance which well proves the resignation and 
 calmness of Comte de Horn. Having been 
 turned over to the chaplain, while awaiting the 
 doctor of the Sorbonne, the confessor, he said to 
 him: " I deserve the wheel; I had hope that out 
 of consideration for my family, the penalty would 
 be changed to decapitation; I am resigned to all 
 so as to obtain the pardon of my crime from 
 God." He added immediately : " Do people
 
 a66 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 suffer much on the wheel? " The chaplain, taken 
 aback at this question, merely replied that he 
 thought not, and spoke to him in as consoling a 
 manner as he could. 
 
 The Regent was besieged on all sides for a 
 pardon, or at least a commutation of sentence. 
 The crime was so atrocious that people did not in- 
 sist about the first; but entreaties on the second 
 redoubled. It was maintained that the punish- 
 ment on the wheel was so degrading that no 
 daughter of the house of Horn could enter any 
 chapter before the third generation. 
 
 The Regent rejected all prayers for pardon. 
 An attempt was made to influence him on the plea 
 that the condemned had the honour of being re- 
 lated to him through Madame : " Well ! " said 
 he, " I shall share the disgrace; that should con- 
 sole the other relatives." He quoted on that oc- 
 casion the line of Corneille. 
 
 " Le crime fait la honte et non pas 1' echafaud." 
 
 A true and moral maxim, and untrue in our 
 customs. In a State where consideration depends 
 on birth, on rank, on credit and on fortune, all
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 267 
 
 of these means of impunity, a family who cannot 
 screen from justice a guilty relative, is convicted 
 of having no standing, and consequently is 
 despised; the prejudice must then exist. But it 
 does not occur, or at least it is more feeble under 
 an absolute despotism or among free people, 
 wherever it may be said: You are a slave as I 
 am or I am free as you are. Under a despotic 
 government, the condemned man is supposedly 
 only guilty of having offended. In a free country 
 the guilty is sacrificed only to justice; and when 
 it will respect no one the majority of families 
 will have their hanged-man, and consequently will 
 require indulgence, and reciprocal compassion. 
 Then the wrongs being personal, prejudice will 
 disappear: there is no other way of extinguish- 
 ing it. 
 
 The Regent was almost persuaded to commute 
 the sentence : but Law and Abbe Dubois made him 
 see the necessity of maintaining public safety in 
 a time where everyone carried his whole fortune. 
 They proved to him that the people would in no 
 way be satisfied and would feel humiliated at the 
 distinction of punishment for a crime so awful
 
 268 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 and so public. I have often heard this execution 
 discussed and have never heard it condemned but 
 by the nobles interested parties and I may 
 say that I have never concealed my sentiments in 
 their presence. 
 
 When the relatives or allies had lost all hope 
 of moving the Regent, Prince de Robec-Mont- 
 morency and the Marshal d'Isenghen of to-day, 
 to whom the condemned was more nearly related 
 than to others, found a means of entering his 
 prison, brought him poison, and exhorted him to 
 escape, by taking it, the disgrace of his punish- 
 ment: but he refused. "Go, wretch," said they 
 with indignation on leaving him; "you are only 
 worthy of dying at the executioner's handl " 
 
 I have the principal circumstances of the case 
 from the court clerk who imparted the proceedings 
 to me. 
 
 Comte de Horn was, before his last crime, 
 known as a swindler, and in every respect a worth- 
 less fellow. His mother, daughter of Prince de 
 Ligne, Due d'Aremberg, Spanish Grandee and 
 chevalier of the Golden Fleece, and his elder 
 brother, Maximilien Emmanuel, Prince de Horn,
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 269 
 
 informed of the evil ways of the unfortunate, had 
 sent a nobleman to pay his debts, bring him back 
 if willing or obtain from the Regent an order 
 driving him out of Paris; unhappily he only 
 reached Paris on the morrow of the crime. 
 
 It has been claimed that the Regent, having 
 adjudged the confiscation of the goods of Comte 
 de Horn to Prince de Horn, his brother, the latter 
 wrote the following letter: 
 
 "I do not complain, Monseigneur, of my 
 brother's death, but I complain that Your Royal 
 Highness should have violated in his person the 
 rights of the kingdom, of the nobility and of the 
 nation." (The reproach is ill founded, pre- 
 meditated murder is punished by the wheel, with- 
 out distinction of birth.) " I thank you for the 
 confiscation of his goods; I should consider myself 
 as infamous as he should I ever accept any favours 
 from you. I trust that God and the King will 
 one day render you justice as exactly as you have 
 rendered it to my unhappy brother." 
 
 At the time when the Regent was holding up 
 Comte de Horn to public reprobation, he was 
 having sacrifice made in Brittany to the tranquillity
 
 2/o SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 of his regency. On the same day, March 26th, 
 the royal chamber established at Nantes had four 
 Breton nobles beheaded for the crime of lese- 
 majeste and felony. Sixteen of them were hanged 
 in effigy and a large number of other cases were 
 settled by an amnesty. I have already spoken 
 of this affair. All these unfortunate gentlemen, 
 the majority of whom did not know what it was 
 all about, were the victims of the allurements of 
 Cellamare and of the Duchesse du Maine's folly. 
 I shall add but few circumstances. 
 
 The entire city was filled with troops: the 
 bourgeois were prohibited from leaving their 
 houses: the cannon of the chateau were turned 
 towards the city. Montlouis, on mounting the 
 scaffold, seeing the tears of those about, said 
 to them : " My compatriots, we die for you ; pray 
 God for us." D'Evry, who reported the case 
 and who has just died, has said several times that 
 he expected a pardon, after having seen the 
 Duchesse du Maine freed: which proves suffi- 
 ciently that she was the real culprit. 
 
 The Regent, not knowing how to provide for 
 the payment of the rentes and pensions of which
 
 THE DUCHESSE DU MAINE
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 271 
 
 his liberalities daily increased the number, had 
 ordered, by a decree of the council dated February 
 6th, the reimbursement in paper or the reduction 
 to two per cent of all those rentes. By the edict 
 of the month of March following, all the settle- 
 ments of rentes were fixed at the same percentage 
 as if the value of money did not depend solely on 
 its rarity or on its abundance. The prince can 
 fix the legal rate of interest; but he cannot con- 
 strain the lenders. The Parliament refused to 
 register the decree as well as the edict, and made 
 remonstrances which only established the right of 
 making them, and their uselessness. The premier 
 president, not yet recovered from his interview 
 with the Regent, pretended to be ill, so as not to 
 find himself in opposition either with the prince 
 or with the Parliament. We shall see him re- 
 appear when he finds the opportunity favourable 
 to him. This was not long in presenting itself. 
 
 All the members of the Court, encumbered with 
 debts, had freed themselves from them with paper 
 which had only cost them baseness. The honest 
 bourgeoisie was ruined and unheard-of violences 
 were practised on the common people in connec-
 
 272 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 tion with Mississippi (to-day Louisiana). Law, 
 seeing clearly that a foundation must be given to 
 his stocks, at least a fictitious one, made use of 
 the alleged riches which would be secured from 
 Mississippi. It was, he said, a land of promise, 
 abounding in provisions of all kinds, in gold and 
 silver mines. All that was required was to send 
 colonists there, who, in enriching themselves, 
 would also be the builders of the fortune of 
 France. 
 
 This bait not being successful, all the rascals 
 and prostitutes were taken by force from the 
 prisons and reformatories and made to embark. 
 Then those without occupation were seized; and 
 as those who are employed to purge a city of 
 scoundrels are hardly any better themselves, on 
 the pretence of vagrancy, many honest artisans 
 and sons of bourgeois were taken. The police 
 detained some illegally, and made them buy their 
 liberty. Excesses were carried so far that the 
 patience of the people tired of them. The police 
 were repulsed, some were killed, and the minister, 
 intimidated in turn, had these odious persecutions 
 discontinued. It was learned later that almost
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 273 
 
 all the unfortunates, taken by force, turned over 
 for sole subsistence to the charity of the provinces 
 which they were made to cross, had perished on 
 the way, during the crossing or in the colony. 
 
 The Regent and Law no longer knowing what 
 recourse to take to face the royal bills, the council 
 on the zist of May rendered the famous decree 
 which reduced them all to one-half their value. 
 The clamour was general when it was seen, by this 
 reduction, how little faith one could place on the 
 other half. 
 
 The premier president, seeing that the Regent 
 had lost ground, and that all the citizens were in 
 a state of fury, reappeared on the scene and as- 
 sembled the Parliament; but the Regent on the 
 2 yth sent La Vrilliere, secretary of state, to 
 suspend all deliberation, and announce a new de- 
 cree of the council which was issued the next day 
 to again give the bills their full value. 
 
 The blow had been struck. Confidence is in- 
 spired by degrees, but a moment destroys it and 
 it is then well nigh impossible to restore it; there- 
 fore did it not return. The Regent was himself 
 so frightened at the clamour, and rumours, that
 
 274 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 he attempted to cast all the public hatred on 
 Law by taking from him the administration of 
 the finances; and when he was brought to the 
 Palais-Royal, he publicly refused to see him, but 
 that very evening, he had him come in through 
 a secret door, to offer him some consolation and 
 excuses. As the conduct of this prince was as 
 uneven as it was inconsistent, two days after he 
 took Law with him to the Opera; but, to protect 
 him from the fury of the people, he gave him a 
 guard of Swiss from his own house. The pre- 
 caution was not useless : Law had been pelted with 
 stones while in his coach, and had he been at the 
 least distance from his residence, he would have 
 been stoned to death. His wife and daughter 
 almost had the same fate on the public drive, 
 where they had the imprudence of showing them- 
 selves, without considering that the multitude is 
 not made up of courtiers. Besides, the fact of 
 being a foreigner in France and in any other 
 country, does much to aggravate the wrongs of 
 a minister. Had Richelieu been an Italian, he 
 might perhaps have among us, in spite of the 
 eulogies of the Academy, as bad a reputation
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 275 
 
 as Cardinal Mazarin, although of another sort. 
 
 The Regent was just enough to himself to feel 
 that he was more to blame than Law. The lat- 
 ter took refuge at the Palais-Royal, because the 
 attack of the populace was several times renewed 
 against him. He imputed the failure of his sys- 
 tem to the keeper of the seals who, forced to re- 
 linquish the administration of the finances, had 
 hindered all its operations and counselled the de- 
 cree of May 2 1 st. 
 
 Dubois, for whom the system had procured so 
 much money, and who still hoped for more, 
 seconded Law in his resentment; and both in- 
 duced the Regent to re-appoint Chancellor 
 d'Aguesseau. Law, and Chevalier de Conflans, 
 first gentleman of the Regent's chamber, went to- 
 gether to get him at Frene, while Dubois went, on, 
 behalf of the Regent, to ask d'Argenson for the 
 seals which were returned to the chancellor, whose 
 reputation was so damaged by having been 
 brought back by Law that it recovered its original 
 splendour with difficulty. 
 
 The honours of keeper of the seals were con- 
 tinued to d'Argenson. These distinctions and the
 
 276 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 pecuniary fortune he had acquired (for he was 
 born very poor) did not save him the sickness of 
 disgraced ministers, a sort of spleen which takes 
 possession of them and of which almost all perish. 
 
 From the moment that the controllership was 
 taken from Law, who only retained the Bank and 
 the Compagnie des Indes, Pelletier des Forts was 
 appointed commissary general of finances and had 
 as assistants, Ormesson and Caumont. 
 
 The Regent, to gain the public favour or re- 
 duce its hatred, at first appeared to connect the 
 Parliament with his operations. By decree of 
 the council dated June ist, it was permitted to 
 have any amount of money in one's house that 
 one might wish, but few were in a position to 
 avail themselves of the permission. Five mem- 
 bers of Parliament were allowed to confer with 
 the commissioners of finances. So as to with- 
 draw the bank notes, there were issued twenty- 
 five millions of rentes on the city, whose stock was 
 at two and a half per cent, and the settled bills 
 were publicly burned at the Hotel de Ville. But 
 this did not give to individuals the money neces- 
 sary for their pressing and daily needs. The
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 277 
 
 most common provisions had gone up to excessive 
 prices and the notes being refused by all dealers, 
 it was necessary for the Bank to distribute some 
 little money to the holders of notes; the crowd 
 at the Bank was so great that several persons were 
 smothered. Three dead bodies were carried to 
 the Palais-Royal. This sight made such an im- 
 pression that it almost caused an uprising in 
 Paris. 
 
 Le Blanc, secretary of state, hastened to the 
 palace, summoned the watch and the Tuileries 
 guards; but while awaiting their arrival he came 
 to a quick decision and perceiving seven or eight 
 powerful men quite liable to take part in a popular 
 uprising, and even to cause one: "My friends," 
 said he to them quietly, " take these bodies, carry 
 them to a church, and return at once to me to be 
 paid." He was obeyed on the spot and the troops 
 which arrived dispersed by their sole presence the 
 multitude which no longer had before its eyes 
 corpses capable of causing so great an impression. 
 A part of the populace had already left the Palais- 
 Royal to follow the bodies which were being car- 
 ried away, either through aimless curiosity, or to
 
 2?S SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 participate in the promised reward. The same 
 day an ordinance was issued prohibiting the people 
 from assembling under penalty of the law. 
 
 The government was so depraved that no 
 honest man had any confidence in it. For some 
 days past the notes collected from the public were 
 burned at the Hotel de Ville; Trudaine, mayor 
 of Paris, in whose presence this was done, thought 
 he saw numbers which had already gone through 
 his hands and rather bluntly manifested his 
 suspicions. Trudaine was an upright man, full 
 of honour and justice, of severe habits, trained 
 in the spirit and in the principles of the ancient 
 magistracy, an enemy of innovations, and more 
 so of those which seemed doubtful to him. His 
 son, with greater wisdom, rather resembles him; 
 it is a good family. 
 
 The suspicions of the mayor of Paris may have 
 been ill founded; but they were so much like the 
 truth, his position exerted such an influence on 
 public confidence that the Regent took the office 
 away from him and gave it to Chateauneuf. It 
 was uselessly argued that it was in opposition to all 
 rules to replace a mayor before the expiration of
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 279 
 
 his term, and against all municipal laws, to put 
 a foreigner in the place; that this injustice done 
 to a worthy man and one dear to the people 
 spread distrust, instead of destroying it. Rules 
 had but little interest for the Regent ; so Trudaine 
 was deposed. 
 
 Stock gambling, too confined in rue Quincam- 
 poix, had been transferred to the Place Vendome. 
 There assembled the vilest scoundrels and the 
 greatest lords, all united and become equal 
 through greed. But few were mentioned at 
 Court as having preserved themselves from the 
 contagion; among these were Marshal de Villeroi 
 and de Villars, the Dues de Saint-Simon and de la 
 Rochefoucault. Marshal de Villars, braggart 
 even of the qualities which he possessed, crossing 
 the Place one day in a brilliant coach loaded down 
 with pages and lackeys, attempted, for his vanity's 
 sake, to turn his disinterestedness to account. His 
 progress being delayed by the crowd, he put his 
 head out of the coach window, and declaimed 
 against the shame of stock gambling, the disgrace 
 of the nation, adding that as to himself he was 
 perfectly irreproachable as to money. There im-
 
 280 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 mediately arose from those about a general shout: 
 *' How about protection ! How about protec- 
 tion ! " which the marshal had turned to great ac- 
 count when in command of the army. 
 
 These cries which were repeated from one end 
 of the Place to the other, awed the marshal into 
 silence, caused him to sink back into his coach, 
 and pass on as best he could. 
 
 M. le due, boasting candidly one day of the 
 quantity of actions (shares of stock) which he 
 possessed, Turmenies, guard of the royal treasury, 
 a man of wit, and who had acquired a right or 
 a habit of familiarity even with the princes, said 
 to him : " Monseigneur, two of your grandfather's 
 actions (deeds) are worth more than all those." 
 M. le due laughed at this for fear of being 
 obliged to get angry at it. This same Turmenies, 
 being present on the occasion of the return of the 
 Comte de Charolais, after three years of travel, 
 was eager with many others to show his delight. 
 This prince hardly looked at those present, where- 
 upon Turmenies turned towards those about him 
 and said : " Gentlemen, spend much money to
 
 have your children travel: this is the way they 
 return ! " 
 
 On arriving, Comte de Charolais entered the 
 regency council and did not strengthen it. The 
 chancellor, finding himself disturbed by the tumult 
 of stock gambling in the Place Vendome, where 
 the chancellery is, Prince de Garignan, more 
 greedy for money than delicate as to its source, 
 offered his Hotel de Soissons. He caused to be 
 built in the garden a quantity of small booths 
 each of which was rented for five hundred livres 
 a month; the whole brought five hundred thou- 
 sand livres a year. So as to compel the jobbers 
 to make use of them, he secured an ordinance 
 which, on the pretext of having the stock gam- 
 bling policed and of preventing the loss of pocket- 
 books, forbade the doing of any business outside 
 of these booths. 
 
 The Parliament, since its deputies conferred 
 with the commissaries of finances, already flattered 
 itself with participating in the administration; this 
 illusion did not last. An edict granting privilege 
 of all commerce to the Compagnie des Indes was
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 brought to the Parliament to be registered, July 
 17, on the very day some persons were smothered. 
 While this affair was being warmly discussed, the 
 premier president went out a moment, reported 
 on returning what had occurred at the Bank, and 
 that Law's coach had been broken to pieces. All 
 the magistrates arose as one man, with a cry of 
 joy unworthy of the gravity of the sitting : " And 
 Law, is he torn to pieces?" The premier presi- 
 dent replied that he was ignorant of the outcome 
 of the tumult. The entire Assembly rejected the 
 edict and broke up the meeting to hasten to get 
 news. 
 
 The Regent, incensed at the little complacency 
 of the Parliament, called a secret council on 
 Thursday the i8th, at which council it was re- 
 solved to transfer the Parliament to Blois. The 
 chancellor voted for this as the others with the 
 embarrassment of a man bored of exile, and who 
 fears to return to it. He succeeded, however, 
 after the meeting, in having the Regent change 
 the place to Pontoise, instead of Blois. 
 
 On Sunday, the 2ist, without anything having 
 transpired, several companies of guards as early
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 283 
 
 as four o'clock in the morning took possession 
 of the courtyards and of the exterior of the 
 palace; a party of musketeers occupied the large 
 hall, and others the residence of the premier presi- 
 dent, while their comrades brought to all the 
 magistrates an order to betake themselves to 
 iPontoise. 
 
 This transfer of Parliament to a distance of 
 seven leagues from Paris, far from restoring 
 authority, rendered it ridiculous and became a 
 comic scene through the circumstances which ac- 
 companied it. That very evening, the Regent 
 caused to be taken to the Attorney General, one 
 hundred thousand livres in money and as much 
 in notes to aid those who might have need of it. 
 The premier president had a sum even larger to 
 maintain his table and drew, at different times, 
 more than five hundred thousand livres from the 
 Regent, so that the Pontoise session became a sort 
 of pleasure vacation. 
 
 The premier president kept open table, and 
 those who, for reasons of inconvenience or other- 
 wise, desired to remain in their abiding places, 
 sent to the premiere presidence to secure what
 
 284 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 they wished. In the afternoon, gaming-tables in 
 the apartments, barouches all ready in the court- 
 yard for those who preferred to take a drive. 
 The premier president entered the most elabo- 
 rate, and from there named, among those present, 
 those whom he wished to accompany him; conse- 
 quently, Messieurs considered that the premier 
 president was the greatest man in his position. 
 
 In the evening, a delicate and sumptuous meal 
 for all the beautiful women and the men of fash- 
 ion who, in the fine season, came daily from Paris 
 and returned there at night. The fetes, the con- 
 certs, followed one another continually. The road 
 to Pontoise was as popular as that of Versailles 
 is to-day. It might perhaps not have been im- 
 possible to bring the Regent there. He contrib- 
 uted to the pleasures of these exiles who made of 
 them jests more indecent than light. Hardly any 
 questions were considered, and only the litigants 
 suffered. 
 
 The Chamber of Accounts, the Court of Aids, 
 the Grand Council and the University sent depu- 
 ties to Pontoise to compliment the Parliament. 
 An entry was made of this, and, on the I5th of
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 285 
 
 August, the Chamber of Accounts and the Court 
 of Aids affected at the procession of the vow of 
 Louis XIII to leave the Parliament's place empty. 
 
 The Parliament returned to Pontoise on the 
 1 5th of November. Before proposing the dec- 
 laration, several days were taken up in winning 
 over Abbe Pucelle, and when he had been con- 
 ferred with as to the modifications which he 
 wished in the registry, to protect the appellants 
 from all violence, no further obstacle was found. 
 
 In the most numerous assemblies, there are 
 hardly more than two or three persons who decide 
 everything; which proves that there is no body 
 which does not incline to monarchy. The Par- 
 liament registered the declaration on the 4th of 
 December, was recalled on the i6th and on the 
 2Oth resumed its functions at Paris. 
 
 Cases had so accumulated owing to the little 
 work done by the Parliament at Pontoise, that the 
 Chamber established at the Augustins continued 
 to judge many of them, even since the Parlia- 
 ment's return, and distinguished itself by its 
 quickness and integrity. 
 
 The recall of the Parliament decided the ex-
 
 286 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 pulsion of Law, who prudently left two days be- 
 fore the return, in a carriage with the arms of M. 
 le due, accompanied by a few valets wearing that 
 prince's livery, which acted as a sort of protection, 
 and, to provide for emergencies, supplied with 
 the Regent's passports. This did not hinder the 
 elder d'Argenson, commissary of Maubeuge, from 
 stopping him on his passage through Valenciennes, 
 and of sending word of this by a messenger who 
 was returned to him at once with a sharp repri- 
 mand for not having paid deference to the pass- 
 ports. 
 
 Law was a Scotchman, nobleman or not, but 
 claimed to be, as all foreigners do. Tall, well 
 built, with a pleasant and agreeable face, much in- 
 telligence, of remarkable politeness, with haughti- 
 ness without insolence. There was in his home 
 more order and cleanliness than luxury. His 
 wife, or rather she who was supposed to be, 
 for it has since been learned that they were not 
 married, was an Englishwoman of quality, of 
 a haughty character, and which the meannesses of 
 our little and grand dames soon rendered imperti- 
 nent. After having travelled over Germany and
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 28f 
 
 Italy, he settled in Venice, where he died. His 
 system has been and must have been pernicious to 
 France. Law did not know the character of the 
 nation nor that of the prince with whom he had 
 dealings. The overthrow of fortunes has not 
 been the most unfortunate effect of the system and 
 of the regency: a wise administration might have 
 re-established affairs; but morals once depraved 
 are only restored by the revolution of a State, and 
 I have seen them change visibly. During the 
 preceding century, the nobility and the military 
 were only animated by honour; the magistrate 
 sought consideration; the man of letters, the man 
 of talent was ambitious of reputation; the trades- 
 man gloried in his fortune, because it was a proof 
 of intelligence, vigilance, work and thrift; the 
 ecclesiastics who were not virtuous were at least 
 compelled to appear so. All the classes of the 
 State have to-day but one object: to be rich, with- 
 out any one fixing the limit of the fortune to which 
 they aspire. 
 
 An event which interested all Europe wrought 
 consternation in Paris and in a few days through- 
 out all France was the illness of the King. On
 
 288 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the 1 3th of July, he was attacked by a violent fe- 
 ver, with the most sinister symptoms; the head was 
 beginning to become affected and the frightened 
 physicians were losing their own. Helvetius, the 
 youngest of all, whom we have since seen first phy- 
 sician to the Queen, and whom she did not disdain 
 to consider as her friend, retained all his presence 
 of mind. He proposed the bleeding of the foot; 
 all those consulted rejected his proposition. 
 Marechal, first surgeon, whose opinion was much 
 thought of, was the most opposed to that of Hel- 
 vetius, saying that if there were but one lancet in 
 France, he would break it so as not to perform 
 this bleeding. 
 
 . The Regent, M. le due, M. de Villeroi, the 
 Duchesse de Ventendour, the Duchesse de la 
 Ferte, her sister and godmother to the King, and 
 a few intimate officers were present at the consul- 
 tation, and much grieved not to see unanimity. 
 Some of the city physicians were called in, such as 
 Dumoulin, Silva, Camille, Falconet. They were 
 the first to side with Helvetius, who upheld his 
 opinion and justified it with courage, saying: 
 "If the King is not bled, he is dead; this is the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 289 
 
 sole and even urgent remedy; I know that in such 
 a case I can not demonstrate the certainty of suc- 
 cess; I know to what I expose myself, if it does 
 not have the desired effect; but here I must, ac- 
 cording to my judgment, consult only my con- 
 science and the preservation of the King." 
 
 At last, the bleeding took place. An hour 
 after, the fever diminished, the danger vanished 
 and, on the fifth day, the King was able to rise 
 and receive the compliments of the assemblies and 
 of the foreign ministers. 
 
 Helvetius was given all the credit by the Court, 
 and the public, and proved that on many occa- 
 sions probity and honour are not the least qualities 
 of a physician. 
 
 It would be difficult to describe the transports 
 of joy which the King's convalescence caused 
 throughout France, and which followed the gen- 
 eral consternation. What we have seen in I744 r 
 when the King was in such great danger at Metz, 
 only gave a feeble idea of what had occurred on a 
 similar occasion in 1721. A witness of both 
 events, I have seen in 1744 all that the love of 
 Frenchmen can inspire; but in 1721, hearts, while
 
 290 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 filled with the tenderest love, were besides ani- 
 mated by a contrary and very powerful passion, by 
 a general hatred against the Regent, whom people 
 feared to have as master. All the churches, 
 wherein for five days nothing but cries of grief 
 had been heard, rang with Te Deums; no prayer 
 was addressed to heaven which was not as much 
 against the Regent as for the King. 
 
 The ordinance for the public fetes was only a 
 permission to begin them, a simple attention of 
 the police to maintain order. There was not in it 
 that threat of a fine, so ridiculous, so offensive and 
 so absurdly contradictory in an ordinance relating 
 to public rejoicing. 
 
 Cardinal Dubois had just ended a negotiation 
 which interested the Regent infinitely: the mar- 
 riage of the King with the Infanta of Spain, and 
 that of Mile, de Montpensier, daughter of the 
 Regent, with the Prince des Asturies. Philip V 
 had been overcome with joy at having the King of 
 France for a son-in-law and the second marriage 
 being the necessary condition of the first, he had 
 sacrificed the resentment he might have had 
 against the Regent. There remained, not a po-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 291 
 
 litical difficulty, but a domestic embarrassment: 
 namely, to inform the King, whose consent form- 
 ally given was necessary. This prince, still a 
 child, and of a timid nature, might not receive 
 the proposition as it was desired that it should be. 
 Marshal de Villeroi, an almost avowed enemy of 
 the Regent, might perhaps influence the King un- 
 favourably, might incline the cabal to circulate the 
 rumour that the Regent was making a dispropor- 
 tionate marriage, as to age, so as to defer, as much 
 as he could, the hope of seeing the direct succes- 
 sion assured, and counted on events; the Infanta 
 was hardly more than, three then and the King 
 was in his twelfth year. 
 
 The Regent, to strengthen his case with the 
 King, confided the affair to M. le due, who, being 
 superintendent of the King's education, was not to 
 learn this news at the same time as the public. 
 He received the confidence very pleasantly and 
 much approved of the alliance. The Regent then 
 spoke of it to the Bishop of Frejus, telling him 
 that it was a distinction granted him over the mar- 
 shal towards whom he enjoined him to the greatest 
 secrecy. Fleury first made objection to the
 
 292 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Infanta's age, replied rather coldly to the advances 
 which the Regent made to have him side with 
 him, said however that he did not believe that the 
 King would resist, and promised to be with the 
 King when the announcement would be made. 
 It is very doubtful whether he remained faithful 
 to the secret, and did not impart his knowledge 
 to the marshal, whom he treated with great cau- 
 tion, who had rendered him services, who was of 
 use to him and towards whom it was not yet time 
 to be ungrateful. 
 
 However that may be, he seemed to wish to 
 avoid being present at the announcement. It 
 was to be made immediately before the meeting 
 of the regency council, to which the King was to 
 go at once to confirm the consent, the yes uttered 
 in his closet, so that the affair might be consum- 
 mated. 
 
 The Regent, before entering the King's apart- 
 ment, made inquiry about those who were there 
 and, hearing that the Bishop of Frejus had not 
 come, he sent word to him and only entered after 
 having seen him come with the eager air of a man 
 who has made a mistake in the hour. With the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 293 
 
 King, in his apartment, there were only the Re- 
 gent, M. le due, Marshal de Villeroi, the Bishop 
 of Frejus and Cardinal Dubois. 
 
 The Regent, affecting a playful air and a tone 
 of respectful freedom, told the King of the affair 
 in question, set off the advantages of the alliance 
 and begged him to express his satisfaction. The 
 King, surprised, was silent, appeared to be heavy 
 hearted, and his eyes became moist The Bishop 
 of Frejus, seeing that he must make up his mind, 
 either please the Regent or lose his friendship, 
 seconded what had been said. The marshal de- 
 cided by the example of the bishop : " Come, 
 my master," said he to the King, " you must do 
 the thing gracefully." The Regent much em- 
 barrassed, M. le due very taciturn, and Dubois, 
 with a stiff air, waited for the King to break the 
 silence which lasted seven or eight minutes, dur- 
 ing which the bishop did not cease speaking in 
 low tones to the King, and exhorted him with 
 tenderness to come to the council meeting and de- 
 clare his consent. The silence continuing and the 
 meeting of the whole council before which the 
 King would soon be, promising to increase his
 
 294 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 timidity, the bishop turned towards the Regent 
 and said to him : " His Majesty will go to the 
 council, but he requires a little time to prepare 
 himself." Thereupon the Regent replied that he 
 was made to await the King's pleasure, bowed to 
 him with a loving and respectful air, went out, 
 making a sign to the others to follow. M. le 
 due, the marshal and the bishop remained with 
 the King. Dubois, who, since he was cardinal, 
 no longer attended the council meetings, where he 
 was refused precedence, withdrew into another 
 room. 
 
 The Regent, having entered the council cham- 
 ber, found all those present much perplexed at the 
 secret conference in the King's apartment. Those 
 assembled had been looking at one another for 
 a quarter of an hour when the King appeared, 
 followed by the three who had remained with 
 him. 
 
 As soon as all were in their seats, every eye 
 was turned on the King, whose own were still red. 
 The Regent, addressing him, asked if he thought 
 it proper that the council be informed of his mar- 
 riage. The King replied by a yes rather short
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 295 
 
 and low, but which was nevertheless heard, and 
 was sufficient to the Regent, who launched forth 
 mto the details of the advantages of the alliance. 
 When all appeared favourably disposed, he asked 
 for opinions which could not help but be unani- 
 mous, and every member delivered his with a few 
 words of approbation. Marshal de Villeroi, 
 while approving as the others, added sadly that it 
 was unfortunate that the Infanta should be so 
 young. The remark, just in itself, was very much 
 out of place; he should have followed the advice 
 which he had first given to the King, to do the 
 thing gracefully, since it had been decided; and 
 the remark could only increase the King's sombre 
 humour. The Regent did not give him time to 
 reflect, complimented him, laid stress on the una- 
 nimity of the council's opinion, a guarantee of that 
 of all Frenchmen, and at once, to change the sub- 
 ject, had an affair reported. 
 
 That same day all the messengers were dis- 
 patched. The King was very serious the re- 
 mainder of the day; on the morrow, the compli- 
 ments he received diverted him and soon he con- 
 versed with the others about the fetes being pre-
 
 296 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 pared for the arrival of the Infanta. The Regent 
 had the sense not to speak of the two marriages at 
 the same time; jealousy of the second would have 
 turned many people against the first; but two 
 weeks after, when minds had been made familiar 
 with the first news, the Regent sought out the 
 King, and in the presence of M. le due, the bish- 
 op, Marshal de Villeroi and Cardinal Dubois, 
 after having informed the first two of the matter, 
 gave an account of the honour which the King of 
 Spain wished to do him, and asked the King per- 
 mission to accept. The King gave it to him with 
 the cheerfulness of a child who for the past fort- 
 night, has only heard of marriage and of Spain. 
 This alliance with Spain was a stunning blow to 
 the old Court. Marshals de Villeroi, de Villars, 
 d'Huxelles, de Tallard, presented their compli- 
 ments as the others, and strove to hide their dis- 
 pleasure, without being able to conceal their 
 efforts. 
 
 Those who only swore by Spain as long as they 
 had flattered themselves to make a bugbear of it 
 against the Regent, no longer knew on what to 
 lean, could not get over their surprise to see des-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 297 
 
 tined to the throne of Spain the daughter of a 
 prince whose head Philip V had asked during the 
 last reign and who, since, had waged war with 
 Spain. The choice of a child which would delay 
 the marriage of the King several years appeared 
 to them a master stroke of politics. There is ev- 
 ery appearance, however, that the Regent would 
 have been but little interested in the choice of the 
 Infanta if he could without that have married 
 his daughter to the Prince des Asturies. 
 
 The Due de Saint-Simon was appointed am- 
 bassador extraordinary to go and ask the hand of 
 the Infanta. Prince de Rohan, grandfather of 
 the Marshal de Soubise of to-day and son-in-law 
 of the Duchesse de Ventendour, was named to 
 make the exchange of the princesses on the fron- 
 tier. The Due d'Ossone came to Paris, as am- 
 bassador extraordinary, to ask for the hand of 
 Mile, de Montpensier. 
 
 We then had, as ordinary ambassador at Ma- 
 drid, the Marquis de Manlevrier-Langeron : Lauf- 
 tez, an Irishman by birth and major in the 
 gardes du corps of the King of Spain, held in 
 Paris the same place for Spain. Whatever union
 
 298 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 the double marriage made between the two 
 branches of the house of France, the conduct of 
 our ministers at Madrid required prudence. 
 There was, in truth, between France, Spain and 
 England, a defensive alliance, based on the trea- 
 ties of Utrecht and the Triple-Alliance. In it 
 had been stipulated a reciprocal guarantee of the 
 States possessed by these three powers, which con- 
 firmed, at least tacitly, the renunciations and the 
 succession of the crown of England to the Prot- 
 estant house of Hanover. These clauses suited 
 the Regent very well, but were not at all to the 
 taste of the King nor to that of the Queen of 
 Spain, who retained the hope of returning to 
 France, should it have the misfortune to lose its 
 King. Besides, France and England had prom- 
 ised its good services to end the differences which 
 remained to be settled between the Emperor and 
 Spain. But, there was at that time a new germ 
 of misunderstanding. 
 
 The Emperor, still retaining Austrian ideas, 
 had just made a promotion of Grandees of Spain. 
 Philip V complained of this to the allied powers. 
 England, out of gratitude for the advantages she
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 299 
 
 had secured from Spain, arranged this affair and 
 urged the Emperor to make a statement by which 
 he made it known that he had not meant to create 
 Grandees of Spain, which title was not to be found 
 among those of the lords to whom he had simply 
 bestowed distinctions and honours which any sov- 
 ereign has the right to do in his Court. The 
 news of this arrangement reached Madrid two 
 days after the signing of the contract, and quieted 
 Philip V very much. 
 
 - The custom in Spain is for the King not to sign 
 the marriage contract himself, but to have it 
 signed by deputies. This had been done with 
 the marriage contracts of our last two queens, 
 although at the signing of that of Marie-Therese, 
 Louis XIV and Philip V were personally at the 
 frontier. The Due de Saint-Simon desired the 
 King's signature; Grimaldo claimed the ancient 
 custom, but the King and Queen of Spain con- 
 sented to sign, to show their pleasure at the al- 
 liance. During the entire course of this affair, 
 Philip V showed himself more French than he 
 had ever done. It was not the measured joy of 
 a King who succeeds in a negotiation : it was that
 
 300 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 of a happy father, of a generous man who be- 
 comes reconciled. Having heard that the city of 
 Paris had complimented the Due d'Ossone, he had 
 the city of Madrid pay a compliment to the am- 
 bassador of France, an honor which had never be- 
 fore been done to an ambassador. 
 
 Speaking of things without a precedent, one oc- 
 curred for the Due d'Ossone, one which has since 
 served as an example on similar occasions: the 
 Regent, wishing to give him the order of the 
 Holy-Ghost, thought that the King, not yet being 
 a chevalier, and who was not to receive the order 
 before the morrow of his coronation, could create 
 chevaliers only when one himself. He simply 
 wore the cordon such as is given to all the children 
 of France at the time of their birth. The Due d' 
 Ossone was therefore granted permission to wear 
 the cordon while waiting for the time when he 
 could be knighted. 
 
 More was done in Spain for the Due de Saint- 
 Simon than was done in France for the Due d'Os- 
 sone. Philip V made him and one of his sons, 
 whom the father selected, grandees, the honour to 
 be enjoyed by them at the same time. He selected
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 301 
 
 his second son. The Golden Fleece was given to 
 the elder. 
 
 All that remained of the Austrian seemed 
 smothered in the hearts of the Spaniards, who had 
 been able to keep it; and the Frenchmen by birth 
 who still happened to be, through their positions, 
 attached to the person of the King, gave vent to 
 transports of delight. Such was Bontin de Val- 
 ouse, first equerry to Philip V and chevalier of 
 the Fleece. Such was also la Roche, first valet 
 of the wardrobe, a man of recognised honesty, 
 so much so that Philip V trusted him with the 
 esfampille, which is a seal whereon the King's 
 signature is reproduced most faithfully. It is 
 used in Spain to save the King! the trouble of 
 signing himself, an invention both convenient and 
 dangerous, an Asiatic laziness which may some 
 day pass on to the ministers. The keeping of 
 the estampille is not a dignity, but a charge of 
 confidence not less honourable on that account, and 
 La Roche was by virtue of this secretary of the 
 cabinet. Among the worthy French established 
 in Madrid, I must not forget Sartine, whose son 
 in Paris promises to become a person of promi-
 
 302 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 nence. Sartine, born in Lyons, had done some 
 banking there; certain circumstances had caused 
 him to establish himself in Spain. He was a man 
 of intelligence and probity, active, a hard worker 
 and fertile in resources. He had been in charge 
 of the supply department of the armies in Spain; 
 often consulted by the ministers, the generals and 
 the King himself, he had many friends and de- 
 served them. He was commissary general of the 
 navy when he was dragged down by the downfall 
 of Tinnaguas, secretary of state, his friend, at 
 the beginning of the Alberoni ministry. This 
 minister, violent and despotic, who imputed to him 
 as a crime his intimacy wth the Due de Saint- 
 Aignan, our ambassador at Madrid, and the latter 
 being compelled to leave Spain hurriedly, Sartine 
 was cast into prison, and only came out on the 
 downfall of Alberoni. He since married a cam- 
 eriste, who later was a lady of honour to the Queen 
 of Spain, and became commissary of Barcelona, 
 where he died. His real name was des Sardines. 
 His father was a grocer at Lyons. While in 
 Spain Sartine wore the cross of Saint-Michael. I 
 do not think, however, that he was ever made a
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 303 
 
 chevalier of that order; I do not find his name in 
 any list. I wish that his son may give me an op- 
 portunity to so speak of him as I do of his father; 
 it depends on him: my duty is to render justice. 
 
 One of the principal clauses of the instructions 
 given to the Due de Saint-Simon was to see and 
 to cultivate the acquaintance of the Jesuit d' 
 Aubenton, the King's confessor, a very important 
 place when it is not a hollow title. From the very 
 first visit, the good father broke out into protesta- 
 tions of his attachment to the Regent and to 
 France, and of the tenderest esteem for the Due de 
 Saint-Simon, whose friendship for the Jesuits, he 
 said, he well knew. From this subject he passed 
 on to the wish of the King of Spain to place the 
 Infanta in the hands of one of their fathers, alone 
 able to early inspire in that princess the true prin- 
 ciples of religion. 
 
 D'Aubenton spoke the truth as to the wish of 
 Philip V; for at the first private audience which 
 that prince gave to the ambassador, he interrupted 
 a discussion of affairs to request him to ask the 
 Regent that the Infanta be instructed by a Jesuit, 
 and repeated it at different times.
 
 304 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 The Due de Saint-Simon, already informed of 
 the wish of Philip V, could only answer favour- 
 ably to d'Aubenton's proposition. The zealous 
 father, delighted with the opening, became radi- 
 ant, caressing and after several wheedling circum- 
 volutions, and disconnected and vague phrases: 
 " This is not all," said he, " the King expects 
 still more from Your Excellency, from your attach- 
 ment for him, from your love of religion, from 
 your friendship for our association." It was cer- 
 tainly not for the last subject of eulogy that Saint- 
 Simon was best known; but one of the figures of 
 rhetoric of monks is to inspire zeal for themselves, 
 by supposing that one already possesses it. " The 
 King," continued d'Aubenton, " is dying to re- 
 quest you to ask the King to take a Jesuit as con- 
 fessor and to urge the Regent to second you. 
 The infirmities of Abbe Fleury threaten him with 
 an early death; it would therefore be proper to 
 get the start, and that, in the same dispatch wherein 
 you ask for a Jesuit for the Infanta, you propose 
 to have one appointed to the King." 
 
 D'Aubenton terminated his speech by a thou- 
 sand offers of services for the grandeeship which
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 305 
 
 the ambassador desired, and finally asked him to 
 give him his opinion of the matter in a friendly 
 way. 
 
 The trap was rather well laid and the bait clev- 
 erly presented. Saint-Simon extricated himself, 
 however. He expressed to the Jesuit much esteem 
 for his association, and agreed that nothing would 
 be better than to appoint a Jesuit to the Infanta, 
 since the King, her father, desired it; but as re- 
 gards the King's confessional and the interior of 
 his household, the proposition might possibly not 
 be better received in France than might be in Spain 
 that of changing the confessor of Philip V or his 
 ministers; that it was quite a step to have a Jesuit 
 accepted for the Infanta ; that the consideration in 
 which the association was held would do the rest, 
 and that they would be the more easily successful 
 as they would appear to demand less. 
 
 Let us return to what took place in Spain with 
 regard to the double marriage before turning to 
 the affairs of France. 
 
 The Queen, Italian by birth and in heart, hated 
 the Spaniards as much as they hated her, and the 
 daily evidence of this kept up the reciprocal hatred.
 
 306 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 The Queen did not hesitate to confess it, and the 
 people, on their side, when the King and the 
 Queen passed, cried freely in the streets and from 
 the shops: " Viva el rey y la Savoy ana! " (the 
 late Queen, adored of the Spaniards, and whose 
 memory is still venerated) . The reigning Queen 
 in vain pretended to despise these cries of the peo- 
 ple; she was in despair over them; unfortunately, 
 the people and she were not of equal strength. 
 She had all-power through a quite natural means. 
 The King's temperament made a woman a neces- 
 sity to him, and his devotion did not permit of any 
 infidelity. The Queen was homely, although she 
 looked rather noble, and the King was always in a 
 disposition which made him think her beautiful 
 and treat her as such. She made use of all possi- 
 ble coquetry towards her husband, praised him 
 publicly and in his presence on his beauty; and al- 
 though he had been handsome when young, he was 
 then in such a state of decay as to his face, that, 
 if princes were not invulnerable against the most 
 disgusting flattery, he could have taken that of the 
 Queen as a derision. 
 
 The King and the Queen being equally jealous
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 307 
 
 of what might be said to the one or the other, 
 never left one another day or night. Every day, 
 when they awoke, the assafeta came to give them 
 manteaux de lit, and they said their prayers; after 
 which, Grimaldo, to whom the other state's secre- 
 taries turned over the affairs of their departments, 
 entered and made his report. Grimaldo being dis- 
 missed, the King took his dressing-gown, stepped 
 into a side room to dress, and the Queen into the 
 room where she had her dressing-table. The 
 King, soon dressed, had his confessor enter, and 
 after a quarter of an hour of confession or private 
 conversation, went to join the Queen : the children 
 came to them. A few chief officers, the ladies and 
 the cameristes on duty composed the entire com- 
 pany, the conversation turned on hunting, devotion 
 or other things of similar importance. The toi- 
 lette lasted about three-quarters of an hour. The 
 King and the Queen then passed into a room 
 wherein were given private audiences to the for- 
 eign ministers and lords of the Court who had 
 asked for them. 
 
 When some one was ushered in, the Queen pre- 
 tended to withdraw into the recess of a window;
 
 308 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 but the one who had to speak to the King knew 
 that that prince would repeat all to the Queen, 
 that she would be offended at the attempted se- 
 crecy, and would unfavourably influence the King, 
 so that he did not fail to beg her to approach or 
 spoke loud enough to be heard by her, if she per- 
 sisted in her false discretion. 
 
 The Queen therefore knew exactly what was 
 said to the King, and had besides, each week, an 
 hour in which she could, without the King's knowl- 
 edge, converse with those whom she wished to 
 have secretly introduced : that day was the one on 
 which the King gave a private audience. 
 
 The King, with his hat on his head, seated in 
 front of a table, the grandees standing, side by 
 side against the wall and also with their hats on, 
 each individual who had given his name was called 
 in the order it was written. He knelt before the 
 King, explained his business in a very few words, 
 usually left a memorandum on the table, arose, 
 and withdrew after having kissed the King's hand. 
 The priests were distinguished from the worldly, 
 to the extent of being ordered to rise when they
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 309 
 
 had made a genuflexion. If any one of those who 
 came to this audience wished not to be heard by any 
 one and if he were known, he said so. Then the 
 officer who held the list turned towards the gran- 
 dees, saying aloud: "This is a secret audience;" 
 all went out and returned only after that individual 
 had withdrawn. The only captain of the guards, 
 outside, held the door partly open so that, although 
 unable to hear anything, he could with his head in 
 the room, always see the King and the one who 
 spoke to him. 
 
 If the Queen took advantage of this audience to 
 talk to someone, it had to be done very secretly; 
 for the King was always anxious as to what might 
 be said privately to her, so anxious that when she 
 was confessing, if the confession lasted longer than 
 usual, he entered the room and called her. 
 
 They took communion together every week, and 
 the Queen's ladies would have displeased him had 
 they not done the same. 
 
 The King's sole amusement was the hunt, which 
 was not less sad than the rest of his life. Peas- 
 ants formed an enclosure for a battue, and made
 
 310 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 stags, boars, deer, foxes, etc., pass before the King 
 and Queen, who, hidden in a bower, fired on the 
 animals. 
 
 What is known of the life of Mme. de Main- 
 tenon and what is seen here of the Queen of 
 Spain's conduct is sufficient evidence of the torture 
 of the women who wish to govern the most subju- 
 gated kings. If one uncovers the private life of 
 favourites, one will have pity of a position so cov- 
 eted. 
 
 Whatever influence the Queen may have had 
 over the King's mind, she was compelled to study 
 him at all moments, to create or make use of op- 
 portunities, to give in on occasions and to employ 
 the advantages given her by the King's tempera- 
 ment. The Queen's refusal irritated her husband, 
 excited him more and more, sometimes produced 
 violent scenes and ended by having the Queen ob- 
 tain what she wanted. The violence of the King's 
 desires made the Queen's strength. 
 
 Philip V, born with a sense of justice, but not 
 yery broad, was silent, reserved, even timid, dis- 
 trustful of himself. His education acquired in 
 France, his mode of life in Spain had only con-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 311 
 
 firmed his character. Taciturn and through that 
 itself a more careful observer of those who ap- 
 proached him, he noticed their ridiculous sides, and 
 sometimes, in the privacy of his solitude, gave 
 amusing accounts of them. 
 
 He was very watchful over his health : his phy- 
 sician, had he been an intriguer, could have played 
 a great part. Lyghins, an Irishman, who occu- 
 pied that first place, far removed from intrigue and 
 cupidity, learned in his art, devoted himself to it 
 solely. After his death, the Queen had the posi- 
 tion given to Servi, her private physician. 
 
 Philip V had loved war, although he had waged 
 it in a singular manner. He never made a plan of 
 campaign, relying on his general officers for his 
 military operations; he only contributed to them 
 by his presence. If they placed him out of danger,, 
 he remained there, and did not consider it a part 
 of his glory to approach it. If the chances of the 
 day placed him in the midst of the sharpest fire, he 
 remained there with the same calmness, and en- 
 joyed looking at those who showed fear. 
 
 Easy to serve, good, familiar with his private 
 servants, wholly French at heart, he only wel-
 
 312 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 corned the Spaniards out of gratitude for their 
 services. Tenderly loving the King, his nephew, 
 he retained a hope of returning if we had the mis- 
 fortune of losing this sole scion of the royal fam- 
 ily. Yet he would not have ascended without 
 scruples the throne of his forefathers, after the 
 solemn renunciations which he had made to the 
 crown of France. He could not, on the same 
 principle, consider as illusory the renunciation of 
 Marie-Therese of Austria, to the throne of Spain, 
 on marrying Louis XIV. His conscience would 
 have been at rest on neither of the thrones. These 
 scruples, which his confessor had difficulty in dis- 
 sipating, are not those of a strong-minded man, 
 nor, we may say, worthy of a prince, but they be- 
 long to a pure soul. His remorse, more curbed 
 than destroyed, has been the principal cause of his 
 abdication, and of the reluctance he had in again 
 taking the crown after the death of his son Louis 
 I. The throne transmitted to his son can not, 
 according to his scruples, have appeared less of 
 an usurpation, if such there was; but after all it 
 sufficed that he made the sole sacrifice depending 
 on him. Besides, scrupulous souls are very con-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 313 
 
 sistent neither in that which disturbs them, nor in 
 that which calms them. 
 
 The Queen was of quite opposite character; to 
 reign was all to her. The least legitimate pos- 
 session would have been a right in her eyes. 
 Raised in her father's little Court, she had not 
 there acquired a very exact idea of the Courts of 
 Europe. Yet she thought herself made to reign, 
 well or ill, from the day she ascended the throne. 
 We have seen how fortune placed her there. 
 
 She first proposed two objects to herself and 
 never lost sight of them. The first, to establish 
 her influence so firmly over the mind of the King 
 that she might rule under that prince's name. 
 The second, to provide against the state of widow 
 of a King of Spain who would have as a successor 
 a son of whom she was not the mother. 
 
 She therefore resolved to procure a sovereignty 
 for one of her sons, where she might some day re- 
 tire, again reign, or at least not obey. 
 
 The Court of Spain was and continued to be di- 
 vided into two cabals; the Italian, the least numer- 
 ous, was the dominant one through the Queen's 
 favour. The Spanish cabal, for which were all the
 
 314 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 prayers of the nation, moaned at the credit of the 
 Italians and hated them cordially. Almost all im- 
 portant places were, in truth, occupied by Span- 
 iards, but they were limited to the titles of these 
 places of which but few performed the duties ow- 
 ing to the solitude in which the Queen constantly 
 kept the King. The surgeon, the apothecary and 
 the personal valets were French. 
 
 The two princesses whose contracts had just 
 been signed, arrived on the same day in the island 
 of Pheasants of the river of Bidassoa, where the 
 exchange was made, and where had taken place in 
 1659 the interview of Louis XIV, the Queen, his 
 mother, and of Philip IV, brother to the Queen. 
 
 There were at first a few difficulties over the act 
 of exchange between Prince de Rohan and the 
 Marquis de Santa Cruz. The former had called 
 himself Highness in the French act. Santa-Cruz, 
 majordomo major to the Queen of Spain, charged 
 with accompanying the Infanta, declared that he 
 would pass over everything they might wish in the 
 French act, because Spain did not have to settle the 
 titles and ranks of the French, but that in the Span-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 315 
 
 ish act, the only title given to both would be ex- 
 cellency. Prince de Rohan, seeing that in that act, 
 Santa-Cruz did not take the title of grandee, did 
 not take that of duke and peer, and contented him- 
 self with signing the exchange, without any addi- 
 tion of rank. 
 
 The exchange being made, the Infanta took the 
 raad to Paris, and Mile, de Montpensier that of 
 Madrid. The two princesses were followed by 
 no one of their nation, with the exception of a sub- 
 governess (de Nieves, segnora de honor] who 
 was left to the Infanta, because of her youth. 
 
 I shall not linger over the celebrations which 
 fill the journals; but I shall continue to call atten- 
 tion to special matters worthy of notice. 
 
 The Spanish gravity and reserve do not permit 
 of seeing a married couple going to bed. How- 
 ever, our ambassador, wishing to establish the wed- 
 ding of the Prince des Asturies, for the couple 
 were not to live together before a year, because of 
 the prince's delicate health, obtained from Their 
 Catholic Majesties a derogation to the etiquette of 
 Spain, and in order to persuade them cited what
 
 316 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 had taken place at the marriage of the Due de 
 Bourgogne. A French example was very power- 
 ful on the mind of Philip V. The precaution was 
 then taken to gain over a few sober persons whose 
 approbation prevented the others from being 
 shocked. At last the couple were put to bed and 
 the curtains open, members of the Court were al- 
 lowed to enter the room. A quarter of an hour 
 after, the curtains were drawn together. The Due 
 de Popoli, tutor to the prince, remained under the 
 curtain on one side, and the Duchesse de Mon- 
 teillano, governess to the princess, on the other. 
 After a few minutes, all those present were dis- 
 missed and the couple separated. 
 
 The Princess des Asturies, from the first days 
 of her arrival at the Court of Spain, exhibited evi- 
 dences of a sombre and sullen humour. She had 
 almost to be forced to call upon the King and 
 Queen. The most elaborate preparations had been 
 made for a ball which Their Catholic Majesties 
 and the entire Court looked forward to with dt- 
 light. The princess refused to appear there, with- 
 out reason, but solely through the whim of a dull 
 and foolish child; either she did not reply to the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 317 
 
 remonstrances made to her, or her reply was that 
 the King and Queen could live according to their 
 fancy, and that she wished to live according to her 
 own. The details of scenes sadly ridiculous would 
 be disgusting, even in the simple memoirs such as 
 these I write. To complete in a few words that 
 which concerns her, she continued to be at Madrid 
 as foolish, as dull, as sullen as we have since seen 
 her in Paris, where she came to vegetate, dowager 
 Queen of Spain, from 1725 to 1742, when she died 
 in the Luxembourg. 
 
 The Infanta arrived in Paris and there received 
 the honours of a Queen; she was even given that 
 title in all the accounts. Events have shown that 
 people had been too hasty in calling her Queen. 
 There was no risk, and it would have been more 
 proper to wait, since, independently of her desti- 
 nation, she took, by her birth alone, precedence of 
 Madame. It is true that in anticipation the title 
 of Dauphine had been bestowed on the Duchesse 
 de Bourgogne, as soon as she arrived in France; 
 but that was necessary to give her precedence which 
 no princess of the blood would have given her, in 
 view of her then being only the daughter of a
 
 318 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Duke of Savoy, who, not yet being a King, gave 
 way to the electors. 
 
 As soon as our ambassador had fulfilled his mis- 
 sion in Spain, he hastened the more to leave that 
 country, as Cardinal Dubois had a mind to keep 
 him there on various pretexts. 
 
 On the 1 6th of February, the King, having en- 
 tered into his fourteenth year, received the com- 
 pliments of the Court on having reached his ma- 
 jority, and on the 22nd he came on that account to 
 the Parliament to hold his bed of justice, and 
 created three dukes and peers at that session: 
 Biron, Levis and La Valliere. The family of the 
 first ingenuously urged in their application the loss 
 of the duchy, through the condemnation of Charles 
 de Biron, for the crime of lese-majeste. Others 
 wished to use this as a motive of exclusion: yet 
 too much should not be made of personal faults. 
 It is just and the part of a wise government that 
 a family ruined by its faults should be allowed to 
 rise again by its services. 
 
 The regency council ceased to exist on the ma- 
 jority and the councils resumed the form they had 
 under the late King, with the exception of the two
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 319 
 
 princes of the blood, the Due de Chartres and M. 
 le due, who entered the Council of State, with the 
 Due d'Orleans. Cardinal Dubois was a member 
 by right and he introduced into it the Comte de 
 Morville, by giving him the department of For- 
 eign Affairs. 
 
 Cardinal Dubois, in spite of his power, feared 
 all those who approached the King. To restrict 
 as much as possible the court of intimates, he had 
 the grand and first receptions which were granted 
 by Louis XIV suppressed and in their stead he 
 created others called familiar, which he limited to 
 himself, to the princes of the blood and to the 
 Comte de Toulouse, to the Duchesse de Ventadour 
 and to the Due de Charost, and extended them to 
 the Due du Maine and to his two sons when they 
 were restored to the honours of princes of the 
 blood. At first he did not grant them to the 
 Bishop of Frejus; but seeing soon that it would be 
 imprudent to refuse them to a man cherished of the 
 King, and who would finally obtain them from 
 that prince himself, a few days after he placed his 
 name on the list, as if it had been omitted through 
 oversight.
 
 320 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 The suspicions of the cardinal increased from 
 day to day. He noticed that the King had no lik- 
 ing for him. Independently of an ugliness of 
 face, of a natural stammer which a habit of deceit 
 and of primitive servitude had increased still 
 more, his manners were never more awkward nor 
 more disagreeable than when he strove to please. 
 He lacked the exterior polish of education which 
 can no longer be acquired after a certain age; so 
 that being unable to attain politeness when he 
 needed it, he seemed low and fawning; and his 
 habitual coarseness to the eyes of a young prince 
 accustomed to the respect and charm of the Re- 
 gent, had an air of insolence. 
 
 The cardinal, to overcome as much as he could 
 the King's disgust, often presented him with nov- 
 elties suitable to his age. Destouches, our minis- 
 ter at London, was intrusted with these commis- 
 sions, and the cardinal requested that they only 
 be sent one after another, so as to multiply the oc- 
 casions to please the King and keep up his grat- 
 itude. 
 
 As the King was reviewing his own troops, the 
 cardinal wished to enjoy the honours of premier
 
 CARDINAL DUBOIS
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 321 
 
 minister, which are almost the same as those ren- 
 dered to the person of the King. He mounted a 
 horse a quarter of an hour before the arrival of 
 the King and passed in front of the troops, who 
 saluted him, sword in hand. I saw, a few years 
 after, the King's Household do the same for Cardi- 
 nal de Fleury, who had not taken the title of pre- 
 mier minister, but who enjoyed full-power. A 
 thing which proves that these honours were not 
 compulsory is that the Due d'Harcourt, captain 
 of a company of gardes du corps, displeased at 
 Cardinal de Fleury, saw him pass without making 
 him the slightest salute, and the regiment remained 
 as still as the captain. 
 
 Cardinal Dubois paid dearly for this little satis- 
 faction. The movements of the horse caused an. 
 abscess to burst which led the physicians to believe 
 that gangrene would soon set in in the bladder. 
 They declared to him that unless he were operated 
 on promptly he had not four days to live. He be- 
 came violently angry at this. The Due d'Orleans, 
 notified of the patient's condition, had much 
 trouble to quiet him and to persuade him to allow 
 himself to be taken to Versailles, where another
 
 322 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 scene took place. When the Faculty suggested 
 that he receive the sacraments before the opera- 
 tion, his fury knew no bounds and he angrily ad- 
 dressed everyone who approached him. At last, 
 giving way to exhaustion after so much frenzy, 
 he sent for a Franciscan friar, with whom he re- 
 mained alone about ten minutes. Then mention 
 was made of bringing him the Viaticum. " The 
 Viaticum!" he exclaimed, "that is easily said; 
 there is a great ceremony for cardinals; let some- 
 one be sent to Paris to find out from Bissy." The 
 surgeons, seeing the danger of the least delay, told 
 him that in the meantime the operation might be 
 performed. At each proposal, he gave way to 
 new attacks of fury. The Due d'Orleans decided 
 him by dint of entreaties and the operation was 
 performed by La Peyronie, but the nature of the 
 sore and of the pus showed that the patient would 
 not last. As long as he was in possession of his 
 senses, he did not cease with grindings of the teeth 
 to inveigh against the Faculty. The convulsions 
 of death combined with those of despair and when 
 he was no longer able to see, to hear or to blas- 
 pheme, extreme-unction was administered to him
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 323 
 
 and took the place of the Viaticum. He died on 
 the morrow of the operation. 
 
 ''Thus ended that phenomenon of fortune, 
 loaded with honours and riches. He possessed, 
 besides the archbishopric of Cambrai, seven im- 
 portant abbeys, and when he died he was trying 
 to secure those of Citeaux, of Premontre and oth- 
 ers. I see in a letter dated May 19, 1722, and 
 written by the cardinal to Chavigny, one of his 
 agents at Madrid, that not content with the pre- 
 miership, he wished to have revived for himself 
 the ancient sovereignty of Cambrai. He requests 
 Chavigny to look up the titles in Spain. "If the 
 King of Spain," he says in his letter, " has been 
 an usurper as he appears to have been by the pro- 
 tests which the archbishops have always made, the 
 King of France is the wrongful holder." Chav- 
 igny was unsuccessful in his search. 
 
 The office of premier minister was worth one 
 hundred and fifty thousand livres to the cardinal 
 and the superintendency of the mails one hundred 
 thousand livres. But, what is shameful for a min- 
 ister and would be for any Frenchman, he received 
 
 from England a pension of forty thousand pounds
 
 324 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 sterling, worth about one million, evident proof 
 of the sacrifice he made of France to the English. 
 He made them one very unworthy of his office. 
 King George had imposed an extraordinary tax of 
 one hundred thousand pounds sterling on the Cath- 
 olics of England. At the first news of this, our 
 entire council took sides with them and instructed 
 Cardinal Dubois to complain vigorously against it 
 and to ask for the repeal of the tax. Nothing but 
 the dignity of the cardinal should have kept him 
 from tergiversating. He wrote a very strong let- 
 ter, read it to the council, who approved of it and 
 had it sent. George's ministers were at first so 
 embarrassed that they did not know what to do; 
 they were about to repeal the tax, but they were 
 soon reassured. The cardinal, after the departure 
 of the first messenger, had promptly dispatched 
 one to Destouches, our agent in London, with a 
 letter in cipher dated November 19, 1722, in which 
 he instructed him to calm the English ministers 
 and assured them that we would not follow up that 
 matter. 
 
 Besides this he enjoyed the income of two mil-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 325 
 
 lions, without counting cash and an immense quan- 
 tity of furniture, carriages, silver and jewelry of 
 all kinds. More greedy than avaricious, he kept 
 a superb house and a sumptuous table of which he 
 did the honours very well, although personally 
 sober. 
 
 The immense collection of furniture of the car- 
 dinal went to his elder brother, Dubois, secretary 
 of the cabinet, since the younger had become secre- 
 tary of state. 
 
 Cardinal Dubois no doubt possessed great in- 
 telligence, but he was much inferior to his office. 
 More fit for intrigue than for administration, he 
 actively followed an object without grasping all 
 the bearings. The affair which interested him at 
 one time rendered him incapable of attention for 
 any other. He had neither the extensiveness nor 
 that flexibility of mind necessary to a minister in- 
 trusted with different operations, and which must 
 frequently come together. Wishing that noth- 
 ing should escape him, and being unable to suffice 
 to all, he has been seen at times throwing a pile 
 of sealed letters into the fire, " to post himself."
 
 326 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 he said. What injured his administration most 
 was the suspicions which he inspired, the opinion 
 people had of his person. 
 
 He despised virtue as openly as he disdained 
 hypocrisy, although he was full of deceitfulness. 
 He had more vices than faults; though quite ex- 
 .empt of meanness, he was not so of folly. He 
 never blushed at his birth, and did not select the 
 ecclesiastic habit as a veil which covers all origin, 
 but as the foremost means of rising for an ambi- 
 tion without extraction. If he caused all honours 
 of etiquette to be rendered him, childish vanity 
 had nothing to do with it; it was the conviction, 
 that honours due to offices and dignities equally 
 belong, without distinction of birth, to all those 
 who take possession of them, and that it is as much 
 a duty as a right to demand them. 
 
 In having rendered to him what was his due, 
 he was not the more dignified. No haughtiness 
 was experienced from him but much vulgar harsh- 
 ness. The least contradiction angered him, and 
 in his fury, he has been seen to rush against the 
 chairs and tables of his apartment. 
 
 On the day of Easter which followed his pro-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 327 
 
 motion to the cardinalship, having awakened a 
 little later than usual, he broke out into curses 
 against all his servants, because they had allowed 
 him to oversleep on a day when they knew that he 
 wished to say mass. They hurried to dress him, 
 he swearing the while. He recalled some affair, 
 sent for his secretary, forgot to go and say mass, 
 even to hear it. 
 
 He generally ate a chicken wing every evening. 
 One day, about the time he was to be served, a 
 dog carried away the chicken. His servants saw 
 nothing better to do than to put another one on 
 the spit immediately. The cardinal asks for his 
 chicken on the instant; the maitre d'hotel, forsee- 
 ing his fury if he were told of the fact, or asked 
 to wait later than the usual hour, makes up his 
 mind and says coldly : " Monseigneur, you have 
 had your supper." 
 
 u I have had my supper? " replied the cardinal. 
 
 " Of course, Monseigneur. It is true that you 
 ate but little, you seemed to be much wrapped in 
 thought; but if you wish, another chicken will be 
 served you; it will not take long." 
 
 Dr. Chirac, who saw him every evening, comes
 
 328 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 in at that moment. The valets inform him as to 
 the situation and beg him to assist them. w 
 
 " Parbleu" says the cardinal; "here is some- 
 thing strange ! My men wish to persuade me that 
 I have had my supper; I have not the slightest rec- 
 ollection of it and, moreover, I feel very hungry." 
 
 "So much the better," replies Chirac; "work 
 has made you very tired, the first pieces of meat 
 must have only aroused your appetite, and you may 
 eat a little more without danger. Have Mon- 
 seigneur served," added he to the servants. " I 
 shall watch him finish his supper." The chicken 
 was brought. The cardinal looked upon his eat- 
 ing twice as an evident sign of health, and was, 
 during the meal, in the best possible humour. 
 
 He did not constrain himself for anyone. The 
 Princess Montauban-Bautru having displeased 
 him, which was no hard matter, he sent her about 
 her business in energetic terms. She went to com- 
 plain to the Regent from whom she received only 
 the reply that the cardinal was a bit quick, but 
 otherwise of good advice. Dubois did not act 
 differently with Cardinal de Gesvres, a grave man 
 and of severe morals. The reparations of the
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 329 
 
 Regent, being of the same kind as the minister's 
 offences, people became accustomed to look upon 
 his words as without importance. 
 
 It was not necessary to displease him in order 
 to experience outbursts from him. The Marquise 
 de Conflans, the governess to the Regent, having 
 gone to the cardinal's solely to pay him a visit, 
 found him in a moment of ill humour. She was 
 unknown to him and hardly had she said: 
 " Monseigneur . . ." 
 
 " Ho ! Monseigneur," said the cardinal, cutting 
 her short, " it can not be done." 
 
 " But, Monseigneur . . ." 
 
 " But, but, there is no but, when I tell you that 
 it can not be done." 
 
 The marquise uselessly attempted to explain 
 that she sought no favours. The cardinal, with- 
 out listening, took her by the shoulders, turned her 
 around and made her go out. The marquise, 
 frightened, thought him suffering from an attack 
 of insanity, was not much mistaken and fled cry- 
 ing that he should be locked up. 
 
 Sometimes he could be calmed if the same tone 
 were applied to him. He had among his private
 
 330 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 secretaries an unfrocked benedictine, named 
 Venier, a man of unscrupulous character. The 
 cardinal, while having him work with him, had 
 need of a paper which he did not find at hand at 
 a given time; he becomes excited, swears, exclaims 
 that with thirty clerks he cannot be waited on, that 
 he is going to hire one hundred and will be no 
 better off. Venier looks at him calmly, without 
 answering, lets him give vent to his complaint. 
 The phlegm and the silence of the secretary in- 
 crease the fury of the cardinal who, taking him 
 by the arm, shakes him and shouts: 'Why do 
 you not answer me, scoundrel; is it not true? " 
 
 " Monseigneur," says Venier, not at all moved, 
 " take but one more clerk to swear for you, you 
 will have time to spare and all will be well." 
 
 The cardinal became calm and finally laughed. 
 
 The Regent was delighted at his minister's 
 death. On the day of the operation the extremely 
 warm atmosphere turned to storm; at the first 
 thunder crash, the prince could not help saying: 
 " I hope that this weather will cause my rogue to 
 depart." In fact, he had no more consideration 
 for his former master than for any one else:
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 331 
 
 the Regent hardly dared to make him the slightest 
 recommendation. The prince had kept for him- 
 self the benefice and favour sheet in return for 
 his work with the King; but he had allowed him- 
 self to be required to first communicate the list 
 to the cardinal who insolently crossed out the 
 names of those he did not like. Never was 
 servitude more shameful than that wherein this 
 prince had placed himself, which he felt painfully, 
 which he was ashamed to acknowledge, and from 
 which he had not the strength to free himself. 
 
 As soon as the cardinal had expired, the Regent 
 came from Versailles to Meudon to announce it 
 to the King, who, already prepared by the Bishop 
 of Frejus, requested the prince to take charge of 
 the government, and the next day appointed him 
 premier minister. 
 
 As the King had only been transferred to 
 Meudon for the convenience of the cardinal, he 
 returned to Versailles two days after. 
 
 At first the Due d' Orleans appeared to wish 
 to give himself up to work; but his laziness and 
 dissipation soon caused him to abandon affairs to 
 the secretaries of state and he continued to give
 
 332 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 himself up to low debauchery. His health was 
 visibly affected by this, and throughout the greater 
 part of the morning he was in a state of torpor 
 which rendered him incapable of application. It 
 was foreseen that at any moment, he would be 
 carried away by an attack of apoplexy. His 
 faithful servants strove to have him diet himself, 
 or at least to give up the excesses which might 
 kill him at any time. He replied that a foolish 
 fear should not deprive him of his pleasures; yet 
 blase in all things, he gave himself up to them 
 more from habit" than taste. He added that, far 
 from fearing a sudden death, that was the sort 
 he would choose. 
 
 For some time past, Chirac, noticing the 
 full-blooded complexion of the prince and his 
 bloodshot eyes, wanted to bleed him. On the 
 morning of Thursday, December 2nd, he urged 
 him so earnestly that the prince to rid him- 
 self of the physician's persecution, said that he 
 had urgent affairs which could not be put off, 
 but that, on the following Monday, he would 
 surrender fully to the Faculty, and until then 
 would be most careful in his diet. He gave this
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 333 
 
 promise so little thought that that very day he 
 dined at noon, a thing he never did, and ate 
 much as was his habit. 
 
 In the afternoon, alone with the Duchesse de 
 Phalaris, one of his fawners, he was amusing him- 
 self while waiting for the working hour with the 
 King. Seated one next to the other, before the 
 fire, the Due d' Orleans suddenly falls on the arm 
 of the duchesse who, seeing him unconscious, 
 rises in fright and calls for help, without finding 
 anyone in the apartment. The prince's servants, 
 who knew that he always went to the King's 
 room by a hidden staircase and that during that 
 work hour no one came, had gone away. We 
 have seen a similar example of dispersion in the 
 King's apartment on the day of the attack of 
 January 5, 1757, because that prince was not to 
 return to Versailles that day. 
 
 The Duchesse de Phalaris was therefore obliged 
 to run to the courtyards to bring someone. The 
 crowd was soon in the apartment, but more than a 
 half hour passed before a surgeon was found. 
 Finally one came and the prince was bled; he was 
 dead.
 
 334 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 Thus perished at the age of forty-nine years 
 and a few months one of the most amiable men in 
 the world, full of wit, talents, military courage, 
 goodness, humanity, and one of the worst princes, 
 that is to say, one of the least able to govern. 
 
 La Vrilliere went at once to announce the death 
 of the Due d' Orleans to the King and to the 
 Bishop of Frejus; from there to M. le due, whom 
 he exhorted to ask for the place of premier 
 minister; went at once into his offices, and to pro- 
 vide for all emergencies he had a patent drawn up 
 modelled after that of the Due d' Orleans. Pro- 
 vided with this document and the formula of the 
 oath, he returned to the King's rooms where M. 
 le due had already betaken himself, followed by 
 a crowd of courtiers. 
 
 The King, all in tears, had near him the Bishop 
 of Frejus who, after having allowed the first 
 moments of grief to pass, said to him that, in order 
 to repair the loss he had just made, the most fitting 
 thing to do was to request M. le due to accept the 
 place of premier minister. The King without re- 
 plying, looked at the bishop, and gave his approba- 
 tion by a simple nod of the head. M. le due
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 335 
 
 
 
 offered his thanks at once. La Vrilliere, then 
 drawing from his pocket the formula of the oath, 
 asked the prelate if it were not in order to have 
 it taken at once. The bishop much approved of 
 it and proposed it to the King, who, consequently, 
 approved of it also. M. le due took the oath and 
 all was finished an hour after the death of the 
 Due d' Orleans. 
 
 The Bishop of Frejus could have taken pos- 
 session of the ministry just as easily as he had it 
 given to M. le due. His friends advised him to 
 do it, but the prelate, full of ambition for the 
 strength of power, did not see fit to so suddenly 
 manifest his views and flattered himself of secretly 
 governing behind the throne of a young prince 
 with whose incapacity he was acquainted. In case 
 of errors he knew, and since then has well proved, 
 that he was in a position to destroy his work, 
 should he have occasion to repent for having done 
 it. 
 
 The sentiments aroused by the death of the Due 
 d' Orleans were very different, according to the 
 various interests. His intimates said that France 
 was losing a great prince, because he bestowed
 
 336 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 
 
 favours on them, and had pleasant suppers with 
 him. 
 
 The devout by profession spoke with com- 
 placency of that death as of a visible punishment 
 of God. Pious souls groaned at it. The two 
 Church parties did not regret him; the Jansenists 
 after a glimmer of hope of rising again, saw them- 
 selves once more sacrificed to their enemies; the 
 constitutionnalres did not consider their triumph 
 complete. 
 
 The soldier and specially the subaltern who is 
 the body and soul of the troops, in despair at 
 seeing distinctions, ranks given to protection, in- 
 trigue, or sold by the courtiers or by women, 
 humiliated at having to respect more an office 
 clerk than a marshal of France, sighed for a 
 change of administration that did not come. 
 
 The middle class of citizens, more attached to 
 the State and to the morals, saw the fruits of 
 its economy lost, fortunes, patrimonies overthrown, 
 properties uncertain, vice without shame, decency 
 despised, scandal held in honour. They were re- 
 duced to the position of regretting even the 
 hypocrisy of the former Court. It cannot be de-
 
 SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE REGENCY 337 
 
 nied that the Regency was the epoch, the principal 
 cause, and that it set the example and gave the 
 signal of open corruption. 
 
 Besides does this so-called quiet Regency deserve 
 the praise for having preserved or purchased peace 
 abroad, when it has caused upset and ruin at home? 
 The English alone might have regretted the Due 
 d' Orleans had they not found the same com- 
 placency under the following ministry.
 
 NOTES 
 
 r AGUESSEAU (Henri Frangois d'), a French magistrate, 
 born at Limoges. An eloquent orator and profound 
 scholar, he distinguished himself in the midst of the 
 corrupt Court of Louis XV by the elevation of his 
 character, an admirable integrity and the most absolute 
 devotion to public interests. 
 
 ALBERONI (Julio), an Italian abbe and Spanish minister, 
 born at Fiorenzuola, near Parma. Son of a gardener, 
 he attained the highest places through his parasitical 
 suppleness and lively wit. Having become cardinal and 
 minister to Philip V, he sought, on the morrow of the 
 signing of the treaty of Utrecht, to raise Spain from 
 its decadence, established means of securing informa- 
 tion throughout all Europe and particularly sought 
 through the medium of his ambassador in France, 
 Cellamare, to have the regency of Louis XV given to 
 his Sovereign; but he failed and was exiled (1664- 
 1752). 
 
 CELLAMARE (Antonio de), a Spanish diplomat, born at 
 Naples, Spanish ambassador to the Court of France 
 during the minority of Louis XV. He conspired to 
 serve the interest of Alberoni, against the Regent, but 
 was arrested and conducted to the frontier (1657-1733). 
 
 CONSTITUTION UNIGENITUS, a bull of 1713 by which 
 Pope Clement XI condemned Jansenism. Several 
 French prelates refused to receive the bull, which was, 
 during the entire first part of the eighteenth century, 
 
 339
 
 340 NOTES 
 
 the subject of furious strife between the jansenists of 
 the Clergy or of the Parliament and the Jesuits. 
 
 DUBOIS (Guillaume cardinal), minister during the Regency, 
 born at Brive. Of a low and perverse character, he 
 nevertheless gave evidence of serious diplomatic talent 
 (1656-1723). 
 
 FLEURY (Andre Hercule, cardinal de), Bishop of Frejus, 
 minister of Louis XV, born at Lodeve (1653-1743). 
 
 GASTON, see ORLEANS. 
 
 GEORGE I, born in 1660, at Osnabruck, King of England 
 from 1714 to 1727, the first of the dynasty of Hanover. 
 
 INFANTA, see MARIE ANNE VICTORIA. 
 
 JAMES II, son of Charles I, born in 1633, King of England 
 1685 ; dethroned by William of Nassau, Prince of 
 Orange, in 1688, he ended his life in France at the 
 chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in 1702. His son, 
 James Stuart, called the pretender or the chevalier de 
 Saint-George, born in London, made several unsuccess- 
 ful attempts to recover the throne (1688-1766). 
 
 JANSENISM. The doctrines of Cornelius Jansen which 
 tended to limit the free-will of man, were defended in 
 France by Arnault and by the theologians of Port- 
 Royal ; but they were disputed by the Jesuits, against 
 whom Pascal at that time wrote the famous Lettres 
 provinciales, and condemned by the Sorbonne and by 
 Pope Urban VIII. Port-Royal, in spite of the persecu- 
 tion of Louis XIV, was for a long time the principal 
 refuge of the Jansenist doctrine ; the latter after the 
 destruction of the monastery, was again condemned by 
 the Pope in the person of Father Quesnel, in the bull
 
 NOTES 341 
 
 Unigenitus (1713), whose acceptation was imposed on 
 all, under penalty of refusal of the sacraments. 
 JOLY DE FLEURY (Guillaume Francois), a French magis- 
 trate, born in Paris (1675-1756). 
 
 LAUZTJN (Antonin, due de), a personage who played a 
 brilliant and adventurous part at the Court of Louis 
 XIV, and who has remained one of the types of the 
 clever and pretentious courtiers; he married la grande 
 Mademoiselle, first cousin to Louis XIV (1632-1723). 
 
 LAW (John), a famous financier, born in Edinburgh, con- 
 troller general of the Finances of France, he was the 
 founder of the Compagnie des Indes and organized dur- 
 ing the Regency a banking system which resulted in 
 frightful bankruptcy (1671-1729). 
 
 JLETTRE DE CACHET. Letters closed with the King's seal 
 and which usually contained an arbitrary order of exile 
 or imprisonment. 
 
 MADAME, Charlotte Elizabeth of Bavaria, known as the 
 Princesse Palatine, born at Heidelberg. Wife of Mon- 
 sieur, due d'Orleans and mother of the Regent. 
 
 MAINE (Louis Auguste de Bourbon, due du), legitimated 
 son of Louis XIV and of Mme. de Montespan, born 
 at Versailles (1670-1736). His wife, Louise de Bour- 
 bon, granddaughter of the Great Conde, held at her 
 chateau de Sceaux a political salon and involved the 
 due in the Cellamare conspiracy (1676-1753). 
 
 MAINTENON (Franchise d'Aubigne, marquise de), grand- 
 daughter of Agrippa d'Aubigne. Born at Niort in the 
 Calvinist religion, she was converted to Catholicism, 
 accepted out of necessity the hand of the poet Scarron 
 (1652), became a widow in 1660, was secretly entrusted 
 with the education of the children of Louis XIV and 
 of Mme. de Montespan, succeeded in supplanting the
 
 342 NOTES 
 
 latter and after the death of Marie-Therese, was wedded 
 to Louis XIV by a secret marriage (1684). She exer- 
 cised over Louis XIV an influence not always benefi- 
 cent. The King being dead (1715), she withdrew to 
 the Maison de Saint-Cyr, which she had founded for 
 the education of poor girls of noble birth (1635-1719). 
 
 MARIE ANNE VICTORIA, Infanta of Spain, born in 
 Madrid in 1718, was betrothed to Louis XV and came 
 to Paris in 1722. She was sent back to Spain by Mon- 
 sieur le due (de Bourbon), who became prime minister 
 (1723-1726), on the death of the Regent. 
 
 MONSIEUR, due d'Orleans, brother of Louis XIV, and fa- 
 ther of the Regent. 
 
 MONTESPAN (Frangoise Athenais de Rochechouart, mar- 
 quise de), a favourite of Louis XIV, born at the chateau 
 of Tonnay-Charente (1641-1707). 
 
 NANTES (Edict of), Edict rendered by Henri IV in 1598 
 in favor of the Protestants. It authorized Calvinistic 
 worship, excepting at Court and in Paris; the Prot- 
 estants were allowed four universities or academies, 
 certain places in the Parliament, etc. But as early as 
 the minority of Louis XIV, these privileges were sup- 
 pressed one by one, and the King himself revoked the 
 edict in 1685. The revocation brought about the ex- 
 patriation of a large number of Protestants, among the 
 most active and best workers of the French nation. 
 
 NOAILLES (Louis Antoine de), cardinal, Archbishop of 
 Paris (1651-1729). 
 
 ORLEANS (due d'), Philippe II, the Regent (1674-1723). 
 ORLEANS (Gaston d'), brother of Louis XIII, was named 
 
 lieutenant general of the Kingdom on the death of his 
 
 brother (1608-1660).
 
 NOTES 343 
 
 PETER I, the Great, Czar of Russia (1672 1725). 
 
 PHILIP V, grandson of Louis XIV, first due d'Anjou, born 
 at Versailles, King of Spain from 1700 to 1746; he 
 made praiseworthy efforts to raise Spain from its de- 
 cadence. 
 
 PORT-ROYAL, an abbey near Chevreuse (Seine-et-Oise). 
 The recluses of Port-Royal allied themselves with the 
 jansenists, and the abbey, after heated discussions with 
 the ecclesiastic authorities, was closed in 1705 by order 
 of Louis XIV. The abbey itself was destroyed in 
 1710. 
 
 QUINCAMPOIX (Rue}, a street of Paris, parallel to rue 
 Saint Martin. It is there that, during the Regency, the 
 financier Law established his bank. 
 
 RICHELIEU (Armand due de}, Marshal of France, born in 
 Paris, grand-nephew of the cardinal. Witty, but of 
 doubtful morality, he played a brilliant part at the 
 Court of Louis XIV, during the Regency and during 
 the reign of Louis XV; in 1757, he took Port-Mahon 
 1696-1788). 
 
 SARTINES, the son of Sartines of whom Duclos speaks 
 was the grandfather of the celebrated lieutenant of 
 police Sartine who held an important position during 
 the reign of Louis XV. 
 
 UNIGENITUS (see CONSTITUTION). 
 
 VILLEROI (Frangois de), Marshal of France, born in Paris. 
 He was a clever courtier, but a poor general, he was 
 defeated at Ramillies (1644-1730).
 
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