my son lives upon very good terms
with his wife, who for her part cares very little about it; nothing is so
near to her heart as her brother, the Duc du Maine. In a recent quarrel
which she had with my son on this subject, she said she would retire to
Rambouillet or Montmartre. "Wherever you please," he replied; "or
wherever you think you will be most comfortable." This vexed her so mach
that she wept day and night about it.

On the 17th of June, while I was at the Carmelites, Madame de
Chateau-Thiers came to see me, and said to me, "M. de Simiane is come
from the Palais Royal; and he thinks it fit you should know that on your
return you will find all the courts filled with the people who, although
they do not say anything, will not disperse. At six o'clock this
morning they brought in three dead bodies which M. Le Blanc has had
removed. M. Law has taken refuge in the Palais Royal: they have done
him no harm; but his coach man was stoned as he returned, and the
carriage broken to pieces. It was the coachman's fault, who told them
'they were a rabble, and ought to be hanged.'" I saw at once that it
would not do to seem to be intimidated, so I ordered the coach to be
driven to the Palais Royal. There was such a press of carriages that I
was obliged to wait a full hour before I reached the rue Saint-Honore;
then I heard the people talking: they did not say anything against my
son; they gave me several benedictions, and demanded that Law should be
hanged. When I reached the Palais Royal all was calm again. My son
came to me, and in the midst of my anxiety he was perfectly tranquil,
and even made me laugh.

M. Le Blanc went with great boldness into the midst of the irritated
populace and harangued them. He had the bodies of the men who had been
crushed to death in the crowd brought away, and succeeded in quieting
them.

My son is incapable of being serious and acting like a father with his
children; he lives with them more like a brother than a father.

The Parliament not only opposed the edict, and would not allow it to
pass, but also refused to give any opinion, and rejected the affair
altogether. For this reason my son had a company of the footguard placed
on Sunday morning at the entrance of the palace to prevent their
assembling; and, at the same time, he addressed a letter to the
Premier-President, and to the Parliament a 'lettre-de-cachet', ordering
them to repair to Pontoise to hold their sittings. The