y harmonise them with the assurances
the King, during the last days of his life, had given him; that the King
could not have understood the importance of what he had been made to do
for the Duc du Maine since the council of the regency was chosen, and M.
du Maine's authority so established by the will, that the Regent remained
almost without power; that this injury done to the rights of his birth,
to his attachment to the person of the King, to his love and fidelity for
the state, could not be endured if he was to preserve his honour; and
that he hoped sufficiently from the esteem of all present, to persuade
himself that his regency would be declared as it ought to be, that is to
say, complete, independent, and that he should be allowed to choose his
own council, with the members of which he would not discuss public
affairs, unless they were persons who, being approved by the public,
might also have his confidence. This short speech appeared to make a
great impression.

The Duc du Maine wished to speak. As he was about to do so, M. le Duc
d'Orleans put his head in front of M. le Duc and said, in a dry tone,
"Monsieur, you will speak in your turn." In one moment the affair turned
according to the desires of M. le Duc d'Orleans. The power of the
council of the regency and its composition fell. The choice of the
council was awarded to M. le Duc d'Orleans, with all the authority of the
regency, and to the plurality of the votes of the council, the decision
of affairs, the vote of the Regent to be counted as two in the event of
an equal division. Thus all favours and all punishments remained in the
hands of M. le Duc d'Orleans alone. The acclamation was such that the
Duc du Maine did not dare to say a word. He reserved himself for the
codicil, which, if adopted, would have annulled all that M. le Duc
d'Orleans had just obtained.

After some few moments of silence, M. le Duc d'Orleans spoke again. He
testified fresh surprise that the dispositions of the will had not been
sufficient for those who had suggested them, and that, not content with
having established themselves as masters of the state, they themselves
should have thought those dispositions so strange that in order to
reassure them, it had been thought necessary to make them masters of the
person of the King, of the Regent, of the Court, and of Paris. He added,
that if his honour and all law and rule had been wounded by the
dispositions of the will, still more viola