le Duc d'Orleans spoke last, and with
unusual force; then made a pause, piercing all the company with his eyes.

At this moment the Marechal de Villeroy, full of his own thoughts,
muttered between his teeth, "But will the Parliament come?" This was
gently taken up. M. le Duc d'Orleans replied that he did not doubt it;
and immediately afterwards, that it would be as well to know when they
set out. The Keeper of the Seals said he should be informed. M. le Duc
d'Orleans replied that the door-keepers must be told. Thereupon up jumps
M. de Troyes.

I was seized with such a sudden fear lest he should go and chatter at the
door with some one that I jumped up also, and got the start of him. As I
returned, D'Antin, who had turned round to lay wait for me, begged me for
mercy's sake to tell him what all this meant. I sped on saying that I
knew nothing. "Tell that to others! Ho, ho!" replied he. When he had
resumed his seat, M. le Duc d'Orleans said something, I don't know what,
M. de Troyes still standing, I also. In passing La Vrilliere, I asked
him to go to the door every time anything was wanted, for fear of the
babbling of M. de Troyes; adding, that distant as I was from the door,
going there looked too peculiar. La Vrilliere did as I begged him all
the rest of the sitting.

As I was returning to my place, D'Antin, still in ambush, begged me in
the name of heaven, his hands joined, to tell him something. I kept
firm, however, saying, "You will see." The Duc de Guiche pressed me as
resolutely, even saying, it was evident I was in the plot. I remained
deaf.

These little movements over, M. le Duc d'Orleans, rising a little in his
seat, said to the company, in a tone more firm, and more like that of a
master than before, that there was another matter now to attend to, much
more important than the one just heard. This prelude increased the
general astonishment, and rendered everybody motionless. After a moment
of silence the Regent said, that the peers had had for some time good
grounds of complaint against certain persons, who by unaccustomed favour,
had been allowed to assume rank and dignity to which their birth did not
entitle them; that it was time this irregularity should be stopped short,
and that with this view, an instrument had been drawn up, which the
Keeper of the Seals would read to them.

A profound silence followed this discourse, so unexpected, and which
began to explain the absence of the bastards. Upon man