aps caused as much blood to be shed in duels
as there had been on the field of battle.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE GARRET.

The next day the Abbe Brigaud came to the chevalier's house at the same
hour as before. He was a perfectly punctual man. He brought with him
three things particularly useful to the chevalier; clothes, a passport,
and the report of the Prince of Cellamare's police respecting what the
regent was going to do on the present day, March 24, 1718. The clothes
were simple, as became the cadet of a bourgeois family come to seek his
fortune in Paris. The chevalier tried them on, and, thanks to his own
good looks, found that they became him admirably.

The abbe shook his head. He would have preferred that the chevalier
should not have looked quite so well; but this was an irreparable
misfortune. The passport was in the name of Signior Diego, steward of
the noble house of Oropesa, who had a commission to bring back to Spain
a sort of maniac, a bastard of the said house, whose mania was to
believe himself regent of France. This was a precaution taken to meet
anything that the Duc d'Orleans might call out from the bottom of the
carriage; and, as the passport was according to rule, signed by the
Prince de Cellamare, and "vised" by Monsieur Voyer d'Argenson, there was
no reason why the regent, once in the carriage, should not arrive safely
at Pampeluna, when all would be done.

The signature of Monsieur Voyer d'Argenson was imitated with a truth
which did honor to the caligraphers of the Prince de Cellamare. As to
the report, it was a chef-d'oeuvre of clearness; and we insert it word
for word, to give an idea of the regent's life, and of the manner in
which the Spanish ambassador's police was conducted. It was dated two
o'clock in the morning.

"To-day the regent will rise late. There has been a supper in his
private rooms; Madame d'Averne was there for the first time instead of
Madame de Parabere. The other women were the Duchesse de Falaris, and
Saseri, maid of honor to madame. The men were the Marquis de Broglie,
the Count de Noce, the Marquis de Canillac, the Duc de Brancas, and the
Chevalier de Simiane. As to the Marquis de Lafare and Monsieur de Fargy,
they were detained in bed by an illness, of which the cause is unknown.
At noon there will be a council. The regent will communicate to the Ducs
de Maine and de Guiche the project of the treaty of the quadruple
alliance, which the Abbe Dubois has sent h