Montresor, who would be thought to know all things beforehand, said that he was assured it would be so and that he had foretold it.  Laigues bewailed my conduct, which he said had raised the compassion of all my friends, although it had been their ruin.  Upon this I desired to be left about a quarter of an hour to myself, during which, reflecting how I had been provoked and the public threatened, my scruples vanished; I gave rein to all my thoughts, recollected that all the glorious ideas which have ever entered my imagination were most concerned with vast designs, and suffered my mind to be regaled with the pleasing hopes of being the head of a party, a position which I had always admired in Plutarch’s “Lives.”  The inconsistency of my scheme with my character made me tremble.  A world of incidents may happen when the virtues in the leader of a party may be vices in an archbishop.  I had this view a thousand times, and it always gave place to the duty I thought I owed to her Majesty, but the remembrance of what had passed at the Queen’s table, and the resolution there taken to ruin me with the public, having banished all scruples, I joyfully determined to abandon my destiny to all the impulses of glory.  I said to my friends that the whole Court was witness of the harsh treatment I had met with for above a year in the King’s palace, and I added:  “The public is engaged to defend my honour, but the public being now about to be sacrificed, I am obliged to defend it against oppression.  Our circumstances are not so bad as you imagine, gentlemen, and before twelve o’clock to-morrow I shall be master of Paris.”

My two friends thought I was mad, and began to counsel moderation, whereas before they always incited me to action; but I did not give them hearing.  I immediately sent for Miron, Accountant-General, one of the city colonels, a man of probity and courage, and having great interest with the people.  I consulted with him, and he executed his commission with so much discretion and bravery that above four hundred considerable citizens were posted up and down in platoons with no more noise and stir than if so many Carthusian novices had been assembled for contemplation.  After having given orders for securing certain gates and bars of the city, I went to sleep, and was told next morning that no soldiers had appeared all night, except a few troopers, who just took a view of the platoons of the citizens and then galloped off.  Hence it was inferred that our precautions had prevented the execution of the design formed against particular persons, but it was believed there was some mischief hatching at the Chancellor’s against the public, because sergeants were running backwards and forwards, and Ondedei went thither four times in two hours.