M. d’Orleans said he must have been strangely pressed to commit an action of this nature, and reproached him for not having mentioned his wants.  Then, drawing twenty Louis from his pocket, he gave them to the gentleman, told him to forget what had occurred, and to use his table as before.  M. d’Orleans prohibited his servants to mention their suspicions, and this anecdote would never have been known, had it not been told by the gentleman himself, penetrated with confusion and gratitude.

M. d’Orleans, after he became cardinal, was often pressed by his friends to give up his bishopric.  But this he would not listen to.  The King had for him a respect that was almost devotion.  When Madame de Bourgogne was about to be delivered of her first child, the King sent a courier to M. d’Orleans requesting him to come to Court immediately, and to remain there until after the delivery.  When the child was born, the King would not allow it to be sprinkled by any other hand than that of M. d’Orleans.  The poor man, very fat, as I have said, always sweated very much;—­on this occasion, wrapped up in his cloak and his lawn, his body ran with sweat in such abundance, that in the antechamber the floor was wet all round where he stood.  All the Court was much afflicted at his death; the King more than anybody spoke his praises.  It was known after his death, from his valet de chambre, that he mortified himself continually with instruments of penitence, and that he rose every night and passed an hour on his knees in prayer.  He received the sacraments with great piety, and died the night following as he had lived.

Heudicourt the younger, a species of very mischievous satyr, and much mixed up in grand intrigues of gallantry, made, about this time, a song upon the grand ‘prevot’ and his family.  It was so simple, so true to nature, withal so pleasant, that some one having whispered it in the ear of the Marechal de Boufflers at chapel, he could not refrain from bursting into laughter, although he was in attendance at the mass of the King.  The Marechal was the gravest and most serious man in all France; the greatest slave to decorum.  The King turned round therefore, in surprise, which augmented considerably when he saw the Marechal de Boufflers nigh to bursting with laughter, and the tears running down his cheeks.  On turning into his cabinet, he called the Marechal, and asked what had got him in that state at the mass.  The Marechal repeated the song to him.  Thereupon the King burst out louder than the Marechal had, and for a whole fortnight afterwards could not help smiling whenever he saw the grand ‘prevot’ or any of his family.  The song soon spread about, and much diverted the Court and the town.