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 violated were they by those of the codicil, which left neither his life nor his liberty in safety, and placed the person of the King in the absolute dependence of those who had dared to profit by the feeble state of a dying monarch, to draw from him conditions he did not understand.  He concluded by declaring that the regency was impossible under such conditions, and that he doubted not the wisdom of the assembly would annul a codicil which could not be sustained, and the regulations of which would plunge France into the greatest and most troublesome misfortune.  Whilst this prince spoke a profound and sad silence applauded him without explaining itself.

The Duc du Maine became of all colours, and began to speak, this time being allowed to do so.  He said that the education of the King, and consequently his person, being confided to him, as a natural result, entire authority over his civil and military household followed, without which he could not properly serve him or answer for his person.  Then he vaunted his well-known attachment to the deceased King, who had put all confidence in him.

M. le Duc d’Orleans interrupted him at this word, and commented upon it.  M. du Maine wished to calm him by praising the Marechal de Villeroy, who was to assist him in his charge.  M. le Duc d’Orleans replied that it would be strange if the chief and most complete confidence were not placed in the Regent, and stranger still if he were obliged to live under the protection and authority of those who had rendered themselves the absolute masters within and without, and of Paris even, by the regiment of guards.