On the morrow the Parliament again assembled, morning and afternoon, and sent a message to the Regent, saying, it would not separate until it had received his reply.  That reply was very short and simple.  The Regent sent word that he was tired of the meddling interference of the Parliament (this was not the first time, let me add, that he experienced it), that he had ordered all the troops in Paris, and round about, to hold themselves ready to march, and that the King must be obeyed.  Such was in fact true.  He had really ordered the soldiers to keep under arms and to be supplied with powder and shot.

The message did not intimidate the Parliament.  The next day, Sunday, the Chief-President, accompanied by all the other presidents, and by several councillors, came to the Palais Royal.  Although, as I have said, the leader of his company, and the right-hand man of M. and Madame du Maine, he wished for his own sake to keep on good terms with the Regent, and at the same time to preserve all authority over his brethren, so as to have them under his thumb.  His discourse then to the Regent commenced with many praises and much flattery, in order to smooth the way for the three fine requests he wound up with.  The first of these was that the edict should be sent to the Parliament to be examined, and to suffer such changes as the members should think fit to introduce, and then be registered; the second, that the King should pay attention to their remonstrances in an affair of this importance, which they believed prejudicial to the State; the third, that the works recently undertaken at the mint for recasting the specie should be suspended!

To these modest requests the Regent replied that the edict had been registered at the Cour des Monnaies, which is a superior court, and consequently sufficient for such registration; that there was only a single instance of an edict respecting the money of the realm having been sent before the Parliament, and then out of pure civility; that the matter had been well sifted, and all its inconveniences weighed; that it was to the advantage of the State to put in force this edict; that the works of the Mint could not be interfered with in any way; finally, that the King must be obeyed!  It was quite true that the edict had been sent to the Parliament out of courtesy, but at the suggestion of the Regent’s false and treacherous confidants, valets of the Parliament, such as the Marechals de Villeroy, and Huxelles, and Besons, Canillac, Effiat, and Noailles.

Notwithstanding the decisive answer they had received, the Parliament met the very next day, and passed a decree against the edict.  The council of the regency, at its sitting on the afternoon of the same day, abrogated this decree.  Thus, since war was in a measure declared between the Regent’s authority and that of the Parliament, the orders emanating from the one were disputed by the other, and vice versa.  A nice game of shuttlecock this, which it was scarce likely could last long!