This scene—­for it can be called by no other name—­took place in the morning.  After dinner M. d’Orleans repeated it to me, bursting with laughter, word for word, just as I have written it.  When we had both well laughed at this, we admired the profound instruction of a discreet and religious King, who considered it better not to believe in God than to be a Jansenist, and who thought there was less danger to his nephew from the impiety of an unbeliever than from the doctrines of a sectarian.  M. d’Orleans could not contain himself while he told the story, and never spoke of it without laughing until the tears came into his eyes.  It ran all through the Court and all over the town, and the marvellous thing was, that the King was not angry at this.  It was a testimony of his attachment to the good doctrine which withdrew him further and further from Jansenism.  The majority of people laughed with all their heart.  Others, more wise, felt rather disposed to weep than to laugh, in considering to what excess of blindness the King had reached.

For a long time a most important project had knocked at every door, without being able to obtain a hearing anywhere.  The project was this:—­ Hough, an English gentleman full of talent and knowledge, and who, above all, knew profoundly the laws of his country, had filled various posts in England.  As first a minister by profession, and furious against King James; afterwards a Catholic and King James’s spy, he had been delivered up to King William, who pardoned him.  He profited by this only to continue his services to James.  He was taken several times, and always escaped from the Tower of London and other prisons.  Being no longer able to dwell in England he came to France, where he occupied himself always with the same line of business, and was paid for that by the King (Louis XIV.) and by King James, the latter of whom he unceasingly sought to re-establish.  The union of Scotland with England appeared to him a favourable conjuncture, by the despair of that ancient kingdom at seeing itself reduced into a province under the yoke of the English.  The Jacobite party remained there; the vexation caused by this forced union had increased it, by the desire felt to break that union with the aid of a King that they would have reestablished.  Hough, who was aware of the fermentation going on, made several secret journeys to Scotland, and planned an invasion of that country; but, as I have said, for a long time could get no one to listen to him.

The King, indeed, was so tired of such enterprises, that nobody dared to speak to him upon this.  All drew back.  No one liked to bell the cat.  At last, however, Madame de Maintenon being gained over, the King was induced to listen to the project.  As soon as his consent was gained to it, another scheme was added to the first.  This was to profit by the disorder in which the Spanish Low Countries were thrown, and to make them revolt against the Imperialists at the very moment when the affair of Scotland would bewilder the allies, and deprive them of all support from England.  Bergheyck, a man well acquainted with the state of those countries, was consulted, and thought the scheme good.  He and the Duc de Vendome conferred upon it in presence of the King.