In my extreme surprise I asked him, what he expected would be the fruit of such violence?  I pointed out that to seize by force of arms a public and solemn document, in the midst of the capital, in despite of all—­all law and order, would be to put weapons into the hands of the enemies of M. le Duc d’Orleans, who assuredly would be justified in crying out against this outrage, and who would find the whole country disposed to echo their cries.  I said too, that if in the execution of such an odious scheme a sedition occurred, and blood were shed, universal hatred and opprobrium would fall upon the head of M, le Duc d’Orleans, and deservedly so.

We carried on our discussion a long time, but Maisons would in no way give up his scheme.  After leaving me he went to M. le Duc d’Orleans and communicated it to him.  Happily it met with no success with the Duke, indeed, he was extremely astonished at it; but what astonished us more was, that Maisons persisted in it up to his death, which preceded by some few days that of the King, and pressed it upon M. le Duc d’Orleans and myself till his importunity became persecution.

It was certainly not his fault that I over and over again refused to go to the Grand Chamber of the Parliament to examine the place, as Maisons wished me to do; I who never went to the Parliament except for the reception of the peers or when the King was there.  Not being able to vanquish what he called my obstinacy, Maisons begged me at the least to go and fix myself upon the Quai de la Megisserie, where so much old iron is sold, and examine from that spot the tower where the will was; he pointed it out to me; it looked out upon the Quai des Morforidus, but was behind the buildings on the quai.  What information could be obtained from such a point of view may be imagined.  I promised to go there, not to stop, and thus awake the attention of the passers-by, but to pass along and see what was to be seen; adding, that it as simply out of complaisance to him, and not because I meant to agree in any way to his enterprise.  What is incomprehensible is, that for a whole year Maisons pressed his charming project upon us.  The worst enemy of M. le Duc d’Orleans could not have devised a more rash and ridiculous undertaking.  I doubt whether many people would have been found in all Paris sufficiently deprived of sense to fall in with it.  What are we to think then of a Parliamentary President of such consideration as Maisons had acquired at the Palace of justice, at the Court, in the town, where he had always passed for a man of intellect, prudent, circumspect, intelligent, capable, measured?  Was he vile enough, in concert with M. du Maine, to open this gulf beneath our feet, to push us to our ruin, and by the fall of M. le Duc d’Orleans—­the sole prince of the blood old enough to be Regent—­to put M. le Duc du Maine in his place, from which to the crown there was only one step, as none are ignorant, left to be taken?  It seems by no means impossible:  M. du Maine, that son of darkness, was, judging him by what he had already done, quite capable of adding this new crime to his long list.