The Cardinal, whom he held with one hand, escaped as well as he could, the Marquis continuing to abuse him, and shaking the stick at him.  One of the valets came and assisted him to rise from his armchair, and gain the door; for after this accident his only thought was to leave the room.

The Queen looked on from her chair during all this scene, without stirring or saying a word; and the privileged few in the chamber did not dare to move.  I learned all this from every one in Spain; and moreover I asked the Marquis de Villena himself to give me the full details; and he, who was all uprightness and truth, and who had conceived some little friendship for me, related with pleasure all I have written.  The two gentlemen of the chamber present also did the same, laughing in their sleeves.  One had refused to tell the Marquis to leave the room, and the other had accompanied him to the door.  The most singular thing is, that the Cardinal, furious, but surprised beyond measure at the blows he had received, thought only of getting out of reach.  The Marquis cried to him from a distance, that but for the respect he owed to the King, and to the state in which he was, he would give him a hundred kicks in the stomach, and haul him out by the ears.  I was going to forget this.  The King was so ill that he saw nothing.

A quarter of an hour after the Marquis had returned home, he received an order to retire to one of his estates at thirty leagues from Madrid.  The rest of the day his house was filled with the most considerable people of Madrid, arriving as they learned the news, which made a furious sensation through the city.  He departed the next day with his children.  The Cardinal, nevertheless, remained so terrified, that, content with the exile of the Marquis, and with having got rid of him, he did not dare to pass any censure upon him for the blows he had received.  Five or six months afterwards he sent him an order of recall, though the Marquis had not taken the slightest steps to obtain it.  What is incredible is, that the adventure, the exile, the return, remained unknown to the King until the fall of the Cardinal!  The Marquis would never consent to see him, or to hear him talked of, on any account, after returning, though the Cardinal was the absolute master.  His pride was much humiliated by this worthy and just haughtiness; and he was all the more piqued because he left nothing undone in order to bring about a reconciliation, without any other success than that of obtaining fresh disdain, which much increased the public estimation in which this wise and virtuous nobleman was held.

CHAPTER LXXXIX

I must not omit to mention an incident which occurred during the early part of the year 1718, and which will give some idea of the character of M. le Duc d’Orleans, already pretty amply described by me.

One day (when Madame la Duchesse d’Orleans had gone to Montmartre, which she quitted soon after) I was walking alone with M. le Duc d’Orleans in the little garden of the Palais Royal, chatting upon various affairs, when he suddenly interrupted me, and turning towards me; said, “I am going to tell you something that will please you.”