It was no agreeable task, that which had to be performed soon after by the Regent; I mean when he carried the news of the arrest to the King.  He entered into his Majesty’s cabinet, which he cleared of all the company it contained, except those people whose post gave them aright to enter, but of them there were not many present.  At the first word, the King reddened; his eyes moistened; he hid his face against the back of an armchair, without saying a word; would neither go out nor play.  He ate but a few mouthfuls at supper, wept, and did not sleep all night.  The morning and the dinner of the next day, the 14th, passed off but little better.

CHAPTER CXIV

That same 14th, as I rose from dinner at Meudon, with much company, the valet de chambre who served me said that a courier from Cardinal Dubois had a letter for me, which he had not thought good to bring me before all my guests.  I opened the letter.  The Cardinal conjured me to go instantly and see him at Versailles, bringing with me a trusty servant, ready to be despatched to La Trappe, as soon as I had spoken with him, and not to rack my brains to divine what this might mean, because it would be impossible to divine it, and that he was waiting with the utmost impatience to tell it to me.  I at once ordered my coach, which I thought a long time in coming from the stables.  They are a considerable distance from the new chateau I occupied.

This courier to be taken to the Cardinal, in order to be despatched to La Trappe, turned my head.  I could not imagine what had happened to occupy the Cardinal so thoroughly so soon after the arrest of Villeroy.  The constitution, or some important and unknown fugitive discovered at La Trappe, and a thousand other thoughts, agitated me until I arrived at Versailles.

Upon reaching the chateau, I saw Dubois at a window awaiting me, and making many signs to me, and upon reaching the staircase, I found him there at the bottom, as I was about to mount.  His first word was to ask me if I had brought with me a man who could post to La Trappe.  I showed him my valet de chambre, who knew the road well, having travelled over it with me very often, and who was well known to the Cardinal, who, when simple Abbe Dubois, used very frequently to chat with him while waiting for me.

The Cardinal explained to me, as we ascended the stairs, the cause of his message.  Immediately after the departure of the Marechal de Villeroy, M. le Frejus, the King’s instructor, had been missed.  He had disappeared.  He had not slept at Versailles.  No one knew what had become of him!  The grief of the King had so much increased upon receiving this fresh blow—­both his familiar friends taken from him at once—­that no one knew what to do with him.  He was in the most violent despair, wept bitterly, and could not be pacified.  The Cardinal concluded by saying that no stone must be