brother.  I sent therefore for Valincourt, whom I knew intimately, to come and speak to me.  He came half-dressed, terrified at the rumours flying over the town, and eagerly asked me what they all meant.  I drew him close to me and said, “Listen attentively to me, and lose not a word.  Go immediately to M. le Comte de Toulouse, tell him he may trust in my word, tell him to be discreet, and that things are about to happen to others which may displease him, but that not a hair of his head shall be touched.  I hope he will not have a moment’s uneasiness.  Go! and lose not an instant.”

Valincourt held me in a tight embrace.  “Ah, Monsieur,” said he, “we foresaw that at last there would be a storm.  It is well merited, but not by M. le Comte, who will be eternally obliged to you.”  And, he went immediately with my message to the Comte de Toulouse, who never forgot that I saved him from the fall of his brother.

CHAPTER XCII

Arrived at the grand court of the Tuileries about eight o’clock without having remarked anything extraordinary on the way.  The coaches of the Duc de Noailles, of Marechal de Villars, of Marechal d’Huxelles, and of some others were already there.  I ascended without finding many people about, and directed the two doors of the Salle des Gardes, which were closed, to be opened.  The Bed of justice was prepared in the grand ante-chamber, where the King was accustomed to eat.  I stopped a short time to see if everything was in proper order, and felicitated Fontanieu in a low voice.  He said to me in the same manner that he had arrived at the Tuileries with his workmen and materials at six o’clock in the morning; that everything was so well constructed and put up that the King had not heard a sound; that his chief valet de chambre, having left the room for some commission about seven o’clock in the morning, had been much astonished upon seeing this apparatus; that the Marechal de Villeroy had only heard of it through him, and that the seats had been erected with such little noise that nobody had heard anything.  After having well examined everything with my eyes I advanced to the throne, then being finished; wishing to enter the second ante-chamber, some servants came to me, saying that I could not go in, all being locked up.  I asked where I was to await the assembling of the Council, and was admitted to a room upstairs, where I found a good number of people already congregated.

After chatting some time with the Keeper of the Seals, the arrival of M. le Duc d’Orleans was announced.  We finished what we had to say, and went downstairs separately, not wishing to be seen together.

The Council was held in a room which ever since the very hot weather the King had slept in.  The hangings of his bed, and of the Marechal de Villeroy’s were drawn back.  The Council table was placed at the foot of one of the beds.  Upon entering the adjoining chamber I found many people whom the first rumours of such an unexpected occurrence had no doubt led there, and among the rest some of the Council.  M. le Duc d’Orleans was in the midst of a crowd at the end of the room, and, as I afterwards learned, had just seen the Duc du Maine without speaking to him, or being spoken to.