which the King had given to her, and which she had furnished in the most delightful manner.  She loved good cheer, the guests loved it also, and at table she was altogether another person —­free, gay, exciting, charming.  M. le Duc d’Orleans cared for nothing but noise, and as he threw off all restraint at these parties, there was much difficulty in selecting guests, for the ears of many people would have been much confused at his loose talk, and their eyes much astonished to see him get drunk at the very commencement of the repast, in the midst of those who thought only of amusing and recreating themselves in a decent manner, and who never approached intoxication.

As the King became weaker in health, and evidently drew near his end, I had continued interviews with Madame d’Orleans upon the subject of the Regency, the plan of government to be adopted, and the policy she should follow.  Hundreds of times before we had reasoned together upon the faults of the Government, and the misfortunes that resulted from them.  What we had to do was to avoid those faults, educate the young King in good and rational maxims, so that when he succeeded to power he might continue what the Regency had not had time to finish.  This, at least, was my idea; and I laboured hard to make it the idea of M. le Duc d’Orleans.  As the health of the King diminished I entered more into details; as I will explain.

What I considered the most important thing to be done, was to overthrow entirely the system of government in which Cardinal Mazarin had imprisoned the King and the realm.  A foreigner, risen from the dregs of the people, who thinks of nothing but his own power and his own greatness, cares nothing for the state, except in its relation to himself.  He despises its laws, its genius, its advantages:  he is ignorant of its rules and its forms; he thinks only of subjugating all, of confounding all, of bringing all down to one level.  Richelieu and his successor, Mazarin, succeeded so well in this policy that the nobility, by degrees, became annihilated, as we now see them.  The pen and the robe people, on the other hand, were exalted; so that now things have reached such a pretty pass that the greatest lord is without power, and in a thousand different manners is dependent upon the meanest plebeian.  It is in this manner that things hasten from one extreme to the other.

My design was to commence by introducing the nobility into the ministry, with the dignity and authority due to them, and by degrees to dismiss the pen and robe people from all employ not purely judicial.  In this manner the administration of public affairs would be entirely in the hands of the aristocracy.  I proposed to abolish the two offices of secretary of state for the war department, and for foreign affairs, and to supply their place by councils; also, that the offices of the navy should be managed by a council.  I insisted upon the distinct and perfect separation of these councils, so that their authority should never be confounded, and the public should never have the slightest trouble in finding out where to address itself for any kind of business.