1IEMOIKS OF THE DUKE OF SAINT-SBION.

my head, crush me, and wound the persons to whom I was at-
tached. H. le Due d'Orleans and Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans
were immersed in the deepest indolence. They desired, but
did not act. I went to them and explained the state of the I

case—pointed out the danger of Madame la Duchesse—excited I

their pride, their jealousy, their spite. Will it be believed that r

it was necessary to put all this machinery in motion ? At last^ t

by working on them by the most powerful motives, I made I

them attend to their own interests. The natural but extreme I

laziness of the Duchesse d'Orleans gave way this time, but less 7

to ambition than to the desire of defeating a sister who was so
inimical to her. We next concerted how we should make use
of M. d'Orleans himself.

That Prince, with all his wit and his passion for Mademoi-
selle—which had never weakened since her birth—was like a
motionless beam, which stirred only in obedience to our
redoubled efforts, and who remained so to the conclusion of this-
great business. I often reflected on the causes of this incredible j^

conduct; and was led to suppose that the knowledge of the
irremediable nature of what had taken place in Spain was the
rein that restrained him. However this may have been, I
was throughout obliged to use main force to bring him to
activity. I determined to form and direct a powerful cabal in
order to bring my views to pass. The first person of whom it
was necessary to make sure was the Duchesse de Bourgogne.
That Princesse had many reasons for the preference of Made- L .

moiselle over Mademoiselle de Bourbon (daughter of Madame
la Duchesse). She knew the King perfectly; and could not be
ignorant of the power of novelty over his mind, of which power
she had herself made a happy experiment. What she had to
fear was another herself—I mean a Princesse on the same terms I

with the King as she was, who, being younger than she, would
amuse him by new childish playfulness no longer suited to her
age, and yet which she (the Duchesse) was still obliged to *

employ. The very contrast of her own untimely childishness,
with a childishness so much more natural, would injure her.
The new favourite would, moreover, not have a husband to