198 MEMOIRS 0V THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON.

It is not easy to describe the prodigious movement caused at
the Court by this order, so directly opposed to tho tastes, to
the disposition, to tho maxims, to tho usage of the King, who
thus .showed a confidence in tho 'Dauphin which was nothing
leas than tacitly transferring to him a largo part of the disposi-
tion of public affairs. This was a thunderbolt for tho-
ministers,—who, accustomed to have almost everything their
own way, to rule over everybody and browbeat everybody at
will, to govern the state abroad and at homo, in fact,—lixing
all punishments, all recompenses, and always sheltering them-
selves behind the royal authority—" tho King wills it so " being
tho phraso ovor on their lips,—to those officers, I say, it was a
thunderbolt which so bewildered them, that they could not
hide their astonishment or their confusion. Tho public joy at
an order which reduced these ministers, or rather those kings,
to tho condition, of subjects, which put a curb upon their power,
and provided against the abuses they committed, was great in-
deed ! The ministers were compelled to bond their necks,
though stiff as iron, to tho yoke. They all wont, with a hang-
dog look, to show tho Dauphin a feigned joy and a forced
obedience to tho order they had received.

Here, perhaps, I may as well speak of the situation in which
I soon afterwards found myself with tho Dauphin, tho confi-
dence as to tho present and tho future that I enjoyed with him,
and the many deliberations wo had upon public affairs. Tho
matter is curious and interesting, and need no longer be?
deferred.

Tho Court being changed by the death of Monseignour, 1
soon began indeed to think of changing my conduct with regard
to tho new Dauphin. M. de Beauvilliers spoke to mo about
this matter first, but lie judged, and I shared his opinion, that
slandered as I had been on previous occasions, and remaining
still, as it were, half in disgrace, I must approach the Dauphin,
only by slow degrees, and not endeavour to shelter myself
under him until his authority with the King had become strong
enough to afford me a safe asylum. I believed, nevertheless,
that it would be well to sound him immediately; and one-