A VIOLENT PROJECT. 313

In my extreme surprise I asked him, what he expected
would be the fruit of such violence ? I pointed out that to
seize by force of arms a public and solemn document, in the
midst of the capital, in despite of all ]aw and order, would be
to put weapons into the hands of the enemies of M. le Due
<TOrl6ans, who assuredly would be justified in crying out
against this outrage, and who would find the whole country
disposed to echo their cries. I said too, that if in the execution
of such an odious scheme a sedition occurred, and blood were
shed, universal hatred and opprobrium would fall upon the
head of M. le Due d'Orl&ins, and deservedly so.

We carried on our discussion a long time, but Maisons would
in no way give up his scheme. After leaving me he went to
M. le Due d'Orleans and communicated it to him. Happily it
met with no success with the Due. Indeed, he was extremely
astonished at it; but what astonished us more was, that
Maisons persisted in it up to his death, which preceded by
some few days that of the King, and pressed it upon M. le Due
d'Orleans and myself till his importunity became persecution.

It was certainly not his fault that I over and over again
refused to go to the Grand Chamber of the Parliament to
examine the place, as Maisons wished me to do; I who never
went to the Parliament except for the reception of the peers
or when the King was there. Not being able to vanquish
what he called my obstinacy, Maisons begged me at the least
to go and fix myself upon the Quai de la Megisserie, where so
much old iron is sold, and examine from that spot the tower
where the will was; he pointed it out to me; it looked out
upon the Quai des Morfondus, but was behind the buildings
on the quai. What information could be obtained from such a
point of view may be imagined. I promised to go there, not
to stop, and thus awake the attention of the passers-by, but to
pass along and see what was to be seen; adding, that it was
simply out of complaisance to him, and not because I meant
to agree in any way to his enterprise.

What is incomprehensible is, that for a whole year Maisons
pressed his charming project upon us. The worst enemy of