away one of his servants for speaking of it
to his fellows.

For some time he had had a continual headache. This state troubled the
gladness he felt at being delivered from his troublesome father and
brother-in-law. One evening he was riding in his carriage, returning
from a visit to the Hotel de Coislin, without torches, and with only one
servant behind, when he felt so ill that he drew the string, and made his
lackey get up to tell him whether his mouth was not all on one side.
This was not the case, but he soon lost speech and consciousness after
having requested to be taken in privately to the Hotel de Conde. They
there put him in bed. Priests and doctors came. But he only made
horrible faces, and died about four o'clock in the morning.

Madame la Duchesse did not lose her presence of mind, and, whilst her
husband was dying, took steps to secure her future fortune. Meanwhile
she managed to cry a little, but nobody believed in her grief. As for M.
le Duc, I have already mentioned some anecdotes of him that exhibit his
cruel character. He was a marvellously little man, short, without being
fat. A dwarf of Madame la Princesse was said to be the cause. He was of
a livid yellow, nearly always looked furious, and was ever so proud, so
audacious, that it was difficult to get used to him. His cruelty and
ferocity were so extreme that people avoided him, and his pretended
friends would not invite him to join in any merriment. They avoided him:
he ran after them to escape from solitude, and would sometimes burst upon
them during their jovial repasts, reproach them with turning a cold
shoulder to him, and change their merriment to desolation.

After the death of M. le Duc, a grand discussion on precedence at the
After-suppers, set on foot by the proud Duchesse d'Orleans, was,--after
an elaborate examination by the King, brought to a close. The King
ordered his determination to be kept secret until he formally declared
it. It is necessary to set forth in a few words the mechanism of the
After-suppers every day. The King, on leaving table, stopped less than a
half-quarter of an hour with his back leaning against the balustrade of
his chamber. He there found in a circle all the ladies who had been at
his supper, and who came there to wait for him a little before he left
table, except the ladies who sat, who came out after him, and who, in the
suite of the Princes and the Princesses who had supped with him, advan