ament, which was to have been put in execution on the day after
that upon which he was seized with his first access; that, above
everything, the King recommended her to keep it secret, and that she had
only revealed it to her confessor; but she believed that her confessor
had revealed the secret to persons who made use of that evil means of
preventing the _coup d'etat_."

If such, indeed, was the political attitude of the Duchess during the
last months of Charles's life, it may be conceived that the supreme
recommendations of the dying monarch may have exercised little influence
over the predetermined resolves of his ignoble successor, and it
explains the sudden step she took to regain her native country. On her
return to France she carried with her a large treasure in money and
jewels. She had come to England poor, had lived there in splendour, but
without much care for the future, and having proudly enjoyed a
full-blown prosperity, was now about to endure adversity with courageous
resolution. Having quarrelled with James II., the Duchess could not
think of taking up her abode at Versailles, where her position would not
have been tenable; she determined therefore to settle herself in Paris,
where her house and surroundings became the object of a rigorous
surveillance.

"It reached the King's ears," says Saint-Simon, "that great freedom of
speech prevailed in her circle, and that she herself spoke very freely
of him and Madame de Maintenon, upon which M. de Louvois was directed to
prepare immediately a _lettre de cachet_ to exile her far away. Courtin
was an intimate friend of Louvois, who had a small house at Meudon,
where the former was accustomed to enter his cabinet unceremoniously at
all hours. On his entrance one evening, he found Louvois alone writing,
and whilst the minister was absorbed in that occupation, Courtin
perceived the _lettre de cachet_ lying upon the bureau. When Louvois had
finished writing, Courtin, with some emotion, asked him what that
_lettre de cachet_ was? Louvois told him its purpose. Courtin remarked
that it was surely an ungracious act, for that, even if the report were
true, the King might be content to go no further than advising her to be
more circumspect. He begged and entreated him to tell the King so on his
part before acting upon the _lettre de cachet_; and that, if the King
would not believe his words, he should get him, before going further, to
look at the despatches of his negoti