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Updated: June 16, 2025
The day after the arrival of the courier from Poitiers, Cellamare, informed of what had occurred, but who flattered himself that the presence of the banker had caused the arrest of the young men, and the seizure of their papers, hid his fears under a very tranquil bearing, and went, at one o'clock in the day, to M. le Blanc, to ask for a packet of letters he had entrusted to Portocarrero and Monteleon on their return to Spain.
"I think so," replied D'Harmental; "but I must be informed each morning what the regent will do in the evening. Monsieur le Prince de Cellamare, as ambassador, must have his secret police." "Yes," said the prince, embarrassed, "I have some people who give me an account." "That is exactly it," said D'Harmental. "Where do you lodge?" asked the cardinal.
"What I see most clearly in all this is," said Laval, "that we must compromise the king. Once compromised, he must go on." "Now, then," said Cellamare, "we are coming to business." "But how to compromise him," asked the Duchesse de Maine, "without a letter from him, without even a verbal message, and at five hundred leagues' distance?"
The prince de Cellamare was immediately conducted to the frontiers: the duke of Maine, the marquis de Pompadore, the cardinal de Polignac, and many other persons of distinction, were committed to different prisons.
This plan was nothing less than to take away from the Emperor all that the peace of Utrecht had left him in Italy; all that the Spanish house of Austria had possessed there; to dominate the Pope and the King of Sicily; to deprive the Emperor of the help of France and England, by exciting the first against the Regent through the schemes of the ambassador Cellamare and the Duc du Maine; and by sending King James to England, by the aid of the North, so as to keep King George occupied with a civil war.
He explained the orders he had given so as to inform all the foreign ministers in Paris of what had occurred, and had ordered Dubois to render an account to the council of what he had done at the ambassador's, and offered to read the letters from Cellamare to Cardinal Alberoni, found among the papers brought from Poitiers.
"His excellency the Prince de Cellamare." "Ah!" said Pompadour, "I begin to understand." "And I," said Valef. "And I," said D'Harmental. "Very well," said Malezieux, smiling; "and before the end of the evening you will understand still better; meanwhile, do not try to see further. It is not the first time you have entered with your eyes bandaged, Monsieur d'Harmental?"
Madame du Maine, supported by her sex and birth, muffled herself up in her dignity, when replying to the questions addressed to her, of which just as many, and no more, were read to the replying counsel as pleased the Abbe Dubois; and strongly accusing Cellamare and others; protected as much as possible her friends, her husband above all, by charging herself with all; by declaring that what she had done M. du Maine had no knowledge of; and that its object went no farther than to obtain from the Regent such reforms in his administration as were wanted.
"What, prince!" cried the cardinal. "I say that his majesty is of the same opinion as your eminence, and has sent me this letter, which is the complement of the letter which the Baron de Valef has." "Then nothing is wanting," cried Madame de Maine. "We want Bayonne," said the Prince de Cellamare; "Bayonne, the door of France." At this moment D'Avranches entered, announcing the Duc de Richelieu.
"I am afraid, madame," said the Prince of Cellamare, "that all this will not determine the marshal to undertake so grave a responsibility." "It is not the marshal we want; it is his wife." "Ah! you remind me," said Richelieu, "I undertake it." "You!" said the duchess with astonishment. "Yes, madame," replied Richelieu, "you have your correspondence, I have mine.
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