Parliament, which ever remained identified in his mind with his country,
was in the same way opposed to Law. The latter declared that the
obstacles which arrested him at every step through the ill will of the
Council and of the magistrates, were ruining all the fruits of his
system. The representations addressed by the Parliament to the king, on
the 20th of January, touching a re-coinage of all moneys, which had been
suggested by Law, dealt the last blow at the chancellor's already
tottering favor. On the morning of the 23d M. de La Vrilliere went to
him on behalf of the Regent and demanded the return of the seals.
D'Aguesseau was a little affected and surprised. "Monseigneur," he wrote
to the Duke of Orleans, "you gave me the seals without any merit on my
part, you take them away without any demerit." He had received orders to
withdraw to his estate at Fresnes; the Regent found his mere presence
irksome. D'Aguesseau set out at once. "He had taken his elevation like
a sage," says St. Simon, "and it was as a sage too that he fell." "The
important point," wrote the disgraced magistrate to his son, "is to be
well with one's self."

The Duke of Noailles had resigned his presidency of the council of
finance; but, ever adroit, even in disgrace, he had managed to secure
himself a place in the council of regency. The seals were intrusted to
M. d'Argenson, for some years past chief of police at Paris. "With a
forbidding face, which reminded one of the three judges of Hades, he made
fun out of everything with excellence of wit, and he had established such
order amongst that innumerable multitude of Paris, that there was no
single inhabitant of whose conduct and habits he was not cognizant from
day to day, with exquisite discernment in bringing a heavy or light hand
to bear on every matter that presented itself, ever leaning towards the
gentler side, with the art of making the most innocent tremble before
him." [St. Simon, t. xv. p. 387.] Courageous, bold, audacious in