CHAPTER LXXX

Saturday, the 7th of September, was the day fixed for the first Bed of
Justice of the King (Louis XV.); but he caught a cold during the night,
and suffered a good deal. The Regent came alone to Paris. The
Parliament had assembled, and I went to a door of the palace, where I was
informed of the countermand which had just arrived. The Chief-President
and the King's people were at once sent for to the Palais Royal, and the
Parliament, which was about to adjourn, was continued for all the rest of
the month for general business. On the morrow, the Regent, who was
wearied with Versailles,--for he liked to live in Paris, where all his
pleasures were within easy reach,--and who met with opposition from the
Court doctors, all comfortably lodged at Versailles, to the removal of
the person of the King to Vincennes, under pretext of a slight cold,
fetched other doctors from Paris, who had been sent for to see the
deceased King. These practitioners, who had nothing to gain by
recommending Versailles, laughed at the Court doctors, and upon their
opinion it was resolved to take the King to Vincennes, where all was
ready for him on the morrow.

He set out, then, that day from Versailles, at about two o'clock in the
day, in company with the Regent, the Duchesse de Ventadour, the Duc du
Maine, and the Marechal de Villeroy, passed round the ramparts of Paris,
without entering the city, and arrived at Vincennes about five o'clock,
many people and carriages having come out along the road to see him.

On the day after the arrival of the King at Vincennes, the Regent worked
all the morning with all the Secretaries of State separately, whom he had
charged to bring him the list of all the 'lettres de cachet' issued from
their bureaux, and a statement of the reasons for which they were