to fasten his buckle, snatched out his pencil and hastily wrote a few
words upon a scrap of paper placed under his hand in his square red cap.
He rose again and proceeded. on entering his house, his people formed a
lane; he slipped this paper, unperceived, into the hand of a confidential
valet de chambre, who waited for him at the door of his apartment." This
story is scarcely credible; it is not at the moment of a prisoner's
arrest, when an inquisitive crowd surrounds and watches him, that he can
stop and write secret messages. However, the valet de chambre posts off
to Paris. He arrives at the palace of the Cardinal between twelve and one
o'clock; and his horse falls dead in the stable. "I was in my apartment,"
said the Abbe Georgel, "the valet de chambre entered wildly, with a deadly
paleness on his countenance, and exclaimed, 'All is lost; the Prince is
arrested.' He instantly fell, fainting, and dropped the note of which he
was the bearer." The portfolio containing the papers which might
compromise the Cardinal was immediately placed beyond the reach of all
search. Madame de Lamotte also was foolishly allowed sufficient time
after she heard of the arrest of the Cardinal to burn all the letters she
had received from him. Assisted by Beugnot, she completed this at three
the same morning that she was: arrested at four.--See "Memoirs of Comte de
Beugnot," vol i., p. 74.]

This commission was executed before M. de Crosne, lieutenant of police,
had received an order from the Baron de Breteuil to put seals upon the
Cardinal's papers. The destruction of all his Eminence's correspondence,
and particularly that with Madame de Lamotte, threw an impenetrable cloud
over the whole affair.

From that moment all proofs of this intrigue disappeared. Madame de
Lamotte was apprehended at Bar-sur-Aube; her husband had already gone to
England. From the beginning of this fatal affair all the proceedings of