Two of his cousins were still unconvinced of his insanity; they were therefore willing to give him their support. They put him in relations with the House of Orleans, who, during their short period of rule, had thought more of filling their own pockets than of the welfare of France. This family addressed themselves to Rothschild in Paris, who sent his secretary to Munich with the power to conclude a large loan if the conditions which he required were acknowledged by the King. The House of Orleans were to be the guarantors of the loan, which, as a matter of fact, they had already undertaken to be. Preliminary consultations took place. The final issue came to nothing, according to report, because on the French side it was demanded that Ludwig should bind himself to neutrality in the event of a war between Prussia and France. Rothschild's secretary went back to Paris, and informed his master that he had suffered defeat. The King apparently was willing to give a promissory note; in political respects, on the other hand, he refused to bind himself. CHAPTER XXXVII Plots The influence of Count von Holnstein at the court of Bavaria had lasted up to 1883, when he fell into disfavour. The reason for this is not generally known. It has been said that he refused his assistance in the matter of a loan; others again have declared that Ludwig gained cognisance of certain deprecatory expressions which the Count had made use of with reference to his master. It will be clear to everybody who knows how difficult a matter it is to appoint legal guardians of an individual's person and fortune, that the step which it was now intended to take must have been doubly difficult where a reigning monarch was concerned. Though his personal relations with Ludwig had been strained, Count Holnstein had remained in his post of Grand Master of the Horse. For a great number of years he had had exact knowledge of the King's mode of life, and he was in a position to procure a very large amount of weighty material by which, if used as proof against Ludwig, it might be possible to attain the desired end. As the King no longer associated with others than his servants, there existed only three or four persons from whom any information could be procured regarding his immediate past. Holnstein undertook to treat with these persons, and they proved to be willing to express themselves in the same spirit as himself. The attendants on Ludwig's person were Mayr, whose name has been previously mentioned in these pages, and a former soldier of light horse, Alfons Weber by name. The latter, however, was kept in absolute ignorance of the whole matter. Mayr, on the other hand, was in unbroken intercourse with the leading circles in Munich; and it was he and Hesselschwerdt, in addition to Count Holnstein, who adduced the proofs that the time had come to place the King under restraint.