A secret conference of the princes of the blood-royal met in Munich. Against two votes it was determined that the King's person should be placed under restraint and a Regency proclaimed, with Prince Luitpold as Regent. The Ministry should remain in office. It was desired to constitute the Grand Master of the Court, Count von Castell, Ludwig's guardian; but he refused the melancholy task. Count Holnstein was then appointed to fill this post. It was Prince Luitpold's desire that the King should be informed of what had been decided upon before the proclamation took place, to the effect that he might give his consent to the new order of affairs. Dr von Lutz simultaneously informed Prince Bismarck of the contemplated loan in Paris, and of the fact that members of the House of Orleans had played a part in the matter. The Prince gave the then French Premier a hint of their attitude. A debate relating to the expulsion of the Orleans princes was just at that time on the order of the day in the French Senate. The terms of Bismarck's telegram let it be supposed that the princes had desired to make use of Ludwig's pecuniary difficulties in order to play a political part. This information is said to have been the chief reason for the expulsion of the Orleans family from France. CHAPTER XXXVIII Preparations to Imprison the King--The Peasantry Assemble to his Rescue Hesselschwerdt, it need hardly be said, could no more show himself before the King. He informed his master that he had been taken ill, and therefore had been unable to proceed to Paris. Ludwig, however, came to know, through his barber, that his functionary was walking about the streets of the capital in robust health. Though prior to this his suspicions had been now and again slightly aroused, he could never have supposed that the sealed letter which he had confided to him would have been given into other hands. A so-called Court Commission was meanwhile on its way to Hohenschwangau to imprison the King, and place him under medical treatment. It consisted of the Minister of the Royal House, Count Crailsheim; Counts Holnstein and Törring; Herr von Washington, who was to be the King's gentleman-in-waiting; and of the director of the public Asylum for the Insane at Munich, Dr von Gudden. These gentlemen were furthermore accompanied by an assistant doctor and eight keepers. Of Ludwig's nearest entourage, only his valet, Weber, and the stablemen had any idea of what was about to happen.