The resolution had been taken, by the Chancellor’s advice, of annihilating or new modelling all the Parliaments in France, which was now executed with rigour, or at great expense, wherever the Court could, by bribes and pensions, persuade the members to enlist in the new system. Bourdeaux, for a day or two, resisted, to the great terror of Maréchal Richelieu, their governor, who retreated precipitately and sent for troops. In Languedoc the Prince of Beauvau commanded. The King wrote to him with his own hand, telling him that, having an intention of dissolving the Parliament of Toulouse, and knowing the Prince’s sentiments to be contrary to that plan, he could not employ him any longer in that province. The rest of the letter was still more kind, but artful, demanding his frequent attendance on his person, as one of the four captains of the guard in whom he could most securely rely, and adding, that his Majesty had seen the time when it was not possible to get one of them to attend him. This sentence alluded to their absence at Chanteloup. I called even the first part of the epistle tender, for the dismission of the Prince from his government was a gentle method of preventing his disobedience by refusing to break the Parliament,--a resistance that must have drawn on his imprisonment. The Prince’s answer was very respectful, but firm. He gave copies of both letters to Madame du Deffand, permitting her to communicate them to me; and he added a comment on that of the King, which fully interpreted its meaning. He said the King was so afraid of assassination, that he dreaded not having his attendance on his person. “He knows,” said the Prince, “my zeal and assiduity so well, that, in the year 17--, when the Imperialists passed the Rhine, and I begged him to allow me to set out immediately for the army, he was three days before he would give me an answer, and it was but by repeated importunities that I could wring from him the permission.” The moment the Prince’s disgrace was known, the Duc d’Orleans repaired to him, sat all day with him and the Princess, and carried them, in the evening, into his own box at the opera. The next day that haughty woman sat at home, receiving the homage of half France. I went in the crowd. All day were files of coaches passing the whole length of the Rue St. Honoré, at the end of which she lived, and no fallen Minister in England, just commencing patriot, could behave with more insolence and affected satisfaction; but, though nothing could bow her spirit, her husband was reduced to take a humiliating step, and that without success. His paternal fortune had been little or none; all he had was from the King’s bounty. His debts were very great--his income, by the loss of his government, reduced to a trifle. He wrote to the King, representing his situation and begging assistance: it was coldly refused.