It was by a credulous belief in the power of pretended sorcerers, that Luxembourg was brought into peril. Bonnard, clerk to one of his lawyers, had lost some papers, which were indispensable to the success of a lawsuit instituted by the duke. To recover them, he applied to Lesage, one of the confederates of La Voisin. Lesage required 2,000 crowns, and the performance of certain mummeries by Bonnard; and his demand was granted. The papers were then found to be in the hands of a girl named Dupin, who refused to give them up. A power of attorney was now obtained from the duke, by Bonnard, authorizing steps to be taken against Dupin, to compel her to resign the papers. This he gave to Lesage, who, between the body of the document and the signature, inserted two lines, containing a transfer of the duke’s soul to his Satanic majesty. Luckily, the clumsy forger had written these lines in a hand writing quite different from that of the instrument itself. This compact with the devil formed the main proof against Luxembourg. He appears, indeed, to have afforded a further pretext for suspicion, by his weakness in applying to Lesage for the horoscopes of various individuals. It was on this slender foundation that the plot against him was built. When his name began to be called in question, he is said to have been insidiously counselled by Louvois, to save himself by flight. The brave Cavoie, who was his friend, proved himself to be so, by advising him to surrender himself voluntarily to the Bastile; and this advice was wisely followed by the duke. On his arrival there, he was placed in a comfortable chamber, and, on the second day, he underwent a preliminary interrogation. But it was not the intention of the minister who had driven him into a prison, that he should enjoy any comfort there; and accordingly, on the third day, he was removed to one of the filthiest of dungeons, not more than six feet and a half in diameter, and no further notice was taken of him for five weeks. He claimed his privilege, as a peer, of being tried by the Parliament, but no attention was paid to his claim, and he was obliged to be contented with protesting against this denial of justice. It was afterwards made a subject of reproach to him, by some of the peers, that he had not stood up with sufficient boldness for the rights of the peerage.