Thanks to this prudent conduct, although they were not allowed to follow up their victory, they retained possession of the greater part of the field. Le Blanc remained in exile, and his successor, Breteuil, who, as we have mentioned, was devoted to their cause, was confirmed in his office: La Jonchère remained under lock and key; while the Belle-Isles and their creatures, though they remained at liberty, were kept under observation. Finally--and this, we may be sure, was not the least satisfaction to Madame de Prie--her mother found herself neglected and reduced to poverty. Such was the position of affairs when, on 2 December, 1723, the Duc d’Orléans was suddenly attacked by apoplexy at Versailles, and expired almost immediately, in the arms of his latest inamorata, Madame de Phalaris. Of all the princes, _Monsieur le Duc_ happened to be the only one on the spot, and he did not fail to profit by his good fortune. Following the procedure adopted by the deceased prince on the day of Dubois’s death, he hastened to the King, informed him of the loss which he had just sustained, and, almost in the same breath, demanded the vacant post of Prime Minister. His youthful Majesty, “without being moved by the news,” conferred it upon him; the prince, in accordance with custom, forthwith took the oath and received the patent; and when, a few hours later, the Duc de Chartres, who had received the news of his father’s death at the Opera in Paris, or, according to another account, in the boudoir of an Opera-girl whose society he affected, came galloping madly into Versailles, he found, to his profound disgust, the place to which he himself aspired already filled. _Monsieur le Duc_ was the master of the realm, and Madame de Prie mistress of all that was his. CHAPTER XXII