It was the intention of the new Government to concentrate all their efforts to secure the total ruin of Le Blanc, the very life and soul of the hostile faction. He was to be brought to trial on two charges: the old one of embezzlement of public funds, the new one of homicide. The first would be easy to prove; in fact, his culpability, if not the exact extent of it, had been clearly revealed by the examination of La Jonchère’s papers. The second presented much greater difficulties, but it was obvious that a conviction on the charge of embezzlement would greatly facilitate the task of the prosecution. The Orléanists, on their side, made the most desperate efforts to intimidate their adversaries into abandoning their designs against the ex-Secretary of State. Insults and menaces rained upon _Monsieur le Duc_, upon Madame de Prie, upon the Pâris brothers, upon d’Ombreval, and upon all their most prominent supporters; the most disgusting effusions concerning the Prime Minister and his favourite were scattered about in the gallery and salons of Versailles and even in the bedchamber of the young King; the most biting _chansons_ circulated in Paris; almost every day came warnings that their lives were in danger; and a relative and staunch adherent of Madame de Prie died suddenly, in circumstances which left little doubt that he had been poisoned. The Government, however, refused to be diverted from its course. The proceedings against La Jonchère were continued, and on 15 April, 1724, the Commission _censured_ him, declared him incapable of holding any office under the Crown, and condemned him to restore to the King 2,100,000 livres--a very small part of the amount of which the State had been defrauded.[266] The Comte de Belle-Isle was to be surety for 600,000 livres of this sum. This mitigated condemnation was intended to convey the impression that La Jonchère had only been acting under the orders of the late Minister for War, and that the latter was the real culprit.