[Footnote 31: He was the real creator of the administration, which St. Simon says he managed "d'une manière transcendante," XIV. 314.] [Footnote 32: "Une figure effrayante qui retraçoit celle des trois juges des enfers" (St. Simon, XIV. p. 315).] [Footnote 33: "Au milieu des fonctions pénibles, l'humanité trouvoit aisément grâce devant lui" (St. Simon, ibid.).] [Footnote 34: Fontenelle, Oeuvres, I. pp. 314-15.] [Footnote 35: Martin, "Histoire de France," XV. p. 40: St. Simon, XIV. pp. 316, 317.] [Footnote 36: St. Simon, XVI. p. 48. "Quand tout fut posé et rassis, le garde des sceaux demeura quelques minutes dans sa chaire, immobile, regardant au dessous, et ce feu d'esprit qui lui sortoit des yeux sembloit percer toutes les poitrines." It is one of St. Simon's finest episodes.] [Footnote 37: "Le roi veut être obéi, et obéi sur-le-champ" (St. Simon, XVI p. 51).] [Footnote 38: Fontenelle, "Éloge," I. p. 316.] [Footnote 39: Ibid., I. p. 317.] [Footnote 40: See Buvat, I. p. 312; _cf._ I. p. 318, where the Regent speaks of him as "un tartufe et un insolent."] [Footnote 41: Martin, "Histoire de France," XV. pp. 61, 62.] [Footnote 42: Marais, "Journal," I. p. 283.] [Footnote 43: Ibid., II. p. 148.] [Footnote 44: It was drawn more briefly by the rude daring of the "esprit gaulois." Among the caricatures which accompanied his fall, we find-- _"Sixty thousand livres reward!_ Lost, between the Rue St. Antoine and the Palais Royal or the Palais des Tuileries an old black dog with a red collar" (the cordon rouge of the order of St. Louis), "who was to be seen about the neighbourhood. Anyone returning the same will receive the above reward. Apply the Abbey of La Madeleine de Traisnel, in the Faubourg St. Antoine" (Buvat, II. p. 102: _cf._ Marais, I. p. 320).] [Footnote 45: St. Simon, XVII. p. 102.] [Footnote 46: "Le ministère gêné et passager:" Voltaire, "Siècle de Louis XIV.," Édit. Garnier, XIV. p. 503.] [Footnote 47: Marais, II. p. 128.] [Footnote 48: Journal (Rathery), I. p. 23.] [Footnote 49: It is a little perplexing to find this incident related under date 1718. It is clear from the tone of the passage that d'Argenson is little more than a boy, without ordinary official experience, and by no means a man of twenty four, on the eve of receiving an Intendancy. Suspicions of the date are confirmed by the fact that for only twenty-seven days of the year 1718 was his father Chief of Police at all. The incident probably occurred some time between 1712, when he appears to have left school, and 1716, when his public career began. A mistake of the kind might naturally arise, as the earlier part of the Journal was not written until long after the events recorded--probably about 1730.] [Footnote 50: Journal (Rathery), I. p. 18.]