Meanwhile the chancellor, threatened by the parliaments, saw
only one way of averting the storm which was about to burst on
his head. This was to introduce into the cabinet persons entirely
devoted to himself; but to accomplish his purpose, it was necessary
to exclude the duc de Choiseul and his party. M. de Maupeou came
to me in December, and after having gently scolded me for what
he termed my carelessness, he showed me a letter from the duchesse
de Grammont, which, he said, would wonderfully aid our plans.
This letter was written to one of the presidents of the parliament
of Toulous, M. de ----. I cannot give you his name; for, although
I have preserved the original of the letter, I have mislaid the
envelope on which the address was written. I here give you a
copy of this curious and important production:--
"MONSIEUR LE PRESIDENT,-- I promised to give
you the exact details of all that passed in this gay
metropolis, and 'tis with much pleasure I sit down
to fulfill my engagement. Things go on much
as usual, or, perhaps, I should be speaking more
correctly, were I to say they are rapidly
progressing from bad to worse. We have
no longer a king in France; all power is lodged
in the hands of one sprung from the most infamous
origin; who, in conjunction with others as
intriguing as herself, seeks only to ruin the
kingdom, and to degrade it in the eyes of
other nations.
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