Word was brought in all haste to the Duchess of Maine.

She had company, and dared not stir.

M.de Chatillon came in; joking commenced.

"He was a cold creature, who never thought of talking," says Madame de Stael in her memoirs.

"All at once he said, 'Really there is some very amusing news: they have arrested and put in the Bastille, for this affair of the Spanish ambassador, a certain Abbe Bri.