Philip V.had promised the assistance of a fleet, and had supplied some money.

But the peasants did not rise, the Spanish ships were slow to arrive, the enterprise attempted against the Marquis of Montesquiou failed, the conspirators were surrounded in the forest of Noe, near Rennes; a great number were made prisoners and taken away to Nantes, where a special chamber inquired into the case against them.

Three noblemen and one priest perished on the scaffold.
Insurrection, as well as desertion and political opposition, had been a failure; Philip V.was beaten at home as well as in Sicily.

The Regent succeeded in introducing to the presence of the King of Spain an unknown agent, who managed to persuade the monarch that the cardinal was shirking his responsibility before Europe, asserting that the king and queen had desired the war, and that he had confined himself to gratifying their passions.

The Duke of Orleans said, at the same time, quite openly, that he made war not against Philip V.or against Spain, but against Alberoni only.