M.de Belle-Isle had insisted strongly on the choice of Marshal d'Estrees; he was called "the Temporizer," and was equally brave and prudent.

"I am accustomed," said the king, "to hear from him all he thinks." The army was already on the march.
Whilst hostilities were thus beginning throughout Europe, whilst negotiations were still going on with Vienna touching the second treaty of Versailles, King Louis XV., as he was descending the staircase of the marble court at Versailles on the 5th of January, 1757, received a stab in the side from a knife.

Withdrawing full of blood the hand he had clapped to his wound, the king exclaimed, "There is the man who wounded me, with his hat-on; arrest him, but let no harm be done him!" The guards were already upon the murderer and were torturing him pending the legal question.

The king had been carried away, slightly wounded by a deep puncture from a penknife.

In the soul of Louis XV.