So astounded were Monsieur le Duc and the majority of his counsellors at such tactics on the part of their enemies that, for a moment, they were at a loss how to proceed. Madame de Prie, however, retained her presence of mind and insisted on prompt and energetic action, pointing out that it was now a case of war to the knife in the most literal sense of the expression, and that, if they did not hasten to crush their adversaries, they would certainly be crushed themselves.
It was ultimately decided to follow her counsels. The Chevalier de Belle-Isle was forthwith arrested and conveyed to the Château of Vincennes. On 5 March, Du Val, commandant of the mounted police, furnished with a lettre de cachet, proceeded to Doué, where he arrested the late Minister for War and conducted him to Paris and the Bastille. The same night, the police surrounded the hôtel of the Comte de Belle-Isle, with orders to apprehend both the count and his friend the Marquis de Conches, who was staying with him. They secured Belle-Isle and escorted him to the Bastille, whither his younger brother had been transferred a few hours previously; but Conches disguised himself and succeeded in effecting his escape by a secret door. He did not, however, remain long at large, for he was captured the following day at a house in the Rue Tavannes, where he had taken refuge, and sent to join his friends in misfortune. Numerous other arrests followed, including that of Moreau de Séchelles, a high official at the Ministry of War and an intimate friend of Le Blanc. But what aroused the most sensation was the apprehension of a man named Lempereur and his two sons and of two brothers called Mestre, sons of a soldier in the Cent-Suisses.
This Lempereur, who lived in an isolated house near the wood of Rueil, had formerly been a gardener at the Château of La Jonchère, and he was suspected of having murdered Sandrier, with the assistance of his sons and the Mestres. He was also suspected of being concerned in another crime, which the police believed to be closely connected with the first. One evening in September, 1722—that is to say, about five months after the discovery of Sandrier’s body—a carter in the employ of the tenant of La Malmaison, a farm upon the La Jonchère estate, afterwards celebrated as the residence of the Empress Josephine, had been murdered close to his master’s door. As nothing upon him had been touched, and he was not known to have any private enemies, the inference was that he had been in possession of certain facts concerning the death of Sandrier which had made his removal necessary to the safety of the assassins.
It was the intention of the new Government to concentrate all their efforts to secure the total ruin of Le Blanc, the very life and soul of the hostile faction. He was to be brought to trial on two charges: the old one of embezzlement of public funds, the new one of homicide. The first would be easy to prove; in fact, his culpability, if not the exact extent of it, had been clearly revealed by the examination of La Jonchère’s papers. The second presented much greater difficulties, but it was obvious that a conviction on the charge of embezzlement would greatly facilitate the task of the prosecution.
The Orléanists, on their side, made the most desperate efforts to intimidate their adversaries into abandoning their designs against the ex-Secretary of State. Insults and menaces rained upon Monsieur le Duc, upon Madame de Prie, upon the Pâris brothers, upon d’Ombreval, and upon all their most prominent supporters; the most disgusting effusions concerning the Prime Minister and his favourite were scattered about in the gallery and salons of Versailles and even in the bedchamber of the young King; the most biting chansons circulated in Paris; almost every day came warnings that their lives were in danger; and a relative and staunch adherent of Madame de Prie died suddenly, in circumstances which left little doubt that he had been poisoned.
The Government, however, refused to be diverted from its course. The proceedings against La Jonchère were continued, and on 15 April, 1724, the Commission censured him, declared him incapable of holding any office under the Crown, and condemned him to restore to the King 2,100,000 livres—a very small part of the amount of which the State had been defrauded.[266] The Comte de Belle-Isle was to be surety for 600,000 livres of this sum.
This mitigated condemnation was intended to convey the impression that La Jonchère had only been acting under the orders of the late Minister for War, and that the latter was the real culprit.
In the meanwhile, the Government had decided to endeavour to bring home to Le Blanc yet another mysterious crime. In the spring of 1718, a certain Gazan de la Combe, of whom very little is known, had been found dead, strangled by a cord attached to the foot of his bed, at the house of La Barre, lieutenant of the constabulary, in the Rue Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle. Le Blanc and other Ministers had, it appeared, been in the habit of consigning to the care of La Barre certain persons who had incurred their displeasure, and it was given out that the dead man had been confined there on account of intrigues on behalf of the Spanish Ambassador, the Duc and Duchesse du Maine, and their accomplices, and that, knowing that it was the intention of the Government to bring him to trial, he had, in his despair, committed suicide. Now, however, an officer in the Army came forward who informed the police that, at the time of the death of La Combe, he happened to be detained in the same house, by orders of Le Blanc; that one morning, attracted by cries of terror from the wife of La Barre, he had hurried to La Combe’s room, where he found him lying dead, but that, from the position of the body, he was of opinion that it was impossible for him to have taken his own life. He added that, while he was in the room, Le Blanc had entered, accompanied by La Barre; that the Minister, on perceiving him, had appeared very agitated, and had demanded of La Barre why he had not set him at liberty two days before, in accordance with his instructions, and had then ordered him to leave the house. This evidence was subsequently confirmed by one of La Barre’s servants.
In the opinion of the police, there was little doubt that the unfortunate La Combe had, like Sandrier, been in possession of certain facts concerning the Emergency War Fund which made his removal advisable; and La Barre and his wife were promptly arrested and conducted to the Bastille.
Matters now began to look very black indeed for Le Blanc, and there were not a few who declared that he might consider himself very fortunate if he did not terminate his career on the gibbet. But, fortunately for the ex-Minister for War, he was, through his title of honorary maître des requêtes, a member of the Parlement of Paris, and had therefore the right to demand to be judged by all the Chambers sitting together; and just as he was about to be brought to trial, he presented to the Parlement a petition to that effect, which was immediately granted.