From this time the young count began to supply him with resources.

Thus armed, he gathered instruments round him and organized a system of espionage that carried to his ears all our actions and the whole position of affairs at court.

He knew, far more accurately than anyone else outside the royal circle, the measures taken for the government of the kingdom and the considerations that dictated the royal policy.

More than this, he possessed himself of every detail concerning the king's health, although the utmost reticence was observed on this subject.

Had his discoveries stopped there, they would have been vexatious and disquieting, but perhaps of little serious harm.