I went, accordingly, to present my profound homages.
Maupertuis, who already had his views, and was possessed with the rage of being President to an Academy, had of his own accord,"-- no, being invited, and at my suggestion (ERROR 4th),--"presented himself there; and was lodged with Algarotti and Keyserling [which latter, I suppose, had come from Berlin, not being of the Strasburg party, he] in a garret of this Palace.
"At the door of the court, I found, by way of guard, one soldier.
Privy-Councillor Rambonet, Minister of State--[very subaltern man; never heard of him except in the Herstal Business, and here] was walking in the court; blowing in his fingers to keep them warm." Sunday night, 11th September, 1740; world all bathed in moonshine; and mortals mostly shrunk into their huts, out of the raw air.

"He" Rambonet "wore big linen ruffles at his wrists, very dirty [visibly so in the moonlight?
ERROR 5th extends AD LIBITUM over all the following details]; a holed hat; an old official periwig,"-- ruined into a totally unsymmetric state, as would seem,--"one side of which hung down into one of his pockets, and the other scarcely crossed his shoulder.

I was told, this man was now intrusted with an affair of importance here; and that proved true,"-- the Herstal Affair.
"I was led into his Majesty's apartment.

Nothing but four bare walls there.

By the light of a candle, I perceived, in a closet, a little truckle-bed two feet and a half broad, on which lay a man muffled up in a dressing-gown of coarse blue duffel: this was the King, sweating and shivering under a wretched blanket there, in a violent fit of fever.