The whole circumstances attending this strange attack on Harley illustrate strikingly the political feeling and curious administrative customs of the day. The Marquis de Guiscard, who is often described as a mere adventurer, was the younger son of a very distinguished family in France. He had joined the Church, in order to obtain some preferment, but with no idea of performing any of the duties of his profession further than was habitual amongst the nobility of Louis XIV's Court, in a similar case. But his excesses gave scandal even in a licentious society: and he soon embroiled himself with Madame Maintenon, the King's mistress. France became no longer a possible abode for him, and he began to intrigue with her enemies abroad, adopting the title of Marquis before his family name. Early in Queen Anne's reign he was in correspondence with the Whig ministers, and he not only obtained employment from them, but made a great figure in the higher society of the day. His offers, however, proved illusive: he was without military capacity, and his resources failed. He doubled and twisted in intrigue, and seems to have laid some plot against the life of the Queen, though no distinct evidence of it has ever been adduced, and his influence was too slight to make him a real danger. Possibly some of the Ministers, who were unduly compromised by their dealings with him, were anxious to get rid of him. He was arrested on the Secretary's warrant, and brought before a hastily summoned Council of Ministers, where his examination was conducted with little regard to legal form, and not unnaturally ended in a violent outburst on his part, and an undignified attack upon him by the Ministers, who wore their swords. The wound of Harley — inflicted by a penknife picked up from the table — could scarcely have been serious, had it not been for Harley's unhealthy state of body. By a few weeks' illness, Harley became the favourite of the moment, and his Ministry acquired, for the first time, a solid foundation of power.