I was ignorant of what had happened to my brother, and when the
Scottish archer came into my bedchamber, I was still asleep. He
drew the curtains of the bed, and told me, in his broken French,
that my brother wished to see me. I stared at the man, half awake
as I was, and thought it a dream. After a short pause, and being
thoroughly awakened, I asked him if he was not a Scottish archer.
He answered me in the affirmative. "What!" cried I, "has my brother
no one else to send a message by?" He replied he had not, for all
his domestics had been put under an arrest. He then proceeded
to relate, as well as he could explain himself, the events of
the preceding night, and the leave granted my brother for my
being with him during his imprisonment.
The poor fellow, observing me to be much affected by this
intelligence, drew near, and whispered me to this purport: "Do
not grieve yourself about this matter; I know a way of setting
your brother at liberty, and you may depend upon it, that I will
do it; but, in that case, I must go off with him." I assured
him that he might rely upon being as amply rewarded as he could
wish for such assistance, and, huddling on my clothes, I followed
him alone to my brother's apartments. In going thither, I had
occasion to traverse the whole gallery, which was filled with
people, who, at another time, would have pressed forward to pay
their respects to me; but, now that Fortune seemed to frown upon
me, they all avoided me, or appeared as if they did not see me.
Coming into my brother's apartments, I found him not at all affected
by what had happened; for such was the constancy of his mind,
that his arrest had wrought no change, and he received me with
his usual cheerfulness. He ran to meet me, and taking me in his
arms, he said:
"Queen! I beg you to dry up your tears; in my present situation,
nothing can grieve me so much as to find you under any concern; for
my own part, I am so conscious of my innocence and the integrity
of my conduct, that I can defy the utmost malice of my enemies.
If I should chance to fall the victim of their injustice, my
death would prove a more cruel punishment to them than to me,
who have courage sufficient to meet it in a just cause. It is
not death I fear, because I have tasted sufficiently of the
calamities and evils of life, and am ready to leave this world,
which I have found only the abode of sorrow; but the circumstance
I dread most is, that, not finding me sufficiently guilty to
doom me to death, I shall be condemned to a long, solitary
imprisonment; though I should even despise their tyranny in that
respect, could I but have the assurance of being comforted by
your presence."
These words, instead of stopping my tears, only served to make
them stream afresh. I answered, sobbing, that my life and fortune
were at his devotion; that the power of God alone could prevent
me from affording him my assistance under every extremity; that,
if he should be transported from that place, and I should be
withheld from following him, I would kill myself on the spot.
Changing our discourse, we framed a number of conjectures on
what might be the probable cause of the King's angry proceedings
against him, but found ourselves at a loss what to assign them
to.
Whilst we were discussing this matter the hour came for opening
the palace gates, when a simple young man belonging to Bussi
presented himself for entrance. Being stopped by the guard and
questioned as to whither he was going, he, panic-struck, replied
he was going to M. de Bussi, his master. This answer was carried
to the King, and gave fresh grounds for suspicion. It seems my
brother, supposing he should not be able to go to Flanders for
some time, and resolving to send Bussi to his duchy of Alençon
as I have already mentioned, had lodged him in the Louvre, that
he might be near him to take instructions at every opportunity.
L'Archant, the general of the guard, had received the King's
commands to make a search in the Louvre for him and Simier, and
put them both under arrest. He entered upon this business with
great unwillingness, as he was intimate with Bussi, who was
accustomed to call him "father." L'Archant, going to Simier's
apartment, arrested him; and though he judged Bussi was there
too, yet being unwilling to find him, he was going away. Bussi,
however, who had concealed himself under the bed, as not knowing
to whom the orders for his arrest might be given, finding he was
to be left there, and sensible that he should be well treated
by L'Archant, called out to him, as he was leaving the room, in
his droll manner:
"What, papa, are you going without me? Don't you think I am as
great a rogue as that Simier?"
"Ah, son," replied L'Archant, "I would much rather have lost my
arm than have met with you!"
Bussi, being a man devoid of all fear, observed that it was a
sign that things went well with him; then, turning to Simier, who
stood trembling with fear, he jeered him upon his pusillanimity.
L'Archant removed them both, and set a guard over them; and, in
the next place, proceeded to arrest M. de la Chastre, whom he
took to the Bastille.
Meanwhile M. de l'Oste was appointed to the command of the guard
which was set over my brother. This was a good sort of old man,
who had been appointed governor to the King my husband, and loved
me as if I had been his own child. Sensible of the injustice done
to my brother and me, and lamenting the bad counsel by which
the King was guided, and being, moreover, willing to serve us,
he resolved to deliver my brother from arrest. In order to make
his intention known to us he ordered the Scottish archers to
wait on the stairs without, keeping only two whom he could trust
in the room. Then taking me aside, he said:
"There is not a good Frenchman living who does not bleed at his
heart to see what we see. I have served the King your father, and
I am ready to lay down my life to serve his children. I expect
to have the guard of the Prince your brother, wherever he shall
chance to be confined; and, depend upon it, at the hazard of my
life, I will restore him to his liberty. But," added he, "that
no suspicions may arise that such is my design, it will be proper
that we be not seen together in conversation; however, you may
rely upon my word."
This afforded me great consolation; and, assuming a degree of
courage hereupon, I observed to my brother that we ought not to
remain there without knowing for what reason we were detained,
as if we were in the Inquisition; and that to treat us in such
a manner was to consider us as persons of no account. I then
begged M. de l'Oste to entreat the King, in our name, if the
Queen our mother was not permitted to come to us, to send some
one to acquaint us with the crime for which we were kept in
confinement.
M. de Combaut, who was at the head of the young counsellors, was
accordingly sent to us; and he, with a great deal of gravity,
informed us that he came from the King to inquire what it was
we wished to communicate to his Majesty. We answered that we
wished to speak to some one near the King's person, in order to
our being informed what we were kept in confinement for, as we
were unable to assign any reason for it ourselves. He answered,
with great solemnity, that we ought not to ask of God or the
King reasons for what they did; as all their actions emanated
from wisdom and justice. We replied that we were not persons to
be treated like those shut up in the Inquisition, who are left
to guess at the cause of their being there.
We could obtain from him, after all we said, no other satisfaction
than his promise to interest himself in our behalf, and to do
us all the service in his power. At this my brother broke out
into a fit of laughter; but I confess I was too much alarmed
to treat his message with such indifference, and could scarcely
refrain from talking to this messenger as he deserved.
Whilst he was making his report to the King, the Queen my mother
kept her chamber, being under great concern, as may well be supposed,
to witness such proceedings. She plainly foresaw, in her prudence,
that these excesses would end fatally, should the mildness of
my brother's disposition, and his regard for the welfare of the
State, be once wearied out with submitting to such repeated acts
of injustice. She therefore sent for the senior members of the
Council, the chancellor, princes, nobles, and marshals of France,
who all were greatly scandalised at the bad counsel which had
been given to the King, and told the Queen my mother that she
ought to remonstrate with the King upon the injustice of his
proceedings. They observed that what had been done could not now
be recalled, but matters might yet be set upon a right footing.
The Queen my mother hereupon went to the King, followed by these
counsellors, and represented to him the ill consequences which
might proceed from the steps he had taken.
The King's eyes were by this time opened, and he saw that he
had been ill advised. He therefore begged the Queen my mother
to set things to rights, and to prevail on my brother to forget
all that had happened, and to bear no resentment against these
young men, but to make up the breach betwixt Bussi and Quélus.
Things being thus set to rights again, the guard which had been
placed over my brother was dismissed, and the Queen my mother,
coming to his apartment, told him he ought to return thanks to
God for his deliverance, for that there had been a moment when
even she herself despaired of saving his life; that since he
must now have discovered that the King's temper of mind was such
that he took the alarm at the very imagination of danger, and
that, when once he was resolved upon a measure, no advice that
she or any other could give would prevent him from putting it
into execution, she would recommend it to him to submit himself
to the King's pleasure in everything, in order to prevent the
like in future; and, for the present, to take the earliest
opportunity of seeing the King, and to appear as if he thought
no more about the past.
We replied that we were both of us sensible of God's great mercy
in delivering us from the injustice of our enemies, and that,
next to God, our greatest obligation was to her; but that my
brother's rank did not admit of his being put in confinement
without cause, and released from it again without the formality
of an acknowledgment. Upon this, the Queen observed that it was
not in the power even of God himself to undo what had been done;
that what could be effected to save his honour, and give him
satisfaction for the irregularity of the arrest, should have
place. My brother, therefore, she observed, ought to strive to
mollify the King by addressing him with expressions of regard to
his person and attachment to his service; and, in the meantime,
use his influence over Bussi to reconcile him to Quélus, and
to end all disputes betwixt them. She then declared that the
principal motive for putting my brother and his servants under
arrest was to prevent the combat for which old Bussi, the brave
father of a brave son, had solicited the King's leave, wherein
he proposed to be his son's second, whilst the father of Quélus
was to be his. These four had agreed in this way to determine
the matter in dispute, and give the Court no further disturbance.
My brother now engaged himself to the Queen that, as Bussi would
see he could not be permitted to decide his quarrel by combat,
he should, in order to deliver himself from his arrest, do as
she had commanded.
The Queen my mother, going down to the King, prevailed with him
to restore my brother to liberty with every honour. In order to
which the King came to her apartment, followed by the princes,
noblemen, and other members of the Council, and sent for us by M.
de Villequier. As we went along we found all the rooms crowded
with people, who, with tears in their eyes, blessed God for our
deliverance. Coming into the apartments of the Queen my mother,
we found the King attended as I before related. The King desired
my brother not to take anything ill that had been done, as the
motive for it was his concern for the good of his kingdom, and
not any bad intention towards himself. My brother replied that he
had, as he ought, devoted his life to his service, and, therefore,
was governed by his pleasure; but that he most humbly begged him
to consider that his fidelity and attachment did not merit the
return he had met with; that, notwithstanding, he should impute it
entirely to his own ill-fortune, and should be perfectly satisfied
if the King acknowledged his innocence. Hereupon the King said
that he entertained not the least doubt of his innocence, and
only desired him to believe he held the same place in his esteem
he ever had. The Queen my mother then, taking both of them by
the hand, made them embrace each other.
Afterwards the King commanded Bussi to be brought forth, to make
a reconciliation betwixt him and Quélus, giving orders, at the
same time, for the release of Simier and M. de la Chastre. Bussi
coming into the room with his usual grace, the King told him he
must be reconciled with Quélus, and forbade him to say a word
more concerning their quarrel. He then commanded them to embrace.
"Sire," said Bussi, "if it is your pleasure that we kiss and are
friends again, I am ready to obey your command;" then, putting
himself in the attitude of Pantaloon, he went up to Quélus and
gave him a hug, which set all present in a titter, notwithstanding
they had been seriously affected by the scene which had passed
just before.
Many persons of discretion thought what had been done was too
slight a reparation for the injuries my brother had received.
When all was over, the King and the Queen my mother, coming up to
me, said it would be incumbent on me to use my utmost endeavours
to prevent my brother from calling to mind anything past which
should make him swerve from the duty and affection he owed the
King. I replied that my brother was so prudent, and so strongly
attached to the King's service, that he needed no admonition
on that head from me or anyone else; and that, with respect to
myself, I had never given him any other advice than to conform
himself to the King's pleasure and the duty he owed him.