the brothers reconciled.—alencon restored to his liberty.
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 alencon 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 quelus.
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 quelus, 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 quelus 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 quelus, 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 quelus, 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 queus 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 any one 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.