e unhappy disputes with my brother, the cardinal has never
permitted my relationship to Bouillon to shake his confidence in me. But
after being engaged for many years in combating plots against him, he
cannot but be suspicious of all, and that an officer of my staff should
be staying at Sedan when the dispute was going to end in open warfare
might well have excited a doubt of me while, had you traveled direct
here at that moment, it might, as you said, have been considered that
you were the bearer of important communications between my brother and
myself.

"Now, I hope that you are completely restored to health; you are looking
well, and have grown a good deal, the consequence, no doubt, of your
being so long in bed. You have heard that I am ordered to Roussillon,
of which I am glad, for the war languishes here. The king, I hear, will
take up his headquarters at Narbonne, and Richelieu is coming down to
look after matters as he did at Rochelle. So I expect that things will
move quickly there. They say the king is not in good health, and that
the cardinal himself is failing. Should he die it will be a grievous
loss for France, for there is no one who could in any way fill his
place. It has been evident for some time that the king has been in weak
health. The dauphin is but a child. A regency with the queen as its
nominal head, and Richelieu as its staff and ruler, would be possible;
but without Richelieu the prospect would be a very dark one, and I
cannot think of it without apprehension. However, I must continue to do
as I have been doing ever since Bouillon fell out with the court; I
must think only that I am a soldier, prepared to strike where ordered,
whether against a foreign foe or a rebellious subject.

"Happily my family troubles are over. I hear that there is a probability
that, now Bouillon has been restored to favour, he will obtain the
command of the army in Italy, which will just suit his active spirit."

Three days later Turenne with his staff crossed the Alps, and journeying
across the south of France reached Perpignan. The Marquis of Mielleraye
was in supreme command, and Turenne was to act as his lieutenant; the
latter at once took charge of the operations of the siege of Perpignan,
which had already been beleaguered for some months by the French. The
fortress was a very strong one, but as the efforts of the Spanish
to reinforce the garrison by a landing effected on the coast failed
altogether, and as