I should have done no more than justice had I hung him as
well; and I think that he half expected it. But reflecting that he had
a score of relations in Poitou who might give trouble, and, besides
that, his position called for some degree of consideration, I parted
with him gravely, and hastened to put as many leagues between us as
possible. That night we slept at Crozant, and the next at St. Gaultier.

It was chiefly in consequence of the observations I made during this
journey that Henry, in the following October, marched into the Limousin
with a considerable force and received the submission of the governors.
The details of that expedition, in the course of which he put to death
ten or twelve of the more disorderly, will be found in another place.
It remains for me only to add here that Bareilles was not of them. He
escaped a fate he richly deserved by flying betimes with Bassignac to
Sedan. Of his ultimate fate I know nothing; but a week after my return
to the Arsenal, a man called on me who turned out to be the astrologer.
I gave him fifty crowns.

VIII.

THE OPEN SHUTTER.

Few are ignorant of that weakness of the vulgar which leads them to
admire in the great not so much the qualities which deserve admiration
as those which, in the eyes of the better-informed, are defects; so
that the amours of Caesar, the clock-making of Charles, and the jests
of Coligny are more in the mouths of men than their statesmanship or
valour. For one thing commendable, two that are diverting are told;
and for one man who in these days recalls the thousand great and wise
deeds of the late King a thousand remember his occasional freaks, the
duel he would have fought, or his habit of visiting the streets of
Paris by night and in disguise. That this last has been much
exaggerated, I can myself bear witness; for though Varenne or Coquet,
the Master of the Household, were his usual companions on these
occasions, he seldom failed to confess to me after the event, and more
than once I accompanied him.

If I remember rightly, it was in April or May of this year, 1606, and
consequently a few days after his return from Sedan, that he surprised
me one night as I sat at supper, and, requesting me to dismiss my
servants, let me know that he was in a flighty mood; and that nothing
would content him but to play the Caliph in my company. I was not too
willing, for I did not fail to recognise the risk to which these
expeditions expose