the prince to make my compliments, I said that the glory he had
won had cost him dear, as he had lost his shoes; he replied, laughing,
that it had been said so, but the truth was, that, happening to be at the
guards' attack, somebody came and told him that the king had pushed
forward to M. de Gadaignes' attack, that he had ridden up full gallop to
bring back the king, who had put himself in too great peril, and that,
having dismounted at a very moist spot, his shoe had come off, and he had
been obliged to re-shoe himself in the king's presence." [_Journal d'
Oliver d' Ormesson,_ t. ii. p. 542.]

Louis XIV. had good reason to "push forward to the attack and put himself
in too great peril;" a rumor had circulated that, having run the same
risk at the siege of Lille, he had let a moment's hesitation appear; the
old Duke of Charost, captain of his guards, had come up to him, and,
"Sir," he had whispered in the young king's ear, "the wine is drawn, and
it must be drunk." Louis XIV. had finished his reconnoissance, not
without a feeling of gratitude towards Charost for preferring before his
life that honor which ended by becoming his idol.

The king was back at St. Germain, preparing enormous armaments for the
month of April. He had given the Prince of Conde the government of
Franche-Comte. "I had always esteemed your father," he said to the young
Duke of Enghien, "but I had never loved him; now I love him as much as I
esteem him." Young Louvois, already in high favor with the king, as well
as his father, Michael Le Tellier, had contributed a great deal towards
getting the prince's services appreciated; they still smarted under the
reproaches of M. de Turenne touching the deficiency of supplies for the
troops before Lille in 1667.

War seemed to be imminent; the last days of the armistice were at hand.
"The opinion prevailing in France as to peace is a disease which is
beginning to spread very much," wrote Louvois in the middle of March,
"but we shall soon find a cure for it, as here is the time approaching
for taking the field. You must publish almost everywhere that it is the
Spaniards who do not want peace." Louvois lied brazenfacedly; the
Spaniards were without resources, but they had even less of spirit than
of resources; they consented to the abandonment of all the places won in
the Low Countries during 1667. A congress was opened at Aix-la-Chapelle,
presided over by the nuncio of the new pope, Clement IX.,