me
leave to set out on this journey.

She was as good as her word, and the King discoursed with me on
the subject without exhibiting the smallest resentment. Indeed,
he was well pleased now that he had prevented me from going to
the King my husband, for whom he had conceived the greatest
animosity.

He ordered a courier to be immediately despatched to Don John of
Austria,--who commanded for the King of Spain in Flanders,--to
obtain from him the necessary passports for a free passage in
the countries under his command, as I should be obliged to cross
a part of Flanders to reach Spa, which is in the bishopric of
Liege.

All matters being thus arranged, we separated in a few days after
this interview. The short time my brother and I remained together
was employed by him in giving me instructions for the commission
I had undertaken to execute for him in Flanders. The King and
the Queen my mother set out for Poitiers, to be near the army of
M. de Mayenne, then besieging Brouage, which place being reduced,
it was intended to march into Gascony and attack the King my
husband.

My brother had the command of another army, ordered to besiege
Issoire and some other towns, which he soon after took.

For my part, I set out on my journey to Flanders accompanied by
the Princesse de Roche-sur-Yon, Madame de Tournon, the lady of
my bedchamber, Madame de Mouey of Picardy, Madame de Chastelaine,
De Millon, Mademoiselle d'Atric, Mademoiselle de Tournon, and
seven or eight other young ladies. My male attendants were the
Cardinal de Lenoncourt, the Bishop of Langres, and M. de Mouey,
Seigneur de Picardy, at present father-in-law to the brother of
Queen Louise, called the Comte de Chaligny, with my principal
steward of the household, my chief esquires, and the other gentlemen
of my establishment.

LETTER XIV

The cavalcade that attended me excited great curiosity as it
passed through the several towns in the course of my journey,
and reflected no small degree of credit on France, as it was
splendidly set out, and made a handsome appearance. I travelled
in a litter raised with pillars. The lining of it was Spanish
velvet, of a crimson colour, embroidered in various devices with
gold and different coloured silk thread. The windows were of
glass, painted in devices. The lining and windows had, in the
whole, forty devices, all different and alluding to the sun and
its effects. Each device had its motto, either in the Spanish
o