ing 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 st