erhaps, is more painfully striking than the mutual deception
practised by mother and son throughout the whole correspondence
consequent on their separation. The abuse of terms was so open and so
palpable, and the covert rancour so easily perceptible in both, that it
is impossible to suppress a feeling of disgust as the eye rests upon the
elaborately-rounded periods and hollow professions with which their
several letters abound.

Marie remained two days at Loches, in order to await those of her
attendants who were to rejoin her upon the instant; and then proceeded,
still under the escort of the Duc d'Epernon, to Angouleme; where she was
shortly afterwards joined by several disaffected nobles who had retired
from the Court, unable to brook the authority of the favourite; while,
anxious to retain the confidence of those who were personally attached
to her, although they had declined to join her faction, she despatched a
confidential messenger to the capital with numerous letters, and among
others one to the Marechal de Bassompierre, in which she explained the
motives of her flight.

Paris had, meanwhile, been a scene of constant festivity. The
dissipations of the Carnival, and the Fair of St. Germain, had occupied
the time and thoughts of the whole Court; while the Louvre had put forth
all its magnificence in honour of the nuptials of the Princesse
Christine and the Prince de Piedmont; as well as those of Mademoiselle
de Vendome, the natural sister of the King, and the Duc d'Elboeuf.
Ballets, balls, and banquets were given by all the great nobles;
fireworks and illuminations amused the populace; and finally, the young
sovereign became so thoroughly weary of the tumult about him that he
retired to St. Germain-en-Laye, in order to escape from it, and to
obtain the rest which he was not, however, destined to find even there;
for he had no sooner arrived than he was followed by a courier charged
with despatches announcing the escape of the Queen-mother.

Alarmed by the intelligence, Louis immediately returned to the capital
and summoned his Council, before whom he laid the letter written by
Marie at Loches, and a second also addressed to himself by M. d'Epernon,
in which, with consummate sophistry, the Duke endeavoured to justify his
share in her flight. Nor was De Luynes less terrified than his royal
master by this sudden transition of affairs; and he consequently
laboured to impress upon the King and his ministers the abso