omas-du-Louvre to the Pont Neuf, from the Rue Richelieu to the Porte
Saint Honore, there were more than ten thousand armed men; those who
were at the front hurled defiance at the impassive sentinels of the
regiment of guards posted around the Palais Royal, the gates of which
were closed behind them, a precaution which made their situation
precarious. Among these thousands moved, in bands numbering from one
hundred to two hundred, pale and haggard men, clothed in rags, who
bore a sort of standard on which was inscribed these words: "Behold the
misery of the people!" Wherever these men passed, frenzied cries were
heard; and there were so many of these bands that the cries were to be
heard in all directions.

The astonishment of Mazarin and of Anne of Austria was great when it
was announced to them that the city, which the previous evening they
had left entirely tranquil, had awakened to such feverish commotion; nor
would either the one or the other believe the reports that were brought
to them, declaring they would rather rely on the evidence of their own
eyes and ears. Then a window was opened and when they saw and heard they
were convinced.

Mazarin shrugged his shoulders and pretended to despise the populace;
but he turned visibly pale and ran to his closet, trembling all over,
locked up his gold and jewels in his caskets and put his finest diamonds
on his fingers. As for the queen, furious, and left to her own guidance,
she went for the Marechal de la Meilleraie and desired him to take as
many men as he pleased and to go and see what was the meaning of this
pleasantry.

The marshal was ordinarily very adventurous and was wont to hesitate
at nothing; and he had that lofty contempt for the populace which army
officers usually profess. He took a hundred and fifty men and attempted
to go out by the Pont du Louvre, but there he met Rochefort and his
fifty horsemen, attended by more than five hundred men. The marshal made
no attempt to force that barrier and returned up the quay. But at
Pont Neuf he found Louvieres and his bourgeois. This time the marshal
charged, but he was welcomed by musket shots, while stones fell like
hail from all the windows. He left there three men.

He beat a retreat toward the market, but there he met Planchet with
his halberdiers; their halberds were leveled at him threateningly. He
attempted to ride over those gray cloaks, but the gray cloaks held their
ground and the marshal retired toward