FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307  
308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   >>   >|  
to the Duke: "I told you beforehand that you would be swayed by the Coadjutor." The Duke replied: "What! madame, would you have the Coadjutor, for our sakes only, run the risk of being no more than chaplain to Fuensaldagne? Is it possible that you cannot comprehend what he has been preaching to you for these last three days?" I replied to her with a great deal of temper, and said, "Don't you think that we shall act more securely when our troops are out of Paris, when we receive the Archduke's answer, and when Turenne has made a public declaration?" "Yes, I do," she said, "but the Parliament will take one step to-morrow which will render all your preliminaries of no use." "Never fear, madame," said I, "I will undertake that, if our measures succeed, we shall be in a condition to despise all that the Parliament can do." "Will you promise it?" she asked. "Yes," said I, "and, more than that, I am ready to seal it with my blood." She took me at my word, and though the Duke used all the arguments with her which he could think of, she bound my thumb with silk, and with a needle drew blood, with which she obliged me to sign a promissory note as follows: "I promise to Madame la Duchesse de Bouillon to continue united with the Duke her husband against the Parliament in case M. de Turenne approaches with the army under his command within twenty leagues of Paris and declares for the city." M. de Bouillon threw it into the fire, and endeavoured to convince the Duchess of what I had said, that if our preliminaries should succeed we should still stand upon our own bottom, notwithstanding all that the Parliament could do, and that if they did miscarry we should still have the satisfaction of not being the authors of a confusion which would infallibly cover me with shame and ruin, and be an uncertain advantage to the family of De Bouillon. During this discussion a captain in M. d'Elbeuf's regiment of Guards was seen to throw money to the crowd to encourage them to go to the Parliament House and cry out, "No peace!" upon which M. de Bouillon and I agreed to send the Duke these words upon the back of a card: "It will be dangerous for you to be at the Parliament House to-morrow." M. d'Elbeuf came in all haste to the Palace of Bouillon to know the meaning of this short caution. M. de Bouillon told him he had heard that the people had got a notion that both the Duke and himself held a correspondence with Mazarin, and that
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307  
308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Parliament

 

Bouillon

 

madame

 
Turenne
 

morrow

 
replied
 

promise

 

succeed

 

Coadjutor

 
preliminaries

Elbeuf

 

authors

 

confusion

 

advantage

 

uncertain

 

family

 

infallibly

 
notwithstanding
 
endeavoured
 
declares

command

 

twenty

 
leagues
 

convince

 

Duchess

 

miscarry

 

satisfaction

 
bottom
 

meaning

 

caution


Palace

 

dangerous

 

correspondence

 

Mazarin

 

people

 

notion

 

Guards

 
discussion
 

captain

 
regiment

encourage

 

agreed

 

During

 

Madame

 

declaration

 

public

 

Archduke

 

answer

 

undertake

 

render