FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230  
231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   >>  
e city of Orleans for the Court that his presence there was very necessary; but as it was much more so at Paris, the Duke was prevailed upon by his Duchess to let her go thither. M. Patru was pleased to say that as the gates of Jericho fell at the sound of trumpets, those of Orleans would open at the sound of fiddles, of which M. de Rohan was a very great admirer. But, in fact, though the King was just at hand with the troops, and though M. Mold, Keeper of the Seals, was at the gate demanding entrance for the King, the Duchess crossed the river in a barge, made the watermen break down a little postern, which had been walled up for a long time, and marched, with the acclamations of multitudes of the people, directly to the Hotel de Ville, where the magistrates were assembled to consider if they should admit the Keeper of the Seals. By this means she turned the scale, and MM. de Beaufort and de Nemours joined her. The Prince de Conde arriving at Paris from Guienne on the 11th of April, the magistrates had a meeting in the Hotel de Ville, in which they resolved that the Governor should wait on his Royal Highness, and tell him that the company thought it contrary to order to receive him into the city before he had cleared himself from the King's declaration, which had been verified in Parliament against him. The Duc d'Orleans, who was overjoyed at this speech, said that the Prince had only come to discourse with him about private affairs, and that he would stay but twenty-four hours at Paris. M. de Chavigni informed the Duke that the Prince was able to stand his ground as long as he pleased, without being obliged to anybody; and he gathered together a mob of scoundrels upon the Pont-Neuf, whose fingers itched to be plundering the house of M. du Plessis Guenegaut, and by whom the Duke was frightened to a great degree. The reflections I had leisure to make upon my new dignity obliged me to take great care of my hat, whose dazzling flame of colour turns the heads of many that are honoured with it. The most palpable of those delusions is the claiming precedence of Princes of the blood, who may become our masters the next moment, and who at the same time are generally the masters of all our kindred. I have a veneration for the cardinals of my family, who made me suck in humility after their example with my mother's milk, and I found a very happy opportunity to practise it on the very day that I received the news of my
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230  
231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   >>  



Top keywords:

Orleans

 

Prince

 
Keeper
 

obliged

 
masters
 

pleased

 
magistrates
 

Duchess

 
Plessis
 

plundering


reflections

 
degree
 

frightened

 
Guenegaut
 
Chavigni
 

informed

 

twenty

 

discourse

 

private

 

affairs


ground
 

scoundrels

 
fingers
 
itched
 

leisure

 
gathered
 

palpable

 

cardinals

 

family

 
humility

veneration
 

generally

 
kindred
 

practise

 

received

 
opportunity
 

mother

 

moment

 

colour

 

dazzling


dignity

 

honoured

 

Princes

 

precedence

 

claiming

 
delusions
 

meeting

 

demanding

 

entrance

 
crossed