but, though we were by a riverside, we durst not
venture out for water, because there was nobody to put the stack in order
again, which would very probably have occasioned suspicion and a search
in consequence. We heard nothing but horsemen riding by, who, we were
afterwards informed, were Marechal de La Meilleraye's scouts. About two
o'clock in the morning I was fetched out of the stack by a Parisian of
quality sent by my friend De Brissac, and carried on a hand-barrow to a
barn, where I was again buried alive, as it were, in hay for seven or
eight hours, when M. de Brisac and his lady came, with fifteen or twenty
horse, and carried me to Beaupreau. From thence we proceeded, almost in
eight of Nantes, to Machecoul, in the country of Retz, after having had
an encounter with some of Marechal de La Meilleraye's guards, when we
repulsed them to the very barrier.

Marechal de La Meilleraye was so amazed at my escape that he threatened
to destroy the whole country with fire and sword, for which reason I was
an unwelcome guest to Madame de Retz and her father, who rallied me very
uncharitably on my disobedience to the King. We therefore thought fit to
leave the country, and went aboard a ship for Belle Isle, whence, after a
very short stay there, we escaped to San Sebastian.

Upon my arrival there I sent a letter to the King of Spain requesting
leave to pass through his dominions to Rome. The messenger was received
at Court with civilities beyond expression, and sent back next day with
the present of a gold chain worth 800 crowns. I had also one of the
King's litters sent me, and an invitation to go to Madrid, but I desired
to be excused; and though I also refused immense offers if I would but go
to Flanders and treat with the Prince de Conde, etc., for the service of
Spain, yet I had a velvet coffer sent me with 40,000 crowns in it, which
I likewise thought fit to refuse. As I had neither linen nor apparel,
either for myself or servants, and as the 400 crowns which we got by the
sale of pilchards on board the barque in which we came from Belle Isle
were almost all spent, I borrowed 400 crowns of the Baron de Vateville,
who commanded for the King of Spain in Guipuzcoa, and faithfully repaid
him.

From San Sebastian I travelled incognito to Tudela, where I was met by
the King's mule drivers and waited on by the alcade, who left his wand at
my chamber door and at his, entrance knelt and kissed the hem of my
garment. F