would strangle him with these hands first!" As she finished
these words she put her hands close to the coadjutor's face, and added,
in a threatening tone, "And those who--" Her voice ceased; he was left
to infer the rest.

Yet, despite this infatuation of the queen, it was evident that
something must be done, if Paris was to be saved. The people grew more
tumultuous. Fresh tidings continued to come in, each more threatening
than the last. The queen at length yielded so far as to promise that
Broussel should be set free if the people would first disperse and cease
their tumultuous behavior.

The coadjutor was bidden to proclaim this in the streets. He asked for
an order to sustain him, but the queen refused to give it, and withdrew
"to her little gray room," angry at herself for yielding so far as she
had.

De Retz did not find the situation a very pleasant one for himself.
Mazarin pushed him gently towards the door, saying, "Restore the peace
of the realm." Marshal Meilleraie drew him onward. He went into the
street, wearing his robe of office, and bestowing benedictions right and
left, though while doing so his mind was busy in considering how he was
going to get out of the difficulty which lay before him.

It grew worse instead of better. Marshal Meilleraie, losing his head
through excitement, advanced waving his sword in the air, and shouting
at the top of his voice,--

"Hurrah for the king! Liberation for Broussel!"

This did very well for those within hearing; but his sword provoked far
more than his voice quieted; those at a distance looked on his action as
a menace, and their fury was augmented. On all sides there was a rush
for arms. Stones were flung by the rioters, one of which struck De Retz
and felled him to the earth. As he picked himself up an excited youth
rushed at him and put a musket to his head. Only the wit and readiness
of the coadjutor saved him from imminent peril.

"Though I did not know him a bit," says De Retz, in his "Memoirs," "I
thought it would not be well to let him suppose so at such a moment; on
the contrary, I said to him, 'Ah, wretch, if thy father saw thee!' He
thought I was the best friend of his father, on whom, however, I had
never set eyes."

The fellow withdrew, ashamed of his violence, and before any further
attack could be made upon De Retz he was recognized by the people and
dragged to the market-place, constantly crying out as he went, "The
queen has promised to res