ng more was at stake than the arrest of a single man. This was
so; the real issue was whether the king, with whose instability it was
difficult to cope, should fall back into the hands of his old advisers
or not. My arrest was a move in the game intended as a counterblast to
the victory which M. de Rambouillet had gained when he persuaded the
king to move to Tours; a city in the neighbourhood of the Huguenots, and
a place of arms whence union with them would be easy.

The Provost-Marshal could, no doubt, make a shrewd guess at these
things. He knew that the order he had would be held valid or not
according as one party or the other gained the mastery; and, seeing M.
de Rambouillet's resolute demeanour, he gave way. Rudely interrupted
more than once by his attendants, among whom were some of Bruhl's men,
he muttered an ungracious assent to our proposal; on which, and without
a moment's delay, the Marquis took me by the arm and hurried me across
the courtyard.

And so far, well. My heart began to rise. But, for the Marquis, as we
mounted the staircase the anxiety he had dissembled while we faced the
Provost-Marshal, broke out in angry mutterings; from which I gathered
that the crisis was yet to come. I was not surprised, therefore, when an
usher rose on our appearance in the antechamber, and, quickly crossing
the floor, interposed between us and the door of the chamber, informing
the Marquis with a low obeisance that his Majesty was engaged.

'He will see me,' M. de Rambouillet cried, looking haughtily round on
the sneering pages and lounging courtiers, who grew civil under his eye.

'I have particular orders, sir, to admit so one,' the man answered.

'Tut, tut, they do not apply to me,' my companion retorted, nothing
daunted. 'I know the business on which the king is engaged, and I
am here to assist him.' And raising his hand he thrust the startled
official aside, and hardily pushed the doors of the chamber open.

The king, surrounded by half a dozen persons, was in the act of putting
on his riding-boots. On hearing us, he turned his head with a startled
air, and dropped in his confusion one of the ivory cylinders he was
using; while his aspect, and that of the persons who stood round him,
reminded me irresistibly of a party of schoolboys detected in a fault.

He recovered himself, it is true, almost immediately; and turning his
back to us? continued to talk to the persons round him on such trifling
subjects as com