een revealed to them were
communicated by Henry and his minister to certain members of the privy
council, by whom a report was drawn up and placed in the hands of the
Chancellor; and, this preliminary arrangement completed, it was
determined to recall the Marechal to Court either to justify himself, or
to undergo the penalty of his treason. In order to effect this object,
however, it was necessary to exercise the greatest caution, as Biron was
then in Burgundy; and his alarm having already been excited by the
evasion of his most confidential agent, they felt that he might, should
his suspicions be increased, place himself at the head of the troops
under his command, by whom he was idolized, and thus become doubly
dangerous. It was, consequently, only by a subterfuge that there was any
prospect of inducing him to approach the capital; and the King, by the
advice of Sully, and not without a latent hope that he might be enabled
to clear himself of blame, openly asserted that he put no faith in the
disclosures which had been made to him, and that he would advise the
Marechal to be careful of those about him, whose envy or enmity led them
to put a misconstruction upon his motives as well as upon his actions.
The Baron de Luz,[180] the confidential friend of Biron, for whose ear
these declarations were especially designed, did not fail to communicate
them on the instant to the accused party; while La Fin,[181] by whom he
had been betrayed, likewise wrote to assure him that in revealing the
conspiracy to the King and the ministers he had been cautious not to
utter a word by which he could be personally implicated. It is certain,
however, that the Duke placed little reliance either upon the assertions
of Henry, or the assurances of his treacherous agent; as on the receipt
of a letter from the sovereign, announcing his own instant departure for
Poitou, where he invited Biron to join him, in order that he might
afford him his advice upon certain affairs of moment, the latter wrote
to excuse himself, alleging, as a pretext for his disobedience to the
royal command, the rumour of a reported aggression of the Spaniards, and
the necessity of his presence at a meeting of the States of Burgundy
which had been convoked for the 22d of May, where it would be essential
that he should watch over the interests of his Majesty.[182]

The King did not further insist at that moment; but having ascertained
on his return from Poitou that fresh move