growth when
a sheet of flame leapt out through the dusk to meet us, and our horses
reared wildly. For an instant we were in confusion; then I saw that our
leader, M. Louis, had fallen headlong from his saddle, and lay on the
sward without word or cry. My men would have sprung forward before the
noise of the report had died away, and, having good horses, might
possibly have overtaken one of the assassins; but I restrained them.
Enough had been done. When La Trape dismounted and raised the fallen man
the latter was dead, his breast riddled by a dozen slugs.

Such were the circumstances, now for the first time made public, which
attended the discovery of this, the least known, yet one of the most
dangerous of the many plots which were directed against the life of my
master. The course which I adopted may be blamed by some, but it is
enough for me that, after the lapse of years, it is approved by my
conscience and by the course of events. For it was ever the misfortune
of that great king to treat those with leniency whom no indulgence could
win; and I bear with me to this day the bitter assurance that, had the
fate which overtook Louis d'Entragues in the wood between Malesherbes
and Fontainebleau embraced the whole of that family, the blow which, ten
years later, went to the heart of France would not have been struck.

* * * * *

The slight indisposition from which the Queen suffered in the spring of
1602, and which was occasioned by a cold caught during her lying-in, by
diverting the King's attention from state matters, had the effect of
doubling the burden cast on me. Though the main threads of M. de Biron's
conspiracy were in our hands as early as the month of November of the
preceding year, and steps had been taken to sound the chief associates
by summoning them to court, an interval necessarily followed during
which we had all to fear; and this not only from the despair of the
guilty, but from the timidity of the innocent, who in a court filled
with cabals and rumours of intrigues might see no way to clear
themselves. Even the shows and interludes which followed the Dauphin's
birth, and made that Christmas remarkable, served only to amuse the
idle; they could not disperse the cloud which hung over the Louvre nor
divert those who on the one side or the other had aught to fear.

In connection with this period of suspense I recall an episode worthy, I
think, by reason of its oddity, to be