ussel, dead or alive." "The former," replied the coadjutor, "would
not accord with either the queen's piety or her prudence; the latter
might stop the tumult." At this word the queen blushed, and exclaimed,
"I understand you, Mr. Coadjutor; you would have me set Broussel at
liberty. I would strangle him with these hands first!" "And, as she
finished the last syllable, she put them close to my face," says De Retz,
"adding, 'And those who . . . ' The cardinal advanced and whispered in
her ear." Advices of a more and more threatening character continued to
arrive; and, at last, it was resolved to promise that Broussel should be
set at liberty, provided that the people dispersed and ceased to demand
it tumultuously. The coadjutor was charged to proclaim this concession
throughout Paris; he asked for a regular order, but was not listened to.
"The queen had retired to her little gray room. Monsignor pushed me very
gently with his two hands, saying, 'Restore the peace of the realm.'
Marshal Meilleraye drew me along, and so I went out with my rochet and
camail, bestowing benedictions right and left; but this occupation did
not prevent me from making all the reflections suitable to the difficulty
in which I found myself. The impetuosity of Marshal Meilleraye did not
give me opportunity to weigh my expressions; he advanced sword in hand,
shouting with all his might, 'Hurrah for the king! Liberation for
Broussel!' As he was seen by many more folks than heard him, he provoked
with his sword far more people than he appeased with his voice." The
tumult increased; there was a rush to arms on all sides; the coadjutor
was felled to the ground by a blow from a stone. He had just picked
himself up, when a burgess put his musket to his head. "Though I did not
know him a bit," says Retz, "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."

[Illustration: "Ah, Wretch, if thy Father saw thee!"----354]

The coadjutor was recognized, and the crowd pressed round him, dragging
him to the market-place. He kept repeating everywhere that "the queen
promised to restore Broussel." The fiippers laid down their arms, and
thirty or forty thousand men accompanied him to the Palais-Royal.
"Madame," said Marshal Meilleraye as he entered, "here is he to whom I
owe