sies. Even M. le
Prince himself and M. l'Admiral (Coligny) came to see the King
on this subject, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where I saw them.

I should also like to ask (for all that I write here I saw myself),
who it was who took up arms on Shrove Tuesday, and who bribed and
begged Monsieur, the King's brother, and the King of Navarre to
listen to the schemes for which Mole and Coconas were executed
in Paris?

It was not the Queen, for it was by her wisdom that she prevented
them from uprising, holding Monsieur and the King of Navarre
so imprisoned in the forest of Vincennes that they could not
break out, and on the death of King Charles she held them as
tightly in Paris and the Louvre, even barring their windows one
morning--at least those of the King of Navarre, who was lodged
on the lower floor (this I know from the King of Navarre, who
told it me with tears in his eyes), and kept such strict watch
over them that they could not escape as they intended.

Their escape would have greatly embroiled the state and prevented
the return of Poland to the King, a thing for which they were
striving.

I know this from having been invited to the fracas, which was
one of the finest strokes of policy ever made by the Queen.

Starting from Paris, she carried them to the King at Lyons so
watchfully and skilfully that no one who saw them would think
that they were prisoners.

They journeyed in the same coach with her, and she herself presented
them to the King, who pardoned them soon after their arrival.

Again, who was it that enticed Monsieur, the King's brother,
to leave Paris one fine night, casting off the affection of his
brother who loved him so much, and to take up arms and embroil
all France?

M. de La Noue knows all this, and the plots which began at the
siege of La Rochelle, and what I told him about them.

It was not the Queen Mother, for on this open and abrupt departure
by her son, she felt such grief to see one brother banded against
another brother, his King, that she swore she would die of grief
if she could not reunite them as they were before, which she
accomplished. I have heard her say at Blois, in conversation
with Monsieur, that she prayed for nothing so much as that God
would grant the favour of this re-union, after which He might
send her death and she would accept it with the best of heart. Or
else she would retire to her houses of Monceaux and Chenonceaux
and never again meddle with the affairs