e neglected to avail
himself of the intelligence; suffering several days to elapse before he
made any inquiry as to the nature of the communication which had thus
been volunteered. Fortunately for the Queen-mother, one of her own
adherents was less dilatory; and having ascertained that the
confidential lackey of Rucellai had arrived in Paris, he caused him to
be found, and took possession of the letters before they could be
transferred to the hands of her enemy. As, however, he in his turn
delayed to forward them to Marie de Medicis, she became alarmed by the
silence of the Duc d'Epernon, and believed that her friends had
abandoned her to her fate; a conviction which reduced her to despair.
Her hopes had latterly been excited; the representations and arguments
of Suffren, seconded by her own desires, had quieted the scruples of her
conscience; and this new check was bitter in the extreme. A thousand
fears assailed her; treachery and hatred enveloped her on all sides; and
superadded to her own ruin, she was forced to contemplate that of all
who had adhered to her fallen fortunes; when, precisely as she was about
to abandon all hope, Du Plessis, the confidant of M. d'Epernon, arrived
at Blois with the welcome intelligence that the Duke was awaiting her at
Loches, very uneasy on his side at the non-receipt of her reply to
his letters.

The appearance of the messenger quieted the apprehensions of Marie, but
she still remained in a position of considerable perplexity from the
fact that all her most devoted adherents were absent negotiating with
the great nobles on her behalf, having found their mission one of far
greater difficulty than the profuse professions of the latter had led
her to anticipate. The Duc de Bellegarde, her relative, had written to
dissuade her from placing herself in the hands of a noble whose
arrogance could not fail to disgust those who desired to serve her. "As
for myself, Madame," he concluded, "I am quite ready to receive your
Majesty in my government of Burgundy, but I cannot offer my services in
any part of the kingdom which is subject to the authority of M.
d'Epernon." Such an assurance alarmed the Queen-mother, who had great
reason to fear that the same objection would be even more stringently
urged by others less interested in her safety; but she had now gone too
far to recede. The Duke had already incurred the risk of the King's
displeasure by leaving Metz without the royal permission; he was