FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282  
283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   >>   >|  
who that very morning settled the necessary funds for raising troops. In the afternoon there was a general council, wherein all the corporations of the city and all the colonels and captains of the several quarters entered into an association, confirmed by an oath, for their mutual defence. In the meantime I was informed by the Marquis de Noirmoutier that the Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville were very well disposed, and that they stayed at Court the longer to have a safer opportunity of coming away. M. de La Rochefoucault wrote to the same purpose to Madame de Longueville. The same day I had a visit from the Duc d'Elbeuf,--[Charles de Lorraine, the second of that name, who died 1657.]--who, as they said, having missed a dinner at Court, came to Paris for a supper. He addressed me with all the cajoling flattery of the House of Guise, and had three children with him, who were not so eloquent, but seemed to be quite as cunning as himself. He told me that he was going to offer his service to the Hotel de Ville; but I advised him to wait upon the Parliament. He was fixed in his first resolution, yet he came to assure me he would follow my advice in everything. I was afraid that the Parisians, to whom the very name of a Prince of Lorraine is dear, would have given him the command of the troops. Therefore I ordered the clergy over whom I had influence to insinuate to the people that he was too influential with the Abbe de La Riviere, and I showed the Parliament what respect he had for them by addressing himself to the Hotel de Ville in the first place, and that he had not honour enough to be trusted. I was shown a letter which he wrote to his friend as he came into town, in which were these words: "I must go and do homage to the Coadjutor now, but in three days' time he shall return it to me." And I knew from other instances that his affection for me was of the feeblest. While I was reflecting what to do, news was brought to me before daylight that the Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville were at the gate of Saint Honord and denied entrance by the people, who feared they came to betray the city. I immediately fetched honest Broussel, and, taking some torches to light us, we posted to the said gate through a prodigious crowd of people; it was broad daylight before we could persuade the people that they might safely let them in. The great difficulty now was how to manage so as to remove the general distrust of the Pri
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282  
283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
people
 

Prince

 

Longueville

 

Lorraine

 

daylight

 

troops

 

general

 

Parliament

 

letter

 
influential

insinuate

 

clergy

 

Coadjutor

 

influence

 

homage

 

Riviere

 

friend

 
honour
 
addressing
 
respect

showed

 

trusted

 

brought

 

prodigious

 

posted

 

taking

 

torches

 

persuade

 
manage
 

remove


distrust
 
difficulty
 

safely

 
Broussel
 
honest
 
instances
 

affection

 

feeblest

 
return
 
reflecting

feared
 

betray

 

immediately

 
fetched
 
entrance
 

denied

 

ordered

 

Honord

 

disposed

 

stayed