ty before he left the Court; but I could never understand why he
did not put it into execution at a time when he had no reason to fear the
least opposition.

On the 17th the Parliament ordered the thanks of the House to be returned
to the Queen for removing the Cardinal, and that she should be humbly
asked to issue an order for setting the Princes at liberty, and a
declaration for excluding all foreigners forever from the King's Council.
The First President being deputed with the message, the Queen told him
that she could return him no answer till she had conferred with the Duc
d'Orleans, to whom she immediately deputed the Keeper of the Seals,
Marechal Villeroi, and Tellier; but he told them that he could not go to
the Palais Royal till the Princes were set at liberty and the Cardinal
removed further from the Court. For he observed to the House that the
Cardinal was no further off than at Saint Germain, where he governed all
the kingdom as before, that his nephew and his nieces were yet at Court;
and the Duke proposed that the Parliament should humbly beseech the Queen
to explain whether the Cardinal's removal was for good and all. If I had
not seen it, I could not have imagined what a heat the House was in that
day. Some were for an order that there should be no favourites in France
for the future. They became at length of the opinion of his Royal
Highness, namely, to address the Queen to ask her to explain herself with
relation to the removal of Cardinal Mazarin and to solicit orders for the
liberty, of the Princes.

On the same day the Queen sent again to desire the Duc d'Orleans to come
and take his place in the Council, and to tell him that, in case he did
not think it convenient, she would send the Keeper of the Seals to
concert necessary measures with him for setting the Princes at liberty.
His Royal Highness accepted the second, but rejected the first proposal,
and treated M. d'Elbeuf roughly, because he was very pressing with his
Royal Highness to go to the King's Palace. The messengers likewise
acquainted the Duke that they were ordered to assure him that the removal
of the Cardinal was forever. You will see presently that, in all
probability, had his Royal Highness gone that day to Court, the Queen
would have left Paris and carried the Duke along with her.

On the 19th the Parliament decreed that, in pursuance of the Queen's
declaration, the Cardinal should, within the space of fifteen days,
depart from hi