one of her pages brought me a note from her, containing
only these few words:

"Make haste to Luxembourg, and be upon your guard on the way." I found
Mademoiselle de Chevreuse in his chamber, who acquainted me that the King
was out of bed, and had his boots on ready for a journey from Paris.

I waited on the Duke, and said, "There is but one remedy, which is, to
secure the gates of Paris." Yet all that we could obtain of him was to
send the captain of the Swiss Guards to wait on the Queen and desire her
Majesty to weigh the consequences of an action of that nature. His
Duchess, perceiving that this expedient, if not supported effectually,
would ruin all, and that his Royal Highness was still as irresolute as
ever, called for pen and ink that lay upon the table in her cabinet, and
wrote these words on a large sheet of paper:

M. le Coadjuteur is ordered to take arms to hinder the adherents of
Cardinal Mazarin, condemned by the Parliament, from carrying the King out
of Paris. MARGUERITE DE LORRAINE.

Des Touches, who found the Queen bathed in tears, was charged by her
Majesty to assure the Duc d'Orleans that she never thought of carrying
away the King, and that it was one of my tricks.

The Duc d'Orleans saying at the House next day that orders for the
Princes' liberty would be despatched in two hours' time, the First
President said, with a deep sigh, "The Prince de Conde is at liberty, but
our King, our sovereign Lord and King, is a prisoner." The Duc
d'Orleans, being now not near so timorous as before, because he had
received more acclamations in the streets than ever, replied, "Truly the
King has been Mazarin's prisoner, but, God be praised, he is now in
better hands."

The Cardinal, who hovered about Paris till he heard the city had taken up
arms, posted to Havre-de-Grace, where he fawned upon the Prince de Conde
with a meanness of spirit that is hardly to be imagined; for he wept, and
even fell down on his knees to the Prince, who treated him with the
utmost contempt, giving him no thanks for his release.

On the 16th of February the Princes, being set at liberty, arrived in
Paris, and, after waiting on the Queen, supped with M. de Beaufort and
myself at the Duc d'Orleans's house, where we drank the King's health and
"No Mazarin!"

On the 17th his Royal Highness carried them to the Parliament House, and
it is remarkable that the same people who but thirteen months before made
bonfires for their confineme