rm and motionless, her majestic figure drawn haughtily to
its full height, and her magnificent arm resting in broad relief upon
the crimson draperies. And still the boy-king, emulating the example
of his royal parent, remained immobile, with closed eyes and steady
breathing, as though his rest had remained unbroken by the incursion
of his rebellious subjects. It was a singular and marked passage in
the life of both mother and son."[D]

[Footnote D: Louis XIV. and the Court of France, vol. i., page 351.]

In those days and at that court falsehood was deemed an indispensable
part of diplomacy. In the afternoon of the same day in which the scene
we have described occurred, the queen assembled in her saloon in the
palace the prominent magistrates of the city. With firm voice and
undaunted eye, she assured them that she had never entertained the
slightest idea of removing his majesty from the city. She enjoined it
upon them vigilantly to continue to guard the gates, that the populace
might be convinced that no design of escape was cherished. Her words
were not believed; her directions were obeyed. The gates were rigidly
closed. Thus the king was a prisoner.

The apprehensions of the Fronde, that by some stratagem the king might
be removed, were so great that _Monsieur_ dispatched a gentleman of
his household every night to ascertain if the king were quietly in his
bed. The messenger, M. Desbuches, carried a nightly greeting to the
queen, with orders not to leave the Palais Royal without seeing the
young sovereign. The excuse for this intrusion was, that _Monsieur_
could not, without this evidence, satisfy the excited citizens that
the king was safe. This was a terrible humiliation to the queen
regent.

Cardinal Mazarin, having passed the night at St. Germain, commenced
traveling by slow stages toward Havre. He was expecting every hour to
be joined by the queen regent and other members of the royal
household. He was, however, overtaken by a courier, who announced to
him what had transpired in Paris, and that the escape of the royal
family was impossible. The cardinal thus found himself really in
exile, and earnest endeavors were made by the Fronde to induce the
queen regent to secure a cardinal's hat for M. de Retz, and make him
her prime minister. The last act of the queen regent was the issuing
of a decree that Mazarin was banished forever from the kingdom.

Such was the posture of affairs when, on the 5th of September