minister's
country house; for Chamillard had given him that address, and there he
learned that the king had granted him a pension of 800 livres. The baron
remarked that, not having worked for money, he had hoped for a better
reward; as far as money was concerned, he desired only the reimbursement
of the actual expenses of his journeys to and from, but Chamillard
answered that the king expected all that he offered and whatever he
offered to be accepted with gratitude. To this there was no possible
reply, so the same evening d'Aygaliers set out on his return to
Languedoc.

Three months later, Chamillard forwarded him an order to leave the
kingdom, telling him that he was to receive a pension of four hundred
crowns per annum, and enclosing the first quarter in advance.

As there was no means of evading this command, D'Aygaliers set out for
Geneva, accompanied by thirty-three followers, arriving there on the 23rd
of September. Once rid of him, Louis the Magnificent thought that he had
done his part nobly and that he owed him nothing further, so that
d'Aygaliers waited a whole year in vain for the second quarter of his
pension.

At the end of this time, as his letters to Chamillard remained
unanswered, and finding himself without resources in a foreign country,
he believed himself justified in returning to France and taking up his
residence on his family estate. Unfortunately, on his way through Lyons,
the provost of merchants, hearing of his return, had him arrested, and
sent word to the king, who ordered him to be taken to the chateau de
Loches. After a year's imprisonment, d'Aygaliers, who had just entered
on his thirty-fifth year, resolved to try and escape, preferring to die
in the attempt rather than remain a prisoner for life. He succeeded in
getting possession of a file with which he removed one of the bars of his
window, and by means of knotting his sheets together, he got down, taking
the loosened bar with him to serve, in case of need, as a weapon. A
sentinel who was near cried, "Who goes there?" but d'Aygaliers stunned
him with his bar. The cry, however, had given the alarm: a second
sentinel saw a man flying, fired at him, and killed him on the spot.

Such was the reward of the devoted patriotism of Baron d'Aygaliers!

Meantime Roland's troops had increased greatly in number, having been
joined by the main body of those who had once been commanded by Cavalier,
so that he had, about eight hundred men