he would grant the truce they demanded of him, but for
the months of August, September, and October only.

The next day a prodigious concourse of the populace of Paris assembled at
St. Denis. The King showed himself to the people and assisted publicly at
mass; wherever he turned his steps the crowd was so great that it was
sometimes impossible to pierce through it, while every moment a million
of voices cried, "Long live the King!" Everyone returned, charmed with
the gracefulness of his person, his condescension, and that engaging
manner which was natural to him. "God bless him!" said they, with tears
in their eyes, "and grant that he may soon do the same in our Church of
Notre Dame in Paris." I observed to the King this disposition of the
people with regard to him; tender and sensible as he was, he could not
behold this spectacle without strong emotions.

Some months later, while on a mission for the King, I received from his
majesty a letter, which concluded with these words: "Come to me at Senlis
on the 20th of March, or at St. Denis on the 21st, that you may help to
cry, 'Long live the King!' in Paris, and afterward we will do the same at
Rouen."

It was upon some correspondence the King carried on in Paris that he
founded his hopes of being soon admitted there, and he was on his way
thither from St. Denis when I joined him. His party in that city was so
firmly united, and so many persons of equal courage and fidelity had
joined it, that it was almost impossible but that it should succeed. Ever
since the battle of Arques, when the Count of Belin was taken prisoner by
the King's forces, and had an opportunity of discovering the great
qualities of Henry contrasted with the weakness of his enemies, the Duke
of Mayenne perceived the inclinations of the count to lean secretly
toward the King. Full of this suspicion, he did not hesitate a moment
about depriving him of the government of so considerable a city as Paris,
and, seeking for a man whose fidelity to himself and the League could be
depended upon, to whom he might intrust the care of this great city at a
time when the necessity of his affairs obliged him to repair to the
frontier of Picardy, he fixed upon Brissac and made him governor.

Brissac, at first, answered his purposes perfectly well. The study of
Roman history had inspired this officer, who valued himself greatly upon
his penetration and judgment, with a very singular project, which was to
form France