Madame de Rambouillet had kindly
written to some of her friends in the duchy of Lorraine respecting
me, and they assisted us in obtaining a lodging and servants. This
might otherwise have been difficult, for the Duke was I the Spanish
army, while we held his territories, and naturally we were not in
very good odour with the people.
My husband had to leave me, immediately after he had placed me in my
little house at Nancy, to join the army in Germany under Marshal
Guebrian. I lived through that time by the help of the morning mass,
of needlework, and of the Grand Cyrus, which I read through and then
began again. My dear husband never failed to send me a courier once
a week with letters that were life to me, and sometimes I heard from
England; but my mother's letters were becoming full of anxiety,
affairs were looking so ill for the king.
After a gallant victory over the Swedes my Viscount returned to me
without a wound, and with distinguished praise from the Marshal.
That was an important winter, for it saw the deaths of the great
Cardinal and of King Louis XIII., moreover of the old Marchioness.
My husband's loving heart sorrowed for her and for his uncle; but
that same week brought thee to my arms, my dear son, my beloved
Gaspard! Oh! what a fight Tryphena and I had to prevent his being
stifled in swaddling clothes! And how all the women predicted that
his little limbs would be broken and never be straight.
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