No one could be kinder than M. Darpent. He was very sad about this
flight of the Court. He said he feared it was the beginning of a
civil war, and that he had thought better of the blood royal and
noblesse of France than to suppose they would assist a Spanish woman
and an Italian priest to trample down and starve their fellow-
countrymen in the name of a minor king. He expected that there would
be a siege, for he was sure that the temper of the people was averse
to yielding, and the bourgeois put their trust in the archers.
I asked if he thought there would be any danger, thinking that I
would either join my mother and sister or endeavour to fetch them
away; but he assured me that they would be safe. Was not the Queen
of England left, as I assured him, and the Duchess of Longueville? M.
le Prince would allow no harm to touch the place where lived the
sister he so passionately loved. I might be secure that the Hotel de
Nid de Merle was perfectly safe, and he would himself watch to see
that they were not annoyed or terrified. He gave me the means of
writing a billet to my mother from his little Advocate's portfolio,
and he promised himself to convey it to her and assure her of our
safety, a message which I thought would make him welcome even to her.
He was most kind in every way, and when we came near the gate
bethought him that the two little boys looked pale and hungry, as
well they might.
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