Moreover, he assured us that so far from 8000 horse being ready to
storm the city (I should like to have seen them! Who ever took a
fortress with a charge of horse?) barely 200 had escorted their
Majesties. The Coadjutor had shown M. Blancmesnil a note from the
Queen telling him so, and summoning him to St. Germain.
It was likely, M. Darpent said, that the city would be besieged, but
he did not foresee any peril for us, and he promised to watch over
us, as he would over his own mother, and that he would give us
continual intelligence so that we might provide for our safety. It
was amusing to see how eagerly my mother accepted this offer, though
she had almost forbidden him the house when my brother left us.
I am sure my mother was as uneasy as any of us when he did not appear
on the morning after he had gone with his father on the deputation to
St. Germain. However, he did come later on in the afternoon,
bringing a note from Meg. He had not seen her, only Nicolas and
little Gaspard, and he, like all the rest, was greatly incensed at
the manner in which the magistrates had been treated. His father
had, he said, caught a violent cold, and had been forced to go to bed
at once. In fact it really was the poor old man's death-stroke, and
he never quitted his chamber, hardly even his bed.
The Parliament, in a rage, put forth a decree, declaring the Cardinal
an enemy to the State, and ordering him to leave the Court and
kingdom on that very day, calling on all loyal subjects to fall on
him, and forbidding any one to give him shelter.
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