I have since
come to understand that the Queen and the Cardinal were alarmed lest
the Vicomte de Turenne with his army should come to the assistance of
his brother, the Duke of Bouillon, and thus leave the frontier open
to the Spaniards; and that this very possibility also worked upon the
First President Mole, who was too true a Frenchman not to prefer
giving way to the Queen to bringing disunion into the army and
admitting the invader. Most of the provincial Parliaments were of
the same mind as that of Paris, and if all had united and stood firm
the Court would have been reduced to great straits. It was well for
us at St. Germain that they never guessed at our discomforts on our
hill, and how impossible it would have been to hold out for a more
complete victory.
I was glad enough to leave St. Germain the day after the terms had
been agreed upon. The royal family did not yet move, but my term of
waiting had long been expired; I burned to rejoin my mother and
sister, and likewise to escape from the assiduities of M. de Lamont,
who was becoming more insufferable than ever.
So I asked permission of the Queen to let my son resume his studies,
and of Mademoiselle to leave her for the time. Both were gracious,
though the Queen told me I was going into a wasp's nest; while, on
the other hand, Mademoiselle congratulated me on returning to those
dear Parisians, and said she should not be long behind me.
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