We then began to walk about the suburbs, and I though of
the Battle of the Herrings and the Maid of Orleans, and wondered
which was the gate by which she entered. One of the gentlemen
immediately complimented Mademoiselle on being a second Maid of
Orleans, and pointed out the gate, called Le Port de Salut, as
connected with the rescue of the place. We saw the Marquis d'Allins
looking out at the window of the guardroom, and Mademoiselle made
signs to him to bring her the keys, and let her in, but he replied by
his gestures that he could not. The situation was a very strange
one. Mademoiselle, with her little suite of ladies, parading along
the edge of the moat, vainly trying to obtain admission, while the
women, children, and idlers of Orleans were peeping over the ramparts
at us, shouting:
'Vive le Roi! Vivent les Princes! Point de Mazarin!' and
Mademoiselle was calling back: 'Go to the town hall, call the
magistrates, and fetch the keys!' Nobody stirred, and at last we
came to another gate, when the guard presented arms, and again
Mademoiselle called to the captain to open. With a low bow and a
shrug, he replied: 'I have no keys.'
'Break it down, then,' she cried. 'You owe more obedience to your
master's daughter than to the magistrates.'
He bowed.
The scene became more and more absurd; Mademoiselle began to threaten
the poor man with arrest.
He bowed.
He should be degraded.
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