This was the gipsy-girl, whom La
Trape had mentioned, and whose presence in my household seemed to
need the more elucidation the farther I pushed the inquiry. In
the end I had the butler punished, but though my agents sought
the girl through Paris, and even traced her to Meaux, she was
never discovered.
The affair, at the King's instance, was not made public;
nevertheless, it gave him so strong a distaste for the Arsenal
that he did not again visit me, nor use the rooms I had prepared.
That later, when the first impression wore off, he would have
done so, is probable; but, alas, within a few months the malice
of his enemies prevailed over my utmost precautions, and robbed
me of the best of masters; strangely enough, as all the world now
knows, at the corner of that very Rue de la Feronnerie which he
had seen in his dream.
XII. AT FONTAINEBLEAU.
The passion which Henry still felt for Madame de Conde, and which
her flight from the country was far from assuaging, had a great
share in putting him upon the immediate execution of the designs
we had so long prepared.
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