Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/175

Rh she found means to forward to the queen. She asserts that Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was forced from her carriage, "two archers holding a pistol to her throat, and crying unceasingly, 'kill her, kill her, and the women who are with her!'" She did not fail to protest and to appeal from the "Tours, November 20, 1644. Although the only happiness which I had hoped in the exile from your presence was that of meriting your remembrance by the continuance of my duties, I have deprived myself of both, since I have known that this forbearance would be to you the more pleasing token of that obedience which I have always endeavored to express to your Majesty, rather in that way which I believed most in conformity with her wishes than in that which would best have satisfied myself. But as your Majesty has assured me that the length of this absence would not diminish the goodness which she has manifested to the whole world in every thing relating to me, I trust, Madame, that, as you have been able to judge of my respect by the time during which I have denied myself the satisfaction of these duties, I may hope that your Majesty will permit me to have recourse to them on occasions important to my repose. I had self-control enough to restrain myself on the first which presented itself in the arrest of my controller, although you cannot doubt, Madame, in the conviction which I have of his innocence, how much I have been pained at feeling that his being my domestic has been the sole presumption of his crime. But I confess to you that what happened four or five days since in the imprisonment of an Italian physician who has been at my house for some time past, affects me so closely that I cannot believe myself so unhappy as to be refused by your Majesty this vent to my just resentment. This was accomplished with violence unheard of in such cases. Having taken an occasion when he was in the carriage with my daughter, she was forced to alight, two archers holding a pistol to her throat and crying unceasingly, 'Kill her, kill her, and the women who are with her!' This proceeding is so extraordinary that as I expect your justice to render me satisfaction in the person of my daughter, I dare promise myself that your goodness will secure me in future from such rencounters; and although I have sufficient reason to rely on my innocence for safety, I have had such sad experiences of misfortune that your Majesty will not think it strange if I ask it of her with more earnestness, as having ordered me to remain in this place where I am deprived of the sole happiness which I desire in this world, the only consolation which remains to me is to possess security for myself and my household, and to be able