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The king was fully aware of the practice, but winked at it, because his servants, thus paid enormous sums by the public and by foreign Governments, were less importunate for rewards and salaries from himself. One man in the kingdom was said to have clean hands, the venerable and sagacious chancellor, Pomponne de Bellievre.
"Most of your friends," said Bellievre, "think that you need only to stand out resolutely, and that the Court will be glad to set you at liberty and send you to Rome; but it is a horrid mistake, for the Court will be satisfied with nothing but your resignation. When I say the Court, I mean Mazarin; for the Queen will not bear the thought of giving you your liberty.
The presidents of Nismes, Novion, and Bellievre have revealed to you their courageous but fruitless resistance to the condemnation to death of the Duke de la Vallette. "The presidents and councils of sovereign courts have been imprisoned, banished, suspended a thing before unheard of because they have raised their voices for the king or for the public.
John the Baptist. Then, amid this sound of bells, by the light of these bonfires, M. de Bellievre, wishing to make a last effort, in order to have nothing with which to reproach himself, wrote the following letter to Queen Elizabeth: "MADAM: We quitted your Majesty yesterday, expecting, as it had pleased you to inform us, to receive in a few days your reply touching the prayer that we made you on behalf of our good master, your brother, for the Queen of Scotland, his sister in-law and confederate; but as this morning we have been informed that the judgment given against the said queen has been proclaimed in London, although we had promised ourselves another issue from your clemency and the friendship your bear to the said lord king your good brother, nevertheless, to neglect no part of our duty, and believing in so doing to serve the intentions of the king our master, we have not wanted to fail to write to you this present letter, in which we supplicate you once again, very humbly, not to refuse his Majesty the very pressing and very affectionate prayer that he has made you, that you will be pleased to preserve the life of the said lady Queen of Scotland, which the said lord king will receive as the greatest pleasure your Majesty could do him; while, on the contrary, he could not imagine anything which would cause him more displeasure, and which would wound him more, than if he were used harshly with regard to the said lady queen, being what she is to him: and as, madam, the said king our master, your good brother, when for this object he despatched us to your Majesty, had not conceived that it was possible, in any case, to determine so promptly upon such an execution, we implore you, madam, very humbly, before permitting it to go further, to grant us some time in which we can make known to him the state of the affairs of the said Queen of Scotland, in order that before your Majesty takes a final resolution, you may know what it may please his very Christian Majesty to tell you and point out to you on the greatest affair which, in our memory, has been submitted to men's judgment.
As on the first occasion, they were introduced with all the ceremonial in use at that time, and found Elizabeth in an audience-chamber. The ambassadors approached her, greeted her, and M. de Bellievre began to address to her with respect, but at the same time with firmness, his master's remonstrances.
Three or four days passed, and as they heard nothing further, they asked again for a parting audience to hear the last resolve of her to whom they were sent: the queen then decided to grant it, and all passed, as with M. de Bellievre, in recriminations and complaints.
My heart ached as I gazed around at my comrades, and realized more fully what the victory had cost us. "Is Bellièvre likely to recover?" asked one. "I hope so; he is quite sensible, but very weak." "He did a splendid thing! The Admiral is very proud of him." "That piece of information will go a long way toward pulling him through!" I said.
Bellievre was desired to write to France about it: the Ministry were in no hurry to give him an answer, because they disliked the prince's project. The Elector in his impatience resolved to go over incognito to France. M. Pelisson assures us it was Montreuil, one of the first Academicians, at that time employed by France in England, who gave the Court notice of the Elector's design.
"Sire," replied M. de Bellièvre, "I am of opinion that you would do well to give the young lady the hundred thousand crowns in order that she may secure the match."
In all my solitary wanderings I had not felt as lonely as I did now, amidst a seething crowd of my fellow-creatures. The first thing, of course, was to find my father, but on coming to the Hôtel Coligny, I resolved to dismount and to seek out Felix Bellièvre.
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