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Old Guitaut, a man of no great sense, but heartily well affected, was more impatient than all the rest, and said that he did not conceive how it was possible for people to be asleep in the present state of affairs; he muttered something more which I could not well hear, but it seemed to bear very hard upon the Cardinal, who owed him no goodwill.
He came in this morning from Montreal, where he is connected with the Associates. Was he not in your company three or four years ago? He was dismissed, so I heard, for prying into De Guitaut's private despatches." "I remember the incident. I was the one who denounced him. It was a disagreeable duty, but De Guitaut had put me on De Leviston's tracks. It was unavoidable."
"I have still another hand," said he, bowing and withdrawing with Guitaut. The Queen, much moved, rose immediately, and, despite the prayers of the Princesse de Guemenee, the tears of Marie de Gonzaga, and the cries of Madame de Chevreuse, insisted upon placing herself at the window, and half opened it, leaning upon the shoulder of the Duchesse de Mantua. "What do I hear?" she said.
The Cardinal answered, "Well, M. Guitaut, what would you have us do?" Guitaut said, very bluntly, "Let the old rogue Broussel be restored to the people, either dead or alive." I said that to restore him dead was inconsistent with the Queen's piety and prudence, but to restore him alive would probably put a stop to the tumult.
"Stand aside, ladies. I am a man in a moment like this; and I ought to be so." Then, raising the bed- curtains, she continued, addressing the two officers: "Gentlemen, first remember that you answer with your heads for the life of the princes, my children. You know that, Monsieur de Guitaut?"
The prince supppsed that Guitaut was coming to ask him some favor; the captain of the guards said in his ear, "My lord, what I want to say is, that I have orders to arrest you, you, the Prince of Conti your brother, and M. de Longueville." "Me, M. Guitaut, arrest me?"
As the Prince of Conde arrived in the grand gallery, he saw Guitaut, captain of the guards, coming towards him; at the same instant, through a door at the bottom, out went the cardinal, taking with him Abbe de la Riviere, who was the usual confidant of the Duke of Orleans, but from whom his master had concealed the great secret.
Anne had obtained from Condé an order for the seizure and detention of three or four persons whose names were left in blank; and on the authority of his own signature, the hero of Rocroy and the other two princes, were led quietly down a back stair, given over to the custody of a small escort of twenty men under the command of Guitaut and Comminges, and by them conducted during the night to Vincennes.
"Very well, Cardinal, very well; but, meantime, send for Monsieur the Keeper of the Seals. I will go to the queen." And Louis XIII, opening the door of communication, passed into the corridor which led from his apartments to those of Anne of Austria. The queen was in the midst of her women Mme. de Guitaut, Mme. de Sable, Mme. de Montbazon, and Mme. de Guemene.
Guitaut went to her, whilst the prince, returning to those who were waiting for him, said, "Gentlemen, the queen orders my arrest, and yours too, brother, and yours too, M. de Longueville; I confess that I am astonished, I who have always served the king so well, and believed myself secure of the cardinal's friendship."
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