"Here are important tidings, and important requests," he said, pointing to the papers as I entered; "and, among other things to which they give rise, there is an expedition for you to perform, if you will undertake it." He looked up as he spoke, for my reply; and I answered, that anything with which he might think fit to charge me, I should feel honoured in performing; and he thus went on:--
"No, no; you must follow your own judgment, when you have heard what it is, John Marston. There may be danger in the case, my boy; and certainly some fatigue and exertion must be expended on the task. Tell me first, what you know of the events which have lately occurred in the capital. Are you aware that the Prince de Condé and his brother, as well as Monsieur de Longueville, are both in prison at Vincennes?"
I replied, that I was well aware of the facts he mentioned, and added several others which I had learned both from general rumour, and from the more correct account of Father Ferdinand.
"Well, then, you know fully sufficient to judge of the risk," replied Monsieur de Villardin. "You can easily conceive that this notorious piece of injustice, committed in the case of three such distinguished persons, has set all France in a flame; and almost every man of honourable feeling is now putting his foot in the stirrup to compel the Cardinal to liberate the Princes. Monsieur de Bouillon here informs me, that the cause in Guienne is in the most hopeful state; and adjures me, both by my regard for him and by my regard for the Prince de Condé, to join him immediately with what force I can collect.
"At the same time, the Princess de Condé, while making a similar request, does not conceal that, by the influence used in Paris, she trusts to see her husband at liberty in a few weeks. Now, as the only motive which could induce me to join the party of the Princes would be their continued imprisonment, I much desire, without calling attention upon myself, to ascertain the real state of the negotiations in Paris."
He then explained to me, that it was his wish I should instantly set out for the capital, and, conferring with Gourville--an attendant of the Duke de Rochefoucault, then in Paris, employed in endeavouring to effect the liberation of the Princes,--that I should make myself fully acquainted with every particular of their situation. At the same time he proposed to send Gaspard de Belleville to the Duke de Bouillon and the Princess de Condé, charged with a message to the purport that he would join them at the end of three weeks, if he found that the Princes were not likely to be liberated within a month.
Of course, I willingly undertook the task; and I could plainly see also that Monsieur de Villardin, although he was unwilling to commit himself again with the Court, was secretly delighted with the prospect of once more entering upon an active course of life, which, by constant employment, would afford the means of withdrawing his thoughts from all the painful subjects on which they now rested. Eagerly and rapidly he drew up a letter to Gourville, bidding him confide entirely in me; and, having given it to me, he made me remark that he had written on the back. "By the hands of Monsieur de Juvigny."
"You must, on no account," he added, "appear as a foreigner, which, in Paris, would instantly call upon you a degree of attention that is to be avoided by all means. You have now no longer the slightest accent, except, indeed, it be a touch of the patois of Bretagne; which, however, will the more confirm the Parisians in the belief that you are a Frenchman, and you may boldly pass yourself as a Breton even upon Gourville himself. I must furnish you, however, with plenty of that golden oil which makes all doors turn easily upon their hinges; and, remember, spare no expense to reach Paris soon, and to return quickly; for every hour spent upon the road is lost to better purposes. Not so, however, with your inquiries: let them be diligent and minute; do not come away without knowing everything that can be known; and remember, that should fortune, which has been favourable to you in many instances, put it in your power to aid or serve the Prince de Condé, you have my strongest injunction to do so."
Whether he suspected that such would, indeed, prove the case, I do not know; but he three times spoke of the chance of my serving the Prince as not impossible, and reiterated his charge to take advantage of it, if it did occur. He then added a great many cautions and explanations for the direction of my conduct, and gave me a larger sum of money than ever I had possessed before. To all this he joined a number of billets of introduction to different persons of his acquaintance in Paris, conceived in the following terms:--
"To Monsieur de----