[102] “Seventeen would have been nearer the truth,” observes Croker. “Rymer has preserved the warrant under the sign manual, 27 November, 1626, ‘for the release of and permitting to go abroad of sixteen priests at the intercession of the Maréschal de Bassompierre, Ambassador Extraordinary from the Most Christian King, our dear brother, the Ambassador engaging to carry them abroad.’ Particular care seems to have been taken to express that this was done in compliment to Bassompierre, as the deed runs: ‘to gratify the said Maréschal.’ Bassompierre, in his Ambassades, gives the same list as Rymer.”
[103] Monsieur was the chief president; the others were the Cardinal de la Valette, Archbishop of Toulouse, and the Maréchal de la Force.
[104] He had fought a duel shortly before with Jacques de Matignon, Comte de Thorigny, whom he had killed. La Frette had called Boutteville out, through resentment that he had not accepted him as his second.
[105] This duel, like the one with La Frette, had arisen from the Thorigny affair. Beuvron was a cousin of Thorigny, and he had vowed to avenge his death.
[106] Boutteville left three children: a son, François, afterwards the celebrated Maréchal de Luxembourg, and two daughters, the younger of whom, Isabelle, who was one of the most finished coquettes of her time, became Duchesse de Châtillon and was for some time the mistress of the Great Condé. The poet Charpy celebrated her charms in verses wherein he drew an ingenious comparison between the destruction wrought by her father’s sword and the havoc created by the lady’s beaux yeux:—
“Quand je vois de rapport de votre père à vous,
Divinité mortelle, adorable Sylvie!
Il tenait dans ses mains et la mort et la vie:
Vos yeux se sont acquis les mêmes sur nous.”
[107] So called from the Christian name—Michel—of Marillac, the Keeper of the Seals, who had compiled it.
[108] The news of the condition to which the garrison was reduced had been brought to Fort Louis by a soldier named La Pierre, one of three volunteers who had offered to make an attempt to swim across to the mainland. Of his two companions, one was drowned and the other from exhaustion obliged to surrender to the English. La Pierre himself had a narrow escape from being captured, as he was sighted by some English sailors in a boat and hotly pursued; but, by repeatedly diving, he contrived to elude them. Louis XIII subsequently rewarded his brave deed by a pension of 100 crowns.
[109] Their negotiator and admiral Guiton stipulated that the English should not retain the Île de Ré or any fortified place on the coast after the termination of hostilities. Thus La Rochelle, as Michelet with justice observes, remained faithful at heart to France.
[110] Clément Métezeau, a celebrated architect, born at Dreux in 1581. Jean Tiriot was a master-mason of Paris.