Then he put out his hand and took the warrant from De Brissac and read it. It was brief and ran thus, after being addressed to various commanding officers, as the latter had said:--
"It is our will and pleasure that Prince Louis de Beaurepaire be removed from his charge of Colonel of our Guards, and that, wherever he may be seen, appear, or be signalised, he be arrested and detained until our further pleasure is known. The which we charge you not to fail in and to use all proper caution and expedition, subject to our displeasure if you do so. On which we pray God to have you in His holy keeping. Written at Fontainebleau this tenth day of September in the year of our Lord 1674.
"Signé. Louis R. F. et N.
"Sousigné. Louvois
(Ministre de Guerre)."
"Your highness observes?" De Brissac said; "it is the King's orders."
"I observe," De Beaurepaire answered in a low tone.
"Yet take heart," the other said. "This may be no serious thing. Louvois makes many charges now and pushes the King to many things he would not do without him at his side."
"It may be so. Ah! well. My sword! My sword! You would have that?"
"I must," De Brissac said, not without a tremor in his voice. For he remembered De Beaurepaire (then a young man of twenty and the handsomest of all the flower of the haute noblesse) at Arras and the Siege of Laudrécies, and recalled his bravery and reckless daring. And now it had come to this!