“Since the closing of our last, we have been at Court againe (and, that we might not nowe hold you in paine, we assure you that we have not been knowen), where we saw the young queene, littell Monsieure and Madame, at her practising of a maske that is intended by the Queene to be presented to the Kinge, and in it there danced the Queene and Madame, with as mannie as made up nineteen faire dancing ladies, amongst which the Queene is the handsomest, which hath wrought in me a great desire to see her sister. So, in haste, going to bed, we humblie take our leaves, and rest
“Your Majestie’s most humble and obedient
“sone and servant,
“Charles;
“and your humble slave and doge,
“Steenie.”
On the following day, February the twenty-third, the Prince and Buckingham left Paris at the early hour of three, and proceeded towards Bayonne. Their journey, meantime, had become the theme of conversation in England, and even on the day on which the Prince set sail, it was the theme of general discussion;[[423]] yet, abroad, so slowly did tidings travel in those days, they were still able to preserve their incognito.
At Bordeaux, however, they nearly revealed their secret. Tired, probably, of their peasant suits, they bought fine riding coats, “all of one colour and of a noble simplicity,” and the proud demeanour of Buckingham, and the high-bred grace of the Prince, could no longer be concealed.
They were invited by the Duc d’Epernon to be his guests, and Cottington was employed to refuse the invitation, so as to avoid exciting suspicion. He was therefore obliged to tell the Duke that he and his party were “gentlemen of mean degree, and formed to little courtship,” and the excuse was received; otherwise, the Duke, being, as Sir Henry Wotton observes, “no superficial man in the practices of the world, might have pierced somewhat deeper than their outsides.”[[424]]
The season of Lent was now advanced, and the travellers could obtain no meat in the inns. Sir Henry Wotton relates an anecdote, which, as he remarks, is characteristic of the Prince, who is the chief hero of the little incident.