I wrote from Lyons asking your Majesty to send some watches as presents for friends who have ere now done us good service, and whose assistance we may need again. I feel I should be wanting in my duty to your Majesty, if I did not renew my request. One might as well try to make bricks without straw as to conduct affairs of this kind without presents.
We had some hopes of obtaining 10,000 crowns in Paris, but were disappointed; there is nothing coming in from our friends here, so we are often at a loss for want of funds. I therefore implore your Majesty to give this matter your serious consideration, for we have no hope of bringing back any sum worth mentioning—indeed, I doubt if we shall have enough for the journey.
I spoke to the King and the Queen Mother, and they assured me that they would see the Queen was escorted to the German frontier in the most honourable manner. Your Majesty, in return, will be graciously pleased to inform us at the earliest moment to what place you wish the Queen to be escorted by her French suite, where I trust such preparations will be made as will show the French escort that your Majesty is not indifferent to that which concerns the Queen’s honour. It will be well, too, that the noble ladies and maidens attending her from motives of duty or affection should feel that they have been well treated, for they are sure on their return to talk about their reception. The Queen has been long intending to go to Amboise; she is naturally anxious to see her daughter before leaving France, but her wish is still unaccomplished, owing to her want of funds. When this difficulty is removed she will start on her journey. I think she will be away twenty-four or twenty-five days.
On the 23rd of last month a courier arrived with despatches from your Majesty, from which I learnt your Majesty’s views as to the course to be pursued with regard to the two proposals made by the King. By the Queen’s desire the matter was considered by her Council. Her wisest advisers thought we ought to accept that proposal which offered the best security, and at the same time tended most to her honour, following herein the principle adopted by steady fathers of families, who make it a rule to prefer good security to high interest. For, after all, the proposal we have rejected would inevitably have left a large portion of the Queen’s income subject to various contingencies and dependent on another’s pleasure. True, it would have been illegal to wrong the Queen, but, in the present state of France, people think more of what they must do than of what they ought to do. The Bishop of Paris, indeed, continued of the same opinion, but his opposition appeared to proceed more from prejudice than reason.
When this was settled, I went to the King and Queen, and having saluted them in the name of your Majesty, whose letter I presented, I said that your Majesty had hoped that the marriage contracts would have been adhered to and fully carried out, but that, as you understood from Monsieur de Vulcob,[84] who was at your Court, as well as from my despatches, in what trouble and difficulty France was involved, you did not wish to press the point, and had frankly accepted the King’s proposals, in the hope that he would perform his promises in a liberal spirit, so as to compensate the Queen in some measure for the rights she had abandoned. I said, further, that it was by your Majesty’s advice that the Queen had chosen the proposal which offered the larger settlement on Crown lands, as being the nearest to the tenor of the marriage contract. Both replied in the most gracious terms. Among other remarks the King made in speaking of his goodwill to your Majesty, he declared that he knew your Majesty’s fatherly affection for him from your having, when he was at Vienna, given him such excellent advice, telling him to prefer mercy to severity, and to choose peace rather than war. With these views, he said, he quite coincided, but remarked that Kings were not always allowed to have their own way. As to the Queen’s departure, he said, he owed so much to your Majesty, and France so much to the Queen, that it was alike his duty and his pleasure to do everything he could for her. If needful, he would provide for her escort, not merely as far as Nancy, but whithersoever your Majesty might wish. As, however, your Majesty had chosen Nancy, he would take care that she should be escorted thither in the most honourable manner at the date appointed.
As for Montmorency, the King replied that he had offered to stand his trial and prove his innocence; that he might be able to do so was his earnest hope and wish. But if, unhappily, Montmorency should be found guilty, he would be compelled to act solely with a view to the interests of his realm, and he thought your Majesty in his position would do the same. Otherwise, he would most gladly do whatever he could to oblige your Majesty.
I concluded by asking that arbitrators might be appointed, according to precedent, to make a valuation of the Crown lands in the provinces which he was assigning to the Queen. He agreed to do so, but asked me, as he was ignorant of such business, either to put my request in writing or to see the Chancellor and Councillors about it. And so I left the King.
I was much gratified during my interview with the Chancellor at the warm terms in which he spoke of your Majesty’s kindness to him when he went to Vienna, and the great affection he professed for the Queen. However, he appeared much surprised at our decision with regard to the two proposals. De Morvilliers also expressed astonishment, which has made me feel rather suspicious of the whole business, as I think there is something in the proposal we have accepted by which we shall lose and the King gain; for hitherto I have found them anything but generous, refusing to make the smallest concession to the Queen, or the smallest sacrifice on behalf of the King.
As to the state of the kingdom, there is but little difference since I wrote last. The King has just now assembled a body, which I can only describe as a shadow of the States-General. He nominated six persons from each province and city, choosing those on whose support he thought he could best reckon, the clergy, the noblesse, and the people being each represented by two members. He laid before these mock States-General the miseries of the country, and the emptiness of the treasury, and then proceeded to ask for a subsidy. After the Orders of the clergy and the noblesse had given fairly satisfactory answers, the representatives of the popular Order said ‘that they would inform their friends of the King’s request, and would bring back whatever answer the community at large might decide to give. They could not do more, as they had not been summoned to deliberate, but simply to learn the wishes of the King.’ As the latter was much dissatisfied with such a reply, they were at last induced to agree that every man should pay to the King the price of one day’s food, and it is supposed that in so great a country as France this will produce a very considerable sum. They made this promise, however, only conditionally, and subject to its ratification by their fellows. All who spoke endeavoured to impress upon the King that, if he did not conclude peace, ruin was inevitable.
As regards the prospect of peace, matters are so complicated and uncertain that it is difficult to judge. There are strong reasons for desiring it: the country is in a most miserable state, the war is most unpopular, money is scarce, revolution is raising her head; but again there are difficulties in the way: the terms offered are hard, there are old grudges on either side, the King’s word commands no confidence, the party in power has lost its authority, and royalty its prestige. Which way the scale will turn it is not easy to tell. Meanwhile there is no break in the war; they are fighting more fiercely than ever. The King has lately ordered his troops to burn all the crops in Languedoc within their reach, causing thereby as much loss to the loyalists as to his enemies. There is also a report that the King has raised new levies of cavalry, and that Condé is coming with an army. Some of his party tried a few days ago to surprise certain towns, among which were Poitiers, Compiègne, Amiens, and Besançon. From these attempts it is thought in Paris that peace is probable. As it was agreed that each party should retain what they actually held at the termination of the war, this condition is supposed to be the motive for these attempts. Further, however much inclined for peace the King and Condé may be, still people think that neither will treat except sword in hand. As to the credit to be attached to these reports, I am by no means certain, but I think I can answer for one thing, that, if they make peace between themselves, they will attack their neighbours, in order to give an outlet to all those uneasy spirits who if left at home would be a danger to the State. Genoa seems convenient for this purpose, and perhaps the Netherlands also; at any rate, one hears already of speeches made by certain Princes, who say that, if the King gives permission, they will go to the assistance of Genoa with 1,500 gentlemen. The journeys of the Fregosi[85] and the Biragues to and from Italy, and the unusually frequent conferences between the Papal Legate and the King, make many people suspect that something is brewing. Of the rebel delegates who were expected with an answer about peace, some have come back already, and the others are said to be on the road, and are expected shortly—among them Beauvois de la Nocle,[86] who is sent back by Condé. If this be so, the issue of the negotiations will ere long be known for certain.