[LETTER XXXVII.]
Your Majesty’s letter, dated February 4, reached me at the Monastery of Ebersberg on the 7th, just as the Queen was about to enter her carriage on her way to Wasserburg. I lost no time in communicating its contents to the illustrious Duke of Bavaria, and Count von Schwartzenberg, and they promised to reconsider the whole question of the route when they got to Wasserburg. Accordingly, when we arrived, they took counsel with the captain of the boat, but could not prevail on him to alter his opinion. ‘He would do what he could,’ he said, ‘to reach Vienna earlier, but the days were so short, the water was so low, and the mornings were so dark, that it was impossible to promise more.’ However, I am in great hopes that the Queen will be able to reach home one or two days earlier than was arranged.
The reason I did not mention in my former letter that the Duke of Bavaria and his wife were coming, was that I assumed that he would obey your Majesty’s commands, as he has always professed to do. But had it been otherwise, and had some alteration been made so as to deviate from your Majesty’s instructions, I should have lost no time in communicating the fact. Under present circumstances, no change having been made, I did not consider it necessary to write on the subject; moreover, I believed the Duke had enclosed a letter to your Majesty in the packet which he gave me to forward to Vienna, containing, I did not doubt, some reference to his coming; lastly, I thought it probable that a maréchal de logis would be sent on in front to inform your Majesty of the number and composition of his household. After all I was mistaken.
In accordance with your Majesty’s instructions I have written to Gienger,[113] the Lord-Lieutenant, giving him such information as I was able as to the dates of the Queen’s route, the number of her attendants, &c., &c. I had had a letter from him, asking for this information. So now, I think, everything has been settled.
Wasserburg, February 8, 1576.
LETTERS FROM FRANCE.