A few days later, Condé received a letter from the King, written in a strain half-coaxing, half-menacing, summoning him to Court, to be present at the approaching accouchement of the Queen. Etiquette required that the first Prince of the Blood should be in attendance on these auspicious occasions, and it was impossible for him to refuse. But he came alone. Henri IV was furious, and his anger rendered him so insupportable to those about him, that Marie de’ Medici herself begged Condé to send for his wife, promising to keep strict watch over her. Such was the King’s wrath that he could not trust himself to interview his kinsman personally, but sent for his secretary, Virey, and bade him tell his master that, if he declined to bow to his will, or attempted any violence against his wife, he would give him cause to rue it. He added that, if he had been still only King of Navarre, he would have challenged the prince to a duel. After receiving this message, Condé decided to feign submission, and accordingly begged his Majesty’s permission to fetch his wife. This request, as we may suppose, was readily granted, and on November 25--the day on which the ill-starred Henrietta Maria was born--he set out for Picardy. On the evening of the 29th, while Henri IV was playing cards with the Comte de Soissons--_Monsieur le Comte_, as he was styled--Bassompierre, Guise, d’Épernon, and Créquy in his private cabinet, word was brought him that a messenger had arrived from Picardy, with intelligence that _Monsieur le Prince_ had early that morning left Muret in a coach with his wife, accompanied by his equerry the Baron de Rochefort, Virey, and two of the princess’s ladies. Condé had given out that he was bound on a hunting-expedition; but the messenger--an archer of the Guard named Laperrière--had ascertained from his father, who was in the prince’s service, that the party had taken the road to Flanders. “I sat nearest to the King,” writes Bassompierre, “and he whispered in my ear: ‘Bassompierre, my friend, I am lost. That man is taking his wife into a wood. I know not if it is to kill her or to take her out of France. Take care of my money and continue the game, while I go to learn further particulars.’ Then he went with d’Elbène[72] into the Queen’s apartments. “After the King had gone, _Monsieur le Comte_ begged me to tell him what had happened. I replied that his nephew and niece had fled. MM. de Guise, d’Épernon and de Créquy asked me the same question, and I gave them the same answer. Upon this they all withdrew from the game, and I, taking the opportunity of returning to the King the money which he had left on the table, entered the room where he was.