“At these words, utterly astounded, he said to me: ‘_Pourquoi, Mousou, de Masnay? Que sol dir Magnat? Che cosa e Maignat?_’ ‘You are deceiving me,’ I rejoined. ‘You know him better than I do, and you pretend to know nothing about him.’ ‘_Per Dio, Mousou!_’ he exclaimed, ‘I do not know Magnat; I do not understand what you mean; I do not know who he is.’ ‘Monsieur, Monsieur,’ said I, ‘I speak to you as your servant and friend, not as a judge or a commissioner. Maignan was arrested yesterday and examined forthwith, again in the evening, and this morning for the third time. He was arrested in the act of posting a packet of letters, which speaks of many things and mentions persons by their names. If you are aware of it already, I have only lost time in telling you; but, if you are not, I think that, as your servant, I gain much by warning you of it, in order that you may extricate M. Dolet from this affair, in which people will endeavour to involve him.’ He said to me, very confused: ‘I, Mousou, I do not think that M. Dolet knows who Magnat is. It is no concern of mine.’ ‘Monsieur,’ I replied, ‘I shall only take in this affair the part which you wish to give me in order to serve you; that is my sole object and intention.’ He thanked me and left me abruptly.” That afternoon the Queen went for a drive in the park, and Bassompierre accompanied her, occupying a seat in the Grand Equerry’s coach. As they were driving by the side of the canal, one of Concini’s gentlemen came galloping up and informed Bassompierre that his master wished to see him immediately, and he sprang from his horse and offered it him. “Ah! he wants to win my money,” remarked Bassompierre, as he prepared to mount; and when the Queen inquired where he was going, he replied that he was going to play cards with the Marquis d’Ancre. He rode back to the palace, and found Concini awaiting him in the Cour Ovale. “He led me,” he writes, “into the Queen’s gallery, shut the door upon us and walked to the end of it without speaking a word. At length, drawing himself up, he said: ‘M. _Bassompier_, my good friend, I am undone; my enemies have gained the ascendancy over the Queen’s mind, in order to ruin me.’ Thereupon he began to utter strange blasphemies and wept bitterly. I allowed him to rave a little, and then said to him: ‘Monsieur, it is no time to swear and to weep when affairs press; you must open your heart and reveal the wound to the friend to whom you desire to entrust its cure. I imagine that you sent for me to tell me of the evil, not to bewail it.’ ‘The Ministers have reduced me to extremities,’ he replied; ‘they desire to ruin me and M. Dolet likewise.’”