“At that time, the King, who was very young, amused himself with many little occupations of his age, making little fountains in imitation of those of Saint-Germain, with pipes of quill, and little inventions for hunting, and playing on the drum, in which he succeeded very well. One day I told him that he was clever at everything which he undertook, and that, although he had never been taught, he played the drum better than the master of that instrument. ‘I must begin to blow the hunting-horn again,’ said he, ‘which I do very well, and will blow it for a whole day.’ ‘Sire,’ said I, ‘I do not advise your Majesty to blow it too often, for it causes ruptures, and is very injurious for the lungs; and I have heard that, through blowing the horn, the late King Charles broke a blood-vessel in his lungs, and that caused his death.’ ‘You are mistaken,’ he rejoined; ‘it was not blowing the horn that killed him; it was because he quarrelled with the Queen Catherine, his mother at Monceaux, and left her and went to Meaux. But, if he had not been persuaded by the Maréchal de Retz to return to the Queen-Mother at Monceaux, he would not have died so soon.’ As I answered nothing to this, Montpouillan, who was present, said to me: ‘You did not think, Monsieur, that the King knew so much about these matters, but he does, and about many others besides.’ This convinced me that he had been inspired with great apprehension of the Queen, his mother, whom I took care never to mention to him in future, not even in common discourse.” [128] Asked what spell she had employed to make herself mistress of the Queen-Mother’s mind, the prisoner is said to have replied: “Only those which a clever woman employs towards a dunce.” [129] The Duc de Mayenne quitted the Court, which was then at Saint-Germain, on March 29, 1620, and went to Guienne, of which he was lieutenant-general. [130] Louis de Bourbon, son of Charles de Bourbon, Comte de Soissons and Anne de Montafié. Born May 4, 1604; killed at the battle of la Marfée, on July 6, 1641. He was called _Monsieur le Comte_, as his father had been. [131] There were two kinds of regiments in the French Army at this period: permanent regiments, which usually bore territorial designations, Champagne, Picardy, and so forth, and temporary regiments, which might be disbanded in time of peace, and which bore the names of their commanding officers. [132] Luynes and his two brothers. [133] Nerestang died some ten days later, a victim, if we are to believe Bassompierre, to the professional jealousy of the surgeons:--