“After the King had given him [_Monsieur_] this command,” writes Bassompierre, “he fancied that the glory which _Monsieur_ his brother was going to acquire in this expedition would be detrimental to his own (so much power has jealousy amongst near relations), and his head, or more properly his heart, was so full of this idea that he could not rest. On the 3rd of January he came to Chaillot, where by chance I had come to see the Cardinal, who was then staying there, and, being closeted with him, began to tell him that he could not suffer his brother to go to command his army beyond the mountains. The Cardinal said that there was only one way of cancelling the appointment, which was for the King to go himself, and that, if he resolved upon this step, he must set out in a week at the furthest. To this he cordially assented and, at the same time, turned round and called me from the other end of the room. As I approached, he said: ‘Here is a man who will go with me and serve me well.’ I asked him where. ‘Into Italy,’ said he, ‘where I am going in a week to make them raise the siege of Casale. Get ready to go and to serve me as my lieutenant-general, under my brother, if he chooses to go.’ Upon this the King returned to Paris and informed the Queen-Mother, and she informed _Monsieur_, who was not best pleased at the arrangement. Nevertheless, he affected to be so and got ready to depart.” On January 15, 1629, Louis XIII, having entrusted to Marie de’ Medici the task of pursuing the negotiations for peace with England, left Paris for Grenoble, where the army with which he proposed to enter Italy was assembled. “The evening before the King set out,” says Bassompierre, “he asked me for some cider, as I had been in the habit of giving him some very good, which my friends sent me from Normandy, knowing that I liked it. I sent him a dozen bottles, and in the evening when I went to him for the password he said: ‘Betstein, you have given me twelve bottles of cider, and now I give you 12,000 crowns. Go and find Effiat, who will give you the money.’ ‘Sire,’ said I, ‘I have the whole case at home, which, if it please you, I will let you have at the same price.’ He, however, was satisfied with the dozen bottles, and I with his liberality.” This might seem an act of great munificence on the part of Louis XIII, did we not remember that the royal donor had been the guest of the recipient of his bounty for several weeks during the siege of La Rochelle, and had thereby put the latter to an expense which must have far exceeded the cost of the cider.