A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 5Guizot, François
History
A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 5
Guizot, François
France -- History
Monsignor pushed me very
gently with his two hands, saying, ‘Restore the peace of the realm.’
Marshal Meilleraye drew me along, and so I went out with my rochet and
camail, bestowing benedictions right and left; but this occupation did
not prevent me from making all the reflections suitable to the difficulty
in which I found myself. The impetuosity of Marshal Meilleraye did not
give me opportunity to weigh my expressions; he advanced sword in hand,
shouting with all his might, ‘Hurrah for the king! Liberation for
Broussel!’ As he was seen by many more folks than heard him, he provoked
with his sword far more people than he appeased with his voice.” The
tumult increased; there was a rush to arms on all sides; the coadjutor
was felled to the ground by a blow from a stone. He had just picked
himself up, when a burgess put his musket to his head. “Though I did not
know him a bit,” says Retz, “I thought it would not be well to let him
suppose so at such a moment; on the contrary, I said to him, ‘Ah!
wretch, if thy father saw thee!’ He thought I was the best friend of his
father, on whom, however, I had never set eyes.”
[Illustration: “Ah, Wretch, if thy Father saw thee!”----354]
The coadjutor was recognized, and the crowd pressed round him, dragging
him to the market-place. He kept repeating everywhere that “the queen
promised to restore Broussel.” The fiippers laid down their arms, and
thirty or forty thousand men accompanied him to the Palais-Royal.
“Madame,” said Marshal Meilleraye as he entered, “here is he to whom I
owe my life, and your Majesty the safety of the Palais-Royal.” The queen
began to smile. “The marshal flew into a passion, and said with an oath,
‘Madame, no proper man can venture to flatter you in the state in which
things are; and if you do not this very day set Broussel at liberty,
to-morrow there will not be left one stone upon another in Paris.’ I
wished to speak in support of what the marshal said, but the queen cut
me short, saying, with an air of raillery, ‘Go and rest yourself, sir;
you have worked very hard.’”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account