The Bishop’s impatient rage may be imagined. He was also greatly alarmed, for it was only too possible that the King might have changed his mind. Resistance was out of the question. M. du Tremblay rode off to Lyons, where M. d’Alincourt was governor--he was the son of the Duc de Villeroy, and had befriended Richelieu in his young days--in order to find out which of the royal commands was the latest in date. The Bishop and his servants were conveyed by the soldiers to Vienne, the stupid captain treating his prisoner “like a criminal.” A sleepless night at the inn was made more hideous by bands of men fighting in the streets; a sham rescue, it seems, was devised by the captain for the greater credit of himself and his men. No wonder that the Bishop was exceedingly angry. “I thought you were ignorant,” said he, “but I now see you are malicious.” In the meanwhile, M. du Tremblay had laid the King’s letter before the governor of Lyons, who perceived that he had made a mistake. It had arisen from a morsel of gossip sent him by his son, who was at court when the news of the Queen’s escape arrived, and to whom the Duc de Luynes had hurriedly said--“If your father could arrest the Bishop of Luçon, he would do us a great pleasure.” Luynes probably forgot the words, spoken before the idea of making use of the Bishop as a mediator had even been suggested; but M. d’Alincourt made haste to act upon them, sending spies to Avignon and cleverly arranging the enterprise, “which was not a very difficult one,” observes Richelieu, “there being question only of stopping a man travelling alone.” The governor did his best to “change his rigour into civility.” He sent his coach to meet the Bishop on his way to Lyons, with a letter to his captain, who was much astonished and ashamed. Richelieu showed no resentment. He easily forgave the captain, dined with M. d’Alincourt at Lyons, and then pursued his journey. Its risks were not over, for the snow lay deep in the high wild country between Lyons and Limoges, and the King’s troops, who were abroad in those parts, pursued the Bishop for some distance, supposing him to be the Duc d’Épernon’s son, the Archbishop of Toulouse. Richelieu arrived at Angoulême on March 27, after a journey of more than three weeks. It was again Wednesday in Holy Week. According to his own account he was not made welcome, except by Madame de Guercheville. The Duc d’Épernon and his party looked on him with doubt and suspicion as an emissary of the King. Marie de Médicis, surrounded by them, hardly dared to show her feelings of relief and joy. CHAPTER VIII 1619-1622