"The extreme grief and distress which the King's violence has caused me prevents me from writing to you as fully as the occasion requires; but I must tell you what has happened since my last letter, in which I told you of the King's arrival. Now, in reward for the good cheer which I made him, he has carried off my son by force, with a violence which could not have been greater if I had been a slave. Not content with this, he has deprived me of the chief part of my authority, so that I can hardly remain here with honour and reputation, and, what is worse, I shall no longer have the power of doing Your Majesty service, which is one of my greatest regrets. Have pity, Madame, on a poor mother, whose son has been torn from her arms, as you will see more fully by this copy of the King's final resolutions, which he has sent me in writing. These have been carried out in every particular. Before he left, my brother, Monsieur de Vaudemont, and all the members of the Council, except myself, were made to take an oath, pledging themselves to defend the strong places in this land against all his enemies, and to open their gates to him whenever required. The same oath was taken by the garrison who are to guard this town, and I was asked to give up the keys of the postern gate. So that I, who was first here, and could once serve Your Majesty, am now deprived of all power, and am little better than a slave. I foresee that I shall soon be stripped of everything, in spite of the treaties and agreements formerly made between Your Majesties and this State. This ill-treatment and the evident wish shown by the French that I should leave this house have made me decide to retire to Blamont, where I will await Your Majesty's advice as to my future action.... I must warn Your Majesty, with regard to Stenay, that the new Captain, Sieur du Parroy, although of Lorraine birth, belongs to the King's household, and is devoted to French interests, as is also the second in command. Madame, I have written all this to the Emperor, but he is so far away and in so remote a place that I felt I must also tell Your Majesty what had happened here, begging her humbly to let me know her good pleasure. "Your humble and obedient niece, "CHRESTIENNE. "Nancy, April 17, 1552."[460] The letter which Anne addressed to the Queen the next day is still more graphic in the details it supplies: [Sidenote: APRIL, 1552] THE DUKE AT JOINVILLE]