As to the King’s return, nothing is yet known for certain: some think it is not near, and that he intends going further away; others regard his movements as a trick to induce the gentlemen of the Court to start for the camp, under the notion that the King will shortly follow. I can make no positive assertion either way; I have not been long in France and am at a distance from the scene of action; hitherto I have been unable to do more than chronicle rumours and people’s opinions. Your Majesty must excuse it, therefore, if I am occasionally wrong in my facts or mistaken in my predictions. One part of the Royal army is besieging Poussin,[25] a castle fortified by the Huguenots, on the bank of the Rhone, a little below Vienne, I believe, and not many miles from Lyons. The rest of it is with Montpensier, besieging Lusignan, which is garrisoned, they say, by about 600 soldiers and 200 gentlemen. La Noue,[26] the head of the rebels, is said to be at Rochelle with such a following, that they think he will be master of the town. As to Damville, some people have a story that, when he found the King intended to arrest him and put him to death, he crossed by sea from Savoy to Montpellier, a city in his government, and that he has induced it with some of the neighbouring towns to revolt. Of this, however, there is nothing known for certain, and I suspect it is somebody’s invention. Paris, October, 1574. LETTER VI. I lately despatched a letter to your Majesty by a running footman, whom I sent to Brussels to bring back the answer I am expecting from your Majesty. Since then nothing new has occurred except that the Queen was threatened with an attack. The symptoms were sickness, accompanied by general inflammation and irritation of the skin, while at night she suffered from thirst. Physicians were called in, and they declared it to be a case of bile in the blood; they said that there was danger of fever if remedies were not promptly employed. Accordingly, they treated her with purgatives and bleeding; since then there has been a change for the better, and the physicians now have great hopes that the attack has been taken in time, and this is also my view. The Queen herself is in good spirits, and considers herself as well as before the illness. Still I should not like to leave your Majesty in ignorance of what has happened. A few days ago the Comte de Bailen arrived from Lyons to offer the Queen the condolences of the King of Spain; he had already expressed his master’s regret to the King and Queen Mother at Lyons. He was kept a long time at Bordeaux by the dangers of the road, and he incurred serious risks on his way round by Lyons, as parties were watching at various places on his route with intent to waylay him. He is now hesitating as to what road he shall choose for his return, and seems to think the safety of his route a more important consideration than its length. He has, moreover, a wish to visit the Netherlands and other countries.