I had got to this point in my letter a few days after the courier’s arrival in Paris, and hoped to send him back without delay, when news of great importance reached me, of which your Majesty must be informed. Alençon, the King’s brother, who is eager to upset the Government, and has long been on bad terms with his brother, has fled from Paris. Having arranged his plans some time before, he pretended on the evening of September 15 to be going to certain ladies, whom he had made a habit of visiting in order to throw the King off his guard. He drove there in a carriage with only two companions, one of whom he sent back to the Palace to see what the King and Queen Mother were doing; with the other he went into the house. But he was no sooner inside than he went out by a back door, got into another carriage, which was waiting for him, and drove off to a trysting-place not far away, where horses and companions were waiting for him.[96] Others joined them on the road, so that before he reached Dreux, where he arrived in twenty-four hours, travelling without intermission, he had, it is believed, an escort of almost 200 men. Dreux is a county forming part of his appanage, not far from Normandy. He was admitted by the inhabitants, not so much from any affection towards him, as because they were taken by surprise, and not prepared to resist so strong a party. Meanwhile, the gentleman whom he had sent back to the King returned to the house, and finding him gone brought the news to the King. The latter at first hoped he would return. But when time passed, and he did not appear, suspicion became certainty, and they knew that he had fled. Parties were despatched to bring him back, but all in vain; he had got some hours’ start of his pursuers and had lost no time on the road. Moreover, some of the King’s people had a hint that it might be dangerous to pursue the chase too far, for they found on the road the dead body of one of the Royal Guards, whose duty it was to patrol that district. The man had challenged Alençon, and asked who he was, and where he was going. His comrade—for there were two of them—would have shared his fate, but he had the presence of mind, when his horse was killed by a shot, to lie still and pretend to be dead. After this warning the pursuers gave up the chase. It would have been madness for them to continue it, as they knew he was strongly escorted, while they were mere stragglers hurrying along without any attempt at organisation, as naturally is the case in a sudden and extemporised pursuit. Alençon’s flight—or departure, as some may call it—has produced a deep impression on the King and the Queen Mother, as they foresee what a serious addition it will make to the other calamities of France.