On September 12, the day the Queen returned to Paris from Amboise, the courier arrived and delivered to me your Majesty’s letter and instructions. On the following day I asked an audience of the King, but was put off till the next day. After complimenting the King and the Queen Mother in your Majesty’s name, I laid your request before them—namely, that the date appointed for the Queen’s departure should be adhered to. The King answered he would do what he could to meet your Majesty’s views. I replied that it was of great consequence that I should have a definite answer to send to your Majesty, as otherwise the ladies and gentlemen, who were to meet the Queen at Nancy by your Majesty’s orders, might find themselves in an awkward position. He agreed that the request was reasonable, and promised to lay the matter before the Council, and give me a definite answer on the morrow. So passed away that day and the next, which was the 15th of the month, the day on the evening of which Alençon fled. I received almost the same answer from the Queen Mother, except that she added some further details about the expenses of the journey, saying that the whole sum could not be paid down in specie, but that an appropriation would be made for pressing expenses, while for those that need not be paid on the spot good warrants would be given. The arrangement was not an unreasonable one, and the Queen’s business appeared at that time to be in a fair way, but then came Alençon’s flight, which caused a hitch. For some days the King could not attend to me; at last, on the 19th, in consequence of my pressing applications for such an answer as would relieve your Majesty from uncertainty, I was granted an audience. The King at the beginning of our conversation requested me to inform your Majesty of his unhappy misfortune,—these were the very words he used—saying, he felt confident from the relationship that existed between your Majesty and himself, and from the kindness he had experienced at your hands, that you would sympathise with him. He remembered that your Majesty had on former occasions advised Alençon to keep clear of revolutionary designs. His conduct was the more unjustifiable, he said, as he was not conscious of having done anything on his part to give him a reason for forming these projects or running away. It was by the evil counsels of bad people that he had been seduced from his allegiance, though on his side he had behaved towards him like an affectionate brother. This unexpected event prevented his sending back the Queen at the time arranged, and I must see myself the difficulties that surrounded him. What the King said was only too true, and accordingly I answered that I would comply with his request and write as he wished to your Majesty, saying, ‘I felt no doubt that your Majesty, with whom he was connected by so many ties, would give him the warmest sympathy in his troubles, and would gladly afford him