As to the Queen’s condition, I have nothing to write which your Majesty will not hear from her own letters. One matter, I think, I should not omit to mention. Everything here is exceedingly dear, especially the necessaries of life, such as bread, wine, fire-wood, and lodgings. With these high prices, I do not see how I am to keep within the salary allowed by your Majesty. However, I will do the best I can for this half year, and after that I trust your Majesty will kindly see that I am properly provided for. To conclude. As I perceive there is no immediate prospect of the King’s arrival, and I can leave Paris for some days without any inconvenience to the Queen, I have determined, with her approval, to avail myself of your Majesty’s kind permission, and to make the journey home, which I have so long intended, to arrange my private affairs. I think of remaining in the Netherlands till your Majesty’s gracious reply to this letter arrives at Brussels, which I consider your Majesty will find to be the most convenient route for sending an answer. I have nothing more to add except my earnest prayer that God may long preserve your Majesty to us and to Christendom. Paris, September 28, 1574. Montmorency is still detained in the same prison; Cossé, on account of his illness, is allowed a more convenient lodging, but is guarded there with the utmost strictness. I am not sure if it is worth adding a postscript to say that, if your Majesty should think fit to send me to the King, any despatches to the Duke of Savoy could be conveyed at the same time without any additional trouble or expense, for Turin is not very far from Lyons, and is nearer still to Avignon—if I mistake not. LETTER V. I have but lately sent all the news I had by the hands of Master John Koch. Since then nothing has happened worth notice, except that letters from Lyons have reached Paris, saying that the question of the Queen’s dower has been discussed at Court, and that the Duchy of Berry has been assigned to her on account thereof. The annual income, however, of this Duchy, derived from real estate, does not come up to the amount of her dower; whence the rest is to be provided we do not know, but it certainly ought to be charged on lands in the neighbourhood. The Queen herself has not heard a word on the subject, though the King has written several times to her, and the Queen Mother still more frequently. The report I mention about the dower prevents my starting for the Netherlands, as I had intended, for I am afraid of perhaps being wanted here.