"I sent off Gaspard de Belleville to Bordeaux," he added, "the morning after your departure for Paris, charging him with a letter for the Princess, and another for Monsieur de Bouillon. In each of these I said, that unless the Princes were liberated within three weeks, their friends might expect to see me in Guyenne. As Gaspard is now of age, too," he added, in that sort of peculiar discursive tone which a man assumes when he wishes to communicate a matter of particular interest, as if it were one of no interest at all--"as Gaspard is now of age, too, to enter the service, I have requested Monsieur de Bouillon to give him a commission in one of the regiments at Bordeaux; but I have not forgotten you, and as I wish you always to be near me, I propose to give you a troop in the regiment of cavalry I am now raising. Monsieur de Turenne had a company of infantry at your age, and I see no reason why I should not do the same for you, especially as I have a great lack of officers who have stood fire." Although, to tell the truth, I would much rather have entered the service on the part of the King and the Court, than on the part of their adversaries, yet the idea of activity and enterprise seldom came amiss; and I thanked Monsieur de Villardin sincerely for his kindness, but added, that I trusted he would find the means of keeping me near him. "I will make you my aide-de-camp," he replied; "but we have a number of other arrangements to attend to. Go, therefore, and lie down for two or three hours, and then join me in the esplanade at the end of the park." I did as he bade me, as far as the lying down went; but, though tired to death, I could not sleep. I was much refreshed, however, even by the sort of repose I obtained, and as soon as I thought the time was expired, I got up and walked out to the esplanade, where I found that Monsieur de Villardin was occupied in reviewing, or rather drilling, the regiment he had been employed in raising during my absence. Four hundred men made the extent of his force, and amongst them only two, who had served in the wars of Paris, could give any assistance in matters of discipline, if we except half a dozen wild young nobles of the neighbourhood, who had joined the corps of the Duke, but who were not present on this occasion. I may say, then, that I was of no slight assistance to Monsieur de Villardin on that and the following day; for though he was undoubtedly an excellent officer, yet, of course, he could not drill four hundred men without help from some one. The cavaliers whom we had to deal with were in general tall, powerful men, from the upper districts of Brittany; and though they looked stupid enough at first, yet, when what they were to do was explained to them, they proved neither dull of comprehension, nor slow in execution.