This answer completely disconcerted the amorous monarch’s plans, and made him more angry than ever. Ignoring the memorial, he turned furiously upon Virey, to whose influence he attributed the firm tone which Condé maintained, reproached him bitterly with the counsels he had given the prince, threatened him with his severe displeasure, and, finally, dismissed him, bidding him tell his master that, if he declined to yield to his will or attempted the slightest violence against the princess, he would give him cause to rue it. He added that, had he been still only King of Navarre, he would at once have challenged the prince to a duel. After receiving the King’s message, Condé decided to feign submission, and accordingly begged his Majesty’s leave to return to Muret to fetch his wife. His request, as we may suppose, was readily granted, and on 25 November, the day on which the ill-fated Henriette-Marie was born, he set out for Picardy. On the evening of the 29th, while Henri was at the card-table, word was brought him that a messenger had arrived from Picardy with intelligence that _Monsieur le Prince_ had early that morning left Muret, in a coach with his wife, accompanied by his chamberlain, the Baron de Rochefort, Virey, and two of the princess’s ladies. Condé had given out that they were bound on a hunting-expedition; but the messenger--an archer of the Guard named Laperrière--had learned from his father, who was in the prince’s service, that the party had taken the road to Flanders. The consternation of the King knew no bounds. The moment he learned the news, he at once summoned his most trusted counsellors, who found him pacing up and down the room, with downcast eyes and hands clasped behind his back. As each arrived, he informed him of what had occurred and demanded his advice, refusing to give him even a moment for reflection. The prudent Sully advised his master to let the matter rest, pointing out that, in that case, the fugitive prince, being unable to draw his pension, would soon be reduced to sue for terms; whereas, if Henri showed anxiety to get him back, the enemies of France would be only too ready to assist him, in order to spite the King. The infatuated monarch, however, was in no mood to follow such counsel, and that very night, without pausing to reflect on the probable effect of such a step, wrote to the governors of Marle and Guise, directing them to send the whole strength of their garrisons to capture Condé, “wherever he might be;” and despatched La Chaussée, an officer of the Guards, with orders to pursue the prince even over the frontier, “and if he should discover him in any town beyond his dominions to address himself to the governor and magistrates of that city, and to inform them that his Majesty had given him authority to require and entreat them to have the prince and his suite arrested and well guarded, assuring them that, in acting thus, they would be doing great service to the Archdukes.”[157]