Bussy d’Amboise had not been idle outside in the meanwhile. He had sent the fiery cross through the provinces, and men-at-arms and nobles were flocking to the Flemish frontier to join the standard of Alençon when it should be raised. The gates of Paris, it is true, were closely guarded, and Alençon himself, with his sister Margaret (who herself tells the story so racily), were not allowed out of the sight of the Scottish archers. But the Court was full of nobles who were disgusted with the King’s mode of life, and plans were rife to rescue the captive. Bussy crept back into Paris to plan an escape with Simier, but both were captured and laid by the heels. Then Catharine managed somehow to patch up a reconciliation. Bussy was made to kiss his principal antagonist Quélus in the presence of the whole Court, which he did in so exaggerated a fashion as to make every one laugh, and left Quélus more enraged than ever. The prison doors were opened, the guards removed, and the partisans of both brothers swore eternal friendship. But the mignons saw the wound was rankling, and told the King so the same night. The guards were again ordered to watch Alençon’s door, and after three days of semi-imprisonment, on the 14th of February, his sister contrived his escape with Simier, from her chamber on the second floor of the Louvre, by a rope into the moat. Bussy was awaiting him in the abbey of St. Généviève, where, by connivance of the abbot, a hole had been knocked in the city wall, through which they escaped, and swift horses carried them to Angers, where they were safe.[98]