situation of affairs in flanders.—peace brought about by duc d’alencon’s negotiation.—marechal de biron apologises for firing on nerac.—henri desperately in love with fosseuse.—queen marguerite discovers fosseuse to be pregnant, which she denies.—fosseuse in labour. marguerite’s generous behaviour to her.—marguerite’s return to paris.
the war lasted some time longer, but with disadvantage to the huguenots. the king my husband at length became desirous to make a peace. i wrote on the subject to the king and the queen my mother; but so elated were they both with marechal de biron’s success that they would not agree to any terms.
about the time this war broke out, cambray, which had been delivered up to my brother by m. d’ainsi, according to his engagement with me, as i have before related, was besieged by the forces of spain. my brother received the news of this siege at his castle of plessis-les-tours, whither he had retired after his return from flanders, where, by the assistance of the comte de lalain, he had been invested with the government of mons, valenciennes, and their dependencies.
my brother, being anxious to relieve cambray, set about raising an army, with all the expedition possible; but, finding it could not be accomplished very speedily, he sent forward a reinforcement under the command of m. de balagny, to succour the place until he arrived himself with a sufficient force to raise the siege. whilst he was in the midst of these preparations this huguenot war broke out, and the men he had raised left him to incorporate themselves with the king’s army, which had reached gascony.
my brother was now without hope of raising the siege, and to lose cambray would be attended with the loss of the other countries he had just obtained. besides, what he should regret more, such losses would reduce to great straits m. de balagny and the gallant troops so nobly defending the place.
his grief on this occasion was poignant, and, as his excellent judgment furnished him with expedients under all his difficulties, he resolved to endeavour to bring about a peace. accordingly he despatched a gentleman to the king with his advice to accede to terms, offering to undertake the treaty himself. his design in offering himself as negotiator was to prevent the treaty being drawn out to too great a length, as might be the case if confided to others. it was necessary that he should speedily relieve cambray, for m. de balagny, who had thrown himself into the city as i have before mentioned, had written to him that he should be able to defend the place for six months; but, if he received no succours within that time, his provisions would be all expended, and he should be obliged to give way to the clamours of the inhabitants, and surrender the town.
by god’s favour, the king was induced to listen to my brother’s proposal of undertaking a negotiation for a peace. the king hoped thereby to disappoint him in his expectations in flanders, which he never had approved. accordingly he sent word back to my brother that he should accept his proffer of negotiating a peace, and would send him for his coadjutors, m. de villeroy and m. de bellievre. the commission my brother was charged with succeeded, and, after a stay of seven months in gascony, he settled a peace and left us, his thoughts being employed during the whole time on the means of relieving cambray, which the satisfaction he found in being with us could not altogether abate.
the peace my brother, made, as i have just mentioned, was so judiciously framed that it gave equal satisfaction to the king and the catholics, and to the king my husband and the huguenots, and obtained him the affections of both parties. he likewise acquired from it the assistance of that able general, marechal de biron, who undertook the command of the army destined to raise the siege of cambray. the king my husband was equally gratified in the marshal’s removal from gascony and having marechal de matignon in his place.
before my brother set off he was desirous to bring about a reconciliation betwixt the king my husband and mareohal de biron, provided the latter should make his apologies to me for his conduct at nerac. my brother had desired me to treat him with all disdain, but i used this hasty advice with discretion, considering that my brother might one day or other repent having given it, as he had everything to hope, in his present situation, from the bravery of this officer.
my brother returned to france accompanied by marechal de biron. by his negotiation of a peace he had acquired to himself great credit with both parties, and secured a powerful force for the purpose of raising the siege of cambray. but honours and success are followed by envy. the king beheld this accession of glory to his brother with great dissatisfaction. he had been for seven months, while my brother and i were together in gascony, brooding over his malice, and produced the strangest invention that can be imagined. he pretended to believe (what the king my husband can easily prove to be false) that i instigated him to go to war that i might procure for my brother the credit of making peace. this is not at all probable when it is considered the prejudice my brother’s affairs in, flanders sustained by the war.
but envy and malice are self-deceivers, and pretend to discover what no one else can perceive. on this frail foundation the king raised an altar of hatred, on which he swore never to cease till he had accomplished my brother’s ruin and mine. he had never forgiven me for the attachment i had discovered for my brother’s interest during the time he was in poland and since.
fortune chose to favour the king’s animosity; for, during the seven months that my brother stayed in gascony, he conceived a passion for fosseuse, who was become the doting piece of the king my husband, as i have already mentioned, since he had quitted rebours. this new passion in my brother had induced the king my husband to treat me with coldness, supposing that i countenanced my brother’s addresses. i no sooner discovered this than i remonstrated with my brother, as i knew he would make every sacrifice for my repose. i begged him to give over his pursuit, and not to speak to her again. i succeeded this way to defeat the malice of my ill-fortune; but there was still behind another secret ambush, and that of a more fatal nature; for fosseuse, who was passionately fond of the king my husband, but had hitherto granted no favours inconsistent with prudence and modesty, piqued by his jealousy of my brother, gave herself up suddenly to his will, and unfortunately became pregnant. she no sooner made this discovery, than she altered her conduct towards me entirely from what it was before. she now shunned my presence as much as she had been accustomed to seek it, and whereas before she strove to do me every good office with the king my husband, she now endeavoured to make all the mischief she was able betwixt us. for his part, he avoided me; he grew cold and indifferent, and since fosseuse ceased to conduct herself with discretion, the happy moments that we experienced during the four or five years we were together in gascony were no more.
peace being restored, and my brother departed for france, as i have already related, the king my husband and i returned to nerac. we were no sooner there than fosseuse persuaded the king my husband to make a journey to the waters of aigues-caudes, in bearn, perhaps with a design to rid herself of her burden there. i begged the king my husband to excuse my accompanying him, as, since the affront that i had received at pau, i had made a vow never to set foot in bearn until the catholic religion was reestablished there. he pressed me much to go with him, and grew angry at my persisting to refuse his request. he told me that his little girl (for so he affected to call fosseuse) was desirous to go there on account of a colic, which she felt frequent returns of. i answered that i had no objection to his taking her with him. he then said that she could not go unless i went; that it would occasion scandal, which might as well be avoided. he continued to press me to accompany him, but at length i prevailed with him to consent to go without me, and to take her with him, and, with her, two of her companions, rebours and ville-savin, together with the governess. they set out accordingly, and i waited their return at baviere.
i had every day news from rebours, informing me how matters went. this rebours i have mentioned before to have been the object of my husband’s passion, but she was now cast off, and, consequently, was no friend to fosseuse, who had gained that place in his affection she had before held. she, therefore, strove all she could to circumvent her; and, indeed, she was fully qualified for such a purpose, as she was a cunning, deceitful young person. she gave me to understand that fosseuse laboured to do me every ill office in her power; that she spoke of me with the greatest disrespect on all occasions, and expressed her expectations of marrying the king herself, in case she should be delivered of a son, when i was to be divorced. she had said, further, that when the king my husband returned to baviere, he had resolved to go to pau, and that i should go with him, whether i would or not.
this intelligence was far from being agreeable to me, and i knew not what to think of it. i trusted in the goodness of god, and i had a reliance on the generosity of the king my husband; yet i passed the time i waited for his return but uncomfortably, and often thought i shed more tears than they drank water. the catholic nobility of the neighbourhood of baviere used their utmost endeavours to divert my chagrin, for the month or five weeks that the king my husband and fosseuse stayed at aigues-caudes.
on his return, a certain nobleman acquainted the king my husband with the concern i was under lest he should go to pau, whereupon he did not press me on the subject, but only said he should have been glad if i had consented to go with him. perceiving, by my tears and the expressions i made use of, that i should prefer even death to such a journey, he altered his intentions and we returned to nerac.
the pregnancy of fosseuse was now no longer a secret. the whole court talked of it, and not only the court, but all the country. i was willing to prevent the scandal from spreading, and accordingly resolved to talk to her on the subject. with this resolution, i took her into my closet, and spoke to her thus: “though you have for some time estranged yourself from me, and, as it has been reported to me, striven to do me many ill offices with the king my husband, yet the regard i once had for you, and the esteem which i still entertain for those honourable persons to whose family you belong, do not admit of my neglecting to afford you all the assistance in my power in pour present unhappy situation. i beg you, therefore, not to conceal the truth, it being both for your interest and mine, under whose protection you are, to declare it. tell me the truth, and i will act towards you as a mother. you know that a contagious disorder has broken out in the place, and, under pretence of avoiding it, i will go to mas-d’agenois, which is a house belonging to the king my husband, in a very retired situation. i will take you with me, and such other persons as you shall name. whilst we are there, the king will take the diversion of hunting in some other part of the country, and i shall not stir thence before your delivery. by this means we shall put a stop to the scandalous reports which are now current, and which concern you more than myself.”
so far from showing any contrition, or returning thanks for my kindness, she replied, with the utmost arrogance, that she would prove all those to be liars who had reported such things of her; that, for my part, i had ceased for a long time to show her any marks of regard, and she saw that i was determined upon her ruin. these words she delivered in as loud a tone as mine had been mildly expressed; and, leaving me abruptly, she flew in a rage to the king my husband, to relate to him what i had said to her. he was very angry upon the occasion, and declared he would make them all liars who had laid such things to her charge. from that moment until the hour of her delivery, which was a few months after, he never spoke to me.
she found the pains of labour come upon her about daybreak, whilst she was in bed in the chamber where the maids of honour slept. she sent for my physician, and begged him to go and acquaint the king my husband that she was taken ill. we slept in separate beds in the same chamber, and had done so for some time.
the physician delivered the message as he was directed, which greatly embarrassed my husband. what to do he did not know. on the one hand, he was fearful of a discovery; on the other, he foresaw that, without proper assistance, there was danger of losing one he so much loved. in this dilemma, he resolved to apply to me, confess all, and implore my aid and advice, well knowing that, notwithstanding what had passed, i should be ready to do him a pleasure. having come to this resolution, he withdrew my curtains, and spoke to me thus: “my dear, i have concealed a matter from you which i now confess. i beg you to forgive me, and to think no more about what i have said to you on the subject. will you oblige me so far as to rise and go to fosseuse, who is taken very ill? i am well assured that, in her present situation, you will forget everything and resent nothing. you know how dearly i love her, and i hope you will comply with my request.” i answered that i had too great a respect for him to be offended at anything he should do, and that i would go to her immediately, and do as much for her as if she were a child of my own. i advised him, in the meantime, to go out and hunt, by which means he would draw away all his people, and prevent tattling.
i removed fosseuse, with all convenient haste, from the chamber in which the maids of honour were, to one in a more retired part of the palace, got a physician and some women about her, and saw that she wanted for nothing that was proper in her situation. it pleased god that she should bring forth a daughter, since dead. as soon as she was delivered i ordered her to be taken back to the chamber from which she had been brought. notwithstanding these precautions, it was not possible to prevent the story from circulating through the palace. when the king my husband returned from hunting he paid her a visit, according to custom. she begged that i might come and see her, as was usual with me when any one of my maids of honour was taken ill. by this means she expected to put a stop to stories to her prejudice. the king my husband came from her into my bedchamber, and found me in bed, as i was fatigued and required rest, after having been called up so early.
he begged me to get up and pay her a visit. i told him i went according to his desire before, when she stood in need of assistance, but now she wanted no help; that to visit her at this time would be only exposing her more, and cause myself to be pointed at by all the world. he seemed to be greatly displeased at what i said, which vexed me the more as i thought i did not deserve such treatment after what i had done at his request in the morning; she likewise contributed all in her power to aggravate matters betwixt him and me.
in the meantime, the king my brother, always well informed of what is passing in the families of the nobility of his kingdom, was not ignorant of the transactions of our court. he was particularly curious to learn everything that happened with us, and knew every minute circumstance that i have now related. thinking this a favourable occasion to wreak his vengeance on me for having been the means of my brother acquiring so much reputation by the peace he had brought about, he made use of the accident that happened in our court to withdraw me from the king my husband, and thereby reduce me to the state of misery he wished to plunge me in. to this purpose he prevailed on the queen my mother to write to me, and express her anxious desire to see me after an absence of five or six years. she added that a journey of this sort to court would be serviceable to the affairs of the king my husband as well as my own; that the king my brother himself was desirous of seeing me, and that if i wanted money for the journey he would send it me. the king wrote to the same purpose, and despatched manique, the steward of his household, with instructions to use every persuasion with me to undertake the journey. the length of time i had been absent in gascony, and the unkind usage i received on account of fosseuse, contributed to induce me to listen to the proposal made me.
the king and the queen both wrote to me. i received three letters, in quick succession; and, that i might have no pretence for staying, i had the sum of fifteen hundred crowns paid me to defray the expenses of my journey. the queen my mother wrote that she would give me the meeting in saintonge, and that, if the king my husband would accompany me so far, she would treat with him there, and give him every satisfaction with respect to the king. but the king and she were desirous to have him at their court, as he had been before with my brother; and the marechal de matignon had pressed the matter with the king, that he might have no one to interfere with him in gascony. i had had too long experience of what was to be expected at their court to hope much from all the fine promises that were made to me. i had resolved, however, to avail myself of the opportunity of an absence of a few months, thinking it might prove the means of setting matters to rights. besides which, i thought that, as i should take fosseuse with me, it was possible that the king’s passion for her might cool when she was no longer in his sight, or he might attach himself to some other that was less inclined to do me mischief.
it was with some difficulty that the king my husband would consent to a removal, so unwilling was he to leave his fosseuse. he paid more attention to me, in hopes that i should refuse to set out on this journey to france; but, as i had given my word in my letters to the king and the queen my mother that i would go, and as i had even received money for the purpose, i could not do otherwise.
and herein my ill-fortune prevailed over the reluctance i had to leave the king my husband, after the instances of renewed love and regard which he had begun to show me.
