The news of their flight reached Fontainebleau on the following evening, while the Queen was still convalescent (having given birth to her third and last daughter, Henriette Marie, on the 26th of November), and the King was endeavouring to employ the interval which must ensue before the arrival of the Princess by pursuing with renewed ardour his favourite pastime.  Pimentello, the hated of Sully, had returned to Court, and the play was consequently “fast and furious.”  It was in the very height of this maddening excitement, when he was surrounded by piles of gold, and devotees as earnest as himself at the same shrine discreetly assembled in his private closet, that Henry, whose spirits were exalted by his hopes, and who was risking sum after sum with a recklessness which would have taken away the breath of his finance minister, received from M. d’Elbene,[407] and subsequently from his lieutenant of police, the important and mortifying intelligence that his destined prey had escaped him.  The agitation which the King exhibited when convinced of the truth of this report exceeded any that he had hitherto evinced even upon the most important occasions, and hastily rising from the table, he murmured in the ear of Bassompierre who was seated next to him, “Ah! my friend, I am lost.  The man has taken his wife into the depths of a forest.  I know not if it be to escape with her from France, or to put her to death.  Take care of my money, and keep up the play until I have procured more certain and detailed information.” [408]

From his closet Henry proceeded to the last place on earth which might, under the circumstances, have been anticipated.  He went straight to the chamber of the Queen, where her Majesty was still unable to leave her bed, and there he gave full scope to the anguish under which he was labouring.  “Never,” says Bassompierre, “did I see a man so lost or so overcome.”  In the room were also assembled the Marquis de Coeuvres,[409] the Comte de Cramail, and MM. d’Elbene and de Lomenie, with whom he unscrupulously discussed, in the presence of his outraged wife, the readiest means of compelling the immediate return of the fugitives.  As may naturally be anticipated, the advice likely to prove the most flattering to his wishes was offered on all sides, and a thousand expedients were suggested and discussed only to be found unfeasible, until the King, in despair, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, resolved upon summoning his ministers.  Accordingly MM. de Sillery, de Villeroy, de Jeannin, and de Sully soon joined the party, which had, moreover, been augmented by the presence of several of the most confidential friends of the monarch, among others by De Gevres,[410] De la Force,[411] and La Varenne; and once more the King sought a solution of the difficulty.  Here, however, the judgment and policy of the several councillors differed upon every point.  The Chancellor gave it as his opinion that a strong declaration should be made against the step taken by the Prince himself,