commands, but that he thought his presence was more necessary for the king’s service in Angoumois than at Metz.  He complained at the same time that for two years past he had received from the court only the simple pay of a colonel at ten months for the year, which took it out of his power to live suitably to his rank.  He set out for Metz at the end of January, 1619, saying, ii I am going to take the boldest step I ever took in my life.”

The queen-mother made her exit from Blois on the night between the 21st and 22d of February, 1619, by her closet window, against which a ladder had been placed for the desecnt to the terrace, whence a second ladder was to enable her to descend right down.  On arriving at the terrace she found herself so fatigued and so agitated, that she declared it would be impossible to avail herself of the second ladder; she preferred to have herself let down upon a cloak to the bottom of the terrace, which had a slight slant.  Her two equerries escorted her along the faubourg to the end of the bridge.  Some officers of her household saw her pass without recognizing her, and laughed at meeting a woman between two men, at night and with a somewhat agitated air.  “They take me for a bona roba,” said the queen.  On arriving at the end of the faubourg of Blois, she did not find her carriage, which was to hwe been waiting for her there.  When she had come up with it, there was a casket missing which contained her jewels; there was a hundred thousand crowns’ worth in it; the casket had fallen out two hundred paces from the spot; it was recovered, and the queen-mother got into her carriage and took the road to Loches, where the Duke of Epernon had been waiting for her since the day before.  He came to meet her with a hundred and fifty horsemen.  Nobody in the household of Mary de’Medici had observed her departure.

Great was the rumors when her escape became known, and greater still when it was learned in whose hands she had placed herself.  It was civil war, said everybody.  At the commencement of the seventeenth century, there were still two possible and even probable chances of civil war in France; one between Catholics and Protestants, and the other between what remained of the great feudal or quasi-feudal lords and the kingship.  Which of the two wars was about to commence?  Nobody knew; on one side there was hesitation; the most contradictory moves were made.  Louis XIII., when he heard of his mother’s escape, tried first of all to disconnect her from the Duke of Epernon.  “I could never have imagined,” said be, “that there was any man who, in time of perfect peace, would have had the audacity, I do not say to carry out, but to conceive the resolution of making an attempt upon the mother of his king . . . ; in order to release you from the difficulty you are in, Madame, I have determined to take up arms to put you in possession of the liberty of which your enemies have deprived you.”  And he marched troops