now supposed it to be the key to the whole plot, and the very document which would at once bring conviction home to him.  At length, the King having got it into his hands, he opened it in the presence of the Queen my mother, and they were both as much confounded, when they read the contents, as Cato was when he obtained a letter from Caesar, in the Senate, which the latter was unwilling to give up; and which Cato, supposing it to contain a conspiracy against the Republic, found to be no other than a love-letter from his own sister.

But the shame of this disappointment served only to increase the King’s anger, who, without condescending to make a reply to my brother, when repeatedly asked what he had been accused of, gave him in charge of M. de Cosse and his Scots, commanding them not to admit a single person to speak with him.

It was one o’clock in the morning when my brother was made a prisoner in the manner I have now related.  He feared some fatal event might succeed these violent proceedings, and he was under the greatest concern on my account, supposing me to be under a like arrest.  He observed M. de Cosse to be much affected by the scene he had been witness to, even to shedding tears.  As the archers were in the room he would not venture to enter into discourse with him, but only asked what was become of me.  M. de Cosse answered that I remained at full liberty.  My brother then said it was a great comfort to him to hear that news; “but,” added he, “as I know she loves me so entirely that she would rather be confined with me than have her liberty whilst I was in confinement, I beg you will go to the Queen my mother, and desire her to obtain leave for my sister to be with me.”  He did so, and it was granted.

The reliance which my brother displayed upon this occasion in the sincerity of my friendship and regard for him conferred so great an obligation in my mind that, though I have received many particular favours since from him, this has always held the foremost place in my grateful remembrance.

By the time he had received permission for my being with him, daylight made its appearance.  Seeing this, my brother begged M. de Cosse to send one of his archers to acquaint me with his situation, and beg me to come to him.

LETTER XVIII

I was ignorant of what had happened to my brother, and when the Scottish archer came into my bedchamber, I was still asleep.  He drew the curtains of the bed, and told me, in his broken French, that my brother wished to see me.  I stared at the man, half awake as I was, and thought it a dream.  After a short pause, and being thoroughly awakened, I asked him if he was not a Scottish archer.  He answered me in the affirmative.  “What!” cried I, “has my brother no one else to send a message by?” He replied he had not, for all his domestics had been put under an arrest.  He then proceeded to relate, as well as he could explain himself, the events of the preceding night, and the leave granted my brother for my being with him during his imprisonment.