Louis, etc. etc.  “We have entrusted these presents to Sieur de Laubardemont, Privy Councillor, to empower the said Sieur de Laubardemont to arrest Grandier and his accomplices and imprison them in a secure place, with orders to all provosts, marshals, and other officers, and to all our subjects in general, to lend whatever assistance is necessary to carry out above order; and they are commanded by these presents to obey all orders given by the said Sieur; and all governors and lieutenants-general are also hereby commanded to furnish the said Sieur with whatever aid he may require at their hands.”

This document being the completion of the other, it was immediately resolved, in order to show that they had the royal authority at their back, and as a preventive measure, to arrest Grandier at once, without any preliminary investigation.  They hoped by this step to intimidate any official who might still be inclined to take Grandier’s part, and any witness who might be disposed to testify in his favour.  Accordingly, they immediately sent for Guillaume Aubin, Sieur de Lagrange and provost’s lieutenant.  De Laubardemont communicated to him the commission of the cardinal and the order of the king, and requested him to arrest Grandier early next morning.  M. de Lagrange could not deny the two signatures, and answered that he would obey; but as he foresaw from their manner of going to work that the proceedings about to be instituted would be an assassination and not a fair trial, he sent, in spite of being a distant connection of Memin, whose daughter was married to his (Lagrange’s) brother, to warn Grandier of the orders he had received.  But Grandier with his usual intrepidity, while thanking Lagrange for his generous message, sent back word that, secure in his innocence and relying on the justice of God, he was determined to stand his ground.

So Grandier remained, and his brother, who slept beside him, declared that his sleep that night was as quiet as usual.  The next morning he rose, as was his habit, at six o’clock, took his breviary in his hand, and went out with the intention of attending matins at the church of Sainte-Croix.  He had hardly put his foot over the threshold before Lagrange, in the presence of Memin, Mignon, and the other conspirators, who had come out to gloat over the sight, arrested him in the name of the king.  He was at once placed in the custody of Jean Pouguet, an archer in His Majesty’s guards, and of the archers of the provosts of Loudun and Chinon, to be taken to the castle at Angers.  Meanwhile a search was instituted, and the royal seal affixed to the doors of his apartments, to his presses, his other articles of furniture-in fact, to every thing and place in the house; but nothing was found that tended to compromise him, except an essay against the celibacy of priests, and two sheets of paper whereon were written in another hand than his, some love-poems in the taste of that time.