The peace being thus concluded and ratified on both sides, the Queen my mother prepared to return. At this instant I received letters from the King my husband, in which he expressed a great desire to see me, begging me, as soon as peace was agreed on, to ask leave to go to him. I communicated my husband’s wish to the Queen my mother, and added my own entreaties. She expressed herself greatly averse to such a measure, and used every argument to set me against it. She observed that, when I refused her proposal of a divorce after St. Bartholomew’s Day, she gave way to my refusal, and commended me for it, because my husband was then converted to the Catholic religion; but now that he had abjured Catholicism, and was turned Huguenot again, she could not give her consent that I should go to him. When I still insisted upon going, she burst into a flood of tears, and said, if I did not return with her, it would prove her ruin; that the King would believe it was her doing; that she had promised to bring me back with her; and that, when my brother returned to Court, which would be soon, she would give her consent.
We now returned to Paris, and found the King well satisfied that we had made a peace; though not, however, pleased with the articles concluded in favour of the Huguenots. He therefore resolved within himself, as soon as my brother should return to Court, to find some pretext for renewing the war. These advantageous conditions were, indeed, only granted the Huguenots to get my brother out of their hands, who was detained near two months, being employed in disbanding his German horse and the rest of his army.
ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS:
Adversity is solitary, while prosperity dwells in
a crowd
Comeliness of his person, which at all times pleads
powerfully
Everything in the world bore a double aspect
Hearsay liable to be influenced by ignorance or malice
Hopes they (enemies) should hereafter become our friends
I should praise you more had you praised me less
It is the usual frailty of our sex to be fond of flattery
Mistrust is the sure forerunner of hatred
Necessity is said to be the mother of invention
Never approached any other man near enough to know
a difference
Not to repose too much confidence in our friends
Prefer truth to embellishment
Rather out of contempt, and because it was good policy
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day
To embellish my story I have neither leisure nor ability
Troubles might not be lasting
Young girls seldom take much notice of children