nor indeed ought not, on account of their dignity, yield the precedence to any man but the King.  The Prince replied that he would make me yield it to him.  I told him he would find it no easy matter.  Upon this there was a great outcry, and the young councillors of both parties interested themselves in the contest, which, you see, began pretty warmly.  The Presidents interposed between us, conjuring him to have some regard to the temple of justice and the safety of the city, and desiring that all the nobility and others in the hall that were armed might be turned out.  He approved of it, and bade M. de La Rochefoucault go and tell his friends so from him.  Upon which I said, “I will order my friends to withdraw also.”  Young D’Avaux, now President de Mesmes, then in the Prince’s interest, said, “What! monsieur, are you armed?”—­“Without doubt,” I said; though I had better have held my, tongue, because an inferior ought to be respectful in words to his superior, though he may equal him in actions.  Neither is it allowable in a Churchman when armed to confess it.  There are some things wherein men are willing to be deceived.  Actions very often vindicate men’s reputations in what they do against the dignity of their profession, but nothing can justify words that are inconsistent with their character.

As I had desired my friends to withdraw, and was entering into the Court of Judicature, I heard an uproar in the hall of people crying out “To arms!” I had a mind to go back to see what was the matter; but I had not time to do it, for I found myself caught by the neck between the folding doors, which M. de La Rochefoucault had shut on me, crying out to mm.  Coligny and Ricousse to kill me.

[This action is very much disguised and softened in the Memoirs of Rochefoucault.  M. Joly, in his Memoirs, vol. i., p. 155, tells it almost in... the same manner as the Cardinal de Retz.]

The first thought he was not in earnest, and the other told him he had no such order from the Prince.  M. Champlatreux, running into the hall and seeing me in that condition, vigorously pushed back M. de La Rochefoucault, telling him that a murder of that nature was horrible and scandalous.  He opened the door and let me in.  But this was not the greatest danger I was in, as you will see after I have told you the beginning and end of it.

Two or three of the Prince de Conde’s mob cried out, as soon as they saw me, “A Mazarin!” Two of the Prince’s soldiers drew their swords, those next to them cried out, “To your arms!” and in a trice all were in a fighting posture.  My friends drew their swords, daggers, and pistols, and yet, as it were by a miracle, they stopped their hands on a sudden from action; for in that very instant of time, Crenan, one of my old friends, who commanded a company of the Prince de Conti’s gendarmes, said to Laigues, “What are we doing?  Must we let the Prince de Conde and the Coadjutor be murdered?