The siege of the castle next commenced.  The position of the camp was changed.  The King’s tents and those of all the Court were pitched in a beautiful meadow about five hundred paces from the monastery of Marlaigne.  The fine weather changed to rain, which fell with an abundance and perseverance never before known by any one in the army.  This circumstance increased the reputation of Saint Medard, whose fete falls on the 8th of June.  It rained in torrents that day, and it is said that when such is the case it will rain for forty days afterwards.  By chance it happened so this year.  The soldiers in despair at this deluge uttered many imprecations against the Saint; and looked for images of him, burning and breaking as many as they could find.  The rains sadly interfered with the progress of the siege.  The tents of the King could only be communicated with by paths laid with fascines which required to be renewed every day, as they sank down into the soil.  The camps and quarters were no longer accessible; the trenches were full of mud and water, and it took often three days to remove cannon from one battery to another.  The waggons became useless, too, so that the transport of bombs, shot, and so forth, could not be performed except upon the backs of mules and of horses taken from the equipages of the Court and the army.  The state of the roads deprived the Duc de Luxembourg of the use of waggons and other vehicles.  His army was perishing for want of grain.  To remedy this inconvenience the King ordered all his household troops to mount every day on horseback by detachments, and to take sacks of grain upon their cruppers to a village where they were to be received and counted by the officers of the Duc de Luxembourg.  Although the household of the King had scarcely any repose during this siege, what with carrying fascines, furnishing guards, and other daily services, this increase of duty was given to it because the cavalry served continually also, and was reduced almost entirely to leaves of trees for provender.

The household of the King, accustomed to all sorts of distinctions, complained bitterly of this task.  But the King turned a deaf ear to them, and would be obeyed.  On the first day some of the Gendarmes and of the light horse of the guard arrived early in the morning at the depot of the sacks, and commenced murmuring and exciting each other by their discourses.  They threw down the sacks at last and flatly refused to carry them.  I had been asked very politely if I would be of the detachment for the sacks or of some other.  I decided for the sacks, because I felt that I might thereby advance myself, the subject having already made much noise.  I arrived with the detachment of the Musketeers at the moment of the refusal of the others; and I loaded my sack before their eyes.  Marin, a brigadier of cavalry and lieutenant of the body guards, who was there to superintend the operation, noticed me, and full of anger at the