Middleton was strongly suspected of having acquainted the English with our project.  They acted, at all events, as if they had been informed of everything, and wished to appear to know nothing.  They made a semblance of sending their fleet to escort a convoy to Portugal; they got in readiness the few troops they had in England and sent them towards Scotland; and the Queen, under various pretexts, detained in London, until the affair had failed, the Duke of Hamilton, the most powerful Scotch lord; and the life and soul of the expedition.  When all was over, she made no arrests, and wisely avoided throwing Scotland into despair.  This conduct much augmented her authority in England, attached all hearts to her, and took away all desire of stirring again by taking away all hope of success.  Thus failed a project so well and so secretly conducted until the end, which was pitiable; and with this project failed that of the Low Countries, which was no longer thought of.

The allies uttered loud cries against this attempt on the part of a power they believed at its last gasp, and which, while pretending to seek peace, thought of nothing less than the invasion of Great Britain.  The effect of our failure was to bind closer, and to irritate more and more this formidable alliance.

CHAPTER XL

Brissac, Major of the Body-guards, died of age and ennui about this time, more than eighty years old, at his country-house, to which he had not long retired.  The King had made use of him to put the Guards upon that grand military footing they have reached.  He had acquired the confidence of the King by his inexorable exactitude, his honesty, and his aptitude.  He was a sort of wild boar, who had all the appearance of a bad man, without being so in reality; but his manners were, it must be admitted, harsh and disagreeable.  The King, speaking one day of the majors of the troops, said that if they were good, they were sure to be hated.

“If it is necessary to be perfectly hated in order to be a good major,” replied M. de Duras, who was behind the King with the baton, “behold, Sire, the best major in France!” and he took Brissac, all confusion, by the arm.  The King laughed, though he would have thought such a sally very bad in any other; but M. de Duras had put himself on such a free footing, that he stopped at nothing before the King, and often said the sharpest things.  This major had very robust health, and laughed at the doctors—­very often, even before the King, at Fagon, whom nobody else would have dared to attack.  Fagon replied by disdain, often by anger, and with all his wit was embarrassed.  These short scenes were sometimes very amusing.