That question was answered by a sound of bare, pattering feet, and a cry of ‘Mamma, mamma!’ and my little Marquis himself, with nothing on but his little white shirt and black velvet breeches, his long hair streaming behind him, came and threw himself on me, followed by two or three more little fellows in the same state of dishabille.  ’Oh, mamma!’ he cried, ’we thought they were all gone, and had left us to be murdered by the cruel Parliament; and then I saw you from the window in the court.’  So there they all were, except one little Count from Burgundy, who slept serenely through the tumult.

By this time we could recollect that it was a January night, and that we had better retreat into the great hall, where the fire was not out.  I had a great mind, since we were thus deserted, to return home with my son, but my poor Princess could not be left without a single attendant, or any clothes save what had been huddled on in haste, nor perhaps even a bed, for we knew that St. Germain was dismantled of furniture, and that no preparations had been made for fear of giving alarm.

M. de Fiesque declared that she should die if she tried to pass the streets of Paris, where we began to hear loud cries.  The maids seemed to have all run away, and she implored me to go, with all that was most necessary, to Mademoiselle.

’You are English!  You are a very Gildippe.  You have been in the wars—­you fear nothing,’ said the poor woman.  ‘I implore you to go!’

And as I had my son with me, and it seemed to be a duty or even a charity that no one else would undertake, though it was not likely that any harm could come to us, I sent Gaspard to dress himself, with my faithful Nicolas, who had come to light.  The gentlemen undertook to find us Mademoiselle’s coach, and we hurried back to get together what we could for our mistress.  I laugh now to think of M. de Fiesque and myself trying with our inexperienced hands to roll up a mattress and some bedding, and to find the linen and the toilet requisites, in which we had but small success, for the femmes de chamber kept everything, and had all either run away or slept too far off to hear us.  We managed at last to fasten up the mattress with the other things in it, tied by a long scarf at each end, and dragging it to the top of the stairs we rolled it down each flight.  At the second it upset at unfortunate lackey, who began to yell, firmly persuaded that it was a corpse, and that the Frondeurs had got in and were beginning a general slaughter.

How we recovered from the confusion I do not know, but Gaspard joined me at the top of the stairs, bringing with him a page of his own age, the little Chevalier de Mericour, whom he entreated me to take with us.  All the other boys had relations close at hand; but this child’s mother was dead, and his father and brothers with the army.  Being really a cousin of Harry Merrycourt’s, he had always seemed like a relation, and he was Gaspard’s chief friend, so I was very willing to give him a seat in the carriage, which came from somewhere, and into which the mattress was squeezed by some means or other.  Off we set, but no woman of any rank would accompany me, for they said I had the courage of an Amazon to attempt to make my way through the mob that was howling in the streets.