All eyes turn with joyous wonder Where their leader's fingers point, And a shout like summer thunder Shakes the ship in every joint. To the sweeps they rush and labour, Wild with mingled joy and shame; And each urges on his neighbour With the magic in the name Of Eldorado. Like a battle-horse careering Bounds the good ship through the spray, And with morning light appearing Steals into a quiet bay. Poets' dream of fields Elysian, Poets' dream of Paradise, Ne'er surpass'd that glorious vision- Nature on that lovely region Casts her gifts with lavish hand, Strange gay birds-a rainbow legion— Make sweet music through the land, And from tree to tree plants creeping, Weave the forests into bowers :But the pestilence is sleeping, Cover'd over with the flowers Of Eldorado. Long the rovers pass'd in seeking Drench'd with rain, and scorch'd by sun. Found they nothing-no repayment For their dangers on the wave, MADAME DE LA GUETTE BY THE AUTHOR OF "MARGARET BEAUFORT," "MADAME COTTIN," "MY AUNT KATE'S MANUSCRIPT," &c., &c. IN NINE CHAPTERS. CHAPTER VII. OUR ambassadress tarried not by the way. Catherine placed her three little girls under the protection of the Abbess of Ville-Chasson, near Montereau, it being the first time in her life that she had been separated from them, and she takes occasion to remark that, in her opinion, mothers should never confide the care of their children to others on any pretext; but for the rest, she thinks they are "" very tiresome little creatures and a great plague besides." The safety of her children secured, she sent for an old friend of her husband's, confided to him that she was going to Bordeaux to try and entice La Guette away from the Prince's party, and begged him to accompany her. She kept her own counsel about the real object of her journey. "Though I am woman,' a secret is safe in my hands, and she says, I never confide things of importance to any one." M. de Ste. Olive agreed to go with her, and in two days' time they set out. I cannot do better than extract the most interesting or amusing parts from her own account of this adventurous journey of 200 leagues across a country which was one varied scene of war and carnage, plunder, and mutual treachery. Their route was uninterrupted as far as Poitiers, where their difficulties began. "There," she says, "we had to leave the coach, which, on account of the war, was prevented from going further, and to hire some wretched horses to take us to Angoulême. I never was so tired before in all my life, for they were the most miserable jades ever seen. The man of whom we hired them would not risk any better ones with us, for he said he was sure we should be stopped before we had gone a hundred yards. As we approached Angoulême, the gates were on the point of being closed for the night. M. de Ste. Olive urged his horse forward to its utmost speed, by dint of pricking it with his sword, for he had no spurs on, "and begged the warder to keep them open a few minutes longer for a lady who was very badly mounted, and could not get on any faster. I arrived at last," she continues, "almost dead with fatigue, a thousand times more done up than if I had ridden post haste. However, I got time to recover, for we were obliged to remain three or four days in the town, as it was not safe to proceed further without an escort, and Ste. Olive wrote to the Comte de Chavagnac to send one from the royal troops. The day after our arrival the deputy commander came to pay me a visit, and make inquiries about me, for every one was suspected in those times. He was outwardly very civil, and begged me to let him know in what he could serve me, when I was going away, and if he should furnish me with an escort. I thanked him civilly, and said we had written for that purpose to M. de Chavagnac, but if he failed, I would ask him to do me that kindness. His real intentions, however, must have been otherwise than friendly, for on the morrow came M. de Coulombières to me, saying that, as he was a friend of my husband, he could not refrain from informing me that the Chevalier de Jouvelle (the governor) was going to have me arrested, for he did not believe a woman like me would take such a long and dangerous journey merely for the sake of getting my husband away from Condé, as I had stated; that there was no doubt I had other and hidden motives, and he should * Angoulême was a loyal town. send word of my arrival to the Court. 'If M. de Jouvelle thinks he is doing the King a service by arresting me,' said I, 'he may find out he is mistaken. Let him think twice before he acts.' I spoke in a very firm tone, to let him see that I feared nothing." The Comte de Chavagnac was unable to send any escort, so the travellers were obliged to ask one from the governor, and the fact of their being thus left to his mercy and protection seems to have allayed his suspicions. Arrived at Tour Blanche they halted, to ask for fresh guards, as they now entered a territory where Condé's interests prevailed over the king's. Madame de la Guette was received with great gallantry by the governor, and forced to alight and partake of his hospitality. "Poor fare," says she, "I got there, for it was Lent. I did not eat meat, and the poor man could get no fish, though he sent everywhere for some. A herring and a handful of prunes was all I had, and my appetite was far from being satisfied, having fasted since the morning." She took the opportunity of writing to her husband and General Marchin, to give notice of her coming, and saying she should await their answer at Périgueux, the governor undertaking to forward the letters. La Roche-Vernay, the governor, provided an escort of thirty horsemen, and prepared to accompany her part of the way. He was very handsome, a good horseman, conscious of his fascinating qualities, and very gallant towards the beau sexe. With Madame de la Guette he put forth his utmost powers of attraction, talking the small talk to which men treat women in the vain hope of trying to make them feel their inferiority, and generally producing the contrary effect. There was something essentially taking and piquante about Catherine; so thought La RocheVernay, and to induce her to begin a flirtation with himself, he went the old way to work, trying first to make her jealous of her husband. There was a very beautifu lyoung lady, he told her, at Bourdeaux, with whom La Guette was desperately smitten. Vernay little knew, little could appreciate the true loyal nature of his companion, who remembered the lesson she had learnt in the early years of her married life. The gentleman felt himself snubbed, but he was unwise enough to press his gallantries a little too far to please Madame, who gravely and coldly told him so, and bade him goodbye. At Bourdeille, her next halting-place, she met with an amusing reception. Why or wherefore deponent sayeth not, she was taken for some great nobleman in disguise, going to join Condé's party. The governor of the town, M. de St. Aubin, hastened to receive her with every sort of honour and respect, invited her to take up her abode at his house during her stay, and treated her like a prince. Prudence suggested to her that it would be well to keep up the delusion. She flustered and blustered, related adventures, bragged of her exploits, and talked military slang, to the great amusement of Ste. Olive. When, on retiring for the night, she privately requested that a woman might be sent to sleep in her room, the delusion was not in any way dispelled, and the governor, with a peculiar laugh, apologised for having only one girl in the castle who could come, qui n'était pas belle, but who was quite at Madame's disposition. She was roused in the morning by the drums beating a reveil d'honneur, which, by-the-by, cost her several pistoles in drink-money to the performers; and she found a most sumptuous breakfast awaiting her. Bidding the hospitable St. Aubin adieu, Madame de la Guette set out for Périgueux, where tidings of her arrival had been already sent by General Marchin, with orders that every attention was to be shown her. She instantly sent for her son Louis to join her; but that terrible treachery at Sarlat, where his regiment was stationed, prevented his coming-that betrayal of the town by Condé's troops to the royalists, which is perhaps one of the blackest pages in the history of the Guerre de Guyenne. Her brief account of it, as related to her by her son, is worth giving; besides that, we owe it to the young man, since it clears him from all participation in the foul deed. Louis de la Guette had been supping with the governor of Sarlat, M. de Chavagnac, and the whole town had retired peacefully to rest, never dreaming of the dark treachery which slumbered within the walls. In the dead of night, three regiments stationed in the town, belonging to Condé, Conti, and Marchin, opened the gates to the royal troops, and, joining with them, proceeded to the Hôtel de Ville, where dwelt the governor. * A brother of that Comte de Chavagnac from whom we have some very naïve and interesting memoirs relating to the civil wars, the Fronde, &c., and who was in the King's service, whilst his brother at Sarlat was on Condé's side. Cries of "Tuez Chavagnac!" awakened him, and rushing to the window he beheld the courtyard filled with armed men. His wife, a beautiful girl of nineteen, sprang forward, and interposed between him and the window, when she fell, pierced with four or five musketshots. To return to Louis de la Guette. When the noise in the streets awakened him, he rushed out, with a pistol in each hand; on seeing him the soldiers cried out, "Qui vive?" "Vive le Roi et Condé !" was the hearty response, and several shots were fired, but fortunately in the dark they missed him. He hastened to the bishop's palace, hoping that there he might find a few, at least, of his comrades who were not participators in the treachery of the rest; but he only met a few of the officers belonging to the regiments who had sold the town, and were now consorting with the enemy. They seized La Guette as soon as they saw him. become of him. He bade me not be anxious, for it was already done; that Louis was a prisoner, but he would ransom him at any price." Young de la Guette escaped two days afterwards, and arrived safely at Bordeaux. Meanwhile, the object of her journey and the reason of her presence there had been laid before the General by Catherine at her first interview with him, backing the overtures for peace which she had been entrusted to make with the "best arguments she could find." Marchin expressed himself well-disposed to forward the Queen's views, and engaged to talk the matter over with the Prince de Conti, who, he doubted not, would do everything satisfactory to the King. An interview with the Princesse de Condé followed, who received Catherine very kindly, and talked about the state of affairs, lamenting bitterly over the war. Madame de la Guette begged her to cheer up, and gave "You must either join with us or consider her a hint that a speedy and happy terminayourself a prisoner." "Then I am your prisoner, gentlemen," replied the gallant youth-he was a boy still, only seventeen; "for never shall it be said that I was a traitor to the cause I had embraced." "Ah!" cries his mother, with her soldierheart and her soul of honour, as she relates her son's conduct, "he was right; perish, rather than dishonourably betray your cause, whatever it may be !" CHAPTER VIII. M. DE LA GUETTE joined his wife in a few days at Périgueux, and escorted her to Bordeaux, where she lost no time in seeking General and Madame de Marchin, and opening her mission. They welcomed her affectionately. "Madame de Marchin," she says, was at her toilette when I called the first time, but as soon as she heard who it was, she came tête-nue to welcome me, caressed me tenderly, and said all sorts of pretty things about the part I had taken in her marriage, and how happy she was. In her room I met that same young lady of whom M. de la RocheVernay had tried to make me jealous. Ma grande fille,' said my husband to me (he always called me thus), 'don't you see Mdlle. de Pisany? Say how d'ye do to her.' 'Oh! I see her well enough,' said I, and passed by without stopping; nor did I take any notice of her whilst I was there, for I remembered what had been told me about her. M. de Marchin returned home for dinner, and if his wife had received me warmly, he was not less cordial in his welcome. I could not help asking him about my son, and begged him to send a trumpeter to Sarlat, to see what had tion might be hoped for. She had also the pleasure of saving the life of the little Duc de Bourbon, son of Condé, by her sensible advice. The result of Marchin's conference with the Prince de Conti was apparently favourable to peace, and M. de la Guette was commissioned to bear the following letter of introduction and credence to the Prince de Condé. Balthazar, in his "Histoire de la Guerre de Guyenne," is no doubt alluding to this when he mentions that, after a certain conference between the heads of the principal factions at Bordeaux, several sent requesting passports to enable them to return to Paris, Marchin amongst the rest despatching "the Sieur de la Guette to M. de Vendôme, who returned a very unsatisfactory reply." But Balthazar is evidently unacquainted with the real particulars, which Madame de la Guette relates. Neither is the following letter given by him nor any other historian or biographer of the period :— COMTE DE MARCHIN TO THE PRINCE DE CONDÉ. "Je n'écrirai rien de particulier à Votre Altesse sur le sujet de la paix, que tout le monde désire, et que plusieurs croient que Votre Altesse ne veut point. Je tâche de désabuser ceux qui disent le contraire, étant assuré des bons sentiments de Votre Altesse. Je la supplie d'ajouter foi à ce que lui dira le Sieur de la Guette, et de m'employer à ce qu' elle jugera à propos pour son service et pour le bien public. "A Bordeaux, le 25 Avril, 1653." Highness on the subject of the peace, which every one * TRANSLATION:-"I shall write no particulars to your wishes, and to which many believe your Highness is opposed. I try to undeceive those who think thus, being well assured of the good dispositions of your Highness. I beg had pleaded their being poor, horseless, and without money, as an excuse for plundering). The rascals, fearing apparently to be overtaken by the troops from Lamone, jumped on the horses they had stolen, and departed in a sauve qui peut style, leaving their victims to get on as best they might on foot, without a sou to bless themselves with. Whilst picking their The Prince de Condé was then at Stenay, a small town on the Meuse, and it was settled that the La Guettes should first return to Paris to enable Catherine to give an account of her mission, and for La Guette to receive further instructions from the Queen, before seeking the Prince. Their journey was on the first set out, disastrous. An escort had been provided them of some soldiers belong-way back to Lamone, they met a troop of ing to the regiments of De Marche and La Marcousse, who were returning to their headquariers at Lamone. On reaching the opposite shore of the Garonne, they found that one half of the men had not crossed with them. Arrived at Lamone, they demanded a fresh escort from the commandant, who at first expressed his pleasure at being able to oblige Madame de la Guette," and then declared there was no need for an escort, as the road between Lamone and Vair, where they were to halt for the night, was considered perfectly safe. "That being the case," cried La Guette, "we will proceed alone, thanking you all the same for your kind intentions." Alas! for them, that they trusted to men who possessed neither the loyalty of soldiers nor the honour of gentlemen. They had scarcely left the town when the sound of a trumpet was heard a little way off, "Listen!" cried Catherine, 'it is a signal; they are lying in ambush for us." 'Nonsense," quoth La Guette, "it is only some wretched fellow learning to blow, and who doesn't know his trade yet." Just as he spoke a party of eight troopers dashed forward, and bade them stand and deliver. Overpowered by numbers, there was nothing for them but to submit, and they were robbed of horses, baggage, and money to the tune of 8000 francs, being the whole of M. de la Guette's pay, and share of whatever booty had fallen to his lot during the war. In the Their lives were threatened, and only saved by the appearance of a horseman, who turned out to be a certain M. Jourdain, and a friend of La Guette, who, recognising the travellers, galloped off to Lamone, gave the alarm, and proceeded to Bordeaux to acquaint General Marchin with what had happened. midst of this rencontre, Catherine says she never lost her presence of mind, though inly feeling it was all up with them. When, however, she knew that Jourdain would in all probability succeed in sending them help, she turned to the robbers and, with the greatest coolness, said, "Come, come, gentlemen, haven't you had enough? You have got sufficient to set you on horseback again :" (they you to give credence to whatever the Sieur de la Guette may tell you, and to employ me in whatever you may judge proper for your own service and the public welfare." cavaliers, coming at their utmost speed to the brother officers. Here once more Catherine's good horsemanship caused her to be mistaken for a man in disguise, and this time for General Marchin himself. "I can't have been such a bad-looking fellow," she remarks, "since I was taken for a field-officer." When they entered Ribérac they found the town in a state of commotion, but knew not "that the fête was for her,' ,"till they got to the hostelry, when, having sent her shoes down to be cleaned, they were immediately seized upon and tried on by several persons. From their size it was pronounced for certain that no one save a man could own feet of such dimensions. Presently a sound of drums was heard under her windows-M. de la Guette had gone to ask about an escort-when the landlord came up and glared at her fiercely, muttering something about "those devils Marsin and Balthazar;" he was followed by several other men; in short, she was on the point of being arrested, when her husband returned. Come, M. de Marchin," said he, taking her hand, " come and see M. de Ribérac." Whom do you call M. de Marchin ?" "Why you, whom they say are the General." On seeing Catherine's fine womanly countenance, the governor hung his head, and confessed himself to have been "done" by false reports which had reached him. It is St. Preuil's doing," said he, alluding to the gentleman who had seen her riding by in the morning, and instantly identified her in his own mind as Marchin, and sent post-haste to De Ribérac to have her arrested. "It is St. Preuil's fault," said he; "for his sins he shall escort you both next day to Angoulême." "Well, monsieur," was her lively greeting to that gentleman on the following morning, "here is M. de Marchin, what do you think of him by this time?" THE La Guettes arrived in Paris without further adventure of consequence, and were conducted the same evening to the Queen's presence, so utterly fatigued that Catherine says she was forced to rest herself on the arm of a fauteuil whilst awaiting her majesty, in spite of a warning that nobody was allowed to sit down. The audience seems to have been one of those private interviews in which Anne of Austria delighted to indulge, with those to whom she entrusted her secret missions or commands. "Taking compassion," says Catherine, on my state of fatigue, M. Philippe 66 went and knocked at the door of the Queen's chamber, and announced that I was in waiting. Her Majesty desired we should enter. On seeing her I made several profound curtseys, and said to her, Madame, I am here to give your Majesty an account of what I have done on my journey."" Having told her everything, "the Queen said she was very glad to hear I had returned safe and sound, and should not forget my services. She asked me, also, if I had travelled in men's clothes. I replied, 'Madame, I went in the same costume as that in which I have the honour to appear before your majesty.' My husband then came forward, and said, 'I await your Majesty's commands. I have letters of credit from M. de Marchin to the Prince, and I am ready to start whenever it shall please your Majesty that I seek his Highness.' Said the Queen, Philippe will take you to the Cardinal tomorrow afternoon, who will tell you what are the King's wishes on the subject.' Then we retired, and M. Philippe told me he was very well pleased with the interview, and he could plainly see the Queen was perfectly satisfied with what I had told her." On the following day they sought an audience of the Cardinal. He Mazarin greeted them very cordially. was always gracious when he wanted to get off parting with any money, and he knew well that such services as Madame de la Guette had rendered the King ought not to pass by unrecompensed, and so he did as is usual in such cases for such men to do, he talked generously. "The Court," said he to La Guette, "does not know how to recompense your wife sufficiently. Indeed, Madame," turning to her, with his softest tones and most winning smile, "we know not how to reward you for what you have done. Your preventing Duke Charles from attacking M. de Turenne was a most important service; and then this journey you have just taken is of great consequence; the Queen has told me about it." Just at that moment the King was announced, and Mazarin bade M. de la Guette return the following morning. La Guette did so, and was told by the Minister that the Court had gone to Fontainbleau for a few days, and that they must wait its return, when he should assuredly set out for the Prince's quarters. "All turned out," writes Catherine, "just contrary, for some favourites of the Prince de Conti put into his head that M. de Marchin was seeking to make a treaty for himself only, and that I had gone to Bordeaux only with this view; that it were best to be beforehand with him; and certainly the King would be generous enough to pardon him when he saw him returning to his allegiance. Conti lost no time, but de |