to guess at the cause of their being there.

We could obtain from him, after all we said, no other satisfaction
than his promise to interest himself in our behalf, and to do
us all the service in his power. At this my brother broke out
into a fit of laughter; but I confess I was too much alarmed
to treat his message with such indifference, and could scarcely
refrain from talking to this messenger as he deserved.

Whilst he was making his report to the King, the Queen my mother
kept her chamber, being under great concern, as may well be supposed,
to witness such proceedings. She plainly foresaw, in her prudence,
that these excesses would end fatally, should the mildness of
my brother's disposition, and his regard for the welfare of the
State, be once wearied out with submitting to such repeated acts
of injustice. She therefore sent for the senior members of the
Council, the chancellor, princes, nobles, and marshals of France,
who all were greatly scandalised at the bad counsel which had
been given to the King, and told the Queen my mother that she
ought to remonstrate with the King upon the injustice of his
proceedings. They observed that what had been done could not now
be recalled, but matters might yet be set upon a right footing.
The Queen my mother hereupon went to the King, followed by these
counsellors, and represented to him the ill consequences which
might proceed from the steps he had taken.

The King's eyes were by this time opened, and he saw that he
had been ill advised. He therefore begged the Queen my mother
to set things to rights, and to prevail on my brother to forget
all that had happened, and to bear no resentment against these