I was doing so, De Nançay gave me an account of the transactions
of the foregoing night, assuring me that the King my husband was
safe, and actually at that moment in the King's bed-chamber.
He made me muffle myself up in a cloak, and conducted me to the
apartment of my sister, Madame de Lorraine, whither I arrived
more than half dead. As we passed through the antechamber, all
the doors of which were wide open, a gentleman of the name of
Bourse, pursued by archers, was run through the body with a pike,
and fell dead at my feet. As if I had been killed by the same
stroke, I fell, and was caught by M. de Nançay before I reached
the ground. As soon as I recovered from this fainting-fit, I
went into my sister's bedchamber, and was immediately followed
by M. de Mioflano, first gentleman to the King my husband, and
Armagnac, his first _valet de chambre_, who both came to beg me
to save their lives. I went and threw myself on my knees before
the King and the Queen my mother, and obtained the lives of both
of them.

Five or six days afterwards, those who were engaged in this plot,
considering that it was incomplete whilst the King my husband
and the Prince de Condé remained alive, as their design was not
only to dispose of the Huguenots, but of the Princes of the blood
likewise; and knowing that no attempt could be made on my husband
whilst I continued to be his wife, devised a scheme which they
suggested to the Queen my mother for divorcing me from him.
Accordingly, one holiday, when I waited upon her to chapel, she
charged me to declare to her, upon my oath, whether I believed
my husband to be like other men. "Because," said she, "if he
is not, I can easily procure you a divorce from him." I begged
her to believe that I was not sufficiently competent to answer