Memoirs of a Cavalier | Page 9

his hands,
and reduced the duke, rather by manage and conduct than by force, to
make peace without it; so as annexing it to the crown of France it has
ever since been a thorn in his foot that has always made the peace of
Savoy lame and precarious, and France has since made Pignerol one of
the strongest fortresses in the world.
As the cardinal, with all the military part of the court, was in the field,
so the king, to be near him, was gone with the queen and all the court,
just before I reached Paris, to reside at Lyons. All these considered,
there was nothing to do at Paris; the court looked like a citizen's house
when the family was all gone into the country, and I thought the whole
city looked very melancholy, compared to all the fine things I had
heard of it.
The queen-mother and her party were chagrined at the cardinal, who,
though he owed his grandeur to her immediate favour, was now grown
too great any longer to be at the command of her Majesty, or indeed in
her interest; and therefore the queen was under dissatisfaction and her
party looked very much down.
The Protestants were everywhere disconsolate, for the losses they had
received at Rochelle, Nimes, and Montpelier had reduced them to an
absolute dependence on the king's will, without all possible hopes of
ever recovering themselves, or being so much as in a condition to take
arms for their religion, and therefore the wisest of them plainly foresaw
their own entire reduction, as it since came to pass. And I remember
very well that a Protestant gentleman told me once, as we were passing

from Orleans to Lyons, that the English had ruined them; and therefore,
says he, "I think the next occasion the king takes to use us ill, as I know
'twill not be long before he does, we must all fly over to England,
where you are bound to maintain us for having helped to turn us out of
our own country." I asked him what he meant by saying the English
had done it? He returned short upon me: "I do not mean," says he, "by
not relieving Rochelle, but by helping to ruin Rochelle, when you and
the Dutch lent ships to beat our fleet, which all the ships in France
could not have done without you."
I was too young in the world to be very sensible of this before, and
therefore was something startled at the charge; but when I came to
discourse with this gentleman, I soon saw the truth of what he said was
undeniable, and have since reflected on it with regret, that the naval
power of the Protestants, which was then superior to the royal, would
certainly have been the recovery of all their fortunes, had it not been
unhappily broke by their brethren of England and Holland, the former
lending seven men-of-war, and the latter twenty, for the destruction of
the Rochellers' fleet; and by these very ships the Rochellers' fleet were
actually beaten and destroyed, and they never afterwards recovered
their force at sea, and by consequence sunk under the siege, which the
English afterwards in vain attempted to prevent.
These things made the Protestants look very dull, and expected the ruin
of all their party, which had certainly happened had the cardinal lived a
few years longer.
We stayed in Paris, about three weeks, as well to see the court and what
rarities the place afforded, as by an occasion which had like to have put
a short period to our ramble.
Walking one morning before the gate of the Louvre, with a design to
see the Swiss drawn up, which they always did, and exercised just
before they relieved the guards, a page came up to me, and speaking
English to me, "Sir," says he, "the captain must needs have your
immediate assistance." I, that had not the knowledge of any person in
Paris but my own companion, whom I called captain, had no room to
question, but it was he that sent for me; and crying out hastily to him,

"Where?" followed the fellow as fast as 'twas possible. He led me
through several passages which I knew not, and at last through a
tennis-court and into a large room, where three men, like gentlemen,
were engaged very briskly two against one. The room was very dark, so
that I could not easily know them asunder, but being fully possessed
with an opinion before of my captain's danger, I ran into the room with
my sword in my hand. I had not particularly engaged any of them, nor
so much as made a pass at any, when I received a very dangerous thrust
in