My father used often to be startled out of his sleep in the middle of the night by a valet, with a taper in his hand, drawing the curtain--having behind him the Cardinal de Richelieu, who would often take the taper and sit down upon the bed and exclaim that he was a lost man, and ask my father's advice upon news that he had received or on quarrels he had had with the King.

When all Paris was in consternation at the success of the Spaniards, who had crossed the frontier, taken Corbie, and seized all the country as far as Compiegne, the King insisted on my father being present at the council which was then held.

The Cardinal de Richelieu maintained that the King should retreat beyond the Seine, and all the assembly seemed of that opinion.

But the King in a speech which lasted a quarter of an hour opposed this, and said that to retreat at such a moment would be to increase the general disorder.

Then turning to my father he ordered him to be prepared to depart for Corbie on the morrow, with as many of his men as he could get ready.