If you choose to await me here, I will give you my word to render this gentleman to you within an hour, should the order hold good.
If you will not wait, I shall command my servants to clear the way, and if ill happen, then the responsibility will lie with you.' He spoke in so resolute a manner it was not difficult to see that something more was at stake than the arrest of a single man.

This was so; the real issue was whether the king, with whose instability it was difficult to cope, should fall back into the hands of his old advisers or not.

My arrest was a move in the game intended as a counterblast to the victory which M.de Rambouillet had gained when he persuaded the king to move to Tours; a city in the neighbourhood of the Huguenots, and a place of arms whence union with them would be easy.
The Provost-Marshal could, no doubt, make a shrewd guess at these things.

He knew that the order he had would be held valid or not according as one party or the other gained the mastery; and, seeing M.
de Rambouillet's resolute demeanour, he gave way.

Rudely interrupted more than once by his attendants, among whom were some of Bruhl's men, he muttered an ungracious assent to our proposal; on which, and without a moment's delay, the Marquis took me by the arm and hurried me across the courtyard.
And so far, well.