Sire, I consider myself greatly honoured by the receipt of your commands, and I have not omitted to communicate to M.the Marshal de Matignon three times most emphatically my intention and obligation to proceed to him, and even so far as to indicate the route by which I proposed to join him secretly, if he thought proper.

Having received no answer, I consider that he has weighed the difficulty and risk of the journey to me.

Sire, your Majesty dill do me the favour to believe, if you please, that I shall never complain of the expense on occasions where I should not hesitate to devote my life.

I have never derived any substantial benefit whatever from the bounty of kings, which I have neither sought nor merited; nor have I had any recompense for the services which I have performed for them: whereof your majesty is in part aware.

What I have done for your predecessors I shall do still more readily for you.