have ordered the utmost leniency to be shown to these unfortunate
men, that the troops should not be quartered upon their inhabitants,
and that the officers shall see that there is no destruction
of houses and no damage to property; that would increase still
further their difficulty in paying the imposts, which I regret to
say press so sorely and unduly upon them. Tell me frankly what is
the greatest object of your ambition?"

"I thank your excellency most heartily for your kind intentions
towards me, but any ambition that I may have had is already much
more than gratified. I have never for a moment thought of, or even
wished that I might some day become lord of a fair estate and a
noble of France. I had not ventured to hope that I might become
colonel of a regiment for another fifteen years. Both these things
have, thanks to the kind appreciation of her majesty and yourself
for a very simple act of duty, fallen to me. If I might ask a
boon, it would be that my regiment may be sent to join the force
of Marshal Turenne. So long as there was danger here I should not
have wished to be removed from a position where I might be of some
assistance, however slight, to the queen and yourself, but now
that all danger is at an end I should be glad to return to active
duty. I have endeavoured humbly to make Marshal Turenne my model.
He has but one thought and one desire -- namely, to do his duty
and to make the soldiers under his command contented and happy, but
I have no hope of ever emulating his great merits as a commander."

"That request is easily granted," Mazarin said, and drawing a sheet
of paper towards him, he wrote:

The regiment of Poitou will at once proceed to the Rhine, where it