Note 136 — Book II. LETTERS TO RODOLPH.

St. Luc had been one of the ‘mignons’ of Henry III. An amusing story is told of his fall from favour. The King had procured him a bride in the daughter of Maréchal de Brissac; when they were married she objected to her husband’s taking part in the dissipations of the Court. St. Luc, anxious to remain in the Court circle, and at the same time desirous of gratifying his wife, determined to frighten Henry into reforming his ways. Accordingly he had a secret passage cut through the panels of the King’s bedchamber, and one night presented himself dressed up in the character of an angel. With a piece of brass piping he imitated the scene of Belshazzar’s feast, and threatened the King with a most horrible fate if he did not reform his ways. The King was completely taken in and thoroughly frightened. For sometime afterwards, whenever it thundered, the King imagined it to be the sign of his approaching doom, and took refuge under the beds, and in the cellars of the palace. Unfortunately for St. Luc he could not keep the joke to himself; at last the King heard of it, his fears were relieved, and his favourite was dismissed.