Letter from Hillaume Lagarde to His Eminence, the Cardinal

[huillaume]

(March 1630)

Your Eminence,

I guess you’re confused at best, and suspicious at worst, about my application to be admitted in the Royal Foot Guards so soon after being admitted (and I’ll even say welcome) in your Guard, and even being honored as the Ensign of your personal escort, so I guess you deserve an explanation of my behavior, that never intended to be offensive to Your Eminence or his Guard.

As you know, I’m the heir of the Viscounty of Bearn, a place now being ruined by the Huguenot Heresy, and my father is quite grateful to HM the King (and, of course to Your Eminency), for the efforts in fighting them, a feeling I share with him.

In his loyalty to the king, my father the Viscount sent me to Paris in the hope to serve HM in his Guard, and so helping to repay the efforts to get the country rid of heretics. When I reached Paris, the King’s Guard had closed their recruitment, and I entered you Guard to honor my faith and debt on Your Eminence and the King, but now they accept recruits again, , and I believe, as a faithful son, and obeying the Scriptures (Honoring father and mother) , to be in the duty to try it.

Regardless of the outcome of my application to the Royal Foot Guards, I’ll remain always grateful to Your Eminency and his Guards for the welcome I had when I reached Paris, and I will always be proud to have served in this prestigious Regiment, hoping the friendships and comrades I’ve met here will last for life, be it as Regimental brothers or as Brigade comrades.

I am and will remain, Your Eminence, your most humble servant, and hope to have soon the opportunity to kiss your ring as sign of submission to The Lord and his representatives on Earth, whom your represent in Paris.

Huillaume Lagarde de Bearne.

[OOC: a similar letter is sent to the Colonel of The Cardinal's Guard]

[Ymbert Montgomery]

Subaltern de Bearn,

His Eminance has asked me to thank you for your refreshingly earnest letter.

He is, however, rather taken aback by your obvious apprehension on this matter. You can rest assured that his Eminence bears you no ill will at all for your decision. If you have been lead to believe otherwise I can only gently suggest you should pay less attention to rumours and hearsay.

His Eminance respects your desire to honour your family and understands that young men will go where their hearts lead. And as a man of the cloth his eminance is hardly going to be a man prone to grudge holding.

Besides, your time in the Cardinal's Guard will have done wonders for your moral education and that won't change if you end up leaving it for another regiment. His Eminance is comfortable in the knowledge that, should you be faced with difficult decisions in the future, that you will obey your conscience and make the right decision.

All the best in your future career, wherever the Lord may lead you.

I hope I have gone some way to putting your mind at rest on this matter.

Yours in Christ,

Guillaume Cailloux, Ecclesiastic Secretary to his Eminence Cardinal de Richelieu.