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Answer of the King to the Letter of the Queene his Mother.
MADAME,
I Am so much the more moued at your resolution, which you haue taken, to absent your selfe from this State and King∣dome, by how much you had lesse ground and cause. The ima∣ginary imprisonment, the supposed persecutions which you complaine of, the apprehensions which you confesse your selfe to haue conceiued in Campagnie concerning your life; they haue no more foundation, than the pursuite which you say was made after you at your departure, and the intelligence which you write vntome, hath beene held with the onely Sonne of the Lord de Vardes. Their intentions are a deuice somewhat like vnto that feare, which you fained to haue three moneths agoe, that I would send you backe againe into Italic, which you know I neuer thought, much lesse euer intended. For those proffers which I haue made you, of diuers and seuerall dwel∣lings and habitations, farre remote from those parts, can testifie the contrary. Such calumnies and accusations shall not (God be blessed) disgrace and dis-repute me in Christendome, where my actions do sufficiently make me knowne. Whatsoeuer you tell me of those that serue me and are neere vnto me, hath not so much as an appearance of truth. And I wonder and am euen astonished, that the Authors of your letters are not ashamed, to set before your eyes such things against those, vnto whom your conscience knowes, that such things cannot be imputed. I doe perceiue and know by manifold infallible proofes, the af∣fection and sincerity of my Cousen the Cardinall of Richel••••••: His religious obedience which hee affords mee, his faithfull care concerning whatsoeuer doth concerne my person and estate, speakes for him. If you please, Madame, you shall permit and giue me leaue to tell you, that the action which you haue so lately done, and what hath passed not long since, causeth that I cannot be ignorant what hath beene your intention hereto∣fore, and what I may expect in the time to come. The respect