i MISFORTUNES OF MAUVISSIERE 47 



IX 



When Mauvissiere was recalled, Bruno in all prob- Return to 

 ability sailed with him. It had been decided, unjustly, 

 as Mauvissiere thought, to recall him to France in 

 1584 ; but owing to his wife's health and perhaps his 

 claims on the French treasury, he secured a postpone- 

 ment till the following year, on condition he should do 

 his best for Queen Mary and her son with Elizabeth, 

 " but not mix himself up with any of the plots against 

 Elizabeth." In October 2, 1585, he was still in 

 London, for he wrote to his friend Archibald Douglas, 

 the Scottish Ambassador, from London on that date ; 

 the following letter, however, was from Paris (Nov. 3, 

 1585) and told a pathetic story. 1 On his way across 

 (Bruno with him, we may suppose) he had been 

 " robbed of all he had in England, down to his shirt, of 

 the handsome presents given him by the Queen, and of 

 his silver plate : nothing was left, either to him or to his 

 wife and children, so that they resembled those exiled 

 Irish who solicit alms in England, with their children 

 by their side." He had lent money also to the Queen 

 of Scots, and was in great trouble concerning it, " for 

 neither her officers nor her treasurer possessed a sou, 

 nor did they speak of repayment." The unfortunate 

 ambassador had fallen upon evil days : he was accused 

 of having spoken ill of his successor, Chateauneuf, and 

 had to write, as the report went, to Elizabeth, to unsay 

 his insinuations. In December 1586, he wrote to 

 Archibald Douglas of his wife the Maria de Bochetel, 

 whom Bruno praises having died in childbirth. It 

 would be interesting to know how Bruno fared in the 

 robbery of Mauvissiere's goods. At least we may 



1 Salisbury Paper j, iii. p. 112. 



