Series 3 > Foreign correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland, from the originals in the Balcarres papers > Volume 7

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BALCARRES PAPERS
Sieur d’Apestegny,1 one of the French commanders in
Scotland, returned grateful thanks to her for the loan of
her own mules to take him to Corstorphine—Christofrin
he called it—to recover from his illness. He wrote :
‘ Madame, I must confess with very good occasion that,
after God, I owe you my health, which I assure you,
Madame, I recovered as soon as I came to this place, of
which you were graciously pleased to give me the address
and to have me taken by the mules of your litter.’ Claude
de Pons, Demoiselle de Mesnil,2 also expressed gratitude
for a post in the household of the young Duke of Longue-
ville given to one of her sons.
There is an interesting person recommended to the kind¬
ness of Marie de Lorraine, by name Captain Faucher.3 He
seemed to have fallen into temporary disfavour at the
Court of France, and was sent to Scotland; his name was
not to appear in any letter unless addressed to the Cardinal
de Lorraine or to the Duchess of Valentinois. He left
France in January 1553-4, and in the following August he
is mentioned in the Treasurer's Accounts. There is also
an undated letter from him to Jeanne Pieddefer, Lady
Livingston,4 written from Dumbarton on quite trivial
subjects, such as the quantity of cinnamon the lady might
require from a new shipload of spices, a bed of water-cress
he had discovered, and her preference for a certain wild
parsley. He was lonely without company at Dumbarton,
for he wrote : 1 I have lost the power of laughter and until
the Queen returns I cannot regain it.’ Henri n. himself
commended several people to his ‘ sister,’ among them
Lord Fleming,5 the son of Lady Fleming, governess to the
Queen, and Sir George Douglas,6 and wrote at length,
begging her to obtain the pardon of Alexander Levollis,7
1 Letter LIII. 2 Letter LXII. 3 Letter CXXXII.
4 Letter CXLII. 6 Letter CLXI.
* Letter CLXVI. 7 Letter CLXXVII.