The Life of Marie de Medicis Vol 3 by Julia Pardoe (page 3)

enough openly to declare itself.

Under these circumstances, however, it is not surprising that the marriage of the heir-apparent should have excited the most absorbing interest not only at the French Court, but throughout all Europe. The health of Louis XIII continued feeble and uncertain; he rallied slowly and painfully after each successive attack; and since the visit of the Duke of Buckingham to Paris his repugnance to Anne of Austria had become more marked than ever; while the young Queen in her turn resented his neglect with augmented bitterness, and loudly complained of the injustice to which she should be subjected were the children of Gaston d’Anjou to inherit the throne of France. The Princes of the Blood supported Anne in this objection; for neither Conde nor the Comte de Soissons could, as a natural consequence, regard with favour any measure which must tend to diminish the chances of their own succession; while the latter, moreover, desired to become himself the husband of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and the Princesse de Conde aspired to unite her own daughter, still a mere infant, to the brother of the King. The other great nobles were also disinclined to see the young Prince form so close an alliance with the Duc de Guise; and the Duke of Savoy was eager to bestow on him the hand of Marie de Gonzaga, the heiress of Montferrat, and thus to secure to himself a powerful ally against the perpetual aggressions of his numerous enemies.

D’Ornano, as we have seen, had been commanded to renew the negotiation of marriage between Gaston and the bride destined for him by Henri IV, but private reasons decided him against the measure; and, in consequence of his representations, the Prince formally refused to obey the expressed wishes of the King. The moment was a favourable one for Richelieu, who had long sought a pretext for ridding himself of Monsieur’s favourite friend and counsellor; and he accordingly lost no time in impressing upon Louis that, as the young Prince was entirely governed by M. d’Ornano, no concession could be expected from him until that individual had been removed from about his person. Nor was the Marechal alone an object of suspicion and uneasiness to the minister, for it was not long ere he ascertained that the party of the Prince was hourly becoming more formidable, and that were the cabal not crushed in its infancy, it might very soon tend to endanger at once the safety of the sovereign and the tranquillity of the kingdom; while he also learned through his emissaries that his own security was no less involved in the issue than that of Louis himself.

Under these circumstances Richelieu at once felt that the only method by which he could hope to control Gaston was by proceeding with the utmost severity against all such persons as should be convicted of endeavouring to excite the mind of the Prince against his royal brother; a policy which Louis eagerly adopted. In accordance with this resolution, during the sojourn of the Court at Fontainebleau in the month of May, the King on his return from a hunting-party, after having retired to rest, suddenly rose again, dressed himself, and at ten o’clock at night summoned M. d’Ornano to his presence, whom he entertained for a time with an account of the day’s sport, and other inconsequent conversation, until Du Hallier, the captain of the bodyguard, made his appearance at the head of his archers, and approaching the Marechal, announced to him that he was his prisoner; requesting him to withdraw from the royal apartment, whence he conducted him to the chamber in which the Duc de Biron had been confined twenty-four years previously,[95] while Madame d’Ornano at the same time received an order to quit Paris upon the instant, and the two brothers of the disgraced courtier, together with MM. Deageant, Modena, and other partisans of the Marechal, were also arrested.

By this bold stroke of policy the Cardinal effectually paralyzed the power of Monsieur; although this conviction was far from allaying his personal apprehensions. Among the favourites of the Prince he had equally marked for destruction the young Prince de Chalais,[96] the Duc de Vendome, and his brother the Grand Prior; but Richelieu feared by venturing too much to lose all, for his authority had not at that period reached its acme; and he felt all the danger which he must incur by adopting measures of such violence against two Princes of the Blood.

The indignation of Monsieur was, moreover, thoroughly excited, and he did not scruple either to reproach his royal brother, or to utter threats against those who had aided in the arrest of the Marechal, whose restoration to liberty he vehemently demanded; and as his representations failed to produce the desired effect, he indulged in a thousand extravagances which only tended to strengthen the hands and to forward the views of Richelieu, who found no difficulty in widening the breach between Louis and the imprudent Prince by whom his authority was openly questioned. In vain did Marie de Medicis endeavour to impress upon him the danger of such ill-advised violence, Gaston persisted in upholding his favourite; until the King, irritated beyond endurance, exhibited such marked displeasure towards his brother that the weak and timid Prince began to entertain fears for his own safety, and became suddenly as abject as he had previously been haughty; abandoned D’Ornano to his fate; and after signing an act, in which he promised all honour and obedience to the sovereign, carried his condescension so far as to visit the Cardinal at his residence at Limours, whither he had retired on the pretext of indisposition.

Richelieu triumphed: and ere long the Duc de Vendome and his brother were arrested in their turn, and conveyed to the citadel of Amboise. The Comte de Soissons, the second Prince of the Blood, fled the Court in alarm, and took refuge in Savoy; while edict after edict was fulminated against the nobles, which threatened all their old and long-cherished privileges. The costume of each separate class was determined with a minuteness of detail which exasperated the magnificent courtiers, who had been accustomed to attire themselves in embroidery and cloth of gold, in rich laces, and plumed and jewelled hats, and who suddenly found themselves reduced to a sobriety of costume repugnant to their habits; the Comte de Bouteville, of the haughty house of Montmorency, who had dared to disregard the revived law against duelling, lost his head upon the scaffold; and all castles, to whomsoever belonging, which could not aid in the protection of the frontiers, or of the towns near which they were situated, were ordered to be demolished.

The reign of Richelieu had commenced.

Meanwhile the Court had taken up its residence at Fontainebleau; where Louis, deaf to the murmurs of his great nobles, passed his time in hunting, a sport of which he was passionately fond; while Marie de Medicis and the Cardinal endeavoured, by every species of dissipation, to lull him into acquiescence with the perilous measures they were adopting.

Always sickly and querulous, Louis was a prey to dark thoughts and fearful anticipations of early dissolution; and even while he suffered himself to be amused by the hawking, dancing, and feasting so lavishly provided for his entertainment, he was never at fault, during his frequent fits of moroseness and ill-humour, for subjects of complaint. His brother, Gaston d’Anjou, whom he at once feared and hated, was a constant theme of distrust; while the Comte de Soissons, the Duc de Montmorency, and the Prince de Chalais, his sworn adherents, were at times equally obnoxious to the suspicious and gloomy young sovereign. Then he bewailed the treachery of the Queen, whom he believed, through the agency of Richelieu, to be engaged in an intrigue with Spain dangerous to his own interests; mourned over himself because he had weakly suffered his authority to be usurped by a subject, and had not moral courage to redeem the error; and in his most confidential moments even inveighed against Richelieu with the bitterness of a sullen schoolboy, declaring that it was he who had poisoned the mind of his brother, estranged him from his wife, and deprived him of the support of the Princes of the Blood; forgetting, or wilfully overlooking the fact, that a single effort on his own part must have sufficed for his emancipation from this rule of iron.

On the departure of the Court for Fontainebleau, the Cardinal, according to his usual custom, had excused himself on the plea of ill-health from following the King; while Gaston d’Anjou, who, despite the concession that he had made, still deeply resented the affront to which he had been subjected by the arrest of his favourite, had remained in Paris. Richelieu, was, however, far from inactive in his retreat; but, while he was occupied in further schemes of self-aggrandizement, the partisans of the Prince were equally busy in devising the means of ridding themselves of a thrall so obnoxious to their pride; and after mooting several measures which were successively abandoned from their apparent impracticability, it was at length decided that, under the pretext of a hunting-party, nine of the conspirators should proceed to Fleury, and there assassinate their common enemy. Of this number was the unfortunate Chalais; who, however, before the execution of the project, confided it to a friend, by whom he was warned against any participation in so dangerous an attempt, and advised immediately to apprise the Cardinal of his danger. As the young Prince hesitated to follow this counsel, the Commandeur de Valence, who was anxious to save him from, as he believed, inevitable destruction, assured him that should he fail to communicate the conspiracy to the minister, he would himself instantly reveal it; upon which Chalais, intimidated by the threat, consented to accompany him to Richelieu, and to confess the whole.

Having listened attentively to all the details of the plot, the Cardinal courteously thanked his informants, and requested them to proceed to Fontainebleau, and to repeat what they had told him to the King. He was obeyed; and an hour before midnight Louis despatched a body of troops to Fleury, with instructions to obey the orders of the minister whatever might be their nature; while Marie de Medicis at the same time commanded the officers of her household and a number of the nobility to accompany the royal guards.

As Chalais had asserted, at three o’clock on the following morning the clerks of the kitchen to the Duc d’Anjou arrived at Fleury, and immediately commenced their preparations for the dinner of the Prince; upon which Richelieu caused them to be informed that he should leave the house at the entire disposal of Monsieur; and, escorted by the armed party that had been sent for his protection, he set out at once for Fontainebleau, where he had no sooner arrived than he went without the delay of a moment to the apartment of the King’s brother. Gaston was in the act of leaving his bed, and was evidently alarmed by the sudden appearance of so unexpected a visitor; but the Cardinal, affecting not to perceive his embarrassment, merely reproached him in the most courtly terms for the precaution which he had taken, assuring him that he should have felt honoured had he relied upon his hospitality; but adding that, since his Highness had shown himself desirous of avoiding all restraint, he was happy to be at least enabled to offer him the use of his residence. The Prince, taken by surprise, and utterly disconcerted at the failure of so well organized a plot, could only stammer out his acknowledgments; and the Cardinal had no sooner heard them to an end than he requested admission to the King, where, having briefly expatiated upon his escape, he requested permission with ably-acted earnestness to retire from the Court.

As we have shown, Louis was by no means slow in deprecating the self-constituted authority of Richelieu; but he was nevertheless so well aware of his own incapacity, that the idea of being thus abandoned by a minister whose grasp of intellect and subtle policy had complicated the affairs of government until he was compelled to admit his own utter powerlessness to disentangle the involved and intricate mesh, terrified him beyond expression; nor was Marie de Medicis, whom he hastened to summon on perceiving the apparently resolute position assumed by Richelieu, less alarmed than himself.

Had the scene been enacted by three individuals of mean station, it would have been merely a painful and a degrading one, for each was alike deceiving and deceived; but as they stood there, a crowned King, a Princess born “under the purple,” and a powerful minister, it presented another and a more extraordinary aspect. Stolid and resolute as were alike the mother and the son, they were totally unable to cope with the superior talent and astuteness of the man whom they had themselves raised to power; and before the termination of the interview Richelieu had convinced both that his counsels and services were essential to their own safety.

This point conceded, the wily Cardinal was enabled to make his own terms. He received the most solemn assurances of support, not only against the brother of the sovereign, but also against the Princes of the Blood and all the great nobles; while a promise was moreover made, and ratified, that he should have immediate information of every attempt to injure him in the estimation of the King; and, finally, he was offered a bodyguard, over which he was to possess the most absolute control.

This exhibition of royal weakness strengthened the hands of the haughty minister, who thus became regal in all save name and blood; and encouraged him to pursue his system of dissimulation. As mother and son vied with each other in opening before him the most brilliant perspective ever conceded to a subject, he feigned a reluctance and a humility which only tended to render their entreaties the more earnest and the more pressing; until at length, although with apparent unwillingness, he was prevailed upon to retain his post, and to crush his enemies by the exhibition of a splendour and authority hitherto without parallel in the annals of ministerial life.[97]

It was not to be anticipated that under such circumstances as these the imprudent Chalais could retain one chance of escape. Aware of his favour with the King, his fall at once relieved Richelieu of a rival, and taught the weak and capricious monarch to quail before the power of the man whom he had thus invested with almost unlimited authority; and the natural result ensued. Unwilling to admit that he sought to revenge an attempt against his own person, the Cardinal caused the unfortunate young noble to be accused of a conspiracy against the life of the King himself, and a design to effect a marriage between Anne of Austria and the Duc d’Anjou. Judges were suborned; a court was assembled; the gay and gallant Chalais, whose whole existence had hitherto been one round of pleasure and splendour, and who was, as we have fully shown, too timid and too inexperienced to enact, even with the faintest chance of success, the character of a conspirator, was put upon his trial for treason, and condemned to die upon the scaffold; nor did the efforts of his numerous friends avail to avert his fate.

Louis forgot his former affection for his brilliant favourite in his fear of the minister who sought his destruction; while the heartless and ungrateful Gaston, wilfully overlooking the fact that it was in his service that the miserable young man had become compromised, actually appeared as one of his accusers; his relatives were forbidden to intercede in his behalf; and finally, when some zealous friends succeeded in hiding away not only the royal executioner, but also the city functionary, in the hope of delaying his execution, the emissaries of the Cardinal secured the services of a condemned felon, who, on a promise of unconditional pardon, consented to fill the office of headsman; and who, between his inexperience and his horror at his unwonted task, performed his hideous functions so imperfectly that it was only on the thirty-fourth stroke that the head of the martyred young man was severed from his body.[98]

During the progress of this iniquitous trial (which took place in the city of Nantes, whither Louis had proceeded to convoke the States of that province) both Marie de Medicis and Richelieu were assiduously labouring to accomplish the marriage of Gaston with Mademoiselle de Montpensier; nor does there remain the slightest doubt that it was to the splendid promises held out by his mother and her minister on this occasion, that the cowardly and treacherous conduct of the Prince towards his unfortunate adherent must be ascribed. A brilliant appanage was allotted to him; he was to assume the title of Duc d’Orleans; to occupy a post in the Government; and to enjoy a revenue of a million of francs.

Prospects far less flattering than these would have sufficed to purchase Gaston, whose besetting sin throughout his whole life was the most disgusting and inordinate selfishness; but when his consent had been obtained, a new difficulty supervened on the part of the King, whose distrustful character would not permit him to perceive the eagerness with which the Cardinal urged forward the alliance without misgivings which were fostered by his immediate friends. Richelieu, however, soon succeeded by his representations in convincing the suspicious monarch of the policy of thus compelling his brother to a thorough subjection to his own authority, which could not have been enforced had Monsieur allied himself to a Princess of Austria or Spain; an argument which was instantly appreciated, and a royal command was accordingly despatched to the elected bride to join the Court at Nantes, under the escort of the Duc de Bellegarde, the Marechal de Bassompierre, and the Marquis d’Effiat.

In accordance with this invitation, Mademoiselle de Montpensier arrived at Nantes on the 1st of August; and on the 5th of the same month, while the wretched and deserted Chalais was exposed to the most frightful torture, the marriage took place. “There was little pomp or display,” says Mezeray, “either at the betrothal or at the nuptial ceremony.” _Feux de joie_ and salvos of artillery alone announced its completion. The mass was, however, performed by Richelieu himself; and so thoroughly had he succeeded in convincing Louis of the expediency of the measure, that the delight of the young King was infinitely more conspicuous than that of the bridegroom. The satisfaction of Marie de Medicis, although sufficiently evident, was calm and dignified; but the King embraced the bride on three several occasions; and no one could have imagined from his deportment that he had for a single instant opposed a marriage which now appeared to have fulfilled his most sanguine wishes.[99]

The reign of blood had nevertheless commenced. The head of Chalais fell on the 19th of August; and on the 2nd of September the Marechal d’Ornano expired in his prison; a fate which was shared on the 28th of February 1629 by the Grand Prieur de Vendome, both of these deaths being attributed to poison. Be the fact as it may, thus much is at least, certain, that the Cardinal, not daring to drag two legitimated Princes of the Blood to the scaffold, had gradually rendered their captivity more and more rigorous, as if to prove to the nation over which he had stretched his iron arm that no rank, however elevated, and no name, however ancient, could protect its possessor.

Having accomplished the marriage of the Duc d’Orleans, Richelieu and the Queen-mother next laboured to widen the breach between Louis XIII and his wife; for which purpose they represented that she had taken an active part in the lately detected conspiracy, and was secretly intriguing with Spain against the interests of her royal husband; an attempt in which she had been aided and abetted by her confidential friends.

The first consequence of this accusation was the arrest of Madame de Chevreuse, who, after having undergone a formal examination, was exiled from the Court; and this order had no sooner been obeyed than Anne of Austria was summoned to the presence of the King, whom she found seated between the Queen-mother and the Cardinal, and there solemnly accused, on the pretended revelations of Chalais while under torture, of having intrigued to procure the death of her husband, and her own marriage with his brother. To this accusation the Spanish Princess disdainfully replied that “she should have gained so little by the exchange, that the absurdity of the charge must suffice for its refutation;” but her haughty and indignant retort produced no effect upon her judges. She was commanded thenceforward to reside exclusively at the palaces of the Louvre and St. Germain; without the privilege of receiving a single guest, not even excepting the ambassador of the King her brother, or the Spanish attendants who had accompanied her to France, and, moreover, forbidden all correspondence beyond the limits of the kingdom; while, at the same time, as if to complete her humiliation, she was strictly prohibited from receiving any male visitor in her apartments during the absence of the King.[100]

Although, as we have stated, Richelieu was present at this degrading scene, he nevertheless professed to be perfectly independent of what he thought proper to designate as mere family dissensions, entirely beyond the functions of a minister; and thus the whole odium of the proceedings fell upon Louis XIII and the Queen-mother, while the Cardinal himself remained ostensibly absorbed in public business. Neither the great nobles nor the people were, however, deceived by this assumed disinterestedness; but all felt alike convinced that the total alienation which supervened between the royal couple was simply a part of the system by which Richelieu sought one day exclusively to govern France. Henriette Marie had left Paris after her betrothal, accompanied by a numerous retinue of French attendants of both sexes, and by several of the priests of the Oratory, attired in their black gowns; and on her arrival at Whitehall she had been permitted to have the services of her religion performed in one of the apartments of that palace; but this concession did not, unhappily, serve to satisfy the exactions of the girl-Queen, who, even during the first days of her residence in England, suffered herself to betray all her antipathy to the heretical country which was hereafter to be her home. At the public ceremonial of her marriage, when the venerable Abbey of Westminster was crowded with princes, bishops, and barons, she refused to receive her crown from the hands of a Protestant prelate, or to bend her knee before the Lord Primate; while at the same time, relying on her youth and the effect which her extreme beauty had produced upon her royal consort, she endeavoured to obtain an ascendency over him that excited the jealousy and distrust of the English Court; a feeling which was not lessened by the fact that she succeeded in extorting from the King his sanction to erect a chapel for the more solemn observance of the rites and ceremonies of her faith. Acting under the influence of Richelieu, who at frequent intervals despatched missionaries to London upon futile errands, with instructions that she should retain them about her person, she moreover soon taught herself to believe that she had a great mission to accomplish; and under this impression she carried her imprudence so far as to authorize a public procession through the streets of London, in which she herself appeared mounted upon a mule, surrounded and followed by all her household, and a crowd of Roman Catholic ecclesiastics.

So wanton a disregard for the feelings of her new subjects excited the indignation of the Parliament, and made them distrustful of the Duke of Buckingham, through whose agency and influence the alliance with France had been formed; while it laid the foundation of those accusations against him which were so warmly refuted by the sovereign. The Parliament was dissolved, and the necessity of raising subsidies engaged the minister in measures which became hostile to the French interests. An anti-Catholic reaction was declaring itself; and Buckingham at once felt that he could not more effectually satisfy both the Parliament and the people than by suppressing without delay that spirit of religious defiance which was arising in the very palace of the King.

With this conviction he accordingly declared to the young Queen, a few days after the public pilgrimage which she had made, that she must immediately send back to France, not only the members of her household, but also all the ecclesiastics who had induced her so ostentatiously to insult the faith of the nation by which she had been received and welcomed with a warmth that merited more consideration on her part. Indignant at so peremptory an order, Henriette exhibited an amount of violence which in a mere girl failed to produce the effect that she had anticipated. The Duke continued calm and resolute, while she, on her side, vehemently refused to comply with his directions; and after having reproached the sovereign in the most bitter terms for what she designated both as a breach of faith and as an act of tyranny, she summoned the Bishop of Mende, the French Ambassador, to the palace, and instructed him to apprise the King her brother of the insult with which she was threatened.

The prelate approved her resistance: and loudly declared that neither the individuals composing her household, nor the ecclesiastics who were attached to it, should leave England without an order to that effect from their own sovereign; and he forthwith despatched couriers to Paris, to inform the Court of the position of the English Queen; to which Louis replied by insisting that the persons who had accompanied his royal sister to her new kingdom should be permitted to remain about her; in default of which concession he should thenceforward hold himself aggrieved, and become the irreconcilable enemy of the British Government.

The Duke of Buckingham nevertheless persisted in his resolution, and the foreign attendants of Henriette were compelled to return to France, to the excessive indignation of Marie de Medicis, who refused to see in the extreme munificence of Charles towards the exiled household any extenuation of the affront which had been put upon her favourite daughter; while Henriette on her part, far from endeavouring to adapt herself to circumstances, and to yield with dignified submission to a privation which it was no longer in her power to avert, gave way to all the petulance of a spoiled girl, and overwhelmed the minister with reproaches and even threats. So unmeasured, indeed, were her invectives that at length, when she had on one occasion exhausted alike the temper and the endurance of Buckingham, he so far forgot the respect due to her rank and to her sex, as well as his own chivalry as a noble, as to retort with an impetuosity little inferior to her own that she had better not proceed too far, “for that in England queens had sometimes lost their heads;” a display of insolence which Henriette never forgot nor forgave, and which was immediately communicated to the French Court.

Time, far from lessening the animosity of the young Queen towards the favourite, or the consequent schism between herself and the King, appeared rather to increase both; and Richelieu, after having for a while contemplated a war with England conjointly with Philip of Spain, ultimately abandoned the idea as dangerous and doubtful to the interests of France. M. de Blainville and the Marquis d’Effiat were despatched to the Court of London with orders to attempt a compromise; but both signally failed; and Louis had no sooner returned to Paris than the Cardinal, who was aware that Buckingham was as anxious to commence hostilities as he was himself desirous to maintain peace, induced the King to despatch Bassompierre as ambassador-extraordinary to the Court of Whitehall with stringent instructions to effect, if possible, a good understanding between the two countries.

On his arrival in England, however, Bassompierre discovered to his great consternation that the coldness existing between the English monarch and his Queen was even more serious than had been apprehended at his own Court; and he was met on the very threshold of his task by a declaration from the Duke of Buckingham that Charles would only consent to give him a public audience on condition that he should not touch upon the subject which had brought him to England; as he felt that it was one which must necessarily make him lose his temper, which would be undignified in the presence of his Court and with the Queen at his side; who, angered by the dismissal of her French retinue, would not, as he felt convinced, fail in her turn to be guilty of some extravagance, but would probably shed tears before everybody; and that consequently, without this pledge on the part of the French envoy, he would accord him merely a private interview. Bassompierre hesitated for a time before he could bring himself to consent to such a compromise of his own dignity and that of his royal master; but, aware of the importance attached by Richelieu to the result of his mission, he at length declared that after having delivered the letters with which he was entrusted, he would leave it to his Majesty to determine the length of the audience, which might be easily abridged by a declaration that the subjects upon which they had to treat would require more time than his Majesty could then command, and that he would consequently appoint an earlier hour for seeing him in private.

This delicate affair having been thus satisfactorily arranged, the public audience took place at Hampton Court. Bassompierre was introduced into the royal presence by the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Carlisle, and on entering he found the King and Queen seated upon a raised dais, surrounded by a brilliant Court, but both sovereigns rose as he bent before them. Having presented his letters, together with the royal message, Charles, as had been previously arranged, pleaded want of leisure to enter upon public business; upon which the envoy proceeded to pay his respects to the Queen, who briefly replied that his Majesty having given her his permission to return to the capital, she should be able when there to discourse with him at greater length. Bassompierre then withdrew, and was escorted by all the great nobles to his carriage.

This commencement, as will be at once apparent, was sufficiently unpromising, but the French envoy was in a position of such responsibility that he dared not suffer himself to be discouraged; nor had he been long in England ere he became painfully convinced that the petulance and want of self-control in which Henriette wilfully indulged, daily tended to widen a schism that was already too threatening. Nevertheless, Bassompierre remained firmly at his post. Matrimonial feuds in high places were no novelty to the brilliant courtier of Henri IV and the confidant of Marie de Medicis; and he at once felt that he must enact at St. James’s the same role as Sully had formerly represented at Fontainebleau and the Louvre; nor did his experience of the past fail, moreover, to convince him of the policy of endeavouring in the first instance to effect a reconciliation between the Queen and the favourite. This was, however, no easy task; but at length the zealous Marquis succeeded in the attempt, as he informs us in his usual naive style.

“On Sunday the 25th,” he says, “I went to fetch the Duke and took him with me to the Queen, where he made his peace with her, which I had accomplished after a thousand difficulties. The King afterwards came in, who also made it up with her and caressed her a great deal, thanking me for having restored a good understanding between the Duke and his wife; and then he took me to his chamber, where he showed me his jewels, which are very fine.”

On the morrow, however, when Bassompierre went to pay his respects to Henriette at Somerset House, he discovered that he had personally lost considerably in her favour, as she vehemently complained that he sacrificed her dignity as a Princess of France to expediency; and had espoused the cause of her adversary instead of upholding her own. To these reproaches the French envoy replied by explaining the difficulty of his position, and the earnest desire of his sovereign to maintain peace; but this reasoning did not avail to satisfy the wounded vanity of the girl-Queen; who finally, by her violence, compelled Bassompierre to remind her that her headstrong egotism was endangering the interests of her royal brother. Incensed at this accusation, Henriette at once wept and recriminated; and finally the French courtier retired from her presence, and hastened to forward a courier to Paris to solicit the interference of the King and his minister, and to request further instructions for his guidance.

A few days subsequently, after he had received urgent letters from the King, by which he was commanded to avoid in every emergency a rupture between the two countries, Bassompierre again waited upon the Queen, and explained to her the stringent orders of her royal brother; but Henriette persisted in declaring that her actual position was not appreciated at the French Court; and while she was maintaining this argument, despite all the asseverations of the bewildered envoy, the arrival of the King was announced. Charles had no sooner entered the apartment than a violent quarrel arose, which threatened such serious consequences that Bassompierre interposed, assuring the imprudent Princess that should she not control her temper, and acknowledge her error, he would on the following day take leave of his Britannic Majesty, and on his return to Paris explain to the sovereign and the Queen-mother that he had been compelled to abandon his mission entirely through her obstinate and uncompromising violence.

As this threat produced an evident effect upon Henriette, the King had no sooner retired than the Marechal, with admirable tact and temper, represented to the young Queen that at the age of sixteen she was incompetent to appreciate the measures of her royal consort; while by her intemperate language and strong prejudices she was seriously injuring her own cause. Henriette, during her paroxysms of petulance, was deaf to all his remonstrances; but on this occasion she listened with greater patience, and even admitted that she had gone too far; a concession which once more restored the hopes of Bassompierre.

Meanwhile he continued to receive constant letters of encouragement, both from Louis XIII and Richelieu, urging him to persevere until he should have succeeded in effecting a perfect reconciliation not only between the King and Queen, but also between the Queen and the Duke of Buckingham; and assuring him of their perfect satisfaction with the measures which he had already adopted. Marie de Medicis was, however, less placable; and much as she deprecated the idea of hostilities with England, she nevertheless openly applauded the resistance of her daughter to what she designated as the tyrannical presumption of Buckingham, and the blind weakness of Charles, who sacrificed the domestic happiness of a young and lovely bride to the arrogant intrigues of an overbearing favourite. The English Duke himself was peculiarly obnoxious to the Queen-mother, who could not forgive his insolent admiration of Anne of Austria, and the ostentatious manner in which he had made the wife of her son a subject of Court scandal; while, at the same time, she deeply resented the fact that Henriette had not even been permitted to retain her confessor, but was compelled to accept one chosen for her by the minister.

While, therefore, Bassompierre constantly received directions from both the King and the Cardinal to ensure peace at any price, and to prevail upon the young Queen to make the concessions necessary for producing this result, Marie de Medicis as continually wrote to entreat of the Marechal to uphold the interests of the French Princess, and to assure her of her perfect satisfaction at the spirit which she had evinced; though it is doubtful if, when these messages were entrusted to the royal envoy, they were ever communicated to the excitable Henriette.

Finally, to his great satisfaction, Bassompierre succeeded in carrying out the wishes of his sovereign; and he at length took his leave of the English Court, laden with rich presents, after having received the warm acknowledgments of all parties for the patience and impartiality with which he had acted throughout; and the gratification of feeling that a better, and as he hoped a lasting, understanding existed between the royal pair. The household of Henriette had been re-organized, and although upon a more reduced scale than that by which she had been accompanied from France, it was still sufficiently numerous to satisfy even the exigencies of royalty; and thus, estimated by its consequences, this embassy was probably the most brilliant event of Bassompierre’s whole career; as from the period of his residence at the Court of England, the young Queen possessed both the heart and the confidence of her royal husband, whose affection for his beautiful and accomplished consort thenceforward endured to the last day of his existence.[101]

In the month of November France lost another of her marshals in the person of M. de Lesdiguieres, who had passed his eightieth year; while the subsequently celebrated court _roue_, the Duc de Saint-Simon, became the accredited favourite of the changeful and capricious Louis, without, however, attaining any influence in the government, which had at this period become entirely concentrated in the hands of Richelieu and the Queen-mother.

The pregnancy of the Duchesse d’Orleans, which was formally announced at the close of this year, was a source of great exultation to her husband, who received with undisguised delight the congratulations which were poured out upon him from every side; nor did he seek to disguise his conviction that, should the Queen continue childless, there was nothing to which he might see fit to aspire, which, with the assistance of the Guises and their faction, he would find it impossible to attain. A general hatred of Richelieu was the ruling sentiment of the great nobles, who were anxious to effect his overthrow, but the Cardinal was too prudent to be taken at a disadvantage; and he at once felt that in addition to the blow which he had aimed at the power of the barons by depriving them of their fortified places, he still possessed the means of maintaining his position, and even of increasing his authority, by labouring to accomplish the destruction of the Protestants; a policy which was eagerly adopted by Louis, whose morbid superstition, coupled with his love of war for its own sake, led him to believe that the work of slaughter which must necessarily supervene could not but prove agreeable to Heaven; counselled as it was, moreover, by a dignitary of the Church.

While Richelieu was thus seeking to involve the nation in a renewal of that intestine warfare by which it had already been so fearfully visited, simply to further his own ambitious views, the princes and nobles whom he had irritated into a thirst for vengeance were no less eager to attain the same object in order to effect his ruin; and for this purpose they endeavoured to secure the co-operation of Gaston, deluding themselves with the belief that the heir-apparent to the throne, who had encouraged their disaffection, and for the maintenance of whose interests Ornano and Chalais had already suffered, would not refuse to them at so critical a moment the support of his name, his wealth, and his influence. But these sanguine malcontents had not yet learned to appreciate the egotistical and ungrateful nature of the young Prince, who kept no mental record of services conferred, and retained no feeling of compunction for sufferings endured in his cause; but who ever sought to avail himself of both, while he continued utterly unable to appreciate either.

The appeal was consequently made in vain. Enriched by the careful policy of the Cardinal, Gaston sought only to profit by his suddenly-attained wealth; and despite the entreaties of his wife, whose youth, beauty, and accomplishments might well, for a time at least, have commanded his respect, he plunged into the most puerile and degrading pleasures, and abandoned himself to a life of alternate indolence and dissipation. The immense fortune of the Duchess, which had moreover been greatly increased by the accumulated interest of a long minority, was wasted in the most shameful orgies, amid dissolute and unseemly associates; and even while he was awaiting with undisguised anxiety the birth of a son who, as he fondly trusted, would one day fill the throne of France, no sentiment of forbearance towards the expectant mother could induce him to sacrifice his own selfish passions.[102]

On the 29th of May the desired event took place, but to the extreme mortification of the Duc d’Orleans it was announced that the Duchess had given birth to a daughter–the Princess who subsequently became famous during the reign of Louis XIV under the title of La Grande Mademoiselle. Nor was this the greatest trial which Gaston was destined to endure, as four days subsequently the unfortunate Duchess breathed her last, to the regret of the whole Court, to whom she had become endeared by her gentleness and urbanity; and to the deep grief of the Queen-mother, who saw in this deplorable event the overthrow of her most cherished prospects. Louis XIII was, however, far from participating in the general feeling of sorrow, nor did he seek to conceal his exultation.

“You weep, Madame,” he said coldly to Marie de Medicis, whom he found absorbed in grief; “leave tears to your son, who will soon be enabled to drown them in dissipation. You will do well also not to expose him for some time to come to the chance of a second disappointment of the same nature; he is scarcely fitted for a married life, and has signally failed in his first attempt at domestic happiness.” The Queen-mother offered no reply to this injunction; but while the King and Richelieu were absorbed by the invasion of Buckingham, and the persecution of the Protestants, she commenced a negotiation with the Grand Duke of Florence which had for its object an alliance between the widowed Gaston and one of the daughters of that Prince.

Buckingham had been repulsed by the French troops before the Island of Rhe, but had ultimately effected a landing; and on the 28th of June the King left Paris in order to join the army at La Rochelle, and to prevent a junction between the English general and the reformed party. He had already been threatened by symptoms of fever, but his anxiety to oppose the enemy was so great that he disregarded the representations and entreaties of those about him, and proceeded to Beaulieu, where he slept. Shortly after his arrival in that town his malady increased, but he still refused to follow the advice of his physicians, and on the morrow advanced as far as Villeroy, where, however, he was compelled to remain, being utterly incapable of further exertion.

This intelligence no sooner reached the Queen-mother than she hastened to rejoin the royal invalid; an example which was followed a few days subsequently by Anne of Austria, the Keeper of the Seals, and the whole Court. The indisposition of the King, which for some days threatened the most fatal results, was, however, ultimately conquered by his physicians; and on the 15th of August the royal patient was declared convalescent.[103]

During the illness of the sovereign the entire control of public affairs had, by his command, been formally confided to Marie de Medicis and the Cardinal; and he was no sooner in a state to resume his journey than he hastened to La Rochelle, which was blockaded by his forces under the orders of Monsieur; while the troops destined to succour the Island of Rhe were placed under the command of the Marechal de Schomberg, and Louis de Marillac,[104] the brother of Michel de Marillac, the Keeper of the Seals (who, through the influence of Richelieu, had succeeded M. d’Aligre in that dignity), by whom Buckingham was compelled, after a siege of three months, to evacuate the island, and to retreat in confusion, and not without severe loss, to the vessels which awaited him.

This victory created immense exultation in France; the Duc de Saint-Simon was instructed to convey the colours and cannon taken from the English with great pomp to the capital, and public rejoicings testified the delight with which the citizens of Paris received the welcome trophies. One individual alone took no share in the general triumph, and that one was the Duc d’Orleans, who had been deprived of his command by the King, in order that it might be conferred upon the Cardinal de Richelieu, and who had so deeply resented the indignity that he instantly retired from the army and returned to Paris, leaving Louis and his minister to continue the siege[105].

The vigorous defence of the Rochelais, however, and the extreme severity of the winter, did not fail to produce their effect upon the King, who became weary of a campaign which exacted more mental energy than physical courage, and who was anxious to return to the capital. He declared his constitution to be undermined, and asserted that he should die if he remained in the camp; but as he feared that his reputation might suffer should he appear to abandon the army at his own instigation, he was desirous that Richelieu should suggest his departure, and thus afford him an opportunity of seeming resistance; while the minister, who was unsuspicious of the truth, did not hesitate to assure him that his absence at so important a juncture might prove fatal to his interests, and could not fail to tarnish his fame as a general. Incensed by this opposition to his secret wishes, Louis retorted so bitterly that the Cardinal at once perceived his error, and hastened to repair it; nor did he do this an hour too soon, as the exasperation of the King was so great that he even talked of dispensing with his services; but the able policy of Richelieu once more saved him, and he so skilfully convinced the King only a few hours subsequently that his presence was necessary in the capital in order to counteract the intrigues of the Queen-mother and the Duc d’Orleans, that the ruffled pride of the weak monarch was soothed, while a plausible pretext for his departure was supplied of which he hastened to avail himself; and having taken leave of the troops, he at length set forth for Paris on the 10th of February.

Louis was rendered, moreover, the more earnest to regain the capital by the constant information which he received of the gaieties in which the two Queens and Monsieur were constantly indulging while he was devoured by melancholy under the walls of the beleaguered city; nor had he been indifferent to a rumour which had reached him of the marked inclination evinced by the Prince his brother for the beautiful and accomplished Marie de Gonzaga, the daughter of the Duc de Nevers, who shortly afterwards became Duke of Mantua.[106]

Coupled with his disinclination to see Gaston again placed in a position to give an heir to the French throne, Louis had sufficiently profited by the lessons of Richelieu to feel the whole extent of the danger by which he would be threatened should Gaston succeed in acquiring allies beyond the frontiers; and he accordingly hastened to express to the Queen-mother his displeasure at the intelligence of this new passion, with a coldness which immediately tended to convince her that a great change had taken place in his feelings towards herself. Alarmed by this conviction, and anxious to discover the cause of so marked a falling-off in his confidence, Marie de Medicis exerted all her energies to ascertain through whose agency her influence had thus been undermined; nor was it long ere she became assured that Richelieu had availed himself of her absence to renew all the old misgivings of the King, and by rendering her motives and affection questionable, to make himself entirely master of the mind of the jealous and suspicious monarch.

Once satisfied of this fact, the Queen-mother resolved to profit in her turn by the absence of the Cardinal, whose ingratitude was so flagrant as thenceforward to sever every link between them; and the opportunity afforded by the open demonstrations of affection which Gaston lavished upon the Mantuan Princess was consequently eagerly seized upon in order to counteract the evil offices of the minister. Marie had watched the growing passion of the Duc d’Orleans with an annoyance as great as that of the King himself, for she had never forgotten the animosity displayed towards her by the Duc de Nevers; and she was, moreover, anxious, as we have already stated, to effect an alliance between her second son and a Princess of Tuscany; but aware of the capricious and unstable character of Gaston, she had hitherto confined herself to expostulations, which had produced little effect. Now, however, she resolved to derive the desired benefit from a circumstance which she had previously deprecated, and, summoning Monsieur, she readily persuaded him to affect the most violent indignation at her opposition, while she, on her side, would evince an equal degree of displeasure against himself. To this arrangement Gaston readily consented, as he delighted in intrigue, and was aware that by pursuing Marie de Gonzaga with his addresses he should alarm Richelieu as well as annoy the King. An open rupture accordingly appeared to take place between the mother and son; and while the Duke continued to visit the young Princess, and to enact the impassioned lover, Marie de Medicis expressed her indignation in the most unmeasured terms, and threatened him with her unrelenting anger should he persist in his suit. So well indeed did she perform her self-imposed part, that not only Louis himself, but the whole Court were thoroughly deceived by the stratagem; and meanwhile the unsuspecting Princess became the victim of the dissembling Queen and her capricious and heartless suitor.[107]

As the Cardinal had laboured to impress upon the King that Marie de Medicis was anxious to effect the second marriage of her younger son in order to secure the succession to his children, Louis had arrived in the capital fully possessed by this idea; and his surprise was consequently great when he perceived that the Queen-mother resented the projected alliance as an insult to her own dignity; nor did he hesitate to express his satisfaction at the misunderstanding which it had caused between them. His moody brow relaxed; his suspicions were for awhile laid at rest; and after having devoted some time to the pleasures of the chase, he once more left the capital and returned to La Rochelle.

On the 16th of October the city, exhausted by famine, and decimated by the artillery of the royal army, was compelled to capitulate; and on the 30th of the same month it was garrisoned by its conquerors. So soon as a fitting residence could be prepared for him, Richelieu took up his abode within its walls; and on the 1st of November the King made a triumphal entry into the late stronghold of Protestantism in France, whose subjugation had cost the lives of upwards of forty thousand of his subjects.[108]

La Rochelle was no sooner in possession of the royal forces than the Cardinal determined to protect Mantua against the aggression of Austria, a measure which he proposed in the Council, where it met with considerable opposition. Richelieu, however, persisted in his purpose, alleging that he had pledged himself to the Italian states to come to their support immediately that the campaign against the reformed party should have been successfully concluded; and he even urged the King to head the army in person. Louis, who was naturally brave, and who, moreover, prided himself upon his prowess in the field, and loved to contrast it with the pusillanimity of Philip IV of Spain, whose person was scarcely known to his troops, listened eagerly to the suggestion; but it was peculiarly obnoxious to Marie de Medicis, who did not fail to declare that the sole object of the Cardinal was to separate her from the King, and thus to weaken her influence. She consequently opposed the project with all the energy of her naturally impetuous character, asserting that her tenderness as a mother would not permit of her consenting thus constantly to see her son exposed to the vicissitudes of war, or his feeble health overtaxed by exertions and fatigues to which he was unequal.

The Cardinal listened to her representations with an impassibility as respectful as it was unbending. He had no faith in the reasons which she advanced, although he verbally accepted them, for the time had not yet arrived when he could openly brave her power; but it was at this period that the moral struggle commenced between them of which the unfortunate Queen was destined to become the victim.[109]

The exultation of Louis XIII at the fall of La Rochelle was considerably lessened by a violent attack of gout which immediately succeeded, and by which he was detained a prisoner within its gates until the 19th of November, when he departed for Limours, where he was met by the two Queens and Monsieur. Thence the Court proceeded to St. Germain in order to enjoy the diversion of hunting, and subsequently to Versailles, to await the completion of the ceremonial of the solemn and triumphal entry of the King into his capital, which took place on the 23rd of December with great pomp and magnificence. All the approaches to the city were crowded by dense masses of the population of the adjacent country, while the streets were thronged with the citizens who rent the air with acclamations. Triumphal arches were erected at intervals along the road by which the royal procession was to travel; the balconies of the houses were draped with silks and tapestry; and nearly eight thousand men, splendidly armed and clothed, awaited the King a league beyond the gates in order to escort him to his capital. The Parliament, and all the municipal bodies, harangued him as he reached the walls, and exhausted themselves in the most fulsome and servile flatteries; and finally, he received the congratulations of all the foreign ambassadors, as well as the compliments of the Papal Nuncio, by whom he was exhorted in the name of the Pope to persist in the great work which he had so gloriously commenced, until he had accomplished the entire extermination of the Protestants of France.[110]

FOOTNOTES:

[90] Lingard, vol. ix. p. 326.

[91] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 283, 286.

[92] Motteville, _Mem_. vol. i. p. 342 _note_.

[93] _Mercure Francais_, 1625. Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. v, pp. 849, 850.

[94] Brienne, _Mem_. vol. i. p. 422.

[95] Sismondi, vol. xxiii. pp. 14, 15. Capefigue (Richelieu, Mazarin, etc.), vol. iv. p. 8.

[96] Henri de Talleyrand, Prince de Chalais, was a younger son of the illustrious house of Talleyrand, whose personal attractions had secured to him the favour of Louis XIII, by whom he was appointed Grand Master of the Wardrobe.

[97] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 317-319.

[98] Sismondi, vol. xxiii. pp. 21, 22. Bassompierre, _Mem_. vol. iii. p. 56. Brienne, _Mem_. vol. i. p. 432. Gaston, Duc d’Orleans, _Mem_. vol. i. p. 56. Le Vassor, vol. v. pp. 471-500.

[99] Capefigue, vol. iv. p. 34.

[100] Sismondi, vol. xxiii. p. 22. Capefigue, vol. iv. p. 35. Bassompierre, _Mem_. vol. iii. p. 57.

[101] Capefigue, vol. i. pp. 324-327. Bassompierre, _Mem_. vol. iii. pp. 60-76.

[102] Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 334.

[103] _Mercure Francais_, 1627.

[104] Louis de Marillac was Gentleman in ordinary of the Bedchamber to Henri IV, and greatly distinguished himself by his valour alike under that sovereign and his successor Louis XIII. He was created Marshal of France in 1629; and was arrested in the camp of Felizzo, in Piedmont, in 1632, for having, as was asserted, volunteered to assassinate Richelieu with his own hand, when he voted against him in the assembly known as the “Day of Dupes.” On the 8th of May in the same year he was condemned to lose his head; a sentence which was carried into execution in the Place de Greve; but his character was subsequently vindicated by a decree of the Parliament after the death of the Cardinal.

[105] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 338, 339.

[106] Charles, Duc de Nevers, succeeded Vincent II, Duke of Mantua, who, dying without issue on the 24th of December 1628, solemnly appointed him his heir.

[107] Le Vassor, vol. v. p. 736. Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 339. Gaston d’Orleans, _Mem_. edit. Petitot, vol. xxxi. p. 86. Sismondi, vol. xxiii. pp. 60, 61.

[108] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 355-357.

[109] Sismondi, vol. xxiii. p. 94.

[110] Le Vassor, vol. v. pp. 907, 908.

CHAPTER VI

1629

Richelieu resolves to undermine the power of Austria–State of Europe–Opposition of the Queen-mother to a new war–Perseverance of the Cardinal–Anne of Austria joins the faction of Marie de Medicis–Gaston is appointed General of the royal army–Richelieu retires from the Court–Alarm of Louis XIII–A King and his minister–Louis leaves Paris for the seat of war–Monsieur is deprived of his command, and retires to Dauphiny–Marie de Gonzaga is sent to the fortress of Vincennes–Monsieur consents to forego his marriage until it shall receive the royal sanction, and the Princess returns to the Louvre–Marie is invested with a partial regency–Forebodings of the Cardinal–Termination of the campaign–Renewed discord–Richelieu becomes jealous of Bassompierre–Louis abandons his army, and is followed by the minister–Counterplots–An offended mistress and an ex-favourite–A hollow peace–Gaston retires to the Court of Lorraine, where he becomes enamoured of the Princesse Marguerite–The Cardinal invites him to return to Paris–Monsieur accepts the proposed conditions–The French troops march upon Piedmont–Richelieu is appointed Lieutenant-General of the royal forces in Italy–The King resolves to follow him–Anxiety of Marie de Medicis to avoid a rupture with Spain–Dissensions between the two Queens—Mademoiselle de Hautefort–Failing influence of Marie de Medicis–Self-distrust of the King–The Queen-mother endeavours to effect a reconciliation between her sons.

La Rochelle had no sooner surrendered than, as already stated, Richelieu determined to make an attempt to undermine the power of Austria, greatly to the dissatisfaction of the Cardinal de Berulle, Marillac the Keeper of the Seals, and all the other members of the secret council of Marie de Medicis. The position of Philip was at that moment a formidable one; Germany, which was almost entirely subjugated, was prepared to supply him with an immense number of troops, while the treasures which had poured in upon him from the New World made him equally independent as regarded the outlay required to support his armies. Moreover, religious prejudices strengthened their antagonism to the meditated war. The Emperor was anxious to exterminate the Protestants, and the Council consequently looked upon all opposition to that potentate as a crime against their own faith. M. de Berulle was eloquent and enthusiastic; Marillac aspired to build up his fortunes on the ruins of those of Richelieu, and to succeed him in his office as prime minister; and Marie de Medicis clung with tenacious anxiety both to the Emperor of Germany and the King of Spain, who had alike approved of her determination to effect the overthrow of the man whom she had herself raised to power, and by whom she had been so ungratefully betrayed. Marie and her counsellors were, however, by no means a match for the astute and far-reaching Richelieu, who had, by encouraging the belligerent tastes of the King, and still more by so complicating the affairs of the kingdom as to render them beyond the comprehension and grasp of the weak monarch, and to reduce him to utter helplessness, succeeded in making himself altogether independent of his benefactress, none of whose counsellors were capable of competing for an hour with his superior energy and talent. Aware of his advantage, Richelieu consequently despised the opposition by which he was harassed and impeded in his projects; and while he affected to pay the greatest deference to the representations of the Queen-mother, he persisted in his enterprises with an imperturbability which ensured their success.

One circumstance, however, tended greatly to embarrass the Cardinal-minister. Anne of Austria, indignant at the protracted neglect of the King, and the utter insignificance to which she was consequently condemned, openly espoused the party of the Queen-mother, and, in her turn, loudly complained that the King should be induced by the egotism of the Cardinal to expose his health to the chances of warfare and the dangers of unwholesome climates; declaring that Richelieu, not satisfied with retaining his royal master for several months amid the marshes of Aunis, was now seeking to destroy him by exposure to the snows and storms of the Alps during the depth of winter.

Irritated by these open accusations, and still more alarmed lest the egotism of the monarch should lead him to adopt the same opinion, the Cardinal urged the necessity of placing at the head of so considerable an army as that which was about to march into Italy, a general whose name alone must suffice to awe the enemy against whom it was directed; but even this subterfuge, welcome as it was to the vanity of Louis, did not produce the effect which he had hoped; for the Queen-mother, profiting by a private interview with the King, earnestly represented that a more favourable opportunity than the present could never again present itself to effect a separation between Monsieur and Marie de Gonzaga.

“You know, Sire,” she said in conclusion, “how tenaciously I have striven to prevent a marriage so obnoxious alike to your Majesty and to myself, and how signally I have hitherto failed. Now, however, Gaston may be induced to forego his intention, for he has assured me that should you consent to confer upon him the command of the expedition to Italy, he will resign all claim to the hand of Marie de Gonzaga, and even permit her to return to Mantua. It remains, therefore, with yourself to terminate an affair which has already created much annoyance both to your Majesty and to the Queen, who is equally desirous that this ill-judged and premature alliance should not be suffered to take place.”

The tears and entreaties of the two Queens at length produced their effect; and with some reluctance Louis consented that his brother should be appointed to the command of the army, desiring at the same time that he should receive fifty thousand crowns to defray the expenses of his equipment; and, although the spendthrift Prince lost the whole sum at the gaming-table during the course of a single evening, Richelieu did not venture upon further expostulation, the union of the two Queens, and the undisguised satisfaction of the great nobles, rendering a more sustained opposition alike doubtful and dangerous. Affecting, therefore, to withdraw from the struggle, he retired to Chaillot, while he left to his friends the task of reawakening the jealousy which Louis had long evinced of the military talents of his brother.[111] This project could not, as Richelieu was well aware, fail to prove successful; and, accordingly, the King ere long manifested great uneasiness and irritation; refused to join in the amusements which Marie de Medicis was careful to provide for him; lost his rest; and, finally, set forth for Chaillot in order to have an interview with the minister.

When the Cardinal saw the moody King arrive, he at once felt that he had triumphed; the brow of Louis was as black as night, and he clutched the hilt of his sword with so tight a grasp that his fingers became bloodless.

“You are ill, Sire; you are suffering,” said the wily churchman, with well-acted anxiety. “Can my poor services avail to restore you to peace of mind?” “I cannot allow my brother,” was the abrupt reply, “to command my army beyond the Alps. You must enable me to retract my promise.”

“I know only one method of doing so,” said Richelieu, after appearing to reflect, “and that is that your Majesty should repair thither in person. But should you adopt this resolution, you must carry it into effect within eight days; there is no time to be lost.”

“Be it so,” exclaimed Louis; “I will leave the capital and place myself at the head of my troops;” and beckoning to Bassompierre, by whom he had been accompanied, and who stood near the door of the Apartment, he added, with something approaching to a smile: “Here is a man who will willingly bear me company, and who will serve me zealously.”

“Whither does your Majesty purpose to proceed?” inquired the Marechal, as he bowed his acknowledgments.

“To Italy,” said the King, “and that not later than a week hence, in order to raise the siege of Casal. Make your preparations and follow me without delay. I shall appoint you my lieutenant-general under my brother, should he consent to share in the campaign; and I shall also take the Marechal de Crequy with me; he knows the country; and I trust that we shall cause ourselves to be talked of throughout Europe.” [112]

Thus in a single hour were all the projects of Marie de Medicis overthrown; and the King had no sooner, on his return to Paris, informed her of his change of purpose than she felt that Richelieu had at length thrown down the gauntlet, and that thenceforward there must be war between them. Nor was the Duc d’Orleans less mortified and alarmed than the Queen-mother; but neither the one nor the other ventured to expostulate; and, although with less precipitation than the King, Monsieur commenced his preparations. Louis XIII left Paris on the 4th of January; but it was not until the 29th that his brother took leave of the Court, and reluctantly proceeded to rejoin him. The Cardinal had already set forth, although the extreme severity of the weather, and the deep fall of snow by which the roads were obstructed, might have sufficed to furnish him with a pretext for delay; but it was no part of Richelieu’s policy to suffer the two brothers to remain together beyond his surveillance; and accordingly, as was his usual habit on such emergencies, he threw off his indisposition, and boldly defied alike wintry weather and fatigue.

He might, however, as the event proved, have been more deliberate in his movements; for Monsieur, already annoyed by the disappointment to which he had been subjected, evinced no disposition to profit by the brief opportunity thus afforded to him, but proceeded leisurely to Dauphiny; where he had no sooner arrived than he received information that the most strenuous efforts had been made immediately after he had left Paris to hasten the departure of Marie de Gonzaga. Delighted at any pretext for abandoning the journey to which he had been compelled, he forthwith retraced his steps; but great as was the haste which he displayed to reach the capital, the first news by which he was greeted was that the Queen-mother had caused the Princess of Mantua to be imprisoned in the fortress of Vincennes.

This extraordinary intelligence was communicated to him by the Marechal de Marillac, who had succeeded Richelieu in the confidence of Marie de Medicis; and who endeavoured to palliate the outrage by explaining the motives which induced her Majesty to take so singular a step. She had been as M. de Marillac asserted, assured that his Highness had resolved to carry off Mademoiselle de Gonzaga, and then to leave the kingdom; a determination by which she was so much alarmed that she had adopted the only measure which had appeared to her to offer a certain preventive to so dangerous and unprecedented a proceeding; but Monsieur would listen to no arguments upon the subject, and withdrew in violent displeasure to Orleans, whence he despatched one of the officers of his household to protest against the imprisonment of the Princess, and to demand not only that she should immediately be set at liberty, but also that she should not be permitted to leave the country.

The Queen-mother, who was aware that she could not justify a proceeding which violated all the rights of hospitality, and who was, moreover, alarmed lest she should incur the lasting animosity of her favourite son, and thus render herself still more helpless than she had already become through the defection of Richelieu, found herself compelled to accede to a request which had in fact assumed the character of a command; but she, nevertheless, only accorded her consent to the release of the captive on condition that Monsieur should desist, for a time at least, in pressing his marriage either with Marie de Gonzaga or any other Princess until he had received the consent of the King to that effect; and Gaston having, after some hesitation, agreed to the proposed terms, the unfortunate girl was removed from Vincennes to the Louvre, whither the Prince immediately hastened to congratulate her on her liberation, and to express to the Queen-mother his indignation at what had occurred.[113]

Before the departure of the King for Italy he had, at the instigation of Richelieu, declared Marie de Medicis Regent of all the provinces on the west bank of the Loire; a concession to which, extraordinary as it must appear, the Cardinal had been compelled, in order to appease the Queen-mother, whose exasperation at this renewed separation from the King had exceeded any which she had previously exhibited; and who had been supported in her complaints and expostulations by Anne of Austria, with whom she had begun to make common cause. That Richelieu, however, did so with great and anxious reluctance there can be little doubt, as he was well aware that he had excited her suspicion and dislike, and that he should, moreover, leave her surrounded by individuals who would not fail to embitter her animosity against him.

Moreover, the haughty minister could not disguise from himself that he was labouring to build up his own fortunes upon the ruin of those of his benefactress–of the confiding and generous mistress to whom he was indebted for all the honours which he then enjoyed–nor could he fail to feel that reprisals on her part would be at once legitimate and justifiable; and accordingly he caused the commission of her regency to be prefaced by the most elaborate encomiums. Not content with asserting that her “able government and her wise measures had proved her to be alike the mother of the sovereign and of the state.” Louis, acting under the advice of the wily minister, lavished upon her every epithet of honour and respect; apparently forgetting that he had previously exiled her from the Court, taken up arms against her, and that he even then believed her to be in secret correspondence with his enemies; while at the same period Richelieu records in his Memoirs that the Pope had declared to his nuncio, during his audience of leavetaking on his departure for the French Court: “You will see the Queen-mother. She is favourable to Spain; and her attachment to the King her son does not extend beyond her own interests. She is, moreover, one of the most obstinate persons in the world.” [114]

And yet, even while dwelling with complacency on the Papal strictures, the Cardinal did not hesitate to put into the mouth of the King the most unmeasured panegyrics of the same Princess, in order to shelter himself from her vengeance. This concession was the result of an able calculation, for Richelieu could not remain blind to his personal unpopularity; and was, moreover, conscious that both Marie de Medicis and Monsieur were beloved by the populace. It was not perhaps that either the one or the other was individually the object of popular affection, but each represented the interests of an irritated opposition; and both sought to undermine the existing Government, or rather the authority of Richelieu, who was rapidly absorbing all power, and striving to bend the necks of nobles, citizens, and people under his iron yoke.[115]

The campaign having terminated favourably for the royal cause, and the taking of La Rochelle, coupled with the deliverance of Casal, having greatly increased the influence of Richelieu over the mind of the King, the former began more openly to defy the power of the Queen-mother; and anxious, if possible, to regain the favour of Gaston, he no longer scrupled to declare that she had been actuated solely by her own interests in the violent repugnance which she had evinced to the union of the Prince with Marie de Gonzaga; and to impress upon the weak monarch the danger of irritating his brother by further opposition to a union which would meet with the approval of the whole kingdom. Louis, however, as we have already shown, was himself averse to the marriage of Monsieur, who had refused to see him until he consented to his wishes; but, angered by this apparent defiance, he nevertheless bitterly reproached his mother for her harshness towards both parties, and refused to listen to her proffered justification.

Marie de Medicis at once perceived whence the factitious strength of her son was derived; and all her previous affection for the Cardinal became changed into a hatred which was destined to continue undiminished to the close of her existence.

Nor was Richelieu, on his side, less ill at ease. He was aware that his ingratitude to his benefactress was the theme of general remark and reproach; and he apprehended, should the King fall a victim to one of those attacks of indisposition to which he was continually subject–an event which had been foretold by the astrologers, and which was anticipated by his physicians–that he should be unable to contend against the animosity of the irritated Princess, and the undisguised aversion of the Duc d’Orleans, who made no effort to conceal his dislike to the haughty minister, against whom he published during his sojourn at Nancy a manifesto, in which he accused him of having usurped the authority of the sovereign.

Louis, however, who felt his own utter inability to dispense with so able and fearless a counsellor, paid no regard to the discontent of the Prince; and increased his indignation by issuing letters patent, in which, after eulogizing the Cardinal, and expressing his sense of the services which he had rendered alike to himself and to his kingdom, he officially appointed him Prime Minister. It is true that from his first admission to the Council Richelieu had performed all the functions appertaining to that rank, but he had nevertheless hitherto been preceded by the other ministers, whereas this public declaration enabled him to take his place immediately below the Princes of the Blood;[116] while, in addition to this new dignity, he found himself _de facto_ generalissimo of the King’s armies in Piedmont.

Bassompierre had meanwhile greatly distinguished himself at the Pass of Susa, which had been forced by the French troops; and his vigour, activity, and courage had rendered him the idol of the soldiers, who justly attributed to his able exertions no small portion of the success which had attended the royal arms. The military renown of the brilliant courtier, whom he had hitherto affected to regard merely as a spoilt child of fortune, was, however, highly distasteful to the Cardinal, whose flatterers did not fail to persuade him that the victory was due to his own admirable arrangements, rather than to the valour of any of the generals who had braved the dangers of the hazardous expedition; and he consequently sought to excite the jealousy and suspicion of Louis against the zealous Marechal, who little imagined that his prowess in the field was fated to involve his personal safety.

The sojourn at Susa, a wretched locality in which, while awaiting the ratification of the treaties consequent upon its capture, Louis could not even enjoy the diversion of hunting, soon exhausted the patience of the monarch, who declared his intention of returning to France previous to the conclusion of the necessary arrangements; and although he was earnestly entreated by Soranzo, the Venetian Ambassador, to forego his purpose, he resolutely refused to listen to his representations; and on the 28th of April he accordingly commenced his homeward journey, simply taking the precaution, in order to satisfy his several allies, of leaving Richelieu with a strong body of troops, and full authority to terminate as he should see fit the pending negotiations. The Cardinal, however, felt as little inclination as his royal master to waste his time and to exhaust his energies at such a distance from the Court; and thus to enable his enemies to gain the unoccupied ear of the King, who was, as he had already experienced, easily swayed by those about him. During his absence from the capital his emissaries had been careful to report to him every movement of the Queen-mother and the Duc d’Orleans; and he felt that he was lost should they again succeed in acquiring the confidence of the weak and wavering Louis. Within a fortnight after the departure of the monarch, he consequently made his own hasty preparations for a similar retreat; and having placed six thousand infantry and five hundred horse under the command of the Marechal de Crequy, with orders that he should vigilantly guard the several passes and rigidly enforce the orders of the King, he set forth in his turn for Paris, in order to counteract the designs of the rival faction.

Meanwhile Marie de Medicis and Gaston d’Orleans had been consistent in their policy; and on the arrival of Louis in Paris he was assured that time had only tended to embitter their misunderstanding on the subject of the Princesse de Gonzaga; a fact which was no sooner ascertained by Richelieu than he resolved to profit by so promising an opportunity of regaining the good graces of the royal Duke. This was precisely the result which both the mother and son had desired; for while the former sought to secure a pretext for complaint against the ingratitude and treachery of the individual whose fortunes had been her own work, and who now evinced a disposition to build up his prosperity upon the disobedience of her best-beloved child, the latter had many and forcible reasons for being equally delighted to see the ordinarily-astute Cardinal taken in his own toils, and readily consented to second the irritated Queen-mother in her attempt to effect his overthrow. During the first few days which succeeded the arrival of the King in Paris, every circumstance tended to increase the hopes of Marie de Medicis. Louis made no secret of his satisfaction at the firmness which she had evinced, and displayed towards her a confidence and respect by which she was assured that his prejudices were shaken;[117] but the sudden apparition of the Cardinal reawakened all her anxiety.

His advent was no sooner announced than a swarm of velvet-clad and bejewelled nobles hastened to Nemours to bid him welcome; and thence they served as his escort to Fontainebleau, where the Court was then sojourning, and whither he travelled in a covered litter, followed by the Marechaux de Bassompierre, de Schomberg, and de Marillac. On reaching the palace Richelieu at once proceeded to the apartments of the Queen-mother, accompanied by the Cardinals de La Valette and de Berulle, and the other nobles who had joined him on the road; where he found himself in the presence not only of Marie de Medicis, but also in that of the young Queen, the Princesses, and all the great ladies of the Court, by the whole of whom he was very coldly received; and the blood mounted to his brow as Marie de Medicis replied to his lowly salutation by a slight curtsey, and a formal inquiry after his health.

“I am well, Madame,” he answered petulantly; “better than many of those whom I see in your company may have desired.”

The Tuscan Princess turned haughtily away; but as her eyes fell upon the Cardinal de Berulle, her confessor, her features relaxed into a smile, which was not unobserved by the irritated minister.

“Ah, Madame,” he said, striving to rally alike his temper and his hopes, and addressing his royal mistress with the familiarity of old times, “would that I were possessed of the same amount of favour as M. de Berulle.”

“Oh, Monseigneur,” replied the Queen drily, “I was laughing at the extraordinary breeches of the reverend Cardinal.”

This retort turned the gaze of the whole circle upon her confessor, who, on taking the road, had discarded his flowing purple robes, and attired himself in a short vest, a pair of _haut-de-chausses_, and white boots; and the smile immediately became general.[118]

Richelieu bit his lips with an impatient gesture; and then, in order to divert the attention of the courtiers from the discomfited Jesuit, he hastened to present to their Majesties the three marshals who were in his suite. Marie de Medicis bowed to each in succession, but addressed herself only to M. de Marillac; and the scene was becoming each instant more embarrassing when the usher on duty threw back the tapestried hangings of the door, and announced “The King.”

The face of Louis beamed with delight as he extended his hand to the minister, and welcomed him once more to the capital; but the brow of Richelieu remained clouded until he was led away by the monarch, with whom he continued in conversation for a considerable time, complaining bitterly of the reception which he had met with from the Queen-mother, and requesting permission to retire from office and to leave the Court. To this proposition Louis, however, refused to accede, declaring that whatever might be the cause of the Queen’s displeasure, he would soon find some means of effecting their reconciliation.

As, however, after the lapse of several days, Marie de Medicis evinced no disposition to display greater cordiality towards her late favourite, Richelieu deemed it expedient to adopt more stringent measures; and he accordingly sent for his niece Madame de Comballet, who was lady of honour to the young Queen, M. de la Meilleraye his kinsman, who was also a member of her household, and several other persons who were devoted to his interests, and who held places about the Court, and desired them to tender their resignations, as he was about to withdraw from office. Intelligence of this order soon reached the ears of the King, by whom it was violently opposed; and at his earnest entreaty the Queen-mother was at length induced to pardon the Cardinal, who with the utmost humility professed his utter unconsciousness of all offence, and his deep regret at the displeasure exhibited by her Majesty. But neither Richelieu nor Marie was the dupe of this hollow peace, although both were willing for the moment to pacify the monarch, who was also anxious for the return of his brother; Gaston having, on the first intimation of the expected arrival of Louis in the capital, withdrawn to Lorraine,[119] and placed himself under the protection of the ducal sovereign, who received his royal guest with the greatest magnificence.

Worthless as he was individually, Gaston was destined throughout his whole career to serve as a rallying-point for the ambition of all the princes and nobles who sought to aggrandize themselves and their families; while, as presumptive heir to the French throne, he was welcomed by the Duc de Lorraine with every demonstration of respect and regard. Aware of the puerile vanity of the princely fugitive, the Duke stood bareheaded in his presence, and never presumed to seat himself until he had received an invitation to do so. Moreover, he had been instructed by the Spanish Cabinet to exert all his best energies to win over the Prince to his interests;[120] a suggestion upon which he acted so skilfully that the little Court of Lorraine became a perpetual scene of festivity and amusement, of which the frivolous and fickle Gaston was at once the object and the centre. Nor was there wanting in the ducal circle an attraction even greater than the splendid _fetes_ and brilliant assemblies at which Monsieur fluttered and feasted in all the triumph of his weak and selfish nature. The Princesse Marguerite, the younger sister of M. de Lorraine, soon weaned the changeful fancy of Gaston from the persecuted Marie de Gonzaga; nor had he long resided at Nancy before his marked attentions to the beautiful and accomplished Princess became the subject of general comment.[121]

This state of things seriously alarmed the Cardinal, who, in addition to his hatred of the Guises, apprehended the worst consequences should the Prince be permitted thus to emancipate himself from the royal authority, and to play the quasi-sovereign with impunity; and, accordingly, only a few weeks after the establishment of Gaston in Lorraine, he sent the Cardinal de Berulle and the Duc de Bellegarde to Nancy to negotiate his return. Aware of his advantage, however, the Prince showed no inclination to yield to the solicitations of the minister; and demanded in the event of his compliance a provincial government in appanage. Rendered more and more anxious by this pertinacity, Richelieu, even while refusing to concede the required boon, heaped offer upon offer without effect, until the Marechal de Marillac, more successful than the two previous envoys, induced Gaston to accept as a substitute for the government which he demanded the fortresses of Orleans and Amboise, with a hundred thousand livres a year, and fifty thousand crowns in ready money. An agreement to this effect was drawn up; after which Monsieur pledged himself to return to Court, and to submit in all things to the pleasure of the King and the Queen-mother; an idle promise, where his hostility to the minister constantly urged him to opposition; but which served to tranquillize the mind of Louis, who, being about once more to renew the war in Italy, was desirous of securing peace within his own capital.

Immediately after the departure of the Cardinal from Susa, the armies of Austria and Spain had advanced to the centre of Italy, and the power of France beyond the Alps was consequently threatened with annihilation. In this extremity Richelieu instantly directed the concentration of all the frontier forces upon Piedmont, and declared war against the Duke of Savoy; but as the whole responsibility of this campaign would necessarily devolve upon himself, he demanded of the King that an unlimited authority should be granted to him, in the event of his Majesty declining to head the army in person. With this demand Louis unhesitatingly complied; and on the 29th of December the Cardinal left Paris as lieutenant-general of the royal forces, escorted by ten companies of the King’s bodyguard, and surrounded by upwards of a hundred nobles.[122]

Previously to his departure, however, he entertained the King, the two Queens, and the principal nobility at one of those elaborate _fetes_ which have now become merely legendary; and which combined a comedy, a concert, and a ballet, with other incidental amusements, sufficient, as it would appear in these days, to have afforded occupation for a week even to the most dissipated pleasure-seekers; but which during the reign of Louis XIII excited emulation rather than surprise.

Richelieu had scarcely commenced his march, when the King resolved in his turn to proceed to Italy with a force of forty thousand men; a determination which was no sooner made known to the Queen-mother than she expressed her intention of bearing him company in this new expedition; as, superadded to her anxiety to counterbalance by her presence the influence of the Cardinal, she was moreover desirous of preventing a rupture with Spain, and of protecting the Duke of Savoy, whom she secretly favoured.[123]

The never-ceasing intrigues of the Court had once more sowed dissension between the two Queens; and it is here necessary to state that on the death of the Comtesse de Lannoy, which had occurred towards the close of the preceding year, her post of lady of honour to Anne of Austria had been conferred upon the Marquise de Senecay,[124] while that previously held by Madame de Senecay was bestowed upon Madame du Fargis. As these arrangements had been made without any reference to the wishes of the Queen herself, she expressed great indignation at an interference with the internal economy of her household which was generally attributed to Marie de Medicis; but her anger reached its climax when she ascertained that the Comtesse du Fargis was the fast friend of Madame de Comballet,[125] the niece of Richelieu. Apprehensive of the consequences likely to accrue to herself from such an intimacy, Anne of Austria for some time refused to admit the new Mistress of the Robes into her private circle, alleging that her apartments were not sufficiently spacious to accommodate the relatives and spies of a minister who had already succeeded in embittering her existence. All opposition on her part was, however, disregarded; the ladies were officially installed; and although the Queen made no secret of her annoyance, and loudly inveighed against both Richelieu and her royal mother-in-law for the indignity to which she was thus subjected, they retained their places, and endeavoured, by every demonstration of respect and devotion, to gain the good graces of their irritated mistress. In this endeavour one of them only was destined to succeed, and that one, contrary to all expectation, was the beautiful and witty Comtesse du Fargis, whose fascinations soon won the heart of the young Queen, and who was fortunate enough to secure alike her confidence and her esteem; nor was it long ere she profited by her advantage to attempt a reconciliation between Marie de Medicis and her offended daughter-in-law; urged thereto, as some historians assert, by the advice of the Cardinal de Berulle, but more probably by her own affection for the Queen-mother, in whose household she had formerly held the same office which she now filled in that of Anne of Austria.

Her project, however, presented considerable difficulty. The King had suddenly become more assiduous than he had ever yet shown himself in his attendance upon the Court of Marie de Medicis, constantly joining her evening circle, and absenting himself entirely from the apartments of his royal consort; a circumstance which Anne did not fail to attribute to the evil offices of the Tuscan Princess, who, as she asserted, was perpetually labouring to undermine her dignity, and to usurp her position, Soon, however, it became rumoured that it was to no effort on her own part that the Queen-mother was indebted for the constant society of the monarch, but rather to the attractions of one of her maids of honour; and that for the first time in his life Louis XIII evinced symptoms of a passion to which he had hitherto been supposed invulnerable. Mademoiselle de Hautefort, the object of this apparent preference, was remarkable rather for intellect than beauty; her conversational powers were considerable, her mind well cultivated, and her judgment sound. She was, moreover, totally without ambition, virtuous from principle, and an enemy to all intrigue.

On first being made acquainted with the presumed infidelity of her royal consort, Anne of Austria exhibited the most unmeasured anger, and was unsparing in her menaces of vengeance; but it was not long ere Madame du Fargis succeeded in convincing her that she had nothing to fear from such a rival, and that she would act prudently in affecting not to perceive the momentary fancy of the King for the modest and unassuming maid of honour.

“You have only to consult your mirror, Madame,” she said with an accent of conviction which at once produced its effect upon the wounded vanity of the Queen, “to feel that you are beyond an apprehension of this nature. Believe me when I assert that, were his Majesty capable of such a passion as that which is now attributed to him, he could not remain insensible to your own attractions. Mademoiselle de Hautefort is amiable, and amuses the indolence of the King; but did he seek more than mere amusement, it is in yourself alone that he could find the qualities calculated to awaken the feeling which you deprecate.”

Anne of Austria listened with complacency to a species of consolation which she could not but acknowledge to be based on probability, as she was conscious that even in the midst of the most brilliant Court in Europe her own beauty was remarkable; and although she still indulged in a sentiment of irritation against the Queen-mother, through whose agency the King had formed so dangerous an intimacy,[126] she nevertheless consented to conceal her discontent, and to maintain at least a semblance of cordiality with her illustrious relative; a policy which the approaching departure of the monarch rendered imperative.

The influence of Marie de Medicis over the mind of the King had, as we have shown, seriously diminished after the return of Richelieu to the capital; while the necessity of pursuing the campaign in Italy had rendered the services of his able minister more than ever essential to Louis, who was aware of his personal inefficiency to overcome the perils by which he was menaced on all sides; and who had so long ceased to sway the sceptre of his own kingdom, that he was compelled to acknowledge to himself that the master-spirit which had evoked the tempest was alone able to avert its effects. This conviction sufficed to render him deaf to all remonstrances, and at length induced him sullenly to command their discontinuance. He declared that every one about him felt a delight in calumniating the Cardinal, and on all occasions he ostentatiously displayed towards the triumphant minister the utmost confidence and affection.

As the Queen-mother became convinced that all her efforts to undermine the influence of Richelieu must for the present prove abortive, she ceased to expostulate, and turned her whole attention towards the reconciliation of the royal brothers. Aware that the Dukes of Lorraine and Savoy were seeking by every means in their power to increase the discontent of Gaston,[127] and that Charles Emmanuel had offered him a safe retreat in Turin, and an army to support him should he desire to overthrow the power of the Cardinal by whom he had been reduced to the position of a mere subject without authority or influence,[128] she wrote in earnest terms to caution him against such insidious advice; and urged upon the King the expediency of recalling him to Paris, and investing him with the command both of the city itself and of the surrounding provinces during his own absence from the kingdom.

In reply to the entreaties of his mother, Gaston declared his willingness to become reconciled to the King, and to serve him to the best of his ability; but he at the same time requested that she would not exact from him any similar condescension as regarded Richelieu, whom he looked upon as his most dangerous enemy, and on whom he was resolved one day to revenge himself. Against this determination Marie de Medicis felt no disposition to offer any expostulations, as it accorded with her own feelings; and she consequently merely represented to the Prince the necessity of concealing his sentiments from the King (whom she had induced to comply with her request), and to make immediate preparations for his return to France.[129]

FOOTNOTES:

[111] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. vi. pp. 511-558.

[112] Bassompierre, _Mem_. vol. iii. p. 186.

[113] Gaston d’Orleans, _Mem_. pp. 86, 87. Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 367.

[114] Le Vassor, vol. vi. pp. 21-23.

[115] Capefigue, vol. iv. pp. 278, 279.

[116] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 368, 369.

[117] Le Vassor, vol. vi. pp. 111-114.

[118] Capefigue, vol. iv. pp. 280-282.

[119] Bassompierre, _Mem_. vol. iii. pp. 235, 236.

[120] Capefigue, vol. iv. pp. 287, 288.

[121] Gaston d’Orleans, _Mem_. pp. 88, 89. Mesdames de Lorraine were related to Charles I., through Mary Queen of Scots, his grandmother, who was the daughter of a Princess of that House.

[122] Capefigue, vol. iv. pp. 288-298. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 370, 371.

[123] Le Vassor, vol. vi. pp. 252, 253.

[124] Marie Catherine de la Rochefoucauld, the widow of Henri de Beaufremont, Marquis de Senecay. She died in 1677, at the age of eighty-nine years.

[125] Marie Madeline de Vignerot, Dame de Comballet, afterwards Duchesse d’Aiguillon.

[126] Brienne, _Mem_. vol. ii. pp. 2-4.

[127] _Mercure Francais_, 1629.

[128] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. vi. pp. 789, 790.

[129] Le Vassor, vol. vi. pp. 254, 255.

CHAPTER VII

1630

Gaston returns to France–Precarious position of the Frencharmies–Death of the Duke of Savoy–The French besiege Pignerol–Richelieu urges the King to possess himself of the Duchy of Savoy–Marie de Medicis opposes the measure–Louis XIII overruns Savoy–The French lose Mantua–Jules Mazarin–The King is attacked by fever at Lyons–Moral effects of his indisposition–He consents to dismiss the Cardinal from office–Reconciliation of the royal family–The Court return to the capital–Richelieu endeavours to regain the favour of the Queen-mother–Policy of Marie–Richelieu seeks to effect the disgrace of Marillac–The two Queens unite their interests–Meeting of the royal brothers–Gaston inveighs bitterly against the Cardinal–The Queen-mother takes up her abode at the Luxembourg–Louis proceeds in state to bid her welcome–Monsieur publicly affronts Richelieu–A treaty is concluded with Italy–Public rejoicings in Paris–Marie dismisses the Cardinal and his relations from her household–A drama at Court–Richelieu prepares to leave Paris; but is dissuaded, and follows the King to Versailles–Exultation of the citizens at the anticipated overthrow of the Cardinal-minister–The courtiers crowd the Luxembourg–Bassompierre at fault–Triumph of Richelieu–Hypocrisy of the Cardinal–“The Day of Dupes”–A regal minister–The Marillacs are disgraced–Anne of Austria is suspected of maintaining a secret correspondence with Spain–Gaston conspires with the two Queens against Richelieu–Divided state of the French Court–A _fete_ at the Louvre.

At the close of January 1630 the Duc d’Orleans, in compliance with his promise, took leave of the Court of Lorraine; and early in February he crossed the French frontier, and had an interview with the King, who had already reached Troyes, accompanied by the two Queens and their several households. At this meeting the royal brothers displayed towards each other an amount of confidence which gladdened the heart of the Queen-mother, to whom their long estrangement had been a subject of perpetual grief and anxiety; nor was their good understanding lessened for an instant until their separation upon the departure of Louis for Lyons, when Monsieur in his turn proceeded to Orleans, where he remained until the middle of March; and thence he finally returned to Paris towards the close of April, to assume his command.[130]

As the Cardinal had foreseen, there was little time to be lost in retrieving the fortunes of the French armies. Casal in Montferrat, which was held by M. de Thoiras,[131] was besieged by the Marquis de Spinola,[132] with an immense force, and he earnestly demanded the sum of fifty thousand crowns for defraying the arrears due to his troops, who had begun to murmur, and threatened to surrender. The Germans had once more attacked Mantua, which they ultimately took; and the armies of MM. de la Force and de Schomberg were suffering from sickness, famine, and desertions, and, moreover, harassed by the troops of the Duke of Savoy. Charles Emmanuel meanwhile was advancing in person upon Savillan, in order to provoke an engagement with the French forces; and on every side difficulty and danger loomed over the banners of Louis, when the Duke of Savoy was suddenly attacked by apoplexy and expired towards the close of January. He was succeeded by Victor Amedee his elder son, who was the husband of Madame Christine de France, the sister of the French King; and it was anticipated that the closeness of this alliance would at once terminate all aggressive measures on the part of France, and that the new Duke would be suffered to take peaceful possession of his inheritance. Such, however, was not the policy of the Cardinal, and accordingly the operations already directed against the Duchy were suffered to proceed.

Shortly after the arrival of the King at Lyons he received a despatch from the minister stating that he had taken Pignerol, and thus secured a safe passage for his Majesty into Italy; and that he was about to join him at Lyons, in order to receive his further commands.

On his arrival he was warmly welcomed by Louis, whom he easily induced to accompany him on his return to the seat of war; for although in his despatches Richelieu had affected to attach an immense importance to the conquest of Pignerol, he was aware that the honour of the French nation must be compromised should her armies be thus checked at the very commencement of the expedition, and he consequently urged the King at once to possess himself of the Duchy of Savoy; an undertaking which presented so little difficulty that its success was certain. In vain did Marie de Medicis represent the injury which Louis must, by such an enterprise, inflict upon his sister; the project flattered the vanity of the King, and accordingly on the 14th of May the vanguard of the French army entered the Duchy, and before the middle of the ensuing month the whole of Savoy, with the exception of Montmelian, was in the possession of his troops. This puny triumph was, however, counterbalanced and outweighed by the disasters at Casal and Mantua, the former of which, from the failure of provisions and reinforcements, fell into the hands of Spinola; while the latter, after having had twenty-five thousand of its inhabitants carried off by the plague, was ultimately lost through treason, and delivered over to pillage by the Imperialist generals.

From Savoy the Cardinal endeavoured to induce Louis to advance into the district of Maurienne, but from this project he was strongly dissuaded by the Queen-mother, who had, during the campaign in Savoy, remained at Lyons with Anne of Austria, Marillac the Keeper of the Seals, and other discontented nobles who were opposed to the war in Italy, and were anxious for peace at any price. Negotiations to that effect were, moreover, pending; and Urban VIII had offered himself as arbitrator through the medium of Jules Mazarin,[133] a young man of twenty-eight years of age, whom he had appointed internuncio for that purpose. The talent and energy displayed by the Papal envoy in a position of so much difficulty enchanted Richelieu, who at once recognized in the juvenile diplomatist a congenial spirit, and he determined to attach him to the interests of France. But even while he did full justice to the precocious ability of Mazarin, the minister nevertheless bitterly complained that the violent measures adopted by the Queen-mother and her party rendered the prospect of a peace impossible; and that they attached too great an importance to the pending negotiations, and overacted their uneasiness on the subject of the King’s health, and their terrors of the plague.[134] These arguments sufficed to reassure Louis XIII, who, delighted at his success in Savoy, and intoxicated by the plaudits of his courtiers, was eager to pursue a war from which he hoped to acquire fresh reputation; and accordingly, disregarding the expostulations of the peace party, he advanced to St. Jean-de-Maurienne; and the aggressive measures so earnestly deprecated by Marie de Medicis were continued.

[Illustration: MAZARIN.]

The King had, however, scarcely joined the camp when he was attacked by fever; and his condition soon became so dangerous that it was deemed expedient to remove him in a litter to Lyons, while his armies were still engaged in the sieges of Pignerol and Casal. For several days he continued hovering between life and death; and his strength was at length so utterly exhausted that his physicians believed him to be beyond all further hope. Monarchs are mere mortals on a bed of sickness; and Louis XIII was far from being an exception to the rule. Stubborn and wilful when in health, he no sooner became the prey of disease, and pondered over the prophecies of the astrologers who had foretold his early demise, than he suffered himself to be governed without resistance by those about him; the ties of kindred, and the claims of family affection, resumed their rights; duties long neglected were admitted and recognized; he bewailed the past, and despaired of the future. It was therefore not possible that such an opportunity should be neglected by Marie de Medicis, who, even while watching over his sick-bed with an assiduity and care which were emulated by her royal daughter-in-law, eagerly availed herself of her advantage to shake the power of Richelieu. In this attempt she was zealously seconded by Anne of Austria; and the combined tears and entreaties of the two Queens at length so far prevailed over the inclinations of Louis as to wring from him a promise that, should he survive, he would dismiss his minister so soon as he should have once more reached the capital.

“I cannot, Madame,” he replied to the earnest solicitation of Marie de Medicis that he would act upon the instant, “comply with your request at an earlier period than that which I have named. The Cardinal is now fully occupied with the affairs of Italy, and his services are essential to their success. Let us not be precipitate. Suffer him to conclude the pending negotiations; and I pledge myself, on my return to Paris, both to exclude him from the Council and to dismiss him from the government of the state.”

With this assurance the Queen-mother was compelled to appear satisfied, although she panted for more immediate vengeance; and so grateful did the King express himself for the unceasing tenderness and vigilance of the two Queens, that he listened without remonstrance to their complaints. As, contrary to the anticipations of the faculty, he rallied from the attack, he became even more indulgent; an extent of confidence and affection hitherto unknown reigned in the royal circle; and when he heard Marie and her daughter-in-law attribute all their humiliations and sufferings to the Cardinal alone, while they entirely exonerated himself, he did not scruple to deplore the misstatements of others by which he had been induced to disregard their previous expostulations.[135]

The convalescence of Louis was no sooner assured than he resolved to return to Paris, believing that his native air would hasten his complete recovery; and accordingly, after having entreated Marie de Medicis to dissemble her displeasure against Richelieu until he should be prepared to dismiss him from office, the Court commenced its homeward journey. The Cardinal meanwhile, although necessarily ignorant of the pledge given by the King, had learnt enough to convince him that the faction of the Queen-mother had been actively seeking to undermine his influence during the sojourn of the monarch at Lyons, and he consequently resolved to accompany the royal party to the capital; his weak health forming a sufficient pretext for this determination. Having made his final arrangements, he accordingly proceeded to Roanne in order to join the Queen-mother, and to endeavour during the journey to reinstate himself in her favour.

In compliance with the request of the King, Marie de Medicis met the astute minister with a dissimulation equal to his own; and even affected to feel flattered when he demanded her permission for his litter to travel immediately behind her own. It was not, however, until the royal barge had received its august freight, and begun to descend the Loire, that the Cardinal had an opportunity of fully enacting the courtly character which he had assigned to himself in this serious emergency. As the Queen-mother lay upon her couch the minister stood obsequiously beside her, beneath the crimson canopy by which she was overshadowed, occasionally dropping upon his knee in an attitude of profound and affectionate respect; a voluntary homage to which Marie replied by conversing with him in the most endearing terms; addressing him more than once as _mio caro! amico del cuore mio!_ and other soft and flattering appellations.

To Richelieu it seemed for the time as though the past had come back upon him, but he deceived himself; the Florentine Princess had but drawn a glove over a hand of iron, a fact which he ascertained before the termination of the journey, as well as the whole extent of the intrigue at Lyons; but this knowledge did not for a moment affect his deportment towards the Queen-mother, for whom he continued to evince the deepest veneration, while he carefully noted the bearing of those by whom she was surrounded, in order that he might one day be enabled to wreak his vengeance upon such as had participated in the cabal.

The most zealous partisans of Marie de Medicis were at this period the two Marillacs and the Ducs de Guise and de Bellegarde; while her confidential friends of her own sex were the Duchesse d’Elboeuf and the Princesse de Conti. Of these the most obnoxious to Richelieu was the elder Marillac, the Keeper of the Seals. This minister was indebted to the Cardinal for the office which he held; and even while Richelieu was plotting the ruin of his own benefactress, he could not brook that a man whom he had himself raised to power should dare to oppose his will, or to succeed him in the good graces of the Queen-mother. He had, moreover, ascertained that Marillac, who had, in the first instance, attached himself to Marie de Medicis at the suggestion of his brother the Marechal, had rendered her such good service that she had pledged herself to make him Prime Minister on his own dismissal. Nor was this the only cause of anxiety to which Richelieu was at this moment exposed; as during the indisposition of the King a strong affection had grown up between the two Queens, while the Duc d’Orleans no longer made any effort to conceal his animosity; and thus the Cardinal found himself placed in opposition to the whole of the royal family with the exception of the sovereign.

Gaston d’Orleans was no sooner apprised of the approach of Louis to the capital than he hastened to Montargis to receive him, and the meeting was one of great cordiality on both sides; but the King had scarcely urged upon his brother the expediency of a reconciliation with the Cardinal, ere the Prince violently complained of the indignities to which he had been subjected by Richelieu, and insisted that he had just reason to hate him. Alarmed by the unmeasured vehemence of Gaston, the King entreated him to be more calm, and to accede to his request; but Monsieur, after bowing profoundly, remained silent; and shortly afterwards withdrew.

On her arrival in Paris, Marie de Medicis at once proceeded to the palace of the Luxembourg, which she had recently built, and embellished with those treasures of art which had rendered it one of the most regal residences in the kingdom. During the first three days of her sojourn there, the gates were closed, and no visitors were admitted; but on the fourth, the King, who had taken up his abode at Versailles, arrived, accompanied by the Cardinal, and followed by all the great nobles, to welcome her back to Paris. Louis had no sooner saluted his mother than he remarked the absence of the Duc d’Orleans, and on expressing his surprise that the Prince had not hastened to meet him, he was informed that his Highness was indisposed. As he was about to despatch one of his retinue with a message of condolence, Gaston was suddenly announced; who, after having paid his respects to their Majesties, stepped back to receive the compliments of the courtiers. At this moment he was accosted by the Cardinal, but before the latter had time to utter a syllable, Monsieur abruptly turned his back upon him, and entered into conversation with the nobles who stood near. Enraged by this public affront, Richelieu immediately approached the Queen-mother, and bitterly complained of the insult to which he had been subjected; but Marie, in her turn, answered coldly: “Monsieur has merely treated you as you deserve.” A retort which only served to embitter the indignation of the minister, who at once perceived that, in order to save himself from ruin, he must forthwith possess himself of the ear of the King, and strike a decisive blow.

The moment was a favourable one, as intelligence shortly afterwards reached the Court that a treaty of peace with Italy on the most advantageous terms for France had been concluded, and all was consequently joy and gratulation throughout the capital. Showers of rockets ascended from the palaces of the Louvre, the Luxembourg, and St. Germain, which to the faction of Richelieu celebrated the triumph of his exploits beyond the Alps, while to that of the Queen-mother they indicated the downfall of the Cardinal, which it was anticipated would succeed the cessation of hostilities. So convinced indeed was Marie de Medicis that her time of trial was at length over that she disdained to conceal her exultation; and as the first-fruits of her presumed victory she determined to dismiss from her service alike Richelieu himself, who had been appointed superintendent of her household, and every member of his family who was about her person.

In pursuance of this resolution she hastened to inform the Cardinal that she declined his further offices; and before he could recover from the surprise occasioned by so abrupt an announcement, she turned towards the Marquis de la Meilleraye, the captain of her bodyguard, adding in the same cold and haughty tone in which she had just addressed his kinsman: “Nor will I longer retain you here, sir; you must also retire.” Finally, as Madame de Comballet entered the apartment, unconscious of the scene which was then being enacted, she applied to her the most humiliating epithets, and commanded her immediately to quit the palace. In vain did the niece of Richelieu throw herself upon her knees, weeping bitterly, and entreating the pardon of her royal mistress, without even inquiring into the nature of her offence; Marie de Medicis remained inflexible, and sternly ordered her to withdraw. The command was obeyed; and as she left the apartment Madame de Comballet was followed by the Cardinal, who, bewildered by this sudden and astonishing change of attitude, did not even attempt to expostulate. After this first exhibition of her recovered power the Queen-mother stepped into her private closet, where she was shortly joined by the King; and he had no sooner entered than she desired the usher on duty to leave the room, and to refuse ingress to all comers, be they whom they might; after which, with her own hand, she drew the heavy bolts across the doors that he had closed behind him, and returned to the King, whose gesture of surprise and annoyance she affected not to remark. She had passed the Rubicon, and she felt that she had no time to lose if she did not desire to become herself the victim of the struggle in which she was engaged; and thus having announced to her son the dismissal of Richelieu and his relatives from her personal service, she continued the conversation by reminding him of the pledge which he had given at Lyons, and urging the immediate removal of the obnoxious minister from office. Louis, weak and wavering as was his wont, endeavoured to temporize, declaring that the crisis was one of too much difficulty to admit of so extreme a measure at that moment, and entreating her to sanction his delaying for a few weeks the fulfilment of his promise; but Marie was aware that she stood upon the brink of a precipice, and she became only the more importunate in her demands, and the more bitter in her sarcasms.

“Are you indeed the sovereign of France, and the son of Henry the Great?” she asked passionately; “and do you quail before a subject, and place your sceptre in other hands, when you were born to wield it in the eyes of Europe?”

“I cannot dispense with the services of the Cardinal,” was the sullen reply; “and you would do well, Madame, to become reconciled to a man who is essential to the welfare of the kingdom.”

“_Per Dio_! never!” exclaimed the Queen resolutely, while tears of rage burst from her eyes, and the blood mounted to her brow. “France, and the widow of her former monarch, can alike dispense with the good services of Armand de Richelieu, the false friend, the treacherous servant, and the ambitious statesman. It is time that both were delivered from his thrall. Do not fear, Sir, that our noble nation can produce no other minister as able as, and at the same time more trustworthy than, the man who, when he bends his knee before you, is in heart clutching at your crown.”

“What mean you, Madame?” asked the suspicious King, starting from his seat.

“Ask your good citizens, Sire, by whom they are governed,” was the impetuous answer of the excited Queen; “ask your nobles and barons by whom they are oppressed and thwarted, when they would feign recognize their sovereign alone as their ruler; ask your brave armies who has reaped the glory for which you have imperilled your health, and gone near to sacrifice your life. Do you shrink from the exertion necessary to the measure that I propose?” she continued as she remarked the effect of her words upon the King, whose wounded vanity revolted against the idea of being considered what he really was, a puppet in the hands of his minister. “Dismiss the apprehension. Trusting to your royal word–and the word of an anointed monarch, Sire, is as sacred as the oath of the first subject in his realm–I have been careful to spare you all unnecessary fatigue. Here,” and as she spoke she drew a parchment from her bosom–“here your Majesty will find, duly drawn up, an order for the instant retirement of the Cardinal, which requires only your royal signature to become valid; M. de Marillac is prepared, with your sanction, to replace him, and to serve you with equal zeal, and far more loyalty than he has done. Subscribe your name at the bottom of this document; and then ride forth into the streets of your good city of Paris, and as the news spreads among your people, see if one single voice will be raised for the recall of _Maitre Gonin_.” [136]

As Marie de Medicis uttered these words a slight noise caused her to glance from the King towards the direction whence it proceeded; and there, standing in the opening of a door which communicated with her oratory, she saw before her the Cardinal de Richelieu.

Aware that the monarch was closeted with his mother, and apprehending the worst consequences to himself should the interview be suffered to proceed without interruption, the minister had instantly resolved to terminate it by his own presence; and for this purpose, disregarding the affront to which he had so lately been subjected by Marie de Medicis, he hastened to her apartments; where, having found the door of the antechamber fastened from within, he entered a gallery which communicated with the royal closet, at the door of which he tapped to obtain admittance. As no answer was elicited, his alarm increased; the heavy drapery by which the door was veiled deadened the voices within; and after waiting for a few instants to convince himself that no ingress could be obtained save by stratagem, he proceeded along the corridor until he reached the oratory, where he found one of the waiting-women of the Queen, who, unable to withstand a heavy bribe, permitted him to