The Prince de Joinville, the Ducs de Guise and d'Elboeuf, the Marquises de Rosny and de Crequy, and M. de Bassompierre, accompanied by a numerous train of nobles, escorted the English envoys to the palace; while more than fifty thousand persons crowded the streets through which the glittering train was compelled to pass.

During the following week Paris was the scene of perpetual gaiety and splendour. All the Princes and great nobles vied with each other in the magnificence of the balls, banquets, and other entertainments which were given in honour of their distinguished guests.[235] Presents of considerable value were exchanged; and the British Ambassador had every reason to anticipate the favourable termination of his mission; but subsequent circumstances compelled him to abstain from seeking a definite reply.[236]

The arrival of M. de Conde in Paris, and the pledge given by that Prince to support him with his influence, determined Concini once more to hazard his own return to the capital under the escort of Bassompierre; but he found the popular irritation still so great against him, that when he visited the Prince he was accompanied by a suite of a hundred horse. His reception by his new ally was, moreover, less cordial than he had hoped; for Conde had already begun to regret his promise, and to feel apprehensive that by upholding the interests of the Italian favourite he should lose his own popularity. He also believed that the amount of power which he had at length succeeded in securing must render him independent of such a coalition; and he resolved to seize the earliest opportunity of impressing upon Concini the unpalatable fact.

This opportunity soon presented itself. On the 14th of August the Prince gave a banquet to the English envoy, which was attended by all the principal nobility of the Court, but from which the Marechal d'Ancre had been excluded. While the guests were still at table, however, Concini, on the pretext of paying his respects to Lord Hay, entered the banqueting-hall, attended by thirty of those gentlemen of his household whom he arrogantly called his conios di mille franchi.[237]

He had no sooner seated himself than Mayenne, Bouillon, and others of the cabal which had been formed against him proposed that so favourable an opportunity should not be lost of taking his life, and thus ridding the country of the incubus by which it had so long been oppressed in the person of an insolent foreigner; but the project was no sooner communicated to M. de Conde than he imperatively forbade all violence beneath his own roof. Meanwhile Concini, although he did not fail to perceive by what was taking place about him that he had placed himself in jeopardy by thus braving his enemies, nevertheless maintained the most perfect self-possession, and was suffered to depart in safety. On the following morning, however, he received a communication from the Prince, who, after assuring him that he had experienced great difficulty in restraining the Princes and nobles into whose presence he had forced himself on the preceding day from executing summary justice upon him in order to avenge their several wrongs; and that they had, moreover, threatened to abandon his own cause should he persist in according his protection to an individual whom they were resolved to pursue even to the death, concluded by declaring that it would thenceforward be impossible for him to maintain the pledge which he had given, and advising him to lose no time in retiring to Normandy, of which province he was lieutenant-general.[238]

Although exasperated by the bad faith of M. de Conde, Concini was nevertheless compelled to follow this interested suggestion; but, before he left the field open to his enemies, he resolved to strike a parting blow; and he had accordingly no sooner dismissed the messenger of the Prince than he proceeded to the Louvre, where, while taking leave of the Queen-mother, he eagerly impressed upon her that she was alike deceived by Conde and trifled with by Bouillon, and that all the members of their faction were agreed to divest her of her authority; an attempt of which the result could only be averted by the seizure of their persons.[239]

It is probable, however, that, even despite the avowed abandonment of the Prince de Conde, Concini might have hesitated to quit his post had not the affair of Picard convinced him that his prosperity had reached its climax. Even the Queen-mother, indignant as she expressed herself at the insult to which he had been subjected, betrayed no inclination to resent it; and so entire was his conviction that his overthrow was at hand, that there can be no doubt but that thenceforward he began seriously to meditate a return to his own country.[240]

Nearly at the moment in which the Marechal d'Ancre was thus unexpectedly compelled to leave Paris, his untiring enemy the Duc de Longueville made himself master of the three towns of Peronne, Roye, and Montdidier in Picardy, which, by the Treaty of Loudun, had been secured to Concini. Publicly the Princes blamed this violation of the treaty, and exhorted the Duke to relinquish his conquests; but being in reality delighted that places of this importance, and, moreover, so immediately in the neighbourhood of the capital, should be in the possession of one of their own allies, they privately sent him both men and money to enable him to retain them.[241]

Meanwhile Marie de Medicis made no effort to compel the restitution of the captured towns; the insult to which Concini had been subjected by Picard remained unavenged, and the Italian could no longer conceal from himself that he had outlived his fortunes. It is scarcely doubtful, moreover, that, with the superstition common to the period, the prediction of Luminelli had pressed heavily upon his mind; as from that period he became anxious to abandon the French Court, and to retire with his enormous wealth to his native city. It was in vain, however, that he sought to inspire Leonora with the same desire; in vain that he represented the prudence of taking the initiative while there was yet time; the foster-sister of Marie de Medicis peremptorily refused to leave Paris, alleging that it would be cowardly to abandon her royal mistress at a period when she was threatened alike by the ambition of the Prince de Conde and the enmity of De Luynes, whose power over the mind of the young sovereign was rapidly making itself felt.

At this precise moment a new and grave misfortune tended to augment the eagerness of the Marechal d'Ancre to carry out his project. His daughter, through whose medium he had looked to form an alliance with some powerful family, and thus to fortify his own position, was taken dangerously ill, and in a few days breathed her last. His anguish was ungovernable; and while his wife wept in silence beside the body of her dead child, he, on the contrary, abandoned himself to the most vehement exclamations, strangely mingling his expressions of fear for his future fate with regret for the loss which he had thus sustained.

"Signore," he replied vehemently to Bassompierre, who vainly attempted to console him, "I am lost; Signore, I am ruined; Signore, I am miserable. I regret my daughter, and shall do so while I live; but I could support this affliction did I not see before me the utter ruin of myself, my wife, my son, and my whole house, in the obstinacy of Leonora. Were you not aware of my whole history I should perhaps be less frank, but you know that when I arrived in France, far from owning a single sou, my debts amounted to eight hundred crowns; now we possess more than a million in money, with landed property and houses in France, three hundred thousand crowns at Florence, and a similar sum in Rome. I do not speak of the fortune accumulated by my wife; but surely we may be satisfied to exist for the remainder of our lives upon the proceeds of our past favour. Had you not been well informed as to my previous life I might seek to disguise it from you, but you cannot have forgotten that you saw me at Florence steeped in debauchery, frequently in prison, more than once in exile, generally without resources, and continually lost in disorder and excess. Here, on the contrary, I have acquired alike honour, wealth, and favour, and I would fain disappoint my enemies by leaving the country without disgrace; but the Marechale is impracticable; and were it not that I should be guilty of ingratitude in separating my fortunes from those of a woman to whom I owe all that I possess, I would forthwith leave the country and secure my own safety and that of my son." [242]

The allusion made by Concini to the growing ambition of the Prince de Conde was unfortunately not destitute of foundation; and suspicions were rapidly gaining ground that he meditated nothing less than a transfer of the crown of France to his own brow, on the pretext that the marriage of Henri IV with the Tuscan Princess was invalid, his former wife being still alive, and his hand, moreover, solemnly pledged to the Marquise de Verneuil. On more than one occasion, when he had feasted his friends, their glasses had been emptied amid cries of Barre a bas; a toast which was interpreted as intended to signify the suppression of the bar-sinister which the shield of Conde bore between its three fleurs-de-lis.[243] Neither Sully, who had recently returned to Court, nor the Duc de Guise could be induced to join in so criminal a faction; and the former had no sooner been informed of the dangerous position of the King than, dissatisfied as he was with the treatment which he had personally received, he demanded an audience of the young sovereign and his mother, in order to warn them of their peril. In vain, however, did Marie, touched by this proof of loyal devotedness, urge him to suggest a remedy.

"I am no longer in office, Madame," he replied proudly; "and you have your chosen counsellors about you. I have done my duty, and leave it to others to do theirs."

He then made his parting obeisance, and had already reached the door of the apartment, leaving the Queen-mother in a state of agitation and alarm which she made no effort to disguise, when, suddenly pausing upon the threshold, he once more turned towards her, saying impressively:

"Sire, and you, Madame, I beg your Majesties to reflect upon what I have said; my conscience is now at rest. Would to God that you were in the midst of twelve hundred horse; I can see no other alternative." And without awaiting any reply, he then withdrew.[244]

The advice of the veteran minister appeared, however, to the friends of the Queen-mother too dangerous to be followed. France had so recently been delivered from the horrors of a civil war that it was deemed inexpedient to provoke its renewal by any hostile demonstration on the part of the Crown; while, moreover, the popularity of Conde was so notorious that no doubt could be entertained of his success should the ultima ratio regum be adopted. His influence was alike powerful with all classes; the people were unanimous in his cause; the Princes and great nobles were his zealous adherents; and since his entrance into the Council as its president, not content with dividing his authority with the Queen-mother, he had gradually absorbed it in his own person. His hotel was crowded by those who formerly thronged the apartments of the Louvre; all who had demands to make, or remonstrances to offer, addressed themselves to him only; and thus he had become too dangerous an enemy to be lightly opposed.[245]

Under these circumstances it appeared impossible to proceed openly against him, while it was equally essential to deliver the Crown from so formidable an adversary; his arrest offered the only opportunity of effecting so desirable a result, but even to accomplish this with safety was by no means easy. In his own house he was surrounded by friends and adherents who would have rendered such an attempt useless; and after mature deliberation it was accordingly agreed that he must be made prisoner in the Louvre.

Under a specious pretext the Swiss Guards were detained in the great court of the palace; the Marquis de Themines[246] undertook to demand the sword of the Prince, and to secure his person, volunteering at the same time to procure the assistance of his two sons, and seven or eight nobles upon whose fidelity he could rely; arms were introduced into one of the apartments of the Queen-mother in a large chest, which was understood to contain costly stuffs from Italy; and a number of the youngest and most distinguished noblemen of the Court, to whom Marie appealed for support, took a solemn oath of obedience to her behests, without inquiring into the nature of the service to which they were thus pledged.

All being in readiness, Bassompierre was awakened at three o'clock in the morning of the 1st of September by a gentleman of the Queen-mother's household, and instructed to proceed immediately to the Louvre in disguise. On his arrival he found Marie only half-dressed, seated between Mangot and Barbin, and evidently in a state of extraordinary agitation and excitement. As he entered the apartment she said hurriedly:

"You are welcome, Bassompierre. You do not know why I have summoned you so early; I will shortly explain my reason."

Then, rising from her seat, she paced to and fro across the floor for nearly half an hour, no one venturing to break in upon her reverie. Suddenly, however, she paused, and beckoning to her companions to follow her, she entered her private closet; and the hangings no sooner fell behind the party than, turning once more towards him, she continued with bitter vehemence:

"I am about to arrest the Prince, together with the Ducs de Vendome, de Mayenne, and de Bouillon. Let the Swiss Guards be on the spot by eleven o'clock as I proceed to the Tuileries, for should I be compelled by the people to leave Paris, I wish them to accompany me to Nantes. I have secured my jewels and forty thousand golden crowns, and I shall take my children with me, if—which I pray God may not be the case, and as I do not anticipate—I find myself under the necessity of leaving the capital; for I am resolved to submit to every sort of peril and inconvenience rather than lose my own authority or endanger that of the King." [247]

The final arrangements were then discussed, and Marie de Medicis was left to her own thoughts until the hour of eight, when M. de Themines was announced.

"Ha! you are come at length," she exclaimed joyfully; "I was awaiting you with impatience. The Council is about to open, and it is time that we were all prepared. Can you depend on those by whom you are accompanied?"

"They are my sons, Madame."

"Bravely answered!" said Marie forcing a smile, as she extended her hand, which the Marquis raised to his lips. "Go then, and remember that the fate of France and of her monarch are in your keeping."

Although surrounded by devoted friends, the Queen-mother was agitated by a thousand conflicting emotions. She was well aware that her own future existence as a Queen hung upon the success or failure of her enterprise, as should the slightest indiscretion on the part of any of her agents arouse the suspicions of the Prince and induce him to leave the capital, he had every prospect of obtaining the crown. Moreover, MM. de Crequy and de Bassompierre, who were in command of the French and Swiss Guards, and who had received orders to draw up their men in order of battle at the great gate of the Louvre immediately that the Prince should have entered, and to arrest him did he attempt to leave the palace, became alarmed at the responsibility thus thrust upon them, and declined to comply with these instructions until they had received a warranty to that effect under the great seal; but this demand having been conceded, they hesitated no longer.[248] All the precautions which had been taken nevertheless failed in some degree in their effect, as the Duc de Mayenne and the Marechal de Bouillon were apprised by their emissaries of the unusual movements of the Court, and at once adopted measures of safety. Bouillon feigned an indisposition, and refused to leave his hotel, where, after a long interview with the Duke, it was resolved that Conde should be warned not to trust himself in the power of the Queen-mother. The Prince, however, who had been lulled into false security by the specious representations of Barbin, treated their caution with contempt, being unable to believe that Marie would venture to attempt any violence towards himself.

"If there be indeed any hostile intention on the part of the Crown," he said disdainfully, "it probably regards M. de Bouillon, whose restless spirit excites the alarm of the Queen-mother. Let him look to himself, if he see fit to do so. Should he be committed to the Bastille my interests will not suffer."

Angered by his presumption, the two friends made no further protest, but contented themselves with redoubling their own precautions. Bouillon retired to Charenton with a strong escort, while the Duc de Mayenne remained quietly in his hotel, having made the necessary preparations for instant flight should such a step become essential to his safety.[249]

Meanwhile at the Louvre nothing remained to be done but to communicate to the young King the project which was about to be realized, and to induce him to sanction it by his countenance; an attempt which offered little difficulty, the jealousy of Louis having been excited by the assumed authority of the Prince, and his dissimulating nature being gratified by this first participation in a state intrigue.

At ten o'clock a great clamour upon the quay near the gate of the palace attracted the attention of the Queen-mother, who commanded silence, and in another moment distinct cries of "Long live the Prince!" "Long live M. de Conde!" were heard in the apartment. Marie de Medicis rose from her seat and approached an open window, followed by the Marechale d'Ancre.

"The Prince is about to open the Council," said Leonora with a bitter smile.

"Rather say the King of France," replied Marie with a flushed cheek, as she saw Conde graciously receiving the petitions which were tendered to him on all sides. "But his royalty shall be like that of the bean;[250] it shall not last long." [251]

When he alighted at the palace Conde proceeded to the hall of the Council, which was on the ground-floor; and at the termination of the sitting ascended, as was his custom, to the apartments of the Queen-mother, where Louis, who had entered eagerly into the part that had been assigned to him, and who had just distributed with his own hands the arms which had been prepared for the followers of M. de Themines, met him in the gallery, entered into a cheerful conversation, and, finally, invited him to join a hawking-party which was to take place within an hour. Conde, however, whose thoughts were otherwise engaged, declined to participate in the offered pastime, and the young King, having accomplished all that had been required of him, accepted his excuses, and returned to the apartment of his mother. At the same moment Themines and his two sons issued from a small passage, and, approaching the Prince, announced that they had received an order to arrest him.

"Arrest me!" exclaimed Conde in astonishment. "It is impossible!"

"Such are my instructions," said the Marquis, as he extended his hand to receive the forfeited sword, while his two sons placed themselves on each side of the prisoner.

"You are aware that I am the first Prince of the Blood."

"I know, Monseigneur, the respect which is your due," was the reply, "but I must obey the King."

"I must see their Majesties," persisted the Prince.

"It is impossible. Come, sir, suffer me to conduct you to the apartment to which I have been directed to escort you."

"How!" vehemently exclaimed Conde, looking round upon the nobles who were collected in the hall of which he had just reached the entrance, "is there no one here who has sufficient courage to spare me this outrage? You, Monsieur," he continued, addressing himself to Du Vair, "you at least I know to be a man of probity. Did you counsel this violation of all the solemn promises which have been made to me?"

"I was not consulted upon the subject, Monseigneur," replied the Keeper of the Seals; "nor shall it be my fault if so grievous an error be not speedily redeemed. The more brief the folly the better the result."

This imprudent retort was destined to seal the disgrace of the upright minister without serving the Prince, who, seeing that he had nothing to anticipate from any demonstration on the part of the assembled nobles, haughtily desired his captor to conduct him to his allotted prison.[252] "And when you have done so," he added in a firm voice, as he swept the apartment with an eye as bright and as steady as though he had not stood there unarmed and a captive, "you may tell the Queen-mother that she has anticipated me only by three days, for had she waited beyond that time, the King would no longer have had a crown upon his head." [253]

The Prince was then conducted by a back staircase to an upper chamber strongly barred, where he remained guarded by M. de Themines until he was conveyed to the Bastille.

The exultation of Marie de Medicis was at its height. She embraced her son as fervently as though by the imprudence of which she had just been guilty she had ensured the security of his throne, and received the congratulations of the courtiers with undisguised delight. "See, Sire," she exclaimed, as with one hand resting upon the shoulder of the young King she advanced to the centre of the great hall, "here is our brave M. de Themines, to whom we are so greatly indebted. Can you not offer him a royal recompense? He is not yet a Marshal of France."

"I salute you, M. le Marechal," said Louis with regal gravity. "In an hour I will sign your brevet."

M. de Themines bowed low, and kissed the hand of the King.

"And I," smiled Marie de Medicis, "present you with a hundred thousand crowns. Your elder son the Marquis de Themines is henceforth captain of my bodyguard, and your younger the Baron de Lauziere equerry of Monsieur."

Again the captor of M. de Conde bent low and uttered his acknowledgments.

Low murmurs were heard among the nobles.

"Advance, M. de Montigny," continued Marie, turning graciously towards an individual who had only just reached the capital, having on his way provided the Duc de Vendome with a relay of horses in order to facilitate his escape. "Sire, the Comte de Montigny was a faithful and devoted follower of your father. You owe him also some mark of favour."

"M. de Montigny shall be a marshal," said Louis XIII, delighted with his new and unchecked exhibition of power.

"It would appear that to ask a baton is to have one on this occasion," said M. de Saint-Geran[254] in a low voice to the Marquis de Crequy; "let us therefore put in our claim."

"With all my heart," replied the Marquis gaily. "The ladies do not refuse us their smiles, nor the Queen-mother the festivities in her honour by which we impoverish our estates; why, therefore, should the King deprive us of our share of the easily-won distinctions of the day?"

So saying, the two courtiers moved a pace nearer to Marie de Medicis, who did not fail to observe and to comprehend the action.

"Happy is the monarch who sees himself surrounded by loyal subjects and by faithful friends," pursued the exulting Princess; "your Majesty has not yet completed the good work so royally commenced?"

"M. de Crequy has already a baton," said Louis, somewhat bewildered by the new part he was called upon to enact on so large a scale.

"But you have forgotten, Sire, that he is neither duke nor peer."

"I salute you, M. le Duc et Pair," said the young King.

The Marquis acknowledged his new honours, and made way for his companion.

"Our list of marshals is full, M. de Saint-Geran," said Louis coldly.

The disappointed courtier bowed, and was about to retire, when Marie de Medicis met his eye, and its expression was far from satisfactory.

"MM. de Praslin and de Saint-Geran have both, nevertheless, merited high distinction, Sire," she said anxiously. "Your pledge for the future will suffice, however, as they are both young enough to wait."

"Be it so, Madame," rejoined her son, who was becoming weary of the rapacity of his loyal subjects and faithful friends. "Gentlemen, your services shall not be forgotten on the next vacancy."

And thus, as Bassompierre has recorded, did M. de Saint-Geran "extort the promise" of a baton.

"And you, M. de Bassompierre," exclaimed the Queen-mother, as in advancing up the hall their Majesties found themselves beside him, "unlike the others, you have put in no claim."

"Madame," was the dignified reply, "it is not at such a moment as this, when we have merely done our duty, that we should seek for reward; but I trust that when by some important service I may deserve to be remembered, the King will grant me both wealth and honours without any claim upon my own part."

Louis hesitated for a moment, and then, with a slight bow, passed on; and he had no sooner entered his private closet, still accompanied by his mother, than a herald announced in a loud voice that a great public council would be held on the following day at the meeting of the Parliament.

It might well be imagined that when she retired Marie de Medicis left grateful hearts behind her, but such was not the case; lavish as she had proved upon this occasion, she was far from having satisfied those who had assisted in the arrest of the Prince, and who did not fail openly to express their discontent.[255]

During this time the Dowager-Princess of Conde had been apprised of the arrest of her son; and, maddened by the intelligence, she had immediately rushed out of her house on foot, and hurried to the Pont Neuf, crying as she went, "To arms! To arms!"

"It is Madame de Nemours!" shouted the crowd which gathered about her. "Long live Madame de Nemours!"

"Long live Madame de Nemours!" echoed a voice, which was immediately recognized as that of the shoemaker Picard, who had, since his insult to the Marechal d'Ancre, been the idol of the mob. "Concini has assassinated the first Prince of the Blood in the Louvre!"

Even this announcement, however, failed in the effect which had been anticipated by the Princess, whose object was to accomplish the rescue of her son; for while the respectable citizens hastened to close their shops and to place their families in safety, the lower orders rushed towards the hotel of the Marechal d'Ancre in the Faubourg St. Germain. The doors were driven in, furniture and valuables to the amount of two hundred thousand crowns were destroyed, and lighted torches were applied to the costly hangings of the apartments, which soon caused the carved and gilded woodwork to ignite; while a portion of the mob at the same time attacked the house of Corbinelli his secretary; and soon the two residences presented only a mass of bare and blackened walls. M. de Liancourt, the Governor of Paris, opposed his authority in vain; he was hooted, driven back, and finally compelled to retire. Couriers were despatched to the Louvre to inform the Queen-mother of the popular tumult, but no orders were issued in consequence; the counsellors of Marie de Medicis deeming it desirable that the populace should be permitted to expend their violence upon the property of Concini, rather than turn their attention to the rescue of the Prince, until the public excitement had abated.

The arrest of M. de Conde had alarmed all the leaders of the late faction, who hastened to secure their own safety. Bouillon, as we have stated, had already reached Charenton; and the Duc de Vendome had fled in his turn on learning that all egress from the Louvre was forbidden, and that the outlets of the palace were strongly guarded. M. de Mayenne, who had hitherto remained in the capital, awaiting the progress of events, followed his example attended by a strong party of his friends. The Duc de Guise and the Prince de Joinville, alarmed lest they should be involved in the ruin of Conde through the machinations of Concini, with whom they were at open feud, hastened to Soissons, in order to join M. de Mayenne, whither they were shortly followed by the young Count and his mother; and, finally, the Duc de Nevers, who had indulged in a vain dream of rendering himself master of the Turkish empire through the medium of the Greeks, by declaring himself to be a descendant of the Paleologi, suddenly halted on his way to Germany, and declared himself determined to join the new faction of the Princes.[256]

These defections created a great void at the Louvre, but the Queen-mother disdained to express her mortification; and, on the contrary, affected the most entire confidence in the nobles who still maintained their adherence to the Crown.

She was well aware that Conde had lost much of his popularity by abandoning the interests of the people at the Treaty of Loudun, and that the Protestants similarly resented the selfishness with which he had sacrificed their cause to his ambition; while she had, moreover, ascertained that the flight of the Duc de Guise and his brother had been simply induced by misrepresentation, and that through the medium of the females of their family they might readily be recalled. These circumstances gave her courage; and when, on the morning of the 2nd of September, she came to the council of war, which was held in the Augustine Monastery and presided over by the Marechal de Brissac, accompanied by her two sons, she remarked with undisguised gratification that more than two thousand nobles were already assembled. When the King, the Queen-mother, Monsieur, the great dignitaries, and the ministers had taken their seats, the doors were thrown open to all who chose to enter; and in a few moments the vast hall was densely crowded. Silence was then proclaimed; M. de Brissac declared that the session was open, and the President Jeannin forthwith commenced reading, in the name of the King, the celebrated declaration explaining the arrest of the Prince de Conde; proclaiming him a traitor, and, finally, promising a free pardon to all who had aided and abetted him in his disloyal practices, on condition of their appearing within fifteen days to solicit the mercy of his Majesty, in default of which concession they would be involved in the same accusation of lese-majeste[257]

More than once, during the delivery of this discourse, many of the nobles who were attached to the faction of the Princes gave utterance to a suppressed murmur; but it was not until its close that they openly and vociferously expressed their dissatisfaction. Then, indeed, the hall became a scene of confusion and uproar which baffles all description; voice was heard above voice; the clang of weapons as they were struck against the stone floor sounded ominously; and the terrified young King, after glancing anxiously towards De Luynes, who returned his look by another quite as helpless, fastened his gaze upon his mother as if from her alone he could hope for protection. Nor was his mute appeal made in vain, for although an expression of anxiety could be traced upon the noble features of Marie de Medicis, they betrayed no feeling of alarm. She was pale but calm, and her eyes glanced over the assembly as steadily as though she herself played no part in the drama which was enacting before her. For a few moments she remained motionless, as if absorbed in this momentous scrutiny; but ultimately she turned and uttered a few words in a low voice to Bassompierre, who was standing immediately behind her; and she had no sooner done so than, accompanied by M. de Saint-Geran, the captain of the King's Guard, he left the hall. In an instant afterwards both officers re-appeared, followed by a company of halberdiers, who silently took up their position in the rear of the sovereign and his mother; and the Queen no sooner saw the gleam of their lances than she caused it to be intimated to the President Jeannin that she desired to address the meeting.

When her purpose was communicated to the assembly silence was by degrees restored; and then the clear, full voice of Marie de Medicis was heard to the furthest recesses of the vast apartment.

"Nobles and gentlemen," she said with a gesture of quiet dignity, "as Regent of France I have also a right to speak on an occasion of this importance; for since the death of Henry the Great, my lord and husband, it is I who have constantly borne the burthen of the Crown. You know, one and all, how many obstacles I have had to oppose, how many intrigues to frustrate, how many dangers to overcome. An intestine war throughout the kingdom; disaffection alike in Paris and in the provinces; and amid all these struggles for the national welfare, I had to combat a still more gnawing anxiety. I had to watch over the safety of the King my son, and that of the other Children of France; and never, gentlemen, for one hour, did my dignity as a Queen cause me to forget my tenderness as a mother. I might have been sustained in this daily struggle—I might have found strong arms and devoted hearts to share in my toils, and in my endeavours—but that these have too often failed me, I need scarcely say. Thus, then, if any among you complain of the past, they accuse me, for the King my son having delegated his authority to myself can have incurred no blame, nor do I wish to transfer it to another. Every enterprise which I have undertaken has had the glory and prosperity of France as its sole aim and object. If I have at times been mistaken in my estimate of the measures calculated to ensure so desirable a result, I have at least never persisted in my error; I have surrounded myself with able and conscientious counsellors; MM. de Villeroy and de Jeannin were chosen by the most ancient and noble families in the kingdom—the Cardinal de la Valette and the Bishop of Lucon-Richelieu are my advisers—the estimable Miron, Provost of Paris, in conjunction with Barbin represent the tiers-etat—while as regards the people, I have ever been careful to mete out justice to them with an equal hand."

Marie paused for an instant, and she had no sooner done so than loud shouts echoed through the cloistral arches, as the crowd vociferously and almost unanimously responded, "You have—you have. Long live the Queen!"

"Nor did I limit the sacred duties of my mission here," pursued the Regent; "I had work to do without as well as within the kingdom; and it has not been neglected. I undertook and accomplished a successful negotiation for the marriage of the King my son with the Infanta of Spain; our ancient rival England has become our ally; Germany has learnt to fear us; and the Princes of Italy have bowed their heads before our triumphant banners. Have I not then, gentlemen, consulted in all things the honour of France, and increased her power? Have I not compelled respect where I have failed to secure amity? Can you point to one act of my authority by which the interests of the nation have been compromised, or her character tarnished in the eyes of foreign states? I boldly await your answer. Thus much for our external relations, and now I appeal to your justice; I ask you with equal confidence if, when within the kingdom faction after faction was detected and suppressed, I yielded to any sentiment of undue vengeance? Has not every outbreak of unprovoked disaffection rather tended to exhibit the forbearance of the King my son and my own? Need I recall the concessions which we have made to those who had sought to injure us? Need I ask you to remember that we have bestowed upon them governments, titles, riches, high offices of state, and every honour which it was in our power to confer? What more then could you require or demand, gentlemen? And yet, when the King my son has pardoned where he might have punished, you have responded by seditious shouts, by wilful disrespect, and even by attempts against his royal person! It was time for him to exert his prerogative, gentlemen,—you have compelled him to assert his power, and yet you murmur! Now, with God's help, we may hope for internal peace. France must have lost her place among the European nations had she been longer permitted to prey upon her own vitals. One individual alone could have condemned her to this self-slaughter, and we have delivered her from the peril by committing that individual to the Bastille."

As the Queen-mother uttered these words her voice was drowned in the universal burst of fury and violence which assailed her on all sides; nobles, citizens, and people alike yelled forth their discontent, but the unquenchable spirit of Marie de Medicis did not fail her even at this terrible moment. Rising with the emergency, she seemed rather to ride upon the storm than to quail beneath it; her eyes flashed fire, a red spot burned upon her cheek, and scorn and indignation might be read upon every feature of her expressive countenance. When the tumult was at its height she rose haughtily from her seat, and striking her clenched hand violently upon the table before her, she exclaimed in a tone of menace: "How now, Counts and Barons! Is it then a perpetual revolt upon which you have determined? When pardon and peace are frankly offered to you, and when both should be as welcome to all good Frenchmen as a calm after a tempest, you reject it? Do you hold words less acceptable than blows? Do you prefer the sword to the hand of friendship? Be it even as you will then. If friendship does not content you we will try the sword, for clemency exerted beyond a certain limit degenerates into weakness. You shall have no reason to deem your rulers either feeble or cowardly. You have here and now defied me, and I accept the defiance. Do you desire to know how I respond? It is thus. In the name of the King my son and in my own, in the name of my offended dignity and in the name of France, I, in my turn, declare the most stringent and unsparing war against rebellion, be it the work of whom it may. Neither high blood nor ancient title shall suffice to screen a traitor; war, war to the death, shall be henceforward my battle-cry against the malcontents who are striving to decimate the nation; and do not delude yourselves with the belief that I shall be single-handed in the struggle, for I will call the people to my aid, and the people will maintain the cause of their sovereigns. We will try our strength at last, and the strife will be a memorable one; our sons shall relate it with awe and terror to their descendants, and it will be a tale of shame which will cleave to your names for centuries to come. Ah, gentlemen, the rule of a woman has rendered you over-bold; and you have forgotten that there have been women who have wielded a sceptre of iron. Look to England—is there no sterner lesson to be learnt there? Or think you that Marie de Medicis fears to emulate Elizabeth? You have mistaken both yourselves and me. My forbearance has not hitherto grown out of fear; but the lion sometimes disdains to struggle with the tiger, not because he misdoubts his own strength, but because he cares not to lavish it idly. I also feel my strength, and when the fitting moment comes, it shall be put forth. To your war-cry I will answer with my war-cry; to your leaders I will oppose my leaders; and when you shout Conde and Mayenne! I will answer triumphantly Louis de France and Gaston d'Orleans! Draw the sword of rebellion if it be too restless to remain in the scabbard; you will not find me shrink from the flash of steel; and should you take the field I will be there to meet you. Rally your chiefs; the array can have no terrors for me, prepared as I am to confront you with some of the best and the bravest in all France. Deny this if you can, you who seek to undermine the throne, and to sacrifice the nation to your own ambitious egotism, and I will confound you with the names of Guise, Montmorency, Brissac, Sully, Bassompierre, Lesdiguieres, Marillac, and Ornano; these, and many more of the great captains of the age, will peal out my war-cry, and rally round the threatened throne of their legitimate sovereign. My son will be in the midst of them; and mark me well, gentlemen, the struggle shall no sooner have commenced than every pampered adventurer who has poisoned the ear of the monarch, and steeled his heart against his mother, shall be crushed under her heel; and should he dare to raise his head, I will assign to him as his armour-bearer the executioner of Paris."

Never before had the Regent evinced such an amount of energy; never before had she so laid bare the secret workings of her soul. The adherents of the Princes trembled as they discovered with how formidable an enemy they should be called thenceforward to contend; while the majority of the nobles who were faithful to the royal cause, and above all those whose names she had so proudly quoted, uttered loud acclamations of delight and triumph.

Bewildered by the daring of his mother, Louis once more sought for support from his favourite, but De Luynes was in no position to afford it. The allusion to himself with which Marie de Medicis had concluded her harangue was too palpable to be mistaken, and he felt that should she maintain her purpose he was lost. Even Richelieu, as if crushed beneath the impassioned eloquence of the Regent, sat with drooping head and downcast eyes; and meanwhile Marie herself, after having glanced defiantly over the assembly, calmly resumed her seat, and desired that the business of the meeting might proceed.

Before the sitting closed it was determined that the army should be placed upon the war footing, and that a levy of six thousand Swiss should immediately be made; and this arrangement completed, the Queen-mother proceeded to attempt by every means in her power a reconciliation with the Guises.

For this purpose she despatched four nobles in whom she could confide to Soissons, to negotiate with the Princes, nor was it long ere they ascertained that individual jealousy had tended to create considerable disunion among them; and that each appeared ready, should any plausible pretext present itself, to abandon the others. Under these circumstances it was not difficult to convince the Due de Guise and his brother that no hostile design had ever been entertained against them, and to induce them to admit their regret at the hasty step which they had taken, together with their anxiety to redeem it. The Duc de Longueville was equally ready to effect his reconciliation with the Court; and having arranged with the royal envoys the terms upon which they consented to return, they were severally declared innocent of all connivance with the rebellious Princes. The Duc de Nevers, however, refused to listen to any compromise with the Crown; and, in defiance of the royal command, continued his endeavours to possess himself of the fortresses of Champagne, which were not comprised in his government.[258]

The persevering disaffection of M. de Nevers occasioned the disgrace of Du Vair, who betrayed an indisposition to proceed against him which so irritated Marie de Medicis that she induced the King to deprive him of the seals, and to bestow them upon Mangot, making Richelieu Secretary of State in his place; that wily prelate having already, by his great talent and ready expedients, rendered himself almost indispensable to his royal patroness.

The arrest of the Prince de Conde had restored the self-confidence of Concini, who shortly afterwards returned to Court and resumed his position with an arrogance and pretension more undisguised than ever. The Marechale, however, had never recovered from the successive shocks to which she had been subjected by the death of her child and the destruction of her house; but had fallen into a state of discouragement and melancholy which threatened her reason.[259] For days she shut herself up in her apartments, refusing to receive the most intimate of her friends, and complaining that she was bewitched by those who looked at her.[260] Her domestic misery was, moreover, embittered by the public hatred, of which, in conjunction with her husband, she had become more than ever the object. It would appear that the injury already inflicted upon the Italian favourites had stimulated rather than satiated the detestation of the people for both of them. Every grievance under which the lower orders groaned was attributed to the influence of Concini and his wife; they were accused of inciting the Queen-mother to the acts of profusion by which the nation was impoverished; while every disappointment, misfortune, or act of oppression was traced to the same cause. Many affected to believe that Marie was the victim of sorcery, and that such was the real source of the influence of Leonora; and thus the heart-broken mother and unhappy wife, whose morbid imagination had caused her to consider her trials as the result of magical arts, was herself accused of having employed them against her royal benefactress.[261]

The nomination of Richelieu as Secretary of State had been effected through the influence of Concini, who in vain endeavoured to persuade him to resign the bishopric of Lucon, as incompatible with his new duties. The astute prelate had more extended views than those of his patron; nor was it long ere he succeeded in arousing the jealousy of the Marechal, and in convincing him, when too late, that he had, while endeavouring to further his own fortunes, only raised up a more dangerous and potent enemy than any to whom he had hitherto been opposed. Richelieu had no sooner joined the ministry than he made advances to the ancient allies of Henri IV, whom he regarded as the true friends of France; and for the purpose of conciliating those whose support he deemed most essential to the welfare of the kingdom, he hastened to despatch ambassadors to the Courts of England, Holland, and Germany, who were instructed to explain to the several monarchs to whom they were accredited the reasons which had induced Louis XIII to arrest the Prince de Conde, and to assure them that the measures adopted by the French Court were not induced, as had been falsely represented, by any desire to conciliate either Rome or Spain. To this assurance he subjoined a rapid synopsis of the means employed by the Queen-mother to ensure the peace of the kingdom, and the efforts made by the Prince to disturb it; and, finally, he recapitulated the numerous alliances which had taken place between the royal families of France and Spain during several centuries as an explanation of the close friendship which existed between the two countries.[262] Meanwhile considerable difficulty was experienced in the equipment of the army which had been raised. The royal treasury was exhausted, and in several provinces the revolted nobles had possessed themselves of the public monies; financial edicts were issued which created fresh murmurs among the citizens; the Princes assumed an attitude of stern and steady defiance; and the year 1616 closed amid apprehension, disaffection, and mistrust.

FOOTNOTES:

[196] Armand Jean du Plessis, afterwards the celebrated Cardinal de Richelieu, was the third son of Francois du Plessis, Seigneur de Richelieu, Knight of the Orders of the King, and Grand Provost of France. He was born in Paris, on the 5th of September 1585; and having been educated with great care, became an accomplished scholar. At the age of twenty-two years he was received as a member of the Sorbonne; and having obtained a dispensation from Paul V for the bishopric of Lucon, was consecrated at Rome by the Cardinal de Givry, in 1607. On his return to France he was introduced to the notice of Marie de Medicis by the Marquise de Guercheville and the Marechal d'Ancre.

[197] Bassompierre, Mem. p. 96.

[198] Richelieu, Hist. de la Mere et du Fils, vol. i. p. 334.

[199] Continuation of Mezeray. Hist. de France.

[200] Vie du Duc d'Epernon, book iii.

[201] Le Vassor, vol. i. pp. 439, 440. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 98, 99. D'Estrees, Mem. p. 408.

[202] Nicolas Le Jay, Baron de Tilly, etc., Keeper of the Seals, and First President of the Parliament of Paris. He rendered important services both to Henri IV and Louis XIII, and acquired great celebrity as a learned scholar and an upright minister. He died in 1640.

[203] Richelieu, Mem. book vi. pp. 268-272.

[204] Matthieu, Hist, des Derniers Troubles, p. 550.

[205] Fontenay-Mareuil, Mem. pp. 290-298.

[206] Henri, Duc de la Ferte de Senectere, Comte de Saint-Pol et de Chateauneuf, Vicomte de Lestrange et de Cheylard, Baron de Boulogne et de Privas, Seigneur de Saint-Marsal, de Ligny, de Dangu, de Precy, etc.

[207] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 348.

[208] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 101, 102. Le Vassor, vol. i. p. 464.

[209] The Duque d'Usseda was the son of the Duque de Lerma.

[210] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 351.

[211] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 352-354.

[212] Mercure Francais, 1615. De Rohan, Mem. book i. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 105, 106.

[213] Le Vassor, vol. i. pp. 498, 499. Vie du Duc d'Epernon, book vii. Mercure Francais, 1616. Bassompierre, Mem. p. 110.

[214] Mademoiselle d'Entragues, who had endeavoured to compel Bassompierre to fulfil the promise of marriage which he had made to her.

[215] The colonel-generalship of the Swiss Guards.

[216] The Princesse de Conti, whom he privately married.

[217] The Cardinal de Richelieu, who was exasperated at his marriage, and through whose agency Bassompierre incurred his subsequent disgrace and long imprisonment in the Bastille.

[218] Rambure, MS. Mem. vol. vi. pp. 380-386.

[219] Conference of Loudun at the close of the Mem. of Philippeau de Pontchartrain, vol. vii. p, 315.

[220] Richelieu, Mem. vol. vii. p. 287. Le Vassor, vol. i. p. 450.

[221] Le Vassor, vol. i. p. 509. Richelieu, Mem. book vii. p. 288. Pontchartrain, Conference de Loudun, p. 406. Rohan, Mem. p. 134. D'Estrees, Mem. p. 411.

[222] Richelieu, Hist. de la Mere et du Fils, vol. ii. p. 14.

[223] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 361.

[224] Le Vassor, vol. i. p. 514.

[225] D'Estrees, Mem. p. 411.

[226] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 363.

[227] Claude Mangot, President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, and Assistant-Secretary of State.

[228] Pierre Brulart, Seigneur de Puisieux, son of Nicolas Brulart, Seigneur de Sillery et de Puisieux en Champagne, Chancellor of France, was Secretary of State. In 1622 he took Montpellier, and died in 1640.

[229] M. Barbin was Comptroller of the Household of the Queen-mother. "A man of little consequence," says Philippeau de Pontchartrain; "but upright, and well versed in business."

[230] Rohan, Mem. book i. Mem. de la Regence de Marie de Medicis.

[231] Francoise Bertaut, Dame de Motteville, was the daughter of Pierre Bertaut, Gentleman in ordinary of the Bedchamber, and of Louise Bessin de Mathonville, of the Spanish family of Saldana. At the age of fifteen she married Nicolas Langlois, Seigneur de Motteville, a man already advanced in years, but with whom she lived happy until 1641, when she was left a widow with a very slender jointure. Two years subsequently, at the age of twenty-two, she entered the household of Anne of Austria, rather as a personal friend than as an official attendant; a post which she retained for many years with honour, her sweetness of disposition and total absence of ambition causing her to be respected by all parties. She was present at the death of her royal mistress, who, by a bequest of ten thousand crowns, enabled her to quit the Court, and to devote her whole attention to the revision of her well-known Memoirs. Intimately acquainted with Mesdames de la Fayette and de Sevigne, she for some time maintained a constant intercourse with both; but on the termination of her self-imposed task she retired to the convent of Ste. Marie de Chaillot, where she died on the 29th of December 1689.

[232] Motteville, Mem, edition Petitot, vol. i. pp. 336, 337.

[233] Motteville, Mem. vol. i. p. 337.

[234] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. iii, 112. Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 365.

[235] Matthieu, Hist. des Derniers Troubles, book iii. p. 577.

[236] Bassompierre, Mem. pp. 113, 114.

[237] The Marechal d'Ancre had formed a large establishment by engaging in his service a number of impoverished French nobles, whose necessities had induced them to accept a thousand livres a year, and to submit to the insults which were heaped upon them by their low-born patron.

[238] Bassompierre. Mem. p. 114. D'Estrees, Mem. p. 413. Richelieu, Hist. de la Mere et du Fils, vol. ii. p. 57.

[239] Rohan, Mem. p. 141.

[240] Le Vassor, vol. i. p. 514.

[241] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 371, 372. D'Estrees, Mem. p. 412. Bassompierre, Mem. p. 114. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 113, 114.

[242] Bassompierre, Mem. pp. 121, 122.

[243] Richelieu, Mem. book vii. p. 333. Fontenay-Mareuil, pp. 338-358.

[244] Richelieu, Mem. book vii. p. 326.

[245] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 374.

[246] Ponce de Lauziere, Marquis de Themines, Senechal de Quercy, and subsequently Marechal de France.

[247] Bassompierre, Mem. p. 117.

[248] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 375, 376.

[249] Le Vassor, vol. i. pp. 541, 542. Mem. de la Regence de Marie de Medicis.

[250] On Twelfth-Night in France a bean is introduced into the cake, and the person selecting the slice in which it has been concealed is elected King for the evening.

[251] Bassompierre, Mem. p. 117.

[252] Rohan, Mem. p. 141. Fontenay-Mareuil, p. 350. D'Estrees, p. 414. Le Vassor, vol. i. pp. 542, 543. Brienne, Mem. vol. i. pp. 315, 316.

[253] Manuscript Memoirs of the Cardinal de Richelieu in the archives of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

[254] M. de Saint-Geran was an ensign of the gendarmes of the King's bodyguard, and one of the nobles who were known by the soubriquet of The Seventeen, among whom were the Marquis de Crequy and Bassompierre. He was a devoted ally of the Duc de Sully.

[255] Bassompierre, Mem. p. 118. Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 378, 379. Richelieu, Mem. book vii. p. 335.

[256] Richelieu, Mem. book vii. p. 335.

[257] Unpublished Mem. of Richelieu in the archives of the Foreign Office.

[258] Richelieu, Mem. book vii. p. 359.

[259] Unpublished Mem. of Richelieu.

[260] Richelieu, Mem. book vii. p. 368. Fontenay-Mareuil, p. 361.

[261] Fontenay-Mareuil, book iii. p. 369.

[262] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 387, 388.



CHAPTER IX

1617

The royal forces march against the insurgent Princes—Indignities offered to the young sovereign—Louis XIII and his favourite—Arrogance of the Marechal d'Ancre—Indignation of the King—Confiscation of the property of the rebel Princes—Household of Louis XIII—Cabal of De Luynes—Infatuation of the Marechal d'Ancre—An evil counsellor—Marie de Medicis resolves to withdraw from the Government, but is dissuaded from her purpose—Popular discontent—Precautions of Concini—Alarm of Louis XIII—The Duc de Nevers is declared guilty of Use-majeste—Firmness of the Queen-mother—Insolence of Concini and Richelieu—Conde is refused permission to justify himself—Success of the royal forces—Louis XIII consents to the arrest of the Marechal d'Ancre—Bassompierre warns Marie de Medicis of her danger—She disregards the warning—Concini and Leonora prepare to leave France—Old grievances renewed—A diplomatic Janus—Blindness of Marie and her ministers—A new conspirator—How to be made a marshal—Incaution of De Luynes—Treachery of Richelieu—A narrow escape—A morning mass—Singular position of the Court—Assassination of Concini—Public rejoicings—Imprisonment of the Queen-mother—Barbin is sent to the Bastille—The seals are restored to Du Vair—A royal reception—Anguish of Marie de Medicis—She demands to see the King, and is refused—Her isolation—A Queen and her favourite—A mother and her son—Arrest of Madame d'Ancre—The Crown jewels—Political pillage—The Marechale in the Bastille.

In the month of January the Comte d'Auvergne, who had recently been liberated from the Bastille, was despatched at the head of fourteen thousand men against the insurgent Princes; and his departure was made a pretext for depriving the young King of the gentlemen of his household and of his bodyguard, an insult which he deeply although silently resented. He had been attacked in the November of the preceding year by an indisposition which for a time had threatened the most serious consequences, and from whose latent effects he had not yet recovered. As time wore on, moreover, he was becoming more and more weary of the insignificance to which he was reduced by the delegated authority of his mother; and had easily suffered himself to be persuaded by De Luynes that her repeated offers to resign it had merely been designed to make him feel the necessity of her assistance. As we have already shown, Louis XIII derived little pleasure from the society of his young and lovely wife; he made no friends; and thus he was flung entirely into the power of his wily favourite, who, aware that the King could hate, although he could not love, was unremitting in his endeavours to excite him against Marie de Medicis and her favourite. The infatuated Concini seconded his efforts but too well; for, unable to bear his fortunes meekly, he paraded his riches and his power with an insolence which tended to justify the aversion of his enemies. On one occasion, shortly after the dismemberment of his little Court, the monarch of France having refused to join a hunting-party organized by the Queen-mother, found himself entirely deserted save by De Luynes and a single valet; and overcome by mortification and melancholy, he leant his head upon his hand and wept bitterly. For some time not a sound was heard in the Louvre save the soughing of the wind through the tall trees of the palace-garden, and the measured tread of the sentinels, when suddenly a tumult arose in the great court; the trampling of horses, the voices of men, and the clashing of weapons were blent together; and dashing away his tears, Louis desired his favourite to ascertain the cause of the disturbance.

"It is the Marechal d'Ancre, Sire, who has just alighted," said De Luynes as he approached the window.

In a few minutes the Italian was announced, and entered the royal apartment followed by a train of forty gentlemen all magnificently attired. At this spectacle Louis started from his seat; and with a bitter smile inquired of the arrogant Marquis his motive for thus parading before his sovereign a state which could only be intended as a satire upon his own privations.

To this question the vainglorious adventurer replied in a tone of affected sympathy and patronage which festered in the heart of the young King; assuring him that his followers were at his own cost, and not at that of the state; and concluding his explanation by an offer of pecuniary aid, and a company of his regiment of Bussy-Zamet, which he had just brought from Normandy. Justly incensed by such an insult, Louis commanded him instantly to quit his presence; and he had no sooner withdrawn, followed by his glittering retinue, than the young monarch sank back upon his seat, and uttered the most bitter complaints of the affront to which he had been subjected.[263]

"And to this, Sire," said De Luynes, as he stood beside his royal master—"to this insult, which is but the precursor of many others, you have been subjected by the Queen-mother."

"I will revenge myself!" exclaimed Louis with a sudden assumption of dignity.

"And how?" demanded the favourite emphatically. "You are called a King, but where are your great nobles? where are the officers of your household? where are your barons? So many princes, so many powers. France has no longer a King."

"And my people?" shouted the excited youth.

"You have no people. You are a mere puppet in the hands of an ambitious woman and an unprincipled adventurer."

"A puppet!" echoed Louis haughtily. "Do I not wear the crown of France?"

"So did Charles IX," was the unmoved reply; "yet he died to make way for Henri III. Concini and his wife, Sire, come from the same country as Catherine de Medicis. Isabeau de Baviere was a mother, yet she preferred her lover to her son." [264]

"Enough, enough, Sir," said Louis, clutching the hilt of his sword; "I will hear no more, lest it should make me mad!"

De Luynes bowed in silence; he knew that the poisonous seed was sown, and he was content to wait until it should germinate.

The pecuniary difficulties of the kingdom exercised no influence over the festivities of the Court; balls, banquets, and comedies took place in rapid succession; and the young Queen danced in a ballet which was the admiration of all the spectators; an example which was followed by the nobles of the royal household.[265] Still, however, it was necessary to recruit the national treasury; and, accordingly, on the 10th of March a declaration was published by which the King confiscated all the property of the disaffected Princes, and made it forfeit to the Crown; while at the same time three separate bodies of troops attacked the rebels with complete success, and the royal arms were everywhere triumphant, when intelligence was forwarded to their leaders from the capital which induced an immediate cessation of hostilities.[266]

We have seen the effect of the insolence of Concini, and the insidious inferences of De Luynes, upon the mind of the young King, who had only six months previously been taught a lesson of dissimulation on the occasion of the arrest of Conde; and consequently it can scarcely be subject of surprise that, wounded to the heart's core, he was easily persuaded to exert in his own cause the subtlety which he had evinced at the bidding of another. He was now between fifteen and sixteen years of age, and was deeply imbued by the idea that he possessed an unlimited control alike over the properties, the liberty, the honour, and the lives of his subjects; but he was still utterly incapable of fulfilling his duties as a sovereign. His conceptions of right and wrong were confused and unstable; and he willingly listened to the advice of those whose counsels flattered his selfishness and his resentment. De Luynes had skilfully availed himself of this weakness; and as he was all-powerful with his suspicious and saturnine master, who saw in every one by whom he was approached either an enemy to be opposed, or a spy to be deceived, he was careful to introduce to him none save individuals whose insignificance rendered them incapable of interfering with his own interests, and who might be dismissed without comment or danger whenever he should deem their absence desirable. Against this arrangement neither the Queen-mother nor her ministers entered any protest. Louis truly was, as his favourite had so insolently asserted, a mere puppet in their hands; and the consequence of this undignified neglect was fatal to the intellectual progress of the young sovereign. On the pretext of requiring assistance in training the royal falcons, De Luynes had presented to Louis two young nobles, MM. du Troncon and de Marcillac, men of good birth, but who had become dishonoured by their own vices; the former being accused of having betrayed his master, and the latter his sisters in order to enrich himself;[267] facts of which the favourite was, however, careful that the King should remain ignorant.

In addition to these disreputable adventurers, De Luynes also introduced to the intimacy of his royal patron Deageant,[268] the principal clerk of Barbin, whom he had won over by promises of aggrandizement should he succeed in effecting the disgrace of Concini, which, as a natural consequence, must also involve that of his master; and, finally, a private soldier, and one of the gardeners of the palace. All these persons were instructed to excite the suspicions of the King against his mother and her ministers, a task in which it was by no means difficult to succeed; particularly when the treacherous Deageant had placed in his hands a number of forged letters, wherein Barbin, at the pretended instigation of Concini, was supposed to entertain a design against his life, in order not only to prolong the authority of the Queen-mother, but also to ensure the crown to her second and favourite son, Gaston d'Orleans.[269]

Skilfully as De Luynes conducted this affair, and despite the natural dissimulation of Louis XIII, the reiterated assertions and cautions of his familiar associates did not fail to produce an involuntary effect upon his manner and deportment which aroused the suspicions of the Italian; who, with an infatuation almost incredible, instead of endeavouring to conciliate the young King, and to render himself less obnoxious to the people, resolved to make all bow before him, and to break the stubborn spirits that he failed to bend. In this desperate and insane policy he was, moreover, seconded by the counsels of Barbin, whose impetuous temper and anxiety to secure his own safety alike urged him to support any measure which promised to maintain the government in the hands of Marie de Medicis and her favourite, in whose ruin he could not fail to be involved. So intemperately, indeed, did he pursue his purpose, that even Marie herself became alarmed; her most faithful adherents were absent with the army, while she had daily evidence of the activity of her enemies; and more than once at this period she declared her determination to withdraw from all participation in state affairs, and to resign her delegated authority, in order that her son might rule as he saw fit. From this purpose she was, however, constantly dissuaded by Barbin. "Madame," he said on one occasion when the Queen-mother appeared more than ever resolved to follow out her determination, "if you once abandon the administration of government you will cut the throats of your children. Should you cease to rule they will be utterly lost." [270]

No wonder that her tenderness as a mother, joined to her ambition as a Queen, induced Marie de Medicis to yield to the representations of one of her most trusted counsellors, even while the cloud was deepening around her. As the great nobles murmured at the insolence and tyranny of the audacious Italian, their murmurs were echoed by the curses of the people; and in every murmur and in every curse the name of the Queen-mother was coupled with that of Concini and his wife. Even the Marechal himself at length betrayed tokens of alarm; he never ventured to traverse the streets of Paris without a numerous retinue, and even so attended he cowered beneath the menacing looks and gestures which he encountered on all sides. Again and again he urged Leonora to leave France; but he urged in vain; and finally he resolved to take measures for securing a safe retreat in his government of Normandy, should he be compelled to escape from the capital. As a preliminary and important step towards the accomplishment of this purpose, he caused the fortifications of Quilleboeuf to be put into a state of perfect repair, and endeavoured to purchase the governments of several other places upon the Loire and the Seine; which, had he been enabled to carry out his object, could not have failed to render him independent of the royal authority. He also lavished large sums on every side, in order to secure partisans; and so excited the apprehensions of the citizens that bitter complaints were made, and threats uttered against himself, his royal mistress, and the new ministry.

All these, many of which had been fomented by themselves, were faithfully reported by De Luynes and his agents to the young King, to whom they pointed out the probability of a general insurrection.

"What is to be done?" exclaimed Louis on one occasion; "the Marechal d'Ancre has, as it would seem, undertaken the ruin of my kingdom, and yet I dare not expostulate with my mother, for I cannot encounter her rage."

This puerile avowal decided the measures of the confederates; and ere long they succeeded in convincing the King that it would be quite possible to accomplish the overthrow of Concini without exposing himself to the anger which he dreaded.

On the 17th of January a royal declaration was confirmed by the Parliament against the Duc de Nevers, who, although not yet in open revolt, was condemned as guilty of rebellion and lese-majeste; and this premature act of severity caused general discontent throughout the capital. In vain did his sister the Dowager Duchess of Longueville and Bentivoglio the Papal Nuncio endeavour to effect his reconciliation with the Court. At the instigation of Richelieu, Concini, and Barbin, Marie de Medicis imperiously refused to revoke, the sentence.

"The period of forbearance is gone by," she said coldly in reply to the persevering representations of the prelate. "Indulgence has proved ineffectual hitherto; and it has consequently become imperative upon the King to adopt more rigorous measures. These gentlemen are enacting the petty sovereigns in their respective governments, but I shall take steps to repress their insolence. Things have now been pushed to extremity; and we must either crush these rebellious and restless spirits, or permit the royal authority to be wrested from the sovereign."

Still, aware of the fatal consequences which must result from the uncompromising condemnation of one of the first Princes in the land, Bentivoglio would not be discouraged; and on retiring from the presence of the Queen-mother he reiterated his expostulations to Concini and Richelieu. With them, however, the zealous Nuncio achieved no better success.

"His Majesty," said the Italian Marshal haughtily, "will ere long possess an army of eighty thousand infantry and four thousand horse; the Comte de Schomberg[271] has received an order to import experienced troops from Germany; and I have determined to raise five thousand men at my own cost; being resolved to teach the French people how all the faithful servants of the Crown should feel it their duty to act on such an emergency." [272]



The new Secretary of State followed in the track of his patron, and with equal explicitness: "The King, Monseigneur," he replied to the appeal of the Nuncio, "is resolved to be the ruler of his own nation; and his Majesty trusts, moreover, that should the Duc de Nevers and the other Princes openly take up arms, the Pope will excommunicate them as rebels to their sovereign." [273]

In addition to the discontent created among the people by this ill-judged pertinacity on the part of Marie and her Government, a new cause of disaffection was elicited by the harshness with which the Queen-mother refused to comply with the demand made by the two Princesses of Conde, that the Prince should either be released from the Bastille, or put upon his trial, in order that he might prove his innocence of the crime of which he was accused. Compliance with this request would have placed Marie and her ministers in a position of such difficulty and danger that it was, moreover, refused with an abruptness which not only betrayed their alarm, but which also tended still further to aggravate the irritation of his friends; and thus at a moment when the interests of the young King required that none but conciliatory measures should be adopted, the reckless ambition of a few individuals threatened to shake the very foundations of his throne, and to reduce the nation to a state of anarchy and convulsion.

The time was ripe for the project of De Luynes. The royal forces were everywhere victorious against the insurgent nobles; and Concini openly attributed to his own counsels a success which promised to make him all-powerful at Court.

"You see, Sire," said the favourite, "that this arrogant Italian, not content with insulting your royal person, also claims the merit due to your brave army, and to your faithful generals. Will you continue to suffer this presumption to degrade you in the eyes of your people, and to undermine your authority over your barons? Take the reins of government into your own hands, and prove that you are a worthy descendant of St. Louis. Reform the Government, and you will soon restore tranquillity to France; but do not any longer submit to see a base-born foreigner openly play the sovereign at your very Court."

"Show me the means of doing this," was the sullen reply; "I am as anxious as yourself to escape my present state of slavery. Devise some sure method of ridding me of the thrall to which I have been so long condemned, and I will second your designs as earnestly as you can decide them."

"You have but to assert yourself, Sire, and to exert your authority."

"Were I to do so," retorted Louis, "I should only incur the hatred and ill-offices of my mother, for I should forthwith visit my vengeance upon her favourite; but we have had brawls enough in France, and I am weary of all these conflicting murmurs. Induce the Marechal and his wife to quit the country; let them carry away all their wealth, and even bribe them, by new gifts should it be necessary. Impoverished as she is, France will still be able to find a few thousand crowns with which to purchase their departure."

Although this extraordinary leniency by no means fulfilled the wishes of De Luynes, he dared not venture further at the moment; and he accordingly induced the Bishop of Carcassonne to propose to the Queen-mother that she should herself suggest the return of Concini and Leonora to Italy. A year or two previously Marie de Medicis would have repelled such a proposition with anger and impatience, but she had begun to feel that her own authority had been invaded by the Marechal; and she consented to act upon the advice of the prelate.

Heart-stricken by misfortune, the Marechale listened without one expostulation to the order of her royal foster-sister; her ambition had long been crushed, and she pined for rest. Aware, moreover, that by obeying the wishes of the Queen-mother she should also fulfil those of her husband, she promised immediate compliance with the will of Marie, and forthwith commenced the necessary preparations.

This unqualified acquiescence in the pleasure of the Queen did not, however, satisfy the views of De Luynes, who could not brook that the immense wealth of the Marechal d'Ancre should pass into other hands than his own; and he consequently laboured to impress upon the King that the apparent obedience of Concini was a mere subterfuge, as he publicly boasted that France contained not a single individual who would dare to attempt anything to his prejudice.

"Convince him to the contrary, Sire," said one of his confidential friends to the young monarch. "Declare to the Queen-mother your determination to be governed no longer in your own kingdom, although you are still willing to be guided by her advice; and then command the instant departure of her dissimulating favourites. Do this, and you will not fail to be obeyed."

"Be not misled, Sire," said De Luynes in his turn, when this officious but well-meaning counsellor had withdrawn; "your Majesty will not be obeyed so readily as many would lead you to anticipate. Concini is too rapacious willingly to leave the country while there remains one jewel to be filched from your royal crown; and he is too ambitious to abandon without a struggle the factitious power which he has been permitted to exert." [274]

"What is to be done then, if the Italian refuses to quit France? I am in no position to compel his obedience, nor am I inclined to issue an order which I cannot enforce."

"Sire," said De Luynes approaching the monarch, the querulousness of whose manner warned him that unless he caused him to fear for his personal safety Louis would rather retire from the struggle than brave the anger of his mother, of whom he even now stood as much in awe as he had done during his childhood, "I see that the moment is at length come in which I must peril my own security in order to ensure that of your Majesty. You have no longer an alternative if you desire to escape the machinations of the Marechal d'Ancre. I have sure information that an attempt is about to be made to seize your person, and to take you out of the country."

"You rave, De Luynes!" exclaimed Louis, whose cheeks blanched at this unexpected announcement.

"Would that I did, Sire," was the reply; "but should you not adopt immediate measures for circumventing the traitor whom I have denounced to you at the hazard of my own life, you will find that I have only too much foundation for the assertion that I have made."

"In that case," vehemently retorted the young King, grasping the hilt of his sword, "it is indeed time that France should recognize her legitimate ruler, and that her monarch won his golden spurs. I will leave Paris, and place myself at the head of my army."

"Concini will then remain in undisputed possession of the capital," remarked De Luynes coldly.

"What is my alternative, Albert?" demanded Louis, utterly discouraged. "Name it, and I will no sooner have become in fact as well as name the sovereign of France than you shall receive the baton of a marshal,"

"Commit M. d'Ancre to the Bastille, Sire. It is difficult to conspire within the gates of that fortress."

"Where shall I find an individual hardy enough to undertake such an enterprise?"

"I will present him to your Majesty within an hour, Sire."

"So be it, M. le Marechal," said Louis as he turned away. "My mother had the courage to provide a lodging for the first Prince of the Blood in the same prison, and I do not see why I should shrink from compelling him to share his dungeon with the husband of Leonora Galigai."

While this plot was forming in the closet of the young King, Marie de Medicis was warned on her side that should she not adopt the most stringent measures to counteract the intrigues of De Luynes, she would soon lose all her authority over the mind of her son, who had latterly betrayed increased impatience of her control; and who was evidently desirous to emancipate himself from the thraldom to which he had hitherto so patiently submitted. Bassompierre among others, with his usual frankness, replied to his royal mistress, when she urged him to declare his sentiments upon the subject: "You have been well advised, Madame; you do not sufficiently consider your own interests; and one of these days the King will be taken from beneath your wing. His adherents have commenced by exciting him against your friends, and ere long they will excite him against yourself. Your authority is only precarious, and must cease whenever such may be the will of the sovereign. He will be easily persuaded to annul it, for we know how eagerly youth pants for power; and should his Majesty see fit one day to remove to St. Germain, and to command his principal officers, both Frenchmen and foreigners, no longer to recognize your rule, what will be your position? Even I myself, whose devotion to your Majesty is above suspicion, should be compelled to take my leave, humbly entreating your permission to obey the orders of the King. Judge therefore, Madame, if such must inevitably be the case with those who are deeply attached to your royal person, what may be the bearing of the rest. You would find yourself with your hands empty after a long regency."

Marie, however, refused to be convinced. She had become so habituated to the passive obedience of her son that she could not bring herself to believe that he would ever venture to resist her will; and thus she rejected the wholesome advice of those who really desired her own welfare and that of the country; and increased the exasperation of Louis and his followers by lavishing upon Concini and his wife the most costly presents, in order to reconcile them to their enforced separation from herself.[275]

The profuse liberality of the Queen-mother to her favourites sealed their death-warrant, as every increase of their already almost fabulous wealth only strengthened the determination of De Luynes to build up his own fortunes upon the ruin of those of his detested enemy; but after the first burst of resolution which we have recorded, Louis had once more relapsed into vacillation and inertness. He still wept, but he no longer threatened; and it became necessary yet further to excite his indignation and hatred of Concini, in order to induce him to follow up the design which he had so eagerly formed against his liberty.

Means were not wanting. The young King was reminded by those about him of the niggardly spirit in which the Italian had supplied his wants during his boyhood, after having obtained the sanction of the Regent to regulate the expenses of his little Court. How often he had been compelled to ask as a favour that which was his own by right, while Concini was himself daily risking thousands of pistoles at the gaming-table, all of which had been drawn from the royal treasury! How insolently the Marechal had, upon an occasion when he was engaged at billiards with his Majesty, requested the royal permission to resume his plumed cap, and had replaced it on his head before that permission was expressed; with a hundred other trifling but mortifying incidents which made the blood of Louis boil in his veins, and placed him wholly in the power of his insidious associates.[276]

In order to hasten the resolution of the King De Luynes next resolved to impress upon his mind that his former warning was about to be realized, and that ere long he would find himself a prisoner in his own capital; while, with a view to render this declaration plausible, he took means to have it reported to Marie de Medicis that Louis was about to escape from Paris, to cast off her authority, and to form a coalition with the insurgent Princes. In consequence of this information the counsellors of the Queen-mother induced her to double the guard at the Louvre, and to prevent the King from passing the city gates, either for the purpose of hunting, or of visiting, as he was frequently in the habit of doing, the suburban palaces. This was a crowning triumph for the cunning favourite, who thus saw his royal master reduced to seek all his recreation in the gardens of the Tuileries; and he soon became convinced that his project had succeeded. For a few days Louis was too indignant to make any comment upon the treatment to which he was subjected, and he even affected to derive amusement from constructing miniature fortresses, bird-hunting, and other similar pursuits; but it was not long ere he became disgusted with these compulsory pastimes, and wandered moodily through the avenues of the gardens, communing with his own thoughts, and nursing the bitter feelings which were rapidly sapping his better impulses.

When he had thus convinced himself that the King's powers of endurance had reached their extreme limit, De Luynes and his confederates on one occasion entered his chamber in the evening, but instead of suggesting to the young monarch, according to their usual habit, some method of whiling away the time until he retired to rest, they approached him with a melancholy and almost frightened deportment which at once aroused alike his curiosity and his apprehension. "What is the meaning of your manner, gentlemen?" asked Louis. "What has occurred?"

His attendants glanced at each other, as if trusting that some one of their number would be bold enough to take the responsibility of a reply upon himself; but no one spoke.

"I have asked a question, and I demand an answer," said Louis with a threatening frown. "Do the very members of my household—those who call themselves my friends—forget that, spite of all my trials, and all my privations, I am still the King of France?"

"Sire," murmured the one upon whom his eye had rested as he spoke, "it is because we are devoted heart and soul to your Majesty that you see us in this mortal anxiety. In losing you we should lose everything; but since it is your command that we should tell you all, it is our duty to obey. The citizens of Paris are in a state of consternation. All your loyal subjects fear for your life. Tears and sobs are to be heard on every side. You are in the hands of Italians—of the countrymen and countrywomen of Catherine de Medicis; and everything is to be apprehended from people who know so well how to work out their ends by poison."

"Is it come to this?" gasped the young King as he sank back upon his chair. "Am I to die mocked as I have lived? A sovereign without a will, a king without a throne, a monarch without a crown? The tool of needy adventurers and intriguing women? the victim of treachery and murder?" and the credulous boy leant his head upon his hands, and wept.

Before the chamber of Louis was closed that night upon his confidential friends it was decided that the weapon of the assassin and the axe of the executioner should rid him of Concini and his wife; and that his mother should be banished from the Court.

When the King awoke on the following morning De Luynes was already at his bedside, in order to counteract by his specious arguments and gloomy prognostics any less violent and criminal decision at which his royal master might have arrived during the solitude and silence of the night; and ably did the tempter perform his task. An increase of devotion and respect was skilfully blended with an apparent anxiety and alarm, which flattered the self-esteem and vanity of Louis, at the same time that they renewed all the terrors of the previous evening. His feeble remonstrances were overruled; his filial misgivings were stifled; and the favourite at length quitted his presence satisfied that he would not seek to retract his orders.

The advice of De Luynes was not needed when he implored his Majesty to observe the greatest circumspection until the important design was carried out, for, naturally timid and suspicious, Louis was already an adept in dissimulation; and the idea instantly occurred to him that should Concini or Leonora once have cause to apprehend that he meditated their destruction, his own life would pay the forfeit. De Luynes, however, strange as it may appear, was less discreet, and admitted so many persons to his confidence that rumours of their peril reached the ears of the Queen-mother and her favourites; but, unhappily for themselves, they despised both the King and his minion too much to attach any importance to the idea of danger from such a quarter. Satisfied that Louis still pursued his boyish sports, which as a measure of precaution he had resumed apparently with greater enthusiasm than ever, and that he could not leave the capital without the express permission of Marie de Medicis herself, they considered themselves safe; and thus lulled into a fatal security, took no measures to avert the impending catastrophe.[277]

The mind is a species of moral daguerreotype; surround it with images of order, virtue, and beauty, enlighten it by the sun of truth, and every object will trace itself unerringly upon the surface, remaining engraven there for ever; but, on the other hand, if the accessories be evil, it will in like manner become invested with the attributes amid which it exists, and the luminous spark will be darkened by the pernicious atoms that have been suffered to collect about it.

Louis XIII of France was at this moment an illustration of the principle. His boyhood and his youth had alike been familiar only with intrigue, deception, jealousy, and falsehood. His habits were at once saturnine and selfish; his temper gloomy and distrustful, and his feelings cold and self-centred. His youth had already shadowed forth his manhood.

De Luynes was aware that he should experience little difficulty in finding the man he sought, when he assured his royal master that he knew one bold enough to attempt the life of Concini; his selection was indeed already made, and he had no misgiving of a refusal. The Baron de Vitry, captain of the bodyguard then on duty at the Louvre, and who was peculiarly obnoxious to the Italian favourite, returned his hate so openly that he refused to salute him as he entered and quitted the palace, and publicly declared that no command, come from whence it might, should ever compel him to do so.[278] De Luynes no sooner felt that a man of this determination might be useful than he sought his friendship; and now that the conspiracy had become ripe, he sent to invite him to an interview, during which he assured him that the King had great confidence not only in his affection for his person, but also in his inclination to serve him when the opportunity should present itself; that he believed him capable of great deeds, and that he would confide his life to him.

De Vitry was a soldier of fortune, dependent upon his sword, and the little sentiment that he possessed was at once awakened by so unexpected a communication. As a natural consequence, therefore, he protested his readiness to risk life and limb at the pleasure of his Majesty; and declared that, whatever might be the nature of the service required of him, he would execute it without hesitation or remonstrance.

On receiving this pledge, De Luynes, after exacting an oath of secrecy and obedience, beckoned to his companion to follow him; and throwing open the door of the royal closet, which was never closed against him, he introduced De Vitry without further preamble into the presence of the King.

"M. de Vitry," said Louis, when the favourite had explained the errand of the captain of the royal guard, "I thank you for your zeal, and I have faith in its sincerity. The Marechal d'Ancre has conspired against my life. He must sleep to-morrow night in the Bastille."

"He shall be there, Sire, should the fortress still possess a bolt to draw upon him, if it be your royal will that I accomplish his arrest."

"M. de Vitry, you will have earned a marshal's baton."

"Sire!" exclaimed the soldier, dropping on his knee before the King, "I will obey you to the death."

"I must never again be insulted by his presence," said Louis, fixing his eyes, which flashed for an instant with a threatening light, full upon the upturned countenance of De Vitry. "Rise, Sir," he added as he turned suddenly away, "I have perfect confidence in your fidelity."

"But—should he resist, Sire?" asked the new conspirator, anxious not to exceed his orders.

"Kill him!" replied De Luynes in a hoarse whisper. "Do you not yet understand how you are to earn your baton?"

The two friends exchanged glances; and after a profound bow, De Vitry withdrew from the royal closet.

The indiscretion of De Luynes had been so great that a rumour of the perilous position of Concini did not fail to reach the ears of Richelieu. We have already stated that on his arrival at Court the Bishop of Lucon had been warmly patronized by the Italian favourite, who openly declared that he had found a man capable of giving a lesson a tutti barboni,[279] thereby alluding to the ancient ministers of Henri IV;[280] and that it was moreover through his agency that Marie de Medicis had appointed the wily prelate Secretary of State; but Richelieu was too subtle a diplomatist to allow a feeling of gratitude to interfere with his advancement; and he consequently no sooner ascertained beyond all possibility of mistake that his two patrons, the Queen-mother and her favourite, were about to succumb to the insidious attack of De Luynes, than, anxious to retain office, he hastened to despatch his brother-in-law, M. de Pontcourlay, to the latter, with instructions to offer his services, and to assure him that he had only consented to accept the charge which he then held in order that he might through this medium be enabled to devote himself to the interests of the King.