The irritation which he felt under this complicated disappointment, combined with the consciousness that he had been duped by the Cardinal, and compelled to act as the subordinate of an individual so inferior to himself in rank, created a disgust which, carefully as he endeavoured to conceal it, soon became evident to those about him; nor was it long ere Marie de Medicis and Monsieur were informed of his disaffection. Confidential messengers were immediately despatched to invite the Duke to espouse their cause, and they found a powerful ally in the Duchess, Maria Felicia d'Ursini, who was a near relative of the Queen-mother.

Weary of inaction, anxious for revenge, and, perhaps, desirous of emulating the generous example of the Duc d'Epernon, who had previously declared himself the champion of Marie, Montmorency was at length prevailed upon to consent to their solicitations, and even to pledge himself to receive Gaston in Languedoc; although at the same time he urged him not to quit Brussels until the end of August, in order that he might have time to complete the necessary preparations.

The prospect of possessing so powerful an ally strengthened the hopes of the royal exiles; and immediately upon the arrival of Monsieur in the Low Countries, the mother and son began to concert measures for the success of their difficult and dangerous undertaking. The first impediment which they were called upon to surmount was their total inability to defray the expenses of a powerful army, and to secure the necessary funds for maintaining a secret correspondence with their French adherents. The munificence of Isabella supplied all their personal wants, but even her truly regal profusion could not be expected to extend beyond this point; and it was ultimately agreed that both parties should forward at all risks their jewels by a trusty messenger to Amsterdam for sale.

This had scarcely been accomplished when intelligence reached the Archducal Court of the trial of the Marechal de Marillac, ostensibly for peculation, but, as the Queen-mother and her son were only too well aware, simply for his adherence to their own cause. In vain did they protest against so iniquitous a measure; in vain did they entreat the interference of their friends in his behalf, and even menace his judges with their personal vengeance, individually and collectively, should they be induced to pronounce his condemnation; Richelieu in his plenitude of present power overruled all their efforts; and the unfortunate Marechal, who had incurred the hatred of the Cardinal from his favour with Marie de Medicis, was sentenced to lose his head by the majority of a single voice, and was executed on the following day; while his unhappy brother expired a short time subsequently in the fortress of Chateaudun.[170]

Meanwhile the Court of Brussels became a scene of dissension and violence. The favourites of the Queen-mother and those of the Duc d'Orleans were engaged in constant struggles for supremacy; the Duc de Bellegarde and the President Le Coigneux had refused to accompany Monsieur, who was consequently entirely under the influence of Puylaurens, with whom he passed his nights in the most sensual and degrading pleasures; while Marie de Medicis, under the direction of her constant companion and confidant Chanteloupe, spent her time in devotional duties, and in dictating to the hired writers by whom she had surrounded herself, either pamphlets against the Cardinal, or petitions to the Parliament of Paris.

Alarmed by the execution of Marillac, Monsieur, however, roused himself from his trance of dissipation; and disregarding the entreaties of the Duc de Montmorency, resolved to join the army which Gonzalez de Cordova, the Spanish Ambassador, was concentrating at Treves, at the instigation of Charles de Lorraine, who was anxious to delay the threatened invasion of his own duchy by the French troops.

On the 18th of May Gaston d'Orleans accordingly took leave of the Court of Brussels; when the Infanta, not satisfied with having during the space of four months defrayed all the outlay of his household, accompanied her parting compliments with the most costly and munificent gifts, not only to the Prince himself, but also to every nobleman and officer in his service. About the neck of Monsieur she threw a brilliant chain of carbuncles and emeralds, from which was suspended a miniature portrait of the King of Spain. Numerous chests of wearing apparel, linen, and other requisites for the forthcoming campaign, swelled his slender baggage to a thoroughly regal extent; while her treasurer was instructed to deliver into his hands the sum of one hundred thousand patagons,[171] with which to defray the expenses of the journey.[172]

Having spent a fortnight at Treves, and received the troops promised by Philip of Spain, the Prince resolved at once to prosecute his intention of entering France; a resolution which was earnestly combated by Montmorency, who represented that he was yet unprovided with the necessary funds for the maintenance of the troops, and with the means of defence essential to the success of the enterprise. Urged, however, as we have stated, by the Duc de Lorraine, and presuming upon the prestige of his name, Gaston refused to listen to this remonstrance; and after having traversed the territories of his brother-in-law, he hurriedly pursued his march through Burgundy at the head of his slender body of Spanish cavalry. Contrary, however, to his expectations, he was not joined by a single reinforcement upon the way, although his position as heir-presumptive to the Crown secured him from any demonstration of resistance. Langres and Dijon closed their gates against him, the magistrates excusing themselves upon the plea that they held those cities for the King; and on his arrival in the Bourbonnais, after devastating all the villages upon his route, the imprudent Prince was met by a request from M. de Montmorency that he would march his troops through some other province, as no sufficient preparations had yet been completed for his security in Languedoc. Once embarked in his rash attempt, however, Gaston disdained to comply with this suggestion; and pursued his way towards the government of the Duke, closely followed by ten thousand men, who had been despatched against him by Richelieu, under the command of the Marechal de la Force.

Our limits will not permit us to do more than glance at the progress of this rash and ill-planned campaign, which, in its result, cost some of the best and noblest blood in France. Suffice it that the Cardinal, alarmed by the rapidity with which Monsieur advanced towards Languedoc, and rendered still more apprehensive by the defection of the Marechal-Duc de Montmorency, lost no time in inducing the sovereign to place himself at the head of his army, in order to intimidate the rebels by his presence; while, on the other hand, the States of Languedoc had been induced through the persuasions of their Governor to register (on the 22nd of July) a resolution by which they invited the Duc d'Orleans to enter their province, and to afford them his protection; they pledging themselves to supply him with money, and to continue faithful to his interests.[173]

Montmorency, on his side, had received from Spain a promise that he should be forthwith reinforced by six thousand men, and a considerable amount of treasure for the payment of the troops; but Philip and his ministers, satisfied with having kindled the embers of intestine war in the rival kingdom, suddenly abated in their zeal; no troops were furnished, and the whole extent of their pecuniary aid did not exceed the sum of fifty thousand crowns, which did not, moreover, reach their destination until the struggle was decided.

Thus Montmorency found himself crippled on all sides; and when the rashness of Gaston had directed the march of the royal army upon Languedoc, he was in no position to make head against them. Nevertheless the brave spirit of the Duke revolted at the idea of submission, and he accordingly prepared to protect himself as best he might by the seizure of a few fortresses; and, finally, he received Monsieur at Lunel, on the 30th of July. Their combined forces amounted only to two thousand foot-soldiers, three thousand horse, and a number of volunteers, together with three pieces of ordnance; while, being totally destitute of funds, there could remain but little doubt as to the issue of the expedition.

One faint hope of success, however, still animated the insurgents. The King, although upon his march, had not yet joined the little army of the Marechal de Schomberg, which consisted only of a thousand infantry and twelve hundred horse, while he was totally destitute of artillery; and Montmorency at once perceived that hostilities must be commenced before the junction of the royal forces could take place. Schomberg had taken up his position near Castelnaudary, in order of battle, on the 1st of September; and, acting upon the conviction we have named, Montmorency determined on an attack, which, should it prove successful, could not fail to be of essential service to the interests of Monsieur. It was accordingly resolved that the Marechal-Duc should assume the command of the vanguard, while Gaston placed himself at the head of the main body. Montmorency was accompanied by the Comtes de Moret, de Rieux, and de la Feuillade, who, after some slight skirmishes, abandoning the comparatively safe position which they occupied, recklessly pushed forward to support a forlorn hope which had received orders to take possession of an advantageous post. M. de Moret, whose impetuosity always carried him into the heart of the melee, was the first to charge the royal cavalry, among whom he created a panic which threw them into the utmost disorder; and this circumstance was no sooner ascertained by Montmorency than, abdicating his duties as a general, he dashed forward at the head of a small party to second the efforts of his friend. The error was a fatal one, however, for he had scarcely cut his way through the discomfited horsemen when some companies of Schomberg's infantry, who had been placed in ambush in the ditches, suddenly rose and fired a volley with such precision upon the rebel troop, that De Moret, De Rieux, and La Feuillade, together with a number of inferior officers, were killed upon the spot, while Montmorency himself fell to the ground covered with wounds, his horse having been shot under him. And meanwhile Gaston looked on without making one effort to avenge the fate of those who had fallen in his cause; and he no sooner became convinced that his best generals were lost to him than, abandoning the wounded to the tender mercies of the enemy, he retreated from the scene of action without striking a blow.[174]

As, faint from loss of blood, Montmorency lay crushed beneath the weight of his heavy armour, he gasped out: "Montmorency! I am dying; I ask only for a confessor." His cries having attracted the attention of M. de St. Preuil, a Captain of the Guards, who endeavoured to extricate him, he murmured, as he drew an enamelled ring from his finger: "Take this, young man, and deliver it to the Duchesse de Montmorency." He then fainted from exhaustion, and his captors hastened to relieve him of his cuirass and his cape of buff leather, which was pierced all over by musket balls. While they were thus engaged, the Marquis de Breze,[175] who had been informed of his capture, hastened to the spot, and, taking his hand, bade him be of good cheer; after which he caused him to be placed upon a ladder covered with cloaks and straw, and thus conveyed him to Castelnaudary.[176]

The retreat of Gaston from this ill-fated field was accomplished in the greatest disorder; on every side whole troops of his cavalry were to be seen galloping madly along without order or combination; and it was consequently evident to Schomberg that nothing could prevent Monsieur and the whole of his staff from falling into his hands, should he see fit to make them prisoners. The Marechal possessed too much tact, however, to make such an attempt, as in the one case he must incur the everlasting enmity of the heir-presumptive to the Crown, or, in the other, Gaston, roused by a feeling of self-preservation, might attempt to renew the conflict, and finally retrieve the fortunes of the day. By the fall of Montmorency, moreover, sufficient had been accomplished to annihilate the faction of Monsieur; and thus the royal general offered no impediment to the retreat of the Prince, whom he permitted to retire in safety to Beziers with the remnant of his army.[177]

The subsequent bearing of Gaston d'Orleans was worthy of his conduct at Castelnaudary; as, only three days after the battle, he suffered himself to be persuaded that his best policy would be to throw himself upon the clemency of the King. His infantry disbanded themselves in disgust, and he was compelled to pawn his plate in order to defray the arrears of his foreign allies; while the province of Languedoc, which regarded him as the destroyer of its idolized Governor, returned to its allegiance, and refused to recognize his authority.

Yet, notwithstanding these circumstances, there was a romance and an interest attached to the position of the Prince, combating and struggling as he affected to be, not merely for a recognition of his own rights, but also for those of a widowed and outraged mother, which, had he proved himself worthy of his exalted station, must have ensured to him the regard and co-operation of a brave and generous nation; but Gaston d'Orleans had been weighed in the balance, and had been found wanting in all the attributes of his rank and birth, and a deep disgust had replaced among the people the enthusiasm which his misfortunes had previously excited. He sacrificed his friends without a pang, save in so far as their fall involved his own success; he was ever as ready to submit as he had been to revolt, when his personal interests demanded the concession; and thus, satisfied that in every case he was wholly governed by a principle of self-preservation, all save those whose individual fortunes were hinged upon his own fell from him without hesitation and without remorse.

Convinced that by the capture of the Duc de Montmorency he was rendered powerless, the weak and selfish Prince, as we have said, sought only to protect himself from the effects of his revolt; and, accordingly, when he became aware that he could no longer contend, he expressed an earnest desire to effect a reconciliation with his royal brother; although, still infatuated by vanity, he proposed conditions as exaggerated as though his position enabled him to enforce them in the event of their rejection. It was, however, an easy task for the negotiators to convince him that he overestimated his power, and to induce him in a few days to make concessions as dishonourable as they were humiliating. Not only did he consent to discontinue all intercourse with the Courts of Spain and Lorraine, but also to forsake the interests of the unhappy Queen-mother, who had fondly hoped to find in him a protector and an avenger, and to abandon to the justice of the King all those of his adherents who had incurred the royal displeasure, with the sole exception of his personal household; in whose joint names M. de Puylaurens pledged himself to reveal "all the particulars of such of their past transactions as might prove injurious to the state or to the interests of the sovereign, and to those who had the honour of being in his service."

Even Richelieu himself could demand no more; and, accordingly, upon these degrading terms, Monsieur received a written assurance from the King that thenceforward he would receive him once more into favour, re-establish him in his possessions, and permit him to reside upon that one of his estates which should be selected by the royal pleasure, together with the members of his household who were included in the amnesty. This treaty was signed on the 29th of September, and the residence assigned to Gaston was Champigny, a chateau which had originally belonged to the ducal family of Montpensier.

Justice must, however, be rendered to the Duc d'Orleans in so far that before he could be induced to put his hand to this degrading document he made a vigorous effort to procure the pardon of the Marechal de Montmorency; but the attempt was frustrated by Richelieu, who, feeling that the Prince was in the toils, would admit of no such concession.

The agents of the Cardinal were instructed to assure Monsieur that he had no hope of escape for himself save in an entire submission to the will of the sovereign; and this argument proved, as he was aware that it would do, all powerful with the individual to whom it was addressed; while he was, moreover, assured that his own pertinacity upon this point could only tend to injure the interests of Montmorency, which might be safely confided to the clemency of his royal master, and that his personal submission and obedience must exercise the most favourable influence upon the fortunes of both.

Easily persuaded where his own interests were involved, Gaston accordingly ceased to persist, and the young and gallant Duke was abandoned to the vengeance of the Cardinal. Louis XIII was at Lyons when he received intelligence of the defeat of Monsieur; and he was no sooner assured that the rebels had not taken a single prisoner, than he determined to make an example of every leader who had espoused their cause whom he might encounter on his journey. Ere he reached his destination three noble heads fell by the hand of the executioner; but still his vengeance was not sated; nor did the exalted rank and brilliant reputation of Montmorency serve for an instant to turn him from his purpose. Private animosity closed all the avenues of mercy; and the indiscretion of one meddling spirit sealed the death-warrant of the gallant prisoner. It is asserted that when he was captured Montmorency wore upon his arm a costly diamond bracelet, containing the portrait of Anne of Austria, which having been perceived by Bellievre, the commissary of Schomberg's army, who was greatly attached to the noble captive, he affected, in order to conceal the circumstance from less friendly eyes, to consider it expedient to subject the prisoner to a judicial interrogatory preparatory to his trial; and when he had seated himself beside him, ostensibly for this purpose, he succeeded with some difficulty in wrenching the miniature from its setting. But, notwithstanding all his precaution, the desired object was not accomplished without exciting the attention of some individual who hastened to apprise the Cardinal of what he had discovered, who at once communicated the fact to Louis, embittering his intelligence by comments which did not fail to arouse the indignation of the King, and to revive his jealousy of his wife, while they at the same time increased his exasperation against the rebel Duke.[178]

Montmorency was removed from Castelnaudary to Lectoure, and thence, still suffering cruelly from his wounds, to Toulouse, reaching the gates at the very moment when the bells of the city were ringing a joyous peal in honour of the arrival of the King, who had hastened thither in order to counteract by his presence any efforts which might be made by the judges to save his life. The Duke had been escorted throughout his journey by eight troops of cavalry well armed, his great popularity in the province having rendered the Cardinal apprehensive that an attempt would be made to effect his rescue; and while the glittering train of the sovereign was pouring into the streets amid the flourish of trumpets and the acclamations of the populace, the unfortunate prisoner was conveyed to the Hotel-de-Ville, where he was confined in a small chamber on the summit of the belfry-tower, "so that," says a quaint old historian, "the ravens came about him to sport among the stone-crop. A hundred of the Swiss Guards were on duty near his person night and day to prevent his holding any communication with the capitouls,[179] the citizens, and the public companies of the great city of Toulouse." [180]

Immediate preparations were made for the trial of the illustrious captive; Richelieu, who could ill brook delay when he sought to rid himself of an enemy, having prevailed upon the King to summon a Parliament upon the spot, instead of referring the case to the Parliament of Paris, by whom it should fitly have been tried. Nor was this the only precaution adopted by the vindictive Cardinal, who also succeeded in inducing Louis to nominate the members of the Court, which was presided over by Chateauneuf, the Keeper of the Seals, who had commenced his career as a page of the Connetable de Montmorency, the father of the prisoner.

As the Marshal-Duke had been taken in arms against the sovereign, and frankly avowed his crime, his fate was soon decided. He was declared guilty of high treason, and condemned to lose his head, his property to be confiscated, and his estates to be divested of their prerogative of peerage.

Not only during his trial, however, but even after his sentence had been pronounced, the most persevering efforts were made by all his friends to obtain its revocation. But Louis, as one of his historians has aptly remarked, was never so thoroughly a King as when he was called upon to punish,[181] a fact of which Richelieu was so well aware that he did not hesitate to affect the deepest commiseration for the unhappy Duke, and even to urge some of the principal nobles of the Court to intercede in his behalf.

The Princesse de Conde—to win whose love Henri IV had been about to provoke a European war—deceived by the treacherous policy of the Cardinal, threw herself at his feet to implore him to exert his influence over the monarch, and to induce him to spare the life of her beloved brother; but Richelieu, instead of responding to this appeal, in his turn cast himself on his knees beside her, and mingled his tears with hers, protesting his utter inability to appease the anger of his royal master.[182]

The Duc d'Epernon, who, notwithstanding his affection for Montmorency, had declined to join the faction of Monsieur, despite his age and infirmities also hastened to Toulouse, and in the name of all the relatives and friends of the criminal, implored his pardon as a boon. Nothing, however, could shake the inflexible nature of Louis, and although he did not attempt to interrupt the appeal of the Duke further than to command him to rise from his kneeling posture, it was immediately evident to all about him, from his downcast eyes, and the firm compression of his lips, that there was no hope for the culprit.

The resolute silence of the King ere long impressed M. d'Epernon with the same conviction; and, accordingly, having waited a few moments for a reply which was not vouchsafed, he requested the royal permission to leave the city.

"You are at liberty to do so at your pleasure, M. le Duc," said Louis coldly; "and I grant your request the more readily that I shall shortly follow your example."

Nor were the citizens less eager to obtain the release of their beloved Duke; and the house in which the King had taken up his temporary residence was besieged by anxious crowds who rent the air with cries of "Mercy! Mercy! Pardon! Pardon!" On one occasion their clamour became so loud that Louis angrily demanded the meaning of so unseemly an uproar, when the individual to whom he had addressed himself ventured to reply that what he heard was a general appeal to his clemency, and that should his Majesty be induced to approach the window, he would perhaps take pity upon the people.

"Sir," replied Louis haughtily, "were I to be governed by the inclinations of my people, I should cease to be a King!" [183]

From any other sovereign than Louis XIII a revocation of the sentence just pronounced against one so universally beloved as Montmorency might well have been anticipated, but the son of Henri IV was inaccessible to mercy where his private feelings were involved; and not only did he resist the entreaties and remonstrances by which he was overwhelmed, but he even refused to suffer the Duchesse de Montmorency, the Princesse de Conde, and the Duc d'Angouleme—the wife, sister, and brother-in-law of the prisoner—to approach him. He was weary of the contest, and eager for the termination of the tragic drama in which he played so unenviable a part.

While all was lamentation and despair about him, and the several churches were thronged with persons offering up prayers for the preservation of the condemned noble, the King coldly issued his orders for the execution, only conceding, as a special favour, that it should take place in the court of the Hotel-de-Ville, and that the hands of the prisoner should not be tied.[184]

Thus, on the 30th of October, the very day of his trial, perished Henri de Montmorency, who died as he had lived, worthy of the great name which had been bequeathed to him by a long line of ancestry, and mourned by all classes in the kingdom.

The unfortunate Marie de Medicis, who received constant intelligence of the movements of the rebel army, had wept bitter tears over the reverses of her errant son; but she had no sooner ascertained that by the Treaty of Beziers he had pledged himself to abandon her interests, than her grief was replaced by indignation, and she complained vehemently of the treachery to which she had been subjected. With her usual amiability, the Archduchess Isabella sought by every means in her power to tranquillize her mind, representing with some reason that the apparent want of affection and respect exhibited by Gaston on that occasion had probably been forced upon him by the danger of his own position, and entreating that she would at least suffer the Prince to justify himself before she condemned him for an act to which he was in all probability compelled by circumstances. But the iron had entered into the mother's soul, and the death of the Comtesse du Fargis, which shortly afterwards took place, added another pang to those which she had already endured.

The beautiful lady of honour had never been seen to smile since she was made acquainted with the fact of her mock trial and her execution in effigy in one of the public thoroughfares of Paris. The disgrace which, as she believed, would thenceforward attach to her name, not only wounded her sense of womanly dignity, but also broke her heart, and a rapid consumption deprived the unhappy Queen-mother of one of the most devoted of her friends.

It can scarcely be matter of surprise that, rendered desperate by her accumulated disappointments and misfortunes, Marie de Medicis at this moment welcomed with avidity the suggestions of Chanteloupe, who urged her to revenge upon the Cardinal the daily and hourly mortifications to which she was exposed. At first she hearkened listlessly to his counsels, for she was utterly discouraged; but ere long, as he unfolded his project, she awoke from her lethargy of sorrow, and entered with renewed vigour into the plan of vengeance which he had concerted. Whether it were that she hoped to save the life of Montmorency, of whose capture she had been informed, or that she trusted to effect her own return to France by placing herself in a position to make conditions with Richelieu, it is at least certain that she did not hesitate to subscribe to his views, and to lend herself to the extraordinary plot of the reverend Oratorian.

"Your Majesty is aware," said Chanteloupe, "that Monsieur has not dared to avow his marriage with the Princesse Marguerite; and I have sure information that the minister who endeavoured to effect a union between his favourite niece and the Cardinal de Lorraine without success, has now the audacity to lift his eyes to your own august son. The Queen is childless, and Richelieu aspires to nothing less than a crown for La Comballet."

"Per Dio!" exclaimed Marie, trembling with indignation.

"The lady is at present residing in the Petit Luxembourg," pursued the monk calmly; "in the very hotel given by your Majesty to his Eminence during the period when he possessed your favour—"

"Given!" echoed the Queen-mother vehemently. "Yes, given as you say, but on condition that whenever I sought to reclaim it, I was at liberty to do so on the payment of thirty thousand livres; and have you never heard what was the result of this donation? When he proved unworthy of my confidence I demanded the restoration of the hotel upon the terms of the contract, but when the document was delivered into my hands, I discovered that for livres he had substituted crowns, and that in lieu of 'whenever she shall desire it,' he had inserted 'when the King shall desire it.' I remonstrated against this treachery, but I remonstrated in vain; Louis pronounced against me, and the Cardinal established his wanton niece in my desecrated mansion, where she has held a Court more brilliant than that of the mother of her sovereign. Nay," continued the Queen, with increasing agitation, "the lingering atmosphere of royalty which yet clings to the old halls has so increased the greatness of the low-born relative of Jean Armand du-Plessis, that she has deemed it necessary to destroy one of the walls of my own palace in order to enlarge the limits of that which she inhabits." [185]

"It were well," said Chanteloupe, with a meaning smile, "to prove to the lady that it is possible to exist in a more narrow lodging. The King is absent from Paris. The Luxembourg is thinly peopled; and La Comballet would serve admirably as a hostage."

"Veramente, padre mio," exclaimed Marie de Medicis, bounding from her seat; "the thing is well imagined, and cannot fail to do us good service. Richelieu loves his niece—too well, if we are to credit the scandal-mongers of the Court—and with La Comballet in our hands we may dictate whatever terms we will. To work, padre, to work; there is little time to lose."

Such was the plot to which the Queen-mother imprudently accorded her consent; and for a time everything appeared to promise success. The nephew of Chanteloupe and a confidential valet of Marie herself were entrusted with the secret, and instructed to make the necessary arrangements. Relays were prepared between Paris and Brussels, and nine or ten individuals were engaged to assist in the undertaking. Carefully, however, as these had been selected, two of their number, alarmed by the probable consequences of detection, had no sooner arrived in the French capital than they revealed the plot, and the whole of the conspirators were committed to the Bastille, while information of the intended abduction was immediately forwarded to the King. Irritated by such an attempt, Louis commanded that they should instantly be put upon their trial; and at the same time he wrote with his own hand to congratulate Madame de Comballet on her escape, and to assure her that had she been conveyed to the Low Countries, he would have gone to reclaim her at the head of fifty thousand men. In return for this condescension the niece of Richelieu entreated the King to pardon the culprits, a request with which he complied the more readily as the names of several nobles of the Court were involved in the attempt, as well as that of the Queen-mother.[186]

The Cardinal, however, proved less forgiving than the destined victim of this ill-advised and undignified conspiracy. Enraged against Marie de Medicis, and anxious to make her feel the weight of his vengeance, he found little difficulty in inducing Louis to request Isabella to deliver up to him Chanteloupe and the Abbe de St. Germain;[187] but the Archduchess excused herself, declaring that as the two ecclesiastics in question were members of the Queen-mother's household, she could not consent to be guilty of an act of discourtesy towards her Majesty by which she should violate the duties of hospitality; and the only immediate result of the notable plot of the reverend Oratorian was the increased enmity of Richelieu towards his former benefactress.

Monsieur had no sooner ascertained the fate of Montmorency, whose life he had been privately assured would be spared in the event of his acknowledging his fault, than he at once felt that should he remain longer in France, not only his own safety might be compromised, but that he must also sacrifice the confidence of his few remaining adherents; as no one would be rash enough to brave the vengeance of the minister in his cause, should he not openly testify his indignation at so signal an offence. A rumour, moreover, reached him that several of the officers of his household were to be withdrawn from his service; and Puylaurens soon succeeded in convincing him that should he not leave the kingdom, he must be satisfied to live thenceforward in complete subjection to Richelieu; who, when he should ultimately ascertain the fact of his marriage with the Princesse Marguerite, would not fail to have it dissolved.

Already predisposed to the measure, the Prince yielded at once to the arguments of his favourite, and secretly left Tours on the 6th of November, accompanied only by fifteen or twenty of his friends. On his way to Burgundy, at Montereau-faut-Yonne, he wrote a long letter to the King, declaring that should his Majesty feel any displeasure at his thus leaving the country, he must attribute his having done so to his indignation against those who had caused him to take the life of the Duc de Montmorency, to save which he would willingly have smothered his just resentment, and sacrificed all his personal interests. He also complained bitterly that he had received a pledge to that effect which had been violated; and declared that he had been assured in the name of the King that should he march towards Roussillon it would seal the fate of the Duke, from which declaration he had inferred that by obeying the will of his Majesty he should ensure his safety; whereas, after having condescended to the most degrading proofs of submission, no regard had been shown to his feelings, and no respect paid to his honour. Finally, he announced his intention of seeking a safe retreat in a foreign country, alleging that from the treatment to which he had been subjected in France, he had every reason to dread the consequences of the insignificance into which he had fallen there.

In reply to this communication Louis coldly observed: "The conditions which I accorded to you are so far above your pretensions, that their perusal alone will serve as an answer to what you have advanced. I will not reply to your statement that the prospect which was held out to you of Montmorency's life caused you to submit to those terms. Every one was aware of your position. Had you another alternative?" [188]

Had Gaston been other than he was, the King would have been spared the question; for it is certain that had Monsieur only possessed sufficient courage to make the attempt, nothing could have prevented him after his retreat from Castelnaudary from retiring into Roussillon; but to the very close of his life, the faction-loving Prince always withdrew after the first check, and sought to secure his own safety, rather than to justify the expectations which his high-sounding professions were so well calculated to create.

FOOTNOTES:

[169] Henri II, Due de Montmorency, Governor of Languedoc, etc., was the son of Henri I, Due de Montmorency, Connetable de France. He was born on the 30th of April 1595, and was created Admiral of France when only eighteen years of age. His personal attractions, combined with his high moral qualities and singular accomplishments, secured to him great and deserved popularity. After having rendered the most brilliant services to his country, he was induced to espouse the cause of Gaston d'Orleans, and having imprudently exposed himself at the battle of Castelnaudary, he was made prisoner, put upon his trial for high treason at the instigation of the Cardinal de Richelieu, and executed at Toulouse on the 30th of October 1632.

[170] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 401-405. Capefigue, vol. v. pp. 90-105. Sismondi, vol. xxiii. pp. 188-190. Le Vassor, vol. vii. pp. 192-217.

[171] A Spanish coin, equal in value to a French crown.

[172] Gaston d'Orleans, Mem. p. 131. Capefigue, vol. v. p. 129.

[173] Siri, Mem. Rec. vol. vii. p. 552.

[174] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 58-60.

[175] Urbain de Maille, Marquis de Breze, the brother-in-law of the Cardinal de Richelieu.

[176] Capefigue, vol. v. p. 142.

[177] Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 411.

[178] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 415, 416.

[179] Principal magistrates of Toulouse.

[180] Histoire veritable de tout ce qui s'est fait et passe en la ville de Tholoze, en la mort de M. de Montmorency, 1632.

[181] Sismondi, vol. xxiii. p. 212.

[182] Siri, Mem. Rec. vol. vii. p. 565.

[183] Pontis, Mem. vol. ii. p. 37.

[184] Le Vassor, vol. vii. p. 216.

[185] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 83, 84.

[186] Le Vassor, vol. vii. pp. 412, 413. Siri, Mem. Rec. vol. vii. p. 575. Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 82-84.

[187] The Abbe de St. Germain was the author of a multitude of satirical pamphlets, powerfully written, and directed against the administration of Richelieu.

[188] Sismondi, vol. xxiii. pp. 212, 213. Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 84-86. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 417, 418. Le Vassor, vol. vii. pp. 421-427. Siri, Mem. Rec. vol. vii. p. 578. Capefigue, vol. v. pp. 195-201.



CHAPTER X

1633

Monsieur returns to Flanders—The Queen-mother retires in displeasure to Malines—Influence of Chanteloupe—Selfishness of Monsieur—Death of Gustavus Adolphus—Richelieu seeks to withdraw the Queen-mother and her son from the protection of Spain—Marie is urged to retire to Florence—The Tuscan envoy—Two diplomatists—Mortification of the Queen-mother—She desires to seek an asylum in England—Charles I. hesitates to grant her request—Helpless position of Marie de Medicis—The iron rule of Richelieu—The Cardinal-dramatist—Gaston avows his marriage to the King—Louis enters Lorraine, and takes Nancy—Madame escapes to the Low Countries—Her reception at the Court of Brussels—Marie de Medicis takes up her residence at Ghent—Serious indisposition of the Queen-mother—She solicits the attendance of her physician Vautier, and is refused—Hypocrisy of the Cardinal—Indignation of the dying Queen—She rejects the terms of reconciliation offered by the King—Attachment of her adherents—Richelieu negotiates the return of Gaston to France—The favourite of Monsieur—Gaston refuses to annul his marriage—Alfeston is broken on the wheel for attempting the life of the Cardinal—The Queen-mother is accused of instigating the murder—The bodyguard of the Cardinal-Minister is increased—Estrangement of Monsieur and his mother—Madame endeavours to effect the dismissal of Puylaurens—Insolence of the favourite—Heartlessness of Monsieur—Marie solicits permission to return to France—She is commanded as a condition to abandon her followers, and refuses—Death of the Archduchess Isabella—Gaston negotiates, and consents to the most humiliating concessions.

After having forwarded his manifesto to the King, Gaston d'Orleans proceeded without further delay to the Low Countries, and once more arrived in Brussels at the close of January 1633, where he was received by the Spaniards (who had borne all the expenses of his campaign, whence they had not derived the slightest advantage) with as warm a welcome as though he had realized all their hopes. The principal nobles of the Court and the great officers of the Infanta's household were commanded to show towards him the same respect and deference as towards herself; he was reinstated in the gorgeous apartments which he had formerly occupied; and the sum of thirty thousand florins monthly was assigned for the maintenance of his little Court.[189] One mortification, however, awaited him on his arrival; as the Queen-mother, unable to suppress her indignation at his abandonment of her interests, had, on the pretext of requiring change of air, quitted Brussels on the previous day, and retired to Malines, whither he hastened to follow her. But, although Marie consented to receive him, and even expressed her satisfaction on seeing him once more beyond the power of his enemies, the wound caused by his selfishness was not yet closed; and she peremptorily refused to accompany him back to the capital, or to change her intention of thenceforth residing at Ghent. In vain did Monsieur represent that he was compelled to make every concession in order to escape the malice of the Cardinal, and to secure an opportunity of rejoining her in Flanders; whenever the softened manner of the Queen-mother betrayed any symptom of relenting, a word or a gesture from Chanteloupe sufficed to render her brow once more rigid, and her accents cold.

As the unhappy exile had formerly been ruled by Richelieu, so was she now governed by the Oratorian, whose jealousy of Puylaurens led him to deprecate the prospect of a reconciliation between the mother and son which must, by uniting them in one common interest, involve himself in a perpetual struggle with the favourite of the Prince. The monk affected to treat the haughty parvenu as an inferior; while Puylaurens, who had refused to acknowledge the supremacy of individuals of far higher rank than the reverend father, on his side exhibited a similar feeling; and meanwhile Marie de Medicis and Gaston, equally weak where their favourites were concerned, made the quarrel a personal one, and by their constant dissensions weakened their own cause, wearied the patience of their hosts, and enabled the Cardinal to counteract all their projects.[190]

Unable to prevail upon the Queen to rescind her resolution, Monsieur reluctantly returned alone to Brussels, where he was soon wholly absorbed by pleasure and dissipation. All his past trials were forgotten. He evinced no mortification at his defeat, or at the state of pauperism to which it had reduced him; he had no sigh to spare for all the generous blood that had been shed in his service; nor did he mourn over the ruined fortunes by which his own partial impunity had been purchased. It was enough that he was once more surrounded with splendour and adulation; and although he applied to the Emperor and the sovereigns of Spain and England for their assistance, he betrayed little anxiety as to the result of his appeal.

Meanwhile the unfortunate Queen-mother, who had successively witnessed the failure of all her hopes, was bitterly alive to the reality of her position. She was indebted for sustenance and shelter to the enemies of France; and even while she saw herself the object of respect and deference, as she looked back upon her past greatness and contrasted it with her present state of helplessness and isolation, her heart sank within her, and she dreaded to dwell upon the future.

The death of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, who was killed at the battle of Lutzen at the close of the previous year, had produced a great change in the affairs of Europe; and, fearing that the Austrian Cabinet might profit by that event, Richelieu represented to the Council the necessity of raising money at whatever cost, and of using every endeavour to effect a continuance of the hostilities in Germany and Flanders, without, however, declaring war against Austria. For this purpose he stated that more troops must necessarily be raised, but that the forfeited dowry of the Queen-mother and the appanage of the Duc d'Orleans would furnish sufficient funds for their maintenance; an expedient which was at once adopted by the Council.[191]

In the event of either war or peace, however, the Cardinal was equally uneasy to see the mother of the King and the heir-presumptive to the Crown in the hands of the Spaniards, as their influence might tend to excite an insurrection on the first check experienced by the French army; while, should a general peace be negotiated during their residence in the Low Countries, the Emperor and the King of Spain would not fail to stipulate such conditions for them both as he was by no means inclined to concede; and he was therefore anxious to effect, if possible, their voluntary departure from the Spanish territories. That he should succeed as regarded Gaston, Richelieu had little doubt, that weak Prince being completely subjugated by his favourites, who, as the minister was well aware, were at all times ready to sacrifice the interests of their master to their own; but as regarded Marie de Medicis the case was widely different, for he could not conceal from himself that should she entertain the most remote suspicion of his own desire to cause her removal from her present place of refuge, she would remain rooted to the soil, although her heart broke in the effort. Nor was he ignorant that all her counsellors perpetually urged her never to return to France until she could do so without incurring any obligation to himself; and this she could only hope to effect by the assistance of the Emperor and Philip of Spain.

One circumstance, however, seemed to lend itself to his project, and this existed in the fact that the Queen—mother had, during the preceding year, requested her son-in-law the King of England to furnish her with vessels for conveying her to a Spanish port; and this request, coupled with her departure from Brussels, led him to believe that she was becoming weary of the Low Countries. He accordingly resolved to ascertain whether there were any hopes of inducing her to retire for a time to Florence; but the difficulty which presented itself was how to renew a proposition which had been already more than once indignantly rejected.

After considerable reflection the Cardinal at length believed that he had discovered a sure method of effecting his object; and with this conviction he one day sent to request the presence of M. de Gondi, the envoy of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, when after having greatly extolled the prudence of the Grand Duke throughout the misunderstanding between Louis XIII and his mother, and made elaborate protestations of the sense which that monarch entertained of his moderation and equity, he conversed for a time on the affairs of Italy, and then, as if casually, he reverted to the subject of the Queen-mother.

"A-propos;" he said, "speaking of the poor woman, certain persons are endeavouring, I understand, to induce her to visit Florence. What do you think of the project?"

"Your Eminence," replied Gondi, "is the first person by whom I have been informed of this intention on the part of her Majesty; I never heard that she had adopted such a resolution."

"Then I must initiate you into the mystery," pursued Richelieu. "The bad advice of that madman Chanteloupe has been the cause of all the errors of which she has been guilty. The King had requested the Infanta to deliver the man up to him; a demand by which he was so incensed that he forthwith urged the Queen to leave the Low Countries, declaring that she would no longer be safe there, should Isabella, whose health is failing fast, chance to die. The poor woman, listening to this interested counsel, accordingly resolved to go to England, but Charles would not receive her without the consent of her son. Thereupon she asked for some vessels to convey her to Spain, to which the English monarch replied that he would furnish her with a fleet, provided that his brother-in-law approved of her intention, and that Philip would consent to her remaining in his dominions. His Catholic Majesty has already given the required pledge, but I am not yet aware of the determination of my own sovereign. You see to what a pitiable state she is reduced; she does not know which way to turn; and I really feel for her. I wish with all my heart that I could help her; but so far from seeing her position in its right light, she continues so headstrong that she feels no regret for the past, and declares that she never shall do so."

M. de Gondi remained silent; and after pausing an instant Richelieu resumed: "As the Queen-mother really wishes to change her place of abode, would to God that she would select some country where the King could prove to her the extent of his affection without endangering the interests of the state; and where nothing might prevent me from testifying towards her my own gratitude and respect. Charles of England cannot well refuse the use of his ships after her request, but I cannot bring myself to believe that she actually desires to reside in Spain. Should she ultimately incline towards Florence, and anticipate a good reception from the Grand Duke, do you apprehend that she would be disappointed in her hope?"

"Monseigneur," cautiously replied the envoy, who was not without a suspicion of the motive which urged the Cardinal to hazard this inquiry, and who had received no instructions upon the subject, "I know nothing of the projects of her Majesty, nor do I believe that the Grand Duke is better informed than myself. The Court of Florence entertains such perfect confidence in the affection of the King of France for his mother, that it leaves all such arrangements to the good feeling of his Majesty."

"The aspect of affairs has greatly changed within the last few months," observed Richelieu, "and I am of opinion that the King would be gratified should the Grand Duke consent to receive his niece, in the event of her desiring to pass a short time under his protection, until a perfect reconciliation is effected between them; but you will see that should she once set foot in England, she will never leave it again, and will by her intrigues inevitably embroil us with that country."

Again did M. de Gondi protest his entire ignorance alike of the movements of the exiled Queen and of the wishes of his sovereign, with a calm pertinacity which warned the Cardinal that further persistence would be impolitic, as it could not fail to betray his eagerness to effect the object of which he professed only to discuss the expediency; and, accordingly, the interview terminated without having produced the desired result.[192]

Richelieu had, however, said enough to convince the Tuscan envoy that should the Grand Duke succeed in persuading the Queen-mother to reside at his Court, he would gratify both Louis and his minister; but neither he himself nor Marie de Medicis had ever contemplated such an arrangement. It was true, as the Cardinal had stated, that she had applied to Charles of England for shipping, but she had done so with a view of proceeding by Spain to join the Duc d'Orleans in Languedoc, little imagining that his cause would so soon be ruined. Mortified to find herself left for so long a period in a state of dependence upon Philip and Isabella, and deprived of any other alternative, she had next sought to secure an asylum in the adopted country of her daughter, where her near relationship to the Queen gave her a claim to sympathy and kindness which she was aware that she had no right to exact from strangers; and she consequently felt that the obligation which she should there incur would prove less irksome to support than that which was merely based on political interests; and, which, however gracefully conferred, could not be divested of its galling weight.

Henriette, who had always been strongly attached to her royal mother, and who, in her brilliant exile, pined for the ties of kindred and the renewal of old associations, welcomed the proposal with eagerness; but Charles I., who was apprehensive that by yielding to the wishes of the Queen, he should involve himself in a misunderstanding with the French Court; and who, moreover, disliked and dreaded the restless and intriguing spirit of Marie de Medicis, as much as he deprecated the outlay which her residence in the kingdom must occasion, hesitated to grant her request.

Such was the extremity to which the ingratitude and ambition of a single individual, whose fortunes she had herself founded, had, in the short space of eighteen months, reduced the once-powerful Queen-Regent of France; whose son and sons-in-law were the most powerful sovereigns in Europe.

Since the execution of the Duc de Montmorency all the nobility of France had bowed the head before the power of Richelieu; the greatest and the proudest alike felt their danger, for they had learnt the terrible truth that neither rank, nor birth, nor personal popularity could shield them from his resentment; and while Louis XIII hunted at Fontainebleau, feasted at the Louvre, and attended with as much patience as he could assume at the constant performances of the vapid and tedious dramas with which the Cardinal-Duke, who aspired to be esteemed a poet, incessantly taxed the forbearance of the monarch and his Court, the active and versatile pen of the minister was at the same time spreading desolation and death on every side.

One unfortunate noble, whose only crime had been his adhesion to the cause of Gaston d'Orleans, was condemned to the galleys for life; while the Duc d'Elboeuf, MM. de Puylaurens, du Coudrai-Montpensier, and de Goulas were tried and executed in effigy; the figures by which they were represented being clothed in costly dresses, richly decorated with lace, and glittering with tinsel ornaments.[193]

Other individuals who had taken part in the revolt, but who were also beyond the present power of the Cardinal, were condemned par contumace, some to be quartered, and others to lose their heads. The Chevalier de Jars, accused of having endeavoured to assist in the escape of the Queen-mother and Monsieur to England, although no proof could be adduced of the fact, perished upon the scaffold; Chateauneuf, whose assiduities to the Duchesse de Chevreuse had aroused the jealousy of the Cardinal, who had long entertained a passion for that lady, was deprived of the seals, which were transferred to M. Seguier;[194] while Madame de Chevreuse was banished from the Court, and the Marquis de Leuville, the nephew of Chateauneuf, and several others of his friends were committed to the Bastille.[195]

Meanwhile Monsieur had considered it expedient to apprise the King of his marriage with the Princesse Marguerite, by which Louis was so greatly incensed that he forthwith resolved to punish the bad faith of Charles de Lorraine by proceeding to his duchy, and laying siege to the capital.

Aware that resistance was impossible, the Prince immediately despatched his brother the Cardinal to solicit the pardon of the King; but Louis remained inexorable, although the unhappy Charles, who foresaw the ruin of his entire family should the hostile army of France invade his territories, even proposed to abdicate in favour of the Cardinal-Duke Francis. Still Louis continued his onward march, and finally, rendered desperate by his fears, the sovereign of Lorraine consented to deliver up the city upon such terms as his Majesty should see fit to propose, provided that he received no help from without during the next ten days; and, moreover, to place his sister the Princesse Marguerite in his hands.

These conditions having been accepted, the Cardinal de Lorraine solicited a passport for himself and his equipage, in order that he might leave Nancy; and his retreat involved so romantic an incident, that it produces the effect of fiction rather than that of sober history. The unfortunate bride of Gaston had no sooner ascertained that she was destined to become the prisoner of the King than she resolved, with a courage which her weak and timid husband would have been unable to emulate, to effect her escape. In a few words she explained her project to the Cardinal Francis, whose ambition and brotherly love were alike interested in her success; and within an hour she had assumed the attire of one of the pages of his household. Having covered her own hair with a black wig, and stained her face and hands with a dark dye, she hastened to the convent in which she had been married to Monsieur, in order to take leave of the Abbesse de Remiremont, and created great alarm among the nuns, who, while engaged in their devotions, suddenly saw an armed man standing in the midst of them; but the Princess had no sooner made herself known than they crowded about her to weep over her trials, and to utter earnest prayers for her preservation.

On reaching the advanced guard of the French army she incurred the greatest danger, as her person was well known to the officer in command; but fortunately for the Princess he had retired to rest, and the carriage which she occupied was searched by a subordinate to whom she was a stranger. After having traversed the royal camp, the courageous fugitive mounted on horseback, and, accompanied by two trusty attendants, rode without once making a halt as far as Thionville, a town which belonged to the Spaniards; but on arriving at the gates she did not venture to enter until she had apprised the Comte de Wilthy, the governor, of the step which she had taken; and her fatigue was so excessive that, during the absence of her messenger, she dismounted with considerable difficulty and flung herself down upon the grass that fringed the ditch; a circumstance which attracted the attention of the sentinel at the gate, who pointed her out to a comrade, exclaiming at the same time:

"Yon is a stripling who is new to hard work, or I am mistaken."

Meanwhile the errant Princess was faint from exhaustion, and sick with suspense; but she was soon relieved from her apprehensions by the appearance of the Governor and his wife, by whom she was welcomed with respect and cordiality; apartments were assigned to her in their own residence; and under their protection she remained for several days at Thionville, in order to recruit her strength, as well as to inform Monsieur of her approach, and to request an escort to Brussels. Both Gaston and the Queen-mother were overjoyed at her escape; for although estranged by the jealousies and intrigues of those about them, Marie fully participated in the delight of her son, as she trusted that the presence of a daughter-in-law, who shared her enmity towards the Cardinal, would tend to ameliorate her own position. Carriages and attendants were immediately despatched to Thionville, while Monsieur proceeded to Namur to meet the Princess, and to conduct her to Brussels, where she was impatiently expected. On alighting at the palace Madame was received with open arms by her mother-in-law, who had returned to the capital in order to congratulate her on the happy result of her enterprise, and was greeted by the Archduchess with equal warmth. The Spanish Cabinet accorded an augmentation of fifteen thousand crowns monthly to the pension of Monsieur for the maintenance of her household, and this liberality was emulated by Isabella, who overwhelmed her with the most costly presents.[196]

The Duchesse d'Orleans had no sooner received the compliments of the Court of Brussels than the Queen-mother returned to Ghent, where she was shortly afterwards attacked by so violent a fever that her life was endangered. In this extremity Gaston fulfilled all the duties of an affectionate and anxious son, and urged her to quit the noxious air of the marshes and to return to the capital; but his entreaties were powerless, Chanteloupe on his side advising her to remain in the retreat which she had chosen. Louis XIII was soon informed of the illness of his mother, and whether it were that he really felt a renewal of tenderness towards her person, or that he merely deemed it expedient to keep up appearances, it is certain that after some time he despatched two of the physicians of his household to Flanders, with instructions to use their utmost endeavours to overcome the malady of the Queen; while they were, moreover, accompanied by a gentleman of the Court charged with a cold and brief letter, and authorized not only to express the regrets common on such occasions, but also to make proposals of reconciliation to the royal exiles.

The Infanta, who, despite her age and infirmities, was a frequent visitor in the sick room of her illustrious guest, and who saw with alarm the rapid progress of the disease under which the unhappy Marie de Medicis had laboured for upwards of forty days, encouraged by the arrival of the French envoy, at length wrote to inform the King that his mother, who placed the greatest confidence in the skill of her own physician Vautier, had expressed the most earnest desire for his attendance; and it is probable that at so extreme a crisis Louis would not have hesitated to comply with her wishes had not Richelieu opposed his liberation from the Bastille, asserting that Marie de Medicis had induced Isabella to make the request for the sole purpose of once more having about her person a man who had formerly given her the most pernicious advice, and who encouraged her in her rebellion. All, therefore, that the King would concede under this impression was his permission to Vautier to prescribe in writing for the royal invalid; but the physician, who trusted that the circumstance might tend to his liberation, excused himself, alleging that as he had not seen the Queen-mother for upwards of two years, he could not judge of the changes which increased age, change of air, and moral suffering had produced upon her system; and that consequently he dared not venture to propose remedies which might produce a totally opposite result to that which he intended.

But, at the same time that the Cardinal refused to gratify the wishes of the apparently dying Queen, he was profuse in his expressions of respect and affection towards her. "His Majesty is about to despatch you to Ghent," he had said to the envoy when he went to receive his parting instructions. "Assure the Queen-mother from me that although I am aware my name is odious to her, and conscious of the whole extent of the ill-will which she bears towards me, those circumstances do not prevent my feeling the most profound attachment to her person, and the deepest grief at her indisposition. Do not fail to assure her that I told you this with tears in my eyes. God grant that I may never impute to so good a Princess all the injury which I have suffered from her friends, nor the calumnies which those about her incessantly propagate against me; although it is certain that so long as she listens to these envenomed tongues I cannot hope that she will be undeceived, nor that she will recognize the uprightness of my intentions." [197]

It appears marvellous that a man gifted with surpassing genius, and holding in his hand the destinies of Europe, should condescend to such pitiful and puerile hypocrisy; but throughout the whole of the Memoirs attributed to Richelieu himself, the reader is startled by the mass of petty manoeuvres upon which he dilates; as though the dispersion of an insignificant cabal, or the destruction of some obscure individual who had become obnoxious to him, were the most important occupations of his existence.

Not content with insulting his royal victim by words which belied the whole tenor of his conduct, the Cardinal, before he dismissed the envoy, seized the opportunity of adding one more affront to those of which he had already been so lavish, by instructing the royal messenger not to hold the slightest intercourse with any member of her household, and even to turn his back upon them whenever they should address him; a command which he so punctiliously obeyed that when, in the very chamber of Marie de Medicis, one of her gentlemen offered him the usual courtesies of welcome, he retorted by the most contemptuous silence, to the extreme indignation of the Queen, who, in reply to the message of Richelieu, haughtily exclaimed, "Tell the Cardinal that I prefer his persecution to his civility."

Silenced by this unanswerable assurance, the envoy next proceeded to deliver the despatch with which he had been entrusted by the King. "I am consoled for my sufferings," said the unhappy mother, as she extended her trembling and withered hand to receive it, "since I am indebted to them for this remembrance on the part of his Majesty. I will on this occasion be careful to return my acknowledgments by a person who will not be displeasing to him."

Such, however, was far from her intention; as, convinced that the insult offered to her attendants had been suggested by the Cardinal, she selected for her messenger the same individual who had formerly delivered to the Parliament of Paris her petition against Richelieu, in order to convince him that should she effect her reconciliation with the monarch on this occasion, she had no inclination to include his minister in the amnesty. Even past experience, bitter as it was, had not yet taught her that the contest was hopeless.

Her reply to the letter of her son ran thus:

"Monsieur mon fils, I do not doubt that had you been sooner apprised of my illness, you would not have failed to give me proofs of your good disposition. Those which I formerly received have so confirmed this belief, that even my present misfortunes cannot weaken it. I am extremely obliged by your having sent to visit me when the rumour of my indisposition reached you. If your goodness has led you to regret that you were not sooner made acquainted with so public a circumstance, my affection induces me willingly to receive the intelligence which you send me, at any time. Your envoy will inform you that he reached me on the fortieth day of a continuous fever, which augments throughout the night. I was anxious that he should see me out of my bed, in order that he might assure you that the attack was not so violent, and that my strength is not so much exhausted, as to deprive me, with God's help, of all hope of recovery. Having been out of health for the last year, and the fever from which I formerly suffered every third week having changed and become continuous, the physicians apprehend that it may become more dangerous. I am resigned to the will of God, and I shall not regret life if I am assured of your favour before my death; and if you love me as much as I love you, and shall always love you."

As regarded the proposals of reconciliation brought by the royal envoy, the best-judging among the friends of the Queen-mother were of opinion that she should accept them; but Chanteloupe earnestly opposed the measure.

"Many of your attendants, Madame," he said coldly, "desire to see you once more in France, even should you be shut up in the fortress of Vincennes. They only seek to enjoy their own property in peace." The reverend father made no mention of his own enjoyment of a pension of a thousand livres a month, paid to him by Spain during his residence in the Low Countries, and which must necessarily cease should Marie de Medicis withdraw from the protection of that power.

Before the departure of the King's messenger, he informed the Queen-mother that he was authorized by his sovereign to offer her pecuniary aid should she require it; insinuating at the same time that, in the event of her consenting to dismiss certain of her attendants who were displeasing to the monarch, their misunderstanding might be at once happily terminated.

"I am perfectly satisfied with the liberality of my son-in-law, the King of Spain," was her brief and cold reply. "He is careful that I shall feel no want."

The Abbe de St. Germain, on ascertaining the terms offered to his royal protectress, earnestly urged her not to reject them. "It is not just, Madame," he said frankly and disinterestedly, "that you should suffer for us. When your Majesty is once more established in France, you will find sufficient opportunities of serving us, and of enabling us to reside either here or elsewhere. Extricate yourself, Madame, from your painful situation, and spend the remainder of your life in your adopted country, where you will be independent of the aid of foreigners."

Unhappily for herself, however, Marie de Medicis disregarded this wholesome and generous advice; and although Richelieu, in order to save appearances, from time to time repeated the proposal, she continued to persist in an exile which could only be terminated at his pleasure.[198]

Having succeeded by this crafty policy in inducing a general impression that the unfortunate Queen persisted from a spirit of obstinacy in remaining out of the kingdom, when she could at any moment return on advantageous conditions, the Cardinal next exerted himself to create a misunderstanding between Marie de Medicis and Monsieur, for which purpose he secretly caused it to be asserted to the Prince and Puylaurens that the Queen-mother, anxious to make her own terms to the exclusion of Gaston, had despatched several messengers to the French Court with that object. Monsieur affected to discredit the report, but Puylaurens, who was weary of an exile which thwarted his ambition, eagerly welcomed the intelligence, and soon succeeded in inducing Gaston to give it entire credence. Thenceforward all confidence was necessarily at an end between the mother and the son; and the favourite, apprehensive that should Marie de Medicis conclude a treaty with the sovereign before his master had made his own terms, she might, in order to advance her own interests, sacrifice those of the Prince, hastened to despatch a trusty messenger to ascertain the conditions which Louis was willing to accord to his brother. The reply which Puylaurens received from the Cardinal was most encouraging; Richelieu being anxious that Monsieur should act independently of the Queen-mother, and thus weaken the cause of both parties, while his gratification was increased by the arrival of a second envoy accredited by Gaston himself, who offered in his name, not only to make every concession required of him should he be restored to the favour of the King, but even to allow the minister to decide upon his future place of abode; while Puylaurens, on his side, offered to resign his claim to the hand of the Princesse de Phalsbourg, the sister of the Duc de Lorraine, which had been pledged to him, if he could induce his Eminence to bestow upon him that of one of his own relatives.

In reply to the last proposition the Cardinal declared himself ready to secure to the favourite of Monsieur, should he succeed in making his royal patron fulfil the promises which he had volunteered, a large sum of money, and his elevation to a dukedom; but Puylaurens demanded still better security. He could not forget that if he still existed, it was simply from the circumstance that the minister had been unable to execute upon his person the violence which had been visited upon his effigy, and he accordingly replied:

"Of what avail is a dukedom, since his Eminence is ever more ready to cut off the head of a peer than that of a citizen?"

"If you are still distrustful," said the negotiator, "the Cardinal, moreover, offers you an alliance with himself as you propose; and will give you in marriage the younger daughter of his kinsman the Baron de Pontchateau."

"That alters the case," replied the young noble, "as I am aware that his Eminence has too much regard for his family to behead one of his cousins." [199]

One impediment, however, presented itself to the completion of this treaty, which proved insurmountable. Monsieur refused to consent to the annulment of his marriage with the Princesse Marguerite; while the King, who had just marched an army into Lorraine, and taken the town of Nancy, on his side declined all reconciliation with his brother until he consented to place her in his hands.

On his return from Lorraine Louis XIII halted for a time at Metz, and during his sojourn in that city an adventurer named Alfeston was put upon his trial, and broken on the wheel, for having attempted to assassinate the Cardinal. The culprit had only a short time previously arrived in Metz from Brussels, accompanied by two other individuals who had been members of the bodyguard of the Queen-mother, while he himself actually rode a horse belonging to her stud. As he was stretched upon the hideous instrument of torture, he accused Chanteloupe as an accessory in the contemplated crime; and the Jesuit, together with several others, were cited to appear and defend themselves; while, at the same time, the horse ridden by the principal conspirator was restored to its royal owner, with a request from the King that she would not in future permit such nefarious plots to be organized in her household, as "not only was the person of the Cardinal infinitely dear to him," but rascals of that description were capable of making other attempts of the same nature; and, not contented with thus insulting his unhappy and exiled mother, Louis, in order to show his anxiety for the safety of the minister, added to the bodyguard which had already been conceded to him an additional company of a hundred musketeers, the whole of whom he himself selected.[200]

The constant indignities to which Marie de Medicis was subjected by Monsieur and his haughty favourite at length crushed her bruised and wearied spirit. Outraged in every feeling, and disappointed in every hope, she became in her turn anxious to effect a reconciliation with the King, even upon terms less favourable than those to which she had hitherto aspired. Gaston seldom entered her apartments, nor was his presence ever the harbinger of anything but discord; while Puylaurens and Chanteloupe openly braved and defied each other, and the two little Courts were a scene of constant broils and violence. Monsieur, moreover, forbade his wife to see her royal mother-in-law so frequently, or to evince towards her that degree of respect to which she was entitled both from her exalted rank and her misfortunes. The gentle Marguerite, however, refused to comply with a command which revolted her better nature; and even consented, at the instigation of Marie de Medicis and Isabella—whose dignity and virtue were alike outraged by the dissolute excesses of the favourite—to entreat her husband to dismiss Puylaurens from his service.

"Should you succeed, Madame," said the Queen-mother, "you will save yourself from ruin. He is sold to the Cardinal; who, in addition to other benefits, has promised to give him his own cousin in marriage. But on what conditions do you imagine that he conceded this demand? Simply that Monsieur should unreservedly comply upon all points, and particularly on that which regards his marriage, with the will of Richelieu; that he should place you in the hands of the King, or leave you here, if it be not possible to convey you to France; that he should authorize an inquiry into the legitimacy of your marriage; and, finally, that Monsieur should abandon both myself and the King of Spain. Such are the terms of the treaty; and were they once accepted, who would be able to sustain your claims?"

The unfortunate Princess understood only too well the dangers of her position, and she accordingly exerted all her influence to obtain the dismissal of Puylaurens, but the brilliant favourite had become necessary to the existence of his frivolous master, far more so, indeed, than the wife who was no longer rendered irresistible by novelty; and the only result of her entreaties was a peevish order not to listen to any complaints against those who were attached to his person.

With a weakness worthy of his character, Gaston moreover repeated to his favourite all that had taken place; and the fury of Puylaurens reached so extreme a point that, in order to prove his contempt for the unhappy Queen—about to be deprived of the support and affection of her best-loved son, who had, like his elder brother, suffered himself to be made the tool of an ambitious follower—he had on one occasion the audacity to enter her presence, followed by a train of twenty-five gentlemen, all fully armed, as though while approaching her he dreaded assassination.

Marie de Medicis looked for an instant upon him with an expression of scorn in her bright and steady eye beneath which his own sank; and then, rising from her seat, she walked haughtily from the apartment. Once arrived in her closet, however, her indignant pride gave way; and throwing herself upon the neck of one of her attendants, she wept the bitter tears of humiliation and despair.

Nor was this the only, or the heaviest, insult to which the widow of Henri IV was subjected by the arrogant protege of Monsieur, for anxious to secure his own advancement, and to aggrandize himself by means of Richelieu, since he had become convinced that his only hope of future greatness depended on the favour of the Cardinal, Puylaurens once more urged upon Gaston the expediency of accepting the conditions offered to him by the King. Weary of the petty Court of Brussels, the Prince listened with evident pleasure to the arguments advanced by his favourite; the fair palaces of St. Germain and the Tuileries rose before his mental vision; his faction in Languedoc existed no longer; with his usual careless ingratitude he had already ceased to resent the death of Montmorency; his beautiful and heroic wife retained but a feeble hold upon his heart; and he pined for change.

Under such circumstances it was, consequently, not long ere Puylaurens induced him to consent to a renewal of the negotiations; but, with that inability to keep a secret by which he was distinguished throughout his whole career, although urged to silence by his interested counsellor, it was not long ere Monsieur declared his intention alike to his mother and his wife, and terminated this extraordinary confidence by requesting that Marie de Medicis would give him her opinion as to the judiciousness of his determination.

"My opinion!" exclaimed the indignant Queen. "You should blush even to have listened to such a proposition. Have you forgotten your birth and your rank? What will be thought of such a treaty by the world? Simply that it was the work of a favourite, and not the genuine reconciliation of a Prince of the Blood Royal of France, the heir-presumptive to the Crown, with the King his brother. Your own honour and the interests of your wife are alike sacrificed; and should you ever be guilty of the injustice and cowardice of taking another wife before the death of Marguerite, who will guarantee that the children who may be born to you by the last will be regarded as legitimate? I do not speak of what concerns myself. When such conditions shall be offered to you as you may accept without dishonour, even although I may not be included in the amnesty, I shall be the first to advise you to accept them."

Gaston attempted no reply to this impassioned address, but it did not fail to produce its effect; and on returning to his own apartments he withdrew the consent which Puylaurens had extorted from him. The favourite, convinced that the answer of the Queen-mother had been dictated by Chanteloupe, hurried to her residence, insulted and menaced the Jesuit whom he encountered in an ante-room, and forcing himself into the chamber of Marie de Medicis, accused her in the most disrespectful terms of endeavouring to perpetuate the dissension of the King and his brother, in order to gratify her emnity towards Richelieu.

"Never," exclaimed the Queen-mother, quivering with indignation, "did even my enemy the Cardinal thus fail in respect towards me! He was far from daring to address me with such an amount of insolence as this. Learn that should I see fit to say a single word, and to receive him again into favour, I could overthrow all your projects. Leave the room, young madman, or I will have you flung from the windows. It is easy to perceive that your nature is as mean as your birth." [201]

Puylaurens retired; but thenceforward the existence of the Queen-mother became one unbroken tissue of mortification and suffering; and so bitterly did she feel the degradations to which she was hourly exposed, that she at length resolved to despatch one of the gentlemen of her household to the King, to ascertain if she could obtain the royal permission to return to France upon such terms as she should be enabled to concede. In the letter which she addressed to her son she touchingly complained of the indignities to which she was subjected by Monsieur and his favourite, and implored his Majesty to extricate her from a position against which she was unable to contend.

In his reply Louis assured her that he much regretted to learn that the Duc d'Orleans had been wanting in respect towards her person, but reminded her that such could never have been the case had she followed his own advice and that of his faithful servants; and terminated his missive by an intimation that in the event of her placing in his power all her evil counsellors, in order that he might punish them as they deserved, and of her also pledging herself to love, as she ought to do, the good servants of the Crown, he might then believe that she was no longer so ill-disposed as she had been when she left France.

The disappointed Queen-mother at once recognized the hand of the Cardinal in this cold and constrained despatch, which was merely a renewal of her sentence of banishment; as Richelieu well knew that the high heart and generous spirit of the Tuscan Princess would revolt at the enormity of sacrificing those who had clung to her throughout her evil fortunes, in order to secure her own impunity.

Unfortunately, alike for Marie de Medicis and Gaston d'Orleans, the amiable Infanta, who had proved so patient as well as so munificent a host—and who had, without murmur or reproach, seen her previously tranquil and pious Court changed by the dissipation and cabals of her foreign guests into a perpetual arena of strife and even bloodshed—the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, whose very name was reverenced throughout the whole of the Low Countries, expired on the 1st of December at the age of sixty-eight, after having governed Flanders during thirty-five years.

This event was a source of alarm as well as of sorrow to the royal exiles, who could not anticipate an equal amount of forbearance from the Marquis d'Ayetona,[202] by whom she was provisionally replaced in the government; and who had long and loudly expressed his disgust at the perpetual feuds which convulsed the circles of the Queen-mother and her son, and declared that they had caused him more annoyance than all the subjects of the King his master in the Low Countries.[203] In this extremity both Marie and Monsieur became more than ever anxious to procure their recall to France; and Gaston soon succeeded in ascertaining the conditions upon which his pardon was to be accorded. Letters of abolition were to be granted for his past revolt: his several appanages were to be restored to him: the sum of seven hundred thousand crowns were to be paid over to meet his immediate exigences: he was to be invested with the government of Auvergne, and to have, as a bodyguard, a troop of gendarmes and light-horse, of which the command was to be conferred upon Puylaurens, to whom the offer of a dukedom was renewed; and, in the event of Monsieur declining to reside at Court, he was to be at liberty to fix his abode either in Auvergne or in Bourbonnais, as he saw fit; while, in any and every case, he was to live according to his own pleasure alike in Paris or the provinces.

And—in return for this indulgence—Monsieur was simply required to abandon his brother-in-law Charles de Lorraine to the vengeance of the King, without attempting any interference in his behalf; to detach himself wholly and unreservedly from all his late friends and adherents both within and without the kingdom of France; to resign all alliance either personal or political with the Queen-mother; to be guided in every circumstance by the counsels of the Cardinal-Minister; and to give the most stringent securities for his future loyalty.

Such were the conditions to which the heir-presumptive to the Crown of France ultimately consented to affix his name, although for a time he affected to consider them as unworthy of his dignity; and meanwhile as the year drew to a close, a mutual jealousy had grown up between the mother and son which seconded all the views of Richelieu, whose principal aim was to prevent the return of either to France for as long a period as he could succeed in so doing.

FOOTNOTES:

[189] Gaston d'Orleans, Mem. p. 148.

[190] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 86, 87. Le Vassor, vol. vii. pp. 249, 250.

[191] Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 418.

[192] Le Vassor, vol. vii. pp. 442-445. Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 92-94. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 422, 423.

[193] Extrait des Registres du Parlement de Bourgogne, Annee 1633. MSS. de la Bibliotheque Royale.

[194] Pierre Seguier, a nephew of Pierre Seguier (the president a mortier of the Parliament of Paris), born in 1588, made Keeper of the Seals in 1633, and died in 1672. [By a clerical oversight in the first edition this honour was conferred upon his uncle fifty-three years after his death!]

[195] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 423-425.

[196] Gaston d'Orleans, Mem. pp. 149-152.

[197] Siri, Mem. Rec. vol. vii. pp. 685-687. Le Vassor, vol. vii. pp. 1-4.

[198] Le Vassor, vol. vii. pp. 6-9. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 428, 429. Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 122, 123.

[199] Capefigue, vol. v. pp. 223, 224.

[200] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 123, 124.

[201] Le Vassor, vol. vii. book xxxv. pp. 248-251.

[202] Francisco de Moncade, Marques d'Ayetona, Conde d'Osuna, was born at Valencia in 1586; he was successively Councillor of State, Governor of the Low Countries, and generalissimo of the Spanish armies. He died in 1635.

[203] Sismondi, vol. xxiii. p. 240.



CHAPTER XI

1634

Increasing trials of the exiled Queen—Her property is seized on the frontier—She determines to conciliate the Cardinal—Richelieu remains implacable—Far-reaching ambition of the minister—Weakness of Louis XIII—Insidious arguments of Richelieu—Marie de Medicis is again urged to abandon her adherents—Cowardly policy of Monsieur—He signs a treaty with Spain—The Queen-mother refuses to join in the conspiracy—Puylaurens induces Monsieur to accept the proffered terms of Richelieu—He escapes secretly from Brussels—-Gaston pledges himself to the King to "love the Cardinal"—Gaston again refuses to repudiate his wife—Puylaurens obtains the hand of a relative of the minister and becomes Duc de Puylaurens—Monsieur retires to Blois.

The early months of the year 1634 were passed by Marie de Medicis in perpetual mortification and anxiety. The passport which she had obtained for the free transport of such articles of necessity as she might deem it expedient to procure from France was disregarded, and her packages were subjected to a rigorous examination on the frontier; an insult of which she complained bitterly to Louis, declaring that if the Cardinal sought by such means to reduce her to a more pitiable condition than that in which she had already found herself, and thus to bend her to his will, the attempt would prove fruitless; as no amount of indignity should induce her to humble herself before him.

The unhappy Princess little imagined that in a few short weeks she should become a suppliant for his favour! Meanwhile[204] the struggle for pre-eminence continued unabated between Puylaurens and Chanteloupe; and the life of the former having been on one occasion attempted, the faction of Monsieur did not hesitate to attribute the contemplated assassination to the adherents of the Queen-mother; whence arose continual conflicts between the two pigmy Courts, which rendered unavailing all the efforts of the Marquis d'Ayetona to reconcile the royal relatives. Moreover, Marie was indignant that the Marquis constantly evinced towards her son a consideration in which he sometimes failed towards herself; and, finding her position becoming daily more onerous, she at length resolved to accomplish a reconciliation, not only with the King, but even with the minister, on any terms which she could obtain. In pursuance of this determination she gave instructions to M. Le Rebours de Laleu, her equerry, to proceed to Paris with her despatches, which consisted of three letters, one addressed to the sovereign, another to the Cardinal, and the third to M. de Bouthillier,[205] all of which severally contained earnest assurances of her intention to comply with the will and pleasure of the King in all things, and to obey his commands by foregoing for the future all emnity towards Richelieu. In that which she wrote to the minister himself she carefully eschewed every vestige of her former haughtiness, and threw herself completely on his generosity. "Cousin"—thus ran the letter of the once-powerful widow of Henri IV to her implacable enemy—"the Sieur Bouthillier having assured me in your name that my sorrows have deeply affected you, and that, regretting you should for so long a time have deprived me of the honour of seeing the King, your greatest satisfaction would now be to use your influence to obtain for me this happiness, I have considered myself bound to express to you through the Sieur Laleu, whom I despatch to the King, how agreeable your goodwill has been to me. Place confidence in him, and believe, Cousin, that I will ever truly be, etc. etc."

In addition to this humiliation, the heart-broken Queen at the same time gave instructions to her messenger to declare to the King that, "having learned that his Majesty could not be persuaded of her affection for his own person so long as she refused to extend it to the Cardinal, he was empowered to assure his Majesty that the Queen-mother, from consideration for the King her son, would thenceforward bestow her regard upon his minister, and dismiss all resentment for the past."

Both the verbal and written declarations addressed to Louis on this occasion were, as will at once be evident, a mere matter of form, and observance of the necessary etiquette. It was not the monarch of France whom Marie de Medicis sought to conciliate, but the Cardinal-Duke, who, as she was conscious, held her fate in his hands. It was before him, consequently, that she bowed down; it was to his sovereign pleasure that she thus humbly deferred; for she felt that the long-enduring struggle which she had hitherto sustained against him was at once impotent and hopeless. Alas! she had, as she was fated ere long to experience, as little to anticipate from the abject concession which she now made, bitter as were the tears that it had cost her. The most annoying impediments were thrown in the way of her messenger when he solicited an audience of the sovereign, nor was he slow in arriving at the conviction that his mission would prove abortive. Nevertheless, as the command of Marie de Medicis had been that he should also deliver the letter to Richelieu in person, and, as he had already done in the case of the King, add to its written assurances his own corroborative declarations in her name, and even communicate to him the offer of Chanteloupe to retire to a monastery for the remainder of his life in the event of his exclusion from the treaty, he was bound to pursue his task to its termination, hopeless as it might be.[206]

When the envoy of the Queen-mother had delivered his despatches, and fulfilled the duty with which he had been entrusted, the embarrassment of the Cardinal became extreme. That the haughty Marie de Medicis should ever have compelled herself to such humiliation was an event so totally unexpected on his part that he had made no arrangements to meet it; and it appeared impossible even to him that, under the circumstances, the King could venture to refuse her immediate return to France. The crisis was a formidable one to Richelieu, who, judging both his injured benefactress and himself from the past, placed no faith in her professions of forgiveness; for, on his side, he felt that he should resent even to his dying hour much that had passed before she fled the kingdom, as well as the libels against him which she had sanctioned during her residence in Flanders. He had, moreover, as he asserted, on several occasions received information that Chanteloupe meditated some design upon his life; and that the Jesuit had stated in writing that he could never induce the Queen-mother to consent to separate herself from him, although he had entreated of her to leave him in the Low Countries when she returned to France.[207] Despicable, indeed, were such alleged terrors from the lips of the Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu—the first minister of one of the first sovereigns of Europe. What had he to fear from a powerless and impoverished Princess, whose misfortunes had already endured a sufficient time to outweary her foreign protectors; to subdue the hopes, and to exhaust the energies of her former adherents; and to reduce her to an insignificance of which, as her present measures sufficiently evinced, she had herself become despairingly conscious? Even had Louis XIII at this moment been possessed of sufficient right feeling and moral energy to remember that it was the dignity of a mother which he had so long sacrificed to the ambition of a minister—that it was the widow of the great monarch who had bequeathed to him a crown whom he ruthlesssly persecuted in order to further the fortunes of an ambitious ingrate—all these trivial hindrances might have been thrust aside at once; but the egotistical and timid temperament of the French King deadened the finer impulses of honour and of nature; and he still suffered himself to be governed, where he should have asserted his highest and his holiest prerogative.