mong the great ladies and nobles who frequented the
circle of the Marquise were forbidden the entrance of the Queen's
apartments. One intrigue succeeded another; and while Marie, with
jealous vindictiveness, endeavoured to mar the fortunes of those who
attached themselves to the party of Madame de Verneuil, the Marquise
left no effort untried to injure the partisans of the Queen. This last
rupture was an irrevocable one.[166]

In vain did Sully endeavour to restore peace. He could control the
finances, and regulate the defences of a great nation; but he was as
powerless as the King himself when he sought to fuse such jarring
elements as these in the social crucible; and while he was still
striving against hope to weaken, even if he could not wholly destroy, an
animosity which endangered the dignity of the crown, and the respect due
to one of the most powerful monarchs of Christendom, that monarch
himself, wearied of a strife which he had not the moral courage either
to terminate or to sustain, sought consolation for his trials in the
smiles of Mademoiselle de Sourdis,[167] whose favour he purchased by
giving her in marriage to the Comte d'Estanges. This caprice, engendered
rather by _ennui_ than affection, was, however, soon terminated, as the
new favourite could not, either personally or mentally, sustain a
comparison with Madame de Verneuil; and great coldness still existed
between the royal couple when the Court removed to Blois.

During the sojourn of their Majesties in that city, a misunderstanding
infinitely more serious than any by which it had been preceded took
place between them; and at length became so threatening, that although
the night was far advanced, the King despatched D'Armagnac, his first
valet-de-chambre, to desire the immediate presence of M. de Sully at the
castle. Singularly enough, the Duke in his Memoirs affects a morbid
reluctance even to allude to this outbreak, and professes his
determination, in accordance with his promise to that effect made to
both parties, not to reveal the subject of dispute; while at the same
time he admits that, after a long interview with Henry, he spent the
remainder of the night in passing from one chamber to the other,
endeavouring to restore harmony between the royal pair, during which
attempt many of the attendants of the Court were enabled at intervals to
hear all parties mention the names of the Grand Duke and Duchess of
Florence, the Duchess of Mantua, Virgi