monarch, and by exciting his worst passions succeeded in
securing his support. She found an able and zealous coadjutor in Don
Balthazar de Zuniga, the Spanish Ambassador at the Court of France;
while her step-brother, the Comte d'Auvergne, was no less successful
with the Duke of Savoy, who, like Philip III, was never more happy than
when he discovered and profited by an opportunity of harassing the
French sovereign.

This conspiracy, as absurd as it was criminal, was, moreover, supported
by many of the discontented nobles who had never pardoned Henry for the
suppression of the League; and, wild as such a project cannot fail to
appear in these days, we have the authority of Amelot de la
Houssaye[254] for the fact that the Comte d'Auvergne had induced Philip
by a secret treaty to promise his assistance in placing Henri de
Bourbon, the son of Henri IV and Madame de Verneuil, on the throne of
France, to the detriment of the legitimate offspring of Marie
de Medicis.

In the act by which Philip bound himself thus to recognise the pretended
claim of the Marquise, he also gave a pledge to furnish her with five
hundred thousand livres in money, and to despatch the Spanish troops
which at that moment occupied Catalonia to support the disaffected
French subjects who might be induced to join the cabal in Guienne and
Languedoc.

Report also said that M. d'Auvergne, not satisfied with this attempt to
undermine the throne of Henri IV, had formed a design against his life,
but the rumour obtained no credit even from his enemies.[255]

Whatever extenuation may be found for Madame de Verneuil in such an
attempt as this; whatever indulgence may be conceded to a woman baffled
in her ambition, misled by her confidence in a supposititious claim, and
urged on by a blind and uncalculating affection for her children, it is
difficult to find any excuse for the persevering ingratitude of her
step-brother. As regards M. d'Entragues, we have already shown that he
had more than sufficient cause for seeking revenge upon a monarch who
sacrificed every important consideration to the passion of the moment;
but the Comte d'Auvergne had experienced nothing save indulgence from
Henry, and it was consequently in cold blood that he organized a
conspiracy, which, had it succeeded, must have plunged the whole nation
into civil war. He was, moreover, the more culpable that he had, in
order to secure a pardon for his previous participation in the crime of