M. de Conde) hastened from Breda to welcome
them; and they were followed a few days afterwards by the Archduke and
Archduchess, by whom the royal fugitives were entertained with all the
honour due to their exalted rank, and their unmerited misfortunes. The
Prince then took his departure for Cologne, while the fair cause of his
flight remained in the Flemish capital under the protection of her
new friends.

Marie de Medicis had, meanwhile, no sooner ascertained that the embassy
of M. de Praslin had been successful, and that the self-expatriated pair
had been denied a refuge in the Low Countries, than she addressed a
letter to the Marquis de Spinola, entreating him to cause a revocation
of the denial, and representing how entirely her domestic peace depended
upon the absence of the Princesse de Conde; an absence which could not
fail to be abridged by the necessity of residing in a city like Cologne,
where the ardent spirit of the Prince could not but revolt at the tedium
around him. The effect of her appeal was all that she had anticipated,
strengthening as it did the preconceived measures of the confidential
minister of Philip III, who hastened to represent to that monarch the
gross error into which the Archduke had fallen, and the favourable
opportunity which he had thus lost of retorting upon Henry the
protection that he had accorded to Don Antonio Perez, a traitor to his
sovereign and to his country; and of securing to the Court of Spain the
advantage which it must have derived from having in its power, and
securing to its interests, the first Prince of the Blood in France. His
arguments proved conclusive, the jealousy of Philip always prompting
him to lend a willing ear to every project by which he might be enabled
to accomplish any triumph over the French monarch; and accordingly
instructions were forwarded to the Archduke to repair his fault without
delay, by inviting the Prince to rejoin his bride at Brussels. Little as
the sovereign of the Low Countries was disposed to involve himself in a
war with France, he did not hesitate to comply with the injunction. He
placed so firm a reliance on the support of Spain in the event of
hostilities, and had been so long accustomed to conform to her counsels,
that he immediately made known to M. de Conde his change of resolution,
and declared himself ready to receive him whenever he should see fit to
return to his territories; while at the same time he wrote to apprise
the Fre