young Louis no
sooner perceived the impossibility of escape than he coldly submitted to
the infliction, merely saying, "I suppose it must be so, M. de Souvre,
since it is the will of the Queen; but be careful not to strike
too hard."

An hour or two afterwards, when he paid his usual visit to the Regent,
her Majesty rose on his entrance, according to the established
etiquette, and made him a profound curtsey. "I should prefer, Madame,"
said the young Prince, "fewer curtseys and fewer floggings." [51]

At the commencement of June intelligence reached the Court of the death
of the Archbishop of Rouen, the natural brother of the late King, and
it was no sooner authenticated than the Regent hastened to bestow his
abbey of St. Florent upon M. de Souvre, and that of Marmoutier, one of
the most wealthy and beautiful in France, upon the brother of her
favourite Leonora,[52] an unhappy being who was not only deformed in
person, but so wholly deficient in intellect that every effort even to
teach him to read had proved ineffectual. So abject was he, indeed, that
Concini had been careful never to allow him to come into contact with
Henri IV lest he should be banished from the Court; and this ill-advised
donation consequently excited great disapprobation, and elicited fresh
murmurs against the Italian followers of the Queen.

These were, moreover, augmented by another circumstance which
immediately supervened. A report was spread of the decease of M. de
Boece, the Governor of Bourg-en-Bresse, a brave and faithful soldier,
who had rendered good service to his country; and the Queen, urged by
her favourite, was imprudent enough, without awaiting proper
confirmation of the rumour, to confer the government upon Concini, whose
arrogance, fostered as it was by the indulgence of his royal mistress,
was already becoming intolerable to the native nobility. This fact was,
however, no sooner made known to M. de Boece, who had not, as it
subsequently appeared, even laboured under indisposition, than he
addressed a letter of respectful expostulation to the Regent, in which
he expressed his concern at the necessity of interfering with the
pleasure of her Majesty in the rapid disposal of his government, and
assured her that he was still able and anxious to discharge the duties
of the trust confided to him by the late King; informing her, moreover,
that he had in his possession a grant from her royal husband, bestowing
the survivorship of his a