upporters of the dignity
and safety of the Crown found means to involve the Court in confusion
and cabals; a fact which moreover tended to place her more completely in
the power of Concini and his wife than would probably ever have been the
case under other circumstances.

On the 14th of January in the present year the Regent, through the
active agency of Concini, gave her solemn consent to the marriage of the
Comte d'Enghien with Mademoiselle de Montpensier, despite the opposition
of the Cardinal de Joyeuse, the Duc d'Epernon, and a number of the Court
nobles, who were alarmed at the prospect of so close an alliance between
M. de Soissons and the Duc de Guise.

The next event of interest was the final departure of M. de Sully from
the capital, who, previously to quitting Paris, returned to the Regent
the warrant for three hundred thousand livres with which she had, as she
declared, sought to repay his past services. The letter by which the
deed was accompanied was, although perfectly respectful, haughty, cold,
and resolute: nor did the Duke make an effort to disguise from her that
the onerous duties which he had performed to the late monarch, to the
nation, and to herself, could not be repaid by an order upon the royal
treasury; while his retirement was voluntary, and not intended to be
contingent on any such arrangement. The Court gossips made merry over an
altercation which they declared to have taken place between the Duke and
Duchess on the occasion of this transaction; Madame de Sully, whose
vanity was wounded by the loss of dignity and influence consequent on
the retirement of her husband, considering this additional pecuniary
sacrifice alike idle and uncalled-for, and reproaching him with undue
haughtiness in thus refusing the last favour which the Regent had
desired to confer upon him; and the ex-minister retorting by reminding
her that she, at least, had no cause for complaint, since from the
obscure condition of the daughter of a petty lawyer he had elevated her
to the rank of a Duchess, and made her the companion of Princes.[108]

When the dismissal of Sully had been decided, it will be remembered that
De Thou was one of those appointed to succeed him in his office as a
director of finance. The appointment was not, however, accepted; M. de
Harlay, fatigued and disgusted by the intrigues which daily grew up
about him, being anxious to resign his office of First President of the
Parliament, which had previou