which shortly afterwards occurred,
Sillery once more found himself in possession of the seals. His triumph
was, however, of short duration, the King having conceived an
extraordinary aversion to the Chancellor, although he was aware that he
could not safely dispense with his services; and accordingly, a short
time subsequently, the seals were again reclaimed, and bestowed upon M.
d'Aligre.[81]

On the return of Louis XIII to the capital Anne of Austria organized two
magnificent ballets, one of which was danced in the apartments of the
King, and the other in her own. It was hinted that these splendid
entertainments were given in order to impress Lord Holland with a high
idea of the splendour of the French Court, that nobleman having been
instructed by James I. to endeavour to effect a marriage between the
Prince of Wales and Madame Elisabeth; and great was the astonishment of
the royal party when they ascertained that the Prince himself, attended
by the Duke of Buckingham, had been present incognito, both personages
being disguised with false beards and enormously bushy wigs; and that,
after only remaining one day in Paris, they had pursued their journey to
Spain, where Charles was about to demand the hand of the Infanta. It
was, moreover, afterwards ascertained that having arrived in the French
capital on the evening before that of the royal ballet, the Prince and
his companions had gone disguised to the Louvre to see the Queen-mother
at table, and had introduced themselves as travelling nobles into a
gallery in which Louis was walking surrounded by his courtiers; after
which they had induced the Duc de Montbazon to allow them to enter the
hall in which the festival was to take place. There Charles saw for the
first time the young Queen of Louis XIII, with the portrait of whose
sister he had become enamoured, and also Madame Henriette, who was
subsequently destined to become his wife. But it would appear that the
French Princess whom he so tenderly loved in after-years made, on this
occasion, no impression upon his mind; as, still eager to convince
himself that the Spanish Infanta was as beautiful as the miniature in
his possession, he set forth on the following day for Madrid, as he had
originally intended.[82]

La Vieuville and his party (at the head of which figured the
Queen-mother, who could not brook that Louis should retain about his
person a minister whose influence counterbalanced her own) began in the
spring