himself.

That Louis nevertheless made this concession with reluctance is
evidenced by the fact that he forthwith wrote to M. de Conde, who was
then residing at Bourges, to invite him to return to Court in order to
counterbalance the influence of the Queen-mother, which the admission of
her favourite to the Privy Council could not fail greatly to augment.
The appeal was, however, fruitless; the Prince considering himself
aggrieved not only by the elevation of an individual to whom he justly
attributed his imprisonment in the Bastille, but also by the increased
power of Marie de Medicis, and he consequently coldly returned his
thanks for the desire evinced by his royal kinsman to see him once more
near his person, but declared his intention of remaining in his
government.[83]

From this period the prominent figure upon the canvas of the time is
Richelieu. He it was who negotiated the marriage of the Prince of Wales
with Madame Henriette, after the alliance with Spain had been abandoned
by James I. To him the Marquis de la Vieuville owed his disgrace, and by
his representations the Queen-mother enlisted the young Prince Gaston
d'Anjou in his interests. All bent, or was crushed, before him; he had
affected to accept office reluctantly; pleaded his physical weakness,
even while he admitted his mental strength, declaring that his bodily
infirmities incapacitated him from collision with the toil and turmoil
of state affairs; and coquetted with the honours for which he had
striven throughout long years until he almost succeeded in inducing
those about him to believe that he sacrificed his own inclinations to
the will of the sovereign and his mother.[84] But history has proved
that having once possessed himself of the supreme power, and moulded the
mind of his royal master to his own purposes, he flung off all
restraint, and governed the nation like a monarch, while its legitimate
sovereign obeyed his behests, and made peace or war, as the necessity of
either measure was dictated to him by his imperious minister.

And amid all this pomp of power and pride of place, how did the
purple-robed politician regard the generous benefactress who had
furthered his brilliant fortunes? It cannot be forgotten that the
wretched Concini had been his first patron, and that when one word of
warning from his lips might have saved the Marechal from assassination,
those lips had remained closed; that he had even affected to slumber
with the de