t had, as a natural consequence, resulted from the minister's
ill-advised representation, an insult which Gaston so violently resented
that he forthwith entered into the cabal against De la Vieuville, and
thus seconded the views of the Queen-mother, who was anxious to replace
the obnoxious minister by the Cardinal de Richelieu.

True to his character, on being apprised of the powerful faction formed
against him, De la Vieuville resolved to tender his resignation, and
thus to deprive his enemies of the triumph of causing his disgrace, for
which purpose he proceeded to declare to the King his desire to withdraw
from the high office which had been conferred upon him. Louis XIII
simply replied: "Make yourself perfectly easy, and pay no attention to
what is going forward. When I have no longer occasion for your services,
I will tell you so myself; and you shall have my permission to come and
take leave of me before your departure."

On the following day De la Vieuville accordingly presented himself as
usual during the sitting of the Privy Council, when the King abruptly
exclaimed: "I redeem the promise which I made to tell you when I could
dispense with your services. I have resolved to do so; and you are at
liberty to take your leave." The ex-minister, bewildered by so
extraordinary a reception, attempted no rejoinder, but hastened to quit
the royal presence. He had, however, no sooner reached the gallery than
he was arrested by the Marquis de Thermes, and conveyed as a prisoner to
the citadel of Amboise, whence he made his escape a year afterwards.[87]

The result of this arrest was a total change in the aspect of the Court.
M. de Marillac[88] succeeded to the vacant superintendence of finance;
the Comte de Schomberg was recalled to the capital, and made a member of
the Privy Council; D'Ornano was liberated from the Bastille, restored to
his position in the household of the Duc d'Anjou, and honoured with a
marshal's _baton_; while, to complete the moral revolution, Richelieu
was appointed chief of the Council, and became, as the Queen-mother had
anticipated, all-powerful over the weak and timid mind of the King under
his new character of Minister of State.

Fully occupied as the Cardinal might have found himself by the foreign
wars into which his ambition ere long plunged his royal master, he was
nevertheless compelled to turn his attention to the intrigues of certain
great ladies of the Court, which threatened internal