ther inconsequent conversation,
until Du Hallier, the captain of the bodyguard, made his appearance at
the head of his archers, and approaching the Marechal, announced to him
that he was his prisoner; requesting him to withdraw from the royal
apartment, whence he conducted him to the chamber in which the Duc de
Biron had been confined twenty-four years previously,[95] while Madame
d'Ornano at the same time received an order to quit Paris upon the
instant, and the two brothers of the disgraced courtier, together with
MM. Deageant, Modena, and other partisans of the Marechal, were
also arrested.

By this bold stroke of policy the Cardinal effectually paralyzed the
power of Monsieur; although this conviction was far from allaying his
personal apprehensions. Among the favourites of the Prince he had
equally marked for destruction the young Prince de Chalais,[96] the Duc
de Vendome, and his brother the Grand Prior; but Richelieu feared by
venturing too much to lose all, for his authority had not at that period
reached its acme; and he felt all the danger which he must incur by
adopting measures of such violence against two Princes of the Blood.

The indignation of Monsieur was, moreover, thoroughly excited, and he
did not scruple either to reproach his royal brother, or to utter
threats against those who had aided in the arrest of the Marechal, whose
restoration to liberty he vehemently demanded; and as his
representations failed to produce the desired effect, he indulged in a
thousand extravagances which only tended to strengthen the hands and to
forward the views of Richelieu, who found no difficulty in widening the
breach between Louis and the imprudent Prince by whom his authority was
openly questioned. In vain did Marie de Medicis endeavour to impress
upon him the danger of such ill-advised violence, Gaston persisted in
upholding his favourite; until the King, irritated beyond endurance,
exhibited such marked displeasure towards his brother that the weak and
timid Prince began to entertain fears for his own safety, and became
suddenly as abject as he had previously been haughty; abandoned D'Ornano
to his fate; and after signing an act, in which he promised all honour
and obedience to the sovereign, carried his condescension so far as to
visit the Cardinal at his residence at Limours, whither he had retired
on the pretext of indisposition.

Richelieu triumphed: and ere long the Duc de Vendome and his brother
were arre