tions for the dinner of the Prince;
upon which Richelieu caused them to be informed that he should leave the
house at the entire disposal of Monsieur; and, escorted by the armed
party that had been sent for his protection, he set out at once for
Fontainebleau, where he had no sooner arrived than he went without the
delay of a moment to the apartment of the King's brother. Gaston was in
the act of leaving his bed, and was evidently alarmed by the sudden
appearance of so unexpected a visitor; but the Cardinal, affecting not
to perceive his embarrassment, merely reproached him in the most courtly
terms for the precaution which he had taken, assuring him that he should
have felt honoured had he relied upon his hospitality; but adding that,
since his Highness had shown himself desirous of avoiding all restraint,
he was happy to be at least enabled to offer him the use of his
residence. The Prince, taken by surprise, and utterly disconcerted at
the failure of so well organized a plot, could only stammer out his
acknowledgments; and the Cardinal had no sooner heard them to an end
than he requested admission to the King, where, having briefly
expatiated upon his escape, he requested permission with ably-acted
earnestness to retire from the Court.

As we have shown, Louis was by no means slow in deprecating the
self-constituted authority of Richelieu; but he was nevertheless so well
aware of his own incapacity, that the idea of being thus abandoned by a
minister whose grasp of intellect and subtle policy had complicated the
affairs of government until he was compelled to admit his own utter
powerlessness to disentangle the involved and intricate mesh, terrified
him beyond expression; nor was Marie de Medicis, whom he hastened to
summon on perceiving the apparently resolute position assumed by
Richelieu, less alarmed than himself.

Had the scene been enacted by three individuals of mean station, it
would have been merely a painful and a degrading one, for each was alike
deceiving and deceived; but as they stood there, a crowned King, a
Princess born "under the purple," and a powerful minister, it presented
another and a more extraordinary aspect. Stolid and resolute as were
alike the mother and the son, they were totally unable to cope with the
superior talent and astuteness of the man whom they had themselves
raised to power; and before the termination of the interview Richelieu
had convinced both that his counsels and services