8. MARQUIS DE CINQ-MARS

Engraved by Langlois.

BOOK III

CHAPTER I

1618

De Luynes resolves to compel the Queen-mother to remain at
Blois--Treachery of Richelieu--The suspicions of Marie are aroused--Her
apprehensions--She demands permission to remove to Monceaux, and is
refused--She affects to resign herself to her fate--A royal
correspondence--Vanity of the Duc d'Epernon--A Court broil--The Abbe
Rucellai offers his services to Marie de Medicis--He attempts to win
over the great nobles to her cause--He is compelled to quit the Court,
and retires to Sedan--The Duc de Bouillon refuses to join the cabal--The
Duc d'Epernon consents to aid the escape of the Queen-mother--The
ministers become suspicious of the designs of Richelieu--He is ordered
to retire to Coussay, and subsequently to Avignon--Tyranny of M. de
Roissy--The Queen-mother resolves to demand a public trial--De Luynes
affects to seek a reconciliation with the Prince de Conde--Firmness of
the Queen-mother--The three Jesuits--Marie pledges herself not to leave
Blois without the sanction of the King--False confidence of De
Luynes--The malcontents are brought to trial--Weakness of the
ministers--Political executions--Indignation of the people--The Princes
resolve to liberate the Queen-mother.

It will be remembered that Marie de Medicis left the capital under a
pledge from her son himself that she was at perfect liberty to change
her place of abode whenever she should deem it expedient to do so; and
that her sojourn at Blois was merely provisional, and intended as a
temporary measure, to enable her to establish herself more commodiously
in her own castle of Monceaux. Anxious for her absence, De Luynes had
induced the King to consent to her wishes; but she had no sooner reached
Blois than he determined that she should be compelled to remain there,
as he dreaded her influence in a province of which she was the absolute
mistress; and, accordingly, she had no sooner arrived in the
fortress-palace on the Loire than he began to adopt the necessary
measures for her detention. Within a week she was surrounded by spies; a
precaution which would appear to have been supererogatory so long as
Richelieu remained about her person, as his first care on reaching Blois
was to write to the favourite to repeat his offers of service; and he
himself informs us that "from time to time he sent him an exact account
of the Queen's proceedings;" while so much anxiety did