xistence.[101]

In the month of November France lost another of her marshals in the
person of M. de Lesdiguieres, who had passed his eightieth year; while
the subsequently celebrated court _roue_, the Duc de Saint-Simon, became
the accredited favourite of the changeful and capricious Louis, without,
however, attaining any influence in the government, which had at this
period become entirely concentrated in the hands of Richelieu and the
Queen-mother.

The pregnancy of the Duchesse d'Orleans, which was formally announced at
the close of this year, was a source of great exultation to her
husband, who received with undisguised delight the congratulations which
were poured out upon him from every side; nor did he seek to disguise
his conviction that, should the Queen continue childless, there was
nothing to which he might see fit to aspire, which, with the assistance
of the Guises and their faction, he would find it impossible to attain.
A general hatred of Richelieu was the ruling sentiment of the great
nobles, who were anxious to effect his overthrow, but the Cardinal was
too prudent to be taken at a disadvantage; and he at once felt that in
addition to the blow which he had aimed at the power of the barons by
depriving them of their fortified places, he still possessed the means
of maintaining his position, and even of increasing his authority, by
labouring to accomplish the destruction of the Protestants; a policy
which was eagerly adopted by Louis, whose morbid superstition, coupled
with his love of war for its own sake, led him to believe that the work
of slaughter which must necessarily supervene could not but prove
agreeable to Heaven; counselled as it was, moreover, by a dignitary of
the Church.

While Richelieu was thus seeking to involve the nation in a renewal of
that intestine warfare by which it had already been so fearfully
visited, simply to further his own ambitious views, the princes and
nobles whom he had irritated into a thirst for vengeance were no less
eager to attain the same object in order to effect his ruin; and for
this purpose they endeavoured to secure the co-operation of Gaston,
deluding themselves with the belief that the heir-apparent to the
throne, who had encouraged their disaffection, and for the maintenance
of whose interests Ornano and Chalais had already suffered, would not
refuse to them at so critical a moment the support of his name, his
wealth, and his influence. But these sangui