the fast friend of Madame de
Comballet,[125] the niece of Richelieu. Apprehensive of the consequences
likely to accrue to herself from such an intimacy, Anne of Austria for
some time refused to admit the new Mistress of the Robes into her
private circle, alleging that her apartments were not sufficiently
spacious to accommodate the relatives and spies of a minister who had
already succeeded in embittering her existence. All opposition on her
part was, however, disregarded; the ladies were officially installed;
and although the Queen made no secret of her annoyance, and loudly
inveighed against both Richelieu and her royal mother-in-law for the
indignity to which she was thus subjected, they retained their places,
and endeavoured, by every demonstration of respect and devotion, to gain
the good graces of their irritated mistress. In this endeavour one of
them only was destined to succeed, and that one, contrary to all
expectation, was the beautiful and witty Comtesse du Fargis, whose
fascinations soon won the heart of the young Queen, and who was
fortunate enough to secure alike her confidence and her esteem; nor was
it long ere she profited by her advantage to attempt a reconciliation
between Marie de Medicis and her offended daughter-in-law; urged
thereto, as some historians assert, by the advice of the Cardinal de
Berulle, but more probably by her own affection for the Queen-mother, in
whose household she had formerly held the same office which she now
filled in that of Anne of Austria.

Her project, however, presented considerable difficulty. The King had
suddenly become more assiduous than he had ever yet shown himself in his
attendance upon the Court of Marie de Medicis, constantly joining her
evening circle, and absenting himself entirely from the apartments of
his royal consort; a circumstance which Anne did not fail to attribute
to the evil offices of the Tuscan Princess, who, as she asserted, was
perpetually labouring to undermine her dignity, and to usurp her
position, Soon, however, it became rumoured that it was to no effort on
her own part that the Queen-mother was indebted for the constant society
of the monarch, but rather to the attractions of one of her maids of
honour; and that for the first time in his life Louis XIII evinced
symptoms of a passion to which he had hitherto been supposed
invulnerable. Mademoiselle de Hautefort, the object of this apparent
preference, was remarkable rather for intellect