he appeared
to have forgotten the time when he was devoted heart and soul to the
fortunes of the Queen-mother, suffered five days to elapse before he
found leisure to bend his steps towards the Petit Luxembourg; an
omission which he was subsequently destined to expiate in the dungeons
of the Bastille.

Louis, meanwhile, had reached Versailles with his equerry and favourite,
M. de Saint-Simon, to whom he bitterly inveighed against the violence of
his mother; declaring that he could not dispense with the services of
Richelieu, and that he should again have to contend against the same
humiliations and difficulties which he had endured throughout the
Regency. As the ill-humour of the King augmented, Saint-Simon privately
sent to inform the Cardinal de la Valette of the undisguised annoyance
of his Majesty, who was evidently prepared to revoke the dismissal of
Richelieu should he be urged to do so; and that prelate, acting upon the
suggestion, lost no time in presenting himself before the monarch.
"Cousin," said Louis with a smile, as M. de la Valette entered the
apartment, "you must be surprised at what has taken place."

"More so, Sire, than your Majesty can possibly imagine," was the reply.

"Well then," pursued the King, "return to the Cardinal de Richelieu, and
tell him from me to come here upon the instant. He will find me an
indulgent master."

M. de la Valette required no second bidding. Richelieu had concealed
himself in a cottage near the palace, awaiting a favourable moment to
retrieve his tottering fortunes, and he hastened to obey the welcome
summons. The results of this interview even exceeded the hopes of the
minister; and before he left the royal closet he was once more Prime
Minister of France, generalissimo of the armies beyond the Alps, and
carried in his hand an order signed by Louis for the transfer of the
seals from M. de Marillac to his own friend and adherent Chateauneuf;
together with a second for the recall of the Marechal de Marillac, who
had only on the previous day been appointed to the command of the army
in Italy.[139]

One obstacle alone remained to the full and unlimited power of the
exulting minister, who had not failed to perceive that henceforward his
influence over the sovereign could never again be shaken; and that
obstacle was Marie de Medicis. Louis, even while he persecuted and
thwarted his mother, had never ceased to fear her; and the wily minister
resolved, in order the more s