he summits of the
public buildings, and from the masts of the shipping in the harbour.

Little could the unfortunate Marie de Medicis anticipate, when she thus
saw herself surrounded by the most unequivocal exhibition of respect and
deference ever displayed towards greatness in misfortune, that she
should but a few short years subsequently enter the city in which she
was now feasted and flattered, a penniless wanderer, only to be driven
out in terror and sickness, to seek a new shelter, and to die in
abject despair!

Ever sanguine, the Queen-mother even yet hoped for a propitious change
of fortune. She would not believe that Richelieu could ultimately
triumph over the natural affection of a son, evil as her experience had
hitherto proved; and when Isabella, in order to comply with the
necessary observances of courtesy, wrote to assure Louis XIII that so
far from intending any disrespect towards him by the reception which she
had given to his mother, she begged him rather to regard it as a
demonstration of her deference for himself; and at the same time offered
to assist by every means in her power in effecting a reconciliation
between them, Marie de Medicis deceived herself into the belief that
such a proposition coming from such a source would never be rejected;
while it is probable that had Louis been left to follow the promptings
of his own nature, which was rather weak than wicked, her anticipations
might at this period have been realized; but the inevitable Richelieu
was constantly beside him, to insinuate the foulest suspicions, and to
keep alive his easily-excited distrust of the motives of the
Queen-mother.

The despatches of Isabella were, moreover, entrusted to the Abbe
Carondelet, Deacon of the Cathedral of Cambrai, who, as the Cardinal was
well aware, considered himself aggrieved by the refusal to which he had
been subjected on his application for the bishopric of Namur; and who
would in consequence, as he did not fail to infer, be readily prevailed
upon to abandon the interests of the fugitive Queen. The event proved
the justice of his previsions. Carondelet was not proof against the
extraordinary honours which he received at the French Court, nor the
splendid presents of the King and his minister; and the man to whose
zeal and eloquence Isabella had confidently entrusted the cause of her
royal guest was, after the lapse of a few short days, heart and soul the
creature of Richelieu.[159]

The Cardinal