found little difficulty in persuading the monarch that
Marie de Medicis must have had a full and perfect understanding with the
Spanish Cabinet before she would have ventured to seek an asylum within
their territories; an assertion which was so faintly combated by the
treacherous envoy of the Archduchess, that thenceforward the
protestations of the Queen-mother were totally disregarded, and the
triumph of Richelieu was complete. In consequence of this conviction,
Louis XIII published, in the month of August, a declaration which was
most injurious alike towards Marie de Medicis and Gaston d'Orleans.
Among other accusations, it asserted that "the evil counsellors of his
brother had driven him, contrary to the duty imposed by his birth, and
the respect which he owed to the person of his sovereign, to address to
him letters full of calumnies and impostures against the Government;
that he had accused, against all truth and reason, his very dear and
well-beloved cousin the Cardinal de Richelieu of infidelity and
enterprise against the person of his Majesty, that of the Queen-mother,
and his own; that for some time past the Queen-mother had also suffered
herself to be guided by bad advice; and that on his having entreated of
her to assist him by her counsels as she had formerly done, she had
replied that she was weary of public business; by which he had
discovered that she was resolved to second the designs of the Due
d'Orleans, and had consequently determined to separate from her, and to
request her to remove to Moulins, to which request she had refused to
accede; that having subsequently left Compiegne, she had taken refuge
with the Spaniards, and was unceasingly disseminating documents tending
to the subversion of the royal authority and of the kingdom itself; that
for all these reasons, confirming his previous declarations, he declared
guilty of _lese-majeste_ and disturbers of the public peace all those
who should be proved to have aided the Queen-mother and the Duc
d'Orleans in resisting his authority, and of having induced them to
leave the kingdom, as well as those who had followed and still remained
with them; and that it was his will that proceedings should be taken
against them by the seizure of their property, and the abolition of all
their public offices, appointments, and revenues."

By this arbitrary act not only were the adherents of Marie de Medicis
and Gaston d'Orleans deprived of their property, but their own