let--A new conspiracy--The Archduchess Isabella refuses to deliver
up the servants of Marie de Medicis--Gaston retires to Burgundy.

By the Treaty of Vic, Charles de Lorraine was, as we have shown,
compelled to refuse all further hospitality to his royal brother-in-law;
while Gaston found himself necessitated to submit to a separation from
his young wife, and to proceed to the Spanish Low Countries, where
Isabella had offered him an asylum. The amiable Archduchess nobly
redeemed her pledge; and the reception which she accorded to the errant
Duke was as honourable as that already bestowed upon his mother.

The Marquis de Santa-Cruz, who had recently arrived from Italy to
command the Spanish forces in Flanders, was instructed to place himself
at the head of all the nobility of the Court, and to advance a league
beyond the city to meet the French Prince; while the municipal bodies of
Brussels awaited him at the gates. He was lodged in the State apartments
of the Palace, and all the expenses of his somewhat elaborate household
were defrayed by his magnificent hostess.

"I am sorry, Sir," said Isabella gracefully, as Gaston hastened to offer
his acknowledgments on his arrival, "that I am compelled to quarrel with
you on our first interview. You should have deferred your visit to me
until you had seen the Queen your mother."

"Madame," replied the Prince, "it will be infinitely more easy for me to
justify myself for having previously paid my respects to yourself, than
to recognize in an efficient manner the debt of obligation which I have
incurred towards you."

After the compliments incident to such a meeting had been exchanged
between Isabella and her new guest, Gaston received those of the Spanish
grandees and the Knights of the Golden Fleece; and at the close of this
ceremony he proceeded to the residence of Marie de Medicis, who embraced
him tenderly, and bade him remember that all her hopes of vengeance
against Richelieu, and a triumphant return to France, were centred in
himself. The vain and shallow nature of the Prince was flattered by the
position which he had thus suddenly assumed. Thwarted and humbled at the
Court of his brother by the intrigues of the Cardinal; distrusted by
those who had formerly espoused his cause, and who had suffered the
penalty of their misplaced confidence; and impoverished by the evil
issue of his previous cabals, he had long writhed beneath his enforced
insignificance; whereas he ha