laring war against Austria. For this
purpose he stated that more troops must necessarily be raised, but that
the forfeited dowry of the Queen-mother and the appanage of the Duc
d'Orleans would furnish sufficient funds for their maintenance; an
expedient which was at once adopted by the Council.[191]

In the event of either war or peace, however, the Cardinal was equally
uneasy to see the mother of the King and the heir-presumptive to the
Crown in the hands of the Spaniards, as their influence might tend to
excite an insurrection on the first check experienced by the French
army; while, should a general peace be negotiated during their residence
in the Low Countries, the Emperor and the King of Spain would not fail
to stipulate such conditions for them both as he was by no means
inclined to concede; and he was therefore anxious to effect, if
possible, their voluntary departure from the Spanish territories. That
he should succeed as regarded Gaston, Richelieu had little doubt, that
weak Prince being completely subjugated by his favourites, who, as the
minister was well aware, were at all times ready to sacrifice the
interests of their master to their own; but as regarded Marie de Medicis
the case was widely different, for he could not conceal from himself
that should she entertain the most remote suspicion of his own desire
to cause her removal from her present place of refuge, she would remain
rooted to the soil, although her heart broke in the effort. Nor was he
ignorant that all her counsellors perpetually urged her never to return
to France until she could do so without incurring any obligation to
himself; and this she could only hope to effect by the assistance of the
Emperor and Philip of Spain.

One circumstance, however, seemed to lend itself to his project, and
this existed in the fact that the Queen--mother had, during the
preceding year, requested her son-in-law the King of England to furnish
her with vessels for conveying her to a Spanish port; and this request,
coupled with her departure from Brussels, led him to believe that she
was becoming weary of the Low Countries. He accordingly resolved to
ascertain whether there were any hopes of inducing her to retire for a
time to Florence; but the difficulty which presented itself was how to
renew a proposition which had been already more than once
indignantly rejected.

After considerable reflection the Cardinal at length believed that he
had discovered a sure