treme a crisis Louis would
not have hesitated to comply with her wishes had not Richelieu opposed
his liberation from the Bastille, asserting that Marie de Medicis had
induced Isabella to make the request for the sole purpose of once more
having about her person a man who had formerly given her the most
pernicious advice, and who encouraged her in her rebellion. All,
therefore, that the King would concede under this impression was his
permission to Vautier to prescribe in writing for the royal invalid; but
the physician, who trusted that the circumstance might tend to his
liberation, excused himself, alleging that as he had not seen the
Queen-mother for upwards of two years, he could not judge of the changes
which increased age, change of air, and moral suffering had produced
upon her system; and that consequently he dared not venture to propose
remedies which might produce a totally opposite result to that which
he intended.

But, at the same time that the Cardinal refused to gratify the wishes of
the apparently dying Queen, he was profuse in his expressions of respect
and affection towards her. "His Majesty is about to despatch you to
Ghent," he had said to the envoy when he went to receive his parting
instructions. "Assure the Queen-mother from me that although I am aware
my name is odious to her, and conscious of the whole extent of the
ill-will which she bears towards me, those circumstances do not prevent
my feeling the most profound attachment to her person, and the deepest
grief at her indisposition. Do not fail to assure her that I told you
this with tears in my eyes. God grant that I may never impute to so good
a Princess all the injury which I have suffered from her friends, nor
the calumnies which those about her incessantly propagate against me;
although it is certain that so long as she listens to these envenomed
tongues I cannot hope that she will be undeceived, nor that she will
recognize the uprightness of my intentions." [197]

It appears marvellous that a man gifted with surpassing genius, and
holding in his hand the destinies of Europe, should condescend to such
pitiful and puerile hypocrisy; but throughout the whole of the Memoirs
attributed to Richelieu himself, the reader is startled by the mass of
petty manoeuvres upon which he dilates; as though the dispersion of an
insignificant cabal, or the destruction of some obscure individual who
had become obnoxious to him, were the most important occupa