Cardinal-Minister; and accordingly he did not fail to be apprised of the
intrigue before it had time to produce its effect, and resolved to
conciliate the Comte de Soissons, even were it only for the present
moment. Of Marie de Medicis he had long ceased to feel any apprehension,
and he consequently made no effort to include her in the amnesty; a
demonstration of contempt which so deeply wounded the exiled Princess
that she resolved to despatch a messenger to the Court of London to
solicit the interposition of Charles I. and Henriette in her behalf; but
despite all her disappointments the Queen-mother still sought to obtain
conditions which past experience should have sufficed to prove that
Richelieu never would accord.

The English monarch had, indeed, yielded to the entreaties of a wife to
whom he was at that period devotedly attached, and had consented to
exert all his influence in favour of the unhappy Princess, who now saw
herself abandoned by both her sons; but the state of his own kingdom was
too unsettled to permit of his enforcing terms which he consequently
perceived to be hopeless. Nevertheless he acceded to her request, and
forwarded to the Court of France the document which was delivered to him
by her envoy, but it produced no effect; and while every other
state-criminal was reinstated in the favour of the King, on tendering
the required submission, and conforming to the stipulated conditions,
the Queen-mother found herself excluded from all hope of recall and all
prospect of reconciliation.

Richelieu was aware that necessity alone had induced her to pronounce
his pardon, and that her wrongs were too great ever to be forgotten. No
wonder, therefore, that he shrank from a struggle which, should the
voice of popular favour once more be raised in her behalf, might tend to
his overthrow; and that struggle, as he well knew, could take place only
on the soil of France. Her exile was his safety; and the astute Cardinal
had long determined that it should end only with her life.[218]

On every side the unfortunate Marie de Medicis saw herself surrounded by
misfortune. Gaston, at the instigation of the Cardinal, had ceased to
supply his neglected wife with the means of supporting, not merely her
rank, but even her existence, and had left her dependent upon the
generosity of the Spanish Government which he had so unblushingly
betrayed. He had himself become a mere cypher in the kingdom over which
he hoped one day t