o rule. He seldom appeared at Court; and when he was
prevailed upon to do so, he was the obsequious admirer of Richelieu, and
the submissive subject of the King. The Spaniards, since the departure
of the heir-apparent to the French Crown, had ceased to evince the same
respect towards the mother whom he had abandoned; and although they
still accorded to her a pension that placed her above want, the
munificence with which they had greeted her arrival had long ceased to
call forth her gratitude. Her position was consequently desperate; and
her only prospect of escaping from so miserable a fate as that by which
she was ultimately threatened existed in the hope that should she
voluntarily retire from Flanders, and place herself under the protection
of England, she might yet succeed in enforcing her claims.

While she was still meditating this project, Christine, the widowed
Duchess of Savoy, resolved to make a last effort to effect the recall of
her persecuted mother to France; and for this purpose she despatched to
Paris a Jesuit named Monod, who succeeded in establishing a friendship
with Caussin, the King's confessor, whom he induced to second the
attempt. As both one and the other, however, believed success to be
impossible so long as Richelieu retained his influence over the mind of
the sovereign, they resolved to undermine his favour. Caussin, like all
his predecessors, had great power over the timid conscience and
religious scruples of his royal penitent, and the two Jesuits were well
aware that through these alone could Louis be rendered vulnerable to
their entreaties; while they were, moreover, encouraged in their hopes
by the circumstance that the Cardinal-Minister had never evinced the
slightest distrust of Caussin, whom he believed to be devoted to his
interests, and that the latter consequently possessed ample
opportunities for prosecuting his object.

At the close of the year, therefore, the attempt was made; and, as the
Jesuit had anticipated, Louis listened with submission and even respect
to his expostulations. "Your minister misleads you, Sire," said his
confessor, "where your better nature would guide you in the right path.
He it is who has induced your Majesty to abandon your mother, who is not
only condemned to exile, but reduced to the greatest necessity, and
indebted to strangers for the very means of existence."

The King was visibly moved by this assertion, but he remained silent,
and suffered the