more in France, he was in reality as earnest as ever in
creating obstacles to a reconciliation so inimical to his own interests.
In vain did the unhappy Queen-mother remind him of her advancing age and
her increasing necessities; and plead that, whatever might have been her
former errors, they must now be considered as expiated by seven weary
years of exile; the minister only replied by expressions of his profound
regret that the internal politics of the kingdom did not permit him to
urge her recall upon the sovereign; and his extreme desire to see her
select a residence elsewhere than within the territory of his enemies,
where she was subjected to perpetual suspicion; while, should she
determine to fix her abode at Florence, his Majesty was prepared to
restore all her forfeited revenues, and to confer upon her an
establishment suited to her rank and dignity.

As Richelieu was well aware, no proposal could be more unpalatable than
this to the haughty Princess. Eight-and-thirty years had elapsed since
Marie de Medicis, then in the full pride of youth and beauty, had
quitted her uncle's court in regal splendour to ascend the throne of
France; and now--how did the heartless minister urge her to return?
Hopeless, friendless, and powerless; with a name which had become a
mockery, to a family wherein she would be a stranger. At Florence her
existence was a mere tradition. All who had once loved her were
dispersed or dead; no personal interest bound her to their survivors;
and where long years previously she might have claimed affection, she
could now only anticipate pity or dread contempt. The perpetual
illnesses of the King, moreover, rendered her averse to such a measure;
every succeeding attack had produced a more marked effect upon the
naturally feeble constitution of Louis; the astrologers by whom she was
surrounded continued to foretell his approaching death; and she yet
indulged visions of a second regency, during which she might once more
become all-powerful.

Nevertheless, she could not conceal from herself that by persistently
remaining in a country at open war with France, she strengthened the
hands of Richelieu without advancing her own interests; and although
she felt that she could ill dispense with the generosity of her
son-in-law Philip of Spain, who, even at a period when he frequently
found himself unable to meet the demands of his army, still continued to
treat her with a munificence truly royal, she reso