lved to withdraw from
the Low Countries; and, accordingly, on the 10th of August, alleging
that she was about to remove to Spa for the restoration of her health,
she took her leave of the Court of Brussels; and, suddenly changing her
route, proceeded to Bois-le-Duc, where she placed herself under the
protection of the Prince of Orange.[220]

The arrival of the Queen-mother in Holland excited universal
gratulation, as the Dutch did not for an instant doubt that it was a
preliminary to a reconciliation with her son; and once more she found
herself the object of universal homage. Municipal processions and civic
banquets were hastily arranged in her honour; every hotel-de-ville was
given up for her accommodation; burgomasters harangued her, and citizens
formed her bodyguard; while so enthusiastic were the self-deceived
Hollanders that even Art was enlisted in her welcome, and engravings
still exist wherein her reception is commemorated under the most
extravagant allegories; one of which represents the aged and
broken-hearted Queen as the goddess Ceres, drawn by two lions in a
gilded car. But her advent in Holland was, unhappily, not destined to
ensure to her either the power or the abundance with which she was thus
gratuitously invested by the pencil of the painter; for on her arrival
at the Hague, when, in compliance with her entreaty, the Prince of
Orange personally solicited her restoration to favour and her return to
France, pledging himself in her name that she would never again
interfere in the public affairs of the kingdom, nor enter into any cabal
either against the state or the Cardinal-Minister, his application was
totally disregarded by Louis XIII; and only elicited an official reply
from Richelieu to the effect "that his Majesty could not receive the
said lady and Queen into his realm, inasmuch as he had just reason to
fear that she would continue under his name, and perhaps unknown to him,
to create factions and cabals, not only in his own kingdom, but in those
of his allies; but that should it please the said lady and Queen to
retire to Florence, where the malcontents could not exert their
influence over her mind, or injure either himself or his allies, his
Majesty again offered her, as he had already done, a position at once
more honourable and inure opulent than that with which she had contented
herself in Flanders." [221]

This answer was, as Richelieu had intended that it should be, perfectly
decisive t