inted Councillor of State, and principal librarian to the
King. With his peculiar principles, De Thou could not do otherwise than
deprecate and detest the overwhelming power of Richelieu; and long ere
he crossed the path of Cinq-Mars, he had entered into several cabals
against the minister, a fact which had no sooner been ascertained by the
Cardinal than he deprived him of his public offices, and thus rendered
his animosity more resolute than ever. It was in this temper of mind
that De Thou met the Grand Equerry; nor was it long ere the wild visions
of Cinq-Mars's passion were fashioned into probability by the logical
arguments of his new acquaintance; a circumstance of which he no sooner
became convinced than he forthwith resolved not to suffer his
indignation to vent itself in mere annoyance, but to seek some more
noble and enduring vengeance.

Thenceforward the two friends became inseparable; and when De Thou at
length hinted that Cinq-Mars would in all probability, from his great
favour with the sovereign, become the successor of Richelieu in the
event of his dismissal, the Equerry sprang at once from a peevish and
mortified boy into a resolute and daring conspirator, and his first care
was to secure the co-operation of his kinsman the Duc de Bouillon; who,
while auguring favourably of the plot, and pledging himself to
strengthen it by his own participation, represented to his young
relative the absolute necessity of obtaining the support of Monsieur.

Gaston had withdrawn from the Court after the birth of the two Princes;
and although he had, with his usual pusillanimity, continued to preserve
an apparently good understanding with the Cardinal, few were deceived
into the belief that this ostensible oblivion of the past was genuine.
Monsieur was, when the subject of the new cabal against Richelieu was
mooted to him by Cinq-Mars, residing in the Luxembourg (known at that
period as the Palais d'Orleans), whither the Grand Equerry was
accustomed to repair in disguise, and generally during the night, to
concert with the Prince all the preliminaries of the conspiracy. Gaston,
as had been anticipated, evinced no indisposition to lend himself to the
views of Cinq-Mars and his friends,[235] when they eventually assured
him that they had certain information of the efforts which the Cardinal
was at that very period making to secure his own nomination to the
regency of the kingdom, in the event of the then-pending journey to