arried all before them at Court, not
only by reason of the Cardinal's power with the Queen-Mother, but
because she thought it in her power to remove them should they give her
umbrage; whereas she could not so easily remove the Constable, who was
supported by the Princes of the blood.

When the ceremonial of the mourning was over, the Constable came to the
Louvre, and was very coldly received by the King; he desired to speak
with him in private, but the King called for Messieurs de Guise, and
told him before them, that he advised him to live at ease; that the
finances and the command of the Army were disposed of, and that when he
had occasion for his advice, he would send for him to Court. The Queen
received him in a yet colder manner than the King, and she even
reproached him for having told the late King, that his children by her
did not resemble him. The King of Navarre arrived, and was no better
received; the Prince of Conde, more impatient than his brother,
complained aloud, but to no purpose: he was removed from Court, under
pretence of being sent to Flanders to sign the ratification of the
peace. They showed the King of Navarre a forged letter from the King
of Spain, which charged him with a design of seizing that King's
fortresses; they put him in fear for his dominions, and made him take a
resolution to go to Bearn; the Queen furnished him with an opportunity,
by appointing him to conduct Madam Elizabeth, and obliged him to set
out before her, so that there remained nobody at Court that could
balance the power of the House of Guise.

Though it was a mortifying circumstance for Monsieur de Cleves not to
conduct Madam Elizabeth, yet he could not complain of it, by reason of
the greatness of the person preferred before him; he regretted the loss
of this employment not so much on account of the honour he should have
received from it, as because it would have given him an opportunity of
removing his wife from Court without the appearance of design in it.

A few days after the King's death, it was resolved the new King should
go to Rheims to be crowned. As soon as this journey was talked of,
Madam de Cleves, who had stayed at home all this while under pretence
of illness, entreated her husband to dispense with her following the
Court, and to give her leave to go to take the air at Colomiers for her
health: he answered, that whether her health was the reason or not of
her desire, however he consented to it: nor w