The Life of Marie de Medicis Volume III Part 19

Place confidence in him, and believe, Cousin, that I will ever truly be, etc. etc."

In addition to this humiliation, the heart-broken Queen at the same time gave instructions to her messenger to declare to the King that, "having learned that his Majesty could not be persuaded of her affection for his own person so long as she refused to extend it to the Cardinal, he was empowered to a.s.sure his Majesty that the Queen-mother, from consideration for the King her son, would thenceforward bestow her regard upon his minister, and dismiss all resentment for the past."

Both the verbal and written declarations addressed to Louis on this occasion were, as will at once be evident, a mere matter of form, and observance of the necessary etiquette. It was not the monarch of France whom Marie de Medicis sought to conciliate, but the Cardinal-Duke, who, as she was conscious, held her fate in his hands. It was before him, consequently, that she bowed down; it was to his sovereign pleasure that she thus humbly deferred; for she felt that the long-enduring struggle which she had hitherto sustained against him was at once impotent and hopeless. Alas! she had, as she was fated ere long to experience, as little to antic.i.p.ate from the abject concession which she now made, bitter as were the tears that it had cost her. The most annoying impediments were thrown in the way of her messenger when he solicited an audience of the sovereign, nor was he slow in arriving at the conviction that his mission would prove abortive. Nevertheless, as the command of Marie de Medicis had been that he should also deliver the letter to Richelieu in person, and, as he had already done in the case of the King, add to its written a.s.surances his own corroborative declarations in her name, and even communicate to him the offer of Chanteloupe to retire to a monastery for the remainder of his life in the event of his exclusion from the treaty, he was bound to pursue his task to its termination, hopeless as it might be.[206]

When the envoy of the Queen-mother had delivered his despatches, and fulfilled the duty with which he had been entrusted, the embarra.s.sment of the Cardinal became extreme. That the haughty Marie de Medicis should ever have compelled herself to such humiliation was an event so totally unexpected on his part that he had made no arrangements to meet it; and it appeared impossible even to him that, under the circ.u.mstances, the King could venture to refuse her immediate return to France. The crisis was a formidable one to Richelieu, who, judging both his injured benefactress and himself from the past, placed no faith in her professions of forgiveness; for, on his side, he felt that he should resent even to his dying hour much that had pa.s.sed before she fled the kingdom, as well as the libels against him which she had sanctioned during her residence in Flanders. He had, moreover, as he a.s.serted, on several occasions received information that Chanteloupe meditated some design upon his life; and that the Jesuit had stated in writing that he could never induce the Queen-mother to consent to separate herself from him, although he had entreated of her to leave him in the Low Countries when she returned to France.[207] Despicable, indeed, were such alleged terrors from the lips of the Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu--the first minister of one of the first sovereigns of Europe. What had he to fear from a powerless and impoverished Princess, whose misfortunes had already endured a sufficient time to outweary her foreign protectors; to subdue the hopes, and to exhaust the energies of her former adherents; and to reduce her to an insignificance of which, as her present measures sufficiently evinced, she had herself become despairingly conscious?

Even had Louis XIII at this moment been possessed of sufficient right feeling and moral energy to remember that it was the dignity of a mother which he had so long sacrificed to the ambition of a minister--that it was the widow of the great monarch who had bequeathed to him a crown whom he ruthlesssly persecuted in order to further the fortunes of an ambitious ingrate--all these trivial hindrances might have been thrust aside at once; but the egotistical and timid temperament of the French King deadened the finer impulses of honour and of nature; and he still suffered himself to be governed, where he should have a.s.serted his highest and his holiest prerogative.

It is impossible to contemplate without astonishment so extraordinary an anomaly as that which was presented by the King, the Queen-mother, and the Cardinal de Richelieu at this particular period. An obscure priest, elevated by the favour of a powerful Princess to the highest offices in the realm, after having reduced his benefactress to the necessity of humbling herself before him, and so unreservedly acknowledging his supremacy as to ask, as the only condition of his forgiveness, that he would do her the favour to believe in the sincerity of her professions.--The widow of Henry the Great, the mother of the King of France, and of the Queens of Spain and England, in danger of wearing out her age in exile, because Armand Jean du Plessis, the younger son of a petty n.o.ble of Poitou, who once considered himself the most fortunate of mortals in obtaining the bishopric of Lucon, feared that his unprecedented power might be shaken should his first friend and patroness be once more united to her son, and restored to the privileges of her rank.--And, finally, a sovereign, who, while in his better moments he felt all the enormity of his conduct towards the author of his being, now fast sinking under the combined weight of years and suffering, was yet deficient in the energy necessary to do justice alike to her and to himself.

Such, however, was the actual position of the several individuals; and the fate of Marie de Medicis was decided.

A desire of repose, consequent upon his failing health, self-gratulation at his triumph over an inimical and powerful faction, and a desire to exculpate himself from the charge of ingrat.i.tude, would have led the Cardinal to accede to a reconciliation with his long-estranged benefactress; but he soon silenced these natural impulses to dwell only upon the dangers of her reappearance in France, which could not, as he believed, fail to circ.u.mscribe his own absolute power--a power to which he had laboriously attained not more by genius than by crime--which had been cemented by blood, and heralded by groans. Nor was this the only consideration by which Richelieu was swayed when he resolved that the Queen-mother should never again, so long as he had life, set foot upon the soil of France. His high-soaring ambition had, within the last few weeks, grasped at a greatness to which even she had not yet attained.

For a time, as is a.s.serted by contemporary historians, he indulged visions of royalty in his own person, and had in imagination already fitted the crown of one of the first nations in Europe to his own brow; but the dream had been brief, and he had latterly resolved to transfer to one of his relatives the ermined purple in which he was not permitted to enfold himself. That relative was his niece and favourite, Madame de Comballet, whose hand he had offered to the Cardinal-Duc Francois de Lorraine, when that Prince succeeded to the sovereignty of the duchy on the abdication of his unfortunate brother Charles; but to avoid this alliance the new Duke had contracted a secret marriage with his cousin the Princesse Claude; a disappointment which the minister of Louis XIII was desirous of repairing by causing the dissolution of the marriage of Gaston d'Orleans with Marguerite de Lorraine, and making Monsieur's union with his own beautiful and unprincipled niece the condition of his restoration to favour.

Aware that the Queen-mother would resent such an indignity even to the death, Richelieu was consequently resolved to put at once a stop to a negotiation of which the result could not be otherwise than fatal to his project, should the King in some moment of piety and contrition suffer himself to remember that it was a mother as well as a Queen who appealed to his indulgence; and who, however she might have erred, had bitterly expiated her faults. Thus then, the Cardinal no sooner saw the agitation of Louis on reading the letter of the exiled Princess, and marked the flashing of his eyes as he became aware that she promised, as he had required of her, to restore the Cardinal to her affection, than the latter hastened to remind him that he must not overlook the fact that he was a sovereign as well as a son; and that the safety of the state required his attention no less than the gratification of his natural feelings.

This was a point upon which Richelieu knew his royal master to be peculiarly susceptible; for the more thoroughly the weak monarch suffered himself to be stripped of his actual authority, the more anxiety did he evince to retain its semblance, and the argument thus advanced instantly sufficed, as the minister had antic.i.p.ated, to change the whole current of his feelings. It was, moreover, easy to convince Louis that the professions of Marie de Medicis were hollow and unmeaning words so long as she refused to deliver up to his Majesty the obnoxious members of her household; for, in truth, as the Cardinal did not fail to remark, had not Monsieur abandoned his adherents when required to do so as a pledge of his sincerity? And as he asked the insidious question, the distrustful Louis, trembling for his tranquillity, forgot, or did not care to remember, that the egotism and cowardice of his brother in thus building up his own fortunes on the ruin of those who had confided in him, had deeply wounded the dignity of the Queen-mother.

The result of the conference between the King and his minister was an order to the envoy of Marie de Medicis to repair to the residence of the Cardinal at Ruel, where he was informed that he would have an audience, at which both Louis XIII and Richelieu would personally deliver to him their despatches for his royal mistress. On his arrival at the chateau, however, he was surprised to find the Cardinal alone, and to learn that his Majesty was not expected. To counteract this disappointment, De Laleu was received with such extraordinary distinction that he could not avoid expressing his astonishment at the honours which were lavished upon him, when Richelieu, with one of those bland smiles which were ever at his command, declared that the respect due to the ill.u.s.trious Princess whom he served demanded still greater demonstrations on his part had it been in his power to afford them on such an occasion. He then proceeded to inform the envoy that the Queen-mother could never be otherwise than welcome, whenever she might see fit to return to France, but that, in order to be convinced that she would never again suffer herself to be misled by those who had so long induced her to oppose his wishes, the King desired that she would previously deliver up to him the Jesuit Chanteloupe, the Abbe de St. Germain, and the Vicomte de Fabbroni,[208] as his Majesty could not place any confidence in the stability of her affection so long as those individuals were still alive. On his own part, the Cardinal declared his extreme gratification at the proof afforded by the letter of the Queen-mother to himself that his enemies had been unable to undermine her regard for him, and earnestly urged her to comply with the pleasure of the King on the subject of her above-named servants, by which means she could not fail to convince every one that she had disapproved of their disloyalty and evil designs.

"Nor can I forbear reminding her Majesty," he concluded, "with the same frankness as I formerly used towards her, that, after what has pa.s.sed, it would be impossible for the King not to feel great distrust, which it will be expedient to exert all her energies to overcome, in order to build up the desired reconciliation on a solid foundation. This once effected, she will soon receive sufficient evidence that she possesses one of the most affectionate sons on earth, and she will become aware of the sincere attachment of one of her servants, although he is unable under the present circ.u.mstances to urge her cause more zealously than he has already done without incurring the serious displeasure of his sovereign. The difficulties which I have now explained, however, are mere clouds which her Majesty can readily disperse, and the King will further declare to you to-morrow at St. Germain-en-Laye, where you will be admitted to an audience, whatever he may deem it expedient to communicate to his august mother."

On the following day the equerry of Marie de Medicis accordingly proceeded to the Palace of St. Germain, where he found Louis with a brow so moody, and an eye so stern, that he was at no loss to discover the utter futility of all hope of success. The promised communication proved indeed to be a mere repet.i.tion of what had already been stated by the Cardinal; but, contrary to custom (his difficulty of articulation rendering the King unwilling on ordinary occasions to indulge in much speaking, diffuse as he was on paper), he enlarged at greater length, and with infinitely more violence than Richelieu had done, upon the misdemeanours of the three individuals whom he claimed at the hands of the Queen-mother, as well as on the necessity of her prompt obedience, which alone could, as he declared, tend to convince him that she had been guiltless of all partic.i.p.ation in their crimes.

As the mission of the envoy was accomplished, he commenced his preparations for leaving France; but before they were completed he received fresh despatches from Marie de Medicis, in which she confirmed her former promises both to her son and his minister, in terms still more submissive than those of her previous letters, and requested a pa.s.sport for Suffren, her confessor, in order that he might plead her cause.

Richelieu was, however, too well aware of the timid and scrupulous nature of the King's conscience, and of the eagerness with which the able Jesuit would avail himself of a similar knowledge, to suffer him to approach the person of Louis; and he consequently replied that "it would be useless for the Queen-mother to send her confessor, or any other individual, to the French Court, unless they brought with them her consent to the condition upon which his Majesty had insisted; as the King had come to an irrevocable determination never to yield upon that point, and to refuse to listen to any other envoy whom she might despatch to him, until she had afforded by her obedience a proof of submission which was indispensable alike to her own reputation, the tranquillity of the royal family, and the welfare of the kingdom."

While awaiting the reappearance of De Laleu, all the household of Marie de Medicis, with the exception of Chanteloupe and one or two others, began to antic.i.p.ate a speedy return to France. The concessions which she had made were indeed so important and so unforeseen, that it seemed idle to apprehend any further opposition on the part either of the King himself, or of his still more obdurate minister. Great, therefore, was their dismay when they discovered that their unhappy mistress had sacrificed her pride in vain, and that she still remained the victim of her arch-enemy the Cardinal. But among the murmurs by which she was surrounded not one proceeded from the lips of the persecuted exile herself. Never had she so n.o.bly a.s.serted herself as on this occasion.

Her resignation was dignified and tearless. In a few earnest words she declared her determination never to abandon those who had clung to her in her reverses; and, as a pledge of her sincerity, she appointed the Abbe de St. Germain to the long-vacant office of her almoner.[209]

From Monsieur she experienced no sympathy; while Puylaurens openly expressed his gratification at a failure which could but tend to render the negotiations then pending between the Prince his master and the King more favourable to the former. One serious impediment presented itself, however, in the fact that Gaston had, at the entreaty of the Princesse de Phalsbourg (in order to counteract the attempt of Richelieu, who sought to contest its legitimacy), consented to celebrate his marriage a second time, in the presence of the Duc d'Elboeuf, and all the princ.i.p.al officers of his household. He had also solicited the Queen-mother to confirm the approval which she had given to the alliance when it had been originally celebrated at Nancy, and to affix her seal to the written contract; but Marie de Medicis, who was aware that the King would deeply resent this open and formal defiance, declined to comply with his request, having, as she a.s.sured him, resolved to abide by the pleasure of the sovereign in all things, and to avoid every cause of offence.

As the Prince still continued to urge her upon the subject, she said coldly, "You persist in vain. You have evinced so little regard for me, and you reject with so much obstinacy the good advice which I give you, that I have at length determined never again to interfere in your affairs. My decision is formed, and henceforward I shall implicitly obey the will of the King."

This circ.u.mstance was immediately reported to Richelieu, who, delighted to maintain the coldness which had grown up between the mother and son, hastened to insinuate to Marie de Medicis that Louis had expressed his gratification at her refusal, and to a.s.sure her that should she suffer the Prince to extort her consent to such an act of wilful revolt against the royal command she would inevitably ruin her own cause.

Having publicly ratified his marriage by this second solemnization, Monsieur next proceeded to have it confirmed and approved by the doctors of the Faculty of Louvain; to write to the Sovereign-Pontiff, declaring that the alliance which he had formed was valid; and to entreat of his Holiness to disregard all a.s.surances to the contrary, from whatever quarter they might proceed.

In order to give additional weight to these declarations, Gaston sent them by an express to the Papal Court; but his messenger, having been arrested on the frontier, was conveyed to Paris, and committed to the Bastille; upon which a second envoy was despatched, who succeeded in accomplishing his mission.[210] This obstacle to the coveted establishment of his niece enraged the almost omnipotent minister, while Gaston, in his turn, encouraged by the representations of his favourite, communicated to the Marquis d'Ayetona the conditions of the treaty which had been proposed to him, and declared that he would enter into no engagement without the sanction of the Spanish sovereign. The past career of Monsieur had by no means tended to induce an unreserved confidence in those whom he affected to regard, and the able Governor accordingly replied, with an equal degree of sincerity, that he strongly advised the Prince to terminate a struggle which could only tend to distract the kingdom over which he would, in all probability, soon be called upon to rule; but at the same time to insist upon the royal recognition of his marriage, as well as upon holding a fortified town as a place of refuge, should he thereafter require such protection. He, moreover, pointed out Chalon-sur-Saone as an eligible stronghold; and having thus indicated conditions which he was well aware would never be conceded, the Marquis flattered himself that he had, for a time at least, rendered a reconciliation between the royal brothers impracticable.[211]

He was greatly encouraged in this belief when Monsieur, who affected to regard his return to France as a mere chimera, subsequently consented to sign a treaty with Spain, by which he pledged himself not to enter into any agreement with Louis XIII, be the conditions what they might; and, in the event of a war between the two nations, to attach himself to the cause of Philip, who was to place under his orders an army of fifteen thousand men.[212]

This treaty was signed by the Duc d'Orleans and the Marquis d'Ayetona, and countersigned by the Duque de Lerma and Puylaurens; and the Spaniards had no sooner succeeded in obtaining it, than both the Marquis and the Prince of Savoy, who had recently entered the Spanish service, urged the Queen-mother to join the faction. Marie, however, rejected the proposition without the hesitation of a moment, declaring that she could not permit herself to form any alliance so prejudicial to the interests of the King her son; an act of prudence and good feeling on which she had soon additional cause to congratulate herself, as the Marquis d'Ayetona, immediately on its completion, forwarded the treaty to Madrid, where it was ratified and returned without delay; but the vessel by which it was sent having been driven on sh.o.r.e near Calais, the despatches fell into the hands of the French authorities, by whom they were forwarded to the minister, whose alarm on discovering the nature of their contents determined him to lose no time in effecting the recall of the false and faction-loving Prince.

A second attempt which was made upon the life of Puylaurens at this precise period admirably seconded his views, as the favourite, who persisted in attributing the act to the friends of the Queen-mother, declared that he would no longer remain at Brussels, where his safety was constantly compromised; and Gaston, who was equally unwilling to consent to a separation, accordingly resolved to waive the conditions upon which he had previously insisted--namely, the recognition of his marriage, and the possession of a fortified place--and to submit to the degrading terms which had been offered by Richelieu.

On this occasion, however, Monsieur was careful not to seek advice either from his mother or his wife. For once he had self-control enough to keep his secret, although the constant pa.s.sage of the couriers between the two Courts of Paris and Brussels did not fail to alarm the Spaniards; but as the anxiety of the Cardinal to secure the person of the Prince had induced him to insist that the prescribed conditions should be accepted within a fortnight, and that Gaston must return to France within three weeks, little time was afforded to Ayetona for elucidating the apparent mystery; and on the 1st of October the treaty of reconciliation was signed by the King at ecouen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEORGE VILLIERS 1ST DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.]

It would appear, moreover, that the Prince and his favourite were as little desirous of delay as the Cardinal himself, for on the 8th of the same month, profiting by the temporary absence of the Marquis, Monsieur, pretexting a fox-hunt, left Brussels early in the morning, accompanied only by a few confidential friends; and so soon as they were fairly beyond the city, they set spurs to their horses, and never drew bridle until after sunset, when they reached La Capelle, the frontier town of France, not having taken the slightest refreshment throughout the day.[213] For some time previous to his flight Gaston had estranged himself not only from the Queen-mother, but also from Madame; and their astonishment was not unmingled with indignation when they became aware that he had thus heartlessly abandoned both in order to secure his own safety. A hurried and brief letter in which he solicited the protection of Marie de Medicis for his ill-requited wife was the only proof which he vouchsafed of his continued interest in their welfare; and this despatched, he pursued his rapid journey to St. Germain-en-Laye, having previously apprised the King of his approach to the capital.

Louis was at table when the arrival of his brother was announced, but he instantly rose, and hastened to meet him at the door of the palace.

When he alighted and recognized the King, Gaston bowed low, but did not attempt to bend his knee. "Sir," he said reverently, "I know not if it be joy or fear which renders me speechless, but I have at least words enough left to solicit your pardon for the past."

"Brother," replied the King, "we will not speak of the past. G.o.d has given us the happiness of meeting once more, and the moment is a joyful one to me."

The two Princes then embraced each other with every appearance of sincerity and goodwill, after which Louis led Monsieur to his private closet, where they were shortly joined by the Cardinal.

As the latter was announced Louis XIII exclaimed earnestly: "Brother, I entreat of you to love M. le Cardinal."

"I will love him," was the reply of the Prince, "as I love myself, and I will follow his advice in all things."

Richelieu fell on his knees, and kissed the hands of Monsieur.

Gaston d'Orleans was, for the moment, gained.[214]

The first few days of this royal reunion were entirely devoted to festivity, after which the minister endeavoured to induce the Prince to consent to the annulment of his marriage with the Princesse de Lorraine; but upon this point Gaston evinced a firmness which astonished all those who were able to appreciate the recklessness and instability of his general character, and, finding himself pressed beyond his power of endurance, he retired, accompanied by Puylaurens, to Blois, whence he wrote to remonstrate against the delay which had taken place in the fulfilment of the promises made to his favourite. Uneasy lest the restless spirit of the Prince should induce him once more to revolt if his claims remained disregarded, Richelieu caused him to be informed that M. de Puylaurens was awaited in Paris in order that his marriage might be concluded with the younger daughter of the Baron de Pontchateau, on the same day that the Duc de la Valette was to espouse the elder; while the Comte de Guiche, son of the Comte de Grammont, was also to give his hand to Mademoiselle du Plessis-Chivray, another relative of the Cardinal-Minister. This intelligence caused the greatest satisfaction to Monsieur, who forthwith proceeded to the capital with Puylaurens; and on the 19th of November both the Prince and his favourite were magnificently entertained at Ruel, whence they subsequently departed for St. Germain, in order to sign the contract in the presence of the King.

On the 26th of the same month the triple ceremony of betrothal took place at the Louvre. A full and unreserved pardon was publicly declared in favour of all the adherents of Monsieur, and two days subsequently the several marriages were celebrated with great pomp at the a.r.s.enal.

The lordship of Aiguillon, which had been purchased from the Princesse Marie de Gonzaga for six hundred thousand livres, was erected into a duchy-peerage under the name of Puylaurens, upon whom it was conferred, and who took his seat in the Parliament on the 7th of December as Duc de Puylaurens; after which Gaston once more returned to Blois, in order to avoid the persevering persecutions of the minister on the subject of his marriage.

FOOTNOTES:

[204] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 143, 144.

[205] Leon Bouthillier, Comte de Chavigny, the son of Claude Bouthillier, Superintendent of Finance, was in 1634 Secretary of State.

Louis XIII, in his will, appointed him Minister of State, and Member of the Council of Regency, but he was some time afterwards dismissed from office, together with his father. Leon Bouthillier died in 1652.

[206] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 159, 160.

[207] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. vii. p. 761.

[208] Luc, Vicomte de Fabbroni, was a celebrated astrologer, who attached himself to the fortunes of Marie de Medicis, to whom he had, on several occasions, predicted the early death of Louis XIII, the accession of Gaston d'Orleans, and her own restoration to regal power.

[209] Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 158-163. Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. vii. pp.

763, 764. Le Va.s.sor, vol. vii. p. 360.

[210] Gaston d'Orleans, _Mem_. pp. 155, 156.

[211] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. vii. p. 756.

[212] Capefigue, vol. v. p. 216. Sismondi, vol. xxiii. p. 241. Le Clerc, vol. ii. pp. 166, 167. Mezeray, vol. xi. p. 443.

[213] Siri, _Mem. Rec_. vol. viii. pp. 101, 102. Gaston d'Orleans, _Mem_. p. 169. Le Va.s.sor, vol. viii. p. 307.