Bassompierre was then sent to report the result of the action to the King and to take him the nobles who had been made prisoners. His Majesty, whom he found in company with Condé, Luynes and Bellegarde, “received him with extraordinary cordiality, and M. de Luynes spoke in praise of him to Monsieur le Grand.” But when Louis XIII heard that Saint-Aignan was amongst the prisoners, he looked very grave indeed, as did the others, and they consulted together as to what was to be done with him. Then the King informed Bassompierre that, as M. de Saint-Aignan was, not only an officer of the regular army, but Colonel-General of the Light Cavalry, and had been taken in arms against his sovereign, it had been decided that he was to be tried at once by the Keeper of the Seals, who was, with the army, and, in the event of conviction, to be decapitated that very day. And so it seemed as though poor Saint-Aignan had only succeeded in saving his hat at the cost of his head.
Happily for him, Bassompierre was determined to save him.
“I firmly opposed this decision,” he writes, “and told the King and Monsieur le Prince that, if they treated him in this way, no man of rank among the enemy would allow himself to be made prisoner, from fear of dying by the hand of the executioner; that M. de Créquy and I had received his surrender, and that he was a prisoner of war; that the rank we held authorised us to give him our assurance that he should be regarded as such, and that we were not provost-marshals to cause our captives to be hanged. At the same time, I sent to warn M. de Créquy, who sent word that he would retire from the Ponts-des-Cé and would abandon everything,[134] if he did not receive a promise that the execution would be suspended. We obtained a respite until the morrow, when, the first indignation against Saint-Aignan having spent itself, it was easy to persuade them to abandon their resolution; and the peace which followed accommodated his affair, by the surrender of his charge, which was conferred upon La Curée.”
The engagement of the Ponts-des-Cé was a terrible blow to the Queen-Mother’s party; nevertheless, Marie was far from reduced to extremities. If no longer able to make peace on favourable terms, two courses were open to her. She might shut herself up in Angers with what was left of her army, and hold out until Mayenne and d’Épernon were able to come to her assistance, or she might ford the Loire with her cavalry, only a part of which had been engaged at the Ponts-des-Cé, and make her way to Angoulême, where d’Épernon’s headquarters were. Thus, although no hope of success now remained, she might succeed in prolonging the war for months.
Luynes was aware of this, and aware too that a continuance of hostilities could not fail to add to his unpopularity; while he was beginning to fear Condé, with whom Louis XIII was now on quite alarmingly friendly terms, almost as much as he feared the Queen-Mother. The High Catholic party, too, were eager for peace, in order that the King might have his hands free to deal with the Protestants of Béarn; and their representations, joined to that of Luynes, decided Louis to abandon any idea of imposing on his mother and her adherents the stringent terms which their recent defeat would otherwise have justified. The treaty, which was signed at Angers on August 10, was, to all intents and purposes, a confirmation of that of the previous year, save for a stipulation that the partisans of the Queen-Mother were not to be restored to the offices and charges of which the King had disposed during the rebellion. Three days later, Marie and her son met at Brissac, and were, to all appearances, on the best of terms; and on the 16th a royal declaration proclaimed the innocence of the intentions of the Queen-Mother and her adherents “during the late disturbances.” Mayenne and d’Épernon thereupon laid down their arms, and the powerful faction which for a moment had threatened to subvert the State melted away.
CHAPTER XXI
Refusal of the Protestants of Béarn to restore the property of the Catholic Church—Louis XIII and Luynes resolve on rigorous measures and set out for the South—Visit of Bassompierre to La Rochelle—He joins the King at Bordeaux—Arrest and execution of d’Arsilemont—The Parlement of Pau declines to register the Royal edict and Louis XIII determines to march into Béarn—Bassompierre charged with the transport of the army across the Garonne, which is accomplished in twenty-four hours—Béarn and Lower Navarre are united to the Crown of France—Coldness of the King towards Bassompierre—Bassompierre learns that this is due to the ill offices of Luynes, who regards him as a rival in the royal favour—He is informed that Luynes is “unable to suffer him to remain at Court”—Bassompierre decides to come to terms with the favourite, and it is arranged that he shall quit the Court so soon as some honourable office can be found for him—The Valtellina question—Bassompierre appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to the Court of Spain—Birth of a son to Luynes.
No sooner had peace been signed than Louis XIII, urged on by Luynes, who was above all things anxious to conciliate the High Catholic party, determined to deal with the recalcitrant Protestants of Béarn.
The re-establishment of the Catholic religion in Béarn had been one of the conditions on which Clement VIII had consented to grant absolution to Henri IV; but that monarch had only half kept his word, and had limited himself to nominating bishops to the sees of Lescar and Oleron, and paying them their salaries; re-establishing the Mass in a good many places, and admitting Catholics to charges and dignities. The two new bishops demanded the restoration of the ecclesiastical property formerly attached to their offices;[135] but the Government turned a deaf ear to their appeals, and it was not until Luynes rose to power that they had a chance of being listened to.
Besides his desire to gain the support of the dévots, Luynes saw in the affair of Béarn an opportunity of ridding himself of the possible rivalry of the young Marquis de Montpouillan with the King, as Montpouillan’s father, the Marquis de la Force,[136] was governor of Béarn and chief of the Protestants of that country. He thereupon pressed Louis XIII to carry out the engagements which Henri IV had sought to evade, and, by a decree of the Council of June 25, 1617, the King ordered the restitution of Church property in Béarn. The Estates of Béarn, supported by La Force, remonstrated vigorously; but in September the King confirmed his decision of June.