“Al Sr. Mal. de Bassompierre por guadamiciles, 40,000 Ms.”[20]
Now, as Bassompierre explains, Lopez had received 40,000 maravedis from a merchant in Spain on account of some tapestries of gilded leather (guadamiciles) which the marshal had commissioned him to sell for him. But Le Doux and La Vieuville believed, or affected to believe, that guadamiciles was a proper name, and the latter pressed the King most urgently to have Bassompierre arrested forthwith and conveyed to the Bastille.
To this Louis XIII refused to consent, but he and all his Council admitted that it was most necessary to ascertain the identity of this mysterious Guadamiciles and to arrest him, if he were in France, and, in the event of his proving to be a Spanish banker, Bassompierre likewise.
The marshal learned all this from Lesdiguières, who, so soon as the Council rose, sent for him to warn him of his danger:
“The Constable begged me to leave France for some time, in order to escape my disgrace, which was certain, and even offered me 10,000 crowns, if I were in need of money. I thanked him very humbly for his warning and his offer, but told him that he ought to give it to La Vieuville, who would be ruined in a month, and not myself. This worthy man sought to persuade me to yield to the present violence, but I (who knew more about the matter than I told him), assured him that I was as firmly established as La Vieuville was tottering. Nevertheless, on the morrow, he [La Vieuville] had the power to cause Colonel d’Ornano to be driven away from Monsieur brother of the King,[21] which caused the Constable to urge me anew to be gone; but I assured him again of my safety and of the complete ruin of La Vieuville.”
Bassompierre had judged the situation correctly, for the man whom La Vieuville had introduced into the Council, in the hope of strengthening his own position, was gradually undermining it. La Vieuville’s intention had been to make of Richelieu a mere consulting Minister, who would give advice only when called upon to do so, and whose sphere of activity would be limited by the four walls of the Council-chamber. The Cardinal resigned himself to this rôle, in appearance at least; nevertheless, it was not long before he and his chief came into sharp collision.
At the beginning of June the Earls of Holland and Carlisle arrived in France to demand the hand of Henriette-Marie for the Prince of Wales, and La Vieuville, d’Aligre, and Richelieu were charged to discuss with the representatives of James I the clauses of the marriage treaty. The Cardinal, although a warm partisan of the English alliance, had declared that “it was necessary for the men of France to seek in this alliance all the advantages possible for religion [i.e., the Catholic religion].... If not, it was greatly to be feared that they would bring down upon themselves the wrath of God, as did Jehosaphat, who, although a pious king, felt severely the Hand of God for having allied himself with Ahab, King of Israel, who persecuted the servants of God.” He now demanded that the English Government should make the Catholics of England, in favour of the French princess, the same concessions in regard to the public exercise of their religion as they had consented to in the case of the Infanta. This was at once refused, and all that Holland and Carlisle would promise was liberty of private worship, and that, not by a formal engagement inserted in the treaty, but by a simple verbal promise on the part of James I. Richelieu pressed for an article in the contract, so that the engagement might be “more solemn and public,” his object being that the English Catholics might feel themselves under a greater obligation to France. But the Ambassadors, perceiving his motive, remained firm, even when he declared it to be a sine quâ non.
La Vieuville was incensed that Richelieu should be compromising the English alliance for the sake of the English Catholics. “Morbleu!” said he, “these priests are spoiling all my work.” He recalled from England the French Ambassador, the Comte de Tillières, a brother-in-law of Bassompierre, who had also shown himself too solicitous for the interests of the Catholics, and told Holland and Carlisle that the French demands were only made for form’s sake and to satisfy the Pope and the Catholics of France, and that it was really a matter of indifference to Louis XIII how their master treated his Catholic subjects. A little later, becoming uneasy at the slow progress of the negotiations, he caused James I to be informed that the King would be content with a simple promise of toleration. Richelieu, warned by the Secretary of State Brienne of the game La Vieuville was playing, vowed to make him repent it.
La Vieuville, all unconscious of his danger, went forward boldly. He gave Marescot, who was being sent on an embassy to Germany, instructions differing materially from those which had been decided upon in the Council. He tried to persuade Monsieur that Richelieu had been responsible for Ornano’s disgrace. In connivance with his father-in-law Beaumarchais, a high official of the Treasury, he entered into important financial transactions without consulting the King or his colleagues. He left the pensions even of the greatest nobles unpaid and ignored their remonstrances. He was haughty, churlish, and incautious in his language, even when speaking of the King. Never did Minister so persistently court his fall.
Richelieu, perceiving that the time to strike had come, launched against him his friend Fançan, a canon of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, and the ablest publicist of his time, whom he had already employed with effect against the Brûlarts, and who published a pamphlet entitled la Voix Publique au Roi, which appears to have had a great vogue:—