Immediately after Easter the Court quitted Paris for Fontainebleau. On the morrow of its arrival, Monsieur had an interview with the King, in which he declared that “it was a reproach and a shame to him that, being his Majesty’s brother, he had neither share nor influence in affairs of State.” He then demanded a seat in the Council and, at the same time, angrily declined the hand of Mlle. de Montpensier, on the ground that “a foreign alliance was necessary for his honour and prosperity.” The King replied that he would consider his request and give him an answer in a few days. The young prince waited for three or four, and then sent Ornano to complain to Richelieu, but could get nothing more satisfactory from his Eminence than that he was “the humble servant of Monsieur.” In high indignation, Gaston sought out his mother and announced his intention of quitting the Court. Marie soothed him by the promise that the Council should meet to consider his demands, and he agreed to await its decision.
Meanwhile, Louis XIII had consulted Richelieu, who did not fail to stimulate his resentment against the pretensions that had been suggested to his brother, and warned him that “in the matter of conspiracies, it was almost impossible to have mathematical proofs, and that when the circumstances were pressing, presumption ought to take their place.” The arrest of Ornano was then decided upon.
On May 4 the King announced his intention of reviewing his Guards that afternoon in the Cour du Cheval Blanc, “to give pleasure to the Queens and Princesses,” who were to witness the spectacle from the Grand Gallery of the Château. After dinner, Bassompierre, who was going to Paris for a day or two “to stop one of his nieces de Saint-Luc from becoming a nun,” went to take leave of the King, who suggested that he had better wait and see the review; but the marshal, who was in a hurry to be gone, excused himself. Early on the following morning, however, he was awakened by the arrival of a gentleman named Bonnevaut, whom Louis had sent to inform him that he had caused Ornano to be arrested and to request him to return that day to Fontainebleau without fail.
With that dissimulation which he loved to display on such occasions, Louis XIII had invited Ornano to witness the review and treated him with unusual condescension. Afterwards, he had invited him to walk with him in the Cour du Cheval Blanc, and, as though by chance, pointed out to him the chamber where the Maréchal de Biron had been temporarily confined after his arrest in 1602. That night Ornano was himself arrested and conducted to the same apartment.
At the first news of the arrest of Ornano, which was brought to him just after he had retired for the night Monsieur, beside himself with indignation, hurriedly dressed and proceeded to the King’s apartments to demand the immediate release of the marshal. He was told that his Majesty could not be disturbed, and the same answer awaited him when he went to the Queen-Mother.
On the morrow he went in search of the Ministers. The first whom he found was the Chancellor, d’Aligre, who, intimidated by the anger of the prince, assured him that he had nothing to do with the arrest of the marshal. But when he addressed himself to Richelieu and inquired furiously: “Is it you who have dared to give this counsel to the King?” he was met with the laconic reply: “Yes, it is I.” D’Aligre was promptly disgraced for his feebleness, and the Seals given to Marillac. Ornano was transferred to the Château of Vincennes, and his two brothers, his friend Chaudebonne and the Comte de Modène and Déageant were also arrested and conveyed to the Bastille.
On his return to Fontainebleau, Bassompierre went to visit Monsieur, even before seeing the King, “so much was he assured of the confidence which his Majesty reposed in him.” He found the prince “very exasperated and influenced by sundry evil minds,” and took the liberty of speaking to him very frankly indeed. Gaston appeared to take the lecture in good part, and, by the King’s wish, Bassompierre continued his visits and his admonitions. But, after three or four days, he learned from Marie de’ Medici that Monsieur suspected that it was intended to give him the marshal as his gouverneur in place of the captive Ornano, and had said that he did not desire to have one. Upon which Bassompierre ceased his visits, “wishing to show by keeping away from him that he by no means aspired to that charge.” This was most unfortunate, as it left the young prince entirely under the influence of the “evil minds” of which the marshal speaks.
The unexpected arrest of Ornano had fallen like a thunderbolt on the heads of the conspirators. They foresaw that if the marshal were brought to trial, not only would their designs be discovered, but even their persons be in danger, since he was not the kind of man who could be trusted to prefer death to dishonour. They therefore urged Monsieur to make every endeavour to procure the release of his gouverneur, and, if he failed, as they fully expected he would do, to take one of two courses: the first was to leave the Court, retire into some fortified place and call his supporters to arms; the second, to get rid of the Cardinal.
As Louis XIII and Richelieu refused to hear of the release of Ornano, and Gaston, although the Comte de Soissons offered to furnish him with a very large sum of money if he would retire from Court and declare war, hesitated to take so irrevocable a step, the Grand Prieur de Vendôme, Chalais and others, prevailed upon him to choose the second of these alternatives.
Richelieu was staying at the Château of Fleury, a country-seat of his, situated about two leagues from Fontainebleau. Gaston, feigning a desire to be reconciled to him, was to invite himself to dinner and arrive accompanied by a strong party of his friends. What was to follow is disputed. Most writers, including Bassompierre,[34] assert that it was the intention of the conspirators to demand the release of Ornano, and, if that were refused, to assassinate their host out of hand; and Richelieu always maintained that his own death would have been followed by the assassination or dethronement of the King. A more sober version of the affair attributes to the conspirators no more sinister design than that of making the Cardinal their prisoner and subsequently exchanging him for Ornano, though, even if this be correct, it might well have had a tragic sequel. Whatever the object of the plot, there can be no possible doubt that Madame de Chevreuse was privy to it, if not its prime instigator; and it can therefore be regarded as a singular illustration of the irony of Fate that the indiscretion of the most devoted of her admirers should have been the means of bringing it to naught.