Alarm of the conspirators at the arrest of the Vendômes—Chalais, at the instigation of Madame de Chevreuse, urges Monsieur to take flight and throw himself into a fortress—Monsieur and Chalais join the Court at Blois—The Comte de Louvigny betrays the latter to the Cardinal—Chalais is arrested at Nantes—Despicable conduct of Monsieur—Chalais, persuaded by Richelieu that Madame de Chevreuse is unfaithful to him, makes the gravest accusation against her, in the hope of saving his life—He is, nevertheless, condemned to death—He withdraws his accusations against Madame de Chevreuse—His barbarous execution—Death of the Maréchal d’Ornano—Marriage of Monsieur—Bassompierre declines the post of Surintendant of Monsieur’s Household—Indignation of Louis XIII against Anne of Austria—Public humiliation inflicted upon the Queen—Banishment of Madame de Chevreuse—Bassompierre nominated Ambassador Extraordinary to England—Differences between Charles I and Henrietta over the question of the young Queen’s French attendants—The Tyburn pilgrimage—Expulsion of the French attendants from England—Resentment of the Court of France.
The news of the arrest of the Vendômes, following upon that of Ornano and the miscarriage of the Fleury affair, had filled the conspirators with dismay. They feared the effect of these repeated reverses upon the timid and vacillating mind of Monsieur, who, deprived of both the marshal and the Grand Prior, the two persons who had exercised the most influence over him, would be more difficult to decide than ever; and the less resolute began to entertain serious doubts as to the wisdom of proceeding with the enterprise. Madame de Chevreuse, however, refused to be discouraged. She had surprised Chalais’s secret, won him back to the cause and compelled him to commit himself more deeply than ever, and she believed that she had, in the influence the young man possessed over Monsieur, a means which, if well employed, might re-establish everything. She proceeded to exploit it with her usual audacity and address, and, spurred on by his passion for the beautiful duchess, Chalais lost no occasion of urging the prince to take flight and to throw himself into some fortified place. Gaston, however, could not make up his mind to this course, and, though nearly persuaded, he was still wavering, when orders came from the King to join him at Blois.
Monsieur left Paris, accompanied by Chalais and two of his young favourites, Puylaurens and Bois d’Annemetz, the latter of whom has left us an interesting, though not altogether reliable, account of the conspiracy in which he was engaged.[36] They united their entreaties to those of Chalais, and by the time the party reached Blois, Monsieur would appear to have at last decided to follow the counsels which had been so long tendered to him in vain. It was then agreed that Gaston should write to d’Épernon inviting him to declare, in his favour, and that Chalais should despatch one of his friends, named La Loubère, to the Marquis de la Valette, d’Épernon’s eldest son, who commanded in Metz, requesting him to receive the prince in that fortress.
While Chalais was labouring thus to merit the favours of Madame de Chevreuse, whom he had the happiness of seeing again when he joined the Court at Blois, to lull the suspicions of Richelieu he had continued to profess the greatest devotion to his interests and gave him sometimes useful information. It is not surprising that this double game should have aroused the suspicion of some of his allies, and the author of the Mémores d’un favori accuses him of desiring to safeguard himself whichever side was ultimately victorious. There can be no doubt, however, that Madame de Chevreuse knew the secret of Chalais’s communications with the Cardinal, and that he was acting with her full approval.
It was a dangerous game to play for long with a person so vigilant and penetrating as Richelieu. The reports which daily reached the Cardinal from his secret agents all tended to show that Monsieur had grossly violated the solemn pledge that he had given at Fontainebleau, and that want of courage alone prevented him from throwing aside the mask; and he found it difficult to reconcile Chalais’s assurances of devotion to himself with those midnight visits en robe de chambre lasting two or three hours which his spies informed him the count was in the habit of paying to Gaston’s apartments. Already he was more than half-convinced that the young man was playing him false, when an act of shameful treachery settled the question.
On June 27 the Court left Blois for Tours, from which town Chalais despatched La Loubère to Metz.
“This La Loubère,” writes Bassompierre, “came to take leave of the Comte de Louvigny,[37] in whose service he had been, and, knowing him to be an intimate friend of Chalais, did not hesitate to tell him where he was going and with what object. From Tours the King journeyed along the River Loire to Saumur, and on the way Louvigny had some dispute with M. de Candale,[38] with whom he was not on good terms, owing to some amourettes.[39] However, this passed without any disturbance. On the evening we arrived at Saumur, Chalais and Bouteville[40] came to dine with me, and begged me to reprimand Louvigny, which I did in their presence; and the others told him that he must take care not to have any quarrel with M. de Candale, if he did not wish to lose their friendship, because they were bound to M. de Candale by particular obligations. He, on the contrary, while going on the morrow from Saumur to the Ponts-de-Cé, picked a quarrel with M. de Candale, and then all those whom he thought his friends left him to offer their services to M. de Candale. At which this malicious lad was so enraged, that on the morrow, when the King arrived at Ancenis,[41] he requested to speak to him, and informed him that La Loubère had gone to Metz by order of Chalais, and of several other things which he knew or which he invented.”[42]
Other writers assert that the real cause of Louvigny’s treachery was that he had, like Chalais, fallen violently in love with Madame de Chevreuse and was jealous of the preference which that lady showed for the Master of the Wardrobe; and it is therefore possible that the affair of which Bassompierre speaks was only a pretext. Anyway, a few days later Chalais was arrested at Nantes, where the Court had arrived on July 3, and imprisoned in a gloomy dungeon in the basement of one of the towers of the château.
“Monsieur was very astonished at his arrest,” says Bassompierre, “and his friends also, and they were on the point of taking their departure. But, at the same time, they received an answer from M. de la Valette at Metz to the effect that, if M. d’Épernon declared for him [Monsieur], he would declare for him likewise, but not otherwise. Monsieur wrote to M. d’Épernon, who sent the letter to the King.”
Gaston knew that the game was up. Richelieu requested the King to send for his brother, and succeeded in reducing that miserable prince to a condition of such abject submission that, despicable as had been his conduct at Fontainebleau a few weeks earlier, he, on this occasion, far surpassed it and plunged into a veritable abyss of infamy.