CHAPTER V
1613
State of France at the commencement of 1613—Characteristics of the Baron de Luz—His imprudence—He is challenged by the Chevalier de Guise, and killed—The Regent summons a council—The nobles assemble at the Hôtel de Guise—The Duke is forbidden to enter the Louvre, and ordered to disperse his friends—M. de la Rochefoucauld refuses to leave the Hôtel de Guise—He is exiled from the Court—Moderation of the Duc de Guise—Inflexibility of Marie de Medicis—Her anger against the Chancellor—She holds a secret council—The Prince de Condé is directed to demand the seals from M. de Sillery, and to command him to retire from the capital—Marie determines to arrest the Duc d'Epernon—Her designs are thwarted by Concini—The Marquis d'Ancre introduces the son of M. de Luz to the Regent—Marie promises him her protection— Bassompierre endeavours to effect the recall of the Duc de Guise, and succeeds—His reception by the Regent—Arrogance of the Duchesse de Guise—The Prince de Condé forms an alliance with M. de Guise— Influence of the Prince—He demands the captaincy of the Château Trompette—Over-zealous friends—Alarm of the Queen—She resolves to conciliate the Guises—The Marquis d'Ancre and his wife incur the displeasure of the Queen—Marie purchases the loyalty of the Duc de Guise —Dignified bearing of the Duc d'Epernon—A reconciliation—"Put not your faith in princes"—Exultation of the ministers—A private audience —Eavesdroppers—Mortification of the Prince de Condé—Concini endeavours to conciliate the Queen—He is repulsed—The young Baron de Luz challenges the Chevalier de Guise—Wounds his adversary, and is killed—Royal solicitude—Death of the Chevalier de Guise—Banquet at the Hôtel de Condé—Affront to Bassompierre—Concini retires to Amiens—The Duc de Vendôme joins the faction of the Prince de Condé —A new intrigue—Suspicions of the Regent—Midnight visitors—The Prince de Condé and the Duc de Vendôme leave the Court—The Regent refuses to sanction the departure of M. de Guise—The Queen and her favourite—The ministers pledge themselves to serve Concini—Peril of Bassompierre—He determines to leave France—Is dissuaded from his purpose by the Regent—Troubles in Mantua—Negotiation with the Duke of Savoy—James I. offers the hand of Prince Charles of England to the Princesse Christine—Satisfaction of Marie de Medicis—The Pope takes alarm—The Regent and the Papal Nuncio—Death of the Maréchal de Fervaques—Concini is made Maréchal de France—Ladies of Honour— The Queen and her foster-sister—The Princesse de Conti—A well-timed visit—The new Maréchal—A sensation at Court. The state of France at the commencement of the year 1613 was precarious in the extreme. As yet no intestine war had broken out, but there existed a sullen undercurrent of discontent and disaffection which threatened, like the sound of distant thunder, to herald an approaching storm. The Court was, as we have shown, the focus of anarchy and confusion; the power and resources of the great nobles had steadily increased since the death of Henri IV, and had they only been united among themselves, the authority of Marie de Medicis must have been set at nought, and the throne of the boy-King have tottered to its base. The provinces were, in many instances, in open opposition to the Government; the ministers indignant at the disrespect shown alike to their persons and to their functions; the Parliament jealous of the encroachments on its privileges; the citizens outraged by the lavish magnificence, and indignant at the insolent assumption of the nobility; and the people irritated and impoverished by the constant exactions to which they were subjected in order to supply the exigencies of the state.
Such was the condition of a kingdom dependent for its prosperity upon the rule of a favourite-ridden woman, and a helpless child.
We have already stated the anxiety of the Guises to revenge themselves upon M. de Luz; and we have now to relate the tragedy which supervened upon this resolution. It appears to be the common fate of all favourites to accelerate their own ruin by personal imprudence; nor was M. de Luz destined to prove an exception. His life had been a varied one; but the spirit of intrigue and enterprise with which he was endowed had enabled him to bid defiance to adverse fortune, and to struggle successfully against every reverse. Patient under disappointment because strong in his confidence of future compensation, he was less cautious in his more prosperous moments; and in one of these he was unhappy enough to afford a pretext for the violence of the enemies who had vowed his ruin.
Disregarding the presence of the Chevalier de Guise, or perhaps unconscious of his propinquity, De Luz, shortly after the return of the Duc de Bellegarde to Languedoc, was relating to a group of nobles, who were lounging away the time in the great gallery of the Louvre while awaiting the appearance of the King, the circumstances which preceded the assassination of the Duc de Guise at Blois; boasting that he was present with the Maréchal de Brissac when Henri III decided upon the murder, and had even prevented the former from intimating his danger to the intended victim. The Chevalier, who was young, impetuous, and, like all the members of his house, utterly careless of the consequences of his actions, would have felt himself justified in demanding satisfaction of M. de Luz simply for the insult offered to his brothers and himself by his abrupt and unscrupulous abandonment of their interests, and the affront given to their friend and ally the Duc de Bellegarde; but when to these real or imagined injuries was superadded the fact that he had publicly boasted of the share which he had gratuitously and wantonly taken in the murder of his father, no wonder that the fiery young man, disregarding alike the royal edicts against duelling and the dictates of humanity, at once resolved to silence the vauntings of the quasi-assassin, or to perish in the attempt.
At the moment in which he volunteered the fatal communication De Luz was protected by the roof that covered him. It was certain death to any individual, whatever might be his rank, who drew a hostile weapon within the precincts of the royal palace; and De Guise was aware that by such an act of imprudence he might forfeit all hope of vengeance. He affected, consequently, not to have overheard the imprudent admission of the baron, and controlled the impulse which would have led him to fell him as he stood; but his thirst of vengeance only became the more unquenchable by delay, and he watched the movements of his destined victim with an assiduity which soon enabled him to slake it.
On the 5th of January, at mid-day, his carriage encountered that of M. de Luz in the Rue St. Honoré, when he immediately summoned him to alight and defend himself; and at the second pass stretched him lifeless at his feet.[158]