[CHAPTER X]
1633
Monsieur returns to Flanders--The Queen-mother retires in displeasure to Malines--Influence of Chanteloupe--Selfishness of Monsieur--Death of Gustavus Adolphus--Richelieu seeks to withdraw the Queen-mother and her son from the protection of Spain--Marie is urged to retire to Florence--The Tuscan envoy--Two diplomatists--Mortification of the Queen-mother--She desires to seek an asylum in England--Charles I. hesitates to grant her request--Helpless position of Marie de Medicis-The iron rule of Richelieu--The Cardinal-dramatist--Gaston avows his marriage to the King--Louis enters Lorraine, and takes Nancy-Madame escapes to the Low Countries--Her reception at the Court of Brussels--Marie de Medicis takes up her residence at Ghent--Serious indisposition of the Queen-mother--She solicits the attendance of her physician Vautier, and is refused--Hypocrisy of the Cardinal--Indignation of the dying Queen--She rejects the terms of reconciliation offered by the King--Attachment of her adherents--Richelieu negotiates the return of Gaston to France--The favourite of Monsieur--Gaston refuses to annul his marriage--Alfeston is broken on the wheel for attempting the life of the Cardinal--The Queen-mother is accused of instigating the murder--The bodyguard of the Cardinal-Minister is increased--Estrangement of Monsieur and his mother--Madame endeavours to effect the dismissal of Puylaurens--Insolence of the favourite--Heartlessness of Monsieur--Marie solicits permission to return to France--She is commanded as a condition to abandon her followers, and refuses--Death of the Archduchess Isabella--Gaston negotiates, and consents to the most humiliating concessions.
[CHAPTER XI]
1634
Increasing trials of the exiled Queen--Her property is seized on the frontier--She determines to conciliate the Cardinal--Richelieu remains implacable--Far-reaching ambition of the minister--Weakness of Louis XIII--Insidious arguments of Richelieu--Marie de Medicis is again urged to abandon her adherents--Cowardly policy of Monsieur--He signs a treaty with Spain--The Queen-mother refuses to join in the conspiracy--Puylaurens induces Monsieur to accept the proffered terms of Richelieu--He escapes secretly from Brussels---Gaston pledges himself to the King to "love the Cardinal "--Gaston again refuses to repudiate his wife--Puylaurens obtains the hand of a relative of the minister and becomes Duc de Puylaurens--Monsieur retires to Blois.
[CHAPTER XII]
1635-38
Richelieu resolves to accomplish the disgrace of Puylaurens--Gaston proceeds to Paris during the Carnival, and his favourite is arrested in the Louvre-He is conveyed to Vincennes, where he dies--The Queen-mother and Madame take up their abode at Antwerp--Marie de Medicis solicits the protection of the Pope--Her letter is coldly received--She is accused by Richelieu of favouring the Spanish cause--She endeavours to dissuade Louis XIII from a war with Spain, and her arguments are haughtily repulsed--Her envoy is ordered to quit the capital--The Queen-mother once more appeals to the Sovereign-Pontiff, who declines to excite against himself the enmity of the Cardinal-Minister--Louis XIII pursues the war with Spain--Monsieur and the Comte de Soissons enter into a conspiracy to assassinate Richelieu--The Queen-mother joins the faction--The plot is betrayed--Gaston returns to his allegiance--Marie de Medicis induces the Comte de Soissons to enter into a treaty with Spain--The intrigue is discovered by the Cardinal--The Queen-mother once more solicits an asylum in England--Charles I. accedes to her request, and endeavours to effect her reconciliation with the French King--Richelieu determines Louis to reply by a refusal--Monsieur abandons his wife, who becomes dependent for her support upon the Spanish Government--Insignificance of Gaston--The Duchess of Savoy endeavours to effect the recall of her royal mother to France--The three Churchmen--Pregnancy of Anne of Austria--Renewed hopes of the Queen-mother--She is again urged to reside in Tuscany--She proceeds to Holland, and is magnificently received--The Prince of Orange intercedes in her behalf with the French King--Richelieu reiterates his wish that she should retire to Florence--The Dutch request her to leave the country--Marie de Medicis embarks for England--She is received at Gravesend by Charles I.--Takes up her abode in St. James's Palace--Meeting between the two Queens--Precarious position of the English King--The Court of the Queen-mother--The French Ambassador is instructed to abstain from all intercourse with the royal exile--A last appeal---Obduracy of the Cardinal--Richelieu, his sovereign, and his benefactress.