[142] Bassompierre, Mém. vol. iii. pp. 280, 281.
[143] "C'était son habitude. Il sortait souvent les nuits, quand il allait en aventures amoureuses, ou pour surveiller lui-même les menées de ses nombreux ennemis."--Blaisot, Manuscript Memoirs of a Benedictine Monk.
CHAPTER VIII
1631
Richelieu interdicts all correspondence between Anne of Austria and the King of Spain--The Queen asks permission to retire to the Val de Grâce--Her persecution by the Cardinal--Marie de Medicis protects her interests--Monsieur pledges himself to support her cause--Gaston defies the minister--Alarm of Richelieu--He resolves to effect the exile of the Queen-mother--Monsieur quits the capital--Superstition of Marie de Medicis--An unequal struggle--Father Joseph and his patron--The Queen-mother resolves to accompany her son to Italy--Richelieu assures the King that Marie and Gaston have organized a conspiracy against his life--The Court proceed to Compiègne--The Queen-mother refuses to retain her seat in the Council--Richelieu regains all his influence over the King--Revenge of the Cardinal upon his enemies--Desperate position of Marie de Medicis--Her arrest is determined upon by the Council--Louis leaves her a prisoner at Compiègne--Parting interview of the two Queens--Indignity offered to Anne of Austria--Death of the Princesse de Conti--Indignation of the royal prisoner--A diplomatic correspondence--Two noble gaolers--The royal troops pursue Monsieur--The adherents of Gaston are declared guilty of lèse-majesté--Gaston addresses a declaration to the Parliament--The Queen-mother forwards a similar protest, and then appeals to the people--A paper war--The garrison is withdrawn from Compiègne--Marie resolves to effect her escape to the Low Countries--She is assured of the protection of Spain and Germany--The Queen-mother secretly leaves the fortress--She is betrayed by the Marquis de Vardes, and proceeds with all speed to Hainault, pursued by the royal troops--She is received at Mons by the Archduchess Isabella--Whence she addresses a letter to the King to explain the motives of her flight--Reply of Louis XIII--Sympathy of Isabella--The two Princesses proceed to Brussels--Triumphal entry of Marie de Medicis into the capital of Flanders--Renewed hopes of the exiled Queen--The Belgian Ambassador at the French Court--Vindictive counsels of the Cardinal--The property of the Queen-mother and Monsieur is confiscated--They are abandoned by many of their adherents--Richelieu is created a duke--A King and his minister--Marie consents to the marriage of Monsieur with Marguerite de Lorraine--The followers of the Queen-mother and the Duc d'Orléans are tried and condemned--Louis XIII proceeds to Lorraine to prevent the projected alliance of his brother--Intrigues of Gaston--Philip of Spain refuses to adopt the cause of Marie de Medicis--Marriage of Monsieur and the Princesse de Lorraine--The Queen-mother endeavours to negotiate her return to France--Richelieu determines the King not to consent--Charles de Lorraine makes his submission to the French monarch--And signs a compulsory treaty.
In order, as he asserted, to protect the interests of France, Richelieu had strictly forbidden all further correspondence between Anne of Austria and her royal brother Philip of Spain; and had further informed her that she would no longer be permitted to receive the Marquis de Mirabel, the Spanish Ambassador, who had hitherto been her constant visitor and the medium of her intercourse with her family. Indignant at such an interference with her most private feelings, Anne revolted against a tyranny which aroused her southern pride; and complaining that the close confinement to which she was subjected at the Louvre had affected her health, she demanded permission to retire to the Val de Grâce; a proposal which was eminently grateful to the Cardinal, who desired above all things to separate her from the Queen-mother. She had, however, no sooner left the palace than she caused M. de Mirabel to be apprised of the place of her retreat; at the same time informing him that she should continue to expect his visits, although he must thenceforward make them as privately as possible. In compliance with these instructions, the Ambassador alighted from his carriage at some distance from the Val de Grâce, and proceeded on foot to the convent generally towards the dusk of the evening, believing that by these precautions he should be enabled to baffle the vigilance of the watchful minister. He was, however, soon destined to be undeceived, as Richelieu, having ascertained the fact, openly denounced these meetings in the Council, expatiating upon the fatal effects of which they might be productive to France; while Marie de Medicis boldly supported her daughter-in-law, declaring that any minister who presumed to give laws to the wife of his sovereign exceeded his privilege, and must be prepared to encounter her legitimate and authorized opposition.
In this assertion she was, moreover, supported by the Duc d'Orléans, who considered himself aggrieved by the non-performance of the promises made by Richelieu to his favourites. He had, it is true, in his turn pledged himself to the King that he would no longer oppose the measures of the minister; but the pledges of Monsieur were known to be as unstable as water; and his chivalrous spirit was, moreover, aroused by the harsh treatment of his young and beautiful sister-in-law, with whom he passed a great portion of his time. More than once he had surprised her bathed in tears, had listened to the detail of her wrongs, and soothed her sorrows; and, finally, he had vowed to revenge them.
It would appear that on this occasion at least he was in earnest, as on the 1st of January 1631, when the intense cold rendered the outward air almost unendurable, and the Cardinal had remained throughout the whole morning in his easy chair, rolled up in furs, beside a blazing fire, Monsieur was suddenly announced, and immediately entered the apartment, followed by a numerous train of nobles. Richelieu rose in alarm to receive him, for he remembered a previous visit of Monsieur which was as unexpected as the present one, and probably not more threatening.