"Given!" echoed the Queen-mother vehemently. "Yes, given as you say, but on condition that whenever I sought to reclaim it, I was at liberty to do so on the payment of thirty thousand livres; and have you never heard what was the result of this donation? When he proved unworthy of my confidence I demanded the restoration of the hôtel upon the terms of the contract, but when the document was delivered into my hands, I discovered that for livres he had substituted crowns, and that in lieu of 'whenever she shall desire it,' he had inserted 'when the King shall desire it.' I remonstrated against this treachery, but I remonstrated in vain; Louis pronounced against me, and the Cardinal established his wanton niece in my desecrated mansion, where she has held a Court more brilliant than that of the mother of her sovereign. Nay," continued the Queen, with increasing agitation, "the lingering atmosphere of royalty which yet clings to the old halls has so increased the greatness of the low-born relative of Jean Armand du-Plessis, that she has deemed it necessary to destroy one of the walls of my own palace in order to enlarge the limits of that which she inhabits." [185]
"It were well," said Chanteloupe, with a meaning smile, "to prove to the lady that it is possible to exist in a more narrow lodging. The King is absent from Paris. The Luxembourg is thinly peopled; and La Comballet would serve admirably as a hostage."
"Veramente, padre mio," exclaimed Marie de Medicis, bounding from her seat; "the thing is well imagined, and cannot fail to do us good service. Richelieu loves his niece--too well, if we are to credit the scandal-mongers of the Court--and with La Comballet in our hands we may dictate whatever terms we will. To work, padre, to work; there is little time to lose."
Such was the plot to which the Queen-mother imprudently accorded her consent; and for a time everything appeared to promise success. The nephew of Chanteloupe and a confidential valet of Marie herself were entrusted with the secret, and instructed to make the necessary arrangements. Relays were prepared between Paris and Brussels, and nine or ten individuals were engaged to assist in the undertaking. Carefully, however, as these had been selected, two of their number, alarmed by the probable consequences of detection, had no sooner arrived in the French capital than they revealed the plot, and the whole of the conspirators were committed to the Bastille, while information of the intended abduction was immediately forwarded to the King. Irritated by such an attempt, Louis commanded that they should instantly be put upon their trial; and at the same time he wrote with his own hand to congratulate Madame de Comballet on her escape, and to assure her that had she been conveyed to the Low Countries, he would have gone to reclaim her at the head of fifty thousand men. In return for this condescension the niece of Richelieu entreated the King to pardon the culprits, a request with which he complied the more readily as the names of several nobles of the Court were involved in the attempt, as well as that of the Queen-mother.[186]
The Cardinal, however, proved less forgiving than the destined victim of this ill-advised and undignified conspiracy. Enraged against Marie de Medicis, and anxious to make her feel the weight of his vengeance, he found little difficulty in inducing Louis to request Isabella to deliver up to him Chanteloupe and the Abbé de St. Germain;[187] but the Archduchess excused herself, declaring that as the two ecclesiastics in question were members of the Queen-mother's household, she could not consent to be guilty of an act of discourtesy towards her Majesty by which she should violate the duties of hospitality; and the only immediate result of the notable plot of the reverend Oratorian was the increased enmity of Richelieu towards his former benefactress.
Monsieur had no sooner ascertained the fate of Montmorency, whose life he had been privately assured would be spared in the event of his acknowledging his fault, than he at once felt that should he remain longer in France, not only his own safety might be compromised, but that he must also sacrifice the confidence of his few remaining adherents; as no one would be rash enough to brave the vengeance of the minister in his cause, should he not openly testify his indignation at so signal an offence. A rumour, moreover, reached him that several of the officers of his household were to be withdrawn from his service; and Puylaurens soon succeeded in convincing him that should he not leave the kingdom, he must be satisfied to live thenceforward in complete subjection to Richelieu; who, when he should ultimately ascertain the fact of his marriage with the Princesse Marguerite, would not fail to have it dissolved.
Already predisposed to the measure, the Prince yielded at once to the arguments of his favourite, and secretly left Tours on the 6th of November, accompanied only by fifteen or twenty of his friends. On his way to Burgundy, at Montereau-faut-Yonne, he wrote a long letter to the King, declaring that should his Majesty feel any displeasure at his thus leaving the country, he must attribute his having done so to his indignation against those who had caused him to take the life of the Duc de Montmorency, to save which he would willingly have smothered his just resentment, and sacrificed all his personal interests. He also complained bitterly that he had received a pledge to that effect which had been violated; and declared that he had been assured in the name of the King that should he march towards Roussillon it would seal the fate of the Duke, from which declaration he had inferred that by obeying the will of his Majesty he should ensure his safety; whereas, after having condescended to the most degrading proofs of submission, no regard had been shown to his feelings, and no respect paid to his honour. Finally, he announced his intention of seeking a safe retreat in a foreign country, alleging that from the treatment to which he had been subjected in France, he had every reason to dread the consequences of the insignificance into which he had fallen there.
In reply to this communication Louis coldly observed: "The conditions which I accorded to you are so far above your pretensions, that their perusal alone will serve as an answer to what you have advanced. I will not reply to your statement that the prospect which was held out to you of Montmorency's life caused you to submit to those terms. Every one was aware of your position. Had you another alternative?" [188]
Had Gaston been other than he was, the King would have been spared the question; for it is certain that had Monsieur only possessed sufficient courage to make the attempt, nothing could have prevented him after his retreat from Castelnaudary from retiring into Roussillon; but to the very close of his life, the faction-loving Prince always withdrew after the first check, and sought to secure his own safety, rather than to justify the expectations which his high-sounding professions were so well calculated to create.
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