XXVIII.

This act of vigour defeated the cabal, and the populace, CHAP. after some clamour and threatening, subsided into expectancy.

The Dukes of Nevers, of Bouillon, of Vendôme, all those who had filled the Hotel de Condé with outbursts and menaces against the queen and Concini, repaired to Soissons, gathered troops and sent forth manifestoes. The queen, however, was in command of a much more formidable army, and had succeeded in winning the Duke of Guise and the family of Lorraine. The Count d'Auvergne, illegitimate son of Charles, so long a prisoner in the Bastille was released, whilst Condé was committed to it. This gave the court the support of a prince of the blood. He and Guise proceeded to lay siege to the grandees in Soissons. The new chancellor, Du Vair, being found too much in dread of, or in favour with, the malcontents, secretary Barbin was promoted to his place, and the secretaryship of state filled by Richelieu (Nov. 30, 1616). From this moment the queen commanded at least the service of a powerful pen, which defended her both before the French people and foreign powers with unwonted superiority.* She was as well served by the soldiers as by the secretary she had chosen. All the princes' strongholds in Berry were reduced, and the rebellious grandees besieged in Soissons, where they must soon have submitted, had they not received secret assurances from the king and De Luynes through the Cardinal of Guise. D'Ancre, who suspected these relations and the channel through which they were carried, meditated summoning to Paris Themines, who had arrested Condé, to do the same by the Cardinal of Guise. Louis and De Luynes feared that D'Ancre's

* The “Declaration," answering the Prince, and the instructions to Schomberg. The latter document is remarkable for the energy with which Richelieu repudiates the accusation of Condé's partisans, that the

queen and he were Spanish in their
policy. The secretary insisted that
they followed the old policy of
Henry the Fourth.

† Mémoires d'Estrées.

XXVIII.

CHAP. next act would be to seize the latter in order to slay or exile him. They therefore plotted to anticipate the blow by arresting D'Ancre; but whom should they entrust with such a task? They were in an understanding with the Guises, but the duke, though hating D'Ancre, was still attached to the queen mother. Shunning the great, therefore, they opened their minds to three or four subordinates. These recommended the Marquis de Vitry, son of the old Leaguer, and captain of the guard, as the fit agent. And Vitry was much astonished at the humble rank of those who made such a proposal to him. He, however, contrived to assure himself of the king's participation, and then undertook the office. Those threatened were not without a sense of their danger, and of the quarter whence it came. D'Ancre proposed sending away the whole of the king's guard to Soissons, so much did he suspect them, and was only dissuaded by Richelieu.* Two letters are extant, signed Richelieu, written in the king's name, during the month of March, peremptorily ordering Vitry to repair to the army. His disobedience must have been significant. Concini gave his enemies few opportunities. He was generally either in his government of Normandy or well guarded in his house in Paris. He was met, however, as he entered the Louvre on March 24, 1617, by Vitry and his armed followers, each with a pistol concealed beneath their cloaks. They had some difficulty in stemming the crowd of Concini's escort. But Vitry did so, and laid hold of the arm of the marshal, saying he was his prisoner. "Me!" exclaimed the victim, drawing back, when at the moment three pistol shots and several stabs left him a lifeless corpse.

The king was one of the first to hear the ominous sounds, which Ornano soon came to explain, saying Concini was dead. Louis, who had given orders for

* Mémoires de Richelieu, liv. ix.

E

XXVIII.

his arrest, and for his death only in case of resistance, CHAP.
did not pause to inquire, but appeared at a window,
and cried out," Grand mercy! many thanks; I am now
a king." The queen mother heard the report at the
same time, and felt that her reign was over.
"Her
only crown," she said, "was that which she expected
in heaven." The Maréchale d'Ancre, too, heard the
fatal sound, and knew that a worse fate awaited her.
She ineffectually tried to hide her jewels, which those
who had spoiled her husband even of his cloak came
to pillage in her apartment, and lead her off to prison.
The crowd of courtiers, hitherto accustomed to pay
their daily visit to the queen mother, now turned in
another direction, and sought the king's apartments,
who was too unwell to receive them. Luynes, how-
ever, carried him to a more spacious room, and, placing
him on a billiard table, enabled Louis the Thirteenth
for the first time to receive freely the homage of his
subjects. Amongst others, Richelieu entered the apart-
ments, and received, he himself says, no unfavourable
reception, being bidden to go to the council.* Others
assert the king's exclamation to have been, "Oh, bishop!
you see we are delivered from your tyranny."

Whilst the slayers of D'Ancre were sharing the
material spoil, and Luynes assuming his political
power, the populace tore the body from the tomb in
St. Germain l'Auxerrois, where it had been hastily
deposited, dragged it through the streets, and hung
it to a lamp-post on the bridge, after insulting the
remains with every indignity. The poor little son of
the victim, forgotten in the palace, and so wretched
that he refused all food, was taken by a compassionate
soldier, and brought to the young Queen Anne of

* Brienne has a story, apparently unworthy of trust, that Richelieu was warned of D'Ancre's murder, and said nothing. See Mémoires

Richelieu, Pontchartrain, Fontenay-
Mareuil, and Relation de la Mort
d'Ancre.

XXVIII.

CHAP. Austria. It sufficiently paints her character to mention that she asked the child to dance for her, which he did, in the hopes of exciting compassion and obtaining favour. It was mooted by the conspirators whether they should kill, imprison, or exile Marie de Medicis.* She was at last informed that she must retire to Blois. A farewell meeting was arranged between her and Louis, the words fixed beforehand by the careful Luynes what each should say. Marie was to regret that her administration of the kingdom had not pleased her son. The latter was to be courteous but firm in his reply. The tears of the queen broke through the programme; and after the few empty words to Louis, she begged of De Luynes to spare her secretary Barbin. Even this was not conceded. And after Louis the Thirteenth had watched his mother's carriage and suite, amongst which was Richelieu, departing over the bridge, he made the first use of his liberty to order the court to proceed instantly to Vincennes.†

Notwithstanding the inexperience of De Luynes, the first acts of his government, guided by the veteran ministers Villeroy and Jeannin, whom he recalled to office, were marked by firmness and prudence. On the news of the death of D'Ancre, the grandees affected to regard their cause as won. They sent in their submission, and came severally to pay homage and respect, "each wanting," as Pontchartrain says, "to remain armed in his government at the public expense, as well as to have pensions and privileges increased." But the treasury was empty; and in order to pay the armies lately set on foot, the queen had been obliged to augment the taille and enforce

* Papiers d'Etat de Richelieu, vol. ii. P. 652.

†The English court indecorously joined in the congratulations for Concini's death, "who was more

than half Spanish," writes Chamberlain. Edmonds was ordered to tell Vitry that he had a happy hand. Hardwick Papers.

XXVIII.

other taxes, to the dangerous increase of popular CHAP. discontent. And instead of having fresh gratuities and places to bestow upon the grandees, Luynes felt the necessity of curtailing their pensions and their powers. He kept Condé in the Bastille, allowing the princess to share his confinement. And in order to introduce what he called reform, and apply a check to the power of the grandees, an assembly of notables was summoned to meet in the autumn at Rouen.

A feeble monarch like Louis the Thirteenth might have been expected to be a merciful one; but it was his fortune always to be dominated by cruel persons. De Luynes showed himself needlessly so. The widow of D'Ancre had surely been sufficiently punished by the death of her husband and the confiscation of her property. De Luynes thirsted after her blood, and caused her to be accused before the parliament of a host of crimes, treason, peculation, sorcery. What was the nature of the charm she had thrown over the queen, was asked. "The influence, merely," was her reply, "which a strong mind has over a weak one." The parliament showed reluctance to be made the instrument of Luynes's revenge. But when Vitry, D'Ancre's assassin, had taken his seat on one of its benches, that body could scarcely pretend to preserve the semblance of legal justice. Eleanor Galigai acted, both on her trial and at her execution, equal to the character she claimed in the reply above recorded. She answered the accusations of her enemies and the rage of her executioner with equal calmness. Even the rabid hate of the Parisian mob was stayed, and changed into compassion at her attitude and aspect.

The notables who assembled at Rouen in the first days of December, 1617, consisted of thirteen prelates, eleven nobles of names little known, save those of D'Andelot and Duplessis-Mornay, and twenty-four