Concini, with admirable tact, played upon the weaknesses of both Princes, and augmented their discontent; while he was at the same time careful to exonerate the Regent from all blame.  Conscious that without her support he could not sustain for an hour the factitious power to which he had attained, he laboured incessantly to throw the whole odium of the disunion upon the ministers, who were fully as obnoxious to himself as to the Princes.

“They it is,” he continually repeated, “who are the true cause of your estrangement.  The Queen is, as I know, well disposed towards all the Princes of the Blood; but Sillery, Villeroy, and Jeannin are constantly representing to her the danger of allowing you to become too powerful.  Your real enemies are the ministers who are fearful of affording you the opportunity of overbalancing their influence.”

This assurance was too flattering to the self-love of the Princes to be repulsed; they forgot that Concini himself had been as eager as those whom he now inculpated to destroy their importance, and to limit their power; they saw the great nobles, whose ambition was disappointed, or whose vanity was wounded, successively espouse their cause, and they were easily induced to believe that the time was not far distant when they should triumph over their opponents, and be repaid for all their mortifications.  This was precisely the frame of mind into which Concini had endeavoured to bring them; and so ably did he avail himself of his advantage that at length, when on one occasion he found himself in company with the Prince de Conde, the Comte de Soissons, and the Marechaux de Bouillon and de Lesdiguieres, he induced them to unite with him in attempting the ruin of the ministers.

He was, moreover, powerfully abetted in his intrigue by the Duke of Savoy; who, outraged at the insult which had been offered to him by the Regent in bestowing the hand of Madame Elisabeth, which had been solemnly promised to the Prince of Piedmont, upon the Infant of Spain; and who, moreover, hoped to profit by the internal dissensions of France, and to recover through the medium of the disaffected Princes the provinces which Henri IV had compelled him to relinquish in exchange for the marquisate of Saluzzo, omitted no opportunity of endeavouring to foment a civil war; from which, while he had nothing to apprehend, he had the prospect of reaping great personal advantage.

Thus supported, Concini, who was aware of the intimate relations subsisting between Charles Emmanuel and the Comte de Soissons, did not hesitate to urge the Princes to a resolute resistance; nor was this seed of rebellion scattered upon sterile soil.  M. de Soissons pledged himself that on his return from Normandy, where he was about to sojourn for a short time, he would publicly insult the Chancellor; while M. de Lesdiguieres, who was still furious at the disappointment to which he had been subjected, and who was about to return to Dauphiny, volunteered, should the Princes decide upon enforcing their claims, to march ten thousand infantry and fifteen hundred horse to the gates of Paris.