“His Majesty,” said the Italian Marshal haughtily, “will ere long possess an army of eighty thousand infantry and four thousand horse; the Comte de Schomberg[271] has received an order to import experienced troops from Germany; and I have determined to raise five thousand men at my own cost; being resolved to teach the French people how all the faithful servants of the Crown should feel it their duty to act on such an emergency.” [272]

[Illustration:  MARSHAL SCHOMBERG]

The new Secretary of State followed in the track of his patron, and with equal explicitness:  “The King, Monseigneur,” he replied to the appeal of the Nuncio, “is resolved to be the ruler of his own nation; and his Majesty trusts, moreover, that should the Duc de Nevers and the other Princes openly take up arms, the Pope will excommunicate them as rebels to their sovereign.” [273]

In addition to the discontent created among the people by this ill-judged pertinacity on the part of Marie and her Government, a new cause of disaffection was elicited by the harshness with which the Queen-mother refused to comply with the demand made by the two Princesses of Conde, that the Prince should either be released from the Bastille, or put upon his trial, in order that he might prove his innocence of the crime of which he was accused.  Compliance with this request would have placed Marie and her ministers in a position of such difficulty and danger that it was, moreover, refused with an abruptness which not only betrayed their alarm, but which also tended still further to aggravate the irritation of his friends; and thus at a moment when the interests of the young King required that none but conciliatory measures should be adopted, the reckless ambition of a few individuals threatened to shake the very foundations of his throne, and to reduce the nation to a state of anarchy and convulsion.

The time was ripe for the project of De Luynes.  The royal forces were everywhere victorious against the insurgent nobles; and Concini openly attributed to his own counsels a success which promised to make him all-powerful at Court.

“You see, Sire,” said the favourite, “that this arrogant Italian, not content with insulting your royal person, also claims the merit due to your brave army, and to your faithful generals.  Will you continue to suffer this presumption to degrade you in the eyes of your people, and to undermine your authority over your barons?  Take the reins of government into your own hands, and prove that you are a worthy descendant of St. Louis.  Reform the Government, and you will soon restore tranquillity to France; but do not any longer submit to see a base-born foreigner openly play the sovereign at your very Court.”

“Show me the means of doing this,” was the sullen reply; “I am as anxious as yourself to escape my present state of slavery.  Devise some sure method of ridding me of the thrall to which I have been so long condemned, and I will second your designs as earnestly as you can decide them.”