Swiss Guards to garrison the city; a demand in which
he succeeded in interesting Concini, and to which
he consequently anticipated no opposition on her part.
He was correct in his conclusion, but the sole consent
of the Regent did not suffice upon so important a
question, which it was necessary to submit to the
consideration of the Council, where it was accordingly
mooted. Sully, although previously solicited
by the Queen to support the proposal, resolutely refused
to do so, alleging that he would never consent to
see the King subjected to an outlay of twelve hundred
thousand livres in order to enable M. d’Alincourt
to pocket one hundred thousand, and that Lyons, by
the treaty concluded with the Duke of Savoy, had ceased
to be a frontier town, and consequently required no
garrison. This reply, which made considerable
impression upon Marie, she repeated to M. de Villeroy,
who retorted, loud enough to be heard by a friend
of Sully, that he was aware the Spaniards and Savoyards
were no longer to be feared, and that it was consequently
not against them that he was anxious to secure the
city of Lyons, but that the real enemies whom she
had to fear were the Huguenots, who were at that moment
better situated, more prepared, and probably also
more inclined to oppose her authority than they had
ever before been. This intemperate and ill-judged
speech was instantly reported to Sully, who, rising
indignantly from his seat, approached the Queen and
audibly informed her that he considered it his duty
to remark that, as in order to render her favourable
to the demand of his son, M. de Villeroy had not scrupled
to malign the Protestants, but had designated them
as more dangerous enemies to herself and to the state
than those who were labouring to further the interests
of Spain, he only entreated her to afford to his denial
the same weight as that which she attached to the assertion
of the State Secretary, and by placing both upon the
same footing exclude them equally from the Council,
to which neither could any longer advance a claim
for admittance. To this bold and public accusation
M. de Villeroy attempted no reply, but thenceforward
the two ministers no longer maintained even a semblance
of amity.[86]
Hitherto M. de Conde had taken no part in the dissensions
which were going on about him, but on the night of
the 10th of July he in his turn received a warning
to be upon his guard, and in consequence he caused
a strong patrol to keep watch on all sides of his
palace. Not an hour passed in which the gallop
of a party of horsemen was not heard clattering over
the rough and ill-paved streets. At midnight the
Marquis d’Ancre waited upon the Prince to convey
to him an invitation from the Regent to take up his
abode in the Louvre should he not consider himself
safe in his own house, but M. de Conde coldly declined
to avail himself of the offer, alleging that the manner
in which her Majesty had replied on the previous day,
when he had informed her of his having been assured