Previously to his departure, however, he entertained the King, the two Queens, and the principal nobility at one of those elaborate fetes which have now become merely legendary; and which combined a comedy, a concert, and a ballet, with other incidental amusements, sufficient, as it would appear in these days, to have afforded occupation for a week even to the most dissipated pleasure-seekers; but which during the reign of Louis XIII excited emulation rather than surprise.

Richelieu had scarcely commenced his march, when the King resolved in his turn to proceed to Italy with a force of forty thousand men; a determination which was no sooner made known to the Queen-mother than she expressed her intention of bearing him company in this new expedition; as, superadded to her anxiety to counterbalance by her presence the influence of the Cardinal, she was moreover desirous of preventing a rupture with Spain, and of protecting the Duke of Savoy, whom she secretly favoured.[123]

The never-ceasing intrigues of the Court had once more sowed dissension between the two Queens; and it is here necessary to state that on the death of the Comtesse de Lannoy, which had occurred towards the close of the preceding year, her post of lady of honour to Anne of Austria had been conferred upon the Marquise de Senecay,[124] while that previously held by Madame de Senecay was bestowed upon Madame du Fargis.  As these arrangements had been made without any reference to the wishes of the Queen herself, she expressed great indignation at an interference with the internal economy of her household which was generally attributed to Marie de Medicis; but her anger reached its climax when she ascertained that the Comtesse du Fargis was the fast friend of Madame de Comballet,[125] the niece of Richelieu.  Apprehensive of the consequences likely to accrue to herself from such an intimacy, Anne of Austria for some time refused to admit the new Mistress of the Robes into her private circle, alleging that her apartments were not sufficiently spacious to accommodate the relatives and spies of a minister who had already succeeded in embittering her existence.  All opposition on her part was, however, disregarded; the ladies were officially installed; and although the Queen made no secret of her annoyance, and loudly inveighed against both Richelieu and her royal mother-in-law for the indignity to which she was thus subjected, they retained their places, and endeavoured, by every demonstration of respect and devotion, to gain the good graces of their irritated mistress.  In this endeavour one of them only was destined to succeed, and that one, contrary to all expectation, was the beautiful and witty Comtesse du Fargis, whose fascinations soon won the heart of the young Queen, and who was fortunate enough to secure alike her confidence and her esteem; nor was it long ere she profited by her advantage to attempt a reconciliation between Marie de Medicis and her offended daughter-in-law; urged thereto, as some historians assert, by the advice of the Cardinal de Berulle, but more probably by her own affection for the Queen-mother, in whose household she had formerly held the same office which she now filled in that of Anne of Austria.