At that moment Louis, who considered that he had been delivered from almost certain destruction through the perspicacity and zeal of his minister, felt no disposition to dissent from any of his views, and he unhesitatingly expressed his readiness to sanction whatever measures he might deem necessary; upon which Richelieu, without further preamble, laid before him the list of his intended victims.  At the head of these figured Bassompierre, whose recent abandonment the vindictive Cardinal had not forgotten, and the two Marillacs.  The Abbe de Foix and the physician Vautier, both of whom were in the confidence of the Queen-mother, were also destined to expiate their fidelity to her cause in the Bastille; while the Princesse de Conti and the Duchesses d’Elboeuf, d’Ornano, de Lesdiguieres, and de Roannois, all of whom were her fast friends, were sentenced to banishment; and it was further decided that, on his departure from Compiegne, the King should leave his mother in that city under the guard of the Marechal d’Estrees, at the head of nearly a thousand men, exclusive of fifty gendarmes and as many light-horse; and that he should be accompanied to the capital by Anne of Austria, in order to separate her from the Queen-mother.[147]

The situation of Marie de Medicis was desperate.  Day after day she solicited a private interview with the monarch, and on every occasion of their meeting she found Richelieu in the royal closet, invulnerable alike to her disdain and to her sarcasm.  One word from the King would of course have compelled him to withdraw, but that word was never uttered; for with the timidity inherent to a weak mind, Louis dreaded to be left alone with his destined victim.  Bigoted and superstitious, he had his moments of remorse, in which his conscience reproached him for the crime of which he was about to render himself guilty towards the author of his existence; but these qualms assailed him only during the absence of his minister, and thus he overcame them by the constant companionship of the stronger spirit by whom he was ruled.  Unable to act of himself, the purple robes of the Cardinal were his safeguard and his refuge; nor was Richelieu unwilling to accept the responsibility thus thrust upon him.  His Eminence had no scruples, no weaknesses, no misgivings; he knew his power, and he exercised it without shrinking.  Had the unhappy Queen been permitted only a few hours of undisturbed communion with her son, it is probable that she might have awakened even in his selfish bosom other and better feelings; she might have taught him to listen to the voice of nature and of conscience; the mother’s heart might have triumphed over the statesman’s head; but no such opportunity was afforded to her; and while she was still making fruitless efforts to attain her object, the King, at the instigation of the Cardinal, summoned a privy council, at which Chateauneuf, the new Keeper of the Seals and the tool of Richelieu, openly accused her not only of ingratitude to the monarch, but also of conducting a secret correspondence with the Spanish Cabinet, and of having induced Monsieur to leave the country; and concluded by declaring that stringent measures should be adopted against her.