“It were well,” said Chanteloupe, with a meaning smile, “to prove to the lady that it is possible to exist in a more narrow lodging.  The King is absent from Paris.  The Luxembourg is thinly peopled; and La Comballet would serve admirably as a hostage.”

“Veramente, padre mio,” exclaimed Marie de Medicis, bounding from her seat; “the thing is well imagined, and cannot fail to do us good service.  Richelieu loves his niece—­too well, if we are to credit the scandal-mongers of the Court—­and with La Comballet in our hands we may dictate whatever terms we will.  To work, padre, to work; there is little time to lose.”

Such was the plot to which the Queen-mother imprudently accorded her consent; and for a time everything appeared to promise success.  The nephew of Chanteloupe and a confidential valet of Marie herself were entrusted with the secret, and instructed to make the necessary arrangements.  Relays were prepared between Paris and Brussels, and nine or ten individuals were engaged to assist in the undertaking.  Carefully, however, as these had been selected, two of their number, alarmed by the probable consequences of detection, had no sooner arrived in the French capital than they revealed the plot, and the whole of the conspirators were committed to the Bastille, while information of the intended abduction was immediately forwarded to the King.  Irritated by such an attempt, Louis commanded that they should instantly be put upon their trial; and at the same time he wrote with his own hand to congratulate Madame de Comballet on her escape, and to assure her that had she been conveyed to the Low Countries, he would have gone to reclaim her at the head of fifty thousand men.  In return for this condescension the niece of Richelieu entreated the King to pardon the culprits, a request with which he complied the more readily as the names of several nobles of the Court were involved in the attempt, as well as that of the Queen-mother.[186]

The Cardinal, however, proved less forgiving than the destined victim of this ill-advised and undignified conspiracy.  Enraged against Marie de Medicis, and anxious to make her feel the weight of his vengeance, he found little difficulty in inducing Louis to request Isabella to deliver up to him Chanteloupe and the Abbe de St. Germain;[187] but the Archduchess excused herself, declaring that as the two ecclesiastics in question were members of the Queen-mother’s household, she could not consent to be guilty of an act of discourtesy towards her Majesty by which she should violate the duties of hospitality; and the only immediate result of the notable plot of the reverend Oratorian was the increased enmity of Richelieu towards his former benefactress.