Increasing trials of the exiled Queen—­Her property is seized on the frontier—­She determines to conciliate the Cardinal—­Richelieu remains implacable—­Far-reaching ambition of the minister—­Weakness of Louis XIII—­Insidious arguments of Richelieu—­Marie de Medicis is again urged to abandon her adherents—­Cowardly policy of Monsieur—­He signs a treaty with Spain—­The Queen-mother refuses to join in the conspiracy—­Puylaurens induces Monsieur to accept the proffered terms of Richelieu—­He escapes secretly from Brussels—–­Gaston pledges himself to the King to “love the Cardinal”—­Gaston again refuses to repudiate his wife—­Puylaurens obtains the hand of a relative of the minister and becomes Duc de Puylaurens—­Monsieur retires to Blois.

The early months of the year 1634 were passed by Marie de Medicis in perpetual mortification and anxiety.  The passport which she had obtained for the free transport of such articles of necessity as she might deem it expedient to procure from France was disregarded, and her packages were subjected to a rigorous examination on the frontier; an insult of which she complained bitterly to Louis, declaring that if the Cardinal sought by such means to reduce her to a more pitiable condition than that in which she had already found herself, and thus to bend her to his will, the attempt would prove fruitless; as no amount of indignity should induce her to humble herself before him.

The unhappy Princess little imagined that in a few short weeks she should become a suppliant for his favour!  Meanwhile[204] the struggle for pre-eminence continued unabated between Puylaurens and Chanteloupe; and the life of the former having been on one occasion attempted, the faction of Monsieur did not hesitate to attribute the contemplated assassination to the adherents of the Queen-mother; whence arose continual conflicts between the two pigmy Courts, which rendered unavailing all the efforts of the Marquis d’Ayetona to reconcile the royal relatives.  Moreover, Marie was indignant that the Marquis constantly evinced towards her son a consideration in which he sometimes failed towards herself; and, finding her position becoming daily more onerous, she at length resolved to accomplish a reconciliation, not only with the King, but even with the minister, on any terms which she could obtain.  In pursuance of this determination she gave instructions to M. Le Rebours de Laleu, her equerry, to proceed to Paris with her despatches, which consisted of three letters, one addressed to the sovereign, another to the Cardinal, and the third to M. de Bouthillier,[205] all of which severally contained earnest assurances of her intention to comply with the will and pleasure of the King in all things, and to obey his commands by foregoing for the future all emnity towards Richelieu.  In that which she wrote to the minister himself she carefully eschewed every vestige of her former haughtiness, and threw herself completely on his generosity.