In order to give additional weight to these declarations, Gaston sent them by an express to the Papal Court; but his messenger, having been arrested on the frontier, was conveyed to Paris, and committed to the Bastille; upon which a second envoy was despatched, who succeeded in accomplishing his mission.[210] This obstacle to the coveted establishment of his niece enraged the almost omnipotent minister, while Gaston, in his turn, encouraged by the representations of his favourite, communicated to the Marquis d’Ayetona the conditions of the treaty which had been proposed to him, and declared that he would enter into no engagement without the sanction of the Spanish sovereign.  The past career of Monsieur had by no means tended to induce an unreserved confidence in those whom he affected to regard, and the able Governor accordingly replied, with an equal degree of sincerity, that he strongly advised the Prince to terminate a struggle which could only tend to distract the kingdom over which he would, in all probability, soon be called upon to rule; but at the same time to insist upon the royal recognition of his marriage, as well as upon holding a fortified town as a place of refuge, should he thereafter require such protection.  He, moreover, pointed out Chalon-sur-Saone as an eligible stronghold; and having thus indicated conditions which he was well aware would never be conceded, the Marquis flattered himself that he had, for a time at least, rendered a reconciliation between the royal brothers impracticable.[211]

He was greatly encouraged in this belief when Monsieur, who affected to regard his return to France as a mere chimera, subsequently consented to sign a treaty with Spain, by which he pledged himself not to enter into any agreement with Louis XIII, be the conditions what they might; and, in the event of a war between the two nations, to attach himself to the cause of Philip, who was to place under his orders an army of fifteen thousand men.[212]

This treaty was signed by the Duc d’Orleans and the Marquis d’Ayetona, and countersigned by the Duque de Lerma and Puylaurens; and the Spaniards had no sooner succeeded in obtaining it, than both the Marquis and the Prince of Savoy, who had recently entered the Spanish service, urged the Queen-mother to join the faction.  Marie, however, rejected the proposition without the hesitation of a moment, declaring that she could not permit herself to form any alliance so prejudicial to the interests of the King her son; an act of prudence and good feeling on which she had soon additional cause to congratulate herself, as the Marquis d’Ayetona, immediately on its completion, forwarded the treaty to Madrid, where it was ratified and returned without delay; but the vessel by which it was sent having been driven on shore near Calais, the despatches fell into the hands of the French authorities, by whom they were forwarded to the minister, whose alarm on discovering the nature of their contents determined him to lose no time in effecting the recall of the false and faction-loving Prince.