Few orders could have been more agreeable to the governor of Gaston, who, aware that both Richelieu and the Queen-mother ardently desired the accomplishment of a marriage which, while it must greatly enrich the Prince and augment his influence, would nevertheless still render him amenable to their authority, was on his side eager to effect his alliance with a foreign princess, for the express purpose of emancipating him from a dependence which interfered with his own influence, and threatened his personal ambition.  Meanwhile the Prince himself was divided between his affection for the beautiful heiress and his desire to shake off the yoke of the Cardinal-Minister, to which he submitted with ill-disguised impatience; and thus, although less ostensibly, each faction continued to intrigue as busily as ever.

FOOTNOTES: 

[61] Mercure Francais, 1621.  Bernard, book v.

[62] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 221, 222.

[63] Richelieu, Mem. book xii. pp. 118-128.  Rohan, Mem. book ii. pp. 183-185.  Bazin, vol. iii. pp. 132-138.

[64] Bassompierre, Mem. vol. ii. pp. 493, 494.

[65] Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 421.  Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 492, 493.  Bassompierre, Mem. vol. ii. p. 358.

[66] Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 421. Mercure Francais, 1621.

[67] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 497, 498.

[68] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 230-232.

[69] Marguerite de Souvre, Marquise de Sable, was the wife of Philippe Emmanuel de Laval-Montmorency.  She died in 1678, in her seventy-sixth year.

[70] Motteville, Mem. vol. i. pp. 340-342.

[71] Bassompierre, Mem. vol. ii. p. 376.  Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 499, 500.

[72] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 232, 233.  Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, vol. xxii. p. 501.

[73] Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 457.

[74] Bassompierre, Mem. vol. ii. p. 389.

[75] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 504-506.

[76] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 510-512.  Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 238-240.

[77] Bassompierre, Mem. vol. ii. p. 492.  Brienne, Mem. vol. i. p. 371.  Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 242, 243.

[78] Le Vassor, vol. ii. p. 525.

[79] Louis Le Febvre, Marquis de Caumartin, President of the Privy Council, and Keeper of the Seals in 1622, died in the following year at the age of seventy-two.  He was a man of great talent, and an able politician.

[80] Charles de la Vieuville, subsequently created duke.

[81] Etienne d’Aligre was a native of Chartres, and owed his advancement in life solely to his great talents.  He became successively steward of the household to the Cardinal Charles de Bourbon, Councillor of State, Keeper of the Seals, and subsequently, on the death of M. de Sillery, Chancellor of France.  Two years afterwards, having resigned the seals, he retired to one of his estates, where he died on the 11th of December 1635, at the age of seventy-five years.