de Medicis seeks to effect a marriage between Monsieur and a Florentine Princess—­Buckingham lands in France, but is repulsed—­Illness of Louis XIII—­Disgust of the Duc d’Orleans—­Louis wearies of the camp—­He is incensed against the Cardinal—­The King returns to Paris—­Monsieur affects a passion for the Princesse Marie de Gonzaga, which alarms the sovereign—­His distrust of the Queen-mother—­Marie de Medicis withdraws her confidence from the Cardinal—­Mother and son—­Louis returns to La Rochelle—­The city capitulates—­Triumphal entry of Louis XIII into Paris—­Exhortation of the Papal Nuncio.

The death of James I. and the succession of Charles, Prince of Wales, to the English throne, at the commencement of the year 1625, excited the greatest uneasiness at the Court of France, where all parties were alike anxious for the arrival of the Papal dispensation.  Nor was the new monarch himself less desirous of completing the contemplated alliance, as only three days were suffered to elapse after the demise of his royal father ere he hastened to ratify the treaty, and to make preparations for its immediate fulfilment.[90]

On the arrival of the long-expected courier from Rome the dispensation was delivered into the hands of Marie de Medicis by Spada, the Papal Nuncio; and on the 8th of May the Duc de Chevreuse, whom Charles had appointed as his proxy, signed the contract of marriage, conjointly with the Earl of Carlisle and Lord Holland, who officiated as Ambassadors Extraordinary from the Court of St. James’s.  At the ceremonial of the marriage, which took place on the 11th of May, the difference of religion between the English monarch and the French Princess compelled the observance of certain conventional details which were all scrupulously fulfilled.  The Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, Grand Almoner of France, pronounced the nuptial benediction on a platform erected before the portal of Notre-Dame, after which the Duc de Chevreuse and the English Ambassadors conducted the young Queen to the entrance of the choir, and retired until the conclusion of the mass, when they rejoined Louis XIII and their new sovereign at the same spot, and accompanied them to the great hall of the archiepiscopal palace, where a sumptuous banquet had been prepared.[91]

Some days subsequently, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, arrived unexpectedly in Paris, to urge the immediate departure of the Princess for her new kingdom, and to express the impatience of the King his master to welcome her to his dominions.  The extraordinary magnificence displayed by Buckingham on this occasion was the comment of the whole Court, while the remarkable beauty of his person excited no less admiration than the splendour of his apparel; nor was it long ere the scandal-mongers of the royal circle whispered that it had not failed in its effect upon the fancy, if not upon the heart, of Anne of Austria, who received his homage with an evident delight which flattered