and cannon to Angoumois. “Many men,”
says Duke Henry of Rohan, “envied the Duke of
Epernon his gallant deed, but few were willing to submit
themselves to his haughty temper, and everybody, having
reason to believe that it would all end in a peace,
was careful not to embark in the affair merely to
incur the king’s hatred, and leave to others
the honors of the enterprise.” The king’s
troops were well received wherever they showed themselves;
the towns opened their gates to them. “It
needs,” said a contemporary, “mighty strong
citadels to make the towns of France obey their governors
when they see the latter disobedient to the king’s.
will.” Several great lords held themselves
carefully aloof; others determined to attempt an arrangement
between the king and his mother; it was known what
influence over her continued to be preserved by the
Bishop of Lucon, still in exile at Avignon; he was
pressed to return; his confidant, Father Joseph du
Tremblay, was of opinion that he should; and Richelieu,
accordingly, set out. The governor of Lyons had
him arrested at Vienne in Dauphiny, and was much surprised
to find him armed with a letter from the king, commanding
that he should be allowed to pass freely everywhere.
Richelieu was prepared to advise a reconciliation
between king and queen-mother, and the king was as
much disposed to exert himself to that end as the
queen-mother’s friends. At Limoges the
Bishop of Lucon was obliged to carefully avoid Count
Schomberg, commandant of the royal troops, who was
not at all in the secret of the negotiation.
When he arrived at Angers a fresh difficulty supervened.
The most daring, of the queen-mother’s domestic
advisers, Ruccellai, had conceived a hatred of the
bishop, and tried to exclude him from the privy council.
Richelieu let be, “Certain,” as he said,
“that they would soon fall back upon him.”
He was one of the patient as well as ambitious, who
can calculate upon success, even afar off, and wait
for it. The Duke of Epernon supported him; Ruccellai,
defeated, left the queen-mother, taking with him some
of her most warmly attached servants. When the
subordinates were gone, recourse was had, accordingly,
to Richelieu. On the 10th of August, 1619, he
concluded at Angouleme between the king and his mother
a treaty, whereby the king promised to consign to oblivion
all that had passed since Blois; the queen-mother
consented to exchange her government of Touraine against
that of Anjou; and the Duke of Epernon received from
the town of Boulogne fifty thousand crowns in recompense
for what he had done, and he wrote to the king to protest
his fidelity. The queen-mother still hesitated
to see her son; but, at his entreaty, she at last
sent off the Bishop of Lucon from Angouleme to make
preparations for the interview, and, five days afterwards,
she set out herself, accompanied by the Duke of Epernon,
who halted at the limits of his own government, not
caring to come to any closer quarters with so recently