The struggle was begun.  Already the courtiers were flocking to the Luxembourg; the keeper of the seals, Marillac, had gone away to sleep at his country-house at Glatigny, quite close to Versailles, where the king was expected; and he was hoping that Louis XIII. would summon him and put the power in his hands.  The king was chatting with his favorite St. Simon, and tapping with his finger-tips on the window-pane.  “What do you think of all this?” he asked.  “Sir,” was the reply, “I seem to be in another world, but at any rate you are master.”  “Yes, I am,” answered the king, “and I will make it felt too.”  He sent for Cardinal La Vallette, son of the Duke of Epernon, but devoted to Richelieu.  “The cardinal has a good master,” he said:  “go and make my compliments to him, and tell him to come to me without delay.” [Memoires de Bassompierre, t. iii. p. 276.]

[Illustration:  “Tapping with his Finger-tips on the Window-pane.”——­191]

With all his temper and the hesitations born of his melancholy mind, Louis XIII. could appreciate and discern the great interests of his kingdom and of his power.  The queen had supposed that the king would abandon the cardinal, and “that her private authority as mother, and the pious affection and honor the king showed her as her son, would prevail over the public care which he ought, as king, to take of his kingdom and his people.  But God, who holds in His hand the hearts of princes, disposed things otherwise:  his Majesty resolved to defend his servant against the malice of those who prompted the queen to this wicked design.” [Memoires de Richelieu.] He conversed a long while with the cardinal, and when the keeper of the seals awoke the next morning, it was to learn that the minister was at Versailles with the king, who had lodged him in a room under his own, that his Majesty demanded the seals back, and that the exons were at his, Marillac’s, door to secure his person.

At the same time was despatched a courier to headquarters at Foglizzo in Piedmont.  The three marshals Schomberg, La Force, and Marillac, had all formed a junction there.  Marillac, brother of the keeper of the seals, held the command that day; and he was awaiting with patience the news, already announced by his brother, of the cardinal’s disgrace.  Marshal Schomberg opened the despatches; and the first words that met his eye were these, written in the king’s own hand:  “My dear cousin, you will not fail to arrest Marshal Marillac; it is for the good of my service and for your own exculpation.”  The marshal was greatly embarrassed; a great part of the troops had come with Marillac from the army of Champagne and were devoted to him.  Schomberg determined, on the advice of Marshal La Force, in full council of captains, to show Marillac the postcript.  “Sir,” answered the marshal, “a subject must not murmur against his master, nor say of him that the things he alleges are false.  I can protest with truth that I have done nothing contrary to his service.  The truth is, that my brother the keeper of the seals and I have always been the servants of the queen-mother; she must have had the worst of it, and Cardinal Richelieu has won the day against her and her servants.” [Memoires de Puy-Seyur.]