Then Bouillon, potent by his rank, his possessions, and his authority among the Protestants, publicly swore that he would ruin Sully and change the whole order of the government.  What more lamentable spectacle, what more desolate future for the cause of religious equality, which for a moment had been achieved in France, than this furious alienation of the trusted leaders of the Huguenots, while their adversaries were carrying everything before them?  At the council board Bouillon quarrelled ostentatiously with Sully, shook his fist in his face, and but for the Queen’s presence would have struck him.  Next day he found that the Queen was intriguing against himself as well as against Sully, was making a cat’s-paw of him, and was holding secret councils daily from which he as well as Sully was excluded.  At once he made overtures of friendship to Sully, and went about proclaiming to the world that all Huguenots were to be removed from participation in affairs of state.  His vows of vengeance were for a moment hushed by the unanimous resolution of the council that, as first marshal of France, having his principality on the frontier, and being of the Reformed religion, he was the fittest of all to command the expedition.  Surely it might be said that the winds and tides were not more changeful than the politics of the Queen’s government.  The Dutch ambassador was secretly requested by Villeroy to negotiate with Bouillon and offer him the command of the Julich expedition.  The Duke affected to make difficulties, although burning to obtain the post, but at last consented.  All was settled.  Aerssens communicated at once with Villeroy, and notice of Bouillon’s acceptance was given to the Queen, when, behold, the very next day Marshal de la Chatre was appointed to the command expressly because he was a Catholic.  Of course the Duke of Bouillon, furious with Soissons and Epernon and the rest of the government, was more enraged than ever against the Queen.  His only hope was now in Conde, but Conde at the outset, on arriving at the Louvre, offered his heart to the Queen as a sheet of white paper.  Epernon and Soissons received him with delight, and exchanged vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks’ duration.  And thus all the princes of the blood, all the cousins of Henry of Navarre, except the imbecile Conti, were ranged on the side of Spain, Rome, Mary de’ Medici, and Concino Concini, while the son of the Balafre, the Duke of Mayenne, and all their adherents were making common cause with the Huguenots.  What better example had been seen before, even in that country of pantomimic changes, of the effrontery with which Religion was made the strumpet of Political Ambition?