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 Another Random Document on
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 By the end of April France was ready to strike. Châlons, Mezières and
Metz were the chief rendezvous. The King hoped to have 30,000 men on
foot, to join them on May 15, and to march at their head into the duchies. A
second army under Lesdiguières was to enter Piedmont, where it would
effect a junction with the forces of the Duke of Savoy, and then proceed to
invade the Milanese. A third army was to observe the Pyrenees. Maurice of
Nassau, with 30,000 Dutch, was to join Henri IV in Clèves.
Never had Bassompierre stood higher in the royal favour than on the eve
of the outbreak of war. Henri, anxious to make amends to him for the loss
of Charlotte de Montmorency and her dowry, and to recompense him for
the zeal and ability which he had shown in his mission to Lorraine and
Germany in the previous year, overwhelmed him with benefits. He
appointed him, quite unsolicited, Colonel of the Light Cavalry, made him a
Counsellor of State, gave him 50 guards, and a pension of 4,000 crowns,
and again proposed to marry him to the heiress of Beaupréau and revive in
her favour the duchy of that name. “But,” says Bassompierre ingenuously,
“I was then in the high follies of my youth, in love in so many quarters, and
well received in most, that I had not the leisure to think of my
advancement.”
But the sun which shone upon him with such warmth and splendour was
now about to be clouded for ever. The tragic end of the first Bourbon King
has been so often told that we have no intention of narrating it; but there are
circumstances recorded by Bassompierre which are not to be found in the
memoirs and correspondence of his contemporaries, and which afford a
curious insight into the state of Henri IV’s mind just before his
assassination:—
“We now entered that unhappy month of May, fatal to France, by the
loss sustained therein of our good King.
“I shall relate many things touching the presentiment which the King had
before his death, and which gave warning of that event. A little while
before, he said to me: ‘I know not how it is, Bassompierre, but I cannot
persuade myself that I am going into Germany; neither does my heart tell
me that you are going into Italy.’ Several times he said to me, and to others
also: ‘I believe that I shall die soon.’ And on the first day of May he
returned from the Tuileries by way of the grand gallery, leaning upon M. de
Guise on one side, and upon me on the other (for he always leaned on
someone), and, on leaving us to enter the Queen’s cabinet, said: ‘Don’t go
away; I am going to tell my wife to dress, that she may not keep me waiting
for dinner.’ For he usually dined with her. While we waited, leaning on the
iron balustrade overlooking the courtyard of the Louvre, the maypole which
had been planted in the middle of the courtyard fell down, without being
disturbed by the wind or for any apparent cause, and tumbled in the
direction of the little staircase leading to the King’s chamber. Upon which I
said to M. de Guise: ‘I would have given a great deal rather than this should
have happened. It is a very bad omen. May God preserve the King, who is
the May of the Louvre!’ ‘How can you be so foolish as to think seriously of
such a thing?’ he replied. ‘In Italy and Germany,’ I rejoined, ‘they would
take much more account of such an omen than we do here. May God
preserve the King and all belonging to him!’
“The King, who had but stepped into the Queen’s cabinet and out again,
here came up very softly to listen to us, for he imagined that we spoke of
some woman; and, hearing all that I said, broke in upon our talk, saying:
‘You are fools to amuse yourselves with such prognostications. For the last
thirty years all the astrologers and charlatans who pretend to be wise have
predicted to me every year that I was fated to die; and in that year wherein I
shall actually die, all the omens which have occurred in the course of it will
be remarked and thought a great deal of, while nothing will be said of those
which happened in preceding years.’
“The Queen had a peculiar and ardent desire to be crowned before the
King’s departure for Germany. The King did not wish it, both by reason of
the expense and because he did not like these grand festivals. Yet, since he
was the kindest husband in the world, he consented and delayed his
departure until she should make her entry into Paris.[77] He commanded me
to stay also, which I did because of his desire, and also because the
Princesse de Conti had asked me to be her cavalier at the ceremony of the
Sacre and the entry.[78]
“The Court went on May 12 to stay at Saint-Denis, to be in readiness for
the morrow, the day of the Queen’s Sacre, which was celebrated with the
greatest possible magnificence. The King, on this occasion, was
extraordinarily gay.[79] In the evening everyone returned to Paris.
“The following morning, the 14th of the said month, M. de Guise passed
by my lodging and took me to go and meet the King, who had gone to hear
Mass at the Feuillants. On the way we were told that he was returning by
the Tuileries, upon which we went to intercept him and found him talking to
M. de Villeroy. He left him, and taking M. de Guise and myself, one on
either side of him, said: ‘I come from the Feuillants, where I saw the chapel
which Bassompierre is having built there, and on the door he has had placed
this inscription: Quid retribuam. Domino pro omnibus que retribuit mihi?
And I said that, since he was German, he should have put: Calicem
salutaris accipiam.’ M. de Guise laughed heartily and said to him: ‘You are,
to my mind, one of the most agreeable men in the world, and our destiny
created us for one another. For, had you been a man of middling station, I
would have had you in my service, cost what it might; but, since God has
made you a great king, it could not be otherwise than that I must belong to
you.’ The King embraced him, and me also, and said: ‘You don’t know me
now; but I shall die one of these days; and, when you have lost me, you will
know my worth and the difference there is between me and other men.’
Upon this I said to him: ‘Mon Dieu, Sire, why do you never cease afflicting
us by saying that you will soon die? These are not good words to utter; you
will live, if it please God, long and happy years. There is no felicity in the
world equal to yours; you are but in the flower of your age, in perfect
strength and health of body, full of honours beyond any other mortal, in the
tranquil enjoyment of the most flourishing country in the world; loved and
adored by your subjects; possessed of property, of money, of beautiful
residences, a beautiful wife, beautiful mistresses and beautiful children,
who are growing up. What more could you have or desire to have?’ Then he
sighed and said: ‘My friend, all this I must leave.’ ”
Before parting from the King, Bassompierre informed him that he had
received a complaint from the captains of the Light Cavalry, of which he
had recently been appointed Colonel, that their companies were
insufficiently armed and that they were unable to obtain the weapons which
they required, and begged his Majesty to give orders that these should be
supplied to them. Henri IV told him to come to him that afternoon at the
Arsenal, where he proposed to go to visit Sully, who was ill, and he would
direct the Minister to let him have the arms he wanted. And, upon
Bassompierre observing that he would very willingly give Sully at the same
time the money which they were worth, to enable him to replace them, he
laughingly replied by quoting two verses from a well-known song, which
ran:
 “Que je n’offre à personne,
Mais à vous je les donne.”

Bassompierre thanked his Majesty, kissed his hand and withdrew, little
imagining that he was never to see him alive again.
“After dinner,” he says, “I went to visit Descures[80] in the Place-Royale,
to inquire about the routes which the different companies [of the Light
Horse] were to follow; and then I proceeded to the Arsenal, to await the
King, as he had told me to do. But alas! it was in vain, for, shortly
afterwards, came people crying out that the King had been wounded, and
that he was being carried back to the Louvre. I ran like a madman, seized
the first horse I could find, and rode full gallop towards the Louvre.
Opposite the Hôtel de Longueville I met M. de Blérencourt,[81] who was
returning from the Louvre, and he whispered to me: ‘He is dead!’ I ran up to
the barriers which the French Guards and the Swiss had occupied, with
lowered pikes, and Monsieur le Grand and I passed under the barriers and
ran to the King’s cabinet, where we saw him stretched on his bed, and M.
de Vic,[82] Counsellor of State, seated on the same bed. He had put his cross
of the Order to the King’s lips, and was bidding him think of God. Melon,
his chief physician, was in the ruelle, and some surgeons, who wanted to
dress his wounds; but he was already gone.... Then the chief physician
cried: ‘Ah! it is all over; he has gone!’ Monsieur le Grand, on arriving, went
down on his knees in the ruelle of the bed, and took one of the King’s hands
and kissed it. As for myself, I had thrown myself at his feet, which I
embraced, weeping bitterly....”
 CHAPTER XIII
Incidents at the Court and in Paris after the assassination of Henri IV—Meeting between
Bassompierre and Sully—Marie de’ Medici declared Regent—Her difficult position—
Return of Condé—Greed and arrogance of the grandees—Quarrel between the Comte de
Soissons and the Duc de Guise—Grievance of Monsieur le Comte against Bassompierre
—He persuades Madame d’Entragues to endeavour to compel Bassompierre to marry her
daughter, Marie—Proceedings instituted against that gentleman—Announcement of the
“Spanish marriages”—Magnificent fêtes in the Place-Royale—Intrigues at the Court—
The Princes and Concini in power—Assassination of the Baron de Luz by the Chevalier
de Guise—Marie de’ Medici and the Princes—Conversation of the Regent with
Bassompierre—Bassompierre reconciles the Guises with the Queen-Mother—The
Chevalier de Guise kills the son of the Baron de Luz in a duel—The Princes, on the
advice of Concini, return from Court.

On that fatal day, when the knife of Ravaillac changed the destinies of
France and of Europe, Louis XIII, the successor of the murdered King, was
not yet nine years old. The fear of troubles within the realm and of
complications without exacted the immediate institution of a regency, and
Villeroy and the Chancellor, Brulart de Sillery, exhorted Marie de’ Medici,
who was lying upon her bed prostrated with grief, to act “as man and as
King.”
The great nobles, out of pity or the desire to assert their own importance,
were zealous in the Queen’s cause; and some who had scarcely been on
bowing terms with each other for years were seen to embrace and vow to
die together sword in hand if the necessity should arise.
D’Épernon, Colonel-General of the French infantry, caused the
approaches to the Louvre and the Pont-Neuf to be occupied by the French
Guards; Guise, with part of a force of some 300 horse which he and
Bassompierre had mustered, proceeded to the Hôtel de Ville to obtain from
the Corporation a formal recognition of the new King and Regent; while
Bassompierre, with the remainder, paraded the streets “to appease tumults
and seditions.” Sully alone showed himself undecided, feeble and timorous.
At the news of the King’s assassination, ill though he was, he had mounted
his horse and set out for the Louvre, accompanied by some forty of his
guards and attendants. Near the Place Saint-Jean he met Bassompierre and
his cavalcade, the sight of whom appears to have filled him with
misgivings.
“He began,” writes Bassompierre, “to say to us in lachrymose tones:
‘Gentlemen, if the service which you have vowed to the King, whom, to our
great misfortune, we have just lost, is also imprinted in your souls, as it
ought to be in those of all good Frenchmen, swear now at once to preserve
the same fidelity to the King his son and successor, and that you will
employ your blood and your life to avenge his death.’
“ ‘Monsieur,’ I replied, ‘it is we who are making others take this oath,
and we have no need of anyone to exhort us to do a thing to which we are
already so committed.’
“I know not whether my answer surprised him, or whether he repented
of having come so far from his fortress; but he turned back forthwith, and
went to shut himself up in the Bastille, sending at the same time to seize all
the bread that could be found in the markets and the bakers’ shops. He sent
orders also to M. de Rohan, his son-in-law, to face about with 6,000 Swiss
who were in Champagne, and of whom he was Colonel General, and to
march straight on Paris.... MM. de Praslin and de Créquy went to invite him
to present himself before the King, like all the other grandees; but he did
not come until the morrow, when M. de Guise brought him with difficulty,
after which he countermanded his orders to his son-in-law and the Swiss,
who had already advanced a day’s march towards Paris.”
Of the Princes of the Blood who might have been able to aspire to the
regency, one, Condé, was a voluntary exile in the dominions of the King of
Spain; the other, the Comte de Soissons, had left Paris in high dudgeon
before the coronation of the Queen, because Henri IV had refused to permit
Madame la Comtesse to wear on her ceremonial mantle a row of fleurs de
lys more than the wife of his legitimated son the Duc de Vendôme. As for
the Prince de Conti, he was deaf, afflicted with an impediment in his
speech, and almost imbecile. Outside the Princes of the Blood, and in the
absence of the States-General, there was only one power recognised by all
—the Parlement of Paris. And to this body Marie de’ Medici at once
addressed herself.
In her name, the Procurator-General demanded that “now and without
adjourning, the Parliament should provide, as it had been accustomed to do,
for the regency and the government of the realm.” The Parlement was too
convinced of its right and too flattered by the part it was asked to play to
hesitate. But, as a matter of form, it was proceeding to deliberate upon the
matter, when d’Épernon, in his doublet, with his drawn sword in his hand,
swaggered into the chamber, and, having begged the assembly to excuse his
discourtesy, invited it to hasten. As he left, Guise entered in the same
costume, took his seat and protested his devotion to the Crown. The First
President, Achille de Harlay, solemnly ordered the duke’s words to be
recorded; and the Court unanimously declared the Queen Mother Regent,
“to have the administration of the affairs of the realm during the minority of
the said lord her son, together with all power and authority.” It was quick
work: Henri IV had not been dead two hours.
It was much, without doubt, to have settled so expeditiously the future
government of France. But what a task for a woman, for a foreigner, for
one, too, who bore a name little calculated to reassure the bulk of the
nation, which remembered only too well the troubles in which the rule of
another Medici had involved it, to be called upon to exercise supreme
power in circumstances so difficult! Without, a war on the point of breaking
out; within, princes affecting an entire independence and even negotiating
with the foreigner; a turbulent nobility whom even the strong hand of Henri
IV had not always been able to keep in check; the Protestant party
entrenched in the West and South of France, with its own organisation, its
privileges, its places of surety; finally, the governors of the different
provinces, possessed of the most extensive powers and strong enough to
renounce practically all obedience to the Crown. Marie de’ Medici has often
been reproached with weakness, and weak in many ways she certainly was;
but it would have required the energy and the resolution of an Elizabeth or a
Catherine the Great to have steered the ship of State uninjured through the
shoals and quicksands which beset its course.
The Regent retained the Ministers of the late King, Villeroy, Jeannin,
Sillery, and Sully, and, to calm the apprehensions of the Protestants, lost no
time in confirming the Edict of Nantes. But the war so long meditated
against the House of Austria was promptly abandoned, though a small army
under Le Châtre and Rohan was sent to co-operate with Maurice of Nassau
in recovering Juliers, which was handed over to the Electors of
Brandenburg and Neuburg, on their undertaking not to interfere with the
exercise of the Catholic religion in that duchy.
 It was a wise decision, since there were embarrassments enough within
half-a-mile of the Louvre. The Princes of the Blood had returned; Soissons,
three days after the death of Henri IV; Condé, in the middle of July. The
former complained that the regency had been settled in his absence, and
demanded the post of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. To appease him,
Marie de’ Medici gave him the post of governor of Normandy and a
gratification of 200,000 crowns. Condé, to the Regent’s great relief, was
apparently well-disposed towards the new government, and, to confirm him
in his peaceable intentions, she purchased for 400,000 crowns the Hôtel de
Gondi, in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and presented it to him, together
with furniture to the value of 40,000 crowns; confirmed him in all his
offices and appointments; increased his pension to 200,000 crowns, and
gave him a large sum to pay his debts. The Regent hoped, by setting a price
upon them, to keep within bounds all the ambitions of the grandees; it was
her system of government. She paid Guise’s debts, and authorised him to
marry the immensely wealthy widow of the Duc de Montpensier, a union to
which, for political reasons, Henri IV would never have consented; she
promised to pay the debts of the Duc de Nevers; she accorded to all the
governors the right of appointing their successors.
“The grandees did not weary of receiving, and said to one another: ‘The
time of kings has passed, and that of great nobles and princes has come; we
must take every advantage of it.’ ” Their arrogance and ostentation knew no
bounds. They seldom left their houses unless accompanied by numerous
and brilliant escorts. Fifteen hundred cavaliers went to meet Condé on the
day of his arrival in Paris; the Duc de Guise had a suite of five or six
hundred horse. The young King remained almost alone in the Louvre, and
Marie de’ Medici was obliged to reconstitute the two hundred gentlemen
halberdiers, disbanded by Henri IV, from motives of economy.
Happily for the Crown, the grandees were divided, and such parties as
did exist were merely associations of a few covetous nobles, animated by
no common motive except that of filling their pockets. The Guises, flattered
and lavishly paid, boasted of their loyalty to the Regent. Bouillon was at
enmity with Sully, like himself a chief of the Protestants. The Prince de
Conti had for some years been on bad terms with his brother, the Comte de
Soissons, and at the beginning of 1611 their antipathy to one another found
vent in a violent quarrel, in which Guise, whose sister, it will be
remembered, Conti had married, found himself involved, and which
threatened for a moment to develop into a sort of civil war.
“It happened,” writes Bassompierre, “that, three days after these nuptials
[the marriage of Guise to the Duchesse de Montpensier], the Prince de
Conti quarrelled with the Comte de Soissons, his brother, because their
coaches had collided in passing one another, and their coachmen had
fought. M. de Guise, whom the Queen had desired, that same evening, to go
to M. de Conti to compose this quarrel, set out the following morning from
the Hôtel de Montpensier, where he had passed the night, to go to the
Abbey of Saint-Germain, where the Prince de Conti was lodging, and was
accompanied by twenty-five or thirty horse. He happened to pass the Hôtel
de Soissons, which was on his way, and this gave offence to Monsieur le
Comte, who summoned his friends and told them that M. de Guise had
come to defy him. Thereupon M. de Guise’s friends flocked to the Hôtel de
Guise in such numbers that there were more than a thousand gentlemen
assembled there. Monsieur le Comte sent to beg Monsieur le Prince to
come to him, and together they proceeded to the Louvre to demand of the
Queen that she should call M. de Guise to account for his insolence.
Nevertheless, Monsieur le Prince was playing in this affair the part of the
friendly arbitrator, and said that he should take neither side, and only
desired to reconcile the parties and to prevent disorder.
“This tumult lasted all that day and the following one, upon which the
Queen, apprehending graver disturbances, gave directions that the chains
should be made ready to be put up at the first order, and that, in every
quarter, the citizens should be prepared to take up arms on the instant that
the command to do so was sent them.
“However, all the day following was employed in seeking means to
accommodate the affair, each of the Princes having a captain of the Gardes
du Corps near his person to protect him. In the evening, Monsieur le Prince
sent to ask M. de Guise to send him one of his confidential friends; and M.
de Guise, having taken counsel with the princes and nobles who supported
him, as to whom they should choose to act as envoy, finally, on their advice,
asked me to go.”
Bassompierre then goes on to relate at great length his interview with
Condé, to whom he pointed out that Guise could have had no intention of
“defying” Monsieur le Comte, since, if such had been his object, he would
have sallied forth with a much more imposing retinue than a mere score or
so of attendants, and would have passed before the front entrance of the
Hôtel de Soissons, whereas he had only passed the corner of the house. The
prince appears to have been greatly impressed by this argument, and, after
Bassompierre had been backwards and forwards several times between
Condé’s house and the Hôtel de Guise, the momentous affair was
satisfactorily settled.
But it did not end here, so far as he himself was concerned. For
“Monsieur le Comte was mortally offended with those who had assisted M.
de Guise in his quarrel, and particularly with me, who had formerly
professed to be his servant; and, to revenge himself upon me, he determined
that I should see Antragues no more.”
The prince accordingly sought an interview with Madame d’Entragues,
whom he reproached with allowing her family to be dishonoured by the
notorious intimacy between Bassompierre and her younger daughter, adding
that, as he was distantly related to the d’Entragues, he felt that his own
honour was concerned in the matter.
Now, it had happened that, in the previous August, Marie d’Entragues
had given birth to a son, of whom Bassompierre did not deny the paternity;
indeed, on the lady informing him that she proposed to present him with a
pledge of her affection, he had, following the famous example of Henri IV
with her elder sister, given his inamorata a letter containing a promise of
marriage in the event of her bearing him a son. But this letter was written
merely for the purpose of appeasing the wrath of Madame d’Entragues,
who was threatening to turn her erring daughter out of the house. For
Bassompierre had not the least intention of regularising his connection with
this too-celebrated beauty, of whom, if he were the most favoured, he was
far from being the only successful admirer; indeed, to do so would mean the
loss of a considerable fortune, since his mother had threatened to disinherit
him if he married the lady.[83] He had, therefore, at the same time,
demanded and obtained from Marie d’Entragues a letter which purported to
be an answer to his own, in which she expressly disclaimed any intention of
taking advantage of his offer. This, in the opinion of “three famous
advocates” whom he had taken the precaution to consult, effectually
discharged him from his obligation.
 Well, Bassompierre’s letter was in the possession of Madame
d’Entragues, who, however, of course, knew nothing of the one which her
daughter had given that gentleman; and when the Comte de Soissons
reproached her with her indifference to Mlle. Marie’s indiscretions, she
informed him that she was not so careless a mother as he appeared to
imagine, and could easily prove it. The prince pressed her to do so, upon
which she triumphantly showed him the promise of marriage.
“Monsieur le Comte,” says Bassompierre, “very pleased to have found
an opportunity of injuring me, assured her of his protection and begged her
to follow his counsel in this affair, in which he promised to secure for her a
favourable result. This foolish woman, to satisfy the malignity of Monsieur
le Comte, placed herself entirely in his hands, and he counselled her to press
me to execute this promise, and, in case of my refusal, to cause me to be
summoned before the diocesan court.”
Madame d’Entragues did not fail to follow this advice and, on meeting
with a flat refusal from Bassompierre, promptly instituted proceedings
against him.
“I soon recognised the hand which had cast this stone at me, and
Monsieur le Comte boasted publicly that he was in a position to ruin me in
fortune or honour. I assembled a council of my advocates to learn how I
was to comport myself in this situation. They were unanimously of opinion
that, in strict justice, I had nothing to fear, but that Monsieur le Comte was a
redoubtable enemy, and advised me to drag the affair out until a favourable
time arrived.”
Bassompierre endeavoured to persuade the Regent to intervene in his
behalf, but, though Marie de’ Medici, with whom he was a favourite, since
he was one of the few nobles whose loyalty to the Crown admitted of no
question, was very sympathetic and promised him every assistance in her
power, her position was far too precarious just then to admit of her
offending a Prince of the Blood. All he could do, therefore, was to act upon
the advice of the legal luminaries whom he had consulted; and, on various
pretexts, he succeeded in deferring his appearance before the diocesan court
for some months, at the end of which he appealed to the jurisdiction of the
Archbishop of Sens, who was the metropolitan of the Bishop of Paris. This
insured him a further respite, and, before the case came on for trial, he
appealed to the Parlement of Paris, and was beginning to plume himself on
his astuteness, when the Comte de Soissons interposed and got the affair
transferred to the Parlement of Rouen, to the great consternation of
Bassompierre, who knew that Soissons would not scruple to use all his
influence as Governor of Normandy to prejudice that body against him.
The annoyance and expense which this affair was occasioning him, and
for which, it must be admitted, he is hardly entitled to much sympathy, did
not prevent Bassompierre from continuing his life of pleasure, and he took a
prominent part in the splendid fêtes in honour of the double betrothal of
Louis XIII to Anne of Austria, and of the Infant Philip, afterwards Philip IV
of Spain, to Élisabeth of France, eldest daughter of Henri IV. For Marie de’
Medici had completely reversed the foreign policy of her husband, and
Spanish influence was once more in the ascendant at the Court of France.
These fêtes, originally fixed to begin on March 25, 1612, the day on
which the formal announcement of the approaching marriage was made at
the Louvre, in the presence of the Spanish Ambassador and the officers of
the Crown of France, had been postponed until April 5, owing to the death
of the Queen’s brother, Vincenzo I, Duke of Mantua. Their principal feature
was a carousal in the Place-Royale on a scale of unprecedented
magnificence, in which Bassompierre appeared as one of the challengers.
“At three o’clock in the afternoon, the Queens, princesses and ladies
took their places on the stands which had been prepared for them, besides
which there were all round the Place-Royale, rising from the pavement to
the level of the first floor of the houses, other stands holding 200,000
people. Then the cannon placed on the bastion fired a salvo, after which the
thousand Musketeers who lined the barriers fired another, a very beautiful
one. This finished, M. de Praslin, marshal of the camp of the challengers,
emerged from the Palace of Felicity, from which came the sound of all
kinds of musical instruments. He was splendidly mounted and attired, and
was followed by twelve lackeys habited in black velvet bordered with gold
lace. He came, on our behalf, to demand from the Constable (who occupied
a private stand with the Maréchal de Bouillon, de la Châtre, de Brissac, and
de Souvré) the camp which he had promised us. The Constable and the
marshal descended from their stand and advanced to that of the King and
Queen; and the Constable said: ‘Madame, the challengers demand the camp
which I have promised them by your Majesty’s order.’ The Queen
answered: ‘Monsieur, grant it them.’ Upon which the Constable said to M.
de Praslin: ‘Take it; the King and the Queen accord it you.’ Then he
returned to us, and the great door of the palace, which was opposite that of
the Minims, was flung open, and we entered the camp, preceded by all our
retinue, war-chariots, giants,[84] and other things so beautiful that it is
impossible to describe them in writing; and I shall only say that nearly five
hundred persons and two hundred horses took part in our entry alone, all
habited and caparisoned in crimson velvet and white cloth-of-silver, and our
costumes were so richly embroidered that nothing could exceed them in
magnificence. Our entry cost the five challengers 50,000 écus.[85] The
troupe of the Prince de Conti entered after ours, followed by that of M. de
Vendôme, who danced a very beautiful ballet on horseback.[86] Then came
M. de Montmorency, who entered alone, and the Comte d’Ayen[87] and the
Baron d’Ucelles,[88] under the names of Amadis and Galaor.
“We [the challengers] kept the lists against all these opponents, and
when the night drew near, the fête was concluded by a new salvo of cannon,
followed by that of the thousand Musketeers; and, when darkness fell, there
was the most beautiful display of fireworks over the Château of Felicity that
was ever seen in France.
“On the morrow, at two o’clock in the afternoon, we returned to the
camp in the same order as on the first day, together with the troupe of M. de
Longueville,[89] who made his entry alone,[90] of the Nymphs,[91] of the
Knights of Felicity, that of d’Effiat and Arnaut,[92] and, the last, that of the
twelve Roman emperors,[93] all of whom ran against us, and the fête was
terminated by the same salvoes and another display of fireworks.”
On the following day, “because all the innumerable people of Paris had
not been able to witness this fête,” the various troupes passed in procession
through the town, that of the challengers, resplendent in their crimson
velvet and cloth-of-silver, bringing up the rear.
The fête concluded with a grand tilting-match in the Place-Royale, the
prize being a ring of great value given by Madame Royale, the future Queen
of Spain, which was won by the Marquis de Rouillac, a nephew of
d’Épernon.
At night there was another display of fireworks, a salvo fired by two
hundred cannon, a bonfire at the Hôtel de Ville, and an illumination of Paris
with “lanterns made of coloured paper, in such great profusion in every
window that the whole town seemed on fire.”
In November the old Connétable de Montmorency took leave of the
Regent and the young King and retired from Court to spend his last days in
retirement on his estates of Languedoc. “We escorted him to Moret,” writes
Bassompierre, “where he feasted us, and afterwards bade farewell to his
chief friends, with so many tears that we thought that he would die in that
place. He was a good and noble lord, who loved me as though I were his
own son; I am under a great obligation to honour his memory.”

The fêtes in honour of the betrothal of the young King and his eldest
sister were but a brief interlude in the sordid struggle for place and power
between the ambitious and greedy princes and nobles which had begun
before Henri IV was in his grave. Marie de’ Medici distributed honours and
emoluments with a lavish hand, increased the pensions of the grandees and
made serious inroads into the millions accumulated in the coffers of the
Bastille by the prudent Sully, who in January, 1611, had resigned his post of
Comptroller of the Finances, on finding that he was no longer listened to,
and that he could not maintain his position “without offending the Princes.”
But the appetites she strove to satisfy were insatiable, and the more she
gave, the more she was expected to give.
After the death of the Comte de Soissons, the most restless of the
Bourbons, at the beginning of November, 1612, the Regent forsook Guise
and d’Épernon, who had until then enjoyed a large measure of her favour,
and, at the instigation of Concini, that singular Italian adventurer who
governed her through his wife Leonora Galigaï, the Queen’s dame d’atours
and confidante, and for whom she had purchased the marquisate of Ancre,
allied herself with Condé and his friends Bouillon, Nevers, and Mayenne.[1]
“At this time,” says Bassompierre, “the aspect of the Court entirely
changed; for a close alliance was formed by Monsieur le Prince, MM. de
Nevers, Mayenne,[94] Bouillon, and the Marquis d’Ancre; and the Queen
threw herself entirely on that side. The Ministers were discredited, and no
longer had any power, and everything was done according to the desire of
these five persons ... MM. de Guise, d’Épernon, de Joinville, and the Grand
Equerry were very much out of favour.”
 In December, Guise and d’Épernon sent for Bellegarde, who was in his
government of Burgundy, to come to Court, “in order to strengthen their
tottering party”; but on his way thither he was met by a messenger from
Marie de’ Medici, with orders forbidding him to come to Paris, and he was
obliged to return to his government.
The chief agent in Concini’s intrigues was the old Baron de Luz, who
had formerly been an adherent of the Guises, but had been persuaded by the
favourite to enter the service of the Queen, or rather his own. The Guises
avenged themselves for what they were pleased to call his treason in
characteristic fashion. About midday on January 5, 1613, the Chevalier de
Guise, the youngest of the brothers, stopped Luz as he was driving in his
coach along the Rue Saint-Honoré, challenged him to fight him there and
then, and, without giving the old man time to draw his sword, ran him
through the body and killed him.
This affair created an immense sensation.
“The Queen was extremely exasperated,” writes Bassompierre. “I went,
just at this time, to the Louvre, and found her in tears, and that she had sent
for the Princes and Ministers to hold a council on the affair. She said to me
as soon as I entered: ‘You see, Bassompierre, how I am treated, and what a
brave action it was to kill an old man without defence and without warning.
But these are the tricks of the family. It is a repetition of the Saint-Paul
affair.’[95] There was a great murmur against this action, and everyone was
scandalised to learn that a great crowd of the nobility had assembled at the
Hôtel de Guise, and that M. de Guise was coming accompanied by a large
retinue to speak to the Queen. Upon this, the Queen was advised to send M.
de Châteauvieux to see the said Sieur de Guise and forbid him to approach
the Queen until she sent for him, and to command, in her Majesty’s name,
all those who had gone to his hôtel to disperse.”
Châteauvieux returned and reported that Guise had advised his adherents
to obey the Queen’s command, but that three or four of them, including the
Comte de la Rochefoucauld, Master of the Wardrobe to the King, had
shown marked reluctance to do so. It was thereupon resolved that La
Rochefoucauld should be exiled to his estates, and that the Parlement
should be directed to hold an inquiry into the affair and bring the Chevalier
de Guise to trial.
 The Parlement, however, seemed in no hurry to do what was required of
it, for the Guises still retained much of their traditional popularity with all
classes of the Parisians, and before many days had passed, an event
occurred which obliged the Queen to abandon all idea of punishing the
assassin.
For some little time Marie de’ Medici had been chafing beneath the
domination of the Princes, who set altogether too high a price upon their
loyalty. Condé, indeed, appeared to consider that, now that his brother
Soissons was dead, he was entitled to receive double wages; and one fine
morning Nevers, Mayenne, and Concini waited upon the Queen and
demanded, on his behalf, the government of Château-Trompette, the citadel
of Bordeaux, pointing out that, since Monsieur le Prince was Governor of
Guienne, it was only fitting that the citadel of the chief town in his
government should be entrusted to him also. Now, Marie had heard the late
King say that if, in the time of Henri III, this fortress had been in his hands,
he would have made himself Duke of Guienne, and she knew that its
governor had always been one in whose loyalty to the Crown the most
implicit confidence could be placed. She determined to resist and to be
reconciled with the Guises and the Ministers.
Dissembling her indignation, she informed Nevers and his friends that
she would think the matter over, upon which they pressed her for a speedy
answer, saying that Monsieur le Prince was impatient to know her decision.
This she promised, and then, changing the subject, informed them that she
had just discovered a love-affair in which Bassompierre was engaged and
which she knew he was very anxious should not be discovered. What ought
she to do? “You should tell him about it, Madame,” answered Nevers. Upon
which she turned to Bassompierre, and, beckoning him to follow her,
moved to one of the windows.
Here, standing with her back to the room, so that none might see her
face, she told him that the matter upon which she desired to speak to him
was very different from the one she had mentioned. She then asked him if
Guise had spoken to him about the exile of his friend La Rochefoucauld.
Bassompierre answered that the duke had done so, and begged him to make
intercession with the Queen for his recall, and that he had added that, if he
were not successful, he must persuade Condé to use his influence, and make
La Rochefoucauld’s recall the price of his reconciliation with that prince
and his friends. The Queen was silent for a moment, while “four or five
tears welled up in her eyes.” Then, recovering herself, she said: “These
wicked men have made me leave those princes [the Guises] and despise
them, and have made me also abandon and neglect the Ministers; and then,
seeing me deprived of support, they wish to usurp my authority and ruin
me. See how they have come to demand insolently for Monsieur le Prince
the Château-Trompette, and they will not remain content with that. But, if I
am able, I will surely prevent them obtaining it.”
“Madame,” answered Bassompierre, “do not distress yourself; when you
will, I am sure that these princes and Ministers will be at your disposal; at
least, we must find some way to bring them back.”
The Regent then told him to come to her when she had finished dinner,
and that, meanwhile, she would think of some way to effect this.
At the hour when her Majesty usually rose from table Bassompierre
returned, and followed her into her cabinet, pretending that he had some
favour to ask of her.
“As I entered, she said to me, ‘I have eaten nothing but fish, to such a
degree is my stomach weakened and turned. If this continues long, I believe
that I shall lose my reason. In one word, Bassompierre, you must endeavour
to bring M. de Guise back to me. Offer him a hundred thousand crowns in
cash, which I will arrange to give him.’ ‘Madame,’ I replied, ‘I will serve
you well and faithfully.’ ‘Offer him,’ said she, ‘the post of lieutenant-
governor of Provence for his brother, the Chevalier.[96] Offer his sister the
reversion of the Abbey of Saint-Germain,[97] and assure him that La
Rochefoucauld shall be recalled. In short, provided that I can withdraw him
from this cabal and that I am assured of his support, I give you carte
blanche.’ ”
Bassompierre assured her that, as she had empowered him to make the
Guises such a generous bid for their support, he had no fear that he should
return to her “without having completed the purchase.” And, in point of
fact, on the following day he returned triumphant, pluming himself not a
little on having succeeded without the necessity of promising the post of
lieutenant-governor of Provence to the Chevalier de Guise, “having
endeavoured,” said he to Marie de’ Medici, “to act like those prudent valets
who bring back at the bottom of the purse a part of the money which their
masters give them to settle their bills.”
 The Queen, however, was so pleased at the success of his negotiations
that she, nevertheless, determined to offer the post in question to the
chevalier, in order that the reconciliation between her and his family might
be the more complete, and directed Bassompierre to inform the Princesse de
Conti of her gracious intentions.
A few days after these humiliating concessions to the rapacity of the
House of Guise, the Chevalier killed the son of the Baron de Luz in a duel
at Charenton, though it is only fair to the former to observe that the other
had called him out, and that the combat had been conducted in strict
accordance with the rules governing these “affairs of honour.”
On this occasion, Bassompierre, experienced courtier though he was, is
unable to conceal his astonishment:—
“And here I saw a strange instance of the changes of the Court; that
when the Chevalier de Guise killed the father, the Queen commanded the
Parlement to take cognizance of it, to institute proceedings against him and
to try him; but when, in less than a week afterwards, he killed the son, so
soon as he returned from the combat, the Queen sent to visit and to inquire
how his wounds were.”
Guise being thus reconciled with the Queen, no difficulty was
experienced in persuading d’Épernon to follow his example, after which
Bassompierre addressed himself to the Ministers, who, tired of being mere
cyphers, were only too ready to forgive and forget; and, in an interview
between Marie de’ Medici and Jeannin at the Luxembourg, an
understanding was arrived at.
The Princes and Concini were outwitted. In any case, the latter pretended
to be. Hearing the Queen give directions that seats were to be reserved for
d’Épernon, and his friend Zamet also, at a play which was to be performed
in her apartments, he remarked to Bassompierre in that strange mixture of
Italian and bad French which he affected in moments of excitement: “Par
Dio, Mousu, je me ride moy della chose deste monde. La roine a soin d’un
siège pour Zamet, et n’en a point pour M. du Maine [Mayenne]; fiez-vous à
l’amore dei principi.”
He advised Condé and his friends to accept the situation and withdraw
from Court, predicting that the Regent would soon grow weary of the
exigencies of the Guises, and promising to watch over their common
interests. And this the Princes decided to do.
 CHAPTER XIV
The affair of Montferrato—Intrigues of Concini with Charles Emmanuel of Savoy—Arrest
of Concini’s agent Maignan—Bassompierre warns the Italian favourite of his danger and
advises him to throw himself on the clemency of the Queen-Mother—Concini follows
his advice, and is pardoned and shielded by Marie de’ Medici, while his agent is executed
—Bassompierre goes to Rouen, where the d’Entragues’ action against him is to be heard
—The Regent recommends his cause to the judges—The d’Entragues object to the
constitution of the court, and the case is adjourned—Duplicity of Concini—He intrigues
to ruin Bassompierre with the Queen-Mother—Semi-disgrace of Bassompierre—He is
reconciled with Marie de’ Medici—He is appointed Colonel-General of the Swiss—The
Princes surprise Mézières—Peace of Saint-Menehould—Bassompierre accompanies
Louis XIII and the Queen-Mother to the West.

In the spring trouble arose with Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, who was
disputing the claim of Ferdinando di Gonzaga to the throne of Mantua, and
had invaded Montferrato. The French Government, judging it dangerous to
allow the Duke of Savoy, an uncertain friend and a possible enemy, to get
possession of Casale, one of the strongest places in Italy, announced its
intention of supporting Ferdinando, and Concini, on the pretext that it was
desirable that France should present a united front in the event of hostilities
breaking out, persuaded Marie de’ Medici to summon the Princes to Court.
Spain, however, in order to prevent French intervention in Italy, hastened to
send orders to the Governor of the Milanese to compel Charles Emmanuel
to abandon his prey, and that prince, recognising the impossibility of
resistance, evacuated Montferrato.
It was believed, for a moment, that the affair of Montferrato would bring
about the ruin of the Concini. The Duke of Savoy, to assure the neutrality of
France, had succeeded in corrupting the Italian favourites of the Queen and
several other prominent persons, and had kept up an active correspondence
with Concini, the agent employed by the latter being a priest named
Maignan. An intercepted letter caused the arrest of this man, who, in the
admissions that were extorted from him, comprised Concini, his creature
the advocate Dolet, and the Marquis de Cœuvres.
On the day Maignan was arrested, Bassompierre, who was with the
Court at Fontainebleau, happened to sup with Zamet, where he met
Loménie, the Secretary of State. It had been Loménie’s duty to be present at
the first examination of the prisoner, and he told Bassompierre of the
serious admissions that the man had made and the names he had mentioned.
He added that he was to be examined further on the following morning,
when doubtless still more interesting revelations would be forthcoming.
Now, Bassompierre was on intimate terms with Concini, for, though he
would appear to have despised him heartily, the Italian’s influence with the
Queen made him a valuable friend, besides which he was in the habit of
winning large sums from him at play. He accordingly decided to warn him
of the danger which threatened him, and went that same night to his house,
but was told that he was in bed and could not be disturbed. He had therefore
to wait until the following day, when he stopped him as he was about to
enter the chapel to hear the Whit-Sunday sermon, invited him to take a turn
in the cloisters, and, so soon as they were alone, inquired bluntly: “Who is
Maignay?”
“At these words, utterly astounded, he said to me: ‘Pourquoi, Mousou,
de Masnay? Que sol dir Magnat? Che cosa e Maignat?’ ‘You are deceiving
me,’ I rejoined. ‘You know him better than I do, and you pretend to know
nothing about him.’ ‘Per Dio, Mousou!’ he exclaimed, ‘I do not know
Magnat; I do not understand what you mean; I do not know who he is.’
‘Monsieur, Monsieur,’ said I, ‘I speak to you as your servant and friend, not
as a judge or a commissioner. Maignan was arrested yesterday and
examined forthwith, again in the evening, and this morning for the third
time. He was arrested in the act of posting a packet of letters, which speaks
of many things and mentions persons by their names. If you are aware of it
already, I have only lost time in telling you; but, if you are not, I think that,
as your servant, I gain much by warning you of it, in order that you may
extricate M. Dolet from this affair, in which people will endeavour to
involve him.’ He said to me, very confused: ‘I, Mousou, I do not think that
M. Dolet knows who Magnat is. It is no concern of mine.’ ‘Monsieur,’ I
replied, ‘I shall only take in this affair the part which you wish to give me in
order to serve you; that is my sole object and intention.’ He thanked me and
left me abruptly.”
That afternoon the Queen went for a drive in the park, and Bassompierre
accompanied her, occupying a seat in the Grand Equerry’s coach. As they
were driving by the side of the canal, one of Concini’s gentlemen came
galloping up and informed Bassompierre that his master wished to see him
immediately, and he sprang from his horse and offered it him. “Ah! he
wants to win my money,” remarked Bassompierre, as he prepared to mount;
and when the Queen inquired where he was going, he replied that he was
going to play cards with the Marquis d’Ancre. He rode back to the palace,
and found Concini awaiting him in the Cour Ovale.
“He led me,” he writes, “into the Queen’s gallery, shut the door upon us
and walked to the end of it without speaking a word. At length, drawing
himself up, he said: ‘M. Bassompier, my good friend, I am undone; my
enemies have gained the ascendancy over the Queen’s mind, in order to ruin
me.’ Thereupon he began to utter strange blasphemies and wept bitterly. I
allowed him to rave a little, and then said to him: ‘Monsieur, it is no time to
swear and to weep when affairs press; you must open your heart and reveal
the wound to the friend to whom you desire to entrust its cure. I imagine
that you sent for me to tell me of the evil, not to bewail it.’ ‘The Ministers
have reduced me to extremities,’ he replied; ‘they desire to ruin me and M.
Dolet likewise.’ ”
Bassompierre told him that he had many remedies against the enmity of
the Ministers, of which the most efficacious were the good graces of the
Queen, which he would undoubtedly possess when he returned to his duty
and abandoned all practices which were not agreeable to her Majesty. He
had also, he continued, his innocence to plead for him, and, if that were not
as complete as might be desired, it would be advisable to interview, and
come to some arrangement with, the commissioners who had the
examination of Maignan in hand (for he did not doubt that that was his
present difficulty), and “to have recourse to the kindness and compassion of
the Queen, who would receive him, he felt assured, with open arms,
provided he spoke to her with sincerity of heart and an entire resignation to
her will.”
Concini followed his advice and proceeded to throw himself upon the
clemency of the Queen, “in whom he found all kinds of gentleness and
kindness.” Marie de’ Medici, indeed, was unable to dispense with either the
husband or the wife. “The one,” observes Henri Martin, “dominated her by
habit and by the superiority of an active and restless mind over a mind
indolent and dull; the other probably by a warmer feeling.”[98] She accepted
all their excuses; the two commissioners by whom Maignan was tried
suppressed everything which might compromise Concini and his
accomplices;[99] and while the unfortunate agent was condemned to death
and broken on the wheel, the man who had employed him—this precious
rascal who had sought to betray the country upon which he had so long
been battening—was raised to new honours. The Queen only exacted from
him that he should be reconciled with the Ministers and definitely abandon
the party of the Princes. And, as the price of his obedience, she gave him, in
the following November, the bâton of a marshal of France![100]

Towards the end of May, Bassompierre went to Rouen to make

arrangements for the conduct of his case in the action which the
d’Entragues were bringing against him, and which, on various pretexts, he
had succeeded in delaying until now. He found, to his disgust, however, that
the plaintiff had stolen a march upon him, for, though he applied in turn to
all the chief advocates of the Parlement of Rouen, not one of them would
undertake the case, the reason being that they had all been consulted by the
other side, which, of course, rendered it impossible for them to hold a brief
for the defence.
He returned to Paris and complained bitterly to Marie de’ Medici of the
sharp practice of which the d’Entragues had been guilty. Upon which she
said: “Mon Dieu! Bassompierre, the Procurator of the Estates of Nantes,
who is so eloquent, is eligible to plead your cause, for he was formerly an
advocate of Rouen. He is here now.” And she sent for him and ordered him
to undertake the case, which he did very ably.
At the beginning of June, Bassompierre returned to Rouen,
“accompanied or followed by over 200 gentlemen,” and accompanied, too,
by the good wishes of the Queen, who did not confine her good offices to
providing him with an advocate. She wrote to the Maréchal de Fervacques,
the Governor of Rouen, “to assist him in all that he might demand of him”;
she ordered her own company of light horse, which was in garrison at
Évreux, to come to meet him and escort him to Rouen; she sent one of her
gentlemen with letters recommending his cause to all the presidents and
counsellors of the Parlement; and every other day she despatched a courier
to ascertain how the case was proceeding.
All Normandy appears to have flocked to Rouen to attend this cause
célèbre, and seldom had the old city been so gay.
 “Numbers of ladies who were there, many strangers who came, and the
band of nobles whom I had brought, made all the time I spent at Rouen,
where I remained a month, pass like the Carnival, with continual banquets,
balls and assemblies.”
There can be little doubt that, in this breach of promise, popular
sympathy was with the faithless gallant rather than the injured lady. But
Bassompierre’s friends were denied the pleasure of applauding his victory
at the Palais de Justice, for, after the case had been in progress for some
time, the d’Entragues, seeing that the day was likely to go against them,
succeeded in obtaining an adjournment for six months, to enable the King’s
Council to decide whether the Court was impartially constituted; their
contention being that some of the judges were related to the defendant on
his mother’s side.

Not long after Bassompierre’s return to Court, the post of lieutenant-

governor of Poitou became vacant, and, as he was anxious to secure this
office for his brother-in-law Saint-Luc, he solicited Concini’s good offices
with the Queen, thinking, not unnaturally, that, after the service he had
lately rendered him, the Italian would be only too ready to oblige him.
Concini assured both Bassompierre and his brother-in-law that he would do
everything in his power for them, and appeared delighted at the opportunity
of discharging the obligation under which the former had placed him.
Nevertheless, the post was given to Condé’s favourite, the Baron de
Rochefort, at Concini’s earnest entreaty, the Queen told Bassompierre, as
she herself preferred Saint-Luc.
So much for the favourite’s sense of gratitude! But this was not all:
“The Marquis d’Ancre told me the same day that he was in despair that
the Queen had given that place to Rochefort, and he begged me to assure
M. de Saint-Luc that he had done all he could in his favour, but that the
authority of Monsieur le Prince had prevailed. I, who knew what the Queen
had told me, replied that, when he wanted me to impose upon some
indifferent third person, I was very much at his service; but that, when it
was a question of deceiving my own brother-in-law, I begged him to
employ someone else, since we were too nearly related.”
 After this, Saint-Luc, as was only to be expected, was somewhat cold in
his manner towards Concini, whereupon that worthy, persuaded that this
was due to his brother-in-law’s influence, determined to be avenged and,
says Bassompierre, “assisted by his wife, began to instill into the Queen’s
mind the belief that I boasted of the kindness which she showed me, and
that people were talking about it; and they told her that I was estranging her
servants from her, and that I was turning everyone against her.”
This intrigue was only too successful, and on Bassompierre’s return to
Fontainebleau from a visit to Paris, whither he had been sent by the Queen
to settle a quarrel between the Duc de Montbazon and the Maréchal de
Brissac, he perceived a change in her Majesty’s manner towards him, which
seemed rather less cordial than usual. This continued for some days and was
succeeded by an “entire coldness.”[101]
Bassompierre remained in this state of semi-disgrace for about a month,
when, his patience exhausted, he “resolved to quit the Court of France and
the service of the King and Queen, although several beautiful ladies
performed the impossible to turn him from this design.” He accordingly
asked Sauveterre, the usher of the Queen’s cabinet, to obtain for him an
audience of her Majesty, in order that he might request her permission to
retire from the Court and France, which Sauveterre did. But, no sooner was
he in the royal presence than, to his astonishment and relief, the Queen,
addressing him with all her old cordiality, said: “Bassompierre, I am going
to-morrow to Paris. [She was going to visit her younger son, the Duc
d’Orléans—Monsieur, as he was called—who was lying ill at the Louvre.] I
have ordered everyone to remain here; but, as for you, if you wish to come,
I give you permission. But do not go by the same road, so that they may not
say that I have made an exception to the general rule.”
Next day, Bassompierre went to Paris, accompanied by Créquy and
Saint-Luc, and awaited the Queen’s arrival at the Louvre, where he assisted
her to alight from her coach and escorted her to Monsieur’s apartments.
“The others then retired,” says he, “and I remained until she was in her
cabinet, when I had full leisure to speak to her, and left her with the
assurance that she did not believe any of the things which they had tried to
persuade her to believe against me, concerning which I gave her a complete
explanation.”
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