nciliation which
had taken place to be too sudden not to involve some occult purpose, M.
de Soissons deemed it expedient to silence her fears by inviting Concini
to join the party.

The invitation was accepted; the hunt took place, and was succeeded by
high play, after which the different personages apparently separated
for the night; but within half an hour the two royal kinsmen and their
confidential friends were closeted together, and before dawn an alliance
offensive and defensive was concluded between the Princes, who each
pledged himself to receive no favour or benefit from the Government to
the exclusion or loss of the other; and that, moreover, in the event of
the disgrace or disgust of either, the other should withdraw from the
Court at the same time, whither neither was to be at liberty to return
alone; and this compact, which, as will immediately be seen, could not
fail to prove dangerous to the interests of Marie, was religiously
observed until the death of M. de Soissons.[127]

The credit of the ministers was greatly increased by this new cabal, as
the Regent instantly perceived the necessity of opposing their authority
to the probable pretensions of the Princes, neither of whom attempted to
disguise their discontent at the insignificant position to which they
had been reduced at Court. To Jeannin, in particular, the Queen
expressed in unmeasured terms the confidence which she placed in his
zeal and loyalty; she called him her _friend_, her _arm_, and her
_head_, and assured him that she would be guided entirely by
his counsels.

Anxious to respond to these flattering demonstrations, and to justify
the trust reposed in them, the ministers resolved, in order still
further to protect the Crown against any aggression on the part of the
Princes, to recall to Court the Marechal de Lesdiguieres, who was easily
induced to resign his command of the army in Champagne by the prospect
which they held out to him, of verifying and confirming the ducal patent
which he had obtained from Henri IV. They, however, subsequently failed
to keep this promise, and the disappointment so irritated the Marechal
that he resolved to revenge himself by joining the party of the Princes,
and otherwise harassing the Council; a determination which was
unfortunately too easily realized at a period of such internal
convulsion.[128]

The last event worthy of record which took place in the present year was
the purchase towards the close o