ey resolved once more to
leave the Court; and accordingly having taken leave of their Majesties,
and resisted the pressing solicitations poured forth on all sides, they
again retired; the Prince to St. Valery, and the Count to Dreux. This
renewed opposition to her wishes roused the spirit of the Regent. She
saw, as she asserted, that there no longer remained a hope of
restraining the haughtiness, or of satisfying the pretensions, of the
great vassals of the Crown; and she accordingly declared that in order
to maintain her authority, and to secure the throne of her son, she
would not allow the absence of the two Princes of the Blood to delay the
publication of the King's marriage. Immediate measures were consequently
taken for concluding the necessary arrangements; and this was done with
the less hesitation that the Marechal de Lesdiguieres (who for some time
after his arrival at Court had continued to anticipate that the pledge
given to him by the ministers would shortly be redeemed) had induced
both the one and the other to state that they would offer no opposition
to the alliance which had been determined.[134]

But this concession, which they were destined subsequently to deplore,
was all that could be extorted from the Princes, who considered
themselves aggrieved by the fact that so important a negotiation should
have been carried on without their participation, when special couriers
had been despatched to acquaint both the Cardinal de Joyeuse and the Due
d'Epernon with the pending treaty. The Comte de Soissons, moreover,
complained loudly and bitterly of the undue power of the ministers, and
especially inveighed against the Chancellor Sillery, whom he
unhesitatingly accused of extortion and avarice, of publicly making a
trade of justice to the dishonour of the nation, and of ruining those
who were compelled to solicit his protection. On this point alone he was
in accord with Concini; and it was to this mutual hatred of the
ministers that their partial good understanding must be attributed. The
reasons which induced the Marechal de Lesdiguieres to approve the
alliance we have already stated: the ducal crown which he was so anxious
to secure must have been irretrievably lost by any opposition on his
part to the proposed alliance, and this vision was for ever before his
eyes. The approbation of the Connetable de Montmorency, who had
originally declared his objection to so close a union between the two
countries, was p