e successfully
during the minority of the sovereign.

Between these conflicting opinions Marie at length resolved to steer a
middle course; and she consequently declared her intention of attempting
by negotiation to reconcile the Princes, while at the same time she made
a levy of six thousand Swiss troops.[171] She, moreover, by the advice
of her Council, addressed a circular-letter to all the Parliaments of
the kingdom, governors of provinces and fortresses, and mayors of towns,
exhorting them to remain faithful to the Crown, and not to suffer
themselves to be seduced by the Prince de Conde and his partisans; and
terminating by the declaration that her Majesty had determined to
convoke the States, in order to consult upon the measures necessary for
ensuring the welfare and prosperity of the nation.

Meanwhile M. de Conde had assembled the leaders of his party at
Mezieres, whence he forwarded a species of manifesto to the
Queen-Regent, in which he complained in the name of his faction of "the
waste of the public money; of the unworthiness of the individuals in
power; of the undue authority assumed by the ministers; of the want of
respect displayed towards the Princes of the Blood, the peers, and the
officers of the Crown; of the obstacles endured by the Parliaments in
the exercise of their jurisdiction; of the ruin of the great nobles;
the excessive charges of the law courts; the oppression suffered by the
people; the neglect exhibited in assembling the States-General; and the
precipitation shown in concluding the marriage of the sovereign before
he had attained his majority." Other objections followed, and then
succeeded the conditions upon which the cabal declared themselves
willing to return to their allegiance. The States-General were to be
convened within three months; the royal marriages were to be deferred
until the close of the Assembly; and the then-existing household of his
Majesty was to be replaced by individuals of acknowledged probity.

The Prince at the same time wrote to the two Parliaments, to the Prince
de Conti, to the dukes and peers, and to the great officers of the
Crown, soliciting their assistance in the work of reform which he was
about to undertake. Neither of the Parliaments, however, replied to his
letter; and that addressed to Paris was placed unopened in the hands of
the Regent, who forthwith forwarded it to the Chancellor.

The answer of Marie de Medicis to the manifesto addressed to he