r advice, and entreated
her not to withhold from him her important assistance in the Government.
The Chancellor, the First President,[179] and the Advocate-General[180]
each delivered a harangue; after which the Chancellor pronounced the
decree which declared the majority of the sovereign; and the declaration
that he had forwarded to the Council on the previous day was duly
registered. This act terminated the ceremony, and Louis XIII returned to
the Louvre accompanied and attended as he had reached the Parliament,
amid the acclamations of the populace.

The assembly of the States-General at Sens had been fixed for the 10th
of September, and would consequently have been held before the King had
attained his majority, had not this arrangement been traversed by the
Regent, who apprehended that they would seize so favourable an
opportunity of thwarting all her views; and would not only demand the
dismissal of the ministers and the Marechal d'Ancre, but also, which was
still more important, dissuade the sovereign, whose minority would
terminate during their sitting, from permitting her to retain any share
in the Government. The Prince de Conde and his partisans, whose
interests undoubtedly demanded such a result, had, however, themselves
been instrumental in the delay so earnestly desired by Marie; the
hostile demonstrations of Vendome in Brittany, and the ill-judged
movements of Conde himself in Poitou, having furnished her with a
plausible pretext for deferring the opening of the States until the King
could preside over them in person; when the public declaration made
before the Parliament by the young sovereign of his intention still to
be guided by the counsels of his mother at once freed her from all her
apprehensions; and she accordingly lost no time in transferring the
Assembly from Sens to Paris, and proroguing it till the 10th of October.

Nevertheless much was to be feared should the clergy, the nobility, and
the people act unanimously; and in order to prevent such a coalition,
neither Marie de Medicis nor her ministers spared any exertion. As much
depended upon the presidents whom they might select, the first care of
the Queen-mother was to ensure the election of persons favourable to her
own interests; but as great caution was necessary with regard to the
agent to whom she could entrust so delicate a mission as that of causing
such individuals to be chosen, she hesitated for a time before she came
to a decision.