unfelt; and it was only to De Luynes that he
poured forth all his indignation, that he complained with bitterness of
the iron rule of Marie, the insolence of his nobles, and the
ostentatious profusion of the Italian: contrasting the first with his
own helplessness, the second with the insignificance to which he was
condemned, and the last with the almost penury to which he was compelled
to submit.

No Prince had ever a more attentive or a more interested auditor. The
enemies of the young Louis were also those of his favourite; for, as
before remarked, the grandson of the reverend canon of Marseilles was
alike vain and ambitious, and consequently inimical to all who occupied
the high places to which he himself aspired. Moreover, the powerlessness
and poverty of the young monarch necessarily involved those of his
follower; and thus both by inclination and by interest De Luynes was
bound to share the antipathies of his master.

Like all favourites, moreover, he soon made a host of personal
adversaries; while, as these were far from suspecting the height to
which he was ultimately destined to attain, they took little pains to
dissemble their dislike and contempt of the new minion; and thus, ere
long, De Luynes had amassed a weighty load of hatred in his heart. To
him it appeared that all the great dignitaries of the kingdom, although
born to the rank they held, were engrossing honours which, possessed as
he was of the favour of the sovereign, should have been conferred upon
himself; but the especial antipathy of the arrogant adventurer was
directed against the Queen, the Marechal d'Ancre, and the President
Jeannin. To account for his bitter feeling towards Marie de Medicis, it
is only necessary to state that, blinded by his ambition, he had dared
to display for the haughty Princess a passion which was coldly and
disdainfully repulsed; and that he had vowed to revenge the overthrow of
his hopes.[194]

His hatred of Concini is as easily explained; it being merely the
jealousy of a rival favourite. The Italian was to the mother of the King
precisely what De Luynes was to the King himself; and as Marie possessed
more power than her son, so also was her follower more richly
recompensed. Still, however, the game was an unequal one, of which the
chances were all in his own favour; for the Marechal was playing away
the present, while his adversary was staking upon the future. The
President Jeannin was also, as we have stated, es