he first Prince of the Blood was
at length induced to yield to the representations of his insidious
adviser, the terms of the bargain were fully understood on both sides;
but even when he had succeeded in obtaining the consent of M. de Conde
himself to the arrangement, Concini had still to overcome the scruples
of the Queen-mother, to whom he hastened to suggest that the vacant
government should be bestowed upon Charles de Luynes.

As he had anticipated, Marie de Medicis was startled by so extraordinary
a proposition. De Luynes was a mere hanger-on of the Court; the
companion of the boyish pleasures of her son; and without one claim to
honour or advancement. But these very arguments strengthened the
position of the Marechal. The poverty of the King's favourite secured,
as he averred, his fidelity to those who might lay the foundations of
his fortune; and if, as the astute Italian moreover cleverly remarked,
De Luynes were in truth merely the playmate of the monarch, he possessed
at least the merit of engrossing his thoughts, and of thus rendering him
less desirous to control or to criticize the measures of others. Marie
yielded to this argument; she had begun to love power for its own sake;
and she could not disguise from herself that her future tenure of
authority must depend solely upon the will of the young sovereign. In
order, therefore, to secure to herself the good offices of one so
influential with his royal master as De Luynes, she consented to follow
the advice of Concini, who forthwith, in her name, remunerated M. de
Conde for his secession by upwards of a hundred thousand crowns, and the
grandson of Guillaume Segur became governor of the city and fortress of
Amboise.[195]

FOOTNOTES:

[170] Emmanuel de Gondy, Due de Retz, and General of the Galleys, was
the grandson of the celebrated Marechal Gilles de Laval, Baron de Retz,
who, under Charles VII, greatly contributed to the expulsion of the
English from France, but who subsequently suffered strangulation by a
decree of the ecclesiastical tribunal of Nantes for his frightful
debaucheries. He was the father of the well-known Cardinal de Retz, the
enemy of Mazarin, and one of the heroes of the Fronde.

[171] Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. i. pp. 247-254.
Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 53-55.

[172] Bassompierre, _Mem_. pp. 94, 95.

[173] Henri de Chatiegnier de la Rocheposay.

[174] In 1598 Henri IV had marched against the Duc de Mercoeur, who
st