d it was not long ere he induced her to believe
that they had acted in the interests of the Prince de Conde, rather than
her own, during the Conference of Loudun; while such plausible proofs
did he adduce of this assertion, that once more Marie de Medicis
consented to exclude them from the Council.

This was the moment for which the Italian favourite had so long sighed.
From the death of Henri IV he had exerted all his energies to overthrow
the Princes of the Blood, and to replace the old ministers by creatures
of his own; but so hopeless did the attempt appear that more than once
he had despaired of ultimate success. Now, however, he found himself
pre-eminent; the Queen-mother, harassed and worn-out by the cabals which
were incessantly warring against her authority, and threatening her
tenure of power, threw herself with eagerness into the hands of the
adventurer who owed all to her favour, and implicitly followed his
advice, in the hope that she might thus escape the machinations of her
enemies. Mangot,[227] whose devotion to the Marechal d'Ancre was
notorious, was appointed Secretary of State, in which dignity he
replaced M. de Puisieux;[228] while the administration of finance was
conferred upon M. Barbin,[229] although Jeannin nominally retained
office.[230]

While these changes were convulsing the Cabinet, irritating the great
nobles, and exciting the apprehensions of all those who desired the
welfare of the nation, the young sovereigns, whom they more immediately
concerned, were either ignorant or careless of their consequences. The
girl-Queen, surrounded by her Spanish attendants, spent her time in the
enjoyment of the pleasures congenial to her age. According to Madame de
Motteville,[231] she was strikingly handsome, but rather Austrian than
Spanish in her style of beauty, with an abundance of fair hair which she
wore in ringlets about her face. On her arrival in France she retained
the national costume; and discarding the tapestried chests common at the
period, made use of a pile of cushions as her seat. The Marquise de
Morny (quoted by Madame de Motteville) described her on the occasion of
her own presentation as reclining upon this Moorish sofa in the midst of
her attendants, habited in a dress of green satin embroidered with gold
and silver, with large hanging sleeves looped together at intervals by
diamond buttons; a close ruff, and a small cap of green velvet with a
black heron-feather.[232]

[Illustra