ince de Conde had restored the self-confidence of
Concini, who shortly afterwards returned to Court and resumed his
position with an arrogance and pretension more undisguised than ever.
The Marechale, however, had never recovered from the successive shocks
to which she had been subjected by the death of her child and the
destruction of her house; but had fallen into a state of discouragement
and melancholy which threatened her reason.[259] For days she shut
herself up in her apartments, refusing to receive the most intimate of
her friends, and complaining that she was bewitched by those who looked
at her.[260] Her domestic misery was, moreover, embittered by the public
hatred, of which, in conjunction with her husband, she had become more
than ever the object. It would appear that the injury already inflicted
upon the Italian favourites had stimulated rather than satiated the
detestation of the people for both of them. Every grievance under which
the lower orders groaned was attributed to the influence of Concini and
his wife; they were accused of inciting the Queen-mother to the acts of
profusion by which the nation was impoverished; while every
disappointment, misfortune, or act of oppression was traced to the same
cause. Many affected to believe that Marie was the victim of sorcery,
and that such was the real source of the influence of Leonora; and thus
the heart-broken mother and unhappy wife, whose morbid imagination had
caused her to consider her trials as the result of magical arts, was
herself accused of having employed them against her royal
benefactress.[261]

The nomination of Richelieu as Secretary of State had been effected
through the influence of Concini, who in vain endeavoured to persuade
him to resign the bishopric of Lucon, as incompatible with his new
duties. The astute prelate had more extended views than those of his
patron; nor was it long ere he succeeded in arousing the jealousy of the
Marechal, and in convincing him, when too late, that he had, while
endeavouring to further his own fortunes, only raised up a more
dangerous and potent enemy than any to whom he had hitherto been
opposed. Richelieu had no sooner joined the ministry than he made
advances to the ancient allies of Henri IV, whom he regarded as the true
friends of France; and for the purpose of conciliating those whose
support he deemed most essential to the welfare of the kingdom, he
hastened to despatch ambassadors to the Courts of