On the pretext of
requiring assistance in training the royal falcons, De Luynes had
presented to Louis two young nobles, MM. du Troncon and de Marcillac,
men of good birth, but who had become dishonoured by their own vices;
the former being accused of having betrayed his master, and the latter
his sisters in order to enrich himself;[267] facts of which the
favourite was, however, careful that the King should remain ignorant.

In addition to these disreputable adventurers, De Luynes also
introduced to the intimacy of his royal patron Deageant,[268] the
principal clerk of Barbin, whom he had won over by promises of
aggrandizement should he succeed in effecting the disgrace of Concini,
which, as a natural consequence, must also involve that of his master;
and, finally, a private soldier, and one of the gardeners of the palace.
All these persons were instructed to excite the suspicions of the King
against his mother and her ministers, a task in which it was by no means
difficult to succeed; particularly when the treacherous Deageant had
placed in his hands a number of forged letters, wherein Barbin, at the
pretended instigation of Concini, was supposed to entertain a design
against his life, in order not only to prolong the authority of the
Queen-mother, but also to ensure the crown to her second and favourite
son, Gaston d'Orleans.[269]

Skilfully as De Luynes conducted this affair, and despite the natural
dissimulation of Louis XIII, the reiterated assertions and cautions of
his familiar associates did not fail to produce an involuntary effect
upon his manner and deportment which aroused the suspicions of the
Italian; who, with an infatuation almost incredible, instead of
endeavouring to conciliate the young King, and to render himself less
obnoxious to the people, resolved to make all bow before him, and to
break the stubborn spirits that he failed to bend. In this desperate and
insane policy he was, moreover, seconded by the counsels of Barbin,
whose impetuous temper and anxiety to secure his own safety alike urged
him to support any measure which promised to maintain the government in
the hands of Marie de Medicis and her favourite, in whose ruin he could
not fail to be involved. So intemperately, indeed, did he pursue his
purpose, that even Marie herself became alarmed; her most faithful
adherents were absent with the army, while she had daily evidence of the
activity of her enemies; and more than once at this period