gai."

While this plot was forming in the closet of the young King, Marie de
Medicis was warned on her side that should she not adopt the most
stringent measures to counteract the intrigues of De Luynes, she would
soon lose all her authority over the mind of her son, who had latterly
betrayed increased impatience of her control; and who was evidently
desirous to emancipate himself from the thraldom to which he had
hitherto so patiently submitted. Bassompierre among others, with his
usual frankness, replied to his royal mistress, when she urged him to
declare his sentiments upon the subject: "You have been well advised,
Madame; you do not sufficiently consider your own interests; and one of
these days the King will be taken from beneath your wing. His adherents
have commenced by exciting him against your friends, and ere long they
will excite him against yourself. Your authority is only precarious, and
must cease whenever such may be the will of the sovereign. He will be
easily persuaded to annul it, for we know how eagerly youth pants for
power; and should his Majesty see fit one day to remove to St. Germain,
and to command his principal officers, both Frenchmen and foreigners, no
longer to recognize your rule, what will be your position? Even I
myself, whose devotion to your Majesty is above suspicion, should be
compelled to take my leave, humbly entreating your permission to obey
the orders of the King. Judge therefore, Madame, if such must inevitably
be the case with those who are deeply attached to your royal person,
what may be the bearing of the rest. You would find yourself with your
hands empty after a long regency."

Marie, however, refused to be convinced. She had become so habituated to
the passive obedience of her son that she could not bring herself to
believe that he would ever venture to resist her will; and thus she
rejected the wholesome advice of those who really desired her own
welfare and that of the country; and increased the exasperation of Louis
and his followers by lavishing upon Concini and his wife the most costly
presents, in order to reconcile them to their enforced separation from
herself.[275]

The profuse liberality of the Queen-mother to her favourites sealed
their death-warrant, as every increase of their already almost fabulous
wealth only strengthened the determination of De Luynes to build up his
own fortunes upon the ruin of those of his detested enemy; but after the
first burst o