ssion of the Duc de Mayenne--Suspension of
hostilities--The great nobles return to the capital--Louis refuses to
be reconciled with his mother--Insolence of De Vitry--Generosity of the
Duc de Rohan--Marie de Medicis resolves to retire from the
Court--Richelieu offers to share her exile--He becomes the secret
emissary of De Luynes--Gratitude of the deluded Queen--A parting
interview--Marie de Medicis proceeds to Blois--Destitution of the
Marechale d'Ancre--Her despair--Royal recreations--A fatal
parallel--Madame de Conde requests permission to share the captivity of
her husband--Trial of Madame d'Ancre--Her execution--Cupidity of De
Luynes--Justice of the Grand Duke of Tuscany--Death of the President de
Thou--Marriage of De Luynes with Mademoiselle de Montbazon--De Luynes is
created duke and peer--Death of M. de Villeroy--Recall of the old
ministers--Policy of De Luynes--His suspiciousness--His ambition--De
Luynes lodges his brothers in the Louvre--The sign of "the Three
Kings"--Louis resolves to re-establish the Roman Catholic religion in
Bearn, and to annex that principality to the Crown of France--Meeting of
the _Notables_ at Rouen--The French march to the support of the Duke
of Savoy.

On the return of De Vitry from the Bastille he found the hotel of the
Marechal d'Ancre entirely pillaged, not even excepting the chamber of
the little Comte de la Pena, whose escape having been prevented, he was
also placed under arrest, and left until the following morning without
clothes, food, or bed. On the morrow, however, the Comte de
Fiesque,[293] touched by the extreme beauty and desolate condition of
the child, and probably anxious to secure one friend to him in his
necessity, became answerable for his safe keeping; and, wrapping him in
the cloak of one of his lackeys, he carried him to the Louvre, and
introduced him to the young Queen, informing her Majesty that no one at
Court could dance a _branle_ in such perfection. Anne of Austria was
enchanted with the beauty of the boy, who had just attained his twelfth
year, and whose intellect was as remarkable as his person; but giddy,
thoughtless, and ever eager for amusement, the girl-Queen, overlooking
the fatal circumstances in which he was placed, immediately commanded
that he should exhibit his talent; and the poor fatherless child, whose
whole career had been blighted only a few short hours before, was
compelled to this unseemly display; after which he was regaled with
sweet