ce having declared that
they entertained but slight hopes of his recovery, De Luynes hastened to
entreat of the King that he would hold out to the invalid a prospect of
deliverance, which could not fail to produce a beneficial effect upon
his health. Nor did he experience any difficulty in inducing Louis to
comply with his request, as personally the King bore no animosity to the
Prince, whose arrest had not been caused by himself. The royal
physicians were forthwith despatched to Vincennes, with orders to exert
all their skill in alleviating his sufferings; and a few days
subsequently the Marquis de Cadenet followed with the sword of the
Prince, which he was commissioned to restore to its owner, accompanied
by the assurance that so soon as his Majesty should have restored order
in the kingdom, he would hasten to set him at liberty; but that,
meanwhile, he begged him to take courage, and to be careful of his
health.[39]

Cadenet was welcomed as his brother had anticipated; and was profuse in
his expressions of his own respect and regard for the illustrious
prisoner, and in his protestations of the untiring perseverance with
which the favourite was labouring to effect his release; while Conde was
equally energetic in his acknowledgments, declaring that should he owe
his liberty to De Luynes, he would prove not only to the latter, but to
every member of his family, his deep sense of so important a service.

Relying on this assurance, the favourite, whose greatest anxiety was to
prevent a good understanding between the King and his mother, had no
sooner concluded the compliments and promises to which Marie had
compelled herself to listen with apparent gratification, than he
hastened to inform her of the pledge given by Louis to terminate the
captivity of M. de Conde; craftily adding that his Majesty had hitherto
failed to fulfil it, as he desired to accord this signal grace to the
Prince conjointly with herself. Marie de Medicis, however, instantly
comprehended the motive of her visitor; and was at no loss to understand
that the liberation of a man whom she had herself committed to the
Bastille, and whom she had thus converted into an enemy, was intended as
a counterpoise to her own power. This conviction immediately destroyed
all her trust in the sincerity of her son and his ministers; and, unable
to control her emotion, she shortly afterwards dismissed De Luynes, and
retired to her closet, where she summoned her confiden