recent abandonment the vindictive Cardinal
had not forgotten, and the two Marillacs. The Abbe de Foix and the
physician Vautier, both of whom were in the confidence of the
Queen-mother, were also destined to expiate their fidelity to her cause
in the Bastille; while the Princesse de Conti and the Duchesses
d'Elboeuf, d'Ornano, de Lesdiguieres, and de Roannois, all of whom were
her fast friends, were sentenced to banishment; and it was further
decided that, on his departure from Compiegne, the King should leave his
mother in that city under the guard of the Marechal d'Estrees, at the
head of nearly a thousand men, exclusive of fifty gendarmes and as many
light-horse; and that he should be accompanied to the capital by Anne of
Austria, in order to separate her from the Queen-mother.[147]

The situation of Marie de Medicis was desperate. Day after day she
solicited a private interview with the monarch, and on every occasion of
their meeting she found Richelieu in the royal closet, invulnerable
alike to her disdain and to her sarcasm. One word from the King would of
course have compelled him to withdraw, but that word was never uttered;
for with the timidity inherent to a weak mind, Louis dreaded to be left
alone with his destined victim. Bigoted and superstitious, he had his
moments of remorse, in which his conscience reproached him for the
crime of which he was about to render himself guilty towards the author
of his existence; but these qualms assailed him only during the absence
of his minister, and thus he overcame them by the constant companionship
of the stronger spirit by whom he was ruled. Unable to act of himself,
the purple robes of the Cardinal were his safeguard and his refuge; nor
was Richelieu unwilling to accept the responsibility thus thrust upon
him. His Eminence had no scruples, no weaknesses, no misgivings; he knew
his power, and he exercised it without shrinking. Had the unhappy Queen
been permitted only a few hours of undisturbed communion with her son,
it is probable that she might have awakened even in his selfish bosom
other and better feelings; she might have taught him to listen to the
voice of nature and of conscience; the mother's heart might have
triumphed over the statesman's head; but no such opportunity was
afforded to her; and while she was still making fruitless efforts to
attain her object, the King, at the instigation of the Cardinal,
summoned a privy council, at which Chateauneuf, the n