-The Court of the Queen-mother--The French Ambassador is
instructed to abstain from all intercourse with the royal exile--A last
appeal--Obduracy of the Cardinal--Richelieu, his sovereign, and his
benefactress.

Richelieu, however, was far from intending that the Duc d'Orleans should
remain unmolested in his retreat. Puylaurens was the first individual
who had dared to dictate his own terms, and to enforce their observance;
and although his Eminence had a great affection for his niece, he was by
no means inclined to pardon the arrogance of her husband. An opportunity
of revenge soon presented itself. The attractions of the Carnival proved
too great for the prudence of Gaston, who accordingly proceeded to the
capital, in order to share in its delights; and when, on the 14th of
February 1635, he reached the Louvre, where he was expected to attend
the rehearsal of a ballet, his favourite, by whom he was accompanied,
was arrested in the royal closet by the captain of the guard, and
conveyed to Vincennes. This act of severity was as unexpected at the
moment as it remained unexplained in the sequel. Suffice it that
Monsieur did not permit the disgrace of his chosen and trusted friend to
interfere with his own amusement and gratification at so exciting a
season, although he could not fail to feel that, once in the grasp of
the Cardinal, the unhappy Puylaurens was doomed.

The result proved the truth of this apprehension; nobler and prouder
lives than that of the spoiled favourite of Gaston had been sacrificed
to the enmity of Richelieu. The tears and supplications of the
heart-broken bride were disregarded; and four months after his arrest
Puylaurens expired in his prison of, as it was asserted, typhus
fever--the same disease to which, by an extraordinary coincidence, two
former enemies of the Cardinal, the Marechal d'Ornano and the
Grand-Prieur de Vendome, had both fallen victims when confined at
Vincennes.[215]

During this time the unhappy Queen-mother, who found herself abandoned
on every side, had retired to Antwerp with the Princesse Marguerite, in
order to escape the mortifications to which she was constantly subjected
by the increasing coldness of her Spanish allies; and thence she wrote
earnestly to the Sovereign-Pontiff entreating his interference to effect
her reconciliation with the King, and begging him to exert his influence
to avert the war with Spain which the Cardinal was labouring to provoke.
The answer