lute
necessity of refusing to hold any intercourse with the Queen-mother
until Louis should be in a position to compel her obedience to his will,
and to reduce the insurgent nobles who had openly declared in her favour
to complete submission. The letters which were laid before the Council
containing, moreover, a demand for the reform of the government, every
individual holding office under the Crown had a personal interest in
supporting this advice; and it was consequently resolved that Louis
should affect to believe that his mother had been forcibly removed from
Blois by the Duc d'Epernon, and that a large body of troops should be
forthwith assembled for her deliverance, under the command of the Duc de
Mayenne, from whom it was known that she had parted on bad terms.[26]
So extreme a resolution no sooner became known, however, than it created
general dissatisfaction. The unnatural spectacle of a son in arms
against his mother inspired all right-minded people with horror; and
when the King a few days subsequently proceeded to the Parliament to
verify some financial edicts (the enormous recent outlay of the Court
having exhausted the royal treasury) he was coldly received, and instead
of the loyal acclamations with which he had hitherto been greeted, he
heard on all sides murmured expressions of discontent and impatience.
These manifestations of popular disaffection alarmed the ministers, and
a new council was held, at which it was determined that before
proceeding to the _ultima ratio regum_ a negotiation should be attempted
with the emancipated Princess; and for this purpose the Comte de Bethune
and the Abbe Berulle[27] were despatched to Marie de Medicis with full
powers to conclude a treaty between herself and the King.

The first suggestion offered to the Queen-mother by the royal envoys was
her abandonment of M. d'Epernon; but she indignantly refused to adopt so
treacherous a line of policy, declaring that she would listen to no
compromise which involved a disavowal of her obligations to one whom she
justly considered as her liberator. "Moreover, Messieurs," she said
proudly, "even were I capable of such an act of treachery, I am unable
so to misrepresent the conduct of the gallant Duke, who holds in his
possession not only the letter of the King, wherein he gives me full
authority to leave Blois, and to proceed whithersoever I may see fit in
the interest of my health, but also one which I myself addressed to him