1615-16
Close of the States-General--The Bishop of Luçon--Declaration of the
royal marriages--Ballet of Madame--State of the Court--Cabal of
Concini--Death of Marguerite de Valois--Condé seeks to gain the
Parliament--Distrust of Marie de Medicis--Condé leaves Paris--He refuses
to accompany the King to Guienne--Perilous position of the Court
party--The Maréchal de Bois-Dauphin is appointed Commander-in-Chief--The
Court proceed to Guienne--Illness of the Queen and Madame Elisabeth--The
Court at Tours--Enforced inertness of M. de Bois-Dauphin--Condé is
declared guilty of _lèse-majesté_--He takes up arms--Murmurs of the
royal generals--The Comte de St. Pol makes his submission--The
Court reach Bordeaux--The royal marriages--Sufferings of the
troops--Disaffection of the nobility--Irritation of the
Protestants--Pasquinades--Negotiation with the Princes--The Duc de Guise
assumes the command of the royal army--Singular escape of Marie de
Medicis--Disgrace of the Duc d'Epernon--He retires to his
government--The Queen and the astrologer.
The assembly of the States-General occupied the commencement of the year
1615; and was closed on the 22nd of February, by their Majesties in
person, with extreme pomp. When the King and his august mother had taken
their seats, and the heralds had proclaimed silence, Armand Jean du
Plessis, Bishop of Luçon,[196] presented to the sovereign the
requisition of the clergy; and after a long harangue, in which he
detailed their several demands, he entered into an animated eulogium of
the administration of the Queen, exhorting his Majesty to continue to
her the power of which she had so ably availed herself during his
minority. He spoke fluently, but in a broken and uncertain voice, and
with an apparent apathy, which, according to contemporaneous authors,
gave no indication of the extraordinary talents that he subsequently
displayed.
The States-General had no sooner closed than Marie de Medicis resolved
to terminate the double alliance which had been concluded with Spain,
and in honour of this event she determined that Madame, the promised
bride of Philip, should appear in a ballet, which by the sumptuousness
of its decorations, the beauty of its machinery, and the magnificence of
its entire arrangements, should eclipse every entertainment of the kind
hitherto exhibited at the French Court.
"It is necessary," she said, "that my daughter should give a public
festival before her departure for Spain, and that the Parisians should
remember a Princess who is about to be lost to France."
That the worthy citizens were on their part most anxious so to do, is
evident from the testimony of Bassompierre, who states that the Court
officials, being unprepared for so great a crowd as that which
presented itself upon the occasion, had not taken proper precautions,
and it was subsequently found necessary to postpone the amusement for
some days, and to arrange that no one should enter the Salle de Bourbon
without a ticket; which the Duc d'Epernon and himself were entrusted to
receive.[197]
[Illustration: RICHELIEU.]
This entertainment was followed by another of a similar description at
the Hôtel de Condé; but although they affected to be equally engrossed
by the festivities in which they shared, neither the Queen nor the
Prince were so indifferent to their personal interests as they
endeavoured to appear. Marie de Medicis was striving to discover some
means of frustrating the cabals which were perpetually thwarting her
designs, and threatening her authority, while M. de Condé was as eager
as ever to undermine her power. The Maréchal d'Ancre was intriguing to
effect the disgrace of the ministers, particularly that of Villeroy,
whose alliance he no longer coveted; and the great nobles were busied in
searching for some pretext sufficiently plausible to cause the ruin of
the domineering favourite who presumed to treat them rather as inferiors
than as equals. Thus the gilded surface of the Court concealed a mass of
hatred, jealousy, and unrest, which threatened every instant to reveal
itself, and to dispel an illusion as false as it was flattering: and
while the foreign guests of the young monarch danced and feasted, and
the native nobility struggled to surpass them in magnificence and
frivolity, the more thoughtful spectators of the glittering scene
trembled at its instability, and every instant anticipated an outbreak.
The attempt of Concini proved successful, and the deportment of Marie
towards M. de Villeroy became so chilling that he withdrew from the
Court, without seeking to ascertain the cause of his disgrace.
On the 27th of March the ex-Queen Marguerite breathed her last, but for
some time previously she had appeared so seldom at Court that her death
did not tend to disturb the gaieties of the royal circle, who had almost
ceased to remember her existence. She had outlived even the reputation
of her vices.
When the Prince de Condé and his faction demanded a meeting of the
States they were far from anticipating its results; the unanimous
loyalty of the deputies having greatly subserved the interests of the
Queen, and thus weakened their own position. Aware too late of the error
which they had committed, they were consequently compelled to seek
elsewhere for support, and it was at length decided that they should
excite the disaffection of the Parliament, by representing that all the
services which its members had rendered to Marie on her assumption of
the regency had been repaid by ingratitude and neglect; and that they no
longer commanded that authority in the Government to which they were
justly entitled. Coupled with these insidious arguments were profuse
offers of assistance to enable them to enforce their rights, and the
object of the faction was at once gained; the ambition and the vanity of
the Parliament being alike engaged in a question which involved their
own influence and importance. Strong in the support of the Princes,
they, however, overacted the part assigned to them, and proceeded so
arrogantly to remonstrate with the sovereign upon what they termed the
abuses of the Government, that the King issued a decree in Council, by
which he abrogated both their own decree and their remonstrances,
declaring that they had exceeded the power accorded to them by the law;
and commanding that those documents should be cancelled, torn from the
registers, and delivered to his Majesty on the receipt of the royal
decree. The Parliament, however, expostulated, and although they were
again commanded to deliver up the obnoxious records, they failed to
obey; and thus, by their determination, overruled the will of the
sovereign.
During this struggle for power the Prince de Condé had absented himself
from Paris, in order to avert any suspicion of connivance; but previous
experience had rendered the Queen distrustful of his movements, and she
was consequently prepared to counteract his subsequent intrigues. The
Council had, accordingly, no sooner annulled the decree of the
Parliament, than she sent to forbid him, in the name of the King, from
assisting in their deliberations; upon which the Prince availed himself
of so specious a pretext for abandoning the Court, alleging that he no
longer considered it safe to remain in the capital.[198]
In accordance with this declaration he left Paris by the Porte St.
Antoine, followed by the acclamations of the populace, who, weary of the
rule of the Queen, and exasperated by the arrogance of her favourites,
regarded M. de Condé as a victim, and thus rendered his retreat a new
subject of anxiety to the Court party. Nor was their annoyance decreased
when they ascertained that throughout his journey to Creil, where he
possessed an estate on the banks of the Oise, he was met by numerous
bodies of armed citizens from Senlis, Mantes, Beaumont, and other towns,
and was accompanied by the Duc de Longueville and the nobles attached to
his cause. Within a league of Creil the harquebusiers were drawn up to
receive him, with drums beating and colours flying, and thus escorted he
finally entered the city.
On learning these circumstances Marie de Medicis became apprehensive
that he might avail himself of so favourable an opportunity to raise an
army, and enter into open rebellion against the Crown; and in order to
avert this contingency, she lost no time in despatching a messenger who
was instructed to invite him to return to Paris, and to accompany the
Court in their approaching journey to Guienne. M. de Condé was, however,
aware of the advantage which he had gained, and resolutely refused to
retrace his steps until the King reformed the Council, replied to the
remonstrances of the Parliament, and redressed the alleged wrongs of
himself and his friends; demanding in his own name the presidency of the
Council, and the ministry of finance which had been promised to him;
while the Maréchal de Bouillon, in his turn, asked as the price of his
obedience the office of Connétable de France vacant by the death of the
Duc de Montmorency.[199]
These demands not being conceded, the Prince de Condé refused to
accompany the King to Guienne, an example which was followed by many of
the high nobility; and the faction became ere long so formidable that a
civil war appeared inevitable.
Nevertheless, the Maréchal d'Ancre and his adherents affected to treat
the warlike demonstrations of the adverse party with contempt, and
assured Marie de Medicis that all the efforts of the Prince must prove
abortive while the King possessed a strong army and able generals to
oppose the forces of the malcontents; and, in support of his assertion,
the Ducs de Guise and d'Epernon alike offered their services to her
Majesty. In the former, however, Marie dared not confide; his near
relative, the Duc de Mayenne, being the ally of Condé, while De Guise
himself was the avowed enemy of Concini. Of M. d'Epernon's sincerity she
felt more assured; but she was aware that she could not bestow upon him
the command of the royal army without exciting the jealousy of Guise,
and thus opening up a newsource of difficulty. Desirous of proceeding to
Guienne without further delay, the Queen consequently urged her
advisers to suggest some other individual to whom so serious a
responsibility might be entrusted; and after considerable deliberation
the Duc d'Epernon, the Chancellor, and his son the Chevalier de Sillery
proposed to the Maréchal d'Ancre that he should become a candidate for
the command, offering at the same time to exert all their influence with
the Queen to ensure his success.[200]
Blinded by vanity, Concini, who was a soldier only in name, did not fail
to listen with greedy ears to this unexpected proposition; and while his
seeming friends were speculating upon his ruin, and calculating that
during his absence they should have time to impress upon Marie de
Medicis that, by the sacrifice of her favourite, she might reconcile the
disaffected Princes. Concini himself foresaw that the increase of
influence which so important a command could not fail to secure to him
must tend to diminish that of the Duc d'Epernon, whose overthrow had
been for some time his greatest wish. Moreover, by quartering his troops
in the neighbourhood of M. de Condé, an opportunity would present itself
of effecting his reconciliation with that Prince, which he ardently
desired; and this end accomplished, he flattered himself with the hope
that his vision of becoming first minister of France could not fail to
be realized.
Unfortunately, however, for the ambitious Italian, it was not long ere
D'Epernon and Sillery recognized the error into which they had been led
by their eagerness to injure him. They suddenly remembered that Concini
had already once joined the faction of the Princes, and they were aware
that the Duc de Bouillon had made more than one subsequent effort to
induce him to abandon the royal cause; and they were no sooner convinced
of the fault which they had committed, than they hastened to represent
to the Queen that the appointment of the Maréchal d'Ancre to the command
of the King's armies had caused great dissatisfaction throughout the
capital; the citizens affirming that the troops of a sovereign of France
ought not to be led against the enemy by a man who was ignorant of the
art of war, and who was, moreover, a foreigner, detested by the people
to an extent which rendered it probable that, should Concini be invested
with the command, they would open the gates of Paris to M. de Condé, in
the event of his marching upon the city. Marie de Medicis yielded to
these reasons, and simply replied by reminding Sillery that if she had
committed an error in accepting the proposal of the Maréchal d'Ancre,
she had done so at his own instigation; but that as he considered it
desirable to appoint some other individual to the command, she would
offer no opposition. Concini was accordingly superseded, and the veteran
Maréchal de Bois-Dauphin was selected as his successor, with the title
of lieutenant-general.[201] Indignant at the disappointment to which he
had been subjected, Concini left Paris, and proceeded to his government
at Amiens, vowing vengeance against the Duc d'Epernon and Sillery.
The impatience of the Queen to conclude the double alliance with Spain
was so great that she disregarded the advice of Jeannin and Villeroy;
who, in conjunction with Concini and his wife, had endeavoured to induce
her to delay her departure for Guienne, and to proceed either to Laon or
St. Quentin, in order to secure the Isle of France and Picardy, and to
prevent the Prince de Condé and his adherents from concentrating their
forces in the vicinity of the capital; while, on the contrary, she was
urged by the Chancellor and his brother, the Commandeur de Sillery, who
was her first-equerry and gentleman-usher, to carry out her original
design. The 17th of August had been already fixed for the commencement
of the royal journey; and Marie eagerly availed herself of their advice
to persist in her purpose; contenting herself with giving orders to the
Maréchal de Bois-Dauphin to cover Paris, to impede the approach of the
disaffected forces, and, at all risks, to avoid coming to an engagement.
She then withdrew from the Bastille eight hundred thousand crowns for
the purpose of defraying the expenses of the Court during its progress.
Despite the absence of the Princes, the royal retinue was magnificent
and numerous. The troops by whom the august travellers were attended
consisted of a thousand horsemen, and the royal bodyguard amounted to
three thousand men, who were placed under the command of the Duc de
Guise, who was also to accompany Madame Elisabeth to the frontier of the
kingdom, and to receive the Infanta, whom he was to conduct to the
capital of Guienne, where their Majesties were to await her. The King
left Paris soon after dawn; the Queen followed some hours subsequently,
having previously caused the arrest of M. Le Jay,[202] in order to
intimidate the Parliament; and finally, in the course of the afternoon,
Madame took leave of the municipal authorities, and departed in her
turn. The Marquise d'Ancre having in vain endeavoured to dissuade her
royal foster-sister from this journey, became so thoroughly dispirited
by the disappointment of her husband, and the evident decline of her own
influence, that she resolved to excuse herself from accompanying the
Court, and to remain in the capital; a project from which she was,
however, dissuaded by MM. de Villeroy and Jeannin, who represented to
her the impolicy of incurring the displeasure of her Majesty, and thus
insuring her own ruin. She was consequently induced to join the royal
suite, but she did so with a heavy heart, and without one hope of
resuming her original empire over the mind of Marie.
The Court reached Orleans on the 20th of August, and Tours on the 30th,
whence their Majesties proceeded to Poitiers, at which city they arrived
on the 9th of September; but the anxieties of Marie de Medicis were not
yet to terminate. Madame was attacked a day or two subsequently with
small-pox, while the Queen herself was confined to her bed by a severe
illness, which compelled the constant attendance of Madame d'Ancre in
her sick-room, where, by her affectionate assiduity, she soon succeeded
in recovering the good graces of her royal mistress. She had secured to
her interests a Jewish physician, in whose astrological talent Marie de
Medicis placed the most implicit confidence; and eager to revenge her
husband upon Sillery, who, as she was well aware, had been the cause of
his losing the coveted command, she instructed this man, whom the Queen
had hastened to consult, to persuade the credulous invalid that she had
been bewitched by the Chevalier de Sillery. Strange as it may appear,
Leonora was perfectly successful; and believing herself to have been the
victim of the Chancellor and his party, Marie entered earnestly into the
views of her favourite, consenting to withdraw her confidence from
Sillery, and to follow thenceforward the counsels of Villeroy and
Jeannin.[203]
The delay consequent upon the recovery of the Queen and her daughter
enabled the Prince de Condé to strengthen his party, and to advance
towards Paris, with an army of five thousand infantry and two thousand
horse. His troops were, however, badly armed, and might at once have
been beaten or dispersed by the Maréchal de Bois-Dauphin, had that
general marched against them; but, fettered by the stringent orders
which he had received not to give battle to the enemy, he remained
inactive; and the Duc de Bouillon profited by his inertness to seize
Château Thierry, whence he marched to Méré-sur-Seine.
Meanwhile M. de Condé ascertained that the King had issued on the 10th
of September a proclamation of _lèse-majesté_ against himself and his
adherents; to which he replied by another, wherein he affirmed that he
had taken up arms for the sole purpose of preventing a foreign invasion.
He then crossed the Seine, with the intention of possessing himself of
the town of Sens; a project in which he, however, failed, Bois-Dauphin
and his adjutant-general, the Marquis de Praslin, having already
garrisoned the place.[204]
The two armies were at this period in such close juxtaposition that an
engagement appeared inevitable; but whether it were that Bois-Dauphin
was deficient in ability, or that he had resolved, whatever might be the
result of his inaction, to obey implicitly the instructions of the
Queen, he vacated Sens after a few slight skirmishes. Be the real cause
of his supineness what it might, it excited the indignation of
Bassompierre, Praslin, the Marquis de Coeuvres, and the other leaders of
the royal army, who did not scruple to accuse him of incapacity;
declaring, moreover, that he had harassed the troops far more than if he
had led them into action.[205]
On the arrival of the Court at Angoulême the Queen was agreeably
surprised by the appearance of the Comte de Saint-Pol,[206] who, she had
been led to believe, had joined the faction of Condé with his nephew the
Duc de Longueville; and her exultation was increased when, with
assurances of his fidelity to the Crown, he placed under her orders the
two fortresses of Fronsac and Caumont.[207]
Profiting by the retreat of the Maréchal de Bois-Dauphin, the Duc de
Bouillon had made all haste to pass the Loire, and to reach the confines
of Touraine and Poitou; nor would it have been possible for their
Majesties to have reached Bordeaux in safety, had it not been for the
secession of the Comte de Saint-Pol from the faction of the Princes,
together with the impossibility of marching the rebel troops upon Poitou
in so short a space of time. Thanks to this combination of
circumstances, however, the Court arrived without accident in the
capital of Guienne on the 7th of October; where the King and his august
mother were received with great magnificence, and enthusiastically
welcomed by all classes of the citizens, whom the Maréchal de
Roquelaure, lieutenant-general for the King in Guienne, and Mayor of
Bordeaux, had adroitly gained, by his representations of the honour
conferred upon them by the sovereign in selecting their city as the
scene of his own marriage and that of his sister, the future Queen of
Spain.[208]
It had been arranged that the royal marriages should be celebrated on
the same day (the 18th of October), at Bordeaux and Burgos; and
accordingly the Duc de Guise, as proxy for the Prince of Spain, espoused
Madame Elisabeth, with whom, accompanied by the Duchesse de Nevers and
the ladies of her household, he immediately departed for the frontier,
after a painful leave-taking between the young Princess and her family;
while the Duque d'Usseda[209] performed the same ceremony for Louis
XIII, with the Infanta Anna Maria of Austria. The exchange of the two
Princesses took place on the 9th of November, in the middle of the
Bidassoa, with a host of petty and futile observances which excite mirth
rather than admiration; but at the same time with a magnificence
surpassing all that had ever previously been exhibited on such an
occasion; the two Courts of France and Spain vying with each other in
splendour and profusion. De Luynes, to whom such a mission appeared
peculiarly adapted, presented to the Infanta the letters of welcome with
which he had been entrusted by Louis XIII and his mother, and which were
received by the Princess with an undisguised delight that the favourite
did not fail to report to his royal master.
The guard with which the Duc de Guise had conducted Madame Elisabeth to
the frontier consisted of fifteen hundred horse, four thousand infantry,
and four pieces of ordnance; and it was with the same troops that he
escorted the newly made Queen of France to Bordeaux, who, previously to
her departure from Burgos, had signed a formal renunciation, written
entirely by her own hand, of all her claims to the Spanish
succession.[210] On her arrival at Bordeaux on the 21st of November, the
young Queen was received with all the splendour of which the
circumstances were susceptible, and the marriage ceremony was
immediately repeated by the Bishop of Saintes; after which, on the 17th
of December, the Court, under the escort of a strong body of troops,
left the capital of Guienne for Tours, which latter city they did not,
however, reach for five weeks, owing to the long halts that they were
compelled to make in the several towns through which they passed, where
every species of entertainment had been prepared for the reception of
the august travellers. Meanwhile the army suffered fearfully from
exposure to the cold, from sickness, and from want of provisions and
forage; numbers of the men died, and the progress of the royal party
consequently resembled a disastrous retreat rather than a triumphant
procession.
In addition to this misfortune the Queen-mother had other and still
more serious motives for anxiety. Although her personal ambition had
been gratified by the accomplishment of that close alliance with Spain
which she had so long and so earnestly desired, she could not conceal
from herself that as regarded the nation over which she had been called
to govern, the irretrievable step thus taken was one of extreme
impolicy. On every side she was surrounded by difficulties. The first
Prince of the Blood, and nearly the whole of the high nobility, were not
only disaffected, but actually in arms against the Crown. The
Protestants, to whom she had repeatedly promised that she would observe
the Edict of Nantes, incensed by her breach of faith, had revolted
against her authority; her troops had failed to offer any effective
resistance; and meanwhile foreign soldiers had traversed Champagne, and
advanced into Berry to join Condé, without any impediment from the royal
army. The intelligence that she received from Paris was equally
alarming; scarcely a day passed in which pamphlets and pasquinades of
the grossest description were not published and circulated among the
population, assigning the most foul and degrading motives for her
journey to Guienne under the protection of the Ducs d'Epernon and de
Guise; while her anxiety for the Spanish alliance was represented as
arising from her desire to conciliate those who were accused of being
the assassins of her husband.
Angered as she was by these insults, Marie de Medicis still pined to
return to the capital. She was wearied alike by the exacting and
arrogant temper of M. d'Epernon, and by the monotony of the provincial
cities, where she saw herself surrounded only by aldermen and citizens
with whom she had no feeling or habit in common; and as the several
individuals of her circle were equally ill at ease in so novel a
position, far from allaying her impatience, they aggravated the _ennui_
which she did not attempt to disguise, until she eventually brought
herself to attach all the blame of her own disappointment and
mortification upon those who had advised her to leave the capital; and
to evince the greatest eagerness to follow the counsels of their
adversaries.[211]
The Court left Bordeaux at the close of the year 1615; and in the month
of January following proceeded to take up its abode at Tours, there to
await the close of a negotiation into which the Queen-mother had entered
with the Princes; while at the same time her agents secretly
exerted all their efforts to induce the allies of M. de Condé to
abandon his cause. The command of the troops was taken from the Maréchal
de Bois-Dauphin and conferred upon the Duc de Guise, with the title of
lieutenant-general of the King's army; and an immediate attempt was made
to gain over the Duc de Mayenne and the Maréchal de Bouillon, as being
the most influential of the revolted nobles. James I offered to Marie de
Medicis his services as a mediator on the occasion; they were gratefully
accepted, and the English Ambassador was forthwith despatched to the
Prince de Condé at St. Jean-d'Angély, with instructions to avert, by
every argument in his power, the horrors of a civil war. Convinced that
no better opportunity could possibly occur for securing to himself and
his party the advantageous conditions which he coveted, Condé received
the royal envoy with great courtesy, declaring that he had acted
throughout the whole affair solely in the interests of his country, and
that he was ready to write respectfully to his Britannic Majesty, to
offer to him the same assurance.
His proposal was accepted; the letter was forthwith prepared; and the
Baron de Thianges was entrusted with its delivery into the hands of the
English monarch. A reply was returned by the same messenger; and finally
a conference was decided on, which was to take place at Loudun on the
10th of February.[212]
While preparations were making for this important event, the
Queen-mother, on the 29th of January, summoned the nobles of her Court
to her apartment, in order to discuss the necessary measures to be
adopted for securing the allegiance of the disaffected Princes; and on
this occasion she nearly lost her life by a singular accident. The young
Comte de Soissons, the Ducs de Guise and d'Epernon, Bassompierre,
Jeannin, and many others who held office about the Court or in the
Government were scarcely assembled when the flooring of the room gave
way, and twenty-eight persons were precipitated into the hall beneath.
The arm-chair of Marie herself had fortunately been placed above a beam
which held firm, and to which the President Jeannin resolutely clung,
thus breaking his fall; but MM. de Soissons, d'Epernon, de Bassompierre,
de Villeroy, and several others were less fortunate, and all were more
or less gravely injured. With great presence of mind the Queen retained
her seat; and with the help of the Duc de Guise ultimately contrived to
reach her bed, over which she passed, and thus escaped into an adjoining
apartment; and meanwhile the unfortunate victims of the accident were
conveyed to their respective residences, where her Majesty caused them
to be immediately visited by one of the officers of her household, who
was commissioned to inquire into their condition, and to express her
regret at the event.
There was one exception, however, to this royal act of sympathy and
consideration, and that one was the Duc d'Epernon; who, although the
greatest sufferer on the occasion, was entirely overlooked; a marked and
threatening want of courtesy on the part of the Queen-mother, which
convinced the arrogant courtier that his period of favour was past, and
that his enemies had triumphed. This conviction at once determined him
to retire voluntarily from the Court before he should be compelled to do
so by an order which he felt satisfied would not be long delayed; and he
was accordingly no sooner sufficiently recovered to leave his bed than
he waited upon their Majesties to take leave, alleging that his
shattered health having received so violent a shock, he felt it
necessary to withdraw for a time from all participation in public
affairs, and to endeavour by perfect repose to overcome the effects of
his accident.
His reasons were graciously accepted both by the King and Queen, who
assured him of their deep sorrow at his sufferings, and expressed the
most flattering wishes for his recovery; but the Queen-mother uttered no
word either of regret or sympathy. With the most chilling indifference
she returned his parting salutation; and M. d'Epernon quitted her
apartment with a demeanour almost as haughty as her own.[213]
Marie de Medicis, who possessed the most implicit confidence in the
so-called science of astrology, and who was always anxious to penetrate
the mystery of the future, having been informed on her return to Paris
that a certain Giorgio Luminelli, a native of Ragusa who was celebrated
as a soothsayer, had recently arrived in the capital, and taken up his
abode in the Place Royale, immediately expressed a wish to consult him;
for which purpose she despatched a messenger to his residence, by whom
he was invited to wait upon a person of high rank who, attracted by his
renown, was desirous of testing his skill. To this somewhat imperious
summons Luminelli, however, simply replied by declaring that he never
quitted his own apartments for any one, whatever might be the station of
the person who required his services; but that those, who sought his aid
were at liberty to visit him whenever they saw fit to do so. This answer
only increased the eagerness of the Queen-mother; nevertheless,
previously to seeking him in person, she requested M. de Créquy, the Duc
de la Force, Bassompierre, and Rambure to go to his house in disguise,
in order to ascertain whether he were indeed worthy of the reputation by
which he had been preceded.
While they were making the necessary arrangements, and deciding to
exchange dresses with their confidential valets in the hope of being
enabled to mystify the necromancer, to whom they were entirely unknown,
the Maréchal d'Ancre arrived to pay his respects to his royal mistress;
and, upon being made acquainted with the project, he determined to join
the party in the character of a Venetian noble, of whom there were at
that moment several residing in Paris. On the completion of their
preparations the merry masquers set forth, and soon reached the abode of
Luminelli; where, on their arrival, they found a servant stationed at
the door, as if awaiting the advent of expected guests, who no sooner
saw them pause beside him than, addressing Concini and the disguised
serving-men, he politely requested them to follow him; coupling the
invitation with an assurance that his master had desired him to watch
for the arrival of five great nobles who were about to consult his art.
Lavallée, the lackey of M. de Bassompierre, assuming an air of
importance, expressed both for himself and his companions their sense of
this attention; and then, somewhat startled by the coincidence, for as
such they simply considered it, the whole party followed their
guide upstairs.
On reaching the apartment of the astrologer the four disguised courtiers
remained respectfully upon the threshold, while their unliveried
representatives advanced to the middle of the room; and courteously
saluting their host, informed him that they had been induced by his
great renown to solicit a display of his skill, and to claim from him a
knowledge of their future fortunes. Lavallée was once more their
spokesman; and the eyes of Luminelli remained fixed upon him until the
conclusion of his address, when he turned away abruptly, without
vouchsafing any reply, and drew back a curtain behind which was placed a
large globe of polished steel. He looked earnestly upon this for a few
moments; and then rising, he put on a cap of dark velvet which lay
beside him, took Lavallée by the hand, and approaching Bassompierre
placed his valet a few paces behind him, saying as he did so:
"Monseigneur, why should you thus have assumed a disguise? You are
already a great noble, but your fortunes have not yet reached their
acme. You will one day be Maréchal de France, and the dignity will be
conferred upon you on the other side of the Rhône. Beauty has great
influence over you; but with those whom you seek to please your purse
has even more charms than your person. You will ere long have immense
success at the gaming-table, far beyond any which you have yet achieved.
You have been engaged in a lawsuit against an unmarried woman.[214] You
hold one of the highest offices in the kingdom.[215] You are not by
birth a Frenchman, but a German. One of the greatest ladies in the world
will cause you considerable misfortune,[216] through the medium of a red
animal.[217] You will, however, finally triumph over your troubles,
although the trial will be a long and a severe one."
Luminelli then consulted his magic globe a second time; led the lackey
of M. de Créquy to the rear of his master; made a profound salutation to
the latter; and addressing him in his turn, detailed, as he had
previously done in the case of Bassompierre, all the leading events of
his past and future life. He next went through the same ceremony with
the Duc de la Force and M. de Rambure; and ultimately he turned towards
the Maréchal d'Ancre, exclaiming:
"You, Sir, are no Venetian, although you have sought to appear such;
but it would be well for you if you were so. As it is, if you will
follow my advice, you will leave Paris to-morrow for Venice; for should
you long delay your departure, it will be too late to effect it. When
you arrived in France you were alike poor and obscure, although you are
now rich both in gold and honours. Leave the country, nevertheless, or
these advantages will avail you nothing. With few exceptions, you are
detested by all classes; and you will find your native air of Florence
more wholesome than that of the country which you have adopted. You
possess governments, and wield the _bâton_ of a Maréchal de France, but
your tenure of these dignities is unstable; and you will do well to save
yourself while you have yet the opportunity. You place your reliance on
the favour of a crowned head, but that very favour shadows forth
your ruin."
As Concini stood motionless before him, the astrologer took him by the
hand, and leading him towards the globe, by a slight touch caused it to
revolve. As he gazed upon the polished surface of the mysterious
instrument, the colour of the Italian came and went so rapidly that his
companions believed him to be attacked by sudden indisposition; and
depositing a heavy purse of gold upon the table, they urged him to
withdraw. Before they could effect their object, however, Luminelli
thrust the purse from him, having previously withdrawn from it a single
pistole which he flung to his attendant. He then cast himself back upon
his chair; the heavy curtain again fell before the globe; and he
appeared totally unconscious of the continued presence of his visitors,
whose departure was retarded for a few seconds by the utter incapacity
of Concini to leave the room. With a powerful effort the Italian,
however, suddenly suppressed his emotion, although he still trembled so
violently that he was compelled to lean upon Bassompierre for support;
nor did the attack, as had been anticipated, yield to the influence of
the external air, for the Maréchal continued throughout the entire space
of two hours wholly unable to control its violence; while not all the
eager questioning of his companions could induce him to reveal the cause
of his frightful agitation; a fact by which they were firmly persuaded
that the astrologer had revealed to him an intimate acquaintance with
past events which justified his warning, or had foreshadowed a future
well calculated to arouse alarm.[218] Be this as it might, it appears at
least certain that the five nobles were each and all deeply impressed by
the scene through which they had just passed, by whatever agency it
might have been effected; and that the report which they made on their
return to Marie de Medicis effectually indisposed her from seeking any
further knowledge of Giorgio Luminelli.