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[Contents.]
[List of Illustrations] (In certain versions of this etext [in certain browsers] clicking directly on the image, will bring up a larger version.) (etext transcriber's note) |
A GALLANT OF LORRAINE
VOL. II.
A GALLANT
OF LORRAINE
FRANÇOIS, SEIGNEUR DE BASSOMPIERRE,
MARQUIS D’HAROUEL, MARÉCHAL
:: :: DE FRANCE (1579-1646) :: ::
BY
H. NOEL WILLIAMS
AUTHOR OF “FIVE FAIR SISTERS,” “A PRINCESS OF INTRIGUE,”
“THE BROOD OF FALSE LORRAINE,” ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES
With 16 Illustrations
VOL. II
LONDON : HURST & BLACKETT, LTD.
:: PATERNOSTER HOUSE, E.C. ::
CONTENTS
VOL. II
| [CHAPTER XXV] | |
|---|---|
Offer of Schomberg, Saint-Géran and Marillac to take Montauban withintwelve days—Advice of Père Arnoux—Diplomacy of Bassompierre—Ahumiliating fiasco—A second attempt meets with nobetter success—Bassompierre counsels the King to raise the siege,and it is decided to follow his advice—General exasperation againstLuynes—Louis XIII begins to grow weary of his favourite—Conversationof the King with Bassompierre—The latter warnsLuynes that he “does not sufficiently cultivate the good graces ofthe King”—Reply of the Constable—Louis XIII twits Luyneswith the love of the Duc de Chevreuse for his wife—Puisieux,Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Père Arnoux, the King’s Jesuitconfessor, conspire against the Constable—Disgrace of the latter—Bassompierre,at the head of the bulk of the Royal forces, layssiege to Monheurt—A perilous situation—Bassompierre falls illof fever—He leaves the army and sets out for La Réole—He istaken seriously ill at Marmande—His three doctors—Approach ofthe enemy—Refusal of the townsfolk to admit him and his suiteinto the town—A terrible night—He recovers and proceeds toBordeaux—Death of the Constable before Monheurt | |
| [CHAPTER XXVI] | |
Who will govern the King and France?—The pretenders to the royalfavour—Position of Bassompierre—The Cardinal de Retz andSchomberg join forces and secure for their ally De Vic the office ofKeeper of the Seals—They propose to remove Bassompierre fromthe path of their ambition by separating him from the King—Bassompierreis offered the lieutenancy-general of Guienne andsubsequently the government of Béarn, but declines both offices—Heinflicts a sharp reverse upon Retz and Schomberg—Condéjoins the Court—His designs—The rival parties: the party of theMinisters and the party of the marshals—Monsieur le Princedecides to ally himself with that of the Ministers—Mortifyingrebuff administered by the King to the Ministers at the instance ofBassompierre—Failure of an attempt of the Ministers to injureBassompierre and Créquy with Louis XIII—Arrival of the Kingin Paris—Affectionate meeting between him and his mother—Accidentto the Queen | |
| [CHAPTER XXVII] | |
Question of the Huguenot War the principal subject of contentionbetween the two parties—Condé and the Ministers demand itscontinuance—Marie de’ Medici, prompted by Richelieu, advocatespeace—Secret negotiations of Louis XIII with the Huguenotleaders—Soubise’s offensive in the West obliges the King to continuethe war—Louis XIII advances against the Huguenot chief,who has established himself in the Île de Rié—Condé accusesBassompierre of “desiring to prevent him from acquiring glory”—Courageof the King—Passage of the Royal army from the Îledu Perrier to the Île de Rié—Total defeat of Soubise—Siege ofRoyan—The King in the trenches—His remarkable coolness andintrepidity under fire—Capitulation of Royan—The Marquis de laForce created a marshal of France—Conversation between LouisXIII and Bassompierre—Diplomatic speech of the latter | |
| [CHAPTER XXVIII] | |
Condé and his allies offer to secure for Bassompierre the position offavourite, if he will join forces with them to bring about the fall ofPuisieux—Refusal of Bassompierre—Condé complains to LouisXIII of Bassompierre’s hostility to him—Bassompierre informs theKing of the proposal which has been made him—Louis XIII ordersMonsieur le Prince to be reconciled with Bassompierre—Siege ofNégrepelisse—The town is taken by storm—Terrible fate of thegarrison and the inhabitants—Fresh differences between Condéand Bassompierre—Discomfiture of Monsieur le Prince—Bassompierre,placed temporarily in command of the Royal army, capturesthe towns of Carmain and Cuq-Toulza—Offer of Bassompierre toresign his claim to the marshal’s bâton in favour of Schomberg—Surrenderof Lunel—Massacre of the garrison by disbanded soldiersof the Royal army—Bassompierre causes eight of the latter to behanged—Lunel in danger of being destroyed by fire with allwithin its walls—Bassompierre, by his presence of mind, saves thesituation—Schomberg and Bassompierre—The latter is promisedthe marshal’s bâton | |
| [CHAPTER XXIX] | |
Conditions of peace with the Huguenots decided upon—Refusal of thecitizens of Montpellier to open their gates to the King until hisarmy has been disbanded—Bullion advises Louis XIII to accedeto their wishes, and is supported by the majority of the Council—Bassompierreis of the contrary opinion and urges the King toreduce Montpellier to “entire submission and repentance”—LouisXIII decides to follow the advice of Bassompierre, and thesiege of the town is begun—A disastrous day for the Royal army—Deathof Zamet and the Italian engineer Gamorini—Politicalintrigues—Bassompierre succeeds in securing the post of Keeperof the Seals for Caumartin, although the King has already promisedit to d’Aligre, the nominee of Condé—Heavy losses sustained bythe besiegers in an attack upon one of the advanced works—Condéquits the army and sets out for Italy—Bassompierre iscreated marshal of France amidst general acclamations—Peace issigned—Death of the Abbé Roucellaï—Bassompierre accompaniesthe King to Avignon, where he again falls of petechial fever, butrecovers—He assists at the entry of the King and Queen intoLyons—He is offered the government of the Maine, but declines it. | |
| [CHAPTER XXX] | |
Fall of Schomberg—La Vieuville becomes Surintendent des Finances—Hisbitter jealousy of Bassompierre—He informs Louis XIII thatthe marshal “deserves the Bastille or worse”—Semi-disgrace ofBassompierre, who, however, succeeds in making his peace withthe King—Mismanagement of public affairs by Puisieux and hisfather, the Chancellor Brulart de Sillery—La Vieuville andRichelieu intrigue against them and procure their dismissal fromoffice—The Earl of Holland arrives in Paris to sound the FrenchCourt on the question of a marriage between the Prince of Walesand Henrietta Maria—Bassompierre takes part in a grand ballet atthe Louvre—La Vieuville accuses the marshal of drawing moremoney for the Swiss than he is entitled to—Foreign policy of LaVieuville—Richelieu re-enters the Council—Bassompierre accusedby La Vieuville of being a pensioner of Spain—Serious situation ofthe marshal—The Connétable Lesdiguières advises Bassompierreto leave France, but the latter decides to remain—Differencesbetween La Vieuville and Richelieu over the negotiations for theEnglish marriage—Arrogance and presumption of La Vieuville—Intriguesof Richelieu against him—The King informs Bassompierrethat he has decided to disgrace La Vieuville—Indiscretionof the marshal—Duplicity of Louis XIII towards his Minister—Fallof La Vieuville—Richelieu becomes the virtual head of theCouncil | |
| [CHAPTER XXXI] | |
Vigorous foreign policy of Richelieu—The recovery of the Valtellina—Hisprojected blow at the Spanish power in Northern Italyfrustrated by a fresh Huguenot insurrection—Bassompierre sentto Brittany—Marriage of Charles I and Henrietta Maria—Bassompierreoffered the command of a new army which is to bedespatched to Italy—He demands 7,000 men from the Army ofChampagne—The Duc d’Angoulême and Louis de Marillac, thegenerals commanding that army, have recourse to the bogey of aGerman invasion in order to retain these troops—Bassompierredeclines the appointment—Conversation between Bassompierreand the Spanish Ambassador Mirabello on the subject of peacebetween France and Spain—The marshal is empowered to treatfor peace with Mirabello—Singular conduct of the Ambassador—Newsarrives from Madrid that Philip IV has revoked the powersgiven to Mirabello—Bassompierre is sent as Ambassador Extraordinaryto the Swiss Cantons to counteract the intrigues of thehouse of Austria and the Papacy—His reception in Switzerland—Lavishhospitality which he dispenses—Complete success of hisnegotiations | |
| [CHAPTER XXXII] | |
Bassompierre goes on a mission to Charles IV of Lorraine—He returnsto France—The Venetian Ambassador Contarini informs themarshal that it is rumoured that a secret treaty has been signedbetween France and Spain—Richelieu authorises Bassompierre todeny that such a treaty exists, but the same day the marshal learnsfrom the King that the French Ambassador at Madrid has signeda treaty, though unauthorised to do so—Indignation of Bassompierre,who, however, refrains from denouncing the treaty, whichit is decided not to disavow—Explanation of this diplomaticimbroglio—Growing strength of the aristocratic opposition toRichelieu—The marriage of Monsieur—The “Conspiration desDames”—Intrigues of the Duchesse de Chevreuse—Madame deChevreuse and Chalais—Objects of the conspirators—Arrest ofthe Maréchal d’Ornano—Indignation of Monsieur—Conversationof Bassompierre with the prince—Plot against the life or liberty ofRichelieu—Chalais is forced by the Commander de Valençay toreveal it to the Cardinal—“The quarry is no longer at home!”—Alarmof Monsieur—His abject submission to the King andRichelieu—He resumes his intrigues—Chalais is again involved inthe conspiracy by Madame de Chevreuse—Arrest of the Duc deVendôme and his half-brother the Grand Prior | |
| [CHAPTER XXXIII] | |
Alarm of the conspirators at the arrest of the Vendômes—Chalais, atthe instigation of Madame de Chevreuse, urges Monsieur to takeflight and throw himself into a fortress—Monsieur and Chalaisjoin the Court at Blois—The Comte de Louvigny betrays the latterto the Cardinal—Chalais is arrested at Nantes—Despicable conductof Monsieur—Chalais, persuaded by Richelieu that Madamede Chevreuse is unfaithful to him, makes the gravest accusationagainst her, in the hope of saving his life—He is, nevertheless,condemned to death—He withdraws his accusations againstMadame de Chevreuse—His barbarous execution—Death of theMaréchal d’Ornano—Marriage of Monsieur—Bassompierre declinesthe post of Surintendant of Monsieur’s Household—Indignationof Louis XIII against Anne of Austria—Public humiliationinflicted upon the Queen—Banishment of Madame de Chevreuse—Bassompierrenominated Ambassador Extraordinary toEngland—Differences between Charles I and Henrietta over thequestion of the young Queen’s French attendants—The Tyburnpilgrimage—Expulsion of the French attendants from England—Resentmentof the Court of France | |
| [CHAPTER XXXIV] | |
Bassompierre arrives in England—His journey to London—He is visitedsecretly by the Duke of Buckingham—He visits the duke in thesame manner at York House—Charles I commands him to sendPère de Sancy back to France—Singular history of this ecclesiastic—Refusalof Bassompierre—His first audience of Charles I andHenrietta Maria at Hampton Court—Firmness of Bassompierre onthe question of Père de Sancy—He visits the Queen at SomersetHouse—His private audience of the King—He reproves thepresumption of Buckingham—Admirable qualities displayed byBassompierre in the difficult situation in which he is placed—Hesucceeds in effecting a reconciliation between the King and Queen—Hisable and eloquent speech before the Council—An agreementon the question of the Queen’s French attendants is finally arrivedat—Lord Mayor’s Day three centuries ago—Bassompierre reconcilesthe Queen with Buckingham—Stormy scene between Charles Iand Henrietta Maria at Whitehall—Bassompierre speaks his mindto the Queen—Intrigues of Père de Sancy—Peace is re-established—Magnificentfête at York House—Departure of Bassompierrefrom London—He is detained at Dover by bad weather—Englandand France on the verge of war—Buckingham decides to proceedto France on a special mission and proposes to accompany Bassompierre—Embarrassmentof the latter—He visits the duke atCanterbury and persuades him to defer his visit—A disastrousChannel passage—Return of Bassompierre to Paris—Refusal ofthe Court of France to receive Buckingham—An English historian’sappreciation of Bassompierre | |
| [CHAPTER XXXV] | |
The Assembly of the Notables—Bassompierre nominated one of thefour presidents—The “sorry Château of Versailles”—The balletof le Sérieux et le Grotesque—Execution of Montmorency-Bouttevilleand Des Chapelles for duelling—Death of Madame—Preparationsfor war with England—Louis XIII resolves to takecommand of the army assembled in Poitou—The King falls ill atthe Château of Villeroy—Bassompierre is prevented by Richelieufrom visiting him—Intrigue by which the Duc d’Angoulême isappointed to the command of the army which ought to havedevolved upon Bassompierre—Descent of Buckingham upon theÎle de Ré—Blockade of the fortress of Saint-Martin—Investmentof La Rochelle by the Royal army—Bassompierre, the King, andRichelieu at the Château of Saumery—The Cardinal assumes thepractical direction of the military operations—Provisions andreinforcements are thrown into Saint-Martin—Refusal of theMaréchaux de Bassompierre and Schomberg to allow Angoulêmeto be associated with them in the command of the Royal army—Schombergis persuaded to accept the duke as a colleague—Bassompierrepersists in his refusal and requests permission of theKing to leave the army—He is offered and accepts the commandof a separate army, which is to blockade La Rochelle from thenorth-western side—He declines the government of Brittany—Dangeroussituation of Buckingham’s army in the Île de Ré—Unsuccessfulattempt to take Saint-Martin by assault—Disastrousretreat of the English | |
| [CHAPTER XXXVI] | |
Siege of La Rochelle begins—Immense difficulties of the undertaking—Unwillingnessof the great nobles to see the Huguenot partyentirely crushed—Remark of Bassompierre—Courage and energyof Richelieu—His measures to provide for the welfare and efficiencyof the besieging army—The lines of circumvallation—Erection ofthe Fort of La Fons by Bassompierre—The construction of themole is begun and proceeded with in the face of great difficulties—Responsibilitiesof Bassompierre—The Duc d’Angoulêmeaccuses the marshal of a gross piece of negligence, but the lattersucceeds in turning the tables upon his accuser—Louis XIIIreturns to Paris, leaving Richelieu with the title of “Lieutenant-Generalof the Army”—Critical state of affairs in Italy—Unsuccessfulattempts to take La Rochelle by surprise—Intrigues ofMarie de’ Medici and the High Catholic party against Richelieu—TheKing rejoins the army—Guiton elected Mayor of LaRochelle | |
| [CHAPTER XXXVII] | |
Arrival of the English fleet under the Earl of Denbigh—Its composition—Daringfeat of an English pinnace—Retirement of the fleet—Probableexplanation of this fiasco—Indignation of Charles I,who orders Denbigh to return to La Rochelle, but this is found tobe impossible—The Rochellois approach Bassompierre with arequest for a conference to arrange terms of surrender—Thearrival of a letter from Charles I promising to send another fleetto their succour causes the negotiations to be broken off—LaRochelle in the grip of famine—Refusal of Louis XIII to allow theold men, women and children to pass through the Royal lines:their miserable fate—Movements in favour of surrender among thecitizens suppressed by the Mayor Guiton—Terrible sufferings ofLa Rochelle—Bassompierre spares the life of a Huguenot soldierwho had intended to kill him—Difficulties experienced by Charles Iand Buckingham in fitting out a new expedition—Assassinationof Buckingham—The vanguard of the English fleet, under thecommand of the Earl of Lindsey, appears off La Rochelle—Narrowescape of Richelieu and Bassompierre—The King takesup his quarters with Bassompierre at Laleu—Arrival of the restof the English fleet—Feeble efforts of the English to force theirway into the harbour—The Rochellois, reduced to the last extremity,sue for peace—Bassompierre conducts deputies from thetown to Richelieu—Surrender of La Rochelle—Bassompierrereturns with the King to Paris | |
| [CHAPTER XXXVIII] | |
The Duc de Rohan and the Huguenots of the South continue theirresistance—Opposition of Marie de’ Medici and the High Catholicparty to Richelieu’s Italian policy—The Cardinal’s memorial toLouis XIII—Monsieur appointed to the command of the armywhich is to enter Italy—The King, jealous of his brother, decidesto command in person—Twelve thousand crowns for a dozen ofcider—Combat of the Pass of Susa—Treaty signed with CharlesEmmanuel of Savoy—Problem of the reception of the GenoeseAmbassadors—Anger of Louis XIII at a jest of Bassompierre—Peacewith England—Campaign against the Huguenots of Languedoc—Massacreof the garrison of Privas—“La Paix de Grâce”—Surrenderof Montauban—Richelieu and d’Épernon—Bassompierrereturns to Paris with the Cardinal—Their frigid receptionby the Queen-Mother—Richelieu proposes to retire from affairsand the Court, but an accommodation is effected | |
| [CHAPTER XXXIX] | |
Serious situation of affairs in Italy—Trouble with Monsieur—Richelieuentrusted with the command of the Army in Italy—It is decidedto send Bassompierre on a special embassy to Switzerland—Themarshal buys the Château of Chaillot—His departure for Switzerland—Mazarinat Lyons—Bassompierre’s reception at Fribourg—Hearrives at Soleure and convenes a meeting of the Diet—Hisdiscomfiture of the Chancellor of Alsace—Success of his mission—Hereceives orders from Richelieu to mobilise 6,000 Swiss—TheCardinal as generalissimo—Pinerolo surrenders—Bassompierrejoins the King at Lyons—Louis XIII and Mlle. de Hautefort—Successfulcampaign of Bassompierre in Savoy—His mortificationat having to resign his command to the Maréchal de Châtillon—Increasingrancour of the Queen-Mother against Richelieu—Visitof Bassompierre to Paris—An unfortunate coincidence—Louis XIIIfalls dangerously ill at Lyons—Intrigues around his sick-bed—Periloussituation of Richelieu—Recovery of the King—Arrivalof Bassompierre at Lyons—Suspicions of Richelieu concerning themarshal—The latter endeavours to disarm them—Question ofBassompierre’s connection with the anti-Richelieu cabal considered—Hissecret marriage to the Princesse de Conti | |
| [CHAPTER XL] | |
Peace is signed with the Emperor at Ratisbon—The Queen-Motherdeprives Richelieu’s niece Madame de Combalet of her post ofdame d’atours and demands of Louis XIII the instant dismissalof the Cardinal—The Luxembourg interview—“The Day ofDupes”—Triumph of Richelieu—Bassompierre’s explanation ofhis own part in this affair—His visit to Versailles—“He hasarrived after the battle!”—He gives offence to Richelieu byrefusing an invitation to dinner—He finds himself in semi-disgrace—Monsieurquarrels with the Cardinal and leaves the Court—TheKing again treats Bassompierre with cordiality—Departure of theCourt for Compiègne—Bassompierre learns that the Queen-Motherhas been placed under arrest and the Princesse de Contiexiled, and that he himself is to be arrested—The marshal isadvised by the Duc d’Épernon to leave France—He declines andannounces his intention of going to the Court to meet his fate—Heburns “more than six thousand love-letters”—His arrival atthe Court—Singular conduct of the King towards him—Themarshal is arrested by the Sieur de Launay, lieutenant of theGardes du Corps, and conducted to the Bastille | |
| [CHAPTER XLI] | |
Bassompierre in the Bastille—He is informed that he has been imprisoned“from fear lest he might be induced to do wrong”—Monsieurretires to Lorraine—The marshal’s nephew the Marquisde Bassompierre is ordered to leave France—After a few weeks ofcaptivity, Bassompierre solicits his liberty, which is refused—Hefalls seriously ill, but recovers—Death of his wife the Princessede Conti—Flight of the Queen-Mother to Brussels—Death ofBassompierre’s brother the Marquis de Removille—Execution ofthe Maréchal de Marillac—Montmorency’s revolt—Trial andexecution of the duke—Hopes of liberty, which, however, do notmaterialise—Arrest of Châteauneuf—Arrival of the Chevalier deJars in the Bastille—A grim experience—Bassompierre disposesof his post of Colonel-General of the Swiss to the Marquis deCoislin—The marshal’s hopes of liberty constantly flattered and asconstantly deceived—Malignity of Richelieu—The ravages committedby the contending armies upon his estates in Lorrainereduce Bassompierre to the verge of ruin—The marshal’s niece,Madame de Beuvron, solicits her uncle’s liberty of Richelieu—Mockinganswer of the Cardinal—Some notes written by Bassompierrein the margin of a copy of Dupleix’s history are publishedunder his name, but without his authority—The historian complainsto the Cardinal—Arrest of Valbois for reciting a sonnetattacking Richelieu for his treatment of Bassompierre—Apprehensionsof the marshal—His despair at his continued detention—Griefoccasioned him by the death of a favourite dog—The Ducde Guise dies in exile | |
| [CHAPTER XLII] | |
Death of Richelieu—Bassompierre is offered his liberty on conditionthat he shall retire to his brother-in-law Saint-Luc’s Château ofTillières—He at first refuses to leave the Bastille, unless he ispermitted to return to Court—His friends persuade him to alterhis decision—He is authorised to reappear at Court—His answerto the King’s question concerning his age—He recovers his post asColonel-General of the Swiss—His death—His funeral—His sons,Louis de Bassompierre and François de la Tour—His nephews | |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOL. II
| [Queen Henrietta Maria] | [Frontispiece] |
| From the picture by Van Dyck at Dresden. | |
| FACING PAGE | |
| [Louis XIII King of France] | [346] |
| From an engraving by Picart. | |
| [Charles, Marquis de La Vieuville] | [402] |
| From a contemporary print. | |
| [François, Seigneur de Bassompierre, Marquis D’Harouel] | [430] |
| From a contemporary print. | |
| [Charles I] | [470] |
| After the picture by Van Dyck at Dresden. | |
| [George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham] | [518] |
| After the picture by Gerard Honthorst in the National Portrait Gallery. Photo by Emery Walker. | |
| [Marie de’ Medicis, Queen of France] | [564] |
| From an old print. | |
| [Charlotte Louise de Lorraine, Princesse de Conti] | [604] |
| From an engraving by Thomas de Leu. | |
A Gallant of Lorraine
CHAPTER XXV
Offer of Schomberg, Saint-Géran and Marillac to take Montauban within twelve days—Advice of Père Arnoux—Diplomacy of Bassompierre—A humiliating fiasco—A second attempt meets with no better success—Bassompierre counsels the King to raise the siege, and it is decided to follow his advice—General exasperation against Luynes—Louis XIII begins to grow weary of his favourite—Conversation of the King with Bassompierre—The latter warns Luynes that he “does not sufficiently cultivate the good graces of the King”—Reply of the Constable—Louis XIII twits Luynes with the love of the Duc de Chevreuse for his wife—Puisieux, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Père Arnoux, the King’s Jesuit confessor, conspire against the Constable—Disgrace of the latter—Bassompierre, at the head of the bulk of the Royal forces, lays siege to Monheurt—A perilous situation—Bassompierre falls ill of fever—He leaves the army and sets out for La Réole—He is taken seriously ill at Marmande—His three doctors—Approach of the enemy—Refusal of the townsfolk to admit him and his suite into the town—A terrible night—He recovers and proceeds to Bordeaux—Death of the Constable before Monheurt.
During the next few days some progress was made by the Guards at Ville-Nouvelle; but the other two divisions seemed able to do little or nothing; while the garrison, strengthened by the accession of several hundred first-class fighting men, harassed them incessantly. On October 4, Louis XIII summoned another council of war at Picqueos, to which Bassompierre went. On his arrival he was met by Père Arnoux, the King’s Jesuit confessor, who said to him: “Well, Monsieur, Montauban is going to be given, so they say, to him who offers the lowest price for it, as they give the public works in France. In how many days do you offer to take it?” Bassompierre replied that no one would be so presumptuous as to name a day by which a place like Montauban could be taken, and that the duration of the siege would depend on many circumstances. “We have bidders much more determined than you are,” rejoined the Jesuit. And he told him that the leaders of the Le Moustier division had pledged “their heads and their honour” to take Montauban in twelve days, provided that the Guards would hand over to them the greater part of their cannon; and that it was with the object of deliberating upon this proposal that the council had been summoned. He then advised Bassompierre, with whom he was on very friendly terms, that he and colleagues “would do a thing agreeable to the King and the Constable by not opposing it, unless they were prepared to pledge themselves to place Montauban in the King’s hands in an even shorter time.”
Bassompierre thanked the Jesuit, and drawing Praslin and Chaulnes aside, told them of the proposal which the leaders of the Le Moustier division—Schomberg, Saint-Géran and Marillac—intended to make at the council, though he did not tell them of the source of his information, which he allowed them to think was the King himself. He then pointed out that these officers, who had been in anything but good odour with the King and the rest of the army since their refusal to attack the bastion of Le Moustier, hoped to rehabilitate their reputation for courage by offering to accomplish a task which they must very well know to be impossible, even with the assistance of the Guards’ cannon. They undoubtedly believed, however, that Praslin and Chaulnes would refuse to surrender their artillery, in which event they would gain credit with the King for having made the offer, and, at the same time, throw the responsibility for being unable to carry it out upon the officers of the Guards’ division, of whom they were bitterly jealous. And he begged the two marshals “in God’s name” not to fall into the trap prepared for them by refusing to give up their cannon. The latter agreed to do as he advised, and they went into the room where the council was assembling.
The Constable opened the proceedings in a lengthy speech, in which he exhorted the marshals and generals present to “lay aside all emulations, jealousies and envies,” and co-operate loyally together for the service of the King. Then he turned to the leaders of the Guards’ division and “inquired how long precisely they would require to take the town.” Bassompierre and the two marshals, after a pretence of consulting together, answered that they had done, and would continue to do, everything that was humanly possible to achieve this result, but that they were not prepared to name any definite time. The Constable then said that the officers from Le Moustier were ready to pledge themselves to take the town in twelve days; and Saint-Géran, turning to the King, exclaimed: “Yes, Sire, we promise it you upon our honour and upon our lives!”
Bassompierre and his colleagues applauded their resolution to render this great service to the King, and assured them that, as devoted servants of his Majesty, if there were any way in which they might contribute to the success of their enterprise, they had only to command them. Upon which the Constable said that the King wished them to send to Le Moustier sixteen of their siege-guns. To this they at once consented, and added that, if men were needed, they would willingly send 1,500 or 2,000, and Bassompierre himself would command them.
The officers from Le Moustier, much embarrassed, for they had counted with confidence on their demand for the Guards’ cannon being refused, thanked them, and said that their artillery was all that they required. The others then said to the Constable that, in view of the fact that they were surrendering practically the whole of their siege-guns, they presumed that the King would discharge them from the obligation of taking the town; and they were given to understand that all that would be required of them would be to divert the enemy’s attention from Le Moustier by occasional attacks and mines.
Within the next forty-eight hours the Guards’ cannon was delivered at Le Moustier; but when Bassompierre went there on the 10th, on the pretext of visiting a friend of his who had been wounded, to see how matters were progressing, he found that the batteries were very badly placed, and that, notwithstanding the weight of gunfire, comparatively little impression had been made on the defences.
On the previous day, Bassompierre, catching sight of La Force on the ramparts of Ville-Nouvelle, had gone forward, under a flag of truce, to speak to him. He found the Huguenot chief eager for some arrangement which would put an end to this fratricidal struggle; and, at his suggestion, he spoke to Chaulnes and urged him to persuade the Constable to meet Rohan, who, La Force had given him to understand, would be willing to approach Montauban for that purpose, and discuss with him terms of peace. This Chaulnes agreed to do, and on October 13 an interview took place between Luynes and Rohan at the Château of Regnies, some four leagues from Picqueos. After a long consultation, terms were agreed upon, subject to the approval of the King and the Council, which, says Bassompierre, were “advantageous and honourable for the King and useful for the State.” But when the Council met, Schomberg urged that a decision should be postponed until after he and his colleagues at Le Moustier had made their attempt to take the town, which he was confident would be successful. In that event, he pointed out, they would be able to impose much more severe terms on the Huguenots. And he swore “on his honour and his life” that he would take Montauban within the time specified. The King and the Council, impressed by such unbounded confidence, agreed to do as he advised.
On the 17th, the Constable sent for Bassompierre to come to Le Moustier, where he had gone to dine with Schomberg, and inquired whether a mine which he had instructed him to prepare some days before were finished. Bassompierre replied in the affirmative, upon which the Constable said: “It must be exploded to-morrow so soon as you receive the order from me, for, if it please God, to-morrow we shall be in Montauban, provided everyone is willing to do his duty.” Bassompierre answered that he could rely on the Guards’ division doing theirs, when Luynes told him that the explosion of the mine must be followed by a feint against the advanced-works of Ville-Nouvelle, in order to divert the enemy while the Le Moustier division stormed the town. Bassompierre had heard during the past two days a furious bombardment proceeding in that quarter, but when he scanned the defences, he could not perceive any practicable breach nor even the appearance of one. “Monsieur,” said he, “you speak with great confidence. May God grant that it may be justified!” Both the Constable and Schomberg appeared to regard the taking of the town as already assured, and, as he took leave of them, the latter said: “Brother, I invite you to dine with me the day after to-morrow in Montauban.” “Brother,” answered Bassompierre, “that will be a Friday and a fish-day. Let us postpone it until Sunday, and do not fail to be there.”
Bassompierre transmitted the order which he had received from the Constable to Chaulnes and Praslin, who instructed him to take charge of the mine, and to have everything in readiness for the diversion they were to make on the morrow.
The eventful day which, if Schomberg and his colleagues were to be believed, was destined to atone for all the toil and bloodshed of the past two months, arrived, and with it the King, the Constable, the Cardinal de Retz, Père Arnoux, Puisieux, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and many other distinguished persons, who were conducted by them to carefully-selected positions from which they would be able to enjoy an uninterrupted view of the storming of the town. At the same time, they ordered their servants to pack up their plate, linen, and so forth, as they intended to sup and sleep in Montauban. “And many other things they did more ridiculous than I shall condescend to write down.”
Early in the afternoon, the Guards’ division received orders “to begin the dance,” and Bassompierre fired his mine, which blew a big hole in the enemy’s advanced-works in that quarter and sent an unfortunate young officer of the Guards, the Baron d’Auges, into another world. Mines, in those days, appear to have had an unpleasant way of taking toll of both sides. The Guards occupied the crater, but, in accordance with their orders, did not advance any further. At the same time, the troops at Ville-Bourbon made a similar diversion.
The great assault, however, tarried. It tarried so long that at length the King grew impatient, and sent to Schomberg and his colleagues to inquire the reason why they did not advance. They replied that there was no breach that was practicable. Presently, he sent again, and was informed that, though there was a breach, scaling-ladders would be required, and these had not yet arrived. The scaling-ladders were brought, and once more the King wanted to know why they did not attack. The answer was that the delay had enabled the enemy to repair the breach; it would have to be reopened by a fresh bombardment.
“Finally,” says Bassompierre, “after having wasted the whole day up to six o’clock in the evening, and kept 600 gentlemen and a great number of people of note under arms all day, without doing or attempting to do anything, unless it were to kill a good many people of the town who showed themselves, they sent to tell the King that they had freshly reconnoitred the place where the attack must be delivered, and that truly it was not practicable. And upon that everyone went home.”
Next day, Louis XIII sent a message to Ville-Nouvelle requesting one of the two marshals or Bassompierre to come to Picqueos; and it was decided that Bassompierre should go. He found the King in his cabinet with the Constable, the Cardinal de Retz, and Roucellaï, and it was plain that his Majesty was in a very ill-humour. “Bassompierre,” said he, “you have long been of opinion that nothing of any use would be accomplished on the side of Le Moustier.” “Your Majesty will pardon me,” answered Bassompierre, “but I never believed that everything that was proposed would succeed. Nevertheless, one must judge things by the results.” The King then told him that Schomberg and his colleagues had assured him that in five days they would be able to establish a battery of their heaviest guns on a knoll within a very short distance of the walls, and open a breach which would enable them to storm the town; and inquired what he thought about it. Bassompierre replied that, if they did succeed in establishing a battery there, the town must fall; but he very much doubted whether the enemy would allow them to do it. “And I,” exclaimed the King angrily, “refuse to wait for what they wish to do. For they are deceivers; and I will never believe anything they say again.” The Constable here interposed, and begged his Majesty to remember that the generals at Le Moustier were as much mortified as he was at the fiasco of the previous day. And he asked that they might be given another chance of redeeming their promise to take the town. To this the King agreed, and Bassompierre was told to arrange another diversion when the time for the assault to be delivered should arrive.
However, it never did arrive. During the next few days the knoll was fortified without any interference from the enemy, and nothing remained but to get the guns into position. But, on the early morning of the 25th, the garrison exploded a mine under the knoll which blew it up with its defences, and followed this up by a murderous sally against the Picardy Regiment, who were driven out of their trenches with heavy loss. Three nights later, they made another sortie, this time at the expense of the Champagne Regiment, and, breaking right through it, penetrated to the besiegers’ battery-positions and destroyed one of their largest guns.
After this it was obviously impossible to continue the siege with the smallest hope of success; the winter was coming on; the army, badly paid and badly fed, with no confidence in its leaders, and harassed incessantly by a bold and resolute enemy, was becoming demoralised and was dwindling every day from death, sickness and desertion. Of 30,000 men who had encamped before Montauban at the end of August, only 12,000 effective combatants remained; and the division before Ville-Bourbon was now so weak that its leaders were obliged to ask the Guards for assistance to enable them to hold their trenches against the perpetual attacks to which they were exposed.
On the morrow, the Constable came to Le Moustier and summoned a council of war to decide what was to be done. “Everyone saw plainly,” says Bassompierre, “that we had no longer the means of continuing the siege; but no one wished to propose that it should be abandoned.” At length, Bassompierre took upon himself to do so and urged that they should “reserve the King, themselves and this army for a better future and a more convenient season.” To this the other leaders offered no opposition, and the Constable proceeded to communicate their decision to the King. Louis XIII, with tears in his eyes, directed Bassompierre to supervise the raising of the siege, and afterwards to march, with the greater part of the army, on Monheurt, a little town on the Garonne which had just revolted, as he and the Constable desired to terminate the campaign with a success, however unimportant it might be.
To raise the siege without the risk of incurring further losses was far from an easy task, as, unless every precaution were taken, there was grave danger that the garrison, flushed with success, might sally out and fall upon the rear of the army while it was crossing the Tarn. However, Bassompierre appears to have made his arrangements with considerable skill, and on November 10 the last of the troops were withdrawn, with no more serious interference than a little skirmishing.
The disastrous result of the siege of Montauban caused general exasperation against Luynes, who met with a very bad reception from the people of Toulouse—numbers of whose relatives and friends had fallen during the siege—when he accompanied the King thither about the middle of November. The High Catholic party was particularly furious, and accused the Constable, not only of incapacity, but of treason. What was a more serious matter for him, was the fact that the King was growing weary of his favourite.
This change in Louis XIII’s attitude towards the man whom he had raised so high, and who had so long exercised such an absolute dominion over him, seems to have begun some months before; but it was at first carefully concealed from all but two or three of his intimates.
“One morning, after the siege of Saint-Jean-d’Angély,” says Bassompierre, “as the Constable was returning from dinner, and was about to enter the King’s lodging, with his Swiss and his guards marching before him, and the whole Court and the chief officers of the army following him, the King, perceiving his approach from a window, said to me: ‘See, Bassompierre, it is the King who enters.’ ‘You will pardon me, Sire,’ said I to him, ‘it is a Constable favoured by his master, who is showing your grandeur and displaying the honours you have conferred upon him to the eyes of everyone.’ ‘You do not know him,’ said he. ‘He believes that I ought to give him the rest, and wants to play the King. But I will certainly prevent him doing that, so long as I am alive.’ Upon that I said to him: ‘You are very unfortunate to have taken such fancies into your head; he is also unfortunate, because you have conceived these suspicions against him; and I still more so, because you have revealed them to me. For, one of these days, you and he will shed a few tears, and then you will be appeased; and afterwards you will act as do husbands and wives who, when they have made up their quarrels, dismiss from their service the servants to whom they had confided their ill-will towards each other. Besides, you will tell him that you have not confided your dissatisfaction with him to any save to myself and to certain others; and we shall be the sufferers. And you have seen that, last year, the mere suspicion that he entertained that you might be inclined to favour me determined him to ruin me.’
“He [the King] swore to me with great oaths that he would never speak of it, whatever reconciliation there might be between them, and that he did not intend to open his mind to anyone on this matter, save Père Arnoux and myself, and that on my life I must engage never to open mine to anyone, save Père Arnoux, and only after he [the King] shall have spoken to him, and should command me to do it. I told him that he had but to command me, and that I had already given this command to myself, as it was of importance to my future and to my life.”
A few days after this conversation, Bassompierre was sent to Paris, at which he was much relieved, “since he found that confidences of the King were very dangerous”; and when, some weeks later, he rejoined the army at the beginning of the siege of Montauban, he took care never to approach his Majesty unless he were sent for.
“The resentment of the King against the Constable increased hourly, and the latter, whether it was that he felt assured of the King’s affection, or that the important affairs which he had upon his hands prevented him thinking about it, or that his grandeur blinded him, took less care to entertain the King than he had done formerly. In consequence, the displeasure of the King augmented greatly, and every time that he was able to speak to me in private, he expressed to me the most violent resentment.
“On one occasion when I had come to see him, the Milord de Hay, Ambassador Extraordinary of the King of Great Britain, who had been sent to intervene in favour of peace between the King and the Huguenots, had his first audience of the King, at the conclusion of which he went to visit the Constable. Puisieux, according to custom, came to know from the King what the milord had said at the audience. Upon which the King called me to make a third in their conversation and said to me: ‘He [the Ambassador] is going to have audience of King Luynes!’ I was very astonished at him speaking to me before M. de Puisieux and pretended to misunderstand him; but he said to me: ‘There is no danger before Puisieux, for he is in our secret.’ ‘There is no danger, Sire!’ I exclaimed. ‘Now I am assuredly undone, for he is a timorous and cowardly man, like his father the Chancellor, who at the first lash of the whip will confess everything, and will, in consequence, ruin all his adherents and accomplices.’”
The King began to laugh, and told Bassompierre that he would answer for Puisieux’s discretion. Then he began a long tirade against his favourite, and appeared particularly indignant that the latter should, on the death of Du Vair, the Keeper of the Seals, which had occurred at the beginning of August, have persuaded him to give him the vacant post, notwithstanding that it was as contrary to usage as to common sense for a man to hold the Seals and the Constable’s sword.[1]
Bassompierre left the royal presence, feeling very uneasy. He saw clearly that Luynes was losing his hold over the King; but he knew that it might be some time before the young monarch would be able to summon up sufficient resolution to shake it off entirely; and, meanwhile, if Puisieux, whom he thoroughly distrusted, were to abuse the King’s confidence, and lead the Constable to believe that he was endeavouring to influence his Majesty against him, he would find himself in an even more difficult situation than he had the previous year. He therefore decided that his safest course was “to make some representations to him [Luynes] on the subject, for his good,” without, however, allowing the Constable to suspect that the King had spoken to him. They would probably be well received, for, since his return from Spain, the favourite’s manner towards him had been very cordial, and he appeared most anxious that Bassompierre should identify his interests with his own by marrying his niece.
“Some days after this, happening to be in his cabinet with him, I told him that, as his very humble servant, devoted to his interests, I felt myself obliged to point out to him that he did not cultivate sufficiently the good graces of the King, and that he was not so assiduous in doing this as heretofore; that, as the King was increasing in age and in knowledge of things, and he in charges, honours and benefits, he ought also to increase in submission towards his King, his master, and his benefactor, and that, in God’s name, I begged him to take care and to pardon the liberty I had taken in speaking to him concerning it, since it proceeded from my zeal and passion for his very humble service.”
The favourite took Bassompierre’s warning in very good part, but made light of it:
“He answered that he thanked me and felt obliged for the solicitude which I had for the preservation of his favour, which would assuredly be very useful and profitable to me, and that I had begun to speak to him as a nephew, which he hoped I should be in a little while; that he wished also to answer me as an uncle, and to tell me that I might rest assured that he knew the King to the bottom of his soul; that he understood the means necessary to keep him, as he had known those to win him, and that he purposely gave him on occasion little causes for complaint, which served only to increase the warmth of the affection which he entertained for him. I saw clearly that he was of the same stamp as all other favourites, who believe that, once they have established their fortune, it will endure for ever, and do not recognise the approach of their disgrace until they have no longer the means to prevent it.”
During the closing weeks of the siege of Montauban, whenever the King had an opportunity of speaking to Bassompierre privately, he “complained incessantly of the Constable.” The love—it was of a very innocent kind—which Louis had hitherto entertained for Luynes’s beautiful wife, Marie de Rohan, no longer protected her husband. This love had, in fact, changed into hatred, since his Majesty had perceived that the lady was accepting other attentions, without doubt less platonic than his.
And he took a particularly mean way of avenging himself.
“What made me think worse of him [the King],” writes Bassompierre, “was that all of a sudden the extreme passion that he entertained for Madame la Connétable was converted into such hatred, that he warned her husband that the Duc de Chevreuse was in love with her. He told me that he had said this, upon which I said to him that he had done very ill, and that to make mischief between a husband and wife was to commit sin. ‘God will pardon me for it, if it pleases Him,’ he answered; ‘but I have felt great pleasure in avenging myself on her and of inflicting this mortification upon him.’ And he went on to say several things against him, and, amongst others, that before six months had passed, he would make him disgorge all that he had taken from him.”
A few days after the siege of Montauban had been raised, the King’s other two confidants, the Jesuit Père Arnoux and Puisieux, the former of whom suspected Luynes of desiring to make peace with the Protestants on their own terms, joined forces to procure the downfall of the favourite. But they had underrated the power which habit and the fear of change exercised over the cold heart and indolent mind of Louis XIII. He betrayed them to Luynes, or, perhaps, the pusillanimous Puisieux may have betrayed his fellow-conspirator. Anyway, Luynes learned of the intrigue and insisted on the Jesuit’s disgrace; and “the first news that I had from him [the King],” says Bassompierre, “was that he had been constrained to abandon Père Arnoux to the hatred of the Constable.” The King added that Bassompierre “might be assured that there was nothing against him.” Nevertheless, says that gentleman, “I did not fail to be in great apprehension, although I could say that every time that the King had spoken to me on the subject I had warded off his blows, and that I had been infinitely distressed that he had ever made me the recipient of his confidence.”
However, Bassompierre need not have been alarmed, as it was very soon to be beyond the power of Luynes to injure anyone.
On November 16 Bassompierre and his army encamped before Monheurt, and on the 18th the trenches were opened. A day or two later he had an exceedingly narrow escape of his life.
He was riding, followed by two aides-de-camp, from the trenches of the Piedmont Regiment, to those of the Normandy Regiment, a journey which he had made several times already without interference from the garrison, although it was well within musket-shot of the town, and “dressed in scarlet, with the cross on his cloak, and mounted on a white pony, he was easily recognisable.” Suddenly, the advanced bastion and counterscarp bristled with musketeers, who began firing at him and “with such fury that he heard nothing but balls whistling about him.” One ball struck the pommel of his saddle and another pierced his cloak, but he managed to reach a large tree without being hit, and took shelter behind it. Here he was in safety, though the enemy fired more than a hundred shots at it. At length, the firing ceased and, thinking that they had exhausted their ammunition, he mounted and galloped towards the trenches of the Normandy Regiment. However, they had only been waiting for him to show himself, and, so soon as he did so, they began firing at him again as fiercely as ever. “But,” says he, “as my hour was not yet come, God preserved me against the attempt; though I believe I was never nearer death than I was on that occasion.”
The weather was very bad, rain falling incessantly, and the soldiers were nearly up to their knees in mud. Nevertheless, they worked well, and by the 22nd, on which day the siege-artillery arrived, they had pushed their trenches close to the walls.
Meanwhile, Bassompierre had received a secret communication from the Marquis de Mirambeau, the commander of the garrison, who offered to surrender Monheurt, in consideration of receiving a sum of 4,000 crowns and a formal pardon for his offence of having taken up arms against the King. The Maréchal de Roquelaure, lieutenant-general of Guienne, had lately arrived to take the nominal command of the siege operations. But he left their direction entirely in Bassompierre’s hands, and, as Mirambeau had requested that he should not be informed of his offer, it was communicated to Louis XIII, who was still at Toulouse. This decided the King and the Constable to come to Monheurt, “in order to have the honour of taking it.”
On the 23rd, Bassompierre, after inspecting one of his batteries, advanced a few paces in front of it to survey some point in the defences. “The gunners,” he says, “not thinking that I was there, discharged their pieces, the wind of which threw me very rudely to the ground, and left me with a singing in my right ear, accompanied by insupportable twinges.” Two hours later he was taken ill with fever, but he remained on duty all that day, during which the trenches were pushed up to the border of the moat. Next morning, however, he was so much worse that he wrote to the King and the Constable asking to be relieved of his command, and saying that he proposed to go to La Réole, where he could secure skilled medical attention, for he was too prudent to trust himself to the care of the army surgeons. He also begged them to send him a doctor.
Next morning he received a very kind letter from the King, granting his request and informing him that he was sending a doctor, upon which he embarked in a boat, accompanied by his personal attendants and a guard of Swiss halberdiers, and set off down the Garonne towards La Réole.
On arriving at Tonneins, about midway between Monheurt and Marmande, he learned that a small force of cavalry was crossing the river to the right bank, and that they were the Constable’s own company of gensdarmes.
He sent for the officers in command to inquire where they were going, and was told that they had received orders from the Maréchal de Roquelaure to take up their quarters in a little town called Gontaud, about half-a-league from Marmande. He expressed his surprise that Roquelaure should send a small body of cavalry, unaccompanied by infantry, to an open town in the midst of the enemy’s country, where there was a great danger of their being surprised; and, aware that the King and the Constable would certainly cancel the order if they were informed of it, begged the officers to return, while he sent a message to the King requesting that they should be quartered at Marmande, which was a walled town. But the officers pointed out that the baggage had already been sent on to Gontaud; and, on their assuring him that they would keep a sharp look-out that night, and on the morrow ask to be transferred to safer quarters, he allowed them to proceed, although he felt very uneasy.
On reaching Marmande, he felt so much worse that he decided to remain there for the night, instead of continuing his journey to La Réole, and therefore had himself carried to an inn in the suburb, and sent for a doctor. But the only one who could be found was a country-practitioner, to whose tender mercies Bassompierre did not feel inclined to entrust himself. However, shortly afterwards, a quack doctor named Duboure, whom the Baron d’Estissac had sent after him, arrived on the scene. Duboure was none too sober, but he possessed remedies which afforded the patient some temporary relief, and about nine o’clock in the evening one of the King’s own physicians, named Le Mire, whom his Majesty had sent, made his appearance. The great man, after consulting, for form’s sake, with his humble colleagues, “proceeded to scarify him and apply leeches to his shoulders, in order to remove the furious tingling which he had in the head.”
“This was about eleven o’clock, and, at the same time, we heard many pistol-shots in the street of the faubourg, which is on the bank of the Garonne. They were fired by the Constable’s gensdarmes, who were being pursued by the enemy, who had attacked them at Gontaud the same evening they arrived there. At this news, my servants hurriedly placed a napkin on my shoulders, which were covered with blood, put on my dressing-gown, and, in this state, had me carried away by four of my Swiss halberdiers and five or six other persons whom they had contrived to pick up. They accompanied me nearly to the gate of the town, and then ran back to barricade themselves in my lodging, to try and save themselves and my horses, plate and equipage. They believed that I had entered the town, and there only remained with me the four Swiss, the two doctors, Le Mire and Duboure, and two valets de chambre. But, as I approached the gate, the people of Marmande saluted me with several musket-shots, believing (as they told me afterwards) that I was the petard which the enemy were bringing to fasten to their gate. My people cried out that it was the general who commanded the army, whom they had come to welcome as he disembarked from his boat, and that, if they did not open, they would repent it. But, for all that, they could get nothing out of them, except permission for me to be placed in a little open guard-house which was within the barrier. A man came to open the door and let me in, and at once closed it upon me, after which he threw himself upon a little drawbridge, which was forthwith raised. Thus, I found myself confined within this barrier, without being able to send any message to my servants, who, believing that I had entered the town, confined themselves to guarding my lodging; and the people of the town refused to open the gate until seven o’clock the next morning. I was stretched on a table, all covered with blood from my scarification, which congealed and clung to the napkin which had been placed over it, so that it galled me from time to time, while my head ached intolerably, for I was in a high fever; and I was covered only with a rather thin dressing-gown, in very cold weather, for it was the 26th of November. I can say that I was in the greatest torment and the most evil plight that I ever suffered in my life, which made me wish for death a hundred times.”
When morning dawned, the good citizens of Marmande, having satisfied themselves that there were no Huguenots lurking in the vicinity, at length summoned up courage to open their gates, and the unfortunate Bassompierre was carried to an inn and put to bed. Here he lay for a fortnight between life and death, “stricken with a purple fever,” and it was only his iron constitution which eventually turned the scale in his favour. The crisis once passed, however, he mended rapidly, and in a few days was sufficiently recovered to continue his journey to La Réole, and thence to Bordeaux, where he arrived on December 15, to await the King.
Louis XIII and the Constable had arrived at Monheurt on November 28, and had taken up their quarters at a village called Longuetille, about a league from the town. The place was taken on December 12; the lives of the inhabitants were spared, but the garrison was put to the sword, and the place pillaged and burned to the ground. Luynes, however, was not present to witness this sorry triumph. While the flames were devouring the conquered town, he lay at Longuetille, in the grip of the same pestilential fever from which Bassompierre so narrowly escaped, and which was now ravaging the Royal army. The disasters of the campaign, and the unceasing anxiety as to the future to which he had been for some time a prey, had told upon his strength, and three days later he died, in his forty-fourth year. “He was little regretted by the King,” says Bassompierre; “while his death was hailed with joy by the bulk of the nation, with whom he had long been intensely unpopular. Even the Ultramontane party, whose cause he had so well served, received the news with satisfaction.” They had been infuriated by the belief that he intended to make peace with the Huguenots, and ascribed the Montauban fiasco to the fact that the Almighty refused to make use of so unworthy an instrument for the destruction of the heretics.
CHAPTER XXVI
Who will govern the King and France?—The pretenders to the royal favour—Position of Bassompierre—The Cardinal de Retz and Schomberg join forces and secure for their ally De Vic the office of Keeper of the Seals—They propose to remove Bassompierre from the path of their ambition by separating him from the King—Bassompierre is offered the lieutenancy-general of Guienne and subsequently the government of Béarn, but declines both offices—He inflicts a sharp reverse upon Retz and Schomberg—Condé joins the Court—His designs—The rival parties: the party of the Ministers and the party of the marshals—Monsieur le Prince decides to ally himself with that of the Ministers—Mortifying rebuff administered by the King to the Ministers at the instance of Bassompierre—Failure of an attempt of the Ministers to injure Bassompierre and Créquy with Louis XIII—Arrival of the King in Paris—Affectionate meeting between him and his mother—Accident to the Queen.
Luynes dead, who would govern the King and France? Such was the question which everyone was asking himself, for that Louis XIII, so jealous of his royal authority, yet too indolent to exercise it himself, would require someone to lean on was a foregone conclusion. There were many pretenders. There was Marie de’ Medici, who, now that the man who had estranged her son from her was no more, might hope to recover in time much of the influence she had once exercised over the King. And Marie’s triumph would mean that of Richelieu, who had now acquired so great an ascendancy over her that scandal asserted that he was her lover. There was the greedy and ambitious Condé, who had learned prudence from adversity, but was in other respects but little changed. Luynes, in the last months of his “reign,” had separated Condé from the King, and tricked Richelieu out of the cardinal’s hat which had been the secret condition of the prelate’s reconciliation with the favourite, addressing a formal demand for it to Gregory XV, accompanied by a private request to his Holiness not to accord it. But now the lists were again open to them. Then there were the Ministers: the Cardinal de Retz, whom Luynes had made the nominal chief of the Council, and his ally Schomberg, Superintendent of Finance; the Chancellor Brulart de Sillery and his son Puisieux, the Minister for Foreign Affairs; and old Jeannin. And all these persons felt that they might have to reckon seriously with Bassompierre, in whose society the King undoubtedly took more pleasure than in that of any of them, and whom, they knew, the late Constable had regarded as his only dangerous rival.
It is certain that, had Bassompierre been so minded, he would have stood an excellent chance of succeeding to Luynes’s place as favourite, and that his elevation would have been well received, as he was exceedingly popular both at the Court and in the Army. But his epicurean wisdom rejected the idea of a life of gilded slavery; to be obliged to forgo the society of his “beautiful mistresses,” in order to dance attendance upon his youthful sovereign and make up his mind for him a dozen times a day, was not at all an attractive prospect to one who infinitely preferred pleasure to grandeur; the royal favour, without the responsibilities of power, was sufficient for him.
The Cardinal de Retz, Schomberg and Puisieux had the advantage of being near the King at the time of the Constable’s death. The first two at once joined forces against Puisieux and “aspired to become all-powerful and to restrain the King from doing anything except on their advice.” They secured a decided success by persuading Louis XIII to bestow the vacant office of Keeper of the Seals upon De Vic, a counsellor of State, who was devoted to their interests, and then put their heads together to find a means of separating the King from Bassompierre, whom they regarded as a serious obstacle in the path of their ambition. Louis XIII arrived at Bordeaux on December 21, and shortly afterwards the two Ministers proposed to him to leave Bassompierre in Guienne as lieutenant-general of that province, in place of the Maréchal de Roquelaure, who was to be compensated for the loss of his post by a present of 200,000 livres and the government of Lectoure. Having obtained his Majesty’s consent to this arrangement, they sent Roucellaï to sound Bassompierre on the matter and “even offered to add to this charge that of marshal of France.” But Bassompierre preferred to wait upon events and to see into whose hands the management of affairs would fall, foreseeing that whoever might secure it would not be strong enough to maintain his position without support, and “being assured that he would be very pleased to have him for a friend, and to give him a larger share of the cake than they [Retz and Schomberg] were offering him.”
“When the King spoke to me of the lieutenancy-general [of Guienne], I answered that I should esteem myself more happy to occupy the post of Colonel-General of the Swiss near his person than any other away from it; that I was only just recovering from a severe illness which demanded three months’ repose, and that during that time I desired no other employment than that of my first office of Colonel-General. And to this his Majesty agreed.”
Although foiled in this attempt to get Bassompierre out of the way, Retz and Schomberg presently returned to the charge, and having persuaded the Maréchal de Thémines to surrender the government of Béarn, in exchange for the lieutenancy-general of Guienne, offered it to Bassompierre. The government of Béarn, though, in the present circumstances, it could scarcely be regarded as a bed of roses, was a very honourable and lucrative post. But its acceptance would, of course, entail an almost complete separation from the King, and from—what was more important in Bassompierre’s estimation—the Court and Paris; and he therefore returned the same answer as he had in the case of Guienne.
A day or two later, Bassompierre had the satisfaction of inflicting a sharp reverse upon the two Ministers.
The Cardinal and Schomberg had urged the King to follow up the capture of Monheurt by the surprise of Castillon, on the Dordogne, which, they declared, could very easily be carried out and would have an excellent effect. Now, Castillon belonged to the Duc de Bouillon, who, at the outbreak of hostilities, had entered into a compact with Louis XIII, which stipulated that this and other towns within his jurisdiction should “remain in the service of the King, but without making war on those of the Religion”; while the King, on his side, promised that they should in no way be interfered with. To seize Castillon therefore would be a direct breach of this agreement, and could only be defended on the ground that the townsfolk had sent assistance to the Huguenots, of which there was no evidence of any value. Nevertheless, Louis XIII allowed himself to be persuaded by the two Ministers to consent to this being done, provided that the rest of the Council did not oppose it. When, however, the project was laid before the Council, Bassompierre rose and denounced it in a vigorous speech, in which he declared that, if executed, it would be a “great stain on the King’s honour and reputation,” after which he proceeded to give his Majesty some very wholesome advice on the danger of breaking his royal word.
“Sire,” said he, “it is easy for a man to deceive a person who trusts him, but it is not easy to deceive a second time. A promise badly observed only once deprives him who breaks it of the trust of the whole world.” And he stigmatized the counsel which had been given the King, of the source of which he pretended ignorance, as “interested, evil-intentioned and rash,” which, if followed, would probably result in driving Bouillon into rebellion, and with him numbers of Protestants who had hitherto remained neutral, since they would feel that it was impossible to trust the word of the King.
One or two other members of the Council signified their agreement with the views expressed by Bassompierre, upon which the King announced that he had come to the same conclusion, to the great discomfiture of Retz and Schomberg, who were forced to recognise that their design of governing the young monarch was likely to prove a much more difficult task than they had bargained for.
Louis XIII left Bordeaux on the last day of the year, and travelled by easy stages towards Paris. At Château-neuf-sur-Charente, where he arrived on January 6, 1622, another pretender to Luynes’s shoes appeared upon the scene, in the person of Condé.
“Monsieur le Prince,” says Bassompierre, “who was extremely cunning and supple, was equally courteous to everyone, without inclining to any side, until he had perceived the tendency of the market. His design was to persuade the King to continue the Huguenot war, for three reasons, in my opinion: first, because of the ardent affection which he had for his religion and his hatred against the Huguenot party; secondly, because he thought that he could govern the King better in time of war than in time of peace, since he would undoubtedly be lieutenant-general of his army; and, lastly, in order to separate him from the Queen his mother, the Chancellor and the old Ministers, who were his antipathy.”
In order to ascertain the state of the Court, Condé addressed himself to the Abbé Roucellaï, an adroit and insinuating personage, who had been in turn the protégé of Concini, the Queen-Mother and Luynes, and who, now that the Constable was dead, had decided to seek a new patron in Monsieur le Prince. The abbé told him that there were two parties at the Court. On one side, were the three Ministers, Retz, Schomberg and the new Keeper of the Seals, De Vic, “who desired to possess the King’s mind to the exclusion of everyone else”; on the other, the three marshals of France, Praslin, Chaulnes, and Créquy[2] and some others, who were resolved not to submit to this. He added that the King conversed frequently with Bassompierre and appeared to have a rather high opinion of him, and that, if the latter had any ambition to succeed to the favour of the late Constable, it might very well be realised. That, however, did not seem to be his desire, “although he was disposed to accept the share in the King’s good graces which his services might merit.” Bassompierre and the Ministers, he told the prince, were “not always of the same opinion,” and only a few days before he had spoken very bitterly against them before his Majesty in a council. Condé then inquired if Bassompierre were in favour of continuing the war against the Huguenots, and Roucellaï answered that he had pressed Luynes to enter into negotiations with Rohan, from fear that the Royal army would be obliged to raise the siege of Montauban. As a result of this conversation, the prince sent Roucellaï to Bassompierre to inform him that he wished to speak to him and ascertain his views in regard to the war.
Before seeing Bassompierre, however, Condé had an interview with the Ministers, whom he found in warlike mood, not because they believed that any useful purpose could be served by a continuance of this fratricidal strife, but for the same selfish reasons as he himself desired it, namely, “to keep the King so far as possible from Paris, in order the better to govern him.” He then approached Créquy, who answered that he was in favour of peace, provided that it could be obtained on advantageous and honourable terms. Bassompierre gave him a similar reply, when he spoke to him on the matter, and added that he would find Praslin and all other good servants of the King of the same opinion. “It is singular,” said the prince; “all you men of war, who ought to desire it, and can only make your way by means of it, want peace; and the lawyers and statesmen demand war.” “I answered,” says Bassompierre, “that I desired war, and that it ought to bring me fortune and advancement, but only on condition that it was for the service of the King and the good of the State; and that otherwise I should esteem myself a bad servant of the King and a bad Frenchman, if, for my own private advantage, I were to desire a thing which must cause both so much evil and prejudice.”
After this sharp, if indirect, rebuke, Condé left him and told Roucellaï that, after sounding Créquy and Bassompierre, he found that he was likely to have more in common with the Ministers than with them.
During the remainder of the journey to Paris, skirmishes between the rival parties were of frequent occurrence, each doing everything possible to prejudice the King against the other. At Sauzé, where the Court arrived on the 10th, Bassompierre again scored at the expense of the Ministers.
Louis XIII was about to sit down to cards with Bassompierre and Praslin, when the three Ministers were announced.
“The King said to us as he saw them enter: ‘Mon Dieu, how tiresome these people are! When one is thinking of amusing oneself, they come to torment me, and most often they have nothing to tell me.’ I, who was very pleased to have the chance of giving them a rebuff in revenge for the ill turns they were doing me every day, said to the King: ‘What, Sire! Do these gentlemen come without being sent for by you, or without having first informed your Majesty that there is something of importance to deliberate upon, and then ask for your time?’ ‘No,’ said he, ‘they never inform me, and come when it pleases them, and most often when it does not please me, as they do now.’ ‘Jesus, Sire! is it possible?’ I replied. ‘That is to treat you like a scholar,
and make themselves your tutors, who come to give you a lesson when it pleases them. You ought, Sire, to conduct your affairs like a King, and every day, on your arrival at the place where you purpose to spend the night, one of your Secretaries of State should come to tell you if there be any news of importance which requires the assembling of your Council, and then you should send for them to come to you, either at that same hour, or at one which will be most convenient to you. And, if they have anything to tell you, let them inform you of it first, and then send them word when they are to come to you. It was thus that the late King your father conducted his affairs, and your Majesty ought to do likewise; and if they [the Ministers] should come to you otherwise [i.e., without being sent for], to send them away, and to tell them of your intention firmly, once for all.’
“The King took the representations I had made him in very good part, and said that, from that moment, he would put my counsel into practice; and he went on talking to the Maréchal de Praslin and myself. When our conversation had continued for some little time, Monsieur le Prince approached the King and said: ‘Sire, these gentlemen [the Ministers] await you to hold the council.’ The King turned to Monsieur le Prince with an angry countenance and exclaimed: ‘What council, Monsieur? I have not sent for them. I shall end by being their valet; they come when they please, and when it does not please me. Let them go away, if they wish to, and let them come only when I shall send for them; it is for them to consult my convenience and to send to inquire when that may be, and not for me to consult theirs. I desire that, at the end of each day’s journey, a Secretary of State should present himself at my lodging to inform me what news there is, and, if it be of importance, I will name a time to deliberate upon it; but I will never allow them to name it; for I am their master.’
“Monsieur le Prince was a little surprised at this response and was very curious to know from what shop it came. He went back to tell them [the Ministers], who requested him to inform the King that they were come merely to receive the honour of his commands, as courtiers, and not otherwise, and that if only his Majesty would speak a word to them, they would go away. The King did so, but very brusquely, and it was:—
“‘Messieurs, I am going to play cards with this company.’ Upon which they made him a profound reverence and withdrew, very astonished.”
The Ministers soon ascertained whom they had to thank for the very mortifying rebuff which they had received from the King, and were more incensed than ever against Bassompierre. The latter, who had been on very friendly terms with the Cardinal de Retz until his Eminence’s designs upon the King had brought their interests into collision, went to see him the next day and assured him that, so far as he himself was concerned, he was still his very humble servant. But he told him that he had no love for his colleagues, Schomberg and De Vic, and wished them to know it. The Cardinal begged him to be reconciled with them, but within forty-eight hours two incidents occurred which removed all hope of this.
It happened that, the following evening, news arrived that the Maréchal de Roquelaure was dangerously ill and that his recovery was considered hopeless. “Upon which,” says Bassompierre, “these gentlemen [the three Ministers] and Monsieur le Prince went in a body to the King to demand the charge of marshal of France, which he [Roquelaure] had, for M. de Schomberg. The only answer which the King made them was to say: “And Bassompierre—what shall he become?” This crude reply deeply affected M. de Schomberg, and from that day we ceased to speak to one another.”[3]
The second incident, which followed closely upon the first, served to embitter still further the relations between these two gentlemen.
“It happened on the morrow that the King only travelled one stage,[4] at which we [Créquy and himself] were annoyed, because we saw that these gentlemen [the Ministers] were purposely delaying the King’s arrival, thinking, if time were allowed them, to usurp the authority before he had seen the Queen his mother and the old Ministers. The Maréchal de Créquy and I, while warming ourselves in the King’s wardrobe, complained of these short journeys, upon which the Comte de la Roche-guyon told us that they were made out of consideration for the French and Swiss Guards, who otherwise would be unable to follow us. We said then that this consideration ought not to occasion such a long delay; that we, who were respectively in command of the two regiments of Guards, did not complain, that the Guards would march so far as the King pleased, and that we could make them do what we wished. Out of these last words, which were reported to the Ministers, they proceeded to compound three dishes for the King, saying that we boasted of making the two regiments of Guards do what we wished, and that we could turn them in whatever direction we pleased. They attacked the King on his weak side, and he was angry at seeing that we were compromising his authority.
“The evening before he arrived at Poitiers, he told me that he desired to speak to me on the following morning, and said to me: ‘I promised to tell you all that might be said to me concerning you. That is why, since it has been reported to me that you were boasting of being able to persuade the Swiss to do all that you wished, and even against my service, I desired to make you understand that I do not approve of such discourse being held, and less by you than by another, seeing that I have always had entire confidence in you.’
“‘God be praised, Sire,’ I answered, ‘that my enemies, seeking every means to injure me, are unable to find anything save what is easy for me to avert and bring to naught. This accusation is of that quality, and you can learn the truth from their own mouths, although it is but little accustomed to issue from them. Ask them, Sire, on what subject I said that I would make the Swiss do what I wished, and if they do not tell you that it was on that of their making long or short marches, about which M. de Créquy and I were complaining to one another, since they make arrangements for your Majesty to travel a shorter distance each day to return to Paris than a parish procession would cover, I am willing to lose my life. And your Majesty can judge whether that touches you or not, and whether you ought to regard this discourse as a boast of being able to employ the Swiss against your service.’”
The King did not accept Bassompierre’s proposal to confront him with his accusers; but he sent for two valets of his wardrobe, who had been present during the conversation between him and Créquy, and questioned them in his presence. They confirmed what Bassompierre had just told him, and his Majesty expressed himself satisfied that he had spoken the truth.
This clumsy attempt to injure Bassompierre recoiled upon its authors in a manner that was distinctly embarrassing for them. A few days later, when the King was at Châtellerault, the Ministers proposed that he should travel on the following day only so far as La Haye-Descartes, on the right bank of the Creuse, a very short day’s journey. Louis, however, announced his intention of going on to Sainte-Maure, adding significantly that it seemed to him that, if they could have their way, he would not reach Paris for three months.
These squabbles between the jealous and spiteful courtiers and Ministers who surrounded Louis XIII, to all appearance so trifling, were in reality of great political importance. For they were all manœuvres in the struggle to dominate the indolent and fickle mind, and, with it, the policy, of this young monarch, who, while so punctilious in exacting all the respect which he considered due to his royal dignity, was ready to surrender the sovereign authority to the favourite of the moment. And upon the result of that struggle hung the destinies, not only of France, but of Europe.
On January 27, Louis XIII arrived in Paris, where Marie de’ Medici was awaiting him. The meeting between them was most affectionate. Marie expressed the greatest joy at seeing her son return to his capital so well in health and now indeed the master; and the King replied that he intended to prove to everyone that never did son love or honour his mother more. Marie believed him too easily. Louis XIII was twenty-one and not nearly so manageable as he had been as a lad; and he feared the authoritative temper of Richelieu, of whom the Nuncio Corsini wrote to Gregory XV that he was “of a character to tyrannise over both the King and his mother.” Besides, to re-establish her influence over her son it was necessary for the Queen-Mother to keep him near her, and circumstances were to render this impossible.
Notwithstanding that the country was rent by civil war, and that so many distinguished families were in mourning for relatives fallen before Montauban, the winter in Paris seems to have been as gay as ever. “The Court was very beautiful, and the ladies also,” says Bassompierre, “and during the Carnival several fine comedies and grand ballets were performed.” In the middle of March, however, a most unfortunate incident occurred, which cast a gloom over both Court and capital.
Early in 1622, to the great joy of the nation, the Queen had been declared pregnant. Prayers were offered up in all the churches in France for her safe delivery, and all those about her Majesty’s person were strictly enjoined not to allow her to exert herself, to which instructions, however, they unfortunately appear to have paid but little heed. One evening, Anne of Austria and a party of courtiers, amongst whom were the widowed Duchesse de Luynes and Mlle. de Verneuil, went to spend the evening with the Princesse de Condé, who was ill and confined to her bed. On their way back to the Queen’s apartments, they were passing through the grande salle of the Louvre, when Madame de Luynes and Mlle. de Verneuil seized their royal mistress by the arms and began to run. They had not, however, gone many paces when the Queen tripped and fell on her face. A few hours later, to the general dismay, it was known that her Majesty had had a miscarriage.
Louis XIII was furiously indignant, as well he might be, and wrote to the two delinquents with his own hand, ordering them to retire from Court. It is probable that the disgrace of Madame la Connétable, against whom, as we know, his Majesty already had a grievance, might have lasted some considerable time, had not her marriage with the Duc de Chevreuse, who stood high in the King’s favour, paved the way for her return.
CHAPTER XXVII
Question of the Huguenot War the principal subject of contention between the two parties—Condé and the Ministers demand its continuance—Marie de’ Medici, prompted by Richelieu, advocates peace—Secret negotiations of Louis XIII with the Huguenot leaders—Soubise’s offensive in the West obliges the King to continue the war—Louis XIII advances against the Huguenot chief, who has established himself in the Île de Rié—Condé accuses Bassompierre of “desiring to prevent him from acquiring glory”—Courage of the King—Passage of the Royal army from the Île du Perrier to the Île de Rié—Total defeat of Soubise—Siege of Royan—The King in the trenches—His remarkable coolness and intrepidity under fire—Capitulation of Royan—The Marquis de la Force created a marshal of France—Conversation between Louis XIII and Bassompierre—Diplomatic speech of the latter.
Meantime, the struggle between the two parties, which had begun on the journey from Bordeaux to Paris, continued at the Louvre. Condé and his allies were unable to prevent the Queen-Mother from entering the Council, but they succeeded in excluding the man who possessed her mind. Richelieu spoke through her mouth, however, and those who remembered her regency were astonished at the prudence, address, and firmness which she now displayed.
The war against the Huguenots was the principal subject of contention. Marie de’ Medici, under the influence of Richelieu, the old Ministers the Chancellor Sillery and Jeannin, Puisieux, and the generals, wished for peace; Condé and the new Ministers demanded the continuance of the war. Condé saw in the war the means of separating the King from his mother, and commanding the army in the name of Louis XIII. A superstitious hope made him particularly anxious to have large military forces at his disposal. An astrologer had predicted to him that he would become King at the age of thirty-four, and he was now in his thirty-fourth year. He desired, therefore, to prove his devotion to the Catholic religion, and to be in a position to seize the crown at the date when Louis XIII and his younger brother were apparently destined to die.
Marie brought to the Council the arguments with which Richelieu had furnished her on the grave situation of external affairs. The House of Austria, she pointed out, was everywhere aggressive and everywhere successful. In Germany, the Empire had reduced Bohemia to submission. The unfortunate Elector Palatine, deprived of the Upper Palatinate by Maximilian of Bavaria, and of the Lower Palatinate by Tilly, General of the Catholic League, and Gonzalvo de Cordoba, commander of the Spanish forces, had been obliged to take refuge in Holland. Philip IV, on the expiration of the twelve years’ truce with Holland in 1621, had called upon the Dutch to acknowledge his supremacy, and, on their refusal, had attacked them. The Spaniards mocked at the Treaty of Madrid, and, so far from evacuating the Valtellina, as they had engaged to do, had invaded the country of the Grisons, in concert with the Archduke Leopold, and obliged them to submit to a humiliating treaty which deprived them of the suzerainty of the Valtellina.
Prompted by Richelieu, Marie urged upon the Council the imperative necessity of pacifying France, in order to be in a position to intervene in the affairs of Europe and arrest the alarming progress which the House of Austria was making. “To enter into a civil war,” said she, “is not the road to arrive at it, as was manifest during the siege of Montauban, when, in place of executing the Treaty of Madrid, they [the Spaniards] pushed their armies further and advanced by much their design to arrive at the monarchy of Europe. Although assuredly it is better to perish rather than abate anything of the royal dignity, it seems that it [the dignity] is preserved, if peace and the pardon of their crimes is given to them [the Huguenots], without restoring to them any of the places of which they have been deprived.”
Condé and his allies pretended, on the contrary, that it was necessary before everything, and at all costs, to subdue the internal enemy and to check the audacity of the Huguenots, immensely encouraged by the successful resistance of Montauban. La Force and his sons had resumed hostilities in Guienne, and many places in that province which had submitted to the King had revolted anew. In Lower Languedoc, masters of Nîmes, Montpellier, Uzès, Privas, and a number of smaller towns, the assembly of the “circle,” had ordered or, at any rate, authorised, the most disgraceful excesses, and between thirty and forty churches, amongst which were some of the finest monuments of the Middle Ages, had been ruined. In the West, the Rochellois were masters of the sea; Saint-Luc, who had vainly endeavoured to make head against them, was blockaded in the port of Brouage; and a multitude of privateers preyed upon the commerce of the Atlantic coast.
At the beginning of 1622, the Rochellois and the predatory nobles who made common cause with them conceived the bold project of occupying the mouths of the Loire and the Gironde, in order to hold all the commerce of those two rivers to ransom. The revolt of Royan, on the right bank of the Gironde, and the occupation of two other strong points had already resulted in the virtual blockade of that river; while Soubise, violating the oath which he had taken at the capitulation of Saint-Jean-d’Angély not to bear arms again against his sovereign, charged himself with the Loire, descended with a considerable force on Sables d’Olonne, in order to raise the Protestants of Poitou, and overran all the country up to the suburbs of Nantes.
Thus tricked by the Spaniards and braved by the Protestants, Louis XIII had to choose between his enemies. For a time he appeared inclined to listen to the advice of his mother—or rather of Richelieu—and, unknown to Condé and his supporters, authorised Lesdiguières to negotiate with Rohan. “And that nothing might be revealed,” says Bassompierre, “save to M. de Puisieux and myself, whom he commanded to keep the affair very secret, he wished that M. des Lesdiguières sent duplicate despatches; one copy to be read and deliberated upon in the Council; the other, which was private and addressed to M. de Puisieux, to be communicated only to the King, who informed me of its contents.” The negotiations progressed so far that Louis promised to receive a deputation from the Reformed churches, and threatened the Spanish Ambassador to go to Lyons and organise an army to march to the assistance of the Grisons, if Spain did not forthwith withdraw from their country and the Valtellina. But the progress of Soubise and the disobedience of d’Épernon, who declined to send troops from his governments of Saintonge and the Angoumois to the assistance of the hard-pressed Royalists of Poitou, gave the victory to Condé and his adherents; the King decided to march in person against Soubise, and, on March 20, without waiting for the arrival of the Protestant deputies, he left Paris for Orléans, accompanied by the Queen-Mother, who was determined to keep within reach of him so long as she could.
From Orléans, the King, still accompanied by Marie, proceeded to Blois, and thence by water to Nantes, where the army was to assemble, and where on the 11th he was joined by Bassompierre, who had been summoned by courier from Paris.
On his arrival at Nantes, Louis XIII learned that Soubise was endeavouring to establish himself in the Île de Rié, a maritime district of Lower Poitou, separated from the mainland by vast salt marshes and small rivers, which at high tide the sea rendered impassable. If the Huguenot leader were permitted to entrench himself there, it was a position from which it would be exceedingly difficult to dislodge him; but this the King resolved not to allow him time to do; and, leaving the Queen-Mother, who had fallen ill, at Nantes, like a true son of Henri IV, he marched at once upon the enemy.
The Royal army consisted of from 10,000 to 12,000 men; that of Soubise from 6,000 to 7,000; but the latter had the advantage of position and seven pieces of cannon; while the attacking force was, of course, unable to transport its artillery across the marshes. The enterprise would therefore have been a hazardous one, with a watchful and resolute enemy to contend with. On this occasion, however, Soubise showed neither the vigilance of a general nor the courage of a soldier. The approach of the enemy much sooner than he had foreseen appears to have disconcerted his plans altogether, and, instead of attempting to defend the approaches to the Île de Rié, he thought only of re-embarking his troops in a squadron of vessels which he had at his disposal, and making his escape with the plunder he had collected to La Rochelle.
In the afternoon of April 14, Marillac, with a small force of infantry, occupied the Île du Perrier, adjoining the Île de Rié, and early on the following morning Bassompierre was ordered by Condé to follow with the rest of the infantry. Condé then proposed that they should ford an arm of the sea “wide as the Marne,” which separated the islands of Perrier and Rié, and where at low tide, which would be at midday, the peasants had told him, the water would be only waist-deep. Bassompierre, however, protested against this, pointing out that, if the enemy offered the least opposition to their passage, the tide would rise before half the troops had crossed, and even if they were allowed to cross unopposed, they would find themselves at a great disadvantage without cavalry or cannon. He added that, apart from these considerations, he ought certainly to await the arrival of the King. “For if you defeat M. de Soubise,” said he, “he [the King] will take it ill that you have not shared the honour of the victory with him; and, if some reverse befalls you, he will blame your precipitation, and will accuse you of not having wished or deigned to wait for him.”
Monsieur le Prince took this remonstrance in very bad part, and declared that he saw plainly that Bassompierre was “of the cabal who desired to prevent him from acquiring glory.” But he sent him to the King to beg him to come at once with the cavalry, and when his Majesty arrived on the scene, it was decided to wait until midnight and to cross to the Île de Rié at another spot, where they were informed there would be less water.
In the course of the evening, Louis XIII displayed for the first time that cool courage which he invariably afterwards showed in war, and which, if it had been combined with the same degree of moral resolution, would have made him a really remarkable man:—
“While the King, stretched on a miserable bed,” says Bassompierre, “was consulting with us about the passage, a great alarm spread throughout the camp that the enemy was upon us; and, in an instant, fifty persons rushed into the King’s chamber, who declared that the enemy was at hand. I knew well that this was impossible, since it was high tide, and they could not pass. Instead, therefore, of being alarmed, I wished to see how the King would take it, in order that I might regulate the proposals which I might in future have to make to him, according to the firmness or agitation which he displayed. This young prince, who was lying down on the bed, sat up on hearing this rumour, and, with a countenance more animated than usual, said to them: ‘Gentlemen, the alarm is without, and not in my chamber, as you see; it is there you must go.’ And, at the same time, he said to me: ‘Go as quickly as you can to the Bridge of Avrouet, and send me your news promptly. You, Zamet, go out and find Monsieur le Prince, and M. de Praslin and Marillac will stay with me. I shall arm myself and place myself at the head of my Guards.’ I was delighted to see the confidence and judgment of a man of his age so mature and so perfect. The alarm was, as I supposed, a false one, arising from a very trifling incident.”
All the arrangements for the passage of the army had been entrusted to Bassompierre. The troops assembled at ten o’clock, and a little before midnight the order to advance was given. At the spot where the Guards were to cross, however, the water was so deep that they sent to inform Bassompierre that it was impossible to pass. He went there, and finding that it would be a very difficult undertaking, led them to another ford, by which he crossed himself to the Île de Rié, and saw no sign of any enemy. He returned and reported that the ford was practicable and that their passage would be unopposed, and the whole army passed without mishap; though when Bassompierre crossed for the second time, at the head of the rearguard, the tide was beginning to rise, and the water was nearly up to his chin.[5]
On reaching the shore, the troops encamped and lighted a great number of fires to dry their clothes. At daybreak they were formed in order of battle, and, after a march of about two leagues, came in sight of the enemy. Soubise and his cavalry, to the number of five or six hundred, fled at once in the direction of La Rochelle, without striking a blow. Part of the infantry had already embarked in the launches that had arrived to take them off; the rest threw down their arms and demanded quarter. But this was refused to the majority of them, and more than 1,500 were shot or cut down in cold blood; while as many more were taken prisoners and sent to the galleys. The rest fled across the marshes, in which some of them were drowned, while many others were slain by the troops of La Rochefoucauld, governor of Poitou, or by the peasants, furious at the devastation which the Huguenots had committed. Only some four hundred succeeded in effecting their escape and making their way to La Rochelle.
Leaving a force under the Comte de Soissons to watch La Rochelle on the land side, while Guise was directed to blockade it by sea, Louis XIII marched southwards, with the intention of raising the blockade of the Gironde by the reduction of Royan. During the siege, the King gave further proofs of that courage and presence of mind which Bassompierre had admired before the attack on the Île de Rié.
“That same evening I went to the King in his quarters, and he told me that he was coming to see our trench at five o’clock the next morning ... and desired me to await him at the commencement of it. He came, accompanied by M. d’Épernon and M. de Schomberg. It was the first time he had ever been in the trenches, and he did me the honour to say to me: ‘Bassompierre, I am a novice here; tell me what I must do, so that I may not make mistakes.’ In this I found little difficulty, for he was more prodigal of his safety than any of us would have been, and mounted three or four times on to the banquette of the trench, where he was exposed to the fire of the enemy, to reconnoitre. And he stayed there so long that we trembled at the danger he was incurring, which he braved with more coolness and intrepidity than an old captain would have shown, and gave orders for the work of the following night as though he had been an engineer. While he was returning, I saw him do what pleased me extremely. After we had remounted our horses, at a certain passage which the enemy knew, they fired a cannon-shot, which passed two feet above the head of the King, who was talking to M. d’Épernon. I was riding in front of him, and turned round, fearing that the shot might have struck him. ‘Mon Dieu, Sire,’ I exclaimed, ‘that ball was near killing you!’ ‘No, not me,’ said he, ‘but M. d’Épernon.’ He neither started nor lowered his head, as so many others would have done; and afterwards, perceiving that some of those who accompanied him had drawn aside, he said to them: ‘What! Are you afraid that they will fire again? They will have to reload.’ I have witnessed many and various actions of the King in several perilous situations, and I can affirm, without flattery or adulation, that I have never seen a man, not to say a king, who was more courageous than he was. The late King, his father, though, as everyone knows, celebrated for his valour, did not display a like intrepidity.”
It is not the degree, but the kind of courage, which is remarkable at his age. Bassompierre, however, relates an instance of equal coolness in a boy, who had not the same strong motive to self-possession as was furnished by the consciousness of being the object of the whole army’s attention:
“The enemy had constructed a barricade in their fosse, on the side of the sea, and a palisade, which hindered us from being entirely masters of their fosse. I sent my volunteer, a young lad of sixteen, to reconnoitre it. This lad had, the previous year, executed with other camp-boys the most hazardous works at the siege of Montauban, which the soldiers refused to undertake. He had received several wounds, amongst others a musket-ball through the body, of which I got him cured. This young rogue undertook a number of dangerous works by the piece, and the camp-boys worked under him and made a great deal of money. He went to reconnoitre this barricade with the same bearing and as much boldness as the best sergeant in the army; and after getting a musket-ball through his breeches and another through the brim of his hat, returned to us and made his report, which was very judicious.”
Royan capitulated on May 11, and shortly afterwards La Force surrendered the town of Sainte-Foy and returned to his allegiance, in return for the bâton of Marshal of France. Louis XIII, who had been given to understand that both Bassompierre and Schomberg were deeply mortified that a rebel should have been created a marshal before either of them, sent for the former and said to him: “Bassompierre, I know that you are angry that I am making M. de La Force Marshal of France, and that you and M. de Schomberg complain of it, and with reason; but it is not I who am the cause of it, so much as Monsieur le Prince, who counselled me to do it, for the good of my affairs, and in order to leave nothing behind me in Guienne which might prevent me passing promptly into Languedoc. Nevertheless, be sure that what you desire I shall do for you, whom I love and hold as my good and faithful servant.”
Bassompierre tells us that at that time he had no particular desire for the office of marshal, “since, in his opinion, it was that of an old man, while he wished to play the part of a gallant of the Court for some years longer.” He therefore assured his Majesty that he had been entirely misinformed, and that, so far from being annoyed at La Force’s appointment, he regarded it as a most proper one, since he was an old man and a soldier of great experience, who had been promised the bâton by the late King and would have received it, if Henri IV had lived another month; that, although he had been a rebel, he was one no longer; and that it was “a signal example of the kindness of the King to forget the faults of his servants, in order to remember and recompense their merits and their services.” And he added that he did not aspire to the office of marshal or any other charge, unless his Majesty “out of pure kindness and desire to recognise his service,” wished to confer it upon him, and that he “very humbly besought him never to allow any consideration for him to prevent him doing what he judged to be for the good of his service.”
This diplomatic speech greatly pleased the King, who thanked Bassompierre and told him that he might rely on him to advance his interests. He then sent for Schomberg, who, much less tactful than his colleague, pressed his Majesty to make him a marshal conjointly with La Force, and proposed that Bassompierre should be created one also, “though this was chiefly in order to strengthen his own request.”
CHAPTER XXVIII
Condé and his allies offer to secure for Bassompierre the position of favourite, if he will join forces with them to bring about the fall of Puisieux—Refusal of Bassompierre—Condé complains to Louis XIII of Bassompierre’s hostility to him—Bassompierre informs the King of the proposal which has been made him—Louis XIII orders Monsieur le Prince to be reconciled with Bassompierre—Siege of Négrepelisse—The town is taken by storm—Terrible fate of the garrison and the inhabitants—Fresh differences between Condé and Bassompierre—Discomfiture of Monsieur le Prince—Bassompierre placed temporarily in command of the Royal army, captures the towns of Carmain and Cuq-Toulza—Offer of Bassompierre to resign his claim to the marshal’s bâton in favour of Schomberg—Surrender of Lunel—Massacre of the garrison by disbanded soldiers of the Royal army—Bassompierre causes eight of the latter to be hanged—Lunel in danger of being destroyed by fire with all within its walls—Bassompierre, by his presence of mind, saves the situation—Schomberg and Bassompierre—The latter is promised the marshal’s bâton.
At Moissac, where Louis XIII arrived in the first week in June, Condé approached Bassompierre and invited him to meet him “in a kind of chapel which is in the cloister of the abbey,” as he desired to confer with him on a matter of great importance. Thither Bassompierre repaired and found the prince in the company of his allies, Retz and Schomberg. All three forthwith began to inveigh against Puisieux, whose presumption, they declared, they were no longer able to endure. Although only a Secretary of State, he was admitted to greater intimacy with the King than Monsieur le Prince himself, sought to prejudice his Majesty against those with whom he was not on good terms, conducted separate negotiations, which he declined to communicate to them, and prevented the execution of the decisions of the Council, if he had not previously approved of them. Since the death of the late Constable, they had, they said, endeavoured “to prevent the King from embarking in a new affection,” and they were of opinion that it would be better for his Majesty to have no favourite.
“However, since they saw that his inclination was to be dominated by someone, they preferred that it should be by a brave man, of high birth and esteemed for his knowledge of the arts of peace as well as of those of war, rather than by a man of the pen like M. de Puisieux, who would turn everything upside down; and that they were all resolved to conspire to bring about his ruin, as they were to assist in the aggrandisement of my fortune, and to persuade the King, who was already favourably inclined towards me, to favour me entirely with the honour of his good graces, provided that I were willing to promise them two things: the one, to co-operate with them to ruin M. de Puisieux and to detach myself entirely from his friendship; the other, to associate myself entirely with them and combine our designs and counsels, in the first place, for the good of the King’s service, in the second, for our common interest and preservation. And they begged me to come to a prompt decision upon this matter and to acquaint them with it.”
Bassompierre felt quite certain that the proposal which had just been made to him was nothing but a skilfully-baited trap, and that the intention of Condé and his friends was “to penetrate his design and then to reveal it to the King, and that they desired to make use of him to ruin M. de Puisieux, and afterwards with greater facility to ruin him.”
“I accordingly replied that I was unable to understand what necessity there was for the King to have a favourite, since he had dispensed with one so easily for eight months; that his favourites ought to be his mother, his brother, his relatives and his good servants, wherein he would be following the example of the King his father, and that if some fatality inclined him to have one, the choice and the election ought to be left to him; that I had never heard tell of any prince who took his favourites according to the decrees of his council; but that, however that might be, it would not be I who would occupy that place, because I did not deserve it; because, also, the King would not wish to honour me with it, and because, finally, I would not accept it; that I aspired to a moderate degree of favour, and a fortune of the same kind acquired by my virtue and by my merit, and which might be securely preserved; that my lavish expenditure, and the little care I had taken up to the present to amass wealth, were sufficient proofs that I aspired rather to glory than to profit; that I wished to seek a moderate and a secure fortune, and despised favour to such a degree that, if it were lying on the ground before me, I should not condescend to stoop and pick it up; and that such was my unalterable resolution, which did not allow me to take advantage of their good-will towards me, for which I rendered them very humble thanks.”
As for their complaints about Puisieux, he said, it seemed to him that they were really complaining of the King and questioning his Majesty’s right to confer privately with, and demand advice from, whichever of his Ministers he pleased. Puisieux was his [Bassompierre’s] friend, and had always behaved as such, and, so long as he continued to do so, he declined to be a party to any intrigue against him.
Condé then warned Bassompierre that a time might come when he would regret having lost his friendship and that of his allies in order to preserve that of Puisieux; to which Bassompierre replied that he would be “extraordinarily grieved to lose their good graces, but that the consolation would remain to him of not having lost them through any fault of his own, and that he would never purchase those of anyone at the price of his reputation.”
That evening, Louis XIII decided to send a body of two hundred cavalry to scout in the direction of Montauban, and Valençay, who was lieutenant of Condé’s company of gensdarmes, asked to be allowed to go, and to take with him both his own men and Monsieur le Prince’s company of light horse; and to this the King consented. Condé was not at the council of war, and did not learn of what had been done until later in the evening, when he was extremely angry and went to the King to complain that an affront had been put upon him by sending his two companies of horse away without his knowledge, and that he felt quite certain that it was Bassompierre who had suggested it. The King assured him that Bassompierre had had nothing to do with the affair, and that Valençay had himself asked for the commission, which he had given him, never imagining that Monsieur le Prince would take it ill. Condé, however, insisted that Bassompierre must have been at the bottom of it, and declared that he was hostile to him. When he had gone, the King sent for Bassompierre and told him of what the prince had said, upon which he deemed it advisable to inform his Majesty of the proposal which Condé had made him that morning in the chapel. “But,” he says, “as it is very dangerous to be in the disfavour of a person of that rank who is your general, I begged the King very humbly either to reconcile us or to permit me to retire, since I did not wish to draw his hatred and his anger upon me.”
This the King promised to do, and the next evening, when the army had encamped at Villemode, near Montauban, he came into the camp, and having praised Bassompierre for the arrangements which he had made, he turned to Condé and said: “Monsieur, yesterday you were angry with him without cause, and you can learn from Valençay whether Bassompierre was in any way responsible for his being sent away. I beg you, for love of me, to live on good terms with him, for I assure you he is your servant; and, if he were lost to this army, you know yourself whether it would be our fault.” Condé promised to do as the King desired, and the same evening offered his apologies to Bassompierre, who begged him to regard him as his very humble servant, and that “when he happened to have any reason to be displeased with him, to do him the honour of telling him of it, and, if he did not give him satisfaction in the matter, to be angry with him with all his soul, and not before.”
On the following day—June 8—the army arrived before Négrepelisse, a little town on the left bank of the Aveyron. Louis XIII and his whole army were bitterly incensed against the inhabitants of Négrepelisse, who, one night during the previous winter, had revolted and massacred four hundred men of the Vaillac Regiment who had been placed in garrison there; while a report was current among the soldiers that, during the siege of Montauban, the sick and wounded of the Royal army who had been transported thither had been poisoned. However, as the town was believed to have returned to its allegiance, provided they admitted the King, there would not appear to have been any intention of punishing the inhabitants. But when the quartermaster who had been charged to select suitable quarters for his Majesty, approached the gates, he found them closed, and was received with a volley of musket-shots.
On learning of what had occurred, the King ordered Bassompierre, who was with the advance-guard, to invest the town, which he proceeded to do; but, on going forward to reconnoitre the place with Praslin and Chevreuse, he had a narrow escape of his life, being fired upon from a distance of twenty paces by a party of the enemy, whom he had mistaken for some of his own men.
“There was not in Négrepelisse,” says Bassompierre, “anything better than a musket; no munitions of war save what each inhabitant might have had to go out shooting; no foreign soldier, no chief to command them; and the place, though it might have offered some resistance to a provincial force, was quite incapable of resisting a Royal army. Nevertheless, the inhabitants would neither consent to surrender nor even to parley.”
The probable explanation is that the townsfolk were convinced that the King was bent upon their destruction, and that no terms which he might consent to give them would be observed; and that they had therefore determined to sell their lives for what they might be worth.
On the 9th, a battery of seven cannon was got into position close to the walls, and, although the enemy’s musketry-fire was very effective, and caused many casualties amongst the gunners, by the following morning a considerable breach had been made. The besieged endeavoured to repair it by a barricade of carts, but this was of little avail, and the town was quickly taken by assault.
Louis XIII, infuriated by the obstinacy of the inhabitants, had given orders that they were to be treated as they had treated his soldiers some months before, and every man capable of bearing arms was put to the sword, with the exception of a few who succeeded in escaping into the château. The troops exceeded the pitiless orders of the King, and the majority of the women were violated and many murdered, together with their children; while the town was pillaged and burned almost to the ground. The officers appear to have done their best to protect the women and to save the town; but, as so often happened in those days when places were taken by assault, the soldiers were quite out of hand, and it was impossible to restrain them.[6] The château held out until the following day, when it surrendered at discretion, and twelve or fifteen of those found there were taken and hanged.
The reconciliation between Bassompierre and Condé was of very short duration, for, a day or two later, the prince accused him in a council of war of questioning the orders which were given him. Bassompierre retorted that he had a right to his opinion, and that “if his mouth were to be closed, he should retire from the Service. The King thereupon took his part, and was very angry with Monsieur le Prince.” Further differences arose between them respecting the investment of Saint-Antonin, and, as Condé refused to be guided by his advice, Bassompierre begged to be permitted not to serve during the siege, and his request was granted.
Marillac was then appointed to the temporary command of Bassompierre’s troops; but the officers of the Guards refused to take their orders from him, as did those of the Navarre Regiment. Condé was furious and, going to the King, accused Bassompierre of “making cabals and mutinies in his army,” and said that he “deserved punishment and even death.” And that gentleman happening to enter the royal presence a few moments later, he denounced him to his face. Bassompierre denied the charge, and said that the refusal of the officers of the Guards and of Navarre to serve under Marillac was not due to any action on his part, but to the poor opinion they entertained of Marillac’s military capabilities, and that if some other officer were appointed, they would obey him readily enough. With this explanation Louis XIII professed himself satisfied, and Monsieur le Prince retired discomfited.
If we are to believe Bassompierre, Condé would appear to have bungled the siege of Saint-Antonin pretty badly, and an imprudent attempt to take the place by assault was repulsed with heavy loss. However, on June 22 the town surrendered.
A few days later, Bassompierre and the prince again came into collision. Condé had proposed in the Council to attack Carmain, a nest of Huguenots which was a great annoyance to the people of Toulouse, who had petitioned that its reduction should be undertaken;[7] but Bassompierre objected that to conquer these small places was to waste time which might be more usefully employed in besieging important strongholds of the enemy like Nîmes and Montpellier. It was decided to follow his advice, whereat “Monsieur le Prince’s bile was stirred against him,” and he left the Council in anger, complaining loudly that Bassompierre had prevented Carmain from being invested. Some Huguenot gentlemen happening to overhear him, sent to inform the authorities of that town that the Royal army had no intention of laying siege to it, in consequence of which a body of 500 men who were on their way from Puylaurens to reinforce the garrison received orders to return. Bassompierre, who had been ordered to lead the army to Castelnaudary, while the King and Condé went to visit Toulouse, learned of the return of this reinforcement, and aware that, deprived of its assistance, the people of Carmain would probably consider themselves incapable of withstanding a siege, determined to make an attempt to trick them into surrender. He accordingly appeared before the town, with all the paraphernalia for a siege: carts loaded with gabions, platforms for the batteries, and so forth, although he, of course, had no intention of undertaking it, since he had not received any orders to that effect, and, besides, had only two siege-guns with him. He then summoned it to surrender, vowing to make a terrible example of it in the event of a refusal, and to treat it as Négrepelisse had been treated; and the inhabitants, completely deceived, offered to parley forthwith, and early on the following morning, terms of capitulation having been arranged, the place surrendered (June 30).
The previous night part of the Piedmont Regiment, which Bassompierre had detached against the neighbouring town of Cuq-Toulza, had carried that place by assault, after blowing in the gate with a petard. So that within a few hours two towns had been taken, one of them without a blow being struck.
Not a little elated by this double success, Bassompierre placed the army in charge of Valençay, and repaired to Toulouse to report to the King.
“I arrived,” says he, “at the moment when the King was holding his council and was reprimanding Monsieur le Prince, because, when the Parlement and aldermen of Toulouse had come to do him homage, Monsieur le Prince had said that the cowardice of M. de Bassompierre had prevented the King from attacking Carmain, as, though he had counselled him to do it, I had dissuaded him. When the King was informed that I was at the door, he wondered what could have caused me to quit the army; but, when he ordered me to be admitted, I told him that I wished to bring him myself the news of the capture of Carmain and Cuq and to receive his commands upon other matters which I wished to propose to him. Then Monsieur le Prince rose and came to embrace me, telling me that he had done wrong to say what he had said, and that he would repair it by saying much good of me.... It is impossible to describe the joy with which the people of Toulouse received the news of this capture. They caused a splendid lodging to be made ready for me; and the aldermen came to thank me, and to invite me to dine on the morrow at the Hôtel-de-Ville, where they would hold a grand assembly for love of me, and a ball to follow. But I begged them to excuse me, on the ground that it was necessary for me to return promptly to the army.”
Bassompierre returned to the army accompanied by Praslin, who took over the command. The following day he met with what might have been a very severe accident, his horse stumbling and falling into a ditch on top of him. However, he escaped with nothing worse than a badly bruised foot. On July 2, the army reached Castelnaudary, having snapped up the little town of Le Mas-Saintes-Puelles on the way, and on the 5th the King joined it. His Majesty was unwell, suffering, says his physician Hérouard, from “sore throat, a cold, and a relaxed uvula,” and he remained for some days at Castelnaudary and kept Bassompierre with him; while the army under Praslin continued its march into Lower Languedoc.
Meantime, Lesdiguières, to whom, after the death of Luynes, Louis XIII had promised the office of Constable, provided he would renounce the Reformed faith, had sent to inform the King that he was about to be received into the Catholic Church. His elevation would entail a vacancy among the marshals, and the King sent for Bassompierre and Schomberg, who had also remained at Castelnaudary, and told them that, so soon as another occurred, he would create them both marshals, but that he did not wish to promote one before the other, as he considered that their claims were equal. Schomberg, however, pressed the King to promote both Bassompierre and himself forthwith, pointing out that they could render him more useful service as marshals of France in the approaching campaign in Lower Languedoc, and that when there was another vacancy, his Majesty could leave it unfilled, which would come to the same thing.
Perceiving that the King seemed very reluctant to take this course, though, at the same time, he was unwilling to refuse so pressing a request, Bassompierre, like a true courtier, came to his aid, and declared that, as he had “always preferred to deserve great honours than to possess them,” he was not so eager for the bâton as Schomberg, and would “without envy or regret” resign his claims in favour of one who was six years his senior, and one of his Majesty’s Ministers, and therefore entitled to the preference. “M. de Schomberg,” says he, “feeling that my courtesy had placed him under a great obligation, thanked me very gracefully; but the King persisted in refusing to promote one of us without the other; and so we withdrew.”
On July 13, Louis XIII left Castelnaudary and proceeded, by way of Carcassonne and Narbonne, to Béziers, where he remained for some little time. Bassompierre, however, rejoined the army, which was advancing slowly towards Montpellier, and which, on August 2, laid siege simultaneously to the towns of Lunel and Marsillargues, situated about a league from one another. Marsillargues surrendered almost at once, and Lunel a few days later, the garrison of the latter place, by the terms of the capitulation, being permitted to march out with their swords only; their other weapons were to be placed in the carts which carried their baggage.
Bassompierre had received orders to enter the town with the Guards the moment the garrison evacuated it. On his way thither, he saw great numbers of disbanded soldiers of different regiments, landsknechts and Swiss as well as French, lingering about, and felt sure that their presence boded no good, and that they were meditating an attack upon the baggage. He accordingly decided not to allow the garrison to leave until he had ridden back to the Royal camp to warn Praslin, whom he advised to take measures to prevent any such attempt. But the marshal replied that “he was not a child, and that he understood his business, and that if he [Bassompierre] would only give the necessary orders within the town, he would do the same without.”
Bassompierre returned to the town and directed the garrison to march out with their baggage, after which he entered with his troops, and gave orders that the gates should be closed and the breach which the besiegers’ cannon had made strongly guarded, as he thought it not improbable that an attempt might be made to enter and pillage the place.
“There was some degree of order in the departure of the enemy,” he says, “until the baggage came in sight; but, when that appeared, all the disbanded soldiers of our army rushed upon it, before it was possible for the marshal or Portes or Marillac to prevent them, and plundered these poor soldiers, 400 of whom they inhumanly butchered.”
Bassompierre, however, had the satisfaction of executing rigorous justice upon some of these ruffians:—
“Eight soldiers, of different countries and regiments, presented themselves at the gates of Lunel, with more than twenty prisoners, whom they brought tied together, with the intention of entering the town. Their swords were stained with the blood of those whom they had massacred, and they were so laden with booty that they could hardly walk. Finding the gate of Lunel shut, they called to the sentries to go and tell me to give orders for them to be let in. I went to the gate in consequence of what I heard, which I found to be true. I let them in and then ordered these eight fine fellows to be bound with the same cords with which they had bound the twenty prisoners. After giving these men the booty of the eight soldiers, whom, without any form of trial, I caused to be hanged before their eyes on a tree near the bridge of Lunel, I had them escorted by my carabiniers so far as the road to Cauvisson. On the morrow, Monsieur le Prince was very pleased with what I had done and thanked me.”
Two or three days after the Royal troops had taken possession of Lunel, the town narrowly escaped being destroyed, with everyone within its walls.
Bassompierre was at dinner with Créquy, Schomberg, and the Duc de Montmorency when there was a violent explosion, which partially wrecked the room in which they sat, though, happily, they were unhurt. They ran out to ascertain the cause, and learned that one of a train of ammunition-waggons which was entering the town had caught fire, and that the flames had reached the powder, with the result that several houses had been destroyed and others were blazing furiously. The utmost consternation prevailed, for the explosion had occurred near the gate by which the waggons had entered, and the débris of the houses barred the approach to it, while the other gates had been blocked up by Condé’s orders; and the fire was rapidly approaching a convent, in the vaults of which a great quantity of powder was stored. If once it reached it, the whole town would be consumed, with all the troops and inhabitants.
“The confusion was extreme,” says Bassompierre, “and, as everyone was thinking only of himself and his own safety, no one ran to extinguish the fire; all the people sought only to get out of the town, but no one could find a way. At length, I caused one of the blocked-up gates to be broken open, through which everyone could get out, and, having by this expedient got more elbow-room, we removed our powder to a safe place and extinguished the fire, by which more than fifty persons had perished.”
The following day Bassompierre went with a body of 500 cavalry to Villeneuve-de-Maguelonne to escort the King to Lunel, where his Majesty arrived on August 15. On the 17th, Louis XIII went to visit Sommières, which had just surrendered to his troops, and on the return journey Schomberg, whose jealousy of Bassompierre was increasing daily, finding an opportunity for private conversation with his sovereign, did not fail to turn it to account:
“On the road M. de Schomberg said to the King that I was his enemy, and he begged him to believe nothing that I might say about him. The King replied that he was entirely wrong, and that I had never spoken of him except to his advantage, nor of any other person, and that Schomberg knew me very little to take me for a man who did ill turns to people. He [Schomberg] was not a little astonished by this answer.”
Perceiving by Bassompierre’s manner that the King had told him of their conversation, Schomberg requested Puisieux to effect a reconciliation between them, to which Bassompierre “consented reluctantly and after he had expressed to him his sentiments.”
Schomberg would appear to have possessed an unusual amount of assurance, even for a German, for, immediately afterwards, he begged the man whom he had attempted to injure to employ his good offices with the King to obtain for him the governments which d’Épernon was about to resign in order to accept that of Guienne. This cool request, however, proved a little too much for Bassompierre, whose friend Praslin also aspired to these offices; and he replied that, not only should he refuse to speak in his favour, but should oppose him, until Praslin had been provided for. Eventually d’Épernon’s governments were divided between the two, Praslin receiving Saintonge and Aulnis, and Schomberg the Angoumois and the Limousin.
On August 27, Louis XIII arrived at Laverune, a little to the west of Montpellier, and on the following day Lesdiguières, who had been received into the Catholic Church in the Cathedral of Grenoble on the 24th, took the oath as Constable of France; after which, to the great mortification of Schomberg, the King informed Bassompierre that it was his intention to confer the vacant marshal’s bâton upon him, and that he would give orders for the necessary patent to be made out forthwith. His Majesty’s decision to give it to Bassompierre, notwithstanding what he had told him and Schomberg a fortnight before, was no doubt due to the fact that he had just bestowed a lucrative government upon the latter and considered that he ought to be content for the present with that proof of the royal favour. However, M. de Schomberg, who was one of those whose appetite for honours and emoluments seems only to have been stimulated by attempts to satisfy it, did not view the matter in that light, and felt deeply aggrieved.
CHAPTER XXIX
Conditions of peace with the Huguenots decided upon—Refusal of the citizens of Montpellier to open their gates to the King until his army has been disbanded—Bullion advises Louis XIII to accede to their wishes, and is supported by the majority of the Council—Bassompierre is of the contrary opinion, and urges the King to reduce Montpellier to “entire submission and repentance”—Louis XIII decides to follow the advice of Bassompierre, and the siege of the town is begun—A disastrous day for the Royal army—Death of Zamet and the Italian engineer Gamorini—Political intrigues—Bassompierre succeeds in securing the post of Keeper of the Seals for Caumartin, although the King has already promised it to d’Aligre, the nominee of Condé—Heavy losses sustained by the besiegers in an attack upon one of the advanced-works—Condé quits the army and sets out for Italy—Bassompierre is created marshal of France amidst general acclamations—Peace is signed—Death of the Abbé Roucellaï—Bassompierre accompanies the King to Avignon, where he again falls of petechial fever, but recovers—He assists at the entry of the King and Queen into Lyons—He is offered the government of the Maine, but declines it.
The Royal army had now invested Montpellier, which Rohan was determined to defend to the last extremity, if he were unable to obtain a treaty for the whole body of his co-religionists; but it seemed as though peace would intervene to prevent further bloodshed. The Huguenots had abated many of their pretensions, and Louis XIII, on his side, was not disposed to press too hardly upon them. Affairs without were becoming more and more alarming; and if the Ultramontane party, blinded by religious hatred, desired to continue the war until the Protestants were entirely crushed, level-headed men saw with grief France rendered impotent abroad and a prey to civil strife to satisfy the bigotry of fanatics and the egoistic ambition of the Prince de Condé. Lesdiguières, who desired to terminate his career by the deliverance of Italy, resumed his negotiations with Rohan, and in an interview between them at Saint-Privat conditions of peace were decided upon. The King was prepared to sign the articles and to make his entry into Montpellier; but the inhabitants firmly refused to open their gates to him. If, said they, the King would withdraw with his army to a distance of ten leagues, they would admit the Constable with what forces he wished to enter, and a week hence, when his army had been disbanded, they would receive his Majesty with all possible magnificence.
“The fact was,” writes Bassompierre, “that Monsieur le Prince, mortal enemy of the peace which was being negotiated, had said on several occasions that, if the King entered Montpellier, he would cause the town to be pillaged, whatever precautions might be taken to prevent it. This had so alarmed the people of Montpellier that they preferred to have recourse to any other extremity than that of receiving the King; and, as their final answer, which they gave that day to M. de Bullion,[8] they offered all obedience, provided the King did not enter their town, of which they considered the pillage assured, if they opened their gates to him.”
Louis XIII at once summoned the council to consider the answer which Bullion had brought back, and after the latter had read it to those present, called upon him to give his opinion.
Bullion, who seems to have been a man of sound common-sense and had been a witness that morning of the genuine alarm with which the extravagant boasts of Condé had inspired the people of Montpellier, strongly urged the King to humour them and “to seek solid advantages, without allowing himself to be stopped by little formalities which are not essential.” “If,” said he, “the town of Montpellier were refusing you the obedience and submission which is your due, I should say that it is necessary to destroy and exterminate it. But it is a people alarmed and terrified by the threats which have been launched against them to plunder and destroy them, to violate their wives and daughters and to burn their houses, who entreats you in the name of God to receive its obedience through your Constable, who will enter, when you have withdrawn, with such forces as he pleases, to make your Majesty’s authority recognised there, which is the same thing as though you entered yourself. Why do you wish for a mere punctilio to refuse a peace so useful and honourable for your Majesty; and prefer to undertake a long war, of which the issue is doubtful and the expense excessive, in a country where the heat is immoderate, and to expose your own person to the injuries of war and of the season, when you can escape them without loss or blame?”
The King was visibly impressed by this excellent advice, and when Condé sprang to his feet and began angrily declaiming against Bullion and “the cabal which had forged this peace without the knowledge of the Council and were endeavouring to conclude it with disgrace and infamy,” he sternly bade him resume his seat, saying that he would have an opportunity of giving his opinion when his turn came.
Not improbably influenced by the attitude of the King, counsellor after counsellor rose and expressed his approval of the advice given by Bullion. When Bassompierre was called upon, Condé exclaimed impatiently: “I know his opinion already, and we can say of it ad idem.” To the general astonishment, however, Bassompierre was for once in accord with Condé, and advised the King to break off the negotiations forthwith and “show, by a noble and generous disdain, how deeply he was offended by the propositions of those of Montpellier.” “If,” said he, “your Majesty were before Strasbourg, Antwerp, or Milan, and were concluding a peace with the princes to which those towns belong, the stipulation that you should not enter them would be tolerable; but that a King of France, victorious and supported by a powerful army, in place of granting peace to a handful of his rebel subjects, without resource and reduced to extremity, should receive it from them on the disgraceful conditions which they have just proposed, is a proposition so insulting that it cannot be suffered nor even listened to.... The King who accepts those conditions must be prepared to receive terrible insults from the other towns, who will be rendered audacious by this example and assured of impunity by this unworthy toleration.... Sire, in the name of God, take a firm resolution and persevere in it, and insist even upon the ruin of this people, because it is rebellious, and because it is also insolent and impudent; or to reduce it to entire submission and complete repentance.”
He then pointed out that his own interests were opposed to the advice which he was offering the King, and that he was actuated entirely by regard for his Majesty’s service and honour, since he had already been promised the marshal’s bâton and had nothing to gain at the siege of Montpellier, “save much toil, dangerous wounds and perhaps even death.” It was also possible that unfortunate accidents might arise which might oblige the King to defer his promotion to the office of marshal or even compel him [Bassompierre] to refuse the honour. “Nevertheless,” he concluded, “I shall take these risks, and I beg your Majesty very humbly to delay my reception [as marshal] until the town of Montpellier shall be reduced to its obedience, and your Majesty avenged of the affront which these rebels have desired to inflict upon you.”
“When I had finished speaking,” says Bassompierre, “Monsieur le Prince, who had listened to me attentively, rose and said to the King: ‘Sire, here is an honest man, devoted servant of your Majesty, and jealous of your honour.’ The King rose also, which obliged all the others to rise, and his Majesty said to M. de Bullion; ‘Return to Montpellier and tell the people of the town that I grant conditions to my subjects, but that I do not receive them from them. Let them accept those which I have offered them or let them prepare to be forced to do so.’ And thus the council ended. Monsieur le Prince did me the honour to approach and embrace me and to say aloud so many kind things of me that I was covered with confusion.”
There can be no doubt that Bassompierre, who was an honest man and a devoted servant of the Crown, was actuated by what he considered to be his duty in tendering this advice to his sovereign, which had touched Louis XIII on his weakest spot—his exaggerated regard for his own dignity. But it is equally certain that he had committed a disastrous mistake, both from a political and military point of view, in counselling the King to sacrifice the interests of his realm for what Bullion had rightly described as “a mere punctilio.” For, not only was an immediate peace of the most vital importance to the interests of France, both at home and abroad, but the reduction of the people of Montpellier to “entire submission and complete repentance” was a task which, in the most favourable circumstances, could not be effected except at immense expense and at the cost of hundreds of valuable lives. It is indeed amazing that, after the terrible lesson of Montauban, anyone could have been so rash as to embark upon another great siege for reasons so inadequate.
The siege began in anything but an auspicious manner. In the early hours of September 2, Bassompierre and Praslin advanced against the ridge of Saint-Denis, where the citadel now stands, and carried it without any resistance, since there was only a guard-house there, the occupants of which fled at their approach. Leaving Valençay there with some 1,500 men to hold it, they returned to camp, and, after attending a meeting of the Council, Bassompierre, who had to be up all the following night to superintend the opening of the trenches, went to his tent to snatch a few hours’ sleep. About midday, he was awakened by the sound of heavy firing, and, hurrying out, he saw the troops whom he and Praslin had left on the ridge of Saint-Denis in disorderly retreat, hotly pursued by the enemy.
It appears that Valençay, believing that there was no possibility of his being attacked in broad daylight, had not only neglected to entrench himself, but had even allowed his men to pile arms and scatter about the ridge; and, to crown all, had permitted a trumpeter from the town, who had been sent to demand the bodies of the dead, to approach without taking the precaution to order his eyes to be bandaged. On his return to Montpellier, this man duly reported what he had seen to his officers; and the garrison, sallying out in considerable force, fell upon the astonished Valençay and utterly routed him.
Springing on a horse, Bassompierre galloped off to the quarters of the Swiss Guards, who were the troops nearest the ridge of Saint-Denis, called them to arms and led them against the enemy. Meantime, the Duc de Montmorency, the young Duc de Fronsac and other nobles and gentlemen, who happened to be in attendance on the King, who had just finished dinner, had mounted the first horses they could find, and, with more valour than discretion, thrown themselves into the mêlée, in a vain endeavour to rally the fugitives. Montmorency’s life was saved by d’Argencourt, the lieutenant-governor of Montpellier, who fortunately recognised him, and he escaped with a couple of not very serious wounds; but his companions perished almost to a man, amongst them being Fronsac, whom Bassompierre describes as “a young prince of great promise, who, in his opinion, would have been one day a great captain,” the Marquis de Beuvron, d’Auctot, who commanded Condé’s company of light horse and was a great favourite of the prince, and Luynes’s nephew Combalet, brother of the young lady whom Bassompierre would in all probability have married, had the late Constable lived a few months longer.[9]
However, Bassompierre had now brought up the Swiss, and before the advance of these veterans, the enemy, who had pursued the routed troops almost to the confines of the Royal camp, fell back into the town, and the ridge of Saint-Denis was recovered. But it had been a most disastrous day for the besiegers, for Valençay’s force had been terribly cut up and his best officers killed.
Next day, the defenders of Montpellier, encouraged by this success, made a determined attack on Montmorency’s troops, encamped to the west of the town, who gave way before them. Zamet,[10] who had taken over the command from the wounded duke, succeeded in rallying them and driving the enemy back. But almost immediately afterwards he was mortally wounded by a cannon-shot from the town, and died a few days later.
The trenches were opened without any further disasters, but very little progress was made, for the enemy stubbornly disputed every yard of ground. The Italian engineer Gamorini was killed on the 11th, and his death was a severe loss to the besiegers. The same night the defenders made a fierce sortie, which was not repulsed until the work of several days had been destroyed. During the fighting a captain of the Navarre Regiment named Des Champs was surrounded by the enemy and would have been killed, had he not cried out: “I am Bassompierre; I am worth 20,000 crowns to you!” Upon which they spared his life and made him prisoner, thinking that they had secured a valuable prize.
In the night of the 13th-14th, the besiegers attacked the advanced-works on the north side of the town in three places simultaneously, and carried them. This placed them in a favourable position for bringing their cannon to bear upon the main fortifications; but, on the advice of a young engineer named La Magne Chavannes, and notwithstanding the opposition of Bassompierre and other officers, Condé insisted that they should first concentrate their efforts against a ravelin situated between the two bastions. The task of approaching this work proved a most difficult one, as they were exposed to a heavy flanking fire from the town which repeatedly levelled their traverses, and to bombing-attacks, which did considerable execution; while one night the trenches were completely flooded by a violent storm.
Meantime, the generals were devoting what time they could spare from their military duties to political intrigue. The Cardinal de Retz had died at the end of August, and the Keeper of the Seals, De Vic, in the first days of September, and their deaths had greatly weakened Condé’s party. He and Schomberg succeeded in replacing the former in the Council by their friend the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, and thus contrived to exclude Richelieu, though they could not prevent him being recommended for the vacant cardinal’s hat, which was immediately solicited for him by the Queen-Mother. Condé then pressed the King to confer the post of Keeper of the Seals upon d’Aligre, a Counsellor of State who was devoted to his interests, and would appear to have extracted a promise from his Majesty that he should be appointed. At any rate, when retiring to rest on the night of September 21, the King had told the courtiers who were present that it was his intention to make d’Aligre Keeper of the Seals, and they had informed Condé.
Next morning, flushed with success and convinced that he was on the point of triumphing over his enemies and dominating both the King and the State, Condé sent Roucellaï to Bassompierre with what amounted to an ultimatum. As Bassompierre was entering the King’s quarters, with Praslin, to attend a meeting of the Council, the abbé drew him aside and informed him that he had a communication of great importance to make to him on behalf of Monsieur le Prince, and that he desired to speak before Praslin.
After assuring Bassompierre that he was deeply sensible of the obligations under which he had placed him,[11] and that, in return, he had done everything in his power to secure for him the good will of Condé, Roucellaï declared that, despite all his efforts and those of his friends, Monsieur le Prince was as ill-satisfied with him as he could well be, and was convinced that, not only did he prefer Puisieux’s friendship to his, but had actually assisted that Minister to prejudice his Majesty’s mind against him. He had therefore charged him to offer Bassompierre once more his entire friendship, provided that he were willing to abandon that of Puisieux; and he required an answer that very day, as he declined to wait any longer. And the abbé entreated him to accept his patron’s offer and so escape the disastrous consequences which would inevitably follow a refusal.
“M. d’Aligre,” said he, “will be to-morrow Keeper of the Seals, and he and M. de Schomberg, closely united with Monsieur le Prince, will not only ruin M. de Puisieux, but also all his abettors and adherents, of whom you are the chief. I wished to tell you this before the Maréchal de Praslin, who loves you as a father, and who will be my witness that I have striven to avert from your head the storm which I perceive ready to burst upon it. For assuredly these three persons united together will possess the State, and will exalt or abase whomsoever they please.”
“As he concluded these words,” says Bassompierre, “the King called me, and since he saw me looking thoughtful, he inquired of what I was dreaming. ‘I am dreaming, Sire,’ I answered, ‘of an extravagant harangue which Roucellaï has just made me, before M. de Praslin, on behalf of Monsieur le Prince, which has astonished me both on my own account and yours. He declares me incapable of ever possessing his good graces if I do not accept them in the course of to-day, on condition of abandoning the friendship of M. de Puisieux, and says further that he, Schomberg and d’Aligre (who is to-morrow to become Keeper of the Seals) will be three heads in one hood, who will govern the State according to their whim, and, without any contradiction, ruining or aggrandizing their enemies or their partisans or servants at their pleasure. Judge, Sire, the condition to which you and those who desire to depend only upon you will be reduced!’
“It was unnecessary to say any more to the King to exasperate him. ‘They are not where they think they are,’ he replied, ‘and I have a rod in pickle for them.’ I begged him not to detain me longer, lest Roucellaï should believe that I had told him of his harangue, and, without appearing to notice anything, to ask the Maréchal de Praslin whether he had not said this, and more.”
Bassompierre then went back to Roucellaï and told him that “neither threats nor disgrace were able to make him abandon his friends, but, on the contrary, served only to bind him more closely to them,” and that “though he should always be Monsieur le Prince’s very humble servant, he would never do anything unworthy of himself to acquire his good graces.”
Meantime, Praslin had confirmed what Bassompierre had told the King and contrived to anger him still more against Condé and Schomberg; and his Majesty told Bassompierre that he would discuss the matter with him after dinner, when he would decide what must be done.
When the Council rose, Puisieux came up to Bassompierre and said: “The matter is decided; d’Aligre is Keeper of the Seals.” Bassompierre replied that he would believe it when he saw it; and that, meantime, he did not intend to worry about the matter. The Minister, however, declined to be comforted and went away, looking very disconsolate. Louis XIII then spoke to Bassompierre, and told him that he feared that he would be obliged to make d’Aligre Keeper of the Seals, as there was no one else who possessed all the necessary qualifications for so important a post. Bassompierre replied that his Majesty was doing an injustice to Caumartin, one of the oldest Counsellors of State, who had been entrusted in his time with several embassies and other important commissions, of which he had acquitted himself with credit. The King objected that Caumartin stammered, as he did himself, and that, as it was one of the duties of the Keeper of the Seals to prompt his sovereign when he was making a speech, this would entail serious inconvenience. “The man who ought to assist me when I am speaking,” said he, “will require someone to speak for him!”
However, Bassompierre waited in the King’s chamber until his Majesty returned from dinner, when, finding that he was much incensed at Condé’s presumption, he skilfully fanned the flame and then again proposed Caumartin to him, pointing out that, if at the end of three months the King found that he was incapable of discharging the duties of his post to his satisfaction, he could call for his resignation.
After some hesitation, the King told him that he had decided to give the Seals to Caumartin, and would inform him of it when he came to the Council on the following morning, but until then he should say nothing about the matter to anyone. The battle, however, was not yet won, for Louis was so easily influenced that if Condé were to see him in the interval, he would probably have no more difficulty in persuading him to break the promise he had just given Bassompierre than Bassompierre had had to induce him to break the promise he had given Condé. Aware of this, Bassompierre determined to get his Majesty to commit himself in writing, and demanded permission “to send a note on his behalf to console by this good news M. de Puisieux, who had gone to his lodging stricken to the heart.” To this the King consented, provided that Puisieux should be enjoined to keep the affair secret; and Bassompierre, taking Louis’s escritoire, which was on the table, wrote the letter and then begged the King to add a few words in his own hand. And his Majesty wrote at the foot: “I confirm this note.”
In order to get the King to commit himself still further, Bassompierre then asked if he would permit him to write to Caumartin, to which Louis, after making some little difficulty, also consented.
It was well that Bassompierre had taken these precautions, for, next morning, Condé, having learned what was in the wind, came to the King to inquire whether there were any truth in a report that had reached him that his Majesty intended to make Caumartin Keeper of the Seals. Louis, greatly embarrassed, assured him that it was without foundation, and he returned the same answer to several other persons whom the prince had put up to question him on the matter. It is probable, indeed, that had he not been persuaded to commit himself in regard to Caumartin, Condé’s candidate would, after all, have got the Seals. As it was, he had gone too far to draw back, and, to the intense mortification of Monsieur le Prince, he that afternoon gave them to Caumartin.
The appointment of Caumartin in place of his own nominee, notwithstanding the promise which Louis XIII had given him, was a serious rebuff to the presumptuous Condé, nor did he succeed any better in his military than in his political operations. On October 2, against the advice of Bassompierre, he gave orders that an attempt should be made to carry the ravelin by assault. It failed, and the besieged retaliated by a furious sortie on the flank of the Royal troops, which one of the latter’s own mines had laid open, and compelled them to abandon their trenches. Through the united efforts of Bassompierre[12]
and d’Épernon, the enemy were driven back, but the losses had been heavy, and included a number of officers. Montpellier was threatening to become a second Montauban.
A few days later, Lesdiguières, who had returned to his government of Dauphiné before the siege began, arrived in the Royal camp, at the head of considerable reinforcements. The Constable came ostensibly to take command of the operations, but his real object was to resume his negotiations for peace, which Louis XIII had, unknown to Condé, authorised him to do. The prince, deprived of his command and perceiving that peace was about to be concluded, despite all his efforts to prevent it, comprehended that his favour was at an end, and, in high dudgeon, quitted the army and set out for Italy, on the pretext of acquitting himself of a vow which he made during his imprisonment to perform a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Loretto.
The following morning (October 14), the terms of peace having been agreed upon, Rohan was permitted to pass through the camp and enter Montpellier, in order to persuade the citizens to accept the conditions, which included the admission of a Royal garrison into the town.
On the morning of the 12th, Bassompierre came to the King’s quarters to attend a meeting of the Council. It seemed to him that the King, who was in his aviary, did not look at him as kindly as usual, nor did he address him. Presently, his Majesty requested the members of the Council to follow him into his chamber, and told the Cardinal de la Vallette and Chevreuse, d’Elbeuf and Vendôme, who had come to pay him their respects, that he desired their presence also.
“As we entered,” says Bassompierre, “the Keeper of the Seals said to me: ‘It was my intention to recognise the obligations under which you have placed me, by sending you your letters perfumed, but the King pressed me so much to seal them, through Beautré, whom he sent to me yesterday evening, that I had not the time.’ ‘What letters?’ I asked. ‘Those creating you marshal of France, whose oath you are about to take.’ I was very astonished and rejoiced likewise at this unexpected news, and, at the same time, the King spoke these very words:—
“‘Messieurs, it is my intention to recognise the good and great services which M. de Bassompierre has rendered me for several years, both in the wars which I have waged and on other occasions, by the office of marshal of France, believing that he will serve me worthily and usefully therein. I desire to have your opinions on this matter, to see whether they are in conformity with my own.’
“Then all, with one voice, did me the honour to say more good of me than I deserved; upon which, without saying anything further to me, he [the King] took me by the hand, and being seated in his chair, made me kneel and take the oath. Then he placed in my hand the bâton, for which I rendered him the most humble thanks that I could think of. All present advanced to embrace and to felicitate me; and next every corps in the army, both of the infantry and the cavalry, came to offer very humble thanks to the King for the choice that he had made of my person, their first brigadier-general, to make him a marshal of France. And those of the artillery having demanded permission to fire a salvo of all the cannon in the army, the infantry did the same, to make a salvo of rejoicing. And the Sieur de Calonges, governor of Montpellier, sent to inquire of our soldiers in the trenches why this salvo was being fired, and, on being acquainted with the reason, he gave orders that the people of Montpellier should do the same as the army; and there also a general salvo was fired.”
It was a fitting tribute to a very brave man and a most capable officer, who had most thoroughly earned the high honour which had just been conferred upon him.
The same night the authorities of Montpellier sent to inform Louis XIII of their acceptance of the terms of peace, and on the 18th the ratification was brought to the King. The King signed the edict which put an end to this miserable war which had cost France so dear on the following day,[13] and Créquy and Bassompierre with the French and Swiss Guards took possession of the town. His Majesty made his entry on the 20th, and “all was as peaceable as if there had never been a war.”
On the 22nd, Roucellaï, who had been very ill for some days with petechial fever, sent an earnest request for Bassompierre to come to him. He went and found the unfortunate abbé almost at his last gasp, and he had only just time to confide his papers to Bassompierre, with directions to burn all those which he thought advisable, then he died. As Roucellaï had been one of the most inveterate intriguers of his time, these papers must have furnished interesting reading, and have contained the wherewithal to set the whole Court by the ears. It was just as well, therefore, that Bassompierre had authority to destroy them.
On the 27th, Louis XIII left Montpellier and two or three days later made his entry into Arles, “where for the first time,” says Bassompierre, “I marched in my quality of marshal of France, immediately before the King, on the left of the Maréchal de Praslin.”
From Arles Bassompierre was despatched with the greater part of the army to reduce some small places from which the Sieur de Brison, a Huguenot chief who had refused to make his submission, was pillaging the surrounding country. This he successfully accomplished, and towards the middle of November rejoined the King at Lyons. On the way thither he spent a night at Valence, “where he found M. de Lusson (sic), who had been nominated cardinal and was on his way to receive the hat from the King.”[14] From Lyons he accompanied Louis XIII to Avignon, where the King received a visit from Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, who came to lay the basis of a treaty between France, Savoy and Venice, which was signed at Paris on February 7 of the following year, and which had for its object to compel Spain to execute the Treaty of Madrid and to restore the Valtellina to the Grisons.
On the day following the Duke of Savoy’s arrival, the marshal was taken ill while attending a play given in honour of the King at the Jesuit College. His illness developed into another attack of petechial fever, though happily not in so severe a form as the one he had had after the siege of Montauban. However, it kept him at Avignon for a fortnight and prevented him from accompanying the King to Grenoble, though he was well enough to assist at their Majesties’ entry into Lyons, which took place on December 12 and would appear to have rivalled in magnificence that of Henri II and Catherine de’ Medici into the same city in 1548, though on this occasion there was no Diane de Poitiers present to dispute the honours with the Queen of France and give piquancy to the ceremony.
The entry was followed by a week of balls, banquets, theatrical performances, and displays of fireworks, all of which festivities were no doubt much appreciated by the marshal after so many months of war’s alarms, capped by a severe illness, and all the more, since, he tells us, in the course of them he was reconciled to a fair lady—her name is not recorded—from whom he had had the misfortune to be estranged.
Louis XIII left Lyons to return to Paris on December 19. At La Charité, where he spent Christmas, news arrived of the death of the Prince de Guéméné, governor of the Maine, and the King offered the vacant office to Bassompierre. The marshal, however, declined it, on the ground that he desired “to receive his [the King’s] favours and benefits at such intervals that the King should be praised for his kindness and he himself for his modesty, and that, as only two months had elapsed since he had honoured him with the office of marshal of France, if he were to make him so soon governor of a province, people would talk about it.” We are, however, inclined to think that the real reason of his refusal was his disinclination to leave the Court—for the governor of a province was obliged to reside there for several months in each year—partly owing to the attraction which court life had for him, and partly because he knew that to retain the favour of a king like Louis XIII it was necessary to be with him constantly.
CHAPTER XXX
Fall of Schomberg—La Vieuville becomes Surintendant des Finances—His bitter jealousy of Bassompierre—He informs Louis XIII that the marshal “deserves the Bastille or worse”—Semi-disgrace of Bassompierre, who, however, succeeds in making his peace with the King—Mismanagement of public affairs by Puisieux and his father, the Chancellor Brulart de Sillery—La Vieuville and Richelieu intrigue against them and procure their dismissal from office—The Earl of Holland arrives in Paris to sound the French Court on the question of a marriage between the Prince of Wales and Henrietta Maria—Bassompierre takes part in a grand ballet at the Louvre—La Vieuville accuses the marshal of drawing more money for the Swiss than he is entitled to—Foreign policy of La Vieuville—Richelieu re-enters the Council—Bassompierre accused by La Vieuville of being a pensioner of Spain—Serious situation of the marshal—The Connétable Lesdiguières advises Bassompierre to leave France, but the latter decides to remain—Differences between La Vieuville and Richelieu over the negotiations for the English marriage—Arrogance and presumption of La Vieuville—Intrigues of Richelieu against him—The King informs Bassompierre that he has decided to disgrace La Vieuville—Indiscretion of the marshal—Duplicity of Louis XIII towards his Minister—Fall of La Vieuville—Richelieu becomes the virtual head of the Council.
In the second week in January, 1623, the Court reached Paris, and Louis XIII made “a kind of entry” into his capital. This event appears to have given rise to a good deal of unpleasantness:—
“Monsieur[15] having refused to suffer Monsieur le Comte[16] to ride with him, Monsieur le Comte did the same to M. de Guise, who withdrew. It happened also that the Provost of the Merchants[17] claimed the right to march immediately before the King, on the ground that it was not an entry, but a joyous arrival, for which the marshals of France felt such contempt that they declined even to contest the point, and did not take part in the procession.”
A few days after the King’s return to Paris, Schomberg was deprived of the post of Surintendant of Finance and banished the Court. Since the Treaty of Montpellier Puisieux had been busily intriguing against him, in company with La Vieuville, a sworn enemy of Schomberg, and had accused him of gross mismanagement of the finances, if not worse. That he had mismanaged them was true enough, though how any other result could have been expected, when he was required to combine the duties of Surintendant with those of Grand Master of the Artillery on active service, it is difficult to see. However, his hands appear to have been perfectly clean, otherwise Richelieu would scarcely have recalled him to office so soon as he came into power, and, though he had committed a grave error in attaching himself to Condé and the war party, he was a more honest, as well as an abler, man than those who had brought about his fall.
Bassompierre, who had taken no part in this intrigue, and had, indeed, endeavoured to protect Schomberg, now proposed to the King to reappoint Sully to the office which he had filled so ably under Henri IV, a suggestion which did him much honour, since he and the old statesman had never been on friendly terms. But Puisieux and his father, the Chancellor Brulart de Sillery, objected, on the score of Sully’s religion, and La Vieuville was made Surintendant.
La Vieuville was a man of some ability, but he was rash, corrupt and an unscrupulous intriguer; and no sooner was he admitted to the King’s Council than he began to conspire, first, to get rid of the Chancellor and Puisieux, his benefactors, then, of all those whom the King admitted to his intimacy, and particularly of Bassompierre, of whom he appears to have conceived the bitterest jealousy.
Towards the end of that year a dispute of long standing between Diane de France, the widow of the Connétable de Montmorency, and the Duchesse de Chevreuse, was adjudicated upon by Louis XIII. It appears that Madame de Montmorency had accepted the post of dame d’honneur to the Queen on the understanding that no Surintendante of her Majesty’s Household should be appointed over her. This condition, however, had not been observed, and the Duchesse de Chevreuse, or the Duchesse de Luynes, as she was at that time, had been appointed Surintendante. The Duc de Montmorency, acting on behalf of his step-mother, requested the King to appoint someone to inquire into this weighty matter and report to the Council, and, as the Duc de Chevreuse, representing his wife, raised no objection, her request was granted. Neither nobleman had, of course, the least intention of compromising the interests of the lady he represented by adopting this course; and their mortification may be imagined when, in November, Louis XIII cut the Gordian knot by depriving both Madame de Montmorency and Madame de Chevreuse of their charges.
In a conversation with Bassompierre, Puisieux asked him his opinion of the King’s decision. Bassompierre frankly replied that he considered it the worst he had ever known him give, as he had thereby offended both parties, and that “the judge would be condemned to pay the costs of the action.” Puisieux inquired what he meant, when he said that, in the unsettled condition of the kingdom, and the probability of another war with the Huguenots, who were angrily demanding the destruction of Fort Saint-Louis at La Rochelle,[18] it was most imprudent of the King to displease two such great Houses as those of Montmorency and Lorraine, and that he ought to indemnify forthwith both ladies for the loss of their charges; otherwise, in the event of war, he might not be able to rely on the loyalty of their relatives.
Bassompierre spoke to Puisieux as one friend might speak to another, and, of course, believed that the latter would regard it as a private conversation. But the Minister, “to play the good valet,” reported what the marshal had said, very possibly with some little embellishments of his own, to Louis XIII, who, in turn, informed La Vieuville; and La Vieuville, delighted to find an opportunity of injuring Bassompierre, professed the utmost indignation, and “told the King that such words were criminal, and that they deserved the Bastille or worse.” His Majesty did not send Bassompierre to the Bastille, but he frowned angrily whenever he saw him, and for a whole week refused to honour him with so much as a word. At the end of that time, however, he unbosomed himself to the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld and his confessor Père Seguiran, who, fortunately, happened to be on friendly terms with the marshal, and, through their good offices, the latter succeeded in making his peace with the King.
This affair was only the prelude to further and more determined attempts by La Vieuville to deprive Bassompierre of the royal favour, but for the moment he was more intent on bringing about the downfall of the Chancellor and Puisieux, in which task he had the powerful support of Richelieu.
Since the dismissal of Schomberg, the Brûlarts, père et fils, had been all-powerful[19] and had mismanaged matters both at home and abroad. The treaty which had been signed between France, Savoy, and Venice in February, 1623, had pledged the contracting parties to take vigorous measures for the recovery of the Valtellina. But the Chancellor and his son had no wish to embark in a war which they felt themselves incapable of conducting, and when the Spanish Government offered to hand over the fortresses of the Valtellina to the Pope in deposit, on condition that his Holiness would assure the tranquillity of the country or restore them to Philip IV, they eagerly embraced this way out of the difficulty. Rome and Spain, however, were in accord to deceive France. The Duke of Feria, governor of the Milanese, did not deliver all the forts to the Papal troops, and the two most important strongholds, Ripa and Chiavenna, remained in Spanish hands; while, on his side, Gregory XV claimed that the Grisons should become Catholic, or that the Valtellina should be constituted a fourth League, with the same rights as the other Leagues of the Grisons. The Treaty of Paris had, in the words of the disgusted Venetian Ambassador, proved itself to be “nothing but a demonstration on paper.”
At home, the Brûlarts trafficked in offices, and allowed, as was the custom, their relatives and friends to enrich themselves at the expense of the State. Such practices were regarded in those days as mere peccadilloes, but Richelieu, who was slowly but surely paving the way for his return to office, and was aware that there was no chance of realising his ambition so long as the Chancellor and his son remained in power, professed to be scandalised, and there can be no doubt that more than one of the pamphlets which appeared attacking the incapacity and greed of the Ministers in vigorous and not too refined language were inspired by his Eminence. At the same time, Richelieu adroitly insinuated to the King, through Marie de’ Medici, that the Brûlarts were turning the great project on the Valtellina announced by the League of Paris to the shame of France, and Louis XIII, who keenly resented the impotence of his diplomacy, became more and more incensed against them. La Vieuville, on his part, was not idle and accused the Brûlarts, probably with justification, of having levied toll on the subsidies which were being sent to the Dutch. The consequence was that on New Year’s Day, 1623, the King demanded the Seals from the Chancellor, and at the beginning of February ordered both him and his son to retire to one of their country-seats.
The King gave the Seals to d’Aligre, who, it will be remembered, would have received them in the autumn of 1622 but for Bassompierre’s intervention. In consequence, the marshal was somewhat apprehensive that he might cherish a grudge against him, and went to offer him his congratulations with considerable misgivings as to how they would be received. To his surprise, however, d’Aligre greeted him with marked cordiality.
“At this,” he says, “the others who had come to felicitate him were dumfounded, but I said to them aloud: ‘Do not be astonished, gentlemen, at the cordiality with which the new Keeper of the Seals has received me; for I am the cause of the King having given them to him to-day.’ ‘I was not aware, Monsieur,’ said he, ‘that I was under this obligation to you; I beg you to tell me why.’ ‘Monsieur,’ I answered, ‘but for me, you would not have had them to-day, but a year ago.’ Whereat he began to laugh and told me that it was true, but that I had done my duty; for, since I had not been solicited by him, with whom I was hardly acquainted, I was obliged to use my influence on behalf of my friend M. de Caumartin. Then he told me that he begged me to love him, and that he would swear before these gentlemen to be faithfully my servant and friend, as he had assuredly shown himself to be on every occasion that has arisen.”
But if Bassompierre had nothing to fear from the good-natured d’Aligre, he had everything to apprehend from the jealous and unscrupulous La Vieuville.
“By this means [the disgrace of the Brûlarts] La Vieuville was in supreme favour, and from that time worked openly for my ruin, since he had not been able to compel me to abandon my friends and to bind myself to him in a close alliance, as he had begged me earnestly to do before Christmas.”
However, the marshal did not allow any fear of approaching ruin to interfere with his enjoyment of the Fair of Saint-Germain and the other gaieties of that winter, during which the negotiations for the marriage of the Prince of Wales (afterwards Charles I.) with the Infanta Maria Anna, sister of Philip IV, having been definitely broken off, the Earl of Holland arrived in Paris to sound the French Court on the question of an alliance between the prince and Henriette-Marie. The King and Queen each organised a grand ballet. In his Majesty’s, which was entitled les Voleurs, Louis XIII represented a Dutch captain, M. de la Roche-Guyon a Dutch lady, and the Ducs de Chevreuse and de Luxembourg and the Maréchaux de Créquy and de Bassompierre impersonated pirates. Bassompierre had to recite the following verses:—
“Enfin malgré les flots me voici de retour,
La mer se promettait de noyer mon amour,
Dont la constance luy fait honte;
Mais elle est bien loin de son compte:
Caliste, vos appas ont rompu son dessein,
Les flots où je me perds sont dedans vostre sein.”
At the beginning of March, La Vieuville complained to the King that, with the connivance of Puisieux, when he had been Secretary of State for War, Bassompierre had been drawing every year for the maintenance of the Swiss 24,000 livres more than he was entitled to. The marshal, on learning of this, angrily denied that he had received a sol more than was justly due, and proceeded to prove his statement in the presence of the King, when high words passed between him and the Minister. Nevertheless, his accounts were not passed, and the matter remained in abeyance.
La Vieuville, with all his faults, showed both energy and ability; and he was the first to reverse the disastrous Spanish policy of the Court. He recalled the Commandeur de Sillery, the French Ambassador to Rome, where he had shown himself as feeble and undecided as his relatives in Paris; sent the Marquis de Cœuvres, a good soldier and a skilful diplomatist, as Ambassador to Switzerland, to urge the Cantons, both Protestant and Catholic, to go to the assistance of the Grisons; concluded offensive and defensive alliances with the Dutch, which assured to them a subsidy for the next two years; and warmly supported the English marriage-project. But he made many enemies besides Bassompierre, and feeling the need of conciliating the Queen-Mother, who for some weeks had absented herself from Court, as a protest against the treatment of Richelieu, he promised to obtain for her favourite admission to the Council.
This was no easy task, for the mediocrities who had so long surrounded Louis XIII had succeeded in inspiring him with their own dread of this great man, and the King was, in consequence, very unwilling to entrust him with office, added to which he still associated him with the followers of Concini, all of whom he held in aversion. “There is a man who would like to be of my Council,” he observed one day to Praslin, as Richelieu passed by; “but I cannot bring myself to this step, after all he has done against me.” “I know him better than you do,” he said on another occasion to Marie de’ Medici, when she had been urging the Cardinal’s claims upon him; “he is a man of unmeasured ambition.” Now, however, he did not withstand the request of his Minister, reinforced by the solicitations of the Queen-Mother, and on April 29, 1624, Richelieu re-entered the Council.
Meanwhile, La Vieuville had resumed hostilities against Bassompierre, whose intimacy with the King he appears to have regarded as the chief obstacle in the path of his ambition. This time he launched a far more serious charge against the marshal than that of drawing more money on account of the Swiss than he was entitled to, and accused him of being a pensioner of Spain.
It is difficult to say with any degree of certainty on what grounds this charge was based, since Bassompierre himself throws no light upon the subject. But it would appear from a manuscript of Dupuy in the Bibliothèque Nationale that, during the marshal’s embassy to Madrid, the Spanish Government had proposed to him a commercial treaty between France and Spain, and that in 1623 Bassompierre had presented a memorial to Louis XIII in favour of this project. In the margin of his copy of this memorial Dupuy gives his own opinion of the proposed treaty, and while praising the ability with which Bassompierre has stated the case in its favour, he foresees several objections, and among them, the following:—
“Without doubt this proposition of the King of Spain contains some hidden artifice, which his Majesty will not discover until after he has completely committed himself, and then it will be too late to remedy it.”
It is therefore not improbable that, at the beginning of the following year, La Vieuville had seized the pretext of this memorial to accuse Bassompierre of having accepted money from the Court of Madrid to advocate a proposal which was to the disadvantage of France.
However that may be, La Vieuville was very active in the matter, and in May caused the arrest of one Alphonso Lopez, a Spanish Moor, who had long resided in Paris, where he carried on an extensive trade in jewellery, tapestries, and objets d’art, and who, in the course of his business, was a frequent visitor to Bassompierre’s house, “imagining that by his means,” says the marshal, “he might discover something against me.”
Bassompierre demanded an audience of Louis XIII, who was at Compiègne, in order that he might have an opportunity of defending himself; but his Majesty did not seem anxious to grant it.
“At length, the King promised to speak to me one evening in June, on the rampart which is near his cabinet.... I said to him what God inspired me to say in favour of my innocence and against the calumny of La Vieuville; in such fashion that I stood very well with him, and he [La Vieuville] very ill. And, the better to conceal our game, the King desired me not to speak to him in public, save when I came to take the password from him, when he
would be able to say a few words to me, and I to him. And he said that he intended to seem displeased with me, and that I must not show any appearance of having been reconciled with him, and that if I had anything to say to him, it should be through the medium of Toiras, Beaumont, or the Chevalier de Souvré. Finally, after I had spoken to the King, I had no longer any doubt that La Vieuville would be completely ruined.”
However, if La Vieuville was about to be ruined, it looked very much as though he would succeed in ruining Bassompierre first, notwithstanding that Richelieu, d’Aligre, and the Constable had all assured the marshal that they were resolved not to allow the Minister to prejudice their minds against him. Le Doux, a maître des requêtes, who had been entrusted with the duty of examining Lopez’s ledgers and papers, had reported to La Vieuville that he had found that a certain Spaniard named Guadamiciles had furnished Bassompierre with a sum of 40,000 francs. The entry upon which Le Doux based this information was as follows:—
“Al Sr. Mal. de Bassompierre por guadamiciles, 40,000 Ms.”[20]
Now, as Bassompierre explains, Lopez had received 40,000 maravedis from a merchant in Spain on account of some tapestries of gilded leather (guadamiciles) which the marshal had commissioned him to sell for him. But Le Doux and La Vieuville believed, or affected to believe, that guadamiciles was a proper name, and the latter pressed the King most urgently to have Bassompierre arrested forthwith and conveyed to the Bastille.
To this Louis XIII refused to consent, but he and all his Council admitted that it was most necessary to ascertain the identity of this mysterious Guadamiciles and to arrest him, if he were in France, and, in the event of his proving to be a Spanish banker, Bassompierre likewise.
The marshal learned all this from Lesdiguières, who, so soon as the Council rose, sent for him to warn him of his danger:
“The Constable begged me to leave France for some time, in order to escape my disgrace, which was certain, and even offered me 10,000 crowns, if I were in need of money. I thanked him very humbly for his warning and his offer, but told him that he ought to give it to La Vieuville, who would be ruined in a month, and not myself. This worthy man sought to persuade me to yield to the present violence, but I (who knew more about the matter than I told him), assured him that I was as firmly established as La Vieuville was tottering. Nevertheless, on the morrow, he [La Vieuville] had the power to cause Colonel d’Ornano to be driven away from Monsieur brother of the King,[21] which caused the Constable to urge me anew to be gone; but I assured him again of my safety and of the complete ruin of La Vieuville.”
Bassompierre had judged the situation correctly, for the man whom La Vieuville had introduced into the Council, in the hope of strengthening his own position, was gradually undermining it. La Vieuville’s intention had been to make of Richelieu a mere consulting Minister, who would give advice only when called upon to do so, and whose sphere of activity would be limited by the four walls of the Council-chamber. The Cardinal resigned himself to this rôle, in appearance at least; nevertheless, it was not long before he and his chief came into sharp collision.
At the beginning of June the Earls of Holland and Carlisle arrived in France to demand the hand of Henriette-Marie for the Prince of Wales, and La Vieuville, d’Aligre, and Richelieu were charged to discuss with the representatives of James I the clauses of the marriage treaty. The Cardinal, although a warm partisan of the English alliance, had declared that “it was necessary for the men of France to seek in this alliance all the advantages possible for religion [i.e., the Catholic religion].... If not, it was greatly to be feared that they would bring down upon themselves the wrath of God, as did Jehosaphat, who, although a pious king, felt severely the Hand of God for having allied himself with Ahab, King of Israel, who persecuted the servants of God.” He now demanded that the English Government should make the Catholics of England, in favour of the French princess, the same concessions in regard to the public exercise of their religion as they had consented to in the case of the Infanta. This was at once refused, and all that Holland and Carlisle would promise was liberty of private worship, and that, not by a formal engagement inserted in the treaty, but by a simple verbal promise on the part of James I. Richelieu pressed for an article in the contract, so that the engagement might be “more solemn and public,” his object being that the English Catholics might feel themselves under a greater obligation to France. But the Ambassadors, perceiving his motive, remained firm, even when he declared it to be a sine quâ non.
La Vieuville was incensed that Richelieu should be compromising the English alliance for the sake of the English Catholics. “Morbleu!” said he, “these priests are spoiling all my work.” He recalled from England the French Ambassador, the Comte de Tillières, a brother-in-law of Bassompierre, who had also shown himself too solicitous for the interests of the Catholics, and told Holland and Carlisle that the French demands were only made for form’s sake and to satisfy the Pope and the Catholics of France, and that it was really a matter of indifference to Louis XIII how their master treated his Catholic subjects. A little later, becoming uneasy at the slow progress of the negotiations, he caused James I to be informed that the King would be content with a simple promise of toleration. Richelieu, warned by the Secretary of State Brienne of the game La Vieuville was playing, vowed to make him repent it.
La Vieuville, all unconscious of his danger, went forward boldly. He gave Marescot, who was being sent on an embassy to Germany, instructions differing materially from those which had been decided upon in the Council. He tried to persuade Monsieur that Richelieu had been responsible for Ornano’s disgrace. In connivance with his father-in-law Beaumarchais, a high official of the Treasury, he entered into important financial transactions without consulting the King or his colleagues. He left the pensions even of the greatest nobles unpaid and ignored their remonstrances. He was haughty, churlish, and incautious in his language, even when speaking of the King. Never did Minister so persistently court his fall.
Richelieu, perceiving that the time to strike had come, launched against him his friend Fançan, a canon of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, and the ablest publicist of his time, whom he had already employed with effect against the Brûlarts, and who published a pamphlet entitled la Voix Publique au Roi, which appears to have had a great vogue:—
“It is said, Sire, that La Vieuville plays the Maréchal d’Ancre, the Luynes and the Puisieux all together, and that so great is his presumption, that in your Council he takes upon himself to decide everything.”
The voice of the public had, however, nothing but praise for the Cardinal de Richelieu, who was “refined up to twenty-two carats,” “adroit and prudent,” and “showed no inclination to seek any other support than in the legitimate authority of his Majesty.” It was hoped that he would be to the King what the Cardinal Georges d’Amboise had been to the well-loved Louis XII.
Then Richelieu revealed to the King the irregular proceedings of La Vieuville, and experienced little difficulty in arousing Louis to a high pitch of resentment against a Minister who was acting without his knowledge, and who, in the matter of the English Catholics, was misrepresenting his sentiments and compromising his conscience. Towards the end of July the disgrace of La Vieuville was resolved upon, and the King, who was at Germigny-l’Évêque, the summer residence of the Bishops of Meaux, sent Toiras to Paris to inform Bassompierre of his decision.
On the way this gentleman had the misfortune to meet a certain Sieur de Bernay, who, happening to have a grievance against him, insisted on receiving satisfaction then and there; and, as the duel which ensued resulted in M. de Toiras having to take to his bed, the royal message never reached Bassompierre. However, two or three days later, he received orders from the King to come to Saint-Germain early on the morrow without fail. He went, accompanied by the Duc de Bellegarde, and was very cordially received by his Majesty, who told him and the Grand Equerry that he had decided to disgrace La Vieuville.
While they were with the King, who should arrive but La Vieuville himself, accompanied by his brother-in-law the Maréchal de Vitry, and the Minister could not conceal his astonishment and mortification at the sight of Louis walking up and down between Bellegarde and Bassompierre and apparently on the best of terms with the latter. On perceiving La Vieuville, the King left his companions and went to speak to him, while Bassompierre approached the Maréchal de Vitry, who told him that he had been much distressed at seeing him on such bad terms with his brother-in-law, and that he was most anxious to effect a reconciliation between them. “Why should I be reconciled to him,” answered Bassompierre, “at the moment that he is about to be disgraced, when I refused when he was all-powerful?” “What! disgraced!” cried the astonished Vitry. “Yes, disgraced; and never trust me again if a fortnight hence he is still Surintendant.”
No sooner was the conversation between the King and La Vieuville at an end, than Vitry drew his brother-in-law aside and informed him of what Bassompierre had just said; upon which the Minister, in his turn, immediately reported it to Louis XIII. The King assured him that he had not the least intention of dispensing with his services, and that Bassompierre was more likely to be disgraced than himself; and, so embarrassed was the young monarch that, had La Vieuville been bold enough to demand the immediate exile of the marshal, as Richelieu would have done in similar circumstances, it is not improbable that the latter would have had good reason to regret his indiscretion. However, fortunately for Bassompierre, he did not do so.
Louis XIII afterwards reprimanded Bassompierre sharply for having placed him in such an awkward position; but the marshal excused himself on the ground that, after all the distress that La Vieuville had caused him for months past, it would be letting him off far too lightly only to make him feel the bitterness of disgrace when it arrived, and that “he had wished him to taste it in anticipation.”
A few days later, during a meeting of the King’s Council, his Majesty sent for Bassompierre and, to the great astonishment of La Vieuville, to whom he had said nothing about the matter, informed the marshal that, having carefully examined the accounts of the Swiss which were in dispute, he had come to the conclusion that he had only claimed what was justly due. And then, turning to La Vieuville, he curtly directed him to see that the money was paid forthwith.
“He [La Vieuville] answered not a word and made only the reverence of acquiescence. The members of the Privy Council offered me their congratulations in his presence, and the King spoke to me most graciously. Then La Vieuville saw clearly that his disgrace was at hand, and he began to tell the King that he wished to resign his office; but the King gave him fair words.”
A day or two after this, Bassompierre requested permission of Louis XIII to bring an action against La Vieuville before the Parlement, so soon as he should cease to be a Minister, for having falsely accused him to his Majesty of being a pensioner of Spain, in order that he might be punished as he deserved. But the King assured the marshal that he intended to punish him sufficiently himself, by dismissing him with ignominy from office and imprisoning him. However, he enjoined him to say nothing about it to anyone.
Louis XIII seems to have played with the unfortunate La Vieuville up to the very moment of his disgrace much as a cat would play with a mouse. The young King was, not only deceitful, but, like most weak natures, cruel and spiteful, and he would appear to have taken a positive pleasure in inflicting suffering upon those who had the misfortune to incur his resentment.
“On the morrow,[22] the King went after dinner to visit the Queen his mother at Rueil; and La Vieuville, having got wind of what was being prepared against him, packed up his baggage and came, on his way back to Paris, to offer the King his resignation of the office of Surintendant and his place in the Council, telling him that he did not propose to return again to Saint-Germain. The King told him that he must not do this, and that he was distressing himself quite needlessly; and he promised him also that he would give him his dismissal with his own lips, and that he would permit him to come and take leave of him when that should happen. And so he [La Vieuville] felt reassured and returned to Saint-Germain. But, that evening, as the servants were making rough music in the back court in honour of an officer of the Kitchen who had married a widow, Monsieur, brother of the King, sent word to them to come into the court of the château to see him; and all the scullions and others did so, bringing with them pans which they beat. When La Vieuville heard this uproar, he imagined that it was directed against him, and sent to tell the Cardinal de Richelieu that people were coming to assassinate him. The Cardinal mounted to his chamber and reassured him. But, the next morning, the King, having sent for him in his Council, told him that, as he had promised him, he informed him himself that he had no further need of his services, and that he would permit him to take leave of him. Then, as he [La Vieuville] was going out, M. de Tresmes[23] made him prisoner, and, a little while afterwards, a coach and the King’s mounted musketeers arrived, and conducted him to the Château of Amboise, from which he effected his escape a year afterwards.”[24]
From the day of La Vieuville’s disgrace Richelieu was the virtual head of the Council, and for the first time since the death of Henri IV a firm hand guided the ship of State.
CHAPTER XXXI
Vigorous foreign policy of Richelieu—The recovery of the Valtellina—His projected blow at the Spanish power in Northern Italy frustrated by a fresh Huguenot insurrection—Bassompierre sent to Brittany—Marriage of Charles I and Henrietta-Maria—Bassompierre offered the command of a new army which is to be despatched to Italy—He demands 7,000 men from the Army of Champagne—The Duc d’Angoulême and Louis de Marillac, the generals commanding that army, have recourse to the bogey of a German invasion in order to retain these troops—Bassompierre declines the appointment—Conversation between Bassompierre and the Spanish Ambassador Mirabello on the subject of peace between France and Spain—The marshal is empowered to treat for peace with Mirabello—Singular conduct of the Ambassador—News arrives from Madrid that Philip IV has revoked the powers given to Mirabello—Bassompierre is sent as Ambassador Extraordinary to the Swiss Cantons to counteract the intrigues of the house of Austria and the Papacy—His reception in Switzerland—Lavish hospitality which he dispenses—Complete success of his negotiations.
Never had France stood more in need of such guidance than at the moment when Richelieu assumed the direction of affairs. At home, there was for the moment peace, though it was to prove but of brief duration; but abroad the position of affairs had become so threatening that even the dullest minds had begun to be alarmed. Spain and Austria, in closest harmony of religious and political aims, were trampling on the liberties of Europe; Germany seemed prostrate at the Emperor’s feet; Spain dominated all Italy, with the exception of Venice and Savoy. All the provinces which owed allegiance to the two Powers had been knit together; the subjugation of the Palatinate and the Lower Rhine secured their connection with the Netherlands and menaced the very existence of the Dutch; the Valtellina forts commanded the road between the Spaniards in the Milanese and the Austrians on the Danube and in the Tyrol.
Richelieu at once resolved to assail the Austro-Spanish power at both critical points. In the North, he did not interfere in arms, but by subsidies and skilful negotiations he organised a Northern League, under the leadership of Christian IV of Denmark, and arrested the progress of the Spaniards in the United Provinces. In the Valtellina, however, he had recourse to more vigorous measures.
The Spaniards had ended by handing over the forts which had remained in their possession to the Papal troops, but though the period during which the Pope[25] was to hold them in deposit had long expired and he had received all the guarantees he could desire for the security of the Catholic religion, the Holy Father could not bring himself to hand over the Valtellina to the heretic Grisons. The Spaniards, on their side, believed themselves more assured of the Valtellina in the hands of Urban VIII than in their own, and imagined that a cardinal would never venture to make war on the Pope. They did not yet know Richelieu.
In November, Coeuvres, who had persuaded the Protestant Cantons to arm for the recovery of the Valtellina, transformed himself from an ambassador into a general and marched into the Grisons, at the head of a small army of French and Swiss. The districts held by the Austrians at once rose in revolt; the Grisons declared themselves freed from the treaty which had been imposed on them, and the Imperialists hastily withdrew. Having secured the Tyrolese passes, Coeuvres descended from the Engadine by Poschiavo and entered the Valtellina. The entry of some Spanish troops into Chiavenna served to cover the attack directed against the soldiers of the Pope, and in a few weeks Chiavenna and all the forts of the Valtellina had capitulated, although the French general had no siege-artillery with which to reduce them. The Pope’s soldiers and their standards were respectfully sent back to his Holiness.
Loud was the outcry, not only at Rome and Madrid, but even amongst the High Catholic party in France, against the “State Cardinal” who was trampling the Church beneath his feet.[26] The Pope made less noise than his partisans; he recognised that a new power had arisen in France, and he had no desire to suffer worse things at the hands of this redoubtable Minister. He contented himself by sending his nephew, Cardinal Francisco Barberini,[27] as Legate to France to lodge a formal protest and endeavour to accommodate the affair, and hastened to despatch the dispensation for the marriage of Henriette-Marie, which had been long awaited. Richelieu had caused a gentle hint to be conveyed to the Holy Father that, if his consent were any longer withheld, it might be necessary to celebrate the marriage without it.
Richelieu did not rest content with the recovery of the Valtellina. He concerted with the Duke of Savoy a movement which, if successful, would shake the Spanish power in Northern Italy to its foundations. A quarrel between Charles Emmanuel and Genoa was to form the pretext for an invasion of the territory of that republic; the Duke would attack, and France would furnish an auxiliary army. Genoa was, not only the ally, but the banker of Spain, and its capture would bring about a financial panic in that country, and, at the same time, interrupt her maritime communications with the Milanese.
At the beginning of 1625 all was in readiness; Charles Emmanuel had mobilised his army; a considerable force under the command of Lesdiguières was being collected on the frontier; and the Dutch had promised to send a squadron to the Mediterranean to assist in the blockade of Genoa. Suddenly, to the astonishment and indignation of Richelieu, and, indeed, of all patriotic Frenchmen, came the news of a fresh Huguenot insurrection. The Rochellois, angry and alarmed that their repeated demands for the destruction of Fort Saint-Louis, the bugbear of their town, had had no effect, had imagined the moment favourable to secure by a recourse to arms what they despaired of obtaining by any other means. They had appealed to Rohan and Soubise, and the two brothers had been so blind to the interests both of their country and their faith as to agree to co-operate with them. On January 17, Soubise, in command of a number of vessels fitted out by the Rochellois, seized the Île de Ré, and captured in the harbour of Blavet, on the Breton coast, seven royal vessels which lay there, after which he laid siege to the fort which commanded the place.
On the news of Soubise’s proceedings, the Duc de Vendôme, governor of Brittany, had raised all the noblesse of the province and what infantry he could muster to oppose him; but a report reached the King that Vendôme was actually in league with Soubise and the Rochellois, and that they had attacked Blavet at his instigation, and with the intention of handing it over to him. Upon this Louis XIII despatched Bassompierre to Brittany, with full powers to take what action he considered necessary against Vendôme, in the event of this information being correct. The marshal left Paris on January 28 and proceeded to Angers, where he gave orders that a regiment which was in garrison there should follow him to Brittany so soon as possible, with four pieces of cannon. He then went to Nantes, where he arranged with the governor to furnish him with as many men as he could raise. On arriving at Hennebon, however, he learned that Soubise had abandoned the siege of the fort at Blavet and sailed away, carrying off with him six of the seven ships which he had seized; the other he had been obliged to abandon, together with one of his own ships, which had been damaged by collision with a jetty at the entrance to the harbour.
The following day he proceeded to Blavet, where he found Vendôme with the force which he had raised to oppose Soubise. The prince was greatly distressed to learn that he was suspected of being in collusion with the rebels, and wished to know whether Bassompierre intended to request the Parlement of Rennes to hold an inquiry into his conduct. But the marshal, having satisfied himself that, though “César Monsieur,” as he was called, was not a person in whom much confidence could be reposed, he was, on this occasion at any rate, innocent of the charge which had been brought against him, assured him that he had no such intention. About the middle of February he returned to Paris to render an account of his journey to the King, and to assure him of the innocence of his half-brother, at which his Majesty was doubtless much relieved. However, before many months had passed, Louis XIII was obliged to place his restless relative under lock and key.
After his descent upon Blavet, Soubise seized the Île d’Oléron, and by the spring, thanks to the exertions of Rohan, the Huguenots in Upper Languedoc, Quercy, and the Cévennes were in revolt. It is true that even in these districts many stood aloof and refused to embarrass the Government at a time when it was engaged in hostilities with the most implacable enemies of their faith; but the insurrection was sufficiently formidable to cause great uneasiness, and to necessitate the retention at home of troops which might otherwise have been employed beyond the Alps. In these circumstances, it was impossible for Richelieu to push the war in Liguria with the vigour which he had intended. “It was then,” writes Bassompierre, “that the Cardinal de Richelieu said wisely to the King that, so long as there was a party established within his realm, it would never be possible to undertake anything outside it; and that he ought to think of exterminating it before meditating other designs.” On April 9 the Duke of Savoy defeated the Genoese and Spaniards before Voltaggio, and a fortnight later the Constable took Gavi. But, acting doubtless in accordance with the orders of the French Government, Lesdiguières declined to undertake the siege of Genoa without a fleet, and Charles Emmanuel pressed him in vain.
The death of James I, which occurred on March 27, 1625, did not delay the marriage of his son—now Charles I—and Henriette-Marie, which was celebrated in Notre-Dame on May 11, the Duc de Chevreuse acting as proxy for the King. On the 24th Buckingham arrived unexpectedly to escort the bride to England, and caused, Bassompierre tells us, a great sensation, “both by his person, which was very handsome, and by his jewels and apparel and his great liberality.”
Buckingham tried to persuade Richelieu to sign the League of the North and couple the restoration of the Palatinate with the Valtellina question; but the Cardinal was disinclined to surrender France’s liberty of action, besides which, the presumptuous and frivolous favourite did not inspire him with any confidence.
Bassompierre was one of the nobles appointed to escort the new Queen of England to Boulogne, where she embarked on June 22. But, unfortunately, he preserves a discreet silence concerning certain incidents which occurred en route, as it would be interesting to have his version of the romance of “M. de Bocquinguem” and Anne of Austria, which so profoundly irritated Louis XIII against his consort and laid the foundations of that ill-will which for a time prevailed between England and France.
In September the islands of Ré and Oléron were retaken, and the fleet of the Rochellois defeated by Montmorency, who commanded the King’s ships. But in Liguria things were going badly for France. The Swiss had allowed more than 20,000 Austrians to pass into Italy to the assistance of the Spanish and Genoese, who had carried the war into Piedmont and laid siege to Verrua, while the Valtellina was also threatened. Reinforcements were urgently demanded, and one morning, while the Privy Council was sitting, Louis XIII sent for Bassompierre, offered him the command of the new army which he proposed to despatch into Italy, and asked what troops he would require. The marshal “spoke as well as God wished to inspire him on this matter,” and answered that if his Majesty would permit him to choose 6,000 foot and 800 horse from the Army of Champagne, he would send at once into Switzerland to raise 4,000 men, who would join him at Geneva, and that with these forces he would engage, not only to force the enemy to raise the siege of Verrue, but to capture some places in the Milanese.