been  rarely  seen  in  any  age  or  country.  The  millions  so
carefully  hoarded  by  Sully,  and  exhibited  so  dramatically
by  that  great  minister  to  the  enraptured  eyes  of  his  sove-
reign ;  that  treasure  in  the  Bastille  on  which  Henry  relied
for  payment  of  the  armies  with  which  he  was  to  transform
the  world,  all  disappeared  in  a  few  weeks  to  feed  the
voracious  maw  of  courtiers,  paramours,  and  partisans.1

The  Queen  showered  gold  like  water  upon  her  beloved  Con-
cini  that  he  might  purchase  his  Marquisate  of  Ancre,  and  the
charge  of  first  gentleman  of  the  court  from  Bouillon ;  that
he  might  fit  himself  for  the  government  of  Picardy ;  that
he  might  elevate  his  marquisate  into  a  dukedom.  Conde,
having  no  further  reason  to  remain  in  exile,  received  as  a
gift  from  the  trembling  Mary  de'  Medici  the  magnificent
Hotel  Gondy,  where  the  Dutch  ambassadors  had  so  recently
been  lodged,  for  which  she  paid  65,000  crowns,  together
with  25,000  crowns  to  furnish  it,  50,000  crowns  to  pay  his
debts,  50,000  more  as  yearly  pension.2

He  claimed  double,  and  was  soon  at  sword's  point  with  the
Queen  in  spite  of  her  lavish  bounty.
Epernon,  the  true  murderer  of  Henry,  trampled  on  courts
of  justice 3  and  councils  of  ministers,  frightened  the  court
by  threatening  to  convert  his  possession  of  Metz  into  an  in-
dependent sovereignty,  as  Balagny  had  formerly  seized  upon
Cambray,  smothered  for  ever  the  process  of  Kavaillac,
caused  those  to  be  put  to  death  or  immured  for  life  in  dun-
geons who  dared  to  testify  to  his  complicity  in  the  great
crime,  and  strode  triumphantly  over  friends  and  enemies
throughout  France,  although  so  crippled  by  the  gout  that
he  could  scarcely  walk  up  stairs.
1  Aerssens  to  Barneveld,  29  July
1610  (MS.),  et  passim.
