Nobody in the household of Mary de'Medici had observed her departure.
Great was the rumors when her escape became known, and greater still when it was learned in whose hands she had placed herself.

It was civil war, said everybody.

At the commencement of the seventeenth century, there were still two possible and even probable chances of civil war in France; one between Catholics and Protestants, and the other between what remained of the great feudal or quasi-feudal lords and the kingship.
Which of the two wars was about to commence?
Nobody knew; on one side there was hesitation; the most contradictory moves were made.

Louis XIII., when he heard of his mother's escape, tried first of all to disconnect her from the Duke of Epernon.

"I could never have imagined," said be, "that there was any man who, in time of perfect peace, would have had the audacity, I do not say to carry out, but to conceive the resolution of making an attempt upon the mother of his king.