276.] [Illustration: "Tapping with his Finger-tips on the Window-pane."-- --191] With all his temper and the hesitations born of his melancholy mind, Louis XIII.

could appreciate and discern the great interests of his kingdom and of his power.

The queen had supposed that the king would abandon the cardinal, and "that her private authority as mother, and the pious affection and honor the king showed her as her son, would prevail over the public care which he ought, as king, to take of his kingdom and his people.

But God, who holds in His hand the hearts of princes, disposed things otherwise: his Majesty resolved to defend his servant against the malice of those who prompted the queen to this wicked design." [_Memoires de Richelieu._] He conversed a long while with the cardinal, and when the keeper of the seals awoke the next morning, it was to learn that the minister was at Versailles with the king, who had lodged him in a room under his own, that his Majesty demanded the seals back, and that the exons were at his, Marillac's, door to secure his person.
At the same time was despatched a courier to headquarters at Foglizzo in Piedmont.

The three marshals Schomberg, La Force, and Marillac, had all formed a junction there.