The intrigue appeared to have been abandoned.

But the "_dreadful (epouvantable) faction,_" as the Cardinal calls it in his _Memoires,_ conspired to remove the young prince from the court.

The Duke of Vendome, son of Henry IV.

and Gabrielle d'Estrees, had offered him an asylum in his government of Brittany; but the far-sighted policy of the minister took away this refuge from the heir to the throne, always inclined as he was to put himself at the head of a party.

The Duke of Vendome and his brother the Grand Prior, disquieted at the rumors which were current about them, hastened to go and visit the king at Blois.