“I found myself on my return in very great perplexity; not only in consequence of this affair, but also on account of six hundred thousand livres which I owed in Paris, without any means of paying them; and my creditors, who, on seeing me set out to visit my mother, who was dangerously ill, entertained some hope that, with the property I should inherit from her, I should be able to satisfy them, now that I was returned and my mother recovered, lost all hope of settling their affairs with me, and were consequently very mutinous. There was a quarrel in a certain house between a husband and wife on my account, which gave me pain; and, worst of all, there was a girl for whom I daily feared a discovery attended with a great scandal and evil consequences for me.” However, his fortunate star prevailed over these complicated effects of his extravagant and amorous propensities:-- “It happened that, within a few days, I heard of the quashing of the proceedings of this precious Archbishop of Aix, and of the death of my mother, which brought me fifty thousand crowns in money and saleable property to the value of a hundred thousand, so that I paid seven hundred thousand livres of debts, which placed me greatly at my ease; the quarrel between the husband and wife was made up (August); the girl was happily brought to bed without anyone knowing of it (August 5); and I went to Rouen, where I gained my case against Antragues finally and completely. So that at the same, or within a little, time I was delivered from all these divers and distressing inconveniences.” Towards the end of March, Condé, who for weeks past had been secretly fomenting opposition to the Court, left Paris, followed, at intervals, by his chief adherents, and issued a manifesto protesting against the Ultramontane tendencies of the Government and the Spanish marriage. Marie de’ Medici, who intended shortly to set out for the Spanish frontier to make the exchange of the princesses and conclude the marriage of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, and naturally feared to leave Condé behind her, sent him a letter from the King commanding the prince to accompany him. But Condé excused himself from following his Majesty until he had remedied the evils of the State, of which he designed the Maréchal d’Ancre as the principal author. The Queen-Mother, in consequence, was obliged to raise two armies: one to escort the King and herself to Bordeaux, the other to watch the princes. The latter force was placed under the command of the Maréchal de Bois-Dauphin, with Praslin as his chief of staff; and to this Bassompierre and the Swiss were attached.