The Cardinal sent Valençay to Fontainebleau to inform Louis XIII and the Queen-Mother; and the King at once despatched a troop of horse to Fleury for the protection of his Minister; while Marie de’ Medici sent the gentlemen of her Household. At dawn a number of Gaston’s officers arrived at Fleury, ostensibly, to announce the approaching arrival of their master and to assist in preparing for his reception; in reality, to serve as the advance-guard of the conspirators. His Eminence received them very courteously, expressed his sense of the honour which the prince proposed to do him, and then, ordering his coach, set out for Fontainebleau, accompanied by more than a hundred horse, “to escort his Royal Highness.” His Royal Highness was considerably astonished when the Cardinal presented himself at his _levée_ that morning, and mildly reproached him with not having given him longer notice of the visit with which it was his intention to honour him. In order to avert suspicion as to his destination, _Monsieur_ had announced his intention of hunting that day; and, as Richelieu withdrew, after handing the prince his shirt--a duty which was always performed by the prelate or noble of the highest rank present--he remarked significantly: “_Monsieur_, you have not risen early enough this morning; you will find that the quarry is no longer at home.” Then Gaston knew that someone had betrayed him. Thoroughly frightened, the pusillanimous prince passed from treachery and conspiracy to base submission, “with the levity of a selfish and thoughtless child, destitute of both moral sense and courage,”[35] and on May 31, in the presence of the King, the Queen-Mother and the Cardinal, he signed and swore on the Gospels to observe faithfully a compact drawn up by Richelieu, in which he engaged that “no counsel should ever be proposed or submitted to him by anyone whomsoever of which he would not advise his Majesty; that he would not keep silence concerning even the most trifling words that were spoken to him with the object of arousing his resentment against the King and his advisers, and that he would love and esteem those whom the King and the Queen-Mother loved.” Gaston had sworn to and signed everything that had been put before him, but, being as faithless as he was cowardly and selfish, he had not the remotest intention of executing his engagement. In fact, while swearing to inform his brother of everything contrary to his service that might come to his knowledge, he said not a word of the great conspiracy which, from the foot of the throne, had extended over the whole kingdom and far beyond its borders; and, when he again found himself among his partisans, he disclosed nothing of what had just taken place, renewed all the promises which he had made them, and continued to preside over their deliberations.