The Cardinal did well to be uneasy at Louis’s absence, for his enemies at the Court had been very busy indeed, more so, in fact, even than he appears to have imagined. This time the Queen-Mother was of the plot. Marie, as we have seen, had supported Richelieu warmly so long as she believed him to be her creature, prepared to place France at the mercy of her petty passions; but gradually the unpalatable truth had begun to dawn upon her sluggish mind that the Cardinal had been using her favour merely as a stepping-stone to that of the King, and that it was upon the son, and not upon the mother, that he intended to lean. The discovery exasperated the Queen-Mother, and there were not wanting persons about her to sympathise with her complaints against the neglect and ingratitude of the Cardinal. Chief among these was Bérulle, recently elevated to the cardinalate, Michel de Marillac, the Keeper of the Seals, and other members of the High Catholic party. Loudly as these pious souls had fulminated against the stubborn heretics of La Rochelle in the past, they were now as little anxious for the fall of the town as were the great nobles, though for a different reason. They knew that with Richelieu religious considerations counted for very little in comparison with political, and foresaw that, once the Huguenot party was overthrown, he would make no attempt to interfere with that liberty of conscience which the _dévots_ regarded with such indignation, and would make use of his victory, not to revoke the Edict of Nantes, but to thwart the designs of the House of Austria to crush the Protestant princes of Northern Europe. Marie and her friends had recourse to all kinds of means to detain the King in Paris, but they did not succeed; and on April 25 he rejoined the army, which he found larger by several thousand men than when he had quitted it at the beginning of February, while all the works were approaching completion. On the following day a herald was sent to summon La Rochelle to surrender in the name of the King; but the inhabitants refused to receive him. The most violent party had gained the day in this unhappy town, and the mayoralty had become a dictatorship. On March 3 the famous admiral of the Rochellois, Jean Guiton, had been elected mayor, against his will. “You know not what you are doing in nominating me,” said he. “Remember that with me there must be no talk of surrender. If anyone says a word about that, I will kill him.” And, drawing his poniard, he threw it on to the table of the Hôtel de Ville and gave orders that it should be left there.