On August 22, Richelieu, accompanied by Bassompierre, left Montauban, to the sound of mine and sap, which were destroying the redoubtable fortifications of the last stronghold of French Protestantism, and travelled by easy stages towards Fontainebleau, the Cardinal being received in every town through which he passed with the highest honours; in fact, his journey resembled a royal progress. At Nemours, where he arrived on September 12, nearly all the most important personages of the Court were awaiting him, and escorted him in triumph to Fontainebleau. Here, however, his Eminence received an abrupt check, for when he went to pay his respects to Marie de’ Medici, with whom were Anne of Austria and the Princesses of the Blood, the Queen-Mother, whom the Cardinal’s triumphs had only served to incense still more bitterly against him, received him with studied coldness and refused to say so much as a word to either Bassompierre or Schomberg, whom she now apparently regarded as Richelieu’s creatures; though she spoke to Louis de Marillac, upon whom the marshal’s bâton had recently been conferred. The King, however, came in immediately afterwards and welcomed the Cardinal most warmly. He then drew him into his mother’s cabinet, where Richelieu immediately requested permission to retire from office and from the Court, on the ground that his presence was distasteful to the Queen-Mother, and that he did not wish to be the cause of friction between her and the King. The King told him that he would reconcile them, and returning to Marie’s chamber, spoke most graciously to Bassompierre, evidently with the intention of atoning for her Majesty’s rudeness to the marshal, of which Richelieu had, of course, informed him. “On Friday, the 14th, the quarrel continued, and the Cardinal sent for Madame de Combalet,[129] La Meilleraye[130] and other persons belonging to the Queen-Mother’s Household who were his creatures, and told them that they must prepare to retire from her service, as it was his intention to retire from affairs and from the Court. However, that evening there were so many comings and goings, and the King testified so earnest a desire for an accommodation, that it was effected on the Saturday, to the universal satisfaction of the whole Court.” CHAPTER XXXIX