These rapid successes redoubled the ill humour of Marie de’ Medici, whose rancour against Richelieu was industriously stimulated by the Keeper of the Seals, Michel de Marillac, who, on the death of the Cardinal de Bérulle in October, 1629, had succeeded him as the leader of the High Catholic and Spanish party and the chief confidant of the Queen-Mother. The King, anxious to prevent any new trouble in the Royal Family, begged his mother to come to Grenoble, to give the Cardinal and himself the benefit of her counsels. But Marie excused herself, and she and Michel de Marillac did everything possible to dissuade the King from returning to the army, on the ground that his health would be endangered by contagious maladies which had broken out there. The Spaniards and Imperialists, encouraged by the knowledge of the intrigues which were proceeding at the Court of France, pressed the sieges of Mantua and Casale, and, though the latter place, ably defended by Toiras, held out bravely, on July 18 the Imperialists succeeded in taking Mantua by assault. In the last week in July Louis XIII, who, since the beginning of the month, had been very unwell, was obliged, on account of his health, to return to Lyons, where Bassompierre obtained leave to go to Paris “to set his affairs in order.” “I arrived in Paris,” he writes, “on the 21st day of August, where I found M. d’Épernon. _Monsieur_, brother of the King, came there on the morrow, and a few days later _M. le Comte_, M. de Longueville, and M. de Guise arrived. We thought only of passing our time pleasantly. I amused myself in building Chaillot.” Now, of course, it may have been merely a coincidence that the distinguished persons above-mentioned, all of whom were hostile to Richelieu, should have arrived in Paris almost at the same time as Bassompierre. But any way, it was an unfortunate one for the marshal. Richelieu, although very uneasy at the thought of leaving the King exposed to the hostile influences of the Queen-Mother and her friends, remained in Savoy for nearly a month after Louis XIII had returned to Lyons, although the King’s confessor, Père Suffren, wrote urging him to rejoin the Court, “in order to disperse all the clouds which had gathered.” At length, towards the end of August, the plague, which was devastating Savoy, attacked his own quarters, and obliged him to return. On September 22, Louis XIII, who had been in very poor health for some weeks, was attacked by fever, accompanied by dysentery. By the 27th he was so ill that his physicians felt obliged to warn him that it was time to think of his conscience, and he demanded the Viaticum, bade farewell to his mother, his wife, and his Minister, and prepared for death. On the morning of the 30th no one believed that he could live through the day.