At the Court Bassompierre found the Prince de Piedmont, who had been sent by his father, Charles Emmanuel, to persuade Louis XIII to prosecute the war in Italy with the utmost vigour during the coming spring. Créquy had been despatched to Paris by the Constable with the same object; and they begged Bassompierre to go with them so soon as possible to the King, when they hoped that their united solicitations would induce his Majesty to come to a decision in accordance with their wishes. There was certainly every indication that the French Government were disposed to a vigorous offensive. At the beginning of February peace had been signed with the Huguenots, and they were now free to employ all their resources against the foreign enemy. The King had appointed the Prince of Piedmont lieutenant-general of his armies beyond the Alps, and had promised reinforcements of 8,000 foot and 1,000 horse to the Army of Italy, to which he intended to send the bulk of the troops now in the Valtellina; while Bassompierre, with the levy which the Swiss cantons had promised, was, it was understood, to invade the Milanese. However, the hopes of the anti-Spanish party and of France’s allies were about to be rudely shattered. Two or three days after Bassompierre’s return, he happened to visit the Venetian Ambassador, Contarini, who told him that the republic’s representative at Madrid had sent information that a secret treaty had been signed there between France and Spain. The marshal affected to treat the matter as a _canard_ and assured him that it was impossible; nevertheless, he felt decidedly uneasy, and having to go and see Richelieu that evening to give him an account of his mission to Switzerland, he told him what Contarini had said. “He [Richelieu] pressed my hand and answered that I might be assured that there was no thought of a treaty, and that the Spaniards were, after their knavish fashion, spreading false reports to create ill feeling between us and our allies, whom I could reassure. And this I resolved to do and to go on the morrow to visit Contarini, to set his mind at rest on this matter. The same evening I saw the Prince of Piedmont and told him of the apprehensions of Contarini, of how I had acquainted the Cardinal de Richelieu with them, and of the answer he had given me. The Prince replied that the Venetians were speculative and suspicious people, who retailed their dreams and their imaginations as authoritative news; that they had spread this report from suspicion rather than from any information they had obtained; and that, for himself, he was perfectly sure that no negotiations to the prejudice of the League or to our present projects were in progress.”