At first the matter rested here. But Madame de Chevreuse coming from Spain made her appearance at the English court, long before the Queen moreover, early in 1638. As a great lady and a friend of the Queen she met with a very honourable reception, in which no expense was spared: the charges borne by the King every month of her stay were reckoned at a considerable sum[139]. To her old admirers, among whom Earl Holland was the greatest, new ones were added: every one sought her company; and she produced a fresh and cheerful excitement in the naturally grave court. This however did not prevent her from showing herself a strict Catholic in other respects, as we perceive from an attempt she made to convert Lord Holland. She inspired the Queen with the fatal thought of favouring Catholic tendencies in the education of her children: all her wishes and manœuvres were directed to the removal of the hindrances, which seemed to obstruct a close alliance between the English and Spanish courts: she made proposals for an union between the Princess Royal of England, who was still extremely young, and an Infant of Spain, without regarding the objections advanced against it on the ground of the experience of former times, which she jestingly set aside. She had paid especial attention to the Spanish ambassador Cardenas: the Papal envoy, Cuneo, relates that on one occasion she even borrowed his carriage from him in order to visit that ambassador without exciting remark[140]. Charles I had been angry with Cardenas on account of one of the ambassador’s reports which had come to his knowledge; Madame de Chevreuse succeeded in removing [A.D. 1638.] the misunderstanding, and in restoring friendly personal relations between them, which opened the door to further negotiations. If Richelieu was inclined at that time to allow Madame de Chevreuse to return to France, and to promise her an entire indemnity for the past, his inclination may have been due to the material hindrances thrown in his way by her activity at a foreign court. That she was ever in earnest about the negotiations for her return may be doubted.