“Mon Cousin,” he wrote, “... I have every confidence in you, and never has any one served me as well as you.... I desire and beg you not to retire, for my affairs would go ill.... I pray you to have no fear of the calumnies which in my Court no one can escape.... Be assured that I will protect you against every one, and that I will never abandon you. The Queen, my mother, promises you as much.... Be assured that I shall never change, and that, by whomsoever you may be attacked, you will have me for your second.” As to the Cardinal’s health, the King promised to spare him as much as possible, to dispense him from all visits, and to give him frequent rest and relaxation. Following on these favours, he ordered him for his greater security a guard of a hundred men. After the Fleury affair, Richelieu retired for some days to his house at Limours. Here, at the end of May, he received two important visits. One was from the Prince de Condé, tired of his isolation, alarmed by the fate of d’Ornano, and convinced at length that the man at the head of affairs would be safer as a friend than as an enemy. He was well received, for Richelieu had already given Louis XIII. the counsel which he now acted upon--the wise counsel given long ago by the Duke of Milan to Louis XI.--that the princes leagued against the King should be divided amongst themselves. Monsieur le Prince slept at Limours, and remained the next day to dinner. He talked--Condé always talked much and plausibly--and the Cardinal, by his own account, listened respectfully and answered frankly. They discussed the affairs of Monsieur. It was Condé’s opinion that he should be kindly treated, but kept in his place: as to the Maréchal d’Ornano, his arrest had been “a master-stroke” and should be followed up by his trial. He recommended to the Cardinal more caution in dealing with powerful men, but would not hear of his retirement from the head of affairs. It would be the ruin of the State, he said. He told him that he had long desired his friendship; that France had never before seen so great or so disinterested a Minister, whose glorious deeds could not be denied, even by his enemies. All this and much more flattery ended in an alliance between the Prince and the Cardinal, which actually lasted their lives. Condé became a loyal subject of the King and a devoted adherent and admirer of Richelieu.