The country through which the Court travelled was in a terrible state, trampled and devastated by armies--“chose pitoyable et horrible,” says Pontchartrain. In spite of the Maréchal de Bois-Dauphin, Condé had crossed the Loire at Neuvy and was storming westward through Berry, Touraine and Poitou, “pillant et saccageant,” says Richelieu, “tous les lieux où il passoit.” Again Madame de Richelieu had her share in the sufferings of the poor province, which seemed to her even worse off than in the Wars of the League. Forty years she had lived at Richelieu, and never had she seen such men or such ravages. “If these armies believe in God,” she said, “it is as the devils do.” The army of Bois-Dauphin was also marching south-westward, to protect the progress of the Court. Friend or foe, royalist or rebel, it made no difference in the wholesale robbery and cruelty which desolated the villages, utterly destroying any lingering peaceful fruit of Henry’s administration. Even Sully had now taken sides with Condé; and the Ducs de Soubise and de la Trémoïlle had raised a fresh army of Huguenots in Poitou. The wintry weather made everything worse. If the armies caused the wretched peasants to suffer, they suffered themselves. An icy rain was followed by hard frosts, snow, and “a great furious wind”; thousands of men, on both sides, died of the wet and the bitter cold. In Paris, boats and bridges were wrecked by the masses of broken ice in the Seine. The Bishop of Luçon, writing strong remonstrances on his mother’s and his own behalf to the commanders, was also painfully interested in the negotiations which began after the Court had reached Verteuil. He would have been glad to be actively employed, but his time was not quite come, and he could only look on, trusting to his friends--especially Claude Barbin, an old acquaintance, the trusted financial secretary of Marie de Médicis--to push his name and fortunes.