The Duc de Luynes heard of Her Majesty’s “sortie” with amazement and alarm. He had long watched her uneasily; and his brother afterwards told Richelieu that he had resolved to take the King to Blois on the pretext of a friendly visit, but really to convey the Queen-mother “politely” to Amboise, his own stronghold, where “she would remain for the future under good and sure guard.” He knew well that her quarrel with him grew more bitter with every month of her captivity. During that very winter he had married her second daughter, Madame Christine, to the Prince of Piedmont, the Duke of Savoy’s son, with scarcely the formal courtesy of asking her consent. Such an insult Marie was not likely to forget. Once at liberty, she might become the rallying centre for all the discontented in the kingdom, and Luynes knew that they were many. He had offended the nobles by withdrawing various pensions, and had set the great Protestant party against him by royal decrees, especially one which aimed at restoring Catholic worship in the little kingdom of Béarn. For a few days civil war seemed imminent. The King and Luynes, both furiously angry, began to raise troops, and talked of riding off to the west. But Luynes was not Concini. He was prudent _au fond_, some say timid, and no soldier. He began to ask advice from wiser men in Paris and elsewhere, even from the Duc de Bouillon, head of the Protestants, and they all with one voice counselled peace. Besides, the nobles showed no great eagerness to rebel suddenly against the King by joining the Queen-mother and d’Épernon, while Marie’s letters to her son gave a kind of basis for negotiations. It was resolved to throw the actual blame of the affair on d’Épernon, and a royal edict at once deprived him of all his appointments and governments, while ambassadors, carefully chosen to please the Queen, were sent to her at Angoulême. It seemed possible that such persuasive tongues as those of her old favourite the Père de Bérulle and of the Comte de Béthune, Sully’s more courtly brother and a devoted servant of Henry IV., might induce her to accept the terms offered by her son to renounce the company of rebels against his authority, and to choose a peaceable residence in some other part of the kingdom. There were those in Paris at the moment who did not wait for the failure of these negotiations to suggest an even wiser plan. One man in France could manage the Queen-mother: he was in exile at Avignon. Restore him to her council; give him authority to mediate between her and the King; his cleverness and moderation would soon bring her to a less violent frame of mind, and so arrange matters to the King’s satisfaction. The originators of this idea were Richelieu’s two faithful friends, the Dean of Luçon and Père Joseph.