Buckingham appears to have been in a fever of jealousy; hitherto he had exercised a sole influence over his royal master. Henceforth, the less public but more sure sway of an idolized wife would for ever interfere with his counsels. Infuriated against the French, yet madly in love with their Queen, Buckingham had only been deterred from returning to France as a private individual by a dread of assassination on the part of Richelieu, who had, it appears, entertained that design. Having persuaded Charles to send back, contrary to treaties, the Queen’s French attendants, he now drove the inexperienced and irritated Henrietta Maria to despair; and finding herself in a foreign country, where all around her were inimical to her religion, and to herself, she passionately entreated to be allowed to return to France. Buckingham, rejoicing at the success of his schemes, besought Charles to allow him to conduct the Queen home. But that proposal, when transmitted to Paris, was indignantly rejected by the French Court, and the Duke was confirmed in his resolution to commence a war with a nation which had the courage to decline his friendship. His scheme for sending back the Queen’s French servants had been, however, agreeable in the extreme to Charles--and it may even have been suggested by the King, who, in answer to a letter from the Duke, writes to him thus:--“Steenie, I have received your letters by Dic Graeme. This is my answer: I command you to send all the French away to-morrow out of town; if you can, by fair means, but stick not long in dispatching, otherwise force them away like so many wyld beasts, until ye have shipped them, and so the devil go with them. Let me hear no more answer, but of the performance of my command; so trust your faithful and constant friend, CHARLES R. Dated Oaking, 7 Aug. 1626.”[12] Footnote 12: Brodie, vol. ii., note, from Ayscough’s MSS. Brit. Mus., 4161, vol. ii. His former loan of ships to the French implies a more friendly footing with that nation than these later passages of the Duke’s life may seem to indicate.[13] It was in fact his dread of any influence stronger than his own that caused Buckingham to induce Charles to break off the treaty with Spain; and had instigated his animosity to France. Haunted by the dread of being superseded in Charles’s favour, there were moments when his overburdened mind was opened to some humble friends, and the apprehensions of the King’s regard being alienated were imparted in agony to a confidant. Footnote 13: Ibid.