favourite, who was privy to the negotiation, calculating upon her
influence over the mind of the monarch, suddenly assumed an attitude
which arrested its progress.

For a considerable time she had aspired to the throne; but it was not
until she learnt that the agents of the King in Rome were labouring to
effect the dissolution of his marriage with Marguerite de Valois, and
that the Duc de Luxembourg[48] was also about to visit the Papal Court
in order to hasten the conclusion of the negotiations, that she openly
declared her views to Sillery,[49] whom she knew to be already well
affected towards her, declaring that should he be instrumental in
inducing the King to make her his wife, she would pledge herself to
obtain the seals for him on his return from Rome, as well as the dignity
of chancellor so soon as it should be vacant.[50]

Sillery, whose ambition was aroused, was not slow to obey her wishes;
and, finding the Pope unwilling to lend himself to the haste which was
required of him, he not only informed him privately that, in the event
of a divorce, his royal master was ready to espouse the Princesse Marie
de Medicis, his kinswoman (although at this period Henry evinced no
inclination towards such an alliance), but even when he discovered that
his Holiness remained unmoved by this prospect of family aggrandizement,
he ventured so far as to hint, in conjunction with the Cardinal d'Ossat,
that it was probable, should the Pontiff continue to withhold his
consent to the annullation of the King's present marriage, he would
dispense with it altogether, and make the Duchesse de Beaufort Queen of
France: a threat which so alarmed the sovereign-prelate that,
immediately declaring that he placed the whole affair in the hands of
God, he commanded a general fast throughout Rome, and shut himself up in
his oratory, where he continued for a considerable time in fervent