Coupled with these purely personal feuds others were generated of an
official nature, no less subversive of public tranquillity. M. de
Villeroy had purchased the government of Lyons from the Duc de Vendôme,
for his son the Comte d'Alincourt, having at the same time disposed of
the appointment of Lieutenant of the King previously held by the Count,
and this arrangement was no sooner concluded than he resolved to solicit
from the Queen a force of three hundred Swiss Guards to garrison the
city; a demand in which he succeeded in interesting Concini, and to
which he consequently anticipated no opposition on her part. He was
correct in his conclusion, but the sole consent of the Regent did not
suffice upon so important a question, which it was necessary to submit
to the consideration of the Council, where it was accordingly mooted.
Sully, although previously solicited by the Queen to support the
proposal, resolutely refused to do so, alleging that he would never
consent to see the King subjected to an outlay of twelve hundred
thousand livres in order to enable M. d'Alincourt to pocket one hundred
thousand, and that Lyons, by the treaty concluded with the Duke of
Savoy, had ceased to be a frontier town, and consequently required no
garrison. This reply, which made considerable impression upon Marie, she
repeated to M. de Villeroy, who retorted, loud enough to be heard by a
friend of Sully, that he was aware the Spaniards and Savoyards were no
longer to be feared, and that it was consequently not against them that
he was anxious to secure the city of Lyons, but that the real enemies
whom she had to fear were the Huguenots, who were at that moment better
situated, more prepared, and probably also more inclined to oppose her
authority than they had ever before been. This intemperate and
ill-judged speech was instantly reported to Sully, who, rising
indignantly from his seat, approached the Queen and audibly informed her
that he considered it his duty to remark that, as in order to render her