donation consequently excited great disapprobation, and elicited fresh
murmurs against the Italian followers of the Queen.

These were, moreover, augmented by another circumstance which
immediately supervened. A report was spread of the decease of M. de
Boëce, the Governor of Bourg-en-Bresse, a brave and faithful soldier,
who had rendered good service to his country; and the Queen, urged by
her favourite, was imprudent enough, without awaiting proper
confirmation of the rumour, to confer the government upon Concini, whose
arrogance, fostered as it was by the indulgence of his royal mistress,
was already becoming intolerable to the native nobility. This fact was,
however, no sooner made known to M. de Boëce, who had not, as it
subsequently appeared, even laboured under indisposition, than he
addressed a letter of respectful expostulation to the Regent, in which
he expressed his concern at the necessity of interfering with the
pleasure of her Majesty in the rapid disposal of his government, and
assured her that he was still able and anxious to discharge the duties
of the trust confided to him by the late King; informing her, moreover,
that he had in his possession a grant from her royal husband, bestowing
the survivorship of his appointment upon his son, of which he solicited
the confirmation by herself, feeling convinced that she could never be
served by a more zealous or able subject.[53]

Concini was accordingly divested of his government as abruptly as he had
acquired it; reluctantly resigning the coveted dignity amid the laughter
and epigrams of the whole Court.

In addition to these extraordinary instances of imprudence, Marie de
Medicis had also compromised herself with the people by the reluctance
which she evinced to investigate the circumstances connected with the