[1621–24.]

During the absence of the King from Paris, the Maréchal d'Estrées, who was at that period ambassador at Rome, was engaged in soliciting two seats in the conclave, the first for the Archbishop of Toulouse, and the second for the Bishop of Luçon; while Marie de Medicis lost no opportunity of entreating Bentivoglio, the papal nuncio, to further the interests of the latter, impressing upon him that no period could be more favourable than the present, when Louis XIII. had enforced upon a whole refractory province the performance of the rites which it had so long rejected. To this argument the Cardinal had nothing to object, and he accordingly listened with complacency to her representations; but they were rendered abortive by de Luynes, who privately informed him that neither the sovereign nor himself sincerely desired the promotion of Richelieu; and that their apparent anxiety for his advancement had been merely assumed to gratify the Queen-mother; while, far from being disposed to consider the dissent of the Pontiff to this application as a slight, his Majesty would be gratified should he reject it, as he had reason to feel dissatisfied with the Bishop of Luçon, whom he was consequently not disposed to support in an ambition which he considered to be at once inordinate and premature.