Note 84 — Chapter III

November 11, 1630—known in French history as “the Day of the Dupes”—when the Duke de Saint-Simon, father of the famous memoir writer, brought about a secret interview between Richelieu, who, in disgrace, was on the eve of retiring to Havre, and Louis XIII., then at his hunting-seat of Versailles. At the moment when every one believed the downfall of the once all-powerful Minister to be complete, the latter succeeded in recovering his lost influence over the King, of which he had been deprived through the intrigues of Marie de Medicis, who had demanded of her son whether he was “so unnatural as to prefer a valet to his mother.” Richelieu, when firmly reinstated in power, did not spare the queen-mother’s partisans, upon several of whom he avenged himself with his accustomed severity.—Trans.