CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DATE DUE JAN li ]96§=#a ,i/=t~r" *«*»^^™t,,,4_ f— GAYLORD PRINTED IN U S A CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 082 194 345 The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924082194345 LOUIS XIV AND THE COURT OF FRANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 'US XE^o FROM TRTI. Or-I&Il>j'AL IV THE VEP.SAIIiES &J\JJL.V.ICx I,oui0 t\)t ;jfourteentf) AND THE COURT OF FRANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BY JULIA PARDOE AUTHOR OF ' FRANCIS 1. AND HIS TIMES,' ETC, WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS ON STEEL AND WOOD IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. L NEW YORK SCRIBNER AND WELFORD 1887 X Printed hy R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh. TO JOHN HEARNE, Esq. THIS RECORD OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. AND THE MANNERS OF HIS COURT IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR PREFACE The reign of Louis XIV. of France, whether regarded politically, socially, or morally, was undoubtedly the most striking which that country has ever known. The mag- nificence of his Court, the successes of his armies, and the number of illustrious names that embellished the century over which his rule extended, drew the attention of all Europe to the person of the monarch who had relieved the nation from the thrall to which it had so long been subjected by the domination of a grasping and imperious minister ; and assumed the authority and power of regality, as well as its mere visible attributes. Louis XIV. was kingly from his birth. Even when deprived, by the penuriousness of Mazarin, not only of the luxuries which were his birthright, but even of the very necessaries which nine-tenths of his subjects could' command at will, his spirit remained unbent ; while his innate sense of the indignity offered to his person engendered a feeling of hatred towards the Cardinal, which enabled him patiently to await the hour of his emancipation. Child as he was, he spurned at pity, and consequently uttered no complaint ; but kept his eye firmly fixed upon that future whose perspective was a throne, and whose watchword was Empire. That Louis XIV. was, throughout his reign, a great king, must be conceded at once ; but that he was ever PREFACE a great man is considerably more doubtful. Supremely egotistical, he never hesitated in compelling the sacrifice of whatsoever opposed or impeded his personal interests, passions, or views : recklessly inconstant, he trampled unmoved upon the affections which he had called forth ; and tediously and childishly minute in the observances and etiquette of his exalted station, he frequently frittered away the time, rendered precious by circumstances, in puerile elaborations and unmeaning detail. We are not about to offer to our readers an historical record of the century of Louis XIV., as the term would be understood by statesmen and politicians ; for we shall pass lightly over the campaigns, the battles, and the intrigues of the several European Cabinets. Our aim will simply be to display more fully than has yet been done the domestic life of the " Great Monarch " ; and to pass in review the wits, the beauties, and the poets of his Court. For this purpose, we shall select from the stores of the many biographers of the time all that may tend to perfect the portraiture which we have undertaken ; simply premising that we shall put forth neither fact nor anecdote which is not fully authenticated either by one of the chroniclers of the time, or verified by some competent recent authority. Perhaps, for a task like that now before us, no reign has afforded so many and such rich materials. The passion for personal narrative, of which Marguerite de Valois displayed so extraordinary an example in royal life, afterwards spread like an epidemic in the Court of France ; and, under Louis XIV., princesses, warriors, statesmen, courtiers, and beauties, vied with each other in recording, not only passing events, but also the in- dividual passions, interests, and prejudices by which they were influenced ; and, while amazed and breathless Europe saw only the working of the great monarchical PREFACE engine, by whose movements it was affected throughout its whole extent, the denizens of the most gorgeous Court the world had ever known, in the intervals of their devotions, their dissipations, and their intrigues, still found time to emulate the professional writers of the age, and to record the hidden and intricate springs by which it was forced into action. Not a word, not a gesture, not a weakness of the monarch escaped either his friends or his enemies, or was suffered to remain unchronicled ; the hopes or the attachments of the first made them dwell with adulation and delight upon every brilliant quality which they discovered in their idol ; while the jealousies and the vindictiveness of the last caused them to batten upon every failing, and to dilate upon every vice. It is from these materials, then, that we purpose to attempt a picture which may enable our readers to estimate the character of Louis XIV., not merely as a monarch, but also as a man. The severe historian has to deal only with his conquests, the internal economy of his reign, and its influence over the other nations of Europe. His sterner pen traces only the broad outline of events, and condescends merely to portray the promi- nent personages who figure in its annals. Like the eagle, he embraces the whole glory of the orb upon which he gazes, and does not pause to cast a glance upon the inferior objects which are vivified and nourished by its warmth ; and it is consequently to the personal memoirs of the time that we are indebted for the power of looking more closely and more curiously at a phase of society as extraordinary as it is interesting, and of comprehending the minuter shades of individual character. To the historian the reign of Louis XIV. is like the kaleidoscope, of which every evolution presents a new PREFACE phase of harmony and beauty ; but to the more humble chronicler, captivated as he cannot fail to be by its general effect, it loses somewhat of its splendour ; com- pelled as he is to dismount the machine, and by observing analytically the concomitant atoms from whence proceed the marvellous combinations which, as a whole, produce such wonderful effects, to recognise the utter worthlessness of many of its details. Some indulgence must be conceded to the writer who is called upon to examine and to combine such incongruous materials ; especially when it is remembered that the domestic annals of a Court three centuries ago bear no analogy with those destined to record the habits, the manners, and the morals of our own. The oaths ever upon the lips of the courtiers of Louis XIII., and which Anne of Austria had, according to Dangeau, great difficulty in suppressing even upon those of her son, and the indecent masquerading of some of the first personages composing the royal circle of the Louvre in the " Great Century," would very rationally create consternation alike at St. James's and the Tuileries in the present day. J. P. CONTENTS THE FIRST VOLUME CHAPTER I 1615-24 Reign of Louis XIV. — Retrospective glance — Childhood of Louis XIII. — Policy of Marie de Medicis — The royal favourite — His pedigree — Matri- monial exchange — Anne of Austria — Her portrait — Royal marriage — The Cardinal de Richelieu — Assassination of the Marechal d'Ancre — Ingrati- tude of Richelieu — Richelieu and the queen-mother — Anecdote related by Bassompierre — Escape of Marie de Medicis from Blois — Abortive rebellion — Submission of the queen -mother — Subtlety of Richelieu — Madame de Chevreuse — Levity of Anne of Austria — Gaston, Due d'Anjou — Jealousy of Louis XIII. — His failing health — Richelieu in masquerade — The discovery — Feud between the queen and the cardinal — Disgraceful rumours ...... Page i CHAPTER II 1624-26 Embassy of the Earl of Carlisle — Lord Rich — Demand of the hand of Henrietta-Maria for the Prince of Wales — Assent of Louis XIII. — Con- ditions — Lord Rich and the Duke of Buckingham — A new embassy — Buckingham in Paris — The scattered pearls — Passion of Buckingham for Anne of Austria — Price of a Court lady — The fete — The jiing's present — Disguises of the English duke — The masque — The white lady — The royal marriage — The Court at Amiens — Courtly festivities — Tender re- grets — A garden interview — Unhappy result — Parting between Anne of Austria and Buckingham — Detention of the bride of Charles I. — The messenger — Return of Buckingham and Lord Rich to Amiens — Inter- view of the duke with Anne of Austria — The aiguillette — New leave- taking — Embarkation of the bride — Intrigues of Marie de Medicis — A xii CONTENTS suspicious argument — Surveillance of the young queen — The missing aiguillette — The bribe — The triumphant minister — The city ball — Tran- quillity of Anne of Austria — Defeat of the cardinal — The secret revealed — Distrust of Louis XIII. — The romance of Chalais — The conspiracy — The Due d'Anjou — The Princes of Vendome — Proposed assassination of Richelieu — The cardinal at Fleury — The hunt — Indiscretion of Chalais — The Commandant de Valance — The intervievif — Rochefort — Remorse of Chalais — The cardinal in his closet — The king and his minister — Guard at Fleury — The plot defeated — The duke and the cardinal — Politic politeness — Previsions of Richelieu .... Page 27 CHAPTER III 1626 Question of the Due d'Anjou's marriage — Foresight of Gaston — Marie de Bourbon — Opposition — The Vendome princes — The grand prior — Alarm of Louis XIII. — The cardinal and the grand prior — Insidious advice — Departure of the grand prior for Brittany — Dissimulation of Louis XIII. — Repentance of Chalais — Affected alarm of Richelieu — The forty mounted guards — Triumph of the cardinal — Arrest of the Vendome princes at Blois — The Comte de Rochefort — The Capuchin monastery at Brussels — The plot at its climax — Arrest, trial, and confession of Chalais — Marriage of the Due d'Anjou — Madame de Chalais — Condemnation of her son — Execution of Chalais — The queen before the council . 60 CHAPTER IV 1627-42 The cardinal's enemies — Projects of Buckingham — Death of the Duchesse d'Orleans — The Comte de Bouteville — His duels — The challenge — New executions — The king before La Rochelle — Court treachery — Arrest of Lord Montagu — Famine in La Rochelle — Tragical death of Buckingham — Laporte in the Bastille — Renewed banishment of Marie de Medicis — Self- expatriation of the Due d'Orleans — Destitution of the Due d'Epernon and the Marquis de Vieuville — Execution of the Due de Montmorency — Mazarin in France — The siege of Landrecy — Birth of the Comte de Guiche — The Due de Grammont — His father — The triple alliance — Private marriage of Gaston d'Orleans with Marguerite de Lor- raine — Estrangement of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria — Mademoiselle de la Fayette — Pere Joseph — The 5th of December 1637 — Morality of Louis XIII. — Visit to the Louvre — Pregnancy of Anne of Austria — The Comte de Chavigny— General rejoicing — Indisposition of the car- dinal — The royal hunts — Declining health of Louis XIII. — The cardinal and the astrologer — Birth of Louis XIV.— The swaddling clothes — Poverty of Louis XIII. — Social position of the kingdom — Partial recon- CONTENTS ciliation of the king and queen — M. de Cinq-Mars — Birth of the Due d'Anjou — Execution of Cinq-Mars and De Thou — Death of Marie de Medicis at Cologne — Fatal indisposition of Richelieu — His quarrel with Louis XIII. — The State prisoners Page 83 CHAPTER V 1642-44 Marriage of Mademoiselle de Breze — Increased illness of the cardinal — In- difference of Louis XIII. — Death of the cardinal — Ancient and modern biographers — Liberation of State prisoners — Reconciliation of the king and the Due d'Orleans — Arrival of the remains of Marie de Medicis — Illness of Louis XIII. — Recognition oi Madame — Christening of the dau- phin — Death of Louis XIII. — Anne of Austria regent — The new ministry — The Due d'Orleans lieutenant-general of the kingdom — The Due de Beaufort — The three days — "The queen is so good" — Louis XIV. and the State companies — Anne of Austria and Voiture — The improvisation — The Comte de Guiche and his governess — Piety of Anne of Austria — Return of Madame de Chevreuse — Her intrigues — Coldness of the queen- regent — Diplomacy of Mazarin — The Due de Beaufort a bad conspira- tor — Escape of Mazarin — Arrest of the Due de Beaufort — Renewed exile of Madame de Chevreuse — The Due d'Enghien — The challenge — Death of Coligny — Mourning-balls . . . . . 115 CHAPTER VI 1645 The Palais-Cardinal — "What's in a name?" — Establishment of Louis XIV. — Amusements of the royal children — The children of honour — Educa- tion of the young king — Historical readings by Laporte — Aversion of the king to Mazarin — M. de Mancini and the bougeoir — The Grand Turk — The wardrobe of Louis XIV. — A royal fast — The campaign of Flanders The Rodogune of Corneille — Arrival of Queen Henrietta in France — Avarice of Mazarin — Battle of NordUngen — Selfishness of Mazarin — Contract of Marie de Gonzague and the King of Naples — The Cardinal de Retz — Madame de Sevigne — The Polish nobles — A contrast . 149 CHAPTER VII Fontainebleau — The Polish envoys — The forest — Darkness in a palace — Anger of the regent — A quarrel on etiquette — The Coadjutor of Paris — A mistaken word — Reconciliation between the cardinal and the coadju- CONTENTS tor — Threat to the Queen of Poland — The marriage — Munificence of Anne of Austria — The king and his brother — Precocity of Louis XIV. — Effeminacy of Philip d'Anjou — A court-ball — The first campaign of Louis XIV. — Mademoiselle and the Emperor of Germany — Death of the Marechal de Bassompierre — Feud between the regent and the Parliament — Revolt of the united provinces — The Due de Guise at Naples — His capture at Capua — Mademoiselle and the Prince of Wales — Illness of the king — The family of Mazarin — Revolt of the Parisians — Richelieu versus Mazarin — M. d'Emeiy — Paris under arms — Arrogance of the queen-regent — The king at Notre Dame — Dissensions in the Parliament — The new edicts — Declaration of the regent — Opposition of the cor- porate bodies — A new leader ...... Page 175 CHAPTER VIII 1648 The Due de Beaufort at Vincennes — The prediction — La Ramee — Prepara- tions for flight — The pasty — The prince and the valet — The departure- Discontent of Mademoiselle — The Archduke Leopold — Arrest of Saujon — The retort courteous — Increase of popular disaffection — Popu- larity of the coadjutor — Victory of Sens — Triumph of the Court — The Te Daitn — Arrest of Broussel and Blancmesnil — Consternation of the capital — The impromptu council — Advice of the coadjutor — The revolted citizens — The coadjutor and the mob — The coadjutor and the faction — The Fronde — The liberation of Broussel — Terror of Mazarin — Sudden calm 199 CHAPTER IX 1648 Removal of the Court to Ruel — Recall of the Prince de Conde — Arrest of Chavigny — Rivalry between Gaston d'Orleans and Conde — Declaration of the Parliament against Mazarin — Private marriage of the queen and the cardinal — Madame de Beauvais — The cardinal's hat — Reply of the Marechal d'Estrees — Politeness of the young king — Mazarinades — Recon- ciliation of the Due d'Orleans with the Court — The Abbe de la Riviere — Favour of the Prince de Conde — His ill-judged advice — The twelfth ' cake — Flight of the Court from Paris — Mademoiselle in the queen's coach — The Court at St. Germain — Effect of the king's flight upon the populace ..... ... .241 CHAPTER X 1648-49 Tranquillity of the coadjutor — Idle rumours — Mob enthusiasm — Declaration of Louis XIV. to the corporate bodies — Interdict upon the Parliament — CONTENTS Attempt to create a famine in Paris — Parliamentary decree against Mazarin — Contempt of the Court — Madame de Longueville at the Town Hall — Disaffection of the princes — Intrigues of Madame de Longueville — Perplexity of the coadjutor — Arrival of the Prince de Conti and the Due de Longueville at Paris — The Prince de Conti and the Parliament — M. d'Elboeuf and his three sons — The princes offer their services to the Par- liament — Madame de Longueville and the populace — Siege of the Bastille — A dangerous witticism — The citizen - court — Measures of the Prince de Conde — Alarm at St. Germain — Intended flight of Mazarin — Indigna- tion of Conde — The hunchback — Fronde pasquinades — Royal retorts — Political scandal — The Due de Beaufort in the capital — "The king of the markets " — Leaders of the Fronde — Tancrede de Rohan Page 264 CHAPTER XI 1650 Pradence of the Parliament — Seizure of the cardinal's property — Munificence of the city to the Queen of England — An exiled princess — The condemned prisoner — Exchange of prisoners — Check of the royal forces before Rouen — The first sortie — " The first of the Corinthians " — Death of Tancrede de Rohan — Battle of Charenton — Death of Chanleu — The ball and the baton — Defeat of the Frondeurs at Charenton and Ville-Juif — The herald — Treaty with the princes — Turenne declares for the Parliament — Terms of the treaty — Venality of the princes — The citizen-prince 296 CHAPTER XII 1650 Return of the royal fugitives — Reluctance of the queen and her minister — Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Mademoiselle and Henrietta of Eng- land — The Duke of York — Return of Monsieur to Blois — The Due de Beaufort and Madame de Montbazon — The Court at Compiegne — — Mademoiselle and Charles II. — Egotism of Mademoiselle — Character of the Prince de Conde — Ambitious projects of Madame de Longueville — Disaffection of Conde — Libellous publications — Rescue of the printers — Altercation between the Due de Beaufort and the Mar- quis de Jarze — Arrival of Charles II. — Reconciliation of the queen- regent and Conde — The coadjutor at Compiegne — Reception of Madame de Chevreuse — Entry of the king and queen into Paris — Popularity of Mazarin — The Due de Beaufort at the Palais-Royal — Death of the Empress of Germany — Renewed hopes of Mademoiselle — The court- ship of Charles II. — Illness of Mademoiselle— Confirmation of the young princes .... ... 308 CONTENTS CHAPTER XIII 1650 Hollow reconciliations— Arrogance of the Prince de Conde— Defiance of Mazarin— "Adieu, Mars ! "—The tabouret— A new affront— Marriage of the Due de Richelieu and Mademoiselle de Pons— The cardinal and Madame de Chevreuse— A war of wits — Meditated arrest of the Princes of Lorraine — Autograph letter to the coadjutor — His distrust of the regent — Sincerity of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Stipulations of the coadjutor — Treacheiy of the Abbe de la Riviere — The Due d'Orleans and Madame de Soyon — Adhesion of Monsieur to the conspiracy — The cardinal's secretary — Apprehensions of Madame de Conde — Arrest of the princes — The journey to Vincennes — Public excitement — Flight of the Duchesse de Longueville — Separation of the duchess and her daughter — The Princes de Conde banished from the Court — The queen- regent at Rouen — Disgust of Madame de Longueville — Her escape — Her arrival in Holland — Departure of the Due de Bouillon and Mare- Icha Turenne — Return of the Court to Paris . . . Page 336 CHAPTER XIV 1650 Arrest of the Duchesse de Bouillon — Her escape with her daughter — Their seizure — They are conveyed to the Bastille — Flight of the Princesse de Conde and the Due d'Enghien — Appeal of the princess-dowager to the Parliament — Her banishment to Valery — Madame de Longueville and Turenne make a treaty with Spain — Turenne at the head of his troops — The Court at Compiegne — Madame de Conde at Bordeaux — Danger of the royal envoy — Mademoiselle and the Emperor of Germany — Court of Madame de Conde — The king's troops march against the princess — Journey of the Court to Bordeaux — Capture of Vayres — Execution of the governor — Reprisals — Execution of the Baron de CanoUes — Siege of Bordeaux — Submission of the city — Interview of the queen-regent and Madame de Conde — Levity of Mademoiselle — Coldness of the Bor- deaulese towards the regent — March of Turenne and the archduke on Paris — Preparations for a renewal of the Fronde — The regent sick at Poitiers — Exasperation of the coadjutor — Madame de Rhodes, the Princess - Palatine, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Henri, Due de Guise — His romantic career — The double divorce — Procrastination of the Due d'Orleans — His indignation at the proposed removal of the princes to Havre — His narrow policy — The extorted signature • — Arrival of Charles II. — Coldness of the French Court — Retirement of the English king to Jersey ........ 369 CONTENTS CHAPTER XV 1650-51 The battle of Rethel — Death of the Dowager-Princess of Conde — Remon- strance of the Parliament on the imprisonment of the princes — Quarrel of the Due d' Orleans and the cardinal — Misgivings of Mademoiselle — Reconciliation between Mademoiselle and Conde — Mazarin offers the hand of Louis XIV. to Mademoiselle — The cardinal foiled — The interpolated factum — Energy of Gaston d'Orleans — Alarm of the Court — Flight of the cardinal — Riot in the capital — Mademoiselle de Chev- reuse and the Duchesse d'Orleans — Pusillanimity of Monsieur — Seizure of the city gates by the Frondeurs — The populace in the Palais-Royal — M. Desbuches in the royal chamber — Mazarin at Havre — Emancipation of the princes — Their arrival in Paris .... Page 397 CHAPTER XVI 1650-51 Reception of the princes by the Court — Intrigue against the coadjutor — Vanity of Mademoiselle — Projected marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Proposition of Conde — Illness of Madame de Conde — Mademoiselle indulges in a new matrimonial speculation — Retirement of the coadjutor — An armed neutrality — Pre- tensions of the Prince de Conde — The queen makes overtures to the coadjutor — Fresh intrigues — The projected assassination — Noble resist- ance of the coadjutor — Sentence against Mazarin — Private meetings of the queen and the coadjutor — Retreat of the princess to St. Maur — The royal envoy — Rage of the Due d'Orleans — Return of Conde to the capital — Close of the regency — Majority of Louis XIV. — The Bed of Justice — Renunciation of the regency by Anne of Austria — the king and Madame de Frontenac ....... 420 CHAPTER XVII 1651-52 Youth of Louis XIV. and Philippe d'Anjou — Early associations — Ignorance of the young king — Armand de Guiche — Subjection of the king to the cardinal — State of the kingdom — Discontent of Monsieur — Courage of Mademoiselle — Revolt of Conde — March of the Court against Bor- deaux — Return of Mazarin — Paris in arms — Submission of Turenne — Declaration against the princes — Sale of the cardinal's library — Charles II. after the battle of Worcester — The Due de Nemours — Madame de Chatillon — Diplomacy of Mademoiselle — The city of Orleans declares for the Fronde — Cowardice of Motisieur — the Comtesse de Fiesque — Mademoiselle declares herself and takes Orleans . . 450 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ON STEEL 1. Portrait of Louis XIV. (full length) . . Frontispiece 2. Cardinal Mazarin ... . To face page 94 3. Anne of Austria ,, 132 4. Madame de Sevigne . ... „ 172 5. Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Cond^ . ,, 316 6. Louis XIV. . . . . . ,, 452 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY G. AND W. MEASOM PAGE The Castle of Blois . . ... . i Perspective of the Louvre . .27 The Old Chateau of Versailles . . .60 Palace of the Popes at Avignon ... 83 Notre Dame and the Hotel-Dieu 115 The Palais-Cardinal ... ... 149 Grand Avenue of the Tuileries .... 199 The Palace of Chantilly . . . 241 Castle of Vincennes . . . . 264 Palace of the Luxembourg . . . 296 Inner Court of the Louvre . . ... 308 Palace of St. Germain en Laye .... . 336 Palace of the Tuileries . . 369 CHAPTER I Reign of Louis XIV. — Retrospective glance — Childhood of Louis XIII. — Policy of Marie de Medicis — The royal favourite — His pedigree — Matri- monial exchange — Anne of Austria — Her portrait — Royal marriage — The Cardinal de Richelieu — Assassination of the Marechal d'Ancre — In- gratitude of Richelieu — Richelieu and the queen-mother — Anecdote related by Bassompierre — Escape of Marie de Medicis from Blois — Abor- tive rebellion — Submission of the queen-mother — Subtlety of Richelieu — Madame de Chevreuse — Levity of Anne of Austria — Gaston, Due d'Anjou — Jealousy of Louis XIII. — His failing health — Richelieu in masquerade — The discovery — Feud between the queen and the cardinal — Disgraceful rumours. The reign of Louis XIV. may be divided into three sections. From his succession, in 1643, at the early age of five years, to his majority, in 165 1, the his- tory of France is that of the regency of Anne of Austria and the Fronde, when Louis was merely the puppet of the queen-mother and her minister ; '' VOL. L I LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. from his majority until the death of Mazarin, in 1661, it is that of the cardinal himself, who was the one prominent figure upon the national canvas, absorbing in his own person all the authority of sovereign power; and it is only after the decease of that subtle and intriguing churchman that Louis XIV. can be considered as the real sovereign of France, wielding as well as grasping the sceptre which had been bequeathed to him by his an- cestors. It is, however, expedient, in order thoroughly to understand the position of the French nation at the period when this monarch was called to the throne, that we should turn a retrospective glance upon the reign of his predecessor, and give a hasty sketch of the prominent events by which it was dis- tinguished. Moreover, throughout the two epochs which we have designated, circumstances bearing upon the future fortunes of the young sovereign and shades of individual character are to be detected, which, although occasionally trifling in themselves, still serve, like the first touches of a skilful artist, to indicate the physiognomy of the coming portrait ; while, blended with these, are, necessarily, facts and occurrences which tend to explain the peculiar nature and intricacies of the Franco-Italian-Spanish Court, which at the commencement of the "great century" offered all the romance of an earlier age. The childhood of Louis XIII. had been one of constraint and disgust. The inherent cruelty of his nature was so great that his father, Henri IV., is THE COURT OF FRANCE Stated to have twice inflicted upon him corporal punishment with his own royal hands, in order to correct him of this revolting and unmanly vice ; and to have replied to the expostulations of his mother, Marie de Medicis, that she had need pray to God for her husband's life, seeing that her son would ill- treat her when she was no longer protected from his violence. The words were prophetic. On her side Marie de Medicis, anxious to retain in her own hands the royal authority instead of directing the studies of the young king, called pre- maturely to the throne by the crime of an assassin, suffered him to remain in complete ignorance of all with which it behoved him to become familiar, in order to reign worthily over a great people. Occupied by her own political aggrandisement, and devoted to the indulgence of her own vices, she con- demned the unformed and moody mind of Louis to the constant and familiar association of her two favourites, Concini and Galigai, both of whom were peculiarly obnoxious to him. She never saw him save when necessity compelled her to do so, and her reception of him was generally cold and repelling. Thus he grew to manhood, a combination of oppos- ing qualities. The royal blood which flowed in his veins endowed him with a pride, which the con- sciousness of his mental deficiencies obscured by a timidity almost painful ; the ready and reckless courage which he inherited from his father was marred by an indecision readily traced to a coerced boyhood, and the non-inculcation of moral dignity ; a vindictiveness at once violent and lasting, which LOUIE XIV. AND chap. a huntsman and a falconer, welcomed this new associate with delight ; and hastened to claim his co-operation in his favourite pursuits. He could not have chanced upon a more able ally, for Albert was expert in all bodily exercises, and possessed an indomitable energy, which proved a great and last- ing relief to the dull and monotonous existence of his royal master. The amusements of Louis were few and simple ; his only luxury consisted of an aviary, which he had caused to be built in his gar- den ; while to the care of his birds he superadded the pleasure of driving, whip in hand, the loads of sand with which he constructed miniature fortresses. His home occupations were music, of which he was passionately fond ; and the study of some of the mechanical arts, which he pursued without any assistance. But that which tended the most strongly to attach Louis to his first favourite was his skill in training jackdaws for the pursuit of small birds in the gardens of the Louvre and the Tuileries — a sport in which the young monarch took such delight, and to which he devoted so much time, that the queen-mother congratulated herself upon having procured for him in Luynes a companion who would occupy his mind, and divert his thoughts from his obligations to the State. It was at the commencement of 1615, just as he was about to attain his fourteenth year, that it was announced to the young king that his marriage was shortly to take place with the Infanta Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III. He received the intelligence coldly ; and far from congratulating THE COURT OF FRANCE himself upon an event which must necessarily change the whole current of his existence, and diversify alike his pleasures and his duties, he contemplated it with the distrust and self-love of one who resolves not to be duped. A species of royal barter was to take place between the two Courts of France and Spain, for at the same time that Louis XIII. became the husband of Anne of Austria the Infant Philip was to receive the hand of Henrietta of France, commonly called Madame ; and the young king no sooner ascertained that his affianced bride was on her way to Bidassoa, where the exchange of the princesses was to be made, than he despatched Luynes to meet her ; ostensibly to convey a letter, but in reality in order to hear, from the lips of a man in whom he had firm faith, whether the beauty of the Infanta were equal to the representations which had been made to him. The report of the favourite exceeded the hopes of the king ; but, still unable to overcome his natural distrust, he left Bordeaux, whither he had been accompanied by the Court, and mounting his horse, he galloped, accompanied only by two or three per- sons, to a house which she must pass on her way, and entering by a back door, seated himself at a window on the ground floor, where he awaited the coming of the cavalcade. A nobleman of the Court, who had been previously instructed, stopped the Infanta for the purpose of pronouncing a congratula- tory harangue, during which time Louis was enabled to convince himself of the extreme loveliness of his young bride ; a loveliness which, according to all the LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. was compensated by no answering faculty of affec- tion ; and a dissimulation induced from constant companionship with persons displeasing to him ; patient and weak in the common commerce of life, but suspicious and even violent by fits ; such were the quaHties of Louis XIII.; of the son of the frankest, the bravest, and the most joyous monarch who ever swayed the sceptre of France ; and of the boldest, the haughtiest, the most revengeful, and the firmest princess who ever bore the name of Medicis. To one favourite, and to one alone, Louis XIII. was faithful unto death, and that one was Charles- Albert de Luynes — the only companion of his own age who was permitted to associate with the young king, and who was considered by the queen-mother as a harmless and safe companion for the monarch, from his frivolity and insignificance. De Luynes accepted the privilege upon the proffered terms, and excited neither envy nor suspicion when he estab- lished himself and his two brothers at Court, their birth being too humble to authorise any competition on their part with the haughty young nobles by whom they were surrounded. One word on their origin. Among the private musicians of Frangois I. figured a certain lute-player, a German by birth, named Albert, to whom the king was much attached, not only on account of his talent, which was extraordin- ary, but because his intellect was no less remarkable. So greatly, indeed, was he in favour, that when the monarch made his entrance into Marseilles, where THE COURT OF FRANCE the brother of the musician was a priest, he pre- sented to him a rich canonry which chanced then to be vacant. The said canon had two sons, one of whom he brought up to a learned profession, and the other to that of arms. The elder, who was a physician, took the name of Luynes from a small estate of which he became possessed, and having acquired considerable riches, attached himself to the fortunes of the Queen of Navarre ; with whom he continued till her death, and to whom, in her season of necessity, he is stated to have lent the sum of twelve thousand crowns. The younger was one of the bowmen of King Charles, and by his extreme bravery attracted the attention of M. Danville, the governor of Languedoc, who pushed his fortune, and ultimately entrusted to him the government of Beaucaire, where he died, leaving behind him three sons and four daughters. The three sons, Albert, Cadenet, and Brantes, were introduced to the Due de Bassompierre by La Varenne, who had been to Henri IV. what Lebel afterwards became to Louis XV. ; and Bassom- pierre, who had incurred obligations to La Varenne during the reign of the deceased king, did not cease to acknowledge them after his Court favour was at an end. He therefore placed Albert near the person of Louis XHL, and provided for his brothers about the Marechal de Souvr6, who added them to the household of his son. The yoiing king, who was at that period without a single friend, and reduced to the companionship of LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. a huntsman and a falconer, welcomed this new associate with delight ; and hastened to claim his co-operation in his favourite pursuits. He could not have chanced upon a more able ally, for Albert was expert in all bodily exercises, and possessed an indomitable energy, which proved a great and last- ing relief to the dull and monotonous existence of his royal master. The amusements of Louis were few and simple ; his only luxury consisted of an aviary, which he had caused to be built in his gar- den ; while to the care of his birds he superadded the pleasure of driving, whip in hand, the loads of sand with which he constructed miniature fortresses. His home occupations were music, of which he was passionately fond ; and the study of some of the mechanical arts, which he pursued without any assistance. But that which tended the most strongly to attach Louis to his first favourite was his skill in training jackdaws for the pursuit of small birds in the gardens of the Louvre and the Tuileries — a sport in which the young monarch took such delight, and to which he devoted so much time, that the queen-mother congratulated herself upon having procured for him in Luynes a companion who would occupy his mind, and divert his thoughts from his obligations to the State. It was at the commencement of 1615, just as he was about to attain his fourteenth year, that it was announced to the young king that his marriage was shortly to take place with the Infanta Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III. He received the intelligence coldly ; and far from congratulating THE COURT OF FRANCE himself upon an event which must necessarily change the whole current of his existence, and diversify alike his pleasures and his duties, he contemplated it with the distrust and self-love of one who resolves not to be duped. A species of royal barter was to take place between the two Courts of France and Spain, for at the same time that Louis XIII. became the husband of Anne of Austria the Infant Philip was to receive the hand of Henrietta of France, commonly called Madame ; and the young king no sooner ascertained that his affianced bride was on her way to Bidassoa, where the exchange of the princesses was to be made, than he despatched Luynes to meet her ; ostensibly to convey a letter, but in reality in order to hear, from the lips of a man in whom he had firm faith, whether the beauty of the Infanta were equal to the representations which had "been made to him. The report of the favourite exceeded the hopes of the king ; but, still unable to overcome his natural distrust, he left Bordeaux, whither he had been accompanied by the Court, and mounting his horse, he galloped, accompanied only by two or three per- sons, to a house which she must pass on her way, and entering by a back door, seated himself at a window on the ground floor, where he awaited the coming of the cavalcade. A nobleman of the Court, who had been previously instructed, stopped the Infanta for the purpose of pronouncing a congratula- tory harangue, during which time Louis was enabled to convince himself of the extreme loveliness of his young bride ; a loveliness which, according to all the LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. historians of the times, was of the highest order. They represent Anne of Austria, says Dumas, "as combining in her person sufficient to satisfy even the exactions of royalty. Beautiful with a majestic beauty, which subsequently tended admirably to assist her projects, and a thousand times compelled the respect and love of the turbulent nobility by whom she was surrounded ; as a woman, captivating to the eye of a lover ; as a queen, perfect to the eye of a subject ; tall and well-shaped ; possessing the whitest and most delicate hand that ever made an imperious gesture ; eyes of exquisite beauty, easily dilated, and to which their greenish tinge gave ex- traordinary transparency ; a small and ruddy mouth, that looked like an opening rosebud ; long and silky hair, of that lovely pale shade of auburn which gives to the faces that it surrounds at once the sparkling complexion of a fair beauty and the animation of a dark one — such was the wife whom Louis XIII. received as his companion." ^ The royal marriage took place on the 25th of November 1615 in the cathedral at Bordeaux; and immediately on his return to Paris the young king was fully occupied in terminating the quarrels of the princes of the blood, which had originated in the unprovided regency of Marie de Medicis, who, upon one pretext or another, was continually creat- ing discontent in every part of the country, which, still writhing beneath the effects of the (miscalled) religious wars, could ill support these senseless and ceaseless troubles. 1 Louis XIV. et son Siicle. THE COURT OF FRANCE We must here introduce a personage who at this period made his first appearance at the Court of France. Armand-Jean Duplessis was the son of Frangois Duplessis, Sieur de RicheHeu, a man of high birth, notwithstanding all the doubts which may have been put forth upon that point ; for we have, in support of the fact, the testimony of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, than whom no better authority on questions of nobility and precedence ever existed in any age.-^ He lost his father when he was five years old, who died leaving three sons and two daughters, Armand-Jean being the youngest of the former. The first entered the army, where he lost his life ; and the second, who was Bishop of Lugon, resigned his see in order to enter a Carthusian community ; when the subject of our sketch, who had also been bred to the Church, succeeded to the bishopric. In 1607 he departed for Rome, in order to 1 "All that can tend to ornament a house," says Mademoiselle de Montpensier, on the occasion of a visit which she made to the estate of the cardinal, near Champigni, " is to be seen at Richelieu ; which will not be difficult to believe when it is remembered that it is the work of the vainest and most ambitious man in the world ; and, moreover, of one who was first minister of state, and long possessed of absolute authority. The furniture is handsome and costly beyond all description. Nothing can equal the immense profusion of beautiful things which are contained in this house. Among all that modern invention has employed in its embellish- ment, he has caused to be preserved in the chimney-piece of a saloon the arms of the house of Richelieu, as they were emblazoned there during the lifetime of his father, because they contain the collar of the Holy Ghost ; in order to prove to those who are accustomed to sneer at the birth of favourites, that he was born of a good race. Upon this point he deceived no one." — Mhnoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. receive the consecration of his new dignity at the hands of Paul V„ who inquired of him whether he had attained the age required by the canonical law, which is twenty-five years. The embryo prelate replied at once in the affirmative ; but immediately after the ceremony he requested the Holy Father to receive his confession ; in which, with the same composure, he admitted the falsehood of which he had just been guilty. The pontiff absolved him of the sin : but in the course of the same evening he pointed out the new bishop to the French ambas- sador, remarking that he would one day become a great impostor. On his return to France the Bishop of Lugon formed a friendship with the advocate Boutheiller,^ who was in constant communication with Barbin, the confidential agent of the queen-mother ; and it was under his roof that the controller-general made his acquaintance. Struck by the great and varied talents of the young prelate, he instantly foretold his future greatness ; of which he was so thoroughly convinced that, in order to hasten its advent, he presented him to Leonora Galigai, who employed him for a time in certain unimportant negotiations, which he conducted with such ability that she finally brought him under the notice of Marie de Medicis ; who, judging of her young proUgd as favourably as herself, after sundry trials of his zeal and capability, appointed him to the responsible office of Secretary of State in the year 1616. In 1617 Louis con- 1 Claude Boutheiller was of an ancient family of AngoulSme, and subsequently at the head of the Finance Department. THE COURT OF FRANCE certed and executed, through his agents, the assas- sination of the Mar^chal d'Ancre,^ who was murdered on the bridge of the Louvre on the morning of the 26th of April 161 7 — a crime of which the whole moral responsibility rests upon the king himself ; while it gained for Luynes the sword of con- stable, and for Vitry the biton of a marshal.^ In the month of July following his wife Leonora Galigai was publicly executed as a witch in the Place de Greve ; but the worst passions of the king, once awakened, were not easily appeased, and his next act of authority was to deprive the queen - mother of her rank and honours, and to 1 Concino Concini, Marechal d'Ancre, was a Florentine gentleman who followed Marie de Medicis to France, where he married Leonora Galigai, the foster-sister of the queen, over whom she possessed extraordinary influence. He became the first equerry and house-steward of his royal mistress, and was the confidant of the intrigues of both the king and the queen ; was marshal of France and governor of Normandy at the death of Henri IV. ; but incurred the hatred of Luynes, who, when he became possessed of the constable's sword, resolved to effect his destruction. He was about to divorce Leonora, in order to marry the heiress of the house of Vendome, when he was assassinated by Vitry, captain of the guard, who succeeded to the baton of his victim. Leonora Galigai made many enemies by her hauteur and insolence. She was, upon the accusation stated in the text, beheaded, and afterwards burnt, and her ashes scattered to the wind. She died with great courage. 2 An official and titled dignity, which existed in the Roman empire, under, the name of comes stabiiU, and which was recognised as such during the first race. Under the two following, the con- stable had the chief command of the army after the king himself, whom he accompanied into action, and whose sword he was privi- leged to gird on. He was also entrusted with the surveillance of the royal stables, and held at Court, as well as in the army, the first rank after the king. He carried the sword of state erect and un- sheathed on all occasions of ceremony. Albdric (in 1060) was the first constable'; and the Due de Lesdiguiferes, who died in 1627, was the last; Louis XHL having, at that period, suppressed the dignity, which Napoleon revived in our own times, in favour of the Prince of Wagram, who had no successor. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. banish her to Blois, rather as a prisoner than as an exile. Upon this occasion two prophecies were verified — that of Henri IV., when he foretold the cruelties to which Marie de Medicis would be subjected by her son ; and that of Paul V., who foreshadowed the future hollowness of Richelieu. The young secretary of state inhabited the house of the Dean of Lugon at the time of Concini's assas- sination ; and it is well authenticated that on the night before it took place a packet was delivered to the dean, with strict injunctions that it should be forthwith placed in the hands of the bishop, as its contents were of the most serious and pressing importance. Although it was near midnight, the host ventured to disturb the slumbers of his guest upon so earnest an assurance ; and having been ad- mitted, he transmitted to him at once the letter and the intimation he had received. The bishop broke the seal calmly, read the missive to an end, and then fell into a reverie ; at the conclusion of which he turned towards the dean, who stood still at his bed- side, and, after thanking him for his zeal, remarked that he need detain him no longer, as the affair was by no means pressing, and that he always, found the night bring counsel. After which he thrust the letter under his bolster, and again composed himself to sleep. And yet the fearful document was indeed of no common importance, for it apprised him that at ten o'clock on the morrow the Marechal d'Ancre would be assassinated ; while the spot on which the deed I THE COURT OF FRANCE 13 was to be committed, the names of those who were entrusted with its execution, and the details of the whole enterprise, were given with a minuteness which forbade all doubt that it was written by one well acquainted with the truth that he advanced. Let not our readers overlook the fact that the state secretary owed his elevation to the unhappy marshal and his equally unhappy wife ; and they will assuredly be ready to concede that the term applied by the sovereign pontiff to the crafty and ambitious Bishop of Lugon might rightly have been exchanged for one of far darker signification. On the morrow he remained in his closet until eleven o'clock ; and the first tidings which reached him when he emerged from ' it were those of the catastrophe of the previous hour. Three days pre- viously to this occurrence, and, as if he could have foreseen the ruin of his benefactors, and was anxious to secure himself from a participation in their fate, he had despatched M. de Pontcourlay to Luynes, to request the latter would assure the king of his de- votion to his person ; but Louis vouchsafed no comment upon the circumstance, and it was gener- ally believed that the bishop, known to have been in the confidence of Concini, had fallen into dis- grace in consequence. Apprehensive himself that such might be the case, he accordingly applied to the monarch for permission to follow the queen- mother in her exile, a favour which was at once conceded. He soon, however, repented the step that he had taken ; and after remaining only forty days at Blois, he affected to believe that he was M LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. suspected of disloyalty, and expressed his determi- nation to retire to a priory which he possessed near Mirabeau, desiring, as he asserted, to shut himself up with his books, and to labour, as became his profession, in the extirpation of heresy. But not- withstanding the shortness of his sojourn with the exiled queen, his purpose was attained ; for while, on taking leave, he represented to the mistress whom he was about to abandon that the necessity which had arisen for his departure was a new persecution to which he was subjected by his enemies in consequence of his devotion to herself, he caused it to be represented at Court as an act of obedience to what he felt to be the wishes of the king. The arrogance and despotism of Marie de Medicis had made her many enemies, and these were not idle in nourishing the exasperation of the monarch against her. We have already stated that vindictiveness formed a strong feature in his char- acter ; and having once roused himself to so extreme a step as that of her banishment, he lent a ready and willing ear to every insinuation which tended to justify its prolongation. Bassompierre relates an anecdote, which tends to prove that neither time nor absence had weakened this feeling, many months after her removal to Blois had taken place. On one occasion he entered the apartment of Louis when he was practising the French horn, and ventured to expostulate with the young monarch, reminding him that it was injurious to the chest, and that it had shortened the life of Charles IX. "You I THE COURT OF FRANCE 15 are wrong, Bassompierre," was the reply of the king, as he laid his hand on the duke's shoulder ; " it was not that which killed him. It was his having exiled his mother, Queen Catherine, from the Court on the occasion of a misunderstanding be- tween them, and his having afterwards recalled her. Had he not committed that imprudence he would have lived longer." Acting upon an inverse principle to that of his predecessor, Louis XIII. not only continued the exile of his mother, but even increased its rigour to an extent which reduced it to absolute imprisonment; and Marie de Medicis, at length convinced that neither time nor submission would lessen the deter- mined estrangement of her son, resolved to emanci- pate herself from his severity ; and accordingly, during the night of the 2 2d of February 16 19, with the assistance of the Due d'Epernon,^ she escaped from the castle of Blois. 1 Nogaret de la Valette, Due d'Epernon, or Espernon, the repre- sentative of the younger branch of a Gascon family, went to seek his fortune at the French Court, under the name of Caumont. After the death of Charles IX. he first attached himself to the King of Navarre, afterwards Henri IV. He was subsequently admitted to the familiarity of Henri III., who caused him to study politics and literature, and made him one of his favourites {inignons). Created Due d'Epernon, first peer of France, admiral of France, and colonel-general of the infantry forces, -he held several governments. After the death of Henri III., D'Epernon again allied himself to Henri IV., who opposed him to the Duke of Savoy. During the reign of this king he lived in a constant state of misunderstanding bdth with him and the Court. He is even accused of having assisted in the assassination of Henri ; at whose death he convoked the Par- liament, caused the recognition of Marie de Medicis as regent, and placed himself at the head of public affairs, by forming a private council, of which he was the chief. Compelled to retire from the Court during the influence of the Coneini, he reappeared there after their fall. i6 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. The princes, always ready to seize upon every pretext for revolt, soon gathered round the royal fugitive, and she found herself at the head of a rebellious force, which compelled the king to as- semble an army in order to suppress it. Only one solitary engagement, however, took place between the opposing parties, in which the monarch charged the enemy in person, and at once terminated the war. "Thus," says Duplessis Mornay, "a skirmish of a couple of hours put an end to the grandest game that had been played in France for two centuries." The queen-mother tendered her sub- mission, and was admitted to an interview of recon- ciliation with her son, in which a hollow peace was made between them ; and this was scarcely done when, on the departure of M. de Sillery as ambas- sador to Rome, the first cardinal's hat which should become vacant was asked of Gregory XV., who had succeeded Paul V., for the Bishop of Lucon,and promptly conceded ; for on the 5th of September 1622 Armand-Jean Duplessis became a member of the Holy Conclave, and thenceforth assumed the name and title of Cardinal de Richelieu. History is silent as to the nature of the services which procured for the cardinal this twofold protec- tion, but it is certain that he had not wasted his time in inaction since his affected return to Mira- beau ; for some time subsequently to the flight of the queen-mother from Blois, M. d'Arlincourt, the governor of Lyons, having ascertained that he had left Avignon, where he had been residing in dis- guise, and inferring from this extraordinary precau- I THE COURT OF FRANCE 17 tion that he was about to rejoin his royal mistress, caused him to be arrested at Vienne, in Dauphiny. The composure of the bishop was, however, no whit ruffled by this circumstance ; as, with perfect polite- ness, he drew from his pocket an autograph letter of the king, wherein it was ordered that all governors of provinces should not only allow him free passage, but, moreover, assist him in every emergency. M. d'Arlincourt had not, nevertheless, been de- ceived in his suspicions. Richelieu was in fact on his way to the queen -mother, but it had become extremely doubtful whether it were in her interests or in those of the king. Return we now to Anne of Austria — the " Little Queen," as from her arrival in France she had been called, to distinguish her from the queen-mother. When composing the household of the Infanta Marie de Medicis had placed near her person the celebrated Madame de Chevreuse, whose first hus- band was the Charles Albert de Luynes,-' whose favour with Louis had pushed his fortune so rapidly, and who had been at once enriched and ennobled by the blood of the unfortunate Concini. His- torians imply that this selection had been made for the vilest purposes by the queen-mother, who dreaded that the precocious intellect of Anne of Austria might overcome the'lethargy of her young husband, and induce him to exchange his frivolous pursuits for the duties of his exalted station. Be this as it may, and the suspicions which rest upon 1 Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, Duchesse de Chevreuse, was the daughter of Hercule de Rohan, and was born in 1 600. VOL. I. 2 1 8 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Marie de Medicis upon this subject by no means end in what we have here stated, it is certain that a more dangerous confidant could not have been chosen for the young and inexperienced bride of Louis XIII. Vain of her person, coquettish by nature, although virtuous in principle, and easily deluded by all that bore an appearance of mystery or romance, Anne of Austria readily fell into the snare which had been prepared for her ; and although she unquestionably never forgot what was due to her own honour, either as a woman or the consort of a king, she accustomed herself too easily to affect a disregard for that virtue which in her inmost heart she held at its proper value. To this fatal facility may be traced much of the unhappiness and mortification of her married life. Madame de Chevreuse was the more dangerous that she was one of the wittiest, most beautiful, least scrupulous, and most intriguing women of the age. During the life of her first husband she occupied apartments in the Louvre, and her advances to the young monarch were so undisguised as to have awakened for a time the uneasiness of Anne of Austria ; but soon convinced that she could not overcome the indifference of Louis, an enterprise to which she had probably been urged as much by her ambition as by any softer feeling, she turned, like an able tactician, to the young queen, who, isolated and rigorously watched by Marie de Medicis, was ever ready to welcome every appearance of attach- ment ; and who, consequently, after a few reproaches, I THE COURT OF FRANCE 19 which the subtle Madame de Luynes received rather as a victim than as a culprit, forgot her just cause of resentment, and ere long they became inseparable. On the death of the constable his widow found herself rich beyond her hopes, for she inherited ■ not only an immense fortune, but also all the dia- monds of the Marechal d'Ancre, which the king had confiscated in her favour ; and at the end of eighteen months she remarried with Claude de Lorraine, Due de Chevreuse, the second and handsomest of the Messieurs de Guise, but a man of double her own age. Some idea may be formed of the pre- cocious spirit of intrigue possessed by this extra- ordinary woman from the fact that she afterwards passed into a proverb, as is proved by a passage in one of the letters of Bussy-Rabutin to his cousin, Madame de S^vigne, in which he urges her to pursue her correspondence with him during the period of his service in the army of the Prince de Conde. "The cardinal will never know it," he writes ; " and even if he should make the discovery, and send you a lettre de cachet, it is a fine thing for a woman of twenty years of age to be involved in matters of state. The celebrated Madame de Chevreuse did not begin earlier." Such was the intimate associate of Anne of Austria, whose continued sterility began to alienate the king, and to render him morose and distrustful, while it gave rise to rumours injurious to their object, whose natural levity tended unfortunately to strengthen the suspicions of the malevolent. The first tangible cause for complaint, upon which LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Louis could ground his displeasure and estrange- ment, was the friendship formed between the young queen and his brother Gaston, Due d'Anjou, and subsequently of Orleans. The royal brothers had never loved each other, for they differed alike in temperament and habits; while Marie de Medicis did not affect to conceal her preference for her younger son, whose intellect partook of that of Henri IV., while his joyous spirits contrasted ad- vantageously with the moody and unsocial nature of the young monarch. It was, beyond all doubt, to this habitual gaiety that Gaston was indebted for the favour of Anne of Austria, and the delight which she evinced in his society ; it is possible, also, that she hoped, by giving free course to her flights of fancy, and exhibiting the fascinations alike of her person and her mind in the presence of his own brother, that she might ultimately succeed in in- spiring the king with a greater taste for her society. It would be alike monstrous and unnatural to im- pute to a woman just emerging from girlhood (for, be it remembered, that at the period of her marriage she had only attained her eleventh year) the wish seriously to captivate the affections of a stripling of fifteen, who was, moreover, the brother of her husband ! Here again, however, the machinations of Marie de Medicis were painfully successful ; for with that love of intrigue which she had imported from the Court of Florence, she encouraged the demonstra- tions of the young queen ; and aroused in the bosom of Louis a jealousy which deepened the hatred that THE COURT OF FRANCE he had long felt towards Gaston, whose vanity delighted in exciting the anger and annoyance of the monarch, alike openly and in secret. Ere long the king, whose health, never robust, began to give way under the effects of his ungenial temper, had a new and more dangerous rival, of whom, however, he had not the most remote sus- picion. We can do no more than allude to the first demonstration of this passion, which was destined to operate so powerfully on the after-fortunes of Anne of Austria. About three months subsequently to the receipt of the cardinal's hat by Richelieu, and when he had already began to possess himself of the power by which he became aggrandised on the degradation of his royal master, profiting by the coldness which Louis felt towards his young consort, and which he did not make an effort to disguise, the new minister, impelled alike by his ambition and by the desire of gaining the affections of so beautiful a princess, dared, says a writer of the period, to make proposals to her, unmeet for the ears of a princess and unseemly from the lips of a churchman.^ The increasing languor of the king had at this period created considerable apprehensions for his life ; and Richelieu was aware that, in the event of his demise, both the young queen and himself had 1 This declaration was productive of fearful results, according to M. de Montmerqud, who asserts, in his notes to the Tales of Talle- mant des R^aux, that the queen complained to the Marquis de Mirabel, the Spanish ambassador, of the insult to which she had been subjected by RicheHeu ; and the marquis, in his turn, informed the Comte d'Olivarfes of the circumstance, who ordered him to effect the assassination of the cardinal for having dared to make such a proposition to the daughter of the King of Spain. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. everything to fear — the one from the hatred of Marie de Medicis, and the other from that of Gaston — should Anne of Austria continue childless ; nor was the latter blind to this alarming truth ; and whatever want of sympathy might exist between herself and Louis, she was quite conscious how heavy a misfortune her widowhood must prove at such a crisis, from the fearful changes which it would necessarily produce in her position. Richelieu had, nevertheless, like most of those by whom she was surrounded, mistaken the real character of Anne of Austria ; and it is even as- serted that, misled by his vanity, he interpreted the patience and self-command with which the queen, fearful of changing into an enemy the powerful and crafty lover at her feet, compelled herself to listen and to temporise with his outrage upon her virtue, into an encouragement of his hopes. How far he was justified in this opinion may be gathered from the result of the experiment ; and we should not have ventured upon the record of such an anecdote had not its veracity been thoroughly authenticated. We give it therefore upon the faith of M. de Brienne. Anxious to devise some method of curing the cardinal for ever of his presumptuous passion, Anne of Austria confided to Madame de Chevreuse the scene to which we have just made allusion ; and it was at length decided between them that the queen should affect to doubt the vows which he so pro- fusely poured forth, and exact, as a proof of their sincerity, that Richelieu should dance a saraband I THE COURT OF FRANCE 23 in her presence, in the costume of a Spanish jester. The queen declared that she consented to the ex- periment, only because she felt convinced that Richelieu, at once a churchman and the minister of a great nation, would never submit to such a degra- dation ; and that, consequently, she should secure a defence against the prosecution of his suit in his denial to gratify her caprice ; while Madame de Chevreuse, on the contrary, maintained that they should see his eminence, castanets in hand, at any hour which his royal mistress might deem expedient ; and the favourite did not reason idly, for she was no stranger to the extent of Richelieu's passion for the young queen. Ten o'clock on the morrow was accordingly appointed, for the cardinal at once verified the assurance of Madame de Chevreuse, only stipulating that no one should be present but her majesty during the travestie save Boccau, a musician of his own band, of whose discretion he was assured. Anne of Austria, still half incredulous, was never- theless the first to declare to her favourite that the concession of the cardinal was, should he indeed fulfil his pledge, at once too great or too trifling to effect her purpose, were no other spectator of the ecclesiastical masquerade to assist her in profiting by its absurdity ; and accordingly Madame de Chevreuse, Vauthier, and Beringhen, two of the gentlemen of her household, were concealed behind a folding screen in her cabinet, the queen still persisting that the precaution was unnecessary, for that the cardinal would send to excuse himself ; and 24 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Madame de Chevreuse resolutely asserting that he would appear in person; when, punctually to the moment, Boccau made his entry, armed with a violin, and announced that he should be speedily followed by his eminence. All doubt was at an end. Ten minutes later a muffled figure appeared upon the threshold, advanced with a profound salutation, unfolded the enormous mantle in which it was enveloped, and the cardinal prime minister of France stood before the wife of its monarch in a tight vest and trousers of green velvet, with silver bells at his garters and castanets in his hands ! It required an immense effort on the part of Anne of Austria to restrain the mirth which, at this spectacle, caused her to lose all apprehension of the consequences that it might involve ; she succeeded, however, in preserving sufficient gravity to receive her visitor with a gracious gesture, and to request him to complete his self-abnegation in courteous and fitting terms. She was obeyed, and for a time she watched with both curiosity and amusement the evolutions and contortions of the cardinal ; but the extreme gravity with which he executed his task at length rendered the spectacle so supremely grotesque that she could no longer preserve her self-possession, and gave way to a violent fit of laughter. Her merriment was instantly re-echoed from behind the screen ; and Richelieu, at once perceiving that he had been betrayed, strode furiously from the room, upon I THE COURT OF FRANCE 25 which the merry trio emerged from their conceal- ment, delighted with the adventure of the morning. Little did they guess that they had roused a slum- bering serpent, whose sting was sure and fatal ! Little did they understand, as they indulged in witticisms of which the cardinal-duke was the sub- ject, that he had, as he left the palace, vowed an undying hatred to Anne of Austria and her favourite, from the effects of which neither the one nor the other was destined to escape. " This anecdote of the most austere minister ever known in France," says Dumas; "this condescen- sion of the proudest gentleman whom nobility ever counted in its ranks — in fine, this error of the most serious man whom history has celebrated in its annals — will superabundantly indicate how high an importance the cardinal attached to the good graces of Anne of Austria." Now, however, all was over between them. Neither as a man nor as a minister could Richelieu forget that the queen had degraded him, not only in his own eyes, but in those of her private friends. Never, since he had knelt in confession at the feet of Paul v., had he felt his position to be so pre- carious. Should the king die, his fortune was at an end ; and the perspective of such an overthrow was terrible to one who had made so many sacrifices to attain to power. A ray of hope came, however, to his relief when, in the spring of the following year (1623), a report of the pregnancy of the queen was promulgated ; but it was destined to be short- lived, for three months had scarcely elapsed when 26 LOUIS XIV. CHAP. I Anne of Austria, while at play with Madame de Chevreuse, had a violent fall, which destroyed the prospect that had filled the nation with delight. Certain writers of the time have endeavoured to build upon this circumstance the most disadvan- tageous theories relative to the young queen, and affected to have good grounds for assigning the paternity of the expected infant to the cardinal ; but we think that enough has been shown to excul- pate her from the accusation. They must know little of a woman's nature who believe that she can ever give her affections to a man whom she has seen guilty of a gross absurdity. She may forgive a vice, but she never shows mercy to a ridicule. CHAPTER II Embassy of the Earl of Carlisle — Lord Rich — Demand of the hand of Henrietta-Maria for the Prince of Wales — Assent of Louis XIII. — Con- ditions — Lord Rich and the Duke of Buckingham — A new embassy — Buckingham in Paris — The scattered pearls — Passion of Buckingham for Anne of Austria — Price of a Court lady — The fete — The king's present — Disguises of the English duke — The masque — The white lady — The royal marriage — The Court at Amiens — Courtly festivities — Tender re- grets — A garden interview — Unhappy result — Parting between Anne of Austria and Buckingham — Detention of the bride of Charles I. — The messenger — Return of Buckingham and Lord Rich to Amiens — Inter- view of the duke with Anne of Austria — The aiguillette — New leave- taking — Embarkation of the bride — Intrigues of Marie de Medicis — A suspicious argument — -Surveillance of the young queen — The missing aiguillette — The bride — The triumphant minister — The city ball — Tran- quillity of Anne of Austria — Defeat of the cardinal — The secret revealed — Distrust of Louis XIII. — The romance of Chalais — The conspiracy — The Due d'Anjou — The Princesse de Vendome — Proposed assassination of Richelieu — The cardinal at Fleury — The hunt — Indiscretion of Chalais — The Commandant de Valance — The interview — Rochefort — Remorse of Chalais — The cardinal in his closet — The king and his minister — Guard at Fleury — The plot defeated — The duke and the cardinal — Politic politeness — Previsions of Richelieu. The next phase of the life of Anne of Austria in- volved still more serious results. Hitherto she had been guilty only of the imprudence attributable, in a great degree, to her youth, and she was enabled 28 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. from the height of her own innocence to look down with proud contempt on the malevolence of her enemies ; but the vanity of her nature, aided by constant association with a woman so unscrupulous and so venal as Madame de Chevreuse, was fated to induce her to acts of levity which sullied the dignity of her character, and tended to justify the evil opinions of those whom personal feeling or party spirit actuated against her. In 1624 the Earl of Carlisle was sent as ambas- sador-extraordinary to the Court of France, to ask of Louis XIII. the hand of his sister, Henrietta- Maria, for the Prince of Wales, son of James I. ; and returned to England with the assent of the French king, provided that the same concessions were made to Henrietta-Maria which had previously been promised to the Infanta of Spain — to whom, before the rupture between that Court and England, the prince had been betrothed. James, who had resolved that his son should not (as he expressed it) be degraded by an alliance with any princess who was not of the blood-royal, and apprehensive that if he hesitated to accept the terms of the French king Charles would be altogether disappointed of a bride, meekly consented to comply, forgetting or wilfully overlooking the fact that the portion of Henrietta was very inferior to that promised with the Infanta, and that the peaceable restitution of the palatinate, . which he had so much at heart, could not be promoted by this alliance. The concessions to which we have alluded were never made public, or there can be no doubt that n THE COURT OF FRANCE 29 they would have created great national disaffection. The most exceptionable among them was that in which the king engaged that the princess should herself direct and control the education of her children until they had attained their tenth year — which condition could evidently only have been stipulated with a view of imbuing their minds with Romanist ideas and principles ; but, besides this, there were several private articles to which the king pledged himself. Among others, to suspend the execution of the penal laws against the Roman Catholics, to cause them to be repealed in Parlia- ment, and to tolerate the popish rites in private houses. Moreover, as the prince had given a per- sonal pledge to the Infanta, during his chivalrous visit to Spain, that he would commit to her the entire education of her children until their thirteenth year, this article was also inserted in the treaty by Richelieu, and accepted, as much by anxiety on the part of Charles himself as by weakness upon that of his father ; for, while on his way to Madrid to ask the hand of the Spanish princess, accompanied by Buckingham, the prince and his attendants had passed disguised and undiscovered through France, and had even ventured to attend a Court ball, where he had an opportunity of seeing the princess Henrietta, then in the first bloom of youth and beauty. The Earl of Carlisle was accompanied in his em- bassy by Lord Rich, afterwards the Earl of Holland, whose beauty of person, elegance of manner, and pro- fuse expenditure produced a very favourable effect 30 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. upon the ladies of the Court ; and it would appear that the English noble had been no less impressed by the beauty of the fair dames from whom he was so soon compelled to part ; for, on his return home, he expatiated to his friend the Duke of Buckingham, in no measured terms, upon the pleasures and mag- nificence of Paris, concluding his report by the de- claration that there was, nevertheless, one object at the French Court which eclipsed all else, alike in beauty and in brightness, and that one was the young queen, of whom he drew a picture which more than sufficed to excite the daring and reckless fancy of the hot-headed George Villiers. Chosen, as the representative of Great Britain, to terminate the negotiations of marriage, Bucking- ham arrived in Paris, in his turn, magnificently attended, and at once became the idol of the people, the admiration of the ladies, and the aversion of every handsome cavalier, alike of the Court and the city. We are not about to trace the mad and reck- less career of the hot-headed envoy ; it is a page in the romance of the world's history, and must be familiar to our readers in nearly all its details ; we shall merely remark that, from the hour of his en- trance into the presence, with his doublet of white satin embroidered with gold and his mantle of silver-gray velvet, upon which the oriental pearls were so loosely sewn that he scattered them at every step as he advanced, for the profit of the surrounding courtiers, the duke produced a powerful impression on the imagination of the young queen. His chivalric devotion and noble bearing were in THE COURT OF FRANCE accordance with her national associations, while his profusion was not without its effect, for the wars which the princes of the blood had successively waged against the State had exhausted the treasure amassed by Henri IV. and reduced his successor to an income very inadequate to satisfy the necessities of royalty. Buckingham was by no means unconscious of his advantages, but he was too able a tactician to entrust his hopes of success, in a cause in which he was so much in earnest as the subjugation of the heart of Anne of Austria, to mere adventitious superiority. He was soon aware that he was regarded with sus- picion both by the king and the cardinal, and he instantly felt the necessity of securing an able and efficient ally. He was not long ere he arrived at a decision. He knew that by half-measures he should be ruined, for he was playing for a desperate stake ; and he had heard enough from his friend. Lord Rich, to believe that he could select no confederate half so genial as Madame de Chevreuse. It is asserted that the Court lady was purchased with a hundred thousand livres and the loan of two thousand pis- toles. Whatever were her price, it is at least certain that it was paid, and that Anne of Austria was be- trayed into all her levity with Buckingham by her friend and favourite. Affecting to be enamoured of the beautiful duchess, Buckingham was constantly beside her, save when the interests of his mission obliged him to visit the Louvre or to wait upon the cardinal ; while the same pretext enabled him to approach the person of the 32 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. queen in public, and to treat her with a respectful tenderness which, although exaggerated in the sub- ject of another sovereign, was protected by its very- audacity. These demonstrations, however, flattering though they might be to the vanity of Anne of Austria, by no means satisfied the views of Buckingham. His aim was a private interview ; but the queen was too closely watched to enable even her crafty and in- triguing favourite to achieve his object. In this emergency Madame de Chevreuse, prompted, no doubt, by the Mephistopheles at her elbow, proposed to give a fete at her hotel in honour of her royal mistress. The courtesy was accepted ; and the king, being unable to adduce a plausible reason for absenting himself upon such an occasion, or probably unwilling to leave the queen unguarded to the familiar contact of the English ambassador, also signified his intention to be present. He did more, for he presented to her a splendid shoulder-knot, whence depended twelve diamond tags. During the evening Buckingham assumed num- erous disguises, danced in a ballet of demons, and lent the Chevalier de Guise ^ three thousand pistoles and the diamonds of the English crown to permit him to appear as his substitute in a masque in which the princes of the sovereign houses of France were to represent the oriental kings doing homage to Louis and his queen. In this disguise he was selected by Anne of Austria as her partner in the 1 Son of Henri, Due de Guise, surnamed Le Balafri!, and younger brother of M. de Clievreuse. II THE COURT OF FRANCE 33 dance ; and had full opportunity, amid the noise and hurry of the festival, to pour into her ear a tale of passion, for which Madame de Chevreuse had, without doubt, previously prepared her. A report of the disguises assumed by Buckingham at the fete of the duchess soon reached the Court, and it doubled the watchfulness and hatred of Richelieu, who, well aware that she was the con- fidant and accomplice of this mad passion, extended his surveillance to her also^a proceeding which rendered the suit of the adventurous duke so desper- ate that he resolved to attempt any method, how- ever hazardous, which afforded a prospect of meeting the queen, once at least, in private. The only means which could be devised, after the consent of Anne of Austria was obtained to this imprudence, was to introduce him into her apartments in the garb of a phantom, said to have haunted the Louvre for centuries, and known as the White Lady. Through the expert agency of Madame de Chevreuse this wild scheme was accomplished ; but Buckingham had scarcely been closeted five minutes with the queen when an alarm was raised of the approach of Louis, and the duke was compelled to make a rapid retreat by a private staircase. This new apparition of the White Lady (who had not succeeded in leaving the palace entirely unobserved) created no suspicion in the mind of the king, as he put firm faith in the tradition ; but Richelieu was not so easily deceived, and he soon ascertained through his agents that the advent of the phantom was another device of Buckingham. Chance, however, VOL. I. 3 34 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. served him better than any measures which he could himself devise, for while these events were taking place news arrived at the Court of the death of James I. of England and the accession of Charles I. Coupled with this intelligence Buckingham re- ceived an order to hasten the marriage of his new sovereign by every means in his power ; and the cardinal, who desired nothing so earnestly as the absence of the English envoy, forthwith wrote to the pope, to inform him that if he did not im- mediately forward the dispensation the marriage would take place without his sanction, an an- nouncement which produced its arrival by a special courier. Buckingham was in despair, but no ingenuity could now suffice to prolong his sojourn in the French capital. In a few weeks the royal marriage was celebrated by the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld,^ on a platform erected in front of the entrance of Notre-Dame, M. de Chevreuse acting as proxy for the English king, with whom he claimed relation- ship through Mary of Scotland. We have already stated that Charles had once seen his bride on the occasion of a state ball ; and the impression which he had carried away of her personal charms caused him to urge her immediate 1 A descendant of one of the most ancient and illustrious houses of France, which was originally of Angoumois, and into which that of the counts of Roucy was merged in 1 5 57. Frangois V., who died in 1650, was the first duke; and from the brother of his great- grandfather descended Antoine de la Rochefoucauld, who was general of the galleys in 1528, died in 1537, and was the ancestor of the branch of the marquises of Langeac. Another ramification, that of the counts of Randau, terminated in the person of Jean-Louis de la Rochefoucauld, killed at Issoire in 1590. II THE COURT OF FRANCE 35 departure for England : the Court consequently, without loss of time, started for Amiens, whither they were to accompany the young queen ; and it was in this city that the imprudence of Anne of Austria and the audacity of Buckingham reached their climax. Madame de Motteville,^ Tallemant des Reaux, and Laporte,^ alike relate an adventure which proves that even while Anne of Austria preserved her virtue intact (and, whatever were the opinions of the time, posterity has, upon this point, done her justice), she nevertheless occasionally placed it in peril ; and only extricated herself resolutely at the eleventh hour from difficulties which it would have been at once more simple and more dignified to have avoided altogether. Such was the case at Amiens on the evening preceding the departure of Henrietta for England. This city, which had never before boasted the simultaneous presence of three queens, and which now possessed Marie de Medicis, Anne of Austria, and Henrietta of England, did not afford fitting accommodation for so many and such illustrious 1 Frangoise Bertaut, lady of Motteville, was the daughter of a gentleman-in-waiting, and received an appointment about the person of Anne of Austria. She was, however, dismissed by Richelieu, and during her exile from Court married the First President of the Chamber of Records at Rouen, who, two years subsequently, left her a widow. Recalled to Court in 1644, she remained with the queen until her death, and survived her royal mistress until 1689. Her Memoirs to ehicidate the History of Anne of Austria, which extend through six volumes, in i2mo, are very curious, and full of the most minute details on the manners and cabals of the Court at that period. 2 Train-bearer to Anne of Austria, and afterwards first valet de chambre to Louis XIV. 36 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. visitors under the same roof; and thus each occupied a separate hotel. That assigned to Anne of Austria was situated on the bank of the Somme, and had large gardens, which descended to the river, an advantage which rendered it the favourite rendez- vous of the other princesses, and consequently oi the rest of the Court, whose stay at Amiens had been prolonged, by every means in his power, by the Duke of Buckingham, who counted the hours which yet remained to him upon the French terri- tory with jealous anxiety. Not a pleasure had been spared to induce delay ; and in every expedient the ambassador was eagerly seconded by the three queens, who found the diversions of Amiens a delightful exchange for the languor and ennui of the Louvre. The liberty was also rendered more perfect by the fact that the king and the cardinal had, three days previously, been compelled to return to Fontainebleau. Thus nothing was thought of, nothing projected, but amusement ; and there was probably no member of the courtly circle who did not witness with regret the advent of the last even- ing which Madame Henrietta was to pass in the bosom of her family. Among these regrets there is little doubt that those of Anne of Austria and Buckingham were the most poignant. Deeply imbued with the romance of her native country, the Infanta was about to part from the only man who had realised in her eyes the poetry of her imagination ; to exchange the chivalric devotion of an adventurous and high-hearted lover for the society of a moody and distrustful husband ; 11 THE COURT OF FRANCE 37 and to find herself cast down from the proud eleva- tion of a beloved and idolised beauty to the chilling depths of a suspected and neglected wife. Let us at once admit that now, when party spirit is laid at rest, and individual prejudices are buried in the grave, some indulgence may well be conceded to her youth ; and that while we are compelled to regret her imprudence — an imprudence the more reprehen- sible that she had to support her station as a queen as well as her dignity as a woman — we may never- theless infer that the trial was perhaps beyond her strength. Buckingham, moreover, was no common lover. The Court of France offered no example of the reckless, uncalculating, and indomitable spirit with which he braved every danger and every difficulty in pursuit of the one coveted object. To him kings and cardinals were alike indifferent ; he acknowledged no fear, recognised no peril ; his whole soul was absorbed in his passion, and he deemed no sacrifice too great to ensure its success. They were about to part, probably for ever ; and it is in this fact that we have endeavoured to find some excuse for the weakness of Anne of Austria, who, according to the authorities already quoted, so far forgot her self-respect as a sovereign as to separate herself from her Court on the last evening of its sojourn at Amiens, and to wander alone with Buckingham, long after twilight, among the shades of the garden shrubberies. Ere long a piercing cry was heard, and the voice of the queen was at once recognised ; when in- stantly M. de Putange, her first equerry, sprang into 38 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. the shrubbery sword in hand, and saw, as it is as. serted, Anne of Austria struggling in the arms of the Duke of Buckingham. On perceiving Putange Buckingham also drew his sword, but the queen rushing between them, and desiring the duke to retire lest he should compromise her, she was obeyed without hesitation ; and this had scarcely been effected ere the whole of the courtiers were collected about their royal mistress, anxiously in- quiring the cause of her terror. Anne of Austria called up her presence of mind, and answered that the duke had suddenly left her alone in the dark- ness, and that, terrified on finding herself in so unusual a position, she had, without considering the alarm which such an expedient must necessarily create, cried aloud in order to summon some one to her presence. The idea did credit to her ingenuity, but it failed to convince her auditors ; and neither the ball of Madame de Chevreuse nor the episode of the palace- phantom bore so heavily upon the reputation of Anne of Austria as this adventure on the banks of the Somme. On the morrow the queen-mother expressed her determination to accompany her daughter a few leagues on her way ere she bade her a final farewell ; and when they ultimately parted Buckingham ren- dered his leave-taking with Anne of Austria so conspicuous that it served to strengthen all the pre- judices which had been excited against her ; while overcome, probably, by the memories of the past and anticipations of the future, she, on her side, lost all 11 THE COURT OF FRANCE 39 her self-possession, and remained drowned in tears during the return to Amiens. This want of caution was the more imprudent that she travelled in the same carriage with the queen-mother, the Princesse de Conti, and a lady of the Court, and thus exposed herself to suspicions which without doubt outran the truth. On his arrival at Boulogne Buckingham found the elements favourable to his passion. A succes- sion of high winds had rendered the sea so rough as to preclude all possibility of the departure of Madame Henrietta, who easily consoled herself for the delay by remembering that she was still upon her native soil. Nor was the English duke a whit less philo- sophical. If he did not possess the consolation which presented itself to the queen of Charles I., he had the still dearer one of knowing that he was yet within reach of the idol of his affections ; and that the feeling was reciprocated he had soon ample proof by the arrival of Laporte at Boulogne, osten- sibly to inquire into the movements of Madame Henrietta and the Duchesse de Chevreuse, by whom she was to be accompanied to England. It needed little discernment on the part of the bystanders to decide that the official inquiry of the messenger by no means laid bare the whole of his mission, but the exact nature of its duties never transpired. The rough weather lasted for eight days, and during that interval Laporte made three journeys to the coast ; while, in order to facilitate his movements, M. de Chaulnes, the provisional governor of Amiens, left the city gates open all 40 LO UIS XIV. A ND chap. night. On his return from the third journey Laporte informed Anne of Austria that she would see Buckingham again that very evening. The duke had stated that the receipt of a despatch from his sovereign would oblige him to have another con- ference with the queen-mother, and that he should leave Boulogne three hours after the royal mes- senger ; moreover, he privately implored Anne of Austria, in the name of the love he bore her, to afford him an opportunity of taking leave of her alone. The request was one which agitated the queen with fear and filled her with anxiety. She well knew the reckless and overbearing character of her English lover, and felt too late the danger to which her unmeasured condescension had subjected her safety. Only a few hours remained to her for deci- sion ; and pressed by her consciousness of the peril to which she was exposed, and, it rriay be also, by her innate feeling of tenderness for the duke, she determined at once to affect a sudden indisposition, and to request her ladies to withdraw in conse- quence. Her project was, however, rendered un- availing by the entrance of Nogent Bautru,^ who publicly announced the arrival of the Duke of Buck- ingham and Lord Rich, to treat on some affair of importance with the queen-mother. In this emerg- ency Anne of Austria felt that she had no alter- native but to play out her part to the end, and accordingly she lost no time in sending for her 1 Nicolas Bautru, Comte de Nogent, jester at the Court of Anne of Austria. n THE COURT OF FRANCE 41 physician and causing herself to be bled ; but despite her entreaties, and almost her commands, she could not rid herself of the attendance of the Comtesse de Lannoy, who persisted in watching by her bedside ; and finding that she was resolved on fulfilling the duties of her office to the letter, the young queen did not venture to insist on her obedience,, having already had occasion to suspect that the zealous lady of honour was in the interests of the cardinal ; and she was consequently compelled to await in increased anxiety the issue of the adventure. Her worst ap- prehensions were realised when, at a late hour, the Duke of Buckingham was announced. During the interview which ensued the duke was more passionate and more unguarded than he had ever before been, and replied to the remonstrances of the lady of honour by a vehement declaration of his love for her royal mistress, ultimately rushing from the room in a state of agitation unbecoming alike to his own manhood and the respect which was due to the exalted personage whom he quitted. He was no sooner gone than the queen, aware that she could not be further compromised by the countess, insisted upon her immediate absence ; and without loss of time summoned Dona Estefania, a Spanish lady, who had accompanied her from her own country, and in whom she had entire confidence ; and, brushing away her tears, she wrote a letter to Buckingham, in which she besought him imme- diately to leave France. This done, she gave into the charge of her attendant not only the letter, but also a casket containing the aiguillette, with its dia- 42 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. mond pendants, which had been presented to her by the king, and in which she had appeared at the ball of Madame de Chevreuse. The first she knew would inflict a pang ; and the second was intended to heal the wound, by serving as a memorial of their friendship. It may for a moment create surprise that the queen should venture to dispossess herself of so recently acquired and so remarkable an ornament, but be it remembered that her resources were scanty, that she had already done honour to the present of the king by appearing with it upon her person in public, and that, while as a sovereign she could not offer to the magnificent duke a remem- brance without some intrinsic value, she was also enabled, by sacrificing the jewel in question, to gratify her softer feelings by the conviction, that as this was a decoration worn indifferently by both sexes, Buckingham would be reminded of her when- ever it formed a portion of his dress. On the morrow Anne of Austria took leave of the English envoy in presence of all the Court, and his bearing was that of a finished gentleman and a respectful courtier. No eye could detect a glance, no ear gather up a sentence, which was not in ac- cordance with the most scrupulous etiquette. Buck- ingham carried away with him a pledge of royal regard which almost consoled him for his departure. Three days afterwards Madame Henrietta and her suite embarked for England ; and the cardinal, early informed by Madame de Lannoy of the scene between Anne of Austria and Buckingham, lost no n THE COURT OF FRANCE 43 time in detailing, not only this, but also the adven- ture of the garden to Louis, whose indifference towards the queen was rapidly degenerating into hate, thanks to the imprudence of Anne of Austria herself and the evil offices of the queen -mother, who believed that she saw, in this estrangement between the royal pair, the guarantee of her own authority. Richelieu profited, with his usual ability, by these two new causes of suspicion ; and the result of the impression which, by his representations, he produced upon the mind of the king was the dis- missal and disgrace of several members of the queen's household. Among others, Madame de Vernet met the former fate, and M. de Putange the latter. Louis was probably, in his secret heart, unable to forgive him either his discovery or the escape of Buckingham from the garden of Amiens. The levity of Anne of Austria had strengthened the hands of the queen -mother, acerbated the jealousy of Richelieu, and greatly injured her cause in the public mind ; and this at a moment when, deprived of the support of Madame de Chevreuse, she was less than ever able to contend against the increasing difficulties of her position. Marie de Medicis in this conjuncture put forth all her talent for intrigue ; and while she affected great anxiety to effect a reconciliation between the royal pair, she nevertheless attempted no interference with the extreme act of the king in disorganising the house- hold of his consort ; but when the arrangement was completed, and she knew Anne of Austria to be without one confidential friend, she took her son 44 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. apart, and endeavoured to prove to him that, despite all appearance, the queen was innocent ; that her regard for Buckingham had never exceeded the limits of propriety ; and that she had been too well guarded to have had an opportunity of compromising his dignity. Louis listened moodily. He had no faith in the assurance ; nor was he inclined to give Anne of Austria any credit for the preservation of a virtue which, according to the view of the case now pre- sented to him, was dependent upon. the watchfulness of those by whom she was surrounded. The master- stroke of the wily Florentine was, however, still to come. As a climax to her argument, she declared herself to be the more anxious that he should over- look the past, as she felt that the position of the queen was precisely similar to her own, when the high spirits and thoughtlessness incident to youth had occasionally caused her to excite the suspicion and displeasure of her husband, Henri IV., although her own conscience acquitted her of all blame. The effect which such an argument must produce, even upon the mind of her own son, requires no ex- planation ; nor is it wonderful that, when they parted, Louis Xni. was more than ever convinced of the guilt of his royal consort. His next act of hostility towards her was the dismissal of the faithful Laporte, in whom she had the most entire confidence, and who was devoted to her service. Madame de la Boissiere alone was retained near her person ; and no more efficient and repelling duenna could have been selected. The surveillance was complete. II THE COURT OF FRANCE 45 Coupled with this open persecution a secret conspir- acy was in action against Anne of Austria of which she had no suspicion. Madame de Lannoy, the zealous spy of the cardinal, had detected the disap- pearance of the diamond aiguillette from the queen's casket ; and, with the ready perception of malice, she suggested to Richelieu that it had, in all prob- ability, been sent to Buckingham as a parting present. The cardinal lost not an instant in writing to one of the ladies of Charles's Court who was in his interest — for, like the spider, he attached his web on every side — offering to present her with fifty thousand livres if she could succeed in cutting away a couple of the tags of the shoulder-knot the first time that Buckingham appeared in it, and forwarding them forthwith by a safe messenger to himself. A fortnight afterwards the two tags were in the possession of Richelieu. The duke had worn the aiguillette at a state ball, and the emissary of the cardinal had cut away a couple of its pendants unob- served. The vindictive minister gloated over his prize ! Now, as he believed, his revenge was certain. The first care of Richelieu was to carry the diamonds to the king, and to acquaint him with the method by which they had been procured. Louis examined them closely. There could be no doubt that they had indeed formed a portion of the orna- ment which had been his last present to his wife ; his pale brow flushed with indignant rage ; and before the cardinal left the royal closet every precaution was taken to ensure the speedy exposure of the queen. 46 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. On the following morning Louis himself an- nounced to Anne of Austria that a ball, given by the civil magistrates of Paris, at the town-hall, would take place the day but one following ; and he coupled this information with the request that, in order to compliment both himself and the magistrates, she would appear in the aiguillette which he had lately presented to her. She replied simply and calmly that he should be obeyed. The eight-and-forty hours which were still to in- tervene before his vengeance could be accomplished appeared so many centuries to the cardinal-duke. Anne of Austria was now fairly in the toils, and still her composure remained unruffled. How was this apparent tranquillity to be explained ? Richelieu had already experienced that, aided by Buckingham and Madame de Chevreuse, she had possessed the power to baffle even his ingenuity ; but she now stood alone ; and even had she resolved to venture upon so dangerous a step as that of replacing the jewels, he well knew that on the present occasion she possessed neither the time nor the means. The hour of the festival at length struck ; and as it had been arranged that the king should first make his entrance into the ballroom, accompanied by his minister, and that the queen should follow, attended by her own Court, Richelieu was enabled to calculate upon commencing his triumph from the very mo- ment of her appearance upon the threshold. Precisely an hour before midnight the queen was announced, and every eye at once turned eagerly towards her. She was magnificent alike in loveli- II THE COURT OF FRANCE 47 ness and in apparel. She wore a Spanish costume, consisting of a dress of green satin, embroidered with gold and silver, having hanging sleeves, which were looped back with large rubies, serving as buttons. Her ruff was open, and displayed her bosom, which was extremely beautiful ; and upon her head she had a small cap of green velvet sur- mounted by a heron-feather ; while from her shoulder depended gracefully the aiguillette, with its twelve diamond tags. As she entered the king approached her, avowedly to offer his compliments upon her ap- pearance, but actually to count the tags. His arithmetic amounted to a dozen. The cardinal stood a pace behind him, quivering with rage. The twelve tags were hanging from the shoulder of the queen, and nevertheless he grasped two of them in his hand at the same moment. Ay, in his hand, for he had resolved not to lose an instant in triumphing over the proud and insolent beauty who had laughed his passion to scorn, and made him a mark for the ridicule of her associates. The vow that, he uttered in his heart as he gazed upon her calm and defying brow that night probably cost Buckingham his life, for Richelieu was not duped by the belief that the shoulder-knot of the duke, from whence his own two tags had been severed, was not identical with that now floating over the arm of Anne of Austria. The plot had, nevertheless, failed ; and once more the cardinal was beaten upon his own ground. It is, however, time that we should disclose the 48 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. secret of this apparently mysterious incident to our readers. On his return from the state ball, at which he had appeared with the aiguillette of Anne of Austria, Buckingham, who would confide to no one the care of this precious ornament, was about to restore it to its casket when he perceived the sub- traction which had taken place, and for a moment abandoned himself to a fit of anger, believing that he had been made the victim of a common theft ; an instant's reflection, however, convinced him that such was not likely to be the case, as he had upoa his person jewels of greater value, which it would have been equally easy to purloin, and these all remained intact. A light broke upon him — he sus- pected the agency of his old enemy and rival, the cardinal-duke ; and his immediate measure was to place an embargo upon the English ports, and to prohibit all masters of vessels from putting to sea, under pain of death. During the operation of this edict, which created universal astonishment through- out the country, the jeweller of Buckingham was employed day and night in completing the number of the diamond tags ; and it was still in full force when a light fishing -smack, which had been ex- empted from the general disability, was scudding across the channel on its way to Calais, under the command of one of the duke's confidential servants, and having on board, for all Its freight, the aiguillette of Anne of Austria. In the course of the ensuing day the ports were again opened, and the thousand and one rumours II THE COURT OF FRANCE 49 which had been propagated by the people died gradually away, as no explanation of the incom- prehensible and rigorous measure ever transpired — whose result was the receipt of her shoulder-knot by the queen the very day before the ball of the magistrates. Thus the apparent tranquillity of Anne of Austria, which had been for the first few hours the apathetic calmness of despair, ultimately grew out of the certainty of security ; and the ready wit and chivalric devotion of Buckingham, which had so frequently threatened her destruction, for once sup- plied her ccgis. Her trials were, however, far from their conclu- sion ; for although the king, reassured by the de- parture of the English duke, and this failure of the accusation of the aiguillette, for which he could not in any way account, did not permit the memory of Buckingham longer to occupy his mind, Marie de Medicis renewed her efforts to disgust him with his young wife, lest a reconciliation between them should decrease her influence. Louis XIII., although he had for a time ceased to look upon his brother with the same suspicion as formerly (the episode of the British envoy having of late entirely occupied his attention), had by no means overcome his old misgivings ; and upon this foundation the queen-mother wrought. She again flung the vain young prince constantly into the way of her in- tended victim, who, wearied by the monotony in which she lived, was indebted to his sallies for some of her least dreary hours ; and having accomplished VOL. I. 4 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. a renewal of their familiar intercourse, both herself and Richelieu, united by one common interest, skil- fully reawakened the slumbering- jealousy of the king, and caused reports to be circulated on every side, which were calculated to ruin the queen for ever in his opinion. Among others, it was offici- ously communicated to him that Anne of Austria, weary of a life of ennui — young, beautiful, and passionate — was anxiously awaiting the death of a cold and melancholy husband, whose failing health appeared to give consistency to her hopes, in order to complete a marriage more in accordance with her pecuhar tastes ; and thenceforward Louis XIII. believed himself to be surrounded by conspirators, eager to place the crown upon the head of the Due d'Anjou. Marie de Medicis covertly en- couraged his suspicions ; and the king, whose dis- trust of his wife increased with every succeeding day, brooded impatiently over his imagined wrongs, .while he awaited the opportunity to revenge them signally. That opportunity was not long wanting ; and here again history supplies us with an episode which contains almost a romance in itself Henri de Talleyrand, Prince de Chalais, of a junior branch of the illustrious house of Talleyrand, was master of the wardrobe to the king.^ He was young, handsome, and high-spirited ; remarkable for the extreme elegance of his attire, and very popular with the ladies of the Court. Thoughtless, 1 " He was the grandson of the Marechal de Montluc, and con- nected on the female side with the family of the brave Bussy d'Amboise, whose sister was the wife of that marshal." — Lonis XIV. et son Steele. n THE COURT OF FRANCE 51 sarcastic, and vain, he made many enemies ; but, thanks to a duel in which he had been engaged some time previously, and which had created great excitement, his position in society was assured and brilliant ; for the spirit of chivalry was not yet extinct in France ; and this, its last and worst ob- servance, still turned the heads of all the young and idle cavaliers about the Court. His antagonist was M. de Pons^ibaut, brother-in-law of the Comte de Lude,^ by whom he believed himself to have been injured. He accordingly took his post upon the Pont-Neuf, and there awaited his enemy, who had no sooner appeared than he drew his sword, defied him to instant combat, and killed him. Bois-Robert wrote an elegy upon his death. ^ 1 Bussy-Rabutin, Grand Master of the Artillery, in his malicious sketch of Madame de Sevignd, inserted in the most scandalous and the most popular of his works, draws the following picture of the Comte de Lude : — " His face is small and ugly : he has a profusion of hair, and a fine figure : he was born to be very fat, but the dread of being inconvenienced and disagreeable has caused him to take such extraordinary pains to keep down his flesh that he has ulti- mately succeeded. His fine figure has in truth cost him a portion of his good health, for he has ruined his stomach by spare and rigid diet, and the quantity of vinegar which he has taken. He is a clever horseman, dances well, is a good fencer, and fought bravely. Those who doubted his courage consequently did him injustice. The foundation of this calumny may be traced to the fact that all the young men of his standing having shared in the campaign, he contented himself by serving as a volunteer ; but this circumstance arose from his idleness and love of pleasure. In one word, he is brave, and has no ambition. His disposition is mild ; he is agree- able in female society, has always been well treated by the ladies, but has never loved any one long. The causes of his success, besides his reputation for discretion, are his good looks, and, above all, his faculty of weeping when he pleases ; for nothing so per- suades women that they are loved as tears." — Histoire Amoiireuse des Gaules. 2 Franjois le Metel de Bois-Robert, born at Caen in 1592. A poet and a wit, he became the favourite of Richelieu, although he was a gambler, a glutton, and a rake. He was one of the founders 52 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. It was the fashion of that day to conspire against the cardinal, who had monopolised the sovereign power, and reduced the authority of the king to a mere cipher ; and Chalais, who loved nothing so well as the fashion, especially when its worship in- volved a certain degree of danger, was therefore delighted to follow a mode so congenial to his tastes. On this occasion, however, the conspiracy was far from contemptible, for at its head was the young Due d'Anjou — excited to this demonstration of hostility, not only by the hatred which he personally felt for Richelieu, but also by the instigations of Alexandre de Bourbon, Grand Prior of France,^ and Cesar, Due de Vendome,^ who had originally sug- gested the assassination of the cardinal, and induced the co-operation of Chalais. Half a dozen other young men of rank joined the party of Gaston, and to these (including the prince himself and Chalais) was to be entrusted the murder of the minister. Richelieu, who was by no means blind to the hatred with which he was regarded by a great proportion of the nation, and by a strong party at Court, was in the habit of perpetually pretending of the French Academy, whose sittings were long held under his roof; he died in 1662. Bois - Robert left behind him poems, tales, and dramas. 1 Son of Henri IV. and of Gabrielle d'Estr^e. He married the daughter of Philippe -Emanuel de Lorraine, Due de Mercoeur, by whom he had three children — Isabeau, married to Charles Amedde, Due de Nemours ; Louis, who died in 1669 ; and Frangois, Due de Beaufort. 2 Philippe de Vendome, brother of Cdsar, born in 1655, followed the profession of arms. In his person terminated the posterity of the Dues de Vendome, descendants of Henri IV. 11 THE COURT OF FRANCE 53 weak health in order to withdraw from Paris. He was shrewd enough to comprehend that, for an un- popular minister, the walls of a palace afford very inefficient protection ; while in a more retired and less official residence precautions might be taken with a greater probability of success. Thus he had once more retired to the Benedictine abbey of Fleury,'' where he busied himself in forwarding the affairs of state, and whence he directed the destinies of the kingdom. The Due d'Anjou and his friends, pretending that a hunt had brought them into the neighbourhood, were to pay a visit to the cardinal, to claim his hospitality, and afterwards to seize the first favour- able moment to surround him and put him to death. 2 All was prepared, when Chalais, either irresolute, and desirous of further arguments against his own reluctance, in doubt of the legitimacy of the act in contemplation, or anxious to include his friend in 1 Fleury, or Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, an abbey of Benedictines, was situated in the little town of Fleury, near Orleans. It was founded in the seventh century by Ldodobold, abbot of Saint-Aignan, and only assumed the name of Saint-Benoit when the relics of that saint were transferred to its guardianship. It was an educational com- munity, and both divine and human sciences were taught there. The number of pupils amounted to 5000. It possessed a very fine library, containing from 150,000 to 200,000 volumes. The abbey of Fleury was united to the congregation of Saint-Maur in 1627. 2 "All these plots, which to-day appear to us so impossible, at least so extraordinary, were quite common at that time, and made, in some degree, the tour of Europe. Visconti had been assassinated thus in the Dome at Milan ; Julian de Medicis in the cathedral at Florence; Henri III. at Saint-German ; Henri IV. in the Rue de la Ferronerie; and the Mar^chal d'Ancre on the bridge of the Louvre. Gaston, in ridding himself of the favourite of Louis XIII., was con- sequently imitating the example of Louis XIII. with regard to the favourite of Marie de Medicis." — Lords XIV. et soti Siecle. 54 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. the plot, confided every detail to the Commander Valance. The second supposition appears to be warranted by the result ; for it is certain that, at the conclusion of their conference, De Valanc6 had obtained sufficient influence over the mind and con- science of Chalais to induce him to see Richelieu, and to reveal the whole conspiracy. The cardinal was writing in his closet, in com- pany with one of his most devoted adherents, the Comte de Rochefort — a protean genius, who was incessantly at work in the interests of his patron, under all ages, nam.es, figures, and costumes. He was long-headed and courageous, and was, in one shape or other, involved in every State mystery ; consequently, it is almost needless to add that he was one of the most favoured and confidential agents of the minister. When Chalais and De Valance were announced on an affair of extreme importance his eminence made a sign to Rochefort, who retired behind a screen of tapestry that separated the chamber of the cardinal from the cabinet in which he was working ; and the visitors were admitted as he disappeared. Chalais was more dead than alive. He felt all the odium of his position ; and his vain and haughty spirit was probably more stung by a consciousness of his personal disgrace than his moral feelings were wounded by the enormity of his projected crime. In his first error there had been some shadow of courage ; for, assassination as it was, the game which he had been about to play, if unsuccess- ful, involved his certain destruction ; while that II THE COURT OF FRANCE 55 which he was about to commit, while it tended to ensure his own security, perilled that of those who had confided in his honour. As his eyes fell upon the cardinal, who, cold and pale and stern, was seated at the table, with his hand supporting his chin and his glance occasionally wandering over the mass of papers heaped before him, he could not utter a syllable. It was accordingly De Valance who undertook to lay before Richelieu all the details of the conspiracy which had been formed against him. The countenance of the minister remained unmoved as he listened in silent attention to the narrative. No expression of either astonishment or indignation escaped him. He possessed in an eminent degree that passive courage which is the firmest defence of statesmen. No mask of wax could have continued more immobile ; and, at the conclusion of the interview, there was almost a smile upon his lips as he thanked Chalais for his zeal, and begged him to return and visit him alone. He was obeyed, and spared neither promises nor pledges to attach the young courtier to his interests. He flattered his self-love and excited his ambition ; while Chalais, conscious that he no longer merited the confidence and regard of his former friends, suffered himself to be seduced, upon the understand- ing that no steps should be taken by the minister against any of his late confederates. Richelieu con- ceded the point at once,^ and then proceeded to inform the king of his discovery, demanding, in his 1 " This was the more easy to him as the heads of the Due d'Anjou, the Due de Vendome, and the grand prior, being all royal, S6 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. turn, impunity for a conspiracy formed only against himself, and affecting in no degree the safety of his royal master. This was an able stroke of policy, for it permitted the minister to display less lenity should he ever detect any of its members engaged in a plot likely to compromise Louis ; while it im- pressed the mind of the king with the conviction that the cardinal was more devoted to his individual interests than even to those which involved his own welfare. Moreover, it enabled Richelieu to accom- plish a point which he had long desired ; for -vyhen Louis, after having given the desired pledge, in- quired in what manner the minister intended to act in this conjuncture, he replied that he had already resolved upon his mode of action, but that having in his service neither guards nor armed men, he would ask the king to lend him a detachment of his geiis d'armes. Louis immediately authorised him to take sixty cavaliers, who arrived at Fleury in the night preceding the day fixed upon for the assassination, where they were at once concealed. At four o'clock in the morning the officers of the kitchen to the Due d'Anjou arrived at Fleury in their turn, stating that at the termination of the hunt their royal master would come to claim the hospitality of his eminence ; and that, in order to obviate all inconvenience, he had sent them for- ward to prepare the dinner. In reply, the cardinal informed them that both he and his chateau were were not such as habitually fell under the axe of the executioner." — Louis XIV. et son Steele. II THE COURT OF FRANCE 57 entirely at the disposal of the prince, who had only to command whatever he might desire ; and after this assurance he immediately rose, dressed himself, and without apprising any one of his intention, he at once started for Fontainebleau to wait upon Gaston. It was eight o'clock when he arrived there ; and the duke was already putting on a hunting-dress when the door of his room abruptly opened, and a valet de chambre announced His Eminence the Cardinal de Richelieu. It is probable that Gaston would, at any risk, have evaded this interview had it been possible, for, as his after career amply proved, his courage was apt to fail in the face of danger, although at times he was capable of the most magnificent projects. He had also, upon this occasion, the consciousness of a projected crime to augment his repugnance as well as the natural distrust of discovery, which, in a secret already confided to so many individuals, could terminate only with the accomplishment of his purpose. There was, however, no possibility of retreat in the present instance, for the cardinal had followed closely upon the heels of his con- ductor ; and when the prince turned towards the door to announce that he was not visible, his eyes met those of his unwelcome guest. The bland smile of Richelieu contrasted strangely with the agitation of the royal duke, who could scarcely command sufficient self-possession to utter a confused and hurried greeting ; and his emotion sufficed to convince the cardinal of the truth of all that he had heard. Nevertheless he advanced S8 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. into the room with a calm and dignified composure, well calculated to dispel the ready apprehensions of Gaston, who, gaining courage from desperation, was about to approach him, when the minister, with the same suavity in his voice which he had already exhibited on his features, declared that he had great cause of complaint against his royal highness. This assurance tended to renew all the terrors of the Due d'Anjou, who inquired in an unsteady accent, in what manner he could have incurred the dis- pleasure of his eminence ? The cardinal explained with increased courtesy that he alluded to the circumstance, that when the prince had determined to honour him by his presence, and to dine under his roof, and that it would have afforded him the most heartfelt gratification to en- tertain so distinguished a guest to the best of his ability, he should have sent forward his establish- ment to prepare his repast ; and the rather that he could only interpret this arrangement as conveying an inference that his royal highness desired to be relieved from all intrusion ; and thus, in order that his pleasure should be fulfilled in all things, he now hastened to assure him that he had quitted the chateau in order that it might remain at the com- plete disposal of the prince and his friends, so long as he should honour him by making it available ; and having terminated his address, the cardinal withdrew, wishing the duke a good day's sport. Gaston was too wily to be duped by this excess of courtesy, and felt at once that he had been be- trayed. He, consequently, feigned sudden indis- II THE COURT OF FRANCE S9 position, and the hunt was abandoned. He could not conceal from himself that Richelieu, already predisposed against him, would henceforward con- tinue his implacable enemy ; and he well knew the power of the cardinal over the mind of the king, who had by this time become the mere tool of his imperious will. He was not deceived in his con- jectures ; for the minister, although he had displayed so much apparent magnanimity, was far from feeling the forbearance which he professed. He was aware of the whole extent of the danger by which he was menaced, and he felt that he was lost if he did not succeed in overthrowing at once the formidable league which the princes had formed against him. There might not always be a coward or a traitor in the ranks ; and he had now acquired the bitter experience that his agents, numerous and active as they were, could not in every case protect him against the machinations of his enemies by a pre- mature discovery of their plots. His first care must therefore be to divide their interests ; and that done, he felt no apprehension that he should not be en- abled to subjugate them individually. CHAPTER III Question of the Due d'Anjou's marriage — Foresight of Gaston — Marie de Bourbon — Opposition — The Vendome princes — The grand prior — Alarm of Louis XIII. — The cardinal and the grand prior — Insidious advice — Departure of the grand prior for Brittany — Dissimulation of Louis XIII. — Repentance of Chalais — Affected alarm of Richelieu — The forty mounted guards — Triumph of the cardinal — Arrest of the Vendome princes at Blois — The Comte de Rochefort — The Capuchin monastery at Brussels — The plot at its climax — Arrest, trial, and con- fession of Chalais — Marriage of the Due d'Anjou — Madame de Chalais — Condemnation of her son — Execution of Chalais — The queen before the council. At this period the question became mooted of the marriage of the Due d'Anjou, who received the proposition coldly, for his views in forming an alliance of this nature were by no means in accord- ance with those of the minister. He never for a moment lost sight of the possibility which existed, that he might one day inherit the throne of France ; and he was anxious to unite himself to a foreign princess, whose family might serve him as a support in his time of power, and whose country might afford a refuge in the event of adversity. It is CHAP. Ill THE COURT OF FRANCE 6i certain that these were by no means the views of RicheHeu ; who desired that Gaston should marry Mademoiselle de Bourbon,^ who would bring him an immense dowry, but who could not assist him in his ambitious projects. Still the cardinal urged upon the king the propriety, and, in fact, necessity, of the alliance; which he based upon the continued, and now, as he expressed it, hopeless childlessness of Anne of Austria — an argument which renewed all the bitterness of Louis towards his queen. Nor was he slow in representing to the king the dangers which must ensue from providing for his brother, in another country, a haven whence he might defy his authority; and Louis XIII., although he had suffered all power to be wrested from him by one of his own subjects, was morbidly alive to the dread of appearing to have ceded his prerogative, and to the risk of being compelled to do so. The substance had escaped him, but he only grasped the more tenaciously at the shadow. The queen still clung to the interests of Spain, and this consciousness gave him continual uneasiness — a fact well known to the cardinal, and of which he dexterously availed himself to work upon the fears of Louis, while at the same time he widened the breach between the weak monarch and Anne of Austria. On the other hand Gaston, too unstable to resist the will of the minister without support, summoned his friends about him, and created a party which declared itself in favour of the foreign alliance, at 1 Marie de Bourbon, daughter of Frangois de Bourbon, Due de Montpensier, etc. etc. 62 LOUIS XIV. AND chap- whose head were Anne of Austria, the Grand Prior of France, and the Due de Vendome. Richelieu soon acquainted Louis that these two princes had resolved to prevent the alliance with Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and the king evinced great irritation at the intelligence, although, with the dissimulation which was natural to him, he did not permit it to appear in their presence. Before the cardinal, however, he affected no disguise, and the subtle minister understood at once that he had awakened a hatred of his brother in the heart of the king which would be unextinguishable. His greatest difficulty was how to profit by this consciousness. The position of the grand prior was one of great influence and power — without calculating upon the traditional prestige which attached itself to him as the son of Henri IV. ^ — while that of the Due de Vendome was still more formidable, inasmuch as he was not only the governor of Brittany, but might even pretend to the sovereignty of that province in right of his wife, the heiress of the joint houses of Luxembourg and Penthievre. It was rumoured, moreover, that the prince was about to effect a marriage between his son and the eldest daughter of the Due de Retz, who held two strong places in the province ; and consequently Brittany, which it had been so difficult to attach to the crown, might again emancipate itself. The cardinal placed all these considerations under the eyes of the king. He showed him Spain entering France at the bidding of Anne of Austria, the German Empire marching upon the frontiers on the invitation of Ill THE COURT OF FRANCE 63 the Due d'Anjou, and Brittany in revolt at the first signal of the Due de Venddme.-' And when Louis, alarmed by the possible perspeetive thus laid bare before him, eagerly inquired how such calamities were to be evaded, he was answered that the only remedy lay in the imprisonment of the two brothers. There was, however, little hope of arresting both at the same time ; and the minister well knew that should he secure the person of one only, he must inevitably create for himself an enemy whose power might ultimately overcome his own ; but fortune was on the side of Richelieu. The princes, after the failure of the conspiracy of Fleury, had watched anxiously for some word or action which might betray a knowledge of their participation in the plot on the part of those who were the most in- terested in its result ; and finding that no allusion had been made to themselves calculated to excite suspicion, and that the power of Richelieu continued to increase, the Due de Vendome returned to his government, perfectly assured that the cardinal, although apprised of the danger to which he had been exposed, was ignorant of the identity of those who had participated in the plot ; while the grand prior, strong in the same conviction, renewed his relations with the minister with greater apparent eagerness than he had ever before displayed. Richelieu met his advances in the same spirit ; and so thoroughly was the prince duped by the seeming sincerity of the wily minister, that in a moment of 1 Louis XIV. et son Steele. 64 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. overweening trust he requested him to demand for him from the king the command of the naval forces. The cardinal assured him that should he not obtain it, the fact would arise from no opposition on his part ; and after many cajoleries,;, all uttered with so perfect an appearance of sincerity and good faith, that the grand prior (aware, as he had every reason to be, of the hostility of the cardinal towards him and his) was unguarded enough to be deluded by the idea that the danger from which he had lately escaped, as if by the direct interposition of Provi- dence, had shown Richelieu the necessity of securing the friendship and support of those whom he had hitherto defied. This mental sophistry consequently seated him on velvet with the minister, who had little difficulty in persuading him that the only obstacle likely to arise on the subject of his present request would exist in the fact that his brother had given great umbrage to the king by listening to the advice of persons inimical to his majesty, and that it was requisite he should first remove this impres- sion before he ventured to solicit any favour for himself Believing that if this were the sole impediment to his success, it was one which might be easily overcome, his immediate reply was an inquiry if the cardinal would advise him to induce his brother to appear at Court, in order to justify himself from these suspicions ; to which Richelieu, seeing his earnest desire likely to be accomplished by this measure, answered in the affirmative, asserting that in THE COURT OF FRANCE 65 nothing could be more judicious than such a pro- ceeding. Nevertheless the grand prior, jealous lest the duke should incur any risk by leaving his government, and placing himself within the grasp of his enemies, upon his own account, desired to know if his brother would be guaranteed from all danger should he accede to his desire ; to which inquiry the minister replied once more by remarking that every- thing appeared propitious to his wishes, for that, as the king was about to pass some time at Blois in relaxation and amusement, he had only to start at once to Brittany and explain the state of affairs to the duke, who, by meeting the Court at that place, would be spared half the fatigue of the journey from his government ; while, as regarded the required guarantee, it was for the king to offer it, who most assuredly would not refuse to do so. It was then arranged that the grand prior should await at his own hotel permission for an audience, after which he should forthwith start for Brittany. Nothing could be more amicable than the parting between Richelieu and his visitor, who left him delighted with the change which had taken place in his feelings and manner, and in the belief that he should ere long become High Admiral of France. Nor was he less gratified when he waited upon the king, who received him with a gaiety and familiarity which he did not commonly exhibit ; talked to him of the pleasure which he anticipated at Blois, and invited himself and his brother to the hunts at Chambord.^ The grand prior ventured to 1 Chambord, a small town in the department of the Loir-et-Cher, VOL. I. 5 66 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. remind his majesty that, as the duke was aware that the royal anger had been excited against him, he would probably have some hesitation in leaving his government. The reply of Louis XIII. was worthy of his wily nature : " Let him come," he said ; "let him come in all security ; I give him my royal word that he shall not be worse used than yourself" The grand prior asked no more, and having taken a grateful leave of the monarch, he left Paris in all haste to join his brother in Brittany. So far the scheme of Richelieu had worked ad- mirably, but he was by no means unconscious of the risk which he incurred by entering the lists against the three sons of Henri IV. ; and he there- is remarkable for a celebrated chiteau, situated on the Cosson, at the distance of a league from the left bank of the Loire, and four leagues from the city of Blois. This chateau was built by the famous Primatice,! during the reign of Francois I., on the ruins of an ancient castle which had belonged to the Counts of Blois. Its architecture is in the style of the renaissance ; the principal turret is of quad- rangular form, and is flanked by four huge towers, and surrounded by a rectangular building, one of whose fronts is on a line with the turret, and of semi-gothic architecture. The chateau stands in the midst of a park of 12,000 (French) acres, which is surrounded by a wall, and of great beauty. Frangois I. made this his favourite resi- dence. Louis XV. presented it to Marshal Saxe. Louis XVL gave it in 1777 to the Polignac family. In 1804 it was given as an endowment to the Legion of Honour ; it was afterwards constituted the principality of Wagram in favour of Mar^chal Berthier, whose widow sold it in 1820 in order that it might be offered to the Due de Bordeaux. 1 Franpois Primatice, a celebrated Italian painter, born at Bologna in 1490, of a noble family. He was the pupil of Innocenzia da Immola and of either Bagna Cavallo or Ramenghi. The fine casts in stucco which he executed in the chateau of T at Mantua inspired a high idea of his genius. Franfois I. invited him to France in 1540, gave him the abbey of Saint-Martin de Troyes, and en- trusted him to complete in Italy 126 busts or statues, and to have the moulds of them made. These statues, cast in bronze, were placed at Fontainebleau, where the chiteau was also enriched by his paintings. Appointed Commissioner of the Crown Buildings by Henri II., and Commissary-General of Works throughout the kingdom by Franfois II. , he died, covered with honours, in 1570. Ill THE COURT OF FRANCE 67 fore deemed it expedient, before he accompanied the king to Blois, to ascertain, without the possi- bility of error, the actual amount of power which he possessed over the mind of Louis. For this purpose he addressed a letter to the monarch, where- in he asserted, although in terms rather of conde- scension than of submission, that in serving his majesty he had never had any other aim than his royal glory and the benefit of the state ; that, never- theless, he saw, with extreme grief, the Court torn by faction and France threatened with a civil war upon his account ; that he held his life as nothing could its sacrifice serve his majesty ; but that the continual danger in which he lived of being assassi- nated before the eyes of his sovereign was a fate which a man of his character should more carefully avoid than any other ; while so many strangers had access to his presence that it was easy for his enemies to suborn some among them to destroy him. That should the king still, nevertheless, desire his services, he was ready to obey!, his will, as he had no other interests than those of the state ; but that he merely begged him to consider one fact, which was that his majesty would regret to see one of his faithful servants perish by such means, and with so little honour, while at the same time his own authority would appear to be treated with contempt. For this reason he very humbly re- quested the king to permit him to retire, by which concession the disaffected, disconcerted in their views, would henceforward have no pretext of broil. He also wrote in similar terms to the queen- LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. mother, entreating her to solicit his retirement of the king ;^ but he well knew that his arguments were too specious to lead to such a result. With admir- able diplomacy he had started by threatening Louis with a civil war, the greatest and most deplorable evil which could happen either to himself or his kingdom ; and he was only too well aware that he had so long accustomed the monarch to rely upon ex- traneous support, and had so unfitted him to act with energy and decision in such an emergency, that he had few misgivings of the result of his proceeding. As he had anticipated, both Louis and Marie de Medicis were alarmed at his design ; and the king so far permitted his apprehension to overcome his dignity as to pay a visit to the crafty minister at his residence at Limours, for the purpose of entreating him not to abandon his post at the very moment when his services had become more than ever essen- tial both to his sovereign and to the state. He promised him, moreover, if he would continue in office, the most stringent protection against not merely his other enemies, but also against the Due d'Anjou himself; promising to reveal to him, with- out any reserve, all complaints and accusations which might be made against him, without requir- ing any justification on his part, and offering him a guard of forty horsemen. The cardinal was now at the climax of his ambition. He saw the king, weak and powerless, in his hands — almost, indeed, at his feet — and had ascertained the means by which he could in every contingency secure the supremacy of 1 Louis XIV. et son Slide. Ill THE COURT OF FRANCE 69 his own power. Wherefore, after some coquetting, which added to the anxiety of Louis and strength- ened his own position, Richelieu suffered himself to be overcome by the entreaties of his sovereign ; and declining with affected humility the armed guard which had been proffered to him, for reasons which require no explanation, he ultimately consented still to incur the peril of the assassin's steel and the enmity of the Due d'Anjou. Delighted by his success, Louis did even more than he had promised, for a few days afterwards Gaston himself waited upon the cardinal ; while even the Prince de Conde, whom he had on one occasion imprisoned in the Bastille, where he had remained for four years, sent to assure him of his entire devotion ; and the minister received all these demonstrations with the calm civility of an individual who had ceased to interest himself in worldly greatness, and who was prepared to find that the sacrifice of his life must follow that of his liberty of action. This comedy played out, the king started for Blois, having intrusted the government of Paris to the Comte de Soissons.^ At Amiens he was joined by the queen-mother and the Due d'Anjou; while the cardinal had already preceded him, having, ac- cording to his usual practice, alleged his weak health as a reason for declining to remain at Blois with the Court, and taking up his residence at Beauregard, a pretty villa within a league of the town. The next 1 Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Soissons, Grand Master of France, son of Charles, Comte de Soissons, was born at Paris in 1604. 70 LOUIS XIV. AND . chap. arrivals were those of the Due de Vendome and the grand prior, and nothing could be more encour- aging or more urbane than their welcome by Louis, who proposed to them to accompany him on the morrow to a hunt. The brothers, however, excused themselves, alleging as an excuse the fatigue from which they suffered, having travelled post from Brittany. The reason was admitted ; and the king having embraced them both, took leave of them for the night. At four o'clock in the morning they were on their way to the castle of Amboise^ as prisoners, having an hour previously been arrested in their beds ; while the Duchesse de Vendome re- ceived at the same time an order to retire to her residence at Anet. The king had not broken his word : the two brothers shared the same fate. The bad faith of the cardinal was made so evident by this double arrest that Chalais, who had been, since the scene in the Cabinet, in constant communi- cation with the minister, and had informed him of all the movements of Gaston, immediately hastened to remind him of his promise ; when the only satis- faction which he could obtain was an assurance that the princes had not been imprisoned for their parti- cipation in the plot of Fleury, but for their opposition to the marriage of Mo7tsieur with Mademoiselle de Bourbon. Chalais, who was aware that the Due 1 This castle, which is very ancient, stands at the extremity of the town, and is built upon the summit of a rock. It is remarkable for two enormous towers, having each a spiral staircase, so constructed in the interior that a carriage can be driven to the top. It was built by Ingeldez, the first lord of Amboise, in 882, but was finally com- pleted only towards 1450. Ill THE COURT OF FRANCE 71 d'Anjou had no conspiracy in view save the very harmless one of securing a retreat from the hatred of the cardinal, who had not now to learn his repug- nance to an alliance against which it did not require the dissuasions of the two princes to decide him, and whom Richelieu had affected, during their con- ferences, rather to pity than to blame, received this answer with a just appreciation of its truth ; and, in- dignant at the dissimulation of which he had been made the dupe and his associates the victims, he wrote to the cardinal after this interview, to inform him that he withdrew for ever from his service ; and as a proof of his sincerity he again attached himself to the party of Gaston, and renewed his intimacy with Madame de Chevreuse, who had returned to France. Nor was Gaston less indignant at the arrest of his two brothers ; and beginning to have appre- hensions for his own safety, he forthwith commenced a serious search for some refuge, whence he might dictate his own conditions, as other princes had already done who had been menaced with the power of the cardinal -duke. Anxious to compensate for the past, Chalais offered himself as a negotiator either between Monsieur and the malcontents among the nobility, or with any foreign princes likely to lend themselves to his views ; and in furtherance of this project he accordingly wrote to the Marquis de la Valette who held Metz, to the Comte de Soissoris who held Paris, and to the Marquis de Laisques, the favourite of the archduke, at Brussels. La Valette refused, because Mademoiselle de Bourbon was his near relative, and he had no 72 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. inclination to prevent her marriage with a prince of the blood-royal. The Comte de Soissons sent a messenger to the Due d'Anjou, to offer him 500,000 crowns, 8000 infantry, and 500 cavalry, if he would immediately join him in Paris.^ The result of the appeal to Laisques will presently appear. While this negotiation was pending Louvigny, a cadet of the house of Grammont, requested Chalais to become his second in a duel with the Comte de Candale," with whom he had a quarrel on the subject of the Comtesse de Rohan, to whom they both paid their court. He had, however, acquired a bad re- putation from the fact that he had by unfair means killed his antagonist Marechal Hocquincourt in a former duel ; and Chalais, who dreaded the repeti- tion of such an adventure, refused in consequence, which so piqued Louvigny that he instantly hurried to the cardinal and told him not only all he knew, but much that he did not know.' The extent of his actual information amounted to no more than that Chalais had written to the persons already named ; and that which he asserted without authority was that Chalais had pledged himself to take the king's life, and that the Due d'Anjou and his friends were to guard the door of the apartments during the perpetration of the crime, in order to assist him should he require their help. All these particulars the cardinal immediately committed to paper, and compelled Louvigny to sign. 1 Louis XIV. et son Steele. 2 Eldest son of the Due d'Epernon. ^ Bassompierre. Ill THE COURT OF FRANCE 73 Richelieu had now the game in his own hands. He cared not to implicate either the Comte de Soissons or the Marquis de la Valette, because their disgrace could produce no latent advantage ; but with able management much, he at once felt, might be made of the accusation against the Marquis de Laisques, in whose conspiration with the archduke the King of Spain might be involved ; and the King of Spain, let it not be forgotten, was the brother of Anne of Austria. The plot was no longer against the cardinal only— it now included the king also ; and the sword of Damocles hung above both their heads poised by the same hair. Richelieu, in his secret soul, required no prompting fully to comprehend that the danger which now threatened Louis arose principally from the hatred that existed against himself; but it was not so much this consciousness which obliged him to exert his best energies to avert it, as the no less forcible conviction that the death of Louis XIII. would inevitably involve his own, and thus he lost no time in adopting measures to counteract this new conspiracy. He at once despatched Rochefort, his confidential agent, to Brussels, in the garb of a monk, giving him strict orders to watch every movement of the Marquis de Laisques; and his myrmidon had little difficulty in executing his commission, for, having affected a hatred of the cardinal in the presence of that nobleman, who resided in the monastery where he had taken up his temporary abode, every one about him was deceived ; and the marquis, among the rest, so thoroughly that he requested him to 74 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. return to France in charge of some letters which he was anxious to send by a safe hand, as they con- tained matters of importance. Rochefort affected great fear of the commission, which only rendered Laisques more urgent. Then he represented that he could not quit the convent without permission from the superior; but this objection was at once overruled by the marquis, who forthwith procured the indulgence for the supposed monk on the plea of his weak health, and he was authorised to proceed to Forges for the benefit of the waters. He then took possession of the letters, and had no sooner arrived at Artois than he wrote to the cardinal to inform him of the whole transaction. Richelieu instantly despatched a messenger, to whom Rochefort delivered the papers ; and they were no sooner in the hands of the minister than he broke the seals, took copies of all their contents, and returned them to his agent, who immediately wrote from Forges to desire the person to whom they were addressed to come and receive them. This was an advocate named Pierre, who, on receipt of the summons, never doubting that he had fallen under the surveillance of the cardinal's police, started at once for Forges ; and, without halting upon the road, arrived at his destination, received the packet from Rochefort, and returned with the same haste to Paris, where he alighted at the H6tel Chalais. Upon these papers Richelieu founded his accusa- tion ; for, according to his showing, they contained the double project of the king's death and the THE COURT OF FRANCE 75 marriage of Anne of Austria with the Due d'Anjou — a plot which fully explained the repug- nance of the prince to an alliance with Mademoiselle de Bourbon/ Chalais was accordingly accused of conniving with the wife and brother of the king to effect his assassination ; and Louis, when the plot was im- parted to him by the cardinal, wished instantly to arrest the prince, and to put the queen and the Due d'Anjou upon their trial ; but from this design he was dissuaded by his minister, who entreated him to suffer the conspiracy to ripen. Alarmed, nevertheless, lest Chalais should escape out of his hands, the king resolved upon a journey into Brittany, accom- panied by the Court ; and the intended victim, without one suspicion of the fate that awaited him, followed with his fellow-courtiers. Chalais had also written a letter to the King of Spain, in which he entreated him to conclude a treaty with the disaffected nobles of France ; and the reply to this request followed him to Nantes, although it is probable that it had previously passed through the hands of the minister. The day after its arrival he was arrested. It is certain that the queen, as well as the Due d'Anjou and Madame de Chevreuse, were aware of the nature of the letter received by Chalais ; and although perfectly innocent of all designs against the life of the king — for they never dreamt that the accusation of the cardinal could extend so far — they were, nevertheless, conscious that they must be 1 Louis XIV. et son. Stick. 76 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. seriously compromised if the letter had been inter- cepted, as it was decidedly a conspiracy against the State when they invited the Spaniards to enter France. The trial proceeded in vigorous silence ; and the pleasures which the Court had anticipated at Nantes gave place to gloom and apprehension. The queen supported her terror in silence, and made no effort to save herself from what she considered irremedi- able ruin ; but Gaston was less self-possessed, and gave way to fits of passion and useless blasphemy ; while Madame de Chevreuse, less timid than either, preserved both her activity and her courage, and endeavoured on every side to create friends for the prisoner. No one, however, saw fit to incur the vengeance of Richelieu by undertaking his cause : the arrest of the Vendome princes had made every person cautious. Confronted with the fatal letters, Chalais at once admitted the validity of that of the Spanish king, but asserted that his own had been garbled. He declared that his despatches to the Marquis de Laisques had made no allusion to the assassination of the king, nor to the marriage of his brother with Anne of Austria ; and boldly added that it was easy for a man so clever as the cardinal, and so well supplied with secretaries, to render the most innocent writing a matter of life and death. This fearless derogation embarrassed Richelieu ; it was not enough for him to feel that the tribunal which he had himself formed would assuredly con- demn Chalais. It was evident that the king's faith Ill THE COURT OF FRANCE 77 was shaken as to the extent of his guilt ; and if the cardinal did not succeed in proving the whole ac- cusation against him, both the queen and the Due d'Anjou must necessarily escape : and credulous as Louis continually proved himself, it was neverthe- less essential to convince his judgment upon so important a question as this, which involved the safety of those nearest to his person. Moreover, three individuals still opposed the marriage between the Due d'Anjou and Mademoiselle de Bourbon : and these were the Comte de Barradas, who had succeeded Chalais himself in the favour of Louis ; Tronson, his private secretary ; and Sauveterre, his first valet de chambre ; — and these represented to his majesty the danger which existed in allying his brother with the Guises, who had long coveted the French throne ; and suffering him, by the acquisi- tion of such immense wealth, to rival himself in resources, when, in times of such discontent and ambition as the present, money made power. Between the arguments of the cardinal and those of his three favourites Louis remained moody and irresolute, and Richelieu soon perceived that a great blow must be struck, or his vengeance would escape him. The same night he assumed the dress of a layman, and visited the dungeon of Chalais. He remained with the prisoner half an hour, at the expiration of which time he left the prison ; and, late as it was, proceeded at once to the apartment of the king, whom he approached in silence, as he tendered to him a folded paper. This paper contained the confession of Chalais, and the accusation of the 78 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Due d'Anjou and Anne of Austria of the crime laid to their charge. Louis was overpowered by- its perusal, and besought his minister to pardon the doubts by which he had been beset ; while the cardinal, satisfied with the success of his double denunciation, only replied by requesting his majesty's silence on the subject of the document which he had laid before him ; and forthwith retired from the presence. Gaston, more and more alarmed by the aspect of affairs, again resolved to secure his safety by flight ; but he knew not which way to turn. M. de la Valette had refused to receive him into Metz ; he was suspicious of the Comte de Soissons ; and he had nothing left but La Rochelle. He accordingly attended the lever of the king, and requested per- mission to visit the seaside. Louis replied affec- tionately that he had better apply to the cardinal upon the subject, but that, for his own part, he saw no objection to this little journey; and reassured very considerably by the manner of his brother, Gaston set out without delay to Beauregard, to secure the consent of the minister. Richelieu received him with scrupulous respect ; but upon his stating the reason of his visit, he advised him to postpone his journey until after his marriage. Gaston pleaded the state of his health, and declared that sea air was essential to his re- covery ; upon which the cardinal, holding before his eyes the confession of Chalais, assured his royal highness that he would there find a prescription more efficacious than any change of climate. The Ill THE COURT OF FRANCE 79 duke turned pale as he recognised the writing ; and he had no sooner hastily perused the whole than he declared himself ready to obey the will of the cardinal in all things. Upon finding that the united income of Mademoiselle de Bourbon and himself would amount to nearly 1,500,000 livres, he became more animated in the discussion, and finally stipu- lated that his consent should be consequent on the liberation of Chalais ; but to this condition Richelieu would not consent, alleging that it was not his pro- vince, but that of the king, to pardon great criminals ; and that there was no doubt his majesty would remit the execution of a gentleman for whom he had once felt so much affection. Moreover, to the continued entreaties of the duke he replied that he should himself regret the death of a person who had rendered him essential services ; and that his royal highness might con- sequently rely upon his best energies in behalf of the prisoner, and dismiss all uneasiness on his account. On the evening of the same day the duke was summoned to the presence of the king, where he found the queen - mother, the cardinal, and the keeper of the seals ; and was apprehensive of arrest, but he was merely required to sign a paper. It was, however, of a very serious nature, for it set forth that he had received offers from the Comte de Soissons ; that the queen, his sister-in-law, had written him several letters to dissuade him from marrying Mademoiselle de Bourbon ; and that the Abbe Scaglia, ambassador in Savoy, had also So LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. meddled in this intrigue. The name of Chalais was not mentioned. The timid prince obeyed, and renewed his promise to marry Mademoiselle de Bourbon, on condition that he should be allowed to go to Nantes. This was conceded; but a few days subsequently he was recalled in order that the marriage might be celebrated. Mademoiselle de Bourbon had already arrived, accompanied by her mother, the Duchesse de Guise, who, although im- mensely rich, having been the heiress of the house of Joyeuse, gave her daughter only a single diamond as her dowry, — but that diamond was valued at 80,000 crowns.-' The marriage was a melancholy one ; and on the morrow the prince departed for Chateaubriand, in order to escape from a town in which the trial of his confidant was about to be resumed. Mean- while the mother of Chalais had arrived, and made several efforts to obtain an audience of the monarch, who resolutely refused to see her ; and on the con- demnation of her son — which shortly supervened, and by which he was condemned to lose his head, to be quartered, and his property confiscated to the king — she made a last effort by writing to Louis one of the most affecting letters ever penned, but which produced for all result merely the commuta- tion of that portion of the sentence which ordained the quartering of his body. In the depth of her despair she thought for a moment of throwing herself upon the mercy of the cardinal ; but she soon felt that in him there was no hope ; and as a last resource she 1 Louis XIV. et son Siede. THE COURT OF FRANCE humbled herself to solicit the compassion of the executioners, of whom there were at that moment two in the city — the executioner of the king and the functionary of Nantes. She sacrificed her gold and her jewels, as well as her pride, in this final effort of a mother's love ; and the consequence of her success was fatal ; for on the day of execution — after Chalais had recanted all the assertions which had been dictated by the cardinal himself, who had wrung them from him by a promise that his life should be spared ; and had demanded to be confronted with Louvigny, who was his sole accuser, and whom he compelled to deny the truth of the accusations which he had advanced — his hour of suffering was delayed by the fact that both the executioners had dis- appeared. It was a short respite, however, for a rumour soon spread that a new headsman had been secured ; and such was unhappily the case, for a soldier condemned to the gibbet had been prevailed upon, by the promise of a free pardon, to do the work of death. Even to the last moment Madame de Chalais would not forsake her son, but walked with him to the very foot of the block ; nor dare we further portray the tragedy of which she remained a spectator, than by stating that the unhappy wretch who had consented to pay such a price for the pro- longation of his existence, overcome with horror at his unwonted task, only destroyed his victim at the twentieth stroke ! When all was over, the super- natural strength of the bereaved mother still suffi- ciently supported her to enable her to exclaim as she rose from her knees: "My God, I thank VOL. I. 6 LOUIS XIV. CHAP. Ill thee ! I thought myself only the parent of a criminal, and I am the mother of a martyr ! " Individual history contains no bloodier page than that which records the execution of Chalais. When the queen was summoned to the council to answer to the charges made against her, a simple stool only was provided for- her accommodation. Throughout the reading of the deposition of Lou- vigny and the confession of Chalais she preserved a resolute silence ; but when she was reproached with having authorised the assassination of the king, in order that she might become the wife of the Due d'Anjou, she raised her head, and answered with quiet scorn : "I should not have gained sufficient by the exchange." A reply which so wounded the spirit of the king, that to the latest hour of his existence he believed her guilty. CHAPTER IV The cardinal's enemies — Projects of Buclcingham — Deatli of the Duchesse d'Orleans — Tlie Comte de Bouteville — His duels — The challenge — New executions — The king before La Rochelle — Court treacheiy — Arrest of Lord Montagu — Famine in La Rochelle — Tragical death of Buckingham — Laporte in the Bastille — Renewed banishment of Marie de Medicis — Self - expatriation of the Due d'Orleans — Destitution of the Due d'Epernon and the Marquis de Vieuville^ — Execution of the Due de Montmorency — Mazarin in France — The siege of Landrecy — Birth of the Comte de Guiche — The Due de Grammont — His father — The triple alliance — Private marriage of Gaston d'Orleans with Marguerite de Lor- raine — Estrangement of Louis XIII. and Aune of Austria — Mademoiselle de la Fayette — Pere Joseph — The 5th of December 1637 — Morality of Louis XIII. — Visit to the Louvre — Pregnancy of Anne of Austria — The Comte de Chavigny — General rejoicing — Indisposition of the cardinal — The royal hunts — Declining health of Louis XIII. — The cardinal and the astrologer — Birth of Louis XIV. — The swaddling clothes — Poverty of Louis XIII. — Social position of the kingdom — Partial reconciliation of the king and queen — M. de Cinq-Mars — Birth of the Due d'Anjou — Execution of Cinq-Mars and De Thou — Death of Marie de Medicis at Cologne — Fatal indisposition of Richelieu — His quarrel with Louis XIII. — The state prisoners. From this period Richelieu became the sovereign master of the kingdom. Little remained to em- barrass his measures save the city of La Rochelle, 84 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. which had been ceded to the Huguenots by Henri IV., at the time of the publication of the edict of Nantes. He was aware that it was there Gaston had latterly intended to take refuge ; and he could not brook that any portion of the empire should be beyond the grasp of his authority. This city was, consequently, a perpetual subject of annoyance to the cardinal, who saw in it a hotbed of heresy, rebellion, and discord. The Due de Soubise,^ and his brother the Due de Rohan,^ were in London, and the minister had ascertained that the purpose of their voyage was to importune Charles I. 1 Benjamin de Rohan, Seigneur de Soubise, was born about the year 1549. He first served in Holland, under Maurice de Nassau, and in 162 1 he was appointed, by the Protestant Assembly held at La Rochelle, General-Commandant of the provinces of Anjou, Brittany, and Poitou. Compelled to deliver up the town of Saint-Jean d'Ang^ly, which he defended, he was soon set at liberty, and distinguished him- self by many acts of bravery. He retired to England in 1629, where he died in 1641. 2 Henri, Due de Rohan, Prince de Leon, was the head of the Protestant party under Louis XIH., and was the eldest son of Ren^, the second Vicomte de Rohan. Born at Blein, in Brittany, in 1579, he commenced his military career under Henri IV., who had adopted him, and would have been his successor on the throne of France but for the birth of Louis XHl. Henri IV. created him a duke and peer in 1603, Colonel-General of the Swiss forces in '1605, and the same year married him to Marguerite de Bethune, the daughter of Sully. After the death of that monarch he entered into a struggle with the Court, and sustained three wars against Louis XIII. The first terminated in 1622, by a treaty of peace which confirmed the edict of Nantes, but which was soon violated. The second terminated in 1626 by a new peace. Hostilities then recommenced a third time, but Rohan compelled the count to sign (in 1629) the re-estab- lishment of the same edict. He then entered into negotiation with the Porte for tire purchase of the island of Cyprus ; became General- issimo of the Venetians against the Imperialists ; then General of the Grisons ; and ultimately, dissatisfied with the French Court, he attached himself to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, in whose service he was killed in 1638. He left only one daughter. Marguerite, who married Henri de Chabot, whose descendants took the name of Rohan-Chabot. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 85 to undertake the cause of the persecuted Protestants, in which appeal they were supported by all the zeal and importunity of Buckingham. At home he had removed all immediate cause of uneasiness. Henri de Cond6/ notwithstanding his royal blood, had passed three years in the Bastille,^ and had never recovered the blow. The grand prior and the Due de Vendome were still prisoners ; and for a time the cardinal had hesitated whether he should not put them upon their trial, and make them share the fate of Chalais ; but one had pleaded his rights as a peer of France, and the other his knight- hood of Malta, as exemptions, both of which were admitted, and the minister was compelled to satisfy himself with their transfer from the castle of Amboise to that of Vincennes. The Due d'Anjou (who had, on his marriage, become Due d' Orleans), immensely rich, and overwhelmed with minor titles, had, never- theless, sunk into utter insignificance. Never before had he fallen so low. Detested by the king, despised by the nobility, and surrounded by spies, he scarcely deserved the name of an enemy. Not only his person, but even his conscience had been bought at a price ; and the steps of his marriage -altar had been sprinkled with the blood of Chalais. The 1 Henri II. de Bourbon, Prince de Cond^, was born in 1588. He married, in 1609, Charlotte de Montmorency, to whom Henri IV. became tenderly attached. In consequence of this circumstance, he quarrelled with the king, and left France, where he only returned after that monarch's death. "- It was during this period of imprisonment, which his wife, from whom he had been long estranged, insisted upon sharing with him, that she gave birth to Anne -Genevieve de Bourbon, afterwards Duchesse de Longueville, and Louis II. de Cond^, who became, sub- sequently, the Great Cond^. LOUIS XIV. AND cardinal could, for once, afford to pity the work of his own hands. The Comte de Soissons had pre- ferred to owe his safety to his personal discretion; and, satisfied that he was compromised by his pro- posals to Gaston, beyond all hope of pardon, he had quitted Paris on the pretext of indisposition, and had crossed the Alps to Turin ; and thus La Rochelle alone remained, as we have before re- marked, to thwart the power of Richelieu. Meanwhile, the king, who had been jealous of Anne of Austria with his brother, became more cold to her after her adventure with Buckingham ; and from the period of the trial of Chalais exhibited towards her not merely suspicion, but even hate. Her only consolation was in a correspondence which she continued to maintain with the English duke, sometimes through the medium of Laporte,^ but more frequently through that of Madame de Chevreuse, whom Richelieu had exiled from the Court, and who had retired to her husband's principality of Lorraine. It was at this period that the queen received in- telligence of the speedy reappearance of Buckingham in Paris, whither he declared himself to be on the point of returning on a new embassy ; but this measure by no means entered into the views of the cardinal, who, on the first hint of such a project, sent a formal message from Louis to forbid the advent ^of the duke at the French Court ; which 1 After the affair of Amiens, Laporte had, as we have stated, fallen into disgrace with the monarch, and been dismissed from the service of the queen, who obtained for him an ensigncy in the gen- darmes of her guard. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 87 says Ryder, so exasperated Buckingham that "he swore he would see the queen in spite of the whole power of France ; " ^ and forthwith he decided upon exciting a war between the two countries. We do not purpose entering upon the details of the short struggle which ensued ; suffice it that Buck- ingham, anxious to revenge himself upon both the king and the cardinal, commenced his operations by causing a misunderstanding between Charles I. and his queen, which terminated in the dismissal of all the French portion of her household. Much, how- ever, as both Louis and his minister felt this evi- dently premeditated insult, Richelieu resolved that it should not involve him in a premature war. Dis- appointed in his first attempt, Buckingham next permitted, and even encouraged, the English ships of war and privateers to intercept vessels belonging to the French merchants, which he immediately condemned as lawful prizes.^ Serious as these aggressions certainly were, the cardinal was not yet satisfied ; and he accordingly substituted remonstrances for reprisals, until a public declaration on the part of England in favour of the Huguenots should afford him the means of becoming master of La Rochelle. The result of this diplo- macy is matter of European history, and we there- fore hasten to regain the current of our less general narrative. The royal troops had scarcely marched upon La Rochelle, when the young and beautiful Duchess of 1 Ryder's England. - Ryder. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Orleans gave birth to a daughter^ at the price of her own existence ; and thus the fairest, and appar- ently the firmest, hope of the French nation was suddenly blighted ; and this misfortune was still new and unfamiliar to the public mind, when it was once more disturbed by the execution of the Comte de Bouteville.^ This nobleman, who had taken refuge in the Low Countries from the consequences of two -and -twenty duels in which he had been engaged, was bold enough to return to Paris, and to challenge the Marquis de Beuvron in the middle of the Place Royale, notwithstanding the severe ordinances of the king against this vice, which he was anxious to suppress. There can be no doubt but De Bouteville believed that his birth would pro- tect him against any extreme measure ; he had, however, miscalculated the risk which he thus voluntarily incurred, for he was arrested at Vitry, and imprisoned in the Bastille, as well as his second, the Comte des Chapelles, who had previously killed his adversary, the brave Bussy d'Amboise, in the 1 Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orleans, known as Mademoiselle and La Grande Mademoiselle. Capricious, intriguing, and impetu- ous, but nevertheless full of a truly royal courage, she attached her- self to the party of the princes during the wars of the Fronde, and took possession of the city of Orleans in the year 1652, accompanied only by two of her ladies. On the 2d of July, when the Frondeurs were in possession of Paris, she turned the cannon of the Bastille against the troops of Louis XIV., an act for which he never forgave her. Retired to her estate of Saint-Fargeau, she wrote the Memoirs of her life. She obtained, in 1669, the royal permission to marry the Comte de Lauzun ; but this was afterwards withdrawn, and she consoled herself by a private marriage. She died in 1693. 2 Francois de Montmorency, Comte de Bouteville, was governor of Senhs, and acquired great renown by his skill and intrepidity as a duellist. He was the son of Louis de Montmorency, and the father of the celebrated Mardchal Luxembourg. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 89 same manner ; and, finally, both the criminals were executed at the Greve, despite all the efforts made by the first and noblest houses in France to obtain a remission of their sentence ; while it is .one of the most extraordinary features of the rule of Richelieu, that all this proud and turbulent nobility, who drew their swords upon the slightest pretext, not only permitted the execution, but witnessed it without one effort to revenge their order. The panic was universal. Some solution of this mystery is, never- theless, afforded by the fact that at the particular moment of its occurrence Louis was rallying around him all the nobles of his kingdom, whom he had declared his intention of leading in person against La Rochelle. We shall not, however, follow the king to the siege, but confine ourselves to circumstances more intimately connected with the Court. Buckingham, who had sown dissension between two great nations, had done so only in furtherance of his romantic passion for Anne of Austria ; but the effects of his rashness were nevertheless calculated to be exten- sive and important. He had first sought to embroil France with England, which point he had already accomplished ; while, by another ramification, he sought to produce an alliance between Charles I. and the Dukes of Lorraine, Savoy, and Bavaria, as well as the archduchess who governed Flanders in the name of Spain; and this intrigue, which had been prepared by Madame de Chevreuse in her exile, Buck- ingham had entrusted to his most clever confidant and most trustworthy agent, the Lord Montagu. 90 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. The cardinal was not idle, however ; and he pos- sessed agents as sure, and confidants as secret, as those of his adversary ; and thus Buckingham had no sooner completed his scheme than it was in the hands of Richelieu, who forthwith submitted it to the king ; being at the same time careful to impress upon his mind that all these present and pending troubles were alike attributable to the mutual passion of Anne of Austria and the English duke — an assur- ance which by no means rendered the announcement of this new difficulty more palatable to Louis, whose aversion to the queen grew daily more decided. The consequences of the cardinal's ill offices were soon painfully apparent to the queen ; for, on her hastening from Paris to Villeroi, in order to attend the sickbed of the monarch, who had been arrested on his way to La Rochelle by severe indisposition, she was informed by M. d'Humieres, his first groom of the chamber, that his majesty had strictly for- bidden all entrance to his apartment ; but that, as it was impossible the king could have included her majesty in the prohibition, being even unaware of her arrival, he should venture to infringe upon his orders. He did so accordingly ; and ten minutes afterwards Anne of Austria left the sickroom drowned in tears, and M. d'Humieres received an order immediately to leave the Court. The queen only returned to Paris to learn the arrest of Lord Montagu, whom the agents of Riche- lieu had tracked from the frontier, and among whose effects they had discovered the secret despatches of Buckingham ; and her terror was extreme, lest he IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 91 should moreover have been the bearer of a letter to herself, which had also passed into the possession of the cardinal. In this extremity she remembered Laporte, and succeeded, through his medium, in ascertaining that her name had not been mentioned in the despatches, nor had any letter been forwarded to herself. From the fortress of Coiffy, where he had first been lodged, Lord Montagu was subse- quently removed to the Bastille ; but he made the journey well mounted, and with every appearance of liberty, save that he was well guarded, and deprived of both sword and spurs. Meanwhile the garrison of La Rochelle were reduced to a state of fearful famine, and the Duchesse de Rohan and her daughter had set a noble example by confining themselves to a portion of horse-flesh and five ounces of bread daily between both ; but even this miserable diet, meagre and repugnant as it was, could not be attained by the mass of wretched beings who had sought refuge in the city ; and at length between two and three hundred men, and as many women, unable longer to contend against their sufferings, and driven to desperation, resolved to venture forth, and to throw themselves upon the mercy of the king. They did not, however, under- stand the vindictive nature of Louis, who, exasper- ated by the refusal of the city to surrender, imme- diately issued an order that the men should be stripped naked, and the women denuded to their under garment, and afterwards flogged back to the walls from whence they had just emerged — a com- mand which was so effectually obeyed that the un- 92 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. fortunates found themselves once more at the gate of the besieged city, sinking from famine, perishing with cold, and wounded and bleeding from the blows they had received, only to be refused readmission to the wretched haven they had abandoned. In this condition they remained during three days and nights ; but eventually the gate was flung open, and they were permitted again to share the misery of their fellow-sufferers. After this occurrence the besieged felt that there was no clemency to be anticipated from the king, and they continued to hold the city with all the tenacity of despair, still trusting to the arrival of the fleet announced to them from England, when the news of Buckingham's assassination cfushed their last glimmer of hope ; and accordingly the city capitulated on the 28th of October 1628, after sus- taining a siege of eleven months, during which time the number of persons who had been shut up in the town had diminished, through famine and hardship, from 15,000 to 4000.-' On his return to Paris, Louis hastened to the queen, and, unaware that the news had already reached her, proceeded to inform her of the death of Bucking- ham, which he did in terms of self-gratulation, well calculated to embitter her feelings towards himself She, therefore, outraged by this premeditated insult, disdained all dissimulation, and, shutting herself up with those of her immediate circle, made no effort to conceal her grief. A rupture between the royal pair was the inevitable consequence of this mutual 1 Ryder. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 93 Spirit of defiance, which endured throughout the ten following years ; envenomed, moreover, by the death of M. de Montmorency, the war with Spain in 1635, and the secret intelligence between Anne of Austria and M. de Mirabel, the Spanish ambassador. The faithful Laporte was the victim of this intelligence, and was consigned to the Bastille for his participa- tion in the correspondence. About two years after the capture of La Rochelle Marie de Medicis once more fell into disgrace, and was banished from France. This exile of the widow of Henri IV. caused great dissension at Court ; and at the head of the malcontents was the Due d'Orleans, who had violent words with the king upon the subject ; and, not being able to prevail against the influence of Richelieu, subsequently left the country, and joined the army in Flanders. Shortly afterwards a Chapter of the Order was held at Fontainebleau, where the Due d'Epernon and the Marquis de Vieuville were stripped of its insignia, and had their banners torn down and broken, in consequence of their having followed his fortunes. The Due de Montmorency^ fared still worse ; for, after having assisted Gaston to raise Lower Langue- doc, he was beaten at Castelnaudry by Schomberg, received two pistol-wounds, was taken prisoner (1632), and conveyed to Toulouse, where he was tried, 1 Henri, the second duke, born at Chantilly in 1595. He had for his sponsor Henri IV.; was appointed admiral in 161 2, and Knight of the Holy Ghost in 16 19. He succeeded his father in the government of Languedoc ; and in 1629, in Piedmont, where, serving as a heutenant-general, he gained the battle of Veillane, carried the siege of Casal, and received the biton of a marshal. He was the last scion of the elder branch of the Montmorencys. 94 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. and finally executed on the 30th of October. The reconciliation of the king with his brother was delayed by the ambition of the cardinal, who insisted that, as a condition of his pardon, he should be required to break off his projected marriage with Marguerite de Lorraine, and marry his niece (afterwards Madame d'Aiguillon) ; but this concession was not made.^ In 1631-32 the name of Mazarin first made itself conspicuous in France. At twenty years of age he had entered the service of the Cardinal Bentivoglio, who was so powerfully impressed by his extra- ordinary talents that he presented him to Cardinal Barberino ; and the introduction is worthy of remark from a coincidence which was probably not alto- gether accidental. " Monseigneur," said his patron, as he led forward the young Jesuit, " I am under heavy obligations to your illustrious family, but I 1 Madame d'Aiguillon was the niece of the cardinal, and was sus- pected of also being his mistress. In 1620 she had married Antoine Dubourg de Combalet, towards whom her aversion was extreme ; and when he was killed in the war against the Huguenots she con- sequently made a vow never to take a second husband, and to wear thenceforward the habit of a Carmelite. Although she had barely attained her twenty-sixth year, she dressed like a woman of fifty, wore a robe of serge, and never raised her eyes. She was dresser to the queen-mother, about whose person she performed her duties in this extraordinary costume ; but the cardinal her uncle becoming more and more powerful, she began to allow a few curls to be seen, wore ribbons on her dress, and finally substituted silk for serge. Richelieu having been appointed prime minister, many suitors offered themselves to the fair widow ; but all were rejected, although their number comprised M. de Brez^, M. de Bethune, and the Comte de Sault, afterwards the Due de Lesdiguiferes. It is, however, asserted that the cardinal, through jealousy, prevented her second marriage. She was, nevertheless, near forming an alliance with the Comte de Soissons, and the match failed only on account of the low rank of her first husband. Reports were prevalent that she had, notwith- standing, become the mother of four children, whose paternity was ascribed to Richelieu. In 1638 the cardinal purchased for her the Duchy of Aiguillon, of which she assumed the name. C i% U ill) I '2? A L W, A '/L A IS. 1 M , J ojidon. Jlichard .hcntley,&. Son iBsa. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 95 consider that I cancel them all by giving you this young man." It was in similar words that Mazarin himself afterwards presented his successor, Colbert, to Louis XIV. From this period the young Italian rose rapidly. Supported by so powerful a recommendation, he was intrusted with several minor negotiations, which he conducted with so much talent as to ensure him more important employment ; and finally, when, in 1629, Louis XIII. compelled the separation of the Duke of Savoy from the Spaniards by forcing the pass of Suza, Cardinal Sachette, who was the pope's representative at Turin, returned to Rome, leaving Mazarin with the title of Internuncio, and full powers to conclude the peace. His new duties compelled the young diplomatist to undertake several journeys, one of which founded his fortune. He went to Lyons in 1630, was pre- sented to Louis XIII., who was then in that city, and subsequently had an interview of two hours with Richelieu, who was so delighted with a conversation in which the clever Italian had displayed all the re- sources of his mind, that he immediately resolved to attach him to his own interests ; and the result of this determination restored Mazarin to Italy, entirely devoted to the French cause. In 1634 Richelieu caused him to be made Vice -Legate of Avignon. In 1639 he was sent to Savoy as ambassador-extra- ordinary ; on the i6th of December 1641 he was created a cardinal ; and on the 25th of the following February he received the hat from Louis's own hands.^ 1 Louis XIV. et son Steele. 96 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. In 1637, while the French forces under the com- mand of the Cardinal de la Valette and the Due de Veymar were about to besiege Landrecy, the Due de Grammont,^ who was serving as a lieu- tenant-general under those distinguished leaders, was, on one occasion, when leaving the council tent, greeted with the intelligence that he was the father of a son, upon which he immediately obtained per- mission to absent himself for a few days from his post, in order to assist at the baptism of the Comte de Guiche, his heir. The sponsors of the infant were the Cardinal de Richelieu and the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, and the ceremony was no sooner termi- nated than the duke at once returned to the camp. Both gallantry and ambition would have urged De Grammont to a career of military glory, even had he not recognised any still stronger impetus, but such was far from being the case. Reared as he had been under the immediate eye of Louis XIII., and feeling towards him, as he did, almost the affec- tion of a son, he never forgot that he was, in all probability, indebted to the monarch for his life, the king having withdrawn both himself and his brother, the Chevalier de Grammont,^ from the authority and 1 Antoine, Due de Grammont, was the descendant of an ancient family, and distinguished himself under both Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. The latter monarch appointed him Mar^chal of France. He died in 1678, at the age of seventy-four years. The Due de Grammont was as witty as he was brave, and left behind him his personal memoirs, containing his negotiations in Spain and Ger- many, 2 Philibert, the Chevalier de Grammont, of whom Anthony Hamilton wrote the celebrated Memoirs. He also acquired con- siderable celebrity in arms, and was, between his frequent periods of exile from the Court, very welcome to Louis XIV., from the attractions of his ready wit and fertile imagination. He died in 1707. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 97 guardianship of their father (Anthony, the second of the name), who, having become satisfied of the in- fideHty of his wife (the daughter of the Due de Roquelaure), exerted the right of High and Low Justice^ attached to his principality of Bidache, and having tried and condemned her, at once struck off her head, before the messengers of the monarch had time to arrive and sohcit her pardon. This adventure, which threatened to introduce a renewal of the barbarous customs of the Middle Ages, caused Louis to apprehend that the ferocious husband might become one day an equally savage father, and revenge upon his children the crime for which he had murdered their mother ; and therefore, acceding to the prayers of the Dues de Roquelaure, he ordered the self-constituted widower to send his sons to Court, in order that they might be brought up and educated under his special care. The devoted attachment of De Grammont for the king was well known to Richelieu, who considered all individuals capable of such sentiments merely as noble dupes, who might be rendered extremely valuable to those possessed of their regard and con- fidence ; and thus he did not fail to pay his court to Louis, by attaching himself to his protegd, on whom, 1 There existed formerly in France, as a seigneurial privilege, the right of exercising what was called respectively the right of High, Central, and Low Justice. High Justice was the possession of power to condemn to death, save in cases where the criminal was of the blood -royal, which at once removed him from such jurisdiction. Central Justice was that of deciding actions between guardian and ward, and awarding damages not exceeding sixty sous. Low Justice recognised the fines due to the noble for the trespasses of cattle and injuries to property, for which the fine did not exceed seven sous six deniers. — Saint-Laurent. VOL. I. 7 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. after his eminent services at the siege of Mantua, he bestowed advanced rank, and the hand of one of his nieces, on the same day that he married two others to the Due d'Epernon and the Due de Puilaurens. The ceremonials of this triple alliance were so magnificent that they long afforded a subject of con- versation to all the Court ; but they were fortunate only to the Due de Grammont, for the Due d'Epernon, whose haughty temperament irritated the cardinal, was shortly afterwards compelled to exile himself from the capital, and the Due de Puilaurens also died in prison.-' While his father was absent with the army Armand de Guiche was reared under the eye of Richelieu, and became almost the foster-child of Anne of Austria ; she had just given birth to Louis XIV., and she saw in the young Comte de Guiche the same happy dispositions which she recognised in her own royal infant. Meanwhile the marriage of the Due d'Anjou with the Princesse Marguerite de Lorraine had taken place. He had first seen her during his residence 1 " As soon as I learnt the return of Mo7isieur to France," says Mademoiselle, " I went to Limours to meet him. I was only four or five years old when he left. Having discovered that, on account of my extreme youth, I had not been invited to a ballet given by the king and queen, and that I wished to dance in one, he assembled some of the young people of the Court of both sexes to form the figure, where I greatly amused myself. Nevertheless, I was grieved that they profited by this opportunity to arrest M. de Puilaurens, the favourite of Monsietir, whom the cardinal, in token of reconciliation, had married to his niece. He was arrested at the Louvre, and carried a prisoner to Vincennes, where he died suddenly, a death of which the cardinal was accused." — Mimoires de Mademoiselle de Monfpe?tsier. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 99 in that province, when she was only fourteen years of age, and became so much enamoured of her person that he resolved to ask her hand from M. de Vaudemont, her father, who immediately consented to the proposal, merely warning him to conceal his intention from the Due de Lorraine, her brother, as he was aware that he would refuse his consent ; and consequently, in order to preserve the secret, with the consent of the Princesse Marguerite, he married her privately in a Benedictine convent, at seven o'clock in the evening, in presence only of M. de Vaudemont, Madame de Remiremont his sister, M. Morel, the natural brother of his royal high- ness, Puilaurens, the governess of the Princesse Marguerite, and the Benedictine father who united them/ We return, however, to the king and his royal consort. At the period of the birth of the Count de Guiche (1637), Louis XIIL was almost entirely estranged from the queen, whom he saw only at infrequent intervals, when he was compelled to this cold and reluctant companionship by the necessities of State ceremony ; all confidence was at an end, and they lived on in a state of moral warfare, which encouraged the hopes of the cardinal and appeared to realise the ambitious yearnings of the Due d'Orleans. The prayers (or neuvaines) offered up by the queen for the cessation of her childlessness had failed in their effect, and she had abandoned her- self to the belief that she was destined to wear out her life in bitterness of spirit and that isolation of 1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Monfpensier. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. heart which can only be appreciated by those who, like herself, are born with quick feelings and suscep- tible imaginations. The monarch had, however, relieved his mental ennui by attaching himself to Mademoiselle de la Fayette,-^ whose favour might have endured to an indefinite period had she pos- sessed sufficient good sense to abstain from all interference in State affairs ; but Pere Joseph,^ with whom she was connected through her mother, Marie Motier de Saint-Romain,^ having induced her to enter into a cabal against the cardinal, whom that ambitious monk was anxious to supplant in the royal favour, all tranquillity and happiness were at an end, both for her royal admirer and herself. Contrary to his usual custom, Richelieu made no overt attempt to separate Louis and his favourite, but, by bribing the confidential valet de chambre of the king, he 1 Louise Motier de la Fayette was descended from an ancient Auvergnat family. At the age of seventeen she entered the house- hold of Anne of Austria as a maid of honour, where she soon attracted the attention of Louis XI IL, who became attached to her. The virtue of Mademoiselle de la Fayette remained, however, unim- peached, and she exerted her whole influence over the mind of the king to eiifect a reconciliation between himself and her royal mistress. She died in the convent of Chaillot, of which she was the founder, in 1665. 2 A Capuchin monk, the confidant of Richelieu, commonly called His Gray Eminence, to distinguish him from the cardinal, who was known as His Red Eminence. 3 Marie Motier de Saint -Remain was the daughter of M. de Saint- Remain, ambassador in Switzerland, upon the occasion of whose decease, in 1694, Madame de Sevigne exclaims, in a letter to Madame Guitaud : " The death of M. de Saint-Romain frightens me ; there does not appear to have been the interval of a moment between his harsh and irreligious life and his demise. What can be addressed to God in favour of such a philosopher ? As for me, I can think of nothing but what St. Augustine once said of a monk who had ab- jured Christianity, — that he was not with us, for had he been with us, etc. You know the rest." THE COURT OF FRANCE succeeded in obtaining and falsifying their letters ; until, on the eve of a rupture, an explanation took place between them which revealed the enmity of the minister and so terrified the fair maid of honour that she hastened to take refuge in the convent of the Visitation ; and, despite all the entreaties of the king, she refused to return to the world, which she finally renounced in the spring of 1637. Although the affections of Louis were no longer in the sole keeping of his cloistered favourite, whom Mademoiselle d'Hautefort, another of the maids of honour to the queen, had superseded, he could not forego her occasional society, which had become necessary to him from habit ; and it was one of his visits to this lady which changed the destinies of France. On the evening of the 5th of December in the year just named the monarch left his retreat of Grosbois,^ where he was then residing, and drove to the convent, where Mademoiselle de la Fayette had taken the veil under the name of Soeur An- gelique. One of the prerogatives of royalty in all romanist countries is that of entering into the monastic houses of both sexes and conversing freely with their cloistered tenants, and consequently no im- pediment was raised to the continued intercourse of the king with his old favourite. Moreover, the visits of Louis XI IL entailed no scandal upon either the novice or her community, as it was well known that the preference of that monarch never exceeded the bounds of principle and honour ; and that the 1 Near Fontainebleau. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. son of Henri IV. and the father of Louis XIV. could be accused neither of imitating the libertinism of the first nor of prompting the licentiousness of the last. On this occasion Louis remained closeted with Sceur Angelique for four hours, and, on leaving the convent, he availed himself of the pretext of a sudden storm which had gathered during his visit to drive to the Louvre instead of returning to Gros- bois. On his arrival at the palace he at once pro- ceeded to the apartments of the queen, who received him with an astonishment which she did not en- deavour to disguise, and whose guest he remained until the morrow, ere he returned to his retreat. Four months subsequently the pregnancy of Anne of Austria was publicly announced, and created universal surprise and gratulation. Before the event became generally known, how- ever, the queen summoned M. de Chavigny,^ of whose attachment she was assured, and commis- sioned him to bear these unhoped-for tidings to the king, and to request him at the same time, on so happy an occasion, to grant her the liberation of Laporte. The joy of Louis equalled his astonishment, and after having conceded the pardon of her faithful servant, he hastened to the apartments of Anne of Austria to offer his congratulations, and to receive 1 Leon Boutheillier, Count de Chavigny, was the reputed son of Claude Boutheillier, Superintendent of Finance, but was commonly reported to be the natural child of the Cardinal Richelieu, who treated him with extraordinary favour and zealously promoted his interests. He was for a short period Secretary of State under Louis XIII., and subsequently Minister of State and a Member of the Council during the Regency. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 103 her own. Richelieu was, perhaps, the only indi- vidual throughout France who did not participate in the general rejoicing. Much as he hated Gaston, he hated the queen still more ; and after all the efforts that he had made to estrange her from the king, — efforts, moreover, which had been only too successful, for the minister was singularly able in overlaying with his own passions the heart of his royal but subjugated master ; to which fact he owed much of his greatness, for the secret of his supre- macy lay in that consummate although questionable talent, — after all these efforts, he saw the whole superstructure which he had built upon that estrange- ment suddenly crumble into dust before these un- expected tidings ; and the chagrin which he felt, without being able to disclose it, so affected his health that he became ere long at intervals seriously indisposed. That he did not, however, yield without an effort, either to his annoyance or its results, may be gathered from the memoirs of La Grande Made- moiselle, who states that she was invited to St. Germain after the distrust of the cardinal had been overcome (he having shown himself unwilling that any one in the interests of the Due d'Anjou should be about the queen), and then proceeds thus : " The Court was very agreeable at that time, and the love of the king for Madame d'Hautefort, to whom he endeavoured to make himself agree- able by the entertainments which he every day gave to her, contributed greatly to make it so. Hunting was one of the king's greatest pleasures ; I04 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. we often went with him. . . . We were all dressed in colours, mounted on handsome hackneys richly caparisoned, and to protect us from the sun, wore hats covered with feathers. The chase was always directed towards the neighbourhood of some hand- some houses, where we found good collations, and on our return the king seated himself in my coach between Madame d'Hautefort and me. When he was in a good humour he talked to us very agree- ably on every subject. He permitted us at that time to speak very freely of the Cardinal de Riche- lieu, and as a sign that it did not displease him, he spoke of him in the same way. As soon as we reached home we went to the queen's apartments. . . . The king was sometimes in so gallant a humour that, at the collations which he gave us in the country, he would not sit down to table, but waited upon nearly all the party, although his attention was only intended for one person. He ate after- wards ; and did not affect to have more politeness for Madame d'Hautefort than for others, so fearful was he that his gallantry should be remarked. When they had any misunderstanding, the amuse- ments were suspended ; and if, during these inter- vals, he visited the queen, he did not speak to any one, and no one ventured to address him ; he sat in a corner, where generally he yawned, and went to sleep. It was a melancholy which chilled every one ; and while it lasted he passed his time in writing down all that he had said to Madame d'Hautefort, and all that she had answered — a thing so true, that at his death there were found in his IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 105 desk long accounts of all the quarrels that he had had with his mistresses ; to whose praise, as well as his own, be it said, that he had never loved any who were not perfectly virtuous."^ But despite all these festive demonstrations, the queen was far from tranquil. The health of Louis was declining from day to day ; the tomb appeared to be yawning for both him and his minister ; and Anne of Austria watched in anxious terror the pro- gress of this double decay. She knew that should Richelieu survive his sovereign only six months, she would be lost if childless ; and eager to satisfy her- self, in advance, of the fate of the infant to which she was about to give life, she accordingly deter- mined, with the superstition common to that age, to cause its horoscope to be drawn by an able astrologer at the moment of its birth. That she should bear a son she did not suffer herself to doubt ; and having expressed her wishes to the king, he in his turn confided the care of discovering the required astrologer to the cardinal. Richelieu, although his own experience might have taught him that human will has more power over human fate than the stars can ever claim, was no less credulous upon the subject of occult lore than others of that day ; and having some previous knowledge of a certain seer, named Campanella, he immediately despatched a messenger to command his presence. Campanella had, however, left France, but the minister succeeded in tracing him to the dungeons of Milan, where he was awaiting his trial 1 Mhnoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. io6 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. as a sorcerer, having been seized by the ItaHan Inquisition, and whence he had Httle difficulty in obtaining his release. Anne of Austria was sojourning at St. Germain- en- Laye when her hour of trial came, where she occupied the pavilion of Henri IV., of which the windows opened upon the river. The public ex- citement was so great that many persons who could not procure accommodation at St. Germain, or whose private affairs detained them in Paris, had, as the period of the queen's accouchement ap- proached, stationed messengers upon the high road to the capital, in order to have the earliest intelli- gence of the result ; while every avenue to the palace was thronged with grave and anxious faces. Early on the 5th of September Louis XIII. was summoned to the chamber of the queen, when he immediately commanded the presence of the Due d 'Orleans, the Princesse de Conde, and the Comtesse de Soissons ; but he forbade ingress to the sick chamber to every other person except Madame de Vendome, to whom it was accorded as a personal favour, and the ladies who were in at- tendance upon the royal invalid. The three bishops of Lisieux, Meaux, and Beauvais took their station in an adjoining room ; and in the one opposite were assembled all the officers of State, and the ladies of rank who had the privilege of entrance. At length the king was greeted with the welcome intelligence that he was the father of a dauphin ; and in the excess of his joy he took the royal infant from the hands of the nurse, and approach- IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 107 ing the window, exhibited him to the crowd, ex- claiming as he did so, " A son ! gentlemen, a son !" The satisfaction of the spectators broke forth in a loud cry of triumphant delight ; and the happy monarch forthwith carried the new-born prince into the apartment where the bishops were assembled round a temporary altar, putting up prayers for the happy issue of the queen's deliverance ; when it was immediately baptized by the Bishop of Meaux, in presence of all the great dignitaries of the kingdom. A Te Deimt was then chanted in the castle chapel ; after which the king wrote an autograph letter to the corporation of Paris, which was despatched on the instant. The rejoicings which took place throughout the capital exceeded all that had ever before been wit- nessed; and amid these the Jesuits were conspicuous in their demonstration. The foreign ambassadors vied with each other alike in expense and inven- tion, and the enthusiasm of the people was at its height. The cardinal, who was in Picardy, wrote to con- gratulate the monarch, and to suggest that the dauphin should be named Theodosius, or God- given, as an earnest of his future glory ; he also despatched a letter of felicitation to the queen, but it was cold and brief. Meanwhile the astrologer Campanella had arrived in France, and was invited to proceed with his task without delay. At first he endeavoured to excuse himself, aware of the danger to which such a re- sponsibility must expose him ; but as his excuses io8 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. were not admitted, and he was commanded to speak the truth fearlessly, he ultimately, after the usual precautions, announced that his combinations had informed him that "the infant would be as luxurious as Henri IV., and of conspicuous haughtiness. That his reign would be long and laborious, although not without a certain happiness ; but that his end would be miserable, and entail both reli- gious and political confusion upon the kingdom."^ In the month of July following, Sforza, the Vice- Legate of Avignon, and extraordinary nuncio of the pope, arrived at St. Germain to present to the queen the swaddling-clothes blessed by his holi- ness, which he habitually sent to the dauphins of France, in recognition of those princes as the elder sons of the Church ; and to bless in his name both the august mother and her child. These garments, dazzling with gold and silver, were enclosed in a couple of chests of red velvet, which were opened in the presence of the king and queen. ^ At the birth of Louis XIV., although the Court vied with each other in lavish and idle expenditure, their monarch was in receipt only of an income of a hundred millions of livres, according to the value of 1 Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 2 Meinoires de Madame de Motteville. — Frangoise Bertaut, Dame de Motteville, was the daughter of a gentleman of the king's cham- ber. Placed about the person of Anne of Austria, and dismissed by the Cardinal de Richelieu, she married, in 1639, Nicolas Langlois, Sieur de Motteville, First President of the Chamber of Accounts at Rouen, who died two years afterwards. Recalled to Court in 1644, she never again quitted her royal mistress, and died in 1689. She left a work entitled Mdmoires pour servir d, I' Hist aire d'An?ie d'Autricke, in 6 vols., in i2mo. They are very curious and full of authentic details of the Court at that period. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 109 money in the present day ; and France had not yet attained any prominent rank among the European nations. Internally she was rent by faction, and her external strength was almost negative. Even the capital, and the great highways through the country, were in a state of neglect difficult to com- prehend, the first individuals in the State having so much interest in the improvement of both the one and the other. The roads were scarcely passable, under no government authority, and infested by robbers ; while the streets — narrow, ill-paved, and choked with mud and refuse of the foulest descrip- tion — were, immediately after nightfall, crowded with thieves, pickpockets, assassins, and all the refuse of a great capital ; whose depredations were carried on to an immense extent, and with an audacity which received little check from a police that did not amount to fifty men, although it was intrusted with the whole safety of the city. Socially, the position of France was little better. The heads of the first nobles of the land had fallen, or been bowed by disgrace and imprisonment. Duel- ling had recommenced with a resolution which more than ever defied the power of the monarch ; while the intellectual progress of the public tribunals is sufficiently marked by the fact that Leonora Galigai had been burnt as a witch in 161 7, and Urbain Grandier as a sorcerer in 1634.'- 1 Urbain Grandier was the curate and prebendary of Saint-Pierre da Loudun. Some Ursuline nuns of that place, who were con- sidered to be possessed, accused him, their confessor, of magic ; and the councillor Laubardemont, and the twelve judges appointed to preside at his trial, condemned him upon their testimony. He was burnt alive on the i8th of August 1634. His condemnation was no LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Literature and morals were alike at a deplorably low ebb. England, Italy, and Spain had each given birth to more than one gigantic talent, while France was as yet only the nursery of that genius which was to form so bright a galaxy in the succeeding reign. The two celebrated female wits of the day were Mademoiselle de Scudery^ and Ninon de I'Enclos ; while Madame de Sevigne, who was to found an epistolary school destined to endure as long as the language in which she wrote, had just attained her twelfth year. Meanwhile, although the queen still remained without political influence, she had acquired con- siderably more power over the affections of Louis. The birth of a dauphin had been a source of grati- fication to the king, which was naturally calculated to increase his regard for the mother. He had, moreover, as we have already stated, attached himself, in his peculiar manner, to Mademoiselle d'Hautefort, one of the ladies of the queen's house- hold, whose wit and beauty were eminently cal- culated to awaken his lethargic sensibilities ; but his aversion to Richelieu, although it was craftily con- cealed, increased from day to day, and did not escape the observation of the minister, who was, however, indifferent to the fact, from his having surrounded his royal master with his own creatures, who did not fail to acquaint him with every inci- dent which could be profitable to his interests. attributed to the hatred of Richelieu, against whom a Hbel had just appeared, entitled The Shoemaker's Wife of Lotcdun, which was attributed to Grandier. 1 Madelaine de Scud^ry was born at Havre in i6oi. THE COURT OF FRANCE Throughout the whole of his household Louis pos- sessed but three personal friends ; and of the con- solation which he found in the companionship of Mademoiselle d'Hautefort he was eventually de- prived by the cardinal, who feared that her in- fluence would be exerted in favour of the queen, like that of her predecessor, Louise de la Fayette, from the great affection which Anne of Austria had always displayed towards her. The exiled favourite was, however, replaced by Richelieu in the person of M. de Cinq-Mars,^ whom he introduced to the notice and favour of the king, and who became ere long the object of his entire regard. It is not our purpose to follow up circum- stantially the career of this unfortunate young noble- man, which was one of an interest too absorbing to remain in obscurity. Even in the sober pages of history it assumes the semblance of romance ; and the details which history did not condescend to supply have since been given to the world with an industry of research and accuracy of narration be- 1 Henri Coiffier, dit Ruz^ d'Effiat, Marquis de Cinq-Mars, the second son of Antoine Coiffier, Marquis d'Effiat, and Mardchal de France, owed his fortune to Cardinal Richelieu, who was tlie inti- mate friend of his father, and who placed him about Louis XIII., of whom he became the favourite, and who made him successively Captain of the Royal Guard, Grand Master of the King's Wardrobe (1637), and two years afterwards Grand Equerry of France. Irri- tated by the bearing of Richelieu, Cinq- Mars excited Gaston Due d'Orleans to revolt, and seduced the Due de Bouillon to his in- terests. They despatched an emissary to Spain to conclude a treaty, which was to admit the Spanish forces into France ; but the king, who went in person, in 1642, to conquer Roussillon, was accompanied by Cinq-Mars, while the cardinal remained sick at Tarascon ; when the latter, having discovered the intrigue, im- mediately informed the king, who caused Cinq-Mars to be arrested at Narbonne. He lost his head at Lyons in the same year, and was executed in company with his friend and confidant, De Thou. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. yond all praise in the volumes of the Comte Alfred de Vigny, which bear his name. During- the period of Cinq-Mars 's first favour the queen gave birth to a second son, who took the title of Due d'Anjou. This prince saw the light on the 2ist of September 1640, and in 1642 Cinq-Mars and his friend De Thou^ perished upon the scaffold. In February 1642 the king quitted Paris for Roussillon, leaving the queen and her two children at St. Germain-en-Laye, the princes being under the especial charge of Madame de Lansac, their governess ; while for all protection they had only one company of the French guards, commanded by Captain Montigni. These two persons had each a separate order : that of Madame de Lansac was, that in case Monsietir, who lived in Paris, should visit the queen, she should desire the officers of the household to remain close to the dauphin, and not to suffer Monsieur to enter, if he came attended by more than three persons. As to Montigni, the king gave him the half of a gold coin, of which he re- tained the other moiety, with an express command that he should not abandon the persons of the princes ; and, in the event of his receiving an order to remove them, or to transfer them to other hands, 1 Frangois-Auguste de Thou was born in 1607. While still a youth, he was appointed Grand Master of the King's Library. He applied to be made Military Superintendent, and the refusal of the cardinal threw him into the ranks of the opposition. He then en- deavoured to further his fortune by political intrigues ; adopted the profession of arms, and attached himself to the Court, although he did not hold office ; but was finally involved, by his affection for Cinq-Mars, in the conspiracy against Richelieu, for which they both suffered death. IV THE COURT OF FRANCE 113 he was forbidden to obey, even should the command be in the handwriting of his majesty, if he did not at the same time receive the other half of the broken coin. The Prince de Conde commanded in Paris during the absence of the king ; and during that period married his daughter. Mademoiselle de Bourbon, to the Due de Longueville, an alliance which proved most melancholy for the lady, the duke being already in the decline of life, while his bride was young and exquisitely beautiful.-' Shortly afterwards the Court went into mourning for Marie de Medicis, who had died at Cologne in the house of her painter Rubens, attended by only one faithful waiting woman, and depending almost for her nourishment on the generous compassion of the elector. At Paris she appeared to have be- come utterly forgotten, save by a few of her most attached friends. The cardinal was not, however, destined long to enjoy the several triumphs which he had achieved. He returned in such impaired health from Roussillon,^ that he was compelled to halt several days at Narbonne, and during his so- journ in that town was not expected to survive. Finally, however, he arrived in Paris in a litter borne by four-and-twenty men ; but on experiencing some slight symptoms of amendment, he compelled 1 Henri, second Due de Longueville, was plenipotentiary at the congress of Munster in 1648. He was the son of Henri, the first duke, who loved the beautiful Gabrielle d'Estrdes, and resigned her to Henri IV. Gabrielle having injured him in the king's mind, he threw himself into the opposite party, and was killed at the siege of Dourlens in 1595. 2 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. VOL. I. 8 114 LOUIS XIV. CHAP. IV Juif, his surgeon, to close the abscess under which he had been suffering, nor could the remonstrances of that skilful practitioner dissuade him from his pur- pose ; and it is believed that a quarrel which took place a short time subsequently between the king and himself, on the subject of some courtiers whom he considered as his personal enemies, and whom Louis had refused to dismiss from his service, tended to hasten his death. Wearied by his ex- postulations, the monarch at length consented to remove three of the number, and to consign them to the Bastille, but refused to appoint their suc- cessors ; and this resistance exasperated the cardinal, who saw that his decease was anticipated ; and that, when it had taken place, his adversaries would at once be reinstated in their respective employ. He consequently extended his persecution to M. de Treville, their colleague, whom he had hitherto spared, and whom Louis dismissed in his turn ; but with an assurance that he might still calculate upon his favour, and a recommendation that he should go and serve for the present in Italy, as he would not be long absent from France. CHAPTER V Marriage of Mademoiselle de Breze — Increased illness of the cardinal — Indif- ference of Louis XIII. — Death of the cardinal — Ancient and modern biographers — Liberation of State prisoners — Reconciliation of the king and the Due d 'Orleans — Arrival of the remains of Marie de Medicis — Illness of Louis XIII. — Recognition of Madame — Christening of the dauphin — Death of Louis XIII. — Anne of Austria regent — The new ministry — The Due d'Orleans lieutenant-general of the kingdom — The Due de Beaufort — The three days — '* The queen is so good " — Louis XIV. and the State Companies — Anne of Austria and Voiture — The improvisation — The Comte de Guiche and his governess — Piety of Anne of Austria — Return of Madame de Chevreuse — Her intrigues — Coldness of the queen-regent — Diplomacy of Mazarin — The Due de Beaufort a bad conspirator — Escape of Mazarin — Arrest of the Due de Beaufort — Renewed exile of Madame de Chevreuse — The Due d'Enghien — The challenge — Death of Coligny — Mourning-balls. In the course of the winter of 1642 the cardi- nal had the gratification of marrying another of his nieces, Mademoiselle de Brez6, to the Due d'Enghien, son of the Prince de Conde ; and this alliance, which must greatly have surpassed the ambition of the cardinal, was formed at the soli- ii6 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. citation of the prince himself, who exerted as much energy to secure it as though he had been seeking to marry his son -with a sovereign princess. More- over, to prove how sincerely he desired to make one common interest with the minister, he entreated him at the same time to unite Mademoiselle de Bourbon to the Marquis de Brez6 : Richelieu re- plied, however, that although he was willing to give young ladies to princes, he would not give princesses to men of inferior rank/ On the 30th of November 1643 the illness of the minister had so much increased that he was twice bled, and on the ist of December he began to spit blood and to breathe with difficulty. He was again bled in the night, but experienced no relief; and his palace was filled with his near relatives and friends, anxiously awaiting the issue. On the following day the king visited the sick chamber, and as he drew near the bed Richelieu raised himself to a sitting posture ; during the interview he expressed his satisfaction that he had honestly and ably done his duty to the State ; entreated the king, in memory of his past services, to protect his family ; and finally recommended, as his successors in the ministry, Des Noyers,2 De Chavigny, and Mazarin. Louis readily replied that his recommendation should be sacred ; and added some commonplace remark, intended to express that he trusted their services would not be soon required. Then, affecting to believe that a more lengthy conversation might prejudice the 1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 2 Secretary of State. V THE COURT OF FRANCE 117 invalid, he left the room ; but he was so utterly unimpressed by the scene from which he had just escaped, that as he traversed the gallery of the famous palace upon which Richelieu had lavished so many millions, and which he had, in his will, bequeathed to the dauphin, his eye glanced over the costly paintings by which it was decorated with evident delight ; and before he had traversed its limits he once or twice indulged in a fit of laughter, notwithstanding the fact that he was attended by the two favourite friends of the cardinal, the Marshal de Breze and the Comte d'Harcourt,^ who reconducted him to the Louvre. The king had no sooner withdrawn than Richelieu summoned the Duchesse d'Aiguillon to his side, and gave her some secret instructions, at whose conclu- sion she left the room in tears. He then insisted upon knowing from his physicians how long a time he was still likely to survive ; but finding them unwilling to tell the truth, he sent for Chirac, who was the private physician of the king ; and having expressed to him his wish that he would be perfectly frank, was informed that he could not, in all probability, exist more than four -and -twenty hours longer ; 1 Henri de Lorraine, Comte d'Harcourt, son of Charles de Lor- raine, Due d'Elbeuf, was born in 1600. He distinguished him- self in 1620, at the siege of Prague, and afterwards at those of Montauban, Saint-Jean d'Ang^ly, and La Rochelle. Louis XIII. honoured him, in 1633, with the collar of his Order. He retook, in 1637, the islands of L&ins from the Spaniards, whom he beat at Guiers in 1639, at Casal and the siege of Turin in 1640, and at the taking of Coni in 1641. In 1642 he was appointed governor of Guyenne ; in 1643 Grand Equerry of France, and ambassador to England; and in 1645 Viceroy of Catalonia, where he beat the Spaniards on several occasions. Near the end of his life he was made governor of Anjou ; and died in 1666. il8 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. when, having thanked his informant, he desired to be left alone, and the chamber was immediately cleared of all his attendants. In the evening his fever augmented, and he was again twice bled. At midnight he demanded the Holy Viaticum, which was brought to him by the curate of St. Eustache, who was placing it upon a table which had previously been prepared for that purpose, when the cardinal said solemnly : " Here is my judge by whom I shall soon be judged ; and I sincerely implore him to pro- nounce my condemnation, if I have ever had any other intention save the welfare of religion and of the State." ^ On the evening of the 3d December, the queen having sent to inquire after his health, he said to her messenger : " I am very ill ; and tell her majesty, that if, in the course of my life she has considered that I have given her cause of complaint, I most humbly beg her to pardon me." The royal messenger had scarcely left the room when the cardinal was seized with a giddiness, his head fell back upon the pillow, and he expired. Thus died, at the age of fifty-eight years, in the gorgeous palace which he had himself erected, Armand Jean-Duplessis, Cardinal de Richelieu; and it is curious to contrast, as a modern author has enabled us to do, the judgment passed upon him by his contemporaries, and that which has been formed by posterity. "The cardinal," saj^s one of the former, "had in him much good and much evil. He had intellect, '^ History of France. V THE COURT OF FRANCE 119 but it was of a common order ; he was fond of beautiful objects, without understanding them ; and never possessed any delicacy of discernment for the productions of mind. He was fearfully jealous of all who had acquired a reputation. Great men, whatever might be their profession, were his ene- mies ; and all those who clashed with him have felt the weight of his vengeance. Every one whose life was beyond his reach has passed it in banishment. There have been several conspiracies formed during his administration to destroy him ; his master him- self has entered into some of them ; and, neverthe- less, by an excess of good fortune, he has triumphed over envy and his enemies, and has left the king himself on the eve of death. Finally, he has been seen on his bed of state, wept by few, despised by many, and gazed upon by the mob in such crowds that it was difficult during a whole day to approach the cardinal-palace."^ Here, three centuries later, is the second rdsimii^- drawn of his career. "The Cardinal de Richelieu, placed at nearly equal distance between Louis XL, whose aim was to abolish feudality, and the national convention, whose attempt was to crush aristocracy, appeared to have, like them, received a mission of blood from heaven. The high nobility, repulsed under Louis XHL and Francis L, almost entirely succumbed under Richelieu ; preparing by its over- throw the calm, unitarian, and despotic reign of Louis XIV., who looked around him in vain for a great noble, and found only courtiers. The eternal 1 Montr^sor. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. rebellion which, for nearly two centuries, agitated France, almost entirely disappeared under the ministry, we were about to say under the reign, of Richelieu. The Guises, who had touched with their hand the sceptre of Henri III. ; the Condes, who had placed their foot on the steps of the throne of Henri IV. ; and Gaston, who had tried upon his brow the crown of Louis XIII.; all returned, at the voice of the minister, if not into nothingness, at least into impotency. All who struggled against the iron will enclosed in that feeble body were broken like glass. One day Louis XIII., overcome by the prayers of his mother, promised to the jealous and vindictive Florentine the disgrace of the minister. A council was accordingly assembled, consisting of Marillac,^ the Due de Guise," and the Mar^chal de Bassompierre. Marillac proposed to assassinate Richelieu; De Guise to exile him; and Bassompierre to make him a State prisoner ; and each suffered the fate to which he condemned the cardinal. Bassom- pierre^ was shut up in the Bastille; the Due de 1 Louis de Marillac was gentleman-in-waiting to Henri IV., and was in 1629 appointed Marshal of France. He owed his fortune to Richelieu, whom he hoped to overthrow ; and it is said that he offered to take his life with his own hand. Richelieu, feigning to put faith in the reality of this conspiracy, which, however, was never proved, caused the marshal to be arrested in the midst of his troops in Italy, and put him upon his trial, which lasted for two years. Finally, Marillac lost his head in the Place de Grfeve on the loth of May 1632. 2 Henri, Due de Guise, son of Charles de Guise, and grandson of the Balafre, endeavoured to effect a revolution in his favour in Naples, and died in 1664 without posterity. He was the last of his race. 3 TheMardchalFrangoisdeBassompierre was born in 1 579,anddied in 1646. He was the friend and one of the favourites of Henri IV., who appointed him captain-general of the Swiss and Grisons. Made THE COURT OF FRANCE Guise was driven from France ; the head of Marillac fell on the scaffold ; and Marie de Medicis, who had solicited his disgrace, disgraced in her turn, went to die at Cologne, a death at once lingering and miser- able. And all this struggle which Richelieu sus- tained, be it well understood, he did not sustain for his own sake, but for that of France ; all the enemies against whom he combated were not his enemies only, but those of the kingdom. If he clung tenaciously to the side of a king whom he compelled to live a melancholy, unhappy, and isolated life, — whom he deprived successively of his friends, of his mistresses, and of his family, as a tree is stripped of its leaves, of its branches, and of its bark, — it was because friends, mistresses, and family exhausted the sap of the expiring royalty which had need of all its egotism to prevent it from perishing. For it was not only intestinal struggles — there was also a foreign war which had connected itself fatally with them. All those great nobles whom he decimated, all those princes of the blood whom he exiled, all those royal bastards whom he imprisoned, were inviting foreigners into France ; and these foreigners, answering eagerly to the summons, were enter- ing the country on three different sides — the English by Gulenne, the Spanish by Roussillon, and the Imperialists by Artois. He repulsed the Eng- lish by driving them from the island of Re, and Marshal of France in 1605, he exercised great power over Marie de Medicis and Louis XIII. RicheUeu, to whom he was obnoxious, caused him to be imprisoned in the Bastille in 1631 ; and he re- mained there twelve years. A clever diplomatist, a brave and judi- cious general, and a gallant courtier, he distinguished himself in several sieges, and left behind him the memoirs of his life. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. besieging La Rochelle ; the Imperialists by detach- ing Bavaria from its alliance, by suspending their treaty with Denmark, and by sowing dissension in the Catholic league of Germany ; and the Spanish by creating beside them the new kingdom of Portugal, of which Philip II. had made a province, and of which the Duke of Braganza remade a state. His measures were crafty or cruel, undoubtedly, but the result was great. Chalais fell, but Chalais had conspired with Lorraine and Spain, — Montmorency fell, but Montmorency had entered France with arms in his hand, — -Cinq-Mars fell, but Cinq-Mars had invited foreigners into the kingdom. Per- haps, without all these struggles, the vast plan, since resumed by Louis XIV., and by Napoleon, might have succeeded. He coveted the Low Countries as far as Antwerp and Malines; he dreamt of a method of wrenching Franche-Comte from Spain ; he re- united Roussillon to France. Born to be a simple priest, he became, by the sole power of his genius, not only a great politician, but also a great general ; and when La Rochelle fell before the measures to which Schomberg, the Marechal de Bassompierre, and the Due d'Angouleme were compelled to bow, he said to the king : ' Sire, I am no prophet, but I assure ■your majesty that, if you will now condescend to act as I advise, you will pacificate Italy in the month of May, subjugate the Hugonots of Languedoc in the month of July, and be on your return in the month of August.' And each of these prophecies was accomplished in its time and place, in such wise that, from that moment, Louis XIII. vowed to follow for V THE COURT OF FRANCE 123 ever thenceforward the counsels of Richelieu, by which he had so well profited in the past. Finally he died, as Montesquieu asserts, after having made his monarch enact the second character in the monarchy, but the first in Europe ; after having abased the king, but after having made the reign illustrious ; after having, finally, mowed down rebel- lion so close to the soil that the descendants of those who had composed the league could only form the Fronde ; as, after the reign of Napoleon, the suc- cessors of the Vendee of '93 could only execute the Vendue of 1832."! Such are the extreme and conflicting judgments which have been passed upon Richelieu. The truth, in all probability, lies between them. The death of the cardinal opened the gates of the Bastille to many noble names. The king, who exhibited the greatest indifference at the death of his minister, at once restored to their commissions Treville, Des Essarts, La Salle, and Tilladet ; ^ called Mazarin to the council ; and placed such un- limited confidence in M. des Noyers that he would 1 Louis XIV. et son Slide. 2 They were captains in the guard of Musketeers. The latter force originated in 1600, when Henri IV. organised, as his personal guard; a company of young men of birth, who were called the kmg's car- bines, because they were armed with that weapon. In 1622 Louis exchanged it for the musket, whence the company changed their title to that of Musketeers. They were disbanded in 1646, and re- established in 1657. A second company was raised in 1661. The first bore the name of Gray Musketeers, from the colour of their horses, which were all dappled gray ; and the second that of Black Musketeers, from the same cause. During peace the Musketeers attended the king in his hunts, during war they fought both mounted and dismounted. Reorganised in 1775, re-established in 1789, suppressed in 1791, they were again formed in 18 14, and definitely disbanded in 181 5. 124 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. not suffer any public business to be transacted in his absence. The latter did not, however, long retain his office ; for his coadjutors, having always been jealous of his favour with the cardinal, at once conspired to effect his ruin ; while Des Noyers on his side, taking umbrage at some annoyance to which they had gratuitously subjected him, demanded his dismissal of the king, by whom it was at once accorded. Cardinal Mazarin replaced him by M. le Tellier, superintendent of the army of Piedmont, whence he was summoned express to be appointed Secretary of State.^ Shortly afterwards the Marechal de Vitry, the Comte de Cramail,and the Marechal de Bassompierre, were also liberated ; and the latter, who had been " embastillised " for twelve years, was bewildered by the revolutions which had taken place in that fashion of which he was once the leader, and that Paris to whom his name had formerly been as a " household word." The great number of equipages contained in the capital especially astonished him ; while as to the men and horses, he declared that he could scarcely recognise either, the men having no beards and the horses no manes and tails. Next succeeded the reconciliation of the king and Monsieur, which had awaited the death of Richelieu for its completion ; and the egotistical and unstable prince soon forgot in his own renewed security the fate of the gallant Cinq-Mars and De Thou, who had lost their heads in his service. It 1 Louis XIV. et son Steele. V THE COURT OF FRANCE 125 may be hoped, however, that it was partly owing to his influence that the king at last remembered at the eleventh hour that his mother had died in neglect and penury in a foreign land ; for about this time he decided upon fulfilling her dying desire to be interred at St. Denis, a privilege which the hatred of Riche- lieu had refused to concede to her ; and accordingly he sent to reclaim her body which still remained in the chamber where she expired. One of the noble- men of the royal household was despatched upon this lugubrious errand ; and a religious service was performed at Cologne on the removal of the corpse, at which four thousand of the poorer inhabitants were present. The black velvet coach which con- tained the remains of the once imperious Marie de Medicis then proceeded on its way to France, stopping at every town to receive the prayers of the clergy, but without permitting the body to be carried into a church, as the ceremony required that it should proceed direct from the death-room to the royal vault ; and finally the coffin rested at St. Denis.^ Great preparations were at this period in progress for a new campaign, but the health of the king, which was rapidly failing, did not permit a hope that it could be undertaken ; and during this illness, of which Louis XIII. ultimately died. Monsieur re- ceived permission to return to Court, was reconciled with the king, and obtained the royal recognition of his marriage, which had hitherto been withheld ; as well as permission for Madame to rejoin him, on 1 Louis XIV. et son SiicU. 126 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. condition that, on her arrival at Paris, they should both make their declaration to the archbishop, in order to secure the validity of the alliance — a conces- sion which the monarch exacted rather for his own satisfaction, and as a proof of respect and obedience due to himself from the Due d 'Orleans, than for any assumed irregularity in the original ceremony. Madame was at Cambray when this proposition was submitted to her, and she had no sooner received it than she removed to a greater distance from the capital, declaring that where her honour was con- cerned she could make no concessions to any one ; and many messengers were despatched to her before she would assent, which she did at last with un- concealed repugnance. She, however, returned to France before the death of the king. The duke met her at Meudon, where the archbishop, in full costume, awaited her to receive the mutual declara- tion of the wedded pair, which was not tendered upon her part without expostulation, as she declared that nothing could be more unnecessary.-' In the latter part of February Louis XIII. had become seriously ill ; and although he appeared to revive for a time, at the commencement of April all his unfavourable symptoms returned upon him, and he began forthwith to devote himself to his religious duties. On the 20th of that month, in the presence of the Due d'Orleans, the Prince de Conde, and all the leading nobility of the Court, he declared the regency of the queen, who throughout the whole of the time stood weeping at the foot of his bed ; and 1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. V THE COURT OF FRANCE 127 on the 2 1st the christening of the dauphin took place with great state. The king had desired that he should be named Louis, and had chosen as his sponsors the Cardinal de Mazarin and the Princesse Charlotte- Marguerite de Montmorency, mother of the great Conde. The ceremony was performed in the chapel of the old palace of St. Germain, in presence of the queen ; and the prince was attired in the magnificent robes sent to him by the pope. He had then reached the age of four years and a half When, after the celebration of the rite, he was carried to the king, Louis, feeble as he was, caused him to be seated upon the bed, and then, in order to satisfy himself that his wishes had been fulfilled, demanded, " What is your name, my child ? " "Louis XIV.," answered the dauphin. "Not yet, my son, not yet," said the dying monarch; "but pray to God that it may soon be so." ^ He, how- ever, rallied once more ; and it was not until the loth of May that Dubois, one of the valets de chambre, on perceiving the dauphin enter the room and drawing back the curtains of the death-couch in order that he might be enabled to see his father, discovered the extraordinary change that had taken place in the royal countenance, by which he was so much struck that he approached the prince, and whispered, " Monseigneur, look at the king asleep, in order that you may remember him when you are older." On the 13th of the same month Louis desired his physicians to tell him if he should live till the 1 Lotus XIV. et son Such. 128 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. morrow ; when, after having consulted together, they answered that they did not think it possible. " God be praised!" was his reply; "I believe' that it is now time to take leave of all I love." He then embraced the queen tenderly, and spoke to her for some time in a low voice ; he next pressed his lips to the cheeks and brow of the dauphin, and his brother, the Due d 'Orleans, repeating his caresses several times ; then he embraced the Bishops of Meaux and Lisieux, and the other ecclesiastics who had assisted in preparing him to die ; and finally he summoned his physician, and asked him if all would soon be over. The reply was affirmative ; upon which the king requested the Bishop of Meaux to read the service for the dying ; and from that moment he never spoke again. In the afternoon of the 14th of May 1643 he expired, after a reign of thirty-three years.-' Faithful to the instructions which he had received from Richelieu in the guise of a request, the dying king had named to the queen -regent a council headed by the Prince de Conde, and composed of the cardinal Mazarin, the chancellor Seguier,^ the superintendent Boutillier, and his son Chavigny, the 1 Louis XIV. et son Steele. 2 Pierre Seguier, Peer of France, was born at Paris in 1588, and was successively Counsellor of Parliament, Maitres des Reqteetes, and Pre'sidejit a Moriier, both dignities peculiar to France, and not sus- ceptible of an intelligible translation — the former signifying a magis- trate who presented the petitions of individuals to the Council of the King, which was presided over by their chancellor ; and the latter, a president of the ancient parliaments, who was entitled to wear a peculiar cap, known as a moriier. Whence their titles. In 1633 he was made Keeper of the Privy Seals, and two years subsequently Chan- cellor of France. He had the titles of Due de Villemot, Comte de Gien, and Protector of the French Academy. V THE COURT OF FRANCE 129 secretary of state. It would appear, however, that she had received other secret instructions from a passage in the Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz, which runs thus: "M. de Beaufort,^ who had always been of the queen's party, and who even played the gallant towards her, had got it into his head to govern, for which he was less fitted than his valet de chambre. The Bishop of Beauvais, the greatest idiot in the world, assumed the semblance of prime minister ; and the first thing which he did was to demand of the Dutch that they should embrace Romanism if they wished to remain the allies of France. The queen was disgusted with this minis- terial mummery, and ordered me to go and offer the post to my father.^ When, seeing that he obstinately refused to leave his cell at the Oratory,^ she placed herself in the hands of Cardinal Mazarin. . . . Madame de Maignelais and M. de Lisieux asked the coadjutorship for me, and the queen refused it, saying that she would only grant it to my father, who would not make his appearance at the Louvre. He went but once, when the queen told him publicly that she had received an order from the late king, the night before his death, to bestow it upon me." The Due d' Orleans, whose disaffection Louis 1 Frangois de Vendome, Due de Beaufort, was the son of Cdsar de Vendome. " As this duke never expressed himself save in low and vulgar terms, and generally misplaced even those, and as he eventually made himself master of Paris, he was always called the ' King of the Markets.' " — Des Maizeaux. 2 Emanuel de Gondi, General of the Gallies, who had resigned his rank in order to retire to the convent of the Oratory. 8 The Congregation of the Oratory was a religious community established in Rome in 1 540, and was introduced into France in 1 6 1 1 by the Cardinal Pierre de BeruUe. VOL. I. , 9 I30 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. XIII. had forgiven, but by no means forgotten, was named lieutenant-general of the young king during his minority, under the authority of the regent and her council ; and thus Anne of Austria at length found herself beyond the malice of those who would fain have so poisoned the mind of her royal husband against her as to have induced him to exclude her from the regency; but that his suspicion still weighed heavily upon her was sufficiently mani- fested in the reply which he made upon his death- bed to M. de Chavigny, who was endeavouring to convince him of her entire innocence. "In my pre- sent state," said the expiring monarch, " I ought to forgive her ; but I ought not to place faith in her." M. de Beaufort, indignant that the queen should have elected Mazarin to her confidence in his de- spite, conducted himself in the most imprudent manner. He refused the abundant favours which she pressed upon him, and behaved most dis- respectfully to Monsieur. He defied the authority of the Prince de Conde, and formed a party to oppose the measures of the council.^ It will be remembered that the Due de Vendome had been imprisoned by Richelieu, who on that occasion took possession of his government of Brittany, which, at his death, he bequeathed to the Marechal de la Meilleraye — a transfer which the Vendome family refused to recognise ; and the Due de Beaufort — young, popular, and relying upon the support of the queen — had declared that at the death of Louis 1 Mdmoires du Cardinal de Retz. — " It was called the party of the ' Importants.' " — Mademoiselle de Montpensier. V THE COURT OF FRANCE 131 XIII. he would recover, either by fair means or by force, the government which had been wrenched from his father. Thus, as soon as the king was believed to be dead, although such was not yet the case, the opposite factions at once declared themselves. The Marechal de la Meilleraye sum- moned his friends about him ; M. de Beaufort followed his example, and Monsieur acted in the same manner. In this emergency the queen summoned the Due de Beaufort to her presence, and, bestowing upon him the appellation of "the most honest man in the kingdom," entrusted to him the command of the Chateau-Neuf, in which the royal children were residing — a favour which gave great umbrage to the Due d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde. On the day of the king's death Anne of Austria had a private interview with Monsieur, in which every arrangement was mutually agreed upon ; and three days afterwards she had so perfectly succeeded in effecting her purpose, that all the precautions taken by Louis XIII. to secure the fulfilment of his last wishes were rendered abor- tive. The parliament had declared the queen regent of the kingdom, " to hold the guardianship and education of the person of his majesty and the whole administration of affairs, while the Due d'Orleans, his uncle, was to be lieutenant-general of all the provinces of the kingdom, under the authority of the queen, and first councillor, also under her authority. "In his absence this presidency was transferred 132 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. to the Prince de Conde, but a?lways under the autho- rity of the queen. " Moreover, it remained in the power of the queen to select such persons as she should see fit, to deliberate at the said councils, on such matters as should be deferred to them, without being compelled to accede to the plurality of voices." Thus it will at once be seen that Anne of Austria had wholly emancipated herself from the authority of the council, which remained entirely at her discretion, and that she was in fact, as well as name, the regent of France, which had already more than once been subjected to the same questionable rule. Even so early as 1160, Alix de Champagne, daughter of Thibaut, fourth Comte de Champagne, and widow of Louis VII., not only held the regency during the minority of her son, but subsequently during his prowess in the Holy Land. Mazarin and Chavigny were alike absent when this declaration was made, and it was believed that they were both in disgrace ; but it was not so ; for, as we have already seen, after the de- cided refusal of M. de Gondi to accept office, the queen appointed the cardinal her prime minister ; and this was no sooner known than a host of old suspicions, which had been forgotten amid the rapid march of events, were again revived. It was asserted that ever since 1635 the cardinal had been the lover of the queen ; and it was by this circumstance that her enemies, unfortunately A W, W 1 .?-- -^'^z ^ "tSr-j^^lY//^:/ ■: i: ■','> :\ 'S«,^i^^ '^'■:>^ri^-^ -.S- ■ -'^y '■ ■■ _Ridi=rd_IlEn+loy & S.j ^" THE COURT OF FRANCE 3i7 tion of a great general, and his renown in arms rivalled that of Turenne ; there was little left to acquire as a soldier, and he was anxious to measure his strength as a politician with that of the same opponent. " The Prince de Conde," says De Retz, " was born a warrior, a thing which never happened save to himself, Caesar, and Spinola ; he has equalled the first, and has surpassed the second. Intrepidity is one of the least traits of his character. Nature gave him an intellect as great as his heart ; and fortune, in assigning him to a warlike century, enabled the latter to display all its strength, while birth, or rather education, in a house at once at- tached and in submission to the Cabinet limited the former too narrowly. He was not imbued at a sufficiently early age with those vast and general maxims which are, and constitute, what is called consistency. He had not time to acquire them of himself, because he was forestalled in his youth by the unforeseen fall of high interests, and by the habit of success. This defect has been the cause that, with the least bitter tendencies in the world, he has been guilty of more than one injustice ; that, with the heart of Alexander, he has not been ex- empted, any more than him, of weakness ; that, with a wonderful mind, he has fallen into impru- dences ; that having all the great qualities of Frangois de Guise, he has not, on certain occasions, served the State so well as he ought to have done ; while, having all those of Henry of the same name, he has not carried faction so far as he might have done. He could not render justice to his own merit, which 3i8 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. is a defect, but one which is at once rare and beautiful."^ Madame de Longueville soon succeeded in mak- ing him comprehend his position accurately. All those who had served against the Court were re- stored to favour, and had, moreover, made their own conditions before they returned to their al- legiance. He, on the contrary, had adhered through- out to its interests, and had not even obtained the cardinal's hat, which he was so anxious to secure to his brother. This was bad enough ; but to a man jealous of power, as he was, there still remained something worse behind. His younger brother, — feeble, deformed, of bad address — in one word, neither a warrior nor a diplomatist, — had been (thanks to the name he bore) appointed general- issimo of the Parisian forces. For a brief period M. de Conti, with all his disadvantages, had been one of the three or four individuals who had reigned in the capital of France. What, therefore, might not the prince himself have done had he filled the same position ? How proud a part might he not have enacted ? Alike a soldier and a man of genius, it was impossible to limit the range of probabilities. He would assuredly have reigned alone ; and who should say that the sceptre, thus secured for an in- terval, could ever have been wrested from his grasp ? The duchess was eloquent ; while her favourite brother, newly restored to her confidence and affec- tion, listened with avidity ; and Madame de Longue- ville had by no means, even at this point, terminated 1 Mhnoires die Cardinal de Rets. xii THE COURT OF FRANCE 319 her representations. She had felt too fully and too deeply the charm of her temporary regality to lift the tiara of popularity and power calmly from her brow, and to see it deposited upon its cushion await- ing another hand ; and it was consequently with flashing eyes and throbbing pulse that she pro- ceeded to remind him how much the projected alliance between the houses of Vendome and Maza- rin must militate against his interests. M. de Beaufort, a less accomplished soldier than himself, but quite as brave and infinitely more popular, as- pired to the post which he occupied ; and whatever obstacles might have before presented themselves, were about to be rendered nugatory by the marriage of Victoria Mancini. All these arguments produced their effect, and the result was, that during his so- journ at Compiegne the prince had been moody and discontented, and that when he arrived at La Fere with the cardinal, he took still less pains to disguise his ill-humour, which so visibly increased that Mazarin at last grew weary of the assumption of the great captain, and lost temper in his turn. This was pre- cisely what the prince desired : he only sought an opportunity to break with the Court ; and when things had come to this extremity, he did so without hesitation. The Comte d'Harcourt was then recalled from the army in Spain, and ordered to supersede M. de Conde in his command in Flanders, upon which the prince retired to his government of Burgundy, thoroughly disaffected. During this time the pamphlets — to which we 320 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. have already alluded — pursued their course. Those which merely attacked the cardinal caused laughter, and no one interfered with them ; but others which were written against the king, the regent, and the Church, occasionally created great uneasiness. Two printers at this time published works in which the queen was so severely handled that they were legally pursued. History has preserved at once the name of one of these printers, and of the work which he put forth — the culprit was called Marlot, and the pamphlet was entitled "The Guardian of the Queen's Bed." Both the delinquents were put upon their trial, and condemned to be hanged, and the sentence was about to be executed when the populace collected round the gibbet. While the culprit who was to be the first to suffer had the cord about his neck, and his foot upon the ladder, some one suddenly exclaimed that both he and his companion were about to lose their lives merely for having written some verses against Mazarin. The mob caught at the words, uttered loud shouts of fury, rushed upon the gibbet, and carried off the two culprits in triumph, who, at the first opportunity which presented itself, declin- ing any further ovation, prudently disappeared. Mazarin was still more safe at Compiegne than at Paris. All these events greatly annoyed the partisans of the cardinal, who had returned to Paris ; and among these was the Marquis de Jarz6, who was one of the wittiest men at Court,^ and rivalled by his 1 Rene Duplessis, Marquis de Jarz^, and Sieur de Plessy Bourr^. He was appointed Captain of the Royal Guards in 1648. XII THE COURT OF FRANCE 321 repartees and epigrams even Angevin, the Prince de Guimenee/ and Bautru ! ^ Resolved to suppress the demonstrations of enmity which were exhibited against his patron, Jarze took an opportunity of insinuating that the Due de Beaufort had pur- posely avoided a meeting with him and his friends in a public thoroughfare, adding that he would take the wall of him wherever they might chance to meet, even should it be within the precincts of the palace. This defiance was repeated to the duke, and the result was that M. de Beaufort went, ac- companied by a party of his intimate associates, to a tavern where Jarze was supping with the Due de Caudale, Le Freton, Fontrailles, Ruvigny, the Commanders of Jars ^ and Souvre, and some other of their friends ; and he had no sooner entered the apartment which they occupied than he seized one corner of the table-cloth, threw everything on the ground, and overturned the table. Swords were drawn, and there was a great tumult, but no one was either killed or wounded. The insulted party instantly resolved to challenge the Due de Beaufort, but they were aware that they could not venture to meet him and his friends in Paris, where his party was all-powerful, and ^ Hercule de Rohan, Prince de Guimenee, Due de Montbazon, born in i 568. 2 Guillaume Bautru, Comte de Ceron,born at Antwerp in i 588, died in 1663. He was one of the wits of the seventeenth century, and a member of the French Academy. He was also one of the creatures of Richeheu, and afterwards of Mazarin ; Grand Master of the Cere- monies, and Minister-Plenipotentiary in Flanders, Spain, England, and Savoy. 3 Gabriel de Rochechouart, Due de Mortemart, Peer of France, First Gentleman of the Chamber. He died in 1675. VOL. I. 2 I 322 LOUIS XIV. AND where they would themselves have incurred the risk of being murdered by the fishwomen ; and in consequence of this fact they all went in a body to St. Germain, where Monsieur succeeded with some difficulty in making up the quarrel.^ Their escapade, however, nearly proved an ob- stacle to the marriage of the Due de Mercoeur and Victoria Mancini, for the cardinal was enraged at the insult which had been offered to his adherents, and declared that he would not give his niece to the brother of a man who hated him. Such a resolution could not, nevertheless, be long entertained under the circumstances, for Mazarin, little as he might be inclined to avow it, was too subtle not to feel the advantage which must accrue to himself from an alliance with a descendant of Henri IV. While this absurd contention was engrossing the Court, Charles II. had arrived at Peronne, whence a courier was forwarded to apprise their majesties of the fact. The queen immediately communicated the news of his advent to Mademoiselle, saying with a smile, "Your suitor is coming;" and it is evi- dent, notwithstanding the disclaimers of the princess, that she was greatly excited by his reappearance ; for, blended with the morgue and egotism of her style, snatches of the most extraordinarily simple and straightforward frankness may be detected. In the present instance she says, with almost girlish unguarded ness : — " When the Abbe de la Riviere spoke to me on the subject, I told him that I was dying with anxiety 1 Mdmoires de Mademoiselle de Montjiensier. XII THE COURT OF FRANCE 323 for the English king to say soft things to me, because I did not yet know what they meant, for no one had ever dared to address them to me ; not on account of my quaHty, since many had been said to queens of my acquaintance, but because it was well known that I was not coquettishly inclined. " On the day of his arrival we all rose early to prepare for him ; he was only to dine at Compiegne, and it was necessary to set off betimes to meet him. I had caused my hair to be curled, which I seldom did ; and as I entered the carriage of the queen, she exclaimed, 'It is easy to distinguish those who expect their gallants. How she is dressed!' I was quite prepared to reply that those who had themselves had lovers knew how to act, and were aware of the trouble which it was necessary to take in order to please them ; and I might even have added that as mine was to be my husband, I had reason to be particular about my appearance ; but I did not dare to say anything. We went forward a league to meet him. When he appeared every one alighted ; he first saluted their majesties, and then myself. I thought him very good-looking, much more so than when he left France ; and if his intel- lect had appeared to me to equal his person, perhaps he might have pleased me on that occasion. When he was in the carriage the king questioned him about dogs, horses, the Prince of Orange, and the sport in that country ; to all which he answered in French. The queen wished to have some particu- lars of his political position, but he did not reply to her inquiries; and when he was asked at different 324 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. times to explain several very serious facts which were of considerable importance to his personal interests, he excused himself from answering by urging that he could not speak our language. I own that, from that moment, I resolved not to con- clude the marriage, for I conceived a very poor opinion of him, being a king at his age, and having no knowledge of his affairs. As soon as we arrived, dinner was served up. He ate no ortolans, but flung himself upon a piece of beef and a shoulder of mutton, as if there had been nothing else at table. After dinner the queen amused herself, and left him with me. He was a quarter of an hour without saying a single word, but I am willing to believe that his silence was the result of respect rather than of any want of passion; though on this occasion I frankly confess that I could have wished it to have been somewhat less plainly exhibited. As his supineness began to weary me, I called Madame de Comminges to my side, that she might endeavour to make him talk, in which she fortunately succeeded. M. de la Riviere shortly afterwards approached me, saying, ' He looked at you during the whole of the dinner, and is looking at you still.' To which 1 replied, ' He has plenty of time to look at me before he will please me, if he does not speak.' ' Ah,' said he, ' you will not admit that he has said sweet things to you.' 'Pardon me,' I retorted; 'come near me when he is at my side, and you will see how he sets about it.' When the queen rose I approached the King of England ; and, in order to make him talk, I inquired for some persons whom I had seen in his xii THE COURT OF FRANCE 325 suite, but he answered my questions without the sHghtest gallantry. When the hour for his depart- ure arrived, we got into our carriages, and bore him company to the middle of the forest, where every one alighted, as they had done on his arrival. He took leave of the king, and then approached me, accompanied by Lord Germain, saying, 'I believe that my Lord Germain, who speaks French better than I do, has explained to you my sentiments and my intention ; I am your very obedient servant.' I answered that I was equally his obedient servant. Germain paid me a great many compliments, and after they were over the king bowed and departed." ^ We consider this description of the courtship of the " Merry Monarch " as sufficiently curious to afford its own apology to our readers for the length of the quotation. Meanwhile, much as she detested the Prince de Conde, the regent quite understood that she was not strong enough to dispense with his services. He had, as we have stated, declined the command of the army in the present campaign, and had retired in disgust to Macon, in Burgundy, the seat of his government, where he remained so long that the Court at last became alarmed ; and the queen, find- ing it absolutely necessary to temporise, wrote him one of those autograph letters in which she was such an adept when she had an important point to gain, full of tender professions and pious affection. The prince was not proof against such an attention, but prepared at once to return to Compiegne, a conces- 1 Mc'vwires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 326 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. sion which so delighted the cardinal, whose nerves had been considerably shaken by the effects of an estrangement of which he was himself the author, that he went to meet him ; and he was overwhelmed on all sides with homage and attention, which was bestowed the more lavishly as there was every reason to apprehend that he would be displeased with the regent for having appointed the Due de Vendome to the rank of an admiral, in consequence of the marriage of the cardinal's niece with M. de Mercceur. The Court party flattered themselves that the prince would be conciliated by fine words and empty honours ; but as he was well aware that he had nobly earned whatever distinction might be accorded to him, he evidently did not feel himself under such an obligation as they had anticipated. The queen had only awaited his arrival to nego- tiate her re-entrance into Paris ; while the coadjutor, who considered this re-entrance inevitable, resolved to appropriate the merit of it, and accordingly set out for Compiegne, alighted at the door of the palace, and while ascending the staircase, and on the landing, met, as he asserts in his Mdmoires, a short man, dressed entirely in black, who slipped a paper into his hand upon which was written, " If you enter the house of the king, you are a dead man." M. de Retz was not, however, to be deterred by an anonymous threat, and accordingly he put the warning into his pocket and continued his way. The queen received him admirably, and urged him several times to see the cardinal ; but the coad- jutor, who had no wish to sacrifice his popularity in xii THE COURT OF FRANCE 327 Paris by any such concession, resolutely refused, upon which the regent almost lost her temper. M. de Retz remained, however, perfectly unmoved, suffered her to say whatever she pleased, and when she at last ceased speaking, merely replied that, from the moment in which he should become reconciled with the cardinal, all his influence would be lost, and he should no longer be in a position to serve her interests. A few days after the visit of the coadjutor Madame de Chevreuse received permission to wait upon Anne of Austria, for she was still, although not personally, yet as regarded her connections, an enemy whom it was necessary to conciliate. The duchess had, however, lost all confidence in her once royal friend ; and expressed so much reluctance to venture herself at Court that the first president ultimately found it necessary to pledge himself that she should not suffer any annoyance, and his word was redeemed by her return in health and safety ; but her pride had been stung by the coldness of the welcome she had received, which, although reaching, as it did, the extremest limits of courtesy, was ex- tended no farther; while she had the mortification of being dismissed by the regent without the custom- ary embrace. On the morrow it was the turn of the Prince de Conti, who went to Compiegne on the pretext of seeing his brother, and who, having been accident- ally met by the cardinal, was invited to dine with him — an invitation which he at once accepted. About this time news arrived that the Comte 328 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. d'Harcourt had forced the Escaut/ between Bou- chain and Valenciennes, overcoming a body of 800 of the enemy's horse ; and although this victory was comparatively of slender importance, it was so well-timed that the queen resolved to profit by the circumstance to return at once to the capital, which she acccordingly did in August 1649, after an absence of six months. The accounts given of this ceremony differ greatly in spirit, although not in substance. " The entry of the king that day," says Madame de Motteville, "was an actual prodigy, and a great victory for the minister. Never had so dense a crowd followed the carriage of the sovereign ; and it seemed, by the public joy, as though the past had been a dream. The hated Mazarin sat near one of the windows with the prince, and was so stared at by all who followed the king that you would have declared they had never seen him before. They said to each other, 'There's Mazarin.' The populace, who impeded the carriages, which could not make way through them, blessed the king and queen, and spoke in praise of Mazarin. Some said he was handsome, others held out their hands, and told him that they loved him ; while others again declared that they would go and drink his health ; 1 The Escaut (formerly called the Scaldis), the Scheldt of the Dutch, a river belonging to France and Germany, takes its source in France, near the town of Catelet (Aisne), traverses the Departement du Nord, passing by Cambray, Valenciennes, and Cond^ ; and then entering Belgium, laves Toumay, Audenarde, Ghent, and Antwerp. The Escaut separates at Fort Lillo into two branches — the Western Escaut {Hand, or Wesfer-Schelde), which throws itself into the Northern Ocean, near Flessingua ; and the Eastern Escaut {Ooster- Schelde), which enters the same sea near Helvoetsluys. xil THE COURT OF FRANCE 329 and at last, when the queen had retired, they began to make bonfires, and to bless Mazarin for having brought them back their king."^ " The Court was received," states the Cardinal de Retz, "as kings have always been, and always will be — that is to say, with acclamations which signify little enough to any save those who seek to delude themselves. An insignificant king's attorney of the chatelet, who was a sort of madman, hired twelve or fifteen women, who, at the entrance of the faubourg, cried ' Long live his eminence ! ' when they saw Mazarin in the carriage of the king ; and his eminence forthwith believed that he was master of Paris. At the end of four days, however, he discovered that he had fearfully deceived himself" "" "The king returned to Paris," writes Made- moiselle in her turn, "and all the city companies went as far as St. Denis to meet him. It was an unexampled confusion of people, and I never *was so wearied in my life. I was in the carriage of the queen ; it was excessively hot ; and we were from three o'clock in the afternoon till eight in the even- ing getting from Le Bourget to Paris, although the distance amounts only to two short leagues. The cries of ' Long live the king ! ' were continuous, and the people uttered them with the more joy because they had not seen his majesty for a long time, and his return at the conclusion of a war appeared to compel them to exhibit their delight in 1 Mhnoires jiotir setvir d. VHistoire d'Anne cTAutriche, par Madame de Motteville. 2 Mimoires du Cardinal de Rets. 33° LOUIS XIV. AND chap. a greater degree. Although it gave me a good deal of gratification, I was nevertheless stunned, and had a terrible headache."^ It must be mentioned, however, that at the close of her glowing description even Madame de Motte- ville is frank enough to confess that Mazarin had caused money to be distributed to the populace ; while other authorities assert that, despite his avarice, the minister devoted as much as 100,000 livres to the preparation of this transitory triumph. Be this as it may, it is certain that it had one very injurious effect upon the regent ; for, while she received all these acclamations as genuine, she believed them to be a sign of the approba- tion accorded by the people to all her previous measures. In the evening there was a grand reception at the Palais-Royal ; and while the cardinal went, as he said, to repose himself in his own apartment, Monsieit7' conducted the Due de Beaufort through the private rooms, and presented him to the queen, when he gave her repeated assurances of his loyalty and devotion ; and as he was the only leader of the Fronde who had not yet been to pay his court, either at Compiegne or at St. Germain, since the peace, every one was anxious to see how he would acquit himself Nothing could exceed the urbanity with which the queen received his homage, nor the kindness with which she assured him that all the past should be forgotten ; and ultimately each re- tired without attaching the slightest faith to what 1 Manoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. XII THE COURT OF FRANCE 331 the other had said. It was, perhaps, unfortunate for both the actors in this scene that the interview took place in the very room in which M. de Beau- fort had been arrested seven years before ; but, nevertheless, on the following day the regent was evidently so well satisfied with herself and with everything about her that she did not appear to remember that she had ever left Paris. The festival of St. Louis occurred a short time afterwards, on which occasion the king went on horseback to the Jesuits' convent in the Rue St. Antoine, accompanied by all the princes and great nobles who were in the capital, elegantly attired, and mounted upon horses covered with rich hous- ings ; while the cardinal, who was not celebrated for his personal courage, actually joined him there, after having traversed the whole city in his coach, almost without attendants, and, stranger still, without meet- ing with the least annoyance. Mademoiselle also followed the queen, and upon reaching the convent was informed by her majesty that news of the empress's death had arrived, and that on this oc- casion everything should be done to secure her own marriage with the imperial widower. Mademoi- selle thanked her with great humility, and confesses that the tidings gave her considerable pleasure. When the Court returned to the Palais- Royal, the cardinal had, in his turn, a long conversation with the princess, and told her decidedly that he should send an envoy to Germany to offer a compliment of condolence to the emperor from their majesties ; and that he would be careful that the messenger should 332 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. be a personal friend of her own, who would be zealous to forward her interests. Charles II., in the meanwhile, who was only to have remained a fortnight in France, had lingered there for three months ; but, as the Court were at Paris, and he resided with his mother at St. Germain, he was very seldom in the society of the princess. When his approaching departure was announced. Mademoiselle went to pay her respects to the queen, and to take leave of himself, upon which occasion the queen said that she felt she ought to rejoice with her niece at the death of the Empress of Germany, as, although the negotiation for her marriage had failed with the emperor on a former occasion, there was no doubt but it would now be successful. The princess replied, with affected care- lessness, that she bestowed no thought upon the subject ; when the queen immediately and earnestly rejoined that there was a young man then present who fancied that a king of eighteen years of age' was better than an emperor of fifty with four child- ren ; and indulged in a great deal of banter of the same description, remarking somewhat bitterly in conclusion that her son was too poor and too un- fortunate for so great a princess ; after which, sud- denly softening, she whispered, as she pointed to one of the English ladies of her suite, that her son was in love with her, and that he was fearful lest Mademoiselle should hear it ; and bade her remark how disconcerted he was to see them thus brought together, lest she should mention the circumstance. When Charles withdrew, the queen requested Ma- XII THE COURT OF FRANCE 333 DEMOISELLE to accompany her to her closet, where, having previously closed the door, she said that her son had requested her to apologise to the princess, if the offer which she had made to her at Compiegne had excited her displeasure, an idea of which he could not divest himself : that, as to herself, she had endeavoured to decline the commission, but that he had so earnestly entreated her to fulfil it that she could not refuse ; that she thought, as the princess did, that she would have been miserable with him, and she loved her too well to wish it, although it would have been fortunate for him personally if she could have been induced to share his unhappy fate ; but, meanwhile, all she could hope was that he might ultimately be successful in regaining his kingdom, and that Mademoiselle might then be prevailed upon to accept his hand. The princess, somewhat embarrassed by this exhortation, replied as well and as gratefully as she could under such circumstances, and then took her leave, in order to proceed to the abbey of St. Louis at Poissy, where her two younger sisters had been placed during the Fronde. The young Duke of York having volunteered to accompany her if she would afterwards leave him at St. Germain, Charles proposed also to join the party ; but to this arrangement she would not consent, alleging that the duke being a mere youth, she could consent to his wish without impropriety, but that in the case of his majesty she felt herself compelled to refuse. Charles, however, was not to be so readily denied ; and having prevailed upon his mother to accompany Mademoiselle, all feasible 334 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. objection was removed, and accordingly the queen, the princess, and the two princes all travelled in Mademoiselle's coach ; and her royal aunt profited by the opportunity to dilate throughout the whole journey upon the admirable terms on which her son would live with his wife when he should marry ; loving only her, and dismissing from his mind all his previous follies, — an assertion which he gravely confirmed, declaring that he could not understand how any rational man who loved an agreeable woman could attach himself elsewhere ; that, as for himself, whatever inclination he might previously have felt for any other person, it would be at an end from the very moment in which he became a husband. The princess remained but a short time at Poissy, as it was getting late ; and after taking leave of the queen, was led to her carriage by Charles, who paid her many compliments, without, however, for an instant divesting himself of his reserve, and she drove off quite satisfied ; for having, as she expresses it, once more fallen into the snare of the imperial marriage, nothing that he could have said would have made any impression upon her. It is curious to contrast both the demeanour and professions of Charles II. at that period with his bearing and principles in after-life. Some time subsequently Mademoiselle was attacked in her turn by smallpox, and, except the Prince de Conde, every one evinced great anxiety for her recovery. He alone failed to leave his name at her door, which augmented the hatred she had xil THE- COURT OF FRANCE 335 always felt towards him ; and her health was no sooner re-established than she attended the con- firmation of the two young princes, Monsieur and Mademoiselle being the sponsors of the king ; while the Prince de Conde and the princess-dowager, his mother, acted as those of the Due d'Anjou. CHAPTER XIII Hollow reconciliations — Arrogance of the Prince de Conde — Defiance of Mazarin — " Adieu, Mars !" — The tabouret — A new affront — Marriage of the Due de Richelieu and Mademoiselle de Pons — The cardinal and Madame de Chevreuse — A war of wits — Meditated arrest of the Princes of Lorraine — Autograph letter to the coadjutor — His distrust of the regent — Sincerity of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Stipulations of the coad- jutor — Treachery of the Abbe de la Riviere — The Due d'Orleans and Madame de Soyon — Adhesion of Monsieur to the conspiracy — The cardinal's secretary — Apprehensions of Madame de Conde — Arrest of the princes — The journey to Vincennes — Public excitement — Flight of the Duchesse de Longueville — Separation of the duchess and her daughter — The Princesses de Conde banished from the Court — The queen-regent at Rouen — Disgust of Madame de Longueville — Her escape — Her arrival in Holland — Departure of the Due de Bouillon and Mare- chal Turenne — Return of the Court to Paris. All these seeming reconciliations at Court were, however, as will be readily understood, merely con- ventional and had no solid basis. There were too many and too virulent jealousies beneath the sur- face — too many remembrances of past power on the part of the pardoned, and too many memories of mortification on that of the pardoning. More- CHAP, xni THE COURT OF FRANCE 337 over, the equality of rank among the principal actors was so great that, supplying by their influ- ence the slight difference which existed, they were in no mood for implicit and unquestioning sub- mission in the one party ; while presuming upon the royal prerogative and the time-hallowed privi- leges by which they were built in, they had no inclination to offer concession in the other. The Prince de Conde was especially irksome to the Court ; as, aware of the large share he had taken in the preservation of that throne which made the strength of his adversaries, he became every day more haughty and more exacting. He considered that he had fulfilled all his engagements when he brought the king back in safety to Paris, and con- tinually threatened to withdraw to his government. The projected marriage of the Due de Mercceur and Victoria Mancini moreover annoyed him bit- terly. He had learnt the private reception of M. de Beaufort, and he saw ministerial favours about to be showered down upon the house of Vendome, which he detested ; while, urged by his sister, the Duchesse de Longueville, to exact the government of Pont de I'Arche which had been promised to her husband, he could not compel compliance with his demand. His pretensions, well-founded as they were, alarmed and annoyed both the regent and the cardinal ; and at length one evening, when he was per- sisting in his claim even more resolutely than usual, Mazarin, contrary to his general custom, answered him very abruptly; upon which he inquired if his eminence desired that there should be war between them ? VOL. I. 22 338 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. " I do not seek to excite hostilities," replied the minister; "but if you commence them, prince, I must necessarily defend myself." This calm defiance was too much for the for- bearance of M. de Conde, who, taking up his hat, and looking at the cardinal with the sarcastic smile which was peculiar to him, bowed profoundly, and saying, " Adieu, Mars," quietly left the room. The rejoinder had been overheard ; and on the following day all Paris called the cardinal nothing but the god Mars. It was now universally be- lieved that the prince was definitively embroiled with the minister ; and the most zealous of the Frondeurs were already leaving their names at the door of M. de Cond6, when the Due d'Orleans, urged by the Abbe de la Riviere, who was trembling for his seat in the conclave, succeeded in effecting at least a seeming reconciliation between them. One of the clauses of this new treaty of peace was, however, that the Princesse de Marsillac and Madame de Pons^ should have the honours of the tabouret;^ and, in virtue of this concession made 1 Mademoiselle de Pons was a charming and witty person of the queen's household ; admirably shaped, with a very pleasing face, although, perhaps, of somewhat too high a complexion ; and had been loved by the Due de Guise who caused the revolt in Naples. 2 The tabouret was a small four-legged stool, without back or arms. To have the tabouret was, in the old .French Court, a right possessed by certain persons to place themselves on this stool, or on a folding-seat, in the presence of the queen. The tabouret was ori- ginally conceded only to princesses or duchesses ; but it was after- wards allowed to all such ladies as occupied the first rank in the queen's household, and whose husbands had a right to an arm-chair in the king's apartment ; especially when they were dukes and peers. From the reign of Frangois II., cardinals, ambassadors, duchesses, and ladies whose husbands were grandees of Spain, as well as the wives of chancellors and of keepers of the seals, were permitted to occupy them. xiii THE COURT OF FRANCE 339 to the friend of his sister and to the wife of her lover, the prince consented to go through the comedy of another peacemaking. But even here he was destined to be deprived of his triumph ; for this affair of the tabourets was of more importance to the French Court than a new campaign, and presented in point of fact an unheard-of innovation upon its venerable etiquette ; for neither the wife of the Prince de Marsillac nor the widow of Frangois Alexandre d'Albret could advance a claim to so marked a distinction. All the nobility, conse- quently, rose against this presumption, and held meetings upon the subject, at one of which, in the hotel of the Marquis de Montglat, Grand Master of the Ceremonies, a protestation against the grant was signed. This was a new cause of displeasure for M. de Conde against the queen ; as, in order to prove that the concession had been forced from her, she permitted her most intimate friends to join the opposition, which soon acquired so much import- ance that she considered it necessary to assure the prince that she felt herself compelled to yield to so general a demonstration ; and, in consequence, four marshals were appointed to announce to the assembly of the nobles that the regent withdrew from Madame de Pons and the Princesse de Mar- sillac the favour which she had conceded to them. An opportunity of revenge soon offered itself to the Prince de Conde, who did not fail to make it available. The Due de Richelieu, second nephew to the late cardinal, had fallen in love with 340 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Madame de Pons, from whom the queen had just wrested the tabouret ; but his passion was disap- proved by the Court, for M. de Richelieu being governor of Havre, his marriage with Madame de Pons became a matter of serious importance. She was, as we have already stated, the intimate friend of the Duchesse de Longueville, who already had, through her husband, too much influence in that province ; and for this very reason the prince resolved upon the accomplishment of an union which every one declared to be impossible. He conducted the lovers to a house which the duchess possessed at Trie, where their marriage took place, he himself acting as the witness of the bridegroom ; and the ceremony had no sooner taken place than he started them to Havre, in order that the duke might take immediate possession of his govern- ment ; and having done this, he returned imme- diately to Court, and openly boasted that M. de Longueville now possessed another fortified town in Normandy. This last exploit cruelly wounded both the queen and Mazarin, who thenceforth vowed the ruin of M. de Conde ; and they were still writhing under the blow when Madame de Chevreuse, who had been in a great measure restored to favour, went to pay her new-year's visit to Anne of Austria, where she found the cardinal, who, as she was about to retire, led her into the bay of a window, remarking that he had just heard her make great professions of regard to the queen, and was anxious to know why, if they were sincere, she did not induce her friends to xiii THE COURT OF FRANCE 341 espouse the interests of her majesty. The duchess repHed that it was impossible, as the queen was no longer a sovereign, but merely the very humble ser- vant of the Prince de Conde. The cardinal retorted that the regent could not do impossibilities, but that if she could assure herself of certain persons, she could do a great deal ; that, as it was, the Due de Beaufort was at the disposal of Madame de Montbazon ; Madame de Montbazon at that of Vigneul \^ and the coadjutor at that of Here he paused, for he had not assurance enough to complete his sentence, but the duchess was less delicate, and she finished it for him by pronouncing the name of her daughter. The cardinal laughed somewhat sarcastically, and when he had enjoyed his jest, Madame de Chevreuse rendered it still more palatable by adding that she would answer both for the one and the others. Mazarin took her at her word ; and upon this under- standing desired her to keep their secret, and to return to the palace in the evening. The duchess was punctual. She had retained all her passion for intrigue, and had been so long compelled to remain inactive that she was delighted when the queen confided to her the desire she felt to arrest the prince, his brother, and M. de Longueville simul- taneously. One thing only deterred her, as she declared to the duchess, and that was her uncertainty as to whether the coadjutor would lend himself to this arrest ; and if the Due d'Orleans, without 1 Vigneul was one of the gentlemen of the Prince de Conde's household, and entirely devoted to his interests. 342 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. whose co-operation it could not be ventured upon, might be persuaded to keep the secret, not from the prince himself, but from his confidant, the Abbe de la Riviere, who was exerting all his energies to maintain a good understanding between M. de Conde and Monsieur. After a moment's reflection, Madame de Che- vreuse answered for this also, only asking from the queen some written document which she might show to him, should he doubt the authority under which she acted. On a gesture from the cardinal, the request was granted, and Anne of Austria wrote with her own hand the note that follows : — " I cannot believe, notwithstanding both the past and the present, that the coadjutor is not in my interests. I beg him to wait upon me without the knowledge of any one, save Madame and Made- moiselle de Chevreuse. This name will be his surety. Anne." Armed with these credentials, the duchess ultimately left the palace radiant with new life. She had now an important secret in her keeping, and was about to become herself an actor in a scene which must convulse the entire nation. She was no longer the powerless and forsaken exile ; the wheel of life had turned once more, and she was again the trusted favourite of a powerful sovereign. It, however, now remained for her to redeem the pledge that she had given ; and she could not con- ceal from herself that in answering for the actions of the coadjutor, even under any circumstances, strin- XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 343 gent and binding though they might be, she had entailed upon herself a great risk of failure. On her return from the Palais- Royal Madame de Chevreuse found M. de Retz awaiting her, who at once discovered that she had some important com- munication to make, from the fact that her daughter, whom she had tutored during her drive, began im- mediately to speak of Mazarin, and to question him as to his resolution should the cardinal propose a reconciliation. Nor did he remain long in doubt that this attempt was about to be made, for Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, who did not dare to speak openly before the duchess, affected to let her handkerchief fall to the ground, and when M. de Retz stooped and restored it to her, she pressed his hand emphatically, in order to make him understand that she was merely acting under coercion. The coadjutor began to reflect, and his first im- pulse was a decidedly negative one ; for some time previously he had refused to participate in a similar negotiation to which the duchess had endeavoured to urge him, and had subsequently been informed that the advances made by the regent towards a reconciliation were a mere snare, the intention hav- ing been to conceal the Due de Grammont behind a tapestry screen, in order that he might be enabled to inform the prince that the famous Frondeurs, whom he was occasionally inclined to support, were only anxious to save themselves individually by aban- doning their party, when, by so doing, they could advance their own interests. The plot had signally failed, it is true, but it had engendered increased 344 LOUIS XIV. AND distrust and suspicion ; and of this fact the duchess had been aware when she required a written evidence from the queen which must exonerate herself. Nevertheless, the coadjutor having reason to place implicit faith in the exasperation of the regent against the Prince de Conde (which was by no means unfounded, as he had encouraged the Marquis de Jarze in a boast which he had made, of being essentially, rather than creditably, in her favour), he felt inclined to believe that on this occasion her in- tentions were sincere. When she saw him waver, Mademoiselle de Chevreuse could forbear no longer, but exerted all her influence to induce him again to refuse the overtures of the Court, which she declared would entail certain ruin both upon his person and his fortunes. The duchess, however, persisted in her importunity, and the coadjutor at last prevailed upon her daughter, who had thrown herself, drowned in tears, upon a sofa, to trust to his discretion ; and when she had conceded thus much, he began seriously to consider the bearings of the case. The eloquence of Madame de Chevreuse was persuasive, but not convincing ; and at length he terminated the discussion with his usual diplomacy, by declaring that he would not move a step without a written invitation to that effect from the queen herself We have already seen that the duchess was pre- pared to meet this objection, and accordingly she placed in the hands of the coadjutor the letter of the regent, which he had no sooner read than he in- quired if she would personally be the pledge of its sincerity. She assented without hesitation, and XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 345 upon this assurance M. de Retz took up a pen, and wrote a reply in these terms : — " There has never been a moment of my life in which I have not been equally in the interests of your majesty. I should be too happy to die in your service, to seek to give one thought to my own safety. I will present myself wherever your majesty may command." Having written this concise but important answer to the royal missive, the coadjutor, with a high- heartedness which assuredly did him honour, en- closed both the notes in the same cover, and committed them to the care of Madame de Che- vreuse, by whom they were on the morrow delivered to the queen, who received them with every de- monstration of satisfaction and confidence. In the course of the day M. de Retz received an intimation from the duchess to be in the cloisters of St. Honore at midnight, and he had remained there only a few minutes when he was joined by Gabouri, the queen's cloak-bearer, who conducted him by a back stair- case to the private oratory of the queen, where he found her alone. This was the apartment in which great political questions were generally decided ; "and where at rare intervals," says a French author cynically, " they prayed to God from sheer want of presence of mind." ^ He was received as men always are who are essential to their receivers ; and M. de Retz was the more welcome because the queen knew him to be personally inimical to the prince ; but, as he himself 1 Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 346 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. declares, ereat and earnest as was her hatred of M. de Conde, throughout the whole interview her attachment to Mazarin was still more manifest ; of him she spoke continually as "the poor cardinal," both when discussing the late faction-war and while trying to impress upon the coadjutor the great attachment of the minister to himself. At the end of half an hour the cardinal entered the oratory ; and requesting that the queen would permit him for an instant to fail in the respect which was her due, by embracing in her presence a man whom he both esteemed and loved, he threw himself into the arms of the visitor, declaring that he had now but one regret, which was, that he could not at that very moment transfer to M. de Retz his own seat in the conclave ; and at length, after a multi- tude of other professions, all without doubt equally sincere, he paused for a reply. That which he received from the coadjutor was brief and simple. The prelate said that the honour of serving the regent was the only recompense to which he aspired, and that he requested none other might be offered, in order that he might retain the proud satisfaction of feeling that he had not been influenced by any merely personal consideration. This text was a safe one for Mazarin, who there- upon became still more urgent, and insisted that when M. de Retz was about to render such essential service to the State, the queen was bound to confer upon him some signal favour ; and he particularised an application for the next cardinal's hat, in opposi- tion to the claim of the Abbe de la Riviere, which XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 347 he declared to be both unfounded and presumptu- ous ; but the coadjutor, stood firm, and positively refused to accept so high a dignity upon any politi- cal plea ; while, in like manner, he declined the offer which was made to pay his debts, to make him grand-almoner, and to give him the abbey of Orleans. But as Mazarin still insisted that the honour of the queen would compel her to some act of beneficence at such a conjuncture, M. de Retz at length said that there was one point upon which her majesty could serve him more essentially than were she even to bestow upon him the triple tiara itself She had informed him of her intention to arrest the Prince de Conde ; but he was well aware that the imprisonment of a person of his rank and services could not be eternal ; and that on its cessation, when he reappeared, his anger would be the ruin of those who had assisted in effecting his disgrace. He added that there were several other persons of distinction who had as much zeal for the queen's service as himself, and who had assisted her as effectually ; and that should her majesty see fit to confide to one of them some considerable trust, he should feel more individually obliged than by the possession often cardinals' hats; upon which Mazarin at once remarked to the regent that nothing could be more reasonable, and that he would himself arrange the matter with M. de Retz. The queen then impressed upon the coadjutor the necessity of maintaining a profound silence on the subject of this interview with the Due de Beaufort ; as Madame de Montbazon, to whom he 348 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. would not fail to confide her intention of arresting the prince, would immediately communicate it to Vigneul, who was the firm friend of M. de Conde. The coadjutor at once gave the required assurance ; and then added that as a secret of this nature with- held from the duke, whose interest was bound up with his own, was a failure of confidence which would dishonour him in the eyes of the world if it were not compensated by some competent service, he would consequently entreat her majesty to allow him to remark that the superintendence of the navy, which had been promised to his family at the com- mencement of the regency, would produce a most beneficial effect if bestowed upon M. de Beaufort. As he ceased speaking the cardinal observed with some abruptness that the place had only been promised to the father and the elder son ; but the coadjutor had anticipated the difficulty, and replied, with a low bow and a meaning smile, that he had a strong conviction that the elder son in question was about to contract an alliance which would elevate him far above even that dignity ; upon which the minister, whose vanity was flattered by the inference, once more smiled ; and, turning towards the queen, repeated that they would arrange the matter between them. M. de Retz, fully aware that he had now the game in his hands, readily acquiesced in this ar- rangement, and his diplomacy did him credit ; for he stipulated that — The Due de Vendome should have the super- intendence of the navy during his life ; and M. de Beaufort the reversion of the same post ; xiii THE COURT OF FRANCE 349 That M. de Noirmoutier should have the com- mand of Charleville and Mount Olympus ; That M. de Brissac should have the government of Anjou at a fixed price, and with a discretionary patent for the whole sum ; That the Marquis de Laigues ^ should be captain of the guard to the Due d'Orleans ; And that, finally, M. de Sevigne should receive twenty-two thousand livres. These terms accepted, he guaranteed to the queen that she should be left at full liberty to arrest the princes at her pleasure ; but he endeavoured to inter- cede in behalf of M. de Longueville, offering himself as his security, and undertaking to answer for his loyalty. Upon this point, however, both the regent and her minister maintained their ground ; and as the coadjutor was still persisting in his importunities, the cardinal drew from his pocket a letter written by the Abbe de la Riviere to the Chevalier de Flamarens, and pointing to a particular passage, M. de Retz read these words : — ■ " Thank you for your information, but I am as sure of M. de Longueville as you are of M. de la Rochefoucauld ; the decisive words have been said." All expostulation was, of course, useless after such conclusive evidence, not only of the adhesion of the Due de Longueville himself to the party of the prince, but also of that of Monsieur s favourite. In a second conference, at which the queen was again present, a long discussion arose as to the best method of inducing the Due d'Orleans to consent 1 Menioires dii Cardinal de Rets. 350 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. to the arrest of the princes. The regent anticipated very little difficulty, saying that she knew him to be heartily tired of M. de Conde, and still more so of La Riviere, whom he had discovered to be devoted, body and soul, to the prince ; but the cardinal was far from entertaining the same confidence. It was therefore resolved that all should be left to the man- agement of Madame de Chevreuse, who, enchanted by the confidence reposed in her, only awaited a favourable opportunity of undertaking her mission. It was not long wanting. Monsieur, although, as it will be remembered, he had run away with his second wife, and had persisted in marrying her against the inclination both of her family and his own, was, nevertheless, from time to time guilty of sundry infidelities with the ladies of the Court ; and it so chanced that a short time previously he had formed an attachment for Madame de Soyon, one of the ladies of honour to Madame, who suddenly disappeared from the Court, and shut herself up in a Carmelite convent, whence neither threats nor promises could induce her to emerge. The duke in his despair appealed both to the queen and the cardinal upon the occasion ; but as at that particular moment they had no interest in exerting their interference in his favour, they had excused themselves upon the plea that both the royal will and the ministerial power were useless against a religious vocation ; while that of Made- moiselle Soyon was declared to be extraordinary. Monsieur was consequently in despair. Nothing could have more effectually assisted the XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 351 projects of the duchess. She waited upon him while he was still indulging the bitterness of his grief; and after a demonstration of indignant sympathy which excited his gratitude, she confided to him the ex- asperation of the queen against M. de Conde ; declaring that, notwithstanding the many reasons which her majesty assuredly had for feeling annoyed with the prince, her anger was more excited by his interference with the interests of the Due d'Orleans than from any consideration for herself. When this adroit flattery had taken firm root, she exaggerated with all her well-tried skill the immense advantage which he must necessarily derive from restoring to the king's service a faction so powerful as that of the Fronde ; and then, with an admirably-acted shudder, she confessed to him the terror in which she lived, and which was shared by all her friends, at the idea of once more seeing Paris delivered over to bloodshed ; an argument which was perhaps the most powerful that she could have advanced, as his royal highness invariably shook with fear upon every occasion when he was compelled to traverse the streets, and to attend the Parliament. But her culminating point of genius was yet to be attained ; and when she found that she had so worked upon the alarm of the duke that he had become plastic in her hands, she offered to reveal to him the secret of the cabal which had de- prived him of his mistress ; and on condition that he would take an oath upon the Gospel to keep what she was about to reveal a perfect secret, even to induce Mademoiselle Soyon to leave the convent. 352 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. MonsieuT- swore whatever she directed, for he made light of such a ceremony at all times ; and, for once, he kept his word. She told him that the plot had originated with the Princesse de Conde and the Abbe de la Riviere, both of whom were jealous of Mademoiselle Soyon — the former because she feared that her enemies might avail themselves of the influence of this new favourite to perpetuate the enmity of Monsieur and her husband, and the abbe for reasons which are sufficiently obvious. The detail was so incredible that the duke asked for proofs of its truth. Madame de Chevreuse had provided them, and they were at once exhibited, upon which the despair of Monsieur turned to anger. This point gained, the duchess next put into his hands a letter, in which Mademoiselle Soyon de- clared that she was ready to leave the Carmelites if she could be assured that the queen would protect her against her enemies, alluding to the princess and La Riviere. This was too much, and the anger of Monsieur at once degenerated into fury. Roused suddenly from his lethargy like a lion from his lair, his violence became so great that the duchess trembled lest she should have gone too far, and accordingly exerted all her efforts to restore him to composure ; eventually so far succeeding that he promised to allow her to arrange the whole affair, and once more swore to keep it secret. As two of the oaths of his royal highness might be allowed to bear the same weight as one from any other person, Madame de Chevreuse had no alternative but to trust to them ; and she did so with the better faith, that XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 353 the duke would not risk his own safety by consent- ing to the arrest until Madame de Chevreuse, on her side, procured from the coadjutor a written promise that he would second him, to which she readily consented ; when, having reported her suc- cess to the regent, the arrest of the princes and their brother-in-law was fixed for mid-day on the i8th of January, when they were summoned to attend the council. The Due d' Orleans, proud of the diplomacy which he had displayed, lost no time, not only in assuring the regent of his co-operation in her design, but also of his having induced M. de Retz to join the conspiracy ; and as a proof of this feat he dis- played to her the note of the coadjutor, pluming himself upon the point which he had gained ; while, as a necessary consequence, no effort was made to undeceive him. On the evening of the 17th, as a matter of course. Monsieur was suddenly taken ill, for such was always the case upon the eve of any transaction which in- volved danger, or by which he might be com- promised ; and in the course of the following morning the Prince de Conde paid a visit to the cardinal, whom he found in conversation with Priolo, the body -servant of M. de Longueville, sending sundry kind messages to his master, mingled with entreaties that he would not fail to attend the council. On the entrance of the prince, Mazarin was about to dismiss his companion, but M. de Cond6 made a sign that he should not disturb him- self, and approached the fire. VOL. I. 23 354 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Close to the mantelpiece Lyonne, the Secretary of State, was writing ; but as the prince drew near he concealed the papers upon which he was engaged under the table-covering. The interruption was, in fact, inopportune enough, for he was just then draw- ing up the warrants for the treble arrest. M. de Conde remained nearly a quarter of an hour, chat- ting with the minister and his secretary, and then took leave of them to fulfil a dinner engagement with the princess-dowager. He found her in a state of great uneasiness. She had been in the course of the morning to the Palais-Royal to pay a visit to the queen ; and as she had the entree at all hours, she had been admitted to her sleeping chamber, where she found the regent in bed and complaining of indisposition, although her appear- ance belied the assertion. Nor was this her only cause of alarm. Anne of Austria was embarrassed and ill at ease with her friend ; and this friend had not yet forgotten that she had seen her majesty in nearly the same state on the day of the Due de Beaufort's arrest. She therefore earnestly cautioned her son to be careful of his person, for she had a foreboding of evil. M. de Conde was, however, in no mood to start at shadows ; and for all reply he drew from his pocket a letter which he held towards his mother, declaring that she had no cause for distrust, as he had seen the queen on the previous day, when she was full of kindness ; and that only four-and-twenty hours before he had received that letter from the cardinal. The princess read the communication with a XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 355 beating heart. It was, in truth, well calculated to allay her fears had she not been a mother. These were its contents : " I promise the prince, under the good pleasure of the king, and by the command of the queen- regent his mother, that I will never abandon his interests, but will sustain them towards all and against all. And I entreat his highness to consider me as his very humble servant, and to favour me with his protection, which I will merit by all the obedience that he may desire from me. To which I have signed in the presence and by the command of the queen. Cardinal Mazarin." Madame de Conde shook her head doubtingly as she refolded the letter. Its formality and pre- cision alarmed her. More than ever convinced that she had serious cause for misgiving, she at once proceeded to expostulate with her son, declaring that it was not only her own idea that there was a conspiracy against him, but that the Prince de Mar- sillac, who had opportunities of ascertaining most of the movements of the Court, had begged her to prevent, should it be in her power, the simultaneous appearance of the princes at the council. Her en- treaties were, however, vain. M. de Conde had too much faith in his own strength to apprehend violence ; and all the princess could induce him to concede was, that she should be allowed on the morrow to precede him to the presence of the queen, of whose health she was about again to in- form herself. 356 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. A quarter of an hour afterwards the prince was, in his turn, ushered into the royal chamber, where the regent was still in her bed ; but the curtains were drawn closely round her, probably to conceal the emotion which she was unable altogether to suppress. The prince approached and entered into conversation with her, when her replies were so calm and unembarrassed that he felt convinced, even if he were not at the extreme height of favour, that he was at least very necessary to the well-being of the Court ; and after the customary compliments, he took his leave. As her son was about to pass her, the princess- dowager extended her hand, which M. de Conde carried with respectful tenderness to his lips. How different would have been their parting could they have foretold that it was destined to be a final one ! The poor mother never saw that son again. Her deathbed was to be embittered by the remembrance that the gallant representative of her noble house was the inmate of a prison. From the apartment of Anne of Austria the prince passed through a small cabinet, which gave entrance to a second, opening both into the room of the cardinal and the gallery in which the council held their sittings ; and he was about to proceed to the apartment of Mazarin, when the minister sud- denly appeared with his most winning smile upon his lips. While they were conversing they were joined by M. de Longueville, and finally by the Prince de Conti ; and the cardinal had no sooner ascertained that the three brothers were at last XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 357 within his grasp, than he desired one of the door- keepers to inform the queen that the princes and M. de Longueville had arrived, that all was ready, and that she might proceed to the council-chamber. This was the signal concerted between the re- gent and her minister ; and the doorkeeper departed on his errand. As he withdrew the Abbe de la Riviere entered ; upon which the cardinal requested the princes to excuse him, as he had to confer on business of importance with the abb6, adding that if they would enter the council-room, he would shortly follow them. They complied without suspicion, and were im- mediately joined by the other members of the ministry ; and meanwhile the cardinal withdrew to his apartment, accompanied by La Riviere, where he amused him in an extraordinary manner. He had provided a number of patterns of cloth of different shades of crimson, and took this opportunity of desiring him to select that which he conceived would be the most becoming to his complexion when he obtained his cardinalate. This was the bait with which he had for the last two years de- luded the favourite of Monsieur ; and the abbe, enchanted with everything which seemed to bring him to the object of his ambition, had just chosen a charming shade, which could not fail to be effective, when a great noise was audible from the gallery. Mazarin smiled one of his treacherous smiles, and, grasping the arm of the ecclesiastic, asked him if he could guess what was taking place at that moment. 358 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Of course he replied in the negative ; upon which the cardinal informed him of the arrest. La Riviere became as pale as ashes, let fall the piece of cloth which he held in his hand, and inquired if the Due d'Orleans was aware of the intention of the queen. Mazarin replied that he had not only been ac- quainted with it for the last fortnight, but that he had assisted in its execution. This was a cruel blow to the favourite, who at once felt that his influence was at an end, if Monsieur^ who had never been celebrated for his discretion, could so long withhold a matter of this importance from a man for whom he affected the most extreme regard. During this time the queen, so soon as she was informed that the princes were at length within her grasp, dismissed Madame de Cond6, on the plea of preparing to attend the council ; upon which the princess, having kissed her hand, curtsied, and withdrew. In the gallery, meanwhile, another and a more striking scene was enacting. While the Prince de Conde was talking with the Comte d'Avaux, with his eyes fixed upon the door by which the queen was to enter, it opened, and Guitaut, the captain of the guard, appeared upon the threshold. As he was a great favourite with the prince, the latter immediately imagined that he had some favour to request ; and in order to spare him as much em- barrassment as possible, he left the count, and approaching the worthy soldier, asked what he could do to oblige him. Guitaut hung his head. He had nothing to ask, he said ; his errand was of xiil THE COURT OF FRANCE 359 a different nature. He came with an order to arrest his highness himself, the Prince de Conti his brother, and M. de Longiieville his brother-in-law. The thing appeared so impossible that it was with a smile, half doubt and half gaiety, that the prince repeated his words. Guitaut, however, persisted, though with evident chagrin ; and extended his hand towards the sword which M. de Conde wore at his side. Still the prince would not yield : he felt convinced that there must be some misunderstanding ; and he desired the captain of the guard to return to the queen, and entreat her to grant him an audience. He was obeyed ; but his messenger cautioned him not to anticipate the acquiescence of the regent, asserting that he only complied with his highness's directions in order to satisfy him of his respect and goodwill. This warning was well-timed ; for on his return he announced that her majesty refused to see the prince, and that it was her positive pleasure that he should be arrested forthwith. M. de Conde merely bowed in reply, and gave up his sword to the dis- concerted Guitaut ; while the Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville, following his example, simultane- ously resigned theirs to Lieutenant Comminges and Ensign Cressy. As they were about to leave the gallery M. de Conde inquired the place of their destination, alleging that he had contracted a violent rheumatism in the camp, and that the cold and damp were very pre- judicial to him. He was informed that the order directed his transfer to Vincennes ; to which arrange- 36o LOUIS XIV. AND chap. ment he offered no objection, but calmly turned to take leave of the noblemen by whom he was sur- rounded, begging them to bear him in remembrance though he was about to become a prisoner ; and desiring that the Comte de Brienne would embrace him, as they were relatives. M. de Conde and his brothers then descended by a private staircase, and found a carriage awaiting them, surrounded by a troop of gendarmes, under the command of M. de Miossens,^ who could not conceal his astonishment when he discovered who were to be his prisoners. The three princes entered the carriage, Guitaut transferred his charge to Com- minges and Miossens, and they were driven off at a swift pace ; but as they were conducted by a cross road which was at once bad and intricate, in order that they might not be recognised on their journey, in turning a sharp corner the carriage was upset. The prince, whose agility was incomparable, was in an instant upon his feet, and at a distance of twenty paces from his escort ; when Miossens, who appre- hended that he was about to attempt making his escape, hurriedly approached him, beseeching that he would not be his ruin ; whereupon M. de Conde assured him with a smile that he would not profit by the accident which had occurred ; but remarked at the same time that Miossens would do well to re- member that he was only a younger son, and that such an opportunity of making his fortune might never again occur throughout his life. The young soldier only shook his head, and replied that 1 Afterwards Mar^chal d'Albret. XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 361 notwithstanding all the respect and admiration which he felt for his highness, and all the re- pugnance which he experienced to the execution of his present task, no temptation should induce him to fail in the duty and obedience that he owed to both the king and the regent. No one was more capable of appreciating such a principle than the conqueror of Rocroy ; and it was consequently without any further effort to shake the loyalty of his guard that the Prince de Conde seated himself once more in the carriage, which had been restored to its original position, and his example had no sooner been followed by his brothers and Comminges than the journey was resumed. On the road M. de Condd inquired of the count if he had any suspicion of the cause of his arrest. "The crime of your highness," replied Com- minges, " appears to me to be that of Germanicus, who fell under the suspicion of the Emperor Tiberius, because he was too valuable, too much loved, and had made himself too great." When they arrived at the foot of the fortress Miossens approached to take leave of the prince, when, for the first time, the noble prisoner appeared somewhat affected. He thanked Miossens for the courtesy with which he had acted towards him ; and bade him say to the queen, that, despite her injustice, he was still her humble servant. The count and his prisoners then entered the tower. As the authorities were not prepared to receive any new inmates, the garrison had no beds to offer them ; and Comminges, who was to remain eight days as 362 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. their guard, desired tliat cards might be brought, as the best expedient for getting through the night, and that which was the most consonant to the general taste of the Court nobles. The party ac- cordingly played till daybreak ; at which time preparations were made for the comfort of the illus- trious captives, in which Comminges was an active agent, for his attachment to the prince was beyond the reach of misfortune; and he afterwards frequently declared that, thanks to the cheerful wisdom and experienced judgment of M. de Cond6, the eight days which he passed with him as his fellow-prisoner at Vincennes were the happiest of his life. When he at last took leave of the noble brothers, he inquired whether there were any books that they would wish to have ; to which the Prince de Conti replied that he should be glad of the Imitation of Jesus Christ. " And your highness ? " inquired the count, addressing the prince. "I, sir," was the ready answer, "should be glad of the Imitation of the Due de Beaufort."^ The escape of M. de Beaufort from the same fortress will still be fresh in the remembrance of our readers. The coadjutor was faithful to the promise which he had given to the queen ; and, having made his own terms, kept the secret of the treble arrest, until at mid-day Madame de Chevreuse sent to request both himself and the Due de Beaufort to visit her at her hotel, when she revealed to them, as a pro- 1 Lotiis XIV. et son Siicle. XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 363 found secret, the intention of the regent, which was to be executed at six o'clock in the evening, and which she had received the royal command to com- municate to them only. The coadjutor carried off M. de Beaufort to dinner, and amused him the whole afternoon by playing chess, even preventing his wait- ing upon Madame de Montbazon, as he was anxious to do ; in consequence of which circumstance the prince was arrested before she had an idea that such a project was in agitation, and her anger was exces- sive. She told the Due de Beaufort that whatever explanation he might see fit to offer, it was evident that he had been duped ; when he, in his turn, accused the coadjutor, who at once, and in her pre- sence, explained everything, and drew from his pocket the patent of the admiralty. On sight of this talis- man, M. de Beaufort embraced him ardently, and Madame de Montbazon threw herself on his neck, and rewarded him in the same way. The last difficulty was overcome. Thus was accomplished a great event, which, in the course of a single day, changed the whole face of affairs. M. de Bouteville^ made an effort to excite the 1 Frangois Henri de Montmorency, Duke and Marshal of Luxem- bourg, was the posthumous son of Frangois de Bouteville, whose name he originally bore. Born in 1628, he was a pupil of the great Conde, and served as a lieutenant-general at the conquest of Franche-Conite in 1668. He was commander-in-chief during the celebrated campaign in Holland, at the conclusion of which he made the famous retreat so admired by the enemy, where he passed through a hostile army of 70,000 strong with 20,000 men. In 1675 he obtained the marshal's biton ; in 1690 he gained the battle of Fleurus ; in 1 691 that of Steinkerque ; and in 1693 that of Ner- winde. He died in 1695, with the reputation of being the greatest general in France. He was both deformed and humpbacked. 364 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Parisians to revolt, by galloping to the Pont-Neuf immediately that the news reached him, and shout- ing to the people that the Due de Beaufort had been arrested. The crowd sprang to their arms ; but the coadjutor, who had apprehended the possi- bility of an outbreak, put an end at once to this demonstration by walking through the streets of the city, preceded by five or six torch-bearers, while the duke followed his example ; and from that moment all was joy and exultation. The Parisians forgot that the great Conde had, in all probability, pre- served not only their beloved capital itself, but also their country, and remembered only that he had been in arms against the city ; their delight accord- ingly amounted to intoxication ; and, while bonfires were blazing on all sides, they erected a new idol for popular worship, and that idol was Mazarin ! Only on the previous day the minister had been ridiculed, hated, and execrated ; but suddenly he became the object of general admiration and re- gard, — a fact which the mob somewhat wittily explained by declaring, with that sarcastic pleas- antry peculiar to their order, that it could not be otherwise, as his eminence had ceased to be a Mazarinite, and had joined the Fronde. The epigram was a happy one. Something was, however, yet left undone. The Court had rid itself cleverly of the three princes, but the Duchesse de Longueville was still at large, and she was no less dangerous an enemy than M. de Cond^ himself. When the news of the arrest of her husband and her two brothers reached XIII THE COURT OF FRANCE 365 her she at once started for Normandy, where she anticipated that her authority would be supreme. She was accompanied by her daughter, who did not, however, long share her wanderings, for, in consequence of a quarrel which occurred between them at Dieppe, Mademoiselle de Longueville refused to proceed ; and having applied to the Court for protection and safety, she was allowed to retire to an estate which belonged to her father. The Princesses de Conde had already received an order to retire to Chantilly ; and the queen had no sooner learnt the flight of Madame de Longueville to the government of her husband, than she an- nounced her own departure for Rouen with the young princes. Only a year before Normandy had risen at the bidding of the duchess ; but twelve long and eventful months had since elapsed, and now she spoke in vain ; not a hand was outstretched to uphold her. Disgusted and disappointed, she left Rouen, where the queen arrived shortly after her departure, and thence she proceeded to Havre. She felt sure of the Due de Richelieu, for she had herself obtained for him his appointment ; but the duke shut the gates against her, little anticipating that he should ere long see them closed against himself Neither as a protector nor as a pretty woman could the duchess prevail against his decision ; and yet this was the same Due de Richelieu who had ordered his servants to burn one of his carriages, in which Mademoiselle de Saint-Amaranthe, of whom he was enamoured, had refused to allow him to drive her to her hotel. 366 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Finding that he was peremptory in his refusal to offer her an asylum, Madame de Longueville pur- sued her journey to Dieppe ; but this resource signally failed, for the regent forthwith appointed the Comte d'Harcourt to the government of Nor- mandy, and sent some troops, under the command of Plessis-Bellievre, against the fugitive. Madame de Longueville did not await the siege of the castle, but when she ascertained the advent of the soldiery, fearing that she might be given up by M. de Mon- tigny, the governor, she escaped by a back door ; and, followed by a few women who had possessed sufficient courage to share her fortunes, and a few gentlemen who would not forsake her, she travelled two leagues on foot to the little port of Pourville, where a vessel, which she had freighted in the event of necessity, was awaiting her. When she reached the seashore the tide was so strong and the wind so tempestuous that the sailors entreated her not to embark in such unfavourable weather ; but the duchess feared less to encounter the tempest than to see herself in the power of the regent, and she consequently persisted. The state of the tide ren- dering it impossible for a boat to approach close to the shore ; one of the mariners lifted her in his arms to convey her on board, but he had scarcely ad- vanced twenty paces when an enormous wave carried him off his feet, and he fell. For an instant Madame de Longueville believed that she was lost, as in falling he had lost his hold and she sank into deep water ; but, after some exertion, she was dragged on board the boat. On recovering, she xin THE COURT OF FRANCE 367 again expressed a wish to reach the vessel, but the sailors refused to make another attempt, declaring that it was only flying in the face of Providence ; and being consequently compelled to adopt some other expedient, she sent for horses to proceed along the coast. These procured, the party mounted, and rode all night and a part of the following day, when a noble of Caux received her and her followers with great courtesy, and faithfully concealed them. While under his roof she learned that the captain of the vessel which she had been anxious to reach was in the interest of the cardinal, and that had she once set her foot on board, she would have been arrested. At length she found herself once more in Havre, and having gained over the captain of an English ship, to whom she introduced herself in male attire as a nobleman who had just been en- gaged in a duel, and was obliged to leave France, she succeeded in obtaining a passage to Holland, where the Prince and Princess of Orange received her as though she had been a fugitive queen. -^ The Due de Bouillon, who had entered into a close alliance with the Prince de Conde since the peace, left in all haste for Turenne ; the Marechal de Turenne, who had followed his example since his return to France, threw himself into Stenay, a strong place which M. de Conde had confided to La Moussaye ; the Prince de Marsillac returned to his home at Poitou ; and the Marechal de Breze, the father of the princess, retired to Saumur, of which he was the governor. 1 Louis XIV. et son Siicle. 368 LOUIS XIV. CHAP.xiii The Parliament published and registered a de- claration against each and all of these individuals, by which they were commanded to present them- selves within a fortnight to the king, or, in default, were declared from that time to be disturbers of the public peace and guilty of lese-majesti. At the same period the Court left Paris to make the tour of Normandy, where it was apprehended that Madame de Longueville, who had been re- ceived into the castle of Dieppe, might create some disaffection. All, however, gave way before the approach of royalty, and the duchess left Holland and proceeded to Arras, where she tampered with M. la Tour, who was a pensioner of her husband ; but who, even while he proffered to her his per- sonal services, refused either to give up his com- mand or to involve the city. She accordingly moved on to Stenay, where she was met by M. de Turenne with all the force he had been able to collect since his departure from Paris among the friends and followers of the princes. Not having encountered any opposition in Nor- mandy, where all the military authorities and governors of fortresses hastened to convince him of their loyalty, the king and his mother proceeded to Burgundy, where they were similarly received ; and having established the Comte d'Harcourt as governor of Normandy, the Court returned to Paris. CHAPTER XIV Arrest of the Duchesse de Bouillon — Her escape with her daughter — Their seizure — They are conveyed to the Bastille — Flight of the Princesse de Conde and the Due d'Enghien — Appeal of the princess-dowager to the Parliament — Her banishment to Valery — Madame de Longueville and Turenne make a treaty with Spain — Turenne at the head of his troops — The Court at Compiegne — Madame de Conde at Bordeaux — Danger of the royal envoy — MADEMOISELLE and the Emperor of Germany — Court of Madame de Conde — Tlie king's troops march against the princess — Journey of the Court to Bordeaux — Capture of Vayres — Execution of the governor — Reprisals — Execution of the Baron de Canolles — Siege of Bordeaux — Submission of the city — Interview of the queen-regent and Madame de Conde — Levity of Mademoiselle — Coldness of the Bourde- lese towards the regent — March of Turenne and the archduke on Paris — Preparations for a renewal of the Fronde — The regent sick at Poitiers — Exasperation of the coadjutor — Madame de Rhodes, the Princess Palatine, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Henri, Due de Guise — His romantic career — The double divorce — Procrastination of the Due d'Orleans — His indignation at the proposed removal of the princess to Havre — His narrow policy — The extorted signature — Arrival of Charles II. — Coldness of the French Court — Retirement of the English king to Jersey. Previously to leaving the capital the regent had given an order for the arrest of the Duchesse de Bouillon in her own house, the duke having joined M. de Turenne, whom he knew to be the firm friend of the princes ; but even after she was under VOL. I. 24 370 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Strict surveillance, with a party of soldiers in her hotel, as no mention had been made of her daughter. Mademoiselle de Bouillon was left free to come and go as she pleased. One evening she, as usual, en- tered her mother's apartments, and feigning to have found her asleep in bed, said that she would return to her own room, requesting the sentinel who was in the antechamber to light her to her door. She was obeved without hesitation, and the man ac- cordingly preceded her, carrying a lamp, without remarking that the duchess was walkings close be- hind her daughter. When they reached the hall Mademoiselle de Bouillon pursued her way, but the duchess turned down a staircase which led to the cellar, where she concealed herself until the sen- tinel had resumed his post, when she was again joined by her daughter. This done, with the help of some ropes thrown to them by friends without, they both escaped through the ventilator, and hid themselves in a private house until they could de- vise some method of quitting Paris. Unfortunately, however, on the very day which had been fixed for their departure, Mademoiselle de Bouillon sickened with the smallpox ; and as her mother refused to leave her, the police discovered their retreat, and they were both seized and conveyed to the Bastille. The Princesse de Conde, the wife of the prince, was more successful. An order had been given that while in arrest at Chantilly she was to be constantly kept within sight ; but as she was aware of the fact, she took measures to deceive the vigil- ance of her guardians, and when about to be com- XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 371 pelled to permit the visit of the officer appointed to watch her, on an occasion of alleged indisposition she put one of her ladies into her bed, disguised by a head-dress which almost concealed her features ; and while this person conversed with her jailer the princess fled with her son, the Due d'Enghien, and reached Montrond, a secondary town, of which the partisans of M. de Conde had possessed them- selves. Here, however, she did little more than halt, for the place was not capable of sustaining a siege, while negotiations were entered into with Bordeaux, where the inhabitants were extremely discontented with the administration of the Due d'Epernon, its governor, who had fallen into disrepute both with the Parliament and the magistrates ; and when this intelligence reached them the Court ordered the Marechal de la Meilleraye to assume forthwith the command of the troops at Poitou. But they had still another female enemy to contend against, for the princess -dowager — the daughter of the old constable, the sister of that Montmorency who was decapitated at Toulouse, the last object of the love of Henri IV., the mother of the great Conde, with whom the regent was conversing affectionately while she was causing her son to be arrested under the same roof — resolved to do what none other had ventured even to contemplate, but which, in her maternal love, appeared to her to be a holy duty from which she could not shrink — she resolved to demand justice from the Parliament for the con- queror of Sens and Rocroy. 372 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Until the departure of the queen from Paris, the princess-dowager had remained in concealment in the city ; and while the Court were still in Bur- gundy she presented herself to the councillors of the upper chamber, as they were about to assemble, accompanied by the Duchesse de Chatillon/ She urged that her sons should be put upon their trial, that they might be condemned if they were guilty, and set at liberty if they were innocent ; and she was listened to with the respect which was her due, while it was decreed that she should remain in all safety in the house of the comptroller of accounts ; and that a request should be made to the Due d'Orleans, who, in the absence of the king, the queen, and the cardinal, was at the head of affairs, to come and assume his place at the palace. The reply of Gaston intimated that the princess had received an order from the king to proceed to Bourges, and that, in his opinion, she should at least show herself willing to obey by retiring to some place outside the capital, where she might await the return of the Court, which was expected in a few days ; and, as this temporising measure relieved the Parliament from serious embarrassment, the princess was constrained to acquiesce in the suggestion. She consequently left Paris the same evening for Berny ; from whence the king, who arrived shortly after- wards, commanded her to remove to Valery. Heart- struck, hopeless, and broken-spirited, the princess 1 Sister of the Marechal de Luxembourg, and subsequently Duchess of Mecklenburg. XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 373 endeavoured to obey, but at Angerville she fell ill, and was unable to proceed/ Meanwhile Madame de Longueville and the Mar^chal Turenne — we place the name of the lady- first advisedly, for this struggle was indeed destined to be, as it was afterwards aptly denominated, " the women's war " — made a treaty with Spain ; and the marshal joined their army, then in Picardy besieging Guise, which held out for eighteen days, when, from the failure of provisions, the archduke was com- pelled to raise the siege. M. de Turenne had collected a few troops with the money which the Spaniards had accorded to him by treaty, and increased their strength by the remnants of the force which had garrisoned Belle- garde ; upon which he was soon joined by a host of men of rank and mark, who enabled him to assume a threatening attitude. The Court, upon ascertaining this movement, forthwith departed for Compiegne ; and the car- dinal, once more disabused of the security with which he had so lately flattered himself, went for- ward to St. Quentin to discuss with Marechal Duplessis the means of effectively opposing M. de Turenne. While he was thus engaged, news arrived of serious disturbances in Guienne, where Madame de Cond6 had attracted to her interests the Prince de Marsillac, become Due de la Rochefoucauld by the recent death of his father, and the Due de Bouillon, who, after having secured Marechal Turenne, had made an appeal to the nobility of 1 Louis XIV. et son Slide. 374 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Auvergne and Poitou, which had been answered by the formation of a little army of nearly two thousand five hundred men. A rendezvous was appointed at Mauriac, where the princess, with her son in her arms, was received with vehement accla- mations, and by a general vow that the soldiers would not lay down their arms until justice had been done to the imprisoned princes. Madame de Conde and her son descended the Dordogne on board a boat, while the troops marched along the bank, drums beating, standards flying, and every- thing in strictly warlike array ; and, after sustaining a few skirmishes, the little army arrived at Coutras, where they learnt that, as they had already antici- pated, the city of Bordeaux was ready to receive the princess and the Due d'Enghien, on condition that their escort, which appeared to the citizens to be too numerous for admittance within the walls, should remain outside the town. The concession was made, and the illustrious fugitives entered Bordeaux amid cries of " Long live the Prince de Conde ! Long live the Due d'Enghien ! Long live the princess !" At this moment a courier from the Court passed through an opposite gate, and also arrived in the city, when a messenger was de- spatched in great haste to Madame de Conde to inform her that the royal envoy was in danger of being torn to pieces by the populace if she did not exert herself to save him. For an instant her friends remained undecided whether it might not be politic to sacrifice this unhappy man, in order to give the Court a just idea of the state of public XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 375 feeling in Guienne ; but the princess, who could not endure that the first step which she took to liberate her husband should be in blood, overruled the momentary hesitation, and it was publicly de- clared that she requested the life of the messenger as a personal favour ; upon which he was suffered to withdraw in safety from the city. As regarded the princess herself, the Parliament decided that she was welcome to Bordeaux, and free to remain there in all safety, provided she attempted nothing that was contrary to the service of the king. About this time Mademoiselle, again deluded by her hope of becoming Empress of Germany, granted an interview to M. de Montergue, one of the confidential friends of the cardinal, who had just returned from that country, where he informed her that she was much wished for ; and although, when she pressed him upon the subject, he replied vaguely enough that the ministers had not conferred with him or made it a matter of conversation- — a fact which he considered to arise simply from their knowledge that he was in the interests of his eminence, — she still accepted his unauthorised and' almost meaningless communication as a symbol of success, and, with unexampled weakness, held a long conference with the cardinal on the strength of his friend's report, which terminated in his inducing her to send a dependant of her own to Germany with full instructions to further the marriage ; and the departure of this new messenger, she says, gave her great joy.^ 1 Mdmoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensie?: 376 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. The news received by the regent from the south became daily more alarming. The princess was enacting over again at Bordeaux the role which Madame de Longueville had played in Paris during the first act of the Fronde, and her little Court, although confined in number, was brilliant in rank and renown. She received the Spanish ambas- sadors, and treated with them ; refused to recognise the letters of the Marechal de la Meilleraye, caused the Parliament of Bordeaux to communicate in writing with that of the capital, and confided to the Dues de Bouillon and De la Rochefoucauld, whom it had at first been decided were to remain without the walls, the two most important com- mands in the city. These circumstances determined the regent, im- mediately that she should be in a position to do so, to act vigorously against the Bordeaulese and their new idol ; and, as a precautionary measure. Monsieur and all the ministers, most of whom were at that moment in Paris, were summoned to the king's presence. The chancellor had been exiled, and M. de Chateauneuf was keeper of the seals. At this meeting it was resolved that the Court should proceed immediately to Bordeaux, that the Due d'Orleans should remain in command of Paris, and that he should retain near him the secretary of state, Le Tellier,^ to superintend the despatches, M. de 1 Michel le Tellier, son of a councillor, was born at Paris in 1603. He was first councillor of the Grand Council, then (1631) King's Advocate at the chatelet of Paris, and Master of Requests. Appointed Steward of Piedmont (1640), he gained the favour of Mazarin, who appointed him secretary of state and war secretary. Throughout XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 377 Chiteauneuf,^ and sundry other of the ministers. The Due de la Meilleraye had accepted the com- mand of the army, and had preceded the king. The Due d'Epernon was recalled, and, after having paid his respects to their majesties at Angouleme, proceeded to Larches. "The Mareehal de la Meilleraye," says Made- moiselle, "met their majesties at Coutras, a spot rendered very remarkable by the battle gained there by the king my grandfather, when he was sovereign of Navarre. The place belongs to the prince. The marshal returned to the army, and did not find it so efficient as he had anticipated, but he did not tell the queen the truth ; he said that it was the finest in the world, although it was very weak ; and the troubles he clung to the faction of the cardinal. He was en- trusted with all the negotiations between the Court and the princes, particularly those with Gaston d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde. He effected the conclusion of the treaty of Ruel. After having been minister of the regent, he retained the same office under Louis XIV. He worked with Colbert the overthrow of Fouquet, and obtained the reversion of his charge for his son, the Marquis de Louvois. In 1677 he was created chancellor and keeper of the seals, and in this capacity was one of the principal movers of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He died in 1685, and his funeral oration was de- livered by Bossuet. 1 This nobleman had been for ten years a prisoner at Angouleme, for the share which he had taken in the cabals of Anne of Austria and Monsieur J and it was expected that, upon the establishment of the regency, he would not only be restored to liberty, but that he would become a prominent member of the queen's Court. Such was, however, far from being the case ; he was liberated, it is true, but with the intimation that he was to retire to one of his estates ; and as his emancipation took place immediately after the victory of Rocroy, and M. de Chateauneuf had presided at the commission which adjudged the death of Montmorency, the brother-in-law of M. de Cond^, it is probable that the Court dared not, at such a moment, make any other demonstration in his favour. The disgrace of the prince and the troubles of the Fronde having emancipated the regent from these considerations, M. de Chateauneuf was appointed chancellor. 378 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. there was no artillery, although cannon were in- dispensable for a siege." The relief of Guise by the royalist army gave the Court a slight respite ; and when it was resolved that the king's forces should march against the Princesse de Conde as they had done against the Duchesse de Longueville, the Due d' Orleans was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom within the Loire ; and the king, the queen, and the cardinal, commenced their journey, although not without certain misgivings which they were not able altogether to conceal. The reluctance with which they separated themselves from Paris was, in fact, so great that while the journal of the Court announced that they were advancing towards the seat of rebellion by forced marches, they actually- wasted a month between the capital and Libourne ; where, upon their arrival, the first act of the regent was one of such severity as to excite serious reprisals. About two leagues from Bordeaux there stood a building, half mansion, half fortress, which was com- manded by a governor named Richon, an ancient valet de chambre of the Due de la Rochefoucauld, who, never anticipating that Vayres (for the little citadel was so called) would become an object of hostility, had settled his old domestic in the fort as in a comfortable sinecure. Vayres was, of course, very soon taken ; and a council of war condemned the unlucky Richon to be hanged, as guilty of the audacity of endeavouring to hold his fortress against the king, when he was not even of gentle blood. XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 379 This ill-omened execution spread universal terror among the Bordeaulese, who began to feel that they could hope for no mercy at the hands of the Court ; and they already spoke of offering conditions, when the leaders of the Conde faction resolved, by an immediate display of rigour, to put the whole city within the pale of the law ; and, in order to do this, they only required to hang one royalist officer. Several had been already made prisoners in the first sallies which the citizens had ventured beyond the walls, and among the rest the Baron de Canolles, who was a major of the Navailles regiment, and had been the commandant of St. George's Island. He was a handsome and courageous young man of about six - and - thirty, who, since his imprisonment at Bordeaux, had been received by the leading families, and had become an object of universal esteem. He was at the house of a lady to whom he was paying his addresses, quietly engaged at cards, when he was arrested, and informed that he was about to be tried by a council of war, presided over by the princess and the Due d'Enghien. The fact that his fate, in a great degree, depended upon a woman and a young child was not calculated to excite much apprehension, either in himself or his friends ; but their presumed security was bitterly terminated by his unanimous condemnation. He died like a brave man, the victim of policy rather than of crime. With the life of Canolles terminated, as a natural consequence, all idea of capitulation on the part of the Bordeaulese ; for the deputies, the jurists, and LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. the public companies, had alike given their assent to this act of retaliative cruelty. Bordeaux was accordingly besieged. The cardinal, who was present, witnessed the operations from the belfry of Saint Yvon in the suburb ; and it was believed that M. de la Meilleraye had an understanding with the enemy. Be that as it may, however, — and there is no authentic authority for the assertion, — it is certain that this pigmy war was fated to terminate like all those of the same period. The queen wearied of the siege, and so did the city ; and after a very respectable display of valour on both sides, pro- positions of reconciliation were received, ready drawn up from Paris, which were submitted, in the joint names of the Due d'Orleans and the Parlia- ment, to the regent. They were submitted to the Bordeaulese, by whom they were accepted ; and a treaty was concluded, by which a complete amnesty was granted to the inhabitants and citizens ; the princess was permitted to retire to one of her estates ; the Dues de la Rochefoucauld and Bouillon were restored to favour, with all surety both for their lives and properties ; the Due d'Epernon was recalled ; and, moreover, the prin- cess was compelled immediately to leave the city, in order to make room for the queen, who desired to command there in her turn, though it should only be for four-and-twenty hours.-' Conquered as she was, the spirit of Madame de Conde was, nevertheless, still unsubdued ; she was struggling to obtain the liberty of her husband, and '^ Louis XIV. et soft Steele. XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 381 to secure the interests of her son ; and she had, moreover, although only for a brief period, tasted the sweets of popularity and power, and was anxious to regain a portion of the advantages which she had lost. Nor was her hope altogether unfounded or extravagant, for she had seen the leaders of the Fronde selling and not proffering their renewal of obedience ; and she resolved to profit in so far at least by her own display of disaffection, as to make one bold effort to render it subservient to the restora- tion of her husband. She had received permission to remain for a few days at Coutras, and had already embarked in her little galley to gain that town, when she met the boat of M. de la Meilleraye, who approached her to offer his salutations, and to whom she stated, acting upon a sudden impulse engendered by the resolution we have named, that she was about to proceed to Bourges to pay her respects to the queen, as she could not consent to retire to Coutras till she had secured the honour of a personal inter- view with both the king and the regent. The marshal, believing that such a step might tend to terminate the affair without further difficulty, did not seek to turn her from her purpose, but immediately hastened himself to Bourges, and publicly announced to her majesty that the princess was awaiting her permission to throw herself at her feet. The queen instantly replied that she could not receive Madame de Conde, having no apart- ments to offer her ; but M. de la Meilleraye having resolved, in consonance with his own views, that the meeting should take place, answered as promptly 382 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. that, rather than be deprived of the honour which she soHcited, the princess would have consented to sleep on board her galley, had it been re- quisite ; but that such a necessity did not exist, as he was ready to offer his own residence for her reception. The regent had, consequently, no alternative ; and a messenger was accordingly sent to the water- side to bid her welcome, accompanied by Madame de la Meilleraye ; and meanwhile the queen de- spatched a gentleman of the Court to summon the cardinal, who, as soon as he arrived, was closeted with her to arrange the manner in which the princess should be received. When they had decided upon their line of action, Madame de Conde was con- ducted to the presence of the king, the queen, and Mazarin ; and as soon as she had passed the threshold, holding her little son by the hand, she fell upon her knees, beseeching the liberty of the father of her child ; appealing to the mother rather than to the queen, to the brother rather than to the sovereign ; and expatiating upon the misery of a bereavement too terrible for her to sustain. Drowned in tears, and eloquent in all the dignity of a holy and womanly sorrow, she admitted the error into which she had been deluded by despair ; but her humility and her submission were alike fruit- less. The queen approached and raised her from the ground with a courteous and inflexible gentle- ness, which betrayed the firmness alike of her nerves and of her resolution ; but, even while in the act of doing so, resolutely refused to grant her prayer, XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 383 although she displayed great urbanity and forbear- ance towards herself. The account given by Mademoiselle of this interview is, however, too characteristic of the trifling and egotistical character of the Court to be omitted. " The princess entered," she says ; " she had been bled the night before, which compelled her to wear a scarf, and this was put on in so ridiculous a manner, as well as all the rest of her dress, that the queen and myself had great difficulty in restrain- ing our laughter. The Due d'Enghien, the prettiest child in the world, was with her, as well as the Dukes of Bouillon and La Rochefoucauld." '^ Nor was the cardinal less demonstrative in his politeness : he hastened to invite the Dukes of Bouillon and Rochefoucauld to sup with him, and conveyed them to his residence in his own coach. Louis XIV., boy as he was, had looked on during the affecting scene which he had just witnessed almost unmoved, for he already felt extraordinary resentment at the mock which had been made of the royal authority ; and it is even asserted by the Comte de Brienne that he declared with tears in his eyes, during the siege of the city, that he should not always be a child ; and that he would one day chastise the rascally Bordeaulese as they deserved. Two days after the departure of Madame de Conde the Court entered Bordeaux; but the queen was not fated, anxious as she had been to replace the princess in her temporary reign, to find the hearts of the citizens so accessible as their gates. 1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 384 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. During the ten days which she passed in the city scarcely an individual attended her receptions ; and when she traversed the streets no notice was taken of her presence ; while the Parliament, after having sent a deputation to the Due d'Orleans, to testify their gratitude to him for having negotiated the peace, paid a similar mark of respect to Mademoi- selle, which greatly annoyed the cardinal, who despatched one of his friends to entreat her to induce them to pay him the same compliment ; but it is probable that she did not testify much zeal on the occasion, as her request met with no success. Dur- ing these movements in the rebel city M. de Turenne had not been idle elsewhere. He had advanced to Dammartin (within eight leagues of Paris), while the archduke had arrived at Fimes, — intelligence which so alarmed the Court that the princes were immediately removed from Vincennes to Marcoussy, an old fortress belonging to M. d'Entragues. The next difficulty was to raise money ; and in order to effect this, it was, after long Parliamentary debates, decided that all who held public property, of whatever description, should pay one year's income to the State, by which means a tolerable supply was immediately procured, as well as a great prospective resource. Among others, the Due d'Orleans contributed sixty thousand livres to the public assessment. Nevertheless, although they had consented to this impost, the Parliament of Paris were by no means blind to the fact that it had been entailed upon them by the wrong-headedness of Mazarin, XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 385 who had dragged the sovereign and the Court, as well as the troops, to the distance of a hundred and fifty leagues from the capital, merely to make war upon a provincial city ; while, on their side, the Parliament of Bordeaux had presented a petition for the liberation of the princes; and despite the earnest opposition of the Due d'Orleans, who was terrified at the bare idea of seeing M. de Cond6 again free, the petition was received and deliberated upon. A second edition of the Fronde was rapidly pre- paring, composed of the ancient malcontents, who had gained nothing, or not sufficient to satisfy them, by their late submission ; and Mazarinites, who had not, in their own estimation, been satisfactorily re- munerated for their adhesion to his cause ; and thus it will at once be seen that both parties were likely to make virulent and pertinacious adversaries. As a natural consequence, the coadjutor was the main- spring of this new movement, for he was not a man likely to forget the affronts offered to him on different occasions by the cardinal ; while M. de Beaufort, intoxicated by his popularity, although re- established in Court favour, preferred his mob- royalty to the glitter of a more legitimate circle, where he found himself only a subordinate. If, indeed, the duke had entertained any suspicion of the decline of his popularity, it was soon removed, when, on a night encounter with thieves in the streets of the city, his carriage was stopped, and one of the gentlemen of his suite killed by a pistol shot; for although such adventures were common enough to pass almost without remark at that period, the VOL. I. 25 386 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. people refused to believe that the circumstance was, in this case, accidental ; and openly accused the cardinal of having instigated the assassination of their idol. Three days afterwards every street and corner was placarded with effigies of Mazarin suspended from a gibbet ; and the walls were still covered with these manifestations of the popular feeling, when, on the 15th of November 1650, the Court again returned to Paris. On her arrival at Poitiers, while on her way to the capital, the queen was seized with fever, and was reluctantly compelled to lose blood ; but the disease continuing, she was obliged to remain for eight days at Amboise, where the disease increased to an extent that excited considerable apprehensions for her life. This delay greatly annoyed the cardinal, who had serious reasons for wishing to find himself again in Paris ; as he was anxious to persuade the Due d'Orleans to consent to the removal of M. de Conde to Havre — a measure which he had hitherto refused to sanction ; and to satisfy himself by personal observation if it were true, as he had been informed, that his royal high- ness was deeply implicated with the new faction. The partial reconciliation which had taken place at Bordeaux between the queen and Madame de Conde, as well as between the cardinal and the two rebel dukes, had in some degree alarmed the Fron- deurs, who, by allying themselves with the Court, had sufficiently strengthened the hands of the regent to enable her to accomplish the arrest of the princes ; and they accordingly awaited the advent of the XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 38? minister with a petition, by the nature of whose reception they should be at once enabled to judge of his intentions, and to regulate their own. This peti- tion, which contained a demand for a seat in the con- clave for the coadjutor, was presented to the queen by the Duchesse de Chevreuse, but was instantly and haughtily rejected ; and even on the expostulation of the Due d'Orleans, who strongly advocated her compliance, she refused to concede more than that she would submit the demand to her council, and be guided by their decision ; a reply which was merely a civil way of ridding herself of all further impor- tunity, as she was aware that it was composed of three of the most implacable enemies of M. de Retz — the Comte de Servien, Le Tellier, and the Marquis de Chateauneuf, the new chancellor. This last offence sufficed to exasperate the co- adjutor, who thenceforward resolved to keep no further measures with Mazarin. His was no inactive hate, and in this case the weapon lay ready to his hand. He joined the faction of the princes, at the head of which were three women, for the singu- larity of this national struggle was to endure to the last. These women were Madame de Rhodes, the Princesse Anne de Gonzague, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. As these ladies were destined to occupy so con- spicuous a position as that of the leaders of a great national faction, we shall, without apology, delay for a brief space the current of the narrative in order to introduce them to our readers. LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Madame de Rhodes was the widow of a simple esquire, a natural son of the famous Louis, Cardinal de Lorraine, whose bigoted intolerance made him the terror of the Calvinists of his day ; and who was himself the son of Claude de Lorraine, the first Due de Guise, and was born in 1525. As a speci- men of the ecclesiastical pluralist he was probably never surpassed in any church or in any century. He was Archbishop of both Rheims and Narbonne ; Bishop of Metz, Tour, Verdun, Therouane, Lu9on, and Valance ; Abb6 of Marmoutiers, Cluny, St. Denis, Fecamp, etc. He was admitted to a seat in the conclave in 1547, and in 1561 distinguished himself at the conference of Poissy, where his arguments are stated by his party to have triumphed over those of Theodore de Beze.^ He was also conspicuous at the Council of Trent. In 1573 he founded the University of Pont-a-Mousson, and in the following year he died. The Princesse Anne de Gonzague, or, as she was commonly called, the Princess- Palatine, who now ap- peared politically for the first time, was a genuine heroine of romance. She was the second of three daughters of Charles de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers and Mantua, of whom the elder (as we have already stated) married Wladislas VH., King of Poland; while the younger became Superior of the Abbey 1 Theodore de Bfeze was a celebrated minister of the Reformed rehgion, who was born at Vezelay, in Nivernois, in i 5 1 9, and died at Geneva in 1605. He took an active part in all the events of the civil and religious wars in France, and particularly at the colloquy of Poissy. He was, after Calvin, the head of the Genevese Church. He left a great number of works — elegies, epitaphs, and poems — some of them of a licentious character. XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 389 of Avenay, in Champagne, where Due Henri de Guise, Archbishop of Rheims, fell in love with her, but subsequently abandoned her after an acci- dental meetinsf with her sister Anne. Withdrawn from France by his father Charles de Lorraine, the hare-brained young prelate passed several years in Italy, and accomplished, as has been already shown, the conquest of Naples ; but soon wearied by the monotony of his exile, he proceeded to Germany, where he joined the army of the emperor, and con- ducted himself with such marked and chivalrous courage that the Knights of Malta, who had formed a project for conquering the island of St. Domingo, chose him as their leader. Exile as he was, how- ever, the young prince declined to embark in such an expedition without the consent of the Cardinal Richelieu, which was refused ; when, as both his elder brothers had died, he next solicited permission to return to Court, in which application he was more successful ; and being now the last representative of his family, he reappeared in France with a firm determination to conduct himself in a way which would compel the cardinal to deprive him of his archbishopric. Such a project offered little diffi- culty, for the reputation for gallantry which he had acquired before his departure was by no means con- sistent with his profession, while circumstances also appeared to second his design ; for, although the poor young Abbess of Avenay had already been dead two years, he found on his return the Princess Anne, if possible, more beautiful than he had left her, and quite inclined to return his affection ; upon 39° LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. which M. de Guise, archbishop as he was, paid his addresses to her without scruple, and at length succeeded in convincing her, or at least in inducing her to appear convinced, that by virtue of some peculiar dispensation he could legally become her husband ; and this point gained, one of the canons of Rheims united them in the private chapel of the Hotel de Nevers. The conspiracy of the Comte de Soissons,^ which happened soon afterwards, proved too great a tempta- tion for the turbulent spirit of the married church- man to resist, and he was accordingly present at the battle of Marfee ; but he subsequently withdrew to Sedan, and thence passed into Flanders, where he again entered into the service of the emperor. The Princess Anne on his departure also resolved to absent herself, and, adopting male costume, she pro- ceeded to Besangon, in order to follow him into Flanders, where, as well as elsewhere, she caused herself to be called Madame de Guise, writing and speaking of her " husband," and defying the assur- ances which were constantly advanced of the illegality of her marriage. She did not, however, long pursue her journey, for while she was residing at Besangon and the prince at Brussels, she learnt that he had fallen in love with the Comtesse de 1 Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Soissons, when compelled to fly from France for an abortive attempt to destroy Richelieu, took refuge in Sedan, where he entered into a treaty with the house of Austria against the French king, and defeated the Mar^chal de Chatillon at the battle of Marfee ; but his victory availed him no- thing, for near the close of the fight he was found dead upon the field, under a serious suspicion of having met his death by unfair means. XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 391 Bossut/ whom he had, moreover, married ; upon which the princess returned at once to Paris, and resumed her name of Anne de Gonzague, as though nothing had occurred ; while her faithless lover, de- clared criminal of lese-majestd, quietly awaited the death of Louis XIII. and his minister to resume his Court career. Recalled by the queen, he required no second summons, but immediately quitted Brussels, leaving a letter for the countess, in which he stated that he had been anxious to spare her the pain of a last interview, but that when he had formed an establish- ment worthy of her in Paris, he would at once write to her to join him. He did in fact write again, but instead of appointing a period for their meeting, he informed her in the most courteous terms that he had really believed himself to be her legal husband at the period of their marriage ; but that since his return to France, so many of the most learned and competent authorities had assured him that she was not his wife, that he had at length been compelled to admit the fact. A few years subsequently the Princess Anne, in her turn, con- tracted a second, and an equally secret, marriage with the Prince Leonor, one of the younger brothers of the Elector-Palatine, by which she excited the displeasure of the Court. She was, however, par- doned through the intervention of the Queen of England, and again returned to the capital, where, as her husband was extremely ugly and violently 1 Honorie de dimes, daughter of Jeoffroi, Comte de Grimberg, and widow of Albert Maximilian de Henrien, Comte de Bossut. 392 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. jealous, she was obliged to represent to him that it was essential to his interest for her to appear in the gay world before she could induce him to per- mit her to return to the life of pleasure and dissi- pation which was essential to her happiness. As he was wretchedly poor, he yielded to this crowning argument ; and during the Fronde, she attached herself warmly to Madame de Longueville and the Prince de Conti. The identity of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse has been shown elsewhere ; and the fact that, after having assisted her mother in the arrest of the princes, she had now joined their faction, arose from circumstances which will be presently explained. The other leading members of the cabal were the _ Due de Nemours, the President Viole, and Isaac d'Arnaud, the colonel of the carabineers ; while Monsieur, with his usual cautious cowardice, had quietly insinuated himself into the interests of the party, in order to provide for himself a means of escape from the vengeance of the prince when he should recover his liberty ; and the coadjutor was placed in correspondence with the Princess- Palatine by Madame de Rhodes and Mademoiselle de Che- vreuse. Their plans were arranged in one meeting ; Mazarin was to be overthrown, the princes released from prison, the coadjutor created cardinal, and the hand of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse given to the Prince de Conti. A treaty was signed to this effect ; but it of course remained nugatory until ratified by the additional signature of the Due d'Orleans.-' 1 Louis XIV. et son Siecle. XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 393 The Court did not find Monsieitr at Orleans to meet them as they had anticipated, nor even M. le TelHer, whom, however, they afterwards encountered on the road ; but he brought them little consolation, for he could not even assure them that his royal highness would come as far as Fontainebleau, or that his views coincided with their own ; and they had already been domesticated in that palace for four days before the arrival of M. de Chateauneuf, who brought an assurance that Monsieur would follow him, and who, as he was in the interests of the co- adjutor (now rapidly becoming a favourite with the unstable prince), prided himself upon a knowledge of the movements of Gaston. Satisfied that he was in fact coming, although somewhat tardily, the cardinal went to meet him ; and feeling how greatly the ad- hesion of the prince must affect the welfare of his party, Mazarin overwhelmed him with respect and attention ; but Monsieur no sooner found himself in the presence of the queen than he vehemently expressed his displeasure at the removal of M. de Conde from Vincennes, which had taken place without his sanction, and in express contradiction to the plighted word of the regent, who had, in his presence, commanded M. de Bar, to whose custody the princes had been committed, neither to liberate nor remove them without the joint authority of herself and his royal highness. Moreover, the duke, whose distrustful nature often rendered him clear-sighted, readily understood that their projected transfer to Havre, which had just been mooted, was merely with a view of placing them where they 394 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. would be in the absolute and undivided power of the cardinal, who could accordingly make them service- able in a moment of necessity — a precaution which was at least a wise one, as, in the very probable con- tingency of a new want of popularity, he would thus be enabled to secure the services of the prince by restoring him to liberty ; and his previous career had rendered him too formidable an enemy for the city to contend against. Mademoiselle relates that, when she went to visit him in his private apartments at Fontainebleau, she found him In a great state of excitement and anger ; so much so that he emptied his heart to her without reserve, and told her that whatever means were adopted to obtain his consent to such an arrangement, he would never give it ; and that the suspicions which were entertained of the cardinal's motives for the proposition were calculated to augment the disaffection already existing ; that the Parliament would become more determined Frondeurs than ever ; and that he was resolved henceforward never to interfere in any public measures. He also refused to visit the queen throughout the day ; but, ultimately, after several ■ messengers had been despatched to urge his pre- sence, he consented to wait upon her in the evening. This interview, however, far from producing the effect which, from his known vacillation of character, had been anticipated by the regent, only tended to increase the bitterness on both sides ; and they sepa- rated mutually dissatisfied. The cardinal sent at daybreak to Mademoiselle to entreat her to see Monsieur, and to endeavour to XIV THE COURT OF FRANCE 395 detain him at Court ; but she failed in her mission, as, for once, he remained firm to his purpose. At his parting interview with the queen she informed him that she had despatched the Comte d'Harcourt to escort the princes from Marcoussy to Havre ; adding, that although he would not give his consent to the measure, the interest of the king exacted it, and it should be carried out. In reply, Monsieur coldly remarked that the king had a right to act as he saw fit, but that such was not his own opinion ; and in this spirit he departed for Paris thoroughly out of temper with the Court, which followed the next day. Angry and irritated as he was, however, the duke by no means wished seriously to commit himself with the opposite faction ; and, accordingly, when the treaty, to which we have alluded above, was placed in his hands, he endeavoured to elude the necessity of rendering it valid by his own signature. But he had to deal with women who were well acquainted with the most salient points of his character, and who were well aware that, so long as he remained uncommitted, they and their friends were in peril from his vacillation and perpetual perfidy; and, at length, after watching, pursuing, and tracking him, they surprised him at a moment when he could not escape, and put a pen into his hand ; when finally, " Gaston signed," said Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, " as if he were ratifying the compact of a witch's Sabbath, and was afraid of being detected by his good angel." Charles II., who had just been compelled to retire 396 LOUIS XIV. CHAP. XIV from Holland, arrived about this time ( 1 3th September 1650) at Paris, attended by one solitary nobleman, who acted at once as his chamberlain, valet de chambre, equerry of the kitchen, and cupbearer ; nor had he changed his linen since he commenced his journey. Lord Germain lent him a shirt on his arrival ; but the queen, his mother, did not possess money enough to supply him with a second for the next day. Monsieur having paid him a visit, the coadjutor endeavoured to induce him to supply the unhappy fugitive with funds ; but he was unable to wring a sous from him for such a purpose. A little, he said, would not suffice, as such an offering would be unworthy both of himself and the English monarch ; while, if he gave a large sum, it would compromise him for the future ; ^ and thus disap- pointed and unaided, Charles, after spending a short time in France, where he received no assistance and very little civility, again retired to Jersey, where his authority was still acknowledged.^ 1 Mimoires du Cardinal de Retz. 2 Ryder's England. CHAPTER XV The battle of Rethel — Death of the Dowager-Princess of Conde — Remon- strance of the Parliament on the imprisonment of the princes — Quarrel of the Due d'Orleans and the cardinal — Misgivings of Mademoiselle — Reconciliation between Mademoiselle and Conde — Mazarin offers the hand of Louis XIV. to Mademoiselle — The cardinal foiled — The inter- polated factum — Energy of Gaston d'Orleans — Alarm of the Court — Flight of the cardinal — Riot in the capital — Mademoiselle de Chevreuse and the Duchesse d'Orleans — Pusillanimity of Monsiair — Seizure of the city gates by the Frondeurs — The populace in the Palais-Royal — M. Desbuches in the royal chamber — Mazarin at Havre — Emancipation of the princes — Their arrival in Paris. Mazarin, whom the war in Guienne had infected with a thirst for triumph, shortly afterwards left Paris for Champagne, and was present at the retak- ing of Rethel, of which Marechal Turenne had ren- dered himself master ; but subsequently M. du Plessis-Praslin,^ who was in command of the royal troops, fought the battle of Somme-Puy, where he made a great number of prisoners ; while Turenne himself escaped with considerable difficulty. Mazarin insisted that this encounter should be designated the Battle of Rethel ; because as he was himself in the town it might be believed that the victory had been obtained through his agency, although Rethel was, in fact, at the distance of two leagues from the field. 1 Cesar de Choiseuil, Du Plessis-Praslin, Duke and Peer of France, was created marshal in 1645, and gained, in 1648, the battle of Francheron ; and in 1650, that of Rethel against Mardchal Turenne, who at that period commanded the Spanish army. He died at Paris in 1673. 398 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. The warlike cardinal had, however, scarcely passed the gates of Paris when fresh hostilities commenced against him ; and a petition was pre- sented to the Parliament by the princess, praying that the princes might be set at liberty, or at least put upon their trial, and transferred for that purpose from Havre to the Louvre, where they might be guarded by an officer of the king's household. This was the precise moment in which the Due d'Orleans could, with the greatest dignity, have declared him- self, but his heart failed him ; and he caused it to be reported that he was indisposed. At the same period news arrived of the death of the princess -dowager at Chatillon, after a long period of suffering. The report was general that she had died heartbroken, and pining once more to embrace her children ; but Mademoiselle, with the flippancy for which she was proverbial on all serious subjects, asserts that " she died in the most beauti- ful and Christian sentiments imaginable ; she had lived during her last years with great devotion, which even caused her to abandon the interest of her son, either because she was quite resigned, or that she cared less for him. The prince," she adds, "knew the real cause; and, as for me, I shall give no opinion." And this was all the regret expressed at Court for the old and tried and affectionate friend of the regent, whom she had sent to her grave solitary, childless, and heartbroken ! The deliberations on the petition of the younger princess had just commenced, notwithstanding the absence of Monsieur from the meeting ; and the XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 399 deputies were busy in attributing to the foreign minister all the troubles both public and private by which the country was harassed, when a courier arrived in Paris, bringing tidings of the victory of Rethel and the defeat of Turenne. Monsieur, so soon as they reached him, roused himself sufficiently from his sudden attack of illness to pay a visit of congratulation to the queen, whom he found rejoic- ing in the belief that the friends of M. de Conde would be terror-stricken on learning that his forces had been defeated ; but she had miscalculated the effect which the event really tended to produce, and this was a dread lest Mazarin should avail him- self of the circumstance — an apprehension which strengthened them in their resolution to support the prince, in order to be relieved through his agency of their most obnoxious enemy. On the 30th of December a decree was passed that very humble remonstrances should be made to the king and the regent on the subject of the im- prisoned princes, and that their liberty should be demanded ; but the cardinal, who had been warned by the queen that a new cabal was forming against him in his absence, returned with all speed to Paris, which he entered on the following day full of triumph and exultation, and in the highest spirits. Anne of Austria was still suffering from the same illness which had attacked her at Poitiers, and could not leave her bed. Nevertheless there was great gaiety at Court ; and Mademoiselle expatiates with con- siderable complacency upon the balls and galas, as well as on the renewed intention of Monsieur to 400 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. accomplish her marriage at the first convenient opportunity. Meanwhile the Parliament continued to urge the emancipation of the princes with such untiring energy that the Court was at length com- pelled to reply ; and Monsieur, whose views had once more changed upon the subject, expostulated so pressingly with the queen upon the danger and impolicy of continuing their captivity, that the alarmed and exasperated cardinal made a speech in reply which so enraged the duke that he declared to the regent he would never again set foot in her council -chamber while that person was admitted there. The feud was now an overt one ; the swords had been drawn, and nothing remained but to fling away the scabbards. The following morning Goulas, the secretary of Monsieur, who was about to accompany M. de Lionne to Havre, to treat with the prince on the subject of his liberation, waited upon Mademoiselle, and complained bitterly of the bad policy of his master in quarrelling with the cardinal at such a moment — a proceeding by which he had complicated the difficulties of the question, and compelled the ministers to liberate M. de Conde, who would feel no obligation to the Court for a concession to which he must be aware that they had been forced. Mademoiselle hurried to her father to represent this fact, but the only reply which she could extort from him was to the effect that he would never again sit in council with Mazarin, be the conse- quences what they might. Mademoiselle confesses that she was by no means sorry he had come to XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 401 such a resolution, although she was inimical to the prince personally ; for she loved Monsieur so much that she was glad to see him undertake two such important matters as the release of M. de Cond6 and the overthrow of a minister from whom he had received an affront. " But," she says, as if still doubting whether this sudden belligerent impulse would stand the test of time and difficulty, " the fear that I felt lest he should grow tired of the trouble which such an affair must necessarily engender, and that he would not carry it through, gave me the greatest uneasiness."^ Resolved, however, to throw no extra impedi- ment in his way, she made a resolution to overcome her puerile and causeless animosity towards the prince ; and in consequence exerted all her courtesy in order to render herself agreeable to his friends, who, at this conjuncture, crowded to pay their re- spects to his royal highness ; in this spirit she also sought an interview with Guitaut, who was, as she knew, devoted to the interests of M. de Conde, and much in his confidence, and who had been of great service to him during his imprisonment ; and to him she expressed her firm resolution to live upon more friendly terms in future, not only with the prince himself, but also with all his family, than she had hitherto done, regretting that she had not be- fore decided on the same line of conduct. This assurance was joyfully received ; and Guitaut, in his turn, impressed upon her the respect and friendship with which the whole house of Conde had invariably 1 Mdmoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. VOL. I. 26 402 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. regarded her person, and the grief which they had feh at her previous coldness and disincHnation to- wards themselves. The cardinal had not been many hours in Paris before he was quite conscious of the ground that he had lost during his absence, and of the defections which had taken place in his party, among which that of Monsieur was the most important ; and he resolved in consequence to direct his first efforts towards a reconciliation with that prince ; but Mon- sieur was always firm when his firmness involved neither danger nor exertion, and he was, therefore, thoroughly inaccessible to all his overtures. Either his royal highness was sick, or he was sulky, or he was dissatisfied ; and these were not the moods in which he could be driven from his purpose. Mazarin consequently felt that he must strike a grand blow in order to overcome this unwonted persistence ; and in the extremity of the moment he could think of nothing more likely to conduce to his object than that of reviving the everlasting subject of the mar- riage of Mademoiselle, in a manner which he believed could not fail to produce an immediate reconciliation. With this view, therefore, Mademoiselle de Neuillant,^ one of the maids of honour to the queen, was ordered to wait upon Mademoiselle, and to offer to her, on the part of his eminence, the hand of the young king, on condition that she should prevent Monsieur from joining the faction of the princes. Whether Mademoiselle was really too 1 Afterwards Duchesse de Navailles. XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 403 keen-sighted to be duped, and suspected the sin- cerity of the proposal, or whether, as is extremely possible, she considered that the great difference of age between herself and Louis XIV. rendered such an alliance almost impossible, it is certain that the ambassadress could not induce her to be serious upon the subject ; but, after having exhausted all her eloquence, was answered only by a light laugh, and the remark that his royal highness and herself had pledged their word to M. de Conde, and were resolved to keep it. This " incredible levity," as Madame de Motteville designates it, produced from Mademoiselle de Neuillant the spirited retort of — "For heaven's sake, Mademoiselle, first make yourself a queen, and then you can release the princes." But she urged in vain : Mademoiselle would vouchsafe no other reply ; and thus once more, despite all her innate ambition, the princess suffered a crown to escape her. The cardinal was foiled, and his uneasiness in- creased tenfold as he reflected that Monsietir must indeed be deeply compromised to resist such a proposition. For the first time in his life Gaston d'Orleans remained faithful to the party he had adopted, and M. de Retz had all the credit of his inflexibility. Meanwhile the illustrious prisoners , were made promptly acquainted with every event which occurred in Paris, and themselves directed the measures which were progressing to effect their release. Their correspondence with their friends was carried on by means of double louis-d'ors 404 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. hollowed out, in which the letters were concealed ; but every requisition of the Parliament for their release was met by subterfuge and evasion, until the regent finally referred the deputies to the keeper of the seals, who, chancing to have a severe cold which greatly impeded his articulation, handed his factum to the president to read, without remarking that it had been interpolated by the queen herself; and that, among other accusations against sundry indi- viduals, there occurred a violent vituperation of the coadjutor, in which she had inserted the words, " he lied." The reading of such a document in a public meeting naturally produced a formidable effect ; it was oil flung upon flame ; and the struggle thence- forward became one of life and death between the cardinal and M. de Retz, who at length, goaded beyond his patience, sprang into the tribune and made a violent speech against Mazarin, which he concluded by exhorting the Parliament to offer their humble entreaties to the king, immediately to for- ward an order for the release of the princes, as well as a declaration of their innocence ; and, moreover, to banish alike from his presence and his councils the Cardinal Mazarin. He also urged the propriety of holding a new meeting on the following Monday, to receive whatever reply it might please his majesty to make to the deputies — a proposal which was welcomed with acclamation, and met with an unani- mous assent. In this emergency the queen sent the Comte de Brienne to Monsieur to invite him to an interview ; XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 405 but the coadjutor, who for the moment had entirely subjugated the will of the unstable prince, caused him to reply that he would perform his habitual duty to the regent when the princes were liberated, and the cardinal banished from her presence. Nor did he stop there ; for he summoned the Marechal de Villeroi and the secretary of state, declaring to the former that he should hold him responsible for the safe keeping of the king, and commanding him, by his authority as lieutenant-general of the king- dom, to obey no orders but his own ; while he imposed at the same time upon Le Tellier a stringent injunction not to forward any despatch, of whatever description, until he had himself taken cognisance of its contents ; and directed the civic officers to hold their arms in readiness for the king's service, absolutely forbidding them to obey any orders save those which they would receive from himself. The queen had been totally unprepared for de- monstrations such as these, and the whole palace was in consternation. Many of the courtiers advised Mazarin to retire to a fortress ; while four of the marshals, who were indebted to him for their dignity, and who would not desert him, proposed to march a strong body of troops into the city to garrison the whole neighbourhood of the Palais- Royal, and to hold out against the Due d'Orleans ; but all these violent measures were rejected both by the queen and the cardinal, as involving a risk far greater than the probability of success. In the midst of this uncertainty the Duchesse de Chevreuse arrived at the Palais- Royal. As the 4o6 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. extent of her intrigue with the coadjutor was un- known, and as in their embarrassment the regent and her minister were asking advice of all around them, she was appealed to in her turn; and without an instant's hesitation she counselled the cardinal to absent himself from Paris until the danger with which he was then threatened should have passed by ; adding that, during his temporary absence, she would exert all her influence with Monsieur to effect a reconciliation between them ; and that she did not despair, when the release of the princes had once taken place, of rendering the duke much more favourably disposed towards his eminence. This advice, perfidious as it was, appeared to be so much the most reasonable which they had yet received, that both the queen and Mazarin resolved to adopt it ; and the latter, whose terror had rendered him almost imbecile at this conjuncture, and who had lost all power of self-reliance, was so delighted at the idea of escaping from the neighbourhood of his enemies that he declared his intention of starting that very night for Havre to effect the liberation of the princes ; for which purpose he received a private order from the queen to M. de Bar, commanding that functionary punctually to credit and to obey all that the cardinal should declare to him touching her intention of releasing the prisoners ; and enjoining him to attend to no other and subsequent order which he might receive, whether from the king her son or from herself Furnished with this authority, the cardinal con- trived to recover at least external composure ; and XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 407 when he waited upon the queen in the evening, as was his custom, he conversed with her for a con- siderable time without betraying any extraordinary uneasiness ; while the self-possession of the regent was less remarkable, as she, on every occasion, manifested considerable presence of mind. Never- theless, the calm within the palace must have been more than once disturbed by the riot without, for the populace were swarming in the streets, and cries of no favourable omen re-echoed on all sides. Warned by these hostile demonstrations, and anxious to escape their threatened results, at ten o'clock the cardinal took leave of the queen and her circle, but still without any more apparent demonstration than he would have exhibited had he anticipated that he should rejoin them the next day ; and this done, hastened to his apartments, where he exchanged his ecclesiastical costume for a scarlet vest and gray trunk hose, and, taking in his hand a hat and plume, left the Palais- Royal on foot, followed only by two of his suite. At the Richelieu gate another gentle- man of his household was awaiting him with horses ; and two hours afterwards he was at St. Germain, where he halted for the night.^ The regent played her part admirably. Sur- prised and alarmed as she was, she never suffered these feelings to appear, but remained in conversa- tion with those about her until the usual hour of their dismissal ; while Mademoiselle, who was aware of the flight of the cardinal, but who had risen early on that day in order to have an inter- 1 Loins XIV. et son Siech. 4o8 LOUIS XIV. AND ' CHAP. view with Monszeztr before the meeting of Parlia- ment, at once proceeded to the Tuileries, and was about to retire to rest when she was informed that there was a great disturbance in the city, and, hurry- ing to one of the terraces which commanded a view in several directions, she saw (for the night was clear and the moon bright) that a gate by the water's side at the end of the street was crowded with horse- men, posted there to protect the departure of the cardinal, who had decided to leave the city by the barrier of the Conference, and that these mounted guards had been attacked by the boatmen, her own band, and several of her valets. As the firing in- creased, she went to withdraw her people ; but as all her household believed that she had retired for the night, she had no means of enforcing obedience ; and in the meUe they made a prisoner of M. de Roncerolles, the governor of Bellegarde, — a circum- stance which much embarrassed the princess, who caused him to be supplied with a strong escort that he might leave the city without further molestation. Before his departure he confided to her that the cardinal had originally arranged to escape from Paris by that route, but that he had induced him to adopt another direction. M. de Roncerolles was not, however, her only capture, for the " irregular troops " had also possessed themselves of the person of M. d'Estrades, the governor of Dunkirk, who was the confidential friend of Mazarin, and whom Mademoiselle on that account resolved to detain a prisoner until she should learn the wishes of the Due d' Orleans as to his disposal. She conse- XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 409 quently consigned him to the large pavihon of the Tuileries, in order that, should he be demanded of her in the king's name, she might be enabled to declare that he was no longer in her apartments. All her diplomacy, however, proved supererogatory, tor Monsieur, who never desired to take the initiative in any hazardous affair, desired her forthwith to set him at liberty, which she did with considerable re- luctance, being conscious that had he been detained, her father would have secured Dunkirk, as M. de St. Quentin, the king's lieutenant, had formerly been attached to his household, and would have embraced his interests. The coadjutor was also apprised during the same night of the disappearance of the minister, and hastened to communicate with Monsieur, whom he found surrounded by a crowd of courtiers. As M. de Retz did not appear so triumphant as those about him, the duke observed with a smile that he would pledge himself the coadjutor was prepared to hear in the next place of the departure of the king. The truth of his suspicion was admitted ; when he rallied the prelate upon his folly, and assured him that had the cardinal contemplated such a measure, he would have carried the sovereign away from Paris under his own charge. Above all things Monsieur pro- tested against any warlike demonstration, and for- bade every manifestation of suspicion or mistrust. He cared not though the evil should come, but he would not permit it to be said that it had origi- nated with him ; and thus, although above all things he trembled at the event of a civil war, which must 4IO LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. become inevitable should the king be removed from the capital, he resolutely refused to authorise the measures by which such an attempt would have been rendered impracticable. On the evening of the second day after the car- dinal's flight, as the coadjutor, satisfied that the supineness of the duke would involve some new difficulty, had retired to bed, wearied and irritated, and was already half asleep, his curtain was sud- denly drawn back by a gentleman of Monsieur s household, who announced that his royal highness desired to see him immediately. M. de Retz, anxious to ascertain the cause of this hasty sum- mons, questioned the messenger as he prepared to rise ; but he could learn nothing more than that Mademoiselle de Chevreuse had been to the palace, and had already awoke Monsieur. While he was dressing a page brought him a note in the hand- writing of that lady, containing only the words, " Come quickly to the Luxembourg, and take care of yourself by the way." His increased curiosity urged him to exert the utmost haste in order to reach the palace ; and when he arrived there, he found her seated upon a chest in the antechamber, and she hurriedly informed him that her mother, who was indisposed, had sent her to the duke to con- fide to him the fact that the king was on the point of leaving Paris ; for that although he had gone to bed at his usual time, he had afterwards risen, and had even drawn on his boots. This intelligence had reached Madame de Chevreuse through the Mar^chal d'Aumont, the captain of the guard, who had, in XV THE COURT OF FRANCE ^\l concert with the Marechal d'Albret, informed her secretly of the circumstance, in order that steps might be taken to prevent a measure which would once more plunge the kingdom into confusion and revolt ; while the Marechal de Villeroi had at the same time given a similar intimation to the keeper of the seals. Mademoiselle de Chevreuse added, however, that she apprehended there would be considerable diffi- culty in inducing Monsietir to come to any resolu- tion, as the first words which he had uttered after she awoke him with the news were, " Send for the coadjutor. As for me, I do not see that anything can be done in it." They entered the chamber together, where they found the duke and duchess still in bed ; and as they appeared Monsieur exclaimed, "It is just as you said; what shall we do?" The coadjutor re- plied that there was no alternative but to take pos- session of the city gates. The duke objected that it could not be done at so late an hour, but both the duchess and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse persisted that nothing could be more wise or more possible ; and at length Monsieur was so far shaken as to concede that he would send M. de Souches, the captain of the Swiss guard, to the queen, to beseech of her majesty to reflect on the consequences of such a proceeding, declaring that, in his opinion, nothing further was necessary, as when she found her re- solution was discovered she would not venture to persist in it. The coadjutor still lingered, alarmed and almost angered by the weakness of the duke, who had 412 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. exhausted all his energy in words, and now, when the time for action had arrived, had once more re- lapsed into weakness, and threatened by his inert- ness and egotism to sacrifice the whole of his party, when Madame suddenly desired him to bring her a desk which stood upon the table in her cabinet, and taking a large sheet of paper she wrote hastily : " The coadjutor is commanded to take up arms ; and to prevent the creatures of the Cardinal Maza- rin, now under condemnation of the Parliament, from removing the king out of Paris. " Marguerite de Lorraine." As she was about to deliver this order to M. de Retz, the duke snatched it from her hand, but she contrived to whisper in the ear of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse that she authorised her to desire the coadjutor to act as he thought right ; and that she would answer to him for the approbation of the duke the next day, whatever he might then say. Reconciled by this assurance, M. de Retz at length prepared to leave the room, when the timid Gaston exclaimed hastily, " At least, Mr. Coadjutor, you must conciliate the Parliament. I will on no account quarrel with them."-' M. de Retz instantly wrote to the Due de Beau- fort, entreating him to hasten to the Hotel de Montbazon, while Mademoiselle de Chevreuse went to awaken the Marechal de la Motte ; and in a very short space of time the whole city took the alarm. 1 MciHoires du Cardinal de Retz. XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 413 All the gates were seized ; and so great was the popular enthusiasm that, the commandant of the Porte St. Honor6 being absent from his post, his wife sprang from her bed, and, without waiting to do more than fold a dressing-gown about her, made the drum beat to arms, and secured the barrier. The Due de Beaufort and the Marechal de la Motte took command of the mounted patrols, and all egress from Paris became thenceforward impossible. As the outbreak commenced, all the friends of the princes mounted their horses, and traversed the streets, urging the citizens to arms ; and the call was at once answered by an Immense mass of the populace, who rushed towards the Palais- Royal. The queen was no sooner apprised by this tumult that her design had been discovered, than she caused the young king, whose travelling dress was adready adjusted. Immediately to take off his clothes and to retire to bed ; which he had scarcely done ere one of the officers of the guards announced to her that the mob were threatening the palace, in their exaspera- tion on learning that the king was again about to leave the city ; and that they insisted upon seeing him, in order to convince themselves that he was not actually already gone. While the officer was yet speaking, a messenger arrived from the palace sentinels to request new orders, the mob which had collected about the Palais- Royal having threatened to tear up the palisades ; and before the regent had time to answer the appeal, the messenger of the Due d' Orleans arrived In his turn, and was con- ducted to her presence ; when he Informed her 414 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. majesty that he was deputed by Monsieur to request that she would terminate the popular commotion which had been excited by a report that she was about to remove the king from the city, — a measure which he begged to assure her was impossible, as the citizens were resolved not to permit it. The queen replied with great haughtiness that it was the Due d'Orleans himself who had occasioned the tumult, and that, consequently, it depended upon himself to allay it, should he see fit to do so ; that she was well aware he had merely acted upon the advice of the coadjutor ; while, as regarded the alarm excited by the supposed departure of the king, nothing could be more unfounded, both his majesty and the Due d'Anjou being then asleep in their beds, as she had herself been before the outcry com- pelled her to rise ; and in order to convince him of the futility of the report, she desired him to follow her to the chamber of the king. As she ceased speaking, she moved forward, and De Souches saw, as she had declared, the young sovereign apparently in a profound sleep. He was about to retire, when suddenly the outcry of the populace became more violent, and shouts of " The king ! the king ! we must see the king ! " penetrated even to the royal apartment. The regent reflected an instant ; and then, turning towards the envoy of Monsieur, she desired him to command in her name that all the doors of the palace should be flung open, and every one admitted to the chamber of the king who desired to enter it ; directing, however, at the same time, that the XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 415 citizens should be informed that his majesty was sleep- ing, and requested to make as little noise as possible. De Souches hastily obeyed ; and having trans- mitted the order of the regent to the guard, after- wards repeated her message to the people. All the doors were immediately opened, and the mob rushed into the Palais- Royal. Nevertheless, contrary to all expectation, they had no sooner reached the royal apartments, than the individuals who appeared to act as their leaders, remembering that the queen had assured them the king was sleeping, desired the untimely visitors to proceed in perfect quiet ; and as the human tide moved onward, their very breathing was suppressed, and they trod as though they dreaded to awaken every echo with their footsteps. The same mighty mass that had howled and yelled and threatened, without the gates, like some wild beast about to be ber"eft of its young, now, as the chamber of the sovereign gradually filled, became calm, respectful, and cautious, and approached the royal bed with a feeling of affectionate deference, which restrained every intruder from drawing back the curtains. It was the queen herself who performed this office. She had maintained her post near the pillow of her son, and — pale, but calm and dignified, as though she were merely going through some courtly ceremonial — she extended her hand, and, gathering back the velvet folds which had intervened between the people and their sovereign, revealed him to their eager gaze in all the beauty of youth and apparent slumber. 4i6 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. By a simultaneous impulse, the whole assemblage dropped upon their knees, and put up a prayer for the preservation of the noble child, who lay sleeping before them, after which they retired through an opposite door, to give place to those who were wait- ing to succeed them. This living stream continued to flow on until three o'clock in the morning, and still the queen never faltered. Like a marble statue she retained her position, firm and motionless, her majestic figure drawn haughtily to its full height, and her magnifi- cent arm resting in broad relief upon the crimson draperies. And still the boy-king, emulating the example of his royal parent, remained immobile, with closed eyes and steady breathing, as though his rest had remained unbroken by the incursion of his rebellious subjects. It was a singular and marked passage in the life of both mother and son.^ On the afternoon of the same day, the queen caused the household of the king and the municipal magistrates to be summoned to her presence, in order to assure them that she had never entertained an idea of removing his majesty from Paris ; and to command that the gates of the city should continue to be guarded as they then were, in order to efface so erroneous an impression from the minds of the people. Whatever credence her hearers were in- clined to concede to her assurance, they at least readily obeyed her order. The gates were still strictly watched ; and Louis was, in point of fact, a prisoner in his own capital. 1 Louis XIV. et son Steele XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 417 According to the statement of Mademoiselle, however, the distrust of the popular faction was still so great that Monsieur, at the close of each day, despatched one of his gentlemen, named Desbuches, to offer his nightly greeting to the queen, who was, moreover, ordered not to leave the Palais-Royal without seeing the young sovereign, upon the pre- text that the duke would not, without this ceremony, be enabled to undeceive the citizens, who still per- sisted in putting faith in the reports which continued to be spread of his intended flight. This proceed- ing was most obnoxious to the regent, but as she had no alternative she was compelled to permit the nightly intrusion of M. Desbuches into the royal chamber, where he even occasionally repeated his visit a second time, drawing back the curtains of the bed, and arousing Louis from his sleep. The cardinal travelled slowly towards Havre, each day anticipating that he should be joined by the queen and the princes, as it had been privately arranged before his departure ; but, instead of the royal party, he was overtaken by a courier, who announced to him the events which had taken place in the capital, and the utter impossibility of their departure. He, therefore, resumed his journey with more expedition, being anxious to secure the libera- tion of the princes through his own agency before they were wrested from his authority by the forces of the Fronde. On his arrival at the fortress he lost no time in personally announcing to them their release, and he did this amid salutations so humble, that M. de Conde declared he was prepared to see VOL. L 27 41 8 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. him even bend his knee ; while, the meeting once over, he made a thousand protestations of his own innocence in the affair of their imprisonment, assur- ing them that it was effected by Monsieur and the Frondeurs ; while, as regarded their release, it had only been accorded to his earnest entreaties by their majesties, which fact had induced him to be himself its herald. The prince listened with courteous incredulity, and answered every civility with perfect self-posses- sion ; but still the cardinal was baffled in the fond hope of deluding him either by his words or actions. Of the faith which might be placed in the former M. de Cond6 had long been enabled to estimate the extent, while his constant correspondence with his friends in the capital had already made him aware that, far from acting upon his free will, the cardinal had been compelled to the step which he was now taking by the very individuals whom he was accus- ing as the instigators of his own measures. After a considerable time had been consumed in this hollow and ineffectual discourse, Mazarin requested as an honour the company of M. de Cond6, the Prince de Conti, and M. de Longueville at dinner — an invita- tion which they accepted ; and during the repast the prince exerted all the fascination of his intellect, and by his high spirits and good humour rendered the embarrassment and uneasiness of his host the more conspicuous. The dinner over, the princes took their departure ; and having passed the gates of the fortress, and girded on their swords, they raised their hats with dignified courtesy to their discom- XV THE COURT OF FRANCE 419 fited entertainer, struck spurs into their horses, and galloped out of the town. Three days afterwards they arrived in Paris ; Monsieur, the Due de Beaufort, and the coadjutor went in the same coach as far as St. Denis to meet them, followed by the whole of the Court save the ladies and a few of the cardinal's private friends. The entire road from Paris to St. Denis was lined with carriages ; the populace testified even more joy at the return of M. de Cond6 than they had exhib- ited at his imprisonment ; and the king, the regent, and the Due d'Anjou alone remained in the palace. When the two carriages containing Monsieur and his friends, and the prince and his brothers, at length met, M. de. Cond^ alighted, and with his party entered that of the Due d'Orleans, which arrange- ment had no sooner been made than the pressure of the crowd compelled them to proceed at a foot's pace. Their progress was consequently slow, and it was already late in the day when the princes reached the Palais- Royal, where they immediately hastened to pay their respects to the king and queen. They were accompanied in their visit only by Monsieur; for both the Due de Beaufort and the coadjutor were aware that their own appearance at such a moment would only tend to exasperate the annoy- ance of the regent, a conviction which induced M. de Beaufort at once to return to his post at the Porte St. Honor6, and M. de Retz to attend the evening service at the oratory. CHAPTER XVI Reception of the princes by the Court — Intrigue against the coadjutor — Vanity of Mademoiselle — Projected marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Proposition of Conde — Illness of Madame de Conde — Mademoiselle indulges in a new matrimonial speculation — Retirement of the coadjutor — An anned neutrality — Pretensions of the Prince de Conde — The queen makes overtures to the coadjutor — Fresh intrigues — The projected assassination — Noble resistance of the coad- jutor — Sentence against Mazarin — Private meetings of the queen and the coadjutor — Retreat of the princess to St. Maur — The royal envoy — Rage of the Due d'Orleans — Return of Conde to the capital — Close of the regency — Majority of Louis XIV. — The Bed of Justice — Renunciation of the regency by Anne of Austria — The king and Madame de Frontenac. The poor queen had meanwhile passed a wretched day; and as the time of M. de Conde's arrival in the capital approached, she became greatly irritated by the presence of the crowd of courtiers who collected in her apartments to witness his presentation, and complained unceasingly of the extreme heat. She nevertheless made a powerful effort to appear cheer- ful, although not with sufficient success to conceal her real feelings. At length the prince reached the palace, and was no sooner announced than he entered, and was received, according to the state- ment of M. de la Rochefoucauld, rather like one who was in a position to grant forgiveness than to demand it. His address to the queen was brief, and haughtily respectful, while those of his brothers were modelled upon his own ; and, this ceremony performed, they CHAP. XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 421 fell back into the circle, jesting not only with those about them, but even with the regent herself, like men wholly without care or fear of any sort. The queen supported the trial bravely ; and after a few moments passed in this reckless triumph on the one hand, and concealed torture on the other, the princes took their leave, and proceeded to the Luxembourg to sup with the Due d'Orleans, where Mademoi- selle had an explanation with M. de Conde, and they vowed a friendship for the future as sincere as their past aversion. The day succeeding that on which the cardinal left Paris the Parliament had passed a decree, in which they presented their acknowledgments to the regent for his absence ; and requested from her a declaration that she would henceforward exclude from her council all foreigners, or persons who had taken the oath to any other princes than the king himself; and she lost no time in publishing this declaration, which deprived the coadjutor for ever both of a seat in the council and of the cardinal's hat, since, should he be admitted into the conclave, he must necessarily take an oath to the pope. Just at this period M. de Saujon, the envoy whom Mademoiselle had despatched to Germany, reap- peared in Paris, but she did not make the slightest allusion to his journey or its object. She was already aware that the negotiation had failed, the emperor being about to form an alliance with the Princess of Mantua. " I thought no more about it," she says, with a charming self-complacency quite unapproach- able, " save to feel great regret that I had ever 422 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. taken it so much to heart ; and it is, as I have already said, the least beautiful passage of my life ; while I may add, without vanity, that God, who is just, would not bestow a woman like me upon a man who was not worthy of her."^ The projected marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse created a great sensation in Paris. Couriers were despatched to Rome for a dispensation, and the prince lived en- tirely at the Hotel de Chevreuse, where he was frequently joined by M. de Conde. At the same time a second dispensation was requested of the pope, which would enable the Due d'Enghien to hold the ecclesiastical livings about to be resigned by his uncle, and which were very considerable. Only a month subsequently, however, the Pre- sident Viole disengaged M. de Conti from his pro- mise, which, so far from exciting his displeasure, appeared to afford him infinite satisfaction ; but the failure of the marriage originated, in fact, with the Duchesse de Longueville, who exerted all her in- fluence over the prince to prevent its completion, from a dread that when once she had become his wife. Mademoiselle de Chevreuse would deliver over M. de Conti without mercy to the coadjutor, her lover. The seals were at the same time withdrawn from the Marquis de Chateauneuf, and given to M. de Mole, the first president, who was a declared enemy of the coadjutor ; but this arrangement was not made without involving considerable disaffection in the 1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 423 opposite party. On arriving at the Palais- Royal, Monsieur learnt that the Comte de Chavigne, who was the intimate friend of M. de Conde, had been recalled by the queen irom Touraine ; and as "he hated him mortally," he complained to the regent of her having adopted such a measure without pre- viously consulting him ; and the rather as it was reported that she was about to make him a member of the council ; to which remonstrance Anne of Austria haughtily replied that he had, on his side, taken many and more serious steps without request- ing her own sanction — a reply which so irritated Monsieur that he immediately left the palace, and the prince followed him. At the close of the council the queen sent M, de la Vrilliere to demand the seals from M. de Chateau- neuf, and at ten o'clock at night she transferred them to M. Mole, and despatched M. de Sully in search of his father-in-law, in order that he might assume the seat of the chancellor in the council. These proceedings were instantly reported to Mon- sieur, and at the same time Madame de Chevreuse and her daughter impressed strongly upon him the consequences which must result from such a display of independence on the part of Anne of Austria ; nor was their eloquence wasted, for as lieutenant-general of the State, he deeply felt the affront which had been offered to him ; and in the first paroxysm of his annoyance assembled the chiefs of the faction, and, having laid the circumstances before them, requested their opinion. It was proposed by M. de Montresor that his 424 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. royal highness should send and demand the re- storation of the seals by the president ; and this suggestion was seconded by the coadjutor, with the amendment, however, that instead of making their restoration a popular question, he should claim them through the captain of his guard, adding that, mean- while, the Due de Beaufort and himself could re- main on the quays at the two extremities of Paris to keep the people in good humour, whom, fortu- nately, the name of Monsieur would suffice to pacify. At this point he was, however, interrupted by the duke, who remarked that he would speak for himself when he considered it necessary, but that he did not wish to be quoted ; and by no means felt prepared to say that the populace could be restrained or prevented from throwing the president into the river ; in which declaration he was joined by M. de Conde, who moreover asserted that he did not understand how to conduct a conflict of this nature, and that he always felt like a coward on occasions of popular sedition ; but that if Monsieur considered himself to be sufficiently aggrieved to commence a civil war, he was quite ready to mount and start for Burgundy to levy troops for his assistance. M. de Beaufort followed in the same spirit, and Monsieur became alarmed lest, on seeing that the duke was so thoroughly in the interests of the prince, the people should be divided between the two parties ; and in consequence the proposition fell to the ground.-' Mademoiselle adverts slightly to these facts, 1 Memoires die Cardinal de Retz. XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 425 and the remainder of the paragraph in which she alludes to the matrimonial dissolution is occupied by the record of an attack of erysipelas, during which the Princesse de Conde was confined to her bed, and which, having struck inwardly, placed her life in such danger that "many persons thought," says Mademoiselle in her usual style, "that if she died I might very well marry the prince. The report reached my own ears, and I began to reflect. In the evening when I was walking up and down my room with Prefontaine,^ I conversed with him upon the subject. I considered that the thing was very feasible, from the excellent terms upon which he lived with Monsieur ; while the aversion of the queen towards his royal highness rendered my marriage with the king impossible. Moreover, I argued that the noble qualities of the prince, and the reputation which he had acquired by his great deeds, supplied all that might have been wanting on his side, as, with regard to birth, we were both of the same blood. I reflected also that the Court would not consent to the union of our two families (or rather, I should say, of our two branches, since we are of the same name), because Monsieur, in addi- tion to his own position in the State, if supported and rendered more prominent by the prince, would be extremely formidable. During the three days that Madame de Conde remained in danger, this was my constant theme of conversation with Pre- fontaine, although I mentioned it to no one else. We agitated every question which could arise upon 1 Her secretary. 426 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. the subject ; and what gave me reason to do this, in addition to the reports which perpetually reached me, was the fact that the prince visited me daily. The recovery of the princess, however, ended the chapter, and from that moment no one thought any more about the matter."^ Meanwhile the coadjutor, who had brooded over the affront offered to him by the Due de Beaufort, and who was not a man likely to remain supinely in a false position while fully conscious of his power, resolved to make a cover of his ecclesiastical duties, and to render the Court better aware of his value by withdrawing into retirement. He consequently waited upon Monsiettr, to whom he said that, having had the honour of being of service to him in the two things which he had the most at heart — the banishment of the cardinal and the release of the princes, his cousins — he now requested the per- mission of his royal highness to return calmly and quietly to the duties of his profession ; and the rather that, as the Holy Week was approaching, he was anxious to withdraw himself entirely from worldly affairs, which he could do with the greater tranquillity, as his assistance was no longer necessary to the duke, whom his presence rather tended on the contrary to embarrass, and of whom he there- fore entreated the consent that he should retire to his cloister of Notre Dame. Despite his remon- strances with M. de Retz, and the arguments which he used to detain him, the joy of Monsieur at this appeal was too great even for his extraordinary 1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 427 powers of dissimulation ; his eye sparkled, and his cheek flushed with gratification. The struggle was over, and the coadjutor was an inconvenient ally. After quitting Monsiettr, who embraced him at parting, M. de Retz proceeded to take leave of the princes, whom he found at the Hotel de Conde, in company with the duchess and the Princess-Palatine. M. de Conti only laughed at the extraordinary resolution of the prelate, and called him a reverend hermit ; Madame de Longueville made no comment whatever ; the Princess- Palatine looked disconcerted and disappointed ; but the prince, who foresaw all the consequences of the step meditated by the coadjutor, made no attempt to conceal his surprise. Nevertheless, M. de Retz persisted in his design, and retired to Notre Dame; "where, however," he himself says, " I did not abandon myself so entirely to Providence as to neglect human means of de- fending myself from the insults of my enemies." It is certain that these were far from contemptible, for M. d'Annery, with the nobles of Vexin, shared his retreat; and MM. de Chateaubriant and De Chiteau - Regnaut, the Vicomte de Lamet, M. Argenteuil, and the Chevalier d'Humieres, also took up their abode in the cloister ; while M. de Balau and the Comte d'Orafort, with fifty Scottish officers who had served under Montrose, were dis- tributed among the houses of the Rue Neuve ; and the colonels and captains of the different stations, who were in the interests of the ambitious and restless prelate, had each their signal and their watchword ; and thus protected, the coadjutor aban- 428 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. doned himself entirely — at least to all appearance — to the exercise of his religious duties, receiving no one publicly save the canons and curates of the diocese, and only leaving his retreat at night to visit the Hotel de Chevreuse. All was raillery and witticism upon this subject, both at the Palais- Royal and the Hotel de Cond6 ; and as M. de Retz had established an aviary in one of his win- dows, Nogent, the Court jester, remarked that no one need longer be anxious with regard to the coadjutor, as he had now only two occupations on earth — those of securing his salvation and of whistling to his linnets. Once rid of the importunate prelate, M. de Conde began resolutely to assert himself, and to urge his claims upon the Court. He had been promised the government of Guienne, which had been wrenched from the Due d'Epernon ; and M. de la Rochefoucauld, the rank of lieutenant-general, as well as the command of the citadel of Blaye. Moreover, he demanded the government of Pro- vince for the Prince de Conti, which, as he already held in the interior Clermont, Stenay, Bellegarde, Dijon, and Montrond, and M. de Longueville still kept in view his old government of Normandy, would, should his claims be conceded, create for him almost the position of a sovereign prince ; and afford the means of sustaining, should his ambition tempt him to the trial, a struggle in which royalty itself might chance to fail. Mazarin, meanwhile, who in his exile maintained a constant correspondence with the regent upon XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 429 State affairs, became terrified at the exactions of the prince, who, in his eagerness to secure himself individually, had not on every occasion been equally zealous in the cause of his friends ; and who, when reminded of his omission upon this point, was wont to say that M. de Beaufort had been very fortunate to require only a ladder to escape from his confine- ment, — Mazarin, we say, alarmed at his increasing demands, resolved to check the assumption of M. de Conde by any means, however desperate ; and, in pursuance of this determination he caused the Vicomte d'Autel to wait upon the coadjutor in the middle of the night, accompanied by his brother, the Marechal Duplessis, who, however, remained at the door in his carriage. As the Viscount entered the apartment of M. de Retz, he flung his arms about his neck, saying that he was anxious to be the first to salute the new minister ; but such a salutation, however it might astonish the coadjutor, did not on that account startle him out of his self-possession, and he merely smiled as he returned the embrace. M. d'Autel, perceiving his incredulity, only the more earnestly persisted in his assertion, and added that he had received the commands of the queen to inform him that she placed in his hands not only her own person, but also the life and crown of her son. He then recapitulated to his attentive listener all the decisions of the regent and his eminence relative to the claims of M. de Conde ; and he was still expatiating upon the self-immolation of the cardinal at so critical a moment for the kingdom, when the 430 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. marshal entered in his turn, and, drawing a letter from his breast, placed it in the hands of M. de Retz, who instantly recognised the handwriting of Mazarin. It terminated with these words : — "You know, madam, that the greatest enemy I have in the world is the coadjutor ; nevertheless make use of him, madam, rather than enter into any treaty with the prince on the conditions he demands. Make him a cardinal, give him my ap- pointment, and lodge him in my apartments. He will perhaps be more in the interests of Monsieur than in those of your majesty ; but Monsieur does not seek the ruin of the State, and his intentions at bottom are not bad. In short, do anything, madam, rather than grant the demands of the prince. Should he obtain them, there would be nothing left to do save to conduct him to Rheims." The coadjutor had, however, no desire to be- come prime minister ; his ambition tended rather to a seat in the conclave ; and he did not, moreover, altogether trust to the perfect sincerity of the Court. He accordingly replied to the marshal that he was deeply sensible of the honour con- ferred upon him by such a proof of her majesty's confidence, and that in order to prove his gratitude for so signal a mark of favour, he begged of her to permit him to serve her without any view to his own personal interests — adding that he was altogether incapable of fulfilling the duties of her minister for many reasons ; nor would it be con- sistent with her dignity to elevate to such an office a man who was, so to say, still " warm and smoking " XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 43' from the opposite faction, — a fact which would of itself render him useless to her service as regarded Monsieur, and still more so as regarded the people, while these were the two most important points to secure at such a crisis. As the marshal still persisted, without effecting any change in the de- termination of the coadjutor, he at length exclaimed that the prelate ought to see the queen. M. de Retz affected not to have heard the remark ; upon which M. Duplessis repeated his declaration with still greater earnestness, as he threw a paper upon the table, desiring him to read it, and saying he would perhaps place faith in that at least. It was a document signed by the regent, in which she promised all safety to the coadjutor if he would present himself at the Palais-Royal. M. de Retz raised the paper to his lips ; and then approaching the fire, threw it into the flames, as he asked when the marshal would conduct him to the queen's presence. It was agreed that M. de Retz should meet him the following midnight in the cloisters of St. Honore, where he was accordingly punctually waiting at the stipulated hour ; ,and they at once proceeded to- gether to the private oratory of the regent by a back staircase. A quarter of an hour afterwards the queen entered, upon which the marshal retired, and M. de Retz remained alone with her majesty. Although Anne of Austria used all her powers of persuasion to induce the coadjutor to assume the office, and to instal himself in the apartments of the absent minister, she succeeded no better than her 432 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. envoy ; for M. de Retz easily perceived that even while she urged him to this step her heart and mind were still full of the cardinal ; and although she declared that, much as she esteemed and loved his eminence, she would not peril the safety of the State upon his account, he detected symptoms in her manner which convinced him that she was by no means unwilling to do so, despite her assertion to the contrary. In consequence of this conviction he steadily maintained his position ; and the queen ultimately became so much exasperated by his refusal, that she told him to act as he saw fitting, for that God and the innocence of her son would protect her, since she was abandoned by the whole world ; and for a time she continued to exhibit considerable resentment. Gradually, however, she became more calm, and again consented to hear the propositions of the coadjutor, who promised, should he have her sanction for such a measure, that he would withdraw Monsieur from the interests of the prince in the course of the following day, and compel M. de Cond6 himself to leave Paris within a week. The queen, overcome with delight, extended her hand to her late antagonist, declaring that if he could effect this measure he should be a cardinal in eight-and-forty hours, and, moreover, one of the dearest of her friends. She then endeavoured to induce M. de Retz to become reconciled to Mazarin ; but upon this point he once more excused himself, affirming that were he to appear in the character of a partisan of his eminence, he should no longer XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 433 be enabled to serve her majesty. As he was about to retire from the oratory, she recalled him, and desired him to remember that it was the cardinal who had suggested his nomination to the ministry ; to which he replied that he felt all the extent of his obligation, and that he would testifiy his gratitude by every means consistent with his honour ; but that he would not deceive her majesty by leading her to believe that he should take any steps tend- ing to the re-establishment of his eminence in the ministry. Anne of Austria remained for an instant buried in thought, and then said cheerfully, "Well, get you gone ; you are a real demon. Good- night. Let me know the day before you attend Par- liament." In the course of the following night the coad- jutor visited Monsieur, who expressed the most lively joy at the recital of his interview with the queen, but blamed him very seriously for his refusal of the office and the lodging of the absent cardinal, remarking that the regent was a creature of habit, into whose good graces he might possibly have insinuated himself From the Luxembourg M. de Retz proceeded to the residence of the Princess- Palatine, the queen having assured him, during their conversation, that her highness was more inter- ested in his favour than he had imagined ; and that she was also exasperated against the prince for reasons that she would herself explain. He was warmly welcomed by the princess, with whom he remained, in fact, until dawn, when, at VOL. I. 28 434 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. the close of a long and confidential conversation, he pledged himself to forward the marriage between the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Che- vreuse ; and she, on her side, to second his views of obtaining the cardinalate, for which he was eventually mainly indebted to her exertions. The interview already narrated between the queen and M. de Retz was followed by several others ; and meanwhile the latter resumed his seat in Parliament, as well as his negotiations with the papal court ; and the sensation which he created on his reappearance at the assembly so delighted the regent that she wrote the same day to the Princess -Palatine to desire that he would again await her messenger in the middle of the following night in the cloisters of St. Honore. When he arrived at the palace he found her transported with joy upon ascertaining that a party had been osten- sibly organised against the prince — an event which she had not conceived to be possible in so short a time, and which M. de Tellier could not, she said, yet bring himself to believe ; while Servien main- tained that the coadjutor must have had some secret understanding with M. de Conde. Nevertheless, in this conference, which lasted until two hours after midnight, the queen evinced great alarm at the idea of a reconciliation with the prince under whatever circumstances it might be attempted ; and admitted that the shortest method to deliver the Court from his pertinacity would be to arrest him ; but when M. de Retz proposed that this should be accomplished by Monsieur at the Luxembourg, she XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 435 decidedly negatived the suggestion, declaring that the Due d'Orleans did not possess sufficient reso- lution to undertake such a measure, and that it would be too hazardous to communicate it to him ; and finally, she said that the Mar^chal d'Hocquin- court would confer with him upon the subject, and would prove to him that he knew a safer method of accomplishing the end in view than that which he had himself proposed. On the morrow he accordingly had an interview with the marshal, who informed him that he had proposed to the queen to effect the assassination of M. de Conde by attacking him in the streets — a suggestion which had apparently struck her majesty as the most ready and decisive method of ridding herself of a dangerous enemy. To such an ex- pedient the coadjutor, however, instantly refused to lend himself ; and it is a remarkable fact that Anne of Austria, whose diplomacy in this instance , was more conspicuous than her right feeling, only upon the following night, when in conversation with M. de Retz and the Duchesse de Chevreuse (although upon the previous evening she had re- ferred the marshal to the former, as a man who had put forth a rational proposition), declared that she highly approved the scruples of the prelate, which she felt sure would be excited by an attempt of such a nature ; and, moreover, absolutely denied that M. d'Hocquincourt had so explained himself to her. It, however, transpired within half an hour afterwards that Madame de Chevreuse had declared to the queen that the coadjutor would never con- 436 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. sent to such an expedient : upon which the regent had remarked in her turn to M. de Senneterre, that if that were the case M. de Retz was not so bold as she had believed him to be. Whatever were the disclaimers of the queen, her mind was beyond all doubt strongly biassed in favour of the assassination ; while just at that moment everything appeared to conspire in bring- ing all her sterner feelings into play. Backed by the prince, the Parliament pursued its measures against the cardinal unrelentingly ; and in the course of the criminal proceedings which it had instituted against him, found him guilty, according to the registers of Cantarini, of having embezzled nine millions of the public money. Deeply mortified by such a decision against her minister, Anne of Austria could only fly for refuge to the more promising prospects held out by the coadjutor ; but her patience was not proof against the difficulties by which she was surrounded ; and alarmed by the continued .popularity and increasing influence of M. de Cond6— who had, despite the resistance of the president, compelled an assembly of the chambers for the purpose of promulgating a new decree, by which all persons in and about the Court were forbidden to maintain any intercourse with the exiled cardinal — she fastened more eagerly than ever upon the prospect of escape held out by the project of M. d'Hocquincourt ; but as she could not consistently recur to the subject herself with the coadjutor, it was M. de Lyonne who a second time brought it forward, asserting that, sooner or later. XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 437 if his life were spared, the prince would remain master of the field. Again and again he reminded the prelate of his promise to rid the Court of the obnoxious conqueror ; and on each occasion M. de Retz, while he steadily maintained his resolution never to recognise the treacherous act to which he had been urged, still repeated his former offer to arrest the prince at the Orleans Palace ; or, should the regent retain her objection to that arrangement, to leave him at large ; while the coadjutor himself, so strongly attended as to secure him from personal violence, should meet M. de Conde on every public occasion, and oppose such of his measures as might be contrary to the interests of the queen. It was precisely at this period that the prince himself arrested, near Chantilly, a valet de chambre of the cardinal, who was entrusted with a large packet of letters for the Court. These he imme- diately forwarded to the Parliament, while the mes- senger was imprisoned ; but the letters were not read, the assembly having forthwith decided that the respect due to the persons to whom they were addressed must prevent them from Investigating their contents. A few days subsequently the mes- senger was set at liberty ; but this new offence still rankled at the heart of the queen ; and her indig- nation was increased by a suspicion that M. de Lyonne was unfaithful to her cause, and was giving private information to M. de Conde of all the pro- ceedings at Court. At this conjuncture the regent again summoned the coadjutor to a nightly conference ; but, as it 438 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. had become necessary to avoid the observation of Lyonne, the meeting between Gabouri (who was entrusted with his introduction) and himself took place in front of the Jacobin convent ; whence, in- stead of proceeding, as before, to the private oratory of the queen, they passed into the small gallery, where M. de Retz found her majesty in a state of extreme excitement against both M. de Lyonne and the prince. She reverted cautiously to the proposi- tion of Marechal d'Hocquincourt, and endeavoured to justify it ; but the coadjutor replied that, however desirable such a proposal might appear, its execu- tion could never be considered justifiable. Ulti- mately she became provoked by his pertinacity, and in the excess of her anger threw out doubts of his sincerity ; to which M. de Retz listened in re- spectful silence until the storm had spent itself, when he said gravely, " Madam, your majesty cannot wish the blood of the prince ; an,d I take the liberty of asserting that you will one day thank me for having opposed its being shed against your in- clination, which it would be, madam, ere two days are over, if the proposal of M. d'Hocquincourt were entertained." It is probable that more blood than that of M. de Conde would have been spilled if the second project of the marshal had indeed been carried into execution ; for it was no less than to take possession, at daylight, of the H6tel de Conde, and to seize the prince in his bed ; and when it was remembered that his house was filled by his most faithful adherents, who were all distrustful of the Court, and whose suspicions XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 439 were perpetually increased by the intelligence which they secretly obtained of the nightly audiences given by the regent, while he was himself one of the bravest men who ever existed, it will at once be perceived that the attempt must have entailed a fearful amount of bloodshed.^ Conscious of the intrigues which were fomenting against him, M. de Conde shortly afterwards retired to St. Maur, about three leagues from Paris. The Court were greatly startled by this unexpected pro- ceeding, and negotiations were immediately put on foot to induce his return. He was, perhaps, a more inconvenient adversary within the walls of the capital than without, but still he was incomparably less dangerous ; and Monsieur, with whom he had con- tinued to live on friendly terms since his liberation, undertook to negotiate his reappearance. The sen- sation created by his retreat was an ill omen for the Court party, in the event of his refusing to com- promise ; for the Duchesse de Longueville, although seriously indisposed, immediately followed him ; and she was accompanied by the Prince de Conti, the Dues de Nemours, Bouillon, La Rochefoucauld, and Richelieu, and the Marechals Turenne and La Motte. Thus surrounded by his friends, he despatched the Due de la Rochefoucauld to inform Monsieur of his reasons for leaving the capital ; at which Gaston did not conceal his surprise, even while he expressed great regret at the intelligence ; and when he found that the regent had decided to send the Marechal de Grammont to St. Maur, to assure 1 Mimoires du Cardinal de Retz. 440 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. the prince that she had never contemplated any design against his person, he highly approved her intention ; at the same time, never believing for an instant that Monsieur de Conde would be induced by any representations to return to Paris, he com- promised himself unwittingly by instructing the marshal to give the prince every assurance of his own regard and support in this and every other emergency which might occur. M. de Conde had no sooner received the royal envoy than he requested the Prince de ContI to wait upon the Parliament, and clearly to explain to them his reasons for the step that he had taken, which were moreover the same already given to Monsieur, declaring that his brother could not consider himself safe at Court until the regent had dismissed Le Tellier, Servien, and Lyonne. He also complained bitterly of an attempt which had been made by the cardinal to possess himself of Brisach and Sedan ; and he concluded by announcing to the assembly that the prince had despatched one of his house- hold to their body with a letter to the same effect. The queen had been equally provident, and at five o'clock in the morning had forwarded a letter to the president, commanding that the meeting should not come to any division without awaiting her sanction ; upon which the Due d'Orleans — anxious, according to his usual policy, to maintain his position with both parties — declared that his conscience compelled him to testify that her majesty had never conceived an idea of arresting the prince, nor had she taken any part whatever in the proceedings at Brisach. XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 44' He spoke, in short, as though he had only the interest of the regent at heart. It was decided that the letter of M. de Conde should be referred to her rnajesty ; and, as the meet- ing broke up, the coadjutor ventured to inquire of Monsieur if he had not felt some apprehension that the assembly would demand from him a guarantee for the safety of the prince, after the positive assur- ances to that effect which he had given ; but Gaston, like the lion who had braved his own shadow in a mirror and become scared by the reflection, had already begun to repent his energy, and merely desired M. de Retz to follow him, when he declared that he would explain his reasons. He accordingly led the way to his library, drew the bolts, and, throwing his hat violently upon a table, exclaimed with an oath that either the coad- jutor was a great dupe, or that he was himself a great fool ; demanding if the prelate believed that the queen really wished the prince to return to Court ? M. de Retz replied that he had no doubt upon the subject, provided he returned in a position to admit of his arrest, or of his destruction. The duke laughed bitterly, declaring he felt convinced that the regent desired him back, upon any terms ; for that, only two days previously, she had told him that either M. de Conde or herself must give way ; and that now she required him to procure his return at any price, and even to engage his own honour to the Parliament for his safety ; that the prince had left Paris on the previous morning to secure himself against arrest ; and that he would make a heavy bet 442 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. in favour of his being back again in two days, from the turn which affairs were taking ; while, as for himself, he should start for Blois, and leave both parties to do as they pleased.^ The prince fulfilled the prophecy, but without abating one particle of his dignity. He insisted on the dismissal of the three individuals already named, whom he designated as "the creatures of Mazarin ;" and his demand was supported by the prayer of the Parliament, who sent a deputation to the king to en- treat him to recall M. de Conde, and, for that purpose, to remove all impediments to his return. The queen was, however, a considerable time before she could bring herself to such a resolution, and meanwhile vehemently declared that she would not dismiss the three persons who had been named. Nevertheless, she eventually conceded the point, and the prince returned to Paris ; but for some time he refused to present himself at Court, to the great surprise of every one. On one occasion, as the king was re- turning from his bath, they accidentally met, which extremely displeased the regent, who declared that she considered M. de Conde to have committed a great indiscretion in frequenting the same localities as the king before he had presented himself at the palace ; and, finally, on one solitary occasion, over- ruled by the advice of his friends, he went there accompanied by Monsieur. This ceremony was no sooner over than the Due d' Orleans took offence at some trifling annoy- ance to which he was subjected, and in his turn left 1 Me'?izoires die Cardinal de Retz. XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 443 Paris, and withdrew to Limours, which so alarmed the queen, who could not afford at such a juncture to lose any support however weak, that she forth- with commanded Mademoiselle to follow him, and to induce him to return ; while so great was her anxiety upon the subject, that she even lent her own coach and her cream-coloured horses, in order to expedite the departure of her niece. The prince followed shortly afterwards, and, more successful than herself (for Monsieur had refused to listen to her in her character as envoy of the queen), he brought him back in triumph to the capital. The next schism was that of the Princess-Palatine and M. de Conde, of which the pretext was that he had absented himself from the courts on the occasion of a trial in which her interests were involved ; and she forthwith attached herself to the interests of the queen and Mazarin. The regency was drawing to its close amid all these proceedings ; and the queen forwarded two declarations to the Parliament, one of which de- clared that Mazarin was banished for ever from the kingdom ; and the other that the innocence of M. de Cond6 was fully recognised, and that he was acquitted of all that had been imputed to him against the authority of the king. Her last act of exclusive sovereign authority was worthy of her previous tergiversations and double policy.^ The declarations above recorded were registered on the 5th of September (1651), and on the following day the minority of the king ceased. During the even- 1 Mdmoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 444 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. ing the Sieur de Rhodez, grand - master of the ceremonies, apprised the Parliament that the Icing would repair to the palace on the 7th, to hold his Bed of Jtistice^ as the declaration of his majority ; and, upon the same night, the Marquis de Gesvres, captain of the bodyguards, the grand-masters, and masters of the ceremonies, and the Sieur de Reaux, lieutenant of the guards, having made the tour of the whole palace, took possession of the keys, and remained within the gates to make the necessary preparations for the next day's ceremonial. On the morning of the 7th, the whole Court left the Palais- Royal, with the royal trumpeters in the van. Then came a troop of the light horse, suc- ceeded by that of the grand -provost, closely fol- lowed by two hundred individuals, representing the nobility of France. These were succeeded in their turn by the governors of provinces, the knights of the several orders, the first gentlemen of the cham- ber, and the great officers of the king's household ; in whose wake rode six of the king's trumpeters dressed in blue velvet, preceding six mounted heralds in complete armour, with accoutrements of crimson velvet, powdered with jieitrs-de-lis in gold, bearing their staves ; and behind these advanced 1 A name given to the throne, or seat, upon which the king took his place during the extraordinary meetings of Parliament. The bed was furnished with five cushions, and stood under a canopy. Upon one of these cushions the king seated himself, extending his arms and legs upon three others, and using the fifth to lean against. The word gave its name to the meeting at which it was used. The Beds of Justice were originated by PhiHp the Tall in 13 18. On these occasions all the great officers of Parliament appeared in crimson robes. XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 445 the marshals, two abreast, all richly attired, and mounted upon tall war-horses, whose housings were overlaid with gold and silver embroidery. Behind them rode the Comte d'Harcourt alone, as Grand-Equerry of France, wearing in a scarf the sword of the sovereign attached to his shoulder-belt, and resting upon his arm in its scabbard of blue velvet, studded with golden fleurs-de-lis. He was attired in a doublet of cloth of gold and silver, and wore similar embroidery wrought all over the re- mainder of his dress. He rode a mottled gray charger, whose housings were of crimson velvet, laced with Spanish point in gold ; and instead of reins he guided his horse by two scarfs of black taffetas. An immense crowd of pages and footm.en succeeded, all in new liveries, and covered with white, blue, and red feathers, and bareheaded, who followed immediately behind the count, and separated him from the foot-guards, as well as his train-bearer, the door-keepers, and the mace- bearers. After these came the king himself, calm, digni- fied, and grave, to a degree astonishing for his years ; and securing by the premature majesty of his deportment, say contemporaneous writers, the admiration of all ranks, who loaded him with prayers and blessings as he passed along. His dress was so entirely overlaid with gold embroidery that neither the colour nor the material could be distinguished ; and he was already so tall that it was difficult to believe that he had only just attained his fourteenth year. This circumstance acted greatly upon the 446 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. feelings of the crowd, who, seeing one of the young nobility riding near him, who was of the same age as himself, but considerably smaller in stature, began with increased enthusiasm to peal forth their cry of " Long live the king!"^ — a demonstration which so startled the cream-coloured charger upon which he was mounted that it reared and plunged violently ; but the boy-king managed it with so much ease and self-possession that the incident only tended to give the populace a still higher idea of their young monarch. Having been received at the door of the holy chapel, where he was harangued by the Bishop of Bayeux in full episcopal costume, Louis XIV. alighted to hear mass, after which he proceeded to take his seat in the Parliament, where, cover- ing himself, he addressed the meeting in these terms : "Gentlemen, I have attended my Parliament in order to inform you that, according to the law of my kingdom, I shall myself assume its government ; and I trust that, by the goodness of God, it will be with piety and justice. My chancellor will inform you more particularly of my intentions." On receiving this command, the chancellor, who had hitherto remained standing, took his seat, and spoke at considerable length, expatiating with much detail upon the declaration of the sovereign. When he had concluded, the queen made a slight inclina- tion, and addressing the king, said in a firm and clear voice — " Sir, this is the ninth year in which, by the last XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 447 will of the deceased king, my much honoured lord, I have been entrusted with the care of your educa- tion and the government of the State. God having, by His will, blessed my endeavours, and preserved your person, which is so dear and precious to all your subjects, — now that the law of the kingdom calls you to the rule of this monarchy, I transfer to you with great satisfaction the power which had been granted me to govern ; and I trust that God will bestow on you the grace to assist your measures with His strength and prudence, in order that your reign may be rendered fortunate." To which the king replied : " I thank you, Madam, for the care which it has pleased you to take of my education and the administration of my kingdom ; I pray you to continue to me your good counsels ; and I desire that, after myself, you should be the head of my council." As his majesty ceased speaking, the queen rose from her seat and approached to salute the new monarch ; but he, descending at the same instant from his Bed of Justice, walked towards her and embraced her ; after which they both returned to their places. The Due d'Anjou next rose, approached his royal brother, and, sinking upon his knee, kissed his hand, and made declaration of his fidelity. He was followed by the Due d'Orleans, the Prince de Conti, and all the other princes save M. de Conde, who had, as was soon ascertained, absented himself from Paris. The chancellor, the dukes and peers, the ecclesiastical dignitaries, the marshals of LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. France, the officers of the Crown, and all who were present at the meeting, in like manner rose and tendered their allegiance to the king ; and although the absence of the Prince de Conde had created a vague feeling of apprehension among the Court party, the populace fully compensated for this par- tial gloom by the unanimous acclamations which accompanied the royal procession to the gates of the Palais-Royal, where the stripling who had left it a few hours before in subjection to more than one authority, as well indefinite as defined, threw off his gorgeous mantle as the sovereign of one of the proudest thrones in Europe. Mademoiselle, attended by the Queen of England, who was in- cognita, witnessed the march of the procession from the Hotel de Schomberg, and afterwards attended the meeting of the Parliament, where she occupied the skylight. We must not, however, conclude this chapter without remarking that the young king, only a short time before his majority, had, boy as he was, given a proof of that fondness for female society and that passion for female beauty which was to be his leading characteristic throughout the greater part of his life. Mademoiselle accompanied him several times on horseback, on all which occasions she was attended by Madame de Frontenac ; and Louis derived so much pleasure from these excur- sions "that the queen," says Mademoiselle, whose vanity easily misled her upon subjects of this nature, " imagined that the king was in love with Madame de Frontenac ; and, in consequence, put an end to XVI THE COURT OF FRANCE 449 these parties, which greatly annoyed him. As no reason was given for the interference, he offered the queen a hundred pistoles for the poor every time that he should go out on horseback, for he imagined that a motive of charity would overcome her indolence, which he believed to be the cause of the prohibition ; and, as she refused the offer, he said angrily, ' When once I become my own master I will go where I please, and I shall soon be so.' After which he turned on his heel and walked away. The queen wept bitterly, and so did Louis himself; but they were soon reconciled, and her majesty for- bade him to speak to Madame de Frontenac, telling him that she was the relative of M. de Chavigne, who was a friend of the prince. I believe," adds Mademoiselle sententiously, "that the true reason of this prohibition existed in a fear that the king would accustom himself too much to my society, and that in time, either through the arguments of Madame de Frontenac or by the force of habit, he would end by loving me; and that when once he did so he would understand that I was the best match he could find in Europe, with the exception of the Infanta of Spain. Madame de Choisy informed me of all that had passed between the king and queen ; she had been told of it in order that I should not again propose to ride for fear of displeasing the queen. Nevertheless one more riding party was formed, but the king did not come near either Madame de Frontenac or myself, and cast down his eyes whenever he passed near us. I confess that I was greatly annoyed, for I placed more dependence VOL. I. 29 4SO LOUIS XIV. CHAP. XVI Upon the manner in which the king conducted him- self towards me, and the pleasure which he took in my society, than on all the negotiations ; and this way of becoming a queen was more agreeable to me than any other." ^ 1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Motitpenszer. CHAPTER XVII Youth of Louis XIV. and Philip d'Anjou — Early associations — Ignorance of the young king — Armand de Guiche — Subjection of the king to the cardinal— State of the kingdom — Discontent of Monsieur — Courage of Mademoiselle — Revolt of Conde — March of the Court against Bor- deaux — Return of Mazarin — Paris in arms — Submission of Turenne — Declaration against the princes — Sale of the cardinal's library — Charles II. after the battle of Worcester — The Due de Nemours — Madame de Chatillon — Diplomacy of Mademoiselle — The city of Orleans declares for the Fronde — Cowardice of Monsieur — The Comtesse de Fiesque — Mademoiselle declares herself and takes Orleans. Having now traced the stream of events which flowed SO rapidly from the birth of Louis XIV. to his majority, and which it was incumbent upon us to define, in order to render intelligible the position and identity of the persons by whom he was imme- diately surrounded, and the peculiar circumstances amid which he succeeded to the throne, we must be permitted to occupy ourselves more exclusively than we have yet done with the young sovereign himself We have already made some slight allusions to the principles upon which both his own so-called education and that of his brother Philip were con- ducted, and nothing could have been more melan- choly in the result to both. Naturally egotistical, haughty, and overbearing, Louis was encouraged in these very qualities ; and he, as a matter of course, avenged the submission which he was compelled to assume rather than to feel at the Court of the regent 452 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Upon those who composed his own ; while the Due d'Anjou, who required a stimulant to self-assertion and manly tastes, was applauded for puerile habits and conceits which were discordant both with his sex and his high station. From his earliest youth Louis XIV. exhibited great discernment, and gave evidences of that cor- rect judgment which led him in after years to show favour to men who were distinguished for high and noble qualities ; but even while he lauded and ap- preciated the courage or the intellect which must hereafter tend to illustrate his reign, he began, even while yet a boy, to show himself jealous of those social qualifications in which he believed himself capable of excelling, and wherein he was aware that he could not brook any rivalry. Reared in the conviction that he would be the handsomest man of his Court, and without dispute the most idolised, he, as a natural consequence, soon learnt to distrust and dislike all those who by their personal beauty, their wit, or their intellect, threatened him with even a far-off competition. Nor was this weakness com- bated by Anne of Austria, who, far from seeking to teach him contempt for so ignoble a feeling, shared it with him to its fullest extent, and soon looked chillingly upon such of the young nobles about her son as appeared likely to become his rivals. The greatest misfortune attached to a regency is the effort made by those in authority to prolong to its utmost extent the infancy and helplessness of the royal minor. The least guilty of these exalted guardians content themselves by maintaining their IL®UHS XE' PROM A RAKE PKITTT BY VAN SCHUPPEN, AFTER, MIGNARD. (166Z.I .uon 'loTi ;Ki ckayd Beniley & S on ,18 8 6 xvii THE COURT OF FRANCE 453 charge in a perfect state of ignorance concerning those duties whose knowledge is imperative to in- dividuals hereafter to be entrusted with the govern- ment of a State and the welfare of a people ; and in order to carry this point they are not only careful to avoid every opportunity of mooting questions likely to lead to such a knowledge, but also to re- move from about the persons of their royal pupils all such companions as are likely to inspire a taste for study and inquiry. This was precisely the position of Louis XIV. With the exception of his devotional exercises, sufficient military skill to review his troops, and a perfect familiarity with Court etiquette, the young monarch, when he took possession of the throne of France, was utterly ignorant, and could not have competed with the most shallow schoolboy of his age. This effect the regent and her minister had been anxious to accomplish. Louis, as we have elsewhere said, "enacted the king" to perfection; his personal grace entranced the populace, his polished self-possession was the proverb of the Court, and his innate pride prevented all assumption of equality on the part of his customary associates ; while in every question of State he was a cypher, helpless and dependent upon the intellect and energy of others ; and although possessed of a strong will, which under other circumstances might have enabled him to throw off with a bound the shackles that had been wound about him, so conscious of his own deficien- cies that he could not command sufficient courage to trust in his mental resources, such as they were. 454 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Of all the young nobles who had been placed about his person, none caused so much uneasiness to the regent as the Comte de Guiche. Independently of his great physical beauty, his frank fearlessness led him to speak without reserve both of persons and occurrences ; and the queen and her minister soon discovered that by this very inconvenient quality he was teaching the king to think, the most dangerous habit which he could acquire under the circumstances, as regarded their particular interests. Armand de Guiche had been the first friend of Louis, and as he grew to boyhood the king ex- hibited more partiality towards himself, the Prince de Marsillac, and the Marquis de Vardes, than to any other of his young courtiers ; and this in- creased so greatly as time wore on that Anne of Austria determined, if possible, to diminish so inconvenient a regard ; and for this purpose expatiated before him on the good qualities of the Prince de Marsillac, who, being plain in his person and dull in his intellect, appeared to her to be a safer associate for the young king, whose determined character and somewhat romantic tem- perament were not likely to be influenced by a nature at once so gentle and so insignificant as that of the prince.^ It is probable that had no attempt been made to alienate the regard of Louis from Armand de Guiche it would, like his other partialities, have worn itself out before the dreaded consequences had been accomplished ; but this opposition rather 1 Mhnoires de Madame de Motteville. XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 455 tended to make the young monarch overlook the discrepancies of their respective characters, and to increase his estimation of his friend's companionable qualities. We have, moreover, already shown that the will of Louis was peremptory where he could exercise it ; and the society of De Guiche was consequently no sooner interdicted than he found the favourite indispensable in all his amusements ; and his resolution not to submit to the required estrangement assumed so determined an air of affection that the queen became more alarmed than ever. The father of the young count was in the field, fighting the battles of the State, and this fact rendered her position still more embarrassing ; while the friendship for which she was herself deeply indebted to the Duchesse de Grammont prevented her from taking any step which might imply an affront to his family. This apparent regard consequently continued, but it was not destined to last. The rivalry was too close and too dangerous, and the young count soon learnt to estimate at their just value the demonstrations of which he was the object. It was with the qualities and the defects which we have endeavoured to describe that Louis XIV. attained his majority ; but conscious of the intellect- ual inferiority to which allusion has been already made, he did not attempt to assert himself, save on particular occasions when his temper gave way before opposition ; but suffered himself still to be guided by the will of his mother and the counsels of Mazarin, whose influence over the mind of Anne of 4S6 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Austria proved more powerful during his exile than it had been at the period of his sojourn in the capital. The king had, on his Bed of Justice (described in the last chapter), published three declarations. The first against blasphemy, the second against duelling, and the third to recognise the innocence of the Prince de Conde, who had not, however, awaited this royal exoneration in order to become guilty, at least in design, of a second crime similar to the one of which he had been formerly accused. At the same time the council was reorganised. The Marquis de Chateau- neuf assumed the principal direction of affairs which he had so long awaited ; the seals lately withdrawn trom the President Mole were restored to him ; and, finally, M. de Lavieuville, who twenty-seven years previously had opened the door of the council- chamber to Richelieu, then a young man, and by whom he was afterwards himself excluded, was created superintendent of finance, through the interest of his son with the Princess-Palatine. He, however, ably seconded the influence which had been exerted in his behalf; for his first ministerial measure was that of advancing four hundred thou- sand crowns as a loan to the queen. If this were, as it was generally considered, an error in judgment and a solecism in economy, it could not in any case be designated as a youthful act of folly, for the President Mole, who was the younger of the three ministers, had already attained his sixty-seventh year. Meanwhile France was apparently tranquil, but XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 457 it was easy to judge that the calm was a mere breathing-space — a transient rest between two civil wars. The first, save as regarded individuals, had been of little import in its results ; the issue of that which was to succeed was yet to be com- puted. The king could not be said to possess an army, while the two bodies of troops on the frontiers of the Low Countries were doing infinitely more injury to their own countrymen than to the Spaniards. The force commanded by the Mare- chal d'Aumont^ was his own, and the other belonged to the Prince de Conde, and was commanded by Saulx-Tavannes ; the first made a few demonstra- tions which led to no result, while the latter remained passive and menacing from its very neutrality. The Marechal de la Ferte-Senectere^ was in Lorraine with another corps, where he gained several slight advantages, which served to keep the Court in spirits, although their result was unimportant. In Italy the troops were inactive, as the King of Spain was occupied for the moment with Catalonia, where the Comte de Marchain^ had shut himself up in 1 Antoine d'Aumont, De Rochebaron, Marquis d'Isle et du Ville- quier, Marshal ot, France, in wliose favour Louis XIV. raised the estate of Aumont to the dignity of a duchy-peerage. 2 Henri de Senectere, called the Marechal de la Ferte, was of a very ancient family of Auvergne, and was the son of Henri de Senectere, the king's lieutenant in Champagne, and ambassador in England. He displayed his courage at the siege of Rochelle (1626), at the capture of iVIayenne and Treves, and at the battle of Avesnes. Appointed adjutant-general, he distinguished himself at Rocroy and Sens, and defeated the Duke of Lorraine in 1650. Made Marshal of France in 165 1, he saved Nancy, and took Chaste, Mirecourt, Vaudrevange, Montmedi, and Gravelines (1651-58). He died in 1 68 1, at the age of eighty-two years. 5 The Comte de Marchain was liberated from a long imprison- 458 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Barcelona, which the Marquis de Mortare was besieging on the land side, while Don Juan of Austria blockaded it by sea. In the south, where the disbanded corps which had served under the Due d'Epernon and the Marechal de la Meilleraye during the last campaign were scattered over the country, there still existed considerable excitement, and a great desire to resume a war by which many had profited, while few had suffered. Navy there was none. England, Spain, and Holland were the three great maritime forces of Europe.^ Monsieii,r was as discontented and as helpless as ever ; while as time wore on he became more con- scious of the moral defects which had rendered him powerless at a moment when he should have occupied a prominent position on the national canvas. Always occupied with trifles, and greedy of securing every personal advantage, he so thoroughly embarrassed his private affairs that he only succeeded in alienating the very persons whom he was anxious to attach. Thus he contrived nearly to break with the coadjutor without remain- ing upon terms with M. de Conde ; and he distrusted the Parliament, which repaid hirn by a like compli- ment. He exhibited sulkiness towards Mademoi- selle, who expressed with considerable vivacity ment at the same period as the princes, and was immediately elevated not only to the rank of a general officer, but also to that of a viceroy. Such a sudden revolution of fortune would, at any other period, have excited unbounded astonishment ; but during the early years of Louis XIV. it occurred so frequently that it occasioned little comment. 1 Louis XIV. et son Siecle. XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 459 her regret at the insignificance to which he was reduced by his own weakness ; and in order to give himself some appearance of movement, he set on foot twenty different negotiations to bring about an alliance between the king and herself; always retir- ing a pace as any advance was made towards him. There can be no doubt, however, that he contem- plated the possibility of this marriage with at least as much repugnance as pride ; for if on the one hand, it was destined to make his eldest daughter a queen, on the other it deprived the younger children of every hope of her immense inheritance, which would, as a natural consequence, be entirely absorbed by so august an alliance. His great de- pendence, when he dwelt upon this phase of the subject, was based on the coolness of the queen towards Mademoiselle, whose assiduity in paying her court to her royal aunt did not remove from the mind of Anne of Austria a certain feeling of aversion, which she only contrived to conceal when she could render the agency of her niece profitable to her own projects ; while that niece, wearied in her turn with constantly awaiting a husband who never came, and of being made the puppet of State expediency, lost no opportunity of seconding the endeavour of Madame to rouse the Due d' Orleans from his apathy, and to induce him to assume an attitude which would enable him to compel the terms he appeared to be inclined only to solicit. Despite her persevering and futile weakness on the article of her marriage, and the paltry and puerile attention which she bestowed upon petty 46o LOUIS XIV. AND chap. observance and empty etiquette, Mademoiselle possessed a fund of courage both mental and phy- sical which betrayed the descendant of Henri IV. more than the daughter of Gaston of Orleans ; and this she exerted in favour of her darling ambi- tion, by prompting her father to some serious act of rebellion which might tend to establish him in a more suitable position, and enable her to secure an alliance commensurate with her wishes. The Prince of Wales, the archduke, and even the emperor, had less attraction in her eyes than the boy-king, who was only just emerging into manhood, but whom, from the period of his majority, she began to regard with other views than she had previously been will- ing to admit even to herself. The emergencies of the State rendered her enormous revenue a matter of extreme importance ; and as she was accustomed to magnify all her advantages, she had no difficulty in estimating this fact at its full value ; wearied, how- ever, as we have shown, by the delays, subterfuges, and intrigues which presented themselves as ob- stacles to the marriage, she boldly determined to extort from fear what she had been unable to com- mand from a milder feeling, and thence her con- tinual attempt to awaken the stagnant spirit of Monsieur. The Prince de Conde had, as we have shown, left Paris on the evening preceding the declaration of the king's majority, and immediately proceeded to Trie, where the Due de Longueville was then residing, in the hope of inducing him once more to share his fortunes. In this attempt he, however, XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 461 failed, for the duke was no longer young, and his imprisonment had augmented his infirmities. Find- ing that he had no prospect of success with M. de Longueville, the prince accordingly hastened to Essonnes, where he was joined by the Dukes de la Rochefoucauld and Nemours, halted for a day to await a letter from Monsieur which never arrived, and then pushed on to Bourges,-' where he was overtaken by a delegate from the Parliament, who came with a proposal that he should remain quietly in his government of Guienne until the assembly of the states-general. Tranquillity was not, however, the project of the prince, and he consequently re- jected the proposition with contempt ; moved on to Montroud, where he left the Prince de Conti and the Due de Nemours in command of the town ; and attended only by his councillor, M. de Lenet, continued his route to Bordeaux. He was received with enthusiasm, and the city instantly became the nucleus of rebellion. The princess and her son, the Due d'Enghien, immediately joined him ; and they were quickly followed by Madame de Longue- ville, who probably anticipated a second civic throne. The Comte Foucaut du Doignon, governor of Brouage, declared in his favour, which was the more important as he held the whole line of coast from Rochelle to Royau. The veteran Marechal de la 1 A town of Central France, in the department of the Cher. It was in old times the capital of Aquitaine, and afterwards that of Berry, and was moreover the birthplace of Louis XI. and of Jacques Cceur. The distance from Paris to Bourges is fifty-seven leagues. The cathedral and the town hall are both very fine buildings. 462 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Force and his friends in Guienne offered him their services ; the Due de Richelieu joined him with the levies that he had made in Saintonge and the neighbourhood of Annis ; the Prince of Tarento, who held Taillebourg on the Charente, forwarded his pledge of allegiance ; and M. de Conde finally awaited only the arrival of the Comte de Marchain, who had promised to abandon his viceroyalty, and to join him with such of the regiments as he should be able to attach to his cause ; while Lenet had already departed for Madrid to negotiate with the Court of Spain — a task of which he acquitted him- self so satisfactorily that he concluded not only a treaty with the most catholic king, but also with the archduke, who commanded in the Low Countries, and who had just taken Bergue. Other proposi- tions were made and accepted, which ultimately cost France both Dunkirk and Gravelines, and, moreover, compelled the Court to maintain a body of troops on the frontier at a time when they were very essential in Guienne. Nevertheless the progress of the prince was not such as from his personal bravery, his past services, and the professions of his friends, he had been en- couraged to anticipate. His adherents were luke- warm ; and even the old Marechal de la Force did not act in a manner consistent with his antecedents. But we must not anticipate events. The cardinal on his side had not been idle ; and as he well knew that one common feeling animated all ranks and all parties in France, whatever might be their other discrepancies of opinion, and that XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 463 this one was nothing less than an inveterate hatred of himself; he employed his exile in raising a body of troops from the neighbourhood of Liege and on the borders of the Rhine, in order to be ready to return into France despite all the decrees then or thereafter to be promulgated against him. A few days after he attained his majority the king had sent for the coadjutor, and publicly de- livered to him the authentic act by which the nation pointed him out as the chosen candidate for the cardinalate ; but as M. de Retz was not apt to place the strongest reliance upon these royal recommenda- tions, he personally despatched a courier to Rome to solicit the hat which had so long been the object of his ambition. The Court were soon apprised of the arrival of the prince at Bordeaux, and of the reception which he had met with, both from the nobility and the Parliament ; when a resolution was made that the king should undertake against the husband a similar expedition to that which, a few months previously, had been organised against the wife. It was, more- over, resolved that the sovereign should march upon the capital of Guienne by the same road which M. de Conde had followed, in order to neu- tralise the impression which he had produced ; and the king forthwith left Fontainebleau, where he had taken up his residence, and proceeded to Berry. Mademoiselle was not commanded to accompany the Court, for her father had recently had a new misunderstanding with the queen, who, when the princess attended her reception on the evening 464 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. before the departure, expressed her regret that, in the then position of affairs, it was impossible for her majesty to claim her company. Nothing could be more promising than the com- mencement of this journey. On arriving before Bourges, the fortress scarcely made a show of resistance ; while Montrond opened its gates, after having afforded time to M. de Longueville (who had repaired thither after the departure of the princess for Bordeaux), the Prince de Conti, M. de Nemours, and several other persons of rank who were assembled within the walls, to secure their escape. When the Court had possessed themselves of Bourges, the fortress was immediately destroyed ; and after a sojourn of seventeen days in the town, they proceeded to Poitiers ; while the army, under the command of the Comte d'Harcourt, and com- posed of the best troops that the king possessed, was opposed to a handful of raw militia, headed by the prince in person. They had several engage- ments, and took and retook the bridges over the Charente ; the military genius of M. de Conde enabling him to sustain himself even against a regularly disciplined force, which, had it contended with a less experienced leader, must have crushed so unequal and half-trained a body of men in the first struggle ; and it was during these opening hostilities the news arrived that Mazarin had re- entered France with an army of six thousand men. He had progressed cautiously ; commencing by Huy, thence advancing to Dinant, then to Bouillon, xvn THE COURT OF FRANCE 465 then to Sedan, where he had been weU received upon displaying a passport from the queen ; and thence, followed by his troops, all wearing the green scarf which was the badge of his house, he had passed the Meuse, reached Rethel, and was advancing through Champagne, escorted by two French marshals, the Marquis d'Hocquincourt, and the Mardchal de la Ferte-Senect^re. Paris was shaken to its centre ; but the emotion was not one of fear. All was forgotten save vengeance ; the Parliament hastily assembled, and although a letter from the king was read, in which he desired them not to encourage any anxiety with regard to the movements of his eminence, whose intentions were well known to the queen, they nevertheless hastened to proceed against him as a rebel. It was declared that the cardinal and his adherents had alike infringed the prohibitions con- tained in the declaration of the sovereign, and were in consequence from that moment to be considered as disturbers of the public peace, and as such to be pursued by the corporations ; while it was moreover ordained that the library and movable property of the cardinal were to be sold, from the proceeds of which sale the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand livres should be set apart as the reward of whomsoever should deliver him up, dead or alive. The coadjutor attempted without success to render the decree less severe, but as he ran considerable risk of losing his popularity by such an endeavour, all that he could do was to retire from the assembly, asserting that in his ecclesiastical character he could VOL. I. 30 466 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. not assist at a deliberation in which a question of life and death had been mooted. Some days previously a similar declaration had been made against the prince, the Prince de Conti, Madame de Longueville, and the Dues de Nemours and De la Rochefoucauld ; but this was soon forgotten in the excitement created by the outlawry of the cardinal. Each of the other culprits had some personal regard or some individual interest to link them with the community ; but Mazarin was a common enemy, for whom M. de Retz alone had ventured to raise his voice ; and his magnificent library was mercilessly submitted to public auction, sold and dispersed, despite the offer of a bibliopolist of the period, who volunteered to purchase it as it stood for forty-five thousand livres. Fate appeared to favour Mademoiselle amid all these embarrassing events. While M. de Gaucour was busied in endeavouring to induce Monsieur to declare himself openly for the prince, the King of England arrived in France on his way to Scotland, and his mother hastened to Beauvais to meet him. He had just fought the battle of Worcester ; and for some time previously she had been in a state of wretched anxiety, not having received any assurance of his safety. Despite the fact that he had, in order to effect his escape, cut his hair close and assumed a dress which was not consistent either with his rank or the fashion of the time. Mademoiselle was delighted to find him greatly improved in appear- ance, as well as in his knowledge of the French language. He gave her a detail of all his sufferings; XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 467 and what she found of still greater interest, he expatiated to her, while traversing the gallery which connected the Louvre with the Tuileries, as he reconducted her to her apartments, upon the miserable existence which he had led in Scotland, where there was not a woman of quality, and the people were so uncivilised as to consider it a sin to listen to music ; adding that he had felt less regret at the loss of the battle, from the hope which he entertained of returning to France, and to persons who were so dear to him. In short, the unthroned king had become at once a lover, and affected to hold lightly his reverses at home, in order to play the courtier to the great heiress of the Tuileries. As Mademoiselle was never ungrateful for such demonstrations, and was glad of any incident which tended to relieve the monotony of her existence, she met his advances in the most amiable spirit ; putting her violin-band into requisition, and amusing the fugitive monarch with impromptu balls, in which he acquitted himself with as much grace in a coitrante or a bas de basque as though his kingdom were not at stake, and his very existence a matter of marvel. But above all, the princess was deeply touched by the fact that it was only in her society that Charles thus threw off his natural reserve and taciturnity, and assumed the manner of a man sincerely enamoured ; keeping his eyes constantly fixed upon her, and conversing with her in such a manner as to convince her that "love was rather a native of France than the product of any other nation ; and that while he spoke her language he forgot his 468 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. own, of which he lost the habit only with her- self." ^ Nevertheless, the idea of becoming Queen of France had so thoroughly taken possession of the mind of Mademoiselle that she merely treated the advances of Charles as an agreeable interlude, and by no means desired to commit herself The Princess -Palatine, whose husband was the cousin- german of the English king, used all her eloquence upon the subject ; and she was succeeded by Madame de Choisy, who remarked that the princess ought not to be seen so constantly in the society of the King of England, as the circumstance produced a bad effect at Court ; to which the Princess- Pala- tine replied that nothing could be more absurd than such a restriction, and that Mademoiselle had nothing to do but to live on in her usual manner. Madame de Chatillon, who was then in Paris, but who had always been estranged from the princess in consequence of the great attachment which she had felt for the late Princess-Dowager de Conde, sent to request that she might be permitted to pay her respects to her royal highness ; while the Queen of England on one occasion renewed the subject of her son's marriage, and observed to Mademoiselle that she wished him to owe her hand to her own generosity, and not to the authority ol JMonsietir ; to which assurance the princess answered that she was so happy in her present position, she never thought of marriage ; although she received this proposition with all the respect to which it was entitled, and 1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 469 requested that time might be allowed her to reflect. The queen said she would wait a week for her decision ; only begging her to remember that she would remain the sole mistress of her property even after her marriage. Charles skilfully seconded the advances of his mother ; and the unfortunate princess — who, with the most ardent and persevering desire to obtain a husband, always contrived to be occupied by one alliance when she had another within her grasp — finding that she was probably foregoing the sub- stance to clutch at the shadow, and amusing herself with a head which had not yet fitted on the crown that was its birthright, when she might be by these means lessening her chance of sharing a diadem already secured, considered it necessary to modify her extreme courtesy to the fugitive , monarch ; and consequently, when urged anew by the English queen to pledge her hand to Charles, in the event of her marriage with Louis not taking place, she affected to consider the latter a mere chimera, and consented that Henrietta should confer with Monsieur. The queen, thus authorised, at once proceeded to the Luxembourg, and was shortly afterwards followed by Mademoiselle, who was anxious, although by no means alarmed, at the anticipation of her father's reply ; for she was too well aware of his weak and wavering nature to apprehend for a moment that he would venture upon a definite answer. She had argued justly ; his royal highness had contented himself by declaring to the English queen 470 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. that he could not move in such a matter with- out the order of the sovereign — a reply which delighted Mademoiselle, who thus saw the un- gracious responsibility of a refusal removed from herself individually, and who had no inclination to share the misfortunes of a dethroned monarch, or to reign over a country in the convulsed and unhappy state in which England still re- mained. On her return home she found Charles II. await- ing her, who believed that the affair was already concluded, as he did not anticipate any obstacle from the Court. As she entered he expressed his delight at the favourable answer which had been given to the queen his mother, and added that he should now hope to be enabled ere long to recover his throne, in order to share his prosperity with Made- moiselle, which would render it doubly valuable. To this gallantry the princess coolly replied by the remark that if he did not return to England to sup- port his own cause, it was highly improbable that he would ever attain to the dignity which was his due ; but, nevertheless, the weak and trifling temperament of Charles was sufficiently callous to the rebuke to induce him to exclaim, " How ! madam, after having married me, should you wish me to take my leave ?" The reply was fully as characteristic as the inquiry. "Yes, sire," answered the princess proudly, "should such an event occur, I shall be compelled to make your interests my own ; and I should be grieved to see you dancing triplets here, and amusing yourself, when you ought to be upon the XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 471 spot where you might either get your head broken or place a crown upon it."^ After this conversation, which did not tend to the satisfaction of either party, Mademoiselle desired Lord Germain to request the King of England not to visit her so constantly, as his marked attention excited comments which were calculated to injure her in the world ; and, despite his solicitations, she refused to withdraw her entreaty, at which Charles took such serious offence that he remained for three weeks without seeing her ; but, naturally inclined to gaiety, he could ill brook the privation entailed upon him by this exile from a circle so gay as that of the princess, who, during his absence, rather increased than diminished the number of her fetes — a circum- stance which so excited the anger of Lord Germain that he was incautious enough to remark in public, that wnen she had once become the wife of Charles they would diminish her outlay and dispose of her estates ; a liberty which Mademoiselle resented so deeply that she immediately resolved never to con- tract an alliance which appeared to be so securely anticipated by the interested parties. Meanwhile the cardinal continued his journey without any obstacle ; and ultimately, at the end of January, one month after he again entered France, he arrived at Poitiers in the carriage of the king, who had gone himself to meet him, and was received by the whole Court with the greatest demonstrations of delight. The Due de Nemours about the same time 1 Mdmoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 472 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. arrived in Paris, on his way from Guienne to Flanders, where he was about to place himself at the head of his troops, and to receive those which had been sent to him by the King of Spain, and which were then at Maries, whence they could with- out difficulty pass into Flanders. He remained some days in the capital, and as Monsieur was at that period in the full flush of his hatred towards Mazarin, the rebel duke was a constant visitor at the Luxembourg, where his personal beauty and engag- ing manners rendered him the idol of the circle. "This duke," says Bussy-Rabutin, "had very light hair, a well-shaped nose, and a small and finely-coloured mouth. He had also the neatest figure in the world, and displayed in his slightest movements a grace which could not be sufficiently admired, combined with a disposition at once joyous and playful."^ It was at the first of these assemblies at the Luxembourg after the arrival of M. de Nemours that " Madame de Chatillon arrived," writes Made- moiselle, "dressed most magnificently, and as beau- tiful as an angel, which was the more remarked as during the whole winter she had not appeared in full dress."^ Madame de Chatillon was the daughter of the Sieur de Bouteville, who lost his head for having fought a duel in opposition to the edicts of Louis XHL We supply her portrait from the same gallery which afforded that of the Due de Nemours. " Madame de Chatillon had bright black eyes, a low ^ Histoire Amouretise des Gaules. - Manoires de Mademoiselle de Montpetisier. XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 473 forehead, a handsome nose, a small, fresh, and arched mouth ; the complexion which it pleased her to adopt — generally it was white and red ; and a charming laugh which went to the hearts of her hearers. Her hair was jet black, her figure tall, her bearing graceful, her hands thin, dry, and dark, her arms of the same colour and long ; she was mild, courteous, and flattering in manner ; faithless, interested, and incapable of friendship in disposition ; nevertheless, however you might be forewarned of her bad qualities, when she resolved to please it was not possible to defend yourself ; she had some habits which were charming, and others which drew down upon her the contempt of all the world. For money or ambition she would have dishonoured herself, and sacrificed father, mother, and lover." ^ We have devoted a certain space to the mention of this lady, as we shall have occasion to recur to her ere long. She had married M. de Chatillon, with the assistance of the Prince de Conde, while he was yet a boy, and despite the decrees of the senate ; when the prince, after escorting them to Stenai, which he had lent to them as a residence, made the bridegroom a loan of twenty thousand livres. After the lapse of a few days, however, M. de Chatillon left his wife, and joined the army (1643), while she withdrew to a convent of nuns two leagues from Paris, where several of her friends, aware that she was penniless, advanced her loans which, in her after prosperity, she omitted to return. Her moral con- duct was still more questionable than her gratitude. 1 Histoire Amotcreuse des Gaules. 474 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. Exiled from the Court after the arrest of the princes, she retired to her estate of Chatillon, where she was followed by the Dowager Madame de Conde, who ultimately died beneath her roof, bequeathing to her, through the agency of a priest whom the fascinations of the duchess had enthralled, the value of a hundred thousand crowns in precious stones and a life tenure of the lordship of Marlou, which was computed at twenty thousand annual livres. According to her usual custom, she had no sooner secured the bequest than she dismissed the unfortunate priest to whom she. was indebted for its possession ; while the prince, who had- become enamoured of her in his turn, only succeeded in his pursuit by changing the life tenure of Marlou into an actual gift. While these festivities were taking place at the Luxembourg, and the beautiful widow was putting forth all her fascinations in order to retain the young duke in her chains, the intelligence of Mazarin's triumphant return and reception at Court created great commotion in the capital ; but the individual who most keenly felt the blow was the Due d' Orleans, who, on this occasion at least, appeared resolved not to forego the vow of vengeance which he had taken against the cardinal. Mademoiselle triumphed in his unhoped-for resistance, for although she had been careful to maintain her own connection with the Court by sustaining a correspondence with the queen, and even occasionally writing to her uncle, the Due de Guise, and expressing great interest in the success of the royal cause (because. XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 475 as she admits, with her usual somewhat tardy frank- ness, she believed that her letters would be opened by the way, as they had been during the journey to Bordeaux, and that thus the Court would give her credit for her good intentions ^), she had neverthe- less not lost sight of her darling project, and became daily more convinced that her marriage with Louis XIV. could only be accomplished through fear. M. de Conde profited by the intelligence which soon reached him of the anger of Monsiezir, to despatch to him the Comte de Fiesque, with the proposition of a treaty, by which the Due d' Orleans was to pledge himself to unite the troops over whom he had authority to those which M. de Nemours was about to bring from Flanders ; and from that moment to assist, even ostensibly should it become requisite, the interests of the prince against those of the cardinal. Madame entreated and expostulated in vain ; his hatred to Mazarin was more powerful than her influence, and Monsieur signed the treaty. He had no sooner succeeded with the father than M. de Fiesque asked arrd obtained an audience of the daughter, whom he entertained with lengthy as- surances of the great regard in which she was held by the prince, who was, as he declared, anxious that she should feel their interests to be in common, and understand how much he desired to see her Queen of France, which would be an immense advantage to herself, should she be kind enough to place more confidence in him than she had hitherto done. This assurance having been graciously received and an- 1 M^moires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 476 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. swered, he next delivered to her a letter from M. de Conde, which contained a ratification of the words of his envoy, but couched in a style of devoted attachment to which few persons were more sus- ceptible than Mademoiselle. An opportunity soon occurred which enabled Monsieur and his daughter to prove their good faith in this new engagement ; for after the unim- portant encounters to which we have already made allusion between the Comte d'Harcourt and the lieu- tenants of the prince, as well as with the prince him- self, the king had in person besieged Poitiers, which was defended by M. de Rohan ; but at the moment when succour arrived M. de Rohan had surrendered. This was consequently a valid advantage to the royal cause, especially at a time when the Court ascer- tained the constantly- increasing animosity of the capital towards the cardinal, and the treaty into which Monsieur had entered with the prince. Both these circumstances created uneasiness ; but the greatest evil existed in the fact that Paris was abandoned to the united influence of the Parliament and the Due d'Orleans ; and, desperate as was the measure, it was soon decided that the royal family must return to the capital without delay. It is probable that this courageous resolution would not, however, have been formed had not the Marechal Turenne, at that precise moment, finding himself unable to come to a satisfactory understanding with M. de Conde, offered his own services and those of his troops to the cardinal — an example which was followed by the Due de Bouillon. On their arrival in Paris the XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 477 princes lived in great seclusion, and saw scarcely any one save their particular friends, among whom was the coadjutor, who, well aware of the import- ance of their partisanship, made the most strenuous efforts to induce Monsieur to comprehend it, and to compel the two brothers to enter into his interests. The aversion of the Due d' Orleans towards the elder (M. de Bouillon), for which he could give no rational reason, prevented him, however, from acting as he should have done on such an occasion ; while the contempt which the younger did not conceal for himself, and of which he was by no means embar- rassed to explain the motive, rendered the negotia- tion one of great difficulty. As has already been shown, it was unsuccessful ; while their own en- deavour to attach M. de Retz to the Court party proved equally abortive. The king commenced his march, but when he reached Blois, where he remained for a couple of days, and was concentrating his troops at Beau- gency, he learnt the approach of the Due de Ne- mours at the head of a Spanish force, and that he was about to effect a junction with the Due de Beaufort, in order to march against the royal army. At such a crisis it became imperative to ascertain the temper of Orleans; for although Louis XIV. was king of France, it was no less certain that Mon- sieur was the suzerain of Orleans ; while it was also publicly known that his royal highness had signed a treaty with the princes. A demand was in conse- quence made to the authorities of the city, that they should declare for which party they intended to pro- 478 LOUIS XIV. AND chap. nounce ; when, without hesitation, they decided for the Due d' Orleans ; while the Court had a more formidable enemy than ever in the coadjutor, who at this period obtained his seat in the conclave. The Marquis de Sourdis, who was governor of both the province and the city, was very unpopular, and consequently anxious that Monsieur should arrive and assume the command in his own person ; and to expedite this measure the Comte de Fiesque returned in great haste to Paris, to explain to his royal highness how essential his presence had be- come at Orleans, which was an important post during a period of civil war. A free communication with Guienne was so imperatively necessary to the party and interests of the prince that he had been careful to direct that every exertion should be made to secure the city from loss or damage, — a piece of intelligence which in all probability served even better than the arguments of his friends to wring a promise from Monsieur that he would set out for Orleans on the evening of Palm Sunday, to request the Dukes of Beaufort and Nemours to furnish an escort to accompany him from Etampes to the end of his journey. Mademoiselle, who had arranged to retire during the Holy Week to the Carmelite convent at St. Denis, and who went to take leave of her father in consequence, deferred her intention until the fol- lowing day, in consequence of the arrival of the Due de Beaufort, who had followed M. de Fiesque, in order to second him in his endeavour to decide Monsieur upon an immediate appearance in Orleans ; XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 479 and who, during a visit which he made to the princess, remarked, in the spirit of a prophet, that if his royal highness should eventually decline the journey, she must replace him. No proposal could have been more congenial to her temperament, and the ambition of Mademoi- selle fired at the first word. She immediately went to the Capuchin convent in the Rue St. Honore, where Pere Georges, a declared Fron- deur, was to preach before Monsieur, and, at the close of the service, informed him that she had delayed her own journey in consequence of his departure. She then followed him to the Luxem- bourg, where she found him in one of those irritable humours which were sure to result from his adopt- ing any important resolution. He spared neither friends nor enemies, declaring that he was perse- cuted on all sides ; and that if he listened to the partisans of M. de Cond6, and left Paris, all would be lost ; and, finally, he exclaimed angrily that he would not go, murmuring against the violence which was exerted to turn him from his own quiet and retired tastes and habits, and envying the happiness of those who had no connection with public affairs. Mademoiselle listened with more annoyance than surprise to all these puerile complaints, which led her to dread a renewed exile from the Court, and the utter destruction of her own prospects as their result, and wept bitterly over the unconquer- able pusillanimity of her father. Her only consola- tion existed in the belief that those about his royal highness would induce him, in the event of his 48o LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. adherence to this last unworthy resolution, to permit that she should become his representative ; and she was not deceived in her hopes, for, after having left the Luxembourg and returned home to supper, she was visited by the Comte de Tavannes, one of the lieutenant-generals of the prince, who informed her, in a low voice, that he was delighted to be able to assure her that it had been arranged for her royal highness to proceed to Orleans in the name of Monsieur, bidding her at the same time to be silent upon the subject until the news should be officially announced to her by the Comte de Rohan. The latter shortly afterwards appeared, and Mademoiselle, with a beating heart, hastened to signify her obedience to the orders of Monsieur, requesting the Comte and Comtesse de Fiesque^ and Madame de Frontenac to accompany her, an invitation which was at once accepted. The princess could not have selected two more fascinating com- panions for her somewhat chivalrous expedition than the two ladies above named. We have already shown that the latter had been able to captivate the affections of a mere stripling ; while of the former, even the cynical Bussy says, with enthu- siasm, " The Comtesse de Fiesque was an admirable woman. Her eyes were brown and brilliant, her nose well made, her mouth agreeable and ruddy, her complexion fair and smooth, and the shape of her face long ; she was the only person in the world 1 Gillone d'Harcourt, widow of the Marquis de Piennes, who remarried with Charles Lionel, Comte de Fiesque, was commonly known in the world as " the Countess." xvn THE COURT OF FRANCE who was ever rendered more beautiful by a pointed chin. Her hair was light ; she was always con- sistently and elegantly attired, but she derived more grace from her personal deportment than from the magnificence of her apparel. Her manner was cheerful and unaffected ; her disposition cannot be described, for, with all the modesty of her sex, she accommodated herself to the mood of all about her. Bydint of reflection, people generally think more justly upon a subject in the end than they did at the com- mencement : it was just the contrary with Madame de Fiesque — her reflections injured her impulses."^ This social arrangement made, Mademoiselle next gave the necessary orders in her household, and on the following day dined at the Luxembourg, where she found Monsieur in high spirits at the able manner in which he had emancipated himself from a disagreeable responsibility by fastening it upon her ; nor was she by any means inclined to diminish his self-gratulation. During the repast he informed her royal highness that he had already despatched a messenger to announce her early arrival, by whom he had also forwarded an order to the authorities desiring them to show the same obedience to her wishes as they would have done to his own, — an assurance which seated Mademoi- selle on velvet, for she was fond of power, and did not readily brook opposition. When she took her leave, Monsieur embraced her tenderly, and then said that the Bishop of Orleans would give her every information as to the condition of the city, 1 Histoire Amo%ireuse des Gatiles. VOL. I. 31 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. and that he wished her to ask advice of the Counts de Fiesque and De Grammont, who had been long enough upon the spot to know what had best be done ; but, above all, to prevent at any price the passage of the army across the Loire, which was the only order that he should himself give her. She then entered her carriage, followed by Ma- dame de Frontenac and the Comtesse de Fiesque and her daughter ; while Monsieur, hugging himself in his recovered insignificance and safety, watched her departure from a window, and listened very complacently to the blessings which were showered upon her by the people as she passed along, under the escort of a lieutenant of his guards, two exempts, six guardsmen, and six Swiss.-' As the party did not quit Paris until a late hour. Mademoiselle halted the first night at Chartres ; and just as she had resumed her journey on the following morning she was met by the Due de Beaufort, who thenceforward always rode beside her carriage. A few leagues farther on she encountered a mounted escort of five hundred men, commanded by M. de Valon, the adjutant-general of Monsieur. The escort was composed of gens d'armes and light horse ; the latter moved to the van and the former surrounded the carriage both rear and flank ; but even this military demonstration did not satisfy the ambition of the princess, who, anxious to prove herself worthy of the dignity of her rank as chief of the expedition, no sooner reached the plains of La Beauce than she alighted from her carriage, 1 Mimoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 483 mounted a horse, and placed herself at the head of the troops, who expressed the greatest delight on seeing her thus promptly assume her command, which she commenced by the arrest of three couriers, one of whom was the bearer of a letter from the authorities of Orleans to Monsieur, an- nouncing that the king had sent to inform them that he should sleep that night at C16ry, and then proceed direct to their city, preceded by his council. The little army of Mademoiselle had conse- quently no time to lose in order to prevent this danger; and they continued their march with in- creased celerity until they arrived at Toury, where they found M. de Nemours, who welcomed the princess most warmly, and declared that thencefor- ward she must preside over the war councils — 'an announcement which only excited her amusement. But as the duke still persisted, alleging that she should accustom herself to such topics, as nothing could be done without her authority, the council was accordingly assembled, at which Mademoiselle insisted upon the desire of her father that the enemy should not be allowed to cross the Loire ; and measures were immediately taken to oppose their passage. The next morning they again started shortly after daybreak, and at Artenay were joined by the Mar- quis de Flamarens, who had come to meet the princess, having important business to transact with her. Mademoiselle alighted at an inn, where she was informed, to her great mortification, that the authorities of Orleans had refused to give her in- 484 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. gress to the city, from the fact that her own ap- proach in one direction, and that of his majesty in another, placed them in an embarrassing position ; and that they in consequence besought her, in order to prevent their becoming rebels either to the will of the king or to the orders of the suzerain, to affect indisposition until the Court had passed by ; promising not to open their gates until such was the case, after which they would receive her with all the honours which were her due. But Mademoiselle was not constituted like her father. She remem- bered that she was the grandchild of Henri IV., and she was resolved that they should also be re- minded of the fact. She declared, therefore, that she entirely disregarded such a declaration, and rejected the advice as unworthy alike of her rank, her mission, and the blood which filled her veins ; and that she should forthwith march upon Orleans. Nor did she lose any time in verifying her words, for she ordered her equipage to be instantly brought to the door ; and leaving behind her the escort, which would have impeded her progress, she only consented to be accompanied by the guard of Mon- sieur, on condition that they should travel at her own pace. As the little party proceeded, the most discouraging rumours met them at every stage ; some said that the authorities were resolved not to permit the princess to pass the gates of the city ; and others, that the king was already in Orleans, which had declared in his favour. But Made- moiselle had not quitted Paris to start at shadows, and she persisted in pursuing her journey with a XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 485 sang-froid and composure which in the opposite sex would have been designated heroism, and which her father, who had been striving at such a demon- stration throughout a long life, died without emu- lating. She had sent forward to Orleans the lieutenant of Monsieur's guards, whom she met on his return. He bore a second entreaty from the authorities, that the princess would not continue her journey, as they should be compelled to refuse her entrance ; and he had travelled rapidly to com- municate this information, leaving the Parliament as- sembled, in consequence of the fact that the keeper of the seals and the king's councillors were already at the gate opposite to that by which Mademoiselle was approaching, and had demanded admission. The princess saw that she had no time to lose, and paid little attention to the other particulars of the message. She therefore proceeded by a forced march, and at eleven o'clock in the morning reached the Banniere gate, which was not only closed but barricaded. This point gained, she sent to inform the municipal magistrates that she had arrived, and then waited patiently for the space of three hours in an inn outside the walls ; during which time the governor of the city, who was totally powerless, sent her a present of sweetmeats, which she received graciously, but with a resolve that so puerile a polite- ness should not affect her resolution. Worn out at leno-th by a delay which accorded ill with her natural energy, she decided upon leaving the inn ; and despite the entreaties of those about her, she directed her steps towards the city moat. She had scarcely arrived 486 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. there when the citizens and the mob who were col- lected on the ramparts recognised her, and pointing her out to each other, raised a shout of " Long live the king ! Long live the princess ! No Mazarin ! " Mademoiselle had no sooner witnessed these demon- strations than she advanced to the extreme edge of the ditch, and, raising her voice, exclaimed, "Hasten to the Town Hall, good people ; and if you wish to see me among you, open the city gates." This address produced considerable commotion, but the only reply was a repetition of the same cry ; and when she had ascertained that she was merely answered by words. Mademoiselle continued her way until she arrived at a gate where the guard sprang to their arms, and arranged themselves in file along the rampart. Anxious to profit by this movement, the princess shouted to the command- ing officer to open the barrier, but he replied by signifying that he was not in possession of the keys. Wearied by the inutility of her entreaties, the princess next proceeded to threats, for she could not condescend longer to entreat for what she considered her right ; and her suite, who regarded this measure as dangerous, expostulated in vain, asking her what she could anticipate from menac- ing people upon whose good feeling towards her she was utterly dependent for success ; but she laughed at their terrors, declaring that it was good policy to ascertain if she could not do more by threats than gentleness. Mademoiselle, as she confessed to the Comtesse de Fiesque, was emboldened in this attempt by xvii THE COURT OF FRANCE 487 a declaration of the Marquis de Vilene, who was esteemed one of the most accomplished astrologers of the time, that whatever she undertook between mid-day on Wednesday, the 17th of March, and the following Friday, was certain to succeed ; and that, confiding in the science of the marquis, whose prediction was then in her pocket, she felt confident that she should either force the gates of Orleans or escalade its walls. Terrified as they were by this display of resolution, the two count- esses could not suppress their merriment at the menacing attitude assumed by their female com- mander-in-chief, who, nothing daunted by this display of their incredulity, calmly pursued her way along the ramparts, until she arrived at the river-bank ; where the boatmen, who at Orleans form a considerable body, approached her and offered their services, which she immediately ac- cepted, haranguing them in a style which excited them to such enthusiasm that she saw her point was gained, and accordingly proposed that they should row her as far as the Porte de la Faux, which opened upon the river : they, however, pro- posed a gate upon the quay, which they said would be more easily forced, as well as much nearer ; and that, should she desire it, they would instantly go to work. Mademoiselle bade them lose no time — showered money among them ; and in order to superintend the progress of their at- tempt, and to animate them by her presence, ascended a hillock whence she could command the gate ; to effect which she was compelled to climb LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. Upon her hands and knees, defying alike flints and brambles ; nor could the expostulations of those about her induce her to abandon her position. Careless as she was of her personal safety, the princess was, nevertheless, a sufficiently able diplo- matist to forbid all her own people from assisting in the violence that she had authorised ; in order, as she confesses, that should the enterprise have proved unsuccessful, she might deny that it was undertaken by her order ; one light-horseman only, who was a native of the city, disregarded her injunc- tion, and during the operations was slightly wounded by a stone. The princess had left the troops who formed her escort at the distance of a mile from the walls, that she might not alarm the citizens by a military force ; and they were ordered to await and conduct her to Gergeau, in the event of her being unable to make good her entrance into Orleans. Ere long, however. Mademoiselle was informed that the work was getting on well ; and upon this assurance she at once approached the scene of action, attended by an equerry and an exempt ; but as the quay was invested, and that between the princess and the gate the river washed the walls, a bridge was formed by a couple of boats ; and, as the opposite bank was extremely steep, a ladder was placed in the second boat, by which Mademoiselle with some difficulty mounted to the assault ; for it unfortunately chanced that, in addition to its some- what unstable tenure on its floating foundation, one of the steps was broken. By these means she reached the quay, and had no sooner arrived there XVII THE COURT OF FRANCE 489 than she ordered her guards to return to the car- riages, that she might prove to the authorities of Orleans the confidence with which she entered their city, unaccompanied by a single armed man. Her appearance among them tended, as a natural consequence, to animate the boatmen to increased exertion, while a party of the citizens assisted them from within ; and the guard which was under arms stood by in perfect neutrality, neither aiding nor pre- venting the aggression which threatened the de- struction of their post. At length two of the centre planks of the gate were forced, and it was soon discovered that it could not be opened more effectually, being traversed by two weighty bars of iron, upon which the princess desired one of her attendants to take her in his arms, and to push her through the aperture, whence her head had no sooner emerged than the drums beat, and the captain of the guard drew her into the city. In an instant she was on her feet, and extending her hand to him, exclaimed with perfect composure, " You shall have reason to rejoice that it was you who effected my entrance." Cries of " Long live the king and the princess, and down with Mazarin!" resounded on all sides ; and as on many great occa- sions the sublime and the ridiculous overpass the one pace by which they are said to be separated, so it proved upon this also; for while the princess was radiant with the triumph of her successful exploit, two men approached her with a wooden chair, upon which they almost compelled her to seat herself, and thus bore her exultingly towards the Town Hall, 490 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAP. where the municipal authorities had congregated to discuss their measures at so difficult a crisis, not having yet been able to decide whether the gates should be opened to the king or to herself ; and as bold actions always involve the sympathies of the million, she was escorted by the whole of the popu- lace, who pressed about her in order to obtain a look, or to kiss the folds of her dress. Mademoiselle submitted to this somewhat equi- vocal honour, and advanced five or six hundred paces in her improvised equipage ; but the ovation became at length unendurable, and she requested her bearers to permit her to alight, as she preferred finishing her walk on foot, in the midst of her faith- ful citizens. The procession accordingly halted, and the ladies of her suite profited by the circumstance to rejoin her. One of the city companies arrived at the moment, and preceded her, with its drums beating and all the customary military honours, to the palace, which was the ordinary residence of Monsieur when in the city. Midway the princess was met by the governor, who was greatly embar- rassed, being aware that his presents of sweetmeats had been but an inefficient proof of his devotion to her cause. To him succeeded the municipal author- ities, equally ill at ease, who began to stammer forth a harangue, which Mademoiselle, with admirable tact, cut short by addressing them, and remarking that they were, no doubt, surprised to see her enter their city otherwise than by the usual gate ; but that, being naturally impatient, and having found the Porte de la Banniere closed, and another open. xvn THE COURT OF FRANCE 491 she had passed through that ; at which they had every reason to congratulate themselves, since the Court, who were at Clery, could not accuse them of her admission ; and that all responsibility being thus removed from themselves, they were consequently exonerated from whatever results might ensue, since she herself became answerable for everything ; for where persons of her rank entered a city, they be- came its masters, as was their right, and as she had an especial privilege to be considered in a town which belonged to Monsieur. They replied by an abundance of compliments, to which they found the princess ready with the rejoinder that she was quite convinced they were about, as they stated, to open their gates ; but that, for the reasons which she had already advanced, she was unwilling to leave them time to do so ; after which she turned the conversation to other subjects, and continued to converse with them as though nothing remarkable had occurred ; merely stating that she wished to proceed at once to the Town Hall, to attend the meeting which was to deliberate upon the entrance of the royal councillors into the city. She then sent an exempt to desire that her equipages might immediately join her ; and from that moment she assumed the command of Orleans, without comment or opposition. END OF VOL. I. Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinhtrgh. ^