CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 LIBRARY 
 
3 1924 082 193 552 
 
 IntfiHihmrv ^(^ 
 
 E DUE 
 
 
 
 iuMfn n 
 
 
 
 
 lBo3 h 
 
 
 
 ^l 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 l\l 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CATLORO 
 
 
 
 PRINTKOINU.ft.A. 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924082193552 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE 
 
 Volume I. 
 
VERSAILLES EDlTieN 
 
 Limited to Eight Hundred Numbered Sets, of which 
 this is 
 
 No.. .1.^.1. 
 
/^./..... J M.//...//4' 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE 
 
 ON 
 
 ANNE OF AUSTRIA AND HER COURT. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 C.-A. SAINTE-BEUVE. 
 
 SCtBitsIateS tig 
 KATHARINE PRESCOTT WORMELEY. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS FROM THE ORIGINAL. 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 HARDY, PRATT & COMPANY. 
 
 1901. 
 
 -/, 
 
Copyright 1901, 
 By Hardy, Pratt & Company. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 1.18:^638 
 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S. A. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction by C.-A. Sainte-Beuve 1 
 
 Translator's Note .... 21 
 
 Preface . . . .... 23 
 
 CHAPTER I.— 1611-1630. 
 
 Flouriahing state of the kingdom at the death of Henri TV. — Evil in- 
 fluence of the Marechal d'Ancre. — His murder. — Majority of 
 Louis XIII. — Marriage of Philip IV. of Spain to Elisabeth of 
 France, and of Louis XIII. with Anne of Austria. — Toilet of the 
 latter. — Portrait of Louis XIII. — Intrigues of the Due de Luynes. 
 — Vexations of Anne of Austria. — Death of de Luynes. — Passion 
 of the Duke of Buckingham for the queen. — Madame de Che- 
 vreuse. — Persecution of Cardinal Richelieu against Anne of Austria, 
 and his love for her. — Her hatred aud contempt for him. — His 
 policy. — The queen's fear of heing repudiated. — Madame de 
 Motteville sent away from the queen. — Portrait of the queen at 
 that time. — Portraits of the most remarkable women at Court . . 25 
 
 CHAPTER n. — 1630-1643. 
 
 Hatred of Marie de' Medici against Cardinal Richelieu. — The " Day of 
 the Dupes " and its consequences. — Arrest of Marie de' Medici at 
 Compiegne, and her escape to Flanders. — Mademoiselle de Haute- 
 fort. — Slavery of Louis XIII. to Cardinal Richelieu. — His melan- 
 choly life at Saint-Germain. — Anne of Austria ueglected. — Incli- 
 nation of the king for Mademoiselle de La Fayette ; she becomes 
 a nun; singular and affecting romance. — Birth of Louis XIV., 
 Septembers, 1638. — Reconciliation of king and queen. — Death 
 of Cardinal Richelieu, December 4, 1642. — His portrait. — The 
 courtiers cluster round Anne of Austria. — The king opens the 
 prisons and allows the exiles to return. — Makes Cardinal Mazarin 
 his minister. — Louis XIII. in the last days of his life. — Declara- 
 tion to his council on the regency . — Anne of Austria swears to 
 observe it. — Details on death of Louis XIH., May 14, 1643. His 
 portrait ^ , 47 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER in.— 1643-1644. 
 
 Page 
 Regency of Anne of Austria. — Arrival of queen with the young king 
 in Paris. — Goes to parliament with the king and the princes of the 
 blood. — Speech of the chancellor, Se'guier. — The Due d'Orle'ans 
 and the Prince de Conde accept the regency unreservedly. — Dis- 
 missal of Chavigny. — The Duchesse d'AiguiUon allowed to keep the 
 government of Havre. — Dissatisfaction of the Prince de Marsillac. 
 — Mazarin prime minister. — The queen persuaded to confide in 
 him. — The Due d'Enghien (the Great Conde) wins the battle of 
 Eocroy. — Mazarin's policy cleverly beneficent. — He persuades the 
 queen to protect the relatives and friends of Richelieu. — His grow- 
 ing favour with the queen. — Intrigues of the Vendome cabal. — 
 The Duchesse de Montbazon. — Affair of a letter attributed to 
 Madame de Longueville. — The queen grants them justice for the 
 outrage of Madame de Montbazon. — dismissal of the latter from 
 Court. — The Due de Beaufort ; accused of intending to murder 
 Mazarin. — His dismissal and imprisonment. — Exile of " the Im- 
 portants.'' — Unkind dismissal of the Bishop of Beauvais. — 
 Madame de Chevreuse irritates the queen, and is relegated to Tours. 
 
 — She leaves France. — Madame de Hautefort ; her hatred to Car- 
 dinal Mazarin. — Her imprudence, dismissal, and despair .... 70 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— 1644-1645. 
 
 The council of conscience. — Saint Vincent de Paul. — Complete power 
 of Cardinal Mazarin. — His influence on the queen's mind. — 
 Changes in the civil service. — Private life of the queen ; tastes, 
 feelings, character, and disposition of her miud at forty years of 
 age. — The Due d'Orle'ans commands the army of Flanders; the 
 Due d'Enghien that of Germany. — First agitation in parliament. 
 President BariUou sent to Pignerol. — The parliament goes to the 
 Palais-Royal to remonstrate. — The queen refuses to receive them. 
 
 — Stay of the Court at Euel. — Voiture's impromptu verses. — 
 Henri IH.'s opinion of Paris. — Death of Pope XJrbain VIII. — 
 Arrival of Queen Henrietta of England, wife of Charles I., in 
 consequence of the English revolution. — Sorrows and sufferings 
 of that princess. — Affectionate reception of her by Anne of Austria. 
 
 — Death of Elisabeth of France, Queen of Spain ; her portrait ; 
 regrets at her death. — Squabbles for precedence between Mademoi- 
 selle and the Princesse de Conde and Duchesse d'Enghien. — 
 Anger of the queen against Mademoiselle. — Arrival of the Queen 
 
 of England in Paris ; her portrait 102 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 CHAPTER v. — 1645-1646. 
 
 Page 
 The battle of Nordlingen won by the Due d'Enghien. — Emotion 
 caused by the losses there made. — Noble words of the cardinal on 
 that occasion. — The queen and the young ting go to parliament in 
 state. — Beauty and fine presence of the queen at this ceremony. — 
 Grace of the king when addressing the assembly. — Bold harangue 
 of the advocate-general, Omer Talon. — Impression it made on the 
 mind of the queen. — Mademoiselle de Eohan marries Chabot 
 against the opposition of her family. — Marriage of the King of 
 Poland to Princesse Marie of Mantua. — Brilliant Polish embassy 
 on this occasion. — Portrait of the new Queen of Poland. — Her 
 disappointment on arriving at Warsaw. Portrait of the king, her 
 husband ; his brutal reception of her 124 
 
 CHAPTER VT. — 1646-1647. 
 
 Conduct of the queen towards her servants ; treats them well, but does 
 not concern herself about their interests. — Education of Louis XTV. 
 
 — The queen gives the management of it to Cardinal Mazarin. — 
 Dismissal of Mademoiselle de Beaumont exacted by the cardinal. — 
 Madame de Motteville is threatened with the loss of her position. 
 
 — The queen reassures her. — Interview between Madame de Motte- 
 ville and the cardinal on this subject. — Ambition and policy of the 
 Due d'Enghien. — Prudent policy of the Prince and Princesse de 
 Conde. — Amusements of the Conrt at Pontainebleau. — War in 
 Planders ; the taking of Courtray ; the siege of Mardick. — Loss of 
 life. — The queen's remark on the Due d'Enghien (the Great 
 Conde). — The Due d'Orle'ans quits the army, and leaves the com- 
 mand to the Due d'Enghien [September, 1646]. — Embassy from 
 the Queen of Sweden received at Pontainebleau. — Portrait of that 
 queen. — MQitary successes. — Death and portrait of Bassompierre. 
 
 — Intrigues and ambition of the Due d'Enghien. — Death of the 
 Prince de Conde, December 26, 1646. — Portrait of that prince . . 144 
 
 CHAPTER VIL — 1647. 
 
 Anne of Austria's taste for the theatre. — The rector of Saint-Germain 
 speaks against this amusement. — Seven doctors of the Sorbonne 
 condemn it, ten tolerate it. — Peace between Holland and Spain. 
 — Decided by the greed of the Princess of Orange. — The Great 
 Conde and his petit-maitres. — Cardinal JIazarin gives a fete to the 
 Court. — Ball at Court ; description of the ball. — Dress and appear- 
 ance of Louis XIV., aged eight, at this ball. — Toilets of other 
 
Till CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 personages. — Shabby supper given by Cardinal Mazarin to the 
 queen's women. — Departure of the Prince de Conde for Catalonia. 
 — His portrait. — Death of the Prince of Orange. — The King of 
 England betrayed by the Scotch. — Quarrels about grace. — Molin- 
 ists and Jansenists ; the blame which the latter deserve. — Anne of 
 Austria supports the Jesuits. — Journey of the Due and Duchesse 
 d'Orl&ns to Bourbon. — Singular character of the duchess ; her 
 portrait. — Portrait of the Due d'OrMans. — Devotions of Anne of 
 Austria at the Val-de-Grace. — Return to Paris of Madame de 
 LongueviUe. — Slie occupies almost the entire attention of the 
 Coart. — Her intimacy with the Prince de MarsiUac. — Her por- 
 trait. — Reasons of the queen's coldness to her. — Capacity and 
 activity of Cardinal Mazarin. — His defects 168 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. — 1647. 
 
 Desires for peace. — Mazarin suspected of not wishing it. — Murmurs in 
 Paris at the conduct of the war. — Many of the malcontents exiled. 
 
 — Short stay of the Court at Dieppe ; attachment of the inhabitants 
 to the king's person. — Return of the Court to Paris. — Illness of 
 the Due d'Anjou, the little Monsieur. — Portrait of that young 
 prince. — Opposition of the parliament to a tax on provisions. — 
 Conference at the Palais-Royal on this subject. — The tax is voted. — 
 Arrival at the Court of the Mancini. — Their portraits. — Cour(ier- 
 ship of the Comte de Nogent. — His wife presents the Mancini chil- 
 dren to the queen. — The Mazarin family little thought of in Rome. 
 Harshness of the queen to the Duchesse de Schomberg. — Depart- 
 ure of the queen for Fontainebleau. — Hl-will of Cardinal Mazarin 
 to Madame de Motteville. — The queen comforts her. — Upright- 
 ness of Anne of Austria. — Her piety embarrasses the cardinal. 
 
 — Evil consequences of her weakness towards the minister. — Abil- 
 ity of the cardinal. — The Prince of Wales, son of Charles I., visits 
 the king and queen at Fontainebleau. — Stiffness of the prince and 
 Louis XIV. when together. — Return of the Court to Paris. — The 
 king falls ill with small-pox, November, 1647. — Peril of the king ; 
 agony of the queen. — Characteristics of the young monarch. — 
 His recovery. — Delicate behaviour of the Prince de Conde. — The 
 queen seized with fever, but recovers quickly. — Her feelings during 
 her illness. — She spends Christmas at the Val-de-Grlce. — The 
 king's recovery brings back the ladies who had fled the Court. — 
 The little king's reproaches to them. — Bad disposition of all minds 
 
 at the close of the year 1647 194 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER IX. — 1648. 
 
 Pagb 
 The Court. — Anne of Austria's indolence. — Uprising of the merchants 
 of Paris against a tax. — Mutiny of the masters of petitions. — Coun- 
 cil in the queen's room on this occasion. — The burghers hecome 
 excited. — Failure of attempt of women to address the queen. — Dis- 
 play of troops in Paris. — The king goes to Notre Dame ; also to 
 parliament. — Vigorous speech of Omer Talon. — The courtiers de- 
 stroy its effect on the queen. — Bitterness of the public mind. — Pen- 
 ury of the Court. — The masters of petitions resent an edict. — 
 Parliament receiyes their complaint. — Displeasure of the queen. — 
 The Due d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde support the queen. 
 — The Court during the holidays. — Murmurs against Mazarin. — 
 The Dutch make peace with Spain. — Delay and resistance of par- 
 liament. — The queen goes to Chartres. — Arrest of Saujeon. — 
 Mademoiselle reprimanded. — Madame de Motteville helps to 
 reconcile her with her father. — Cold treatment of her by the 
 queen 21J 
 
 CHAPTER X. — 1648. 
 
 Difficulties with parliament. — The paw/cWe. — Decree of union of aU 
 the supreme courts with parliament. — Indignation of the queen. — 
 Methodical resistance of parliament. — Determination to raise an 
 opposition to Mazarin. —The Duke of York escapes from England 
 and comes to France. — Parliament forbidden to meet. — Exile of 
 members and of the courts. — Escape of the Due de Beaufort. — 
 The queen consoled, but Mazarin uneasy at the escape. — The queen 
 visits the queen of England. — The jubilee. — Conversation of the 
 queen in the garden of the Palais-Eoyal. — Assembling of parlia- 
 ment against the will of the queen. — Speech of President de 
 Mesmes. — The queen complains. — The cardinal tries gentleness 
 with the grand council and the cour des aides. — The qneen walks in 
 the Holy Sacrament. — She releases from prison a spy on President 
 de Mesmes. — Five treasurers of France imprisoned. — Parliament 
 deliberates on king's order, annulling its decree of union with the 
 other courts. — Meets with the deputies of the other courts in the 
 Chamber of Saint-Louis. — Parliament summoned to the Palais- 
 Eoyal June 16. — Another decree of the king in council. — Resist- 
 ance of parliament. — Speech of Omer Talon. — The queen disposed 
 to severity. — The cardinal's concessions- — They diminish the royal 
 authority. — Death of the King of Poland. — Audacity of parlia- 
 ment increases. — Depression of the cardinal. — Propositions of 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 parliament and the other courts. — Conference proposed by Due 
 d'Orle'ans. — Advances of the cardinal to parliament. — D'Emery, 
 superintendent of finances, dismissed. — The Marechal de Meille- 
 raye appointed in his place 242 
 
 CHAPTER XL — 1648. 
 
 Impoverished condition of the Court and kingdom. — Conference of 
 ministers and parliament. — Shameful proposal as to loans. — 
 Good-will of parliament to the Due d'Orle'ans. — Bitter distress of 
 the queen. — Blames the cardinal. — The latter alarmed at the state 
 of things. — Poverty of the Queen of England. — The king yields 
 everything to parliament. — Reflections on the right of remon- 
 strance. — General revolt of the parliaments. — The Prince de 
 Conde comes to Paris. — Annoyance of the Due d'Orleans at his 
 return. — The prince returns to the army. — Taking of Tortosa by 
 Marechal Schomberg. — Fresh remonstrances of parliament. — The 
 queen resolves to endure no more. — Goes to parliament. — Declara- 
 tion of the king. — Appearance of the young king. — Coolness of 
 the people towards him. — Mazarin's system of moderation. — The 
 discussion in parliament becomes factious. — The Due d'Orleans 
 moderates it. — Anger of the provinces against the minister and the 
 queen. — The queen upholds the minister, and why. — Her charity 
 and good works. — Allowed by the minister to want for money. — 
 The king and cardinal go to vespers at the Peuillants. — Bloody 
 quarrel between the king's Guards and the guards of the grand 
 provost. — The result. — Honourable conduct of Charost and Chan- 
 denier. — Dismissal of all the captains of the Guard. — Continuation 
 of the struggle between the Court and parliament. — The battle 
 of Lens 280 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. — 1648. 
 
 The Te Deum at Notre Dame. — Arrest of Broussel, Blancmesnil, and 
 Charton, — Eiot and barricades in Paris. — The insurgents respect 
 the coadjutor [de Retz]. — Confidence of the queen. — She refuses 
 the release of Broussel. — Alarm of Madame de Motteville. — The 
 chief president compelled by populace to ask for Broussel's release. 
 — The queen refuses it. — Danger run by Chancellor Seguier. — 
 Condition of the streets of Paris. — Vigorous firmness of the queen 
 in receiving parliament. — The populace compels parliament to go 
 a third time to the queen and demand Broussel. — Firm answer of 
 the queen. — The members consult at the Palais-Eoyal. — Mazarin 
 makes them a weak and halting speech, which is ridiculed. — Prom- 
 
CONTENTS. SI 
 
 Page 
 ise of transient obedience. — Broussel is released. — Humiliation of 
 the queen. — Regret of honest Frenchmen. — Discipline of the 
 burgher army. — Uprising of the people. — An anxious night. — 
 Personal fears and precautions of the cardinal. — Broussel received 
 in triumph. — The burghers refuse to lower the barricades unless by 
 order of parliament. — Parliament gives the order. — A small inci- 
 dent raises them once more. — Anxiety of the queen. — She orders 
 the Guards to their quarters, which does not quiet the populace. — 
 Terrible alarm at night. — Threat of the burghers to seize the king. 
 
 — Courage and firmness of the queen. — Her fine words. — Coward- 
 ice of Mazarin. — The excitement of the people quiets down . . . 313 
 
 CHAPTER Xni. — 1648. 
 
 Quiet in Paris. — Dissatisfaction of the coadjutor. — Secret ambition of 
 the Due d'OrMans. — The queen begins to distrust him. — Thinks of 
 turning for help to Prince de Conde. — Illness of the Due d'Anjou, 
 the little Monsieur. — Parliament renews its persecutions. — The 
 queen thanks the burghers for guarding the city. — Yields to the 
 new demands of parliament. — Conciliatory policy of the minister. 
 
 — Prince de Conde wounded at Fumes. — The Court retires to 
 Euel. — The queen's good judgment and courage. — The Prince de 
 Cond^ desires to return to Paris to support the king and queen. — 
 The queen consents. — Speculative minds suggest the blockade of 
 Paris. — Exile of Chateauneuf and arrest of Chavigny. — Fidelity 
 of Commander de Jars to his friend. — Fontrailles escapes imprison- 
 ment by flight. — Parliament demands the return of the king to 
 Paris and the dismissal of the minister. — Return of the Prince de 
 Conde'. — Queen's speech at Ruel to a deputation from parliament. 
 
 — She refuses their demands and the princes support her. — Re- 
 moval of the little Monsieur from Paris. — The Court goes to 
 Saint-Germain. — The king issues a decree forbidding parliament 
 to assemble. — Alarm in Paris. — Letters of the Due d'Orle'ans and 
 the Prince de Conde' to parliament proposing a conference. — Par- 
 liament stipulates that Mazarin shall be excluded from it. — 
 Speeches of the princes of the blood sustaining the authority of the 
 king. — Demands of parliament. — Concessions of the queen. — 
 Both parties only half satisfied. — The Duchesse de Vendome in- 
 vokes the protection of parliament against Mazarin 338 
 
 INDEX 369 
 
LIST OF 
 PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Fase 
 MoTTEViLLB, Feancoise Bertaud, Madame de . . . Frontispiece 
 
 By Largillifere ; Portraits Nationaux. 
 Chapter 
 
 I. Buckingham, George Villieks, Duke oe . .... 32 
 
 Drawing by Rubens ; Vienna. 
 
 II. Eichelieu, Armand-Jean-Duplessis, Cardinal de . . . . 62 
 By Philippe de Charapaigne ; Louvre. 
 
 III. Anne of Austria . . 70 
 
 This portrait was made on her arrival in France to be married 
 to Louis XIIL By Frauz Porbus ; IVIaitres Anciens. 
 
 IV. Henrietta-Maria, Queen op England . 116 
 
 By Van Dyck ; Dresden. 
 
 VI. Christina, Queen of Sweden . ... . . . 160 
 
 From a contemporary print by Peter Aubry. 
 
 XI. Mazarin, Jules, Cardinal 290 
 
 By Pierre Mignard ; Chantilly. 
 
 FAC-SIMILE LETTER. 
 
 VII. Anne op Austria to the Prince de Conde (the 
 
 Great Conde) .... . .187 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Bt c.-a. sainte-beuve. 
 
 Let us repose awhile with Madame de Motteville, the 
 writer of these judicious Memoirs, — with that wise and 
 reasonable mind which saw very closely the things of her 
 day, and estimated and described them in such perfect pro- 
 portion and with an accuracy so agreeable. When the 
 Memoirs of Madame de Motteville appeared for the first 
 time, in 1723, the journalists and critics of that day, while 
 praising their tone of sincerity, deemed that they gave too 
 many miuute details, too many little facts. This was the 
 opinion of not only the " Journal de Tr^voux " and the " Jour- 
 nal des Savants," but it was that of Voltaire himself. "We 
 no longer think so. These little facts, belonging to an old 
 and vanished society which they represent to us with abso- 
 lute truth, please us and fasten our attention : at a short 
 distance they might seem superabundant and superfluous ; 
 at a greater distance they become both new and interesting. 
 And besides, while Madame de Motteville, keeping to her 
 woman's rOle and telling nothing that she does not know of 
 her own knowledge, never attempts to penetrate cabinet 
 secrets (though she divines some of them very well indeed), 
 she pictures to the life the general spirit of all situations and 
 the moral character of the personages. It is this lasting side 
 that time has more clearly brought forth, placing her hence- 
 forth in a rank both distinguished and well-established. 
 
 Madame de Motteville, born about 1621, her maiden name 
 being Frangoise Bertaut, was the niece of a bishop-poet, 
 
 VOL. I. — 1 
 
^ INTRODtrCTION. 
 
 illustrious in Ms day and still remarkable for sentiment and 
 elegance; the same Bertaut whom Boileau praised for his 
 reserve, and Eonsard judged to be "too virtuous a poet." 
 I remark at once on this basis of virtue, which seems to 
 have been inherent in the race. Madame de Motteville had 
 a younger sister who was called from her infancy Socratine, 
 on account of her austerity, which ended by making her a 
 Carmelite. This austerity, much softened and adorned in 
 the elder sister, deserved in her the name of reason and 
 good sense ; and it was thus that those who knew her only 
 by reputation spoke of her. " M^lise may pass for one of 
 the most sensible precieuses of the island of Delos," says the 
 " Grand Dictionnaire des Precieuses." 
 
 Mademoiselle Bertaut had received a very careful and 
 very literary education. Her father, Pierre Bertaut, was 
 gentleman-in-ordinary of the king's bed-chamber. Her 
 mother, who came of a noble family in Spain and had 
 lived her youth in that country, was noticed by Aime of 
 Austria in the early days after the queen's arrival in France. 
 Knowing Spanish as her own language, she was employed 
 by the queen for her family correspondence and treated as 
 a friend. She profited by this favour to give, as they said 
 in those days, meaning to attach to the queen's service, her 
 daughter, then seven years old (1628). But Cardinal Riche- 
 lieu, always uneasy about the queen's surroundings and 
 anxious to cut off her communications with Spain, removed 
 the little girl, — an act to which Aime of Austria strongly 
 objected. To all her complaiuts " they answered," so Madame 
 de Motteville tells us, "that my mother was half Spanish, 
 that she had much intelligence, that already I spoke Spanish 
 and might resemble her." Madame Bertaut accordingly 
 took her daughter, now ten years old, to Normandy, where 
 she completed her education with care. The young girl 
 
INTEODUCTION. 3 
 
 still received an annual payment of six hundred livres from 
 the queen, and in 1639 she was thought worthy, for her 
 beauty and good reputation, to be married to M. Langlois de 
 Motteville, president of the Chamber of Accounts of Xor- 
 mandy, who made her his third wife. " This was an ill- 
 assorted marriage," says the " Journal de Savants " (January, 
 172-t) ; " the president was eighty years old, and the wife 
 only eighteen. It is said that she wearied of her half of 
 the bed, so that sometimes after the goodman went to sleep 
 she made her waitiug-maid take her place, and the old man 
 never found it out." If this detail, stated by a grave journal, 
 is correct, it was the liveliest piece of giddiness of Madame 
 de Motteville's life. Her nature, calm and imimpassioned, 
 seems never to have suffered from such a marriage. " In the 
 year 1839, having married M. de Motteville," she says, "I 
 found much comfort, with an abundance of everything ; and 
 if I had been willing to profit by the friendship he had for 
 me and receive the advantages he could and would have 
 given me, I should have been rich after his death." But she 
 neglected these views of self-interest, and, like all others 
 exiled from Court, she thought only of the hope held out by 
 the coming death of the cardinal, at which time she expected 
 her return to favour. On the death of the cardinal and that 
 of the king, one of the queen's first acts was to recall all 
 those who had been dismissed on account of their love for 
 her, and Madame de Motteville was among them. She was 
 henceforth attached to the queen, less as woman-iQ-waiting 
 (which was her title) than as one of the persons of her daily 
 intercourse and intimacy. "Wise, discreet, and punctual, of 
 a gentle but playful mind, a curiosity both serious and 
 readily amused, with an observing eye that did not seek to 
 be pierciog or to look deep, but contented itself with seeing 
 clearly that which went on about her, she spent twenty-two 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 very varied years, some of whicK were shaken by violent 
 storms. Faithful and devoted, without pretending to be 
 heroic, she was able to reconcile the timidities of her sez 
 with the obligations and duties of her position, and pass at 
 Court through the breakers of many reefs, visible and invis- 
 ible, without beiag turned from her way, continuing always 
 within the rules 'and delicacies of scrupulous integrity — 
 woman in many points, but the most reasonable of women, 
 a genuine person, yet at the same time amiable. She seems 
 never to have thought of remarrying, and never to have 
 known a tender weakness. In that agreeable discussion 
 which she holds by letter with La Grande Mademoiselle on 
 the conditions of a perfectly happy life she says : " I was 
 only twenty years old when I regained my liberty, which 
 has always seemed to me preferable to all the other good 
 thiugs that the world esteems ; and by the way I have used 
 it I seem to be a fit iuhabitant of the village of Eandan," — 
 a village in Auvergne where the widows do not marry agaia. 
 The title of dowager, which she gained so young, did not 
 terrify her. She enjoyed friendship and conversation; but 
 she could also enjoy, if need were, " the sweets of solitude, 
 which are books and revery." A true and practical religion, 
 which did not exclude but on the contrary brought her back 
 to philosophical reflection, sustained and strengthened her 
 in virtue and prudence. It was thus that this soul, equable 
 and temperate, passed through life, without great lustre, 
 without inward distresses, and constantly ripening. 
 
 We at once ask ourselves, as we do of all women, whether 
 Madame de Motteville was beautiful, and it appears that 
 she was. " Her portrait, which is at Motteville," says the 
 "Journal des Savants," "represents her as a very pretty 
 brunette." The only engraved portrait which I have seen 
 of her, and which every one may see at the Cabinet des 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 Estampes, shows her to us with her hair dressed in the 
 fashion of Anne of Austria, no longer in her first youth, 
 the face full, with a double chin, and a gentle, tranquil ex- 
 pression. The lower part of the face, however, is scarcely 
 agreeable, and the whole together has nothing that claims 
 marked attention. It is in her mind that we must seek for 
 the delicate and charming traits that distinguished her. 
 
 The principal figure around whom Madame de Motte- 
 ville's narrative unfolds itself is that of the queen, Aime of 
 Austria, her mistress. The author does not pique herself on 
 being either a politician or an historian ; she is a woman who 
 relates that which she has seen with her own eyes or learned 
 from the best-informed persons. Very sensible and very 
 safe as she was, the most honourable men among the initi- 
 ated and the talented (such as de Eetz calls the Estr^es 
 and the Senneterres) liked to talk with her. She was usu- 
 ally in the cabinet, that is to say, the royal withdrawing- 
 room; she makes it her centre, and dwells more willingly 
 on the scenes there presented to her observation. Never- 
 theless, she does not neglect, as occasion offers, more es- 
 tended narratives, such, for instance, as the episode on the 
 English Eevolution, which she gathered from the lips of the 
 Queen of England herself and made into a separate narrar 
 tive. She also enlarges on the revolution in Naples, which 
 took place about the same time. " This is a fragment which 
 I let drop as I go my way," she says of one of these chance 
 episodes: "it will find its place with others of the same 
 nature; and as it will not be treated with more order or 
 connection it will also not have more value." The sound 
 judgment of Madame de Motteville, which led her to con- 
 sult as to these remote matters none but good witnesses and 
 also made those most worthy of confidence like to speak of 
 them openly with her, gives to these accessory parts and 
 
b INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to these hors-d'oeuvres more interest than she ventures to 
 claim. 
 
 She begins by an abridged narrative of the queen's life 
 from her arrival in France to the death of Louis XIII. and 
 the Eegency. But the original part of these Memoirs is 
 that which starts from the latter period and treats only of 
 what passed within sight of the writer. When she returns 
 to Court in 1643 Madame de MotteviUe describes to us the 
 different personages on the stage, the divers cabal interests ; 
 she shows herself to us in the midst of those great intrigues 
 as a simple spectator seated in a corner of the best box and 
 perfectly disinterested. " I thought only of amusing myself 
 with what I saw, as at a fine comedy played before my eyes 
 in which I had no interest." "Kings' cabinets," she says 
 elsewhere, " are theatres in which are beiag played continu- 
 ally the pieces that all the world is thinking about: some 
 are simply comic; others are tragic, the greatest events of 
 which are caused by trifles." Present at all these things 
 with a clear-sighted mind and a spirit never bitter, and at 
 first taking interest in them merely to escape tedium, she 
 had, very early, a resource that came to her from her family 
 
 that of writing ; the moments that other women took for 
 
 cards or promenades, she spent in locking herself in and 
 making notes of all she had seen and heard, to be used at 
 a later day. 
 
 The first period of the regency of Anne of Austria is ex- 
 hibited and clearly shown by Madame de MotteviUe in a 
 manner that makes us present with her. All the old friends 
 of the queen have returned, after an exile more or less long ; 
 each of them expects the same favour as before, and they do 
 not at first perceive that the Anne of Austria whom they 
 had left oppressed by Eichelieu, without children, and 
 Spanish at heart, was now a mother, devoted to the in- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 terests of the young king, and a queen wholly French. 
 Neither do they perceive that her heart is already won by 
 IMazarin, and that she has chosen him, from affection and 
 laziness, as the minister who is to release her from business 
 and make her reign. Madame de Senec^ Madame de Che- 
 vreuse, Madame de Hautefort on returning to Court have 
 therefore much to learn, much to divine. Many of these 
 exiles of other days no sooner think they have again grasped 
 Fortune than they provoke to their own detriment her ca- 
 price and inconstancy. " Here, then, is the Court, very grand 
 and beautiful, but much embroiled," says Madame de Motte- 
 viUe, who cannot help enjoying the spectacle. "Each is 
 thinking of his own designs, his own interest and cabal. 
 The cardinal, of a suave, shrewd mind, goes about working 
 to win to himself all parties." But a goodly number, feel- 
 ing sure of their ground, resisted all his advances. Madame 
 de Motteville shows us, in this interior view, the unexpected 
 reverses from which resulted new downfalls for the presump- 
 tuous and for those who played the " Important." Apropos 
 of Madame de Hautefort, whose firmness without gentleness 
 and " mind attached to her senses " harshly resist the queen, 
 Madame de Motteville lets us see the whole of her own 
 court morality, a temperate but not relaxed morality. " "We 
 may give oni advice to our masters and our friends," she 
 thinks, "but if they are determined not to follow it we 
 ought to enter into their inclinations rather than follow our 
 own, when we do not see essential evil in them and when 
 the things themselves are not important." 
 
 The quality of Cardinal Mazarin's cleverness, his dissimu- 
 lation, the grace and delicacy of his play, that cabinet spirit 
 in which he excelled and which " set going so many great 
 engines" are rendered with fidelity and to the life by a 
 person who, without reason herself to speak well of him. 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 has the merit of appreciating equitably his superior points. 
 Many of those whom Mazarin dismissed were friends of 
 Madame de Motteville; she does not abandon them when 
 they fall; she visits, consoles, and even tries ia some cases 
 to defend them to the queen. By this siacerity of action 
 she does herself harm with the minister ; but the queen has 
 enough elevation of heart to forgive her all such proofs of in- 
 tegrity and, after a first coolness, to bear no resentment to her. 
 
 If Anne of Austria were more iaterestiag than she appears 
 to us m history, we might adopt from Madame de Motteville 
 the various portraits she has made of her which are full of 
 noble beauty and majesty. The waiting-woman (for here 
 Madame de Motteville is somewhat that) shows us her royal 
 mistress with admiration and love from the moment she 
 wakes and rises and is given her chemise to that of her 
 supper and coucher. Her widow's mourning became the 
 queen, and she lost something by quitting it. She was at 
 that time forty years old, " an age so dreadful for our sex," 
 says Madame de Motteville ; but she triumphed over it by 
 a stately appearance as sovereign and mother. 
 
 All the portraits given by Madame de Motteville are fine 
 and made almost without intention. In the troubles which 
 soon arose she shows us qualities in the queen which it 
 would be unjust to refuse her amid her faults ; she had 
 courage and pride ; " the blood of Charles V. gave her a 
 lofty dignity," and boiled in her veins. To such descrip- 
 tions of Anne of Austria, a little partial but not false, we 
 must always add, and hear, the " sharp little voice " she had 
 when angry, the tone of which Eetz has so well conveyed. 
 
 The Queen of England, magnificently lauded by Bossuet, 
 is pictured more familiarly by Madame de Motteville, who 
 knew her well; and this time it is she who gives to that 
 figure, solemnized in the funeral oration, the touch of reality. 
 
INTEODUCTIOX. 9 
 
 On tlie occasion of the arrival of a Svredish ambassador 
 (September, 1646), Madame de Motteyille shows us the first 
 idea received in France of Queen Christina, and, while 
 making herself the echo of that extraordinary eulogy, she 
 adds a touch of light and gentle irony, as sometimes happens 
 with her. " Fame," she says, " is a great talker, she is fond 
 of passing the limits of truth; but truth has much force; it 
 does not long leave a credulous world in the hands of de- 
 ception. Some time later, it was known that the virtues 
 of this queen were middling ; she had no respect for 
 Christians; and if she practised morality it was more from 
 fancy than feeling." 
 
 Thus speaking, Madame de MotteviUe, who is always 
 essentiallv a woman, gentlv avenges her sex, outraged some- 
 what by the brusque and fantastic manners of that eccentric 
 queeiL 
 
 "Fame a great talker" reminds me of one of the graces 
 of Madame de Motteville's style; a simple style, rather 
 incorrect in its arrangement of sentences, retouched perhaps 
 in various places by the editor, but excellent and wholly her 
 own in the essentials of language and expression. She has 
 many of those pleasing metaphors which brighten the tex- 
 ture. "Wishing, for example, to say that kings never see 
 evils and danger until at the last extremity, because they are 
 hidden from them by a thousand clouds, " Truth," she re- 
 marks, " which poets and painters represent naked, is always 
 dressed up in a hundred ways before kings ; and never did 
 a worldly woman so often change her fashions as truth 
 when she enters a royal palace." Apropos of the cardinal's 
 hat promised for years to the Abbe de la Eivifere, Moxseeue's 
 favourite, and suddenly claimed by the Prince de Cond^ for 
 his brother the Prince de Conti, she says that "Discord 
 has flung a crimson apple into the cabinet." Pointing to 
 
10 INTRODXJCTION. 
 
 Mazarin, so adroit in turning to account tlie verj^ excesses 
 of hatred and accusation, in neutralizing and making his 
 own profit from them, she says : " Cardinal Mazarin does 
 with insults what Mithridates did with poisons, which in- 
 stead of killing him came at last by constant usage to nour- 
 ish him. The minister, in like manner, seems by his adroit- 
 ness to make good use of public maledictions; he employs 
 them in getting credit with the queen for suffering in her 
 defence." We feel in these passages, and in the whole 
 current of Madame de Motteville's style, a natural and 
 poetic imagination, without much sparkle, but such as be- 
 came the niece of the amiable poet Bertaut. In certain 
 places we find some wealth of imagery in " flowers," " roses," 
 "thorns," some trace of the bad taste of the Louis XIII. 
 period ; but these are only here and there ; her natural good 
 sense usually reigns in her language as it does in her judg- 
 ment and thought. 
 
 Madame de Motteville is a contemporary of CorneiUe, and 
 has a little of the tone of the romances of that period in 
 her language. Speaking of Cinq-Mars, she calls him " that 
 amiable criminal ; " in relating the downfall of those whom 
 fortune deserted she is touched by " so many illustrious 
 imf ortunates ; " though stiU young she slightly regrets the 
 olden time. Speaking of the old Mar^chal de Bassompierre, 
 whom the young men laughed at, she says, after praising his 
 generosity, his magnificence, and his courteous manners : 
 " The relics of the old mar^chal are worth more than the 
 youth of some of the most polished men of these times" 
 (1646). In Corneille's plays she liked especially the lofty 
 morality and the noble sentiments which had purified the 
 stage. "When Italian comedy was introduced under Maza- 
 rin's auspices she took but little pleasure in those musical 
 plays. " Persons who understand them esteem them highly," 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 she says; "as for me, I find that the length of the play 
 diminishes the pleasure, and I think that verses, repeated 
 naturally, represent conversation more easily and touch the 
 miud better than song delights the ear." All this shows 
 a right mind and a noble heart, rather than a nature incliued 
 to tenderness or passion. Italian comedy, played before the 
 cardinal, excited the enthusiasm of certain courtiers, such 
 as the Mar^chal de Grammont and the Due de Mortemart, 
 who seemed enchanted by the very names of the minor 
 actors, and "all together, in order to please the minister, 
 uttered such great exaggerations when they spoke of them 
 that Italian comedy became wearisome to persons who were 
 moderate in speech." Madame de Motteville was one of 
 those moderate persons, and she gives Us in those words 
 the tone of her own soul. Thus, when I say she was by 
 taste somewhat a contemporary of Corneille, the reader 
 sees in what sense it must be imderstood, and how she 
 corrected all exaggeration of it. 
 
 Though she likes to recall and repeat the following gallant 
 lines of her uncle, — 
 
 " And constantly to love rare beauty- 
 Is the sweetest error of earth's vanities, — " 
 
 her heart was more fitted for friendship than for love ; she 
 was made, in all ways, for correct and regulated sentiments, 
 for happy equanimity, and she expresses a desire for them 
 more than once. From her beautiful Normandy she had 
 gained a love of nature and of country life ; but she could 
 not enjoy it on a hasty journey. " The country," she says, 
 "is beautiful with repose and solitude only when we can 
 taste the innocent pleasure that the beauty of Nature affords 
 us in woods and on the shores of rivers." She says else- 
 where, speaking of kings : " I think those happy who know 
 
12 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 them only through the respect due to their name, who can 
 enjoy the quiet, tranquil life of a good citizen with means, 
 who have enough to live on and are not poisoned by ambi- 
 tion. That is where all reasonable souls should seek for true 
 happiness, — obscure, it is true, but tranquil and innocent." 
 This desire for private life reappears iu her frequently, with 
 a tone of sincerity that cannot be misunderstood. 
 
 She likes, in these Memoirs of hers, to moralize, to 
 give serious reflections which she enforces by agreeable 
 quotations; she is fond of citing Spanish or Italian poets, 
 sometimes Seneca, but oftener Holy Scripture. These reflec- 
 tions have been thought too long and too frequent, which 
 may be true of the latter part of the Memoirs; but as a 
 general thing she knows how to mingle them with the cir- 
 cumstances that inspired them. In certain very fine pages 
 on the character, schemes, and talents of Cardinal Mazarin 
 she shows him to us (during a stay he made in Paris, 
 May, 1647) as shutting himself up to work, and leaving the 
 greatest men in the kingdom waiting in his antechamber 
 unable to reach him. Murmurs resounded on all sides; 
 but the door opened, the minister came out, and all were 
 silent : 
 
 " When he got into his coach to go away, the courtyard 
 of the Palais-Eoyal was filled with cordons bleus, great sei- 
 gneurs, and persons of that quality, who, by their eager 
 manner, seemed only too happy to have looked at him 
 solely from a distance. All men are by nature slaves to 
 fortune ; and I can say that I never knew a person at Court 
 who was not a flatterer, some more, some less. The self- 
 interest that blinds us misleads and betrays us on occasions 
 which concern ourselves ; it makes us act with more senti- 
 ment than intelligence ; quite often it happens that we are 
 ashamed of our weaknesses; but they are not perceived 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 except thi'ough wise reflection, which we all owe to our- 
 selves, but which does not come until the occasion to do 
 better has passed." 
 
 She knows what the grand airs of independence assumed 
 by those whom favour rebuffs too often signify ; she under- 
 stands the showy pride which melts at the first advance and 
 turns to meanness. Mazarin, who cannot use her, as he 
 wished, for a creature of his own beside the queen, cavils 
 at her, makes her sometimes rmeasy, and keeps her on the 
 qui vive : that is his system when he is not sure of people. 
 
 " As he did not know my intentions, and judged me by 
 the opiaion he held of the universal corruption of the world, 
 he could not keep himself from suspecting that I was mixed 
 up in many things contrary to his interests. He told me 
 one day that he was convinced of this because I never told 
 him anything of others ; I listened to the malcontents, 
 and must therefore be in their confidence." 
 
 And, in truth, more than one malcontent was not afraid 
 to confide in Madame de Motteville, even where there was 
 no intimacy, and they spoke to her " as to a person who had 
 the reputation of knowing how to hold her tongue." This 
 was precisely what displeased Mazarta and made him com- 
 plain of her. " That reproach," she adds, " shows his natu- 
 ral distrust and how imfortimate we were in living under the 
 power of a man who loved double-dealing and with whom 
 integrity had so little value that he thought it a crime." 
 These complaints of the cardinal, which did not faU to 
 transpire, she endeavoured to offset by certain kind words 
 of the queen which counteracted the impression before 
 others; "for at Court," she remarks, "it is easy to dazzle 
 spectators ; we must never give them the pleasure of know- 
 ing we are not as fortunate as they imagine, or as unfortu- 
 nate as they desire." 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In all her remarks on the Court, that "delightful and 
 wicked place " which was often justly hated, hut " always 
 naturally loved," I fancy as I read Madame de MottevUle 
 that I am listening to Nicole, hut a feminine Nicole, soft- 
 ened and more agreeable. 
 
 Nevertheless, we meet with many very fine expressions 
 of vigour and moral energy. At a ball given by Cardinal 
 Mazarin during the carnival of 1647 she describes to us, 
 one after another, the principal beauties and queens of the 
 festival; after which she makes the supernumeraries defile 
 before us, and they are by no means the least pretentious 
 or the least noisy. "The queen's maids-of-honour. Pons, 
 Guerchy, and Saint-M^grin, tried to make a few natural 
 conquests by the pains they took to embellish themselves 
 in all sorts of ways ; happy if, among so many lovers, they 
 could have caught husbands suited to their ambition and 
 the license of their desires." That is only a piquant stroke; 
 but presently, speaking more particularly of Mademoiselle 
 de Pons, beloved by the Due de Guise, now on his way to 
 conquer Naples for her sake, and yet, for all that, not con- 
 tent or satisfied with such a prize, she says : " That soul, 
 gluttonous of pleasure, was not content with an absent lover 
 who adored her and a hero who, to deserve her, sought to 
 make himself a sovereign. Ambition and love combined did 
 not have charms enough to fill her heart ; to satisfy her she 
 must needs go promenading on the Cours, where she received 
 the incense of all her new conquests." A soul c/luttonous of 
 pleasure ! it is a sense of honest decency which here conveys 
 to Madame de Motteville's style that expression of disgust. 
 
 Her habitual tones are much more restrained; acrimony 
 does not touch her decent pen. Near as they are to the 
 queen, she and her companions are deprived by the avarice 
 of the cardinal of many of the practical and efficacious 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 results of favour, but she confines herself to jesting about it 
 with light and smiling irony. There is nothing in these 
 Memoirs of Madame de Motteville that recalls those other 
 Memoirs, so distinguished but so bitter, of Madame de Staal- 
 Delaunay, lady-in-waiting to the Duchesse du Maine; the 
 situation however was very different. Madame de Motte- 
 ville was in a great and real Court, beside a queen who, 
 with a mind of ordinary compass (though accommodating 
 and agreeable), had a noble and generous heart and paid for 
 services with esteem. If one must find an historical paren- 
 tage for Madame de MotteviUe, I find it more in the Memoirs 
 of the wise chamberlain Philippe de Commines, whom she 
 likes to quote, recalling at times the results of his soimd 
 and judicious experience. 
 
 Her own Memoirs become more serious and take a loftier 
 historical character the farther they advance into the period 
 of civil agitations and the troubles of the Fronde. Madame 
 de Motteville judged them rightly, and while ascribing to 
 herself only the rSle of a timid woman, she makes reflec- 
 tions which one could wish had been made at the time by 
 many men. The long conversations in private which she 
 had with the Queen of England had enlightened her as to 
 the real tendency of perils which often, in their beginning, 
 seem no more than a gust. Noting with vigorous justice 
 the illusion of the Parliament people, and their insatiable es- 
 actions which caused them to reject all preliminary offers of 
 compromise and conciliation, she boldly declares that "the 
 corruption of men is such that to make them live according 
 to reason they must not be treated reasonably, and to make 
 them just they must be treated imjustly." She points to 
 men of property who, by obstinately shouting against taxa- 
 tion and those who abused it, were aiding turbulence and 
 lending support to malcontents, which often happened. 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Men of property, without considering that an evil is some- 
 times necessary, and that, in this respect, all the ages have 
 heen about equal, hoped through disorder to attain to some 
 better order; and that word reformation not only pleased 
 them as a good principle, but it also suited those who 
 courted evil through the excess of their folly and ambition." 
 There are moments when all things concur for disorder and 
 ruin, and when sedition is in the very air. " The star," says 
 Madame de MotteviUe, "was at that time terrible against 
 kings." 
 
 The first scenes of the Fronde are related by her in a 
 manner that does not pale before even the narrative of Car- 
 dinal de Eetz. The latter gives us the scene in the rue du 
 Palais-Eoyal when he enters it, and of the interior of the 
 archbishop's palace. Madame de MotteviUe shows us the 
 interior of the queen's cabinet, where she finds herself, at 
 first, the only person who is seriously alarmed. The first 
 day of the Barricades was almost wholly spent in joking 
 her. " As I was the least valiant of the company, all the 
 shame of that day fell upon me." 
 
 For a person belonging to that interior she comprehends 
 very clearly and at once the nature of the revolt in the town, 
 and the disorder so quickly and so well organized. "The 
 bourgeois," she says, " who had taken arms very willingly to 
 save the city from pillage, were no better than the populace, 
 and demanded Broussel as heartily as the scavengers; for, 
 besides being infected with a love of the public welfare, 
 which they reckoned to be theirs personally, . . . they were 
 filled with joy in thinking themselves necessary to some- 
 thing." These words, " infected with a love of the public 
 welfare," have often been quoted ; but we should see in them 
 only a simple little jest of Madame de MotteviUe ; she knew 
 what she was saying in speaking thus and in characterizing 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 as disease and pestilence tKe false love which had seized 
 that seditious populace for a moment. 
 
 Madame de Motteville is not a blind royalist ; she believes 
 in the right of kings, but also in the justice which is its law, 
 and which God, she thinks, often inspires in kings, and has 
 done so almost always in this kingdom of France. Her 
 ideal of a monarch is Charles V. On the day when Parliament 
 relied on I forget which ordinance of Louis XII. to demand 
 that "no one shall be put ui prison without being brought 
 twenty-four hours later before his native judges," she cannot 
 help remarking that this article guaranteeing individual 
 security, as we should say, " was agreeable to all France. 
 The love of liberty," she adds, " is strongly imprinted in 
 nature. The wisest minds, which, until then, had disap- 
 proved of the doings of this Assembly, could not in their 
 hearts, hate this proposition; they blamed it apparently, 
 because it was impossible to praise it before the world, but 
 in point of fact they liked it and could not help respect- 
 ing such boldness and wishing it success." We see that 
 Madame de Motteville would have made a fairly liberal 
 royalist ; but this woman of intelligence and good sense, who 
 was present at such terrible scenes, and relates them, is 
 never the dupe of grand words nor of appearances; she 
 mingles with them observations such as do honour to his- 
 torians and are not disavowed by politicians. " When sub- 
 jects revolt," she says, " they are pushed into it by causes of 
 which they are ignorant, and, as a usual thing, what they de- 
 mand is not what is needed to pacify them." She points out 
 to us these very magistrates (the parliament), who had been 
 the first to stir up the people, amazed to find it turning 
 against them and not respecting them. " They knew them- 
 selves to be the cause of these disorders, but they could not 
 have remedied them had they wished to do so, for when the 
 
 VOL. I. — 2 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 people meddle with ordering there is no longer any master ; 
 each man for himself endeavours to be one." We may look 
 at home to-day, and ask ourselves if this is not still our 
 history. 
 
 But I remind myself that I chose the subject of Madame 
 de MotteviLle in order to distract my mind for a moment — 
 mine and my reader's if possible — from the painful specta- 
 cle of our present dissensions [Dec. 1, 1851], and I do not 
 wish to fall back to them by allusions which they supply 
 but too freely. 
 
 Madame de Motteville ran some danger in Paris during 
 the first Fronde. Not being able in the early days of 1649 
 to follow the fugitive queen to Saint-G-ermain, and wishing 
 to rejoin her soon after, she was arrested, with her sister, at 
 the Porte Saint-Honor^ by a furious mob, and was forced to 
 take refuge on the steps of the high altar at Saint-Eoch, 
 where some of her friends, hastily summoned, came to her 
 rescue. She joined the queen a little later and quitted her 
 again at certain times; for this distinguished woman was 
 not, as she tells us humbly, an amazon or a heroine ; it was 
 with difficulty that she rose above the terrors or even the 
 inconveniences of her sex. Present or absent, however, her 
 fidelity never failed. When peace was re-established, she 
 resumed beside the queen the habits of her regular, gentle, 
 serious life, which suited her so well. Her virtue, her deli- 
 cate integrity in that world of treachery and ambush, ex- 
 posed her, even to the last, to certain cavillings, over which 
 her prudence and calmness, supported by the esteem of the 
 queen-mother, enabled her to triumph. Eeligion took deeper 
 and deeper hold on a soul made to welcome it and natu- 
 rally ordained to it. This enlightened and submissive reli- 
 gion has dictated to her in these Memoirs certain pages, 
 which are as charming as they are solid and sensible, on 
 
INTEODUCTION. 19 
 
 the quarrels of the period, tlie disputes of Jansenism and 
 Molioism, in which women were as eager as others to mingle. 
 " It costs us so dear," she says, alluding to Eve, " for having 
 sought to learn the knowledge of good and evil, that we 
 ought to agree that it is better to be ignorant of it than to 
 know it; especially as we women are accused of being the 
 cause of all evil. . . . Whenever men talk of God and the 
 hidden mysteries I am astonished at their boldness, and I 
 am delighted not to be obliged to know more than my Pater, 
 my Credo, and the Commandments." Madame de Motteville 
 follows exactly the line that Bossuet traced in such matters. 
 This whole page should be read ; the author crowns it with 
 very noble Italian verses, which prove that while submitting 
 her mind she by no means renounced a reasonable self- 
 adornment and embellishment. This rare person, this hon- 
 est woman of so much judgment and intelligence, died in 
 December, 1689, in her sixty-eighth year. She can be appre- 
 ciated at her full value only by accompanyiog her through^ 
 out the whole course of her Memoirs, following her in her 
 development and continuity; quotations and analysis give 
 but a very imperfect idea of their slow, full, tranquil, and 
 engaging character, 
 
 Sainte-Beuve. 
 
TEANSLATOE'S NOTE. 
 
 These Memoirs are somewhat abridged; chiefly in the 
 parts relating to matters that did not come under Madame 
 de Motteville's personal observation ; such, for instance, as 
 the period before she became the daily companion of Anne 
 of Austria, the military details of the wars of the Fronde, 
 eta 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Kings are not only exposed to the eyes but to the judg- 
 ment of all the world; very often their actions are good or 
 bad according only to the different sentiments of those who 
 judge them by their passions. They have the misfortune 
 to be censured with severity for things about which they 
 might be blamed, but no one has the kindness to defend 
 them for other thiags which might justly obtain some ex- 
 cuse. All who approach them praise them in their presence 
 through base self-interest, in order to please them ; but each 
 man, with sham virtue, joins in judging them severely when 
 absent. Moreover, their intentions and their sentiments 
 being unknown and their actions public, it often happens 
 that, without wronging equity, they may be accused of faults 
 which they never intended to commit, but of which they are 
 nevertheless guilty, because they have been deceived, either 
 by themselves, for want of knowledge, or by their ministers, 
 who, slaves to ambition, never tell them the truth. 
 
 It is this that has led me to write in my leisure hours, and 
 for my amusement, what I know of the life, habits, and 
 inclinations of Queen Anne of Austria, and to repay, by the 
 simple recital of what I recognize in her, the honour she did 
 me in giving me her familiarity. For, though I do not pre- 
 tend to be able to praise her in all thiags, and, in accordance 
 with my natural disposition, I am not capable of disguise, 
 I am, nevertheless, very sure that historians who have not 
 known her virtues and her kindness, and who will speak of 
 her only in accordance with the satirical talk of the public, 
 
24 PREFACE. 
 
 can never do Ker the justice that I would fain be able 
 to do her if my iucapacity and my want of eloquence did 
 not take from me the means of doing it. 
 
 Therefore, what I now undertake is not with any fixed 
 design of correcting their ignorance or their malice; that 
 project would be too great for a lazy woman, and too bold 
 for a person like me who dreads to show herself and would 
 be unwilling to be thought an author. But I do it for my 
 own satisfaction, out of gratitude to the queen, and to re- 
 view once more (if I live), as in a picture, all that has come 
 to my knowledge concerning the things of a Court, — which 
 is certainly very limited, for I do not like intrigue. But I 
 shall add nothing. That which I put upon paper I have seen 
 and I have heard, and during the whole Eegency (which is 
 the period of my attendance on the princess), I have written, 
 without order, from time to time, and sometimes daily, what 
 seemed to me most remarkable. In doing this I employed 
 the time that ladies are accustomed to give to cards and 
 promenades, because of the hatred I have always felt to the 
 useless life of the people of the great world. I do not know 
 if I have done better than others ; but at least I know well 
 that, to my thinking, one cannot do worse than to do 
 nothing. 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 
 
 I. 
 
 1611 — 1630. 
 
 King Louis XIII. was but nine years and eight days old 
 when he came to the crown; but King Henri IV. had left 
 him a kingdom so peaceful and flourishing, with such good 
 troops in his armies, such able ministers in his councils, and 
 such large sums in his coffers, that if the queen, Marie de' 
 Medici, had been willing to follow the system established 
 by that great prince in the State, her regency would have 
 been far more glorious and the rest of her life much happier. 
 But, having allowed the Marquis d'Ancre, whom she made 
 marshal of France, to take too great authority, he advised 
 her to dismiss the servitors of the late king, and particu- 
 larly those great men who had grown old in the highest 
 offices and managed the most important negotiations, to put 
 in their place others who were wholly dependent upon her. 
 
 This drew upon her the hatred of all the princes of the 
 blood, and of the other princes and great seigneurs, whom 
 she treated with such haughtiness that they retired from 
 Court; and the treaties of Sainte-M^nehould and Loudim, 
 which the marshal had made, having no effect, the number 
 of malcontents increasing daily, he resolved, in order to break 
 
26 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. i. 
 
 up the measures he saw were preparing against him, to arrest 
 the Prince de Cond4, who, as first prince of the blood, would 
 probably be the leader of the party now beginning to form 
 itself. At the same time he sent orders to the two armies 
 intended to act outside the kingdom, in execution of the 
 great designs of the king who had raised them, to hold 
 themselves ready to sustain the royal authority confided to 
 him [the Mar^chal d'Ancre] in case it was attacked in con- 
 sequence of the arrest of the prince. He also raised a third 
 army, to be ready to march more promptly against the first 
 malcontents who ventured to declare themselves. 
 
 So bold an action as this and such great preparations con- 
 firmed the queen in the high opinion she had of him whose 
 advice she blindly followed, and made her believe she would 
 soon be mistress of the Court and of all France without op- 
 position. It was this that ruiaed her, as well as the man 
 she had chosen for her first minister. For, as she was per- 
 suaded that none could resist her, she imagined she had no 
 need to treat any one with caution, not even the king her 
 son ; and she took no heed that he too had a favourite with 
 as much ambition as her own, who, insinuating himself daily 
 more and more, worked so strongly to detach the king from 
 the tenderness he had for his mother that in the end he 
 made him resolve to part from her altogether. This favour- 
 ite was de Luynes, who, during the time he was the young 
 prince's page, had found means to make himself so agreeable 
 and so necessary to all his pleasures, exercises, and amuse- 
 ments, particularly those of all kinds of hunting where few 
 persons liked to follow him, that the freedom in which he 
 lived with the king raised him at last to the dignity of 
 connetable. 
 
 The French nobles, naturally attached to the princes of 
 the blood, having taken up arms in the provinces, were daily 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DB MOTTEVILLE. 27 
 
 swelling the party of the Prince de Cond^ whUe disorder 
 reigned in Paris, where the populace pillaged the house of 
 the Mar^chal d'Ancre, against whom they made loud out- 
 cries as the author of the violent manner of the queen's 
 governing, and the bad employment, robbery, and squander- 
 ing of the treasure amassed by Henri IV. Eiots became 
 daily more frequent, and no one having the force or the 
 desire to quell them, the populace at last attacked the mar- 
 shal as he was leaving the Louvre, April 24, 1617, — the 
 bravi who everywhere accompanied him, giving him no 
 succour, nor the guards either (who were not far off when 
 he drew his sword intending to defend himself), for they 
 thought that the Marquis de Vitry, their captain, who ap- 
 peared at that moment, was coming to his rescue. Instead 
 of that, he came to arrest him, so that it remained doubtful 
 whether his death was due to the fury of the people, or to 
 his own resistance to the king's orders. 
 
 Since his majority the king had manifested on so many 
 occasions his intention of taking cognizance of public mat- 
 ters that, the queen having now retired to Blois, he was not 
 long in recalling the chancellor, de Sillery, and in setting 
 the Prince de Cond^ at liberty. This was not enough to 
 really pacificate the kingdom which aU these changes had 
 disturbed. But as I have not undertaken to describe the 
 life of that unhappy princess, I shall not speak of the war 
 undertaken by those who took her side. My purpose is 
 only to note what may concern Queen Anne of Austria, who 
 began to be spoken of during the subsequent negotiations 
 for a general peace which her marriage was to give to all 
 Europe. 
 
 I shall therefore merely say here that the Grand-duke of 
 Tuscany, being naturally obliged to act towards maintaining 
 Queen Marie de' Medici's former influence with the king 
 
28 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. i. 
 
 (who, though attaining his majority, was still willing to 
 share his authority with her), and having great interest in 
 the tranquillity of France, which could not be shaken without 
 Italy and Spain being disturbed, directed the Marquis Borri, 
 his ambassador, to be the first in the conferences held 
 with the Spanish ministers at Madrid to suggest a double 
 marriage between the two princes and the two princesses of 
 France and Spain. 
 
 The result was that the Due du Maine went to Spain 
 and the Due de Pastrana came to France. The espousals 
 of Philip IV., son of Philip III., King of Spain with 
 Madame ^filisabeth of France [daughter of Henri IV.] were 
 solemnized at Burgos, and those of King Louis XIII. with 
 Anne of Austria, Infanta of Spain, at Bordeaux in 1615. The 
 Due de Guise, who had conducted Madame &isabeth to 
 the middle of the little river of Bidassoa, which separates the 
 two kingdoms, took leave of her to let her pass on to Fonta- 
 rabia, while he himself conducted the Infanta of Spain to 
 Saint-Jean de Luz, where the Due de Luynes gave her a 
 letter from the king, to which, it is said, he brought back an 
 answer in her own handwriting. It was supposed that the 
 army of the Huguenots would oppose her journey, and it is 
 true that it was so near to that of the king that it seemed 
 to flank it; but this only served to make them see his 
 strength, and to render the entry of the Infanta into France 
 the more imposing. 
 
 I know from my late mother, who had henceforth the 
 honour to approach the princess familiarly (though she was 
 not her servant), that she was handsome and very amiable. 
 I have heard my mother say that the first time she saw her 
 she was seated on cushions, according to the Spanish custom, 
 among her ladies, of whom she had a great number, dressed 
 in the Spanish fashion in a gown of green satin, embroidered 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 29 
 
 in silver and gold, with, large hanging sleeves, fastened with 
 great diamonds serving as buttons, on the arms ; she wore 
 also a closed ruff and a little cap upon her head of the 
 same colour as her dress, in which was a heron's feather 
 which enhanced by its blackness the beauty of her hair, 
 which at that time was very handsome and worn in large 
 curls. 
 
 The young king was also very handsome and very well 
 made, and his dark beauty did not displease our young queen. 
 She thought him very agreeable from the beginning; and 
 though he stuttered, and the fatigues of hunting, his long ill- 
 nesses, and his natural gloom changed him infinitely towards 
 the end of his life, I stQl believe, from the way in which 
 I have heard the queen speak of him, that she would have 
 loved him much if the misfortune of both, and that fatality 
 which seems inevitable for all princes, had not disposed 
 otherwise; for the king, making for himself a grievous 
 destiny, did not love the queen as much as she deserved. 
 He spent his life in hunting beasts and allowed himself to 
 be governed by favourites ; so much so that he and the 
 queen lived together with little intercourse or happiness. 
 
 All the Spanish ladies who came with our young queen 
 were soon taken from her, which caused her great pain. 
 Only one remaiaed, named Donna Estefania, whom she 
 loved tenderly because she had brought her up, and was, as 
 we say in France, her first bed-chamber woman. My late 
 mother, who had lived many years in Spain (whither she 
 had been taken at six years of age by her grandmother, the 
 second wife of the Sieur Saldagna, who had no children, to 
 obtain an inheritance of which she had promised her the 
 chief share), was a great comfort to Donna Estefania in the 
 first years of her life in France, during which she took no 
 pleasure except in things that reminded her of Spain. 
 
30 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. r. 
 
 My mother formed at the outset a great friendship with 
 this lady, who, beginning to feel infirm, needed to lay her 
 cares on some faithful person who not only spoke Spanish 
 but could also read and write it, and who knew the Spanish 
 Court ; and the queen herself, finding all these requisites ia 
 my mother with much intelligence and charm, made no 
 difficulty iu placing confidence in her, not only for the inno- 
 cent, though secret, correspondence which she maintained 
 with her brother, the King of Spain, but also to console her- 
 self with her for the grief she could not disguise at the 
 great favour of the Due de Luynes, who had the audacity, 
 so it was said, to propose to the king to repudiate her and 
 marry a relation of his wife, afterwards the Princesse de 
 Gu^men^e, whom we knew as the handsomest woman of the 
 Court. 
 
 But if this thought ever came iato his mind, it could only 
 have remained there a moment as an absurd vision; for 
 the Duchesse de Luynes, who was on very good terms with 
 her husband, was not long without being liked by the queen, 
 who, although in the beginning she could not endure her on 
 account of her own aversion to the duke, did accustom her- 
 self to her for the sake of the good terms she was thus en- 
 abled to have with the king, who liked the duchess, and for 
 the hunting and riding parties she was now invited to join. 
 
 Thus she did enjoy certain periods of pleasure without 
 other bitterness than that of becoming pregnant several times, 
 as she believed, and miscarrying for having ridden too hard 
 in hunting. From which we may judge that if her Court 
 lacked prudence it was not without enjoyment, since youth 
 and beauty had sovereign rights there. 
 
 The Due de Luynes having died in 1621, his little em- 
 pire ended with him; and Queen Marie de' Medici, being 
 reconciled to the king, the peace between mother and son 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 31 
 
 destroyed that between husband and wife; for the queen- 
 mother, bemg convmced that, to hold control over the young 
 prince, the young princess must not be on good terms with 
 him, intrigued with such perseverance and success in creat- 
 ing misunderstandings between them that from that day 
 forth the queen, her daughter-in-law, had neither influence 
 nor comfort. All her consolation was the part which the 
 Duchesse de Luynes, now remarried with the Due de Che- 
 Vreuse, a prince of the house of Lorraine, took ia her sorrows, 
 which she tried to soften by the amusements she proposed 
 and by communicating to her, as much as she could, her 
 own gay and lively humour, which turned the most serious 
 things of the greatest consequence into matters for jest and 
 laughter — a giovine cuo?- tutto e giuoco. 
 
 Some years went by without my being able to explain 
 how they were passed, knowing nothing but what the 
 queen herself told me later, amusing herself sometimes by 
 relatiag stories of them. I can say, however, that she was 
 loved, and that, in spite of the respect which her majesty 
 inspired, her beauty did not fail to touch certain men who 
 openly showed their passion. 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham was the only one who dared 
 to attack her heart. He came, on the part of the King of 
 England, his master, to marry by proxy Madame, the king's 
 sister. He was well-made, handsome in face; he had a 
 lofty soul, was magnificent, liberal, and a favourite of his 
 king, so that he had his wealth to spend, and all the crown 
 jewels to adorn him. It is not astonishing that with such 
 amiable advantages he had high thoughts and noble but 
 dangerous and blamable desires, or that he had the happi- 
 ness to make the beautiful queen admit that if a virtuous 
 woman could love another than her husband, he would have 
 been the only one who could have pleased her. The praises 
 
32 MEMOIRS OS MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. i. 
 
 that I give Mm I heard from the queen herself, for he was 
 the person in the world of whom I have heard her say the 
 most good. It is, no doubt, to be presumed that his regard 
 was not unwelcome, and that his vows were received with 
 a certain amount of complacency. The queen, making no 
 secret of it, had no difficulty in telling me later (wholly 
 undeceived then about such dangerous illusions) that, being 
 young, she did not comprehend that fine conversation, other- 
 wise called polite gallantry, in which no pledges were given, 
 could be blamable any more than that which Spanish ladies 
 practise in the palace, where, living like nuns and speaking 
 to men only in presence of the King and Queen of Spain, 
 they nevertheless boast of their conquests and talk of them 
 as a thing which, far from injuring their reputation, adds 
 to it. She had in the Duchesse de Chevreuse a friend who 
 was wholly given up to these vain amusements; and the 
 queen, by her coxmsels, had not avoided, in spite of the 
 purity of her soul, taking pleasure in the charms of that 
 passion which she accepted with a certain complacency, for 
 it flattered her glory more than it shocked her virtue. 
 
 Much has been said of a walk she took in the garden 
 of a house where she lodged when she went to conduct the 
 Queen of England to Amiens. But this was most unjust, 
 for I know from herself, who did me the honour to confide 
 it to me without reserve, that she only wished to walk in 
 that garden because the king had forbidden every one to 
 enter it, and, as difficulty increases desire, this gave her a 
 very strong wish to go there ; so that, after getting the keys 
 with much trouble from the captain of the guard, she walked 
 there one evening with Madame de Chevreuse and her little 
 Court. The walk was taken in presence of her whole suite, 
 which accompanied the princess as usual. I have seen per- 
 sons who were present and who told me the truth. The 
 

 \^/'i(-A:£ cy^ '^yifCKi'J/fa//i://y/ 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 33 
 
 Duke of Buckingham was there and wanted to talk with 
 her. Putange, the queen's equerry, left her for a few mo- 
 ments, thinking that respect required him not to listen to 
 what the English lord was saying to her. Chance led them 
 to a turn of the path where a palisade hid them from view. 
 The queen, at that moment, surprised to find herself alone, 
 and apparently startled by some too passionate sentiment 
 from the Duke of Buckuigham, cried out, and calling to 
 her equerry, blamed him for leaving her. 
 
 By that cry she showed her wisdom and her virtue, pre- 
 ferring the preservation of her inward innocence to the fear 
 she must have had of being blamed ; for that cry, reported 
 to the king, would certainly cause her much embarrassment. 
 If on this occasion she showed that her heart could be sus- 
 ceptible of a tenderness that invited her to listen to the 
 romantic speech of a man who loved her, it must at the 
 same time be admitted that a love of purity and her virtu- 
 ous feelings surmounted all the rest, and that she preferred 
 a real and true credit, unmixed by any sentiment unworthy 
 of her, to a reputation suspected, after all, of little. 
 
 When the duke took leave of the queen-mother, who had 
 also come to conduct her daughter, the Queen of England, 
 beyond Amiens, the queen did me the honour to tell me 
 that when he came to kiss her gown, she being in the front 
 of the coach with the Princesse de Conti beside her, he 
 screened himself with the curtain to say a few words to 
 her and to wipe the tears that were falling from his eyes. 
 The Princesse de Conti, who laughed at goodness, and was, 
 as I have heard say, very witty, said as to this, speaking of 
 the queen, that she could assure the king of her virtue; 
 but she could not say as much for her cruelty, because no 
 doubt the tears of this lover, which she had seen (being 
 seated beside the queen), must have touched her heart, and 
 
 VOL. I. 3 
 
34 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. i. 
 
 she suspected that her eyes at least looked at him with 
 some pity. 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham's passion led him to do an- 
 other very bold action, about which the queen informed me 
 and the Queen of England afterwards confirmed to me, 
 having heard it from himself. This celebrated foreigner, 
 after startiag from Amiens to return to England, conduct- 
 ing Madame Henriette de France to her kiag and to reign 
 over the English, beiag full of his passion and goaded by 
 the pain of absence, wanted to see the queen again, if only 
 for a moment. Though they had almost reached Calais, he 
 made a plan to satisfy his desire by feigning to receive news 
 from the king his master which obliged him to go to the 
 French Court. 
 
 Leaving the future queen of England at Boulogne, he 
 returned to see the queen-mother and negotiate this pre- 
 tended affair, which was only a pretext for returning to 
 Court. After discussiug his chimerical negotiation, he went 
 to the queen, whom he found in bed and almost alone.. 
 This princess knew by letters from the Duchesse de Che- 
 vreuse, who was accompanying the Queen of England, that 
 he had returned. She spoke of it before ISTogent, laughing, 
 and was not astonished when she saw him. But she was 
 surprised when, with much freedom, he threw himself on 
 his knees before the bed and kissed her sheet with trans- 
 ports so excessive that it was easy to see his passion was 
 violent, and one of those which deprive such as are touched 
 by them of their reason. The queen did me the honour 
 to tell me she was embarrassed; and this embarrassment 
 mingled with vexation caused her to remaia for some time 
 without speaking. The Comtesse de Lannoi, then her lady- 
 of-honour, wise, virtuous, and elderly, who was beside her 
 pillow, not willing to allow the duke to remain in such a 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 35 
 
 state, told him with much severity that it was not the 
 custom in France and that she wished him to rise. But 
 he, not abashed, argued with the old lady, saying that he 
 was not a Frenchman and was not bound to observe all 
 the laws of that State. Then, addressing the queen, he said 
 the most tender things in the world to her. But she only 
 answered with complaints of his boldness, and, without 
 perhaps beiag very angry, ordered him to rise and leave 
 the room. He did so; and after seeing her agaiu the next 
 day in presence of all the Court, he departed, fuUy resolved 
 to return to France as soon as possible. 
 
 After the English ambassador had crossed the sea, the 
 two queens returned to the king who awaited them at Fon- 
 tainebleau. All these things relating to Buckingham were 
 told to him to the disadvantage of the queen, so much so, 
 that several of her servants were dismissed. Putange, her 
 equerry, was exiled ; Datal, La Porte, and the queen's doctor 
 were treated in the same way. 
 
 The Queen of England told me afterwards that in the 
 beginning of her marriage she had some distaste to the king, 
 her husband, and that Buckingham fomented it, telling her 
 freely that he would set them against each other if he could. 
 He succeeded so far that, from a feeling of vexation, she 
 wanted to return to France to see her mother; and as she 
 knew the passionate desire the English duke had to see the 
 queen again, she spoke to him of her design. He entered 
 into it with ardour, and powerfully helped her to obtain the 
 permission of the king, her husband. The princess, knowing 
 this, wrote to the queen-mother asking her to think it well 
 that she should bring the Duke of Buckingham with her, 
 because without Viitti she could not make the journey. She 
 was refused both by the queen her mother, and the king her 
 brother ; and her project, in consequence of this desire of the 
 
36 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. i. 
 
 duke, could not take effect. This need not astonish us ; the 
 rumour of his sentiments was an inviucible obstacle. As 
 the king had some tendency to jealousy, the queen-mother 
 giving him as much as she could to disgust him with the 
 queen (served in this by Cardinal Eichelieu, whom she had 
 brought iato public affairs), the Duke of Buckingham could 
 never afterwards obtain permission to return to France. 
 
 This man, who, from all descriptions given to me, had as 
 much vanity as ambition, embroiled the two crowns in order 
 to get back to France by the necessity of a treaty of peace, 
 after he had, as he intended, made a great reputation by 
 the victories he expected to win over our nation. On this 
 basis he brought a powerful naval force to the help of the 
 Eochelle people then besieged by King Louis XIII., show- 
 ing publicly the passion he had for the queen and making a 
 glory of it. But this ostentation was punished at last by 
 no success, and the shame of having ill succeeded in all his 
 designs. 
 
 Madame de Chevreuse, who followed vehemently all her 
 inclinations and loved the Duke of Holland, a friend of the 
 Duke of Buckingham, having now returned from England, 
 saw with some satisfaction the arrival of Buckingham's fleet 
 and his return to France with what at first appeared to be 
 a high reputation. She did not cease to talk of it to the 
 queen. The mistress and favourite both hated Cardinal 
 Eichelieu because he was the creature of the king and the 
 queen-mother, who had put him in the ministry. They 
 found nothing more agreeable than to annoy him, all the 
 more because the queen was persuaded that he did her ill 
 service with the king. She made therefore no difficulty in 
 listening with pleasure to the wishes Madame de Chevreuse 
 expressed for the success of the English. She often told 
 me this herself, wondering at the error, into which the 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 37 
 
 gayety and folly of innocent youth, which did not yet know 
 the full estent to which virtue, reason, and justice bound it, 
 had led her. 
 
 The Duchesse de Chevreuse was no doubt the cause of this 
 blindness, which was not ia reality as criminal as it seemed, 
 because the intentions and sentiments of the soul are what 
 make good or evil in us. But in the days when the queen 
 became more enlightened she regretted it. Madame de 
 Chevreuse told me afterwards, in. relating the follies of her 
 youth, that she had forced the queen to think of Buckingham 
 by always talking of him and removing what scruples she 
 had by dwelling on the annoyance thus given to Cardinal 
 de Eichelieu. I have also heard her say, with much assev- 
 eration on this point, that it was true that the queen had a 
 noble soul and a very pure heart ; and that, in spite of the 
 clime in which she was born, where, as I have said, the 
 name of having a lover is the fashion, she had had all 
 the trouble in the world to make the queen take a liking to 
 the fame of being loved. 
 
 The queen herself spoke of these things with so free and 
 honest a simplicity that it was easy to see she had never 
 had in herself other than slight imperfections. Indeed, 
 they served to make her know in later days what she owed 
 to God for having maintained her in true purity, when 
 vanity made her swerve from the maxims so virtuous a 
 princess wished and was bound to observe. Her misfortune 
 was in not being loved enough by the king her husband, and 
 in being as it were forced to amuse her heart elsewhere 
 by giving it to ladies who made a bad use of it, and who, 
 during her first years, instead of leading her to seek occa- 
 sions to please the king, and to desire to be esteemed by 
 him, estranged her from him as much as they possibly could 
 in order to possess her more completely. 
 
38 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTBVILLE. [chap. i. 
 
 It is believed that Cardinal de Eichelieu had in reality 
 more love for the queen than hatred, and that, seeing she 
 was not inclined to wish him well, he did, either for revenge 
 or from the necessity of thus using her, do her harm with 
 the king. The first signs of his affection were the persecu- 
 tions he inflicted on her. They were visible to the eyes of 
 all ; and we shall see that this new manner of loving lasted 
 tni the end of the cardinal's life. There is no apparent 
 ground for thinking that this passion, so vaunted by poets, 
 caused the strange effects they asserted in his soul. But the 
 queen related to me that one day he spoke to her in too 
 gallant a manner for an enemy, and made her a very passion- 
 ate speech, which she was about to answer with anger and 
 contempt, but the king entering the room at that moment, 
 his presence interrupted her reply; and since that instant, 
 she had never dared to return to the cardinal's harangue, 
 fearing to do him too much favour by showing that she 
 remembered it. But she answered him tacitly by the hatred 
 she always had for him and by the steady refusal she gave 
 to his friendship and his assistance with the king. Those 
 who had the most influence with her and who did not like 
 the cardinal did not fail, in order to draw her to their party, 
 to strengthen her aversion. That aversion won her many 
 adherents, for Cardinal Eichelieu was hated; but by this 
 conduct, though it was just fundamentally, she placed her- 
 self much worse with the king; we can judge from her 
 sentiments and those of the minister whether there was 
 reason for it. 
 
 The queen and many private persons who had felt the 
 harsh effects of this minister's cruel principles had cause 
 to hate him ; but, besides the fact that he was beloved by 
 friends because he esteemed them much, envy certainly was 
 the sole cause for the public hatred, because in truth he did 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 39 
 
 not deserve it ; for, in spite of his defects and the justifiable 
 dislike of the queen, it must be said of him that he was the 
 greatest man of our time, and that past ages had none 
 who could surpass him. He had the principles of illustrious 
 tyrants ; he ruled his designs, his thoughts, his resolutions 
 by reasons of State and the public good, which he considered 
 only so far as this said public good enhanced the authority of 
 the king and swelled his treasury. He wished to make him 
 reign over his peoples and to reign himself over his king. 
 The life and death of men touched him only according to 
 the interests of his grandeur and fortune, on which he 
 thought those of the State depended wholly. 
 
 Under this pretence of preserving the one by the other 
 he made no difficulty in sacrificing all things to his private 
 preservation ; and though he wrote " The Life of the Chris- 
 tian," he was very far indeed from gospel principles. His 
 enemies were the worse for his not following those principles, 
 but France profited ; like those fortunate children who enjoy 
 here below a prosperity for which their fathers toiled, pro- 
 curing for themselves perhaps eternal woe. 
 
 Not that I wish to make an evil judgment of that great 
 man; it must be owned that he enlarged the borders of 
 France, and by the taking of La RocheUe diminished the 
 power of heresy, which was still considerable in all the 
 provinces where the remains of the old war kept it alive. 
 His great vigilance in discovering cabals that were formed 
 at Court, and his speed in smothering them, enabled him 
 to maintain the kingdom. He was, moreover, the first 
 favourite who had the courage to lessen the power of princes 
 and grandees, so damaging to that of our kings, and — in 
 the desire perhaps to govern alone — to destroy whatever 
 was opposed to royal authority, defeating those who tried 
 by ill-offices to remove him from royal favour. 
 
40 MEirOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. i. 
 
 The queen was amiable, the king incliried to piety, and 
 if the policy of the minister had not put obstacles in the 
 way of their union it is very likely that Louis XIII. would 
 have attached himself to the friendship of the person in the 
 world most capable of it from the sweetness of her nature, 
 and most worthy of it for her goodness and beauty. Some 
 have said that the king never had any inclination for her, 
 and the queen herself believed this, because she judged by 
 the indifference he showed to her; but I know from one 
 of the king's favourites,^ inferior in power to Eichelieu, but 
 who, nevertheless, had enough share in the king's inclina- 
 tions to know all such private matters, that he thought her 
 beautiful, and one day, making him a confidence in respect 
 to her beauty, he said that he dared not show her tenderness 
 lest he should displease the queen his mother and the 
 cardinal, whose counsel and services were more important to 
 him than to live pleasantly with his wife. 
 
 The enemies of the queen, the better to succeed in making 
 the king hate her, used against her strongly the intercourse 
 she kept up with Spain. The slightest mark of affection 
 that she gave her brother the King of Spain, they magnified 
 into crime against her husband. She had some reason to 
 fear being repudiated, and for all consolation, she hoped, 
 after the death of her aunt, the Infanta Isabella-Clara- 
 Eugenia, to be sent to govern the Low Countries, whither 
 my late mother, who always passed for a Spaniard on 
 account of her name, Luisa de Saldagna, which she had 
 borne in Spain, was resolved to take me. The inheritance 
 from the Dame Du Fai and that from my late uncle the 
 Bishop of Sdez not proving as good as they imagined, the 
 pension of six hundred livres which the queen had given 
 
 1 On the margin of the manuscript is written "Duo de Saint-Simon." 
 This was the father of the author of the Memoirs. 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DB MOTTEVILLE. 41 
 
 me since 1622, when I was only seven years old, and the 
 brevet she gave me in 1627, which bound me, indispen- 
 sably, to follow her fortunes, were very welcome, but they 
 gave occasion to Cardinal Eichelieu, who knew that the 
 queen had great confidence in my mother, and who saw that 
 she was beginning to take pleasure in conversing with me 
 in Spanish, to make the king send me an order to retire 
 from Court. The queen could not refrain firom complaining 
 that they took from her even a child, for I was then only 
 nine or ten years old. My late mother, seeing that the 
 matter concerned her as much or more than it did me, 
 took me to Normandy; but the queen paid my mother, 
 when she could, the pension she had given me. 
 
 In the year 1639, having married Monsieur de Motteville, 
 president of the Chamber of Accoimts of Normandy, who 
 had no children and much property, I found comfort with 
 an abundance of all things ; and if I had chosen to profit by 
 the friendship he had for me and receive the advantages he 
 could and would have given me, I should have found myself 
 rich at his death. But, beiug wholly occupied by the hope 
 that every one had iu those days of the approaching death 
 of Cardinal Eichelieu, which would give us the opportunity 
 to return to Court, I was very glad to make a journey there 
 ia the same year (1639), believing that, beiug married and 
 settled in Normandy, my presence could no longer give 
 anxiety to Cardiual Eichelieu. I went, therefore, without 
 any scruple to pay my duty to the queen, who received me 
 very well and gave me letters as one of her ladies, with a 
 brevet of two thousand livres pension; and the late ]Mon- 
 sieur de Motteville, as well as my father and mother, 
 having died shortly after Cardiual Eichelieu, I prepared to 
 establish myself with my sister in Paris, where my brother 
 was finishing his studies. The order the queen gave me 
 
42 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap, l 
 
 was far more agreeable than the one which obliged me to 
 quit her. She received us with much kindness, and said 
 the same day to one of my mother's friends that the children 
 of her friend had come back, and she was very glad to see 
 them. 
 
 Having thus returned to the Court, which I had left so 
 young, I tried to recall in my memory the state in which it 
 then was, to compare it with that in which I now found 
 it. I do not know if the regency gave a grander and more 
 majestic air to the queen than that she had when unfor- 
 tunate, but she seemed to me more amiable than formerly, 
 and as beautiful as any of those who formed her circle. 
 
 At the time when I was sent away she wore her hair in 
 the fashion of a round coiffure, transparently frizzed, and 
 with much powder ; after that she took to curls. Her hair 
 had grown rather darker in colour, and she had a great 
 quantity of it. Her features were not delicate ; having even 
 the defect of too thick a nose, and she wore, in Spanish 
 fashion, too much rouge ; but she was fair, and never was 
 there a finer skin than hers. Her eyes were perfectly 
 beautiful; gentleness and majesty united ia them; their 
 colour, mingled with green, made her glance the more vivid 
 and full of all the charms that Nature gave them. Her 
 mouth was small and rosy, the smile admirable, and the lips 
 had only enough of the Austrian family to make them more 
 beautiful than many that claimed to be more perfect. The 
 shape of her face was handsome and the forehead well- 
 made. Her hands and arms were of surpassing beauty, and 
 all Europe has heard their praises ; their whiteness, without 
 exaggeration, equalled that of snow; poets could not say 
 enough when they wished to laud them. Her bust was 
 very fine, without being quite perfect. She was tail, and her 
 bearing lofty but not haughty. She had great charms in 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 43 
 
 the expression of her face, and her beauty imprinted in the 
 hearts of those who saw her a tenderness which did not 
 lack the accompaniment of veneration and respect. Besides 
 these perfections, she had the piety of her mother. Queen 
 Marguerite of Austria, dead in the odour of sanctity, who, 
 haviag had the care of her daughter's education, had im- 
 printed in her heart the sentiments that filled her own; 
 this it was that produced in her that great inclination to 
 virtue which drew to her the grace, that God gave her 
 throughout her life, to prefer it to all things else. 
 
 The Court was at this time full of beautiful women. 
 Among the princesses, she who was the first of them was 
 also the first in beauty [the Princesse de Cond^]. "Without 
 youth, she stUl excited the admiration of all who saw 
 her. Her gift of beauty she shared with Mademoiselle de 
 Bourbon, her daughter, who was beginning, though still 
 young to reveal the first charms of that angelic face which 
 later was to have such fame, — a fame followed by griev- 
 ous events and salutary sufferings. 
 
 I leave the Cardinal Bentivoglio, who has published in his 
 writings the praises of Madame la Princesse, to tell of her 
 adventures and of the passion King Henri IT. had for her ; 
 I desire only to bear witness that her beauty was still great 
 when in my childhood I lived at Court, and that it lasted to 
 the end of her life. "We praised it dm-ing the regency of 
 the queen, when she was over fifty, and praised it without 
 flattery. She was fair and white, her eyes blue and per- 
 fectly beautiful Her bearing was lofty and full of majesty, 
 and her whole person, her manners being agreeable, always 
 pleased, except when she prevented it herself hj a rude 
 pride full of acerbity against those who ventm-ed to 
 displease her; then she changed entirely, and became 
 the aversion of those to whom she showed it. "We like. 
 
44 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. i. 
 
 naturally, whatever flatters us ; never can that which despises 
 and affronts us be agreeable. E ritrosa hella ritroso cuor 
 non preTide. 
 
 After Madame la Princesse, such as I represent her, the 
 Court had many beautiful women. Madame de Montbazon 
 was one of those who made the greatest stir. She had 
 extreme beauty with an extreme desire to please ; she was 
 tall, and in her whole person we felt an air of freedom, 
 gaiety, and hauteur. But her miad was not as fine as her 
 body ; her lights were limited to her eyes, which imperiously 
 demanded love. Her forehead was so well modelled and 
 perfect that she always wore it uncovered without giviag it 
 any added charm by the arrangement of her hair ; the out- 
 line of her face was so handsome that, to let it be seen, she 
 wore her hair ia very few curls. Her lips were not full; 
 and for this reason her mouth seemed rather less prominent 
 than was necessary to make her beauty quite perfect. She 
 had fine teeth, and her neck was shaped like those the great 
 sculptors represent to us in Greek and Koman beauties. She 
 claimed imiversal admiration, and men paid her that tribute, 
 ever vain, imperfect, and often criminal in its results and 
 effects. I desire, nevertheless, to doubt, in the matter of 
 gallantry, that which one ought never to believe, and which 
 does not appear in evidence. But to show the character 
 of her mind as to this, she told me one day when I saw 
 her during the regency and praised before her one of my 
 friends for being virtuous, that all women were equally so, 
 and (with a laugh at me) she let me imderstand that she 
 did not think much of that quality. 
 
 Madame de Gu^men^e, her daughter-in-law, was also one 
 of the handsomest women at Court, and did not yield to her 
 in the quantity of her lovers, or in valuing that sort of good 
 which ladies imagine to be great triumphs. She had a very 
 
1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 45 
 
 handsome face, all the features of which were equally per- 
 fect. I heard the queen say, long afterwards, that on ball 
 days when this one and that one was striving who should 
 be most beautiful, she and Madame de Chevreuse, fearing 
 Madame de G-u6men^e, did what they could by many inven- 
 tions to prevent her from effacing their beauty; and that 
 sometimes when she arrived in a state to cause jealousy to 
 those most perfect they would go in concert to tell her she 
 was not looking weU. On which, without consulting a 
 mirror, she would go away quite terrified and hide herself ; 
 by which artifice they often escaped the shame of not being 
 the handsomest woman present. 
 
 In the rank of those who were younger than Madame 
 de Chevreuse, Madame de Montbazon, and Madame de. 
 Gu^mende, was Madame la Princesse Marie [de Gonzague] , 
 with whom Monsieur, the king's brother, had been in love, 
 and whom the queen, his mother, Marie de' Medici, had put 
 away for some time in the forest of Viacennes, fearing that 
 he would marry her. She was afterwards married to the 
 King of Poland. There was also Mademoiselle de Eohan, 
 who was very beautiful ; she seemed to wish to make profes- 
 sion of extreme virtue and great pride, both of which she 
 maintained imtil the time of the regency, when we beheld 
 her pride change to passion, and her virtue, as I shall tell 
 elsewhere, forced her to marry a gentleman of quality [Henri 
 Chabot], but much inferior to those she might have chosen. 
 
 There were other handsome women, particularly Made- 
 moiselle de Guise, estimable in all things and whose beauty 
 was great and perfect. Mademoiselle de Vendome was also 
 a fine woman. They deserve, with many others, a panegyric 
 in their favour, but I shall pause only on Mademoiselle de 
 Hautefort, who made, as soon as she came to Court, a 
 greater effect than all the other beauties of whom I have 
 
46 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. i. 
 
 spoken. Her eyes were blue, large, and full of fire, her 
 teeth white and even, and her complexion had the fairness 
 and glow which belong to a blond beauty. The number of 
 those who loved her was great ; but their chains were often 
 made heavy to bear ; for though she was kind she was not 
 tender, — severe, rather than hard, and naturally satirical. 
 
 As soon as the king saw her he had an iaclination for 
 her. The queen-mother, to whom she had been given as 
 maid-of-honour, seeing this little spark of fire in the soul of 
 a priace so shy of women, tried to light rather than eztin- 
 guish it, ia order to gain his good graces by such compliance. 
 But the piety of the king made him attach himself so little 
 that I heard this very MUe. de Hautefort say later that he 
 never talked to her of anything but dogs, birds, and huntiug ; 
 and I have known her, with all her virtue, when telling me 
 this history, laugh at him because he dared not come near 
 her when conversiag with her. This passion was not strong 
 enough to bring him as often to the queen-mother's apart- 
 ment as he would have come had he been really in love 
 with one of her ladies; instead of making her Court more 
 gay and gallant, it only diminished the influence of the 
 queen and increased that of the queen-mother. The latter 
 was the absolute mistress of France, and her happiness 
 seemed to be without a flaw ; but now came a change, which 
 ought to show to all the world that no creature is safe from 
 the blows of fortune, and that crowned heads, in being above 
 those of other men, are the most exposed. 
 
n. 
 
 1630 — 1643. 
 
 The queen-mother, having raised Cardinal Eichelieu, her 
 favourite after Mar^ohal d'Anore, to the dignity of prime 
 minister, she considered him her creature and believed she 
 would always reign through him; but she deceived herself, 
 and gained cruel experience of the little fidelity to be met 
 with iu those who have unboimded ambition. I do not know 
 what grounds of complaiut she had against him, and few per- 
 sons have known them ; I have only heard say that, not being 
 satisfied, she desired to ruin him, supposing it to be an easy 
 thing to do, and that no one could object if, being mistress of 
 her work, she destroyed it when she saw fit. 
 
 But that which seems to us right when we wish it, is 
 often not according to the impenetrable will of God, who 
 does not choose that human judgment should be followed by 
 events that would authorize it. I knew from the queen, who, 
 not liking Cardinal Eichelieu, was glad to know all that was 
 doing against him, when I put her on the topic, that on a 
 journey to Lyon when the king was so Ul that he thought 
 himself dying and the cardinal thought himself lost, the 
 queen-mother (who was beginning to no longer defend him 
 against those who did him ill turns with her in order to get 
 his place) requested the king to dismiss him ; and that this 
 prince after promising that he would and agreeing to send 
 him away whenever she wished, begged her to let him stay a 
 little longer on account of the plans he had about Italy ; so 
 that Queen Marie de' Medici, satisfied with this willingness. 
 
48 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ii. 
 
 woiiLd not press her son to dismiss him immediately for fear 
 of inconveniencing his affairs, and contented herself with his 
 promise to do so whenever it pleased her. 
 
 By this kiddness which deprived her of happiness for the 
 rest of her life, she enabled the cardinal to get her sent away 
 herself, though the mother and mother-in-law of the greatest 
 kings in Europe. Marie de' Medici had given a queen to 
 Spain, a sovereign to Savoie, a queen to England, and a king 
 to France ; but all these dignities which environed her could 
 not guarantee her from disaster. The Court having returned 
 to Paris, she pressed the king to fulfil his promise, and, as 
 she supposed the affair to present no difficulty, she was 
 astonished to find that the king resisted it. He not only 
 asked for time, but he urgently entreated her to forgive 
 Cardinal Eichelieu. 
 
 The queen-mother, siirprised and angry at the proposition, 
 burst out against her son, shed tears, and reproached him, 
 neglecting nothing that might win her the victory in this 
 battle. But, far from succeeding, she found that her son and 
 judge was in collusion against her with her enemy, and was 
 quasi on his side. Cardinal Richelieu entered the room 
 where they were together, to plead his cause in concert with 
 the king. The queen-mother, all in tears and provoked that 
 he had come into that room against her will, called him a 
 traitor, told him it was true that she complained of him to 
 the king, and railed against him with the strong feelings that 
 always accompany great affronts and great hatreds. She did 
 the same to his niece, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, who entered 
 towards the end of the conversation, treating her with the 
 utmost contempt. 
 
 But the cardinal, without showing surprise, threw himself 
 at her feet and asked pardon on his knees, doing, so they say, 
 all that he could to obtain it. The queen-mother, incensed 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 49 
 
 against her son for having refused her, and full of wrath 
 against the servant whom she believed unfaithful, would not 
 pardon him. Nor would she pardon the king himself, who 
 knelt before her and seemed in great trouble. Finding him- 
 self refused, without any plan of what came later but with a 
 sense of grief for the quarrel, the king went off to Versailles 
 to reflect on what he had better do. 
 
 The cardinal, quite overcome, not knowing whether he 
 ought to abandon all, took counsel with Cardinal de la Va- 
 lette ; after which he followed the king, and served his own 
 purposes so adroitly by the advantage that personal presence 
 gives, that he made himself in a short time, or rather in a 
 few hours, master of the king's mind. It was then deter- 
 mined to arrest the Keeper of the Seals Marillac ; and there 
 is little doubt that Cardinal Eichelieu began on this day to 
 premeditate what was done later at Compifegne against the 
 queen-mother, his benefactress. This day, so terrible in its 
 effects and its changes, has since been very famous, because 
 many persons who agreed with the queen-mother in wishing 
 the dismissal of Cardinal Eichelieu, were duped in all their 
 hopes and suffered for them. [This was the celebrated 
 " Day of the Dupes," November 11, 1630.] 
 
 Queen Marie de' Medici, by remaining in Paris at her 
 house of the Luxembourg and not following the king, ruined 
 her cause completely. She abandoned it in this way to the 
 artfulness of her enemy, and ruiued at the same time the 
 great seigneurs of the kingdom, who, hating the cardinal, had 
 made common cause with her. It was said that the whole 
 cabal had held certain councils against the cardinal in which 
 each member had given his opinion ; and later he treated 
 these persons according to the manner of their advice : 
 Mar^chal de Marillac, who was said to have advised that he 
 be killed as soon as the king abandoned him, he put to death 
 
 VOL. I. — 4 
 
50 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLB. [chap. ii. 
 
 very unjustly ; Mar^chal de Bassompierre, who had proposed 
 imprisoninent only, was put in prison himself, where he 
 stayed twelve years; and so with the others, as the mard- 
 chal, whom I knew later during the queen's regency, con- 
 firmed to me. This was the first cause of all the many 
 persecutions and exiles which made, during this century, so 
 large a number of illustrious unfortunates. Monsieur, the 
 king's brother, Gaston de France, who was ever at the head 
 of all these cabals, was, with good reason, at the head of this 
 one on accoimt of the queen his mother. 
 
 Some time after this " day of the dupes " the Court went 
 to Compiegne, the two queens in the best understanding on 
 account of the hatred they united in feeling for Cardinal 
 Eichelieu, and also because their fates began to be alike. 
 The king, having the intention to arrest the queen his 
 mother, was very restless ; although he had done the same 
 thing before, the iniiuence of natm-e, which he now had to 
 conquer at an age when he knew his duty better, weakened 
 at times his resolution and made it imcertain. On the other 
 hand, the minister, impatient to avenge himself, to satisfy 
 and secure himself, turned many schemes over in his head ; 
 while the queen-mother, ill-treated by her son, and little con- 
 fident of succeeding in her designs, was far from tranquil in 
 soul. 
 
 A few days after their arrival, the day on which the des- 
 tiny of so many great personages was to be fulfilled, a knock 
 was given very early in the morning on the door of the queen's 
 [Aime of Austria's] chamber. Hearing the soimd she woke, 
 astonished, and called her women to know if, by chance, it 
 could be the king at her door. He alone had the right 
 to treat her with such familiarity. In that instant, having 
 herself opened her curtains and seen that it was scarcely 
 daylight, she was troubled by a thousand thoughts that 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 51 
 
 passed through her mind. As she always doubted, and with 
 reason, of the king's good-will, she fancied they had come to 
 bring her some fatal news which, at the least, might exile 
 her from France. Eegarding this moment as one which 
 might decide her whole life, she strove to gather up her 
 strength to meet the blow with as much courage as possible. 
 She had by nature a firm soul and a sufficiently resolute 
 mind, and I do not doubt what she did me the honour to tell 
 me afterwards when relating these particulars, that, the first 
 moment over, she resolved without much difficulty to receive 
 with submission whatever Heaven ordained for her. 
 
 She bade them open the door, and her first waiting-woman 
 returning to tell her it was the Keeper of the Seals who 
 asked to speak with Her Majesty from the king, she was 
 fully confirmed in her first belief. This apprehension was, 
 however, soon removed by the speech of the envoy. He 
 told her that, for certain reasons which concerned the wel- 
 fare of the State, the king was obliged to leave his mother 
 in that place under guard of Mar^chal d'Estr^es, and that 
 he begged the queen not to, see her, but to rise and come 
 to him at the Capucins, where he had already gone to await 
 her. 
 
 At this news the queen was much surprised, as any one 
 who loved justice and right reason would be ; but she was 
 comforted to find that the matter only touched her through 
 the compassion she must feel for the queen, her mother- 
 in-law. She replied to the king's commands by prompt 
 obedience, and rose as quickly as she could to go to him. 
 But not without first going to see the disgraced queen. She 
 thought the king would pardon her that small disobedience, 
 which pity alone induced her to commit ; but, by the advice 
 of the Marquise de Senec^, her lady-of -honour, she sent 
 to the unhappy queen-mother, to express the desire she had 
 
52 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ii. 
 
 to see her and speak to her on a matter of importance, 
 though, for certain reasons, she dared not go to her unless 
 she first sent to ask her to do so. 
 
 The queen-mother, knowing nothing of this decision, 
 although, in the position she felt herself to be in, she feared 
 a return of aU the evils she had already borne, sent' Made- 
 moiselle Catherine, her first waiting-woman, at once to do 
 what the queen requested, a slyness asked solely to satisfy 
 the king. The queen took only a dressing-gown and went 
 in her night-dress to the queen-mother, whom she found 
 sitting up in her bed. She was hugging her knees, and, not 
 knowing what to think of this mystery, she cried out as the 
 queen entered : " Ah ! my daughter, either I am dead or a 
 prisoner. WiU the king leave me here? What does he 
 mean to do with me ? " The queen, touched by compassion, 
 flung herself into her arms, and though in the days of her 
 favour the queen-mother had sometimes ill-used her, the 
 position she was now in effaced such memories ; she wept for 
 her downfall, she felt it, and showed a sincere regret for the 
 king's decision, which she told her, and also the order for 
 imprisonment. 
 
 The two princesses parted, satisfied with each other and 
 both much touched at seetag themselves the victims of Car- 
 dinal Eichelieu, their common enemy. This was the last 
 time they saw each other, for the queen-mother, alarmed at 
 an imprisonment in Compifegne, escaped during the night 
 [July 19, 1631] and went to Flanders, where the Infanta 
 Clara-Eugenia, granddaughter of Charles V. and aunt of the 
 queen, received her and treated her well. She received in 
 the same manner Monsieur, the king's only brother, Gaston 
 de France, who, after having threatened Cardinal Eichelieu, 
 went to share with his mother the kindness of that great 
 princess. 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 53 
 
 The queen, having satisfied by this pitying visit what she 
 owed to one who so shortly before had seemed to have abso- 
 lute power, went to the Capucins to meet the king, who was 
 awaiting her in order to take her back to Paris. There, he 
 made her a present of Mademoiselle de Hautefort, of whom I 
 have already spoken, whom he had taken from the queen- 
 mother; also of Madame de la Flote, Mademoiselle de 
 Hautefort's grandmother, as lady of the bed-chamber. Some 
 time later he gave the beautiful granddaughter the reversion 
 of that office, in order that she might have the title of 
 " Madame." The kiag, in presenting her to the queen, said 
 that he begged her to like her and to treat her well for his 
 sake. She was then without lady of the bed-chamber ; siace 
 the dismissal of Madame Du Farges, whom she liked, she 
 had never been willing, from vexation and revenge, to fill her 
 place ; but she was now constraiued to accept all that the 
 king chose to give her, for this was no time to say, " I will 
 not." She received both ladies with the best face in the 
 world, and though such presents do not usually please wives 
 very much, it is nevertheless true that the queen loved 
 Madame de Hautefort for herself, and that that beautiful and 
 virtuous girl, esteeming the noble qualities of the queen, 
 and sufficiently disgusted with the king's temper, gave her- 
 self entirely to her, and was faithful to her through all her 
 troubles. The king, some years later, angry at this change, 
 wished to harm her; he ceased to love her much when 
 she began to love the queen, and when he saw that she was 
 entirely devoted to her, he ceased to love her at all. His 
 resentment went so far at last that he dismissed her, and 
 sent her back to her province, where she was when he 
 died. 
 
 After the great stroke at Compifegne, the king, to soften 
 in some way the bitterness the people felt against him for 
 
54 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ii. 
 
 the imprisonment of his mother, and for rigours enforced 
 against many private persons, treated the queen, his wife, 
 rather better, and saw her oftener ; this pleased the people, 
 because she was much loved. Cardinal Eichelieu, to con- 
 ciliate her, brought back Madame de Chevreuse from Lor- 
 raine where she had passed her exile ; no doubt that lady- 
 promised him all he wanted of her. The cardinal, in spite 
 of his severity against her, had never hated her. Her beauty 
 had charms for him, but as she was allied with the queen 
 and contraband with the queen-mother, ambition, which 
 always carries the day over friendship, had forcibly removed 
 her from the good graces of the minister. But after he had 
 himself quarrelled with his benefactress, wishing to be recon- 
 ciled with the queen and to gain alliance with her through 
 her favourite, he brought the latter back to Court. 
 
 After all this the king, following his natural inclinations, 
 abandoned himself wholly to the power of the cardinal. 
 He found himself reduced to the most melancholy, most 
 miserable life in the world; without suite, without Comt, 
 without power, and consequently without pleasure and with- 
 out honour. In this way several years of his life were 
 passed at Saint-Germain, where he lived like a private 
 person, and while his armies were taking cities and fighting 
 battles he was amusing himself by snaring birds. This 
 prince was unhappy in every way; he did not love the 
 queen, but on the contrary felt a coldness to her, and he 
 was the martyr of Madame de Hautefort, whom he loved in 
 spite of himself, and whom he could not resolve to send away 
 from Court, though accusing her of laughing at him with the 
 queen. Moreover, he had scruples about his attachment to 
 her, and did not approve of himself. Jealous of the grandeur 
 of his minister, though it came only from the part which he 
 himself bestowed, he began to hate him when he saw the 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 55 
 
 extreme authority he assumed in his kingdom; and not 
 being able to live happily either with or without him, he 
 never was happy at all. 
 
 The queen accustomed herself to her solitude as best she 
 could, leading a pious and private life, and living only on 
 news which her attendants and her friends brought to her. 
 She made a few little intrigues against the cardiaal, or at 
 least desired to make some that might ruin him. He only 
 laughed at them, and his power increased through the need 
 the kiag had of his counsels. He made all France adore 
 him and obey the king, making his master his slave, and that 
 illustrious slave the monarch of a great kingdom ! 
 
 Amid such gloomy humours and dark fancies it would 
 seem that a great passion could find no place in the king's 
 heart. Nor did it after the fashion of men who find pleasure 
 in it ; for this soul, accustomed to bitterness, had no tender- 
 ness beyond that of feeling the more for his own pains and 
 sorrows. But at last, weary of sufferiag, he dismissed, as I 
 have said, Madame de Hautefort, and turned his inclinations 
 to a new object whose brunette beauty was not so dazzling, 
 but who, with beautiful features and much charm, had also 
 great sweetness and strength of mind. La Fayette, maid-of- 
 honour to the queen [Louise Motier de La Fayette], amiable 
 and proud both, was the one he loved; and it was to her 
 that he unbosomed himself most about the cardinal, and the 
 vexation that his power gave him. 
 
 As this young girl had an upright heart she did not fail 
 to keep the secrecy she owed to the king. She strengthened 
 him in his aversion from the regard she felt for him, think- 
 ing him dishonoured by too basely allowing himself to be 
 governed by the minister. The cardinal did his best to 
 win her over, as he did all persons who approached the 
 king ; but she possessed more courage than the men of the 
 
56 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ii. 
 
 Court, who had the baseness to tell the cardinal what- 
 ever the king said against him. They feared, if they were 
 faithful, to lose benefits, and their interests seemed to them 
 something better than integrity. They feared also that the 
 king, ever timid, would betray them, and they wished to be 
 the first to betray. But a young girl had a finer and firmer 
 soul than they ; she resolved to do right, and had the courage 
 to despise Ul-fortune through a secret resolution which she 
 made in her heart to become a nun. 
 
 The king, finding in her as much security and virtue as 
 beauty, respected and loved her ; and I know that he had 
 thoughts about her that were far above the common affec- 
 tions of mankind. The same sentiment which made this 
 generous girl refuse all relations with Cardinal Eichelieu 
 also made her live imder some reserve with the queen. 
 Not that she did her any Hi-offices, as her rival, Madame 
 de Hautefort, tried to persuade the queen she did — she was 
 too virtuous for that ; and the queen knew, later, the good- 
 ness and generosity of her whole conduct. But the fact is 
 she liked the king, and said so openly ; for a pure and honour- 
 able friendship can be owned without shame. And truly, 
 the virtue and propriety of the king, which equalled that of 
 the most modest woman, controlled him strictly ; so that she 
 felt she ought to repay that virtuous affection by great 
 fidelity to his confidences. I am assured that she was the 
 only person who ever had such feelings towards him, and 
 consequently the only one who could have made the happi- 
 ness of his life. 
 
 An attachment so great and so perfect could not fail to 
 please the king and displease the queen, though the latter 
 was used to the misfortune of not being loved by her hus- 
 band. This deprivation of a happiness she desired and 
 thought her due, in whatever way it was seasoned to her, 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 57 
 
 did not fail to seem to her very hard and disagreeable. La 
 Fayette, avowing openly that she loved the king, and in the 
 manner he seemed to wish, might have made the happiness 
 of his life. But the king was not fated to be happy ; he 
 could not keep his treasure. It was said that the cardinal 
 made use of his piety to deprive him of it, and that, not 
 being able to have La Fayette in his own pay, he used her 
 confessor to give her scruples as to her compliance to the 
 king, which idea was so shrewdly managed by the confessors 
 of both that the love of God triumphed over human love ; 
 La Fayette retired to a convent, and the king resolved to 
 permit it. The truth is, that God destiaed her for that 
 happiness, in spite of the malice and false arguments of the 
 Court people. PSre Caussin, confessor of the king, has him- 
 self written ia his Memoirs (which the Comte de Maure, to 
 whom he confided them, showed me) that instead of adher- 
 ing to Cardinal Eichelieu, as he was supposed to have done, 
 he advised her, in view of the innocent intentions with 
 which he credited her, not to make herself a nun ; thioking 
 that he would himself use her to inspire the king to recall 
 the queen-mother, and govern the kingdom himself. 
 
 But she, who was urged by Him who gives the will and 
 the power to do, did not hesitate long between God and 
 His creatures. Perhaps also she saw with some vexation 
 the intrigue that was forming against her, and pride 
 mingled with virtue had some share in her retreat. It 
 was even suspected that her relation, Madame de Senec^ 
 had tried to give her over to the cardinal. I do not know 
 the ground or the details of this accusation; I know only 
 that she begged the king's confessor to go to him and ask 
 permission that she might quit the Court and enter a con- 
 vent. Pfere Caussin describes in his memoirs the pains 
 he took to examine into the vocation of La Fayette, and to 
 
58 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ii. 
 
 give the king the advice he asked of him. He states that 
 the king seemed much afflicted at the resolution of the vir- 
 tuous young girl, and threw himself back into the bed from 
 which he had risen when the father began to speak to him, 
 weepiag, and complaining that she wanted to leave him ; but 
 at last, having conquered the tortures of his grief by his 
 piety, he made him this answer : " It is true she is very 
 dear to me ; but if God calls her to religion, I vdll put no 
 hindrance to it." 
 
 This permission being once obtained, she was seen to 
 leave the Court suddenly, in spite of the tears of the king 
 and the joy of her enemies, which, as she told me afterwards, 
 were the only things to conquer. It needed great strength 
 of mind to put herself above that weakness, for though the 
 king was not gallant, the ladies of the Court were none the 
 less glad to please him. Among others, Madame de Haute- 
 fort was far from sorry at her retirement; she was not 
 ashamed to be thought her rival; and there was no prude 
 who did not aspire to be loved by the king as he had loved 
 La Fayette — for everybody was convinced that the passion 
 she had for him was not incompatible with virtue. When 
 she parted from him she talked to him long before all the 
 company in the queen's room, where she went as soon as she 
 had received his permission to leave. No change appeared 
 on her face ; she had the strength not to give a single tear 
 to those which the king shed publicly. After quitting him, 
 she took leave of the queen, who could not like her; she 
 did this with gentleness and the satisfaction a Christian 
 must have in seeking God, wishing to love but Him on 
 earth, and to desire only eternity. 
 
 The king was not long without going to see her at the 
 convent of the daughters of Sainte-Marie, in the rue Saint- 
 Antoine, which she had chosen for her life-long place of 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 59 
 
 rest and the haven of her salvation. The first few times he 
 went there he stayed so long before her grating that Car- 
 dinal Richelieu, thrown into fresh alarms, resumed his in- 
 trigues to detach the king wholly from her. He succeeded 
 finally and found means to take from his master the con- 
 solation of sharing his griefs with the only person he had 
 found discreet and faithful enough to confide in, and one 
 with a spirit that was soft and pleasant enough to soothe 
 them. It was to the king as cruel a deed as that of a rob- 
 ber on the highway who takes from a traveller his all ; for 
 the greatest of the blessiags of life is the love of a faithful 
 friend; and if my uncle, the Bishop of Sdez, says in his 
 poems, with the approval of everybody, that to love a young 
 beauty is " the sweetest error of earth's vanities," it is even 
 more true to say that to love solidly as the king loved La 
 Fayette was the sweetest of all innocent pleasures. 
 
 I cannot, however, refrain, while on the subject of this 
 pure and beautiful love between a prince so pious and a girl 
 so virtuous, from relating a strong proof of the corruption 
 which may always be met with in attachments of feeling 
 which count themselves pure. I heard this from La Fay- 
 ette herself who, being at Chaillot [where she founded the 
 Convent of the Visitation] and my friend, talked with me 
 confidentially. She told me that in her last days at Court, 
 before she had fully resolved to enter religion, the king, so 
 wise and so constant in virtue, had, nevertheless, certain 
 moments of weakness in which, ceasing to be modest, he 
 had pressed her to consent that he should place her at 
 Versailles, to live under his orders and to be wholly his ; and 
 that this proposal, so contrary to his usual sentiments, having 
 alarmed her, was the cause of her resolving more quickly 
 to leave the Court and take vows upon herself which must 
 remove from his mind all sentiments of that nature. 
 
60 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ii. 
 
 For some time nature struggled against grace, but grace 
 was at last victorious. Otherwise the king would never have 
 consented so easily that she might enter a convent ; but as 
 soon as she was there, he had no pain in seeing her ia a 
 nun's dress, nor had she any in seeing him before the grat- 
 ing ; both were far away from a desire to maintain an inter- 
 course for which they might have scruples. But in order to 
 have peace with his minister, he consented to lose this one 
 satisfaction that remained to him, and he left her to give her- 
 self entirely to Him who gives to all according to their ac- 
 tions, contenting himself with now and then sending a priest 
 from Saint-Germain to bring him news of her. I know that 
 this piety brought him to certain thoughts of inward retreat; 
 and though he still went sometimes to see her, it was to 
 talk over designs known to none but herself, which would 
 have astonished Europe had they been executed. But God 
 was satisfied with his intention, and, to reward him for 
 the sacrifice he wished to make to Him, He granted the 
 prayers of his subjects by taking from him those melan- 
 choly thoughts which prevented his living well with the 
 queen, who at last became pregnant. It is even said that 
 La Fayette was a secondary cause of the queen's pregnancy. 
 Having stayed with her too late to return to Saint-Germain 
 as he intended, he was constrained to go to the Louvre and 
 share the bed of the queen, who had come to Paris for af- 
 fairs of no importance ; and it is said that this gave us, Sep- 
 tember 5, 1638, our present reigning king, Louis XIV. 
 
 In the beginning of this pregnancy the king showed much 
 satisfaction and even tenderness for the queen's person. 
 But this comfort lasted but a short time, and when she was 
 delivered it was necessary to urge him to approach her and 
 kiss her. 
 
 All France supposed that after giving to the king a 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 61 
 
 dauphin the queen would have some influence, but as the 
 minister was not on her side, and she was too generous to 
 seek him, she remained in the same condition as before. As 
 an increase of favour, however, God gave her a second son, 
 Philippe de France, on the 21st of September, 1640, for 
 which the king, as I have heard the queen say, showed far 
 more pleasure than at the birth of the first, because he did 
 not expect the great happiness of being father of two 
 children, he who had feared he might have none at all. 
 But it is a strange thing that the dauphin was only 
 three years old when he began to cause him grief and 
 umbrage. The queen did me the honour to tell me that one 
 day, after a hunting party, the little prince, seeing his father 
 in a night-cap, began to cry and was frightened, not being 
 accustomed to see him thus, and the king was angry as if 
 it were a matter of the greatest consequence, complaining 
 to the queen and reproaching her for bringing up her son 
 to aversion for his person, and roughly threatening to take 
 away from her both her children. But when the king 
 started for a journey to Narbonne he had with him his 
 equerry Cinq-Mars, a man whom Cardinal Eichelieu had given 
 him as a favourite after the loss of La Fayette. Whether 
 it was by Cinq-Mars' advice or of his own motion, he spoke 
 to the queen in another manner. Bidding her farewell, he 
 said quite cordially that he begged her to take good care 
 of his children, and not to quit them — which she religiously 
 obeyed. Besides the interest that she had in their preser- 
 vation she fastened all her pleasure to the agreeable oc- 
 cupation of seeing and caressing them. 
 
 December 4, 1642, Cardinal Eichelieu died gloriously in 
 Paris at his own house, with the tranquillity of a private 
 individual, and in the arms of his king, whom he made his 
 heir in many things. He received aU the sacraments. He 
 
62 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ii. 
 
 died, laden with honours and glory, in the lustre of many 
 virtues and the shame of great defects, of which cruelty 
 and tyranny were the chief. It may be said of him that 
 he acquired a great reputation by procuring the good of the 
 State and the power and grandeur of his prince. The 
 harshness with which he treated the queen-mother, his mis- 
 tress and his benefactress, during her exile, lessens by a 
 great deal the eulogy that is due to his memory; and his 
 cruelty towards many private persons makes him infinitely 
 blamable. He died finally with the aspect of a saint, not 
 having lived in all things the life of a Christian. I have 
 heard it said that he asked a bishop if he could die in peace 
 without having made restitution of the property he had 
 taken from the public and from private persons, sometimes 
 unjustly; and the bishop, accustomed to flatter him, having 
 answered yes, that the great benefits he had done to France 
 rendered his own legitimate, he begged him to give him that 
 opinion in writing; and that writing he put very carefully 
 under the pUlow of his bed, as if to serve as justification 
 before God of his iniquities. What seems to me strange 
 is that a man more able and possessing more knowledge 
 than the man on whom he laid the burden of his scruple, 
 should be wiHing to deceive himself in a matter where he 
 alone could be the judge, and his own conscience the most 
 faithful instructor he could consult.^ 
 
 He seemed so content with having triumphed over his 
 enemies that his chaplain could not refrain from urging 
 him to forgive them; to which he answered that he had 
 never had any enemies but those of the State. He had 
 written books on the Education and on the Perfection of 
 Christians ; therefore he ought to have known in what they 
 consisted. Nevertheless the Bishop of Nantes, Cospean, 
 
 1 On the margin is written : " This is not a certain thing." 
 
? Chanipaigrie 
 
 ryrtu^a/ x£e ^JcccAel^e 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DB MOTTEVILLE. 63 
 
 esteemed for his virtue and piety, who was afterwards 
 Bishop of Lizieux, having gone to see him at the close of 
 Ms life, said aloud, as he left the room after conversing with 
 him, that his tranquillity astonished him. And they say 
 that Pope Urbain VIII., hearing of his death and of his 
 life, remarked, with a great exclamation : Ah ! die se gli i 
 un Bio, ben tosto lo 'pagarh ; ma veramente se non c'i Dio, 
 h galantuomo. ("Ah! if there is a God he will soon pay 
 for it ; but truly if there is no God, he is an able man.") 
 An Italian friend of mine, whom I asked if that were true, 
 told me it was true, and it was not surprising, for the good 
 pope often jested and said witty things, but all the same 
 he was a great man and had virtue — which does not accord 
 very well with such jokes. 
 
 The queen, after this death, which did not afflict her 
 much, began to foresee her coming power by the crowd that 
 now surrounded her. It was not because the king showed' 
 her more consideration. The cardinal had worked with 
 such care to destroy her in his mind that she could never 
 obtain a better place there; and the prince himself was by 
 nature so gloomy, and at this time so crushed by his woes 
 that he was no longer capable of any feeling of tenderness 
 for one whom he had never been accustomed to treat well. 
 But, serenity having returned to the faces of the courtiers, 
 and this change giving hope and consequently joy to all, they 
 began to consider the queen as the mother of two princes 
 and the wife of a sickly king. She was nearing the period 
 of a regency which would surely be a long one ; so that 
 now she was regarded as a rising sun from which each in 
 particular expected to receive in his turn a favourable 
 influence. 
 
 The king, though ill, attended to all business, and publicly 
 announced that he would have no other governor. He 
 
64 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ii. 
 
 sent pardons to criminals, opened the prisons, suffered exiles 
 to return, and did all that was needed to persuade his people 
 that the late cruelties had not been done by himself and 
 that his inclinations were far removed from them. All 
 this mildness and calm caused the present reign to be 
 blessed and the late severity detested; but it did not last 
 long, for the king died shortly after. He had called to 
 the miaistry Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian by birth, but 
 half Spanish from the years he had passed in Spain, and 
 a friend of Cardinal Eichelieu. It is to be supposed that 
 he would have gained power over the king had the latter 
 lived, for he knew how to please when he chose. 
 
 This was the state of the Court when France lost the 
 king. He was still young, but so broken by fatigues, wor- 
 ries, remedies, and hunting, that, feeling he could not live 
 any longer, he resolved to die well in order to live eternally. 
 He did it in a manner that was quite extraordinary. No 
 one ever showed such constancy in suffering, such firmness 
 in the certain thought of his end, or such indifference to 
 life. He had always been unhappy because he had subjected 
 himself to others, following the passions of his favourites 
 rather than his own sentiments. This submission had led 
 him to commit faults for which he repented within himself. 
 
 There is reason to think that the innocent passions he had 
 felt for Madame de Hautefort and La Fayette had caused 
 him nothing but grief and a few moments of weakness 
 which God had given him the grace to surmount; for he 
 always appeared to fear God, and they both believed him 
 very scrupulous, — worthy in that of great praise if in other 
 things he had shown the same strength. 
 
 It was in his last days, in view of the judgments of God, 
 that he repented keenly for having failed in keeping one 
 of His first commandments. Cardinal Eichelieu was no 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 65 
 
 longer with him to maintain the exile of the queen-mother 
 as necessary to the State ; and, examining himself sincerely 
 on that matter, what he had done against her now seemed 
 to him as terrible as it really was. He openly asked pardon 
 of God for it with great signs of a true repentance, and he 
 did apparently all that a good Christian is bound to do, 
 with sentiments of piety and marks of perfect faith. He 
 had said to Chavigny at the beguming of his illness that 
 he felt a cruel distress for two things : first, for having ill- 
 treated his mother, who had lately died [Marie de' Medici 
 died at Cologne July 3, 1642], and secondly, for not having 
 made peace. 
 
 Towards the end of the king's illness, when M. de Cha- 
 vigny saw that the doctors considered the king had no 
 hope of escaping, he took upon himself to warn him of the 
 state in which he was ; which he did, while softeniog the 
 harshness of the news as much as possible. Nevertheless, he 
 represented to him with strength and courage that although 
 he was a great prince he was on an equality with the least 
 of men in death, and ended by sayiag it was time for him 
 to think of quitting life. The king embraced him, and said, 
 as he pressed him in his arms, that he thanked him for that 
 good news, and assured him that he had never felt such joy 
 in life as he received in hearing he was about to lose it. 
 He made him withdraw that he might think of his con- 
 science and his affairs; then, after passing half an hour 
 alone, he recalled him and said, "M. de Chavigny, let us 
 now think of business.'' They then made the plan of his 
 will, in which he declared the queen regent. Madame de 
 Chavigny told me that her husband, who had more share 
 in this than Cardinal Mazarin, could have had Monsieur, 
 the king's brother, appointed, the latter having requested 
 him to do so ; but he held good for the queen, thinking he 
 
 VOL. I. — 5 
 
66 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. il 
 
 could thus serve his own interests better, in which he was 
 much mistaken. The queen did not like him, and those 
 about her had already resolved on his downfall. 
 
 After this, the queen entered the council, and the king 
 made the chancellor read the declaration, the plan of which 
 had been written by Chavigny and adopted by the king. It 
 was read in presence of the parliament and of the nobles 
 of the kingdom. The king required the queen to swear 
 that she would observe it inviolably. This she was obliged 
 to do; but she did it with an intention contrary to the 
 king's wishes as to certain persons, some of whom had 
 gained his hatred, others his friendship. The king had 
 wished to put in a clause that the Keeper of the Seals, 
 Chateauneuf, and Madame de Chevreuse should be forever 
 removed from the Court, as dangerous persons, whose minds 
 were always to be feared. He was dissuaded by those who 
 wished to please the coming regent, and who dared no longer 
 act except in harmony with her. When the reader of the 
 declaration came to the place where this was omitted the 
 king, who was then moribund, fearing those two persons as 
 favourites of the queen, rose in his bed and said aloud, 
 " That is devilish, that ! " [ Voila le diahle, cela .'] 
 
 Sdguin, the queen's head doctor told me that two hours 
 before the king's death, as he passed before his bed, he made 
 him a sign with his head and eyes to come to him, and 
 holding out his hand said in a firm voice : " S^guin, feel 
 my pulse, and tell me, I beg of you, how many more hours 
 I have to live ; but feel it carefully, for I should be glad to 
 know the truth." The doctor, seeing his firmness, and not 
 wishing to disguise a truth which he saw would not frighten 
 him, said, quite coolly : " Sire, your Majesty may have two, 
 or three hours at the most." On which the king, clasping 
 his hands and turning his eyes to heaven, said softly, with- 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DB MOTTEVILLE. 67 
 
 out showing any alteration whatever, "Then, my God, I 
 consent, with all my heart." And shortly after he closed 
 his eyes forever. May 14, 1643, aged forty-two years only. 
 
 The queen seemed sincerely afflicted. She went at once 
 to the little dauphin, or rather the king ; whom she saluted 
 and embraced with tears in her eyes as her king and child. 
 It may be said that she and all France did right to weep 
 for the king, who, according to his lights and his sentiments, 
 might even then have governed his kingdom gloriously. 
 He had defects which effaced him from the hearts of his 
 subjects and of all his family ; but he had also great virtues, 
 which, for his misfortune, have never been sufficiently 
 known ; and the subjection of his will to that of his minis- 
 ter had smothered all these nobler qualities. He was full 
 of piety and zeal for the service of God and the grandeur 
 of the Church ; and his greatest joy in taking La Eochelle 
 and other places was the thought that he would drive all 
 heretics from his kingdom and purge it in this way of the 
 different religions which spoil and infect the Church of 
 God. 
 
 He was, as I have heard his most intimate favourites 
 say, one of the best soldiers of his kingdom. He knew 
 war, and he was valiant. I know this from those who in 
 their youth were with him in danger, when he seemed not 
 to fear it. He loved the officers on service, and this was 
 the only matter he did not abandon to his minister. He 
 himself knew the men of true courage, who had done fine 
 actions, and he took great care to reward them. His keen- 
 est vexation against the cardinal was that he often wanted 
 to command his army in person, and the cardinal, fearing to 
 let him go among such a crowd of his own enemies, always 
 opposed it and prevented it by a thousand contrivances. 
 
 He had much intelligence and knowledge ; Cardinal Eiche- 
 
68 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. £ohap. ii. 
 
 lieu himself said of Mm on several occasions that in his 
 council he was always of the right opinion, and often found 
 expedients in the most embarrassing matters. I have heard 
 the Due de Saint-Simon, who was with him on the day he 
 quarjelled with the queen-mother, say that he would not 
 give up Cardinal Eichelieu when she asked it, from a prin- 
 ciple of justice, because he was convinced that he had not 
 been unfaithful to him ; that it was the Mar^chal de Maril- 
 lac and the Mar^chal de Bassompierre and several others 
 who, having formed a cabal with the Princesse de Conti 
 against Cardinal Eichelieu, wanted, for their own private 
 interests, to use the queen-mother as a buckler against him ; 
 and that the kiag, knowrag the services he had rendered him, 
 thought himself obliged to uphold him ; but that never had 
 he any thought of injuring the queen his mother to save 
 the cardinal; on the contrary, his design was to keep his 
 minister without failing in respect to her ; and that the first 
 thing that alienated him from her was her urging him to 
 dismiss the cardinal, and, having gone upon his knees before 
 her to soften her, that she had no regard to his submission 
 or to his prayers. It was this that caused him some vexa- 
 tion, so that he went to Versailles, where the cardinal, by 
 the advice of friends, followed him. At first the minister 
 wished to retire, but the king said to him : " No, Monsieur 
 le Cardinal, I will not allow it ; you have done no wrong to 
 the queen my mother; if you had, I would never see you 
 again ; but knowing that all these things are being done by 
 a cabal, and that you have served me well, I should not be 
 just if I abandoned you." 
 
 Other persons of that time have also assured me that he 
 never had any plan for what happened afterwards at Com- 
 pifegne. But soon after this [Day of Dupes] the cardinal 
 made htm understand that he must break up the cabal which 
 
1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 69 
 
 was instigating the queen-mother to embroil the State ; and 
 for that purpose she must be arrested for some little time, 
 after which, her party being dead or imprisoned, it would be 
 easy to bring her back again. But, the queen-mother having 
 escaped to Flanders (which was, they say, arranged by the 
 cardinal himself), it was easy for him to disguise the truth 
 from the king her son, and persuade him that her absence 
 was necessary for the peace of his kingdom. That is what 
 may be said to excuse the greatest fault which the king 
 committed; for as to the death of the Mar^chal d'Ancre, 
 there was never any sign that he ordered it, or the indigni- 
 ■ties that accompanied it, which must be attributed to the 
 little discretion of those who had the order to arrest him, 
 to the resistance offered by the attendants of the marechal, 
 and to the hatred that the people had to him. Conse- 
 quently, that matter did not prevent the king from ob- 
 taining the title of Just. Nor has any one ever doubted 
 that he was brave, and that he knew how to take an army 
 into battle as well as any of his generals. But, besides 
 these great qualities so necessary to great kings, he knew 
 many things to which melancholy minds are wont to devote 
 themselves, such as music and the mechanical arts, for 
 which he had great skill and a peculiar talent. 
 
m. 
 
 1643— 1644. 
 
 We now come to the regency of the queen [May 15, 
 1643], where we shall see, as in a picture, the various revo- 
 lutions of fortune ; of what nature is that climate called the 
 Court ; its corruption, and how fortunate should they esteem 
 themselves who are not fated to live there. The air is never 
 sweet or serene for any one. Even those who, apparently • 
 in perfect prosperity, are adored as gods, are the ones most 
 threatened by tempests. The thimder growls incessantly 
 for great and small; and those whom their compatriots 
 regard with envy know no calm. It is a windy, gloomy 
 region, filled with perpetual storms. Men live there little, 
 and during the time that fortime keeps them there, they are 
 always ill of that contagious malady, ambition, which kills 
 their peace, gnaws their heart, sends fumes to their head 
 and often deprives them of reason. This disease gives them 
 a continual disgust for better things. They are ignorant of 
 the value of equity, justice, kindliness. The sweetness of 
 life, of innocent pleasures, of all that the sages of antiquity 
 counted as good, seem to them ridiculous ; they are incapable 
 of knowing virtue and following its precepts, unless chance 
 may happen to remove them from this region. Then, if 
 they can by absence be cured of their malady, they become 
 wise, they become enlightened ; and no man can be so good 
 a Christian or so truly a philosopher as a disillusioned 
 courtier. 
 
 On the morrow of the death of King Louis XIII., King 
 Louis XIV., the queen. Monsieur le Due d'Anjou, the Due 
 
•_ '^/i /le c^ ■^^ti.j^t/-^ 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 71 
 
 d'Orl^ans, and the Prince de Condd quitted Saint-Germain 
 to come to Paris. The body of the late king was left alone 
 at Saint-Germain, without other surroundings than the peo- 
 ple, who flocked to see it out of curiosity rather than tender- 
 ness. The Due de Vendome remained there to do the 
 honours, and the Marquis de Souvr^, gentleman of the bed- 
 chamber on service, to do his duty. Of all the people of 
 quality who were paying their court the night before, not 
 one remained to pay respect to his memory; they aU ran 
 after the regent. 
 
 The queen had many on her side in the parliament ; 
 among them its president, Barillon, who had been at all 
 times attached to her person. All were of opinion that the 
 queen should not be satisfied with a restricted regency as 
 provided by the king, and that she ought to make use of the 
 parliament to render her mistress of everything. 
 
 She liked the proposal extremely, for it put her in a 
 position to break her chains and dismiss those persons 
 whom the king had appointed to take part in all delibera- 
 tions. Ghavigny and his father [President Bouthillier] were 
 the ones she particularly desired to remove, as the creatures 
 of Eichelieu and hated by those who were now the most 
 powerful about her. On the other hand, the parliament 
 desired to find occasion to recover the authority it had lost 
 imder the late king; and the able men of this assembly 
 esteemed it fortimate that the queen (who thought that the 
 late king had not treated her properly in his will) should 
 wish to use them to receive from their hands the sovereign 
 power which the king had seemed to take from her by 
 ordaining that, in the council of regency, affairs should be 
 determined by a plurality of votes. She herself could 
 scarcely endure that restraint, and those who hoped to have 
 a share in her confidence wished her to have the power to 
 
72 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 dismiss some of those wlio were appoiated, in order that 
 they might take their places. 
 
 The offers of the parliament gentry to annul the declara- 
 tion of the king ia its present form were accepted. I have 
 since heard Cardinal Mazarin say that the queen did them 
 too much honour in putting them above the king's wishes 
 and giving them the power to ordain a thing of so much 
 consequence. She went to parliament, where, with the con- 
 sent of Monsieur, Due d'Orldans, and the Prince de Condd, 
 she was declared regent, without the appointment of a 
 council. The queen was in deep mourning, and took with 
 her the king, who was still in his bibs and was carried by 
 the Due de Chevreuse, his grand chamberlain, and accom- 
 panied by the Due d'Orl^ans, his uncle, and the Prince de 
 Cond^ first prince of the blood, the dukes and peers, the 
 marshals of France, and the whole council. 
 
 The chancellor, Siguier, made an harangue that was 
 worthy of the esteem he had acquired; and, after exalting 
 the virtues of the queen, he thanked Heaven for having given 
 to France a regent from whom they might hope to gain a 
 general peace and the repose of the State. He then called 
 for votes on the clause of the regency. Monsieur, uncle of 
 the king, promptly and without hesitating, gave his in its 
 favour ; declaring that of his own will he made over to the 
 queen all the power which, as only brother of the late king, 
 he could have claimed in the kingdom in order that her 
 regency might be more absolute and her will unlimited. 
 The Prince de Cond^ said, in his turn, that since Monsieur 
 so desired it he consented. I have heard the queen say, as 
 to that consent, that it was by no means as frank as that of 
 Monsieur, and that she noticed on his face a repugnance to 
 give it ; and also that the difficulty he seemed to have in 
 resolving to do so made her feel more obligations to Mon- 
 
1643-1644] MEJIOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 73 
 
 sieur, whose power would have been much greater had hers 
 been limited, which it would have been had he voted as the 
 Prince de Cond^ wished. 
 
 As she knew the opposition of the one, she must also have 
 felt the yieldkig of the other ; which, in truth, was surpris- 
 ing, seeing that it is not natural to give up so easily one's 
 share in a great benefit. Many persons ascribed it to 
 weakness, and this weakness to the selfish interests of his 
 favourite, the Abb^ de la Eivifere, who was accused of de- 
 taching him from ambitious sentiments in the hope of mak- 
 ing his own private fortune through the benefactions of the 
 queen, rather than by leading his master to great projects 
 — for which he may have thought him incapable, for the 
 soul of that prince was not turned to things heroic. How- 
 ever that maj' be, the two lions were tamed, and ilonsieur 
 contented himself with the station of generalissimo of the 
 armies of France, — very different in that from the king his 
 father, Henri le Grand, of whom it was said that never was 
 there a better king nor a worse prince of the blood. Indeed 
 the great qualities that make a great king do always pre- 
 vent the first prince of the blood from being peaceable and 
 without factioiL 
 
 As soon as the queen saw herself independent and abso- 
 lute mistress, she dismissed Chavigny from the council, and 
 took the finances from his father, Bouthillier, to give them 
 to President de BaOleul, whom she knew to have much 
 integrity, without knowing if he had any talent for that 
 o£&ce. At the same time she sent to Rome to ask for a 
 cardinal's hat for the Bishop of Beauvais, recalled the 
 Duchesse de Chevreuse from exile, and did favours to many 
 private persons without regarding the just measure that the 
 great are bound to examine, but which she did not duly 
 observe because as yet she did not know the value of her 
 
74 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 liberalities, while every one hastened to ask favours of her 
 boldly and refusal gave her too much pain to inflict. 
 
 The Due de VendSme, and his whole family, had so far 
 gained more than any one by the king's death ; and particu- 
 larly his youngest son, the Due de Beaufort, for the queen 
 during the last days of the king's illness had confided to the 
 latter the care of her children. The fame of this confidence 
 had attracted so many persons to him that he seemed for a 
 time to be master of the Court. 
 
 The queen had intended to take the government of Havre 
 from the Duchesse d'Aiguillon and give it to the Prince de 
 Marsillac, a friend of Madame de Chevreuse and Madame de 
 Hautefort, who was very handsome, had much wit and many 
 ideas, and whose extraordinary merit destined him to cut a 
 great figure in the world. The duchess, Eichelieu's niece, who 
 had played a great part during the ministry of her uncle, now 
 commanded in Havre, and that government was left to her 
 by consent of the late king, to hold it for her nephews. 
 
 This lady, who by her fine qualities surpassed ordinary 
 women in many ways, was so well able to defend her cause 
 that she almost convinced the queen that it was necessary 
 for her service to leave her in that important place, telling her 
 that having none but enemies now in France, she could have 
 no safety or refuge, except under the protection of her 
 Majesty, who would always be her mistress, while, on the 
 contrary, the Prince de Marsillac to whom she was giving 
 the government was too clever, too capable of ambitious 
 designs, and might at the least affront join some cabal; 
 it was, therefore, important for the good of the service that 
 she should keep this place safe for the king. The tears of 
 a woman who had once been so proud arrested the queen in 
 the first place, and then, after reflecting on these reasons, she 
 thought it best to leave things as they were. 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 75 
 
 The complaints of the Prince de Marsillac were many ; he 
 murmui-ed publicly against the queen, and, on the first 
 occasion that presented itself, he let her see that he felt her 
 change, and was resolved to abandon her interests and take 
 others ia revenge, which was iu pai-t the cause of all our 
 woes. 
 
 The Bishop of Beauvais did not maintain public affans 
 with the force and capacity a prime minister ought to have ; 
 the queen, drawn from a life of great idleness, and by nature 
 lazy, felt herself completely overwhelmed by so gi-eat a 
 burden. She was not long without seeing that she needed 
 help, and that it was impossible for her to govern a State as 
 large as France, or distinguish all alone the interests of the 
 people and those of the nobles, which are two very different 
 things ; it is certain, moreover, that a long time was needed 
 to examine that question, which would harass the greatest 
 minds if they were not accustomed to toil, and had no 
 knowledge of public business. 
 
 That which gave the greatest trouble to the queen was 
 the desire she had to satisfy, as far as she could, those who 
 demanded justice for the losses they declared they had 
 borne under the ministry of Cardinal Eichelieu, who came in 
 great numbers and were very difficult to content. 
 
 In this interval of disgust and embarrassment. Cardinal 
 Mazarin, appointed by the late king as one of the council, 
 was lucky enough to be fated, and then chosen by the queen, 
 to fill that place. She had not dismissed him, because she 
 had no dislike to him; and as he was very able he had 
 won the favom of the Prince de Condd, who did not like 
 the Yendomes, and he had put into his interests the Due 
 d'Orl^ans' favourite, the Abb^ de la Eivifere, who was not of 
 their party. 
 
 At the same time he acquired as friends those who were 
 
76 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 servants of the queen without being of the Vendome cabal ; 
 such as the Marquis de Liancourt, the Marquis de Morte- 
 mart, Beringhen, and Lord Montague, an Englishtaan whom 
 the queen had known in the days of Buckingham, and 
 who retained a familiarity with her. The first two were 
 recommended by the regard the late king had felt for them, 
 and the last two by the confidence the queen reposed in 
 them. They were all former courtiers who esteemed Car- 
 dinal Mazarin, having known him long before in France 
 with Cardinal Eiohelieu, and they now gave all their atten- 
 tion to persuading the queen of his ability. They had not 
 much trouble in succeeding, for the queen was already dis- 
 . gusted with the Bishop of Beauvais, so much so that by 
 her own inclination she was quite disposed to make use 
 of the cardinal, whose wit and person pleased her in the first 
 conversation she had with him. During the life of the late 
 king she had quite often signified, in speaking of Cardinal 
 Mazaria, that she esteemed him, and to those in whom she 
 confided she declared she was not sorry to see him in order 
 to iaform herself about foreign affairs, of which he had a 
 perfect knowledge, and in which the late king had employed 
 him. Following, therefore, her personal sentiments, the 
 advice of some of her best servants, and the desire of the 
 Due d'Orl^ans and the Prince de Cond^ who declared they 
 esteemed him, she willingly gave him her confidence, yielded 
 her authority to him, and allowed him to acquire within 
 a few days the highest degree of favour in her heart, while 
 those who believed they possessed it solely never imagined 
 that he dared to even think of it. 
 
 This insinuating process was so easily carried on in the 
 soul of the queen that the cardinal became in short time 
 master of the council, the Bishop of Beauvais diminishing 
 in power in proportion as that of his competitor increased; 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 77 
 
 the new minister beginning from this time to come every 
 evening to the queen, and hold long conferences with her. 
 His gentle, humble manner, beneath which were hidden his 
 ambition and his designs, made the opposite cabal have 
 almost no fear of him ; they regarded him at first with the 
 assumption that favour inspires. But the fickle creature to 
 whom imder the name of Fortune pagans burn incense, 
 desiring, as usual, to mock at those who follow her, aban- 
 doned them all to give herself wholly to a foreigner, and 
 raise him suddenly from the first rung of the ladder to 
 the highest a private individual could reach, above all the 
 princes and grandees of the kingdom. 
 
 While these intrigues were tangling in the cabinet, G-od 
 was favourably taking part in our affairs in the field. The 
 Prince de Condd had a son, the Due d'Enghien. He had 
 married in spite of his father a niece of Cardinal Eichelieu, 
 and commanded the armies when the king died. At the 
 beginning of the regency he won a battle before Eocroy, 
 which strengthened the good fortune of the queen, and was 
 the first of the fine actions of that young prince, then twenty- 
 two years of age, so brave and with so great a genius for 
 war that the greatest captains of antiquity can scarcely be 
 compared with him. The late king, a few days before his 
 death, dreamed that he saw him giving battle and defeating 
 the enemy at the very spot. This is a matter worthy of 
 wonder, which ought to cause respect for the memory of 
 the king, who, dying amid sufferings, and quitting the world 
 with joy, seems to have had some light upon the future. 
 
 This victory, won at the beginning of the queen's regency, 
 was a good omen for what might follow, and, by making 
 her feared without, put her in a position to manage all 
 things within the kingdom. But the princes of Vendome 
 and the Bishop of Beauvais were growing uneasy. They 
 
78 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap, iil 
 
 now wished to oppose the new-comer, Cardmal Mazarin, and 
 drive him away as an interloper, not liking that any one 
 should share the influence they had with the queen. But 
 they were not able to succeed, and what they did only 
 served to ruin them, 
 
 I have heard it said by Mar^chal d'Estrdes, uncle of the 
 Due de Vendome and brother of the Duchesse de Beaufort 
 whom Henri IV. had thought of marrying, that Cardinal 
 Mazarin, iti the early days of the regency, not knowing 
 which side to turn, tried at first to join that cabal, as the 
 one best established in the mind of the queen, and that he 
 asked him, the mar^chal, to be his negotiator ; and as he 
 was interested in the fortunes of these princes, being their 
 nearest relative, he did his best to attach them to Cardinal 
 Mazarin, whom he had known in Eome when he was sent 
 there as ambassador. He thought him a great politician and 
 a great courtier, and liked him, in consequence, doubly, 
 believing that his ability and his shrewdness of mind would 
 infallibly raise him to favour. It depended, therefore, solely 
 on the Vendome princes whether or not he joined their for- 
 tunes ; but they refused his friendship, from the hatred they 
 felt to everything connected with Cardinal Eichelieu. They 
 could not help seeing, however, that he was a man to fear, 
 not only for his ability, but for his charming manners which 
 might make him beloved by the queen. 
 
 The VendQme princes having thus missed their opportu- 
 nity and refused alliance with Cardinal Mazarin, the for- 
 times of that minister took a turn, but only to rise the 
 faster and show the inconstancy of the things of this world. 
 I know from the queen that one evening ia the early days 
 of her power she asked Lord Montague, who often spoke to 
 her of Cardinal Mazarin, whether she could trust him, and 
 what his natural temper was; and that Lord Montague 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 79 
 
 having told her, in his praise, that he was the opposite in all 
 things of Cardinal Eichelieu, that answer seemed to her 
 such great eulogy, through the hatred she had to the memory 
 of the dead man, that it helped her much in determining to 
 use him. And after she had taken this resolution it was so 
 fully confirmed daily that it soon became immovable ; and 
 he, as prime minister, took the habit, as I said before, of com- 
 ing every evening to converse with her. These conferences 
 began from that time to be called " the little council." He 
 remained a long time with the queen, all the doors being 
 open to the place where she was. He related to her the 
 various foreign affairs of which he had been master during 
 the lifetime of the late king, having made himself (before 
 becoming cardinal) capable of serving her well through the 
 many high offices he had filled, whether in foreign affairs 
 and in the interests of various princes, the King of Spain, 
 and the Due de Savoie, or through the services he had given 
 to France (which made him a cardinal) and the lessons he 
 had derived from that able minister Cardinal Eichelieu — 
 whom would to God he had more closely resembled in 
 certain ways. 
 
 It is not astonishing that the queen followed his advice. 
 The great reputation he had acquired in Italy, where, by a 
 flourish of his hat, he was able, though at that time only 
 il Signor Giulio, to stop the armies on the point of combat- 
 ing, won him that of cardinal ; and the great affairs he had 
 negotiated with Cardinal Richelieu made the latter conceive 
 so high an esteem for him that, intending to make him his 
 successor, he had given him all the instructions necessary to 
 serve France, binding him firmly to carry out his principles 
 and perfect them. 
 
 Every one knew that Cardinal Mazarin had been named 
 in the declaration of the late king as prime minister, because 
 
80 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 Cardinal Eichelieu, before dying, had assured the kiag that 
 he knew no one more capable than he of filling the place. 
 And this declaration the queen made use of to obtaia 
 approval for her own choice of him. I know, as to that, that 
 this lucky minister, beiag persuaded of his luck by that 
 which he had already found ta all phases of his life, said 
 to one of his friends (the Mardchale d'Estrdes), while the 
 decision was pending, that he was not troubled on that point, 
 but merely that he did not as yet see how to spiegar le vele 
 piil larghe (put on all sail). 
 
 Here, then, was Cardinal Mazarin, his favour already con- 
 spicuous through the crowd that was beginning to surround 
 him. He replaced Chavigny in the ministry, being unable 
 not to keep his word or refuse his obligations to those who 
 had placed him near the queen, but he held him aloof from 
 his confidence. He confirmed the queen in the inclina- 
 tion she had to allow the Duchesse d'AguUlon to retain 
 Havre, and he prevented her from ruining the relatives of 
 Cardinal Eichelieu by telling her that they, having no pro- 
 tection but hers, would doubtless be the ones who would 
 serve her best. He did his duty in sustaining those who 
 were left of a great man to whom he owed his grandeur. 
 But, besides this reason, it was shrewd policy, seeing that he 
 had this troop of courtiers on his shoulders, to make power- 
 ful friends of those who held offices and possessed the 
 highest dignities in the kingdom. In this he succeeded so 
 well that in spite of the opposition of the queen's former 
 friends, she relinquished the intention she had had of dis- 
 missing Cardinal Eichelieu's followers, and the hatred she 
 had seemed to feel so strongly against them in the early 
 days of her regency. She passed easily to the greatest 
 gentleness towards them, and, by her authority, they almost 
 all became her confidants and were well-treated. 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 81 
 
 This change, -which was ia the first place a counsel 
 received and given from political maxims, readily became 
 in the queen's soul a Christian principle, which her virtue 
 and clemency made her value; and as she was capable 
 of being deceived under a semblance of good, it is to be 
 believed that Cardinal Mazarin, without being generous, 
 advised her to act generously, intending to weaken the 
 impulse of her heart towards hatred as well as towards 
 friendship, so that, becoming indifferent to revenge, she 
 might be more susceptible to the impressions he wanted to 
 give her for his own interests. The queen, thinking his 
 advice to be good and sincere, followed it without objection 
 and even with some satisfaction, believing that she com- 
 bined the good of the State with the pleasure of conquering 
 herself in her resentment. 
 
 The favour of the cardinal was therefore more and more 
 established in the mind of the queen, and the Vendome 
 party became truly alarmed by it. They made every effort 
 to oppose it and to bring the queen back to her first feelings. 
 But opposition has this quality, it excites the desire and the 
 wlU. to resist and combat. The queen was determined to 
 defend and maintain her minister by force of reason. She 
 openly declared that she chose to make use of it, and said 
 to all those who spoke to her, that his policy was sound in 
 advising her not to enter upon any plans of vengeance, 
 unworthy of a Christian and royal soul; and she freely 
 showed to certain of her servitors that she should be very 
 glad if they accommodated themselves to her inclination 
 and will. Then, paying but little attention to the Bishop of 
 Beauvais, she showed by all her actions that she had given 
 her entire confidence to Cardinal Mazarin. 
 
 He was capable of pleasing by his adroit mind, shrewd 
 and clever at intrigue, and by a manner and behaviour full 
 
 yOL. 1. — 6 
 
82 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 of gentleness, far removed from the severity of the preced- 
 ing reign and well-suited to the queen's natural kindness. It 
 has been thought that he was not worthy of her esteem ; but 
 it is true, nevertheless, that he had laiidable qualities which 
 were fitted to repair the defects that were in him, although, 
 increased by envy, those defects made him hated and de- 
 spised by the people and by many honourable men. The 
 queen had reason to esteem the beauty of his mind, his 
 capacity, and the signs he gave her of his moderation. She 
 readily believed that he was virtuous iu all things because 
 he had no apparent vice or evil qualities that she could 
 then perceive; and although she judged him rather too 
 favourably, the infinite difference between him and the 
 Bishop of Beauvais renders the queen praiseworthy for her 
 discernment. 
 
 The Court being in this state, favour was stiD. unsettled ; 
 for, to the eyes of the public it did not seem as fixed as it 
 really was, on account of the great stir which the princes 
 of Venddme still made. But this disturbance no longer had 
 much force except through the unbridled audacity of the 
 Due de Beaufort, who, young and well-made, with many 
 friends and a haughty demeanour, seemed to live in the 
 fashion of favourites. Nor could it be imagined that the 
 queen would so quickly abandon those whom, up to that 
 time, she had liked and treated with so many marks of 
 sincere friendship. Cardinal Mazarin had only just dawned 
 into her good-will; she gave him, apparently, no more 
 favourable treatment than she did the Due de Beaufort, 
 who spent whole days beside her, entertaining her gayly 
 and with the freedom that smiling fortune inspires in the 
 favoured. But the need of being served, and the pains the 
 minister took to show that he was sincere and full of kind- 
 ness, made the entire conquest of her confidence at all 
 
1643-1644] MEilOmS OF MADA5IE DE MOTTEVILLE. 83 
 
 moments easy to Mm. The duke, his competitor, mingled 
 ■what he had of good and praiseworthy with many defects; 
 his youth deprived him of experience, his natural intelli- 
 gence was very limited, he talked boldly and talked ill ; it 
 is not surprising, therefore, that so many bad points pro- 
 duced much that was not advantageous to him. 
 
 About this time an affair happened which disclosed the 
 intrigues of the Com-t, and was the cause of Cardinal 
 Mazai-in's finding himself, soon after, completely established 
 in the power and eminence that he desired. It was by a 
 special providence of God that the very things which mis- 
 chief-makers tried to use to overturn the Court were actually 
 what brought it into order, — at the cost, however, of a few 
 worthy persons. 
 
 "Women are usually the originating causes of the great 
 convulsions of States, and wars which ruin kingdoms and 
 empires proceed nearly always from the effects produced by 
 their beautj" or theii- malice. The Duchesse de Montbazon, 
 who, in our time, held the first rank for beauty and gallan- 
 try, being the mother-in-law of the Duchesse de Che^^:euse, 
 belonged with the latter to the Yendome cabal, not so 
 much out of interest for her daughter-in-law, but because 
 the Due de Beaufort was her lover. Consequently, both 
 these ladies were opposed to the Pi-incesse de Cond^ who 
 liked neither the one nor the other, and who favoured the 
 cai'dinal because of her hatred to ChSteaimeuf, the Keeper 
 of the Seals. 
 
 Besides these contending interests, there was another very 
 strong one between Madame de Longueville, daughter of 
 the Princesse de Cond^, and the Duchesse de Montbazon. 
 This j-oung and beautiful demoiselle de Bourbon had been 
 forced by the prince her father to marrj- the Due de Longue- 
 ville, who was the greatest seigneur, by reason of his vast 
 
84 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. in. 
 
 property, whom she could have married. He followed in 
 precedence the priaces of the blood ; but he could not con- 
 sider himself wholly worthy of her, because of his birth, and 
 because of his age, and also because he was in love with 
 Madame de Montbazon. These two ladies, therefore, with 
 many reasons not to like each other, had strong inclinations 
 to do each other harm ; and the perfect beauty of Madame 
 de LonguevHle, her youth, and her natural grandeur led her 
 often to look down upon her rival with contempt. 
 
 It happened one day that, Madame de Montbazon being 
 at home in her house with a great company, one of her young 
 ladies found a letter in the room, and picking it up carried 
 it to her mistress. The letter was in a woman's handwriting 
 and was tenderly addressed to some man whom she did not 
 hate. As such matters are usually the talk of all companies 
 and preferred to all else, the subject of laughter thus afforded 
 to Madame de Montbazon's company was not neglected. 
 From gayety they passed to curiosity, from curiosity to 
 suspicion, and from suspicion they ended by deciding that 
 the letter had fallen from the pocket of Coligny, who had 
 just left the room, and who, it was whispered, had a passion 
 for Madame de LongueviLle. This princess had a great 
 reputation for virtue and prudence, although she was sus- 
 pected of not hating adoration and praise. 
 
 Those of Madame de Montbazon's company who first said, 
 after her, that this letter was from Madame de LonguevOle, 
 did not really believe it. It was then only an amusing story 
 which each told secretly to friends, merely to divert those 
 who had not heard it. But it was not long ia reaching the 
 ears of the Princesse de Condd, who, with her proud and 
 vindictive nature, resented it keenly, and it is impossible to 
 say to what lengths she might not have carried her wrath 
 and indignation. Madame de Longueville, who did not feel 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 85 
 
 the matter less, but was more self-controlled, thought it 
 advisable not to make a stir. The jealousy she felt of 
 Madame de Montbazon, being proportioned to the love she 
 had for her husband, did not carry her so far but what she 
 thought it best to overlook the outrage ; for it was of such 
 a nature that she desired to smother it rather than make 
 it the occasion of a solemn vengeance. 
 
 The Princess, her mother, was actuated by other great 
 interests. She knew how to profit by her advantage in 
 having entered the house of Bourbon ; and being unable to 
 restrain herself she made this quarrel a State affair. She 
 came to see the queen and complained loudly of Madame 
 de Montbazon. The Court was divided. The women, who 
 had respect for the princess and little esteem for her enemy, 
 ranged themselves on her side; while nearly all the men 
 went over to Madame de Montbazon ; as many as fourteen 
 princes were said to have gone to see her. This glory, with 
 the pleasure of avenging herself on Madame de Longueville, 
 who had married the lover she hoped to make her husband 
 as soon as her present one, who was very old, was dead, 
 were matters that gave much joy to a malicious woman who 
 desired no other reputation than that of making a brilKant 
 appearance and of having many lovers. 
 
 But all the abettors of her vanity were soon after com- 
 pelled to desert her from the fear they had of the young 
 Due d'Enghien, who, when he heard of the anger of the 
 princess his mother, showed plaiuly that he meant to support 
 the interests of his sister with much warmth. That fear 
 made them all withdraw quickly, for he alone was worth 
 the fourteen other princes put together. Among this num- 
 ber must be excepted, in the matter of esteem, M. de 
 Nemours who had just married Mademoiselle de Vendome, 
 an amiable prince and one of great worth. 
 
86 MEMOinS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 The queen, who had always liked the Prmcesse de Cond^, 
 was much disposed to favour her; she was mother of the 
 Due d'Enghien who had just won a battle and was already 
 making himself feared ; it was necessary to conciliate her in 
 every way lest the peace of the regency be troubled. These 
 considerations carried the day against all the rest. The 
 thing in itself was compelling, and the right on the side of 
 these persons obliged her to protect the fame of Madame de 
 Longueville, who, besides her birth, had noble qualities, 
 whose reputation had never yet been attacked, and who was 
 very amiable personally. 
 
 She was at this time pregnant, and had gone to La Barre, 
 a country-house near Paris, to escape the first annoyance of 
 this affair and to rest. The queen went to see her to com- 
 fort her and promise her protection. After the opening 
 speeches of civility, the Princesse de Cond^ took the queen 
 into an inner room where mother and daughter threw them- 
 selves at her feet and asked justice for the outrage Madame 
 de Montbazon had done to them. This they did with such 
 feeling and tears that the queen, having done me the honour 
 to tell me these particulars on her return from Barre, said to 
 me that the princesses had made her pity them and she had 
 promised they should be entirely justified. Which was done 
 with all requisite ceremony, and in a manner that satisfied 
 them. 
 
 The Due de Beaufort, the great supporter of Madame de 
 Montbazon, was beginning to fall from his first favour, which 
 had dazzled every one. In spite of his love for Madame de 
 Montbazon, the queen now favoured the Princesse de Cond^ 
 and Madame de Longueville. He asked for the admiralship ; 
 it was refused him because Cardinal Mazarin had previously 
 induced the queen to give it to the Due de Brez^ nephew of 
 Cardinal Eichelieu. The latter was already in possession 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 87 
 
 and deserved it, but the office would have been taken from 
 him had it not been for the cardinal. 
 
 This change in the queen's mind was very displeasing to 
 the opposiag cabal, but it keenly affronted the Due de 
 Beaufort personally. He was amazed to be refused a favour 
 he had expected and which he openly said the queen had 
 promised him. His resentment made him resolve to get rid 
 of the minister, who was beginning to brave him on all 
 occasions ; and the minister, seeing plainly how these people 
 wished his downfall, determined to use the anger of the 
 Princesse de Cond^ to drive them out and ruin them, if he 
 could. 
 
 That which proceeded from the malignity of Madame de 
 Montbazon, seeking as much to gratify her private passion 
 as to do harm to those who supported Cardinal Mazarin, 
 served the cardinal usefully in getting rid of his enemies 
 and in annihilating the cabals against him. As he had more 
 intelligence than they, and that sort of cabinet intelligence 
 which can work so many machines, it was easy for him to 
 use these petty events to further his great designs. He was 
 insinuating; he knew how to employ his kindness to his 
 own advantage; he had the art of charming men and of 
 making himself beloved by those to whom fate subjected 
 him; just as he had that of making himself hated and de- 
 spised by those who were dependent on him, because he had 
 the essential defects of great baseness of soul, avarice, and 
 insincerity. I have heard it said by a person who knew htm 
 intimately in Eome (the Mar^chale d'Estrdes) that when his 
 fortunes were only moderate he was the most agreeable 
 man in the world ; which made me conclude that we ought 
 not to feel surprised if he was able to please a great queen 
 and two princes like Monsieur and the Prince de Cond^ 
 (to whom he at first deferred in all things), while at the 
 
88 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap, iii 
 
 same time he made himself disliked by aU France with 
 many signs of contempt and hatred. 
 
 The queen, to pacify these little disturbances, which she 
 regarded as trifles, ordered that the Duchesse de Montbazon 
 should go to the Princesse de Cond^ and not only make 
 excuses to her, but also public reparation for what had been 
 said either by her or by those who were at her house. The 
 speech she was to make for this pm-pose was written out in 
 the little salon at the Louvre on the tablets of Cardinal 
 Mazarin, who was apparently working to pacify the quarrel 
 to the satisfaction of both parties. I was present on the 
 evening that all these important trifles were discussed ; and 
 I remember that I wondered in my soul at the follies and 
 the silly preoccupations of that society. I saw the queen in 
 the large cabinet and the Princesse de Condd, excited and 
 terrible, with her, making a crime of Ifese majestd out of the 
 affair. Madame de Chevreuse, involved for many reasons in 
 the quarrel of her mother-in-law, was with the cardinal com- 
 posing the speech that Madame de Montbazon was to make. 
 Over every word parleys were held. The cardinal, playing 
 the go-between, went from one side to the other to settle 
 their differences, as if this peace were necessary to the wel- 
 fare of France and to his own in particular. I never saw, 
 as I think, such complete mummery ; for the thing in itself 
 was nothing at all ; such things, and worse, happen every day 
 not only to private persons, princes, and princesses, but to 
 kings and queens. Crowned heads are, in every way, the 
 most exposed to the injustice of evil tongues ; the most 
 reasonable among them endeavour not only not to feel it, 
 but not to punish it ; they know, and ought to know, that it 
 is an irremediable eviL There is no place in the world 
 where tongues are more licentious or minds more unchained 
 in judging HI and speaking ill of sovereigns than our France. 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 89 
 
 Every one declaims freely against king and ministers, every 
 one takes upon himself to censure them freely, and no one 
 thinks it improper. But fate chose that in this particular 
 affair the license thus practised should have results of the 
 greatest consequence. 
 
 It vras finally settled that the criminal duchess should go 
 the next morning to the princess ; where she was to say that 
 the talk made about the letter was false, and the invention 
 of malignant minds ; ^ and that, for her part, she had never 
 thought it, knowing too well the virtue of Madame de 
 Longueville and the respect which she owed to her. This 
 speech was written out in a little note attached to her fan 
 in order that she might say it word for word to the princess. 
 She did this in the haughtiest and proudest maimer possible ; 
 making a grimace which seemed to say, "I scoff at all I 
 say." 
 
 The Princesse de Cond^ after this satisfaction, entreated the 
 queen to permit that she might never be in the same place 
 with the Duchesse de Montbazon, which the queen granted 
 readily. She was glad to do her that kindness, thinking the 
 matter of no great consequence, though difficult to execute. 
 It happened, some days later, that Madame de Chevreuse 
 gave a collation to the queen in Eegnard's garden at the end 
 of the Tuileries. The queen, wishing to take the Princesse 
 de Cond^ with her, assured her that Madame de Montbazon 
 would not be present because she knew she had taken medi- 
 cine that morning. On this assurance the princess risked 
 accompanying her. But when the queen entered the garden 
 she was told that Madame de Montbazon was already there, 
 
 1 I ought to say here that it was known for a certainty that this letter 
 found in Madame de Montbazon's salon was written to Maulerrier by 
 a lady [Madame de TonqueroUes, author of Memoirs of no value], 
 who was very unworthy of being compared to Madame de Longueville. 
 (Author's note.) 
 
90 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 assuming to do the honours of the collation as mother-in-law 
 of the lady who gave it. 
 
 The queen was much surprised; she had promised security 
 to the princess and was greatly embarrassed at the luckless 
 encovmter. The Princesse de Cond(5 made a motion to retire 
 in order not to trouble the f gte ; but the queen retained her, 
 saying that she herself must remedy the matter inasmuch as 
 it was on her word that the princess came. To do this with- 
 out an uproar, she sent to beg Madame de Montbazon to 
 pretend to be taken ill and to withdraw, in order to relieve 
 her from the embarrassment in which she found herself. 
 
 But that lady, knowing the cause of her little banishment, 
 would not consent to flee before her enemy, and was stupid 
 enough to refuse this compliance to one to whom she owed 
 much more. The queen was offended at such resistance ; she 
 would not allow the Princesse de Cond6 to go away alone, but 
 she herself, declining the collation and the promenade, re- 
 turned to the Louvre, much irritated at the little respect 
 Madame de Montbazon had shown to her. As kings are 
 usually far above those who offend them, they can easily 
 avenge themselves. The next day the queen sent a com- 
 mand to Madame de Montbazon to absent herself from 
 Court, and to go to one of her country-houses. This she did 
 at once, to the great regret of her friends, and even to that 
 of the Due d'Orleans, who, having loved her in former days, 
 still remembered that fact. He could offer no remedy, 
 however, for the queen was angry. She had reason to be 
 so, and her minister thought it expedient, even more for 
 his own interests than because of the affront offered to 
 her. 
 
 This dismissal was immediately followed by that of the 
 Due de Beaufort and of the whole troop of " the Importants." 
 The intimacy he had with the exiled duchess, the anger he 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 91 
 
 showed ill finding that the cardinal had taken his favour 
 from him, the hatred that the Prince de Condd, the princess, 
 and Madame de Longueville felt against the whole cabal, but 
 above all, the necessity which the cardinal felt to ruin him, 
 led finally to his disgrace, caused the disaster of his life, and 
 strangled the great hopes he had conceived, with some rea- 
 son, of his future fortunes. He was unlucky enough to be 
 unable to accommodate himself to the inclinations of the 
 queen, who had always shown much friendship and con- 
 fidence in him. In fact it was that which spoilt him ; wish- 
 ing to possess that favour for himself alone, he could not 
 endure to share it with another, to fail towards those he de- 
 sired to place in the first rank, or to submit himself to the 
 authority of a foreigner who was no friend to him. Conse- 
 quently, being allied to those now out of favour, he was 
 dragged down by them ; and, by his fate and that of others, 
 he fell, and found himself reduced to a most deplorable 
 condition. 
 
 He was suddenly accused of intending to assassinate 
 Cardinal Mazarin, and the queen became convinced that he 
 had twice thought of doing so. What I know of my own 
 knowledge is that certain friends of the Due de Beaufort did 
 not altogether deny it to me; and it is true that on the 
 morrow of that day the rumour was strong at Court that an 
 intention existed to murder Cardinal Mazarin. On this 
 rumour, a great many persons came to the Louvre ; and the 
 queen seemed to me very Hi-pleased with the Due de Beau- 
 fort and the whole cabal of " the Importants." She said to 
 me, when I went up to her and asked the cause of the 
 tumult, — 
 
 " You will see before twice twenty-four hours go by how I 
 avenge myself for the ill-turns these evil friends have done 
 me." 
 
92 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap, m, 
 
 As I was then without interests and without passion, and 
 was by nature rather discreet, I kept in my own heart, very 
 secretly, what the queen had done me the honour to tell me, 
 and waited, very attentive to observe and see the result of 
 the two days of which the queen had notified me. Never 
 will the memory of those few words be effaced from my 
 mind. I saw at that moment by the fire that blazed in the 
 eyes of the queen, and by the things that actually happened 
 on the morrow and even the same night, what a royal per- 
 sonage is when angry and able to do whatever she wills. 
 
 That same evening the Duo de Beaufort, as he returned 
 from hunting, met, on entering the Louvre, Madame de 
 Guise, and Madame de VendOme, his mother, with Madame 
 de Nemours, his sister, who had been with the queen all 
 day. They had heard the rumour of assassination and 
 had seen the emotion on the face of the queen. For this 
 reason they did all they could to prevent the duke from 
 going up to her, telling him that his friends were of opinion 
 that he ought to absent himself for a few days and see what 
 would happen. But he, not disturbed, continued his way, 
 and replied to them, what the Due de Guise had said before 
 he was killed, "They will not dare." He was bold, and 
 still intoxicated with the belief of his favour. He had seen 
 the queen in the morning, or on the evening of the preced- 
 ing day, when she spoke to him with her usual sweetness 
 and familiarity, so that he never imagined that his fate could 
 change so readily. He therefore entered the queen's pres- 
 ence in this perfect security. 
 
 He found her in the great cabinet of the Louvre, where 
 she received him amiably, and asked him a few questions 
 about the hunt, as if she had no other thought in her mind. 
 She had learned to dissimulate from the late king, her hus- 
 band, who had practised that ugly virtue with more per- 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 93 
 
 fection than any other prince in the world. But finally, 
 after fulfilling with fine acting all that policy required of 
 her, and the cardinal having entered during this suave con- 
 versation, the queen rose, told the cardinal to follow her, 
 and went, as if to hold the little council, into her own room. 
 The Due de Beaufort then, intending to leave by the little 
 cabinet, found there Guitaut, captain of the queen's guards, 
 who arrested him and commanded him in the name of the 
 king and queen to follow him. The prince, without seeming 
 astonished, looked at him fixedly, and said, " Yes, I am 
 wniing; but it is, I acknowledge, rather strange." Then 
 turning to Madame de Chevreuse and Madame de Hautefort, 
 who were in the room and conversing together, he said to 
 them, " Mesdames, you see that the queen has ordered my 
 arrest." 
 
 No doubt they were much surprised by the affair and 
 pained by it, for they were friends of his; as for him, I 
 think that vexation and anger filled his soul completely. 
 He never imagined that after the service he had rendered 
 the queen in her misfortunes she could ever resolve on 
 treating him so ill. He was not a man disillusioned of the 
 things of this world, nor one who could make the solid judg- 
 ment that a reasoning mind would have made; he was a 
 man of intelligence in many things, but strongly attached to 
 the false glory that goes with favour ; consequently, he was 
 ill-pleased to find himself deceived and his finest hopes be- 
 trayed ; but as he was a man of courage, he put a good face 
 on his misfortune. 
 
 The next day, very early, the prisoner was taken to the 
 forest of Vincennes. They gave him one of the king's valets 
 to serve him, and a cook. His friends complained that 
 his own servants were not given to him, but the queen, to 
 whom I spoke of it at their request, assured me it was not 
 
94 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 the custom. Commands were sent to M. and Madame de 
 VendSme, and M. de Mercceur, elder brother of the Due de 
 Beaufort, and other of « the Importants " to leave Paris in- 
 stantly, on which they retired to their country-places. M. de 
 Vendome at first excused himself on the ground of being 
 ill ; but to hasten his departure and make it more comfort- 
 able, the queen sent him her own litter. 
 
 The downfall of the Due de Beaufort was followed by 
 that of the Bishop of Beauvais, who could not hold out 
 against a competitor as powerful as Cardinal Mazarin. The 
 hat which had been asked for him was countermanded. 
 He seemed to quit the Court without regret, and went to 
 find in his diocese of Beauvais a better master than the best 
 and greatest kings of this world can ever be ; and there he 
 lived a saintly life for the rest of his days. This was a mat- 
 ter of which one cannot speak without blaming the queen, 
 because she might have made the bishop a cardinal without 
 keeping him as minister. He was a worthy man, very pious 
 and very peaceable; so that he could have lived at her 
 Court beside her, without suspicion that his intrigues would 
 ever trouble the State. He deserved much from her (she 
 even owed him a great deal of money), and was very faith- 
 ful to her. The money, no doubt, was paid, but his fidelity, 
 which was worth more than the wealth of the Indies, was 
 very lU rewarded. 
 
 Madame de Chevreuse, disgusted at seeing all her friends 
 exiled and ill-treated and her own influence lessening day 
 by day, complained to the queen of the little consideration 
 she showed to her old servants. The queen requested her 
 not to interfere, but to leave her to govern the State and 
 choose what minister she pleased and manage her affairs in 
 her own way. She advised her, as she did me the honour to 
 tell me, to live pleasantly in France, not to mix herself in 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 95 
 
 any intrigue, but to enjoy under her regency the peace she 
 had never had in the days of the late king. She represented 
 to her that it was time to find pleasure in retreat and to 
 regulate her life on thoughts of the other world. She told 
 her that she promised her her friendship on that condition ; 
 but, that if she chose to trouble the Court and meddle in 
 matters in which she forbade her to take part, it would 
 force her, the queen, to send her away, and that she could 
 promise her no other favour than that of being the last 
 person dismissed. 
 
 Madame de Chevreuse did not take these remonstrances 
 and counsels in the spirit that is practised in convents ; she 
 did not believe that charity and a care for her salvation 
 were their principal motive. It is not in a Court that such 
 merchandise is sold in good faith ; nor is it there received 
 with humility. Thoughts of retreat from the world do not 
 enter hearts from human motives ; on the contrary, nothing 
 makes minds so rebellious as preachments against their 
 grain. This one had precisely that effect ; and as the queen 
 received no satisfaction from her answer or her conduct, the 
 displeasure increased on her side, and Madame de Che- 
 vreuse, aware that the good-will of the queen was lessening 
 towards her every day, was not surprised when at last she 
 received an order to go to Tours or to one of her country- 
 houses. 
 
 She left the Court and was several days in her own house ; 
 but, imable to stay quietly in retreat, she started in disguise, 
 with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, her daughter, intending to 
 go to England, but was taken ill and remained in the island 
 of Guernsey, where she suffered much misery. From there 
 she went to Flanders, where the poor Due de Lorrame, ban- 
 ished as he was, received her most kindly for the second 
 time, and assisted her much. Cardinal Mazarin said, to 
 
96 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. in. 
 
 excuse himself for her dismissal, that she had too much 
 love for Spain, and wanted so urgently to have peace made 
 for the advantage of Spaniards that he could never acquire 
 her friendship. 
 
 I have heard it said, by those who knew her intimately 
 that no one ever understood so well the interests of all 
 princes, or talked of them better, or had more capacity to 
 disentangle great affairs; but it never seemed to me from 
 her conduct that her ideas were as great as her reputation. 
 As she had intelligence and experience among foreigners it 
 is to be believed, without saying too much in her favour, 
 that she may have been capable of giving advice as to the 
 peace ; but we may also say of her with justice that those 
 who examined what seemed good in her found many defects. 
 She was vague in speech, and much occupied by chimeras 
 which her inclination for intrigue suggested to her. It is 
 also to be presumed that her judgments were not always 
 regulated by reason, but that her passions contributed to 
 form them. The queen and her minister had some cause 
 therefore to fear her. I heard her say of herself (one day 
 when I was praising her for having played a part in all the 
 great affairs which had happened in Europe) that ambition 
 had never touched her heart, and that jjleasure alone had 
 led her ; that is to say, she had been interested in the affairs 
 of the world solely in relation to those she loved. 
 
 In the person of Madame de Hautefort we shall now 
 [1644] see the fate of the whole group of "the Importants" 
 accomplished. The queen had quitted the Louvre, where 
 her apartment did not please her, and had taken up her 
 abode in the Palais-Eoyal, which Cardinal Eichelieu when 
 dying had bequeathed to the late king. In the begmning 
 of her residence there she was very ill with a dreadful jaun- 
 dice, considered by the doctors to come solely from vexa- 
 
1643-1644J MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 97 
 
 tions and sadness. The vexations she received from the 
 many complaints made against her government troubled 
 her; the management of public affairs brought her much 
 embarrassment; and the pain she felt iu being forced to 
 cause imhappiness made so great an impression on her miad 
 that her body, sharing these sufferings, felt them too much. 
 Her sadness being dissipated after a while, and her illness 
 also, she determined to think of nothing but enjoying the 
 rest she gave herself by laying upon her minister the cares 
 and the business of the State, believing that henceforth she 
 would be as happy as she was powerful. 
 
 Madame de Hautefort, who had never been able to con- 
 quer the hatred she felt for Cardinal Mazarin, was the only 
 person who now troubled the calm of the queen's soul, not 
 only because she could not endure the minister, but because 
 her self-sufficient mind, turning to piety, began to take up 
 sentiments that made her stern, rather annoying, and too 
 critical. All that the queen did displeased her ; and as she 
 stUl retained something of her old familiarity with her, she 
 was constantly saying rough things and showing plainly 
 that she did not approve of her conduct in any way. The 
 queen could not endure this behaviour, and the cardinal, who 
 desired the dismissal of the lady, did not fail to embitter the 
 queen's mind against her. So that her lectures on gener- 
 osity were considered to be tacit reproaches ; and such con- 
 duct, lacking all prudence, caused her finally to lose the 
 good graces of one who, up to that time, had treated her as 
 a dear friend. 
 
 One day in the year 1644, having, as usual, had the 
 honour of passing the evening with the queen up to mid- 
 night, we left Madame de Hautefort talking with the 
 princess in perfect freedom and with the pleasure that her 
 presence and the favour she did us in allowing us to be 
 VOL. I. — 7 
 
98 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 with her always gave us. The queen was just about to go 
 to bed and had only her last prayer to say when we left her 
 and retired, Mademoiselle de Beaumont, the Commander 
 de Jars, my sister, and myself. At this moment Madame 
 de Hautefort, always thinking of doiug good, supported 
 (while they were removing the queen's shoes and stockings) 
 the application of one of her women who spoke in favour 
 of an old gentleman, long her servant, who needed some 
 favour. Madame de Hautefort, not finding the queen very 
 willing to help him, said, making her meaning plain by 
 disdainful smiles, that she ought not to forget her old 
 servants. 
 
 The queen, who was waiting for an occasion to dismiss 
 her, contrary to her usual gentleness took fire at this, and 
 said, much displeased and very angry, that she was tired 
 of her reprimands and very much dissatisfied with the 
 manner in which she behaved to her. As she said those 
 important words she threw herself into her bed and ordered 
 her to close the curtains and say no more to her. Madame 
 de Hautefort, astounded at this thimderbolt, fell upon her 
 knees and, clasping her hands, called God to witness her 
 innocence and the sincerity of her intentions, protesting 
 to the queen that she believed she had never failed in 
 serving her, or in her duty to her. She went to her room 
 after that, deeply moved by the iucident, and I may say 
 much afflicted. The next day the queen sent her word 
 to leave the palace and take with her her sister, Made- 
 moiselle d'Escars, who had always been in service with the 
 queen. 
 
 I was never more astonished than when I heard in the 
 morning, at my waking, this history of what had happened 
 in the short time after we had left Madame de Hautefort 
 with the queen, which had brought such results upon her. 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 99 
 
 It may be said in her defence that her good intentions 
 made her excusable; but the best things are on a level 
 with the worst when they are not wisely done, and virtue 
 taken askew has often caused as much evil as its contrary. 
 As I respected hers, though I saw its imprudence, I went 
 to see her in her chamber. She seemed to me fairly strong 
 under her misfortune — if misfortune it is to leave a Court. 
 After a conversation of an hour, during which she justified 
 herself to me as best she could, I went to find the queen, to 
 whom I related the visit I had just paid, excusing the lady 
 with as much judgment as possible. 
 
 The queen, with feeling, did me the honour to say that 
 I was wrOng not to enter into her just reasons for com- 
 plaint ; that I hardly knew Madame de Hautefort and 
 already my kindness made me excuse her, though I ought 
 to see very plainly that she was to blame. Besides these 
 reproaches to me, she said to Beringhen, shortly after, that 
 she was sorry to see me so quickly engage in friendship 
 with Madame de Hautefort, having but lately returned 
 to Court, and that I ought to have no better friend than 
 herself. 
 
 This complaint was very kind, coming from a great queen 
 who certainly, if I may dare to say so, was my best friend 
 and the one I loved most truly. But as the heart cannot 
 be seen, the queen was for some time rather cold to me, 
 and that did me some harm with the minister, who believed 
 I was against his interests because I seemed to take the 
 part of a dismissed person who was so opposed to him. 
 Nevertheless, I had entered no cabal, my intentions were 
 upright; pity alone had made me act. 
 
 I did not refrain from returning that evening to Madame 
 de Hautefort, who, from having wished to seem strong, 
 had so restrained her grief and weakness within her heart 
 
100 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. in. 
 
 that she nearly died of them. Her illness was so violent 
 that she could not leave her room, in spite of the commands 
 she had received. We f oimd her — Commander de Jars, 
 Mile, de Beaumont, my sister, and myself — in a pitiable 
 state. Her heart, which had not sighed all day, renouncing 
 at last the pride with which she strove to fill it, was now 
 so choked, so wrung, so abandoned to her resentment that 
 I can truly say I never saw anything like it. She sobbed 
 in such a manner that it was easy to see she had much 
 loved the queen, that her dismissal was hard to bear, and 
 that she had not foreseen it. 
 
 We consoled her as best we could; and heartily wished 
 that the queen was capable of softening, and forgiving her. 
 But the next day, being rather better, and relieved by two 
 bleedings which they had to give her during the night, she 
 left the Palais-Eoyal to the regret of every one. For, as 
 disgrace without wrong-doiag has this property, that it kUls 
 envy in the souls of enemies and moves them readily from 
 hatred to pity, so it increases friendship ia friends who are 
 sufficiently honourable persons to love generosity and to 
 excuse faults that result from a virtue so remarkable. 
 
 This illustrious imfortunate shut herself up at first ia a 
 convent, where she remained some time. Then she left it 
 and lived in great retirement, seeiag only her nearest friends. 
 Some years later she married very highly and became a 
 duchess and mardchale of France, having wedded M. de 
 Schomberg, a man sufficiently honourable to prefer merit 
 to favour. I dared no longer go to see her, because when 
 I spoke of her to the queen and asked, as a favour, that she 
 would not think it ill if I went, she answered coldly that 
 I was free, and could do as I wished. I told her, kissing 
 her hand, that I should never wish to do anything that dis- 
 pleased her ; and owing all to her and nothing to Madame 
 
1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 101 
 
 de Hautefort but civility and esteem, I pledged myself not 
 to see her again. The Commander de Jars, who was much 
 more her friend than I was, and never failed in heart to 
 his friends, did as I did, and saw her no more until after 
 her marriage. 
 
IV. 
 
 1 644 — 1 645- 
 
 At the beginniag of the regency the queen had established 
 a council of conscience, at which were decided all matters 
 concerning benefices, the choice of bishops and abb^s, and 
 the distribution of pensions that she wished to give to the 
 glory of God and the advantage of religion. This council 
 existed as long as the minister, seeing his authority thwarted, 
 remained under some restraint; but as soon as he had ac- 
 quired complete dominion over the queen's mind, the council 
 of conscience went off in smoke; he wished to dispose as 
 he pleased, without any contradiction, of the benefices as 
 of everything else, in order that those to whom the queen 
 gave them should be friends of his, without caring much 
 whether they were true servants of Grod, saying that he 
 supposed all priests were that. 
 
 This council consequently served only to exclude those 
 he did not wish to favour; and a few years later it was 
 abolished altogether because P^re Vincent [Saint- Vincent 
 de Paul] who was at its head, being a man of single mind, 
 very devout and pious, who had never dreamed of winning 
 the good graces of the Court people, whose manners and 
 ways he knew not, was easily made, in spite of the queen's 
 esteem for him, the ridicule of the Court; for it is almost 
 impossible that humility, penitence, and gospel simpEcity 
 should accord with the ambition, vanity, and self-interest 
 that reign there. She who had placed him in that position 
 would gladly have maintained him. This is why she still 
 
1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 103 
 
 had several long conversations with him on the scruples 
 which continued in her mind; but she lacked firmness on 
 this occasion, and finally let things go as it pleased her 
 minister, not thinking herself as able as he, or as much so 
 as she really was in many matters ; which made it easy for 
 him to persuade her to do what he chose, and to bring her 
 round, after some resistance, to things he had resolved 
 upon. 
 
 I know nevertheless that, in the choice of bishops espe- 
 cially, she had great pain in yielding, and much more when 
 she recognized that she had followed his advice too easily 
 in these important matters, which she did not always do, and 
 never without privately consulting Pfere Vincent, as long 
 as he lived, or others whom she thought men of worth. 
 But she was sometimes cruelly deceived by the false virtue 
 of those who sought the prelacy, for whom the pious persons 
 on whom she relied to examine them answered perhaps 
 too lightly. However, in spite of the indifference her min- 
 ister seemed to show on this subject, God so favoured this 
 princess that the greater number of those who were raised 
 to that dignity during her regency did their duty and ful- 
 filled their functions with exemplary sanctity. 
 
 The queen had appointed to the finances the president 
 de BaiLlevd, a good man and a judge of great integrity, but 
 too tame and gentle for that office, where justice is not the 
 chief necessary quality. It was important for Cardinal 
 Mazarin to change him for some one less precise but much 
 harsher than he. He did not wish to turn him out at once, 
 but he put d'Emery under him as controller-general with 
 power attached to that office, so that little by little he could 
 install as superintendent of finances a man who was his 
 own creature and over whom he had absolute control, — 
 which happened not long after. 
 
104 MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. iv. 
 
 At the same time the queen, who desired to remove 
 Chavigny from the council, where the cardinal was not over 
 pleased to have him exercise the oifice of secretary of state 
 for foreign affairs (for which he was very capable and through 
 which, having the management of the great matters that 
 came before it, he became necessarily a part of the miuistry), 
 ordered him to resign and sell his office to the Comte de 
 Brienne, who would then sell the one he held in the king's 
 household to Duplessis-Gu&^gaud. As the queen respected 
 de Brienne not only for his integrity but also on account of 
 her friendship for his wife, she gave him two hundred thou- 
 sand francs towards paying for the office, which was sold to 
 him for five hundred thousand. 
 
 The cardinal having no longer any one in the council to 
 cause him jealousy, the Comte de Brienne making no diffi- 
 culty in signing all the despatches they sent to him, nothing 
 remained but the office of secretary of state for war, then 
 held by des Noyers who had been dismissed by the late 
 king. This the minister made him give in commission to 
 Le Tellier,! whom he had known in Italy, and who soon had 
 the full title by the death of des Noyers. He has since 
 never lacked offices, having been very important through- 
 out our period, much liked by the queen, and well regarded 
 by the minister ; and we shall see him play his part in very 
 extraordinary matters. In this way the cardinal had the- 
 gratification of filling for himself the offices of the four 
 secretaries of state, the titular secretaries being merely his 
 clerks. 
 
 After relating thus the state of the Court I think it is 
 right to say something personal of the queen. She waked 
 usually between ten and eleven o'clock, on days of devotion 
 at nine, and she always made a long prayer before calling 
 
 1 Michel Le Tellier, father of the Marquis de Louvois. 
 
1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 105 
 
 those who slept near her. As soon as her wating was 
 annomiced her principal officers came to pay theii- court to 
 her, and often other persons entered, especially certain 
 ladies who came to tell her of alms and charities to be done 
 in Paris, in all France, and even in foreign parts. Her lib- 
 eralities at all times were great, extended usually to what- 
 ever concerned piety, and her attention to all claims on her 
 protection and justice never relaxed. 
 
 Men were not excluded from her audiences. During 
 these early hours she gave them to several, entering into 
 the business they brought before her according as she 
 deemed it necessary. The king never missed, nor did Mon- 
 sieur, coming to see her in the morning; not leaving her 
 again till they went to bed, except for their meals and their 
 games, — their youth not permitting them to eat with her, as 
 they did later. 
 
 After half an hour's conversation, and those who desired 
 to speak with her having had their audience, she rose, put 
 on a dressing-gown, and, after making a second prayer, 
 ate her breakfast with great appetite. Her breakfast was 
 always good, for her health was admirable. After her 
 bouillon she was served with cutlets, sausages, and boiled 
 bread. Usually she ate a little of all, and dined on no less. 
 Then she took her chemise, which the king gave her, kissing 
 her tenderly ; and this custom lasted a long time. After 
 putting on her petticoat, she took a wrapper and a black 
 hongreline, and in that state she heard mass very devoutly ; 
 and that sacred action ended, she returned to her toilet. 
 At this there was unparalleled pleasure in seeing her do 
 her hair and dress herself. She was skilful, and her beauti- 
 ful hands thus employed were the admiration of those who 
 saw them. She had the handsomest hair in the world, of a 
 light chestnut, very long and in great quantity, which she 
 
106 MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. iv. 
 
 preserved for a long time, years having no power to destroy 
 its beauty. She dressed with care and the choiceness per- 
 missible to those who desire to look well without luxury, 
 without gold or silver or paint or any extravagant fashion. 
 It was nevertheless easy to see, in spite of the modesty of 
 her clothes, that she could be influenced by a little vanity. 
 
 After the death of the late king she ceased to wear rouge, 
 which increased the whiteness and nicety of her skin. 
 Instead of diminishing her beauty, this made it the more 
 esteemed, and public approbation soon obliged all ladies to 
 follow her example. She took at this time a habit of keep- 
 ing her room now and then for a day or two to rest, and see 
 only such persons as were most familiar with her and least 
 likely to importune her. On other days she readily gave 
 audience to all who asked for it, whether on general busi- 
 ness or on private matters. As she had good sense and good 
 judgment she satisfied all by her answers, given with kind- 
 ness ; and those who loved her could have wished that she 
 had always acted by her own ideas — as she at first intended, 
 to avoid the blame she saw given to the late king for aban- 
 doning his authority to Cardinal Eichelieu, often saying at 
 that time to her servants that she should never do likewise. 
 But, unhappily for those who were about her, her resolutions 
 were weakened by a desire for repose, and by the trouble she 
 found in the multiplicity of business affairs inseparable from 
 the government of a great kingdom. In course of time, as 
 she became more lazy, she learned by experience that God 
 has not placed kings on thrones to do nothing, but to en- 
 dure some at least of the miseries which are attached to all 
 sorts and conditions of life. 
 
 The queen did not often dine in public served by her 
 officers, but nearly always in her little cabinet served by 
 her women. The king and Monsieur kept her company 
 
1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 107 
 
 and were seldom absent. After her dinner she retired to 
 her own room to be a short time alone; often giving an 
 hour to God in devout reading, which she did in her oratory. 
 After which she held her "circle," or else she went out, 
 either to see nims or pay her devotions ; and on returning 
 she gave some time to the princesses and ladies of quality 
 who came to pay their court to her. 
 
 After the Due d'Orl^ans returned to Court he came 
 daily to see her. The Prince de Cond^ and the Due 
 d'Enghien also came occasionally. But as, at the begumiag 
 of the regency, they were not yet in the little secret council, 
 as they were later, they retired early. The Due d'Orl^ans 
 stayed late, and Cardinal Mazarin never missed this fine 
 evening hour, during which the conversation went on 
 publicly between the queen, the princes, and the minister. 
 At this period, therefore, the Court was a very large one. 
 After this the queen retired to her private rooms. The Due 
 d'Orl^ans then had a private interview and returned to 
 the Luxembourg, leaving Cardinal Mazarin alone with the 
 queen. The minister stayed sometimes an hour, sometimes 
 more. The doors of the rooms remained open after the 
 departure of the Due d'Orl^ans, and the Court people, as- 
 sembled in the little chamber of the Palais-Eoyal adjoining 
 the cabinet, remained there talking until the " little council " 
 was over. When it ended the queen, shortly after, bade 
 good-night to all who composed what is called the great 
 world. The crowd of great seigneurs and courtiers remained 
 in the grand cabinet, and it was there that took place, no 
 doubt, all that gallantry and passionate intrigues can pro- 
 duce. A few men, with four or five persons of our sex, had 
 the honour of remaining with the queen at all hours when 
 she was in private. 
 
 When she had bid good-night, and Cardinal Mazarin had 
 
108 MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. iv. 
 
 left her, she entered her oratory and remained a full hour 
 in prayer; after which she came out to supper at eleven 
 o'clock. Her supper finished, we ate the rest of it, without 
 order or ceremony, using, for all convenience, her napkin and 
 the remains of her bread; and although this meal was ill- 
 arranged, it was not disagreeable, through the quality of the 
 persons present, and because of the jests and the conversa- 
 tion of the queen, who told us good things and laughed 
 much because the women who served her, and who were not 
 the most polite in the world, tried to rob us of all they 
 could to keep it for the morrow. After this feast we fol- 
 lowed her into her cabinet, where a gay and lively conver- 
 sation continued till midnight or one o'clock; and then, 
 after she was undressed, and often when she was in bed and 
 ready to go to sleep, we left her to do likewise. 
 
 We followed this life punctually for several years, even 
 during the little journeys to Fontainebleau and Saint- 
 Germain, unto, the civil war and the siege of Paris, when 
 the troubles became so great as to interrupt its system — I 
 mean as regards our attendance, but not as regards the 
 queen, for she was the most regular person in the world in 
 all her habits of life. She held a council Mondays and 
 Thursdays, and on those days she was beset by crowds of 
 people. She fasted on all appointed days and, in spite of 
 her appetite, all through Lent. When in Paris, she went 
 every Saturday to mass at Notre-Dame, and usually spent 
 the remainder of that day in resting ; taking the greatest 
 pleasure in getting away from the crowd that surrounded 
 her, but which, towards the last, grew accustomed not to 
 importune her as much then as on other days. She took 
 the communion regularly on Sundays and feast-days. On 
 the evening before the great feasts she went to sleep at the 
 Val-de-GrSce, where she resolved to bmld a new monastery. 
 
1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 109 
 
 finer than the one already there, and to add to it a church 
 worthy of a queen, mother of a great king. She gave this 
 in charge of Tuboeuf. There she frequently remaiaed several 
 days, retired from the world, taking pleasure in conversations 
 with the nuns. She sought the most saiatly, accommodating 
 herself to those who had but medium merit ; but whenever 
 they reached her esteem she honoured them with friendship. 
 Good sermons from the sternest preachers were those that 
 pleased her most. She went sometimes, but rarely, to visit 
 the prisons disguised as a servant, and, to my knowledge, 
 she one day followed the Priucesse de Cond^ for that purpose. 
 She had a waiting-maid, a pious and devout woman, who 
 in the first years of her regency was shut up with her every 
 evening in her oratory. The whole duty of that person was 
 to inform the queen of the daily needs, public and private, 
 of the poor, and to receive from her the money to relieve them. 
 She was always touched by things she thought her duty. I 
 have seen her during the war which happened later, when 
 she had no money, sell her diamond ear-rings (which she 
 had had very curiously made) to give money to those who 
 were suffering by it. 
 
 The queen had not yet renounced all the pleasures she 
 had formerly liked and which she thought innocent. Her 
 amusements were all moderate ; she loved nothing ardently. 
 She once liked balls, but had lost the liking with her youth, 
 and her long residence at Saint-Grermain had accustomed 
 her to do without such things. But she went to the theatre 
 half-hidden behind one of us, whom she made to sit forward 
 in the box, not wLLling, during her mourning, to appear 
 publicly in the place she would have occupied in other days. 
 This amusement was not disagreeable to her. Cornenie, 
 the illustrious poet of our epoch, had enriched the stage 
 with noble plays, the moral of which could serve as a lesson 
 
110 MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. it. 
 
 to correct the unruliness of human passions, and among the 
 vain and dangerous occupations of the Court this at least 
 was not among the worst. 
 
 The queen was grave and discreet in all her ways of act- 
 ing and speaking; she was judicious and very secret as to 
 the confidences her familiar servants ventured to make to 
 her. She was liberal by her own impulse; and what she 
 gave she gave with a good grace ; but she often failed to 
 give for want of reflection, and it was necessary to employ 
 too much help to obtain her benefits. This defect, which 
 was not in her heart nor in her will, came from her per- 
 mitting insensibly her resolutions to be formed by the will 
 of others whose advice she respected, and her attendants 
 suffered in consequence. She gave in profusion to certain 
 persons who had the power to persuade her in their favour ; 
 persons who by constant application to their own fortune 
 found means to make it. 
 
 She did not like to read, and knew very little ; but she 
 had intelligence, and an easy, accommodating, and agree- 
 able mind. Her conversation was serious and free both; 
 those she esteemed found great charms in her because she 
 was secret, and always glad to enter into the feelings and 
 interests of those who opened their hearts to her ; and this 
 good treatment made a great impression on the souls of 
 those who loved her. I have spoken elsewhere of her 
 beauty ; I shall only say here that, being agreeable in per- 
 son, gentle and polite in her actions, and familiar with 
 those who had the honour to approach her, she had only to 
 follow her natmral inclinations and show herself as she 
 really was, to please every one. But, in spite of her virtuous 
 inclinations, it was easy for the cardiual, making use of 
 " reasons of State," to change her feelings and make her 
 capable of doing harsh things to those she was- accustomed 
 
1644-1645] MEMOmS OF MADAJIE DE MOTTEVILLE. Ill 
 
 to treat -well. In the beginning of her regency she was 
 much praised for her kindness, and great hopes were founded 
 on its effects. But when she was seen to dismiss those she 
 had formerly reUed on she was loudly condemned. Many 
 publications were issued to decry a goodness which the 
 people had believed in, and with reason. But this belief 
 was held for some time in the rank of things doubtful by 
 those who were now not prosperous enough to be content. 
 
 At the end of the year from the king's death [May, 1644], 
 she quitted her deep mom-ning, which had made her seem 
 beautiful, and the age of forty, so dreadful to our sex, did 
 not prevent her from beiag still agreeable. She had a fresh- 
 ness and plumpness which placed her ta the ranks of the 
 handsomest women of her kingdom, and we saw her, as time 
 went on, increase in years without losing these advantages. 
 
 At the beginning of this year [1644] preparations were 
 made for war. The Due d'Orl^ans went to command the 
 army of Flanders, and the Due d'Enghien [the great Cond4], 
 that of Germany. We shall see the first conquer several 
 fortresses, and the second defeat the enemy with glory and 
 renown. 
 
 President Barillon and several others of the principal 
 parliament leaders were not satisfied because they were less 
 considered than they hoped to be. On the first occasion 
 that oflfered for a mutiny they took it ; they began by com- 
 plaining that the chancellor quashed in the council aU the 
 decrees of the parliament, and they loudly complained of 
 their president, who seemed to consent with too much com- 
 pliance. They assembled and made speeches against the 
 royal authority, censured aU things, and made the Court 
 apprehensive of coming disorders and quarrels. 
 
 The day after this assembly [May 22, 1644], a command 
 was sent to President Barillon, Pi-esident Gayant, and others 
 
112 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. iv. 
 
 of the cabal to retire. President Barillon was a worthy man 
 and much respected ; he had served the queen in the parlia- 
 ment, where he had much influence and reputation. The 
 " Importants " were his friends ; he and they had been ser- 
 vitors of the queen, and were so no longer. He was sent to 
 Pignerol, to the great displeasure of many worthy persons, 
 and he died there a year later regretted by every one. I 
 have heard the queen say that duriag the life of the late 
 king she had had no servant more faithful than this presi- 
 dent, but that as soon as she was regent he abandoned her 
 and disapproved of all her actions. 
 
 Sometime after this dismissal, others of the parliament, 
 rebelling at the rigour they declared had been shown to 
 their company, held several assemblies. They determined 
 to see the queen and complain of the wrong she had done 
 them, and they resolved to go to her without asking for an 
 audience. At this time, though Monsieur had not yet 
 started for the army, he was at one of his country-houses, 
 and Cardinal Mazarin had gone to make a little journey and 
 meet Cardinal de Valengay, who was coming from Eome 
 but was forbidden to enter Paris. 
 
 The queen was in bed, alone in the Palais-Eoyal ; I had 
 the honour of being with her. They came to tell her that 
 the parliament was coming in a body, on foot, to make re- 
 monstrances about the affair of President Barillon. It was 
 easy to see that the object of this assembly was to stir up 
 the people ; and the persons who first gave notice of their 
 coming seemed to me frightened. The queen, who had a 
 firm soul and was not easily startled, showed no uneasiness. 
 She sent for President de BaUleul, superintendent of 
 finances, rather liked in his corps ; and, not willing to close 
 the doors as some advised, she ordered the parliament to be 
 received under the arcade which separated the two arches. 
 
1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 113 
 
 Tliere she sent them word by the captain of her guards and 
 the superintendent that she did not think it right they 
 should come to her without her permission and without 
 asking for an audience ; that they must now return whence 
 they started, for, having taken medicine, she could not see 
 them. 
 
 To their shame they had to do as she commanded; and 
 the queen laughed at me because these old dotards had 
 frightened me so much that I advised her to send for the 
 Mar^chal de Gramont, major of her regiment of guards, so 
 as to have some defenders if the populace should take part 
 in the affair. A few days later an audience was granted on 
 their demand; and their harangues, which demanded the 
 release of President Barillon, were not listened to as re- 
 garded him, but other points of no great weight were 
 granted. After this first commotion, the parliament re- 
 mained for some time rather peaceable, ruminating their 
 designs to infringe on the royal authority, which appeared 
 a few years later. 
 
 When summer weather invited the princes to leave the 
 pleasures of the Court for the toils of wars, the queen 
 thought it time to seek cool airs out of Paris. She wished 
 to pass the great heat at Kuel with the Duchesse d'Aiguillon. 
 That house is very convenient through its vicinity to Paris, 
 and very agreeable from the beauty of its gardens and the 
 number of its streams, which are very natural. The queen 
 took pleasure in the place, where her enemy Cardinal Eiche- 
 lieu had so long received the adoration of aU France. It 
 was not from that motive, however, that she chose it; she 
 had too noble a soul to wish to trouble the repose of the 
 dead by so petty a triumph. It was, on the contrary, to 
 oblige his niece, the Duchesse dAiguillon, and give her 
 marks of royal protection against the Prince de Condd, with 
 
114 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. rv. 
 
 whom she had great differences to settle. It is to be sup- 
 posed, however, that the queen, acting from generosity, had 
 a certain joy in finding herself able to do good by her mere 
 presence to those whom she believed had done her much evil. 
 She took great pleasure in her evening walks during the 
 time she was in this delightful place, and in all the innocent 
 pleasures that its beauty and convenience afforded. But it 
 pleased the people of Paris to rise against certain taxes 
 which were about to be placed on houses, so that the king 
 and herself departed at the end of six weeks in great haste 
 to pacify them, and the whole Court followed them very 
 willingly to Paris. 
 
 One day during the queen's stay at Euel, as she was driv- 
 ing in a caliche through the gardens she noticed Voiture, 
 walking along in a revery. That man had wit, and by the 
 charm of his conversation he was the amusement of the 
 ruelles of those ladies who make it their boast to receive 
 the best company. The queen, to please the Princesse de 
 Cond^ who was seated beside her, asked him what he was 
 thinking of. Voiture, without much reflection, made some 
 burlesque verses in answer to the queen, which were amus- 
 ing and bold. She was not offended by the jest ; in fact, she 
 thought the verses pretty, and kept them for a long time in 
 her room. She did me the honour to give them to me after- 
 wards, and, from the things I have already told about 
 her life, it is easy to understand them. They were as 
 
 follows : — 
 
 " I 'm thinking how that destiny 
 After so many unjust ills, 
 Has justly come to crown you 
 With splendour, honours, glory, 
 But that you were plus heureuse 
 As you were in other days, 
 When — I '11 not say amoureuse 
 Though my rhyme demands it. 
 
1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 115 
 
 " I 'm thinking, too, tow tiiis poor Love, 
 Who always lent you arms, 
 Is hanished from your Court 
 With arrows, bow, and charms ; 
 And what then will it profit me 
 To spend my life beside you, 
 If you can choose to treat so ill 
 Those who have so well served you. 
 
 " I 'm thinking (for we poets 
 Do think extravagantly) 
 Of what, in your present mood, 
 You would do if here before you, 
 In this place and at this moment, 
 Came the Duke of Buckingham ; 
 Which would be the worst dismissed, 
 The duke or Father Vincent." 
 
 I must end this trip to Euel with this trifle, and return to 
 Paris to resume the gravity and seriousness required for that 
 great city. One of our kings [Henri III.] has said that the 
 head of this kingdom was always too big ; that it was full of 
 humours iajurious to the rest of its members, and that a 
 bleeding now and then was necessary. This time, however, 
 the presence of the king and queen pacified everything; it 
 was only a little blaze of straw, which did not in any 
 way prevent the Court from enjoying in peace the comforts 
 and pleasures that are ever to be found in that agreeable 
 region. 
 
 Pope UrbaiQ VIII. died in July, 1644. He had held the 
 Holy See for many years with the reputation of an able 
 man and a great politician. The Cardinals Barberini, his 
 nephews, who were protectors of Prance, were left masters 
 of the election of his successor. Several partisans of Spain 
 who sought to be raised to that dignity were opposed, par- 
 ticularly the Cardinal Pamphilo, who seemed to have more 
 claim to it than any other; but finally, the king did not 
 
116 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. iv. 
 
 prevail; the Barberinis served France very ill on tliis 
 occasion. 
 
 In this same month, the Queen of England, whom her 
 rebellious people had driven into a little corner of her king- 
 dom to give birth to her last child, was forced, only seven- 
 teen days later, to escape to France to avoid what she had to 
 fear from the hatred of her subjects, who were at open war 
 with their king, and wished to take her prisoner, perhaps to 
 begin on her the lack of respect they owed to royalty. This 
 princess, after being the most fortunate and most opulent of 
 all the queens of Emope, with three crowns upon her head, 
 was reduced to such a state that in order to lie-in it was 
 necessary that our queen should send her Madame Peronne, 
 her own midwife, and even the slightest articles that were 
 necessary to her condition. 
 
 She had been taken to Ozford by the king her husband, 
 who left her there; but having reason to fear that his 
 enemies would besiege her, she started hastily for Exeter, 
 where she gave birth to her child in the poverty I have just 
 represented. She was ill with a serious malady which pre- 
 ceded her pregnancy, and in no state to help her husband. 
 In this extremity she was forced to take shelter from the 
 dangers with which her person and health were threatened. 
 She wished to come to her native country, to drink the 
 waters at Bourbon and find safety for her life which was 
 in danger. 
 
 In France she was received with joy. The populace, 
 regarding her as the sister, daughter, and aunt of their 
 kings, respected her ; the queen was delighted to help her 
 in her troubles and to soften them as much as she could; 
 although she had never been well-treated by her, who had, 
 on the contrary, caused her many griefs while still in France. 
 For the princess, being supported by the queen-mother [Marie 
 

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 117 
 
 de' Medici] who did not like the queen, did her those little 
 malicious things which are great ills to those who receive 
 them at certain times, but are not capable of altering friend- 
 ship as soon as they are things of the past. The King of 
 England had contributed much to soften these dislikes ; for 
 after his marriage he took pleasure in all opportunities of 
 obliging our queen, particularly in the person of Madame 
 de Chevreuse during her first exile. So that when the 
 Queen of England arrived in France, the queen had a fine 
 occasion to return in person to that afflicted princess all that 
 she owed to the King of England; and the two princesses 
 having changed in feeling, the one was truly glad to oblige 
 the other, and she who was thus well received and well 
 treated showed the greatest gratitude. 
 
 The Queen of England remained at Bourbon three months 
 endeavouring to recover her health, and our queen offered all 
 that depended on the king and herself. I had the honour of 
 approaching this imhappy princess familiarly, and I heard 
 from her the beginning and end of their misfortunes, for she 
 did me the honour to relate them to me in that solitary place, 
 where peace and rest reigned without disturbance. I left her 
 at Bourbon, where the queen, not contenting herself with the 
 offers she had made to her, which were only compliments, 
 sent her all the money necessary for her subsistence, also 
 great sums which she conveyed to the king her husband. 
 But as that unhappy prince, who was only too good, was 
 destined to serve as a formidable warning to all kings of 
 the weakness of their power, and of the pleasure Fortune 
 sometimes takes in playing with crowns and overthrowing 
 the best-established thrones, taking them and returning 
 them at her caprice, all was useless to him. 
 
 As the memory of King Henri IV. is dear to Frenchmen, 
 the Queen of England, his granddaughter, was constantly fol- 
 
118 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. iv. 
 
 lowed by a great crowd of people mnning to see her. She 
 was very ill and much changed ; her misfortunes had given 
 her such sadness, and her mind was so fiUed with her sor- 
 rows, that she wept continually, which shows what the suffer- 
 ings of soul and body can do, for by nature this princess was 
 gay and talked pleasantly. But now, in the grievous state 
 to which she was reduced, she said one day to the great 
 physician Mayerne, who attended her, that she felt her miad 
 weakening, and feared that she might become crazy. To which, 
 as she told me, he answered brusquely, " You need not fear 
 it, madame, for you are that already." She certainly found 
 some remedy for her bodUy Uls in France, her native coun- 
 try, the air and the baths of which were beneficial to her, 
 but it needed much time to soften her other woes. I shall 
 tell elsewhere how she seemed to us when we saw her at 
 Court. 
 
 The campaign of the Due d' Enghien increased his reputa- 
 tion to a dazzling glory, and he fought a battle at Fribourg 
 which wUl surely hold a great place isx history ; but as 
 chance willed that I did not remark its particulars, and 
 do not find them in my notes, I shall say no more about it. 
 
 Elisabeth of France, Queen of Spain, died at the begia- 
 ning of this winter, a worthy daughter of Henri le Grand, 
 and most deserving of the esteem that Europe felt for her. 
 She was regretted throughout its whole extent, and her 
 people, who felt a great admiration for her, were afiiicted. 
 The king, her husband, had not always loved her as she 
 deserved, because he was too gallant, not to say worse. But 
 before she died he was beginning to recognize her noble 
 qualities and her capacity. He left her for a time to govern 
 his kingdom, which she did with much glory, so that he re- 
 gretted her greatly. I have heard my late mother (who had 
 the honour to know her on her return from Spain and before 
 
1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 119 
 
 the princess left France) say that she was beautiful and 
 agreeable, and glad of the prospect of being queen of so 
 grand a kingdom. She lived there some years pleasantly. 
 The Prince of Spain was handsome and well-made, and 
 they loved each other. It is even said that the king 
 her father-in-law, finding her beautiful, put off joining 
 them, with a notion of taking her for himself. I have 
 since been told that this was only true in that he loved 
 her as his daughter, and very tenderly. But the prince 
 her husband, after he became king [Philip lY.] had 
 so many mistresses of aU kinds that, from the jealousy 
 she had reason to feel, her whole life became a torture 
 as keen as it was long and sorrowful She had reason to 
 complain, but her complaints were always useless, and 
 though she was as chaste as he was voluptuous, the cus- 
 toms of Spain were rigorous against her." 
 
 The queen, wishing to render to the memory of this 
 illustrious queen, doubly her sister-in-law, all that was due 
 to her as a daughter of France, ordered, according to custom, 
 a service to be performed with the magnificence that was 
 due to so great a princess. On such occasions it often 
 happens that precedence, which is not well-regulated ia 
 France, produces bitter quarrels. Mademoiselle [daughter 
 of Gaston, Due d'Orl&ins] as the granddaughter of Henri 
 TV., claimed that there was much distiuction to be made 
 between herself and the Priucesse de Cond^. On the 
 other hand, the Due d'Enghien, wishing to sustain his 
 rank and the grandeur his birth and glory gave him, de- 
 manded of the queen that the duchess, his wife, should 
 follow Mademoiselle on all occasions, declaring that the 
 latter was only first princess of the blood. The queen, 
 
 1 Her beautiful portrait by Rubens will be found in Brantome's " Book 
 of the Ladies," belonging to these " Historical Memoirs." — Te. 
 
120 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. iv. 
 
 paying at that time little attention to the interests of 
 Mademoiselle, without considering that she was then in pos- 
 session of certain prerogatives which created a difference be- 
 tween her family and that of Cond4 granted what he asked. 
 Madame de LonguevUle [the Due d'Enghien's sister] who 
 had lost her rank by marrying the Due de Longueville and 
 had taken a patent from the king under which she preserved 
 it, also wished to use this occasion to re-establish herself 
 openly in the rights her Bourbon blood gave her ; she there- 
 fore claimed to follow the Duchesse d'Enghien and do as she 
 did. 
 
 Mademoiselle, being warned of the designs against her, 
 resolved not to go to the service of her aunt, the Queen 
 of Spain. AVhen the time came to start, she said she 
 was ill and could not leave her room. The queen, as 
 soon as she knew what the difficulty was, felt displeased ; 
 she sent her orders to go, and complained to the Due 
 d'Orldans. That prince blamed his daughter, and disapproved 
 of her proceedings, so that Mademoiselle found herself de- 
 serted, not only by the queen but by her father, whose 
 grandem: she was sustaining by maintaining her own rank. 
 But not being able to hold out against such rough attack, 
 she yielded, against her will, to force, went to Notre-Dame, 
 and exposed herself to the pretensions of those who, having 
 the honour to be her relations, wished to equal her. On start- 
 ing, she had ordered that two persons should bear her train, 
 but as soon as the Due d'Enghien saw this, he signed to one 
 of his suite to join the person who was already bearing the 
 train of his wife, whom he led by the hand. Madame de 
 Longueville, seeing that Mademoiselle, by seating herself in 
 the canon's chairs in the choir, intended to put an empty 
 place between them, pushed the Duchesse d'Enghien, her 
 sister-in-law, and they both took the seats next to her. 
 
1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 121 
 
 Mademoiselle was keenly affronted by this treatment. 
 She wept, and made much talk about it ; representing that 
 she possessed many marks of distinction between herself 
 and the Princesse de Cond^, who was bound on all occa- 
 sions to give way to her, — such, for instance, as having a 
 dais in the king's house, a mailed coach [carrosse clone], foot- 
 men with their hose turned over, and the privilege of giving 
 the princesses of the blood chairs without backs in her own 
 house, while she was in an armchair. Her anger was, however, 
 crushed down by that of the queen against her. It was pro- 
 posed to put her in a convent for a few days' punishment, 
 but instead of bearing her trifling disgrace with noble indif- 
 ference, she had recourse to the Princesse de Cond^ or rather, 
 she accepted the offer the princess made her to heal matters 
 with the queen, who blamed her extremely. The Due 
 d'Enghien gave as his reasons that she ought to be satisfied 
 with the prerogatives she had, without always pretending to 
 fresh ones, and that the advantages she enjoyed were all she 
 ought to have. Monsieur bethought himself later that his 
 daughter was right. ■ He then grew angry, complained to the 
 queen, and went and sulked for three days at Chambord. 
 The queen, who had allowed the Due d'Enghien to do what 
 he did, felt obliged, for the sake of peace, to relieve him of 
 all fault and take the blame on herself, so that finally, 
 with a few excuses on her part, and a few compliments from 
 the Due d'Enghien, the matter was pacified. 
 
 The Queen of England came to Paris soon after this affair, 
 having been three or four months at Bourbon. The queen 
 went out of the city to receive her, with the king and the 
 Due d'Anjou (the actual Monsieur). These two great prin- 
 cesses embraced with much tenderness and friendship, and 
 paid each other compliments which were not mere compli- 
 ments. They took the English queen to lodge in the 
 
122 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. iv. 
 
 Louvre, wMch was then unoccupied ; and for a country-house 
 they gave her Samt-Germain. As the king's affairs were in 
 good condition and the wars had not yet ruined the royal 
 finances, they gave her a pension of ten or twelve thousand 
 crowns a month, so that in all things she had great reason to 
 praise the queen. 
 
 The Queen of England was much disfigured by the sever- 
 ity of her illness and her misfortunes, no trace remainiug 
 of her past beauty. Her eyes were fine, her complexion 
 admirable, and her nose well-shaped. There was some- 
 thiug so agreeable in her face that it made her beloved 
 by every one, but she was thiu and short ; her figure was 
 even deformed, and her mouth, never handsome naturally, 
 was now, from the thinness of her face, too large. I have 
 seen her portraits, done in the days of her beauty, which 
 show that she was very pleasing ; but as that beauty lasted 
 but the space of a morning and left her before her midday, 
 she was accustomed to declare that no woman could be 
 handsome after twenty-two years of age. 
 
 To complete the presentation of her such as I saw her, I 
 must add that she had infinite wit, and a brilliant mind 
 which pleased all spectators. She was agreeable in society, 
 honourable, gentle, and easy ; living with those who had the 
 honour to approach her without ceremony. Her tempera- 
 ment inclined her to gaiety ; and even amid her tears, if it 
 occurred to her to say something amusing, she would stop 
 them to divert the company. The almost continual suffer- 
 ing she endured gave her much gravity and contempt for 
 life, which, to my thinking, made her more solid, more se- 
 rious, more estimable than she might have been had she 
 always been happy. She was naturally liberal ; and those 
 who knew her in prosperity assured us she had exhausted 
 her wealth in doing good to those she loved. 
 
164-1-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 123 
 
 Her favourite, who, so the public said, had a share in 
 the misfortunes of England, was a rather worthy man, of 
 a gentle mind which seemed very narrow and more fitted 
 for petty things than great ones. He had the fidelity 
 towards her which ministers usually have; he wanted 
 money, before all else, to meet his expenses, which were 
 large. The princess no doubt had too much confidence 
 ■in him, but it is true that he did not govern her abso- 
 lutely ; she often had a will quite contrary to his, which 
 she maintained as the absolute mistress. She supported 
 her opinions with strong reasons ; but they were always 
 accompanied with a charm, a raillery that pleased and 
 corrected the signs of haughtiness and courage which 
 she had shown in the principal actions of her life. She 
 lacked the great and noble knowledge which is acquired 
 by reading. Her misfortunes had repaired that defect, for 
 grievous experience had given her capacity. We saw her 
 in France lose the tottering crown she still wore, lose the 
 king her husband by a dreadful death, and suffer with 
 constancy the adversities it pleased God to send her. 
 
 The cabinets of kings are stages on which are performed 
 continually the plays that occupy the minds of the whole 
 world. Some are simply comic, others are tragic, and their 
 greatest events are caused by trifles. After speaking of 
 the horrible effects of Fortune, and the indifference with 
 which she scoffs at crowned heads, we should consider those 
 produced by that mad passion of ambition, which is not 
 content with intrigues of pleasure, but, mingling in affairs 
 more serious, never fails to create the greatest disorders 
 when it masters the hearts of men. 
 
V. 
 
 1645 — 1646. 
 
 The spring of this year having prompted the princes to* 
 go to the army, they started, giving every public sign of the 
 impatience they felt to toil in war for the glory of France 
 and the good of the State. The Due d'OrMans took com- 
 mand of the army of Flanders, the Due d'Enghien that of 
 Germany, while the queen spent a good part of the summer 
 of this year in Paris. The Due d'Enghien, after having, 
 as usual, carried alarm and terror into Germany, fought a 
 battle at ISTordlingen [August 3, 1645] which was one of 
 his finest actions. I lost there two relations of my own : 
 Lanquetot and Gr^monville, both honourable gentlemen. 
 Their loss was sore to me, for, besides the relationship, they 
 were friends to me, which has to be considered. The day 
 that the news of the winning of this battle came, I was 
 surprised as I returned from a walk in the Palais-Eoyal 
 to see a great number of persons talking together in separate 
 groups. The emotion that the love of country inspires in 
 all hearts makes itself felt on such occasions. Some of my 
 acquaintance came up to me to tell me that a battle was 
 won, but also that a great many men were killed. The first 
 feeling in all was joy, then followed fear, and each for him- 
 self seemed already regretting a friend or relative dead. 
 
 This consternation in others imparted itself to me, and 
 though my affection for the queen was sufficiently strong 
 not to fail in sharing the satisfaction that such great news 
 woiild surely give her, the sorrow of families touched me, 
 
1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 125 
 
 and my feelings were much divided. With these thoughts 
 I went upstairs. Victories are the delight of sovereigns, 
 all the more because they taste their pleasures without 
 deeply sharing the pain of private persons. It was not 
 that the queen on such occasions did not seem to have 
 much humanity and to regret men of merit, but — in short 
 she was queen. 
 
 The cardinal came at once to tell her the particulars of 
 this great battle. When she saw him she went to meet 
 him with a smiling, satisfied face. He received her by 
 saying in a grave tone : " Madame, so many are dead that 
 your Majesty can scarcely rejoice at this victory." Perhaps 
 he spoke in this way to win the good graces of those present 
 and to gain the reputation of being tender to his friends ; 
 but whether the sentiment was natural to him or whether 
 he took pains to affect it from policy, he deserves praise for 
 it. A man who exercises virtue, whether it be by his will 
 or from his inclination, does not fail in being estimable ; 
 for motives are impenetrable, and it belongs to Him only 
 who formed the human heart to know it and judge it. The 
 cardinal began with the name of the Marechal de Gramont, 
 taken prisoner, at which he showed much regret ; and then 
 he read to the queen the list of deaths ; it was by that 
 reading that I learned I had lost my two relatives and 
 several of my friends whom I regretted much. 
 
 While the princes of the blood were gaining almost con- 
 tinual victories over the enemy [September, 1645] and 
 France through its good fortune was making itself revered 
 in all Europe, the queen was meditating how to find money 
 to continue the war with the same glory as heretofore. She 
 resolved to go before parliament to get certain edicts passed, 
 considering that course the quickest remedy to apply to the 
 wants of the State. This remedy, however, is violent and 
 
126 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE [chap. v. 
 
 mjurious to the State itself ; the people always fear it ; and 
 the parliaments usually seek by humble entreaties to mod- 
 erate the excessive terms proposed to them. But it some- 
 times happens that they use this pretext to increase the 
 authority of their office and to carry resistance far beyond 
 the public good ; that is to say, they endeavour to take 
 part in the ministry, when times and occasions give them 
 the audacity to aim for it. 
 
 The parliament of Paris believed that it could find, during 
 the regency, opportunity to make itself felt; and those of 
 this assembly who called themselves guardians of the king 
 desired to make known their power by opposing that of 
 the regent. During the late reign their authority had been 
 humbled ; they sought impatiently for means to raise it, and 
 at last their conduct revealed their intention. It was veiled, 
 however, by zeal for the public good ; and in this first en- 
 counter they declared that the sole rule of their sentiments 
 was the desire to do right. As soon as the queen proposed 
 to go before parliament, they said that she had not the right 
 to do so. She laughed at this and said her right was founded 
 on precedent, for the late queen, Marie de' Medici, had gone 
 there. She resolved, however, to wait the return of the Due 
 d'Orl^ans ; for though she did not need his presence as a 
 necessary thing, the prince was then living with her on such 
 good terms that she thought, with reason, that she could not 
 show him too much consideration ; and moreover, she was 
 convinced that the presence of the king's uncle would always 
 be advantageous to her son's affairs. 
 
 The Due d'Orl^ans having arrived, and the day being 
 fixed to go to parliament, the captain of the Guards, as was 
 customary, visited all the prisons and took the keys of the 
 Palais de Justice. The queen rose very early, and dressed 
 with more care than usual. She wore earrings of large dia- 
 
1645-1646] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 127 
 
 monds mingled with very large and pear-shaped pearls. On 
 her bosom she had a cross of the same sort, of great value. 
 This adornment, with her black veil, made her seem beautiful 
 and of fine presence, and as such she pleased the whole 
 assembly. Many gazed at her with admiration; and all 
 acknowledged that iu the gravity and sweetness of her eyes 
 they recognized the grandeur of her birth and the beauty of 
 her life and morals. 
 
 The companies of the Guards and the Suisses were ordered 
 to make a hedge, as was customary, along the way to the 
 Palais de Justice ; and the queen with the king, whose 
 beauty was then perfect, walked between them with aU the 
 grandeur that accompanies a king of Prance when he 
 marches in ceremony ; on which occasion he is followed by 
 his guards, his Suisses, his light-horse cavalry, his mus- 
 keteers, and many gentlemen and nobles. Four presidents 
 came to receive the king and queen at the Sainte-Chapelle, 
 where their Majesties heard mass. The king, who was still 
 ia timics, was carried to his lit de justice by his chief equerry. 
 Mademoiselle de Beaumont, my sister, and I had gone before 
 to see the arrival of the king and queen, and to be present 
 at the function, ia which we took much interest because the 
 queen was the chief actress. 
 
 When the king was placed, she stationed herself at his 
 right hand. The Due d'OrMans (stUl called Monsieur) was 
 below the queen, and the Prince de Cond^ beside him. 
 Then came the dukes and peers and the marshals of France, 
 according to the rank of their duchies. On the other side 
 were Cardinal Mazarin and several ecclesiastical peers. At 
 the feet of the king was the Due de Joyeuse, his grand 
 chamberlain, reclining on a hassock. Below was the chan- 
 cellor of France, and beside him on the floor, were the judges 
 of the courts. On the other side of the chancellor was a 
 
128 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. v. 
 
 bench, on which were seated the Princesse de Cond^ and 
 the Princesse de Carignan, and farther down were the 
 queen's maids-of-honour. The four secretaries of State were 
 below on another bench, opposite to the judges. Madame 
 de Senec^ the king's governess, stood beside the king ; she 
 seemed to me to be the nearest to the lit de justice} After 
 this order was fully established, the kiag saluted the whole 
 assembly; and after casting his eyes at the queen as if to 
 ask her approval, he said aloud : " Messieurs, I have come 
 here to talk to you of my affairs; my chancellor wiU tell 
 you my will." 
 
 He pronounced those few words with a grace that gave 
 joy to the whole assembly; and the joy was followed by 
 public acclamation that lasted a long time. When the noise 
 ceased, the chancellor, in an eloquent discourse, represented 
 the necessities of the State, the splendid and celebrated 
 victories we had won over the enemy, the desire the queen 
 had for peace, and the need of contuming the war vigorously 
 in order to force the Spaniards to make peace by the con- 
 tinuation of our conquests; and for these results, he con- 
 cluded, money was required, for in that lay the whole secret. 
 The first president [Matthieu M0I6, son of the great president 
 under Henri IV.] praised the queen strongly, exaggerated 
 the good fortune of France, the wise conduct of the minister, 
 and the valour of the princes of the blood. In the same 
 manner he represented with much vigour the necessities of 
 the people, and made an harangue that was calculated to 
 please both kiag and subjects. The advocate-general Talon 
 [Omer Talon] spoke in a bolder manner ; he represented to 
 the queen the oppressed people, ruined by past and present 
 wars, asked mercy for them on his knees in a pathetic and 
 
 * This description tallies very closely with Snint-Simon's famous scene 
 and diagram of Louis XV.'s first lit de justice under the regency. — Tu. 
 
1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 129 
 
 touching manner, and said things much opposed to the 
 supreme authority of favourites. The parliament thought 
 that he had spoken well ; but I think that the minister was 
 not well pleased, for I heard the speaker blamed by the 
 Court adulators.^ 
 
 The queen went to bed immediately on her return, to rest 
 from this fatigue. After her dinner I found her in bed, and 
 the cardinal with her. On opening the door of her room I 
 made a noise ; whereupon she asked one of her women, 
 standing out of respect at a little distance, who it was. She 
 heard, from myself, that it was I who entered, and she did 
 me the honour to call me to her and wished me to give my 
 opinion as to what had taken place that morning in parlia- 
 ment. She asked me if the king had not pleased me infi- 
 nitely when he spoke with such grace, and whether I had 
 noticed his tender action in turning towards her ; and she 
 specially ordered me to tell her what I thought of the 
 harangues. As she saw by my answer that I was pretty 
 well satisfied with the freedom of the advocate-general and 
 spoke of it with respect, she replied in these noble words, 
 worthy of a great queen : " You do right to praise him ; I 
 strongly approve the firmness of his speech, and the warmth 
 with which he defended the poor people. I esteem him, for 
 we are always too much flattered ; and yet I think he said 
 a little too much for a person as well-intentioned as I am, 
 who desire with all my heart to relieve the people." 
 
 The queen and her minister then talked of peace, and she 
 showed an extreme desire for it ; but according to what the 
 minister then told her, and I think he spoke the truth, it 
 was necessary to continue the war to constrain the enemy to 
 
 1 In Omer Talon's " Memoires " he gives an account of this, and shows 
 how his intervention only added to the bad state of the financial affairs. 
 — Pb. Ed. 
 
 VOL. I. — 9 
 
130 MEMOIRS 01' MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. v. 
 
 make peace. In all this conversation, which was long, I 
 saw nothing in the queen but upright intentions for the good 
 of the State and the relief of the people ; even the cardinal 
 seemed to me touched by it. 
 
 Other persons came in whose presence changed the topic. 
 They spoke of Mademoiselle de Eohan, who, to satisfy the 
 then reigning star, was about to marry Chabot, a gentleman 
 of good and illustrious family, well-made, and a very worthy 
 man, but, as I have said elsewhere, very inferior to the 
 priaces whom she might have married. She had great 
 beauty, much intelligence, and was herself of illustrious 
 birth; with it all she was very rich, as the heiress of the 
 house of Eohan allied to that of our kings, and daughter of 
 that great Due de Eohan so renowned in the history of the 
 wars of the Huguenots. He had been their leader; and 
 by his " Memoirs " we learn from himself the events of his 
 life. 
 
 Mademoiselle de Eohan married therefore from inclina- 
 tion, after having passed her first youth with the reputation 
 of so great a pride and a virtue so extraordinary that it was 
 thought she could never be touched by any passion ; but the 
 love that captured her heart forced her to be more gentle 
 and less ambitious. Chabot was descended from the ad- 
 miral of that name; but he was only a simple gentleman, 
 without property or any establishment, whose sole advantage 
 was that he had the good fortune to please a girl whom the 
 Comte de Soissons thought to marry, and who could have 
 married the Duke of Weimar, as rich in glory as the Caesars 
 and Alexanders, whom she slighted with many others, among 
 them the Due de Nemours, the eldest of the princes of the 
 house of Savoie, who, as I have been told, was handsome 
 and well-made. This was her last triumph, and the begin- 
 ning of Chabot was that he profited by the failure of that 
 
1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 131 
 
 marriage, seeing that the object of the desires of so many 
 princes appeared to care for no one. 
 
 She contiaued several years in this state; during which 
 Chabot, under the name of relative and friend, often entered 
 her room, and, by means of a sister of his who was with her, 
 acquired her confidence. This familiarity gave biTn an 
 opportunity of insiauating himself into her heart ; and when 
 she perceived it she could no longer drive bim out. I do 
 not doubt that her reason and her pride gave her strange 
 disquietudes, and often ill-treated the new-comer who 
 wished to overthrow their empire. That soul so haughty 
 had doubtless felt all that pride can make a person with so 
 much ambition suffer. Honour, a powerful phantom which 
 gives and takes away the reputation of honest men more in 
 accordance with the clamour of the many than in obedience 
 to true justice, often prompted her to renoimce the friendship 
 that so touched her. 
 
 Xevertheless, I do not know if the sternness of her reflec- 
 tions was not too gi-eat ; for it seems as if that which is in 
 conformity with God's demands might always be excusable, 
 and that her greatest fault iu the matter was her failure of 
 respect towards her mother. But that which calls itself the 
 great world decides in another manner; and though every 
 one knows how difficult it is to please that world, we all 
 submit to its tyranny. We run incessantly after its appro- 
 bation, OUT lives are spent in that servitude, and never do 
 we taste either sweetness or liberty because we have not the 
 boldness to rise above vulgar opinions. At last, however, in 
 spite of her combats, the pride of this illustrious heiress was 
 lowered, and her reason driven off as importunate. 
 
 The Duchesse de Eohan, her mother, was strongly opposed 
 to the marriage, and the relatives of the house of Eohan 
 were in despair. The friends of the heiress, who had re- 
 
132 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap, v 
 
 vered her as a divinity, either from jealousy of Chabot, 
 whom they regarded as their own equal, or from zeal to 
 her interests, became her most cruel enemies. They banded 
 together against her in order to persecute her ; which they 
 did with an ardour in which there was far more outrage 
 than love. This harshness which she encountered in the 
 souls of her false friends, took away from her all the sweet- 
 ness of her marriage, and made her know by experience that 
 we are not to seek for true satisfaction in this life, and that 
 whatever side the spirit of man turns to, it finds nothing but 
 thorns. 
 
 The fine autumn season (October, 1645), so suitable for a 
 stay at Fontaiaebleau, induced the queen to go there, where 
 (not to change our topic) we were to see a marriage far 
 more dazzling than that of Mademoiselle de Rohan, because 
 of the rank of the personages, whose birth was royal and sov- 
 ereign, who had done nothing that was not strictly in order, 
 but about whom nevertheless there was something extraor- 
 dinary. The King of Poland, king by election and legiti- 
 mate heir to the crown of Sweden, wishing to marry, had 
 inquired, sub rosa, if Mademoiselle wished to be a queen. 
 She received the proposal with great contempt ; the age of 
 the king, his gout, and the barbarism of his country made 
 her refuse him in a manner that showed she did not think 
 him worthy of her. He then had some thoughts of Made- 
 moiselle de Guise ; but that princess was in no favour at 
 Court, because she had friends who were not friends of the 
 cardinal; and although she had virtue, merit, and some 
 remains of her great beauty, the marriage could not take 
 place, for the queen had no inclination for it, and Mademoi- 
 selle de Guise took no pains to bring it about. 
 
 The old king then selected the Princesse Marie [de Gon- 
 zague], who had been proposed to him with others. This 
 
1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DB MOTTEVILLE. 133 
 
 princess, daughter of the Duke of Mantua, had been beau- 
 tiful and agreeable; and was still so, although she had 
 passed the first years of that youth which has the privilege 
 of embellishing every woman. Monsieur, the king's brother, 
 had been in love with her when he was presumptive heir 
 to the crown. The queen his mother, Marie de' Medici, 
 who had other designs for him, feared this passion, and sent 
 the Princesse Marie to Vincennes, where she was for some 
 time the innocent victim of a laudable affection. But the 
 usual inconstancy of men and the downfall of Queen 
 Marie de' Medici, in which the prince was involved, put 
 an end to this little romance. When a hero gives up his 
 love at the first unpropitious event it is to be supposed that 
 the heroine will not be pleased and that the story is no 
 longer charming. This love, which at first made a great 
 noise and doubtless an impression on the heart of the Prin- 
 cesse Marie, had short duration in that of Monsieur. But 
 the remembrance of it was bitter to her who was forgotten, 
 and I have heard some friends of the princess say that from 
 the time of her imprisonment she hated the Due d'Orleans 
 with irreconcilable hatred. 
 
 After this they talked of marrying her to the King of 
 Poland; but as such propositions do not always succeed 
 he married instead of her a German princess, who did not 
 live long, and left him with one daughter. The Duke of 
 Mantua having died, the Princesse Marie remained in Paris, 
 leading an easy and pleasant life among her friends. She 
 thought only of amusing herself and enjoying the pleasure 
 which the society of honourable people gives. In this agree- 
 able condition, however, she was not exempt from vexations, 
 for she had but little means and few husbands at her com- 
 mand. Her affairs grew at last so bad that, the grand 
 equerry Cinq-Mars having, during his favour, loved her, 
 
134 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. v. 
 
 she listened favourably to him. His passion pleased her; 
 and through this sentiment it was that he entered upon the 
 great designs that ruined him, trusting to the hope that he 
 might become connetaUe, and that with that rank and the 
 splendour of his favour he would be worthy of marrying 
 the daughter of a sovereign. His ruin, which she felt keenly, 
 was m no way honourable to her; it made her friendship 
 for him public and caused her much confusion. 
 
 After this unfortunate affair, which discredited her and 
 seemed to have lowered that noble pride which never wholly 
 abandons persons of her birth, she had reason to believe 
 she could no longer find happiness in life and that all 
 things would go against her. But the Princesse de Condd 
 had a regard for her; she took up her interests warmly, 
 and applied herself with care to bring about her marriage 
 to the King of Poland. She spoke of it to the queen 
 and to Cardinal Mazarin, and made her son the Due 
 d'Enghien and all his cabal act in favour of it. She in- 
 creased a desire in the queen's mind to choose her in pref- 
 erence to Mademoiselle de Guise ; and the cardinal, on his 
 part, believed that the Princesse Marie, who had no interests 
 contrary to his, and who was poor and crushed by ill-fortime, 
 would feel much gratitude. All these things together made 
 him send Bregi as ambassador to Poland to negotiate the 
 marriage. The latter succeeded so well that he made the 
 king resolve to send ambassadors to ask for her. The Due 
 d'OrMans, who had seen her troubles without pity, now saw 
 her luck without envy ; if he had any feeling left for her, 
 hatred had more share in it than love. 
 
 The Polish ambassadors were received at Fontainebleau in 
 the great salon of the queen, whose apartments are very 
 beautiful. When they entered, the Princesse Marie was 
 in the circle. She rose, so as not to be present at their 
 
1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 135 
 
 harangue, and retired to a corner of the room to see them 
 from a distance. She made use of me to screen herself 
 from their sight, and by putting me before her prevented the 
 men who were to be her subjects from perceiving her. After 
 the ceremony, which only lasted the length of a compli- 
 ment, these persons,, who were all dressed in the French 
 fashion and did not seem like foreigners, asked where she 
 was. Some among them, who had already been in France, 
 knew her, and poiated her out to the ambassadors. We 
 saw them turn towards her to salute her, and as I did not 
 hide her much, in spite of her efforts, one of them, as he 
 withdrew, made her a profound bow and all the others in 
 his suite did likewise. At the audience which he had with 
 her the nest day he treated her as Majesty and with the 
 same respect as if she had already been his queen. 
 
 During the winter we beheld the second Polish embassy, 
 which was fine and worthy of curiosity. It represented 
 to our minds that ancient magnificence which passed from 
 the Medes to the Persians, the luxury of which has been 
 so well depicted by ancient authors. Though the Scythians 
 have never had the reputation of being given to sensual 
 habits, their descendants, who, at present, are neighbours 
 to the Turks, seem to wish in a way to imitate the grandeur 
 and majesty of the Seraglio. It appears that there still 
 remain among them certain vestiges of their former bar- 
 barism; nevertheless, our Frenchmen, instead of scoffing 
 at them as they proposed to do, were constrained to praise 
 them and acknowledge frankly, to the advantage of their 
 nation, that their entry into Paris deserved our admiration. 
 I saw them pass in the Place Eoyale, from the house of 
 Madame de VeUesavin, who gave us a great collation, where 
 we found very good company to eat it. 
 
 The Palatine of Posnania and the Bishop of "Warmy were 
 
136 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. t. 
 
 those whom the King of Poland selected to come and marry 
 the Princesse Marie and bring her to him. They chose to 
 appear dressed in the fashion of their country, the better to 
 show their magnificence and the splendour of their stuffs. 
 The Due d'Elbeuf was appointed by the queen, with a dozen 
 other persons of quality, to receive them, and the carriages of 
 the king, the Due d'OrMans, and the cardinal were sent for 
 them. But, to tell the truth, all this seemed wretched in 
 comparison with what these foreigners brought with them ; 
 and yet they had traversed all Germany ! They made their 
 entry into Paris by the Porte Saint- Antoine, with much grav- 
 ity and the best order in the world. 
 
 First we saw pass a company of foot-guards, dressed in red 
 and yellow, with great jewelled buttons on their coats. They 
 were commanded by two or three officers, richly clothed and 
 very well mounted. Their coats were Turkish jackets of 
 great beauty. Over them they wore a wide mantle with 
 long sleeves which they allowed to hang negligently down 
 the sides of their horses. Their jackets were enriched with 
 buttons of diamonds, rubies, and pearls, and the mantles the 
 same, which were lined like the jackets. 
 
 After this company came another of the same kind com- 
 manded by oflicers more richly dressed. Their jackets and 
 mantles were the same colour as that of their heiduques, 
 green and gray. We then saw two other companies on 
 horseback, who wore the same uniform as those on foot, one 
 being red and yellow, the other green and gray, except that 
 these were of richer material, and the caparison of the horses 
 finer; also they wore more jewels. After them came our 
 academistes} who, to do honour to the foreign embassy and 
 dishonour to their own land, had gone to meet it; they 
 
 1 Meaning persons from the riding-schools, which were then called 
 academies ; these were nearly all young seigneurs. — Fk. Ed. 
 
1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 137 
 
 seemed poor, and their horses also, though they were loaded 
 with ribbons and feathers of all colours. On this occasion 
 the French fashion of wearing no adornment but ribbons 
 appeared mean and ridiculous. 
 
 After these companies came many Polish seigneurs, each 
 with their suite and their liveries, dressed in heavy brocades 
 of silver and gold. Their stuffs were so rich, so beautiful, and 
 the colours so vivid, that nothing in the world could be more 
 pleasing. Diamonds glittered on their jackets ; and yet, 
 amid these riches, it must be owned that their magnificence 
 had much that was barbaric. They wore no linen; they 
 never slept in sheets like Europeans, but in skins of fur 
 with which they wrapped themselves. Under their fur 
 caps their heads were shaved, all but one little lock at 
 the top of their heads which they allowed to hang down 
 behind. As a general thing, they are so fat that they are 
 sickening to look at ; and in all that concerns their persons 
 they are dirty. Each Pole had a Frenchman at his side. 
 These were men of the Court, all well-made, who had gone 
 to meet them. 
 
 This procession covered a long space of ground ; conse- 
 quently its entry was very fine. There was one chief officer, 
 who, as a mark of his dignity, wore three cock's-feathers in 
 his cap, and the decoration of his horse was composed of the 
 same kind of feathers. Some of their horses were painted 
 red, and this fashion, though fantastic, was not thought 
 unpleasing. The Palatine and the Bishop of Warmy came 
 last ; behind them were the Due d'Elbeuf and his son the 
 Prince d'Harcourt. The Palatine was handsome in face ; he 
 had a fine complexion and black eyes, with a good expres- 
 sion, and he wore his beard rather long and rather thick. 
 The bishop also had a good expression, and was in no way 
 different from the others, not even in the shaved head. After 
 
138 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. v. 
 
 ttem came their coaches, covered with, massive silver where 
 ours have only iron. The horses that drew them were hand- 
 some and fat and did not seem tired with their journey. In 
 short, all that we saw was worthy of being shown on parade. 
 They crossed the whole city iu this state ; the populace were 
 in the streets, the people of quality at their windows. The 
 king and queen were on a balcony which overlooked the open 
 space, iutendiug to see them; but they did not have that 
 pleasure, because it was too late when the procession passed. 
 They were taken to lodge at the Vendome mansion, which 
 was empty on account of its master's exile; and there the 
 king provided for them every day, magnificently. 
 
 These foreigners had audience in the grand gallery of the 
 Palais-Eoyal, which was shortened to one half of its length 
 by a platform on which the queen stood. The princesses and 
 duchesses who formed the circle, with the other ladies, were 
 behind her. It was intended to celebrate the marriage with 
 all the ceremonies required on such occasions, in order to 
 show the grandeur of France to this barbaric nation ; but as 
 precedence was not established, and each prince wished to go 
 before the others, the plan was stopped by this difficulty. 
 Great murmuring had arisen on all sides, and so many old 
 disputes were revived that the queen thought best to smother 
 the whole thing by having the ceremony in private. They 
 began with Mademoiselle, in order to exclude all the rest, so 
 that never was a wedding as solitary when done beneath the 
 purple and a sceptre. 
 
 The day being chosen, the Princesse Marie came very early 
 in the morning from the hotel de Nevers to the room of 
 Madame de Bregi, wife of the ambassador of France, who 
 lodged in the Palais-Eoyal. This room was near enough to 
 the chapel for her to go down easily when all was ready. 
 I went to see her as she was dressing for this celebrated 
 
1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 139 
 
 day. I found her looking handsome, and whiter, I thought, 
 than usual, though she was naturally very much so; but 
 ladies on great occasions are never satisiied with what 
 nature gives them. She had a fine figure, and was then of 
 a reasonable plumpness. She was thirty-three years old. 
 Her eyes were black and handsome, hair of the same colour, 
 complexion and teeth beautiful, and the other features of 
 her face neither handsome nor ugly; but altogether she 
 had beauty, with the grand air in her person that befits 
 a queen. She seemed to deserve all she had expected to 
 have in marrying the Due d'Orl&ns, and all she was really 
 to have in marrying a king. 
 
 Her wedding dress was a body and petticoat of cloth of 
 silver with silver embroideries. Above this she had in- 
 tended to wear her Polish royal mantle, which is white, 
 strewn with great flashes of gold ; but as the marriage was 
 performed without ceremony the queen was of opinion that 
 she ought not to wear it. She was left therefore with only 
 the body and white petticoat, which latter, being in- 
 tended to be worn underneath, was too short and had not 
 the dignity required by the occasion. She was decked with 
 the pearls and diamonds of the crown, which the queen had 
 put together with her own hands. This adornment accom- 
 panied a closed crown made of large diamonds and very 
 large pearls of great price. When she was ready to put the 
 crown on her head, she doubted if she ought to do so before 
 the ceremony, and she ordered me to go to the queen and 
 ask her opinion ; the queen did me the honour to tell me 
 that as yet she had no right to wear it. When she was 
 dressed she wished to show herself to the queen, who was 
 in her own apartment, and she crossed the terrace which 
 joins the two buildings, with two of her friends, my sister 
 and myself. 
 
140 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. v. 
 
 The Poles, who were in the courtyard below awaiting the 
 hour for the mass, seeing her, sent up shouts of joy and 
 gave her many benedictions. She found the queen in her 
 room, and, after thanking her for the kiadness she had 
 shown her, she addressed the cardiaal, who had worthily 
 served her, and told him she came to show him whether 
 the crown he had placed upon her head became her. The 
 queen, who was weariug her great pearls and her mourniag 
 mantle, then led the princess to the chapel through the 
 great gallery. There was no one present but the king, the 
 queen, the queen that was to be, the little Monsieur and 
 the Due d'Orl^ans. The priacess knelt upon the foot-cloth 
 laid in the centre of the chapel, the kiug on her right side, 
 the queen on her left. Monsieur the king's brother, and 
 the Due d'Orldans, the king's uncle, were behind on their 
 knees upon the foot-cloth ; consequently the latter was for 
 this day her inferior. This moment, when she saw herself 
 raised above that faithless prince, above even the queen 
 whose subject she had been before her father became sover- 
 eign, was no doubt most agreeable and glorious to her. 
 
 The Bishop of Warmy celebrated the mass and the mar- 
 riage of his king and queen, whom the Palatine married in 
 the name of his master. After mass was said they placed 
 the crown upon her head. It was Madame de Senec^ and 
 Champagne, the hair-dresser, who performed that ofl&ce for 
 her. Besides the Poles, there was no one in the chapel but 
 the royal personages and those of the blood royal whom I 
 have just named, except the Mar^chale d'Estr^es, Madame 
 de Montausier, and Madame de Choisy. The last three 
 were the intimate friends of the Queen of Poland, and she 
 had entreated the queen to allow them to be present. 
 Madame de Bregi, my sister, and I were also present. 
 
 As good is usually mingled with evil, all the grandeur of 
 
1645-1646] JVIEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 141 
 
 the Queen of Poland lost much of its splendour when she 
 arrived at her capital, and her joy was evaporated by the 
 presence of the king she had come so far to seek. In 
 Warsaw she was received with little acclamation, for the 
 king was old, oppressed with gout and fat, and so Ol and 
 gloomy that he would allow no ceremonies on her arrival. 
 He did not think her as handsome as her portraits, and 
 showed no esteem for her person. I heard from the Mar^- 
 chale de Gu^briant, who accompanied her by order of 
 the queen, that this old husband received her in church 
 seated on a chair from which he did not rise, or even pre- 
 tend to do so. 
 
 When she came beside bim she knelt and kissed his hand. 
 He received her salute without the slightest sign of gentle- 
 ness or benignity. He looked at her gravely and let her 
 kiss his hand without saying a word. Then he turned 
 towards Bregi, the ambassador, who stood beside him, and 
 said aloud : " Is that the great beauty about which you told 
 me wonders ? " The Mar^chale de Gu^briant told me that 
 the princess, who saw nothing in him but rudeness and per- 
 ceived the disgust he showed for her, was amazed ; and this 
 bad reception, added to the fatigue of the journey, made her 
 so ugly that the king had reason to be disgusted. The red 
 of vexation and shame is not a good rouge for ladies, and 
 grief takes the fire from their eyes. 
 
 The king, ill and gouty, rose from his chair after this 
 cruelty, and went to the altar, where, without ceasing his 
 rudeness, he married the queen again; after which they 
 sat down to assist in singing psalms to the praise of God, 
 and in thanks to Him for their marriage. The queen was 
 then taken to the king's palace, where their Polish Majesties 
 were served at supper with a meat which seemed horrible to 
 the eyes of the queen and the Mar^chale de Gudbriant, but 
 
142 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVIiLE. [chap. v. 
 
 worse a thousand times to their taste. In short, all that they 
 saw frightened them, and at night the queen, terrified at 
 the position in which she found herself, said in a low voice 
 to the mar^chale that she had better return to France. The 
 rest of the day was passed in the same way. The king did 
 not speak to her, and far from showing her any tenderness, 
 she was obliged, after waiting for him, to go into another 
 apartment and pass the night alone. 
 
 Madame de Gu^briant made complaints, and told certain 
 of the nation whom she knew among those who had accom- 
 panied the queen to Poland, that France would be very 
 ill-pleased if contempt were shown to what she had sent 
 them. She said she could not return satisfied if she did 
 not see the king less indifferent to the queen. Her com- 
 plaints did lessen to some extent the contempt of the king ; 
 they forced him to treat the princess rather better, and live 
 with her as his wife. When Madame de Gu^briant left her, 
 she was growing more contented, and consoling herself with 
 the magnificent gifts that were sent to her from all parts ; 
 for in that country when the kings marry, their subjects are 
 accustomed to make the new queen presents of great value. 
 The hope of growing rich comforted this queen. She 
 became rich, and the treasure she amassed served her soon 
 after in the great trials God sent her, which have made 
 her illustrious through the proofs she then gave to all 
 Europe of her firmness and courage.^ 
 
 This winter was spent by the Court in perfect tranquillity. 
 A few Kttle jealousies between Mademoiselle and the Prin- 
 cesse de Cond^ occupied the queen's cabinet, but without 
 disturbing it, and if the queen had only followed her own 
 
 1 On the death of the king, Ladislas III., she married his brother and 
 successor, Jean Casimir. Her sister, Anne de Gonzague, was the cele- 
 brated Princess Palatine. 
 
1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DB MOTTEVILLE. 143 
 
 sentiments, and confined the exercise of her will exclusively 
 to herself, we could have boasted that our Court was the 
 most agreeable m. the world, and so have enjoyed the 
 pleasantest life ever tasted by those who have the honour of 
 approaching great personages. 
 
VI. 
 
 1646 — 1647- 
 
 The queen was personally amiable ; she treated her ser- 
 vants as friends, though she never took enough pains to 
 do good to those she esteemed and to whom she felt kindly. 
 Persons of right feeling, though deprived of benefits from 
 her through the avarice of her minister, had at least this 
 consolation, that she distinguished them by her esteem, and, 
 though she did not do them many favours, it was not 
 because she thought they were unworthy of them. We were 
 obliged, therefore, to content ourselves with the queen's 
 kind treatment ; and this pleasure, which contained ia itself 
 enough glory to satisfy a faithful heart, was accompanied 
 by great peacefulness. Self-interests did not light the 
 consuming fires of jealousy among us, and our hopes were 
 always so dead, our ambition so crushed, that we could 
 say we had seen a Court only in picture, because we saw 
 it without venturing to form desires about the great in- 
 terests that usually charm men. 
 
 The queen, who, during the lifetime of the late king and 
 after God had given her children, had talked only of the desire 
 she felt to have them instructed in all knowledge, was much 
 embarrassed when it became a question of how it should be 
 done. There is no one into whose mind it does not come 
 that princes ought to know more than one thing, and we 
 must agree that Latin is not the most necessary knowledge. 
 Politics is the true grammar which they ought to study ; and 
 history, good in all languages, will show them examples, and 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 145 
 
 give them views by which to govern great kiagdoms, to 
 control by the same laws peoples of different natures, to 
 maintain them in peace with their neighbours, and make 
 them feared by their enemies. The evil is that this is 
 not a science that can be taught to chUdren; it is only 
 through the experience of some years that these things 
 can be learned. 
 
 For this reason the queen, convinced that Cardinal Mazarin 
 was the ablest man in Europe, resolved at last to yield up 
 to him the care of educating the king her son. She left to 
 him even the choice of the king's governor, and it was the 
 cardinal who appointed the Marquis de VUleroy to a post so 
 important. He was the wisest man at Court ; he had com- 
 manded the armies ; but his great qualification was knowing 
 better than any one else the interior affairs of the kingdom, 
 and having both capacity and ideas for matters of State. 
 The tutor appointed under him was the Abb^ de Beaumont, 
 a doctor of theology, brought up under Cardinal Eichelieu. 
 He had integrity, but never having devoted himself to 
 belles-lettres was little capable of embellishing the mind of 
 a young prince and of occupying it with the great and inter- 
 esting thiogs which ought not to be unknown to sovereigns. 
 The Marquis de Villeroy and the abb^ both replied to those 
 who made them suggestions, that their conduct was ruled 
 by the superior, to whom was given superintendence of the 
 royal education, this being a title newly invented to make 
 all employments and all offices dependent on the cardinal. 
 I ought to render one testimony to the truth, namely : that 
 the Marquis de Villeroy (soon after Due and Mardchal 
 de France) told me at the time, speaking of the king, 
 whose natural intelligence he admired, that he was not 
 master of the way in which he was being brought up ; 
 and that if he were listened to, he would not leave so good 
 
 TOL. I. — 10 
 
146 MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vi. 
 
 a soil without cultivating it at the time it was most impor- 
 tant to do so. For that reason he wished his friends to do 
 him justice and not blame him for doing his duty ill. 
 
 It is true that he took pains to present to the king those 
 who excelled in any science or art; and he never lost an 
 occasion to relate to him things that had happened in his 
 time, and good sayings that he had heard from persons of the 
 old Court ; about which he made reflections that might be 
 useful to him. The tutor, on the other hand, jealous of his 
 office, took no pleasure in making the king talk with men 
 of intellect, for which he might perhaps have acquired a taste 
 together with a curiosity to learn a thousand things of which 
 he was ignorant; for the king had a natural desire to be 
 told things he did not know, and would himself talk only 
 of things he knew. 
 
 He was made to translate the Commentaries of Ca;sar ; he 
 learned to dance, to draw, and to ride on horseback ; and he 
 was very skilful in all exercises of the body, as much so 
 as a prince who is not to make a profession of it ought to 
 be. But the queen, who had reserved the supervision she 
 would naturally have in the education of her son over and 
 above that she had yielded to her minister, took great care 
 to maintain in the soul of the young king those sentiments 
 of virtue, honour, and piety, which she had instilled into 
 him from infancy; caring more to prevent a young mind 
 like his from losing the innocence of its morals than to 
 see him better instructed in those things that are apt to 
 take from youth a certain timidity which precedes good 
 judgment and is lost but too soon. 
 
 At the beginning of the summer [May, 1646], the queen 
 made a journey to Compidgne, whence she went to Amiens 
 to accompany the Due d'Orl^ans on his way to command 
 the army in Flanders, to which, soon after, the Due d'En- 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 147 
 
 ghien was added. I stayed in Paris, because, not having 
 certain advantages in servants, journeys were fatiguing to 
 me and very costly. Monsieur delayed a few days later 
 than the queen in order to prepare himself for war, and I 
 remember that many of my friends came to bid me adieu 
 who were killed in that murderous campaign. Valour, so 
 vaunted by all nations and practised by ours, noble as it is, 
 has its drawbacks; and the bravest who rush with such joy 
 to its opportunities, have even more if they return with their 
 legs and arms. It desolates families and robs the Court of 
 its best, and, to tell the whole truth, though nothing in the 
 world is finer than valour, nothing is worse than war. 
 
 The queen was away on her journey sis weeks. Nothing 
 extraordinary happened, and her return brought us joy, for 
 not only was her intimacy with us gentle, agreeable, and 
 glorious, but we were so accustomed to the honour of seeing 
 her that Paris, during her absence, seemed to us another 
 city, and our life another life. In these first years of the 
 regency the Court was so tranquil and our life so delightful 
 that it was impossible not to love it. Mademoiselle de 
 Beaumont, however, noticed an alteration in the queen's face 
 after her return which threatened her with a little storm. 
 Though the queen on arriving in Paris told the Priacesse 
 de Cond6, who was with her, that she was glad to see us 
 again, it is certain that this yoimg lady in particular had 
 had the misfortime to displease the minister. Her conduct 
 was rather imprudent. She was a dariag girl, whose spirit 
 was high, rough, and Hi-regulated. She blamed the govern- 
 ment with so little caution that she often found spies where 
 she thought she was safe ; and though these qualities were 
 mingled with noble sentiments, as the vessel was without a 
 pilot it was easUy wrecked on that sea, although at the 
 time it was perfectly calm. 
 
148 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ti. 
 
 Diirmg the queen's absence she had gone to make a trip 
 with M. and Mme. de Chavigny, who continued to stand ill 
 at Court. This intimacy displeased the cardinal, though it 
 had nothing in itself but what was praiseworthy; but this 
 displeasure induced the cardinal to request the queen to dis- 
 miss her. It is not difficult to make great personages dislike 
 those who talk much and who may therefore be suspected 
 of rashness. On this pretext her dismissal was asked 
 and granted. Though Mademoiselle de Beaumont and I 
 were of different temperaments, and her manner of acting 
 was the opposite of mine, chance had made us friends; I 
 loved in her — without approving her proceedings — her 
 frankness, her spirit, which was natural, and her sentiments, 
 which seemed to me to have a certain stoical virtue. But I 
 made her continual harangues as to her conduct which I did 
 not like, and as to the vehemence of her decisions. She 
 always wanted to reform the State, from that false glory 
 that people give themselves by despising others, and not at 
 all from any true source of honour and integrity. She was 
 the only one who knew of the blame I gave her, and as we 
 were often together Cardinal Mazarin for this reason desired 
 that I also should be sent away from Court. 
 
 He judged of my thoughts by the friendship I had for her 
 and by the approval I appeared to give to her words. The 
 queen, who had known me from my childhood, and knew 
 that my intentions were upright, could not doubt my fidelity. 
 She was good enough to answer for me to her minister, and 
 to assure him of the propriety of my conduct without inquir- 
 ing of me ; so true is it that on all occasions it is best to do 
 right and not boast of it. This was the cause of my good 
 fortune that the queen never had any ill-opinion of me ; and 
 as Cardinal Mazarin was not strongly determined on my 
 ruin, he let himself be persuaded by her ; and thus I saved 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIKS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 149 
 
 myself from a pimishment I did not deserve, and a peril I 
 did not perceive until it had passed. 
 
 Commands were sent to Mademoiselle de Beaumont not 
 to see the queen again. I was astonished when, on the eve- 
 niug of the same day, I heard this news. It was thought 
 that I should be iacluded and made to feel on this occasion 
 the consequences of the word "cabal." My friends were 
 anxious about me, and when I entered the queen's room, 
 though I myself was far from having any fear, I noticed a 
 change on their faces ; indifferent persons looked at me from 
 a distance ; and all, whispering to their neighbours, thought 
 me lost. One of my friends had the boldness to approach 
 me and pay me a compliment. I asked him, laughing, the 
 reason of such serious discourse, and from him I heard of 
 the dismissal of Mademoiselle de Beaumont. From this, I 
 comprehended easily all the rest. I was sorry for the mis- 
 fortime of my friend, but I did not feel, I think, any trouble 
 in my soul that could shame me. As I was sure of my own 
 innocence, I went abruptly into the cabinet where the queen 
 was ; and in that instant, despite the charms of her presence 
 and the honour I had in being admitted to it, it crossed my 
 mind that the benefits we possess at a Court, and even the 
 favour I had had there, are not true benefits worthy of 
 esteem ; and that perhaps my dismissal, casting me against 
 my will into solitude, might be to me a veritable happiness ; 
 for it is not one to live in a place where it is almost impos- 
 sible to keep one's self from weaknesses which give as much 
 pain as they do vexation to those who are intelligent enough 
 to recognize them. 
 
 I was not long in this effort to strengthen myself by 
 reason against my dismissal. The queen, who' was afraid 
 that the affair of Mile, de Beaumont would cause me 
 uneasiness, took care to remove it. As soon as she saw me 
 
150 MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vi. 
 
 she assumed a kindly face and spoke to me amiably ; and 
 this care, at this moment, showed me the generosity of her 
 soul, which was quite independent of the sentiments of 
 others. She was undressing to enter her bath, for it was 
 very hot weather. As soon as she was in it, I knelt beside 
 the bathtub to speak with her, and I asked her the reason of 
 my friend's dismissal. She did me the honour to reply 
 as follows: that she had sent her away because she had 
 blamed her conduct in a displeasing manner ; that she was 
 one of those persons who cry out against everything, more 
 from bad taste than from anj^ good reason they have to 
 do so ; who disapprove of aU they see, and who discern the 
 actions they pretend to judge solely through their self- 
 conceit. She added that she wondered how I, who had not 
 the same sentiments or the same heart, could have friend- 
 ship with her and be social up to that time with a person so 
 far from my own nature. 
 
 It was time to say no more, and I merely tried to soften 
 the queen's resentment. I excused my friend on the hasti- 
 ness of her mind and her impetuous temperament ; and, try- 
 ing to justify her good intentions, I assured the queen that 
 the foundation was good, and that in all essential things I 
 believed she would never fail in fidelity to her service or in 
 zeal for her interests. At that moment the queen drew her 
 hand from the water and laid it all wet upon mine, which 
 she pressed, saying, in tones to be remembered: "You are 
 too good, Madame de MotteviUe: I assure you she would 
 not do as much for you, and I know what I say." Those 
 words impressed themselves deeply on my soul, and although 
 they did not make me wholly suspect my friend, because it 
 would not be just to doubt for so slight a cause, they at least 
 made me more easily enlightened in the future, so that in 
 course of time I became altogether undeceived. The hard 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 151 
 
 experience I have had of the fictitious friendship of human 
 beings has forced me to believe that there is nothing so rare 
 in this world as probity, or a good heart capable of gratitude 
 to those who act uprightly. 
 
 Cardiaal Mazarin also spoke to me on the subjects of 
 complaint he thought he had against me; he told me that 
 my friends did me harm, meaning this ezHed one and Com- 
 mander de Jars. He let me know that Mile, de Beaumont 
 made me offensive in her way, and that the queen had been 
 told that when she wanted to point some specially sharp satire 
 against her she always said, " Madame de Motteville and I 
 think, or say, or judge thus and so," and to strengthen herself 
 she brought me into the game about whatever she alleged. 
 
 I easUy understood the cardiaal's mind when he spoke 
 to me in this manner. I knew very well that no regard 
 for me led him to make me that confidence ; and that his 
 only object was to part and disunite us, by letting me know 
 I must follow that course if I wished to please him. But, 
 as for truth, I think he did not deceive me, and that 
 Mile, de Beaumont, who, in spite of her free-thinkiug mind, 
 was shrewd and politic, wished to have confederates. I 
 had often, also, surprised her in ways of acting to insure 
 that I was not more agreeable to the queen than herself. 
 I contented myself, however, by replying to the minister 
 as I had to the queen. I excused her of whom he com- 
 plained as best I could ; and, separating my conduct from 
 that of others, I tried to persuade him in my favour. I 
 did not acquire his good graces in this way; because he 
 never esteemed those who made it a principle to act 
 honestly and without treachery; but as he had softness 
 and benignity and had seen the queen show an inclina- 
 tion to protect me, I found it easy to cure his mind of 
 its dislike. My words had enough force to induce him 
 
152 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vi. 
 
 to leave me in peace, but not enough to produce any good 
 effects on my fortunes. I own that I did not apply myself 
 to succeed in that. Moreover, I always had friends whom 
 he hated, perhaps justly, whose proceediugs I was never 
 willing to blame ; and through this fidelity which we owe 
 to one another, I have preferred the pleasure of serving 
 them to that of promotiug my own affairs. 
 
 The queen had entirely settled down into followiag the 
 advice of this minister ; he knew that we were not neces- 
 sary to her, and he no longer feared that any one could 
 injure him with her. For this reason he continued with 
 us on the same terms. As for me, he let me live on with- 
 out doiag me either good or evil; as for those who dis- 
 pleased him, he found means to dismiss them when th«y 
 had given enough cause by their conduct to obtain the 
 consent of the queen. But the truth must be told that 
 he used his power with laudable moderation ; he loved the 
 State, and served the king with a fidelity that deserved 
 the confidence the queen placed in him. 
 
 Directly after the death of the Due de Brdz^ [killed at 
 the naval battle of Orbitello] the Prince de Cond^ attacked 
 the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, who claimed that the Duchesse 
 d'Enghien could not inherit from her brother the Due de 
 Br^zd, because she had renounced her inheritance on marry- 
 ing. At the same time the prince asked of the queen the 
 vacant admiralty, the government of Brouage, and all its 
 offices. The admiralty was not granted to him, because 
 the control of the sea would have made a first prince of 
 the blood too powerful in France; and the government of 
 Brouage remained in the hands of one of the Due de Br^z^'s 
 favourites, named the Comte de Daugnon, who had quietly 
 taken possession of it against the wiU of the queen and 
 minister. 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 153 
 
 On this refusal, the Prince de Condd left the Court, pre- 
 tending to grumble, and went to his own estates. The Due 
 d'Enghien, who was with the army commanded by Monsieur, 
 wrote to the queen and loudly asserted his claims. He 
 declared them legitimate, and that he hoped to obtain this 
 justice from her. I saw the letters that he wi-ote her. 
 From their style, it was easy to judge that he did not 
 mean the blood of France to be useless to him, and that 
 he had a pride of heart which might one day be trouble- 
 some to the king. It was said of him that his courage and 
 his genius led him more to combats than to politics. On 
 this occasion, however, he observed all the rules of policy, 
 and, quitting the audacious manner in which he was wont 
 to wrangle with Monsieur about everything, he began by 
 humbling himself wholly to him. As tliey were in tlie 
 same army he affected to show him the greatest assiduity, 
 and even sought with care to win over the Abb(5 de la 
 Eiviere. Then- intimacy advanced so much that Monsieur 
 wrote to the queen and to the cardinal in favour of the 
 Due d'Enghien, which caused great uneasiness to the min- 
 ister. The enmity of those two important personages pleased 
 him much more than their union. 
 
 The Prince de Cond^ was a great politician. He was 
 timid and afraid of quarrelling with the Court. He loved 
 the State, and it was said of him now that his counsels were 
 always for order and justice. He gave them witli much 
 intelligence, and it was often remarked that he would have 
 made a great king. The baseness he had shown under his 
 brother Louis XIII. had been to his shame, but he was now 
 held to be wise and prudent. As he was beginning to grow 
 old and knew the evils a prince tf the blood must endure 
 if he revolts against the king, he readily allowed himself to 
 be persuaded that he must not grumble too long. A few 
 
154 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vi. 
 
 days later he sent to Le Tellier, secretary of State, to lodge 
 his complaint. Some negotiation took place, the conclusion 
 of which was that the decision on his claims should be put 
 off tni the end of the campaign, and that meantime they 
 would all be good friends. Thus the prince's wrath passed 
 easily away. He returned to Court, was treated well, and 
 his grievances were apparently calmed — after the manner 
 of great personages, who nearly always hate each other, and 
 make pretence to the contrary as a matter of parade. 
 
 The Princesse de Cond^, who was then with the queen, 
 although she was ambitious and would have liked to see 
 all the crowns of Europe on the head of her son the Due 
 d'Enghien, never ceased to protest to the queen that she 
 had no interests separate from hers, and that her friendship 
 for her was stronger than her desires for the grandeur of 
 her son ; so that the queen was apparently half convinced, 
 and continued to live with her in her usual manner. If, 
 without being a dupe, she chose to believe what the princess 
 told her, I make bold to be certain that though the latter 
 did not feel the friendship she testified to the queen, she 
 was at least touched by her caresses and the pleasures of 
 favour. From the Princesse de Condi's nature, I feel sure 
 she would have been m despair to have her family quarrel 
 with the Court, as much from fear of losing its delights, as 
 for the sake of her greater interests. 
 
 The queen spent nearly the whole summer at Fontaine- 
 bleau, and the one spot in the world where the heat is 
 greatest served as her retreat for the hottest season. The 
 amusements of the ladies were entirely confined within 
 the limits of the river Seine. Every day they spent many 
 hours in the water, or ia the forest which they had to pass 
 through in order to reach it; the dust of the one being 
 washed off by the other. 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 155 
 
 The king, who was still a child, bathed also, and his 
 governor, the Mardchal de Villeroy, who never left him, 
 did the same. The queen, and all those who had the 
 honour to accompany her, usually wore long chemises of 
 gray linen which trailed on the ground. The king's gov- 
 ernor wore the same, and modesty was in no wise wounded. 
 All the men imder sixty were at the army ; none remained 
 with the queen but her officers and a small number of 
 courtiers attached to the service or the fortunes of the 
 minister ; otherwise the Court was deserted. I found, never- 
 theless, that we were a good company, for, to my thinking, 
 a Court is never more agreeable than when the crowd is 
 not there. 
 
 In Flanders, our army, though large and fine, did not do 
 great exploits. They besieged Courtray with thirty thousand 
 men, and the Due de Lorraine with equal numbers camped 
 in front of us. The two armies were a long time looking 
 at each other without doing themselves any harm. We 
 offered battle to the enemy, but they did not accept it. 
 Only a few little fights took place ; but at last they ventured 
 to attack our lines, and we took the place [June 30] in 
 their presence and to their shame. 
 
 After this conquest the army went straight to attack 
 Mardick, which the Due d'Orl^ans had taken the previous 
 year and which, this year, had been surprised and retaken 
 by the enemy in three hours. Clanleu, whom the Due 
 d'Orldans had placed there in command, being absent when 
 the enemy attacked, was blamed for this loss. Though he 
 was known to be valiant, there was guilt enough in being 
 imprudent or careless. He was doubly so because this 
 siege, by which Monsieur undertook to repair his fault, cost 
 much blood to France, and much treasure. The duke was 
 blamed for undertaking it; he had no naval force, and the 
 
156 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLB. [chap. vi. 
 
 enemy, having a free exit towards Dnnkerque, could enter 
 as they pleased, so that this paltry little place was able 
 to defend itself. He excused himself on the score of the 
 Dutch, who still made a show of being on our side. They 
 had promised him to be before the place at a certain time 
 with a number of vessels capable of preventing all com- 
 munication by the enemy. As they meant in the end to 
 desert us, they failed to keep this promise iu time, and the 
 duke failed in his project. This was the reason why those 
 who were in Mardick defended themselves so easily against 
 our attacks and made the affair so disadvantageous for us. 
 
 The enemy made a sortie on the side of the Due 
 d'Enghien ; and that prince, rushiag to the support of his 
 men, was wounded in the face [August 15] by a pot which 
 was flung from the town, and came near killing him or 
 putting out his sight. The Comte de Flex, son-ia-law of 
 the Marquise de Senec6, lady-of-honour to the queen, was 
 killed, — a good man who, with many fine qualities, deserved 
 much. The young Comte de Koche-Guyon had the same 
 misfortune ; he was son of the Due de Liancourt, and sole 
 heir of his father's great wealth, and that of his imcle the 
 Mar^chal de Schomberg. He had married the heiress of 
 the house of Lannoi, who was left pregnant of a daughter 
 to whom she gave birth soon after her husband's death. 
 This young seigneur was extremely regretted, — as much 
 out of considerations for his father and mother, who were 
 respected by all good people, as for the charm of his person ; 
 every one pitied his fate. 
 
 The Due de Nemours was wounded in the thigh. He 
 was an amiable prince and worthy of all esteem. His 
 wound caused great anxiety to his friends, and many ladies, 
 so it was secretly told, made vows for his recovery. The 
 Chevalier de Fiesque, who, his friends declared, had iatel- 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 157 
 
 ligence and virtue, was killed ; he was mourned by the 
 daughter of a great house, who honoured him with a tender 
 and virtuous love. I know none of the particulars, but, 
 according to general opinion, it was founded on piety and 
 virtue, and consequently very remarkable. Soon after his 
 death, this virtuous young woman, wishing to despise utterly 
 the grandeurs of the world, left them all, as unworthy to 
 occupy a place in her soul; she gave herself to God, and 
 shut herself up in the great convent of the Carmelites, 
 where she now serves as an example through the life slie 
 leads. The Marquis de Thymines, sole heir of his house, 
 had the same unfortunate fate as the others. He was son 
 of the Mar^chale d'Estrdes by her first husband. He showed 
 much promise and was a great loss to his family. 
 
 The day the courier who brought the sad news arrived, all 
 the rooms at Fontainebleau resounded with cries. These 
 illustrious dead and wounded were personages of the Court 
 and among the most distinguished; their relatives and 
 friends wept for them before the eyes of the queen. She 
 went to see Madame de Senecd to console her for the loss of 
 her son-in-law, who left a young widow of extreme virtue, 
 and little children who lost much in losing him. The queen 
 endeavoured to soften the bitter sorrow of others by the com- 
 passion she felt for it, and by the feelings she showed to 
 them. The Princesse de Cond^ was for several days in great 
 anxiety ; her fears led her to believe that they were conceal- 
 ing from her the danger of her son's wound. To the con- 
 dolences of those whom she did not think in lier interests, 
 she answered, being sour and proud, by telling them they 
 were sad because he was not wounded badly enough. 
 
 The queen might have consoled herself, for the Due 
 d'Enghien was dreaded in the matter of the government of 
 Brouage, and for his claim to the admiralship, which she did 
 
158 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vi. 
 
 not choose to give him. One evening, lying on a little bed 
 in her cabinet, and talking of him to me with the esteem 
 which he deserved that she should feel for him, after 
 expressiag a wish for his recovery, she said a thing which 
 came from the confidence she always had in God : " I believe 
 that God, to whose providence I confide myself wholly, inas- 
 much as He has saved him, knows that he will not do me 
 harm ; and if he should do me any, it will be according to 
 His orders, and for my good and my salvation." Her 
 prophecy has been accomplished; the prince, after doing 
 great services to the king and to her, did her harm. She was 
 compelled to do the same to him ; but I do not doubt that 
 she profited by the good use I saw her make of all the 
 troubles that afterwards come upon her from this source. 
 
 The Due d'Orl^ans, at the queen's request, returned to 
 Fontainebleau, September 1, 1646, where she awaited him to 
 end their summer together in that agreeable place with the 
 amusements to be found there. She wished to leave the 
 Due d'Enghien to his amusements of cannon and sword, 
 the accompaniments of a warrior who finds his pleasure in 
 battle and the conquest of cities. The king and queen, 
 wishing to welcome Monsieur, intended to go out and meet 
 him, but as their Majesties did not encounter him soon, their 
 plan ended in only a drive. The cardinal continued on until 
 he met him, and returned with him a few hours later. This 
 arrival filled the Court with the Dues de Guise, d'Elboeuf, de 
 Candale, and a fine troop of men of quality, who were not 
 sorry to rest from the fatigues of the siege of Mardick in the 
 loveliest spot in the world. 
 
 As soon as the Due d'Enghien found himself in a position 
 to act alone, he besieged Fumes, September 9, a little town 
 near Dimkerque, which he took in a few days. This plan, 
 the precursor of a greater, pleased the minister. He had 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 159 
 
 counselled attacking that place before they went to Mardick, 
 but the Due d'Orldans would not consent, considering the 
 enterprise too difficult. The friendship which had seemingly 
 existed between the two princes during the campaign was 
 not strong enough to keep their hearts from being filled by 
 jealousy and self-love. The Due d'Orldans did not see with- 
 out vexation the project the Due d'Enghien had of taking 
 Dunkerque, which he had kept secret from him ; and the 
 Due d'Enghien did not find himself sole master of that great 
 design without feeling the utmost joy. I have heard Com- 
 minges, who was with him for some time, say that he was 
 not as much wounded when he found himself alone as he 
 was when his superior was with him ; and Comminges sus- 
 pected him of having feigned a greater wound than he had, 
 in order to let Monsieur go away in the belief that he was 
 not in a state to undertake anything. 
 
 The queen received, September 13, 1646, an ambassador 
 extraordinary from the Queen of Sweden, who apparently 
 came only to bring about the alliance of the two crowns. 
 The person chosen by the Swedish queen for that purpose 
 was the Comte de La Gardie. He was son of the Conn^table 
 of Sweden; his grandfather was French, of, it was said, 
 rather ordinary birth. He was well-made, with a haughty 
 manner and the air of a favourite. He spoke of his queen in 
 terms both passionate and respectful, so that he was readily 
 suspected of greater tenderness than that which he owed her 
 as a subject. He was betrothed to a cousin-german of the 
 queen, whom she herself made him marry. Some said that 
 if she had followed her inclinations she would have taken 
 him herself, but she conquered them by her reason and the 
 grandeur of her soul, which could not endure that lowering. 
 Others said that she was bom free-thinking, and that beuig 
 able to put herself above custom, she either did not love him, 
 
160 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vi. 
 
 or no longer loved him, when she gave him to another. 
 However that may be, the man seemed worthy of his luck, 
 but more fitted to please than to govern. 
 
 From the manner in which he spoke of the queen his mis- 
 tress, it seemed that she needed no minister, for although 
 very young she managed all her affairs herself. Besides the 
 hours she gave to study, she employed many, he told us, in 
 the care of her kingdom. Judging by the description he 
 gave of her, she had neither the face, nor the beauty, nor 
 the inclinations of a lady. Instead of making men die of 
 love, she made them die of shame and vexation, and was the 
 cause of the great philosopher Descartes losing his life in 
 that way because she did not approve of his philosophy.-' 
 She wrote to the queen, to Monsieur the king's uncle, to the 
 Due d'Enghien, and to Cardinal Mazarin, letters which I saw 
 and which were much admired for the gallantry of the 
 thoughts, the beauty of the style, and the facility with 
 which she expressed herself in our language, which was 
 familiar to her, as were many others. At that time all the 
 heroic virtues were attributed to her ; she was placed on a 
 par with the most illustrious women of antiquity ; every pen 
 was employed in praising her, and it was said that the 
 highest sciences were to her what the needle and distaff are 
 to the rest of our sex. Fame is a great talker ; it often likes 
 to pass the bounds of truth ; but truth has strength ; it does 
 not long leave a credulous world abandoned to deception. 
 Some time later it was known that the virtues of this Gothic 
 queen were only middling ; she had no respect for Christian- 
 ity, and if she practised its precepts it was more from fancy 
 
 1 Christina, Queen of Sweden, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus ; born 
 1626 ; ascended the throne 1632 ; abdicated in favour of her cousin, 
 Charles Gustavus, 1654 ; and died in Korae 1689. It was the severe 
 climate of Sweden that killed Descartes, and not her ill reception of his 
 philosophy. — Tb. 
 
^ 
 
 M ^>/fn a ^ueen <r/ ' -^ %^;/,., 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 161 
 
 than feeling. But she was learned to the level of the most 
 learned man ; and up to this time she had a great reputation 
 at her Court, among her peoples, and throughout all Europe. 
 
 To welcome her ambassador, balls, comedies, great repasts, 
 and all ordinary amusements were given to him. He adorned 
 the drive by the canal of Fontaiuebleau with a coach of 
 gold and silver embroidery which was made expressly for 
 his queen. It was drawn by six horses, richly harnessed, 
 followed by a dozen pages in the Queen of Sweden's livery, 
 which was yellow and black with silver lace. This image 
 of another Court, uniting with the reality and beauty of 
 ours, made the drive by the canal most agreeable. 
 
 Shortly after our return from Fontainebleau, the news 
 arrived of the taking of Dunkerque, which gave great glory 
 to the Due d'Enghien and much joy to the minister, who 
 felt that it contributed to his own glory. He believed, with 
 much reason, that the prosperity of the State was the 
 foundation of his own good fortune, rather than the magni- 
 fying of the crown. The Mar^chal de La Meilleraye took 
 at the same time Porto-Longone in Italy ; and this victory, 
 though little fruitful for France, was an agreeable success 
 to the cardinal, who liked to triumph and make himself 
 feared in his own country. 
 
 About this time died the illustrious Bassompierre, much 
 lauded in the last century for his gallantry. He had gone 
 to Pons to see d'Emery, the neighbour of Bouthillier, father 
 of Chavigny, to whom the beautiful mansion of Pons be- 
 longed. There he fell ill of a continued fever, of which 
 he was cured in a few days ; but on his way back to Court, 
 his servants found him dead in his bed in the morning, at 
 an inn where he passed the night, although he had shown 
 no sign of more illness. 
 
 This seigneur, who was valued by Henri IV., favoured 
 
162 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vi. 
 
 by Marie de' Medici, and so lauded and admired in the 
 days of his youth, was no longer regretted in ours. He 
 stUl preserved a few remains of his past beauty ; he was 
 civil, obliging, and liberal ; but the young people could not 
 endure him ; and I have seen some of them unjust enough 
 to turn him into ridicule because he liked to invite them 
 to good cheer when he had not enough dinner for himself 
 alone. They said he was no longer in the fashion, that he 
 told too many little stories, and talked too much of himself 
 and his times. Other defects they put upon him, some of 
 which I agree to. They accused him, as if it were a great 
 crime, of liking to please and of being grandiloquent, and 
 also that, coming from a Court where civility and respect were 
 the rule towards ladies, he continued to live by the same 
 principles in one where men thought it shamed them to pay 
 any civility, and where unbridled ambition and cupidity are 
 the noblest virtues of the great seigneurs and the most 
 honest men of our century. 
 
 The cold severity diuing the reign of the late king, and 
 the temperament of Cardinal Mazarin were among the causes 
 of the present rudeness; for the latter, besides his avarice,, 
 despised honest women, belles-lettres, and all that con- 
 tributes to the politeness of men. The sterility of favours, 
 the desire to obtain them, and the impossibility of doing 
 so by deserving them, have rendered courtiers incapable of 
 seeking distinction in noble ways ; but as their ambition 
 becomes stronger and more ill-regulated, it triumphs over 
 their hearts ; and the result is that they cannot endure a 
 man who has preserved the old customs; in which they 
 certainly are, to my mind, wrong. The relics of old Mar^- 
 chal de Bassompierre were worth more than the youth of 
 some of the most polished men of our day. 
 
 The Due d'Enghien, soon after, arrived from the army 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 163 
 
 victorious, and demanded, with, apparent humility and real 
 boldness, the reward of the admiralship. The queen had 
 already taken that dignity ia her own name to keep it for 
 the king, and Cardinal Mazarin therefore possessed it, with- 
 out appearing to do so, for several years. The prince made 
 many propositions which were not received, such as that 
 of giving him an army for Pranche-Comt^, which he would 
 afterwards have erected into a sovereignty. This proposal 
 was evaded, for it recalled the evils which the Dues de Bour- 
 gogne, princes of the blood and sovereigns, had formerly 
 done to the kingdom. Other proposals were then made to 
 him, which he rejected. The Due d'Orldans, with his good 
 intentions and kindliness, showed great interest in main- 
 taining the peace of the Court ; so that during these secret 
 negotiations matters did not cease to appear in a good state. 
 The Due d'Enghien was not strong enough, even if his in- 
 tentions were worse than they were, to form a party for 
 himself with the hope of good success. Many persons 
 were disposed to quarrel, but the queen was still too well 
 supported, and the victories strengthened her power. The 
 Due d'Orl^ans was content, and the cardinal not yet enough 
 hated ; she had therefore nothiag to fear. 
 
 While they were thus striving to satisfy the Due d'En- 
 ghien, who wanted much, and to whom they wished to give 
 little, the Prince de Cond^, his father, fell ill and died in 
 three days. His offices and his governments, which were 
 very considerable, served to pay to his son the debts he 
 thought were due to him. He was sorry, no doubt, that 
 he had not pressed for a decision sooner, having boldness 
 enough to take both advantages; but not having done so, 
 he had not enough boldness to insist on the two inheri- 
 tances, which would have made him master of France. 
 The offers that had been made to him about that of the 
 
164 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLB. [chap. vi. 
 
 Due de Br^z^, his brother-in-law, were of no small impor- 
 tance. He could then have had Stenay, Jametz, and Cler- 
 mont; but he refused them, to claim more. In the end 
 he obtained them because the minister had not the strength 
 to refuse him when, in the quarrels that afterwards arose, 
 his power lessened and that of the princes increased. 
 
 The Prince de Cond^, first prince of the blood and fuU of 
 merit, died about midnight on the day after Christmas, 1646 ; 
 he ended his life as a Christian, and his last hours must 
 have effaced before God the passions of his youth. Though 
 his forefathers had been Huguenots, he was always the 
 inveterate enemy of that religion, and he ever remained 
 firmly in the true one. Henri IV. had caused him to be 
 declared presumptive heir to the crown; he was then so 
 poor that his property was reckoned at ten thousand francs 
 a year. At his death it was said that he left a milHon 
 a year, besides his of&ce as grand-master of the king's house- 
 hold, and his various governments. His defects equalled 
 his virtues ; both were considerable. Besides the bad repu- 
 tation he acquired in his youth, he was avaricious, and 
 also imlucky in war. That is the mildest term one can 
 use about a prince who was said not to be valiant. Those 
 who saw him when young said that he was then handsome ; 
 but in his last years he was dirty and slovenly, and had 
 few remains of his good looks. His eyes, which were very 
 large, were red ; his beard was neglected, and his hair, as 
 a usual thing, very greasy. He always wore it tucked 
 behind his ears; in short, he was in no wise agreeable to 
 look upon. 
 
 But, beyond what I have said of him, it should be added 
 that he always wanted the laws of the State observed, and 
 that in the councils he invariably protected justice. He 
 was the scourge of partisans, and had shown on many occa- 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 165 
 
 sions that he had no greater passion than that for equity 
 and honest reasoning. This same spirit led to order in 
 his household; he took care himself to send his servants 
 to mass on Sundays and fgte-days, and at Easter he was 
 accustomed, in order to oblige his people to do their duty 
 on that sacred day, to give them each a quarter of a crown. 
 I have heard it said, but I do not know if it is true, that 
 he sometimes went to the public markets to inquire himself 
 into the price of provisions, and to know the details of 
 everything, that he might look after the police, and famil- 
 iarize himself with the populace; not, perhaps, without 
 design to please them and attach them to his person. 
 
 He was preparing to oppose Cardinal Mazarin, whose 
 conduct he did not approve. It is to be believed that he 
 expected that revolts would arise during a long regency, 
 which would give him an opportunity to attack him. The 
 queen could not endure that in the councils he should offer 
 the slightest opposition to the matters there treated; and 
 therefore he was nearly always an obstacle to the minister's 
 plans ; which often proceeded from the rectitude and zeal 
 that prompted him for the good of the State. When dying, 
 he asked pardon of the minister, and assured him he had 
 never had any design against him, other than that of doing 
 his own duty and satisfying his conscience. He gave his 
 blessing to his children on condition that they lived as 
 good Catholics. He advised them never to fail in what they 
 owed to the king, and assured them that the greatest mis- 
 fortune that could happen to a prince of the blood was 
 to take sides against his sovereign, because that was losing 
 a noble station to become the slave of those who served 
 him. He behaved to the Princesse de Cond^ as if he had 
 loved her all his life ; but the truth is, he never considered 
 her until he found she could serve his interests at Court, 
 
1C6 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vi. 
 
 where she was better liked than he. She was not in de- 
 spair at his death; and the illustrious Madame de Eam- 
 bouillet was much lauded for saj-ing on this occasion that 
 Madame la princesse had never had but two happy days 
 with her husband : the day he married her, on account of 
 the high rank he gave her, and the day he died, through 
 the liberty he returned to her and the great property he 
 left her. Besides being well-treated in his wiQ, she had, 
 as heiress of the great house of the Montmorencys, large 
 claims upon the estate of her late husband. 
 
 On that same Christmas day the Duchesse d'Orldans gave 
 birth to a daughter, — a cause of great grief to her husband, 
 who passionately desired a son ; and as he was kind and 
 much-loved. Frenchmen desired it for him ; for naturally we 
 like the race of our kings and desire to see it preserved. 
 What afflicted Monsieur was joy to the Due d'Enghien, who 
 thus found himself first prince of the blood, not only by 
 the death of the prince his father, but because this daughter 
 did not prevent him from assuming that rank at once, and 
 enjoying its prerogatives for the rest of his life. The 
 advantages are great, and can never be lost when once they 
 are possessed. 
 
 The new Prince de Cond^ was more fortunate than Mon- 
 sieur, for he already had a son, who, child as he was, had 
 borne the holy-water from the king to his grandfather. 
 The body of the late prince lay in state for three days, and 
 as he had been very miserly in life, the Court people made 
 amusing jests on the pain his soul must be feeling in the 
 other world at such great and useless expense about his 
 body. The wit of man is always ready to laugh at things 
 serious. Such examples ought nevertheless to make him 
 enter more deeply into a sense of the nothingness of the 
 vanities and grandeurs of this world. 
 
1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 167 
 
 The queen went to see the Princesse de Cond^, more to 
 rejoice than condole with her; and she also visited the 
 whole family, except Madame de LonguevOle who had been 
 for some time absent, having gone to Munster to join the 
 Due de LongueviUe, whom the queen had sent there at the 
 beginning of her regency to work for peace. 
 
VII. 
 
 1647. 
 
 The chief affairs of the Court, those of which it seemed to 
 think the most, were amusement and pleasure. I have 
 already said that the queen loved the theatre, and went there 
 in secret during the year of her great mourning ; but she now 
 went publicly. Comedies were played every two days, some- 
 times Italian, sometimes French ; and quite often there were 
 assemblies. The preceding year the rector of Saiat-Germain, 
 a severe and pious man, wrote to the queen that she ought not, 
 in conscience, to permit such amusements. He condemned 
 the theatre ; particularly Italian comedies, as freer and less 
 modest. This letter had troubled the soul of the queen, who 
 did not wish to permit anything against what she owed to 
 God. Being still uneasy on the subject, she consulted many 
 persons. Several bishops told her that plays which repre- 
 sented, as a usual thing, serious histories could not do harm ; 
 they assured her that the courtiers needed such occupations 
 to keep them from worse things ; they said that the piety of 
 kings ought to be different from that of private persons, for 
 being public personages they should authorize public amuse- 
 ments when they were of the class of harmless things. 
 Accordingly the theatre was approved, and the gayety of 
 Italian comedy saved itself under the wing of serious 
 plays. 
 
 The Coxnt assembled in the evenings in the little salle des 
 comedies at the Palais-Eoyal. The queen sat in a box to 
 hear more conveniently, and went there by a little staircase 
 which was not very far from her chamber. She took the 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 169 
 
 king, the cardinal, and sometimes persons to whom she 
 wished to pay attentions, either for their rank or as a favour. 
 We received such favours with pleasure, because those who 
 have the honour to approach kings familiarly can never pre- 
 vent themselves from regarding these trifles as very impor- 
 tant things ; all the more because they are counted as such 
 in public estimation. 
 
 When the rector of Saint-G-ermain saw that the theatre 
 was fully established, he woke up in good earnest and spoke 
 against it like a man who wished to do what he thought his 
 duty. He came to see the queen and maintained to her that 
 this amusement was a mortal sin and ought not to be per- 
 mitted. He brought his opinion signed by seven doctors of 
 the Sorbonne who held the same sentiments. This second 
 pastoral reprimand caused fresh uneasiness to the queen, who 
 resolved to send the Abbd de Beaumont, the king's tutor, to 
 consult in the Sorbonne itself a contrary opinion. It was 
 declared by ten or twelve doctors that, provided nothing was 
 said on the stage that could bring scandal or was contrary to 
 virtuous morals, the theatre was in itself harmless and could 
 be attended without scruple; and this was founded on the fact 
 that the usage of the Church had greatly lessened the apos- 
 tolic severity which the early Christians observed in the first 
 centuries. By this means the queen's conscience was set at 
 rest ; but sorrow to us who have degenerated from the virtue 
 of our fathers, sorrow to us for thus becoming infirm in zeal 
 and faithfulness ! The courtiers cried out against the rector 
 and treated him openly with ridicule. They tried to persuade 
 the queen that Pfere Vincent, a worthy man and one of great 
 piety, had taken part in this affair in order to work the ruin 
 of her minister, by condemning things that he had author- 
 ized. But on several occasions she replied to this that she 
 did not believe a word of it. 
 
170 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. tii. 
 
 Though I only mention great affairs in passing, as a 
 woman who cannot know them thoroughly and has often 
 neglected to notice them at all, it has happened, nevertheless, 
 that many have been discussed in the cabinet and that I 
 have applied myself to listen to the actors in them when 
 they spoke. Those that were of consequence, coming thus to 
 my knowledge, I shall write down as they may happen to 
 occur to me, — without being careful to know them all, or any 
 of them to their full extent, because I have no intention of 
 writing a regular history. But I have taken care to tell only 
 the truth ; which has always come to me solely from those 
 who had the chief part in such affairs. The peace which 
 the Dutch made with Spain, which I shall mention here, is a 
 proof of what I say ; it is a fragment which I let fall as I go 
 my way; it will find its place with others of the same 
 nature, and as it will not be treated with more order or con- 
 nection than those, it will not have more worth or value. 
 
 This people, rebellious against its king, which had caused 
 such trouble to Philip the Second, which had sated the cruelty 
 of the Duke of Alba under his yoke, given employment to 
 the valour of the Duke of Parma, and put to such proof 
 the virtue of Marguerite and that of the Infanta Clara- 
 Eugenia — this republic, in short, so celebrated for its 
 power, for the boldness of its enterprise, for its establishment 
 and the glorious actions done by the Prince of Orange in 
 governing it, had sustained its rebellion by the assistance of 
 France ; but this assistance it now resolved to abandon, and 
 to put itself completely in possession of legitimate liberty. 
 
 Liberty had already been offered to the people of Holland, 
 but the ministers of France, Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, 
 had always hindered it. The depressed condition of their 
 real master, whose affairs were in a bad state, now gave them 
 the means of making peace with him and preserving their 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 171 
 
 usurped States, their conquests, and their supremacy. Ac- 
 cordingly they made a treaty with him (which was not con- 
 cluded imtil some time later) and became peaceably lords of 
 their country, of which they remained sovereigns, with the 
 shame of beiug as bad Christians as they were bad subjects. 
 To keep some terms with France they delayed signing this 
 treaty, saying that they wished to bring about a general 
 peace before they separated entirely from us. Orders were 
 given to the Comte de Servien, who was at Munster, to go to 
 Holland and endeavour to break off this particular treaty; 
 but he did not succeed ; these people, following the example 
 of all others, thought only of their own interests and the 
 strengthening of their own grandeur. 
 
 D'Estrades, who was envoy to the Prince of Orange from 
 the kiag when this arrangement was concluded, told me that 
 the cupidity of the Priucess of Orange was the cause of it ; 
 and that the Spaniards had won her over during the last 
 days of her husband's life. He declared that that prince, 
 who resembled his forefathers ia valour and capacity, would 
 never have consented to the peace had he been in a state to 
 follow his feelings of glory and ambition. He was convinced 
 that the end of the war would be the end of the power of his 
 house, and that when he no longer made himself feared by 
 arms his people would despise him. But his maladies, by 
 diminishing the strength of his body, diminished also his 
 strength of mind, so that he did not oppose the negotiation 
 as he would have done had he been in better health. If the 
 greed of a woman began the work, the avarice of the minis- 
 ter, in spite of his desire to prevent the peace, concluded it. 
 D'Estrades, relating to me all the particulars, said that the 
 princess only allied herself with Spain out of vexation that 
 Cardinal Mazarin failed to send her some diamond earrings 
 which he had led her to expect. 
 
172 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. tii. 
 
 But not to leave so long the Court of our regent let us 
 return to the princes, who were the only cause of uneasiness 
 that the queen now had [January, 1647]. The Prince de 
 Cond^, having become rich and powerful, was regarded by 
 the whole Court as the one whose friendship or hatred was 
 to make or mar the fortunes of men. 
 
 That victorious air which the battles of Eocroy and Fri- 
 bourg and the taking of Furnes, Mardick, and Dunkerque had 
 given him, made him so considered by his masters that most 
 persons sought his protection rather than that of the Due 
 d'OrMans. That is why his court was so very large ; those 
 who, through their great establishments, were in a position 
 to do harm or good having offered him their services and 
 attached themselves to his interests ; whenever he came to 
 visit the queen he filled her room with the most distinguished 
 personages of the kingdom. His favourites, who were the 
 greater part of the young seigneurs who had followed him in 
 the army and now shared his grandeur as they did his glory, 
 were called the petits-maitres, because they belonged to one 
 who seemed to be the master of them all ; and this new title 
 effaced that of the importants. 
 
 At the end of the Shrovetide [March 2, 1647] Cardinal 
 ]Mazarin gave a great fete to the Court, which was very fine 
 and much praised by adulators, who are to be met with at 
 all times. It consisted of a comedy, with stage scenery and 
 music in the Italian fashion, which seemed to us most beau- 
 tiful, although we had seen others that were wonderful and 
 regal. He had brought the musicians from Eome with great 
 trouble, also the machinist, who was a man of much reputa- 
 tion for such scenery. The dresses were magnificent, and the 
 whole preparation of the same kind. Worldlings were de- 
 lighted, the devout murmured ; and those ill-regulated minds 
 who blame everything that takes place did not fail, as usual. 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 173 
 
 to poison pleasure, because such persons cannot breathe its 
 atmosphere without vexation and wrath. 
 
 This comedy could not be ready till the last days of the 
 carnival , which caused the cardinal and the Due d'Orl^ans 
 to urge the queen to let it be played in Lent ; but she, who 
 kept her will iu all that related to her conscience, refused 
 consent. She even showed some annoyance that the comedy, 
 which was played on a Saturday for the first time, was 
 arranged to begin late, because she wished to make her 
 devotions on the Simday; and the evening of the days on 
 which she took the communion she was accustomed to retire 
 early in order to rise earlier than usual the next morning. 
 She did not wish to lose the pleasure altogether, for the sake 
 of him who gave it; but ia order not to fail in what she 
 thought her duty, she left the play in the middle to pray to 
 God and sup and go to bed at the suitable time, so that 
 nothing might upset the regularity of her life. Cardinal 
 Mazaria showed some annoyance at this ; and though the 
 matter was a mere trifle, with only enough serious foundation 
 to oblige the queen to do as she did, she was nevertheless 
 considered to have acted against the feeluigs of her minister. 
 And as he showed he was vexed, this little bitterness was a 
 sweet morsel to a large number of persons. Idle tongues 
 and ears were busy with it for days ; and even the gravest 
 persons felt moments of joy which were to them delectable. 
 
 The Mardchal de Gramont, eloquent, witty, Gascon, and 
 bold in flattery, set this comedy among the wonders of the 
 world ; the Due de Mortemart, great amateur of music and 
 great courtier, seemed enchanted with the mere name of the 
 lowest actors ; and the pair, in order to please the minister, 
 made such exaggerations when they talked of it that they 
 became wearisome at last to persons who were moderate in 
 speech. 
 
174 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vii. 
 
 The next evening the celebrated comedy was played again, 
 and the queen saw the whole of it. On Monday there was a 
 ball, given on the stage of a hall arranged with scenery, 
 which could be moved ia a moment ; it was really the finest 
 thing ever seen. The hall was gilded and lined with great 
 frames in which were pictures painted in perspective ; a most 
 agreeable sight to those who occupied the amphitheatre. 
 This hall was also furnished with seats and hassocks placed 
 in niches around it, and did not look as if the hand of man 
 had anything to do with it. At one end was a throne raised 
 about four or five steps, on which were cushions, chairs with 
 arms, and a dais overhead of silver and gold cloth, with 
 fringes worthy of such furniture. Four great crystal chan- 
 deliers lighted this hall, which seemed a veritable fairyland, 
 representing in our day the era of Urganda and Armida. 
 
 The king, to show civility to the Prince of "Wales, would 
 not take his own seat, but gave it to Mademoiselle, who 
 was decked that evening by the queen's own hands with 
 the crown jewels, pearls and diamonds, fastened with little 
 cherry-coloured and black and white ribbons. This adorn- 
 ment was beautiful and pleasing, particularly the bouquet 
 she wore upon her head. It seemed as if those great 
 diamonds and pearls were strewn among the flowers, and 
 that all the beauty and wealth of nature were gathered 
 there expressly to deck her. From this bouquet issued three 
 feathers, of the three colours of the ribbons, which drooped to 
 her throat, and she made us see on this occasion that a hand- 
 some person becomes handsomer for being decorated. The 
 king wore a suit of black satin embroidered with silver and 
 gold, through which the black appeared only enough to set 
 off the embroidery. Cherry-coloured plumes and ribbons 
 completed his adornment, but the beautiful features of his 
 face, the sweetness of his eyes joined to their gravity, the 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 175 
 
 whiteness and brilliancy of his complexion, together with his 
 hair, which was then very blond, adorned him more than his 
 clothes. He danced perfectly ; and though he was then only 
 eight years old, it could be said of him that he was the one 
 of the whole company who had the most distinguished air 
 and assuredly the most beauty. 
 
 The Prince of Wales received much praise and pleased 
 everybody. But the one whose suit obtaiaed the most 
 approbation was the Yidame d'Amiens, son-in-law of the 
 Mardchal de ViUeroy. He wore an embroidery of gold and 
 pearls, the workmanship of which was so delicate that there 
 was nothing of the common order in it ; it seemed to disdain 
 jewels as if they were something too vulgar. 
 
 The Duchesse de Montbazon came decked with pearls, and 
 cherry-coloured feathers on her head, and though she was 
 then more than forty years of age, she was still in dazzling 
 beauty, showing that a fine autumn is always beautiful. 
 Mademoiselle de Guise was present, no longer young, though 
 much more so than the Duchesse de Montbazon. Her 
 beauty, her kind manner and her modesty, with pearls and a 
 black gown, made her admired by all who saw her. All the 
 other persons of an age to adorn a ball did their best to 
 please the spectators. The queen's maids-of-honour. Pons, 
 Querchy, and Saint-Mdgrin, tried to make a few natural con- 
 quests by the care they took to embellish themselves in all 
 sorts of ways. Happy they if, among so many lovers, they 
 had been able to catch husbands according to their ambition, 
 and the unruliness of their desires. 
 
 The comedy was again represented on the following day, 
 the Mardi gras. It ended very late and we had had no sup- 
 per. The cardinal offered us his, and we went to eat it with 
 him, — Madame de Bregi, Mademoiselle de Beaumont, my 
 sister, and I (for Mile, de Beaumont was now restored to the 
 
176 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vii. 
 
 good graces of the queen). This was the only meal he ever 
 gave us m his life, and it was not much. He treated us with 
 great indifference and coldness. He despised women and 
 did not think them worthy of esteem, imless, by intrigues or 
 malice, they foimd means to obtain his confidence. We left 
 him very ill-pleased at not being better received, particularly 
 Madame de Bregi, who being a handsome woman made a 
 profession of being so, and even had the audacity to pretend 
 that the great minister had a certain feeling of tenderness 
 for her. For this reason she felt his coldness more than the 
 rest of us, who were quite resolved to put up with it and 
 well accustomed to his disdainful manners. 
 
 The Prince de Condd, seeing the month of March advanc- 
 ing, began to think of his journey to Catalonia. Before he 
 started [March 20, 1647] he had a short emotion which 
 troubled the peace of his heart. He had let himself be over- 
 come by the beauty of Mademoiselle de Toussy, and this 
 weakness slipped into his heart at a time when, in spite of 
 his youth, he was beginning to profess loudly a contempt for 
 the mad passion of love, and a resolve to give himself 
 entirely to that of glory. He played the braggart against 
 gallantry, often declaring that he renounced it, and even did 
 so at this ball, though it was a place where his presence 
 appeared to advantage. He was not handsome ; his face was 
 ugly in shape ; his eyes were blue and keen, and there was 
 much pride in his glance. His nose was aquQine, his mouth 
 extremely disagreeable, because it was large and his teeth 
 projected too much ; but in his whole countenance there was 
 something grand and haughty, with a certain resemblance to 
 an eagle. He was not very tall, but his figure in itself was 
 perfect. He danced well and had an agreeable air; his 
 hearing was lofty and his head fine, — its arrangement with 
 curls and powder being required to make it appear so. But 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 177 
 
 even at this time lie neglected his person much ; and ia the 
 deep mourning which he wore for his late father he was not 
 pleasing, for, his face being long and thin, this negligence was 
 the more disadvantageous to him. 
 
 The Prince of Orange died about this time. His death, 
 for the reasons I have given, was a loss to France, and 
 his merits having made him respected throughout Europe, 
 he was much regretted. The unfortunate Kiag of Eng- 
 land, who had honoured him with his alliance, was now 
 finding himself on the verge of his fatal destiny. He was 
 betrayed by the Scotch, to whom he had gone in search of 
 fidelity and troops to avenge him on the parliamentarians ; 
 but that barbarous people delivered him to his enemies. I 
 heard it said that they asked him if he was not content to 
 go back to England, and he answered that it was more 
 just he should go to those who had bought him than stay 
 with those who had sold him. He went, only to be kept a 
 prisoner in the Isle of Wight, where he stayed till his death. 
 Many proposals were made to him by the parliament and 
 his subjects. But, whether he found them contrary to his 
 conscience, or lacked ability to choose those that were suit- 
 able (as was said by persons capable of judging), he did not 
 accept any, and was reserved by God's decree for the most 
 cruel and amazing end a king can come to. 
 
 In France we no longer have, thank God, religious wars ; 
 there are now only contests frequently arising among our 
 learned men on questions of theology. There was one on 
 Grace which seemed to have been ended by a decision of 
 Pope Urbain VIII., against which none of the doctors de- 
 claimed; but in their hearts both sides were still of the 
 same sentiments made public by their writings. Pfere Des 
 Mares, of the congregation of the priests of the Oratory, who 
 preached the Lent of this year with much zeal and wholly 
 
 TOL. I. — 12 
 
178 MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vii. 
 
 according to the Gospel as to morals, was admired by people 
 of the highest quality, the finest minds, and even those who 
 were most retired from the world. But, as to doctrine, he 
 was thought to be of the opinion of Jansenius, Bishop of 
 Ypres in Flanders, who had written a book in the spirit of 
 Saint Augustin on this great mystery. And, as it was diffi- 
 cult for him, as for other preachers, to treat this matter so 
 delicately that no word could be found to cavil at, nothing was 
 talked of in Paris but " the Jansenists '' and " the Molinists." 
 This question, as to which there was no one who did not 
 take an interest for the satisfaction of his conscience, not 
 only divided the schools, but social life [les ruelles], and the 
 city as well as the Court. Those who were called Molinists 
 (from Molina, a learned Spanish priest) had on their side the 
 censure of five propositions in the book of Jansenius ; and 
 those called Jansenists maintained that the five condemcaed 
 propositions were not in that book. This defence, their 
 wholly exemplary lives, the austerity of which they made 
 profession, drew to them the esteem of a great number of 
 persons of solid piety ; and they would have been esteemed 
 by every one if they had avoided the blame that may justly 
 be cast upon them of having taught women (in French so 
 beautiful that it made the sex quit their novels) those great 
 difficulties on which it is forbidden to write, together with 
 questions of conscience about which none but confessors 
 should be instructed. It has cost us so much to have learned 
 the knowledge of good and evil that we ought to agree that 
 it is better to be ignorant of such matters than to learn 
 them ; especially for us women who are accused of being the 
 cause of all evil. We see such great men, with all their in- 
 tellect and all their learning, ruin themselves in heresies 
 which they think they draw from Holy Scripture ! I cannot 
 withhold myself from saying that no Christian should decide 
 
1647] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 179 
 
 for himself that which is environed by so much obscurity ; 
 nor should he enter into the details of mysteries which the 
 councils themselves cannot elucidate, and which they com- 
 mand us to believe surrounded by all their darkness. God 
 himself having chosen, no doubt, to hide from us this knowl- 
 edge and enclose it in its own immensity, we must hope that 
 in heaven souls, separated from their earthly natures, will 
 learn its wonders and see the causes for which it has pleased 
 Him to leave them ignorant of the deep abysses of Grace, 
 and the manner in which it operates in the soul for our 
 salvation. 
 
 The great Saint Augustin, whose ideas are revered in the 
 Church, and whose writings seem to have produced the 
 opinions of those who are called Jansenists, has never clearly 
 explained these wonderful secrets. The saint himself could 
 not comprehend them ; he speaks of their Author with 
 admiration, and confesses humbly that the judgments of 
 God are inscrutable, and His ways past discovering. The 
 most learned know nothing when it is a question of under- 
 standing them; and I believe that this great teacher of 
 grace, teacher of all Christians, and of the Jansenists in 
 particular, would have willingly said, when in this world, 
 with the Italian poet, — 
 
 " Ampi volumi immensi 
 De le tue glorie eterne 
 Son le sfere superne ; 
 E con dorata, e lucida favella 
 Di te parla ogni stella. 
 lo lo so, Signor, ma non penetro i sensi, 
 Ch' a la lingua del mondo avvezzo essendo 
 La favella del ciel non ben comprendo." ^ 
 
 1 The celestial spheres are ample and vast Tolumes of Thy eternal 
 glories ; and each star speaks of Thee in golden words. I know it, Lord; 
 but their meaning I cannot penetrate, because, being used to the language 
 of earth, I cannot comprehend the language of heaven. 
 
180 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. tii. 
 
 Wheiiever I hear men speaking of God in relation to 
 the hidden mysteries, I am delighted not to be obliged to 
 know more than my Fater, my Credo, and the Command- 
 ments of God. As to the matter of which I have been 
 speaking, I know that it suffices me to believe we have 
 nothing but that which we have received; that I can do 
 no good without the grace of God ; and that he has given 
 me my free will. 
 
 The queen at once took the side of the Jesuits [Moliaists], 
 who had the advantage of governing the king's conscience. 
 She thought herself obliged to oppose opinions which were 
 considered novelties and might disturb the Church. On 
 the other hand, one had reason to be surprised in seeing 
 those who appeared to maintain the orthodox opinions allow- 
 ing the publication, under their name, of maxims quite con- 
 trary to the Gospel touching morality, without sufficiently 
 rebuking the authors. The queen, zealous for good, was 
 often led to say with pain, not intending to lay it on any 
 special person, that she knew no perfect virtue, nor any 
 piety without much weakness. 
 
 Early in the year the Due d'Orl^ans started for Bourbon 
 to take the waters, and Madame followed him. They went 
 there for health in order to give a prince to France, a grand- 
 son of Henri IV., which Monsieur passionately desired. 
 The princess never made long journeys, whether from 
 crotchets or real illness ; she seldom went out, declaring that 
 the least agitation made her faint. I have sometimes heard 
 Monsieur laughing about her, and telling the queen how she 
 took the communion in her bed rather than go to the chapel 
 which was close by, without her having, apparently, any real 
 illness. When she came to see the queen, once in two years 
 or so, she had herself carried in a chair, but with such fuss 
 and affectation that her arrival at the Palais-Eoyal was 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 181 
 
 celebrated as if it were a little miracle. Often she would 
 get only three steps from the Luxembourg, when she had 
 to be taken back, being attacked by some of the many ills 
 she said she felt, but which never appeared. She ate bread 
 which she carried ia a provision pocket ; and Eussia leather 
 boots were her mortal enemies. She was sister to the Due 
 de Lorraine, and Monsieur had married her during his exile 
 from France, without the consent of the late king. When 
 Nancy was taken she had to fly, disguised as a page, in 
 the bottom of a cart ; and was forced to pay with great 
 distresses for the honour she had gained in marrying 
 Monsieur. 
 
 That prince, on his side, being then heir presumptive to 
 the crown, though obliged to leave her in Flanders when he 
 returned to France, remained inviolably faithful to her. As 
 he showed no firmness for others who had attached them- 
 selves to him, King Louis XIII., his brother, urged him, on 
 his return to France, to consent to the rupture of the mar- 
 riage ; but this he would never do, and he brought his wife 
 to France as soon as the death of the king and that of 
 Cardinal Eichelieu enabled him to do so. 
 
 I have heard it said that on arriving at that beautiful 
 palace of the Luxembourg in Paris some one asked if she 
 did not feel great joy at finding herself in that superb place ; 
 to which she coldly answered that after the joy of again 
 seeing Monsieur, all the rest seemed nothing to her. She 
 had a good mind, and reasoned well on all subjects about 
 which she chose to talk. She seemed, by what she said, to 
 have heart and ambition. She loved Monsieur ardently; 
 and hated in the same way any one who could injure her 
 with him. She was handsome in the features of her face, 
 which were beautiful and well-formed; but she was not 
 agreeable ; her whole person lacked I know not what that 
 
182 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vii. 
 
 was pleasing ; but as for actual ugliness, she had it only in 
 her teeth, which were already decayed. It was said of this 
 princess that she was beautiful without being so, and had 
 intellect but seemed to have none because she made no use 
 of it. She was fat and thin both ; her face was full and 
 her bosom handsome, so her women said, but her hands and 
 arms were very thru. It must also be said that she had not 
 a fine figure, but neither was she deformed. In short, all 
 contrasts were collected in her in a surprising manner ; and 
 it was impossible to speak of her except with an ambiguity 
 to be used about no one else. 
 
 It was also true that Monsieur loved her and did not love 
 her. He lived with her and treated her well; he never 
 deliberately annoyed her ; and when he thought her dis- 
 satisfied or grieved he did all he could to cure her little 
 thoughts. He never left her, and when he was at home he 
 spent nearly all his time in her room, showing sometimes 
 that he esteemed her virtue and her intelligence. But he had 
 a favourite [the Abb^ de la Eivifere] whom she did not like ; 
 he had raised him to extreme grandeur and had confidence 
 in him, and she was never able to do him an injury. Mon- 
 sieur often laughed at her delicacies and whims with the 
 ladies who served her, and even with the queen, to whom 
 he used to say that she was visionary, that her piety was 
 ridiculous, that she never talked except to her confessor, 
 whom she consulted about the merest trifles. Neither did 
 he spare her favourites, who were among the silliest crea- 
 tures in Paris. He said, speaking of them, that persons of 
 merit, lacking discernment, ought to be ashamed to be on 
 good terms with them ; that her court was decried because 
 those who were obliged to see her, on accoimt of her rank, 
 found there none but persons unworthy of her favour and 
 approbation. So. it may be said he loved her, but did not 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 183 
 
 love her often ; and the respect he had for her was varied in 
 the same degree. 
 
 Those who knew her intimately told me she was naturally 
 insensible to friendship ; and that, if she loved Monsieur, 
 that feeling had no other operation in her than to incite her 
 to scold him continually and cause him much vexation ; so 
 that their union was as inexplicable as all the rest. As the 
 princess was both healthy and ill at the same time, and as 
 she belonged to those virtuous women who like to follow 
 their husbands, her physician obliged her much by ordering 
 her to the baths of Bourbon because Monsieur was to take 
 them. She ceased to complain in order to make the journey, 
 because she always wanted to be with him; and not only 
 did she make it, but she did not go in a chair, as she first 
 intended. She never left the coach in which Monsieur was, 
 and seemed to bear the fatigues of the journey more easily 
 than the most robust women. 
 
 The Duchesse d'Orl^ans might justly have a passion for 
 Monsieur. He was agreeable in person. His complexion 
 and the features of his face were handsome, the expression' 
 of his countenance pleasing; his eyes were blue, his hair 
 black. He looked like the son of a king, but badly trained. 
 In spite of his natural restlessness and his grimaces, it was 
 easy to see both birth and grandeur in his person. He was 
 kind and easy of access. He had intelligence, spoke well, 
 and jested pleasantly. He had read much and knew history 
 thoroughly, with much other studious knowledge. Nothing 
 was wanting in this prince for society, except that he was 
 rather vainglorious, with that coarse pride which made him 
 hold his rank too stiffly, though it did not prevent his treat- 
 ing kindly those who approached him. I have seen women 
 of quality standing in the room where he was, to show the 
 respect they owed him, without his having the civility to 
 
184 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vii. 
 
 ask them to sit down ; and men complained that in the 
 roughest weather he never told them to put on their hats, 
 which the king, his brother, always did. 
 
 He was accused of being timid and lazy. But I have 
 heard it said that he sometimes went into very dangerous 
 places, as far in the advance as the common soldiers. But 
 there is one stain on his life which dishonours him. It was 
 when, in his youth, he formed a party in France for the 
 interests of the queen his mother, and the Due de Mont- 
 morency, fighting for him, was made prisoner before his 
 very eyes; he could have saved him, but he did not, and 
 was the cause that that great seigneur, the most amiable, 
 as I was told, of men, was beheaded. His favourite, the 
 Abb^ de la Kivifere, whose interest it was to preserve him, 
 kept him as much as he could from going into danger ; and 
 Mardchal de Gassion, one day when the prince had done 
 personally well and had bravely risked musket shots, said, 
 after praising him, that he had been lively that time because 
 his suckfish [remora] was not there. It was for this reason 
 that the Court desired this year that the Due d'Orldans should 
 not command the army; and the doctors who sent him to 
 the Baths gave no little pleasure to the ministers; for not 
 only did his expenses as commander increase immensely 
 the royal budget, but the finest plans were rendered useless 
 by cares for his preservation. The maxim of conquerors is 
 to risk; but it was impossible to propose schemes of that 
 nature to a general of such consequence, who, after the 
 king, the queen, and the little real Monsieur, held the first 
 place in the kingdom, and whose life was therefore precious 
 to France, which naturally loves the children of her kings. 
 
 The Comte d'Harcourt, that unfortunate general, returning 
 from Catalonia, arrived in Holy-Week [April 20, 1647]. The 
 queen, by advice of the cardinal, received him coldly. It 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 185 
 
 was the minister's habit to do harsh things through her, and 
 to reserve favours, benefits, and pardons for his own bestowal ; 
 for the queen was convinced that the more friends the car- 
 dinal made, the more the peace of her regency was secured. 
 "With this idea, she told Comte d'Harcourt that she thought 
 him wrong for having undertaken the siege of Lerida against 
 the orders of the king. He replied like an able man, though 
 he was not suspected of being one, that he entreated her 
 very humbly to believe him incapable of failing in respect 
 or fidelity to whatever concerned his duty and the obedience 
 that he owed to her wishes ; and (in order not to importune 
 her with his reasons for so acting) he begged her to let him 
 inform the cardinal, who, he hoped, would have sufficient 
 equity to justify him to her. His scheme succeeded ; for 
 as the minister only wanted to mortify him, he took him 
 back into his good graces after a great explanation, and, as 
 the count himself had foreseen, he received good treatment 
 from the queen when he next presented himself before her. 
 
 The festivals passed as usual. The queen, after having 
 taken the Lord's supper at home on Holy Thursday, went 
 to shut herself up at the Val-de-GrSce to spend the rest of 
 Holy-Week in retreat and prayer. We went there, my 
 sister and I, very early on Good Friday morning, in order 
 to profit by her example. She had risen and dressed by 
 five o'clock, and was already employed in meditating on the 
 wonders which God on that day had worked in our favour. 
 She heard the Passion preached at seven o'clock by a Jesuit, 
 who did not make himself admired ; and after the service 
 was over, she went to adore the Cross with the saintly 
 nuns who live in continual penitence and show by all their 
 actions that the Cross is ever in their thoughts and before 
 their eyes. She did these things with a devoutness fit to 
 edify the most hardened to the laws of God. 
 
186 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vn. 
 
 After returning to her chamber she spoke to us, to my 
 sister and me, of the instability of the things of earth, of 
 the importance of our salvation, the danger in which we 
 continually are of failing in what we have to do for the 
 accomplishment of that great work, which we agreed at 
 that moment was the first and chief of all. After his 
 diimer the king came to see her, bringing the cardinal with 
 him, and about a dozen of the Court who were necessary 
 about his person. The queen took great pleasure in show- 
 ing them the whole house, and the designs she had for a 
 beautiful new convent which should preserve to posterity 
 eternal signs of the honour it had received in being the 
 place where she went to enjoy solitude. 
 
 The king and Cardinal Mazarin were present at the 
 tenebrce. The former was admired by his people, who saw 
 him, through the nun's grating, ruiming hither and thither, 
 blowing out the candles and behaving like a child that 
 loves to play. The minister, who accompanied all his 
 actions with great modesty, played the pious and devout 
 personage, though perhaps he was not so at all. He took 
 care to seem regular in his external actions, and it was 
 impossible to reproach him for a vice, or for any irregularity 
 which might go by that name. 
 
 When the king had departed and the queen found herself 
 alone in her desert, she went into the infirmary to visit a nun 
 who was dying of a cancer in her breast, which had rotted 
 away the side of it. The smell from the wound was not 
 only such as to be offensive to the queen, who liked sweet 
 odours, but to men the most used to infection and the misery 
 of hospitals. She stayed a long time and chose to see the 
 wound dressed ; which was a pitiable sight. The disease 
 had so eaten away the part on which it had fastened that 
 we could see into her body. After this act of charity we 
 
^■^^f 
 
 ^/^i 
 
 
 ^fo/'/ff^u.c.^Le/fLer^f/*' ^/fk JVM— 
 
 (Pac-simile Letter.) 
 
 Anne op Austria to the Prince de CondS 
 (the Great Conde). 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 187 
 
 left the queen to enjoy the rest that is found at the foot 
 of altars. The next day she returned to the Palais-Eoyal 
 to be present on Easter-day in its parish church and perform 
 her devotions. 
 
 The fStes over, nothing was talked of but war and jour- 
 neys. The Court had planned to go to the frontier and even 
 beyond Amiens and Compi^gne, but in spite of this excite- 
 ment which seemed to foreshadow battles, the peace that 
 reigned in the Court itself and made it pleasurable induced 
 the queen to have that fine comedy, with scenery, of which I 
 have already spoken played three or four times before her ; 
 she was always present and never wearied of it. The last 
 time was to entertain Madame de Longueville, who had 
 lately returned from Munster. 
 
 This princess, who, though absent, reigned in her family, 
 and whose approbation every one desired as a sovereign good, 
 returned to Paris in May, 1647, and did not fail to appear 
 there with even more lustre than she had when she left it. 
 The friendship that the Prince de Cond^, her brother, felt for 
 her gave authority to her actions and manners, and the gran- 
 deur of her beauty and of her mind so increased the cabal 
 of her family that she had not been long at Court before she 
 occupied it wholly. She became the object of all desires; 
 her reception [ruelle] was the centre of all intrigues, and those 
 whom she liked were considered at once as the darlings of 
 fortune. Her courtiers were revered by the minister ; and 
 before long we shall see her the cause of our revolutions 
 and of all the quarrels that came so near destroying France. 
 
 The Prince de Marsillac had formed an intimacy with M. 
 le Prince [the Court title given to the Prince de Cond^] ever 
 since the queen, changing to many, had changed to him, 
 and after promising much had thought it her duty not to 
 give him what he asked. In attaching himself to M. le 
 
188 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vii. 
 
 Prince through policy, he gave himself to Madame de 
 Longueville in a rather more tender manner, joining feel- 
 ings of the heart to regard for her grandeur and fortune. 
 This gift of himself was apparent to the eyes of the public ; 
 and it seemed to the whole Court that the princess received 
 it with welcome. In all that she did later, it was clearly 
 seen that ambition was not the only emotion that filled her 
 soul, for the interests of the Priuce de Marsillac held a large 
 place in it. She became ambitious for him; for his sake 
 she ceased to love repose, and in becoming sensible to that 
 affection she became insensible to her own fame. 
 
 Her ideas, her intellect, and the opinion formed of her 
 discernment made her the admired of all men; they were 
 convinced that her esteem alone was enough to give them 
 reputation. Though she ruled all souls by this means, that 
 of her beauty was no less potent ; for although she had had 
 the small-pox since the regency began and had slightly lost 
 the purity of her complexion, the glow of her charms always 
 attracted the inclination of those who saw her; above all, 
 she possessed in a sovereign degree that which the Spanish 
 language expresses by the words : donayre, hrio, y lizaria. 
 Her figure was admirable ; the very air of her person had a 
 charm, the spell of which extended even to her own sex. It 
 was impossible to see her without liking her, and wishing to 
 please her. Her beauty, nevertheless, consisted more in the 
 colouring of her face than in the perfection of its features. 
 Her eyes were not large, but beautiful, soft and brilliant, and 
 the blue was wonderful, like that of the turquoise. Poets 
 could only compare to lUies and roses the tones of her face ; 
 and the silvery fair hair that accompanied such marvels 
 made her resemble an angel — such as the weakness of our 
 nature makes us imagine them — much more than a woman. 
 
 It may be said that at this time all grandeur, all glory, all 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 189 
 
 gallantry were held in this Bourbon family, of which M. le 
 Prince was the head, and success was no longer thought a 
 good unless it came through their hands. The Prince de 
 Conti,^ younger brother of this brother and sister, had just 
 left college and was beginning to appear in society. He was 
 handsome in face, but as his figure was deformed he was 
 destined for the Church. He possessed many benefices, and 
 several persons attached themselves to him in the hope of 
 making their fortune on this line. The young prince, find- 
 ing that his sister, Mme. de Longueville, had so great a 
 reputation, desired to follow her advice and sentiments, and 
 allowed himself to be tempted to win respect through her. 
 He sought to please her, more even as an honourable man 
 than as her brother ; he had intelligence and he succeeded. 
 
 The queen, who was by nature neither jealous nor ambi- 
 tious, nevertheless showed some coldness towards Mme. de 
 Longueville. She did not like this manner of publicly pro^ 
 fessing to be a hel esprit; she disliked all the ways of it. 
 She herself had reason and good sense ; all that was in her 
 was natural and without art; and these two personages, 
 according to the measure of their age, both being infinitely 
 amiable, were so different in character that it was impos- 
 sible that the inferior, who lived as a queen and did not 
 render great duty to her sovereign, could please the latter. 
 
 The occupation given by the plaudits of the gi-eat world, 
 which usually regards with too much admiration the fine 
 qualities of people of high birth, had deprived Mme. de 
 Longueville of the leisure to read and to give to her mind 
 a knowledge sufficiently extended to call her learned. She 
 was by nature too much concerned about sentiments ; which 
 
 1 Armand de Bourbon, brother of the great Conde', abbe and prior of 
 Cluny. He left the Church and married Anne Martinozzi, niece of Cardi- 
 nal Mazarin ; their son Louls-Armand married the daughter of Louis XIV. 
 and Mme. de la Valliere. — Te. 
 
190 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. tii. 
 
 passed with her for infallible rules, and were not so always ; 
 and there was too much affectation in her manner of speak- 
 ing and acting, the greatest beauty of which consisted iu the 
 delicacy of her thoughts and a very just reasoning. She 
 seemed constrained; and the refined satire, of which she 
 and her courtiers made profession, often fell upon those 
 who, wishing to pay her their duty, could not help feeling 
 that the honest sincerity which should be observed in polite 
 society was apparently banished from hers. The virtues 
 and laudable qualities of the most excellent beings are 
 mingled with things that are their opposite ; all men share 
 the clay from which they get their origin, and God alone is 
 perfect. 
 
 May 9, 1647, the queen took the road to Compifegne, in- 
 tending to go as far as Amiens. The cardinal stayed three 
 or four days behind her in Paris to conclude some business, 
 and started to join her on the 15th of the same month. As 
 he was indefatigable in working, and did the duties of all 
 the secretaries of State, wishing to know everything, he was 
 so continually busy that it was almost impossible to see him. 
 Italians are usually haters of a crowd and bustle; for this 
 reason the minister disliked to show himself — so much so 
 that persons of quality murmured at being forced to wait at 
 his door until he would see them. They were not repulsed, 
 however, by the contempt shown to them, which, apparently, 
 produced no other effect upon their souls than to make them 
 more humble and grovelling ; but as the French allow them- 
 selves to be easily governed by favourites, so are they also 
 as easily led into talking against them. The cardinal, know- 
 ing this, was accustomed to say, in speaking of these people, 
 that he was wHltng to let them talk provided that they would 
 let him do. The murmuring began from ear to ear in the 
 antechamber of the man who sneered at their attentions. 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 191 
 
 and was uttered in a loud voice as soon as the mutterers 
 were out of it. Sometimes I grew weary of hearing him so 
 abused ; for, besides the fact that it was often unjust, what 
 in itself is useless always seems to me disagreeable. 
 
 The cardinal had as many lights as a man who was the 
 artisan of his own grandeur could have. He had great 
 capacity, above all, industry, and marvellous shrewdness in 
 leading and amusiag men by countless deceptive hopes. He 
 never did harm unless from necessity to those who dis- 
 pleased him. Usually, he was content to complain of them, 
 and these complaints produced explanations which readily 
 restored to him the friendship of those who had been un- 
 faithful to him, or who thought they had cause to be vexed 
 with him. He had the gift of pleasing, and it was impossible 
 to keep one's self from being charmed by his sweetness ; but 
 this same sweetness was the cause, when not accompanied 
 by the benefits it seemed to promise, that those who were 
 weary of expecting fell into disgust and vexation. Until 
 now, the complaints of private persons had made no great 
 impression upon the public mind, and they were founded 
 more on the loss of his favour than on hatred to his person. 
 
 The respect that the halo of royal power, which surrounded 
 him gloriously, impressed upon the hearts of the king's sub- 
 jects arrested much that human malice tried to blame in 
 him; and the tranquillity of the Court, joined to fortunate 
 successes in war, had given him, up to this time, more repu- 
 tation than the worst of the courtiers could give him shame. 
 But, little by little, they went on discovering defects in him ; 
 some of which could be attributed to all favourites, others 
 of which were essentially his. They said that he ignored 
 our customs, and did not trouble himself sufficiently to have 
 them observed ; that he did not take pains, as he should 
 have done, to govern the State by its long-established laws ; 
 
192 MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vii. 
 
 that lie did not protect justice and law as he was bound by 
 his position as prime miuister to do ; and that he thus failed 
 in the care he owed to the public weal. These sias of omis- 
 sion, though great, could not rightly dishonour him, because 
 he may have had good iatentions which, if known, would 
 have justified him to the public. 
 
 It may be said, nevertheless, that, with the temperament 
 he had, these accusations were not far wrong, for it was his 
 nature to neglect too much to do good. He seemed to 
 respect no virtue, and to hate no vice. He appeared to have 
 neither; he passed for a man habituated to the custom of 
 Christian virtues, but showing no desire for their practice. 
 He made no profession of piety, and gave no signs to the 
 contrary by any of his actions, unless it were that satirical 
 remarks occasionally escaped him which were at variance 
 with the respect that a Christian ought to have for whatever 
 concerns religion. In spite of his greed he had not yet 
 seemed miserly ; and the finances were more wasted at this 
 period of his administration by partisans than at any previous 
 time. 
 
 He also, as I have said elsewhere speaking of the queen, 
 granted the dignities of the Church to many persons who 
 claimed them from profane motives ; and he did not always 
 appoint to the bishoprics men who could honour his choice 
 by their virtue and piety. Eeligion was too much neglected 
 by him ; he was always too indifferent to that sacred trust 
 which God had committed to him. By nature he was dis- 
 trustful ; and one of his greatest cares was to study men in 
 order to know them and guard himself from attacks and 
 from the intrigues that were formed against him. He pro- 
 fessed to fear nothing, and to despise even the cautions that 
 were given him about his person, though in reality the prin- 
 ciple of his greatest care was his personal preservation. 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 193 
 
 The few days that the minister remained behind in Paris 
 served only to still further foment the jealousies that were 
 begioniag to appear ; because many of those who wished to 
 see him could not succeed ia doing so. When he got into his 
 coach to go away the whole courtyard of the Palais-Eoyal 
 was fiUed with cordons-Ueus, great seigneurs, and persons of 
 Tank, who by their eagerness seemed to be only too happy to 
 look at him from a distance. All men are naturally slaves 
 to fortune ; I can truly say that I never saw any one at Court 
 who was not a flatterer, some more, others less. Self-interest, 
 which blinds us, takes us imawares and betrays us on occa- 
 sions which concern us ; it makes us act with more feeling 
 than intelligence; and it happens often enough that we 
 become ashamed of om- weakness ; which, however, we do 
 not perceive except through sage reflection, and after the 
 occasion for doing better has passed. 
 
 ■VOL. I. — 13 
 
VIII. 
 
 1647- 
 
 Though peace could not, at this time have been so glori- 
 ous for France, it would not have failed to be convenient and 
 advantageous to her. The long wars had exhausted her ia 
 men, forces, and money.^ It was doubted in those days 
 whether the minister really wished for peace. At any rate, 
 the fortunate moment passed, and this period, propitious for 
 good fortune, was not destined to soon return. God puts,, 
 when it pleases Him, limits to ova ambition ; He knows how 
 to humiliate those who trust iu their own wisdom, and shows 
 to kings and miaisters that they are not the masters of their 
 own fate. The cardinal may, perhaps, have had good mo- 
 tives for delaying the peace, which seemed to all Europe to 
 depend on him only ; but, as it is easy to suspect a minister 
 
 1 Laporte relates in his memoirs dreadful details of this misery, which 
 kept on increasing : " The king saw quantities of sick and maimed soldiers 
 following him everywhere, and begging for Jielp to relieve their misery, 
 without his having a single penny to give them; which amazed people 
 much. 
 
 "Besides the misery of the soldiers, that of the people was awful; and 
 wherever the Court went the poor peasants flung themselves around it, 
 thinking to be in greater safety, because the army devastated the country. 
 They brought their cattle, which immediately died from hunger, for they 
 dared not lead them to pasture. When the cattle were dead they died 
 themselves incontinently, for they had nothing to live on but the Court 
 charities, which were middling; each one considering his own interests 
 first. They had no shelter from the great heat of the day and the chilli- 
 ness of night, except that of awnings, carts, and vans which were in the 
 streets. When the mothers were dead the children soon died ; and I saw 
 on the bridge of Melun three children lying on their dead mother and 
 still sucking her." This went on from 1646 to 1652. — Pr. En. 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 195 
 
 of having more regard for his private benefit than for the 
 public weal, and as the common opinion was that peace 
 would have been the ruin of that benefit because all the 
 strength of the cabinet could have gathered, more easily 
 against him, Cardinal Mazarin was judged as a man who 
 apprehended this very danger. 
 
 The queen, who desired peace, always assured me iu those 
 days that she knew for a certainty that her minister did his 
 best to give it to France and to all Europe. She said that 
 what others had reason to apprehend would not happen to 
 one in his position, for he was well assured that she would 
 never permit intrigues against him, and that the same confi- 
 dence she had had in him during the war she would have 
 during peace. But he may have deceived the queen, who 
 was certainly unable to convince the public. Nevertheless, 
 it is possible that he wished for peace at that time, and had 
 reason to do so; for besides appearing always to aim at 
 the good of the State, he was avaricious and master of the 
 finances. It may be believed, therefore, that peace would 
 have brought hiTn the means to amass much treasure, which 
 to him would possess a considerable charm. 
 
 In Paris the murmuring was great about our losses in the 
 war. The honour of the taking of La Bass^e [Flanders] was 
 granted to Mar^chal de Gassion, but the blame for the victo- 
 ries won by our enemies was put upon Cardinal Mazarin. 
 They were adduced as signs of his bad conduct of the war, 
 and his adversaries presented them to the public as evident 
 proofs of all that they preached against him. 
 
 This murmuring caused several banishments. The Comte 
 de Fiesque was the most important of the exiles. He had 
 been well-treated by the cardinal, but on the downfall of the 
 Due de Beaufort, whose friend he said he was, he declaimed 
 against him loudly, telling him, in justification, that between 
 
196 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. vm. 
 
 two equal friends one should always follow the unfortunate, 
 and quit the dominant one. He therefore shared the misfor- 
 tune of the one by exile, and showed that he hated the power 
 of the other by his speeches. The cardinal, however, urged 
 by the friends of the Comte de Fiesque, wishing to forget 
 the affronts he thought he had received, brought him back 
 from this first exile with every sign of true reconciliation. 
 He followed, in thus forgiving, his natural incliaation which 
 inclined him to gentleness and peace. That of his pardoned 
 enemy was different ; he was never content and was always 
 finding fault with the actions of those who governed. For 
 this reason his temperament kept him from profiting by the 
 truce between them ; so that his conduct forced the minister 
 at last to send him away again. The Abb6 de Belebat was 
 also exiled, and Sarrazin [the poet], for having written satiri- 
 cal verses ; together with others of small note who had said 
 in wine-shops and public places a few silly things. 
 
 An ordinance was issued, forbidding all persons to talk 
 about the affairs of the State ; and the queen showed much 
 aversion to those who said more than they ought. She re- 
 marked to the Mar^chale d'Estr^es, seeing the arrival in the 
 streets of Amiens of Madame de Choisy, who came to speak 
 to her on behalf of her brother, Belebat : " That poor woman 
 makes me pity her, for her journey is useless ; I am resolved 
 to punish severely all those who talk against the govern- 
 ment." And the Mar^chale d'Estr^es, in relating to me 
 what I here write, added that the queen held firm against 
 the prayers of Madame de Choisy, and openly blamed Cardi- 
 nal Mazarin for being too kind and too long-suffering. 
 
 The queen after seeing that order was restored on the fron- 
 tier and the army of the king in a condition to defend itself, 
 left Amiens and went to spend some days at Abbeville. 
 From there she came to Dieppe, intending to go to Eouen ; 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 197 
 
 but our province and particularly the town of Eouen was so 
 iosensible to the honour the king did it that it carefully 
 evaded the visit. The queen, on her side, pretended to dread 
 the fuss and annoyance of the visit and of all the harangues 
 they would have to listen to. She resolved to return by 
 Gournay, Gisors, and Pontoise, and stayed but three days at 
 Dieppe, though the place was agreeable to her. She liked 
 the view of the ocean which she saw from the windows of 
 her chamber, where also she could see the fireships burning at 
 sea for her amusement. The king went to see the large fine 
 ship the Queen of Sweden had sent him, and a naval combat 
 took place on the occasion. To crown the joy of the inhabi- 
 tants they were allowed the honour of guarding the person 
 of the king, which was partly necessary because he had few 
 of his guards with biTn. 
 
 The people of Dieppe, who had always been faithful to 
 Henri IT., the king's grandfather, deserved to receive this 
 mark of the confidence reposed in them ; and as they took it 
 in that spirit they went about the streets shouting that it 
 was right to confide the king to their care, for there were 
 no Eavaillacs Eimong them. Women ran after their Majes- 
 ties, and all the villagers of that region followed them, 
 crying out endless benedictions, which, in spite of their 
 horrible Xorman accent, pleased their Majesties. I heard 
 the queen herself say that the affection she recognized in 
 this people had been agreeable enough to relieve her of 
 the annoyance she usually felt at such importunities. 
 
 Though the queen desired to evade harangues, she could 
 not entirely exempt herself from them. The parliament of 
 Xormandy came to welcome her, also the " Qiambre des 
 Comptes " and the " Cours des Aides." On this occasion we 
 saw what is not extraordinary to see, but what, in itself, is 
 ever terrible to the mind of man The chief judge of Eys, 
 
198 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. viii. 
 
 about sixty years of age but in vigorous health, died suddenly 
 at the head of the staircase as he left the queen's presence, 
 and so quickly that there was no interval between his life 
 and his death. The king and queen ran to him, to make 
 him open his mouth and take remedies, but they found him 
 lifeless and their kiadness was of no use. I had joined the 
 queen at Dieppe to be with her as long as she was in our 
 province; I therefore saw this sight, with the feeling of 
 horror one has when it is seen near-by. The queen took the 
 road to Paris with satisfaction, whither I followed her soon 
 after. 
 
 I reached Paris August 28, very wearied with my journey, 
 because I had been travelling all the time. The country is 
 beautiful with repose and solitude only when we can enjoy 
 the innocent pleasures that Nature gives in woods and 
 streams. I found the queen in the chamber of the Due 
 d'Anjou, who was ill with a disease sufficiently important to 
 cause uneasiness to so good a mother as herself. 
 
 He was beginning to get better, and his room was filled 
 with the most important personages of the Court. This 
 annoyance, which is inseparable from illness, was such that 
 the little prince was inconvenienced by the fine company 
 and entreated the queen to send them all away and stay with 
 him alone. The queen told him that she dared not do so, 
 because the Princesse de Cond^ and many persons of rank 
 were there. To which he answered : " Eh ! ton Bieu, 
 madame, pray laugh at that. Are not you the mistress ? 
 What is the good of your crown if not to do what you will 1 
 You send me away when it pleases you, though I am your 
 son ; is it not fair that each should have his turn ? " I was 
 with the queen, and as she thought he was right, she did me 
 the honour to say to me : "I must satisfy him ; but not in 
 his way ; I shall go myself, and that will draw away those 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 199 
 
 who annoy him." She led away the princess, and the rest 
 whom she could not dismiss. 
 
 This young prince ^ had iatelligence from the time he 
 could talk. The clearness of his thoughts was accompanied 
 by two fine inclinations, which were begioning to appear in 
 him and are necessary to persons of his birth, namely ; liber- 
 ality and humanity. It is to be wished that he had been 
 deprived of the idle amusements allowed him in his youth. 
 He liked to be with women and girls, and to dress them and 
 arrange their hair. He knew what became them better than 
 any woman ; and his greatest delight, as he grew older, was 
 to deck and adorn them, and buy jewels to lend or give to 
 those who were his favourites. He was well-made ; the 
 features of his face seemed perfect. His black eyes were 
 admirably fine and brilliant ; they had sweetness and gravity 
 combiued. His mouth was in some respects like that of the 
 queen, his mother. His black hair, in heavy natural curls, 
 suited his complexion ; and his nose, which promised to be 
 aquiline, was at that time quite well-formed. It might be 
 expected that, if years did not diminish his beauty, he would 
 dispute the prize with that of the handsomest women ; but, 
 as for his figure, it seemed as though he would never be 
 taU. 
 
 That same day, in the evening, the king's lawyers came 
 before the queen at her command. She sent for them to 
 complain of the parliament, which opposed a certain tax laid 
 upon provisions, which up to this time had not been levied 
 because the president, de Mesmes, holding the sessions of 
 1646, had forbidden its beiug put in force. But iu spite 
 of this prohibition, the affair was again brought up for dis- 
 cussion in the Council, where, on account of the need of 
 
 ^ Philippe d'Orle'ans, husband of Henrietta of England, and secondly of 
 filisabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine, the mother of the Regent. — Tr. 
 
200 MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. tiii. 
 
 having money, it was proposed to maintaia the royal author- 
 ity in this matter. 
 
 The parliament, which assumed to have the right of ex- 
 amining the edicts that laid burdens on the people, having 
 maintained what President de Mesmes had done, and ordered 
 that very humble remonstrances should be sent to the queen 
 on this affair, their resistance made the Court resolve to 
 offer them other edicts less difficult to pass. A conference 
 was held on this subject at the Palais-Eoyal, when the coun- 
 sel for the king and that for the parliament were present. 
 The queen was not present, because it is a rule that subjects 
 shall not confer with masters. They all sat down at a large 
 table; the Due d'Orl^ans at the head. Cardinal Mazarin 
 opposite to him ; next below Monsieur was the chancellor, 
 and next below the cardinal was President de Mesmes ; the 
 rest according to rank. D'Emery, at that time superin- 
 tendent of finance, was at a corner of the .table, but had no 
 seat there ; and the four secretaries of State were in their 
 usual place. It was expected that the chancellor would 
 make a speech ; but the cardinal had sent him a memoran- 
 dum, made by Lyonne, his secretary, on which were written, 
 by his order, the principal points of the speech. The chan- 
 cellor felt that he could not maintain the credit he had 
 acquired whenever he spoke in public if he submitted to 
 this dictation; he therefore preferred to say nothing, and 
 excused himself as being indisposed. 
 
 At this conference it was finally determined to pass the 
 original tariff, because the parliament considered that by 
 the new propositions made to them the advantage to the 
 peojDle would be no greater. They resolved merely to 
 modify it, and they decreed that it should be levied for 
 two years only, at the end of which time they forbade that 
 it be levied any longer ; and at the same time the Cour des 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 201 
 
 Aides was forbidden to interfere. In getting the money, 
 Cardinal Mazarin was satisfied ; so was the queen, because 
 she was saved by this agreement the fatigue of goiag to 
 parliament in person to get the new edicts passed; which 
 she would have been forced to do had the affair not ended 
 amicably. 
 
 On the 11th of September, 1647, we saw, arriving from 
 Italy, three nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, and a nephew.^ 
 Two Mancini sisters and the nephew were the children of 
 the youngest sister of his Eminence ; the third niece was a 
 Martinozzi, daughter of the minister's eldest sister. 
 
 The eldest of the little Mancinis was a pleasing brunette 
 with a handsome face, about twelve or thirteen years of age. 
 The second, also a bnmette, had a long face and pointed 
 chin. Her eyes were small but lively, and it might be 
 expected that when fifteen years old she would have some 
 charm. According to the rules of beauty it was impossible 
 at this time to grant her any, except that of having dimples 
 in her cheeks. Mademoiselle de Martinozzi was blonde; 
 her features were beautiful, and she had much sweetness 
 in her eyes. She gave promise of becoming very handsome, 
 and had we been astrologers enough to divine in her face 
 the prospects of her fortune as we did those of her beauty, 
 we should have known even then that she was destined to 
 high rank. The last two were of the same age, we were 
 told about nine or ten years old. 
 
 Madame de Nogent went to Fontainebleau, by the cardi- 
 
 1 Cardinal Mazarin had two sisters living in Rome ; the eldest married 
 to Comte Martinozzi, had two daughters ; the other, married to Signer 
 Mancini, had three sons and five daughters. The eldest Mancini became 
 Madame de Mercoeur and died young. The second was Olympe, Comtesse 
 de Soissons ; the third was Marie, Louis XIV.'s love, finally married to 
 Prince Colonna ; the fourth was Hortense, Duchesse de Mazarin ; the 
 fifth was Marie-Anne, Duchesse de Bouillon. Anne Martinozzi, daughter 
 of the cardinal's eldest sister, married the Prince de Conti. — Te. 
 
202 MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTBVILLE. [chap. viii. 
 
 nal's order, to meet them. The minister would never incur 
 great obligations to any of the more important persons of 
 the Court, for fear of being forced into inconvenient grati- 
 tude. He treated this affair lite a man whose chief care 
 is to seem iminterested ; and the opinion his familiar cour- 
 tiers formed was that he abandoned these children to the 
 Comte de ISTogent, a great flatterer and capable of carrying 
 flattery to extremities, expecting him to do them the honours 
 of the great world, while he himself could always say, " It 
 is the humour of that man," and turn him into ridicule with 
 the queen if he thought it useful ; in fact, he often treated 
 him in that manner about his conceited speeches and 
 buffooneries. 
 
 This man [Nogent] had all his life imitated wit; he 
 affected to make people laugh, talking incessantly, though 
 no one could accuse him of saying anything. In this way 
 he attained to the luck of making a great fortune. There 
 was no person of rank at Court who received greater bene- 
 fits from it than he, whether by private privileges, by 
 prerogatives and preferences to favours of distinction, or 
 through the great property he had begun to amass under 
 Cardinal Eichelieu, who contributed more than any one to 
 make him rich. This great sayer of nothings found means 
 through silliness to rise and to obtain that which his birth 
 denied to him, and which virtue and great merit would not 
 have given him so easily. He had intelligence after his 
 fashion; he was not malicious, and I never heard him say 
 harm of any one, no matter who. Perhaps on great occa- 
 sions the desire to please made him commit great faults in 
 the sight of God, but as for what appeared externally, if 
 he did not protect the unfortunate, neither did he contribute 
 to ruin them. He gave pleasure when he could, in his own 
 way, which was to turn all things into jest. Though it was 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 203 
 
 difficult to respect him, it was still more difficult to hate 
 him, for he never gave any real grounds for doing so. 
 
 This illustrious chatterer was the man who, by means of 
 his wife, presented, to the queen the nephew and nieces of 
 her miaister. She wished to see them the evening of their 
 arrival, and saw them with pleasure. She thought them 
 pretty, and the time the children spent in her presence 
 was employed in remarks on their appearance. Madame 
 de Senec^ proposed to the queen to go and see them the 
 next day and pay them her compliments ; but she was 
 made to understand that the cardinal did not wish them to 
 be visited, on the plea that being lodged in his house where 
 he liked to be in peace, visitors would disturb him much 
 if he allowed them to come there. 
 
 When this revered uncle, so fortunate and so powerful, 
 saw the arrival of his nieces, he left the queen the moment 
 that they entered her room, and went off to bed in his own 
 house. After the queen had seen them they were taken to 
 the cardinal ; but he seemed not to care for them much ; on 
 the contrary, he jested about those who were silly enough 
 to show them attentions. But, despite this scorn, he cer- 
 tainly had great designs based on these little girls. His 
 indifference about them was all pure comedy; and by that 
 we may judge that it is not only on the stage that comic 
 actors play good parts. 
 
 The next day the nieces were again brought to the queen, 
 who kept them some moments near her to examine them 
 better. Cardiual Mazaria was there also; but seemed no 
 more touched by them than he was on the first day. After 
 this, they were shown in public. Every one hastened to see 
 them, and the spectators made a point of extolling them, 
 sometimes as very agreeable, and sometimes as very beauti- 
 ful; they even gave them intellect on sight, and all the 
 
204 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap, tiii, 
 
 praises that could be thought of were amply bestowed by 
 their liberality. 
 
 While the courtiers were hastening to talk in this way, the 
 Due d'Orl^ans came up to the Abb^ de La Eivifere and me, who 
 were talking together near a window, and said in a low voice : 
 " So many persons are roimd these little girls that I doubt if 
 their lives are safe : they will be smothered by force of being 
 looked at." The Mar^chal de Vnieroy, who had the gravity 
 of a miuister, came up at the same time and said : " See 
 those little girls who now are not rich ; they will soon have 
 fine chSteaus, good incomes, splendid jewels, beautiful silver 
 services, and perhaps great dignities ; but as for the boy, it 
 needs time to make him great, and he may only see his for- 
 tune foreshadowed," — meaning that his uncle might fall 
 before he was old enough to be raised very high ; in which, 
 without knowing it, the mar^chal prophesied truly. 
 
 The girls became greater ladies than he thought, but the 
 boy never really enjoyed his luck, for death robbed him 
 of the favour of him who might have put him in the way to 
 be respected of all men. An Italian friend of mine told me, 
 some time later, that people in Eome were amazed when they 
 heard in what way these children had been received in 
 France; and especially that princes and great seigneurs 
 thought of marrying them. In their own land and according 
 to their birth, these nieces would have had few suitors, and 
 few people in Eome would have flocked to see them ; but the 
 rank they had at our Court as soon as they came there is suffi- 
 cient proof of the position of him who gave the lustre which 
 Italians could not approve. They laughed at our nation for 
 allowing itself to be governed by a man whom they did not 
 like because they knew him too well ; it is natural to men 
 to admire only distant things : Fugga il tetto nativo, chi gloria 
 brama. — " Flee the native roof, you who to glory aspire." 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLB. 205 
 
 The Princess Palestrina, Donna Anna Colonna, who re- 
 turned to Italy soon after their arrival in Paris, assured me 
 that the cardinal told her in confidence, speaking of his 
 nieces, that already the highest men in the kingdom had 
 asked him for them. And yet he had said to his friends 
 some years earlier, pointing to certain statues he had brought 
 from Eome, that those were the only relatives he meant to 
 bring to France ; but, like the sage, he changed his mind, and 
 let himself be urged by the queen, to whom he would not re- 
 fuse this favour, to allow his nieces come. He did nothing 
 in this that was contrary to reason; it was just that he 
 should let his own family share his grandeur, and use them 
 to strengthen still further his own fortimes. If those who 
 are masters do not attempt to limit a minister's ambition, he 
 is excusable if, during their power, he desires more than the 
 just reward of his services. It is natural to men to want 
 more glory, more happiness, more wealth than they have, 
 and often more than they deserve. 
 
 The next day, at the queen's lever, a little affair happened 
 to a Court lady, vexatious and harsh enough to be put in the 
 list of mortifications which persons often taste in the course 
 of their lives. The Duchesse de Schomberg, on giving up the 
 name, as I have told, of Madame de Hautefort, gave up also 
 her claim to the office of lady-in-waiting (then still pos- 
 sessed by her grandmother, Madame de La Flotte) for a com- 
 pensation of two hundred thousand francs. But, as the 
 longing for favour is an invisible chain which attaches every 
 one to the person of kings, some from inclination, others from 
 self-interest, and as few ever willingly detach themselves, 
 Madame de Schomberg did all she could to recover the good 
 graces of the queen, and would have liked to resume with 
 her the familiar intercourse of times past. 
 
 It is the rule that the lady of honour shall have the right 
 
206 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. tiii. 
 
 to serve the queen by handing her the chemise unless she 
 cedes that honour to a princess of the blood ; and when the 
 lady-in-waitiag is present she shares the service in certain 
 things with the lady-of-honour. Madame de Schomberg, 
 since her marriage, when alone with the queen had had 
 the honour to serve her ; and the queen had pleasantly re- 
 ceived the service, to do her a favour and not rebuff her, 
 but never as though she had a right to take the part of 
 lady-in-waiting on such occasions. 
 
 She attempted one day to enjoy the same privilege when 
 the Princesse de Cond^ and Madame de Senec4 were present. 
 The queen then said to her, and rather severely, for the old 
 friendship was entirely passed: "Madame, do you not see 
 that Madame de Senec^ is here and you are taking her office ? " 
 The Duchesse de Schomberg answered rather brusquely that 
 she saw her very well, but the service she was doing was her 
 own. The queen, a little excited, said at once : " Your office, 
 madame ! Did you not resign it when you married, for two 
 hundred thousand francs which I gave you in compensa- 
 tion ? " " Yes, madame," replied Madame de Schomberg, " but 
 I have not yet received the money. That is why I think I 
 have the right to exercise the offiice." — " Oh ! very well, 
 madame ; you will be paid," answered the queen ; " there is 
 enough money in France for that ; but you must know that 
 it is difficult to re-enter my heart when once a person has 
 gone out of it." The lady, keenly touched and pained, an- 
 swered only by tears, and followed the queen the whole day, 
 imable to keep from weeping before her. She had done the 
 thing against her will, so as not to displease her husband, 
 who wished her to obtain a return of past favours. 
 
 The queen, moved to pity, spoke to her and made her 
 several caresses to soften her pain, but, as this lady told me 
 later, she returned home resolved never again to try to obtain 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 207 
 
 the queen's good graces. She contented herself after that 
 with seeing her like the other duchesses, who only go to the 
 Louvre at the hour of the cerde ; and shortly after, without 
 fuss or complaint, she and the Mar^chal de Schomberg went 
 to their own house and government to live the Christian life 
 which alone gives peace of miad and tranquillity of soul. 
 
 This little tale made a great noise at Court; every one 
 spoke of it as he or she personally felt. Some blamed 
 Madame de Schomberg for imprudence in risking such 
 displeasure ; others accused the queen of harshness, which 
 is a thing she never felt to any one. 
 
 Some hours later, having asked her what the affair was 
 which was makiug so much stir, she told me what I have 
 just written down ; and she told it with the more kindness 
 because, as she said, she was grieved that the lady had 
 forced her, against her disposition, to cause her this vexa- 
 tion, for she did not like to give pain to any one whomsoever ; 
 but that she could not let herself be taken for a dupe, and 
 she saw plainly that Madame de Schomberg acted in that 
 manner, not to regain her friendship (which motive would 
 have been kindly), but to claim her former office for the 
 purpose of keeping it for her sister, d'Esoars, for whom she, 
 the queen, had a great aversion ; and it was not just that 
 because she was a queen she should have to be served, 
 against her will, by those she did not like. The Duchesse 
 de Schomberg afterwards told me the same thing, and said 
 that she had hoped to preserve the office for her sister. 
 
 The queen, who found pleasure in change, left Paris, 
 September 15 [1647] to spend the autumn in that beautiful 
 habitation of Fontainebleau, leaving in Paris the little Mon- 
 sieur, who was not yet sufficiently recovered to bear the 
 fatigue of a journey. The Mar^chal de Villeroy, anxious to 
 please the man who had made him the king's governor, put 
 
208 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. tiii. 
 
 it into the heart of the young king to wish to take the 
 youngest of the three Manciui girls on this trip; and he 
 asked it so eagerly of the queen that she willingly re- 
 quested the cardinal not to send his little niece to the 
 Jesuits. 
 
 The evening before the queen's departure, I went up to 
 the miaister, to pay him the homage due to one who re- 
 ceived the same from the greatest in the kingdom. He 
 returned my compliments by making a sham quarrel, as he 
 frequently did; for it was his way to give us often such 
 alarms. He told me that he was informed that Sarrazin, 
 the dismissed poet, had made satirical and malicious verses 
 in my apartments, which attacked the person of the queen. 
 My mind was so far from thinking anything of that nature 
 that at first I did not sufficiently notice the horror of this 
 insult. I merely answered, as if laughing, that the joke 
 was hard on a person like me who took no pleasure in 
 satirical verses against my greatest enemies ; and that I 
 thought I should do myself a wrong to answer such false- 
 hood seriously, though it was four years since I had seen 
 the man. This was the truth. From that I passed to other 
 matters about which I had to speak to him, and said no 
 more. 
 
 I am convinced I paid my court to him very ill ; for, not 
 wishing to do us real benefits, he took pleasure in causing 
 us false anzieties ; so that we might feel ourselves obliged 
 to him for pardoning our imaginary wrong-doings and leav- 
 ing us in peace. At other times he treated persons with 
 such gentleness and apparent good-will that it was impos- 
 sible to avoid being charmed by him; when he wished 
 to please he deceived the most distrustful persons. But 
 towards me such favours were rare. After I returned home, 
 recalling this malicious act which the minister's policy or 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 209 
 
 the baseness of some malignant mind had done me, I spent 
 several hours of the night in murmuring against the world, 
 against the ambitions which delude us and the weakness 
 which retaias us in it. 
 
 I complained to the queen, who thought I had good 
 reason to be displeased ; and in spite of the approbation she 
 usually gave to all that came from the cardinal, her natural 
 equity made her regret that he had listened to this tale and 
 had spoken of it to me as a believable story. She assured 
 me, moreover, that she would tell him what she thought of 
 it, and I venture to believe that she made him see that the 
 accusation he had made to me was wholly unreasonable. 
 
 This princess was full of kindness and justice; she was 
 not suspicious, not easy to prejudice, and when they told 
 her evil of any one of whom she had a good opinion she 
 resisted strongly. We should always have had smooth seas 
 with her, without tempests, if he in whom she had confi- 
 dence had not too often had the power to change her own 
 impressions by the pains he took to despise before her those 
 she esteemed ; but when he wanted to ruin any one it was 
 necessary, in order to succeed, that he should arrange matters 
 in a way to deceive her with the appearances of a real 
 cause. 
 
 As my case could not convince her, I felt on this occasion 
 as on the others I have mentioned, how upright her soul 
 was when her natural instincts were not darkened. I can 
 also say with truth that whatever she knew that might 
 harm those to whom she wished well she never told to her 
 minister ; and among those whom he hated and wished to 
 drive from Court there were some whom she supported 
 against him solely because of their innocence, — either be- 
 cause it was better known to her than that of others, or 
 because they really had more. The cardinal often said to 
 
 VOL. I. — 14 
 
210 MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. yiii. 
 
 Le Tellier (as the latter told me himself) that the queen's 
 piety hindered him, and that she yielded with difficulty on 
 whatever she thought to be for the glory of God. She had 
 insight enough to know the right ; and if she had had the 
 strength to always defend it, the pens of historians could 
 not have praised her enough ; but she was too distrustful of 
 herself, and her humility easily convinced her of her 
 incapacity to govern the State. 
 
 This feeling, in some respects unjust and unreasonable, 
 did much to establish the power of her minister, who, with- 
 out it, might have worthily filled the office in which the 
 late king placed him and the queen maintained him. If he 
 had thought himself less necessary to her he would have 
 taken more pains to deserve the esteem of the people. If 
 he had had reason to fear the ill offices that others might 
 do him with her, he would have had more consideration for 
 right-minded persons, who would always have had influence 
 upon her because by nature she felt good-will to them. 
 And also, if the queen had esteemed herself more and main- 
 tained her own sentiments (as she did sometimes when she 
 thought her ^duty required it), her good intentions would 
 have improved those of her minister, who really had fine 
 qualities which, if well managed by a power above his 
 own, would have made him a minister worthy of general 
 respect. 
 
 The greatness of his genius placed him above other men, 
 not only by luck but by the superiority of his knowledge. 
 Never did any of those who were in his confidence and 
 intimacy have power over him, unless some necessity in his 
 affairs or his designs required it. He had great experience 
 in foreign affairs, and was capable of the highest enterprises. 
 He worked hard. His policy was shrewd ; he was clever at 
 intrigue ; he attained his ends by circumlocutions and wHes 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 211 
 
 that were well-nigh impenetrable. He was not malignant 
 or cruel. At first he had not even an excessive ambition ; 
 for up to that time he had declined the great establishments 
 that other favourites obtaia. He had taken neither places, 
 governments, dignities, nor offices. ISTor did his avidity for 
 money appear then such as it really was ; and those who 
 accused him of it were unjust. Many who courted him 
 owed him great favours, and of those many were much 
 richer than he. He was quite agreeable in person ; and in 
 spite of his defects he wUl always be spoken of as an ex- 
 traordinary man. His prodigious power will amaze the 
 whole world, and the marvellous events of his rise to for- 
 tune wUl lift him very high. He has had the destiny of 
 great men, alike in his good and his evil fortunes ; he may 
 also have their reputation, for I doubt if all the centuries 
 put together can produce a greater. 
 
 The Prince of Wales [Charles II.] came to Fontainebleau 
 to see the king and the queen. They entertained him with 
 balls, comedies, and excursions. He seemed to have in- 
 creased in good looks. The unhappy state of his affairs 
 made every one regard him with the tenderness that accom- 
 panies pity, and through that sentiment his good qualities 
 received greater lustre. He even showed some beginning 
 of inclination for Madame de ChStillon, which was thought 
 a good augury. His mind, however, was never brilliant 
 and he stuttered somewhat. In that he resembled his 
 father, who, as I have heard, did so a little, and his grand- 
 father, the late king [James I.] who did so much. The king 
 and he behaved together like young princes who felt em- 
 barrassed by each other's presence ; both were shy, and with- 
 out that freedom of spirit which intercourse with the world 
 gives to private individuals. The king, whose beauty had 
 charms, though young was already tall. He was grave, and 
 
212 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. viii. 
 
 in his eyes could be seen a serious expression which marked 
 his dignity. He was even prudent enough to say little, from 
 fear of not speaking well. The Priace of Wales kept silence 
 also ; but they had at least the comfort of banishing the 
 ceremonies of their rank, which softened the rest. 
 
 The Court having returned to Paris ia October, the king, in 
 the midst of the finest possible health, suddenly, IS'ovember 
 10, left his games, wearied of the comedy, and then told the 
 queen that he felt ill and had pains in his loins. At first it 
 was thought to be nothing, but the next day his fever was 
 high, which alarmed the queen very much, who now feared 
 a continued fever. A courier was sent to the Due d'Orldans, 
 who was at one of his country-houses, telling him of the 
 king's state. 
 
 Two days later the disease degenerated into small-pox, 
 which at first consoled the queen, who had feared something 
 worse. She left her apartment on the same day and slept in 
 that of the patient. As the king's fever continued, her 
 anxiety increased, and the doctors were unable to reassure 
 her. All the young people who laid claims to beauty and 
 those who had not had the small-pox left the Palais-Eoyal. 
 I think I was the only one, who had not renounced youth, 
 who would not leave the queen on this occasion. I own that 
 I made an effort over myself to give her this proof of my 
 zeal, for though I had had the disease, it is quite common to 
 have it twice, and commoner still to think of one's own 
 safety. My sister, moreover, had not had it, and I might 
 have conveyed the infection to her. But God preserved us. 
 
 The king, up to the eleventh day of his illness, gave the 
 queen no greater anxiety than she had felt before the small- 
 pox appeared. She suffered from seeing him suffer ; but as 
 it is a disease which is common to children, she was quite 
 resolved to be comforted for the loss of his beauty provided 
 
1647] MEMOIRS ^OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 213 
 
 his life was saved. On the 21st of the month, at nine in the 
 morning, while the queen had gone to Notre-Dame to make 
 her devotions, the king grew worse ; the fever increased ; he 
 fainted, and remained ia that condition for three-quarters of 
 an hour. 
 
 The queen, on her return, finding him in this state was 
 struck to the heart with such grief that it needed but little 
 more to kill her. All that day the kiug, according to the 
 doctors' opinion, was in the greatest danger, and the queen 
 never ceased to weep. The Due d'Orl^ans was constantly 
 beside her ; and this increased her pain ; she found no com- 
 fort or consolation in shedding tears before him. That eve- 
 ning, about midnight, the king grew better; but the next 
 day his Ulness increased very much. On Sunday, the four- 
 teenth day, he was so ill that the doctors thought him in 
 danger of immediate death, because, since the eleventh day, 
 on which he had fainted, the small-pos had gone in, and 
 four bleedings which were taken did not diminish his fever. 
 Its heat was so great that it entirely dried up whatever had 
 issued from his body. 
 
 All that day the queen seemed to choke ; for her nature 
 was not to weep, and when she was in sorrow she usually 
 shut it up within herself. This sorrow made her feel keenly 
 all that love and fear can implant in a soul possessed by 
 a violent passion. Though she followed no policy on this 
 occasion, yet, having naturally a firm mind and much reserve 
 in her outward actions, she did not choose to show her 
 weakness, especially before those who would have profited 
 by her misfortune. But, as nature cannot continue in such 
 a state without some sign appearing, she fainted on that 
 day by the king's bedside ; and that night, very late, having 
 retired, with no witnesses but the cardinal, a few of her 
 women, and myself, she wept bitterly. Seeing her in that 
 
214 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTBVILLE. [chap. vm. 
 
 state, we begged her to go to bed ; which she did ; but could 
 find no rest in any place. At last, about midnight, God 
 gave her back the child so dear to her, and whose life was 
 so necessary to France. The fever lessened and the small- 
 pox came out once more. Monday and Tuesday the doctors 
 purged him, and thenceforth the disease diminished until 
 he was completely cured. The queen's alarm having passed, 
 she told us that she felt in the midst of it that, had she 
 lost the king, she could not have survived him, and that 
 the submission she should have wished to show to the divine 
 will would doubtless not have prevented her grief from 
 strangling her. 
 
 During this illness the king seemed to those about him to 
 be a prince wholly inclined to gentleness and kindness. He 
 spoke humanely to all who served him, said obliging and 
 intelligent things, and was docUe to all that the doctors 
 desired of him. The queen received marks of affection from 
 him which touched her keenly ; at all moments he called to 
 her, and begged her to stay by him, assuring her that her 
 presence lessened his illness. The queen told us afterwards 
 that in all her sorrow she had feared losing him from tender- 
 ness only; and that she shoiild have mourned for him 
 because she loved him, and in his quality as son, not as king ; 
 which, she said, in no wise touched her. 
 
 Frenchmen had reason to hope that they would one day 
 see this young king become as great through the qualities 
 of his soul as he already was by his crown. They regarded 
 him as a king given by God himself in answer to the public 
 prayer, and as a child of benediction ; his perfections filled 
 the eyes of his subjects, partly by his person, partly by his 
 inclinations, which all seemed good and tending towards vir- 
 tue and glory. The impress of the power to which God des- 
 tined him was already marked on his person and on all his 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 215 
 
 actions. We never saw in him those headstrong sentiments 
 which are natural to most children. The queen, through 
 reason and the obedience he gave to her, led him always to 
 do what she wished of him. 
 
 I often noticed with astonishment that ia his plays and 
 amusements the kiag never laughed. Those who had the 
 honour to approach him told him too often, I thought, that 
 he was the master ; and when he had some little differences 
 vnth. Monsieur, occasions which happened of course in their 
 childhood, the queen always insisted that he should be 
 obeyed, and seemed to desire that his power should be re- 
 spected as much as he was loved. All these anticipated 
 grandeurs could not seem dangerous to her, in view of the 
 natural innocence of the young monarch; which gave her 
 reason to hope that God, the author of Nature, in sending 
 him from on high, as He did to Solomon, a spirit of. wisdom 
 with the gift of persisting in virtuous ways, wordd render- 
 his life pleasing in His sight, and his reign accompanied by 
 continual prosperity. " The principality of the virtuous 
 shall be stable." 
 
 As the king grew better, the mind of the queen recovered 
 its usual tranquillity ; and the Court, on the arrival of the 
 Prince de Condd, was filled with additional grandeur and 
 adorned with fresh beauty through the numbers of worthy 
 persons whom he brought with him. He had known of the 
 extreme danger of the king, but would not hasten his return, 
 expressly not to show eagerness at a time when it might 
 have seemed that he came only to share the power of the 
 Duo d'Orl^ans, of which, apparently, he might have claimed 
 the greater share. He maintained this moderation, though 
 the queen had sent several couriers urging him to come. 
 
 A few days after the happy recovery of the king, the suffer- 
 ing the queen had endured from his illness, and the violence 
 
216 MEMOIRS OF MADAME BE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. viii. 
 
 she had done herself in not wholly showmg it, her wakeful 
 nights and anxieties, gave her a fever which was very strong 
 for two days. Cardinal Mazarin seemed alarmed ; but when 
 the doctors thought she was about to have a severe illness 
 the fever suddenly left her, which caused much joy to those 
 who loved her and had reason to be anxious at her illness. 
 The evening of her amendment, as I approached her and 
 wished to touch her pulse to see if her state was as good as 
 we hoped, she did me the honour to put her hand in mine ; 
 and I having kissed it with joy at finding it so cool, she said 
 she did not doubt that I was very glad of her improvement, 
 adding these noble words: that death had never caused 
 her fear ; but in the state in which she left the king and the 
 kingdom, France and her children caused her pity ; that this 
 made her offer some wishes for life ; but that the greatest of 
 them all- was that God would give her grace to employ it well 
 in His service. 
 
 The Christmas festivities stopped for awhile all public and 
 private matters. The queen, being at the Val de Grace, saw 
 the little Monsieur, whom she had not yet dared to see for fear 
 of giving him the infection. A few days later he returned 
 to the Palais-Eoyal, and was allowed to see the king, whom 
 he did not recognize, so changed was he. All the ladies 
 returned to Court, and the king was shown to every one, 
 though still in a bad state from the swelling and redness of 
 his face. He scolded those who had abandoned him ; which 
 was taken as a good omen, and as a sign that he would 
 not be so indifferent to friendship as princes usually are. 
 Though I had not quitted the queen during his illness, I had 
 not approached him. The queen, seeing that I made an 
 effort to follow her into his room, where, in spite of the glory 
 of a crown, there was danger, commanded me not to enter 
 it. I had, therefore, my share in the king's little plaint, for 
 
1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE JIOTTEVILLE. 217 
 
 which I consoled myself like the rest, who were not much 
 afflicted by it, but felt honoured by his resentment. 
 
 Thus ended this year [1647], without much happiness, or 
 yet real evils. Xevertheless, the ablest men at Gouit and 
 the best -informed told me on that day that they feared the 
 futm-e of the State would be troubled by many evils, in \iew 
 of the bad disposition that existed in all minds. The queen, 
 on the conti-aiy, on the evening of the same day, said to us, 
 as she was seated at her toilet-table while imdressing, that 
 it gave her joy to enter upon a new year, because in the one 
 just ending she had had nothing but trouble, little success 
 in war, and much anxiety fi-om the illness of her children, 
 whom she had feared to lose. But she was deceived in her 
 hopes, and had cause to regret the repose she had hitherto 
 enjoyed. The troubles that came upon her later taught her 
 that the human being knows neither his strength nor his 
 weakness ; that our desires mislead us, and that we ought 
 to allow ourselves to be guided by that superior Power who 
 rules us. Otherwise, we find that by our own choice we 
 are oftener led to evil than to good. 
 
IX. 
 
 1648. 
 
 On the Epiphany the queen, having made her devotions, 
 passed the whole evening in great solitude. As she liked 
 repose, and her own power was a matter of indifference to 
 her, no one was urgent to enter her cabinets when she was 
 alone. The Ducd'Orl^ans and the cardinal supped that 
 evening with the Prince de Cond^; and when such feasts 
 occiured all the courtiers desired to be in the traiu of one of 
 the three; so that the sovereign's apartment was left de- 
 serted. Far from objecting to this, she was delighted that 
 her creatures should follow the miuister, and, without en- 
 joying the pleasures of solitude, which are books and revery, 
 she remained very willingly alone, without either pleasure 
 or trouble. 
 
 This evening, in order to amuse the king, she did us the 
 honour to have a cake brought to Madame de Bregy, my 
 sister, and me, which we divided with her; drinking her 
 health in hippocras, which she ordered for us ; and she 
 admitted that on this occasion she should, ui spite of her 
 natural inclinations, have felt bored without our company ; 
 which was a great favour, for, truth to tell, her kindness had 
 more share than her heart in the good treatment we received 
 from her. God alone, the king and Monsieur, her minis- 
 ter and his affairs absorbed her wholly; and the cardinal 
 was all the more agreeable to her because he took great 
 care to keep her unoccupied, and was glad to relieve her 
 of the greater part of the trouble her regency imposed 
 upon her. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 219 
 
 The next day the comedies began again by the ■wish of the 
 king and the whole Court ; and the ladies, much pleased at 
 this revival, came in full dress, intending to drive away for- 
 ever from the Palais-Eoyal all recollection of unpleasant 
 things. The king appeared with his blotched and swelled 
 face, and looked the uglier because he had so lately appeared 
 in beauty; and as it was at the theatre on Martinmas-day 
 that he was taken HI, Beautru [one of the first members of 
 the Academy, and ambassador to England and to Spain] was 
 fain to say that he came to return his disease to the stage. 
 
 January 7, eight hundred merchants of Paris assembled 
 and rebelled against a tax imposed upon the proprietors 
 of houses, or for other reasons of which I did not take 
 particular notice. They deputed ten of their number to speak 
 on their behalf to the Due d'OrMans. These deputies went 
 to the Luxembourg and entered the duke's room, demanding 
 justice and letting him know they were resolved not to 
 suffer these taxes ; for, in spite of the universal poverty of 
 the kingdom, Paris, at any rate, chose to be rich, and would 
 not hear of giving money to the king. The Due d'Orldans 
 made them hope for some amelioration, promised to speak of 
 it to the queen, showed them their duty and the obedience 
 they owed to her will, and dismissed them with the usual 
 saying of princes : " We will see about it." 
 
 The next day the same troop assembled again. It went 
 to the Palais de Justice, and finding there the President de 
 Thor^, son of d'Emery, superintendent of finances, they 
 shouted against him, called hm the son of the tyi-ant, and 
 from threats they came within an ace of attacking him per- 
 sonally ; but, thanks to some of his friends, he escaped from 
 their hands. The next day they muttered loudly against 
 him, and threatened to make him suffer for the wrongs that 
 were being done them. This man, whose firmness will be 
 
220 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 seen on several occasions to equal that of the most illus- 
 trious Eomans, told them, without emotion, that if they 
 did not keep silence and obey the king's will, he would 
 have gallows erected in the square on which to hang in- 
 stantly the most refractory among them. To which these 
 insolent people answered that they would use those gallows 
 themselves for the wicked judges from whom no justice 
 could be got and who were slaves to royal favour. 
 
 On that same day, January 9, so famous for its events, the 
 masters of petitions [maitres de requUes — magistrates whose 
 duty it was to present petitions and other written demands 
 to the council of State] mutinied also in the council because 
 it was proposed to increase their body by a dozen new offi- 
 cers. As they had bought their offices at a high price, and 
 this increase in number would diminish their value, they de- 
 clared that many families in Paris would thus become em- 
 barrassed, and so, resenting an evil they feared, they refused 
 to report the cases of private persons, and swore among them- 
 selves on the Holy Gospels not to allow this increase, and 
 to resist the persecution that might be made upon them from 
 the Court side. They promised one another that if any of 
 them lost his office by this opposition to the will of the 
 king, they would all subscribe to repay him the value 
 of the said office. 
 
 They went to see Cardinal Mazarin; and one of them 
 named Gomin, spoke so strongly and with such boldness 
 that the cardinal was startled. Council was held in the 
 queen's room to decide on the remedies for these turmoils. 
 D'Emery had the whole people on his shoulders shouting 
 against him; and the chancellor had the masters of peti- 
 tions to restrain and console. The latter really complained 
 less of d'^femery than of him who governed all; but, not daring 
 at present to fulminate against the cardinal, they attacked 
 
164S] JIEMOIES or JIADAJIE DE MOTTEVILLE. 221 
 
 the superintendent strongly and cast their wrath in the 
 meantime upon him. Therefore, in consequence of these 
 matters, the council sat long on that day and opinions were 
 much contested. 
 
 The chief president [premier p7-i^sideni] and the king's 
 lawyers were sent for, a resolution was taken to issue ful- 
 minating decrees against all parties; and then, it being 
 now evening, the Prince de Cond^ and the cardinal went 
 to sup with the Due d'OrMans, to bury under good cheer 
 and cards this beginning of troubles which did not cause 
 as much uneasiness to the princes as it did to the minister. 
 He now began to see that he was the object of public 
 hatred, and that this hatred would fill the princes of the 
 blood with the sweet delusions that please gi-eat personages, 
 making them hope that thi-ough troubles and changes their 
 authority would increase as that of the king and queen 
 diminished; for, as the Spanish proverb says, Rio furbio 
 ganaiwia de Pescadores; "troubled waters are the fisher's 
 gain." 
 
 On the night of the 10th the burghers vented their iU- 
 humour by constant firing. The lieutenant of police having 
 sent through aU the quarters of the city to know the cause, 
 they answered that they were trying their arms for the 
 king's service, adding that if they were asked to pay money 
 they would follow the example of the ^Neapolitans and 
 revolt. I am even assured that men had gone from house 
 to house during the night advising the burghers to lay in 
 a stock of food. All this was caused by cabals against the 
 Court by the pai'liament, by the masters of petitions, and 
 by that spirit of rebellion which some demon, visible or 
 in^-isible, was beginning to inspne in the soul of each indi- 
 vidual. Since then this demon has produced all that we 
 have seen of ci^Tl discord ; it has c-aused great evils, and 
 
222 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 made our condition sucti that we can never in our old age 
 resemble our fathers, whose custom it was to laud the days 
 of their youth and prefer them to the present. 
 
 On the morning of the 11th, the queen, on going to mass 
 at Notre-Dame (which she did regularly every Saturday), 
 was followed by about two hundred women into the church 
 itself. They tried to kneel before her to make her pity 
 them; but the guards prevented their approach, and the 
 queen passed on without listening to their clamours. She 
 told us, on her return, that she had been tempted to speak 
 to them. Surely the words of a queen so amiable would 
 have been powerful over those minds ; but she owned to us 
 that she had feared the insolence of such canaille, and had 
 therefore thought it wiser not to enter upon the subject with 
 people who never listened to reason, who could not compre- 
 hend it, having in their heads only their petty interests and 
 being consequently unable to appreciate the causes, however 
 just they may be, that compel kings to ask them for money. 
 
 After midday a council was held on immediate affairs, 
 before which the chief president appeared; and after long 
 consultation on remedies for the evil, it was decided that 
 the queen should order the king's lawyers (who had been 
 summoned for the purpose) to take measures to maintain 
 the authority of the king. That evening commands were 
 issued to the regiment of the Gardes to remain under arms, 
 and sentinels and guard-houses were posted in all quarters 
 of the city. The Mardohal de Schomberg was commanded 
 to do the same with the Swiss guards, and Paris on that 
 night was like a military camp. The noise of fire-arms 
 was incessant ; and these small appearances of war fore- 
 shadowed a revolt of greater consequence, which, according 
 to the behaviour of the people and the bad disposition of the 
 public mind was likely to lead to some dangerous result. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 223 
 
 On the morning after the 12th, the king went to Notre- 
 Dame to hear mass, and to make his first outing after his 
 illness an act of grace and gratitude to Him who had 
 restored him to life. It was more than a week since the 
 queen had expressed the desire that the king should make 
 this little trip through Paris, therefore it was decided not to 
 delay it, lest it should be said they showed fear of those 
 who were so anxious to iaspire it in the queen and in her 
 minister. But instead of having his usual guard for such 
 occasions, he went with every necessary precaution aroimd 
 him. All that could serve to magnify the royal majesty 
 attended him, in order to excite by that means in the 
 minds of the people the respect that such things usually 
 produce in feeble souls. Many of the principal officers 
 were on horseback, and nearly the whole Court accompanied 
 him with the usual guards. While the king was at Notre- 
 Dame, the queen held a council, at which it was resolved 
 that their Majesties should go a second time before parlia- 
 ment to pass the edict creating the new masters of petitions, 
 and the other decrees which were murmured against ; and 
 this was done in order not to show relaxation of the resolves 
 already taken, and to make evident that the resistance of 
 officials and people was counted as nothing. 
 
 According to this resolution, the king went to parliament, 
 January 15 ; not with the beauty he had had on the former 
 occasion, but with the same ceremonies. The chancellor 
 made a long harangue; he represented the necessities of 
 the State, the need the king had that his people should give 
 him means to meet the costs of the war, in order that by 
 war we might obtain a good peace. He spoke strongly on 
 the power of kings, tried to establish as a fimdamental law 
 the obedience of subjects to their princes, and showed 
 plainly the necessity of union between the head and the 
 
224 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 members, saying that without it no kingdom could enjoy 
 true happiness. 
 
 The chief president, though an able man and usually very 
 eloquent, wishing to please the Court, delivered a speech 
 which seemed feeble to his colleagues and was not praised 
 even in the cabinet. That of the attorney-general. Talon, 
 was strong and vigorous. He represented the misery of the 
 people, and implored the queen to remember it in her oratory ; 
 telling her that she ought to consider that she ruled a free 
 people and not slaves; but, as things were, these very 
 people found themselves so oppressed by subsidies and taxes 
 that they might indeed say nothing was their own but their 
 souls — for those could not be sold at auction; and the 
 laurels and victories won from the enemy with which the 
 necessities of the people were being met, were not meat to 
 feed them nor clothes to cover them. He said, moreover, 
 certain things which showed the universal dissatisfaction of 
 all Frenchmen at the delay of peace. His boldness was not 
 approved by the minister. 
 
 That evening the cardinal made war on the queen about 
 her being sent to her oratory by Talon. In this he was 
 seconded by her familiar servants, who thought she already 
 remained there too long, and, in the interest of their own 
 pleasure, continually reproached her for it. Thus the most 
 serious lessons given to kings make no good impression on 
 their minds ; for a turn to ridicule is usually given them, 
 which drives away the virtuous thoughts to which they 
 might otherwise have given birth. Princes seldom meet 
 with persons who speak to them strongly ; and those who do 
 so are the ones most frequently treated as ridiculous by the 
 courtiers. This is why, their reason being weakened by the 
 care taken to disguise from them the truth, sovereigns do not 
 apply themselves to distinguish the true from the false ; and. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 225 
 
 letting their mind go to laziness and ligMly passing over 
 good and over evil, they are nearly always carried whitherso- 
 ever their ministers are pleased to lead them. 
 
 The queen, by nature equitable, pious, and well-intentioned, 
 often fell for these very reasons into this misfortune ; and, 
 not seeking to know fundamentally and studiously the cause 
 of the evils that she saw before her eyes, it was impossible 
 for her to remedy them ; consequently they became excessive 
 and brought her in the end to the condition of fearing all 
 things. To maintain the royal power, of which she had a 
 lofty idea, it is much to be wished, for the sake of her own 
 happiness, that she had herself shown clearly that she did 
 not choose to have the king's subjects oppressed, nor yet to 
 allow them to be disobedient to her. In those two points 
 lies the justice of kings towards their subjects, and that of 
 subjects towards their sovereign. 
 
 The queen, as I have said already, had a soul sufficiently 
 enriched by the gifts of God to govern well ; her ministers 
 said that her opinions on affairs of consequence, and her 
 first sentiments, were always those of reason and justice; 
 whereas those of her prime minister showed nothing that 
 seemed to proceed from a lofty soul. On this very day cer- 
 tain counsellors of the parliament, who came to see me, 
 admitted that they had been much touched by the presence 
 of the queen. They agreed with me that she had the gift of 
 pleasing, and they said that France would have been happy 
 indeed had she chosen to govern it, or, at any rate, if she had 
 not abandoned it too much to her minister. 
 
 The decrees were fairly moderate ; the visit to parliament 
 was made more to maintain the royal authority than to in- 
 crease its demands. The edict for creating the twelve new 
 masters of petitions was the principal object, because it was 
 felt that the revolt of the present officers must not be allowed. 
 
 VOL. I. — 15 
 
226 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 But as this affair, in the order of destiny, was fated to be the 
 cause and the beginning of many great events, this little 
 remedy, far from curing the evil, greatly embittered it and had 
 results which made us see that God, when it pleases Him, can 
 give to the ant the strength of the elephant. 
 
 The people thought they had reason to cry out against 
 those who were trying to rob them, and they declared that 
 the more taxes were levied, the more the king's coffers were 
 locked. It was heard on all sides that the salaries of the 
 crown officers and those of the leaders at Court were cut down, 
 that the lesser men were not paid at all, that favours had 
 ceased, and that the queen had lost the beautiful quality of 
 liberality which she held as her illustrious birthright ; and 
 this, though the revenues of France were still paying much. 
 
 The Court was indeed beginning to appear in a condition 
 of mortifying want. The minister tried to convince every 
 one by his speeches (and I think he spoke the truth) that 
 the Due d'Orl^ans and the Prince de Cond^ were squandering 
 the king's money, and therefore it was out of his power to do 
 favours. Tubeuf, at that time still in the public service, 
 told me that the Treasury account for the last year had 
 amounted to one hundred and forty-two millions. The car- 
 dinal was accused of having usurped a large portion of that 
 sum for himself ; but his modesty was still restrained within 
 narrower limits. The two princes, by taking much money, 
 prevented him from using it as he pleased ; he was at that 
 time only the corsair, the princes were the great robbers who 
 resembled Alexander. 
 
 The outcry against the minister made the war its pretext. 
 This sufficed to make him hated by the people, always easy 
 to excite by plausible reasons of the public good, and ever 
 charmed by the good words " peace " and " rest." I remember 
 that one of my friends, arriving from Eome about this time^ 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 227 
 
 told me that, having been ordered to say to the pope how 
 much peace was desired, and that, in order to obtain it, all 
 our hopes of fortunate successes in the field would be sacri- 
 ficed to the public good, his Holiaess replied in sarcastic 
 tones that he did not meddle in the affair of the peace, but 
 he saw plainly that in order to obtain it voi altri Francesi 
 non volete donare ehe quel che non avete ; " to get peace, you 
 Frenchmen will only give that which you have not." 
 
 The next day the queen summoned before her the masters 
 of petitions. She received them in her great cabinet, accom- 
 panied by the Due d'OrMans, the Prince de Cond^, her min- 
 ister, the king's council, and the whole Court. The chancellor 
 gave them a severe reprimand, which the queen interrupted, 
 of her own monition, to tell them they were strange people to 
 wish to limit the king's authority ; and that she would show 
 them he had power to create what new offices he chose. The 
 chancellor, continuing his harangue, dismissed them from 
 their offices and ordered them to give to the queen the paper 
 which it was said they had signed among themselves ; or else 
 to sign another paper stating that they had never written it. 
 
 "V^Tien they heard this speech and this command, some of 
 them, without considering the respect they owed to the 
 queen, shook their heads boldly, and all gave signs that 
 they were not inclined to obey. After making a profoimd 
 bow, they went away, ill-pleased, and with the firm inten- 
 tion of defending themselves. They felt there were clouds 
 in the sky, that the weather was bad for the Court, and that 
 they themselves had a chance to resist; consequently this 
 severity had no good result. 
 
 The next day, January 20, they presented themselves be- 
 fore parliament in a body in order to oppose the enregister- 
 ing of the decree against them. Presenting themselves as 
 parties in a case, they stood before the bar ; and although the 
 
228 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 decree had been issued in the king's presence, the chief 
 president did not abstain from receiving them in opposition 
 to it. The Court was dl-pleased, and the minister made 
 loud complaints ; but the chief president was clever enough 
 not to be shaken and to succeed in convincing the cardinal 
 that it was all in order. He told him that the ordinances 
 required him to receive them ; that parliament had power to 
 assemble and deliberate over matters that had even been 
 decreed in presence of the king ; and also that they possessed 
 the right to remonstrate with him. This answer obliged the 
 queen to summon the parliament in a body to tell them that 
 at first she had thought their conduct blamable in listening 
 as they had to the opposition of the masters of petitions ; but 
 that having subsequently learned they were entitled by their 
 ordinances to do so, she excused them, and consented that 
 they should have assembled, as they had done, to confer, and 
 even to go so far as to remonstrate ; but she ordered them 
 not to go further, and not to assemble again. 
 
 The parliament replied with fine protestations of fidelity ; 
 and then, without the slightest regard to the queen's com- 
 mand, they assembled as many times as they thought 
 necessary to satisfy their fancy. We shall see other such 
 commands, often reiterated and often as little respected. 
 
 In the begianing of these disturbances in Paris the Due 
 d'Orldans kept himself one with the queen's interests and 
 supported her authority in every way that he could. He 
 was not, perhaps, sorry at some disturbance, for that, of 
 course, rendered him more necessary to her ; but he laid no 
 schemes to increase it, and his intentions seemed upright 
 and altogether in the line of equity and justice. The Abb^ 
 de La Eiviere, through his temperament, his interests, and 
 his common-sense, turned his master ever towards peace; 
 flattering himself with the hope of becoming some day a 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 229 
 
 cardinal, lie rendered to the queen and her minister such 
 services as he thought most useful and agreeable to them. 
 The mischief-makers and the malcontents were in despair 
 because, desiring disturbances and change, they saw it was 
 impossible to get much of them so long as the Due d'Orli^ans, 
 uncle of the king, continued attached to the interests of the 
 queen. What might really be called kindness in the char- 
 acter of the duke was attributed by them to weakness ; that 
 which to men of honour seemed a virtue, they despised, 
 saying that if the master lacked coujage, his favourite de 
 La Eivifere was the cause of it; and that out of base 
 self-interest he prevented him from acquiring glory and 
 grandeur. 
 
 The Prince de Cond(^, on his side, acted in the same man- 
 ner ; his advantage being wholly in living at Court in the 
 good graces of the queen. The Due d'Orldans did not over- 
 shadow him enough to obscure his own grandeur ; the repu- 
 tation of the duke was not dazzling like his own ; and the 
 rank of lieutenant-general of the kingdom and of the armies 
 of the king, and that of being son and uncle of kings, could 
 not take from the prince the glory of having won two great 
 battles. For these reasons he reigned in the cabinet almost 
 as sovereignly as if he had been the sole prince of the blood ; 
 and, the Due d'Orl^ans having no son, all the grandeur of 
 the second branch of the family came to the prince, and 
 made his court much larger than that of the duke, to whom, 
 however, he paid great respect and homage in order to 
 keep him satisfied with appearances, whUe he enjoyed in 
 reality the solid advantages of power, and gave to his 
 creatures and his friends all that he pleased. 
 
 The Shrovetide of this year went by without any unusual 
 fetes. There was a ballet at which the Due de Joyeuse, 
 Louis de Lorraine, danced (January 23), also the Dues de 
 
230 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 Candale, de Damoille, de Eoannet, and several others, which 
 was fine. The Court gaieties were moderate, and suited to 
 the gravity and seriousness of the queen; she did not like 
 them any more than she ought. In the evening, which is 
 the hour for amusement, the crowd left her and she remained 
 in her own apartments solitary, tranquil, and content. The 
 courtiers all went to the cardinal; the queen wished it; 
 desiring nothing in the world more than to make over to 
 him her power, being persuaded that that of the minister 
 strengthened her own. Moreover, I can say with truth that 
 her natural indifference put her above the sentiments which 
 self-love and ambition usually produce in the human heart. 
 No doubt she despised too much the one advantage of kings 
 — that of commanding, and of being able to contribute by 
 their authority and their benefits to the happiness of man- 
 kind, thus sharing in a way the supreme power of God him- 
 self. But this defect in her proceeded in part from a fine 
 cause which deserves more praise than blame. The effect, 
 nevertheless, was so contrary to her interests that she would 
 have done well to correct it; and for that very reason I 
 scarcely dare to call attention to its merits. 
 
 I have remarked that the murmuring against the cardinal 
 was great for not having brought about a peace. Every one, 
 in these first disagreements, fearing to bring on civil war, 
 blamed him for this one thing, and for having said, some- 
 times very publicly, that peace had been in his own hands. 
 The populace cried out against him, and minds that were 
 ready for revolt could not forgive him that fault. 
 
 The Dutch had requested the Due de Longueville, when 
 he was on the point of returning to France, to delay his 
 departure from Mtinster for a short time ; which gave rise 
 to the hope that through their intervention Spain would 
 make a treaty with us. But the King of Spain, who was 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 231 
 
 begiimiag to see a change in the luck of France through 
 the state in which it now was, desiring that we should grant 
 all his demands, said openly that without great advantages 
 he would refuse a peace; and his proposals were so hard 
 that it was impossible to thiak of any agreement. 
 
 Therefore the Dutch, who wished to quit us, having signed 
 their treaty, the Due de Longueville found himself wholly 
 useless at Miinster for the public good. He thought also of 
 his private interests, and asked permission to return to 
 France; which was granted readily, and he appeared at 
 Court with the sole advantage of having seen the Dutch 
 make peace with Spain, which was likely to be damaging 
 to us. The minister made the queen receive him with 
 evident marks of good-will. I remember that on the eve- 
 ning of the day he arrived, as she was undressing she said 
 to us much good of this prince, treating him almost as a 
 father to the country, although he had already been twice 
 opposed to the king. He was given a place in the Council ; 
 which at that time was a favour not as easy to obtain as it 
 has been since. This prerogative had really been granted 
 to him before he went to Munster, up to which time none 
 but princes of the blood had enjoyed the privilege ; but the 
 malicious said that such caresses were given only to oblige 
 him to keep the secret of the rupture of the peace, and 
 the difficulties the minister had produced to prevent its 
 conclusion. 
 
 The parliament inconvenienced the Court by its delays. 
 Some among its members began to talk loudly; and the 
 queen, who did not like to meet an obstacle to her power 
 when the authority of the king was concerned, was annoyed 
 by the slowness of its proceedings. She sent to ask them 
 whether they assumed to have the right to limit the king's 
 will. They took opinions on this point, and some of them 
 
232 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 advised consulting their registers in order to make the queen 
 an answer authorized by examples from past centuries; 
 which would, no doubt, have mightily displeased the min- 
 ister. But the majority being of a contrary opinion, they 
 sent their chief president as deputy to the queen to assure 
 her of their obedience and fidelity, and to let her know that 
 what they had done to modify the decrees the king had 
 brought to parliament, and what they were doing in favour 
 of the masters of petitions were only in accordance with the 
 king's good pleasure, and without the least intention of 
 faUing in the respect they owed to him as good and faithful 
 subjects. 
 
 These protestations were not followed up; parliament, 
 continuing its assemblies, did not cease to delay the register- 
 ing of decrees that were necessary for the service of the 
 king and the advantage of the minister. Their conduct 
 obliged the queen to summon parliament to let it know her 
 resolves. She wished to make it understand that it had no 
 right, after making its remonstrances to the king and to 
 herself, to oppose the registration of the decrees. She also 
 ordered the members to bring the sheet in which their deci- 
 sion had been registered, which contained the statement that 
 their own modifications would be carried out; her design 
 being to make them tear it up in her presence. But they, 
 having assembled, sent a message to the queen, entreating 
 her to think it right that they should not go to her, assuring 
 her that they were resolved to pay her all the respect that 
 was her due. 
 
 The queen, having risen earlier than usual to receive 
 them, held a council to decide how to answer this. It was 
 resolved that they should be summoned a second time and 
 received by the queen after her dinner. The procureur- 
 general, who went to them with these orders, did not find 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 233 
 
 them in session ; weary of waiting they had departed ; which 
 was thought disrespectful by those who knew the respect 
 due by subjects to their sovereign. They were then sum- 
 moned for the morrow; and in order that this occasion 
 might be the more solemn, the dukes and peers of France 
 were assembled to receive them, and all the great seigneurs 
 then at Court were invited. As it was known that the queen 
 intended to give them a severe and public reprimand, 
 they came with humility to make excuses to her by the 
 mouth of the chief president, whose harangue was full of 
 submission, respect, and promises to obey her ; so that instead 
 of pimishment they received from the queen a favourable 
 greeting, joined to a command that they should work steadily 
 at the king's business and make no more delays. She told 
 them that she gave them only eight days to conclude it. 
 
 The queen took that week to make a little journey 
 (March 25) to Notre-Dame de Chartres, where, during the 
 illness of the king, she had made a vow to go. On leaving 
 Paris, she reiterated to the president the command she had 
 given to his assembled company, and assured him that she 
 should be but five days on her journey. She spent the day 
 at Notre-Dame de Chartres with the king, whom she took 
 there, also Monsieur, who was removed from the hands of 
 women on this occasion. They gave him as governor the 
 Mar^chal Du Plessis-Praslin (C^sar de Choiseul), a great 
 and successful captain, who had acquired much reputation 
 for the battles he had won and the cities he had taken. 
 He commanded the army of the king in Italy, where 
 Cardinal Mazarin had known his merits. 
 
 During this little absence the masters of petitions, who 
 had been suppressed, came in a body to see the cardinal, to 
 entreat him to protect them with the queen and to get 
 them replaced in their offices. They made him excuses 
 
234 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 for their revolt and asked for pardon and favour both.. He 
 received them with a grave and stern face, but answered 
 gently that if they were willing to humiliate themselves 
 and obey the queen's will, he would do them good service 
 with her. 
 
 This action was happiness to the minister. He despatched 
 a courier to the queen with the news, and fully believed 
 that this visit meant that the masters of petitions had 
 resolved to submit to the creation of twelve more offices, 
 which at first they resisted. But they who had made this 
 advance only to succeed in their ends and make the car- 
 dinal plume himself on the glory of doing them a service, 
 were not satisfied with his reply and continued in their 
 former determination. So that it was finally decided in 
 council to order the counsellors of State to report all cases 
 of private persons, in order to let the masters of petitions 
 know that the king could dispense with the services of their 
 body. By this pimishment many families in Paris were 
 thrown into great distress and fear lest they should lose 
 their offices. As persons of the long robe are for the most 
 part bound together by ties of parentage, this affair seemed 
 to them of great consequence, for it concerned all the sover- 
 eign courts.! They therefore wished to make known that 
 they would not permit that favourites and ministers should 
 annihilate, in the name of the king, such important officers ; 
 and one and all they united to sustain the masters of peti- 
 tions, intending in that way to save themselves from a 
 like peril. 
 
 1 Cours souveraines, or comparjnies souveraines — supreme courts : these 
 were, as given here, the court of parliament, the cour des comptes, the cour 
 des aides, and the grand council ; when these separate courts met for con- 
 sultation it was by delegates from each, who held their sessions in the 
 chamber of Saint-Louis, at the Palais de Justice ; hence this united court 
 is called the Chamber of Saint-Louis. — Tb. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OP MADAME DB MOTTEVILLE. 235 
 
 The Prince de Condd began his campaign this year by a 
 stay of eight days at Chantilly, where he' went, with all his 
 court, to spend Holy Week; and the Due d'Orl^ans was 
 destined to be the queen's supporter ia the events which it 
 was foreseen must arise on the parliamentary side. At this 
 time the two princes seemed to have good intentions to 
 serve the king well, whether in peace or war. The queen 
 spent the holy days as usual, and, to employ them worthUy, 
 she ordered public prayers for peace ; which were not effica- 
 cious, because men are not worthy of the gift that God by 
 His Gospel gave at this time (Easter) to His apostles, say- 
 ing, when He appeared to them, " Peace be unto you ! " 
 
 Towards the end of April a gentleman belonging to the 
 household of Mademoiselle, named Saujeon, was arrested. 
 His sister was maid-of-honour to Madame, and the Due 
 d' Orleans did not hate her. But the inclination he had 
 for the sister did not prevent the disgrace of the brother, 
 because the reasons for it were strong, and the matter 
 itself seemed delicate. 
 
 At first, a great secret was made of the affair ; the queen 
 alone, her minister, the Due d'Orl^ans, and his favourite 
 knew it ; and the Court people employed some days in iind- 
 ing out the truth, because adventures which are thought to 
 proceed from the cabinet cause more curiosity than matters 
 of any other nature. The prisoner was secretly interrogated 
 during a little journey which the Due d'Orl^ans made to 
 Limours ; and though the above-named four personages 
 kept silence religiously, Comminges, a relative of Saujeon, 
 who was a friend of mine, told me the story ; but in relating 
 to me the matter of Saujeon's interrogation, he begged me 
 to keep it secret for a certain time. 
 
 Every one began to suspect the truth, but no one knew it 
 wholly. We saw its outburst one Thursday evening, after 
 
236 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 the council, which was held that day in the little gallery 
 of the queen's apartment. The Due d'Orldans sent for 
 Mademoiselle to come to that place, where they remained 
 alone, the queen. Monsieur, Cardinal Mazarin, and the Abb^ 
 de la Rivifere. As she entered, the favourite of her father, 
 whom she hated, told her in a low voice that she was about 
 to receive a reprimand from Monsieur her father, and that 
 the only thing to do was to humble herself to him and to 
 the queen. 
 
 The gist of this affair was that Saujeon, perhaps with 
 Mademoiselle's consent, wished to marry her to the arch- 
 duke.' His crime was to have had an understanding with 
 a burgher at Furnes, and this burgher had another with a 
 person of quality who was at the court of the archduke. 
 This person, instead of working for the success of the affair 
 (whether by consent of his master or as a spy paid by 
 France to betray him), warned the cardinal of the negotia- 
 tion; and the minister, not being pleased with Mademoi- 
 selle, blackened her to the queen and spoke of this collusion 
 as semi-criminal and deserving of her anger. The queen, 
 who really thought Mademoiselle guilty, spoke of it to 
 Monsieur with such resentment that, in spite of his being 
 her father, he dared not excuse her. 
 
 The young princess, who had felt the coming storm, con- 
 sidered that she had better hide her uneasiness and appear 
 to fear nothing ; so that on the previous day (last of April) 
 entering the chamber of Madame her step-mother, at the 
 Luxembourg, she remarked, laughing, that it was said that 
 Saujeon was a prisoner for her sake because he wanted to 
 marry her to the archduke ; as for her, she thought it amus- 
 
 1 Mademoiselle relates this affair at great length in her Memoirs. She 
 treats Saujeon as a visionary, and denies all direct participation in the 
 project of a marriage with the archduke. — Fk. Ed. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 237 
 
 ing, but as she knew nothing about the matter she could 
 take no part in it except to pity him. However, here she 
 was, called before the council, and much disturbed by the 
 advice the Abb4 de La Eivifere had whispered in her ear. 
 She found the queen irritated; accusing her of having pri- 
 vate understandings with the enemies of the State, of wishing 
 to marry without her consent or that of her father, and of 
 wanting in respect towards both of them; then, having 
 rigorously treated her, she turned her over to the Due 
 d'Orl^ans, who confirmed the anger of the queen and him- 
 self, and did not refrain from saying everything that could 
 serve as a punishment for her fault. 
 
 Mademoiselle, finding herself thus openly attacked, gath- 
 ered strength from her weakness and sustained herself bravely 
 against these two persons, whom, for so many reasons, she 
 had to fear. She maintained boldly that she had not done 
 wrong and had known nothing of the negotiation. On the 
 contrary, she reproached Monsieur because he might, if he 
 had chosen, have married her to the emperor ; and she made 
 it plain to him that it was shameful not to protect her now 
 when her fame was attacked. 
 
 The queen, who listened to these words with astonishment, 
 did me the honour to say to me that evening that if she had 
 had a daughter who treated her as Mademoiselle had treated 
 her father she would have banished her from Court forever , 
 and shut her up in a convent. We heard the noise of the 
 accusations and the defence; and though none but those 
 three persons spoke (the minister not wishing to show that 
 he had any share in the reprimand), the uproar was so great 
 that we who were in the adjoining cabinet were full of the 
 desire to know the details and the upshot of the quarrel. 
 
 Mademoiselle came from the gallery with a face more 
 haughty than ashamed, and her eyes were full of anger 
 
238 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 rather than repentance. In passing, she stopped before the 
 Abb^ de la Eivifere and then went away to her own apart- 
 ments, keenly hurt to see herself abandoned by him from 
 whom she had the right to hope for support and consolation. 
 The next day the Abb4 de la Eivifere went to see her on 
 behalf of his master, to forbid her to see any one whomsoever 
 until she had confessed all she knew of the affair. The 
 abb^, who perhaps would not have been sorry to please the 
 minister by confounding this criminal, who he knew hated 
 him, did all he could to make her admit the truth of the 
 intrigue ; but she continued firm and steadfast in denying it. 
 
 She was greatly distressed by many painful things, and 
 this distress gave her a fever; she even fainted from grief 
 when they took away from her one of her women whom they 
 suspected of having aided her to have long conversations 
 with Saujeon. This gentleman had wished to serve a prin- 
 cess who deserved help ; but he belonged in duty to the king, 
 and was therefore blamable. His fault, nevertheless, was 
 more imprudent than criminal, for the motive was perfectly 
 innocent. Apparently, Mademoiselle wished to marry, and 
 in this purpose she had doubtless no intention of failing in 
 the respect she owed to the queen and Monsieur; but her 
 conduct was blamable when considered by the axioms of the 
 State, which forbid all private intercourse with enemies and 
 foreigners. 
 
 Personally, I had at that time no reason to be pleased 
 with the princess except for the share she gave me of her 
 civility to everybody ; and I caimot be suspected of ardour 
 in all that I may say of her; but as I make profession of 
 perfect sincerity I am obliged to render her this testimony. 
 I even had the equity, though she never knew it, to maintain 
 to the queen on the day of this affair, that Mademoiselle 
 was right not to acknowledge she was looking for a husband 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 239 
 
 tlirough secret intrigues ; and I told the queen that I thought 
 
 — whether this were true or not — that Monsieur did wrong 
 to abandon her and to try to make her publicly confess a 
 thing which was more shameful to acknowledge than to do 
 
 — for a girl is not to blame for thinking of her establish- 
 ment, but it is not proper that this should be known; nor 
 should she appear to be working for that purpose. " Fathers, 
 Madame," I said to her, " are accustomed, when proposals of 
 marriage are made, to keep to certain conventions in order 
 to protect the fame of their daughters, which always seem 
 smirched when they seek that which it is perfectly allowable 
 to wish for.'' 
 
 The queen, who always did me the honour to receive 
 kindly whatever came from a heart that she knew to be 
 faithful to her, was displeased by the sentiments which I 
 had on this affair, because she herself totally disapproved 
 of it; and that was why in her displeasure she told 
 the Due d'Orl^ans what I had said, and he, without con- 
 sidering the motive which made me speak, complained to 
 me and said he was astonished that I blamed his course, 
 because he had always thought me more his friend than that 
 of his daughter. Instead of justifying myself to him, I told 
 my sentiments to his favourite, who was sometimes reason- 
 able enough to receive them well. I advised him to try and 
 heal the quarrel, and said that I could understand that Mon- 
 sieur should complain of a princess who wished to marry 
 without the concurrence of a father like himself, and that 
 the queen had also reason to be angry with her. But I 
 insisted to him that Monsieur ought not to force her to con- 
 fess a thing of that nature, and that he himself ought not, out 
 of compliance, to embitter Monsieur against her. And I 
 said that if he did not endeavour to end the quarrel he would 
 be blamed by everybody for not making his master recognize 
 
240 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ix. 
 
 the true interests of Mademoiselle's reputation, which were 
 really his own, inasmuch as she was his daughter. I con- 
 cluded the conversation by telling him, in presence of Made- 
 moiselle de Beaumont, the princess's woman, that while it 
 was true she was wrong and had perhaps risked too much, 
 her fault was legitimate, and that the old age of the arch- 
 duke, his big ears, and his stern piety ought to justify her 
 before all the world. 
 
 This little harangue had its effect. Shortly after. Monsieur 
 learned the trutL Mademoiselle got some one to speak to 
 the cardinal and beg him to change the queen's mind as to 
 the accusation she made against her. Several persons spoke 
 to the Abb^ de La Eivifere on her behalf, and the minister, 
 who was very glad to lay claim to some merit with her, 
 expressed a desire to serve her. Monsieur's favourite fol- 
 lowed this example; and, comprehending that it was right 
 that his master should show pity, he forgot his own little 
 resentments in order to serve her; so that finally, on the 
 eleventh day of her captivity, after great conferences which 
 it was necessary to have with the queen, the Abb^ de la 
 Eivifere went to take to Mademoiselle a few words of kind- 
 ness from Monsieur, accompanied by strong lessons and re- 
 spectful reprimands about her conduct. 
 
 The princess had given various subjects of aimoyance to 
 Monsieur ; and the Comtesse de Piesque, her governess, made 
 many complaints against her, accusing her of imprudence in 
 her actions, and particularly in not endeavouring carefully to 
 obtain the good graces of the minister. She blamed her for 
 being too much carried away by her friends and against her 
 enemies; and by wise and politic speeches she often drew 
 upon the princess little paternal punishments, gentle or severe 
 according to the mood in which the prince happened to be. 
 But, after all, he tenderly loved Mademoiselle, and always 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 241 
 
 lived on good terms with her ; he treated her kindly, and 
 I have several times heard him say that his daughter fed 
 him ; that he was a beggar, whUe she was rich, and without 
 her he should sometimes have wanted bread. 
 
 He told the truth, for Mademoiselle having the property 
 of her mother, who was heiress of the house of Montpensier 
 and that of Joyeuse, he had always enjoyed the use of it; 
 not giving her more than was needed to maintain her es- 
 tablishment. This inheritance he paid to her later, in conse- 
 quence of the suits he had with her, when, growing older, 
 she avenged herself upon him, and insisted on having her 
 property, — with signs of a soul that was rather too hard 
 for love. 
 
 The same day, after this mollifying. Mademoiselle went to 
 see the queen, who received her coldly. She told her that 
 she ought not to plume herself on having stood out against 
 her father and her sovereign, not confessing the faults she 
 had committed ; that those who counselled her gave her, no 
 doubt, high praise, but that she ought not to allow herself to 
 be deceived by them, for they did not advise her well ; and 
 that she ought rather to believe that her fault was great, 
 because she saw it was disapproved by so kind a father 
 as hers and by herself, who had always treated her as 
 her own daughter. 
 
 Some days later peace was entirely restored by a visit she 
 received permission to pay to Monsieur, who, after a private 
 conversation, forgave her all her little faults. After that 
 the Court busied itself about other matters, this one being 
 already too old to talk about. Saujeon was sent a pris- 
 oner to Pierre-Encise, whence he issued soon after, in May. 
 About this time the little Monsieur, brother of the king, was 
 baptized, and named Philippe, by the Queen of England and 
 by Monsieur, his uncle and that of the king. 
 
 VOL. I. — 16 
 
X. 
 
 1648. 
 
 An event which caused the affair of Mademoiselle to be 
 the more quickly forgotten was the arrival of a courier sent 
 by the Prince de Cond^ to the queen, to let her know he was 
 beginning to march upon the enemy with a very fine army. 
 This news made the minister resolve to take the Court to 
 the frontier, that it might be well placed to assist at the 
 grandeur of France through the downfall of its enemies ; 
 which could readily be hoped with good troops and a gen- 
 eral like the Prince de Cond4 But the queen was detained 
 in Paris by a new embarrassment in the king's affairs, which 
 proved in the end to be of no small consequence to the 
 State. 
 
 The paulette was again given to all the supreme compan- 
 ies on condition that their salaries for four years be with- 
 held.^ But to content parliament separately, as the most 
 important body in the kingdom, and therefore the most 
 to be feared, it was given to that body without the four 
 years' forfeiture. The Chambre des Comptes, the Cour des 
 Aides, the grand council, and all the officers of France, who 
 found themselves hampered by this treatment, complained to 
 parliament, and asked its assistance to maintain their right 
 against the oppression which, they said, had been put upon 
 
 1 Fiscal duty invented by Charles Paulet, secretary of the king's cham- 
 ber. By paying this tax at the beginning of each year the titulary to an 
 office (whether judicial or financial) secured its inheritance to his heirs. 
 If it were not paid, the office, in case of death, reverted to the king. — 
 Pk. Ed. 
 
1648] JIEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 243 
 
 them. They pointed out to parliament that it ought to 
 fear being some day involved in this ordinance; that their 
 humiliation ought to make it apprehend that its own power 
 ■would be diminished ; and that if the courts did not sustain 
 one another they were all equally threatened with total ruin ; 
 because favourites, having no more formidable obstacle than 
 the power of parliament, if parliament stood alone by itself, 
 nothing would be easier than to diminish what power re- 
 maiaed to it, and put it on a par with the other assemblies 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 Parliament was moved by these reasons, by a fear of like 
 treatment, and also by the desire, which at that time ruled 
 the chief minds in that great assembly, to rise higher. It 
 assembled, and it murmured; nearly all its members de- 
 clared that if they abandoned their brethren the latter would 
 have the right to complain of them; and if they were ill- 
 treated it was to be expected that all would have their share 
 of woes. In short, on May 13, the Chambers having assem- 
 bled, they gave a decision whereby a union with the other 
 courts [^compagnies] was agreed to, in which it was said 
 that "they forbade the reception of any new officers at a 
 time when, the paulette not being granted to all, the offices 
 would revert to the king, and the widows and heirs be left 
 non-content." 
 
 On this decision the queen ordered the chancellor to 
 summon parliament and declare to it, from her, that, having 
 gratified that body especially, her Majesty had believed it 
 would be grateful to her ; but, recognizing from its pro- 
 ceedings that it took her favour in another way, she no 
 longer promised to exempt it from the payment of the four 
 years' salaries which she had thought proper to retain from 
 the officers of the other companies; and she would now 
 leave matters as they had been; but she begged them to 
 
244 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 consider the necessities of the king's affairs, and to consult 
 as to other means of obtaining money. 
 
 This answer was too gentle for an offended master; it 
 appeared to come from the spirit of the minister, always 
 ready to come down when resisted, and to force too much 
 when he thought he could do so. But it had a double 
 meaning; the carduiars thought was to leave the parlia- 
 ment in the condition in which it was, and revenge himself 
 by letting its members languish in uncertairity lest each in 
 dying should lose his office. 
 
 The queen sent to the registrar's of&ce (May 18) an order 
 forbidding the reception of any money from parliament, 
 revoking the gift she had made it of the paulette, and 
 replacing it on the same footing as the other companies. 
 This course was approved by able men, and would perhaps 
 have succeeded had the minister been able to sustain it. 
 But as parliament now felt itself engaged in a great enter- 
 prise it believed that it ought to push its resistance farther, 
 and, in order to come safely out of the affair, to give birth 
 to an opposition to Cardinal Mazarin which would embarrass 
 him. It sought its means carefully; and the bad disposi- 
 tion of the minds at Court, the misery of all France, the 
 public hatred which was beginning to openly declare itself 
 against the minister, gave it such support that without some 
 special protection of G-od over the kingdom, it is to be 
 believed that parliament might then have overthrown the 
 monarchy. 
 
 The queen, who had not tried to gratify parliament will- 
 ingly, said, in speaking of this affair, that she beheved it 
 would repent of what it had done ; and that she was not 
 sorry to be compelled to revoke the favorn- she had shown 
 it against her will, treating it more kindly than it deserved. 
 As the blood of Charles V. made her by nature haughty, she 
 
164Sj MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 245 
 
 had never supposed that any creature, any servant, could or 
 would dare to defend himself against the will of the king ; 
 so that in all these affairs with parliament, whose rules and 
 quibblings she did not understand, she always wanted to 
 overthrow it, and believed that whatever was ordered ia her 
 coimcil was to be executed by that assembly. 
 
 About this time (May, 1648) the Duke of York, twelve or 
 thii'teen years old, escaped from England under orders sent 
 to him by the queen, his mother, and went to Holland. He 
 has since related to me himself how he had kept this plan 
 in his heart for a whole year, without being able to execute 
 it. He made use at last of one of the servants whom the 
 queen his mother sent to him. 
 
 His governor had already had the same design, and 
 thought of executing it ; but he had been made answerable 
 for him to the English parliament, which, suspecting some 
 such purpose, threatened him that if he ever thought of it 
 the prince would be sent to the Tower of London. The 
 prince related to me what he had suffered, without allow- 
 ing any thought of escape to show itself. At last, one day 
 when he saw his guards amusing themselves by playing 
 games, he slipped out by a little back door into the park, 
 where the servant who helped him was waitijag with 
 women's clothes. He put them on and went to a house in 
 London, where he stayed some days dressed as a girl. Then 
 he embarked with his equerry in a vessel which sailed for 
 Holland ; and as he was very handsome the sailors suspected 
 that he was not too virtuous. 
 
 When his flight was discovered in London he was pursued 
 by an English vessel, and came near being captured in sight 
 of Flushing. The port where he wished to land was dan- 
 gerous on account of the wind which was then blowing ; so 
 that the prince, divining that the vessel that followed them 
 
246 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 was after him, quitted his borrowed sex to threaten the 
 pilot and force him to put him ashore at the peril of his 
 life. When the master of the vessel, who did not want to 
 go to land, resisted, he took the sword of the man who was 
 near him and made as though he would run him through 
 the body, in order to make him put him ashore where he 
 wished to go. The master obeyed under force ; and he thus 
 escaped the persecutions which the barbarous subjects of his 
 father intended for him. 
 
 He came to France, where the king and queen received 
 him kindly and with the affection due to the grandson of 
 Henri IV. and the son of a great and unfortunate king. He 
 left in England the Duke of Gloucester, his younger brother, 
 with his governor the Duke of Northumberland; also a 
 princess, his sister, about eleven or twelve years old. These 
 two children alone received the last blessing of the king 
 their father when, a few months later, he was put to death. 
 Then the parliament sent the little prince, who remaiaed in 
 their hands, and whom they never treated as a prince while 
 in their power, to the queen, his mother. The daughter died ; 
 she had seemed to feel deeply the misfortunes of the king 
 her father. 
 
 On the 25th of May the queen, seeing that the parliament 
 was determined to hold out against her will and to favour 
 public rights, sent to order it to come to her. When it came 
 the chancellor spoke to it for her, and he spoke strongly. 
 After this discourse she gave the members a sharp reprimand 
 herself, telling them that, as their company abused the 
 favourable intentions she had had to benefit them, she would 
 never in futme do them favours; and she forbade them 
 absolutely to assemble, or to communicate among themselves 
 by deputies. The president wished to answer her ; but she, 
 her face severe and threatening, forbade him to speak. Two 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 247 
 
 days later all the other supreme courts were summoned, — 
 the Chambre des Comptes, the Cour des Aides, and the 
 Grand Council. The same things were said to them, but 
 with even more rigour, because they were less thought of 
 than the parliament ; and as the minister judged it necessary 
 to make the anger of the queen feared in some stronger way 
 than by mere words, which do no harm, several of the Grand 
 Council were dismissed and eight from the Cour des Aides, 
 who were all exiled to different parts of the kingdom. Par- 
 liament showed much resentment at this petty chastisement ; 
 and the courts one and all resolved to assemble in spite of 
 the queen's command. 
 
 On the day of Pentecost, the first of the month of June, 
 the Due de Beaufort, a prisoner for the last five years at 
 Vincennes, escaped from his prison about midday. He 
 found means to burst his chains through the cleverness of 
 friends and some of his family, who on this occasion served 
 him faithfully. He was guarded by an officer of the Gardes 
 du corps, and by seven or eight of the Gardes who slept in 
 his chamber and never left him. He was served by officers 
 of the king; not one of his own servants was about him; 
 and above all, Chavigny, who was not his friend, was 
 governor of Vincennes. 
 
 The officer who guarded him, named La Eam^e, had taken 
 to Vincennes, at the request of one of his friends, a certain 
 man who, under pretext of a duel that brought him under 
 the law on account of the king's edict against duelling, de- 
 sired this asylum by which to save himself. It is to be 
 believed, however, that he was put there by the followers of 
 the prince, and perhaps by consent of the officer ; but I am 
 ignorant of these particulars, and am only convinced by 
 appearances. 
 
 This man, at first, to play the good valet and show that he 
 
248 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTXEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 was not useless, busied himself more than all the others in 
 carefully guarding the prisoner; and it was told to the 
 queen, in relating the story to her, that he even went so far 
 as roughness. Whether it was that he went there to serve 
 the Due de Beaufort, or allowed himself to be gained over by 
 him, the duke used him to communicate his thoughts to his 
 friends and obtain knowledge of the plans they had made 
 for his release. 
 
 When the time came for executing their scheme, they 
 expressly chose the day of Pentecost because the solemnity 
 of that festival occupied every one in divine service. At the 
 hour when the guards dined, the duke asked La Eam^e to 
 let him walk in a gallery where he had obtained permission 
 to go and amuse himself at times. This gallery was lower 
 than the place where he was lodged, but still very high up, 
 on account of the depth of the moats which it overlooked on 
 two sides. La Eam^e followed him on this walk and re- 
 mained alone with him in the gallery. The man won over 
 by the duke pretended to go and dine with the rest ; but, 
 counterfeiting illness, he took only a little wine and left the 
 room locking the door upon them, also several other doors 
 between the gallery and the room where they took their 
 meals. 
 
 He then went to find the prisoner and the ofi&cer who 
 guarded him, and entering the gallery he locked that door 
 also and put the keys of all the doors in his pocket. At the 
 next moment the Due de Beaufort, who was of commanding 
 figure, and this man who was secretly his, flung themselves 
 upon La Eam^e and prevented him from crying out. Then, 
 not wishing to kill him, although it was dangerous not to do 
 so unless he were really won over to their side, they gagged 
 him, bound him hand and foot, and left him. After which 
 they fastened a rope to the window and lowered themselves, 
 
le-tS] JIEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 249 
 
 one after the other, but the valet first, as he would certainly 
 have been rigorously punished had he failed to escape. 
 They let themselves slip into the moat, the depth of which 
 was greater than the length of their rope ; so that, dropping 
 from the end of the rope the prince ran the risk of injuring 
 himself, which reaUy happened. The pain made him swoon, 
 and he continued a long time ia that state without recover- 
 ing his senses. 
 
 Coming to himself after a while, four or five of his friends, 
 who were on the other side of the moat, and had seen him 
 lying half dead with terrible anxiety, fiimg him another rope 
 which he fastened round his body, and in this way they 
 dragged him by strength of arms uj) to them ; the valet first, 
 according to the promise the prince had made him, which 
 was faithfully kept. When he reached the top, he was in a 
 bad state, for besides the hurt he received in falling, the 
 rope he had tied round his body had tightened upon his 
 stomach under the joltings he had received in being drawn 
 up. But having recovered some strength through the vigour 
 of his courage and the fear of losing the fruit of his pains, he 
 rose and went to join a party of fifty men who were awaiting 
 him in a neighbouring wood. 
 
 A gentleman of his own family who took part in the expe- 
 dition, told me afterwards, that on seeing himself surrounded 
 by this troop of men, the joy of finding he was at liberty and 
 among his own people was so great that he was cured in a 
 moment of all his pains, and springing on a horse that was 
 held ready for him, he disappeared like lightning, enchanted 
 to breathe the air without restraint and to be able to say, 
 like King Frangois I. when he set foot in France on return- 
 ing from Spain, " Ha ! I am free ! " 
 
 A woman who was gathering herbs in a garden at the edge 
 of the moat, with a little boy, saw all that happened of this 
 
250 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 mystery. But the men who -were in ambush had so threat- 
 ened her to force her to be silent that, having little interest 
 in preventing the prince from escaping, she and her son stood 
 quietly looking on at all they did. As soon as he was gone 
 the woman went and told her husband, who was gardener of 
 the place, and they both went to notify the guards. But it 
 was then too late; men could not change what God had 
 ordered; and the stars, which sometimes seem to tell the 
 decrees of that Sovereign, had already revealed to many per- 
 sons, through an astrologer named Goisel, that the Due de 
 Beaufort was to leave his prison on that very day. 
 
 The news at first surprised the whole Court, particularly 
 those who were not indifferent to it. The minister was no 
 doubt disturbed; but, as usual, he did not show it. The 
 queen, who formerly regarded the prince as a friend, and who 
 now hated him more for reasons of State than from inclina- 
 tion, consoled herself readily for the little annoyance this 
 escape had given her ; and doubtless a great many persons 
 rejoiced at it. For, besides the fact that the prince was 
 loved and had a great cabal taking part in his interests, the 
 enemies of the cardinal hoped that, being at liberty, the duke 
 would make a party in France and bring about a change in 
 the government. No one doubted that he had great desires 
 for revenge upon his enemy, and that the bad disposition of 
 many minds would easily give him means to obtain it. 
 
 The queen and the cardinal talked kindly about the 
 escape, and laughed over it, saying that M. de Beaufort had 
 done well. Chavigny alone was blamed, for not having 
 taken care enough to guard the prisoner; and the queen 
 blamed him loudly for leaving the exterior of the prison 
 without sentinels who would have seen the plot. But 
 Chavigny, though driven from the council by the Due de 
 Beaufort and receiving him at Vincennes with joy, not being 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTBVILLE. 251 
 
 now SO well treated by the cardinal as he had a right to ex- 
 pect after the rout of " the Importants," no longer cared to 
 guard this enemy, whose ruin had done him no good. When 
 the prisoner escaped Chavigny had gone to spend the festival 
 at the Chartreuse, where he often went for consolation in 
 default of human favour ; and in justifying himself to the 
 queen and cardinal he alleged no other reasons except that 
 ■ he considered he ought to leave that duty to the king's offi- 
 cers who were answerable for it, and not he, to whom no 
 special order for watchfulness was given. 
 
 The Due de Beaufort had lived religiously in prison ; for 
 it is customary with men to seek God when in trouble and 
 forget him in prosperity. This very thing happened to the 
 prince, who, penitent enough in the forest of Vincennes, 
 thought only of revenge and diversion as soon as he was out 
 of it. 
 
 Before this good luck happened to the Due de Beaufort 
 the cardinal was warned that a plot was preparing to set him 
 at liberty. He wrote to La Eam^e about it ; ordering him to 
 take especial care to prevent such a thing from happening. 
 The officer answered that unless the prince became a little 
 bird capable of flying out of the window, it was impossible 
 that he could get away ; and that very thing having hap- 
 pened, the cardinal showed the letter to the Mardchal 
 d'Estr^es, uncle of the Due de Beaufort, who was astonished 
 to see that an all-powerful minister, so well warned, was 
 unable to avert what destiny decreed for the prisoner, 
 namely, to leave his prison for the accomplishment of great 
 events about to happen in which he was to have so large a 
 share. 
 
 The cardinal telt some uneasiness as to the place of the 
 Due de Beaufort's retreat. He was afraid he might go to 
 Brittany, where his principal estates lay, and would there 
 
252 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 raise a faction and disturbances.^ But one of my friends, 
 to whom the cardiaal communicated his thoughts on the 
 subject, reassured bim completely, and told him that the 
 prince, having neither fortresses nor money, could do nothing 
 against the State or against him — against the State on 
 account of his powerlessness ; against him, because the 
 cardinal could pay those who guarded him higher than the 
 duke could pay those he might employ against him. 
 
 The queen, doing me the honour to speak to me of all 
 this, said that the Due de Beaufort was not in a condition 
 to raise a party in France ; and, in regard to the cardinal's 
 person, she added that the prince had taken the sacraments 
 too many times in his prison to still retain in his soul the 
 intention to murder. And on my saying that perhaps he 
 would seek to be reconciled with her minister and would 
 ask him to restore him to her good graces, she answered that 
 the cardinal would be foolish to do that and that she should 
 never advise it, knowing weU that M. de Beaufort was 
 incapable of making good use of a return to favour. 
 
 June 3, the queen went to visit the Queen of England, 
 who had come from Saint-Germain to spend two weeks in 
 Paris for the purpose of gaining the jubilee.^ Our regent, 
 after visiting also the Due d'Orl^ans, who had the gout, 
 began herself the stations ordained to receive that sacred 
 liberality of the pope, who had granted it to Christians from 
 good motives, though it has since served in Naples to further 
 the interests of the King of Spain. France wisely took a 
 spiritual part in it, which was preferable to that taken by 
 foreigners. The queen visited thirty-seven churches, though 
 
 ^ The Due de Beaufort hid himself in the VendomoiB, from house to 
 house, until the day when he could come to Paris, and go to Prudhomme's 
 house. — Fr. Ed. 
 
 ^ Plenary indulgence granted by the pope at certain times and on 
 certain occasions. — Te. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 253 
 
 she was obliged actually to visit but one; and by this 
 exemplary piety she induced us to do the same, and quit 
 repose for toil in order that by this toil we might acquire 
 true rest. 
 
 The evening of the day on which she had gone through 
 such fatigue, both devotional and civil, she went, to refresh 
 herself after the heat she felt in the streets, to walk in the 
 garden of the Palais-Eoyal, where she spent a good part of 
 the night ; for her health was such that she could not bear 
 excess of any kind. Five persons — Mademoiselle Beaumont, 
 my sister Mademoiselle Bertaut, commonly called Socratiae 
 on account of her wisdom, M. de Chandenier, M. de Com- 
 minges, and myself — had the honour of accompanying her 
 on this promenade. The conversation was agreeable and 
 free, and capable of bringing us some profit. We spoke of 
 what we owed to God by obligation, and what we gave to 
 creatures from inclination. We considered to how many 
 great things that obligation, bound us, and to how many evils 
 that inclination exposed us. After examining those two 
 points, we found that we gave nothing to Him to whom 
 we owed everything, and all to those to whom we owed 
 nothing. 
 
 The two men who were in our little group admitted, 
 through equity and a sense of justice, a part of their wrong- 
 doing, recognizing its injury; and we, out of sincerity, 
 candidly avowed, in the name of our sex, that the too great 
 love we felt for ourselves brought us over-much praise and 
 applause ; and that often flattery, which we ought to hate, 
 made us too sensitive to the love of human creatures. And 
 we concluded, to our shame, that the wisest and most vir- 
 tuous of women, at the age when she pleases herself and 
 desires to please others, has moments when she is neither 
 Christian nor virtuous ; for, instead of rendering to God the 
 
254 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 homage that she owes Him, she desires the adoration of 
 others, and would like to have over men the empire that 
 the Creator alone should possess. 
 
 Neither is she virtuous; because true virtue proceeds 
 from the heart and the sentiments of the soul, and it is 
 easier to keep the body exempt from corruption than the 
 soul without licentiousness, vanity, or weakness. In short, 
 we judged the human race on this ground, namely : that 
 defects of the spirit are worse by far than the external faults 
 which are seen of men ; and that the most virtuous, whether 
 men or women, who call themselves earthly sages, are not 
 so at all. After this general confession, we followed the 
 queen, who went to bed ; and when we left her Aurora was 
 just begioning to show, as the poets say, that soon she 
 would enrich us with her pearls ; which made us extremely 
 lazy on the following day. 
 
 Monday, June 5, parliament assembled, against the orders 
 of the queen ; but the chief president, wishing to sometimes 
 do his duty, prevented the members from speaking, and 
 would not open the session ; so that, after being all assem- 
 bled in the great chamber until ten o'clock without saying a 
 word, the members were forced to separate. But they did 
 not do so without great complaints against their leader, nor 
 without muttering loudly against him. 
 
 The next day the same thing was done; and President 
 Mesmes, after the chief president had spoken, told them 
 they did some wrong in showing tumultuously so little 
 respect to the queen's orders; for subjects should always 
 testify obedience and submission to their sovereign ; but that, 
 nevertheless, he freely admitted they had good reason to 
 apprehend harsh chains because of the iron shackles they 
 had seen put on others ; and that he was of opinion that the 
 assembly ought to employ itself iu finding a remedy. On 
 
1648] MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 255 
 
 that point he blamed the neglect of the Chamber, as much 
 as he blamed its impetuosity in other ways ; and he ad- 
 vised that parliament should assemble on the Monday fol- 
 lowing to consult as to the means of satisfying the queen, 
 and of preventing their robes from being torn from their 
 backs like those of their neighbours and colleagues, who 
 were the first to be maltreated, and were a sign of what 
 would sooner or later happen to themselves. 
 
 This speech was blamed by the cardinal ; and the queen 
 spoke of it that night, while undressing, to Mademoiselle de 
 Beaumont, a friend of Madame de Mesmes. She complained 
 of that president as a man who seemed to have bad inten- 
 tions, and said that in ta lkin g of respect and submission he 
 doubtless intended to foment the spirit of sedition and re- 
 volt in the souls of his colleagues, and that she saw plainly 
 that he wanted to avenge himself on the cardinal, who was 
 the sworn enemy of his brother, Comte d'Avaux. These 
 opinions were inspired in her by her minister in order to get 
 them repeated to that lady, and by that means have them 
 reach President de Mesmes and induce him to correct him- 
 self in future and change his conduct. 
 
 Jime 8, the king's lawyers were summoned, and the chan- 
 cellor spoke to them at the council in presence of the queen, 
 in relation to the resolution of parliament to meet in defiance 
 of the prohibition. He told them that the queen, in forbid- 
 ding them to assemble, had no intention of opposing the 
 privileges of their body, but only to prevent the union of the 
 other courts with theirs. After which he enlarged upon 
 their rebellion, their want of respect, and upon the claim the 
 king made that it did not belong to them to protect the 
 other courts against his will. 
 
 The cardinal, on his side, sent for several members of the 
 Grand Council and the Cour des Aides, and spoke to them 
 
256 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 tumanely, as they said, but very weakly. He assured them 
 he wished to oblige them, said that he thought their reasons 
 very good, and better than he had supposed them; advised 
 them to address themselves to him, as devout men to saints 
 in regard to God, in order to obtain their pardon from the 
 queen, as much for themselves in general as for those of 
 their number who had been exiled ; and he promised to exert 
 himself for them, beggiug, nevertheless, that they would obey 
 the king, which was necessary to maintain the due order of 
 the State. 
 
 These mild words, in a period of revolt, had no other effect 
 than to cause great contempt for the minister and produce 
 much ridicule of the weakness and inconsistency of his con- 
 duct, which was sometimes too haughty and sometimes too 
 humble. This story went the rounds, even of the ladies' 
 ruelles, and gave occasion for all France to say that the 
 minister was incapable of governing or of guiding the 
 country. 
 
 June 12, the queen, whose piety was always sacredly 
 occupied, in order to honour the festival of the very Holy 
 Sacrament, ordered to be set up on this day an altar (re- 
 fosoir) in the first courtyard of the Palais-Eoyal, on which 
 she placed the finest tapestries of the king and the richest 
 ornaments a great queen ever possessed. She ordered, for this 
 purpose, a closed crown, to place upon the altar where the 
 Saint of saints was to rest, made of the finest crown jewels, 
 so rich and splendid that it would have been difficult, if 
 estimated, to put a price upon it. 
 
 After having adored Our Lord on that spot, where she 
 awaited the procession, she accompanied the Host on foot 
 through great heat to Saint-Eustache, taking with her the 
 king and the little Monsieur ; and the people, as they saw 
 her pass, gave her many benedictions, though already they 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 257 
 
 seemed a little alienated from the love they had formerly- 
 borne her. 
 
 That evening she sent for the lieutenant of police, and 
 ordered him to release from prison a man whom President 
 Mesmes had sent there because he was found before his door 
 writing down the names of aU who entered. This man had 
 declared on being arrested that he was there by order of the 
 Court and belonged to the provost of I'lsle. The next day, 
 on leaving prison, he went to see the queen and complained 
 to her of President Mesmes, saying that he had received great 
 outrages from his servants. When going to bed that night 
 the queen told us, laughing, that she meant to avenge him 
 for all the wrongs he had suffered. And she did, in fact, 
 avenge him so well that she ordered the grand provost to 
 arrest all the servants of the president of whom the man 
 complained.^ 
 
 President de Mesmes, seeing clearly that he did not stand 
 well at Court, thought himself obliged to act with prudence ; 
 he left the game ; and the next day sent his excuses to his 
 colleagues, saying that he was ill, and needed change of air. 
 He absented himself for some time, in order to avoid the 
 two accusations to which he saw himself exposed, namely : 
 that of weakness if he spoke in parliament in favour of the 
 king, which he was accustomed to do when his duty obliged 
 him; and that of wishing to avenge himself if he said the 
 least word that might seem contrary to the king's service. 
 
 He was blamed by those he wanted to satisfy ; they mur- 
 mured against him at Court, and his friends on the other 
 side said that he was very wrong to abandon his associates 
 at this conjuncture, when they were entering into conflict 
 
 1 Omer Talon relates the same fact, and lets it be understood that the 
 man was a spy of the queen. "All this," he says, "irritated the public 
 mind extremely, as a species of inquisition." — Fk. Ed. 
 
 TOL I. — 17 
 
258 MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 with, the king, and consequently had great need of assistance 
 as strong as that of a man like himself. 
 
 Five treasurers of France were put in prison for having 
 written circular letters to their colleagues, exhorting them 
 not to pay over the taxes that the king demanded, and to 
 pay themselves from the sums that passed through then- 
 hands. The man who wrote the letter was named Frottd, a 
 man of worth and zealous for the public good. When he 
 learned what had happened to his five colleagues (a mis- 
 fortune from which his friends, without his knowing it, had 
 saved him) he presented himself to d'fimery [superinten- 
 dent of finance] and complained to him that he had not 
 been imprisoned with the others, as if it were a great affront 
 to him, declaring that his fame and honour were affected by 
 his being separated from his colleagues. He continued stead- 
 fast in these sentiments, and, shortly after, the prisoners were 
 released, because the minister was always inclined on his 
 own accoimt to gentleness and pardon. 
 
 June 15, parliament assembled again to discuss the pro- 
 tection it wished to give, and claimed that it could give, to 
 the other sovereign courts [compagnies]. It chose to delib- 
 erate also on the annulling of its decree of imion with those 
 courts by the order that had been brought to it from the 
 king ; and it finally determined that its said decree should 
 be maintained in spite of the one by which the king in coim- 
 cil had annulled it. It further resolved to meet the next 
 day in the Chamber of Saint-Louis for ample deliberation, 
 and that deputies from the other courts should be received 
 there. Several members on that day made fine harangues 
 in support of their opinions, which all went to break up the 
 government and blame the conduct of the minister, publicly 
 accusing Superintendent d'^fimery of extortion and robbery. 
 
 This was a mortal blow to the prosperity of France, and 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 259 
 
 made her enemies hope that these intestine wrangles would 
 replace them in the fine position from which they were 
 driven out by the able leadership of Cardinal Eichelieu and 
 the fortunate success of the regency. That this hardihood 
 displeased the queen and her minister, it is impossible to 
 doubt. After the councO. held in the cabinet on this affair, 
 it was resolved to annul once more this action of the parlia- 
 ment. The queen commanded Du Plessis, secretary of State, 
 followed by Carnavalet and a few gardes de corps, to go to the 
 Palais de Justice and bring to the kiug that decree so per- 
 nicious to the public peace. But the clerks at the Palais 
 assembled and cried out ia such a way against him and his 
 posse, declaring that they would be killed first, that he was 
 compelled to return briuging nothing. 
 
 On the 16th, parliament was summoned in a body. It 
 came, as usual on foot, to the Palais-Eoyal. To receive it 
 legally, the dukes and peers, the marshals of France, and all 
 the officers of the crown were assembled. A dais was placed 
 in the great cabinet with a platform beneath it, on which 
 were the king and queen, seated on a species of throne sur- 
 rounded by all the great seigneurs of the Coiurt. The queen's 
 face was stem and full of grave majesty which marked a 
 threatening anger. 
 
 The chancellor made the members a long discourse in the 
 nature of a reprimand, without, however, saying anything to 
 affront them. Then, having ordered their edict of union 
 to be read aloud, he pointed out the fault they had com- 
 mitted in uniting themselves like factious persons with the 
 other courts. He made them see how by so doing they had 
 fomented rebellion and disobedience among the subjects of 
 the king, whom they were, on the contrary, bound to main- 
 tain in respect for the laws and order. He also ordered to 
 be read aloud the decree of the Council annulling theirs, and 
 
260 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap, x, 
 
 proved to them that the king, in order to maiatain his author- 
 ity, was forced to do as he had done. And then, coming to 
 their edict of the previous day, in which, without regard to 
 the king's command, they re-afiSrmed that union, he enlarged 
 upon their action, representing the great and injurious con- 
 sequences which would follow it ; and said that, even were 
 it accompanied by good and innocent intentions, it could 
 only produce much evil to the State, very bad effects upon 
 France, and give great hopes to her enemies. 
 
 He concluded by the reading of another decree given by 
 the king that same day. This last contained a long argu- 
 ment on all the past and present points, and annulled both 
 the edict the parliament had given for the union of the com- 
 panies and the one of the preceding day. He ordered the 
 members in the king's name to employ themselves in future 
 solely in administering justice to his subjects, and com- 
 manded them not to meddle again in the affairs of State. 
 He told them that the king alone could claim that right as 
 his inheritance, together with the power to govern as he 
 chose, either by himself or by his ministers. He said that 
 the votes in their assemblies had been counted, but not 
 weighed; that there were many wise men in their body; 
 that his Majesty was grieved to be unable to separate these 
 from the others, to praise them publicly and worthily reward 
 them on this occasion ; but that he would mark that differ- 
 ence when the time came to do so ; and then he gave orders 
 to the clerk on the spot to bring to the queen the record 
 of the last edict within twenty-four hours. 
 
 The chief president attempted to reply ; but the queen in- 
 terrupted him, and told him he covild make no answer; 
 that, for her part, she knew his good intentions, and that 
 sufficed ; and with regard to the factious persons who were 
 troubling the peace of the State, she assured them that if 
 
1648] MEMOmS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 261 
 
 they did not obey the commaads of the king they would be 
 punished in their persons, their property, and their posterity. 
 
 In spite of this ceremony, as soon as the parliament re- 
 turned to the Palais the members assembled and forbade the 
 clerk with one voice to take their edict to the queen as she 
 had commanded. Moreover, they notified the delegates from 
 the other companies, who were waiting in the Chamber of 
 Saiat-Louis that they could not assemble with them until 
 they had first deliberated among themselves over the orders 
 that were given them from the king. 
 
 Politicians, arguing in the cabinet over present affairs, all 
 said that the little respect shown by parliament for the pro- 
 hibitions of the queen would compel the minister to punish 
 it, and to employ against it, in order to maiutaiu the kiug's 
 authority, all the means which vigorous justice could furnish 
 for such occasions. But, besides the fact that many persons 
 to whom the power of the favourite was displeasing did 
 not altogether disapprove of the course taken by parliament, 
 those who seemed to coimsel punishment did not really wish 
 the cardinal to follow then- advice. Even if such a course 
 had been a certain remedy for the evil, they would not have 
 desired it ; for they all wanted the minister's ruin, and would 
 have been in despair had he done the right thing to prevent 
 the misfortunes which they hoped would lead to it. So that 
 the minister, lacking true counsel and, as every one thought, 
 firmness, let pass all occasions to arrest the torrent at the 
 beginning of its flow ; and as this tolerance greatly increased 
 the audacity of parliament, it continued to assemble on the 
 following days, and to testify by its unity a great and firm 
 resolution to maintain its interests against the king. 
 
 The minister, who did not wish to push things to extrem- 
 ities, took the part of gentleness and humility, just as the 
 other side took that of force and arrogance. Matters could 
 
262 MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 not go on thus, one side threatening and doing no harm, the 
 other side offending, but with nothing to fear. It was neces- 
 sary that either their boldness should frighten the minister, 
 or that he, not willing to be frightened, should send terror 
 to their souls by the effects of the sovereign power. But he 
 did not take this course ; he laid down his arms and fol- 
 lowed, in spite of all ordinary maxims of policy, a system 
 of tolerance and gentleness. 
 
 Parliament, on its side, did not send the record it had 
 been ordered to convey to the queen ; the members openly 
 declared that their edicts should pass and those of the king 
 should be null, and they voted to still assemble, in spite 
 of the queen's prohibition, in the Chamber of Saint-Louis. 
 There they murmured loudly, and made known by their 
 speeches not only their own interests (the annual tax for 
 themselves and that of the officers justly exciting them), but 
 they declared that they meant to take cognizance of the 
 administration of the finances and concern themselves in 
 the reform of the State, which they insisted was not well 
 governed. 
 
 The attorney-general [Omer Talon], wishing in some de- 
 gree to do his duty and, as the king's lawyer, to represent to 
 parliament its excessive boldness, said that they were getting 
 so forward that either the royal authority would be degraded, 
 or that of parliament annihilated ; and he advised, as a wise 
 man, that moderation should be given to their passion. 
 
 He was treated as ridiculous by all the youth of the 
 assembly, as though he had uttered the greatest nonsense ; 
 and he who on so many occasions had shown such partiality 
 for the interests of parliament and the public was ill-treated 
 at the first word he said in behalf of the king's authority, 
 and forced to silence. They all retorted that he was wrong 
 in making such remonstrances ; that they were as good 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 263 
 
 servants of the king as himself ; that what they were doing 
 was for the king's service; that they sought only to reform 
 the abuses of the State, and especially the bad management 
 of the treasury. 
 
 The cardinal, finding that the mutineers held firmly 
 against him, resolved to go to them and to win over their 
 sullen spirits by smooth words and appeals to their interest. 
 
 The queen, who had threatened as a sovereign and feared 
 nothing, believing that, exile and imprisonment would put 
 an end to such revolts, could with difficulty bring herself 
 to follow the wishes of the cardiaal. She said to those 
 whom she thought his friends that he was too kiad, and 
 would spoil all by trying to acquire the good graces of his 
 enemies. 
 
 She had a great contempt for the robe, and could not 
 imagine that that portion of the king's subjects could disturb 
 or bring change into his affairs. Moroever, she was ignorant 
 of the great events which, from such small beginnings, 
 had overthrown the most powerful monarchies and ruined 
 the best established empires ; so that, knowing nothing 
 but her own grandeur and the external pomp that en- 
 virons kings with guards and suites, that very splendour 
 (though her virtue made her despise it) rendered her 
 incapable of conceiving that her regency, which she saw 
 accompanied by so much glory, could have any revolution by 
 such low means. This was why she proposed punishment as 
 a remedy which must indubitabljr arrest the revolt at its 
 source ; which sentiment was altogether in accordance with 
 the good sense and advice of the ablest of her Court. She 
 often said to those familiarly about her that she would never 
 permit that canaille (meaning the men of the robe) to attack 
 the authority of the king, her son ; so that her minister, who 
 had not expected their audacity to reach a point at which he 
 
264 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 was compelled to yield, now regretted much that he had 
 embittered her mind against parliament. 
 
 The queen, who could be gentle and kind, had, neverthe- 
 less, an unparalleled firmness, which showed plaialy that, if 
 she had been sustained, she would have followed the sternest 
 precepts with force and vigour on this occasion, when it was 
 a question of punishing servants of the king who sought to 
 oppose his authority. She was excusable in having this 
 sentiment and this severity, so long as it was limited by the 
 reason and kindness which always seemed to overrule in her 
 her opposite qualities. It is to be believed that the exile 
 of a few persons now would have saved great evils ; for their 
 punishment woxdd no doubt have been followed by acts of 
 her kindness, which always urged her to do harm to none, 
 and to leave every one in the enjoyment of his property and 
 office, as in the past. But she was fated to follow the 
 will of her minister, and was forced to consent to what he 
 desired to do on this occasion. 
 
 He resolved, therefore, with the Due d'Orl^ans and the 
 Prince de Cond^, to offer to parliament all it demanded. He 
 perceived that he had pushed the sovereign companies too 
 far, and he meant that his present gentleness should be the 
 remedy. The princes and the cardinal were of one opiaion 
 on this point, and one day, as they were talking together of 
 the queen and her firmness, the miaister said that while he 
 desired greatly to pacify all things, the queen was valiant, 
 like a soldier who is brave because he does not understand 
 the danger. 
 
 According to this last resolution all the seniors of both 
 Chambers were requested to assemble at the house of the 
 Due d'Orl^ans, who spoke to them cordially, assured them of 
 his protection with the queen, promised to intercede for them, 
 and made them hope that the annual fee should be again 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTBVILLE. 265 
 
 granted to them. They were requested to no longer protect 
 the masters of petitions, and they were given to understand 
 that if they would only make a show of behaving properly 
 the latter would soon be restored ; also it was promised that 
 if they abolished that name of imion, nothing should be 
 asked of the other courts whose defence they had taken up ; 
 and, finally, that the exiled members should be recalled. 
 The chancellor exhorted them with all his might to receive 
 with a good grace the favours which the queen granted them 
 at the instance of Monsieur, the king's uncle. 
 
 The cardinal also made them a great speech, which con- 
 tained the same things and concluded by begging them to 
 consider that, being offered all they could desire of the 
 queen's kindness, they would, if they refused these favours, 
 be guilty towards the people of whatever evils might happen, 
 for which they would have to answer before God and man, 
 and bear the stigma to posterity. 
 
 This done, it was hoped that matters would be settled; 
 for the presidents, who are always more for the Court than 
 the councillors, had made the cardinal hope that by means 
 of these concessions the assembly would become reasonable. 
 But they were not correct in this judgment, nor was the pol- 
 icy of the minister advantageous to the State ; which shows 
 plainly that the corruption of men is such that, to make 
 them Kve according to reason, they must not be treated 
 reasonably ; and in order to make them just, they must be 
 treated unjustly. 
 
 Until now parliament had had some right to oppose what 
 was done to the supreme courts ; and to tell the truth, the 
 public had need of such protection against the sovereign 
 power, which might sometimes be alarming in the hands 
 of ministers if it did not have the limitations that kings 
 themselves have given to it by the intervention of parlia- 
 
266 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 ments. If this celebrated assembly had only taken care to 
 accompany its actions and words with more submission to 
 the orders of the king and queen, its intentions would have 
 been laudable and its humble remonstrances would have 
 found their justification in the rules of equity, iu the laws 
 of the State, and ia the opiaion of men of worth. But, by 
 scorning the kindness that the queen consented to show to 
 them on this occasion, they became criminal and proved 
 plainly that the passion, injustice, and self-interest of cabals 
 into which this body of men had entered, were the motives 
 that made them act, and not the public good. 
 
 It must also be said that the cardinal was blamed for 
 using these means, because his success was attributed to 
 weakness. He would have shamed tyrants by this action 
 had it been met by virtuous men whose intentions were up- 
 right ; and far from being despised, he would have deserved 
 eternal eulogy, — because rigour is, in itself, evil ; and if 
 the malignity of inferiors did not oblige those who govern 
 them to use it, those who are most opposed to such precepts 
 would be the worthiest of respect and their fame the most 
 estimable. 
 
 This day, however, dishonoured the minister, because he 
 had been prodigal of his king's favour, and, by such prodi- 
 gality had brought about, through the refusal of parliament, 
 a great diminution of the royal power ; but, in truth, it was 
 more shameful to parliament than to him, because it marked 
 plainly the iniquity of the latter. 
 
 The next day, June 22, the Chambers assembled as usual ; 
 and, far from showing themselves content, their deliberations 
 went to thanking the Due d'Orl^ans for the care he took of 
 their interests; expressing the desire to refuse the favom's 
 the queen offered them ; and requesting that demonstration 
 be made to her that it was not in their own interests that 
 
1648] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 267 
 
 they claimed tlie right to assemble, but because, as good ser- 
 vants of the king, they desired to labour in reforming the 
 abuses of the State ; and they entreated that for this cause 
 her Majesty would not think it Ul that they should keep 
 to their first resolution. 
 
 Besides this, they requested that the decree issued against 
 them be annulled, and their own decree held good and valid. 
 This hardihood gave keen annoyance to the minister, who, 
 having gone to bed that day earlier than usual out of vexation 
 at these ill-adventures, said to one of his friends with much 
 irritation that the chancellor and the superintendent [of 
 finances] had let him fall into this confusion, and they should 
 repent it. 
 
 About this time news was received of the death of the 
 King of Poland, which caused no other grief to the queen 
 than that of having to wear mourning. She was not so 
 well pleased with the widow, on whose head she had placed 
 a crown, that she cared to take part in her interests ; in fact, 
 had she done so there was more to rejoice at for her sake, 
 than to grieve over. The Polish queen had lost a husband 
 who never treated her well, who was hateful in his own per- 
 son, and who left the kingdom for a brother, who, according 
 to all appearances, did not hate her. The latter intended to 
 marry her in case he was elected king in place of his elder 
 brother. His bii'th, his friends, and the assistance of the 
 Queen of Poland, who had both money and influence, gave 
 him reason to hope for that good fortune; and all these 
 things happened not long after, to the satisfaction of every 
 one. 
 
 To return to the parliament, whose actions now became 
 the sole preoccupation of the Court. After several delibera- 
 tions their last decision was to thank Monsieur and to send 
 deputies to the queen, justifying their decree of May 13, 
 
268 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 and the sincerity of parliament, complaining of the insulting 
 things read to them in her presence from the decrees of her 
 council, demanding the freedom of the prisoners, and assuring 
 her Majesty that nothing would be done in the Chamber of 
 Saint-Louis that was not for the good of her service. 
 
 The fear that was felt of worse made this conclusion tol- 
 erable. It was supposed that the deputies, when they came, 
 would make protestations of fidelity and duty to the queen 
 which would bring matters to some sort of settlement. The 
 next day the queen received them in her little gallery. 
 With her were the Due d'Orldans, the cardinal, and the 
 other ministers according to rank, and the doors were left 
 open in expectation of some meekness from the deputies ; 
 but the contrary of what was hoped for happened. The ad- 
 dress of the chief president was so strong and so bold that 
 it surprised the auditors and seemed to offend the queen. I 
 shall insert it here, in order to show clearly to those who read 
 these Memoirs what was the spirit of this parliament and 
 the audacity of its undertaking. Here are the principal 
 points, which I noticed myself, having been there and heard 
 the speech : — 
 
 Summary of the harangue of the chief president. — His 
 speech turned on the thought that sovereigns ought to reign 
 more by love than by fear ; that justice was the chief bond 
 between the sovereign and the people; that this justice, 
 rendered by the ministry of officials and through them 
 distributed to the people, was to-day hampered on all sides. 
 That parliament and its members had always believed that 
 time was the sovereign remedy of evils ; but, on the contrary, 
 those they had to complain of grew worse with time, and 
 they must now believe that their continuation would soon 
 imdermine the authority of the king and the good of the 
 
1648] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTBVILLE. 269 
 
 State. That nothing was left for parliament to do but to 
 serve as barrier to prevent the disorders into which that 
 authority had fallen. That his Majesty had been persuaded 
 that they had not the right to assemble, whereas it was a 
 usual thing to do so. That the word " union " had so shocked 
 the minds of those who gave him pernicious counsels (the 
 counter-blow of which seemed to shake the royal authority), 
 that they had tried to represent parliament and its members 
 as factious and seditious persons. That these accusers 
 deserved that title much more than they who had never 
 had other intentions than those which their innocence and 
 their respect for the king inspired in them. That they were 
 obliged to let his Majesty know that these same persons 
 had concealed from him the precedent of 1618, when they 
 assembled for public affairs, and even for the rentes des aides ; 
 that the king had then approved all that they had done, 
 knowing that it was intended for the good of his service. 
 That when they thought of the grandeur of that throne 
 before which, a few days ago, the chief parliament of France 
 had made honourable amends, but in presence of which 
 their edicts of May 13 and June 15 had been publicly read 
 and then annulled by decree of the council, and defamed 
 by guilty accusations against innocent persons, accusing 
 them of divers crimes ; and when they considered all the 
 other insults which had been offered to them publicly, — 
 they were forced to make his Majesty understand that they 
 were well assured such insults did not proceed from him ; 
 that they were far too sure of his virtue, his piety, and his 
 extreme sentiments of kindness. Therefore they doubted 
 not he would be soon disabused of the evil impressions 
 those persons had given him, and in a short time he would 
 see reason to trust parliament. And, in conclusion, that he 
 (the chief president) was charged by parliament to make 
 
270 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 known to the king the justice of its decrees; to entreat 
 him very humbly to be willing to suppress the decree of his 
 council of June 8, given against it ; to consent that the par- 
 liamentary decrees should remain upon the register as hav- 
 ing been issued with 'power and justice, and that it would 
 please him to make a declaration of the innocence of par- 
 liament, which had been accused and insulted without just 
 cause. A promise was given that nothing should be done 
 in their assemblies that was not for the good of the king's 
 service, and that of the public, and for the peace of the 
 State. And finally, they conjured him very ardently to con- 
 tinue to them the honour of his good-will, with many 
 protestations that they were his very himible, very obedient, 
 and very faithful servants. 
 
 After this harangue was ended, the queen, quite amazed, 
 had the king's lawyers called up and told them that in the 
 course of a few days she would make known her will to 
 parliament. 
 
 The state of France was such that it was no longer a time 
 to attempt rigorous measures without running the risk of a 
 great revolution. Parliament had usmped too much author- 
 ity. By refusing the offered favours, it had shown to the 
 people that it sought only the public good and the cure of 
 the evils of the State. 
 
 The people were overwhelmed by taxes of all kinds ; the 
 kingdom was impoverished by long wars; every one was 
 discontented. The courtiers hated the minister ; all wanted 
 a change, more from unruliness of mind than from reason. 
 The minister being despised, each took the liberty to follow 
 his own caprice ; it seemed to all quite just to shout against 
 the tax-brokers, who appeared, in fact, to be the only ones 
 who triumphed from the public misery. Men of worth. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 271 
 
 without considering that this is a sometimes necessary evil, 
 and that all ages in this respect have been alike, hoped 
 through disorder to attain to some greater order; and that 
 word " reformation " was as pleasing to them in the light of 
 a good principle, as it was to those who wanted disorder 
 through the excess of their madness and their ambition. So 
 that all, from different motives, raged against the queen and 
 against her minister, without considering that it was not 
 right to allow parliament to take upon itself the authority 
 to reform the State as it chose ; and that such reformation 
 would, in consequence, bring with it the destruction of the 
 monarchy, through the overthrow which such an abnormal 
 combination, so opposed to our laws, so fatal to royalty, 
 would cause to the State. 
 
 Those laws contain in themselves, no doubt, the necessary 
 rules for the guidance of the people and for their happiness ; 
 they are equitable ; justice is their basis ; and the royal 
 authority is, and ought to be their supporter. But it must 
 also be understood in observing them, as we are boimd to 
 do, that they subject us, by God's command, to the supreme 
 and single will of our kings, without permission under 
 any pretext to fail therein. If parliaments have the power 
 to correct the faults of kings and their ministers, we do not 
 know that those who compose them may not commit greater 
 ones, or banish virtue from the throne merely to seat vice 
 upon it ; or whether the ambition and the passions of the 
 many may not be more dangerous than those of the one. 
 
 By the cardinal's docility and the offers he had made to 
 parliament, the latter must have seen that if it had really, 
 in good faith, discovered disorder in the finances and asked 
 modestly for their reformation, it would have been granted. 
 If its members, with fidelity, had served the king usefully, 
 and if by their very humble remonstrances the people had 
 
272 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 obtained relief, they would have earned the reputation of 
 being judges and subjects without reproach. They would 
 indeed have deserved that fame, and kings themselves would 
 in future years have esteemed an integrity which had made 
 them act so skilfully for the good of the public and the hap- 
 piness of the State. 
 
 But they were far indeed from such sentiments, and their 
 unbridled audacity made the minister believe that the best 
 way to treat them was by dissimulation. He resolved, there- 
 fore, to make the following answer to parliament, which was 
 infinitely blamed by both sides. June 29 parliament was 
 informed by the king's lawyers that "the queen had so 
 good an opinion of their fidelity that she could not believe 
 their assemblies could be by their own will in any way prej- 
 udicial to the service of the king; that being so, she per- 
 mitted them to assemble, provided that all their deliberations 
 should end within a week." 
 
 On the evening of June 30 the cardinal told the queen 
 that he had just received letters from Flanders which in- 
 formed him that the enemy were taking heart from the news 
 of the proceedings in parliament ; that the tale had been so 
 commented on that they now believed Paris was in arms ; 
 which rumour, though false, was having a bad effect on the 
 affairs of the king and exciting foreigners to take decisive 
 steps. 
 
 As he felt himself battered by the tempest, he affected such 
 humility that he told Madame de Senec^ the same evening, 
 when she spoke to him of his nieces who were still with her, 
 that he begged her to bring them up as ordinary young ladies, 
 for he did not know yet what would become of them, or 
 of himself either. And as he knew he was accused of taking 
 money, he showed, as far as he possibly could, that he was 
 disinterested, saying that he did not desire either favour or 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 273 
 
 fortune except for the good it enabled him to do to his 
 friends. 
 
 The deputies of parliament and those of the other sover- 
 eign courts assembled in the Chamber of Saint-Louis, accord- 
 ing to their own will and the consent of the queen. They 
 had extorted that permission from her, of whom they made 
 little account, either as her favour or that of her minister. 
 The first propositions which they now laid down were bold, 
 seditious, and all in favour of the public and the people, for 
 the purpose of gainiag popularity and of giving themselves 
 strength by that which makes the strength of kings. These 
 proportions were : — 
 
 1. To remit to the people one quarter of the taille-tax, 
 with which the tax-gatherers now paid themselves. 
 
 2. To remit to the people what they had owed for the last 
 few years, which they could not pay on account of their 
 insolvency. 
 
 3. To revoke entirely the office of provincial intendants, 
 — who profited by such employments from the mass of the 
 people, — and to make the treasurers of France, the elected 
 and other officers appointed for the purpose, responsible for 
 the king's revenues. 
 
 4. That no person should be kept in prison more than 
 twenty-four hours before being examined by parliament, 
 which in future was to take cognizance of the cause of each 
 person's imprisonment. 
 
 5. That no fines or taxes should be imposed upon the 
 people without the decrees being duly examined. 
 
 6. That a chamber of justice should be convened, composed 
 from the four sovereign courts, to judge supremely the abuses 
 and malversations committed in the finances. 
 
 Those were the principal propositions made by parliament, 
 which had agreed to work solely for the service of the king. 
 
 VOL. I. — 18 
 
274 MEMOIKS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 The queen in this extremity, to prevent parliament from re- 
 establishing the masters of petitions by its own authority, did 
 this herself without request. After having indicted and sen- 
 tenced them with her own lips, she was forced, in spite of 
 the contempt shown for her favours, to replace them ui their 
 former offices. And, as if to cover royalty with shame. Mon- 
 sieur, the king's uncle, at a complimentary visit which some 
 of the parliament paid to him to thank him for having 
 shown that he favoured them, again offered to work for 
 them, and they on behalf of the parliament, accepted his 
 offer. 
 
 July 6, the Due d'Orl^ans went to parliament and, in a 
 great speech, endeavoured to show the members that their 
 proceedings gave false hopes to the enemy, which might turn 
 into true ones, against their intentions, if they did not take 
 the side of the king as well as that of the public ; that, not- 
 withstanding the dangerous consequences of their conduct, 
 the queen did not object to the desire they showed to remedy 
 the evUs of the State ; but she wished it to be without injury 
 to the grandeur and happiness of France, and she therefore 
 begged them to suspend the edict they had given against the 
 provincial intendants. In conclusion Monsieur offered them 
 a conference on all their propositions, promising his protection 
 and entire sincerity in all matters there treated, as a prince 
 who, never having deceived any one, would surely not begin 
 with a company for whom he had much affection — ending 
 his speech with a few complimentary words. 
 
 That same day, the masters of petitions came to the Palais- 
 Eoyal ia a body to thank the queen for the favour she had 
 bestowed in restoring them. Her Majesty received them in 
 her great cabinet, with her usual company, namely, the Due 
 d'Orl^ans, the cardinal, the chancellor, and the four secreta- 
 ries of State. Their harangue was humble and full of grati- 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 275 
 
 tude. They then went to Monsieur, and afterwards to the 
 cardinal. 
 
 July 7 and 8 were spent in conferences at the Luxem- 
 bourg. These took place in the great gallery. The Due 
 d'OrMans sat in his arm-chair opposite to Cardinal Mazarin ; 
 beside him was the chancellor, then came the chief president 
 and the other members on simple stools. The latter all ex- 
 pressed much satisfaction with the Due d'Orl^ans and the 
 kindness he had shown to them in their conferences. Depu- 
 ties from all the chambers and sovereign courts were present, 
 and the matters proposed in the Chamber of Saiat-Louis 
 were discussed. The cardinal addressiag them praised their 
 zeal for the service of the king ; and the very men who, a 
 few days earlier, were treated as rebels in the queen's pres- 
 ence, and who, in very truth, were quasi destroying the 
 royal authority, were now called by the minister restorers of 
 France and fathers of the country. 
 
 This inconsistency of conduct gave to the spies upon his 
 defects a fine subject on which to ridicule and despise him 
 and treat him as a weakling, — reproaching him for having 
 none of the heroic virtues that great men ought to practise 
 iu the guidance of great States ; for it is a general precept 
 that kingdoms must be governed by laws, maintained by 
 firmness and by uniform control. 
 
 During these conferences certain members of parliament 
 were fomenting intrigues against d'Emery, the superintend- 
 ent of finance. His office, which they desired to obtain, was 
 the real cause of the complaints that now burst forth against 
 him.^ They made a pretext of no longer being able to en- 
 dure that the man who had attacked them should continue 
 
 1 Montglat, in his Memoirs (Fourteenth Campaign), relates the exac- 
 tions of d'Emery, who "ruined every one to find money with which to 
 carry on the war, and also to satisfy the greed of the cardinal, which was 
 insatiable." — Ek. Ed. 
 
276 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 to control the finances of the country. They therefore pro- 
 posed to the minister to dismiss him. Every one became 
 eager for his ruin, — some from self-interest, others from mere 
 caprice. The man seemed loaded down with public hatred, 
 and those whose interests were against him made the cardi- 
 nal hope that by his dismissal all other things would be 
 made easy for him. D'Emery's friends at Coiu't, seeiag 
 from afar the storm that was preparing to burst upon his 
 head, worked to support him with all their strength ; for, as 
 he paid them well, they served him well in return. But the 
 cardinal, imagining that he could buy his own tranquillity 
 by d'Emery's ruin, resolved to sacrifice him to the public 
 good, and to his own in particular. 
 
 During these days, when the fate of this man was uncer- 
 tain and there were still favourable moments for him in the 
 miad of him who was master of it, and then again very bad 
 ones in which the minister looked upon the ruin of the 
 superintendent as the source, of his own prosperity, it hap- 
 pened that one of d'Emery's friends proposed, in the Cham- 
 ber of Saint-Louis, to make inquiry as to the moneys which 
 were sent out of France. Certain friends of the minister 
 warned him of this, and several of the members of parlia- 
 ment put aside the proposal, because they saw that it went 
 direct to him personally. They did not like him, but they 
 had found him so docile and accommodating that they 
 judged it was now a good time to use his apparent softness 
 to attain their ends; they determiued therefore to begin 
 with the superintendent before going on to other works. 
 
 The cardinal, knowiag that the person who had proposed 
 the inquiry into the ezported moneys was one of d'Emery's 
 friends, believed that the superintendent had instigated that 
 proceeding in order to entangle him and involve him in his 
 own conduct, thus making him either his defender or his 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 277 
 
 accomplice. This proposal having had no effect against the 
 miaister, it had, necessarily, a very bad one for the superin- 
 tendent ; inasmuch as it gave cause to the cardinal to aban- 
 don him more readily to the public wrath ; and even to do 
 this with some justice, because he could accuse d'fimery of 
 having tried to ruin him. The affair being in this state, on 
 the evening of the 8th, after the conclusion of the conference 
 at the Luxembourg, his dismissal was arranged by the 
 queen, the Due d'Orl^ans, and Cardinal Mazarin ; which 
 solved a question they had been discussing for a week 
 among themselves. 
 
 The next morning, about midday, Le Tellier went to see 
 d'Emery on the part of the queen, and commanded him to 
 retire from Court within two hours. It is to be supposed 
 that this embassy was not agreeable to the superintendent. 
 He beheld his misfortune, not without foreseeing and ap- 
 prehending it, but certainly without having fully believed 
 in it, because he had always hoped his friends would save 
 him. The Abb6 de La Eivifere, on whom many things 
 turned in consequence of the greatness of the man he ruled, 
 had given d'Emery the hope that he would serve him. The 
 Mar^chal de ViQeroy and several others worked for him, but 
 neither the abbd nor any one else could succeed in main- 
 taining him. 
 
 He had always flattered himself with the belief that the 
 minister would never abandon him, and never give such 
 advantage to parliament, because, if he did, he himself in 
 all probability would be the next to suffer ; for, no longer 
 having this object of hatred before their eyes on which to 
 expend their maledictions, and the spirit of revolt not being 
 likely, according to all appearances, to cease with his ruin, 
 it was to be expected that on his disappearance the minister 
 himself would be attacked, and therefore his own interests 
 
278 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. x. 
 
 would oblige him to maintain him. D'jSmery was mistaken 
 ia his reasoniag ; but this is not surprising ; men usually 
 thiifls: differently on the same subject, because they them- 
 selves have different ideas and different interests. 
 
 The kiag's governor [the Mardchal de Villeroy] went to 
 visit d'Emery a quarter of an hour after he had received the 
 order, and was as much surprised to find his friend eziled 
 as he was mortified at knowing nothiag about it. Two 
 days earlier the queen had treated me with more confidence ; 
 for she did me the honour to teU me, speaking of the super- 
 intendent, that he was certainly much hated, and it seemed, 
 as every one wished his dismissal, that it would have to 
 take place. By which I judged that his affairs were going 
 badly, and that this witty and vicious hog who despised 
 us ^ — because men of business care only for those who have 
 infiluence with a minister — I judged, I say, that this man, 
 whom the world regarded with some envy on accoimt of his 
 wealth and the luxuries of his living, was about to become 
 an object of compassion, an example of the vicissitude of 
 the things of this life, and to teach us more strongly than 
 ever that " the fashion of this world passeth away." 
 
 They sent immediately for the Mar^chal de La Meilleraye, 
 grand-master of artillery, and gave him the superintendence 
 of finance, as being a man whose heart seemed superior to 
 the greed of riches, having, by reason of his great establish- 
 ments and fortune, no need of them. This seigneur, who, 
 in the days of Cardinal Eichelieu had shown his courage on 
 many signal occasions, had a noble soul and professed openly 
 to love virtue and honour ; but with all his fine qualities, he 
 was judged not fitted for this office : first, because his health 
 was bad ; next, because he knew more of war than of money ; 
 and lastly, because his temper was violent. Moreover, he 
 1 D'Emery was very fat. — Fe. Ed. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLB. 279 
 
 was suspected of wishing to marry his only son to one of 
 the cardinal's nieces, and that reason alone sufficed to make 
 him hated by the silly populace. 
 
 As he was an honest man and much esteemed, the Court 
 was glad, and men of honour felt that they had gained a 
 support and that the new superintendent would consider the 
 merit of persons rather than their favour. In fact, during 
 the short time he remained in office, though it was an evil 
 time and full of wretchedness, he satisfied every one by his 
 honest way of dealing and retained all his friends ; instead 
 of the thieves who had hitherto ruined others by taking every- 
 thing for themselves, this man took nothing for himself and 
 let all go into the coffers of the king, — drawing down upon 
 his head the benedictions of those who saw his integrity. 
 
 As soon as he was settled in of&ce he sent the procureur- 
 general to say to parliament that his intention was to satisfy 
 it by his conduct of affairs ; that, being disinterested and 
 faithful to his master, he believed he could hope to please 
 parliament by serving him well, and in that he would 
 willingly employ the remainder of his life. But certain of 
 the parliament, who no longer set limits to their audacity 
 and lawlessness, laughed at him, and treated him as a weak- 
 ling. In truth, he deserved it for having made them a 
 submission he did not owe to them. He was blamed for 
 having gone against his nature to do Ul, for he was never 
 suspected of being too humble. They gave him as assist- 
 ants Morange and d'Aligre, who signed all documents under 
 him, — men of integrity, who could not be suspected of pec- 
 ulation, or of allowing it in others, who apparently hated 
 the tax-jobbers as heartily as the most jealous of the parlia- 
 ment ; but men, nevertheless, of more virtue than capacity ; 
 I mean by that the capacity which finds means to enrich 
 kings without impoverishing their subjects. 
 
XI. 
 
 1648. 
 
 Superintendent d'£meey being ousted, it seemed as if 
 the troubles would now be appeased ; fate had overtaken 
 him, and public safety would, it was hoped, be found iu his 
 ruin. But minds were not satisfied with this one victory. 
 The facile concessions of the minister greatly increased the 
 hopes of the rebels, and parliament henceforth began to 
 attribute to itself so excessive a power that there was reason 
 to fear that the evil example it saw in that of England 
 would make an impression upon it, and that those of the 
 assembly who had good intentions would be misled by the 
 others. The kingdom was getting more and more impover- 
 ished daily ; domestic peace was disturbed and France was 
 in a state to fear civil war. The queen was forced to 
 borrow money of private persons and to put the crown 
 jewels in pawn. The very kitchen of the king was un- 
 supplied, and in order to pay the servants the minister was 
 obliged to pawn some large diamonds and get certain of his 
 friends to lend him what more was needed for this purpose. 
 The Princesse de Cond(5 lent the queen 100,000 livres ; the 
 Duchesse d'Aiguillon offered her money, and many others 
 did likewise. 
 
 So, in bringing order into the State nothing came of it 
 but disorder ; and the worst of aU was that the greater part 
 of the king's subjects did not desire that this evil state of 
 things should cease. The people, hoping to save themselves 
 from taxes and tithes, aspired to nothing but trouble and 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 281 
 
 change, and appeared to confide in parliament for protection. 
 Each counsellor seemed to them an angel descended from 
 heaven to save them from the tyranny of the cardinal, which 
 they imagined to be greater than it really was. 
 
 The conferences of the ministers and parliament held at 
 the Luxembourg, Monsieur's residence, ended in resolving 
 that the king should issue a declaration which should 
 amount to the same thing as the decree given by parliament 
 against the provincial intendants, in order to save by this 
 ruse the royal authority, and let the measure seem to have 
 come from the will of the queen. In this declaration the 
 king excepted only three departments of justice, at which 
 parliament murmured loudly ; for it wished there should 
 be no exception. 
 
 The Due d'OrMans made several visits to parliament, 
 during which new propositions were made in his presence. 
 One of them was found to be, under present necessities, 
 very convenient for the king, namely : to put an end to the 
 partisans [companies for the levying of taxes] and to keep 
 back the money of loans made by private individuals. Such 
 persons had lent to the king on the faith of brokers and 
 superintendents, and from these loans they were drawing 
 high interest. Nearly all the families in Paris were en- 
 riched in this way.^ It was not legitimate. Stem casuists 
 assert that it is forbidden by the gospel; it is, moreover, 
 long known to be very injurious to the State and to the 
 king's affairs ; because such great usury ate up his revenues 
 and emptied the coffers of his treasury. It was therefore 
 
 1 Omer Talon, relating this shameful proposition, says it was President 
 de Novion who chiefly defended it. Cardinal de Retz, in his Memoirs, 
 declares that the courtiers, who had nearly all invested their money in 
 loans made to the king at immense usury, uneasy at the bankruptcy with 
 which they were thus threatened, urged Mazarin to take decisive measures 
 against parliament. — Fr. Ed. 
 
282 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 advantageous to the king to have a pretext to make bank- 
 rupt many persons of all conditions who had put their 
 property into loans. But as all families, whether of the 
 Court or city, had interests in this, a great outcry arose in 
 Paris at the proposal. It seemed unjust, and displeased 
 individuals as much as it pleased the minister, who saw the 
 king usefully relieved in this way of a heavy burden. 
 
 President Mesmes, who had now returned, often gave the 
 sternest advice, but always for the good of the State; so 
 that there were days and moments when the cardinal believed 
 that perhaps these disorders would end in a better regulation 
 of the king's affairs and that he should reap the benefit. 
 His policy was to risk nothing himself, and try to draw 
 some advantage from the schemes of parliament and the 
 ruin of the partisans ; but at the same time it was evident 
 to others that he would finally be forced to change that 
 method, which could not possibly succeed. 
 
 The Due d'Orl^ans returned to parliament July 13; and 
 because the first declaration of the king, excepting the three 
 departments of justice, was not agreeable to the assembly, 
 it was thought best to produce a second, establishing a 
 Chamber of Justice such as parliament had desired, in which 
 it would be permitted to work at the reformation of abuses 
 committed in the finances. 
 
 Parliament, as usual, deliberated ; and it was ordered that 
 Monsieur should be very humbly entreated to induce the 
 queen to send a revocation of the order against the in- 
 tendants because the one that had been sent included only 
 the jurisdiction of the parliament of Paris. Also, in regard 
 to the taille tax, to bring the queen to remit to the people 
 the payment of all arrearages up to the year 1646 ; and for 
 those of 1647, 1648, and 1649, that the queen be entreated, 
 if her affairs permitted, to remit one quarter. Also that 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 283 
 
 the declaration as to the Chamber of Justice be registered ; 
 and that her Majesty be entreated by the Due d'Orl^ans 
 that there should be no commissioners in. it but those from 
 the parliament, the chamhre des comptes, and the cour des 
 aides; and that the fines and confiscations ordered by the 
 said Chamber should not be diverted or given away, but 
 employed solely iu meeting the most urgent expenses of the 
 State. 
 
 The evening of that day the queen said to us, speaking of 
 her affairs, that what had taken place in the morning was 
 not of much good, for it merely marked the power that par- 
 liament was assuming in the State ; but nevertheless, since 
 they had shown a desire to further a scheme for reforming 
 it, without directly offending the king, she hoped some 
 advantageous results could be reached regarding his finances, 
 and that what they were then doing would bring many mil- 
 lions back to the treasury. 
 
 Nothing was comparable to the satisfaction parliament 
 showed at the behaviour and fine qualities of the Due 
 d'Orl^ans. He spoke with kindness and eloquence in their 
 public and private conferences, showed that he acted with 
 judgment, and answered all their difficulties with intelligence 
 and gentleness ; and as these matters were all produced by 
 the immediate occasion, his answers could be attributed to 
 none but himself. The queen also had reason to be satisfied. 
 She was so, and seemed to be grateful to the duke for the 
 care and affection he showed for the good and the peace of 
 the State, and for her repose in particular. 
 
 July 14 the duke went again to parliament. The deliber- 
 ations did not then turn to the advantage of the king, and 
 the courtiers said that the State was afflicted with intermit- 
 tent fever. That same day the queen said to us, with much 
 vexation, that she no longer understood anything ; that things 
 
284 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 had always to be done over again, and she was tired of hear- 
 ing every day, " We will see what they do to-morrow." Cer- 
 tainly this great princess felt the blood of her illustrious 
 forefathers boiling in her veins, and could not endure the 
 empire assumed, little by little, by this mutinous crowd. I 
 know that one day, at the council, in presence of the Due 
 d'Orl^ans, she seemed to wish to blame her minister, and told 
 him that she did not approve of his conduct. 
 
 In consequence of that, when the duke had gone and the 
 cardinal was alone with her as usual, after receiving with 
 humility all that the queen was pleased to say to him, 
 he answered, driven by distress and perhaps by fear: "In 
 short, Madame, I see that I have displeased your Majesty. 
 I have Hi-succeeded in the purpose I have always had 
 to serve you well. It is just that my head should answer 
 for it." On which the queen, who was gentle and always 
 kind to him, being persuaded of his good intentions and 
 his disinterestedness, told him that she would not pimish 
 him for his misfortune, and that he ought to be convinced 
 that he could never lose through those qualities either her 
 confidence or her affection. 
 
 Another day, at about the same time, wishing to extol 
 to us the excellent nature of the king, she did us the honour 
 to relate how the cardinal the preceding evening, had warned 
 her to be careful of her health, saying that she did not look 
 well ; and on her replying that she did not mind dying, con- 
 sidering the miserable state of her affairs, the king, over- 
 come by grief, began to cry tenderly and she had much 
 trouble in soothing him. This indifference to death was a 
 sign in the queen of discontent; and the sentiment gave 
 comfort to everybody ; for it seemed then as though it would 
 be advantageous for herself and the State if she had been 
 even more uneasy, so that, seeing the evil, she might have 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 285 
 
 striven to remedy it. That remedy would have been ia al- 
 lowing herself to be less governed and in acting more ia ac- 
 cordance with her own sentiments and her own ideas, which 
 certainly seemed to be instinctively opposed to the policy of 
 her minister. 
 
 The cardinal in those days (July, 1648) had moments of 
 fear. Those who enlarged before the queen on the harm 
 that parliament did the State were suspected by him of wish- 
 ing to make her quarrel with him and thus do him evil 
 offices. D'Elmery's friends were tazed with this purpose 
 more than others, and were accused of talking in this way 
 with malicious intent contrary to his interests. The Mar^chal 
 de ViUeroy suffered much from this; but as he was very 
 adroit, he smothered the rumour which was spread against 
 him with so many fine appearances, carefully assumed, that 
 he not only saved himself from danger, but also from angry 
 glances, which are always annoying to such as he. 
 
 The cardinal complained to the Marquis de Senneterre, 
 who told me about it a few hours later. He told him ex- 
 pressly (intending to make him by implication the same 
 reproach) that d'fimery's friends had blamed his conduct 
 and begged the protection of the Abb^ de La Eivifere, not 
 thinking his power sufficient to save them. On which 
 Senneterre replied that it was true d'Emery had sought the 
 friendship of that man to serve him, in union with other 
 friends, with the Due d'Orldans; but that they had no 
 intention in so doing of caballing against him, the minister, 
 or of supporting d'fimery against him ; that they were too 
 clever courtiers to have any such chimeras ; and that if they 
 had wanted to attack his authority there were much better 
 means than that, such as persuading the Due d'Orl^ans by 
 their friend La Eivifere, to listen to the proposals that were 
 daily made to him to become regent. So far from doing 
 
286 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 that, the cardinal had been so well served by all of them 
 that Monsieur, like Germanicus, had rent his garments at 
 the mere proposition. 
 
 The star was now terribly against kings; and here is a 
 proof of it. On this very day, July 14, Mademoiselle de 
 Beaumont and I went to see the Queen of England, who had 
 retired to the Carmelite convent, to soothe the grief she felt 
 at the departure of her son, the Prince of Wales, who had 
 gone to Calais, intending to sail for Scotland, where he hoped 
 to touch the hearts of his subjects by his presence. 
 
 We found her alone in a little chamber, writing and making 
 up despatches, as she told us, of great importance. They were 
 just finished, and she then described to us the apprehensions 
 she felt as to the success of this voyage, and confided to us 
 her present necessities, greatly increased by those of our king 
 and queen. She showed us a little gold cup from which she 
 drank, and said she had no other gold, of any kind whatever, 
 except that. She told us, moreover, that after the Prince 
 of Wales departed, all her servants came to her demanding 
 money, telling her they should leave her if she did not pay 
 them ; this she could not do, and so had the grief of knowing 
 herself unable to remedy the wants of her officers, who now 
 overwhelmed her with their miseries. She added that the 
 officers of her mother. Queen Marie de' Medici, had done 
 much worse, and that being in England at the beginning 
 of their troubles, and she and the King finding themselves 
 unable to give them money as punctually as before, these 
 officers presented claims upon her to the English parliament, 
 which had caused her great distress. 
 
 This description moved us to compassion, and we could 
 not wonder enough at the evil influence that seemed to rule 
 over these crowned heads, victims of the two parliaments of 
 France and England, — ours being, thanks to God, very differ- 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 287 
 
 ent from the other in its intentions, and different also in its 
 effects. 
 
 July 17 the Due d'Orl^ans went agaia to parliament to 
 carry to it the declarations of the king containing all that 
 parliament had demanded. There had been many disputes 
 in council as to the more or the less, but all was finally 
 done according to the good pleasure of parliament ; and the 
 king might esteem himself fortunate that it was wUling to 
 receive, imder an appearance of his name and authority, 
 that which it had already ordained for his State. 
 
 On the following days parliament put forward other points, 
 among them the following : it being publicly notorious that 
 the king's farms were let at a cheap price, and no bids re- 
 ceived for them, nor any awards made in due form, other 
 auctions should be held ; and the court of parliament ordered 
 that an article to that effect be included in the written 
 representations to be made to the queen. 
 
 Parliaments have certainly the power to make remon- 
 strances to our kings, telling them the truth in the strongest 
 maimer in which they can explain it without failing in the 
 respect which subjects owe to their sovereign. They are, 
 after the States-general, the most violent remedy which up 
 to this time sovereign companies have been able or have 
 dared to apply to the Uls of the State. But, thanks be to 
 God, we were now living in an age when, by the virtues of 
 the queen, by her kindness and upright intentions, we had 
 no need of reformations which excess of evils and perils 
 render useful and necessary. She wished that all under 
 her reign should enjoy a sweet tranquillity, occupied only 
 in serving God and the king. What the minister wanted 
 to do against the masters of petitions and the parliaments 
 had alarmed her, and with some cause ; but the clemency 
 of the queen at their first appeal, and their public sorrow. 
 
288 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [cilip. ii. 
 
 would easily have disposed her to give them better treat- 
 ment ; and the cardinal let it be seen, on this occasion, that 
 he was not, as I have elsewhere remarked, incapable of giv- 
 ing himself a lesson to prefer the public good to his personal 
 feelings. 
 
 That is why so many remonstrances and such clamour 
 were neither just nor necessary, because the queen, with a 
 spirit of wisdom and piety, preferring gentleness to severity, 
 and the relief of the people to the pleasure of being implic- 
 itly obeyed, had followed the advice of her minister and her 
 own disposition to seek as far as possible the welfare of the 
 king's subjects — though it is true that this last indulgence, 
 inasmuch as it might pass for weakness, caused her pain. 
 She made no secret of this ; she acknowledged it freely to 
 herself. 
 
 We must acknowledge, to the shame of our nation and 
 in order to correct its faults, that the rebellions made by the 
 people in this country have nearly all been unjust and ill- 
 founded. Our kings, issuing from the greatest race on earth, 
 before whom the Caesars and most of the princes who for- 
 merly commanded many nations are but roturiers, have given 
 us saints of their blood; while none of them have deserved 
 the name of " wicked " as some we find in other monarchies, 
 who, in their epoch, have been execrated by their peoples 
 and are still the objects of horror and wrath to those who 
 read their lives. 
 
 Our great monarchs have had defects, and some have 
 committed crimes which have been blamed according to 
 their magnitude, or excused so far as they deserved to be, 
 but we have never seen in France a Christian II. as in Den- 
 mark, a Pedro the Cruel as in Spain, a Henry VIII. as in 
 England, with many others who are dishonoured for their 
 abominable actions ; but we have had a Charles V., the wisest 
 
1648] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 289 
 
 prince that ever was, who, as dauphin, was nearly crushed 
 beneath the unjust rebellion of his people. Henri III. suf- 
 fered another which, as a king, he did not deserve, for he 
 was valiant, kind, learned, and able, and if, as a man, he 
 was a sinner while wishing to appear devout, God alone, and 
 not his subjects, should judge him, to punish or to pardon. 
 
 I do not speak of the war which, after the death of this 
 prince, was made under Henri-le-Grand. "We owe greater 
 faithfulness to God than to a king ; and those who, fi'om a 
 true motive of conscience and religion, took part against him 
 were excusable in refusing a heretic king. We can blame 
 only the ambition of the princes of the League, who, under 
 a noble pretext, were visibly endeavouring to usm-p the 
 crown. But God, no doubt, made use of their unrighteous 
 desire to preserve France from the evils of heresy. 
 
 Kings, according to the obligations imposed upon them 
 from on high, ought to will that their subjects should find 
 protection in them and in the officers and judges of their 
 kingdom. All wise princes must desire that the good should 
 not be oppressed, and that the wicked should be punished. 
 The parliaments of France were instituted to labour at this 
 great work ; and sometimes the kings themselves have 
 found in their regulations assistance and succoin against 
 their own disorders. But parliament, in the present instance 
 had encroached upon the royal power, and chosen to do that 
 which the king alone had the right to ordain ; and as, un- 
 fortunately, our king was then too young to exercise that 
 right, and his minister under the minority had not power 
 enough to enforce it, it was impossible that this iU-regulated 
 state of things should lead to good order in France. For, after 
 all, these reformations were being made by mischief-makers, 
 whose sole object was the ruin of the cardinal, the grandeur 
 of the princes through the attachment many of the parlia- 
 
 VOL. 1. — 19 
 
290 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 ment felt to them, and the elevation of certam individuals 
 It is easy, therefore, to judge by all these things that what 
 was now doing tended towards the ruin of the State, and 
 that God would not bless the labours of these men, whose 
 iniquity was visible ; for " the wisdom of man shineth on his 
 face, and wickedness will not save the wicked." 
 
 The other parliaments, following the example of that of 
 Paris, rebelled also. Ours in Normandie demanded the revo- 
 cation of the semestre, declaring that it was unjustly estab- 
 lished in the time of the late king and Cardinal Eichelieu, 
 who never allowed them to lift their heads. Thus all 
 things in the internal affairs of France were ia a bad 
 condition. 
 
 The Prince de Cond^ impatient at being with the army, 
 doing nothing, and perhaps a little jealous of the reputation 
 of the Due d'Orl^ans, wanted to take part in the affair of 
 the parliament. He wrote of it to the Mar^chal de Grar 
 mont, one of his friends, and begged him to go to Court and 
 secretly propose his return. The cardinal, who was very 
 glad to balance the power between the two princes, con- 
 sented willingly, on condition that the prince would take 
 the queen by surprise, and that she should not appear to 
 have listened to his proposal. 
 
 Immediately after this consent, about the 20th of July, it 
 was known that the Prince de Cond^ was about to return 
 from the army ; and this return astonished the whole Court. 
 The queen. Monsieur the king's uncle, and Cardinal Mazaria 
 had often determined together that if they were constrained 
 to use open force against parliament, the Prince de Cond^ 
 should be sent for at once. But as this determiaation was 
 still indefinite, and the mtaister had, so far, followed a 
 course of great gentleness and humility, the return of the 
 prince had been delayed, and the Due d'Orl^ans now felt 
 
a 
 
 LOce^rcU'na/^ <. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 291 
 
 much surprised on hearing it was about to take place. He 
 could not believe that the queen and cardinal knew nothing 
 of this intention, and he was angry, saying openly that he 
 had cause to complain of the queen, who, without a word to 
 him, called another to her assistance who could not serve 
 her better than he was doing, or with more affection. 
 
 The Abb^ de La Eivifere, from whom I heard all these 
 particulars, came to see the queen, and made her his 
 master's complaints, promising that he would try to smooth 
 them, but declaring also that he was very angry and he 
 doubted if he could pacify him. The queen and her min- 
 ister told him that they had known nothing of the prince's 
 return ; and that the Mar^chal de Gramont had doubtless, 
 on a few words carelessly said, and possibly without thought, 
 given rise in the prince's mind to the desire to return to 
 Court. To this the abb^ replied that his master desired that 
 the Prince de Cond^, who was expected to arrive in one hour, 
 should be sent back, inasmuch as he came without orders. 
 
 The cardinal, troubled by this little storm, got into the 
 abba's carriage and went to see the Due d'Orl^ans. To him 
 he protested his ignorance and tried to soothe his vexation 
 by all the finest words his eloquence could produce. The 
 Due d'Orldans was not to be appeased in that way, and the 
 cardinal returned to the queen, to seek with her some means 
 of satisfying the duke, to whom she was really under obli- 
 gations for his fidelity ; for it may be said that up to this 
 time he had lived with her in a perfectly praiseworthy 
 maimer. To find a remedy for his complaints it was re- 
 solved, after a long conference between the queen, the cardi- 
 nal, and the Abb^ de La Eivi^re, that the queen should ask 
 Monsieur to be willing for her to receive the Prince de 
 Cond^, on the promise that she woiild send kirn back to the 
 army as soon as she .could. 
 
292 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 The prince, on his arrival, was received by the queen with 
 a smiling face ; and he, in his heart, was pleased and con- 
 tent ; for he had been warned about Monsieur's vexation, 
 which was joy to him, emulation being natural to persons 
 of his birth. He stayed an hour with the queen and her 
 minister, and then went to his own house, where all the 
 people of quality flocked to do him homage. The next day 
 Monsieur and he dined together at the cardinal's, where 
 they seemed good friends, and according to all appearance, 
 thought of nothing but laughter and good cheer. 
 
 The same day, by a special piece of luck which gave the 
 queen a chance to keep the promise she had given to Mon- 
 sieur, news was received that the enemy's army gave signs 
 of advancing with certain designs upon ours. So that the 
 next morning, Sainte-Madeleine's day, the prince took leave 
 of the queen and returned hastily. He had had thirty-five 
 thousand men under his command ; but with that army he 
 had not prevented the taking of Courtray, a very important 
 place. For sole exploit, he had taken Ypres in a week, a 
 large town, the taking of which was of little importance to 
 us. His army after that second-rate exploit was diminished. 
 This general, destined for great actions, not being at liberty 
 to act as he wished, but compelled by the queen's orders 
 to undertake nothing, was deprived of certain victories, 
 which without the troubles in Paris that diminished the 
 royal authority, he would certainly have won. 
 
 The Mardchal de Schomberg, not standing well at Court, 
 had been constrained to take command of the army in 
 Catalonia, which General de Sainte-C^cile, brother of Cardi- 
 nal Mazarin, had resigned in disgust. The Mar^chal went 
 there with little money, little favour, and few men; and 
 those who make it a business to laugh at others said satiri- 
 cally that whoso wanted to go into perilous places should 
 
1648] MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 293 
 
 follow the marshal; by which they meant that his adven- 
 tures would end in serenades to Spanish ladies ; for though 
 he was not young, he was stUl gallant. But a courier pres- 
 ently arrived from him, July 26, informing the queen of the 
 takiag of Tortosa, which he had besieged for a short time. 
 As he knew that the enemy were marching ia great haste 
 to relieve the place, he took it by assault and cut every one 
 to pieces. A general massacre took place, with such re- 
 sistance that the bishop of the city was found among the 
 foremost killed in the breach, with a pike iu his hand. This 
 prelate had gone himself to defend the walls, accompanied 
 by all the priests and monks of the city, who followed his 
 example on this perilous occasion. 
 
 The Mar^chal de Schomberg received all the glory he 
 deserved for so fortunate, bold, and fine an enterprise; but 
 his favour at court was not increased by it : it is not always 
 virtue or noble actions which give that. 
 
 July 28 the queen had the Te Deum chanted at Notre- 
 Dame. The king went on horseback, with a little buff- 
 leather collar, and all the Court followed him ia good order, 
 with much embroidery, plumes, and ribbons. 
 
 The enemy took advantage of the Prince de Condi's little 
 journey to Paris. They besieged Furnes in his absence, a 
 place ia no wise strong, which the prince had taken two 
 years before in three hours. It was not of much conse- 
 quence to us, but was near to Dunkerque, which the enemy 
 apparently intended to attack, for they regretted the loss of 
 it. La Moussaye brought the news to Court and charged 
 Mar^chal de Eantzau with not having taken sufficient pre- 
 cautions, of neglecting the place to preserve a little fort 
 called the KJnoque, between Ypres and Furnes, and of not 
 observing the orders he had received from the Prince de 
 Cond^ before he started for Paris. To finish this news of 
 
294 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 war, Mar^chal Du Plessis, who was in Italy with the troops 
 of the king and the Duke of Modena, besieged Cremona. 
 
 July 29, the deputies of parliament came to make their 
 statements to the queen on the disorders they complained 
 of in the government, and also on the remainder of the 
 propositions drawn up in the Chamber of Saint-Louis. The 
 latter chamber the queen and cardinal wanted to put an end 
 to ; but in spite of the three declarations the Due d'Orl^ans 
 had taken to parliament, it insisted on continuing that 
 assembly with new propositions. 
 
 After many councils held on the subject, the queen re- 
 solved to take the king to parliament in order to end the 
 contest by granting all demands. She even wished to give 
 them something more, in order to win over the people to the 
 king. A declaration was therefore drawn up in which she 
 loaded them with favours ; and at the same time forbade 
 them to assemble, intending to use the utmost rigour if they 
 disobeyed this order; she herself saying so openly, that it 
 might be told throughout Paris and that none of the mem- 
 bers could ignore it. 
 
 She said to us that she was going to parliament to fling 
 roses on their heads ; but if after that they were not good, 
 she should know how to punish them ; adding that if 
 she had been believed at the beginning of the revolt she 
 should not now be seeking means to end it ; and that she 
 ought to have taught them their duty on the first day they 
 abandoned it ; but that now she had at last conquered the 
 cardinal's gentleness, and made him resolve in open council 
 to endure no more. 
 
 She said to us, moreover, that, for her part, she laughed at 
 the consequences the council were always apprehending; 
 that revolts were not so easy to make in Paris; that the 
 regiment of the Gardes would suffice to repress the first up- 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 295 
 
 rising of the populace ; and at the worst, twenty or thirty- 
 houses pillaged would be the expiation of their disobedience. 
 She added that she should be sorry for this, but that such 
 an evil was less than that of the ruin of the State ; and that 
 in the council they had all made war upon her for the joy 
 she felt at being on the eve of pimishing those mutineers ; 
 telling her that she feared she might be obeyed because 
 she should then have the vexation of losing that joy. She 
 showed us, in truth, a great desire to avenge herself upon 
 those who had attacked her authority. She was stung by 
 the lowering of the royal dignity, and felt the contempt that 
 parliament had shown for the gentleness, reason, and good- 
 will she had wished to show in its favour. 
 
 The queen went to parliament, as proposed, on the 30th of 
 July, in the usual order, for the purpose of doing favours to 
 all, or of punishing those who did not receive those favom-s 
 with the gratitude and respect they owed to her. It had 
 been resolved in council, in order to acquire the good-will of 
 the people, that instead of the half-quarter rescinded on 
 the taiUe-ta.x, by order of parliament, the whole quarter 
 should be yielded up to them, so that this liberality should 
 seem to them to proceed from the will of the king only. 
 We shall see, by the effects which this declaration will pro- 
 duce in course of time, what good reason the queen had to 
 expect opposition and to wish to punish the ingratitude 
 of both parliament and people. 
 
 This declaration read, the procureur general, Talon, made 
 an harangue, which was fine. The chancellor then took the 
 opinions, and there were members insolent enough to answer 
 that they would inform him the next day of what they 
 should do. Finally the said declaration was received and 
 passed, with very little gratitude for the favours granted. 
 The chancellor turned to the queen and spoke to her ; then 
 
296 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTrEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 to Monsieur and the cardinal ; after which, he sat down, and 
 at once announced to the assembly the gift the queen made 
 of the annual fee without commission to the four sovereign 
 courts to wit: the court of parliament, the chamhre des 
 comptes, the cour des aides, and the grand council, for a 
 period of nine years. 
 
 The queen, on leaving the great hall, said to the chief 
 president that she expected him to obey the orders of the 
 king, and henceforth prevent the parliament from meeting 
 again. She said also to President de Bellifevre that it was 
 his place to begiu and hold his Chamber in the Tournelle. 
 They answered respectfully that they would obey her ; but 
 they could not do so. 
 
 That day the king looked handsomer than he did on his 
 first visit to parliament. The stiffness of his face had passed 
 off, it was no longer swollen ; but he had lost the delicate 
 beauty which made every one admire him; the roses and 
 lilies had left his complexion, but only to leave him another 
 skiu more suited to a warrior than a lady; which was 
 beautiful enough, however, to please all fair ones if his age 
 had allowed him to desire it. It was remarked that on this 
 occasion the people did not shout as usual, Vive le roi ! and 
 seemed to show a coolness towards him. 
 
 That evening the queen, speaking of all that had hap- 
 pened, told us she awaited with impatience what would be 
 dene on the morrow; which, however, was like the other 
 days; parliament called upon its members to assemble, 
 which they did tumultuously, grumbling against the king 
 for having forbidden them a thing which they maintained 
 was their right. But they said no more about the Chamber 
 of Saint-Louis, which was the sore point; and the chief 
 president, wishing to please the Court a little, kept them 
 waiting so long that the hour struck at which they ad- 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLB. 297 
 
 journed ; but they did so crying out that they were deter- 
 mined to deliberate on the declaration of the king, and if 
 they were prevented they would not bear it. 
 
 The minister, to whom all these wrangles were most 
 displeasing, had strongly wished that parliament might not 
 force the queen to extremities. In spite of her impatient 
 feelings, which could not brook that which showed con- 
 tempt for royalty, he had restrained her in order to see 
 if there were no means of bringing these sullen spirits 
 to some agreement. Moderation was the cardinal's fa- 
 miliar spirit; he would risk nothing, and always desired 
 to avoid by negotiations what might lead to civil war, 
 which he dreaded for the State, and stUl more for his own 
 private interests. 
 
 In spite of all his prudence the mischief did not end; 
 this self-willed body insisted on assembling, and on August 4 
 Monsieur was constrained to go to them again. They spoke 
 out boldly before him, declared they were not satisfied, and 
 concerned themselves very little about the orders of the 
 queen. They declaimed against their head president, who 
 had prevented them from opening their session and de- 
 liberating as they chose on the king's declaration, and 
 Monsieur returned to the queen very ill-satisfied. They 
 voted that day to continue to assemble until the Chamber 
 of Justice which they demanded was established, and to 
 deliberate constantly over the declaration, and also over the 
 rest of the propositions made in the Chamber of Saint-Louis. 
 They no longer spoke of continuing that Chamber, which 
 the queen had forbidden ; but the present one was of the 
 same consequence. About all these troubles we did not 
 fail to see many councils at the Palais-Eoyal, which pro- 
 duced nothing efficacious as a remedy and such as the state 
 of these disturbances demanded. 
 
298 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 In the midst of these troubles came a little affair of small 
 notoriety, which was nevertheless vexatious on account of 
 iis results. The Due de Beaufort was then living at a 
 country-house belonging to his father, the Due de Vendome. 
 He gave good feasts to his friends while awaiting with 
 impatience tiU the present wrangles should become suffi- 
 ciently strong for him to profit by them ; and when he dis- 
 covered that the cardinal had spies about him he boldly 
 drove them away. The Due de Vendome had sent one of 
 his retainers to Paris to offer to the parliamentarians his 
 services and assistance. This man had been arrested by 
 order of the queen ; and to increase the vexations of the 
 day, a request was brought before the assembly from this 
 prisoner while Monsieur was present, requesting to be re- 
 leased and examined according to the will of parliament. 
 The assembly had already shown signs of intending in future 
 to take cognizance of all persons whom the king caused to 
 be arrested, as proposed in the Chamber of Saint-Louis, and 
 that evening this prisoner was hastily transferred to the 
 Bastille in the wood of Vinceimes, lest the king should no 
 longer be master of his person. 
 
 Monsieur returned to parliament, August 5, to be present 
 at the deliberations.^ As the members saw that they 
 would wholly embitter the queen's mkid if they did not 
 obey her, and their destiny not being as yet ripe for ac- 
 complishment, their decision on this day was to obey the 
 king, and to concern themselves until the middle of August 
 solely with affairs of individuals. They deputed four com- 
 missioners to examine the points of the deliberation, intend- 
 
 1 It was at the deliberations of August 4 and 5 that Broussel made tlie 
 propositions which began to alarm the Court. The Due d'Orleans half 
 rose as if he would leave the assembly; but the presidents entreated him 
 to keep his seat, assuring him that parliament would not fail in its duty. 
 (Memoirs of Omer Talon.) — Fr. Ed. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 299 
 
 ing to assemble and deliberate over it again wken they 
 should see fit. 
 
 Meantime things were as much embroiled in the provinces 
 as in Paris ; eveiywhere could be seen and heai'd a horrible 
 letting loose of curses agaiost the government and an 
 unbridled freedom in speaking ill of the minister. Murmurs 
 arose against the queen ; she was openly attacked and hated 
 on accoimt of the man whose greatness she upheld. In 
 their blindness and ignorance truth was stifled ; for, after all, 
 the cardinal did not deserve such great hatred, nor did the 
 queen deserve blame to the extent to which they gave it. 
 She owed her protection to a minister established by legit- 
 imate power which she was boimd to respect. And as she 
 had accepted hiTn of her own choice in the ministry where 
 the late king had left him, she felt that she ought to give 
 him strength to meet the vexatious events which were likely 
 to arise in the course of a long regency. Beholding in her- 
 self the soiuce of the authority with which she sought to 
 clothe him, she imagined she could easily resume it, and 
 that she would not diminish her own power by the share of 
 it which she gave him, because it was given only to put 
 him in a position to serve her better. 
 
 According to what came of this course, the queen appears 
 to have deceived herself; and by it (as I have remarked) 
 she drew upon herself the scorn of the people and the 
 blame of those who envied the excessive power of the 
 minister, which, did, indeed, seem too great. But in think- 
 ing herself obliged to maintain him, she had regard primarily 
 to the glory of the crown, which seemed diminished by the 
 attacks of parliament. The opposition of that body strength- 
 ened her in the desire to resist it, and we shall see her 
 continue in that course with steady steps which no obstacle 
 whatever was able to turn aside. She did not believe that 
 
300 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 tile minister was the cause of the revolt; neither did she 
 wholly blame his conduct for the misfortunes of her regency, 
 although she often thought it weak. His mildness, which 
 she supposed to lie at the bottom of it, seemed to her 
 praiseworthy ; as a Christian she could not blame in him the 
 desire to succeed ia satisfying all the various parties who 
 opposed his favour; and ^he saw clearly that, if his sen- 
 timents were judged by souls that reasoned, their value 
 would be imderstood. 
 
 She was also too equitable to forget the first placid years 
 of her regency, which made the courtiers say they were 
 tired of so much happiness ; and although she now knew 
 all that the malice of the populace invented against her 
 upright intentions and the innocence of her life, the con- 
 sciousness she had within herself gave her strength to bear 
 all without uneasiness ; moreover, the trust she had in God 
 made her hope for His protection. She acted according to 
 her feelings and her lights, comprehending that, whatever 
 she did, she would never be exempt from the evil inter- 
 pretations which are always given to the actions of princes, 
 nor from the hatred that the people are wont to feel to 
 ministers. 
 
 The queen's piety was at all times remarkable. I know 
 from Madame de Senec^, her lady-of-honour, who told it to 
 me privately, and afterwards in the queen's own presence, 
 that when very young and in the days of her greatest beauty, 
 as she had not enough money to do all the alms she wished, 
 she robbed herself of jewels and chains, pretending she had 
 lost them accidentally, in order to give them to the poor. 
 She hid this from Madame de Senec6, then her lady of the 
 bedchamber ; and when she saw her looking for these things 
 and troubled, and could not pacify her by merely telling her 
 they were lost and that she need not worry herself, she then 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 301 
 
 owned she had taken them to give to those she could not 
 help in other ways ; but she told this with as much shame 
 as if she had done a bad action ; and urgently requested her 
 to say nothing about it to any one. 
 
 During her regency her heart must have found some satis- 
 faction in the good works that she did throughout France ; 
 and even Christians in all parts of the world received some 
 portion of her liberality. It happened, nevertheless, that, as 
 she did not have the use of the king's treasury, having placed 
 it in trust in the hands of the cardinal in happier times, now, 
 when she might have been mistress of all favours, and when 
 the minister, the superintendent, and the finance officers were 
 profusely using it to their own profit, she was frequently 
 in a state of need which did not allow her to do what she 
 would have liked to do. She did not pay her debts, and 
 never had enough to satisfy her generosity, either in regard 
 to the poor or to those about her for whom she had an affec- 
 tion. She was persuaded that there was never enough money 
 in the treasury ; and though she had about her persons bold 
 enough and faithful enough to tell her the contrary, her in- 
 difference, which made her neglect too much the knowledge 
 of the truth, deprived her of this means of exercising use- 
 fully the moral and Christian virtues of which her soul was 
 full — the only happiness that can render crowns desirable. 
 
 On the day of Notre-Dame, in August, the king went to 
 hear vespers at the Feuillants, and the cardinal was with him. 
 It is the rule that in any place where the person of the king 
 is, the captain of his body-guard is to hold the keys. It is 
 also the rule that no other guards than the body-guard shall 
 be on duty. A procession was to be made with the king 
 through the cloister ; the Marquis de Gesvres, captain of the 
 body-guard, was therefore the master of it. Information was 
 brought to him that the guards of the grand provost were al- 
 
302 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVIXLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 ready in that place with, one of the provost's lieutenants. 
 The Marquis de Gesvres ordered his lieutenant, named de 
 L'Isle to go and turn them out. De L'Isle went ; and beiug 
 wise and cautious, he first pointed out that the other guards 
 had no right in the place, and ought to leave it, because 
 otherwise he had orders to turn them out. The guards an- 
 swered insolently that they would not go ; and their anger 
 against de LTsle was so great that he judged it was neces- 
 sary to use violence. But, before doing so, he returned to 
 his captain for fvu-ther orders. De Gesvres told him to make 
 them go in any way he could. De L'Isle returned and, wish- 
 ing to obey, he was forced, by the resistance of the provost's 
 guard, to take sword in hand. In the scuffle two of the 
 guards were maltreated ; one was killed, the other wounded. 
 De L'Isle, who was a worthy man, did his best to prevent 
 this misfortune, but it was not possible to control the matter, 
 for the Suisses seconded the body-guard and together they 
 made the uproar. 
 
 It is a crime of lese^majestS to take sword in hand in the 
 king's house, or in any place where he is. As the rumour of 
 the affair spread, everybody was troubled. Jarz6, friend of 
 the grand provost, spoke out against the Marquis de Gesvres, 
 taxing him with having been too hasty. Cardinal Mazarin 
 was displeased in his soul that the marquis had given these 
 orders in his presence without asking his advice as to what 
 he ought to do ; nevertheless he did not show it, but con- 
 cealed his vexation. The king having returned to the Palais- 
 Eoyal, the minister pacified the quarrel between Gesvres and 
 Jarz4 and sent at once to the queen (who had gone to sleep 
 at the Val-de-Grace for the feast-day) to tell her of the mis- 
 adventure. The next morning, in consequence of the Mar- 
 quis de Gesvres having caused blood to be shed in presence 
 of the king — but really because he had not shown due re- 
 
1648] MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 303 
 
 spect to the cardinal — Le Tellier was sent to order him to 
 give up his baton and place it in the hands of the Comte de 
 Charost, another captaia of the body-guard like himself. 
 
 The Comte de Tremes, father of the Marquis de Gesvres, 
 went to the minister and complained to him of the treat- 
 ment his son was receiving ; he said he had not failed in 
 his duty, but had maintained the rights of his office; and, 
 moreover, if he were forced to give it up, the Comte de 
 Charost was not the man to take his place, but he himself 
 was ; inasmuch as his son only served the king in reversion 
 to himself, who was the veritable captain of the Guards, and 
 they could only take the baton from him with his bead. 
 Besides this, he informed the Comte de Charost that he 
 would disoblige him if he received the king's order, and 
 said that as they all owed support to one another, he begged 
 him not to accept the command. 
 
 The cardinal now declared that he had reason to complain 
 of the Marquis de Gesvres for having given orders in his 
 presence without informing him of them ; and said that be- 
 ing prime minister and intrusted with the education of the 
 king, de Gesvres had failed in the respect that was due to 
 him. Through the resentment he felt to the son he would 
 not consider the prayers and the rights of the father, and 
 therefore induced the queen to persist in declaring that the 
 baton was to be given to the Comte de Charost. She said 
 the command was issued, and must be obeyed, although had 
 she known that the Comte de Tremes was in Paris she might 
 perhaps have ordered him to take it ; but that now, as he 
 had opposed her orders and her will, she should not listen 
 to him. She said aloud that she willed that Charost should 
 serve, if only for two hours, to show the obedience which 
 she declared was her due. 
 
 Beringhen, first equerry, a wise and prudent man, exhorted 
 
304 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 Charost to do as the queen desired, and he resolved to obey. 
 The cardinal himself urged him and even prayed him to 
 oblige him ; so that Charost promised him to take the baton. 
 With this intention he went down to the room of the cap- 
 tain of the guards, where was the Comte de Tremes, who 
 had taken possession of the baton, declaring that he should 
 hold it tiU the queen came back from the Val-de-Grace and 
 he could receive her orders from her own lips. Charost, 
 who had just left Cardinal Mazarin, told him he had pledged 
 himself to take the baton, and asked him for it. The Comte 
 de Tremes answered that he could not give it to him, for his 
 honour was concerned in not seeing it in another man's 
 hand, while he had committed no wrong that deserved its 
 loss. 
 
 The Comte de Charost, a man of real worth, who approved 
 of his colleague's resistance and felt he would have done the 
 same in his place, answered that he never wished to take 
 the honour from him, that it was only by force he was led 
 to accept it, and that now, seeing him determined not to 
 give up the baton, it was all right that he should keep it, 
 for his own intention was, as far as in him lay, to do harm 
 to no man. Charost then, not venturing to see the cardinal 
 again, went off to his own house, preferring to let him hear 
 of the matter from others than himself. 
 
 The queen had heard at the Val-de-Gr§,ce that Charost 
 had resolved to serve, and the rest of the day passed without 
 either her or the cardinal knowing aught to the contrary. 
 That evening, on her return, the king having run some dis- 
 tance to meet and embrace her, she noticed that the captain 
 of the Guards was not with him, and asked the reason. 
 They told her that the Comte de Trgmes would not allow 
 Charost to serve as he intended, and that, seeing this re- 
 sistance, the latter had not liked to oppose it and had gone 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 305 
 
 home. The queen, seized with a little rush of anger, and 
 touched with keen resentment at the general state of her 
 affairs, which this piece of boldness recalled to her mind, 
 exclaimed aloud : " Ho ! God be thanked, I have reached 
 the point where every one makes it an honour to disobey 
 me ! " — meaning by those words both the parliament and 
 the people of the Court. 
 
 The cardinal came to her at once, and she soon after 
 ordered to be brought before her the four captains of the 
 guards (except Villequier, who was not ia Paris), namely : 
 the Comte de TrSmes, the Comte de Charost, and the Mar- 
 quis de Chandenier, — ^ the Marquis de Gesvres being in 
 reversion to his father, and the only culpable one, did not 
 appear. She gave them a reprimand on their disobedience, 
 which at first was rather gentle, wishing by such treatment 
 to make them repent of their fault. But when they wished 
 to present their reasons and showed that they iatended to 
 support one another, she was angry and turned them out of 
 her cabiaet, telling them that she wished never to see them 
 again, and would find others who would obey her better. 
 
 The whole Court was now divided on the affair. Some 
 approved of the queen's course at a time when her authority 
 was only too much disregarded ; others disapproved of it, 
 saying that she had not shown sufficient regard to the 
 rights of the Comte de Tremes ; and the latter were possibly 
 right. iSTow the queen, of her own inclination, would doubt- 
 less not in any way have resisted granting him the baton, 
 if she had not been led to do so by the cardinal's passion. 
 Continuing, however, to sacrifice to him her own kind feel- 
 
 1 Madame de MotteTille has forgotten to say that as soon as the Mar- 
 quis de Gesvres received orders to give up the baton, the cardinal sent for 
 Chandenier and offered it to liira ; but he refused it out of delicacy. See 
 Memoirs of Montglat. — Fk. Ed. 
 VOL. I. — 20 
 
306 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 ings, she ordered that Chandenier be brought before her, a 
 last unfortunate remains of the " Importants," whom she 
 had considered and treated as one of her most faithful ser- 
 vants. He remained at Court only by enforced tolerance on 
 the part of the minister; consequently he was chosen by 
 him on this occasion to be the victim of his policy. 
 
 The resolution was already taken to exile Charost. They 
 wished to pmiish him for the compliance he had shown to 
 the Comte de Tremes, and give an example of severity which 
 should pass from the Court to the parliament. He had some 
 original sin in regard to the false divinity adored at the 
 Court, which rendered him suspected by the minister. He 
 was brother of the Comte de B^thune, great abettor of the 
 " Importants " and friend of the Due de Beaufort, who was 
 beginning to live again after his escape from prison, and to 
 give back some lustre to the annihilated cabal. 
 
 Chandenier was in worse case still; the minister had 
 great reason to hate him, for, besides what I have just told, 
 he was found at the beginning of the regency to be a rela- 
 tive of Des ISToyers, Cardinal Mazarin's enemy, who, in the 
 days of the late king, had driven the minister from Court. 
 Chandenier, having therefore no protection but that the 
 queen owed to his goodness, confided himself to her; and 
 as soon as he saw the cardinal in a position to make himself 
 feared, he entreated her to take pains herself to put him in 
 the good graces of one she had raised to the power of pre- 
 serving or destroying. She meant to do this ; but, whether 
 she did it feebly, or whether the minister could not endure 
 a semi-favourite, it happened at last that Chandenier was 
 dismissed from Court instead of being well-treated. 
 
 As he knew he must find help in other ways, he got friends 
 to speak to the cardinal for him, and by that means he re- 
 turned to Court. He stayed but a short time, for the min- 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 307 
 
 ister felt that he hated him. Chandenier was deficient in 
 the behaviour necessary to preserve a good-will which, being 
 feebly given, required great care to strengthen it ; and the 
 native distrust of the minister could at last no longer endure 
 a man whom he had no reason to love and had sufficiently 
 Ul-treated to fear. However that may be, it is certaLn that 
 never did he show him any further good-will, and Chande- 
 nier stayed on at Court, kindly treated by the queen, but 
 ill-satisfied with her minister, and little considered ; for he 
 was not thought able, although esteemed as a man of hon- 
 our and integrity, blamable only in being somewhat ostenta- 
 tious about it. 
 
 The solid virtue that a man should have is opposed to dis- 
 play and notoriety, and he who possesses it, if he wishes to 
 receive true praise, should not ask for praise. As such per- 
 sons are usually too impatient of the faults of others, he had 
 often blamed those of the minister ; and when it was known 
 that the queen had sent for him, no one doubted that, having 
 joined with his colleagues in refusing to serve, his revolt 
 would be made a pretext by the minister to get rid of him. 
 He was a friend of mine, and I did what I could to make 
 him think carefully of his answer to the queen before he 
 appeared before her, because on that moment his futme 
 depended- But, knowing the engagement he had taken, 
 which bound him to great fidelity to the interests of his 
 colleagues, he having owned to me that he had himself 
 advised their resistance, I was reduced with his other 
 friends to pity him and hope he might still come safely out 
 of the affair, without being able to divine in what manner 
 he could save himself from the danger. 
 
 He went before the queen; and to tell the truth, he 
 appeared with a very tranquil comitenance. When she 
 saw him she said that, having always believed he put more 
 
308 MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 affection into his service than many others, she had also 
 supposed him the most ready to obey her ; for that reason 
 she had sent for him ; that the kiag was left without ser- 
 vice ; and that she desired him to take that duty as a proof 
 of his fidelity. He answered that he very humbly begged 
 her to consider his engagement towards his comrades ; that 
 if he obeyed her commands he should declare them guilty, 
 and thereby become himself the most infamous of men ; 
 that he had reason to complain, because, being and al- 
 ways having been her faithful servant, she had chosen him 
 on this occasion to order him to do a thing by which he 
 should lose his reputation if he obeyed her. On which the 
 queen, who did not wish to ruin him, offered, to satisfy this 
 chimera of honour, to command him openly and before all 
 the Court to obey. But, seeing that he still persisted in 
 refusing, she raised her voice before us who were present 
 at the conversation, and said quite sternly, " Enough, Chan- 
 denier, enough ! " He retired ; and the next day an order 
 was sent to him and to Charost to retire from Court, and go 
 to their country-houses. The same order was sent to the 
 Comte de Tremes, and their offices were given to others. 
 That of the Comte de Charost was given to Jarzd. The lat- 
 ter had birth and stood well at Court ; but his mind was 
 more brilliant thp.n prudent, and its frivolity in many pas- 
 sages of his life will show how necessary wisdom is to man. 
 He took the oath from the hands of the queen, and a prom- 
 ise was given to the Comte de Charost to reimburse him for 
 his office. 
 
 The next day the same treatment was given to Chande- 
 nier,^ but, no doubt, it was intended by the minister to be 
 quite other than that of Charost. His office was given to 
 
 1 The pathetic close of his life and history is told in Saint-Simon's 
 Memoirs. — Tr. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 309 
 
 the Comte de Noailles, who had already deprived him of 
 much property, having, by the help of Cardinal Mazarin, 
 married Mademoiselle Boyer, a rich young woman whom 
 Chandenier was seeking. De Noailles took his oath of 
 fidelity; and, as some persons are born for the misery 
 of others, he kept his oflBce much longer than Jarz^ kept 
 that of Charost. 
 
 Thus ia one day we saw driven from the king's house- 
 hold three of his most important officers, without the 
 cardinal appearing to have any part in it, the queen taking 
 upon herself all the odium of this action to save her minister. 
 It seemed that these captains of the Guard ought to have 
 obeyed the king, and that they were wrong to so obstinately 
 oppose his sovereign will ; for, after all, it is right that our 
 masters be obeyed, even in matters in which they may not 
 have reason on their side. In vain would they be called 
 by the great names of monarch, king, all-powerful, if their 
 subjects could resist them on the slightest occasion. But it 
 is just and right that these very kings should enter into 
 the interests of individuals, hear their reasons, and take 
 care to satisfy them, when they respectfully ask to be 
 treated with equity. 
 
 The queen never of herself failed to follow these noble 
 precepts ; such virtues are the ones which appeared in her 
 with the greatest glow, and drew to her the admiration of the 
 public. Her ears were never weary of listening to the plaints 
 of the unfortunate; her heart received without repugnance 
 the importunities made to her by those who suffered oppres- 
 sion. She was incessantly exposed to this through her 
 kindness and humanity ; and her will, always disposed to 
 right action, never refused to do justice to those who asked 
 it of her. But on this occasion, when the corruption of the 
 air about her made her more sensitive to disobedience, she 
 
310 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 could not endure this iastance of it; and all the more 
 because the cardinal's private animosity was hidden from 
 her by a veil of policy. For this reason she contributed, 
 without any design, to the misfortune of her old servant, 
 Chandenier, and abandoned him to the resentment of her 
 minister. 
 
 After the festival was over, parliament once more began 
 to deliberate on the king's declaration. They examined it 
 article by article. On some they voted remonstrances, on 
 others they gave decrees. They complained that it was 
 captious, declared that it only half favoured them, and 
 then with bad intentions. Their chief complaint was about 
 the article on the taille, which they maintained was not 
 explained, and they demanded on behalf of the people that 
 the quarter granted by the king should be exempted from 
 costs. 
 
 August 20, Monsieur having gone to parliament, the dis- 
 cussion ended by asking him for a conference at the Luxem- 
 bourg. It took place on the 21st with the same good 
 success as before, and Monsieur on his return told the queen 
 that all was goiag well; they had regulated the tariff on 
 the number of taxes which parliament consented should be 
 levied ; which number was to be posted in the streets that 
 the people might not be deceived or forced to pay more 
 than they ought. Nevertheless, parliament did not put an 
 end to its assemblings ; so that, in poiat of fact, it scoffed 
 at the king's order, at the authority of the queen, and at 
 that of him who governed the State ; whose strength was 
 beginning to dimiaish as that of parliament increased. 
 
 On the same day an imcertain rumour came to give joy 
 to the queen, for, if true, it would cure all her troubles, or 
 at least give her comfort for a period of time. A man 
 arrived from Arras with the assurance that a battle had 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 31 L 
 
 been fought and cannon had been heard. No one, he said, 
 had returned, — a proof that the battle had been won, because 
 no fugitives had appeared on the frontier; apparently they 
 were all busy in pursuing and despoiling the enemy. 
 
 The queen spent the whole day in great impatience to 
 know what had happened, and at midnight, as she was 
 undressing to go to bed, the Comte de Ch§,tillon arrived, 
 sent by the Prince de Cond^ immediately after the battle 
 [of Lens]. We heard afterwards that this noble courier had 
 done wonders that were worthy of himself and his race. 
 He assured the queen of her good fortune, and told her that 
 all she could have hoped for had happened ; that victory 
 remained with the French, after wringing it from the enemy 
 at the cost of lives and blood ; cannon were taken ; General 
 Beck and his son were prisoners, also the Prince de Ligne, 
 and the Comte de Saint-Amour, general of artillery; three 
 thousand dead were on the field, besides an incredible num- 
 ber of wounded, and five thousand prisoners were taken. 
 
 This battle had been desired by both sides. The arch- 
 duke had orders from the King of Spain to give it at any 
 price; the king believing, with reason, that if he won it, 
 France, in the state in which she then was, would fall a 
 prey to his ambition. For this purpose the archduke had 
 sent all his baggage into Flanders ; and the Prince de 
 Cond^, on his side, had done the same; these two great 
 princes having the same intention, namely, to fight to the 
 death. Both therefore did great deeds. The Prince de 
 Cond^, as usual, was everywhere. The Comte de ChStillon 
 related to the queen how, for all speech to his soldiers, the 
 prince had said : " My friends, have good courage. We 
 must fight to-day ; it is useless to hold back ; for I tell 
 you, brave men and cowards, all shall fight, willingly or by 
 force." The preceding evening he gave an order to the 
 
312 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xi. 
 
 whole army to watch their marching, in order that the 
 cavalry and infantry should advance on the same line, care- 
 fully keeping their distances and intervals ; and to charge 
 at a walk [au pas'] only, and let the enemy fire first. 
 
 Our army had then only 14,000 men, that of the enemy 
 15,000 or 16,000. The Prince de Conde asked for a marshal's 
 baton for the Comte de ChatiUon. But this was refused 
 on account of the number of applicants, who embarrassed 
 the minister. 
 
 The king, hearing that a battle had been won, cried out 
 with a great exclamation that parliament would be very 
 sorry for the news. He had heard so much said of that 
 body being his enemies that he immediately came to this 
 conclusion. Their proceedings, differing from their inten- 
 tions, which I desire to think more innocent in fact than 
 in appearance, deserved that the king should think them 
 traitors; for they had brought France to such a state that 
 had the battle gone against us, the monarchy might have 
 seen its end, through causes which, in their beginning, 
 seemed of little consequence. 
 
 After the first emotions which this victory caused in the 
 soul of the queen, her reason and her kind nature made her 
 wish for peace, and policy played its usual game. She 
 knew that her minister was blamed for not making it ; for 
 this reason she affected to say pointedly before the whole 
 Court that after this battle she hoped that Spain would wish 
 for peace, for if it did she believed it would indubitably 
 come. 
 
XTI. 
 
 1648. 
 
 The queen, wishing to have the Te Deum chanted at 
 Notre-Dame, to render thanks to God for the great victory, 
 and to carry to the church the banners conquered from the 
 enemy,! wished also to use this day of triumph to bring 
 some remedy to the rebellion of parliament and to punish 
 it for its last disobedience, which had seemed, in the eyes 
 of every one, to hide a criminal audacity under a false 
 appearance of fidelity. 
 
 To do this, in full agreement with the Due d'Orldans 
 and her minister, she commanded Comminges, lieutenant 
 of her guards, to arrest President Blancmesnil, President 
 Charton, and, above all, a man named Broussel, counsellor 
 of parliament, who had constantly raised the standard 
 against the king and opened all discussions that tended to 
 destroy the royal authority ; he had made himself the 
 mouthpiece of the people, showing on every occasion the 
 spirit of a man born in a republic, and affecting the sen- 
 timents of a veritable Eoman. This day was chosen by 
 advice of the cardinal, because the ceremony of the Te 
 Deum gave occasion to put the whole regiment of the 
 guards under arms ; it being usual to line the king's way 
 and the neighbourhood of Notre-Dame, where Broussel 
 lodged. As there was some reason to fear that the populace 
 
 1 These flags to the number of sixty-three, were borne to the choir by 
 the Suisse guard. The members of parliament were present in great 
 numbers at the ceremony, to remove all suspicion that this victory was 
 not agreeable to them (Omer Talon). — Fr. Ed. 
 
314 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 would rise in his defence, it was necessary to have a certain 
 amount of force ready against that canaille, and thus 
 prevent it from gathering sufficient strength to resist the 
 name of the king and the glory of the successful victory. 
 
 The queen, having given her orders to Comminges, he 
 gave his for the execution of the enterprise confided to him. 
 He sent two of his lieutenants, — as he told me himself with 
 every particular, — one to President Blancmesnil, the other 
 to President Charton, reserving for himself the most dan- 
 gerous affair, that of seizing Broussel, the friend and protector 
 of the people. 
 
 The queen, after the Te Deum, and after committing this 
 matter to the Sovereign of sovereigns as a severity forced 
 upon her and necessary for public tranquillity, left the 
 church, saying in a low voice to Comminges, " Go, and may 
 God assist you ; " well content with herself, as she told us 
 afterwards, in being able to hope that she should be avenged 
 on those who had despised her authority and that of the 
 king her son. 
 
 Le Tellier, secretary of State, also said to Comminges at 
 the same time that he could go, for all was ready ; meaning 
 that the three men were in their homes. Comminges 
 waited a short time at Notre-Dame with a few guards until 
 he knew that an order he had given was executed. As it is 
 usual for the officers of the body-guard never to leave the 
 person of the king, notice was immediately given to some 
 of the parliament who were still in the church that the 
 lieutenant of the queen's guards had remained there, which 
 seemed to threaten the liberty of some of the individuals 
 of their assembly. On receiving this warning they all 
 took to flight, and the church, to their thinking, had not 
 doors enough to let them get out as fast as they wished. 
 The populace who fiJled the space about the chmch, having 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 315 
 
 come there to see the king pass, hearing this rumour, 
 collected in groups, and began to watch and listen for what 
 it might mean. 
 
 Comminges had sent his carriage with four of his guards 
 and one lieutenant to the end of Broussel's street, which 
 was short and narrow, with orders to the officer as soon as 
 he saw him, Comminges, approach the house on foot, to 
 bring the carriage to the door, with the curtains raised and 
 the steps lowered. This he ordered, so he told me, that in 
 case he was attacked in the carriage with his prisoner, he 
 might see all around him and give his orders. Accordingly 
 he went to the house on foot and knocked at the door. A 
 little foot-boy opened it without delay; he seized the 
 entrance, and leaving two guards there he went up to Brous- 
 sel's apartment with the two others. He found him just 
 finishing dinner, with his family around him. Comminges 
 told him he brought an order from the king to seize his 
 person ; but, if he wished to spare himself the trouble of 
 reading the lettre de eacJiet, which he showed him, he had 
 only to follow and obey him. 
 
 This man, over sixty years old, was alarmed, in spite of 
 the courage he had shown in parliament, at hearing the king 
 named in this way, and showed that the visit distressed 
 him greatly. He replied that he was not in a state to obey, 
 having taken medicine that morning, and he asked for time. 
 An old woman of the house began to scream to the neigh- 
 bours that her master was being carried off, begging them 
 for succour, and telling Comminges with a thousand insults 
 that he should not be obeyed, that she would prevent him 
 from doing harm to her master. At the woman's noise, the 
 populace collected in the little street ; the first who ran up 
 called to others, and in a moment the street was filled with 
 canaille^ "When they saw the carriage full of arms ar,d 
 
316 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 men, they began to shout that their liberator was being 
 carried off. Some wished to cut the horses' reins, others to 
 break the carriage; but the guards and a little page of 
 Comminges defended it valiantly, threatening to kill all 
 those who attacked it. 
 
 Commitiges, hearing within the house the noise of the 
 populace, and seeing the riot which might happen if he 
 delayed any longer in his purpose, seized Broussel by force 
 and threatened to kill him if he refused to walk. He 
 dragged him from the house and the embraces of his family, 
 and flung him into the carriage whether he would or not; 
 the guards going before to push back the people, who threat- 
 ened to attack them. At the sound of this uproar chains 
 were fastened across the streets, and at the first turn Com- 
 minges found his way stopped ; so that, in order to escape, 
 he had to have the carriage turned round often, and gave a 
 sort of battle to the populace, whose numbers increased the 
 farther he advanced on his way. 
 
 He arrived at last opposite to the house of the chief- 
 president, where his carriage was upset and broken. He 
 would have been lost if at this very place he had not found 
 soldiers of a regiment of Guards, who still lined the street 
 with orders to render him assistance if needed. He had 
 sprung with his prisoner from the overturned carriage, and 
 seeing himself surrounded by enemies who wanted to tear 
 him in pieces, and having only three or four of his own 
 guards, who were not enough to save him, he called out, 
 " To arms, comrades ! to the rescue ! " The soldiers, faith- 
 ful to the king at all times of the regency, surrounded him 
 and gave him the necessary assistance. 
 
 The populace also siurounded him, with very different 
 intentions; and there ensued a combat of fists and insults 
 not less dangerous to the State than those of guns and 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 317 
 
 blades. Commmges remained in this position until one of 
 his guards brought up another carriage, which he had taken 
 from some passers, turning the ladies out with threats, and, 
 in spite of their remonstrances, compelling the coachman 
 to serve the occasion. This carriage also was broken at the 
 corner of the rue Saint-Honor^, and these various accidents 
 made known this action of the government to the whole city 
 of Paris, and stirred to compassion a vast number of persons 
 who thereupon fomented sedition. 
 
 Finally another carriage arrived, which Guitaut, uncle of 
 Comminges and captain of the queen's guard, sent to meet 
 his nephew, foreseeing that he might need it. It came most 
 luckily ; he jumped iato it, his prisoner with him, and 
 reached a relay which was waitiag for him near the Tuile- 
 ries, where Mademoiselle was then lodged. This relay took 
 him to the chateau de Madrid, thence to Saiut-Germain, 
 according to his orders from the queen. She intended to 
 have Broussel taken from there by a sub-lieutenant to the 
 place where she had determined to send him, which was, I 
 think, Sedan. 
 
 When the Parisians lost sight of their Broussel they were 
 like madmen, shouting through the streets that they were 
 lost, that they would have their protector restored to them, 
 that they would die, every one of them, cheerfully in his 
 behalf. They assembled, they stretched chains across the 
 streets, and in a few hours they erected barricades in every 
 quarter of the town.' The queen, informed of this disturb- 
 ance, sent Mardchal de La Meilleraye through the streets to 
 pacify the people and speak to them of their duty. 
 
 The Coadjutor of Paris [Jean-Pran^ois-Paul de Gondi, 
 afterwards Cardinal de Eetz], who, froni inordinate ambition, 
 
 1 Oraer Talon says that twelve hundred and sixty barricades were 
 counted in Paris, — Fr. Ed. 
 
318 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 had inclinations that were far from wishing to endeavour to 
 remedy these evils, was also sent. But, wishing to conceal 
 the tendency of his miad, which was to deshe a change, 
 he went out on foot with his hood and rochet ; and mingling 
 with the crowd he reproved the people, shouted peace to 
 them, and pointed out the obedience they owed to the king, 
 with every sign of disinterested affection for his service. 
 Perhaps he may even have acted in good faith on this occa- 
 sion, for, as his sole desire was to play a part in great affairs 
 by any or every means that offered, if in this way he could 
 enter the good graces of the queen and make himself neces- 
 sary to the State, his ambition being satisfied he would have 
 taken no other course. 
 
 The populace replied to what he said to them with respect 
 for his person, but with audacity and anger against the idea 
 of what they owed to the king. They demanded their pro- 
 tector, with protestations that they would never be pacified 
 until he was returned to them ; ^ and without considering the 
 respect they owed to the Grand-Master, the Mardchal de La 
 Meilleraye, they flung stones at him, overwhelmed him with 
 insults, and, in threatening him, uttered horrible imprecations 
 against the queen and her minister. Against the latter they 
 launched such insolence as deserved the gibbet if the king 
 had been master, or if the queen had been capable from pri- 
 vate vengeance of putting any one to death. 
 
 The two men returned to the Palais-Eoyal to consult as 
 
 to what should be done at this crisis, when words seemed 
 
 too feeble a remedy for so great an evil. But, as it was 
 
 thought best not to embitter the people still further in their 
 
 first heat, they were sent back to expose themselves once 
 
 1 Broussel was an old army officer, sixty-three years of age, popular for 
 his benefits, and for his zeal against the new taxes. In the Chamber of 
 Saint-Louis, he had played the role and taken the attitude of a party leader 
 (Omer Talon). — Tr. Ed. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 319 
 
 more to stones and insults. They went with a good grace, 
 although the Mar^chal de La Meilleraye had the gout and 
 could walk only by the aid of a stick, and the health of the 
 coadjutor was feeble. Soldiers were also sent, to see if a 
 show of arms would not frighten the furious groups. But 
 after a few blows which dispersed them for a moment, then- 
 anger increased and their rage became more violent. This 
 medicine, given only from necessity, to try if an appearance 
 of force would not cure the evil, not having any such effect, 
 they ceased to administer it; it was thought that the best 
 plan would be to do nothing extraordinary, for fear of letting 
 the Parisians know the danger to which their folly was ex- 
 posing France. 
 
 All this day was spent in hoping that the tumult would 
 subside, but with many a fear that it might increase. The 
 council was held at the Palais-Eoyal as usual ; and we all 
 sat peacefully laughing and talking, as usual, of a thousand 
 frivolities. For, besides the fact that no one on such occa- 
 sions likes to say what he is thinking of, or to appear to be 
 afraid, none of us wished to be the first to prognosticate evil. 
 Many persons, in fact, came to see the queen, and told her, 
 with levity and on false assumptions, that the affair was 
 nothing and that matters would soon be pacified. Kings 
 flatter themselves readily ; our regent did so, and being born 
 with intrepid courage, she ridiculed the emotions of the 
 populace and could not believe they would ever do her any 
 serious harm. 
 
 That evening, the coadjutor [ecclesiastic who aids a bishop 
 or archbishop in his functions and succeeds him] returned to 
 see the queen on behalf of the people, being forced to accept 
 their commission to ask again for the release of Broussel, 
 they being resolved, they said, if this request were refused, 
 to recover him by force. As the queen's heart was not sus- 
 
320 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 ceptible of weakness, and she possessed a courage that 
 might shame the most valiant, and as moreover the cardinal 
 did not find it to his advantage to be always defeated, she 
 scorned the proposal, and the coadjutor returned to the 
 people without an answer. One of his friends (slightly one 
 of mine), Laigues, who perhaps, like himself, was not, in the 
 depths of his soul, in despair at the bad position of the Court 
 and who had never quitted him all day, whispered iu my 
 ear that all was lost ; that we must not amuse ourselves by 
 thinking the affair was nothing ; that there was everythmg 
 to fear from the insolence of the people ; that already the 
 streets were filled with outcries against the queen, and that 
 he did not believe the matter could be easily pacified. 
 
 The night that followed dispersed the crowds and con- 
 firmed the queen in her belief that there was nothiag to fear 
 from the tumult of the day before. She turned the thiug 
 into a joke, and asked me, as she left the council and came 
 to undress, if I had not been in a great fright. She was 
 continually making war upon my cowardice; and she did 
 me the honour to tell me gaily that when at midday, just 
 after her return from the Te Deum, they came to tell her of 
 the uproar the people were beginning to make, she had in- 
 stantly thought of me and of the fright I should have on 
 hearing the terrible news and those big words "-stretched 
 chains " and " barricades." 
 
 She guessed rightly, for I thought I should die with the 
 shock when they told me that the populace were up in 
 arms ; never supposing that in this Paris, the abode of pleas- 
 ures and delight, war and barricades could exist except in the 
 history and life of Henri III. The queen's jest lasted the 
 whole evening ; and as I was certainly the least valiant of 
 the company the whole shame of that day fell upon me. 
 I laughed myself, not only at my own terror, but also at 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 321 
 
 the advice Laigues had so charitably given me a few hours 
 earlier. It was not without wondering at how differently 
 things can be viewed, according to the diverse passions and 
 desires of men. 
 
 The same day the chief president came, on hearing of the 
 banishment of his colleagues, to ask the queen for their re- 
 lease ; but she sent him away without an answer. The 
 people, who suspected him of being in collusion with the 
 Court, went to his house ; rascals full of fury shouted that 
 he was a traitor and had sold his colleagues. He was com- 
 pelled, in order to pacify them, to go out into the streets on 
 foot to address the rioters and justify himself to them. Had 
 he not done this firmly, they might perhaps have gone stiLl 
 further in their insolence; but his gentleness calmed their 
 fury, and they received his justification on condition that he 
 returned to the queen and demanded Broussel. This he did, 
 with as little success as before. 
 
 The next day, as resolved in the council of the preceding 
 day, the chancellor, Siguier, had orders to go to the Palais 
 de Justice and preside there, so as to calm the minds of the 
 members and prevent any disturbance which might arise on 
 pretext- of this affair.^ The sedition had terrified every one, 
 and the friends of the chancellor told him that this occasion 
 seemed to them very perilous for him. He saw the danger 
 to which he was exposed with the same eyes as theirs ; but 
 his soul, too attached to favour, was not as much attached to 
 love of life. He preferred the advantage of doing an action 
 which was out of the common ; and as the queen thought it 
 a necessary one, he wished to perform it without giving any 
 sign of weakness. 
 
 1 It was thought also that he was to forbid parliament ; hut I have no 
 certain knowledge of this. I saw at the time no sign of it, and I did not 
 hear of it until long after. (Author's note.) 
 
 VOL. I. — 21 
 
322 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 He started at five in the morning and went to the Palais, 
 or rather, he left his house with the intention of doing so. 
 The Bishop of Meaux, his brother, insisted on going with 
 him, and his daughter, the Duchesse de Sully, young, beauti- 
 ful, and brave, sprang into his carriage ia spite of what he 
 did to prevent her. When he was on the Pont-Neuf, three 
 or four tall scoimdrels came up to the carriage and insolently 
 demanded that the prisoner be given up to them ; telling 
 him that if this were not done instantly they would kill 
 him. These desperate fellows having begun the tumult, 
 others came up and surrounded him, threatening the same 
 thing. 
 
 He, not knowing how to escape peacefully from this 
 canaille, ordered his coachman to drive on, and go towards 
 the Augustins, where the house of Ms friend the Due de 
 Luynes stood, intending, if compelled by the crowd, to enter 
 the courtyard, or else, for greater safety, to go by the Pont 
 Notre-Dame to the Palais ; for he thought that the worthy 
 burghers would not let him be maltreated by these rioters. 
 When he arrived at the Augustins, the crowd had begun 
 to scatter; so that he resolved to leave his carriage at 
 the Due de Luynes, and go on foot to the Palais. But he 
 had hardly taken three steps when a tall ruffian, dressed 
 in gray, came up shouting : " To arms ! to arms ! Let us 
 kill him, and avenge upon him the evils from which we 
 suffer!" 
 
 On this the tumult grew hotter and hotter; and the 
 chancellor was forced to take refuge in the hotel de Luynes 
 in order to save his life. He was received by a good old 
 woman who, seeing the chancellor asking for help, took him 
 by the hand and led him to a little closet made of pine 
 boards at the end of a hall. He had no sooner entered, he 
 and his party, than the canaille arrived with furious shouts,. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 323 
 
 demanding to know where he was, and declaring, with many 
 oaths, that they meant to have him. Some said : " Prisoner 
 for prisoner ; we will exchange him for our dear protector.'' 
 Others, more malignant, said he ought to be killed and quar- 
 tered, and the pieces hung in the public squares to show 
 their resentment by their vengeance. They came at last to 
 the little closet in search of him, but as the place looked de- 
 serted they contented themselves with giving a few kicks 
 against the planks and listening if they could hear any 
 sound ; after which they went to seek him elsewhere. It is 
 to be supposed that the chancellor while this was going on 
 was not at his ease, and that he felt himself human. While 
 in that closet he confessed to his brother, the Bishop of 
 Meaux, and prepared himself to die. 
 
 He had sent to the Palais-Eoyal for help, and as soon as 
 the peril he was ta was known the gendarmes and the 
 light-horse were sent to his assistance. The Mar^chal de La 
 MeUleraye started to find him with two companies of Swiss 
 guards; and the illustrious prisoner was saved at last by 
 the coming of the grand-master. The latter took him by 
 the arm to lead him to the Palais-Eoyal, for in the confusion 
 the carriage could not be found, and all things were now 
 safe except for exposure to the fury of the populace. The 
 Comte d'Offremont also came to the chancellor's aid, and, 
 meeting him on the way, he put him into his carriage with 
 his daughter and the Bishop of Meaux. As they passed 
 before the Place Dauphine in the middle of the Pont Neuf, 
 the populace, angry at having lost their prey,'fired upon him, 
 killing several of the soldiers who surrounded the carriage. 
 The Duchesse de Sully received a shot in the arm, from a 
 ball that was nearly spent, having been fired from a dis- 
 tance; consequently the wound was only a bad contusion. 
 One of the king's lieutenants, who was in the suite of the 
 
324 MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 chancellor, was killed by this canaille, and so was one of the 
 guards. 
 
 They arrived at the Palais-Eoyal, much alarmed by their 
 adventure; and the chancellor stayed there several days, 
 not daring to return home lest the angry populace should 
 attack and pQlage his house. After he returned there I 
 went to see him in his chamber, and he told me himself of 
 the state of mind in which he was during this affair ; and 
 when I asked him whether the image of death was not 
 horrible to him, he told me he had suffered that which, 
 according to humanity, no one is exempt from feeling, but 
 that God had shown him great favour, having entirely filled 
 his mind with the care of his salvation and in asking from 
 Him the forgiveness of his sins. 
 
 Thus passed the morning of the second day, which was 
 no better than the first. At the queen's waking, about 
 nine o'clock, the news was told to her. She was infinitely 
 angered; not only at the treatment given to a person of 
 such quality, who, for her service, had been two hours in 
 the hands of scoundrels deserving of a rope, but also because 
 of the affront to her authority, which would certainly have 
 dangerous consequences to the State, and produce bad effects 
 through the noise it would make in foreign countries. She 
 knew the latter would recover strength from this news. A 
 chancellor of France, without respect in Paris, threatened 
 with death in the streets, his king being present in the 
 city, was a sure sign that the royal power was' diminishing 
 and the love of the subjects to their sovereign extinct. 
 
 After the queen had received this blow, which showed 
 her, in spite of her firmness in not allowing herself to be 
 shaken by anything, that she had everythiag to fear, she 
 was forced to rise and receive the parliament, which came 
 on foot to demand the release of the prisoner. She spoke 
 
1648] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 325 
 
 to them vigorously, with good sense and without anger, for 
 on this occasion she acted according to her own feelings 
 and of her own monition. Among other things that she 
 said, these words remained in my memory and seemed to 
 me worthy of remark : That it was strange and very 
 shameful for them to have seen, ia the days of the late 
 queen her mother-in-law, the Prince de Cond^ in the 
 Bastille without making any remonstrance; but that now, 
 for a man like Broussel, they and the people made many ; 
 that posterity would regard with horror the cause of such 
 disturbances, and that the king, her son, would some day be 
 able to complain of their proceedings and punish them. 
 
 The chief-president said little, and President de Mesmes, 
 interrupting him, took speech and addressing the queen, 
 said : " Shall I dare, Madame, to tell you that, in the state 
 in which the people are, a remedy must alone be thought 
 of ; and that your Majesty ought, it seems to me, to avoid 
 the pain of having the prisoner set free by force, by granting 
 his freedom to us of your own will and with a good grace ? " 
 The queen replied that it was impossible to do that wrong 
 to the royal authority, and to leave unpunished a man who 
 had attacked it with such insolence ; that parliament ought 
 to see by the mildness of her regency what her intentions 
 were; that, for herself, she was always disposed to pardon 
 them ; but they knew very well that kings were com- 
 pelled to a certain severity, in order to control the people 
 by some fear. 
 
 After this sort of dispute she left them, and the head- 
 president, running after her, conjured her to think well 
 what she was doing. To which the queen (instructed here 
 by her minister, as she admitted afterwards) replied that 
 on their side they had better do what they ought, and 
 show in the future more respect for the king's will; and 
 
326 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 when they did that, she, on her side, -would do them all the 
 favours they could justly claim from her. 
 
 The chancellor, who was present, explained that this 
 answer was meant to let them know that if they would 
 promise not to discuss the king's declaration any longer, and 
 cease absolutely from assembling to discuss the affairs of 
 the State, she would release the prisoners; inasmuch as 
 the only reason which had obliged the queen to act as she 
 had done was their rebellion, and the censure they gave 
 daily to that declaration which crowned them with favours 
 and showed them plainly the kiudness of the king and of 
 his minister. 
 
 On this proposition the members decided to return to the 
 Palais and assemble to discuss their answer. They went 
 out from the queen in the same order in which they came, 
 and when they reached the rue Saint-Honor^ the populace 
 stopped them at the first barricade and surrounded them, 
 shouting a demand for Broussel. Several approached the 
 chief-president and putting a pistol to his throat, insulted 
 him and threatened that if he did not cause M. de Broussel 
 to be returned to them they would kill him. They showed, 
 in fact, a strong desire to maltreat him ; but he escaped by 
 his own steady firmness ; assuring them he intended to 
 work for that result with all his strength; and on those 
 words they gave him his life with the condition that he 
 should go back at once to the queen, and signify to her 
 that if he did not obtain Broussel they would cut him into 
 a thousand pieces. 
 
 The whole assembly, therefore, returned upon its steps, 
 much astonished to find the anger of the people turned upon 
 them. They knew themselves to be the cause of these dis- 
 turbances, and yet they could not remedy them had they 
 wished to undertake it ; for when the people meddle with 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE, 327 
 
 the work of commanding, there is no master ; each man for 
 himself wants to rule. The famous republic of Eome, which 
 made itself the mistress of nearly the whole world, learned 
 by experience how dangerous it is to let the people have 
 part ia the government ; and that illustrious, all-conquering 
 community, in. which each citizen counted himself a king, 
 no doubt felt, through its noble illusion, the love of liberty, 
 how hard and cruel and grievous a thing is popular fury. 
 
 France, which is accustomed to a beautiful and honour- 
 able duty to sovereigns, regarded the power that the people 
 were trying to seize in Paris as a great malady in the State ; 
 even parliament was startled. I entered the king's room 
 shortly after the return of the long robes to the Palais- 
 Eoyal, and I saw them pass from the queen's large cabinet 
 over the terrace which separates the two main buildings of 
 this palace, on their way to the grand gallery of the king, 
 where they were to do what they had proposed to do at the 
 Palais de Justice, namely : seek for means to remedy the 
 evil. They had eaten nothing all day, and it was now late. 
 Out of pity, rather than kindness, the queen had taken care 
 to send them bread and wine with a few dishes, which, as 
 I thought, they ought to eat with shame, seeing that they 
 were the cause of these disturbances, of the anxieties of the 
 queen, the capture of Broussel, and the revolt of the people. 
 
 After their repast, the Due d'Orl^ans went to them to 
 take his usual place. The chancellor was also there to pre- 
 side ; which he did with great presence of mind, although 
 the images of death and danger which he had so recently 
 escaped pursued him. The cardinal went in for a moment ; 
 intending to conjure them to think seriously, with sincere 
 intentions, on the remedy for evils that might grow out of 
 these beginnings of rebellion. He had much cleverness of 
 mind, and spoke our language fairly well, and he wrote it in 
 
328 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. hi. 
 
 a way to be admired ; but as the accent of his own country 
 stayed by him, he had no charm of speech, nor any facility 
 to express himself elegantly. He merely told them that he 
 thought they had good iatentions, and the queen thought the 
 same ; and that being so, it was easy to agree. One of my 
 friends who was in the assembly told me he repeated these 
 few words over and over again, confusedly ; so that his little 
 harangue only made those laugh who did not seriously think 
 of doing as he advised. Which ought to make us see that 
 the heart of man is naturally perverse, and that justice is 
 often banished from it. If it were not so, men would value 
 things that are reasonably said, from whatever lips they 
 came. 
 
 All this day, in spite of the barricades, many persons 
 visited the queen, who remained in the circle with the 
 Queen of England and several princesses, awaiting the de- 
 cision of parliament. The cardinal was not without anxiety, 
 and during this period of waiting he shut himself up in the 
 queen's little cabinet with the Abb^ de La Eivifere, who was 
 not as troubled as he, for he hoped that the decline of the 
 minister might lead to his own elevation. 
 
 This anxiety did not appear on the cardinal's face. On 
 the contrary, when he showed himself in public he assumed 
 great tranquillity, and, as I have said elsewhere, he was more 
 humane and gentle in misfortune than in prosperity ; he did 
 not fly from those who wished to speak to him with the same 
 harshness as when he was satisfied and content. For this 
 reason, the Court people always wished him some ill-luck 
 in order to humble him ; for it is natural to men to rule 
 their feelings by their interests, and the most virtuous man 
 is not virtuous when he desires some benefit which is re- 
 fused to him with every mark of contempt and rudeness. 
 In spite of the cardinal's apparent gentleness, he did not 
 
1648] MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 329 
 
 often show that quality in his behaviour or in his words, 
 which were nearly always harsh, and very different from his 
 promises, which were never fulfilled, or seldom, unless he 
 was compelled by the manoeuvres of claimants. They 
 nearly always wrung his benefits from his weakness, not 
 his kindness. 
 
 Parliament, having ended its deliberations, came to see 
 the queen, who went to receive it in her little gallery, tak- 
 ing no women with her. The chief-president, in the name 
 of the Assembly, protested their fidelity in a rather brief 
 compliment, and then rendered to the queen an account of 
 their proceedings, in which they promised to postpone all 
 further deliberations, except those on finance and tariff, until 
 after Martinmas. 
 
 This decision was of no good. Beneath that promise was 
 seen the intention of beginning anew when the specified 
 time had passed, and of assembling at their pleasure to dis- 
 cuss all matters. Nevertheless, in consequence of this post- 
 ponement, the queen, forced by the state in which Paris then 
 was, granted the release of the prisoner and gave them, 
 then and there, a lettre de cachet to bring him back in the 
 king's carriages, which were ordered to go for him with all 
 diligence. 
 
 This concession, extorted solely by an apparent but transi- 
 tory obedience, was, properly speaking, a victory won over 
 royalty which distressed the queen, and must have done the 
 same to the cardinal. It caused regret iu the souls of honest 
 Frenchmen, the number of whom was small ; for those who 
 composed the Court had ulcerated it with hatreds, or were 
 filled with the desire to see the fortunes of the minister 
 change. Thus it may be said that while the troubles of the 
 queen were great, few persons took heed to them. 
 
 Here, then, is the prisoner Broussel, whom the queen is 
 
330 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 compelled to surrender ; the parliament is victorious ; it and 
 the people are masters. The burghers had previously taken 
 arms (by order of the king, fearing that the insolent canaille 
 might become too absolute), and the colonels of quarters and 
 the companies of the city are now mounting guard with such 
 order that it may be said that disorder was never so well 
 ordered. A sedition so great and impetuous would seem 
 likely to cause more evil than it really caused. 
 
 But the burghers who had taken arms very willingly to 
 protect the town from pillage were no better than the popu- 
 lace, and demanded Broussel as heartily as the rag-pickers. 
 For, besides being all infected with the love of the public 
 good (which they held to be their own in particular), 
 devoted to parliament, and hating the minister, they were 
 filled with joy at the thought that they were necessary to 
 some purpose. They believed they had a share in the gov- 
 ernment because they were guarding the gates of the city ; 
 and each man over his counter discussed the affairs of the 
 State. They did not make as much noise as the others, but 
 they demanded Broussel gravely, and declared that they 
 would never disarm until they saw him free with their own 
 eyes. 
 
 After parliament had had its audience the assembly left 
 the Palais-Eoyal, and returned as triumphant as the queen 
 was humiliated. The populace and the burghers surrounded 
 the members to ask what they had done for Broussel ; to 
 which they replied that they had obtained his liberty ; and 
 one of his nephews showed the lettre de cachet and promised 
 that he should be in Paris the next day by eight in the 
 morning. This promise gave them some comfort and 
 calmed them a little. But, at the slightest doubt occurring 
 to their minds, they began once more their imprecations, 
 and in the midst of their anger the great exasperation that 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 331 
 
 they showed against the person of the queen and of the 
 minister was startling. They did not hesitate to say that 
 if deceived they would sack the Palais-Eoyal and drive out 
 that foreigner ; and they shouted incessantly : " Vive le roi 
 tout seul, et M. de Broussel ! " 
 
 The night was troubled, for with such a state of things 
 there was much to fear. The alarm was great in the Palais- 
 Eoyal ; the queen herself, with all her firmness, was uneasy. 
 The burghers were firing incessantly, and they were so 
 near the king's house that the sentinels of the regiment of 
 the Gardes and those of the rue Saint-Honor^ could look 
 at each other. The threats made by the people were not 
 concealed from the cardinal, and in spite of the gaiety he 
 affected in public, he did not fail to take the precautions 
 of a frightened man. He sat up all night, being booted 
 and ready to mount a horse in case he was compelled 
 by the fury and madness of the people to fly. He had 
 a body of soldiers in his house, a guard before his door, 
 and in his stable a great pile of muskets for defence if 
 attacked. He kept cavalry in the Bois de Boulogne to 
 escort him if obliged to fly, and the persons who were at- 
 tached to his service never left him at all that night. An 
 Italian among them, who had as much cowardice as wit, 
 and little tenderness for his master, said to me the next 
 day, "For the whole kingdom of France, I would not pass 
 another such night as that." 
 
 The next day the rioters, while awaiting Broussel's arrival, 
 continued their threats saying openly that they should send 
 for the Due de Beaufort and place him at their head. Their 
 insolence increased when they heard of the cavalry being 
 stationed in the Bois de Boulogne. Unable to divine what 
 this really meant, they imagined there were ten thousand 
 men held in ambush in order to chastise them for their revolt. 
 
332 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 When eight o'clock sounded and the prisoner had not 
 arrived, the shouts redoubled, with such terrible threats that 
 the state of Paris at that instant was something awful. At 
 last, about ten o'clock, this tribune of the people having 
 reached the city, the joy was unboimded ; the street chains 
 were let down, the barricades broken to allow of passing 
 through. Never was triumph of king or Eoman emperor 
 greater than that of this poor little man, who had nothing to 
 recommend him but his obstinacy for the public good and 
 his hatred of taxes ; which is, in fact, a praiseworthy thing 
 if regulated by good and prudent conduct, and if its virtue is 
 quite aloof from the spirit of cabal ; but I know that dur- 
 ing the whole war factious minds, acting solely from self- 
 interest, had much intimacy and long conferences with him. 
 That is why his good qualities were not pure, nor free from 
 corruption. He was taken to Notre-Dame, where the people 
 wanted to have a Te Deum sung for him, but the man him- 
 self, ashamed of the uproar, escaped from their hands, and 
 getting out by a small door of the church fled to his home, 
 where many of the Coiu't people went to see him out of 
 curiosity. 
 
 After Broussel's return it seemed as if the disturbances 
 ought to cease ; but the burghers, showing no submission 
 to the orders and wUl of the king, would not lay down their 
 arms nor remove the barricades except by order of parliament ; 
 and they said openly that they recognized no other master 
 or protector. The same morning, in presence of Broussel, 
 the Assembly, masters of the life of the king and of the city, 
 issued a decree in these terms : — 
 
 " The court this day, the Chambers assembled : The pro- 
 vost of the merchants of this city, in view of the orders he 
 had given in consequence of the excitement of the day 
 before yesterday, yesterday, and this morning ; hearing also 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 333 
 
 that the procureur general du roi has ordered that the chains 
 and barricades employed by the burghers be unloosed, demol- 
 ished, and taken away ; enjoins upon the people to retire to 
 their homes and return to their vocations. Done in parlia- 
 ment, August 28, 1648." 
 
 The result of this decree was that every one obeyed it so 
 promptly that within two hours it was possible to go about 
 Paris as in peaceful times; and matters so calmed down 
 that what had just happened seemed like a dream. But as 
 it takes very little to disturb the minds of a populace already 
 excited, ill-luck would have it that two caissons of gunpow- 
 der for the regiment of the Guards were brought into Paris 
 through the Porte Saint-Antoine. The sight struck the 
 imagination of the people with a thousand terrors, and made 
 the burghers believe, like criminals fearing the gallows, that 
 the queen was intending to punish them. On which they 
 rushed to the carts and pUlaged them, crying out, as before, 
 " To arms ! " The magistrates of the city went to the spot 
 to pacify them and assure them they had nothing to fear ; 
 but they were not to be persuaded. The fire of this new 
 rebellion flared up with such rapidity that in less than half 
 an hour it communicated its heat from one end of the town 
 to the other; and Paris in an instant resumed the same 
 aspect it had had in the morning. 
 
 On this information reaching her the queen took counsel 
 with the Due d'Orl^ans, the cardinal, the grand-master, and 
 others. It was resolved to send back to their quarters all 
 the Guards stationed before the gates of the Palais-Eoyal, 
 in order to remove the suspicions excited in the public by 
 the sight of the caissons ; this was done immediately. Pop- 
 ular emotions in Paris, which is a world rather than a city, 
 are furious torrents, that spread themselves out with such 
 impetuosity that if allowed to swell they would be capable 
 
334 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xii. 
 
 of making ravages such as posterity could hardly believe 
 even from their terrible effects. 
 
 Finally the provost of the merchants was sent for, to 
 whom the queen said that she was amazed at the rumour ; 
 that the powder which had so terrified the people was 
 merely intended to supply the king's guard-house which 
 happened to be without any, and in order to show that she 
 had no intentions which could disquiet any one whatsoever 
 she had sent all the companies of the Guards to their sev- 
 eral quarters. She assured the provost that none were left 
 in the guard-house but the king's usual guard, and she re- 
 quested biTTi to make known these truths through the streets 
 in order to reassure everybody. 
 
 He obeyed the orders of the queen; but he was not lis- 
 tened to, — reason and truth not being within range of such 
 a populace. The queen's assurances were received with in- 
 solent remarks, and rejected as wrongs against which the 
 furious crowds had a natural antipathy. Incredulity was 
 increased by a remembrance of the cavalry they had heard 
 of in the morning as being ambushed in the Bois de 
 Boulogne; and out of all these chimeras a fable was made 
 in which the populace had more faith than in the truth. 
 The terror they gave to themselves had such force upon 
 their imagination that some were silly enough to say that 
 the queen of Sweden was at the gates of Paris to help the 
 queen, simply because they had heard that that princess 
 was warlike, and they knew from her late ambassadors that 
 she had contracted an alliance with our queen. 
 
 However, by dint of shouting to them that there was 
 nothing to fear, there came moments when their passion 
 seemed about to subside ; and at seven in the evening mes- 
 sages were brought to the queen that the people were ap- 
 parently willing to quiet down ; which allowed her to 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 335 
 
 prepare to go to bed. She needed rest after the fatigue 
 and the cruel anxieties she had felt in spite of her usual 
 tranquillity. 
 
 She was scarcely seated at her toilet-table before the up- 
 roar of the rue Saint- Antoine which had spread over Paris, 
 began again in the rue Saint-Honor^, with much more terror 
 for the Court than that of the previous day; for at night 
 things seem more dreadful and cause more anxiety. There 
 were persons wicked enough to scatter notes about the 
 streets and public places urging the burghers to take arms, 
 warning them, charitably, that there were troops in the 
 neighbourhood of Paris, and that the queen was about to 
 carry off the king and then have the city sacked as a pun- 
 ishment for their rebellion. 
 
 The alarm was great everywhere, and the Palais-Eoyal 
 had its share of it. They came to tell the queen frankly 
 that she was not in safety in that house without moat or 
 guards. They told her there were troops of burghers min- 
 gled with the canaille who declared openly that they 
 wanted the king, and meant to take him into their own 
 hands and guard him themselves in the HQtel de Ville ; also 
 that they wanted the keys of the city, fearing that the 
 queen would carry him away ; and declaring that if they 
 once had him out of the Palais-Eoyal they did not care 
 what happened, and would set fire to it themselves very 
 willingly. 
 
 On hearing these horrible threats we all began to fear 
 both for her and for ourselves, for her person and for ours, 
 and for our houses, which, being close to the Palais-Eoyal, 
 ran great risk of being piUaged. Every one then spoke to 
 her of the peril in which she was and of the insolent things 
 that the people said against her; for though kings are 
 flattered to the last extremity, when the mask is raised no 
 
336 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xn. 
 
 one spares them. Jarz^, the new captain of the Guards, said 
 to her ostentatiously, " Madame, we are a handful of men 
 who will die at your door." But as such offers had more 
 beauty than force, she received them more as signs of the. 
 danger in which she stood than as a remedy capable of 
 supporting her under evils she had reason to fear. 
 
 She was forced to find support in her own firmness ; for 
 the cardinal was so fiill of trouble and fright that she re- 
 ceived no help from him. She now saw clearly all that 
 might happen to her. She felt it; and the colour which 
 flushed her face at Jarz^'s words let us see it. But I must 
 render her this testimony : after having observed her senti- 
 ments, her speech, her actions, I saw no sign of weakness in 
 her. On the contrary, she continued equable, firm, and 
 steady, appearing at this crisis very worthy of her great 
 forefathers, and speaking like the granddaughter of Charles 
 v., who added piety in his last retreat to his heroic virtues. 
 To those who told her dreadful things she replied in these 
 beautiful words, which I shall remember all my life : 
 " Fear nothing, God will not abandon the king's innocence ; 
 we must trust in Him." 
 
 When I heard her speak thus I was ashamed, I own, for 
 having thought that her tranquillity was sometimes caused 
 by ignorance of danger. I had suspected this, because, in 
 truth, kiags never see their misfortimes except through a 
 thousand veils. Truth, which painters and poets represent 
 naked, is always dressed for kings in a himdred ways, and 
 never does worldly beauty change her fashions as often as 
 Truth when she enters the palace of kings. 
 
 On this occasion a great queen cannot be accused of blind- 
 ness. She felt the position ia which she was so strongly 
 that she was well-nigh ill of it. But her soul, stronger than 
 her body, supported her with such firmness that she scorned 
 
1648] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 337 
 
 to show the suffering that nature made her endure. And 
 this honourable pride of hers was so great that it kept her 
 from giving to her griefs any witness save the darkness of 
 the night. In our presence she contented herself by asking 
 with imtroubled manner for the news which arrived from 
 time to time ; without neglecting, however, all that care and 
 foresight could do to remedy the present extraordinary evils, 
 lander which she had no advice or help of any kind whatso- 
 ever, not even from her minister, who thought then that he 
 should be forced to leave France. 
 
 It is true, in fact, that he dressed himself in gray to be 
 ready to start ; his horses were bridled all night, and his 
 people kept ready to follow him. He even went to visit the 
 burghers' guard-house, to hear what the people were saying 
 and judge for himself. But finally, about midnight, the bur- 
 ghers, seeing that the guards were really no longer stationed 
 around the Palais-Eoyal, where there were but two poor sen- 
 tinels, and that quiet seemed to reign in the king's house, 
 began to feel reassured. They became so, wholly, after the 
 keys of the city were brought to them by the queen's order, 
 and the magistrates, who walked the streets all night, had 
 sworn to them that there was nothing to fear. The uproar 
 quieted down; so much so that Comminges, having gone 
 about the city to see for himself the state of thiugs, came 
 back to assure the queen that he had met scarcely any one. 
 On which assurance we left her, and went to seek in rest 
 some comfort for our misery. 
 
 VOL. I. — 22 
 
XIII. 
 
 1648. 
 
 By August 30th, Paris had recovered an air of peace ; no 
 traces remained of the disturbances, nor of the violent ex- 
 citement of the people. It is to be presumed that the trust 
 the queen had placed ia celestial help had, for the present, 
 saved the great city; at any rate, among so many evil-iu- 
 tentioned persons not one would declare himself the leader 
 of the rebellious canaille. Either that form of unfaithfulness 
 horrified them, or else their malignity was not yet great 
 enough to wish to ruiu France, their country, and their king. 
 Their ambition, envenomed by factious designs, had not yet 
 reached the point to which, for our punishment, God allowed 
 it to be carried; for great evils are not done at a single 
 stroke. Men accustom themselves to crime only little by 
 little, but, to the shame of human nature it must be owned 
 that they do so readily. What gave most uneasiness to the 
 minister was the notes flung about the streets, which he 
 thought must come from a leader holding himself ready to 
 command this body composed of so many different members. 
 All their movements, which the imprisonment of Broussel 
 brought to light, were, in fact, the foreshadowing of an actual 
 evil which came soon after. 
 
 The coadjutor of Paris,^ who had much intelligence and 
 knowledge, and besides that, great courage and grandeur in 
 his soul, feeling bound to employ on this occasion the ia- 
 
 1 Jean-Pranpois-Paul de Gondy, afterwards Cardinal de Eetz, born 1614, 
 died 1679. He was appointed coadjutor to his vincle the Archbishop of 
 Paris in 1643. — Pr. Ed. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 339 
 
 fluence that his character and dignity gave him to pacify 
 the sedition, had gone about the streets with the intention 
 of doing all the service of which he was capable to the king 
 and queen ; and he imagined that he had done them a suf- 
 ficiently important one to be in a position to continue to 
 serve them. But he now learned that instead of praising 
 what he had done, the Court people laughed at him; the 
 minister declared he was afraid, and said that when he him- 
 self had allowed him to come to his house, Beautru had 
 ridiculed him. He complained aloud among his friends, of 
 whom he had a great number, that he was Hi-repaid for the 
 paius he had taken; but it was thought that in order to 
 make known that the evil was greater than was believed at 
 Court, he himself had inspired the insults to the chancellor. 
 The Due d'OrMans, who, up to this time, had always 
 seemed affectionate to the queen, could not behold the state 
 in which the Court now was without being conscious in his 
 soul of some hope that the hatred felt for the queen, increas- 
 ing daily, would replace in his hands the authority he had 
 ceded to her, or at least give him a greater share than that 
 with which he had contented himself. His favourite, who 
 saw this opportunity of increasing his master's power, could 
 not refrain from wishing for it as a means to increase his 
 own ; and as it is difficult not to show what we have in our 
 souls, it was easy for the queen to see that in the council 
 Monsieur did not act as strongly for her as he had done. 
 For this reason she did not employ him as often to find 
 a remedy for her troubles, fearing that the physician might 
 make the malady worse. She therefore thought of bringing 
 to her side the Prince de Cond^, who was inclined to think, 
 as she did, that Monsieur had profited by his absence to 
 make himself master not only of the parliament, but of the 
 council, the city of Paris, and the whole kingdom. 
 
340 MEMOIKS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap, xin. 
 
 The war matters were going on in their usual way in 
 Flanders. The battle of Lens, won by us, made us, in some 
 degree, masters. The Prince de Cond^ besieged Furnes, 
 which the enemy could not relieve. 
 
 About this time our little prince, the real Monsieur, fell 
 ill with a continued fever and great pain in the loins, which 
 made the physicians think it the small-pox. Two days later 
 the disease came out in abundance, and as his fever lessened 
 without any serious mishap, the queen was not uneasy. He 
 was left in his apartment, carefully closed, and was lucky 
 enough to keep his beauty, about which the ladies were 
 much troubled, unimpaired. 
 
 In the beginning of September the queen was ill ; but as 
 she never had for herself any of that effeminate delicacy 
 which is common to our sex, she did not cease to see all the 
 captains of the quarters, whom she thanked for preserving 
 the city from pillage ; and, concealing her feelings, she sent 
 for the burghers and the guild of merchants, to whom she 
 said kind things, though indeed she had good reason to com- 
 plain of them, for they had shown as much passion and fury 
 against her as the most malignant of the canaille. When she 
 ceased speaking to them, I, who had the honour of stand- 
 ing near her, said to her that she had just performed a 
 queen's duty, namely, dissimulation; to which she replied, 
 " And the Christian's duty also." I agree with her that the 
 matter was ample enough for that duty too. 
 
 September 3, parliament came to the Palais-Eoyal to 
 renew its persecutions. The chief-president made remon- 
 strances to the queen on the articles of the King's declara- 
 tion. He requested on behalf of the members, that another 
 should be made to them according to their own forms ; they 
 again declared that they wanted one quarter of the taille- 
 tax to be exempt from all depreciation [non-vahurs] ; they 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 341 
 
 demanded that a fund should be formed to pay the salaries 
 of officers, which had not been paid for a long time ; that 
 subaltern officers should be admitted to the droit annuel 
 without any supplement beiug asked of them, and that the 
 rentes should be paid quarterly, or at least semi-annually. 
 The last thing in the world they thought of was obeying 
 the queen, or even keeping their word to her. 
 
 She, losing courage because she had had too much, an- 
 swered gently that she was very glad that they took knowl- 
 edge of the affairs of the State, and of the need in which the 
 king now was. That being so, she was convinced of their 
 fidelity and affection, and that they would not ask more re- 
 missions for the people in a time when all his affairs were in 
 disorder. Nevertheless, forced by the necessity which was 
 then her guide, she granted nearly all that they asked, ex- 
 cept the exemption of the quarter of the taille from all 
 charge, which was much more than she intended to gi-ant in 
 the last declaration. 
 
 The demands of parliament increased in proportion as 
 favours were granted to them, and they now resolved to ask 
 the queen for permission to continue their sessions during 
 the holidays, which surprised the minister extremely and 
 embarassed him much. He had hoped for the end of par- 
 liament as a release from his troubles, for, as the Italian 
 proverb says : il tempo dava vita — time gave him life. 
 After various negotiations he found himself constrained to 
 grant what the parliament desired, because its members 
 openly said they were resolved to continue their sessions in 
 defiance of the Court. The State was no longer ruled by 
 the old maxims of duty towards sovereigns; they offended 
 him by their disobedience and served him in spite of 
 himself. 
 
 The queen was therefore compelled to send this permis- 
 
342 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xiix. 
 
 sion to parliament by the king's lawyers, but, to defend the 
 ground a little, it was granted for two weeks only. She 
 humbled herself to the point of begging parliament to put 
 an end to the rumours that ill-intentioned persons were put- 
 ting forth against her, accusiug her of a thousand false 
 thiugs, of which it was impossible for her even to think. It 
 was told that she had ordered the street chains filed through, 
 and that certain astrologers had predicted great disorders on 
 the day of Notre-Dame, when, it was said, she meant to 
 have a second Saiut-Bartholomew. She told them once 
 more that she knew they were holding certain assemblies in 
 the Faubourg Sauat-Germaia, composed of many sorts of per- 
 sons who were defying her authority, and she requested them 
 to take notice of this and give orders to apply the necessary 
 remedy. 
 
 These submissive entreaties, so at variance with the sen- 
 timents and past conduct of the queen, showed clearly that 
 there were two wills, hers and another's ; and that the first, 
 to her misfortune, yielded often to the second. On all these 
 demands of the queen, Broussel said that, in his opinion, they 
 ought to be enregistered ; which was done solely for the 
 glorification of parliament, as it did not put an end in any 
 way to its iatrigues. To keep up appearances and to satisfy 
 propriety in some degree, the Assembly issued, a few days 
 later, a decree against the astrologers and, in general, against 
 all who disturbed the public peace. But no one took the 
 trouble to put it in execution ; and as for what concerned the 
 respect due to the person of the queen, it became a 'subject of 
 public ridicule. 
 
 While parliament was thwarting in this way all the plans 
 of the cardinal, he, instead of avenging himself on his ene- 
 mies, was trying to conciliate them. About this time he 
 received a letter from the Comte de B^thune, father of the 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 343 
 
 Comte de Charost. This old seigneur, then over eighty- 
 years of age, entreated the minister to protect his son under 
 the fault he had committed. In acknowledging this crime, 
 he excused the criminal so wittily that it was easy to see he 
 regarded his son's fault as noble and honourable, and that he 
 was not at all sorry to know he was guilty of it. The letter 
 was much praised by him who received it ; copies flew about 
 Paris, exciting admiration for the spirit that produced it, 
 and the minister (very laudable iu this) showed a desire to 
 arrange the affair to the satisfaction of all parties. 
 
 On September 12 news was received from Furnes which 
 informed the queen that the Prince de Condd had received a 
 musket-shot on the thigh before that place ; but fortunately 
 it was only a contusion, because his buff coat chanced to have 
 doubled itself back at that very spot. 
 
 On the same day the queen said openly that she thought 
 of making a little trip to Euel merely to have the Palais- 
 Eoyal cleaned, for it needed purifying. The people had shown 
 such aversion to allowing the king to leave Paris that it was 
 thought unwise to allow this apparently simple trip to be 
 known before the time of its execution. The cardinal, 
 against whom the populace vomited execrations, was re- 
 duced to the extremity of not daring to leave the king's 
 house. He feared the after results of the rebellion, which 
 might be dangerous for him personally. The queen did 
 not refrain from going out, but the bad disposition of the 
 public mind gave her reason to fear many things. Thus the 
 air of the open country, telling of liberty and innocence, 
 seemed as necessary a preservative against the corruption of 
 souls as it was also against that of the body. The dirty con- 
 dition of the Palais-Eoyal was therefore a plausible pretext 
 for bringing to a climax certain designs locked up in the 
 breast of the minister, which were of sufficient consequence 
 
344 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xni. 
 
 to oblige him to take all necessary precautions in order to 
 execute them properly. 
 
 September 13, without making more stir than the queen's 
 remark about the journey on the preceding day, the kiug, 
 accompanied by Cardinal Mazarin, a few persons, and a few 
 guards started from Paris at six in the morning ; and by this 
 celerity the opportunity was taken from parliament and 
 burghers to oppose his going. The queen remained behiad, 
 as being the most valiant, to cover this retreat. Her con- 
 fessor being ill she arranged to go to the Cordeliers to 
 confess, and then to bid adieu to the good nuns of the 
 Val-de-Grace, whom she honoured with her particular friend- 
 ship. Before leaving, she went in to see Monsieur, whom 
 she f oimd well treated for his small-pox ; nevertheless, 
 she said nothing of her departure, for fear of distressing 
 him. 
 
 The king, as he left Paris, met several groups of rascals 
 who shouted, " To arms ! " and attempted to pillage the 
 carts that carried his baggage. This insolence made the 
 minister extremely imeasy on account of the queen, who re- 
 mained alone in Paris. He sent Estrade back to warn her, 
 and to beg her from the king not to go to the Val-de-GrSce, 
 but to come straight to Euel, and as quickly as possible. 
 
 I had the honour of being alone with her when she 
 received this advice, and I saw her consult within herself. 
 She judged, as she did me the honour to tell me, that 
 nothing ought to be changed in what she had said she 
 should do. Her carriages were already in the courtyard 
 and her coif upon her head ; she was ready to start ; and 
 she knew, by her good judgment, that if she showed any 
 fear her own officers, through the surprise they would feel, 
 might perhaps rouse the populace. She decided, therefore, 
 that it was better to show security to all than to trust this 
 
164S] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 345 
 
 secret to a few; and so, without betraying alarm at so 
 evident a danger, she made her two visits and after that a 
 glorious retreat. She saw the provost of the merchants 
 before starting, to whom she promised that the king and 
 herself should assvu-edly return in a week. 
 
 The queen showed, by this act of prudence and firmness 
 that the cardinal was much mistaken when he said that 
 her courage came from ignorance. Mademoiselle did not 
 accompany the queen on this trip; she was living rather 
 retired from Court since her last adventure. She often 
 went to one of her country houses to amuse herself and 
 show that she did not care for the affront she had received. 
 
 The Prince de Cond^, after the taking of Fumes, had 
 expressed an extreme desire to return to the king ; and 
 the queen, who was not as satisfied as usual with the Due 
 d'Orldans, wiUiagly consented, in order to have a strong 
 support against the people, and a second against the Due 
 d'Orl^ans, in case he proved capable of wishing to profit by 
 the bad state of her affairs. 
 
 Parliament and the people, finding themselves deprived 
 of the person of the king, were alarmed, and this alarm 
 increased their rebellion and their audacity. They both 
 knew their own wrong-doing ; they knew the power of the 
 sovereign, and they saw his armies victorious, triumphant, 
 and faithful. They saw also the two princes of the blood 
 attached apparently to the interests of an offended queen 
 and her outraged minister. In such a position, they would, 
 reasonably enough, have fears ; but also they had confidence 
 in their own audacity, and imagined, with good reason, that 
 the way to save themselves was to make the minister 
 afraid. 
 
 The queen, on her side, not yet feeling sure of being able 
 to avenge herself, showed no sign of intending to do so ; on 
 
346 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. ini. 
 
 the contrary, she spoke of returning to Paris, without, how- 
 ever, naming the day, and seemed to meditate a little visit 
 to Fontainebleau, to see from there, in peace and quiet, 
 what time might advise. The cardinal, more wily stiU, 
 sought to vanquish his enemies by dissimulation. By 
 avoiding their blows he hoped, when this first storm was 
 over, to give them a few on his return, and such as would 
 insiire their defeat. 
 
 Many speculative minds declared that the queen could 
 not, without shame, let Paris go unpunished for the out- 
 rages to her person; that as the army of the Prince de 
 Cond^ was returning, the people ought to be made afraid by 
 blocking the entrances to the great city, which, from its 
 vastness, would suffer in two weeks' time so severe a famine, 
 that they would find themselves compelled to ask pardon 
 for their crimes. Others, fearing a general rebellion of the 
 whole people disgusted by so many years of war, thought 
 there was reason to doubt the success of that measure, and 
 that if Paris were in a state of open rebellion all the 
 people of the country would follow her example, and the 
 punishment of one city would drag the whole of France 
 into the same crime. But the arguments of persons at 
 Court do not always accord with the designs of those 
 who rule there; the queen at this moment was thinking 
 only of how to maintain peace in all parts of the kingdom, 
 and the thoughts of her minister went no farther than a 
 little war against two individuals, by which he hoped to 
 escape a greater. 
 
 Parties, in States, are born usually of some hidden cause 
 which the passions of men produce; and often the great 
 movements of the world which make or destroy empires 
 have no other source than the secret intrigues of a few 
 persons about trivial matters. It is to be believed that 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 347 
 
 parliament was not impelled of itself alone to such great 
 
 undertakings. It was clearly seen that certain persons 
 
 must be ia collusion with the leaders of this assembly, 
 
 making them act, and inspiring them with that spirit of 
 
 rebellion which was doing such harm in France. Cha- 
 
 teauneuf and Chavigny were suspected by the cardinal of 
 
 being the two poles on which these great undertakings 
 
 hung, and it is to be believed that he was not mistaken. 
 
 Chavigny ^ was a man who had always considered that the 
 
 office of minister was usurped by the cardinal. Chateauneuf 
 
 was a former friend, irritated and now become the cardinal's 
 
 enemy ; he had worked for the latter's elevation by Cardinal 
 
 Eichelieu, and his friends, at his request, had assisted in 
 
 placing him with the queen. Consequently, he had not 
 
 been able to endure that the minister should treat him with 
 
 so little favour. It was easy to judge that so ambitious a 
 
 man would not bear such overthrow without avenging it, or 
 
 without working to protect himself from the evils put upon 
 
 him. Chavigny was attached to the Prince de Cond^, and 
 
 had many relations in parliament. President Viole, who 
 
 was among them and his intimate friend, was also one of 
 
 the bitterest against the Court; and it seemed as though 
 
 there could be no mistake in accusing him of fomenting 
 
 the rebellion of parliament. Ch&teauneuf was protected 
 
 by the Due d'Orl^ans, and he also had many friends attached 
 
 to his interests, whether in parliament or elsewhere. So 
 
 that these two men, regarded as party leaders, having the 
 
 ' Chavigny, prime minister of Louis XIII., dismissed by Anne of Austria 
 under the influence of the Vendome party (les Importants), replaced in the 
 council by Mazarin, to fulfil a pledge, and again removed and made 
 governor of Vincennea. Montglat says formally that Chavigny had 
 friends in parliament " whom he stirred up secretly against Mazarin, 
 advising them to name the cardinal openly, and not to be satisfied with 
 the exile of d'J&mery, unless that of the minister was also granted to 
 them." — Ek. Ed. 
 
348 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xiii. 
 
 same sentiments and tending to the same end, though by 
 different roads and opposing cabals, had both about the 
 same destiny. 
 
 As soon as the queen arrived at Euel, Chtteauneuf re- 
 ceived the commands of the king to retire to his own house, 
 one hundred and fifty miles from Paris, in order to remove 
 him from a place where he was continually intriguing 
 against the minister. Chavigny was then (September 18) 
 at Vincennes, of which he was governor. This same morn- 
 ing, at eleven o'clock, they came to tell him that a gentle- 
 man in ordinary of the king asked to see him. After the 
 battle of Lens the prisoners of importance were ordered to 
 be placed in Vincennes. Chavigny supposed that the person 
 who came from the king brought some order in relation to 
 these foreigners ; he sent his lieutenant to him with direc- 
 tions to do whatever the gentleman commanded. But the 
 lieutenant returned to say that it was to himself that the 
 messenger wished to speak. He then made him enter, and 
 received from him a lettre de cachet, commanding him to 
 start iu two hours for Chavigny and to take his wife with 
 him. When he had read the letter he showed it to two of 
 his friends who were with him and said : " Messieurs, we 
 must separate. We hoped to dine together, but you must 
 return to Paris, and I must go where the king commands 
 me withiQ two hours." At these words Madame de 
 Chavigny came to him ; they conferred together as to what 
 they had to do, and resolved that before starting she should 
 go to Paris and get some papers, and some clothes which 
 she needed. They did not expect at this moment any 
 greater misfortune than that which they saw before them, 
 which was simply qidtting Paris. But, just as she was 
 getting into the carriage, they came to tell her husband 
 that a captain of the Guards, named Droit, asked to see 
 
1648] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 349 
 
 him. When the latter entered, he said that he had come 
 to take possession of Vincennes. On receiving this order 
 Chavigny gave him all the keys ; and Droit, having re- 
 ceived them, placed guards on the avenues and at all the 
 gates of the castle, and then returned to Chavigny, whom 
 he arrested in the name of the king, placing guards in his 
 chamber. 
 
 Madame de Chavigny, who was already in her carriage 
 and about to go to her own house, received orders not to re- 
 turn to Paris, but to go to Chavigny alone. She got out of 
 the carriage, and going up, in spite of the guards, to her hus- 
 band's room, she found him already surrounded. They were 
 not allowed to speak together in a low voice, but as he kissed 
 her, he put into her hand letters from the Prince de Cond^ 
 which he had in his pocket. She told me afterwards that 
 they were of consequence, and might have injured him. 
 They said a few words to each other and then she was 
 compelled to leave him and obey the order she had just 
 received. 
 
 Chavigny's friends returned to Paris. As for him, he 
 was taken to the prison where the Due de Beaufort and the 
 other captives in his charge had been confined. He found 
 himself humiliated in the very place where he had com- 
 manded, and reduced to the hard necessity of suffering 
 through the orders of the one man in the world whom he 
 thought the most obliged to him. Here we see the vicissi- 
 tudes usually to be found in the fate of men who live by 
 favour. It is almost impossible for such men to continue 
 long in a state of prosperity ; the different events of life 
 make those who aspire to the grandeurs of the world feel 
 the extremes of good and evil, — good forever accompanied 
 with some trouble, and evil oftenest without the mixture of 
 any good. 
 
350 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xiii. 
 
 For the last two years Chavigny had been very ill-satisfied 
 with the Court ; he had suffered much, no doubt, at seeing 
 himself turned out of the dignified ofiice he had held under 
 the favour of Cardinal Eichelieu. But that ill was only a 
 slow fever that aiTected his health without danger to his life. 
 But now he was in the strongest throes and paroxysms of 
 the disease ; most unfortunate if innocent, more unfortunate 
 still if guilty of having, for his own private interests, con- 
 tributed to a rebellion which was causing great evils to the 
 State. He remained some time at Vincennes and was then 
 sent a prisoner to Havre. But he came from there much 
 sooner than the minister desired. 
 
 Chavigny's friends thought he had great reason to com- 
 plain of Cardinal Mazarin, and the minister was treated by 
 them as the most imgrateful of men. But he said in his 
 own defence that he had returned to Chavigny, when the 
 latter was in favour, all the benefits to which friendship and 
 gratitude constrained him. And one day, one of his friends 
 having reminded him of the friendship that M. de Chavigny 
 had shown him, he replied that, considering the manner in 
 which he had treated him, the devil himself would have 
 loved him; and that later, when, raised to the ministry of 
 the regency, he had found that M. de Chavigny was dis- 
 liked by the queen, he nevertheless kept him in the min- 
 istry; for though he could not give him back his office 
 of secretary of State (which the Comte de Brienne had just 
 received from the queen's own hands), it was partly because 
 he would not openly thwart the inclinations of a princess 
 on whom his own fortune depended ; and besides this, he 
 was not capable of doing a violent thing, which Chavigny 
 ought not to have asked of him. But otherwise he had 
 treated him well, and fully intended to let him share his 
 own favour had he shown that he was capable of receiv- 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTBVILLE. 351 
 
 ing it with the same deference he had formerly received 
 from himself. 
 
 The cardinal said, further, that haviag never been able to 
 bring M. de Chavigny to that deference, it was impossible to 
 let him share a good he would only receive in his own way. 
 Finally, dislike having succeeded to friendship, it had now 
 passed into hatred, but he was not the cause of it; and 
 nothing but M. de Chavigny's own audacity had forced him 
 to fail in that which he confessed he owed to him. 
 
 The friends of ChSteauneuf did not complain on the same 
 grounds ; but they were much grieved at the disgrace of their 
 friend; the only consolation they had was in seeing that 
 Chavigny was worse treated. The Commander de Jars, al- 
 ways ready to strongly defend those whom he liked, no 
 sooner knew of Chateauneuf's dismissal than he went to see 
 the cardinal. He told him frankly that he was shocked at 
 this change, which had not been perceived by any of those 
 who made public profession of being their friends ; and that 
 even lately he remembered that his Eminence, speaking to 
 him of Chateauneuf, had not shown any sign of wishing to 
 complain of his conduct; consequently the latter's dismissal 
 had greatly surprised him. 
 
 The minister, well-used to making smooth speeches, re- 
 plied that it was true he did not wish to harm his friend, — 
 who was innocent of any crime; but he was willing to 
 tell M. de Jars that, having the intention to arrest M. de 
 Chavigny, who was protected by the Prince de Cond4, then 
 triumphant from the battle of Lens, he had judged it best, in 
 order to legitimately refuse him the freedom of this prisoner 
 whom he protected, to be able to tell him that Monsieur, the 
 king's uncle, was also refused the return of M. de Chateauneuf, 
 and therefore it was necessary that he should have a little 
 patience. 
 
352 MEMOIRS OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xin. 
 
 The cardinal, however, regarded with precisely the same 
 eyes the banished man and the imprisoned man, and Com- 
 mander de Jars perceived a sort of coldness towards himself 
 in this reply. In truth, the minister saw with vexation that 
 two fine abbeys which he had given to de Jars did not make 
 him less partial to his friend from whom he had never re- 
 ceived anything. 
 
 The commander, feeling his position, went to see the 
 queen. As he had entire familiarity with her, he spoke to 
 her in these very words : " Madame, M. de Chateauneuf is 
 sent away. He is a man to whom I can never cease to be 
 a friend. Your Majesty knows the intimacy that I have 
 with him. It is not my intention to let it be prejudicial to 
 your service. But Madame, if you have the least suspicion 
 that it may be, or if M. le cardinal has, I very humbly 
 entreat you to tell me so. For, rather than be regarded by 
 your Majesty with any distrust of my fidelity, I should leave 
 the Court and live in a manner to give your Majesty no 
 ground to complain of me." 
 
 The queen, who had much good-will to him, answered 
 that his friend had not been sent away for any wrong he 
 had done, but merely for reasons of State concerning his 
 service ; that therefore she could not take it ill if he should 
 continue to be his friend ; and that she herself wished him 
 to remain with her and live as usual. That evening, on 
 leaving the queen, he told me the whole conversation, which 
 greatly solaced his heart. For he was a true gentleman, 
 full of honour, though his goodness was sometimes obscured 
 by the violence of his temper, which prevented him from 
 always judging and acting by strict reason. So that, being 
 beset by his own feelings, he was too convinced that the 
 minister was always wrong ; and as he did not like him, 
 he never did him justice under any head. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 353 
 
 Fontrailles, exiled under the late king [the Marquis de 
 Fontrailles, who had taken part in the affair of Ciaq-Mars], 
 had returned to Court under the protection of Chavigny. 
 He was even one of the familiar friends of the cardinal; 
 for it was no crime with him to have been the confidant of 
 the grand equerry. Latterly, he had displeased the minis- 
 ter by replying to a gentle reprimand about certaki de- 
 bauches, that it was not for the cardiual to take notice of 
 such matters; and if he and those who accompanied him 
 had done wrong, parliament could sue them. As the mere 
 citing of that assembly at this time was a crime, the minis- 
 ter regarded this speech as a threat, and banished him a 
 second time. 
 
 It was certainly not an unreasonable thing to send away 
 from Court and from the city of Paris a man who only 
 cared for making jests, who decried the government, and 
 infected with atheism the souls of those with whom he was 
 intimate. For at this time and henceforth the Court was 
 only too much contaminated by this very sort of free-think- 
 ing minds, which are always the cause of great evils. This 
 man had great charms in society ; he was witty, generous, 
 honourable; and, according to the world's maxims, those 
 qualities were enough to make his friends weary at not see- 
 ing him. 
 
 Some one [the Due de Mortemart] bolder than others 
 asked the cardinal to bring him back. He answered that 
 he would willingly do so, but that Monsieur did not wish 
 it. This friend, with capital craft and making no stir about 
 it, went to see the Due d'Orl^ans and laughingly reproached 
 him for not letting that poor Fontrailles return to those 
 who were languishing with grief at his absence. Monsieur, 
 who had not opposed his return, replied at once that he 
 asked no better than to have him back, but that the queen 
 
 VOL. I. — 23 
 
354 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xin. 
 
 and cardinal did not wish it. The active friend, being thus 
 assured on both sides, though he knew very well from 
 whom came the harm, without saying another word to the 
 minister, sent for Fontrailles and boldly presented him at 
 Court. Cardinal Mazarin was amazed to hear of his re- 
 turn, and demanded the reason of the zealous friend, who 
 coolly replied that, his Eminence having assured him that 
 he was williag Fontrailles should return provided Monsieur 
 was willing, and Monsieur having consented, he had sent 
 for him. The story ending thus the minister received it 
 with a good grace, though ia his heart he was not pleased ; 
 and the trick played upon him was not forgotten when, 
 occasion came. 
 
 Fontrailles was one of Chavigny's friends; it was well 
 to punish him for his other sins imder cover of this one. 
 They sent to arrest him at the same time that Chavigny was 
 put in the prison at Viucennes. But he, who was accustomed 
 to escape from perils of this nature, having been warned on 
 waking that the king's Guards were before his door and 
 seemed to be awaiting him, ordered horses to his carriage 
 and a fat valet into his bed to fool the soldiers, while he 
 escaped on the other side, and thus preserved his liberty to 
 work at other intrigues. 
 
 The dismissal of the two ministers of the late reign made 
 a great noise among those who were interested in their 
 fortunes. The two cabals, which were in a way embodied 
 in the persons of these men, made this matter an affair of 
 State, which was taken up by parliament as being advan- 
 tageous to it. On the 22d of this month (September) it 
 assembled and would not listen to further discussion of 
 tariff or rentes. The speakers complained of the violence 
 committed on the person of M. de Chavigny, a man of worth 
 and honour, saying openly that he was outraged by one 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 355 
 
 who owed to him his fortune, by a foreigner, by a man who 
 was ruining the king and the State, and robbiug the treas- 
 ury to send money to Italy. In short, they said, against the 
 minister and in favour of the prisoner aU that self-interest 
 suggests on such occasions to passionate men. 
 
 After deliberating on what they should do, they decided to 
 send deputies to the queen at Euel, praying her to bring the 
 king back within twenty-four hours, and to continue, them- 
 selves, to assemble until they had reformed the State and 
 changed the minister. To succeed in this purpose they sent 
 deputies to all the princes of the blood entreating them to be 
 present the next day in parliament, in order that in their 
 presence they might take steps to regulate the disorders and 
 abuses which had crept into the kingdom by the fault of him 
 who governed it. They said openly that their intention was 
 to issue on the morrow an edict like that of 1617, which 
 was given on the death of the Mar^chal d'Ancre, decreeing 
 that in future no foreigner, of whatever rank he might be, 
 should govern the State. The chief-president was deputed 
 to go to the queen the same day, and President de Maisons 
 to the princes, entreating them to be present the next day 
 at their deliberations. 
 
 The Prince de Cond^ was in Paris. He had just arrived 
 from the army and had not yet seen the queen. President 
 de Maisons found him and made the request in due form. 
 The Princesse de Cond4 told me, this same day at Euel, that 
 her son had replied as follows : that he was just starting 
 to see the queen and receive her orders; that he begged 
 parliament to do hkewise, and to resolve to obey her, as 
 he himself intended to do. Some hours later aU the depu- 
 ties arrived together at Euel, with the excitement that 
 such a deputation was sure to cause in a Court predis- 
 posed to prejudice. 
 
356 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xni. 
 
 I had gone to Euel very early in the morning to see the 
 queen about these changes ; for I had not had that honour 
 since she had left Paris. I found her at her toilet, dressing 
 herself tranquilly, and not knowing as yet what the parlia- 
 ment had done ; and I myself could not tell her, because it 
 was still assembled when I left Paris, and my haste had pre- 
 vented me from learning what the seditious minds of that 
 assembly were doing agailist her peace. The queen did me 
 the honour to take me aside as soon as she left her mirror, to 
 ask what was being said in Paris. I replied that persons 
 were talking much of the fear of the Parisians lest she should 
 not bring the king back to them for a long time ; also of the 
 imprisonment of M. de Chavigny; and, above all, they 
 desired that M. de Chateauneuf should keep his office ; and 
 I told her that all these things together made me fear that 
 some tumult would arise, and that she ought to prepare her- 
 self for bold enterprises which would surely displease her. 
 
 She answered that the people were wrong to suspect her of 
 wishing to punish them ; that I knew her, and knew that in 
 truth she only asked for peace ; as for M. de Chavigny, whose 
 wife, she knew, was my friend, she assured me she had not 
 resolved on his imprisonment without very strong reasons, 
 and that the cardinal also had had great difficulty in doing 
 so. She added that she awaited with impatience to know 
 what parliament would do that day, foreseeing bad results 
 from their usual violence, the regard they had for the pris- 
 oner, and the hatred they felt to her minister. All that 
 she apprehended happened as she said; and soon after 
 they came to tell her of the resolutions passed (as I re- 
 lated), with which she was ill-pleased and her minister 
 much embarrassed. 
 
 I went to dine with the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, who kept 
 open house for the honourable persons who came to pay their 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 357 
 
 court to the king and queen, whom she had the honour of 
 lodging in her house. On my return I found the queen in 
 her circle, with a face apparently set firm against evil, laugh- 
 ing and talking as usual. With a single glance of her eyes 
 she made me understand what was passing in her soul, but 
 towards the public no sign of any change in her mind was 
 visible. And yet she was attacked in the person of her min- 
 ister, whom she saw on the verge of being driven away by the 
 violence of the populace; she saw her authority trampled 
 under foot, her person insulted by a thousand outrages ; and 
 she knew she had no resource but the hope that the princes 
 would not abandon her, — which must surely be a very uncer- 
 tain hope for a regent, whose fall from power is necessarily 
 their rise. 
 
 About three o'clock the deputies arrived at Kuel, with 
 an air of pride that looked a little like bravado. The Prin- 
 cesse de Cond^, who liked Chavigny, from whom she had 
 received a thousand little services in the days of the late 
 king and Cardinal Eichelieu, and who was the secondary 
 cause of the opposition she had always made to Chateauneuf, 
 took me by the hand and led me to the window to see these 
 dotards of the long robe file into the courtyard. The deputa- 
 tion did not displease her ; she thought they all made a good 
 appearance, and could not help saying — speaking to me as 
 to a person who had the reputation of knowing how to hold 
 her tongue — that she approved of the answer her son had 
 made to the deputies ; but she did not approve of his being 
 indifferent to the imprisonment of M. de Chavigny. 
 
 The harangue of the chief-president was short. He told 
 the queen that he had come on behalf of his company, to en- 
 treat her Majesty to return with the king to their good city 
 of Paris, among their good and faithful subjects, who com- 
 plained that the absence of the king had seemed to them 
 
358 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xiii. 
 
 more like an abduction than a journey, he having left the 
 city early in the morning without guards ; and, this sun 
 being thus eclipsed, darkness seemed everywhere, and it was 
 to be feared that his continued absence would cause some 
 great disturbance. He then made complaints on behalf of 
 parliament respecting the imprisonment of M. de Chavigny, 
 offered urgent prayers for his release, and concluded by en- 
 treating the queen not to think it ill that they had resolved 
 to continue to assemble and labour for the reformation of 
 the State. 
 
 The queen replied that she was astonished to see that 
 kings were deprived of the privilege which all private per- 
 sons enjoyed; that it was the custom of those who lived 
 in Paris to quit the town at this season to enjoy the 
 last of the fine weather; and it was strange that subjects 
 should wish to prevent their sovereign from living like other 
 men; that she had left the Palais-Eoyal in order that it 
 might be cleaned of the dirt which always accompanied a 
 Court whenever it stayed for a length of time in one place ; 
 and that she particularly desired to ventilate it from the 
 infected air of small-pox which her son had had; that 
 she intended to return to Paris, but it would be when it 
 pleased her ; that she was much dissatisfied with their muti- 
 nous spirit and the manner in which they censured her 
 actions, for which she rendered an account to God only, and 
 would render to the king her son when he should be of an 
 age to judge them ; that she had caused M. de Chavigny to 
 be arrested for good and sufificient reasons ; that she did not 
 think their demands just or their assemblies legitimate, and 
 that they must take care to reform them. 
 
 President de Maisons then made his harangue to the Due 
 d'Orl^ans, in presence of the queen, and entreated him, on 
 behalf of parliament, to be present the next day at their 
 
1648] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 359 
 
 deliberations, which they were determined to contiaue untU. 
 they had put the requisite and necessary order into the 
 State. 
 
 The Due d'Orl^ans replied vigorously that he joined in the 
 interests of the queen to defend the royal authority, which 
 was infinitely insulted by their proceedings ; that, their as- 
 semblies beiag held without the royal permission, they could 
 only be contrary to the kiag's service ; and, having the hon- 
 our to be uncle to the kiag, he was bound to maintain his 
 authority and to work with all his power to have the queen 
 obeyed ; and he repeated more than once that he would have 
 her obeyed and the cardinal maintained in defiance of their 
 seditious cabals. The duke, in spite of the coolness which 
 the queen had noticed in him, answered thus with warmth, 
 first, out of fidelity to the king, and next, from emulation of 
 the Prince de Cond^, who he saw was going over wholly to 
 the queen's interests ; besides which, he did not like M. de 
 Chavigny, whose imprisonment was not displeasing to him, 
 and he was angry with parliament for making such disturb- 
 ance for his liberty. 
 
 The Prince de Cond^, who had arrived that day to visit the 
 king and queen, replied to the harangue which was made to 
 him at the same time, saying that, having learned from the 
 queen's own lips that her Majesty had not permitted them 
 to assemble, except for the tariff and the rentes, he was very 
 ready to say to them in her presence that he would never 
 allow their disobedience or their undertakings; that he 
 would spend the last drop of his blood in defending her 
 interests against them; and having the honour to be what 
 he was to the king, he was resolved to die in his service ; and 
 that he should never depart from these feelings, nor from the 
 friendship he had promised the cardinal, whose interests 
 were very dear and considerable to him. 
 
360 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTBVILLE. [chap. xin. 
 
 The Prince de Conti also made an answer based on the 
 two preceding ones, assuring them that he should not depart 
 from the sentiments expressed by Monsieur and his own 
 brother; that he himself was servant of the queen and 
 would die in her interests and those of the cardinal. 
 
 The Due de Longueville, wishing to figure as prince of the 
 blood, tried to speak to President de Maisons, but, either by 
 order or by chance, he found himself interrupted by the 
 chancellor. 1 Then all together, sometimes one sometimes 
 the other, they talked to the gentry of the parliament, point- 
 ing out to them their fault and the disturbances that through 
 such conduct they would cause in the kingdom. 
 
 The queen did me the honour to tell me that evening, be- 
 fore I started to return to Paris, that the chief-president, in 
 speaking to her, had his eyes full of tears from pain at seeing 
 himself obliged to be mixed up in such audacious enter- 
 prises, so contrary to the service of the king and the public 
 good. 
 
 Though the cardinal had not been named by the deputa- 
 tion, he was not ignorant of the way in which he had been 
 treated ia the sessions of parliament, and he seemed to 
 desire some public demoiistration of the protection of the 
 royal family. The princes had been quite willing to give it 
 to him, not only to oblige the queen, but more because they 
 believed that this minister without power, and who up to 
 that time had seemed weak, was better for them than any 
 other. He himself felt that they were accustomed to his 
 industrious and submissive ways and found them convenient. 
 He cleverly made use of the defects that appeared to be in 
 
 1 Omer Talon says that the Due de Longueville did speak, hut with more 
 gentleness, and he exhorted the magistrates to conciliation and modera- 
 tion. This may be why the chancellor interrupted him as Mme. de Motte- 
 ville states. — Fk. Ed. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 361 
 
 him in order to impress upon their souls a real desire to pro- 
 tect him, from a belief that by supporting him they would 
 reign more absolutely through his dependence upon them. 
 
 Matters being ia the state iu which they were, the queen 
 resolved to bring the little Monsieur from Paris, where he 
 had been left ill with the small-pox. In order to cheat the 
 Parisians, who were delighted to have this precious hostage 
 ia their hands, she gave orders to Beringhen, chief equerry, to 
 go in quietly and achieve this conquest over them. He left 
 Ruel and came to Paris, as others of the Court did daily. 
 Having arrived, he got into a carriage with two horses and 
 went to the Palais-Royal to pay a visit to the little prince. 
 He took him in his arms and hid him in the back of his car- 
 riage, and then drove to Longchamps. There he put him 
 into a boat in which to cross to the other bank of the river, 
 where one of the king's carriages awaited them, which took 
 them to Boisenval, close to Euel. 
 
 The queen went to see her son the next day, and took him 
 back with her to the king, intending to change her place of 
 residence and go to Saint-Germain, where the Court would 
 be separated from Paris by three arms of the river, and at a 
 more reasonable distance than at Fontainebleau for working 
 conveniently on the matters which parliament stirred up 
 daily. Guards were placed at the bridge of Neuilly until 
 the departure of the king, because they feared a surging-up 
 of the people of Paris and the dangerous results of their 
 anger. 
 
 The next day, September 23, a declaration was sent to 
 parliament from the king, forbidding it to assemble except 
 for the discussion of the tariff and the rentes. Throughout 
 that night many persons left Paris ; many others sent away 
 their property; and all divined, without being astrologers, 
 that we were on the brink of many misfortunes. The popu- 
 
362 MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. mi. 
 
 lace and the burghers felt already in theu' fears the punish- 
 ment of their rebellion. They laid in a stock of wheat; 
 provisions grew dearer ; and all things foretold to them the 
 anger of Heaven and that of the king. When the Parisians 
 became aware that Monsieur had been taken from them, they 
 murmured loudly and some of the canaille assembled around 
 the Palais-Eoyal, crying out they were lost, the city would 
 be sacked now that Monsieur was out of it. But all this 
 came to nothing. 
 
 Parliament, on its side, deliberated on the last declaration 
 of the king ; on which it was resolved to send remonstrances 
 to the queen in writing and to enjoin the provost of mer- 
 chants to take measures for the public safety and provide 
 that the people should not be left without provisions.^ 
 While they were assembled, Choisy, chancellor of the Due 
 d'OrMans, brought them a letter from the duke, and the 
 Chevalier de La Eivi^re brought them another from the 
 Prince de Cond^. Here is what they both contained : — 
 
 From M. le Due d' Orleans to the Parliament. 
 
 Messieurs, — You know the pains I have taken to con- 
 ciliate present affairs, and that I have always brought to 
 that purpose all the moderation [temperament] which the 
 service of the king, my lord and nephew, and the satisfac- 
 tion of your company could desire ; and as I judge that in 
 the present state of those affairs a conference would be very 
 
 1 This decree, passed by a majority of four votes only (seventy-one 
 against sixty-seven), cast alarm into Paris, and stopped all business, — " to 
 such a point," says Omer Talon, " that a cart loaded with furniture be- 
 longing to the Baron d'Aigle, was stopped before the markets and pil- 
 laged, the rascals saying that, as the covers were red, the property be- 
 longed to the cardinal. Besides which, a carriage in which were eight or 
 ten thousand silver livres belonging to Madame de Bretonvilliers was 
 stopped near the lie Notre-Dame and pillaged by boatmen, but a part of 
 the money was immediately recovered." — Fk. Ed. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 363 
 
 useful to regulate all things, I am willing still to write you 
 
 this letter to beg you to depute some of your body to be 
 
 in a place where the queen will be to consult on means 
 
 judged suitable for public peace. I wish to believe that 
 
 you will concur with me in this good purpose, and that you 
 
 will give the same belief to what the Sieur de Choisy, my 
 
 chancellor, will say to you on this subject. 
 
 Your afifectionate friend, 
 
 Gaston. 
 
 From RUEL, September 23, 1648. 
 
 On the back was written, — 
 
 " To Messieurs les gens holdiug the court of parliament of 
 the king, my lord and nephew." 
 
 The letter of the Prince de Condd was as follows : — 
 
 From M. le Prince de Condi to the Parliament. 
 
 Messieurs, — Being unable to go to parliament, as you 
 showed to me you wished by your deputation of yesterday 
 that I should do, and foreseeing the inconveniences which 
 may arise if you continue your deliberations without my 
 previously seeing you, I have thought best to invite you, as 
 M. le Due d'Orldans has done, to a conference at Saint-Ger- 
 main, at which we can discuss the disorders at present in the 
 State, and endeavour to remedy them. The zeal that I have 
 for the service of the king, and the affection that I have for 
 your company, induce me to propose to you this method of 
 remedying evils which perhaps neither you nor I can again 
 control if you lose this occasion. The queen has all the 
 sentiments of kindness that your company can desire and 
 expect. M. le Due d'Orl^ans has sufficiently proved his to 
 you by the care he has taken up to this hour, and by the 
 letter he now writes to you. As for me, I have no stronger 
 
364 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xiii. 
 
 passion, after that which I have for the good of the State 
 and the maintenance of the royal authority, than that of 
 serving you. Show, therefore, on this occasion, the zeal 
 which you have testified for the service of the king by con- 
 tributing all in your power for the conciliation of matters, 
 and give me reason to show to you, by the services that I 
 shall render with her Majesty, that I am your very humble 
 
 and very affectionate servant. 
 
 Louis de Bourbon. 
 
 From RUEL, September 23, 1648. 
 
 And on the fold of the letter, — 
 
 " To Messieurs of the court of parliament." 
 
 After the reading of these letters and their discussion, it 
 was resolved to send deputies to Saint-Germain to the 
 princes, to confer with them only} according to their re- 
 quest, on the disturbances in the State and present matters. 
 These deputies were ordered, before entering on any dis- 
 cussion, to demand of the queen Chavigny's liberty, ChSteau- 
 neuf's return, and that both be restored to their offices. 
 On this point President de Mesmes said that it was reason- 
 able to demand their liberty and their return, but that it was 
 just to leave the queen the choice of her favours and bene- 
 fits, seeing that our kings could not be forced to employ in 
 their councils those who did not please them. 
 
 Among the different opinions of those who spoke, some 
 said that, M. d'Avaux having been appointed superintendent 
 on going to Munster, it was reasonable that he should be 
 restored to the exercise of that office. And it was thought 
 from the words of his brother, President de Mesmes, that 
 the latter, being reconciled with the Court, had wished 
 
 1 The formula " with Messieurs the princes only " was used to exclude 
 Cardinal Mazarin. — Fk. Ed. 
 
1648] MEMOIRS or MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 3C5 
 
 not to give suspicion to the minister that he solicited the 
 votes of parliament to restore the superintendency to his 
 brother. Broussel, speaking of Chavigny, said he was told 
 that he was suspected of having secret imderstandings with 
 himself and with others in parliament; and he therefore 
 felt obliged to say, in the interests of truth, that for himself 
 he did not know him and had never seen him ; and as for 
 M. de Chateauneuf, he had never seen him either since he 
 was twenty years old, when he was counsellor of parliament. 
 
 On the 29th, the deputies went to Saint-Germain, where 
 the queen had arrived on the 24th. They went, full of pride 
 and presumption, and had their conference in the Due d'Or- 
 Mans' house, from which the cardinal was excluded at their 
 request. The rank he held in the State could not protect 
 him from this affront. It was necessary to yield this point 
 to those who seemed the stronger, and the princes, who pro- 
 tected the minister more for their own interests than from 
 any power they had to do so, abandoned him on this occa- 
 sion.^ It was an extraordinary and mortifying affair for 
 him, and showed openly that the princes were not sorry 
 to be masters. 
 
 The first demand the deputies made was for the release of 
 M. de Chavigny. The Due d'Orl^ans replied that he thought 
 it very strange that, being himself a son of France and exiled 
 in the lifetime of the late king, his brother, parliament had 
 neglected him to the extent of never speaking of his exile, 
 and yet now they made this great talk about M. de Chavigny, 
 who was certainly not of as good a family as himself, but 
 whom they liked better. President Viole said, in relation 
 to this matter, that he had orders from parliament not to 
 
 ^ Omer Talon relates with more detail the insolence shown by the depu- 
 ties at this meeting, as they deliberated whether or not the cardinal should 
 be excluded from the conference. — Fk. Ed. 
 
366 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xiii. 
 
 make any propositions until the liberty of the prisoner had 
 previously been granted; on which the Priace de Cond^ 
 retorted that previously [prealablement] was not a proper 
 term to use to his master; that President Viole ought to 
 consider the respect he owed to the king and to those who 
 maintained his interests ; that, as for himself, he intended to 
 serve M. de Chavigny as his friend, and should do so by 
 doing him good service with the queen as much as possible ; 
 but it was only putting his liberty beyond all hope by en- 
 deavouring to obtaiQ it in ways contrary to the duty and 
 respect that were owed to the kiag. 
 
 He said this, repeating the word prealablement and turn- 
 ing it into ridicule m a way that made it plain he did not 
 wish to be suspected of abandoning the king and queen for 
 the interests of Chavigny. As a result of this speech the 
 deputies of parliament, not venturing to say another word 
 on that point, entered upon their demands for the good 
 of all, which were as follows: — 
 
 I. That full security should be granted to them in their 
 own persons and to the people in general; that assurance 
 should be given for the return of exiles and the freedom of 
 prisoners, of whatever rank and condition they were ; that it 
 should not be in the power of ministers acting in the name 
 of the king to imprison any person whatsoever without par- 
 liament taking cognisance of the matter within twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 II. That one-quarter of the whole taille-ta,x [tax levied 
 on persons not nobles or ecclesiastics] should, without being 
 subject to diminution, be remitted to the people. 
 
 And, in conclusion, they demanded that the king should 
 return to Paris. 
 
 These proposals seemed hard, and too bold, and after the 
 princes had disputed each article the conference ended with 
 
1648] MEMOIES OP MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 367 
 
 little satisfaction on either side. But as the princes found 
 their own security in these demands it is to be supposed that 
 they were not altogether displeased by them. However that 
 may be, the conference was adjourned till two days later to 
 allow of an answer to the proposals ; and that time having 
 expired, this is the answer that was made to parliament on 
 behalf of the king : — 
 
 I. That the setting at liberty of M. de Chavigny being 
 a favour of the queen, it must depend on her ; but, in accord- 
 ance with the kindness of her Majesty, it might be hoped 
 that she would think proper to grant it. 
 
 II. That the return of the king to Paris would be at the 
 time of year when persons usually returned there, provided 
 the parliament and people made themselves worthy of that 
 happiness by their submission and their obedience. 
 
 The article relating to prisoners and exiles was rejected; 
 that which demanded cognizance of imprisonments withiu 
 twenty-four hours was also refused and treated as a thiug 
 impossible and against the royal authority. 
 
 As for the quarter of the taille-tax, the queen replied that 
 she was quite ready to gi-ant that, but she should let them 
 see the necessities of the State and the great expenses she 
 was compelled to iacur ; that after they had that knowledge 
 she was certain they would themselves see it could not be 
 done ; but if they judged the contrary she would williagly 
 do it. 
 
 By this conference the two parties were only half satisfied 
 with each other, and the deputies agreed among themselves 
 to return to Saint-Germain a second time. During this little 
 interval the Duchesse de Venddme, seeking to profit by the 
 power of parliament, presented to it a request asking for 
 protection against the persecutions of the minister. This 
 request was received with many marks of good-will, because 
 
368 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [chap. xiii. 
 
 it gave parliament a pretext for further outcry, which, was 
 agreeable to it. It was presented the last of September 
 to the assembled Chambers, and given to Lesn^e, but the 
 chief-president, anxious to favour the Court, prevented its 
 being reported. On that same day the deputies who were 
 appointed to return to Saint-G-ermaia were instructed by 
 parliament to treat of all the other articles proposed at the 
 Chamber of Saint-Louis. 
 
INDEX TO VOL. I. 
 
 AiGDiLLON (Dachesse d'), Richelieu's 
 niece, allowed by Anne of Austria to 
 retain Havre, 74. 
 
 Ancke (Mare'chal d'), his influence on 
 Marie de' Medici, 25 ; his arbitrary 
 conduct, hatred of the people and 
 nobles to him, 26 ; his murder, 27. 
 
 Anne op Austria, Queen and regent of 
 France, her marriage to Louis XIII. 
 expected to give peace to Europe, 27 ; 
 double marriage of herself and Elisa- 
 beth of France, 28 ; arrival in France, 
 unhappy life with Louis XIII., 28-30 ; 
 romantic affair with the Duke of 
 Buckingham, speaks of it freely to 
 Mme. de Motteville, 31-37 ; her hatred 
 to Cardinal Richelieu, 38, 39 ; fears 
 repudiation, 40 ; regard for Mme. de 
 Motteville when a child, 41 ; descrip- 
 tion of her before her regency, 42; 
 her behaviour on Marie de' Medici's 
 arrest, 50-.')3 ; her solitary life, 55 ; 
 birth of Louis XIV., 60 ; change of 
 the Court to her on Richelieu's death, 
 63 ; the Regency, 70 ; parliament an- 
 nuls the late king's declaration as to 
 her powers, 71, 72 ; first actions as re- 
 gent, 73, 74 ; overwhelmed by the 
 burden of governing, 75 ; retains Car- 
 dinal Mazariu in the Council, 75 ; her 
 friends persuade her of Mazarin's 
 ability, 76 ; his influence suddenly be- 
 cojnes paramount, 77-82 ; the Ven- 
 dome princes and others alarmed, 
 78-81 ; the queen's indignation at the 
 Cue de Beaufort, orders his arrest, 
 91-94 ; dismisses the Bishop of Beau- 
 vais, blameworthy for this, 94; dis- 
 
 misses Mme. de Chevreuse, 95 ; leaves 
 the Louvre to reside in the Palais- 
 Royal, 96 ; illness from vexation and 
 care, gives the business of the State 
 wholly to Mazarin, 97 ; displeasure 
 with Mme. d'Hautefort, 97-101 ; her 
 council of conscience, 102 ; confi- 
 dence in Pere Vincent (Saint Vincent 
 de Paul), 103; dismisses Chavigny 
 from the Council, 104; her personal 
 life and habits, 105-111 ; beginning 
 of her difficulties with parliament, 
 111-113: Voiture's impromptu verses 
 on her, 114, 115 ; endeavours to raise 
 money for the war, 825 ; renewed 
 difiiculties with parliament, 1 26 ; goes 
 there in state with the king, 127 ; 
 her amiable nature, but neglectful of 
 those who served her, 144; gives the 
 education of the king to Mazarin, 
 144-146; dismisses Mile, de Beau- 
 mont, remark to Mme. de Motteville, 
 147-151 ; the rector of Saint-Ger- 
 main warns her that the theatre is a 
 mortal sin, 169 ; takes sides with the 
 Moliuists, 1 80 ; devotions in Holy 
 Week, 185, 186; slight jealousy of 
 Mme. de Longueville, 189 ; goes to 
 Compifegne, 190 ; to Amiens, 196 ; to 
 Dieppe, 197 ; continuation of her 
 troubles with parliament, 199, 200 
 influence of Mazarin over her, 209 
 distress at the king's illness, 212-216 
 her liking to be alone, 218; uprising 
 of the merchants and the masters of 
 petitions, 219,220; address made to 
 her by Omer Talon, 224 ; why she did 
 not govern more wisely, 224, 225 ; 
 
370 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 continuation of the struggle with 
 parliament, 227-229; tranquil and 
 solitary habits, 230 ; struggle with 
 parliament, 231-234 ; renewed ditto, 
 242-245, 246-275 ; the jubilee, queen 
 Tisits 37 churches, 252 ; walks in 
 procession of Holy Sacrament, 256, 
 257 ; contempt for lawyers, 263 ; her 
 firmness, unfortunate effect of Mar 
 zarin's influence, 264 ; further con- 
 tentions with parliament, 281-285, 
 287-290, 294-298 ; her desire to pun- 
 ish parliament, 294, 295 ; her mis- 
 taken course of conduct, 299; her 
 reasons for supporting Mazarin, 300, 
 301 ; anger at the quarrel about the 
 body-guard, 305; orders the arrest 
 of Broussel and others of the parlia- 
 ment, 313-317 ; her composure during 
 the riots that followed, 319, 320 ; her 
 anger, firmness, and determination 
 not to be shaken, 324, 325 ; struggle 
 with parliament, is compelled to re- 
 lease Broussel, 325-330 ; alarmed by 
 fresh riots, Mazarin no support to her, 
 335 ; remains firm and calm, 336 ; feels 
 a change in the Due d'Orleans and 
 turns to Prince de Conde', 339 ; com- 
 pelled to yield to fresh persecutions 
 of parliament, 341, 342 ; decides to 
 leare Paris for a time, 343-345 ; firm 
 conduct at Ruel, 356 ; vigorous speech 
 to the deputies from parliament, 358. 
 
 Basillon (President), sent to Pignerol, 
 where he dies, 112. 
 
 Barkicades (the Day of the), 1260 
 erected in Paris, 317. 
 
 Bassompieree (Francois, Marechal 
 de), death of, 161, 162. 
 
 Beahmont (Mile, de), dismissal of, 147- 
 151. 
 
 Beaufort (Franijois de Vendome, Due 
 de), grandson of Henri IV. and Ga- 
 brieUe d'Estrdes ; is given the care of 
 the queen's children, 74 ; intimacy 
 with the queen, 82 ; displeased at her 
 new confidence in Mazarin, 83 ; his 
 hopes of future greatness, involved in 
 the cabal of the " Importants," 90, 91 ; 
 
 accused of intending to assassinate 
 Mazarin, displeasure of the queen, 
 91 ; his arrest and imprisonment at 
 Vincennes, 92-94 ; escapes from 
 Vincennes, 247-262. 
 
 Beauvais (the Bishop of), his down- 
 fall, his excellence, 94. 
 
 Brienne (Comte de), made secretary 
 of Foreign Affairs, 104. 
 
 Broussel (Pierre), his arrest and im- 
 prisonment leads to the " Day of the 
 Barricades," 313-317; release, 330; 
 riots in Paris in relation to him, 
 313-337. 
 
 Buckingham (George ViUiers, Duke 
 of), his love for Anne of Austria, 
 31-37. 
 
 Chandenier (Marquis de), his loyal 
 conduct and its punishment, SOB- 
 SOS. 
 
 Charost (Comte de), exiled for an 
 honourable act, 301-309. 
 
 ChAteauneup (M. de), former Keeper 
 of the Seals, arrest of, 347, 348. 
 
 Chavigny (M. de), minister of Louis 
 XIII. ; advises Louis XIII. to make 
 Anne of Austria regent, 70; is re- 
 moved from the Council by her, 104 ; 
 suspected of fomenting the troubles 
 with parliament, his arrest, 347- 
 351. 
 
 Cheveeusb (Marie de Rohan, Dnchesse 
 de), confidante of the queen in the 
 affair of the Duke of Buckingham, 
 31-37 ; involved in the quarrel of 
 Mme. de Montbazon, her mother-in- 
 law, with Mme. de Longueville, 88- 
 90 ; displeasure of the queen and her 
 dismissal, her portrait, 90-95. 
 
 Christina, Queen of Sweden, sends 
 an ambassador to France, 159; her 
 portrait, fame a great talker, 160. 
 
 CoMMiNGES, lieutenant of the queen's 
 guards, arreists Bronssel, 313-317. 
 
 Conde (Henri de Bourbon, Prince de), 
 imprisoned by Mare'chal d'Ancre, 26 ; 
 released by Louis XIII. 27 ; joins 
 with Gaston, Due d'Orleans, in sup- 
 porting the regency of Anne of Aus- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 371 
 
 tria, 72 ; semi-quarrel with the Court, 
 153, 154; his death and character, 
 163-166. 
 
 CoNDE (Louis de Bourbon, Prince de), 
 the Great Conde', his gain and loss 
 by his father's death, 165 ; his gran- 
 deur at Court, origin of the term 
 petits-maitres, 172 ; commands the 
 army in Catalonia, a short love 
 affair, his portrait, 176 ; joins the 
 Due d'Orleans in supporting the 
 queen against parliament, 229 ; his 
 campaign of 1648, 242 ; brief visit to 
 Paris ; the Due d'Orleans jealous of 
 him, 290-292 ; wins the battle of 
 Lens, 311, 312; returns from the 
 army, 355 ; maintains the queen and 
 Mazarin against parliament, 359 ; 
 motive for maintaining the latter, 
 360 ; letter to parliament, 363 ; con- 
 ferences with parliament, 365-368. 
 
 CoNDE (Charlotte de Montmorency, 
 Princesse de), her beauty, 43 ; anger 
 at the Duchesse de iVIontbazon's at- 
 tack upon her daughter, the queen 
 upholds her, 83-90 ; very politic, 
 clings to the Court, 154; death of 
 her husband, Mme. de Rambouillet's 
 remark upon it, 165-167. 
 
 CoNTi (Armand, Prince de), hi.s sister 
 Mme. de Longueville's influence over 
 him, 189; supports the queen against 
 parliament, 360. 
 
 CouKT OF Anne of Austria, descrip- 
 tion of it, 43 ; its " climate," 70 ; cabal 
 of the " Importants " (the Vendome 
 party), 83-90, 96 ; a Court a stage for 
 the tragedies and comedies that fill 
 the public mind, 123; impossible to 
 live worthily at a Court, 149 ; courtiers 
 incapable of seeking distinction in 
 noble ways, 162; its amusements and 
 pleasures, 168; Cardinal Mazarin's 
 great fete, 172-174; dresses of the 
 ladies, 175; at Poutainebleau, 207; 
 mortifying penury, 226 ; ballet at 
 Court, 229, 230 ; its poverty, 280. 
 
 Descartes (Rene), his death in Swe- 
 den, 160. 
 
 " Dopes, the Day of the,'' 48-50 ; ex- 
 planation of it, 68, 69. 
 
 Elisabeth of France, Queen of 
 Spain, daughter of Henri IV., mar- 
 ried to Philip IV". of Spain, 28 ; her 
 death, her portrait, 118, 119. 
 
 6mert (Particelli d'), superintendent 
 of finance, attacked by tlie people and 
 others, 219-226; enmity of parlia- 
 ment and people to him, 275, 276 ; 
 dismissed from office, 277, 278. 
 
 Enghien (Louis de Bourbon, Due d'), 
 wins the battle of Rocroy, 77 ; com- 
 mands the army in Germany in 1644, 
 111; dispute with La Grande Ma- 
 demoiselle for precedence, 119-121; 
 wins the battle of Nordlingen, 124, 
 125; successes in Flanders, 157-159; 
 takes Dunkerque, 161 ; his claim 
 for the admiralship, etc., rejected, 
 163. [See Conde, Louis de Bourbon, 
 Prince de.] 
 
 Flanders, (the war in). 111, 153, 157, 
 
 159, 161. 
 FoNTRAiLLES (Marquis de), affronts 
 
 Mazarin and is exiled, clever ruse to 
 
 bring him back, 353, 354. 
 France, exhausted in 1647; terrible 
 
 destitution in the provinces, 194. 
 
 GoNZAGUE (Marie-Louise de), daughter 
 of Duke of Mantua, 45 ; marriage to 
 the King of Poland, previous career, 
 132-142; subsequent marriage to his 
 brother and successor, 142. 
 
 Grace (the doctrine of), origin of the 
 contest respecting it, 177. 
 
 GutMENEE (Princesse de), her portrait, 
 44 ; trick played upon her by the 
 queen and Mme. de Chevreuse, 45. 
 
 Harcoukt (Comte de), his failure at 
 Lerida, 185. 
 
 Hahtefort (Mile, d'), her portrait, and 
 Louis XIII.'s singular passion for 
 her, 45, 46, 53 ; her friendship with 
 the queen and the king's anger at it, 
 53 ; her hatred to Mazarin and dis- 
 
372 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 pleasure of the queen, 97 ; is dis- 
 missed from Court, 98-101 ; marries 
 the Mare'chal de Schomberg and 
 again offends the queen, 205-207. 
 
 Henkietta-Maria of France, Queen 
 of England, daughter of Henri IV., 
 her remarks to Mme. de Motteville 
 about the Duke of Buckingham, 34, 
 35 ; driven from England, mi.sery, ill- 
 health, welcome in France by queen 
 and people, 116-118; her portrait, 
 121-123; her solitude and poverty, 
 286. 
 
 Holland, makes peace with Philip, 
 King of Spain, 170, 171. 
 
 "Importants " (the), the cabal of the 
 V en dome party, their exile from 
 Conrt by Anne of Austria, 90-96. 
 
 Jansenists and Molinists, the origin 
 
 of their quarrel, 177, 179. 
 Jars (Commandeur de), defends Cha- 
 
 teauneuf to Mazarin, 351 ; his loyal 
 
 friendship understood by the queen, 
 
 352. 
 
 La Fayette (Louise Motier, Mile, de), 
 pathetic love of Louis XIII. for her 
 and its conclusion, 55-60. 
 
 Lonoueville (Anne-Geuevieve de 
 Bourbon, Duchesse de), 43; her 
 beauty and marriage, 83, 84 ; mali- 
 cious attack on her by Mme. de 
 Montbazon, 84-90 ; dispute with La 
 Grande Mademoiselle for precedence, 
 119-121; rules at Court, 187; her 
 portrait, 188-190. 
 
 Louis XIII., prosperous condition of 
 France when he came to the throne, 
 25 ; influence of his favourite, the 
 Due de Luynes, 26 ; singular love for 
 Mile. d'Hautefort, 45, 46 ; refuses to 
 dismiss Cardinal Richelieu at Marie 
 de' Medici's request, 47, 48 ; the " Day 
 of the Dupes," 48-50; orders his 
 mother's arrest, 51, 52; his miserable 
 life, 54 ; love for MUe. de La Fayette, 
 55-60; assumes the government him- 
 self on the death of Eichelieu, 63, 64 ; 
 c.iUs Cardinal Mazarin to the min- 
 
 istry, 64; dies a broken man, scenes 
 at his death-bed, 64-66 ; his character, 
 67 ; explanation of the " Day of the 
 Dupes," 68, 69. 
 
 Lonis XIV., birth of, 60; taken to 
 Parliament on his accession, 72 ; goes 
 to Parliament in state when 8 years 
 old, charming behaviour, 127-129; 
 his education confided to Mazarin, 
 144-146; his charming appearance at 
 Cardinal Mazarin's fete, 1 74 ; shyness 
 with the Prince of Wales, 211; has 
 the small-pox, 212-214; his char- 
 acter, his gravity, 215; scolds those 
 who abandoned him in his illness, 
 216 ; goes to return thanks for recov- 
 ery at Notre-Dame, 223 ; goes to Par- 
 liament, 223, 224; goes to the Te 
 Deum at Notre-Dame, 293 ; and to 
 Parliament, his appearance there, 296. 
 
 Luynes (Charles d'Albert, Due de), 
 favourite of Louis XIII., 26 ; renders 
 Anne of Austria unhappy through 
 his influence, 29 ; his death, 30. 
 
 Luynes (Duchesse de), her friend- 
 ship with Anne of Austria, 30. [See 
 Chevreuse, Duchesse de.] 
 
 Mademoiselle (Mile, de Montpensier, 
 La Grande), her squabbles with the 
 Condds for precedence, 119-121; a 
 vexatious affair, 235-241. 
 
 Mancini children (the), their first 
 appearance in Paris, 201-205. 
 
 Marie de' Medici, destroys the peace 
 of the kingdom secured by Henri IV. 
 through the evil influence of Mare'- 
 chal d'Ancre, 25 ; assists in destroy- 
 ing the married peace of Louis XIII., 
 31 ; is absolute mistress of France, 
 46 ; a turn comes in her affairs, at- 
 tempts to overthrow Richelieu, 47 ; 
 the "Day of the Dupes," 48-50; is 
 arrested at Compifegne, but escapes to 
 Flanders, 51, 52. 
 
 Marsillac (Franfois, Prince de), after- 
 wards Due de La Rochefoucauld, 
 author of the Maxims, 74-75; devo- 
 tion to the Prince de Cond^ and to 
 Mme. de Longueville, 187, 188. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 373 
 
 Martinozzi (Anne), Mazarin's niece, 
 arrival in Paris, 201-205. 
 
 Mazarin (Jules, Cardinal), called to 
 the ministry by Louis XIII., 64 ; kept 
 in the Council by the queen-regent, 
 75; acquires through the influence of 
 the Due d'Orle'aus, the Prince de 
 Conde, and others, a high place in the 
 queen's esteem, 76, 77 ; his intrigues, 
 78 ; his power, how acquired over the 
 queen, 79, 80 ; the queen gives the 
 care of public business wholly up to 
 him, 97 ; king's education also, 144- 
 146; suspicious of every one about 
 the queen, 148-152; gives a great 
 fete at Court, 172-174; murmurs are 
 heard against him, 190; his portrait, 
 191-193; his ill-will to Mme. de 
 Motteville, 208-211 ; begins to see 
 himself the object of public hatred, 
 221 ; dislike of the people to him, 
 226, 227, 230 ; his mismanagement of 
 the struggle with parliament, 264- 
 267 ; hatred of parliament, Court, and 
 people to him, 270 ; his weak conduct 
 towards parliament, 275 ; reasons to 
 fear d'ifemery, 276 ; timid or prudent 
 conduct towards parliament, 285-297 ; 
 his composure during the first two 
 days of the Broussel riot, 318; sub- 
 sequent cowardice, 336, 337 ; defends 
 his treatment of Chavigny and Char 
 teaunenf, 350, 351 ; parliament re- 
 fuses to confer with the princes of the 
 blood in Mazarin's presence, 364, 365. 
 
 Meillebate (Mare'chal de La), suc- 
 ceeds d'ifemery as superintendent of 
 finance, 277, 278 ; his conduct during 
 the Broussel riots, 317-319. 
 
 Mole (Matthieu), son of the great 
 president, chief-president of the par- 
 liament, 128. 
 
 MoNTBAzoN (Duchesse de), her beauty, 
 rivalry with Mme. de Longneville, 
 malicious attack on the latter and 
 exile from Court, 83-90; appearance 
 at a Court ball, 175. 
 
 Motteville (Frauijoise Bertant, Mme. 
 de) origin of her mother's service 
 with Anne of Austria, 29 ; the queen's 
 
 regard for her when a child, 40; is 
 exiled from Court by Richelieu, 41 ; 
 marries M. de Motteville, he 80, she 
 18, 41 ; returns to Court as one of 
 the queen's attendants on the death 
 of Richelieu, 41 ; stands by Mile. 
 d'Hautefort when she is dismissed, 
 98-101 ; in danger from Mazarin's ill- 
 will, 149-152 ; displeased by a supper 
 at Cardinal Mazarin's, 176; prejudice 
 of Mazarin against her, 208-211 ; her 
 terror during the riots that followed 
 the arrest of Broussel, 320. 
 
 NoGENT (Comte de), Mazarin intrusts 
 his nieces to him and his wife, 202 ; 
 portrait of him, 202, 203. 
 
 Orange (Prince of), death of, 177. 
 
 Orleans (Gaston, Due d'), brother of 
 Louis XIII., otherwise called Mon- 
 sieur, exiled with his mother, Marie 
 de' Medici, 52; supports the regency of 
 Anne of Austria, 72, 73 ; commands 
 the army in Flanders, 124; supports 
 the queen in her struggle witli par- 
 liament, 228, 264-267 ; displeasure 
 with his daughter La Grande Made- 
 moiselle, 237-240 ; speaks before par- 
 liament, 274, 275 ; excellent conduct 
 as mediator between queen and par- 
 liament, 283-287 ; jealous of the 
 Prince de Conde, 290-292 ; supports 
 the queen during the Broussel riots, 
 333 ; begins to weaken in loyalty, 
 339 ; but sustains the queen and 
 Mazarin against parliament, 359 ; 
 motive for sustaining Mazarin, 360 ; 
 letter to parliament, 362 ; conferences 
 with parliament, 365-368. 
 
 Orleans (Duchesse d'), wife of Gaston, 
 gives birth to a daughter, 166; her 
 whims and her portrait, 180-183. 
 
 Orleans (Philippe d'), brother of 
 Louis XIV., his birth, 61 ; anecdote 
 of, 198; portrait of, 199. 
 
 Parliament (the), annuls Lonis XIII.'s 
 declaration, and gives the regency un- 
 restricted to Anne of Austria, 71; 
 
374 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 principal leaders begin to be dissatis- 
 fied ; speeciies made against the royal 
 autiiority, 111; attempts in a body to 
 remonstrate with the queen, 112, 113 ; 
 malces diflSculties, 126 ; cabals against 
 the Court, 221 ; king and queeu visit 
 it, 223 ; Oraer Talon's fine speecli, 
 224 ; continuation of its struggle with 
 the queen, 231-234; renewal of that 
 struggle, 242-275 ; conferences and 
 contentions with the queen, 281-285, 
 287-290, 294-298; its conduct dur- 
 ing the Broussel riots, 313-337; re- 
 news its persecution, 340 ; alarmed at 
 the king being taken from Paris, 345 ; 
 uproar on the arrest of Chavigny and 
 Chateauneuf, 354 ; fury against Maz- 
 arin, 355 ; deputation to the queeu 
 and princes, 356-360; letters to par- 
 liament from the Due d'Orle'ans and 
 the Prince de Conde', 362-363 ; terms 
 proposed by parliament, 366 ; answer 
 of the king, 367. 
 
 Petils-maitres, origin of the term, 172. 
 
 Poland (Ladislas III., King of), mar- 
 riage with Princesse Marie de Gon- 
 zague, 134 ; sends splendid embassies 
 for the marriage to France, 134-140 ; 
 brutal behaviour to her on her arrival 
 in "Warsaw, 141, 142; death of, 267. 
 
 Eambouillet (Marquise de), remark 
 on the death of the Prince de Conde', 
 166. 
 
 Retz {Jean-Fran(;ois-Paul de Gondi, 
 Cardinal de) coadjutor of Paris, the 
 part played by him in the riots on 
 Broussel's arrest, 317-320; dissatis- 
 fied with his treatment by the Court, 
 339. 
 
 Richelieu (Arraand-Jean Duplessis, 
 Cardinal de), is brought by Marie de' 
 Medici into public office, 36 ; his love 
 for Anne of Austria and beginning 
 of her hatred to him, 38 ; his prin- 
 ciples and his greatness, 39 ; his tri- 
 
 umph on the " Day of the Dupes," 
 48, 50 ; his ingratitude to Marie de' 
 Medici, 51, 52; his death, 61; his 
 character, 62 ; Pope Urbain VIII.'s 
 remark upon him, 63. 
 
 Eivii;KE (the Abb^ de La), favourite 
 of the Due d'Orle'ans, 182-184. 
 
 EoHAN (Mile, de), her marriage to the 
 Comte de Chabot, 130-132. 
 
 Sainte-Beuve, his Introduction to 
 
 Mrae. de Motteville's Memoirs, 1-19. 
 Seguiek (Pierre), Chancellor of France, 
 
 attacked by the populace during the 
 
 Broussel riots, 321-324. 
 Sciiombeeg (Mar&hal de), takes Tor- 
 
 tosa, 292, 293. 
 
 Talon (Omer), noble speech in par- 
 liament before the king and queen in 
 behaU of the people, 128, 129 ; fine 
 speech in parliament to the queen, 
 224; quoted, 281, 298. 
 
 Telliek (Michel Le), father of the 
 future Louvois, appointed secretary 
 of War, 104. 
 
 Translator's Note, 21. 
 
 TkImes (Comte de), quarrel on his 
 son's behalf about the captaincy of 
 the body-guard, 301-309. 
 
 Urbain VIII., his death, 115. 
 
 Vincent (Saint Vincent de Paul, Pfere), 
 the head of Anne of Austria's council 
 of conscience, liis character, 102-103. 
 
 VoiTURE (Vincent), impromptu poem 
 on the queen, 114, 115. 
 
 Wales (Charles, Prince of), pays a 
 visit to Fontainebleau, he stutters, 
 211. 
 
 York (James, Duke of), escapes from 
 England and reaches France, 245, 
 246. 
 

 is^isffiwa^i^3i««tisi^^iirsaf^^