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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoirs Of Jean Francois Paul De Gondi,
+Cardinal De Retz, Volume II., by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Memoirs Of Jean Francois Paul De Gondi, Cardinal De Retz, Volume II.
+       Being Historic Court Memoirs of the Great Events during the Minority
+       of Louis XIV. and the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin
+       
+
+Author: Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
+Release Date: September 29, 2006 [EBook #3843]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CARDINAL DE RETZ ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF JEAN FRANCOIS PAUL de GONDI,
+CARDINAL DE RETZ
+
+Written by Himself
+
+Being Historic Court Memoirs of the Great Events
+during the Minority of Louis XIV.
+and the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+
+MADAME:--I lay it down as a maxim, that men who enter the service of the
+State should make it their chief study to set out in the world with some
+notable act which may strike the imagination of the people, and cause
+themselves to be discussed.  Thus I preached first upon All Saints' Day,
+before an audience which could not but be numerous in a populous city,
+where it is a wonder to see the Archbishop in the pulpit.  I began now to
+think seriously upon my future conduct.  I found the archbishopric sunk
+both in its temporals and spirituals by the sordidness, negligence, and
+incapacity of my uncle.  I foresaw infinite obstacles to its
+reestablishment, but perceived that the greatest and most insuperable
+difficulty lay in myself.  I considered that the strictest morals are
+necessarily required in a bishop.  I felt myself the more obliged to be
+strictly circumspect as my uncle had been very disorderly and scandalous.
+I knew likewise that my own corrupt inclinations would bear down all
+before them, and that all the considerations drawn from honour and
+conscience would prove very weak defences.  At last I came to a
+resolution to go on in my sins, and that designedly, which without doubt
+is the more sinful in the eyes of God, but with regard to the world is
+certainly the best policy, because he that acts thus always takes care
+beforehand to cover part of his failings, and thereby to avoid the
+jumbling together of sin and devotion, than which nothing can be more
+dangerous and ridiculous in a clergyman.  This was my disposition, which
+was not the most pious in the world nor yet the wickedest, for I was
+fully determined to discharge all the duties of my profession faithfully,
+and exert my utmost to save other souls, though I took no care of my own.
+
+The Archbishop, who was the weakest of mortals, was, nevertheless, by a
+common fatality attending such men, the most vainglorious; he yielded
+precedence to every petty officer of the Crown, and yet in his own house
+would not give the right-hand to any person of quality that came to him
+about business.  My behaviour was the reverse of his in almost
+everything; I gave the right-hand to all strangers in my own house, and
+attended them even to their coach, for which I was commended by some for
+my civility and by others for my humility.  I avoided appearing in public
+assemblies among people of quality till I had established a reputation.
+When I thought I had done so, I took the opportunity of the sealing of a
+marriage contract to dispute my rank with M. de Guise.  I had carefully
+studied the laws of my diocese and got others to do it for me, and my
+right was indisputable in my own province.  The precedence was adjudged
+in my favour by a decree of the Council, and I found, by the great number
+of gentlemen who then appeared for me, that to condescend to men of low
+degree is the surest way to equal those of the highest.
+
+I dined almost every day with Cardinal Mazarin, who liked me the better
+because I refused to engage myself in the cabal called "The Importants,"
+though many of the members were my dearest friends.  M. de Beaufort, a
+man of very mean parts, was so much out of temper because the Queen had
+put her confidence in Cardinal Mazarin, that, though her Majesty offered
+him favours with profusion, he would accept none, and affected to give
+himself the airs of an angry lover.  He held aloof from the Duc
+d'Orleans, insulted the late Prince, and, in order to support himself
+against the Queen-regent, the chief minister, and all the Princes of the
+blood, formed a cabal of men who all died mad, and whom I never took for
+conjurers from the first time I knew them.  Such were Beaupre,
+Fontrailles, Fiesque, Montresor, who had the austerity of Cato, but not
+his sagacity, and M. de Bethune, who obliged M. de Beaufort to make me
+great overtures, which I received very respectfully, but entered into
+none. I told Montresor that I was indebted to the Queen for the
+coadjutorship of Paris, and that that was enough to keep me from entering
+into any engagement that might be disagreeable to her Majesty.  Montresor
+said I was not obliged for it to the Queen, it having been ordered before
+by the late King, and given me at a crisis when she was not in a
+condition to refuse it.  I replied, "Permit me, monsieur, to forget
+everything that may diminish my gratitude, and to remember that only
+which may increase it."  These words were afterwards repeated to Cardinal
+Mazarin, who was so pleased with me that he repeated them to the Queen.
+
+The families of Orleans and Conde, being united by interest, made a jest
+of that surly look from which Beaufort's cabal were termed "The
+Importants," and at the same time artfully made use of the grand
+appearance which Beaufort (like those who carry more sail than ballast)
+never failed to assume upon the most trifling occasions.  His counsels
+were unseasonable, his meetings to no purpose, and even his hunting
+matches became mysterious.  In short, Beaufort was arrested at the Louvre
+by a captain of the Queen's Guards, and carried on the 2d of September,
+1643, to Vincennes.  The cabal of "The Importants" was put to flight and
+dispersed, and it was reported over all the kingdom that they had made an
+attempt against the Cardinal's life, which I do not believe, because I
+never saw anything in confirmation of it, though many of the domestics of
+the family of Vendome were a long time in prison upon this account.
+
+The Marquis de Nangis, who was enraged both against the Queen and
+Cardinal, for reasons which I shall tell you afterwards, was strongly
+tempted to come into this cabal a few days before Beaufort was arrested,
+but I dissuaded him by telling him that fashion is powerful in all the
+affairs of life, but more remarkably so as to a man's being in favour or
+disgrace at Court.  There are certain junctures when disgrace, like fire,
+purifies all the bad qualities, and sets a lustre on all the good ones,
+and also there are times when it does not become an honest man to be out
+of favour at Court.  I applied this to the gentlemen of the aforesaid
+cabal.
+
+I must confess, to the praise of Cardinal de Richelieu, that he had
+formed two vast designs worthy of a Caesar or an Alexander: that of
+suppressing the Protestants had been projected before by Cardinal de
+Retz, my uncle; but that of attacking the formidable house of Austria was
+never thought of by any before the Cardinal.  He completed the first
+design, and had made great progress in the latter.
+
+That the King's death made no alteration in affairs was owing to the
+bravery of the Prince de Conde and the famous battle of Rocroi, in 1643,
+which contributed both to the peace and glory of the kingdom, and covered
+the cradle of the present King with laurels.  Louis XIV.'s father, who
+neither loved nor esteemed his Queen, provided him a Council, upon his
+death-bed, for limiting the authority of the Regency, and named the
+Cardinal Mazarin, M. Seguier,  M. Bouthillier,  and M. de Chavigni; but
+being all Richelieu's creatures, they were so hated by the public that
+when the King was dead they were hissed at by all the footmen at Saint
+Germain, and if De Beaufort had had a grain of sense, or if De Beauvais
+had not been a disgraceful bishop, or if my father had but entered into
+the administration, these collateral Regents would have been undoubtedly
+expelled with ignominy, and the memory of Cardinal de Richelieu been
+branded by the Parliament with shouts of joy.
+
+The Queen was adored much more for her troubles than for her merit.  Her
+admirers had never seen her but under persecution; and in persons of her
+rank, suffering is one of the greatest virtues.  People were apt to fancy
+that she was patient to a degree of indolence.  In a word, they expected
+wonders from her; and Bautru used to say she had already worked a miracle
+because the most devout had forgotten her coquetry.  The Duc d'Orleans,
+who made a show as if he would have disputed the Regency with the Queen,
+was contented to be Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom.  The Prince de
+Conde was declared President of the Council, and the Parliament confirmed
+the Regency to the Queen without limitation.  The exiles were called
+home, prisoners set at liberty, and criminals pardoned.  They who had
+been turned out were replaced in their respective employments, and
+nothing that was asked was refused.  The happiness of private families
+seemed to be fully secured in the prosperity of the State.  The perfect
+union of the royal family settled the peace within doors; and the battle
+of Rocroi was such a blow to the Spanish infantry that they could not
+recover in an age.  They saw at the foot of the throne, where the fierce
+and terrible Richelieu used to thunder rather than govern, a mild and
+gentle successor,--[Cardinal Julius Mazarin, Minister of State, who died
+at Vincennes in 1661.]--who was perfectly complacent and extremely
+troubled that his dignity of Cardinal did not permit him to be as humble
+to all men as he desired; and who, when he went abroad, had no other
+attendants than two footmen behind his coach.  Had not I, then, reason
+for saying that it did not become an honest man to be on bad terms with
+the Court at that time of day?
+
+You will wonder, no doubt, that nobody was then aware of the consequence
+of imprisoning M. de Beaufort, when the prison doors were set open to all
+others.  This bold stroke--at a time when the Government was so mild that
+its authority was hardly felt--had a very great effect.  Though nothing
+was more easy, as you have seen, yet it looked grand; and all acts of
+this nature are very successful because they are attended with dignity
+without any odium.  That which generally draws an unaccountable odium
+upon even the most necessary actions of statesmen, is that, in order to
+compass them, they are commonly obliged to struggle with very great
+difficulties, which, when they are surmounted, are certain to render them
+objects both of envy and hatred.  When a considerable occasion offers,
+where there is no victory to be gained because there is no difficulty to
+encounter, which is very rare, it gives a lustre to the authority of
+ministers which is pure, innocent, and without a shadow, and not only
+establishes it, but casts upon their administration the merit of actions
+which they have no hand in, as well as those of which they have.
+
+When the world saw that the Cardinal had apprehended the man who had
+lately brought the King back to Paris with inconceivable pride, men's
+imaginations were seized with an astonishing veneration.  People thought
+themselves much obliged to the Minister that some were not sent to the
+Bastille every week; and the sweetness of his temper was sure to be
+commended whenever he had not an opportunity of doing them harm.  It must
+be owned that he had the art of improving his good luck to the best
+advantage.  He made use of all the outward appearances necessary to
+create a belief that he had been forced to take violent measures, and
+that the counsels of the Duc d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde had
+determined the Queen to reject his advice; the day following he seemed to
+be more moderate, civil, and frank than before; he gave free access to
+all; audiences were easily had, it was no more to dine with him than with
+a private gentleman.  He had none of that grand air so common to the
+meaner cardinals.  In short, though he was at the head of everybody, yet
+he managed as if he were only their companion.  That which astonishes me
+most is that the princes and grandees of the kingdom, who, one might
+expect, would be more quick-sighted than the common people, were the most
+blinded.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde--the latter attached to the
+Court by his covetous temper--thought themselves above being rivalled;
+the Duke--[Henri de Bourbon, Duc d'Enghien, born 1646, died 1686.  We
+shall often speak of him in this history.]--was old enough to take his
+repose under the shadow of his laurels; M. de Nemours--[Charles Amadeus
+of Savoy, killed in a duel by M. de Beaufort, 1650.]--was but a child; M.
+de Guise, lately returned from Brussels, was governed by Madame de Pons,
+and thought to govern the whole Court; M. de Schomberg complied all his
+life long with the humour of those who were at the helm; M. de Grammont
+was a slave to them.  The Parliament, being delivered from the tyranny of
+Richelieu, imagined the golden age was returning, being daily assured by
+the Prime Minister that the Queen would not take one step without them.
+The clergy, who are always great examples of slavish servitude
+themselves, preached it to others under the plausible title of passive
+obedience.  Thus both clergy and laity were, in an instant, become the
+devotees of Mazarin.
+
+Being ordered by my Lord Archbishop of Paris to take care of his diocese
+in his absence, my first business was, by the Queen's express command, to
+visit the Nuns of the Conception, where, knowing that there were above
+fourscore virgins, many of whom were very pretty and some coquettes, I
+was very loth to go for fear, of exposing my virtue to temptation; but I
+could not be excused, so I went, and preserved my virtue, to my
+neighbour's edification, because for six weeks together I did not see the
+face of any one of the nuns, nor talked to any of them but when their
+veils were down, which gave me a vast reputation for chastity. I
+continued to perform all the necessary functions in the diocese as far as
+the jealousy of my uncle would give me leave, and, forasmuch as he was
+generally so peevish that it was a very hard matter to please him, I at
+length chose to sit still and do nothing.  Thus I made the best use
+imaginable of my uncle's ill-nature, being sure to convince him of my
+honest intentions upon all occasions; whereas had I been my own master,
+the rules of good conduct would have obliged me to confine myself to
+things in their own nature practicable.
+
+The Cardinal Mazarin confessed to me, many years afterwards, that this
+conduct of mine in managing the affairs of the diocese, though it did him
+no injury, was the first thing that made him jealous of my growing
+greatness in Paris.  Another thing alarmed him with as little reason, and
+that was my undertaking to examine the capacity of all the priests of my
+diocese, a thing of inconceivable use and importance.  For this end I
+erected three tribunals, composed of canons, curates, and men of
+religious orders, who were to reduce all the priests under three
+different classes, whereof the first was to consist of men well
+qualified, who were therefore to be left in the exercise of their
+functions; the second was to comprehend those who were not at present,
+but might in time prove able men; and the third of such men as were
+neither now nor ever likely to become so.  The two last classes, being
+separated from the first, were not to exercise their functions, but were
+lodged in separate houses; those of the second class were instructed in
+the doctrine, but the third only in the practice of piety.  As this could
+not but be very expensive, the good people opened their purses and
+contributed liberally.  The Cardinal was so disturbed when he heard of it
+that he got the Queen to send for my uncle upon a frivolous occasion,
+who, for reasons as frivolous, ordered me to desist.  Though I was very
+well informed, by my good friend the Almoner, that the blow came from
+Court, I bore it with a great deal more patience than was consistent with
+a man of my spirit, for I did not seem to take the least notice of it,
+but was as gracious to the Cardinal as ever.  But I was not so wary in
+another case which happened some time after, for honest Morangis telling
+me I was too extravagant, which was but too true, I answered him rashly,
+"I have made a calculation that Caesar, when at my age, owed six times as
+much."  This remark was carried, unluckily, by a doctor then present, to
+M. Servien, who told it maliciously to the Cardinal, who made a jest of
+it, as he had reason to do, but he took notice of it, for which I cannot
+blame him.
+
+In 1645 I was invited, as a diocesan, to the assembly of the clergy,
+which, I may truly say, was the rock whereon the little share of favour I
+had at Court was cast away.  Cardinal de Richelieu had given a cruel blow
+to the dignity and liberty of the clergy in the assembly of Mantes, and,
+with very barbarous circumstances, had banished six of his most
+considerable prelates.  It was resolved in this assembly of 1645 to make
+them some amends for their firmness on that occasion by inviting them to
+come and take their places--though they were not deputed--among their
+brethren.  When this was first, proposed in the assembly, nobody dreamt
+that the Court would take offence at it, and it falling to my turn to
+speak first, I proposed the said resolution, as it had been concerted
+betwixt us before in private conversation, and it was unanimously
+approved of by the assembly.
+
+At my return home the Queen's purse-bearer came to me with an order to
+attend her Majesty forthwith, which I accordingly obeyed.  When I came
+into her presence she said she could not have believed I would ever have
+been wanting in my duty to that degree as to wound the memory of the late
+King, her lord.  I had such reasons to offer as she could not herself
+confute, and therefore referred me to the Cardinal, but I found he
+understood those things no better than her Majesty.  He spoke to me with
+the haughtiest air in the world, refused to hear my justification, and
+commanded me in the King's name to retract publicly the next day in full
+assembly.  You may imagine how difficult it was for me to resolve what to
+do.  However, I did not break out beyond the bounds of modest respect,
+and, finding that my submission made no impression upon the Cardinal, I
+got the Bishop of Arles, a wise and moderate gentleman, to go to him
+along with me, and to join with me in offering our reasons.  But we found
+his Eminence a very ignoramus in ecclesiastical polity.  I only mention
+this to let you see that in my first misunderstanding with the Court I
+was not to blame, and that my respect for the Cardinal upon the Queen's
+account was carried to an excess of patience.
+
+Some months after, his profound ignorance and envenomed malice furnished
+me with a fresh occasion to exercise patience.  The Bishop of Warmia, one
+of the ambassadors that came to fetch the Queen of Poland, was very
+desirous to celebrate the marriage in the Church of Notre-Dame.  Though
+the archbishops of Paris never suffered solemnities of this kind to be
+celebrated in their churches by any but cardinals of the royal family,
+and though my uncle had been highly blamed by all his clergy for
+permitting the Cardinal de La Rochefoucault to marry the Queen of
+England,--[Henriette Marie of France, daughter of Henri IV., died
+1669.]--nevertheless I was ordered by a 'lettre de cachet' to prepare the
+said Church of Notre Dame for the Bishop of Warmia, which order ran in
+the same style as that given to the 'prevot des marchands' when he is to
+prepare the Hotel de Ville for a public ball.  I showed the letter to the
+deans and canons, and said I did not doubt but it was a stratagem of one
+or other of the Secretary of State's clerks to get a gift of money.
+
+I thereupon went to the Cardinal, pressed him with both reasons and
+precedents, and said that, as I was his particular humble servant, I
+hoped he would be pleased to lay them before her Majesty, making use of
+all other persuasion--which I thought would dispose him to a compliance.
+It was then that I learned that he only wanted an opportunity to embroil
+me with the Queen, for though I saw plainly that he was sorry he had
+given such orders before he knew their consequence, yet, after some
+pause, he reassumed his former obstinacy to the very last degree; and,
+because I spoke in the name of the Archbishop and of the whole Church of
+Paris, he stormed as much as if a private person upon his own authority
+had presumed to make a speech to him at the head of fifty malcontents. I
+endeavoured with all respect to show him that our case was quite
+different; but he was so ignorant of our manners and customs that he took
+everything by the wrong handle.  He ended the conversation very abruptly
+and rudely, and referred me to the Queen.  I found her Majesty in a
+fretful mood, and all I could get out of her was a promise to hear the
+chapter upon this affair, without whose consent--I had declared I could
+not conclude anything.
+
+I sent for them accordingly, and having introduced them to the Queen,
+they spoke very discreetly and to the purpose.  The Queen sent us back to
+the Cardinal, who entertained us only with impertinences, and as he had
+but a superficial knowledge of the French language, he concluded by
+telling me that I had talked very insolently to him the night before. You
+may imagine that that word was enough to vex me, but having resolved
+beforehand to keep my temper, I smiled, and said to the deputies,
+"Gentlemen, this is fine language."  He was nettled at my smile, and said
+to me in aloud tone, "Do you know whom you talk to?  I will teach you how
+to behave."  Now, I confess, my blood began to boil.  I told him that the
+Coadjutor of Paris was talking to Cardinal Mazarin, but that perhaps he
+thought himself the Cardinal de Lorraine, and me the Bishop of Metz, his
+suffragan.
+
+Then we went away and met the Marechal d'Estrees coming up to us, who
+came to advise me not to break with the Court, and to tell me that things
+might be arranged; and when he found I was of another opinion, he told me
+in plain terms that he had orders from the Queen to oblige me to come to
+her.  I went without more ado, accompanied by the deputies, and found her
+more gracious and better humoured than I am able to express.  She told me
+that she had a mind to see me, not so much in relation to our affair,
+which might be easily accommodated, as to reprimand me for using such
+language to the poor Cardinal, who was as meek as a lamb, and loved me as
+his own son.  She added all the kind things possible, and ordered the
+dean and deputies to go along with me to the Cardinal's house, that we
+might consult together what course to take.  This was so much against my
+inclination that I gave the Queen to understand that no person in the
+world but her Majesty could have persuaded me to it.
+
+We found the Minister even milder than his mistress.  He made a world of
+excuses for the word "insolent," by which he said, and perhaps it may be
+true, that he meant no more than 'insolito', a word signifying "somewhat
+uncommon."  He showed me all the civility imaginable, but, instead of
+coming to any determination, put us off to another opportunity.  A few
+days after, a letter was brought me at midnight from the Archbishop,
+commanding me to let the Bishop of Warmia perform the marriage without
+any more opposition.
+
+Had I been wise I should have stopped there, because a man ought in
+prudence to make his peace with the Court upon any terms consistent with
+honour.  But I was young, and the more provoked because I perceived that
+all the fair words given me at Fontainebleau were but a feint to gain
+time to write about the affair to my uncle, then at Angers.  However, I
+said nothing to the messenger, more than that I was glad my uncle had so
+well brought me off.  The chapter being likewise served with the same
+order, we sent the Court this answer: That the Archbishop might do what
+he listed in the nave of the church, but that the choir belonged to the
+chapter, and they would yield it to no man but himself or his coadjutor.
+The Cardinal knew the meaning of this, and thereupon resolved to have the
+marriage solemnised in the Chapel Royal, whereof he said the Great
+Almoner was bishop.  But this being a yet more important question than
+the other, I laid the inconveniences of it before him in a letter.  This
+nettled him, and he made a mere jest of my letter.  I gave the Queen of
+Poland to understand that, if she were married in that manner, I should
+be forced, even against my will, to declare the marriage void; but that
+there remained one expedient which would effectually remove all
+difficulties,--that the marriage might be performed in the King's Chapel,
+and should stand good provided that the Bishop of Warmia came to me for a
+license.
+
+The Queen, resolving to lose no more time by awaiting new orders from
+Angers, and fearing the least flaw in her marriage, the Court was obliged
+to comply with my proposal, and the ceremony was performed accordingly.
+
+Not long after this marriage I was unhappily embroiled with the Duc
+d'Orleans, upon an occasion of no greater importance than my foot-cloth
+in the Church of Notre-Dame, which was by mistake removed to his seat. I
+complained of it to him, and he ordered it to be restored. Nevertheless
+the Abby de la Riviere made him believe I had put an affront upon him
+that was too public to be pardoned.  The Duke was so simple as to believe
+it, and, while the courtiers turned all into banter, he swore he would
+receive incense before me at the said church for the future. In the
+meantime the Queen sent for me, and told me that the Duke was in a
+terrible passion, for which she was very sorry, but that nevertheless she
+could not help being of his opinion, and therefore insisted upon it that
+I ought to give him satisfaction in the Church of Notre-Dame the Sunday
+following.  Upon the whole she referred me to Cardinal Mazarin, who
+declared to me at first that he was very sorry to see me in so much
+trouble, blamed the Abby for having incensed the Duke to such a degree,
+and used all the arguments he could to wheedle me to give my consent to
+being degraded.  And when he saw I was not to be led, he endeavoured to
+drive me into the snare.  He stormed with an air of authority, and would
+fain have bullied me into compliance, telling me that hitherto he had
+spoken as a friend, but that I had forced him henceforth to speak as a
+minister.  He also began to threaten, and the conversation growing warm,
+he sought to pick a quarrel by insinuating that if I would do as Saint
+Ambrose did, I ought to lead a life like him.  As he spoke this loud
+enough to be heard by some bishops at the other end of the room, I
+likewise raised my voice, and told him I would endeavour to make the best
+use of his advice, but he might assure himself I was fully resolved so to
+imitate Saint Ambrose in this affair that I might, through his means,
+obtain grace to be able to imitate him in all others.
+
+I had not been long gone home when the Marechal d'Estrees and M.
+Senneterre came, furnished with all the flowers of rhetoric, to persuade
+me that degradation was honourable; and finding me immovable, they
+insinuated that my obstinacy might oblige his Highness to use force, and
+order his guards to carry me, in spite of myself, to Notre-Dame, and
+place me there on a seat below his.  I thought this suggestion too
+ridiculous to mind it at first, but being forewarned of it that very
+evening by the Duke's Chancellor, I put myself upon the defensive, which
+I think is the most ridiculous piece of folly I was ever guilty of,
+considering it was against a son of France, and when there was a profound
+tranquillity in the State, without the least appearance of any commotion.
+The Duke, to whom I had the honour of being related, was pleased with my
+boldness.  He remembered the Abby de la Riviere for his insolence in
+complaining that the Prince de Conti was marked down for a cardinal
+before him; besides, the Duke knew I was in the right, having made it
+very evident in a statement I had published upon this head.  He
+acquainted the Cardinal with it, said he would not suffer the least
+violence to be offered to me; that I was both his kinsman and devoted
+servant, and that he would not set out for the army till he saw the
+affair at an end.
+
+All the Court was in consternation for fear of a rupture, especially when
+the Prince de Conde had been informed by the Queen of what his son had
+said; and when he came to my house and found there sixty or eighty
+gentlemen, this made him believe that a league was already made with the
+Duke, but there was nothing in it.  He swore, he threatened, he begged,
+he flattered, and in his transports he let fall some expressions which
+showed that the Duke was much more concerned for my interest than he ever
+yet owned to me.  I submitted that very instant, and told the Prince that
+I would do anything rather than the royal family should be divided on my
+account.  The Prince, who hitherto found me immovable, was so touched at
+my sudden surrender in complaisance to his son, at the very time, too,
+when he himself had just assured me I was to expect a powerful protection
+from him, that he suddenly changed his temper, so that, instead of
+thinking as he did at first, that there was no satisfaction great enough
+for the Duc d'Orleans, he now determined plainly in favour of the
+expedient I had so often proposed,--that I should go and declare to him,
+in the presence of the whole Court, that I never designed to be wanting
+in the respect I owed him, and that the orders of the Church had obliged
+me to act as I did at Notre-Dame.  The Cardinal and the Abby de la
+Riviere were enraged to the last degree, but the Prince put them into
+such fear of the Duke that they were fain to submit.  The Prince took me
+to the Duc d'Orleans's house, where I gave them satisfaction before the
+whole Court, precisely in the words above mentioned.  His Highness was
+quite satisfied with my reasons, carried me to see his medals, and thus
+ended the controversy.
+
+As this affair and the marriage of the Queen of Poland had embroiled me
+with the Court, you may easily conceive what turn the courtiers gave to
+it.  But here I found by experience that all the powers upon earth cannot
+hurt the reputation of a man who preserves it established and unspotted
+in the society whereof he is a member.  All the learned clergy took my
+part, and I soon perceived that many of those who had before blamed my
+conduct now retracted.  I made this observation upon a thousand other
+occasions.  I even obliged the Court, some time after, to commend my
+proceedings, and took an opportunity to convince the Queen that it was my
+dignity, and not any want of respect and gratitude, that made me resist
+the Court in the two former cases.  The Cardinal was very well pleased
+with me, and said in public that he found me as much concerned for the
+King's service as I was before for the honour of my character.
+
+It falling to my turn to make the speech at the breaking up of the
+assembly of the clergy at Paris, I had the good luck to please both the
+clergy and the Court.  Cardinal Mazarin took me to supper with him alone,
+seemed to be clear of all prejudices against me, and I verily believe was
+fully persuaded that he had been imposed upon.  But I was too much
+beloved in Paris to continue long in favour at Court.  This was a crime
+that rendered me disagreeable in the eyes of a refined Italian statesman,
+and which was the more dangerous from the fact that I lost no opportunity
+of aggravating it by a natural and unaffected expense, to which my air of
+negligence gave a lustre, and by my great alms and bounty, which, though
+very often secret, had the louder echo; whereas, in truth, I had acted
+thus at first only in compliance with inclination and out of a sense of
+duty.  But the necessity I was under of supporting myself against the
+Court obliged me to be yet more liberal.  I do but just mention it here
+to show you that the Court was jealous of me, when I never thought myself
+capable of giving them the least occasion, which made me reflect that a
+man is oftener deceived by distrusting than by being overcredulous.
+
+Cardinal Mazarin, who was born and bred in the Pope's dominions, where
+papal authority has no limits, took the impetus given to the regal power
+by his tutor, the Cardinal de Richelieu, to be natural to the body
+politic, which mistake of his occasioned the civil war, though we must
+look much higher for its prime cause.
+
+It is above 1,200 years that France has been governed by kings, but they
+were not as absolute at first as they are now.  Indeed, their authority
+was never limited by written laws as are the Kings of England and
+Castile, but only moderated by received customs, deposited, as I may say,
+at first in the hands of the States of the kingdom, and afterwards in
+those of the Parliament.  The registering of treaties with other Crowns
+and the ratifications of edicts for raising money are almost obliterated
+images of that wise medium between the exorbitant power of the Kings and
+the licentiousness of the people instituted by our ancestors.  Wise and
+good Princes found that this medium was such a seasoning to their power
+as made it delightful to their people.  On the other hand, weak and
+vicious Kings always hated it as an obstacle to all their extravagances.
+The history of the Sire de Joinville makes it evident that Saint Louis
+was an admirer of this scheme of government, and the writings of Oresme,
+Bishop of Lisieux, and of the famous Juvenal des Ursins, convince us that
+Charles V., who merited the surname of Wise, never thought his power to
+be superior to the laws and to his duty.  Louis XI., more cunning than
+truly wise, broke his faith upon this head as well as all others.  Louis
+XII.  would have restored this balance of power to its ancient lustre if
+the ambition of Cardinal Amboise,--[George d'Amboise, the first of the
+name, in 1498 Minister to Louis XII., deceased 1510.]--who governed him
+absolutely, had not opposed it.
+
+The insatiable avarice of Constable Montmorency--[Anne de Montmorency,
+Constable of France in 1538, died 1567.]--tended rather to enlarge than
+restrain the authority of Francois I.  The extended views and vast
+designs of M. de Guise would not permit them to think of placing bounds
+to the prerogative under Francois II.  In the reigns of Charles IX.  and
+Henri III.  the Court was so fatigued with civil broils that they took
+everything for rebellion which was not submission.  Henri IV., who was
+not afraid of the laws, because he trusted in himself, showed he had a
+high esteem for them.  The Duc de Rohan used to say that Louis XIII. was
+jealous of his own authority because he was ignorant of its full extent,
+for the Marechal d'Ancrel and M. de Luynes were mere dunces, incapable of
+informing him.  Cardinal de Richelieu, who succeeded them, collected all
+the wicked designs and blunders of the two last centuries to serve his
+grand purpose.  He laid them down as proper maxims for establishing the
+King's authority, and, fortune seconding his designs by the disarming of
+the Protestants in France, by the victories of the Swedes, by the
+weakness of the Empire and of Spain, he established the most scandalous
+and dangerous tyranny that perhaps ever enslaved a State in the best
+constituted monarchy under the sun.
+
+Custom, which has in some countries inured men even to broil as it were
+in the heat of the sun, has made things familiar to us which our
+forefathers dreaded more than fire itself.  We no longer feel the slavery
+which they abhorred more for the interest of their King than for their
+own.  Cardinal de Richelieu counted those things crimes which before him
+were looked upon as virtues.  The Mirons, Harlays, Marillacs, Pibracs,
+and the Fayes, those martyrs of the State who dispelled more factions by
+their wholesome maxims than were raised in France by Spanish or British
+gold, were defenders of the doctrine for which the Cardinal de Richelieu
+confined President Barillon in the prison of Amboise.  And the Cardinal
+began to punish magistrates for advancing those truths which they were
+obliged by their oaths to defend at the hazard of their lives.
+
+Our wise Kings, who understood their true interest, made the Parliament
+the depositary of their ordinances, to the end that they might exempt
+themselves from part of the odium that sometimes attends the execution of
+the most just and necessary decrees.  They thought it no disparagement to
+their royalty to be bound by them,--like unto God, who himself obeys the
+laws he has preordained. ['A good government: where the people obey their
+king and the king obeys the law'--Solon.  D.W.] Ministers of State, who
+are generally so blinded by the splendour of their fortune as never to be
+content with what the laws allow, make it their business to overturn
+them; and Cardinal de Richelieu laboured at it more constantly than any
+other, and with equal application and imprudence.
+
+God only is self-existent and independent; the most rightful monarchs and
+established monarchies in the world cannot possibly be supported but by
+the conjunction of arms and laws,--a union so necessary that the one
+cannot subsist without the other.  Laws without the protection of arms
+sink into contempt, and arms which are not tempered by laws quickly turn
+a State into anarchy.  The Roman commonwealth being set aside by Julius
+Caesar, the supreme power which was devolved upon his successors by force
+of arms subsisted no longer than they were able to maintain the authority
+of the laws; for as soon as the laws lost their force, the power of the
+Roman Emperors vanished, and the very men that were their favourites,
+having got possession of their seals and their arms, converted their
+masters' substance into their own, and, as it were, sucked them dry under
+the shelter of those repealed laws.  The Roman Empire, formerly sold by
+auction to the highest bidder, and the Turkish emperors, whose necks are
+exposed every day to the bowstring, show us in very bloody characters the
+blindness of those men that make authority to consist only in force.
+
+But why need we go abroad for examples when we have so many at home?
+Pepin, in dethroning the Merovingian family, and Capet, in dispossessing
+the Carlovingians, made use of nothing else but the same power which the
+ministers, their predecessors, had acquired under the authority of their
+masters; and it is observable that the mayors of the Palace and the
+counts of Paris placed themselves on the thrones of kings exactly by the
+same methods that gained them their masters' favours,--that is, by
+weakening and changing the laws of the land, which at first always
+pleases weak princes, who fancy it aggrandises their power; but in its
+consequence it gives a power to the great men and motives to the common
+people to rebel against their authority.  Cardinal de Richelieu was
+cunning enough to have all these views, but he sacrificed everything to
+his interest.  He would govern according to his own fancy, which scorned
+to be tied to rules, even in cases where it would have cost him nothing
+to observe them.  And he acted his part so well that, if his successor
+had been a man of his abilities, I doubt not that the title of Prime
+Minister, which he was the first to assume, would have been as odious in
+France in a little time as were those of the Maire du Palais and the
+Comte de Paris.  But by the providence of God, Cardinal Mazarin, who
+succeeded him, was not capable of giving the State any jealousy of his
+usurpation.  As these two ministers contributed chiefly, though in a
+different way, to the civil war, I judge it highly necessary to give you
+the particular character of each, and to draw a parallel between them.
+
+Cardinal de Richelieu was well descended; his merit sparkled even in his
+youth.  He was taken notice of at the Sorbonne, and it was very soon
+observed that he had a strong genius and a lively fancy.  He was commonly
+happy in the choice of his parties.  He was a man of his word, unless
+great interests swayed him to the contrary, and in such a case he was
+very artful to preserve all the appearances of probity.  He was not
+liberal, yet he gave more than he promised, and knew admirably well how
+to season all his favours.  He was more ambitious than was consistent
+with the rules of morality, although it must be owned that, whenever he
+dispensed with them in favour of his extravagant ambition, his great
+merit made it almost excusable.  He neither feared dangers nor yet
+despised them, and prevented more by his sagacity than he surmounted by
+his resolution.  He was a hearty friend, and even wished to be beloved by
+the people; but though he had civility, a good aspect, and all the other
+qualifications to gain that love, yet he still wanted something--I know
+not what to call it--which is absolutely necessary in this case.  By his
+power and royal state he debased and swallowed up the personal majesty of
+the King.  He distinguished more judiciously than any man in the world
+between bad and worse, good and better, which is a great qualification in
+a minister.  He was too apt to be impatient at mere trifles when they had
+relation to things of moment; but those blemishes, owing to his lofty
+spirit, were always accompanied with the necessary talent of knowledge to
+make amends for those imperfections.  He had religion enough for this
+world.  His own good sense, or else his inclination, always led him to
+the practice of virtue if his self-interest did not bias him to evil,
+which, whenever he committed it, he did so knowingly.  He extended his
+concern for the State no further than his own life, though no minister
+ever did more than he to make the world believe he had the same regard
+for the future.  In a word, all his vices were such that they received a
+lustre from his great fortune, because they were such as could have no
+other instruments to work with but great virtues.  You will easily
+conceive that a man who possessed such excellent qualities, and appeared
+to have as many more,--which he had not,--found it no hard task to
+preserve that respect among mankind which freed him from contempt, though
+not from hatred.
+
+Cardinal Mazarin's character was the reverse of the former; his birth was
+mean, and his youth scandalous.  He was thrashed by one Moretto, a
+goldsmith of Rome, as he was going out of the amphitheatre, for having
+played the sharper.  He was a captain in a foot regiment, and Bagni, his
+general, told me that while he was under his command, which was but three
+months, he was only looked upon as a cheat.  By the interest of Cardinal
+Antonio Barberini, he was sent as Nuncio Extraordinary to France, which
+office was not obtained in those days by fair means.  He so tickled
+Chavigni by his loose Italian stories that he was shortly after
+introduced to Cardinal de Richelieu, who made him Cardinal with the same
+view which, it is thought, determined the Emperor Augustus to leave the
+succession of the Empire to Tiberius.  He was still Richelieu's
+obsequious, humble servant, notwithstanding the purple.  The Queen making
+choice of him, for want of another, his pedigree was immediately derived
+from a princely family.  The rays of fortune having dazzled him and
+everybody about him, he rose, and they glorified him for a second
+Richelieu, whom he had the impudence to ape, though he had nothing of
+him; for what his predecessor counted honourable he esteemed scandalous.
+He made a mere jest of religion.  He promised everything without scruple;
+at the same time he intended to perform nothing.  He was neither
+good-natured nor cruel, for he never remembered either good offices or
+bad ones.  He loved himself too well, which is natural to a sordid soul;
+and feared himself too little, the true characteristic of those that have
+no regard for their reputation.  He foresaw an evil well enough, because
+he was usually timid, but never applied a suitable remedy, because he had
+more fear than wisdom.  He had wit, indeed, together with a most
+insinuating address and a gay, courtly behaviour; but a villainous heart
+appeared constantly through all, to such a degree as betrayed him to be a
+fool in adversity and a knave in prosperity.  In short, he was the first
+minister that could be called a complete trickster, for which reason his
+administration, though successful and absolute, never sat well upon him,
+for contempt--the most dangerous disease of any State--crept insensibly
+into the Ministry and easily diffused its poison from the head to the
+members.
+
+You will not wonder, therefore, that there were so many unlucky cross
+rubs in an administration which so soon followed that of Cardinal de
+Richelieu and was so different from it.  It is certain that the
+imprisonment of M. de Beaufort impressed the people with a respect for
+Mazarin, which the lustre of his purple would never have procured from
+private men.  Ondedei (since Bishop of Frejus) told me that the Cardinal
+jested with him upon the levity of the French nation on this point, and
+that at the end of four months the Cardinal had set himself up in his own
+opinion for a Richelieu, and even thought he had greater abilities.  It
+would take up volumes to record all his faults, the least of which were
+very important in one respect which deserves a particular remark.  As he
+trod in the steps of Cardinal de Richelieu, who had completely abolished
+all the ancient maxims of government, he went in a path surrounded with
+precipices, which Richelieu was aware of and took care to avoid.  But
+Cardinal Mazarin made no use of those props by which Richelieu kept his
+footing.  For instance, though Cardinal de Richelieu affected to humble
+whole bodies and societies, yet he studied to oblige individuals, which
+is sufficient to give you an idea of all the rest.  He had indeed some
+unaccountable illusions, which he pushed to the utmost extremity.  The
+most dangerous kind of illusion in State affairs is a sort of lethargy
+that never happens without showing pronounced symptoms.  The abolishing
+of ancient laws, the destruction of that golden medium which was
+established between the Prince and the people, and the setting up a power
+purely and absolutely despotic, were the original causes of those
+political convulsions which shook France in the days of our forefathers.
+
+Cardinal de Richelieu managed the kingdom as mountebanks do their
+patients, with violent remedies which put strength into it; but it was
+only a convulsive strength, which exhausted its vital organs.  Cardinal
+Mazarin, like a very unskilful physician, did not observe that the vital
+organs were decayed, nor had he the skill to support them by the chemical
+preparations of his predecessor; his only remedy was to let blood, which
+he drew so plentifully that the patient fell into a lethargy, and our
+medicaster was yet so stupid as to mistake this lethargy for a real state
+of health.  The provinces, abandoned to the rapine of the
+superintendents, were stifled, as it were, under the pressure of their
+heavy misfortunes, and the efforts they made to shake them off in the
+time of Richelieu added only to their weight and bitterness.  The
+Parliaments, which had so lately groaned under tyranny, were in a manner
+insensible to present miseries by a too fresh and lively remembrance of
+their past troubles.  The grandees, who had for the most part been
+banished from the kingdom, were glad to have returned, and therefore took
+their fill of ease and pleasure.  If our quack had but humoured this
+universal indolence with soporifics, the general drowsiness might have
+continued much longer, but thinking it to be nothing but natural sleep,
+he applied no remedy at all.  The disease gained strength, grew worse and
+worse, the patient awakened, Paris became sensible of her condition; she
+groaned, but nobody minded it, so that she fell into a frenzy, whereupon
+the patient became raving mad.
+
+But now to come to particulars.  Emeri, Superintendent of the Finances,
+and in my opinion the most corrupt man of the age, multiplied edicts as
+fast as he could find names to call them by.  I cannot give you a better
+idea of the man than by repeating what I heard him say in full
+Council,--that faith was for tradesmen only, and that the Masters of
+Requests who urged faith to be observed in the King's affairs deserved to
+be punished. This man, who had in his youth been condemned to be hanged
+at Lyons, absolutely governed Mazarin in all the domestic affairs of the
+kingdom. I mention this, among many other instances which I could produce
+of the same nature, to let you see that a nation does not feel the
+extremity of misery till its governors have lost all shame, because that
+is the instant when the subjects throw off all respect and awake
+convulsively out of their lethargy.
+
+The Swiss seemed, as it were, crushed under the weight of their chains,
+when three of their powerful cantons revolted and formed themselves into
+a league.  The Dutch thought of nothing but an entire subjection to the
+tyrant Duke of Alva, when the Prince of Orange, by the peculiar destiny
+of great geniuses, who see further into the future than all the world
+besides, conceived a plan and restored their liberty.  The reason of all
+this is plain: that which causes a supineness in suffering States is the
+duration of the evil, which inclines the sufferers to believe it will
+never have an end; as soon as they have hopes of getting out of it, which
+never fails when the evil has arrived at a certain pitch, they are so
+surprised, so glad, and so transported, that they run all of a sudden
+into the other extreme, and are so far from thinking revolutions
+impossible that they suppose them easy, and such a disposition alone is
+sometimes able to bring them about; witness the late revolution in
+France.  Who could have imagined, three months before the critical period
+of our disorders, that such a revolution could have happened in a kingdom
+where all the branches of the royal family were strictly united, where
+the Court was a slave to the Prime Minister, where the capital city and
+all the provinces were in subjection to him, where the armies were
+victorious, and where the corporations and societies seemed to have no
+power?--whoever, I say, had said this would have been thought a madman,
+not only in the judgment of the vulgar, but in the opinion of a D'Estrees
+or a Senneterre.
+
+In August, 1647, there was a mighty clamour against the tariff edict
+imposing a general tax upon all provisions that came into Paris, which
+the people were resolved to bear no longer.  But the gentlemen of the
+Council being determined to support it, the Queen consulted the members
+deputed from Parliament, when Cardinal Mazarin, a mere ignoramus in these
+affairs, said he wondered that so considerable a body as they were should
+mind such trifles,--an expression truly worthy of Mazarin.  However, the
+Council at length imagining the Parliament would do it, thought fit to
+suppress the tariff themselves by a declaration, in order to save the
+King's credit.  Nevertheless, a few days after, they presented five
+edicts even more oppressive than the tariff, not with any hopes of having
+them received, but to force the Parliament to restore the tariff.  Rather
+than admit the new ones, the Parliament consented to restore the old one,
+but with so many qualifications that the Court, despairing to find their
+account in it, published a decree of the Supreme Council annulling that
+of the Parliament with all its modifications.  But the Chamber of
+Vacations answered it by another, enjoining the decree of Parliament to
+be put in execution.  The Council, seeing they could get no money by this
+method, acquainted the Parliament that, since they would receive no new
+edicts, they could do no less than encourage the execution of such edicts
+as they had formerly ratified; and thereupon they trumped up a
+declaration which had been registered two years before for the
+establishment of the Chamber of Domain, which was a terrible charge upon
+the people, had very pernicious consequences, and which the Parliament
+had passed, either through a surprise or want of better judgment.  The
+people mutinied, went in crowds to the Palace, and used very abusive
+language to the President de Thore, Emeri's son.  The Parliament was
+obliged to pass a decree against the mutineers.
+
+The Court, overjoyed to see the Parliament and the people together by the
+ears, supported the decree by a regiment of French and Swiss Guards.  The
+Parisians were alarmed, and got into the belfries of three churches in
+the street of Saint Denis, where the guards were posted.  The Provost ran
+to acquaint the Court that the city was just taking arms.  Upon which
+they ordered the troops to retire, and pretended they were posted there
+for no other end than to attend the King as he went to the Church of
+Notre Dame; and the better to cover their design, the King went next day
+in great pomp to the said church, and the day after he went to
+Parliament, without giving notice of his coming till very late the night
+before, and carried with him five or six edicts more destructive than the
+former.  The First President spoke very boldly against bringing the King
+into the House after this manner, to surprise the members and infringe
+upon their liberty of voting.  Next day the Masters of Requests, to whom
+one of these edicts, confirmed in the King's presence, had added twelve
+colleagues, met and took a firm resolution not to admit of this new
+creation.  The Queen sent for them, told them they were very pretty
+gentlemen to oppose the King's will, and forbade them to come to Council.
+Instead of being frightened, they were the more provoked, and, going into
+the Great Hall, demanded that they might have leave to enter their
+protest against the edict for creating new members, which was granted.
+
+The Chambers being assembled the same day to examine the edicts which the
+King had caused to be ratified in his presence, the Queen commanded them
+to attend her by their deputies in the Palais Royal, and told them she
+was surprised that they pretended to meddle with what had been
+consecrated by the presence of the King.  These were the very words of
+the Chancellor.  The First President answered that it was the custom of
+Parliament, and showed the necessity of it for preserving the liberty of
+voting.  The Queen seemed to be satisfied; but, finding some days after
+that the Parliament was consulting as to qualifying those edicts, and so
+render them of little or no use, she ordered the King's Council to forbid
+the Parliament meddling with the King's edicts till they had declared
+formally whether they intended to limit the King's authority.  Those
+members that were in the Court interest artfully took advantage of the
+dilemma the Parliament was in to answer the question, and, in order to
+mollify them, tacked a clause to the decrees which specified the
+restrictions, namely, that all should be executed according to the good
+pleasure of the King.  This clause pleased the Queen for a while, but
+when she perceived that it did not prevent the rejecting of almost any
+other edict by the common suffrage of the Parliament, she flew into a
+passion, and told them plainly that she would have all the edicts,
+without exception, fully executed, without any modifications whatsoever.
+
+Not long after this, the Court of Aids, the Chamber of Accounts, the
+Grand Council, and the Parliament formed a union which was pretended to
+be for the reformation of the State, but was more probably calculated for
+the private interest of the officers, whose salaries were lessened by one
+of the said edicts.  And the Court, being alarmed and utterly perplexed
+by the decree for the said union, endeavoured, as much as in them lay, to
+give it this turn, to make the people have a mean opinion of it.  The
+Queen acquainted the Parliament by some of the King's Council that,
+seeing this union was entered into for the particular interest of the
+companies, and not for the reformation of the State, as they endeavoured
+to persuade her, she had nothing to say to it, as everybody is at liberty
+to represent his case to the King, but never to intermeddle with the
+government of the State.
+
+The Parliament did not relish this ensnaring discourse, and because they
+were exasperated by the Court's apprehending some of the members of the
+Grand Council, they thought of nothing but justifying and supporting
+their decree of union by finding out precedents, which they accordingly
+met with in the registers, and were going to consider how to put it in
+execution when one of the Secretaries of State came to the bar of the
+house, and put into the hands of the King's Council a decree of the
+Supreme Council which, in very truculent terms, annulled that of the
+union.  Upon this the Parliament desired a meeting with the deputies of
+the other three bodies, at which the Court was enraged, and had recourse
+to the mean expedient of getting the very original decree of union out of
+the hands of the chief registrar; for that end they sent the Secretary of
+State and a lieutenant of the Guards, who put him into a coach to drive
+him to the office, but the people perceiving it, were up in arms
+immediately, and both the secretary and lieutenant were glad to get off.
+
+After this there was a great division in the Council, and some said the
+Queen was disposed to arrest the Parliament; but none but herself was of
+that opinion, which, indeed, was not likely to be acted upon, considering
+how the people then stood affected.  Therefore a more moderate course was
+taken.  The Chancellor reprimanded the Parliament in the presence of the
+King and Court, and ordered a second decree of Council to be read and
+registered instead of the union decree, forbidding them to assemble under
+pain of being treated as rebels.  They met, nevertheless, in defiance of
+the said decree, and had several days' consultation, upon which the Duc
+d'Orleans, who was very sensible they would never comply, proposed an
+accommodation.  Accordingly Cardinal Mazarin and the Chancellor made some
+proposals, which were rejected with indignation.  The Parliament affected
+to be altogether concerned for the good of the public, and issued a
+decree obliging themselves to continue their session and to make humble
+remonstrances to the King for annulling the decrees of the Council.
+
+The King's Council having obtained audience of the Queen for the
+Parliament, the First President strenuously urged the great necessity of
+inviolably preferring that golden mean between the King and the subject;
+proved that the Parliament had been for many ages in possession of full
+authority to unite and assemble; complained against the annulling of
+their decree of union, and concluded with a very earnest motion for
+suppressing decrees of the Supreme Council made in opposition to theirs.
+The Court, being moved more by the disposition of the people than by the
+remonstrances of the Parliament, complied immediately, and ordered the
+King's Council to acquaint the Parliament that the King would permit the
+act of union to be executed, and that they might assemble and act in
+concert with the other bodies for the good of the State.
+
+You may judge how the Cabinet was mortified, but the vulgar were much
+mistaken in thinking that the weakness of Mazarin upon this occasion gave
+the least blow to the royal authority.  In that conjuncture it was
+impossible for him to act otherwise, for if he had continued inflexible
+on this occasion he would certainly have been reckoned a madman and
+surrounded with barricades.  He only yielded to the torrent, and yet most
+people accused him of weakness.  It is certain this affair brought him
+into great contempt, and though he endeavoured to appease the people by
+the banishment of Emeri, yet the Parliament, perceiving what ascendancy
+they had over the Court, left no stone unturned to demolish the power of
+this overgrown favourite.
+
+The Cardinal, made desperate by the failure of his stratagems to create
+jealousy among the four bodies, and alarmed at a proposition which they
+were going to make for cancelling all the loans made to the King upon
+excessive interest,--the Cardinal, I say, being quite mad with rage and
+grief at these disappointments, and set on by courtiers who had most of
+their stocks in these loans, made the King go on horseback to the
+Parliament House in great pomp, and carry a wheedling declaration with
+him, which contained some articles very advantageous to the public, and a
+great many others very ambiguous.  But the people were so jealous of the
+Court that he went without the usual acclamations.  The declaration was
+soon after censured by the Parliament and the other bodies, though the
+Duc d'Orleans exhorted and prayed that they would not meddle with it, and
+threatened them if they did.
+
+The Parliament also passed a decree declaring that no money should be
+raised without verified declarations, which so provoked the Court that
+they resolved to proceed to extremities, and to make use of the signal
+victory which was obtained at Lens on the 24th of August, 1648, to dazzle
+the eyes of the people and gain their consent to oppressing the
+Parliament.
+
+All the humours of the State were so disturbed by the great troubles at
+Paris, the fountainhead, that I foresaw a fever would be the certain
+consequence, because the physician had not the skill to prevent it.  As I
+owed the coadjutorship of the archbishopric to the Queen, I thought it my
+duty in every circumstance to sacrifice my resentment, and even the
+probability of glory, to gratitude; and notwithstanding all the
+solicitations of Montresor and Laigues, I made a firm resolution to stick
+close to my own business and not to engage in anything that was either
+said or done against the Court at that time.  Montresor had been brought
+up from his youth in the faction of the Duc d'Orleans, and, having more
+wit than courage, was so much the more dangerous an adviser in great
+affairs; men of this cast only suggest measures and leave them to be
+executed by others.  Laigues, on the other hand, who was entirely
+governed by Montresor, had not much brains, but was all bravery and
+feared nothing; men of this character dare do anything they are set upon
+by those who confide in them.
+
+Finding that my innocence and integrity gained me no friends at Court,
+and that I had nothing to expect from the Minister, who mortally hated
+me, I resolved to be upon my guard, by acting in respect to the Court
+with as much freedom as zeal and sincerity; and in respect to the city,
+by carefully preserving my friends, and doing everything necessary to
+get, or, rather, to keep, the love of the people.  To maintain my
+interest in the city, I laid out 36,000 crowns in alms and other
+bounties, from the 26th of March to the 25th of August, 1648; and to
+please the Court I told the Queen and Cardinal how the Parisians then
+stood affected, which they never knew before, through flattery and
+prejudice.  I also complained to the Queen of the Cardinal's cunning and
+dissimulation, and made use of the same intimations which I had given to
+the Court to show the Parliament that I had done all in my power to
+clearly inform the Ministry of everything and to disperse the clouds
+always cast over their understandings by the interest of inferior
+officers and the flattery of courtiers.  This made the Cardinal break
+with me and thwart me openly at every opportunity, insomuch that when I
+was telling the Queen in his presence that the people in general were so
+soured that nothing but lenitives could abate their rancour, he answered
+me with the Italian fable of the wolf who swore to a flock of sheep that
+he would protect them against all his comrades provided one of them would
+come every morning and lick a wound he had received from a dog.  He
+entertained me with the like witticisms three or four months together, of
+which this was one of the most favourable, whereupon I made these
+reflections that it was more unbecoming a Minister of State to say silly
+things than to do them, and that any advice given him was criminal.
+
+The Cardinal pretended that the success of the King's arms at Lens had so
+mortified the Court that the Parliament and the other bodies, who
+expected they would take a sharp revenge on them for their late conduct,
+would have the great satisfaction of being disappointed.  I own I was
+fool enough to believe him, and was perfectly transported at the thought;
+but with what sincerity the Cardinal spoke will appear by and by.
+
+On the 26th of August, 1648, the worthy Broussel, councillor of the Grand
+Chamber, and Rene Potier, Sieur de Blancmenil, President of the Inquests,
+were both arrested by the Queen's officers.  It is impossible to express
+the sudden consternation of all men, women, and children in Paris at this
+proceeding.  The people stared at one another for awhile without saying a
+word.  But this profound silence was suddenly attended with a confused
+noise of running, crying, and shutting up of shops, upon which I thought
+it my duty to go and wait upon the Queen, though I was sorely vexed to
+see how my credulity had been abused but the night before at Court, when
+I was desired to tell all my friends in Parliament that the victory of
+Lens had only disposed the Court more and more to leniency and
+moderation.  When I came to the New Market, on my way to Court, I was
+surrounded with swarms of people making a frightful outcry, and had great
+difficulty in getting through the crowd till I had told them the Queen
+would certainly do them justice.  The very boys hissed the soldiers of
+the Guard and pelted them with stones.  Their commander, the Marechal de
+La Meilleraye, perceiving the clouds began to thicken on all sides, was
+overjoyed to see me, and would go with me to Court and tell the whole
+truth of the matter to the Queen.  The people followed us in vast
+numbers, calling out, "Broussel, Broussel!"
+
+The Queen, whom we found in her Cabinet Council with Mazarin and others,
+received me neither well nor ill, was too proud and too much out of
+temper to confess any shame for what she had told me the night before,
+and the Cardinal had not modesty enough to blush.  Nevertheless he seemed
+very much confused, and gave some obscure hints by which I could perceive
+he would have me to believe that there were very sudden and extraordinary
+reasons which had obliged the Queen to take such measures.  I simulated
+approval of what he said, but all the answer I returned was that I had
+come thither, as in duty bound, to receive the Queen's orders and to
+contribute all in my power to restore the public peace and tranquillity.
+The Queen gave a gracious nod, but I understood afterwards that she put a
+sinister interpretation upon my last speech, which was nevertheless very
+inoffensive and perfectly consonant to my character as Coadjutor of
+Paris; but it is a true saying that in the Courts of princes a capacity
+of doing good is as dangerous and almost as criminal as a will to do
+mischief.
+
+The Marechal de La Meilleraye, finding that the Abbe de la Riviere and
+others made mere jest and banter of the insurrection, fell into a great
+passion, spoke very sharply, and appealed to me.  I freely gave my
+testimony, confirmed his account of the insurrection, and seconded him in
+his reflections upon the future consequences.  We had no other return
+from the Cardinal than a malicious sneer, but the Queen lifted up her
+shrill voice to the highest note of indignation, and expressed herself to
+this effect: "It is a sign of disaffection to imagine that the people are
+capable of revolting.  These are ridiculous stories that come from
+persons who talk as they would have it; the King's authority will set
+matters right."
+
+The Cardinal, perceiving that I was a little nettled, endeavoured to
+soothe me by this address to the Queen: "Would to God, madame, that all
+men did but talk with the same sincerity as the Coadjutor of Paris.  He
+is greatly concerned for his flock, for the city, and for your Majesty's
+authority, and though I am persuaded that the danger is not so great as
+he imagines, yet his scruples in this case are to be commended in him as
+laudable and religious."  The Queen understood the meaning of this cant,
+recovered herself all of a sudden, and spoke to me very civilly; to which
+I answered with profound respect and so innocent a countenance that La
+Riviere said, whispering to Beautru, "See what it is not to be always at
+Court!  The Coadjutor knows the world and is a man of sense, yet takes
+all the Queen has said to be in earnest."
+
+The truth is, the Cabinet seemed to consist of persons acting the several
+parts of a comedy.  I played the innocent, but was not so, at least in
+that affair.  The Cardinal acted the part of one who thought himself
+secure, but was much less confident than he appeared.  The Queen affected
+to be good-humoured, and yet was never more ill-tempered.  M. de
+Longueville put on the marks of sorrow and sadness while his heart leaped
+for joy, for no man living took a greater pleasure than he to promote all
+broils.  The Duc d'Orleans personated hurry and, passion in speaking to
+the Queen, yet would whistle half an hour together with the utmost
+indolence.  The Marechal de Villeroy put on gaiety, the better to make
+his court to the Prime Minister, though he privately owned to me, with
+tears in his eyes, that he saw the State was upon the brink of ruin.
+Beautru and Nogent acted the part of buffoons, and to please the Queen,
+personated old Broussel's nurse (for he was eighty years of age),
+stirring up the people to sedition, though both of them knew well enough
+that their farce might perhaps soon end in a real tragedy.
+
+The Abby de la Riviere was the only man who pretended to be fully
+persuaded that the insurrection of the people was but vapour, and he
+maintained it to the Queen, who was willing to believe him, though she
+had been satisfied to the contrary; and the conduct of the Queen, who had
+the courage of a heroine, and the temper of La Riviere, who was the most
+notorious poltroon of his time, furnished me with this remark: That a
+blind rashness and an extravagant fear produce the same effects while the
+danger is unknown.
+
+The Marechal de La Meilleraye assumed the style and bravado of a captain
+when a lieutenant-colonel of the Guards suddenly came to tell the Queen
+that the citizens threatened to force the Guards, and, being naturally
+hasty and choleric, was transported even with fury and madness.  He cried
+out that he would perish rather than suffer such insolence, and asked
+leave to take the Guards, the officers of the Household, and even all the
+courtiers he could find in the antechambers, with whom he would engage to
+rout the whole mob.  The Queen was greatly in favour of it, but nobody
+else, and events proved that it was well they did not come into it.  At
+the same time entered the Chancellor, a man who had never spoken a word
+of truth in his whole life; but now, his complaisance yielding to his
+fear, he spoke directly according to what he had seen in the streets. I
+observed that the Cardinal was startled at the boldness of a man in whom
+he had never seen anything like it before.  But Senneterre, coming in
+just after him, removed all their apprehensions in a trice by assuring
+them that the fury of the people began to cool, that they did not take
+arms, and that with a little patience all would be well again.
+
+There is nothing so dangerous as flattery at a juncture where he that is
+flattered is in fear, because the desire he has not to be terrified
+inclines him to believe anything that hinders him from applying any
+remedy to what he is afraid of.  The news that was brought every moment
+made them trifle away that time which should have been employed for the
+preservation of the State.  Old Guitaut, a man of no great sense, but
+heartily well affected, was more impatient than all the rest, and said
+that he did not conceive how it was possible for people to be asleep in
+the present state of affairs; he muttered something more which I could
+not well hear, but it seemed to bear very hard upon the Cardinal, who
+owed him no goodwill.
+
+The Cardinal answered, "Well, M. Guitaut, what would you have us do?"
+
+Guitaut said, very bluntly, "Let the old rogue Broussel be restored to
+the people, either dead or alive."
+
+I said that to restore him dead was inconsistent with the Queen's piety
+and prudence, but to restore him alive would probably put a stop to the
+tumult.
+
+At these words the Queen reddened, and cried aloud, "I understand you, M.
+le Coadjutor.  You would have me set Broussel at liberty; but I will
+strangle him sooner with these hands,"--throwing her head as it were into
+my face at the last word, "and those who--"
+
+The Cardinal, believing that she was going to say all to me that rage
+could inspire, advanced and whispered in her ear, upon which she became
+composed to such a degree that, had I not known her too well, I should
+have thought her at her ease.  The lieutenant de police came that instant
+into the Cabinet with a deadly pale aspect.  I never saw fear so well and
+ridiculously represented in any Italian comedy as the fright which he
+appeared in before the Queen.  How admirable is the sympathy of fearful
+souls!  Neither the Cardinal nor the Queen were much moved at what M. de
+La Meilleraye had strongly urged on them, but the fears of the lieutenant
+seized them like an infection, so that they were all on a sudden
+metamorphosed.  They ridiculed me no longer, and suffered it to be
+debated whether or no it was expedient to restore Broussel to the people
+before they took arms, as they had threatened to do.  Here I reflected
+that it is more natural to the passion of fear to consult than to
+determine.
+
+The Cardinal proposed that I, as the fittest person, should go and assure
+the people that the Queen would consent to the restoration of Broussel,
+provided they would disperse.  I saw the snare, but could not get away
+from it, the rather because Meilleraye dragged me, as it were, to go
+along with him,--telling her Majesty that he would dare to appear in the
+streets in my company, and that he did not question but we should do
+wonders.  I said that I did not doubt it either, provided the Queen would
+order a promise to be drawn in due form for restoring the prisoners,
+because I had not credit enough with the people to be believed upon my
+bare word.  They praised my modesty, Meilleraye was assured of success,
+and they said the Queen's word was better than all writings whatsoever.
+In a word, I was made the catspaw, and found myself under the necessity
+of acting the most ridiculous part that perhaps ever fell to any man's
+share.  I endeavoured to reply; but the Duc d'Orleans pushed me out
+gently with both hands, saying, "Go and restore peace to the State;" and
+the Marshal hurried me away, the Life-guards carrying me along in their
+arms, and telling me that none but myself could remedy this evil.  I went
+out in my rochet and camail, dealing out benedictions to the people on my
+right and left, preaching obedience, exerting all my endeavours to
+appease the tumult, and telling them the Queen had assured me that,
+provided they would disperse, she would restore Broussel.
+
+The violence of the Marshal hardly gave me time to express myself, for he
+instantly put himself at the head of the Horse-guards, and, advancing
+sword in hand, cried aloud, "God bless the King, and liberty to
+Broussel!" but being seen more than he was heard, his drawn sword did
+more harm than his proclaiming liberty to Broussel did good.  The people
+took to their arms and had an encounter with the Marshal, upon which I
+threw myself into the crowd, and expecting that both sides would have
+some regard to my robes and dignity, the Marshal ordered the Light-horse
+to fire no more, and the citizens with whom he was engaged held their
+hands; but others of them continued firing and throwing stones, by one of
+which I was knocked down, and had no sooner got up than a citizen was
+going to knock me down with a musket.  Though I did not know his name,
+yet I had the presence of mind to cry out, "Forbear, wretch; if thy
+father did but see thee--" He thereupon concluded I knew his father very
+well, though I had never seen him; and I believe that made him the more
+curious to survey me, when, taking particular notice of my robes, he
+asked me if I was the Coadjutor.  Upon which I was presently made known
+to the whole body, followed by the multitude which way soever I went, and
+met with a body of ruffians all in arms, whom, with abundance of
+flattery, caresses, entreaties, and menaces, I prevailed on to lay down
+their weapons; and it was this which saved the city, for had they
+continued in arms till night, the city had certainly been plundered.
+
+I went accompanied by 30,000 or 40,000 men without arms, and met the
+Marechal de La Meilleraye, who I thought would have stifled me with
+embraces, and who said these very words: "I am foolhardy and brutal; I
+had like to have ruined the State, and you have saved it; come, let us go
+to the Queen and talk to her like true, honest Frenchmen; and let us set
+down the day of the month, that when the King comes of age our testimony
+may be the means of hanging up those pests of the State, those infamous
+flatterers, who pretended to the Queen that this affair was but a
+trifle."  To the Queen he presently hurried me, and said to her, "Here is
+a man that has not only saved my life, but your Guards and the whole
+Court."
+
+The Queen gave an odd smile which I did not very well like, but I would
+not seem to take any notice of it, and to stop Meilleraye in his encomium
+upon me, I assumed the discourse myself, and said, "Madame, we are not
+come upon my account, but to tell you that the city of Paris, disarmed
+and submissive, throws herself at your Majesty's feet."
+
+"Not so submissive as guilty," replied the Queen, with a face full of
+fire; "if the people were so raging as I was made to believe, how came
+they to be so soon subdued?"
+
+The Marshal fell into a passion, and said, with an oath, "Madame, an
+honest man cannot flatter you when things are come to such an extremity.
+If you do not set Broussel at liberty this very day, there will not be
+left one stone upon another in Paris by tomorrow morning."
+
+I was going to support what the Marshal had said, but the Queen stopped
+my mouth by telling me, with an air of banter, "Go to rest, sir; you have
+done a mighty piece of work."
+
+When I returned home, I found an incredible number of people expecting
+me, who forced me to get upon the top of my coach to give them an account
+of what success I had had at Court.  I told them that the Queen had
+declared her satisfaction in their submission, and that she told me it
+was the only method they could have taken for the deliverance of the
+prisoners.  I added other persuasives to pacify the commonalty, and they
+dispersed the sooner because it was supper-time; for you must know that
+the people of Paris, even those that are the busiest in all such
+commotions, do not care to lose their meals.
+
+I began to perceive that I had engaged my reputation too far in giving
+the people any grounds to hope for the liberation of Broussel, though I
+had particularly avoided giving them my word of honour, and I apprehended
+that the Court would lay hold of this occasion to destroy me effectually
+in the opinion of the people by making them believe that I acted in
+concert with the Court only, to amuse and deceive them.
+
+While I was making these and the like reflections, Montresor came and
+told me that I was quite mistaken if I thought to be a great gainer by
+the late expedition; that the Queen was not pleased with my proceedings,
+and that the Court was persuaded that I did what lay in my power to
+promote the insurrection.  I confess I gave no credit to what Montresor
+said, for though I saw they made a jest of me in the Queen's Cabinet, I
+hoped that their malice did not go so far as to diminish the merit of the
+service I had rendered, and never imagined that they could be capable of
+turning it into a crime.  Laigues, too, came from Court and told me that
+I was publicly laughed at, and charged with having fomented the
+insurrection instead of appeasing it; that I had been ridiculed two whole
+hours and exposed to the smart raillery of Beautru, to the buffoonery of
+Nogent, to the pleasantries of La Riviere, to the false compassion of the
+Cardinal, and to the loud laughter of the Queen.
+
+You may guess that I was not a little moved at this, but I rather felt a
+slight annoyance than any transport of passion.  All sorts of notions
+came into my mind, and all as suddenly passed away.  I sacrificed with
+little or no scruple all the sweetest and brightest images which the
+memory of past conspiracies presented in crowds to my mind as soon as the
+ill-treatment I now publicly met with gave me reason to think that I
+might with honour engage myself in new ones.  The obligations I had to
+her Majesty made me reject all these thoughts, though I must confess I
+was brought up in them from my infancy, and Laigues and Montresor could
+have never shaken my resolution either by insinuating motives or making
+reproaches, if Argenteuil, a gentleman firmly attached to my interest,
+had not come into my room that moment with a frightened countenance and
+said:
+
+"You are undone; the Marechal de La Meilleraye has charged me to tell you
+that he verily thinks the devil is in the courtiers, who has put it into
+their heads that you have done all in your power to stir up the sedition.
+The Marechal de La Meilleraye has laboured earnestly to inform the Queen
+and Cardinal of the truth of the whole matter, but both have ridiculed
+him for his attempt.  The Marshal said he could not excuse the injury
+they did you, but could not sufficiently admire the contempt they always
+had for the tumult, of which they foretold the consequence as if they had
+the gift of prophecy, always affirming that it would vanish in a night,
+as it really has, for he hardly met a soul in the streets."
+
+He added that fires so quickly extinguished as this were not likely to
+break out again; that he conjured me to provide for my own safety; that
+the King's authority would shine out the next day with all the lustre
+imaginable; that the Court seemed resolved not to let slip this fatal
+conjuncture, and that I was to be made the first public example.
+
+Argenteuil said: "Villeroy did not tell me so much, because he durst not;
+but he so squeezed my hand 'en passant' that I am apt to think he knows a
+great deal more, and I must tell you that they have very good reason for
+their apprehensions, because there is not a soul to be seen in the
+streets, and to-morrow they may take up whom they list."
+
+Montresor, who would be thought to know all things beforehand, said that
+he was assured it would be so and that he had foretold it.  Laigues
+bewailed my conduct, which he said had raised the compassion of all my
+friends, although it had been their ruin.  Upon this I desired to be left
+about a quarter of an hour to myself, during which, reflecting how I had
+been provoked and the public threatened, my scruples vanished; I gave
+rein to all my thoughts, recollected that all the glorious ideas which
+have ever entered my imagination were most concerned with vast designs,
+and suffered my mind to be regaled with the pleasing hopes of being the
+head of a party, a position which I had always admired in Plutarch's
+"Lives."  The inconsistency of my scheme with my character made me
+tremble.  A world of incidents may happen when the virtues in the leader
+of a party may be vices in an archbishop.  I had this view a thousand
+times, and it always gave place to the duty I thought I owed to her
+Majesty, but the remembrance of what had passed at the Queen's table, and
+the resolution there taken to ruin me with the public, having banished
+all scruples, I joyfully determined to abandon my destiny to all the
+impulses of glory.  I said to my friends that the whole Court was witness
+of the harsh treatment I had met with for above a year in the King's
+palace, and I added: "The public is engaged to defend my honour, but the
+public being now about to be sacrificed, I am obliged to defend it
+against oppression.  Our circumstances are not so bad as you imagine,
+gentlemen, and before twelve o'clock to-morrow I shall be master of
+Paris."
+
+My two friends thought I was mad, and began to counsel moderation,
+whereas before they always incited me to action; but I did not give them
+hearing.  I immediately sent for Miron, Accountant-General, one of the
+city colonels, a man of probity and courage, and having great interest
+with the people.  I consulted with him, and he executed his commission
+with so much discretion and bravery that above four hundred considerable
+citizens were posted up and down in platoons with no more noise and stir
+than if so many Carthusian novices had been assembled for contemplation.
+After having given orders for securing certain gates and bars of the
+city, I went to sleep, and was told next morning that no soldiers had
+appeared all night, except a few troopers, who just took a view of the
+platoons of the citizens and then galloped off.  Hence it was inferred
+that our precautions had prevented the execution of the design formed
+against particular persons, but it was believed there was some mischief
+hatching at the Chancellor's against the public, because sergeants were
+running backwards and forwards, and Ondedei went thither four times in
+two hours.
+
+Being informed soon after that the Chancellor was going to the Palace
+with all the pomp of magistracy, and that two companies of Swiss Guards
+approached the suburbs, I gave my orders in two words, which were
+executed in two minutes.  Miron ordered the citizens to take arms, and
+Argenteuil, disguised as a mason, with a rule in his hand, charged the
+Swiss in flank, killed twenty or thirty, dispersed the rest, and took one
+of their colours.  The Chancellor, hemmed in on every side, narrowly
+escaped with his life to the Hotel d'O, which the people broke open,
+rushed in with fury, and, as God would have it, fell immediately to
+plundering, so that they forgot to force open a little chamber where both
+the Chancellor and his brother, the Bishop of Meaux, to whom he was
+confessing, lay concealed.  The news of this occurrence ran like
+wild-fire through the whole city.  Men and women were immediately up in
+arms, and mothers even put daggers into the hands of their children.  In
+less than two hours there were erected above two hundred barricades,
+adorned with all the standards and colours that the League had left
+entire.  All the cry was, "God bless the King!"  sometimes, "God bless
+the Coadjutor!" and the echo was, "No Mazarin!"
+
+The Queen sent her commands to me to use my interest to appease the
+tumult.  I answered the messenger, very coolly, that I had forfeited my
+credit with the people on account of yesterday's transactions, and that I
+did not dare to go abroad.  The messenger had heard the cry of "God bless
+the Coadjutor!"  and would fain have persuaded me that I was the
+favourite of the people, but I strove as much to convince him of the
+contrary.
+
+The Court minions of the two last centuries knew not what they did when
+they reduced that effectual regard which kings ought to have for their
+subjects into mere style and form; for there are, as you see, certain
+conjunctures in which, by a necessary consequence, subjects make a mere
+form also of the real obedience which they owe to their sovereigns.
+
+The Parliament hearing the cries of the people for Broussel, after having
+ordered a decree against Cominges, lieutenant of the Queen's Guards, who
+had arrested him, made it death for all who took the like commissions for
+the future, and decreed that an information should be drawn up against
+those who had given that advice, as disturbers of the public peace.  Then
+the Parliament went in a body, in their robes, to the Queen, with the
+First President at their head, and amid the acclamations of the people,
+who opened all their barricades to let them pass.  The First President
+represented to the Queen, with becoming freedom, that the royal word had
+been prostituted a thousand times over by scandalous and even childish
+evasions, defeating resolutions most useful and necessary for the State.
+He strongly exaggerated the mighty danger of the State from the city
+being all in arms; but the Queen, who feared nothing because she knew
+little, flew into a passion and raved like a fury, saying, "I know too
+well that there is an uproar in the city, but you Parliamentarians,
+together with your wives and children, shall be answerable for it all;"
+and with that she retired into another chamber and shut the door after
+her with violence.  The members, who numbered about one hundred and
+sixty, were going down-stairs; but the First President persuaded them to
+go up and try the Queen once more, and meeting with the Duc d'Orleans,
+he, with a great deal of persuasion, introduced twenty of them into the
+presence-chamber, where the First President made another effort with the
+Queen, by setting forth the terrors of the enraged metropolis up in arms,
+but she would hear nothing, and went into the little gallery.
+
+Upon this the Cardinal advanced and proposed to surrender the prisoner,
+provided the Parliament would promise to hold no more assemblies.  They
+were going to consider this proposal upon the spot, but, thinking that
+the people would be inclined to believe that the Parliament had been
+forced if they gave their votes at the Palais Royal, they resolved to
+adjourn to their own House.
+
+The Parliament, returning and saying nothing about the liberation of
+Broussel, were received by the people with angry murmurs instead of with
+loud acclamations.  They appeased those at the first two barricades by
+telling them that the Queen had promised them satisfaction; but those at
+the third barricade would not be paid in that coin, for a journeyman
+cook, advancing with two hundred men, pressed his halberd against the
+First President, saying, "Go back, traitor, and if thou hast a mind to
+save thy life, bring us Broussel, or else Mazarin and the Chancellor as
+hostages."
+
+Upon this five presidents 'au mortier' and about twenty councillors fell
+back into the crowd to make their escape; the First President only, the
+most undaunted man of the age, continued firm and intrepid.  He rallied
+the members as well as he could, maintaining still the authority of a
+magistrate, both in his words and behaviour, and went leisurely back to
+the King's palace, through volleys of abuse, menaces, curses, and
+blasphemies.  He had a kind of eloquence peculiar to himself, knew
+nothing of interjections, was not very exact in his speech, but the force
+of it made amends for that; and being naturally bold, never spoke so well
+as when he was in danger, insomuch that when he returned to the Palace he
+even outdid himself, for it is certain that he moved the hearts of all
+present except the Queen, who continued inflexible.  The Duc d'Orleans
+was going to throw himself at her feet, which four or five Princesses,
+trembling with fear, actually did.  The Cardinal, whom a young councillor
+jestingly advised to go out into the streets and see how the people stood
+affected, did at last join with the bulk of the Court, and with much ado
+the Queen condescended to bid the members go and consult what was fitting
+to be done, agreed to set the prisoners at liberty, restored Broussel to
+the people, who carried him upon their heads with loud acclamations,
+broke down their barricades, opened their shops, and in two hours Paris
+was more quiet than ever I saw it upon a Good Friday.
+
+As to the primum mobile of this revolution, it was owing to no other
+cause than a deviation from the laws, which so alters the opinions of the
+people that many times a faction is formed before the change is so much
+as perceived.
+
+This little reflection, with what has been said, may serve to confute
+those who pretend that a faction without a head is never to be feared. It
+grows up sometimes in a night.  The commotion I have been speaking of,
+which was so violent and lasting, did not appear to have any leader for a
+whole year; but at last there rose up in one moment a much greater number
+than was necessary for the party.
+
+The morning after the barricades were removed, the Queen sent for me,
+treated me with all the marks of kindness and confidence, said that if
+she had hearkened to me she would not have experienced the late
+disquietness; that the Cardinal was not to blame for it, but that
+Chavigni had been the sole cause of her misfortunes, to whose pernicious
+counsels she had paid more deference than to the Cardinal.  "But; good
+God!" she suddenly exclaimed, "will you not get that rogue Beautru
+soundly thrashed, who has paid so little respect to your character?  The
+poor Cardinal was very near having it done the other night."  I received
+all this with more respect than credulity.  She commanded me to go to the
+poor Cardinal, to comfort him, and to advise him as to the best means of
+quieting the populace.
+
+I went without any scruple.  He embraced me with a tenderness I am not
+able to express, said there was not an honest man in France but myself,
+and that all the rest were infamous flatterers, who had misled the Queen
+in spite of all his and my good counsels.  He protested that he would do
+nothing for the future without my advice, showed me the foreign
+despatches, and, in short, was so affable, that honest Broussel, who was
+likewise present upon his invitation, for all his harmless simplicity,
+laughed heartily as we were going out, and said that it was all mere
+buffoonery.
+
+There being a report that the King was to be removed by the Court from
+Paris, the Queen assured the 'prevot des marchands' that it was false,
+and yet the very next day carried him to Ruel.  From there I doubted not
+that she designed to surprise the city, which seemed really astonished at
+the King's departure, and I found the hottest members of the Parliament
+in great consternation, and the more so because news arrived at the same
+time that General Erlac--[He was Governor of Brisac, and commanded the
+forces of the Duke of Weimar after the Duke's death]--had passed the
+Somme with 4,000 Germans.  Now, as in general disturbances one piece of
+bad news seldom comes singly, five or six stories of this kind were
+published at the same time, which made me think I should find it as
+difficult a task to raise the spirits of the people as I had before to
+restrain them.  I was never so nonplussed in all my life.  I saw the full
+extent of the danger, and everything looked terrible.  Yet the greatest
+perils have their charms if never so little glory is discovered in the
+prospect of ill-success, while the least dangers have nothing but horror
+when defeat is attended with loss of reputation.
+
+I used all the arguments I could to dissuade the Parliament from making
+the Court desperate, at least till they had thought of some expedients to
+defend themselves from its insults, to which they would inevitably have
+been exposed if the Court had taken time by the forelock, in which,
+perhaps, they were prevented by the unexpected return of the Prince de
+Conti.  I hereupon formed a resolution which gave me a great deal of
+uneasiness, but which was firm, because it was the only resolution I had
+to take.  Extremities are always disagreeable, but are the wisest means
+when absolutely necessary; the best of it is that they admit of no middle
+course, and if peradventure they are good, they are always decisive.
+
+Fortune favoured my design.  The Queen ordered Chavigni to be sent
+prisoner to Havre-de-Grace.  I embraced this opportunity to stir up the
+natural fears of his dear friend Viole, by telling him that he was a
+ruined man for doing what he had done at the instigation of Chavigni;
+that it was plain the King left Paris with a view to attack it, and that
+he saw as well as I how much the people were dejected; that if their
+spirits should be quite sunk they could never be raised; that they must
+be supported; that I would influence the people; and that he should do
+what he could with the Parliament, who, in my opinion, ought not to be
+supine, but to be awakened at a juncture when the King's departure had
+perfectly drowned their senses, adding that a word in season would
+infallibly produce this good effect.
+
+Accordingly Viole struck one of the boldest strokes that has perhaps been
+heard of.  He told the Parliament that it was reported Paris was to be
+besieged; that troops were marching for that end, and the most faithful
+servants of his late Majesty, who, it was suspected, would oppose designs
+so pernicious, would be put in chains; that it was necessary for them to
+address the Queen to bring the King back to Paris; and forasmuch as the
+author of all these mischiefs was well known, he moved further that the
+Duc d'Orleans and the officers of the Crown should be desired to come to
+Parliament to deliberate upon the decree issued in 1617, on account of
+Marechal d'Ancre, forbidding foreigners to intermeddle in the Government.
+We thought ourselves that we had touched too high a key, but a lower note
+would not have awakened or kept awake men whom fear had perfectly
+stupefied.  I have observed that this passion of fear has seldom that
+influence upon individuals that it generally has upon the mass.
+
+Viole's proposition at first startled, then rejoiced, and afterwards
+animated those that heard it.  Blancmenil, who before seemed to have no
+life left in him, had now the courage to point at the Cardinal by name,
+who hitherto had been described only by the designation of Minister; and
+the Parliament cheerfully agreed to remonstrate with the Queen, according
+to Viole's proposition, not forgetting to pray her Majesty to remove the
+troops further from Paris, and not to send for the magistrates to take
+orders for the security of the city.
+
+The President Coigneux whispered to me, saying, "I have no hopes but in
+you; we shall be undone if you do not work underground."  I sat up
+accordingly all night to prepare instructions for Saint-Ibal to treat
+with the Count Fuensaldagne, and oblige him to march with the Spanish
+army, in case of need, to our assistance, and was just going to send him
+away to Brussels when M. de Chatillon, my friend and kinsman, who
+mortally hated the Cardinal, came to tell me that the Prince de Conde
+would be the next day at Ruel; that the Prince was enraged against the
+Cardinal, and was sure he would ruin the State if he were let alone, and
+that the Cardinal held a correspondence in cipher with a fellow in the
+Prince's army whom he had corrupted, to be informed of everything done
+there to his prejudice.  By all this I learnt that the Prince had no
+great understanding with the Court, and upon his arrival at Ruel I
+ventured to go thither.
+
+Both the Queen and the Cardinal were extremely civil, and the latter took
+particular notice of the Prince's behaviour to me, who embraced me 'en
+passant' in the garden, and spoke very low to me, saying that he would be
+at my house next day.  He kept his word, and desired me to give him an
+account of the state of affairs, and when I had done so we agreed that I
+should continue to push the Cardinal by means of the Parliament; that I
+should take his Highness by night incognito to Longueil and Broussel, to
+assure them they should not want assistance; that the Prince de Conde
+should give the Queen all the marks of his respect for and attachment to
+her, and make all possible reparation for the dissatisfaction he had
+shown with regard to the Cardinal, that he might thereby insinuate
+himself into the Queen's favour, and gradually dispose her to receive and
+fallow his counsels and hear truths against which she had always stopped
+her ears, and that by thus letting the Cardinal drop insensibly, rather
+than fall suddenly, the Prince would find himself master of the Cabinet
+with the Queer's approbation, and, with the assistance of his humble
+servants in Council, arbiter of the national welfare.
+
+The Queen, who went away from Paris to give her troops an opportunity to
+starve and attack the city, told the deputies sent by Parliament to
+entreat her to restore the King to Paris that she was extremely surprised
+and astonished; that the King used every year at that season to take the
+air, and that his health was much more to be regarded than the imaginary
+fears of the people.  The Prince de Conde, coming in at this juncture,
+told the President and councillors, who invited him to take his seat in
+Parliament, that he would not come, but obey the Queen though it should
+prove his ruin.  The Duc d'Orleans said that he would not be there
+either, because the Parliament had made such proposals as were too bold
+to be endured, and the Prince de Conti spoke after the same manner.
+
+The next day the King's Council carried an order of Council to Parliament
+to put a stop to their debates against foreigners being in the Ministry.
+This so excited the Parliament that they made a remonstrance in writing,
+instructed the 'prevot des marchands' to provide for the safety of the
+city, ordered all other governors to keep the passages free, and resolved
+next day to continue the debate against foreign ministers.  I laboured
+all night to ward off the fatal blow, which I was afraid would hurry the
+Prince, against his will, into the arms of the Court.  But when next day
+came, the members inflamed one another before they sat, through the
+cursed spirit of formality, and the very men who two days ago were all
+fear and trembling were suddenly transported, they knew not why, from a
+well-grounded fear to a blind rage, so that without reflecting that the
+General had arrived whose very name made them tremble, because they
+suspected him to be in the interest of the Court, they issued the said
+decree, which obliged the Queen to send the Duc d'Anjou,--[Philippe of
+France, only brother to King Louis XIV., afterwards Duc d'Orleans, died
+suddenly at St. Cloud, in 1701.]--but just recovered from the smallpox,
+and the Duchesse d'Orleans, much indisposed, out of town.
+
+This would have begun a civil war next day had not the Prince de Conde
+taken the wisest measures imaginable, though he had a very bad opinion of
+the Cardinal, both upon the public account and his own, and was as little
+pleased with the conduct of the Parliament, with whom there was no
+dealing, either as a body or as private persons.  The Prince kept an even
+pace between the Court and country factions, and he said these words to
+me, which I can never forget:
+
+"Mazarin does not know what he is doing, and will ruin the State if care
+be not taken; the Parliament really goes on too fast, as you said they
+would; if they did but manage according to our scheme, we should be able
+to settle our own business and that of the public, too; they act with
+precipitation, and were I to do so, it is probable I should gain more by
+it than they.  But I am Louis de Bourbon, and will not endanger the
+State.  Are those devils in square caps mad to force me either to begin a
+civil war tomorrow or to ruin every man of them, and set over our heads a
+Sicilian vagabond who will destroy us all at last?"
+
+In fine, the Prince proposed to set out immediately for Ruel to divert
+the Court from their project of attacking Paris, and to propose to the
+Queen that the Duc d'Orleans and himself should write to the Parliament
+to send deputies to confer about means to relieve the necessities of the
+State.  The Prince saw that I was so overcome at this proposal that he
+said to me with tenderness, "How different you are from the man you are
+represented to be at Court!  Would to God that all those rogues in the
+Ministry were but as well inclined as you!"
+
+I told the Prince that, considering how the minds of the Parliament were
+embittered, I doubted whether they would care to confer with the
+Cardinal; that his Highness would gain a considerable point if he could
+prevail with the Court not to insist upon the necessity of the Cardinal's
+presence, because then all the honour of the arrangement, in which the
+Duc d'Orleans, as usual, would only be as a cipher, would redound to him,
+and that such exclusion of the Cardinal would disgrace his Ministry to
+the last degree, and be a very proper preface to the blow which the
+Prince designed to give him in the Cabinet.
+
+The Prince profited by the hint, so that the Parliament returned answer
+that they would send deputies to confer with the Princes only, which last
+words the Prince artfully laid hold of and advised Mazarin not to expose
+himself by coming to the conference against the Parliament's consent, but
+rather, like a wise man, to make a virtue of the present necessity.  This
+was a cruel blow to the Cardinal, who ever since the decease of the late
+King had been recognised as Prime Minister of France; and the
+consequences were equally disastrous.
+
+The deputies being accordingly admitted to a conference with the Duc
+d'Orleans, the Princes de Conde and Conti and M. de Longueville, the
+First President, Viole, who had moved in Parliament that the decree might
+be renewed for excluding foreigners from the Ministry, inveighed against
+the imprisonment of M. de Chavigni; who was no member, yet the President
+insisted upon his being set at liberty, because, according to the laws of
+the realm, no person ought to be detained in custody above twenty-four
+hours without examination.  This occasioned a considerable debate, and
+the Duc d'Orldans, provoked at this expression, said that the President's
+aim was to cramp the royal authority.  Nevertheless the latter vigorously
+maintained his argument, and was unanimously seconded by all the
+deputies, for which they were next day applauded in Parliament.  In
+short, the thing was pushed so far that the Queen was obliged to consent
+to a declaration that for the future no man whatever should be detained
+in prison above three days without being examined.  By this means
+Chavigni was set at liberty.  Several other conferences were held, in
+which the Chancellor treated the First President of the Parliament with a
+sort of contempt that was almost brutal.  Nevertheless the Parliament
+carried all before them.
+
+In October, 1648, the Parliament adjourned, and the Queen soon after
+returned to Paris with the King.
+
+The Cardinal, who aimed at nothing more than to ruin my credit with the
+people, sent me 4,000 crowns as a present from the Queen, for the
+services which she said I intended her on the day of the barricade; and
+who, think you, should be the messenger to bring it but my friend the
+Marechal de La Meilleraye, the man who before warned me of the sinister
+intentions of the Court, and who now was so credulous as to believe that
+I was their favourite, because the Cardinal was pleased to say how much
+he was concerned for the injustice he had done me; which I only mention
+to remark that those people over whom the Court has once got an
+ascendency cannot help believing whatever they would have them believe,
+and the ministers only are to blame if they do not deceive them.  But I
+would not be persuaded by the Marshal as he had been by the Cardinal, and
+therefore I refused the said sum very civilly, and, I am sure, with as
+much sincerity as the Court offered it.
+
+But the Cardinal laid another trap for me that I was not aware of,--by
+tempting me with the proffer of the Government of Paris; and when I had
+shown a willingness to accept it, he found means to break off the treaty
+I was making for that purpose with the Prince de Guemende, who had the
+reversion of it, and then represented me to the people as one who only
+sought my own interest.  Instead of profiting by this blunder, which I
+might have done to my own advantage, I added another to it, and said all
+that rage could prompt me against the Cardinal to one who told it to him
+again.
+
+To return now to public affairs.  About the feast of Saint Martin the
+people were so excited that they seemed as if they had been all
+intoxicated with gathering in the vintage; and you are now going to be
+entertained with scenes in comparison to which the past are but trifles.
+
+There is no affair but has its critical minute, which a bold
+statesmanship knows how to lay hold of, and which, if missed, especially
+in the revolution of kingdoms, you run the great risk of losing
+altogether.
+
+Every one now found their advantage in the declaration,--that is, if they
+understood their own interest.  The Parliament had the honour of
+reestablishing public order.  The Princes, too, had their share in this
+honour, and the first-fruits of it, which were respect and security. The
+people had a considerable comfort in it, by being eased of a load of
+above sixty millions; and if the Cardinal had had but the sense to make a
+virtue of necessity, which is one of the most necessary qualifications of
+a minister of State, he might, by an advantage always inseparable from
+favourites, have appropriated to himself the greatest part of the merit,
+even of those things he had most opposed.
+
+But these advantages were all lost through the most trivial
+considerations.  The people, upon the discontinuation of the
+Parliamentary assemblies, resumed their savage temper, and were scared by
+the approach of a few troops at which it was ridiculous to take the least
+umbrage.  The Parliament was too apt to give ear to every groundless tale
+of the non-execution of their declarations.  The Duc d'Orleans saw all
+the good he was capable of doing and part of the evil he had power to
+prevent, but neither was strong enough to influence his fearful temper;
+he was unconscious of the coming and fatal blow.  The Prince de Conde,
+who saw the evil to its full extent, was too courageous by nature to fear
+the consequences; he was inclined to do good, but would do it only in his
+own way.  His age, his humour, and his victories hindered him from
+associating patience with activity, nor was he acquainted, unfortunately,
+with this maxim so necessary for princes,--"always to sacrifice the
+little affairs to the greater;" and the Cardinal, being ignorant of our
+ways, daily confounded the most weighty with the most trifling.
+
+The Parliament, who met on the 2d of January, 1649, resolved to enforce
+the execution of the declaration, which, they pretended, had been
+infringed in all its articles; and the Queen was resolved to retire from
+Paris with the King and the whole Court.  The Queen was guided by the
+Cardinal, and the Duc d'Orleans by La Riviere, the most sordid and
+self-interested man of the age in which he lived.  As for the Prince de
+Conde, he began to be disgusted with the unseasonable proceedings of the
+Parliament almost as soon as he had concerted measures with Broussel and
+Longueil, which distaste, joined to the kindly attentions of the Queen,
+the apparent submission of the Cardinal, and an hereditary inclination
+received from his parents to keep well with the Court, cramped the
+resolutions of his great soul.  I bewailed this change in his behaviour
+both for my own and the public account, but much more for his sake.  I
+loved him as much as I honoured him, and clearly saw the precipice.
+
+I had divers conferences with him, in which I found that his disgust was
+turned into wrath and indignation.  He swore there was no bearing with
+the insolence and impertinence of those citizens who struck at the royal
+authority; that as long as he thought they aimed only at Mazarin he was
+on their side; that I myself had often confessed that no certain measures
+could be concerted with men who changed their opinions every quarter of
+an hour; that he could never condescend to be General of an army of
+fools, with whom no wise man would entrust himself; besides that, he was
+a Prince of the blood, and would not be instrumental in giving a shock to
+the Throne; and that the Parliament might thank themselves if they were
+ruined through not observing the measures agreed on.
+
+This was the substance of my answer: "No men are more bound by interest
+than the Parliament to maintain the royal authority, so that they cannot
+be thought to have a design to ruin the State, though their proceedings
+may have a tendency that way.  It must be owned, therefore, that if the
+sovereign people do evil, it is only when they are not able to act as
+well as they would.  A skilful minister, who knows how to manage large
+bodies of men as well as individuals, keeps up such a due balance between
+the Prince's authority and the people's obedience as to make all things
+succeed and prosper.  But the present Prime Minister has neither judgment
+nor strength to adjust the pendulum of this State clock, the springs of
+which are out of order.  His business is to make it go slower, which, I
+own, he attempts to do, but very awkwardly, because he has not the brains
+for it.  In this lies the fault of our machine.  Your Highness is in the
+right to set about the mending of it, because nobody else is capable of
+doing it; but in order to do this must you join with those that would
+knock it in pieces?
+
+"You are convinced of the Cardinal's extravagances, and that his only
+view is to establish in France a form of government known nowhere but in
+Italy.  If he should succeed, will the State be a gainer by it, according
+to its only true maxims?  Would it be an advantage to the Princes of the
+blood in any sense?  But, besides, has he any likelihood of succeeding?
+Is he not loaded with the odium and contempt of the public?  and is not
+the Parliament the idol they revere?  I know you despise them because the
+Court is so well armed, but let me tell you that they are so confident of
+their power that they feel their importance.  They are come to that pass
+that they do not value your forces, and though the evil is that at
+present their strength consists only in their imagination, yet a time may
+come when they may be able to do whatever they now think it in their
+power to do.
+
+"Your Highness lately told me that this disposition of the people was
+only smoke; but be assured that smoke so dark and thick proceeds from a
+brisk fire, which the Parliament blows, and, though they mean well, may
+blaze up into such a flame as may consume themselves and again hazard the
+destruction of the State, which has been the case more than once.  Bodies
+of men, when once exasperated by a Ministry, always aggravate their
+failures, and scarcely ever show them any favour, which, in some cases,
+is enough to ruin a kingdom.
+
+"If, when the proposition was formerly made to the Parliament by the
+Cardinal to declare whether they intended to set bounds to the royal
+authority, if, I say, they had not wisely eluded the ridiculous and
+dangerous question, France would have run a great risk, in my opinion, of
+being entirely ruined; for had they answered in the affirmative, as they
+were on the point of doing, they would have rent the veil that covers the
+mysteries of State.  Every monarchy has its peculiar veil; that of France
+consists in a kind of religious and sacred silence, which, by the
+subjects generally paying a blind obedience to their Kings, muffles up
+that right which they think they have to dispense with their obedience in
+cases where a complaisance to their Kings would be a prejudice to
+themselves.  It is a wonder that the Parliament did not strip off this
+veil by a formal decree.  This has had much worse consequences since the
+people have taken the liberty to look through it.
+
+"Your Highness cannot by the force of arms prevent these dangerous
+consequences, which, perhaps, are already too near at hand.  You see that
+even the Parliament can hardly restrain the people whom they have roused;
+that the contagion is spread into the provinces, and you know that
+Guienne and Provence are entirely governed by the example of Paris. Every
+thing shakes and totters, and it is your Highness only that can set us
+right, because of the splendour of your birth and reputation, and the
+generally received opinion that none but you can do it.
+
+"The Queen shares with the Cardinal in the common hatred, and the Duc
+d'Orleans with La Riviere in the universal contempt of the people.  If,
+out of mere complaisance, you abet their measures, you will share in the
+hatred of the public.  It is true that you are above their contempt; but
+then their dread of you will be so great that it will grievously embitter
+the hatred they will then bear to you, and the contempt they have already
+for the others, so that what is at present only a serious wound in the
+State will perhaps become incurable and mortal.  I am sensible you have
+grounds to be diffident of the behaviour of a body consisting of above
+two hundred persons, who are neither capable of governing nor being
+governed.  I own the thought is perplexing; but such favourable
+circumstances seem to offer themselves at this juncture that matters are
+much simplified.
+
+"Supposing that manifestoes were published, and your Highness declared
+General of the Parliamentary Army, would you, monseigneur, meet with
+greater difficulties than your grandfather and great-grandfather did, in
+accommodating themselves to the caprice of the ministers of Rochelle and
+the mayors of Nimes and Montauban?  And would your Highness find it a
+greater task to manage the Parliament of Paris than M. de Mayenne did in
+the time of the League, when there was a factious opposition made to all
+the measures of the Parliament?  Your birth and merit raise you as far
+above M. de Mayenne as the cause in hand is above that of the League; and
+the circumstances of both are no less different.  The head of the League
+declared war by an open and public alliance with Spain against the Crown,
+and against one of the best and bravest kings that France ever had.  And
+this head of the League, though descended from a foreign and suspected
+family, kept, notwithstanding, that same Parliament in his interest for a
+considerable time.
+
+"You have consulted but two members of the whole Parliament, and them
+only upon their promise to disclose your intentions to no man living. How
+then can your Highness think it possible that your sentiments, locked up
+so closely in the breasts of two members, can have any influence upon the
+whole body of the Parliament?  I dare answer for it, monseigneur, that if
+you will but declare yourself openly the protector of the public and of
+the sovereign companies, you might govern them--at least, for a
+considerable time--with an absolute and almost sovereign authority. But
+this, it seems, is not what you have in view; you are not willing to
+embroil yourself with the Court.  You had rather be of the Cabinet than
+of a party.  Do not take it ill, then, that men who consider you only in
+this light do not conduct themselves as you would like.  You ought to
+conform your measures to theirs, because theirs are moderate; and you may
+safely do it, for the Cardinal can hardly stand under the heavy weight of
+the public hatred, and is too weak to oblige you against your will to any
+sudden and precipitate rupture.  La Riviere, who governs the Duc
+d'Orleans, is a most dangerous man.  Continue, then, to introduce
+moderate measures, and let them take their course, according to your
+first plan.  Is a little more or less heat in Parliamentary proceedings
+sufficient reason to make you alter it?  For whatever be the consequence,
+the worst that can happen is that the Queen may believe you not zealous
+enough for her interest; but are there not remedies enough for that?  Are
+there not excuses and appearances ready at hand, and such as cannot fail?
+
+"And now, I pray your Highness to give me leave to add that there never
+was so excellent, so innocent, so sacred, and so necessary a project as
+this formed by your Highness, and, in my humble opinion, there never were
+such weak reasons as those you have now urged to hinder its execution;
+for I take this to be the weakest of all, which, perhaps, you think a
+very strong one, namely, that if Mazarin miscarries in his designs you
+may be ruined along with him; and if he does succeed he will destroy you
+by the very means which you took to raise him."
+
+It had not the intended effect on the Prince, who was already
+prepossessed, and who only answered me in general terms.  But heroes have
+their faults as well as other men, and so had his Highness, who had one
+of the finest geniuses in the world, but little or no forethought.  He
+did not seek to aggravate matters in order to render himself necessary at
+Court, or with a view to do what he afterwards did for the Cardinal, nor
+was he biassed by the mean interests of pension, government, and
+establishment.  He had most certainly great hopes of being arbiter of the
+Cabinet.  The glory of being restorer of the public peace was his first
+end in view, and being the conservator of the royal authority the second.
+Those who labour under such an imperfection, though they see clearly the
+advantages and disadvantages of both parties, know not which to choose,
+because they do not weigh them in the same balance, so that the same
+thing appears lightest today which they will think heaviest to-morrow.
+This was the case of the Prince, who, it must be owned, if he had carried
+on his good design with prudence, certainly would have reestablished the
+Government upon a lasting foundation.
+
+He told me more than once, in an angry mood, that if the Parliament went
+on at the old rate he would teach them that it would be no great task to
+reduce them to reason.  I perceived by his talk that the Court had
+resumed the design of besieging Paris; and to be the more satisfied of it
+I told him that the Cardinal might easily be disappointed in his
+measures, and that he would find Paris to be a very tough morsel.
+
+"It shall not be taken," he said, "like Dunkirk, by mines and storming;
+but suppose its bread from Gonesse should be cut off for eight days
+only?"
+
+I took this statement then for granted, and replied that the stopping of
+that passage would be attended with difficulties.
+
+"What difficulties?" asked the Prince, very briskly.  "The citizens? Will
+they come out to give battle?"
+
+"If it were only citizens, monseigneur," I said, "the battle would not be
+very sharp."
+
+"Who will be with them?" he replied; "will you be there yourself?"
+
+"That would be a very bad omen," I said; "it would look too much like the
+proceedings of the League."
+
+After a little pause, he said, "But now, to be serious, would you be so
+foolish as to embark with those men?"
+
+"You know, monseigneur," I said, "that I am engaged already; and that,
+moreover, as Coadjutor of Paris, I am concerned both by honour and
+interest in its preservation.  I shall be your Highness's humble servant
+as long as I live, except in this one point."
+
+I saw he was touched to the quick, but he kept his temper, and said these
+very words: "When you engage in a bad cause I will pity you, but shall
+have no reason to complain of you.  Nor do you complain of me; but do me
+that justice you owe me, namely, to own that all I promised to Longueil
+and Broussel is since annulled by the conduct of the Parliament."
+
+He afterwards showed me many personal favours, and offered to make my
+peace with the Court.  I assured him of my obedience and zeal for his
+service in everything that did not interfere with the engagements I had
+entered into, which, as he himself owned, I could not possibly avoid.
+
+After we parted I paid a visit to Madame de Longueville, who seemed
+enraged both against the Court and the Prince de Conde.  I was pleased to
+think, moreover, that she could do what she would with the Prince de
+Conti, who was little better than a child; but then I considered that
+this child was a Prince of the blood, and it was only a name we wanted to
+give life to that which, without one, was a mere embryo.  I could answer
+for M. de Longueville, who loved to be the first man in any public
+revolution, and I was as well assured of Marechal de La Mothe,--[Philippe
+de La Mothe-Houdancourt, deceased 1657.]--who was madly opposed to the
+Court, and had been inviolably attached to M. de Longueville for twenty
+years together.  I saw that the Duc de Bouillon, through the injustice
+done him by the Court and the unfortunate state of his domestic affairs,
+was very much annoyed and almost desperate.  I had an eye upon all these
+gentlemen at a distance, but thought neither of them fit to open the
+drama.  M. de Longueville was only fit for the second act; the Marechal
+de La Mothe was a good soldier, but had no headpiece, and was therefore
+not qualified for the first act.  M. de Bouillon was my man, had not his
+honesty been more problematic than his talents.  You will not wonder that
+I was so wavering in my choice, and that I fixed at last upon the Prince
+de Conti, of the blood of France.
+
+As soon as I gave Madame de Longueville a hint of what part she was to
+act in the intended revolution, she was perfectly transported, and I took
+care to make M. de Longueville as great a malcontent as herself.  She had
+wit and beauty, though smallpox had taken away the bloom of her pretty
+face, in which there sat charms so powerful that they rendered her one of
+the most amiable persons in France.  I could have placed her in my heart
+between Mesdames de Gudmenee and Pommereux, and it was not the despair of
+succeeding that palled my passion, but the consideration that the
+benefice was not yet vacant, though not well served,--M. de La
+Rochefoucault was in possession, yet absent in Poitou.  I sent her three
+or four billets-doux every day, and received as many.  I went very often
+to her levee to be more at liberty to talk of affairs, got extraordinary
+advantages by it, and I knew that it was the only way to be sure of the
+Prince de Conti.
+
+Having settled a regular correspondence with Madame de Longueville, she
+made me better acquainted with M. de La Rochefoucault, who made the
+Prince de Conti believe that he spoke a good word for him to the lady,
+his sister, with whom he was in, love.  And the two so blinded the Prince
+that he did not suspect anything till four years after.
+
+When I saw that the Court would act upon their own initiative, I resolved
+to declare war against them and attack Mazarin in person, because
+otherwise we could not escape being first attacked by him.
+
+It is certain that he gave his enemies such an advantage over him as no
+other Prime Minister ever did.  Power commonly keeps above ridicule, but
+everybody laughed at the Cardinal because of his silly sayings and
+doings, which those in his position are seldom guilty of.  It was said
+that he had lately asked Bougeval, deputy of the Grand Council, whether
+he did not think himself obliged to have no buttons to the collar of his
+doublet, if the King should command it,--a grave argument to convince the
+deputies of an important company of the obedience due to kings, for which
+he was severely lampooned both in prose and verse.
+
+The Court having attempted to legalise excessive usury,--I mean with
+respect to the affair of loans,--my dignity would not permit me to
+tolerate so public and scandalous an evil.  Therefore I held an assembly
+of the clergy, where, without so much as mentioning the Cardinal's name
+in the conferences, in which I rather affected to spare him, yet in a
+week's time I made him pass for one of the most obstinate Jews in Europe.
+
+At this very time I was sent for, by a civil letter under the Queen's own
+hand, to repair to Saint Germain, the messenger telling me the King was
+just gone thither and that the army was commanded to advance.  I made him
+believe I would obey the summons, but I did not intend to do so.
+
+I was pestered for five hours with a parcel of idle rumours of ruin and
+destruction, which rather diverted than alarmed me, for though the Prince
+de Conde, distrusting his brother the Prince de Conti, had surprised him
+in bed and carried him off with him to Saint Germain, yet I did not
+question but that, as long as Madame de Longueville stayed in Paris, we
+should see him again, the rather because his brother neither feared nor
+valued him sufficiently to put him under arrest, and I was assured that
+M. de Longueville would be in Paris that evening by having received a
+letter from himself.
+
+The King was no sooner gone than the Parliament met, frightened out of
+their senses, and I know not what they could have done if we had not
+found a way to change their fears into a resolution to make a bold stand.
+I have observed a thousand times that there are some kinds of fear only
+to be removed by higher degrees of terror.  I caused it to be signified
+to the Parliament that there was in the Hotel de Ville a letter from his
+Majesty to the magistrates, containing the reasons that had obliged him
+to leave his good city of Paris, which were in effect that some of the
+officers of the House held a correspondence with the enemies of the
+Government, and had conspired to seize his person.
+
+The Parliament, considering this letter and that the President le Feron,
+'prevot des marchands', was a creature of the Court, ordered the citizens
+to arms, the gates to be secured, and the 'prevot des marchands' and the
+'lieutenant de police' to keep open the necessary passages for
+provisions.
+
+Having thought it good policy that the first public step of resistance
+should be taken by the Parliament to justify the disobedience of private
+persons, I then invented this stratagem to render me the more excusable
+to the Queen for not going to Saint Germain.  Having taken leave of all
+friends and rejected all their entreaties for my stay in Paris, I took
+coach as if I were driving to Court, but, by good luck, met with an
+eminent timber-merchant, a very good friend of mine, at the end of
+Notre-Dame Street, who was very much out of humour, set upon my
+postilion, and threatened my coachman.  The people came and overturned my
+coach, and the women, shrieking, carried me back to my own house.
+
+I wrote to the Queen and Prince, signifying how sorry I was that I had
+met with such a stoppage; but the Queen treated the messenger with scorn
+and contempt.  The Prince, at the same time that he pitied me, could not
+help showing his anger.  La Riviere attacked me with railleries and
+invectives, and the messenger thought they were sure of putting the rope
+about all our necks on the morrow.
+
+I was not so much alarmed at their menaces as at the news I heard the
+same day that M. de Longueville, returning from Rouen, had turned off to
+Saint Germain.  Marechal de La Mothe told me twenty times that he would
+do everything to the letter that M. de Longueville would have him do for
+or against the Court.  M. de Bouillon quarrelled with me for confiding in
+men who acted so contrary to the repeated assurances I had given him of
+their good behaviour.  And besides all this, Madame de Longueville
+protested to me that she had received no news from M. de La
+Rochefoucault, who went soon after the King, with a design to fortify the
+Prince de Conti in his resolution and to bring him back to Paris.  Upon
+this I sent the Marquis de Noirmoutier to Saint Germain to learn what we
+had to trust to.
+
+On the 7th of January, 1649, an order was sent from the King to the
+Parliament to remove to Montargis, to the Chamber of Accounts to adjourn
+to Orleans and to the Grand Council to retire to Mantes.  A packet was
+also sent to the Parliament, which they would not open, because they
+guessed at the contents and were resolved beforehand not to obey.
+Therefore they returned it sealed up as it came, and agreed to send
+assurances of their obedience to the Queen, and to beg she would give
+them leave to clear themselves from the aspersion thrown upon them in the
+letter above mentioned sent to the chief magistrate of the city.  And to
+support the dignity of Parliament it was further resolved that her
+Majesty should be petitioned in a most humble manner to name the
+calumniators, that they might be proceeded against according to law.  At
+the same time Broussel, Viole, Amelot, and seven others moved that it
+might be demanded in form that Cardinal Mazarin should be removed; but
+they were not supported by anybody else, so that they were treated as
+enthusiasts.  Although this was a juncture in which it was more necessary
+than ever to act with vigour, yet I do not remember the time when I have
+beheld so much faintheartedness.
+
+The Chamber of Accounts immediately set about making remonstrances; but
+the Grand Council would have obeyed the King's orders, only the city
+refused them passports.  I think this was one of the most gloomy days I
+had as yet seen.  I found the Parliament had almost lost all their
+spirit, and that I should be obliged to bow my neck under the most
+shameful and dangerous yoke of slavery, or be reduced to the dire
+necessity of setting up for tribune of the people, which is the most
+uncertain and meanest of all posts when it is not vested with sufficient
+power.
+
+The weakness of the Prince de Conti, who was led like a child by his
+brother, the cowardice of M. de Longueville, who had been to offer his
+service to the Queen, and the declaration of MM. de Bouillon and de La
+Mothe had mightily disfigured my tribuneship.  But the folly of Mazarin
+raised its reputation, for he made the Queen refuse audience to the
+King's Council, who returned that night to Paris, fully convinced that
+the Court was resolved to push things to extremity.
+
+I was informed from Saint Germain that the Prince had assured the Queen
+he would take Paris in a fortnight, and they hoped that the
+discontinuance of two markets only would starve the city into a
+surrender.  I carried this news to my friends, who began to see that
+there was no possibility, of accommodation.
+
+The Parliament was no sooner acquainted that the King's Council had been
+denied audience than with one voice--Bernai excepted, who was fitter for
+a cook than a councillor--they passed that famous decree of January 8th,
+1649, whereby Cardinal Mazarin was declared an enemy to the King and
+Government, a disturber of the public peace, and all the King's subjects
+were enjoined to attack him without mercy.
+
+In the afternoon there was a general council of the deputies of
+Parliament, of the Chamber of Accounts, of the Court of Aids, the chief
+magistrates of Paris, and the six trading companies, wherein it was
+resolved that the magistrates should issue commissions for raising 4,000
+horse and 10,000 foot.  The same day the Chamber of Accounts, the Court
+of Aids, and the city sent their deputies to the Queen, to beseech her
+Majesty to bring the King back to Paris, but the Court was obdurate.  The
+Prince de Conde flew out against the Parliament in the Queen's presence;
+and her Majesty told them all that neither the King nor herself would
+ever come again within the walls of the city till the Parliament was gone
+out of it.
+
+The next day the city received a letter from the King commanding them to
+oblige the Parliament to remove to Montargis.  The governor, one of the
+sheriffs, and four councillors of the city carried the letter to
+Parliament, protesting at the same time that they would obey no other
+orders than those of the Parliament, who that very morning settled the
+necessary funds for raising troops.  In the afternoon there was a general
+council, wherein all the corporations of the city and all the colonels
+and captains of the several quarters entered into an association,
+confirmed by an oath, for their mutual defence.  In the meantime I was
+informed by the Marquis de Noirmoutier that the Prince de Conti and M. de
+Longueville were very well disposed, and that they stayed at Court the
+longer to have a safer opportunity of coming away.  M. de La
+Rochefoucault wrote to the same purpose to Madame de Longueville.
+
+The same day I had a visit from the Duc d'Elbeuf,--[Charles de Lorraine,
+the second of that name, who died 1657.]--who, as they said, having
+missed a dinner at Court, came to Paris for a supper.  He addressed me
+with all the cajoling flattery of the House of Guise, and had three
+children with him, who were not so eloquent, but seemed to be quite as
+cunning as himself.  He told me that he was going to offer his service to
+the Hotel de Ville; but I advised him to wait upon the Parliament.  He
+was fixed in his first resolution, yet he came to assure me he would
+follow my advice in everything.  I was afraid that the Parisians, to whom
+the very name of a Prince of Lorraine is dear, would have given him the
+command of the troops.  Therefore I ordered the clergy over whom I had
+influence to insinuate to the people that he was too influential with the
+Abbe de La Riviere, and I showed the Parliament what respect he had for
+them by addressing himself to the Hotel de Ville in the first place, and
+that he had not honour enough to be trusted.  I was shown a letter which
+he wrote to his friend as he came into town, in which were these words:
+"I must go and do homage to the Coadjutor now, but in three days' time he
+shall return it to me."  And I knew from other instances that his
+affection for me was of the feeblest.
+
+While I was reflecting what to do, news was brought to me before daylight
+that the Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville were at the gate of Saint
+Honord and denied entrance by the people, who feared they came to betray
+the city.  I immediately fetched honest Broussel, and, taking some
+torches to light us, we posted to the said gate through a prodigious
+crowd of people; it was broad daylight before we could persuade the
+people that they might safely let them in.
+
+The great difficulty now was how to manage so as to remove the general
+distrust of the Prince de Conti that existed among the people.  That
+which was practicable the night before was rendered impossible and even
+ruinous the next day, and this same Duc d'Elbeuf, whom I thought to have
+driven out of Paris on the 9th, was in a fair way to have compelled me to
+leave on the 10th if he had played his game well, so suspected was the
+name of Conde by the people.  As there wanted a little time to reconcile
+them, I thought it was our only way to keep fair with M. d'Elbeuf and to
+convince him that it would be to his interest to join with the Prince de
+Conti and M. de Longueville.  I accordingly sent to acquaint him that I
+intended him a visit, but when I arrived he was gone to the Parliament,
+where the First President, who was against removing to Montargis and at
+the same time very averse to a civil war, embraced him, and, without
+giving the members time to consider what was urged by Broussel, Viole,
+and others to the contrary, caused him to be declared General, with a
+design merely to divide and weaken the party.
+
+Upon this I made haste to the Palace of Longueville to persuade the
+Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville to go that very instant to the
+Parliament House.  The latter was never in haste, and the Prince having
+gone tired to bed, it was with much ado I prevailed on him to rise.  In
+short, he was so long in setting out that the Parliament was up and M.
+d'Elbeuf was marching to the Hotel de Ville to be sworn and to take care
+of the commissions that were to be issued.  I thereupon persuaded the
+Prince de Conti to go to the Parliament in the afternoon and to offer
+them his service, while I stayed without in the hall to observe the
+disposition of the people.
+
+He went thither accordingly in my coach and with my grand livery, by
+which he made it appear that he reposed his confidence entirely in the
+people, whom there is a necessity of managing with a world of precaution
+because of their natural diffidence and instability.  When we came to the
+House we were saluted upon the stairs with "God bless the Coadjutor!"
+but, except those posted there on purpose, not a soul cried, "God bless
+the Prince de Conti!" from which I concluded that the bulk of the people
+were not yet cured of their diffidence, and therefore I was very glad
+when I had got the Prince into the Grand Chamber.  The moment after, M.
+d'Elbeuf came in with the city guards, who attended him as general, and
+with all the people crying out, "God bless his Highness M. d'Elbeuf!" But
+as they cried at the same time "God save the Coadjutor!"  I addressed
+myself to him with a smile and said, "This is an echo, monsieur, which
+does me a great deal of honour."--"It is very kind of you," said he, and,
+turning to the guards, bade them stay at the door of the Grand Chamber. I
+took the order as given to myself, and stayed there likewise, with a
+great number of my friends.  As soon as the House was formed, the Prince
+de Conti stood up and said that, having been made acquainted at Saint
+Germain with the pernicious counsels given to the Queen, he thought
+himself obliged, as Prince of the blood, to oppose them.  M. d'Elbeuf,
+who was proud and insolent, like all weak men, because he thought he had
+the strongest party, said he knew the respect due to the Prince de Conti,
+but that he could not forbear telling them that it was himself who first
+broke the ice and offered his service to the Parliament, who, having
+conferred the General's baton upon him, he would never part with it but
+with his life.
+
+The generality of the members, who were as distrustful of the Prince de
+Conti as the people, applauded this declaration, and the Parliament
+passed a decree forbidding the troops on pain of high treason to advance
+within twenty miles of Paris.  I saw that all I could do that day was to
+reconduct the Prince de Conti in safety to the palace of Longueville, for
+the crowd was so great that I was fain to carry him, as it were, in my
+arms out of the Grand Chamber.
+
+M. d'Elbeuf, who thought the day was all his own, hearing my name joined
+with his in the huzzas of the people, said to me by way of reprisal,
+"This, monsieur, is an echo which does me a great deal of honour," to
+which I replied, as he did to me before, "Monsieur, it is very kind of
+you."  Meantime he was not wise enough to improve the opportunity, and I
+foresaw that things would soon take another turn, for reputation of long
+standing among the people never fails to blast the tender blossoms of
+public good-will which are forced out of due season.
+
+I had news sent to me from Madame de Lesdiguieres at Saint Germain, that
+M. d'Elbeuf, an hour after he heard of the arrival of the Prince de Conti
+and M. de Longueville at Paris, wrote a letter to the Abbe de la Riviere
+with these words: "Tell the Queen and the Duc d'Orleans that this
+diabolical Coadjutor is the ruin of everything here, and that in two days
+I shall have no power at all, but that if they will be kind to me I will
+make them sensible.  I am not come hither with so bad a design as they
+imagine."  I made a very good use of this advice, and, knowing that the
+people are generally fond of everything that seems mysterious, I imparted
+the secret to four or five hundred persons.  I had the pleasure to hear
+that the confidence which the Prince had reposed in the people by going
+about all alone in my coach, without any attendance, had won their
+hearts.
+
+At midnight M. de Longueville, Marechal de La Mothe, and myself went to
+M. de Bouillon, whom we found as wavering as the state of affairs, but
+when we showed him our plan, and how easily it might be executed, he
+joined us immediately.  We concerted measures, and I gave out orders to
+all the colonels and captains of my acquaintance.
+
+The most dangerous blow that I gave to M. d'Elbeuf was by making the
+people believe that he held correspondence with the King's troops, who on
+the 9th, at night, surprised Charenton.  I met him on the first report of
+it, when he said, "Would you think there are people so wicked as to say
+that I had a hand in the capture of Charenton?" I said in answer, "Would
+you think there are people vile enough to report that the Prince de Conti
+is come hither by concert with the Prince de Conde?"
+
+When I saw the people pretty well cured of their diffidence, and not so
+zealous as they were for M. d'Elbeuf, I was for mincing the matter no
+longer, and thought that ostentation would be as proper to-day as reserve
+was yesterday.  The Prince de Conti took M. de Longueville to the
+Parliament House, where he offered them his services, together with all
+Normandy, and desired they would accept of his wife, son, and daughter,
+and keep them in the Hotel de Ville as pledges of his sincerity.  He was
+seconded by M. de Bouillon, who said he was exceedingly glad to serve the
+Parliament under the command of so great a Prince as the Prince de Conti.
+M. d'Elbeuf was nettled at this expression, and repeated what he had said
+before, that he would not part with the General's staff, and he showed
+more warmth than judgment in the whole debate.  He spoke nothing to the
+purpose.  It was too late to dispute, and he was obliged to yield, but I
+have observed that fools yield only when they cannot help it.  We tried
+his patience a third time by the appearance of Marechal de La Mothe, who
+passed the same compliment upon the company as De Bouillon had done.  We
+had concerted beforehand that these personages should make their
+appearance upon the theatre one after the other, for we had remarked that
+nothing so much affects the people, and even the Parliament, among whom
+the people are a majority, as a variety of scenes.
+
+I took Madame de Longueville and Madame de Bouillon in a coach by way of
+triumph to the Hotel de Ville.  They were both of rare beauty, and
+appeared the more charming because of a careless air, the more becoming
+to both because it was unaffected.  Each held one of her children,
+beautiful as the mother, in her arms.  The place was so full of people
+that the very tops of the houses were crowded; all the men shouted and
+the women wept for joy and affection.  I threw five hundred pistoles out
+of the window of the Hotel de Ville, and went again to the Parliament
+House, accompanied by a vast number of people, some with arms and others
+without.  M. d'Elbeuf's captain of the guards told his master that he was
+ruined to all intents and purposes if he did not accommodate himself to
+the present position of affairs, which was the reason that I found him
+much perplexed and dejected, especially when M. de Bellievre, who had
+amused him hitherto designedly, came in and asked what meant the beating
+of the drums.  I answered that he would hear more very soon, and that all
+honest men were quite out of patience with those that sowed divisions
+among the people.  I saw then that wisdom in affairs of moment is nothing
+without courage.  M. d'Elbeuf had little courage at this juncture, made a
+ridiculous explanation of what he had said before, and granted more than
+he was desired to do, and it was owing to the civility and good sense of
+M. de Bouillon that he retained the title of General and the precedence
+of M. de Bouillon and M. de La Mothe, who were equally Generals with
+himself under the Prince de Conti, who was from that instant declared
+Generalissimo of the King's forces under the direction of the Parliament.
+
+There happened at this time a comical scene in the Hotel de Ville, which
+I mention more particularly because of its consequence.  De Noirmoutier,
+who the night before was made lieutenant-general, returning by the Hotel
+de Ville from a sally which he had made into the suburbs to drive away
+Mazarin's skirmishers, as they were called, entered with three officers
+in armour into the chamber of Madame de Longueville, which was full of
+ladies; the mixture of blue scarfs, ladies, cuirassiers, fiddlers, and
+trumpeters in and about the hall was such a sight as is seldom met with
+but in romances.  De Noirmoutier, who was a great admirer of Astrea, said
+he imagined that we were besieged in Marcilli.  "Well you may," said I;
+"Madame de Longueville is as fair as Galatea, but Marsillac (son of M. de
+La Rochefoucault) is not a man of so much honour as Lindamore."  I fancy
+I was overheard by one in a neighbouring window, who might have told M.
+de La Rochefoucault, for otherwise I cannot guess at the first cause of
+the hatred which he afterwards bore me.
+
+Before I proceed to give you the detail of the civil war, suffer me to
+lead you into the gallery where you, who are an admirer of fine painting,
+will be entertained with the figures of the chief actors, drawn all at
+length in their proper colours, and you will be able to judge by the
+history whether they are painted to the life.  Let us begin, as it is but
+just, with her Majesty.
+
+Character of the Queen.
+
+The Queen excelled in that kind of wit which was becoming her circle, to
+the end that she might not appear silly before strangers; she was more
+ill-natured than proud, had more pride than real grandeur, and more show
+than substance; she loved money too well to be liberal, and her own
+interest too well to be impartial; she was more constant than passionate
+as a lover, more implacable than cruel, and more mindful of injuries than
+of good offices.  She had more of the pious intention than of real piety,
+more obstinacy than well-grounded resolution, and a greater measure of
+incapacity than of all the rest.
+
+Character of the Duc d' Orleans.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans possessed all the good qualities requisite for a man of
+honour except courage, but having not one quality eminent enough to make
+him notable, he had nothing in him to supply or support the weakness
+which was so predominant in his heart through fear, and in his mind
+through irresolution, that it tarnished the whole course of his life. He
+engaged in all affairs, because he had not power to resist the
+importunities of those who drew him in for their own advantage, and came
+off always with shame for want of courage to go on.  His suspicious
+temper, even from his childhood, deadened those lively, gay colours which
+would have shone out naturally with the advantages of a fine, bright
+genius, an amiable gracefulness, a very honest disposition, a perfect
+disinterestedness, and an incredible easiness of behaviour.
+
+Character of the Prince de Conde.
+
+The Prince de Conde was born a general, an honour none could ever boast
+of before but Caesar and Spinola; he was equal to the first, but superior
+to the second.  Intrepidity was one of the least parts of his character.
+Nature gave him a genius as great as his heart.  It was his fortune to be
+born in an age of war, which gave him an opportunity to display his
+courage to its full extent; but his birth, or rather education, in a
+family submissively attached to the Cabinet, restrained his noble genius
+within too narrow bounds.  There was no care taken betimes to inspire him
+with those great and general maxims which form and improve a man of
+parts.  He had not time to acquire them by his own application, because
+he was prevented from his youth by the unexpected revolution, and by a
+constant series of successes.  This one imperfection, though he had as
+pure a soul as any in the world, was the reason that he did things which
+were not to be justified, that though he had the heart of Alexander so he
+had his infirmities, that he was guilty of unaccountable follies, that
+having all the talents of Francois de Guise, he did not serve the State
+upon some occasions as well as he ought, and that having the parts of
+Henri de Conde, his namesake, he did not push the faction as far as he
+might have done, nor did he discharge all the duties his extraordinary
+merit demanded from him.
+
+Character of the Duc de Longueville.
+
+M. de Longueville, though he had the grand name of Orleans, together with
+vivacity, an agreeable appearance, generosity, liberality, justice,
+valour, and grandeur, yet never made any extraordinary figure in life,
+because his ideas were infinitely above his capacity.  If a man has
+abilities and great designs, he is sure to be looked upon as a man of
+some importance; but if he does not carry them out, he is not much
+esteemed, which was the case with De Longueville.
+
+Character of the Duc de Beaufort.
+
+M. de Beaufort knew little of affairs of moment but by hearsay and by
+what he had learned in the cabal of "The Importants," of whose jargon he
+had retained some smattering, which, together with some expressions he
+had perfectly acquired from Madame de Vendome, formed a language that
+would have puzzled a Cato.  His speech was short and stupidly dull, and
+the more so because he obscured it by affectation.  He thought himself
+very sufficient, and pretended to a great deal more wit than came to his
+share.  He was brave enough in his person, and outdid the common Hectors
+by being so upon all occasions, but never more 'mal a propos' than in
+gallantry.  And he talked and thought just as the people did whose idol
+he was for some time.
+
+Character of the Dice d'Elbeuf.
+
+M. d'Elbeuf could not fail of courage, as he was a Prince of the house of
+Lorraine.  He had all the wit that a man of abundantly more cunning and
+good sense could pretend to.  He was a medley of incoherent flourishes.
+He was the first Prince debased by poverty; and, perhaps, never man was
+more at a loss than he to raise the pity of the people in misery.  A
+comfortable subsistence did not raise his spirits; and if he had been
+master of riches he would have been envied as a leader of a party.
+Poverty so well became him that it seemed as if he had been cut out for a
+beggar.
+
+Character of the Duc de Bouillon.
+
+The Duc de Bouillon was a man of experienced valour and profound sense. I
+am fully persuaded, by what I have seen of his conduct, that those who
+cry it down wrong his character; and it may be that others had too
+favourable notions of his merit, who thought him capable of all the great
+things which he never did.
+
+Character of M. de Turenne.
+
+M. de Turenne had all the good qualities in his very nature, and acquired
+all the great ones very early, those only excepted that he never thought
+of.  Though almost all the virtues were in a manner natural to him, yet
+he shone out in none.  He was looked upon as more proper to be at the
+head of an army than of a faction, for he was not naturally enterprising.
+He had in all his conduct, as well as in his way of talking, certain
+obscurities which he never explained but on particular occasions, and
+then only for his own honour.
+
+Character of Marechal de La Mothe.
+
+The Marechal de La Mothe was a captain of the second rank, full of
+mettle, but not a man of much sense.  He was affable and courteous in
+civil life, and a very useful man in a faction because of his wonderful
+complacency.
+
+Character of the Prince de Conti.
+
+The Prince de Conti was a second Zeno as much as he was a Prince of the
+blood.  That is his character with regard to the public; and as to his
+private capacity, wickedness had the same effect on him as weakness had
+on M. d'Elbeuf, and drowned his other qualities, which were all mean and
+tinctured with folly.
+
+Character of M. de La Rochefoucault.
+
+M. de La Rochefoucault had something so odd in all his conduct that I
+know not what name to give it.  He loved to be engaged in intrigues from
+a child.  He was never capable of conducting any affair, for what reasons
+I could not conceive; for he had endowments which, in another, would have
+made amends for imperfections .  .  .  .  He had not a long view of what
+was beyond his reach, nor a quick apprehension of what was within it; but
+his sound sense, very good in speculation, his good-nature, his engaging
+and wonderfully easy behaviour, were enough to have made amends more than
+they did for his want of penetration.  He was constantly wavering in his
+resolution, but what to attribute it to I know not, for it could not come
+from his fertile imagination, which was lively.  Nor can I say it came
+from his barrenness of thought, for though he did not excel as a man of
+affairs, yet he had a good fund of sense.  The effect of this
+irresolution is very visible, though we do not know its cause.  He never
+was a warrior, though a true soldier.  He never was a courtier, though he
+had always a good mind to be one.  He never was a good party man, though
+his whole life was engaged in partisanship.  He was very timorous and
+bashful in conversation, and thought he always stood in need of
+apologies, which, considering that his "Maxims" showed not great regard
+for virtue, and that his practice was always to get out of affairs with
+the same hurry as he got into them, makes me conclude that he would have
+done much better if he had contented himself to have passed, as he might
+have done, for the politest courtier and the most cultivated gentlemen of
+his age.
+
+Character of Madame de Longueville.
+
+Madame de Longueville had naturally a great fund of wit, and was,
+moreover, a woman of parts; but her indolent temper kept her from making
+any use of her talents, either in gallantries or in her hatred against
+the Prince de Conde.  Her languishing air had more charms in it than the
+most exquisite beauty.  She had few or no faults besides what she
+contracted in her gallantry.  As her passion of love influenced her
+conduct more than politics, she who was the Amazon of a great party
+degenerated into the character of a fortune-hunter.  But the grace of God
+brought her back to her former self, which all the world was not able to
+do.
+
+Character of Madame de Chevreuse.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse had not so much as the remains of beauty when I knew
+her; she was the only person I ever saw whose vivacity supplied the want
+of judgment; her wit was so brilliant and so full of wisdom that the
+greatest men of the age would not have been ashamed of it, while, in
+truth, it was owing to some lucky opportunity.  If she had been born in
+time of peace she would never have imagined there could have been such a
+thing as war.  If the Prior of the Carthusians had but pleased her, she
+would have been a nun all her lifetime.  M. de Lorraine was the first
+that engaged her in State affairs.  The Duke of Buckingham--[George
+Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, assassinated when preparing to succour
+Rochelle.]--and the Earl of Holland (an English lord, of the family of
+Rich, and younger son of the Earl of Warwick, then ambassador in France)
+kept her to themselves; M. de Chateauneuf continued the amusement, till
+at last she abandoned herself to the pleasing of a person whom she loved,
+without any choice, but purely because it was impossible for her to live
+without being in love with somebody.  It was no hard task to give her one
+to serve the turn of the faction, but as soon as she accepted him she
+loved him with all her heart and soul, and she confessed that, by the
+caprice of fortune, she never loved best where she esteemed most, except
+in the case of the poor Duke of Buckingham.  Notwithstanding her
+attachment in love, which we may, properly call her everlasting passion,
+notwithstanding the frequent change of objects, she was peevish and
+touchy almost to distraction, but when herself again, her transports were
+very agreeable; never was anybody less fearful of real danger, and never
+had woman more contempt for scruples and ceremonies.
+
+Character of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse.
+
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was more beautiful in her person than charming
+in her carriage, and by nature extremely silly; her amorous passion made
+her seem witty, serious, and agreeable only to him whom she was in love
+with, but she soon treated him as she did her petticoat, which to-day she
+took into her bed, and to-morrow cast into the fire out of pure aversion.
+
+Character of the Princess Palatine.
+
+The Princess Palatine' had just as much gallantry as gravity.  I believe
+she had as great a talent for State affairs as Elizabeth, Queen of
+England.  I have seen her in the faction, I have seen her in the Cabinet,
+and found her everywhere equally sincere.
+
+Character of Madame de Montbazon.
+
+Madame de Montbazon was a very great beauty, only modesty was visibly
+wanting in her air; her grand air and her way of talking sometimes
+supplied her want of sense.  She loved nothing more than her pleasures,
+unless it was her private interest, and I never knew a vicious person
+that had so little respect for virtue.
+
+Character of the First President.
+
+If it were not a sort of blasphemy to say that any mortal of our times
+had more courage than the great Gustavus Adolphus and the Prince de
+Conde, I would venture to affirm it of M. Mole, the First President, but
+his wit was far inferior to his courage.  It is true that his enunciation
+was not agreeable, but his eloquence was such that, though it shocked the
+ear, it seized the imagination.  He sought the interest of the public
+preferably to all things, not excepting the interest of his own family,
+which yet he loved too much for a magistrate.  He had not a genius to see
+at times the good he was capable of doing, presumed too much upon his
+authority, and imagined that he could moderate both the Court and
+Parliament; but he failed in both, made himself suspected by both, and
+thus, with a design to do good, he did evil.  Prejudices contributed not
+a little to this, for I observed he was prejudiced to such a degree that
+he always judged of actions by men, and scarcely ever of men by their
+actions.
+
+To return to our history.  All the companies having united and settled
+the necessary funds, a complete army was raised in Paris in a week's
+time.  The Bastille surrendered after five or six cannon shots, and it
+was a pretty sight to see the women carry their chairs into the garden,
+where the guns were stationed, for the sake of seeing the siege, just as
+if about to hear a sermon.
+
+M. de Beaufort, having escaped from his confinement, arrived this very
+day in Paris.  I found that his imprisonment had not made him one jot the
+wiser.  Indeed, it had got him a reputation, because he bore it with
+constancy and made his escape with courage.  It was also his merit not to
+have abandoned the banks of the Loire at a time when it absolutely
+required abundance of skill and courage to stay there.  It is an easy
+matter for those who are disgraced at Court to make the best of their own
+merit in the beginning of a civil war.  He had a mind to form an alliance
+with me, and knowing how to employ him advantageously, I prepossessed the
+people in his favour, and exaggerated the conspiracy which the Cardinal
+had formed against him by means of Du Hamel.
+
+As my friendship was necessary to him, so his was necessary to me; for my
+profession on many occasions being a restraint upon me, I wanted a man
+sometimes to stand before me.  M. de La Mothe was so dependent on M. de
+Longueville that I could not rely on him; and M. de Bouillon was not a
+man to be governed.
+
+We went together to wait on the Prince de Conti; we stopped the coach in
+the streets, where I proclaimed the name of M. de Beaufort, praised him
+and showed him to the people; upon which the people were suddenly fired
+with enthusiasm, the women kissed him, and the crowd was so great that we
+had much ado to get to the Hotel de Ville.  The next day he offered a
+petition to the Parliament desiring he might have leave to justify
+himself against the accusation of his having formed a design against the
+life of the Cardinal, which was granted; and he was accordingly cleared
+next day, and the Parliament issued that famous decree for seizing all
+the cash of the Crown in all the public and private receipt offices of
+the kingdom and employing it in the common defence.
+
+The Prince de Conde was enraged at the declaration published by the
+Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville, which cast the Court, then at
+Saint Germain, into such a despair that the Cardinal was upon the point
+of retiring.  I was abused there without mercy, as appeared by a letter
+sent to Madame de Longueville from the Princess, her mother, in which I
+read this sentence: "They rail here plentifully against the Coadjutor,
+whom yet I cannot forbear thanking for what he has done for the poor
+Queen of England."  This circumstance is very curious.  You must know
+that a few days before the King left Paris I visited the Queen of
+England, whom I found in the apartment of her daughter, since Madame
+d'Orleans.  "You see, monsieur," said the Queen, "I come here to keep
+Henriette company; the poor child has lain in bed all day for want of a
+fire."  The truth is, the Cardinal having stopped the Queen's pension six
+months, tradesmen were unwilling to give her credit, and there was not a
+chip of wood in the house.  You may be sure I took care that a Princess
+of Great Britain should not be confined to her bed next day, for want of
+a fagot; and a few days after I exaggerated the scandal of this
+desertion, and the Parliament sent the Queen a present of 40,000 livres.
+Posterity will hardly believe that the Queen of England, granddaughter of
+Henri the Great, wanted a fagot to light a fire in the month of January,
+in the Louvre, and at the Court of France.
+
+There are many passages in history less monstrous than this which make us
+shudder, and this mean action of the Court made so little impression upon
+the minds of the generality of the people at that time that I have
+reflected a thousand times since that we are far more moved at the
+hearing of old stories than of those of the present time; we are not
+shocked at what we see with our own eyes, and I question whether our
+surprise would be as great as we imagine at the story of Caligula's
+promoting his horse to the dignity of a consul were he and his horse now
+living.
+
+To return to the war.  A cornet of my regiment being taken prisoner and
+carried to Saint Germain, the Queen immediately ordered his head to be
+cut off, but I sent a trumpeter to acquaint the Court that I would make
+reprisals upon my prisoners, so that my cornet was exchanged and a cartel
+settled.
+
+As soon as Paris declared itself, all the kingdom was in a quandary, for
+the Parliament of Paris sent circular letters to all the Parliaments and
+cities in the kingdom exhorting them to join against the common enemy;
+upon which the Parliaments of Aix and Rouen joined with that of Paris.
+The Prince d'Harcourt, now Duc d'Elbeuf, and the cities of Rheims, Tours,
+and Potiers, took up arms in its favour.  The Duc de La Tremouille raised
+men for them publicly.  The Duc de Retz offered his service to the
+Parliament, together with Belle Isle.  Le Mans expelled its bishop and
+all the Lavardin family, who were in the interest of the Court.
+
+On the 18th of January, 1649, I was admitted to a seat and vote in
+Parliament, and signed an alliance with the chief leaders of the party:
+MM. de Beaufort, de Bouillon, de La Mothe, de Noirmoutier, de Vitri, de
+Brissac, de Maure, de Matha, de Cugnac, de Barnire, de Sillery, de La
+Rochefoucault, de Laigues, de Sevigny, de Bethune, de Luynes, de
+Chaumont, de Saint-Germain, d'Action, and de Fiesque.
+
+On the 9th of February the Prince de Conde attacked and took Charenton.
+All this time the country people were flocking to Paris with provisions,
+not only because there was plenty of money, but to enable the citizens to
+hold out against the siege, which was begun on the 9th of January.
+
+On the 12th of February a herald came with two trumpeters from the Court
+to one of the city gates, bringing three packets of letters, one for the
+Parliament, one for the Prince de Conti, and the third for the Hotel de
+Ville.  It was but the night before that a person was caught in the halls
+dropping libels against the Parliament and me; upon which the Parliament,
+Princes, and city supposed that this State visit was nothing but an
+amusement of Cardinal Mazarin to cover a worse design, and therefore
+resolved not to receive the message nor give the herald audience, but to
+send the King's Council to the Queen to represent to her that their
+refusal was out of pure obedience and respect, because heralds are never
+sent but to sovereign Princes or public enemies, and that the Parliament,
+the Prince de Conti, and the city were neither the one nor the other. At
+the same time the Chevalier de Lavalette, who distributed the libels, had
+formed a design to kill me and M. de Beaufort upon the Parliament stairs
+in the great crowd which they expected would attend the appearance of the
+herald.  The Court, indeed, always denied his having any other commission
+than to drop the libels, but I am certain that the Bishop of Dole told
+the Bishop of Aire, but a night or two before, that Beaufort and I should
+not be among the living three days hence.
+
+The King's councillors returned with a report how kindly they had been
+received at Saint Germain.  They said the Queen highly approved of the
+reasons offered by the Parliament for refusing entrance to the herald,
+and that she had assured them that, though she could not side with the
+Parliament in the present state of affairs, yet she received with joy the
+assurances they had given her of their respect and submission, and that
+she would distinguish them in general and in particular by special marks
+of her good-will.  Talon, Attorney-General, who always spoke with dignity
+and force, embellished this answer of the Queen with all the ornaments he
+could give it, assuring the Parliament in very pathetic terms that, if
+they should be pleased to send a deputation to Saint Germain, it would be
+very kindly received, and might, perhaps, be a great step towards a
+peace.
+
+When I saw that we were besieged, that the Cardinal had sent a person
+into Flanders to treat with the Spaniards, and that our party was now so
+well formed that there was no danger that I alone should be charged with
+courting the alliance of the enemies of the State, I hesitated no longer,
+but judged that, as affairs stood, I might with honour hear what
+proposals the Spaniards would make to me for the relief of Paris; but I
+took care not to have my name mentioned, and that the first overtures
+should be made to M. d'Elbeuf, who was the fittest person, because during
+the ministry of Cardinal de Richelieu he was twelve or fifteen years in
+Flanders a pensioner of Spain.  Accordingly Arnolfi, a Bernardin friar,
+was sent from the Archduke Leopold, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands
+for the King of Spain, to the Duc d'Elbeuf, who, upon sight of his
+credentials, thought himself the most considerable man of the party,
+invited most of us to dinner, and told us he had a very important matter
+to lay before us, but that such was his tenderness for the French name
+that he could not open so much as a small letter from a suspected
+quarter, which, after some scrupulous and mysterious circumlocutions, he
+ventured to name, and we agreed one and all not to refuse the succours
+from Spain, but the great difficulty was, which way to get them.
+Fuensaldagne, the general, was inclined to join us if he could have been
+sure that we would engage with him; but as there was no possibility of
+the Parliaments treating with him, nor any dependence to be placed upon
+the generals, some of whom were wavering and whimsical, Madame de
+Bouillon pressed me not to hesitate any longer, but to join with her
+husband, adding that if he and I united, we should so far overmatch the
+others that it would not be in their power to injure us.
+
+M. de Bouillon and I agreed to use our interest to oblige the Parliament
+to hear what the envoy had to say.  I proposed it to the Parliament, but
+the first motion of it was hissed, in a manner, by all the company as
+much as if it had been heretical.  The old President Le Coigneux, a man
+of quick apprehension, observing that I sometimes mentioned a letter from
+the Archduke of which there had been no talk, declared himself suddenly
+to be of my opinion.  He had a secret persuasion that I had seen some
+writings which they knew nothing of, and therefore, while both sides were
+in the heat of debate, he said to me:
+
+"Why do you not disclose yourself to your friends?  They would come into
+your measures.  I see very well you know more of the matter than the
+person who thinks himself your informant."  I vow I was terribly ashamed
+of my indiscretion.  I squeezed him by the hand and winked at MM. de
+Beaufort and de La Mothe.  At length two other Presidents came over to my
+opinion, being thoroughly convinced that succours from Spain at this time
+were a remedy absolutely necessary to our disease, but a dangerous and
+empirical medicine, and infallibly mortal to particular persons if it did
+not pass first through the Parliament's alembic.
+
+The Bernardin, being tutored by us beforehand what to say when he came
+before the Parliament, behaved like a man of good sense.
+
+When he desired audience, or rather when the Prince de Conti desired it
+for him, the President de Mesmes, a man of great capacity, but by fear
+and ambition most slavishly attached to the Court, made an eloquent and
+pathetic harangue, preferable to anything I ever met with of the kind in
+all the monuments of antiquity, and, turning about to the Prince de
+Conti, "Is it possible, monsieur," said he, "that a Prince of the blood
+of France should propose to let a person deputed from the most bitter
+enemy of the fleurs-de-lis have a seat upon those flowers?"  Then turning
+to me, he said, "What, monsieur, will you refuse entrance to your
+sovereign's herald upon the most trifling pretexts?"  I knew what was
+coming, and therefore I endeavoured to stop his mouth by this answer:
+"Monsieur, you will excuse me from calling those reasons frivolous which
+have had the sanction of a decree."  The bulk of the Parliament was
+provoked at the President's unguarded expression, baited him very
+fiercely, and then I made some pretence to go out, leaving Quatresous, a
+young man of the warmest temper, in the House to skirmish with him in my
+stead, as having experienced more than once that the only way to get
+anything of moment passed in Parliamentary or other assemblies is to
+exasperate the young men against the old ones.
+
+In short, after many debates, it was carried that the envoy should be
+admitted to audience.  Being accordingly admitted, and bidden to be
+covered and sit down, he presented the Archduke's credentials, and then
+made a speech, which was in substance that his master had ordered him to
+acquaint the company with a proposal made him by Cardinal Mazarin since
+the blockade of Paris, which his Catholic Majesty did not think
+consistent with his safety or honour to accept, when he saw that, on the
+one hand, it was made with a view to oppress the Parliament, which was
+held in veneration by all the kingdoms in the world, and, on the other,
+that all treaties made with a condemned minister would be null and void,
+forasmuch as they were made without the concurrence of the Parliament, to
+whom only it belonged to register and verify treaties of peace in order
+to make them authoritative; that the Catholic King, who proposed to take
+no advantage from the present state of affairs, had ordered the Archduke
+to assure the Parliament, whom he knew to be in the true interest of the
+most Christian King, that he heartily acknowledged them to be the
+arbiters of peace, that he submitted to their judgment, and that if they
+thought proper to be judges, he left it to their choice to send a
+deputation out of their own body to what place they pleased. Paris itself
+not excepted, and that his Catholic Majesty would also, without delay,
+send his deputies thither to meet and treat with them; that, meanwhile,
+he had ordered 18,000 men to march towards their frontiers to relieve
+them in case of need, with orders nevertheless to commit no hostilities
+upon the towns, etc., of the most Christian King, though they were for
+the most part abandoned; and it being his resolution at this juncture to
+show his sincere inclination for peace, he gave them his word of honour
+that his armies should not stir during the treaty; but that in case his
+troops might be serviceable to the Parliament, they were at their
+disposal, to be commanded by French officers; and that to obviate all the
+reasonable jealousies generally, attending the conduct of foreigners,
+they, were at liberty to take all other precautions they should think
+proper.
+
+Before his admission the Prdsident de Mesmes had loaded me with
+invectives, for secretly corresponding with the enemies of the State, for
+favouring his admission, and for opposing that of my sovereign's herald.
+
+I had observed that when the objections against a man are capable of
+making greater impression than his answers, it is his best course to say
+but little, and that he may talk as much as he pleases when he thinks his
+answers of greater force than the objections.  I kept strictly to this
+rule, for though the said President artfully pointed his satire at me, I
+sat unconcerned till I found the Parliament was charmed with what the
+envoy had said, and then, in my turn, I was even with the President by
+telling him in short that my respect for the Parliament had obliged me to
+put up with his sarcasms, which I had hitherto endured; and that I did
+not suppose he meant that his sentiments should always be a law to the
+Parliament; that nobody there had a greater esteem for him, with which I
+hoped that the innocent freedom I had taken to speak my mind was not
+inconsistent; that as to the non-admission of the herald, had it not been
+for the motion made by M. Broussel, I should have fallen into the snare
+through overcredulity, and have given my vote for that which might
+perhaps have ended in the destruction of the city, and involved myself in
+what has since fully proved to be a crime by the Queen's late solemn
+approbation of the contrary conduct; and that, as to the envoy, I was
+silent till I saw most of them were for giving him audience, when I
+thought it better to vote the same way than vainly to contest it.
+
+This modest and submissive answer of mine to all the scurrilities heaped
+upon me for a fortnight together by the First President and the President
+de Mesmes had an excellent effect upon the members, and obliterated for a
+long time the suspicion that I aimed to govern them by my cabals.  The
+President de Mesmes would have replied, but his words were drowned in the
+general clamour.  The clock struck five; none had dined, and many had not
+broken their fast, which the Presidents had, and therefore had the
+advantage in disputation.
+
+The decree ordering the admission of the Spanish envoy to audience
+directed that a copy of what he said in Parliament, signed with his own
+hand, should be demanded of him, to the end that it might be registered,
+and that, by a solemn deputation, it should be sent to the Queen, with an
+assurance of the fidelity of the Parliament, beseeching her at the same
+time to withdraw her troops from the neighbourhood of Paris and restore
+peace to her people.  It being now very late, and the members very
+hungry,--circumstances that have greater influence than can be imagined
+in debates, they were upon the point of letting this clause pass for want
+of due attention.  The President Le Coigneux was the first that
+discovered the grand mistake, and, addressing himself to a great many
+councillors, who were rising up, said, "Gentlemen, pray take your places
+again, for I have something to offer to the House which is of the highest
+importance to all Europe."  When they had taken their places he spoke as
+follows:
+
+"The King of Spain takes us for arbiters of the general peace; it may be
+he is not in earnest, but yet it is a compliment to tell us so.  He
+offers us troops to march to our relief, and it is certain he does not
+deceive us in this respect, but highly obliges us.  We have heard his
+envoy, and considering the circumstances we are in, we think it right so
+to do.  We have resolved to give an account of this matter to the King,
+which is but reasonable; some imagine that we propose to send the
+original decree, but here lies the snake in the grass.  I protest,
+monsieur," added he, turning to the First President, "that the members
+did not understand it so, but that the copy only should be carried to
+Court, and the original be kept in the register.  I could wish there had
+been no occasion for explanation, because there are some occasions when
+it is not prudent to speak all that one thinks, but since I am forced to
+it, I must say it without further hesitation, that in case we deliver up
+the original the Spaniards will conclude that we expose their proposals
+for a general peace and our own safety to the caprice of Cardinal
+Mazarin; whereas, by delivering only a copy, accompanied with humble
+entreaties for a general peace, as the Parliament has wisely ordered, all
+Europe will see that we maintain ourselves in a condition capable of
+doing real service both to our King and country, if the Cardinal is so
+blind as not to take a right advantage of this opportunity."
+
+This discourse was received with the approbation of all the members, who
+cried out from all corners of the House that this was the meaning of the
+House.  The gentlemen of the Court of Inquests did not spare the
+Presidents.  M. Martineau said publicly that the tenor of this decree was
+that the envoy of Spain should be made much of till they received an
+answer from Saint Germain, which would prove to be another taunt of the
+Cardinal's.  Pontcarre said he was not so much afraid of a Spaniard as of
+a Mazarin.  In short, the generals had the satisfaction to see that the
+Parliament would not be sorry for any advances they should make towards
+an alliance with Spain.
+
+We sent a courier to Brussels, who was guarded ten leagues out of Paris
+by 500 horse, with an account of everything done in Parliament, of the
+conditions which the Prince de Conti and the other generals desired for
+entering into a treaty with Spain, and of what engagement I could make in
+my own private capacity.
+
+After he had gone I had a conference with M. de Bouillon and his lady
+about the present state of affairs, which I observed was very ticklish;
+that if we were favoured by the general inclination of the people we
+should carry all before us, but that the Parliament, which was our chief
+strength in one sense, was in other respects our main weakness; that they
+were very apt to go backward; that in the very last debate they were on
+the point of twisting a rope for their own necks, and that the First
+President would show Mazarin his true interests, and be glad to amuse us
+by stipulating with the Court for our security without putting us in
+possession of it, and by ending the civil war in the confirmation of our
+slavery.  "The Parliament," I said, "inclines to an insecure and
+scandalous peace.  We can make the people rise to-morrow if we please;
+but ought we to attempt it?  And if we divest the Parliament of its
+authority, into what an abyss of disorders shall we not precipitate
+Paris?  But, on the other hand, if we do not raise the people, will the
+Parliament ever believe we can?  Will they be hindered from taking any
+further step in favour of the Court, destructive indeed to their own
+interest, but infallibly ruinous to us first?"
+
+M. de Bouillon, who did not believe our affairs to be in so critical a
+situation, was, together with his lady, in a state of surprise.  The mild
+and honourable answer which the Queen returned to the King's councillors
+in relation to the herald, her protestations that she sincerely forgave
+all the world, and the brilliant gloss of Talon upon her said answer, in
+an instant overturned the former resolutions of the Parliament; and if
+they regained sometimes their wonted vigour, either by some intervening
+accidents or by the skilful management of those who took care to bring
+them back to the right way, they had still an inclination to recede. M.
+de Bouillon being the wisest man of the party, I told him what I thought,
+and with him I concerted proper measures.  To the rest, I put on a
+cheerful air, and magnified every little circumstance of affairs to our
+own advantage.
+
+M. de Bouillon proposed that we should let the Parliament and the Hotel
+de Ville go on in their own way, and endeavour all we could clandestinely
+to make them odious to the people, and that we should take the first
+opportunity to secure, by banishment or imprisonment, such persons as we
+could not depend upon.  He added that Longueville, too, was of opinion
+that there was no remedy left but to purge the Houses.  This was exactly
+like him, for never was there a man so positive and violent in his
+opinion, and yet no man living could palliate it with smoother language.
+Though I thought of this expedient before M. de Bouillon, and perhaps
+could have said more for it, because I saw the possibility of it much
+clearer than he, yet I would not give him to understand that I had
+thought of it, because I knew he had the vanity to love to be esteemed
+the first author of things, which was the only weakness I observed in his
+managing State affairs.  I left him an answer in writing, in substance as
+follows:
+
+"I confess the scheme is very feasible, but attended with pernicious
+consequences both to the public and to private persons, for the same
+people whom you employ to humble the magistracy will refuse you obedience
+when you demand from them the same homage they paid to the magistrates.
+This people adored the Parliament till the beginning of the war; they are
+still for continuing the war, and yet abate their friendship for the
+Parliament.  The Parliament imagines that this applies only to some
+particular members who are Mazarined, but they are deceived, for their
+prejudice extends to the whole company, and their hatred towards
+Mazarin's party supports and screens their indifference towards all the
+rest.  We cheer up their spirits by pasquinades and ballads and the
+martial sound of trumpets and kettle-drums, but, after all, do they pay
+their taxes as punctually as they did the first few weeks?  Are there
+many that have done as you and I, monsieur, who sent our plate to the
+mint?  Do you not observe that they who would be thought zealous for the
+common cause plead in favour of some acts committed by those men who are,
+in short, its enemies?  If the people are so tired already, what will
+they be long before they come to their journey's end?
+
+"After we have established our own authority upon the ruin of the
+Parliament's, we shall certainly fall into the same inconveniences and be
+obliged to act just as they do now.  We shall impose taxes, raise moneys,
+and differ from the Parliament only in this, that the hatred and envy
+they have contracted by various ways from one-third part of the
+people,--I mean the wealthy citizens,--in the space of six weeks will
+devolve upon us, with that of the other two-thirds of the inhabitants,
+and will complete our ruin in one week.  May not the Court to-morrow put
+an end to the civil war by the expulsion of Mazarin and by raising the
+siege of Paris?  The provinces are not yet sufficiently inflamed, and
+therefore we must double our application to make the most of Paris.
+Besides the necessity of treating with Spain and managing the people,
+there is another expedient come into my head capable of rendering us as
+considerable in Parliament as our affairs require.
+
+"We have an army in Paris which will be looked upon as the people so long
+as it continues within its walls.  Every councillor of inquest is
+inclined to believe his authority among the soldiers to be equal to that
+of the generals.  But the leaders of the people are not believed to be
+very powerful until they make their power known by its execution.  Pray
+do but consider the conduct of the Court upon this occasion.  Was there
+any minister or courtier but ridiculed all that could be said of the
+disposition of the people in favour of the Parliament even to the day of
+the barricades?  And yet it is as true that every man at Court saw
+infallible marks of the revolution beforehand.  One would have thought
+that the barricades should have convinced them; but have they been
+convinced?  Have they been hindered from besieging Paris on the slight
+supposition that, though the caprice of the people might run them into a
+mutiny, yet it would not break out into a civil war?  What we are now
+doing might undeceive them effectually; but are they yet cured of their
+infatuation?  Is not the Queen told every day that none are for the
+Parliament but hired mobs, and that all the wealthy burghers are in her
+Majesty's interests?
+
+"The Parliament is now as much infatuated as the Court was then.  This
+present disturbance among the people carries in it all the marks of power
+which, in a little time, they will feel the effects of, and which, as
+they cannot but foresee, they ought to prevent in time, because of the
+murmurs of the people against them and their redoubled affection for M.
+de Beaufort and me.  But far from it, the Parliament will never open its
+eyes until all its authority is quashed by a sudden blow.  If they see we
+have a design against them they will, perhaps, have so inconsiderable an
+opinion of it that they will take courage, and if we should but flinch,
+they will bear harder still upon us, till we shall be forced to crush
+them; but this would not turn to our account; on the contrary, it is our
+true interest to do them all the good we can, lest we divide our own
+party, and to behave in such a manner as may convince them that our
+interest and theirs are inseparable.  And the best way is to draw our
+army out of Paris, and to post it so as it may be ready to secure our
+convoys and be safe from the insults of the enemy; and I am for having
+this done at the request of the Parliament, to prevent their taking
+umbrage, till such time at least as we may find our account in it.  Such
+precautions will insensibly, as it were, necessitate the Parliament to
+act in concert with us, and our favour among the people, which is the
+only thing that can fix us in that situation, will appear to them no
+longer contemptible when they see it backed by an army which is no longer
+at their discretion."
+
+M. de Bouillon told me that M. de Turenne was upon the point of declaring
+for us, and that there were but two colonels in all his army who gave him
+any uneasiness, but that in a week's time he would find some way or other
+to manage them, and that then he would march directly to our assistance.
+"What do you think of that?" said the Duke.  "Are we not now masters both
+of the Court and Parliament?"
+
+I told the Duke that I had just seen a letter written by Hoquincourt to
+Madame de Montbazon, wherein were only these words: "O fairest of all
+beauties, Peronne is in your power."  I added that I had received another
+letter that morning which assured me of Mazieres.  Madame de Bouillon
+threw herself on my neck; we were sure the day was our own, and in a
+quarter of an hour agreed upon all the preliminary precautions.
+
+M. de Bouillon, perceiving that I was so overjoyed at this news that I,
+as well as his lady, gave little attention to the methods he was
+proposing for drawing the army out of Paris without alarming the
+Parliament, turned to me and spoke thus, very hastily: "I pardon my wife,
+but I cannot forgive you this inadvertence.  The old Prince of Orange
+used to say that the moment one received good news should be employed in
+providing against bad."
+
+The 24th of February, 1649, the Parliament's deputies waited on the Queen
+with an account of the audience granted to the envoy of the Archduke. The
+Queen told them that they should not have given audience to the envoy,
+but that, seeing they had done it, it was absolutely necessary to think
+of a good peace,--that she was entirely well disposed; and the Duc
+d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde promised the deputies to throw open all
+the passages as soon as the Parliament should name commissioners for the
+treaty.
+
+Flamarin being sent at the same time into the city from the Duc d'Orleans
+to condole with the Queen of England on the death of her husband (King
+Charles I.), went, at La Riviere's solicitation, to M. de La
+Rochefoucault, whom he found in his bed on account of his wounds and
+quite wearied with the civil war, and persuaded him to come over to the
+Court interest.  He told Flamarin that he had been drawn into this war
+much against his inclinations, and that, had he returned from Poitou two
+months before the siege of Paris, he would have prevented Madame de
+Longueville engaging in so vile a cause, but that I had taken the
+opportunity of his absence to engage both her and the Prince de Conti,
+that he found the engagements too far advanced to be possibly dissolved,
+that the diabolical Coadjutor would not bear of any terms of peace, and
+also stopped the ears of the Prince de Conti and Madame de Longueville,
+and that he himself could not act as he would because of his bad state of
+health.  I was informed of Flamarin's negotiations for the Court
+interest, and, as the term of his passport had expired, ordered the
+'prevot des marchands' to command him to depart from the city.
+
+On the 27th the First President reported to the Parliament what had
+occurred at Saint Germain.  M. de Beaufort and I had to hinder the people
+from entering the Great Chamber, for they threatened to throw the
+deputies into the river, and said they had betrayed them and had held
+conferences with Mazarin.  It was as much as we could do to allay the
+fury of the people, though at the same time the Parliament believed the
+tumult was of our own raising.  This shows one inconvenience of
+popularity, namely, that what is committed by the rabble, in spite of all
+your endeavours to the contrary, will still be laid to your charge.
+
+Meanwhile we met at the Duc de Bouillon's to consider what was best to be
+done at this critical juncture between a people mad for war, a Parliament
+for peace, and the Spaniards either for peace or war at our expense and
+for their own advantage.  The Prince de Conti, instructed beforehand by
+M. de La Rochefoucault, spoke for carrying on the war, but acted as if he
+were for peace, and upon the whole I did not doubt but that he waited for
+some answer from Saint Germain.  M. d'Elbeuf made a silly proposal to
+send the Parliament in a body to the Bastille.  M. de Beaufort, whom we
+could not entrust with any important secret because of Madame de
+Montbazon, who was very false, wondered that his and my credit with the
+people was not made use of on this occasion.
+
+It being very evident that the Parliament would greedily catch at the
+treaty of peace proposed by the Court, it was in a manner impossible to
+answer those who urged that the only way to prevent it was to hinder
+their debates by raising tumults among the people.  M. de Beaufort held
+up both his hands for it.  M. d'Elbeuf, who had lately received a letter
+from La Riviere full of contempt, talked like an officer of the army.
+When I considered the great risk I ran if I did not prevent a tumult,
+which would certainly be laid at my door, and that, on the other hand, I
+did not dare to say all I could to stop such commotion, I was at a loss
+what to do.  But considering the temper of the populace, who might have
+been up in arms with a word from a person of any credit among us, I
+declared publicly that I was not for altering our measures till we knew
+what we were to expect from the Spaniards.
+
+I experienced on this occasion that civil wars are attended with this
+great inconvenience, that there is more need of caution in what we say to
+our friends than in what we do against our enemies.  I did not fail to
+bring the company to my mind, especially when supported by M. de
+Bouillon, who was convinced that the confusion which would happen in such
+a juncture would turn with vengeance upon the authors.  But when the
+company was gone he told me he was resolved to free himself from the
+tyranny, or, rather, pedantry of the Parliament as soon as the treaty
+with Spain was concluded, and M. de Turenne had declared himself
+publicly, and as soon as our army was without the walls of Paris. I
+answered that upon M. de Turenne's declaration I would promise him my
+concurrence, but that till then I could not separate from the Parliament,
+much less oppose them, without the danger of being banished to Brussels;
+that as for his own part, he might come off better because of his
+knowledge of military affairs, and of the assurances which Spain was able
+to give him, but, nevertheless, I desired him to remember M. d'Aumale,
+who fell into the depth of poverty as soon as he had lost all protection
+but that of Spain, and, consequently, that it was his interest as well as
+mine to side with the Parliament till we ourselves had secured some
+position in the kingdom; till the Spanish army, was actually on the march
+and our troops were encamped without the city; and till the declaration
+of M. de Turenne was carried out, which would be the decisive blow,
+because it would strengthen our party with a body of troops altogether
+independent of strangers, or rather it would form a party perfectly
+French, capable by its own strength to carry on our cause.
+
+This last consideration overjoyed Madame de Bouillon, who, however, when
+she found that the company was gone without resolving to make themselves
+masters of the Parliament, became very angry, and said to the Duke:
+
+"I told you beforehand that you would be swayed by the Coadjutor."
+
+The Duke replied: "What!  madame, would you have the Coadjutor, for our
+sakes only, run the risk of being no more than chaplain to Fuensaldagne?
+Is it possible that you cannot comprehend what he has been preaching to
+you for these last three days?"
+
+I replied to her with a great deal of temper, and said, "Don't you think
+that we shall act more securely when our troops are out of Paris, when we
+receive the Archduke's answer, and when Turenne has made a public
+declaration?"
+
+"Yes, I do," she said, "but the Parliament will take one step to-morrow
+which will render all your preliminaries of no use."
+
+"Never fear, madame," said I, "I will undertake that, if our measures
+succeed, we shall be in a condition to despise all that the Parliament
+can do."
+
+"Will you promise it?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said I, "and, more than that, I am ready to seal it with my
+blood."
+
+She took me at my word, and though the Duke used all the arguments with
+her which he could think of, she bound my thumb with silk, and with a
+needle drew blood, with which she obliged me to sign a promissory note as
+follows: "I promise to Madame la Duchesse de Bouillon to continue united
+with the Duke her husband against the Parliament in case M. de Turenne
+approaches with the army under his command within twenty leagues of Paris
+and declares for the city."  M. de Bouillon threw it into the fire, and
+endeavoured to convince the Duchess of what I had said, that if our
+preliminaries should succeed we should still stand upon our own bottom,
+notwithstanding all that the Parliament could do, and that if they did
+miscarry we should still have the satisfaction of not being the authors
+of a confusion which would infallibly cover me with shame and ruin, and
+be an uncertain advantage to the family of De Bouillon.
+
+During this discussion a captain in M. d'Elbeuf's regiment of Guards was
+seen to throw money to the crowd to encourage them to go to the
+Parliament House and cry out, "No peace!" upon which M. de Bouillon and I
+agreed to send the Duke these words upon the back of a card: "It will be
+dangerous for you to be at the Parliament House to-morrow." M. d'Elbeuf
+came in all haste to the Palace of Bouillon to know the meaning of this
+short caution.  M. de Bouillon told him he had heard that the people had
+got a notion that both the Duke and himself held a correspondence with
+Mazarin, and that therefore it was their best way not to go to the House
+for fear of the mob, which might be expected there next day.
+
+M. d'Elbeuf, knowing that the people did not care for him, and that he
+was no safer in his own house than elsewhere, said that he feared his
+absence on such an occasion might be interpreted to his disadvantage. M.
+de Bouillon, having no other design but to alarm him with imaginary fears
+of a public disturbance, at once made himself sure of him another way, by
+telling him it was most advisable for him to be at the Parliament, but
+that he need not expose himself, and therefore had best go along with me.
+
+I went with him accordingly, and found a multitude of people in the Great
+Hall, crying, "God bless the Coadjutor!  no peace!  no Mazarin!" and M.
+de Beaufort entering another way at the same time, the echoes of our
+names spread everywhere, so that the people mistook it for a concerted
+design to disturb the proceedings of Parliament, and as in a commotion
+everything that confirms us in the belief of it augments likewise the
+number of mutineers, we were very near bringing about in one moment what
+we had been a whole week labouring to prevent.
+
+The First President and President de Mesmes having, in concert with the
+other deputies, suppressed the answer the Queen made them in writing,
+lest some harsh expressions contained therein should give offence, put
+the best colour they could upon the obliging terms in which the Queen had
+spoken to them; and then the House appointed commissioners for the
+treaty, leaving it to the Queen to name the place, and agreed to send the
+King's Council next day to demand the opening of the passages, in
+pursuance of the Queen's promise.  The President de Mesmes, surprised to
+meet with no opposition, either from the generals or myself, said to the
+First President, "Here is a wonderful harmony!  but I fear the
+consequences of this dissembled moderation."  I believe he was much more
+surprised when the sergeants came to acquaint the House that the mob
+threatened to murder all that were for the conference before Mazarin was
+sent out of the kingdom.  But M. de Beaufort and I went out and soon
+dispersed them, so that the members retired without the least danger,
+which inspired the Parliament with such a degree of boldness afterwards
+that it nearly proved their ruin.
+
+On the 2d of March, 1649, letters were brought to the Parliament from the
+Duc d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde, expressing a great deal of joy at
+what the Parliament had done, but denying that the Queen had promised to
+throw open the passages, upon which the Parliament fell into such a rage
+as I cannot describe to you.  They sent orders to the King's Council, who
+were gone that morning to Saint Germain to fetch the passports for the
+deputies, to declare that the Parliament was resolved to hold no
+conference with the Court till the Queen had performed her promise made
+to the First President.  I thought it a very proper time to let the Court
+see that the Parliament had not lost all its vigour, and made a motion,
+by Broussel, that, considering the insincerity of the Court, the levies
+might be continued and new commissions given out.  The proposition was
+received with applause, and the Prince de Conti was desired to issue
+commissions accordingly.
+
+M. de Beaufort, in concert with M. de Bouillon, M. de La Mothe and
+myself, exclaimed against this contravention, and offered, in the name of
+his colleagues and his own, to open all the passages themselves if the
+Parliament would but take a firm resolution and be no more beguiled by
+deceitful proposals, which had only served to keep the whole nation in
+suspense, who would otherwise have declared by this time in favour of its
+capital.  It is inconceivable what influence these few words had upon the
+audience, everybody concluded that the treaty was already broken off; but
+a moment after they thought the contrary, for the King's Council returned
+with the passports for the deputies, and instead of an order for opening
+the passages, a grant--such a one as it was--of 500 quarters of corn per
+diem was made for the subsistence of the city.  However, the Parliament
+took all in good part; all that had been said and done a quarter of an
+hour before was buried in oblivion, and they made preparations to go next
+day to Ruel, the place named by the Queen for the conference.
+
+The Prince de Conti, M. de Beaufort, M. d'Elbeuf, Marechal de La Mothe,
+M. de Brissac, President Bellievre, and myself met that night at M. de
+Bouillon's house, where a motion was made for the generals of the army to
+send a deputation likewise to the place of conference; but it was
+quashed, and indeed nothing would have been more absurd than such a
+proceeding when we were upon the point of concluding a treaty with Spain;
+and, considering that we told the envoy that we should never have
+consented to hold any conference with the Court were we not assured that
+it was in our power to break it off at pleasure by means of the people.
+
+The Parliament having lately reproached both the generals and troops with
+being afraid to venture without the gates, M. de Bouillon, seeing the
+danger was over, proposed at this meeting, for the satisfaction of the
+citizens, to carry them to a camp betwixt the Marne and the Seine, where
+they might be as safe as at Paris.  The motion was agreed to without
+consulting the Parliament, and, accordingly, on the 4th of March, the
+troops marched out and the deputies of Parliament went to Ruel.
+
+The Court party flattered themselves that, upon the marching of the
+militia out of Paris, the citizens, being left to themselves, would
+become more tractable, and the President de Mesmes made his boast of what
+he said to the generals, to persuade them to encamp their army. But
+Senneterre, one of the ablest men at Court, soon penetrated our designs
+and undeceived the Court.  He told the First President and De Mesmes that
+they were beguiled and that they would see it in a little time.  The
+First President, who could never see two different things at one view,
+was so overjoyed when he heard the forces had gone out of Paris that he
+cried out:
+
+"Now the Coadjutor will have no more mercenary brawlers at the Parliament
+House."
+
+"Nor," said the President de Mesmes, "so many cutthroats."
+
+Senneterre, like a wise man, said to them both:
+
+"It is not the Coadjutor's interest to murder you, but to bring you
+under.  The people would serve his turn for the first if he aimed at it,
+and the army is admirably well encamped for the latter.  If he is not a
+more honest man than he is looked upon to be here, we are likely to have
+a tedious civil war."
+
+The Cardinal confessed that Senneterre was in the right, for, on the one
+hand, the Prince de Conde perceived that our army, being so
+advantageously posted as not to be attacked, would be capable of giving
+him more trouble than if they were still within the walls of the city,
+and, on the other hand, we began to talk with more courage in Parliament
+than usual.
+
+The afternoon of the 4th of March gave us a just occasion to show it. The
+deputies arriving at Ruel understood that Cardinal Mazarin was one of the
+commissioners named by the Queen to assist at the conference. The
+Parliamentary deputies pretended that they could not confer with a person
+actually condemned by Parliament.  M. de Tellier told them in the name of
+the Duc d'Orleans that the Queen thought it strange that they were not
+contented to treat upon an equality with their sovereign, but that they
+should presume to limit his authority by excluding his deputies.  The
+First President and the Court seeming to be immovable, we sent orders to
+our deputies not to comply, and to communicate, as a great secret, to
+President de Mesmes and M. Menardeau, both creatures of the Court, the
+following postscript of a letter I wrote to Longueville:
+
+"P.S.--We have concerted our measures, and are now capable to speak more
+to the purpose than we have been hitherto, and since I finished this
+letter I have received a piece of news which obliges me to tell you that
+if the Parliament do not behave very prudently, they will certainly be
+ruined."
+
+Upon this the deputies were resolved to insist upon excluding the
+Cardinal from the conference, a determination which was so odious to the
+people that, had we permitted it, we should certainly have lost all our
+credit with them, and been obliged to shut the gates against our deputies
+upon their return.
+
+When the Court saw that the deputies desired a convoy to conduct them
+home, they found out an expedient, which was received with great joy;
+namely, to appoint two deputies on the part of the Parliament, and two on
+the part of the King, to confer at the house of the Duc d'Orleans,
+exclusive of the Cardinal, who was thereupon obliged to return to Saint
+Germain with mortification.
+
+On the 5th of March, Don Francisco Pisarro, a second envoy from the
+Archduke, arrived in Paris, with his and Count Fuensaldagne's answer to
+our former despatches by Don Jose d'Illescas, and full powers for a
+treaty; instructions for M. de Bouillon, an obliging letter from the
+Archduke to the Prince de Conti, and another to myself, from Count
+Fuensaldagne, importing that the King, his master, would not take my
+word, but would depend upon whatever I promised Madame de Bouillon.
+
+The Prince de Conti and Madame de Longueville, prompted by M. de La
+Rochefoucault, were for an alliance with Spain, in a manner without
+restriction.  M. d'Elbeuf aimed at nothing but getting money.  M. de
+Beaufort, at the persuasion of Madame de Montbazon, who was resolved to
+sell him dear to the Spaniards, was very scrupulous to enter into a
+treaty with the enemies of the State; Marechal de La Mothe declared he
+could not come to any resolution till he saw M. de Longueville, and
+Madame de Longueville questioned whether her husband would come into it;
+and yet these very persons but a fortnight before unanimously wrote to
+the Archduke for full powers to treat with him.
+
+M. de Bouillon told them that he thought they were absolutely obliged to
+treat with Spain, considering the advances they had already made to the
+Archduke to that end, and desired them to recollect how they had told his
+envoy that they waited only for these full powers and instructions to
+treat with him; that the Archduke had now sent his full powers in the
+most obliging manner; and that, moreover, he had already gone out of
+Brussels, to lead his army himself to their assistance, without staying
+for their engagement.  He begged them to consider that if they took the
+least step backwards, after such advances, it might provoke Spain to take
+such measures as would be both contrary to our security and to our
+honour; that the ill-concerted proceedings of the Parliament gave us just
+grounds to fear being left to shift for ourselves; that indeed our army
+was now more useful than it had been before, but--yet not strong enough
+to give us relief in proportion to our necessities, especially if it were
+not, at least in the beginning, supported by a powerful force; and that,
+consequently, a treaty was necessary to be entered into and concluded
+with the Archduke, but not upon any mean conditions; that his envoys had
+brought carte blanche, but that we ought to consider how to fill it up;
+that he promised us everything, but though in treaties the strongest may
+safely promise to the weaker what he thinks fit, it is certain he cannot
+perform everything, and therefore the weakest should be very wary.
+
+The Duke added that the Spaniards, of all people, expected honourable
+usage at the beginning of treaties, and he conjured them to leave the
+management of the Spanish envoys to himself and the Coadjutor, "who,"
+said he, "has declared all along that he expects no advantage either from
+the present troubles or from any arrangement, and is therefore altogether
+to be depended upon."
+
+This discourse was relished by all the company, who accordingly engaged
+us to compare notes with the envoys of Spain, and make our report to the
+Prince de Conti and the other generals.
+
+M. de Bouillon assured me that the Spaniards would not enter upon French
+ground till we engaged ourselves not to lay down our arms except in
+conjunction with them; that is, in a treaty for a general peace; but our
+difficulty was how to enter into an engagement of that nature at a time
+when we could not be sure but that the Parliament might conclude a
+particular peace the next moment.  In the meantime a courier came in from
+M. de Turenne, crying, "Good news!" as he entered into the court.  He
+brought letters for Madame and Mademoiselle de Bouillon and myself, by
+which we were assured that M. de Turenne and his army, which was without
+dispute the finest at that time in all Europe, had declared for us; that
+Erlach, Governor of Brisac, had with him 1,000 or 1,200 men, who were all
+he had been able to seduce; that my dear friend and kinsman, the Vicomte
+de Lamet, was marching directly to our assistance with 2,000 horse; and
+that M. de Turenne was to follow on such a day with the larger part of
+the army.  You will be surprised, without doubt, to hear that M. de
+Turenne, General of the King's troops, one who was never a party man, and
+would never hear talk of party intrigues, should now declare against the
+Court and perform an action which, I am sure, Le Balafre and Amiral de
+Coligny would not have undertaken without hesitation. 
+
+[Henri de Lorraine, first of that name, Duc de Guise, surnamed Le
+Balafre, because of a wound he received in the left cheek at the battle
+of Dormans, the scar of which he carried to his grave.  He formed the
+League, and was stabbed at an assembly of the States of Blois in 1588.]
+
+Your wonder will increase yet more when I tell you that the motive of
+this surprising conduct of his is a secret to this day.  His behaviour
+also during his declaration, which he supported but five days, is
+equally surprising and mysterious.  This shows that it is possible for
+some extraordinary characters to be raised above the malice and envy of
+vulgar souls; for the merit of any person inferior to the Marshal must
+have been totally eclipsed by such an unaccountable event.
+
+Upon the arrival of this express from Turenne I told M. de Bouillon it
+was my opinion that, if the Spaniards would engage to advance as far as
+Pont-a-Verre and act on this side of it in concert only with us, we
+should make no scruple of pledging ourselves not to lay down our arms
+till the conclusion of a general peace, provided they kept their promise
+given to the Parliament of referring themselves to its arbitration. "The
+true interest of the public," said I, "is a general peace, that of the
+Parliament and other bodies is the reestablishment of good order, and
+that of your Grace and others, with myself, is to contribute to the
+before-mentioned blessings in such manner that we may be esteemed the
+authors of them; all other advantages are necessarily attached to this,
+and the only way to acquire them is to show that we do not value them.
+You know that I have frequently vowed I had no private interest to serve
+in this affair, and I will keep my vow to the end.  Your circumstances
+are different from mine; you aim at Sedan, and you are in the right. M.
+de Beaufort wants to be admiral, and I cannot blame him. M. de
+Longueville has other demands--with all my heart.  The Prince de Conti
+and Madame de Longueville would be, for the future, independent of the
+Prince de Conde; that independence they shall have.
+
+"Now, in order to attain to these ends, the only means is to look another
+way, to turn all our thoughts to bring about a general peace, and to sign
+to-morrow the most solemn and positive engagement with the enemy, and,
+the better to please the public, to insert in the articles the expulsion
+of Cardinal Mazarin as their mortal enemy, to cause the Spanish forces to
+come up immediately to Pont-a-Verre, and those of M. de Turenne to
+advance into Champagne, and to go without any loss of time to propose to
+the Parliament what Don Josh d'Illescas has offered them already in
+relation to a general peace, to dispose them to vote as we would have
+them, which they will not fail to do considering the circumstances we are
+now in, and to send orders to our deputies at Ruel either to get the
+Queen to nominate a place to confer about a general peace or to return
+the next day to their seats in Parliament.  I am willing to think that
+the Court, seeing to what an extremity they are reduced, will comply,
+than which what can be more for our honour?
+
+"And if the Court should refuse this proposition at present, will they
+not be of another mind before two months are at an end?  Will not the
+provinces, which are already hesitating, then declare in our favour? And
+is the army of the Prince de Conde in a condition to engage that of Spain
+and ours in conjunction with that of M. de Turenne?  These two last, when
+joined, will put us above all the apprehensions from foreign forces which
+have hitherto made us uneasy; they will depend much more on us than we on
+them; we shall continue masters of Paris by our own strength, and the
+more securely because the intervening authority of Parliament will the
+more firmly unite us to the people.  The declaration of M. de Turenne is
+the only means to unite Spain with the Parliament for our defence, which
+we could not have as much as hoped for otherwise; it gives us an
+opportunity to engage with Parliament, in concert with whom we cannot act
+amiss, and this is the only moment when such an engagement is both
+possible and profitable.  The First President and De Mesmes are now out
+of the way, and it will be much easier for us to obtain what we want in
+Parliament than if they were present, and if what is commanded in the
+Parliamentary decree is faithfully executed, we shall gain our point, and
+unite the Chambers for that great work of a general peace.  If the Court
+still rejects our proposals, and those of the deputies who are for the
+Court refuse to follow our motion or to share in our fortune, we shall
+gain as much in another respect; we shall keep ourselves still attached
+to the body of the Parliament, from which they will be deemed deserters,
+and we shall have much greater weight in the House than now.
+
+"This is my opinion, which I am willing to sign and to offer to the
+Parliament if you seize this, the only opportunity.  For if M. de Turenne
+should alter his mind before it be done, I should then oppose this scheme
+with as much warmth as I now recommend it."
+
+The Duke said in answer: "Nothing can have a more promising aspect than
+what you have now proposed; it is very practicable, but equally
+pernicious for all private persons.  Spain will promise all, but perform
+nothing after we have once promised to enter into no treaty, with the
+Court but for a general peace.  This being the only thing the Spaniards
+have in view, they will abandon us as soon as they, can obtain it, and if
+we urge on this great scheme at once, as you would have us, they would
+undoubtedly obtain it in a fortnight's time, for France would certainly
+make it with precipitation, and I know the Spaniards would be glad to
+purchase it on any terms.  This being the case, in what a condition shall
+we be the next day after we have made and procured this general peace? We
+should indeed have the honour of it, but would this honour screen us
+against the hatred and curses of the Court?  Would the house of Austria
+take up arms again to rescue you and me from a prison?  You will say,
+perhaps, we may stipulate some conditions with Spain which may secure us
+from all insults of this kind; but I think I shall have answered this
+objection when I assure you that Spain is so pressed with home troubles
+that she would not hesitate, for the sake of peace, to break the most
+solemn promises made to us; and this is an inconvenience for which I see
+no remedy.
+
+"If Spain should be worse than her word with respect to the expulsion of
+Mazarin, what will become of us?  And will the honour of our contributing
+to the general peace atone for the preservation of a minister to get rid
+of whom they took up arms?  You know how they abhor the Cardinal; and,
+suppose the Cardinal be excluded from the Ministry, according to promise,
+shall we not still be exposed to the hatred of the Queen, to the
+resentment of the Prince de Conde, and to all the evil consequences that
+may be expected from an enraged Court for such an action?  There is no
+true glory but what is durable; transitory honour is mere smoke.  Of this
+sort is that which we shall acquire by this peace, if we do not support
+it by such alliances as will gain us the reputation of wisdom as well as
+of honesty.  I admire your disinterestedness above all, and esteem it,
+but I am very well assured that if mine went the length of yours you
+would not, approve of it.  Your family is settled; consider mine, and
+cast your eyes on the condition of this lady and on that of both the
+father and children."
+
+I answered: "The Spaniards must needs have great regard for us, seeing us
+absolute masters of Paris, with eight thousand foot and three thousand
+horse at its gates, and the best disciplined troops in the world marching
+to our assistance."  I did all I could to bring him over to my opinion,
+and he strove as much to persuade me to enter into his measures; namely,
+to pretend to the envoys that we were absolutely resolved to act in
+concert with them for a general peace, but to tell them at the same time
+that we thought it more proper that the Parliament should likewise be
+consulted; and, as that would require some time, we might in the
+meanwhile occupy the envoys by signing a treaty with them, previous to
+coming to terms with.  The Parliament, which by its tenor would not tie
+us up to conclude anything positively in relation to the general peace;
+"yet this," said he, "would be a sufficient motive to cause them to
+advance with their army, and that of my brother will come up at the same
+time, which will astonish the Court and incline them to an arrangement.
+And forasmuch as in our treaty with Spain we leave a back door open by
+the clause which relates to the Parliament, we shall be sure to make good
+use of it for the advantage of the public and of ourselves in case of the
+Court's noncompliance."
+
+These considerations, though profoundly wise, did not convince me,
+because I thought his inference was not well-grounded.  I saw he might
+well enough engage the attention of the envoys, but I could not imagine
+how he could beguile the Parliament, who were actually treating with the
+Court by their deputies sent to Ruel, and who would certainly run madly
+into a peace, notwithstanding all their late performances.  I foresaw
+that without a public declaration to restrain the Parliament from going
+their own lengths we should fall again, if one of our strings chanced to
+break, into the necessity of courting the assistance of the people, which
+I looked upon as the most dangerous proceeding of all.
+
+M. de Bouillon asked me what I meant by saying, "if one of our strings
+chanced to break."  I replied, "For example, if M. de Turenne should be
+dead at this juncture, or if his army has revolted, as it was likely to
+do under the influence of M. d'Erlach, pray what would become of us if we
+should not engage the Parliament?  We should be tribunes of the people
+one day, and the next valets de chambre to Count Fuensaldagne. Everything
+with the Parliament and nothing without them is the burden of my song."
+
+After several hours' dispute neither of us was convinced, and I went away
+very much perplexed, the rather because M. de Bouillon, being the great
+confidant of the Spaniards, I doubted not but he could make their envoys
+believe what he pleased.
+
+I was still more puzzled when I came home and found a letter from Madame
+de Lesdiguieres, offering me extraordinary advantages in the Queen's name
+the payment of my debts, the grant of certain abbeys, and a nomination to
+the dignity of cardinal.  Another note I found with these words: "The
+declaration of the army of Germany has put us all into consternation." I
+concluded they would not fail to try experiments with others as well as
+myself, and since M. de Bouillon began to think of a back door when all
+things smiled upon us, I guessed the rest of our party would not neglect
+to enter the great door now flung open to receive them by the declaration
+of M. de Turenne.  That which afflicted me most of all was to see that M.
+de Bouillon was not a man of that judgment and penetration I took him for
+in this critical and decisive juncture, when the question was the
+engaging or not engaging the Parliament.  He had urged me more than
+twenty times to do what I now offered, and the reason why I now urged
+what I before rejected was the declaration of M. de Turenne, his own
+brother, which should have made him bolder than I; but, instead of this,
+it slackened his courage, and he flattered himself that Cardinal Mazarin
+would let him have Sedan.  This was the centre of all his views, and he
+preferred these petty advantages to what he might have gained by
+procuring peace to Europe.  This false step made me pass this judgment
+upon the Duke: that, though he was a person of very great parts, yet I
+questioned his capacity for the mighty things which he has not done, and
+of which some men thought him very capable.  It is the greatest
+remissness on the part of a great man to neglect the moment that is to
+make his reputation, and this negligence, indeed, scarcely ever happens
+but when a man expects another moment as favourable to make his fortune;
+and so people are commonly deceived both ways.
+
+The Duke was more nice than wise at this juncture, which is very often
+the case.  I found afterwards that the Prince de Conti was of his
+opinion, and I guessed, by some circumstances, that he was engaged in
+some private negotiation.  M. d'Elbeuf was as meek as a lamb, and seemed,
+as far as he dared, to improve what had been advanced already by M. de
+Bouillon.  A servant of his told me also that he believed his master had
+made his peace with the Court.  M. de Beaufort showed by his behaviour
+that Madame de Montbazon had done what she could to cool his courage, but
+his irresolution did not embarrass me very much, because I knew I had her
+in my power, and his vote, added to that of MM. de Brissac, de La Mothe,
+de Noirmoutier and de Bellievre, who all fell in with my sentiments,
+would have turned the balance on my side if the regard for M. de Turenne,
+who was now the life and soul of the party, and the Spaniards' confidence
+in M. de Bouillon, had not obliged me to make a virtue of necessity.
+
+I found both the Archduke's envoys quite of an other mind; indeed, they
+were still desirous of an agreement for a general peace, but they would
+have it after the manner of M. de Bouillon, at two separate times, which
+he had made them believe would be more for their advantage, because
+thereby we should bring the Parliament into it.  I saw who was at the
+bottom of it, and, considering the orders they had to follow his advice
+in everything, all I could allege to the contrary would be of no use.  I
+laid the state of affairs before the President de Bellievre, who was of
+my opinion, and considered that a contrary course would infallibly prove
+our ruin, thinking, nevertheless, that compliance would be highly
+convenient at this time, because we depended absolutely on the Spaniards
+and on M. de Turenne, who had hitherto made no proposals but such as were
+dictated by M. de Bouillon.
+
+When I found that all M. de Bellievre and I said could not persuade M. de
+Bouillon, I feigned to come round to his opinion, and to submit to the
+authority of the Prince de Conti, our Generalissimo.  We agreed to treat
+with the Archduke upon the plan of M. de Bouillon; that is, that he
+should advance his army as far as Pont-A-Verre, and further, if the
+generals desired it; who, on their part, would omit nothing to oblige the
+Parliament to enter into this treaty, or rather, to make a new one for a
+general peace; that is to say, to oblige the King to treat upon
+reasonable conditions, the particulars whereof his Catholic Majesty would
+refer to the arbitration of the Parliament.  M. de Bouillon engaged to
+have this treaty 'in totidem verbis' signed by the Spanish ministers, and
+did not so much as ask me whether I would sign it or no.  All the company
+rejoiced at having the Spaniards' assistance upon such easy terms, and at
+being at full liberty to receive the propositions of the Court, which
+now, upon the declaration of M. de Turenne, could not fail to be very
+advantageous.
+
+The treaty was accordingly signed in the Prince de Conti's room at the
+Hotel de Ville, but I forbore to set my hand to it, though solicited by
+M. de Bouillon, unless they would come to some final resolution; yet I
+gave them my word that, if the Parliament would be contented, I had such
+expedients in my power as would give them all the time necessary to
+withdraw their troops.  I had two reasons for what I said: first, I knew
+Fuensaldagne to be a wise man, that he would be of a different opinion
+from his envoys, and that he would never venture his army into the heart
+of the kingdom with so little assurance from the generals and none at all
+from me; secondly, because I was willing to show to our generals that I
+would not, as far as it lay in my power, suffer the Spaniards to be
+treacherously surprised or insulted in case of an arrangement between the
+Court and the Parliament; though I had protested twenty times in the same
+conference that I would not separate myself from the Parliament.
+
+M. d'Elbeuf said, "You cannot find the expedients you talk of but in
+having recourse to the people."
+
+"M. de Bouillon will answer for me," said I, "that it is not there that I
+am to find my expedients."
+
+M. de Bouillon, being desirous that I should sign, said, "I know that it
+is not your intent, but I am fully persuaded that you mean well, that you
+do not act as you would propose, and that we retain more respect for the
+Parliament by signing than you do by refusing to sign; for," speaking
+very low, that he might not be heard by the Spanish ministers, "we keep a
+back door open to get off handsomely with the Parliament."
+
+"They will open that door," said I, "when you could wish it shut, as is
+but too apparent already, and you will be glad to shut it when you
+cannot; the Parliament is not a body to be jested with."
+
+After the signing of the treaty, I was told that the envoys had given
+2,000 pistoles to Madame de Montbazon and as much to M. d'Elbeuf.
+
+De Bellievre, who waited for me at home, whither I returned full of
+vexation, used an expression which has been since verified by the event:
+"We failed, this day," said he, "to induce the Parliament, which if we
+had done, all had been safe and right.  Pray God that everything goes
+well, for if but one of our strings fails us we are undone."
+
+As for the conferences for a peace with the Court at Ruel, it was
+proposed on the Queen's part that the Parliament should adjourn their
+session to Saint Germain, just to ratify the articles of the peace, and
+not to meet afterwards for two or three years; but the deputies of
+Parliament insisted that it was their privilege to assemble when and
+where they pleased.  When these and the like stories came to the ears of
+the Parisians they were so incensed that the only talk of the Great
+Chamber was to recall the deputies, and the generals seeing themselves
+now respected by the Court, who had little regard for them before the
+declaration of M. de Turenne, thought that the more the Court was
+embarrassed the better, and therefore incited the Parliament and people
+to clamour, that the Cardinal might see that things did not altogether
+depend upon the conference at Ruel.  I, likewise, contributed what lay in
+my power to moderate the precipitation of the First President and
+President de Mesmes towards anything that looked like an agreement.
+
+On the 8th of March the Prince de Conti told the Parliament that M. de
+Turenne offered them his services and person against Cardinal Mazarin,
+the enemy of the State.  I said that I was informed a declaration had
+been issued the night before at Saint Germain against M. de Turenne, as
+guilty of high treason.  The Parliament unanimously passed a decree to
+annul it, to authorise his taking arms, to enjoin all the King's subjects
+to give him free passage and support, and to raise the necessary funds
+for the payment of his troops, lest the 800,000 livres sent from Court to
+General d'Erlach should corrupt the officers and soldiers.  A severe
+edict was issued against Courcelles, Lavardin, and Amilly, who had levied
+troops for the King in the province of Maine, and the commonalty were
+permitted to meet at the sound of the alarm-bell and to fall foul of all
+those who had held assemblies without order of Parliament.
+
+On the 9th a decree was passed to suspend the conference till all the
+promises made by the Court to allow the entry of provisions were
+punctually executed.
+
+The Prince de Conti informed the House the same day that he was desired
+by M. de Longueville to assure them that he would set out from Rouen on
+the 15th with 7,000 foot and 3,000 horse, and march directly to Saint
+Germain; the Parliament was incredibly overjoyed, and desired the Prince
+de Conti to press him to hasten his march as much as possible.
+
+On the 10th the member for Normandy told the House that the Parliament of
+Rennes only stayed for the Duc de la Tremouille to join against the
+common enemy.
+
+On the 11th an envoy from M. de la Tremouille offered the Parliament, in
+his master's name, 8,000 foot and 2,000 horse, who were in a condition to
+march in two days, provided the House would permit his master to seize on
+all the public money at Poitiers, Niort, and other places whereof he was
+already master.  The Parliament thanked him, passed a decree with full
+powers accordingly, and desired him to hasten his levies with all
+expedition.
+
+Posterity will hardly believe that, notwithstanding all this heat in the
+party, which one would have thought could not have immediately
+evaporated, a peace was made and signed the same day; but of this more by
+and by.
+
+While the Court, as has been before hinted, was tampering with the
+generals, Madame de Montbazon promised M. de Beaufort's support to the
+Queen; but her Majesty understood that it was not to be done if I were
+not at the market to approve of the sale.  La Riviere despised M.
+d'Elbeuf no longer.  M. de Bouillon, since his brother's declaration,
+seemed more inclined than before to come to an arrangement with the
+Court, but his pretentions ran very high, and both the brothers were in
+such a situation that a little assistance would not suffice, and as to
+the offers made to myself by Madame de Lesdiguieres, I returned such an
+answer as convinced the Court that I was not so easily to be moved.
+
+In short, Cardinal Mazarin found all the avenues to a negotiation either
+shut or impassable.  This despair of success in the Court was eventually
+more to the advantage of the Court than the most refined politics, for it
+did not hinder them from negotiating, the Cardinal's natural temper not
+permitting him to do otherwise; but, however, he could not trust to the
+carrying out of negotiations, and therefore beguiled our generals with
+fair promises, while he remitted 800,000 livres to buy off the army of M.
+de Turenne, and obliged the deputies at Ruel to sign a peace against the
+orders of the Parliament that sent them.  The President de Mesmes assured
+me several times since that this peace was purely the result of a
+conversation he had with the Cardinal on the 8th of March at night, when
+his Eminence told him he saw plainly that M. de Bouillon would not treat
+till he had the Spaniards and M. de Turenne at the gates of Paris; that
+is, till he saw himself in the position to seize one-half of the kingdom.
+The President made him this answer:
+
+"There is no hope of any security but in making the Coadjutor a
+cardinal."
+
+To which Mazarin answered: "He is worse than the other, who at least
+seemed once inclined to treat, but he is still for a general peace, or
+for none at all."
+
+President de Mesmes replied: "If things are come to this pass we must be
+the victims to save the State from perishing--we must sign the peace. For
+after what the Parliament has done to-day there is no remedy, and perhaps
+tomorrow we shall be recalled; if we are disowned in what we do we are
+ruined, the gates of Paris will be shut against us, and we shall be
+prosecuted and treated as prevaricators and traitors.  It is our business
+and concern to procure such conditions as will give us good ground to
+justify our proceedings, and if the terms are but reasonable, we know how
+to improve them against the factions; but make them as you please
+yourself, I will sign them all, and will go this moment to acquaint the
+First President that this is the only expedient to save the State.  If it
+takes effect we have peace, if we are disowned by the Parliament we still
+weaken the faction, and the danger will fall upon none but ourselves."
+He added that with much difficulty he had persuaded the First President.
+
+The peace was signed by Cardinal Mazarin, as well as by the other
+deputies, on the part of the King.  The substance of the articles was
+that Parliament should just go to Saint Germain to proclaim the peace,
+and then return to Paris, but hold no assembly that year; that all their
+public decrees since the 6th of January should be made void, as likewise
+all ordinances of Council, declarations and 'lettres de cachet'; that as
+soon as the King had withdrawn his troops from Paris, all the forces
+raised for the defence of the city should be disbanded, and the
+inhabitants lay down their arms and not take them up again without the
+King's order; that the Archduke's deputy should be dismissed without an
+answer, that there should be a general amnesty, and that the King should
+also give a general discharge for all the public money made use of, as
+also for the movables sold and for all the arms and ammunition taken out
+of the arsenal and elsewhere.
+
+M. and Madame de Bouillon were extremely surprised when they heard that
+the peace was signed.  I did not expect the Parliament would make it so
+soon, but I said frequently that it would be a very shameful one if we
+should let them alone to make it.  M. de Bouillon owned that I had
+foretold it often enough.  "I confess," said he, "that we are entirely to
+blame," which expression made me respect him more than ever, for I think
+it a greater virtue for a man to confess a fault than not to commit one.
+The Prince de Conti, MM. d'Elbeuf, de Beaufort, and de La Mothe were very
+much surprised, too, at the signing of the peace, especially because
+their agent at Saint Germain had assured them that the Court was fully
+persuaded that the Parliament was but a cipher, and that the generals
+were the men with whom they must negotiate.  I confess that Cardinal
+Mazarin acted a very wily part in this juncture, and he is the more to be
+commended because he was obliged to defend himself, not only against the
+monstrous impertinences of La Riviere, but against the violent passion of
+the Prince de Conde.
+
+We held a council at the Duc de Bouillon's, where I persuaded them that
+as our deputies were recalled by an order despatched from Parliament
+before the treaty was signed, it was therefore void, and that we ought to
+take no notice of it, the rather because it had not been communicated to
+Parliament in form; and, finally, that the deputies should be charged to
+insist on a general treaty of peace and on the expulsion of Mazarin; and,
+if they did not succeed, to return forthwith to their seats in
+Parliament.  But I added that if the deputies should have time to return
+and make their report, we should be under the necessity of protesting,
+which would so incense the people against them that we should not be able
+to keep them from butchering the First President and the President de
+Mesmes, so that we should be reputed the authors of the tragedy, and,
+though formidable one day, should be every whit as odious the next. I
+concluded with offering to sacrifice my coadjutorship of Paris to the
+anger of the Queen and the hatred of the Cardinal, and that very
+cheerfully, if they would but come into my measures.
+
+M. de Bouillon, after having opposed my reasons, concluded thus: "I know
+that my brother's declaration and my urging the necessity of his
+advancing with the army before we come to a positive resolution may give
+ground to a belief that I have great views for our family.  I do not deny
+but that I hope for some advantages, and am persuaded it is lawful for me
+to do so, but I will be content to forfeit my reputation if I ever agree
+with the Court till you all say you are satisfied; and if I do not keep
+my word I desire the Coadjutor to disgrace me."
+
+After all I thought it best to submit to the Prince de Conti and the
+voice of the majority, who resolved very wisely not to explain themselves
+in detail next morning in Parliament, but that the Prince de Conti should
+only say, in general, that it being the common report that the peace was
+signed at Ruel, he was resolved to send deputies thither to take care of
+his and the other generals' interests.
+
+The Prince agreed at once with our decision.  Meantime the people rose at
+the report I had spread concerning Mazarin's signing the treaty, which,
+though we all considered it a necessary stratagem, I now repented of.
+This shows that a civil war is one of those complicated diseases wherein
+the remedy you prescribe for obviating one dangerous symptom sometimes
+inflames three or four others.
+
+On the 13th the deputies of Ruel entering the Parliament House, which was
+in great tumult, M. d'Elbeuf, contrary to the resolution taken at M. de
+Bouillon's, asked the deputies whether they had taken care of the
+interest of the generals in the treaty.
+
+The First President was going to make his report, but was almost stunned
+with the clamour of the whole company, crying, "There is no peace! there
+is no peace!" that the deputies had scandalously deserted the generals
+and all others whom the Parliament had joined by the decree of union,
+and, besides, that they had concluded a peace after the revocation of the
+powers given them to treat.  The Prince de Conti said very calmly that he
+wondered they had concluded a treaty without the generals; to which the
+First President answered that the generals had always protested that they
+had no separate interests from those of the Parliament, and it was their
+own fault that they had not sent their deputies.  M. de Bouillon said
+that, since Cardinal Mazarin was to continue Prime Minister, he desired
+that Parliament should obtain a passport for him to retire out of the
+kingdom.  The First President replied that his interest had been taken
+care of, and that he would have satisfaction for Sedan.  But M. de
+Bouillon told him that he might as well have said nothing, and that he
+would never separate from the other generals.  The clamour redoubled with
+such fury that President de Mesmes trembled like an aspen leaf.  M. de
+Beaufort, laying his hand upon his sword, said, "Gentlemen, this shall
+never be drawn for Mazarin."
+
+The Presidents de Coigneux and de Bellievre proposed that the deputies
+might be sent back to treat about the interests of the generals and to
+reform the articles which the Parliament did not like; but they were soon
+silenced by a sudden noise in the Great Hall, and the usher came in
+trembling and said that the people called for M. de Beaufort.  He went
+out immediately, and quieted them for the time, but no sooner had he got
+inside the House than the disturbance began afresh, and an infinite
+number of people, armed with daggers, called out for the original treaty,
+that they might have Mazarin's sign-manual burnt by the hangman, adding
+that if the deputies had signed the peace of their own accord they ought
+to be hanged, and if against their will they ought to be disowned.  They
+were told that the sign-manual of the Cardinal could not be burnt without
+burning at the same time that of the Duc d'Orleans, but that the deputies
+were to be sent back again to get the articles amended.  The people still
+cried out, "No peace! no Mazarin!  You must go!  We will have our good
+King fetched from Saint Germain, and all Mazarins thrown into the river!"
+
+The people were ready to break open the great door of the House, yet the
+First President was so far from being terrified that, when he was advised
+to pass through the registry into his own house that he might not be
+seen, he replied, "If I was sure to perish I would never be guilty of
+such cowardice, which would only serve to make the mob more insolent, who
+would be ready to come to my house if they thought I was afraid of them
+here."  And when I begged him not to expose himself till I had pacified
+the people he passed it off with a joke, by which I found he took me for
+the author of the disturbance, though very unjustly.  However, I did not
+resent it, but went into the Great Hall, and, mounting the solicitors'
+bench, waved my hands to the people, who thereupon cried, "Silence!" I
+said all I could think of to make them easy.  They asked if I would
+promise that the Peace of Ruel should not be kept.  I answered, "Yes,
+provided the people will be quiet, for otherwise their best friends will
+be obliged to take other methods to prevent such disturbances."  I acted
+in a quarter of an hour above thirty different parts.  I threatened, I
+commanded, I entreated them; and, finding I was sure of a calm, at least
+for a moment, I returned to the House, and, embracing the First
+President, placed him before me; M. de Beaufort did the same with
+President de Mesmes, and thus we went out with the Parliament, all in a
+body, the officers of the House marching in front.  The people made a
+great noise, and we heard some crying, "A republic!"  but no injury was
+offered to us, only M. de Bouillon received a blow in his face from a
+ragamuffin, who took him for Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+On the 16th the deputies were sent again to Ruel by the Parliament to
+amend some of the articles, particularly those for adjourning the
+Parliament to Saint Germain and prohibiting their future assemblies; with
+an order to take care of the interest of the generals and of the
+companies, joined together by the decree of union.
+
+The late disturbances obliged the Parliament to post the city
+trained-bands at their gates, who were even more enraged against the
+"Mazarin peace," as they called it, than the mob, and who were far less
+dreaded, because they consisted of citizens who were not for plunder; yet
+this select militia was ten times on the point of insulting the
+Parliament, and did actually insult the members of the Council and
+Presidents, threatening to throw the President de Thore into the river;
+and when the First President and his friends saw that they were afraid of
+putting their threats into execution, they took an advantage of us, and
+had the boldness even to reproach the generals, as if the troops had not
+done their duty; though if the generals had but spoken loud enough to be
+heard by the people, they would not have been able to hinder them from
+tearing the members to pieces.
+
+The Duc de Bouillon came to the Hotel de Ville and made a speech there to
+Prince de Conti and the other generals, in substance as follows:
+
+"I could never have believed what I now see of this Parliament.  On the
+13th they would not hear the Peace of Ruel mentioned, but on the 15th
+they approved of it, some few articles excepted; on the 16th they
+despatched the same deputies who had concluded a peace against their
+orders with full and unlimited powers, and, not content with all this,
+they load us with reproaches because we complain that they have treated
+for a peace without us, and have abandoned M. de Longueville and M. de
+Turenne; and yet it is owing only to us that the people do not massacre
+them.  We must save their lives at the hazard of our own, and I own that
+it is wisdom so to do; but we shall all of us certainly perish with the
+Parliament if we let them go on at this rate."  Then, addressing himself
+to the Prince de Conti, he said, "I am for closing with the Coadjutor's
+late advice at my house, and if your Highness does not put it into
+execution before two days are at an end, we shall have a peace less
+secure and more scandalous than the former."
+
+The company became unanimously of his opinion, and resolved to meet next
+day at M. de Bouillon's to consider how to bring the affair into
+Parliament.  In the meantime, Don Gabriel de Toledo arrived with the
+Archduke's ratification of the treaty signed by the generals, and with a
+present from his master of 10,000 pistoles; but I was resolved to let the
+Spaniards see that I had not the intention of taking their money, though
+at his request Madame de Bouillon did all she could to persuade me.
+Accordingly, I declined it with all possible respect; nevertheless, this
+denial cost me dear afterwards, because I contracted a habit of refusing
+presents at other times when it would have been good policy to have
+accepted them, even if I had thrown them into the river.  It is sometimes
+very dangerous to refuse presents from one's superiors.
+
+While we were in conference at M. de Bouillon's the sad news was brought
+to us that M. de Turenne's forces, all except two or three regiments, had
+been bribed with money from Court to abandon him, and, finding himself
+likely to be arrested, he had retired to the house of his friend and
+kinswoman, the Landgravine of Hesse.  M. de Bouillon, was, as it were,
+thunderstruck; his lady burst out into tears, saying, "We are all
+undone," and I was almost as much cast down as they were, because it
+overturned our last scheme.
+
+M. de Bouillon was now for pushing matters to extremes, but I convinced
+him that there was nothing more dangerous.
+
+Don Gabriel de Toledo, who was ordered to be very frank with me, was very
+reserved when he saw how I was mortified about the news of M. de Turenne,
+and caballed with the generals in such a manner as made me very uneasy.
+Upon this sudden turn of affairs I made these remarks: That every company
+has so much in it of the unstable temper of the vulgar that all depends
+upon joining issue with opportunity; and that the best proposals prove
+often fading flowers, which are fragrant to-day and offensive to-morrow.
+
+I could not sleep that night for thinking about our circumstances.  I saw
+that the Parliament was less inclined than ever to engage in a war, by
+reason of the desertion of the army of M. de Turenne; I saw the deputies
+at Ruel emboldened by the success of their prevarication; I saw the
+people of Paris as ready to admit the Archduke as ever they could be to
+receive the Duc d'Orleans; I saw that in a week's time this Prince, with
+beads in his hand, and Fuensaldagne with his money, would have greater
+power than ourselves; that M. de Bouillon was relapsing into his former
+proposal of using extremities, and that the other generals would be
+precipitated into the same violent measures by the scornful behaviour of
+the Court, who now despised all because they were sure of the Parliament.
+I saw that all these circumstances paved the way for a popular sedition
+to massacre the Parliament and put the Spaniards in possession of the
+Louvre, which might overturn the State.
+
+These gloomy thoughts I resolved to communicate to my father, who had for
+the last twenty years retired to the Oratory, and who would never hear of
+my State intrigues.  My father told me of some advantageous offers made
+to me indirectly by the Court, but advised me not to trust to them.
+
+Next day, M. de Bouillon was for shutting the gates against the deputies
+of Ruel, for expelling the Parliament, for making ourselves masters of
+the Hotel de Ville, and for bringing the Spanish army without delay into
+our suburbs.  As for M. de Beaufort, Don Gabriel de Toledo told me that
+he offered Madame de Montbazon 20,000 crowns down and 6,000 crowns a year
+if she could persuade him into the Archduke's measures.  He did not
+forget the other generals.  M. d'Elbeuf was gained at an easy rate, and
+Marechal de La Mothe was buoyed up with the hopes of being accommodated
+with the Duchy of Cardonne.  I soon saw the Catholicon of Spain (Spanish
+gold) was the chief ingredient.  Everybody saw that our only remedy was
+to make ourselves masters of the Hotel de Ville by means of the people,
+but I opposed it with arguments too tedious to mention.  M. de Bouillon
+was for engaging entirely with Spain, but I convinced Marechal de La
+Mothe and M. de Beaufort that such measures would in a fortnight reduce
+them to a precarious dependence on the counsels of Spain.
+
+Being pressed to give my opinion in brief, I delivered it thus: "We
+cannot hinder the peace without ruining the Parliament by the help of the
+people, and we cannot maintain the war by the means of the same people
+without a dependence upon Spain.  We cannot have any peace with Saint
+Germain but by consenting to continue Mazarin in the Ministry."
+
+M. de Bouillon, with the head of an ox, and the penetration of an eagle,
+interrupted me thus: "I take it, monsieur," said he, "you are for
+suffering the peace to come to a conclusion, but not for appearing in
+it."
+
+I replied that I was willing to oppose it, but that it should be only
+with my own voice and the voices of those who were ready to run the same
+hazard with me.
+
+"I understand you again," replied M. de Bouillon; "a very fine thought
+indeed, suitable to yourself and to M. de Beaufort, but to nobody else."
+
+"If it suited us only," said I, "before I would propose it I would cut
+out my tongue.  The part we act would suit you as well as either of us,
+because you may accommodate matters when you think it for your interest.
+For my part, I am fully persuaded that they who insist upon the exclusion
+of Mazarin as a condition of the intended arrangement will continue
+masters of the affections of the people long enough to take their
+advantage of an opportunity which fortune never fails to furnish in
+cloudy and unsettled times.  Pray, monsieur, considering your reputation
+and capacity, who can pretend to act this part with more dignity, than
+yourself?  M. de Beaufort and I are already the favourites of the people,
+and if you declare for the exclusion of the Cardinal, you will be
+tomorrow as popular as either of us, and we shall be looked upon as the
+only centre of their hopes.  All the blunders of the ministers will turn
+to our advantage, the Spaniards will caress us, and the Cardinal,
+considering how fond he is of a treaty, will be under the necessity to
+court us.  I own this scheme may be attended with inconveniences, but, on
+the other side of the question, we are sure of certain ruin if we have a
+peace and an enraged minister at the helm, who cannot hope for
+reestablishment but upon our destruction.  Therefore, I cannot but think
+the expedient is as proper for you to engage in as for me, but if, for
+argument's sake, it were not, I am sure it is for your interest that I
+should embrace it, for you will by that means have more time to make your
+own terms with the Court before the peace is concluded, and after the
+peace  Mazarin will in such case be obliged to have more regard for all
+those gentlemen whose reunion with me it will be to his interest to
+prevent."
+
+M. de Bouillon was so convinced of the justice of my reasoning that he
+told me, when we were by ourselves, that he had, as well as myself,
+thought of my expedient as soon as he received the news of the army
+deserting M. de Turenne, that he could still improve it, as the Spaniards
+would not fail to relish it, and that he had been on the point several
+times one day to confer about it with me; but that his wife had conjured
+him with prayers and tears to speak no more of the matter, but to come to
+terms with the Court, or else to engage himself with the Spaniards. "I
+know," said he, "you are not for the second arrangement; pray lend me
+your good offices to compass the first."  I assured him that all my best
+offices and interests were entirely at his service to facilitate his
+agreement with the Court, and that he might freely make use of my name
+and reputation for that purpose.
+
+In fine, we agreed on every point.  M. de Bouillon undertook to make the
+proposition palatable to the Spaniards, provided we would promise never
+to let them know that it was concerted among ourselves beforehand, and we
+never questioned but that we could persuade M. de Longueville to accept
+it, for men of irresolution are apt to catch at all overtures which lead
+them two ways, and consequently press them to no choice.
+
+I had almost forgotten to tell you what M. de Bouillon said to me in
+private as we were going from the conference.  "I am sure," said he,
+"that you will not blame me for not exposing a wife whom I dearly love
+and eight children whom she loves more than herself to the hazards which
+you run, and which I could run with you were I a single man."
+
+I was very much affected by the tender sentiments of M. de Bouillon and
+the confidence he placed in me, and assured him I was so far from blaming
+him that I esteemed him the more, and that his tenderness for his lady,
+which he was pleased to call his weakness, was indeed what politics
+condemned but ethics highly justified, because it betokened an honest
+heart, which is much superior both to interest and politics.  M. de
+Bouillon communicated the proposal both to the Spanish envoys and to the
+generals, who were easily persuaded to relish it.
+
+Thus he made, as it were, a golden bridge for the Spaniards to withdraw
+their troops with decency.  I told him as soon as they were gone that he
+was an excellent man to persuade people that a "quartan ague was good for
+them."
+
+The Parliamentary deputies, repairing to Saint Germain on the 17th of
+March, 1649, first took care to settle the interests of the generals,
+upon which every officer of the army thought he had a right to exhibit
+his pretensions.  M. de Vendome sent his son a formal curse if he did not
+procure for him at least the post of Superintendent of the Seas, which
+was created first in favour of Cardinal de Richelieu in place of that of
+High Admiral, but Louis XIV. abolished it, and restored that of High
+Admiral.
+
+Upon this we held a conference, the result of which was that on the 20th
+the Prince de Conti told the Parliament that himself and the other
+generals entered their claims solely for the purpose of providing for
+their safety in case Mazarin should continue in the Ministry, and that he
+protested, both for himself and for all the gentlemen engaged in the same
+party, that they would immediately renounce all pretensions whatsoever
+upon the exclusion of Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+We also prevailed on the Prince de Conti, though almost against his will,
+to move the Parliament to direct their deputies to join with the Comte de
+Maure for the expulsion of Cardinal Mazarin.  I had almost lost all my
+credit with the people, because I hindered them on the 13th of March from
+massacring the Parliament, and because on the 23d and 24th I opposed the
+public sale of the Cardinal's library.  But I reestablished my reputation
+in the Great Hall among the crowd, in the opinion of the firebrands of
+Parliament, by haranguing against the Comte de Grancei, who had the
+insolence to pillage the house of M. Coulon; by insisting on the 24th
+that the Prince d'Harcourt should be allowed to seize all the public
+money in the province of Picardy; by insisting on the 25th against a
+truce which it would have been ridiculous to refuse during a conference;
+and by opposing on the 30th what was transacted there, though at the same
+time I knew that peace was made.
+
+I now return to the conference at Saint Germain.
+
+The Court declared they would never consent to the removal of the
+Cardinal; and that as to the pretensions of the generals, which were
+either to justice or favour, those of justice should be confirmed, and
+those of favour left to his Majesty's disposal to reward merit.  They
+declared their willingness to accept the Archduke's proposal for a
+general peace.
+
+An amnesty was granted in the most ample manner, comprehending expressly
+the Prince de Conti, MM. de Longueville, de Beaufort, d'Harcourt, de
+Rieug, de Lillebonne, de Bouillon, de Turenne, de Brissac, de Duras, de
+Matignon, de Beuron, de Noirmoutier, de Sdvigny, de Tremouille, de La
+Rochefoucault, de Retz, d'Estissac, de Montresor, de Matta, de Saint
+Germain, d'Apchon, de Sauvebeuf, de Saint Ibal, de Lauretat, de Laigues,
+de Chavagnac, de Chaumont, de Caumesnil, de Cugnac, de Creci, d'Allici,
+and de Barriere; but I was left out, which contributed to preserve my
+reputation with the public more than you would expect from such a trifle.
+
+On the 31st the deputies, being returned, made their report to the
+Parliament, who on the 1st of April verified the declaration of peace.
+
+As I went to the House I found the streets crowded with people crying "No
+peace! no Mazarin!" but I dispersed them by saying that it was one of
+Mazarin's stratagems to separate the people from the Parliament, who
+without doubt had reasons for what they had done; that they should be
+cautious of falling into the snare; that they had no cause to fear
+Mazarin; and that they might depend on it that I would never agree with
+him.  When I reached the House I found the guards as excited as the
+people, and bent on murdering every one they knew to be of Mazarin's
+party; but I pacified them as I had done the others.  The First
+President, seeing me coming in, said that "I had been consecrating oil
+mixed, undoubtedly, with saltpetre."  I heard the words, but made as if I
+did not, for had I taken them up, and had the people known it in the
+Great Hall, it would not have been in my power to have saved the life of
+one single member.
+
+Soon after the peace the Prince de Conti, Madame de Longueville and M. de
+Bouillon went to Saint Germain to the Court, which had by some means or
+other gained M. d'Elbeuf.  But MM. de Brissac, de Retz, de Vitri, de
+Fiesque, de Fontrailles, de Montresor, de Noirmoutier, de Matta, de la
+Boulaie, de Caumesnil, de Moreul, de Laigues, and d'Annery remained in a
+body with us, which was not contemptible, considering the people were on
+our side; but the Cardinal despised us to that degree that when MM. de
+Beaufort, de Brissac, de La Mothe, and myself desired one of our friends
+to assure the Queen of our most humble obedience, she answered that she
+should not regard our assurances till we had paid our devoirs to the
+Cardinal.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse having come from Brussels without the Queen's leave,
+her Majesty sent her orders to quit Paris in twenty-four hours upon which
+I went to her house and found the lovely creature at her toilet bathed in
+tears.  My heart yearned towards her, but I bid her not obey till I had
+the honour of seeing her again.  I consulted with M. de Beaufort to get
+the order revoked, upon which he said, "I see you are against her going;
+she shall stay.  She has very fine eyes!"
+
+I returned to the Palace de Chevreuse, where I was made very welcome, and
+found the lovely Mademoiselle de Chevreuse.  I got a very intimate
+acquaintance with Madame de Rhodes, natural daughter of Cardinal de
+Guise, who was her great confidant.  I entirely demolished the good
+opinion she had of the Duke of Brunswick-Zell, with whom she had almost
+struck a bargain.  De Laigues hindered me at first, but the forwardness
+of the daughter and the good-nature of the mother soon removed all
+obstacles.  I saw her every day at her own house and very often at Madame
+de Rhodes's, who allowed us all the liberty we could wish for, and we did
+not fail to make good use of our time.  I did love her, or rather I
+thought I loved her, for I still had to do with Madame de Pommereux.
+
+Fronde (sling) being the name given to the faction, I will give you the
+etymology of it, which I omitted in the first book.
+
+When Parliament met upon State affairs, the Duc d'Orleans and the Prince
+de Conde came very frequently, and tempered the heat of the contending
+parties; but the coolness was not lasting, for every other day their fury
+returned upon them.
+
+Bachoumont once said, in jest, that the Parliament acted like the
+schoolboys in the Paris ditches, who fling stones, and run away when they
+see the constable, but meet again as soon as he turns his back.  This was
+thought a very pretty comparison.  It came to be a subject for ballads,
+and, upon the peace between the King and Parliament, it was revived and
+applied to those who were not agreed with the Court; and we studied to
+give it all possible currency, because we observed that it excited the
+wrath of the people.  We therefore resolved that night to wear hatbands
+made in the form of a sling, and had a great number of them made ready to
+be distributed among a parcel of rough fellows, and we wore them
+ourselves last of all, for it would have looked much like affectation and
+have spoilt all had we been the first in the mode.
+
+It is inexpressible what influence this trifle had upon the people; their
+bread, hats, gloves, handkerchiefs, fans, ornaments were all 'a la mode
+de la Fronde', and we ourselves were more in the fashion by this trifle
+than in reality.  And the truth is we had need of all our shifts to
+support us against the whole royal family.  For although I had spoken to
+the Prince de Conde at Madame de Longueville's, I could not suppose
+myself thoroughly reconciled.  He treated me, indeed, civilly, but with
+an air of coldness, and I know that he was fully persuaded that I had
+complained of his breach of a promise which he made by me to some members
+of Parliament; but, as I had complained to nobody upon this head, I began
+to suspect that some persona studied to set us at variance.  I imagined
+it came from the Prince de Conti, who was naturally very malicious, and
+hated me, he knew not why.  Madame de Longueville loved me no better. I
+always suspected Madame de Montbazon, who had not nearly so much
+influence over M. de Beaufort as I had, yet was very artful in robbing
+him of all his secrets.  She did not love me either, because I deprived
+her of what might have made her a most considerable person at Court.
+
+Count Fuensaldagne was not obliged to help me if he could.  He was not
+pleased with the conduct of M. de Bouillon, who, in truth, had neglected
+the decisive point for a general peace, and he was much less satisfied
+with his own ministers, whom he used to call his blind moles; but he was
+pleased with me for insisting always on the peace between the two Crowns,
+without any view to a separate one.  He therefore sent me Don Antonio
+Pimentel, to offer me anything that was in the power of the King his
+master, and to tell me that, as I could not but want assistance,
+considering how I stood with the Ministry, 100,000 crowns was at my
+service, which was accordingly brought me in bills of exchange.  He added
+that he did not desire any engagement from me for it, nor did the King
+his master propose any other advantage than the pleasure of protecting
+me.  But I thought fit to refuse the money, for the present, telling Don
+Antonio that I should think myself unworthy, of the protection of his
+Catholic Majesty if I took any, gratuity, while I was in no capacity, of
+serving him; that I was born a Frenchman, and, by virtue of my post,
+more particularly attached than another to the metropolis of the
+kingdom; that it was my misfortune to be embroiled with the Prime
+Minister of my King, but that my resentment should never carry me to
+solicit assistance among his enemies till I was forced to do so for
+self-preservation; that Divine Providence had cast my lot in Paris, where
+God, who knew the purity of my intentions, would enable me in all
+probability to maintain myself by my own interest.  But in case I wanted
+protection I was fully persuaded I could nowhere find any so powerful and
+glorious as that of his Catholic Majesty, to whom I would always think it
+an honour to have recourse.  Fuensaldagne was satisfied with my answer,
+and sent back Don Antonio Pimentel with a letter from the Archduke,
+assuring me that upon a line from my hand he would march with all the
+forces of the King his master to my assistance.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Always to sacrifice the little affairs to the greater
+Always judged of actions by men, and never men by their actions
+Arms which are not tempered by laws quickly become anarchy
+Associating patience with activity
+Blindness that make authority to consist only in force
+Bounty, which, though very often secret, had the louder echo
+Civil war is one of those complicated diseases
+Clergy always great examples of slavish servitude
+Confounded the most weighty with the most trifling
+Contempt--the most dangerous disease of any State
+Dangerous to refuse presents from one's superiors
+Distinguished between bad and worse, good and better
+Fading flowers, which are fragrant to-day and offensive tomorrow
+Fool in adversity and a knave in prosperity
+Fools yield only when they cannot help it
+Good news should be employed in providing against bad
+He had not a long view of what was beyond his reach
+His wit was far inferior to his courage
+His ideas were infinitely above his capacity
+Impossible for her to live without being in love with somebody
+Inconvenience of popularity
+Kinds of fear only to be removed by higher degrees of terror
+Laws without the protection of arms sink into contempt
+Maxims showed not great regard for virtue
+More ambitious than was consistent with morality
+My utmost to save other souls, though I took no care of my own
+Need of caution in what we say to our friends
+Neither capable of governing nor being governed
+Men of irresolution are apt to catch at all overtures
+Never had woman more contempt for scruples and ceremonies
+Oftener deceived by distrusting than by being overcredulous
+One piece of bad news seldom comes singly
+Only way to acquire them is to show that we do not value them
+Poverty so well became him
+Power commonly keeps above ridicule
+Pretended to a great deal more wit than came to his share
+Queen was adored much more for her troubles than for her merit
+Strongest may safely promise to the weaker what he thinks fit
+Those who carry more sail than ballast
+Thought he always stood in need of apologies
+Transitory honour is mere smoke
+Treated him as she did her petticoat
+Useful man in a faction because of his wonderful complacency
+Vanity to love to be esteemed the first author of things
+Virtue for a man to confess a fault than not to commit one
+We are far more moved at the hearing of old stories
+Weakening and changing the laws of the land
+Whose vivacity supplied the want of judgment
+Wisdom in affairs of moment is nothing without courage
+With a design to do good, he did evil
+Yet he gave more than he promised
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoirs Of Jean Francois Paul De
+Gondi, Cardinal De Retz, Volume II., by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, v2
+#2 in our series by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+#6 in our series Historic Court Memoirs
+
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+Title: The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, v2
+
+Author: Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
+Official Release Date: March, 2002  [Etext #3843]
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+
+MEMOIRS OF JEAN FRANCOIS PAUL de GONDI, CARDINAL DE RETZ, v2
+
+Written by Himself
+
+Being Historic Court Memoirs of the Great Events during the Minority of
+Louis XIV. and the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+
+MADAME:--I lay it down as a maxim, that men who enter the service of the
+State should make it their chief study to set out in the world with some
+notable act which may strike the imagination of the people, and cause
+themselves to be discussed.  Thus I preached first upon All Saints' Day,
+before an audience which could not but be numerous in a populous city,
+where it is a wonder to see the Archbishop in the pulpit.  I began now to
+think seriously upon my future conduct.  I found the archbishopric sunk
+both in its temporals and spirituals by the sordidness, negligence, and
+incapacity of my uncle.  I foresaw infinite obstacles to its
+reestablishment, but perceived that the greatest and most insuperable
+difficulty lay in myself.  I considered that the strictest morals are
+necessarily required in a bishop.  I felt myself the more obliged to be
+strictly circumspect as my uncle had been very disorderly and scandalous.
+I knew likewise that my own corrupt inclinations would bear down all
+before them, and that all the considerations drawn from honour and
+conscience would prove very weak defences.  At last I came to a
+resolution to go on in my sins, and that designedly, which without doubt
+is the more sinful in the eyes of God, but with regard to the world is
+certainly the best policy, because he that acts thus always takes care
+beforehand to cover part of his failings, and thereby to avoid the
+jumbling together of sin and devotion, than which nothing can be more
+dangerous and ridiculous in a clergyman.  This was my disposition, which
+was not the most pious in the world nor yet the wickedest, for I was
+fully determined to discharge all the duties of my profession faithfully,
+and exert my utmost to save other souls, though I took no care of my own.
+
+The Archbishop, who was the weakest of mortals, was, nevertheless, by a
+common fatality attending such men, the most vainglorious; he yielded
+precedence to every petty officer of the Crown, and yet in his own house
+would not give the right-hand to any person of quality that came to him
+about business.  My behaviour was the reverse of his in almost
+everything; I gave the right-hand to all strangers in my own house, and
+attended them even to their coach, for which I was commended by some for
+my civility and by others for my humility.  I avoided appearing in public
+assemblies among people of quality till I had established a reputation.
+When I thought I had done so, I took the opportunity of the sealing of a
+marriage contract to dispute my rank with M. de Guise.  I had carefully
+studied the laws of my diocese and got others to do it for me, and my
+right was indisputable in my own province.  The precedence was adjudged
+in my favour by a decree of the Council, and I found, by the great number
+of gentlemen who then appeared for me, that to condescend to men of low
+degree is the surest way to equal those of the highest.
+
+I dined almost every day with Cardinal Mazarin, who liked me the better
+because I refused to engage myself in the cabal called "The Importants,"
+though many of the members were my dearest friends.  M. de Beaufort, a
+man of very mean parts, was so much out of temper because the Queen had
+put her confidence in Cardinal Mazarin, that, though her Majesty offered
+him favours with profusion, he would accept none, and affected to give
+himself the airs of an angry lover.  He held aloof from the Duc
+d'Orleans, insulted the late Prince, and, in order to support himself
+against the Queen-regent, the chief minister, and all the Princes of the
+blood, formed a cabal of men who all died mad, and whom I never took for
+conjurers from the first time I knew them.  Such were Beaupre,
+Fontrailles, Fiesque, Montresor, who had the austerity of Cato, but not
+his sagacity, and M. de Bethune, who obliged M. de Beaufort to make me
+great overtures, which I received very respectfully, but entered into none.
+I told Montresor that I was indebted to the Queen for the coadjutorship of
+Paris, and that that was enough to keep me from entering into any
+engagement that might be disagreeable to her Majesty.  Montresor said I
+was not obliged for it to the Queen, it having been ordered before by the
+late King, and given me at a crisis when she was not in a condition to
+refuse it.  I replied, "Permit me, monsieur, to forget everything that
+may diminish my gratitude, and to remember that only which may increase
+it."  These words were afterwards repeated to Cardinal Mazarin, who was
+so pleased with me that he repeated them to the Queen.
+
+The families of Orleans and Conde, being united by interest, made a jest
+of that surly look from which Beaufort's cabal were termed "The
+Importants," and at the same time artfully made use of the grand
+appearance which Beaufort (like those who carry more sail than ballast)
+never failed to assume upon the most trifling occasions.  His counsels
+were unseasonable, his meetings to no purpose, and even his hunting
+matches became mysterious.  In short, Beaufort was arrested at the Louvre
+by a captain of the Queen's Guards, and carried on the 2d of September,
+1643, to Vincennes.  The cabal of "The Importants" was put to flight and
+dispersed, and it was reported over all the kingdom that they had made an
+attempt against the Cardinal's life, which I do not believe, because I
+never saw anything in confirmation of it, though many of the domestics of
+the family of Vendome were a long time in prison upon this account.
+
+The Marquis de Nangis, who was enraged both against the Queen and
+Cardinal, for reasons which I shall tell you afterwards, was strongly
+tempted to come into this cabal a few days before Beaufort was arrested,
+but I dissuaded him by telling him that fashion is powerful in all the
+affairs of life, but more remarkably so as to a man's being in favour or
+disgrace at Court.  There are certain junctures when disgrace, like fire,
+purifies all the bad qualities, and sets a lustre on all the good ones,
+and also there are times when it does not become an honest man to be out
+of favour at Court.  I applied this to the gentlemen of the aforesaid
+cabal.
+
+I must confess, to the praise of Cardinal de Richelieu, that he had
+formed two vast designs worthy of a Caesar or an Alexander: that of
+suppressing the Protestants had been projected before by Cardinal de
+Retz, my uncle; but that of attacking the formidable house of Austria was
+never thought of by any before the Cardinal.  He completed the first
+design, and had made great progress in the latter.
+
+That the King's death made no alteration in affairs was owing to the
+bravery of the Prince de Conde and the famous battle of Rocroi, in 1643,
+which contributed both to the peace and glory of the kingdom, and covered
+the cradle of the present King with laurels.  Louis XIV.'s father, who
+neither loved nor esteemed his Queen, provided him a Council, upon his
+death-bed, for limiting the authority of the Regency, and named the
+Cardinal Mazarin, M. Seguier,  M. Bouthillier,  and M. de Chavigni; but
+being all Richelieu's creatures, they were so hated by the public that
+when the King was dead they were hissed at by all the footmen at Saint
+Germain, and if De Beaufort had had a grain of sense, or if De Beauvais
+had not been a disgraceful bishop, or if my father had but entered into
+the administration, these collateral Regents would have been undoubtedly
+expelled with ignominy, and the memory of Cardinal de Richelieu been
+branded by the Parliament with shouts of joy.
+
+The Queen was adored much more for her troubles than for her merit.  Her
+admirers had never seen her but under persecution; and in persons of her
+rank, suffering is one of the greatest virtues.  People were apt to fancy
+that she was patient to a degree of indolence.  In a word, they expected
+wonders from her; and Bautru used to say she had already worked a
+miracle because the most devout had forgotten her coquetry.  The Duc
+d'Orleans, who made a show as if he would have disputed the Regency with
+the Queen, was contented to be Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom.  The
+Prince de Conde was declared President of the Council, and the Parliament
+confirmed the Regency to the Queen without limitation.  The exiles were
+called home, prisoners set at liberty, and criminals pardoned.  They who
+had been turned out were replaced in their respective employments, and
+nothing that was asked was refused.  The happiness of private families
+seemed to be fully secured in the prosperity of the State.  The perfect
+union of the royal family settled the peace within doors; and the battle
+of Rocroi was such a blow to the Spanish infantry that they could not
+recover in an age.  They saw at the foot of the throne, where the fierce
+and terrible Richelieu used to thunder rather than govern, a mild and
+gentle successor,--[Cardinal Julius Mazarin, Minister of State, who died
+at Vincennes in 1661.]--who was perfectly complacent and extremely
+troubled that his dignity of Cardinal did not permit him to be as humble
+to all men as he desired; and who, when he went abroad, had no other
+attendants than two footmen behind his coach.  Had not I, then, reason
+for saying that it did not become an honest man to be on bad terms with
+the Court at that time of day?
+
+You will wonder, no doubt, that nobody was then aware of the consequence
+of imprisoning M. de Beaufort, when the prison doors were set open to all
+others.  This bold stroke--at a time when the Government was so mild that
+its authority was hardly felt--had a very great effect.  Though nothing
+was more easy, as you have seen, yet it looked grand; and all acts of
+this nature are very successful because they are attended with dignity
+without any odium.  That which generally draws an unaccountable odium
+upon even the most necessary actions of statesmen, is that, in order to
+compass them, they are commonly obliged to struggle with very great
+difficulties, which, when they are surmounted, are certain to render them
+objects both of envy and hatred.  When a considerable occasion offers,
+where there is no victory to be gained because there is no difficulty to
+encounter, which is very rare, it gives a lustre to the authority of
+ministers which is pure, innocent, and without a shadow, and not only
+establishes it, but casts upon their administration the merit of actions
+which they have no hand in, as well as those of which they have.
+
+When the world saw that the Cardinal had apprehended the man who had
+lately brought the King back to Paris with inconceivable pride, men's
+imaginations were seized with an astonishing veneration.  People thought
+themselves much obliged to the Minister that some were not sent to the
+Bastille every week; and the sweetness of his temper was sure to be
+commended whenever he had not an opportunity of doing them harm.  It must
+be owned that he had the art of improving his good luck to the best
+advantage.  He made use of all the outward appearances necessary to
+create a belief that he had been forced to take violent measures, and
+that the counsels of the Duc d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde had
+determined the Queen to reject his advice; the day following he seemed to
+be more moderate, civil, and frank than before; he gave free access to
+all; audiences were easily had, it was no more to dine with him than with
+a private gentleman.  He had none of that grand air so common to the
+meaner cardinals.  In short, though he was at the head of everybody, yet
+he managed as if he were only their companion.  That which astonishes me
+most is that the princes and grandees of the kingdom, who, one might
+expect, would be more quick-sighted than the common people, were the most
+blinded.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde--the latter attached to the
+Court by his covetous temper--thought themselves above being rivalled;
+the Duke--[Henri de Bourbon, Duc d'Enghien, born 1646, died 1686.  We
+shall often speak of him in this history.]--was old enough to take his
+repose under the shadow of his laurels; M. de Nemours--[Charles Amadeus
+of Savoy, killed in a duel by M. de Beaufort, 1650.]--was but a child;
+M. de Guise, lately returned from Brussels, was governed by Madame de
+Pons, and thought to govern the whole Court; M. de Schomberg complied all
+his life long with the humour of those who were at the helm; M. de
+Grammont was a slave to them.  The Parliament, being delivered from the
+tyranny of Richelieu, imagined the golden age was returning, being daily
+assured by the Prime Minister that the Queen would not take one step
+without them.  The clergy, who are always great examples of slavish
+servitude themselves, preached it to others under the plausible title of
+passive obedience.  Thus both clergy and laity were, in an instant,
+become the devotees of Mazarin.
+
+Being ordered by my Lord Archbishop of Paris to take care of his diocese
+in his absence, my first business was, by the Queen's express command, to
+visit the Nuns of the Conception, where, knowing that there were above
+fourscore virgins, many of whom were very pretty and some coquettes, I
+was very loth to go for fear, of exposing my virtue to temptation; but I
+could not be excused, so I went, and preserved my virtue, to my
+neighbour's edification, because for six weeks together I did not see the
+face of any one of the nuns, nor talked to any of them but when their
+veils were down, which gave me a vast reputation for chastity.
+I continued to perform all the necessary functions in the diocese as far
+as the jealousy of my uncle would give me leave, and, forasmuch as he was
+generally so peevish that it was a very hard matter to please him,
+I at length chose to sit still and do nothing.  Thus I made the best use
+imaginable of my uncle's ill-nature, being sure to convince him of my
+honest intentions upon all occasions; whereas had I been my own master,
+the rules of good conduct would have obliged me to confine myself to
+things in their own nature practicable.
+
+The Cardinal Mazarin confessed to me, many years afterwards, that this
+conduct of mine in managing the affairs of the diocese, though it did him
+no injury, was the first thing that made him jealous of my growing
+greatness in Paris.  Another thing alarmed him with as little reason,
+and that was my undertaking to examine the capacity of all the priests
+of my diocese, a thing of inconceivable use and importance.  For this
+end I erected three tribunals, composed of canons, curates, and men of
+religious orders, who were to reduce all the priests under three
+different classes, whereof the first was to consist of men well
+qualified, who were therefore to be left in the exercise of their
+functions; the second was to comprehend those who were not at present,
+but might in time prove able men; and the third of such men as were
+neither now nor ever likely to become so.  The two last classes, being
+separated from the first, were not to exercise their functions, but were
+lodged in separate houses; those of the second class were instructed in
+the doctrine, but the third only in the practice of piety.  As this could
+not but be very expensive, the good people opened their purses and
+contributed liberally.  The Cardinal was so disturbed when he heard of it
+that he got the Queen to send for my uncle upon a frivolous occasion,
+who, for reasons as frivolous, ordered me to desist.  Though I was very
+well informed, by my good friend the Almoner, that the blow came from
+Court, I bore it with a great deal more patience than was consistent with
+a man of my spirit, for I did not seem to take the least notice of it,
+but was as gracious to the Cardinal as ever.  But I was not so wary in
+another case which happened some time after, for honest Morangis telling
+me I was too extravagant, which was but too true, I answered him rashly,
+"I have made a calculation that Caesar, when at my age, owed six times as
+much."  This remark was carried, unluckily, by a doctor then present, to
+M. Servien, who told it maliciously to the Cardinal, who made a jest of
+it, as he had reason to do, but he took notice of it, for which I cannot
+blame him.
+
+In 1645 I was invited, as a diocesan, to the assembly of the clergy,
+which, I may truly say, was the rock whereon the little share of favour I
+had at Court was cast away.  Cardinal de Richelieu had given a cruel blow
+to the dignity and liberty of the clergy in the assembly of Mantes, and,
+with very barbarous circumstances, had banished six of his most
+considerable prelates.  It was resolved in this assembly of 1645 to make
+them some amends for their firmness on that occasion by inviting them to
+come and take their places--though they were not deputed--among their
+brethren.  When this was first, proposed in the assembly, nobody dreamt
+that the Court would take offence at it, and it falling to my turn to
+speak first, I proposed the said resolution, as it had been concerted
+betwixt us before in private conversation, and it was unanimously
+approved of by the assembly.
+
+At my return home the Queen's purse-bearer came to me with an order to
+attend her Majesty forthwith, which I accordingly obeyed.  When I came
+into her presence she said she could not have believed I would ever have
+been wanting in my duty to that degree as to wound the memory of the late
+King, her lord.  I had such reasons to offer as she could not herself
+confute, and therefore referred me to the Cardinal, but I found he
+understood those things no better than her Majesty.  He spoke to me with
+the haughtiest air in the world, refused to hear my justification, and
+commanded me in the King's name to retract publicly the next day in full
+assembly.  You may imagine how difficult it was for me to resolve what to
+do.  However, I did not break out beyond the bounds of modest respect,
+and, finding that my submission made no impression upon the Cardinal,
+I got the Bishop of Arles, a wise and moderate gentleman, to go to him
+along with me, and to join with me in offering our reasons.  But we found
+his Eminence a very ignoramus in ecclesiastical polity.  I only mention
+this to let yon see that in my first misunderstanding with the Court I
+was not to blame, and that my respect for the Cardinal upon the Queen's
+account was carried to an excess of patience.
+
+Some months after, his profound ignorance and envenomed malice furnished
+me with a fresh occasion to exercise patience.  The Bishop of Warmia, one
+of the ambassadors that came to fetch the Queen of Poland, was very
+desirous to celebrate the marriage in the Church of Notre-Dame.  Though
+the archbishops of Paris never suffered solemnities of this kind to be
+celebrated in their churches by any but cardinals of the royal family,
+and though my uncle had been highly blamed by all his clergy for
+permitting the Cardinal de La Rochefoucault to marry the Queen of
+England,--[Henriette Marie of France, daughter of Henri IV., died 1669.]
+--nevertheless I was ordered by a 'lettre de cachet' to prepare the said
+Church of Notre Dame for the Bishop of Warmia, which order ran in the
+same style as that given to the 'prevot des marchands' when he is to
+prepare the Hotel de Ville for a public ball.  I showed the letter to the
+deans and canons, and said I did not doubt but it was a stratagem of one
+or other of the Secretary of State's clerks to get a gift of money.
+
+I thereupon went to the Cardinal, pressed him with both reasons and
+precedents, and said that, as I was his particular humble servant,
+I hoped he would be pleased to lay them before her Majesty, making use of
+all other persuasion--which I thought would dispose him to a compliance.
+It was then that I learned that he only wanted an opportunity to embroil
+me with the Queen, for though I saw plainly that he was sorry he had
+given such orders before he knew their consequence, yet, after some
+pause, he reassumed his former obstinacy to the very last degree; and,
+because I spoke in the name of the Archbishop and of the whole Church of
+Paris, he stormed as much as if a private person upon his own authority
+had presumed to make a speech to him at the head of fifty malcontents.
+I endeavoured with all respect to show him that our case was quite
+different; but he was so ignorant of our manners and customs that he took
+everything by the wrong handle.  He ended the conversation very abruptly
+and rudely, and referred me to the Queen.  I found her Majesty in a
+fretful mood, and all I could get out of her was a promise to hear the
+chapter upon this affair, without whose consent--I had declared I could
+not conclude anything.
+
+I sent for them accordingly, and having introduced them to the Queen,
+they spoke very discreetly and to the purpose.  The Queen sent us back to
+the Cardinal, who entertained us only with impertinences, and as he had
+but a superficial knowledge of the French language, he concluded by
+telling me that I had talked very insolently to him the night before.
+You may imagine that that word was enough to vex me, but having resolved
+beforehand to keep my temper, I smiled, and said to the deputies,
+"Gentlemen, this is fine language."  He was nettled at my smile, and said
+to me in aloud tone, "Do you know whom you talk to?  I will teach you how
+to behave."  Now, I confess, my blood began to boil.  I told him that the
+Coadjutor of Paris was talking to Cardinal Mazarin, but that perhaps he
+thought himself the Cardinal de Lorraine, and me the Bishop of Metz, his
+suffragan.
+
+Then we went away and met the Marechal d'Estrees coming up to us, who
+came to advise me not to break with the Court, and to tell me that things
+might be arranged; and when he found I was of another opinion, he told me
+in plain terms that he had orders from the Queen to oblige me to come to
+her.  I went without more ado, accompanied by the deputies, and found her
+more gracious and better humoured than I am able to express.  She told me
+that she had a mind to see me, not so much in relation to our affair,
+which might be easily accommodated, as to reprimand me for using such
+language to the poor Cardinal, who was as meek as a lamb, and loved me
+as his own son.  She added all the kind things possible, and ordered the
+dean and deputies to go along with me to the Cardinal's house, that we
+might consult together what course to take.  This was so much against my
+inclination that I gave the Queen to understand that no person in the
+world but her Majesty could have persuaded me to it.
+
+We found the Minister even milder than his mistress.  He made a world of
+excuses for the word "insolent," by which he said, and perhaps it may be
+true, that he meant no more than 'insolito', a word signifying "somewhat
+uncommon."  He showed me all the civility imaginable, but, instead of
+coming to any determination, put us off to another opportunity.  A few
+days after, a letter was brought me at midnight from the Archbishop,
+commanding me to let the Bishop of Warmia perform the marriage without
+any more opposition.
+
+Had I been wise I should have stopped there, because a man ought in
+prudence to make his peace with the Court upon any terms consistent with
+honour.  But I was young, and the more provoked because I perceived that
+all the fair words given me at Fontainebleau were but a feint to gain
+time to write about the affair to my uncle, then at Angers.  However, I
+said nothing to the messenger, more than that I was glad my uncle had so
+well brought me off.  The chapter being likewise served with the same
+order, we sent the Court this answer: That the Archbishop might do what
+he listed in the nave of the church, but that the choir belonged to the
+chapter, and they would yield it to no man but himself or his coadjutor.
+The Cardinal knew the meaning of this, and thereupon resolved to have the
+marriage solemnised in the Chapel Royal, whereof he said the Great
+Almoner was bishop.  But this being a yet more important question than
+the other, I laid the inconveniences of it before him in a letter.  This
+nettled him, and he made a mere jest of my letter.  I gave the Queen of
+Poland to understand that, if she were married in that manner, I should
+be forced, even against my will, to declare the marriage void; but that
+there remained one expedient which would effectually remove all
+difficulties,--that the marriage might be performed in the King's Chapel,
+and should stand good provided that the Bishop of Warmia came to me for a
+license.
+
+The Queen, resolving to lose no more time by awaiting new orders from
+Angers, and fearing the least flaw in her marriage, the Court was obliged
+to comply with my proposal, and the ceremony was performed accordingly.
+
+Not long after this marriage I was unhappily embroiled with the Duc
+d'Orleans, upon an occasion of no greater importance than my foot-cloth
+in the Church of Notre-Dame, which was by mistake removed to his seat.
+I complained of it to him, and he ordered it to be restored.
+Nevertheless the Abby de la Riviere made him believe I had put an affront
+upon him that was too public to be pardoned.  The Duke was so simple as
+to believe it, and, while the courtiers turned all into banter, he swore
+he would receive incense before me at the said church for the future.
+In the meantime the Queen sent for me, and told me that the Duke was in
+a terrible passion, for which she was very sorry, but that nevertheless
+she could not help being of his opinion, and therefore insisted upon it
+that I ought to give him satisfaction in the Church of Notre-Dame the
+Sunday following.  Upon the whole she referred me to Cardinal Mazarin,
+who declared to me at first that he was very sorry to see me in so much
+trouble, blamed the Abby for having incensed the Duke to such a degree,
+and used all the arguments he could to wheedle me to give my consent to
+being degraded.  And when he saw I was not to be led, he endeavoured to
+drive me into the snare.  He stormed with an air of authority, and would
+fain have bullied me into compliance, telling me that hitherto he had
+spoken as a friend, but that I had forced him henceforth to speak as a
+minister.  He also began to threaten, and the conversation growing warm,
+he sought to pick a quarrel by insinuating that if I would do as Saint
+Ambrose did, I ought to lead a life like him.  As he spoke this loud
+enough to be heard by some bishops at the other end of the room, I
+likewise raised my voice, and told him I would endeavour to make the best
+use of his advice, but he might assure himself I was fully resolved so to
+imitate Saint Ambrose in this affair that I might, through his means,
+obtain grace to be able to imitate him in all others.
+
+I had not been long gone home when the Marechal d'Estrees and
+M. Senneterre came, furnished with all the flowers of rhetoric,
+to persuade me that degradation was honourable; and finding me immovable,
+they insinuated that my obstinacy might oblige his Highness to use force,
+and order his guards to carry me, in spite of myself, to Notre-Dame,
+and place me there on a seat below his.  I thought this suggestion too
+ridiculous to mind it at first, but being forewarned of it that very
+evening by the Duke's Chancellor, I put myself upon the defensive, which
+I think is the most ridiculous piece of folly I was ever guilty of,
+considering it was against a son of France, and when there was a profound
+tranquillity in the State, without the least appearance of any commotion.
+The Duke, to whom I had the honour of being related, was pleased with my
+boldness.  He remembered the Abby de la Riviere for his insolence in
+complaining that the Prince de Conti was marked down for a cardinal
+before him; besides, the Duke knew I was in the right, having made it
+very evident in a statement I had published upon this head.  He
+acquainted the Cardinal with it, said he would not suffer the least
+violence to be offered to me; that I was both his kinsman and devoted
+servant, and that he would not set out for the army till he saw the
+affair at an end.
+
+All the Court was in consternation for fear of a rupture, especially when
+the Prince de Conde had been informed by the Queen of what his son had
+said; and when he came to my house and found there sixty or eighty
+gentlemen, this made him believe that a league was already made with the
+Duke, but there was nothing in it.  He swore, he threatened, he begged,
+he flattered, and in his transports he let fall some expressions which
+showed that the Duke was much more concerned for my interest than he ever
+yet owned to me.  I submitted that very instant, and told the Prince that
+I would do anything rather than the royal family should be divided on my
+account.  The Prince, who hitherto found me immovable, was so touched at
+my sudden surrender in complaisance to his son, at the very time, too,
+when he himself had just assured me I was to expect a powerful protection
+from him, that he suddenly changed his temper, so that, instead of
+thinking as he did at first, that there was no satisfaction great enough
+for the Duc d'Orleans, he now determined plainly in favour of the
+expedient I had so often proposed,--that I should go and declare to him,
+in the presence of the whole Court, that I never designed to be wanting
+in the respect I owed him, and that the orders of the Church had obliged
+me to act as I did at Notre-Dame.  The Cardinal and the Abby de la
+Riviere were enraged to the last degree, but the Prince put them into
+such fear of the Duke that they were fain to submit.  The Prince took me
+to the Duc d'Orleans's house, where I gave them satisfaction before the
+whole Court, precisely in the words above mentioned.  His Highness was
+quite satisfied with my reasons, carried me to see his medals, and thus
+ended the controversy.
+
+As this affair and the marriage of the Queen of Poland had embroiled me
+with the Court, you may easily conceive what turn the courtiers gave to
+it.  But here I found by experience that all the powers upon earth cannot
+hurt the reputation of a man who preserves it established and unspotted
+in the society whereof he is a member.  All the learned clergy took my
+part, and I soon perceived that many of those who had before blamed my
+conduct now retracted.  I made this observation upon a thousand other
+occasions.  I even obliged the Court, some time after, to commend my,
+proceedings, and took an opportunity to convince the Queen that it was my
+dignity, and not any want of respect and gratitude, that made me resist
+the Court in the two former cases.  The Cardinal was very well pleased
+with me, and said in public that he found me as much concerned for the
+King's service as I was before for the honour of my character.
+
+It falling to my turn to make the speech at the breaking up of the
+assembly of the clergy at Paris, I had the good luck to please both the
+clergy and the Court.  Cardinal Mazarin took me to supper with him alone,
+seemed to be clear of all prejudices against me, and I verily believe was
+fully persuaded that he had been imposed upon.  But I was too much
+beloved in Paris to continue long in favour at Court.  This was a crime
+that rendered me disagreeable in the eyes of a refined Italian statesman,
+and which was the more dangerous from the fact that I lost no opportunity
+of aggravating it by a natural and unaffected expense, to which my air of
+negligence gave a lustre, and by my great alms and bounty, which, though
+very often secret, had the louder echo; whereas, in truth, I had acted
+thus at first only in compliance with inclination and out of a sense of
+duty.  But the necessity I was under of supporting myself against the
+Court obliged me to be yet more liberal.  I do but just mention it here
+to show you that the Court was jealous of me, when I never thought myself
+capable of giving them the least occasion, which made me reflect that a
+man is oftener deceived by distrusting than by being overcredulous.
+
+Cardinal Mazarin, who was born and bred in the Pope's dominions, where
+papal authority has no limits, took the impetus given to the regal power
+by his tutor, the Cardinal de Richelieu, to be natural to the body
+politic, which mistake of his occasioned the civil war, though we must
+look much higher for its prime cause.
+
+It is above 1,200 years that France has been governed by kings, but they
+were not as absolute at first as they are now.  Indeed, their authority
+was never limited by written laws as are the Kings of England and
+Castile, but only moderated by received customs, deposited, as I may say,
+at first in the hands of the States of the kingdom, and afterwards in
+those of the Parliament.  The registering of treaties with other Crowns
+and the ratifications of edicts for raising money are almost obliterated
+images of that wise medium between the exorbitant power of the Kings and
+the licentiousness of the people instituted by our ancestors.  Wise and
+good Princes found that this medium was such a seasoning to their power
+as made it delightful to their people.  On the other hand, weak and
+vicious Kings always hated it as an obstacle to all their extravagances.
+The history of the Sire de Joinville makes it evident that Saint Louis
+was an admirer of this scheme of government, and the writings of Oresme,
+Bishop of Lisieux, and of the famous Juvenal des Ursins, convince us that
+Charles V., who merited the surname of Wise, never thought his power to
+be superior to the laws and to his duty.  Louis XI., more cunning than
+truly wise, broke his faith upon this head as well as all others.  Louis
+XII.  would have restored this balance of power to its ancient lustre if
+the ambition of Cardinal Amboise,--[George d'Amboise, the first of the
+name, in 1498 Minister to Louis XII., deceased 1510.]--who governed him
+absolutely, had not opposed it.
+
+The insatiable avarice of Constable Montmorency--[Anne de Montmorency,
+Constable of France in 1538, died 1567.]--tended rather to enlarge than
+restrain the authority of Francois I.  The extended views and vast
+designs of M. de Guise would not permit them to think of placing bounds
+to the prerogative under Francois II.  In the reigns of Charles IX.  and
+Henri III.  the Court was so fatigued with civil broils that they took
+everything for rebellion which was not submission.  Henri IV., who was
+not afraid of the laws, because he trusted in himself, showed he had a
+high esteem for them.  The Duc de Rohan used to say that Louis XIII. was
+jealous of his own authority because he was ignorant of its full extent,
+for the Marechal d'Ancrel and M. de Luynes were mere dunces, incapable of
+informing him.  Cardinal de Richelieu, who succeeded them, collected all
+the wicked designs and blunders of the two last centuries to serve his
+grand purpose.  He laid them down as proper maxims for establishing the
+King's authority, and, fortune seconding his designs by the disarming of
+the Protestants in France, by the victories of the Swedes, by the
+weakness of the Empire and of Spain, he established the most scandalous
+and dangerous tyranny that perhaps ever enslaved a State in the best
+constituted monarchy under the sun.
+
+Custom, which has in some countries inured men even to broil as it were
+in the heat of the sun, has made things familiar to us which our
+forefathers dreaded more than fire itself.  We no longer feel the slavery
+which they abhorred more for the interest of their King than for their
+own.  Cardinal de Richelieu counted those things crimes which before him
+were looked upon as virtues.  The Mirons, Harlays, Marillacs, Pibracs,
+and the Fayes, those martyrs of the State who dispelled more factions by
+their wholesome maxims than were raised in France by Spanish or British
+gold, were defenders of the doctrine for which the Cardinal de Richelieu
+confined President Barillon in the prison of Amboise.  And the Cardinal
+began to punish magistrates for advancing those truths which they were
+obliged by their oaths to defend at the hazard of their lives.
+
+Our wise Kings, who understood their true interest, made the Parliament
+the depositary of their ordinances, to the end that they might exempt
+themselves from part of the odium that sometimes attends the execution of
+the most just and necessary decrees.  They thought it no disparagement to
+their royalty to be bound by them,--like unto God, who himself obeys the
+laws he has preordained. ['A good government: where the people obey their
+king and the king obeys the law'--Solon.  D.W.] Ministers of State, who
+are generally so blinded by the splendour of their fortune as never to be
+content with what the laws allow, make it their business to overturn
+them; and Cardinal de Richelieu laboured at it more constantly than any
+other, and with equal application and imprudence.
+
+God only is self-existent and independent; the most rightful monarchs and
+established monarchies in the world cannot possibly be supported but by
+the conjunction of arms and laws,--a union so necessary that the one
+cannot subsist without the other.  Laws without the protection of arms
+sink into contempt, and arms which are not tempered by laws quickly turn
+a State into anarchy.  The Roman commonwealth being set aside by Julius
+Caesar, the supreme power which was devolved upon his successors by force
+of arms subsisted no longer than they were able to maintain the authority
+of the laws; for as soon as the laws lost their force, the power of the
+Roman Emperors vanished, and the very men that were their favourites,
+having got possession of their seals and their arms, converted their
+masters' substance into their own, and, as it were, sucked them dry under
+the shelter of those repealed laws.  The Roman Empire, formerly sold by
+auction to the highest bidder, and the Turkish emperors, whose necks are
+exposed every day to the bowstring, show us in very bloody characters the
+blindness of those men that make authority to consist only in force.
+
+But why need we go abroad for examples when we have so many at home?
+Pepin, in dethroning the Merovingian family, and Capet, in dispossessing
+the Carlovingians, made use of nothing else but the same power which the
+ministers, their predecessors, had acquired under the authority of their
+masters; and it is observable that the mayors of the Palace and the
+counts of Paris placed themselves on the thrones of kings exactly by the
+same methods that gained them their masters' favours,--that is, by
+weakening and changing the laws of the land, which at first always
+pleases weak princes, who fancy it aggrandises their power; but in its
+consequence it gives a power to the great men and motives to the common
+people to rebel against their authority.  Cardinal de Richelieu was
+cunning enough to have all these views, but he sacrificed everything to
+his interest.  He would govern according to his own fancy, which scorned
+to be tied to rules, even in cases where it would have cost him nothing
+to observe them.  And he acted his part so well that, if his successor
+had been a man of his abilities, I doubt not that the title of Prime
+Minister, which he was the first to assume, would have been as odious in
+France in a little time as were those of the Maire du Palais and the
+Comte de Paris.  But by the providence of God, Cardinal Mazarin, who
+succeeded him, was not capable of giving the State any jealousy of his
+usurpation.  As these two ministers contributed chiefly, though in a
+different way, to the civil war, I judge it highly necessary to give you
+the particular character of each, and to draw a parallel between them.
+Cardinal de Richelieu was well descended; his merit sparkled even in his
+youth.  He was taken notice of at the Sorbonne, and it was very soon
+observed that he had a strong genius and a lively fancy.  He was commonly
+happy in the choice of his parties.  He was a man of his word, unless
+great interests swayed him to the contrary, and in such a case he was
+very artful to preserve all the appearances of probity.  He was not
+liberal, yet he gave more than he promised, and knew admirably well
+how to season all his favours.  He was more ambitious than was consistent
+with the rules of morality, although it must be owned that, whenever he
+dispensed with them in favour of his extravagant ambition, his great
+merit made it almost excusable.  He neither feared dangers nor yet
+despised them, and prevented more by his sagacity than he surmounted by
+his resolution.  He was a hearty friend, and even wished to be beloved by
+the people; but though he had civility, a good aspect, and all the other
+qualifications to gain that love, yet he still wanted something--I know
+not what to call it--which is absolutely necessary in this case.  By his
+power and royal state he debased and swallowed up the personal majesty of
+the King.  He distinguished more judiciously than any man in the world
+between bad and worse, good and better, which is a great qualification in
+a minister.  He was too apt to be impatient at mere trifles when they had
+relation to things of moment; but those blemishes, owing to his lofty
+spirit, were always accompanied with the necessary talent of knowledge to
+make amends for those imperfections.  He had religion enough for this
+world.  His own good sense, or else his inclination, always led him to
+the practice of virtue if his self-interest did not bias him to evil,
+which, whenever he committed it, he did so knowingly.  He extended his
+concern for the State no further than his own life, though no minister
+ever did more than he to make the world believe he had the same regard
+for the future.  In a word, all his vices were such that they received a
+lustre from his great fortune, because they were such as could have no
+other instruments to work with but great virtues.  You will easily
+conceive that a man who possessed such excellent qualities, and appeared
+to have as many more,--which he had not,--found it no hard task to
+preserve that respect among mankind which freed him from contempt, though
+not from hatred.
+
+Cardinal Mazarin's character was the reverse of the former; his birth was
+mean, and his youth scandalous.  He was thrashed by one Moretto, a
+goldsmith of Rome, as he was going out of the amphitheatre, for having
+played the sharper.  He was a captain in a foot regiment, and Bagni, his
+general, told me that while he was under his command, which was but three
+months, he was only looked upon as a cheat.  By the interest of Cardinal
+Antonio Barberini, he was sent as Nuncio Extraordinary to France, which
+office was not obtained in those days by fair means.  He so tickled
+Chavigni by his loose Italian stories that he was shortly after
+introduced to Cardinal de Richelieu, who made him Cardinal with the same
+view which, it is thought, determined the Emperor Augustus to leave the
+succession of the Empire to Tiberius.  He was still Richelieu's
+obsequious, humble servant, notwithstanding the purple.  The Queen making
+choice of him, for want of another, his pedigree was immediately derived
+from a princely family.  The rays of fortune having dazzled him and
+everybody about him, he rose, and they glorified him for a second
+Richelieu, whom he had the impudence to ape, though he had nothing of
+him; for what his predecessor counted honourable he esteemed scandalous.
+He made a mere jest of religion.  He promised everything without scruple;
+at the same time he intended to perform nothing.  He was neither good-
+natured nor cruel, for he never remembered either good offices or bad
+ones.  He loved himself too well, which is natural to a sordid soul; and
+feared himself too little, the true characteristic of those that have no
+regard for their reputation.  He foresaw an evil well enough, because he
+was usually timid, but never applied a suitable remedy, because he had
+more fear than wisdom.  He had wit, indeed, together with a most
+insinuating address and a gay, courtly behaviour; but a villainous heart
+appeared constantly through all, to such a degree as betrayed him to be a
+fool in adversity and a knave in prosperity.  In short, he was the first
+minister that could be called a complete trickster, for which reason his
+administration, though successful and absolute, never sat well upon him,
+for contempt--the most dangerous disease of any State--crept insensibly
+into the Ministry and easily diffused its poison from the head to the
+members.
+
+You will not wonder, therefore, that there were so many unlucky cross
+rubs in an administration which so soon followed that of Cardinal de
+Richelieu and was so different from it.  It is certain that the
+imprisonment of M. de Beaufort impressed the people with a respect for
+Mazarin, which the lustre of his purple would never have procured from
+private men.  Ondedei (since Bishop of Frejus) told me that the Cardinal
+jested with him upon the levity of the French nation on this point, and
+that at the end of four months the Cardinal had set himself up in his own
+opinion for a Richelieu, and even thought he had greater abilities.  It
+would take up volumes to record all his faults, the least of which were
+very important in one respect which deserves a particular remark.  As he
+trod in the steps of Cardinal de Richelieu, who had completely abolished
+all the ancient maxims of government, he went in a path surrounded with
+precipices, which Richelieu was aware of and took care to avoid.  But
+Cardinal Mazarin made no use of those props by which Richelieu kept his
+footing.  For instance, though Cardinal de Richelieu affected to humble
+whole bodies and societies, yet he studied to oblige individuals, which
+is sufficient to give you an idea of all the rest.  He had indeed some
+unaccountable illusions, which he pushed to the utmost extremity.  The
+most dangerous kind of illusion in State affairs is a sort of lethargy
+that never happens without showing pronounced symptoms.  The abolishing
+of ancient laws, the destruction of that golden medium which was
+established between the Prince and the people, and the setting up a power
+purely and absolutely despotic, were the original causes of those
+political convulsions which shook France in the days of our forefathers.
+
+Cardinal de Richelieu managed the kingdom as mountebanks do their
+patients, with violent remedies which put strength into it; but it was
+only a convulsive strength, which exhausted its vital organs.  Cardinal
+Mazarin, like a very unskilful physician, did not observe that the vital
+organs were decayed, nor had he the skill to support them by the chemical
+preparations of his predecessor; his only remedy was to let blood, which
+he drew so plentifully that the patient fell into a lethargy, and our
+medicaster was yet so stupid as to mistake this lethargy for a real state
+of health.  The provinces, abandoned to the rapine of the
+superintendents, were stifled, as it were, under the pressure of their
+heavy misfortunes, and the efforts they made to shake them off in the
+time of Richelieu added only to their weight and bitterness.  The
+Parliaments, which had so lately groaned under tyranny, were in a manner
+insensible to present miseries by a too fresh and lively remembrance of
+their past troubles.  The grandees, who had for the most part been
+banished from the kingdom, were glad to have returned, and therefore took
+their fill of ease and pleasure.  If our quack had but humoured this
+universal indolence with soporifics, the general drowsiness might have
+continued much longer, but thinking it to be nothing but natural sleep,
+he applied no remedy at all.  The disease gained strength, grew worse and
+worse, the patient awakened, Paris became sensible of her condition; she
+groaned, but nobody minded it, so that she fell into a frenzy, whereupon
+the patient became raving mad.
+
+But now to come to particulars.  Emeri, Superintendent of the Finances,
+and in my opinion the most corrupt man of the age, multiplied edicts as
+fast as he could find names to call them by.  I cannot give you a better
+idea of the man than by repeating what I heard him say in full Council,--
+that faith was for tradesmen only, and that the Masters of Requests who
+urged faith to be observed in the King's affairs deserved to be punished.
+This man, who had in his youth been condemned to be hanged at Lyons,
+absolutely governed Mazarin in all the domestic affairs of the kingdom.
+I mention this, among many other instances which I could produce of the
+same nature, to let you see that a nation does not feel the extremity of
+misery till its governors have lost all shame, because that is the
+instant when the subjects throw off all respect and awake convulsively
+out of their lethargy.
+
+The Swiss seemed, as it were, crushed under the weight of their chains,
+when three of their powerful cantons revolted and formed themselves into
+a league.  The Dutch thought of nothing but an entire subjection to the
+tyrant Duke of Alva, when the Prince of Orange, by the peculiar destiny
+of great geniuses, who see further into the future than all the world
+besides, conceived a plan and restored their liberty.  The reason of all
+this is plain: that which causes a supineness in suffering States is the
+duration of the evil, which inclines the sufferers to believe it will
+never have an end; as soon as they have hopes of getting out of it, which
+never fails when the evil has arrived at a certain pitch, they are so
+surprised, so glad, and so transported, that they run all of a sudden
+into the other extreme, and are so far from thinking revolutions
+impossible that they suppose them easy, and such a disposition alone is
+sometimes able to bring them about; witness the late revolution in
+France.  Who could have imagined, three months before the critical period
+of our disorders, that such a revolution could have happened in a kingdom
+where all the branches of the royal family were strictly united, where
+the Court was a slave to the Prime Minister, where the capital city and
+all the provinces were in subjection to him, where the armies were
+victorious, and where the corporations and societies seemed to have no
+power?--whoever, I say, had said this would have been thought a madman,
+not only in the judgment of the vulgar, but in the opinion of a D'Estrees
+or a Senneterre.
+
+In August, 1647, there was a mighty clamour against the tariff edict
+imposing a general tax upon all provisions that came into Paris, which
+the people were resolved to bear no longer.  But the gentlemen of the
+Council being determined to support it, the Queen consulted the members
+deputed from Parliament, when Cardinal Mazarin, a mere ignoramus in these
+affairs, said he wondered that so considerable a body as they were should
+mind such trifles,--an expression truly worthy of Mazarin.  However, the
+Council at length imagining the Parliament would do it, thought fit to
+suppress the tariff themselves by a declaration, in order to save the
+King's credit.  Nevertheless, a few days after, they presented five
+edicts even more oppressive than the tariff, not with any hopes of having
+them received, but to force the Parliament to restore the tariff.  Rather
+than admit the new ones, the Parliament consented to restore the old one,
+but with so many qualifications that the Court, despairing to find their
+account in it, published a decree of the Supreme Council annulling that
+of the Parliament with all its modifications.  But the Chamber of
+Vacations answered it by another, enjoining the decree of Parliament to
+be put in execution.  The Council, seeing they could get no money by this
+method, acquainted the Parliament that, since they would receive no new
+edicts, they could do no less than encourage the execution of such edicts
+as they had formerly ratified; and thereupon they trumped up a
+declaration which had been registered two years before for the
+establishment of the Chamber of Domain, which was a terrible charge upon
+the people, had very pernicious consequences, and which the Parliament
+had passed, either through a surprise or want of better judgment.  The
+people mutinied, went in crowds to the Palace, and used very abusive
+language to the President de Thore, Emeri's son.  The Parliament was
+obliged to pass a decree against the mutineers.
+
+The Court, overjoyed to see the Parliament and the people together by the
+ears, supported the decree by a regiment of French and Swiss Guards.  The
+Parisians were alarmed, and got into the belfries of three churches in
+the street of Saint Denis, where the guards were posted.  The Provost ran
+to acquaint the Court that the city was just taking arms.  Upon which
+they ordered the troops to retire, and pretended they were posted there
+for no other end than to attend the King as he went to the Church of
+Notre Dame; and the better to cover their design, the King went next day
+in great pomp to the said church, and the day after he went to
+Parliament, without giving notice of his coming till very late the night
+before, and carried with him five or six edicts more destructive than the
+former.  The First President spoke very boldly against bringing the King
+into the House after this manner, to surprise the members and infringe
+upon their liberty of voting.  Next day the Masters of Requests, to whom
+one of these edicts, confirmed in the King's presence, had added twelve
+colleagues, met and took a firm resolution not to admit of this new
+creation.  The Queen sent for them, told them they were very pretty
+gentlemen to oppose the King's will, and forbade them to come to Council.
+Instead of being frightened, they were the more provoked, and, going into
+the Great Hall, demanded that they might have leave to enter their
+protest against the edict for creating new members, which was granted.
+
+The Chambers being assembled the same day to examine the edicts which the
+King had caused to be ratified in his presence, the Queen commanded them
+to attend her by their deputies in the Palais Royal, and told them she
+was surprised that they pretended to meddle with what had been
+consecrated by the presence of the King.  These were the very words of
+the Chancellor.  The First President answered that it was the custom of
+Parliament, and showed the necessity of it for preserving the liberty of
+voting.  The Queen seemed to be satisfied; but, finding some days after
+that the Parliament was consulting as to qualifying those edicts, and so
+render them of little or no use, she ordered the King's Council to forbid
+the Parliament meddling with the King's edicts till they had declared
+formally whether they intended to limit the King's authority.  Those
+members that were in the Court interest artfully took advantage of the
+dilemma the Parliament was in to answer the question, and, in order to
+mollify them, tacked a clause to the decrees which specified the
+restrictions, namely, that all should be executed according to the good
+pleasure of the King.  This clause pleased the Queen for a while, but
+when she perceived that it did not prevent the rejecting of almost any
+other edict by the common suffrage of the Parliament, she flew into a
+passion, and told them plainly that she would have all the edicts,
+without exception, fully executed, without any modifications whatsoever.
+
+Not long after this, the Court of Aids, the Chamber of Accounts, the
+Grand Council, and the Parliament formed a union which was pretended to
+be for the reformation of the State, but was more probably calculated for
+the private interest of the officers, whose salaries were lessened by one
+of the said edicts.  And the Court, being alarmed and utterly perplexed
+by the decree for the said union, endeavoured, as much as in them lay, to
+give it this turn, to make the people have a mean opinion of it.  The
+Queen acquainted the Parliament by some of the King's Council that,
+seeing this union was entered into for the particular interest of the
+companies, and not for the reformation of the State, as they endeavoured
+to persuade her, she had nothing to say to it, as everybody is at liberty
+to represent his case to the King, but never to intermeddle with the
+government of the State.
+
+The Parliament did not relish this ensnaring discourse, and because they
+were exasperated by the Court's apprehending some of the members of the
+Grand Council, they thought of nothing but justifying and supporting
+their decree of union by finding out precedents, which they accordingly
+met with in the registers, and were going to consider how to put it in
+execution when one of the Secretaries of State came to the bar of the
+house, and put into the hands of the King's Council a decree of the
+Supreme Council which, in very truculent terms, annulled that of the
+union.  Upon this the Parliament desired a meeting with the deputies of
+the other three bodies, at which the Court was enraged, and had recourse
+to the mean expedient of getting the very original decree of union out of
+the hands of the chief registrar; for that end they sent the Secretary of
+State and a lieutenant of the Guards, who put him into a coach to drive
+him to the office, but the people perceiving it, were up in arms
+immediately, and both the secretary and lieutenant were glad to get off.
+
+After this there was a great division in the Council, and some said the
+Queen was disposed to arrest the Parliament; but none but herself was of
+that opinion, which, indeed, was not likely to be acted upon, considering
+how the people then stood affected.  Therefore a more moderate course was
+taken.  The Chancellor reprimanded the Parliament in the presence of the
+King and Court, and ordered a second decree of Council to be read and
+registered instead of the union decree, forbidding them to assemble under
+pain of being treated as rebels.  They met, nevertheless, in defiance of
+the said decree, and had several days' consultation, upon which the Duc
+d'Orleans, who was very sensible they would never comply, proposed an
+accommodation.  Accordingly Cardinal Mazarin and the Chancellor made some
+proposals, which were rejected with indignation.  The Parliament affected
+to be altogether concerned for the good of the public, and issued a
+decree obliging themselves to continue their session and to make humble
+remonstrances to the King for annulling the decrees of the Council.
+
+The King's Council having obtained audience of the Queen for the
+Parliament, the First President strenuously urged the great necessity of
+inviolably preferring that golden mean between the King and the subject;
+proved that the Parliament had been for many ages in possession of full
+authority to unite and assemble; complained against the annulling of
+their decree of union, and concluded with a very earnest motion for
+suppressing decrees of the Supreme Council made in opposition to theirs.
+The Court, being moved more by the disposition of the people than by the
+remonstrances of the Parliament, complied immediately, and ordered the
+King's Council to acquaint the Parliament that the King would permit the
+act of union to be executed, and that they might assemble and act in
+concert with the other bodies for the good of the State.
+
+You may judge how the Cabinet was mortified, but the vulgar were much
+mistaken in thinking that the weakness of Mazarin upon this occasion gave
+the least blow to the royal authority.  In that conjuncture it was
+impossible for him to act otherwise, for if he had continued inflexible
+on this occasion he would certainly have been reckoned a madman and
+surrounded with barricades.  He only yielded to the torrent, and yet most
+people accused him of weakness.  It is certain this affair brought him
+into great contempt, and though he endeavoured to appease the people by
+the banishment of Emeri, yet the Parliament, perceiving what ascendancy
+they had over the Court, left no stone unturned to demolish the power of
+this overgrown favourite.
+
+The Cardinal, made desperate by the failure of his stratagems to create
+jealousy among the four bodies, and alarmed at a proposition which they
+were going to make for cancelling all the loans made to the King upon
+excessive interest,--the Cardinal, I say, being quite mad with rage and
+grief at these disappointments, and set on by courtiers who had most of
+their stocks in these loans, made the King go on horseback to the
+Parliament House in great pomp, and carry a wheedling declaration with
+him, which contained some articles very advantageous to the public, and a
+great many others very ambiguous.  But the people were so jealous of the
+Court that he went without the usual acclamations.  The declaration was
+soon after censured by the Parliament and the other bodies, though the
+Duc d'Orleans exhorted and prayed that they would not meddle with it, and
+threatened them if they did.
+
+The Parliament also passed a decree declaring that no money should be
+raised without verified declarations, which so provoked the Court that
+they resolved to proceed to extremities, and to make use of the signal
+victory which was obtained at Lens on the 24th of August, 1648, to dazzle
+the eyes of the people and gain their consent to oppressing the
+Parliament.
+
+All the humours of the State were so disturbed by the great troubles at
+Paris, the fountainhead, that I foresaw a fever would be the certain
+consequence, because the physician had not the skill to prevent it.  As I
+owed the coadjutorship of the archbishopric to the Queen, I thought it my
+duty in every circumstance to sacrifice my resentment, and even the
+probability of glory, to gratitude; and notwithstanding all the
+solicitations of Montresor and Laigues, I made a firm resolution to stick
+close to my own business and not to engage in anything that was either
+said or done against the Court at that time.  Montresor had been brought
+up from his youth in the faction of the Duc d'Orleans, and, having more
+wit than courage, was so much the more dangerous an adviser in great
+affairs; men of this cast only suggest measures and leave them to be
+executed by others.  Laigues, on the other hand, who was entirely
+governed by Montresor, had not much brains, but was all bravery and
+feared nothing; men of this character dare do anything they are set upon
+by those who confide in them.
+
+Finding that my innocence and integrity gained me no friends at Court,
+and that I had nothing to expect from the Minister, who mortally hated
+me, I resolved to be upon my guard, by acting in respect to the Court
+with as much freedom as zeal and sincerity; and in respect to the city,
+by carefully preserving my friends, and doing everything necessary to
+get, or, rather, to keep, the love of the people.  To maintain my
+interest in the city, I laid out 36,000 crowns in alms and other
+bounties, from the 26th of March to the 25th of August, 1648; and to
+please the Court I told the Queen and Cardinal how the Parisians then
+stood affected, which they never knew before, through flattery and
+prejudice.  I also complained to the Queen of the Cardinal's cunning and
+dissimulation, and made use of the same intimations which I had given to
+the Court to show the Parliament that I had done all in my power to
+clearly inform the Ministry of everything and to disperse the clouds
+always cast over their understandings by the interest of inferior
+officers and the flattery of courtiers.  This made the Cardinal break
+with me and thwart me openly at every opportunity, insomuch that when I
+was telling the Queen in his presence that the people in general were so
+soured that nothing but lenitives could abate their rancour, he answered
+me with the Italian fable of the wolf who swore to a flock of sheep that
+he would protect them against all his comrades provided one of them would
+come every morning and lick a wound he had received from a dog.  He
+entertained me with the like witticisms three or four months together,
+of which this was one of the most favourable, whereupon I made these
+reflections that it was more unbecoming a Minister of State to say silly
+things than to do them, and that any advice given him was criminal.
+
+The Cardinal pretended that the success of the King's arms at Lens had so
+mortified the Court that the Parliament and the other bodies, who
+expected they would take a sharp revenge on them for their late conduct,
+would have the great satisfaction of being disappointed.  I own I was
+fool enough to believe him, and was perfectly transported at the thought;
+but with what sincerity the Cardinal spoke will appear by and by.
+
+On the 26th of August, 1648, the worthy Broussel, councillor of the Grand
+Chamber, and Rene Potier, Sieur de Blancmenil, President of the Inquests,
+were both arrested by the Queen's officers.  It is impossible to express
+the sudden consternation of all men, women, and children in Paris at this
+proceeding.  The people stared at one another for awhile without saying a
+word.  But this profound silence was suddenly attended with a confused
+noise of running, crying, and shutting up of shops, upon which I thought
+it my duty to go and wait upon the Queen, though I was sorely vexed to
+see how my credulity had been abused but the night before at Court, when
+I was desired to tell all my friends in Parliament that the victory of
+Lens had only disposed the Court more and more to leniency and
+moderation.  When I came to the New Market, on my way to Court, I was
+surrounded with swarms of people making a frightful outcry, and had great
+difficulty in getting through the crowd till I had told them the Queen
+would certainly do them justice.  The very boys hissed the soldiers of
+the Guard and pelted them with stones.  Their commander, the Marechal de
+La Meilleraye, perceiving the clouds began to thicken on all sides, was
+overjoyed to see me, and would go with me to Court and tell the whole
+truth of the matter to the Queen.  The people followed us in vast
+numbers, calling out, "Broussel, Broussel!"
+
+The Queen, whom we found in her Cabinet Council with Mazarin and others,
+received me neither well nor ill, was too proud and too much out of
+temper to confess any shame for what she had told me the night before,
+and the Cardinal had not modesty enough to blush.  Nevertheless he seemed
+very much confused, and gave some obscure hints by which I could perceive
+he would have me to believe that there were very sudden and extraordinary
+reasons which had obliged the Queen to take such measures.  I simulated
+approval of what he said, but all the answer I returned was that I had
+come thither, as in duty bound, to receive the Queen's orders and to
+contribute all in my power to restore the public peace and tranquillity.
+The Queen gave a gracious nod, but I understood afterwards that she put a
+sinister interpretation upon my last speech, which was nevertheless very
+inoffensive and perfectly consonant to my character as Coadjutor of
+Paris; but it is a true saying that in the Courts of princes a capacity
+of doing good is as dangerous and almost as criminal as a will to do
+mischief.
+
+The Marechal de La Meilleraye, finding that the Abbe de la Riviere and
+others made mere jest and banter of the insurrection, fell into a great
+passion, spoke very sharply, and appealed to me.  I freely gave my
+testimony, confirmed his account of the insurrection, and seconded him in
+his reflections upon the future consequences.  We had no other return
+from the Cardinal than a malicious sneer, but the Queen lifted up her
+shrill voice to the highest note of indignation, and expressed herself to
+this effect: "It is a sign of disaffection to imagine that the people are
+capable of revolting.  These are ridiculous stories that come from
+persons who talk as they would have it; the King's authority will set
+matters right."
+
+The Cardinal, perceiving that I was a little nettled, endeavoured to
+soothe me by this address to the Queen: "Would to God, madame, that all
+men did but talk with the same sincerity as the Coadjutor of Paris.  He
+is greatly concerned for his flock, for the city, and for your Majesty's
+authority, and though I am persuaded that the danger is not so great as
+he imagines, yet his scruples in this case are to be commended in him as
+laudable and religious."  The Queen understood the meaning of this cant,
+recovered herself all of a sudden, and spoke to me very civilly; to which
+I answered with profound respect and so innocent a countenance that La
+Riviere said, whispering to Beautru, "See what it is not to be always at
+Court!  The Coadjutor knows the world and is a man of sense, yet takes
+all the Queen has said to be in earnest."
+
+The truth is, the Cabinet seemed to consist of persons acting the several
+parts of a comedy.  I played the innocent, but was not so, at least in
+that affair.  The Cardinal acted the part of one who thought himself
+secure, but was much less confident than he appeared.  The Queen affected
+to be good-humoured, and yet was never more ill-tempered.  M. de
+Longueville put on the marks of sorrow and sadness while his heart leaped
+for joy, for no man living took a greater pleasure than he to promote all
+broils.  The Duc d'Orleans personated hurry and, passion in speaking to
+the Queen, yet would whistle half an hour together with the utmost
+indolence.  The Marechal de Villeroy put on gaiety, the better to make
+his court to the Prime Minister, though he privately owned to me, with
+tears in his eyes, that he saw the State was upon the brink of ruin.
+Beautru and Nogent acted the part of buffoons, and to please the Queen,
+personated old Broussel's nurse (for he was eighty years of age),
+stirring up the people to sedition, though both of them knew well enough
+that their farce might perhaps soon end in a real tragedy.
+
+The Abby de la Riviere was the only man who pretended to be fully
+persuaded that the insurrection of the people was but vapour, and he
+maintained it to the Queen, who was willing to believe him, though she
+had been satisfied to the contrary; and the conduct of the Queen, who had
+the courage of a heroine, and the temper of La Riviere, who was the most
+notorious poltroon of his time, furnished me with this remark: That a
+blind rashness and an extravagant fear produce the same effects while the
+danger is unknown.
+
+The Marechal de La Meilleraye assumed the style and bravado of a captain
+when a lieutenant-colonel of the Guards suddenly came to tell the Queen
+that the citizens threatened to force the Guards, and, being naturally
+hasty and choleric, was transported even with fury and madness.  He cried
+out that he would perish rather than suffer such insolence, and asked
+leave to take the Guards, the officers of the Household, and even all the
+courtiers he could find in the antechambers, with whom he would engage to
+rout the whole mob.  The Queen was greatly in favour of it, but nobody
+else, and events proved that it was well they did not come into it.  At
+the same time entered the Chancellor, a man who had never spoken a word
+of truth in his whole life; but now, his complaisance yielding to his
+fear, he spoke directly according to what he had seen in the streets.
+I observed that the Cardinal was startled at the boldness of a man in
+whom he had never seen anything like it before.  But Senneterre, coming
+in just after him, removed all their apprehensions in a trice by assuring
+them that the fury of the people began to cool, that they did not take
+arms, and that with a little patience all would be well again.
+
+There is nothing so dangerous as flattery at a juncture where he that is
+flattered is in fear, because the desire he has not to be terrified
+inclines him to believe anything that hinders him from applying any
+remedy to what he is afraid of.  The news that was brought every moment
+made them trifle away that time which should have been employed for the
+preservation of the State.  Old Guitaut, a man of no great sense, but
+heartily well affected, was more impatient than all the rest, and said
+that he did not conceive how it was possible for people to be asleep in
+the present state of affairs; he muttered something more which I could
+not well hear, but it seemed to bear very hard upon the Cardinal, who
+owed him no goodwill.
+
+The Cardinal answered, "Well, M. Guitaut, what would you have us do?"
+
+Guitaut said, very bluntly, "Let the old rogue Broussel be restored to
+the people, either dead or alive."
+
+I said that to restore him dead was inconsistent with the Queen's piety
+and prudence, but to restore him alive would probably put a stop to the
+tumult.
+
+At these words the Queen reddened, and cried aloud, "I understand you,
+M. le Coadjutor.  You would have me set Broussel at liberty; but I will
+strangle him sooner with these hands,"--throwing her head as it were into
+my face at the last word, "and those who--"
+
+The Cardinal, believing that she was going to say all to me that rage
+could inspire, advanced and whispered in her ear, upon which she became
+composed to such a degree that, had I not known her too well, I should
+have thought her at her ease.  The lieutenant de police came that instant
+into the Cabinet with a deadly pale aspect.  I never saw fear so well and
+ridiculously represented in any Italian comedy as the fright which he
+appeared in before the Queen.  How admirable is the sympathy of fearful
+souls!  Neither the Cardinal nor the Queen were much moved at what M. de
+La Meilleraye had strongly urged on them, but the fears of the lieutenant
+seized them like an infection, so that they were all on a sudden
+metamorphosed.  They ridiculed me no longer, and suffered it to be
+debated whether or no it was expedient to restore Broussel to the people
+before they took arms, as they had threatened to do.  Here I reflected
+that it is more natural to the passion of fear to consult than to
+determine.
+
+The Cardinal proposed that I, as the fittest person, should go and assure
+the people that the Queen would consent to the restoration of Broussel,
+provided they would disperse.  I saw the snare, but could not get away
+from it, the rather because Meilleraye dragged me, as it were, to go
+along with him,--telling her Majesty that he would dare to appear in the
+streets in my company, and that he did not question but we should do
+wonders.  I said that I did not doubt it either, provided the Queen would
+order a promise to be drawn in due form for restoring the prisoners,
+because I had not credit enough with the people to be believed upon my
+bare word.  They praised my modesty, Meilleraye was assured of success,
+and they said the Queen's word was better than all writings whatsoever.
+In a word, I was made the catspaw, and found myself under the necessity
+of acting the most ridiculous part that perhaps ever fell to any man's
+share.  I endeavoured to reply; but the Duc d'Orleans pushed me out
+gently with both hands, saying, "Go and restore peace to the State;" and
+the Marshal hurried me away, the Life-guards carrying me along in their
+arms, and telling me that none but myself could remedy this evil.  I went
+out in my rochet and camail, dealing out benedictions to the people on my
+right and left, preaching obedience, exerting all my endeavours to
+appease the tumult, and telling them the Queen had assured me that,
+provided they would disperse, she would restore Broussel.
+
+The violence of the Marshal hardly gave me time to express myself, for he
+instantly put himself at the head of the Horse-guards, and, advancing
+sword in hand, cried aloud, "God bless the King, and liberty to
+Broussel!" but being seen more than he was heard, his drawn sword did
+more harm than his proclaiming liberty to Broussel did good.  The people
+took to their arms and had an encounter with the Marshal, upon which I
+threw myself into the crowd, and expecting that both sides would have
+some regard to my robes and dignity, the Marshal ordered the Light-horse
+to fire no more, and the citizens with whom he was engaged held their
+hands; but others of them continued firing and throwing stones, by one of
+which I was knocked down, and had no sooner got up than a citizen was
+going to knock me down with a musket.  Though I did not know his name,
+yet I had the presence of mind to cry out, "Forbear, wretch; if thy
+father did but see thee--" He thereupon concluded I knew his father very
+well, though I had never seen him; and I believe that made him the more
+curious to survey me, when, taking particular notice of my robes, he
+asked me if I was the Coadjutor.  Upon which I was presently made known
+to the whole body, followed by the multitude which way soever I went,
+and met with a body of ruffians all in arms, whom, with abundance of
+flattery, caresses, entreaties, and menaces, I prevailed on to lay down
+their weapons; and it was this which saved the city, for had they
+continued in arms till night, the city had certainly been plundered.
+
+I went accompanied by 30,000 or 40,000 men without arms, and met the
+Marechal de La Meilleraye, who I thought would have stifled me with
+embraces, and who said these very words: "I am foolhardy and brutal; I
+had like to have ruined the State, and you have saved it; come, let us go
+to the Queen and talk to her like true, honest Frenchmen; and let us set
+down the day of the month, that when the King comes of age our testimony
+may be the means of hanging up those pests of the State, those infamous
+flatterers, who pretended to the Queen that this affair was but a
+trifle."  To the Queen he presently hurried me, and said to her, "Here is
+a man that has not only saved my life, but your Guards and the whole
+Court."
+
+The Queen gave an odd smile which I did not very well like, but I would
+not seem to take any notice of it, and to stop Meilleraye in his encomium
+upon me, I assumed the discourse myself, and said, "Madame, we are not
+come upon my account, but to tell you that the city of Paris, disarmed
+and submissive, throws herself at your Majesty's feet."
+
+"Not so submissive as guilty," replied the Queen, with a face full of
+fire; "if the people were so raging as I was made to believe, how came
+they to be so soon subdued?"
+
+The Marshal fell into a passion, and said, with an oath, "Madame, an
+honest man cannot flatter you when things are come to such an extremity.
+If you do not set Broussel at liberty this very day, there will not be
+left one stone upon another in Paris by tomorrow morning."
+
+I was going to support what the Marshal had said, but the Queen stopped
+my mouth by telling me, with an air of banter, "Go to rest, sir; you have
+done a mighty piece of work."
+
+When I returned home, I found an incredible number of people expecting
+me, who forced me to get upon the top of my coach to give them an account
+of what success I had had at Court.  I told them that the Queen had
+declared her satisfaction in their submission, and that she told me it
+was the only method they could have taken for the deliverance of the
+prisoners.  I added other persuasives to pacify the commonalty, and they
+dispersed the sooner because it was supper-time; for you must know that
+the people of Paris, even those that are the busiest in all such
+commotions, do not care to lose their meals.
+
+I began to perceive that I had engaged my reputation too far in giving
+the people any grounds to hope for the liberation of Broussel, though I
+had particularly avoided giving them my word of honour, and I apprehended
+that the Court would lay hold of this occasion to destroy me effectually
+in the opinion of the people by making them believe that I acted in
+concert with the Court only, to amuse and deceive them.
+
+While I was making these and the like reflections, Montresor came and
+told me that I was quite mistaken if I thought to be a great gainer by
+the late expedition; that the Queen was not pleased with my proceedings,
+and that the Court was persuaded that I did what lay in my power to
+promote the insurrection.  I confess I gave no credit to what Montresor
+said, for though I saw they made a jest of me in the Queen's Cabinet,
+I hoped that their malice did not go so far as to diminish the merit of
+the service I had rendered, and never imagined that they could be capable
+of turning it into a crime.  Laigues, too, came from Court and told me
+that I was publicly laughed at, and charged with having fomented the
+insurrection instead of appeasing it; that I had been ridiculed two whole
+hours and exposed to the smart raillery of Beautru, to the buffoonery of
+Nogent, to the pleasantries of La Riviere, to the false compassion of the
+Cardinal, and to the loud laughter of the Queen.
+
+You may guess that I was not a little moved at this, but I rather felt a
+slight annoyance than any transport of passion.  All sorts of notions
+came into my mind, and all as suddenly passed away.  I sacrificed with
+little or no scruple all the sweetest and brightest images which the
+memory of past conspiracies presented in crowds to my mind as soon as the
+ill-treatment I now publicly met with gave me reason to think that I
+might with honour engage myself in new ones.  The obligations I had to
+her Majesty made me reject all these thoughts, though I must confess I
+was brought up in them from my infancy, and Laigues and Montresor could
+have never shaken my resolution either by insinuating motives or making
+reproaches, if Argenteuil, a gentleman firmly attached to my interest,
+had not come into my room that moment with a frightened countenance and
+said:
+
+"You are undone; the Marechal de La Meilleraye has charged me to tell you
+that he verily thinks the devil is in the courtiers, who has put it into
+their heads that you have done all in your power to stir up the sedition.
+The Marechal de La Meilleraye has laboured earnestly to inform the Queen
+and Cardinal of the truth of the whole matter, but both have ridiculed
+him for his attempt.  The Marshal said he could not excuse the injury
+they did you, but could not sufficiently admire the contempt they always
+had for the tumult, of which they foretold the consequence as if they had
+the gift of prophecy, always affirming that it would vanish in a night,
+as it really has, for he hardly met a soul in the streets."
+
+He added that fires so quickly extinguished as this were not likely to
+break out again; that he conjured me to provide for my own safety; that
+the King's authority would shine out the next day with all the lustre
+imaginable; that the Court seemed resolved not to let slip this fatal
+conjuncture, and that I was to be made the first public example.
+
+Argenteuil said: "Villeroy did not tell me so much, because he durst not;
+but he so squeezed my hand 'en passant' that I am apt to think he knows a
+great deal more, and I must tell you that they have very good reason for
+their apprehensions, because there is not a soul to be seen in the
+streets, and to-morrow they may take up whom they list."
+
+Montresor, who would be thought to know all things beforehand, said that
+he was assured it would be so and that he had foretold it.  Laigues
+bewailed my conduct, which he said had raised the compassion of all my
+friends, although it had been their ruin.  Upon this I desired to be left
+about a quarter of an hour to myself, during which, reflecting how I had
+been provoked and the public threatened, my scruples vanished; I gave
+rein to all my thoughts, recollected that all the glorious ideas which
+have ever entered my imagination were most concerned with vast designs,
+and suffered my mind to be regaled with the pleasing hopes of being the
+head of a party, a position which I had always admired in Plutarch's
+"Lives."  The inconsistency of my scheme with my character made me
+tremble.  A world of incidents may happen when the virtues in the leader
+of a party may be vices in an archbishop.  I had this view a thousand
+times, and it always gave place to the duty I thought I owed to her
+Majesty, but the remembrance of what had passed at the Queen's table, and
+the resolution there taken to ruin me with the public, having banished
+all scruples, I joyfully determined to abandon my destiny to all the
+impulses of glory.  I said to my friends that the whole Court was witness
+of the harsh treatment I had met with for above a year in the King's
+palace, and I added: "The public is engaged to defend my honour, but the
+public being now about to be sacrificed, I am obliged to defend it
+against oppression.  Our circumstances are not so bad as you imagine,
+gentlemen, and before twelve o'clock to-morrow I shall be master of
+Paris."
+
+My two friends thought I was mad, and began to counsel moderation,
+whereas before they always incited me to action; but I did not give them
+hearing.  I immediately sent for Miron, Accountant-General, one of the
+city colonels, a man of probity and courage, and having great interest
+with the people.  I consulted with him, and he executed his commission
+with so much discretion and bravery that above four hundred considerable
+citizens were posted up and down in platoons with no more noise and stir
+than if so many Carthusian novices had been assembled for contemplation.
+After having given orders for securing certain gates and bars of the
+city, I went to sleep, and was told next morning that no soldiers had
+appeared all night, except a few troopers, who just took a view of the
+platoons of the citizens and then galloped off.  Hence it was inferred
+that our precautions had prevented the execution of the design formed
+against particular persons, but it was believed there was some mischief
+hatching at the Chancellor's against the public, because sergeants were
+running backwards and forwards, and Ondedei went thither four times in
+two hours.
+
+Being informed soon after that the Chancellor was going to the Palace
+with all the pomp of magistracy, and that two companies of Swiss Guards
+approached the suburbs, I gave my orders in two words, which were
+executed in two minutes.  Miron ordered the citizens to take arms, and
+Argenteuil, disguised as a mason, with a rule in his hand, charged the
+Swiss in flank, killed twenty or thirty, dispersed the rest, and took one
+of their colours.  The Chancellor, hemmed in on every side, narrowly
+escaped with his life to the Hotel d'O, which the people broke open,
+rushed in with fury, and, as God would have it, fell immediately to
+plundering, so that they forgot to force open a little chamber where both
+the Chancellor and his brother, the Bishop of Meaux, to whom he was
+confessing, lay concealed.  The news of this occurrence ran like wild-
+fire through the whole city.  Men and women were immediately up in arms,
+and mothers even put daggers into the hands of their children.  In less
+than two hours there were erected above two hundred barricades, adorned
+with all the standards and colours that the League had left entire.  All
+the cry was, "God bless the King!"  sometimes, "God bless the Coadjutor!"
+and the echo was, "No Mazarin!"
+
+The Queen sent her commands to me to use my interest to appease the
+tumult.  I answered the messenger, very coolly, that I had forfeited my
+credit with the people on account of yesterday's transactions, and that I
+did not dare to go abroad.  The messenger had heard the cry of "God bless
+the Coadjutor!"  and would fain have persuaded me that I was the
+favourite of the people, but I strove as much to convince him of the
+contrary.
+
+The Court minions of the two last centuries knew not what they did when
+they reduced that effectual regard which kings ought to have for their
+subjects into mere style and form; for there are, as you see, certain
+conjunctures in which, by a necessary consequence, subjects make a mere
+form also of the real obedience which they owe to their sovereigns.
+
+The Parliament hearing the cries of the people for Broussel, after having
+ordered a decree against Cominges, lieutenant of the Queen's Guards, who
+had arrested him, made it death for all who took the like commissions for
+the future, and decreed that an information should be drawn up against
+those who had given that advice, as disturbers of the public peace.  Then
+the Parliament went in a body, in their robes, to the Queen, with the
+First President at their head, and amid the acclamations of the people,
+who opened all their barricades to let them pass.  The First President
+represented to the Queen, with becoming freedom, that the royal word had
+been prostituted a thousand times over by scandalous and even childish
+evasions, defeating resolutions most useful and necessary for the State.
+He strongly exaggerated the mighty danger of the State from the city
+being all in arms; but the Queen, who feared nothing because she knew
+little, flew into a passion and raved like a fury, saying, "I know too
+well that there is an uproar in the city, but you Parliamentarians,
+together with your wives and children, shall be answerable for it all;"
+and with that she retired into another chamber and shut the door after
+her with violence.  The members, who numbered about one hundred and
+sixty, were going down-stairs; but the First President persuaded them to
+go up and try the Queen once more, and meeting with the Duc d'Orleans,
+he, with a great deal of persuasion, introduced twenty of them into the
+presence-chamber, where the First President made another effort with the
+Queen, by setting forth the terrors of the enraged metropolis up in arms,
+but she would hear nothing, and went into the little gallery.
+
+Upon this the Cardinal advanced and proposed to surrender the prisoner,
+provided the Parliament would promise to hold no more assemblies.  They
+were going to consider this proposal upon the spot, but, thinking that
+the people would be inclined to believe that the Parliament had been
+forced if they gave their votes at the Palais Royal, they resolved to
+adjourn to their own House.
+
+The Parliament, returning and saying nothing about the liberation of
+Broussel, were received by the people with angry murmurs instead of with
+loud acclamations.  They appeased those at the first two barricades by
+telling them that the Queen had promised them satisfaction; but those at
+the third barricade would not be paid in that coin, for a journeyman
+cook, advancing with two hundred men, pressed his halberd against the
+First President, saying, "Go back, traitor, and if thou hast a mind to
+save thy life, bring us Broussel, or else Mazarin and the Chancellor as
+hostages."
+
+Upon this five presidents 'au mortier' and about twenty councillors fell
+back into the crowd to make their escape; the First President only, the
+most undaunted man of the age, continued firm and intrepid.  He rallied
+the members as well as he could, maintaining still the authority of a
+magistrate, both in his words and behaviour, and went leisurely back to
+the King's palace, through volleys of abuse, menaces, curses, and
+blasphemies.  He had a kind of eloquence peculiar to himself, knew
+nothing of interjections, was not very exact in his speech, but the force
+of it made amends for that; and being naturally bold, never spoke so well
+as when he was in danger, insomuch that when he returned to the Palace he
+even outdid himself, for it is certain that he moved the hearts of all
+present except the Queen, who continued inflexible.  The Duc d'Orleans
+was going to throw himself at her feet, which four or five Princesses,
+trembling with fear, actually did.  The Cardinal, whom a young councillor
+jestingly advised to go out into the streets and see how the people stood
+affected, did at last join with the bulk of the Court, and with much ado
+the Queen condescended to bid the members go and consult what was fitting
+to be done, agreed to set the prisoners at liberty, restored Broussel to
+the people, who carried him upon their heads with loud acclamations,
+broke down their barricades, opened their shops, and in two hours Paris
+was more quiet than ever I saw it upon a Good Friday.
+
+As to the primum mobile of this revolution, it was owing to no other
+cause than a deviation from the laws, which so alters the opinions of the
+people that many times a faction is formed before the change is so much
+as perceived.
+
+This little reflection, with what has been said, may serve to confute
+those who pretend that a faction without a head is never to be feared.
+It grows up sometimes in a night.  The commotion I have been speaking of,
+which was so violent and lasting, did not appear to have any leader for a
+whole year; but at last there rose up in one moment a much greater number
+than was necessary for the party.
+
+The morning after the barricades were removed, the Queen sent for me,
+treated me with all the marks of kindness and confidence, said that if
+she had hearkened to me she would not have experienced the late
+disquietness; that the Cardinal was not to blame for it, but that
+Chavigni had been the sole cause of her misfortunes, to whose pernicious
+counsels she had paid more deference than to the Cardinal.  "But; good
+God!" she suddenly exclaimed, "will you not get that rogue Beautru
+soundly thrashed, who has paid so little respect to your character?  The
+poor Cardinal was very near having it done the other night."  I received
+all this with more respect than credulity.  She commanded me to go to the
+poor Cardinal, to comfort him, and to advise him as to the best means of
+quieting the populace.
+
+I went without any scruple.  He embraced me with a tenderness I am not
+able to express, said there was not an honest man in France but myself,
+and that all the rest were infamous flatterers, who had misled the Queen
+in spite of all his and my good counsels.  He protested that he would do
+nothing for the future without my advice, showed me the foreign
+despatches, and, in short, was so affable, that honest Broussel, who was
+likewise present upon his invitation, for all his harmless simplicity,
+laughed heartily as we were going out, and said that it was all mere
+buffoonery.
+
+There being a report that the King was to be removed by the Court from
+Paris, the Queen assured the 'prevot des marchands' that it was false,
+and yet the very next day carried him to Ruel.  From there I doubted not
+that she designed to surprise the city, which seemed really astonished at
+the King's departure, and I found the hottest members of the Parliament
+in great consternation, and the more so because news arrived at the same
+time that General Erlac--[He was Governor of Brisac, and commanded the
+forces of the Duke of Weimar after the Duke's death]--had passed the
+Somme with 4,000 Germans.  Now, as in general disturbances one piece of
+bad news seldom comes singly, five or six stories of this kind were
+published at the same time, which made me think I should find it as
+difficult a task to raise the spirits of the people as I had before to
+restrain them.  I was never so nonplussed in all my life.  I saw the full
+extent of the danger, and everything looked terrible.  Yet the greatest
+perils have their charms if never so little glory is discovered in the
+prospect of ill-success, while the least dangers have nothing but horror
+when defeat is attended with loss of reputation.
+
+I used all the arguments I could to dissuade the Parliament from making
+the Court desperate, at least till they had thought of some expedients to
+defend themselves from its insults, to which they would inevitably have
+been exposed if the Court had taken time by the forelock, in which,
+perhaps, they were prevented by the unexpected return of the Prince de
+Conti.  I hereupon formed a resolution which gave me a great deal of
+uneasiness, but which was firm, because it was the only resolution I had
+to take.  Extremities are always disagreeable, but are the wisest means
+when absolutely necessary; the best of it is that they admit of no middle
+course, and if peradventure they are good, they are always decisive.
+
+Fortune favoured my design.  The Queen ordered Chavigni to be sent
+prisoner to Havre-de-Grace.  I embraced this opportunity to stir up the
+natural fears of his dear friend Viole, by telling him that he was a
+ruined man for doing what he had done at the instigation of Chavigni;
+that it was plain the King left Paris with a view to attack it, and that
+he saw as well as I how much the people were dejected; that if their
+spirits should be quite sunk they could never be raised; that they must
+be supported; that I would influence the people; and that he should do
+what he could with the Parliament, who, in my opinion, ought not to be
+supine, but to be awakened at a juncture when the King's departure had
+perfectly drowned their senses, adding that a word in season would
+infallibly produce this good effect.
+
+Accordingly Viole struck one of the boldest strokes that has perhaps been
+heard of.  He told the Parliament that it was reported Paris was to be
+besieged; that troops were marching for that end, and the most faithful
+servants of his late Majesty, who, it was suspected, would oppose designs
+so pernicious, would be put in chains; that it was necessary for them to
+address the Queen to bring the King back to Paris; and forasmuch as the
+author of all these mischiefs was well known, he moved further that the
+Duc d'Orleans and the officers of the Crown should be desired to come to
+Parliament to deliberate upon the decree issued in 1617, on account of
+Marechal d'Ancre, forbidding foreigners to intermeddle in the Government.
+We thought ourselves that we had touched too high a key, but a lower note
+would not have awakened or kept awake men whom fear had perfectly
+stupefied.  I have observed that this passion of fear has seldom that
+influence upon individuals that it generally has upon the mass.
+
+Viole's proposition at first startled, then rejoiced, and afterwards
+animated those that heard it.  Blancmenil, who before seemed to have no
+life left in him, had now the courage to point at the Cardinal by name,
+who hitherto had been described only by the designation of Minister; and
+the Parliament cheerfully agreed to remonstrate with the Queen, according
+to Viole's proposition, not forgetting to pray her Majesty to remove the
+troops further from Paris, and not to send for the magistrates to take
+orders for the security of the city.
+
+The President Coigneux whispered to me, saying, "I have no hopes but in
+you; we shall be undone if you do not work underground."  I sat up
+accordingly all night to prepare instructions for Saint-Ibal to treat
+with the Count Fuensaldagne, and oblige him to march with the Spanish
+army, in case of need, to our assistance, and was just going to send him
+away to Brussels when M. de Chatillon, my friend and kinsman, who
+mortally hated the Cardinal, came to tell me that the Prince de Conde
+would be the next day at Ruel; that the Prince was enraged against the
+Cardinal, and was sure he would ruin the State if he were let alone, and
+that the Cardinal held a correspondence in cipher with a fellow in the
+Prince's army whom he had corrupted, to be informed of everything done
+there to his prejudice.  By all this I learnt that the Prince had no
+great understanding with the Court, and upon his arrival at Ruel I
+ventured to go thither.
+
+Both the Queen and the Cardinal were extremely civil, and the latter took
+particular notice of the Prince's behaviour to me, who embraced me 'en
+passant' in the garden, and spoke very low to me, saying that he would be
+at my house next day.  He kept his word, and desired me to give him an
+account of the state of affairs, and when I had done so we agreed that I
+should continue to push the Cardinal by means of the Parliament; that I
+should take his Highness by night incognito to Longueil and Broussel, to
+assure them they should not want assistance; that the Prince de Conde
+should give the Queen all the marks of his respect for and attachment to
+her, and make all possible reparation for the dissatisfaction he had
+shown with regard to the Cardinal, that he might thereby insinuate
+himself into the Queen's favour, and gradually dispose her to receive and
+fallow his counsels and hear truths against which she had always stopped
+her ears, and that by thus letting the Cardinal drop insensibly, rather
+than fall suddenly, the Prince would find himself master of the Cabinet
+with the Queer's approbation, and, with the assistance of his humble
+servants in Council, arbiter of the national welfare.
+
+The Queen, who went away from Paris to give her troops an opportunity to
+starve and attack the city, told the deputies sent by Parliament to
+entreat her to restore the King to Paris that she was extremely surprised
+and astonished; that the King used every year at that season to take the
+air, and that his health was much more to be regarded than the imaginary
+fears of the people.  The Prince de Conde, coming in at this juncture,
+told the President and councillors, who invited him to take his seat in
+Parliament, that he would not come, but obey the Queen though it should
+prove his ruin.  The Duc d'Orleans said that he would not be there
+either, because the Parliament had made such proposals as were too bold
+to be endured, and the Prince de Conti spoke after the same manner.
+
+The next day the King's Council carried an order of Council to Parliament
+to put a stop to their debates against foreigners being in the Ministry.
+This so excited the Parliament that they made a remonstrance in writing,
+instructed the 'prevot des marchands' to provide for the safety of the
+city, ordered all other governors to keep the passages free, and resolved
+next day to continue the debate against foreign ministers.  I laboured
+all night to ward off the fatal blow, which I was afraid would hurry the
+Prince, against his will, into the arms of the Court.  But when next day
+came, the members inflamed one another before they sat, through the
+cursed spirit of formality, and the very men who two days ago were all
+fear and trembling were suddenly transported, they knew not why, from a
+well-grounded fear to a blind rage, so that without reflecting that the
+General had arrived whose very name made them tremble, because they
+suspected him to be in the interest of the Court, they issued the said
+decree, which obliged the Queen to send the Duc d'Anjou,--[Philippe of
+France, only brother to King Louis XIV., afterwards Duc d'Orleans, died
+suddenly at St. Cloud, in 1701.]--but just recovered from the smallpox,
+and the Duchesse d'Orleans, much indisposed, out of town.
+
+This would have begun a civil war next day had not the Prince de Conde
+taken the wisest measures imaginable, though he had a very bad opinion of
+the Cardinal, both upon the public account and his own, and was as little
+pleased with the conduct of the Parliament, with whom there was no
+dealing, either as a body or as private persons.  The Prince kept an even
+pace between the Court and country factions, and he said these words to
+me, which I can never forget:
+
+"Mazarin does not know what he is doing, and will ruin the State if care
+be not taken; the Parliament really goes on too fast, as you said they
+would; if they did but manage according to our scheme, we should be able
+to settle our own business and that of the public, too; they act with
+precipitation, and were I to do so, it is probable I should gain more by
+it than they.  But I am Louis de Bourbon, and will not endanger the
+State.  Are those devils in square caps mad to force me either to begin a
+civil war tomorrow or to ruin every man of them, and set over our heads a
+Sicilian vagabond who will destroy us all at last?"
+
+In fine, the Prince proposed to set out immediately for Ruel to divert
+the Court from their project of attacking Paris, and to propose to the
+Queen that the Duc d'Orleans and himself should write to the Parliament
+to send deputies to confer about means to relieve the necessities of the
+State.  The Prince saw that I was so overcome at this proposal that he
+said to me with tenderness, "How different you are from the man you are
+represented to be at Court!  Would to God that all those rogues in the
+Ministry were but as well inclined as you!"
+
+I told the Prince that, considering how the minds of the Parliament were
+embittered, I doubted whether they would care to confer with the
+Cardinal; that his Highness would gain a considerable point if he could
+prevail with the Court not to insist upon the necessity of the Cardinal's
+presence, because then all the honour of the arrangement, in which the
+Duc d'Orleans, as usual, would only be as a cipher, would redound to him,
+and that such exclusion of the Cardinal would disgrace his Ministry to
+the last degree, and be a very proper preface to the blow which the
+Prince designed to give him in the Cabinet.
+
+The Prince profited by the hint, so that the Parliament returned answer
+that they would send deputies to confer with the Princes only, which last
+words the Prince artfully laid hold of and advised Mazarin not to expose
+himself by coming to the conference against the Parliament's consent, but
+rather, like a wise man, to make a virtue of the present necessity.  This
+was a cruel blow to the Cardinal, who ever since the decease of the late
+King had been recognised as Prime Minister of France; and the
+consequences were equally disastrous.
+
+The deputies being accordingly admitted to a conference with the Duc
+d'Orleans, the Princes de Conde and Conti and M. de Longueville, the
+First President, Viole, who had moved in Parliament that the decree might
+be renewed for excluding foreigners from the Ministry, inveighed against
+the imprisonment of M. de Chavigni; who was no member, yet the President
+insisted upon his being set at liberty, because, according to the laws of
+the realm, no person ought to be detained in custody above twenty-four
+hours without examination.  This occasioned a considerable debate, and
+the Duc d'Orldans, provoked at this expression, said that the President's
+aim was to cramp the royal authority.  Nevertheless the latter vigorously
+maintained his argument, and was unanimously seconded by all the
+deputies, for which they were next day applauded in Parliament.  In
+short, the thing was pushed so far that the Queen was obliged to consent
+to a declaration that for the future no man whatever should be detained
+in prison above three days without being examined.  By this means
+Chavigni was set at liberty.  Several other conferences were held, in
+which the Chancellor treated the First President of the Parliament with a
+sort of contempt that was almost brutal.  Nevertheless the Parliament
+carried all before them.
+
+In October, 1648, the Parliament adjourned, and the Queen soon after
+returned to Paris with the King.
+
+The Cardinal, who aimed at nothing more than to ruin my credit with the
+people, sent me 4,000 crowns as a present from the Queen, for the
+services which she said I intended her on the day of the barricade; and
+who, think you, should be the messenger to bring it but my friend the
+Marechal de La Meilleraye, the man who before warned me of the sinister
+intentions of the Court, and who now was so credulous as to believe that
+I was their favourite, because the Cardinal was pleased to say how much
+he was concerned for the injustice he had done me; which I only mention
+to remark that those people over whom the Court has once got an
+ascendency cannot help believing whatever they would have them believe,
+and the ministers only are to blame if they do not deceive them.  But I
+would not be persuaded by the Marshal as he had been by the Cardinal, and
+therefore I refused the said sum very civilly, and, I am sure, with as
+much sincerity as the Court offered it.
+
+But the Cardinal laid another trap for me that I was not aware of,--by
+tempting me with the proffer of the Government of Paris; and when I had
+shown a willingness to accept it, he found means to break off the treaty
+I was making for that purpose with the Prince de Guemende, who had the
+reversion of it, and then represented me to the people as one who only
+sought my own interest.  Instead of profiting by this blunder, which I
+might have done to my own advantage, I added another to it, and said all
+that rage could prompt me against the Cardinal to one who told it to him
+again.
+
+To return now to public affairs.  About the feast of Saint Martin the
+people were so excited that they seemed as if they had been all
+intoxicated with gathering in the vintage; and you are now going to be
+entertained with scenes in comparison to which the past are but trifles.
+
+There is no affair but has its critical minute, which a bold
+statesmanship knows how to lay hold of, and which, if missed, especially
+in the revolution of kingdoms, you run the great risk of losing
+altogether.
+
+Every one now found their advantage in the declaration,--that is, if they
+understood their own interest.  The Parliament had the honour of
+reestablishing public order.  The Princes, too, had their share in this
+honour, and the first-fruits of it, which were respect and security.
+The people had a considerable comfort in it, by being eased of a load of
+above sixty millions; and if the Cardinal had had but the sense to make a
+virtue of necessity, which is one of the most necessary qualifications of
+a minister of State, he might, by an advantage always inseparable from
+favourites, have appropriated to himself the greatest part of the merit,
+even of those things he had most opposed.
+
+But these advantages were all lost through the most trivial
+considerations.  The people, upon the discontinuation of the
+Parliamentary assemblies, resumed their savage temper, and were scared by
+the approach of a few troops at which it was ridiculous to take the least
+umbrage.  The Parliament was too apt to give ear to every groundless tale
+of the non-execution of their declarations.  The Duc d'Orleans saw all
+the good he was capable of doing and part of the evil he had power to
+prevent, but neither was strong enough to influence his fearful temper;
+he was unconscious of the coming and fatal blow.  The Prince de Conde,
+who saw the evil to its full extent, was too courageous by nature to fear
+the consequences; he was inclined to do good, but would do it only in his
+own way.  His age, his humour, and his victories hindered him from
+associating patience with activity, nor was he acquainted, unfortunately,
+with this maxim so necessary for princes,--"always to sacrifice the
+little affairs to the greater;" and the Cardinal, being ignorant of our
+ways, daily confounded the most weighty with the most trifling.
+
+The Parliament, who met on the 2d of January, 1649, resolved to enforce
+the execution of the declaration, which, they pretended, had been
+infringed in all its articles; and the Queen was resolved to retire from
+Paris with the King and the whole Court.  The Queen was guided by the
+Cardinal, and the Duc d'Orleans by La Riviere, the most sordid and self-
+interested man of the age in which he lived.  As for the Prince de Conde,
+he began to be disgusted with the unseasonable proceedings of the
+Parliament almost as soon as he had concerted measures with Broussel and
+Longueil, which distaste, joined to the kindly attentions of the Queen,
+the apparent submission of the Cardinal, and an hereditary inclination
+received from his parents to keep well with the Court, cramped the
+resolutions of his great soul.  I bewailed this change in his behaviour
+both for my own and the public account, but much more for his sake.  I
+loved him as much as I honoured him, and clearly saw the precipice.
+
+I had divers conferences with him, in which I found that his disgust was
+turned into wrath and indignation.  He swore there was no bearing with
+the insolence and impertinence of those citizens who struck at the royal
+authority; that as long as he thought they aimed only at Mazarin he was
+on their side; that I myself had often confessed that no certain measures
+could be concerted with men who changed their opinions every quarter of
+an hour; that he could never condescend to be General of an army of
+fools, with whom no wise man would entrust himself; besides that, he was
+a Prince of the blood, and would not be instrumental in giving a shock to
+the Throne; and that the Parliament might thank themselves if they were
+ruined through not observing the measures agreed on.
+
+This was the substance of my answer: "No men are more bound by interest
+than the Parliament to maintain the royal authority, so that they cannot
+be thought to have a design to ruin the State, though their proceedings
+may have a tendency that way.  It must be owned, therefore, that if the
+sovereign people do evil, it is only when they are not able to act as
+well as they would.  A skilful minister, who knows how to manage large
+bodies of men as well as individuals, keeps up such a due balance between
+the Prince's authority and the people's obedience as to make all things
+succeed and prosper.  But the present Prime Minister has neither judgment
+nor strength to adjust the pendulum of this State clock, the springs of
+which are out of order.  His business is to make it go slower, which, I
+own, he attempts to do, but very awkwardly, because he has not the brains
+for it.  In this lies the fault of our machine.  Your Highness is in the
+right to set about the mending of it, because nobody else is capable of
+doing it; but in order to do this must you join with those that would
+knock it in pieces?
+
+"You are convinced of the Cardinal's extravagances, and that his only
+view is to establish in France a form of government known nowhere but in
+Italy.  If he should succeed, will the State be a gainer by it, according
+to its only true maxims?  Would it be an advantage to the Princes of the
+blood in any sense?  But, besides, has he any likelihood of succeeding?
+Is he not loaded with the odium and contempt of the public?  and is not
+the Parliament the idol they revere?  I know you despise them because the
+Court is so well armed, but let me tell you that they are so confident of
+their power that they feel their importance.  They are come to that pass
+that they do not value your forces, and though the evil is that at
+present their strength consists only in their imagination, yet a time may
+come when they may be able to do whatever they now think it in their
+power to do.
+
+"Your Highness lately told me that this disposition of the people was
+only smoke; but be assured that smoke so dark and thick proceeds from a
+brisk fire, which the Parliament blows, and, though they mean well, may
+blaze up into such a flame as may consume themselves and again hazard the
+destruction of the State, which has been the case more than once.  Bodies
+of men, when once exasperated by a Ministry, always aggravate their
+failures, and scarcely ever show them any favour, which, in some cases,
+is enough to ruin a kingdom.
+
+"If, when the proposition was formerly made to the Parliament by the
+Cardinal to declare whether they intended to set bounds to the royal
+authority, if, I say, they had not wisely eluded the ridiculous and
+dangerous question, France would have run a great risk, in my opinion,
+of being entirely ruined; for had they answered in the affirmative, as
+they were on the point of doing, they would have rent the veil that
+covers the mysteries of State.  Every monarchy has its peculiar veil;
+that of France consists in a kind of religious and sacred silence,
+which, by the subjects generally paying a blind obedience to their Kings,
+muffles up that right which they think they have to dispense with their
+obedience in cases where a complaisance to their Kings would be a
+prejudice to themselves.  It is a wonder that the Parliament did not
+strip off this veil by a formal decree.  This has had much worse
+consequences since the people have taken the liberty to look through it.
+
+"Your Highness cannot by the force of arms prevent these dangerous
+consequences, which, perhaps, are already too near at hand.  You see that
+even the Parliament can hardly restrain the people whom they have roused;
+that the contagion is spread into the provinces, and you know that
+Guienne and Provence are entirely governed by the example of Paris.
+Every thing shakes and totters, and it is your Highness only that can set
+us right, because of the splendour of your birth and reputation, and the
+generally received opinion that none but you can do it.
+
+"The Queen shares with the Cardinal in the common hatred, and the Duc
+d'Orleans with La Riviere in the universal contempt of the people.  If,
+out of mere complaisance, you abet their measures, you will share in the
+hatred of the public.  It is true that you are above their contempt; but
+then their dread of you will be so great that it will grievously embitter
+the hatred they will then bear to you, and the contempt they have already
+for the others, so that what is at present only a serious wound in the
+State will perhaps become incurable and mortal.  I am sensible you have
+grounds to be diffident of the behaviour of a body consisting of above
+two hundred persons, who are neither capable of governing nor being
+governed.  I own the thought is perplexing; but such favourable
+circumstances seem to offer themselves at this juncture that matters are
+much simplified.
+
+"Supposing that manifestoes were published, and your Highness declared
+General of the Parliamentary Army, would you, monseigneur, meet with
+greater difficulties than your grandfather and great-grandfather did, in
+accommodating themselves to the caprice of the ministers of Rochelle and
+the mayors of Nimes and Montauban?  And would your Highness find it a
+greater task to manage the Parliament of Paris than M. de Mayenne did in
+the time of the League, when there was a factious opposition made to all
+the measures of the Parliament?  Your birth and merit raise you as far
+above M. de Mayenne as the cause in hand is above that of the League; and
+the circumstances of both are no less different.  The head of the League
+declared war by an open and public alliance with Spain against the Crown,
+and against one of the best and bravest kings that France ever had.  And
+this head of the League, though descended from a foreign and suspected
+family, kept, notwithstanding, that same Parliament in his interest for a
+considerable time.
+
+"You have consulted but two members of the whole Parliament, and them
+only upon their promise to disclose your intentions to no man living.
+How then can your Highness think it possible that your sentiments, locked
+up so closely in the breasts of two members, can have any influence upon
+the whole body of the Parliament?  I dare answer for it, monseigneur,
+that if you will but declare yourself openly the protector of the public
+and of the sovereign companies, you might govern them--at least, for a
+considerable time--with an absolute and almost sovereign authority.
+But this, it seems, is not what you have in view; you are not willing to
+embroil yourself with the Court.  You had rather be of the Cabinet than
+of a party.  Do not take it ill, then, that men who consider you only in
+this light do not conduct themselves as you would like.  You ought to
+conform your measures to theirs, because theirs are moderate; and you may
+safely do it, for the Cardinal can hardly stand under the heavy weight of
+the public hatred, and is too weak to oblige you against your will to any
+sudden and precipitate rupture.  La Riviere, who governs the Duc
+d'Orleans, is a most dangerous man.  Continue, then, to introduce
+moderate measures, and let them take their course, according to your
+first plan.  Is a little more or less heat in Parliamentary proceedings
+sufficient reason to make you alter it?  For whatever be the consequence,
+the worst that can happen is that the Queen may believe you not zealous
+enough for her interest; but are there not remedies enough for that?  Are
+there not excuses and appearances ready at hand, and such as cannot fail?
+
+"And now, I pray your Highness to give me leave to add that there never
+was so excellent, so innocent, so sacred, and so necessary a project as
+this formed by your Highness, and, in my humble opinion, there never were
+such weak reasons as those you have now urged to hinder its execution;
+for I take this to be the weakest of all, which, perhaps, you think a
+very strong one, namely, that if Mazarin miscarries in his designs you
+may be ruined along with him; and if he does succeed he will destroy you
+by the very means which you took to raise him."
+
+It had not the intended effect on the Prince, who was already
+prepossessed, and who only answered me in general terms.  But heroes have
+their faults as well as other men, and so had his Highness, who had one
+of the finest geniuses in the world, but little or no forethought.  He
+did not seek to aggravate matters in order to render himself necessary at
+Court, or with a view to do what he afterwards did for the Cardinal, nor
+was he biassed by the mean interests of pension, government, and
+establishment.  He had most certainly great hopes of being arbiter of the
+Cabinet.  The glory of being restorer of the public peace was his first
+end in view, and being the conservator of the royal authority the second.
+Those who labour under such an imperfection, though they see clearly the
+advantages and disadvantages of both parties, know not which to choose,
+because they do not weigh them in the same balance, so that the same
+thing appears lightest today which they will think heaviest to-morrow.
+This was the case of the Prince, who, it must be owned, if he had carried
+on his good design with prudence, certainly would have reestablished the
+Government upon a lasting foundation.
+
+He told me more than once, in an angry mood, that if the Parliament went
+on at the old rate he would teach them that it would be no great task to
+reduce them to reason.  I perceived by his talk that the Court had
+resumed the design of besieging Paris; and to be the more satisfied of it
+I told him that the Cardinal might easily be disappointed in his
+measures, and that he would find Paris to be a very tough morsel.
+
+"It shall not be taken," he said, "like Dunkirk, by mines and storming;
+but suppose its bread from Gonesse should be cut off for eight days
+only?"
+
+I took this statement then for granted, and replied that the stopping of
+that passage would be attended with difficulties.
+
+"What difficulties?" asked the Prince, very briskly.  "The citizens?
+Will they come out to give battle?"
+
+"If it were only citizens, monseigneur," I said, "the battle would not be
+very sharp."
+
+"Who will be with them?" he replied; "will you be there yourself?"
+
+"That would be a very bad omen," I said; "it would look too much like the
+proceedings of the League."
+
+After a little pause, he said, "But now, to be serious, would you be so
+foolish as to embark with those men?"
+
+"You know, monseigneur," I said, "that I am engaged already; and that,
+moreover, as Coadjutor of Paris, I am concerned both by honour and
+interest in its preservation.  I shall be your Highness's humble servant
+as long as I live, except in this one point."
+
+I saw he was touched to the quick, but he kept his temper, and said these
+very words: "When you engage in a bad cause I will pity you, but shall
+have no reason to complain of you.  Nor do you complain of me; but do me
+that justice you owe me, namely, to own that all I promised to Longueil
+and Broussel is since annulled by the conduct of the Parliament."
+
+He afterwards showed me many personal favours, and offered to make my
+peace with the Court.  I assured him of my obedience and zeal for his
+service in everything that did not interfere with the engagements I had
+entered into, which, as he himself owned, I could not possibly avoid.
+
+After we parted I paid a visit to Madame de Longueville, who seemed
+enraged both against the Court and the Prince de Conde.  I was pleased to
+think, moreover, that she could do what she would with the Prince de
+Conti, who was little better than a child; but then I considered that
+this child was a Prince of the blood, and it was only a name we wanted to
+give life to that which, without one, was a mere embryo.  I could answer
+for M. de Longueville, who loved to be the first man in any public
+revolution, and I was as well assured of Marechal de La Mothe,--[Philippe
+de La Mothe-Houdancourt, deceased 1657.]--who was madly opposed to the
+Court, and had been inviolably attached to M. de Longueville for twenty
+years together.  I saw that the Duc de Bouillon, through the injustice
+done him by the Court and the unfortunate state of his domestic affairs,
+was very much annoyed and almost desperate.  I had an eye upon all these
+gentlemen at a distance, but thought neither of them fit to open the
+drama.  M. de Longueville was only fit for the second act; the Marechal
+de La Mothe was a good soldier, but had no headpiece, and was therefore
+not qualified for the first act.  M. de Bouillon was my man, had not his
+honesty been more problematic than his talents.  You will not wonder that
+I was so wavering in my choice, and that I fixed at last upon the Prince
+de Conti, of the blood of France.
+
+As soon as I gave Madame de Longueville a hint of what part she was to
+act in the intended revolution, she was perfectly transported, and I took
+care to make M. de Longueville as great a malcontent as herself.  She had
+wit and beauty, though smallpox had taken away the bloom of her pretty
+face, in which there sat charms so powerful that they rendered her one of
+the most amiable persons in France.  I could have placed her in my heart
+between Mesdames de Gudmenee and Pommereux, and it was not the despair of
+succeeding that palled my passion, but the consideration that the
+benefice was not yet vacant, though not well served,--M. de La
+Rochefoucault was in possession, yet absent in Poitou.  I sent her three
+or four billets-doux every day, and received as many.  I went very often
+to her levee to be more at liberty to talk of affairs, got extraordinary
+advantages by it, and I knew that it was the only way to be sure of the
+Prince de Conti.
+
+Having settled a regular correspondence with Madame de Longueville, she
+made me better acquainted with M. de La Rochefoucault, who made the
+Prince de Conti believe that he spoke a good word for him to the lady,
+his sister, with whom he was in, love.  And the two so blinded the Prince
+that he did not suspect anything till four years after.
+
+When I saw that the Court would act upon their own initiative, I resolved
+to declare war against them and attack Mazarin in person, because
+otherwise we could not escape being first attacked by him.
+
+It is certain that he gave his enemies such an advantage over him as no
+other Prime Minister ever did.  Power commonly keeps above ridicule, but
+everybody laughed at the Cardinal because of his silly sayings and
+doings, which those in his position are seldom guilty of.  It was said
+that he had lately asked Bougeval, deputy of the Grand Council, whether
+he did not think himself obliged to have no buttons to the collar of his
+doublet, if the King should command it,--a grave argument to convince the
+deputies of an important company of the obedience due to kings, for which
+he was severely lampooned both in prose and verse.
+
+The Court having attempted to legalise excessive usury,--I mean with
+respect to the affair of loans,--my dignity would not permit me to
+tolerate so public and scandalous an evil.  Therefore I held an assembly
+of the clergy, where, without so much as mentioning the Cardinal's name
+in the conferences, in which I rather affected to spare him, yet in a
+week's time I made him pass for one of the most obstinate Jews in Europe.
+
+At this very time I was sent for, by a civil letter under the Queen's own
+hand, to repair to Saint Germain, the messenger telling me the King was
+just gone thither and that the army was commanded to advance.  I made him
+believe I would obey the summons, but I did not intend to do so.
+
+I was pestered for five hours with a parcel of idle rumours of ruin and
+destruction, which rather diverted than alarmed me, for though the Prince
+de Conde, distrusting his brother the Prince de Conti, had surprised him
+in bed and carried him off with him to Saint Germain, yet I did not
+question but that, as long as Madame de Longueville stayed in Paris, we
+should see him again, the rather because his brother neither feared nor
+valued him sufficiently to put him under arrest, and I was assured that
+M. de Longueville would be in Paris that evening by having received a
+letter from himself.
+
+The King was no sooner gone than the Parliament met, frightened out of
+their senses, and I know not what they could have done if we had not
+found a way to change their fears into a resolution to make a bold stand.
+I have observed a thousand times that there are some kinds of fear only
+to be removed by higher degrees of terror.  I caused it to be signified
+to the Parliament that there was in the Hotel de Ville a letter from his
+Majesty to the magistrates, containing the reasons that had obliged him
+to leave his good city of Paris, which were in effect that some of the
+officers of the House held a correspondence with the enemies of the
+Government, and had conspired to seize his person.
+
+The Parliament, considering this letter and that the President le Feron,
+'prevot des marchands', was a creature of the Court, ordered the citizens
+to arms, the gates to be secured, and the 'prevot des marchands' and the
+'lieutenant de police' to keep open the necessary passages for
+provisions.
+
+Having thought it good policy that the first public step of resistance
+should be taken by the Parliament to justify the disobedience of private
+persons, I then invented this stratagem to render me the more excusable
+to the Queen for not going to Saint Germain.  Having taken leave of all
+friends and rejected all their entreaties for my stay in Paris, I took
+coach as if I were driving to Court, but, by good luck, met with an
+eminent timber-merchant, a very good friend of mine, at the end of Notre-
+Dame Street, who was very much out of humour, set upon my postilion, and
+threatened my coachman.  The people came and overturned my coach, and the
+women, shrieking, carried me back to my own house.
+
+I wrote to the Queen and Prince, signifying how sorry I was that I had
+met with such a stoppage; but the Queen treated the messenger with scorn
+and contempt.  The Prince, at the same time that he pitied me, could not
+help showing his anger.  La Riviere attacked me with railleries and
+invectives, and the messenger thought they were sure of putting the rope
+about all our necks on the morrow.
+
+I was not so much alarmed at their menaces as at the news I heard the
+same day that M. de Longueville, returning from Rouen, had turned off to
+Saint Germain.  Marechal de La Mothe told me twenty times that he would
+do everything to the letter that M. de Longueville would have him do for
+or against the Court.  M. de Bouillon quarrelled with me for confiding in
+men who acted so contrary to the repeated assurances I had given him of
+their good behaviour.  And besides all this, Madame de Longueville
+protested to me that she had received no news from M. de La
+Rochefoucault, who went soon after the King, with a design to fortify the
+Prince de Conti in his resolution and to bring him back to Paris.  Upon
+this I sent the Marquis de Noirmoutier to Saint Germain to learn what we
+had to trust to.
+
+On the 7th of January, 1649, an order was sent from the King to the
+Parliament to remove to Montargis, to the Chamber of Accounts to adjourn
+to Orleans and to the Grand Council to retire to Mantes.  A packet was
+also sent to the Parliament, which they would not open, because they
+guessed at the contents and were resolved beforehand not to obey.
+Therefore they returned it sealed up as it came, and agreed to send
+assurances of their obedience to the Queen, and to beg she would give
+them leave to clear themselves from the aspersion thrown upon them in the
+letter above mentioned sent to the chief magistrate of the city.  And to
+support the dignity of Parliament it was further resolved that her
+Majesty should be petitioned in a most humble manner to name the
+calumniators, that they might be proceeded against according to law.  At
+the same time Broussel, Viole, Amelot, and seven others moved that it
+might be demanded in form that Cardinal Mazarin should be removed; but
+they were not supported by anybody else, so that they were treated as
+enthusiasts.  Although this was a juncture in which it was more necessary
+than ever to act with vigour, yet I do not remember the time when I have
+beheld so much faintheartedness.
+
+The Chamber of Accounts immediately set about making remonstrances; but
+the Grand Council would have obeyed the King's orders, only the city
+refused them passports.  I think this was one of the most gloomy days I
+had as yet seen.  I found the Parliament had almost lost all their
+spirit, and that I should be obliged to bow my neck under the most
+shameful and dangerous yoke of slavery, or be reduced to the dire
+necessity of setting up for tribune of the people, which is the most
+uncertain and meanest of all posts when it is not vested with sufficient
+power.
+
+The weakness of the Prince de Conti, who was led like a child by his
+brother, the cowardice of M. de Longueville, who had been to offer his
+service to the Queen, and the declaration of MM. de Bouillon and de La
+Mothe had mightily disfigured my tribuneship.  But the folly of Mazarin
+raised its reputation, for he made the Queen refuse audience to the
+King's Council, who returned that night to Paris, fully convinced that
+the Court was resolved to push things to extremity.
+
+I was informed from Saint Germain that the Prince had assured the Queen
+he would take Paris in a fortnight, and they hoped that the
+discontinuance of two markets only would starve the city into a
+surrender.  I carried this news to my, friends, who began to see that
+there was no possibility, of accommodation.
+
+The Parliament was no sooner acquainted that the King's Council had been
+denied audience than with one voice--Bernai excepted, who was fitter for
+a cook than a councillor--they passed that famous decree of January 8th,
+1649, whereby Cardinal Mazarin was declared an enemy to the King and
+Government, a disturber of the public peace, and all the King's subjects
+were enjoined to attack him without mercy.
+
+In the afternoon there was a general council of the deputies of
+Parliament, of the Chamber of Accounts, of the Court of Aids, the chief
+magistrates of Paris, and the six trading companies, wherein it was
+resolved that the magistrates should issue commissions for raising 4,000
+horse and 10,000 foot.  The same day the Chamber of Accounts, the Court
+of Aids, and the city sent their deputies to the Queen, to beseech her
+Majesty to bring the King back to Paris, but the Court was obdurate.  The
+Prince de Conde flew out against the Parliament in the Queen's presence;
+and her Majesty told them all that neither the King nor herself would
+ever come again within the walls of the city till the Parliament was gone
+out of it.
+
+The next day the city received a letter from the King commanding them to
+oblige the Parliament to remove to Montargis.  The governor, one of the
+sheriffs, and four councillors of the city carried the letter to
+Parliament, protesting at the same time that they would obey no other
+orders than those of the Parliament, who that very morning settled the
+necessary funds for raising troops.  In the afternoon there was a general
+council, wherein all the corporations of the city and all the colonels
+and captains of the several quarters entered into an association,
+confirmed by an oath, for their mutual defence.  In the meantime I was
+informed by the Marquis de Noirmoutier that the Prince de Conti and M. de
+Longueville were very well disposed, and that they stayed at Court the
+longer to have a safer opportunity of coming away.  M. de La
+Rochefoucault wrote to the same purpose to Madame de Longueville.
+
+The same day I had a visit from the Duc d'Elbeuf,--[Charles de Lorraine,
+the second of that name, who died 1657.]--who, as they said, having
+missed a dinner at Court, came to Paris for a supper.  He addressed me
+with all the cajoling flattery of the House of Guise, and had three
+children with him, who were not so eloquent, but seemed to be quite as
+cunning as himself.  He told me that he was going to offer his service to
+the Hotel de Ville; but I advised him to wait upon the Parliament.  He
+was fixed in his first resolution, yet he came to assure me he would
+follow my advice in everything.  I was afraid that the Parisians, to whom
+the very name of a Prince of Lorraine is dear, would have given him the
+command of the troops.  Therefore I ordered the clergy over whom I had
+influence to insinuate to the people that he was too influential with the
+Abbe de La Riviere, and I showed the Parliament what respect he had for
+them by addressing himself to the Hotel de Ville in the first place, and
+that he had not honour enough to be trusted.  I was shown a letter which
+he wrote to his friend as he came into town, in which were these words:
+"I must go and do homage to the Coadjutor now, but in three days' time he
+shall return it to me."  And I knew from other instances that his
+affection for me was of the feeblest.
+
+While I was reflecting what to do, news was brought to me before daylight
+that the Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville were at the gate of Saint
+Honord and denied entrance by the people, who feared they came to betray
+the city.  I immediately fetched honest Broussel, and, taking some
+torches to light us, we posted to the said gate through a prodigious
+crowd of people; it was broad daylight before we could persuade the
+people that they might safely let them in.
+
+The great difficulty now was how to manage so as to remove the general
+distrust of the Prince de Conti that existed among the people.  That
+which was practicable the night before was rendered impossible and even
+ruinous the next day, and this same Duc d'Elbeuf, whom I thought to have
+driven out of Paris on the 9th, was in a fair way to have compelled me to
+leave on the 10th if he had played his game well, so suspected was the
+name of Conde by the people.  As there wanted a little time to reconcile
+them, I thought it was our only way to keep fair with M. d'Elbeuf and to
+convince him that it would be to his interest to join with the Prince de
+Conti and M. de Longueville.  I accordingly sent to acquaint him that I
+intended him a visit, but when I arrived he was gone to the Parliament,
+where the First President, who was against removing to Montargis and at
+the same time very averse to a civil war, embraced him, and, without
+giving the members time to consider what was urged by Broussel, Viole,
+and others to the contrary, caused him to be declared General, with a
+design merely to divide and weaken the party.
+
+Upon this I made haste to the Palace of Longueville to persuade the
+Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville to go that very instant to the
+Parliament House.  The latter was never in haste, and the Prince having
+gone tired to bed, it was with much ado I prevailed on him to rise.  In
+short, he was so long in setting out that the Parliament was up and M.
+d'Elbeuf was marching to the Hotel de Ville to be sworn and to take care
+of the commissions that were to be issued.  I thereupon persuaded the
+Prince de Conti to go to the Parliament in the afternoon and to offer
+them his service, while I stayed without in the hall to observe the
+disposition of the people.
+
+He went thither accordingly in my coach and with my grand livery, by
+which he made it appear that he reposed his confidence entirely in the
+people, whom there is a necessity of managing with a world of precaution
+because of their natural diffidence and instability.  When we came to the
+House we were saluted upon the stairs with "God bless the Coadjutor!"
+but, except those posted there on purpose, not a soul cried, "God bless
+the Prince de Conti!" from which I concluded that the bulk of the people
+were not yet cured of their diffidence, and therefore I was very glad
+when I had got the Prince into the Grand Chamber.  The moment after, M.
+d'Elbeuf came in with the city guards, who attended him as general, and
+with all the people crying out, "God bless his Highness M. d'Elbeuf!"
+But as they cried at the same time "God save the Coadjutor!"  I addressed
+myself to him with a smile and said, "This is an echo, monsieur, which
+does me a great deal of honour."--"It is very kind of you," said he, and,
+turning to the guards, bade them stay at the door of the Grand Chamber.
+I took the order as given to myself, and stayed there likewise, with a
+great number of my friends.  As soon as the House was formed, the Prince
+de Conti stood up and said that, having been made acquainted at Saint
+Germain with the pernicious counsels given to the Queen, he thought
+himself obliged, as Prince of the blood, to oppose them.  M. d'Elbeuf,
+who was proud and insolent, like all weak men, because he thought he had
+the strongest party, said he knew the respect due to the Prince de Conti,
+but that he could not forbear telling them that it was himself who first
+broke the ice and offered his service to the Parliament, who, having
+conferred the General's baton upon him, he would never part with it but
+with his life.
+
+The generality of the members, who were as distrustful of the Prince de
+Conti as the people, applauded this declaration, and the Parliament
+passed a decree forbidding the troops on pain of high treason to advance
+within twenty miles of Paris.  I saw that all I could do that day was to
+reconduct the Prince de Conti in safety to the palace of Longueville, for
+the crowd was so great that I was fain to carry him, as it were, in my
+arms out of the Grand Chamber.
+
+M. d'Elbeuf, who thought the day was all his own, hearing my name joined
+with his in the huzzas of the people, said to me by way of reprisal,
+"This, monsieur, is an echo which does me a great deal of honour," to
+which I replied, as he did to me before, "Monsieur, it is very kind of
+you."  Meantime he was not wise enough to improve the opportunity, and I
+foresaw that things would soon take another turn, for reputation of long
+standing among the people never fails to blast the tender blossoms of
+public good-will which are forced out of due season.
+
+I had news sent to me from Madame de Lesdiguieres at Saint Germain, that
+M. d'Elbeuf, an hour after he heard of the arrival of the Prince de Conti
+and M. de Longueville at Paris, wrote a letter to the Abbe de la Riviere
+with these words: "Tell the Queen and the Duc d'Orleans that this
+diabolical Coadjutor is the ruin of everything here, and that in two days
+I shall have no power at all, but that if they will be kind to me I will
+make them sensible.  I am not come hither with so bad a design as they
+imagine."  I made a very good use of this advice, and, knowing that the
+people are generally fond of everything that seems mysterious, I imparted
+the secret to four or five hundred persons.  I had the pleasure to hear
+that the confidence which the Prince had reposed in the people by going
+about all alone in my coach, without any attendance, had won their
+hearts.
+
+At midnight M. de Longueville, Marechal de La Mothe, and myself went to
+M. de Bouillon, whom we found as wavering as the state of affairs, but
+when we showed him our plan, and how easily it might be executed, he
+joined us immediately.  We concerted measures, and I gave out orders to
+all the colonels and captains of my acquaintance.
+
+The most dangerous blow that I gave to M. d'Elbeuf was by making the
+people believe that he held correspondence with the King's troops, who on
+the 9th, at night, surprised Charenton.  I met him on the first report of
+it, when he said, "Would you think there are people so wicked as to say
+that I had a hand in the capture of Charenton?" I said in answer, "Would
+you think there are people vile enough to report that the Prince de Conti
+is come hither by concert with the Prince de Conde?"
+
+When I saw the people pretty well cured of their diffidence, and not so
+zealous as they were for M. d'Elbeuf, I was for mincing the matter no
+longer, and thought that ostentation would be as proper to-day as reserve
+was yesterday.  The Prince de Conti took M. de Longueville to the
+Parliament House, where he offered them his services, together with all
+Normandy, and desired they would accept of his wife, son, and daughter,
+and keep them in the Hotel de Ville as pledges of his sincerity.  He was
+seconded by M. de Bouillon, who said he was exceedingly glad to serve the
+Parliament under the command of so great a Prince as the Prince de Conti.
+M. d'Elbeuf was nettled at this expression, and repeated what he had said
+before, that he would not part with the General's staff, and he showed
+more warmth than judgment in the whole debate.  He spoke nothing to the
+purpose.  It was too late to dispute, and he was obliged to yield, but I
+have observed that fools yield only when they cannot help it.  We tried
+his patience a third time by the appearance of Marechal de La Mothe, who
+passed the same compliment upon the company as De Bouillon had done.  We
+had concerted beforehand that these personages should make their
+appearance upon the theatre one after the other, for we had remarked that
+nothing so much affects the people, and even the Parliament, among whom
+the people are a majority, as a variety of scenes.
+
+I took Madame de Longueville and Madame de Bouillon in a coach by way of
+triumph to the Hotel de Ville.  They were both of rare beauty, and
+appeared the more charming because of a careless air, the more becoming
+to both because it was unaffected.  Each held one of her children,
+beautiful as the mother, in her arms.  The place was so full of people
+that the very tops of the houses were crowded; all the men shouted and
+the women wept for joy and affection.  I threw five hundred pistoles out
+of the window of the Hotel de Ville, and went again to the Parliament
+House, accompanied by a vast number of people, some with arms and others
+without.  M. d'Elbeuf's captain of the guards told his master that he was
+ruined to all intents and purposes if he did not accommodate himself to
+the present position of affairs, which was the reason that I found him
+much perplexed and dejected, especially when M. de Bellievre, who had
+amused him hitherto designedly, came in and asked what meant the beating
+of the drums.  I answered that he would hear more very soon, and that all
+honest men were quite out of patience with those that sowed divisions
+among the people.  I saw then that wisdom in affairs of moment is nothing
+without courage.  M. d'Elbeuf had little courage at this juncture, made a
+ridiculous explanation of what he had said before, and granted more than
+he was desired to do, and it was owing to the civility and good sense of
+M. de Bouillon that he retained the title of General and the precedence
+of M. de Bouillon and M. de La Mothe, who were equally Generals with
+himself under the Prince de Conti, who was from that instant declared
+Generalissimo of the King's forces under the direction of the Parliament.
+
+There happened at this time a comical scene in the Hotel de Ville, which
+I mention more particularly because of its consequence.  De Noirmoutier,
+who the night before was made lieutenant-general, returning by the Hotel
+de Ville from a sally which he had made into the suburbs to drive away
+Mazarin's skirmishers, as they were called, entered with three officers
+in armour into the chamber of Madame de Longueville, which was full of
+ladies; the mixture of blue scarfs, ladies, cuirassiers, fiddlers, and
+trumpeters in and about the hall was such a sight as is seldom met with
+but in romances.  De Noirmoutier, who was a great admirer of Astrea, said
+he imagined that we were besieged in Marcilli.  "Well you may," said I;
+"Madame de Longueville is as fair as Galatea, but Marsillac (son of M. de
+La Rochefoucault) is not a man of so much honour as Lindamore."  I fancy
+I was overheard by one in a neighbouring window, who might have told M.
+de La Rochefoucault, for otherwise I cannot guess at the first cause of
+the hatred which he afterwards bore me.
+
+Before I proceed to give you the detail of the civil war, suffer me to
+lead you into the gallery where you, who are an admirer of fine painting,
+will be entertained with the figures of the chief actors, drawn all at
+length in their proper colours, and you will be able to judge by the
+history whether they are painted to the life.  Let us begin, as it is but
+just, with her Majesty.
+
+
+                         Character of the Queen.
+
+The Queen excelled in that kind of wit which was becoming her circle, to
+the end that she might not appear silly before strangers; she was more
+ill-natured than proud, had more pride than real grandeur, and more show
+than substance; she loved money too well to be liberal, and her own
+interest too well to be impartial; she was more constant than passionate
+as a lover, more implacable than cruel, and more mindful of injuries than
+of good offices.  She had more of the pious intention than of real piety,
+more obstinacy than well-grounded resolution, and a greater measure of
+incapacity than of all the rest.
+
+
+                     Character of the Duc d' Orleans.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans possessed all the good qualities requisite for a man of
+honour except courage, but having not one quality eminent enough to make
+him notable, he had nothing in him to supply or support the weakness
+which was so predominant in his heart through fear, and in his mind
+through irresolution, that it tarnished the whole course of his life.
+He engaged in all affairs, because he had not power to resist the
+importunities of those who drew him in for their own advantage, and came
+off always with shame for want of courage to go on.  His suspicious
+temper, even from his childhood, deadened those lively, gay colours which
+would have shone out naturally with the advantages of a fine, bright
+genius, an amiable gracefulness, a very honest disposition, a perfect
+disinterestedness, and an incredible easiness of behaviour.
+
+
+                    Character of the Prince de Conde.
+
+The Prince de Conde was born a general, an honour none could ever boast
+of before but Caesar and Spinola; he was equal to the first, but superior
+to the second.  Intrepidity was one of the least parts of his character.
+Nature gave him a genius as great as his heart.  It was his fortune to be
+born in an age of war, which gave him an opportunity to display his
+courage to its full extent; but his birth, or rather education, in a
+family submissively attached to the Cabinet, restrained his noble genius
+within too narrow bounds.  There was no care taken betimes to inspire him
+with those great and general maxims which form and improve a man of
+parts.  He had not time to acquire them by his own application, because
+he was prevented from his youth by the unexpected revolution, and by a
+constant series of successes.  This one imperfection, though he had as
+pure a soul as any in the world, was the reason that he did things which
+were not to be justified, that though he had the heart of Alexander so he
+had his infirmities, that he was guilty of unaccountable follies, that
+having all the talents of Francois de Guise, he did not serve the State
+upon some occasions as well as he ought, and that having the parts of
+Henri de Conde, his namesake, he did not push the faction as far as he
+might have done, nor did he discharge all the duties his extraordinary
+merit demanded from him.
+
+
+                   Character of the Duc de Longueville.
+
+M. de Longueville, though he had the grand name of Orleans, together with
+vivacity, an agreeable appearance, generosity, liberality, justice,
+valour, and grandeur, yet never made any extraordinary figure in life,
+because his ideas were infinitely above his capacity.  If a man has
+abilities and great designs, he is sure to be looked upon as a man of
+some importance; but if he does not carry them out, he is not much
+esteemed, which was the case with De Longueville.
+
+
+                    Character of the Duc de Beaufort.
+
+M. de Beaufort knew little of affairs of moment but by hearsay and by
+what he had learned in the cabal of "The Importants," of whose jargon he
+had retained some smattering, which, together with some expressions he
+had perfectly acquired from Madame de Vendome, formed a language that
+would have puzzled a Cato.  His speech was short and stupidly dull, and
+the more so because he obscured it by affectation.  He thought himself
+very sufficient, and pretended to a great deal more wit than came to his
+share.  He was brave enough in his person, and outdid the common Hectors
+by being so upon all occasions, but never more 'mal a propos' than in
+gallantry.  And he talked and thought just as the people did whose idol
+he was for some time.
+
+
+                     Character of the Dice d'Elbeuf.
+
+M. d'Elbeuf could not fail of courage, as he was a Prince of the house of
+Lorraine.  He had all the wit that a man of abundantly more cunning and
+good sense could pretend to.  He was a medley of incoherent flourishes.
+He was the first Prince debased by poverty; and, perhaps, never man was
+more at a loss than he to raise the pity of the people in misery.  A
+comfortable subsistence did not raise his spirits; and if he had been
+master of riches he would have been envied as a leader of a party.
+Poverty so well became him that it seemed as if he had been cut out for a
+beggar.
+
+
+                    Character of the Duc de Bouillon.
+
+The Duc de Bouillon was a man of experienced valour and profound sense.
+I am fully persuaded, by what I have seen of his conduct, that those who
+cry it down wrong his character; and it may be that others had too
+favourable notions of his merit, who thought him capable of all the great
+things which he never did.
+
+
+                       Character of M. de Turenne.
+
+M. de Turenne had all the good qualities in his very nature, and acquired
+all the great ones very early, those only excepted that he never thought
+of.  Though almost all the virtues were in a manner natural to him, yet
+he shone out in none.  He was looked upon as more proper to be at the
+head of an army than of a faction, for he was not naturally enterprising.
+He had in all his conduct, as well as in his way of talking, certain
+obscurities which he never explained but on particular occasions, and
+then only for his own honour.
+
+
+                    Character of Marechal de La Mothe.
+
+The Marechal de La Mothe was a captain of the second rank, full of
+mettle, but not a man of much sense.  He was affable and courteous in
+civil life, and a very useful man in a faction because of his wonderful
+complacency.
+
+
+                    Character of the Prince de Conti.
+
+The Prince de Conti was a second Zeno as much as he was a Prince of the
+blood.  That is his character with regard to the public; and as to his
+private capacity, wickedness had the same effect on him as weakness had
+on M. d'Elbeuf, and drowned his other qualities, which were all mean and
+tinctured with folly.
+
+
+                   Character of M. de La Rochefoucault.
+
+M. de La Rochefoucault had something so odd in all his conduct that I
+know not what name to give it.  He loved to be engaged in intrigues from
+a child.  He was never capable of conducting any affair, for what reasons
+I could not conceive; for he had endowments which, in another, would have
+made amends for imperfections .  .  .  .  He had not a long view of what
+was beyond his reach, nor a quick apprehension of what was within it; but
+his sound sense, very good in speculation, his good-nature, his engaging
+and wonderfully easy behaviour, were enough to have made amends more than
+they did for his want of penetration.  He was constantly wavering in his
+resolution, but what to attribute it to I know not, for it could not come
+from his fertile imagination, which was lively.  Nor can I say it came
+from his barrenness of thought, for though he did not excel as a man of
+affairs, yet he had a good fund of sense.  The effect of this
+irresolution is very visible, though we do not know its cause.  He never
+was a warrior, though a true soldier.  He never was a courtier, though he
+had always a good mind to be one.  He never was a good party man, though
+his whole life was engaged in partisanship.  He was very timorous and
+bashful in conversation, and thought he always stood in need of
+apologies, which, considering that his "Maxims" showed not great regard
+for virtue, and that his practice was always to get out of affairs with
+the same hurry as he got into them, makes me conclude that he would have
+done much better if he had contented himself to have passed, as he might
+have done, for the politest courtier and the most cultivated gentlemen of
+his age.
+
+
+                   Character of Madame de Longueville.
+
+Madame de Longueville had naturally a great fund of wit, and was,
+moreover, a woman of parts; but her indolent temper kept her from making
+any use of her talents, either in gallantries or in her hatred against
+the Prince de Conde.  Her languishing air had more charms in it than the
+most exquisite beauty.  She had few or no faults besides what she
+contracted in her gallantry.  As her passion of love influenced her
+conduct more than politics, she who was the Amazon of a great party
+degenerated into the character of a fortune-hunter.  But the grace of God
+brought her back to her former self, which all the world was not able to
+do.
+
+
+                    Character of Madame de Chevreuse.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse had not so much as the remains of beauty when I knew
+her; she was the only person I ever saw whose vivacity supplied the want
+of judgment; her wit was so brilliant and so full of wisdom that the
+greatest men of the age would not have been ashamed of it, while, in
+truth, it was owing to some lucky opportunity.  If she had been born in
+time of peace she would never have imagined there could have been such a
+thing as war.  If the Prior of the Carthusians had but pleased her, she
+would have been a nun all her lifetime.  M. de Lorraine was the first
+that engaged her in State affairs.  The Duke of Buckingham--[George
+Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, assassinated when preparing to succour
+Rochelle.]--and the Earl of Holland (an English lord, of the family of
+Rich, and younger son of the Earl of Warwick, then ambassador in France)
+kept her to themselves; M. de Chateauneuf continued the amusement, till
+at last she abandoned herself to the pleasing of a person whom she loved,
+without any choice, but purely because it was impossible for her to live
+without being in love with somebody.  It was no hard task to give her one
+to serve the turn of the faction, but as soon as she accepted him she
+loved him with all her heart and soul, and she confessed that, by the
+caprice of fortune, she never loved best where she esteemed most, except
+in the case of the poor Duke of Buckingham.  Notwithstanding her
+attachment in love, which we may, properly call her everlasting passion,
+notwithstanding the frequent change of objects, she was peevish and
+touchy almost to distraction, but when herself again, her transports were
+very agreeable; never was anybody less fearful of real danger, and never
+had woman more contempt for scruples and ceremonies.
+
+
+                 Character of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse.
+
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was more beautiful in her person than charming
+in her carriage, and by nature extremely silly; her amorous passion made
+her seem witty, serious, and agreeable only to him whom she was in love
+with, but she soon treated him as she did her petticoat, which to-day she
+took into her bed, and to-morrow cast into the fire out of pure aversion.
+
+
+                   Character of the Princess Palatine.
+
+The Princess Palatine' had just as much gallantry as gravity.  I believe
+she had as great a talent for State affairs as Elizabeth, Queen of
+England.  I have seen her in the faction, I have seen her in the Cabinet,
+and found her everywhere equally sincere.
+
+
+                    Character of Madame de Montbazon.
+
+Madame de Montbazon was a very great beauty, only modesty was visibly
+wanting in her air; her grand air and her way of talking sometimes
+supplied her want of sense.  She loved nothing more than her pleasures,
+unless it was her private interest, and I never knew a vicious person
+that had so little respect for virtue.
+
+
+                    Character of the First President.
+
+If it were not a sort of blasphemy to say that any mortal of our times
+had more courage than the great Gustavus Adolphus and the Prince de
+Conde, I would venture to affirm it of M. Mole, the First President, but
+his wit was far inferior to his courage.  It is true that his enunciation
+was not agreeable, but his eloquence was such that, though it shocked the
+ear, it seized the imagination.  He sought the interest of the public
+preferably to all things, not excepting the interest of his own family,
+which yet he loved too much for a magistrate.  He had not a genius to see
+at times the good he was capable of doing, presumed too much upon his
+authority, and imagined that he could moderate both the Court and
+Parliament; but he failed in both, made himself suspected by both, and
+thus, with a design to do good, he did evil.  Prejudices contributed not
+a little to this, for I observed he was prejudiced to such a degree that
+he always judged of actions by men, and scarcely ever of men by their
+actions.
+
+
+To return to our history.  All the companies having united and settled
+the necessary funds, a complete army was raised in Paris in a week's
+time.  The Bastille surrendered after five or six cannon shots, and it
+was a pretty sight to see the women carry their chairs into the garden,
+where the guns were stationed, for the sake of seeing the siege, just as
+if about to hear a sermon.
+
+M. de Beaufort, having escaped from his confinement, arrived this very
+day in Paris.  I found that his imprisonment had not made him one jot the
+wiser.  Indeed, it had got him a reputation, because he bore it with
+constancy and made his escape with courage.  It was also his merit not to
+have abandoned the banks of the Loire at a time when it absolutely
+required abundance of skill and courage to stay there.  It is an easy
+matter for those who are disgraced at Court to make the best of their own
+merit in the beginning of a civil war.  He had a mind to form an alliance
+with me, and knowing how to employ him advantageously, I prepossessed the
+people in his favour, and exaggerated the conspiracy which the Cardinal
+had formed against him by means of Du Hamel.
+
+As my friendship was necessary to him, so his was necessary to me; for my
+profession on many occasions being a restraint upon me, I wanted a man
+sometimes to stand before me.  M. de La Mothe was so dependent on M. de
+Longueville that I could not rely on him; and M. de Bouillon was not a
+man to be governed.
+
+We went together to wait on the Prince de Conti; we stopped the coach in
+the streets, where I proclaimed the name of M. de Beaufort, praised him
+and showed him to the people; upon which the people were suddenly fired
+with enthusiasm, the women kissed him, and the crowd was so great that we
+had much ado to get to the Hotel de Ville.  The next day he offered a
+petition to the Parliament desiring he might have leave to justify
+himself against the accusation of his having formed a design against the
+life of the Cardinal, which was granted; and he was accordingly cleared
+next day, and the Parliament issued that famous decree for seizing all
+the cash of the Crown in all the public and private receipt offices of
+the kingdom and employing it in the common defence.
+
+The Prince de Conde was enraged at the declaration published by the
+Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville, which cast the Court, then at
+Saint Germain, into such a despair that the Cardinal was upon the point
+of retiring.  I was abused there without mercy, as appeared by a letter
+sent to Madame de Longueville from the Princess, her mother, in which I
+read this sentence: "They rail here plentifully against the Coadjutor,
+whom yet I cannot forbear thanking for what he has done for the poor
+Queen of England."  This circumstance is very curious.  You must know
+that a few days before the King left Paris I visited the Queen of
+England, whom I found in the apartment of her daughter, since Madame
+d'Orleans.  "You see, monsieur," said the Queen, "I come here to keep
+Henriette company; the poor child has lain in bed all day for want of a
+fire."  The truth is, the Cardinal having stopped the Queen's pension six
+months, tradesmen were unwilling to give her credit, and there was not a
+chip of wood in the house.  You may be sure I took care that a Princess
+of Great Britain should not be confined to her bed next day, for want of
+a fagot; and a few days after I exaggerated the scandal of this
+desertion, and the Parliament sent the Queen a present of 40,000 livres.
+Posterity will hardly believe that the Queen of England, granddaughter of
+Henri the Great, wanted a fagot to light a fire in the month of January,
+in the Louvre, and at the Court of France.
+
+There are many passages in history less monstrous than this which make us
+shudder, and this mean action of the Court made so little impression upon
+the minds of the generality of the people at that time that I have
+reflected a thousand times since that we are far more moved at the
+hearing of old stories than of those of the present time; we are not
+shocked at what we see with our own eyes, and I question whether our
+surprise would be as great as we imagine at the story of Caligula's
+promoting his horse to the dignity of a consul were he and his horse now
+living.
+
+To return to the war.  A cornet of my regiment being taken prisoner and
+carried to Saint Germain, the Queen immediately ordered his head to be
+cut off, but I sent a trumpeter to acquaint the Court that I would make
+reprisals upon my prisoners, so that my cornet was exchanged and a cartel
+settled.
+
+As soon as Paris declared itself, all the kingdom was in a quandary, for
+the Parliament of Paris sent circular letters to all the Parliaments and
+cities in the kingdom exhorting them to join against the common enemy;
+upon which the Parliaments of Aix and Rouen joined with that of Paris.
+The Prince d'Harcourt, now Duc d'Elbeuf, and the cities of Rheims, Tours,
+and Potiers, took up arms in its favour.  The Duc de La Tremouille raised
+men for them publicly.  The Duc de Retz offered his service to the
+Parliament, together with Belle Isle.  Le Mans expelled its bishop and
+all the Lavardin family, who were in the interest of the Court.
+
+On the 18th of January, 1649, I was admitted to a seat and vote in
+Parliament, and signed an alliance with the chief leaders of the party:
+MM. de Beaufort, de Bouillon, de La Mothe, de Noirmoutier, de Vitri, de
+Brissac, de Maure, de Matha, de Cugnac, de Barnire, de Sillery, de La
+Rochefoucault, de Laigues, de Sevigny, de Bethune, de Luynes, de
+Chaumont, de Saint-Germain, d'Action, and de Fiesque.
+
+On the 9th of February the Prince de Conde attacked and took Charenton.
+All this time the country people were flocking to Paris with provisions,
+not only because there was plenty of money, but to enable the citizens to
+hold out against the siege, which was begun on the 9th of January.
+
+On the 12th of February a herald came with two trumpeters from the Court
+to one of the city gates, bringing three packets of letters, one for the
+Parliament, one for the Prince de Conti, and the third for the Hotel de
+Ville.  It was but the night before that a person was caught in the halls
+dropping libels against the Parliament and me; upon which the Parliament,
+Princes, and city supposed that this State visit was nothing but an
+amusement of Cardinal Mazarin to cover a worse design, and therefore
+resolved not to receive the message nor give the herald audience, but to
+send the King's Council to the Queen to represent to her that their
+refusal was out of pure obedience and respect, because heralds are never
+sent but to sovereign Princes or public enemies, and that the Parliament,
+the Prince de Conti, and the city were neither the one nor the other.
+At the same time the Chevalier de Lavalette, who distributed the libels,
+had formed a design to kill me and M. de Beaufort upon the Parliament
+stairs in the great crowd which they expected would attend the appearance
+of the herald.  The Court, indeed, always denied his having any other
+commission than to drop the libels, but I am certain that the Bishop of
+Dole told the Bishop of Aire, but a night or two before, that Beaufort
+and I should not be among the living three days hence.
+
+The King's councillors returned with a report how kindly they had been
+received at Saint Germain.  They said the Queen highly approved of the
+reasons offered by the Parliament for refusing entrance to the herald,
+and that she had assured them that, though she could not side with the
+Parliament in the present state of affairs, yet she received with joy the
+assurances they had given her of their respect and submission, and that
+she would distinguish them in general and in particular by special marks
+of her good-will.  Talon, Attorney-General, who always spoke with dignity
+and force, embellished this answer of the Queen with all the ornaments he
+could give it, assuring the Parliament in very pathetic terms that, if
+they should be pleased to send a deputation to Saint Germain, it would be
+very kindly received, and might, perhaps, be a great step towards a
+peace.
+
+When I saw that we were besieged, that the Cardinal had sent a person
+into Flanders to treat with the Spaniards, and that our party was now so
+well formed that there was no danger that I alone should be charged with
+courting the alliance of the enemies of the State, I hesitated no longer,
+but judged that, as affairs stood, I might with honour hear what
+proposals the Spaniards would make to me for the relief of Paris; but I
+took care not to have my name mentioned, and that the first overtures
+should be made to M. d'Elbeuf, who was the fittest person, because during
+the ministry of Cardinal de Richelieu he was twelve or fifteen years in
+Flanders a pensioner of Spain.  Accordingly Arnolfi, a Bernardin friar,
+was sent from the Archduke Leopold, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands
+for the King of Spain, to the Duc d'Elbeuf, who, upon sight of his
+credentials, thought himself the most considerable man of the party,
+invited most of us to dinner, and told us he had a very important matter
+to lay before us, but that such was his tenderness for the French name
+that he could not open so much as a small letter from a suspected
+quarter, which, after some scrupulous and mysterious circumlocutions, he
+ventured to name, and we agreed one and all not to refuse the succours
+from Spain, but the great difficulty was, which way to get them.
+Fuensaldagne, the general, was inclined to join us if he could have been
+sure that we would engage with him; but as there was no possibility of
+the Parliaments treating with him, nor any dependence to be placed upon
+the generals, some of whom were wavering and whimsical, Madame de
+Bouillon pressed me not to hesitate any longer, but to join with her
+husband, adding that if he and I united, we should so far overmatch the
+others that it would not be in their power to injure us.
+
+M. de Bouillon and I agreed to use our interest to oblige the Parliament
+to hear what the envoy had to say.  I proposed it to the Parliament, but
+the first motion of it was hissed, in a manner, by all the company as
+much as if it had been heretical.  The old President Le Coigneux, a man
+of quick apprehension, observing that I sometimes mentioned a letter from
+the Archduke of which there had been no talk, declared himself suddenly
+to be of my opinion.  He had a secret persuasion that I had seen some
+writings which they knew nothing of, and therefore, while both sides were
+in the heat of debate, he said to me:
+
+"Why do you not disclose yourself to your friends?  They would come into
+your measures.  I see very well you know more of the matter than the
+person who thinks himself your informant."  I vow I was terribly ashamed
+of my indiscretion.  I squeezed him by the hand and winked at MM. de
+Beaufort and de La Mothe.  At length two other Presidents came over to my
+opinion, being thoroughly convinced that succours from Spain at this time
+were a remedy absolutely necessary to our disease, but a dangerous and
+empirical medicine, and infallibly mortal to particular persons if it did
+not pass first through the Parliament's alembic.
+
+The Bernardin, being tutored by us beforehand what to say when he came
+before the Parliament, behaved like a man of good sense.
+
+When he desired audience, or rather when the Prince de Conti desired it
+for him, the President de Mesmes, a man of great capacity, but by fear
+and ambition most slavishly attached to the Court, made an eloquent and
+pathetic harangue, preferable to anything I ever met with of the kind in
+all the monuments of antiquity, and, turning about to the Prince de
+Conti, "Is it possible, monsieur," said he, "that a Prince of the blood
+of France should propose to let a person deputed from the most bitter
+enemy of the fleurs-de-lis have a seat upon those flowers?"  Then turning
+to me, he said, "What, monsieur, will you refuse entrance to your
+sovereign's herald upon the most trifling pretexts?"  I knew what was
+coming, and therefore I endeavoured to stop his mouth by this answer:
+"Monsieur, you will excuse me from calling those reasons frivolous which
+have had the sanction of a decree."  The bulk of the Parliament was
+provoked at the President's unguarded expression, baited him very
+fiercely, and then I made some pretence to go out, leaving Quatresous, a
+young man of the warmest temper, in the House to skirmish with him in my
+stead, as having experienced more than once that the only way to get
+anything of moment passed in Parliamentary or other assemblies is to
+exasperate the young men against the old ones.
+
+In short, after many debates, it was carried that the envoy should be
+admitted to audience.  Being accordingly admitted, and bidden to be
+covered and sit down, he presented the Archduke's credentials, and then
+made a speech, which was in substance that his master had ordered him to
+acquaint the company with a proposal made him by Cardinal Mazarin since
+the blockade of Paris, which his Catholic Majesty did not think
+consistent with his safety or honour to accept, when he saw that, on the
+one hand, it was made with a view to oppress the Parliament, which was
+held in veneration by all the kingdoms in the world, and, on the other,
+that all treaties made with a condemned minister would be null and void,
+forasmuch as they were made without the concurrence of the Parliament,
+to whom only it belonged to register and verify treaties of peace in
+order to make them authoritative; that the Catholic King, who proposed to
+take no advantage from the present state of affairs, had ordered the
+Archduke to assure the Parliament, whom he knew to be in the true
+interest of the most Christian King, that he heartily acknowledged them
+to be the arbiters of peace, that he submitted to their judgment, and
+that if they thought proper to be judges, he left it to their choice to
+send a deputation out of their own body to what place they pleased.
+Paris itself not excepted, and that his Catholic Majesty would also,
+without delay, send his deputies thither to meet and treat with them;
+that, meanwhile, he had ordered 18,000 men to march towards their
+frontiers to relieve them in case of need, with orders nevertheless to
+commit no hostilities upon the towns, etc., of the most Christian King,
+though they were for the most part abandoned; and it being his resolution
+at this juncture to show his sincere inclination for peace, he gave them
+his word of honour that his armies should not stir during the treaty; but
+that in case his troops might be serviceable to the Parliament, they were
+at their disposal, to be commanded by French officers; and that to
+obviate all the reasonable jealousies generally, attending the conduct of
+foreigners, they, were at liberty to take all other precautions they
+should think proper.
+
+Before his admission the Prdsident de Mesmes had loaded me with
+invectives, for secretly corresponding with the enemies of the State, for
+favouring his admission, and for opposing that of my sovereign's herald.
+
+I had observed that when the objections against a man are capable of
+making greater impression than his answers, it is his best course to say
+but little, and that he may talk as much as he pleases when he thinks his
+answers of greater force than the objections.  I kept strictly to this
+rule, for though the said President artfully pointed his satire at me,
+I sat unconcerned till I found the Parliament was charmed with what the
+envoy had said, and then, in my turn, I was even with the President by
+telling him in short that my respect for the Parliament had obliged me to
+put up with his sarcasms, which I had hitherto endured; and that I did
+not suppose he meant that his sentiments should always be a law to the
+Parliament; that nobody there had a greater esteem for him, with which I
+hoped that the innocent freedom I had taken to speak my mind was not
+inconsistent; that as to the non-admission of the herald, had it not been
+for the motion made by M. Broussel, I should have fallen into the snare
+through overcredulity, and have given my vote for that which might
+perhaps have ended in the destruction of the city, and involved myself in
+what has since fully proved to be a crime by the Queen's late solemn
+approbation of the contrary conduct; and that, as to the envoy, I was
+silent till I saw most of them were for giving him audience, when I
+thought it better to vote the same way than vainly to contest it.
+
+This modest and submissive answer of mine to all the scurrilities heaped
+upon me for a fortnight together by the First President and the President
+de Mesmes had an excellent effect upon the members, and obliterated for a
+long time the suspicion that I aimed to govern them by my cabals.  The
+President de Mesmes would have replied, but his words were drowned in the
+general clamour.  The clock struck five; none had dined, and many had not
+broken their fast, which the Presidents had, and therefore had the
+advantage in disputation.
+
+The decree ordering the admission of the Spanish envoy to audience
+directed that a copy of what he said in Parliament, signed with his own
+hand, should be demanded of him, to the end that it might be registered,
+and that, by a solemn deputation, it should be sent to the Queen, with an
+assurance of the fidelity of the Parliament, beseeching her at the same
+time to withdraw her troops from the neighbourhood of Paris and restore
+peace to her people.  It being now very late, and the members very
+hungry,--circumstances that have greater influence than can be imagined
+in debates, they were upon the point of letting this clause pass for want
+of due attention.  The President Le Coigneux was the first that
+discovered the grand mistake, and, addressing himself to a great many
+councillors, who were rising up, said, "Gentlemen, pray take your places
+again, for I have something to offer to the House which is of the highest
+importance to all Europe."  When they had taken their places he spoke as
+follows:
+
+"The King of Spain takes us for arbiters of the general peace; it may be
+he is not in earnest, but yet it is a compliment to tell us so.  He
+offers us troops to march to our relief, and it is certain he does not
+deceive us in this respect, but highly obliges us.  We have heard his
+envoy, and considering the circumstances we are in, we think it right so
+to do.  We have resolved to give an account of this matter to the King,
+which is but reasonable; some imagine that we propose to send the
+original decree, but here lies the snake in the grass.  I protest,
+monsieur," added he, turning to the First President, "that the members
+did not understand it so, but that the copy only should be carried to
+Court, and the original be kept in the register.  I could wish there had
+been no occasion for explanation, because there are some occasions when
+it is not prudent to speak all that one thinks, but since I am forced to
+it, I must say it without further hesitation, that in case we deliver up
+the original the Spaniards will conclude that we expose their proposals
+for a general peace and our own safety to the caprice of Cardinal
+Mazarin; whereas, by delivering only a copy, accompanied with humble
+entreaties for a general peace, as the Parliament has wisely ordered,
+all Europe will see that we maintain ourselves in a condition capable
+of doing real service both to our King and country, if the Cardinal is
+so blind as not to take a right advantage of this opportunity."
+
+This discourse was received with the approbation of all the members, who
+cried out from all corners of the House that this was the meaning of the
+House.  The gentlemen of the Court of Inquests did not spare the
+Presidents.  M. Martineau said publicly that the tenor of this decree was
+that the envoy of Spain should be made much of till they received an
+answer from Saint Germain, which would prove to be another taunt of the
+Cardinal's.  Pontcarre said he was not so much afraid of a Spaniard as of
+a Mazarin.  In short, the generals had the satisfaction to see that the
+Parliament would not be sorry for any advances they should make towards
+an alliance with Spain.
+
+We sent a courier to Brussels, who was guarded ten leagues out of Paris
+by 500 horse, with an account of everything done in Parliament, of the
+conditions which the Prince de Conti and the other generals desired for
+entering into a treaty with Spain, and of what engagement I could make in
+my own private capacity.
+
+After he had gone I had a conference with M. de Bouillon and his lady
+about the present state of affairs, which I observed was very ticklish;
+that if we were favoured by the general inclination of the people we
+should carry all before us, but that the Parliament, which was our chief
+strength in one sense, was in other respects our main weakness; that they
+were very apt to go backward; that in the very last debate they were on
+the point of twisting a rope for their own necks, and that the First
+President would show Mazarin his true interests, and be glad to amuse us
+by stipulating with the Court for our security without putting us in
+possession of it, and by ending the civil war in the confirmation of our
+slavery.  "The Parliament," I said, "inclines to an insecure and
+scandalous peace.  We can make the people rise to-morrow if we please;
+but ought we to attempt it?  And if we divest the Parliament of its
+authority, into what an abyss of disorders shall we not precipitate
+Paris?  But, on the other hand, if we do not raise the people, will the
+Parliament ever believe we can?  Will they be hindered from taking any
+further step in favour of the Court, destructive indeed to their own
+interest, but infallibly ruinous to us first?"
+
+M. de Bouillon, who did not believe our affairs to be in so critical a
+situation, was, together with his lady, in a state of surprise.  The mild
+and honourable answer which the Queen returned to the King's councillors
+in relation to the herald, her protestations that she sincerely forgave
+all the world, and the brilliant gloss of Talon upon her said answer,
+in an instant overturned the former resolutions of the Parliament; and if
+they regained sometimes their wonted vigour, either by some intervening
+accidents or by the skilful management of those who took care to bring
+them back to the right way, they had still an inclination to recede.
+M. de Bouillon being the wisest man of the party, I told him what I
+thought, and with him I concerted proper measures.  To the rest, I put on
+a cheerful air, and magnified every little circumstance of affairs to our
+own advantage.
+
+M. de Bouillon proposed that we should let the Parliament and the Hotel
+de Ville go on in their own way, and endeavour all we could clandestinely
+to make them odious to the people, and that we should take the first
+opportunity to secure, by banishment or imprisonment, such persons as we
+could not depend upon.  He added that Longueville, too, was of opinion
+that there was no remedy left but to purge the Houses.  This was exactly
+like him, for never was there a man so positive and violent in his
+opinion, and yet no man living could palliate it with smoother language.
+Though I thought of this expedient before M. de Bouillon, and perhaps
+could have said more for it, because I saw the possibility of it much
+clearer than he, yet I would not give him to understand that I had
+thought of it, because I knew he had the vanity to love to be esteemed
+the first author of things, which was the only weakness I observed in his
+managing State affairs.  I left him an answer in writing, in substance as
+follows:
+
+"I confess the scheme is very feasible, but attended with pernicious
+consequences both to the public and to private persons, for the same
+people whom you employ to humble the magistracy will refuse you obedience
+when you demand from them the same homage they paid to the magistrates.
+This people adored the Parliament till the beginning of the war; they are
+still for continuing the war, and yet abate their friendship for the
+Parliament.  The Parliament imagines that this applies only to some
+particular members who are Mazarined, but they are deceived, for their
+prejudice extends to the whole company, and their hatred towards
+Mazarin's party supports and screens their indifference towards all the
+rest.  We cheer up their spirits by pasquinades and ballads and the
+martial sound of trumpets and kettle-drums, but, after all, do they pay
+their taxes as punctually as they did the first few weeks?  Are there
+many that have done as you and I, monsieur, who sent our plate to the
+mint?  Do you not observe that they who would be thought zealous for the
+common cause plead in favour of some acts committed by those men who are,
+in short, its enemies?  If the people are so tired already, what will
+they be long before they come to their journey's end?
+
+"After we have established our own authority upon the ruin of the
+Parliament's, we shall certainly fall into the same inconveniences and be
+obliged to act just as they do now.  We shall impose taxes, raise moneys,
+and differ from the Parliament only in this, that the hatred and envy
+they have contracted by various ways from one-third part of the people,--
+I mean the wealthy citizens,--in the space of six weeks will devolve upon
+us, with that of the other two-thirds of the inhabitants, and will
+complete our ruin in one week.  May not the Court to-morrow put an end to
+the civil war by the expulsion of Mazarin and by raising the siege of
+Paris?  The provinces are not yet sufficiently inflamed, and therefore we
+must double our application to make the most of Paris.  Besides the
+necessity of treating with Spain and managing the people, there is
+another expedient come into my head capable of rendering us as
+considerable in Parliament as our affairs require.
+
+"We have an army in Paris which will be looked upon as the people so long
+as it continues within its walls.  Every councillor of inquest is
+inclined to believe his authority among the soldiers to be equal to that
+of the generals.  But the leaders of the people are not believed to be
+very powerful until they make their power known by its execution.  Pray
+do but consider the conduct of the Court upon this occasion.  Was there
+any minister or courtier but ridiculed all that could be said of the
+disposition of the people in favour of the Parliament even to the day of
+the barricades?  And yet it is as true that every man at Court saw
+infallible marks of the revolution beforehand.  One would have thought
+that the barricades should have convinced them; but have they been
+convinced?  Have they been hindered from besieging Paris on the slight
+supposition that, though the caprice of the people might run them into a
+mutiny, yet it would not break out into a civil war?  What we are now
+doing might undeceive them effectually; but are they yet cured of their
+infatuation?  Is not the Queen told every day that none are for the
+Parliament but hired mobs, and that all the wealthy burghers are in her
+Majesty's interests?
+
+"The Parliament is now as much infatuated as the Court was then.  This
+present disturbance among the people carries in it all the marks of power
+which, in a little time, they will feel the effects of, and which, as
+they cannot but foresee, they ought to prevent in time, because of the
+murmurs of the people against them and their redoubled affection for M.
+de Beaufort and me.  But far from it, the Parliament will never open its
+eyes until all its authority is quashed by a sudden blow.  If they see we
+have a design against them they will, perhaps, have so inconsiderable an
+opinion of it that they will take courage, and if we should but flinch,
+they will bear harder still upon us, till we shall be forced to crush
+them; but this would not turn to our account; on the contrary, it is our
+true interest to do them all the good we can, lest we divide our own
+party, and to behave in such a manner as may convince them that our
+interest and theirs are inseparable.  And the best way is to draw our
+army out of Paris, and to post it so as it may be ready to secure our
+convoys and be safe from the insults of the enemy; and I am for having
+this done at the request of the Parliament, to prevent their taking
+umbrage, till such time at least as we may find our account in it.  Such
+precautions will insensibly, as it were, necessitate the Parliament to
+act in concert with us, and our favour among the people, which is the
+only thing that can fix us in that situation, will appear to them no
+longer contemptible when they see it backed by an army which is no longer
+at their discretion."
+
+M. de Bouillon told me that M. de Turenne was upon the point of declaring
+for us, and that there were but two colonels in all his army who gave him
+any uneasiness, but that in a week's time he would find some way or other
+to manage them, and that then he would march directly to our assistance.
+"What do you think of that?" said the Duke.  "Are we not now masters both
+of the Court and Parliament?"
+
+I told the Duke that I had just seen a letter written by Hoquincourt to
+Madame de Montbazon, wherein were only these words: "0 fairest of all
+beauties, Peronne is in your power."  I added that I had received another
+letter that morning which assured me of Mazieres.  Madame de Bouillon
+threw herself on my neck; we were sure the day was our own, and in a
+quarter of an hour agreed upon all the preliminary precautions.
+
+M. de Bouillon, perceiving that I was so overjoyed at this news that I,
+as well as his lady, gave little attention to the methods he was
+proposing for drawing the army out of Paris without alarming the
+Parliament, turned to me and spoke thus, very hastily: "I pardon my wife,
+but I cannot forgive you this inadvertence.  The old Prince of Orange
+used to say that the moment one received good news should be employed in
+providing against bad."
+
+The 24th of February, 1649, the Parliament's deputies waited on the Queen
+with an account of the audience granted to the envoy of the Archduke.
+The Queen told them that they should not have given audience to the
+envoy, but that, seeing they had done it, it was absolutely necessary to
+think of a good peace,--that she was entirely well disposed; and the Duc
+d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde promised the deputies to throw open all
+the passages as soon as the Parliament should name commissioners for the
+treaty.
+
+Flamarin being sent at the same time into the city from the Duc d'Orleans
+to condole with the Queen of England on the death of her husband (King
+Charles I.), went, at La Riviere's solicitation, to M. de La
+Rochefoucault, whom he found in his bed on account of his wounds and
+quite wearied with the civil war, and persuaded him to come over to the
+Court interest.  He told Flamarin that he had been drawn into this war
+much against his inclinations, and that, had he returned from Poitou two
+months before the siege of Paris, he would have prevented Madame de
+Longueville engaging in so vile a cause, but that I had taken the
+opportunity of his absence to engage both her and the Prince de Conti,
+that he found the engagements too far advanced to be possibly dissolved,
+that the diabolical Coadjutor would not bear of any terms of peace, and
+also stopped the ears of the Prince de Conti and Madame de Longueville,
+and that he himself could not act as he would because of his bad state of
+health.  I was informed of Flamarin's negotiations for the Court
+interest, and, as the term of his passport had expired, ordered the
+'prevot des marchands' to command him to depart from the city.
+
+On the 27th the First President reported to the Parliament what had
+occurred at Saint Germain.  M. de Beaufort and I had to hinder the people
+from entering the Great Chamber, for they threatened to throw the
+deputies into the river, and said they had betrayed them and had held
+conferences with Mazarin.  It was as much as we could do to allay the
+fury of the people, though at the same time the Parliament believed the
+tumult was of our own raising.  This shows one inconvenience of
+popularity, namely, that what is committed by the rabble, in spite of all
+your endeavours to the contrary, will still be laid to your charge.
+
+Meanwhile we met at the Duc de Bouillon's to consider what was best to be
+done at this critical juncture between a people mad for war, a Parliament
+for peace, and the Spaniards either for peace or war at our expense and
+for their own advantage.  The Prince de Conti, instructed beforehand by
+M. de La Rochefoucault, spoke for carrying on the war, but acted as if he
+were for peace, and upon the whole I did not doubt but that he waited for
+some answer from Saint Germain.  M. d'Elbeuf made a silly proposal to
+send the Parliament in a body to the Bastille.  M. de Beaufort, whom we
+could not entrust with any important secret because of Madame de
+Montbazon, who was very false, wondered that his and my credit with the
+people was not made use of on this occasion.
+
+It being very evident that the Parliament would greedily catch at the
+treaty of peace proposed by the Court, it was in a manner impossible to
+answer those who urged that the only way to prevent it was to hinder
+their debates by raising tumults among the people.  M. de Beaufort held
+up both his hands for it.  M. d'Elbeuf, who had lately received a letter
+from La Riviere full of contempt, talked like an officer of the army.
+When I considered the great risk I ran if I did not prevent a tumult,
+which would certainly be laid at my door, and that, on the other hand, I
+did not dare to say all I could to stop such commotion, I was at a loss
+what to do.  But considering the temper of the populace, who might have
+been up in arms with a word from a person of any credit among us, I
+declared publicly that I was not for altering our measures till we knew
+what we were to expect from the Spaniards.
+
+I experienced on this occasion that civil wars are attended with this
+great inconvenience, that there is more need of caution in what we say to
+our friends than in what we do against our enemies.  I did not fail to
+bring the company to my mind, especially when supported by M. de
+Bouillon, who was convinced that the confusion which would happen in such
+a juncture would turn with vengeance upon the authors.  But when the
+company was gone he told me he was resolved to free himself from the
+tyranny, or, rather, pedantry of the Parliament as soon as the treaty
+with Spain was concluded, and M. de Turenne had declared himself
+publicly, and as soon as our army was without the walls of Paris.
+I answered that upon M. de Turenne's declaration I would promise him my
+concurrence, but that till then I could not separate from the Parliament,
+much less oppose them, without the danger of being banished to Brussels;
+that as for his own part, he might come off better because of his
+knowledge of military affairs, and of the assurances which Spain was able
+to give him, but, nevertheless, I desired him to remember M. d'Aumale,
+who fell into the depth of poverty as soon as he had lost all protection
+but that of Spain, and, consequently, that it was his interest as well as
+mine to side with the Parliament till we ourselves had secured some
+position in the kingdom; till the Spanish army, was actually on the march
+and our troops were encamped without the city; and till the declaration
+of M. de Turenne was carried out, which would be the decisive blow,
+because it would strengthen our party with a body of troops altogether
+independent of strangers, or rather it would form a party perfectly
+French, capable by its own strength to carry on our cause.
+
+This last consideration overjoyed Madame de Bouillon, who, however, when
+she found that the company was gone without resolving to make themselves
+masters of the Parliament, became very angry, and said to the Duke:
+
+"I told you beforehand that you would be swayed by the Coadjutor."
+
+The Duke replied: "What!  madame, would you have the Coadjutor, for our
+sakes only, run the risk of being no more than chaplain to Fuensaldagne?
+Is it possible that you cannot comprehend what he has been preaching to
+you for these last three days?"
+
+I replied to her with a great deal of temper, and said, "Don't you think
+that we shall act more securely when our troops are out of Paris, when we
+receive the Archduke's answer, and when Turenne has made a public
+declaration?"
+
+"Yes, I do," she said, "but the Parliament will take one step to-morrow
+which will render all your preliminaries of no use."
+
+"Never fear, madame," said I, "I will undertake that, if our measures
+succeed, we shall be in a condition to despise all that the Parliament
+can do."
+
+"Will you promise it?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said I, "and, more than that, I am ready to seal it with my
+blood."
+
+She took me at my word, and though the Duke used all the arguments with
+her which he could think of, she bound my thumb with silk, and with a
+needle drew blood, with which she obliged me to sign a promissory note as
+follows: "I promise to Madame la Duchesse de Bouillon to continue united
+with the Duke her husband against the Parliament in case M. de Turenne
+approaches with the army under his command within twenty leagues of Paris
+and declares for the city."  M. de Bouillon threw it into the fire, and
+endeavoured to convince the Duchess of what I had said, that if our
+preliminaries should succeed we should still stand upon our own bottom,
+notwithstanding all that the Parliament could do, and that if they did
+miscarry we should still have the satisfaction of not being the authors
+of a confusion which would infallibly cover me with shame and ruin, and
+be an uncertain advantage to the family of De Bouillon.
+
+During this discussion a captain in M. d'Elbeuf's regiment of Guards was
+seen to throw money to the crowd to encourage them to go to the
+Parliament House and cry out, "No peace!" upon which M. de Bouillon and
+I agreed to send the Duke these words upon the back of a card: "It will
+be dangerous for you to be at the Parliament House to-morrow."
+M. d'Elbeuf came in all haste to the Palace of Bouillon to know the
+meaning of this short caution.  M. de Bouillon told him he had heard that
+the people had got a notion that both the Duke and himself held a
+correspondence with Mazarin, and that therefore it was their best way not
+to go to the House for fear of the mob, which might be expected there
+next day.
+
+M. d'Elbeuf, knowing that the people did not care for him, and that he
+was no safer in his own house than elsewhere, said that he feared his
+absence on such an occasion might be interpreted to his disadvantage.
+M. de Bouillon, having no other design but to alarm him with imaginary
+fears of a public disturbance, at once made himself sure of him another
+way, by telling him it was most advisable for him to be at the
+Parliament, but that he need not expose himself, and therefore had best
+go along with me.
+
+I went with him accordingly, and found a multitude of people in the Great
+Hall, crying, "God bless the Coadjutor!  no peace!  no Mazarin!" and
+M. de Beaufort entering another way at the same time, the echoes of our
+names spread everywhere, so that the people mistook it for a concerted
+design to disturb the proceedings of Parliament, and as in a commotion
+everything that confirms us in the belief of it augments likewise the
+number of mutineers, we were very near bringing about in one moment what
+we had been a whole week labouring to prevent.
+
+The First President and President de Mesmes having, in concert with the
+other deputies, suppressed the answer the Queen made them in writing,
+lest some harsh expressions contained therein should give offence, put
+the best colour they could upon the obliging terms in which the Queen had
+spoken to them; and then the House appointed commissioners for the
+treaty, leaving it to the Queen to name the place, and agreed to send
+the King's Council next day to demand the opening of the passages,
+in pursuance of the Queen's promise.  The President de Mesmes, surprised
+to meet with no opposition, either from the generals or myself, said to
+the First President, "Here is a wonderful harmony!  but I fear the
+consequences of this dissembled moderation."  I believe he was much more
+surprised when the sergeants came to acquaint the House that the mob
+threatened to murder all that were for the conference before Mazarin was
+sent out of the kingdom.  But M. de Beaufort and I went out and soon
+dispersed them, so that the members retired without the least danger,
+which inspired the Parliament with such a degree of boldness afterwards
+that it nearly proved their ruin.
+
+On the 2d of March, 1649, letters were brought to the Parliament from the
+Duc d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde, expressing a great deal of joy at
+what the Parliament had done, but denying that the Queen had promised to
+throw open the passages, upon which the Parliament fell into such a rage
+as I cannot describe to you.  They sent orders to the King's Council,
+who were gone that morning to Saint Germain to fetch the passports for
+the deputies, to declare that the Parliament was resolved to hold no
+conference with the Court till the Queen had performed her promise made
+to the First President.  I thought it a very proper time to let the Court
+see that the Parliament had not lost all its vigour, and made a motion,
+by Broussel, that, considering the insincerity of the Court, the levies
+might be continued and new commissions given out.  The proposition was
+received with applause, and the Prince de Conti was desired to issue
+commissions accordingly.
+
+M. de Beaufort, in concert with M. de Bouillon, M. de La Mothe and
+myself, exclaimed against this contravention, and offered, in the name of
+his colleagues and his own, to open all the passages themselves if the
+Parliament would but take a firm resolution and be no more beguiled by
+deceitful proposals, which had only served to keep the whole nation in
+suspense, who would otherwise have declared by this time in favour of its
+capital.  It is inconceivable what influence these few words had upon the
+audience, everybody concluded that the treaty was already broken off; but
+a moment after they thought the contrary, for the King's Council returned
+with the passports for the deputies, and instead of an order for opening
+the passages, a grant--such a one as it was--of 500 quarters of corn per
+diem was made for the subsistence of the city.  However, the Parliament
+took all in good part; all that had been said and done a quarter of an
+hour before was buried in oblivion, and they made preparations to go next
+day to Ruel, the place named by the Queen for the conference.
+
+The Prince de Conti, M. de Beaufort, M. d'Elbeuf, Marechal de La Mothe,
+M. de Brissac, President Bellievre, and myself met that night at M. de
+Bouillon's house, where a motion was made for the generals of the army
+to send a deputation likewise to the place of conference; but it was
+quashed, and indeed nothing would have been more absurd than such a
+proceeding when we were upon the point of concluding a treaty with Spain;
+and, considering that we told the envoy that we should never have
+consented to hold any conference with the Court were we not assured that
+it was in our power to break it off at pleasure by means of the people.
+
+The Parliament having lately reproached both the generals and troops with
+being afraid to venture without the gates, M. de Bouillon, seeing the
+danger was over, proposed at this meeting, for the satisfaction of the
+citizens, to carry them to a camp betwixt the Marne and the Seine, where
+they might be as safe as at Paris.  The motion was agreed to without
+consulting the Parliament, and, accordingly, on the 4th of March, the
+troops marched out and the deputies of Parliament went to Ruel.
+
+The Court party flattered themselves that, upon the marching of the
+militia out of Paris, the citizens, being left to themselves, would
+become more tractable, and the President de Mesmes made his boast of
+what he said to the generals, to persuade them to encamp their army.
+But Senneterre, one of the ablest men at Court, soon penetrated our
+designs and undeceived the Court.  He told the First President and
+De Mesmes that they were beguiled and that they would see it in a little
+time.  The First President, who could never see two different things at
+one view, was so overjoyed when he heard the forces had gone out of Paris
+that he cried out:
+
+"Now the Coadjutor will have no more mercenary brawlers at the Parliament
+House."
+
+"Nor," said the President de Mesmes, "so many cutthroats."
+
+Senneterre, like a wise man, said to them both:
+
+"It is not the Coadjutor's interest to murder you, but to bring you
+under.  The people would serve his turn for the first if he aimed at it,
+and the army is admirably well encamped for the latter.  If he is not a
+more honest man than he is looked upon to be here, we are likely to have
+a tedious civil war."
+
+The Cardinal confessed that Senneterre was in the right, for, on the
+one hand, the Prince de Conde perceived that our army, being so
+advantageously posted as not to be attacked, would be capable of giving
+him more trouble than if they were still within the walls of the city,
+and, on the other hand, we began to talk with more courage in Parliament
+than usual.
+
+The afternoon of the 4th of March gave us a just occasion to show it.
+The deputies arriving at Ruel understood that Cardinal Mazarin was one
+of the commissioners named by the Queen to assist at the conference.
+The Parliamentary deputies pretended that they could not confer with a
+person actually condemned by Parliament.  M. de Tellier told them in the
+name of the Duc d'Orleans that the Queen thought it strange that they
+were not contented to treat upon an equality with their sovereign, but
+that they should presume to limit his authority by excluding his
+deputies.  The First President and the Court seeming to be immovable, we
+sent orders to our deputies not to comply, and to communicate, as a great
+secret, to President de Mesmes and M. Menardeau, both creatures of the
+Court, the following postscript of a letter I wrote to Longueville:
+
+     "P.S.--We have concerted our measures, and are now capable to speak
+     more to the purpose than we have been hitherto, and since I finished
+     this letter I have received a piece of news which obliges me to tell
+     you that if the Parliament do not behave very prudently, they will
+     certainly be ruined."
+
+Upon this the deputies were resolved to insist upon excluding the
+Cardinal from the conference, a determination which was so odious to the
+people that, had we permitted it, we should certainly have lost all our
+credit with them, and been obliged to shut the gates against our deputies
+upon their return.
+
+When the Court saw that the deputies desired a convoy to conduct them
+home, they found out an expedient, which was received with great joy;
+namely, to appoint two deputies on the part of the Parliament, and two on
+the part of the King, to confer at the house of the Duc d'Orleans,
+exclusive of the Cardinal, who was thereupon obliged to return to Saint
+Germain with mortification.
+
+On the 5th of March, Don Francisco Pisarro, a second envoy from the
+Archduke, arrived in Paris, with his and Count Fuensaldagne's answer to
+our former despatches by Don Jose d'Illescas, and full powers for a
+treaty; instructions for M. de Bouillon, an obliging letter from the
+Archduke to the Prince de Conti, and another to myself, from Count
+Fuensaldagne, importing that the King, his master, would not take my
+word, but would depend upon whatever I promised Madame de Bouillon.
+
+The Prince de Conti and Madame de Longueville, prompted by M. de La
+Rochefoucault, were for an alliance with Spain, in a manner without
+restriction.  M. d'Elbeuf aimed at nothing but getting money.  M. de
+Beaufort, at the persuasion of Madame de Montbazon, who was resolved to
+sell him dear to the Spaniards, was very scrupulous to enter into a
+treaty with the enemies of the State; Marechal de La Mothe declared he
+could not come to any resolution till he saw M. de Longueville, and
+Madame de Longueville questioned whether her husband would come into it;
+and yet these very persons but a fortnight before unanimously wrote to
+the Archduke for full powers to treat with him.
+
+M. de Bouillon told them that he thought they were absolutely obliged to
+treat with Spain, considering the advances they had already made to the
+Archduke to that end, and desired them to recollect how they had told his
+envoy that they waited only for these full powers and instructions to
+treat with him; that the Archduke had now sent his full powers in the
+most obliging manner; and that, moreover, he had already gone out of
+Brussels, to lead his army himself to their assistance, without staying
+for their engagement.  He begged them to consider that if they took the
+least step backwards, after such advances, it might provoke Spain to take
+such measures as would be both contrary to our security and to our
+honour; that the ill-concerted proceedings of the Parliament gave us just
+grounds to fear being left to shift for ourselves; that indeed our army
+was now more useful than it had been before, but--yet not strong enough
+to give us relief in proportion to our necessities, especially if it were
+not, at least in the beginning, supported by a powerful force; and that,
+consequently, a treaty was necessary to be entered into and concluded
+with the Archduke, but not upon any mean conditions; that his envoys had
+brought carte blanche, but that we ought to consider how to fill it up;
+that he promised us everything, but though in treaties the strongest may
+safely promise to the weaker what he thinks fit, it is certain he cannot
+perform everything, and therefore the weakest should be very wary.
+
+The Duke added that the Spaniards, of all people, expected honourable
+usage at the beginning of treaties, and he conjured them to leave the
+management of the Spanish envoys to himself and the Coadjutor, "who,"
+said he, "has declared all along that he expects no advantage either from
+the present troubles or from any arrangement, and is therefore altogether
+to be depended upon."
+
+This discourse was relished by all the company, who accordingly engaged
+us to compare notes with the envoys of Spain, and make our report to the
+Prince de Conti and the other generals.
+
+M. de Bouillon assured me that the Spaniards would not enter upon French
+ground till we engaged ourselves not to lay down our arms except in
+conjunction with them; that is, in a treaty for a general peace; but our
+difficulty was how to enter into an engagement of that nature at a time
+when we could not be sure but that the Parliament might conclude a
+particular peace the next moment.  In the meantime a courier came in from
+M. de Turenne, crying, "Good news!" as he entered into the court.  He
+brought letters for Madame and Mademoiselle de Bouillon and myself, by
+which we were assured that M. de Turenne and his army, which was without
+dispute the finest at that time in all Europe, had declared for us; that
+Erlach, Governor of Brisac, had with him 1,000 or 1,200 men, who were all
+he had been able to seduce; that my dear friend and kinsman, the Vicomte
+de Lamet, was marching directly to our assistance with 2,000 horse; and
+that M. de Turenne was to follow on such a day with the larger part of
+the army.  You will be surprised, without doubt, to hear that M. de
+Turenne, General of the King's troops, one who was never a party man,
+and would never hear talk of party intrigues, should now declare against
+the Court and perform an action which, I am sure, Le Balafre--
+
+     [Henri de Lorraine, first of that name, Duc de Guise, surnamed Le
+     Balafre, because of a wound he received in the left cheek at the
+     battle of Dormans, the scar of which he carried to his grave.  He
+     formed the League, and was stabbed at an assembly of the States of
+     Blois in 1588.]
+
+and Amiral de Coligny would not have undertaken without hesitation.
+Your wonder will increase yet more when I tell you that the motive of
+this surprising conduct of his is a secret to this day.  His behaviour
+also during his declaration, which he supported but five days, is equally
+surprising and mysterious.  This shows that it is possible for some
+extraordinary characters to be raised above the malice and envy of vulgar
+souls; for the merit of any person inferior to the Marshal must have been
+totally eclipsed by such an unaccountable event.
+
+Upon the arrival of this express from Turenne I told M. de Bouillon it
+was my opinion that, if the Spaniards would engage to advance as far as
+Pont-a-Verre and act on this side of it in concert only with us, we
+should make no scruple of pledging ourselves not to lay down our arms
+till the conclusion of a general peace, provided they kept their promise
+given to the Parliament of referring themselves to its arbitration.
+"The true interest of the public," said I, "is a general peace, that of
+the Parliament and other bodies is the reestablishment of good order,
+and that of your Grace and others, with myself, is to contribute to the
+before-mentioned blessings in such manner that we may be esteemed the
+authors of them; all other advantages are necessarily attached to this,
+and the only way to acquire them is to show that we do not value them.
+You know that I have frequently vowed I had no private interest to serve
+in this affair, and I will keep my vow to the end.  Your circumstances
+are different from mine; you aim at Sedan, and you are in the right.
+M. de Beaufort wants to be admiral, and I cannot blame him.
+M. de Longueville has other demands--with all my heart.  The Prince de
+Conti and Madame de Longueville would be, for the future, independent of
+the Prince de Conde; that independence they shall have.
+
+"Now, in order to attain to these ends, the only means is to look another
+way, to turn all our thoughts to bring about a general peace, and to sign
+to-morrow the most solemn and positive engagement with the enemy, and,
+the better to please the public, to insert in the articles the expulsion
+of Cardinal Mazarin as their mortal enemy, to cause the Spanish forces to
+come up immediately to Pont-a-Verre, and those of M. de Turenne to
+advance into Champagne, and to go without any loss of time to propose to
+the Parliament what Don Josh d'Illescas has offered them already in
+relation to a general peace, to dispose them to vote as we would have
+them, which they will not fail to do considering the circumstances we are
+now in, and to send orders to our deputies at Ruel either to get the
+Queen to nominate a place to confer about a general peace or to return
+the next day to their seats in Parliament.  I am willing to think that
+the Court, seeing to what an extremity they are reduced, will comply,
+than which what can be more for our honour?
+
+"And if the Court should refuse this proposition at present, will they
+not be of another mind before two months are at an end?  Will not the
+provinces, which are already hesitating, then declare in our favour?
+And is the army of the Prince de Conde in a condition to engage that of
+Spain and ours in conjunction with that of M. de Turenne?  These two
+last, when joined, will put us above all the apprehensions from foreign
+forces which have hitherto made us uneasy; they will depend much more on
+us than we on them; we shall continue masters of Paris by our own
+strength, and the more securely because the intervening authority of
+Parliament will the more firmly unite us to the people.  The declaration
+of M. de Turenne is the only means to unite Spain with the Parliament for
+our defence, which we could not have as much as hoped for otherwise;
+it gives us an opportunity to engage with Parliament, in concert with
+whom we cannot act amiss, and this is the only moment when such an
+engagement is both possible and profitable.  The First President and
+De Mesmes are now out of the way, and it will be much easier for us to
+obtain what we want in Parliament than if they were present, and if what
+is commanded in the Parliamentary decree is faithfully executed, we shall
+gain our point, and unite the Chambers for that great work of a general
+peace.  If the Court still rejects our proposals, and those of the
+deputies who are for the Court refuse to follow our motion or to share in
+our fortune, we shall gain as much in another respect; we shall keep
+ourselves still attached to the body of the Parliament, from which they
+will be deemed deserters, and we shall have much greater weight in the
+House than now.
+
+"This is my opinion, which I am willing to sign and to offer to the
+Parliament if you seize this, the only opportunity.  For if M. de Turenne
+should alter his mind before it be done, I should then oppose this scheme
+with as much warmth as I now recommend it."
+
+The Duke said in answer: "Nothing can have a more promising aspect than
+what you have now proposed; it is very practicable, but equally
+pernicious for all private persons.  Spain will promise all, but perform
+nothing after we have once promised to enter into no treaty, with the
+Court but for a general peace.  This being the only thing the Spaniards
+have in view, they will abandon us as soon as they, can obtain it, and if
+we urge on this great scheme at once, as you would have us, they would
+undoubtedly obtain it in a fortnight's time, for France would certainly
+make it with precipitation, and I know the Spaniards would be glad to
+purchase it on any terms.  This being the case, in what a condition shall
+we be the next day after we have made and procured this general peace?
+We should indeed have the honour of it, but would this honour screen us
+against the hatred and curses of the Court?  Would the house of Austria
+take up arms again to rescue you and me from a prison?  You will say,
+perhaps, we may stipulate some conditions with Spain which may secure us
+from all insults of this kind; but I think I shall have answered this
+objection when I assure you that Spain is so pressed with home troubles
+that she would not hesitate, for the sake of peace, to break the most
+solemn promises made to us; and this is an inconvenience for which I see
+no remedy.
+
+"If Spain should be worse than her word with respect to the expulsion of
+Mazarin, what will become of us?  And will the honour of our contributing
+to the general peace atone for the preservation of a minister to get rid
+of whom they took up arms?  You know how they abhor the Cardinal; and,
+suppose the Cardinal be excluded from the Ministry, according to promise,
+shall we not still be exposed to the hatred of the Queen, to the
+resentment of the Prince de Conde, and to all the evil consequences that
+may be expected from an enraged Court for such an action?  There is no
+true glory but what is durable; transitory honour is mere smoke.  Of this
+sort is that which we shall acquire by this peace, if we do not support
+it by such alliances as will gain us the reputation of wisdom as well as
+of honesty.  I admire your disinterestedness above all, and esteem it,
+but I am very well assured that if mine went the length of yours you
+would not, approve of it.  Your family is settled; consider mine, and
+cast your eyes on the condition of this lady and on that of both the
+father and children."
+
+I answered: "The Spaniards must needs have great regard for us, seeing us
+absolute masters of Paris, with eight thousand foot and three thousand
+horse at its gates, and the best disciplined troops in the world marching
+to our assistance."  I did all I could to bring him over to my opinion,
+and he strove as much to persuade me to enter into his measures; namely,
+to pretend to the envoys that we were absolutely resolved to act in
+concert with them for a general peace, but to tell them at the same time
+that we thought it more proper that the Parliament should likewise be
+consulted; and, as that would require some time, we might in the
+meanwhile occupy the envoys by signing a treaty with them, previous to
+coming to terms with.  The Parliament, which by its tenor would not tie
+us up to conclude anything positively in relation to the general peace;
+"yet this," said he, "would be a sufficient motive to cause them to
+advance with their army, and that of my brother will come up at the same
+time, which will astonish the Court and incline them to an arrangement.
+And forasmuch as in our treaty with Spain we leave a back door open by
+the clause which relates to the Parliament, we shall be sure to make good
+use of it for the advantage of the public and of ourselves in case of the
+Court's noncompliance."
+
+These considerations, though profoundly wise, did not convince me,
+because I thought his inference was not well-grounded.  I saw he might
+well enough engage the attention of the envoys, but I could not imagine
+how he could beguile the Parliament, who were actually treating with the
+Court by their deputies sent to Ruel, and who would certainly run madly
+into a peace, notwithstanding all their late performances.  I foresaw
+that without a public declaration to restrain the Parliament from going
+their own lengths we should fall again, if one of our strings chanced to
+break, into the necessity of courting the assistance of the people, which
+I looked upon as the most dangerous proceeding of all.
+
+M. de Bouillon asked me what I meant by saying, "if one of our strings
+chanced to break."  I replied, "For example, if M. de Turenne should be
+dead at this juncture, or if his army has revolted, as it was likely to
+do under the influence of M. d'Erlach, pray what would become of us if we
+should not engage the Parliament?  We should be tribunes of the people
+one day, and the next valets de chambre to Count Fuensaldagne.
+Everything with the Parliament and nothing without them is the burden of
+my song."
+
+After several hours' dispute neither of us was convinced, and I went away
+very much perplexed, the rather because M. de Bouillon, being the great
+confidant of the Spaniards, I doubted not but he could make their envoys
+believe what he pleased.
+
+I was still more puzzled when I came home and found a letter from Madame
+de Lesdiguieres, offering me extraordinary advantages in the Queen's name
+the payment of my debts, the grant of certain abbeys, and a nomination to
+the dignity of cardinal.  Another note I found with these words: "The
+declaration of the army of Germany has put us all into consternation."
+I concluded they would not fail to try experiments with others as well as
+myself, and since M. de Bouillon began to think of a back door when all
+things smiled upon us, I guessed the rest of our party would not neglect
+to enter the great door now flung open to receive them by the declaration
+of M. de Turenne.  That which afflicted me most of all was to see that
+M. de Bouillon was not a man of that judgment and penetration I took him
+for in this critical and decisive juncture, when the question was the
+engaging or not engaging the Parliament.  He had urged me more than
+twenty times to do what I now offered, and the reason why I now urged
+what I before rejected was the declaration of M. de Turenne, his own
+brother, which should have made him bolder than I; but, instead of this,
+it slackened his courage, and he flattered himself that Cardinal Mazarin
+would let him have Sedan.  This was the centre of all his views, and he
+preferred these petty advantages to what he might have gained by
+procuring peace to Europe.  This false step made me pass this judgment
+upon the Duke: that, though he was a person of very great parts, yet I
+questioned his capacity for the mighty things which he has not done, and
+of which some men thought him very capable.  It is the greatest
+remissness on the part of a great man to neglect the moment that is to
+make his reputation, and this negligence, indeed, scarcely ever happens
+but when a man expects another moment as favourable to make his fortune;
+and so people are commonly deceived both ways.
+
+The Duke was more nice than wise at this juncture, which is very often
+the case.  I found afterwards that the Prince de Conti was of his
+opinion, and I guessed, by some circumstances, that he was engaged in
+some private negotiation.  M. d'Elbeuf was as meek as a lamb, and seemed,
+as far as he dared, to improve what had been advanced already by M. de
+Bouillon.  A servant of his told me also that he believed his master had
+made his peace with the Court.  M. de Beaufort showed by his behaviour
+that Madame de Montbazon had done what she could to cool his courage, but
+his irresolution did not embarrass me very much, because I knew I had her
+in my power, and his vote, added to that of MM. de Brissac, de La Mothe,
+de Noirmoutier and de Bellievre, who all fell in with my sentiments,
+would have turned the balance on my side if the regard for M. de Turenne,
+who was now the life and soul of the party, and the Spaniards' confidence
+in M. de Bouillon, had not obliged me to make a virtue of necessity.
+
+I found both the Archduke's envoys quite of an other mind; indeed, they
+were still desirous of an agreement for a general peace, but they would
+have it after the manner of M. de Bouillon, at two separate times, which
+he had made them believe would be more for their advantage, because
+thereby we should bring the Parliament into it.  I saw who was at the
+bottom of it, and, considering the orders they had to follow his advice
+in everything, all I could allege to the contrary would be of no use.  I
+laid the state of affairs before the President de Bellievre, who was of
+my opinion, and considered that a contrary course would infallibly prove
+our ruin, thinking, nevertheless, that compliance would be highly
+convenient at this time, because we depended absolutely on the Spaniards
+and on M. de Turenne, who had hitherto made no proposals but such as were
+dictated by M. de Bouillon.
+
+When I found that all M. de Bellievre and I said could not persuade M. de
+Bouillon, I feigned to come round to his opinion, and to submit to the
+authority of the Prince de Conti, our Generalissimo.  We agreed to treat
+with the Archduke upon the plan of M. de Bouillon; that is, that he
+should advance his army as far as Pont-A-Verre, and further, if the
+generals desired it; who, on their part, would omit nothing to oblige the
+Parliament to enter into this treaty, or rather, to make a new one for a
+general peace; that is to say, to oblige the King to treat upon
+reasonable conditions, the particulars whereof his Catholic Majesty would
+refer to the arbitration of the Parliament.  M. de Bouillon engaged to
+have this treaty 'in totidem verbis' signed by the Spanish ministers, and
+did not so much as ask me whether I would sign it or no.  All the company
+rejoiced at having the Spaniards' assistance upon such easy terms, and at
+being at full liberty to receive the propositions of the Court, which
+now, upon the declaration of M. de Turenne, could not fail to be very
+advantageous.
+
+The treaty was accordingly signed in the Prince de Conti's room at the
+Hotel de Ville, but I forbore to set my hand to it, though solicited by
+M. de Bouillon, unless they would come to some final resolution; yet I
+gave them my word that, if the Parliament would be contented, I had such
+expedients in my power as would give them all the time necessary to
+withdraw their troops.  I had two reasons for what I said: first, I knew
+Fuensaldagne to be a wise man, that he would be of a different opinion
+from his envoys, and that he would never venture his army into the heart
+of the kingdom with so little assurance from the generals and none at all
+from me; secondly, because I was willing to show to our generals that I
+would not, as far as it lay in my power, suffer the Spaniards to be
+treacherously surprised or insulted in case of an arrangement between the
+Court and the Parliament; though I had protested twenty times in the same
+conference that I would not separate myself from the Parliament.
+
+M. d'Elbeuf said, "You cannot find the expedients you talk of but in
+having recourse to the people."
+
+"M. de Bouillon will answer for me," said I, "that it is not there that I
+am to find my expedients."
+
+M. de Bouillon, being desirous that I should sign, said, "I know that it
+is not your intent, but I am fully persuaded that you mean well, that you
+do not act as you would propose, and that we retain more respect for the
+Parliament by signing than you do by refusing to sign; for, "speaking
+very low, that he might not be heard by the Spanish ministers, "we keep a
+back door open to get off handsomely with the Parliament."
+
+"They will open that door," said I, "when you could wish it shut, as is
+but too apparent already, and you will be glad to shut it when you
+cannot; the Parliament is not a body to be jested with."
+
+After the signing of the treaty, I was told that the envoys had given
+2,000 pistoles to Madame de Montbazon and as much to M. d'Elbeuf.
+
+De Bellievre, who waited for me at home, whither I returned full of
+vexation, used an expression which has been since verified by the event:
+"We failed, this day," said he, "to induce the Parliament, which if we
+had done, all had been safe and right.  Pray God that everything goes
+well, for if but one of our strings fails us we are undone."
+
+As for the conferences for a peace with the Court at Ruel, it was
+proposed on the Queen's part that the Parliament should adjourn their
+session to Saint Germain, just to ratify the articles of the peace,
+and not to meet afterwards for two or three years; but the deputies of
+Parliament insisted that it was their privilege to assemble when and
+where they pleased.  When these and the like stories came to the ears of
+the Parisians they were so incensed that the only talk of the Great
+Chamber was to recall the deputies, and the generals seeing themselves
+now respected by the Court, who had little regard for them before the
+declaration of M. de Turenne, thought that the more the Court was
+embarrassed the better, and therefore incited the Parliament and people
+to clamour, that the Cardinal might see that things did not altogether
+depend upon the conference at Ruel.  I, likewise, contributed what lay in
+my power to moderate the precipitation of the First President and
+President de Mesmes towards anything that looked like an agreement.
+
+On the 8th of March the Prince de Conti told the Parliament that M. de
+Turenne offered them his services and person against Cardinal Mazarin,
+the enemy of the State.  I said that I was informed a declaration had
+been issued the night before at Saint Germain against M. de Turenne, as
+guilty of high treason.  The Parliament unanimously passed a decree to
+annul it, to authorise his taking arms, to enjoin all the King's subjects
+to give him free passage and support, and to raise the necessary funds
+for the payment of his troops, lest the 800,000 livres sent from Court to
+General d'Erlach should corrupt the officers and soldiers.  A severe
+edict was issued against Courcelles, Lavardin, and Amilly, who had levied
+troops for the King in the province of Maine, and the commonalty were
+permitted to meet at the sound of the alarm-bell and to fall foul of all
+those who had held assemblies without order of Parliament.
+
+On the 9th a decree was passed to suspend the conference till all the
+promises made by the Court to allow the entry of provisions were
+punctually executed.
+
+The Prince de Conti informed the House the same day that he was desired
+by M. de Longueville to assure them that he would set out from Rouen on
+the 15th with 7,000 foot and 3,000 horse, and march directly to Saint
+Germain; the Parliament was incredibly overjoyed, and desired the Prince
+de Conti to press him to hasten his march as much as possible.
+
+On the 10th the member for Normandy told the House that the Parliament of
+Rennes only stayed for the Duc de la Tremouille to join against the
+common enemy.
+
+On the 11th an envoy from M. de la Tremouille offered the Parliament,
+in his master's name, 8,000 foot and 2,000 horse, who were in a condition
+to march in two days, provided the House would permit his master to seize
+on all the public money at Poitiers, Niort, and other places whereof he
+was already master.  The Parliament thanked him, passed a decree with
+full powers accordingly, and desired him to hasten his levies with all
+expedition.
+
+Posterity will hardly believe that, notwithstanding all this heat in the
+party, which one would have thought could not have immediately
+evaporated, a peace was made and signed the same day; but of this more by
+and by.
+
+While the Court, as has been before hinted, was tampering with the
+generals, Madame de Montbazon promised M. de Beaufort's support to the
+Queen; but her Majesty understood that it was not to be done if I were
+not at the market to approve of the sale.  La Riviere despised M.
+d'Elbeuf no longer.  M. de Bouillon, since his brother's declaration,
+seemed more inclined than before to come to an arrangement with the
+Court, but his pretentions ran very high, and both the brothers were in
+such a situation that a little assistance would not suffice, and as to
+the offers made to myself by Madame de Lesdiguieres, I returned such an
+answer as convinced the Court that I was not so easily to be moved.
+
+In short, Cardinal Mazarin found all the avenues to a negotiation either
+shut or impassable.  This despair of success in the Court was eventually
+more to the advantage of the Court than the most refined politics, for it
+did not hinder them from negotiating, the Cardinal's natural temper not
+permitting him to do otherwise; but, however, he could not trust to the
+carrying out of negotiations, and therefore beguiled our generals with
+fair promises, while he remitted 800,000 livres to buy off the army of
+M. de Turenne, and obliged the deputies at Ruel to sign a peace against
+the orders of the Parliament that sent them.  The President de Mesmes
+assured me several times since that this peace was purely the result of a
+conversation he had with the Cardinal on the 8th of March at night, when
+his Eminence told him he saw plainly that M. de Bouillon would not treat
+till he had the Spaniards and M. de Turenne at the gates of Paris; that
+is, till he saw himself in the position to seize one-half of the kingdom.
+The President made him this answer:
+
+"There is no hope of any security but in making the Coadjutor
+a cardinal."
+
+To which Mazarin answered: "He is worse than the other, who at least
+seemed once inclined to treat, but he is still for a general peace, or
+for none at all."
+
+President de Mesmes replied: "If things are come to this pass we must be
+the victims to save the State from perishing--we must sign the peace.
+For after what the Parliament has done to-day there is no remedy, and
+perhaps tomorrow we shall be recalled; if we are disowned in what we do
+we are ruined, the gates of Paris will be shut against us, and we shall
+be prosecuted and treated as prevaricators and traitors.  It is our
+business and concern to procure such conditions as will give us good
+ground to justify our proceedings, and if the terms are but reasonable,
+we know how to improve them against the factions; but make them as you
+please yourself, I will sign them all, and will go this moment to
+acquaint the First President that this is the only expedient to save the
+State.  If it takes effect we have peace, if we are disowned by the
+Parliament we still weaken the faction, and the danger will fall upon
+none but ourselves."  He added that with much difficulty he had persuaded
+the First President.
+
+The peace was signed by Cardinal Mazarin, as well as by the other
+deputies, on the part of the King.  The substance of the articles was
+that Parliament should just go to Saint Germain to proclaim the peace,
+and then return to Paris, but hold no assembly that year; that all their
+public decrees since the 6th of January should be made void, as likewise
+all ordinances of Council, declarations and 'lettres de cachet'; that as
+soon as the King had withdrawn his troops from Paris, all the forces
+raised for the defence of the city should be disbanded, and the
+inhabitants lay down their arms and not take them up again without the
+King's order; that the Archduke's deputy should be dismissed without an
+answer, that there should be a general amnesty, and that the King should
+also give a general discharge for all the public money made use of, as
+also for the movables sold and for all the arms and ammunition taken out
+of the arsenal and elsewhere.
+
+M. and Madame de Bouillon were extremely surprised when they heard that
+the peace was signed.  I did not expect the Parliament would make it so
+soon, but I said frequently that it would be a very shameful one if we
+should let them alone to make it.  M. de Bouillon owned that I had
+foretold it often enough.  "I confess," said he, "that we are entirely to
+blame," which expression made me respect him more than ever, for I think
+it a greater virtue for a man to confess a fault than not to commit one.
+The Prince de Conti, MM. d'Elbeuf, de Beaufort, and de La Mothe were very
+much surprised, too, at the signing of the peace, especially because
+their agent at Saint Germain had assured them that the Court was fully
+persuaded that the Parliament was but a cipher, and that the generals
+were the men with whom they must negotiate.  I confess that Cardinal
+Mazarin acted a very wily part in this juncture, and he is the more to be
+commended because he was obliged to defend himself, not only against the
+monstrous impertinences of La Riviere, but against the violent passion of
+the Prince de Conde.
+
+We held a council at the Duc de Bouillon's, where I persuaded them that
+as our deputies were recalled by an order despatched from Parliament
+before the treaty was signed, it was therefore void, and that we ought to
+take no notice of it, the rather because it had not been communicated to
+Parliament in form; and, finally, that the deputies should be charged to
+insist on a general treaty of peace and on the expulsion of Mazarin; and,
+if they did not succeed, to return forthwith to their seats in
+Parliament.  But I added that if the deputies should have time to return
+and make their report, we should be under the necessity of protesting,
+which would so incense the people against them that we should not be able
+to keep them from butchering the First President and the President de
+Mesmes, so that we should be reputed the authors of the tragedy, and,
+though formidable one day, should be every whit as odious the next.
+I concluded with offering to sacrifice my coadjutorship of Paris to the
+anger of the Queen and the hatred of the Cardinal, and that very
+cheerfully, if they would but come into my measures.
+
+M. de Bouillon, after having opposed my reasons, concluded thus: "I know
+that my brother's declaration and my urging the necessity of his
+advancing with the army before we come to a positive resolution may give
+ground to a belief that I have great views for our family.  I do not deny
+but that I hope for some advantages, and am persuaded it is lawful for me
+to do so, but I will be content to forfeit my reputation if I ever agree
+with the Court till you all say you are satisfied; and if I do not keep
+my word I desire the Coadjutor to disgrace me."
+
+After all I thought it best to submit to the Prince de Conti and the
+voice of the majority, who resolved very wisely not to explain themselves
+in detail next morning in Parliament, but that the Prince de Conti should
+only say, in general, that it being the common report that the peace was
+signed at Ruel, he was resolved to send deputies thither to take care of
+his and the other generals' interests.
+
+The Prince agreed at once with our decision.  Meantime the people rose at
+the report I had spread concerning Mazarin's signing the treaty, which,
+though we all considered it a necessary stratagem, I now repented of.
+This shows that a civil war is one of those complicated diseases wherein
+the remedy you prescribe for obviating one dangerous symptom sometimes
+inflames three or four others.
+
+On the 13th the deputies of Ruel entering the Parliament House, which was
+in great tumult, M. d'Elbeuf, contrary to the resolution taken at M. de
+Bouillon's, asked the deputies whether they had taken care of the
+interest of the generals in the treaty.
+
+The First President was going to make his report, but was almost stunned
+with the clamour of the whole company, crying, "There is no peace! there
+is no peace!" that the deputies had scandalously deserted the generals
+and all others whom the Parliament had joined by the decree of union,
+and, besides, that they had concluded a peace after the revocation of the
+powers given them to treat.  The Prince de Conti said very calmly that he
+wondered they had concluded a treaty without the generals; to which the
+First President answered that the generals had always protested that they
+had no separate interests from those of the Parliament, and it was their
+own fault that they had not sent their deputies.  M. de Bouillon said
+that, since Cardinal Mazarin was to continue Prime Minister, he desired
+that Parliament should obtain a passport for him to retire out of the
+kingdom.  The First President replied that his interest had been taken
+care of, and that he would have satisfaction for Sedan.  But M. de
+Bouillon told him that he might as well have said nothing, and that he
+would never separate from the other generals.  The clamour redoubled with
+such fury that President de Mesmes trembled like an aspen leaf.  M. de
+Beaufort, laying his hand upon his sword, said, "Gentlemen, this shall
+never be drawn for Mazarin."
+
+The Presidents de Coigneux and de Bellievre proposed that the deputies
+might be sent back to treat about the interests of the generals and to
+reform the articles which the Parliament did not like; but they were soon
+silenced by a sudden noise in the Great Hall, and the usher came in
+trembling and said that the people called for M. de Beaufort.  He went
+out immediately, and quieted them for the time, but no sooner had he got
+inside the House than the disturbance began afresh, and an infinite
+number of people, armed with daggers, called out for the original treaty,
+that they might have Mazarin's sign-manual burnt by the hangman, adding
+that if the deputies had signed the peace of their own accord they ought
+to be hanged, and if against their will they ought to be disowned.  They
+were told that the sign-manual of the Cardinal could not be burnt without
+burning at the same time that of the Duc d'Orleans, but that the deputies
+were to be sent back again to get the articles amended.  The people still
+cried out, "No peace! no Mazarin!  You must go!  We will have our good
+King fetched from Saint Germain, and all Mazarins thrown into the river!"
+
+The people were ready to break open the great door of the House, yet the
+First President was so far from being terrified that, when he was advised
+to pass through the registry into his own house that he might not be
+seen, he replied, "If I was sure to perish I would never be guilty of
+such cowardice, which would only serve to make the mob more insolent, who
+would be ready to come to my house if they thought I was afraid of them
+here."  And when I begged him not to expose himself till I had pacified
+the people he passed it off with a joke, by which I found he took me for
+the author of the disturbance, though very unjustly.  However, I did not
+resent it, but went into the Great Hall, and, mounting the solicitors'
+bench, waved my hands to the people, who thereupon cried, "Silence!"
+I said all I could think of to make them easy.  They asked if I would
+promise that the Peace of Ruel should not be kept.  I answered, "Yes,
+provided the people will be quiet, for otherwise their best friends will
+be obliged to take other methods to prevent such disturbances."  I acted
+in a quarter of an hour above thirty different parts.  I threatened, I
+commanded, I entreated them; and, finding I was sure of a calm, at least
+for a moment, I returned to the House, and, embracing the First
+President, placed him before me; M. de Beaufort did the same with
+President de Mesmes, and thus we went out with the Parliament, all in a
+body, the officers of the House marching in front.  The people made a
+great noise, and we heard some crying, "A republic!"  but no injury was
+offered to us, only M. de Bouillon received a blow in his face from a
+ragamuffin, who took him for Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+On the 16th the deputies were sent again to Ruel by the Parliament to
+amend some of the articles, particularly those for adjourning the
+Parliament to Saint Germain and prohibiting their future assemblies;
+with an order to take care of the interest of the generals and of the
+companies, joined together by the decree of union.
+
+The late disturbances obliged the Parliament to post the city trained-
+bands at their gates, who were even more enraged against the "Mazarin
+peace," as they called it, than the mob, and who were far less dreaded,
+because they consisted of citizens who were not for plunder; yet this
+select militia was ten times on the point of insulting the Parliament,
+and did actually insult the members of the Council and Presidents,
+threatening to throw the President de Thore into the river; and when the
+First President and his friends saw that they were afraid of putting
+their threats into execution, they took an advantage of us, and had the
+boldness even to reproach the generals, as if the troops had not done
+their duty; though if the generals had but spoken loud enough to be heard
+by the people, they would not have been able to hinder them from tearing
+the members to pieces.
+
+The Duc de Bouillon came to the Hotel de Ville and made a speech there to
+Prince de Conti and the other generals, in substance as follows:
+
+"I could never have believed what I now see of this Parliament.  On the
+13th they would not hear the Peace of Ruel mentioned, but on the 15th
+they approved of it, some few articles excepted; on the 16th they
+despatched the same deputies who had concluded a peace against their
+orders with full and unlimited powers, and, not content with all this,
+they load us with reproaches because we complain that they have treated
+for a peace without us, and have abandoned M. de Longueville and M. de
+Turenne; and yet it is owing only to us that the people do not massacre
+them.  We must save their lives at the hazard of our own, and I own that
+it is wisdom so to do; but we shall all of us certainly perish with the
+Parliament if we let them go on at this rate."  Then, addressing himself
+to the Prince de Conti, he said, "I am for closing with the Coadjutor's
+late advice at my house, and if your Highness does not put it into
+execution before two days are at an end, we shall have a peace less
+secure and more scandalous than the former."
+
+The company became unanimously of his opinion, and resolved to meet next
+day at M. de Bouillon's to consider how to bring the affair into
+Parliament.  In the meantime, Don Gabriel de Toledo arrived with the
+Archduke's ratification of the treaty signed by the generals, and with a
+present from his master of 10,000 pistoles; but I was resolved to let the
+Spaniards see that I had not the intention of taking their money, though
+at his request Madame de Bouillon did all she could to persuade me.
+Accordingly, I declined it with all possible respect; nevertheless, this
+denial cost me dear afterwards, because I contracted a habit of refusing
+presents at other times when it would have been good policy to have
+accepted them, even if I had thrown them into the river.  It is sometimes
+very dangerous to refuse presents from one's superiors.
+
+While we were in conference at M. de Bouillon's the sad news was brought
+to us that M. de Turenne's forces, all except two or three regiments, had
+been bribed with money from Court to abandon him, and, finding himself
+likely to be arrested, he had retired to the house of his friend and
+kinswoman, the Landgravine of Hesse.  M. de Bouillon, was, as it were,
+thunderstruck; his lady burst out into tears, saying, "We are all
+undone," and I was almost as much cast down as they were, because it
+overturned our last scheme.
+
+M. de Bouillon was now for pushing matters to extremes, but I convinced
+him that there was nothing more dangerous.
+
+Don Gabriel de Toledo, who was ordered to be very frank with me, was very
+reserved when he saw how I was mortified about the news of M. de Turenne,
+and caballed with the generals in such a manner as made me very uneasy.
+Upon this sudden turn of affairs I made these remarks: That every company
+has so much in it of the unstable temper of the vulgar that all depends
+upon joining issue with opportunity; and that the best proposals prove
+often fading flowers, which are fragrant to-day and offensive to-morrow.
+
+I could not sleep that night for thinking about our circumstances.  I saw
+that the Parliament was less inclined than ever to engage in a war, by
+reason of the desertion of the army of M. de Turenne; I saw the deputies
+at Ruel emboldened by the success of their prevarication; I saw the
+people of Paris as ready to admit the Archduke as ever they could be to
+receive the Duc d'Orleans; I saw that in a week's time this Prince, with
+beads in his hand, and Fuensaldagne with his money, would have greater
+power than ourselves; that M. de Bouillon was relapsing into his former
+proposal of using extremities, and that the other generals would be
+precipitated into the same violent measures by the scornful behaviour of
+the Court, who now despised all because they were sure of the Parliament.
+I saw that all these circumstances paved the way for a popular sedition
+to massacre the Parliament and put the Spaniards in possession of the
+Louvre, which might overturn the State.
+
+These gloomy thoughts I resolved to communicate to my father, who had for
+the last twenty years retired to the Oratory, and who would never hear of
+my State intrigues.  My father told me of some advantageous offers made
+to me indirectly by the Court, but advised me not to trust to them.
+
+Next day, M. de Bouillon was for shutting the gates against the deputies
+of Ruel, for expelling the Parliament, for making ourselves masters of
+the Hotel de Ville, and for bringing the Spanish army without delay into
+our suburbs.  As for M. de Beaufort, Don Gabriel de Toledo told me that
+he offered Madame de Montbazon 20,000 crowns down and 6,000 crowns a year
+if she could persuade him into the Archduke's measures.  He did not
+forget the other generals.  M. d'Elbeuf was gained at an easy rate, and
+Marechal de La Mothe was buoyed up with the hopes of being accommodated
+with the Duchy of Cardonne.  I soon saw the Catholicon of Spain (Spanish
+gold) was the chief ingredient.  Everybody saw that our only remedy was
+to make ourselves masters of the Hotel de Ville by means of the people,
+but I opposed it with arguments too tedious to mention.  M. de Bouillon
+was for engaging entirely with Spain, but I convinced Marechal de La
+Mothe and M. de Beaufort that such measures would in a fortnight reduce
+them to a precarious dependence on the counsels of Spain.
+
+Being pressed to give my opinion in brief, I delivered it thus: "We
+cannot hinder the peace without ruining the Parliament by the help of the
+people, and we cannot maintain the war by the means of the same people
+without a dependence upon Spain.  We cannot have any peace with Saint
+Germain but by consenting to continue Mazarin in the Ministry."
+
+M. de Bouillon, with the head of an ox, and the penetration of an eagle,
+interrupted me thus: "I take it, monsieur," said he, "you are for
+suffering the peace to come to a conclusion, but not for appearing in
+it."
+
+I replied that I was willing to oppose it, but that it should be only
+with my own voice and the voices of those who were ready to run the same
+hazard with me.
+
+"I understand you again," replied M. de Bouillon; "a very fine thought
+indeed, suitable to yourself and to M. de Beaufort, but to nobody else."
+
+"If it suited us only," said I, "before I would propose it I would cut
+out my tongue.  The part we act would suit you as well as either of us,
+because you may accommodate matters when you think it for your interest.
+For my part, I am fully persuaded that they who insist upon the exclusion
+of Mazarin as a condition of the intended arrangement will continue
+masters of the affections of the people long enough to take their
+advantage of an opportunity which fortune never fails to furnish in
+cloudy and unsettled times.  Pray, monsieur, considering your reputation
+and capacity, who can pretend to act this part with more dignity, than
+yourself?  M. de Beaufort and I are already the favourites of the people,
+and if you declare for the exclusion of the Cardinal, you will be
+tomorrow as popular as either of us, and we shall be looked upon as the
+only centre of their hopes.  All the blunders of the ministers will turn
+to our advantage, the Spaniards will caress us, and the Cardinal,
+considering how fond he is of a treaty, will be under the necessity to
+court us.  I own this scheme may be attended with inconveniences, but,
+on the other side of the question, we are sure of certain ruin if we have
+a peace and an enraged minister at the helm, who cannot hope for
+reestablishment but upon our destruction.  Therefore, I cannot but think
+the expedient is as proper for you to engage in as for me, but if, for
+argument's sake, it were not, I am sure it is for your interest that I
+should embrace it, for you will by that means have more time to make your
+own terms with the Court before the peace is concluded, and after the
+peace  Mazarin will in such case be obliged to have more regard for all
+those gentlemen whose reunion with me it will be to his interest to
+prevent."
+
+M. de Bouillon was so convinced of the justice of my reasoning that he
+told me, when we were by ourselves, that he had, as well as myself,
+thought of my expedient as soon as he received the news of the army
+deserting M. de Turenne, that he could still improve it, as the Spaniards
+would not fail to relish it, and that he had been on the point several
+times one day to confer about it with me; but that his wife had conjured
+him with prayers and tears to speak no more of the matter, but to come to
+terms with the Court, or else to engage himself with the Spaniards.
+"I know," said he, "you are not for the second arrangement; pray lend me
+your good offices to compass the first."  I assured him that all my best
+offices and interests were entirely at his service to facilitate his
+agreement with the Court, and that he might freely make use of my name
+and reputation for that purpose.
+
+In fine, we agreed on every point.  M. de Bouillon undertook to make the
+proposition palatable to the Spaniards, provided we would promise never
+to let them know that it was concerted among ourselves beforehand, and we
+never questioned but that we could persuade M. de Longueville to accept
+it, for men of irresolution are apt to catch at all overtures which lead
+them two ways, and consequently press them to no choice.
+
+I had almost forgotten to tell you what M. de Bouillon said to me in
+private as we were going from the conference.  "I am sure," said he,
+"that you will not blame me for not exposing a wife whom I dearly love
+and eight children whom she loves more than herself to the hazards which
+you run, and which I could run with you were I a single man."
+
+I was very much affected by the tender sentiments of M. de Bouillon and
+the confidence he placed in me, and assured him I was so far from blaming
+him that I esteemed him the more, and that his tenderness for his lady,
+which he was pleased to call his weakness, was indeed what politics
+condemned but ethics highly justified, because it betokened an honest
+heart, which is much superior both to interest and politics.  M. de
+Bouillon communicated the proposal both to the Spanish envoys and to the
+generals, who were easily persuaded to relish it.
+
+Thus he made, as it were, a golden bridge for the Spaniards to withdraw
+their troops with decency.  I told him as soon as they were gone that he
+was an excellent man to persuade people that a "quartan ague was good for
+them."
+
+The Parliamentary deputies, repairing to Saint Germain on the 17th of
+March, 1649, first took care to settle the interests of the generals,
+upon which every officer of the army thought he had a right to exhibit
+his pretensions.  M. de Vendome sent his son a formal curse if he did not
+procure for him at least the post of Superintendent of the Seas, which
+was created first in favour of Cardinal de Richelieu in place of that of
+High Admiral, but Louis XIV. abolished it, and restored that of High
+Admiral.
+
+Upon this we held a conference, the result of which was that on the 20th
+the Prince de Conti told the Parliament that himself and the other
+generals entered their claims solely for the purpose of providing for
+their safety in case Mazarin should continue in the Ministry, and that he
+protested, both for himself and for all the gentlemen engaged in the same
+party, that they would immediately renounce all pretensions whatsoever
+upon the exclusion of Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+We also prevailed on the Prince de Conti, though almost against his will,
+to move the Parliament to direct their deputies to join with the Comte de
+Maure for the expulsion of Cardinal Mazarin.  I had almost lost all my
+credit with the people, because I hindered them on the 13th of March from
+massacring the Parliament, and because on the 23d and 24th I opposed the
+public sale of the Cardinal's library.  But I reestablished my reputation
+in the Great Hall among the crowd, in the opinion of the firebrands of
+Parliament, by haranguing against the Comte de Grancei, who had the
+insolence to pillage the house of M. Coulon; by insisting on the 24th
+that the Prince d'Harcourt should be allowed to seize all the public
+money in the province of Picardy; by insisting on the 25th against a
+truce which it would have been ridiculous to refuse during a conference;
+and by opposing on the 30th what was transacted there, though at the same
+time I knew that peace was made.
+
+I now return to the conference at Saint Germain.
+
+The Court declared they would never consent to the removal of the
+Cardinal; and that as to the pretensions of the generals, which were
+either to justice or favour, those of justice should be confirmed, and
+those of favour left to his Majesty's disposal to reward merit.  They
+declared their willingness to accept the Archduke's proposal for a
+general peace.
+
+An amnesty was granted in the most ample manner, comprehending expressly
+the Prince de Conti, MM. de Longueville, de Beaufort, d'Harcourt, de
+Rieug, de Lillebonne, de Bouillon, de Turenne, de Brissac, de Duras, de
+Matignon, de Beuron, de Noirmoutier, de Sdvigny, de Tremouille, de La
+Rochefoucault, de Retz, d'Estissac, de Montresor, de Matta, de Saint
+Germain, d'Apchon, de Sauvebeuf, de Saint Ibal, de Lauretat, de Laigues,
+de Chavagnac, de Chaumont, de Caumesnil, de Cugnac, de Creci, d'Allici,
+and de Barriere; but I was left out, which contributed to preserve my
+reputation with the public more than you would expect from such a trifle.
+
+On the 31st the deputies, being returned, made their report to the
+Parliament, who on the 1st of April verified the declaration of peace.
+
+As I went to the House I found the streets crowded with people crying "No
+peace! no Mazarin!" but I dispersed them by saying that it was one of
+Mazarin's stratagems to separate the people from the Parliament, who
+without doubt had reasons for what they had done; that they should be
+cautious of falling into the snare; that they had no cause to fear
+Mazarin; and that they might depend on it that I would never agree with
+him.  When I reached the House I found the guards as excited as the
+people, and bent on murdering every one they knew to be of Mazarin's
+party; but I pacified them as I had done the others.  The First
+President, seeing me coming in, said that "I had been consecrating oil
+mixed, undoubtedly, with saltpetre."  I heard the words, but made as if I
+did not, for had I taken them up, and had the people known it in the
+Great Hall, it would not have been in my power to have saved the life of
+one single member.
+
+Soon after the peace the Prince de Conti, Madame de Longueville and M. de
+Bouillon went to Saint Germain to the Court, which had by some means or
+other gained M. d'Elbeuf.  But MM. de Brissac, de Retz, de Vitri, de
+Fiesque, de Fontrailles, de Montresor, de Noirmoutier, de Matta, de la
+Boulaie, de Caumesnil, de Moreul, de Laigues, and d'Annery remained in a
+body with us, which was not contemptible, considering the people were on
+our side; but the Cardinal despised us to that degree that when MM. de
+Beaufort, de Brissac, de La Mothe, and myself desired one of our friends
+to assure the Queen of our most humble obedience, she answered that she
+should not regard our assurances till we had paid our devoirs to the
+Cardinal.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse having come from Brussels without the Queen's leave,
+her Majesty sent her orders to quit Paris in twenty-four hours upon which
+I went to her house and found the lovely creature at her toilet bathed in
+tears.  My heart yearned towards her, but I bid her not obey till I had
+the honour of seeing her again.  I consulted with M. de Beaufort to get
+the order revoked, upon which he said, "I see you are against her going;
+she shall stay.  She has very fine eyes!"
+
+I returned to the Palace de Chevreuse, where I was made very welcome, and
+found the lovely Mademoiselle de Chevreuse.  I got a very intimate
+acquaintance with Madame de Rhodes, natural daughter of Cardinal de
+Guise, who was her great confidant.  I entirely demolished the good
+opinion she had of the Duke of Brunswick-Zell, with whom she had almost
+struck a bargain.  De Laigues hindered me at first, but the forwardness
+of the daughter and the good-nature of the mother soon removed all
+obstacles.  I saw her every day at her own house and very often at Madame
+de Rhodes's, who allowed us all the liberty we could wish for, and we did
+not fail to make good use of our time.  I did love her, or rather I
+thought I loved her, for I still had to do with Madame de Pommereux.
+
+Fronde (sling) being the name given to the faction, I will give you the
+etymology of it, which I omitted in the first book.
+
+When Parliament met upon State affairs, the Duc d'Orleans and the Prince
+de Conde came very frequently, and tempered the heat of the contending
+parties; but the coolness was not lasting, for every other day their fury
+returned upon them.
+
+Bachoumont once said, in jest, that the Parliament acted like the
+schoolboys in the Paris ditches, who fling stones, and run away when they
+see the constable, but meet again as soon as he turns his back.  This was
+thought a very pretty comparison.  It came to be a subject for ballads,
+and, upon the peace between the King and Parliament, it was revived and
+applied to those who were not agreed with the Court; and we studied to
+give it all possible currency, because we observed that it excited the
+wrath of the people.  We therefore resolved that night to wear hatbands
+made in the form of a sling, and had a great number of them made ready to
+be distributed among a parcel of rough fellows, and we wore them
+ourselves last of all, for it would have looked much like affectation and
+have spoilt all had we been the first in the mode.
+
+It is inexpressible what influence this trifle had upon the people; their
+bread, hats, gloves, handkerchiefs, fans, ornaments were all 'a la mode
+de la Fronde', and we ourselves were more in the fashion by this trifle
+than in reality.  And the truth is we had need of all our shifts to
+support us against the whole royal family.  For although I had spoken to
+the Prince de Conde at Madame de Longueville's, I could not suppose
+myself thoroughly reconciled.  He treated me, indeed, civilly, but with
+an air of coldness, and I know that he was fully persuaded that I had
+complained of his breach of a promise which he made by me to some members
+of Parliament; but, as I had complained to nobody upon this head, I began
+to suspect that some persona studied to set us at variance.  I imagined
+it came from the Prince de Conti, who was naturally very malicious, and
+hated me, he knew not why.  Madame de Longueville loved me no better.
+I always suspected Madame de Montbazon, who had not nearly so much
+influence over M. de Beaufort as I had, yet was very artful in robbing
+him of all his secrets.  She did not love me either, because I deprived
+her of what might have made her a most considerable person at Court.
+
+Count Fuensaldagne was not obliged to help me if he could.  He was not
+pleased with the conduct of M. de Bouillon, who, in truth, had neglected
+the decisive point for a general peace, and he was much less satisfied
+with his own ministers, whom he used to call his blind moles; but he was
+pleased with me for insisting always on the peace between the two Crowns,
+without any view to a separate one.  He therefore sent me Don Antonio
+Pimentel, to offer me anything that was in the power of the King his
+master, and to tell me that, as I could not but want assistance,
+considering how I stood with the Ministry, 100,000 crowns was at my
+service, which was accordingly brought me in bills of exchange.  He added
+that he did not desire any engagement from me for it, nor did the King
+his master propose any other advantage than the pleasure of protecting
+me.  But I thought fit to refuse the money, for the present, telling Don
+Antonio that I should think myself unworthy, of the protection of his
+Catholic Majesty if I took any, gratuity, while I was in no capacity,
+of serving him; that I was born a Frenchman, and, by virtue of my, post,
+more particularly, attached than another to the metropolis of the
+kingdom; that it was my misfortune to be embroiled with the Prime
+Minister of my King, but that my resentment should never carry me to
+solicit assistance among his enemies till I was forced to do so for self-
+preservation; that Divine Providence had cast my lot in Paris, where God,
+who knew the purity of my intentions, would enable me in all probability
+to maintain myself by my own interest.  But in case I wanted protection I
+was fully persuaded I could nowhere find any so powerful and glorious as
+that of his Catholic Majesty, to whom I would always think it an honour
+to have recourse.  Fuensaldagne was satisfied with my answer, and sent
+back Don Antonio Pimentel with a letter from the Archduke, assuring me
+that upon a line from my hand he would march with all the forces of the
+King his master to my assistance.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Always to sacrifice the little affairs to the greater
+Always judged of actions by men, and never men by their actions
+Arms which are not tempered by laws quickly become anarchy
+Associating patience with activity
+Blindness that make authority to consist only in force
+Bounty, which, though very often secret, had the louder echo
+Civil war is one of those complicated diseases
+Clergy always great examples of slavish servitude
+Confounded the most weighty with the most trifling
+Contempt--the most dangerous disease of any State
+Dangerous to refuse presents from one's superiors
+Distinguished between bad and worse, good and better
+Fading flowers, which are fragrant to-day and offensive tomorrow
+Fool in adversity and a knave in prosperity
+Fools yield only when they cannot help it
+Good news should be employed in providing against bad
+He had not a long view of what was beyond his reach
+His wit was far inferior to his courage
+His ideas were infinitely above his capacity
+Impossible for her to live without being in love with somebody
+Inconvenience of popularity
+Kinds of fear only to be removed by higher degrees of terror
+Laws without the protection of arms sink into contempt
+Maxims showed not great regard for virtue
+More ambitious than was consistent with morality
+My utmost to save other souls, though I took no care of my own
+Need of caution in what we say to our friends
+Neither capable of governing nor being governed
+Men of irresolution are apt to catch at all overtures
+Never had woman more contempt for scruples and ceremonies
+Oftener deceived by distrusting than by being overcredulous
+One piece of bad news seldom comes singly
+Only way to acquire them is to show that we do not value them
+Poverty so well became him
+Power commonly keeps above ridicule
+Pretended to a great deal more wit than came to his share
+Queen was adored much more for her troubles than for her merit
+Strongest may safely promise to the weaker what he thinks fit
+Those who carry more sail than ballast
+Thought he always stood in need of apologies
+Transitory honour is mere smoke
+Treated him as she did her petticoat
+Useful man in a faction because of his wonderful complacency
+Vanity to love to be esteemed the first author of things
+Virtue for a man to confess a fault than not to commit one
+We are far more moved at the hearing of old stories
+Weakening and changing the laws of the land
+Whose vivacity supplied the want of judgment
+Wisdom in affairs of moment is nothing without courage
+With a design to do good, he did evil
+Yet he gave more than he promised
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, v2
+by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
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