initial commit of ebook 3846HEADmain

12 files changed, 20322 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/cm09b10.txt b/old/cm09b10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bdbb92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/cm09b10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9811 @@
+The Project Gutenberg The Entire Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz
+#5 in our series by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+#9 in our series Historic Court Memoirs
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.
+
+Please do not remove this.
+
+This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book.
+Do not change or edit it without written permission.  The words
+are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they
+need about what they can legally do with the texts.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below, including for donations.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
+organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541
+
+
+
+Title: The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, entire
+
+Author: Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
+Official Release Date: March, 2002  [Etext #3846]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this file first posted = 06/24/01]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, entire
+*********This file should be named cm09b10.txt or cm09b10.zip*********
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, cm09b11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, cm09b10a.txt
+
+This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
+of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after
+the official publication date.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement
+can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03
+or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext
+files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of June 16, 2001 contributions are only being solicited from people in:
+Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana,
+Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri,
+Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma,
+Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,
+Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in nearly all states now, and these are the ones
+that have responded as of the date above.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising
+will begin in the additional states.  Please feel
+free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork
+to legally request donations in all 50 states.  If
+your state is not listed and you would like to know
+if we have added it since the list you have, just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in
+states where we are not yet registered, we know
+of no prohibition against accepting donations
+from donors in these states who approach us with
+an offer to donate.
+
+
+International donations are accepted,
+but we don't know ANYTHING about how
+to make them tax-deductible, or
+even if they CAN be made deductible,
+and don't have the staff to handle it
+even if there are ways.
+
+All donations should be made to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
+organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541,
+and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal
+Revenue Service (IRS).  Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum
+extent permitted by law.  As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the
+additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
+if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
+it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Example command-line FTP session:
+
+ftp ftp.ibiblio.org
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc.
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this etext,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END*
+[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart
+and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.]
+[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales
+of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or
+software or any other related product without express permission.]
+
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by David Widger  <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of
+each file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before
+making an entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF JEAN FRANCOIS PAUL de GONDI, CARDINAL DE RETZ, v1
+
+Written by Himself
+
+Being Historic Court Memoirs of the Great Events during the Minority of
+Louis XIV. and the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+
+
+
+ORIGINAL PREFACE.
+
+Our Author, John Francis Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz, Sovereign of
+Commercy, Prince of Euville, second Archbishop of Paris, Abbot of Saint
+Denis in France, was born at Montmirail, in Brie, in October, 1614.
+
+His father was Philippe Emanuel de Gondi, Comte, de Joigni, General of
+the Galleys of France and Knight of the King's Orders; and his mother was
+Frances Marguerite, daughter of the Comte de Rochepot, Knight of the
+King's Orders, and of Marie de Lannoy, sovereign of Commercy and Euville.
+
+Pierre de Gondi, Duc de Retz, was his brother, whose daughter was the
+Duchesse de Lesdiguieres.
+
+His grandfather was Albert de Gondi, Duc de Retz, Marquis de Belle Isle,
+a Peer of France, Marshal and General of the Galleys, Colonel of the
+French Horse, First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and Great Chamberlain to
+the Kings Charles IX. and Henri III.
+
+This history was first printed in Paris in 1705, at the expense of the
+Duchesse de Lesdiguieres, the last of this noble family, whose estate
+fell after her decease to that of Villeroy.
+
+His preceptor was the famous Vincent de Paul, Almoner to Queen Anne of
+Austria.
+
+In 1627 he was made a Canon of the Cathedral of Paris by his uncle, Jean
+Francois de Gondi, first archbishop of that city, and was not long after
+created a Doctor of the Sorbonne.
+
+In 1643 he was appointed Coadjutor of the archbishopric of Paris, with
+the title of Archbishop of Corinth, during which, such was his pastoral
+vigilance that the most important affairs of the Church were committed to
+his care.
+
+As to his general character, if we take it from his own Memoirs, he had
+such presence of mind, and so dexterously improved all opportunities
+which fortune presented to him, that it seemed as if he had foreseen or
+desired them.  He knew how to put a good gloss upon his failings, and
+oftentimes verily believed he was really the man which he affected to be
+only in appearance.  He was a man of bright parts, but no conduct, being
+violent and inconstant in his intrigues of love as well as those of
+politics, and so indiscreet as to boast of his successful amours with
+certain ladies whom he ought not to have named.  He affected pomp and
+splendour, though his profession demanded simplicity and humility.  He
+was continually shifting parties, being a loyal subject one day and the
+next a rebel, one time a sworn enemy to the Prime Minister, and by and by
+his zealous friend; always aiming to make himself formidable or
+necessary.  As a pastor he had engrossed the love and confidence of the
+people, and as a statesman he artfully played them off against their
+sovereign.  He studied characters thoroughly, and no man painted them in
+truer colours more to his own purpose.  Sometimes he confesses his
+weaknesses, and at other times betrays his self-flattery.
+
+It being his fate to be imprisoned by Mazarin, first at Vincennes and
+then at Nantes, he made his escape to Rome, and in 1656 retired to
+Franche Comte, where Cardinal Mazarin gave orders for his being arrested;
+upon which he posted to Switzerland, and thence to Constance, Strasburg,
+Ulm, Augsburg, Frankfort, and Cologne, to which latter place Mazarin sent
+men to take him dead or alive; whereupon he retired to Holland, and made
+a trip from one town to another till 1661, when, Cardinal Mazarin dying,
+our Cardinal went as far as Valenciennes on his way to Paris, but was not
+suffered to come further; for the King and Queen-mother would not be
+satisfied without his resignation of the archbishopric of Paris, to which
+he at last submitted upon advantageous terms for himself and an amnesty
+for all his adherents.  But still the Court carried it so severely to the
+Cardinal that they would not let him go and pay his last devoirs to his
+father when on his dying bed.  At length, however, after abundance of
+solicitation, he had leave to go and wait upon the King and Queen, who,
+on the death of Pope Alexander VII., sent him to Rome to assist at the
+election of his successor.
+
+No wonder that King Charles II. of England promised to intercede for the
+Cardinal's reestablishment; for when the royal family were starving, as
+it were, in their exile at Paris, De Retz did more for them than all the
+French Court put together; and, upon the King's promise to take the Roman
+Catholics of England under his protection after his restoration, he sent
+an abbot to Rome to solicit the Pope to lend him money, and to dispose
+the English Catholics in his favour.
+
+He would fain have returned his hat to the new Pope, but his Holiness, at
+the solicitation of Louis XIV., ordered him to keep it.  After this he
+chose a total retirement, lived with exemplary piety, considerably
+retrenched his expenses, and hardly allowed himself common necessaries,
+in order to save money to pay off a debt of three millions, which he had
+the happiness to discharge, and to balance all accounts with the world
+before his death, which happened at Paris on the 24th of August, 1679, in
+the 65th year of his age.
+
+
+
+
+                        HISTORIC COURT MEMOIRS.
+
+                           CARDINAL DE RETZ.
+
+                                BOOK I.
+
+
+MADAME:--Though I have a natural aversion to give you the history of my
+own life, which has been chequered with such a variety of different
+adventures, yet I had rather sacrifice my reputation to the commands of a
+lady for whom I have so peculiar a regard than not disclose the most
+secret springs of my actions and the inmost recesses of my soul.
+
+By the caprice of fortune many mistakes of mine have turned to my credit,
+and I very much doubt whether it would be prudent in me to remove the
+veil with which some of them are covered.  But as I am resolved to give
+you a naked, impartial account of even the most minute passages of my
+life ever since I have been capable of reflection, so I most humbly beg
+you not to be surprised at the little art, or, rather, great disorder,
+with which I write my narrative, but to consider that, though the
+diversity of incidents may sometimes break the thread of the history, yet
+I will tell you nothing but with all that sincerity which the regard I
+have for you demands.  And to convince you further that I will neither
+add to nor diminish from the plain truth, I shall set my name in the
+front of the work.
+
+False glory and false modesty are the two rocks on which men who have
+written their own lives have generally split, but which Thuanus among the
+moderns and Caesar among the ancients happily escaped.  I doubt not you
+will do me the justice to believe that I do not pretend to compare myself
+with those great writers in any respect but sincerity,--a virtue in which
+we are not only permitted, but commanded, to rival the greatest heroes.
+
+I am descended from a family illustrious in France and ancient in Italy,
+and born upon a day remarkable for the taking of a monstrous sturgeon in
+a small river that runs through the country of Montmirail, in Brie, the
+place of my nativity.
+
+I am not so vain as to be proud of having it thought that I was ushered
+into the world with a prodigy or a miracle, and I should never have
+mentioned this trifling circumstance had it not been for some libels
+since published by my enemies, wherein they affect to make the said
+sturgeon a presage of the future commotions in this kingdom, and me the
+chief author of them.
+
+I beg leave to make a short reflection on the nature of the mind of man.
+I believe there never was a more honest soul in the world than my
+father's; I might say his temper was the very essence of virtue.  For
+though he saw I was too much inclined to duels and gallantry ever to make
+a figure as an ecclesiastic, yet his great love for his eldest son--not
+the view of the archbishopric of Paris, which was then in his family--
+made him resolve to devote me to the service of the Church.  For he was
+so conscious of his reasons, that I could even swear he would have
+protested from the very bottom of his heart that he had no other motive
+than the apprehension of the dangers to which a contrary profession might
+expose my soul.  So true it is that nothing is so subject to delusion as
+piety: all sorts of errors creep in and hide themselves under that veil;
+it gives a sanction to all the turns of imagination, and the honesty of
+the intention is not sufficient to guard against it.  In a word, after
+all I have told you, I turned priest, though it would have been long
+enough first had it not been for the following accident.
+
+The Duc de Retz, head of our family, broke at that time, by the King's
+order, the marriage treaty concluded some years before between the Duc de
+Mercoeur--[Louis, Duc de Mercoeur, since Cardinal de Vendome, father of
+the Duc de Vendome, and Grand Prior, died 1669.]--and his daughter, and
+next day came to my father and agreeably surprised him by telling him he
+was resolved to give her to his cousin to reunite the family.
+
+As I knew she had a sister worth above 80,000 livres a year, I, that very
+instant, thought of a double match.  I had no hopes they would think of
+me, knowing how things stood, so I was resolved to provide for myself.
+
+Having got a hint that my father did not intend to carry me to the
+wedding, as, foreseeing, it may be, what happened, I pretended to be
+better pleased with my profession, to be touched by what my father had so
+often laid before me on that subject, and I acted my part so well that
+they believed I was quite another man.
+
+My father resolved to carry me into Brittany, for the reason that I had
+shown no inclination that way.  We found Mademoiselle de Retz at
+Beaupreau, in Anjou.  I looked on the eldest only as my sister, but
+immediately considered Mademoiselle de Scepaux (so the youngest was
+called) as my mistress.
+
+I thought her very handsome, her complexion the most charming in the
+world, lilies and roses in abundance, admirable eyes, a very pretty
+mouth, and what she wanted in stature was abundantly made up by the
+prospect of 80,000 livres a year and of the Duchy of Beaupreau, and by a
+thousand chimeras which I formed on these real foundations.
+
+I played my game nicely from the beginning, and acted the ecclesiastic
+and the devotee both in the journey and during my stay there;
+nevertheless, I paid my sighs to the fair one,--she perceived it.
+I spoke at last, and she heard me, but not with that complacency which
+I could have wished.
+
+But observing she had a great kindness for an old chambermaid, sister to
+one of my monks of Buzai, I did all I could to gain her, and by the means
+of a hundred pistoles down, and vast promises, I succeeded.  She made her
+mistress believe that she was designed for a nunnery, and I, for my part,
+told her that I was doomed to nothing less than a monastery.  She could
+not endure her sister, because she was her father's darling, and I was
+not overfond of my brother,--[Pierre de Gondi, Duc de Retz, who died in
+1676.]--for the same reason.  This resemblance in our fortunes
+contributed much to the uniting of our affections, which I persuaded
+myself were reciprocal, and I resolved to carry her to Holland.
+
+Indeed, there was nothing more easy, for Machecoul, whither we were come
+from Beaupreau, was no more than half a league from the sea.  But money
+was the only thing wanting, for my treasury, was so drained by the gift
+of the hundred pistoles above mentioned that I had not a sou left.  But I
+found a supply by telling my father that, as the farming of my abbeys was
+taxed with the utmost rigour of the law, so I thought myself obliged in
+conscience to take the administration of them into my own hands.  This
+proposal, though not pleasing, could not be rejected, both because it was
+regular and because it made him in some measure believe that I would not
+fail to keep my benefices, since I was willing to take care of them.
+I went the next day to let Buzai,--[One of his abbeys.]-- which is but
+five leagues from Machecoul.  I treated with a Nantes merchant, whose
+name was Jucatieres, who took advantage of my eagerness, and for 4,000
+crowns ready money got a bargain that made his fortune.  I thought I had
+4,000,000, and was just securing one of the Dutch pinks, which are always
+in the road of Retz, when the following accident happened, which broke
+all my measures.
+
+Mademoiselle de Retz (for she had taken that name after her sister's
+marriage) had the finest eyes in the world, and they never were so
+beautiful as when she was languishing in love, the charms of which I
+never yet saw equalled.  We happened to dine at a lady's house, a league
+from Machecoul, where Mademoiselle de Retz, looking in the glass at an
+assembly of ladies, displayed all those tender, lively, moving airs which
+the Italians call 'morbidezza', or the lover's languish.  But
+unfortunately she was not aware that Palluau, since Marechal de
+Clerambaut, was behind her, who observed her airs, and being very much
+attached to Madame de Retz, with whom he had in her tender years been
+very familiar, told her faithfully what he had observed.
+
+Madame de Retz, who mortally hated her sister, disclosed it that very
+night to her father, who did not fail to impart it to mine.  The next
+morning, at the arrival of the post from Paris, all was in a hurry, my
+father pretending to have received very pressing news; and, after our
+taking a slight though public leave of the ladies, my father carried me
+to sleep that night at Nantes.  I was, as you may imagine, under very
+great surprise and concern; for I could not guess the cause of this
+sudden departure.  I had nothing to reproach myself with upon the score
+of my conduct; neither had I the least suspicion that Palluau had seen
+anything more than ordinary till I arrived at Orleans, where the matter
+was cleared up, for my brother, to prevent my escape, which I vainly
+attempted several times on my journey, seized my strong box, in which was
+my money, and then I understood that I was betrayed; in what grief, then,
+I arrived at Paris, I leave you to imagine.
+
+I found there Equilli, Vasse's uncle, and my first cousin, who, I
+daresay, was one of the most honest men of his time, and loved me from
+his very soul.  I apprised him of my design to run away with Mademoiselle
+de Retz.  He heartily approved of my project, not only because it would
+be a very advantageous match for me, but because he was persuaded that a
+double alliance was necessary to secure the establishment of the family.
+
+The Cardinal de Richelieu--[Armand Jean du Plesais, Cardinal de
+Richelieu, was born in 1585, and died in 1642.]--(then Prime Minister)
+mortally hated the Princesse de Guemenee, because he was persuaded she
+had crossed his amours with the Queen,--[Anne of Austria, eldest daughter
+of Philip II., King of Spain, and wife of Louis XIII., died 1666.]--and
+had a hand in the trick played him by Madame du Fargis, one of the
+Queen's dressing women, who showed her Majesty (Marie de Medicis) a love-
+letter written by his Eminence to the Queen, her daughter-in-law.  The
+Cardinal pushed his resentment so far that he attempted to force the
+Marechal de Breze, his brother-in-law, and captain of the King's Life-
+guards, to expose Madame de Guemenee's letters, which were found in M. de
+Montmorency's--[Henri de Montmorency was apprehended on the 1st of
+September, 1632, and beheaded in Toulouse in November of the same year.]
+--coffer when he was arrested at Chateau Naudari.  But the Marechal de
+Breze had so much honour and generosity as to return them to Madame de
+Guemenee.  He was, nevertheless, a very extravagant gentleman; but the
+Cardinal de Richelieu, perceiving he had been formerly honoured by some
+kind of relation to him, and dreading his angry excursions and
+preachments before the King, who had some consideration for his person,
+bore with him very patiently for the sake of settling peace in his own
+family, which he passionately longed to unite and establish, but which
+was the only thing out of his power, who could do whatever else he
+pleased in France.  For the Marechal de Breze had conceived so strong an
+aversion to M. de La Meilleraye, who was then Grand Master of the
+Artillery, and afterwards Marechal de La Meilleraye, that he could not
+endure him.  He did not imagine that the Cardinal would ever look upon a
+man who, though his first cousin, was of a mean extraction, had a most
+contemptible aspect, and, if fame says true, not one extraordinary good
+quality.
+
+The Cardinal was of another mind, and had a great opinion--indeed, with
+abundance of reason--of M. de La Meilleraye's courage; but he esteemed
+his military capacity infinitely too much, though in truth it was not
+contemptible.  In a word, he designed him for that post which we have
+since seen so gloriously filled by M. de Turenne.
+
+You may, by what has been said, judge of the divisions that were in
+Cardinal de Richelieu's family, and how much he was concerned to appease
+them.  He laboured at them with great application, and for this end
+thought he could not do better than to unite these two heads of the
+faction in a close confidence with himself, exclusive of all others.
+To this end he used them jointly and in common as the confidants of his
+amours, which certainly were neither suitable to the lustre of his
+actions nor the grandeur of his life; for Marion de Lorme, one of his
+mistresses, was little better than a common prostitute.  Another of his
+concubines was Madame de Fruges, that old gentlewoman who was so often
+seen sauntering in the enclosure.  The first used to come to his
+apartment in the daytime, and he went by night to visit the other,
+who was but the pitiful cast-off of Buckingham and Epienne.  The two
+confidants introduced him there in coloured clothes; for they had made up
+a hasty peace, to which Madame de Guemenee nearly fell a sacrifice.
+
+M. de La Meilleraye, whom they called the Grand Master, was in love with
+Madame de Guemenee, but she could not love him; and he being, both in his
+own nature and by reason of his great favour with the Cardinal, the most
+imperious man living, took it very ill that he was not beloved.  He
+complained, but the lady was insensible; he huffed and bounced, but was
+laughed to scorn.  He thought he had her in his power because the
+Cardinal, to whom he had declared his rage against her, had given him her
+letters, as above mentioned, which were written to M. de Montmorency,
+and, therefore, in his menaces he let fall some hints with relation to
+those letters to the disadvantage of Madame de Guemenee.  She thereupon
+ridiculed him no longer, but went almost raving mad, and fell into such
+an inconceivable melancholy that you would not have known her, and
+retired to Couperai, where she would let nobody see her.
+
+As soon as I applied my mind to study I resolved at the same time to take
+the Cardinal de Richelieu for my pattern, though my friends opposed it as
+too pedantic; but I followed my first designs, and began my course with
+good success.  I was afterwards followed by all persons of quality of the
+same profession; but, as I was the first, the Cardinal was pleased with
+my fancy, which, together with the good offices done me by the Grand
+Master with the Cardinal, made him speak well of me on several occasions,
+wonder that I had never made my court to him, and at the same time he
+ordered M. de Lingendes, since Bishop of Magon, to bring me to his house.
+
+This was the source of my first disgrace, for, instead of complying with
+these offers of the Cardinal and with the entreaties of the Grand Master,
+urging me to go and make my court to him, I returned the most trifling
+excuses and apologies; one time I pretended to be sick and went into the
+country.  In short, I did enough to let them see that I did not care to
+be a dependent on the Cardinal de Richelieu, who was certainly a very
+great man, but had this particular trait in his genius,--to take notice
+of trifles.  Of this he gave me the following instance: The history of
+the conspiracy of Jean Louis de Fiesque,--[Author of "The Conspiracy of
+Genoa."  He was drowned on the 1st of January, 1557.]--which I had
+written at eighteen years of age, being conveyed by Boisrobert into the
+Cardinal's hands, he was heard to say, in the presence of Marechal
+d'Estrees and M. de Senneterre, "This is a dangerous genius."  This was
+told my father that very night by M. de Senneterre, and I took it as
+spoken to myself.
+
+The success that I had in the acts of the Sorbonne made me fond of that
+sort of reputation, which I had a mind to push further, and thought I
+might succeed in sermons.  Instead of preaching first, as I was advised,
+in the little convents, I preached on Ascension, Corpus Christi Day,
+etc., before the Queen and the whole Court, which assurance gained me a
+good character from the Cardinal; for, when he was told how well I had
+performed, he said, "There is no judging of things by the event; the man
+is a coxcomb."  Thus you see I had enough to do for one of two-and-twenty
+years of age.
+
+M. le Comte,--[Louis de Bourbon, Comte de soissons, killed in the battle
+of Marfee, near Sedan, in 1641.]--who had a tender love for me, and to
+whose service and person I was entirely devoted, left Paris in the night,
+in order to get into Sedan, for fear of an arrest; and, in the meantime,
+entrusted me with the care of Vanbrock, the greatest confidant he had in
+the world.  I took care, as I was ordered, that he should never stir out
+but at night, for in the daytime I concealed him in a private place,
+between the ceiling and the penthouse, where I thought it impossible for
+anything but a cat or the devil to find him.  But he was not careful
+enough of himself, for one morning my door was burst open, and armed men
+rushed into my chamber, with the provost at their head, who cried, with a
+great oath, "Where is Vanbrock?" I replied, "At Sedan, monsieur, I
+believe."  He swore again most confoundedly, and searched the mattresses
+of all the beds in the house, threatening to put my domestics to the rack
+if they did not make a disclosure; but there was only one that knew
+anything of the matter, and so they went away in a rage.  You may easily
+imagine that when this was reported the Court would highly resent it.
+And so it happened, for the license of the Sorbonne being expired, and
+the competitors striving for the best places, I had the ambition to put
+in for the first place, and did not think myself obliged to yield to the
+Abbe de La Mothe-Houdancourt, now Archbishop of Auch, over whom I had
+certainly some advantage in the disputations.  I carried myself in this
+affair more wisely than might have been expected from my youth; for as
+soon as I heard that my rival was supported by the Cardinal, who did him
+the honour to own him for his kinsman, I sent the Cardinal word, by M. de
+Raconis, Bishop of Lavaur, that I desisted from my pretension, out of the
+respect I owed his Eminence, as soon as I heard that he concerned himself
+in the affair.  The Bishop of Lavaur told me the Cardinal pretended that
+the Abby de La Mothe would not be obliged for the first place to my
+cession, but to his own merit.  This answer exasperated me.  I gave a
+smile and a low bow, pursued my point, and gained the first place by
+eighty-four voices.  The Cardinal, who was for domineering in all places
+and in all affairs, fell into a passion much below his character, either
+as a minister or a man, threatened the deputies of the Sorbonne to raze
+the new buildings he had begun there, and assailed my character again
+with incredible bitterness.
+
+All my friends were alarmed at this, and were for sending me in all haste
+to Italy.  Accordingly, I went to Venice, stayed there till the middle of
+August, and was very near being assassinated; for I amused myself by
+making an intrigue with Signora Vendranina, a noble Venetian lady, and
+one of the most handsome I ever saw.  M. de Maille, the King's
+ambassador, aware of the dangerous consequences of such adventures in
+this country, ordered me to depart from Venice; upon which I went through
+Lombardy, and towards the end of September arrived at Rome, where the
+Marechal d'Estrees, who resided there as ambassador, gave me such
+instructions for my behaviour as I followed to a tittle.  Though I had no
+design to be an ecclesiastic, yet since I wore a cassock I was resolved
+to acquire some reputation at the Pope's Court.  I compassed my design
+very happily, avoiding any appearance of gallantry and lewdness, and my
+dress being grave to the last degree; but for all this I was at a vast
+expense, having fine liveries, a very splendid equipage, and a train of
+seven or eight gentlemen, whereof four were Knights of Malta.  I disputed
+in the Colleges of Sapienza (not to be compared for learning with those
+of the Sorbonne), and fortune continued still to raise me.  For the
+Prince de Schomberg, the Emperor's ambassador, sent me word one day,
+while I was playing at 'balon' at the baths of Antoninus, to leave the
+place clear for him.  I answered that I could have refused his Excellency
+nothing asked in a civil manner, but since it was commanded, I would have
+him to know that I would obey the orders of no ambassador whatever,
+but that of the King, my master.  Being urged a second time by one
+of his attendants to leave the place, I stood upon my own defence, and
+the Germans, more, in my opinion, out of contempt of the few people I had
+with me than out of any other consideration, let the affair drop.  This
+bold carriage of so modest an abbe, to an ambassador who never went
+abroad without one hundred musketeers on horseback to attend him, made a
+great noise in Rome, and was much taken notice of by Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+The Cardinal de Richelieu's health declining, the archbishopric of Paris
+was now almost within my ken, which, together with other prospects of
+good benefices, made me resolve not to fling off the cassock but upon
+honourable terms and valuable considerations; but having nothing yet
+within my view that I could be sure of, I resolved to distinguish myself
+in my own profession by all the methods I could.  I retired from the
+world, studied very hard, saw but very few men, and had no more
+correspondence with any of the female sex, except Madame de -------.
+
+The devil had appeared to the Princesse de Guemenee just a fortnight
+before this adventure happened, and was often raised by the conjurations
+of M. d'Andilly, to frighten his votary, I believe, into piety, for he
+was even more in love with her person than I myself; but he loved her in
+the Lord, purely and spiritually.  I raised, in my turn, a demon that
+appeared to her in a more kind and agreeable form.  In six weeks I got
+her away from Port Royal; I was very diligent in paying her my respects,
+and the satisfaction I had in her company, with some other agreeable
+diversions, qualified in a great measure the chagrin which attended my
+profession, to which I was not yet heartily reconciled.  This enchantment
+had like to have raised such a storm as would have given a new face to
+the affairs of Europe if fortune had been ever so little on my side.
+
+M. the Cardinal de Richelieu loved rallying other people, but could not
+bear a jest himself, and all men of this humour are always very crabbed
+and churlish; of which the Cardinal gave an instance, in a public
+assembly of ladies, to Madame de Guemenee, when he threw out a severe
+jest, which everybody observed was pointed at me.  She was sensibly
+affronted, but I was enraged.  For at last there was a sort of an
+understanding between us, which was often ill-managed, yet our interests
+were inseparable.  At this time Madame de La Meilleraye, with whom,
+though she was silly, I had fallen in love, pleased the Cardinal to that
+degree that the Marshal perceived it before he set out for the army, and
+rallied his wife in such a manner that she immediately found he was even
+more jealous than ambitious.  She was terribly afraid of him, and did not
+love the Cardinal, who, by marrying her to his cousin, had lessened his
+own family, of which he was extremely fond.  Besides, the Cardinal's
+infirmities made him look a great deal older than he was.  And though all
+his other actions had no tincture of pedantry, yet in his amorous
+intrigues he had the most of it in the world.  I had a detail of all the
+steps he had made therein, which were extremely ridiculous.  But
+continuing his solicitation, and carrying her to his country seat at
+Ruel,--[The Cardinal de Richelieu's seat, three leagues from Paris.]--
+where he kept her a considerable time, I guessed that the lady had not
+brains enough to resist the splendour of Court favour, and that her
+husband's jealousy would soon give way to his interest, but, above all,
+to his blind side, which was an attachment to the Court not to be
+equalled.  When I was in the hottest pursuit of this passion I proposed
+to myself the most exquisite pleasures in triumphing over the Cardinal de
+Richelieu in this fair field of battle; but on a sudden I had the
+mortification to hear the whole family was changed.  The husband allowed
+his wife to go to Ruel as often as she pleased, and her behaviour towards
+me I suspected to be false and treacherous.  In short, Madame de
+Guemenee's anger, for a reason I hinted before, my jealousy of Madame de
+La Meilleraye, and an aversion to my own profession, all joined together
+in a fatal moment and were near producing one of the greatest and most
+famous events of our age.
+
+La Rochepot, my first cousin and dear friend, was a domestic of the late
+Duc d'Orleans,--[Gaston Jean Baptists de France, born 1608, and died at
+Blois, 1660.]--and his great confidant.  He mortally hated the Cardinal
+de Richelieu, who had persecuted his mother, and had her hung up in
+effigy, and kept his father still a prisoner in the Bastille, and now
+refused the son a regiment, though Marechal de La Meilleraye, who very
+highly esteemed him for his courage, interceded for the favour.  You may
+imagine that when we came together we did not forget the Cardinal.
+
+I being crossed in my designs, as I told you, and as full of resentment
+as La Rochepot was for the affronts put upon his person and family, we
+chimed in our thoughts and resolutions, which were, dexterously to manage
+the weakness of the Duc d'Orleans and to put that in execution which the
+boldness of his domestics had almost effected at Corbie.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans was appointed General, and the Comte de Soissons
+Lieutenant-General of the King's forces in Picardy, but neither of them
+stood well with the Cardinal, who gave them those posts only because the
+situation of affairs was such that he could not help it.  L'Epinai,
+Montresor, and La Rochepot made use of all the arguments they could think
+of to raise jealousies and fears in the Duc d'Orleans, and to inspire him
+with resolution and courage to rid himself of the Cardinal.  Others
+laboured to persuade the Comte de Soissons to relish the same proposal,
+but though resolved upon, it was never put into execution.  For they had
+the Cardinal in their power at Amiens, but did him no harm.  For this
+every one blamed the Count's companion, but I could never yet learn the
+true cause; only this is certain, that they were no sooner come to Paris
+than they were all seized with a panic, and retired, some one way, some
+another.
+
+The Comte de Guiche,  since Marechal de Grammont, and M. de Chavigni,
+Secretary of State and the Cardinal's most intimate favourite, were sent
+by the King to Blois.  Here they frightened the Duc d'Orleans and made
+him return to Paris, where he was more afraid than ever; for such of his
+domestics as were not gained by the Court made use of his pusillanimous
+temper, and represented to him the necessity he was under to provide for
+his own, or rather their, security.  La Rochepot and myself endeavoured
+to heighten his fears as much as possible, in order to precipitate him
+into our measures.  The term sounds odd, but it is the most expressive I
+could find of a character like the Duke's.  He weighed everything, but
+fixed on nothing; and if by chance he was inclined to do one thing more
+than another, he would never execute it without being pushed or forced
+into it.
+
+La Rochepot did all he could to fix him, but finding that the Duke was
+always for delays, and for perplexing all expedients with groundless
+fears of invincible difficulties, he fell upon an expedient very
+dangerous to all appearance, but, as it usually happens in extraordinary
+cases, much less so than at first view.
+
+Cardinal de Richelieu having to stand godfather at the baptism of
+Mademoiselle, La Rochepot's proposal was to continue to show the Duke the
+necessity he lay under still to get rid of the Cardinal, without saying
+much of the particulars, for fear of hazarding the secret, but only to
+entertain him with the general proposal of that affair, thereby to make
+him the better in love with the measures when proposed; and that they
+might, at a proper time and place, tell him they had concealed the detail
+to the execution from his Highness upon no other account but that they
+had experienced on several occasions that there was no other way of
+serving his Highness, as he himself had told La Rochepot several times;
+that nothing, therefore, remained but to get some brave fellows fit for
+such a resolute enterprise, and to hold post-horses ready upon the road
+of Sedan under some other pretext, and to so execute the design in the
+presence and in the name of his Royal Highness upon the day of the
+intended solemnity, that his Highness should cheerfully own it when it
+was done, and that then we would carry him off by those horses to Sedan.
+Meanwhile the distraction of the inferior ministers and the joy of the
+King to see himself delivered from a tyrant would dispose the Court
+rather to invite than to pursue him.  This was La Rochepot's scheme, and
+it seemed exceedingly plausible.
+
+La Rochepot and I had, it may be, blamed the inactivity of the Duc
+d'Orleans and the Comte de Soissons in the affair of Amiens a hundred
+times; yet, no sooner was the scheme sufficiently matured for execution,
+the idea of which I had raised in the memory of La Rochepot, than my mind
+was seized with I know not what fear; I took it then for a scruple of
+conscience,--I cannot tell whether it was in truth so or not, but, in
+short, the thought of killing a priest and a cardinal deeply affected my
+mind.  La Rochepot laughed at my scruples, and bantered me thus: "When
+you are in the field of battle I warrant you will not beat up the enemy's
+quarters for fear of assassinating men in their sleep."  I was ashamed of
+my scruples, and again hugged the crime, which I looked upon as
+sanctified by the examples of great men, and justified and honoured by
+the mighty danger that attended its execution.  We renewed our
+consultations, engaged some accomplices, took all the necessary
+precautions, and resolved upon the execution.  The danger was indeed very
+great, but we might reasonably hope to come off well enough; for the
+Duke's guard, which was within, would not have failed to come to our
+assistance against that of the Cardinal's, which was without.  But his
+fortune, and not his guards, delivered him from the snare; for either
+Mademoiselle or himself, I forget which, fell suddenly ill, and the
+ceremony was put off to another time, so that we lost our opportunity.
+The Duke returned to Blois, and the Marquis de Boissi protested he would
+never betray us, but that he would be no longer concerned, because he had
+just received some favour or other from the Cardinal's own hands.
+
+I confess that this enterprise, which, had it succeeded, would have
+crowned us with glory, never fully pleased me.  I was not so scrupulous
+in the committing of two other transgressions against the rules of
+morality, as you may have before observed; but I wish, with all my heart,
+I had never been concerned in this.  Ancient Rome, indeed, would have
+counted it honourable; but it is not in this respect that I honour the
+memory of old Rome.
+
+There is commonly a great deal of folly in conspiracies; but afterwards
+there is nothing tends so, much to make men wise, at least for some time.
+For, as the danger in things of this nature continues, even after the
+opportunities for doing them are over, men are from that instant more
+prudent and circumspect.
+
+Having thus missed our blow, the Comte de La Rochepot and the rest of
+them retired to their several seats in the country; but my engagements
+detained me at Paris, where I was so retired that I spent all my time in
+my study; and if ever I was seen abroad, it was with all the reserve of a
+pious ecclesiastic; we were all so true to one another in keeping this
+adventure secret, that it never got the least wind while the Cardinal
+lived, who was a minister that had the best intelligence in the world;
+but after his death it was discovered by the imprudence of Tret and
+Etourville.  I call it imprudence, for what greater weakness can men be
+guilty of than to declare themselves to have been capable of what is
+dangerous in the first instance?
+
+To return to the history of the Comte de Soissons, I observed before that
+he had retired to Sedan for safety, which he could not expect at Court.
+He wrote to the King, assuring his Majesty of his fidelity, and that
+while he stayed in that place he would undertake nothing prejudicial to
+his service.  He was most mindful of his promise; was not to be biassed
+by all the offers of Spain or the Empire, but rejected with indignation
+the overtures of Saint-Ibal and of Bardouville, who would have persuaded
+him to take up arms.  Campion, one of his domestics, whom he had left at
+Paris to mind his affairs at Court, told me these particulars by the
+Count's express orders, and I still remember this passage in one of his
+letters to Campion: "The men you know are very urgent with me to treat
+with the enemy, and accuse me of weakness because I fear the examples of
+Charles de Bourbon and Robert d'Artois."  He was ordered to show me this
+letter and desire my opinion thereupon.  I took my pen, and, at a little
+distance from the answer he had already begun, I wrote these words:
+
+"And I do accuse them of folly."  The reasons upon which my opinion was
+grounded were these: The Count was courageous in the highest degree of
+what is commonly called valour, and had a more than ordinary share in
+that boldness of mind which we call resolution.  The first is common and
+to be frequently met with among the vulgar, but the second is rarer than
+can be imagined, and yet abundantly more necessary for great enterprises;
+and is there a greater in the world than heading a party?  The command of
+an army is without comparison of less intricacy, for there are wheels
+within wheels necessary for governing the State, but then they are not
+near so brittle and delicate.  In a word, I am of opinion there are
+greater qualities necessary to make a good head of a party than to make
+an emperor who is to govern the whole world, and that resolution ought to
+run parallel with judgment,--I say, with heroic judgment, which is able
+to distinguish the extraordinary from what we call the impossible.
+
+The Count had not one grain of this discerning faculty, which is but
+seldom to be met with in the sublimest genius.  His character was mean to
+a degree, and consequently susceptible of unreasonable jealousies and
+distrusts, which of all characters is the most opposite to that of a good
+partisan, who is indispensably obliged in many cases to suppress, and in
+all to conceal, the best-grounded suspicions.
+
+This was the reason I could not be of the opinion of those who were for
+engaging the Count in a civil war; and Varicarville, who was the man of
+the best sense and temper of all the persons of quality he had about him,
+told me since that when be saw what I wrote in Campion's letter the day I
+set out for Italy, he very well knew by what motives I was, against my
+inclination, persuaded into this opinion.
+
+The Count held out all this year and the next against every solicitation
+of the Spaniards and the importunities of his own friends, much more by
+the wise counsels of Varicarville than by the force of his own
+resolution; but nothing could secure him from the teasings of the
+Cardinal de Richelieu, who poured into his ears every day in the King's
+name his many dismal discoveries and prognostications.  For fear of being
+tedious I shall only tell you in one word that the Cardinal, contrary to
+his own interest, hurried the Count into a civil war, by such arts of
+chicanery as those who are fortune's favourites never fail to play upon
+the unfortunate.
+
+The minds of people began now to be more embittered than ever.  I was
+sent for by the Count to Sedan to tell him the state of Paris.  The
+account I gave him could not but be very agreeable; for I told him the
+very truth: that he was universally beloved, honoured, and adored in that
+city, and his enemy dreaded and abhorred.  The Duc de Bouillon, who was
+urgent for war, be the consequence what it would, improved upon these
+advantages, and made them look more plausible, but Varicarville strongly
+opposed him.
+
+I thought myself too young to declare my opinion; but, being pressed to
+do so by his Highness, I took the liberty to tell him that a Prince of
+the blood ought to engage himself in a civil war rather than suffer any
+diminution of his reputation or dignity, yet that nothing but these two
+cases could justly oblige him to it, because he hazards both by a
+commotion whenever the one or the other consideration does not make it
+necessary; that I thought his Highness far from being under any such
+necessity; that his retreat to Sedan secured him from the indignity he
+must have submitted to, among others, of taking the left hand, even in
+the Cardinal's own house; that, in the meantime, the popular hatred of
+the Cardinal gained his Highness the greater share of the public favour,
+which is always much better secured by inaction than action, because the
+glory of action depends upon success, for which no one can answer;
+whereas inaction is sure to be commended as being founded upon the hatred
+which the public will always bear to the minister.  That, therefore, I
+should think it would be more glorious for his Highness, in the view of
+the world, to support himself by his own weight, that is, by the merit of
+his virtue, against the artifices of so powerful a minister as the
+Cardinal de Richelieu,--I say, more glorious to support himself by a wise
+and regular conduct than to kindle the fire of war, the flagrant
+consequences whereof no man is able to foresee; that it was true that the
+minister was universally cursed, but that I could not yet see that the
+people's minds were exasperated enough for any considerable revolution;
+that the Cardinal was in a declining state of health, and if he should
+not die this time, his Highness would have the opportunity of showing the
+King and the public that though, by his own personal authority and his
+important post at Sedan, he was in a capacity to do himself justice, he
+sacrificed his own resentments to the welfare and quiet of the State; and
+that if the Cardinal should recover his health, he would not fail, by
+additional acts of tyranny and oppression, to draw upon himself the
+redoubled execrations of the people, which would ripen, their murmurings
+and discontents into a universal revolution.
+
+This is the substance of what I said to the Count, and he seemed to be
+somewhat affected by it.  But the Duc de Bouillon was enraged, and told
+me, by way of banter, "Your blood is very cold for a gentleman of your
+age."  To which I replied in these very words: "All the Count's servants
+are so much obliged to you, monsieur, that they ought to bear everything
+from you; but were it not for this consideration alone, I should think
+that your bastions would not be always strong enough to protect you."
+The Duke soon came to himself, and treated me with all the civilities
+imaginable, such as laid a foundation for our future friendship.
+I stayed two days longer at Sedan, during which the Count changed his
+mind five different times, as I was told by M. Saint-Ibal, who said
+little was to be expected from a man of his humour.  At last, however,
+the Duc de Bouillon won him over.  I was charged to do all I could to
+convince the people of Paris, had an order to take up money and to lay it
+out for this purpose, and I returned from Sedan with letters more than
+enough to have hanged two hundred men.
+
+As I had faithfully set the Count's true interest before him, and
+dissuaded him from undertaking an affair of which he was by no means
+capable, I thought it high time to think of my own affairs.  I hated my
+profession now more than ever; I was at first hurried into it by the
+infatuation of my kindred.  My destiny had bound me down to it by the
+chains both of duty and pleasure, so that I could see no possibility to
+set myself free.  I was upwards of twenty-five years of age, and I saw it
+was now too late to begin to carry a musket; but that which tortured me
+most of all was this fatal reflection, that I had spent so much of my
+time in too eager a pursuit of pleasure, and thereby riveted my own
+chains; so that it looked as if fate was resolved to fasten me to the
+Church, whether I would or no.  You may imagine with what satisfaction
+such thoughts as these were accompanied, for this confusion of affairs
+gave me hopes of getting loose from my profession with uncommon honour
+and reputation.  I thought of ways to distinguish myself, pursued them
+very diligently, and you will allow that nothing but destiny broke my
+measures.
+
+The Marechaux de Vitri and Bassompierre, the Comte de Cremail, M. du
+Fargis, and M. du Coudrai Montpensier were then prisoners in the Bastille
+upon different counts.  But, as length of time makes confinement less
+irksome, they were treated very civilly, and indulged with a great share
+of freedom.  Their friends came to see them, and sometimes dined with
+them.  By means of M. du Fargis, who had married my aunt, I got
+acquainted with the rest, and by conversing with them discovered very
+remarkable emotions in some of them, upon which I could not help
+reflecting.  The Marechal de Vitri was a gentleman of mean parts, but
+bold, even to rashness, and his having been formerly employed to kill the
+Marechal d'Ancre had given him in the common vogue, though I think
+unjustly, the air of a man of business and expedition.  He appeared to me
+enraged against the Cardinal, and I concluded he might do service in the
+present juncture, but did not address myself directly to him, and thought
+it the wisest way first to sift the Comte de Cremail, who was a man of
+sound sense, and could influence the Marechal de Vitri as he pleased.
+He apprehended me at half a word, and immediately asked me if I had made
+myself known to any of the prisoners.  I answered, readily:
+
+"No, monsieur; and I will tell you my reasons in a very few words.
+Bassompierre is a tattler; I expect to do nothing with the Marechal de
+Vitri but by your means.  I suspect the honesty of Du Coudrai, and as for
+my uncle, Du Fargis, he is a gallant man, but has no headpiece."
+
+"Whom, then, do you confide in at Paris?"  said the Comte de Cremail.
+
+"I dare trust no man living," said I, "but yourself."
+
+"It is very well," said he, briskly; "you are the man for me.  I am above
+eighty years old, and you but twenty-five; I will qualify your heat, and
+you my chilliness."
+
+We went upon business, drew up our plan, and at parting he said these
+very words: "Let me alone one week, and after that I will tell you more
+of my mind, for I hope to convince the Cardinal that I am good for
+something more than writing the "Jeu de l'Inconnu."
+
+You must know that the "Jeu de l'Inconnu" was a book, indeed, very ill
+written, which the Comte de Cremail had formerly published, and which the
+Cardinal had grossly ridiculed.  You will be surprised, without doubt,
+that I should think of prisoners for an affair of this importance, but
+the nature of it was such that it could not be put into better hands, as
+you will see by and by.
+
+A week after, going to visit the prisoners, and Cremail and myself being
+accidentally left alone, we took a walk upon the terrace, where, after a
+thousand thanks for the confidence I had put in him, and as many
+protestations of his readiness to serve the Comte de Soissons, he spoke
+thus: "There is nothing but the thrust of a sword or the city of Paris
+that can rid us of the Cardinal.  Had I been at the enterprise of Amiens,
+I think I should not have missed my blow, as those gentlemen did.  I am
+for that of Paris; it cannot miscarry; I have considered it well.  See
+here what additions I have made to our plan."  And thereupon he put into
+my hand a paper, in substance as follows: that he had conferred with the
+Marechal de Vitri, who was as well disposed as anybody in the world to
+serve the Count; that they would both answer for the Bastille, where all
+the garrison was in their interest; that they were likewise sure of the
+arsenal; and that they would also declare themselves as soon as the Count
+had gained a battle, on condition that I made it appear beforehand, as I
+had told him (the Comte de Cremail), that they should be supported by a
+considerable number of officers, colonels of Paris, etc.  For the rest,
+this paper contained many particular observations on the conduct of the
+undertaking, and many cautions relating to the behaviour to be observed
+by the Count.  That which surprised me most of all was to see how fully
+persuaded these gentlemen were of carrying their point with ease.
+
+Though it came into my head to propose this project to the persons in the
+Bastille, yet nothing but the perfect knowledge I had of their
+disposition and inclination could have persuaded me that it was
+practicable.  And I confess, upon perusal of the plan prepared by M. de
+Cremail, a man of great experience and excellent sense, I was astonished
+to find a few prisoners disposing of the Bastille with the same freedom
+as the Governor, the greatest authority in the place.
+
+As all extraordinary circumstances are of wonderful weight in popular
+revolutions, I considered that this project, which was even ripe for
+execution, would have an admirable effect in the city.  And as nothing
+animates and supports commotions more than the ridiculing of those
+against whom they are raised, I knew it would be very easy for us to
+expose the conduct of a minister who had tamely suffered prisoners to
+hamper him, as one may say, with their chains.  I lost no time;
+afterwards I opened myself to M. d'Estampes, President of the Great
+Council, and to M. l'Ecuyer, President of the Chamber of Accounts, both
+colonels, and in great repute among the citizens, and I found them every
+way answering the character I had of them from the Count; that is, very
+zealous for his interest, and fully persuaded that the insurrection was
+not only practicable, but very easy.  Pray observe that these two
+gentlemen, who made no great figure, even in their own profession, were,
+perhaps, two of the most peaceable persons in the kingdom.  But there are
+some fires which burn all before them.  The main thing is to know and
+seize the critical moment.
+
+The Count had charged me to disclose myself to none in Paris besides
+these two, but I ventured to add two more: Parmentier, substitute to the
+Attorney-General; and his brother-in-law, Epinai, auditor of the Chamber
+of Accounts, who was the man of the greatest credit, though but a
+lieutenant, and the other a captain.  Parmentier, who, both by his wit
+and courage, was as capable of a great action as any man I ever knew,
+promised me that he would answer for Brigalier, councillor in the Court
+of Aids, captain in his quarter, and very powerful among the people, but
+told me at the same time that he must not know a word of the matter,
+because he was a mere rattle, not to be trusted with a secret.
+
+The Count made me a remittance of 12,000 crowns, which I carried to my
+aunt De Maignelai, telling her that it was a restitution made by one of
+my dying friends, who made me trustee of it upon condition that I should
+distribute it among decayed families who were ashamed to make their
+necessities known, and that I had taken an oath to distribute it myself,
+persuant to the desire of the testator, but that I was at a loss to find
+out fit objects for my charity; and therefore I desired her to take the
+care of it upon her.  The good woman was perfectly transported, and said
+she would do it with all her heart; but because I had sworn to make the
+distribution myself, she insisted upon it that I must be present, not
+only for the sake of my promise, but to accustom myself to do acts of
+charity.  This was the very thing I aimed at,--an opportunity of knowing
+all the poor of Paris.  Therefore I suffered myself to be carried every
+day by my aunt into the outskirts, to visit the poor in their garrets,
+and I met very often in her house people who were very well clad, and
+many whom I once knew, that came for private charity.  My good aunt
+charged them always to pray to God for her nephew, who was the hand that
+God had been pleased to make use of for this good work.  Judge you of the
+influence this gave me over the populace, who are without comparison the
+most considerable in all public disturbances.  For the rich never come
+into such measures unless they are forced, and beggars do more harm than
+good, because it is known that they aim at plunder; those, therefore, who
+are capable of doing most service are such as are not reduced to common
+beggary, yet so straitened in their circumstances as to wish for nothing
+more than a general change of affairs in order to repair their broken
+fortunes.  I made myself acquainted with people of this rank for the
+course of four months with uncommon application, so that there was hardly
+a child in the chimney-corner but I gratified with some small token.  I
+called them by their familiar names.  My aunt, who always made it her
+business to go from house to house to relieve the poor, was a cloak for
+all.  I also played the hypocrite, and frequented the conferences of
+Saint Lazarus.
+
+Varicarville and Beauregarde, my correspondents at Sedan, assured me that
+the Comte de Soissons was as well inclined as one could wish, and that he
+had not wavered since he had formed his last resolution.  Varicarville
+said that we had formerly done him horrible injustice, and that they were
+now even obliged to restrain him, because he seemed to be too fond of the
+counsels of Spain and the Empire.  Please to observe that these two
+Courts, which had made incredible solicitations to him while he wavered,
+began, as soon as his purpose was fixed, to draw back,--a fatality due to
+the phlegmatic temper of the Spaniard, dignified by the name of prudence,
+joined to the astute politics of the house of Austria.  You may observe
+at the same time that the Count, who had continued firm and unshaken
+three months together, changed his mind as soon as his enemies had
+granted what he asked; which exactly comes up to the character of an
+irresolute man, who is always most unsteady the nearer the work comes to
+its conclusion.  I heard of this convulsion, as one may call it, by an
+express from Varicarville, and took post the same night for Sedan,
+arriving there an hour after Aretonville, an agent despatched from the
+Count's brother in-law, M. de Longueville.--[Henri d'Orleans, the second
+of that name, died 1663.]--He came with some plausible but deceitful
+terms of accommodation which we all agreed to oppose.  Those who had been
+always with the Count pressed him strongly with the remembrance of what
+he himself thought or said was necessary to be done ever since the war
+had been resolved on.  Saint-Ibal, who had been negotiating for him at
+Brussels, pressed him with his engagements, advances, and solicitations,
+insisted on the steps I had, by his order, already taken in Paris, on the
+promises made to De Vitri and Cremail, and on the secret committed to two
+persons by his own command, and to four others for his service and with
+his consent.  Our arguments, considering his engagements, were very just
+and clear.  We carried our point with much ado after a conflict of four
+days.  Aretonville was sent back with a very smart answer.  M. de Guise,
+who had joined the Count, and was a well-wisher to a rupture, went to
+Liege to order the levies, Varicarville and I returned to Paris, but I
+did not care to tell my fellow conspirators of the irresolution of our
+principal.  Some symptoms of it appeared afterwards, but they very soon
+vanished.
+
+Being assured that the Spaniards had everything in readiness, I went for
+the last time to Sedan to take my final instructions.  There I found
+Meternic, colonel of one of the oldest regiments of the Empire,
+despatched by General Lamboy, who had advanced with a gallant army under
+his command, composed for the most part of veteran troops.  The Colonel
+assured the Count that he was ordered to obey his commands in everything,
+and to give battle to the Marechal de Chatillon,  who commanded the army
+of France upon the Meuse.  As the undertaking at Paris depended entirely
+on the success of such a battle, the Count thought it fitting that I
+should go along with Meternic to Givet, where I found the army in a very
+good condition.  Then I returned to Paris, and gave an account of every
+particular to the Marechal de Pitri, who drew up the order for the
+enterprise.  The whole city of Paris seemed so disposed for an
+insurrection that we thought ourselves sure of success.  The secret was
+kept even to a miracle.  The Count gave the enemy battle and won it.  You
+now believe, without doubt, the day was our own.  Far from it; for the
+Count was killed in the very crisis of the victory, and in the midst of
+his own men; but how and by whom no soul could ever tell.
+
+You may guess what a condition I was in when I heard this news; M. de
+Cremail, the wisest of us all, thought of nothing else now but how to
+conceal the secret, which, though known to only six in all Paris, was
+known to too great a number; but the greatest danger of discovery was
+from the people of Sedan, who, being out of the kingdom, were not afraid
+of punishment.  Nevertheless, everybody privy to it religiously kept it
+secret, and stood their ground, which, with another accident I shall
+mention hereafter, has made me often think, and say too, that secrecy is
+not so rare a thing as we imagine with men versed in matters of State.
+
+The Count's death settled me in my profession, for I saw no great things
+to be done, and I found myself too old to leave it for anything trifling.
+Besides, Cardinal de Richelieu's health was declining, and I already
+began to think myself Archbishop of Paris.  I resolved that for the
+future I would devote myself to my profession.  Madame de Guemenee had
+retired to Port Royal, her country-seat.  M. d'Andilly had got her from
+me.  She neither powdered nor curled her hair any longer, and had
+dismissed me solemnly with all the formalities required from a sincere
+penitent.  I discovered, by means of a valet de chambre, that, captain
+---- of the Marshal's Guards, had as free access to Meilleraye's lady as
+myself.  See what it is to be a saint!  The truth is, I grew much more
+regular,--at least affected to be thought so,--led a retired life, stuck
+to my profession, studied hard, and got acquainted with all who were
+famous either for learning or piety.  I converted my house almost into an
+academy, but took care not to erect the academy into a rigid tribunal.  I
+began to be pretty free with the canons and curates, whom I found of
+course at my uncle's house.  I did not act the devotee, because I could
+not be sure how long I should be able to play the counterfeit, but I had
+a high esteem for devout people, which with such is the main article of
+religion.  I suited my pleasures to my practice, and, finding I could not
+live without some amorous intrigue, I managed an amour with Madame de
+Pommereux, a young coquette, who had so many sparks, not only in her
+house but at her devotions, that the apparent business of others was a
+cover for mine, which was, at least, some time afterwards, more to the
+purpose.  When I had succeeded, I became a man in such request among
+those of my profession that the devotees themselves used to say of me
+with M. Vincent, "Though I had not piety enough, yet I was not far from
+the kingdom of heaven."
+
+Fortune favoured me more than usual at this time.  I was at the house of
+Madame de Rambure, a notable and learned Huguenot, where I met with
+Mestrezat, the famous minister of Charento.  To satisfy her curiosity she
+engaged us in a dispute; we had nine different disputations.  The
+Marechal de la Forde and M. de Turenne were present at some of them, and
+a gentleman of Poitou, who was at all of them, became my proselyte.  As I
+was then but twenty-six years of age, this made a great deal of noise,
+and among other effects, was productive of one that had not the least
+connection with its cause, which I shall mention after I have done
+justice to a civility I received from my antagonist in one of the
+conferences.  I had the advantage of him in the fifth meeting, relating
+to the spiritual vocation; but in the sixth, treating of the Pope's
+authority, I was confounded, because, to avoid embroiling myself with the
+Court of Rome, I answered him on principles which are not so easy to be
+maintained as those of the Sorbonne.  My opponent perceived the concern I
+was under, and generously forebore to urge such passages as would have
+obliged me to explain myself in a manner disagreeable to the Pope's
+Nuncio.  I thought it extremely obliging, and as we were going out
+thanked him in the presence of M. de Turenne; to which he answered, very
+civilly, that it would have been a piece of injustice to hinder the Abbe
+de Retz from being made a cardinal.  This was such complaisance as you
+are not to expect from every Geneva pedant.  I told you before that this
+conference produced one effect very different from its cause, and it is
+this: Madame de Vendome, of whom you have heard, without doubt, took such
+a fancy to me ever after, that a mother could not have been more tender.
+She had been at the conference too, though I am very well assured she
+understood nothing of the matter; but the favourable opinion she had of
+me was owing to the Bishop of Lisieux, her spiritual director, who,
+finding I was disposed to follow my profession, which out of his great
+love to me he most passionately desired, made it his business to magnify
+the few good qualities I was master of; and I am thoroughly persuaded
+that what applause I had then in the world was chiefly owing to his
+encouragement, for there was not a man in France whose approbation could
+give so much honour.  His sermons had advanced him from a very mean and
+foreign extraction (which was Flemish) to the episcopal dignity, which he
+adorned with solid and unaffected piety.  His disinterestedness was far
+beyond that of the hermits or anchorites.  He had the courage of Saint
+Ambrose, and at Court and in the presence of the King he so maintained
+his usual freedom that the Cardinal de Richelieu, who had been his
+scholar in divinity, both reverenced and feared him.  This good man had
+that abundant kindness for me that he read me lectures thrice a week upon
+Saint Paul's Epistles, and he designed also the conversion of M. de
+Turenne and to give me the honour of it.
+
+M. de Turenne had a great respect for him, whereof he gave him very,
+distinguishing marks.  The Comte de Brion,  whom, I believe, you may
+remember under the title of Duc d'Amville, was deeply in love with
+Mademoiselle de Vendome, since Madame de Nemours; and, besides, he was a
+great favourite of M. de Turenne, who, to do him a pleasure and to give
+him the more opportunities to see Mademoiselle de Vendome, affected to be
+a great admirer of the Bishop of Lisieux and to hear his exhortations
+with a world of attention.  The Comte de Brion, who had twice been a
+Capuchin, and whose life was a continual medley of sin and devotion,
+pretended likewise to be much interested in M. de Turenne's conversion,
+and was present at all the conferences held at Mademoiselle de Vendome's
+apartment.  De Brion had very little wit, but was a clever talker, and
+had a great deal of assurance, which not very seldom supplies the room of
+good sense.  This and the behaviour of M. de Turenne, together with the
+indolence of Mademoiselle de Vendome, made me think all was fair, so that
+I never suspected an amour at the bottom.
+
+The Bishop of Lisieux being a great admirer of Corneille's writings, and
+making no scruple to see a good comedy, provided it was in the country
+among a few friends, the late Madame de Choisy proposed to entertain him
+with one at Saint Cloud.  Accordingly Madame took with her Madame and
+Mademoiselle de Vendome, M. de Turenne, M. de Brion, Voiture, and myself.
+De Brion took care of the comedy and violins, and I looked after a good
+collation.  We went to the Archbishop's house at Saint Cloud, where the
+comedians did not arrive till very late at night.  M. de Lisieux admired
+the violins, and Madame de Vendome was hugely diverted to see her
+daughter dance alone.  In short, we did not set out till peep of day (it
+being summer-time), and the days at the longest, and were got no further
+than the bottom of the Descent of Bonshommes, when all on a sudden the
+coach stopped.  I, being next the door opposite to Mademoiselle de
+Vendome, bade the coachman drive on.  He answered, as plain as he could
+speak for his fright, "What!  would you have me drive over all these
+devils here?"  I put my head out of the coach, but, being short-sighted
+from my youth, saw nothing at all.  Madame de Choisy, who was at the
+other door with M. de Turenne, was the first in the coach who found out
+the cause of the coachman's fright.  I say in the coach, for five or six
+lackeys behind it were already crying "Jesu Maria" and quaking with fear.
+
+Madame de Choisy cried out, upon which M. de Turenne threw himself out of
+the coach, and I, thinking we were beset by highwaymen, leaped out on the
+other side, took one of the footmen's hangers, drew it, and went to the
+other aide to join M. de Turenne, whom I found with his eyes fixed on
+something, but what I could not see.  I asked him what it was, upon which
+he pulled me by the sleeve, and said, with a low voice, "I will tell you,
+but we must not frighten the ladies," who, by this time, screamed most
+fearfully.  Voiture began his Oremus, and prayed heartily.  You, I
+suppose, knew Madame de Choisy's shrill tone; Mademoiselle de Vendome was
+counting her beads; Madame de Vendome would fain have confessed her sins
+to the Bishop of Lisieux, who said to her, "Daughter, be of good cheer;
+you are in the hands of God."  At the same instant, the Comte do Brion
+and all the lackeys were upon their knees very devoutly singing the
+Litany of the Virgin Mary.
+
+M. de Turenne drew his sword, and said to me, with the calm and
+undisturbed air he commonly puts on when he calls for his dinner, or
+gives battle, "Come, let us go and see who they are."
+
+"Whom should we see?"  said I, for I believed we had all lost our senses.
+
+He answered, "I verily think they are devils."
+
+When we had advanced five or six steps I began to see something which I
+thought looked like a long procession of black phantoms.  I was
+frightened at first, because of the sudden reflection that I had often
+wished to see a spirit, and that now, perhaps, I should pay for my
+incredulity, or rather curiosity.  M. de Turenne was all the while calm
+and resolute.  I made two or three leaps towards the procession, upon
+which the company in the coach, thinking we were fighting with all the
+devils, cried out most terribly; yet it is a question whether our company
+was in a greater fright than the imaginary devils that put us into it,
+who, it seems, were a parcel of barefooted reformed Augustine friars,
+otherwise called the Black Capuchins, who, seeing two men advancing
+towards them with drawn swords, one of them, detached from the
+fraternity, cried out, "Gentlemen, we are poor, harmless friars, only
+come to bathe in this river for our healths."  M. de Turenne and I went
+back to the coach ready to die with laughing at this adventure.
+
+Upon the whole we could not help making this reflection, that what we
+read in the lives of most people is false.  We were both grossly
+mistaken, I, for supposing him to be frightened; he, for thinking me calm
+and undisturbed.  Who, therefore, can write truth better than the man who
+has experienced it?  The President de Thou is very just in his remark
+when he says that "There is no true history extant, nor can be ever
+expected unless written by honest men who are not afraid or ashamed to
+tell the truth of themselves."  I do not pretend to make any merit of my
+sincerity in this case, for I feel so great a satisfaction in unfolding
+my very heart and soul to you, that the pleasure is even more prevalent
+than reason with me in the religious regard I have to the exactness of my
+history.
+
+Mademoiselle de Vendome had ever after an inconceivable contempt for the
+poor Comte de Brion, who in this ridiculous adventure had disclosed a
+weakness never before imagined; and as soon as we were got into the coach
+she bantered him, and said, particularly to me:
+
+"I fancy I must be Henri IV.'s granddaughter by the esteem I have for
+valour.  There's nothing can frighten you, since you were so undaunted on
+this extraordinary occasion."
+
+I told her I was afraid, but being not so devout as M. de Brion, my fears
+did not turn to litanies.
+
+"You feared not," said she, "and I fancy you do not believe there are
+devils, for M. de Turenne, who is very brave, was much surprised, and did
+not march on so briskly as you."
+
+I confess the distinction pleased me mightily and made me think of
+venturing some compliments.  I then said to her, "One may believe there
+is a devil and yet not fear him; there are things in the world more
+terrible."
+
+"And what are they?"  said she.
+
+"They are so strong," said I, "that one dare not so much as name them."
+
+She interpreted my meaning rightly, as she told me since, though she
+seemed at that time not to understand me.
+
+Mademoiselle was not what they call a great beauty, yet she was very
+handsome, and I was complimented for saying of her and of Mademoiselle de
+Guise that they were beauties of quality who convinced the beholders at
+first sight that they were born Princesses.  Mademoiselle de Vendome had
+no great share of wit, but her folly lay as yet concealed; her air was
+grave, tinctured with stateliness, not the effect of good sense, but the
+consequence of a languid constitution, which sort of gravity often covers
+a multitude of defects.  In the main, take her altogether, she was really
+amiable.
+
+Let me beseech you, madame, with all submission, to call now to mind the
+commands you were pleased to honour me with a little before your
+departure from Paris, that I should give you a precise account of every
+circumstance and accident of my life, and conceal nothing.  You see, by
+what I have already related, that my ecclesiastical occupations were
+diversified and relieved, though not disfigured, by other employments of
+a more diverting nature.  I observed a decorum in all my actions, and
+where I happened to make a false step some good fortune or other always
+retrieved it.  All the ecclesiastics of the diocese wished to see me
+succeed my uncle in the archbishopric of Paris, but Cardinal de Richelieu
+was of another mind; he hated my family, and most of all my person, for
+the reasons already mentioned, and was still more exasperated for these
+two which follow.
+
+I once told the late President de Mesmes what seems now to me very
+probable, though it is the reverse of what I told you some time ago,
+that I knew a person who had few or no failings but what were either the
+effect or cause of some good qualities.  I then said, on the contrary,
+to M. de Mesmes, that Cardinal de Richelieu had not one great quality but
+what was the effect or cause of some greater imperfection.  This, which
+was only 'inter nos', was carried to the Cardinal, I do not know by whom,
+under my name.  You may judge of the consequences.  Another thing that
+angered him was because I visited the President Barillon, then prisoner
+at Amboise, concerning remonstrances made to the Parliament, and that I
+should do it at a juncture which made my journey the more noticeable.
+Two miserable hermits and false coiners, who had some secret
+correspondence with M. de Vendome,  did, upon some discontent or other,
+accuse him very falsely of having proposed to them to assassinate the
+Cardinal, and to give the more weight to their depositions they named all
+those they thought notorious in that country; Montresor and M. Barillon
+were of the number.  Early notice of this being given me, the great love
+I had for the President Barillon made me take post that night to acquaint
+him with his danger and get him away from Amboise, which was very
+feasible; but he, insisting upon his innocence, rejected my proposals,
+defied both the accusers and their accusations, and was resolved to
+continue in prison.  This journey of mine gave a handle to the Cardinal
+to tell the Bishop of Lisieux that I was a cordial friend to all his
+enemies.
+
+"True enough," said the Bishop; "nevertheless you ought to esteem him;
+you have no reason to complain of him, because those men whom you mean
+were all his true friends before they became your enemies."
+
+"If it be so," replied the Cardinal, "then I am very much misinformed."
+
+The Bishop at this juncture did me all the kind offices imaginable, and
+if the Cardinal had lived he would undoubtedly have restored me to his
+favour; for his Eminence was very well disposed, especially when the
+Bishop assured him that, though I knew myself ruined at Court to all
+intents and purposes, yet I would never come into the measures of M. le
+Grand.--[M. de Cinq-Mars, Henri Coeffier, otherwise called Ruze d'Effial,
+Master of the Horse of France; he was beheaded September 12, 1642.]--
+I was indeed importuned by my friend M. de Thou to join in that
+enterprise, but I saw the weakness of their foundation, as the event has
+shown, and therefore rejected their proposals.
+
+The Cardinal de Richelieu died in 1642, before the good Bishop had made
+my peace with him, and so I remained among those who had rendered
+themselves obnoxious to the Ministry.  At first this character was very
+prejudicial to my interest.  Although the King was overjoyed at his
+death, yet he carefully observed all the appearances of respect for his
+deceased minister, confirmed all his legacies, cared for his family, kept
+all his creatures in the Ministry, and affected to frown upon all who had
+not stood well with the Cardinal; but I was the only exception to this
+general rule.  When the Archbishop of Paris presented me to the King, I
+was treated with such distinguishing marks of royal favour as surprised
+all the Court.  His Majesty talked of my studies and sermons, rallied me
+with an obliging freedom, and bade me come to Court once every week.  The
+reasons of these extraordinary civilities were utterly unknown to us
+until the night before his death, when he told them to the Queen.  I
+passed them by in silence before as having no bearing on my history, but
+I am obliged to insert them here because they have been, in their
+consequences, more fortunate than I seemed to have any just claim to
+expect.
+
+A short time after I left the college, my governor's valet de chambre
+found, at a poor pin-maker's house, a niece of hers but fourteen years
+old, who was surprisingly beautiful.  After I had seen her he bought her
+for me for 150 pistoles, hired a little house for her, and placed her
+sister with her; when I went to see her I found her in great heaviness of
+mind, which I attributed to her modesty.  I next day found what was yet
+more surprising and extraordinary than her beauty; she talked wisely and
+religiously to me, and yet without passion.  She cried only when she
+could not help it.  She feared her aunt to a degree that made me pity
+her.  I admired her wit first, and then her virtue, for trial of which I
+pressed her as far as was necessary, until I was even ashamed of myself.
+I waited till night to get her into my coach, and then carried her to my
+aunt De Maignelai, who put her into a convent, where she died eight or
+ten years after, in great reputation for piety.  My aunt, to whom this
+young creature confessed that the menaces of the pin-maker had terrified
+her so much that she would have done whatsoever I wished, was so affected
+with my behaviour that she went to tell it to the Bishop of Lisieux, who
+told it to the King.
+
+This second adventure was not of the same nature, but it made as great
+an impression on the King's mind.  It was a duel I had with Coutenau,
+captain of a company of the King's Light-horse, brave, but wild, who,
+riding post from Paris as I was going there, made the ostler take off my
+saddle and put on his.  Upon my telling him I had hired the horse, he
+gave me a swinging box on the ear, which fetched blood.  I instantly drew
+my sword, and so did he.  While making our first thrusts his foot
+slipped, and his sword dropped out of his hand as he fell to the ground.
+I retired a little and bade him pick it up, which he did, but it was by
+the point, for he presented me the handle and begged a thousand pardons.
+He told this little story afterwards to the King, with whom he had great
+freedom.  His Majesty was pleased with it, and remembered both time and
+place, as you will see hereafter.
+
+The good reception I found at Court gave my relatives some grounds to
+hope that I might have the coadjutorship of Paris.  At first they found a
+great deal of difficulty in my uncle's narrowness of spirit, which is
+always attended with fears and jealousies; but at length they prevailed
+upon him, and would have then carried our point, if my friends had not
+given it out, much against my judgment, that it was done by the consent
+of the Archbishop of Paris, and if they had not suffered the Sorbonne,
+the cures, and chapter to return him their thanks.  This affair made too
+much noise in the world for my interest.  For Cardinal Mazarin, De
+Noyers, and De Chavigni thwarted me, and told his Majesty that the
+chapter should not be entrusted with the power of nominating their own
+archbishop.  And the King was heard to say that I was yet too young.
+
+But we met with a worse obstacle than all from M. de Noyers, Secretary of
+State, one of the three favourite ministers, who passed for a religious
+man, and was suspected by some to be a Jesuit in disguise.  He had a
+secret longing for the archbishopric of Paris, which would shortly be
+vacant, and therefore thought it expedient to remove me from that city,
+where he saw I was extremely beloved, and provide me with some post
+suitable to my years.  He proposed to the King by his confessor to
+nominate me Bishop of Agde.  The King readily granted the request, which
+confounded me beyond all expression.  I had no mind to go to Languedoc,
+and yet so great are the inconveniences of a refusal that not a man had
+courage to advise me to it.  I became, therefore, my own counsellor, and
+having resolved with myself what course to take, I waited upon his
+Majesty, and thanked him for his gracious offer, but said I dreaded the
+weight of so remote a see, and that my years wanted advice, which it is
+difficult to obtain in provinces so distant.  I added to this other
+arguments, which you may guess at.  I was in this adventure also more
+happy than wise.  The King continued to treat me very kindly.  This
+circumstance, and the retreat of M. de Noyers, who fell into the snare
+that Chavigni had laid for him, renewed my hopes of the coadjutorship of
+Paris.  The King died about this time, in 1643.  M. de Beaufort, who had
+been always devoted to the Queen's interest, and even passed for her
+gallant, pretended now to govern the kingdom, of which he was not so
+capable as his valet de chambre.  The Bishop of Beauvais, the greatest
+idiot you ever knew, took upon himself the character of Prime Minister,
+and on the first day of his administration required the Dutch to embrace
+the Roman Catholic religion if they desired to continue in alliance with
+France.  The Queen was ashamed of this ridiculous minister, and sent for
+me to offer my father--[Philippe Emmanuel de Gondi, Comte de Joigni; he
+retired to the: Fathers of the Oratory, and became priest; died 1662,
+aged eighty-one.]--the place of Prime Minister; but he refusing
+peremptorily to leave his cell and the Fathers of the Oratory, the place
+was conferred upon Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+You may now imagine that it was no great task for me to obtain what I
+desired at a time that nothing was refused, which made Feuillade say that
+the only words in the French tongue were "La Reine est si bonne."
+
+Madame de Maignelai and the Bishop of Lisieux desired the Queen to grant
+me the coadjutorship of Paris, but they were repulsed, the Queen assuring
+them that none should have it but my father, who kept from Court; and
+would never be seen at the Louvre, except once, when the Queen told him
+publicly that the King, the very night before he died, had ordered her
+expressly to have it solicited for me, and that he said in the presence
+of the Bishop of Lisieux that he had me always in his thoughts since the
+adventures of the pinmaker and Captain Coutenau.  What relation had these
+trifling stories to the archbishopric of Paris?  Thus we see that affairs
+of the greatest moment often owe their rise and success to insignificant
+trifles and accidents.  All the companies went to thank the Queen.  I
+sent 16,000 crowns to Rome for my bull, with orders not to desire any
+favour, lest it should delay the despatch and give the ministers time to
+oppose it.  I received my bull accordingly; and now you will see me
+ascending the theatre of action, where you will find scenes not indeed
+worthy of yourself, but not altogether unworthy of your attention.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Assurrance often supplies the room of good sense
+By the means of a hundred pistoles down, and vast promises
+False glory and false modesty
+He knew how to put a good gloss upon his failings
+He weighed everything, but fixed on nothing
+Is there a greater in the world than heading a party?
+Nothing is so subject to delusion as piety
+So indiscreet as to boast of his successful amours
+Verily believed he was really the man which he affected to be
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, v1
+by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF JEAN FRANCOIS PAUL de GONDI, CARDINAL DE RETZ, v3
+
+Written by Himself
+
+Being Historic Court Memoirs of the Great Events during the Minority of
+Louis XIV. and the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+
+MADAME:--Cardinal Mazarin thought of nothing else now but how to rid
+himself of the obligations he lay under to the Prince de Conde, who had
+actually saved him from the gallows.  And his principal view was an
+alliance with the House of Vendome, who had on some occasions opposed the
+interest of the family of Conde.
+
+In Paris the people libelled not only the Cardinal, but the Queen.
+Indeed it was not our interest to discourage libels and ballads against
+the Cardinal, but it concerned us to suppress such as were levelled
+against the Queen and Government.  It is not to be imagined what
+uneasiness the wrath of the people gave us upon that head.  Two
+criminals, one of whom was a printer, being condemned to be hanged for
+publishing some things fit to be burnt and for libelling the Queen, cried
+out, when they were upon the scaffold, that they were to be put to death
+for publishing verses against Mazarin, upon which the people rescued them
+from justice.
+
+On the other hand, some gay young gentlemen of the Court, who were in
+Mazarin's interest, had a mind to make his name familiar to the
+Parisians, and for that end made a famous display in the public walks of
+the Tuileries, where they had grand suppers, with music, and drank the
+Cardinal's health publicly.  We took little notice of this, till they
+boasted at Saint Germain that the Frondeurs were glad to give them the
+wall.  And then we thought it high time to correct them, lest the common
+people should think they did it by authority.  For this end M. de
+Beaufort and a hundred other gentlemen went one night to the house where
+they supped, overturned the table, and broke the musicians' violins over
+their heads.
+
+Being informed that the Prince de Conde intended to oblige the King to
+return to Paris, I was resolved to have all the merit of an action which
+would be so acceptable to the citizens.  I therefore resolved to go to
+the Court at Compiegne, which my friends very much opposed, for fear of
+the danger to which I might be exposed, but I told them that what is
+absolutely necessary is not dangerous.
+
+I went accordingly, and as I was going up-stairs to the Queen's
+apartments, a man, whom I never saw before or since, put a note into my
+hand with these words: "If you enter the King's domicile, you are a dead
+man."  But I was in already, and it was too late to go back.  Being past
+the guard-chamber, I thought myself secure.  I told the Queen that I was
+come to assure her Majesty of my most humble obedience, and of the
+disposition of the Church of Paris to perform all the services it owed to
+their Majesties.  The Queen seemed highly pleased, and was very kind to
+me; but when we mentioned the Cardinal, though she urged me to it,
+I excused myself from going to see him, assuring her Majesty that such a
+visit would put it out of my power to do her service.  It was impossible
+for her to contain herself any longer; she blushed, and it was with much
+restraint that she forbore using harsh language, as she herself confessed
+afterwards.
+
+Servien said one day that there was a design to assassinate me at his
+table by the Abbe Fouquet; and M. de Vendome, who had just come from his
+table, pressed me to be gone, saying that there were wicked designs
+hatching against me.
+
+I returned to Paris, having accomplished everything I wanted, for I had
+removed the suspicion of the Court that the Frondeurs were against the
+King's return.  I threw upon the Cardinal all the odium attending his
+Majesty's delay.  I braved Mazarin, as it were, upon his throne, and
+secured to myself the chief honour of the King's return.
+
+The Court was received at Paris as kings always were and ever will be,
+namely, with acclamations, which only please such as like to be
+flattered.  A group of old women were posted at the entrance of the
+suburbs to cry out, "God save his Eminence!" who sat in the King's coach
+and thought himself Lord of Paris; but at the end of three or four days
+he found himself much mistaken.  Ballads and libels still flew about.
+The Frondeurs appeared bolder than ever.  M. de Beaufort and I rode
+sometimes alone, with one lackey only behind our coach, and at other
+times we went with a retinue of fifty men in livery and a hundred
+gentlemen.  We diversified the scene as we thought it would be most
+acceptable to the spectators.  The Court party, who blamed us from
+morning to night, nevertheless imitated us in their way.  Everybody took
+an advantage of the Ministry from our continual pelting of his Eminence.
+The Prince, who always made too much or too little of the Cardinal,
+continued to treat him with contempt; and, being disgusted at being
+refused the post of Superintendent of the Seas, the Cardinal endeavoured
+to soothe him with the vain hopes of other advantages.
+
+The Prince, being one day at Court, and seeing the Cardinal give himself
+extraordinary airs, said, as he was going out of the Queen's cabinet,
+"Adieu, Mars."  This was told all over the city in a quarter of an hour.
+I and Noirmoutier went by appointment to his house at four o'clock in the
+morning, when he seemed to be greatly troubled.  He said that he could
+not determine to begin a civil war, which, though the only means to
+separate the Queen from the Cardinal, to whom she was so strongly
+attached, yet it was both against his conscience and honour.  He added
+that he should never forget his obligations to us, and that if he should
+come to any terms with the Court, he would, if we thought proper, settle
+our affairs also, and that if we had not a mind to be reconciled to the
+Court, he would, in case it did attack us, publicly undertake our
+protection.  We answered that we had no other design in our proposals
+than the honour of being his humble servants, and that we should be very
+sorry if he had retarded his reconciliation with the Queen upon our
+account, praying that we might be permitted to continue in the same
+disposition towards the Cardinal as we were then, which we declared
+should not hinder us from paying all the respect and duty which we
+professed for his Highness.
+
+I must not forget to acquaint you that Madame de Guemenee, who ran away
+from Paris in a fright the moment it was besieged, no sooner heard that I
+had paid a visit to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse than she returned to town
+in a rage.  I was in such a passion with her for having cowardly deserted
+me that I took her by the throat, and she was so enraged at my
+familiarity with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse that she threw a candlestick
+at my head, but in a quarter of an hour we were very good friends.
+
+The Prince de Conde was no sooner reconciled with the Court than he was
+publicly reproached in the city for breaking his word with the Frondeurs;
+but I convinced him that he could not think such treatment strange in a
+city so justly exasperated against Mazarin, and that, nevertheless, he
+might depend on my best services, for which he assured me of his constant
+friendship.
+
+Moissans, now Marechal d'Albret, who was at the head of the King's
+gendarmes, accustomed himself and others to threaten the chief minister,
+who augmented the public odium against himself by reestablishing Emeri,
+a man detested by all the kingdom.  We were not a little alarmed at his
+reestablishment, because this man, who knew Paris better than the
+Cardinal, distributed money among the people to a very good purpose.
+This is a singular science, which is either very beneficial or hurtful in
+its consequences, according to the wisdom or folly of the distributor.
+
+These donations, laid out with discretion and secrecy, obliged us to
+yield ourselves more and more unto the bulk of the people, and, finding a
+fit opportunity for this performance, we took care not to let it slip,
+which, if they had been ruled by me, we should not have done so soon, for
+we were not yet forced to make use of such expedients.  It is not safe in
+a faction where you are only upon the defensive to do what you are not
+pressed to do, but the uneasiness of the subalterns on such occasions is
+troublesome, because they believe that as soon as you seem to be inactive
+all is lost.  I preached every day that the way was yet rough, and
+therefore must be made plain, and that patience in the present case was
+productive of greater effects than activity; but nobody comprehended the
+truth of what I said.
+
+An unlucky expression, dropped on this occasion by the Princesse de
+Guemenee, had an incredible influence upon the people.  She called to
+mind a ballad formerly made upon the regiment of Brulon, which was said
+to consist of only two dragoons and four drummers, and, inasmuch as she
+hated the Fronde, she told me very pleasantly that our party, being
+reduced to fourteen, might be justly compared to that regiment of Brulon.
+Noirmoutier and Laigues were offended at this expression to that degree
+that they continually murmured because I neither settled affairs nor
+pushed them to the last extremity.  Upon which I observed that heads of
+factions are no longer their masters when they are unable either to
+prevent or allay the murmurs of the people.
+
+The revenues of the Hotel de Ville, which are, as it were, the patrimony
+of the bourgeois, and which, if well managed, might be of special service
+to the King in securing to his interest an infinite number of those
+people who are always the most formidable in revolutions--this sacred
+fund, I say, suffered much by the licentiousness of the times, the
+ignorance of Mazarin, and the prevarication of the officers of the Hotel
+de Ville, who were his dependents, so that the poor annuitants met in
+great numbers at the Hotel de Ville; but as such assemblies without the
+Prince's authority are reckoned illegal, the Parliament passed a decree
+to suppress them.  They were privately countenanced by M. de Beaufort and
+me, to whom they sent a solemn deputation, and they made choice of twelve
+syndics to be a check upon the 'prevot des marchands'.
+
+On the 11th of December a pistol, as had been concerted beforehand, was
+fired into the coach of Joly, one of the syndics, which President
+Charton, another of the syndics, thinking was aimed at himself, the
+Marquis de la Boulaie ran as if possessed with a devil, while the
+Parliament was sitting, into the middle of the Great Hall, with fifteen
+or twenty worthless fellows crying out "To Arms!"  He did the like in the
+streets, but in vain, and came to Broussel and me; but the former
+reprimanded him after his way, and I threatened to throw him out at the
+window, for I had reason to believe that he acted in concert with the
+Cardinal, though he pretended to be a Frondeur.
+
+This artifice of Servien united the Prince to the Cardinal, because he
+found himself obliged to defend himself against the Frondeurs, who, as he
+believed, sought to assassinate him.  All those that were his own
+creatures thought they were not zealous enough for his service if they
+did not exaggerate the imminent danger he had escaped, and the Court
+parasites confounded the morning adventure with that at night; and upon
+this coarse canvas they daubed all that the basest flattery, blackest
+imposture, and the most ridiculous credulity was capable of imagining;
+and we were informed the next morning that it was the common rumour over
+all the city that we had formed a design of seizing the King's person and
+carrying him to the Hotel de Ville, and to assassinate the Prince.
+
+M. de Beaufort and I agreed to go out and show ourselves to the people,
+whom we found in such a consternation that I believed the Court might
+then have attacked us with success.  Madame de Montbazon advised us to
+take post-horses and ride off, saying that there was nothing more easy
+than to destroy us, because we had put ourselves into the hands of our
+sworn enemies.  I said that we had better hazard our lives than our
+honour.  To which she replied, "It is not that, but your nymphs, I
+believe, which keep you here" (meaning Mesdames de Chevreuse and
+Guemenee).  "I expect," she said, "to be befriended for my own sake, and
+don't I deserve it?  I cannot conceive how you can be amused by a wicked
+old hag and a girl, if possible, still more foolish.  We are continually
+disputing about that silly wretch" (pointing to M. de Beaufort, who was
+playing chess); "let us take him with us and go to Peronne."
+
+You are not to wonder that she talked thus contemptibly of M. de
+Beaufort, whom she always taxed with impotency, for it is certain that
+his love was purely Platonic, as he never asked any favour of her, and
+seemed very uneasy with her for eating flesh on Fridays.  She was so
+sweet upon me, and withal such a charming beauty, that, being naturally
+indisposed to let such opportunities slip, I was melted into tenderness
+for her, notwithstanding my suspicions of her, considering the then
+situation of affairs, and would have had her go with me into the cabinet,
+but she was determined first to go to Peronne, which put an end to our
+amours.
+
+Beaufort waited on the Prince and was well received, but I could not gain
+admittance.
+
+On the 14th the Prince de Conde went to Parliament and demanded that a
+committee might be appointed to inquire into the attempt made on his
+life.
+
+The Frondeurs were not asleep in the meantime, yet most of our friends
+were dispirited, and all very weak.
+
+The cures of Paris were my most hearty friends; they laboured with
+incredible zeal among the people.  And the cure of Saint Gervais sent me
+this message: "Do but rally again and get off the assassination, and in a
+week you will be stronger than your enemies."
+
+I was informed that the Queen had written to my uncle, the Archbishop of
+Paris, to be sure to go to the Parliament on the 23d, the day that
+Beaufort, Broussel, and I were to be impeached, because I had no right to
+sit in the House if he were present.  I begged of him not to go, but my
+uncle being a man of little sense, and that much out of order, and being,
+moreover, fearful and ridiculously jealous of me, had promised the Queen
+to go; and all that we could get out of him was that he would defend me
+in Parliament better than I could defend myself.  It is to be observed
+that though he chattered to us like a magpie in private, yet in public he
+was as mute as a fish.  A surgeon who was in the Archbishop's service,
+going to visit him, commended him for his courage in resisting the
+importunities of his nephew, who, said he, had a mind to bury him alive,
+and encouraged him to rise with all haste and go to the Parliament House;
+but he was no sooner out of his bed than the surgeon asked him in a
+fright how he felt.  "Very well," said my Lord.  "But that is
+impossible," said the surgeon; "you look like death," and feeling his
+pulse, he told him he was in a high fever; upon which my Lord Archbishop
+went to bed again, and all the kings and queens in Christendom could not
+get him out for a fortnight.
+
+We went to the Parliament, and found there the Princes with nearly a
+thousand gentlemen and, I may say, the whole Court.  I had few salutes in
+the Hall, because it was generally thought I was an undone man.  When I
+had entered the Great Chamber I heard a hum like that at the end of a
+pleasing period in a sermon.  When I had taken my place I said that,
+hearing we were taxed with a seditious conspiracy, we were come to offer
+our heads to the Parliament if guilty, and if innocent, to demand justice
+upon our accusers; and that though I knew not what right the Court had to
+call me to account, yet I would renounce all privileges to make my
+innocence apparent to a body for whom I always had the greatest
+attachment and veneration.
+
+Then the informations were read against what they called "the public
+conspiracy from which it had pleased Almighty God to deliver the State
+and the royal family," after which I made a speech, in substance as
+follows:
+
+"I do not believe, gentlemen, that in any of the past ages persons of our
+quality had ever received any personal summons grounded merely upon
+hearsay.  Neither can I think that posterity will ever believe that this
+hearsay evidence was admitted from the mouths of the most infamous
+miscreants that ever got out of a gaol.  Canto was condemned to the
+gallows at Pau, Pichon to the wheel at Mans, Sociande is a rogue upon
+record.  Pray, gentlemen, judge of their evidence by their character and
+profession.  But this is not all.  They have the distinguishing character
+of being informers by authority.  I am sorely grieved that the defence of
+our honour, which is enjoined us by the laws of God and man, should
+oblige me to expose to light, under the most innocent of Kings, such
+abominations as were detested in the most corrupt ages of antiquity and
+under the worst of tyrants.  But I must tell you that Canto, Sociande,
+and Gorgibus are authorised to inform against us by a commission signed
+by that august name which should never be employed but for the
+preservation of the most sacred laws, and which Cardinal Mazarin, who
+knows no law but that of revenge, which he meditates against the
+defenders of the public liberty, has forced M. Tellier, Secretary of
+State, to countersign.
+
+"We demand justice, gentlemen, but we do not demand it of you till we
+have first most humbly implored this House to execute the strictest
+justice that the laws have provided against rebels, if it appears that we
+have been concerned directly or indirectly in raising this last
+disturbance.  Is it possible, gentlemen, that a grandchild of Henri the
+Great, that a senator of M. Broussel's age and probity, and that the
+Coadjutor of Paris should be so much as suspected of being concerned in a
+sedition raised by a hot-brained fool, at the head of fifteen of the
+vilest of the mob?  I am fully persuaded it would be scandalous for me to
+insist longer on this subject.  This is all I know, gentlemen, of the
+modern conspiracy."
+
+The applause that came from the Court of Inquiry was deafening; many
+voices were heard exclaiming against spies and informers.  Honest Doujat,
+who was one of the persons appointed by the Attorney-General Talon, his
+kinsman, to make the report, and who had acquainted me with the facts,
+acknowledged it publicly by pretending to make the thing appear less
+odious.  He got up, therefore, as if he were in a passion, and spoke very
+artfully to this purpose:
+
+"These witnesses, monsieur, are not to accuse you, as you are pleased to
+say, but only to discover what passed in the meeting of the annuitants at
+the Hotel de Ville.  If the King did not promise impunity to such as will
+give him information necessary for his service, and which sometimes
+cannot be come at without involving evidence in a crime, how should the
+King be informed at all?  There is a great deal of difference between
+patents of this nature and commissions granted on purpose to accuse you."
+
+You might have seen fire in 'the face of every member.  The First
+President called out "Order!" and said, "MM. de Beaufort, le Coadjuteur,
+and Broussel, you are accused, and you must withdraw."
+
+As Beaufort and I were leaving our seats, Broussel stopped us, saying,
+"Neither you, gentlemen, nor I are bound to depart till we are ordered to
+do so by the Court.  The First President, whom all the world knows to be
+our adversary, should go out if we must."
+
+I added, "And M. le Prince," who thereupon said, with a scornful air:
+
+"What, I?  Must I retire?"
+
+"Yes, yes, monsieur," said I, "justice is no respecter of persons."
+
+The President de Mesmes said, "No, monseigneur, you must not go out
+unless the Court orders you.  If the Coadjutor insists that your Highness
+retire, he must demand it by a petition.  As for himself, he is accused,
+and therefore must go out; but, seeing he raises difficulties and
+objections to the contrary, we must put it to the vote."  And it was
+passed that we should withdraw.
+
+Meanwhile, most of the members passed encomiums upon us, satires upon the
+Ministry, and anathemas upon the witnesses for the Crown.  Nor were the
+cures and the parishioners wanting in their duty on this occasion.  The
+people came in shoals from all parts of Paris to the Parliament House.
+Nevertheless, no disrespect was shown either to the King's brother or to
+M. le Prince; only some in their presence cried out, "God bless M. de
+Beaufort!  God bless the Coadjutor!"
+
+M. de Beaufort told the First President next day that, the State and
+royal family being in danger, every moment was precious, and that the
+offenders ought to receive condign punishment, and that therefore the
+Chambers ought to be assembled without loss of time.  Broussel attacked
+the First President with a great deal of warmth.  Eight or ten
+councillors entered immediately into the Great Chamber to testify their
+astonishment at the indolence and indifference of the House after such a
+furious conspiracy, and that so little zeal was shown to prosecute the
+criminals.  MM. de Bignon and Talon, counsel for the Crown, alarmed the
+people by declaring that as for themselves they had no hand in the
+conclusions, which were ridiculous.  The First President returned very
+calm answers, knowing well that we should have been glad to have put him
+into a passion in order to catch at some expression that might bear an
+exception in law.
+
+On Christmas Day I preached such a sermon on Christian charity, without
+mentioning the present affairs, that the women even wept for the unjust
+persecution of an archbishop who had so great a tenderness for his very
+enemies.
+
+On the 29th M. de Beaufort and I went to the Parliament House,
+accompanied by a body of three hundred gentlemen, to make it appear that
+we were more than tribunes of the people, and to screen ourselves from
+the insults of the Court party.  We posted ourselves in the Fourth
+Chamber of the Inquests, among the courtiers, with whom we conversed very
+frankly, yet upon the least noise, when the debates ran high in the Great
+Chamber, we were ready to cut one another's throats eight or ten times
+every morning.  We were all distrustful of one another, and I may venture
+to say there were not twenty persons in the House but were armed with
+daggers.  As for myself, I had resolved to take none of those weapons
+inconsistent with my character, till one day, when it was expected the
+House would be more excited than usual, and then M. de Beaufort, seeing
+one end of the weapon peeping out of my pocket, exposed it to M. le
+Prince's captain of the guards and others, saying, "See, gentlemen, the
+Coadjutor's prayer-book."  I understood the jest, but really I could not
+well digest it.  We petitioned the Parliament that the First President,
+being our sworn enemy, might be expelled the House, but it was put to the
+vote and carried by a majority of thirty-six that he should retain his
+station of judge.
+
+Paris narrowly escaped a commotion at the time of the imprisonment of
+Belot, one of the syndics of the Hotel de Ville annuitants, who, being
+arrested without a decree, President de la Grange made it appear that
+there was nothing more contrary to the declaration for which they had
+formerly so exerted themselves.  The First President maintaining the
+legality of his imprisonment, Daurat, a councillor of the Third Chamber,
+told him that he was amazed that a gentleman who was so lately near being
+expelled could be so resolute in violating the laws so flagrantly.
+Whereupon the First President rose in a passion, saying that there was
+neither order nor discipline in the House, and that he would resign his
+place to another for whom they had more respect.  This motion put the
+Great Chamber all in a ferment, which was felt in the Fourth, where the
+gentlemen of both parties hastened to support their respective sides, and
+if the most insignificant lackey had then but drawn a sword, Paris would
+have been all in an uproar.
+
+We solicited very earnestly for our trial, which they delayed as much as
+it was in their power, because they could not choose but acquit us and
+condemn the Crown witnesses.  Various were the pretences for putting it
+off, and though the informations were not of sufficient weight to hang a
+dog, yet they were read over and over at every turn to prolong the time.
+
+The public began to be persuaded of our innocence, as also the Prince de
+Conde, and M. de Bouillon told me that he very much suspected it to be a
+trick of the Cardinal's.
+
+On the 1st of January, 1650, Madame de Chevreuse, having a mind to visit
+the Queen, with whom she had carried on in all her disgrace an
+unaccountable correspondence, went to the King's Palace.  The Cardinal,
+taking her aside in the Queen's little cabinet, said to her:
+
+"You love the Queen.  Is it not possible for you to make your friends
+love her?"
+
+"How can that be?"  said she; "the Queen is no more a Queen, but a humble
+servant to M. le Prince."
+
+"Good God!" replied the Cardinal; "we might do great things if we could
+get some men into our interest.  But M. de Beaufort is at the service of
+Madame de Montbazon, and she is devoted to Vigneul and the Coadjutor; "
+at the mention of which he smiled.  "I take you, monsieur," said Madame
+de Chevreuse; "I will answer for him and for her."
+
+Thus the conversation began, and the Cardinal making a sign to the Queen,
+Madame de Chevreuse had a long conference that night with her Majesty,
+who gave her this billet for me, written and signed with her own hand:
+
+     Notwithstanding what has passed and what is now doing, I cannot but
+     persuade myself that M. le Coadjuteur is in my interest.  I desire
+     to see him, and that nobody may know it but Madame and Mademoiselle
+     de Chevreuse.  This name shall be your security.
+                                                       ANNE
+
+Being convinced that the Queen was downright angry with the Prince de
+Conde on account of a rumour spread abroad that he had some intriguing
+gallantries with her Majesty, I weighed all circumstances and returned
+the answer to the Queen:
+
+     Never was there one moment of my life wherein I was not devoted to
+     your Majesty.  I am so far from consulting my own safety that I
+     would gladly die for your service .  .  .  I will go to any place
+     your Majesty shall order me.
+
+My answer, with the Queen's letter enclosed, was carried back by Madame
+de Chevreuse and well received.  I went immediately to Court, and was
+taken up the back staircase by the Queen's train-bearer to the petit
+oratoire, where her Majesty was shut up all alone.  She showed me as much
+kindness as she could, considering her hatred against M. le Prince and
+her friendship for the Cardinal, though the latter seemed the more to
+prevail, because in speaking of the civil wars and of the Cardinal's
+friendship for me she called him "the poor Cardinal" twenty times over.
+Half an hour after, the Cardinal came in, who begged the Queen to
+dispense with the respect he owed her Majesty while he embraced me in her
+presence.  He was pleased to say he was very sorry that he could not give
+me that very moment his own cardinal's cap.  He talked so much of
+favours, gratifications, and rewards that I was obliged to explain
+myself, knowing that nothing is more destructive of new reconciliations
+than a seeming unwillingness to be obliged to those to whom you are
+reconciled.  I answered that the greatest recompense I could expect,
+though I had saved the Crown, was to have the honour of serving her
+Majesty, and I humbly prayed the Queen to give me no other recompense,
+that at least I might have the satisfaction to make her Majesty sensible
+that this was the only reward I valued.
+
+The Cardinal desired the Queen to command me to accept of the nomination
+to the cardinalate, "which," said he, "La Riviere has snatched with
+insolence and acknowledged with treachery."  I excused myself by saying
+that I had taken a resolution never to accept of the cardinalship by any
+means which seemed to have relation to the civil wars, to the end that I
+might convince the Queen that it was the most rigid necessity which had
+separated me from her service.  I rejected upon the same account all the
+other advantageous propositions he made me, and, he still insisting that
+the Queen could do no less than confer upon me something that was very
+considerable for the signal service I was likely to do her Majesty, I
+answered:
+
+"There is one point wherein the Queen can do me more good than if she
+gave me a triple crown.  Her Majesty told me just now that she will cause
+M. le Prince to be apprehended.  A person of his high rank and merit
+neither can nor ought to be always shut up in prison, for when he comes
+abroad he will be full of resentment against me, though I hope my dignity
+will be my protection.  There are a great many gentlemen engaged with me
+who, in such a juncture, would be ready to serve the Queen.  And if it
+seemed good to your Majesty to entrust one of them with some important
+employment, I should be more pleased than with ten cardinals' hats."
+
+The Cardinal told the Queen that nothing was more just, and the affair
+should be considered between him and me.
+
+We had several conferences, at which we agreed on gratifications for some
+of our friends and to arrest the Prince de Conde, the Prince de Conti,
+and the Duc de Longueville.
+
+The Cardinal took occasion to speak of the treachery of La Riviere.
+"This man," said he, "takes me to be the most stupid creature living, and
+thinks he shall be to-morrow a cardinal.  I diverted myself to-day with
+letting him try on some scarlet cloth I lately received from Italy, and I
+put it near his face to know whether a scarlet colour or carnation became
+him best."
+
+I heard from Rome that his Eminence was not behindhand with La Riviere
+upon the score of treachery.  For on the very day he got him nominated by
+the King, he wrote a letter to Cardinal Sachelli more fit to recommend
+him to a yellow cap than to a red one.  This letter, nevertheless, was
+full of tenderness for La Riviere, which Mazarin knew was the only way to
+ruin him with Pope Innocent, who hated Mazarin and all his adherents.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse undertook to see how the Duc d'Orleans would relish
+the design of imprisoning the Princes.  She told him that, though the
+Queen was not satisfied with M. le Prince, yet she could not form a
+resolution of apprehending him without the concurrence of his Royal
+Highness.  She magnified the advantages of bringing over to the King's
+service the powerful faction of the Fronde, and the daily dangers Paris
+was exposed to, both by fire and sword.  This last reason touched him as
+much or more than all, for he trembled every time he came to the
+Parliament; M. le Prince very often could not prevail upon him to go at
+all, and a fit of colic was generally assigned as the reason of his
+absence.  At length he consented, and on the 18th of January the three
+Princes were put under arrest by three officers of the Queen's Guards.
+
+The people having a notion that M. de Beaufort was apprehended, ran to
+their arms, which I caused to be laid down immediately, by marching
+through the streets with flambeaux before me.  M. de Beaufort did the
+like, and the night concluded with bonfires.
+
+The Queen sent a letter from the King to the Parliament with the reasons,
+which were neither strong nor well set out, why the Prince de Conde was
+confined.  However, we obtained a decree for our absolution.
+
+The Princesses were ordered to retire to Chantilly.  Madame de
+Longueville went towards Normandy, but found no sanctuary there, for the
+Parliament of Rouen sent her a message to desire her to depart from the
+city.  The Duc de Richelieu would not receive her into Havre, and from
+there she retired to Dieppe.
+
+M. de Bouillon, who after the peace was strongly attached to the Prince
+de Conde, went in great haste to Turenne; M. de Turenne got into Stenai;
+M. de La Rochefoucault, then Prince de Marsillac, returned home to
+Poitou; and Marechal de Breze, father-in-law to the Prince de Conde, went
+to Saumur.
+
+There was a declaration published and registered in Parliament against
+them, whereby they were ordered to wait on the King within fifteen days,
+upon pain of being proceeded against as disturbers of the public peace
+and guilty of high treason.
+
+The Court carried all before them.  Madame de Longueville, upon the King
+going into Normandy, escaped by sea into Holland, whence she went
+afterwards to Arras, to try La Tour, one of her husband's pensioners, who
+offered her his person, but refused her the place.  She repaired at last
+to Stenai, whither M. de Turenne went to meet her, with all the friends
+and servants of the confined Princes that he could muster.  The King went
+from Normandy to Burgundy, and returned to Paris crowned with laurels of
+victory.
+
+The Princess-dowager, who had been ordered to retire to Bourges, came
+with a petition to Parliament, praying for their protection to stay in
+Paris, and that she might have justice done her for the illegal
+confinement of the Princes her children.  She fell at the feet of the Duc
+d'Orleans, begged the protection of the Duc de Beaufort, and said to me
+that she had the honour to be my kinswoman.  M. de Beaufort was very much
+perplexed what to do, and I was nearly ready to die for shame; but we
+could do nothing for her, and she was obliged to go to Valery.
+
+Several private annuitants, who had made a noise in the assemblies at the
+Hotel de Ville, were afraid of being called to account, and therefore,
+after M. le Prince was arrested, they desired me to procure a general
+amnesty.  I spoke about it to the Cardinal, who seemed very pliable, and,
+showing me his hatband, which was 'a la mode de la Fronde', said he hoped
+himself to be comprised in that amnesty; but he shuffled it off so long
+that it was not published and registered in Parliament till the 12th of
+May, and it would not have been obtained then had not I threatened
+vigorously to prosecute the Crown witnesses, of which they were mightily
+apprehensive, being so conscious of the heinousness of their crime that
+two of them had already made their escape.
+
+The present calm hardly deserved that name, for the storm of war began to
+rise again in several places at once.
+
+Madame de Longueville and M. de Turenne made a treaty with the Spaniards,
+and the latter joined their army, which entered Picardy and besieged
+Guise, after having taken Catelet; but for want of provisions the
+Archduke was obliged to raise the siege.  M. de Turenne levied troops
+with Spanish money, and was joined by the greater part of the officers
+commanding the soldiers that went under the name of the Prince's troops.
+
+The wretched conduct of M. d'Epernon had so confounded the affairs of
+Guienne that nothing but his removal could retrieve them.
+
+One of the greatest mischiefs which the despotic authority of ministers
+has occasioned in the world in these later times is a practice,
+occasioned by their own private mistaken interests, of always supporting
+superiors against their inferiors.  It is a maxim borrowed from
+Machiavelli, whom few understand, and whom too many cry up for an able
+man because he was always wicked.  He was very far from being a complete
+statesman, and was frequently out in his politics, but I think never more
+grossly mistaken than in this maxim, which I observed as a great weakness
+in Mazarin, who was therefore the less qualified to settle the affairs of
+Guienne, which were in so much confusion that I believe if the good sense
+of Jeannin and Villeroi had been infused into the brains of Cardinal de
+Richelieu, it would not have been sufficient to set them right.
+
+Senneterre, perceiving that Cardinal Mazarin and I were not cordial
+friends, undertook to reconcile us, and for that end took me to the
+Cardinal, who embraced me very tenderly, said he laid his heart upon the
+table, that was one of his usual phrases,--and protested he would talk as
+freely to me as if I were his own son.  I did not believe a word of what
+he said, but I assured his Eminence that I would speak to him as if he
+were my father, and I was as good as my word.  I told him I had no
+personal interest in view but to disengage myself from the public
+disturbances without any private advantage, and that for the same reason
+I thought myself obliged to come off with reputation and honour.
+I desired him to consider that my age and want of skill in public affairs
+could not give him any jealousy that I aimed to be the First Minister.
+I conjured him to consider also that the influence I had over the people
+of Paris, supported by mere necessity, did rather reflect disgrace than
+honour upon my dignity, and that he ought to believe that this one reason
+was enough to make me impatient to be rid of all these public broils,
+besides a thousand other inconveniences arising every moment, which
+disgusted me with faction.  And as for the dignity of cardinal, which
+might peradventure give him some umbrage, I could tell him very sincerely
+what had been and what was still my notion of this dignity, which I once
+foolishly imagined would be more honourable for me to despise than to
+enjoy.  I mentioned this circumstance to let him see that in my tender
+years I was no admirer of the purple, and not very fond of it now,
+because I was persuaded that an Archbishop of Paris could hardly miss
+obtaining that dignity some time or other, according to form, by actions
+purely ecclesiastical; and that he should be loth to use any other means
+to procure it.
+
+I said that I should be extremely sorry if my purple were stained with
+the least drop of blood spilt in the civil wars; that I was resolved to
+clear my hands of everything that savoured of intrigue before I would
+make or suffer any step which had any tendency that way; that he knew
+that for the same reason I would neither accept money nor abbeys, and
+that, consequently, I was engaged by the public declarations I had made
+upon all those heads to serve the Queen without any interest; that the
+only end I had in view, and in which I never wavered, was to come off
+with honour, so that I might resume the spiritual functions belonging to
+my profession with safety; that I desired nothing from him but the
+accomplishment of an affair which would be more for the King's service
+than for my particular interest; that he knew that the day after the
+arrest of the Prince he sent me with his promise to the annuitants of the
+Hotel de Ville, and that for want of performance those men were persuaded
+that I was in concert with the Court to deceive them.  Lastly, I told him
+that the access I had to the Duc d'Orleans might perhaps give him
+umbrage, but I desired him to consider that I never sought that honour,
+and that I was very sensible of the inconveniences attending it.
+I enlarged upon this head, which is the most difficult point to be
+understood by Prime Ministers, who are so fond of being freely admitted
+into a Prince's presence that, notwithstanding all the experience in the
+world, they cannot help thinking that therein consists the essence of
+happiness.
+
+When truth has come to a certain point, it darts such powerful rays of
+light as are irresistible, but I never knew a man who had so little
+regard for truth as Mazarin.  He seemed, however, more regardful of it
+than usual, and I laid hold of the occasion to tell him of the dangerous
+consequences of the disturbances of Guienne, and that if he continued to
+support M. d'Epernon, the Prince's faction would not let this opportunity
+slip; that if the Parliament of Bordeaux should engage in their party,
+it would not be long before that of Paris would do the same; that, after
+the late conflagration in this metropolis, he could not suppose but that
+there was still some fire hidden under the ashes; and that the factious
+party had reason to fear the heavy punishment to which the whole body of
+them was liable, as we ourselves were two or three months ago.  The
+Cardinal began to yield, especially when he was told that M. de Bouillon
+began to make a disturbance in the Limousin, where M. de La Rochefoucault
+had joined him with some troops.
+
+To confirm our reconciliation, a marriage was proposed between my niece
+and his nephew, to which he, gave his consent; but I was much averse to
+it, being not yet resolved to bury my family in that of Mazarin, nor did
+I set so great a value on grandeur as to purchase it with the public
+odium.  However, it produced no animosity on either side, and his friends
+knew that I should be very glad to be employed in making a general peace;
+they acted their parts so well that the Cardinal, whose love-fit for me
+lasted about a fortnight, promised me, as it were of his own accord, that
+I should be gratified.
+
+News came about this time from Guienne that the Ducs de Bouillon and de
+La Rochefoucault had taken Madame la Princesse into Bordeaux, together
+with M. le Duc, her son.  The Parliament was not displeased with the
+people for receiving into their city M. le Duc, yet they observed more
+decorum than could be expected from the inhabitants of Gascogne, so
+irritated as they were against M. d'Epernon.  They ordered that Madame la
+Princesse, M. le Duc, MM. de Bouillon and de La Rochefoucault should have
+liberty to stay in Bordeaux, provided they would promise to undertake
+nothing against the King's service, and that the petition of Madame la
+Princesse should be sent to the King with a most humble remonstrance from
+the Parliament against the confinement of the Princes.
+
+At the same time, one of the Presidents sent word to Senneterre that the
+Parliament was not so far enraged but that they would still remember
+their loyalty to the King, provided he did but remove M. d'Epernon.  But
+in case of any further delay he would not answer for the Parliament, and
+much less for the people, who, being now managed and supported by the
+Prince's party, would in a little time make themselves masters of the
+Parliament.  Senneterre did what he could to induce the Cardinal to make
+good use of this advice, and M. de Chateauneuf, who was now Chancellor,
+talked wonderfully well upon the point, but seeing the Cardinal gave no
+return to his reasons but by exclaiming against the Parliament of
+Bordeaux for sheltering men condemned by the King's declaration, he said
+to him very plainly, "Set out to-morrow, monsieur, if you do not arrange
+matters to-day; you should have been by this time upon the Garonne."
+
+The event proved that Chateauneuf was in the right, for though the
+Parliament was very excited, they stood out a long time against the
+madness of the people, spurred on by M. de Bouillon, and issued a decree
+ordering an envoy of Spain, who was sent thither to commence a treaty
+with the Duc de Bouillon, to depart the city, and forbade any of their
+body to visit such as had correspondence with Spain, the Princess herself
+not excepted.  Moreover, the mob having undertaken to force the
+Parliament to unite with the Princes, the Parliament armed the
+magistracy, who fired upon the people and made them retire.
+
+A little time before the King departed for Guienne, which was in the
+beginning of July, word came that the Parliament of Bordeaux had
+consented to a union with the Princes, and had sent a deputy to the
+Parliament of Paris, who had orders to see neither the King nor the
+ministers, and that the whole province was disposed for a revolt.  The
+Cardinal was in extreme consternation, and commended himself to the
+favour of the meanest man of the Fronde with the greatest suppleness
+imaginable.
+
+As soon as the King came to the neighbourhood of Bordeaux the deputies of
+Parliament, who went to meet the Court at Lebourne, were peremptorily
+commanded to open the gates of the city to the King and to all his
+troops.  They answered that one of their privileges was to guard the King
+themselves while he was in any of their towns.  Upon this, Marechal de La
+Meilleraye seized the castle of Vaire, in the command of Pichon, whom the
+Cardinal ordered to be hanged; and M. de Bouillon hanged an officer in
+Meilleraye's army by way of reprisal.
+
+After that the Marshal besieged the city in form, which, despairing of
+succour from Spain, was forced to capitulate upon the following terms:
+
+That a general pardon should be granted to all who had taken up arms and
+treated with Spain, that all the soldiers should be disbanded except
+those whom the King had a mind to keep in his pay, that Madame la
+Princesse and the Duke should be at liberty to reside either in Anjou or
+at Mouzon, with no more than two hundred foot and sixty horse, and that
+M. d'Epernon should be recalled from the government of Guienne.
+
+The Princess had an interview with both the King and Queen, at which
+there were great conferences between the Cardinal and the Ducs de
+Bouillon and de La Rochefoucault.
+
+The deputy from Bordeaux, arriving at Paris soon after the King's
+departure, went immediately, to Parliament, and, after an eloquent
+harangue, presented a letter from the Parliament of Bordeaux, together
+with their decrees, and demanded a union between the two Parliaments.
+After some debates it was resolved that the deputy should deliver his
+credentials in writing, which should be presented to his Majesty by the
+deputies of the Parliament of Paris, who would, at the same time, most
+humbly beseech the Queen to restore peace to Guienne.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans was against debating about the petition to the Queen
+for the liberation of the Priuces and the banishment of Cardinal Mazarin;
+nevertheless, many of the members voted for it, upon a motion made by the
+President Viole, who was a warm partisan of the Prince de Conde, not
+because he had hopes of carrying it, but on purpose to embarrass M. de
+Beaufort and myself upon a subject of which we did not care to speak, and
+yet did not dare to be altogether silent about, without passing in some
+measure for Mazarinists.  President Viole did the Prince a great deal of
+service on this occasion, for Bourdet a brave soldier, who had been
+captain of the Guards and was attached to the interest of the Prince--
+performed an action which emboldened the party very much, though it had
+no success.  He dressed himself and fourscore other officers of his
+troops in mason's clothes, and having assembled many of the dregs of the
+people, to whom he had distributed money, came directly to the Duc
+d'Orleans as he was going out, and cried, "No Mazarin!  God bless the
+Princes!"  His Royal Highness, at this apparition and the firing of a
+brace of pistols at the same time by Bourdet, ran to the Great Chamber;
+but M. de Beaufort stood his ground so well with the Duke's guards and
+our men, that Bourdet was repulsed and thrown down the Parliament stairs.
+
+But the confusion in the Great Chamber was still worse.  There were daily
+assemblies, wherein the Cardinal was severely attacked, and the Prince's
+party had the pleasure of exposing us as his accomplices.  What is very
+strange is that at the same time the Cardinal and his friends accused us
+of corresponding with the Parliament of Bordeaux, because we maintained,
+in case the Court did not adjust affairs there, we would infallibly bring
+the Parliament of Paris into the interest of the Prince.  If I were at
+the point of death I should have no need to be confessed on account of my
+behaviour on this occasion.  I acted with as much sincerity in this
+juncture as if I had been the Cardinal's nephew, though really it was not
+out of any love to him, but because I thought myself obliged in prudence
+to oppose the progress of the Prince's faction, owing to the foolish
+conduct of his enemies; and to this end I was obliged to oppose the
+flattery of the Cardinal's tools as much as the efforts made by those who
+were in the service of the Prince.
+
+On the 3d of September President Bailleul returned with the other
+deputies, and made a report in Parliament of his journey to Court; it
+was, in brief, that the Queen thanked the Parliament for their good
+intentions, and had commanded them to assure the Parliament in her name
+that she was ready to restore peace to Guienne, and that it would have
+been done before now had not M. de Bouillon, who had treated with the
+Spaniards, made himself master of Bordeaux, and thereby cut off the
+effects of his Majesty's goodness.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans informed the House that he had received a letter from
+the Archduke, signifying that the King of Spain having sent him full
+powers to treat for a general peace, he desired earnestly to negotiate it
+with him.  But his Royal Highness added that he did not think it proper
+to return him any answer till he had the opinion of the Parliament.  The
+trumpeter who brought the letter gathered a party at Tiroir cross, and
+spoke very seditious words to the people.  The next day they found libels
+posted up and down the city in the name of M. de Turenne, setting forth
+that the Archduke was coming with no other disposition than to make
+peace, and in one of them were these words: "It is your business,
+Parisians, to solicit your false tribunes, who have turned at last
+pensioners and protectors of Mazarin, who have for so long a time sported
+with your fortunes and repose, and spurred you on, kept you back, and
+made you hot or cold, according to the caprices and different progress of
+their ambition."
+
+You see the state and condition the Frondeurs were in at this juncture,
+when they could not move one step but to their own disadvantage.  The Duc
+d'Orleans spoke to me that night with a, great deal of bitterness against
+the Cardinal, which he had never done before, and said he had been
+tricked by him twice, and that he was ruining himself, the State, and all
+of us, and would, by so doing, place the Prince de Conde upon the throne.
+In short, Monsieur owned that it was not yet time to humble the Cardinal.
+"Therefore," said M. Bellievre, "let us be upon our guard; this man can
+give us the slip any moment."
+
+Next day a letter was sent from the Prince de Conde, by the Baron de
+Verderonne, to the Archduke, desiring him to name the time, place and
+persons for a treaty.  The Baron returned with a letter from the Archduke
+to his Royal Highness, desiring that the conferences might be held
+between Rheims and Rhetel, and that they might meet there personally,
+with such others as they should think fit to bring with them.  The Court
+was surprised, but, however, did not think fit to delay sending full
+powers to his Royal Highness to treat for peace on such terms as he
+thought reasonable and advantageous for the King's service; and there
+were joined with him, though in subordination, MM. Mole, the First
+President, d'Avaux, and myself, with the title of Ambassadors
+Extraordinary and Plenipotentiaries.  M. d'Avaux obliged me to assure Don
+Gabriel de Toledo, in private, that if the Spaniards would but come to
+reasonable terms, we would conclude a peace with them in two days' time.
+And his Royal Highness said that Don Gabriel being a lover of money, I
+should promise him for his part 100,000 crowns if the conference that was
+proposed ended in a peace, and bid him tell the Archduke that, if the
+Spaniards proposed reasonable terms, he would sign and have them
+registered in Parliament before Mazarin should know anything of the
+matter.
+
+Don Gabriel received the overture with joy; he had some particular
+fancies, but Fuensaldagne, who had a particular kindness for him, said
+that he was the wisest fool he ever saw in his life.  I have remarked
+more than once that this sort of man cannot persuade, but can insinuate
+perfectly well, and that the talent of insinuation is of more service
+than that of persuasion, because one may insinuate to a hundred where one
+can hardly persuade five.
+
+The King of England, after having lost the battle of Worcester, arrived
+in Paris the day that Don Gabriel set out, the 13th of September, 1651.
+My Lord Taff was his great chamberlain, valet de chambre, clerk of the
+kitchen, cup-bearer, and all,--an equipage answerable to his Court, for
+his Majesty had not changed his shirt all the way from England.  Upon his
+arrival at Paris, indeed, he had one lent him by my Lord Jermyn; but the
+Queen, his mother, had not money to buy him another for the next day.
+The Duc d'Orleans went to compliment his Majesty upon his arrival, but it
+was not in my power to persuade his Royal Highness to give his nephew one
+penny, because, said he, "a little would not be worth his acceptance, and
+a great deal would engage me to do as much hereafter."  This leads me to
+make the following digression: that there is nothing so wretched as to be
+a minister to a Prince, and, at the same time, not his favourite; for it
+is his favour only that gives one a power over the more minute concerns
+of the family, for which the public does, nevertheless, think a minister
+accountable when they, see he has power over affairs of far greater
+consequence.
+
+Therefore I was not in a condition to oblige his Royal Highness by
+assisting the King of England with a thousand pistoles, for which I was
+horridly, ashamed, both upon his account anal my own; but I borrowed
+fifteen hundred for him from M. Morangis, and carried them to my Lord
+Taff.--[Lord Clarendon extols the civilities of Cardinal de Retz to King
+Charles II., and has reported a curious conversation which the Cardinal
+had with that Prince.]--It is remarkable that the same night, as I was
+going home, I met one Tilney, an Englishman whom I had formerly known at
+Rome, who told me that Vere, a great Parliamentarian and a favourite of
+Cromwell, had arrived in Paris and had orders to see me.  I was a little
+puzzled; however, I judged it would be improper to refuse him an
+interview.  Vere gave me a brief letter from Cromwell in the nature of
+credentials, importing that the sentiments I had enunciated in the
+"Defence of Public Liberty" added to my reputation, and had induced
+Cromwell to desire to enter with me into the strictest friendship.  The
+letter was in the main wonderfully civil and complaisant.  I answered it
+with a great deal of respect, but in such a manner as became a true
+Catholic and an honest Frenchman.  Vere appeared to be a man of
+surprising abilities.
+
+I now return to our own affairs.  I was told as a mighty secret that
+Tellier had orders from the Cardinal to remove the Princes from the Bois
+de Vincennes if the enemy were likely to come near the place, and that he
+should endeavour by all means to procure the consent of the Duc d'Orleans
+for that end; but that, in case of refusal, these orders should be
+executed notwithstanding, and that he should endeavour to gain me to
+these measures by the means of Madame de Chevreuse.  When Tellier came to
+me I assured him that it was all one, both to me and the Duc d'Orleans,
+whether the Princes were removed or not, but since my opinion was
+desired, I must declare that I think nothing can be more contrary to the
+true interest of the King; "for," said I, "the Spaniards must gain a
+battle before they can come to Vincennes, and when there they must have a
+flying camp to invest the place before they can deliver the Princes from
+confinement, and therefore I am convinced that there is no necessity for
+their removal, and I do affirm that all unnecessary changes in matters
+which are in themselves disagreeable are pernicious, because odious.
+I will maintain, further, that there is less reason to fear the Duc
+d'Orleans and the Frondeurs than to dread the Spaniards.  Suppose that
+his Royal Highness is more disaffected towards the Court than anybody;
+suppose further that M. de Beaufort and I have a mind to relieve the
+Princes, in what way could we do it?  Is not the whole garrison in that
+castle in the King's service?  Has his Royal Highness any regular troops
+to besiege Vincennes?  And, granting the Frondeurs to be the greatest
+fools imaginable, will they expose the people of Paris at a siege which
+two thousand of the King's troops might raise in a quarter of an hour
+though it consist of a hundred thousand citizens?  I therefore conclude
+that the removal would be altogether impolitic.  Does it not look rather
+as if the Cardinal feigns apprehension of the Spaniards only as a
+pretence to make himself master of the Princes, and to dispose of their
+persons at pleasure?  The generality of the people, being Frondeurs, will
+conclude you take the Prince de Conde out of their hands,--whom they look
+upon to be safe while they see him walking upon the battlements of his
+prison,--and that you will give him his liberty when you please, and thus
+enable him to besiege Paris a second time.  On the other hand, the
+Prince's party will improve this removal very much to their own advantage
+by the compassion such a spectacle will raise in the people when they see
+three Princes dragged in chains from one prison to another.  I was really
+mistaken just now when I said the case was all one to me, for I see that
+I am nearly concerned, because the people--in which word I include the
+Parliament will cry out against it; I must be then obliged, for my own
+safety, to say I did not approve of the resolution.  Then the Court will
+be informed that I find fault with it, and not only that, but that I do
+it in order to raise the mob and discredit the Cardinal, which, though
+ever so false; yet in consequence the people will firmly believe it, and
+thus I shall meet with the same treatment I met with in the beginning of
+the late troubles, and what I even now experience in relation to the
+affairs of Guienne.  I am said to be the cause of these troubles because
+I foretold them, and I was said to encourage the revolt at Bordeaux
+because I was against the conduct that occasioned it."
+
+Tellier, in the Queen's name, thanked me for my unresisting disposition,
+and made the same proposal to his Royal Highness; upon which I spoke, not
+to second Tellier, who pleaded for the necessity of the removal, to which
+I could by no means be reconciled, but to make it evident to his Royal
+Highness that he was not in any way concerned in it in his own private
+capacity, and that, in case the Queen did command it positively, it was
+his duty to obey.  M. de Beaufort opposed it so furiously as to offer the
+Duc d'Orleans to attack the guards which were to remove him.  I had solid
+reasons to dissuade him from it, to the last of which he submitted, it
+being an argument which I had from the Queen's own mouth when she set out
+for Guienne, that Bar offered to assassinate the Princes if it should
+happen that he was not in a condition to hinder their escape.  I was
+astonished when her Majesty trusted me with this secret, and imagined
+that the Cardinal had possessed her with a fear that the Frondeurs had a
+design to seize the person of the Prince de Conde.  For my part, I never
+dreamed of such a thing in my life.  The Ducs d'Orleans and de Beaufort
+were both shocked at the thought of it, and, in short, it was agreed that
+his Royal Highness should give his consent for the removal, and that M.
+de Beaufort and myself should not give it out among the people that we
+approved of it.
+
+The day that the Princes were removed to Marcoussi, President Bellievre
+told the Keeper of the Seals in plain terms, that if he continued to
+treat me as he had done hitherto, he should be obliged in honour to give
+his testimony to the truth.  To which the Keeper of the Seals returned
+this blunt answer: "The Princes are no longer in sight of Paris; the
+Coadjutor must not therefore talk so loud."
+
+I return now to the Parliament, which was so moderate at this time that
+the Cardinal was hardly mentioned, and they agreed, 'nemine
+contradicente', that the Parliament should send deputies to Bordeaux to
+know once for all if that Parliament was for peace or not.
+
+Soon after this the Parliament of Toulouse wrote to that of Paris
+concerning the disturbances in Guienne, part whereof belonged to their
+jurisdiction, and expressly demanded a decree of union.  But the Duc
+d'Orleans warded off the blow very dexterously, which was of great
+consequence, and, more by his address than by his authority, brought the
+Parliament to dismiss the deputies with civil answers and insignificant
+expressions, upon which President Bellievre said to me, "What pleasure
+should we not take in acting as we do if it were for persons that had but
+the sense to appreciate it!"
+
+The Parliament did not continue long in that calm.  They passed a decree
+to interrogate the State prisoners in the Bastille, broke out sometimes
+like a whirlwind, with thunder and lightning, against Cardinal Mazarin;
+at other times they complained of the misapplication of the public funds.
+We had much ado to ward off the blows, and should not have been able to
+hold out long against the fury of the waves but for the news of the Peace
+of Bordeaux, which was registered there on October the 1st, 1650, and put
+the Prince de Conde's party into consternation.
+
+One mean artifice of Cardinal Mazarin's polity was always to entertain
+some men of our own party, with whom, half reconciled, he played fast and
+loose before our eyes, and was eternally negotiating with them, deceiving
+and being deceived in his turn.  The consequence of all this was a great,
+thick cloud, wherein the Frondeurs themselves were at last involved; but
+which they burst with a thunderclap.
+
+The Cardinal, being puffed up with his success in settling the troubles
+of Guienne, thought of nothing else than crowning his triumph by
+chastising the Frondeurs, who, he said, had made use of the King's
+absence to alienate the Duc d'Orleans from his service, to encourage the
+revolt at Bordeaux, and to make themselves masters of the persons of the
+Princes.  At the same time, he told the Princess Palatine that he
+detested the cruel hatred I bore to the Prince de Conde, and that the
+propositions I made daily to him on that score were altogether unworthy
+of a Christian.  Yet he suggested to the Duc d'Orleans that I made great
+overtures to him to be reconciled to the Court, but that he could not
+trust me, because I was from morning to night negotiating with the
+friends of the Prince de Conde.  Thus the Cardinal rewarded me for what I
+did with incredible application and, I must say, uncommon sincerity for
+the Queen's service during the Court's absence.  I do not mention the
+dangers I was in twice or thrice a day, surpassing even those of soldiers
+in battles.  For imagine, I beseech you, what pain and anguish I must
+have been in at hearing myself called a Mazarinist, and at having to bear
+all the odium annexed to that hateful appellation in a city where he made
+it his business to destroy me in the opinion of a Prince whose nature it
+was to be always in fear and to trust none but such as hoped to rise by
+my fall.
+
+The Cardinal gave himself such airs after the peace at Bordeaux that some
+said my best way would be to retire before the King's return.
+
+Cardinal Mazarin had been formerly secretary to Pancirole, the Pope's
+nuncio for the peace of Italy, whom he betrayed, and it was proved that
+he had a secret correspondence with the Governor of Milan.  Pancirole,
+being created cardinal and Secretary of State to the Church, did not
+forget the perfidiousness of his secretary, now created cardinal by Pope
+Urban, at the request of Cardinal de Richelieu, and did not at all
+endeavour to qualify the anger which Pope Innocent had conceived against
+Mazarin after the assassination of one of his nephews, in conjunction
+with Cardinal Anthony.
+
+     [Anthony Barberini, nephew to Urban VIII., created Cardinal 1628,
+     made Protector of the Crown of France 1633, and Great Almoner of the
+     Kingdom 1653.  He was afterwards Bishop of Poitiers, and, lastly,
+     Archbishop of Rheims in 1657.  Died 1671.]
+
+Pancirole, who thought he could not affront Mazarin more than by
+contributing to make me cardinal, did me all the kind offices with Pope
+Innocent, who gave him leave to treat with me in that affair.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse told the Queen all that she had observed in my
+conduct in the King's absence, and what she had seen was certainly one
+continued series of considerable services done to the Queen.
+
+She recounted at last all the injustice done me, the contempt put upon
+me, and the just grounds of my diffidence, which, she said, of necessity
+ought to be removed, and that the only means of removing it was the hat.
+The Queen was in a passion at this.  The Cardinal defended himself, not
+by an open denial, for he had offered it me several times, but by
+recommending patience, intimating that a great monarch should be forced
+to nothing.  Monsieur, seconding Madame de Chevreuse in her attack,
+assailed the Cardinal, who, at least in appearance, gave way, out of
+respect for his Royal Highness.  Madame de Chevreuse, having brought them
+to parley, did not doubt that she should also bring them to capitulate,
+especially when she saw the Queen was appeased, and had told his Royal
+Highness that she was infinitely obliged to him, and would do what her
+Council judged most proper and reasonable.  This Council, which was only
+a specious name, consisted only of the Cardinal, the Keeper of the Seals,
+Tellier, and Servien.
+
+The matter was proposed to the Council by the Cardinal with much
+importunity, concluding with a most submissive petition to the Queen to
+condescend to the demand of the Duc d'Orleans, and to what the services
+and merits of the Coadjutor demanded.  The proposition was rejected with
+such resolution and contempt as is very unusual in Council in opposition
+to a Prime Minister.  Tellier and Servien thought it sufficient not to
+applaud him; but the Keeper of the Seals quite forgot his respect for the
+Cardinal, accused him of prevarication and weakness, and threw himself at
+her Majesty's feet, conjuring her in the name of the King her son, not to
+authorise, by an example which he called fatal, the insolence of a
+subject who was for wresting favours from his sovereign, sword in hand.
+The Queen was moved at this, and the poor Cardinal owned he had been too
+easy and pliant.
+
+I had myself given a very natural handle to my adversaries to expose me
+so egregiously.  I have been guilty of many blunders, but I think this is
+the grossest that I ever was guilty of in all my life.  I have frequently
+made this observation, that when men have, through fear of miscarriage,
+hesitated a long time about any undertaking of consequence, the remaining
+impressions of their fear commonly push them afterwards with too much
+precipitancy upon the execution of their design.  And this was my case.
+It was with the greatest reluctance that I determined to accept the
+dignity of a cardinal, because I thought it too mean to form a pretension
+to it without certainty of success; and no sooner was I engaged in the
+pursuit of it but the impression of the former fearful ideas hurried me
+on, as it were, to the end, that I might get as soon as possible out of
+the disagreeable state of uncertainty.
+
+The Cardinal would have paid my debts, given me the place of Grand
+Almoner, etc.; but if he had added twelve cardinals' hats into the
+bargain, I should have begged his excuse.  I was now engaged with
+Monsieur, who had, meanwhile, resolved upon the release of the Princes
+from their confinement.
+
+Cardinal Mazarin, after his return to Paris, made it his chief study to
+divide the Fronde.  He thought to materially weaken my interest with
+Monsieur by detaching from me Madame de Chevreuse, for whom he had a
+natural tenderness, and to give me a mortal blow by embroiling me with
+Mademoiselle her daughter.  To do this effectually he found a rival, who,
+he hoped, would please her better, namely, M. d'Aumale, handsome as
+Apollo, and one who was very likely to suit the temper of Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse.  He had entirely devoted himself to the Cardinal's interest,
+looked upon himself as very much honoured by this commission, and haunted
+the Palace of Chevreuse so diligently that I did not doubt but that he
+was sent thither to act the second part of the comedy which had
+miscarried so shamefully in the hands of M. de Candale.  I watched all
+his movements, and complained to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, but she gave
+me indirect answers.  I began to be out of humour, and was soon appeased.
+I grew peevish again; and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse saying in his
+presence, to please me and to sting him, that she could not imagine how
+it was possible to bear a silly fellow, "Pardon me, mademoiselle,"
+replied I, "we suffer fops sometimes very patiently for the sake of their
+extravagances."  This man was notoriously foppish and extravagant.  My
+answer pleased, and we soon got rid of him at the Palace of Chevreuse.
+But he thought to have despatched me, for he hired one Grandmaison, a
+ruffian, to assassinate me, who apprised me of his design.  The first
+time I met M. d'Aumale, which was at the Duc d'Orleans's house, I did not
+fail to let him know it; but I told it him in a whisper, saying that I
+had too much respect for the House of Savoy to publish it to the world.
+He denied the fact, but in such a manner as to make it more evident,
+because he conjured me to keep it secret.  I gave him my word, and I kept
+it.
+
+Madame de Guemenee, with whom I had several quarrels, proposed to the
+Queen likewise to despatch me, by shutting me up in a greenhouse in her
+garden, which she might easily have done, because I often went to her
+alone by night; but the Cardinal, fearing that the people would have
+suspected him as the author of my sudden disappearance, would not enter
+into the project, so it was dropped.
+
+To return to our negotiations for the freedom of the Princes.  The Duc
+d'Orleans was with much difficulty induced to sign the treaty by which a
+marriage was stipulated between Mademoiselle de Chevreuse and the Prince
+de Conti, and to promise not to oppose my promotion to the dignity of a
+cardinal.  The Princes were as active in the whole course of these
+negotiations as if they had been at liberty.  We wrote to them, and they
+to us, and a regular correspondence between Paris and Lyons was never
+better established than ours.  Bar,
+
+     [Bar was, according to M. Joly, an unsociable man, who was for
+     raising his fortune by using the Princes badly, and who, on this
+     account, was often the dupe of Montreuil, secretary to the Prince de
+     Conti.--See JOLY'S "Memoirs," vol. i., p. 88.]
+
+their warder, was a very shallow fellow; besides, men of sense are
+sometimes outwitted.
+
+Cardinal Mazarin, upon his return with the King from Guienne, was greatly
+pleased with the acclamations of the mob, but he soon grew weary of them,
+for the Frondeurs still kept the wall.
+
+The Cardinal being continually provoked at Paris by the Abbe Fouquet, who
+sought to make himself necessary, and being so vain as to think himself
+qualified to command an army, marched abruptly out of Paris for
+Champagne, with a design to retake Rhetel and Chateau-Portien, of which
+the enemy were possessed, and where M. de Turenne proposed to winter.
+
+On the feast of Saint Martin, the First President and the Attorney-
+General Talon exhorted the Parliament to be peaceable, that the enemies
+of the State might have no advantage.  A petition was read from Madame la
+Princesse, desiring that the Princes should be brought to the Louvre and
+remain in the custody, of one of the King's officers, and that the
+Solicitor-General be sent for to say what he had to allege against their
+innocence, and that in case he should have nothing solid to offer they be
+set at liberty.
+
+The Chambers, being assembled on the 7th of December, to take the affair
+into consideration, Talon, the Attorney-General, informed the House that
+the Queen had sent for the King's Council, and ordered them to let the
+Parliament know that it was her pleasure that the House should not take
+any cognisance of the Princess's petition, because everything that had
+relation to the confinement of the Princes belonged to the royal
+authority.  Talon made a motion that the Parliament should depute some
+members to carry the petition to the Queen, and to beseech her Majesty to
+take it into her consideration.  At the same time another petition was
+presented from Mademoiselle de Longueville, for the liberty of the Duke
+her father, and that she might have leave to stay in Paris to solicit it.
+
+No sooner was this petition read than a letter from the three Princes was
+presented and read, praying that they might be brought to trial or set at
+liberty.
+
+On the 9th day of the month an order was brought to the Parliament from
+the King, commanding the House to suspend all deliberations on this
+subject till they had first sent their deputies to Court to know his
+Majesty's pleasure.
+
+Deputies were sent immediately, to whom, accordingly, the Queen gave
+audience in bed, telling them that she was very much indisposed.  The
+Keeper of the Seals added that it was the King's pleasure that the
+Parliament should not meet at all until such time as the Queen his mother
+had recovered her health.
+
+On the 10th the House resolved to adjourn only to the 14th, and on that
+day a general procession was proposed to the Archbishop by the Dean of
+Parliament, to beg that God would inspire them with such counsels only as
+might be for the good of the public.
+
+On the 14th they received the King's letter, forbidding their debates,
+and informing them that the Queen would satisfy them very speedily about
+the affair of the Princes; but this letter was disregarded.  They sent a
+deputation to invite the Duc d'Orleans to come to the House, but, after
+consulting with the Queen, he told the deputies that he did not care to
+go, that the Assembly was too noisy, that he could not divine what they
+would be at, that the affairs in debate were never known to fall under
+their cognisance, and that they had nothing else to do but to refer the
+said petitions to the Queen.
+
+On the 18th news came that Marechal du Plessis had gained a signal
+victory over M. de Turenne, who was coming to succour Rhetel, but found
+it already surrendered to Marechal du Plessis; and the Spanish garrison,
+endeavouring to retreat, was forced to an engagement on the plains of
+Saumepuis; that about 2,000 men were killed upon the spot, among the rest
+a brother of the Elector Palatine, and six colonels, and that there were
+nearly 4,000 prisoners, the most considerable of whom were several
+persons of note, and all the colonels, besides twenty colours and eighty-
+four standards.  You may easily guess at the consternation of the
+Princes' party; my house was all night filled with the lamentations of
+despairing mourners, and I found the Duc d'Orleans, as it were, struck
+dumb.
+
+On the 19th, as I went to the Parliament House, the people looked
+melancholy, dejected, and frightened out of their wits.  The members were
+afraid to open their mouths, and nobody would mention the name of Mazarin
+except Menardeau Champre, who spoke of him with encomiums, by giving him
+the honour of the victory of Rhetel, and then he moved the House to
+entreat the Queen to put the Princes into the hands of that good and wise
+Minister, who would be as careful of them as he had been hitherto of the
+State.  I wondered most of all that this man was not hissed in the House,
+and especially as he passed through the Great Hall.  This circumstance,
+together with what I saw that afternoon in every street, convinced me how
+much our friends were dispirited, and I therefore resolved next day to
+raise their courage.  I knew the First President to be purblind, and such
+men greedily swallow every new fact which confirms them in their first
+impression.  I knew likewise the Cardinal to be a man that supposed
+everybody had a back door.  The only way of dealing with men of that
+stamp is to make them believe that you design to deceive those whom you
+earnestly endeavour to serve.
+
+For this reason, on the 20th, I declaimed against the disorders of the
+State, and showed that it having pleased Almighty God to bless his
+Majesty's arms and to remove the public enemy from our frontiers by the
+victory gained over them by Marechal du Plessis, we ought now to apply
+ourselves seriously to the healing of internal wounds of the State, which
+are the more dangerous because they are less obvious.  To this I thought
+fit to add that I was obliged to mention the general oppression of the
+subjects at a time when we had nothing more to fear from the lately
+routed Spaniards; that, as one of the props of the public safety was the
+preservation of the royal family, I could not without the utmost concern
+see the Princes breathe the unwholesome air of Havre-de-Grace, and that I
+was of opinion that the House should humbly entreat the King to remove
+them, at least to some place more healthy.  At this speech everybody
+regained their courage and concluded that all was not yet lost.  It was
+observed that the people's countenances were altered.  Those in the Great
+Hall resumed their former zeal, made the usual acclamations as we went
+out, and I had that day three hundred carriages of visitors.
+
+On the 22d the debate was continued, and it was more and more observed
+that the Parliament did not follow the triumphant chariot of Cardinal
+Mazarin, whose imprudence in hazarding the fate of the whole kingdom in
+the last battle was set off with all the disadvantages that could be
+invented to tarnish the victory.
+
+The 30th crowned the work, and produced a decree for making most humble
+remonstrances to the Queen for the liberty of the Princes and for
+Mademoiselle de Longueville staying in Paris.
+
+It was further resolved to send a deputation to the Duc d'Orleans, to
+desire his Royal Highness to use his interest on this occasion in favour
+of the said Princes.
+
+The King's Council having waited on her Majesty with the remonstrances
+aforesaid, she pretended to be under medical treatment, and put off the
+matter a week longer.  The Duc d'Orleans also gave an ambiguous answer.
+The Queen's course of treatment continued eight or ten days longer than
+she imagined, or, rather, than she said, and consequently the
+remonstrances of the Parliament were not made till the 20th of January,
+1651.
+
+On the 28th the First President made his report, and said the Queen had
+promised to return an answer in a few days.
+
+It happened very luckily for us at this time that the imprudence of the
+Cardinal was greater than the inconstancy of the Duc d'Orleans, for a
+little before the Queen returned an answer to the remonstrances, he
+talked very roughly to the Duke in the Queen's presence, charging him
+with putting too much confidence in me.  The very day that the Queen made
+the aforesaid answer he spoke yet more arrogantly to the Duke in her
+Majesty's apartment, comparing M. de Beaufort and myself to Cromwell and
+Fairfax in the House of Commons in England, and exclaimed furiously in
+the King's presence, so that he frightened the Duke, who was glad he got
+out of the King's Palace with a whole skin, and who said that he would
+never put himself again in the power of that furious woman, meaning the
+Queen, because she had improved on what the Cardinal had said to the
+King.  I resolved to strike the iron while it was hot, and joined with M.
+de Beaufort to persuade his Royal Highness to declare himself the next
+day in Parliament.  We showed him that, after what had lately passed,
+there was no safety for his person, and if the King should go out of
+Paris, as the Cardinal designed, we should be engaged in a civil war,
+whereof he alone, with the city of Paris, must bear the heavy load; that
+it would be equally scandalous and dangerous for his Royal Highness
+either to leave the Princes in chains, after having treated with them,
+or, by his dilatory proceedings, suffer Mazarin to have all the honour of
+setting them at liberty, and that he ought by all means to go to the
+Parliament House.
+
+The Duchess, too, seconded us, and upon his Highness saying that if he
+went to the House to declare against the Court the Cardinal would be sure
+to take his Majesty out of Paris, the Duchess replied, "What, monsieur,
+are you not Lieutenant-General of France?  Do not you command the army?
+Are you not master of the people?  I myself will undertake that the King
+shall not go out of Paris."  The Duke nevertheless remained inflexible,
+and all we could get out of him was that he would consent to my telling
+the Parliament, in his name, what we desired he should say himself.  In a
+word, he would have me make the experiment, the success of which he
+looked upon to be very uncertain, because he thought the Parliament would
+have nothing to say against the Queen's answer, and that if I succeeded
+he should reap the honour of the proposition.  I readily accepted the
+commission, because all was at stake, and if I had not executed it the
+next morning I am sure the Cardinal would have eluded setting the Princes
+at liberty a great while longer, and the affair have ended in a
+negotiation with them against the Duke.
+
+The Duchess, who saw that I exposed myself for the public good, pitied me
+very much.  She did all she could to persuade the Duke to command me to
+mention to the Parliament what the Cardinal had told the King with
+relation to Cromwell, Fairfax and the English Parliament, which, if
+declared in the Duke's name, she thought would excite the House the more
+against Mazarin; and she was certainly in the right.  But he forbade me
+expressly.
+
+I ran about all night to incite the members at their first meeting to
+murmur at the Queen's answer, which in the main was very plausible,
+importing that, though this affair did not fall within the cognisance of
+Parliament, the Queen would, however, out of her abundant goodness, have
+regard to their supplications and restore the Princes to liberty.
+Besides, it promised a general amnesty to all who had borne arms in their
+favour, on condition only that M. de Turenne should lay down his arms,
+that Madame de Longueville should renounce her treaty with Spain, and
+that Stenai and Murzon should be evacuated.
+
+At first the Parliament seemed to be dazzled with it, but next day, the
+1st of February, the whole House was undeceived, and wondered how it had
+been so deluded.  The Court of Inquests began to murmur; Viole stood up
+and said that the Queen's answer was but a snare laid for the Parliament
+to beguile them; that the 12th of March, the time fixed for the King's
+coronation, was just at hand; and that as soon as the Court was out of
+Paris they, would laugh at the Parliament.  At this discourse the old and
+new Fronde stood up, and when I saw they, were greatly excited I waved
+my, cap and said that the Duke had commanded me to inform the House that
+the regard he had for their sentiments having confirmed him in those he
+always naturally, entertained of his cousins, he was resolved to concur
+with them for procuring their liberty, and to contribute everything in
+his power to effect it; and it is incredible what influence these few
+words had upon the whole assembly.  I was astonished at it myself.  The
+wisest senators seemed as mad as the common people, and the people madder
+than ever.  Their acclamations exceeded anything you can imagine, and,
+indeed, nothing less was sufficient to give heart to the Duke, who had
+all night been bringing forth new projects with more sorrowful pangs and
+throes (as the Duchess expressed it) than ever she had felt when in
+labour with all her children.
+
+When he was fully informed of the good success of his declaration, he
+embraced me several times before all the company, and M. Tellier going to
+wait upon him from the Queen, to know if he acknowledged what I had said
+in his name in the House, "Yes," replied he, "I own, and always will own,
+all that he shall say or act in my name."  We thought that after a solemn
+declaration of this nature the Duke would not scruple to take all the
+necessary precautions to prevent the Cardinal carrying away the King, and
+to that end the Duchess did propose to have all the gates of the city
+well guarded, under pretence of some popular tumults.  But he was deaf to
+all she said, pretending that he was loth to make his King a prisoner.
+
+On the 2d of February, 1651, the Duke, urged very importunately by the
+Princes' party informing him that their liberty depended on it, told them
+that he was going to perform an action which would remove all their
+diffidence.  He sent immediately for the Keeper of the Seals, Marechal
+Villeroi; and Tellier, and bade them tell the Queen that he would never
+come to the Palais Royal as long as Mazarin was there, and that he could
+no longer treat with a man that ruined the State.  And, then, turning
+towards Marechal Villeroi, "I charge you," said he, "with the King's
+person; you shall be answerable for him to me."  I was sadly afraid this
+would be a means to hasten the King's departure, which was what we
+dreaded most of all, and I wondered that the Cardinal did not remove
+after such a declaration.  I thought his head was turned, and indeed I
+was told that he was beside himself for a fortnight together.
+
+The Duke having openly declared against Mazarin, and being resolved to
+attack and drive him out of the kingdom, bade me inform the House next
+day, in his name, how the Cardinal had compared their body to the Rump
+Parliament in England, and some of their members to Cromwell and Fairfax.
+I improved upon this as much as possible, and I daresay that so much heat
+and ferment was never seen in any society before.  Some were for sending
+the Cardinal a personal summons to appear on the spot, to give an account
+of his administration; but the most moderate were for making most humble
+remonstrances to the Queen for his removal.  You may easily guess what a
+thunderclap this must have been to the Court.  The Queen asked the Duke
+whether she might bring the Cardinal to his Royal Highness.  His answer
+was that he did not think it good for the safety of his own person.  She
+offered to come alone to confer with his Highness at the Palais
+d'Orleans, but he excused himself with a great deal of respect.
+
+He sent orders an hour after to the Marshals of France to obey him only,
+as Lieutenant-General of the State, and likewise to the 'prevots des
+marchands' not to take up arms except by his authority.  You will wonder,
+without doubt, that after all this noise no care was taken of the gates
+of Paris to prevent the King's departure.  The Duchess, who trembled at
+the thoughts of it, daily redoubled her endeavours to induce the Duke to
+secure the gates of the city, but all to no purpose; for weak minds are
+generally deficient in some respect or other.
+
+On the 4th the Duke came to the Parliament and assured the assembly of
+his concurrence in everything to reform the State and to procure the
+liberty of the Princes and the Cardinal's removal.  As soon as his Royal
+Highness had done speaking, the Master of the Ceremonies was admitted
+with a letter from the King, which was read, and which required the House
+to separate, and to send as many deputies as they could to the Palais
+Royal to hear the King's will and pleasure.  Deputies were accordingly
+sent immediately, for whose return the bulk of the members stayed in the
+Great Chamber.  I was informed that this was one trick among others
+concerted to ruin me, and, telling the Duc d'Orleans of it, he said that
+if the old buffoon, the Keeper of the Seals, was concerned in such a
+complication of folly and knavery, he deserved to be hanged by the side
+of Mazarin.  But the sequel showed that I was not out in my information.
+
+As soon as the deputies were come to the Palais Royal, the First
+President told the Queen that the Parliament was extremely concerned that
+the Princes were still confined, notwithstanding her royal promise for
+setting them at liberty.  The Queen replied that Marchal de Grammont was
+sent to release them and to see to their necessary security for the
+public tranquillity, but that she had sent for them in relation to
+another affair, which the Keeper of the Seals would explain to them, and
+which he couched in a sanguinary manifesto, in substance as follows:
+
+"All the reports made by the Coadjutor in Parliament are false, and
+invented by him.  He lies!" (This is the only word the Queen added to
+what was already written).  "He is a very wicked, dangerous man, and
+gives the Duke very pernicious advice; he wants to ruin the State because
+we have refused to make him cardinal, and has publicly boasted that he
+will set fire to the four corners of the kingdom, and that he will have
+100,000 men in readiness to dash out the brains of those that shall
+attempt to put it out."  These expressions were very harsh, and I am sure
+that I never said anything like that; but it was of no use at this time
+to make the cloud which was gathering over the head of Mazarin fall in a
+storm upon mine.  The Court saw that Parliament was assembled to pass a
+decree for setting the Princes at liberty, and that the Duke in person
+was declaring against Mazarin in the Grand Chamber, and therefore they
+believed that a diversion would be as practicable as it was necessary,
+namely, to bring me upon my trial in such a manner that the Parliament
+could not refuse nor secure me from the railleries of the most
+inconsiderable member.  Everything that tended to render the attack
+plausible was made use of, as well as everything that might weaken my
+defence.  The writing was signed by the four Secretaries of State, and,
+the better to defeat all that I could say in my justification, the Comte
+de Brienne was sent at the heels of the deputies with an order to desire
+the Duc d'Orleans to come to a conference with the Queen in relation to
+some few difficulties that remained concerning the liberty of the
+Princes.
+
+When the deputies had returned to Parliament, the First President began
+with reading the paper which had been delivered to him against me, upon
+which you might have read astonishment in every face.  Menardeau, who was
+to open the trenches against me, was afraid of a salvo from the Great
+Hall, where he found such a crowd of people, and heard so many
+acclamations to the Fronde, and so many imprecations against Mazarin,
+that he durst not open his mouth against me, but contented himself with a
+pathetic lamentation of the division that was in the State, and
+especially in the royal family.  The councillors were so divided that
+some of them were for appointing public prayers for two days; others
+proposed to desire his Royal Highness to take care of the public safety.
+I resolved to treat the writing drawn up against me by the Cardinal as a
+satire and a libel, and, by some ingenious, short passage, to arouse the
+minds of my hearers.  As my memory did not furnish me with anything in
+ancient authors that had any relation to my subject, I made a small
+discourse in the best Latin I was capable of, and then spoke thus:
+
+"Were it not for the profound respect I bear to the persons who have
+spoken before me, I could not forbear complaining of their not crying out
+against such a scurrilous, satirical paper, which was just now read,
+contrary to all forms of proceeding, and written in the same style as
+lately profaned the sacred name of the King, to encourage false witnesses
+by letters-patent.  I believe that those persons thought this paper,
+which is but a sally of the furious Mazarin, to be much beneath
+themselves and me.  And that I may conform my opinion to theirs, I will
+answer only by repeating a passage from an ancient author: 'In the worst
+of times I did not forsake the city, in the most prosperous I had no
+particular views, and in the most desperate times of all I feared
+nothing.' I desire to be excused for running into this digression.  I
+move that you would make humble remonstrances to the King, to desire him
+to despatch an order immediately for setting the Princes at liberty, to
+make a declaration in their favour, and to remove Cardinal Mazarin from
+his person and Councils."
+
+My opinion was applauded both by the Frondeurs and the Prince's party,
+and carried almost 'nemine contradicente'.
+
+Talon, the Attorney-General, did wonders.  I never heard or read anything
+more eloquent or nervous.  He invoked the names of Henri the Great, and
+upon his knees recommended the kingdom of France in general to the
+protection of Saint Louis.
+
+Brienne, who had been sent by the Queen to desire an interview with the
+Duc d'Orleans, was dismissed with no other answer than that the Duke
+would come to pay his humble duty to the Queen as soon as the Princes
+were at liberty, and Cardinal Mazarin removed from the King's person and
+Councils.
+
+On the 5th of February there was an assembly of the, nobility at Nemours
+for recovering their privileges.  I opposed it to the utmost of my power,
+for I had experienced more than once that nothing can be more pernicious
+to a party than to engage without any necessity in such affairs as have
+the bare appearance of faction, but I was obliged to comply.  This
+assembly, however, was so terrifying to the Court that six companies of
+the Guards were ordered to mount, with which the Duc d'Orleans was so
+offended that he sent word to the officers, in his capacity of
+Lieutenant-General of the State, to receive no orders but from himself.
+They answered very respectfully, but as men devoted to the Queen's
+interest.
+
+On the 6th, the Duke having taken his place in the Parliament, the King's
+Council acquainted the House that, having been sent to wait on her
+Majesty with the remonstrances, her Majesty's answer was that no person
+living wished more for the liberty of the Princes than herself, but that
+it was reasonable at the same time to consult the safety of the State;
+that as for Cardinal Mazarin, she was resolved to retain him in her
+Council as long as she found his assistance necessary for the King's
+service; and that it did not belong to the Parliament to concern
+themselves with any of her ministers.
+
+The First President was shrewdly attacked in the House for not being more
+resolute in speaking to the Queen.  Some were for sending him back to
+demand another audience in the afternoon; and the Duc d'Orleans having
+said that the Marshals of France were dependent on Mazarin, it was
+resolved immediately that they should obey none but his Royal Highness.
+
+I was informed that very evening that the Cardinal had made his escape
+out of Paris in disguise, and that the Court was in a very great
+consternation.
+
+The Cardinal's escape was the common topic of conversation, and different
+reasons were assigned to it, according to the various interests of
+different parties.  As for my part, I am very well persuaded that fear
+was the only reason of his flight, and that nothing else hindered him
+from taking the King and the Queen along with him.  You will see in the
+sequel of this history that he endeavoured to get their Majesties out of
+Paris soon after he had made his escape, and that it was concerted in all
+probability before he left the Court; but I could never understand why he
+did not put it into execution at a time when he had no reason to fear the
+least opposition.
+
+On the 17th the Parliament ordered the thanks of the House to be returned
+to the Queen for removing the Cardinal, and that she should be humbly
+asked to issue an order for setting the Princes at liberty, and a
+declaration for excluding all foreigners forever from the King's Council.
+The First President being deputed with the message, the Queen told him
+that she could return him no answer till she had conferred with the Duc
+d'Orleans, to whom she immediately deputed the Keeper of the Seals,
+Marechal Villeroi, and Tellier; but he told them that he could not go to
+the Palais Royal till the Princes were set at liberty and the Cardinal
+removed further from the Court.  For he observed to the House that the
+Cardinal was no further off than at Saint Germain, where he governed all
+the kingdom as before, that his nephew and his nieces were yet at Court;
+and the Duke proposed that the Parliament should humbly beseech the Queen
+to explain whether the Cardinal's removal was for good and all.  If I had
+not seen it, I could not have imagined what a heat the House was in that
+day.  Some were for an order that there should be no favourites in France
+for the future.  They became at length of the opinion of his Royal
+Highness, namely, to address the Queen to ask her to explain herself with
+relation to the removal of Cardinal Mazarin and to solicit orders for the
+liberty, of the Princes.
+
+On the same day the Queen sent again to desire the Duc d'Orleans to come
+and take his place in the Council, and to tell him that, in case he did
+not think it convenient, she would send the Keeper of the Seals to
+concert necessary measures with him for setting the Princes at liberty.
+His Royal Highness accepted the second, but rejected the first proposal,
+and treated M. d'Elbeuf roughly, because he was very pressing with his
+Royal Highness to go to the King's Palace.  The messengers likewise
+acquainted the Duke that they were ordered to assure him that the removal
+of the Cardinal was forever.  You will see presently that, in all
+probability, had his Royal Highness gone that day to Court, the Queen
+would have left Paris and carried the Duke along with her.
+
+On the 19th the Parliament decreed that, in pursuance of the Queen's
+declaration, the Cardinal should, within the space of fifteen days,
+depart from his Majesty's dominions, with all his relations and foreign
+servants; otherwise, they should be proceeded against as outlaws, and it
+should be lawful for anybody to despatch them out of the way.
+
+I suspected that the King would leave Paris that very day, and I was
+almost asleep when I was sent for to go to the Duc d'Orleans, whom
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse went to awaken in the meantime; and, while I
+was dressing, one of her pages brought me a note from her, containing
+only these few words:
+
+"Make haste to Luxembourg, and be upon your guard on the way."  I found
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse in his chamber, who acquainted me that the King
+was out of bed, and had his boots on ready for a journey from Paris.
+
+I waited on the Duke, and said, "There is but one remedy, which is, to
+secure the gates of Paris."  Yet all that we could obtain of him was to
+send the captain of the Swiss Guards to wait on the Queen and desire her
+Majesty to weigh the consequences of an action of that nature.  His
+Duchess, perceiving that this expedient, if not supported effectually,
+would ruin all, and that his Royal Highness was still as irresolute as
+ever, called for pen and ink that lay upon the table in her cabinet, and
+wrote these words on a large sheet of paper:
+
+     M. le Coadjuteur is ordered to take arms to hinder the adherents of
+     Cardinal Mazarin, condemned by the Parliament, from carrying the
+     King out of Paris.
+                                   MARGUERITE DE LORRAINE.
+
+Des Touches, who found the Queen bathed in tears, was charged by her
+Majesty to assure the Duc d'Orleans that she never thought of carrying
+away the King, and that it was one of my tricks.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans saying at the House next day that orders for the
+Princes' liberty would be despatched in two hours' time, the First
+President said, with a deep sigh, "The Prince de Conde is at liberty, but
+our King, our sovereign Lord and King, is a prisoner."  The Duc
+d'Orleans, being now not near so timorous as before, because he had
+received more acclamations in the streets than ever, replied, "Truly the
+King has been Mazarin's prisoner, but, God be praised, he is now in
+better hands."
+
+The Cardinal, who hovered about Paris till he heard the city had taken up
+arms, posted to Havre-de-Grace, where he fawned upon the Prince de Conde
+with a meanness of spirit that is hardly to be imagined; for he wept, and
+even fell down on his knees to the Prince, who treated him with the
+utmost contempt, giving him no thanks for his release.
+
+On the 16th of February the Princes, being set at liberty, arrived in
+Paris, and, after waiting on the Queen, supped with M. de Beaufort and
+myself at the Duc d'Orleans's house, where we drank the King's health and
+"No Mazarin!"
+
+On the 17th his Royal Highness carried them to the Parliament House, and
+it is remarkable that the same people who but thirteen months before made
+bonfires for their confinement did the same now for their release.
+
+On the 20th the declaration demanded of the King against the Cardinal,
+being brought to be registered in Parliament, was sent back with
+indignation because the reason of his removal was coloured over with so
+many encomiums that it was a perfect panegyric.  Honest Broussel, who
+always went greater lengths than anybody, was for excluding all cardinals
+from the Ministry, as well as foreigners in general, because they swear
+allegiance to the Pope.  The First President, thinking to mortify me,
+lauded Broussel for a man of admirable good sense, and espoused his
+opinion; and the Prince de Conde, too, seemed to be overjoyed, saying,
+"It is a charming echo."  Indeed, I might well be troubled to think that
+the very day after a treaty wherein the Duc d'Orleans declared that he
+was resolved to make me a cardinal, the Prince should second a
+proposition so derogatory to that dignity.  But the truth is, the Prince
+had no hand in it, for it came naturally, and was supported for no other
+reason but because nothing that was brought as an argument against
+Mazarin could then fail of being approved at the same time.  I had some
+reason to think that the motion was concerted beforehand by my enemies,
+to keep me out of the Ministry.  Nevertheless, I was not offended with
+the Parliament, the bulk of whom I knew to be my friends, whose sole aim
+was to effectually demolish Mazarin, and I acquiesced in the solid
+satisfaction which I had in being considered in the world as the expeller
+of Mazarin, whom everybody hated, and the deliverer of the Princes, who
+were as much their darlings.
+
+The continual chicanery of the Court provoked the Parliament of Paris to
+write to all the Parliaments of France to issue decrees against Cardinal
+Mazarin, which they did accordingly.  The Parliament obliged the Court to
+issue a declaration setting forth the innocence of the Princes, and
+another for the exclusion of cardinals--French as well as foreigners--
+from the King's Council, and the Parliament had no rest till the Cardinal
+retired from Sedan to Breule, a house belonging to the Elector of
+Cologne.
+
+I had advice sent me from the Duchesse d'Orleans to be upon my guard, and
+that she was on the point of dying with fear lest the Duke should be
+forced by the daily menaces of the Court to abandon me.  I thereupon
+waited on the Duke, and told him that, having had the honour and
+satisfaction of serving his Royal Highness in the two affairs which he
+had most at heart,--namely, the expelling of Mazarin and the releasing of
+the Princes his cousins,--I found myself now obliged to reassume the
+functions of my profession; that the present opportunity seemed both to
+favour and invite my retreat, and if I neglected it I should be the most
+imprudent man living, because my presence for the future would not only
+be useless but even prejudicial to his Royal Highness, whom I knew to be
+daily importuned and irritated by the Court party merely upon my account;
+and therefore I conjured him to make himself easy, and give me leave to
+retire to my cloister.  The Duke spared no kind words to retain me in his
+service, promised never to forsake me, confessed that he had been urged
+to it by the Queen, and that, though his reunion with her Majesty and the
+Princes obliged him to put on the mask of friendship, yet he could never
+forget the great affronts and injuries which he had received from the
+Court.  But all this could not dissuade me, and the Duke at last gave his
+approbation, with repeated assurances to allow me a place next his heart
+and to correspond with me in secret.
+
+Having taken my leave of the Princes, I retired accordingly to my
+cloister of Notre-Dame, where I did not trust Providence so far as to
+omit the use of human means for defending myself against the insults of
+my enemies.
+
+Except the visits which I paid in the night-time to the Hotel de
+Chevreuse, I conversed with none but canons and cures.  I was the object
+of raillery both at Court and at the Palace of Conde; and because I had
+set up a bird-cage at a window, it became a common jest that "the
+Coadjutor whistled to the linnets."  The disposition of Paris, however,
+made amends for the raillery of the Court.  I found myself very secure,
+while other people were very uneasy.  The cures, parish priests, and even
+the mendicants, informed themselves with diligence of the negotiations of
+the Prince de Conde.  I gave M. de Beaufort a thrust now and then, which
+he knew not how to parry with all his cunning, and the Duc d'Orleans, who
+in his heart was enraged against the Court, continued his correspondence
+with me very faithfully.
+
+Soon after, the Marechal du Plessis came to me at midnight and embraced
+me, saying, "I greet you as our Prime Minister."  When he saw that I
+smiled, he added, "I do not jest; you may be so if you please.  The Queen
+has ordered me to tell you that she puts the King and Crown into your
+hands."  He showed me a letter written in the Cardinal's own hand to the
+Queen, which concluded thus:
+
+     "You know, madame, that the greatest enemy I have in the world is
+     the Coadjutor.  Make use of him rather than treat with the Prince
+     upon those conditions he demands.  Make him a cardinal, give him my
+     place, and lodge him in my apartments.  Perhaps he will be still
+     more attached to the Duc d'Orleans than to your Majesty; but the
+     Duke is not for the ruin of the State.  His intentions in the main
+     are not bad.  In a word, madame, do anything rather than grant the
+     Prince his demand to have the government of Provence added to that
+     of Guienne."
+
+I told the Marshal that I could not but be highly obliged to his
+Eminence, and that I was under infinite obligations to the Queen; and to
+show my gratitude, I humbly begged her Majesty to permit me to serve her
+without any private interest of my own; said that I was very incapable
+for the place of Prime Minister upon many accounts, and that it was not
+consistent with her Majesty's dignity to raise a man to that high post
+who was still reeking, as it were, with the fumes of faction.
+
+"But," said the Marshal, "the place must be filled by somebody, and as
+long as it is vacant the Prince will be always urging that Cardinal
+Mazarin is to have it again."
+
+"You have," said I, "persons much fitter for it than I."  Then he showed
+me a letter signed by the Queen, promising me all manner of security if I
+would come to Court.  I went thither at midnight, according to agreement,
+and the Marshal, who introduced me to the Queen by the back stairs,
+having withdrawn, her Majesty used all the arguments she could to
+persuade me to accept the place of Prime Minister, which I was determined
+to refuse, because I found that she had the Cardinal at heart more than
+ever; for, as soon as she saw I would not accept the post of Prime
+Minister, she offered me the cardinal's hat, but with this proviso, that
+I would use my utmost endeavours towards the restoration of Cardinal
+Mazarin.  Then I judged it high time for me to speak my mind, which I did
+as follows:
+
+"It is a great affliction to me, madame, that public affairs are reduced
+to such a pass as not only warrants, but even commands a subject to speak
+to his sovereign in the style in which I am now about to address your
+Majesty.  It is well known to you that one of my worst crimes in the
+Cardinal's opinion is that I foretold all these things, and that I have
+passed for the author of events of which I was only the prophet.  Your
+Majesty would fain extricate yourself with honour, and you are in the
+right; but permit me to tell you, as my opinion, that it can never be
+effected so long as your Majesty entertains any thoughts of
+reestablishing Mazarin.  I should fail in the respect I owe to your
+Majesty if I pretended to thwart your Majesty's opinion with regard to
+the Cardinal in any other way than with my most humble remonstrances; but
+I humbly conceive I do but discharge my bounden duty while I respectfully
+represent to your Majesty wherein I may be serviceable or useless to you
+at this critical juncture.  Your Majesty has the Prince to cope with,
+who, indeed, is for the restoration of the Cardinal, but upon condition
+that you give him such powers beforehand as will enable him to ruin him
+at pleasure.  To resist the Prince you want the Duc d'Orleans, who is
+absolutely against the Cardinal's reestablishment, and who, provided he
+be excluded, will do what your Majesty pleases to command him.  You will
+neither satisfy the Prince nor the Duke.  I am extremely desirous to
+serve your Majesty against the one and with the other, but I can do
+neither the one nor the other without making use of proper means for
+obtaining those two different ends."
+
+"Come over to me," said she, "and I shall not care a straw for all the
+Duke can do."
+
+I answered, "Should I do so, and should it appear never so little that I
+was on terms of reconciliation with the Cardinal, I could serve your
+Majesty with neither the Duke nor the people, for both would hate me
+mortally, and I should be as useless to your Majesty as the Bishop of
+Dole."
+
+At this the Queen was very angry, and said, "Heaven bless my son the
+King, for he is deserted by all the world!  I do all I can for you, I
+offer you a place in my Council, I offer you the cardinalship; pray what
+will you do for me?"
+
+I said that I did not come to receive favours, but to try to merit them.
+
+At this the Queen's countenance began to brighten, and she said, very
+softly, "What is it, then, that you will do?"
+
+"Madame," said I, "I will oblige the Prince, before a week is at an end,
+to leave Paris; and I will detach the Duke from his interest to-morrow."
+
+The Queen, overjoyed, held out her hand and said, "Give me yours, and I
+promise you that you shall be cardinal the next day, and the second man
+in my friendship."  She desired also that Mazarin and I might be good
+friends; but I answered that the least touch upon that string would put
+me out of tune and render me incapable of doing her any service;
+therefore I conjured her to let me still enjoy the character of being his
+enemy.
+
+"Was anything," said the Queen, "ever so strange and unaccountable?  Can
+you not possibly serve me without being the enemy of him in whom I most
+confide?"
+
+I told her it must needs be so.  "Madame," I said, "I humbly beseech your
+Majesty to let me tell you that, as long as the place of Prime Minister
+is not filled up, the Prince will increase in power on pretence that it
+is kept vacant to receive the Cardinal by a speedy restoration."
+
+"You see," said her Majesty, "how the Prince treats me; he has insulted
+me ever since I disowned my two traitors,--Servien and Lionne."  I took
+the opportunity while she was flushed with anger to make my court to her
+by saying that before two days were at an end the Prince should affront
+her no longer.  But the tenderness she had for her beloved Cardinal made
+her unwilling to consent that I should continue to exclaim against his
+Eminence in Parliament, where one was obliged to handle him very roughly
+almost every quarter of an hour.  She bade me remember that it was the
+Cardinal who had solicited my nomination.  I answered that I was highly
+obliged to his Eminence upon that score, and that I was ready to give him
+proofs of my acknowledgment in anything wherein my honour was not
+concerned, but that I should be a double-dealer if I promised to
+contribute to his reestablishment.  Then she said, "Go! you are a very
+devil.  See Madame Palatine, and let me hear from you the night before
+you go to the Parliament."
+
+I do not think I was in the wrong to refuse her offer.  We must never
+jest with proffered service; for if it be real, we can never embrace it
+too much; but if false, we can never keep at too great a distance.
+I lamented to the public the sad condition of our affairs, which had
+obliged me to leave my dear retirement, where, after so much disturbance
+and confusion, I hoped to enjoy comfortable rest; that we were falling
+into a worse condition than we were in before, because the State suffered
+more by the daily negotiations carried on with Mazarin than it had done
+by his administrations; and that the Queen was still buoyed up with hopes
+of his reestablishment.
+
+The Prince de Conde having inflamed the Parliament, to make himself more
+formidable to the Queen and Court, some new scenes were opened every day.
+At one time they sent to the provinces to inform against the Cardinal; at
+another time they made search after his effects at Paris.
+
+I went one day with four hundred men in my company to the Parliament
+House, where the Prince de Conde inveighed against the exportation of
+money out of the kingdom by the Cardinal's banker.  But afterwards I
+absented myself for awhile from Parliament, which made me suspected of
+being less an enemy to the Cardinal, and I was pelted with a dozen or
+fifteen libels in the space of a fortnight, by a fellow whose nose had
+been slit for writing a lampoon against a lady of quality.  I composed a
+short but general answer to all, entitled "An Apology for the Ancient and
+True Fronde."  There was a strong paper war between the old and new
+Fronde for three or four months, but afterwards they united in the attack
+on Mazarin.  There were about sixty volumes of tracts written during the
+civil war, but I am sure that there are not a hundred sheets worth
+reading.
+
+I was sent for again to another private conference with the Queen, who,
+dreading an arrangement with the Prince de Conde, was for his being
+arrested, and advised me to consider how it might be done.  It seems that
+M. Hoquincourt had offered to kill him in the street, as the shortest way
+to be rid of him, for she desired me to confer about it with Hoquincourt,
+"who will," said she, "show you a much surer way."  The Queen,
+nevertheless, would not own she had ever such a thought, though she was
+heard to say, "The Coadjutor is not a man of so much courage as I took
+him for."
+
+The next day I was informed that the Queen could endure the Prince no
+longer, and that she had advices that he had formed a design to seize the
+King; that he had despatched orders to Flanders to treat with the
+Spaniards, and that either he or she must be ruined; that she was not for
+shedding blood, and that what Hoquincourt proposed was far from it,
+because he promised to secure the Prince without striking a blow if I
+would answer for the people.
+
+The Parliament continued to prosecute Mazarin, who was convicted of
+embezzling some nine millions of the public money.  The Prince assembled
+the Chambers, and persuaded them to issue a new decree against all those
+of the Court party who held correspondence with the said Cardinal.
+
+The Prince de Conde, being uneasy at seeing Mazarin's creatures still at
+Court, retired to Saint Maur on the 6th of July, 1651.  On the 7th the
+Prince de Conti acquainted the Parliament with the reasons for his
+departure, and talked in general of the warnings he had received from
+different hands of a design the Court had formed against his life, adding
+that his brother could not be safe at Court as long as Tellier, Servien,
+and Lionne were not removed.  There was a very hot debate in the ensuing
+session between the Prince de Conti and the First President.  The latter
+talked very warmly against his retreat to Saint Maur, and called it a
+melancholy prelude to a civil war.  He hinted also that the said Prince
+was the author of the late disturbances, upon which the Prince de Conti
+threatened that had he been in any other place he would have taught him
+to observe the respect due to Princes of the blood.  The First President
+said that he did not fear his threats, and that he had reason to complain
+of his Royal Highness for presuming to interrupt him in a place where he
+represented the King's person.  Both parties were now in hot blood, and
+the Duke, who was very glad to see it, did not interpose till he could
+not avoid it, and then he told them both that they should endeavour to
+keep their temper.
+
+On the 14th of July a decree was passed, upon a motion made by the Duc
+d'Orleans, that the thanks of the Parliament should be presented to her
+Majesty for her gracious promise that the Cardinal should never return;
+that she should be most humbly entreated to send a declaration to
+Parliament, and likewise to give the Prince de Conde all the necessary
+securities for his return; and that those persons who kept up
+correspondence with Mazarin should be immediately prosecuted.
+
+On the 18th the First President carried the remonstrances of the
+Parliament to the Queen, and though he took care to keep within the terms
+of the decree, by not naming the under ministers, yet he pointed them out
+in such a manner that the Queen complained bitterly, saying that the
+First President was "an unaccountable man, and more vexatious than any of
+the malcontents."
+
+When I took the liberty to show her that the representative of an
+assembly could not, without prevarication, but deliver the thoughts of
+the whole body, though they might be different from his own, she replied,
+very angrily, "These are mere republican maxims."
+
+I will give you an account of the success of the remonstrances after I
+have related an adventure to you which happened at the Parliament House
+during these debates.
+
+The importance of the subject drew thither a large number of ladies who
+were curious to hear what passed.  Madame and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse,
+with many other ladies, were there the evening before the decree was
+passed; but they were singled out from the rest by one Maillard, a
+brawling fellow, hired by the Prince's party.  As ladies are commonly
+afraid of a crowd, they stayed till the Duc d'Orleans and the rest were
+gone out, but when they came into the hall they were hooted by twenty or
+thirty ragamuffins of the same quality as their leader, who was a
+cobbler.  I knew nothing of it till I came to the Palace of Chevreuse,
+where I found Madame de Chevreuse in a rage and her daughter in tears.
+I endeavoured to comfort them by the assurance that I would take care to
+get the scoundrels punished in an exemplary manner that very day.  But
+these were too inconsiderable victims to atone for such an affront, and
+were therefore rejected with indignation.  The blood of Bourbon only
+could make amends for the injury done to that of Lorraine.  These were
+the very words of Madame de Chevreuse.  They resolved at last upon this
+expedition,--to go again next morning to the House, but so well
+accompanied as to be in a condition of making themselves respected, and
+of giving the Prince de Conti to understand that it was to his interest
+to keep his party for the future from committing the like insolence.
+Montresor, who happened to be with us, did all he could to convince the
+ladies how dangerous it was to make a private quarrel of a public one,
+especially at a time when a Prince of the blood might possibly lose his
+life in the fray.  When he found that he could not prevail upon them, he
+used all means to persuade me to put off my resentment, for which end he
+drew me aside to tell me what joy and triumph it would be to my enemies
+to suffer myself to be captivated or led away by the violence of the
+ladies' passion.  I made him the following answer: "I am certainly to
+blame, both with regard to my profession and on account of my having my
+hands full, to be so far engaged with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse; but,
+considering the obligation I am under to her, and that it is too late to
+recede from it, I am in the right in demanding satisfaction in this
+present juncture.  I will not by any means assassinate the Prince de
+Conti; but she may command me to do anything except poisoning or
+assassinating, and therefore speak no more to me on this head."
+
+The ladies went again, therefore, next day, being accompanied by four
+hundred gentlemen and above four thousand of the most substantial
+burghers.  The rabble that was hired to make a clamour in the Great Hall
+sneaked out of sight, and the Prince de Conti, who had not been apprised
+of this assembly, which was formed with great secrecy, was fain to pass
+by Madame and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse with demonstrations of the
+profoundest respect, and to suffer Maillard, who was caught on the stairs
+of the chapel, to be soundly cudgelled.
+
+I return to the issue of the remonstrances.  The Queen told the deputies
+that she would next morning send to the House a declaration against
+Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+On the 21st the Prince de Conde came to Parliament accompanied by M. de
+La Rochefoucault and fifty or sixty gentlemen, and congratulated them
+upon the removal of the ministers, but said that it could not be
+effectual without inserting an article in the declaration which the Queen
+had promised to send to the Parliament.  The First President said that it
+would be both unjust and inconsistent with the respect due to the Queen
+to demand new conditions of her every day; that her Majesty's promise,
+of which she had made the Parliament a depositary, was a sufficient
+security; that it was to be wished that the Prince had shown a due
+confidence therein by repairing to the Palais Royal rather than to a
+court of justice; and that the post he was in obliged him to express his
+surprise at such conduct.  The Prince replied that the First President
+had no reason to wonder at his great precautions, since he (the Prince)
+knew by recent woeful experience what it was to live in a prison; and
+that it was notorious that the Cardinal ruled now in the Cabinet more
+absolutely than ever he did before.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans, who was gone to Limours on pretence of taking the air,
+though on purpose to be absent from Parliament, being informed that the
+very women cried at the King's coach "No Mazarin!" and that the Prince de
+Conde, as well attended as his Majesty, had met the King in the park, was
+so frightened that he returned to Paris, and on the 2d of August went to
+Parliament, where I appeared with all my friends and a great number of
+wealthy citizens.  The First President mightily extolled the Queen's
+goodness in making the Parliament the depositary of her promise for the
+security of the Prince, who, being there present, was asked by the First
+President if he had waited on the King?  The Prince said he had not,
+because he knew there would be danger in it, having been well informed
+that secret conferences had been held to arrest him, and that in a proper
+time and place he would name the authors.  The Prince added that
+messengers were continually going and coming betwixt the Court and
+Mazarin at Breule, and that Marechal d'Aumont had orders to cut to pieces
+the regiments of Conde, Conti, and Enghien, which was the only reason
+that had hindered them from joining the King's army.
+
+The First President told him that he was sorry to see him there before he
+had waited on the King, and that it seemed as if he were for setting up
+altar against altar.  This nettled the Prince to that degree that he said
+that those who talked against him had only self-interests in view.  The
+First President denied that he had any such aim, and said that he was
+accountable to the King only for his actions.  Then he exaggerated the
+danger of the State from the unhappy division of the royal family.
+
+Finally it was resolved, 'nemine contradicente', that the Solicitor-
+General should be commissioned to prosecute those who had advised the
+arrest of the Prince de Conde; that the Queen's promise for the safety of
+the Prince should be registered; that his Royal Highness should be
+desired by the whole assembly to go and wait on the King; and that the
+decrees passed against the servitors of Mazarin should be put into
+execution.  The Prince, who seemed very well satisfied, said that nothing
+less than this could assure him of his safety.  The Duc d'Orleans carried
+him to the King and the Queen, from whom he met with but a cold
+reception.
+
+At the close of this session the declaration against the Cardinal was
+read and sent back to the Chancellor, because it was not inserted that
+the Cardinal had hindered the Peace of Munster, and advised the King to
+undertake the journey and siege of Bordeaux, contrary to the opinion of
+the Duc d'Orleans.
+
+The Queen, provoked by the conduct of the Prince de Conde, who rode
+through the streets of Paris better attended than the King, and also by
+that of the Duke, whom she found continually given to change, resolved,
+in a fit of despair, to hazard all at once.  M. de Chateauneuf flattered
+her inclination on that point, and she was confirmed in it by a fiery
+despatch from Mazarin at Bruele.  She told the Duc d'Orleans plainly that
+she could no longer continue in her present condition, demanded his
+express declaration for or against her, and charged me, in his presence,
+to keep the promise I had made her, to declare openly against the Prince
+if he continued to go on as he had begun.
+
+Her Majesty was convinced that I acted sincerely for her service, and
+that I made no scruple to keep my promise; and she condescended to make
+apologies for the distrust she had entertained of my conduct, and for the
+injustice she owned she had done me.
+
+On the 19th, the Prince de Conde having taxed me with being the author of
+a paper against him, which was read that day in the House, said he had a
+paper, signed by the Duc d'Orleans, which contained his justification,
+and that he should be much obliged to the Parliament if they would be
+pleased to desire her Majesty to name his accusers, against whom he
+demanded justice.  As to the paper of which he charged me with being the
+author, he said it was a composition worthy of a man who had advised the
+arming of the Parisians and the wresting of the seals from him with whom
+the Queen had entrusted them.
+
+The Prince de Conti was observed to press his brother to resent what I
+said in my defence, but he kept his temper; for though I was very well
+accompanied, yet he was considerably superior to me in numbers, so that
+if the sword had been drawn he must have had the advantage.  But I
+resolved to appear there the next day with a greater retinue.  The Queen
+was transported with joy to hear that there were men who had the
+resolution to dispute the wall with the Prince.
+
+     ["The Queen," says M. de La Rochefoucault in his Memoirs, "was
+     overjoyed to see two men at variance whom in her heart she hated
+     almost equally....  Nevertheless, she seemed to protect the
+     Coadjutor."]
+
+She ordered thirty gendarmes and as many Light-horse to be posted where I
+pleased; I had forty men sent me, picked out of the sergeants and bravest
+soldiers of one of the regiments of Guards, and some of the officers of
+the city companies, and assembled a great number of substantial burghers,
+all of whom had pistols and daggers under their cloaks.  I also sent many
+of my men to the eating-houses thereabouts, so that the Great Hall was,
+as it were, invested on every side with my friends.  I posted thirty
+gentlemen as a reserve in a convenient chamber, who, in case of an
+attack, were to assault the party of the Prince in flank and rear.  I had
+also laid up a store of grenades.  In a word, my measures were so nicely
+concerted, both within and without the Parliament House, that Pont Notre-
+Dame and Pont Saint Michel, who were passionately in my, interest, only
+waited for the signal; so that in all likelihood I could not fail of
+being conqueror.
+
+On the morning of the 21st all the Prince de Conde's humble servants
+repaired to his house, and my friends did the like to mine, particularly
+the Marquises of Rouillac and Camillac, famous both for their courage and
+extravagances.  As soon as the latter saw Rouillac, he made me a low bow
+in a withdrawing posture, saying, "Monsieur, I came to offer you my
+service, but it is not reasonable that the two greatest fools in the
+kingdom should be of the same side."  The Prince came to the House with a
+numerous attendance, and though I believe he had not so many as I, he had
+more persons of quality, for I had only the Fronde nobility on my side,
+except three or four who, though in the Queen's interest, were
+nevertheless my particular friends; this disadvantage, however, was
+abundantly made up by the great interest I had among the people and the
+advantageous posts I was possessed of.  After the Prince had taken his
+place, he said that he was surprised to see the Parliament House look
+more like a camp than a temple of justice; that there were posts taken,
+and men under command; and that he hoped there were not men in the
+kingdom so insolent as to dispute the precedence with him.  Whereupon I
+humbly begged his pardon, and told him that I believed there was not a
+man in France so insolent as to do it; but that there were some who could
+not, nor indeed ought not, on account of their dignity, yield the
+precedence to any man but the King.  The Prince replied that he would
+make me yield it to him.  I told him he would find it no easy matter.
+Upon this there was a great outcry, and the young councillors of both
+parties interested themselves in the contest, which, you see, began
+pretty warmly.  The Presidents interposed between us, conjuring him to
+have some regard to the temple of justice and the safety of the city, and
+desiring that all the nobility and others in the hall that were armed
+might be turned out.  He approved of it, and bade M. de La Rochefoucault
+go and tell his friends so from him.  Upon which I said, "I will order my
+friends to withdraw also."  Young D'Avaux, now President de Mesmes, then
+in the Prince's interest, said, "What! monsieur, are you armed?"--
+"Without doubt," I said; though I had better have held my, tongue,
+because an inferior ought to be respectful in words to his superior,
+though he may equal him in actions.  Neither is it allowable in a
+Churchman when armed to confess it.  There are some things wherein men
+are willing to be deceived.  Actions very often vindicate men's
+reputations in what they do against the dignity of their profession, but
+nothing can justify words that are inconsistent with their character.
+
+As I had desired my friends to withdraw, and was entering into the Court
+of Judicature, I heard an uproar in the hall of people crying out "To
+arms!"  I had a mind to go back to see what was the matter; but I had not
+time to do it, for I found myself caught by the neck between the folding
+doors, which M. de La Rochefoucault had shut on me, crying out to MM.
+Coligny and Ricousse to kill me.
+
+     [This action is very much disguised and softened in the Memoirs of
+     Rochefoucault.  M. Joly, in his Memoirs, vol. i., p. 155, tells it
+     almost in...  the same manner as the Cardinal de Retz.]
+
+The first thought he was not in earnest, and the other told him he had no
+such order from the Prince.  M. Champlatreux, running into the hall and
+seeing me in that condition, vigorously pushed back M. de La
+Rochefoucault, telling him that a murder of that nature was horrible
+and scandalous.  He opened the door and let me in.  But this was not the
+greatest danger I was in, as you will see after I have told you the
+beginning and end of it.
+
+Two or three of the Prince de Conde's mob cried out, as soon as they saw
+me, "A Mazarin!"  Two of the Prince's soldiers drew their swords, those
+next to them cried out, "To your arms!" and in a trice all were in a
+fighting posture.  My friends drew their swords, daggers, and pistols,
+and yet, as it were by a miracle, they stopped their hands on a sudden
+from action; for in that very instant of time, Crenan, one of my old
+friends, who commanded a company of the Prince de Conti's gendarmes, said
+to Laigues, "What are we doing?  Must we let the Prince de Conde and the
+Coadjutor be murdered?  Whoever does not put up his sword is a rascal!"
+This expression coming from a man of great courage and reputation, every
+one did as he bade them.  Nor is Argenteuil's courage and presence of
+mind to be less admired.  He being near me when I was caught by the neck
+between the folding doors, and observing one Peche,--[Joly calls him "The
+great clamourer of the Prince."  See his Memoirs, p. 157.]--a brawling
+fellow of the Prince's party, looking for me with a dagger in his hand,
+screened me with his cloak, and thereby saved my life, which was in the
+more danger because my friends, who supposed I was gone into the Great
+Chamber, stayed behind to engage with the Prince de Conde's party.  The
+Prince told me since that it was well I kept on the defensive, and that
+had the noise in the hall continued but a minute longer, he would himself
+have taken me by the throat and made me pay for all; but I am fully
+persuaded that the consequences would have been fatal to both parties,
+and that he himself had had a narrow escape.
+
+As soon as I reentered the Great Chamber I told the First President that
+I owed my life to his son, who on that occasion did the most generous
+action that a man of honour was capable of, because he was passionately
+attached to the Prince de Conde, and was persuaded, though without a
+cause, that I was concerned in above twenty editions against his father
+during the siege of Paris.  There are few actions more heroic than this,
+the memory of which I shall carry to my grave.  I also added that M. de
+La Rochefoucault had done all he could to murder me.'
+
+     [The Duke answered, as he says himself in his Memoirs, that fear had
+     disturbed his judgment, etc.  See in the Memoirs of M. de La
+     Rochefoucault, the relation of what passed after the confinement of
+     the Princes.]
+
+He answered me these very words: "Thou traitor, I don't care what becomes
+of thee."  I replied, "Very well, Friend Franchise" (we gave him that
+nickname in our party); "you are a coward" (I told a lie, for he was
+certainly a brave man), "and I am a priest; but dueling is not allowed
+us."  M. de Brissac threatened to cudgel him, and he to kick Brissac.
+The President, fearing these words would end in blows, got between us.
+The First President conjured the Prince pathetically, by the blood of
+Saint Louis, not to defile with blood that temple which he had given for
+the preservation of peace and the protection of justice; and exhorted me,
+by my sacred character, not to contribute to the massacre of the people
+whom God had committed to my charge.  Both the Prince and I sent out two
+gentlemen to order our friends and servants to retire by different ways.
+The clock struck ten, the House rose, and thus ended that morning's work,
+which was likely to have ruined Paris.
+
+You may easily guess what a commotion Paris was in all that morning.
+Tradesmen worked in their shops with their muskets by them, and the women
+were at prayers in the churches.  Sadness sat on the brows of all who
+were not actually engaged in either party.  The Prince, if we may believe
+the Comte de Fiesque, told him that Paris narrowly escaped being burnt
+that day.  "What a fine bonfire this would have been for the Cardinal,"
+said he; "especially to see it lighted by the two greatest enemies he
+had!"
+
+The Duc d'Orleans, quite tired out with the cries of the people, who ran
+affrighted to his palace, and fearing that the commotion would not stop
+at the Parliament House, made the Prince promise that he would not go
+next day to the Parliament with above five in company, provided I would
+engage to carry no more.  I begged his Royal Highness to excuse me if I
+did not comply, because I should be wanting in my respect to the Prince,
+with whom I ought not to make any comparison, and because I should be
+still exposed to a pack of seditious brawlers, who cried out against me,
+having no laws nor owning any chief.  I added that it was only against
+this sort of people that I armed; that there was so little comparison
+between a private gentleman and his Highness that five hundred men were
+less to the Prince than a single lackey to me.  The Duke, who owned I was
+in the right, went to the Queen to represent to her the evil consequences
+that would inevitably attend such measures.
+
+The Queen, who neither feared nor foresaw dangers, made no account of his
+remonstrances, for she was glad in the main of the dangers which seemed
+to be so near at hand.  When Bertet and Brachet, who crept up to the
+garrets of the Palais Royal for fear of having their throats cut in the
+general commotion, had made her sensible that if the Prince and myself
+should perish in such a juncture it would occasion such a confusion that
+the very name of Mazarin might become fatal to the royal family, she
+yielded rather to her fears than to her convictions, and consented to
+send an order in the King's name to forbid both the Prince and me to go
+to the House.  The First President, who was well assured that the Prince
+would not obey an order of that nature, which could not be forced upon
+him with justice, because his presence was necessary in the Parliament,
+went to the Queen and made her sensible that it would be against all
+justice and equity to forbid the Prince to be present in an assembly
+where he went only to clear himself from a crime laid to his charge.
+He showed her the difference between the first Prince of the blood,
+whose presence would be necessary in that conjuncture, and a Coadjutor
+of Paris, who never had a seat in the Parliament but by courtesy.
+
+The Queen yielded at last to these reasons and to the entreaties of all
+the Court ladies, who dreaded the noise and confusion which was likely to
+occur next day in the Parliament House.
+
+The Parliament met next day, and resolved that all the papers, both of
+the Queen, the Duc d'Orleans, and the Prince de Conde, should be carried
+to the King and Queen, that her Majesty should be humbly entreated to
+terminate the affair, and that the Duc d'Orleans should be desired to
+make overtures towards a reconciliation.
+
+As the Prince was coming out of the Parliament House, attended by a
+multitude of his friends, I met him in his coach as I was at the head of
+a procession of thirty or forty cures of Paris, followed by a great
+number of people.  Upon my approach, three or four of the mob following
+the Prince cried out, "A Mazarin!" but the Prince alighted and silenced
+them.
+
+     [M. de La Rochefoucault, in his Memoirs, says that the people abused
+     the Coadjutor with scurrilous language, and would have torn him in
+     pieces if the prince had not ordered his men to appease the tumult.]
+
+He then fell on his knees to receive my blessing, which I gave him with
+my hat on, and then pulled it off in obeisance.
+
+The Queen was so well pleased with my prudent conduct that I can truly
+say I was a favourite for some days.  Madame de Carignan was telling her
+one day that I was very homely, to which the Queen replied, "He has a
+very fine set of teeth, and a man cannot be called homely who has this
+ornament."  Madame de Chevreuse remembered that she had often heard the
+Queen say that the beauty of a man consisted chiefly in his teeth,
+because it was the only beauty which was of any use.  Therefore she
+advised me to act my part well, and she should not despair of success.
+"When you are with the Queen," said she, "be serious; look continually on
+her hands, storm against the Cardinal, and I will take care of the rest"
+I asked two or three audiences of the Queen upon very trifling occasions,
+followed Madame de Chevreuse's plan very closely, and carried my
+resentment and passion against the Cardinal even to extravagance.  The
+Queen, who was naturally a coquette, understood those airs, and
+acquainted Madame de Chevreuse therewith, who pretended to be surprised,
+saying, "Indeed, I have heard the Coadjutor talk of your Majesty whole
+days with delight; but if the conversation happened to touch upon the
+Cardinal, he was no longer the same man, and even raved against your
+Majesty, but immediately relented towards you, though never towards the
+Cardinal."
+
+Madame de Chevreuse, who was the Queen's confidante in her youth, gave me
+such a history of her early days as I cannot omit giving you, though I
+should have done it sooner.  She told me that the Queen was neither in
+body nor mind truly Spanish; that she had neither the temperament nor the
+vivacity of her nation, but only the coquetry of it, which she retained
+in perfection; that M. Bellegarde, a gallant old gentleman, after the
+fashion of the Court of Henri III., pleased her till he was going to the
+army, when he begged for one favour before his departure, which was only
+to put her hand to the hilt of his sword, a compliment so insipid that
+her Majesty was out of conceit with him ever after.  She approved the
+gallant manner of M. de Montmorency much more than she loved his person.
+The aversion she had to the pedantic behaviour of Cardinal de Richelieu,
+who in his amours was as ridiculous as he was in other things excellent,
+made her irreconcilable to his addresses.  She had observed from the
+beginning of the Regency a great inclination in the Queen for Mazarin,
+but that she had not been able to discover how far that inclination went,
+because she (Madame de Chevreuse) had been banished from the Court very
+soon after; and that upon her return to France, after the siege of Paris,
+the Queen was so reserved at first with her that it was impossible for
+her to dive into her secrets.  That since she regained her Majesty's
+favour she had sometimes observed the same airs in her with regard to
+Cardinal Mazarin as she used to display formerly in favour of the Duke of
+Buckingham; but at other times she thought that there was no more between
+them than a league of friendship.  The chief ground for her conjecture
+was the impolite and almost rude way in which the Cardinal conversed with
+her Majesty.  "But, however," said Madame de Chevreuse, "when I reflect
+on the Queen's humour, all this may admit of another interpretation.
+Buckingham used to tell me that he had been in love with three Queens,
+and was obliged to curb all the three; therefore I cannot tell what to
+think of the matter."
+
+To resume the history of more public affairs.  I did not so far please
+myself with the figure I made against the Prince (though I thought it
+very much for my honour), but I saw clearly that I stood on a dangerous
+precipice.
+
+"Whither are we going?"  I said to M. Bellievre, who seemed to be
+overjoyed that the Prince had not been able to devour me; for whom do we
+labour?  I know that we are obliged to act as we do; I know, too, that we
+cannot do better; but should we rejoice at the fatal necessity which
+pushes us on to exert an action comparatively good and which will
+unavoidably end in a superlative evil?"
+
+"I understand you," said the President, "and will interrupt you for one
+moment to tell you what I learned of Cromwell" (whom he had known in
+England).  "He told me one day that it is then we are mounting highest
+when we ourselves do not know whither we are going."
+
+"You know, monsieur," said I to Bellievre, "that I abhor Cromwell; and
+whatever is commonly reported of his great parts, if he is of this
+opinion, I must pronounce him a fool."
+
+I mentioned this dialogue for no other purpose than to observe how
+dangerous it is to talk disrespectfully of men in high positions;
+for it was carried to Cromwell, who remembered it with a great deal of
+resentment on an occasion which I shall mention hereafter, and said to M.
+de Bourdeaux, Ambassador of France, then in England, "I know but one man
+in the world who despises me, and that is Cardinal de Retz."  This
+opinion of him was likely to have cost me very dear.  I return from this
+digression.
+
+On the 31st, Melayer, valet de chambre to the Cardinal, arrived with a
+despatch to the Queen, in which were these words: "Give the Prince de
+Conde all the declarations of his innocence that he can desire, provided
+you can but amuse him and hinder him from giving you the slip."
+
+On the 4th the Prince de Conde insisted in Parliament on a formal decree
+for declaring his innocence, which was granted, but deferred to be
+published till the 7th of September (the day that the King came of age),
+on pretence of rendering it more authentic and solemn by the King's
+presence, but really to gain time, and see what influence the splendour
+of royalty, which was to be clothed that day with all the advantages of
+pomp, would have upon the minds of the people.
+
+But the Prince de Conde, who had reason to distrust both the Fronde and
+the Court, did not appear at the ceremony, and sent the Prince de Conti
+to the King to desire to be excused, because the calumnies and
+treacheries of his enemies would not suffer him to come to the Palace;
+adding that he kept away out of pure respect to his Majesty.  This last
+expression, which seemed to intimate that otherwise he might have gone
+thither without danger, provoked the Queen to that degree that she said,
+"The Prince or I must perish."
+
+The Prince de Conde retired to Bourges,--further from Court.  He was
+naturally averse to a civil war, nor would his adherents have been more
+forward than himself if they had found their interests in his
+reconciliation to the Court; but this seemed impracticable, and therefore
+they agreed upon a civil war, because none of them believed themselves
+powerful enough to conclude a peace.  They know nothing of the nature of
+faction who imagine the head of a party to be their master.  His true
+interest is most commonly thwarted by the imaginary interests even of his
+subalterns, and the worst of it is that his own honour sometimes, and
+generally prudence, joins with them against himself.  The passions and
+discontent which reigned then among the friends of the Prince de Conde
+ran so high that they were obliged to abandon him and form a third party,
+under the authority of the Prince de Conti, in case the Prince
+accomplished his reconciliation to the Court, according to a proposition
+then made to him in the name of the Duc d'Orleans.  The subdivision of
+parties is generally the ruin of all, especially when it is introduced by
+cunning views, directly contrary to prudence; and this is what the
+Italians call, in comedy, a "plot within a plot," or a "wheel within a
+wheel."
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Buckingham had been in love with three Queens
+Civil war as not powerful enough to conclude a peace
+Insinuation is of more service than that of persuasion
+Man that supposed everybody had a back door
+Mazarin: embezzling some nine millions of the public money
+Passed for the author of events of which I was only the prophet
+The subdivision of parties is generally the ruin of all
+The wisest fool he ever saw in his life
+Who imagine the head of a party to be their master
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, v3
+by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF JEAN FRANCOIS PAUL de GONDI, CARDINAL DE RETZ, v4
+
+Written by Himself
+
+Being Historic Court Memoirs of the Great Events during the Minority of
+Louis XIV. and the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+In December, 1651, the Parliament agreed to the following resolution: To
+send a deputation to the King to inform him of the rumours of Mazarin's
+return, and to beseech him to confirm the royal promise which he had made
+to his people upon that head; to forbid all governors to give the
+Cardinal passage; to desire the King to acquaint the Pope and other
+Princes with the reasons that had obliged him to remove the Cardinal; and
+to send to all the Parliaments of the kingdom to make the like decree.
+
+Somebody making a motion that a price might be set upon the Cardinal's
+head, I and the rest of the spiritual councillors retired, because
+clergymen are forbidden by the canon law to give their vote in cases of
+life and death.
+
+They agreed also to send deputies to the King to entreat him to write to
+the Elector of Cologne to send the Cardinal out of his country, and to
+forbid the magistrates of all cities to entertain any troops sent to
+favour his return or any of his kindred or domestics.  A certain
+councillor who said, very judiciously, that the soldiers assembling for
+Mazarin upon the frontiers would laugh at all the decrees of Parliament
+unless they were proclaimed to them by good musketeers and pikemen, was
+run down as if he had talked nonsense, and all the clamour was that it
+belonged only to the King to disband soldiers.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans acquainted the House, on the 29th, that Cardinal
+Mazarin had arrived at Sedan; that Marechals de Hoquincourt and de la
+Ferte were gone to join him with their army to bring him to Court; and
+that it was high time to oppose his designs.  Upon this it was
+immediately resolved that deputies should be despatched forthwith to the
+King; that the Cardinal and all his adherents should be declared guilty
+of high treason; that the common people should be commanded to treat them
+as such wherever they met them; that his library and all his household
+goods should be sold, and that 150,000 livres premium should be given to
+any man who should deliver up the said Cardinal, either dead or alive.
+Upon this expression all the ecclesiastics retired, for the reason above
+mentioned.
+
+A new decree was passed on the 2d of January, 1652, wherein it was
+decided that all the Parliaments of France should be invited to issue
+their decrees against Mazarin, conformable to the last; that two more
+councillors should be added to the four sent to guard the rivers and to
+arm the common people; and that the troops of the Duc d'Orleans should
+oppose the march of Mazarin.
+
+On the 24th the deputies who had been to Poitiers to remonstrate with the
+King against the return of the Cardinal, made their report in Parliament,
+to the effect that his Majesty, after having consulted with the Queen and
+her Council, returned for answer, that without doubt, when the Parliament
+issued their late decrees, they did not know that Cardinal Mazarin had
+made no levy of soldiers but by his Majesty's express orders; that it was
+he who commanded him to enter France with his troops, and that therefore
+the King did not resent what the company had done; but that, on the other
+hand, he did not doubt that when they had heard the circumstances he had
+just mentioned, and knew, moreover, that Cardinal Mazarin only desired an
+opportunity to justify himself, they would not fail to give all his
+subjects an exemplary proof of the obedience they owed to him.  The
+Parliament was highly provoked, and next day resolved to admit no more
+dukes, peers, nor marshals of France till the Cardinal had left the
+kingdom.
+
+Mazarin, arriving at Court again, persuaded the King to go to Saumur,
+though others advised him to march to Guienne against the Prince de
+Conde, with whom the Duc d'Orleans was now resolved to join forces.  The
+King went from Saumur to Tours, where the Archbishop of Rouen carried
+complaints to the King, in the name of the bishops there, against the
+decrees of Parliament relating to the Cardinal.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans complained in Parliament against the inconsistency of
+their proceedings, and said the King had sent him carte blanche in order
+to oblige him to consent to the restoration of the Cardinal, but that
+nothing would ever cause him to do it, nor to act apart from the
+Parliament.  Yet their unaccountable proceedings perplexed him beyond
+expression, so that he commanded, or rather permitted, M. de Beaufort to
+put his troops in action.  And because I told him that, considering the
+declarations he had so often repeated against Mazarin, I thought his
+conduct in setting his troops in motion against him did not add so much
+to the measure of the disgust he had already given to the Court that he
+need to apprehend much from it, he gave me for answer these memorable
+words which I have reflected upon a thousand times: "If you," said he,
+"had been born a Son of France, an Infante of Spain, a King of Hungary,
+or a Prince of Pales, you would not talk as you do.  You must know that,
+with us Princes, words go for nothing, but that we never forget actions.
+By to-morrow noon the Queen would not remember my declarations against
+the Cardinal if I would admit him tomorrow morning; but if my troops were
+to fire a musket she would not forgive me though we were to live two
+thousand years hence."
+
+In February, 1652, I was made a cardinal, and was to receive the hat, as
+all French cardinals do, from the King.  My enemies, who thought to ruin
+my credit with the Duc d'Orleans, gave out that I had been obliged to the
+Court for my dignity, attacked me in form as a secret favourer of
+Mazarin, and, while their emissaries gained over such of the dregs of the
+people as they could corrupt by money, they were supported by all the
+intrigues of the Cabinet.  But the Duke, who knew better, only laughed at
+them; so that they confirmed me in his good opinion, instead of
+supplanting me, because in cases of slander every reflection that does
+not hurt the person attacked does him service.  I said to the Duke that I
+wondered he was not wearied out with the silly stories that were told him
+every day against me, since they all harped upon one string; but he said,
+"Do you take no account of the pleasure one takes every morning in
+hearing how wicked men are under the cloak of religious zeal, and every
+night how silly they are under the mask of politicians?"
+
+The servants of the Prince de Conde gave out such stories against me
+among the populace as were likely to have done me much more mischief.
+They had a pack of brawling fellows in their pay who were more
+troublesome to me now than formerly, when they did not dare to appear
+before the numerous retinue of gentlemen and liverymen that accompanied
+me, for as I had not yet had the hat, I was obliged, wherever I went, to
+go incognito, according to the rules of the ceremonial.  Those fellows
+said that I had betrayed the Duc d'Orleans, and that they would be the
+death of me.  I told the Duke, who was afraid they would murder me, that
+he should soon see how little those hired mobs ought to be regarded.  He
+offered me his guards, but though Marechal d'Estampes fell on his knees
+in my way to stop me, I went down-stairs with only two persons in
+company, and made directly towards the ruffians, demanding who was their
+leader.  Upon which a beggarly fellow, with an old yellow feather in his
+hat, answered me, insolently, "I am."  Then I called out to the guards at
+the gate, saying, "Let me have this rascal hanged up at these grates."
+Thereupon he made me a very low bow, and said that he did not mean to
+affront me; that he only came with his comrades to tell me of the report
+that I designed to carry the Duc d'Orleans to Court, and reconcile him
+with Mazarin; that they did not believe it; that they were at my service,
+and ready to venture their lives for me, provided I would but promise
+them to be always an honest Frondeur.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans took such delight in conversing with me that, on De
+Goulas, one of his secretaries, telling him that all the foreign officers
+took mighty umbrage at it, he pulled him up very sharply, and said, "Go
+to the devil, you and your foreign officers.  If they were as good
+Frondeurs as Cardinal de Retz, they would be at their posts, and not
+tippling in the taverns of Paris."  There was such a strong faction in
+the city of Orleans for the Court that his presence there was very
+necessary; but as it was much more so at Paris, the Duke was prevailed
+upon by his Duchess to let her go thither.  M. Patru was pleased to say
+that as the gates of Jericho fell at the sound of trumpets, those of
+Orleans would open at the sound of fiddles, of which M. de Rohan was a
+very great admirer.  But, in fact, though the King was just at hand with
+the troops, and though M. Mold, Keeper of the Seals, was at the gate
+demanding entrance for the King, the Duchess crossed the river in a
+barge, made the watermen break down a little postern, which had been
+walled up for a long time, and marched, with the acclamations of
+multitudes of the people, directly to the Hotel de Ville, where the
+magistrates were assembled to consider if they should admit the Keeper of
+the Seals.  By this means she turned the scale, and MM. de Beaufort and
+de Nemours joined her.
+
+The Prince de Conde arriving at Paris from Guienne on the 11th of April,
+the magistrates had a meeting in the Hotel de Ville, in which they
+resolved that the Governor should wait on his Royal Highness, and tell
+him that the company thought it contrary to order to receive him into the
+city before he had cleared himself from the King's declaration, which had
+been verified in Parliament against him.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans, who was overjoyed at this speech, said that the Prince
+had only come to discourse with him about private affairs, and that he
+would stay but twenty-four hours at Paris.  M. de Chavigni informed the
+Duke that the Prince was able to stand his ground as long as he pleased,
+without being obliged to anybody; and he gathered together a mob of
+scoundrels upon the Pont-Neuf, whose fingers itched to be plundering the
+house of M. du Plessis Guenegaut, and by whom the Duke was frightened to
+a great degree.
+
+The reflections I had leisure to make upon my new dignity obliged me to
+take great care of my hat, whose dazzling flame of colour turns the heads
+of many that are honoured with it.  The most palpable of those delusions
+is the claiming precedence of Princes of the blood, who may become our
+masters the next moment, and who at the same time are generally the
+masters of all our kindred.  I have a veneration for the cardinals of my
+family, who made me suck in humility after their example with my mother's
+milk, and I found a very happy opportunity to practise it on the very day
+that I received the news of my promotion.  Chateaubriant said to me,
+before a vast number of people at my levee, "Now we will pay our respects
+no more to the best of them," which he said because, though I was upon
+ill terms with the Prince de Conde, and though I always went well
+attended, I yet saluted him wherever I met him with all the respect due
+to him on the score of so many titles.  I said to him:
+
+"Pray pardon me, monsieur; we shall pay our respects to the great men
+with greater complaisance than ever.  God forbid that the red hat should
+turn my head to that degree as to make me dispute precedence with the
+Princes of the blood.  It is honour enough for a gentleman to walk side
+by side with them."  This expression, I verily believe, afterwards
+secured the rank of precedence to the hat in the kingdom of France, by
+the courtesy of the Prince de Conde, and his friendship for me.
+
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, the most fantastical lady upon earth,
+suspecting that I held a secret correspondence with the Queen, could not
+forbear murmuring and threatening what she would do.  She said I had
+declared to her a thousand times that I could not imagine how it was
+possible for anybody to be in love with that Swiss woman.  In short, she
+said this so often that the Queen had a notion from somebody or other
+that I had called her by that name.  She never forgave me for it, as you
+will perceive in the sequel.  You may easily conceive that this
+circumstance, which gave me no encouragement to hope for a very gracious
+reception at Court for the time to come, did not weaken those resolutions
+which I had already taken to retire from public business.  The place of
+my retreat was agreeable enough: the shadow of the towers of Notre-Dame
+was a refreshment to it; and, moreover, the Cardinal's hat sheltered it
+from bad weather.  I had fine ideas of the sweetness of such a
+retirement, and I would gladly have laid hold of it, but my stars would
+not have it so.  I return to my narrative.
+
+On the 12th of April the Duc d'Orleans took the Prince de Conde with him
+to the Parliament, assuring them that he had not, nor ever would have,
+any other intention than to serve his King and country; that he would
+always follow the sentiments of the Parliament; and that he was willing
+to lay down his arms as soon as the decrees against Cardinal Mazarin were
+put into execution.
+
+The President Bailleul said that the members always thought it an honour
+to see the Prince de Conde in his place, but that they could not
+dissemble their real concern to see his hands stained with the blood of
+the King's soldiers who were killed at Bleneau.  Upon this a storm arose
+from the benches, which fell with such fury upon the poor President that
+he had scarcely room to put in a word for himself, for fifty or sixty
+voices disowned him at one volley.
+
+On the 13th the Parliament agreed that the declaration made by the Duc
+d'Orleans and the Prince should be carried to the King; that the
+remonstrances they had sent to the King should likewise be sent to all
+the sovereign companies of Paris, and to all the Parliaments of the
+kingdom, to invite them also to send a deputation on their own behalf;
+and that a general assembly should be immediately held at the Hotel de
+Ville, to which the Duc d'Orleans and the Prince should be invited to
+make the same declarations as they made to the Parliament; and that, in
+the meantime, the King's declaration against Cardinal Mazarin, and all
+the decrees passed against him, should be put into execution.
+
+On the 13th of May a councillor of Parliament and captain of his ward,
+having brought his company to the Palace to act as ordinary guard, was
+abandoned by all the burghers that composed it, who said they were not
+created to guard Mazarins.
+
+The mob, who at the same time appeared ready enough to murder some of the
+magistrates in the streets, had nothing in their mouths but the names and
+services of the Princes, who next day disowned their humble servants in
+the assemblies of the several courts.  Though this conduct gave occasion
+to severe decrees, which the Parliament issued at every turn against the
+seditious, it did not hinder the same Parliament from believing that
+those who disowned the sedition were the authors of it, and consequently
+did not lessen the hatred which many private men conceived against them.
+Such were the various and complicated views every one had concerning the
+then position of affairs, that I wrapped myself up, as one may say, in my
+great dignities, to which I abandoned the hopes of my fortune; and I
+remember one day the President Bellievre telling me that I ought not to
+be so indolent.  I answered him: "We are in a great storm, where,
+methinks, we all row against the wind.  I have two good oars in my hand,
+one of which is the Cardinal's dignity, and the other the Archiepiscopal.
+I am not willing to break them; and all I have to do now is to support
+myself."
+
+At the same time I had other disquietings of a more private nature.
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse fell in love with my rival, the Abbe Fouquet.
+Little De Roye, who was a very, pretty German lass at her house, informed
+me of it, and made me amends for the infidelity of the mistress, whose
+choice, to tell you the truth, did not mortify me much, because she had
+nothing but beauty, which cloys when it comes alone.  She cared for
+nobody besides him she loved; but as she was never long in love, so
+neither was it long that she was in good temper.  She used her cast-off
+lovers as she did her old clothes, which other women lay aside, but she
+burnt, so that her daughters had much ado to save a petticoat, head-
+dress, gloves, or Venice point.  And I verily believe that if she could
+have committed her lovers to the flames when she left them off, she would
+have done it with all her heart.  Madame her mother, who endeavoured to
+set her at variance with me when she was resolved to unite herself
+entirely with the Court, could not succeed, though she went so far that
+Madame de Guemenee caused a letter to be read to her in my handwriting,
+whereby I devoted myself body and soul to her, as witches give themselves
+to the devil.
+
+It was at that time that Madame de Chevreuse, seeing herself neglected at
+Paris, resolved to retire to Dampierre, where, depending upon what had
+been told her from Court, she hoped to be well received.  I gave vent to
+my passion, which, in truth, was not very great, to Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse, and I took care to have both the mother and daughter
+accompanied out of Paris, quite to Dampierre, by all the nobility and
+gentlemen I had with me.
+
+I cannot finish this slight sketch of the condition I was in at Paris
+without acknowledging the debt I owe to the generosity of the Prince de
+Conde, who, finding that a person was come from the Prince de Conti, at
+Bordeaux, with a design to attack me, told him that he would have him
+hanged if he did not go back to his master in two hours' time.
+
+Marigny told me, almost at the same time, that, observing the Prince de
+Conde to be very intent upon reading a book, he took the liberty to tell
+him that it must needs be a very choice one, because he took such delight
+in it; and that the Prince answered him, "It is true I am very fond of
+it, for it shows me my faults, which nobody has the courage to tell me."
+This book was entitled "The Right and False Steps of the Prince de Conde
+and of the Cardinal de Retz."
+
+There were divers negotiations between the parties, during which Mazarin
+gave himself the pleasure of letting the public see MM. de Rohan, de
+Chavigni, and de Goulas conferring with him, before the King as well as
+in private, at that very instant when the Duc d'Orleans and the Prince de
+Conde said publicly, in the assembly of the Chambers, that it ought to be
+the preliminary of all treaties to have nothing to do with Mazarin.
+He acted a perfect comedy in their presence, pretending to be forcibly
+detained by the King, whom he begged with folded hands to let him return
+to Italy.
+
+On the 30th of April there was so great a murmuring in Parliament that
+the Duc d'Orleans said they should never see him there again until the
+Cardinal was gone.
+
+On the 6th of May the remonstrances of the Parliament and the Chamber of
+Accounts were carried to the King by a large deputation, as were, on the
+7th, those of the Court of Aids and the city.  The King's answer to both
+was that he would cause his troops to retire when those of the Princes
+were gone.
+
+On the 10th it was resolved that the King's Council should be sent to
+Saint Germain for a further answer touching the removal of Cardinal
+Mazarin from the Court and kingdom, and the armies from the neighbourhood
+of Paris.
+
+On the 14th there was a great uproar again in the Parliament, where there
+was a confused clamour for taking into consideration the best means for
+hindering the riots and disorders daily committed in the city and in the
+hall of the Palace; upon which the Duc d'Orleans, who was afraid that
+under this pretence the Mazarinists should make the House take some steps
+contrary to their interests, came to the Palace on a sudden, and proposed
+that they should grant him full power.
+
+The 29th being the day that the deputies of the Court of Inquiry desired
+the Parliament to consider the ways and means for raising the 150,000
+livres promised to him who should bring Cardinal Mazarin to justice, and
+the Archbishop's Grand Vicar coming up at that moment to the bar of the
+King's Council to confer about the descent of the shrine of Sainte
+Genevieve, a member said, very pleasantly, "We are this day engaged in
+devotion for a double festival: we are appointing processions, and
+contriving how to murder a Cardinal."
+
+On the 20th of June the King's answer to the Parliament's remonstrances
+was reported in substance as follows: That though his Majesty was
+sensible that the demand for the removal of Cardinal Mazarin was but a
+pretence, yet, he was willing to grant it after justice was done to the
+Cardinal's honour by such reparations as were due to his innocence,
+provided the Princes would give him good security for the performance of
+their proposals upon the removal of the said Cardinal.  That therefore
+his Majesty, desired to know: 1. Whether, in this case, they will
+renounce all leagues and associations with foreign princes?  2. Whether
+they will not form new pretensions?  3. Whether they will come to Court?
+4. Whether they will dismiss all the foreigners that are in the kingdom?
+5. Whether they will disband their forces?  6. Whether Bordeaux will
+return to its duty, as well as the Prince de Conti and Madame de
+Longueville?  7. Whether the places which the Prince de Conde has
+fortified shall be put into the condition they were in before the breach?
+
+The Duc d'Orleans, provoked at these propositions, said that a Son of
+France and a Prince of the blood were never known to have been treated
+like common criminals, and that the declaration which both had made was
+more than sufficient to satisfy the Court.
+
+On the 21st it was moved in Parliament that an inventory should be taken
+of what remained of Mazarin's furniture.  There having been in the
+morning a great commotion at the Palace, when the President and some
+others had run a risk of being killed by the mob, M. de Beaufort invited
+his friends to meet him in the afternoon in the Palais Royal, and having
+got together four or five thousand beggars, he harangued them as to the
+obedience which they owed to the Parliament.  But two or three days after
+this fine sermon of his, the sedition was more violent than ever.
+
+On the 25th the Princes declared in Parliament that, as soon as the
+Cardinal had departed the kingdom, they would faithfully execute all the
+articles contained in the King's answer, and immediately send deputies to
+complete the rest.
+
+On the 4th of July a mob assembled, who forced all that went by to put a
+handful of straw in their hats, upon which the Duc d'Orleans and the
+Prince de Conde went to the Hotel de Ville and convinced the assembly of
+the necessity they were under of defending themselves against Mazarin.
+Upon a trumpeter arriving from his Majesty with orders to adjourn the
+assembly for a week, the people were much incensed, and called out to the
+citizens to unite strictly with the Princes.  They fell upon the first
+thing they met in their way, threw stones into the windows of the Hotel
+de Ville, set fire to its gates, and, entering with drawn swords,
+murdered M. Le Gras, the Master of Requests, and the Master of Accounts,
+and twenty or thirty citizens perished in the tumult.  There was a
+general consternation all over the city; all the shops were shut in an
+instant, and in some parts they set up barricades to stop the rioters,
+who had almost overrun the whole town.  It was observed that the
+appearance of the Duchesse de Beaufort prevailed more with the mob in
+causing them to disperse than the exposing of the Host by the cure of St.
+John's.
+
+The late riot had such an effect on the Parliament that the President
+Mortier and many of the councillors kept away from the public assemblies
+for fear, notwithstanding they were enjoined, by a special decree, to
+come and take their places.  The magistrates, for the same reason, did
+not go to the Hotel de Ville.
+
+On the 18th the deputies of Parliament being ordered to follow the King
+to Pontoise, the House passed a decree for their immediate return to
+Parliament, and the Prince de Conde and the Duke de Beaufort brought them
+into town with twelve hundred horse.
+
+The Court in the meantime passed decrees of Council, annulling those of
+the Parliament and the transactions of the assembly at the Hotel de
+Ville.
+
+On the 20th the Parliament declared by a decree that, the King being
+prisoner to Cardinal Mazarin, the Duc d'Orleans should be desired to take
+upon him the office of Lieutenant-General of his Majesty, and the Prince
+to take upon him the command of the army as long as Mazarin should
+continue in the kingdom, and that a copy of the said decree should be
+sent to all the Parliaments of the kingdom, who should be desired to
+publish the like; but not one complied, except that of Bordeaux.
+Nor was the Duke better obeyed by the several governors of the provinces,
+for but one vouchsafed him an answer when he acquainted them with his new
+dignity, the Court having put them in mind of their duty by an order of
+Council, published to annul that of the Parliament for establishing the
+said lieutenancy; and in Paris itself the Duke's authority was despised,
+for two wretches having been condemned for setting fire to the Hotel de
+Ville, the citizens who were ordered to take charge of the execution
+refused to obey.
+
+On the 24th it was ordered that a general assembly should be held at the
+Hotel de Ville, to consider the ways and means to raise money for
+supporting the troops, and that the statues at Mazarin's palace should be
+sold to make up the sum set upon the Cardinal's head.
+
+On the 29th it was resolved in the Hotel de Ville to raise 800,000 livres
+for augmenting his Royal Highness's troops, and to exhort all the great
+towns of the kingdom to unite with the metropolis.
+
+On the 6th of August the King sent a declaration signifying the removal
+of the Parliament to Pontoise.  There was a great commotion in the House,
+who agreed not to register it till the Cardinal had left the kingdom.
+As for the Parliament of Pontoise, which consisted of but fourteen
+officers, with three Presidents at their head, who had a little before
+retired in disguise from Paris, they made remonstrances likewise to the
+King for removing Cardinal Mazarin.  The King granted what was desired of
+him, and that upon the solicitations of that honest, disinterested
+minister, who withdrew from Court to Bouillon.  This comedy, so unworthy
+the dignity of a king, was accompanied with circumstances that rendered
+it still more ridiculous:--The two Parliaments fulminated severe decrees
+against one another, and that of Paris made an order that whosoever sat
+in the assembly at Pontoise should be struck off the register.
+
+At the same time that of Pontoise registered the King's declaration,
+which contained an injunction to the Parliament of Paris, the Chamber of
+Accounts, and the Court of Aids, that, since Cardinal Mazarin was
+removed, they should now lay down their arms on condition that his
+Majesty would grant an amnesty, remove his troops from about Paris,
+withdraw those that were in Guienne, allow a free and safe passage to the
+Spanish troops, and give the Princes permission to send to his Majesty
+persons to confer with his ministers concerning what remained to be
+adjusted.  This same Parliament resolved to return their thanks to his
+Majesty for removing Cardinal Mazarin, and most humbly to entreat the
+King to return to his good city of Paris.
+
+On the 26th they also registered the King's amnesty, or royal pardon,
+granted to all that had taken up arms against him, but with such
+restrictions that very few could think themselves safe by it.
+
+The King acquainted the Duc d'Orleans that he wondered that, since
+Mazarin was removed, he should delay, according to his own declaration
+and promise, to lay down his arms, to renounce all associations and
+treaties, and to cause the foreign troops to withdraw; and that when this
+was done, those deputies that should come to his Majesty from him should
+be very welcome.
+
+On the 3d of September the Parliament resolved that their deputies should
+wait upon the King with their thanks for removing Cardinal Mazarin, and
+to beseech his Majesty to return to Paris; that the Duc d'Orleans and the
+Prince de Conde should be desired to write to the King and assure him
+they would lay down their arms as soon as his Majesty would be pleased to
+send the passports for the safe retreat of the foreigners, together with
+an amnesty in due form, registered in all the Parliaments of the kingdom;
+and that his Majesty should be petitioned to receive the deputies of the
+Princes.
+
+Pray indulge me with a short pause here to consider the scandalous arts
+which ministers palliate with the name and sacred word of a great King,
+and with which the most august Parliament of the kingdom--the Court of
+Peers--expose themselves to ridicule by such manifest inconsistencies as
+are more becoming the levity of a college than the majesty of a senate.
+In short, persons are not sensible of what they do in these State
+paroxysms, which savour somewhat of frenzy.  I knew in those days some
+very honest men, who were so fully satisfied of the justice of the cause
+of the Princes that, upon occasion, they would have laid down their lives
+for it; and I also knew some eminently virtuous and disinterested men who
+would as gladly have been martyrs for the Court.  The ambition of great
+men manages such dispositions just as it suits their own interests; they
+help to blind the rest of mankind, and they even become blinder
+themselves than other people.
+
+Honest M. de Fontenay, who had been twice ambassador at Rome, a man of
+great experience and good sense and a hearty well-wisher to his country,
+daily condoled with me on the lethargy into which the intestine divisions
+had lulled the best citizens and patriots.  We saw the Spanish colours
+and standards displayed upon the Pont-Neuf; the yellow sashes of Lorraine
+appeared at Paris with the same liberty as the Isabelles and blue ones.
+People were so accustomed to these spectacles and to the news of
+provinces, towns, and battles lost, that they were become insolent and
+stupid.  Several of my friends blamed my inactivity, and desired me to
+bestir myself.  They bid me save the kingdom, save the city, or else I
+should fall from the greatest love to the greatest hatred of the people.
+The Frondeurs suspected me of favouring Mazarin's party, and the Mazarins
+thought I was too partial to the Frondeurs.
+
+I was touched to the quick with a pathetic speech made to me by M. de
+Fontenay.  "You see," said he, "that Mazarin, like a Jack-in-the-bog,
+plays at Bo-peep; but you see that, whether he appears or disappears,
+the wire by which the puppet is drawn on or off the stage is the royal
+authority, which is not likely to be broken by the measures now on foot.
+Abundance of those that appear to be his greatest opponents would be very
+sorry to see him crushed; many others would be very glad to see him get
+off; not one endeavours to ruin him entirely.  You may get clear of the
+difficulty that embarrasses you by a door which opens into a field of
+honour and liberty.  Paris, whose archbishop you are, groans under a
+heavy load.  The Parliament there is but a mere phantom, and the Hotel de
+Ville a desert.  The Duc d'Orleans and the Prince have no more authority
+than what the rascally mob is pleased to allow them.  The Spaniards,
+Germans, and Lorrainers are in the suburbs laying waste the very gardens.
+You that have rescued them more than once, and are their pastor, have
+been forced to keep guards in your own house for three weeks.  And you
+know that at this day your friends are under great apprehension if they
+see you in the streets without arms.  Do you count it a slight thing to
+put an end to all these miseries?  And will you neglect the only
+opportunity Providence puts a into your hands to obtain the honour of it?
+Take your clergy with you to Compiegne, thank the King for removing
+Mazarin, and beg his Majesty to return to Paris.  Keep up a good
+correspondence with those bodies who have no other design but the common
+good, who are already almost all your particular friends, and who look
+upon you as their head by reason of your dignity.  And if the King
+actually returns to the city, the people of Paris will be obliged to you
+for it; if you meet with a refusal, you will have still their
+acknowledgments for your good intention.  If you can get the Duc
+d'Orleans to join with you, you will save the realm; for I am persuaded
+that if he knew how to act his part in this juncture it would be in his
+power to bring the King back to Paris and to prevent Mazarin ever
+returning again.  You are a cardinal; you are Archbishop of Paris; you
+have the good-will of the public, and are but thirty-seven years old:
+Save the city, save the kingdom."
+
+In short, the Duc d'Orleans approved of my scheme, and ordered me to
+convene a general assembly of the ecclesiastical communities, and to get
+deputies chosen out of them all, and go with them to Court, there to
+present the deputation, which should request the King to give peace to
+his people and return to his good city of Paris.  I was also to endeavour
+by the aid of my friends to induce the other corporate bodies of the city
+to do likewise.  I was to tell the Queen that she could not but be
+sensible that the Duke was in good earnest for peace, which the public
+engagements he was under to oppose Mazarin had not suffered him to
+conclude, or even to propose, while the Cardinal continued at Court; that
+he renounced all private views and interests with relation to himself or
+friends; that he desired nothing but the security of the public; and that
+after he had the satisfaction of seeing the King at the Louvre he would
+then with joy retire to Blois, fully resolved to live in peace and
+prepare for eternity.
+
+I set out immediately with the deputies of all the ecclesiastical bodies
+of Paris, nearly two hundred gentlemen, accompanied by fifty men of the
+Duke's Guards.  The number of my attendants gave such umbrage at Court,
+where it was ridiculously exaggerated, that the Queen sent me word I
+should only have accommodation for eighty horses, whereas I had no less
+than one hundred and twelve for the coaches alone.  If I had known as
+much when I went as I heard after I returned, I should have hesitated
+about going, for I was told that some moved for arresting me, and others
+for killing me.  However, the Queen received me very well; the King gave
+me the cardinal's hat and a public audience.
+
+I told the Queen, in a private audience, that I was not come only as a
+deputy from the Church of Paris, but that I had another commission which
+I valued much more, because I took it to be more for her service than the
+other,--that of an envoy from the Duc d'Orleans, who had charged me to
+assure her Majesty that he was resolved to serve her effectually and
+without delay, as he had promised by a note under his own hand, which I
+then pulled out of my pocket.  The Queen expressed a great deal of joy,
+and said, "I knew very well, M. le Cardinal, that you would at last give
+some particular marks of your affection for me."
+
+The Queen told me that she thanked the Duke, and was very much obliged to
+him; that she hoped and desired he would contribute towards making the
+necessary dispositions for the King's return to Paris, and that she would
+not take one step but in concert with him.  At the same time I heard that
+the Queen spoke disdainfully of me, whom she dreaded, to my enemies at
+Court; pretended that I had owned Mazarin was an honest man, and
+ridiculed me for the expense I had put myself to on the journey, which,
+indeed, was immense for so short a time, because I kept seven open
+tables, and spent 800 crowns a day.
+
+When I returned to Paris I was received with incredible applause.  The
+King also came thither on the 21st of October, and was welcomed by the
+acclamations of the people.  The Queen received me with wonderful
+respect, and bade the King embrace me, as one to whom he chiefly owed his
+return to Paris; but orders were sent to the Duc d'Orleans to retire next
+morning to Limours.
+
+When I went to see him, he was panic-struck, and imagined it was only a
+feint to try his temper.  He was in an inconceivable agony, and fancied
+that every musket which was let off by way of rejoicing for his Majesty's
+return was fired by the soldiers coming to invest his palace.  Every
+messenger that he sent out brought him word that all was quiet, but he
+would believe nobody, and looked continually out of the window to hear if
+the drums were beating the march.  At last he took courage to ask me if I
+was firm to him, and after I had assured him of my fidelity he desired
+that, as a proof of my attachment and affection for him, I would be
+reconciled to M. de Beaufort.  "With all my heart," said I.  Whereupon he
+embraced me, then opened the gallery door by his bedchamber, and out came
+M. de Beaufort, who threw himself about my neck, and said, "Pray ask his
+Royal Highness what I have been saying to him concerning you.  I know who
+are honest men.  Come on, monsieur, let us drive all the Mazarins away
+for good and all."  He endeavoured to show both the necessity and the
+possibility of it, and advised the raising of barricades next morning, by
+break of day, in the market-places.
+
+The Duc d'Orleans turned to me and said, as they do in Parliament, "Your
+opinion, M. Dean."  I replied: "If I must give it as Dean, there never
+was more occasion for the forty hours' prayers than now.  I myself stand
+in need of them more than anybody, because I can give no advice but what
+must appear very cruel and be attended with horrid inconveniences.  If I
+should advise you to put up with the injurious treatment you undergo,
+will not the public, who always make the worst of everything, have a
+handle to say I betray your interest, and that my advice was but a
+necessary consequence of all those obstacles I threw in the Princes' way?
+And if I give it as my opinion that your Royal Highness should follow the
+measures which M. de Beaufort proposes, shall I not be accounted one who
+blows hot and cold in a breath?--who is for peace when he thinks to gain
+his advantages by the treaty, but for war when he is not permitted to
+negotiate?--one who is for destroying Paris with fire and sword, and for
+carrying the flames to the gates of the Louvre by attacking the very
+person of the King?  If you obey, you will be responsible to the public
+for all it may suffer afterwards.  I am no competent judge of what it may
+suffer in particular; for who can foresee events depending on the
+caprices of a cardinal, on the stormings of Ondedei, the impertinence of
+the Abbe Fouquet, and the violence of Servien?  But you will have to
+answer for all, because the public will be persuaded that you might have
+prevented it.  If you do not obey, you may go near to overturn the
+realm."
+
+Here the Duke interrupted me eagerly, and said, "This is not to the
+purpose; the question is whether I am in a condition, that is, if it is
+in my power, to disobey."
+
+"I believe so," I said; "for I do not see how the Court can oblige you to
+obey, unless the King himself should march to Luxembourg, which would be
+a matter of great importance."
+
+"Nay," said M. de Beaufort, "it would be impossible."
+
+I then perceived that the Duke began to think so too, for it fitted his
+humour, as he could not endure taking any pains, and, upon this
+supposition, resolved to stay at home with his arms folded.  I said:
+
+"You are able to do anything to-night and tomorrow morning, but I cannot
+answer how it may be in the evening."
+
+M. de Beaufort, who thought that I was going to argue for the offensive,
+fell in roundly with me to second me; but I stopped him short by telling
+him he mistook my meaning.
+
+"I shall never presume," said I, "to give advice in the condition things
+are now in.  The Duke himself must decide, and even propose, too, and it
+is our business to perform his commands."
+
+Then he said, "If I should resolve to brave it out, will you declare for
+me?"
+
+"Yes," I said, "it is what I ought in duty to do.  I am attached to your
+service, in which I shall certainly not be wanting, and you need only to
+command me.  But I am very much grieved that, considering the present
+state of affairs, an honest man cannot act the honest part, do what he
+may."
+
+The Duke, who was by nature good, but not very tender, could not help
+being moved at what I said; the tears came into his eyes, he embraced me,
+and asked me if I thought he could secure the King's person.  I told him
+that nothing was more impossible.  I found at length that he was inclined
+to obey, but he bade us keep our friends together in readiness, and to be
+with him at break of day.  However, he set out for Limours an hour sooner
+than he had told us, and left word that he had his reasons for so doing,
+which we should know another day, advising us, if possible, to make our
+peace with the Court.
+
+On the 22d the King held his Bed of Justice, at the Louvre, where he
+published the amnesty, as also an order for reestablishing the Parliament
+at Paris, in which there was a clause forbidding them to meddle with
+State affairs.  At the same time he caused a declaration to be published
+ordering MM. de Beaufort, Rohan, Viole, de Thou, Broussel, Portail,
+Bitaud, Croissi, Machaut, Fleury, Martineau, and Perraut to depart the
+city.
+
+The Court now began to offer me terms of reconciliation.  I was desirous
+that as many of my friends as possible should be included; but Caumartin,
+who was in the secret of affairs, told me there were no hopes of
+procuring any advantages for particular persons; that all that could be
+done was to save the ship for another voyage, and that this ship, which
+was myself, could be saved in no other way, in the condition into which
+our affairs were fallen by the Duc d'Orleans's want of resolution, but by
+launching out into the main, and steering towards Rome.  "You stand,"
+said he, "as it were, on the point of a needle, and if the Court knew
+their strength they would rout you as they do the rest; your courage
+gives you an air that both deceives and disquiets them.  Make use of the
+present opportunity for obtaining what may be serviceable to you in your
+employ at Rome, for the Court will deny you nothing."
+
+Montresor, hearing of it, said to me afterwards, with an oath, "He is a
+villain who says your Eminence can make your peace honourably without
+making terms for your friends; he who affirms the contrary does it for
+his own private ends."  Therefore I refused the offers made me by
+Servien, which were that the King would resign his affairs in Italy to my
+care, and allow me a pension of 50,000 crowns; that I should have 100,000
+crowns towards paying off my debts, and 50,000 in hand towards furniture;
+that I should continue three years at Rome, and then return to resume my
+functions at Paris.
+
+The Princess Palatine told me I ought either to accept or else treat with
+the Cardinal, since all the subalterns were against me.  Madame de
+Lesdiguieres advised me to preserve my equanimity and keep within doors,
+adding that the Cardinal, who was impatient to return to Paris, but durst
+not as long as I stayed, would make me a bridge of gold to go out and
+agree to whatever I demanded.  Accordingly, I sent my proposals to the
+Cardinal, who was then lurking in Turenne's army upon the frontiers, and
+desired such and such posts for my friends.  Meantime Servien and the
+Abbe Fouquet endeavoured to exasperate the Queen by telling her that I
+was continually caballing with the annuitants and officers of the
+militia; and because I refused to go to Parliament, in obedience to the
+King's orders, when he held his Court of Justice there to register the
+declaration of high treason against the Prince de Conde, the Queen was
+made to believe that I was intriguing for the Prince, and therefore
+resolved to ruin me, cost what it would.  One officer posted men in a
+house near Madame de Pommereux's, to attack me; another was employed to
+get intelligence at what time of night I was in the habit of visiting
+her; a third had an order, signed by the King, to attack me in the street
+and bring me off dead or alive.  An unknown person advised me not to go
+that day to Rambouillet; but I went with two hundred gentlemen, and found
+a great many officers of the Guards, who, whatever were their orders,
+were in no condition to attack me, and received me with reverence; but I
+blamed myself for it afterwards, because it only tended to incense the
+Court the more against me.
+
+Upon All Saints' Day I preached at Saint Germain, which is the King's
+parish, where their Majesties did me the honour to be present, for which
+I went next day to return them thanks; but finding that the cautions sent
+me from all quarters multiplied very fast, I did not go to the Louvre
+till the 19th of December, when I was arrested in the Queen's antechamber
+by the captain of the Guards then in waiting, who carried me into an
+apartment where the officers of the kitchen brought me dinner, of which I
+ate heartily, to the mortification of the base courtiers, though I did
+not take it kindly to see my pockets turned inside out as if I had been a
+cutpurse.  This ceremony, which is not common, was performed by the
+captain; but he found nothing except a letter from the King of England,
+desiring me to try if the Court of Rome would assist him with money.
+When this letter came to be talked of, it was maliciously reported that
+it came from the Protector.  I was carried in one of the King's coaches,
+under guard, to Vincennes.  As we passed we found at several of the gates
+a battalion of Swiss with their pikes presented towards the city, where
+everybody was quiet, though their sorrow and consternation were visible
+enough.  I was afterwards informed, however, that all the butchers in the
+veal market were going to take up arms, and that they might have made
+barricades there with all the ease in the world, only they were
+restrained for fear that I should have paid for their tumult with the
+loss of my life; so that the women remained in tears, and the men stood
+stock-still in a fright.  I was confined at Vincennes for a fortnight
+together, in a room as big as a church, without any firing.  My guards
+pilfered my, linen, apparel, shoes, etc., so that sometimes I was forced
+to lie in bed for a week or ten days together for want of clothes to
+dress myself.  I could not but think that such treatment had been ordered
+by the higher powers on purpose to break my heart; but I resolved not to
+die that way, and though my guard said all he could to vex me, I affected
+to take no notice.
+
+The influence of the clergy of Paris obliged the Court to explain itself
+concerning the causes of my imprisonment, by the mouth of the Chancellor,
+who, in the presence of the King and Queen, acquainted them that his
+Majesty had caused me to be arrested for my own good, and to prevent me
+from putting something that I designed into execution.  The chapter of
+Notre-Dame had an anthem sung every day for my deliverance.  The Sorbonne
+and many of the a religious orders distinguished themselves by declaring
+for me.  This general stir obliged the Court to treat me somewhat better
+than at first.  They let me have a limited number of books, but no ink
+and paper, and they allowed me a 'valet de chambre' and a physician.
+
+During my confinement at Vincennes, which lasted fifteen months, I
+studied both day and night, especially the Latin tongue, on which I
+perceive one cannot bestow too much pains, since it takes in all other
+studies.  I dived into the Greek also, and read again the ninth decade of
+Livy, which I had formerly delighted in, and found as pleasant as ever.
+I composed, in imitation of Boetius, a treatise, which I entitled
+"Consolation de la Theologie," in which I proved that every prisoner
+ought to endeavour to be 'vinctus in Christo' (in the bonds of Christ),
+mentioned by Saint Paul.  I also compiled "Partus Vincennarum," which was
+a collection of the Acts of the Church of Milan for the use of the Church
+of Paris.
+
+My guard omitted nothing he could invent to make my life uneasy and
+disturb my studies.  One day he came and told me that he had received
+orders from the King to give me an airing on the top of the donjon; and
+when he perceived that I took a pleasure in walking there, he informed
+me, with joy in his looks, that he had orders to the contrary.  I told
+him that they were come in good time, for the air, which was too sharp
+there, had made my head ache.  Afterwards he offered to take me down into
+the tennis-court to see my guards at play.  I desired him to excuse me,
+because I thought the air would be too piercing for me; but he made me
+go, telling me that the King, who took more care of my health than I
+fancied, had ordered that he should give me some exercise.  Soon after he
+desired me to excuse him for not bringing me down again, "for reasons,"
+said he, "which I must not tell."  The truth was, I was so much above
+these chicaneries that I despised them; but I must own that I used to
+think within myself that, in the main, to be a prisoner of State was of
+all others the most afflicting.  All the relaxation I had from my studies
+was to divert myself with some rabbits on the top of the donjon, and some
+pigeons in the turrets, for which I was indebted to the continual
+solicitations of the Church of Paris.  I had not been a prisoner above
+nine days when one of my guards, while his comrade who watched me was
+asleep, came and slipped a note into my hand from Madame de Pommereux, in
+which were only these words: "Let me have your answer; you may safely
+trust the bearer."  The bearer gave me a pencil and a piece of paper, on
+which I wrote that I had received her letter.
+
+Notwithstanding that three sergeants and twenty-four Life-guards relieved
+one another every day, our correspondence was not interrupted.  Madame de
+Pommereux, M. de Caumartin, and M. de Raqueville wrote me letters twice a
+week constantly about the means to effect my escape, which I attempted
+twice, but in vain.
+
+The Abbe Charier, who set out for Rome the day after I was arrested,
+found Pope Innocent incensed to the highest degree, and ready to throw
+his thunder upon the heads of the authors of it.  He spoke of it to the
+French Ambassador with great resentment, and sent the Archbishop of
+Avignon, with the title of Nuncio Extraordinary, on purpose to solicit my
+release.  The King was in a fury, and forebade the Nuncio to pass Lyons.
+The Pope told the Abbe Charier that he was afraid to expose his and the
+Church's authority to the fury of a madman, and said, "Give me but an
+army, and I will furnish you with a legate."  It was a difficult matter
+indeed to get him that army, but not impossible, if those that should
+have stood my friends had not left me in the lurch.
+
+In the meantime Noirmoutier and Bussi Lamet wrote a letter to Mazarin,
+declaring they could not help proceeding to extremities if I were
+detained any longer in prison.  The Prince de Conde declared he would do
+anything, without exception, which my friends desired, for my liberty,
+and offered to march all the Spanish forces to their assistance; but the
+misfortune was that there was nobody to form the proper schemes; and
+Noirmoutier, who was the most enterprising man of them all, was hindered
+from action by Madame de Chevreuse and De Laigues, who, the Cardinal
+said, would be accountable for the actions of their friends, and that if
+they fired one pistol-shot they must expect what would follow.  Therefore
+Noirmoutier was glad to elude all the propositions of the Prince de
+Conde, and to be content with only writing and speaking in my favour, and
+firing the cannon at the drinking of my health.
+
+M. de Pradello, who commanded the French and Swiss Guards in the castle,
+came one day to tell me of the happy return of Cardinal Mazarin to Paris,
+and of his magnificent reception at the Hotel de Ville; and he informed
+me that the Cardinal had sent him to assure me of his most humble
+services, and to beg of me to be persuaded that he would forget nothing
+that might be for my service.  I made as if I did not heed the
+compliment, and was for talking of something else; but as he pressed me
+for a direct answer, I told him that I should have been ready at the
+first word to show him my acknowledgments were I not persuaded that the
+duty of a prisoner to the King did not permit him to explain himself in
+anything relating to his release, till his Majesty had been graciously
+pleased to grant it him.  He understood my meaning, and endeavoured to
+persuade me to return a more civil answer to the Cardinal, which I
+declined to do.
+
+The Cardinal was so pestered with complaints from Rome, and so disturbed
+with the discontent which prevailed in Poitou and Paris, on account of my
+imprisonment, that he sent me an offer of my liberty and great
+advantages, on condition that I would resign the coadjutorship of Paris.
+
+The solicitations of the chapter of Notre-Dame prevailed on the Court to
+consent that one of their body might be always with me, who, though he
+came gladly for my sake, fell into a deep melancholy.  He could not,
+however, be prevailed upon to go out; and being soon after seized with a
+fever, he cut his own throat.  My uncle dying soon after, possession was
+taken of the archbishopric in my name by my proxy, and Tellier, who was
+sent to Notre-Dame Church to oppose it on the part of the King, was
+mortified with the thunder of my bulls from Rome.  The people were
+surprised to see all the formalities observed to a nicety, at a juncture
+when they thought there was no possibility of observing one.  The cures
+waxed warmer than ever, and my friends fanned the flame.  The Nuncio,
+thinking himself slighted by the Court, spoke in dignified terms, and
+threatened his censures.  A little book was published, showing the
+necessity of shutting up the churches, which aroused the Cardinal's
+apprehensions, and his apprehensions naturally led him into negotiation.
+He amused me with hundreds of fine prospects of church livings,
+governments, etc., and of being restored to the good graces of the King
+and to the strictest friendship with his Prime Minister.
+
+I had more liberty than before.  They always carried me up to the top of
+the donjon whenever it was fair overhead; but my friends, who did not
+doubt that all the Court wanted was to get some expression from me of my
+inclination to resign, in order to discredit me with the public, charged
+me to guard warily my words, which advice I followed; so that when a
+captain of the Guards came from the King to discourse with me upon this
+head, who, by Mazarin's direction, talked to me more like a captain of
+the Janissaries than like an officer of the most Christian King, I
+desired leave to give him my answer in writing, expressing my contempt
+for all threats and promises, and an inviolable resolution not to give up
+the archbishopric of Paris.
+
+Next day President Bellievre came to me on the part of the King, with an
+offer of seven abbeys, provided I would quit my archbishopric; but he
+opened his mind to me with entire freedom, and said he could not but
+think what a fool the Sicilian was to send him on such an errand.  "Most
+of your friends," said Bellievre, "think that you need only to stand out
+resolutely, and that the Court will be glad to set you at liberty and
+send you to Rome; but it is a horrid mistake, for the Court will be
+satisfied with nothing but your resignation.  When I say the Court, I
+mean Mazarin; for the Queen will not bear the thought of giving you your
+liberty.  The chief thing that determines Mazarin to think of your
+liberty is his fear of the Nuncio, the chapter, the cures, and the
+people.  But I dare affirm that the Nuncio will threaten mightily, but do
+nothing; the chapter may perhaps make remonstrances, but to no purpose;
+the cures will preach, and that is all; the people will clamour, but take
+up no arms.  The consequence will be your removal to Brest or Havre-de-
+Grace, and leaving you in the hands of your enemies, who will use you as
+they please.  I know that Mazarin is not bloodthirsty, but I tremble to
+think of what Noailles has told you, that they are resolved to make haste
+and take such methods as other States have furnished examples of.  You
+may, perhaps, infer from my remarks that I would have you resign.  By no
+means.  I have come to tell you that if you resign you will do a
+dishonourable thing, and that it behooves you on this occasion to answer
+the great expectation the world is now in on your account, even to the
+hazarding of your life, and of your liberty, which I am persuaded you
+value more than life itself.  Now is the time for you to put forward more
+than ever those maxims for which we have so much combated you: 'I dread
+no poison nor sword!  Nothing can hurt me but what is within me!  It
+matters not where one dies!'  Thus you ought to answer those who speak to
+you about your resignation."
+
+I was carried from Vincennes, under guard, to Nantes, where I had
+numerous visits and diversions, and was entertained with a comedy almost
+every night, and the company of the ladies, particularly the charming
+Mademoiselle de La Vergne, who in good truth did not approve of me,
+either because she had no inclination for me, or else because her friends
+had set her against me by telling her of my inconstancy and different
+amours.  I endured her cruelty with my natural indifference, and the full
+liberty Marechal de La Meilleraye allowed me with the city ladies gave me
+abundance of comfort; nevertheless I was kept under a very strict guard.
+As I had stipulated with Mazarin that I should have my liberty on
+condition that I would resign my archbishopric at Vincennes, which I knew
+would not be valid, I was surprised to hear that the Pope refused to
+ratify it; because, though it would not have made my resignation a jot
+more binding, yet it would have procured my liberty.  I proposed
+expedients to the Holy See by which the Court might do it with honour,
+but the Pope was inflexible.  He thought it would damage his reputation
+to consent to a violence so injurious to the whole Church, and said to my
+friends, who begged his consent with tears in their eyes, that he could
+never consent to a resignation extorted from a prisoner by force.
+
+After several consultations with my friends how to make my escape, I
+effected it on August the 8th, at five o'clock in the evening.  I let
+myself down to the bottom of the bastion, which was forty feet high, with
+a rope, while my valet de chambre treated the guards with as much liquor
+as they could drink.  Their attention, was, moreover, taken up with
+looking at a Jacobin friar who happened to be drowned as he was bathing.
+A sentinel, seeing me, was taking up his musket to fire, but dropped it
+upon my threatening to have him hanged; and he said, upon examination,
+that he believed Marechal de La Meilleraye was in concert with me.  Two
+pages who were washing themselves, saw me also, and called out, but were
+not heard.  My four gentlemen waited for me at the bottom of the ravelin,
+on pretence of watering their horses, so that I was on horseback before
+the least notice was taken; and, having forty fresh horses planted on the
+road, I might have reached Paris very soon if my horse had not fallen and
+caused me to break my shoulder bone, the pain of which was so extreme
+that I nearly fainted several times.  Not being able to continue my
+journey, I was lodged, with only one of my gentlemen, in a great
+haystack, while MM. de Brissac and Joly went straight to Beaupreau, to
+assemble the nobility, there, in order to rescue me.  I lay hid there for
+over seven hours in inexpressible misery, for the pain from my injury
+threw me into a fever, during which my thirst was much augmented by the
+smell of the new hay; but, though we were by a riverside, we durst not
+venture out for water, because there was nobody to put the stack in order
+again, which would very probably have occasioned suspicion and a search
+in consequence.  We heard nothing but horsemen riding by, who, we were
+afterwards informed, were Marechal de La Meilleraye's scouts.  About two
+o'clock in the morning I was fetched out of the stack by a Parisian of
+quality sent by my friend De Brissac, and carried on a hand-barrow to a
+barn, where I was again buried alive, as it were, in hay for seven or
+eight hours, when M. de Brisac and his lady came, with fifteen or twenty
+horse, and carried me to Beaupreau.  From thence we proceeded, almost in
+eight of Nantes, to Machecoul, in the country of Retz, after having had
+an encounter with some of Marechal de La Meilleraye's guards, when we
+repulsed them to the very barrier.
+
+Marechal de La Meilleraye was so amazed at my escape that he threatened
+to destroy the whole country with fire and sword, for which reason I was
+an unwelcome guest to Madame de Retz and her father, who rallied me very
+uncharitably on my disobedience to the King.  We therefore thought fit to
+leave the country, and went aboard a ship for Belle Isle, whence, after a
+very short stay there, we escaped to San Sebastian.
+
+Upon my arrival there I sent a letter to the King of Spain requesting
+leave to pass through his dominions to Rome.  The messenger was received
+at Court with civilities beyond expression, and sent back next day with
+the present of a gold chain worth 800 crowns.  I had also one of the
+King's litters sent me, and an invitation to go to Madrid, but I desired
+to be excused; and though I also refused immense offers if I would but go
+to Flanders and treat with the Prince de Conde, etc., for the service of
+Spain, yet I had a velvet coffer sent me with 40,000 crowns in it, which
+I likewise thought fit to refuse.  As I had neither linen nor apparel,
+either for myself or servants, and as the 400 crowns which we got by the
+sale of pilchards on board the barque in which we came from Belle Isle
+were almost all spent, I borrowed 400 crowns of the Baron de Vateville,
+who commanded for the King of Spain in Guipuzcoa, and faithfully repaid
+him.
+
+From San Sebastian I travelled incognito to Tudela, where I was met by
+the King's mule drivers and waited on by the alcade, who left his wand at
+my chamber door and at his, entrance knelt and kissed the hem of my
+garment.  From thence I was conducted to Comes by fifty musketeers riding
+upon asses, who were sent me by the Governor of Navarre.  At Saragossa I
+was taken for the King of England, and a large number of ladies, in over
+two hundred carriages, came to pay me their respects.  Thence I proceeded
+to Vivaros, where I had rich presents from the Governor of Valencia.  And
+thence I sailed to Majorca, whose Governor met me with above one hundred
+coaches of the Spanish nobility, and carried me to mass at the Cathedral,
+where I saw thirty or forty ladies of quality of more than common charms;
+and, to speak the truth, the women there in general are of rare beauty,
+having a graceful tincture both of the lily and the rose, and wear a
+head-dress which is exceedingly pretty.  The Governor, after having
+treated me with a magnificent dinner under a tent of gold brocade near
+the seaside, carried me to a concert of music in a convent, where I found
+the nuns not inferior in beauty to the ladies of the town.  The Governor
+carried me to see his lady, who was as ugly as a witch, and was seated
+under a great canopy sparkling with precious stones, which gave a
+wonderful lustre to about sixty ladies with her, who were the handsomest
+in the whole town.  I was reconducted on board my galley with music and a
+discharge of the artillery, and sailed to Port Mahon, and thence through
+the Gulf of Lyons to the canal between Corsica and Sardinia, where our
+ship was very nearly cast away upon a sandbank; but with great difficulty
+we got her off and reached Porto Longone.  There we quitted the galley,
+and went by land to Piombino.
+
+
+
+
+BOOB V.
+
+I travelled from Piombino to Florence, where I had great honours and vast
+offers from the Grand Duke, though Mazarin had threatened him, in the
+King's name, with a rupture if he granted me passage through his
+dominions; but the Grand Duke sent to desire the Cardinal to let him know
+whether there was any possibility of refusing it without disobliging the
+Pope and the Sacred College.  As I was travelling through the Duke's
+country, my mules, being frightened by a clap of thunder, ran with my
+litter into a brook, where I narrowly escaped being drowned.
+
+As soon as I arrived at Rome the Pope sent me 4,000 crowns in gold.  I
+was immediately informed that a strong faction was formed there against
+me by the Court of France; that the Cardinal d'Est, representative of
+that nation, had terrible orders from the King; and that they were
+resolved to send me packing from Rome, cost what it would.  I had my old
+scruples upon me, and said I would die a thousand deaths rather than make
+resistance; but I thought it would be too disrespectful in a cardinal
+to come so near the Pope and to go away without kissing his feet, and I
+resolved to leave the rest to the providence of God.
+
+The Pope having ordered his guards to be ready, in case the French
+faction should offer to rise, the Cardinal d'Est was so good as to let me
+alone.  His Holiness gave me an audience of four hours, condescended to
+beg my forgiveness for not having acted with more vigour for my liberty;
+and said, with tears in his eyes: "God forgive those who delayed to give
+me timely notice of your imprisonment, and who made us believe that you
+had been guilty, of an attempt upon the King's person.  The Sacred
+College took fire at the news; but the French Ambassador being at
+liberty, to give out what he chose, because nobody, appeared here on your
+part to contradict him, Mazarin extinguished it, and half the Sacred
+College thought you were abandoned by the whole kingdom."  In short, the
+Pope was so well disposed to me that he thought of adopting me as his
+nephew, but he sickened soon after and died.
+
+The conclave chose Cardinal Chigi (who was called Alexander VIII.) for his
+successor, in whose election I had such a share that when it came to my
+turn, at the adoration of the cardinals, to kiss his feet, he embraced
+me, saying, "Signor Cardinal de Retz, 'ecce opus manuum tuarum'" ("Behold
+the work of your own hands").  I went home accompanied with one hundred
+and twenty coaches of gentlemen, who did not doubt that I should govern
+the Pontificate.
+
+My friends in France, who commonly judge of other nations by their own,
+imagined that a persecuted cardinal might, nay, ought to live like a
+private man even at Rome, and advised me not to spend much money, because
+my revenues in France were all seized, and said that such exemplary
+modesty would have an admirable effect upon the clergy of Paris.  But
+Cardinal Chigi talked after another manner: "When you are reestablished
+in your see you may live as you please, because you will be in a country
+where everybody will know what you are or are not able to do.  You are
+now at Rome, where your enemies say every day that you have lost your
+credit in France, and you are under a necessity to make it appear that
+what they say is false.  You are not a hermit, but a cardinal, and a
+cardinal, too, of the better rank.  At Rome there are many people who
+love to tread upon men when they are down.  Dear sir, take care you do
+not fall, and do but consider what a figure you will make in the streets
+with six vergers attending you; otherwise every pitiful citizen of Paris
+that meets you will be apt to jostle you, in order to make his court to
+the Cardinal d'Est.  You ought not to have come to Rome if you had not
+had resolution and the means to support your dignity.  I presume you do
+not make it a point of Christian humility to debase yourself.  And let me
+tell you that I, the poor Cardinal Chigi, who have but 5,000 crowns
+revenue, and am one of the poorest in the College, and though I am sure
+to meet nobody in the streets who will be wanting in the respect due to
+the purple, yet I cannot go to my functions without four coaches in
+livery to attend me."
+
+Therefore I hired a palace, kept a great table, and entertained fourscore
+persons in liveries.  The Cardinal d'Est, the very day after the creation
+of the new Pope, forbade all Frenchmen to give me the way in the streets,
+and charged the superiors of the French churches not to admit me.  M. de
+Lionne, who resided here as a sort of private secretary to Mazarin, was
+so nettled because the new Pope had granted me the pallium for my
+archbishopric that he told him the King would never own me, insinuated
+that there would be a schism among the clergy of France, and that the
+Pope must expect to be excluded from the congress for a general peace.
+This so frightened his Holiness that he made a million of mean excuses,
+and said, with tears in his eyes, that I had imposed upon him, and that
+he would take the first opportunity to do the King justice.  Upon this M.
+de Lionne sent word to the Cardinal that he hoped very shortly to
+acquaint him of my being prisoner in the Castle of Saint Angelo, and that
+the Cardinal would be no better off for his Majesty's amnesty, because
+the Pope said none but he could absolve or condemn cardinals.  Meantime
+all my domestics who were subjects of the King of France were ordered to
+quit my service, on pain of being treated as rebels and traitors.  I
+could have little hope of protection from the Pope, for he was become
+quite another man, never spoke one word of truth, and continually amused
+himself with mere trifles, insomuch that one day he proposed a reward for
+whoever found out a Latin word for "calash," and spent seven or eight
+days in examining whether "mosco" came from "muses," or "musts" from
+"mosco."  All his piety consisted in assuming a serious air at church,
+in which, nevertheless, there was a great mixture of pride, for he was
+vain to the last degree, and envious of everybody.  The work entitled
+"Sindicato di Alexandro VII." gives an account of his luxury and of
+several pasquinades against the said Pope, particularly that one day
+Marforio asking Pasquin what he had said to the cardinals upon his death-
+bed, Pasquin answered, "Maxima de aeipso, plurima de parentibus, parva de
+principibus, turpia de cardinalibus, pauca de Ecclesia, de Deo nihil."
+("He said fine things of himself, a great many things of his kindred,
+some things of princes, nothing good of the cardinals, but little of the
+Church, and nothing at all of God").  His Holiness, in a consistory, laid
+claim to the merit of the conversion of Christina, Queen of Sweden,
+though everybody knew to the contrary, and that she had abjured heresy a
+year and a half before she came to Rome.
+
+Having heard that Bussiere, who is Chamberlain to the Ambassadors at
+Rome, had declared I should not have a place in Saint Louis's church on
+the festival of that saint, I was not discouraged from going thither.  At
+my entrance he snatched the holy water stick from the cure just as he was
+going to sprinkle me; nevertheless, I took my place, and was resolved to
+keep up the status and dignity of a French cardinal.  This was my
+condition at Rome, where it was my fate to be a refugee, persecuted by my
+King and abused by the Pope.  All my revenues were seized, and the French
+bankers forbidden to serve me; nay, those who had an inclination to
+assist me were forced to promise they would not.  Two of the Abbe
+Fouquet's bastards were publicly maintained out of my revenues, and no
+means were left untried to hinder the farmers from relieving me, or my
+creditors from harassing me with vexatious and expensive lawsuits.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Help to blind the rest of mankind, and they even become blinder
+She had nothing but beauty, which cloys when it comes alone
+You must know that, with us Princes, words go for nothing
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, v4
+by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITORS BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE MEMOIRS OF CARDINAL DE RETZ:
+
+Always judged of actions by men, and never men by their actions
+Always to sacrifice the little affairs to the greater
+Arms which are not tempered by laws quickly become anarchy
+Associating patience with activity
+Assurrance often supplies the room of good sense
+Blindness that make authority to consist only in force
+Bounty, which, though very often secret, had the louder echo
+Buckingham had been in love with three Queens
+By the means of a hundred pistoles down, and vast promises
+Civil war as not powerful enough to conclude a peace
+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
+False glory and false modesty
+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 weighed everything, but fixed on nothing
+He knew how to put a good gloss upon his failings
+He had not a long view of what was beyond his reach
+Help to blind the rest of mankind, and they even become blinder
+His ideas were infinitely above his capacity
+His wit was far inferior to his courage
+Impossible for her to live without being in love with somebody
+Inconvenience of popularity
+Insinuation is of more service than that of persuasion
+Is there a greater in the world than heading a party?
+Kinds of fear only to be removed by higher degrees of terror
+Laws without the protection of arms sink into contempt
+Man that supposed everybody had a back door
+Maxims showed not great regard for virtue
+Mazarin: embezzling some nine millions of the public money
+Men of irresolution are apt to catch at all overtures
+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
+Never had woman more contempt for scruples and ceremonies
+Nothing is so subject to delusion as piety
+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
+Passed for the author of events of which I was only the prophet
+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
+She had nothing but beauty, which cloys when it comes alone
+So indiscreet as to boast of his successful amours
+Strongest may safely promise to the weaker what he thinks fit
+The subdivision of parties is generally the ruin of all
+The wisest fool he ever saw in his life
+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
+Verily believed he was really the man which he affected to be
+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
+Who imagine the head of a party to be their master
+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
+You must know that, with us Princes, words go for nothing
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, entire
+by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
diff --git a/old/cm09b10.zip b/old/cm09b10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1f305e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/cm09b10.zip
diff --git a/old/cm09b10h.zip b/old/cm09b10h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a53b8b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/cm09b10h.zip
diff --git a/old/files/images/cover.jpg b/old/files/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a98c1df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/files/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/old/files/images/p060j.jpg b/old/files/images/p060j.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4e0c1a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/files/images/p060j.jpg
diff --git a/old/files/images/p100j.jpg b/old/files/images/p100j.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b819753
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/files/images/p100j.jpg
diff --git a/old/files/images/p160j.jpg b/old/files/images/p160j.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29517bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/files/images/p160j.jpg
diff --git a/old/files/images/p242j.jpg b/old/files/images/p242j.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a164b53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/files/images/p242j.jpg
diff --git a/old/files/images/p346j.jpg b/old/files/images/p346j.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..113215a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/files/images/p346j.jpg
diff --git a/old/files/images/retz.jpg b/old/files/images/retz.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c48b6ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/files/images/retz.jpg
diff --git a/old/files/images/titlepage.jpg b/old/files/images/titlepage.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f00a1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/files/images/titlepage.jpg
diff --git a/old/files/relative.htm b/old/files/relative.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f88444d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/files/relative.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,10511 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      MEMOIRS OF CARDINAL DE RETZ
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    .indent5   { margin-left: 5%;}
+    .indent10  { margin-left: 10%;}
+    .indent15  { margin-left: 15%;}
+    .indent20  { margin-left: 20%;}
+    .indent30  { margin-left: 30%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 100%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    .side      { float: left; font-size: 75%; width: 25%; padding-left: 0.8em;
+               border-left: dashed thin; text-align: left;
+               text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
+               font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;}
+    p.pfirst, p.noindent {text-indent: 0}
+    span.dropcap         { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 1 }
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+    -->
+</style>
+
+  </head>
+  <body>
+    <h2>
+      MEMOIRS OF CARDINAL DE RETZ
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, Complete
+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.net
+
+
+Title: The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, Complete
+
+Author: Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
+Release Date: September 29, 2006 [EBook #3846
+Last Updated: October 18, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CARDINAL DE RETZ ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      MEMOIRS OF JEAN FRANCOIS PAUL de GONDI, <br />CARDINAL DE RETZ
+    </h2>
+    <h2>
+      Written by Himself
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Being Historic Court Memoirs of the Great Events <br />during the Minority
+      of Louis XIV. <br />and the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="cover.jpg (125K)" src="images/cover.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="titlepage.jpg (73K)" src="images/titlepage.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CONTENTS
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#book1">BOOK&nbsp;&nbsp;I.</a><br /><br /> <a href="#book2">BOOK&nbsp;&nbsp;II.</a><br /><br />
+          <a href="#book3">BOOK&nbsp;&nbsp;III.</a><br /><br /> <a href="#book4">BOOK&nbsp;&nbsp;IV.</a><br /><br />
+          <a href="#book5">BOOK&nbsp;&nbsp;V.</a><br /><br />
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      ILLUSTRATIONS
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#retz">Cardinal de Retz</a>&mdash;&mdash;<i>Photogravure from
+          an Old Painting</i> <br /><br /> <a href="#p060j">Turenne</a>&mdash;&mdash;<i>Photogravure
+          from an Old Painting</i> <br /><br /> <a href="#p100j">Richelieu</a>&mdash;&mdash;<i>Engraving
+          by Lubin</i> <br /><br /> <a href="#p160j">Anne of Austria</a>&mdash;&mdash;<i>Original
+          Etching by Mercier</i> <br /><br /> <a href="#p242j">Louis XIII</a>&mdash;&mdash;<i>Painting
+          in the Louvre</i> <br /><br /> <a href="#p346j">Conde'</a>&mdash;&mdash;<i>Painting
+          in Versailles Gallery</i>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      ORIGINAL PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our Author, John Francis Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz, Sovereign of
+      Commercy, Prince of Euville, second Archbishop of Paris, Abbot of Saint
+      Denis in France, was born at Montmirail, in Brie, in October, 1614.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His father was Philippe Emanuel de Gondi, Comte, de Joigni, General of the
+      Galleys of France and Knight of the King's Orders; and his mother was
+      Frances Marguerite, daughter of the Comte de Rochepot, Knight of the
+      King's Orders, and of Marie de Lannoy, sovereign of Commercy and Euville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pierre de Gondi, Duc de Retz, was his brother, whose daughter was the
+      Duchesse de Lesdiguieres.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His grandfather was Albert de Gondi, Duc de Retz, Marquis de Belle Isle, a
+      Peer of France, Marshal and General of the Galleys, Colonel of the French
+      Horse, First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and Great Chamberlain to the
+      Kings Charles IX. and Henri III.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This history was first printed in Paris in 1705, at the expense of the
+      Duchesse de Lesdiguieres, the last of this noble family, whose estate fell
+      after her decease to that of Villeroy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His preceptor was the famous Vincent de Paul, Almoner to Queen Anne of
+      Austria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1627 he was made a Canon of the Cathedral of Paris by his uncle, Jean
+      Francois de Gondi, first archbishop of that city, and was not long after
+      created a Doctor of the Sorbonne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1643 he was appointed Coadjutor of the archbishopric of Paris, with the
+      title of Archbishop of Corinth, during which, such was his pastoral
+      vigilance that the most important affairs of the Church were committed to
+      his care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to his general character, if we take it from his own Memoirs, he had
+      such presence of mind, and so dexterously improved all opportunities which
+      fortune presented to him, that it seemed as if he had foreseen or desired
+      them. He knew how to put a good gloss upon his failings, and oftentimes
+      verily believed he was really the man which he affected to be only in
+      appearance. He was a man of bright parts, but no conduct, being violent
+      and inconstant in his intrigues of love as well as those of politics, and
+      so indiscreet as to boast of his successful amours with certain ladies
+      whom he ought not to have named. He affected pomp and splendour, though
+      his profession demanded simplicity and humility. He was continually
+      shifting parties, being a loyal subject one day and the next a rebel, one
+      time a sworn enemy to the Prime Minister, and by and by his zealous
+      friend; always aiming to make himself formidable or necessary. As a pastor
+      he had engrossed the love and confidence of the people, and as a statesman
+      he artfully played them off against their sovereign. He studied characters
+      thoroughly, and no man painted them in truer colours more to his own
+      purpose. Sometimes he confesses his weaknesses, and at other times betrays
+      his self-flattery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It being his fate to be imprisoned by Mazarin, first at Vincennes and then
+      at Nantes, he made his escape to Rome, and in 1656 retired to Franche
+      Comte, where Cardinal Mazarin gave orders for his being arrested; upon
+      which he posted to Switzerland, and thence to Constance, Strasburg, Ulm,
+      Augsburg, Frankfort, and Cologne, to which latter place Mazarin sent men
+      to take him dead or alive; whereupon he retired to Holland, and made a
+      trip from one town to another till 1661, when, Cardinal Mazarin dying, our
+      Cardinal went as far as Valenciennes on his way to Paris, but was not
+      suffered to come further; for the King and Queen-mother would not be
+      satisfied without his resignation of the archbishopric of Paris, to which
+      he at last submitted upon advantageous terms for himself and an amnesty
+      for all his adherents. But still the Court carried it so severely to the
+      Cardinal that they would not let him go and pay his last devoirs to his
+      father when on his dying bed. At length, however, after abundance of
+      solicitation, he had leave to go and wait upon the King and Queen, who, on
+      the death of Pope Alexander VII., sent him to Rome to assist at the
+      election of his successor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No wonder that King Charles II. of England promised to intercede for the
+      Cardinal's reestablishment; for when the royal family were starving, as it
+      were, in their exile at Paris, De Retz did more for them than all the
+      French Court put together; and, upon the King's promise to take the Roman
+      Catholics of England under his protection after his restoration, he sent
+      an abbot to Rome to solicit the Pope to lend him money, and to dispose the
+      English Catholics in his favour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He would fain have returned his hat to the new Pope, but his Holiness, at
+      the solicitation of Louis XIV., ordered him to keep it. After this he
+      chose a total retirement, lived with exemplary piety, considerably
+      retrenched his expenses, and hardly allowed himself common necessaries, in
+      order to save money to pay off a debt of three millions, which he had the
+      happiness to discharge, and to balance all accounts with the world before
+      his death, which happened at Paris on the 24th of August, 1679, in the
+      65th year of his age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /> <a name="retz" id="retz"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="retz.jpg (112K)" src="images/retz.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /> <a name="book1" id="book1"></a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      HISTORIC COURT MEMOIRS.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CARDINAL DE RETZ.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      BOOK I.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MADAME:&mdash;Though I have a natural aversion to give you the history of
+      my own life, which has been chequered with such a variety of different
+      adventures, yet I had rather sacrifice my reputation to the commands of a
+      lady for whom I have so peculiar a regard than not disclose the most
+      secret springs of my actions and the inmost recesses of my soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the caprice of fortune many mistakes of mine have turned to my credit,
+      and I very much doubt whether it would be prudent in me to remove the veil
+      with which some of them are covered. But as I am resolved to give you a
+      naked, impartial account of even the most minute passages of my life ever
+      since I have been capable of reflection, so I most humbly beg you not to
+      be surprised at the little art, or, rather, great disorder, with which I
+      write my narrative, but to consider that, though the diversity of
+      incidents may sometimes break the thread of the history, yet I will tell
+      you nothing but with all that sincerity which the regard I have for you
+      demands. And to convince you further that I will neither add to nor
+      diminish from the plain truth, I shall set my name in the front of the
+      work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      False glory and false modesty are the two rocks on which men who have
+      written their own lives have generally split, but which Thuanus among the
+      moderns and Caesar among the ancients happily escaped. I doubt not you
+      will do me the justice to believe that I do not pretend to compare myself
+      with those great writers in any respect but sincerity,&mdash;a virtue in
+      which we are not only permitted, but commanded, to rival the greatest
+      heroes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am descended from a family illustrious in France and ancient in Italy,
+      and born upon a day remarkable for the taking of a monstrous sturgeon in a
+      small river that runs through the country of Montmirail, in Brie, the
+      place of my nativity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am not so vain as to be proud of having it thought that I was ushered
+      into the world with a prodigy or a miracle, and I should never have
+      mentioned this trifling circumstance had it not been for some libels since
+      published by my enemies, wherein they affect to make the said sturgeon a
+      presage of the future commotions in this kingdom, and me the chief author
+      of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I beg leave to make a short reflection on the nature of the mind of man. I
+      believe there never was a more honest soul in the world than my father's;
+      I might say his temper was the very essence of virtue. For though he saw I
+      was too much inclined to duels and gallantry ever to make a figure as an
+      ecclesiastic, yet his great love for his eldest son&mdash;not the view of
+      the archbishopric of Paris, which was then in his family&mdash;made him
+      resolve to devote me to the service of the Church. For he was so conscious
+      of his reasons, that I could even swear he would have protested from the
+      very bottom of his heart that he had no other motive than the apprehension
+      of the dangers to which a contrary profession might expose my soul. So
+      true it is that nothing is so subject to delusion as piety: all sorts of
+      errors creep in and hide themselves under that veil; it gives a sanction
+      to all the turns of imagination, and the honesty of the intention is not
+      sufficient to guard against it. In a word, after all I have told you, I
+      turned priest, though it would have been long enough first had it not been
+      for the following accident.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc de Retz, head of our family, broke at that time, by the King's
+      order, the marriage treaty concluded some years before between the Duc de
+      Mercoeur&mdash;[Louis, Duc de Mercoeur, since Cardinal de Vendome, father
+      of the Duc de Vendome, and Grand Prior, died 1669.]&mdash;and his
+      daughter, and next day came to my father and agreeably surprised him by
+      telling him he was resolved to give her to his cousin to reunite the
+      family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I knew she had a sister worth above 80,000 livres a year, I, that very
+      instant, thought of a double match. I had no hopes they would think of me,
+      knowing how things stood, so I was resolved to provide for myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having got a hint that my father did not intend to carry me to the
+      wedding, as, foreseeing, it may be, what happened, I pretended to be
+      better pleased with my profession, to be touched by what my father had so
+      often laid before me on that subject, and I acted my part so well that
+      they believed I was quite another man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My father resolved to carry me into Brittany, for the reason that I had
+      shown no inclination that way. We found Mademoiselle de Retz at Beaupreau,
+      in Anjou. I looked on the eldest only as my sister, but immediately
+      considered Mademoiselle de Scepaux (so the youngest was called) as my
+      mistress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought her very handsome, her complexion the most charming in the
+      world, lilies and roses in abundance, admirable eyes, a very pretty mouth,
+      and what she wanted in stature was abundantly made up by the prospect of
+      80,000 livres a year and of the Duchy of Beaupreau, and by a thousand
+      chimeras which I formed on these real foundations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I played my game nicely from the beginning, and acted the ecclesiastic and
+      the devotee both in the journey and during my stay there; nevertheless, I
+      paid my sighs to the fair one,&mdash;she perceived it. I spoke at last,
+      and she heard me, but not with that complacency which I could have wished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But observing she had a great kindness for an old chambermaid, sister to
+      one of my monks of Buzai, I did all I could to gain her, and by the means
+      of a hundred pistoles down, and vast promises, I succeeded. She made her
+      mistress believe that she was designed for a nunnery, and I, for my part,
+      told her that I was doomed to nothing less than a monastery. She could not
+      endure her sister, because she was her father's darling, and I was not
+      overfond of my brother,&mdash;[Pierre de Gondi, Duc de Retz, who died in
+      1676.]&mdash;for the same reason. This resemblance in our fortunes
+      contributed much to the uniting of our affections, which I persuaded
+      myself were reciprocal, and I resolved to carry her to Holland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed, there was nothing more easy, for Machecoul, whither we were come
+      from Beaupreau, was no more than half a league from the sea. But money was
+      the only thing wanting, for my treasury, was so drained by the gift of the
+      hundred pistoles above mentioned that I had not a sou left. But I found a
+      supply by telling my father that, as the farming of my abbeys was taxed
+      with the utmost rigour of the law, so I thought myself obliged in
+      conscience to take the administration of them into my own hands. This
+      proposal, though not pleasing, could not be rejected, both because it was
+      regular and because it made him in some measure believe that I would not
+      fail to keep my benefices, since I was willing to take care of them. I
+      went the next day to let Buzai,&mdash;[One of his abbeys.]&mdash;which is
+      but five leagues from Machecoul. I treated with a Nantes merchant, whose
+      name was Jucatieres, who took advantage of my eagerness, and for 4,000
+      crowns ready money got a bargain that made his fortune. I thought I had
+      4,000,000, and was just securing one of the Dutch pinks, which are always
+      in the road of Retz, when the following accident happened, which broke all
+      my measures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle de Retz (for she had taken that name after her sister's
+      marriage) had the finest eyes in the world, and they never were so
+      beautiful as when she was languishing in love, the charms of which I never
+      yet saw equalled. We happened to dine at a lady's house, a league from
+      Machecoul, where Mademoiselle de Retz, looking in the glass at an assembly
+      of ladies, displayed all those tender, lively, moving airs which the
+      Italians call 'morbidezza', or the lover's languish. But unfortunately she
+      was not aware that Palluau, since Marechal de Clerambaut, was behind her,
+      who observed her airs, and being very much attached to Madame de Retz,
+      with whom he had in her tender years been very familiar, told her
+      faithfully what he had observed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame de Retz, who mortally hated her sister, disclosed it that very
+      night to her father, who did not fail to impart it to mine. The next
+      morning, at the arrival of the post from Paris, all was in a hurry, my
+      father pretending to have received very pressing news; and, after our
+      taking a slight though public leave of the ladies, my father carried me to
+      sleep that night at Nantes. I was, as you may imagine, under very great
+      surprise and concern; for I could not guess the cause of this sudden
+      departure. I had nothing to reproach myself with upon the score of my
+      conduct; neither had I the least suspicion that Palluau had seen anything
+      more than ordinary till I arrived at Orleans, where the matter was cleared
+      up, for my brother, to prevent my escape, which I vainly attempted several
+      times on my journey, seized my strong box, in which was my money, and then
+      I understood that I was betrayed; in what grief, then, I arrived at Paris,
+      I leave you to imagine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I found there Equilli, Vasse's uncle, and my first cousin, who, I daresay,
+      was one of the most honest men of his time, and loved me from his very
+      soul. I apprised him of my design to run away with Mademoiselle de Retz.
+      He heartily approved of my project, not only because it would be a very
+      advantageous match for me, but because he was persuaded that a double
+      alliance was necessary to secure the establishment of the family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal de Richelieu&mdash;[Armand Jean du Plesais, Cardinal de
+      Richelieu, was born in 1585, and died in 1642.]&mdash;(then Prime
+      Minister) mortally hated the Princesse de Guemenee, because he was
+      persuaded she had crossed his amours with the Queen,&mdash;[Anne of
+      Austria, eldest daughter of Philip II., King of Spain, and wife of Louis
+      XIII., died 1666.]&mdash;and had a hand in the trick played him by Madame
+      du Fargis, one of the Queen's dressing women, who showed her Majesty
+      (Marie de Medicis) a love-letter written by his Eminence to the Queen, her
+      daughter-in-law. The Cardinal pushed his resentment so far that he
+      attempted to force the Marechal de Breze, his brother-in-law, and captain
+      of the King's Life-guards, to expose Madame de Guemenee's letters, which
+      were found in M. de Montmorency's&mdash;[Henri de Montmorency was
+      apprehended on the 1st of September, 1632, and beheaded in Toulouse in
+      November of the same year.]&mdash;coffer when he was arrested at Chateau
+      Naudari. But the Marechal de Breze had so much honour and generosity as to
+      return them to Madame de Guemenee. He was, nevertheless, a very
+      extravagant gentleman; but the Cardinal de Richelieu, perceiving he had
+      been formerly honoured by some kind of relation to him, and dreading his
+      angry excursions and preachments before the King, who had some
+      consideration for his person, bore with him very patiently for the sake of
+      settling peace in his own family, which he passionately longed to unite
+      and establish, but which was the only thing out of his power, who could do
+      whatever else he pleased in France. For the Marechal de Breze had
+      conceived so strong an aversion to M. de La Meilleraye, who was then Grand
+      Master of the Artillery, and afterwards Marechal de La Meilleraye, that he
+      could not endure him. He did not imagine that the Cardinal would ever look
+      upon a man who, though his first cousin, was of a mean extraction, had a
+      most contemptible aspect, and, if fame says true, not one extraordinary
+      good quality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal was of another mind, and had a great opinion&mdash;indeed,
+      with abundance of reason&mdash;of M. de La Meilleraye's courage; but he
+      esteemed his military capacity infinitely too much, though in truth it was
+      not contemptible. In a word, he designed him for that post which we have
+      since seen so gloriously filled by M. de Turenne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You may, by what has been said, judge of the divisions that were in
+      Cardinal de Richelieu's family, and how much he was concerned to appease
+      them. He laboured at them with great application, and for this end thought
+      he could not do better than to unite these two heads of the faction in a
+      close confidence with himself, exclusive of all others. To this end he
+      used them jointly and in common as the confidants of his amours, which
+      certainly were neither suitable to the lustre of his actions nor the
+      grandeur of his life; for Marion de Lorme, one of his mistresses, was
+      little better than a common prostitute. Another of his concubines was
+      Madame de Fruges, that old gentlewoman who was so often seen sauntering in
+      the enclosure. The first used to come to his apartment in the daytime, and
+      he went by night to visit the other, who was but the pitiful cast-off of
+      Buckingham and Epienne. The two confidants introduced him there in
+      coloured clothes; for they had made up a hasty peace, to which Madame de
+      Guemenee nearly fell a sacrifice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de La Meilleraye, whom they called the Grand Master, was in love with
+      Madame de Guemenee, but she could not love him; and he being, both in his
+      own nature and by reason of his great favour with the Cardinal, the most
+      imperious man living, took it very ill that he was not beloved. He
+      complained, but the lady was insensible; he huffed and bounced, but was
+      laughed to scorn. He thought he had her in his power because the Cardinal,
+      to whom he had declared his rage against her, had given him her letters,
+      as above mentioned, which were written to M. de Montmorency, and,
+      therefore, in his menaces he let fall some hints with relation to those
+      letters to the disadvantage of Madame de Guemenee. She thereupon ridiculed
+      him no longer, but went almost raving mad, and fell into such an
+      inconceivable melancholy that you would not have known her, and retired to
+      Couperai, where she would let nobody see her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as I applied my mind to study I resolved at the same time to take
+      the Cardinal de Richelieu for my pattern, though my friends opposed it as
+      too pedantic; but I followed my first designs, and began my course with
+      good success. I was afterwards followed by all persons of quality of the
+      same profession; but, as I was the first, the Cardinal was pleased with my
+      fancy, which, together with the good offices done me by the Grand Master
+      with the Cardinal, made him speak well of me on several occasions, wonder
+      that I had never made my court to him, and at the same time he ordered M.
+      de Lingendes, since Bishop of Magon, to bring me to his house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the source of my first disgrace, for, instead of complying with
+      these offers of the Cardinal and with the entreaties of the Grand Master,
+      urging me to go and make my court to him, I returned the most trifling
+      excuses and apologies; one time I pretended to be sick and went into the
+      country. In short, I did enough to let them see that I did not care to be
+      a dependent on the Cardinal de Richelieu, who was certainly a very great
+      man, but had this particular trait in his genius,&mdash;to take notice of
+      trifles. Of this he gave me the following instance: The history of the
+      conspiracy of Jean Louis de Fiesque,&mdash;[Author of "The Conspiracy of
+      Genoa." He was drowned on the 1st of January, 1557.]&mdash;which I had
+      written at eighteen years of age, being conveyed by Boisrobert into the
+      Cardinal's hands, he was heard to say, in the presence of Marechal
+      d'Estrees and M. de Senneterre, "This is a dangerous genius." This was
+      told my father that very night by M. de Senneterre, and I took it as
+      spoken to myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The success that I had in the acts of the Sorbonne made me fond of that
+      sort of reputation, which I had a mind to push further, and thought I
+      might succeed in sermons. Instead of preaching first, as I was advised, in
+      the little convents, I preached on Ascension, Corpus Christi Day, etc.,
+      before the Queen and the whole Court, which assurance gained me a good
+      character from the Cardinal; for, when he was told how well I had
+      performed, he said, "There is no judging of things by the event; the man
+      is a coxcomb." Thus you see I had enough to do for one of two-and-twenty
+      years of age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. le Comte,&mdash;[Louis de Bourbon, Comte de soissons, killed in the
+      battle of Marfee, near Sedan, in 1641.]&mdash;who had a tender love for
+      me, and to whose service and person I was entirely devoted, left Paris in
+      the night, in order to get into Sedan, for fear of an arrest; and, in the
+      meantime, entrusted me with the care of Vanbrock, the greatest confidant
+      he had in the world. I took care, as I was ordered, that he should never
+      stir out but at night, for in the daytime I concealed him in a private
+      place, between the ceiling and the penthouse, where I thought it
+      impossible for anything but a cat or the devil to find him. But he was not
+      careful enough of himself, for one morning my door was burst open, and
+      armed men rushed into my chamber, with the provost at their head, who
+      cried, with a great oath, "Where is Vanbrock?" I replied, "At Sedan,
+      monsieur, I believe." He swore again most confoundedly, and searched the
+      mattresses of all the beds in the house, threatening to put my domestics
+      to the rack if they did not make a disclosure; but there was only one that
+      knew anything of the matter, and so they went away in a rage. You may
+      easily imagine that when this was reported the Court would highly resent
+      it. And so it happened, for the license of the Sorbonne being expired, and
+      the competitors striving for the best places, I had the ambition to put in
+      for the first place, and did not think myself obliged to yield to the Abbe
+      de La Mothe-Houdancourt, now Archbishop of Auch, over whom I had certainly
+      some advantage in the disputations. I carried myself in this affair more
+      wisely than might have been expected from my youth; for as soon as I heard
+      that my rival was supported by the Cardinal, who did him the honour to own
+      him for his kinsman, I sent the Cardinal word, by M. de Raconis, Bishop of
+      Lavaur, that I desisted from my pretension, out of the respect I owed his
+      Eminence, as soon as I heard that he concerned himself in the affair. The
+      Bishop of Lavaur told me the Cardinal pretended that the Abby de La Mothe
+      would not be obliged for the first place to my cession, but to his own
+      merit. This answer exasperated me. I gave a smile and a low bow, pursued
+      my point, and gained the first place by eighty-four voices. The Cardinal,
+      who was for domineering in all places and in all affairs, fell into a
+      passion much below his character, either as a minister or a man,
+      threatened the deputies of the Sorbonne to raze the new buildings he had
+      begun there, and assailed my character again with incredible bitterness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All my friends were alarmed at this, and were for sending me in all haste
+      to Italy. Accordingly, I went to Venice, stayed there till the middle of
+      August, and was very near being assassinated; for I amused myself by
+      making an intrigue with Signora Vendranina, a noble Venetian lady, and one
+      of the most handsome I ever saw. M. de Maille, the King's ambassador,
+      aware of the dangerous consequences of such adventures in this country,
+      ordered me to depart from Venice; upon which I went through Lombardy, and
+      towards the end of September arrived at Rome, where the Marechal
+      d'Estrees, who resided there as ambassador, gave me such instructions for
+      my behaviour as I followed to a tittle. Though I had no design to be an
+      ecclesiastic, yet since I wore a cassock I was resolved to acquire some
+      reputation at the Pope's Court. I compassed my design very happily,
+      avoiding any appearance of gallantry and lewdness, and my dress being
+      grave to the last degree; but for all this I was at a vast expense, having
+      fine liveries, a very splendid equipage, and a train of seven or eight
+      gentlemen, whereof four were Knights of Malta. I disputed in the Colleges
+      of Sapienza (not to be compared for learning with those of the Sorbonne),
+      and fortune continued still to raise me. For the Prince de Schomberg, the
+      Emperor's ambassador, sent me word one day, while I was playing at 'balon'
+      at the baths of Antoninus, to leave the place clear for him. I answered
+      that I could have refused his Excellency nothing asked in a civil manner,
+      but since it was commanded, I would have him to know that I would obey the
+      orders of no ambassador whatever, but that of the King, my master. Being
+      urged a second time by one of his attendants to leave the place, I stood
+      upon my own defence, and the Germans, more, in my opinion, out of contempt
+      of the few people I had with me than out of any other consideration, let
+      the affair drop. This bold carriage of so modest an abbe, to an ambassador
+      who never went abroad without one hundred musketeers on horseback to
+      attend him, made a great noise in Rome, and was much taken notice of by
+      Cardinal Mazarin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal de Richelieu's health declining, the archbishopric of Paris
+      was now almost within my ken, which, together with other prospects of good
+      benefices, made me resolve not to fling off the cassock but upon
+      honourable terms and valuable considerations; but having nothing yet
+      within my view that I could be sure of, I resolved to distinguish myself
+      in my own profession by all the methods I could. I retired from the world,
+      studied very hard, saw but very few men, and had no more correspondence
+      with any of the female sex, except Madame de &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The devil had appeared to the Princesse de Guemenee just a fortnight
+      before this adventure happened, and was often raised by the conjurations
+      of M. d'Andilly, to frighten his votary, I believe, into piety, for he was
+      even more in love with her person than I myself; but he loved her in the
+      Lord, purely and spiritually. I raised, in my turn, a demon that appeared
+      to her in a more kind and agreeable form. In six weeks I got her away from
+      Port Royal; I was very diligent in paying her my respects, and the
+      satisfaction I had in her company, with some other agreeable diversions,
+      qualified in a great measure the chagrin which attended my profession, to
+      which I was not yet heartily reconciled. This enchantment had like to have
+      raised such a storm as would have given a new face to the affairs of
+      Europe if fortune had been ever so little on my side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. the Cardinal de Richelieu loved rallying other people, but could not
+      bear a jest himself, and all men of this humour are always very crabbed
+      and churlish; of which the Cardinal gave an instance, in a public assembly
+      of ladies, to Madame de Guemenee, when he threw out a severe jest, which
+      everybody observed was pointed at me. She was sensibly affronted, but I
+      was enraged. For at last there was a sort of an understanding between us,
+      which was often ill-managed, yet our interests were inseparable. At this
+      time Madame de La Meilleraye, with whom, though she was silly, I had
+      fallen in love, pleased the Cardinal to that degree that the Marshal
+      perceived it before he set out for the army, and rallied his wife in such
+      a manner that she immediately found he was even more jealous than
+      ambitious. She was terribly afraid of him, and did not love the Cardinal,
+      who, by marrying her to his cousin, had lessened his own family, of which
+      he was extremely fond. Besides, the Cardinal's infirmities made him look a
+      great deal older than he was. And though all his other actions had no
+      tincture of pedantry, yet in his amorous intrigues he had the most of it
+      in the world. I had a detail of all the steps he had made therein, which
+      were extremely ridiculous. But continuing his solicitation, and carrying
+      her to his country seat at Ruel,&mdash;[The Cardinal de Richelieu's seat,
+      three leagues from Paris.]&mdash;where he kept her a considerable time, I
+      guessed that the lady had not brains enough to resist the splendour of
+      Court favour, and that her husband's jealousy would soon give way to his
+      interest, but, above all, to his blind side, which was an attachment to
+      the Court not to be equalled. When I was in the hottest pursuit of this
+      passion I proposed to myself the most exquisite pleasures in triumphing
+      over the Cardinal de Richelieu in this fair field of battle; but on a
+      sudden I had the mortification to hear the whole family was changed. The
+      husband allowed his wife to go to Ruel as often as she pleased, and her
+      behaviour towards me I suspected to be false and treacherous. In short,
+      Madame de Guemenee's anger, for a reason I hinted before, my jealousy of
+      Madame de La Meilleraye, and an aversion to my own profession, all joined
+      together in a fatal moment and were near producing one of the greatest and
+      most famous events of our age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      La Rochepot, my first cousin and dear friend, was a domestic of the late
+      Duc d'Orleans,&mdash;[Gaston Jean Baptists de France, born 1608, and died
+      at Blois, 1660.]&mdash;and his great confidant. He mortally hated the
+      Cardinal de Richelieu, who had persecuted his mother, and had her hung up
+      in effigy, and kept his father still a prisoner in the Bastille, and now
+      refused the son a regiment, though Marechal de La Meilleraye, who very
+      highly esteemed him for his courage, interceded for the favour. You may
+      imagine that when we came together we did not forget the Cardinal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I being crossed in my designs, as I told you, and as full of resentment as
+      La Rochepot was for the affronts put upon his person and family, we chimed
+      in our thoughts and resolutions, which were, dexterously to manage the
+      weakness of the Duc d'Orleans and to put that in execution which the
+      boldness of his domestics had almost effected at Corbie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans was appointed General, and the Comte de Soissons
+      Lieutenant-General of the King's forces in Picardy, but neither of them
+      stood well with the Cardinal, who gave them those posts only because the
+      situation of affairs was such that he could not help it. L'Epinai,
+      Montresor, and La Rochepot made use of all the arguments they could think
+      of to raise jealousies and fears in the Duc d'Orleans, and to inspire him
+      with resolution and courage to rid himself of the Cardinal. Others
+      laboured to persuade the Comte de Soissons to relish the same proposal,
+      but though resolved upon, it was never put into execution. For they had
+      the Cardinal in their power at Amiens, but did him no harm. For this every
+      one blamed the Count's companion, but I could never yet learn the true
+      cause; only this is certain, that they were no sooner come to Paris than
+      they were all seized with a panic, and retired, some one way, some
+      another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Comte de Guiche, since Marechal de Grammont, and M. de Chavigni,
+      Secretary of State and the Cardinal's most intimate favourite, were sent
+      by the King to Blois. Here they frightened the Duc d'Orleans and made him
+      return to Paris, where he was more afraid than ever; for such of his
+      domestics as were not gained by the Court made use of his pusillanimous
+      temper, and represented to him the necessity he was under to provide for
+      his own, or rather their, security. La Rochepot and myself endeavoured to
+      heighten his fears as much as possible, in order to precipitate him into
+      our measures. The term sounds odd, but it is the most expressive I could
+      find of a character like the Duke's. He weighed everything, but fixed on
+      nothing; and if by chance he was inclined to do one thing more than
+      another, he would never execute it without being pushed or forced into it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      La Rochepot did all he could to fix him, but finding that the Duke was
+      always for delays, and for perplexing all expedients with groundless fears
+      of invincible difficulties, he fell upon an expedient very dangerous to
+      all appearance, but, as it usually happens in extraordinary cases, much
+      less so than at first view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cardinal de Richelieu having to stand godfather at the baptism of
+      Mademoiselle, La Rochepot's proposal was to continue to show the Duke the
+      necessity he lay under still to get rid of the Cardinal, without saying
+      much of the particulars, for fear of hazarding the secret, but only to
+      entertain him with the general proposal of that affair, thereby to make
+      him the better in love with the measures when proposed; and that they
+      might, at a proper time and place, tell him they had concealed the detail
+      to the execution from his Highness upon no other account but that they had
+      experienced on several occasions that there was no other way of serving
+      his Highness, as he himself had told La Rochepot several times; that
+      nothing, therefore, remained but to get some brave fellows fit for such a
+      resolute enterprise, and to hold post-horses ready upon the road of Sedan
+      under some other pretext, and to so execute the design in the presence and
+      in the name of his Royal Highness upon the day of the intended solemnity,
+      that his Highness should cheerfully own it when it was done, and that then
+      we would carry him off by those horses to Sedan. Meanwhile the distraction
+      of the inferior ministers and the joy of the King to see himself delivered
+      from a tyrant would dispose the Court rather to invite than to pursue him.
+      This was La Rochepot's scheme, and it seemed exceedingly plausible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      La Rochepot and I had, it may be, blamed the inactivity of the Duc
+      d'Orleans and the Comte de Soissons in the affair of Amiens a hundred
+      times; yet, no sooner was the scheme sufficiently matured for execution,
+      the idea of which I had raised in the memory of La Rochepot, than my mind
+      was seized with I know not what fear; I took it then for a scruple of
+      conscience,&mdash;I cannot tell whether it was in truth so or not, but, in
+      short, the thought of killing a priest and a cardinal deeply affected my
+      mind. La Rochepot laughed at my scruples, and bantered me thus: "When you
+      are in the field of battle I warrant you will not beat up the enemy's
+      quarters for fear of assassinating men in their sleep." I was ashamed of
+      my scruples, and again hugged the crime, which I looked upon as sanctified
+      by the examples of great men, and justified and honoured by the mighty
+      danger that attended its execution. We renewed our consultations, engaged
+      some accomplices, took all the necessary precautions, and resolved upon
+      the execution. The danger was indeed very great, but we might reasonably
+      hope to come off well enough; for the Duke's guard, which was within,
+      would not have failed to come to our assistance against that of the
+      Cardinal's, which was without. But his fortune, and not his guards,
+      delivered him from the snare; for either Mademoiselle or himself, I forget
+      which, fell suddenly ill, and the ceremony was put off to another time, so
+      that we lost our opportunity. The Duke returned to Blois, and the Marquis
+      de Boissi protested he would never betray us, but that he would be no
+      longer concerned, because he had just received some favour or other from
+      the Cardinal's own hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I confess that this enterprise, which, had it succeeded, would have
+      crowned us with glory, never fully pleased me. I was not so scrupulous in
+      the committing of two other transgressions against the rules of morality,
+      as you may have before observed; but I wish, with all my heart, I had
+      never been concerned in this. Ancient Rome, indeed, would have counted it
+      honourable; but it is not in this respect that I honour the memory of old
+      Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is commonly a great deal of folly in conspiracies; but afterwards
+      there is nothing tends so, much to make men wise, at least for some time.
+      For, as the danger in things of this nature continues, even after the
+      opportunities for doing them are over, men are from that instant more
+      prudent and circumspect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having thus missed our blow, the Comte de La Rochepot and the rest of them
+      retired to their several seats in the country; but my engagements detained
+      me at Paris, where I was so retired that I spent all my time in my study;
+      and if ever I was seen abroad, it was with all the reserve of a pious
+      ecclesiastic; we were all so true to one another in keeping this adventure
+      secret, that it never got the least wind while the Cardinal lived, who was
+      a minister that had the best intelligence in the world; but after his
+      death it was discovered by the imprudence of Tret and Etourville. I call
+      it imprudence, for what greater weakness can men be guilty of than to
+      declare themselves to have been capable of what is dangerous in the first
+      instance?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return to the history of the Comte de Soissons, I observed before that
+      he had retired to Sedan for safety, which he could not expect at Court. He
+      wrote to the King, assuring his Majesty of his fidelity, and that while he
+      stayed in that place he would undertake nothing prejudicial to his
+      service. He was most mindful of his promise; was not to be biassed by all
+      the offers of Spain or the Empire, but rejected with indignation the
+      overtures of Saint-Ibal and of Bardouville, who would have persuaded him
+      to take up arms. Campion, one of his domestics, whom he had left at Paris
+      to mind his affairs at Court, told me these particulars by the Count's
+      express orders, and I still remember this passage in one of his letters to
+      Campion: "The men you know are very urgent with me to treat with the
+      enemy, and accuse me of weakness because I fear the examples of Charles de
+      Bourbon and Robert d'Artois." He was ordered to show me this letter and
+      desire my opinion thereupon. I took my pen, and, at a little distance from
+      the answer he had already begun, I wrote these words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I do accuse them of folly." The reasons upon which my opinion was
+      grounded were these: The Count was courageous in the highest degree of
+      what is commonly called valour, and had a more than ordinary share in that
+      boldness of mind which we call resolution. The first is common and to be
+      frequently met with among the vulgar, but the second is rarer than can be
+      imagined, and yet abundantly more necessary for great enterprises; and is
+      there a greater in the world than heading a party? The command of an army
+      is without comparison of less intricacy, for there are wheels within
+      wheels necessary for governing the State, but then they are not near so
+      brittle and delicate. In a word, I am of opinion there are greater
+      qualities necessary to make a good head of a party than to make an emperor
+      who is to govern the whole world, and that resolution ought to run
+      parallel with judgment,&mdash;I say, with heroic judgment, which is able
+      to distinguish the extraordinary from what we call the impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Count had not one grain of this discerning faculty, which is but
+      seldom to be met with in the sublimest genius. His character was mean to a
+      degree, and consequently susceptible of unreasonable jealousies and
+      distrusts, which of all characters is the most opposite to that of a good
+      partisan, who is indispensably obliged in many cases to suppress, and in
+      all to conceal, the best-grounded suspicions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the reason I could not be of the opinion of those who were for
+      engaging the Count in a civil war; and Varicarville, who was the man of
+      the best sense and temper of all the persons of quality he had about him,
+      told me since that when he saw what I wrote in Campion's letter the day I
+      set out for Italy, he very well knew by what motives I was, against my
+      inclination, persuaded into this opinion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Count held out all this year and the next against every solicitation
+      of the Spaniards and the importunities of his own friends, much more by
+      the wise counsels of Varicarville than by the force of his own resolution;
+      but nothing could secure him from the teasings of the Cardinal de
+      Richelieu, who poured into his ears every day in the King's name his many
+      dismal discoveries and prognostications. For fear of being tedious I shall
+      only tell you in one word that the Cardinal, contrary to his own interest,
+      hurried the Count into a civil war, by such arts of chicanery as those who
+      are fortune's favourites never fail to play upon the unfortunate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minds of people began now to be more embittered than ever. I was sent
+      for by the Count to Sedan to tell him the state of Paris. The account I
+      gave him could not but be very agreeable; for I told him the very truth:
+      that he was universally beloved, honoured, and adored in that city, and
+      his enemy dreaded and abhorred. The Duc de Bouillon, who was urgent for
+      war, be the consequence what it would, improved upon these advantages, and
+      made them look more plausible, but Varicarville strongly opposed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought myself too young to declare my opinion; but, being pressed to do
+      so by his Highness, I took the liberty to tell him that a Prince of the
+      blood ought to engage himself in a civil war rather than suffer any
+      diminution of his reputation or dignity, yet that nothing but these two
+      cases could justly oblige him to it, because he hazards both by a
+      commotion whenever the one or the other consideration does not make it
+      necessary; that I thought his Highness far from being under any such
+      necessity; that his retreat to Sedan secured him from the indignity he
+      must have submitted to, among others, of taking the left hand, even in the
+      Cardinal's own house; that, in the meantime, the popular hatred of the
+      Cardinal gained his Highness the greater share of the public favour, which
+      is always much better secured by inaction than action, because the glory
+      of action depends upon success, for which no one can answer; whereas
+      inaction is sure to be commended as being founded upon the hatred which
+      the public will always bear to the minister. That, therefore, I should
+      think it would be more glorious for his Highness, in the view of the
+      world, to support himself by his own weight, that is, by the merit of his
+      virtue, against the artifices of so powerful a minister as the Cardinal de
+      Richelieu,&mdash;I say, more glorious to support himself by a wise and
+      regular conduct than to kindle the fire of war, the flagrant consequences
+      whereof no man is able to foresee; that it was true that the minister was
+      universally cursed, but that I could not yet see that the people's minds
+      were exasperated enough for any considerable revolution; that the Cardinal
+      was in a declining state of health, and if he should not die this time,
+      his Highness would have the opportunity of showing the King and the public
+      that though, by his own personal authority and his important post at
+      Sedan, he was in a capacity to do himself justice, he sacrificed his own
+      resentments to the welfare and quiet of the State; and that if the
+      Cardinal should recover his health, he would not fail, by additional acts
+      of tyranny and oppression, to draw upon himself the redoubled execrations
+      of the people, which would ripen, their murmurings and discontents into a
+      universal revolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the substance of what I said to the Count, and he seemed to be
+      somewhat affected by it. But the Duc de Bouillon was enraged, and told me,
+      by way of banter, "Your blood is very cold for a gentleman of your age."
+      To which I replied in these very words: "All the Count's servants are so
+      much obliged to you, monsieur, that they ought to bear everything from
+      you; but were it not for this consideration alone, I should think that
+      your bastions would not be always strong enough to protect you." The Duke
+      soon came to himself, and treated me with all the civilities imaginable,
+      such as laid a foundation for our future friendship. I stayed two days
+      longer at Sedan, during which the Count changed his mind five different
+      times, as I was told by M. Saint-Ibal, who said little was to be expected
+      from a man of his humour. At last, however, the Duc de Bouillon won him
+      over. I was charged to do all I could to convince the people of Paris, had
+      an order to take up money and to lay it out for this purpose, and I
+      returned from Sedan with letters more than enough to have hanged two
+      hundred men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I had faithfully set the Count's true interest before him, and
+      dissuaded him from undertaking an affair of which he was by no means
+      capable, I thought it high time to think of my own affairs. I hated my
+      profession now more than ever; I was at first hurried into it by the
+      infatuation of my kindred. My destiny had bound me down to it by the
+      chains both of duty and pleasure, so that I could see no possibility to
+      set myself free. I was upwards of twenty-five years of age, and I saw it
+      was now too late to begin to carry a musket; but that which tortured me
+      most of all was this fatal reflection, that I had spent so much of my time
+      in too eager a pursuit of pleasure, and thereby riveted my own chains; so
+      that it looked as if fate was resolved to fasten me to the Church, whether
+      I would or no. You may imagine with what satisfaction such thoughts as
+      these were accompanied, for this confusion of affairs gave me hopes of
+      getting loose from my profession with uncommon honour and reputation. I
+      thought of ways to distinguish myself, pursued them very diligently, and
+      you will allow that nothing but destiny broke my measures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Marechaux de Vitri and Bassompierre, the Comte de Cremail, M. du
+      Fargis, and M. du Coudrai Montpensier were then prisoners in the Bastille
+      upon different counts. But, as length of time makes confinement less
+      irksome, they were treated very civilly, and indulged with a great share
+      of freedom. Their friends came to see them, and sometimes dined with them.
+      By means of M. du Fargis, who had married my aunt, I got acquainted with
+      the rest, and by conversing with them discovered very remarkable emotions
+      in some of them, upon which I could not help reflecting. The Marechal de
+      Vitri was a gentleman of mean parts, but bold, even to rashness, and his
+      having been formerly employed to kill the Marechal d'Ancre had given him
+      in the common vogue, though I think unjustly, the air of a man of business
+      and expedition. He appeared to me enraged against the Cardinal, and I
+      concluded he might do service in the present juncture, but did not address
+      myself directly to him, and thought it the wisest way first to sift the
+      Comte de Cremail, who was a man of sound sense, and could influence the
+      Marechal de Vitri as he pleased. He apprehended me at half a word, and
+      immediately asked me if I had made myself known to any of the prisoners. I
+      answered, readily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, monsieur; and I will tell you my reasons in a very few words.
+      Bassompierre is a tattler; I expect to do nothing with the Marechal de
+      Vitri but by your means. I suspect the honesty of Du Coudrai, and as for
+      my uncle, Du Fargis, he is a gallant man, but has no headpiece."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whom, then, do you confide in at Paris?" said the Comte de Cremail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare trust no man living," said I, "but yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is very well," said he, briskly; "you are the man for me. I am above
+      eighty years old, and you but twenty-five; I will qualify your heat, and
+      you my chilliness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We went upon business, drew up our plan, and at parting he said these very
+      words: "Let me alone one week, and after that I will tell you more of my
+      mind, for I hope to convince the Cardinal that I am good for something
+      more than writing the 'Jeu de l'Inconnu.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You must know that the "Jeu de l'Inconnu" was a book, indeed, very ill
+      written, which the Comte de Cremail had formerly published, and which the
+      Cardinal had grossly ridiculed. You will be surprised, without doubt, that
+      I should think of prisoners for an affair of this importance, but the
+      nature of it was such that it could not be put into better hands, as you
+      will see by and by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A week after, going to visit the prisoners, and Cremail and myself being
+      accidentally left alone, we took a walk upon the terrace, where, after a
+      thousand thanks for the confidence I had put in him, and as many
+      protestations of his readiness to serve the Comte de Soissons, he spoke
+      thus: "There is nothing but the thrust of a sword or the city of Paris
+      that can rid us of the Cardinal. Had I been at the enterprise of Amiens, I
+      think I should not have missed my blow, as those gentlemen did. I am for
+      that of Paris; it cannot miscarry; I have considered it well. See here
+      what additions I have made to our plan." And thereupon he put into my hand
+      a paper, in substance as follows: that he had conferred with the Marechal
+      de Vitri, who was as well disposed as anybody in the world to serve the
+      Count; that they would both answer for the Bastille, where all the
+      garrison was in their interest; that they were likewise sure of the
+      arsenal; and that they would also declare themselves as soon as the Count
+      had gained a battle, on condition that I made it appear beforehand, as I
+      had told him (the Comte de Cremail), that they should be supported by a
+      considerable number of officers, colonels of Paris, etc. For the rest,
+      this paper contained many particular observations on the conduct of the
+      undertaking, and many cautions relating to the behaviour to be observed by
+      the Count. That which surprised me most of all was to see how fully persuaded
+      these gentlemen were of carrying their point with ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though it came into my head to propose this project to the persons in the
+      Bastille, yet nothing but the perfect knowledge I had of their disposition
+      and inclination could have persuaded me that it was practicable. And I
+      confess, upon perusal of the plan prepared by M. de Cremail, a man of
+      great experience and excellent sense, I was astonished to find a few
+      prisoners disposing of the Bastille with the same freedom as the Governor,
+      the greatest authority in the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As all extraordinary circumstances are of wonderful weight in popular
+      revolutions, I considered that this project, which was even ripe for
+      execution, would have an admirable effect in the city. And as nothing
+      animates and supports commotions more than the ridiculing of those against
+      whom they are raised, I knew it would be very easy for us to expose the
+      conduct of a minister who had tamely suffered prisoners to hamper him, as
+      one may say, with their chains. I lost no time; afterwards I opened myself
+      to M. d'Estampes, President of the Great Council, and to M. l'Ecuyer,
+      President of the Chamber of Accounts, both colonels, and in great repute
+      among the citizens, and I found them every way answering the character I
+      had of them from the Count; that is, very zealous for his interest, and
+      fully persuaded that the insurrection was not only practicable, but very
+      easy. Pray observe that these two gentlemen, who made no great figure,
+      even in their own profession, were, perhaps, two of the most peaceable
+      persons in the kingdom. But there are some fires which burn all before
+      them. The main thing is to know and seize the critical moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Count had charged me to disclose myself to none in Paris besides these
+      two, but I ventured to add two more: Parmentier, substitute to the
+      Attorney-General; and his brother-in-law, Epinai, auditor of the Chamber
+      of Accounts, who was the man of the greatest credit, though but a
+      lieutenant, and the other a captain. Parmentier, who, both by his wit and
+      courage, was as capable of a great action as any man I ever knew, promised
+      me that he would answer for Brigalier, councillor in the Court of Aids,
+      captain in his quarter, and very powerful among the people, but told me at
+      the same time that he must not know a word of the matter, because he was a
+      mere rattle, not to be trusted with a secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Count made me a remittance of 12,000 crowns, which I carried to my
+      aunt De Maignelai, telling her that it was a restitution made by one of my
+      dying friends, who made me trustee of it upon condition that I should
+      distribute it among decayed families who were ashamed to make their
+      necessities known, and that I had taken an oath to distribute it myself,
+      persuant to the desire of the testator, but that I was at a loss to find
+      out fit objects for my charity; and therefore I desired her to take the
+      care of it upon her. The good woman was perfectly transported, and said
+      she would do it with all her heart; but because I had sworn to make the
+      distribution myself, she insisted upon it that I must be present, not only
+      for the sake of my promise, but to accustom myself to do acts of charity.
+      This was the very thing I aimed at,&mdash;an opportunity of knowing all
+      the poor of Paris. Therefore I suffered myself to be carried every day by
+      my aunt into the outskirts, to visit the poor in their garrets, and I met
+      very often in her house people who were very well clad, and many whom I
+      once knew, that came for private charity. My good aunt charged them always
+      to pray to God for her nephew, who was the hand that God had been pleased
+      to make use of for this good work. Judge you of the influence this gave me
+      over the populace, who are without comparison the most considerable in all
+      public disturbances. For the rich never come into such measures unless
+      they are forced, and beggars do more harm than good, because it is known
+      that they aim at plunder; those, therefore, who are capable of doing most
+      service are such as are not reduced to common beggary, yet so straitened
+      in their circumstances as to wish for nothing more than a general change
+      of affairs in order to repair their broken fortunes. I made myself
+      acquainted with people of this rank for the course of four months with
+      uncommon application, so that there was hardly a child in the
+      chimney-corner but I gratified with some small token. I called them by
+      their familiar names. My aunt, who always made it her business to go from
+      house to house to relieve the poor, was a cloak for all. I also played the
+      hypocrite, and frequented the conferences of Saint Lazarus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varicarville and Beauregarde, my correspondents at Sedan, assured me that
+      the Comte de Soissons was as well inclined as one could wish, and that he
+      had not wavered since he had formed his last resolution. Varicarville said
+      that we had formerly done him horrible injustice, and that they were now
+      even obliged to restrain him, because he seemed to be too fond of the
+      counsels of Spain and the Empire. Please to observe that these two Courts,
+      which had made incredible solicitations to him while he wavered, began, as
+      soon as his purpose was fixed, to draw back,&mdash;a fatality due to the
+      phlegmatic temper of the Spaniard, dignified by the name of prudence,
+      joined to the astute politics of the house of Austria. You may observe at
+      the same time that the Count, who had continued firm and unshaken three
+      months together, changed his mind as soon as his enemies had granted what
+      he asked; which exactly comes up to the character of an irresolute man,
+      who is always most unsteady the nearer the work comes to its conclusion. I
+      heard of this convulsion, as one may call it, by an express from
+      Varicarville, and took post the same night for Sedan, arriving there an
+      hour after Aretonville, an agent despatched from the Count's brother
+      in-law, M. de Longueville.&mdash;[Henri d'Orleans, the second of that
+      name, died 1663.]&mdash;He came with some plausible but deceitful terms of
+      accommodation which we all agreed to oppose. Those who had been always
+      with the Count pressed him strongly with the remembrance of what he
+      himself thought or said was necessary to be done ever since the war had
+      been resolved on. Saint-Ibal, who had been negotiating for him at
+      Brussels, pressed him with his engagements, advances, and solicitations,
+      insisted on the steps I had, by his order, already taken in Paris, on the
+      promises made to De Vitri and Cremail, and on the secret committed to two
+      persons by his own command, and to four others for his service and with
+      his consent. Our arguments, considering his engagements, were very just
+      and clear. We carried our point with much ado after a conflict of four
+      days. Aretonville was sent back with a very smart answer. M. de Guise, who
+      had joined the Count, and was a well-wisher to a rupture, went to Liege to
+      order the levies, Varicarville and I returned to Paris, but I did not care
+      to tell my fellow conspirators of the irresolution of our principal. Some
+      symptoms of it appeared afterwards, but they very soon vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Being assured that the Spaniards had everything in readiness, I went for
+      the last time to Sedan to take my final instructions. There I found
+      Meternic, colonel of one of the oldest regiments of the Empire, despatched
+      by General Lamboy, who had advanced with a gallant army under his command,
+      composed for the most part of veteran troops. The Colonel assured the
+      Count that he was ordered to obey his commands in everything, and to give
+      battle to the Marechal de Chatillon, who commanded the army of France upon
+      the Meuse. As the undertaking at Paris depended entirely on the success of
+      such a battle, the Count thought it fitting that I should go along with
+      Meternic to Givet, where I found the army in a very good condition. Then I
+      returned to Paris, and gave an account of every particular to the Marechal
+      de Pitri, who drew up the order for the enterprise. The whole city of
+      Paris seemed so disposed for an insurrection that we thought ourselves
+      sure of success. The secret was kept even to a miracle. The Count gave the
+      enemy battle and won it. You now believe, without doubt, the day was our
+      own. Far from it; for the Count was killed in the very crisis of the
+      victory, and in the midst of his own men; but how and by whom no soul
+      could ever tell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You may guess what a condition I was in when I heard this news; M. de
+      Cremail, the wisest of us all, thought of nothing else now but how to
+      conceal the secret, which, though known to only six in all Paris, was
+      known to too great a number; but the greatest danger of discovery was from
+      the people of Sedan, who, being out of the kingdom, were not afraid of
+      punishment. Nevertheless, everybody privy to it religiously kept it
+      secret, and stood their ground, which, with another accident I shall
+      mention hereafter, has made me often think, and say too, that secrecy is
+      not so rare a thing as we imagine with men versed in matters of State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Count's death settled me in my profession, for I saw no great things
+      to be done, and I found myself too old to leave it for anything trifling.
+      Besides, Cardinal de Richelieu's health was declining, and I already began
+      to think myself Archbishop of Paris. I resolved that for the future I
+      would devote myself to my profession. Madame de Guemenee had retired to
+      Port Royal, her country-seat. M. d'Andilly had got her from me. She
+      neither powdered nor curled her hair any longer, and had dismissed me
+      solemnly with all the formalities required from a sincere penitent. I
+      discovered, by means of a valet de chambre, that, captain &mdash;&mdash;
+      of the Marshal's Guards, had as free access to Meilleraye's lady as
+      myself. See what it is to be a saint! The truth is, I grew much more
+      regular,&mdash;at least affected to be thought so,&mdash;led a retired
+      life, stuck to my profession, studied hard, and got acquainted with all
+      who were famous either for learning or piety. I converted my house almost
+      into an academy, but took care not to erect the academy into a rigid
+      tribunal. I began to be pretty free with the canons and curates, whom I
+      found of course at my uncle's house. I did not act the devotee, because I
+      could not be sure how long I should be able to play the counterfeit, but I
+      had a high esteem for devout people, which with such is the main article
+      of religion. I suited my pleasures to my practice, and, finding I could
+      not live without some amorous intrigue, I managed an amour with Madame de
+      Pommereux, a young coquette, who had so many sparks, not only in her house
+      but at her devotions, that the apparent business of others was a cover for
+      mine, which was, at least, some time afterwards, more to the purpose. When
+      I had succeeded, I became a man in such request among those of my
+      profession that the devotees themselves used to say of me with M. Vincent,
+      "Though I had not piety enough, yet I was not far from the kingdom of
+      heaven."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fortune favoured me more than usual at this time. I was at the house of
+      Madame de Rambure, a notable and learned Huguenot, where I met with
+      Mestrezat, the famous minister of Charento. To satisfy her curiosity she
+      engaged us in a dispute; we had nine different disputations. The Marechal
+      de la Forde and M. de Turenne were present at some of them, and a
+      gentleman of Poitou, who was at all of them, became my proselyte. As I was
+      then but twenty-six years of age, this made a great deal of noise, and
+      among other effects, was productive of one that had not the least
+      connection with its cause, which I shall mention after I have done justice
+      to a civility I received from my antagonist in one of the conferences. I
+      had the advantage of him in the fifth meeting, relating to the spiritual
+      vocation; but in the sixth, treating of the Pope's authority, I was
+      confounded, because, to avoid embroiling myself with the Court of Rome, I
+      answered him on principles which are not so easy to be maintained as those
+      of the Sorbonne. My opponent perceived the concern I was under, and
+      generously forebore to urge such passages as would have obliged me to
+      explain myself in a manner disagreeable to the Pope's Nuncio. I thought it
+      extremely obliging, and as we were going out thanked him in the presence
+      of M. de Turenne; to which he answered, very civilly, that it would have
+      been a piece of injustice to hinder the Abbe de Retz from being made a
+      cardinal. This was such complaisance as you are not to expect from every
+      Geneva pedant. I told you before that this conference produced one effect
+      very different from its cause, and it is this: Madame de Vendome, of whom
+      you have heard, without doubt, took such a fancy to me ever after, that a
+      mother could not have been more tender. She had been at the conference
+      too, though I am very well assured she understood nothing of the matter;
+      but the favourable opinion she had of me was owing to the Bishop of
+      Lisieux, her spiritual director, who, finding I was disposed to follow my
+      profession, which out of his great love to me he most passionately
+      desired, made it his business to magnify the few good qualities I was
+      master of; and I am thoroughly persuaded that what applause I had then in
+      the world was chiefly owing to his encouragement, for there was not a man
+      in France whose approbation could give so much honour. His sermons had
+      advanced him from a very mean and foreign extraction (which was Flemish)
+      to the episcopal dignity, which he adorned with solid and unaffected
+      piety. His disinterestedness was far beyond that of the hermits or
+      anchorites. He had the courage of Saint Ambrose, and at Court and in the
+      presence of the King he so maintained his usual freedom that the Cardinal
+      de Richelieu, who had been his scholar in divinity, both reverenced and
+      feared him. This good man had that abundant kindness for me that he read
+      me lectures thrice a week upon Saint Paul's Epistles, and he designed also
+      the conversion of M. de Turenne and to give me the honour of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de Turenne had a great respect for him, whereof he gave him very,
+      distinguishing marks. The Comte de Brion, whom, I believe, you may
+      remember under the title of Duc d'Amville, was deeply in love with
+      Mademoiselle de Vendome, since Madame de Nemours; and, besides, he was a
+      great favourite of M. de Turenne, who, to do him a pleasure and to give
+      him the more opportunities to see Mademoiselle de Vendome, affected to be
+      a great admirer of the Bishop of Lisieux and to hear his exhortations with
+      a world of attention. The Comte de Brion, who had twice been a Capuchin,
+      and whose life was a continual medley of sin and devotion, pretended
+      likewise to be much interested in M. de Turenne's conversion, and was
+      present at all the conferences held at Mademoiselle de Vendome's
+      apartment. De Brion had very little wit, but was a clever talker, and had
+      a great deal of assurance, which not very seldom supplies the room of good
+      sense. This and the behaviour of M. de Turenne, together with the
+      indolence of Mademoiselle de Vendome, made me think all was fair, so that
+      I never suspected an amour at the bottom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bishop of Lisieux being a great admirer of Corneille's writings, and
+      making no scruple to see a good comedy, provided it was in the country
+      among a few friends, the late Madame de Choisy proposed to entertain him
+      with one at Saint Cloud. Accordingly Madame took with her Madame and
+      Mademoiselle de Vendome, M. de Turenne, M. de Brion, Voiture, and myself.
+      De Brion took care of the comedy and violins, and I looked after a good
+      collation. We went to the Archbishop's house at Saint Cloud, where the
+      comedians did not arrive till very late at night. M. de Lisieux admired
+      the violins, and Madame de Vendome was hugely diverted to see her daughter
+      dance alone. In short, we did not set out till peep of day (it being
+      summer-time), and the days at the longest, and were got no further than
+      the bottom of the Descent of Bonshommes, when all on a sudden the coach
+      stopped. I, being next the door opposite to Mademoiselle de Vendome, bade
+      the coachman drive on. He answered, as plain as he could speak for his
+      fright, "What! would you have me drive over all these devils here?" I put
+      my head out of the coach, but, being short-sighted from my youth, saw
+      nothing at all. Madame de Choisy, who was at the other door with M. de
+      Turenne, was the first in the coach who found out the cause of the
+      coachman's fright. I say in the coach, for five or six lackeys behind it
+      were already crying "Jesu Maria" and quaking with fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame de Choisy cried out, upon which M. de Turenne threw himself out of
+      the coach, and I, thinking we were beset by highwaymen, leaped out on the
+      other side, took one of the footmen's hangers, drew it, and went to the
+      other aide to join M. de Turenne, whom I found with his eyes fixed on
+      something, but what I could not see. I asked him what it was, upon which
+      he pulled me by the sleeve, and said, with a low voice, "I will tell you,
+      but we must not frighten the ladies," who, by this time, screamed most
+      fearfully. Voiture began his Oremus, and prayed heartily. You, I suppose,
+      knew Madame de Choisy's shrill tone; Mademoiselle de Vendome was counting
+      her beads; Madame de Vendome would fain have confessed her sins to the
+      Bishop of Lisieux, who said to her, "Daughter, be of good cheer; you are
+      in the hands of God." At the same instant, the Comte do Brion and all the
+      lackeys were upon their knees very devoutly singing the Litany of the
+      Virgin Mary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de Turenne drew his sword, and said to me, with the calm and
+      undisturbed air he commonly puts on when he calls for his dinner, or gives
+      battle, "Come, let us go and see who they are."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whom should we see?" said I, for I believed we had all lost our senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He answered, "I verily think they are devils."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /> <a name="p060j" id="p060j"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="p060j.jpg (40K)" src="images/p060j.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we had advanced five or six steps I began to see something which I
+      thought looked like a long procession of black phantoms. I was frightened
+      at first, because of the sudden reflection that I had often wished to see
+      a spirit, and that now, perhaps, I should pay for my incredulity, or
+      rather curiosity. M. de Turenne was all the while calm and resolute. I
+      made two or three leaps towards the procession, upon which the company in
+      the coach, thinking we were fighting with all the devils, cried out most
+      terribly; yet it is a question whether our company was in a greater fright
+      than the imaginary devils that put us into it, who, it seems, were a
+      parcel of barefooted reformed Augustine friars, otherwise called the Black
+      Capuchins, who, seeing two men advancing towards them with drawn swords,
+      one of them, detached from the fraternity, cried out, "Gentlemen, we are
+      poor, harmless friars, only come to bathe in this river for our healths."
+      M. de Turenne and I went back to the coach ready to die with laughing at
+      this adventure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon the whole we could not help making this reflection, that what we read
+      in the lives of most people is false. We were both grossly mistaken, I,
+      for supposing him to be frightened; he, for thinking me calm and
+      undisturbed. Who, therefore, can write truth better than the man who has
+      experienced it? The President de Thou is very just in his remark when he
+      says that "There is no true history extant, nor can be ever expected
+      unless written by honest men who are not afraid or ashamed to tell the
+      truth of themselves." I do not pretend to make any merit of my sincerity
+      in this case, for I feel so great a satisfaction in unfolding my very
+      heart and soul to you, that the pleasure is even more prevalent than
+      reason with me in the religious regard I have to the exactness of my
+      history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle de Vendome had ever after an inconceivable contempt for the
+      poor Comte de Brion, who in this ridiculous adventure had disclosed a
+      weakness never before imagined; and as soon as we were got into the coach
+      she bantered him, and said, particularly to me:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I fancy I must be Henri IV.'s granddaughter by the esteem I have for
+      valour. There's nothing can frighten you, since you were so undaunted on
+      this extraordinary occasion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told her I was afraid, but being not so devout as M. de Brion, my fears
+      did not turn to litanies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You feared not," said she, "and I fancy you do not believe there are
+      devils, for M. de Turenne, who is very brave, was much surprised, and did
+      not march on so briskly as you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I confess the distinction pleased me mightily and made me think of
+      venturing some compliments. I then said to her, "One may believe there is
+      a devil and yet not fear him; there are things in the world more
+      terrible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what are they?" said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are so strong," said I, "that one dare not so much as name them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She interpreted my meaning rightly, as she told me since, though she
+      seemed at that time not to understand me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle was not what they call a great beauty, yet she was very
+      handsome, and I was complimented for saying of her and of Mademoiselle de
+      Guise that they were beauties of quality who convinced the beholders at
+      first sight that they were born Princesses. Mademoiselle de Vendome had no
+      great share of wit, but her folly lay as yet concealed; her air was grave,
+      tinctured with stateliness, not the effect of good sense, but the
+      consequence of a languid constitution, which sort of gravity often covers
+      a multitude of defects. In the main, take her altogether, she was really
+      amiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let me beseech you, madame, with all submission, to call now to mind the
+      commands you were pleased to honour me with a little before your departure
+      from Paris, that I should give you a precise account of every circumstance
+      and accident of my life, and conceal nothing. You see, by what I have
+      already related, that my ecclesiastical occupations were diversified and
+      relieved, though not disfigured, by other employments of a more diverting
+      nature. I observed a decorum in all my actions, and where I happened to
+      make a false step some good fortune or other always retrieved it. All the
+      ecclesiastics of the diocese wished to see me succeed my uncle in the
+      archbishopric of Paris, but Cardinal de Richelieu was of another mind; he
+      hated my family, and most of all my person, for the reasons already
+      mentioned, and was still more exasperated for these two which follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I once told the late President de Mesmes what seems now to me very
+      probable, though it is the reverse of what I told you some time ago, that
+      I knew a person who had few or no failings but what were either the effect
+      or cause of some good qualities. I then said, on the contrary, to M. de
+      Mesmes, that Cardinal de Richelieu had not one great quality but what was
+      the effect or cause of some greater imperfection. This, which was only
+      'inter nos', was carried to the Cardinal, I do not know by whom, under my
+      name. You may judge of the consequences. Another thing that angered him
+      was because I visited the President Barillon, then prisoner at Amboise,
+      concerning remonstrances made to the Parliament, and that I should do it
+      at a juncture which made my journey the more noticeable. Two miserable
+      hermits and false coiners, who had some secret correspondence with M. de
+      Vendome, did, upon some discontent or other, accuse him very falsely of
+      having proposed to them to assassinate the Cardinal, and to give the more
+      weight to their depositions they named all those they thought notorious in
+      that country; Montresor and M. Barillon were of the number. Early notice
+      of this being given me, the great love I had for the President Barillon
+      made me take post that night to acquaint him with his danger and get him
+      away from Amboise, which was very feasible; but he, insisting upon his
+      innocence, rejected my proposals, defied both the accusers and their
+      accusations, and was resolved to continue in prison. This journey of mine
+      gave a handle to the Cardinal to tell the Bishop of Lisieux that I was a
+      cordial friend to all his enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True enough," said the Bishop; "nevertheless you ought to esteem him; you
+      have no reason to complain of him, because those men whom you mean were
+      all his true friends before they became your enemies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it be so," replied the Cardinal, "then I am very much misinformed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bishop at this juncture did me all the kind offices imaginable, and if
+      the Cardinal had lived he would undoubtedly have restored me to his
+      favour; for his Eminence was very well disposed, especially when the
+      Bishop assured him that, though I knew myself ruined at Court to all
+      intents and purposes, yet I would never come into the measures of M. le
+      Grand.&mdash;[M. de Cinq-Mars, Henri Coeffier, otherwise called Ruze
+      d'Effial, Master of the Horse of France; he was beheaded September 12,
+      1642.]&mdash;I was indeed importuned by my friend M. de Thou to join in
+      that enterprise, but I saw the weakness of their foundation, as the event
+      has shown, and therefore rejected their proposals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal de Richelieu died in 1642, before the good Bishop had made my
+      peace with him, and so I remained among those who had rendered themselves
+      obnoxious to the Ministry. At first this character was very prejudicial to
+      my interest. Although the King was overjoyed at his death, yet he
+      carefully observed all the appearances of respect for his deceased
+      minister, confirmed all his legacies, cared for his family, kept all his
+      creatures in the Ministry, and affected to frown upon all who had not
+      stood well with the Cardinal; but I was the only exception to this general
+      rule. When the Archbishop of Paris presented me to the King, I was treated
+      with such distinguishing marks of royal favour as surprised all the Court.
+      His Majesty talked of my studies and sermons, rallied me with an obliging
+      freedom, and bade me come to Court once every week. The reasons of these
+      extraordinary civilities were utterly unknown to us until the night before
+      his death, when he told them to the Queen. I passed them by in silence
+      before as having no bearing on my history, but I am obliged to insert them
+      here because they have been, in their consequences, more fortunate than I
+      seemed to have any just claim to expect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A short time after I left the college, my governor's valet de chambre
+      found, at a poor pin-maker's house, a niece of hers but fourteen years
+      old, who was surprisingly beautiful. After I had seen her he bought her
+      for me for 150 pistoles, hired a little house for her, and placed her
+      sister with her; when I went to see her I found her in great heaviness of
+      mind, which I attributed to her modesty. I next day found what was yet
+      more surprising and extraordinary than her beauty; she talked wisely and
+      religiously to me, and yet without passion. She cried only when she could
+      not help it. She feared her aunt to a degree that made me pity her. I
+      admired her wit first, and then her virtue, for trial of which I pressed
+      her as far as was necessary, until I was even ashamed of myself. I waited
+      till night to get her into my coach, and then carried her to my aunt De
+      Maignelai, who put her into a convent, where she died eight or ten years
+      after, in great reputation for piety. My aunt, to whom this young creature
+      confessed that the menaces of the pin-maker had terrified her so much that
+      she would have done whatsoever I wished, was so affected with my behaviour
+      that she went to tell it to the Bishop of Lisieux, who told it to the
+      King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This second adventure was not of the same nature, but it made as great an
+      impression on the King's mind. It was a duel I had with Coutenau, captain
+      of a company of the King's Light-horse, brave, but wild, who, riding post
+      from Paris as I was going there, made the ostler take off my saddle and
+      put on his. Upon my telling him I had hired the horse, he gave me a
+      swinging box on the ear, which fetched blood. I instantly drew my sword,
+      and so did he. While making our first thrusts his foot slipped, and his
+      sword dropped out of his hand as he fell to the ground. I retired a little
+      and bade him pick it up, which he did, but it was by the point, for he
+      presented me the handle and begged a thousand pardons. He told this little
+      story afterwards to the King, with whom he had great freedom. His Majesty
+      was pleased with it, and remembered both time and place, as you will see
+      hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The good reception I found at Court gave my relatives some grounds to hope
+      that I might have the coadjutorship of Paris. At first they found a great
+      deal of difficulty in my uncle's narrowness of spirit, which is always
+      attended with fears and jealousies; but at length they prevailed upon him,
+      and would have then carried our point, if my friends had not given it out,
+      much against my judgment, that it was done by the consent of the
+      Archbishop of Paris, and if they had not suffered the Sorbonne, the cures,
+      and chapter to return him their thanks. This affair made too much noise in
+      the world for my interest. For Cardinal Mazarin, De Noyers, and De
+      Chavigni thwarted me, and told his Majesty that the chapter should not be
+      entrusted with the power of nominating their own archbishop. And the King
+      was heard to say that I was yet too young.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we met with a worse obstacle than all from M. de Noyers, Secretary of
+      State, one of the three favourite ministers, who passed for a religious
+      man, and was suspected by some to be a Jesuit in disguise. He had a secret
+      longing for the archbishopric of Paris, which would shortly be vacant, and
+      therefore thought it expedient to remove me from that city, where he saw I
+      was extremely beloved, and provide me with some post suitable to my years.
+      He proposed to the King by his confessor to nominate me Bishop of Agde.
+      The King readily granted the request, which confounded me beyond all
+      expression. I had no mind to go to Languedoc, and yet so great are the
+      inconveniences of a refusal that not a man had courage to advise me to it.
+      I became, therefore, my own counsellor, and having resolved with myself
+      what course to take, I waited upon his Majesty, and thanked him for his
+      gracious offer, but said I dreaded the weight of so remote a see, and that
+      my years wanted advice, which it is difficult to obtain in provinces so
+      distant. I added to this other arguments, which you may guess at. I was in
+      this adventure also more happy than wise. The King continued to treat me
+      very kindly. This circumstance, and the retreat of M. de Noyers, who fell
+      into the snare that Chavigni had laid for him, renewed my hopes of the
+      coadjutorship of Paris. The King died about this time, in 1643. M. de
+      Beaufort, who had been always devoted to the Queen's interest, and even
+      passed for her gallant, pretended now to govern the kingdom, of which he
+      was not so capable as his valet de chambre. The Bishop of Beauvais, the
+      greatest idiot you ever knew, took upon himself the character of Prime
+      Minister, and on the first day of his administration required the Dutch to
+      embrace the Roman Catholic religion if they desired to continue in
+      alliance with France. The Queen was ashamed of this ridiculous minister,
+      and sent for me to offer my father&mdash;[Philippe Emmanuel de Gondi,
+      Comte de Joigni; he retired to the Fathers of the Oratory, and became
+      priest; died 1662, aged eighty-one.]&mdash;the place of Prime Minister;
+      but he refusing peremptorily to leave his cell and the Fathers of the
+      Oratory, the place was conferred upon Cardinal Mazarin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You may now imagine that it was no great task for me to obtain what I
+      desired at a time that nothing was refused, which made Feuillade say that
+      the only words in the French tongue were "La Reine est si bonne."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame de Maignelai and the Bishop of Lisieux desired the Queen to grant
+      me the coadjutorship of Paris, but they were repulsed, the Queen assuring
+      them that none should have it but my father, who kept from Court; and
+      would never be seen at the Louvre, except once, when the Queen told him
+      publicly that the King, the very night before he died, had ordered her
+      expressly to have it solicited for me, and that he said in the presence of
+      the Bishop of Lisieux that he had me always in his thoughts since the
+      adventures of the pinmaker and Captain Coutenau. What relation had these
+      trifling stories to the archbishopric of Paris? Thus we see that affairs
+      of the greatest moment often owe their rise and success to insignificant
+      trifles and accidents. All the companies went to thank the Queen. I sent
+      16,000 crowns to Rome for my bull, with orders not to desire any favour,
+      lest it should delay the despatch and give the ministers time to oppose
+      it. I received my bull accordingly; and now you will see me ascending the
+      theatre of action, where you will find scenes not indeed worthy of
+      yourself, but not altogether unworthy of your attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /> <a name="book2" id="book2"></a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      BOOK II.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MADAME:&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;[Cardinal
+      Julius Mazarin, Minister of State, who died at Vincennes in 1661.]&mdash;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?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;at a time when the Government was so mild
+      that its authority was hardly felt&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde&mdash;the latter attached to the
+      Court by his covetous temper&mdash;thought themselves above being
+      rivalled; the Duke&mdash;[Henri de Bourbon, Duc d'Enghien, born 1646, died
+      1686. We shall often speak of him in this history.]&mdash;was old enough
+      to take his repose under the shadow of his laurels; M. de Nemours&mdash;[Charles
+      Amadeus of Savoy, killed in a duel by M. de Beaufort, 1650.]&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;though they were not deputed&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;[Henriette
+      Marie of France, daughter of Henri IV., died 1669.]&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;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&mdash;I had declared I could not conclude anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;[George d'Amboise, the first of the name, in 1498 Minister
+      to Louis XII., deceased 1510.]&mdash;who governed him absolutely, had not
+      opposed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The insatiable avarice of Constable Montmorency&mdash;[Anne de
+      Montmorency, Constable of France in 1538, died 1567.]&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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'&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /> <a name="p100j" id="p100j"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="p100j.jpg (76K)" src="images/p100j.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;I know not what to call it&mdash;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,&mdash;which
+      he had not,&mdash;found it no hard task to preserve that respect among
+      mankind which freed him from contempt, though not from hatred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;the most
+      dangerous disease of any State&mdash;crept insensibly into the Ministry
+      and easily diffused its poison from the head to the members.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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?&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal answered, "Well, M. Guitaut, what would you have us do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Guitaut said, very bluntly, "Let the old rogue Broussel be restored to the
+      people, either dead or alive."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,"&mdash;throwing her head as it were
+      into my face at the last word, "and those who&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;"
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;[He was Governor of Brisac, and commanded the
+      forces of the Duke of Weimar after the Duke's death]&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;[Philippe
+      of France, only brother to King Louis XIV., afterwards Duc d'Orleans, died
+      suddenly at St. Cloud, in 1701.]&mdash;but just recovered from the
+      smallpox, and the Duchesse d'Orleans, much indisposed, out of town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In October, 1648, the Parliament adjourned, and the Queen soon after
+      returned to Paris with the King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Cardinal laid another trap for me that I was not aware of,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every one now found their advantage in the declaration,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;"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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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&mdash;at least, for a
+      considerable time&mdash;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?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I took this statement then for granted, and replied that the stopping of
+      that passage would be attended with difficulties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What difficulties?" asked the Prince, very briskly. "The citizens? Will
+      they come out to give battle?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it were only citizens, monseigneur," I said, "the battle would not be
+      very sharp."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who will be with them?" he replied; "will you be there yourself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That would be a very bad omen," I said; "it would look too much like the
+      proceedings of the League."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a little pause, he said, "But now, to be serious, would you be so
+      foolish as to embark with those men?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;[Philippe de La
+      Mothe-Houdancourt, deceased 1657.]&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /> <a name="p160j" id="p160j"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="p160j.jpg (44K)" src="images/p160j.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Court having attempted to legalise excessive usury,&mdash;I mean with
+      respect to the affair of loans,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Parliament was no sooner acquainted that the King's Council had been
+      denied audience than with one voice&mdash;Bernai excepted, who was fitter
+      for a cook than a councillor&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same day I had a visit from the Duc d'Elbeuf,&mdash;[Charles de
+      Lorraine, the second of that name, who died 1657.]&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."&mdash;"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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the Duc d' Orleans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the Prince de Conde.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the Duc de Longueville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the Duc de Beaufort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the Dice d'Elbeuf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the Duc de Bouillon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of M. de Turenne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of Marechal de La Mothe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the Prince de Conti.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of M. de La Rochefoucault.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of Madame de Longueville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of Madame de Chevreuse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;[George
+      Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, assassinated when preparing to succour
+      Rochelle.]&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the Princess Palatine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of Madame de Montbazon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character of the First President.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bernardin, being tutored by us beforehand what to say when he came
+      before the Parliament, behaved like a man of good sense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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,&mdash;I
+      mean the wealthy citizens,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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,&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I told you beforehand that you would be swayed by the Coadjutor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, I do," she said, "but the Parliament will take one step to-morrow
+      which will render all your preliminaries of no use."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you promise it?" she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said I, "and, more than that, I am ready to seal it with my blood."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;such a one as it was&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now the Coadjutor will have no more mercenary brawlers at the Parliament
+      House."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor," said the President de Mesmes, "so many cutthroats."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Senneterre, like a wise man, said to them both:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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>
+    <p>
+      "P.S.&mdash;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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [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.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. d'Elbeuf said, "You cannot find the expedients you talk of but in
+      having recourse to the people."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "M. de Bouillon will answer for me," said I, "that it is not there that I
+      am to find my expedients."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is no hope of any security but in making the Coadjutor a cardinal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      President de Mesmes replied: "If things are come to this pass we must be
+      the victims to save the State from perishing&mdash;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><a name="p242j" id="p242j"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="p242j.jpg (48K)" src="images/p242j.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de Bouillon was now for pushing matters to extremes, but I convinced
+      him that there was nothing more dangerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now return to the conference at Saint Germain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 31st the deputies, being returned, made their report to the
+      Parliament, who on the 1st of April verified the declaration of peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fronde (sling) being the name given to the faction, I will give you the
+      etymology of it, which I omitted in the first book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <a name="book3" id="book3"></a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      BOOK III.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MADAME:&mdash;Cardinal Mazarin thought of nothing else now but how to rid
+      himself of the obligations he lay under to the Prince de Conde, who had
+      actually saved him from the gallows. And his principal view was an
+      alliance with the House of Vendome, who had on some occasions opposed the
+      interest of the family of Conde.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Paris the people libelled not only the Cardinal, but the Queen. Indeed
+      it was not our interest to discourage libels and ballads against the
+      Cardinal, but it concerned us to suppress such as were levelled against
+      the Queen and Government. It is not to be imagined what uneasiness the
+      wrath of the people gave us upon that head. Two criminals, one of whom was
+      a printer, being condemned to be hanged for publishing some things fit to
+      be burnt and for libelling the Queen, cried out, when they were upon the
+      scaffold, that they were to be put to death for publishing verses against
+      Mazarin, upon which the people rescued them from justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other hand, some gay young gentlemen of the Court, who were in
+      Mazarin's interest, had a mind to make his name familiar to the Parisians,
+      and for that end made a famous display in the public walks of the
+      Tuileries, where they had grand suppers, with music, and drank the
+      Cardinal's health publicly. We took little notice of this, till they
+      boasted at Saint Germain that the Frondeurs were glad to give them the
+      wall. And then we thought it high time to correct them, lest the common
+      people should think they did it by authority. For this end M. de Beaufort
+      and a hundred other gentlemen went one night to the house where they
+      supped, overturned the table, and broke the musicians' violins over their
+      heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Being informed that the Prince de Conde intended to oblige the King to
+      return to Paris, I was resolved to have all the merit of an action which
+      would be so acceptable to the citizens. I therefore resolved to go to the
+      Court at Compiegne, which my friends very much opposed, for fear of the
+      danger to which I might be exposed, but I told them that what is
+      absolutely necessary is not dangerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went accordingly, and as I was going up-stairs to the Queen's
+      apartments, a man, whom I never saw before or since, put a note into my
+      hand with these words: "If you enter the King's domicile, you are a dead
+      man." But I was in already, and it was too late to go back. Being past the
+      guard-chamber, I thought myself secure. I told the Queen that I was come
+      to assure her Majesty of my most humble obedience, and of the disposition
+      of the Church of Paris to perform all the services it owed to their
+      Majesties. The Queen seemed highly pleased, and was very kind to me; but
+      when we mentioned the Cardinal, though she urged me to it, I excused
+      myself from going to see him, assuring her Majesty that such a visit would
+      put it out of my power to do her service. It was impossible for her to
+      contain herself any longer; she blushed, and it was with much restraint
+      that she forbore using harsh language, as she herself confessed
+      afterwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Servien said one day that there was a design to assassinate me at his
+      table by the Abbe Fouquet; and M. de Vendome, who had just come from his
+      table, pressed me to be gone, saying that there were wicked designs
+      hatching against me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I returned to Paris, having accomplished everything I wanted, for I had
+      removed the suspicion of the Court that the Frondeurs were against the
+      King's return. I threw upon the Cardinal all the odium attending his
+      Majesty's delay. I braved Mazarin, as it were, upon his throne, and
+      secured to myself the chief honour of the King's return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Court was received at Paris as kings always were and ever will be,
+      namely, with acclamations, which only please such as like to be flattered.
+      A group of old women were posted at the entrance of the suburbs to cry
+      out, "God save his Eminence!" who sat in the King's coach and thought
+      himself Lord of Paris; but at the end of three or four days he found
+      himself much mistaken. Ballads and libels still flew about. The Frondeurs
+      appeared bolder than ever. M. de Beaufort and I rode sometimes alone, with
+      one lackey only behind our coach, and at other times we went with a
+      retinue of fifty men in livery and a hundred gentlemen. We diversified the
+      scene as we thought it would be most acceptable to the spectators. The
+      Court party, who blamed us from morning to night, nevertheless imitated us
+      in their way. Everybody took an advantage of the Ministry from our
+      continual pelting of his Eminence. The Prince, who always made too much or
+      too little of the Cardinal, continued to treat him with contempt; and,
+      being disgusted at being refused the post of Superintendent of the Seas,
+      the Cardinal endeavoured to soothe him with the vain hopes of other
+      advantages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince, being one day at Court, and seeing the Cardinal give himself
+      extraordinary airs, said, as he was going out of the Queen's cabinet,
+      "Adieu, Mars." This was told all over the city in a quarter of an hour. I
+      and Noirmoutier went by appointment to his house at four o'clock in the
+      morning, when he seemed to be greatly troubled. He said that he could not
+      determine to begin a civil war, which, though the only means to separate
+      the Queen from the Cardinal, to whom she was so strongly attached, yet it
+      was both against his conscience and honour. He added that he should never
+      forget his obligations to us, and that if he should come to any terms with
+      the Court, he would, if we thought proper, settle our affairs also, and
+      that if we had not a mind to be reconciled to the Court, he would, in case
+      it did attack us, publicly undertake our protection. We answered that we
+      had no other design in our proposals than the honour of being his humble
+      servants, and that we should be very sorry if he had retarded his
+      reconciliation with the Queen upon our account, praying that we might be
+      permitted to continue in the same disposition towards the Cardinal as we
+      were then, which we declared should not hinder us from paying all the
+      respect and duty which we professed for his Highness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must not forget to acquaint you that Madame de Guemenee, who ran away
+      from Paris in a fright the moment it was besieged, no sooner heard that I
+      had paid a visit to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse than she returned to town in
+      a rage. I was in such a passion with her for having cowardly deserted me
+      that I took her by the throat, and she was so enraged at my familiarity
+      with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse that she threw a candlestick at my head,
+      but in a quarter of an hour we were very good friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince de Conde was no sooner reconciled with the Court than he was
+      publicly reproached in the city for breaking his word with the Frondeurs;
+      but I convinced him that he could not think such treatment strange in a
+      city so justly exasperated against Mazarin, and that, nevertheless, he
+      might depend on my best services, for which he assured me of his constant
+      friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moissans, now Marechal d'Albret, who was at the head of the King's
+      gendarmes, accustomed himself and others to threaten the chief minister,
+      who augmented the public odium against himself by reestablishing Emeri, a
+      man detested by all the kingdom. We were not a little alarmed at his
+      reestablishment, because this man, who knew Paris better than the
+      Cardinal, distributed money among the people to a very good purpose. This
+      is a singular science, which is either very beneficial or hurtful in its
+      consequences, according to the wisdom or folly of the distributor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These donations, laid out with discretion and secrecy, obliged us to yield
+      ourselves more and more unto the bulk of the people, and, finding a fit
+      opportunity for this performance, we took care not to let it slip, which,
+      if they had been ruled by me, we should not have done so soon, for we were
+      not yet forced to make use of such expedients. It is not safe in a faction
+      where you are only upon the defensive to do what you are not pressed to
+      do, but the uneasiness of the subalterns on such occasions is troublesome,
+      because they believe that as soon as you seem to be inactive all is lost.
+      I preached every day that the way was yet rough, and therefore must be
+      made plain, and that patience in the present case was productive of
+      greater effects than activity; but nobody comprehended the truth of what I
+      said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An unlucky expression, dropped on this occasion by the Princesse de
+      Guemenee, had an incredible influence upon the people. She called to mind
+      a ballad formerly made upon the regiment of Brulon, which was said to
+      consist of only two dragoons and four drummers, and, inasmuch as she hated
+      the Fronde, she told me very pleasantly that our party, being reduced to
+      fourteen, might be justly compared to that regiment of Brulon. Noirmoutier
+      and Laigues were offended at this expression to that degree that they
+      continually murmured because I neither settled affairs nor pushed them to
+      the last extremity. Upon which I observed that heads of factions are no
+      longer their masters when they are unable either to prevent or allay the
+      murmurs of the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The revenues of the Hotel de Ville, which are, as it were, the patrimony
+      of the bourgeois, and which, if well managed, might be of special service
+      to the King in securing to his interest an infinite number of those people
+      who are always the most formidable in revolutions&mdash;this sacred fund,
+      I say, suffered much by the licentiousness of the times, the ignorance of
+      Mazarin, and the prevarication of the officers of the Hotel de Ville, who
+      were his dependents, so that the poor annuitants met in great numbers at
+      the Hotel de Ville; but as such assemblies without the Prince's authority
+      are reckoned illegal, the Parliament passed a decree to suppress them.
+      They were privately countenanced by M. de Beaufort and me, to whom they
+      sent a solemn deputation, and they made choice of twelve syndics to be a
+      check upon the 'prevot des marchands'.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 11th of December a pistol, as had been concerted beforehand, was
+      fired into the coach of Joly, one of the syndics, which President Charton,
+      another of the syndics, thinking was aimed at himself, the Marquis de la
+      Boulaie ran as if possessed with a devil, while the Parliament was
+      sitting, into the middle of the Great Hall, with fifteen or twenty
+      worthless fellows crying out "To Arms!" He did the like in the streets,
+      but in vain, and came to Broussel and me; but the former reprimanded him
+      after his way, and I threatened to throw him out at the window, for I had
+      reason to believe that he acted in concert with the Cardinal, though he
+      pretended to be a Frondeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This artifice of Servien united the Prince to the Cardinal, because he
+      found himself obliged to defend himself against the Frondeurs, who, as he
+      believed, sought to assassinate him. All those that were his own creatures
+      thought they were not zealous enough for his service if they did not
+      exaggerate the imminent danger he had escaped, and the Court parasites
+      confounded the morning adventure with that at night; and upon this coarse
+      canvas they daubed all that the basest flattery, blackest imposture, and
+      the most ridiculous credulity was capable of imagining; and we were
+      informed the next morning that it was the common rumour over all the city
+      that we had formed a design of seizing the King's person and carrying him
+      to the Hotel de Ville, and to assassinate the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de Beaufort and I agreed to go out and show ourselves to the people,
+      whom we found in such a consternation that I believed the Court might then
+      have attacked us with success. Madame de Montbazon advised us to take
+      post-horses and ride off, saying that there was nothing more easy than to
+      destroy us, because we had put ourselves into the hands of our sworn
+      enemies. I said that we had better hazard our lives than our honour. To
+      which she replied, "It is not that, but your nymphs, I believe, which keep
+      you here" (meaning Mesdames de Chevreuse and Guemenee). "I expect," she
+      said, "to be befriended for my own sake, and don't I deserve it? I cannot
+      conceive how you can be amused by a wicked old hag and a girl, if
+      possible, still more foolish. We are continually disputing about that
+      silly wretch" (pointing to M. de Beaufort, who was playing chess); "let us
+      take him with us and go to Peronne."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are not to wonder that she talked thus contemptibly of M. de Beaufort,
+      whom she always taxed with impotency, for it is certain that his love was
+      purely Platonic, as he never asked any favour of her, and seemed very
+      uneasy with her for eating flesh on Fridays. She was so sweet upon me, and
+      withal such a charming beauty, that, being naturally indisposed to let
+      such opportunities slip, I was melted into tenderness for her,
+      notwithstanding my suspicions of her, considering the then situation of
+      affairs, and would have had her go with me into the cabinet, but she was
+      determined first to go to Peronne, which put an end to our amours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beaufort waited on the Prince and was well received, but I could not gain
+      admittance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 14th the Prince de Conde went to Parliament and demanded that a
+      committee might be appointed to inquire into the attempt made on his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Frondeurs were not asleep in the meantime, yet most of our friends
+      were dispirited, and all very weak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cures of Paris were my most hearty friends; they laboured with
+      incredible zeal among the people. And the cure of Saint Gervais sent me
+      this message: "Do but rally again and get off the assassination, and in a
+      week you will be stronger than your enemies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was informed that the Queen had written to my uncle, the Archbishop of
+      Paris, to be sure to go to the Parliament on the 23d, the day that
+      Beaufort, Broussel, and I were to be impeached, because I had no right to
+      sit in the House if he were present. I begged of him not to go, but my
+      uncle being a man of little sense, and that much out of order, and being,
+      moreover, fearful and ridiculously jealous of me, had promised the Queen
+      to go; and all that we could get out of him was that he would defend me in
+      Parliament better than I could defend myself. It is to be observed that
+      though he chattered to us like a magpie in private, yet in public he was
+      as mute as a fish. A surgeon who was in the Archbishop's service, going to
+      visit him, commended him for his courage in resisting the importunities of
+      his nephew, who, said he, had a mind to bury him alive, and encouraged him
+      to rise with all haste and go to the Parliament House; but he was no
+      sooner out of his bed than the surgeon asked him in a fright how he felt.
+      "Very well," said my Lord. "But that is impossible," said the surgeon;
+      "you look like death," and feeling his pulse, he told him he was in a high
+      fever; upon which my Lord Archbishop went to bed again, and all the kings
+      and queens in Christendom could not get him out for a fortnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We went to the Parliament, and found there the Princes with nearly a
+      thousand gentlemen and, I may say, the whole Court. I had few salutes in
+      the Hall, because it was generally thought I was an undone man. When I had
+      entered the Great Chamber I heard a hum like that at the end of a pleasing
+      period in a sermon. When I had taken my place I said that, hearing we were
+      taxed with a seditious conspiracy, we were come to offer our heads to the
+      Parliament if guilty, and if innocent, to demand justice upon our
+      accusers; and that though I knew not what right the Court had to call me
+      to account, yet I would renounce all privileges to make my innocence
+      apparent to a body for whom I always had the greatest attachment and
+      veneration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the informations were read against what they called "the public
+      conspiracy from which it had pleased Almighty God to deliver the State and
+      the royal family," after which I made a speech, in substance as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do not believe, gentlemen, that in any of the past ages persons of our
+      quality had ever received any personal summons grounded merely upon
+      hearsay. Neither can I think that posterity will ever believe that this
+      hearsay evidence was admitted from the mouths of the most infamous
+      miscreants that ever got out of a gaol. Canto was condemned to the gallows
+      at Pau, Pichon to the wheel at Mans, Sociande is a rogue upon record.
+      Pray, gentlemen, judge of their evidence by their character and
+      profession. But this is not all. They have the distinguishing character of
+      being informers by authority. I am sorely grieved that the defence of our
+      honour, which is enjoined us by the laws of God and man, should oblige me
+      to expose to light, under the most innocent of Kings, such abominations as
+      were detested in the most corrupt ages of antiquity and under the worst of
+      tyrants. But I must tell you that Canto, Sociande, and Gorgibus are
+      authorised to inform against us by a commission signed by that august name
+      which should never be employed but for the preservation of the most sacred
+      laws, and which Cardinal Mazarin, who knows no law but that of revenge,
+      which he meditates against the defenders of the public liberty, has forced
+      M. Tellier, Secretary of State, to countersign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We demand justice, gentlemen, but we do not demand it of you till we have
+      first most humbly implored this House to execute the strictest justice
+      that the laws have provided against rebels, if it appears that we have
+      been concerned directly or indirectly in raising this last disturbance. Is
+      it possible, gentlemen, that a grandchild of Henri the Great, that a
+      senator of M. Broussel's age and probity, and that the Coadjutor of Paris
+      should be so much as suspected of being concerned in a sedition raised by
+      a hot-brained fool, at the head of fifteen of the vilest of the mob? I am
+      fully persuaded it would be scandalous for me to insist longer on this
+      subject. This is all I know, gentlemen, of the modern conspiracy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The applause that came from the Court of Inquiry was deafening; many
+      voices were heard exclaiming against spies and informers. Honest Doujat,
+      who was one of the persons appointed by the Attorney-General Talon, his
+      kinsman, to make the report, and who had acquainted me with the facts,
+      acknowledged it publicly by pretending to make the thing appear less
+      odious. He got up, therefore, as if he were in a passion, and spoke very
+      artfully to this purpose:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "These witnesses, monsieur, are not to accuse you, as you are pleased to
+      say, but only to discover what passed in the meeting of the annuitants at
+      the Hotel de Ville. If the King did not promise impunity to such as will
+      give him information necessary for his service, and which sometimes cannot
+      be come at without involving evidence in a crime, how should the King be
+      informed at all? There is a great deal of difference between patents of
+      this nature and commissions granted on purpose to accuse you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You might have seen fire in 'the face of every member. The First President
+      called out "Order!" and said, "MM. de Beaufort, le Coadjuteur, and
+      Broussel, you are accused, and you must withdraw."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Beaufort and I were leaving our seats, Broussel stopped us, saying,
+      "Neither you, gentlemen, nor I are bound to depart till we are ordered to
+      do so by the Court. The First President, whom all the world knows to be
+      our adversary, should go out if we must."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I added, "And M. le Prince," who thereupon said, with a scornful air:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, I? Must I retire?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, yes, monsieur," said I, "justice is no respecter of persons."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President de Mesmes said, "No, monseigneur, you must not go out unless
+      the Court orders you. If the Coadjutor insists that your Highness retire,
+      he must demand it by a petition. As for himself, he is accused, and
+      therefore must go out; but, seeing he raises difficulties and objections
+      to the contrary, we must put it to the vote." And it was passed that we
+      should withdraw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, most of the members passed encomiums upon us, satires upon the
+      Ministry, and anathemas upon the witnesses for the Crown. Nor were the
+      cures and the parishioners wanting in their duty on this occasion. The
+      people came in shoals from all parts of Paris to the Parliament House.
+      Nevertheless, no disrespect was shown either to the King's brother or to
+      M. le Prince; only some in their presence cried out, "God bless M. de
+      Beaufort! God bless the Coadjutor!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de Beaufort told the First President next day that, the State and royal
+      family being in danger, every moment was precious, and that the offenders
+      ought to receive condign punishment, and that therefore the Chambers ought
+      to be assembled without loss of time. Broussel attacked the First
+      President with a great deal of warmth. Eight or ten councillors entered
+      immediately into the Great Chamber to testify their astonishment at the
+      indolence and indifference of the House after such a furious conspiracy,
+      and that so little zeal was shown to prosecute the criminals. MM. de
+      Bignon and Talon, counsel for the Crown, alarmed the people by declaring
+      that as for themselves they had no hand in the conclusions, which were
+      ridiculous. The First President returned very calm answers, knowing well
+      that we should have been glad to have put him into a passion in order to
+      catch at some expression that might bear an exception in law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Christmas Day I preached such a sermon on Christian charity, without
+      mentioning the present affairs, that the women even wept for the unjust
+      persecution of an archbishop who had so great a tenderness for his very
+      enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 29th M. de Beaufort and I went to the Parliament House, accompanied
+      by a body of three hundred gentlemen, to make it appear that we were more
+      than tribunes of the people, and to screen ourselves from the insults of
+      the Court party. We posted ourselves in the Fourth Chamber of the
+      Inquests, among the courtiers, with whom we conversed very frankly, yet
+      upon the least noise, when the debates ran high in the Great Chamber, we
+      were ready to cut one another's throats eight or ten times every morning.
+      We were all distrustful of one another, and I may venture to say there
+      were not twenty persons in the House but were armed with daggers. As for
+      myself, I had resolved to take none of those weapons inconsistent with my
+      character, till one day, when it was expected the House would be more
+      excited than usual, and then M. de Beaufort, seeing one end of the weapon
+      peeping out of my pocket, exposed it to M. le Prince's captain of the
+      guards and others, saying, "See, gentlemen, the Coadjutor's prayer-book."
+      I understood the jest, but really I could not well digest it. We
+      petitioned the Parliament that the First President, being our sworn enemy,
+      might be expelled the House, but it was put to the vote and carried by a
+      majority of thirty-six that he should retain his station of judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paris narrowly escaped a commotion at the time of the imprisonment of
+      Belot, one of the syndics of the Hotel de Ville annuitants, who, being
+      arrested without a decree, President de la Grange made it appear that
+      there was nothing more contrary to the declaration for which they had
+      formerly so exerted themselves. The First President maintaining the
+      legality of his imprisonment, Daurat, a councillor of the Third Chamber,
+      told him that he was amazed that a gentleman who was so lately near being
+      expelled could be so resolute in violating the laws so flagrantly.
+      Whereupon the First President rose in a passion, saying that there was
+      neither order nor discipline in the House, and that he would resign his
+      place to another for whom they had more respect. This motion put the Great
+      Chamber all in a ferment, which was felt in the Fourth, where the
+      gentlemen of both parties hastened to support their respective sides, and
+      if the most insignificant lackey had then but drawn a sword, Paris would
+      have been all in an uproar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We solicited very earnestly for our trial, which they delayed as much as
+      it was in their power, because they could not choose but acquit us and
+      condemn the Crown witnesses. Various were the pretences for putting it
+      off, and though the informations were not of sufficient weight to hang a
+      dog, yet they were read over and over at every turn to prolong the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The public began to be persuaded of our innocence, as also the Prince de
+      Conde, and M. de Bouillon told me that he very much suspected it to be a
+      trick of the Cardinal's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 1st of January, 1650, Madame de Chevreuse, having a mind to visit
+      the Queen, with whom she had carried on in all her disgrace an
+      unaccountable correspondence, went to the King's Palace. The Cardinal,
+      taking her aside in the Queen's little cabinet, said to her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You love the Queen. Is it not possible for you to make your friends love
+      her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How can that be?" said she; "the Queen is no more a Queen, but a humble
+      servant to M. le Prince."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good God!" replied the Cardinal; "we might do great things if we could
+      get some men into our interest. But M. de Beaufort is at the service of
+      Madame de Montbazon, and she is devoted to Vigneul and the Coadjutor;" at
+      the mention of which he smiled. "I take you, monsieur," said Madame de
+      Chevreuse; "I will answer for him and for her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus the conversation began, and the Cardinal making a sign to the Queen,
+      Madame de Chevreuse had a long conference that night with her Majesty, who
+      gave her this billet for me, written and signed with her own hand:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding what has passed and what is now doing, I cannot but
+      persuade myself that M. le Coadjuteur is in my interest. I desire to see
+      him, and that nobody may know it but Madame and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse.
+      This name shall be your security.<br /> ANNE
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Being convinced that the Queen was downright angry with the Prince de
+      Conde on account of a rumour spread abroad that he had some intriguing
+      gallantries with her Majesty, I weighed all circumstances and returned the
+      answer to the Queen:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never was there one moment of my life wherein I was not devoted to your
+      Majesty. I am so far from consulting my own safety that I would gladly die
+      for your service . . . I will go to any place your Majesty shall order me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My answer, with the Queen's letter enclosed, was carried back by Madame de
+      Chevreuse and well received. I went immediately to Court, and was taken up
+      the back staircase by the Queen's train-bearer to the petit oratoire,
+      where her Majesty was shut up all alone. She showed me as much kindness as
+      she could, considering her hatred against M. le Prince and her friendship
+      for the Cardinal, though the latter seemed the more to prevail, because in
+      speaking of the civil wars and of the Cardinal's friendship for me she
+      called him "the poor Cardinal" twenty times over. Half an hour after, the
+      Cardinal came in, who begged the Queen to dispense with the respect he
+      owed her Majesty while he embraced me in her presence. He was pleased to
+      say he was very sorry that he could not give me that very moment his own
+      cardinal's cap. He talked so much of favours, gratifications, and rewards
+      that I was obliged to explain myself, knowing that nothing is more
+      destructive of new reconciliations than a seeming unwillingness to be
+      obliged to those to whom you are reconciled. I answered that the greatest
+      recompense I could expect, though I had saved the Crown, was to have the
+      honour of serving her Majesty, and I humbly prayed the Queen to give me no
+      other recompense, that at least I might have the satisfaction to make her
+      Majesty sensible that this was the only reward I valued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal desired the Queen to command me to accept of the nomination
+      to the cardinalate, "which," said he, "La Riviere has snatched with
+      insolence and acknowledged with treachery." I excused myself by saying
+      that I had taken a resolution never to accept of the cardinalship by any
+      means which seemed to have relation to the civil wars, to the end that I
+      might convince the Queen that it was the most rigid necessity which had
+      separated me from her service. I rejected upon the same account all the
+      other advantageous propositions he made me, and, he still insisting that
+      the Queen could do no less than confer upon me something that was very
+      considerable for the signal service I was likely to do her Majesty, I
+      answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is one point wherein the Queen can do me more good than if she gave
+      me a triple crown. Her Majesty told me just now that she will cause M. le
+      Prince to be apprehended. A person of his high rank and merit neither can
+      nor ought to be always shut up in prison, for when he comes abroad he will
+      be full of resentment against me, though I hope my dignity will be my
+      protection. There are a great many gentlemen engaged with me who, in such
+      a juncture, would be ready to serve the Queen. And if it seemed good to
+      your Majesty to entrust one of them with some important employment, I
+      should be more pleased than with ten cardinals' hats."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal told the Queen that nothing was more just, and the affair
+      should be considered between him and me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had several conferences, at which we agreed on gratifications for some
+      of our friends and to arrest the Prince de Conde, the Prince de Conti, and
+      the Duc de Longueville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal took occasion to speak of the treachery of La Riviere. "This
+      man," said he, "takes me to be the most stupid creature living, and thinks
+      he shall be to-morrow a cardinal. I diverted myself to-day with letting
+      him try on some scarlet cloth I lately received from Italy, and I put it
+      near his face to know whether a scarlet colour or carnation became him
+      best."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I heard from Rome that his Eminence was not behindhand with La Riviere
+      upon the score of treachery. For on the very day he got him nominated by
+      the King, he wrote a letter to Cardinal Sachelli more fit to recommend him
+      to a yellow cap than to a red one. This letter, nevertheless, was full of
+      tenderness for La Riviere, which Mazarin knew was the only way to ruin him
+      with Pope Innocent, who hated Mazarin and all his adherents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame de Chevreuse undertook to see how the Duc d'Orleans would relish
+      the design of imprisoning the Princes. She told him that, though the Queen
+      was not satisfied with M. le Prince, yet she could not form a resolution
+      of apprehending him without the concurrence of his Royal Highness. She
+      magnified the advantages of bringing over to the King's service the
+      powerful faction of the Fronde, and the daily dangers Paris was exposed
+      to, both by fire and sword. This last reason touched him as much or more
+      than all, for he trembled every time he came to the Parliament; M. le
+      Prince very often could not prevail upon him to go at all, and a fit of
+      colic was generally assigned as the reason of his absence. At length he
+      consented, and on the 18th of January the three Princes were put under
+      arrest by three officers of the Queen's Guards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people having a notion that M. de Beaufort was apprehended, ran to
+      their arms, which I caused to be laid down immediately, by marching
+      through the streets with flambeaux before me. M. de Beaufort did the like,
+      and the night concluded with bonfires.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen sent a letter from the King to the Parliament with the reasons,
+      which were neither strong nor well set out, why the Prince de Conde was
+      confined. However, we obtained a decree for our absolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Princesses were ordered to retire to Chantilly. Madame de Longueville
+      went towards Normandy, but found no sanctuary there, for the Parliament of
+      Rouen sent her a message to desire her to depart from the city. The Duc de
+      Richelieu would not receive her into Havre, and from there she retired to
+      Dieppe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de Bouillon, who after the peace was strongly attached to the Prince de
+      Conde, went in great haste to Turenne; M. de Turenne got into Stenai; M.
+      de La Rochefoucault, then Prince de Marsillac, returned home to Poitou;
+      and Marechal de Breze, father-in-law to the Prince de Conde, went to
+      Saumur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a declaration published and registered in Parliament against
+      them, whereby they were ordered to wait on the King within fifteen days,
+      upon pain of being proceeded against as disturbers of the public peace and
+      guilty of high treason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Court carried all before them. Madame de Longueville, upon the King
+      going into Normandy, escaped by sea into Holland, whence she went
+      afterwards to Arras, to try La Tour, one of her husband's pensioners, who
+      offered her his person, but refused her the place. She repaired at last to
+      Stenai, whither M. de Turenne went to meet her, with all the friends and
+      servants of the confined Princes that he could muster. The King went from
+      Normandy to Burgundy, and returned to Paris crowned with laurels of
+      victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Princess-dowager, who had been ordered to retire to Bourges, came with
+      a petition to Parliament, praying for their protection to stay in Paris,
+      and that she might have justice done her for the illegal confinement of
+      the Princes her children. She fell at the feet of the Duc d'Orleans,
+      begged the protection of the Duc de Beaufort, and said to me that she had
+      the honour to be my kinswoman. M. de Beaufort was very much perplexed what
+      to do, and I was nearly ready to die for shame; but we could do nothing
+      for her, and she was obliged to go to Valery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several private annuitants, who had made a noise in the assemblies at the
+      Hotel de Ville, were afraid of being called to account, and therefore,
+      after M. le Prince was arrested, they desired me to procure a general
+      amnesty. I spoke about it to the Cardinal, who seemed very pliable, and,
+      showing me his hatband, which was 'a la mode de la Fronde', said he hoped
+      himself to be comprised in that amnesty; but he shuffled it off so long
+      that it was not published and registered in Parliament till the 12th of
+      May, and it would not have been obtained then had not I threatened
+      vigorously to prosecute the Crown witnesses, of which they were mightily
+      apprehensive, being so conscious of the heinousness of their crime that
+      two of them had already made their escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The present calm hardly deserved that name, for the storm of war began to
+      rise again in several places at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame de Longueville and M. de Turenne made a treaty with the Spaniards,
+      and the latter joined their army, which entered Picardy and besieged
+      Guise, after having taken Catelet; but for want of provisions the Archduke
+      was obliged to raise the siege. M. de Turenne levied troops with Spanish
+      money, and was joined by the greater part of the officers commanding the
+      soldiers that went under the name of the Prince's troops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wretched conduct of M. d'Epernon had so confounded the affairs of
+      Guienne that nothing but his removal could retrieve them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the greatest mischiefs which the despotic authority of ministers
+      has occasioned in the world in these later times is a practice, occasioned
+      by their own private mistaken interests, of always supporting superiors
+      against their inferiors. It is a maxim borrowed from Machiavelli, whom few
+      understand, and whom too many cry up for an able man because he was always
+      wicked. He was very far from being a complete statesman, and was
+      frequently out in his politics, but I think never more grossly mistaken
+      than in this maxim, which I observed as a great weakness in Mazarin, who
+      was therefore the less qualified to settle the affairs of Guienne, which
+      were in so much confusion that I believe if the good sense of Jeannin and
+      Villeroi had been infused into the brains of Cardinal de Richelieu, it
+      would not have been sufficient to set them right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Senneterre, perceiving that Cardinal Mazarin and I were not cordial
+      friends, undertook to reconcile us, and for that end took me to the
+      Cardinal, who embraced me very tenderly, said he laid his heart upon the
+      table, that was one of his usual phrases,&mdash;and protested he would
+      talk as freely to me as if I were his own son. I did not believe a word of
+      what he said, but I assured his Eminence that I would speak to him as if
+      he were my father, and I was as good as my word. I told him I had no
+      personal interest in view but to disengage myself from the public
+      disturbances without any private advantage, and that for the same reason I
+      thought myself obliged to come off with reputation and honour. I desired
+      him to consider that my age and want of skill in public affairs could not
+      give him any jealousy that I aimed to be the First Minister. I conjured
+      him to consider also that the influence I had over the people of Paris,
+      supported by mere necessity, did rather reflect disgrace than honour upon
+      my dignity, and that he ought to believe that this one reason was enough
+      to make me impatient to be rid of all these public broils, besides a
+      thousand other inconveniences arising every moment, which disgusted me
+      with faction. And as for the dignity of cardinal, which might peradventure
+      give him some umbrage, I could tell him very sincerely what had been and
+      what was still my notion of this dignity, which I once foolishly imagined
+      would be more honourable for me to despise than to enjoy. I mentioned this
+      circumstance to let him see that in my tender years I was no admirer of
+      the purple, and not very fond of it now, because I was persuaded that an
+      Archbishop of Paris could hardly miss obtaining that dignity some time or
+      other, according to form, by actions purely ecclesiastical; and that he
+      should be loth to use any other means to procure it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I said that I should be extremely sorry if my purple were stained with the
+      least drop of blood spilt in the civil wars; that I was resolved to clear
+      my hands of everything that savoured of intrigue before I would make or
+      suffer any step which had any tendency that way; that he knew that for the
+      same reason I would neither accept money nor abbeys, and that,
+      consequently, I was engaged by the public declarations I had made upon all
+      those heads to serve the Queen without any interest; that the only end I
+      had in view, and in which I never wavered, was to come off with honour, so
+      that I might resume the spiritual functions belonging to my profession
+      with safety; that I desired nothing from him but the accomplishment of an
+      affair which would be more for the King's service than for my particular
+      interest; that he knew that the day after the arrest of the Prince he sent
+      me with his promise to the annuitants of the Hotel de Ville, and that for
+      want of performance those men were persuaded that I was in concert with
+      the Court to deceive them. Lastly, I told him that the access I had to the
+      Duc d'Orleans might perhaps give him umbrage, but I desired him to
+      consider that I never sought that honour, and that I was very sensible of
+      the inconveniences attending it. I enlarged upon this head, which is the
+      most difficult point to be understood by Prime Ministers, who are so fond
+      of being freely admitted into a Prince's presence that, notwithstanding
+      all the experience in the world, they cannot help thinking that therein
+      consists the essence of happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When truth has come to a certain point, it darts such powerful rays of
+      light as are irresistible, but I never knew a man who had so little regard
+      for truth as Mazarin. He seemed, however, more regardful of it than usual,
+      and I laid hold of the occasion to tell him of the dangerous consequences
+      of the disturbances of Guienne, and that if he continued to support M.
+      d'Epernon, the Prince's faction would not let this opportunity slip; that
+      if the Parliament of Bordeaux should engage in their party, it would not
+      be long before that of Paris would do the same; that, after the late
+      conflagration in this metropolis, he could not suppose but that there was
+      still some fire hidden under the ashes; and that the factious party had
+      reason to fear the heavy punishment to which the whole body of them was
+      liable, as we ourselves were two or three months ago. The Cardinal began
+      to yield, especially when he was told that M. de Bouillon began to make a
+      disturbance in the Limousin, where M. de La Rochefoucault had joined him
+      with some troops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To confirm our reconciliation, a marriage was proposed between my niece
+      and his nephew, to which he, gave his consent; but I was much averse to
+      it, being not yet resolved to bury my family in that of Mazarin, nor did I
+      set so great a value on grandeur as to purchase it with the public odium.
+      However, it produced no animosity on either side, and his friends knew
+      that I should be very glad to be employed in making a general peace; they
+      acted their parts so well that the Cardinal, whose love-fit for me lasted
+      about a fortnight, promised me, as it were of his own accord, that I
+      should be gratified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      News came about this time from Guienne that the Ducs de Bouillon and de La
+      Rochefoucault had taken Madame la Princesse into Bordeaux, together with
+      M. le Duc, her son. The Parliament was not displeased with the people for
+      receiving into their city M. le Duc, yet they observed more decorum than
+      could be expected from the inhabitants of Gascogne, so irritated as they
+      were against M. d'Epernon. They ordered that Madame la Princesse, M. le
+      Duc, MM. de Bouillon and de La Rochefoucault should have liberty to stay
+      in Bordeaux, provided they would promise to undertake nothing against the
+      King's service, and that the petition of Madame la Princesse should be
+      sent to the King with a most humble remonstrance from the Parliament
+      against the confinement of the Princes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time, one of the Presidents sent word to Senneterre that the
+      Parliament was not so far enraged but that they would still remember their
+      loyalty to the King, provided he did but remove M. d'Epernon. But in case
+      of any further delay he would not answer for the Parliament, and much less
+      for the people, who, being now managed and supported by the Prince's
+      party, would in a little time make themselves masters of the Parliament.
+      Senneterre did what he could to induce the Cardinal to make good use of
+      this advice, and M. de Chateauneuf, who was now Chancellor, talked
+      wonderfully well upon the point, but seeing the Cardinal gave no return to
+      his reasons but by exclaiming against the Parliament of Bordeaux for
+      sheltering men condemned by the King's declaration, he said to him very
+      plainly, "Set out to-morrow, monsieur, if you do not arrange matters
+      to-day; you should have been by this time upon the Garonne."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The event proved that Chateauneuf was in the right, for though the
+      Parliament was very excited, they stood out a long time against the
+      madness of the people, spurred on by M. de Bouillon, and issued a decree
+      ordering an envoy of Spain, who was sent thither to commence a treaty with
+      the Duc de Bouillon, to depart the city, and forbade any of their body to
+      visit such as had correspondence with Spain, the Princess herself not
+      excepted. Moreover, the mob having undertaken to force the Parliament to
+      unite with the Princes, the Parliament armed the magistracy, who fired
+      upon the people and made them retire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little time before the King departed for Guienne, which was in the
+      beginning of July, word came that the Parliament of Bordeaux had consented
+      to a union with the Princes, and had sent a deputy to the Parliament of
+      Paris, who had orders to see neither the King nor the ministers, and that
+      the whole province was disposed for a revolt. The Cardinal was in extreme
+      consternation, and commended himself to the favour of the meanest man of
+      the Fronde with the greatest suppleness imaginable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the King came to the neighbourhood of Bordeaux the deputies of
+      Parliament, who went to meet the Court at Lebourne, were peremptorily
+      commanded to open the gates of the city to the King and to all his troops.
+      They answered that one of their privileges was to guard the King
+      themselves while he was in any of their towns. Upon this, Marechal de La
+      Meilleraye seized the castle of Vaire, in the command of Pichon, whom the
+      Cardinal ordered to be hanged; and M. de Bouillon hanged an officer in
+      Meilleraye's army by way of reprisal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that the Marshal besieged the city in form, which, despairing of
+      succour from Spain, was forced to capitulate upon the following terms:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That a general pardon should be granted to all who had taken up arms and
+      treated with Spain, that all the soldiers should be disbanded except those
+      whom the King had a mind to keep in his pay, that Madame la Princesse and
+      the Duke should be at liberty to reside either in Anjou or at Mouzon, with
+      no more than two hundred foot and sixty horse, and that M. d'Epernon
+      should be recalled from the government of Guienne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Princess had an interview with both the King and Queen, at which there
+      were great conferences between the Cardinal and the Ducs de Bouillon and
+      de La Rochefoucault.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deputy from Bordeaux, arriving at Paris soon after the King's
+      departure, went immediately, to Parliament, and, after an eloquent
+      harangue, presented a letter from the Parliament of Bordeaux, together
+      with their decrees, and demanded a union between the two Parliaments.
+      After some debates it was resolved that the deputy should deliver his
+      credentials in writing, which should be presented to his Majesty by the
+      deputies of the Parliament of Paris, who would, at the same time, most
+      humbly beseech the Queen to restore peace to Guienne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans was against debating about the petition to the Queen for
+      the liberation of the Priuces and the banishment of Cardinal Mazarin;
+      nevertheless, many of the members voted for it, upon a motion made by the
+      President Viole, who was a warm partisan of the Prince de Conde, not
+      because he had hopes of carrying it, but on purpose to embarrass M. de
+      Beaufort and myself upon a subject of which we did not care to speak, and
+      yet did not dare to be altogether silent about, without passing in some
+      measure for Mazarinists. President Viole did the Prince a great deal of
+      service on this occasion, for Bourdet a brave soldier, who had been
+      captain of the Guards and was attached to the interest of the Prince&mdash;performed
+      an action which emboldened the party very much, though it had no success.
+      He dressed himself and fourscore other officers of his troops in mason's
+      clothes, and having assembled many of the dregs of the people, to whom he
+      had distributed money, came directly to the Duc d'Orleans as he was going
+      out, and cried, "No Mazarin! God bless the Princes!" His Royal Highness,
+      at this apparition and the firing of a brace of pistols at the same time
+      by Bourdet, ran to the Great Chamber; but M. de Beaufort stood his ground
+      so well with the Duke's guards and our men, that Bourdet was repulsed and
+      thrown down the Parliament stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the confusion in the Great Chamber was still worse. There were daily
+      assemblies, wherein the Cardinal was severely attacked, and the Prince's
+      party had the pleasure of exposing us as his accomplices. What is very
+      strange is that at the same time the Cardinal and his friends accused us
+      of corresponding with the Parliament of Bordeaux, because we maintained,
+      in case the Court did not adjust affairs there, we would infallibly bring
+      the Parliament of Paris into the interest of the Prince. If I were at the
+      point of death I should have no need to be confessed on account of my
+      behaviour on this occasion. I acted with as much sincerity in this
+      juncture as if I had been the Cardinal's nephew, though really it was not
+      out of any love to him, but because I thought myself obliged in prudence
+      to oppose the progress of the Prince's faction, owing to the foolish
+      conduct of his enemies; and to this end I was obliged to oppose the
+      flattery of the Cardinal's tools as much as the efforts made by those who
+      were in the service of the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 3d of September President Bailleul returned with the other
+      deputies, and made a report in Parliament of his journey to Court; it was,
+      in brief, that the Queen thanked the Parliament for their good intentions,
+      and had commanded them to assure the Parliament in her name that she was
+      ready to restore peace to Guienne, and that it would have been done before
+      now had not M. de Bouillon, who had treated with the Spaniards, made
+      himself master of Bordeaux, and thereby cut off the effects of his
+      Majesty's goodness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans informed the House that he had received a letter from
+      the Archduke, signifying that the King of Spain having sent him full
+      powers to treat for a general peace, he desired earnestly to negotiate it
+      with him. But his Royal Highness added that he did not think it proper to
+      return him any answer till he had the opinion of the Parliament. The
+      trumpeter who brought the letter gathered a party at Tiroir cross, and
+      spoke very seditious words to the people. The next day they found libels
+      posted up and down the city in the name of M. de Turenne, setting forth
+      that the Archduke was coming with no other disposition than to make peace,
+      and in one of them were these words: "It is your business, Parisians, to
+      solicit your false tribunes, who have turned at last pensioners and
+      protectors of Mazarin, who have for so long a time sported with your
+      fortunes and repose, and spurred you on, kept you back, and made you hot
+      or cold, according to the caprices and different progress of their
+      ambition."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You see the state and condition the Frondeurs were in at this juncture,
+      when they could not move one step but to their own disadvantage. The Duc
+      d'Orleans spoke to me that night with a great deal of bitterness against
+      the Cardinal, which he had never done before, and said he had been tricked
+      by him twice, and that he was ruining himself, the State, and all of us,
+      and would, by so doing, place the Prince de Conde upon the throne. In
+      short, Monsieur owned that it was not yet time to humble the Cardinal.
+      "Therefore," said M. Bellievre, "let us be upon our guard; this man can
+      give us the slip any moment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next day a letter was sent from the Prince de Conde, by the Baron de
+      Verderonne, to the Archduke, desiring him to name the time, place and
+      persons for a treaty. The Baron returned with a letter from the Archduke
+      to his Royal Highness, desiring that the conferences might be held between
+      Rheims and Rhetel, and that they might meet there personally, with such
+      others as they should think fit to bring with them. The Court was
+      surprised, but, however, did not think fit to delay sending full powers to
+      his Royal Highness to treat for peace on such terms as he thought
+      reasonable and advantageous for the King's service; and there were joined
+      with him, though in subordination, MM. Mole, the First President, d'Avaux,
+      and myself, with the title of Ambassadors Extraordinary and
+      Plenipotentiaries. M. d'Avaux obliged me to assure Don Gabriel de Toledo,
+      in private, that if the Spaniards would but come to reasonable terms, we
+      would conclude a peace with them in two days' time. And his Royal Highness
+      said that Don Gabriel being a lover of money, I should promise him for his
+      part 100,000 crowns if the conference that was proposed ended in a peace,
+      and bid him tell the Archduke that, if the Spaniards proposed reasonable
+      terms, he would sign and have them registered in Parliament before Mazarin
+      should know anything of the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Don Gabriel received the overture with joy; he had some particular
+      fancies, but Fuensaldagne, who had a particular kindness for him, said
+      that he was the wisest fool he ever saw in his life. I have remarked more
+      than once that this sort of man cannot persuade, but can insinuate
+      perfectly well, and that the talent of insinuation is of more service than
+      that of persuasion, because one may insinuate to a hundred where one can
+      hardly persuade five.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of England, after having lost the battle of Worcester, arrived in
+      Paris the day that Don Gabriel set out, the 13th of September, 1651. My
+      Lord Taff was his great chamberlain, valet de chambre, clerk of the
+      kitchen, cup-bearer, and all,&mdash;an equipage answerable to his Court,
+      for his Majesty had not changed his shirt all the way from England. Upon
+      his arrival at Paris, indeed, he had one lent him by my Lord Jermyn; but
+      the Queen, his mother, had not money to buy him another for the next day.
+      The Duc d'Orleans went to compliment his Majesty upon his arrival, but it
+      was not in my power to persuade his Royal Highness to give his nephew one
+      penny, because, said he, "a little would not be worth his acceptance, and
+      a great deal would engage me to do as much hereafter." This leads me to
+      make the following digression: that there is nothing so wretched as to be
+      a minister to a Prince, and, at the same time, not his favourite; for it
+      is his favour only that gives one a power over the more minute concerns of
+      the family, for which the public does, nevertheless, think a minister
+      accountable when they, see he has power over affairs of far greater
+      consequence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Therefore I was not in a condition to oblige his Royal Highness by
+      assisting the King of England with a thousand pistoles, for which I was
+      horridly, ashamed, both upon his account anal my own; but I borrowed
+      fifteen hundred for him from M. Morangis, and carried them to my Lord
+      Taff.&mdash;[Lord Clarendon extols the civilities of Cardinal de Retz to
+      King Charles II., and has reported a curious conversation which the
+      Cardinal had with that Prince.]&mdash;It is remarkable that the same
+      night, as I was going home, I met one Tilney, an Englishman whom I had
+      formerly known at Rome, who told me that Vere, a great Parliamentarian and
+      a favourite of Cromwell, had arrived in Paris and had orders to see me. I
+      was a little puzzled; however, I judged it would be improper to refuse him
+      an interview. Vere gave me a brief letter from Cromwell in the nature of
+      credentials, importing that the sentiments I had enunciated in the
+      "Defence of Public Liberty" added to my reputation, and had induced
+      Cromwell to desire to enter with me into the strictest friendship. The
+      letter was in the main wonderfully civil and complaisant. I answered it
+      with a great deal of respect, but in such a manner as became a true
+      Catholic and an honest Frenchman. Vere appeared to be a man of surprising
+      abilities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now return to our own affairs. I was told as a mighty secret that
+      Tellier had orders from the Cardinal to remove the Princes from the Bois
+      de Vincennes if the enemy were likely to come near the place, and that he
+      should endeavour by all means to procure the consent of the Duc d'Orleans
+      for that end; but that, in case of refusal, these orders should be
+      executed notwithstanding, and that he should endeavour to gain me to these
+      measures by the means of Madame de Chevreuse. When Tellier came to me I
+      assured him that it was all one, both to me and the Duc d'Orleans, whether
+      the Princes were removed or not, but since my opinion was desired, I must
+      declare that I think nothing can be more contrary to the true interest of
+      the King; "for," said I, "the Spaniards must gain a battle before they can
+      come to Vincennes, and when there they must have a flying camp to invest
+      the place before they can deliver the Princes from confinement, and
+      therefore I am convinced that there is no necessity for their removal, and
+      I do affirm that all unnecessary changes in matters which are in
+      themselves disagreeable are pernicious, because odious. I will maintain,
+      further, that there is less reason to fear the Duc d'Orleans and the
+      Frondeurs than to dread the Spaniards. Suppose that his Royal Highness is
+      more disaffected towards the Court than anybody; suppose further that M.
+      de Beaufort and I have a mind to relieve the Princes, in what way could we
+      do it? Is not the whole garrison in that castle in the King's service? Has
+      his Royal Highness any regular troops to besiege Vincennes? And, granting
+      the Frondeurs to be the greatest fools imaginable, will they expose the
+      people of Paris at a siege which two thousand of the King's troops might
+      raise in a quarter of an hour though it consist of a hundred thousand
+      citizens? I therefore conclude that the removal would be altogether
+      impolitic. Does it not look rather as if the Cardinal feigns apprehension
+      of the Spaniards only as a pretence to make himself master of the Princes,
+      and to dispose of their persons at pleasure? The generality of the people,
+      being Frondeurs, will conclude you take the Prince de Conde out of their
+      hands,&mdash;whom they look upon to be safe while they see him walking
+      upon the battlements of his prison,&mdash;and that you will give him his
+      liberty when you please, and thus enable him to besiege Paris a second
+      time. On the other hand, the Prince's party will improve this removal very
+      much to their own advantage by the compassion such a spectacle will raise
+      in the people when they see three Princes dragged in chains from one
+      prison to another. I was really mistaken just now when I said the case was
+      all one to me, for I see that I am nearly concerned, because the people&mdash;in
+      which word I include the Parliament will cry out against it; I must be
+      then obliged, for my own safety, to say I did not approve of the
+      resolution. Then the Court will be informed that I find fault with it, and
+      not only that, but that I do it in order to raise the mob and discredit
+      the Cardinal, which, though ever so false; yet in consequence the people
+      will firmly believe it, and thus I shall meet with the same treatment I
+      met with in the beginning of the late troubles, and what I even now
+      experience in relation to the affairs of Guienne. I am said to be the
+      cause of these troubles because I foretold them, and I was said to
+      encourage the revolt at Bordeaux because I was against the conduct that
+      occasioned it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tellier, in the Queen's name, thanked me for my unresisting disposition,
+      and made the same proposal to his Royal Highness; upon which I spoke, not
+      to second Tellier, who pleaded for the necessity of the removal, to which
+      I could by no means be reconciled, but to make it evident to his Royal
+      Highness that he was not in any way concerned in it in his own private
+      capacity, and that, in case the Queen did command it positively, it was
+      his duty to obey. M. de Beaufort opposed it so furiously as to offer the
+      Duc d'Orleans to attack the guards which were to remove him. I had solid
+      reasons to dissuade him from it, to the last of which he submitted, it
+      being an argument which I had from the Queen's own mouth when she set out
+      for Guienne, that Bar offered to assassinate the Princes if it should
+      happen that he was not in a condition to hinder their escape. I was
+      astonished when her Majesty trusted me with this secret, and imagined that
+      the Cardinal had possessed her with a fear that the Frondeurs had a design
+      to seize the person of the Prince de Conde. For my part, I never dreamed
+      of such a thing in my life. The Ducs d'Orleans and de Beaufort were both
+      shocked at the thought of it, and, in short, it was agreed that his Royal
+      Highness should give his consent for the removal, and that M. de Beaufort
+      and myself should not give it out among the people that we approved of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day that the Princes were removed to Marcoussi, President Bellievre
+      told the Keeper of the Seals in plain terms, that if he continued to treat
+      me as he had done hitherto, he should be obliged in honour to give his
+      testimony to the truth. To which the Keeper of the Seals returned this
+      blunt answer: "The Princes are no longer in sight of Paris; the Coadjutor
+      must not therefore talk so loud."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I return now to the Parliament, which was so moderate at this time that
+      the Cardinal was hardly mentioned, and they agreed, 'nemine
+      contradicente', that the Parliament should send deputies to Bordeaux to
+      know once for all if that Parliament was for peace or not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after this the Parliament of Toulouse wrote to that of Paris
+      concerning the disturbances in Guienne, part whereof belonged to their
+      jurisdiction, and expressly demanded a decree of union. But the Duc
+      d'Orleans warded off the blow very dexterously, which was of great
+      consequence, and, more by his address than by his authority, brought the
+      Parliament to dismiss the deputies with civil answers and insignificant
+      expressions, upon which President Bellievre said to me, "What pleasure
+      should we not take in acting as we do if it were for persons that had but
+      the sense to appreciate it!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Parliament did not continue long in that calm. They passed a decree to
+      interrogate the State prisoners in the Bastille, broke out sometimes like
+      a whirlwind, with thunder and lightning, against Cardinal Mazarin; at
+      other times they complained of the misapplication of the public funds. We
+      had much ado to ward off the blows, and should not have been able to hold
+      out long against the fury of the waves but for the news of the Peace of
+      Bordeaux, which was registered there on October the 1st, 1650, and put the
+      Prince de Conde's party into consternation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One mean artifice of Cardinal Mazarin's polity was always to entertain
+      some men of our own party, with whom, half reconciled, he played fast and
+      loose before our eyes, and was eternally negotiating with them, deceiving
+      and being deceived in his turn. The consequence of all this was a great,
+      thick cloud, wherein the Frondeurs themselves were at last involved; but
+      which they burst with a thunderclap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal, being puffed up with his success in settling the troubles of
+      Guienne, thought of nothing else than crowning his triumph by chastising
+      the Frondeurs, who, he said, had made use of the King's absence to
+      alienate the Duc d'Orleans from his service, to encourage the revolt at
+      Bordeaux, and to make themselves masters of the persons of the Princes. At
+      the same time, he told the Princess Palatine that he detested the cruel
+      hatred I bore to the Prince de Conde, and that the propositions I made
+      daily to him on that score were altogether unworthy of a Christian. Yet he
+      suggested to the Duc d'Orleans that I made great overtures to him to be
+      reconciled to the Court, but that he could not trust me, because I was
+      from morning to night negotiating with the friends of the Prince de Conde.
+      Thus the Cardinal rewarded me for what I did with incredible application
+      and, I must say, uncommon sincerity for the Queen's service during the
+      Court's absence. I do not mention the dangers I was in twice or thrice a
+      day, surpassing even those of soldiers in battles. For imagine, I beseech
+      you, what pain and anguish I must have been in at hearing myself called a
+      Mazarinist, and at having to bear all the odium annexed to that hateful
+      appellation in a city where he made it his business to destroy me in the
+      opinion of a Prince whose nature it was to be always in fear and to trust
+      none but such as hoped to rise by my fall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal gave himself such airs after the peace at Bordeaux that some
+      said my best way would be to retire before the King's return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cardinal Mazarin had been formerly secretary to Pancirole, the Pope's
+      nuncio for the peace of Italy, whom he betrayed, and it was proved that he
+      had a secret correspondence with the Governor of Milan. Pancirole, being
+      created cardinal and Secretary of State to the Church, did not forget the
+      perfidiousness of his secretary, now created cardinal by Pope Urban, at
+      the request of Cardinal de Richelieu, and did not at all endeavour to
+      qualify the anger which Pope Innocent had conceived against Mazarin after
+      the assassination of one of his nephews, in conjunction with Cardinal
+      Anthony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [Anthony Barberini, nephew to Urban VIII., created Cardinal 1628, made
+      Protector of the Crown of France 1633, and Great Almoner of the Kingdom
+      1653. He was afterwards Bishop of Poitiers, and, lastly, Archbishop of
+      Rheims in 1657. Died 1671.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pancirole, who thought he could not affront Mazarin more than by
+      contributing to make me cardinal, did me all the kind offices with Pope
+      Innocent, who gave him leave to treat with me in that affair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame de Chevreuse told the Queen all that she had observed in my conduct
+      in the King's absence, and what she had seen was certainly one continued
+      series of considerable services done to the Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She recounted at last all the injustice done me, the contempt put upon me,
+      and the just grounds of my diffidence, which, she said, of necessity ought
+      to be removed, and that the only means of removing it was the hat. The
+      Queen was in a passion at this. The Cardinal defended himself, not by an
+      open denial, for he had offered it me several times, but by recommending
+      patience, intimating that a great monarch should be forced to nothing.
+      Monsieur, seconding Madame de Chevreuse in her attack, assailed the
+      Cardinal, who, at least in appearance, gave way, out of respect for his
+      Royal Highness. Madame de Chevreuse, having brought them to parley, did
+      not doubt that she should also bring them to capitulate, especially when
+      she saw the Queen was appeased, and had told his Royal Highness that she
+      was infinitely obliged to him, and would do what her Council judged most
+      proper and reasonable. This Council, which was only a specious name,
+      consisted only of the Cardinal, the Keeper of the Seals, Tellier, and
+      Servien.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The matter was proposed to the Council by the Cardinal with much
+      importunity, concluding with a most submissive petition to the Queen to
+      condescend to the demand of the Duc d'Orleans, and to what the services
+      and merits of the Coadjutor demanded. The proposition was rejected with
+      such resolution and contempt as is very unusual in Council in opposition
+      to a Prime Minister. Tellier and Servien thought it sufficient not to
+      applaud him; but the Keeper of the Seals quite forgot his respect for the
+      Cardinal, accused him of prevarication and weakness, and threw himself at
+      her Majesty's feet, conjuring her in the name of the King her son, not to
+      authorise, by an example which he called fatal, the insolence of a subject
+      who was for wresting favours from his sovereign, sword in hand. The Queen
+      was moved at this, and the poor Cardinal owned he had been too easy and
+      pliant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had myself given a very natural handle to my adversaries to expose me so
+      egregiously. I have been guilty of many blunders, but I think this is the
+      grossest that I ever was guilty of in all my life. I have frequently made
+      this observation, that when men have, through fear of miscarriage,
+      hesitated a long time about any undertaking of consequence, the remaining
+      impressions of their fear commonly push them afterwards with too much
+      precipitancy upon the execution of their design. And this was my case. It
+      was with the greatest reluctance that I determined to accept the dignity
+      of a cardinal, because I thought it too mean to form a pretension to it
+      without certainty of success; and no sooner was I engaged in the pursuit
+      of it but the impression of the former fearful ideas hurried me on, as it
+      were, to the end, that I might get as soon as possible out of the
+      disagreeable state of uncertainty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal would have paid my debts, given me the place of Grand
+      Almoner, etc.; but if he had added twelve cardinals' hats into the
+      bargain, I should have begged his excuse. I was now engaged with Monsieur,
+      who had, meanwhile, resolved upon the release of the Princes from their
+      confinement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cardinal Mazarin, after his return to Paris, made it his chief study to
+      divide the Fronde. He thought to materially weaken my interest with
+      Monsieur by detaching from me Madame de Chevreuse, for whom he had a
+      natural tenderness, and to give me a mortal blow by embroiling me with
+      Mademoiselle her daughter. To do this effectually he found a rival, who,
+      he hoped, would please her better, namely, M. d'Aumale, handsome as
+      Apollo, and one who was very likely to suit the temper of Mademoiselle de
+      Chevreuse. He had entirely devoted himself to the Cardinal's interest,
+      looked upon himself as very much honoured by this commission, and haunted
+      the Palace of Chevreuse so diligently that I did not doubt but that he was
+      sent thither to act the second part of the comedy which had miscarried so
+      shamefully in the hands of M. de Candale. I watched all his movements, and
+      complained to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, but she gave me indirect answers.
+      I began to be out of humour, and was soon appeased. I grew peevish again;
+      and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse saying in his presence, to please me and to
+      sting him, that she could not imagine how it was possible to bear a silly
+      fellow, "Pardon me, mademoiselle," replied I, "we suffer fops sometimes
+      very patiently for the sake of their extravagances." This man was
+      notoriously foppish and extravagant. My answer pleased, and we soon got
+      rid of him at the Palace of Chevreuse. But he thought to have despatched
+      me, for he hired one Grandmaison, a ruffian, to assassinate me, who
+      apprised me of his design. The first time I met M. d'Aumale, which was at
+      the Duc d'Orleans's house, I did not fail to let him know it; but I told
+      it him in a whisper, saying that I had too much respect for the House of
+      Savoy to publish it to the world. He denied the fact, but in such a manner
+      as to make it more evident, because he conjured me to keep it secret. I
+      gave him my word, and I kept it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame de Guemenee, with whom I had several quarrels, proposed to the
+      Queen likewise to despatch me, by shutting me up in a greenhouse in her
+      garden, which she might easily have done, because I often went to her
+      alone by night; but the Cardinal, fearing that the people would have
+      suspected him as the author of my sudden disappearance, would not enter
+      into the project, so it was dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return to our negotiations for the freedom of the Princes. The Duc
+      d'Orleans was with much difficulty induced to sign the treaty by which a
+      marriage was stipulated between Mademoiselle de Chevreuse and the Prince
+      de Conti, and to promise not to oppose my promotion to the dignity of a
+      cardinal. The Princes were as active in the whole course of these
+      negotiations as if they had been at liberty. We wrote to them, and they to
+      us, and a regular correspondence between Paris and Lyons was never better
+      established than ours. Bar, their warder, was a very shallow fellow;
+      besides, men of sense are sometimes outwitted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [Bar was, according to M. Joly, an unsociable man, who was for raising his
+      fortune by using the Princes badly, and who, on this account, was often
+      the dupe of Montreuil, secretary to the Prince de Conti.&mdash;See JOLY'S
+      "Memoirs," vol. i., p. 88.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cardinal Mazarin, upon his return with the King from Guienne, was greatly
+      pleased with the acclamations of the mob, but he soon grew weary of them,
+      for the Frondeurs still kept the wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal being continually provoked at Paris by the Abbe Fouquet, who
+      sought to make himself necessary, and being so vain as to think himself
+      qualified to command an army, marched abruptly out of Paris for Champagne,
+      with a design to retake Rhetel and Chateau-Portien, of which the enemy
+      were possessed, and where M. de Turenne proposed to winter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the feast of Saint Martin, the First President and the Attorney-General
+      Talon exhorted the Parliament to be peaceable, that the enemies of the
+      State might have no advantage. A petition was read from Madame la
+      Princesse, desiring that the Princes should be brought to the Louvre and
+      remain in the custody, of one of the King's officers, and that the
+      Solicitor-General be sent for to say what he had to allege against their
+      innocence, and that in case he should have nothing solid to offer they be
+      set at liberty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Chambers, being assembled on the 7th of December, to take the affair
+      into consideration, Talon, the Attorney-General, informed the House that
+      the Queen had sent for the King's Council, and ordered them to let the
+      Parliament know that it was her pleasure that the House should not take
+      any cognisance of the Princess's petition, because everything that had
+      relation to the confinement of the Princes belonged to the royal
+      authority. Talon made a motion that the Parliament should depute some
+      members to carry the petition to the Queen, and to beseech her Majesty to
+      take it into her consideration. At the same time another petition was
+      presented from Mademoiselle de Longueville, for the liberty of the Duke
+      her father, and that she might have leave to stay in Paris to solicit it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner was this petition read than a letter from the three Princes was
+      presented and read, praying that they might be brought to trial or set at
+      liberty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 9th day of the month an order was brought to the Parliament from
+      the King, commanding the House to suspend all deliberations on this
+      subject till they had first sent their deputies to Court to know his
+      Majesty's pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deputies were sent immediately, to whom, accordingly, the Queen gave
+      audience in bed, telling them that she was very much indisposed. The
+      Keeper of the Seals added that it was the King's pleasure that the
+      Parliament should not meet at all until such time as the Queen his mother
+      had recovered her health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 10th the House resolved to adjourn only to the 14th, and on that
+      day a general procession was proposed to the Archbishop by the Dean of
+      Parliament, to beg that God would inspire them with such counsels only as
+      might be for the good of the public.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 14th they received the King's letter, forbidding their debates, and
+      informing them that the Queen would satisfy them very speedily about the
+      affair of the Princes; but this letter was disregarded. They sent a
+      deputation to invite the Duc d'Orleans to come to the House, but, after
+      consulting with the Queen, he told the deputies that he did not care to
+      go, that the Assembly was too noisy, that he could not divine what they
+      would be at, that the affairs in debate were never known to fall under
+      their cognisance, and that they had nothing else to do but to refer the
+      said petitions to the Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 18th news came that Marechal du Plessis had gained a signal victory
+      over M. de Turenne, who was coming to succour Rhetel, but found it already
+      surrendered to Marechal du Plessis; and the Spanish garrison, endeavouring
+      to retreat, was forced to an engagement on the plains of Saumepuis; that
+      about 2,000 men were killed upon the spot, among the rest a brother of the
+      Elector Palatine, and six colonels, and that there were nearly 4,000
+      prisoners, the most considerable of whom were several persons of note, and
+      all the colonels, besides twenty colours and eighty-four standards. You
+      may easily guess at the consternation of the Princes' party; my house was
+      all night filled with the lamentations of despairing mourners, and I found
+      the Duc d'Orleans, as it were, struck dumb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 19th, as I went to the Parliament House, the people looked
+      melancholy, dejected, and frightened out of their wits. The members were
+      afraid to open their mouths, and nobody would mention the name of Mazarin
+      except Menardeau Champre, who spoke of him with encomiums, by giving him
+      the honour of the victory of Rhetel, and then he moved the House to
+      entreat the Queen to put the Princes into the hands of that good and wise
+      Minister, who would be as careful of them as he had been hitherto of the
+      State. I wondered most of all that this man was not hissed in the House,
+      and especially as he passed through the Great Hall. This circumstance,
+      together with what I saw that afternoon in every street, convinced me how
+      much our friends were dispirited, and I therefore resolved next day to
+      raise their courage. I knew the First President to be purblind, and such
+      men greedily swallow every new fact which confirms them in their first
+      impression. I knew likewise the Cardinal to be a man that supposed
+      everybody had a back door. The only way of dealing with men of that stamp
+      is to make them believe that you design to deceive those whom you
+      earnestly endeavour to serve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For this reason, on the 20th, I declaimed against the disorders of the
+      State, and showed that it having pleased Almighty God to bless his
+      Majesty's arms and to remove the public enemy from our frontiers by the
+      victory gained over them by Marechal du Plessis, we ought now to apply
+      ourselves seriously to the healing of internal wounds of the State, which
+      are the more dangerous because they are less obvious. To this I thought
+      fit to add that I was obliged to mention the general oppression of the
+      subjects at a time when we had nothing more to fear from the lately routed
+      Spaniards; that, as one of the props of the public safety was the
+      preservation of the royal family, I could not without the utmost concern
+      see the Princes breathe the unwholesome air of Havre-de-Grace, and that I
+      was of opinion that the House should humbly entreat the King to remove
+      them, at least to some place more healthy. At this speech everybody
+      regained their courage and concluded that all was not yet lost. It was
+      observed that the people's countenances were altered. Those in the Great
+      Hall resumed their former zeal, made the usual acclamations as we went
+      out, and I had that day three hundred carriages of visitors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 22d the debate was continued, and it was more and more observed
+      that the Parliament did not follow the triumphant chariot of Cardinal
+      Mazarin, whose imprudence in hazarding the fate of the whole kingdom in
+      the last battle was set off with all the disadvantages that could be
+      invented to tarnish the victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The 30th crowned the work, and produced a decree for making most humble
+      remonstrances to the Queen for the liberty of the Princes and for
+      Mademoiselle de Longueville staying in Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was further resolved to send a deputation to the Duc d'Orleans, to
+      desire his Royal Highness to use his interest on this occasion in favour
+      of the said Princes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King's Council having waited on her Majesty with the remonstrances
+      aforesaid, she pretended to be under medical treatment, and put off the
+      matter a week longer. The Duc d'Orleans also gave an ambiguous answer. The
+      Queen's course of treatment continued eight or ten days longer than she
+      imagined, or, rather, than she said, and consequently the remonstrances of
+      the Parliament were not made till the 20th of January, 1651.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 28th the First President made his report, and said the Queen had
+      promised to return an answer in a few days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened very luckily for us at this time that the imprudence of the
+      Cardinal was greater than the inconstancy of the Duc d'Orleans, for a
+      little before the Queen returned an answer to the remonstrances, he talked
+      very roughly to the Duke in the Queen's presence, charging him with
+      putting too much confidence in me. The very day that the Queen made the
+      aforesaid answer he spoke yet more arrogantly to the Duke in her Majesty's
+      apartment, comparing M. de Beaufort and myself to Cromwell and Fairfax in
+      the House of Commons in England, and exclaimed furiously in the King's
+      presence, so that he frightened the Duke, who was glad he got out of the
+      King's Palace with a whole skin, and who said that he would never put
+      himself again in the power of that furious woman, meaning the Queen,
+      because she had improved on what the Cardinal had said to the King. I
+      resolved to strike the iron while it was hot, and joined with M. de
+      Beaufort to persuade his Royal Highness to declare himself the next day in
+      Parliament. We showed him that, after what had lately passed, there was no
+      safety for his person, and if the King should go out of Paris, as the
+      Cardinal designed, we should be engaged in a civil war, whereof he alone,
+      with the city of Paris, must bear the heavy load; that it would be equally
+      scandalous and dangerous for his Royal Highness either to leave the
+      Princes in chains, after having treated with them, or, by his dilatory
+      proceedings, suffer Mazarin to have all the honour of setting them at
+      liberty, and that he ought by all means to go to the Parliament House.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duchess, too, seconded us, and upon his Highness saying that if he
+      went to the House to declare against the Court the Cardinal would be sure
+      to take his Majesty out of Paris, the Duchess replied, "What, monsieur,
+      are you not Lieutenant-General of France? Do not you command the army? Are
+      you not master of the people? I myself will undertake that the King shall
+      not go out of Paris." The Duke nevertheless remained inflexible, and all
+      we could get out of him was that he would consent to my telling the
+      Parliament, in his name, what we desired he should say himself. In a word,
+      he would have me make the experiment, the success of which he looked upon
+      to be very uncertain, because he thought the Parliament would have nothing
+      to say against the Queen's answer, and that if I succeeded he should reap
+      the honour of the proposition. I readily accepted the commission, because
+      all was at stake, and if I had not executed it the next morning I am sure
+      the Cardinal would have eluded setting the Princes at liberty a great
+      while longer, and the affair have ended in a negotiation with them against
+      the Duke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duchess, who saw that I exposed myself for the public good, pitied me
+      very much. She did all she could to persuade the Duke to command me to
+      mention to the Parliament what the Cardinal had told the King with
+      relation to Cromwell, Fairfax and the English Parliament, which, if
+      declared in the Duke's name, she thought would excite the House the more
+      against Mazarin; and she was certainly in the right. But he forbade me
+      expressly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I ran about all night to incite the members at their first meeting to
+      murmur at the Queen's answer, which in the main was very plausible,
+      importing that, though this affair did not fall within the cognisance of
+      Parliament, the Queen would, however, out of her abundant goodness, have
+      regard to their supplications and restore the Princes to liberty. Besides,
+      it promised a general amnesty to all who had borne arms in their favour,
+      on condition only that M. de Turenne should lay down his arms, that Madame
+      de Longueville should renounce her treaty with Spain, and that Stenai and
+      Murzon should be evacuated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first the Parliament seemed to be dazzled with it, but next day, the
+      1st of February, the whole House was undeceived, and wondered how it had
+      been so deluded. The Court of Inquests began to murmur; Viole stood up and
+      said that the Queen's answer was but a snare laid for the Parliament to
+      beguile them; that the 12th of March, the time fixed for the King's
+      coronation, was just at hand; and that as soon as the Court was out of
+      Paris they, would laugh at the Parliament. At this discourse the old and
+      new Fronde stood up, and when I saw they, were greatly excited I waved my
+      cap and said that the Duke had commanded me to inform the House that the
+      regard he had for their sentiments having confirmed him in those he always
+      naturally, entertained of his cousins, he was resolved to concur with them
+      for procuring their liberty, and to contribute everything in his power to
+      effect it; and it is incredible what influence these few words had upon
+      the whole assembly. I was astonished at it myself. The wisest senators
+      seemed as mad as the common people, and the people madder than ever. Their
+      acclamations exceeded anything you can imagine, and, indeed, nothing less
+      was sufficient to give heart to the Duke, who had all night been bringing
+      forth new projects with more sorrowful pangs and throes (as the Duchess
+      expressed it) than ever she had felt when in labour with all her children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he was fully informed of the good success of his declaration, he
+      embraced me several times before all the company, and M. Tellier going to
+      wait upon him from the Queen, to know if he acknowledged what I had said
+      in his name in the House, "Yes," replied he, "I own, and always will own,
+      all that he shall say or act in my name." We thought that after a solemn
+      declaration of this nature the Duke would not scruple to take all the
+      necessary precautions to prevent the Cardinal carrying away the King, and
+      to that end the Duchess did propose to have all the gates of the city well
+      guarded, under pretence of some popular tumults. But he was deaf to all
+      she said, pretending that he was loth to make his King a prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 2d of February, 1651, the Duke, urged very importunately by the
+      Princes' party informing him that their liberty depended on it, told them
+      that he was going to perform an action which would remove all their
+      diffidence. He sent immediately for the Keeper of the Seals, Marechal
+      Villeroi; and Tellier, and bade them tell the Queen that he would never
+      come to the Palais Royal as long as Mazarin was there, and that he could
+      no longer treat with a man that ruined the State. And, then, turning
+      towards Marechal Villeroi, "I charge you," said he, "with the King's
+      person; you shall be answerable for him to me." I was sadly afraid this
+      would be a means to hasten the King's departure, which was what we dreaded
+      most of all, and I wondered that the Cardinal did not remove after such a
+      declaration. I thought his head was turned, and indeed I was told that he
+      was beside himself for a fortnight together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duke having openly declared against Mazarin, and being resolved to
+      attack and drive him out of the kingdom, bade me inform the House next
+      day, in his name, how the Cardinal had compared their body to the Rump
+      Parliament in England, and some of their members to Cromwell and Fairfax.
+      I improved upon this as much as possible, and I daresay that so much heat
+      and ferment was never seen in any society before. Some were for sending
+      the Cardinal a personal summons to appear on the spot, to give an account
+      of his administration; but the most moderate were for making most humble
+      remonstrances to the Queen for his removal. You may easily guess what a
+      thunderclap this must have been to the Court. The Queen asked the Duke
+      whether she might bring the Cardinal to his Royal Highness. His answer was
+      that he did not think it good for the safety of his own person. She
+      offered to come alone to confer with his Highness at the Palais d'Orleans,
+      but he excused himself with a great deal of respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sent orders an hour after to the Marshals of France to obey him only,
+      as Lieutenant-General of the State, and likewise to the 'prevots des
+      marchands' not to take up arms except by his authority. You will wonder,
+      without doubt, that after all this noise no care was taken of the gates of
+      Paris to prevent the King's departure. The Duchess, who trembled at the
+      thoughts of it, daily redoubled her endeavours to induce the Duke to
+      secure the gates of the city, but all to no purpose; for weak minds are
+      generally deficient in some respect or other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 4th the Duke came to the Parliament and assured the assembly of his
+      concurrence in everything to reform the State and to procure the liberty
+      of the Princes and the Cardinal's removal. As soon as his Royal Highness
+      had done speaking, the Master of the Ceremonies was admitted with a letter
+      from the King, which was read, and which required the House to separate,
+      and to send as many deputies as they could to the Palais Royal to hear the
+      King's will and pleasure. Deputies were accordingly sent immediately, for
+      whose return the bulk of the members stayed in the Great Chamber. I was
+      informed that this was one trick among others concerted to ruin me, and,
+      telling the Duc d'Orleans of it, he said that if the old buffoon, the
+      Keeper of the Seals, was concerned in such a complication of folly and
+      knavery, he deserved to be hanged by the side of Mazarin. But the sequel
+      showed that I was not out in my information.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the deputies were come to the Palais Royal, the First President
+      told the Queen that the Parliament was extremely concerned that the
+      Princes were still confined, notwithstanding her royal promise for setting
+      them at liberty. The Queen replied that Marchal de Grammont was sent to
+      release them and to see to their necessary security for the public
+      tranquillity, but that she had sent for them in relation to another
+      affair, which the Keeper of the Seals would explain to them, and which he
+      couched in a sanguinary manifesto, in substance as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All the reports made by the Coadjutor in Parliament are false, and
+      invented by him. He lies!" (This is the only word the Queen added to what
+      was already written). "He is a very wicked, dangerous man, and gives the
+      Duke very pernicious advice; he wants to ruin the State because we have
+      refused to make him cardinal, and has publicly boasted that he will set
+      fire to the four corners of the kingdom, and that he will have 100,000 men
+      in readiness to dash out the brains of those that shall attempt to put it
+      out." These expressions were very harsh, and I am sure that I never said
+      anything like that; but it was of no use at this time to make the cloud
+      which was gathering over the head of Mazarin fall in a storm upon mine.
+      The Court saw that Parliament was assembled to pass a decree for setting
+      the Princes at liberty, and that the Duke in person was declaring against
+      Mazarin in the Grand Chamber, and therefore they believed that a diversion
+      would be as practicable as it was necessary, namely, to bring me upon my
+      trial in such a manner that the Parliament could not refuse nor secure me
+      from the railleries of the most inconsiderable member. Everything that
+      tended to render the attack plausible was made use of, as well as
+      everything that might weaken my defence. The writing was signed by the
+      four Secretaries of State, and, the better to defeat all that I could say
+      in my justification, the Comte de Brienne was sent at the heels of the
+      deputies with an order to desire the Duc d'Orleans to come to a conference
+      with the Queen in relation to some few difficulties that remained
+      concerning the liberty of the Princes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the deputies had returned to Parliament, the First President began
+      with reading the paper which had been delivered to him against me, upon
+      which you might have read astonishment in every face. Menardeau, who was
+      to open the trenches against me, was afraid of a salvo from the Great
+      Hall, where he found such a crowd of people, and heard so many
+      acclamations to the Fronde, and so many imprecations against Mazarin, that
+      he durst not open his mouth against me, but contented himself with a
+      pathetic lamentation of the division that was in the State, and especially
+      in the royal family. The councillors were so divided that some of them
+      were for appointing public prayers for two days; others proposed to desire
+      his Royal Highness to take care of the public safety. I resolved to treat
+      the writing drawn up against me by the Cardinal as a satire and a libel,
+      and, by some ingenious, short passage, to arouse the minds of my hearers.
+      As my memory did not furnish me with anything in ancient authors that had
+      any relation to my subject, I made a small discourse in the best Latin I
+      was capable of, and then spoke thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Were it not for the profound respect I bear to the persons who have
+      spoken before me, I could not forbear complaining of their not crying out
+      against such a scurrilous, satirical paper, which was just now read,
+      contrary to all forms of proceeding, and written in the same style as
+      lately profaned the sacred name of the King, to encourage false witnesses
+      by letters-patent. I believe that those persons thought this paper, which
+      is but a sally of the furious Mazarin, to be much beneath themselves and
+      me. And that I may conform my opinion to theirs, I will answer only by
+      repeating a passage from an ancient author: 'In the worst of times I did
+      not forsake the city, in the most prosperous I had no particular views,
+      and in the most desperate times of all I feared nothing.' I desire to be
+      excused for running into this digression. I move that you would make
+      humble remonstrances to the King, to desire him to despatch an order
+      immediately for setting the Princes at liberty, to make a declaration in
+      their favour, and to remove Cardinal Mazarin from his person and
+      Councils."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My opinion was applauded both by the Frondeurs and the Prince's party, and
+      carried almost 'nemine contradicente'.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Talon, the Attorney-General, did wonders. I never heard or read anything
+      more eloquent or nervous. He invoked the names of Henri the Great, and
+      upon his knees recommended the kingdom of France in general to the
+      protection of Saint Louis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Brienne, who had been sent by the Queen to desire an interview with the
+      Duc d'Orleans, was dismissed with no other answer than that the Duke would
+      come to pay his humble duty to the Queen as soon as the Princes were at
+      liberty, and Cardinal Mazarin removed from the King's person and Councils.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 5th of February there was an assembly of the nobility at Nemours
+      for recovering their privileges. I opposed it to the utmost of my power,
+      for I had experienced more than once that nothing can be more pernicious
+      to a party than to engage without any necessity in such affairs as have
+      the bare appearance of faction, but I was obliged to comply. This
+      assembly, however, was so terrifying to the Court that six companies of
+      the Guards were ordered to mount, with which the Duc d'Orleans was so
+      offended that he sent word to the officers, in his capacity of
+      Lieutenant-General of the State, to receive no orders but from himself.
+      They answered very respectfully, but as men devoted to the Queen's
+      interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 6th, the Duke having taken his place in the Parliament, the King's
+      Council acquainted the House that, having been sent to wait on her Majesty
+      with the remonstrances, her Majesty's answer was that no person living
+      wished more for the liberty of the Princes than herself, but that it was
+      reasonable at the same time to consult the safety of the State; that as
+      for Cardinal Mazarin, she was resolved to retain him in her Council as
+      long as she found his assistance necessary for the King's service; and
+      that it did not belong to the Parliament to concern themselves with any of
+      her ministers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The First President was shrewdly attacked in the House for not being more
+      resolute in speaking to the Queen. Some were for sending him back to
+      demand another audience in the afternoon; and the Duc d'Orleans having
+      said that the Marshals of France were dependent on Mazarin, it was
+      resolved immediately that they should obey none but his Royal Highness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was informed that very evening that the Cardinal had made his escape out
+      of Paris in disguise, and that the Court was in a very great
+      consternation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal's escape was the common topic of conversation, and different
+      reasons were assigned to it, according to the various interests of
+      different parties. As for my part, I am very well persuaded that fear was
+      the only reason of his flight, and that nothing else hindered him from
+      taking the King and the Queen along with him. You will see in the sequel
+      of this history that he endeavoured to get their Majesties out of Paris
+      soon after he had made his escape, and that it was concerted in all
+      probability before he left the Court; but I could never understand why he
+      did not put it into execution at a time when he had no reason to fear the
+      least opposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 17th the Parliament ordered the thanks of the House to be returned
+      to the Queen for removing the Cardinal, and that she should be humbly
+      asked to issue an order for setting the Princes at liberty, and a
+      declaration for excluding all foreigners forever from the King's Council.
+      The First President being deputed with the message, the Queen told him
+      that she could return him no answer till she had conferred with the Duc
+      d'Orleans, to whom she immediately deputed the Keeper of the Seals,
+      Marechal Villeroi, and Tellier; but he told them that he could not go to
+      the Palais Royal till the Princes were set at liberty and the Cardinal
+      removed further from the Court. For he observed to the House that the
+      Cardinal was no further off than at Saint Germain, where he governed all
+      the kingdom as before, that his nephew and his nieces were yet at Court;
+      and the Duke proposed that the Parliament should humbly beseech the Queen
+      to explain whether the Cardinal's removal was for good and all. If I had
+      not seen it, I could not have imagined what a heat the House was in that
+      day. Some were for an order that there should be no favourites in France
+      for the future. They became at length of the opinion of his Royal
+      Highness, namely, to address the Queen to ask her to explain herself with
+      relation to the removal of Cardinal Mazarin and to solicit orders for the
+      liberty, of the Princes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the same day the Queen sent again to desire the Duc d'Orleans to come
+      and take his place in the Council, and to tell him that, in case he did
+      not think it convenient, she would send the Keeper of the Seals to concert
+      necessary measures with him for setting the Princes at liberty. His Royal
+      Highness accepted the second, but rejected the first proposal, and treated
+      M. d'Elbeuf roughly, because he was very pressing with his Royal Highness
+      to go to the King's Palace. The messengers likewise acquainted the Duke
+      that they were ordered to assure him that the removal of the Cardinal was
+      forever. You will see presently that, in all probability, had his Royal
+      Highness gone that day to Court, the Queen would have left Paris and
+      carried the Duke along with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 19th the Parliament decreed that, in pursuance of the Queen's
+      declaration, the Cardinal should, within the space of fifteen days, depart
+      from his Majesty's dominions, with all his relations and foreign servants;
+      otherwise, they should be proceeded against as outlaws, and it should be
+      lawful for anybody to despatch them out of the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I suspected that the King would leave Paris that very day, and I was
+      almost asleep when I was sent for to go to the Duc d'Orleans, whom
+      Mademoiselle de Chevreuse went to awaken in the meantime; and, while I was
+      dressing, one of her pages brought me a note from her, containing only
+      these few words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Make haste to Luxembourg, and be upon your guard on the way." I found
+      Mademoiselle de Chevreuse in his chamber, who acquainted me that the King
+      was out of bed, and had his boots on ready for a journey from Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I waited on the Duke, and said, "There is but one remedy, which is, to
+      secure the gates of Paris." Yet all that we could obtain of him was to
+      send the captain of the Swiss Guards to wait on the Queen and desire her
+      Majesty to weigh the consequences of an action of that nature. His
+      Duchess, perceiving that this expedient, if not supported effectually,
+      would ruin all, and that his Royal Highness was still as irresolute as
+      ever, called for pen and ink that lay upon the table in her cabinet, and
+      wrote these words on a large sheet of paper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. le Coadjuteur is ordered to take arms to hinder the adherents of
+      Cardinal Mazarin, condemned by the Parliament, from carrying the King out
+      of Paris. MARGUERITE DE LORRAINE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Des Touches, who found the Queen bathed in tears, was charged by her
+      Majesty to assure the Duc d'Orleans that she never thought of carrying
+      away the King, and that it was one of my tricks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans saying at the House next day that orders for the
+      Princes' liberty would be despatched in two hours' time, the First
+      President said, with a deep sigh, "The Prince de Conde is at liberty, but
+      our King, our sovereign Lord and King, is a prisoner." The Duc d'Orleans,
+      being now not near so timorous as before, because he had received more
+      acclamations in the streets than ever, replied, "Truly the King has been
+      Mazarin's prisoner, but, God be praised, he is now in better hands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal, who hovered about Paris till he heard the city had taken up
+      arms, posted to Havre-de-Grace, where he fawned upon the Prince de Conde
+      with a meanness of spirit that is hardly to be imagined; for he wept, and
+      even fell down on his knees to the Prince, who treated him with the utmost
+      contempt, giving him no thanks for his release.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 16th of February the Princes, being set at liberty, arrived in
+      Paris, and, after waiting on the Queen, supped with M. de Beaufort and
+      myself at the Duc d'Orleans's house, where we drank the King's health and
+      "No Mazarin!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 17th his Royal Highness carried them to the Parliament House, and
+      it is remarkable that the same people who but thirteen months before made
+      bonfires for their confinement did the same now for their release.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 20th the declaration demanded of the King against the Cardinal,
+      being brought to be registered in Parliament, was sent back with
+      indignation because the reason of his removal was coloured over with so
+      many encomiums that it was a perfect panegyric. Honest Broussel, who
+      always went greater lengths than anybody, was for excluding all cardinals
+      from the Ministry, as well as foreigners in general, because they swear
+      allegiance to the Pope. The First President, thinking to mortify me,
+      lauded Broussel for a man of admirable good sense, and espoused his
+      opinion; and the Prince de Conde, too, seemed to be overjoyed, saying, "It
+      is a charming echo." Indeed, I might well be troubled to think that the
+      very day after a treaty wherein the Duc d'Orleans declared that he was
+      resolved to make me a cardinal, the Prince should second a proposition so
+      derogatory to that dignity. But the truth is, the Prince had no hand in
+      it, for it came naturally, and was supported for no other reason but
+      because nothing that was brought as an argument against Mazarin could then
+      fail of being approved at the same time. I had some reason to think that
+      the motion was concerted beforehand by my enemies, to keep me out of the
+      Ministry. Nevertheless, I was not offended with the Parliament, the bulk
+      of whom I knew to be my friends, whose sole aim was to effectually
+      demolish Mazarin, and I acquiesced in the solid satisfaction which I had
+      in being considered in the world as the expeller of Mazarin, whom
+      everybody hated, and the deliverer of the Princes, who were as much their
+      darlings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The continual chicanery of the Court provoked the Parliament of Paris to
+      write to all the Parliaments of France to issue decrees against Cardinal
+      Mazarin, which they did accordingly. The Parliament obliged the Court to
+      issue a declaration setting forth the innocence of the Princes, and
+      another for the exclusion of cardinals&mdash;French as well as foreigners&mdash;from
+      the King's Council, and the Parliament had no rest till the Cardinal
+      retired from Sedan to Breule, a house belonging to the Elector of Cologne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had advice sent me from the Duchesse d'Orleans to be upon my guard, and
+      that she was on the point of dying with fear lest the Duke should be
+      forced by the daily menaces of the Court to abandon me. I thereupon waited
+      on the Duke, and told him that, having had the honour and satisfaction of
+      serving his Royal Highness in the two affairs which he had most at heart,&mdash;namely,
+      the expelling of Mazarin and the releasing of the Princes his cousins,&mdash;I
+      found myself now obliged to reassume the functions of my profession; that
+      the present opportunity seemed both to favour and invite my retreat, and
+      if I neglected it I should be the most imprudent man living, because my
+      presence for the future would not only be useless but even prejudicial to
+      his Royal Highness, whom I knew to be daily importuned and irritated by
+      the Court party merely upon my account; and therefore I conjured him to
+      make himself easy, and give me leave to retire to my cloister. The Duke
+      spared no kind words to retain me in his service, promised never to
+      forsake me, confessed that he had been urged to it by the Queen, and that,
+      though his reunion with her Majesty and the Princes obliged him to put on
+      the mask of friendship, yet he could never forget the great affronts and
+      injuries which he had received from the Court. But all this could not
+      dissuade me, and the Duke at last gave his approbation, with repeated
+      assurances to allow me a place next his heart and to correspond with me in
+      secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having taken my leave of the Princes, I retired accordingly to my cloister
+      of Notre-Dame, where I did not trust Providence so far as to omit the use
+      of human means for defending myself against the insults of my enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Except the visits which I paid in the night-time to the Hotel de
+      Chevreuse, I conversed with none but canons and cures. I was the object of
+      raillery both at Court and at the Palace of Conde; and because I had set
+      up a bird-cage at a window, it became a common jest that "the Coadjutor
+      whistled to the linnets." The disposition of Paris, however, made amends
+      for the raillery of the Court. I found myself very secure, while other
+      people were very uneasy. The cures, parish priests, and even the
+      mendicants, informed themselves with diligence of the negotiations of the
+      Prince de Conde. I gave M. de Beaufort a thrust now and then, which he
+      knew not how to parry with all his cunning, and the Duc d'Orleans, who in
+      his heart was enraged against the Court, continued his correspondence with
+      me very faithfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after, the Marechal du Plessis came to me at midnight and embraced
+      me, saying, "I greet you as our Prime Minister." When he saw that I
+      smiled, he added, "I do not jest; you may be so if you please. The Queen
+      has ordered me to tell you that she puts the King and Crown into your
+      hands." He showed me a letter written in the Cardinal's own hand to the
+      Queen, which concluded thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You know, madame, that the greatest enemy I have in the world is the
+      Coadjutor. Make use of him rather than treat with the Prince upon those
+      conditions he demands. Make him a cardinal, give him my place, and lodge
+      him in my apartments. Perhaps he will be still more attached to the Duc
+      d'Orleans than to your Majesty; but the Duke is not for the ruin of the
+      State. His intentions in the main are not bad. In a word, madame, do
+      anything rather than grant the Prince his demand to have the government of
+      Provence added to that of Guienne."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told the Marshal that I could not but be highly obliged to his Eminence,
+      and that I was under infinite obligations to the Queen; and to show my
+      gratitude, I humbly begged her Majesty to permit me to serve her without
+      any private interest of my own; said that I was very incapable for the
+      place of Prime Minister upon many accounts, and that it was not consistent
+      with her Majesty's dignity to raise a man to that high post who was still
+      reeking, as it were, with the fumes of faction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But," said the Marshal, "the place must be filled by somebody, and as
+      long as it is vacant the Prince will be always urging that Cardinal
+      Mazarin is to have it again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have," said I, "persons much fitter for it than I." Then he showed me
+      a letter signed by the Queen, promising me all manner of security if I
+      would come to Court. I went thither at midnight, according to agreement,
+      and the Marshal, who introduced me to the Queen by the back stairs, having
+      withdrawn, her Majesty used all the arguments she could to persuade me to
+      accept the place of Prime Minister, which I was determined to refuse,
+      because I found that she had the Cardinal at heart more than ever; for, as
+      soon as she saw I would not accept the post of Prime Minister, she offered
+      me the cardinal's hat, but with this proviso, that I would use my utmost
+      endeavours towards the restoration of Cardinal Mazarin. Then I judged it
+      high time for me to speak my mind, which I did as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a great affliction to me, madame, that public affairs are reduced
+      to such a pass as not only warrants, but even commands a subject to speak
+      to his sovereign in the style in which I am now about to address your
+      Majesty. It is well known to you that one of my worst crimes in the
+      Cardinal's opinion is that I foretold all these things, and that I have
+      passed for the author of events of which I was only the prophet. Your
+      Majesty would fain extricate yourself with honour, and you are in the
+      right; but permit me to tell you, as my opinion, that it can never be
+      effected so long as your Majesty entertains any thoughts of reestablishing
+      Mazarin. I should fail in the respect I owe to your Majesty if I pretended
+      to thwart your Majesty's opinion with regard to the Cardinal in any other
+      way than with my most humble remonstrances; but I humbly conceive I do but
+      discharge my bounden duty while I respectfully represent to your Majesty
+      wherein I may be serviceable or useless to you at this critical juncture.
+      Your Majesty has the Prince to cope with, who, indeed, is for the
+      restoration of the Cardinal, but upon condition that you give him such
+      powers beforehand as will enable him to ruin him at pleasure. To resist
+      the Prince you want the Duc d'Orleans, who is absolutely against the
+      Cardinal's reestablishment, and who, provided he be excluded, will do what
+      your Majesty pleases to command him. You will neither satisfy the Prince
+      nor the Duke. I am extremely desirous to serve your Majesty against the
+      one and with the other, but I can do neither the one nor the other without
+      making use of proper means for obtaining those two different ends."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come over to me," said she, "and I shall not care a straw for all the
+      Duke can do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered, "Should I do so, and should it appear never so little that I
+      was on terms of reconciliation with the Cardinal, I could serve your
+      Majesty with neither the Duke nor the people, for both would hate me
+      mortally, and I should be as useless to your Majesty as the Bishop of
+      Dole."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this the Queen was very angry, and said, "Heaven bless my son the King,
+      for he is deserted by all the world! I do all I can for you, I offer you a
+      place in my Council, I offer you the cardinalship; pray what will you do
+      for me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I said that I did not come to receive favours, but to try to merit them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this the Queen's countenance began to brighten, and she said, very
+      softly, "What is it, then, that you will do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madame," said I, "I will oblige the Prince, before a week is at an end,
+      to leave Paris; and I will detach the Duke from his interest to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, overjoyed, held out her hand and said, "Give me yours, and I
+      promise you that you shall be cardinal the next day, and the second man in
+      my friendship." She desired also that Mazarin and I might be good friends;
+      but I answered that the least touch upon that string would put me out of
+      tune and render me incapable of doing her any service; therefore I
+      conjured her to let me still enjoy the character of being his enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Was anything," said the Queen, "ever so strange and unaccountable? Can
+      you not possibly serve me without being the enemy of him in whom I most
+      confide?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told her it must needs be so. "Madame," I said, "I humbly beseech your
+      Majesty to let me tell you that, as long as the place of Prime Minister is
+      not filled up, the Prince will increase in power on pretence that it is
+      kept vacant to receive the Cardinal by a speedy restoration."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see," said her Majesty, "how the Prince treats me; he has insulted me
+      ever since I disowned my two traitors,&mdash;Servien and Lionne." I took
+      the opportunity while she was flushed with anger to make my court to her
+      by saying that before two days were at an end the Prince should affront
+      her no longer. But the tenderness she had for her beloved Cardinal made
+      her unwilling to consent that I should continue to exclaim against his
+      Eminence in Parliament, where one was obliged to handle him very roughly
+      almost every quarter of an hour. She bade me remember that it was the
+      Cardinal who had solicited my nomination. I answered that I was highly
+      obliged to his Eminence upon that score, and that I was ready to give him
+      proofs of my acknowledgment in anything wherein my honour was not
+      concerned, but that I should be a double-dealer if I promised to
+      contribute to his reestablishment. Then she said, "Go! you are a very
+      devil. See Madame Palatine, and let me hear from you the night before you
+      go to the Parliament."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not think I was in the wrong to refuse her offer. We must never jest
+      with proffered service; for if it be real, we can never embrace it too
+      much; but if false, we can never keep at too great a distance. I lamented
+      to the public the sad condition of our affairs, which had obliged me to
+      leave my dear retirement, where, after so much disturbance and confusion,
+      I hoped to enjoy comfortable rest; that we were falling into a worse
+      condition than we were in before, because the State suffered more by the
+      daily negotiations carried on with Mazarin than it had done by his
+      administrations; and that the Queen was still buoyed up with hopes of his
+      reestablishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince de Conde having inflamed the Parliament, to make himself more
+      formidable to the Queen and Court, some new scenes were opened every day.
+      At one time they sent to the provinces to inform against the Cardinal; at
+      another time they made search after his effects at Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went one day with four hundred men in my company to the Parliament
+      House, where the Prince de Conde inveighed against the exportation of
+      money out of the kingdom by the Cardinal's banker. But afterwards I
+      absented myself for awhile from Parliament, which made me suspected of
+      being less an enemy to the Cardinal, and I was pelted with a dozen or
+      fifteen libels in the space of a fortnight, by a fellow whose nose had
+      been slit for writing a lampoon against a lady of quality. I composed a
+      short but general answer to all, entitled "An Apology for the Ancient and
+      True Fronde." There was a strong paper war between the old and new Fronde
+      for three or four months, but afterwards they united in the attack on
+      Mazarin. There were about sixty volumes of tracts written during the civil
+      war, but I am sure that there are not a hundred sheets worth reading.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><a name="p346j" id="p346j"></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="p346j.jpg (72K)" src="images/p346j.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was sent for again to another private conference with the Queen, who,
+      dreading an arrangement with the Prince de Conde, was for his being
+      arrested, and advised me to consider how it might be done. It seems that
+      M. Hoquincourt had offered to kill him in the street, as the shortest way
+      to be rid of him, for she desired me to confer about it with Hoquincourt,
+      "who will," said she, "show you a much surer way." The Queen,
+      nevertheless, would not own she had ever such a thought, though she was
+      heard to say, "The Coadjutor is not a man of so much courage as I took him
+      for."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day I was informed that the Queen could endure the Prince no
+      longer, and that she had advices that he had formed a design to seize the
+      King; that he had despatched orders to Flanders to treat with the
+      Spaniards, and that either he or she must be ruined; that she was not for
+      shedding blood, and that what Hoquincourt proposed was far from it,
+      because he promised to secure the Prince without striking a blow if I
+      would answer for the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Parliament continued to prosecute Mazarin, who was convicted of
+      embezzling some nine millions of the public money. The Prince assembled
+      the Chambers, and persuaded them to issue a new decree against all those
+      of the Court party who held correspondence with the said Cardinal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince de Conde, being uneasy at seeing Mazarin's creatures still at
+      Court, retired to Saint Maur on the 6th of July, 1651. On the 7th the
+      Prince de Conti acquainted the Parliament with the reasons for his
+      departure, and talked in general of the warnings he had received from
+      different hands of a design the Court had formed against his life, adding
+      that his brother could not be safe at Court as long as Tellier, Servien,
+      and Lionne were not removed. There was a very hot debate in the ensuing
+      session between the Prince de Conti and the First President. The latter
+      talked very warmly against his retreat to Saint Maur, and called it a
+      melancholy prelude to a civil war. He hinted also that the said Prince was
+      the author of the late disturbances, upon which the Prince de Conti
+      threatened that had he been in any other place he would have taught him to
+      observe the respect due to Princes of the blood. The First President said
+      that he did not fear his threats, and that he had reason to complain of
+      his Royal Highness for presuming to interrupt him in a place where he
+      represented the King's person. Both parties were now in hot blood, and the
+      Duke, who was very glad to see it, did not interpose till he could not
+      avoid it, and then he told them both that they should endeavour to keep
+      their temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 14th of July a decree was passed, upon a motion made by the Duc
+      d'Orleans, that the thanks of the Parliament should be presented to her
+      Majesty for her gracious promise that the Cardinal should never return;
+      that she should be most humbly entreated to send a declaration to
+      Parliament, and likewise to give the Prince de Conde all the necessary
+      securities for his return; and that those persons who kept up
+      correspondence with Mazarin should be immediately prosecuted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 18th the First President carried the remonstrances of the
+      Parliament to the Queen, and though he took care to keep within the terms
+      of the decree, by not naming the under ministers, yet he pointed them out
+      in such a manner that the Queen complained bitterly, saying that the First
+      President was "an unaccountable man, and more vexatious than any of the
+      malcontents."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I took the liberty to show her that the representative of an assembly
+      could not, without prevarication, but deliver the thoughts of the whole
+      body, though they might be different from his own, she replied, very
+      angrily, "These are mere republican maxims."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will give you an account of the success of the remonstrances after I
+      have related an adventure to you which happened at the Parliament House
+      during these debates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The importance of the subject drew thither a large number of ladies who
+      were curious to hear what passed. Madame and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse,
+      with many other ladies, were there the evening before the decree was
+      passed; but they were singled out from the rest by one Maillard, a
+      brawling fellow, hired by the Prince's party. As ladies are commonly
+      afraid of a crowd, they stayed till the Duc d'Orleans and the rest were
+      gone out, but when they came into the hall they were hooted by twenty or
+      thirty ragamuffins of the same quality as their leader, who was a cobbler.
+      I knew nothing of it till I came to the Palace of Chevreuse, where I found
+      Madame de Chevreuse in a rage and her daughter in tears. I endeavoured to
+      comfort them by the assurance that I would take care to get the scoundrels
+      punished in an exemplary manner that very day. But these were too
+      inconsiderable victims to atone for such an affront, and were therefore
+      rejected with indignation. The blood of Bourbon only could make amends for
+      the injury done to that of Lorraine. These were the very words of Madame
+      de Chevreuse. They resolved at last upon this expedition,&mdash;to go
+      again next morning to the House, but so well accompanied as to be in a
+      condition of making themselves respected, and of giving the Prince de
+      Conti to understand that it was to his interest to keep his party for the
+      future from committing the like insolence. Montresor, who happened to be
+      with us, did all he could to convince the ladies how dangerous it was to
+      make a private quarrel of a public one, especially at a time when a Prince
+      of the blood might possibly lose his life in the fray. When he found that
+      he could not prevail upon them, he used all means to persuade me to put
+      off my resentment, for which end he drew me aside to tell me what joy and
+      triumph it would be to my enemies to suffer myself to be captivated or led
+      away by the violence of the ladies' passion. I made him the following
+      answer: "I am certainly to blame, both with regard to my profession and on
+      account of my having my hands full, to be so far engaged with Mademoiselle
+      de Chevreuse; but, considering the obligation I am under to her, and that
+      it is too late to recede from it, I am in the right in demanding
+      satisfaction in this present juncture. I will not by any means assassinate
+      the Prince de Conti; but she may command me to do anything except
+      poisoning or assassinating, and therefore speak no more to me on this
+      head."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies went again, therefore, next day, being accompanied by four
+      hundred gentlemen and above four thousand of the most substantial
+      burghers. The rabble that was hired to make a clamour in the Great Hall
+      sneaked out of sight, and the Prince de Conti, who had not been apprised
+      of this assembly, which was formed with great secrecy, was fain to pass by
+      Madame and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse with demonstrations of the
+      profoundest respect, and to suffer Maillard, who was caught on the stairs
+      of the chapel, to be soundly cudgelled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I return to the issue of the remonstrances. The Queen told the deputies
+      that she would next morning send to the House a declaration against
+      Cardinal Mazarin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 21st the Prince de Conde came to Parliament accompanied by M. de La
+      Rochefoucault and fifty or sixty gentlemen, and congratulated them upon
+      the removal of the ministers, but said that it could not be effectual
+      without inserting an article in the declaration which the Queen had
+      promised to send to the Parliament. The First President said that it would
+      be both unjust and inconsistent with the respect due to the Queen to
+      demand new conditions of her every day; that her Majesty's promise, of
+      which she had made the Parliament a depositary, was a sufficient security;
+      that it was to be wished that the Prince had shown a due confidence
+      therein by repairing to the Palais Royal rather than to a court of
+      justice; and that the post he was in obliged him to express his surprise
+      at such conduct. The Prince replied that the First President had no reason
+      to wonder at his great precautions, since he (the Prince) knew by recent
+      woeful experience what it was to live in a prison; and that it was
+      notorious that the Cardinal ruled now in the Cabinet more absolutely than
+      ever he did before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans, who was gone to Limours on pretence of taking the air,
+      though on purpose to be absent from Parliament, being informed that the
+      very women cried at the King's coach "No Mazarin!" and that the Prince de
+      Conde, as well attended as his Majesty, had met the King in the park, was
+      so frightened that he returned to Paris, and on the 2d of August went to
+      Parliament, where I appeared with all my friends and a great number of
+      wealthy citizens. The First President mightily extolled the Queen's
+      goodness in making the Parliament the depositary of her promise for the
+      security of the Prince, who, being there present, was asked by the First
+      President if he had waited on the King? The Prince said he had not,
+      because he knew there would be danger in it, having been well informed
+      that secret conferences had been held to arrest him, and that in a proper
+      time and place he would name the authors. The Prince added that messengers
+      were continually going and coming betwixt the Court and Mazarin at Breule,
+      and that Marechal d'Aumont had orders to cut to pieces the regiments of
+      Conde, Conti, and Enghien, which was the only reason that had hindered
+      them from joining the King's army.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The First President told him that he was sorry to see him there before he
+      had waited on the King, and that it seemed as if he were for setting up
+      altar against altar. This nettled the Prince to that degree that he said
+      that those who talked against him had only self-interests in view. The
+      First President denied that he had any such aim, and said that he was
+      accountable to the King only for his actions. Then he exaggerated the
+      danger of the State from the unhappy division of the royal family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finally it was resolved, 'nemine contradicente', that the
+      Solicitor-General should be commissioned to prosecute those who had
+      advised the arrest of the Prince de Conde; that the Queen's promise for
+      the safety of the Prince should be registered; that his Royal Highness
+      should be desired by the whole assembly to go and wait on the King; and
+      that the decrees passed against the servitors of Mazarin should be put
+      into execution. The Prince, who seemed very well satisfied, said that
+      nothing less than this could assure him of his safety. The Duc d'Orleans
+      carried him to the King and the Queen, from whom he met with but a cold
+      reception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the close of this session the declaration against the Cardinal was read
+      and sent back to the Chancellor, because it was not inserted that the
+      Cardinal had hindered the Peace of Munster, and advised the King to
+      undertake the journey and siege of Bordeaux, contrary to the opinion of
+      the Duc d'Orleans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, provoked by the conduct of the Prince de Conde, who rode
+      through the streets of Paris better attended than the King, and also by
+      that of the Duke, whom she found continually given to change, resolved, in
+      a fit of despair, to hazard all at once. M. de Chateauneuf flattered her
+      inclination on that point, and she was confirmed in it by a fiery despatch
+      from Mazarin at Bruele. She told the Duc d'Orleans plainly that she could
+      no longer continue in her present condition, demanded his express
+      declaration for or against her, and charged me, in his presence, to keep
+      the promise I had made her, to declare openly against the Prince if he
+      continued to go on as he had begun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her Majesty was convinced that I acted sincerely for her service, and that
+      I made no scruple to keep my promise; and she condescended to make
+      apologies for the distrust she had entertained of my conduct, and for the
+      injustice she owned she had done me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 19th, the Prince de Conde having taxed me with being the author of
+      a paper against him, which was read that day in the House, said he had a
+      paper, signed by the Duc d'Orleans, which contained his justification, and
+      that he should be much obliged to the Parliament if they would be pleased
+      to desire her Majesty to name his accusers, against whom he demanded
+      justice. As to the paper of which he charged me with being the author, he
+      said it was a composition worthy of a man who had advised the arming of
+      the Parisians and the wresting of the seals from him with whom the Queen
+      had entrusted them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince de Conti was observed to press his brother to resent what I
+      said in my defence, but he kept his temper; for though I was very well
+      accompanied, yet he was considerably superior to me in numbers, so that if
+      the sword had been drawn he must have had the advantage. But I resolved to
+      appear there the next day with a greater retinue. The Queen was
+      transported with joy to hear that there were men who had the resolution to
+      dispute the wall with the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ["The Queen," says M. de La Rochefoucault in his Memoirs, "was overjoyed
+      to see two men at variance whom in her heart she hated almost equally....
+      Nevertheless, she seemed to protect the Coadjutor."]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She ordered thirty gendarmes and as many Light-horse to be posted where I
+      pleased; I had forty men sent me, picked out of the sergeants and bravest
+      soldiers of one of the regiments of Guards, and some of the officers of
+      the city companies, and assembled a great number of substantial burghers,
+      all of whom had pistols and daggers under their cloaks. I also sent many
+      of my men to the eating-houses thereabouts, so that the Great Hall was, as
+      it were, invested on every side with my friends. I posted thirty gentlemen
+      as a reserve in a convenient chamber, who, in case of an attack, were to
+      assault the party of the Prince in flank and rear. I had also laid up a
+      store of grenades. In a word, my measures were so nicely concerted, both
+      within and without the Parliament House, that Pont Notre-Dame and Pont
+      Saint Michel, who were passionately in my interest, only waited for the
+      signal; so that in all likelihood I could not fail of being conqueror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the morning of the 21st all the Prince de Conde's humble servants
+      repaired to his house, and my friends did the like to mine, particularly
+      the Marquises of Rouillac and Camillac, famous both for their courage and
+      extravagances. As soon as the latter saw Rouillac, he made me a low bow in
+      a withdrawing posture, saying, "Monsieur, I came to offer you my service,
+      but it is not reasonable that the two greatest fools in the kingdom should
+      be of the same side." The Prince came to the House with a numerous
+      attendance, and though I believe he had not so many as I, he had more
+      persons of quality, for I had only the Fronde nobility on my side, except
+      three or four who, though in the Queen's interest, were nevertheless my
+      particular friends; this disadvantage, however, was abundantly made up by
+      the great interest I had among the people and the advantageous posts I was
+      possessed of. After the Prince had taken his place, he said that he was
+      surprised to see the Parliament House look more like a camp than a temple
+      of justice; that there were posts taken, and men under command; and that
+      he hoped there were not men in the kingdom so insolent as to dispute the
+      precedence with him. Whereupon I humbly begged his pardon, and told him
+      that I believed there was not a man in France so insolent as to do it; but
+      that there were some who could not, nor indeed ought not, on account of
+      their dignity, yield the precedence to any man but the King. The Prince
+      replied that he would make me yield it to him. I told him he would find it
+      no easy matter. Upon this there was a great outcry, and the young
+      councillors of both parties interested themselves in the contest, which,
+      you see, began pretty warmly. The Presidents interposed between us,
+      conjuring him to have some regard to the temple of justice and the safety
+      of the city, and desiring that all the nobility and others in the hall
+      that were armed might be turned out. He approved of it, and bade M. de La
+      Rochefoucault go and tell his friends so from him. Upon which I said, "I
+      will order my friends to withdraw also." Young D'Avaux, now President de
+      Mesmes, then in the Prince's interest, said, "What! monsieur, are you
+      armed?"&mdash;"Without doubt," I said; though I had better have held my
+      tongue, because an inferior ought to be respectful in words to his
+      superior, though he may equal him in actions. Neither is it allowable in a
+      Churchman when armed to confess it. There are some things wherein men are
+      willing to be deceived. Actions very often vindicate men's reputations in
+      what they do against the dignity of their profession, but nothing can
+      justify words that are inconsistent with their character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I had desired my friends to withdraw, and was entering into the Court
+      of Judicature, I heard an uproar in the hall of people crying out "To
+      arms!" I had a mind to go back to see what was the matter; but I had not
+      time to do it, for I found myself caught by the neck between the folding
+      doors, which M. de La Rochefoucault had shut on me, crying out to MM.
+      Coligny and Ricousse to kill me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [This action is very much disguised and softened in the Memoirs of
+      Rochefoucault. M. Joly, in his Memoirs, vol. i., p. 155, tells it almost
+      in... the same manner as the Cardinal de Retz.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first thought he was not in earnest, and the other told him he had no
+      such order from the Prince. M. Champlatreux, running into the hall and
+      seeing me in that condition, vigorously pushed back M. de La
+      Rochefoucault, telling him that a murder of that nature was horrible and
+      scandalous. He opened the door and let me in. But this was not the
+      greatest danger I was in, as you will see after I have told you the
+      beginning and end of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two or three of the Prince de Conde's mob cried out, as soon as they saw
+      me, "A Mazarin!" Two of the Prince's soldiers drew their swords, those
+      next to them cried out, "To your arms!" and in a trice all were in a
+      fighting posture. My friends drew their swords, daggers, and pistols, and
+      yet, as it were by a miracle, they stopped their hands on a sudden from
+      action; for in that very instant of time, Crenan, one of my old friends,
+      who commanded a company of the Prince de Conti's gendarmes, said to
+      Laigues, "What are we doing? Must we let the Prince de Conde and the
+      Coadjutor be murdered? Whoever does not put up his sword is a rascal!"
+      This expression coming from a man of great courage and reputation, every
+      one did as he bade them. Nor is Argenteuil's courage and presence of mind
+      to be less admired. He being near me when I was caught by the neck between
+      the folding doors, and observing one Peche,&mdash;[Joly calls him "The
+      great clamourer of the Prince." See his Memoirs, p. 157.]&mdash;a brawling
+      fellow of the Prince's party, looking for me with a dagger in his hand,
+      screened me with his cloak, and thereby saved my life, which was in the
+      more danger because my friends, who supposed I was gone into the Great
+      Chamber, stayed behind to engage with the Prince de Conde's party. The
+      Prince told me since that it was well I kept on the defensive, and that
+      had the noise in the hall continued but a minute longer, he would himself
+      have taken me by the throat and made me pay for all; but I am fully
+      persuaded that the consequences would have been fatal to both parties, and
+      that he himself had had a narrow escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as I reentered the Great Chamber I told the First President that I
+      owed my life to his son, who on that occasion did the most generous action
+      that a man of honour was capable of, because he was passionately attached
+      to the Prince de Conde, and was persuaded, though without a cause, that I
+      was concerned in above twenty editions against his father during the siege
+      of Paris. There are few actions more heroic than this, the memory of which
+      I shall carry to my grave. I also added that M. de La Rochefoucault had
+      done all he could to murder me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [The Duke answered, as he says himself in his Memoirs, that fear had
+      disturbed his judgment, etc. See in the Memoirs of M. de La Rochefoucault,
+      the relation of what passed after the confinement of the Princes.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He answered me these very words: "Thou traitor, I don't care what becomes
+      of thee." I replied, "Very well, Friend Franchise" (we gave him that
+      nickname in our party); "you are a coward" (I told a lie, for he was
+      certainly a brave man), "and I am a priest; but dueling is not allowed
+      us." M. de Brissac threatened to cudgel him, and he to kick Brissac. The
+      President, fearing these words would end in blows, got between us. The
+      First President conjured the Prince pathetically, by the blood of Saint
+      Louis, not to defile with blood that temple which he had given for the
+      preservation of peace and the protection of justice; and exhorted me, by
+      my sacred character, not to contribute to the massacre of the people whom
+      God had committed to my charge. Both the Prince and I sent out two
+      gentlemen to order our friends and servants to retire by different ways.
+      The clock struck ten, the House rose, and thus ended that morning's work,
+      which was likely to have ruined Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You may easily guess what a commotion Paris was in all that morning.
+      Tradesmen worked in their shops with their muskets by them, and the women
+      were at prayers in the churches. Sadness sat on the brows of all who were
+      not actually engaged in either party. The Prince, if we may believe the
+      Comte de Fiesque, told him that Paris narrowly escaped being burnt that
+      day. "What a fine bonfire this would have been for the Cardinal," said he;
+      "especially to see it lighted by the two greatest enemies he had!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans, quite tired out with the cries of the people, who ran
+      affrighted to his palace, and fearing that the commotion would not stop at
+      the Parliament House, made the Prince promise that he would not go next
+      day to the Parliament with above five in company, provided I would engage
+      to carry no more. I begged his Royal Highness to excuse me if I did not
+      comply, because I should be wanting in my respect to the Prince, with whom
+      I ought not to make any comparison, and because I should be still exposed
+      to a pack of seditious brawlers, who cried out against me, having no laws
+      nor owning any chief. I added that it was only against this sort of people
+      that I armed; that there was so little comparison between a private
+      gentleman and his Highness that five hundred men were less to the Prince
+      than a single lackey to me. The Duke, who owned I was in the right, went
+      to the Queen to represent to her the evil consequences that would
+      inevitably attend such measures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, who neither feared nor foresaw dangers, made no account of his
+      remonstrances, for she was glad in the main of the dangers which seemed to
+      be so near at hand. When Bertet and Brachet, who crept up to the garrets
+      of the Palais Royal for fear of having their throats cut in the general
+      commotion, had made her sensible that if the Prince and myself should
+      perish in such a juncture it would occasion such a confusion that the very
+      name of Mazarin might become fatal to the royal family, she yielded rather
+      to her fears than to her convictions, and consented to send an order in
+      the King's name to forbid both the Prince and me to go to the House. The
+      First President, who was well assured that the Prince would not obey an
+      order of that nature, which could not be forced upon him with justice,
+      because his presence was necessary in the Parliament, went to the Queen
+      and made her sensible that it would be against all justice and equity to
+      forbid the Prince to be present in an assembly where he went only to clear
+      himself from a crime laid to his charge. He showed her the difference
+      between the first Prince of the blood, whose presence would be necessary
+      in that conjuncture, and a Coadjutor of Paris, who never had a seat in the
+      Parliament but by courtesy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen yielded at last to these reasons and to the entreaties of all
+      the Court ladies, who dreaded the noise and confusion which was likely to
+      occur next day in the Parliament House.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Parliament met next day, and resolved that all the papers, both of the
+      Queen, the Duc d'Orleans, and the Prince de Conde, should be carried to
+      the King and Queen, that her Majesty should be humbly entreated to
+      terminate the affair, and that the Duc d'Orleans should be desired to make
+      overtures towards a reconciliation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Prince was coming out of the Parliament House, attended by a
+      multitude of his friends, I met him in his coach as I was at the head of a
+      procession of thirty or forty cures of Paris, followed by a great number
+      of people. Upon my approach, three or four of the mob following the Prince
+      cried out, "A Mazarin!" but the Prince alighted and silenced them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [M. de La Rochefoucault, in his Memoirs, says that the people abused the
+      Coadjutor with scurrilous language, and would have torn him in pieces if
+      the prince had not ordered his men to appease the tumult.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then fell on his knees to receive my blessing, which I gave him with my
+      hat on, and then pulled it off in obeisance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen was so well pleased with my prudent conduct that I can truly say
+      I was a favourite for some days. Madame de Carignan was telling her one
+      day that I was very homely, to which the Queen replied, "He has a very
+      fine set of teeth, and a man cannot be called homely who has this
+      ornament." Madame de Chevreuse remembered that she had often heard the
+      Queen say that the beauty of a man consisted chiefly in his teeth, because
+      it was the only beauty which was of any use. Therefore she advised me to
+      act my part well, and she should not despair of success. "When you are
+      with the Queen," said she, "be serious; look continually on her hands,
+      storm against the Cardinal, and I will take care of the rest" I asked two
+      or three audiences of the Queen upon very trifling occasions, followed
+      Madame de Chevreuse's plan very closely, and carried my resentment and
+      passion against the Cardinal even to extravagance. The Queen, who was
+      naturally a coquette, understood those airs, and acquainted Madame de
+      Chevreuse therewith, who pretended to be surprised, saying, "Indeed, I
+      have heard the Coadjutor talk of your Majesty whole days with delight; but
+      if the conversation happened to touch upon the Cardinal, he was no longer
+      the same man, and even raved against your Majesty, but immediately
+      relented towards you, though never towards the Cardinal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame de Chevreuse, who was the Queen's confidante in her youth, gave me
+      such a history of her early days as I cannot omit giving you, though I
+      should have done it sooner. She told me that the Queen was neither in body
+      nor mind truly Spanish; that she had neither the temperament nor the
+      vivacity of her nation, but only the coquetry of it, which she retained in
+      perfection; that M. Bellegarde, a gallant old gentleman, after the fashion
+      of the Court of Henri III., pleased her till he was going to the army,
+      when he begged for one favour before his departure, which was only to put
+      her hand to the hilt of his sword, a compliment so insipid that her
+      Majesty was out of conceit with him ever after. She approved the gallant
+      manner of M. de Montmorency much more than she loved his person. The
+      aversion she had to the pedantic behaviour of Cardinal de Richelieu, who
+      in his amours was as ridiculous as he was in other things excellent, made
+      her irreconcilable to his addresses. She had observed from the beginning
+      of the Regency a great inclination in the Queen for Mazarin, but that she
+      had not been able to discover how far that inclination went, because she
+      (Madame de Chevreuse) had been banished from the Court very soon after;
+      and that upon her return to France, after the siege of Paris, the Queen
+      was so reserved at first with her that it was impossible for her to dive
+      into her secrets. That since she regained her Majesty's favour she had
+      sometimes observed the same airs in her with regard to Cardinal Mazarin as
+      she used to display formerly in favour of the Duke of Buckingham; but at
+      other times she thought that there was no more between them than a league
+      of friendship. The chief ground for her conjecture was the impolite and
+      almost rude way in which the Cardinal conversed with her Majesty. "But,
+      however," said Madame de Chevreuse, "when I reflect on the Queen's humour,
+      all this may admit of another interpretation. Buckingham used to tell me
+      that he had been in love with three Queens, and was obliged to curb all
+      the three; therefore I cannot tell what to think of the matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To resume the history of more public affairs. I did not so far please
+      myself with the figure I made against the Prince (though I thought it very
+      much for my honour), but I saw clearly that I stood on a dangerous
+      precipice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whither are we going?" I said to M. Bellievre, who seemed to be overjoyed
+      that the Prince had not been able to devour me; "for whom do we labour? I
+      know that we are obliged to act as we do; I know, too, that we cannot do
+      better; but should we rejoice at the fatal necessity which pushes us on to
+      exert an action comparatively good and which will unavoidably end in a
+      superlative evil?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I understand you," said the President, "and will interrupt you for one
+      moment to tell you what I learned of Cromwell" (whom he had known in
+      England). "He told me one day that it is then we are mounting highest when
+      we ourselves do not know whither we are going."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You know, monsieur," said I to Bellievre, "that I abhor Cromwell; and
+      whatever is commonly reported of his great parts, if he is of this
+      opinion, I must pronounce him a fool."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I mentioned this dialogue for no other purpose than to observe how
+      dangerous it is to talk disrespectfully of men in high positions; for it
+      was carried to Cromwell, who remembered it with a great deal of resentment
+      on an occasion which I shall mention hereafter, and said to M. de
+      Bourdeaux, Ambassador of France, then in England, "I know but one man in
+      the world who despises me, and that is Cardinal de Retz." This opinion of
+      him was likely to have cost me very dear. I return from this digression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 31st, Melayer, valet de chambre to the Cardinal, arrived with a
+      despatch to the Queen, in which were these words: "Give the Prince de
+      Conde all the declarations of his innocence that he can desire, provided
+      you can but amuse him and hinder him from giving you the slip."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 4th the Prince de Conde insisted in Parliament on a formal decree
+      for declaring his innocence, which was granted, but deferred to be
+      published till the 7th of September (the day that the King came of age),
+      on pretence of rendering it more authentic and solemn by the King's
+      presence, but really to gain time, and see what influence the splendour of
+      royalty, which was to be clothed that day with all the advantages of pomp,
+      would have upon the minds of the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Prince de Conde, who had reason to distrust both the Fronde and
+      the Court, did not appear at the ceremony, and sent the Prince de Conti to
+      the King to desire to be excused, because the calumnies and treacheries of
+      his enemies would not suffer him to come to the Palace; adding that he
+      kept away out of pure respect to his Majesty. This last expression, which
+      seemed to intimate that otherwise he might have gone thither without
+      danger, provoked the Queen to that degree that she said, "The Prince or I
+      must perish."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince de Conde retired to Bourges,&mdash;further from Court. He was
+      naturally averse to a civil war, nor would his adherents have been more
+      forward than himself if they had found their interests in his
+      reconciliation to the Court; but this seemed impracticable, and therefore
+      they agreed upon a civil war, because none of them believed themselves
+      powerful enough to conclude a peace. They know nothing of the nature of
+      faction who imagine the head of a party to be their master. His true
+      interest is most commonly thwarted by the imaginary interests even of his
+      subalterns, and the worst of it is that his own honour sometimes, and
+      generally prudence, joins with them against himself. The passions and
+      discontent which reigned then among the friends of the Prince de Conde ran
+      so high that they were obliged to abandon him and form a third party,
+      under the authority of the Prince de Conti, in case the Prince
+      accomplished his reconciliation to the Court, according to a proposition
+      then made to him in the name of the Duc d'Orleans. The subdivision of
+      parties is generally the ruin of all, especially when it is introduced by
+      cunning views, directly contrary to prudence; and this is what the
+      Italians call, in comedy, a "plot within a plot," or a "wheel within a
+      wheel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <a name="book4" id="book4"></a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      BOOK IV.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In December, 1651, the Parliament agreed to the following resolution: To
+      send a deputation to the King to inform him of the rumours of Mazarin's
+      return, and to beseech him to confirm the royal promise which he had made
+      to his people upon that head; to forbid all governors to give the Cardinal
+      passage; to desire the King to acquaint the Pope and other Princes with
+      the reasons that had obliged him to remove the Cardinal; and to send to
+      all the Parliaments of the kingdom to make the like decree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Somebody making a motion that a price might be set upon the Cardinal's
+      head, I and the rest of the spiritual councillors retired, because
+      clergymen are forbidden by the canon law to give their vote in cases of
+      life and death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They agreed also to send deputies to the King to entreat him to write to
+      the Elector of Cologne to send the Cardinal out of his country, and to
+      forbid the magistrates of all cities to entertain any troops sent to
+      favour his return or any of his kindred or domestics. A certain councillor
+      who said, very judiciously, that the soldiers assembling for Mazarin upon
+      the frontiers would laugh at all the decrees of Parliament unless they
+      were proclaimed to them by good musketeers and pikemen, was run down as if
+      he had talked nonsense, and all the clamour was that it belonged only to
+      the King to disband soldiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans acquainted the House, on the 29th, that Cardinal Mazarin
+      had arrived at Sedan; that Marechals de Hoquincourt and de la Ferte were
+      gone to join him with their army to bring him to Court; and that it was
+      high time to oppose his designs. Upon this it was immediately resolved
+      that deputies should be despatched forthwith to the King; that the
+      Cardinal and all his adherents should be declared guilty of high treason;
+      that the common people should be commanded to treat them as such wherever
+      they met them; that his library and all his household goods should be
+      sold, and that 150,000 livres premium should be given to any man who
+      should deliver up the said Cardinal, either dead or alive. Upon this
+      expression all the ecclesiastics retired, for the reason above mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A new decree was passed on the 2d of January, 1652, wherein it was decided
+      that all the Parliaments of France should be invited to issue their
+      decrees against Mazarin, conformable to the last; that two more
+      councillors should be added to the four sent to guard the rivers and to
+      arm the common people; and that the troops of the Duc d'Orleans should
+      oppose the march of Mazarin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 24th the deputies who had been to Poitiers to remonstrate with the
+      King against the return of the Cardinal, made their report in Parliament,
+      to the effect that his Majesty, after having consulted with the Queen and
+      her Council, returned for answer, that without doubt, when the Parliament
+      issued their late decrees, they did not know that Cardinal Mazarin had
+      made no levy of soldiers but by his Majesty's express orders; that it was
+      he who commanded him to enter France with his troops, and that therefore
+      the King did not resent what the company had done; but that, on the other
+      hand, he did not doubt that when they had heard the circumstances he had
+      just mentioned, and knew, moreover, that Cardinal Mazarin only desired an
+      opportunity to justify himself, they would not fail to give all his
+      subjects an exemplary proof of the obedience they owed to him. The
+      Parliament was highly provoked, and next day resolved to admit no more
+      dukes, peers, nor marshals of France till the Cardinal had left the
+      kingdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mazarin, arriving at Court again, persuaded the King to go to Saumur,
+      though others advised him to march to Guienne against the Prince de Conde,
+      with whom the Duc d'Orleans was now resolved to join forces. The King went
+      from Saumur to Tours, where the Archbishop of Rouen carried complaints to
+      the King, in the name of the bishops there, against the decrees of
+      Parliament relating to the Cardinal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans complained in Parliament against the inconsistency of
+      their proceedings, and said the King had sent him carte blanche in order
+      to oblige him to consent to the restoration of the Cardinal, but that
+      nothing would ever cause him to do it, nor to act apart from the
+      Parliament. Yet their unaccountable proceedings perplexed him beyond
+      expression, so that he commanded, or rather permitted, M. de Beaufort to
+      put his troops in action. And because I told him that, considering the
+      declarations he had so often repeated against Mazarin, I thought his
+      conduct in setting his troops in motion against him did not add so much to
+      the measure of the disgust he had already given to the Court that he need
+      to apprehend much from it, he gave me for answer these memorable words
+      which I have reflected upon a thousand times: "If you," said he, "had been
+      born a Son of France, an Infante of Spain, a King of Hungary, or a Prince
+      of Pales, you would not talk as you do. You must know that, with us
+      Princes, words go for nothing, but that we never forget actions. By
+      to-morrow noon the Queen would not remember my declarations against the
+      Cardinal if I would admit him tomorrow morning; but if my troops were to
+      fire a musket she would not forgive me though we were to live two thousand
+      years hence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In February, 1652, I was made a cardinal, and was to receive the hat, as
+      all French cardinals do, from the King. My enemies, who thought to ruin my
+      credit with the Duc d'Orleans, gave out that I had been obliged to the
+      Court for my dignity, attacked me in form as a secret favourer of Mazarin,
+      and, while their emissaries gained over such of the dregs of the people as
+      they could corrupt by money, they were supported by all the intrigues of
+      the Cabinet. But the Duke, who knew better, only laughed at them; so that
+      they confirmed me in his good opinion, instead of supplanting me, because
+      in cases of slander every reflection that does not hurt the person
+      attacked does him service. I said to the Duke that I wondered he was not
+      wearied out with the silly stories that were told him every day against
+      me, since they all harped upon one string; but he said, "Do you take no
+      account of the pleasure one takes every morning in hearing how wicked men
+      are under the cloak of religious zeal, and every night how silly they are
+      under the mask of politicians?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The servants of the Prince de Conde gave out such stories against me among
+      the populace as were likely to have done me much more mischief. They had a
+      pack of brawling fellows in their pay who were more troublesome to me now
+      than formerly, when they did not dare to appear before the numerous
+      retinue of gentlemen and liverymen that accompanied me, for as I had not
+      yet had the hat, I was obliged, wherever I went, to go incognito,
+      according to the rules of the ceremonial. Those fellows said that I had
+      betrayed the Duc d'Orleans, and that they would be the death of me. I told
+      the Duke, who was afraid they would murder me, that he should soon see how
+      little those hired mobs ought to be regarded. He offered me his guards,
+      but though Marechal d'Estampes fell on his knees in my way to stop me, I
+      went down-stairs with only two persons in company, and made directly
+      towards the ruffians, demanding who was their leader. Upon which a
+      beggarly fellow, with an old yellow feather in his hat, answered me,
+      insolently, "I am." Then I called out to the guards at the gate, saying,
+      "Let me have this rascal hanged up at these grates." Thereupon he made me
+      a very low bow, and said that he did not mean to affront me; that he only
+      came with his comrades to tell me of the report that I designed to carry
+      the Duc d'Orleans to Court, and reconcile him with Mazarin; that they did
+      not believe it; that they were at my service, and ready to venture their
+      lives for me, provided I would but promise them to be always an honest
+      Frondeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans took such delight in conversing with me that, on De
+      Goulas, one of his secretaries, telling him that all the foreign officers
+      took mighty umbrage at it, he pulled him up very sharply, and said, "Go to
+      the devil, you and your foreign officers. If they were as good Frondeurs
+      as Cardinal de Retz, they would be at their posts, and not tippling in the
+      taverns of Paris." There was such a strong faction in the city of Orleans
+      for the Court that his presence there was very necessary; but as it was
+      much more so at Paris, the Duke was prevailed upon by his Duchess to let
+      her go thither. M. Patru was pleased to say that as the gates of Jericho
+      fell at the sound of trumpets, those of Orleans would open at the sound of
+      fiddles, of which M. de Rohan was a very great admirer. But, in fact,
+      though the King was just at hand with the troops, and though M. Mold,
+      Keeper of the Seals, was at the gate demanding entrance for the King, the
+      Duchess crossed the river in a barge, made the watermen break down a
+      little postern, which had been walled up for a long time, and marched,
+      with the acclamations of multitudes of the people, directly to the Hotel
+      de Ville, where the magistrates were assembled to consider if they should
+      admit the Keeper of the Seals. By this means she turned the scale, and MM.
+      de Beaufort and de Nemours joined her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince de Conde arriving at Paris from Guienne on the 11th of April,
+      the magistrates had a meeting in the Hotel de Ville, in which they
+      resolved that the Governor should wait on his Royal Highness, and tell him
+      that the company thought it contrary to order to receive him into the city
+      before he had cleared himself from the King's declaration, which had been
+      verified in Parliament against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans, who was overjoyed at this speech, said that the Prince
+      had only come to discourse with him about private affairs, and that he
+      would stay but twenty-four hours at Paris. M. de Chavigni informed the
+      Duke that the Prince was able to stand his ground as long as he pleased,
+      without being obliged to anybody; and he gathered together a mob of
+      scoundrels upon the Pont-Neuf, whose fingers itched to be plundering the
+      house of M. du Plessis Guenegaut, and by whom the Duke was frightened to a
+      great degree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reflections I had leisure to make upon my new dignity obliged me to
+      take great care of my hat, whose dazzling flame of colour turns the heads
+      of many that are honoured with it. The most palpable of those delusions is
+      the claiming precedence of Princes of the blood, who may become our
+      masters the next moment, and who at the same time are generally the
+      masters of all our kindred. I have a veneration for the cardinals of my
+      family, who made me suck in humility after their example with my mother's
+      milk, and I found a very happy opportunity to practise it on the very day
+      that I received the news of my promotion. Chateaubriant said to me, before
+      a vast number of people at my levee, "Now we will pay our respects no more
+      to the best of them," which he said because, though I was upon ill terms
+      with the Prince de Conde, and though I always went well attended, I yet
+      saluted him wherever I met him with all the respect due to him on the
+      score of so many titles. I said to him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pray pardon me, monsieur; we shall pay our respects to the great men with
+      greater complaisance than ever. God forbid that the red hat should turn my
+      head to that degree as to make me dispute precedence with the Princes of
+      the blood. It is honour enough for a gentleman to walk side by side with
+      them." This expression, I verily believe, afterwards secured the rank of
+      precedence to the hat in the kingdom of France, by the courtesy of the
+      Prince de Conde, and his friendship for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, the most fantastical lady upon earth,
+      suspecting that I held a secret correspondence with the Queen, could not
+      forbear murmuring and threatening what she would do. She said I had
+      declared to her a thousand times that I could not imagine how it was
+      possible for anybody to be in love with that Swiss woman. In short, she
+      said this so often that the Queen had a notion from somebody or other that
+      I had called her by that name. She never forgave me for it, as you will
+      perceive in the sequel. You may easily conceive that this circumstance,
+      which gave me no encouragement to hope for a very gracious reception at
+      Court for the time to come, did not weaken those resolutions which I had
+      already taken to retire from public business. The place of my retreat was
+      agreeable enough: the shadow of the towers of Notre-Dame was a refreshment
+      to it; and, moreover, the Cardinal's hat sheltered it from bad weather. I
+      had fine ideas of the sweetness of such a retirement, and I would gladly
+      have laid hold of it, but my stars would not have it so. I return to my
+      narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 12th of April the Duc d'Orleans took the Prince de Conde with him
+      to the Parliament, assuring them that he had not, nor ever would have, any
+      other intention than to serve his King and country; that he would always
+      follow the sentiments of the Parliament; and that he was willing to lay
+      down his arms as soon as the decrees against Cardinal Mazarin were put
+      into execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President Bailleul said that the members always thought it an honour
+      to see the Prince de Conde in his place, but that they could not dissemble
+      their real concern to see his hands stained with the blood of the King's
+      soldiers who were killed at Bleneau. Upon this a storm arose from the
+      benches, which fell with such fury upon the poor President that he had
+      scarcely room to put in a word for himself, for fifty or sixty voices
+      disowned him at one volley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 13th the Parliament agreed that the declaration made by the Duc
+      d'Orleans and the Prince should be carried to the King; that the
+      remonstrances they had sent to the King should likewise be sent to all the
+      sovereign companies of Paris, and to all the Parliaments of the kingdom,
+      to invite them also to send a deputation on their own behalf; and that a
+      general assembly should be immediately held at the Hotel de Ville, to
+      which the Duc d'Orleans and the Prince should be invited to make the same
+      declarations as they made to the Parliament; and that, in the meantime,
+      the King's declaration against Cardinal Mazarin, and all the decrees
+      passed against him, should be put into execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 13th of May a councillor of Parliament and captain of his ward,
+      having brought his company to the Palace to act as ordinary guard, was
+      abandoned by all the burghers that composed it, who said they were not
+      created to guard Mazarins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mob, who at the same time appeared ready enough to murder some of the
+      magistrates in the streets, had nothing in their mouths but the names and
+      services of the Princes, who next day disowned their humble servants in
+      the assemblies of the several courts. Though this conduct gave occasion to
+      severe decrees, which the Parliament issued at every turn against the
+      seditious, it did not hinder the same Parliament from believing that those
+      who disowned the sedition were the authors of it, and consequently did not
+      lessen the hatred which many private men conceived against them. Such were
+      the various and complicated views every one had concerning the then
+      position of affairs, that I wrapped myself up, as one may say, in my great
+      dignities, to which I abandoned the hopes of my fortune; and I remember
+      one day the President Bellievre telling me that I ought not to be so
+      indolent. I answered him: "We are in a great storm, where, methinks, we
+      all row against the wind. I have two good oars in my hand, one of which is
+      the Cardinal's dignity, and the other the Archiepiscopal. I am not willing
+      to break them; and all I have to do now is to support myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time I had other disquietings of a more private nature.
+      Mademoiselle de Chevreuse fell in love with my rival, the Abbe Fouquet.
+      Little De Roye, who was a very, pretty German lass at her house, informed
+      me of it, and made me amends for the infidelity of the mistress, whose
+      choice, to tell you the truth, did not mortify me much, because she had
+      nothing but beauty, which cloys when it comes alone. She cared for nobody
+      besides him she loved; but as she was never long in love, so neither was
+      it long that she was in good temper. She used her cast-off lovers as she
+      did her old clothes, which other women lay aside, but she burnt, so that
+      her daughters had much ado to save a petticoat, head-dress, gloves, or
+      Venice point. And I verily believe that if she could have committed her
+      lovers to the flames when she left them off, she would have done it with
+      all her heart. Madame her mother, who endeavoured to set her at variance
+      with me when she was resolved to unite herself entirely with the Court,
+      could not succeed, though she went so far that Madame de Guemenee caused a
+      letter to be read to her in my handwriting, whereby I devoted myself body
+      and soul to her, as witches give themselves to the devil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at that time that Madame de Chevreuse, seeing herself neglected at
+      Paris, resolved to retire to Dampierre, where, depending upon what had
+      been told her from Court, she hoped to be well received. I gave vent to my
+      passion, which, in truth, was not very great, to Mademoiselle de
+      Chevreuse, and I took care to have both the mother and daughter
+      accompanied out of Paris, quite to Dampierre, by all the nobility and
+      gentlemen I had with me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot finish this slight sketch of the condition I was in at Paris
+      without acknowledging the debt I owe to the generosity of the Prince de
+      Conde, who, finding that a person was come from the Prince de Conti, at
+      Bordeaux, with a design to attack me, told him that he would have him
+      hanged if he did not go back to his master in two hours' time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marigny told me, almost at the same time, that, observing the Prince de
+      Conde to be very intent upon reading a book, he took the liberty to tell
+      him that it must needs be a very choice one, because he took such delight
+      in it; and that the Prince answered him, "It is true I am very fond of it,
+      for it shows me my faults, which nobody has the courage to tell me." This
+      book was entitled "The Right and False Steps of the Prince de Conde and of
+      the Cardinal de Retz."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were divers negotiations between the parties, during which Mazarin
+      gave himself the pleasure of letting the public see MM. de Rohan, de
+      Chavigni, and de Goulas conferring with him, before the King as well as in
+      private, at that very instant when the Duc d'Orleans and the Prince de
+      Conde said publicly, in the assembly of the Chambers, that it ought to be
+      the preliminary of all treaties to have nothing to do with Mazarin. He
+      acted a perfect comedy in their presence, pretending to be forcibly
+      detained by the King, whom he begged with folded hands to let him return
+      to Italy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 30th of April there was so great a murmuring in Parliament that the
+      Duc d'Orleans said they should never see him there again until the
+      Cardinal was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 6th of May the remonstrances of the Parliament and the Chamber of
+      Accounts were carried to the King by a large deputation, as were, on the
+      7th, those of the Court of Aids and the city. The King's answer to both
+      was that he would cause his troops to retire when those of the Princes
+      were gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 10th it was resolved that the King's Council should be sent to
+      Saint Germain for a further answer touching the removal of Cardinal
+      Mazarin from the Court and kingdom, and the armies from the neighbourhood
+      of Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 14th there was a great uproar again in the Parliament, where there
+      was a confused clamour for taking into consideration the best means for
+      hindering the riots and disorders daily committed in the city and in the
+      hall of the Palace; upon which the Duc d'Orleans, who was afraid that
+      under this pretence the Mazarinists should make the House take some steps
+      contrary to their interests, came to the Palace on a sudden, and proposed
+      that they should grant him full power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The 29th being the day that the deputies of the Court of Inquiry desired
+      the Parliament to consider the ways and means for raising the 150,000
+      livres promised to him who should bring Cardinal Mazarin to justice, and
+      the Archbishop's Grand Vicar coming up at that moment to the bar of the
+      King's Council to confer about the descent of the shrine of Sainte
+      Genevieve, a member said, very pleasantly, "We are this day engaged in
+      devotion for a double festival: we are appointing processions, and
+      contriving how to murder a Cardinal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 20th of June the King's answer to the Parliament's remonstrances
+      was reported in substance as follows: That though his Majesty was sensible
+      that the demand for the removal of Cardinal Mazarin was but a pretence,
+      yet, he was willing to grant it after justice was done to the Cardinal's
+      honour by such reparations as were due to his innocence, provided the
+      Princes would give him good security for the performance of their
+      proposals upon the removal of the said Cardinal. That therefore his
+      Majesty, desired to know: 1. Whether, in this case, they will renounce all
+      leagues and associations with foreign princes? 2. Whether they will not
+      form new pretensions? 3. Whether they will come to Court? 4. Whether they
+      will dismiss all the foreigners that are in the kingdom? 5. Whether they
+      will disband their forces? 6. Whether Bordeaux will return to its duty, as
+      well as the Prince de Conti and Madame de Longueville? 7. Whether the
+      places which the Prince de Conde has fortified shall be put into the
+      condition they were in before the breach?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans, provoked at these propositions, said that a Son of
+      France and a Prince of the blood were never known to have been treated
+      like common criminals, and that the declaration which both had made was
+      more than sufficient to satisfy the Court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 21st it was moved in Parliament that an inventory should be taken
+      of what remained of Mazarin's furniture. There having been in the morning
+      a great commotion at the Palace, when the President and some others had
+      run a risk of being killed by the mob, M. de Beaufort invited his friends
+      to meet him in the afternoon in the Palais Royal, and having got together
+      four or five thousand beggars, he harangued them as to the obedience which
+      they owed to the Parliament. But two or three days after this fine sermon
+      of his, the sedition was more violent than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 25th the Princes declared in Parliament that, as soon as the
+      Cardinal had departed the kingdom, they would faithfully execute all the
+      articles contained in the King's answer, and immediately send deputies to
+      complete the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 4th of July a mob assembled, who forced all that went by to put a
+      handful of straw in their hats, upon which the Duc d'Orleans and the
+      Prince de Conde went to the Hotel de Ville and convinced the assembly of
+      the necessity they were under of defending themselves against Mazarin.
+      Upon a trumpeter arriving from his Majesty with orders to adjourn the
+      assembly for a week, the people were much incensed, and called out to the
+      citizens to unite strictly with the Princes. They fell upon the first
+      thing they met in their way, threw stones into the windows of the Hotel de
+      Ville, set fire to its gates, and, entering with drawn swords, murdered M.
+      Le Gras, the Master of Requests, and the Master of Accounts, and twenty or
+      thirty citizens perished in the tumult. There was a general consternation
+      all over the city; all the shops were shut in an instant, and in some
+      parts they set up barricades to stop the rioters, who had almost overrun
+      the whole town. It was observed that the appearance of the Duchesse de
+      Beaufort prevailed more with the mob in causing them to disperse than the
+      exposing of the Host by the cure of St. John's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The late riot had such an effect on the Parliament that the President
+      Mortier and many of the councillors kept away from the public assemblies
+      for fear, notwithstanding they were enjoined, by a special decree, to come
+      and take their places. The magistrates, for the same reason, did not go to
+      the Hotel de Ville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 18th the deputies of Parliament being ordered to follow the King to
+      Pontoise, the House passed a decree for their immediate return to
+      Parliament, and the Prince de Conde and the Duke de Beaufort brought them
+      into town with twelve hundred horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Court in the meantime passed decrees of Council, annulling those of
+      the Parliament and the transactions of the assembly at the Hotel de Ville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 20th the Parliament declared by a decree that, the King being
+      prisoner to Cardinal Mazarin, the Duc d'Orleans should be desired to take
+      upon him the office of Lieutenant-General of his Majesty, and the Prince
+      to take upon him the command of the army as long as Mazarin should
+      continue in the kingdom, and that a copy of the said decree should be sent
+      to all the Parliaments of the kingdom, who should be desired to publish
+      the like; but not one complied, except that of Bordeaux. Nor was the Duke
+      better obeyed by the several governors of the provinces, for but one
+      vouchsafed him an answer when he acquainted them with his new dignity, the
+      Court having put them in mind of their duty by an order of Council,
+      published to annul that of the Parliament for establishing the said
+      lieutenancy; and in Paris itself the Duke's authority was despised, for
+      two wretches having been condemned for setting fire to the Hotel de Ville,
+      the citizens who were ordered to take charge of the execution refused to
+      obey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 24th it was ordered that a general assembly should be held at the
+      Hotel de Ville, to consider the ways and means to raise money for
+      supporting the troops, and that the statues at Mazarin's palace should be
+      sold to make up the sum set upon the Cardinal's head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 29th it was resolved in the Hotel de Ville to raise 800,000 livres
+      for augmenting his Royal Highness's troops, and to exhort all the great
+      towns of the kingdom to unite with the metropolis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 6th of August the King sent a declaration signifying the removal of
+      the Parliament to Pontoise. There was a great commotion in the House, who
+      agreed not to register it till the Cardinal had left the kingdom. As for
+      the Parliament of Pontoise, which consisted of but fourteen officers, with
+      three Presidents at their head, who had a little before retired in
+      disguise from Paris, they made remonstrances likewise to the King for
+      removing Cardinal Mazarin. The King granted what was desired of him, and
+      that upon the solicitations of that honest, disinterested minister, who
+      withdrew from Court to Bouillon. This comedy, so unworthy the dignity of a
+      king, was accompanied with circumstances that rendered it still more
+      ridiculous:&mdash;The two Parliaments fulminated severe decrees against
+      one another, and that of Paris made an order that whosoever sat in the
+      assembly at Pontoise should be struck off the register.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time that of Pontoise registered the King's declaration, which
+      contained an injunction to the Parliament of Paris, the Chamber of
+      Accounts, and the Court of Aids, that, since Cardinal Mazarin was removed,
+      they should now lay down their arms on condition that his Majesty would
+      grant an amnesty, remove his troops from about Paris, withdraw those that
+      were in Guienne, allow a free and safe passage to the Spanish troops, and
+      give the Princes permission to send to his Majesty persons to confer with
+      his ministers concerning what remained to be adjusted. This same
+      Parliament resolved to return their thanks to his Majesty for removing
+      Cardinal Mazarin, and most humbly to entreat the King to return to his
+      good city of Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 26th they also registered the King's amnesty, or royal pardon,
+      granted to all that had taken up arms against him, but with such
+      restrictions that very few could think themselves safe by it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King acquainted the Duc d'Orleans that he wondered that, since Mazarin
+      was removed, he should delay, according to his own declaration and
+      promise, to lay down his arms, to renounce all associations and treaties,
+      and to cause the foreign troops to withdraw; and that when this was done,
+      those deputies that should come to his Majesty from him should be very
+      welcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 3d of September the Parliament resolved that their deputies should
+      wait upon the King with their thanks for removing Cardinal Mazarin, and to
+      beseech his Majesty to return to Paris; that the Duc d'Orleans and the
+      Prince de Conde should be desired to write to the King and assure him they
+      would lay down their arms as soon as his Majesty would be pleased to send
+      the passports for the safe retreat of the foreigners, together with an
+      amnesty in due form, registered in all the Parliaments of the kingdom; and
+      that his Majesty should be petitioned to receive the deputies of the
+      Princes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pray indulge me with a short pause here to consider the scandalous arts
+      which ministers palliate with the name and sacred word of a great King,
+      and with which the most august Parliament of the kingdom&mdash;the Court
+      of Peers&mdash;expose themselves to ridicule by such manifest
+      inconsistencies as are more becoming the levity of a college than the
+      majesty of a senate. In short, persons are not sensible of what they do in
+      these State paroxysms, which savour somewhat of frenzy. I knew in those
+      days some very honest men, who were so fully satisfied of the justice of
+      the cause of the Princes that, upon occasion, they would have laid down
+      their lives for it; and I also knew some eminently virtuous and
+      disinterested men who would as gladly have been martyrs for the Court. The
+      ambition of great men manages such dispositions just as it suits their own
+      interests; they help to blind the rest of mankind, and they even become
+      blinder themselves than other people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Honest M. de Fontenay, who had been twice ambassador at Rome, a man of
+      great experience and good sense and a hearty well-wisher to his country,
+      daily condoled with me on the lethargy into which the intestine divisions
+      had lulled the best citizens and patriots. We saw the Spanish colours and
+      standards displayed upon the Pont-Neuf; the yellow sashes of Lorraine
+      appeared at Paris with the same liberty as the Isabelles and blue ones.
+      People were so accustomed to these spectacles and to the news of
+      provinces, towns, and battles lost, that they were become insolent and
+      stupid. Several of my friends blamed my inactivity, and desired me to
+      bestir myself. They bid me save the kingdom, save the city, or else I
+      should fall from the greatest love to the greatest hatred of the people.
+      The Frondeurs suspected me of favouring Mazarin's party, and the Mazarins
+      thought I was too partial to the Frondeurs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was touched to the quick with a pathetic speech made to me by M. de
+      Fontenay. "You see," said he, "that Mazarin, like a Jack-in-the-bog, plays
+      at Bo-peep; but you see that, whether he appears or disappears, the wire
+      by which the puppet is drawn on or off the stage is the royal authority,
+      which is not likely to be broken by the measures now on foot. Abundance of
+      those that appear to be his greatest opponents would be very sorry to see
+      him crushed; many others would be very glad to see him get off; not one
+      endeavours to ruin him entirely. You may get clear of the difficulty that
+      embarrasses you by a door which opens into a field of honour and liberty.
+      Paris, whose archbishop you are, groans under a heavy load. The Parliament
+      there is but a mere phantom, and the Hotel de Ville a desert. The Duc
+      d'Orleans and the Prince have no more authority than what the rascally mob
+      is pleased to allow them. The Spaniards, Germans, and Lorrainers are in
+      the suburbs laying waste the very gardens. You that have rescued them more
+      than once, and are their pastor, have been forced to keep guards in your
+      own house for three weeks. And you know that at this day your friends are
+      under great apprehension if they see you in the streets without arms. Do
+      you count it a slight thing to put an end to all these miseries? And will
+      you neglect the only opportunity Providence puts a into your hands to
+      obtain the honour of it? Take your clergy with you to Compiegne, thank the
+      King for removing Mazarin, and beg his Majesty to return to Paris. Keep up
+      a good correspondence with those bodies who have no other design but the
+      common good, who are already almost all your particular friends, and who
+      look upon you as their head by reason of your dignity. And if the King
+      actually returns to the city, the people of Paris will be obliged to you
+      for it; if you meet with a refusal, you will have still their
+      acknowledgments for your good intention. If you can get the Duc d'Orleans
+      to join with you, you will save the realm; for I am persuaded that if he
+      knew how to act his part in this juncture it would be in his power to
+      bring the King back to Paris and to prevent Mazarin ever returning again.
+      You are a cardinal; you are Archbishop of Paris; you have the good-will of
+      the public, and are but thirty-seven years old: Save the city, save the
+      kingdom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In short, the Duc d'Orleans approved of my scheme, and ordered me to
+      convene a general assembly of the ecclesiastical communities, and to get
+      deputies chosen out of them all, and go with them to Court, there to
+      present the deputation, which should request the King to give peace to his
+      people and return to his good city of Paris. I was also to endeavour by
+      the aid of my friends to induce the other corporate bodies of the city to
+      do likewise. I was to tell the Queen that she could not but be sensible
+      that the Duke was in good earnest for peace, which the public engagements
+      he was under to oppose Mazarin had not suffered him to conclude, or even
+      to propose, while the Cardinal continued at Court; that he renounced all
+      private views and interests with relation to himself or friends; that he
+      desired nothing but the security of the public; and that after he had the
+      satisfaction of seeing the King at the Louvre he would then with joy
+      retire to Blois, fully resolved to live in peace and prepare for eternity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I set out immediately with the deputies of all the ecclesiastical bodies
+      of Paris, nearly two hundred gentlemen, accompanied by fifty men of the
+      Duke's Guards. The number of my attendants gave such umbrage at Court,
+      where it was ridiculously exaggerated, that the Queen sent me word I
+      should only have accommodation for eighty horses, whereas I had no less
+      than one hundred and twelve for the coaches alone. If I had known as much
+      when I went as I heard after I returned, I should have hesitated about
+      going, for I was told that some moved for arresting me, and others for
+      killing me. However, the Queen received me very well; the King gave me the
+      cardinal's hat and a public audience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told the Queen, in a private audience, that I was not come only as a
+      deputy from the Church of Paris, but that I had another commission which I
+      valued much more, because I took it to be more for her service than the
+      other,&mdash;that of an envoy from the Duc d'Orleans, who had charged me
+      to assure her Majesty that he was resolved to serve her effectually and
+      without delay, as he had promised by a note under his own hand, which I
+      then pulled out of my pocket. The Queen expressed a great deal of joy, and
+      said, "I knew very well, M. le Cardinal, that you would at last give some
+      particular marks of your affection for me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen told me that she thanked the Duke, and was very much obliged to
+      him; that she hoped and desired he would contribute towards making the
+      necessary dispositions for the King's return to Paris, and that she would
+      not take one step but in concert with him. At the same time I heard that
+      the Queen spoke disdainfully of me, whom she dreaded, to my enemies at
+      Court; pretended that I had owned Mazarin was an honest man, and ridiculed
+      me for the expense I had put myself to on the journey, which, indeed, was
+      immense for so short a time, because I kept seven open tables, and spent
+      800 crowns a day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I returned to Paris I was received with incredible applause. The King
+      also came thither on the 21st of October, and was welcomed by the
+      acclamations of the people. The Queen received me with wonderful respect,
+      and bade the King embrace me, as one to whom he chiefly owed his return to
+      Paris; but orders were sent to the Duc d'Orleans to retire next morning to
+      Limours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I went to see him, he was panic-struck, and imagined it was only a
+      feint to try his temper. He was in an inconceivable agony, and fancied
+      that every musket which was let off by way of rejoicing for his Majesty's
+      return was fired by the soldiers coming to invest his palace. Every
+      messenger that he sent out brought him word that all was quiet, but he
+      would believe nobody, and looked continually out of the window to hear if
+      the drums were beating the march. At last he took courage to ask me if I
+      was firm to him, and after I had assured him of my fidelity he desired
+      that, as a proof of my attachment and affection for him, I would be
+      reconciled to M. de Beaufort. "With all my heart," said I. Whereupon he
+      embraced me, then opened the gallery door by his bedchamber, and out came
+      M. de Beaufort, who threw himself about my neck, and said, "Pray ask his
+      Royal Highness what I have been saying to him concerning you. I know who
+      are honest men. Come on, monsieur, let us drive all the Mazarins away for
+      good and all." He endeavoured to show both the necessity and the
+      possibility of it, and advised the raising of barricades next morning, by
+      break of day, in the market-places.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duc d'Orleans turned to me and said, as they do in Parliament, "Your
+      opinion, M. Dean." I replied: "If I must give it as Dean, there never was
+      more occasion for the forty hours' prayers than now. I myself stand in
+      need of them more than anybody, because I can give no advice but what must
+      appear very cruel and be attended with horrid inconveniences. If I should
+      advise you to put up with the injurious treatment you undergo, will not
+      the public, who always make the worst of everything, have a handle to say
+      I betray your interest, and that my advice was but a necessary consequence
+      of all those obstacles I threw in the Princes' way? And if I give it as my
+      opinion that your Royal Highness should follow the measures which M. de
+      Beaufort proposes, shall I not be accounted one who blows hot and cold in
+      a breath?&mdash;who is for peace when he thinks to gain his advantages by
+      the treaty, but for war when he is not permitted to negotiate?&mdash;one
+      who is for destroying Paris with fire and sword, and for carrying the
+      flames to the gates of the Louvre by attacking the very person of the
+      King? If you obey, you will be responsible to the public for all it may
+      suffer afterwards. I am no competent judge of what it may suffer in
+      particular; for who can foresee events depending on the caprices of a
+      cardinal, on the stormings of Ondedei, the impertinence of the Abbe
+      Fouquet, and the violence of Servien? But you will have to answer for all,
+      because the public will be persuaded that you might have prevented it. If
+      you do not obey, you may go near to overturn the realm."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the Duke interrupted me eagerly, and said, "This is not to the
+      purpose; the question is whether I am in a condition, that is, if it is in
+      my power, to disobey."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I believe so," I said; "for I do not see how the Court can oblige you to
+      obey, unless the King himself should march to Luxembourg, which would be a
+      matter of great importance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," said M. de Beaufort, "it would be impossible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I then perceived that the Duke began to think so too, for it fitted his
+      humour, as he could not endure taking any pains, and, upon this
+      supposition, resolved to stay at home with his arms folded. I said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are able to do anything to-night and tomorrow morning, but I cannot
+      answer how it may be in the evening."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de Beaufort, who thought that I was going to argue for the offensive,
+      fell in roundly with me to second me; but I stopped him short by telling
+      him he mistook my meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I shall never presume," said I, "to give advice in the condition things
+      are now in. The Duke himself must decide, and even propose, too, and it is
+      our business to perform his commands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he said, "If I should resolve to brave it out, will you declare for
+      me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," I said, "it is what I ought in duty to do. I am attached to your
+      service, in which I shall certainly not be wanting, and you need only to
+      command me. But I am very much grieved that, considering the present state
+      of affairs, an honest man cannot act the honest part, do what he may."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duke, who was by nature good, but not very tender, could not help
+      being moved at what I said; the tears came into his eyes, he embraced me,
+      and asked me if I thought he could secure the King's person. I told him
+      that nothing was more impossible. I found at length that he was inclined
+      to obey, but he bade us keep our friends together in readiness, and to be
+      with him at break of day. However, he set out for Limours an hour sooner
+      than he had told us, and left word that he had his reasons for so doing,
+      which we should know another day, advising us, if possible, to make our
+      peace with the Court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 22d the King held his Bed of Justice, at the Louvre, where he
+      published the amnesty, as also an order for reestablishing the Parliament
+      at Paris, in which there was a clause forbidding them to meddle with State
+      affairs. At the same time he caused a declaration to be published ordering
+      MM. de Beaufort, Rohan, Viole, de Thou, Broussel, Portail, Bitaud,
+      Croissi, Machaut, Fleury, Martineau, and Perraut to depart the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Court now began to offer me terms of reconciliation. I was desirous
+      that as many of my friends as possible should be included; but Caumartin,
+      who was in the secret of affairs, told me there were no hopes of procuring
+      any advantages for particular persons; that all that could be done was to
+      save the ship for another voyage, and that this ship, which was myself,
+      could be saved in no other way, in the condition into which our affairs
+      were fallen by the Duc d'Orleans's want of resolution, but by launching
+      out into the main, and steering towards Rome. "You stand," said he, "as it
+      were, on the point of a needle, and if the Court knew their strength they
+      would rout you as they do the rest; your courage gives you an air that
+      both deceives and disquiets them. Make use of the present opportunity for
+      obtaining what may be serviceable to you in your employ at Rome, for the
+      Court will deny you nothing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Montresor, hearing of it, said to me afterwards, with an oath, "He is a
+      villain who says your Eminence can make your peace honourably without
+      making terms for your friends; he who affirms the contrary does it for his
+      own private ends." Therefore I refused the offers made me by Servien,
+      which were that the King would resign his affairs in Italy to my care, and
+      allow me a pension of 50,000 crowns; that I should have 100,000 crowns
+      towards paying off my debts, and 50,000 in hand towards furniture; that I
+      should continue three years at Rome, and then return to resume my
+      functions at Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Princess Palatine told me I ought either to accept or else treat with
+      the Cardinal, since all the subalterns were against me. Madame de
+      Lesdiguieres advised me to preserve my equanimity and keep within doors,
+      adding that the Cardinal, who was impatient to return to Paris, but durst
+      not as long as I stayed, would make me a bridge of gold to go out and
+      agree to whatever I demanded. Accordingly, I sent my proposals to the
+      Cardinal, who was then lurking in Turenne's army upon the frontiers, and
+      desired such and such posts for my friends. Meantime Servien and the Abbe
+      Fouquet endeavoured to exasperate the Queen by telling her that I was
+      continually caballing with the annuitants and officers of the militia; and
+      because I refused to go to Parliament, in obedience to the King's orders,
+      when he held his Court of Justice there to register the declaration of
+      high treason against the Prince de Conde, the Queen was made to believe
+      that I was intriguing for the Prince, and therefore resolved to ruin me,
+      cost what it would. One officer posted men in a house near Madame de
+      Pommereux's, to attack me; another was employed to get intelligence at
+      what time of night I was in the habit of visiting her; a third had an
+      order, signed by the King, to attack me in the street and bring me off
+      dead or alive. An unknown person advised me not to go that day to
+      Rambouillet; but I went with two hundred gentlemen, and found a great many
+      officers of the Guards, who, whatever were their orders, were in no
+      condition to attack me, and received me with reverence; but I blamed
+      myself for it afterwards, because it only tended to incense the Court the
+      more against me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon All Saints' Day I preached at Saint Germain, which is the King's
+      parish, where their Majesties did me the honour to be present, for which I
+      went next day to return them thanks; but finding that the cautions sent me
+      from all quarters multiplied very fast, I did not go to the Louvre till
+      the 19th of December, when I was arrested in the Queen's antechamber by
+      the captain of the Guards then in waiting, who carried me into an
+      apartment where the officers of the kitchen brought me dinner, of which I
+      ate heartily, to the mortification of the base courtiers, though I did not
+      take it kindly to see my pockets turned inside out as if I had been a
+      cutpurse. This ceremony, which is not common, was performed by the
+      captain; but he found nothing except a letter from the King of England,
+      desiring me to try if the Court of Rome would assist him with money. When
+      this letter came to be talked of, it was maliciously reported that it came
+      from the Protector. I was carried in one of the King's coaches, under
+      guard, to Vincennes. As we passed we found at several of the gates a
+      battalion of Swiss with their pikes presented towards the city, where
+      everybody was quiet, though their sorrow and consternation were visible
+      enough. I was afterwards informed, however, that all the butchers in the
+      veal market were going to take up arms, and that they might have made
+      barricades there with all the ease in the world, only they were restrained
+      for fear that I should have paid for their tumult with the loss of my
+      life; so that the women remained in tears, and the men stood stock-still
+      in a fright. I was confined at Vincennes for a fortnight together, in a
+      room as big as a church, without any firing. My guards pilfered my linen,
+      apparel, shoes, etc., so that sometimes I was forced to lie in bed for a
+      week or ten days together for want of clothes to dress myself. I could not
+      but think that such treatment had been ordered by the higher powers on
+      purpose to break my heart; but I resolved not to die that way, and though
+      my guard said all he could to vex me, I affected to take no notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The influence of the clergy of Paris obliged the Court to explain itself
+      concerning the causes of my imprisonment, by the mouth of the Chancellor,
+      who, in the presence of the King and Queen, acquainted them that his
+      Majesty had caused me to be arrested for my own good, and to prevent me
+      from putting something that I designed into execution. The chapter of
+      Notre-Dame had an anthem sung every day for my deliverance. The Sorbonne
+      and many of the a religious orders distinguished themselves by declaring
+      for me. This general stir obliged the Court to treat me somewhat better
+      than at first. They let me have a limited number of books, but no ink and
+      paper, and they allowed me a 'valet de chambre' and a physician.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During my confinement at Vincennes, which lasted fifteen months, I studied
+      both day and night, especially the Latin tongue, on which I perceive one
+      cannot bestow too much pains, since it takes in all other studies. I dived
+      into the Greek also, and read again the ninth decade of Livy, which I had
+      formerly delighted in, and found as pleasant as ever. I composed, in
+      imitation of Boetius, a treatise, which I entitled "Consolation de la
+      Theologie," in which I proved that every prisoner ought to endeavour to be
+      'vinctus in Christo' (in the bonds of Christ), mentioned by Saint Paul. I
+      also compiled "Partus Vincennarum," which was a collection of the Acts of
+      the Church of Milan for the use of the Church of Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My guard omitted nothing he could invent to make my life uneasy and
+      disturb my studies. One day he came and told me that he had received
+      orders from the King to give me an airing on the top of the donjon; and
+      when he perceived that I took a pleasure in walking there, he informed me,
+      with joy in his looks, that he had orders to the contrary. I told him that
+      they were come in good time, for the air, which was too sharp there, had
+      made my head ache. Afterwards he offered to take me down into the
+      tennis-court to see my guards at play. I desired him to excuse me, because
+      I thought the air would be too piercing for me; but he made me go, telling
+      me that the King, who took more care of my health than I fancied, had
+      ordered that he should give me some exercise. Soon after he desired me to
+      excuse him for not bringing me down again, "for reasons," said he, "which
+      I must not tell." The truth was, I was so much above these chicaneries
+      that I despised them; but I must own that I used to think within myself
+      that, in the main, to be a prisoner of State was of all others the most
+      afflicting. All the relaxation I had from my studies was to divert myself
+      with some rabbits on the top of the donjon, and some pigeons in the
+      turrets, for which I was indebted to the continual solicitations of the
+      Church of Paris. I had not been a prisoner above nine days when one of my
+      guards, while his comrade who watched me was asleep, came and slipped a
+      note into my hand from Madame de Pommereux, in which were only these
+      words: "Let me have your answer; you may safely trust the bearer." The
+      bearer gave me a pencil and a piece of paper, on which I wrote that I had
+      received her letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding that three sergeants and twenty-four Life-guards relieved
+      one another every day, our correspondence was not interrupted. Madame de
+      Pommereux, M. de Caumartin, and M. de Raqueville wrote me letters twice a
+      week constantly about the means to effect my escape, which I attempted
+      twice, but in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Abbe Charier, who set out for Rome the day after I was arrested, found
+      Pope Innocent incensed to the highest degree, and ready to throw his
+      thunder upon the heads of the authors of it. He spoke of it to the French
+      Ambassador with great resentment, and sent the Archbishop of Avignon, with
+      the title of Nuncio Extraordinary, on purpose to solicit my release. The
+      King was in a fury, and forebade the Nuncio to pass Lyons. The Pope told
+      the Abbe Charier that he was afraid to expose his and the Church's
+      authority to the fury of a madman, and said, "Give me but an army, and I
+      will furnish you with a legate." It was a difficult matter indeed to get
+      him that army, but not impossible, if those that should have stood my
+      friends had not left me in the lurch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime Noirmoutier and Bussi Lamet wrote a letter to Mazarin,
+      declaring they could not help proceeding to extremities if I were detained
+      any longer in prison. The Prince de Conde declared he would do anything,
+      without exception, which my friends desired, for my liberty, and offered
+      to march all the Spanish forces to their assistance; but the misfortune
+      was that there was nobody to form the proper schemes; and Noirmoutier, who
+      was the most enterprising man of them all, was hindered from action by
+      Madame de Chevreuse and De Laigues, who, the Cardinal said, would be
+      accountable for the actions of their friends, and that if they fired one
+      pistol-shot they must expect what would follow. Therefore Noirmoutier was
+      glad to elude all the propositions of the Prince de Conde, and to be
+      content with only writing and speaking in my favour, and firing the cannon
+      at the drinking of my health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de Pradello, who commanded the French and Swiss Guards in the castle,
+      came one day to tell me of the happy return of Cardinal Mazarin to Paris,
+      and of his magnificent reception at the Hotel de Ville; and he informed me
+      that the Cardinal had sent him to assure me of his most humble services,
+      and to beg of me to be persuaded that he would forget nothing that might
+      be for my service. I made as if I did not heed the compliment, and was for
+      talking of something else; but as he pressed me for a direct answer, I
+      told him that I should have been ready at the first word to show him my
+      acknowledgments were I not persuaded that the duty of a prisoner to the
+      King did not permit him to explain himself in anything relating to his
+      release, till his Majesty had been graciously pleased to grant it him. He
+      understood my meaning, and endeavoured to persuade me to return a more
+      civil answer to the Cardinal, which I declined to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Cardinal was so pestered with complaints from Rome, and so disturbed
+      with the discontent which prevailed in Poitou and Paris, on account of my
+      imprisonment, that he sent me an offer of my liberty and great advantages,
+      on condition that I would resign the coadjutorship of Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The solicitations of the chapter of Notre-Dame prevailed on the Court to
+      consent that one of their body might be always with me, who, though he
+      came gladly for my sake, fell into a deep melancholy. He could not,
+      however, be prevailed upon to go out; and being soon after seized with a
+      fever, he cut his own throat. My uncle dying soon after, possession was
+      taken of the archbishopric in my name by my proxy, and Tellier, who was
+      sent to Notre-Dame Church to oppose it on the part of the King, was
+      mortified with the thunder of my bulls from Rome. The people were
+      surprised to see all the formalities observed to a nicety, at a juncture
+      when they thought there was no possibility of observing one. The cures
+      waxed warmer than ever, and my friends fanned the flame. The Nuncio,
+      thinking himself slighted by the Court, spoke in dignified terms, and
+      threatened his censures. A little book was published, showing the
+      necessity of shutting up the churches, which aroused the Cardinal's
+      apprehensions, and his apprehensions naturally led him into negotiation.
+      He amused me with hundreds of fine prospects of church livings,
+      governments, etc., and of being restored to the good graces of the King
+      and to the strictest friendship with his Prime Minister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had more liberty than before. They always carried me up to the top of
+      the donjon whenever it was fair overhead; but my friends, who did not
+      doubt that all the Court wanted was to get some expression from me of my
+      inclination to resign, in order to discredit me with the public, charged
+      me to guard warily my words, which advice I followed; so that when a
+      captain of the Guards came from the King to discourse with me upon this
+      head, who, by Mazarin's direction, talked to me more like a captain of the
+      Janissaries than like an officer of the most Christian King, I desired
+      leave to give him my answer in writing, expressing my contempt for all
+      threats and promises, and an inviolable resolution not to give up the
+      archbishopric of Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next day President Bellievre came to me on the part of the King, with an
+      offer of seven abbeys, provided I would quit my archbishopric; but he
+      opened his mind to me with entire freedom, and said he could not but think
+      what a fool the Sicilian was to send him on such an errand. "Most of your
+      friends," said Bellievre, "think that you need only to stand out
+      resolutely, and that the Court will be glad to set you at liberty and send
+      you to Rome; but it is a horrid mistake, for the Court will be satisfied
+      with nothing but your resignation. When I say the Court, I mean Mazarin;
+      for the Queen will not bear the thought of giving you your liberty. The
+      chief thing that determines Mazarin to think of your liberty is his fear
+      of the Nuncio, the chapter, the cures, and the people. But I dare affirm
+      that the Nuncio will threaten mightily, but do nothing; the chapter may
+      perhaps make remonstrances, but to no purpose; the cures will preach, and
+      that is all; the people will clamour, but take up no arms. The consequence
+      will be your removal to Brest or Havre-de-Grace, and leaving you in the
+      hands of your enemies, who will use you as they please. I know that
+      Mazarin is not bloodthirsty, but I tremble to think of what Noailles has
+      told you, that they are resolved to make haste and take such methods as
+      other States have furnished examples of. You may, perhaps, infer from my
+      remarks that I would have you resign. By no means. I have come to tell you
+      that if you resign you will do a dishonourable thing, and that it behooves
+      you on this occasion to answer the great expectation the world is now in
+      on your account, even to the hazarding of your life, and of your liberty,
+      which I am persuaded you value more than life itself. Now is the time for
+      you to put forward more than ever those maxims for which we have so much
+      combated you: 'I dread no poison nor sword! Nothing can hurt me but what
+      is within me! It matters not where one dies!' Thus you ought to answer
+      those who speak to you about your resignation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was carried from Vincennes, under guard, to Nantes, where I had numerous
+      visits and diversions, and was entertained with a comedy almost every
+      night, and the company of the ladies, particularly the charming
+      Mademoiselle de La Vergne, who in good truth did not approve of me, either
+      because she had no inclination for me, or else because her friends had set
+      her against me by telling her of my inconstancy and different amours. I
+      endured her cruelty with my natural indifference, and the full liberty
+      Marechal de La Meilleraye allowed me with the city ladies gave me
+      abundance of comfort; nevertheless I was kept under a very strict guard.
+      As I had stipulated with Mazarin that I should have my liberty on
+      condition that I would resign my archbishopric at Vincennes, which I knew
+      would not be valid, I was surprised to hear that the Pope refused to
+      ratify it; because, though it would not have made my resignation a jot
+      more binding, yet it would have procured my liberty. I proposed expedients
+      to the Holy See by which the Court might do it with honour, but the Pope
+      was inflexible. He thought it would damage his reputation to consent to a
+      violence so injurious to the whole Church, and said to my friends, who
+      begged his consent with tears in their eyes, that he could never consent
+      to a resignation extorted from a prisoner by force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After several consultations with my friends how to make my escape, I
+      effected it on August the 8th, at five o'clock in the evening. I let
+      myself down to the bottom of the bastion, which was forty feet high, with
+      a rope, while my valet de chambre treated the guards with as much liquor
+      as they could drink. Their attention, was, moreover, taken up with looking
+      at a Jacobin friar who happened to be drowned as he was bathing. A
+      sentinel, seeing me, was taking up his musket to fire, but dropped it upon
+      my threatening to have him hanged; and he said, upon examination, that he
+      believed Marechal de La Meilleraye was in concert with me. Two pages who
+      were washing themselves, saw me also, and called out, but were not heard.
+      My four gentlemen waited for me at the bottom of the ravelin, on pretence
+      of watering their horses, so that I was on horseback before the least
+      notice was taken; and, having forty fresh horses planted on the road, I
+      might have reached Paris very soon if my horse had not fallen and caused
+      me to break my shoulder bone, the pain of which was so extreme that I
+      nearly fainted several times. Not being able to continue my journey, I was
+      lodged, with only one of my gentlemen, in a great haystack, while MM. de
+      Brissac and Joly went straight to Beaupreau, to assemble the nobility,
+      there, in order to rescue me. I lay hid there for over seven hours in
+      inexpressible misery, for the pain from my injury threw me into a fever,
+      during which my thirst was much augmented by the smell of the new hay;
+      but, though we were by a riverside, we durst not venture out for water,
+      because there was nobody to put the stack in order again, which would very
+      probably have occasioned suspicion and a search in consequence. We heard
+      nothing but horsemen riding by, who, we were afterwards informed, were
+      Marechal de La Meilleraye's scouts. About two o'clock in the morning I was
+      fetched out of the stack by a Parisian of quality sent by my friend De
+      Brissac, and carried on a hand-barrow to a barn, where I was again buried
+      alive, as it were, in hay for seven or eight hours, when M. de Brisac and
+      his lady came, with fifteen or twenty horse, and carried me to Beaupreau.
+      From thence we proceeded, almost in eight of Nantes, to Machecoul, in the
+      country of Retz, after having had an encounter with some of Marechal de La
+      Meilleraye's guards, when we repulsed them to the very barrier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marechal de La Meilleraye was so amazed at my escape that he threatened to
+      destroy the whole country with fire and sword, for which reason I was an
+      unwelcome guest to Madame de Retz and her father, who rallied me very
+      uncharitably on my disobedience to the King. We therefore thought fit to
+      leave the country, and went aboard a ship for Belle Isle, whence, after a
+      very short stay there, we escaped to San Sebastian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon my arrival there I sent a letter to the King of Spain requesting
+      leave to pass through his dominions to Rome. The messenger was received at
+      Court with civilities beyond expression, and sent back next day with the
+      present of a gold chain worth 800 crowns. I had also one of the King's
+      litters sent me, and an invitation to go to Madrid, but I desired to be
+      excused; and though I also refused immense offers if I would but go to
+      Flanders and treat with the Prince de Conde, etc., for the service of
+      Spain, yet I had a velvet coffer sent me with 40,000 crowns in it, which I
+      likewise thought fit to refuse. As I had neither linen nor apparel, either
+      for myself or servants, and as the 400 crowns which we got by the sale of
+      pilchards on board the barque in which we came from Belle Isle were almost
+      all spent, I borrowed 400 crowns of the Baron de Vateville, who commanded
+      for the King of Spain in Guipuzcoa, and faithfully repaid him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From San Sebastian I travelled incognito to Tudela, where I was met by the
+      King's mule drivers and waited on by the alcade, who left his wand at my
+      chamber door and at his, entrance knelt and kissed the hem of my garment.
+      From thence I was conducted to Comes by fifty musketeers riding upon
+      asses, who were sent me by the Governor of Navarre. At Saragossa I was
+      taken for the King of England, and a large number of ladies, in over two
+      hundred carriages, came to pay me their respects. Thence I proceeded to
+      Vivaros, where I had rich presents from the Governor of Valencia. And
+      thence I sailed to Majorca, whose Governor met me with above one hundred
+      coaches of the Spanish nobility, and carried me to mass at the Cathedral,
+      where I saw thirty or forty ladies of quality of more than common charms;
+      and, to speak the truth, the women there in general are of rare beauty,
+      having a graceful tincture both of the lily and the rose, and wear a
+      head-dress which is exceedingly pretty. The Governor, after having treated
+      me with a magnificent dinner under a tent of gold brocade near the
+      seaside, carried me to a concert of music in a convent, where I found the
+      nuns not inferior in beauty to the ladies of the town. The Governor
+      carried me to see his lady, who was as ugly as a witch, and was seated
+      under a great canopy sparkling with precious stones, which gave a
+      wonderful lustre to about sixty ladies with her, who were the handsomest
+      in the whole town. I was reconducted on board my galley with music and a
+      discharge of the artillery, and sailed to Port Mahon, and thence through
+      the Gulf of Lyons to the canal between Corsica and Sardinia, where our
+      ship was very nearly cast away upon a sandbank; but with great difficulty
+      we got her off and reached Porto Longone. There we quitted the galley, and
+      went by land to Piombino.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /> <a name="book5" id="book5"></a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      BOOK V.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I travelled from Piombino to Florence, where I had great honours and vast
+      offers from the Grand Duke, though Mazarin had threatened him, in the
+      King's name, with a rupture if he granted me passage through his
+      dominions; but the Grand Duke sent to desire the Cardinal to let him know
+      whether there was any possibility of refusing it without disobliging the
+      Pope and the Sacred College. As I was travelling through the Duke's
+      country, my mules, being frightened by a clap of thunder, ran with my
+      litter into a brook, where I narrowly escaped being drowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as I arrived at Rome the Pope sent me 4,000 crowns in gold. I was
+      immediately informed that a strong faction was formed there against me by
+      the Court of France; that the Cardinal d'Est, representative of that
+      nation, had terrible orders from the King; and that they were resolved to
+      send me packing from Rome, cost what it would. I had my old scruples upon
+      me, and said I would die a thousand deaths rather than make resistance;
+      but I thought it would be too disrespectful in a cardinal to come so near
+      the Pope and to go away without kissing his feet, and I resolved to leave
+      the rest to the providence of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Pope having ordered his guards to be ready, in case the French faction
+      should offer to rise, the Cardinal d'Est was so good as to let me alone.
+      His Holiness gave me an audience of four hours, condescended to beg my
+      forgiveness for not having acted with more vigour for my liberty; and
+      said, with tears in his eyes: "God forgive those who delayed to give me
+      timely notice of your imprisonment, and who made us believe that you had
+      been guilty, of an attempt upon the King's person. The Sacred College took
+      fire at the news; but the French Ambassador being at liberty, to give out
+      what he chose, because nobody, appeared here on your part to contradict
+      him, Mazarin extinguished it, and half the Sacred College thought you were
+      abandoned by the whole kingdom." In short, the Pope was so well disposed
+      to me that he thought of adopting me as his nephew, but he sickened soon
+      after and died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conclave chose Cardinal Chigi (who was called Alexander VIII.) for his
+      successor, in whose election I had such a share that when it came to my
+      turn, at the adoration of the cardinals, to kiss his feet, he embraced me,
+      saying, "Signor Cardinal de Retz, 'ecce opus manuum tuarum'" ("Behold the
+      work of your own hands"). I went home accompanied with one hundred and
+      twenty coaches of gentlemen, who did not doubt that I should govern the
+      Pontificate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My friends in France, who commonly judge of other nations by their own,
+      imagined that a persecuted cardinal might, nay, ought to live like a
+      private man even at Rome, and advised me not to spend much money, because
+      my revenues in France were all seized, and said that such exemplary
+      modesty would have an admirable effect upon the clergy of Paris. But
+      Cardinal Chigi talked after another manner: "When you are reestablished in
+      your see you may live as you please, because you will be in a country
+      where everybody will know what you are or are not able to do. You are now
+      at Rome, where your enemies say every day that you have lost your credit
+      in France, and you are under a necessity to make it appear that what they
+      say is false. You are not a hermit, but a cardinal, and a cardinal, too,
+      of the better rank. At Rome there are many people who love to tread upon
+      men when they are down. Dear sir, take care you do not fall, and do but
+      consider what a figure you will make in the streets with six vergers
+      attending you; otherwise every pitiful citizen of Paris that meets you
+      will be apt to jostle you, in order to make his court to the Cardinal
+      d'Est. You ought not to have come to Rome if you had not had resolution
+      and the means to support your dignity. I presume you do not make it a
+      point of Christian humility to debase yourself. And let me tell you that
+      I, the poor Cardinal Chigi, who have but 5,000 crowns revenue, and am one
+      of the poorest in the College, and though I am sure to meet nobody in the
+      streets who will be wanting in the respect due to the purple, yet I cannot
+      go to my functions without four coaches in livery to attend me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Therefore I hired a palace, kept a great table, and entertained fourscore
+      persons in liveries. The Cardinal d'Est, the very day after the creation
+      of the new Pope, forbade all Frenchmen to give me the way in the streets,
+      and charged the superiors of the French churches not to admit me. M. de
+      Lionne, who resided here as a sort of private secretary to Mazarin, was so
+      nettled because the new Pope had granted me the pallium for my
+      archbishopric that he told him the King would never own me, insinuated
+      that there would be a schism among the clergy of France, and that the Pope
+      must expect to be excluded from the congress for a general peace. This so
+      frightened his Holiness that he made a million of mean excuses, and said,
+      with tears in his eyes, that I had imposed upon him, and that he would
+      take the first opportunity to do the King justice. Upon this M. de Lionne
+      sent word to the Cardinal that he hoped very shortly to acquaint him of my
+      being prisoner in the Castle of Saint Angelo, and that the Cardinal would
+      be no better off for his Majesty's amnesty, because the Pope said none but
+      he could absolve or condemn cardinals. Meantime all my domestics who were
+      subjects of the King of France were ordered to quit my service, on pain of
+      being treated as rebels and traitors. I could have little hope of
+      protection from the Pope, for he was become quite another man, never spoke
+      one word of truth, and continually amused himself with mere trifles,
+      insomuch that one day he proposed a reward for whoever found out a Latin
+      word for "calash," and spent seven or eight days in examining whether
+      "mosco" came from "muses," or "musts" from "mosco." All his piety
+      consisted in assuming a serious air at church, in which, nevertheless,
+      there was a great mixture of pride, for he was vain to the last degree,
+      and envious of everybody. The work entitled "Sindicato di Alexandro VII."
+      gives an account of his luxury and of several pasquinades against the said
+      Pope, particularly that one day Marforio asking Pasquin what he had said
+      to the cardinals upon his death-bed, Pasquin answered, "Maxima de aeipso,
+      plurima de parentibus, parva de principibus, turpia de cardinalibus, pauca
+      de Ecclesia, de Deo nihil." ("He said fine things of himself, a great many
+      things of his kindred, some things of princes, nothing good of the
+      cardinals, but little of the Church, and nothing at all of God"). His
+      Holiness, in a consistory, laid claim to the merit of the conversion of
+      Christina, Queen of Sweden, though everybody knew to the contrary, and
+      that she had abjured heresy a year and a half before she came to Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having heard that Bussiere, who is Chamberlain to the Ambassadors at Rome,
+      had declared I should not have a place in Saint Louis's church on the
+      festival of that saint, I was not discouraged from going thither. At my
+      entrance he snatched the holy water stick from the cure just as he was
+      going to sprinkle me; nevertheless, I took my place, and was resolved to
+      keep up the status and dignity of a French cardinal. This was my condition
+      at Rome, where it was my fate to be a refugee, persecuted by my King and
+      abused by the Pope. All my revenues were seized, and the French bankers
+      forbidden to serve me; nay, those who had an inclination to assist me were
+      forced to promise they would not. Two of the Abbe Fouquet's bastards were
+      publicly maintained out of my revenues, and no means were left untried to
+      hinder the farmers from relieving me, or my creditors from harassing me
+      with vexatious and expensive lawsuits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      THE ETEXT EDITORS BOOKMARKS
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+Always judged of actions by men, and never men by their actions
+Always to sacrifice the little affairs to the greater
+Arms which are not tempered by laws quickly become anarchy
+Associating patience with activity
+Assurrance often supplies the room of good sense
+Blindness that make authority to consist only in force
+Bounty, which, though very often secret, had the louder echo
+Buckingham had been in love with three Queens
+By the means of a hundred pistoles down, and vast promises
+Civil war as not powerful enough to conclude a peace
+Civil war is one of those complicated diseases
+Clergy always great examples of slavish servitude
+Confounded the most weighty with the most trifling
+Contempt&mdash;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
+False glory and false modesty
+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 weighed everything, but fixed on nothing
+He knew how to put a good gloss upon his failings
+He had not a long view of what was beyond his reach
+Help to blind the rest of mankind, and they even become blinder
+His ideas were infinitely above his capacity
+His wit was far inferior to his courage
+Impossible for her to live without being in love with somebody
+Inconvenience of popularity
+Insinuation is of more service than that of persuasion
+Is there a greater in the world than heading a party?
+Kinds of fear only to be removed by higher degrees of terror
+Laws without the protection of arms sink into contempt
+Man that supposed everybody had a back door
+Maxims showed not great regard for virtue
+Mazarin: embezzling some nine millions of the public money
+Men of irresolution are apt to catch at all overtures
+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
+Never had woman more contempt for scruples and ceremonies
+Nothing is so subject to delusion as piety
+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
+Passed for the author of events of which I was only the prophet
+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
+She had nothing but beauty, which cloys when it comes alone
+So indiscreet as to boast of his successful amours
+Strongest may safely promise to the weaker what he thinks fit
+The subdivision of parties is generally the ruin of all
+The wisest fool he ever saw in his life
+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
+Verily believed he was really the man which he affected to be
+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
+Who imagine the head of a party to be their master
+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
+You must know that, with us Princes, words go for nothing
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz,
+Complete, by Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CARDINAL DE RETZ ***
+
+***** This file should be named 3846-h.htm or 3846-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.net/3/8/4/3846/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.net/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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.net
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.net
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>