THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 '/
 
 ABRAHAM FABERT.
 
 r
 
 MARSHAL PABERT 
 
 l-miii a prim in the U>itish Mint inn. 
 PAINTED BY L.FERDINAND ENORAVfcD BY C F. POILLY.
 
 ABRAHAM FABERT 
 
 GOVERNOR OF SEDAN: MARSHAL OF FRANCE 
 THE FIRST WHO ROSE FROM THE RANKS 
 
 nm LIFE AND TIMES 
 1599—1662 
 
 By GEORGE HOOPER 
 
 AUTHOR OP 
 
 'WATKRLOO: THE DOWNFALL OF THE FIRST NAPOLEON," " THB CAMPAIGN OF SKDAN, 
 
 "WELLINGTON," ETC. 
 
 " His name <a great example stands, to show 
 How strangely high endeavours may be blessed, 
 
 Where Piety and Valour jointly go."— Dryden 
 
 ^ith It Portrait 
 
 LONDON 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST IGth STREET 
 1892 
 
 [All riyltts j-csirved]
 
 
 Richard Clay & Sons, Limitkp, 
 London & Bitnqay.
 
 AUTHOE'8 PIIEFACE. 
 
 Who was Abraham Fabert, and why should an account of 
 him be written in English ? 
 
 The biography now offered to the public had this natural 
 origin. Many years ago, while travelling for rest and recre- 
 ation, the author picked up at an Edinburgh book-stall a 
 copy of the Vie de Fahert par le Pere Barre, and read it for 
 amusement. Until then he knew no more of Fabert than 
 this — that he was a Marshal of France whose statue he had 
 seen at Metz, that his name figures in the Appendix to 
 Voltaire's Steele de Louis XIV., and that it was mentioned 
 here and there by other historians. The two little brown 
 volumes of the Canon of St. Genevieve, however, disclosed 
 the character of a man, so difteront in many respects from 
 that of the French soldiers of his time, that the author was 
 led to push his inquiries farther and deeper ; and thus he 
 came to admire, and felt constrained to write out his estimate 
 of the adventures, attainments, and high qualities of this 
 Fabert. Some progress had been made, in hours of leisure, 
 when a new French life of his hero was announced ; and 
 then, thinking it would be needless, the work was laid aside. 
 The new Life, by Colonel Bourelly, is full, complete, based 
 on profound researches, a genuine example of exhaustive 
 investigation and conscientious labour ; but it is not suitable 
 to the British public. In due time the desire to set forth 
 the merits of the printer's son who became a Marshal, of the 
 brave, faithful, and studious soldier, of the Governor who took 
 his duties to heart, of the wise administrator and enlight- 
 ened economist, sprang up afresh, and the result of yielding 
 to temptation is contained in the following pages. 
 
 The author trusts they will show, contrary to Voltaire's 
 opinion, that there was something "extraordinary" in the 
 man's career besides the fact that he succeeded " solely by his 
 merit," and that he refused the Cordon Bleu rather than
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 forge evidence of noble birth for three generations. He was, 
 indeed, ahnost au unique figure in a tumultuous and 
 dramatic period ; and the sketches of " his times," which 
 beo-an with Henry IV. and ended with the death of Mazarin, 
 are essential as indications of the environment in which he 
 lived. The events and the characters of that sixty-two years 
 have furnished themes for many pens ; this humble attempt 
 follows the course of one who was not in the front rank, but 
 who, on that account, is no less worthy of remembrance and 
 lionour. Enough ; the book must now speak for itself. 
 
 G. H. 
 
 Kensington, February, 1890. 
 
 EDITOE'S PREFACE. 
 
 In publishing this Life of Marshal Fabert the nearest 
 relatives of the late George Hooper are actuated by a desire 
 to carry out what they know to have been his wishes. 
 
 Shortly before his sudden death in May, 1890, my father 
 had revised the manuscript of this his latest and, as it 
 unhappily proved, his last work, and prepared it for the 
 press. Perhaps some further alterations in the text would 
 have been made by the author before he actually placed it in 
 the printers' hands, but whatever his intentions in this 
 respect may have been, the book must now appear sub- 
 stantially as he left it two years ago. A few obvious and 
 trifling verbal errors have been corrected, and an Index 
 has been added, but no material changes have been made 
 in the work itself. The index has been constructed on the 
 plan of including, so far as possible, only subjects having a 
 direct bearing on Fabert himself, but some departures from 
 this rule have been judged expedient. 
 
 The portrait of the Marshal prefixed to the volume is 
 copied by the Autotype Company from a print in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 Wynnard Hoopkr. 
 
 May, 1892.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTKODUCTION ... ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. YOUTH OF FABERT ... ... ... ... 9 
 
 II. THE FRANCE OF FABERt's YOUTH ... ... 19 
 
 III. FABERT's EARLY TROUBLES ... ... ... 34 
 
 IV. FABERT BECOMES A CAPTAIN ... ... ... 51 
 
 V. THE IRON-MASTER ... ... ... ... 78 
 
 VI. THE STAFF OFFICER ... ... ... ... 96 
 
 VII. HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1637 ... ... 123 
 
 VIII. FAMINE IN THE MESSIN ... ... ... 144 
 
 IX. CAMPAIGNING IN ITALY ... ... ... 149 
 
 X. FABERT WORKS WITH THE KING AND RICHELIEU ... 161 
 
 XI. THE TRAGEDY OF CINQ MARS ... ... ... 172 
 
 XII. LOUIS AND RICHELIEU ... ... ... 184 
 
 XIIL GOVERNOR OF SEDAN ... ... ... ... 193 
 
 XIV. DURING THE FRONDE ... ... ... ... 205 
 
 XV. AFTER MAZARIN's TRIUMPH ... ... ... 221 
 
 XVI. ADMINISTRATOR AND ECONOMIST ... ... 229 
 
 XVII. MARSHAL OF FRANCE ... ... ... ... 235 
 
 XVIII. THE END ... ... ... ... ... 253
 
 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Abraham, son of Abraham Fabert, was born at Metz on 
 October 11, 1599. The interest which he inspires is grounded 
 on his exceptional career and character. He came of a family 
 of printers and booksellers ; he was renowned as a brave 
 soldier in a jDeriod conspicuous for reckless personal valour ; 
 he was an able and honest man of business, a disinterested 
 public servant, a statesman whose administrative and econo- 
 mical ideas were in advance of his time ; and finally, he rose 
 from the ranks by hard work and sheer merit to the dignity 
 of Marshal of France, — he was, indeed, the first French 
 soldier, not belonging to the noblesse of the sword or the 
 gown, who, to use a modern phrase, found a Marshal's baton 
 in his knapsack. He did not, like some of the Napoleonic 
 Marshals, start from the lowest rung of the social ladder, but 
 he was without those conventional qualifications, whicli, in 
 his day, and long after, were regarded as the conditions 
 precedent to the highest promotion ; and his sense of honour 
 was so refined that he would not stoop to invent or purchase 
 a pedigree from obliging heralds. That was not a common 
 virtue. Witty Madame Cornuel said of Louis XIV. in his 
 prime, tliat she did not know why folks thought the King 
 
 did not love Paris, seeing that he had made such a number of 
 
 B
 
 2 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 her burghers Knights of his Orders; and when an Archbishop 
 of Sens, because he knew he was not, and that the statutes 
 required that he should be a noble of three descents, refused 
 the Cordon Bleu, St. Simon scornfully exclaimed, "He imitated 
 M. de Fabert. These two stand alone." The others complied 
 with an easy custom winked at by the King. Fabert, like 
 the prelate, was more fastidious. He had his faults, but 
 baseness was not among them ; and even with the frailties he 
 had, he may fairly stand as a representative of courage, 
 perseverance, tolerance, industry, and probity, in a selfish, 
 bigoted, and venal age. 
 
 His earliest recorded ancestor is a certain Isaiah, an 
 Alsatian, who dwelt in Strasburg and had property in 
 Lorraine, which entitled him to be called seigneur of Xonville, 
 a village near Metz not far from the battle-field of Mars la 
 Tour, He had a son named ^langin, and this Fabert 
 accepted from Charles III., Duke of Lorraine, the post of 
 Master and Director of the Ducal Printing Establishment at 
 Nancy, at a salary of two thousand crowns, high pay for that 
 period. Three facts are known of Mangin, printer to the 
 generous Duke — his marriage at his father's clidtel in 1551, 
 his subsequent removal from Nancy to Metz, and his purchase 
 of the castle and lands of Moulins, three miles from the city, 
 to this day the property of his descendants. He is said to 
 liavo been ennobled by the Duke, but the fact is doubtful. 
 If little is known of the founder of the Fabert family, his son 
 Abraham has had better fortune. He also was a printer ; he 
 fought for Henry IV. against the League ; aided in the 
 capture of Mars la Toui", then written Malatour, and of 
 Conflans; served many years os " MccUre Uchevin," or High 
 Sheriff of Metz, printed books, and prospered in many ways. 
 When ciiiioblcd by Henry, in 1 00.*], he was styled " commissaire 
 ordinaire do noire AriiUcric ds gouvernemcnt de Metz, Thoul, 
 Verdun." " JiqnUd yssu de nolle race" he is made and de-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 clared to be a " gcntilhomme" witli the title of " Ecuyer." 
 He had ten children, three of whom only survived, Frangois, 
 Abraham, and Anne. He may be said to have built up the 
 house on the foundations laid by his father ; and it was his 
 services to Henry IV. and to the famous Duke of Epernon, a 
 favourite, but, as St. Simon asserts, never a " mignon " of 
 Henry III., which created those opportunities of earning 
 distinction so eagerly and resolutely seized by Abraham the 
 Younger. His father's reputation in Lorraine rested upon 
 the excellence of the works which came from his printing 
 office ; works even now coveted by collectors as specimens of 
 typography ; but most upon his tact and judgment as an 
 administrator. Thus he was a country squire by virtue* of 
 his little seignory outside Metz on the " road to France," a 
 sort of chief Magistrate in the city ; a renowned printer, an 
 artillerist, and, as we shall see, an enterprising speculator, 
 who ventured to lease the iron works at Moyoeuvi-e on the 
 Orne. 
 
 Abraham the Younger was born two years before the son 
 of Henry IV., the prince with whom, as Louis XIII., he was 
 destined to have such intimate relations. Richelieu was a 
 youth, still uncertain whether it would be his lot to wear a 
 mitre or a helm, and Mazarin, whom Fabert outlived, had 
 not seen the light. The end of the sixteenth century was, 
 indeed, a point in time marking a new epoch in French 
 history. The desolating wars waged in the name of religion, 
 for social and political ends, had terminated in a compromise. 
 When Henry III., who carefully planned the murder of 
 Henry, Duke of Guise, in the Castle of Blois, fell himself 
 under the blow of an assassin, the Catholic League was 
 avenged, but the stroke of vengeance not only destroyed a 
 hated monarch, it virtually destroyed the League. Henry of 
 Navarre became King, de jure, and he soon took the step 
 which made him King, dc facto. He was duly converted to
 
 4 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 the faitli of the majority, " Paris was well worth a mass." The 
 greater part of the Catholic noblesse rallied to his white 
 plume, and the rivalry between the old Duke of Mayenne 
 and the young Duke of Guise did the rest. The House of 
 Guise, which so nearly succeeded in capturing the throne of 
 France, fell back into the ranks of courtiers ; the House of 
 Bourbon, by capitulation as well as craft and valour, retained 
 its lofty place ; and, although the Church, the sects, the 
 great nobles and the lawyers wrestled fiercely with the sove- 
 reign power, that power in the end issued from the long and 
 sanguinary conflict absolute and supreme. 
 
 Fabert was born when the period of change had just begun. 
 The waves of revolution had not altogether subsided ; the 
 disorder in every department of the State was appalling ; the 
 hostile social and political forces were still in arms ; the 
 financiers and tax-gatherers alone were flourishing ; the 
 people were steeped in misery. But a master mind had 
 gained an initial control over the elements of confusion, and 
 there was at least the hope that strength and honesty would 
 bring some of the blessings of tranquility and order. That 
 hope was in a great measure fulfilled by the labours of Henry 
 and Sully, men so nearly of an age, the King being only seven 
 years older than his friend and servant, and so finely tempered, 
 that, altliough they differed profoundly in character, they 
 could work together efifectively to secure objects dear to each — 
 the establishment of order in the administration, the restora- 
 tion of honesty in the management of the finances, and the 
 organization of France as a great power. 
 
 At the end of tlie sixteenth century they had only taken 
 the initial steps in their arduous enterprise. France had no 
 commerce ; no ships ; properly speaking, no army. The 
 King's revenue was precarious, for the taxes and treasuries 
 were in the hands of corrupt and plundering officials. The 
 governors of ])roviiices gave tliemselves airs of independence.
 
 INTEODUCTION. 5 
 
 and treated with the monarch. The League was, indeed, 
 subdued, but the embers of that devastating invention of the 
 Guises still smoked ; the Huguenots, alarmed and indignant 
 at the King's conversion, wavered between rebellion and 
 obedience ; while Austria and Spain — Philip II. had onl}^ just 
 ended his long and pernicious career — threw a black shadow, 
 not only over perturbed France, but over Holland, England, 
 and Protestant Germany. It was the business of the shrewd 
 and jovial King and his crafty but honest minister to coerce 
 and conciliate internal opposition ; to extinguish debt, relieve 
 the taxpayer by destroying his oppressor, the lawless tax- 
 collector ; to create a surplus ; and to organize a power 
 wdiich would enable France to take her own line even in the 
 teeth of the Spanish Court and the Holy Roman Empire. 
 
 When Henry was assassinated, in 1610, he had gone far 
 towards the accomplishment of this stupendous task. He 
 had made his country a flourishing State ; he possessed a 
 vast treasure in the Bastille, where Sully kept Avatch and 
 ward ; he was the head of a fine army, and had a " great 
 design " on foot which was directed, nominally, towards the 
 political and territorial reformation of Europe, but was really 
 devised with intent to enlarge and strengthen the power of 
 France. To use the language of Augustin Thierry, an 
 impartial witness, he desired to preserve France from the 
 danger to which she was exposed by the preponderance of 
 Austria, and "at the same time give France herself a pre- 
 ponderating position by re-constituting Europe on a new 
 principle, that of the independence and equality of States." 
 
 He proposed to reduce the then existing States to fifteen, 
 having theoretically equal power. It is a curious fact that 
 at this date, 1890, the number of sovereign states in Europe, 
 excluding Turkey, is just one more, — sixteen ; but, of course, 
 neither they, nor their dynamical relations to each other, 
 correspond with the dream of Henry IV.
 
 6 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Metz, at the end of the sixteenth century, had been 
 virtually an " annexe " of France for nearly fifty years. 
 When Maurice of Saxony planned his daring enterprise 
 against the Kaiser, Henry II. became his willing ally, and 
 while Maurice hunted Charles V. from Innspriick, Henry 
 laid hands on Toul, Verdun, and Metz, gaining the last by 
 an adroit stratagem, with the full connivance of the anti- 
 Imperialist party in the city. Charles signed a peace with 
 his astute German antagonist — the peace of Passau, in its 
 day a great Protestant and German victory — and then 
 marched with his whole military force to wrest Metz from 
 the grasp of the French King. Forewarned, Henry threw 
 five thousand men, mostly trained soldiers, but including a 
 band of fighting French nobles, into the place, and had the 
 wit to put at their head Francis, Duke of Guise. 
 
 This capable and resolute leader, razing abbeys, monasteries, 
 churches, faubourgs on both banks of the river, expelling the 
 " useless mouths," and making, in other ways, the most of the 
 three months allowed him for preparation, was in amjDle 
 readiness for battle, when, in the autumn of 1552, Charles 
 sat down before the city. It was so well defended by Guise 
 and his men, that the proud Kaiser, although he was aided 
 by Alva, and the brilliant yet erratic Albert, nick-named 
 " Alcibiades," Markgraf of Baireuth, called by the French 
 " the Marcpiis of Brandenbourg," was comjjelled by valour, 
 snow, and rain, to withdraw, in deep distress of mind, from 
 the scene of a failure as conspicuous and significant as any in 
 history. 
 
 Thus was Henry's appropriation of Metz made good by 
 Francis of Guise. New defences were built, a new city 
 planned, and Metz, says a French author, himself a Messin, 
 "bought the sorrowful privilege of becoming one of the most 
 formidable bulwarks of France by the loss of part of her 
 population, of her monuments, and her commercial resources."
 
 INTHODUCTION. 7 
 
 When Fabert was born, the havoc wrought by the siege 
 had long been repaired, although the grand edifices on the 
 left bank were gone for ever. The extent of the city was 
 diminished, but much of its old beauty remained, and the elder 
 Fabert (1610) celebrates its pleasant situation, its spacious- 
 ness, its fine bridges and beautiful rivers, its Champ-a-Seille 
 surrounded by arcades, and affording a field for ten thousand 
 men in order of battle, its scores of churches, all surpassed by 
 the towering Cathedral, its pleasant approaches, its gardens, 
 water-mills, quaint walls, and round towers, the abundance of 
 Roman ruins, and the Bridge of the Dead over the Moselle, 
 which led to the city "from the side of France." The 
 ancient square citadel, standing between the rivers, was 
 enclosed by more pretentious works which did not win the 
 approbation of Henry IV. ; and the mound-like retrench- 
 ments, thrown up by Guise, still rose above the archaic 
 ramparts, some traces of which remained to our day. 
 
 There were no fortifications on the left bank under the 
 abrupt hills. The western defences ran along the right bank, 
 and the "road to France," carried on bridges over the 
 Moselle, turned southwards and passed by the stout little 
 chateau of Moulins, the seigneury of Fabert's father, before it 
 ran westward by Mars la Tour, where there was also a 
 chateau which he had helped Henry's troops to snatch from 
 the Leaguers, and so onward to Verdun by routes long fami- 
 liar to the soldier-student, and nearly identical with those 
 trodden by the Roman Legions, highways repaired by the 
 famous Brunhild, and in several places still bearing her name. 
 Below Metz lay Diedenhof, or Thionville, then, as now again, 
 an imperial city ; and above on the Meurthe, Nancy, whence 
 the Duke of Lorraine looked jealously on the French who 
 had deftly appropriated the large slices cut from his 
 Dukedom. 
 
 So far as the Messins were concerned, having tried and
 
 8 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 failed to govern themselves as burghers of a free city, they, or 
 a party among them, had called in the French King, whose 
 sway they preferred to that of the Emperor, and still more to 
 that of the Bishop. The King gave them a governor and a 
 garrison ; but their ancient municipal institutions survived 
 for a century and more, and Metz grew gradually less German 
 and more French. And a fine conquest it was for France. 
 At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Messin was 
 famed for its wealth of corn, wine, meat, and fish, its grass- 
 meadows, vineyards, salt-works, minerals, and woods ; and the 
 site of its chief city on the road from the west to the east 
 enabled its bluff, valiant, energetic, and industrious inhabit- 
 ants to draw profit from these great advantages. 
 
 They were compounded of many peoples, a result not 
 wonderful in a border city, which had been a great Roman 
 station, the capital of the Frankish Kingdom of Austrasia, a 
 Reichstadt, and free town ; and the mixture of races bad 
 produced a community with distinctly more liking for the 
 French Monarchy than for the Holy Roman Empire, probably 
 because their pride revolted against the arrogance of the 
 Emperor, and they had not yet tasted the tyranny of the 
 King. Indeed, Henry, in the manifesto which he issued in the 
 spring, when he took the field to aid Maurice, styled himself 
 " Protector of the Liberties of Germany and of its captive 
 Princes," and gave out, as other Frenchmen did after him, 
 that he was under arms to restore the shattered constitution 
 of the Empire, and " secure the piivileges and independence 
 of all the members of the Germanic body." Whether the 
 Messins believed him or not, they fell, and remained under 
 Ids sway long after Maurice had gained that object, and had 
 wrung the Passau Treaty from the sullen Kaiser.
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 YOUTH OF FABERT. 
 
 Born in a frontier town, or rather an advanced post of 
 France, at a period when war was epidemic, the young 
 Fabert disclosed, at a very early age, his natural bent to arms. 
 His father was a magistrate and a printer, but he also had 
 served, and was nearly as familiar with sword and cannon 
 as he Avas with type and the printing-press. Moreover, 
 thoroughly loyal alike to Henry and the Duke of Epernon, 
 the elder Fabert was disposed to court and serve, if not to 
 flatter them; and the sworn printer of Metz was as ready 
 to raise troops against the Leaguers of Lorraine, as he was 
 assiduous in producing fine specimens of typography. 
 
 The warlike strain in the stout and politic burgher prevailed 
 in the blood of his younger son, and the father unconciously 
 aided in stimulating the latent instinct. In the first glimpse 
 we have of the boy he is under arms. When he was four 
 years old Henry IV. visited Metz, for the double purpose of 
 remedying a crying civic grievance and of still further loosening 
 the hold of the Lorraine Duke over his coveted Duchy. Two 
 Gascons, Raymond de Comminges and his brother, had defied 
 Governor Epernon, their immediate master, and enraged 
 the people. The King, says Sully, thought that, " if Metz, 
 a city so very lately dismembered from the Empire, should 
 unfortunately happen, in the present conjuncture, to separate 
 itself from France, it would be a difficult matter to recover it."
 
 10 ABRAHAM FABEET. 
 
 He further shrewdly argued, that as some opportunity of 
 annexing Lorraine might offer, it would be just as well that 
 a sure King's man should hold the citadel of Metz. So he 
 set out thither in the winter of 1603, "notwithstanding the 
 rigour of the season, which," as Sully remarks, " made the roads 
 very bad for the ladies to travel," and took with him Queen 
 Marie and all his Court. 
 
 The Messins, though factious at times, were loyal, and 
 received the King and Queen with great rejoicings, an 
 account of which the elder Fabert composed and printed. 
 Therein, writes Colonel Bourelly, who had seen a copy, is 
 the description of an incident quite in keeping with the 
 spirit of the age. A company of one hundred and twenty 
 children armed with pikes and lances "ficurdelis4" paraded 
 before Henry and Marie. Among the tiny wariors, besides 
 his elder brother, Frangois, was Abraham Fabert, then in his 
 fourth year ; so that he appeared as a soldier upon a notable 
 occasion which he was not likely to forget. Before he left the 
 city the King, as Sully tells us, received several German 
 Princes, among them a "Marquis of Brandenburg" and the 
 Landgrave of Hesse ; he dismissed the troublesome brothers 
 Comminges, and appointed de la Grange, Lord of Montigny, 
 whose name survives in the " lines of Armanvillers," as the 
 King's Lieutenant in Metz, putting at the same time the Lord 
 of Arquien, the brother of Montigny, in command of the citadel. 
 Thus was Metz, if in danger, made secure against " Spain 
 and the Emperor." 
 
 Probably the child's father, when he put a pike in his baby 
 fist, thought only of pleasing the monarch, and not at all 
 of any effect which the military parade might produce on 
 his son. A careful parent, bound to hand over his fiefs to 
 FranQois, a man proud of his craft, he hoped to find, for 
 the young Abraham, a career in the Church which would 
 give him employment, position, and learning, so that he
 
 YOUTH OF FABERT. 11 
 
 might become a shining ecclesiastic and famous printer. 
 But the bo}"^ was obstinately bent on being a soldier, and 
 refused at first to learn Latin or take any interest in typo- 
 graphy. He had no distaste for study ; on the contrary, he 
 only turned away from such study as seemed likely to land 
 him in the Church, resembling in that respect the British 
 youth who demurred to Latin, lest, as he said, " they should 
 make him a Bishop," Francois lived to become, like his 
 father, a " commissaire cT artillcrie " and a Maitre Echevin, 
 and he also devoted himself to his native city. 
 
 Abraham was faithful to the sword, and could not be induced 
 to bid for the gown or the " soutane." The boy must have 
 noted an incident which made a noise in Metz, when he was 
 in his eleventh year. The King whom he saw as a boy 
 had been slain by an assassin, and all France vibrated at the 
 deed. The energetic Epernon at once dispatched Tilladet, 
 a dashing swordsman, to get possession of the Metz citadel, 
 if he could, for everybody was looking out for himself. The 
 commandant, Arquien, had rushed back to his fortress as 
 soon as he heard that the King had been murdered, thus 
 anticipating Tilladet, who, nevertheless, aided by a treacher- 
 ous sergeant, endeavoured to surprise the place, did get 
 through an opened postern, but was sharply beaten back 
 and just escaped with his life. As Epernon was in favour, 
 Tilladet could not be punished, neither could Arquien be 
 blamed, but in the end, the stout commandant was posted 
 to Calais, and Epernon's man got the citadel. Not an edify- 
 ing example for a young lad, yet one which, happily, did him 
 no harm. 
 
 At this time, according to the Pere Barre, he haunted the 
 garrison exercise ground, acquired a practical knowledge of 
 the company evolutions then in vogue, and the better to 
 attain his object, formed a boy friendship with the son of an 
 officer whose ardour equalled his own. The troops in the
 
 12 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 place were still French Guards, the companies, indeed, which 
 Henry had marched hurriedly thither, in 1603, "without 
 waiting for their new uniforms," When their presence 
 delighted the eyes of Fabert, doubtless they shone out in 
 undimmed splendour, for Sully, though frugal, was a man of 
 method, and did not fail to find money for genuine public 
 needs. The Guards were not a bad school in which to study 
 the rudiments of soldiering. He must have daily quitted 
 the newly built paternal mansion, hard by the water-mill in 
 the Petit Sauley, now the Place de Prefecture, erected on 
 ground presented to his father by the city, and have wandered 
 southward to that citadel which, as a military work, found no 
 favour in the experienced eyes of Henry IV. ; and probably 
 he had read or heard narrated the details of the great siege 
 which broke the spirit of Charles V. 
 
 Visible from the citadel church of St. Pierre le Vieil, and 
 almost within gunshot of the antique round flanking towers, 
 the youthfid Fabert may have visited the Chateau of la 
 Horgne, long since gone to dust, upon the walls of which, as 
 Motley tells us, some jester scrawled the figure of a crab with 
 the words plus citra in lieu of the Emperor's proud motto 
 2)lus ultra. Nor would he fail to know that his father's 
 castle of Moulins had itself been besieged, and that warriors, 
 renowned in their day, had slept within its walls. So that if 
 the boy did not become a Latin scholar, he had still the 
 teaching of history or tradition, and the hardy exercise which 
 rendered him able to endure privation and resist fatigue. 
 He was not strong, but ho had a tireless spirit, and he never 
 seems to have known fear. Most of all his natural upright- 
 ness of mind was strengthened by the example of his father, 
 who managed without reproach, to steer his difficult way. 
 
 Little is known about Fabert's boyish education proper; 
 but as he lived in an atmosphere of letters and affairs, and as 
 his father persisted in trying to make him his successor in
 
 YOUTH OF FABERT. iS 
 
 the office of sworn printer, the boy must have been much 
 better taught in all ways than the youths of the noblesse, 
 and his studies, though interrupted by his love of arms, must 
 have approximated towards those pursued by the liigher 
 ranks of the burghers who recruited the minions of the law. 
 At any rate he acquired enough rudimentary knowledge to 
 give him the power of attaining many accomplishments in 
 after life not common in the French army. Louis, the 
 Dauphin, with all his governors and professors, was hardly 
 better taught than Fabert, and by no means so well schooled 
 as the hero of Rocroi, who, for the time, had an excellent 
 training, under the eye of his severe but long-headed father. 
 At a much earlier date, Bassompierre, who preferred his 
 French to his German patronymic, ceased to attend school 
 and college at seventeen ; while the majority of the noblesse 
 served as pages in great households, and got their schooling, 
 such as it was, as best they could. They were taught to 
 fence, ride, dance, and play on the lute or some other 
 instrument, and in their teens they went " to the wars " as 
 cadets or volunteers. They were attached to some regular 
 regiment, vicux corps, or, like Ben Jonson, they served in the 
 Low Countries, where death, wounds, or experience could 
 always be had. 
 
 It is not written that Fabert ever learned to dance, but he 
 certainly did become, at an early age, a proficient in drill 
 and discipline, much to the chagrin of his sire ; and dis- 
 played that tendency towards the practical and scientific side 
 of his chosen profession — chemistry, mathematics, engineering 
 — which in afterlife made him conspicuous. He was taught, 
 or taught himself, surveying and military draughtmanship, 
 and shrank from no kind of toil which seemed likely to fit 
 him out for the accurate performance of the duties he under- 
 took. Naturally, his first essays in these dii'ections were 
 rudimentary and boyish, but they revealed the true nature
 
 14 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 of his character, which, first and last, was as remarkable for 
 industry, energy, self-devotion and thoroughness as it was for 
 uprightness and loyalty. The boy started with a high con- 
 ception of Duty, in a corrupt age, and the man, to his 
 death-bed, was faithful to a principle of action which is the 
 salt of States. The elder Fabert, Maltre Echevin in 1610, 
 steadfastly pursuing his purpose to make his son a printer, 
 secured for him the reversion of his office, and even placed 
 his name on the title page of several volumes. But his per- 
 sistence availed him nothing, and it is probable that the 
 youth himself very rarely, if at all, though he may have 
 learned to set up type, exercised his father's honourable 
 craft. Three years afterwards, in 1613, an event occurred 
 in Metz which decided the long-pending family dispute. 
 
 The Governor of Metz and the Messin was that Jean Louis 
 de Nogaret, Duke of Epernon, who won an extravagant 
 eulogy from St, Simon, and bitter censure from Sully. The 
 famous memoir- writer describes the fiery Gascon as " grand 
 and magnanimous," and speaks of his "uprightness and 
 firmness, and his invincible attachment to the State and his 
 King." Whereas Sully, in portraying a man whom he 
 detested, can use no phrases weaker than unconquerable pride, 
 in-solence, or rather natural ferocity," adding that " he hated 
 the King (Henry IV.) because he hated the world ; and, 
 without doubt, there were moments when he was not well- 
 satisfied with himself." St. Simon admired him because he 
 strained to the uttermost the privileges of a noble and a 
 Duke ; and Sully, who had successfully opposed his exactions 
 bofijre Fabert was born, and detested his arrogance, 
 blackened his name, because he was not sufficiently 
 obedient to Henry, and had aided Marie de Medicis to get 
 rid of Sully. 
 
 The conduct of EjxMiion after tlie King's assassination is 
 characteristic of the noble who never bated one jot of his
 
 YOUTH OF FABERT. 15 
 
 dignity as grand seigneur, perhaps because he had some 
 doubt whether his extraction was on a level with that of his 
 rivals. "He had no birth," says his admirer St. Simon; but 
 he always behaved as if he had descended from Charlemagne. 
 Resolved that Marie de Medicis should be Regent, he entered 
 the Parlement of Paris, and demanded that a formal 
 declaration of her Regency should be made that very day. 
 " My sword," he said, " is still in its sheath, but it will be 
 drawn if that title which, in the order of nature and justice 
 is her due, is not at once accorded." And it was done 
 almost before the corpse of Henry had grown cold. The 
 Queen-mother reigned, but the Guises, Epernons, Condes, 
 Nemours, and Longuevilles governed, until they were eclipsed 
 by the Italian Concinis, husband and wife, whose grasping 
 rule was only tempered by the influence of the legal 
 fraternities. It was a perpetual scramble for places, pensions, 
 gifts; and Sully was driven out of the Council, and into 
 retirement, in order that the Queen-mother and the noblesse, 
 without restraint, might appropriate the millions of treasure 
 hoarded in the Bastile. 
 
 Epernon, who was Colonel-General of the Infantry, Knight 
 of the Saint Esprit and the Garter, who held many govern- 
 ments — Guienne, Metz, Provence, Boulonois, Saintonge, 
 Angoulmois — easily prevailed on the Regent to grant the 
 reversion of the Messin to his second son Bernard, then 
 Marquis, afterwards Duke of la Valette. He was a somewhat 
 narrow-minded and hot-tempered young man, with the 
 brusque independence, but without the real ability possessed 
 by his inflexible and haughty sire. His elder brother, 
 Henry, "the least loved, was unfortunate all his life," and 
 his junior Louis, famous in his day as the soldier-cardinal 
 La Valette, became one of the most devoted friends of another 
 Cardinal whose name, Richelieu, stands for that of his age. 
 With all these Nogarets, who had various titles, governments,
 
 16 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 and high commands, except Henry, the boy Fabert was 
 destined to have more or less intimate relations in later days. 
 So that, for him, the coming of father and son to Metz, in 
 1613, was a great event in his life; for it made him give 
 at once a practical proof tliat he was not to be led or driven 
 from his fixed resolve to seek employment and distinction in 
 a military career. 
 
 To the bright and pleasant city on the Moselle came the 
 puissant Duke and bis son Bernard, in the summer of 1613. 
 Forewarned of their advent, the Mattre Echevin and his 
 colleagues, as was the custom then and now, made great 
 preparations for their recej^tion. A military show was the 
 natural outcome of the spirit of a time when, as Regnier 
 
 sang — 
 
 Lc soldat mijourd'htii ne resve que la guerre, 
 
 and the burghers of Metz formed a company out of their 
 boys who were between ten and fifteen. They were dressed 
 in the showy La Valette colours, — white pourpoiuts, red 
 breeches, and green stockings, — and they were commanded 
 by the young Fabert, now rising fourteen. He bore himself 
 so much like a soldier, and manoeuvred his company so well, 
 that the Duke of Epcrnon called him up, praised him, and 
 from that moment became his patron. Some species of 
 firework, also, made by the boy chemist, pleased the Governor, 
 to whom he was thenceforth devoted ; and a few weeks later, 
 Abraham the younger, against liis father's wish, entered as a 
 cadet in the Gardes Fran^aiscs. It is to their credit that, 
 although in this extremity the boy had to invoke the aid 
 of the King's Lieutenant to attain his end, the father and 
 son did not quarrel, but remained then and ever afterwards 
 fast and solid friends. Thus Fabert, before he completed his 
 fourteenth year, bc'camc a ])rivate soldier. Now, the status 
 of a cadet volunteer, unless he were a youth of high rank, did 
 not iliffcr from that of an enlisted recruit. He received in
 
 YOUTH OF FABEllT. 17 
 
 some cases no pay, or ordinary pay, or wliat was called full 
 pay {la liante 'jjayc). Fabert came in the second category. 
 He was so young that his captain, at first, desired to spare 
 him night duty, but yielded to the lad's importunities, and 
 allowed him to go the rounds with an older comrade. What 
 he aimed at above all things was to learn his profession and 
 to live on his pay. When the Guards were recalled from 
 Metz to Paris, he marched with them. Quartered in the 
 capital, he fulfilled his duties with exactitude, and pursued 
 his studies with unflasjorincr zeal. He taught himself from 
 books, at least the rudiments of geometry, fortification and 
 drawing. In addition, he read history, applied himself to 
 the acquisition of German, Spanish, Italian and Flemish, and 
 was always eager for a knowledge of geography, which, he was 
 wont to say, was as necessary to an officer as his arms were 
 to the soldier. 
 
 In that day, when, even among the officers, learning was 
 despised, such fervid industry alone marked him out as an 
 exception. A score of years later, the Marquis of Cramail, 
 at a critical moment, addressed the arrUre tan, all gentlemen, 
 imploring them not to ride away from the field, the effect of 
 his eloquence was destroyed at once, when some one cried 
 out — " Why listen to him, he has written a book ! " A noble 
 said to a contemporary poet, " I mend my pen with my 
 sword." "Then I am no longer astonished," was the prompt 
 retort, " that you should write so badly." We can easily 
 imagine, then, how the student cadet in so punctilious a corps 
 as the Guards, should have had to study almost in secret. 
 That he persevered is indubitable, and also that he did so 
 without neglecting the least of his duties as a private ; so 
 determined was he to master all the branches of his pro- 
 fession, from the simplest to the most complex. He served 
 five years in the ranks, enduring discomforts and privations 
 compared with which those of a soldier of our day are less
 
 18 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 than nothing ; but for him they were fruitful years, because 
 they enabled him to lay, sure and deep, the foundations of 
 his brilliant and dutiful career. 
 
 Nor did Epemon forget him. When he had entered his 
 nineteenth year, the Duke gave him the post of ensign in 
 the famous old regiment called " Piedmont," Raised origin- 
 ally in Italy from the bands of Giovanni dei Medici, bearing 
 his colours, which were black with a white cross, they were 
 notable for dashing as well as steadfast valour. Unluckily, 
 Fabert did not remain long in this popular corps. To show 
 why he left it we must try to sketch the kind of world into 
 which he had been plunged, or rather had plunged himself, 
 and thus connect him with the stirring events which quickly 
 proved how much France had lost when the master hand of 
 Henry of Navarre was withdrawn.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FRANCE OF FABERT'S YOUTH. 
 
 The change of scene from the smiling valley of the bright 
 Moselle to the brilliant city on the banks of the turbid 
 Seine, brought Fabert into the very heart of the political 
 strife which had been raging since the murder of Henry, and 
 thejahnost indescribable disorder prevailing throughout society. 
 At Metz he only heard of the turbulence faintly shadowed 
 in the enterprise of du Tilladet in 1610. At Paris he was 
 face to face with the men who had changed the orderly realm 
 of Henry into an arena, where the nobles not only fought for 
 power, but rivalled the financiers in scheming for public 
 plunder; where the lawyers were daily intent on aggrandizing 
 their offices and their political position in the State ; and 
 where the multitude were at the mercy of every man who 
 possessed, or could obtain the show of authority. Few more 
 complete contrasts exist in history, than that between the 
 condition of France during the ten years which followed the 
 final triumphs of Henry, and the next decade. It was a 
 transition from the relative security and order of a cultivated 
 territory to the absolute peril and waste of a jungle. 
 
 In 1599, the year of Fabert's birth, the Governors, and in 
 general all the great men {les grands) had pushed their 
 licentious audacity, says Forbonnais, so far that, of their own 
 authority, they levied contributions on the people. The Duke 
 of Epernon was a conspicuous offender in the provinces under
 
 20 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 his rule, and the energy with which Sully, backed by Henry, 
 repressed that potent seigneur, in common with many more, 
 accounts for their antagonism to the honest minister. The 
 same able author, writing of 1603, four years after these drastic 
 measures had been applied, says matters had come to this 
 pass among the people who were taillabh, that " he who grew 
 rich dared not spend until he became sufficiently wealthy to 
 pay nothing ; " that is, until he bought a place or a seigneury, 
 or in some way wedged himself into the privileged classes — 
 a most peculiar and almost unintelligible condition of society, 
 even when so greatly reformed by Sully, but admirable in 
 contrast to that which followed. Henry and his minister 
 exacted obedience, no doubt, but they gave security and order 
 in return. Mischiefs and wrongs abounded, but the greater 
 ones were restrained, and the lesser protected in some sort, 
 and effectually for that age, from oppression not inflicted by 
 due course of law. 
 
 At the end of the sixteenth century, a Duke of Mercoeur, a 
 Guise, who affected the style and title of prince, was able with 
 impunity to rush into the house of the Avocat-general Servin, 
 threaten him with death, and even try to slay him, for no 
 other reason than that, pleading before President Achille de 
 Harlay, the man who bearded the Duke of Guise on the Day 
 of Barricades, he had declared that no one, unless of the blood 
 royal, was entitled to be called prince. A Vaudemont, another 
 Guise, whose assumption of a title which soon became com- 
 mon, was tolerated, could only at a later period carry his pre- 
 tensions so far as to refuse to sit down at the King's table, 
 because he would not do so in company with the King's 
 illegitimate son, Cffisar, Duke of Vendume. The Count of 
 Soissons left Paris in order that he might not be present at 
 tlie ill-omened coronation of Marie de Medicis, and his reason 
 was that there were not more rows o( Jlcnrs de hjs on the 
 Queen's robe than there were on that of Mademoiselle de
 
 THE FRANCE OF FABERT S YOUTH. 21 
 
 Vendurae. When the great Henry Liy in his grave, Epcrnon, 
 moved by what Sully called his "natural ferocity," beat 
 Corneillan, the gate-keeper of the Louvre, because, obeying 
 the Court order, he would not allow the proud Duke to drive 
 into the court-yard ; but even in the days of Marie, the base 
 action of Epernon was condemned by his own class, if he had a 
 class, and did not in his own opinion stand alone. 
 
 Not that the tranquil years which followed the peace of 
 Vervins and the little war with the Duke of Savoy were 
 exempt from some kinds of disorder or absolutely free from 
 corruption. The nobles, or some of them, were always con- 
 spiring to regain, in full, their lost authority; the "gentle- 
 men " of all shades, defying the edicts, slew each other in 
 duels, so-called, at the rate of four or five hundred a year ; 
 and the financiers, even under Sully, who sometimes had to 
 bribe, found it very practicable to grow rich. It was during 
 this period that Regnier wrote his earlier satires ; in one he 
 says that the noblesse were driving post-haste to the Poor 
 House (la noblesse co^trre en iioste a V Hotel- Dicu), and in 
 another, that if from a contractor you would become a prince, 
 
 Chacim en tafaveur mcttra son esperance, 
 Mille valets souz toy desoleront la France. 
 
 But, although offices were purchasable and many of them 
 hereditary, some by right of annual payments, others by usage 
 or favours ; although taxes, direct and indirect, fell heavily on 
 the unprivileged ; although that most strange of institutions, 
 an internal customs line, and a host of tolls and imposts, 
 harassed and restricted the home as well as the foreign trade, 
 nevertheless, and despite many errors, as we should call them, 
 Henry and Sully did effect immense reforms, so that when 
 the King was cut off in his prime, he left behind him a France 
 far more flourishing and prosperous than she had ever been 
 before.
 
 22 ABRAHAM FABEllT. 
 
 How swift the transformation ! No sooner had the corpse 
 of Henry been entombed in St. Denis, than the great nobles 
 hastened to the Court of tlie Regent, scenting their prey from 
 afar. The old Leaguers returned to office, and the swarm of 
 money-lenders rejoiced at the prospect of fat contracts, and 
 fresh fields wherein they might exercise the art and mystery 
 of extortion. Factions began to form for battle, and their 
 chiefs to scramble for grants and governments. King Henry, 
 say the philosophers, restored the principle of monarchy, but 
 when he died, the monarchy itself was in danger, and France 
 ran the risk of becoming a satellite of Spain and the Empire. 
 
 Marie de Medicis was a woman of boundless self-conceit, 
 Avho had none of the abilities of her house, except a certain 
 art of weak dissimulation ; but had she been the astute 
 Catherine or the Reine Blanche herself, she would have found 
 it a hard task to assert and maintain control over the proud, 
 daring, and unscrupulous men who, having lost a master, used 
 the welcome freedom to aggrandize themselves. The haughty 
 dictation of Epernon in the Parlement, and the insolence of 
 Bassompierre towards Sully, and the pretensions of Conde, 
 were really the symbols of the new time. The Grandees 
 intended to rule the Court and divide France among them, and 
 all intended to plunder the treasury. They thirsted for the 
 hoards which the thrifty Henry had placed in the vaults of 
 the Bastile ; Sully the imyielding stood in the way, and he 
 was therefore promptly dismissed. They were eager to 
 restore that kind of account-keeping which leaves no incon- 
 venient traces, and reduces the responsibility of the account- 
 ants to a minimum, while it raises their liberty or licence to a 
 maxinmm. 
 
 Thus at a stroke, the admirable system devised to protect 
 the tax-payers, and guard the revenue from malversation, 
 was destroyed, in ovAuv that the hunger of needy and greedy 
 a]»plicants for favours might be satisfied. The Count of
 
 THE FKANCE OF FABERT's YOUTH. 23 
 
 Soissons, Guise, Epernon, Bellegarde, Coiide, were bought 
 by the Regent and her ministers, or rather, a vain attempt 
 was made to allay their opposition, for they took the gokl and 
 the places and went on their way, quarrelling among them- 
 selves and caballing against the Queen-mother, who squan- 
 dered on them the treasures of the State. It may be said, 
 indeed, of the Grandees that they seemed bent on showing 
 the world that, in the main, they were not an aristocracy, but 
 only a noblesse, ready enough to die in single combat or on 
 the battle-field, but equally ready to commit deeds which can 
 only be defined as mean and even dastardly. Many were 
 very poor, and all, even the best, were intoxicated with pride 
 of birth and blood, which in their estimation set them abso- 
 lutely apart from other men. On no other supposition can 
 one account for their incessant demands for public money, 
 and for acts which should have sent them to the galleys. 
 
 A Duke of Epernon, when one of the Guards, having killed 
 a comrade in a brawl, was arrested by the civil authority, 
 broke into the Abbaye prison and took him out. An Arch- 
 bishop of Bordeaux forced a prison and rescued a felon con- 
 demned to die. No punishment was inflicted on either. A 
 Duke of Nevers, one of the Gonzagas, finding th\t a State 
 treasurer used his authority to obstruct the levying of taxes 
 by the Duke, then in revolt, caused him to be carried off, 
 dressed him in rags, and paraded him on an ass, throughout 
 the Rhetelois. The Chancellor of Guise slew the Baron of 
 Lux at midday in the Rue St. Honore, killing him before he 
 had even time to draw his sword ; and the records of duelling 
 show that such deeds were not uncommon, and that fair play 
 was the exception, not the rule, among these " gentlemen " 
 and nobles. Henry IV., speaking of the Guise family, two of 
 whom had just committed base actions, wrote to Sully, "I 
 must tell you that the best of the whole race is worth but 
 little ; " and when Lux was murdered, Bassompierre relates
 
 24 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 how Queen Marie exclaimed, "These are the tricks of the 
 family. It is a copy of St. Paul," meaning the slaying of 
 Antony of St. Paul, one of his favourite officers, by Charles, 
 Duke of Guise. But examples in abundance might be cited 
 to show that the tricks were not confined to " the family." 
 
 As the dignity and authority of the Crown were abased 
 and contemned, and as the rigid administration of the late 
 reign, based on honest book-keeping, was invaded and replaced 
 by indiscriminate corruption and profligacy, so the foreign 
 policy of Henry was reversed. Within twelve months of his 
 violent death the Queen and her ministers had signed a 
 defensive treaty with Spain, and decided that Louis should 
 marry Anne, and Don Philip, afterwards Philip IV., should 
 marry Henry's eldest daughter, Elizabeth of France. The 
 object aimed at was the alliance of the Catholic Powers. 
 Sully's financial contracts were broken ; Henry's treaties were 
 set aside, and his pledges were not redeemed. The great 
 jDublic works, designed to promote agriculture, trade, com- 
 merce, and manufactures, were abandoned ; imports, taxes, 
 levies increased ; and the inevitable consequence was dis- 
 content and exasperation, alike among the plunderers and 
 the plundered. 
 
 The fanatic ultramontane faction which sought to set the 
 Church above the State, or rather to absorb the State in the 
 Church, lifted its head once more, and a Cardinal du Perron 
 could say audaciously that " the Kings of the earth should 
 lick the dust from the feet of the Church, and submit them- 
 selves to her in the person of the Pope." On all sides the 
 State seemed rushing down to anarcliy at headlong speed. 
 Neither tlic Parlemcnt, which was aggressive, nor the States- 
 General, which were energetic but divided, nor the nobles, 
 wlio were always prompt to draw the sword, could arrest the 
 downward course of the curious compound of weakness, 
 duplicity and profligacy, which called itself a government.
 
 THE FRANCE OF FABERT's YOUTH. 25 
 
 On two occasions the Dukes were actually paid large sums 
 in addition to what they wrung from the coimnunity, to defray 
 the expenses of rebellion. 
 
 In the background were the Queen's favourites, the 
 Florentines, Concino and his wife, both publicly hated and 
 dreaded : the man because he was insatiable, brutal and 
 unscrupulous, a Marquis by purchase, which was not un- 
 common, a Marechal by the favour of his besotted mistress, 
 although he had never seen a battle, which was unique ; the 
 woman because she, being superior in force of character and 
 intellect, not only held sway over Marie, but took bribes with 
 both hands from all parties and every Power. Still further 
 from the public stage was the boy King, neglected, almost 
 a prisoner, left to the care and the teaching of underlings, 
 and sedulously kept aloof from that early familiarity with 
 statesmen and State business so needful to one who is bora 
 to rule. 
 
 The young Fabert still carried a halbert in the ranks of 
 the Gardes Fran^aises when Conde was imprisoned, when the 
 Dukes revolted, and when Concino, Marc^chal d'Ancre, was 
 assassinated or killed as he entered the Louvre, and Louis 
 was able to exclaim, " Now I am King." He had lived in 
 dread and restraint, and whether with or against the youth's 
 consent, the pistol shots were fired on the 24th of March, 1617. 
 Whether Vitry and his comrades murdered the Marechal, 
 or slew him because he resisted the King's order for his 
 arrest, certain it is that the whole public applauded the deed, 
 and that the Parisian populace, as usual, exercised its ferocity 
 upon the helpless corpse, and pillaged the house of the 
 abhorred foreigner. 
 
 Luynes, the King's favourite, and contriver of the plot 
 which ended in a dark tragedy, became the King's minister. 
 Marie, who had been and was a selfish, unnatural mother, 
 was banished there and then to Blois. The revolted nobles,
 
 26 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 thinking their time had come, instantly laid down their arms 
 and flocked back to Paris. The Duke of Mayenne, the son 
 of the old Leaguer, who at least kept his compacts, was at 
 that moment besieged in Soissons by the royal troops. An 
 accomplished officer, Fontenai-Mareuil, who has left such 
 instructive Memoirs, was engaged in the trenches, preparing 
 for an assault, when from the bastion St. Mark a loud voice 
 cried out through the darkness : " Gentlemen, withdraw. The 
 war is over. The Marechal d'Ancre, your master, is dead, 
 the King, our master, has caused him to be slain." The 
 news had been sent to Mayenne by the Cardinal of Guise, 
 whose messenger got through the besiegers' lines before 
 authentic information reached the camp. But the next day 
 Mayenne sent the keys of Soissons to the King. It was the 
 same everywhere, the rebellion collapsed at once. 
 
 When the Queen had driven over the Pont Neuf on her 
 way to the sinister castle on the Loire with all her Court, 
 having in her train a certain Bishop of Lu9on, already a 
 distinguished, and destined to be a famous man, Louis re- 
 moved to Vincennes, and thither went the brutal Mayenne, 
 the self-seeking Vendome, the quarrelsome Nevers, and the 
 cautious Longueville. Guise, and Bouillon, the restless 
 intriguer, were disbanding their levies ; Epernon had not yet 
 decided on his course at this juncture, but when he did 
 decide he rode into Paris from Etampes, and up to the Louvre 
 at the head of five hundred gentlemen. "I have reigned 
 seven years ! " was the exclamation of the mother, Avho wept 
 bitterly over the loss of power, and it was only when that 
 fatal period, which she called her reign, ceased, that in any 
 sense did the reign of the Son begin. It was an ominous 
 dawn, blood-red, but quite in harmony with the sanguinary 
 customs of the time. 
 
 Fabert, alwoys thouglitful, must have meditated much on 
 these tragic events, as he mounted guard at the Louvre or
 
 THE FRANCE OF FABERt's YOUTH. 27 
 
 the Arsenal, or bent over Lis books in solitude ; and they may 
 have helj)ed to insj^ire him with that horror of Courts which 
 he felt to the end of his life, and which made him, in his later 
 days, resist the temptations of Madame de Sevigne's grand 
 solitaire of Port Royal, the austere Arnauld of Andilly, who 
 survived Fabert, and in his old age went to the Court of 
 Louis XIV., not yet the " Grand Monarque," but on the road 
 to that equivocal eminence. 
 
 Indeed, these events, and some which followed, had an evil 
 influence on Fabert's fortunes. For he had not held his com- 
 mission a year in the Regiment of Piedmont when Queen 
 Marie, aided by Epernon and his sons, escaped from the 
 Castle of Blois, fled direct to the gloomy towers of Loches, 
 and was escorted thence to Angouleme. Although few nobles 
 joined her standard, and the Protestants held aloof, she and 
 her adherents were yet strong enough to obtain a peace 
 which, in some measure, restored her at least to liberty, and 
 placed her once more in a condition to contend for power. 
 
 Now, while the struggle remained in suspense, the La 
 Valette faction raised regiments, and the post of captain in 
 one of these bands was given to Fabert. It was stipulated, 
 in the arrangement negotiated by Richelieu, still only Bishop 
 of Lu(^.on, that no mischief should befall any one who had 
 taken up arms for the Queen. Fabert, therefore, returned to 
 his former regiment. Piedmont, but as Marie was dissatisfied 
 with her state, and as the Grandees were eager to overthrow 
 Luynes, a fresh civil war broke out, which ended in the 
 disastrous rout of the rebels. In due course came a new 
 treaty, but it did not protect men who, like Fabert, had again 
 joined the party of Epernon. Nevertlieless the Duke, as 
 Colonel-General of the Infantry, used his power, and reinstated 
 Fabert as ensign in Piedmont. But when the young soldier 
 proposed to purchase a captaincy in Normandy, another old 
 regiment, Luynes, using the name of the King, insolently said
 
 28 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 that Fabert was not handsome enough to be a captain in 
 an old corps. The language is attributed to Louis, but it 
 evidently came from Luynes, who, hating much the adherents 
 of the Queen-mother, hated still more the clients of the 
 proud and enterprising Colonel-General of the Infantry. The 
 aspirant for glory was, therefore, destined to remain some 
 years longer in a subaltern post; but before describing his 
 brilliant career as a soldier, it will be proper to sketch briefly 
 the political condition of France, and define succinctly the 
 real questions at issue. 
 
 There were three great political currents each striving to 
 obtain the mastery. Foremost came the absolute monarchy, 
 next the Grandees, thirdly the Tiers Etat. A minute 
 analysis would show that at no one moment could strictly- 
 defined boundaries be drawn between these several powers. 
 The monarchy, for example, drew strength not only from 
 fact, tradition, and popular reverence for kingship, not always 
 or often synonymous with respect for kings, but from its two 
 rivals. The Grandees, again, though pursuing a common 
 object, and hoping to restore or set up what has been called 
 a bastard feudalism, were divided among themselves, and gave 
 support to the King or drew their swords against him as it 
 seemed politic at the moment. In like manner the Third 
 Estate was in all three camps, many of its delegates to the 
 States-General, and these not the least enlightened, being 
 themselves nobles. Perhaps it should be said that there was 
 a fourth party — the Protestants. They may be so classed, 
 but among them were some of the most weighty Grandees, 
 like Bouillon, Sully and Rohan, and some of the foremost 
 lawyers and gentlemen. The Church, though frequently in 
 opposition, and divided between Galileans and Ultramontanes, 
 was in effect a buttress of the monarchy, and despite all its 
 pretensions like those of Perron, and successes like those of 
 the Jesuits, was never in a position to strike out for itself.
 
 THE FllANCE OF FABERT S YOUTH. 29 
 
 The monarchy had the enormous advantage of being single, 
 permanent, and the possessor of force, so that it only required 
 moderate strength of direction to make its will prevail ; and 
 it was further its good fortune that neither of the other two 
 great parties had such legal or even traditional rights as 
 might have enabled them together or separately to fight the 
 battle on relatively equal terms. 
 
 The Grandees may almost be set aside, seeing that they 
 never had the remotest chance of establishing the species of 
 feudal federalism, tempered by the chairmanship of a per- 
 manent and subservient head called a King, at which they 
 seemed to aim. They were stupidly selfish. Writing of 
 them in 1617, Henry of Rohan, one of the ablest and most 
 honest men then living, said, " Every one wishes to have the 
 command of an army, or a province, without regard to las 
 own merits, but solely because his neighbour or equal has 
 obtained such a post. If he does not get one he is mal- 
 content, and wants to set his foot on the throat of his master." 
 Rohan, even when in revolt on behalf of his fellow Protes- 
 tants, was a monarchist, and always what he called himself, 
 hon Franqois. "For the most part," he justly said, "those 
 who serve the King deserve to serve him in their own way 
 and not in his." The public, the burghers, and even the 
 peasants, saw this as clearly as Rohan, and after the advent 
 of Henry IV. never thronged to the rebel flags of the 
 Grandees ; well knowing that their little fingers, as engines 
 of oppression, extortion, and cruelty, were thicker than the 
 loins of the King. The Grandees, including some princes of 
 the blood, were able to kill, plunder, and destroy ; they could 
 found nothing. The Venetian ambassador at the Court of 
 Louis saw that Conde had not stuff enough in his character 
 to make a successful leader of faction. " There are only two 
 princes," he wrote, " who in this reign could produce a serious 
 revolt. Monsieur and the Count of Soissons " — the first being
 
 30 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 that brother of Louis who was afterwards the Duke of 
 Orleans, then a child ; and the second the grandson of that 
 heroic Conde who was murdered in cold blood on the field 
 of Jarnac. The Grandees were, indeed, a survival, but they 
 died hard, and were not effectually quelled until Mazarin 
 finally triumphed in the minority of Louis XIV. It was the 
 misfortune of Fabert, yet an inevitable misfortune in those 
 days, that his patron and friend was one of these ambitious 
 and arrogant persons, the Duke of Epernon ; but we shall see 
 that without proving ungrateful, he soon became the servant 
 of the King, or rather, as he conceived it, the dutiful servant 
 of France. 
 
 The only possible source of an effective control over the 
 Monarchy lay in the Parlement and the States-General. 
 Many writers have argued that out of one or both of these 
 might have grown up a constitutional body similar to that 
 which had attained so much power in England. They arrive 
 at this belief by overlooking the fact that the political and 
 social conditions in the two countries were wholly dissimilar. 
 There never was a French institution analogous to the Eng- 
 lish Parliament. The " Parlement," so called, was a Company 
 of Magistrates, empowered to decide causes and perform 
 administrative acts. It had the right of remonstrance but 
 never the right of veto, and the monarch could always, if he 
 thought fit, enforce the registration of an edict in a " bed of 
 justice." " The Parlement" was, in fact, a collection of place- 
 men, in nowise representative ; and after the invention of the 
 " Paulette," a nickname derived from that of Charles Paulet, 
 the ingenious financier who devised the annual payment — it 
 was an assembly of hereditary placemen. It could oppose 
 and denounce, but never refuse to register " money bills," as 
 we may call them, if the King persisted in having his way. 
 The " Parlement " was a great power in the State, but it was 
 never a House of Commons.
 
 THE FHANCE OF FABERT's YOUTH. 31 
 
 Neither was the States-General a Parliament in the English 
 sense. That body was intermittent, and at the most a council 
 of advice ; but it was representative, and therein lay its 
 strength. The States were weakened by a division into 
 Orders, a defect which might have been repaired ; but they 
 had " not the power of the purse ; " their assent was not really 
 necessary to any act ; and consequently they could enforce 
 nothing, and arrest nothing by dint of the rigid observance 
 of constitutional law or usage. 
 
 The inherent weakness of the States-General became evident 
 when they were brought into collision with the Crown, and 
 never more so than in the assembly held at Paris in 1614, 
 the last before that summoned in 1789. But the memory of 
 it is deservedly cherished because a spirit was displayed and 
 words were spoken which foreshadowed the still distant Revo- 
 lution. Tavaron said that the Romans had been expelled 
 because they levied excessive tributes, and a similar event 
 might spring from a like cause. When De Mesme compared 
 the three Orders to brothers, calling the Church the eldest, the 
 Noblesse the second-born, and the Tiers the youngest, and 
 added that the cadets often restored a family ruined by the 
 elders, the nobles were indignant, and their spokesman said, 
 " the Deputies of the Tiers do not know their place when 
 they compare themselves to us," while the more fiery spirits 
 exclaimed, that there was no more brotherhood between the 
 noble and the roturier than there was between the master 
 and his valet. The Nobles fell away when the Third Estate, 
 denouncing certain pernicious doctrines, declared, in effect, 
 that the State is superior to the Church ; and a rhyme of that 
 day addressing the clergy and noblesse, said that since they 
 had so badly maintained the sovereign power — 
 
 11 f end que vos cadets deviennent vos aims. 
 
 It was such discord that destroyed the only chances which
 
 32 ABFvAHAM FABERT. 
 
 the States had of becoming a strong constitutional check upon 
 the Crown ; but the discord had its roots in the social condition 
 of France, and grew as naturally from them as the tree from 
 the seed. The Parlement remained when the States-General 
 disappeared, but lacked the essential attribute which was the 
 strength of the States — it was a co-optative corporation and 
 not a great body of national representatives, and its sole 
 weapon of attack and defence was the riglit of remonstrance. 
 Outside the Nobles and the Third Estate were the Pro- 
 testants. Their position had this peculiarity — they were 
 sufficiently numerous and strong to make their active support 
 of great importance to the monarchy, and they were in such 
 danger from the dominant Church that their policy tended 
 constantly towards aggressive measures undertaken in self- 
 defence or in anticipation of attack. In their ranks were 
 men of all classes and all races in France. And they had 
 substantial grievances which could only have been removed 
 by a liberal interpretation of the Edict of Nantes. But the 
 chief point to be noted at present is that they desired to 
 establish themselves as a species of independent body within 
 the State. Such a design has been attributed to that 
 Viscount of Turenne who, by his marriage with the heiress 
 of the house of De la Marck, became Duke of Bouillon and 
 the possessor of sovereign rights in the Principality of Sedan ; 
 and the accusation was renewed, but this time directed 
 against Henry of Rohan, in IGll. 
 
 The great scheme of organization then devised, and soon 
 developed, covered with its "circles" a belt of country 
 stretching from Rochclle to the Western Alps, with its 
 head-quarters on the sea and its strongest contingent in 
 the fortresses and great municipalities of Languedoc and 
 Provence. The confederacy, tliough weak in the centre, 
 was powerful at the extremities ; but while the Protestants, 
 or rather a large number among them, were undoubtedly
 
 THE FRANCE OF FABERT's YOUTH. 33 
 
 bent on obtaining something like a religious republic, it may 
 be reasonably doubted whether, in the reign of Louis XIII., 
 the leaders intended to do more than set up a formidable 
 opposition, based on adequate securities, as a protective 
 measure to preserve their liberties from clerical encroachment. 
 Yet the line taken by the fanatics implied the greater 
 project, and the moderates, like Sully and Mornay, the 
 ardent yet sagacious defenders of freedom of conscience, 
 like Hohan, were set aside or compelled to join the com- 
 bative section. Thus the opportunities of effecting a peaceful 
 settlement were lost, and the Crown was obliged to draw the 
 sword in order to uphold the unity of the Realm. The time 
 came when the Protestants were more dangerous to the 
 monarchy than either the Nobles or the Third Estate, and 
 civil war became inevitable. 
 
 It was in the midst of this confused conflict of castes, sects, 
 and parties, which shook the whole fabric of society, that 
 Fabert began his active career as a soldier. He was, at first, 
 a very humble actor in a stormy drama ; and he attained his 
 later eminence by an unfaltering devotion to what he con- 
 sidered his duty as a servant of the King and the State, and 
 by incessant labour to acquire every kind of knowledge 
 which would enable him to perform it without stint, no 
 matter how exacting its demands might be. That is the 
 moral of his life. 
 
 D
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 fabert's early troubles. 
 
 The French, as a nation, remained Catholic, yet not 
 Papist, a fact proved by the defeat of the League and the 
 conversion of the King, who, although obliged to favour the 
 Jesuits, was never an Ultramontane. His son, Louis, was a 
 devout Catholic, but as he grew in years, like his father, he 
 never permitted his religion to govern his policy, not even 
 when he was without the support of a man of genius who 
 had accidentally become a priest and a Cardinal. But at 
 the outset of his reign he found himself compelled to wage 
 war on the Protestants, not so much because they were 
 Protestants, as because the}'' aspired to raise the spiritual 
 above the secular arm ; and because it is the instinct of any 
 central and accredited supreme Power, whether absolute, 
 limited, or democratic, to quell resistance and even punish 
 defiance. 
 
 The Protestants were not merely a politico-religious 
 party, they were a widely spread and armed organization, 
 supported by fortresses like Rochelle, St, Jean d'Angely, 
 Montauban, Montpcllier, and the mountain strongholds of 
 the Cevennes. How strong they were may be inferred from 
 the fact that the royal government was occupied more or less 
 for ten years in completing their subjection ; and it was a 
 misfortune for France that they sought security for their 
 franchises more by advancing unreasonable pretensions and
 
 FABERTS EARLY TROUBLES. 35 
 
 committing acts of hostility, tliaii by supporting tlie King 
 If, at the outset of the Thirty Years' War, their statesman- 
 like and sagacious leader had prevailed over the preachers 
 and enthusiasts, it is not improbable that the reformed 
 religion would have attained a position which would have 
 rendered it impolitic, even for a Louis XIV., to cancel the 
 Edict of Nantes. In 1621, the general assembly at Rochelle 
 broke openly with the government, and sounded a note of 
 defiance. The old Duke of Bouillon, in his castle of Sedan, 
 and Lesdiguieres, who was a sort of king in Dauphiny, 
 would have nothing to do with their projects ; but Rohan, 
 although he saw the peril, if not the folly of the enterprise, 
 was faithful to the cause, and carried with him his brother 
 Soubise, and La Tremouille, and Chatillon, the grandson of 
 Coligny. Even the moment chosen for a rupture was un- 
 happy, for the King had just dispersed a formidable cabal 
 headed by the Queen-mother and the Grandees, and had an 
 army on foot; while the Ultra- Catholics eagerly welcomed 
 the chance of falling upon their old foes. It may have been 
 the interest of Luynes to stimulate the war, but it was 
 the intractable and over-bearing party among the Protestants 
 who forced the King to draw the sword. 
 
 Fabert was still a subaltern when Louis XIII. marched 
 against the Calvinists, in 1C21. In the preceding year he 
 had personally reduced the Bearnais, and had annexed Beam 
 and Navarre to the Crown of France ; but aroused by their 
 governor, La Force, the Huguenots had risen once more, and 
 the Duke of Epernon w^as ordered to quell the insurrection. 
 He took with him Ensign Fabert, who, when the people, 
 naturally afraid of the Duke, deserted their homes, won his 
 first laurels by convincing them that submission would ensui-e 
 safety, and made good his word. This dehut was diplomatic 
 rather than military, but it brought out a useful quality, and 
 the Duke be^an to value him as something more than a
 
 36 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 resolute and devoted follower. At that time the King was 
 besieging the intrepid Soubise in St. Jean d'Angely, " the 
 bulwark of Rochelle." The Huguenot chief made so stout a 
 resistance that Epernon was called up to the camp. With 
 him came Fabert, or rather with his second son, the Duke of 
 la Valette ; and both were so active and forward that the 
 Duke was wounded in the ankle. Puysegur says, with some 
 malice, that the Duke had come only to witness the descent 
 into the ditch. At the last moment, and to evade an assault, 
 Soubise surrendered on good terms, as things went in those 
 days. No persons were punished or detained, and the citizens 
 preserved unimpaired "liberty of conscience and worship," 
 but no safeguards; for the municipal privileges of the city 
 were abolished, and the outworks and walls were thrown down. 
 King Louis now resolved, or was made to resolve, for he 
 was barely twenty years old, that the Huguenots throughout 
 the whole south should be reduced to obedience. It was a 
 contest for mastei'y envenomed by the zealots on each side. 
 The favourite, Luynes, still flourished ; he had caused his 
 brother Cadenet to be made Duke of Chaulnes, and his 
 brother Brantes to marry an heiress, and thus become Duke 
 of Luxembourg ; while he himself took from the hand 
 of the King the title of Duke, and above all the coveted 
 sword of the Constable. The old Dauphiny hero, Lesdiguieres 
 — his title was " Marshal-General of the Camps and Armies 
 of his Majesty " — joined the expedition, and in its wake rode 
 a goodly company of priests, the Pere Joseph, afterwards 
 famous as Son Eminence Grise, being among them. The 
 Queen-mother also followed the camp and looked on at the 
 sieging, for it is recorded by Arnould d'Andilly that, at the 
 siege of Clerac, her Majesty and the whole Court " had the 
 pleasure of seeing, from a liillofk, nine thousand cannon-shots 
 llicil Irorii tin; batteries in a single day." Clerac surretidered, 
 and i><)uis mar.'hed on to Montauban.
 
 fabert's eakly troubles. 37 
 
 During tliis period of the painful and disastrous campaign, 
 Fabert bad been empK»yed in front of Rocbelle. He rode 
 thither with the Duke of Epernon and a Aveak detachment of 
 the army ; and was sent forward to reconnoitre the place, a 
 proof that his judgment, as well as his daring and deftness, 
 had begun to be appreciated. He found the fortress strong, 
 well-provided, and practically unassailable from the land side, 
 while on the sea front the daring mariners kept the water- 
 ways open. He reported that the only useful mode of pro- 
 ceeding would be by blockade, and his advice was adopted by 
 the Duke. Yet there were repeated skirmishes, the usual 
 foolish as well as cruel devastation of the country by fire, and 
 one or more outworks were stormed. The summer was spent 
 in restricting the defenders to the body of the i^lace, and in 
 preparing to construct a certain Fort Louis among the 
 marshes. It was built and garrisoned by Pierre Arnauld, 
 ATcstrc-dc-Camii, that is, Colonel of " Champagne," a soldier 
 who " studied the discipline of the Romans," invented arras, 
 trained his men to carry the pick and spade as part of their 
 equipment, and made " Champagne " renowned for steadiness 
 and hardihood. With 20,000 such men he believed that he 
 could go anywhere and do anything. To distinguish him 
 from the other Atnaulds, the stout veteran was called 
 "Arnauld of the Fort." He was the uncle of Robert Arnauld 
 of Andilly, and died soon afterwards from the miasma of the 
 Rochelle marshes. 
 
 While Fabert was engaged in irksome duties before 
 Rochelle, the war had rolled away to the south and the King 
 and his Constable had been brought to a stand before the 
 strong city of Montauban. For La Force, the tough ex- 
 Governor of Beam, at the head of several thousand tried 
 soldiers, had entered the town and had joined the inhabitants, 
 who were firmly resolved to defend it. The story of that 
 astonishing seige does not belong to this history, but it was
 
 38 ABRAHAM FABEKT. 
 
 an event so striking in itself that some indications of its 
 cLaracter cannot be omitted. The King sat down before it 
 in the middle of August. Still under the influence of Luynes 
 he rejected the wise counsel of the crafty Lesdiguieres, who 
 advised him to defeat Rohan and clear the country of enemies 
 before he grappled with the Huguenot stronghold. Sully, 
 one of whose sons was with La Force, was allowed to try the 
 effect of negotiation, and when he failed in that purpose, the 
 blundering work began. But the royal cannon, the reckless 
 valour of the nobles, and the common-place but ungrudging 
 devotion of the troojss, were not more effective than Sully's 
 exhortations in taming the spirit of the intrepid garrison. 
 The lines of investment were so badly drawn that Rohan 
 cleverly managed to throw in succours, and the temper of 
 the defenders was so high that they endured the cannonade 
 and repelled assaults with equal energy and fervour. More- 
 over, as was wise, they retorted upon the besiegers with such 
 vigour that more than once they swept the trenches clear 
 and burned the gun-carriages. Neither onsets nor mines 
 daunted this valiant garrison, and from the beginning to the 
 end they had the upper hand. To indicate the bungling of 
 the assailants it is only necessary to note that one of their 
 mines exploded against them ; and of course the mischance 
 was followed by a furious sortie. 
 
 Yet there was no lack of courage in the royal ranks. 
 Bassompierre and his Swiss had a line of gabions upon a 
 crest above a hollow way. Daring men from the fortress 
 entered the ravine, and drew down the gabions with hooks, 
 and fired into the post, until they were driven off. The 
 next night, says Bassompierre, " a Swiss of my company, 
 named Jacques" offered, for the reward of a crown, to fetch 
 up the gabions, and redeemed his promise. " What most 
 astonished us," the narrator continues, " was that he bore 
 them on his neck, so strong and robust was he." The hardy
 
 FABEHt's early TllOUJJLES. 39 
 
 Svvitzer performed the feat under fire. When he had brought 
 up six, the officers begged liiui to desist, but lie answered 
 that there was still one below, and that he must fetch it to 
 fulfil his bargain. And he did so, getting off, unwounded, 
 on the night of August 2Gth, 1621. Thus it was not for 
 lack of resolute men that Montauban could not be taken. 
 During this extraordinary siege, Vair, a lawyer, who held 
 the Seals, died, and Louis gave them to Luynes, which made 
 the sarcastic Conde, then on leave of absence at Bourges, 
 remark that he would be a good Constable in time of peace, 
 and a good Chancellor in time of war. But Luynes per- 
 formed both functions. He sat in Court to hear causes, and 
 when a cannon-shot was fired, he would pause, and thrust 
 his head out of the window to watch the cannonade. And 
 he had cause for anxiety. The loss of officers in the desperate 
 combats, the Duke of Mayenne, son of the corpulent old 
 Leaguer among them, was heart-rending. Nor did they 
 fall before Huguenot lead and steel alone. The young Duke 
 of Montmorency arrived with a strong reinforcement, but 
 he and his men speedily sufifered from the maladies which 
 raged in the filthy camps of over-worked and ill-fed soldiers. 
 Luynes, who had taken to wife the fascinating Marie de 
 Rohan, a daughter of the Duke of Montbazon, sought and 
 obtained an interview with her relative, the able captain, 
 Henri de Rohan, and endeavoured to work on his fears by 
 threats of confiscation, a very weak device. The stern 
 Huguenot leader was steadfast. He declared, and it was 
 the truth, that he was prepared for any loss, and that he 
 would not yield an inch, unless a general peace with the 
 whole body of the Huguenots were achieved. He had 
 pledged his word and would keep his pledge. Nothing, 
 therefore, was gained by trying to frighten Rohan. 
 
 Winter was by this time at hand in the bleak region of 
 the Tarn. Disease had reduced the royal army by thou-
 
 40 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 sands, sparing not even the prelates, three of whom died, 
 while the sturdy garrison of Montauban, and its not less 
 sturdy inhabitants of both sexes, were as obstinate and 
 aggressive as ever. It was not the first time that the women 
 of Montauban had engaged in battle. Froissart tells us 
 how, in 13G6, they helped the Free Companions engaged in 
 the service of the Black Prince to beat off their French 
 assailants under the walls of the town. The like spirit 
 animated the Huguenots, and in November Louis was obliged 
 to raise the siege, and retire to Toulouse. It is said that 
 the ignorance of war displayed by the Chancellor-Constable 
 disgusted the King. If so, he was soon relieved from the 
 task of judging his favourite, for, in turn, Luynes fell ill and 
 died of a fever at Condom, in December 1621. "When his 
 corpse," writes Fontenay-Mareuil, "was on its way to be 
 buried, I believe in his Duchy of Luynes, I saw his valets 
 playing at piquet upon the hearse, while they gave a feed 
 to the horses." Nevertheless, as the Pere Griffet proves, the 
 Constable had a magnificent funeral service at Tours, before 
 his remains were borne to the tomb at Luynes on the Loire. 
 The terrible St. Simon has not spared one whom he styles 
 " such a Constable," or failed to excuse the royal youth who 
 belted the sword of this great office upon one so little accus- 
 tomed to arms. " Before his death," he says, " his young 
 master had opened his eyes. He took shame to himself that 
 so lofty a post had been snatched from his inexperience, 
 amid the darkness in which he had been reared. He often 
 spoke to my father [the subsequent ' favourite,' and the 
 first Duke of St. Simon], and complained to him about his 
 surprise at the ambition of Luynes, and the way in which 
 he abused his position, lor the King found his subject clothed 
 with a greatness which assumed too much authority." Many 
 piquant anecdotes, told by Bassompierre, are to alike purport, 
 and indicate that Louis, as his mind expanded from close
 
 fabeut's early troubles. 41 
 
 contact with men and things, was grievously disappointed 
 when he came to test the character of his friend and deUverer. 
 Relieved from Luynes, the King gave the Constable's 
 sword to one who was at least a warrior, and hardly less an 
 astute diplomatist, Lesdiguieres, the ruler of Dauphiny, and 
 the scourge as well as the ally of the Dukes of Savoy. To 
 grasp the dignity and the power it bestowed he became, at 
 first secretly and afterwards openly, a convert to Catholicism. 
 That had been his religion until he was twenty years of age ; 
 at eighty, he returned to the faith of his fathers, and it is not 
 at all improbable that each creed sat lightly on his conscience. 
 He lived until 1626. Like-minded with Henry IV., he thought 
 that the sword of the Constable — he was the last man who 
 bore it — was worth a mass. He was of the race of warrior- 
 statesmen who rise by native superiority ; and, morals apart, 
 of which few in that day had an excess, he is one of the 
 ofraudest and most masterful figures who shine out in the 
 wars of the League and the conflicts at the opening of the 
 seventeenth century. The man of that period most like him 
 is that Henry, Duke of Montmorency, also a Constable, who 
 in 1614 died in his bed with his helm and armour on over 
 the Capucin raiment which he had donned, and his big sword 
 by his side. He had ruled in Languedoc as Lesdiguieres had 
 in Dauphiny. 
 
 Encouraged by their success at Moutauban, the Protestants 
 became more enterprising, and the unhappy war went on, 
 although the leaders on both sides were anxious to devise, 
 the fanatics and intriguers to avert, a modus vivendi. The 
 question was complicated by private ambitions and external 
 incidents, but the main fact seems to be that tlie King was 
 resolved to rule over an united State, and not to permit any 
 independent religions and political institutions to grow up in 
 the realm. Accordingly, in 1622, the campaign was resumed ; 
 and, as is usual in religious wars, each party was guilty of
 
 42 ABEAHAM FABEKT. 
 
 treachery and cruelty. The Huguenots held on to Rochelle 
 and its neighbourhood ; seized an island in the Garonne to 
 raise revenue ; surprised Royan, and occupied several other 
 towns, but were the more formidable in the region of Mont- 
 pellier. Their leaders were Soubise, La Force, Rohan, and 
 Chatillon, 
 
 The young King at this juncture behaved with decision. 
 He himself led a night attack upon the positions held by 
 Soubise in the islands south of Rochelle, crossing the channels 
 at low water at the head of his troops, and dasliing in upon 
 the Huguenot captain with such vigour that Soubise was 
 driven to his ships and barely escaped himself, while the 
 greater part of his bands were captured. St, Simon writes 
 in his superb ParaUele dcs trois Premiers Rois Bourlon, that 
 repeated efforts were made by his officers to restrain the 
 King, and prevent him from attacking the islands. They 
 went the length of urging that, if he persisted he would be 
 sending the troops to slaughter. " I know it well," the King 
 replied, " and it is because I know it that I intend to go ; 
 because I know not how to send troops to slaughter unless it 
 is necessary, and I lead them myself. I am obliged to you 
 for your remonstrances, but let me hear no more on the 
 subject." He spoke with his usual coolness and moved on. 
 " My father," continues St. Simon, " who heard his words, 
 repeated tliom to me, and described the inexpressible astonish- 
 ment of those who were present." In fact, the youth, he was 
 still only twenty-one, had become a man, and proved em- 
 phatically that he had a will of his own. It may be said that 
 the attack on the Poitevin Islands, so little expected and so 
 resolute, revealed alike to soldiers and courtiers that this 
 young King had a character, and was not the cipher they 
 had supposed him to be. 
 
 At this time Fabert was still with the Duke of Epernon, 
 the man who was slow to obey. He had been requested to
 
 fabert's early troubles. 43 
 
 aid in the reduction of" Poitou,but Lad remained at Bordeaux, 
 pleading, perhaps with reason, the exigencies of his own 
 situation at a moment when the Huguenot leaders had a fort 
 on an island in tlie Garonne, and a garrison in Royan, while 
 La Force was in Tormeins. Epernon had failed in an effort to 
 obtain the river stronghold by negotiation, and was not strong 
 enougli to take it by force. Therefore the King marched 
 upon Royan, and laid siege to it in form. Seated on a rock, 
 surrounded on two sides by the sea, defended by deep double 
 ditches, and well garrisoned, it seemed a formidable obstacle. 
 Yet it was reduced within a week, but at some cost of life, 
 for although the Gardes Fran^aises lost comparatively few 
 men, the Duke of Epernon's troops. Champagne and his own 
 Guards, were dreadfully cut up. Their cannon had made a 
 breach, and the Duke of la Valette led the storming column. 
 But, as they ascended the ruined slope the defenders fired a 
 mine, and repelled the onset. The Duke was half buried in 
 the debris, and OAved his life to Montigny, his squire, and 
 Fabert, who was struck in one hand, and carried away two 
 musket-balls in his clothes. The King's Guards, according 
 to Puysegur, had cleverly secured a lodgment on the other 
 front of attack, and had removed the powder from a mine, so 
 that, although Epernon's efforts were unsuccessful, the place 
 was practically captured. The garrison, therefore, capitu- 
 lated ; but the fact that they were allowed to retire upon 
 Rochelle, shows how anxious the King was to set himself free 
 for further and more arduous enterprises. He had through- 
 out shown a forward valour and intrepidity which made 
 Bassompierre say that he never knew a braver man, and that 
 even the late King, Henry IV. himself, did not surpass his 
 son in coolness under fire. 
 
 The war rolled soutliward, accompanied by an undertone of 
 negotiations for a general peace carried on chiefly by the wise 
 old Constable, who, backed by a strong party in the King's
 
 44 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 council, sincerely desired to attain that end. Indeed, the 
 sword played the lesser, and intrigue the greater part, during 
 the summer months. Thus La Force, the valiant defender of 
 Montauban, fell away from the Protestant cause, converted 
 himself to Catholicism, and received money gifts and a 
 Marshal's baton as his reward. Chatillon, the grandson of 
 Coligny, followed his example, and rose to a rank which was 
 still coveted, although it had been attained by men like 
 Concino, Luynes, and his brother. The crafty Duke of 
 Bouillon, now old and wearied, kept guard in Sedan ; but, 
 although he did not take the field, he liad influence enough 
 to bringr Mansfeldt and Christian of Brunswick, with their 
 mercenary bands, over the Moselle and up to the Meuse. 
 Their inroad alarmed the King and his nobles, filled Paris 
 with apprehension, and cheered the Protestants in the South. 
 They were the survivors of the battle on the White Moun- 
 tain, near Prague, which wrecked the hopes of the Elector 
 Palatine, whose wife was Elizabeth Stuart, " the Queen of 
 Hearts." Christian, writes Carlyle, was " a high-flown, fiery 
 young fellow, of terrible fighting gifts, he flamed up consider- 
 ably with 'the Queen of Bohemia's glove stuck in his hat' " ; 
 and called himself " the friend of God and the foe of priests." 
 Ernest Mansfeldt had genuine soldierly qualities, and in his 
 ranks rode a youth who afterwards came to be famous, Bern- 
 hard of Saxe- Weimar. But neither Ernest nor Christian, 
 with their ill-2)aid and unruly men, could make anything of 
 this incursion into Champagne. After much diplomatic 
 fencing with French envoys, who were sent to amuse the 
 invaders and gain time, after a little fighting, and an inter- 
 view between Mansfeldt and Bouillon " in the meadows near 
 Douzy " on the Chicrs, as the Duke of Nevers and other 
 Dukes were gathering forces in their front ; while Gonzalez of 
 ('ordova, a shining captain of those days, was moving on their 
 rear, the two adventurers and their troops suddenly rode ofif
 
 fabert's early troubles. 45 
 
 through the forests near Rocroi, and quartered themselves in 
 Ilainault. 
 
 Thus vanished the hopes which Rohan had founded upon the 
 German diversion. The peace negotiations failed for the 
 time, and, as Mansfeldt's bands stealthily and swiftly hastened 
 towards the end of August down the Meuse, King Louis led 
 his army to the siege of Montpellier. It was ill conducted by 
 the Prince of Conde, cost the lives of many brave men, and 
 utterly fiiled as a siege, although it led to that general peace 
 for which Rohan had contended. Our interest in the business 
 centres solely in one fact. Fabert, who was there, and cease- 
 lessly active, had the good fortune to make prisoner a captain, 
 and was presented by Epernon to the King, who then saw 
 him for the first time — not an unimportant incident in his life, 
 though it bore no present fruit. The great anxiety of all 
 soldiers was to gain the notice of the King, and the sometime 
 cadet in the Guards, and still ensign in Piedmont, had got thus 
 far in his twenty-third year. 
 
 The " peace," so hardly acquired, was a mere truce. Mont- 
 pellier lost its sheltering walls ; the blockade of Rochelle was 
 raised, but Fort Louis was not destroyed. Lesdiguieres, who 
 always kept his eyes steadily on the ficts, uttered a shrewd 
 remark which implied that he had little trust in the peace. 
 •' Either Rochelle must take Fort Louis," he said, " or Fort 
 Louis must take Rochelle." The contest was deferred, not 
 terminated ; and even for the moment the terms of accom- 
 modation were but indifferently observed. Outside the harbour 
 of Rochelle the King had a squadron, and when Guiton, the 
 Mayor, repaired thither that he might surrender his flag to the 
 Duke of Guise, " I accept it," said the Duke, " but I return 
 it to you, for I have not won it in battle." So curiously were 
 punctilious notions of honour blended with habits of treachery 
 and cruelty in the conduct of these grand seigneurs. At this 
 very time the conditions of the peace were not fulfilled, and
 
 4f) ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 the Pere Guiffet himself confesses that the course followed by 
 the Court towards the Huguenots was only one fit to kindle 
 afresh the fires of war. 
 
 At a later period that unhappy conflict between the King 
 and his Protestant subjects was renewed. The interval 
 between the makinji and the breaking^ of the truce of 
 Montpellier was, for Fabert, a time of weary expectation and 
 disappointed hopes. He had proved that he was brave, 
 devoted, and capable, but his valour and services brought him 
 no promotion. It was not a rare case. Puysegur, a noble, 
 who was nearly his own age, and served as a cadet in the 
 guards at the siege of Montpellier, indignantly relates how 
 the King promised to make him an ensign, as the reward of 
 a daring and perilous action, and how he did not redeem his 
 word, because he had already given the first vacancy to 
 another youth. Indeed, Puysegur did not get his colours 
 until 1624, nor his captaincy until 1681, so tliat Fabert, who 
 was not a noble, had no real ground for complaint on the 
 score of slow advancement. He had, however, a grievance. 
 The Duke of la Valette had promised to give him a company 
 in Piedmont, but when it fell vacant in 1624, moved by 
 his Duchess, Gabrielle-Angolique, who was an illegitimate 
 daughter of Henry IV., the Duke gave it to her squire, a 
 M. Conseil. 
 
 This breach of faith led to a series of incidents which 
 revealed the fiery temper of Fabert. He determined to force 
 a duel on Conseil. That was an action quite in accordance 
 with the spirit of the time, for when a regiment to the 
 command of which the Marquis of Themines had a claim, 
 was bestowed on the elder brother of the Cardinal de 
 Piicliclieu, De Themines did not turn his wrath on the 
 jiiiiiistcr, but, clialloii^cd and slew his brother in single 
 combat. In like manner Fabert held accountable, not the 
 Duke who had broken his word, but the inferior who profited
 
 fabert's early troubles. 47 
 
 by tlie wrong. When he heard that the Duchess had started 
 for Metz, he hurried after, hoping to overtake her suite some- 
 where in Lorraine, and beyond the reach of those edicts 
 against duelling which few or none observed. He came up 
 with Conseil, however, at Pont k Mousson, challenged him on 
 the spot, and at once drew his sword. The rivals, equally 
 infuriated, do not appear to have done more than strike out 
 simultaneously, and almost at random. Fabert came off with 
 a severe wound in the throat, his rival's blow having been 
 weakened by alighting on the collar of Fabert's dress, but 
 Conseil was pierced through the chest and fell dead on the 
 spot. 
 
 Wounded as he was, Fabert had to fly, yet, as the gates 
 were shut, he was obliged to seek an asylum in tlie town. 
 He must have been well known in Pont a Mousson, so near 
 to his native place, and, aided by a comrade, the Baron of 
 Grateloup, he soon found temporary safety in the house of a 
 civic official, called the Captain of the Burghers. There his 
 wound was dressed ; but as it would have been fatal to 
 remain within reach of La Valctte, the faithful Captain 
 quietly and carefully dropped the fugitive from the walls into 
 the ditch, whence he was transported to Pagny, lower down 
 the Moselle, and securely hidden. The angry Duke, unable 
 to discover his retreat, made a formal application for his 
 surrender to the young Duke of Lorraine, but Charles was 
 not disposed to surrender a Fabert whose only otfence was 
 that he had killed a rival in a duel, no crime at all in the 
 eyes of princes and nobles. The fugitive, on the contrary, 
 was assured that the ducal protection should shield him at 
 any place within Lorraine. The message set Fabert at his 
 ease, and when he had recovered his health, he boldly went 
 to Paris itself. The resentment of La Valette had gone before 
 him, and the Governor ordered him at once to leave the 
 capital.
 
 48 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 He now took a more audacious step. The chateau of 
 Moulins, close to Metz, was a little fortress, having stout 
 walls flanked by six towers, and a good ditch all round. 
 Fabert rode off to Moulins and shut himself up in the castle 
 under the nose of La Valette. The mere fact of retiring to a 
 fortress when in trouble was common enough ; indeed, the 
 great, and even the lesser nobles, regarded the possession of a 
 well-garrisoned " ]il(Lce de sicrdd" as indispensable. Fabert 
 does not appear to have had any soldiers .in his father's 
 stronghold, but when summoned, as we assume he was, he 
 kept his gates closed. The Duke then drew out a troop and 
 a couple of guns, in order to make the young ensign hear 
 reason. But, to her great credit, the Duchess, who was the 
 original cause of the mischief, here interposed, recognizing, 
 perhaps, that she had done wrong, and induced her husband 
 to leave Fabert unharmed. It may be also that La Valette 
 remembered how he owed his life to the young officer, and 
 even that the elder Fabert, who was a citizen of weight as 
 well as tact, helped the Duchess by his judicious behaviour. 
 So his son gained, instead of losing, by au act which marked 
 his fearlessness as well as his temerity. 
 
 The succession of misfortunes and hard usage, due in some 
 degree to his own faults, for a moment soured the temper of 
 Fabert ; but, possessed of great common sense, he soon 
 controlled his anger. At first, depressed as well as irritated, 
 he brooded over a project which did not become him. He 
 proposed to raise a troop of cavalry, and cross the Rhine to 
 tight undur the flag of the Empire. A youth so frank could 
 not keep such a grave inclination a secret from his father and 
 friends. By some means, easily imagined, his wild plan was 
 communicated to the Duke of Epernon, who at once sum- 
 moned him to Bordeaux. Miu'h as he loved and spoiled his 
 favourite sim, the King's brotlier- in-law. La Valette, the Duke 
 was not blind to the levity of his behaviour ; nor was he of a
 
 fabert's early troubles. 49 
 
 temper likely to leave liim in ignorance of his sentiments. 
 In brief, Epernon soon reasoned Fabert out of bis notion of 
 quitting France, renewed bis promise to give bim bigber rank 
 as soon as he could, reconciled the offended ensign to La 
 Valette, and sent him in company with the latter to Paris. 
 Epernon had learned that the Duke of Elboeuf, a Guise, was 
 not unlikely to fasten a quarrel on his son, and in case the 
 difference led to a duel, Fabert was requested to act as 
 second. In those days such a request, regarded as a great 
 honour, must have flattered the young soldier. The paternal 
 alarm proved to be unfounded, at least no duel ensued ; but 
 the trust reposed in him enabled Fabert once more to visit 
 Paris and his old comrades in the Guards. 
 
 Sometime afterwards, the threatening motions of an Im- 
 perialist army on the Rhine caused some anxiety for the 
 safety of Metz. Governor La Valette was ordered to his post 
 and directed to raise regiments. Again Fabert had the 
 promise of a company in the new levies, but as the danger, if 
 it ever existed, blew over, the order to array these frontier 
 forces was cancelled, and the young man was left without the 
 command he so feverishly desired. His thirst for service is 
 commendable, but he deservedly suffered for his impatience. 
 At length, in 1627, the Duke of Epernon, who never forgot, 
 was able to reward bim. Returning to Bordeaux, after the 
 fruitless sojourn in Metz, he found, on his arrival, that he had 
 been posted to the regiment of " Rambures," and that the 
 office he was to fill was that of Sergeant-Major. Rambures 
 was one of the smaller " old corps " ; its Colonel belonged to 
 a family famous in French military annals — the readers of 
 Shakespeare will remember that 
 
 " The master of the cross-bows, Lord Rambures," 
 
 figures on the list of the dead at Agincourt, and on many a 
 field did men bearing that name lie stark in after years. The
 
 50 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 smaller old corps were part of the standiog army, but their 
 strength in 1627 was only half that of the greater corps, such 
 as those bearing the n-^.mes of Picardy, Normandy, Cham- 
 pagne, and Piedmont, The difference was that one had six, 
 and the other ten companies of a hundred men. 
 
 The duties of a Sergeant-Major seem to have combined 
 those of quarter-master and adjutant, and the excellence of a 
 regiment largely depended upon the abilities of its Sergeant- 
 Major. He was a mounted officer, and from his functions, 
 practically second to the Mestre-dc-Camp, or Colonel. Fabert 
 was thus promoted to a post of great responsibility, and he 
 thought fit to consult on the occasion a certain La Hilliere, 
 then in command at Loches, and himself Sergeant-Major of 
 the Guards. La Hilliere, who had known him as a cadet, 
 gave him good counsel and inspired him with confidence, for 
 face to face with his weighty duties Fabert seems to have 
 felt some trepidation. " A man of your age and abilities, 
 who is afraid of failing," said La Hilliere, " is sure to succeed." 
 Elated by the words of his old superior officer, he joined his 
 regiment, then forming part of a force which was blockading 
 Rochelle. From this date, he may be said to have started 
 fairly on the loftier level which opened the road to that 
 zealous and unremitting service which was to gain him the 
 distinction he coveted and deserved.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FABERT BECOMES A CAPTAIN. 
 
 During the five years following the peace of Montpellier, 
 while Fabert was chafing under the stings of disappointment, 
 or revenging his wrongs after the fashion of the day, or 
 meditating on service in a foreign land, the Court and what, 
 for politeness' sake, may be called the Administration, had 
 varied in aspect from year to year. The play of intrigue in 
 those exalted regions had been as incessant, as brilliant, and 
 as sustained, but not so harmless as summer lightning ; and 
 the young King, supposed erroneously to have no will of his 
 own, no character, and not much intelligence, had, during his 
 apprenticeship to the trade of kingcraft, tried and found want- 
 ing many men who were thrust, or who had thrust themselves, 
 into high places. In the fiscal and financial departments, for 
 example, despite changes of persons, matters were always 
 growing worse. Turkish misdeeds, under Abdul Aziz, sup- 
 posed to be peculiarly " oriental," were not more stupid 
 and dishonest than those which prevailed in " occidental " 
 France. 
 
 When the veterans, nicknamed the "harhons," who came 
 in and flourished after the death of dAncre, were displaced 
 in 1621, the Duke of Schomberg was appointed Superinten- 
 dent of Finances. Knowing nothing of his business he could 
 only follow the practice of his predecessors, who raised money 
 by multiplying offices, obtaining advances of cash at high
 
 52 ABRAHAM FABERT, 
 
 rates of interest, and creating debt. Personally honest, be 
 had neither the genius nor the power required to contend 
 with the corrupt and corrupting methods of obtaining and 
 disbursing money which then prevailed. He was soon 
 " disgraced," that is, deprived of his post, and it was suggested 
 to Louis that he had been guilty of " malversation." " If he 
 has, it is not the fault of Schomberg, but of the King," said 
 the blunt Robert Andilly to his Majesty. The King asked 
 why. " Because, Sire," was the answer, " if your Majesty in 
 making M. de Schomberg Superintendent, had at the same 
 time given him power to nominate all those dependent on the 
 office, he would have been responsible for their actions. But 
 your Majesty sells the posts to the highest bidder, and only 
 those buy who are passionately intent on growing rich." The 
 King made no reply to the truth-teller, but he did not resent 
 the telling of the truth. Indeed, at a later date, he wanted 
 Andilly to purchase the post of Secretary of State for one 
 hundred thousand crowns, which were to be paid over to the 
 family of the defunct official. The offer was declined, with 
 severe and uncourtly comment. Having entered the Court 
 under Henry TV., he said, " I have been brought up in the 
 belief that steady labour to deserve high posts would suffice, 
 as it once did, to justify the hope that they could be obtained 
 without payment," 
 
 Now, whether he approved or not, the King was powerless 
 to prevent the purchase and sale of places, and the custom 
 was as thoroughly established when he died as it was when 
 he ascended the throne. What is true of one superintendent 
 is true of all, and La Vieuvillc, who succeeded Schomberg, 
 fared rather worse, for he was not only disgraced, but arrested 
 on charges never followed up. 
 
 His brief term of oflico, liowevor, Avas rendered memorable 
 by one act. He prevailed on the King to admit Richelieu, 
 now a Cardinal, to a seat in the council. It was a mere
 
 FABEllT BECOMES A CAPTAIN. 53 
 
 foothold of power, but enough ; the Cai'diual, overcoming, by 
 degrees, the repugnance which liad been instilled into the 
 King, rooted himcelf every day more firmly in his confidence. 
 The finances were not one whit the less viciously managed ; 
 but Louis, at length, had found, and had the wit to keep, as 
 his minister, the man of genius who had been striving so 
 long and so fruitlessly to attain a station whence he could 
 work, without stint, for the aggrandizement, the " pre- 
 dominance," of France, and for her "glory" as well as his 
 own. Surely, a monarch who could recognize, and, despite 
 his prejudices, retain in his service a man of such unusual 
 vigour, inventiveness and capacity, must have been very 
 different from that mixture of cipher, idler, and slave, who 
 inherited nothing from his father but his courage, which it 
 has pleased so many excellent historians to compound as a 
 fair representation of Louis XIII. The secret of the long 
 relationship between the King and Statesman was a pro- 
 found community of aims which led to the steadfast co- 
 operation of both in the ambitious and exhausting task 
 which they had set themselves to achieve — a large theme 
 which may be more fitly handled on a later occasion. For 
 the present we can only take note that the minister, beset on 
 all sides, openly and furtively — by Gaston, the King's brother, 
 by Anne the King's Avife, by women, like Marie de Rohan, 
 the widow of Luynes and the wife of the Duke of Chevreuse, 
 who had youth, beauty and ability, but not a spark of 
 morality, and by men like the Vendomes and Ornanos — 
 did more than defend himself, he retorted and triumphed. 
 Why ? Not only because he was a strong man, but because 
 he had the frank and steady support of the King. "By 
 whomsoever you are attacked," wrote Louis, in 162G, "you 
 will have me for second." The weak, vicious, and treacherous 
 Gaston was reduced to ignoble submission, the Vendomes 
 were imprisoned in Amboise, and Oruano shut up in the
 
 54 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Bastile where he died. The Duchess of Chevreuse, who had 
 engaged in a plot to assassinate the Cardinal, and had pushed 
 on to the scaffold her lover, Chalais, a Talleyrand with too 
 much zeal (lie was her first but not her last victim), was 
 herself banished. The punishment was slight ; but, as the 
 P^re Grififet drily observes, these female conspirators were so 
 audacious because women were never executed in France, an 
 immunity which operated as a bounty on crime. " One day," 
 writes Fontenay-Mareuil, " I saw all these ladies " — Chevreuse, 
 Conti, La Valette — "at the bedside of Ornano, Gaston's bear 
 leader. They were prattling to him in such a style that, if 
 he had not been so old, and the ugliest man in the world, it 
 might have been thought that they wanted to seduce him. 
 He was so delighted that he could refuse them nothing ; " 
 that is he joined the faction of both sexes, busied in con- 
 triving the ruin of the Cardinal. Nor that only, for they 
 wished to secure the plunder of the treasury, and to frustrate 
 what the King and his minister held to be the patriotic 
 policy. 
 
 In that interval of five years, the King's sister Henrietta 
 Maria, still a mere girl, had been married to Charles Stuart, 
 and he had become King of England. One is astounded at 
 the madness of these British marriages. The obstinacy, and 
 we might almost say, the treachery of Marie de Medicis, 
 forced on her boy son a Spanish bride, whose heart was 
 Spanish to the core, while James Stuart first soiiglit a wife 
 for Baby Charles in the bigoted Court of Madrid, and then 
 accepted a Bourbon princess, whose religion was detested by 
 the fierce people among whom she came to dwell, and whose 
 royal brother was comioelled by the necessity of his position 
 to wage war upon and subdue the high-tempered Protestants 
 of France. How short-sighted the calculation that an 
 alliance with England, against Austria and Spain, would be 
 assured by such a match ! The King and his ministers, who
 
 FABERT BECOMES A CAPTAIX. 55 
 
 understood continental peoples and politics, knew little of the 
 English, their temper or their institutions ; and the alliance 
 soon dissolved in hostilities, not merely because Buckingham's 
 vanity was cut to the quick by the refusal of Louis to bear 
 with his presence in Paris, but mainly because the strong and 
 rising Puritan party would not endure the toleration of 
 Catholics at home or the persecution of Protestants abroad. 
 Richelieu, who wanted internal tranquility, would have 
 behaved fairly towards the Protestants, as such, but neither 
 he nor the King could tolerate pretenders to a species of 
 separate political status in the monarchy. 
 
 When Soubise surprised the port of Blavet, captured and 
 carried off the King's ships, and sought aid from Spain, war 
 was unavoidable. The moderate section, aided by the 
 converts, Lesdiguieres and La Force, endeavoured to restrain 
 the enthusiasts ; but Soubise was intractable unto tlie end, 
 and his brother Henry of Rohan felt bound in honour to 
 stand by the cause, even when he disapproved the methods 
 adopted to sustain it. In this second contest the Huguenots, 
 defeated but not subdued, accepted an arrangement which 
 left the quarrel undecided, and the French Court, at the 
 same time, made peace with Spain, against which Power 
 Louis was waging " unofficial war " in Italy and in the Orisons. 
 The religious truce was not made to wear, and within a year 
 of its conclusion, the smouldering fire broke out afresh. 
 
 During the snatch of quiet the Cardinal fortified himself 
 in his great office, bore harshly on his inveterate foes, as 
 they would have borne upon him : demolished the feudal 
 castles, a popular stroke ; suppressed the dignity of Constable 
 on the death of Lesdiguieres; deprived the Duke of Mont- 
 morency of " the Admiralty," paying him an indemnity, and 
 took to himself what we should call the ministry of the 
 Marine and Commerce, thus resuming the work which Sully 
 began and Colbert completed — the establishment of the
 
 i 
 56 ABRAHAM FABEKT. 
 
 French Navy. So that ^Yhen the Huguenots could bear 
 their wroncfs no longer, and Enf^hmd from beinsc estranged 
 had become openly hostile to France, the King and Richelieu 
 found themselves strong enough to undertake a war for the 
 subjection of the Protestants, a bitter war Avhich had begun 
 when Fabert joined his regiment before unyielding Rochelle. 
 
 Before the famous siege began he had time to take up his 
 new duties. Although the Colonel of Rambures was a brave 
 soldier, a " come along," and not a "go along " officer, he does 
 not appear to have been an adept in the art of rendering his 
 officers and men formidable by their discipline. Now Fabert 
 had precisely those qualities which enable a man to impose 
 his will without arousing the mutinous tendencies which 
 order and rigour are apt to provoke. He found dissensions 
 existing among the officers, and where that is the case the 
 rank and file are not likely to be obedient and well in hand. 
 He composed the differences by mingled firmness and courtesy, 
 and inspired both officers and men with that csjmt dc corps so 
 essential to regimental efficiency. It was his first essay in an 
 art which he developed in perfection, and Rambures was so 
 well trained and disciplined under the hands of Fabert, that 
 it was called a " model regiment." He won the confidence of 
 the corps, the lasting friendship of its gallant colonel, and 
 the admiration of the army. An officer of that stamp was 
 certain not to be overlooked by the King who, though re- 
 served and undemonstrative, had an observing eye and a 
 tenacious memory. It is also recorded of Fabert that he 
 declined to take extra allowances and perquisites pertaining 
 by custom to his office, and contented himself witli his pay 
 and the fare accorded to the staff ; no slight merit in a grasp- 
 ing and venal age. Disinterestedness was one of his character- 
 istics throughout his life. Greedy of employment and honour, 
 he had no ambition to grow rich. 
 
 The reformation of Rambures was effected in the period
 
 FABEET BECOMES A CAPTAIN. 57 
 
 between tlic defeat of Buckingham, which preceded the 
 arrival of Fabert in the camp, and the buikling of the 
 " dyke " across the channel leading from the ocean to 
 Rochelle. Tije story of the "descent on the' Isle of Re " is 
 well known, and need not be repeated ; but one little inci- 
 dent recorded by Puysegur, then an ensign in the Guards, and 
 forward in the action, suggests a picture of the unlucky 
 favourite which might have drawn a smile as well as a tear 
 from Anne of Austria, who, the scandal-mongers say, prayed 
 for the success of her splendid admirer. The English troops, 
 in retreating upon their enforced point of embarkation, were 
 compelled to traverse a narrow causeway, bordered by shallow 
 waters and deep mud. Young Puysegur, with the leading 
 files, " cnfan!> perdiis" he calls them, of the foremost company 
 of Guardsmen, declares that near a one-arched bridge he 
 recognized " Bouquinkan " (Buckingham) — thus showing how, 
 like the brave man he was, " Steenie " fought to the last with 
 the sturdy and hardly-pressed rear-guard. Now, the object 
 of the little ensign was to capture the great Duke. " But," 
 the narrative continues, " his soldiers who were on the bridge 
 promjatly laid hands on him, some seizing him by the arm- 
 pits, others by the legs, and, hoisting him aloft, passed him 
 from hand to hand " until he was in safety. The bridge was 
 short, and the summary mode of transport brief in duration, 
 " so that he could not be captured ; " but," says the lively 
 Gascon, " we took le Mylord Montoigre," otherwise Lord 
 Mountjoy, who certainly was made prisoner, and conveyed, it 
 seems, to the rear by Sergeant Chavannes, who served in the 
 company commanded by Captain la Salle, to which Ensign 
 Puysegur belonged. As a guardsman he must have seen 
 Buckingham in Paris when he w^ore his " rich Avhite satin 
 uncut velvet suit set all over" with diamonds, or one of his 
 twenty-seven other suits, "all rich as invention could frame, 
 or art fashion ; " and perhaps the contrast between the
 
 58 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 dazzling courtier and the besmirched soldier, handled like a 
 bale of goods, presented itself to the mind of the eager ensign, 
 when deprived of a splendid prize. 
 
 It was not the good fortune of Fabert to have any part in 
 the defeat of Buckingham. He came too late. Nor do we 
 know that he did anything of mark during the winter months 
 of 1627-28, beyond his successful management of Ram- 
 bures. Vague reports of uncertain value represent him as 
 sedulously studying the building of the dyke, and suggesting 
 plans for improving the methods employed in its construction. 
 Nor is that unlikely, seeing that he was ingenious, and had 
 a strong bias towards all kinds of mechanical contrivances ; 
 but whether he wrote out his ideas or not, he must have 
 lingered long on the sandy shores watching the works. It 
 is remarkable that the originator of the scheme for shutting 
 up Rochelle does not appear to be known. If, as one report 
 states, the Duke of Epernon advised the construction in 
 1621-22, it may be that Fabert, who had reconnoitred the 
 country about Rochelle, was the author. But the project is 
 attributed also to an Italian engineer, and to the father and 
 brother of Fabert, though neither he nor they ever laid claim 
 to the honour. Fontenay-Mareuil, a sober, well-informed 
 person, says that the enterprise, as finally undertaken, was 
 devised by Clement Metezeau, the King's chief architect, and 
 Jean Tiriot, one of the principal masons of Paris. It was a 
 great work, much bungled at the beginning, but successfully 
 accomplished in the end. During its progress the veteran 
 Spinola came to spy into the prospects of the blockade, gave 
 his approval, counselled patience, and left for Madrid, con- 
 fident that Rochelle would fall by famine, and that this thorn 
 in the side of Spain's antagonist would be removed. The old 
 warrior-merchant did n(jt know that he was soon to begin his 
 last siege, and die in harness in front of Casale on the Po, not 
 far from his own native city.
 
 FABEllT BECOMES A CAPTAIN. 59 
 
 While Rochclle, sealed up by land and sea, would not yield, 
 Henry of llolian had raised the south, and Conde \Yas sent 
 thither to command against him. But he was no match for 
 the greatest French soldier of his day, one whose campaigns 
 in the mountain lands of France, in the Grisons and the Val- 
 telline, and whose military memoirs are still studied and 
 admired. Cond^, no soldier and a selfish politician, more apt 
 to begin than able to finish an enterprise, was aided by the 
 generous Montmorency, beloved in Languedoc, and the im- 
 perious Eperuon, whose province was Guyenne, and who 
 was not much loved anywhere. Kohan, although he liad 
 nothing wherewith to fight and manoeuvre except armed 
 peasants and stout burghers, was superior to the trio, and the 
 King, before Rochclle, was 'obliged to detach troops, for the 
 incapacity and ferocity of Conde called into the field men who 
 were neutral, and the Huguenot leader, by wise and swift 
 m.ovements, continuously tumbled into ruin the plans of his 
 opponents. Among the reinforcements sent southward was 
 the regiment of Rambures, and thus Fabert once more found 
 himself with his exalted and captious but faithful friend the 
 Duke of Epernon. Into the details of the campaign it is 
 needless to enter, further than to say that the King and 
 Richelieu being alarmed and dissatisfied, Epernon sent 
 Fabert to explain and defend his share, and so well did he 
 fulfil his task that the Cardinal gave up his suspicions, 
 expressed his approval of the Duke's conduct, and took note 
 of the envoy, the sole fact important to us. 
 
 The hideous and revolting kind of warfare carried on 
 against the Protestants in. the South, lighted up and made in 
 some degree memorable by the heroism, the genius, and 
 the unflagging activity of Rohan, lingered through the 
 summer, and as winter approached, Fabert, probably in the 
 suite of Epernon, once more joined the army engaged in 
 reducing by stress of famine the unyielding burghers of
 
 60 ABRAHAM FABEllT. 
 
 Rochelle, Animated by Mayor Guiton, a hero half merchant, 
 half sailor, sustained by the example of Rohan's mother and 
 sister, the little garrison, and the emaciated townsfolk would 
 not surrender until they had literally nothing edible left to 
 eat. 
 
 Fabert, always on the alert, was one of the first to enter 
 the desolate city, and he has left a brief yet moving picture 
 of the horrible scene. The streets were strewn with dead 
 bodies, the houses were sepulchres, " one could not step 
 without moving through a foetid atmosphere exhaled by the 
 dead and dying. The cemeteries were covered with corpses, 
 and I have heard," he goes on, " that numbers of persons had 
 dug their own graves, and lain down beside them to await 
 death and burial. Thus they died without consolation, as 
 they had lived without hope. However they might pity one 
 another, each one kept his charity for himself. But the 
 rich, when I entered, had come to this — they flung from their 
 windows a species of paste made from the leather of old 
 boots, shoes, harness, and other execrable matters, and the 
 poor never ceased to swallow this nourishment, until the 
 King sent a supply of bread from the commissariat of the 
 army." It is said that when the place at length surrendered, 
 there were only one hundred and thirty-six men able to bear 
 arras ! Richelieu had been thirteen months before the town ; 
 he broke her proud spirit, abolished her franchises, and threw 
 down her walls; but he left behind a desert. Rochelle, the 
 last of the republican municipalities, has never regained that 
 power and prosperity which she owed to her liberty and 
 independence. 
 
 The policy of crushing the internal enemy of unity and 
 absolute government, in order to pave the way for that 
 external activity which was to make France " preponderant," 
 and enlarge her borders until they included the region of 
 Gaul, as described by Caesar, was not yet triumphant. The
 
 FABERT BECOMES A CAPTAIN. Gl 
 
 bulwark of the Protestant League had fallen, but Rohan and 
 the people of the hill cities, and people of the South Avere in 
 arms, their firm spirit still unsubdued. Luckily, or rather 
 unluckily for them, since the lapse of time only prolonged 
 their agony, the Duke of Mantua died, and was succeeded by 
 his cousin Charles Gonzaga, whose father Ludovic had acquired 
 the French title of Duke of Nevers by marriage with the 
 heiress of Francois de la March Cleeves, plus the favour of 
 Charles IX. The Duchy of Mantua was a fief of the Empire, 
 and the Duke had large possessions in Montserrat, coveted 
 and claimed by his uncle, Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy. 
 Neither the Emperor Ferdinand, nor the Savoyard, nor Spain, 
 could quietly endure a French interest establislied on the 
 Mincio and the Po, and as Louis was resolved to uphold his 
 friendly Gonzaga, the Mantuan succession led to an Italian 
 campaign, which was to serve the double purpose of support- 
 ing Nevers, and of relieving Casale, where an impromptu 
 French garrison, composed of French troops which had 
 hurried thither from the Valtelline, was besieged by a 
 Spanish army under that Gonzalez of Cordova, whom, in 
 1622, we saw on the track of MansfeWt in Champagne. 
 
 Until Pocbelle surrendered, the French King could not 
 move ; but no sooner had Guiton struck his flag, than the 
 army was directed upon Dauphiny, and with it marched 
 Rambures and its Sergeant-Major, Fabert. Leaving a force 
 to watch Rohan, Louis, in the depth of winter, led his troops 
 through the valleys and over the hills of Dauphiny ; and 
 following the mountain road from Brian^on to Turin, over 
 tlie Col of Mount Genevre, found his march in the early 
 spring arrested by a triple range of barricades erected in the 
 narrow gorge down which the Dora hurries towards the Po, 
 and known in French histories as the Pas de Suse. Charles 
 Emmanuel had fortified this extremely narrow defile, lioping 
 that he would be able to hold it until the Spaniards came
 
 G2 ABRAHAM FABERT, 
 
 to his assistance, and he therefore temporized as long as he 
 could, asking for time, when Louis required a direct answer 
 to the question — Are you a foe, or a friend ? Charles, indeed, 
 always played too fine a game, and frequently over-reached 
 himself, but it must be admitted that his situation, pressed 
 upon by France, the Empire, and Spain, was most perplexing. 
 The French, cooped up in the hills, their front being at 
 Chiomonte, were not inclined to lose all their labour by delay, 
 and they determined to force the pass. 
 
 It was here that Fabert displayed, not only his intrepidity, 
 that was a common quality in the camp, but his skill as a 
 soldier, which was not so common. While lying before the 
 works he had been directed to reconnoitre them, having 
 already a reputation for accurate observation and sound 
 judgment. He made a close inspection, and drew a sketch 
 of the position occupied by the Piedmontese, which showed 
 that it was strong in front, but could be turned on both 
 flanks, and he indicated a farmstead, which, while it would 
 serve best as a position for a containing force, would also 
 facilitate an attack. Rambures was ordered to occupy this 
 post, but some of the officers, more valorous than wise, insist- 
 ing that it was too far from the enemy, obtained authority to 
 push the troops forward to a collection of huts which Fabert 
 had declared were untenable. Angered by the change, he 
 nevertheless led the men of Rambures into this exposed spot, 
 and although they lost heavily, he was not content until the 
 whole position had been explored, and its untenable character 
 demonstrated, and he made one officer, especially, accompany 
 him across the open, under firo, to complete the survey. His 
 reason for this reckless adventure was not only to prove that 
 his judgment was correct, but that while he ardently wished 
 to spare the soldiers, hn was not liiinsolf nfVnid of getting too 
 (■hjse to the enemy. Tli;it j)urposc was achieved, and he 
 naturally rose in the estimation of the troops as a prudent
 
 FA BERT BECOMKS A CAPTAIN. G3 
 
 as well as a brave officer. In the end, his plan of a flank 
 attack was adopted, and the barricades were carried in one 
 day. 
 
 It has been asserted over and over again that the victory- 
 was won by the irresistible '^ furia fraiiccse'' which triumphed 
 on ground where a handful might stop an army. The truth 
 is that so soon as the heights on each flank were crowned 
 and shots dropped in from the rear, the handful (2,500 men) 
 very properly retreated, precisely the result anticipated by 
 Fabert. Puysegur, who was present, has put the fact in a 
 sentence. " The barricades," he says, " although very difficult, 
 Avere forced because means were found to turn the right and 
 left by climbing the rocks, which the enemy thought were 
 inaccessible. When these had been surmounted, and the 
 French saw into the rear of the entrenchments, the defenders 
 retired." So that the barricades were captured by the 
 application of means which small bodies cannot resist, and 
 large bodies only can apply. One of the regiments employed 
 to turn a flank, as we learn from Fontenay-Mareuil, was 
 recruited among the mountaineers of Dauphiny. 
 
 The fruits of this combat were the surrender of Susa, and 
 in a few days the acceptance by the Court of Turin of the 
 terms offered by Louis. Charles Emmanuel himself came to 
 Susa, and heard from his royal host the story of the Alpine 
 march. Then the King led the Duke of Savoy to a windaw, 
 and pointing to a sentinel on guard, said : " That soldier 
 possesses thirty thousand livres a year, his name is Breaut^, 
 and it was his grandfather who fought against Gravandon in 
 Flanders. I have four hundred well-to-do gentlemen in my 
 guards, who, before they become officers, learn the trade of a 
 soldier in the ranks." This Breaute, tlie sentinel, came of a 
 fighting family who lived in the Pays de Caux ; for the 
 grandfather referred to, Cliarlos of Breaute, was he Avho, in 
 1600, while serving under Maurice of Nassau, got up a combat
 
 64 ABRxVHAM FABERT. 
 
 between twenty Frenchmen and twenty Flemings. He killed 
 his adversary, says Sully, but was afterwards assassinated 
 himself, that is, a confirmed duellist, he was executed by the 
 Governor of Bois le Due. In fact, Breaute had been banished 
 from France because he could not refrain from provoking and 
 fighting duels. King Louis, we see, was wont to take note 
 of his soldiers. Puysegur naively relates how, being shabbily 
 dressed, and being unable to get better clothes because the 
 heavy baggage had been left at Grenoble, the King, who 
 wanted the ensign to look decent when the Princess of Pied- 
 mont, his sister, arrived to witness a review, told him to 
 choose one out of three suits, his Majesty's sole stock of 
 raiment, and how the little man selected the most brilliant, 
 scarlet in hue, and braided all over with silver and gold. So 
 with Fabert. After the fight before Susa, the King presented 
 him to Richelieu, saying : "Here is the brave major of whom 
 I have spoken to you, and to whom I owe the success of this 
 great day" — a sufficient testimony to the service rendered 
 by the young staff-officer, who coidd not only draw a field 
 sketch and make a daring reconnaissance, but had sound 
 ideas of warfare. 
 
 One effect of the bold dash over the Alps was the immediate 
 relief of Casale, from which Cordova retired, and another to 
 set free a part of the French army for a brief and final 
 campaign against the Huguenots. Crequi was left at Susa 
 witii a small force ; the rugged Thoiras, who had stopped 
 Buckingham's career in the Isle of Re, was sent with another 
 to Casale; while the King and Richelieu recrossed the Alps. 
 
 The campaign of 1G29 aga'nst Rohan lasted not more than 
 six weeks, for the Protestants in arms were exhausted, and 
 their superb leader, not less than the Cirdinal, desired to end 
 the torment. Like all continental civil wars of that date it 
 was a hideous business, yielding only profit and no honour. 
 When the royal army broke into the Vivarais, captured and
 
 FABERT BECOMES A CAPTAIN. 65 
 
 sacked Privas, and compelled Alais to surrendci-, Rolian 
 saw that resistance was hopeless, and another peace was made 
 on the basis of an amnesty and the confirmation of the Edict 
 of Nantes, but the fortified towns lost their defences, and 
 property confiscated on both sides during the war was restored. 
 Much to the chagrin of the grasping Prince of Conde, Rohan 
 recovered his large estates, but was ordered to quit France, 
 a mild penalty considering that he had received subsidies 
 from Spain to carry on the civil war. 
 
 During its continuance Fabert had won fresh renown in 
 the attack on Privas. Leading the volunteers of Rambures 
 he carried a horn- work by escalade, and pressing the fugitives 
 dashed into a demi-lune, but was driven out by the defenders. 
 Wounded in the thigh by a musket-shot, he continued to 
 command his men until they had made good and secured 
 themselves in the horn-work. Then the pain subdued him, 
 and he was borne out of the work and transported to Valence. 
 His forward valour had not been unobserved. When he 
 rejoined the King, Louis not oidy applauded his courage and 
 endurance, he declared that such conspicuous acts should not 
 be forcrotten. In a short time he sent him a commission as 
 Captain in Rambures with authority to retain his post as 
 Sergeant- Major, an innovation upon the established rule. 
 The fastidious and scrupulous character of Fabert led him to 
 decline the promotion. He looked on the proffer as a slight 
 to the Duke of Epernon, from whom, as Colonel-General of 
 Infantiy, his rank derived. He does not seem to have recog- 
 nized the fact that Louis had in 1620 diminished the pre- 
 rogatives of the imperious Colonel-General. At any rate, 
 out of regard for Epernon and what he considered to be the 
 army customs, he risked giving mortal offence to the King. 
 His Colonel, Rambures, did all he could to mollify the royal 
 anger, but Louis was not appeased, and he turned his back 
 on Fabert when he appeared in Court. The King was in the
 
 GG ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 riglit on tliis occasion and Fabert in the wrong, but he pre- 
 ferred to hazard his chances of advancement rather than even 
 seem ungrateful to the Duke who had always been his friend. 
 At this juncture the Duke of la Valette was directed to 
 escort Rohan to Venice, and Fabert thought it prudent to 
 accompany him ; but he did not stay long in the beautiful City 
 of the lagoons. 
 
 On quitting Italy he travelled to Metz, perhaps was sum- 
 moned thither by his father, who still desired to withdraw his 
 son from the career of arms. He offered him land and gold, 
 pleading that he would only receive hard knocks and ill- 
 usage in the service of the King. The Sergeant-Major was 
 proof against the temptation, saying that he had good hopes 
 of winning the King's favour when he had deserved it, and 
 that he could not take what should be shared by his brother 
 and sister. He was sickly at Metz, and starting to rejoin his 
 regiment too soon, he be:;ame worse at Lyons, suJBfering from 
 dysentery and fever. Here he remained several weeks, but, 
 despite medical warnings, he once more mounted his horse 
 and rode forth eastward. For the quarrel with Charles 
 Emmanuel had broken out again ; Louis was marching on 
 )Savoy at the head of a large army, and Fabert could not 
 willingly rest when his regiment was in the field. When he 
 overtook the troops, he went to Conrt, and Louis, who had 
 forgotten and forgiven, welcomed the young soldier with 
 gracious words. The royal army easily captured Chambery, 
 and then the regiment of Rambures was ordered to attack 
 Fort I'Esquille. Fabert, alone, and at night, made such a 
 close inspection of the fort, that he was able to indicate the 
 Aveak points, and it soon surrendered, but, so far as appears, it 
 was badly guarded and not stiffly defended. La Tour Car- 
 l)oni('r(3, a stronger place, proved more diflHcult to reduce, and 
 did not r.ill until (Jhanipagne liad been reinforced by Ram- 
 bures. Tlicu the King overran the Tarentaise and the
 
 FABERT BECOMES A CAPTAIX. 67 
 
 Maurienne, aud Prince Thomas retreated into Piedmont by 
 the Little St. Bernard. King Louis now falling ill of a fever, 
 returned to Lyons, escorteil by the regiments of Picardy and 
 Rambures. 
 
 Quitting the field of action much against his will, Fabert 
 employed his leisure while at Lyons in studying mathematics. 
 He was obliged to do so in secret, for the French noblesse 
 still looked on the profound knowledge of any science, even 
 one which was useful to a soldier, as a personal degradation. 
 Fabert, says the Pere Barre, concealed his serious studies so 
 well, that during five-and-twenty years of his military life the 
 officers with whom he served never looked on him as a 
 learned geometrician, but believed that he had acquired what 
 he knew solely from experience in warfare. That contempt 
 for learning of all kinds was, as we have shown, an unhappy 
 characteristic of a noblesse which had little in common with 
 a genuine aristocracy except pride of birth and courage. 
 
 The new war in Italy, still nominally waged for the relief 
 of Cjsale, now besieged by Spinola, brought out the Cardinal 
 in a new character. Prime Minister since the end of 1629, 
 Lieutenant-General and representative of the King, Richelieu 
 the next year led an army under his personal command 
 through the passes into Piedmont, and figured as a fighting 
 priest. It has been said that he was so jealous of superior 
 military merit that he could not allow a Crequi, a Bassom- 
 pierre, or a Schomberg to win renown at the head of an army, 
 lest it should dim his own; just as it has been asserted that 
 Louis XIII. gave hi.^ brother Gaston no employment lest 
 the laurels of the Prince should eclipse those of the King. 
 Surely this opinion rests on a profound misconception of the 
 facts. Richelieu may have been vain of a promotion which 
 enabled him to ride about in plumed head-gear, clad in a 
 cuirass and armed with sword and pistol, but he must have 
 been set over the generals in oixler to ensure unity in working
 
 68 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 out the political policy, and energy in pressing on the military 
 movements. He was a negotiator as well as a general, and 
 none of the nobles named had sufficient capacity to fill the 
 post. Henry of Rohan was the only living soldier-statesman 
 who would have been competent to fulfil the task, but he was 
 not available. Richelieu may have been a poor commander, 
 but he was a consummate politician, and the King made him 
 his delegate or viceroy jDrecisely because he could trust him 
 to work for their common ends, Louis could not employ or 
 trust Gaston, because the young man had neither ability nor 
 character, and few things are moi'e creditable to the Kinsf 
 than his willingness on all occasions to forgive this weak and 
 worthless brother, whose proneness to conspire was only 
 equalled by his readiness to betray. 
 
 Richelieu, misled by Giulio Mazzarini, who first appeared 
 on the scene in French liistory during this eventful year, had 
 delayed his advance ; and when he marched, instead of 
 attacking Charles Emmanuel promptly on the Dora, near 
 Avigliana, turned southward and seized Pignerolo. He gained 
 the command of a secure road into Italy, but he risked the 
 loss of Mantua, which soon capitulated, and of Casale, where 
 Thoiras had once more to show his indomitable j^luck. The 
 plague, or some malignant malady, raged in every camp, and 
 the French army, under Schomberg and La Force, beyond the 
 Alps, was in danger. A greater plague and peril existed in 
 France, where the Queen-motlier, the Queen, and a host of 
 malcontents were striving to ruin Richelieu durinix his 
 absence. They might have spared their labour, for he was 
 too firmly fixed ; yet they had weight enough to bring the 
 Cardinal back from the camp to fight alike for his i^ower 
 and his policy. The result was a disappointment for the 
 intriguers. Michclicu did not n^turn to Italy, as they would 
 have wished ; but strong reinforcements were sent thither 
 tlir(jugh Savoy under Montmorency and Effiat, the father of
 
 FABEllT BECOMES A CAPTAIN. GO 
 
 Cinq Mars, and a really honest Superintendent of Finances 
 as well as a respectable soldier. Louis and the Cardinal 
 accompanied the troops as far as the Maurienne, and thence 
 on their way over Mont Ceuis. 
 
 It was a critical moment. The wasted army under La 
 Force about Pignerolo was isolated. The mountain mass 
 which separates the valley of the Dora Riparia from the Val 
 Clusone interposed between the succours descending the 
 Mont Cenis and the troops at Pignerolo ; while the levies 
 of Charles Emmanuel, entrenched at Avigliana, were on the 
 left flank of the advancing succour. The French at St. 
 Ambrogio, on the right bank of the Dora, had to find their 
 way to the road in the face of the menacing Italian camp. 
 Fabert with Rambures was that day in the rear-guard ; and 
 as the Italians attacked the French when their cokmins were 
 committed to the flank march towards and into the hill 
 country, they were in manifest hazard. La Force, it is true, 
 had come up to Giaveno, but could give no aid. The defile 
 to be passed was less than five miles, but the road was bad, 
 and the flat country seamed with irrigation channels and 
 rivulets. According to Effiat's account, Montmorency, whose 
 turn to command for a week had arrived, disdained the 
 prudent advice of La Force, which was that he should leave 
 his baggage at Susa and march at dawn. On the contrary, 
 he sent his heavy train forward so late that it was nearly 
 noon before the troops could move. Then the army, which 
 had been in position fronting Avigliana, marched off in succes- 
 sion from the right, battalion after battalion plunging into 
 the defile. 
 
 The Italians had a great opportunity, but Prince Thomas 
 was not quick enough, he waited until he thought the weak- 
 looking troops in sight were a sure prey. Then he issued 
 out in three separate columns, instead of throwing the bulk 
 of his force upon the head of the retiring rear-guard. The
 
 70 ABRAHAM FABERT, 
 
 consequence was that Effiat and Montmorency, nsing tlie 
 superior French horsemen, fell fiercely on and routed the 
 Italian cavalry, drove off the astonished and discouraged 
 infantry, and made good their junction with La Force at 
 Giaveno. It was not a brilliant example of warfare on either 
 side, but on this occasion the "fiiria franccsc " on horseback 
 saved the army from disaster, and hid the blunders under a 
 flash of glory. During the combat, however, the left Italian 
 column gained an advantage over Picardy and R.imbures. 
 The French faniassins, yielding to an impetuous onset, left 
 Fabert and his colonel with a handful of men exposed to the 
 assault of a much stronger body. The former saAV that in 
 the narrow way his handful would be equal to their hundreds 
 provided he fell on at once. The Colonel, admitting his 
 argument, that safety alone could be secured by a brusque 
 attack, and that the example thus afforded would rally the 
 fugitives, gave in, and dashing forward, they were speedily 
 reinforced by their conn^ades, and thus by bold, hard fighting 
 repelled an attempt which had it been successful would have 
 cut off the cavalry. Fabert was as prompt, cool, and sure- 
 eyed in battle as he was judicious in council, and the day 
 brought him new renown. 
 
 The combined French force, before succouring Casale, 
 besieged and took Saluzzo, thus recovering possession of the 
 eastern slope of the Aljis from the Mont Cenis to the Col de 
 I'Argentiere. In the attack on the town of Saluzzo, Fabert 
 was engaged with his regiment, and carried away the marks 
 of two nmsket balls in his hat. He also displayed his 
 customary hardihood in reconnoitring the citadel ; but when 
 he made his report to the Colonel, M. de Rambures, without 
 questioning its accuracy, insisted on seeing for himself, 
 saying that his duty compelled him to do so. The Colonel 
 on horseback and Fabert on foot advanced to the ditch, 
 made their observations, and set out to return. On the way
 
 FABERT BECOMES A CAl'TAIN. 71 
 
 from camp Fabert said to Rambures, "I liave a presentiment 
 that some misfortune will befall yon." " Come along," 
 answered the Colonel. Now Fabert seems at this time 
 to have been a dandy, for he wore a satin jDourpoint, 
 braided with gold and silver ; and Rambures, clad in sober 
 raiment, insisted on returning that his brilliant subordinate 
 should go in front. "Well," said the Colonel, "you are no 
 propliet." " I hope so," was the reply, " but we are not yet 
 out of range." The garrison, whose watch must have been 
 very slack, at this moment caught sight of the scouting 
 officei-s. Two shots were fired, one of which hit the horse- 
 man in his right shoulder, and the other struck off some of 
 the gold braid from Fabert's dress. He conducted his 
 Colonel safely to the camp, but it is not said that, warned by 
 the misadventure, he wore less finery when he started out to 
 inspect a fortress. 
 
 Fabert now, in common with hundreds of his comrades, 
 was afflicted with fever, barely escaped with his life, and was 
 carried to recruit his shattered health to Chateau Dauphiny, 
 whence, as a peace had been patched up at Ratisbon, he 
 travelled to Metz. A death vacancy occurred in his 
 regiment, and the next year, 1631, at the request of the 
 Colonel, the King not only bestowed the company upon 
 Fabert, but permitted him as before to retain also his post 
 of Sergeant-Major, an especial act of grace, and a strong 
 testimony to the merit of Fabert, who had the satisfaction 
 of knowing that Epernon approved the transaction. It is 
 recorded that Fabert, hearincj that he was distressed, and 
 intimating that the money came from the King, paid over 
 the price of the company, 7000 livres, to the brother of the 
 defunct captain, who forthwith thanked Louis ; and thus 
 what was considered an act of remarkable generosity, became 
 known to the Court, through the King, who often praised 
 the disinterestedness of a man capable of paying for a death
 
 72 ABRAHAM FABEIIT. 
 
 vacancy. These are the traits which distinguish our hero, 
 and throw his character into high rehef upon the back- 
 ground of selfishness and depravity furnished by his age. 
 
 After eighteen years' service as cadet and officer, before 
 he obtained the rank of captain, great events had made 
 memorable the autumn and winter months of 1G30. Charles 
 Emmanuel, who was sixty-eight, and had reigned fifty years, 
 died of chagrin when Saluzzo fell, and the French outposts 
 were brought once more over the Alps. He was a man of 
 great qualities, good and bad, and his " brave heart " broke 
 when the work of a life was undone in a summer's day. A 
 bold warrior, fighting sometimes pike in hand, a perfidious 
 intriguer, cheating and being cheated, a friend of authors and 
 poets, and a man of letters himself, a sovereign prince with 
 big ideas of Italian regeneration — it was his fate to be styled 
 " the disturber of Europe, and the scourge of his people,*' 
 names he did not deserve more than his contemporaries in 
 places of power, except that he failed where some of them 
 succeeded. His son Victor Amadeus I. did not long keep up 
 a show of resistance to the French, but was party to a 
 transaction whereby some share of Montserrat came to him, 
 and Casale was relieved. 
 
 The incidents which made the close of the siege memorable 
 liave been often told, having attracted attention because 
 Mazzarini, who was to be famous as Mazarin, played therein 
 such a conspicuous and dramatic part. But there was one 
 scene in the melodrama which has not been so frequently 
 described, although it illustrates the curious mixture of 
 religion and ferocity often visible in seventeenth century 
 wars. Spinola had died of vexation during the siege, and 
 Santa Crocc, his successor, commanded the Spanish army. 
 The French approached the lines of the besiegers on the 
 south-eastern face, both armies were arranged for a fight, 
 and the intrepid Thoiras was ready to break out from
 
 FA13KRT liKCOAlES A CAPTAIN. 73 
 
 the citadel and take his share in the engagement. The sun 
 shone from a cloudless sky on that 26th of October, 1630 ; 
 every detail on each array in the field was visible to the 
 other, and both were beheld at once from the citadel. There 
 were three French Marshals present, and it was Schoniberg's 
 turn to command. He drew up his twenty thousand men in 
 four lines, witli a spray of ciifans ]3crdiiSy or skirmishers, in 
 front, and the regular cavalry, as well as the mounted noblesse 
 of Dauphiny, were oppo3ite the intervals ready to charge. In 
 this impressive order, and in " silence " — a phenomenon 
 noticed at the time as unusual in their ranks — the French 
 advanced until nearly within cannon shot; when, at a signal 
 the mass halted, and simultaneously knelt down to pray — a 
 most singular spectacle ! Then followed the order to attack, 
 silently and cheerfully obeyed. It was not to be ; for 
 Mazzarini, amid a sputter of musketry and cannon, suddenly 
 appeared, and rode down at a gallop between the armies, 
 staying the incipient fight, and bringing acceptable terms of 
 peace, which he had been busily engaged in pressing on both 
 sides. The terms are of little moment now to any one ; but 
 Schoniberg's report on the campaign, detailed and precise, is 
 well worth reading by students in the operations of war as 
 they were conducted before Gustavus broke into Germany, 
 and set an example which Conde of Rocroi, Guubriant, 
 and especially Turenne were not slow to imitate and 
 expand. 
 
 In that autumn of 1630, while Fabert was recovering from 
 his fever at Chateau Dauphiny, Richelieu ran his greatest 
 risk of total ruin. For the King was sick unto death at 
 Lyons ; his wife and mother, who tended liim, and tlie 
 grandees who wished well to Spain and ill to the Cardinal, 
 plied the suffering monarch with every kind of argument, 
 every species of calumny, and no lack of cries and tears, 
 in order to procure Richelieu's dismissal, probably murder.
 
 74 ABRAHAM FAP.ERT. 
 
 They counted so securely on the King's death that Bassom- 
 pierre hid in his pocket au order from Gaston to arrest the 
 Cardinal ! Great was their consternation and rage when 
 Louis grew first less ill, and then able to travel slowly to 
 Paris. Yet, in his weakly and distressed condition, the two 
 queens, especially his mother, deprived him of needful repose 
 by uncjasing and remorseless attacks, and so far succeeded as 
 to extort some promise adverse to the minister. But as he 
 regained strength his resistance grew stouter, and it is baiely 
 conceivable that, being sound in mind and body, the King 
 would ever part with a servant who was not oidy superior to 
 all around him, but in thorough political accord with his 
 master and colleague. Unity of aim was the bond that 
 knitted these two men together, a fact which the queens and 
 courtiers do not appear to have understood. Nor do they 
 seem to have appreciated that strong quality in the Bourbon 
 prince which made him capable of sacrificing the less to the 
 greater. Personally he had no love for Richelieu, but if he 
 did not find the man amiable, he felt that the minister was 
 what may be called a colleague after his own heart ; and he 
 sacrificed his dislikes for the sake of the large enterprise upon 
 which both were engaged. Much has been made of the 
 King's moments of weakness. Louis XIII. would have been 
 more than mortal if he had been always strong. He evidently 
 gave way a little to buy peace from the queens at a price 
 which buys none. But when the real crisis came he was, in 
 the end, always firm. It was because the queens and their 
 confederates did not take into account the grit, as hard as 
 millstone, which was at the back of Louis* mind, that there 
 was a Day of Dupes. Tlie terrible scene in the Luxembourg 
 is nowhere narrated with such dramatic vigour and authen- 
 ticity as it is in the pages of St. Simon's ParallMe. The 
 (Ictails of that encounter came from the elder St. Simon, the 
 King's favourite, and the only eye and ear witness who has
 
 FABETiT BECOMES A CAITAIX. 75 
 
 reported lliein, and tlicy are set clown by the pen cf a master 
 in the art of swift, full, and graphic narration. 
 
 Finding the King so unwilling to dismiss Richelieu, Queen 
 Marie prufessed lier readiness to meet him at the council board, 
 and in addition to receive back into her graces his niece, 
 Madame de Combalet, whose husband, a relative of Luynes, 
 was killed at Montpellier. Both were to be received at the 
 Queen's " toilette " in the Luxembourg. On the morning of 
 November 11th, 1630, besides Marie, the King, and St. Simon, 
 the favourite, none else were admitted, not even the Captain 
 of the Guard, except the serving men and women, who did not 
 count as " persons." Louis and his mother were talking of 
 the reconciliation when Madame de Combalet was admitted. 
 The poor lady, who knelt at the feet of her mistress, and spoke 
 with great humility and submission, was received with a 
 chilling stare. Then the coldness of Marie became irritation, 
 which grew into anger, and tlien an outburst of downright 
 passion, which exhaled " in bitter reproaches, a torrent of 
 abuse, and by degrees that kind of abuse which is only lieard 
 in les hallcs," or, as we should say, in Billingsgate. The King 
 struck in, recalling the promises made to him, reminding his 
 mother when her language became coarse that he was present, 
 and that her Majesty should respect herself. " Nothing could 
 arrest the torrent. From time to time the King, looking at 
 my father, made gestures of astonishment and vexation ; and 
 my father, motionless, with his eyes fixed on the floor, dared 
 only cast rare and stealthy glances at the King. He never 
 described this ' <!norme sctnc ' without adding, that in all his 
 life he had never felt so ill-at-ease. At length the King, 
 who had not sat down, advanced, took hold of Madame de 
 Combalet, who had remained at the Queen's feet, and pulling 
 her up by the shoulders, said she had heard enough and 
 should withdraw." Outside the door the weeping woman 
 met her uncle, the Cardinal, and so terrified him by the story
 
 7G ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 she told, that he considered whether it would not be the better 
 course to turn back. 
 
 Meantime Louis wis respectfully but in no pleasant mood 
 reproaching his mother with her breach of faith and good 
 manners. When, however, he said that he should order the 
 Cardinal not to enter, Marie, who was playing a part, professed 
 her desire to see and " pardon " Richelieu, but solely on the 
 ground that the King regarded him as indispensable. Then 
 the Cardinal was admitted, knelt on one knee, began to 
 speak, and with a good grace was ordered to rise. But by 
 degrees the tide of Marie's wrath flowed higher and higher, 
 until she again broke out into furious abuse. She called him 
 ungrateful, a rogue, a traitor, declaring that, for his own 
 behoof and that of his kin, he had deceived his King and 
 betrayed the State. So impetuous was the stream, that Louis, 
 overcome by surprise, grief, and anger, could not stay its 
 unbroken flow ; and finally, the raging Queen turned out the 
 Cardinal and forbade him ever to see her again. Louis, after 
 rebuking his unruly mother, withdrew, and St. Simon records 
 that on reaching his temporary abode, he threw himself on the 
 bed, and was so swollen with rage that in an instant all the 
 buttons on his pourpointfell with a rattle on the floor. 
 
 Queen Marie had been acting a part. The King was to be 
 forced by a histrionic display, based, no doubt, on genuine 
 hatred, to choose between his mother and his minister ; and so 
 certain were the cabal of victory, that news of the Cardinal's 
 disgrace had been sent to the Spaniards at Brussels ! 
 
 They were wof'ully (lu])ed. The courtiei's were exultant. 
 The Queen-mother's ^rroi!('^<^, Marillac, Keeper of the Seals, 
 was confident that Richelieu's succession would fall to him, 
 for had not Louis, apparently as part of the peace compact 
 with his mother, signed a despatch that very day, appointing 
 Marshal Marillac to the command of the army in Piedmont? 
 The Cardinal himself, crushed in spirit by the redoubled blow
 
 FABERT BECOMES A CAPTAIN. 11 
 
 was eager to fly for safety to Havre, and was only detained by 
 the earnest pleadings of his friend, Cardinal La Valette. But 
 while Richelieu was trembling, and the Spanish faction drunk 
 with joy, Louis XIII., taking counsel with young St. Simon, 
 but most with himself, and having a hard alternative forced 
 on his choice, determined to break with his mother and hold 
 fast by his minister. St. Simon was empowered to send a 
 message to the Cardinal directing him to follow the King to 
 Versailles. The ecstasy of Richelieu, rescued, as it were, 
 from death, was shown in the fact that, when the news-bearer, 
 young De Tourville, father of the admiral who sixty years 
 afterwards made the British Channel ring with liis name, 
 delivered his joyful tidings, the Cardinal kissed him on both 
 cheeks. Richelieu journeyed to Versailles, the faction was 
 routed, and his power was established afresh as on a rock and 
 never afterwards shaken. Marillac the Keeper was dis- 
 missed ; Marillac the Marshal was arrested in his camp, after 
 he had been a few hours in command ; Beringhen, another 
 plotter, fled to Holland ; and Bassompierre, poor man, was 
 lodged in the Bastille. Louis and his great servant formed a 
 political partnership, which was only broken by death ; and 
 they continued to the last the twofold work they had begun 
 — that of fastening firmly an absolute monarchy on France, 
 and of laying broad and deep the foundations whereon a 
 successor might build or try to build up her domination over 
 the rest of Europe.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE IRON-MASTER. 
 
 When Fabert, after obtaining his captaincy, returned from 
 the Court to Metz, he did so for the simple reason that he 
 was much wanted at home. His biographers hint at painful 
 differences connected with the family property between him- 
 self and his father ; but if they existed, there is no clue to 
 their nature. It does appear, indeed, that at the end of 1629 
 he had somehow become possessed of the Chateau of Moulins, 
 but it is also manifest, from deeds, that early in 1632 he 
 transferred the seigneurie to his elder brother, Francois. Nor 
 could the family jars, whatever they were, have been very 
 serious, and it is far more likely that they had their origin in 
 the obstinacy with which the young officer clung to his pro- 
 fession (which was enough to disturb the equanimity of the 
 maitre-^chevin) , than that they were caused by money or 
 land. For at this very time M. do Desmoulins, having on 
 his hands a piece of work which he could not do with profit, 
 induced his son to relieve him of the burden and vexation by 
 doing it himself. Briefly, the father leased to the son certain 
 forges, foundries, and furnaces which ho could not manage, 
 although lie had been trying his hand at the business for 
 seven years, and thus the Captain and Sergeant-Major of 
 jlambures beranu! an Tron-niasLer. 
 
 The works were pla,ntcd down at the edge of the forest of 
 Moya'uvrc, near the confluence of the little Conroy with the
 
 THE IRON-MASTKiJ. 79 
 
 Ornc, the river wliicli drains the whole phiteau onst of the hills 
 bordering the right bank of the Meuse. Receiving affluents 
 from the south as well as the west, it draws supplies from the 
 lake region, whence issues the Yron, and the wide range 
 between that stream and the village of Orne. Fallinjx into 
 the main river, these rivulets swell its volume as it flows into 
 the Moselle, a few miles above Thionville, now once more 
 Diedenhof, its ancient name. The elder Fabert, it may be 
 noted, held the " tcrre de Ville sur Yro7i," not far from the 
 old Roman station at " HattonviUe an imssage" and near the 
 now well-known Mars la Tour, which he had once helped to 
 besiege. It was in 1624 that he obtained a lease of the 
 Forges of Moyoeuvre, and they did not prosper. A dam, 
 built in 1608, was broken by the floods, and the clever 
 commissary of artillery thought he might try his hand at 
 engineering. But he failed. The object was to retain a 
 head of water which might be diverted into a canal runninsx 
 through the works, and bringing a regular supply of water- 
 power to bear on the machinery. The enterprising Sheriff 
 had not the knowledge requisite to build a solid structure, and 
 his profits on the foundry were swallowed up in expenditure on 
 the banks of the channel and the dam. The new lessee, who 
 had studied practical engineering so far as it could be studied 
 in siege operations and camps, and also architecture, was able 
 to accomplish a task which had baffled his persevering sire. 
 Having taken careful observations on the spot, he made his 
 calculations and drew up his plans on the basis of the facts ; 
 and so ably was the work performed by his directions and 
 under his eye, that, as Colonel Bourelly testifies, what he 
 calls the " harrage-rescrvoir " exists to-day in " the state in 
 which it was left by Fabert." How long a period exactly was 
 occupied in this labour is not clear, but begun in 1632, it was 
 completed before 1635. Henceforth he had the waters of the 
 Orne under control, and he was so successful in the methods
 
 80 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 lie employed to produce iron, that for several years the 
 enterprise yielded a profit of sixty thousand livres ; and I 
 have somewhere read, but have mislaid the extract, tlie out- 
 put of the forges of Moyoeuvre, under his management, was 
 greater than the yield of any other iron-works in Europe. It 
 may well have been so, for ore, water, and wood abounded in 
 the forest-land between the Moselle and the Meuse ; and a 
 man so capable as Fabert, and so thorough, was sure to make 
 the most of the natural advantages ready to his hand. Like 
 most good soldiers, he was essentially a man of business, and 
 his triumphs in the valley of the Orne rank among the most 
 pleasing in his honourable career. 
 
 Soon after his return home as Captain-Major, and probably 
 animated by some hope that marriage would restore him to 
 civil life, his father proposed that he should take to wife 
 Claude tie Clevant, the daughter of a neighbour. Although 
 the match was made, as usual, by the elders, it so happened 
 that the juniors found delight in each other's society, and 
 thus, fortunately for them, the marriage may be called a love- 
 match. But the seniors disputed about the lady's dot. Her 
 grandfather had agreed to give her fifty tliousand crowns, yet 
 w'hen he heard that Fabert, who made no secret of his 
 intentions either to the lady or her parents, persisted in 
 following the trade of soldier, the hard-headed old Lorrainer 
 declared that he would only risk twenty thousand upon a 
 captain adventurer, who might be killed in battle and leave 
 his grand-daughter no refuge but the cloister. It was 
 Fabert's frank avowal to Claude that he should raise a 
 regiment with the money, and her ready assent, which aroused 
 the anger of the grandsirc. During the dispute over the 
 contract he (liccj, but his son and heir, Doniiniiiue, Seigneur 
 de Clevant, and Captain-Provost of Pont a Mousson, was as 
 fond of his gold as his father, and would not give more than 
 twenty thousand crowns. Fabert did not hesitate; he had
 
 THE IRON-MASTER. 81 
 
 pledged liis word to Claude, and would not break it, or 
 abandon the lady because she was to be less richly endowed. 
 To their great content and happiness they were married in 
 October 1()31, and always had occasion to rejoice. The dot 
 was not expended upon a regiment; it was invested in the 
 Forges of Moyoeuvre, and was returned tenfold before the 
 ravages of war enforced the abandonment of that fruitful 
 undertaking. 
 
 While he was yet courting the daughter of M. de Clevant, 
 probably during the financial dispute, an incident occurred 
 which may have inflamed the anger of the grandsire who 
 could not be brought to part with his money to a soldier. A 
 messenger arrived from King Louis directing Fabert to under- 
 take a task which his daring and knowledge of the country 
 fitted him to perform. An Imperialist garrison had got 
 possession of Moyenvic, a strongish place near Marsal, both 
 on the head-waters of the Seille ; and as the French Court 
 had a quarrel with the Duke of Lorraine, Henri of Bourbon, 
 Duke of Verneuil, Bishop of Metz, was directed to revive his 
 claim to that town — a mere pretext intended to colour the 
 projected seizure. Fabert, ordered to reconnoitre the jilace, 
 made his way in disguise as a peasant, drew a plan, suggested 
 a scheme for its capture, and was empowered by the King, 
 then at Paris, to try his device. He collected a small train of 
 carts, laden with goods, and, driving one himself, intended to 
 mass them on a drawbridge, and fasten it firmly down, so that 
 a body of troops, which were to be hidden within reach, might 
 storm in and overpower the garrison. The plan utterly failed, 
 because the troops, through no fault of Fabert, who performed 
 his part, were not brought up before daylight. The conse- 
 quence was that the King had to come to Metz, and an army 
 had to be employed in reducing Moyenvic. It was the initia- 
 tion of a political stroke long meditated by the King and his 
 
 minister — the reduction and virtual annexation of Lurraine. 
 
 G
 
 82 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 The Day of Dupes had discomfited but not quelled the 
 faction which was hostile to the policy and still more to 
 the person of Richelieu. They still went on the assump- 
 tion that Louis was not the master and colleague, but the 
 cowering and terrified slave of the minister's caprices and 
 enmities. The Queen was in secret communication with the 
 Duke of Lorraine through Madame de Chevreuse, and also 
 with the Spanish Court in Brussels. The Queen-mother had 
 retired thither after she found that her hope of ruling was 
 utterly vain, and exhaled her wrath in letters which she 
 poured into France. Gaston first sulked, then he fled to 
 Nancy, and actually married in secret, January 3rd, 1632, Mar- 
 garet, the sister of the Duke ; while that prince himself, who 
 had raised men to aid the Emperor Ferdinand in his contest 
 with Gustavus, returned to his domains and made them a 
 rendezvous for the malcontents. Richelieu had an excellent 
 intelligence department, and was not taken unawares. The 
 victory of Leipzig, which had delivered Germany and brought 
 the Swedes to the Rhine, made it also possible to act with 
 energy in Lorraine ; and the French monarch, who was well- 
 informed, seized the opportunity to press heavily on its ruler. 
 The surrender of Moyenvic was followed by a treaty which 
 gave the French a much stronger place, Marsal, known also 
 to our day as a fortress, though the new guns have greatly 
 reduced its value. These transactions occurred when Fabert's 
 married life was young ; but, while he was sure not to neglect 
 the Forges of Moyoeuvre, we know that he watched alike 
 closely the political and the military events, and was kept 
 well informed by his friends at Court, and correspondents like 
 Charnace, the clever envoy who negotiated the treaty of 
 subsidy with Gustavus. But imtil later, in 1632, he seems to 
 have boon exempt from official labours. Mctz during the 
 midwinter season was full oi' life and business, if not gaiety, 
 Louis and the Cardinal both being residents in that city, and
 
 THE IRON-MASTER. 83 
 
 a flux and reflux of envoys and deputations pouring through 
 the gates. Among others came the Bishop of Wurzburg, to 
 plead the cause of the Catholic League, and Gustavus Horn 
 from the head-quarters of his King on the Rhine. Richelieu, 
 not too well pleased with the triumphal march of the Swedish 
 hero, subsidized him with one hand and the Duke of Bavaria 
 with the other. But the whole purport of his policy would 
 be missed if it were not understood that its end was to keep 
 up discord in Germany, in order to facilitate the aggrandize- 
 ment of France. He had no other aim. In 1631-2 he 
 feared that Gustavus might enter Alsace, and, if his fear was 
 well grounded, he might claim the merit of keeping him out ; 
 but he was not successful in preventing him from turning on 
 Bavaria, an object the Marquis of Breze was sent to obtain. 
 Gustavus understood his business quite as well as Richelieu, 
 and had he not been killed a few months later at Lutzen, the 
 Cardinal might not have been able to realize his great and 
 purely French design. 
 
 In the spring of 1632 Fabert was obliged to join his regi- 
 ment, which had entered Lorrain3, and formed part of an army 
 under Effiat. Its purpose was to seize Philpsburg on the 
 Rhine, but an intimation from Charnace that Gustavus might 
 not take it in good part stopped that project, and Effiat was 
 ordered to expel the Spaniards from Treves and restore the 
 Elector-Bishop, whose attitude was that of benevolent neutral- 
 ity, and something more, towards the Swedes and the Freui-h. 
 Effiat, the honest Superintendent of Finances, and generally 
 able man, thorouglily at one with the Cardinal, died of 
 malignant fever in July, and before his successor, the Marshal 
 d'Estrees, could reach the army, the Marquis d'Arpajou and 
 Comte de Saxe, commanding ad interim, had begun the siege 
 of Treves. It was a minor operation, but the only one in 
 which Fabert hal a share in 1632, liis first year of Avedded 
 life. Besides his ceaseless toil in the trenches, for lie seems
 
 84 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 to have acted as engineer, he distinguished himself in combat. 
 The garrison broke out one dark summer's night, and sur- 
 prised the Kegiment of Rambures ; but Fabert instantly led 
 up Champagne, and striking haixl in turn, drove the enemy 
 back into the place. The covering division had beaten off a 
 body of Spaniards who sought to frustrate the siege, the 
 garrison capitulated, and the Bishop was restored — for a 
 time. 
 
 While Fabert fought, or enjoyed a brief interval of home 
 life with his Claude in the Moselle valley, the terrible French 
 drama grew more sombre and bloody. Marshal Marillac, a 
 confederate of the Queen-mother, was tried, condemned, and 
 beheaded on evidence, as he said, which would not have 
 warranted the whipping of a lackey. If so, then the liberty 
 of French lackeys to plunder and oppress was extensive. 
 ]\Iarillac had not what would now be called a trial, but it is 
 plain enough that he had committed many acts which, under 
 the laws, rendered him liable to death. It is said that he fell 
 a victim to the personal vengeance of Richelieu. Possibly ; 
 but Richelieu, throughout his official career, intent solely on 
 his great schemes, carried his life in his hand, and to avert 
 death he struck first. Marillac, "pont d'or" as he was called 
 in the Isle of Re, because he advised that Buckingham should 
 be allowed to embark quietly, was devoted to Marie de 
 Mcdicis, and would have done her bidding — slain Richelieu, 
 if ordered, as Richelieu slew him. Gaston, because he was 
 the King's brother, and heir-apparent to the throne, knew 
 that he did not risk his own life when, in 1G32, he rode into 
 France at the head of a body of cavalry, including some 
 French nobles, but also any men he could rake together in 
 Belgium, and endeavoured to provoke an insurrection to the 
 cry of " D(j\vii witli the Tyi'ant Richelieu!" He dragged 
 into the fray the last ]3uke of JMoutmorency, who had his 
 grievances ; but neither in Burgundy, nor in Central France,
 
 THE IRON-MASTEli. 85 
 
 nor even in Languedoc, did Gaston receive tlie least popular 
 support. That is a most tell-tale fact. The cnielty, harsh- 
 ness, and oppression of the King's Government was keenly 
 felt, but the joeople knew that it was nothing when compared 
 to the rule of the noblesse agaiust whom the King and the 
 Cardinal waged war. Richelieu won the popular heart when 
 he ruthlessly destroyed the feudal castles and pulverized the 
 feudal power ; and the deliverance from that daily tyranny 
 was a set-off which more than overbalanced his own. Gaston's 
 insurrection ended at Castelnaudary, where, in a foolhardy 
 display of mere valour, Montmorency was wounded and taken ; 
 and when the brilliant and generous grand seigneur was con- 
 demned to die, Gaston basely deserted him, and bought his 
 own safety, as usual, by betraying his friends. He fled the 
 country once more, no doubt, but he fled because he feared 
 that the King had obtained proof of the offence he persistently 
 denied — his clandestine marria-j^e with Margaret of Lorraine. 
 A meaner and shabbier man than this Bourbon prince it 
 would be hard to find, Montmorency's execution, when 
 Gaston got off scot free, is a deep stain on the reign of Louis 
 and the Cardinal ; but it was a stroke in the game, and those 
 who are never tired of applauding Richelieu for his life-work, 
 the unification and aggrandizement of France, should be the 
 last to repudiate the cost. It is impossible to see how, con- 
 sidering the material through which and with which they 
 had to work, the King and the minister could have achieved 
 the end attained by any other means than such as those 
 which they employed. All, and they are many, who boast 
 that Richelieu was "the incarnation of France," which in 
 many respects he was, are bound to accept him as a whole ; 
 while they exult in the glory they must also bear their share 
 in the shame, and admit that the splendour of his genius and 
 his work cast an appallingly black shadow, not only on his 
 own time, but through the centuries even to our own day.
 
 86 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 The long-cherished plan of snatching Lorraine alike from 
 Duke Charles IV. and the Empire was pushed forward vigor- 
 ously in 1633 ; and accomplished by intricate negotiations 
 and their sanction, superior force. The Duke, who had no 
 means of resistance, and whose Spanish friends were still re- 
 mote struggling through the Alps from Milan, was required 
 to place Nancy in "deposit," which meant give it up, and 
 surrender several other places not yet in French hands. The 
 contest between him and Richelieu was one of diamond cut 
 diamond, and the keener performer won. It is instructive to 
 note, that when the Lorrainers objected that if the Duke 
 consented to the terms he would be placed under the ban of 
 the Empire by his suzerain, the Kaiser, the Cardinal's answer 
 was that the suzerainty of the Duchy only pertained to the 
 Eujperor by virtue of an antique usurpation of a possession 
 belonging to the crown of France, and the further assertion 
 that the King intended to re-establish his monarchy in its 
 '' jn'imale grandeur," in fact, annex what was known as the 
 ancient Austrasia, which, if accomplished, would at least 
 carry the borders of France to the Rhine. Thus we touch 
 again one of the many roots of the inveterate Franco-German 
 dispute which is so much older than the Napoleons and 
 Bi.smarcks. The Duke, after much haggling, and more than 
 one dramatic interlude, was compelled to submit. He had 
 C(jnie into the French camp with a safe-conduct, after he 
 bad signed the treaty, and wluni he paltered in keeping faith, 
 Riclielieu did not exactly detain him as a prisoner, but would 
 not allow him to depart. Finally, fearing a definite arrest and 
 iii(l( linitu imprisonment, the enraged Duke gave the proper 
 order to his people on the 25th of August, and the next day 
 Louis XIII. entered Nancy at the head of his troops. 
 
 It is significant of the estimation in which Fabert was held 
 Ity the King, that he entrusted him with the task of drawing 
 np th" iKtlicc regulations so much needed to secure a peaceful
 
 THE lllON-M ASTER. - 87 
 
 occupation. Fabert, a Lorrainer himself, was as well ac- 
 quainted with the temper of the people as he was with the 
 character of the French soldiers. He not only framed an 
 excellent set of rules, but made it plain that they must be 
 obeyed ; and the consequence was that the markets were well 
 supplied, because the peasants were protected, and the soldiers 
 made to pay for all they required. There were no troubles 
 in Nancy, although the population hated the intruders. We 
 can well imagine that Madame Claude may have journeyed 
 from Metz to the Lorraine capital in these days and bright- 
 ened her soldier's home by her presence. The extruded 
 Duke, after lingering for a while in the hill country, rode off 
 at the head of a small body of horse and foot to fight under 
 the flag of the Empire, and his own, for in the end he 
 became a leader of free companions, a lordly freebooter, after 
 the fashion of Mansfeldt, and lived long at the cost of the 
 Rhine bordering countries. When he had gone, and alleging 
 his flight as a pretext, the French overran the whole Duchy, 
 and passed the Vosges to seize Saverne and Hagenau, which 
 had been bestowed on him by the Emperor. Fabert had a 
 share in the warfare, distinguishing himself, as usual, at the 
 capture of Bitehe and La Mothe, the latter a castle on a 
 rocky eminence, the site of which is marked in contemporary 
 maps, and is still visible in the valley of tlie Mouzon, a few 
 miles south of Neufchateau, as an isolated hill, useful, from 
 its height, to the trigonometrical surveyor. The castle, like 
 scores of robber strongholds in Lorraine and all over France, 
 has utterly disappeared. 
 
 During the siege of Bitehe, which was defended by a 
 fighting and scientific Capucin, the Pere Eustache, Fabert 
 had a characteristic difference with the commander of the 
 army, the veteran Marshal la Force. It is related that La 
 Force directed Fabert to arrest and deliver to the Provost 
 three soldiers accused of robbery. He found two, and led
 
 88 ABRAHAM FA BERT. 
 
 them himself to the Marshal, but refused to hand them over 
 to the Provost, alleging that the right of punishing them, if 
 guilty, belonged to the regiment of Rambures. The Marshal , 
 piqued by the conduct of his subordinate, told him that he 
 should serve no longer in his army. Thereupon Fabert, vi^ho 
 felt that his regiment as well as himself had been unjustly 
 treated, and a rule of the service set at naught, went at once 
 to the King and begged permission to resign his commission. 
 But when he narrated the incident in the camp, Louis, who 
 knew well the army customs, directed him to keep his post 
 as Captain-Major, and gave him leave either to stay in Paris 
 until Rambures could be sent on other service, or return to 
 Lorraine. He choose the latter course, and reached the camp 
 at La Mothe in time to act on the staff of Arpajou, who knew 
 his value, and to employ his engineering knowledge with 
 immense effect. When La Mothe fell, the Marshal, of course, 
 did not name his able subordinate ; but he bore no malice, 
 and soon after recognized amply the merits of an officer, 
 whose only offence was that he would not surrender the right 
 and duty of maintaining discipline which pertained to the 
 regiment in which he served. The incident, however, shows 
 that the principles regulating the relations of subordinates to 
 superiors were very ill-defined in the French army at that 
 date. 
 
 Having obtained practical possession of Lorraine, and some 
 sort of footing in Alsace, French policy required or desired 
 the reduction of Diedenhof, or Thionville. The Pere Joseph, 
 who, although he held no office, exerted frequently much 
 influence on war as well as politics, was a great campaign- 
 maker — on paper. It was said that he and some other 
 courtiers were, in this easy fashion, always conquering " the 
 Turk." He once laid down a plan of campaign for the 
 instruction of Bernhard of Saxc Weimar, who drily remarked 
 that war would be much simplified if a general could take
 
 THE IKON-M ASTER. 89 
 
 cities by touching their names with a finger upon a map. 
 Late in the summer of 1634 Richelieu directed Fabert to 
 reconnoitre Thionville, which lay not remote from the iron 
 works at Moyoeuvre ; but when he presented his plan of the 
 fortress to the Cardinal, the Pere Joseph, who knew nothing 
 about the matter, threw doubts on its correctness in such an 
 imperious style that Fabert, who was touched in his tenderest 
 point, felt bound to test his drawings by a second inspection 
 of the place. The consequence was that he fell into the 
 hands of the Spaniards ; for the Governor, noticing the strange 
 horseman, detached part of his escort to capture him ; and as 
 Fabert, seeing his danger, yet not wishing to seem a fugitive, 
 rode off slowly towards the Moselle, his pursuers were able to 
 reach him as he was entering the ferry boat. Fortunately for 
 him he had torn up his drawings, and flung away his case of 
 mathematical instruments, so that there was no evidence 
 against him. The Governor, polite but resolute, kept his 
 prisoner, who, nevertheless, found some mode of communicat- 
 ing his mishap, and the story he had told to the Don, to the 
 Baron de Grateloup, an officer of the regiment of Piedmont ; 
 and at a later stage, by an ingenious artifice and a singular 
 kind of sympathetic ink laid on with a toothpick, he sent a 
 similar account to Madame Fabert. Taken first to Luxem- 
 burg, he was finally lodged in a prison cell in Brussels, where 
 he remained for some months, during which period he exercised 
 his ingenuity jn obtaining what was rigorously denied, pens, 
 paper, and ink, and at one time was obliged to take the 
 desperate step of refusing to eat until he was allowed to draw 
 up a petition to his judges. Solitude sharpened his natur- 
 ally keen wits, and he was able to devise expedients which 
 turned the obstacles in his path. But his friends were over 
 zealous. The Baron de Grateloup devised a scheme for carry- 
 ing him off by force; and a young friend, M. de Vion, was 
 foolish enough to offer a bribe to the legal functionary in
 
 90 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 charge of the case, a, proceeding which nearly proved fatal. 
 King Louis took up the cause of his officer at once, but month 
 after month passed away, and still the Spanish Government 
 refused to release the prisoner. It so happened, however, 
 that a certain Don Juan de Manasses, wearincr a dissfuise, had 
 been captured while looking into the state of Leucate, a town 
 on the Mediterranean ; and Richelieu let it be known at 
 Brussels and Madrid that Don Juan would fare badly if 
 Fabert were condemned. At all events, when other means 
 failed, Louis XIIL wrote directly to the Cardinal-Infanta 
 who governed the Low Countries, demanding his release, 
 and the request was instantly granted. After a detention of 
 more than two months he was allowed to depart, and rode 
 into France with his faithful friend Grateloup. It was in- 
 evitable that he should personally thank his King — that 
 would have been done by any officer ; but it was character- 
 istic of Fabert that he should transmit a handsome sword to 
 M. Cloud, the legal personage who refused the too zealous 
 Vion's gold, as a token of the admiration he felt for that 
 gentleman's incorruptibility. 
 
 Freedom soon brought him employment ; and the post to 
 which he was appointed was that of Commandant in his 
 native city. An immense and grotesque quarrel which raged 
 fiercely through the autumn of 1G33, and did not get properly 
 settled for a year after, had broken out between the Duke of 
 Epernon and the Archbishop of Bordeaux. The Archbishop 
 excommunicated the Duke and his guards, and the Duke, 
 seeking his antagonist, deprived him of his head-covering in 
 the street, and punched him in the stomach with his cane. 
 The quarrel had endured so long that all sorts of authorities 
 wore involved in the whirlpool, and finally the Pope and the 
 King's council were obliged to interfere, and reprimand both 
 these turbulent spirits. Richelieu seized the occasion to 
 make the Duke resign the government of Metz, but he
 
 THE IRON-MASTEK. 91 
 
 bestowed it on the Cardinal de la Valette, who desired to 
 have Fabert for his commandant. But so apprehensive was 
 the Captain lest he should be shut up in a fortress during the 
 great war, now plainly imminent, that he wished to decline 
 the offer, and would have done so had not the King stepped 
 in with a peremptory order. So for a season he was stationed 
 near his home ; and had the verses been then written, he 
 might have said to his Claude, to justify his burning passion 
 for active service in the field — 
 
 " I could not love tliee, ilear, so much, 
 Loved I not honour more." 
 
 His special military business at Metz was to place that 
 fortress in a complete state of defence. In the preceding 
 year Wallenstein, who had engaged in a plot against the 
 Emperor, was himself assassinated by that Emperor's order, 
 and the hopes of the Protestants revived. But in the 
 autunm Piccolomini had the great good fortune to defeat 
 Bcrnhard and capture Horn, near Nordlingen, and those 
 hopes were destroyed for a season by the victory. The 
 French minister acted at once with more than his usual 
 energy and craft, and sought to extract gains for France 
 from the confusion and suffering which prevailed in Germany. 
 He negotiated treaties with the Dutch and the Swedes; he 
 induced Gaston of Orleans to return to France ; he reformed 
 his military administration by concentrating the transaction 
 of war business into one office ; he tried again, but failed 
 in great part, to establish a relatively sound fiscal and 
 financial system; and he raised larger bodies of troops than 
 France had ever possessed before. His master, by his 
 advice, designed to enter openly, as a principal, into the 
 huge contest which had been rasint; since 1618, and to strike 
 down if he could Spain and Austria, in the hope that the 
 boundaries of France might be pushed to the Rhine. It
 
 92 ABRAHAM FABEIIT. 
 
 was because Fabert knew what great designs were afoot that 
 he fretted in his prison, and longed to quit Metz for service 
 in the field. None the less did he apply his whole heart to 
 the task which he had to perform at Metz. He was so 
 diligrent that in three months old works were renewed or 
 repaired, fresh defences were added, ample supplies stored in 
 the magazines, the garrison was well-trained — a result sure 
 to ensue wherever Fabert commanded — and Metz, not only 
 from its strategical position, but in itself, was made one of 
 the strongest fortresses in the kino^dom. The ancient 
 municipal freedom had of course been destroyed ; the 
 maitrc echevin and his council gave way to a Parlement, 
 and the principal privilege preserved by the chief magistrate 
 was, that he had a right to address the King with his head 
 covered, a right Francois Fabert some years later successfully 
 insisted on. To the horror of the Court officials, Louis XIII. 
 fully acknowledged the right which he had accorded when, 
 despite the strenuous protests of the elder Abraham Fabert, 
 the venerable institutions which had their roots in the history 
 of Metz as a free city were abolished and a Parlement arose 
 in their stead. Yet this body did not fulfil the expectations 
 of its founders, who required obedience, and its members 
 stood out so long that as a punishment they were banished 
 to Toul. 
 
 When the plans of the French Government were ripe, the 
 Spaniards obligingly furnished a pretext for war. They 
 regained possession of Treves, and carried off the Archbishop 
 as a prisoner. Louis XIII. at once declared war in set form, 
 and this declaration is memorable because it was the last 
 delivered by a herald. It was on the 12th May, 1635, 
 that the King directed Pierre Gratiolet, whose heraldic title 
 was Alencon, to visit Brussels and declare war according to 
 the ancient forms. Packing up his official garments, he set 
 out forthwith, and reached the neighbourhood of the Low
 
 THE IRON-MASTER. 93 
 
 Country capital at nine o'clock on the morning of the 19th. 
 He sent his " trumpet " to sound la chamade at the gate 
 while he himself donned his coat of arms, put on his toque, 
 or collar, and unpacked his baton of office, adorned with 
 fleurs de lis. When he solemnly advanced in this guise, he 
 was met by a brother of the craft, no less a person than 
 Toison d'Or, who told him that the Prince — the Cardinal - 
 Infanta was Prince Ferdinand of Austria, the brother of 
 Philip IV. — would give him audience, but at the same time 
 he implored him to lay aside his heraldic raiment, lest the 
 sight of so great a curiosity should create a tumult. Alenc^on 
 was stiff about his clothes, and the colloquy was so protracted 
 that the two heralds did not enter the city until noon, when 
 the Frenchman found a hospitable refuge in the house of his 
 compeer. Meanwhile the Council had met to debate the 
 weighty question — should the cartel be or be not received. 
 Some opined that it should, alleging that he who refused to 
 hear such a document read thereby confessed his weakness, 
 but others, with more reason, held that princes should not 
 listen to declarations of war, for if they contained offensive 
 expressions the Prince could not answer them with dignity. 
 In short, the Council could not make up its little mind, so 
 a messenger of rank kept trotting to and fro between the 
 Council and the herald ; and as Alengon, not unnaturally, 
 grew impatient, two other heralds, Hainault and Gueldres, 
 were sent to amuse and quiet the much-tried man. One 
 foolishly asked him if he had not a letter for the Infanta, but 
 when he drew out the terrible document, the questioner 
 refused to take it and fled, while the scrgent-majoo^ in 
 attendance retired in haste lest it should be read in his 
 presence. Six o'clock had struck, when, wearied out, 
 Alenqon in full panoply at length mounted his horse, and 
 summoned the three Low Country heralds who were before 
 the house to accept service of his declaration. None would
 
 94 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 take it or hear it read. A crowd had asseiiibled, and, as the 
 shadows lengthened over the public square, Alengon, driven 
 to extremities, turning to the people and the Heralds, and 
 brandishing his parchment, shouted out that it was a 
 declaration of war from the King his Master against the 
 Cardinal-Infanta, and then threw the precious document on 
 the ground in the Place du Sablon. The heralds forbad 
 any one to touch it, and AleuQon, vexed and indignant, 
 gathered up his missive, and rode back towards France, Yet 
 he was determined to leave it on hostile soil. When he 
 reached the frontier, near Rouille, he planted a post before 
 the Church, and thereon he fixed his declaration, while liis 
 attendant trumpet once more sounded la cJiamade ! A most 
 curious and ineffectual proceeding, so ludicrous in all its 
 parts, that it was the death-blow to the time-honoured 
 practice of sending a herald, properly accoutred, to denounce 
 war according to the ancient forms, which had no longer any 
 vitality behind them. No herald was ever again torn from 
 his quiet home and interesting antiquarian studies to be sent 
 on such a bootless errand ; and here in Brussels, May 1635, 
 a venerable custom expired with a comic flicker, having long 
 outlived the institutions which gave it life and vigour. 
 
 Yet Alen^on bore a missive quite polite in form. The 
 sole reason alleged as a warrant for war was that the Cardinal- 
 Infanta had refused to liberate the Elector and Archbishop 
 of Treves, captured wliile he was under the protection of 
 France, and tlierefore King Louis declared that lie was 
 resolved " de tircr raison jiar Ics armes de cctte offense!' The 
 best commentary on the hollowness of the lieraldic parade is, 
 that two French marshals, at the head of a large army, had 
 invaded the Spanish dominions before Alenc^.on started on 
 his mission ; and that on the day after he rode indignantly 
 otit of ih'u.ssels a W(;ak Spanish force was actually defeated 
 at Avein, not far from Liege.
 
 THE IRON-MASTER. 95 
 
 It was the outbreak of a desolating war from the gates of 
 Basel, indeed from the Lyonnais, to the North Sea, that 
 terminated Fabert's career as an Iron-master. During the 
 few months spent in command at Metz, he had taken good 
 care to store up large quantities of iron in the arsenal, and 
 had done his best to secure the Messin from the raiders, who 
 shot out parties from Thionville, Treves, Sierk, and Luxem- 
 burg. His days were spent in augmenting the defences of 
 Metz, filling her storehouses, and in riding abroad at the 
 head of a chosen troop of light horse to watch over and 
 protect the cultivated country within the sphere of his com- 
 mand ; but he could not, at a later period, prevent the 
 Spanish marauders from destroying the works at Moyoeuvre, 
 and putting an end to that profitable speculation. Fabert 
 had to be content with his gains, which he lent, apparently, 
 to the ever-needy Government, now more than ever pressed 
 to find ready money with which to defray the daily cost of 
 a war waged by means of large subsidies to foreign princes 
 as well as by military operations framed on an unprecedented 
 scale. The annual outlay of the War Office for several years 
 was certainly not less, and frequently more, than five millions 
 and a half, out of a revenue, including loans, of fourteen 
 millions sterling, expressed in the values of that day and 
 not in those of our own.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. 
 
 "Richelieu's magnificent military schemes for 1G35, the 
 cause of such a vast expenditure, nearly all failed. The 
 invasion of the Low Countries, undertaken in concert with 
 the Prince of Orange, was disastrous. The people then, as 
 they have been since, were called upon by an absolute 
 government to rise and vindicate their liberty, but the 
 horrible sack of Tirlemont, at the outset, shut every gate and 
 I)rovoked universal rage ; the coufederates could not even 
 take Louvain ; the French had no communications with 
 France, and when the Spaniards seized the fort on the Rhine, 
 once the stronghold of the famous robber partizan chief 
 Schenk, threatening the Dutch communications, the armies 
 broke up. The French host had dwindled down to a few 
 thousands, and the greater part of the survivors were brought 
 back to France by sea. Marshal Crequi and the Duke of 
 Savoy did not fare much better in Italy ; and, as we shall see, 
 a campaign on the Rhine was almost a complete disaster ; 
 while it was only the Duke of Rohan, by far the best French 
 general then existing, who conducted a campaign in the 
 Orisons and the Valtelline so finely, that it presents an 
 exaniiile of mountain warfare which is studied by soldiers to 
 this day. 
 
 After the Franco-Dutch campaign had disastrously broken 
 down, an army was assembled in Lorraine, and placed
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. 97 
 
 under BerDliard and the Cardinal La Valette, consisting of 
 the " Weimariens," as they were called, the wreck of Nord- 
 lingen, Swedes and Germans, all stout, ferocious, and un- 
 scrupulous soldiers, and a picked body of French troops, 
 which included the " Maison du E,oi," both horse and foot. 
 King Louis named the staff ; Colonel Hepburn, Turenne, 
 then twenty-five years old, and the Count of Guiche, after- 
 wards Marshal Grammont acting as Mar^chaux-dc-Cam20, and 
 Fabert being aj^pointed Scrgent-de-hataille. There was also 
 another soldier present destined to be famous — Guebriant, 
 a man of high character and rare faculties. Fabert was 
 delighted at the prospect now opening out before him, but 
 sinister influences were at work, and before the troops had 
 been collected, he learned to his chagrin that a M. de 
 Vignolles was to have the coveted post, and that he was only 
 to be an aide-de-camp to La Valette. Whether, as some pre- 
 tend, his general looked on him at first as a spy of the King, 
 or whether the monarch's evident esteem, as others say, excited 
 the jealousy of Richelieu and the Pere Joseph, matters little. 
 It is certain that the former did not like men who were not 
 his steady adherents and servants, and also that the Capucin 
 nourished a strong prejudice again&t Fabert. He was now 
 six-and-thirty years old ; he had given faithful service ; he 
 was a soldier accomplished far above the level of his time, 
 but he was not a noble, a supple courtier, or a relation of the 
 minister, and he was superseded. He was deeply hurt, but 
 he found support in the reflection, which expressed the 
 principle of his life, that it was better to deserve honours 
 than obtain rank and distinction without desert ; so he 
 repressed some natural vexation, and frankly accepted the 
 inferior position from which, until the death of the Pere 
 Joseph, he could never emerge. 
 
 The new army was not got together a moment too soon. 
 
 Piccolomini was already on the Flemish frontier threatening 
 
 H
 
 98 ABE AH AM FABERT. 
 
 Picardy ; Gallas, who owed his rapid promotion to the share he 
 had in Wallenstein's destruction, had entered the Palatinate. 
 Mansfeldt, now Imperiahst, besieged the Swedes in Mainz ; 
 while some months earlier, the Emperor had succeeded in 
 negotiating a treaty of Prague with Saxony, Brandenburg, 
 and the greater part of the German Protestants, The 
 Franco-Weimarian army was to drive Gallas over the Rhine, 
 relieve Mainz, cross the river and, if possible, effect a 
 junction with the Landgraf of Hesse-Cassel, the only 
 powerful Protestant leader who had not made a peace with 
 tlie Emperor. It was a task beyond their strength, and even 
 Pichelieu was so terrified by the apprehension that " vivres" 
 might fail and ruin the army, that he enjoined the greatest 
 caution, while the Pere Joseph described the project as a 
 "glorious enterprise." 
 
 Less than twenty-thousand strong, they marched from 
 Saarbruck on the 28th of July, and were just in time to 
 relieve Deux-Ponts, besieged by Gallas. That general fell 
 back on the road so often traversed before and since, the war- 
 path which leads through Landstuhl and Kaiserslautern. 
 Luckily for him he found a traitor in the first-named place, 
 and was thus able to garrison the castle, cover his retreat on 
 Worms, and bar the direct road. The combined army did not 
 rapidly pursue. At this early stage, such Avere the defective 
 methods of those days, they were brought to a stand because 
 the baggage had not come up from Saarbruck. During the 
 halt provisions and forage became scarce ; the Frehch guards, 
 horse and foot, almost mutinied, not only because they 
 missed their comforts, but because they were called upon to 
 encamp or bivouac, as we surmise. The Maison du Roi — 
 they learned better in after years — were highly indignant, 
 ;inil stood out against being degraded to the level of "common 
 soldiers." It needed all the tact and elo([uence of Bernhard, 
 who was the soul of the expedition, to overcome a spirit of
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. 99 
 
 insubordination, wLich was due in part to the horror with 
 which the French, tlien and afterwards, regarded a German 
 campaign. Fabert played a part also in restoring a proper 
 tone to the discouraged array. They set forward early in 
 August, and, leaving the hostile fort at the entrance of the 
 wooded defile of Kaiserslautern on their right, they gained 
 Kreuznach and the valley of tlie Nahe by a detour through 
 Kusel. Nearly a week was consumed in this operation, 
 which led them to Bingen, a place soon captured. Thence 
 they moved on Mainz, the wind of their approach driving off 
 Mansfeldt, and established themselves on both banks of the 
 Rhine. Here they lingered idly for many weeks, during 
 which interval negotiations were carried on with the 
 Landgraf which led to no result. The fact wa-, that the 
 politic arrangement concluded by the Imperalists at Prague 
 had for the time thwarted Richelieu's scheme of a junction 
 with Hesse. Fabert, whose knowledge of German made him 
 so useful, was sent to sound the Circles of Franconia and 
 Swabia, but he found them unwilling to risk anything at a 
 moment when the rout of Nordlingen was fresh in every 
 memory, and the Swedes, without Gustavus, were the only 
 weighty counterpoise to the Emperor; while Oxenstiern 
 had not yet become known to the public as a man of 
 power. 
 
 In the meantime Gallas, secure on the Rhine, demon- 
 strated daily the rashness of Bernhard's audacious advance. 
 He poured his partisans into the Palatinate countries, eat 
 up and destroyed their resources, and of course prevented 
 the transport of stores from the magazines of Saarbruck to 
 Mainz. He tried to burn the boat-bridge at Mainz, by 
 sending fire-rafts down stream ; here Fabert staved off the 
 threatening ruin. The allies were still on both banks, but 
 they had no food for man or horse, and a retreat became an 
 imperative necessity — a retreat over nearly two hundred miles
 
 100 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 of wasted country, with an active enemy on their flank. In 
 order to deceive Gallas, if possible, young Turenne and 
 Feuquieres led a body of cavalry towards Frankfort, and 
 gained a brilliant success over an Imperialist force which 
 rashly quitted its entrenchments to meet them. In that 
 charge rode a remarkable young man, De Thou, whose 
 tragic fate in after years so many have lamented and still 
 lament. He was serving under Arnauld of Andilly, in what 
 we should call the Commissariat, and, like Bishop Walker 
 at the Boyne, " had no business there." He was " naturally 
 so courageous," says Andilly his superior, "that he could not 
 resist the temptation to affront a peril which his profession 
 did not oblige him to incur. He was hit in the right arm, 
 and was rather ashamed than vain of his wound." Andilly's 
 son, known afterwards as the Abbe Arnauld, however, puts 
 the incident in a slightly different light. He says that De 
 Thou, " priding himself on his bravery, like the rest, had an 
 arm broken by a musket-ball, and for recompense, instead of 
 pity, we said Qio'allait-il /aire Id?" 
 
 The ride towards Frankfort was a mere feint, and the 
 army, traversing the Rhine, marched off on the 16tli of 
 September to Kreuznach, where they crossed the Nahe and 
 halted to await Duke Bernhard, who was engaged in rein- 
 forcing the garrison of Mainz. It is stated that when the 
 Swedes, unwilling to be left, were on the verge of mutiny, 
 Bernhard quelled it by drawing his sword and killing a 
 lieutenant-colonel who was the ringleader. In any case he 
 did leave a garrison, more or less in an unwholesome temper, 
 and joined the army on the Nahe on September 20th. " What 
 I chiefly noticed in Duke Bernhard," says the austere Andilly, 
 "besides his groat vigilance, foresight, antl method, was a 
 good sense and courtesy which might have made him pass 
 rather for an Italian than a German." But wo see that he 
 could bo rough enough on a decisive occasion, which also
 
 THE STAFF OFFICE?.. 101 
 
 shows great good sense in its way. It was easy to retreat 
 into the valley of the lower Nahe ; not so easy to get further 
 towards Lorraine. For the Austrian detachments were far 
 out, and one blocked the road through Meisenheim to Kiisel. 
 Turenne, who commanded the advanced guard, which included 
 Rambures and its captain-mnjor, Fabert, met them near 
 Odernheim, on the Glan, so far north had the Imperialists 
 marched out. After a brief cannonade, Turenne leading the 
 Light Horse, and Fabert Hambures, attacked and broke the 
 Austrians, taking thirteen guns. The victory, except in so 
 far as it rebuffed the enemy, did not improve the prospects of 
 an army which could neither march by the direct road home, 
 nor appease its hunger by drawing on its own magazines in 
 Meisenheim. Even the captured artillery was only an addi- 
 tional impediment. " We are in a strange fix,"- said Bernhard. 
 " Yes," answered Fabert, " but honour is won by overcoming 
 great difficulties," and he suggested a plan of retreat on the 
 only road open. He proposed to bury the cannon, burn all 
 superfluous baggage, and move off to the right, that is gain 
 the Nahe, and march by Sobernheim up the right bank. He 
 calculated that the Croats would stop to pillage the abandoned 
 waggons, and that at least a march would be gained. The 
 plan was only partially adopted. The guns and carts were 
 retained, but the army moved swiftly off into the hill country 
 through which the Nahe bores its way. Then, as the enemy 
 became more enterprising, little by little the baggage was 
 sacrificed, and La Valette burnt his own carriage. The 
 famished troops tramped on night and day, and still the guns 
 were dragged on by double teams, so fearful was the French 
 commander lest his enemies at Court should make their loss 
 a weapon of attack against him. 
 
 It was not until the 24th of September, the ninth day of 
 the retreat, that the Allies, diminished to some ten thousand 
 men, were able to cross the Nahe and rest near Birkenfeld,
 
 102 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 SO far to tlie westward had they been driven. Here the 
 artillery was thrown into a lake, and without guns or trans- 
 port train, the weary and hungry soldiers once more plodded 
 away. The Imperial general still hoped to cut them off by 
 marching on Vaudrevange, now Vallerfangen, near Saarlouis, 
 where there was a castle and point of passage — one of the 
 feudal castles in Lorraine which was to be destroyed. But 
 Gallas misused his great opportunities in this campaign. 
 Marching by night from Birkenfeld, and throughout the 
 next day, the Allies came in sight of the Saar and the towers 
 of Vaudrevange on the 26th. The Imperialists were too late, 
 and their horsemen did not ride up until the main body had 
 crossed the river protected by the guns of the castle. But 
 the enemy closed upon the rear-guard. Turenne, mindful of 
 Gustavus, met" them with a line of alternate squadrons of 
 horse and companies of foot, which, with the aid of a rein- 
 forcement brought up by Fabert, enabled the rear-guard to 
 hold its own and cross the river intact. They were not even 
 yet in safety, for the Imperialists also got over the Saar in 
 the night, and moving between Vaudrevange and the Nied, 
 managed to place a strong body of horse in the woods on the 
 flank of the allied line of march. The French infantry, 
 except four hundred musketeers under Guebriant, then a 
 captain in the Guards, had gone forward led by Colonel 
 Hepburn and Fabert. But when the Imperial horse dashed 
 out of the coverts, they were encountered and routed by the 
 French cavalry, which still retained its superiority in actual 
 combat, and by the telling fire of Guebriant's infantry. 
 That brilliant stroke finished the campaign ; the next day 
 the Allies crossed the Nied, and moved by Boulay upon the 
 Seille, whence Fabert was despatched to hasten a supply of 
 provisions from Metz. 
 
 Riding into that city, he first ordered the bakers to provide 
 an aTii[)le quantity of bread, and inform him so soon as it was
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. 103 
 
 ready for transport. Ragged and shirtless, he entered his own 
 house, and was so strange a figure that his wife could barely 
 recognize him. She brought him clothes, and he took some 
 food, but was so worn out that he fell into a deep sleep in his 
 chair. There he slumbered until word came that the convoy 
 was ready, when, roused with difficulty, he mounted a fresh 
 horse, and gladdened the hungry band of wanderers at Magny 
 on the Seille by bringing them plentiful store of provend. 
 
 At the time, and since, there has been much glorification 
 over this retreat, which certainly tried the French in many 
 ways, and taught the Maison du Roi some useful lessons. 
 Fabert in the prime of life, and Turenne in early manhood, 
 among others, gained renown by their conduct. The Pere 
 Barre, quoting from the Memoires of M. de Termes, Homme 
 de Conjiance de M. le Mao^dchal de Fabert, tells a character- 
 istic anecdote to illustrate the Captain-Major's ceaseless 
 activity during the retreat. '* He would have died of weak- 
 ness and hunger," says the narrator, " had not d'Acqueville, a 
 gentleman attendant on Cardinal La Valette, cared for him." 
 The kind d'Acqueville, it seems, frequently waylaid Fabert as 
 he rode to and fro every day, hither and thither, and tendered 
 bread and wine. As to his cool and hardy courage that was 
 well known, but the fashion in which he rode up towards the 
 enemy when reconnoitring earned him a special title in the 
 army. He was styled " Quetcur de cou2)S dc Mousqtcet" a habit 
 which never left him, so that what in others might seem 
 bravado was in him a second nature. We may observe, by 
 way of contrast, that there was another man of note or 
 notoriety in the Mainz army, Baradas, who had been the 
 " favourite " of a season. He raised a fine regiment of 
 infantry, says the Abbt^ Arnauld, led it himself, and inscribed 
 on his colours "Jiat voluntas tiia," in sign of submission to 
 fortune and the King, as the Abbe thinks, adding with a 
 touch of malice, that the poor man was ill enough during the
 
 104 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 retreat ; and also that disgrace had rendered him " civil et 
 Jhonnete, d'orgueilleux et pcti caressant qitil itoit pendant sa 
 faveur." Baradas was twice tried by his royal master, and 
 each time found untrustworthy or wearisome. Saint Simon, 
 whom he made a Duke, was really the only favourite whose 
 good manners, sound sense, and manly indej)endence won the 
 permanent liking and esteem of the King ; but even he had to 
 be sacrificed to policy. 
 
 The offensive campaigns devised by Richelieu, except that 
 in the Valtelline, had not only gone to water, but had brought 
 the enemy to the borders of France. Duke Charles broke 
 into Lorraine, occupied the attention of La Force, indeed com- 
 pelled him to entrench himself at Epinal, now again a part of 
 the new French " lines," and captured St. Mihiel on the Mouse. 
 Matters were in that state when La Valette finished his retreat 
 upon Metz, followed by Gallas, who seized Vaudrevange and 
 St. Avoid and reduced Saarbruck. Richelieu was seriously 
 ill at this time, and Louis betook himself to Lorraine to 
 besiege the " revolted " city. In order to face the Austrian 
 counter-stroke the services of several thousand Swiss had been 
 secured, troops were collected in Champagne, and the ban and 
 arridre-han, the old feudal levies, were summoned to horse. 
 St. Mihiel was, of course, obliged to surrender at discretion, 
 and the defenders were rigorously not to say barbarously 
 treated, because Richelieu held that the terrible example 
 would discourage, if not prevent, further " revolts " in Lorraine 
 — that is, explosions of loyalty to their own ruler Duke 
 Charles, and evidences of the hatred they bore to the French 
 invaders whose sway they detested. It was wdiile the King 
 was encamped before St. Mihiel that La Valette sent Fabert 
 there to render an account of the Rhine expedition, and 
 especially to counteract the allegations of the Maison du Roi, 
 still angry at having been degraded to the level of " common 
 soldiers." lie accomplished his task by modestly telling the
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. 105 
 
 truth, so that La Valette, when he, in turn, reached the royal 
 heaJ-(iuarters, found his jjath smoothed, and he returned to 
 Metz without loss of credit. 
 
 King Louis went back to Paris depressed and discouraged 
 leaving the generals to do the work which he would have 
 preferred to do himself; but as Richelieu was anxious to 
 have him within easy reach, tlie military leaders and the 
 Cardinal's courtiers virtually hustled his Majesty out of 
 Lorraine. He had, in fact, a bitter experience of what he 
 called the " levity of the French," and the conduct of the 
 nollesse volontaire made him angry and ashamed. Nothing 
 could be done with the gentlemen of the han and arridre-han, 
 who when ordered to march swore that they were being sent 
 to destruction and would not budge, notwithstanding, he 
 writes, " the harangues, promises, flatteries, and menaces which 
 I addressed to them." Richelieu's reply was characteristic 
 and wise. " I cannot sufficiently sympathize with the 
 sorrow of your Majesty over the levity of the French," he 
 wrote. " If my life would alleviate your grief," — he was ever 
 offering his life — " I would heartily resign it. Your pre- 
 decessors have had the same troubles, those who come after 
 you will have to experience them ; and still, none the less, 
 affairs will go on." A reflection which must often have 
 occurred to the minister himself when, beset by defeat, 
 disappointment, and deadly perils, he was "sicklied o'er with 
 the pale cast of thought," from which his resolute spirit 
 rebounded more resolute, inventive, and terrible than ever. 
 In an earlier letter to the King, written after a slight jar in 
 their relations, he says, referring to the mutations of warfare, 
 " For the rest, greater results are often obtained by patience, 
 so needful on some occasions, than by combats. For that 
 reason, the French nation, naturally impatient, are con- 
 sidered by every one (tout le monde) less fit for war 
 than those peoples who, not being so lively, have more
 
 106 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 weight and are not so restless." Fontenay-Mareuil describes 
 the gentlemen of the hem in terms similar to those used 
 by the King ; he adds, however, that they had plenty to 
 eat and drink, and asserts that when they wanted to go 
 nothing could stop them, for they insisted on being led to 
 battle at once or permitted to depart in peace. It was 
 one of these cavaliers who, when the Count of Cramail, a 
 Montluc, was urging them to stay, shouted, " Don't listen 
 to him, he has written a book." Some of those who rode 
 home declared that they would prefer to be degraded to 
 the status of roturiers rather than be killed by hunger. 
 The Duke of Aumale, in his Eistoire des Princes de 
 Cond^, has something to say by way of explanation. 
 " These country gentlemen," he writes, " torn from their 
 occupations, arriving without equipage, or servants, knowing 
 neither how to tend their horses or clean their arms, in- 
 capable of foraging for themselves, and receiving rations 
 irregularly, could not be of much use." In short, the feudal 
 levy was no longer in harmony with the system of warfare, 
 and it died of the campaign of 1635. As a consequence of 
 this decisive test, the Duke remarks, the King increased his 
 foreign troops — among them the twelve thousand Swiss who 
 marched into Lorraine — and raised new regiments. Then 
 the noblesse came in crowds, seeking commissions, and found 
 the place denied them in the mob of the aiTUre-haii. So 
 that this old institution died out, in 1635, as well as the 
 practice of declaring war by a herald according to the 
 ancient forms. 
 
 It was not only the country squires who gave trouble. 
 Returning to Metz from St. Mihiel, Fabert learned that a 
 portion of the cavalry refused to march, partly because they 
 shared the common dread of service in Germany, a dread 
 very real and long-lived, though it now sounds so strange, 
 and partly because they wanted a month's pay. The oflicers,
 
 THE STAFF OFFICEK. 107 
 
 it is said, counting on a refusal because the military chest 
 was ahnost empty, declared that a default of payment would 
 be regarded as permanent leave of absence. There was not 
 time to call for supplies from Paris, so exigent were the 
 malcontents. La Valette, therefore, appealed to Fabert, 
 whose credit was so good that in one day he raised a hundred 
 thousand crowns, and sent to the army, then in the field 
 watching Gallas, a remittance which enabled the Cardinal to 
 frustrate the quasi mutineers. 
 
 The Captain-Major had at the time even more serious 
 work on hand. The Messin suffered from scarcity, being so 
 much eaten up by armies. Merciless marauders of both sides 
 had naturally restricted the supply sent to market ; and it 
 was Fabert's business to extract all the timid farmers could 
 spare for the support of Metz and the Messin. He even 
 went further afield into lands where there was a surplus, and 
 the labour of six weeks enabled him to fill his granaries. 
 In distributing his grain or flour, for Metz had plenty of 
 mills, he did so at a fair price, and the only distinction he 
 made between the noblesse and the common people, says the 
 Pere Barre, was to sjoare the former from the shame of 
 making their distress public. Madame Fabert looked after 
 the honest poor, " sending them money, as if it were due, or 
 provisions as if they had paid for tliem." By various delicate 
 devices of a similar kind, she also relieved the sufferers among 
 the noblesse, so that both husband and wife stood higher than 
 ever in the esteem of their fellow citizens. It was not the 
 first nor the last famine, for the next, at a later stage, was 
 far more horrible, and should rank among the costs of carry- 
 ing the French frontier to the Rhine. 
 
 Rejoining the army after this useful labour, Fabert resigned 
 his office as aide-de-camp to the General, and resumed his 
 position as Captain-Major of Rambures. Gallas and the 
 Duke of Lorraine were posted in a fortified camp among the
 
 108 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 woods, lakes, and lakelets south of Dieuze, with the centre 
 near Maizieres on the road to Saverne, while the main body 
 of the Allies was between Vic and Moj^envic on the upper 
 waters of the Seille. Neither dared do anything, and each 
 tried to wear out the other. The Allies could barely subsist, 
 and the Imperials were dependent on the stores they had 
 with them, for Turenne and Gassion cut off their convoys, 
 kept them alarmed, and starved them out. One cold No- 
 vember night, Gallas, havinfj nothing to eat, retired throucrh 
 the woods into Alsace, snatching Saverne on the road, while 
 the Duke of Lorraine transferred himself and his bands into 
 Franche Comte. The French and Swedes, even had they 
 learned in time that Gallas had decamped, were in no con- 
 dition to pursue him. As soon as a report of the event 
 reached him, La Valette directed Fabert to ascertain the truth. 
 Taking with him an escort of fifty troopers, he rode up the 
 heights above Marimont, whence he saw a standing camp 
 which made him doubt whether the enemy had gone. He 
 did not spend much time in hesitation, but rode straight 
 upon Maizieres. All was still, there were no outposts, no 
 signs of life ; nothing visible in the valley but rows of tents. 
 Unwilling to risk his escort in an ambuscade, he selected 
 five troopers from the band, crossed the marsh land and 
 entered the village. The truth was then clear enough — 
 there were none in the place save the sick. Calling up the 
 other troopers he made for the camp, which was only tenanted 
 by the dead and dying. The Pere Barre, quoting a letter 
 from La Valette to his father, says that a Frenchman ex- 
 claimed, " Let us finish these fellows who massacred our men 
 on the retreat from Mainz." " That is barbarous," said 
 Fabert ; " take a vengeance more noble and worthy of our 
 nation." And he at once gave up to the helpless enemy 
 such provisions as his troopers had with them ; later on, 
 food and transport were brought into the camp ; by dint of
 
 THE STAFF OFFICE Pw 109 
 
 kind treatment the men recovered, and the greater part, 
 after the fashion of the day, wiUingly enrolled themselves 
 in the troops of Duke Bernhard. The large-heartedness 
 which ever distinguished Fabert will be recognized in an 
 incident which lights up with a ray of humanity the dark 
 shadows of these savage wars. 
 
 After the capture of Dieuze, where, under cover of night, 
 he ascertained by personal inspection the state of the breach, 
 Fabert returned to Metz. He discovered and frustrated a 
 plot to betray the place to Duke Charles, but on this 
 occasion the conspirators were allowed to go off scot-free. 
 As usual La Valette sent him to Paris to report to the King, 
 and during his sojourn in the capital he laid before his 
 Majesty formal proposals suggesting two useful reforms. 
 One was the formation of the " companies " of cavalry into 
 squadrons and regiments, an arrangement borrowed from the 
 practice of the Spaniards and Germans, and this was adopted 
 promptly. Yet, meeting with opposition from the men of 
 routine, it was only carried out after the lapse of two years. 
 The other proposal, equally important, was a novelty which 
 also found instant favour with the intelligent King, but was 
 too radical for the Generals and the War-Office. Fabert 
 desired to establish regiments of military workmen, some- 
 thing like what we called Sappers and Miners, and now 
 Engineers. His experience of war and sieges brought him 
 to a conclusion which was far in advance of his time. " It 
 was only thirty-eight years afterwards," says Colonel Bourelly, 
 " that Vauban was able to secure the creation of a special 
 troop of this kind." Fabert, indeed, was in many respects 
 the precursor of the great Vauban, who resembled him in 
 thoroughness and an ever-present solicitude for the welfare 
 of " the vast dumb populations," to use a phrase of Carlyle's.^ 
 
 ^ Wise changes in military administration moved slowly then, but 
 we may note in passing, that the six 2^dih regiments oi infantry, such as
 
 110 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 When he ceased to be an aide-de-camp, and remained 
 simply Captain-Major in the Regiment Rambures, Fabert 
 was still the right hand man of Cardinal La Valette. Return- 
 ing to Lorraine early in 1636 from Paris, where he had been 
 detained by the King and the minister, he was the bearer of 
 despatches concerning the relief of certain places in Alsace 
 held by French troops, and straitened for provisions by the 
 Imperalists who were left there by Gallas when he re-crossed 
 the Rhine in search of a new army. As Bernhard did not 
 like the notion of employing his own bands in such an 
 arduous enterprise. La Valette was persuaded to undertake it 
 by Fabert, who readily engaged to transact the essential 
 business of preparation and execution, A bold spirit and 
 sure head were required to pass a heavy convoy through the 
 hills in the depth of winter, but it was promptly done, 
 apparently without molestation, and thus Kaiserberg, Colmar, 
 and Schlestadt were rendered secure. It was more difficult 
 to succour Hagenau, but the Count of Guiche and Fabert 
 contrived to drive off the weak outlying parties which beset 
 the roads, and to push a convoy into Hagenau, which 
 provided sustenance sufficient to last until the spring. These 
 incidents show how far the French had advanced already 
 towards the occupation of Alsace as well as Lorraine, A 
 similar movement had been begun on all the frontiers, for 
 
 Ilaiiilnires, were raised to the level of tlie "old" regiments, and had 
 twenty conipimies, divided into two battalions ; wliile the Gardes 
 Fraiiyaises were increased from twenty to thirty companies, or three 
 battalions. The cavalry, light and lieavy, were shedding their armour 
 piece by piece ; and the dragon, or dragoon, who, although "invented" 
 nearly a hundred years earlier, was still a novelty in France, wore none 
 except a casque, or pot helmet. The "new " dragoons of this period, 
 pays M. Henri Martin, were formed to figii!. tlie light Slavonian and 
 Hungarian cavalry in the German and Spanish armies, and were "the 
 first really light liorse we (the French) ever had." The artillery had 
 a " grand master," but a most imperfect organization, if the then 
 e-visting, shiftless practices deserve that large name.
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. Ill 
 
 the characteristic of the policy pursued by the King and the 
 Cardinal was the steady acquisition of territory. The border 
 line, whatever the ups and downs of warfare, was steadily 
 pushed forward from year to year. 
 
 After his winter's toil, Fabert enjoyed some weeks of repose 
 in Metz, while his immediate chief warmed himself in de- 
 lusive court sunshine, and fluttered about the Hotel Ram- 
 bouillet. He was an urbane but somewhat timid gentleman, 
 Avho, having no special military abilities, would have done 
 better had he taken orders and become a dignitary of the 
 Church. Nor could he contend successfully in the race of 
 ambition with rough soldiers like La Meilleraye, who had 
 some faculty as well as devotion to the Cardinal-Duke. 
 The King flattered and Richelieu applauded the man whom 
 the courtiers called the *' cardinal-valet," but he was never 
 sure of his position or free from alarm. That was unfortunate 
 for Fabert, whose only sure and steadfast friend was Louis 
 himself, and Louis's favour, it has been well observed, was 
 not the best security for advancement ; and so it came to 
 pass that at the age of thirty-seven, although he had shown 
 his great capacity in so many ways, he was still only a 
 Captain-Major in a marching regiment, while younger and 
 much less able men held high commands. But then they 
 were all noblesse d'^ijee, and Fabert was a roturier, who did 
 not, like Gassion, for example, belong by birth even to the 
 noblesse de robe. It must not be supposed that he meditated 
 on these things, or looked on them from the modern point 
 of view, or that his rai'e intervals of home life were clouded 
 by repinings at fortune. He is far more likely to have been 
 occupied in considering how the lot of the rural poor could 
 be permanently improved, and in reflecting deeply on the 
 course and exigencies of the coming campaign. 
 
 For it was obvious enough that the Imperialists would 
 resume the offensive. The French, it was true, did not
 
 112 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 possess Strasburg, but they held every otlier place in Alsace, 
 except Brisach, and it was the firm hold which he kept on 
 this strong Ute de pont, as we may call it, which enabled 
 Gallas to reinforce the troops which he bad on the left bank 
 of the upper Rhine. The French, in concert with the Swedish 
 Government, had formed immense plans of warfare, which 
 were to be executed in Alsace, Franche Comte, and Italy ; 
 ostensibly designed to liberate Germany from Imperial op- 
 pression, really, as always, to enlarge the boundaries of 
 France. But they were too vast] even for the means in men 
 and money at Richelieu's disposal; and as the Imperialists 
 and Spaniards took the offensive, they nearly all had a 
 negative result. 
 
 Fabert, of course, was engaged in Alsace and Franche 
 Comte. Early in the spring he filled a great magazine at 
 Epinal for the use of the garrisons and the field army. When 
 that was done, while Bernhard marched from Dieuze on 
 Saverne, La Valette crossed the Vosges by the passage of St. 
 Die to break up the blockade of Hagenau. The latter enter- 
 prise was speedily accomplished, and won Fabert fresh 
 renown as a skilful conductor of convoys and a hardy leader 
 of Light Horse. He was more conspicuously engaged in the 
 siege of Saverne. 
 
 It may be remembered that Gallas snatched this place 
 when he retreated so hastily from Lorraine. Seated in the 
 deep, wooded valley of the Zorn, across one of the highways 
 through the Vosgcs, Saverne as a stronghold had enjoyed 
 for centuries a reputation which it hardly deserved. Vauban 
 evidently preferred Phalsbourg, and when Saverne was dis- 
 iiirintled in 1G97, a really strong fort was built on that site. 
 In I ().'}(), wlien Bernhard moved up from Dieuze, he captured 
 the castle of Phalsbourg, and invested the city on the Zorn 
 in the month of June. Perhaj)s one reason why he did not 
 .speedily master the works was that they held an unusually
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. 113 
 
 large garrison of regular troops; and another, it may Le not 
 the least, Avas that the governor was a stout soldier, one 
 Colonel Frederick von Mulheim; He had been in the 
 Swedish army, but had changed sides, and now, some say in 
 the belief that he fought with a rope round his neck, he resisted 
 stiffly one of his former comrades. Bernhard's approach had 
 been so stealthy and rapid that he surprised an external 
 work called the "citadel," which, although Mulheim en- 
 deavoured to retake it, does not seem to have conferred the 
 advantages inqjlied by its name. When Fabert, accompany- 
 ing a detachment from La Valette's covering army, under 
 the Comte de Guiche, arrived on the scene the siege had 
 made little progress. Duke Bernhard had marched so fast 
 that he had outstripped his heavy guns, and at first could 
 only dispose of two light pieces. With these, however, he 
 battered a hole in the wall, and trusted that his troops would 
 be able to push through it. Guiche and his men stormed 
 in and held the so-called breach for a couple of hours, but 
 then they were forced from the post and hurled into the 
 ditch. It was on this occasion that Fabert, who had been 
 hit in his garments five times, stood by Guiche and dragged 
 him safely from out the piles of dead and dying. Count 
 Jacob von Haunau, a brilliant and promising young soldier, 
 brought up two German regiments which he had obtained 
 from the Duke, but he was killed at once ; the attack again 
 failed, and then Bernhard arrived himself, lost a finger, and 
 the third storminjj column dissolved under the close and 
 heavy fire. The Duke now sent Fabert to reconnoitre the 
 place, and when he returned he spoke out with his usual 
 frankness. The town, he reported, being divided by walls 
 and ditches into three parts, the proper mode of attack w^as 
 to seize the centre. The breach which had been assailed was 
 too narrow, the reason being that the allied gunners, fearing 
 the cannon of the place, had sought cover where they could
 
 114 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 not see well into the ramparts, and consequently their fire 
 was ineffective. He advised that the position of the batteries 
 should be changed. His counsel prevailed ; four days were 
 occupied in firing on the central quarter, and when an 
 assault was ordered it was found that Mulheim had moved 
 out into the next rather than meet it. The Duke had been 
 more than a month before the town, and La Valette grew 
 impatient, especially as Gallas was gathering a force on the 
 Rhine, The guns were therefore turned on the resisting; 
 section, but similar defects again showed themselves in the 
 conduct of the artillery. Fabert saw the mistake; but as 
 the Weimarians were jealous, in order to apply a remedy, he 
 was obliged to diplomatize. He invited Colonel Hepburn to 
 survey the ground, and adroitly induced the Colonel to 
 approve a site near a mill whence two guns could play with 
 advantage. When they wished to visit the spot, a sentinel 
 warned them that it was under fire, but both officers persisted 
 in running the risk, and at the end, on Hepburn's advice, 
 Fabert's suggestion was adopted. The gallant Scotchman 
 was shot dead the next day while he walked towards the 
 mill, and a little later Turenne was wounded in the right 
 arm near the same perilous ground. But the garrison were 
 now hard pressed ; one-half of the place was held by the 
 Allies, and the end was not distant. 
 
 It was about this critical time, the second week in July, 
 that Colonel Bourelly places an incident, told by M. de 
 Termes, eminently illustrative of Fabert. One night he 
 found a ladder at the foot of the wall separating one quarter^ 
 from another. He set it up, ascended, entered a loft, passed 
 the sentries unpcrceivcd, and, looking through an opening, 
 saw by candlelight a number of persons in a room, one of 
 whom was so respectfully treated that he inferred it must be 
 Mulheim himself. Thinking that if he could kill him the 
 defence would collapse, he made his way back to the ladder,
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. 115 
 
 descended, climbed up again armed with a fusil, reached 
 the opening, and levelled his piece. The powder was damp, 
 yet lie managed to fire, with what effect one knows not, antl 
 then, when the alarm was given, coolly and deftly regained 
 the foot of the ladder in safety. It is not a dignified way of 
 making war, but every age has its own methods, and the 
 daring exhibited by Fabert on this occasion was nothing 
 unusual in his varied career. On July 14th the stout 
 Mulheim surrendered and obtained most honourable terms — ■ 
 he and his men marched out with all the honours of war, 
 and they were escorted to the nearest outpost of the imperial 
 army, now over the Rhine. But, although the French 
 Government w^ere bound to give Bernhard all his conquests 
 in Alsace, they delicately insisted through Fabert, who was 
 spokesman for La Valette, that a Lutheran could not well 
 garrison a town which belonged to the Church — a plausible 
 excuse, which enabled the Duke to yield with a good grace. 
 Richelieu, with an eye already uj)on Strasburg, could not 
 bear the idea of parting from Saverne. 
 
 Successful in Alsace-Lorraine, the plans of Richelieu and 
 the Pere Joseph failed elsewhere. The Prince of Conde, 
 having with him La Meilleraye as an adviser, was sent to 
 invade Franche Comte, nominally a neutral territory under a 
 sort of Swiss protectorate, and coveted by the French. But 
 while Bernhard was fi^htimj in the Vosj^es and Conde be- 
 sieging Dole, the Spaniards, who worked on well-laid plans, 
 broke into Picardy, took La Capelle and St. Quentin, descended 
 and crossed the Somme, besieged and captured Corbie, and 
 sent forward Jean de Worth at the head of his horsemen 
 towards Paris itself Had the whole army marched swiftly 
 on the capital it might have been put to ransom if not taken, 
 for the Spanish irruption was unforeseen, and the Count of 
 Soissons, who had a w^eak force in the field, could not do any- 
 thing. Fortunately the Spaniards hesitated, and Louis XIII.,
 
 IIG ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 who was always great in hours of danger, threw so much 
 energy and resolution into the work, that he had time enough 
 to raise an army and assume the defensive. The Spaniards 
 retreated witliout a battle ; Guebriant secured Guise just in 
 time to prevent them from taking it ; troops were recalled 
 from Franche Comte, and Corbie was blockaded. The stroke 
 had been heavy, yet not heavy enough. One object the 
 Spaniards had in view was to provoke an insurrection of the 
 malcontent nobles, for Jean de Werth, some years afterwards, 
 told Fabert that they hoped to give occasion for a commotion. 
 The irresolution of Gaston and the vigour of Louis XIII. 
 frustrated that purpose ; but the invasion scared the 
 Parisians, and ruined all the military schemes of Richelieu. 
 When Gallas learned that Franche Comte had been in- 
 vaded, he turned from Bernhard and La Valette, crossed the 
 Rhine at Drusenheim, recrossed by his bridge at Brisach, and 
 marched off to succour Dole. The Allies in the Vosges, after 
 an interval of hesitation, moved by a flank march in the same 
 direction. The French had not yet become adepts in field 
 movements, and the first officers who taught them how to 
 make war on the sound principles revived by Gustavus were 
 Hepburn the Scot, and Rantzau, the deep-drinking Dane, 
 who had both served in the armies of the great captain. In 
 the meantime Conde had done his best to capture Dole, and 
 had failed. One scene at that siege should be ever memorable. 
 Dole sits on its rock basis amid green meadows on the right 
 bank of the Doubs, surrounded by solid walls, with uplands 
 not remote on the west, and a suburb on the opposite bank. 
 The ramparts form a curve, and in the centre rose the great 
 church with a tall red-brick tower, which still survives. The 
 invaders sat down befjre it at the end of May ; in the middle 
 of August they were compelled to retire, not only because a 
 powerful succour was approaching under the Duke of Lorraine, 
 but because the defenders, chiefly the inhabitants, could not
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. Il7 
 
 be overcome. Their leader and animating spirit was Ferdinand 
 de Rye, Archbishop of Besangon, an old man upwards of 
 eighty, who had hurried to the town at the first signal of 
 war. " On the day of the Assumption," writes the Duke of 
 Aumale, that is the morrow of the retreat, " at the moment 
 when the succours entered Dole, the intrepid Archbishop 
 caused himself to be carried up to the roof of Notre Dame 
 amidst the ruin produced by the bombs. When he saw on 
 one side the rear-jjuard of the retreatincf French, and on the 
 other the Lorrainors, who were at hand, he thundered out the 
 Nunc Dimittis. Tliese were his last words, and he soon 
 after die J." A fine example of expiring energy, and a noble 
 end to a life befittincr so terrible a sieo-e. 
 
 As the greater part of Conde's army marched away to 
 Picardy, where the strain was so severe, Dijon and even 
 Lyons were open to attack, and the former was already 
 threatened by Charles of Lorraine. Yet he could not venture 
 on a bold line of action, because Gallas had not at that time 
 quitted Alsace. The Imperial General wasted many weeks 
 at Mulhausen, and when, at the end of August, he started 
 forward by Belfort and Vesoul, he went slowly and in a sort 
 of state, with his vast train of artillery and impedimenta, 
 which included a body of eight thousand women. Before he 
 broke up from Mulhausen, Bernhard and La Valette had 
 begun their march by Mirecourt, through the tangled 
 passages of the Vosges, upon the plateau of Langres. The 
 roads were in those days not what they are now, and the 
 few thousands of allied troops occupied a month in moving 
 from Saverne to the hills between Langres and the Saone, 
 along the line of the Vingeanne, a stream made famous by 
 Caesar when he routed the armies of the Gauls. Although 
 their march had been prolonged they were soon enough to 
 anticipate Gallas, who on arriving at Champlitte, on the 
 little river Sanlon, found them barring his path. His troops
 
 118 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 were numerous and theirs few, yet he could not dislodge them. 
 According to Fabert, the Imperial host consisted of forty-five 
 regiments of cavalry, twenty-nine of infantry, and one hundred 
 and four guns, which the Duke of Auniale considers gave 
 about fifty thousand men. La Valette reports that the 
 Allies mustered only nine thousand three hundred, where- 
 of nearly one-half were horsemen, and says nothing of his 
 artillery. La Valette wished to fight, but for a long time 
 Bernhard refused his consent, and before they had come to 
 an agreement Gallas vanished stealtliily from Champlitte. 
 Fabert had already insisted that the Imperial General in- 
 tended to invade Burgundy, but the opinion for the moment 
 wns that he had retired the way he came. Before the chiefs 
 acquired intelligence of the route he had taken, he was over 
 the Vingeanne and his guns were battering Mirebeau, most 
 gallantly defended b}' its inhabitants for several days. The 
 Allies proceeded by roads parallel to those followed by the 
 Imperialists, and made for the heights near Dijon at Talant 
 and Fontaines. During the march the Croats, who swarmed 
 on the right flank of the Imperialists, captured the baggage 
 of La Valette, but left it parked to pursue a greater prize, 
 Duke Bernhard himself, who was abroad riding without an 
 escort. While they galloped on his tracks Fabert came up 
 with some cavalry and recovered possession of the Cardinal's 
 baggage train. Instead of making a bold push for Dijon, his 
 proper course, Gallas turned off to the south-west, and under- 
 took the siege of St. Jean de Losnc, an ancient town on the 
 river Saone, midway between Auxonne and Seurre. 
 
 This enterprise brought tlie General no honour. St. Jean 
 de Losnc stands on the. right bank of the river amidst the 
 moist and fat meadows. Its defences were feeble — a mere brick 
 w.ill curved outwards and resting on the stream, with a ditch 
 .•ind pallisaded road in front. On the loft bank, connected 
 with the town by a bridge, was a castle of no great value ;
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. 119 
 
 while the sole external defences on the town front were two 
 indifferent earthworks. The garrison consisted of one hundred 
 and fifty regulars, Regiment Conti, and four hundred citizens ; 
 the armament of eight guns. But the place had two ad- 
 vantages — a governor, Saint Point, a worthy rival of Ferdinand 
 de Rye ; and the country round it was covered by the floods 
 of the Saone, Gallas tried a coup de 'main and failed with loss. 
 La Motte Houdancourt, who commanded in Seurre, deftly 
 reinforced the defenders by sixty good men, so imperfect was 
 the investment. The besieging guns placed in battery made 
 a breach thirty feet wide ; the heroic governor, suffering from 
 the pestc, had himself carried to the breach, and remained 
 there on his litter through the assault, which, fiercely made and 
 sustained for three hours, was repelled by greater fortitude 
 and equal valour. While it was in progress, a dozen men from 
 Auxonne, notable citizens, who had descended the Saone 
 in boats, landed and raised the spirits of the defenders to 
 enthusiasm by rushing to the breach, brandishing their oars 
 and boat-hooks, and bringing the welcome news that succour 
 was at hand. The inhabitants, women and men alike, had 
 solemnly sworn to set the town on fire and explode the 
 powder magazines rather than yield, and they made the 
 preparation needful for the fulfilment of the oath. 
 
 The succour announced was, indeed, not far off. On the 
 1st of November, Colonel Rantzau, at the head of three regi- 
 ments drawn from La Valette's army, and accompanied by 
 Fabert, who loved a daring adventure, started to relieve or 
 rather reinforce the garrison. Marching all night they entered 
 Auxonne the next day, and it was their advent which the 
 boat's crew dramatically promulgated in the hardly-pressed 
 town. The troops pushed forward during the day, and towards 
 evening were close to the Imperial camp. But on that day 
 a fresh storming column, led by Colonel Fran(,'ois de Mercy, 
 destined to win an enduring name and die in battle, strove
 
 120 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 once more to overcome tlie obstinate defenders, and strove in 
 vain. So negligent were the Imperialist camp guards that 
 Fabert, disguised as a peasant, was able to enter its precincts 
 and assure Rantzau that he might safely strike in. It was 
 at the moment when the stormers had been thrust back, and 
 Mercy in vain sought to rouse their courage, that Rantzau's 
 trumpets were heard, all sounding together, struck on the 
 ears of the shrinking besiegers, and through the dusk of 
 eventide, the tumult and the confusion, the Colonel and 
 Fabert rode into the exulting town. When the sun rose on 
 the 3rd of November, the Imperialists were seen to be in full 
 retreat ; an imprudent sortie brought down prompt punish- 
 ment, but none the less was St. Jean de Losne delivered by 
 the valour and stout-heartedness of its governor and people, 
 and the rapid and unhesitating march of Rantzau and Fabert. 
 Moreover, the failure was fatal ; for Gallas, not too much 
 pressed, it is said, sprawled back to the Rhine in the month 
 of November, his once fine army destroyed by fatigue, deser- 
 tion, famine, and pestilence far more than by the sword. One 
 writer reports that " unlucky as Gallas " became a proverb 
 and another that he justified afresh his reputation as "a 
 master in the art of destroying an army." Duke Bernhard 
 profited by the German stragglers and deserters. They took 
 service under his colours, and more than made good his losses 
 during the campaign. 
 
 In the meantime, as we have said, the army improvised by 
 Louis in Paris, reinforced by troops drawn from other quarters, 
 l:ad compelled the Spaniards to regain the Low Countries, 
 and by the middle of November had recovered possession of 
 Corbie.^ It was at this anxious time that Richelieu ran his 
 
 ' F<>nt(!iiay-]\I;ircnil says tliiitrCorbie surrondered quickly to thoKint^, 
 liecause llie Spaiiisli and Flemish idllcers were anxious to reach the Low 
 Countries in time to secure ^ood winter quarters, without which their 
 companicH, upon which they absolutely depended, would melt away in
 
 THE STAFF OFFICER. 121 
 
 greatest risk ; for the King's brother Gaston, the Count of 
 Soissons, also a prince of the bloofl, and their more desperate 
 adherents, who scrupled at nothing, resolved to seize if not 
 to slay him. The King lodged iu a castle near Amiens; the 
 Cardinal abode in the town, where the councils were held. 
 One day in October, when the council broke up, Louis, as 
 usual, drove off to his quarters, but Richelieu remained trans- 
 acting business. The propitious opportunity appeared to have 
 come, and one of the conspirators, whom we guess to have 
 been Montresor, stealthily asking his chiefs whether they per- 
 sisted in their design, was told that they did. When the 
 Cardinal came down the stairs, the would-be abductors or 
 assassins were posted in his way, so that he could not have 
 escaped death or capture. But here Gaston's courage failed. 
 To the disgust of Montresor, his principal fled up-stairs in 
 such haste that all the bravo, for he was little else, could do 
 was to seize the fugitive prince by the collar, hasten with 
 him side by side, and remonstrate on the loss of a golden 
 moment. Gaston would not give the signal, stammering out 
 that he could not do it. While this conflict of will was soinsf 
 on, the Count of Soissons, in order to detain him, stood calmly 
 talking to Richelieu, at whose back waited a resolute assassin, 
 supported by two others who were near at hand. Soissons, 
 indeed, was ready for the stroke, but dared not act alone ; 
 and when Montresor came back without an order from Gaston, 
 they all saw that the grand design had broken down. Riche- 
 lieu entered his carriage and drove away quietly, little think- 
 ing, to use the words of Montresor himself, the business-like 
 narrator of the story, that he had escaped the greatest danger 
 he had ever run throughout his whole life. The Princes had 
 five hundred armed gentlemen in Amiens, and none can 
 
 the winter ! He also says tliat the King's levies, unaccustomed to hard- 
 ships, sufFered dreadfully from the sickness caused by the continual 
 rain .
 
 ]22 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 doubt that desperadoes like Alexander Campion, Varicarville, 
 JMontresor, and especially St. Ibal, if it were he who was 
 the fourth, would have stabbed or kidnapped Kichelieu had 
 Gaston of Orleans possessed nerve enough to say a single 
 word, which Soissons would certainly have said without a 
 moment's hesitation. Had Richelieu been murdered at 
 Amiens on that momentous day in October, the stream of 
 French history would have run in other channels, and 
 Abraham Fabert would not have become a Marshal of 
 France.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1G37. 
 
 The King had returned to Paris when Fabert arrived from 
 La Valette's head-quarters to give an account of the campaign; 
 but his stay in the capital was brief, and he was back in 
 Lorraine by the middle of December. He was present and 
 active at the capture of St. Avoid and Cr^ange, and in 
 February 1637 was directed to inspect the frontier forts of 
 Picardy, so carelessly examined the year before. It is not, 
 however, at all certain that La Capelle and St. Quentin, what- 
 ever may have been the case with Corbie, fell an easy prey 
 to the invaders because they were not well-provided, for the 
 Baron de Bee, at least, was forced by his soldiers to capitulate. 
 He was a relative of Saint Simon, who boldly took his part, 
 but Richelieu was too strong for the "favourite," who, 
 although obliged to forfeit his post, never lost the friendship 
 of the King. The truth seems to be that Richelieu, or rather 
 the War Office, had neglected the forts, and were surprised 
 by the Spanish incursion ; and that the Governors, who were 
 all sentenced to death in their absence, for all three escaped, 
 paid for the oversight of the great men in Paris. Richelieu 
 gained nothing by driving Saint Simon from the Court, since 
 Cinq Mars, the favourite who succeeded, had none of the solid 
 qualities of Saint Simon, and proved in the end to be an 
 unscrupulous and dangerous conspirator. Fabert, as may be 
 supposed, did not fail to see for himself that the frontier
 
 124 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 posts were in proper order. He thoroughly explored the 
 arsenals and magazines ; ascertained, by an exact stock- 
 taking, that the guns and munitions were or were not there ; 
 took note of quality as well as quantity; caused the defici- 
 encies to be made good, and, of course, directed the completion 
 of imperfect defensive works. He held the sound opinion 
 that a state should be always ready to make war. 
 
 Louis showed his esteem for the captain-major by giving 
 him Rembervillers and two other small places in Lorraine, as 
 well as by promoting him to the command of a company in 
 the regiment of Picardy, the first on the roll of the "old" 
 regiments. When La Valette was appointed to command 
 an army intended to operate in Flanders, and begged the 
 King to give him Fabert, the request was readily granted. 
 The post he was to fill and did fill was something like that of 
 confidential adviser, or chief of the staff, although modern 
 terms do not apply with any precision to the loose military 
 arrangements of those days. Thus the commander-in-chief 
 had under him his brother, the Duke of Candale, as 
 "lieutenant-general," a title which appears first in 1635, 
 and the Count of Guiche, Turenne, and Rambures as 
 mar4chaux-de-cam'p, who were also practically lieutenant- 
 generals. Fabert's position among these old comrades and 
 superiors in rank was peculiar. He had no title and no 
 command ; but he had the right of being present at the 
 secret council, and of "opining" with the rest, a right which, 
 coupled with this constant and intimate intercourse with the 
 soldier- cardinal, gave him considerable influence, which he 
 always exerted on behalf of what he called "the service of 
 the King." The machinery of warfare in those days had 
 grave defects. There was no imity of command, the Generals, 
 or most of them, were rivals; there was no confidence reposed 
 ill tlic fhiof, lie and his often misnamed "subordinates" acted 
 in daily t(;rror of offending the King or the minister; and
 
 HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1G37. 125 
 
 in addition, the minister planted by the side of the General 
 a commissary styled " rhomme die roi " ; while in this 
 campaign of 1637 the Pere Joseph sent down to the cainp 
 a charlatan who had persuaded him that he was a man of 
 science possessed of secret inventions, and who is ironically 
 described by Fabert as " rhomme d'csprit," of whom we may 
 hear more. There Avas no organized body of engineer work- 
 men ; no organized corps of artillery ; labour was secured by 
 impressment on the spot, and transport and provisions were 
 obtained in the best way the intendant could devise. Even 
 the supply of gunpowder was a monopoly, not in the hands of 
 the State, but of a contractor, who bought the exclusive right 
 from the Grand Master of Artillery, Richelieu's nephew, La 
 Meilleraye. He, says Fontenay-Mareuil, " gave a ' part isan ' 
 named Sabatier the privilege of being the sole vendor of 
 gunpowder — a thing usual in France, where the liberty is 
 taken from the public in order to bestow an advantage 
 upon some private person, whereof everybody suffers greatly." 
 In 163G Sabatier's stores ran short, and the Government 
 was obliged to buy powder in Holland ; yet the monopoly 
 remained. The method of conducting war was hardly 
 changed, despite the great example of Gustavus. The 
 Generals did not seek to fight, but to avoid battles, and 
 threw all their strength upon sieges ; so that the word 
 campaign, as applied to their proceedings, became a misnomer, 
 since marches and combats " in the field " were the exception 
 and not the rule. The young Turenne was still a lieutenant- 
 general, and Enghicn, destined to blaze out six years later at 
 Rocroi, was a youthful student in the military academy of 
 M. Benjamin at Paris, a really good school, when La 
 Valette assembled his small army near Rhetel, with vague 
 instructions from the minister and no fixed plan. 
 
 Fabert joined the Cardinal at Chateau Porcien, in the 
 middle of June, before what should be done had been
 
 126 ABKAHAM FABERT. 
 
 decided, and warm debates arose in the council upon the 
 line of operation. In this uncertain frame of mind the 
 army was led through a wild and wooded region, still a 
 forest, but also a pasture land, and better provided with 
 roads than it was in 1637. At length opinion inclined 
 towards the seige of Landrecies on the Sambre, an enterprise 
 which, we infer, the Cardinal and his adviser designed from 
 the first to undertake. At that time the Spaniards were on 
 the frontiers of old Picardy, and held all the places, strong 
 and weak, from Hesdin on the Canche to Charlemont on the 
 Meuse, many castles, and La Capelle, which had been seized 
 in the preceding year, that is, the whole of the Pas do Calais 
 and the Nord. It was a nest of fortified towns within a few 
 marches of Paris, and French military science had no other 
 idea than that of taking them one by one. The moment was 
 propitious, the Spanish army was occupied in watching the 
 Prince of Orange alout to begin the siege of Breda, and 
 the Imperialists were afar and had their own troubles. 
 
 Moving northward and skirting the Thierache, La Valette 
 sent Turenne to seize Hirson, and Gassion to surprise Lo 
 Cateau, both which feats were neatly done ; while the main 
 body, passing La Capelle, detached a party to reconnoitre and 
 threaten Avesnes on the Great Helpe, and then suddenly 
 pounced down upon Landrecies. The Governor of that place 
 had diminished his garrison in order to throw a succour into 
 Avesnes, and had retained no more than five hundred men. 
 While an officer rode to Paris for the purpose of obtaining 
 permission to carry on the siege, Fabert and Le Rasle, a 
 famous engineer of the day, drew the lines of circunivallation, 
 whicli were constructed by peasants, that is by forced labour. 
 Just as the royal consent had been signified. La Meilleraye 
 ])r()u;4ht up a reinforcement, and three; attacks were begun, 
 conducted by the Duke of Caiidale, La Meilleraye, and Fabert. 
 The siege presents no fact of interest, except the effective
 
 HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1G37. 127 
 
 use of twenty-four brass mortars, and the special bearing and 
 acts of Fabert. For " I'homme iVcsprit" the Pere Joseph's 
 pet, interfered and seriously tried his temper. The trenches 
 were to be opened on the 9th of July, but La Valette, always 
 afraid of the Court, felt bound to hear rhoriime d' esprit, and 
 so much time was lost that Fabert, who had roughly refuted 
 his adversary, declined to break ground, alleging that the 
 day would dawn before his labourers could get cover. The 
 Cardinal read him a lecture on the uses of dissimulation, and 
 uttered the sagacious remark that a little policy did no 
 injury to soldiers. The next morning he answered the 
 Cardinal's mild and worldly wise rebuke with polite frank- 
 ness. He could not stoop to tolerate the " talker." " Deliver 
 me from him," he said. " I have promised that Landrecies 
 shall fall at the end of fifteen days, and if you leave me at 
 liberty I will keep my word." La Valette was satisfied, and 
 promised to discountenance the intruder, but when he visited 
 the lines of circumvallation, and heard the person point out 
 defects, he threw the blame on Fabert. Whereupon tLe 
 latter became indignant, for his temper was hot, said he 
 served as a volunteer, without a title, that he meddled in the 
 matter because he believed his services would be useful, and 
 withdrew to his quarters. Then La Valette, who really 
 valued him, as well he might, soothed his rufiled pride, and 
 the trenches of his attack were opened on the 10th of July. 
 He pushed the work with great rapidity, in the fashion then 
 usual, and when he had got so far forward as to batter the 
 curtain and parapet, he resolved to pass the ditch, the depth 
 of which he had ascertained, and bring his miners into play. 
 The miners hesitated — enough had not been done to keep 
 down the flanking fire and the ditch had not been filled. 
 But Fabert infused his own dauntless spirit into the breasts 
 of these men, and leading the way waist deep through the 
 water in the darkness, he was followed at once by the
 
 128 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 boldest, and then by the rest. They carried planks and 
 beams to form cover, made good their lodgment and plied 
 their tools; nor could they be driven off by a torrent of 
 missiles and flaming fascines showered down when the noise 
 of heavy blows called the defenders to arms. La Valette 
 learned to his surprise that Fabert and the miners had passed 
 the ditch, and in the morning he was still more astonished 
 to see his trusted assistant stand before his tent accompanied 
 by a soldier who, in obedience to the usage, carried a stone 
 from the wall. 
 
 The mine was deep under the curtain, but La Valette dis- 
 couraged the intrepid assailant — he wanted to secure the 
 honours of the siege for his brother Candale. Fabert, 
 however, observed that he could not stay his progress and also 
 serve his King, adding, judiciously, that if the enemy did not 
 arrive soon enough to raise the siege, La Meiileraye would 
 probably enter the town, and put both the Cardinal and his 
 brother to shame. The last argument touched the courtier, 
 who was also a brave man. He crossed the ditch and 
 inspected the work in daylight, thus giving renewed confid- 
 ence to Fabert's hardy men. They drove in three mines, 
 in shape like a trefoil, he saw them charged, and on the 
 night of July 21 applied the match. Tlie explosion made a 
 breach, yet not one sufficiently large, and it was so well 
 defended that no lodgment could be effected. Nevertheless, 
 the Governor capitulated the next day, moved perhaps by the 
 fact that La Meiileraye had also begun to mine ; and 
 surrendered on the 2Gtb, as, according to the conditions, no 
 relieving army had appeared. Tlie honour was Fabert's, who 
 left it to the Cardinal, He had fully redeemed his pledge, 
 not for the first nor last time. 
 
 [jy an odd coincidence, a French republican army in 1794 
 sat down before Landrecies, which had fallen to the Austrians, 
 and opened the trenches on the 10th of July. The Conven-
 
 HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1637. 129 
 
 tion, true to its spirit, had adopted a djcree declaring " tliat 
 the four great French places, Valenciennes, Condc, Landrecies, 
 and Le Quesuoy (captured by the Allies), should be summoned 
 to surrender at discretion, and that in case of refusal, after a 
 delay of twenty-four hours, the hostile garrisons should be 
 '^ passives au Jil de Veptie" that is massacred. The Generals, to 
 their credit, defeated the truculence of the Convention by 
 deferring the communication of the decree until after the 
 defenders had proposed to capitulate. In the seventeenth 
 century military usages were often barbarous, but they must 
 yield the palm, in that respect, to the heroes of the Reign 
 of Terror. Yet there was one striking resemblance in the 
 methods adopted by the Bourbons and the Jacobins ; for the 
 " homvie du roi" if not the more objectionable " Jiomme 
 d'esjjrit," had his counterpart in the fierce and zealous " com- 
 missaire convoitiomiel," who had more authority than his 
 monarchical prototype, and less humanity. There was also 
 a most distinctive difference between the two periods — the 
 rate and nature of the communication with Paris. In 1794 
 the surrender of Le Quesnoy, on the 10th of August, was 
 telegraphed that day from Lille to the capital. Tlie message 
 was sent by semaphore, and was the first use of that instru- 
 ment for military purposes. M. Chappe, an engineer, had 
 revived and developed an invention made in the seventeenth 
 century by William Amonton, a mathematician. Disregarded 
 in his day, forgotten until 1793, Engineer Chappe then 
 lighted on it, and, favoured by the Convention, began the line 
 of posts which in twelvemonths he carried to Lille. How 
 much the Marshals and Generals who won campaigns for 
 Louis XIV. were spared by his strange neglect of that im- 
 portant discovery ! 
 
 The remainder of the campaign of 1637 illustrates very 
 aptly the absurd and distressing conditions under Avhich the 
 war was carried on. The causes are on the surface. The 
 
 K
 
 130 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 commanders, men of inferior capacity, were jealous of each 
 other ; the operations, if not dictated from Paris, required, as we 
 have seen, royal, and perhaps still more ministerial sanction, 
 and Richelieu, ever more or less in dread of being supplanted, 
 favoured his own relatives and " creatures " whom he could 
 trust. Thus, when he heard that the Imperialists and 
 Spaniards had pushed an army over the Mouse, La Valette, 
 occupying Maubeuge on the Sambre, and wishing to make it 
 a stronghold, despatched a messenger to the Court in order 
 to obtain the needful permission. While thus engaged, La 
 !Meilleraye, always a smart intriguer, went to Paris, and 
 returned with authority to besiege Avesnes. He was a 
 mean-looking little man, rude and violent, who owed his 
 position to his energy and bravery, but still more to his 
 cousin Richelieu. His underhand manoeuvre filled La Valette 
 with alarm, because, although nominally left in command, he 
 was directed to detach a strong force and place it at the 
 Grand Master's disposal. Fabert advised decisive measures. 
 He recommended the Cardinal to proceed with the fortification 
 of Maubeuge, and oblige his rival to plead for help in case of 
 need, and the need seemed very near. The Cardinal, fearful 
 of incurring the anger of Richelieu and the enmity of the 
 Grand Master, declined the advice, and marched to cover the 
 siege of Avesnes, leaving his brother and Turenne in Mau- 
 beuge. But when Avesnes was reconnoitred closely. La 
 Meilleraye found that he had undertaken more than he 
 could perform. "It looks," he said, "like another Dole," an 
 exclamation which indicates his surprise and disappointment. 
 Tlie truth is that he did not know anything of Avesnes, and 
 that Fabert did. He had noted that it was built on rocky 
 ground and difficult of approach, even on the least inaccessible 
 .side ; and in the end the Grand Master had to acknowledge 
 the Jiocurary of Fabert's judgment. He had not forgiven that 
 ofiicer for the grave offence of anticipating him at Landi'ecies,
 
 HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1G37. 131 
 
 and so far as he dared, he had depreciated Fabert at Court. 
 Yet when the latter complained, adroitly, without naming the 
 Grand Master, llichelieu promptly replied that " the King was 
 content with his services," and that " any one who thought fit 
 to speak ill of him would lose his Majesty's confidence;" 
 adding, " Fear nothing, and think only of serving the State." 
 In fact, the minister, despite the Pere Joseph, had begun to 
 see the honest and dutiful character of Fabert, and note that 
 he stood high in the King's esteem. 
 
 In the present case the Grand Master's selfish intrigues 
 led to consequences which might have been disastrous. 
 Frustrated at Avesnes, he suggested the recovery of La 
 Capelle, lost in the preceding year, and the proposal was 
 adopted. Thereupon a part of the army was marched back 
 to Maubeuge and the rest began the siege. It is chiefly 
 remarkable for the fact that here, for the first time in the 
 annals of sieges, Fabert made a remarkable and vital innova- 
 tion. It was rude, elementary, and suggested by the ground, 
 yet it was the birth of a new principle in the art of approaches, 
 and adds a lustre to the insignificant siege of La Capelle. 
 Observing that a large and deep ravine ran parallel to the 
 attacks which he conducted, and also to two half fronts of the 
 place, Fabert connected the depression with trenches in the 
 usual way, organized it as a place of arms to shelter a 
 battalion, and constructed a redoubt armed with cannon as a 
 support. It is this bold device which Colonel Bourelly, a 
 competent judge, describes as " one of the first steps in the 
 art of attack towards the employment of parallels." During 
 this siege Fabert's friend and comrade, Rambures, was 
 mortally wounded. A handful of the garrison broke into the 
 new work ; the French fell into a panic, and Rambures was 
 hit and Bussy-Lameth killed, when they dashed forward to 
 rally the fugitives. "Ah, mon ixiucrc Fabert," said the 
 wounded man with pardonable pride, " I should not have
 
 132 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 been in this state had the regiment of Rambures been on 
 guard." He fell at the beginning of the siege, which, after 
 twelve days of open trenches, surrendered on the 20th of 
 September. Fabert was so terribly harrassed by " lliomme 
 d' esprit," that he again lost the control of his flaming temper, 
 and nearly broke with the Cardinal, La Valette, however, 
 who knew the sterling excellence of his character, and who 
 sincerely felt how much he owed to his confidential adviser, 
 frankly enumerated and admitted them, and in an outburst 
 of feeling, which must have captivated Fabert, declared that 
 he regarded and would regard him as his " best friend." But, 
 he said, so outspoken and uncompromising was the language 
 of his " friend," " if I did not know you through and through, 
 I should sometimes consider your advice as an affront." The 
 Pere Barre says that the Cardinal " often compared the out- 
 bursts of Fabert to saltpetre, which flames up in a moment 
 and burns itself out, yet leaves behind neither smell nor 
 smoke." This fervid sincerity, blazing up in a world of time- 
 serving courtiers, must have been sadly out of place. 
 
 For his own sake, the Spanish governor of La Capelle 
 surrendered too soon — found guilty of treachery, he was be- 
 headed shortly afterwards by his countrymen ; but he only 
 yielded just in time to avert the raising of the siege. Even 
 before the French troops could march in, the guns of the 
 Imperialists were heard muttering below the horizon, and La 
 Valette soon learned that the Cardinal-Infanta and Picco- 
 lomini had appeared before Maubeuge. Next his brother, 
 who resigned the honour of defending; the town to Turenne, 
 rode into the camp, and for some reason, good or bad, could 
 not rejoin his command. The French army now moved 
 towards the Sambre, and the generals were much puzzled 
 how to reunite a force which they had allowed to be severed. 
 Nor was the disjunction wholly their fault. La Valette 
 wished to abandon Maubeuge, yet dared not do so without
 
 HFS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1G37. 133 
 
 the King's consent ; and when that assent arrived, the Im- 
 perialists had thrust themselves between the two fragments ! 
 At first it was resolved that Turenne should be directed, if 
 directions could reach him, to cross the Sambre below Mau- 
 beuge, and by a long detour through Chimay, endeavour to 
 save his troops. Fabert steadfastly opposed this plan with 
 his wonted ardour, and suggested another which he supported 
 with more than his usual persuasiveness. He took the bold 
 course of proposing that Turenne should retreat up the river 
 by the right bank, and that both he and La Valette should, 
 from front and rear, fall upon the enemy posted near Pont sur 
 Sambre. The council of war naturally exclaimed that such 
 a scheme violated a well-known " rule " ; Fabert answered 
 that it did not apply to the facts, since the armies were 
 already separated, and the best way to unite them would be 
 by a battle. He asked for a rapid march and resolute onset ; 
 and he may have added that his plan was contrary to the 
 ordinary practice, that the enemy would not divine it, and 
 that if he did, no time should be allowed him to devise 
 counter measures. Then it was asked, how Turenne could 
 be so surely informed as to avert a disaster ? Fabert 
 replied by producing an ingenious device. He framed and 
 wrote down a commonplace message, copies of which were to 
 be entrusted to three tried scouts. He then made them learn 
 the key by heart, so that if any one were captured the 
 writing would be valueless and the interpretation safe. Yet 
 even this method of rescuing Turenne by a convergent march 
 could not be attempted until the consent of the King had 
 been obtained. It was brought by Chavigny himself, a 
 Secretary of State and a friend of Fabert. Meantime Gassion, 
 resolved to join Turenne, had started out with a small escort 
 of horse. He was attacked, and his men dispersed or slain, 
 but the intrepid warrior swam the Sambre, and joined his 
 young comrade in arms alone.
 
 134 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Fabert's plan succeeded beautifully, though not without 
 some peril. Turenne received his message, notified the fact 
 by firing three guns, and forthwith started on his way. La 
 Valette also marched from F-avril in the night ; at dawn he 
 attacked, but could not carry the enemy's position, near 
 Vaux, and defended by a little stream. At the same time 
 Turenne had come up to and passed the Great Helpe ; Fabert, 
 discovering a ford, enabled La Valette to turn the enemy's 
 position ; and the two severed fragments of an army now 
 joined, drove the Imperialists over the Sambre, and compelled 
 them to retire upon Mons. That exploit in mid October was 
 practically the close of the campaign. The army lingered in 
 the field because Richelieu had ordered La Valette to surprise 
 Cambrai, which one Vercourt, who looks remarkably like 
 " lliommc d'csprit," had made the Pere Joseph believe could 
 be taken by means of petards. The embarrassments of La 
 Valette were so great, his fears so lively, and the methods 
 so absurd, that in the end he despatched Fabert to Paris, on 
 a mission which led to some dramatic scenes at Hueil and 
 St. Germain, and brought out Fabert's character in a startling 
 and somewhat questionable light. 
 
 It was an age of intrigue, and often of very base intrigue. 
 Cardinal de la Valette, timid and apprehensive, saw in the 
 presence of Vercourt and the action of the Grand Master a 
 design to bring him to shame and deprive him of command. 
 He thought that if he endeavoured to take Cambrai by 
 means of the charlatan's "infallible secret," he would 
 become a laughing-stock to the army, and that if he refused 
 to do so, Richelieu would punish him. Fabert was indignant 
 with the impostor, tremblingly alive to the honour of his 
 general, and ready to brave the Cardinal-Duke. The fear of 
 consequences to himself never deterred him. He saw, or 
 thought he saw, that the only chance of saving his chief lay 
 in a direct appeal to the King; and La Valette, who knew
 
 HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1G37. 135 
 
 iiis courage and disinterestedness, readily fell in with his 
 plans. So he started for Paris towards the end of October, 
 bearing a letter of compliments to Richelieu, whom it was 
 absolutely necessary to see before he dared visit King Louis. 
 He therefore hastened to Rueil. This country seat stood 
 between the Seine and Mont Valerien, on the western slopes of 
 the hills. Evelyn, who saw it in 1G41, says it was a small 
 house, " but fairly built in the form of a castle, moated round," 
 in the midst of magnificent gardens, which enchanted the 
 travelling lover of artificial scenery, and even of " vineyards, 
 cornfields, meadows, groves, and walks of vast length." Nor 
 were fountains wanting in what the Surrey squire calls a 
 " paradise." ^ Richelieu lived and worked in this moated 
 castle, defended by a company of his guards, who had 
 watched over his safety ever since Gaston, Duke of Orleans, 
 rode up to Rueil one morning, at the head of armed men, 
 threatened much, but, as his wont was, did not strike. 
 Fabert found the minister in bed, attended by Des Noyers, 
 the "petit honhommc" as Louis used playfully to call him. 
 The little man discreetly withdrew from the bedside, but did 
 not leave the room, and the interview began. Having read 
 the letter, Richelieu opened the attack. " You have come 
 from a campaign," he said, " which would have been glorious 
 for France " — really always his first thought — " had the advice 
 of the Grand Master been followed." Fabert, dealing ten- 
 derly with La Meilleraye, defended his General at some length. 
 Richelieu listened, ordered him to call forthwith on the 
 Kinof, adding, " You will do well another time to refrain from 
 talking to me about things which do not concern you." 
 Fabert, saying that he had answered because he had been 
 questioned, took leave ; but turning back to fire another 
 shot, he heard Richelieu direct Des Noyers to hurry to St. 
 
 ^ It all vanished lon;^' ago, tliis charming pleasance ; hut there is still 
 a " chateau " and park near Rueil.
 
 136 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Germain, and listen to what Fabert would say. The latter 
 hastened off, reached St. Germain first, and found Louis 
 in his study. The King, as Richelieu put it, esteemed and 
 welcomed Fabert, who, his Majesty leaning on the table and 
 listening intently, began to unfold his story. Soon Des 
 Noyers was announced, and entering stood aloof, but Fabert 
 beo^2[ed that he mij>ht come near, and correct him if he erred. 
 " Approach," said the King ; " listen to Fabert, he has put 
 things otherwise than they have been represented to me." 
 The frank soldier then repeated his plaints from the beginn- 
 ing. He did not mention La Meilleraye, but he plainly 
 indicated the nature of his conduct, especially in regard to 
 Avesnes, and showed how, among the Grand Master's party, 
 " some from policy, others through ignorance, and all from 
 jealousy," decried and obstructed the commander. There 
 was a good deal of truth in this, but La Valette might have 
 risked less had he adopted Fabert's fearless advice to avoid 
 finesse, and act in a bold downright fashion. Having done 
 with the '• cabal," he fell upon Vercourt, the " great genius," 
 describing him as a corsair, robber, and murderer, who had 
 fled over the border from justice, and had served as a guide 
 to the Spaniards when they invaded Picardy in 1636. " I 
 find the proofs of what I have asserted," he said, " in the 
 letters of full pardon lately obtained from your Majesty by 
 these who protect him " — the Pere Joseph, to wit. He then 
 described and refuted the puerile projects of Vercourt — how 
 he tried to dry up a ditch with pumps which would not have 
 emptied a well ; how he proposed — this was his grand 
 scheme — to blow down a bastion by means of his petards 
 inserted in the work ; and iiow, when asked by what process 
 he would contrive to pa?s the ditch and affix his explosives, 
 he answered that the first could be done with ladders, and 
 the second under cover of sliot-proof cuirasses. Fabert, 
 apologi/iiig for having to speak of sucli puerilities, broke out
 
 HIS \YORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1G37. 137 
 
 with good sense and vigour. " Is it not an insult to your 
 Majesty's army," he exclaimed, " that it should be compelled 
 to suffer from cold and continual rains, in order that it might 
 serve as the escort of a madman in the presence of enemies 
 who have witnessed a spectacle so dishonouring for France ? " 
 Well may King Louis's countenance have assumed that dark 
 and reflective look which is so often described as " somhre et 
 revcur." At such conjunctures he spoke little, but to the 
 purpose. " I cannot allow that my troops should be exposed 
 to an affront before Cambrai, nor that an enterprise which I 
 do not approve should be pushed any further," he said to Des 
 Noyers ; and to Fabert, " Go to the Cardinal-Minister, and 
 give him an exact account of what you know." Thus the 
 first battle was won. 
 
 When Fabert saw Richelieu the next morning the minister, 
 fully informed of what had passed at St. Germain, threw into 
 his refined face that expression of restrained severity which 
 he assumed to overawe his opponents. Fabert, respectful 
 but dauntless, looked straight into the keen eyes of the 
 Cardinal as he insisted on the soundness of Vercourt's project, 
 and gave no sign of yielding to the King. Yet he did not 
 impress his auditor with an opinion that he would not, 
 in the end, obey his master. On leaving the room he 
 encountered the Pere Joseph, and the fiery Capucin at 
 once exhaled his wrath and betrayed his disappointment. 
 He soundly rated Fabert because he had ridiculed " M. 
 de Vercourt," a man of rare merit, who "alone possessed 
 those secrets which had enabled the Spaniards to capture 
 strong places in the late campaigns." " After all the trouble 
 I have taken," he went on, " to secure him for France, you 
 and your clique only seek to obstruct him, and disgust him 
 with the service. It is your jealousy and presumption which 
 have frustrated his fine designs. Only those wlio neither 
 love the State, nor the glory of the Prince, nor their own
 
 138 ABRAHAM FABEET. 
 
 honour, would hinder, as you have done and do, his enter- 
 prise at Cambrai." Evidently the monk thoroughly believed 
 in Vercourt and in himself, as a man of war; and when 
 Fabert, undismayed, enlarged, perhaps with some vehemence, 
 on the folly of the undertaking, Joseph grew more angry. 
 *' The King," he exclaimed, " has no need of philosophers 
 in his armies; he wants soldiers, stirring, active and resolute 
 men — les dissertoicurs are only useful in the schools. You 
 are rebels," he shouted, "who must be punished, beginning 
 Avitli the Duke of Candale, who ought to be shut up in the 
 Bastille." So they parted, these two hot-tempered men, 
 and Fabert drew from the interview and from his indignation 
 an inference which led him to engage in a bold and barely 
 excusable action. He inferred that La Valette and his 
 brother were in imminent danger of disgrace, and he 
 resolved, there and then, to thwart the stroke by deahng 
 a counter-blow at Richelieu himself. He was carried away 
 by his love for and gratitude to the Epernon family, a 
 respectable feeling, yet not one warranting civil war. 
 
 Louis XIIL was a prince subject to variable moods but 
 devoted to constant purposes. He wished with passionate 
 fervour to reign as an absolute monarch, to diminish the 
 power of Austria and Spain, and to increase the strength 
 and the territory of France. It was because Richelieu was 
 possessed by the same haughty policy, and was endowed 
 with a genius at once imaginative, audacious, and practical, 
 and therefore fitted to enforce the policy common to both, 
 that Louis selected and held fast to the Cardinal with a 
 steadfastness nothing could shake. But this superb and 
 impeiious minister, sometimes moved by a devouring zeal 
 for what he considered the service of the State, some- 
 liincs l)y that love of exercising power which is natural 
 U) .strong characters, as well as weak ones, not unfrequently 
 ajjplied a severe strain to the bond uniting the sovereign
 
 HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1G37. 139 
 
 to his servant. This gave rise to what RicheHeu called 
 " fdcherics" and others the changeful humour of the King, 
 and in moments of irritation the monarch was apt to blurt 
 out language bitter and hostile to the domineerincr states- 
 man. It was on his irritable moods that the enemies of 
 Richelieu relied, although certainly after the Day of Dupes 
 they had repeated experience that Louis never allowed his 
 temper to pervert his judgment, and had seen that a little 
 reflection, however much he may have strayed, brought him 
 back to the Cardinal's side. It was not slavish dependence, 
 it was a keen and clear perception that no other man then 
 living was capable of executing the policy which both 
 pursued. Tlie partnership of authority and genius was 
 remarkable, if not unique, for it was absolutely independent 
 of even mere liking, and rested solely on what may be called 
 a pure business foundation. The power which the King 
 had to bestow the minister had the factdty to use, but 
 the King was quite as much art and part in the work as 
 the minister, who, so long as he was faithful to the cause 
 which bound them together, remained what he was in 
 reality, the Vicc-roi. Those who aspired to dissolve the 
 formidable compact always relied on the King's temper, 
 and made the grave mistake of forgetting the tenacity of 
 his judgment in the last resort. 
 
 That Fabert should have erred in this way is excusable, 
 for he was not a courtier, and was misled by his excessive 
 and undying gratitude to the house of Eisernon. Some 
 years earlier, perhaps when Richelieu, wishing the Marquis 
 of Rambures to marry Madame de Corabalet, was enraged 
 by the refusal of the proud noble, it appears that King 
 Louis said something to Rambures which pointed to a 
 plan for ousting the Cardinal, a plan to be concerted with 
 Fabert. The latter now remembered it, and in a private 
 interview with Louis brought it to his remembrance. He
 
 140 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 said that he had found the means of striking down the 
 proud minister who persisted in giving orders contrary to 
 those of his Majesty — in the Vercourt-Cambrai project, 
 for example. The King must have hstened with more 
 than his usual thoughtfulness, when he heard what were 
 the means. Cardinal de la Valette, said the daring soldier, 
 a faithful man, commands a good army ; with these we can 
 pull down the minister and overawe his partizans. Very 
 doubtful means, his Majesty must have thought, considering 
 the timidity of La Valette. And when Fabert went on to 
 arraign the minister, Louis, whatever he may have thought 
 of his prudence, could not fail to admire his courage and 
 honesty. "Your minister," he said, "is accused of sacrificing 
 the peace of the realm to his ambition ; of continuing the 
 war for the purpose of making himself necessary, and of 
 perpetuating his authority," — allegations not likely to make 
 any impression on Louis. " The people cry aloud against 
 his abuse of your power and your finances. He employs 
 your name to crush those who resist, and your treasures 
 to augment his creatures. Your subjects, who receive from 
 your Majesty brevets as a recompense for their services, 
 behold with indignation that your favours remain without 
 effect if the minister does not confirm them. There is 
 no benefice in the Church, or government in the realm, 
 no employment however trifling in tiie army, the law, or 
 the Court, which he does not take from your faithful subjects 
 and give to his creatures." Very extravagant assertions, yet 
 not without some warrant; but as an indictment having this 
 defect, that his Majesty had largely delegated his powers, as 
 he well knew, in order to secure an agent who could achieve 
 his great designs. 
 
 Not displeased with his faithful subject, Louis temporized 
 according to bis fashion, and pointed out that, even if he 
 were sure that La Valette had the makings of a minister, he
 
 HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1637. 141 
 
 would not be able to make himself obeyed ; but he was 
 positive enough in his language wlien he forbade Fabert and 
 his superiors to obey the orders of Richelieu should they be 
 opposed to those of the King; and he put a decisive veto on 
 the Vercourt-Cambrai project, so dear to the Pere Joseph. 
 On taking leave Fabert tried to obtain a less inexplicit 
 answer to his revolutionary suggestion, but warmly pressing 
 his hand, Louis said, " Depart, I have nothing more to say." 
 The potentate at Rueil, who, luckily for Fabert, knew nothing 
 of these secret colloquies, would not defer at once to the 
 King's command. That was a satisfaction to the Pere 
 Joseph. In the presence of Fabert, who had to be checked, 
 Noyers was requested to read aloud a formal order directing 
 the generals to carry out Vercourt's fantastic scheme ; yet 
 the sharp captain went from Rueil in the firm belief that a 
 counter-order would immediately follow. His prevision was 
 justified ; the day after he reached the camp it duly came ; 
 the army forthwith went into winter quarters, and Fabert 
 was ordered to relieve the acting-governor of Metz, M. de 
 Roquepine. 
 
 Richelieu's conduct on this occasion seems to admit of an 
 easy explanation. He knew nothing of the merits or de- 
 merits of Vercourt, but he wished to preserve his authority 
 in the army, as was natural and, indeed, essential ; he also 
 desired to please his faithful comrade, the monk, who helped 
 him so well in the wide field of politics ; but he would not 
 run counter to the King when he was, as he could be, 
 resolute ; and he certainly would not have sanctioned any 
 project likely to disgrace and weaken the arms of France. 
 Hence, glad to be thwarted in time to avert one, he bore no 
 grudge against the public action either of La Valette or Fabert. 
 But had he known the secret proposal of the latter to the 
 King, he would have put forth all his power to crush both.
 
 142 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Fabert was not justified in taking the course lie did take. 
 It was bad in every way. If it had succeeded it would 
 have furnished another evil precedent ; and if it had failed, 
 the most likely result, the minister would have become more 
 powerful than ever, and the King's position would have been 
 intolerable. That it never had a chance of being adopted 
 does not relieve Fabert from blame ; but his honest motives, 
 at least, excuse conduct too much in harmony with the 
 practices of princes and nobles who contrived assassination 
 plots and rebelled to attain their own selfish ends. Although 
 the impetuous soldier erred gravely, his intentions and disin- 
 terestedness raised him far above their level. 
 
 The operations of the year, we may briefly note, had 
 not on the whole been unfavourable to the French. If La 
 Valette had done little compared with what the pair of 
 sanguine ecclesiastics in Paris expected from him, and if 
 Rohan, through their neglect, had been obliged to abandon 
 the Valtelline and the Grisons, the Count of Harcourt, whom 
 we shall soon meet again, had driven the Spaniards from the 
 islands off the coast of Provence, the Duke of Halluyn, 
 son of Marshal Schomberg, and himself soon a Marshal, had 
 brilliantly relieved Leucate on the coast of Lower Languedoc, 
 and Duke Bernhard had waged successful petty warfare in 
 Franche Comte and Upper Alsace. In Paris, Richelieu had 
 obtained a great victory over the Spanish party in the Court 
 by getting hold of clear proof that Queen Anne still worked 
 in concert with the Spaniards and her old ally, Madame de 
 Chevreuse, and by thwarting the dangerous influence which 
 the Jesuits brought to bear on the King through the innocent 
 agency of the pious and beautiful Mademoiselle de la 
 Fayette. "A young girl and an old monk," says M. Henri 
 Martin, in a characteristic sentence, "dared to attack the 
 colossus wh(j made Europe tremble." But they failed, for on
 
 HIS WORK IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1G37. 143 
 
 reflection the King always supported the minister who 
 unfalteringly pursued the realization of the policy to which 
 both were devoted. So that 1637 must rank, on the whole, 
 among the years which gave to Richelieu his greate^^t 
 triumphs.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FAMINE IN THE MESSIN. 
 
 The great sufferer by war in the seventeenth and in all 
 preceding centuries was the peasant, the cultivator who 
 dwelt outside the walled cities, and most of all the peasant 
 whose lot was cast in the borderland. A broad belt of 
 country from the North Sea to the Jura was incessantly 
 furrowed, not only by armies, but by troops of plunderers 
 issuing from the innumerable castles, which held two or 
 three score of armed men, who sallied out at intervals and 
 collected provisions, more like brigands than soldiers. The 
 armies were under some sort of control, but the bands out 
 on a foray under none. Neither respected the peasant or 
 farmer. They seized his horses, drove off his cattle, took his 
 carts, carried away his grain and his hay, levied contributions 
 when they did not steal, and frequently applied the torch to 
 consume what tliey could not bear with them. The word 
 "raid" liad not been invented, but the thing existed in 
 perfection. It was called a " course," and the courrcurs, if 
 their track was not marked out by ashes, left behind them 
 desolate homes, empty barns, and vacant pastures. So great 
 was the dm'astation on the broad unsettled frontier fringe 
 that the armies so-called were always liard pressed for food 
 and transport, and the wonder is how, with such a wickedly
 
 FAMINE IN THE MESSIN. 145 
 
 wasteful system of warfare as the rule, any military ojieratiuns 
 whatever could be conducted. The interior of France, after 
 the civil strife had ceased, though subjected to others, was 
 free from this species of calamity ; but Franche Comte, 
 Burgundy, Lorraine, Champagne, Artois, Flanders, and Picardy 
 were repeatedly harried from end to end. The consequences 
 were constant pestilence and recurring famine. 
 
 Two years of such nefarious usage had produced direful 
 results in Lorraine and the Messin. They had been tormented 
 not only by the King's armies, but by the levies of their 
 Duke, men of many nations, and the foreign regiments drawn 
 from Germany and Switzerland, the reiters and pikemen 
 commanded by Bcrnhard being the greatest adepts in 
 robbery and arson, and the least under control. But it 
 would be wrong to fasten all the mischief on tliem, since the 
 French were nearly as accomplished as their allies. Fabert 
 returned to his native city in December 1637, to act as the 
 King's lieutenant, and strictly he was bound to do no more 
 than safeguard the fortress. But when he saw famine and 
 pestilence devouring the Messin, he stepped at once beyond 
 the narrow circle of his duties. At all times his heart was 
 moved by the cry of distress rising up from the oppressed 
 rural folk, and he never ceased to labour on their behalf. 
 But the spectacle presented by the Messin, once so prosper- 
 ous, would have appalted and revised a less tender-hearted 
 man. To a great extent cultivation was at an end ; the 
 peasants wandered by hundreds in the woods, and tried to 
 appease their hunger with roots and berries and leaves. It 
 is even related that they tore up the dead from their graves, 
 and fell upon the corpses of men slain in combat. The 
 Pere Barre, quoting a manuscript containing the reports made 
 to Fabert by his surgeon. La Riviere, gives revolting details 
 of an example of cannibalism, telling how a widow thus tried 
 
 to nourish her famishing children. 
 
 L
 
 146 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 The Messiu was an irregular patch of territory on both 
 banks of the Moselle, and it is still a rich and fertile district 
 as it was before the cruel warfare of the seventeenth century 
 had made it a desert. Fabert could look into its condition 
 for himself, and he did, knowing well every inch of ground. 
 Tlien he lost no time in pondering, but swiftly applied his 
 wonderful faculty as an organizer to afford relief. He 
 obtained an account, as far as he could, of the quantity of 
 cereals stored up or hoarded in the towns, bourgs, and 
 villages, and issued at once an order forbidding the sale or 
 gift of " grains " without a permit bearing his signature. 
 Then he had lists of persons made out, and so arranged his 
 plans that every one could be supplied with a pound of bread 
 per diem ; those who could pay were charged at a fixed low 
 rate, those who could not obtained their ration gratis on the 
 presentation of a paper signed by himself. He never spared 
 his own labours, especially in such a cause, and we can 
 easily imagine that his wife gave freely her ready aid. 
 Having improvised this extensive poor law and put it in 
 effective operation, to meet the dreadful pressing exigency, 
 he next endeavoured to avert a future famine. He rode 
 over the whole country a second time, and everywhere gave 
 out that all who would resume their farm labours should be 
 effectually helped ; and so great was the trust reposed in his 
 word, so thoroughly did the cultivators feel that he would 
 redeem his pledges, that they rapidly gathered in their farms 
 and villages to resume work. He supplied seed on easy 
 terms, asking only that his advances should be replaced by 
 brinnning measures at the next harvest, and thus he satisfied 
 present necessities, brought back tlie population, and provided 
 for tlio future. Always ho had an eye to solid results, and 
 was never content with makeshifts. 
 
 Tt was at this time that thoughts long brooding in his 
 
 o o o 
 
 jiiiud took shape. He saw two great evils — one the seizure of
 
 FAMINE IN THE MESSIN. 147 
 
 the household goods, th3 cattle and the harness, the ploughs 
 and implements essential to cultivation as satisfaction for the 
 non-payment of taxes, which he thought was, if not unjust, 
 yet certainly short-sighted policy ; and the other was that 
 the ever-grasping seigneurs had taken possession of the 
 common lands and woods pertaining to the bourgs and 
 villages, lands kept in grass and essential to the system of 
 peasant cultivation. These usurped lands in the ^lessiu he 
 compelled, or rather began to compel, the seigneurs to 
 surrender; and by dint of judicious effort in Paris he 
 contrived, six years later, to obtain a royal order exempting 
 cattle and implements of the cultivator from seizure, even for 
 non-payment of the grinding taille, or personal tax. Six 
 years after Fabert had been laid in his grave, Colbert, who 
 was a youth in 1638, re-established the communal properties 
 throughout the kingdom by a royal edict, and thus the 
 renowned statesman completed the initial work of Fabert. 
 His active and far-seeing mind showed its provident quality 
 still further in attempts to restore commerce, once prosperous 
 in Metz; and it is interesting to note that he began by 
 endeavouring to collect exact statistics ; but this project, like 
 many others, was interrupted by a summons which called 
 him once more to the toils of war. Nowhere is his great 
 and enterprising mind seen to more advantage than when he 
 is grappling with economic or industrial difficulties; and his 
 success in those fields throughout his career is due to the 
 fact that, in working out peaceful as well as warlike problems, 
 he applied sound business principles to their solution. The 
 limitations of his powers as a statesman, and indeed as a 
 captain, we cannot know, for he was never subjected to the 
 extreme tests of extended scope and great responsibility ; but 
 this we do know, that whatever he did in the field or the 
 closet, as a manufacturer, as an organizer, as an administrator, 
 he always did well, and it is reasonable, therefore, to believe
 
 148 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 that with larger opportunities, wider fields, and more 
 authority, he would also have shone out brightly among the 
 foremost men of his age, as something^ more than a great, 
 dutiful, and honourable public servant employed within 
 comparatively limited spheres of action.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CAMPAIGNING IN ITALY. 
 
 The useful labours of Fabert in the Messin were cut sbort 
 in March 1638 by a summons from Paris. Besides fighting 
 famine and oppression, he had stored up supplies in Metz, 
 repaired roads and collected boats, for the siege of Thionville, 
 which lie hoped La Valette would be authorized to under- 
 take ; but it fell out otherwise. The French in Piedmont 
 had built a fort at Bremo, on the left bank of the Po, just 
 below the confluence of the Sesia. It was a sort of outpost 
 upon what was then Spanish ground, and served as a support 
 to Casale. The Governor of Milan beset it early in the year, 
 and Crequi, the French commander, hurried thither with 
 a handful of men to relieve the place. He went out to 
 reconnoitre the enemy's position, and leaning against a tree 
 trunk, drew forth and used his spying-glass. While he was 
 thus engaged, his bright red raiment attracted the sharp eyes 
 of a gunner, who aimed his j)iece so accurately, or so luckily, 
 that the shot struck full on the Marshal and slew him out- 
 right. The news of his death and the prompt surrender of 
 Bremo soon reached Paris ; Montgalliard,^ who yielded too 
 soon, was beheaded for treachery, and La Valette was 
 directed to take the command beyond the Alps. It was the 
 fortunate cannon-shot of the Spanish gunner which led 
 
 1 He had a garrison six hundred strong, and drew pay for seventeen 
 hundred !
 
 150 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Fabert once more to Italy, for La Valette demanded his aid, 
 and the King promised to give him the rank of Sergent cle 
 lataille, a promise not fulfilled by the minister until nearly 
 the end of the campaign. Still it was a valid promise, and 
 intended to be kept, for the King permitted his faithful 
 soldier to sell his commissions of Captain and Major, and he 
 did so, though not until, with characteristic fidelity, he had 
 obtained the consent of the Duke of Epernon, whose friendly 
 aid he never forgot, whose position as Colonel-General of the 
 Infantry, curtailed in power, yet never revoked, he persisted 
 in dutifully recognizing. The family he served does not com- 
 mand admiration either for conduct or talents, but that does 
 not make less striking the unfailinfr gratitude and the moral 
 courage disj^layed by Fabert, for the Epernon family was 
 always under a cloud. 
 
 The soldier-Cardinal accepted his post with reluctance and 
 apprehension. He lived in constant dread. The motive of 
 his attachment to Richelieu was terror. The old grand 
 seigneur, his father, and tlie Duke of La Valette, his brother, 
 he well knew were suspected of disaffection, not altogether 
 without reason, and the Cardinal believed firmly that his 
 own subservience to the minister was the last safeguard of 
 his family. His anxiety of mind was sharpened by the 
 advices he received from the Court ; Chavigny, for example, 
 bidding hitn take care how he wrote, and what he said about 
 the Pere Joseph, who figures in the letters under the signi- 
 ficant names of Patdin and Nero. Naturally the Cardinal 
 did nut conceal his distress from Fabert, who was a frank 
 though not a courtly confidant. " I count entirely on you in 
 this war," said the Cardinal; "consider well what should be 
 done." " The best thing for you," was the brusque rejoinder, 
 " will be to get out of the business as soon as you can." Then, 
 with groat perspicacity, he sketched out what would happen. 
 * You will be deluded if you hope for any success," he said.
 
 CAMPAIGNING IN ITALY. 151 
 
 " They will leave you without money, troops, and munitions. 
 The Duchess of Savoy (she was Regent) wants experience 
 and her council knowledge ; the people hate, and the great 
 folks detest the French. What can you do against a Spanish 
 army far stronger than your own ? You should have held 
 fast to your resolve to besiege Thionville," — that is, clung to 
 the command in Lorraine. " But the Court," said the blunt 
 little man, " does with you what it likes, and your complais- 
 ance will not fail to destroy you in the end." All La Valette 
 could answer was that his family were in peril — apt, for 
 example, to intrigue with the Count of Soissons and Gaston, 
 whom we have seen " willing to wound, but yet afraid to 
 strike," at Amiens, in 1636. If he could not appease what 
 he called the vindictiveness of Richelieu, still, La Valette 
 said, he could prove to his father and brother that he had 
 done everything in his power to conjure away the menacing 
 danger. And so throughout the campaign he laboured under 
 this dread of calamity, instead of acting, if indeed he could 
 have acted, with foresight, vigour, and resolution. 
 
 The state of affairs in Piedmont would have tried a stronger 
 man than the Cardinal. Christine, the Regent, a sister of 
 Louis XIIL, like her late husband, Victor, was an ally of the 
 French, not from cl:oice but compulsion. She leaned, like 
 her mother, Marie de Medicis, towards the Spanish side. Her 
 brothers-in-law, Prince Thomas and Cardinal Maurice, were 
 in the Spanish camp, and put forward a claim to be the 
 guardians of their brother's children. The claim was doubt- 
 less genuine, but it served as a pretext, over and above that 
 solid reason supplied by the presence of the French, for the 
 invasion of Piedmont. The difficulty was rendered more 
 complex by the fact that Richelieu, having a hold on the 
 eastern slope, did not wish to make more conquests on that 
 side of the Alps, and therefore kept on foot there no larger 
 body of troops than might be sufficient to occupy the
 
 152 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Spaniards and prevent them from using Piedmont against 
 him. Where he did wish to prevail and annex territory was 
 on the Hue between Switzerland and the North Sea, and five 
 out of seven armies in the field were in that quarter, the 
 sixth being on the Bidassoa and the seventh in Piedmont 
 The real work of aggrandizement was to be done on the side 
 next Germany and the Low Countries, for there lay the 
 valuable prey ; the incursion into Spain and the war main- 
 tained in Italy were in the nature of diversions, which, if 
 successful, might have profitable results, and if negative still 
 kept hostile troops employed. It was not a wise way of 
 making war and it was very costly, but as yet they knew no 
 better. 
 
 The military abilities and the experience of Fabert were 
 wasted in the Italian campaign of 1638. The army was 
 weak in numbers ; at head-quarters nothing was known of 
 the strength, positions, and even probable intentions of the 
 enemy. The country, as Fabert truly said, detested the 
 French ; and to crown all, La Valette sought, or felt himself 
 bound to exercise, command through and under the shelter of 
 that feeblest of all military instruments, a council of war, and 
 that council composed of men jealous of each other, and ever 
 seeking to curry favour with the minister. There was, of 
 course, " tin hommc du roi," or commissary, who corresponded 
 directly with Richelieu, having such influence as flowed from 
 that. Fabert was admitted to the council, but not having 
 his patent as sergent de hataillc, he could exert no authority 
 except such as was derived from strong arguments and sound 
 views ; and it need hardly to be said that La Valette bowed 
 to tlie council, and that the council neutralized Fabert. 
 Fighting talent existed in abundance, but brain power to 
 direct it was scarce; and thus his real soldiership was 
 expended in vain. 
 
 Tlic Oovorncr of Milan, Llcgancz, a man of some capacity,
 
 CAMPAIGNING IN ITALY. 153 
 
 suddenly swooped down upon Vercelli, a fortress seated on 
 the Sesia, in a land of streams, canals, and marshes, produc- 
 tive of rice crops then as it is now, and regarded by the 
 experts of that day as the gate of Piedmont. The Spaniard 
 crossed the river, and drew his main lines of entrenchment on 
 the western side, relying on the Sesia mainly as a defence 
 towards the east, whence ran his line of communication with 
 Milan. The task before the little Franco-Piedmontese army 
 was to raise the siege, but the council of war could never be 
 got to sanction any promising scheme, and it had none of 
 its own. Fabert, who knew the country, had a plan which, 
 whether it succeeded or not, was workmanlike. The Hotspurs, 
 as usual, burned to storm the entrenchments, and break in by 
 dint of " sheer strength and stupidity." Fabert proposed 
 the bold step of marching the whole army to the left, or 
 Milanese bank of the Sesia, and throwing it bodily into tlie 
 fortress, and he did so because he knew the east front was 
 weak and easily mastered. 
 
 After much delay and talk he actually succeeded in 
 obtaining an assent to his plan, up to a certain point; but 
 when the army attained the position, the council of war Avould 
 not strike the blow. He proved by actual experiment that 
 two thousand men could be sent in, for they were ; he showed 
 that a battery of twelve guns thoroughly commanded the line 
 of ingress, for the cannon were posted and brought into 
 action. It was all in vain — the council of war would neither 
 fight nor manoeuvre to any purpose ; La Valette feared to 
 command lest he should offend the minister's courtiers, who 
 were always thinking more of their own advancement and 
 the discomfiture of rivals than the effective performance of 
 their duties. Fabert, who was animated by the single-minded 
 purpose of doing the best for the State, who had reconnoitred 
 the hostile lines, had sounded the depth of the water-ways, 
 was frustrated by men who had neither his ability nor his
 
 154 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 knowledge, painfully and perilously acquired. The result was 
 that the ill-used army plodded back across the many rivers 
 by Desana to Prarolo on the right bank of the Sesia opposite 
 Palestro ; that after an investment of six weeks the place 
 surrendered to the Spaniard, not without some suspicion of 
 collusion between Lleganez and the Piedmontese governor ; 
 and that two thousand good soldiers besides the garrison, 
 not to speak of credit, were sacrificed to ineptitude and 
 indecision. 
 
 As usual in such cases, Fabert, always welcome to the 
 King, was despatched into France to " explain " the defeat 
 and solicit men and money. Richelieu gave him promises 
 which were tardily and partially redeemed in the autumn, 
 when more indecisive marches, sieges, and skirmishes ensued. 
 During the summer the old ^chevin and printer of Metz died, 
 but his valiant son did not hear of the death until he had 
 rejoined the army, and was not able to visit his family until 
 mid-winter. He found that a perplexed succession had 
 already been partially settled in his absence, but any disputes 
 which arose on that score are happily unrecorded. Before a 
 jfinal arrangement could be made Richelieu summoned him 
 to the field, furnished him with a formal appointment as 
 sergent de lataille, and sent him to aid La Valette in Pied- 
 mont, whither he went in the spring of 1639. The Cardinal- 
 Duke, who had lost the Pore Joseph, his great friend and 
 Fabert's enemy, had found that the King trusted, and that he 
 could trust, the frank and loyal soldier; so, with more 
 promises of all kinds, he liurricd him over the Alps, where 
 French interests and French arms were in peril from Pied- 
 montese discontent and Spanish enterprise. 
 
 No one could profit even by a shetch of the warfare 
 practised at this date in Piedmont, and we refrain, except in 
 so far as it brings out the characteristics of Fabert. It was, 
 apparently, a struggle for strong places in order to insure
 
 CAMPAIGNING IN ITALY. 155 
 
 subsistence. Almost all the combats arose out of attempts to 
 gain or to relieve a fortified town. 
 
 Each side, however, had one object in common — the French 
 desired to retain, their opponents to wrest from them, Casale 
 and Turin. The earliest labour imposed upon Fabert was 
 that of putting the capital in a state of defence, a task ren- 
 dered more arduous by the disaffection of the inhabitants. 
 He so far succeeded as to thwart the first tentative attacks, 
 and was even able to take part in the field warfare by strik- 
 ing a decisive blow against the SjDaniards who endeavoured to 
 relieve Chivasso, and might have prevailed had not the 
 vigilant scrgcnt de hataille seized and defended, by fine 
 offensive as well as defensive operations, a hill neglected by 
 the staff. While La Valette, bent on running after fortified 
 towns, divided his army, Prince Thomas of Savoy, favoured 
 by darkness and the citizens, mastered the town of Turin. It 
 was done so suddenly that the Regent Christine, hastily 
 donning a dressing-gown, only had time to enter the citadel, 
 held by a French garrison. The blow brought back the 
 wandering army, which, by hard fighting, having cut a road 
 into the citadel, sent off the Regent and her little son to 
 Susa, and prepared to strike for existence. Fabert came with 
 them. A council of war, contrary to i^recedent, resolved upon 
 a sortie in force by night. The leading columns driving in 
 the enemy's outposts, pushed forward eagerly into the town ; 
 but when they set the houses on fire the lurid light revealed 
 their numbers and position, and a furious cannonade threw 
 them into a disorderly fliglit. In this crisis Fabert, gathering 
 up what troops he could collect, headed a fresh onset, carried 
 several barricades one after the other, and only retired when 
 ordered by the Cardinal. Struck down by a musket-shot in 
 the middle of the fray, he had concealed his wound and 
 fought on. It was only when the retreat had been effected 
 that he fainted from pain long endured and from loss of blood.
 
 156 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Even La Valette, to whom he had reported, did not know 
 until then that he was wounded. It was not the first time 
 that he had displayed such fortitude, and the officer who 
 exclaimed, " That man, let people say what they like, will 
 become a Marshal of France," understood the secret of his 
 career. 
 
 The wound was severe — two musket-shots in one thigh ; 
 and before it healed, the intervention of a Cardinal had 
 secured a truce for two months. At one period of his cure, 
 after the wound had closed, inflammation set in with such 
 violence that the surgeons wished to amputate the limb. It 
 was then that Fabert's hardihood broke forth in quaint 
 speech. Refusing to submit to the operation, he said, " Qui 
 a-ura le gigot, aura Ic irste du corps : j'e serai d moi-meme mon 
 Chirurgien!' He redeemed his promise, reduced the inflam- 
 mation by applying " cream," says the Pere Barre, and saved 
 his leg. Cold water would have done as well, could he have 
 had faith in it; but water or cream, the sturdy resolution 
 exhibited is the same. 
 
 By the time his health was restored, Louis XIII. and 
 Richelieu had entered Grenoble, September 21st, and thither 
 Fabert was summoned. While he rode over the Alpine 
 passes, Christine joined her brother. The two long-separated 
 and curiously contrasted children of Henry IV. met outside 
 the town. They rushed into each other's arms with much 
 show of affection, and before entering Grenoble walked apart 
 for some brief space in a meadow, one claiming, the other 
 promising aid and comfort. But political interests tyrannized 
 over family relationship ; Christine would not concede what 
 the King and his minister demanded — her strongest fortresses 
 and the charge of her son ; and Richelieu has allowed us to 
 read in his own bitter words how deeply he resented a refusal 
 which thwarted his clierished plans. Fabert arrived during 
 the high debate, which was prolonged for many days, and
 
 CAMPAIGNING IN ITALY. 157 
 
 ended in the departure of Christine up the Isere for Mont- 
 meillan, the coveted stronghold which she would not " lend." 
 It was a time of trial for the proud minister — he had lost liis 
 tried friend and comrade, the Pere Joseph ; Duke Bernhard, 
 victorious at Brisach, had died in his prime, died in his bed, 
 not in siege or battle ; now came news of the mortal sick- 
 ness, and soon of the death of La Valette, who had few talents, 
 but was faithful to the Cardinal-Duke. That tragic incident — 
 he could not survive his own misfortunes in Piedmont, for 
 which, says Richelieu, he was not responsible, nor the merited 
 disgrace of his brother, the Duke — gave a new and unexpected 
 turn to the fortunes of Fabert. He had hurried to Rivoli, 
 where he found his late chief dead ; and when he hastened 
 back, Richelieu, who had tested his qualities, sent for him, 
 and proffered his protection in exchange for hearty service. 
 Astonished at the offer, Fabert frankly accepted it, naively 
 indicating his surprise by saying that he had thought, not for 
 the first time it will be remembered, of migrating to the 
 Empire. Richelieu gave him his hand, saying that his 
 friendship was needful to him, and that curious bargain was 
 struck which really decided the fortunes of Fabert. 
 
 He was taken into partnership with these high persons, 
 and the consequences were soon apparent. The Count of 
 Guiche, whose life he saved at Saverne, called the next day 
 on Fabert to congratulate him on his nomination to the 
 governorship of La Capelle, famous little fortress on the 
 northern frontier. He was surprised to see his friend un- 
 moved, and still more when Fabert said that the post was 
 due to M. de Roquepine, who had served so well at Metz, and 
 that he should say so to his Eminence. He kept his word by 
 adroitly thanking Richelieu for selecting so brave and trusty 
 an officer. A proceeding so generous and unusual struck a 
 minister who did not find disinterestedness a common virtue ; 
 and he answered, " Tell M. de Roquepine that you present
 
 158 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 liim with the Governorship of LaCapelle." How well RiclieHeu 
 
 knew his man is shown by the ftict that tlie rare action did 
 
 not arouse his suspicions, and by his obtaining for Fabert a 
 
 company in the Guards, which had to be purchased from an 
 
 old officer for a large sum supplied by the King and the 
 
 Cardinal. When the captain tendered his thanks, the 
 
 minister frankly admitted that he knew no one who could 
 
 serve him so well with the King as Fabert, none who could 
 
 explain the Cardinal's projects in a manner which made them 
 
 so acceptable. " He esteems you, and believes in you," said 
 
 the great man, " rating your candour and fidelity higher than 
 
 that of any one." That was why the outspoken soldier, who 
 
 detested what he called the mantge de cour, and never entered 
 
 into intrigues, was wanted to minimize the friction between a 
 
 King who had a will, and his haughty and able chief servant. 
 
 The compact, honourable to Fabert, affords a striking 
 
 example of Richelieu's sagacity in penetrating the character 
 
 of a blunt and accomplished soldier, who, although no courtier, 
 
 perhaps for that reason was prized for his manly as well as 
 
 his intellectual qualities by Louis XIII. 
 
 Fabert went back to Italy, not only as a high staff officer — 
 
 as marechal, a grade above that of scrgcnt de hataillc — but 
 
 as honime du roi, a post which gave him a still firmer 
 
 position. At his former visit to Rivoli he had paid the 
 
 "*■ 
 servants of La Valctte, and, in part, the cost of transportmg 
 
 his remains to Cadillac in Guyenne, sums which, we assume, 
 
 together with a loan to his son, were ultimately refunded by 
 
 the octogenarian duke, at this time under surveillance in 
 
 Saintonge. Fabert's unselfishness in pecuniary matters was 
 
 notorious. As he said nothing of his loans to La Valette, or 
 
 of the payments made on his behalf, thoughtful friends were 
 
 eager to see justice done. " I fear," wrote the Governor of 
 
 Savigliano to Chavigny, " that he will lose his seven or eight 
 
 thousand crowns, unless bis friends take more care of his 
 
 I
 
 CAMPAIGNING IN ITALY. 159 
 
 interests than he does himself." Happily the friends took 
 the needful steps, and he lost nothing. 
 
 The Count of Harcourt's instructions were based on 
 memoranda prepared by Fabert, and the object of the autumn 
 campaign, apparently, was the re-victualling of Casale on the 
 Po, which was a thorn in the side of the Spaniards. Now, 
 the French troops were at Carignano ; Prince Thomas in 
 Turin, and Lleganez in the Milan country. In order to 
 provision Casale, it was necessary to cover the cross roads 
 through the hills of Montserrat from the attacks of Thomas, 
 and move so speedily as to outstrip and anticijmte the 
 Spaniards. Chieri, not far from Turin, a town on the San 
 Pietro, an affluent of the Po, was selected as a place whence 
 Prince Thomas could be effectively controlled. Thither the 
 army moved in October, and having reduced it by a few 
 gunshots, they encamped in this land of brooks and streams. 
 Thence went the trains bearing stores for Casale, which they 
 reached in safety, the plan of their march being laid down by 
 Fabert and a Piedmontese captain. The operation, of course, 
 took time, nearly a month ; the provisions in the camp at 
 Chieri were exhausted, and as no properly-guarded line 
 of regular transport service existed, Harcourt was obliged 
 to depart in search of food and forage from his garrisons 
 beyond the upper reaches of the Po. By this time the 
 Spaniards, who were drawing nigh by the roads from the 
 south, had been able to communicate with Turin, and devise 
 a simultaneous attack from opposite sides on the French 
 army. When Harcourt put his troops in motion westwards, 
 he does not seem to have been aware of the proximity of the 
 Spaniards, at least he was incredulous when Fabert insisted 
 that the day would not pass without a combat. " Our 
 enemies," said he, "know how to make war." Late in the 
 afternoon Prince Thomas, marching on the road by Mon- 
 calieri, struck the French advance, and Lleganez, moving up
 
 160 ABRAHAM FABEHT. 
 
 from Puirino, fell on the rear-guard. The French were 
 speedily formed ; Turenne and Fabert in the van, drawing up 
 tlie infantry in a hollow way between the Santena rivulet 
 and a homestead, and allowed the Piedmontese to approach 
 closely, and then the troops, delivering a volley point-blank, 
 charged home. Their successful onset was followed up by 
 the cavalry, Fabert and Turenne, always close friends, dashing 
 forward in pursuit. La Motte Houdancourt also withstood 
 the Spaniards, who retired when they saw that the attack 
 from the Turin side had so signally failed . It was a fortunate 
 little action, very well fought, is known as the combat of La 
 Rota, and figures largely in French books. The road being 
 opened, Harcourt the next day, rapidly crossing the Po, 
 halting first at Carignano and then at Vigone, regained his 
 communications with Pignerol and France. He had been 
 known before in the army as Cadet la perle, because he wore 
 a large pearl as an earring ; but now the soldiers called him 
 the Perle dcs cadets. In the campaign histories, the names of 
 Turenne, Plessis Praslin, and La Motte Houdancourt are 
 read, but not that of Fabert, who as a soldier was at least 
 the equal of all, except the young Turenne. What he 
 thought of such niggling warfare may be imagined by the 
 light of his great exploits in after years.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FABERT WORKS WITH THE KING AND RICHELIEU. 
 
 Winter had come when Harcourt, who was to achieve 
 still greater feats, placed his troops in quarters. An order 
 from Richelieu then summoned the maHchal tie hataille to 
 Paris, and no fine speeches of la Pcrle clcs cadets, or friendly 
 remonstrances from Turenne, availed to prevent prompt 
 obedience. Thenceforth he saw service in Italy no more. 
 He crossed the Alps for the last time, and, as a soldier, 
 became one of the directing agents in the closet of the King 
 and the cabinet of the minister. One result of deep con- 
 sultations concerning the operations of 1640 grew out of a 
 suggestion made by Fabert. Arras, a Spanish possession, 
 not only in fact but feeling, barred the way to the acquisition 
 of Artois, and was, besides, a " standing menace " to Picardy. 
 Hesdin, captured in the preceding summer by La Meilleraye, 
 who received his Marshal's h(Uo7i on the breach from the 
 King's hand, made the first effective lodgment beyond the 
 Somme ; and Fabert now proposed that a second and more 
 important should be achieved by the reduction of Arras. 
 Richelieu approved ; the King readily yielded when Fabert 
 expounded his plans, and the secret was well kept by the 
 trio. The next step was to obtain exact information respect- 
 ing the condition of the fortress; and when the Cardinal 
 asked him to name a daring man who would undertake the 
 
 hazardous task, offering a very large reward, Fabert replied, 
 
 M
 
 1G2 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 " I am your man, and I will do the job for nothing." He 
 could not be dissuaded by any arguments based on danger; 
 disguised as a peasant, he threaded the hostile lines ; bearing 
 a basket of vegetables for sale, he entered the fortress, saw 
 as much as he could, and safely returned to Paris. Such 
 enterprises on the part of officers were not unusual in those 
 days — a Baron de Limieres was caught disguised as a Cor- 
 delier ; a Marquis de Sainte Croix, got up as a sailor, escaped ; 
 a Spanish don of high rank was long a prisoner — and 
 Faberb's absolute fearlessness fitted him for such exploits. 
 No wonder the King and Richelieu held in high esteem a 
 soldier who spoke out when needful, and risked hanging in 
 their service. 
 
 The operations were designed in concert with the Prince of 
 OrauQ-e in accordance with the methods then in vogue. The 
 French armies assembled in April, made several marches in 
 May intended to deceive the enemy, and then at the right 
 moment moved on Arras, which they invested in the middle 
 of June with a combined force of over thirty thousand men. 
 They had time to draw their lines of circumvallation before 
 the Spaniards were ready to march, but when the news 
 arrived that the Cardinal-Infanta was afoot, discord broke 
 out among the besiegers. Knowing that the main question 
 would be one of supplies, Fabert, wlio was with the King at 
 Amiens, volunteered to ride into the lines in order to concert 
 measures. lie got safely through only to find the three 
 Marshals divided in opinion. La Meilleraye wished to 
 march out and fight the Spaniards, Chatillon would not 
 consent without an order from the King. Fabert thereupon 
 rode back to Doullens, whither Richelieu had come, the bearer 
 of these unwelcome tidings. He advised the minister to 
 insist on the siege as the main object. Richelieu then wrote, 
 ainl Fabert galloped back to the camp bearing a letter 
 addressed to the disputants. " I am not a soldier, nor
 
 FABERT WORKS WITH THE KING AND RICHELIEU. 1G3 
 
 competent to advise you," said the minister. " Truly I have 
 read much, and have never found that, after taking eighteen 
 (lays to throw up lines, they were abandoned to fight an 
 enemy. When the King gave you the command of his 
 armies he believed you were capable, and he does not care 
 whether you march out or not, but you will answer with your 
 heads if you do not take Arras." By this time the enemy 
 had come up, spread his horsemen abroad, occupied posts 
 where convoys could be intercepted, and seemed disposed to 
 starve out the besiegers. Fabert got through them with his 
 emphatic note, which he supplemented by informing tlie 
 Marshals that two immense trains with ample escorts were 
 on the road. Once more, indeed many times, he traversed 
 the country beset by hostile patrols. It was thus mainly his 
 daring and incessant activity which enabled the camps to be 
 fed, for the convoys arrived ; his tireless energy and skill 
 imparted the needful concert and steadiness to the operations ; 
 and when, after repulse of the army of succour, the brave 
 governor, an O'Niel, surrendered (August 9th) on honourable 
 terms, the King, hearing the news, said pointing to Fabert, 
 " Without this brave man I should not be master of Arras." 
 But he was not a noble, or a marshal, only an able, accom- 
 plished, and indefatigable staff-officer of a kind not common 
 in those days. The detailed record of his labours lies buried 
 in piles of unread correspondence, and history barely knows 
 his name. 
 
 It is worth noting that the Duke of Enghien, soon to 
 command an army and win a thundering victory at Rocroi, 
 saw his first service at this siege, nor less so that, profiting 
 by his studies in the military school, he was as active with 
 his pen and pencil as with his sword, jotting down notes, 
 drawing plans, educating his soldierly eye and mind, taking 
 his trade seriously at that early age, and sending the result 
 of his toils to his father. Another personage of a different
 
 164 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 stamp was seen by the sliarp eyes of that Arnauld who 
 became an Abbe, and was then a trooper in the famous 
 Carabins, once commanded by his stout uncle Pierre. The 
 King gave the command of the volunteers to Cinq Mars, 
 under whom the Duke of Beaufort and the Duke of Mercoeur, 
 descendants of Henry IV. and Gabrielle, at once refused to 
 serve. Commenting on the appearance of Cinq Mars, 
 Arnauld says, " I don't know whether it was because he had 
 been unwell, but although he was handsome and had a 
 gracious presence, elsewhere, and was extremely par^ that 
 day, yet he did not appear at the head of his squadron with 
 that proud bearing which so becomes a soldier." Monglat, 
 who was present, notes tlie contrast between the volunteers 
 who came in from Paris and those who rode from the camp 
 to meet the big convoy. The new-comers were dandies, 
 shining in gold and silver, topped with fine feathers, and 
 dressed as if for a ball. The young men who had gone 
 through the campaign were sunburnt, clad in thick, clumsy, 
 dirty buff coats. The dandies had just spread out their 
 table-cloths for breakfast when the trumpet suddenly called 
 them to battle ! It is a contrast not unfrequently repeated 
 even now in war-time. 
 
 The autumn and winter brought Fabert rest from labours 
 in the field, but not in the cabinet, where his practical 
 knowledge and inventiveness were so welcome. Thus he 
 was busily engaged in a dejiartment which does so much and 
 shows so little — organization, transport, and supply, working 
 continuously with Richelieu at Rueil and Louis at St. 
 Germain. At the beginning of 1641 he was employed to 
 escort the famous Jean do Worth, captured in battle by 
 Bernhard at Rhinfeld, to Nancy ; negotiations having been 
 sot on foot to exchange the intrepid but somewhat headlong 
 leader of horse for Horn, the Swede, who was a general, 
 Kcturning from that duty he was directed to sec that La
 
 PABERT WOUKS WITH THE KING AND RICHELIEU. 1G5 
 
 Meilleraye was properly suj)plied with wliat was needful for 
 the siege of Aire, a troublesome walled town on the Lys, 
 and do the staff-work with the convoy. But a grave peril 
 had come to a head in another quarter, and Fabert was 
 called up to help, if he could. 
 
 Richelieu had been for some time aware that his old 
 enemies, the Duke of Bouillon, Turenne's elder brother, now 
 a Catholic, and the Count of Soissons, the grandson of the 
 Conde who was murdered in cold blood on the field of 
 Jarnac, were engaged in a conspiracy to effect his overthrow. 
 Nor were they alone. They were joined by Henry, Duke of 
 Guise, a flighty personage who is chiefly known for his 
 escapade in Naples, and they successfully sought and obtained 
 the promise of aid from the Spaniards. Sedan, where 
 Soissons had resided since 1637, the year after he was present 
 at Amiens, when Gaston's cowardice prevented the assassin- 
 ation of the hated Cardinal, was the head-quarters of the 
 plot and, so to speak, the base of operations. It was wide- 
 spread, all the old hands being engaged,. including the ill-used 
 Charles, Duke of Lorraine and Madame de Chevreuse ; but 
 the pivot of the scheme was its Bourbon leader, who besides 
 his other griefs, never forgot that Richelieu wished him to 
 marry Madame de Combalet. These conspirators had got 
 together some soldiery in Sedan ; it was suspected that they 
 looked for a body of Imperialists ; and Marshal Chatillon, 
 an able but " lethargic " officer, was sent to watch and thwart 
 the enterprise. He was instructed to caj^ture Bouillon, 
 which, it was supposed, would bar the road to the troops 
 coming from Belgium, and then storm Sedan. He did 
 nothing, and it was his inactivity which made the impatient 
 Richelieu send his trusted assistant to spur on the Marshal. 
 Fabert, however, soon hurried back to the King at Abbeville 
 with weighty information. The cautious commander on the 
 Meuse had reasons for delay, and his judgment was confiimed
 
 166 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 by receiving, after Fabert's departure, fresh orders from the 
 Court, directing him to post his troops in such away as would 
 cover Champagne, and there await reinforcements. In fact, 
 the minister had learned not only that a strong Spanish 
 division w^as on the road, but that the conspiracy of exalted 
 malcontents was wider and deeper than he had believed. 
 
 The sharpness of the crisis, in the eyes of Louis and tlie 
 Cardinal, is indicated by the fact that the King announced 
 his intention of bringing up a strong army, and by the 
 despatch of Fabert once more to the scene. Meanwhile 
 Chatillon, quitting the meadows of Douzy, had crossed the 
 Mouse and pitched his camp at Remilly, where Fabert found 
 him on the 1st of July. Lamboy, with his Imperialists, now 
 appeared marching down the right bank of the Chiers towards 
 Sedan, and his junction with Bouillon and Soissons could not 
 be prevented. Fabert then adroitly induced the Marshal 
 to issue orders for the march of the army to the heights 
 above Frenois, so well-known since the war of 1870, whence 
 they could act with advantage against an enemy who might 
 cross the Meuse. A storm of rain was enough to delay the 
 execution of the order, and while Chatillon, despite the 
 ardour of his advisers, remained at Remilly, the conspirators, 
 July 6th, passed the river above Sedan, and marched on 
 the position, reconnoitred by Fabert. Late that morning 
 the Royal army marched forth, moving on Bulson, and then 
 through the hills north-west towards the Bar. Fabert, as 
 usual in front of the column, discovered that the enemy was 
 near the wood of Marfee, still extant between Cheveuges and 
 Noycrs. Riding swiftly up to the Marshal, he told him what 
 he had seen, " It is only a party which has come out to 
 reconnoitre us," said Cliatillon. Fabert, often brusque, 
 answered bluntly, " Parbleu, no one reconnoitres with infantry ; 
 I have seen the pikes ; I have seen the Avholo army ! " As 
 Cliatillon gave no heed to news of such import, the
 
 FABERT WORKS WITH THE KING AND RICHELIEU. 1G7 
 
 irritated captain turned to a noble youth, and asked liini 
 "whether he had ever seen an army defeated." The answer 
 was " No." " Well," rejoined Fabert, " to-day you will see 
 one." ^ The impetuous sally roused Chatillon, who rode 
 forward to see for himself, and immediately formed his troops 
 for action. 
 
 Then followed a foolish, scrambling battle of one hour's 
 duration, ending in the rout of the Koyal army. Whether 
 from sympathy with Soissons or discontent, the greater part 
 of the troops Avould not fight. They broke and fled, Avhon 
 they did not surrender. At the time when the battle was 
 really lost, an officer had gathered up two hundred gendarmes, 
 troopers as valiant as himself, and riding headlong into 
 the hostile left wing, broke down everything before them, 
 and what was more, killed the Count of Soissons in the 
 hurly-burly. That modest officer, telling the story, does not 
 mention himself, but in the report of Chatillon we read his 
 name — Fabert, who throughout the brief conflict, " according 
 to his habitual courage, never spared himself." He covered 
 the flight and helped to rally the scattered army. He says 
 in one letter that the French, panic-stricken, defeated them- 
 selves ; and in another, still indignant, he wrote, " The 
 example of the general, the excellent array, the astonishment 
 of the enemy, the bad position they occcupied, and all the 
 advantages which it is possible to have in a combat, only 
 turned to our shame." The conspirators won the chance 
 victory, but the death of Soissons put an end to their enter- 
 prise. The King and Richelieu came to Rheims; the 
 Imperialists marched back to Flanders ; and Bouillon, sub- 
 mitting rather proudly, made his peace with Louis. It was 
 half-hearted, and only a prelude to the tragedy of the 
 succeeding year. 
 
 Before the troubles on the Meuse were evaded rather than 
 ' This is the earliest report of an anecdote told of many commanders.
 
 1G8 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 settled on a firm basis, messengers arrived at Mezieres with 
 reports showing that La Meilleraye had been outwitted by 
 the Cardinal-Infanta, who, reinforced by Lamboy, had early 
 in August manoeuvred the Frenchman out of his position 
 near Aire before he had destroyed the siege works. The 
 consequence was that the enemy invested the place, making 
 good La Meilleraye's old lines, and defying attack. A rein- 
 forcement under De Breze enabled the two marshals to capture 
 Lens and La Bassee, threaten Lille, and commit the havoc 
 usual in those days. But the Imperialist would not relinquish 
 his grip of the fort on the Lys, feeling sure that famine 
 wonld compel the French garrison to beat chamadc. Fabert 
 was sent to look into and report upon this unwelcome reverse. 
 Moving actively hither and thither, he carried to the Court 
 at Amiens the fruit of his observations. Aire could not be 
 succoured, but Bapaume might be snatched from the enemy. 
 The King objected, on fair grounds, that the capture could 
 not be effected before the adversary would be in a position 
 to break up the siege ; but the fervid soldier undertook to 
 carry the town in eight days. Thereupon the King yielded ; 
 Fabert hastened to the camp with full powers, and by his 
 energy the garrison was compelled to capitulate in seven days. 
 " Excellent man," said the King, " he promises more than 
 one hopes, and performs more than he promises." It was at 
 this siege that he drew on himself the remonstrances of his 
 brother guardsmen. They held that he compromised their 
 regiment and his dignity by acting as engineer. His answer 
 was that he owed his honours to his zeal in the King's 
 service, and that those who liked to grow gray in the Guards, 
 which he did not mean to do, might act as they pleased, but 
 for his part he should work hard at the business in hand, 
 Avliich was to take the place, without regard to their view of the 
 dignity of his position. So he toiled in the trenches, batteries, 
 and galleries, according to his custom, and won Bapaume —
 
 FABERT WORKS WITH THE KING AND RICHELIEU. 169 
 
 a sharp and deserved reproof from this new kind of soldier 
 to a noblesse so quick to look down on the working engineers 
 who were not noble. 
 
 Further services kept him some time on the frontiers 
 of Artois with his friend, the newly promoted Marshal 
 Guiche, and on his return to the Court he met with an 
 adventure characteristic of the times which nearly cost him 
 his life. During his journey to Compiegne, obliged to wait 
 for horses, he went to bed, while the officer who accompanied 
 him lay down in his clothes. Early in the morning Count 
 Rantzau and Captain de Quesnai, seeing a light, rushed into 
 his room. The uproar they made woke Fabert, who said, 
 " Gentlemen, this is my room; there are others in the hotel, 
 and I beg you will seek one." " Sir," was the brutal answer, 
 " sleep if you can, I intend to make merry." Fabert, enraged, 
 leapt out of bed, while Rantzau, laiighing, cried, " The affair 
 is serious, the gentleman is taking to his hosen." He took 
 to his sword, in his shirt as he was, and fell on the intruders, 
 who, getting on each side of Fabert, wounded him in fourteen 
 places before the hotel people could run in. They seized 
 the trooper, and Fabert, charging, overbore Kantzau. Hold- 
 ing his sword at the brawler's throat, he asked his name, 
 " Beg your life or I will take it." " His name, M. de Fabert," 
 said mine host, " is Rantzau." The young man was horror- 
 struck at his own conduct. Fabert, hot-tempered and fierce, 
 was ever generous, and he allowed the "young scamps," as 
 he called them, to escape while the host sought the police. 
 Then turning to his own attendant officer, who had slunk 
 aside during the fight, he said, " Fly with them ; your shame- 
 ful cowardice is as dishonouring as their crime, and merits 
 the same punishment." Two wounds were severe, and kept 
 him long in his chamber, tended by the King's surgeon, who 
 was sent to the inn as soon as Fabert's servant reported the 
 incident at Compiegne. The delinquents were arrested, and
 
 170 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 prosecuted by tlie angry King, but the reiterated prayers of 
 their victim at length secured their pardon. 
 
 Fortunately he recovered soou enough to show his faith- 
 fulness to the old Duke of Epernon. Finding that, on the 
 strength of forged letters, the Duke was accused of conspiring 
 to kill the King and the Cardinal, Fabert not only laboured 
 to convict the miscreants, but promptly declared that he 
 would answer with his head for the Duke's innocence, and 
 proposed that he should be imprisoned in the Bastille until 
 his pledge was made good. His offer, of course, was not 
 accepted, but the evidence he produced showing the wicked- 
 ness of the accuser, led to the arrest and ultimately the 
 execution of that confirmed felon. Neither the King nor 
 the Cardinal regarded the vehemence of Fabert's inter- 
 position with disfavour; both knew that nothing daunted 
 him when his heart and head were engaged to serve a friend. 
 Epernon's request, in January 1642, that Fabert should be 
 allowed to visit him, was therefore readily accorded. The 
 haughty old Duke had been confined in the gloomy castle 
 of Loches, where he kept up his state, but was a virtual 
 jOTsoner, humbled, yet still treated with formal respect by 
 Richelieu. He was now eighty-eight, and had long out- 
 lived his age. He had seen the grand seigneurs of his 
 brilliant youth destroyed or rendered powerless by the 
 terrible minister; and had himself suffered bitter mortifi- 
 cations with a stern unbending fortitude. He would never 
 address the Cardinal as " Monseigneur," or, in his letters, 
 place over his signature any words except " very humble and 
 very affectionate," not obedient, " servant." He was not dis- 
 loyal, had been ever a firm enemy of the League, and he 
 represented the last wreck of provincial liberty as under- 
 stood by the great governors. Shrewd, and full of bitter 
 experiences, he said to the arch-conspirator Fontrailles, 
 "Beware of the Bastille;" and implored De Thou to quit
 
 FABERT WORKS WITH THE KING AND RICHELIEU. 171 
 
 the Court for the Bench, not believing that they and Cinq 
 Mars could overthrow a man like Richelieu. Altogether a 
 unique figure, with a touch of the heroic in his persistent 
 bearing. Fabert, wlio received from him his first employ- 
 ment, stood by his death-bed in the grim chateau, and 
 received his last message to the King, which was a request 
 that his Majesty would protect the family of his faithful 
 subject. " Sir," said his mournful listener, " have you for- 
 gotten his Eminence ? One word to him will not injure 
 your children." But the only response he could get, after a 
 pause, was, " I pray God to bless his enterprises, I am his 
 servant." Fabert departed ; and soon afterwards the in- 
 flexible veteran passed quietly away.
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF CINQ MARS. 
 
 A REVOLT in Catalonia and Roussillon, favoured and openly 
 supported by the French Court, offered so good an oppor- 
 tunity for the extension of the frontier to the Pyrenees, that 
 the principal military effort, in 1642, was made on that side. 
 Guebriant, in January, won his hdto7i at Kempen, near 
 Cologne, where he cleverly overwhelmed one division of 
 the Imperialists before it could be joined by another, thus 
 safeguarding the Rhine. Harcourt, fresh from new Italian 
 triumphs, and Guiche were on the Belgian border, and 
 six months afterwards, having divided their forces, the 
 latter suffered a severe defeat at Honnecourt, which was 
 the counterpart of Kempen, in an opposite sense, and due 
 to similar causes. But during the first half of the year 
 the conditions were suitable for the prosecution of the war 
 of conquest iti Roussillon, and in February the King and 
 Richelieu set out to join the army already on the spot. 
 They moved slowly, with an .immense train, both sickly, 
 yet upborne by their high temper and constancy of spirit. 
 The capital of Roussillon, Pcrpignan, a redoubtable fortress 
 seated on the Tet, in a fertile plain, and commanding all 
 the eastern passes through the Pyrenees, was really the 
 object of the campaign ; but Louis carried with him all the 
 regal apparatus, crown, sceptre, robes, needful for a state
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF CINQ MARS. 173 
 
 entry Into Barcelona when he should take formal possession 
 of Catalonia, an ambitious design never to be accomplished. 
 Fabert, preceding the double processional column of King 
 and minister, joined the army under La Meilleraye while it 
 was yet in camp. He appears to have been the bearer of a 
 royal order, based on his own advice, directing the Marshal to 
 reduce the sea fortress of Collioure before tackling Perpignan. 
 Though not relished by the commander it was certainly the 
 correct operation, because the port at that time gave the 
 Spaniards easy access to the plain ; and they had demon- 
 strated its value by landing a force there in January and 
 pouring a fresh stock of provisions into the magazines of 
 Perpignan. A little north of Collioure the rocky spurs of 
 the hills terminate, and a low, sandy beach, backed by a chain 
 of lakes and salt marshes, separated by rare and narrow 
 intervals, fringes the curve of the gulf as far as the Rhone, 
 broken only by low headlands at Leucate, Agde, and Cette. 
 There is no safe anchoring ground off this line of coast, which 
 is edged by moving sandbanks. In the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century the inlet defended by Collioure, now superseded 
 by Port Vendres, further south, had an especial value because 
 it was unique, and thus Fabert's advice was sound. La 
 Meilleraye, rude and violent in manner and speech, while he 
 took care not to thwart the Cardinal, to whom he owed 
 everything, turned his anger upon the trusted staff officer of 
 whose influence at Court he was jealous. Discoursing at 
 table on the qualities of his troops, he said, in a loud voice, 
 *'We have Fabert's dianoincs," or, as we might say, carjDet 
 kniglits or feather-bed soldiers, meaning the first battalion of 
 the Guard, long on duty at Court. The insult rankled ; and 
 when, the next day, the guardsman saluted the Marshal as he 
 rode up, and the ill-bred gentleman shouted " This is not a 
 time for idle ceremony, but for action," Fabert's sensitive 
 temper flamed up at the stupid imputation of cowardice, and
 
 174 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 he was only restrained by his cahn friend Turenne from 
 fighting the offender there and then. 
 
 The army moved down on Collioure, and it was in the 
 presence of the enemy that La Meilleraye, who had had time 
 for reflection, handsomely made a rough sort of reparation 
 which ended the quarrel. He asked the opinion of his 
 subordinate, who replied that he was there to obey orders. 
 " Let us forget the past," said the Marshal ; " what do you 
 advise ? " " To attack," was the brief answer. " March," 
 rejoined the Marshal. The rapid assault and capture of an 
 outwork speedily followed ; the army invested the fort, and 
 the two brave men never quarrelled again. The Spaniards 
 lost heavily in the combat, and obtaining a truce to bury the 
 dead, Fabert volunteered as a hostage from the French side. 
 While in the citadel his quick eyes, ever on the watch, 
 caught sight of the tower which contained the large cistern 
 whence the garrison derived their supply of water. When 
 operations were renewed on his return to the besiegers' 
 quarters, he drove a mine under that tower, blew it up, and 
 thus compelled a surrender on April 10th, 16-12. The con- 
 ditions were now secured which rendered the siege of 
 Perpignan safe, for the French army in Catalonia barred the 
 road to succour through the mountains. Fabert went off to 
 scout about the place; he judged that, being too strong, it 
 could only be reduced by famine, and that report he carried 
 to the King. 
 
 When Collioure surrendered, Louis had been a month at 
 Narbonne, an ancient Roman station, built on the marshlands 
 at the head of a lake, and unhealthy. Richelieu, feeble and 
 alHictcd, brought to death's door by fever and abscesses, one of 
 wliicli for some time deprived him of the use of his right 
 liand, kept beside his master, doubtful of what might befall ; 
 for differences had arisen between them, and the slightest 
 opposition fi'om his King sent a shudder of anxiety through
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF CINQ MARS. 175 
 
 the Cardinal. He knew that a web of intrigue had been 
 woven about him by the old conspirators reinforced by the 
 youthful Cinq Mars, and his anguish of mind increased when 
 the King, towards the end of April, set out for the camp 
 before Perpignan, wliither the minister's infirmities prevented 
 him from going. He had ever been nervous, distrustful, 
 shaken by apprehensions, and now his terror was the greater, 
 because he suspected even the constancy of Louis, on which, 
 nevertheless, he had such good reason to rely. The army, or 
 rather some of its officers, even those in the Guard, had been 
 tampered with, and all the chiefs were not free from suspicion. 
 The Cardinal, who ostentatiously made his wall, remained in 
 Narbonne, enduring its vitiated air, until the end of May, 
 when, under a fresh access of alarm, he sought the sea-breezes 
 at Agde, where the Herault pours through a fruitful plain 
 bordered by extinct volcanoes and lava beds ; and then, beset 
 by more fears, hurried to Aries, afterwards to Tarascon, as if 
 making for Paris. He had invoked and received the aid of 
 the Prince of Orange, who was deeply interested in the 
 frustration of the Cinq Mars faction, and he had taken the 
 precaution to secure the willing help of Conde and his son 
 Enghien, We may leave him journeying towards Tarascon, 
 better in body somewhat, yet deeply alarmed, or seeming so, 
 and follow the" movements of the King and Fabert, which will 
 give some insight into the causes of Richeheu's trembling 
 perturbation, if all the time he was not, in some degree at 
 least, acting a part to deceive his hosts of enemies. For in 
 Paris his friends were not afraid. Even Marie de Gonzaga 
 wrote to Cinq Mars that his projects were as well known 
 there as the fact that the Seine flowed under the Pont Neuf ; 
 while old Conde scouted the notion that Louis would abandon 
 the Cardinal ; and the shrewd Chancellor, Scguier, openly said 
 that there would be another Day of Dupes more astounding 
 than the first.
 
 ]7G ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 The army blockaded Perpiguan, which rendered its fall 
 certain ; and as we have no further interest in the operation, 
 it may at once be said that the fine old fortress surrendered 
 in September, and Roussillon became definitively French. 
 The King arrived in the camp about the 24th of April, and 
 remained until the beginning of June. Those were critical 
 months in his reign, for Gaston, the Duke of Bouillon, Cinq 
 Mars, and probably De Thou, had formed a gigantic plot to 
 destroy the Cardinal, impose their will on the King, if he 
 lived, and secure the Regency if he died. The young 
 favourite had played his last card in the game of ambition. 
 The Gascon Fontrailles, Count of Astarac, a man of 
 boundless daring and not less wariness, a born conspirator, 
 had, on behalf of his principals, negotiated a treaty with 
 Spain which secured her help in money and troops for the 
 furthering of her and their schemes. It was a continuation 
 of the Soissons plot on a broader basis, and belonged to a 
 series which the Franco-Spanish party had carried on ever 
 since the murder of Henry IV, An act of war on the part 
 of Spain, it was an act of treason on the part of the French 
 faction. Cinq Mars, son of Marshal Effiat, promoted to the 
 recognized post of favourite, and made Grand Ecuycr, took it 
 into his foolish young head to try a fall with the Cardinal. 
 He drew in the Duke of Bouillon, drew in Gaston, both ready to 
 be drawn in, met the first in secret at St. Germain, and both in 
 the Hotel de Venise, Rue Dauphinc, as it afterwards became, 
 employed, witli his lull consent, Augustin de Thou as a go- 
 between, and obtained the perilous commission for Fontrailles. 
 Madame de Chevreuse, and probably Queen Anne of Austria, 
 were no strangers to the plot, though they may not have 
 known its full scope ; and Anne's participation, if she par- 
 ticipated, inust have been tempered l)y anxiety for her 
 oldest son. 
 
 At the time when the King went to the IVrpignan leaguer,
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF CTNQ MARS. 177 
 
 Fontrailles had returned from Spain with his black treaty, 
 and Cinq Mars was daily engaged in winning over adherents 
 to his cause. He had gained, or said he had gained, some 
 officers of the Guards, and one day, encountering Fabert, 
 took him apart, ostensibly to play quoits, really to talk 
 treason. What he said must be inferred from Fabert's 
 prompt and indignant reply to the insult, and his abrujit 
 departure. How much was revealed cannot be known ; but 
 enough to make Fabert, who saw De Thou near by, lead him 
 aside and implore him to break off from the Favourite and 
 seek an asylum in Italy. De Thou, an old comrade, much 
 esteemed, promised to cross the Alps, but did not, because a 
 malady developed itself in his throat. The counsel shows 
 that his friend measured correctly the dangers of the moment. 
 Another incident proves that Louis himself was alive to the 
 discord around him. One day he said to Fabert, "I know 
 tliat my army is divided into two factions — Royalists and 
 Cardinalists, to which do you belong ? " The answer was 
 direct and frank — " The Cardinalists, Sire," adding the notable 
 words, that he was convinced of his fidelity and zeal for the 
 King's service. " It is true," said the King, " that the Cardinal 
 has rendered me important services, and it would not be just 
 that mere trifles should make me forget them." It was ever 
 so. However great the irritation excited by the Cardinal's 
 grand manner, overbearing even when studiously deferential, 
 the King, who was silent and reflective, mastered his wrath. 
 The most dangerous enemy of Richelieu was the beautiful, 
 ingenious, and pious Mademoiselle la Fayette, but she took 
 the veil. She also was an unconscious tool in the hands of 
 the Spanish faction. Louis gave up Madame de Hautefort 
 — all his attachments were platonic — when she used her 
 influence against the Cardinal. " Your Majesty," said Brienne, 
 " often promised that she should not be disgraced." Louis
 
 178 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 answered that he had, on condition " qu'elle scroit sage ; " 
 adding, " Moreover, she was to keep clear of cabals, and that 
 is exactly what I could never induce her to do." 
 
 Cinq Mars not only had a bias towards cabals, but was 
 encouraged by the Queen. Louis endured him long with 
 great patience, to such a degree that the courtiers thought 
 the Favourite was supreme. The wiser knew better. Brienne, 
 trying to persuade the ill-stan-ed De Thou not to join the 
 army in Roussillon, said that the King had an aversion for 
 Cinq Mars, and could no longer endure him. The fact 
 revealed itself in a convincing manner before the walls of 
 Perpignan, months after Brienne's warning to his friend. 
 Fabert one morning submitted a military report to the King, 
 who, as his custom was, proceeded to draw plans of the works, 
 Fabert giving explanatory comments. Cinq Mars, who was 
 present, ridiculed the veteran soldier's remarks, and that 
 folly drew on him a torrent of fierce rebuke from the King. 
 " You," said he to the impertinent youngster, " have no doubt 
 passed the night in the trenches, since you speak so know- 
 ingly." " Sire," rejoined Cinq Mars, " you know to the 
 contrary." " Go," stammered out Louis, smiting the arms 
 of his chair with fury, " go, you are insufferable. You wish 
 peoj)le to believe that you pass your nights in ordering with 
 me gi-eat affairs of State, when you pass them in my garde- 
 robe with my valets reading Ariosto — go, orgucillcux, il y a 
 six mois que je vous vomis " [" I spewed you out, proud fool, 
 six months ago"]. The young man went, saying to Fabert 
 as he departed, " Sir, I thank you." " What did he say ? " 
 cried the King, " he seemed to utter a menace." " No, Sire," 
 was the reply ; " no one dares to employ threats in the 
 presence of your Majesty, and elsewhere they are not en- 
 dured." A dramatic scene which, while it proves how correct 
 was Brienne's information in the preceding February, also
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF CINQ MARS. 179 
 
 tends to render inexplicable the terrors and suspicions of 
 Richelieu.^ 
 
 At this very moment, when the credit of Cinq Mars was 
 wholly gone, the minister, worn down with rackmg pains, 
 was in an agony of mental torture. He had ever been a 
 victim to his fears, his physical timidity contrasting strongly 
 with his moral daring. " I have often heard my father relate," 
 says St. Simon, " how the Cardinal awoke him many times 
 in the dead of the nisfht, drawino- aside the bed curtains, and 
 flinging himself down beside the wise favourite, crying aloud 
 that he was lost." He dreaded the worst in every grave 
 conjuncture, yet took infinite pains to make himself secure. 
 During the Roussillon period he summoned the Duke of 
 Enghien, bade him remain by his side, and quietly collect a 
 body of his friends to act as a safeguard, which that shrewd 
 young man did. Yet, as we have seen, there was no solid 
 ground for terror, except from the audacity of men like 
 Fontrailles and the reckless spirits in the army. Even 
 Enghien saw that " M. le Grand was going from bad to 
 worse," and Chavigny, who was sent to the royal head- 
 quarters, returned without having spoken to Louis about his 
 titular favourite, because he found the pair mal ensemble. 
 The letter which the King sent to Richelieu on the 3rd of 
 June by Chavigny, after hearing the startling news of the 
 defeat at Honnecourt, which was taken soberly, should have 
 completely satisfied the suspiciously apprehensive Cardinal. 
 " I finish," wrote the King, " in assuring you, that whatever 
 false reports may be current, I love you more than ever, and 
 that we have been too long together to be ever separated, a 
 fact which I wish all the world should know." It is fair to 
 
 * As Fabert returned to Narbonne, April 24, after escorting the King 
 to the camp, it is possible that he made to Richelieu some report of the 
 roadside interview with Cinq Mars, and tlierel)y increased the Cardinal's 
 chronic anxieties and alarms.
 
 180 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 infer that the engaging modesty, frankness, and sturdy loyalty 
 of Fabert, ^vhich formed a striking contrast to the self-seeking, 
 flippancy, and arrogance of Cinq Mars, helped to destroy such 
 influence as the unfortunate favourite may possibly have 
 possessed at some early time over the King's mind. 
 
 Suddenly the whole edifice of treason tumbled down with 
 a crash. Tlie King, quitting the Perpignan camp, reached 
 Narboune on the 11th of June. Chavigny, travelling from 
 Aries, arrived the next day, and handed to Louis a packet 
 from the Cardinal. It contained a copy of the treaty negoti- 
 ated by Fontrailles at Madrid, or the substance of that 
 document, and revealed at once the perfidy of Cinq Mars, 
 Gaston, Bouillon, and by implication De Thou, who certainly 
 was engaged, more or less, in the plot throughout. The 
 papers submitted to him showed Louis that his brother was 
 to be placed in possession of Sedan, supported by Spanish 
 troops and money, and by their aid was to force from France 
 a peace favourable to Spain and the Empire — reverse, in fact, 
 at a blow the policy of the King and Richelieu. Louis could 
 not have hesitated, as he is said to have done, in deciding on 
 his course. Orders for the arrest of Cinq Mars were out on 
 the 12th, and he was caught, hiding in a cottage, on the 
 13th of June. De Thou was also captured, and in due time 
 Bouillon, then in command of tlie French forces in Italy, was 
 made prisoner at Casale, lurking in a hayloft, whither he had 
 fled at the first scent of danger. Fontrailles, a shifty and 
 dexterous man, betook himself to England before the fatal 
 discovery. Gaston, Duke of Orleans, behaved, as usual, 
 meanly; he secured a bare pardon and nothing more by 
 denouncing his confederates ; and having burned the original, 
 produced a cojjy of the treaty. Cinq Mars and De Thou were 
 beheaded ; Bouillon suffered only the loss of Sedan. Yet 
 Gaston and he were the principal delinquents, for without 
 them the other conspirators were powerless ! Whence
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF CINQ MARS. 181 
 
 Richelieu obtained the papers in the packet carried by 
 Chavigny to Narbonne is still a subject of conjecture. Sus- 
 picion fell on Queen Anne ; on Gaston, on his almoner, the 
 paltry Abbe de la Riviere; on a secret agent of Richelieu's 
 at Madrid, even on Olivarez himself! No proofs or certain 
 indications have come to light. The secret seems to have 
 been known to Fabert, bat if so, he kept his lips closed, and 
 it died with him, or went to ashes when he burned his 
 papers. 
 
 When the conspiracy was discovered Fabert was directed 
 to bring up from the camp at Perpignan several companies 
 of the Guard. He joined the King at Montfrin, where he got 
 fresh orders which sent him to Lyons. Before starting, he 
 paid a hurried visit to Tarascon, purporting to visit De Thou, 
 a prisoner in the castle there. He never deserted his friends 
 in misfortune, and dared, under the eyes of Richelieu, to give 
 such a proof of his deep concern. Not admitted, he went his 
 way, not, however, without writing a letter to the prisoner's 
 brother, the Abbe de Bonneval, although he could only report 
 that De Thou was well in health, and express his grief at the 
 disgrace of a tried friend for whom he was ready to do all in 
 his power. It was while the King halted at Montfrin, sick 
 almost unto death, that he had himself borne to the bedside 
 of Richelieu at Tarascon. Neither could sit upright, and the 
 famous interview, begun, it is said, with tears on both sides, 
 showed how profoundly these two fellow-workers were 
 touched. What passed is nowhere recorded ; yet the writers 
 who systematically blacken Louis, in order to exalt the power 
 and greatness of his minister, set forth in sparkling epigrams 
 the magnanimity of the Cardinal and the trembling subservi- 
 ency of the King. So that even the conspicuous proof which 
 he gave of his confidence, when, departing, he conferred on 
 Richelieu full powers, including the command of the army in 
 Roussillon, is distorted into evidence of Louis's contrition for
 
 182 ABRAHAM FABERT, 
 
 havincr dallied with the idea of " dethroninoj " the real 
 sovereign ! The truth is, that a character like that of the 
 King lacked the showy qualities which appeal to the imagin- 
 ations of men who see in the Cardinal-Duke a personification 
 of France, menacing, aggressive, terrible, and who forget that 
 Avithout a just, sagacious, and constant Louis XIII. to bear 
 with and sustain him, there could have been no proud and 
 splendid Richelieu, no towering man of genius to work his 
 life out in realizing a French patriot's ideal. 
 
 Louis journeyed forward on his way to Fontainebleau, and 
 Fabert travelled with him as far as La Bresle. Here, in the 
 evening, the King spoke to him very freely on the recent conduct 
 of Cinq Mars, which rankled deeply in his mind, and showed 
 that the favourite had long been suspected by a reticent 
 master, who could not refrain from pouring his woes into the 
 ear of a trusted officer. The next morning his Majesty 
 departed, after ordering Fabert to capture Trevoux, a walled 
 town on the Rhone belonging to the Grande Mademoiselle, 
 and held on her behalf by the troops of Gaston, her father, 
 who, it was feared, might slip into the place for shelter. 
 When the ta.sk had been dexterously performed, Fabert was 
 sent once more to Roussillon with a reinforcement, baseless 
 rumours having been floated implying that the Spaniards 
 were about to attempt the relief of Perpignan. There he 
 remained until the capitulation was signed. The Cardinal, 
 learning at the same time that the axe had slain Do Thou and 
 Cinq Mars, wrote liis exulting despatch — " Sire, your troops 
 are in Perpignan and your enemies are dead." He was still 
 helpless, moving slowly towards Paris, having completed his 
 work in the south. Summoning Fabert, that swift traveller 
 overtook him at a castle near Roanne, on the upper Loire. 
 There had been some question of appointing him Governor of 
 Roussillon, and the report had got abroad, but the King pre- 
 ferred another old and tried officer for that post. Richelieu
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF CINQ MARS. 183 
 
 then easily obtained from Louis the promise that Fabert 
 sliould have the governorship of Sedan, and it was to impart 
 the welcome news that the Cardinal called him from Roussillon, 
 He bade him, however, keep silent, testify no joy, offer no 
 compliments, so that he might appear to learn the fact from 
 the King's hps, a characteristic example of Richelicn's 
 method. " You are so disinterested," he said, " that if we 
 do not take care of your affairs you will make a bad bargain. 
 The King of his own motion bestows this post, but I will 
 provide for your establishment. Madame Fabert shall have 
 a thousand crowns per month as table allowance ; the King 
 will grant ten thousand crowns for plate and furniture ; the 
 rest I shall order without consulting you." Done with his 
 usual magnificence and breadth. 
 
 Fabert quietly retired as he was bidden, and hastened to 
 the Court at Paris, where Louis confirmed the words of his 
 minister, and directed the new Governor to assume his post 
 at once. He was sick of the quartain ague, but there was 
 no time to lose ; and on the 30th of September, Mazarin, 
 aided by a body of Guards and Swiss, having previously 
 performed the delicate task of dismissing the Duchess of 
 Bouillon and her troops, Fabert marched in and took his 
 place as the chief of the sovereign principality of Sedan. He 
 Avas near the end of his forty-third year, and the thirtieth 
 of his service. So far had he come by dint of courage, toil 
 and devotion, on his way to the highest military honour. It 
 is recorded that Turenne, on hearing that he might have 
 sway in Sedan, said to Fabert, " If my house must lose this 
 place, I would much rather that you had the government 
 than any other officer in the army." They had served to- 
 gether on many fields since 1635, when they first met, and 
 Turenne's firm friendship and high regard are not the least 
 valuable testimonies to the ability and character of Abraham 
 Fabert.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LOUIS AND RICHELIEU. 
 
 Before describing the conduct of the Governor of Sedan 
 in his new sphere of labour, we may here place conveniently 
 some brief comments on the two men who had so large an 
 influence on his fortunes ; for he lost both his friends and 
 masters within eight months after he took possession of the 
 territory. The minister died on the 4th December, 1642, and 
 the long-suffering monarch expired on the 14th May, 1643. 
 Their lives were and are inseparably woven together, but the 
 shining threads in the tissue have been allotted to the 
 haughty Cardinal, the sober hues alone to the modest King. 
 We may, perhaps, be allowed to differ, with proper respect, 
 from the great artists who designed and wrought the fabric 
 which fills them with delight. 
 
 The career of Richelieu, his character, his actions, have 
 attracted the praise and censure of historians, who applaud 
 and accept his policy. They glory in the minister who 
 hoped to extend the dominions of the French Crown until 
 they were girdled by "the natural frontiers of ancient Gaul." 
 There are others who, admiring his patriotism and sharing 
 his love of domination, rebuke him because, in the relentless 
 pursuit of his superb design, ho mowed down everything 
 wliirli stood or seemed to stand between him and the accom- 
 piisliment, of liis double purpose — absolute government at 
 home, and the .supremacy of France in Europe. They lament
 
 LOUIS AND KICHELIEU. 185 
 
 and tliey denounce the Tarquinian policy which cut off the 
 tallest heads, slew great nobles as well as subordinate con- 
 spirators — respecting a Montmorency not more than a Cinq 
 Mars — filled the prisons, multiplied the exiles, crushed the 
 political Huguenots, coerced the Parlements, and set aside 
 the States-General. They condemn severely fiscal and 
 financial devices, which, unjust and often shameful, wasted 
 the national resources, piled up debt, stimulated corruption, 
 encouraged venality, promoted fraud, and stung the beggared 
 peasants into useless revolt. They are eloquent and im- 
 pressive when passing judgment on the means employed by 
 the great minister — but the great minister's vast and costly 
 projects, defensive and aggressive alike, are not merely 
 sanctioned, they are sanctioned with pride and exultation. 
 Yet, attentively considered, it will be seen that by no pro- 
 cesses other than those he adopted could the same results 
 which he achieved have been achieved in the same time and 
 in the same circumstances. 
 
 If it were desirable to establish the indisputable authority 
 of the central power, then it was necessary to beat down 
 the political pretensions of the Huguenots, who aimed at 
 something more than religious freedom ; to enforce sub- 
 mission from the grand seigneurs who defied the law like 
 Bouteville, or took the field like Montmorency, or men of 
 lesser rank who plotted like Chalais and Cinq Mars ; nay, 
 it was necessary to constrain, if not to punish, all, whatever 
 their rank, who were more or less leagued with Spain, even 
 Queen Anne, the Duke of Orleans, and the Duke of Bouillon. 
 If, again, it was desirable to wage war on Spain and the 
 Empire, in order to push forward on all sides the boundaries 
 of France, how could that be done effectually while there 
 was anarchy and faction fighting within France, not only a 
 strife of noble against noble, an eager competition for place 
 and power, but an actual co-operation between internal
 
 18G ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 parties and external enemies ; so that in order to attain the 
 great end, the aggrandizement of France, it was imperative 
 that the noblesse should be subdued, and those who dealt 
 in treason punished. The end does not justify the means, 
 but those who hold that Richelieu's end was just, and that, 
 as a patriot, he is not only entitled to gratitude but to 
 reverence, are bound to accept his means, bloody and oppres- 
 sive as they were, since, unless, they had been applied, there 
 would soon have been no E.ichelieu, he would have died by 
 the hand of an assassin, and no such manifestation of the 
 power and splendour of France, as that in which his country- 
 men take delight, for there was but one man of his stamp in 
 France, himself. 
 
 In like manner the fiscal exactions, the financial expedients, 
 find their excuse in the necessity for revenue to carry on a 
 government of concentration, and a war of conquest and 
 glory. When the objects in view are condemned by those 
 who adore them, it will be time to admit that their censures 
 are justified ; but the same people are not permitted to in- 
 toxicate themselves with the glory and gain, and flatter their 
 sense of virtue by pouring out righteous invective on the 
 dreadful cost by which they were won. Still less is it allow- 
 able to magnify the moral grandeur of the aim, and ascribe 
 to immoral passions — an insatiable love of power, personal 
 hatreds, unscrupulous malignity — the actions by which the 
 grand aim was to be attained. Richelieu was human, and 
 he was a Frenchman in his virtues and vices, but he was 
 thoroughly sincere. He believed that he was working out 
 liis vast schemes for the glory of France, that hostility to 
 him was hostility to them and to her ; and then, to use the 
 terrible words ascribed to him which, if lie did not speak 
 them, represent his thought and actions, when once he had 
 made up his mind lie went straight towards his goal, he 
 overturned, he cut down all before him, and afterwards
 
 LOUIS AND RICHELIEU. 187 
 
 covered liis deeds with his scarlet robe.^ The victims who 
 survived shuddered and shrieked, and with Pierre Corneille, 
 found the sole motives which animated the Cardinal to be 
 "pride, ambition, interest, and avarice." Pride and ambition 
 there was in abundance, and these were powerful springs of 
 action. But the end achieved was the thing dear to Richelieu, 
 and he defined it when he said on his death-bed, speaking to 
 the King, " I leave your kingdom in a higher degree of 
 glory and reputation than it has ever attained, and all your 
 enemies struck down and humbled." He was not the first 
 nor the last who sacrificed everything to power and glory, to 
 enlarge the boundaries, to exalt the name, to secure the 
 dominance of France in Europe. Those purposes could not 
 be accomplished except at great cost — the destruction of 
 provincial and municipal franchises, as well as the independ- 
 ence of the noblesse ; the foundation, if not the creation of 
 that irresistible State (J'Et.at) personified in the son of Louis 
 XIII. ; the conversion of a Monarchy limited in its authority 
 by great territorial lords, local councils, Parlements, and 
 States-General, into an Absolutism tempered by epigrams. 
 Kichelieu is a colossal figure in French history, but his work 
 must be taken as a whole. Not the welfare of France, her 
 power and glory were his gods ; and if he offered up on their 
 altars the abiding interests of his country, he also sacrificed 
 himself, killing his weak body by the literally endless labours 
 of his spirit, which wore its physical environment into a mere 
 atomy of pain, yet to the last remaine<l itself triumphant 
 and serene. He embodied the French thirst for glory and 
 supremacy, which was again exemplified in Louis XIV. and 
 Napoleon Bonaparte ; and those who approve their grandiose 
 design must share the burdens inseparable from its prosecu- 
 tion — bloodshed and crime. The moral lesson of Richelieu's 
 
 ^ Quand une fnis j'ai pris nia resolution, je vnis amonlnit.je renverse 
 tout, je fauche tout, et ensuiteje couvre tout de nia soutane rouge.
 
 188 ABRAHAM FABEET. 
 
 life is lost if we heartily sanction his projects, and repudiate 
 with a holy indignation the rigorous severity, the thorough- 
 going character of the methods by which alone they could be 
 attained. " Qui veut la Jin veitt les moyens." More consistent 
 than his devotees, Richelieu vindicated and accepted both. 
 It is that haughty veracity of mind which makes him great 
 even to those, if any there be, who detest alike his objects 
 and his means. 
 
 Whatever judgment is passed on the minister must be 
 passed on the King, who selected him because he was a man 
 of genius, who sustained him throughout unflinchingly, be- 
 cause he had a boundless trust in the Cardinal's practical 
 ability to achieve the objects which were common to both. 
 Sully, a competent judge of character, who had closely watched 
 and measured the young Bishop of Lu^on as the spokesman 
 of the clergy in 1614, the Queen-mother's man of business, 
 and a subordinate member of the government, called the 
 King's choice of Richelieu an " inspiration from Heaven." It 
 was doubtless something much less — the judgment of a 
 silent, observant, thoughtful prince, who had lofty ideas of 
 his duty as a man and a monarch. He discerned in the 
 prelate the qualities essential to the working out of his 
 desires, and if these were enlarged as time went on by the 
 constant intercourse of two such men, fundamentally they 
 were common to both. The long unbroken partnership, 
 which resisted such a series of formidable assaults — from 
 a selfish mother, a foreign wife, a mean and cowardly brother, 
 great nobles, ambitious schemers, brilliant and unscrupulous 
 dames, hungry place-hunters, conspirators and assassins — 
 testifies not only to the original perspicacity of the King, 
 but to his iron will and unshaken constancy. Something 
 also to his magnanimity, seeing that the very trials to which 
 he was exposed, the painful struggles he was compelled to 
 endure in defence of his minister, tested his strength of mind
 
 LOUIS AND rjCIIELIEU. 189 
 
 to the uttermost ; and to his forbearance, because that 
 minister, absorbed in pushing on his stupendous plans, was 
 sometimes irritating and often exacting in his demands for 
 confidence and power. 
 
 Louis XIIT. stood these exorbitant tests, and never for a 
 moment deserted the man to whom he was so closely allied, 
 and who served him as few raonarchs have been served. 
 Richelieu's perpetual alarms for his own safety, personal as 
 well as ministerial, were due to his nervous constitution and 
 his position in relation to the State. The King had no fear of 
 assassination ; the Cardinal felt its powers every day. The 
 King was never haunted by the idea of deposition ; the 
 minister, who was not minister by divine right or inheritance, 
 knew that dismissal was possible, and trembled at the 
 slightest breath of hostility, covert or open. The King 
 could not only bear contradiction, he loved a loyal, manly 
 frankness, and to the last allowed men to talk before him 
 in order to ascertain exactly what at least they professed to 
 think. Pulling his hat low down on his forehead, he listened 
 attentively, kept his opinion to himself, and left them to 
 their impressions of the effect they had produced, and these 
 Avere often wrong. Richelieu, intent on his purposes, was 
 angered by opposition, perhaps because it hurt his self-love, 
 perhaps because it was a hindrance, and, whenever he could, 
 he always rode down his antagonists. The curious thing is 
 that the King, because he was temperate, patient, and re- 
 served, is credited with an ever-present suspicion and 
 jealousy, whereas the Cardinal was suspicion and jealousy 
 incarnate ; the King always trusted him ; yet, although he 
 had abundant reason to do so, he never thoroughly trusted 
 the King. That was a defect which must be traced to 
 extreme sensitiveness and an active imagination, not to the 
 conduct of the monarch towards his minister. The sentence 
 imputed to Richelieu — " that the ;pctit coucher gave him more
 
 190 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 trouble than all the affairs of Europe " — is a measure of the' 
 gnawing anxiety which beset him through life, lest, in the 
 end. Lis enemies should prevail. When he implied, in a 
 famous letter, that the King was ready to wink at his 
 assassination, that revolting injustice was born of his in- 
 grained distrust, heightened by his prolonged and acute 
 bodily sufferings. For so great a man Richelieu fretted too 
 much ; it was a waste of power. 
 
 History has dealt unjustly with the character of Louis 
 XIII., who was the best if not the greatest of his house. 
 His maladies even, brought on by medical treatment, which 
 makes one readily understand Moliere's hatred of the 
 Sangrado school, are treated as faults ; his chastity is food 
 for scoffing, and is regarded not as a proof of strength, which 
 it was, but weakness of character; his reticence and un- 
 demonstrative habits, Ins very faithfulness to the able 
 minister of his choice, have been used as evidence that he 
 was the unwilling slave of that minister, a trembling " idle 
 King," given up to frivolities, without intellectual force and 
 without a will. No picture could be more untrue. Dazzled 
 by the splendour of Richelieu, his friends and enemies alike 
 have combined to establish his pre-eminence at the expense 
 of the King who was art and part in all his deeds ; and thus, 
 in Contemporary memoirs, as well as in later histories, Louis 
 figures, where he is not effaced altogether, as a foil to the 
 man who, until Louis XIV. set out in the pursuit of glory, 
 seemed to realize most completely the French ideal. If so, 
 his renown must at least be shared with his sovereign, who 
 worked steadily by his side for eighteen years, entered 
 cordially into all the schemes designed to achieve a common 
 purpose, and, by his single strength, upheld him against a 
 liost of relentless and persevering foes. Madame de Motte- 
 ville, wlio was devoted to Queen Anne, and therefore a 
 hostile witness, says that the King had " heauconp d'esjmt ct
 
 LOUIS AND mCHELIEU. 191 
 
 dc connoissanccs," and that " the Cardinal de Richelieu himself 
 had often said of him, that in the Council he always gave the 
 best advice, and frequently suggested expedients when affairs 
 were most embarrassing." The first Duke of St. Simon also 
 told her that Louis, from a principle of equity, being convinced 
 that he was faithful, sustained the Cardinal against the 
 attacks of Marie de Medicis, the original cause of his 
 alienation from her. Fontenay-Mareuil has testified to his 
 industry, punctuality, and conscientiousness in the discharge 
 of his duties when a youth, voukmt toujours, quelque jcttnc 
 qiCil flit, que Ics affaires allasscnt hien — habits which grew 
 stronger as he grew older. He shrewdly remarked, when 
 worried by his ministers in the days before Richelieu was 
 appointed, " They wish me to share all their dreams, but if 
 they sometimes impute even to me projects which never 
 entered my head, what can I think of the stories they tell 
 me about other people ? " His principal grief against the 
 Cardinal, writes Madame de Motteville, was that his minister 
 did all he could to hinder him from taking command in the 
 field — one of the bagatelles, perhaps, which he told Fabert 
 were so much outweighed by long services. History has 
 been unjust to Louis. The " soutane rouge " covers a great 
 deal more than the deeds of the Cardinal — it hides the King, 
 All a typical French historian, M. Henri Martin, can say of 
 him is, that " France owes him some gratitude," because " he 
 sacrificed his pride to his duty towards the State ; he 
 possessed a virtue rare among mediocrities (Jiommcs mcdiocrcs), 
 that of accepting with resignation the domination of genius." 
 He " understood that God created him a subject ; he sub- 
 mitted religiously to the King sent by Providence ! " A fine 
 example of that contempt blended with injustice, which is 
 not rare among the worshippers of Richelieu, but emphatic- 
 ally ungrateful in them, because the mortal they adore 
 depended literally for the breath of his political existence
 
 192 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 upon the hearty, constant, and intelligent support of the 
 monarch they despise. The truth is, that the minister comes 
 down to us in a blaze of glory not all his own, because his 
 master and confidant, if he did not disdain, never sought the 
 applause of posterity. His enemies, at an early date, called 
 him a E,oi Faineant, his friends surnamed him the Just. 
 The true appreciation lies between the two. He was a hard- 
 working King, and, as the world goes, a good man ; but, at 
 least according to modern political and judicial ideas, whatever 
 he may have been as a man, as a monarch he was not just. 
 He must share with his magnificent servant the iniquity as 
 well as the renown of his reign. 
 
 When the Cardinal died, and his sovereign, reduced to a 
 mere skeleton by his poignant sufferings, found his last 
 lodging {dernier logis) in St. Denis, Fabert lost two friends, 
 and at each blow felt his position insecure. Happily for 
 him Mazarin, who knew his worth, had captivated the Queen- 
 Reofent, and thus the loss he sustained had no sinister effects 
 on the fortunes of the Governor of Sedan. To him, after 
 this not unnecessary digression, we must now return, and 
 strive to pourtray him under the reign of Anne and 
 Mazarin.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 GOVERNOR OF SEDAN. 
 
 Under the walls of a castle, built in the fifteenth century 
 by Everard III., the grandfather of that William de la Marck 
 whose historical name is the Wild Boar of the Ardennes, the 
 town of Sedan gradually arose and flourished until it needed 
 walls and outworks, which were supplied during the two 
 succeeding centuries, notably by Henri de la Tour, Viscount 
 of Turenne, who, marrying the heiress of the territory, took 
 the title of Duke of Bouillon, although the neighbouring 
 town of Bouillon had been snatched away by a Bishop 
 of Liege. Mademoiselle de Sedan, as Sully calls the young 
 lady, was the daughter of Robert de la Marck and Francjoise 
 de Bourbon, both converts to Calvinism ; and as the husbaud 
 selected for her by Henry IV. was of the same persuasion, 
 Sedan became a quasi-French possession and an asylum for 
 the harassed Huguenots. The heiress died soon after her 
 marriage, and the fortunate Duke, by allying himself Avith 
 the house of Nassau, still further linked Sedan with the 
 Protestant cause. His eldest son, Frederick Maurice, whom 
 we have seen deeply engaged in the Cinq Mars conspiracy, 
 took to wife a Catholic lady, and by her influence he reverted 
 to the faith of Rome ; but that conversion did not impair the 
 security of his Protestant subjects, who still remained the 
 dominant party in municipal politics as well as religion. 
 The sudden change in their rulers naturally created friction.
 
 194 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 SO that Fabert's firmness and tact were at once put to a 
 severe test. As the representative of the French Crown he 
 had to overcome a domestic opposition which thought that it 
 had all to lose by the unwelcome transfer. While Richelieu 
 lived, and after his death, the Governor was supported, and 
 he was able to establish the new order with a strong hand. 
 
 The political opposition which he encountered grew out of 
 resistance to the administrative changes conferring enlarged 
 authority on the Governor, and lessening that of tlie officials ; 
 nor was it quelled until the principal malcontents were 
 dismissed. The people, in fact, could not feel sure that the 
 whirligig of faction would not bring back the Duke, who 
 persisted in declaring that he had only signed away his 
 inheritance when compelled, and who foolishly dreamed that 
 he could persuade Anne of Austria to give back Avhat her little 
 son had received from his sire. The penalty, of course, fell 
 upon the more fiery of his followers, active in Sedan, some of 
 whom were executed by the Governor, who held that prompt 
 punishment was true clemency, since a little bloodshed saved 
 much. So for many years the friends of the deposed Duke 
 conspired, but the resolute Governor was always more than a 
 match "for them. The religious difficulty, enhanced as it was 
 by secular complexities, required dexterous handling. The 
 Catholics had not only lost their ascendancy for nearly a 
 century, they had also lost endowments and tithes, some of 
 which fell into lay hands. Fabert appealed to the spirit of 
 toleration professed by the Huguenots, and pledged his word 
 that their rights should be respected, but at an early period 
 in his reign he restored the Catholic usages by a significant 
 demonstration. He not only ordered that the host should be 
 carried publicly, in solemn state, to the bed of a dying man, 
 h<; himself bore a torch in the procession. That step was 
 followed up by an edict which certainly infringed the limits 
 of toleration, for, not content with the infiiction of penalties
 
 GOVERNOR OP SEDAN. 195 
 
 upon all who obstructed Catholic rites, it shut up the shops 
 on Cathohc fete days, and forbade, which perhaps was wise, 
 rehgious controversies, public or private. In short, the dom- 
 inant party acted Hke that which it succeeded, and both 
 piqued themselves on their toleration. It must be said, 
 nevertheless, that the Huguenots were not persecuted, they 
 merely ceased to be supreme ; but they in turn had to endure 
 the daily spectacle of their triumphant rivals. 
 
 The political turmoil, the strife of factions in Paris which 
 preceded and followed the death of Louis XIII., raised hopes 
 soon to be dispelled. The Bastille gave up its notable 
 prisoners — Bassompierre, Vitry, Cramail ; the exiles flocked 
 back from the provinces and foreign lands ; the Parlement 
 quashed the will of Louis, and recovered some power. It 
 seemed for months uncertain what influence would prevail 
 in the court of the Queen-Regent ; and the Duke of 
 Bouillon encouraged his partisans while he deluded himself. 
 As the winter advanced the ambitious nobles, male and 
 female, began to perceive that Mazarin, who had won the 
 heart of Queen Anne, w^ould wield the power of the State. 
 Bassompierre, on emerging from the Bastille, said that he saw 
 no difference in Paris, except that the horses had no tails and 
 the men no beards. 
 
 Madame de Chevreuse, although summoned back, or 
 permitted to return, was coldly welcomed by her early friend ; 
 and Madame de Hautefort was received with scarcely more 
 affection. Mazarin, who was a Cardinal, but not a priest, 
 had succeeded to Richelieu; and the main difference per- 
 ceptible was that the new minister had gentle, soft, pleasant, 
 yet deceitful manners, that he had no fear, no rancour, no 
 generosity ; but that he was as resolute, despite his apparent 
 mildness, as the nobler and larger-minded prelate-statesman 
 who left the Italian as a legacy to the French Crown. So 
 from him Turenne, still a Protestant, got his Marshal's Idton,
 
 19G ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 but from him Frederick Maurice could only obtain fair 
 speeches. The decisive word was put in the mouth of Anne, 
 who declared point-blank to the Dake that she would not 
 give up Sedan. Towards the end of the struggle between 
 Mazarin and his rivals, who were all lesser men and none 
 more honest, Fabert was summoned to Paris, where he was 
 detained three months, and then he was sent back to his 
 fortress with the rank of Marechal cle Camp (Lieut.-General), 
 enlarged civil powers, and a special commission directing him 
 to administer in the name of Louis XIV. the oath of fidelity 
 to the inhabitants of a territory thenceforth French in fact, 
 though still nominally neutral. 
 
 It is unreasonable to believe that the Protestant majority 
 willingly acquiesced in a transfer which deprived them of 
 ascendancy, but they were constrained to recognize the equity 
 of a Governor who kept them well represented in their 
 " sovereign council," and who, when two high officials fled 
 rather than swear, filled the vacant posts with two other 
 respected citizens also believers in the Protestant creed. The 
 most famous among the ministers, Pierre du Moulin, a veteran 
 in the Huguenot ranks, dedicated a book to Fabert in the 
 spring of this very year 1644, which dedication from so 
 learned and pious a man is a striking testimony to his 
 tact, his resolution, and his equity. In a short time, says 
 the pastor, he had " won the affections of the population," 
 so borne himself that " the two religions dwelt in peace 
 ."ide by side ; " for his vigilance enabled them to sleep 
 securely, his foresight relieved them of their fears. The 
 culogium takes due note of a permanent habit of Fabert 
 from his youth up, when it records the fact that he occupied 
 his leisure by reading good books, whereby he had acquired 
 " a great knowledge of the affairs of this world and the 
 works of God." The venerable preacher naively says that he 
 was an example of what could be produced by native good-
 
 GOVEKNOll OF SEDAN. 197 
 
 noss, joined to a large experience. The Pastor must have 
 rejoiced when, shortly after the publication of his book, the 
 new governor obtained an edict from the Crown which con- 
 firmed old franchises and immunities, spiritual and secular, 
 which preserved existing " temples " in Sedan, Raucourt, and 
 St. Menges, promised new ones in Givonne and Francheval, 
 and separate cemeteries for each religion. Perhaps the 
 Protestants were not so Avell satisfied with the qualification 
 which ordained that the ecclesiastical revenues should be 
 rendered to the rightful owners, a clause striking alike at 
 temporal and spiritual appropriators. Nevertheless, Fabert's 
 energy, patience, and rectitude gained so many advantages 
 and exemptions for his principality, that he really was beloved 
 as well as esteemed. When a certain Fournier, a brewer, 
 partisan of the Duke of Bouillon, and agent of Gaston, Duke 
 of Orleans, having formed a conspiracy to betray the place to 
 the Spaniards, was discovered, arrested, tried, condemned and 
 executed, Fabert, departing from custom, abstained from 
 shutting the gates and putting the garrison under arms, in 
 order to show the people how thoroughly he trusted them. 
 The Archbishop of Rheims, who visited Sedan soon after- 
 wards, to settle the affairs and recover the revenues of the 
 Church, declared in a letter to Mazarin, that the people of 
 both religions had done him due honour ; that " M. Fabert, 
 by his gentleness, held them in obedience," and that, except 
 by his advice, nothing had been done in this weighty affair, 
 So that, after two years of trial and steady work, the Governor 
 had gained the praise of two men so far removed from each 
 other as the Protestant pastor and the Catholic Archbishop, 
 and stood well with such worldlings as Mazarin and Queen 
 Anne. 
 
 The territory over which he ruled occupied an anomalous 
 yet favourable position — it was neutral ground. War might 
 rage all around, yet the little area on both banks of the
 
 198 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Meuse was exempt theoretically, and often practically, from 
 its scourge. 
 
 By special conventions the governors of Luxembourg and 
 Sedan agreed that neither should prey upon the other, or 
 exact contribution by means of les courses — incursions of 
 armed men, which we should now call raids. Fabert made 
 the most of this singular situation, his constant aim being to 
 preserve order, encourage agriculture, and promote trade. 
 Yet, strange to say, he, the lord of a neutral land, was not 
 precluded from aiding his neighbour and master, the King of 
 France. When the youthful Enghien was so keenly watching 
 the Spanish army which swooped down at Rocroi, it was 
 Fabert who warned him in time that Beck was on the 
 march from Luxembourg to join De Mello, thereby incit- 
 iuff him to effect that fine movement which broua;ht on 
 the battle and victory before Beck could arrive on the field. 
 Later in the same year, 1643, Fabert was in constant com- 
 munication with Enghien, who visited him at Sedan on his 
 way to besiege Thionville ; and in IG-i-l the Governor 
 despatched a regiment of infantry, which he had raised, to 
 reinforce the army under Enghien and Tnrenne. That regi- 
 ment excited the admiration of the young captain, fought 
 bravely in the sanguinary battles near Friburg, while it is 
 recorded that the only foot soldiers who withstood the fierce 
 charge of John de Worth at NordJingen were the battalions 
 of Fabert and Wall, " Irlandais." The organization and dis- 
 cipline of the Sedan regiment has a special place in the 
 military annals of the time, showing how much sounder were 
 tlie principles of Fabert than those which -prevailed else- 
 where. 
 
 It was raised in the spring n^onths of lG4-i, by means of 
 recruiting agents sent through the small territory, who 
 enlisted such men as were willing and competent to serve. 
 The names of these recruits were registered in Sedan, and
 
 GOVERNOR OF SEDAN. 199 
 
 each then received clotlics, arms, and a bounty. By these 
 means he collected 1200 men, who were divided into twelve 
 companies, whereof two-thirds carried muskets and one- 
 third pikes. The officers were paid a fixed sum every month 
 and the rank and file every week; so that Fabert adopted, 
 if ho did not introduce, the principle of voluntary enlistment, 
 regular pay, and strict supervision in quarters — the men were, 
 in part, billeted on the inhabitants — while he abolished, at 
 least in his troops, the vicious custom of the purchase and 
 sale of commissions. The drill and discipline of the corps 
 he superintended himself, putting the whole, in turn, through 
 garrison duty, and training the rest in constant field exercises. 
 Composed of such admirable materials, and formed by such a 
 master, it is not surprising that a judge like Enghein, when a 
 battalion drawn from these companies joined his army in 
 Champagne, and fought under his eye at Friburg and Nord- 
 lingen, should have praised their conduct in camp and tlieir 
 effective valour in battle. It may be said, at once, that 
 Fabert's system was too good to last. The government failed 
 to supply the needful funds ; he could not wring from 
 Mazarin even the sums he advanced himself from time to 
 time, and after striving for two years, he was obliged to 
 abandon an experiment which, if sustained and extended, 
 would have saved money and improved the quality of the 
 troops. The abolition of purchase and sale made no way at 
 all outside Sedan, and lingered, indeed, until the Revolution. 
 He now saw more service in the field. While Enghien and 
 Turenne carried the arms of France into the heart of Bavaria, 
 reverses fell upon La Motte Houdancourt, who commanded 
 in Catalonia. Lerida, which frowns from its rock above the 
 Segre, proved as disastrous to him as it afterwards did to the 
 victor of Rocroi, and the hold of the French upon the revolted 
 province was shaken, Avherefore Mazarin placed the unfortun- 
 ate Marshal la Motte in prison, and appointed Harcourt and
 
 200 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Plessis-Piaslin to restore French fortunes. Fabert, having 
 some knowledge of the region, being summoned to Paris, 
 advised Mazariu to gain possession of Rosas, a strong post on 
 the sea south of the Pyrenees, commanding a safe roadstead. 
 His suggestion, not made probably for the first time, since 
 just before his death Richelieu named the place as one need- 
 ful to the secure occupation of Catalonia, was adopted by tlie 
 minister, who despatched Fabert to aid in the operation. 
 But he did not enjoy his usual good fortune ; for, sent in 
 advance with some light cavalry towards Figueras, and 
 moving, it is asserted, without due precaution, he was sud- 
 denly set upon by a force of SiJanish horse, captured, and led 
 a prisoner into Rosas, which he had come to besiege. It is 
 not likely that so experienced though daring a captain would 
 march in the hills carelessly, and more reasonable to believe 
 his report that the cause of his capture was the bad behaviour 
 of his troopers. He said drily, in a letter to Mazarin, that he 
 assumed that the people with him would act as even ordinary 
 cavalry were accustomed to act, — by which Ave suppose he 
 meant, follow their leader, — but he was entirely mistaken. 
 They left him in the lurch to fight it out, which he did, until 
 overpowered. The Court was moved on his behalf; proposals 
 of exchange were instantly made, but the amount of ransom 
 was a stumbling-block, and Fabert remained in Rosas until 
 the end of May, when it was taken. The piquant incident in 
 this adventure is that, incredible as it may sound, Fabert, the 
 prisoner, drew the act of capitulation, which stipulated for his 
 own release without ransom. Harcourt, the " Pcrlc dcs 
 Cadets" wished to retain a soldier whom he knew so well, 
 having need, he said, of "men like him" ; but a royal letter, 
 dating IVum the o])L'ning of the campaign, directed Fabert to 
 return as soon as Rosas fell; so he was back at Sedan in 
 July. 
 
 Here he found it necessary to tighten up the administration,
 
 GOVERNOR OF SEDAN. 201 
 
 wliicli liad grown slack in bis absence, Fresb obligations of 
 supervision were imposed on tlie supreme council, the police 
 regulations were stifiened, and the tavern-keej)ers were 
 ordered to close tlieir doors when the retreat sounded. Per- 
 haps it was less the stringent control thus exercised than bis 
 constant efforts to strengthen the fortifications, wbicb drew 
 on him a specially malevolent attack imputing disloyalty, 
 wbicb made Mazarin exclaim, " Ah, if we cannot trust Fabert, 
 there is no longer any friend in whom confidence can be 
 reposed." The best answer to the libels, at least so far as the 
 Government were concerned, was that Queen Anne and her 
 cherished minister summoned Fabert to the Councils of the 
 King, an honour all the more conspicuous because, at that 
 date, so says Colonel Bourelly, soldiers were very rare in the 
 Council of State and the Privy Council. The nomination 
 did not carry with it the right of entry to either body, both, 
 for practical purposes, being composed of men actually part 
 of the government. Fabert's intimate relations with ]\Iazarin, 
 however, made him something more than a Councillor in 
 name. 
 
 In the middle of 164<6 the Cardinal called him to Paris, 
 Having on hand a quarrel with the Pope, Innocent X., Maza- 
 rin had sent an army under Prince Thomas of Savoy to 
 capture Orbitello, in the Maremma, long a Spanish possession, 
 and the army had been forced to raise the siege. Fabert, 
 summoned to consult on the best way of wiping out the 
 affront, recommended an attack upon Piorabino and on Porto 
 Longone in the adjacent island of Elba. Piombino lies at the 
 southern foot of the dark headland on whose northern sum- 
 mit stood Etruscan Populonia, the cycloiDean ruins of which 
 still exist. The military reason given for these operations 
 was that the seizure of both would harass the Spanish mari- 
 time communications between Naples and Spain. They had 
 their real origin, so far as Mazarin was concerned, in his desire
 
 202 ABRAHAM FABEJIT. 
 
 to put a pressure on the Pope, who, having agreed to confer a 
 Red Hat on Peter Mazarin, in return for an Abbey which 
 the said Peter relinquished to Pamphilo, the Pope's nephew, 
 broke his pledged word. The expedition was resolved, and 
 Fabert was despatched with it to secure harmony and com- 
 mon action between its commanders, La Meilleraye and Du 
 Plessis-Praslin. He was successful — Piombino surrendered to 
 a mere demonstration ; Porto Longone required a siege in 
 form, which lasted nearly three weeks. It was chiefly re- 
 markable for the daring and activity of Fabert, not only in 
 reconnoitring the sea as well as the land front, — the first in a 
 boat, the second by pushing alone up to the counterscarp, 
 where he wounded with his sword the sentinel who fired on 
 him, — but by his active personal labours in the trenches, where 
 he behaved as he did at Saverne, La Capelle, and Bapaume, 
 when he was winning his way as a captain. He gave the 
 credit of the result to La Meilleraye, and La Meilleraye 
 handsomely gave it to him. 
 
 It was easier to capture a fortress than to extract from 
 Mazarin the payment of just debts. The Government owed 
 Fabert some sixteen thousand pounds sterling, spent in 
 maintaining his regiment. Mazarin referred him to Emery, 
 head of the Finance Department, a very able but unscrupulous 
 official, who said, what was no doubt true, that all the money 
 in his strong box and much more was already pledged by the 
 Cardinal to satisfy obligations incurred for ends of the greatest 
 importance. "What," said Fabert, "can there be anything 
 more pressing than the pay of a regiment exposed to every 
 peril for the gloiy of the King and the defence of the State ? " 
 And he went off to request that he should be relieved from 
 the duty of keeping up a regiment for which the State would 
 not pay. So it came to pass that the model body was broken 
 up, one-third only remaining to garrison Sedan. ]\lonths 
 elapsed before, through the intervention of Chavigny, one-half
 
 GOVERNOR OF SEDAN. 203 
 
 Lis debt was remitted in coin, and he was authorized to 
 complete the total by selling corn and wood from the royal 
 domain in his principality. At the same time he still further 
 increased the defensive capabilities of Sedan on the front 
 towards Floing, and while he induced the community to 
 establish at the gates an octroi on liquors, wherewith to 
 furnish funds, he did not hesitate to make advances from his 
 own pocket, uncertain whether or not they would be repaid. 
 It was on this occasion that, in answer to remonstrances from 
 friends, he is said to have spoken the words engraved on the 
 pedestal of his statue at Metz. They make him declare that, 
 in order to save the place confided to him by the King, if it 
 were necessary to thrust into a breach himself, his family, 
 and all his goods, he should not hesitate to do so. The spirit 
 is Fabert's, but we may well doubt whether it took that form 
 of words, when we remember that the sole authority for them 
 is that Courtilz de Sandras, once a captain in the regiment 
 of Champagne, of whom Bayle speaks as an inventor of fables, 
 and whom Voltaire describes compendiously as a Avriter who 
 inundated Euroj^e with fictions. Another enterprise of 
 Fabert's shows his anxiety to promote solid industry. Sedan 
 had a jooor fabric for coarse cloth. The Governor enabled a 
 partnership of manufacturers to found a factory, where they 
 soon produced woollen goods which rivalled those of Holland. 
 He was ever solicitous to cherish and improve agriculture, 
 industry, and trade throughout his petty state, which, even 
 when encircled by war, prospered under his constant care. 
 One fault conspicuous in Mazarin was that which the wit 
 defined as "the fault of the Dutch." Although in his debt, 
 he requested his faithful servant to advance the money 
 necessary to raise a body of recruits, horse and foot. Fabert 
 declined, pleading a poverty of credit and resources Avhich 
 imperilled his fortress and its garrison, but he raised the 
 cavalry required as soon as the Cardinal sent the needed
 
 204 ABRAHAM FABEET. 
 
 funds — probably borrowed money, as tlie State revenues at 
 that time had been anticipated for several months, one 
 might says years. Neither Mazarin nor Richelieu knew any- 
 thing of finance except in the most rudimentary forms. 
 They raised money how they could by imposts of many 
 kinds, and by the sale of places ; but they lived on advances 
 from loan contractors, whose rates of interest were propor- 
 tioned to the badness of the securities and the present needs 
 of the State. 
 
 I
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DURING THE FRONDE. 
 
 Out of the fiscal oppression and the financial anarchy 
 grew the revolt known in history as the Fronde — a pictur- 
 esque wrestle of persons and classes, filling France with 
 trouble and confusion for nearly four years. When Paris 
 broke loose from control every group fought for its own 
 hand. Although none invoked her, it was the day of Sainte 
 Opportune. The Parlement of Paris, mainly judges and 
 lawyers, endeavoured to rival the Parliament of England, 
 and grasp supremacy for themselves by securing the power 
 of the purse. The great nobles of both sexes, who modestly 
 qualified themselves as the " Importants," and who believed 
 in their divine right, thought that the dominant status to 
 which they aspired could then be attained. The Princes of 
 the Blood, even the weak and treacherous Duke of Orleans, 
 hoped to recover a position of authority ; while the young 
 Prince of Conde, "the hero," lustrous with the glories of 
 Rocroi, Friburg, Nordlingen, and Lens, his latest yet not 
 least brilliant exploit, overtopped all his noble and royal 
 competitors in ambition as well as ability. On the other 
 side were Queen Anne and Mazarin, whose tower of strength 
 was the possession of the Crown, the person of the boy king, 
 the great administrative offices filled by able men, a back- 
 ground of the baser money-lending element, which is never 
 to be desj)ised with impunity, and the command of that old
 
 206 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 mighty influence, very real in the seventeenth century — 
 Loyalty. At bottom, the " dim common populations," worked, 
 paid, suffered, starved, at intervals supplied cruel mobs for 
 useless street riots, and always armies for the factions and 
 the Crown. The long agony of more than four years, spread- 
 ing out over France, ended, as from the prevalent selfishness 
 of all the factions it was bound to end, in the firm establish- 
 ment of that absolute monarcTiy, tempered by epigrams, 
 which is so famous and fateful in European story. With the 
 incidents of the melodramatic contest we shall not concern 
 ourselves, except in so far as they affect the subject of this 
 Memoir, to whom the self-seeking exhibited on all sides was 
 as repugnant as the wasteful anarchy which he abhorred. 
 
 His first care was for his little domain. A life of hard 
 work, many wounds, and the encroachments of age had, at 
 length, impaired his health. He declined a command on tlie 
 Flemish frontier in 1648, and until late in the year he did 
 not quit his post, except to drink the waters at Bourbonne, 
 in that highland region near the sources of the Meuse, styled 
 Bassigny before the Revolution broke up the ancient terri- 
 torial divisions. In the autumn he suddenly journeyed to 
 Paris, not to take part in the drama, but to aid a friend, 
 Chavigny, who, he learned, had been imprisoned by Mazarin, 
 fir.st in Vincennes, where he was governor, then in Havre. 
 A certain rivalry between these two subordinates of Richelieu 
 sprang up after his death, and the Cardinal obtaining the 
 upper hand through his influence with the Queen, kept it. 
 Fabert, really attached to Chavigny personally, was not likely 
 to desert him when fortune frowned, and lie went straight 
 to Mazarin and boldly pleadeil for his old comrade. The 
 Cardinal generally, by nature and calculation, was doux 
 and doucermix, to use the language of Madame do 
 Motteviile ; but however suave ho may have been in manner, 
 be was hard enough in fact. Other and more dangerous
 
 DUPJNG THE FRONDE. 207 
 
 adversaries were in Paris — the towering Parlement and the 
 ferocious mob ; Conde, with immense pretensions backed by 
 the army ; De Retz, not yet cardinal, potent, active, formid- 
 able, yet almost as variable as the wind. After a few weeks 
 of detention, Chavigny, who had really been plotting against 
 his rival, was released, but ordered to reside on his estates ; 
 and whether it contributed to that result or not, Fabert's 
 resolute intervention on his behalf redounds to his own 
 honour. " I have exiled your friend from Paris, less to give 
 him pain than to keep him out of mischief," was the 
 Cardinal's characteristic remark to Fabert. 
 
 For three months he remained in Paris, watching the 
 turmoil. It was the period when the Parlement obtained 
 its greatest triumphs, and extorted the large concessions 
 from the reluctant Court. Then the Queen and her minister, 
 who was hated by all parties, won over Conde by granting 
 him Stenay, Dun, Jametz, and Clermont, a high price ; the 
 King and Court hurried to St. Germains, and Conde set 
 about that blockade of Pai'is which drew from the Parlement 
 a declaration of outlawry against Mazarin, but in due time 
 exerted a pressure which partially reversed the popular 
 victory. Fabert's fidelity was now proved. In the first 
 week of the New Year three of Mazarin's nieces were placed 
 under his charge, and he escorted them safely from the perils 
 of Paris, through the country swarming with guerilla bands, 
 and lodged them in his fortress on the Mouse. 
 
 He bore with him also an enlargement of his powers, most 
 necessary at a time when the Duke of Bouillon and his 
 Duchess, both warm adherents of the Frondeurs, were using 
 the opportunity to regain possession of Sedan. Nothing 
 could be more natural on their part, but he who held the 
 principality for the King was the last man likely to fail in 
 fulfilling his trust. He, at all events, was determined that, 
 however fiercely disorder might run riot in Paris and else-
 
 208 ABRAHxVM FABERT. 
 
 where, order should be upheld in Sedan. Therefore, leaving 
 nothing to chance, he adopted rigorous measures to expel the 
 malcontents, prohibit communication with the chiefs of their 
 party, keep out strangers, and, to remove temptation from 
 his garrison, he caused the guard for the day to be selected 
 by lot. In short, he cleared for action. So much by way of 
 prevention. In addition he made ready against probable 
 contingencies, and the steps he took show how the Governor 
 trusted his people, and how the trust was reciprocated. 
 Renewing an old ducal ordinance, he called out more than 
 five thousand men from the city, the bourgs and villages 
 for local defence, and, being thorough in all he did, he made 
 them effective in drill and armament, marked out alarm 
 posts, and provided a simple code of signals. As a Protestant 
 pastor said, he offered the population the choice between 
 infamy and glory ; they accepted what he calls glory, but 
 which we prefer to name duty. Moreover, then and later, 
 lie scattered bulletins or leaflets on the frontier and in 
 Champagne to counteract the abounding pamphlets used by 
 the Frondeurs. The danger from tlie Duke of Bouillon was 
 increased by the defection of Turenne, who was not mollified 
 by being made a Marshal of France, though, for the moment, 
 the peril passed away because he failed to carry with him 
 the Germans and Swiss on the Upper Rhine. Fabert 
 appears to have been surprised that the " prudent " Turenne 
 should have so liglitly joined the opposition. There was, 
 too, a species of truce in the capital ; the Court went to 
 Compiegne in May, and thither, at the Cardinal's request, 
 Fabert carried the precious nieces, one of whom, Laura 
 Mancini, was about to become the wife of the Duke of 
 Merca'ur, sun of the Duke of Vendome, a match which 
 aroused the anger of Conde, who never liked the Italian, 
 and hated the Vendomes. 
 
 Returning to his fortress, Fabert was obliged to dismiss a
 
 DURING THE FRONDE. 209 
 
 certain Baron de Mygene, the King's lieutenant, who was 
 detected in playing a double part, and having relations with 
 the Bouillon party which imperilled Sedan. The Baron had 
 been warned, reprieved, offered a chance of reparation, but 
 he was convicted of a gross piece of duplicity and sent his 
 way. Another trouble then beset the Governor. It was 
 reported that d'Erlach's Germans were to march tlirough his 
 principality. Now, they were notorious plunderei's, and Fabert, 
 naturally wishing to spare his people and villages, vehemently 
 remonstrated, finally threw the responsibility on the Cardinal, 
 and did not rest until the route was altered. It is only fair 
 to say that the detachment which ascended the left bank, 
 to cross the Meuse near Mouzon, unexpectedly behaved well 
 — perhaps because for once they were properly supplied and 
 paid. The crimes committed by the military bands, who, 
 often left destitute, helped themselves, enraged Fabert. " We 
 live at a time," he wrote, " when the good folks suffer. God 
 alone can remedy their woes." He added, " No human power 
 can apply a remedy." It was some consolation that Baucourt 
 was spared. His fits of discouragement were frequent in 
 this dreary period. " From what I have suffered," he says, 
 in a letter to Chavigny, " and from what I have seen others 
 suffer during my life, I am made to think that men are the 
 worst of all the animals ; the good only seem to exist in order 
 that the bad may have a field for (donncr moyen d'cxercer) 
 their malice." Yet about the same time he was exhorting 
 his friend, who much needed the exhortation, being a very 
 worldly man, to remember God, France, the King, and his 
 own family, and try to merit the reward which those may 
 hope for " who renounce their own inclinations in order to 
 promote the welfare of others." The cloud of depression did 
 not long overshadow his mind, and its presence never inter- 
 fered with the work to be done. He hungered for order and 
 
 peace — the Treaty of Westphalia was signed in 1G48, but 
 
 P
 
 210 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 war with Spain went on — and though a strong, pious man, 
 he had his moments of despair and his hours of moral pain. 
 
 Meanwhile the great conflict for power changed its base, 
 but did not grow less intense. Fabert was in Paris, summoned 
 thither by the Cardinal, when the quarrel between that wily 
 person and Conde reached to bursting point. The " hero " 
 had few qualities to sustain his pretensions, except his heroism 
 and his rank. He had the greed of his father for places, 
 honours, possessions, but not a spark of his father's subservi- 
 ency. He would have served under a Richelieu, he could 
 not brook a Mazarin. Aiming at the first place in the State, 
 it angered him to find the Cardinal ever in his path, and he 
 could not control his temper sufficiently to wrestle in a 
 political combat with a man he despised. His contempt for 
 Queen Anne's confidential minister was characteristically dis- 
 played in the famous scene, when quitting the Cardinal he 
 scoffingly said, "Adieu, Mars!" Nor did he break with 
 Mazarin only, he managed to excite the wrath of the original 
 Frondeurs, and enrage Paris by his high-handed escapades. 
 Perhaps he believed himself too great to be touched, at any 
 rate he took no precautions ; for his arrest in the Louvre at 
 nightfall on January 18th, 1650, together with his brother 
 the Prince of Conti and the Duke of Longueville, was a 
 surprise. The bold act renewed the civil war, and brought 
 it into the immediate neighbourhood of Sedan. Fabert, who 
 had been in close intimacy with the Cardinal, travelled back 
 to his government early in February, none too soon; for 
 Turenne was already at Stenay, and his troopers were abroad 
 in the Ardennes. 
 
 In fact, Madame de Longueville had set up a centre of 
 revolt in her brother's fortress. She was enterprising and 
 she was beautiful. Madame de Mottcvillc describes her 
 ciiarms with the fervour of a lover and the imagery of a 
 poet. Her hair was a pale glittering yellow ; the blue of her
 
 DURING THE FRONDE. 211 
 
 soft brilliant eyes resembled that of the turquoise ; no roses 
 and lilies ever matched the red and white of her cheeks. 
 Her figure was admirable ; she looked more like an angel 
 than a woman; and, says her female adorer, " it was impossible 
 to see without loving and desiring to please her." No wonder 
 she played so conspicuous a part in the Fronde, when she 
 brought women as well as men to her feet. Neither her 
 father nor her brother Conde extorts such eulogy from the 
 accomplished Court lady. The elder prince, in his old age, 
 was unkempt and unclean. He " thrust his generally dirty 
 hair," says Madame, " behind his ears, so that he was not 
 at all pleasant to look on." The "hero" fares little better 
 at her hands. His face had an ugly shape ; his mighty nose 
 was aquiline ; his mouth was " very disagreeable " because 
 it was large and filled with prominent teeth ; but his critic 
 admits that his bright blue eyes had % proud expression, and 
 that his whole countenance had in it something grand and 
 fierce, and rather eagle-like. While he was making the most 
 of his prison at Vincennes, his lovely sister and Turenne, who 
 styled himself "Lieutenant-general of the King's army for 
 the liberty of the princes," negotiated with the Spaniards. 
 An army from the Low Countries entered France in the 
 spring, and although Fabert at first feared that they would 
 press far forward on the old line of the Oise, he soon came 
 to the conclusion, when better informed, that the invaders 
 were really weak, especially in cavalry, and that their energy 
 would be soon exhausted. His judgment was verified when 
 they fell back from Guise, but that only brought them near 
 his region, which the Archduke Leopold approached to aid 
 Turenne, and rendered him anxious for the safety of Sedan. 
 Turenne, who intended to make a dash upon Vincennes with 
 a body of horse, halted when he heard that the princes had 
 been transferred to Marcoussis, a pleasant chateau about 
 eighteen miles south of Paris, and beyond his reach. He
 
 212 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 and his Spanish allies then turned upon Mouzon, which 
 brought them perilously near to Sedan. Turenne, at the 
 outset, had offered immunity to the principality, providing 
 the Governor would furnish supplies to the levies assembled 
 at Stenay, and when the offer was rejected, his foreign bands 
 ravaged the territory and cruelly maltreated some villagers, 
 yet could not stay. Fabert employed the interval of com- 
 parative quiet to get in the harvest, and on the approach of 
 the enemy he called up the regiment of Navarre from Rocroi. 
 When Mouzon was besieged in September he sent up succours 
 in boats, some of which reached the garrison in time to defer 
 yet not avert a capitulation. The garrison, Germans, marched 
 to Sedan, and replaced Navarre, which returned to Rocroi ; 
 while a son-in-law of the gallant General Beck, killed at 
 Lens, became Governor of Mouzon, somewhat to the vexation 
 of Madame de Longueville. The allies now had a large 
 territory on the Meuse, where they hoped to pass the winter 
 in relative security. But the war had gone against the 
 insurgents, notably at Bordeaux, where the princes' partizans 
 made a great show, and the Government, able to bring up the 
 troops from the south, resolved on a winter campaign. 
 
 Marshal du Plessis, acting on the suggestion of Fabert, 
 suddenly laid siege to Rhetel in December and speedily took 
 it, together with the citadel perched on a bluff above tlie town. 
 Abandoned by his Spanish allies, Turenne, weak in numbers, 
 unprepared for the vigorous line of action which Mazarin, 
 though afflicted with gout, sanctioned and stimulated by his 
 presence, nevertheless took the field and advanced into the 
 bare country south of Rhetel between the Suippe and the 
 Aire. Not quick enough to save the town, he was himself 
 attacked at Sommepy, and utterly routed after a confused 
 battle fought on a frosty December day. The unhappy 
 Marshal fled to Montniedy ; so tliat except in the capture of 
 Mouzon he "ained nothiri<c, while Sedan was relieved from
 
 DURING THE FRONDE. 213 
 
 the presence of a dangerous enemy. The lucky victor, 
 Plessis-Praslin, plucked a laurel at Sommepy, but few thought 
 the more of him, and none one whit the less of Turenne. An 
 excellent gentleman and brave soldier, the conqueror was 
 literally hurried into an action, which cost him a son, and 
 gave him so curious a place in history. It is said of him that 
 all esteemed his virtues, but dreaded his conversation, and 
 they had some reason for their fears if it was as wearisome as 
 his Memoirs. It is said that Ninon de I'Enclos, despite her 
 old friendship for him, could not endure his talk. One day 
 when the Marshal prolonged a dull visit, she yawned and 
 cried out, quoting Corneille — 
 
 Ciel, que de vertus vous mefaites hair ! 
 The same anecdote also is told of a Chevalier Choiseul ; but 
 perhaps there were two contemporaneous, brave, good, dull 
 Frenchmen. 
 
 Towards the end of this troubled year, Fabert bought an 
 estate in what is now the Cote d'Or, and was made a marquis. 
 But the time to him was " out of joint." He felt keenly the 
 miseries inflicted on the people of the frontier districts, and 
 mourned over the discords which weakened his country. He 
 opens his heart in letters to Chavigny, and expresses longings 
 which that ambitious statesman could not have understood. 
 The two men did not move on the same moral plane. Fabert's 
 longing for peace and that freedom from civil contention which 
 would have enabled him to labour effectually for his principality 
 was not likely to be appreciated by one to whom banishment* 
 from the excitement of Court politics was a lingering death. 
 How he must have smiled when he learned that his friend, 
 the Governor, sought a refuge from the bitterness aroused 
 by the spectacle of disorder all around in the calm toils of 
 gardening ! Retirement from public life had charms in the 
 distance, but reflection showed Fabert that he could not 
 escape from his shadow. "My great weakness," he wrote,
 
 214 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 " at least that which gives me most pam, is that I find no 
 man whose conduct (mcuiiere cl'agir) does not worry me in the 
 lonof run," He felt, also, that he could not act with the 
 same freedom in private country life, without scandalizing 
 his neighbours, as he could and did in the position to which 
 he had been accustomed. Finally, he held always in the last 
 resort, that " the King must be master and speak for himself " 
 before he could abandon a post, Sedan, which might be a 
 public mischief if it fell into disloyal hands. His confidences, 
 and his pleadings with and for Chavigny, reveal his frank and 
 honest character ; but Mazarin was right when he wrote, "M. 
 de Chavigny takes good care to keep his councils and secrets 
 from you " ; his dealings with both sections of the Fronde, 
 and the threats, for example, which he levelled at the 
 Cardinal. " Do not oblige me to set forth the history of your 
 life," he wrote, " and reveal to men what you would hide from 
 God. I am ready to keep silence if you will change your 
 conduct towards me." Chavigny kept his secret, but had he 
 known it, Fabert would have severely condemned that mode 
 of political warfare, even when applied to a minister whose 
 behaviour he did not relish, and whom he served because the 
 minister represented the governing power, the Queen E-egent's 
 authority. Friendship, and a passion for conciliation, made 
 him steadily support Chavigny, whose double-dealing he 
 learned somewhat late; yet, so far as he could, he never failed 
 to help him in misfortune as well as in fortune, until 
 Chavigny died (1652), worn out in the fruitless struggle for 
 power, and enraged because in the arts of duplicity he was 
 far excelled by the Cardinal. What Fabert deplored bitterly 
 was that a man so able as his old friend should not be serving 
 the King; and though to the last he strove to be a peace- 
 maker, his efforts failed as they were bound to fail, seeing 
 that Mazarin and Chavigny, adepts in craft and self-seeking, 
 were incapable of trusting each other.
 
 DURING THE FRONDE. 215 
 
 -• 
 
 Tn tlic winter of 1650-51 the struggle between the 
 minister and his foes was at its height. He had been 
 triumphant in appearance because the old Frondeurs were his 
 allies ; but when these fell away, as in time they were sure to 
 do, the Cardinal found himself face to face with all the fac- 
 tions, each one of which, hoping in the end to gain the upper 
 hand, combined for the moment in demanding the liberation 
 of the princes, a cry which he could not resist. Queen Anne, 
 reduced to the pawning of her jewels in order to pay the Swiss 
 troops, and her favourite, put to his last shifts, yet cheer}', 
 were overcome ; the princes were set at liberty, and after per- 
 forming that act himself, the minister fled to preserve his 
 freedom, if not to save his head. Yet he was not without 
 friends who escorted him to Rhetel, where Fabert joined 
 him from Sedan, and proved to him that Bouillon, where he 
 wished to sojourn, would be unsafe. Mazarin then went 
 towards Alsace, harassed by the patrols from Stenay. " I 
 travel," he wrote, " rather like a gipsy or a postillion, than like 
 a cardinal who is obliged to carry off his nieces " ; and Fabert 
 said that if Turenne had seen him and his equipage, as he 
 drove out of Rhetel, the Marshal would not have put him 
 willingly in a sadder plight. Finally, the Cardinal, frightened 
 by gathering perils, turned back, arrived at Sedan, where he 
 rested for one night, and was escorted the next day to 
 Bouillon by the watchful Governor. Here he could not abide, 
 the Stenay people being on the alert to snap him up. " I 
 should have been a thousand times happier," he wrote, " if 
 the Queen had found it good that I should be arrested." In 
 due time, leaving his nieces in a convent, he found an asylum 
 at Briihl on the Rhine, his host being the Elector of Cologne. 
 
 The Parlement of Paris, always prompt to magnify its office, 
 directed two lawyers to inquire into these suspicious proceed- 
 ings at Sedan, an assertion of authority which was baffled ; 
 for Fabert, shutting his gates, told the excluded deputies that
 
 21G ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 he was not, as they contended, a servant of the Parlement, 
 but of the King. They, he says with some dry humour, rather 
 than not see the town and also go without a dinner, agreed to 
 enter as private persons, mere travellers in short, which they 
 did. Then the Governor fed them handsomely, and saw them 
 into a coach on the road to Mezieres ! 
 
 He was, however, more in danger from the Court than the 
 Parlement. Anne was supposed to desire Sedan for herself, 
 that is for Mazarin, who scouted the report and said he wanted 
 Brisach, But in a document drawn up to buy over Turenne 
 and the Duke his brother, by granting them large territories 
 as compensation for the loss of Sedan, there was actually a 
 clause inserted bringing the Principality under the grasping 
 Parlement of Paris. Against that injustice Fabert grew 
 impassioned. The people of Sedan, he said, accepting his 
 pledged word, had done such faithful service to the King, that 
 if they had not possessed the franchises which were to be 
 taken away, these franchises should have been granted them 
 as a reward. After some delay the destructive clause was 
 qualified as an error which had slipped into the document, 
 and was revoked. It was not the first nor the last time that 
 the Governor had to defend his local institutions and his 
 people from the inroads of greedy Parlements. 
 
 Some time in 1651, the patrols of Marshal I'Hopital, Avatch- 
 ing Stenay, caught a notuble wayfarer near Grandpre, and 
 carried him a prisoner to Sedan. He was a clever agent who 
 had a message from the rebel leaders in Coude's fortress. 
 The Governor, however, woulil have nothing to say to his 
 prisoner. The gaoler's wife enabled him to write to his 
 Parisian friends, and finally he got a pass from the capital 
 which opened a road to Stenay. The shifty prisoner was the 
 Sieur de Gourville, who has left very amusing memoirs. Born 
 a peasant at La Rochefoucauld, 1025, Jean Herault by name, 
 his mother taught him to read and write, got him service in
 
 DURING THE FRONDE. 217 
 
 the Rochefoucauld family, his mother wit did the rest and 
 brought him his territorial title. He lived into the next 
 century, old, paralytic, but cheerful. Writing in 1702, he 
 says, " For some years I have felt that my end could not be 
 distant. At the beginning of eacli, I hope that I may survive 
 to eat strawberries ; when they are over I think of the peaches, 
 and that will last as long as it pleases God." He died the 
 next year hefore the peaches were ripe, but he had his fill of 
 strawberries. He won the praises of Boileau, Ninon and 
 Madame de Motteville. The Electress Sophia, when she 
 visited the Duke and Duchess of Orleans, was surprised to 
 see Gourville " seated " in such a presence. He served many 
 masters — the Frondeurs, the Princes, Mazarin, Conde, Fouquet, 
 Louis XIV. — and never betrayed one. He was a man of 
 method, knew and practised finance from top to bottom, and 
 had no scruples, yet constantly did good actions. His inex- 
 haustible resources, his unfailing courage, his fine temper, and 
 his readiness to oblige, made him trusted — at last even by 
 Colbert — and loved. But he had no morals at all, and would 
 bribe, acquire, " convey," and kidnap, if need be ; and at the 
 same time give, lend, and spend freely for the benefit of others. 
 A man of real knowledge also — knowledge of the things of 
 his day. He would have madt. a capital Minister of Finance, 
 for in that post he would not have cheated, and his method 
 and exactness would have saved the public funds and averted 
 robbery. He said himself that Colbert was the only man in 
 France who could have restored the finances in so short a 
 time. Perhaps the lines of Boileau best portray this singular 
 and interesting person — 
 
 a git, justement regrette, 
 Un savant hotnme, sans science, 
 Un gentilho7nme, sans nuisance, 
 Un tres bonhomme, sans bonte. 
 
 We have strayed far ; but could not omit to notice, 
 
 succinctly, a remarkable man who came so near to our subject
 
 218 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 as the prison-cells of Sedan. Let us hasten back to the 
 period of his adventure, and digress no more. 
 
 Mazarin, in exile, still had the greatest influence in direct- 
 ing the shifting policy of Queen Anne towards the other 
 contending factions, the whole drift of which was to lean this 
 way and that, until they had neutralized or disgusted, or effaced 
 each other, leaving the absolute power of the monarchy as 
 the sole visible authority in the nation. Thus the Queen 
 appointed or dismissed ministers as the aspects of the game 
 varied, seemed to favour the enemies of Mazarin, tried to 
 conciliate Conde, played with the ambition of De Retz, 
 allowed the foolish Gaston to think himself somebody, and, 
 havincr secured Turenne, waited for the moment when it 
 would be judicious to call back the Cardinal. Cond^ 
 furnished the opportunity. All the factions professed, and 
 felt, respect for the King, even when acting against him. 
 The Prince of Conde alone openly displayed at least a 
 practical disrespect. He quitted Paris rather than be present 
 at the ceremonial, 7th September, 1650, which signified that 
 Louis XIV., then only thirteen, had attained his majority, 
 and thereby gave the signal for civil war. Well might the 
 President Mathieu Mole, a man whose moderation was equal to 
 his courage, say that for five or six centuries the Princes of 
 the Blood had been the scourges of the people and the 
 enemies of the Monarchy. The Parlement, apparently with 
 the concurrence of the dissembling Queen, still denounced 
 Mazarin, but he knew better tlian they did how the Regent 
 felt, what she thought and desired. He was already raising 
 an army to strike into the fray, for himself and for the Crown. 
 
 From his eyrie on the Mouse, Fabcrt watched with unfailing 
 interest and sorrow tlie discord in Paris. He saw at an early 
 period that civil war would be the outcome, and he held the 
 opinion that, if it came, it would not last long. He kept up 
 a continuous correspondence with Mazarin, and both being
 
 DURING THE FRONDE. 219 
 
 Royalists as well as Cardinalists, their coincident judgments 
 frequently anticipated each other. He was, besides, the 
 direct medium of communication between Queen Anne and 
 the Cardinal, and it was through him that, in October, she 
 intimated her desire for the exile's return at the head of an 
 armed force. Fabert heartily entered into the plans of the 
 Mazarinists, which in his mind were identified with plans for 
 the suppression of strife and the restoration of Royal power. 
 His fortress became the centre of the movement, and its 
 Governor the prime agent in levying troops — he would trust 
 none but regulars — in bringing together the Royalist officers, 
 concerting measures with the governors of fortresses, buying 
 horses, providing funds. It is significant of his thorough 
 trust in Fabert that Mazarin authorized him to use at his 
 discretion for these purposes the money he had deposited at 
 Sedan. By the end of the year the task was completed, and 
 Mazarin, at the head of some thousands of soldiers whom he 
 had drawn to his colours on the Meuse, was welcomed by 
 Fabert. He came accompanied by his nieces as usual, and 
 when he set out to join the Court at Poitiers, these ladies 
 were left behind under the care of the Governor's wife. Not 
 yet, however, was Mazarin destined to triumph, for Conde and 
 his noble confederates were strong enough in the field to 
 force on another attempt to compromise. It failed ; since 
 the rivals in the contest for power each wished to exclude 
 the others ; but the princes, dukes, and their adherents, who 
 naturally took advantage of the popular hatred of the 
 Cardinal, were so far successful that he again thought it 
 expedient to retire. Fabert, who had in vain made a final 
 endeavour to win over Chavigny, received Mazarin once more 
 in Sedan (29th August), and some days afterwards saw him 
 safely lodged in Bouillon. Meanwhile, Turenne and Conde 
 manoeuvred and fought around Paris ; the Spaniards, weak 
 as they were, recovered much lost ground on the Flemish
 
 220 '' ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 frontier, in Italy, and in Catalonia; the Duke of Lorraine 
 joined in the scramble ; there were battles, sieges, massacres, 
 negotiations, duels, murders, scarcity, pestilence, and all 
 the bitterest fruits of anarchy. It was not until the end of 
 1652, when the majority were tired of tumult and bloodshed, 
 that Louis XIV. returned to Paris, and registered the famous 
 declarations which, destroying the political and fiscal pre- 
 tensions of the Parlement, virtually re-established absolute 
 power, always, however irregularly tempered from time to 
 time, the essence of the French monarchy. Fabert beheld 
 with mournful eyes the miseries wrought by the factions, and 
 longed for the return of order. 
 
 It is characteristic of his trustful nature that he refused, at 
 first, to believe the reported intrigues of Conde with the 
 Spaniards ; and he was shocked to see a man who possessed 
 such "great qualities" openly join the enemies of his King 
 and country. They did not venture to attack Sedan or any 
 strong place, but they occupied several towns in its neigh- 
 bourhood, and in Lorraine. During this time Mazarin was 
 in Sedan, where he sojourned many weeks. He was neither 
 dispirited nor unhappy ; in fact, he " triumphed secretly in 
 his disgrace," said Fabert, " because it gave him a splendid 
 opportunity of signalizing himself, and of showing that, even 
 beyond the frontier, he could govern with the same authority." 
 The truth is that Queen Anne was devoted to him, and that 
 through her he ruled, whether absent or present. When 
 Turcnne compelled Conde to fly from France to his new 
 friends, Mazarin drove out of Sedan, and, after remaining 
 some time with Turenne, hastened to Paris in February 
 1G53. His rivals had disappeared. Chavigny was dead, 
 Conde was in the Spanish camp, and De Retz, whom he had 
 made a cardinal, was a prisoner of state. Four years of 
 revolutionary violence had produced the durable triumph of 
 Mazarin and of absolute monarchy in France.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 AFTER MAZARIN's TRIUMPH. 
 
 The Governor of Sedan Lad played a considerable part in 
 this moving drama, neither sparing himself nor his estate to 
 perform what he devoutly believed to be his first duty. His 
 services were handsomely acknowledged, and the minister, 
 privately as well as publicly, showed how accurately he 
 appreciated the character of a man who, he said, if over- 
 sensitive on the point of honour, was " so faithful, so capable, 
 and had so many merits," that his delicate susceptibilities 
 should always be soothed. But he would not pay him, even 
 his bare due, much less give extra reward for generous service. 
 It would be tedious and repulsive to follow in detail the 
 recurring and Avell-founded complaints of Fabert, and the 
 mean evasions of Mazarin, who did not scruple to insinuate 
 that as the burgher of Metz had a private fortune he could 
 afford to wait. For nine years Fabert received neither 
 pension nor pay, still less the return of monies drawn from 
 his own resources. Mazarin did not always refund the sums 
 he himself borrowed. It was only by dint of remonstrances, 
 sometimes very bitter, not to say disrespectful to the King's 
 minister, that driblets of cash or paper were obtained or 
 promised. On one occasion he went so far as to affect a 
 belief that Fabert had abandoned a large part of his just 
 claims. " What I most fear," was the ironical retort which
 
 222 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 came from Sedan, " is that your eminence will do the like 
 and renounce what is due to you." Mazarin, who must have 
 smiled at the mere suggestion of such disinterestedness on 
 his part, had recourse to his usual remedy, compounded 
 of courteous reproaches and delusive promises. " We cannot 
 satisfy all the world," he used to say, "so we must leave 
 them hope " ; and, until shamed into it, he never paid a 
 willing servant who, like Fabert, disdained to play the mal- 
 content. No doubt the Treasury, so inappropriately called 
 " I'Epargne," was usually empty, having no bottom ; but 
 some of the money flowing through it might and should 
 have been diverted to repay at least the advances made by 
 the loyal Governor of Sedan. The perpetually recurring 
 differences between the mean and avaricious minister and 
 the faithful State servant commonly ended in one way — a 
 small dole and a request for more devotion. All this time 
 tlie grasping Cardinal was actually transmitting to Sedan 
 large amounts of what he called his own money for safe 
 custody against a rainy day. Towards the end of 1652, La 
 Vieuville, the Superintendant of Finances, died suddenly, 
 and Mazarin offered the post to Fabert, and allowed the 
 offer to become common talk ; but when the minister got 
 back to Paris, he conferred the office upon Servien a diplo- 
 matist, and Fouquet an adroit and unscrupulous financier. 
 Probably, on reflection, the Cardinal felt that it would be 
 inconvenient to plant a man of honour and probity in such a 
 position. It was lucky for Fabert that faith was not kept 
 with him, since his principles of strict honesty would have 
 expelled him from tlie Treasury in a week ; yet he keenly 
 suffered from the public " affront," as he thought it. Mazarin 
 answered his rebuke by saying that he was to have a com- 
 mand in the field, and that the functions of a Superintendant 
 were incompatible with the duties of a General. Yet 
 Schomburg and Effiat had occupied the post, and it is not
 
 AFTER MAZARIN's TRIUMPH. 223 
 
 uncharitable to believe that his disqualification was not his 
 military calling, but his integrity of character. 
 
 The command offered to hiui was the leadership of a field 
 force destined to prevent the Prince of Conde and Duke 
 Charles of Lorraine from establishing their troops in the 
 Bishopric of Liege. The incident is an apt illustration of 
 this troubled time. Duke Charles was the chief of a little 
 army which lived where it could, and the Spanish authorities 
 in Brussels naturally wished that they as v/ell as Conde's 
 followers should eat up some country outside their domains. 
 The Elector of Cologne hardly ki:e\v whether it would be 
 less injurious to gratify Spain or please the French, each 
 having tlie power to ravage his territories, while the Germanic 
 body to which he belonged desired to favour neither, yet 
 keep the district from the marauders and avoid war. Em- 
 powered to act on his own judgment during the operations, 
 Fabert marched straight from Sedan, first to the outskirts 
 of Liege and then into Limbourg. But the main aim of 
 all the principals was to evade a violent struggle; and as 
 the Spaniards were not ready to back up their partisans, 
 the quarrel was settled by negotiation, stimulated by the 
 presence of a stout little French army. " Whatever reso- 
 lution you take in the conduct of your force," wrote the 
 Cardinal, "his Majesty will approve, even should events not 
 accord with your good intentions." One purpose was to lure 
 the Lorraine troops to the French standard ; and there was 
 sufficient chance of success to make the Brussels Government 
 arrest Duke Charles and give the command of his bands to 
 his brother. The upshot of this politico-military campaign 
 was an arrangement which freed the bishopric from the 
 marauding bodies who wished to quarter there, and neatly 
 successful, Fabert marched his men back to Sedan. Mazarin 
 was not chary of compliments, the most significant item of 
 praise being that the General had maintained a rigorous
 
 224 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 discipline, a novelty in those days, the good effects of which, 
 said his eminence, will be " useful," should the Elector have 
 occasion to seek again " protection " from his Majesty. 
 
 Fabert met with a different reception when he applied for 
 the simple repayment of the large sums due to himself and 
 those which he had borrowed to carry out promptly this 
 peaceful campaign. He got no redress. His wife went to 
 Court to plead on his behalf, but she could obtain nothing 
 more than promises and courtesies of all kinds, including a 
 gracious welcome from Queen Anne, which was followed by 
 an unctuous letter from the minister to the noble patriot 
 whom he was so shamelessly defrauding of his due. 
 
 Further employment was near at hand — the siege . of 
 Stenay. Louis XIV. was crowned at Rheims on the 7th of 
 June, and a week afterwards Fabert, a spectator of the cere- 
 mony, was formally directed to command the little army 
 which included the French Guards. Stenay, on the right 
 bank of the Meuse, about twenty-five miles above Sedan, had 
 been granted to Conde in 1648, and formed an ever open 
 gate through which, after his rebellion, his marauding troops 
 entered and plundered Champagne. That gate it was im- 
 portant to close. So soon as he was appointed Fabert 
 invested the place, drew lines of circutnvallation, constructed 
 two bridges, one above, the other below, broke up the fords 
 on the Chiers, and kept watch on the hostile garrison in 
 Montmedy. The town was fortified, but the real strength of 
 tlie fortress was the citadel. The garrison consisted of 
 fifteen hundred Frenchmen and Spaniards, and these were 
 commanded by a French and a Spanish officer. Louis XIV. 
 and Mazarin took up their quarters in Sedan, whence they 
 frequently visited the camp, and thus Fabert carried on his 
 ceaseless labours under their eyes ; but they took no active 
 part, an<l left him free to act as he pleased. 
 
 It would be useless to describe the siege of Stenay, which,
 
 AFTER MAZARINS TRIUMPH. 225 
 
 except ia one important point, was like all other sieges of 
 that time. The exception was this. For the first time, 
 Fabert introduced an innovation — he made his approaches by 
 zigzags, and he connected his two attacks by parallels. An 
 indication of this improvement was seen at the siege of La 
 Capelle, when he used a natural depression as a covered com- 
 munication between two ajjproaches. That marks his place 
 ill the history of military engineering; for he must share 
 with Vauban the credit of improving the art of attack by 
 regular approaches. In his camp and actively engaged was 
 Vauban himself, then a young man in his twenty-second 
 year, brought tliither as an assistant by Clerville, the engi- 
 neer, who carried out Fabert's meditated designs. Vauban, 
 wounded early in the siege, resumed duty before it was 
 ended, and was hit again. So decided a departure from the 
 prevailing usages could not have escaped his keen eyes, and 
 he showed, in after years, how effectively the new method 
 invented by one man of genius could be developed by another 
 still more gifted. 
 
 After thirty-two days of open trenches, Stenay capitulated 
 (August 5), honourable terms being granted to the valiant 
 garrison, who were escorted to Montmedy. Fabert, as usual, 
 had been thorough in all things, not less in preparing than in 
 applying the means at his disposal. His incessant activity 
 may be inferred from the language used by Mazarin in a 
 letter to the Queen. Writing on the eve of the surrender 
 he says, " For three days M. de Fabert has not taken an 
 hour's rest, and it is miraculous that he has escaped a wound, 
 since he would not quit the mines and most dangerous spots, 
 despite the orders of the King and our constant prayers 
 which made no impression on him." His frame was enfeebled 
 by many wounds, his condition undermined by disease, but 
 his high spirit and ardent temperament sustained him, and 
 in his fifty-fifth year he was still the forward ofiScer who 
 
 Q
 
 226 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 faced every peril, endured every fatigue, and saw for Limself 
 that tlie needful work was done. 
 
 On the very day following the surrender he sent off tlie 
 army to reinforce Turenne, who was hard pressed in Picardy. 
 For Conde, by way of counterstroke, had induced the 
 Spaniards to swoop down upon Arras, whereby he hoped to 
 save his cherished stronghold on the Mouse. The project 
 failed, because Turenne, even with a weak army, took up a 
 position near the besiegers which they dared not or did not 
 attack ; waited patiently until succour came from Champagne, 
 and then, breaking through the hostile lines, saved Arras and 
 drove tlie enemy over the frontier. Gourville, that shifty 
 man of business, whom we have already seen for a moment, 
 a prisoner in Sedan, visited the camp before Arras. On the 
 night of his arrival he supped with the Marquis of Humieres, 
 who gave him a Parisian meal served on silver. The next 
 he dined with Turenne. The contrast was striking. The 
 ^Marshal's table-service was made of tin, and he spread before 
 his guests no " pretty kickshaws," but abundant supplies of 
 butcher's meat, ox-tongues, hams, sausages, and copious floods 
 of wine. The luxury of the Marquis was in advance of his 
 day; a few years later he had many imitators among the 
 valiant sons of France, who disdained the wholesome sim- 
 plicity of Turenne. 
 
 His labours at Stenay ended, his army transferred to 
 Picardy, Fabert returned to Sedan. Besides his ordinary 
 functions as governor, lie found ample political employment 
 during the winter beyond his territorial limits. The escape 
 of De Retz from Nantes increased the apprehensions of 
 Mazarin, who had long doubted the loyalty and distrusted the 
 professions of the governors of Mezieres, Charleville and its 
 outworks, called ]\lount Olympus, which together formed a 
 strong defi-nsive position on the Mouse. Frontier places in 
 doubtful hands were a constant source of anxiety, and the
 
 AFTER MAZAEINS TRIUMPH. 227 
 
 problem was Low to secure these without violence. For that 
 purpose Fabcrt was actively engaged, and aided by a negotia- 
 tor sent from Paris, he finally succeeded in planting one of 
 his captains in Mczieres, wliile Louis de la Tremouille, Duke 
 of Noirmoutier, supremely able in the art of trimming, made 
 his peace with the Cardinal, and kept his hold on Charleville 
 — Mount Olympus. That service was only one among many; 
 for WG find him distributing troojDs in winter quarters, enlarg- 
 ing the arsenal of Sedan, building watch-towers along the 
 Meuse, visiting Metz, suppressing a mutiny at Thionville, 
 raising recruits, and, of course, constantly interchanging letters 
 with Mazarin, who continued profuse in praise and promises 
 but niggardly in pay. It was not until 1656 that he suc- 
 ceeded in extracting an instalment with which to purcliase 
 an estate at Esternay in Champagne. Mazarin would have 
 preferred to reward him with offers of the Order of the St. 
 Esprit, the hdton of a Marshal, the succession to the govern- 
 ment of Sedan for his son, future provision for his family — 
 anything but the full reimbursement of what was due. 
 Fabert's main consolation was that he had done his duty, 
 according to his standard, and had kept intact, from the hosts 
 of neighbouring foes, the principality which he governed so 
 well that it was an oasis of prosperity in the midst of misery 
 and ruin. When the Cardinal held out strong hopes of a 
 Marshal's haton, he showed his disinterestedness by pointing- 
 out that promotions to that grade, already too numerous, 
 should only be made to fill a death vacancy, a principle not 
 adopted until the reign of Louis Philippe. The death of 
 Schomberg occurred soon afterwards, and then Fabert 
 formally put in his claim. But Mazarin did not fulfil his 
 promise, adroitly alleging that the King could not exalt him 
 alone, an excuse Avhich, considering the touchiness of the 
 French noblesse, who would have fiercely resented the soli- 
 tary j)romotion of a plebeian, may be admitted as valid in the
 
 228 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 circiiinstances. There were some things which the absohite 
 
 sovereigns of France dared not do. The King, even Louis 
 
 XIV., had to consider the temper, prejudices, and pretensions, ■ 
 
 especially as regarded the army, of the class of which, after 
 
 all, he was only the chief. Some nobles, however, did not 
 
 scruple to send their sons to study war under Fabert, whose 
 
 method of training, practical and theoretical,^ was so excellent, 
 
 that Louis himself described Sedan as the nursery of his 
 
 good officers. Moreover, the example set forth daily in the 
 
 life of the General was a "liberal education." 
 
 1 His Treatise on Military JEvohitions, MS., written not later than 
 1G40, was in existence in the middle of tlie last century, but cannot now 
 be found.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ADMINISTRATOR AND ECONOMIST. 
 
 As a civil administrator and a political economist Fabert 
 is entitled to special notice. We have already seen how 
 vigorously and ably he, a young soldier, managed the iron- 
 works at Moyoeuvre on the Orne, which he built up from 
 ahnost nothing, and whence he drew a fortune in a few years, 
 a rare example of capacity for business. We have seen him 
 grappling vigorously and successfully with the dreadful 
 famine which afflicted the Messin in 1G38, and observed 
 the broad and solid principles on which he acted. In like 
 manner, by strong and gentle methods, Sedan was concili- 
 ated as well as governed, so that, even when he restored the 
 Catholic religion, he retained the good-will of the Huguenots, 
 whose rights he defended to his dying day. Keejiing his 
 principality at peace, he organized her population for defence 
 upon a plan, which produced, in miniature, a territorial army, 
 and, just as he favoured voluntary enlistments and punctual 
 payments for the regulars, so he trusted his pojDular militia 
 with arms, and gave them the advantages of rudimentary 
 training during the summer. The consequence was that the 
 country over which he ruled, for he applied a systematic 
 stimulus to industry and trade, presented a solid block of 
 prosperity on a frontier desolated by a long and cruel war. 
 
 The great government of Champagne, which came under 
 his province, was a grievous sufferer. She was not only
 
 230 ABRAHAM FA BERT. 
 
 plundored repeatedly by tlie marauding bandri, wliicli issued 
 from the neighbouring Spanish garrisons to levy contributions 
 — a barbarous but recognized mode of warfare — she was 
 hardly less pillaged by the hosts of tax-gatherers, and even 
 by the royal troops. 
 
 Vexed, as a man of business, at the prevailing disorder, 
 and moved, as he always was, by the misery of the cultivator, 
 Fabert urged the Cardinal to sanction remedies designed as 
 a mitigation of both evils. One considerable scheme was a 
 strict arrangement of winter quarters for the troops. The 
 established practice was to set down the soldiers in the 
 district which had to maintain them, and leave them to 
 themselves. Many officers went home, and as the men were 
 not paid, the country folk had to support them. The troops, 
 of course, refused to starve. They raided on the country, or 
 joined the salt smugglers, or broke into bourgades, and even 
 stormed chateaux. Fabert obtained a royal ordinance and 
 authority to carry it out. In his hands it was not a dead 
 letter. The troops were systematically distributed, so as to 
 be readily available against armed marauding intruders from 
 over the borders. A fixed sum was raised, the whole or part 
 of which was deducted from the taxes, and out of this sum 
 the cost of lodgment — fire, food, shelter — was paid, measures 
 being taken to equalize, as far as possible, the pressure of the 
 detachments upon given areas. The officers and men were 
 forbidden, under severe penalties, to exact more than the 
 law allowed, or to receive gifts. The gain of the plan was 
 that the actual burden upon the population was fixed, and 
 that so stern a disciplinarian as Fabert enforced the regula- 
 tions, sometimes inflicting severe penalties for disobedience. 
 The plan was successful ; the money levied was punctually 
 distributed among the peasants who returned to their fields, 
 and, what was e({ually noteworthy, the enemy found, on trial, 
 that he could not so easily break through the military posts
 
 ADMINISTRATOR AND ECONOMIST. 231 
 
 and ransom villages and farms. Thus the cultivators, as well 
 as the army itself, were benefited by a system which poured 
 more into the treasury and extorted less from the subject. 
 
 Fabert had long meditated on the iniquitous fiscal system 
 — if it deserved the name — which permeated France. He 
 was an habitual student — having two thousand books in four 
 languages on the shelves of his library — and, to back the 
 knowledge which he derived from their pages, he had a large 
 and exceptional experience, not only because he had travelled 
 over and had served in every part of France, and was a close 
 and accurate observer, but because he was always in sym- 
 pathy with the "dim populations" who were plundered and 
 oppressed. Exact, orderly, and just, he was moved by' the 
 waste of the King's revenue, and the misery of the King's 
 poor subjects, from whom were extorted many millions more 
 than were transmitted to the royal treasury. There were 
 two kinds of direct taxes, one levied on realty, an impost on 
 lands, no matter whether they were held by nobles or non- 
 nobles ; the other on laud, capital, labour, everything in fact 
 possessed by the tax-23ayer, who had no exemption and no 
 privileges. The first prevailed in the pays cVitat, such, for 
 example, as Brittany, provinces which had 2:»reserved their 
 local assemblies ; the second was collected in the -pays 
 d'dedion, and assessed in an arbitrary fashion by Us dins, who 
 were not elected, but who bought the posts they filled, and 
 naturally paid themselves as much as they could screw out 
 of the roturiers. Throughout these provinces there was no 
 register of properties, and the assessment went by rule of 
 thumb. In addition, the people had to furnish the impots 
 dc guerre — that is, supply the armies on the march and in 
 cantonments in summer, and the troops quartered upon 
 them in winter. These burdens were over and above those 
 which grew out of the salt duties, the tolls on every river, 
 the duties at the town-gates, the tax on every kind of import
 
 232 ABllAHAM FABERT. 
 
 at the frontiers, the duties levied on the great internal 
 customs Hne which, down to 1789, extended from the mouth 
 of the Loire to Lyons, and smote the trader and traveller 
 alike, going and returning, and the special and widely 
 ramified institution known as the Lyons Custom-house, which 
 mulcted all goods passing into France from Italy and Spain, 
 or entering by sea. Not only was the direct personal tax 
 cruelly unjust, the tolls and interior customs foolish as well 
 as barbarous, but the working of the whole complex iniquity 
 was made more iniquitous by the fact that the taxes were 
 farmed, and by the host of persons, roughly estimated at one 
 hundred thousand, who, in various ways, were directly inter- 
 est^ in squeezing the people subject to their extortion. It 
 Avas only because the territory called France was so richly 
 endowed that these multitudinous evils could be borne with- 
 out destroying the nation. How frightful they were could 
 only be made evident by a minute description of this period, 
 and it has been truly said that, were such a history written 
 in detail, no one would be found to read it. 
 
 We have said that, so far as the cost of winter quarters 
 affected the people of Champagne, they were relieved of it 
 by the plan adopted to this extent — it was not levied in 
 addition to the total tax payable. The next step was to root 
 up the practice of extortion, and that it was proposed to 
 accomplish by a rude yet careful survey at once, showing the 
 quantity and quality of land, the nature of the tenure and 
 the cultivation, the number of ploughs, the population, and 
 so on, set forth in a prescribed form, as the basis of a register 
 (cadastre) to bo afterwards established for the province. The 
 result of these inquiries was to determine the taxation, and 
 this was to be real and not personal. Fabert prevailed on 
 Mazarin to sanction, for these purposes, the appointment of 
 an officer, M. Tcruel, well known to the Governor and to 
 Turenne. The records of Tcruel's survey still exist, and the
 
 ADMINISTEATOR AND ECONOMIST. 233 
 
 indefatigable Culouel Bourelly lias printed many instructive 
 specimens exhibiting the business-like character of this 
 laborious inquiry. Fabert purposely abstained from appearing 
 in the matter, rightly arguing that the principal authority in 
 Champagne, the lutendant Voisin, who favoured the plan, 
 was the proper person to supervise its execution. Some con- 
 siderable progress was made, enough to prove how beneficial 
 it would be to the cultivator, and how profitable to the State; 
 but the powerful interests attacked, and the men who had 
 purchased their offices threw obstacles in the path of the 
 reformer ; so that, greatly to the chagrin of all concerned in 
 applying the remedy, the evils were but jDartially lessened, 
 and soon the beneficent work was abandoned. Yet the fact 
 remains that Fabert was an active precursor in the task of 
 fiscal reform, and that his object was a direct tax on real 
 estate based on an accurate register of property. His 
 economic views, in an age when political economy was not 
 invented — unless Monchrestien be considered to. have ex- 
 pounded its principles in his Treatise — extended over a 
 wdder area. He boldly contended that the entire apparatus 
 of inland customs and tolls should be abolished, declaring 
 that trade in the interior should be untrammelled, and that 
 the frontiers were the sole places where duties should be 
 levied — a grand conception for his time. He framed also a 
 scheme of direct taxation, based on the galcllc, or salt-tax, 
 which was, in effect, an income-tax, graduated according to 
 the wealth of the subject, an early example of the impot 
 progressif. He proposed that four sources of public revenue 
 only should be retained — the taille, reformed and confined to 
 land ; the salt-tax, in principle an income-tax ; the frontier 
 customs, and the Domain or Crown property. The myriad 
 of tax-gatherers, farmers, financiers, archers, and gendarmes, 
 he would have abolished, insisting that eight hundred men 
 would suffice to collect the whole revenue — except, we
 
 234 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 suppose, that portion derived from the customs — these men to 
 be properly paid, and punished if they were extortionate or 
 corrupt. The bishops, he thought — an original idea — should 
 be directed to prepare maps of their dioceses, to take a census 
 of the population, parish by parish, and to draw up a true 
 account of the sums paid in taxes, with the attendant ex- 
 penses — a series of valuable, but at that date, unattainable 
 statistics. 
 
 Finally, he held that, were his scheme adopted, all arrears 
 of taxes should be wiped off, and all State debtors set free. 
 The blot on the design was the exemptions ; but in the 
 middle of the seventeenth century we must not look for 
 notions of equity which did not emerge until a much later 
 period. The characteristics of Fabert's suggestion are its 
 breadth, simplicity, and boldness, and, as opinions then went, 
 its fairness. No one need be told that it was not adopted, or 
 that even the commanding genius of Colbert, who, as Mazarin's 
 factotum, knew Fabert and his notions, was unable to sweep 
 away all the prevailing vicious usages. But it is right that 
 the enlightened and honest soldier, who was so far in advance 
 of his time, should have due credit, and occupy his proper 
 place in the social and economic history of France.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MARSHAL OF FRANCE. 
 
 The siege of Stenay was the last active military exploit of 
 the Governor of Sedan. " It is believed here that when he 
 has taken Stenay, M, Fabert will be made a ]\Iarshal of 
 France," wrote the Princess of Conti, niece of Mazarin, to her 
 Imsband from Rheims, dm'ing the coronation festivities, June 
 1655. No such promotion followed ; yet the language used 
 by the lady represents fairly enough the opinion current in 
 the Court, and probably also the inclination of Queen Anne 
 and her son. Having failed to secure the coveted prize on 
 the breaches of Stenay, Fabert hoped to win it by capturing 
 Montm^dy, and was again disappointed ; for some powerful 
 influence gave the command of the besiegers to that fiery 
 violent Marshal la Ferte, who, St. Simon says, was, even 
 after he had obtained that exalted rank, frequently beaten 
 in public by his octogenarian father, and did not resent the 
 thrashings he received from this maistrc ])h'6, who lived 
 to be nearly ninety. 
 
 The arsenal of Sedan supplied the materials for the siege 
 which brought the Court once more to Fabert's castle. 
 Queen Anne and her two sons were lodged in one portion of 
 the building ; Mazarin and his nieces in another, so that the 
 city on the Mouse was enlivened by unwonted guests. Louis, 
 young, full of life and strength, abounding in good intentions, 
 eager for knowledge concerning persons and things, sought to
 
 236 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 profit by liis stay. He visited Stenay, his new possession, 
 and the trenches before Montmedy, a fortress seated on a 
 flat-topped precipitous height above the river Chiers, and 
 surrounded by hills and running waters. Fabert accompanied 
 his youthful master. The frank and experienced veteran, 
 constantly in his company, was a guide and attendant sure to 
 please as well as instruct a royal youth alive to the misery, and 
 animated, at that time, by a genuine passion for the welfare of 
 his people. None could have better described than he did, a 
 few years later, the abuses which had grown up in the realm 
 which he inherited. " There is not," he wrote in the papers 
 intended for his son, " there is not a governor who has not 
 assumed unjust rights, no troops who do not live licentiously, 
 not a gcntilhomme who does not oppress the peasants, no 
 receiver, no assessor {dit), no bailiff (scrgcnt) who does not, 
 in his district, exhibit an insolence which is all the more 
 criminal because he uses and abuses the King's authority to 
 support his unjust deeds." The sentence might have been 
 written by Fabert, so well does it express his judgment on a 
 state of things which he strove to remedy, and did largely 
 remedy within the sphere of his authority. It was at this 
 very time that he was engaged in the hard work of repressing 
 evil in Cliampngue, where, alas ! as we have seen, he found 
 the compact array of vested interest much too strong for his 
 limited powers. 
 
 The vexed frontier countries, even towards the end of the 
 lingering war with Spain, which raged so many years after 
 the general peace of Westphalia, were beset with perils. 
 After the fall of Montmedy, in the beginning of August, an 
 incident occurred which illustrated the dangers of border 
 highways. Queen Anne had established a hospital at Stenay, 
 and had thoughtfvdly sent the King's nurse, duly protected, 
 to inspect the arrangements. Returning to Sedan with a 
 sleepy escort, the travellers were waylaid in the woods
 
 MARSHAL OF FRANC fO. 237 
 
 between Steuay and Mouzoii by some of Cunde's soldiers, 
 part of the garrison of Ilerbenmont, who were out on a foray. 
 The cavalry were in the rear ; the two courtier gentlemen in 
 charge of the convoy were asleep; but at the first shots, as 
 became them, they sprang out of their carriages sword in 
 Land, while the trembling women folk helplessly looked on. 
 The noise brought up the horsemen at a gallop, and so fiercely 
 were the robbers handled that all were shot down, or made 
 prisoners of war, and carried to Sedan. Louis XIV. took the 
 insult to heart, and later in the year causeil Herbenmont to 
 be captured and razed, so that his nurse was amply avenged, 
 Louis himself ran a serious risk in travelling to la Fere, for 
 Conde's marauders were abroad, eager to snap up such a 
 prize. Fortunately Fabert knew how to counterwork and 
 frustrate plunderers with whose habits he was well acquainted, 
 and the King escaped from the clutches of his cousin. As a 
 rule, the governors of the frontier fortresses appropriated to 
 tlieir own use much of the booty seized, or levied by the 
 troopers, and tliereforc did nothing to restrain them. It is 
 among Fabert's distinctions that he disdained to profit per- 
 sonally from such a source. He credited the product of his 
 reprisals to the state-chest, and guarded his territory so well 
 that he took more than he lost. 
 
 German politics attracted the Court to Metz in the autumn 
 of 1657. Ferdinand III. having died, the holy Roman 
 Empire was without a head ; a new one had to be found, and 
 the complicated process of selection was not completed until 
 the following year. Mazarin — it could only have been a 
 dream — wished to secure the Crown for his young sovereign, 
 or at least for the Duke of Bavaria. With that object he 
 sent envoys to Frankfort, and the royal sojourn in Metz Avas 
 intended to support these German schemes; but availed little, 
 for the strong candidate, Leopold, King of Hungar}', eldest 
 surviving son of the dead Kaiser, proved eventually too strong
 
 233 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 for his rivals. In the Memoirs of Marshal Gramont, Fabert's 
 friend, the Count of Quiche, whom he picked out of the ditch 
 at Saverne, we have a ridiculous picture of this Leopold. 
 The malicious envoy describes him as silently playing primero 
 at home, after dinner ; or le nolle j'eu de quillcs (skittles) 
 in the Spanish ambassador's garden. " He had a very large 
 mouth always open," says the satirical Gascon. " One day 
 during a shower he complained to a favourite that the rain 
 fell into his mouth. The favourite, having meditated some 
 time, advised him to shut it, which he did," adds the mocker, 
 " and found himself much relieved." 
 
 Wiiile the Cardinal was on the Moselle watchino^ and 
 promoting intrigues beyond the Rhine, he played a part as 
 match-maker. The King's preinier maitre-d'hdtd, Louis of 
 Comminges. Marquis of Vervins, grandson of that headstrong 
 Seigneur of Soboles, who was expelled from Metz by Henry 
 IV., and son of a too notorious Madame de Vervins, was 
 specially befriended by Mazarin, who pushed his fortunes. 
 Taking upon himself the task of finding a wife for the young 
 man, he pitched upon Anne Dieudonnee, Fabert's eldest 
 daughter. Both parties Avere gratified ; the father and 
 mother came from Sedan ; the contract was drawn up by Le 
 Tellier, and before a great company in the King's lodgings 
 the document was signed, amongst others, by Louis and 
 Queen Anne. The next day, without pomp or display of any 
 kind, the marriage service was performed in the church of 
 St. Victor, a little to the west of the cathedral. Abraham 
 Fabort and Claude of Clevant were thus honoured in the city 
 which was his birthplace, long her adopted home, and still 
 inseparably connected with his name and ghny. How far- 
 roacliing the vista, liow thronged with shadows of the mighty 
 dead, wliidi led back to the day when, a baby soldier, he 
 niarche<l with his little troop before the victor of Arqties 
 and Ivry !
 
 MARSHAL OF FRANCE. 239 
 
 Returning home, the Governor carried with him an edict 
 extending his authority over adjacent territories lately clutched 
 from the Spaniards — Montmedy, Ivry, now Carignan, and 
 Virton being among them — and resumed his active daily toil. 
 At this time, and for many months to come, he was engaged 
 in pushing the administrative and economical reforms 
 described in the preceding chapter ; but he never forgot that 
 he was a soldier, never ceased to thirst for the highest prize 
 of his profession, as was natural, seeing that he coveted 
 honour more than pelf or power. Mazarin had often dangled 
 the hdton before him, feeding him with hopes which he did 
 not gratify, as if he thought that so noble a man, whose 
 governing motive was dutiful service to his King, and the 
 representative of his King, needed the stimulus of great 
 reward. No doubt the Cardinal had his excuses ; the 
 noblesse, who hated him, were tenacious of their privileges, 
 and, despite his power, the Cardinal had to manage the 
 noblesse. The graceful and just thing would have been to 
 liave given Fabert his Marshal's hdton on the breach of 
 Stenay ; had he been a born noble that would have been 
 done ; but the potent and pervading influence of a caste 
 stood in the way. The printer's son must await a propitious 
 moment for his elevation ; to promote him, alone, would 
 have stirred up a tempest of passion among the monopolists 
 of rank, and Mazarin, so far as he could, always evaded 
 friction. So month after month slid away, and the promise, 
 or strong hint of promise, was not fulfilled until the summer 
 of 1G58. 
 
 The manner of his j^romotion illustrates the character of 
 the time. After the surrender of Dunkirk, as a consequence 
 of Turenne's victory over Conde and Don John of Austria, 
 Louis XIV., then at Mardick, made three marshals — Jean de 
 Schulemberg, Comte de Mondejeux, who had defended Arras 
 four years before ; Fabert ; and Castelnau, mortally wounded
 
 240 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 in action. So soon as the order of precedence became known, 
 the sensitive Fabert remonstrated, as well he might, for the 
 lionom- had really been promised by the Cardinal before, and 
 immediately after the fall of Stenay. And he had another 
 reason. In 1654, when, after the fashion of his class, M. de 
 Mondejeux demanded a Idton, the wily Mazarin put him off 
 by saying that the prize had been promised to Fabert. 
 Moreover, the aspirant sent a friend expressly to declare that 
 he willingly placed his claim second to that of the victor of 
 Stenay. Fabert, hurt on tue point of honour by the prefer- 
 ence shown, put in the dates of his commissions, an unhappy 
 reference, because, although he was a royal captain in 1619, 
 when his noble rival served the Duke of Bouillon, that rival 
 was made a Lieutenant-general six months earlier than 
 Fabert. It is a fact, however, that promotions to the highest 
 rank were not always dated according to seniority of rank, 
 but, as Le Tellier said, according to the good pleasure of the 
 King ; and that only made the blow sharper, seeing that the 
 King did not prefer his faithful Governor of Sedan. We may 
 fairly surmise that the King had not the last word, and that 
 Mazarin judged it expedient to avoid an irritating quarrel 
 with the noblesse by giving a rotarier precedence. Le 
 Tellier, who was said to have been oid sage a I'cxcts, wrote 
 that the King acted as he thought fit, without increasing or 
 diminishing the reputation of the recipients; and that the 
 Cardinal did not base his esteem for Fabert upon the date of 
 his promotion to the rank of Marshal, which was doubtless 
 true, lie was only half consoled by the compliments. 
 Nevertheless, though what we should call obsequious in his 
 languacje, he buried his grievance with a frank and sincere 
 expression of devotion to the Throne, as represented by the 
 minister, wliidi was an abiding principle with one who had 
 tlic courage t(j be a " Cardinalist " in 1642, Andilly says 
 that none was bold enough to assert that he r(jse by favour
 
 MARSHAL OF FRANCE. 241 
 
 more than justice. His many friends rejoiced in his honour; 
 deputations, even from neighbouring provinces, came to 
 Sedan; and one from Metz, most welcome of all, had the 
 eloquent young Bossuet for spokesman. It was the first 
 grant of the dignity of Marshal to any one who had not been 
 born a crentleman, and who had beofun his lonjj and faithful 
 service in the ranks. The promotion of Fabert is a land- 
 mark in French history. 
 
 The next year brought peace on its wings to the kingdom ; 
 nowhere was the blessing more welcome than it was in the 
 desolated frontier lands, which, for nearly a quarter of a 
 century, had been the prey of friend and foe. Spain and 
 France were alike wearied ; Conde, who had lost much that 
 was substantial and had gained little glory, was afflicted with 
 home sickness sharpened by failure ; Mazarin, feeling that it 
 Avas time to sheath the wasteful sword, and marry the young 
 King, if possible, to an Infanta, entered on those famous 
 negotiations which ended in the Peace of the Pyrenees. 
 Fabert had some slight share in the pacification, for he not 
 only facilitated the return of Conde, who had so profound a 
 trust in his integrity, he also suggested an article in the 
 treaty itself which gave to France the line of the Chiers 
 and the district of Charny, still a point of passage on the 
 Mouse. The fact is that, having occupied Ivry and Champ- 
 neuville, the sharp-eyed border warden framed, and Mazarin 
 adopted, a form of words which, though not without some 
 dispute, finally secured these places to France. Ivry, given 
 to the Savoyard Count of Soissons and his wife Olympia 
 Mancini, the parents of Prince Eugene, became Carignan, a 
 name conspicuous in the annals of Piedmont. It certainly 
 was by the foresight and deftness of Fabert that the eastern 
 frontier of France was so materially strengthened. He 
 wished to add the fertile district of Ivry to Sedan, arguing 
 that it was wrong to "bestow on persons what should belong
 
 242 ABRAHAM FA BERT. 
 
 to places," that is fortresses ; and, with his wonted disin- 
 terestedness where the pubUc service was concerned, he 
 vainly offered, provided it were done, to quit his government 
 of Sedan, either to serve elsewhere or retire altogether. Yet 
 all this time his neighbour, the brave, witty, and disreput- 
 able M. de Vandy, Governor of Montmedy, was foolishly 
 insinuating that Fabert was disloyal; foolishly, because he 
 could never have made Louis or Mazarin believe a charge 
 which, utterly baseless as it was, vexed the too sensitive 
 soldier, 
 
 St. Evremond, then a middle-aged officer and practised 
 pamplileteer, wrote a letter on the Peace of the Pyrenees 
 which has echoed through the centuries, not because it is a 
 just criticism upon the actual Treaty, but because, as a com- 
 position, it is a splendid example of trenchant irony and 
 ingenious rhetoric. For two years, passing from hand to 
 hand, it was still a secret from the Government and the 
 public, until, found in Fouquet's casket of papers, the mere 
 Avind of its discovery sent the accomplished author flying to 
 London, where more than half a century afterwai'ds he ended 
 his days. St. Evremond sent a copy of his stinging onslaught 
 on the Cardinal to Fabert, and it was found among his papers 
 by the Pere Barre. Colonel Bourelly, who read it in the 
 library of St. Genevieve, says the manuscript terminated 
 with four epigrammatic lines which the wortiiy soldier believes 
 had not theretofore been published. He prints them thus — 
 
 0)1 a (jr(i)id tort de sVtonnrr 
 
 Qiie ceMe paix ne soit pas bonne ; 
 
 O'csi Dieu q)(i dolt la doniicr, 
 Et cest le diahle qui la do)ine. 
 
 Fabert must have enjoyed the keenness and vivacity of the 
 letter, but he could liave liad no kind of sympatliy with its 
 spirit or intent, lie had seen too much of wasteful war 
 not to feel, as he did feel, a longing for a restful and fruitful
 
 MARSHAL OF FRANCE. 243 
 
 peace, which should relieve the poor cultivators from the 
 ravages of armies as well as marauders. 
 
 We have seen that the grand scheme designed to benefit 
 the Champenois was frustrated, much to the vexation of its 
 authors, and that practically, except in his own territory, the 
 work-days of the ceaseless reformer were over. He was now 
 often unwell, for wounds and labour and years told on his 
 strong constitution. Louis XIV. obtained a Spanish bride 
 as a consequence of the treaty of peace. Fabert, who visited 
 Paris in the summer to congratulate the royal bridegroom, fell 
 seriously ill, and was scarcely relieved of his sickness in 
 time to take a part in the grand ceremonial entry of the 
 bride. The illness proved the solicitude of Louis and his 
 mother, who sent their doctors to tend the patient, and the 
 sincerity of old friends, like Turenne, Conde, and Le Tellier, 
 who saw him on his sick-bed. He recovered in time to 
 figure in the splendid entry of the Infanta, and the marriage 
 procession from the Faubourg St. Antoine to Notre Dame. 
 The zeal of the new Marshal had one remarkable result. He 
 held that the Marshals, as a kind of military household, 
 were entitled to precede the Ambassadors. The pretension 
 suited the political temper of the young Sovereign, who 
 readily enforced it ; but the Ambassadors, indignant at the 
 slight put on their masters, protested, and absented them- 
 selves altogether from the splendid parade in the streets and 
 the solemn service in Notre Dame. It was an indication of 
 the spirit of the new reign. 
 
 Returning to Sedan in September, he resumed his daily 
 toil ; riding^ with a ]'vj;ht escort throusjh the territories, and 
 visiting the places recovered from Spain or Conde; engaging 
 skilled artizans to replenish the exhausted military stores in 
 the arsenal ; employing others upon the fortifications, setting 
 on foot textile and other manufactures by means of loans 
 advanced without interest, but on strict coiKlitions as regarded
 
 244 ABKAHAM FABERT. 
 
 the payment of wages and continuity of employment. He 
 had also never-ending anxieties growing out of the two 
 religious parties in his State which he fervently desired to 
 make one. 
 
 In the midst of these labours came a great misfortune. 
 Madame de Fabert, who had been left in Paris, died in 
 February 1661. Her husband himself had been obliged 
 during the late autumn to seek relief from his pains in the 
 waters of Bourbonne. He came back no better in healthy 
 and the illness of his wife sent him almost instantly to Paris, 
 where h efound he rdying. Madame de Fabert was a good 
 Avoman, benevolent, discreet, courageous. To her Sedan owed 
 its lace industry, for she personally taught the women Point 
 de Sedan, a modification of Point de Venise ; a year after 
 her death the workers were organized^ and at the close of the 
 century were numbered by thousands. Madame de Fabert 
 shared all her husband's civil toils, and gave him, it would 
 seem, only one cause for vexation. She loved gaming, chiefly 
 because it was the fashion, as so many women then did ; but 
 yielding to his wishes, she restrained her inclinations — at 
 least in the country, though she probably still played when at 
 Court in Paris, where play was epidemic. None was more 
 beloved in Sedan than the Marechale, who had made her 
 home there for nearly twenty years. Fabert's grief was 
 poignant and profound, but he did not parade a sorrow which 
 his religious nature taught him should be borne without 
 complaint. " I cannot ask consolation from God," he wrote to 
 a friend, "but only that He will give me the grace to turn 
 to my salvation the pains with which He afflicts me." 
 He carried home to Sedan her remains, and they were buried 
 ill a vault under the altar of the Church of the Capucins, 
 wImtc liis also, a year later, were destined to lie, until the 
 brutal Jacobins in '93 plucked them out and flung them to 
 the winds and waters!
 
 MARSHAL OF FRANCE. 245 
 
 A month later the news of another death reached Sedan. 
 Mazarin for some months had been grievously ill. He was 
 residing in Vincennes when the Mar^chale lay on her death- 
 bed, and the Court went thither to be near him — Anne from 
 old affection, Louis with mixed feelings, both from motives of 
 respect for a masterful servant. " The last time that I had 
 the honour to see him," writes Gourville in his Memoirs, 
 " was by chance, five or six days before he died. As he was 
 passing under the pines in the wood of Vincennes, to take 
 the air, I saw him alone with the lieutenant of his guards 
 who followed his chair. I wished to avoid him, but he saw 
 and called to me, stopped his bearers, and amused himself for 
 a moment by talking to me. He said he believed that he 
 was at the end of his days, whereat I was deeply moved." 
 A strangely suggestive meeting. Gourville had been an 
 active agent of the Frondcurs and of the princes ; had been 
 and still was a prime instrument of Fouquet in his secret 
 contest with the shrewd and ambitious Colbert, who was only 
 six years older than Gourville; so that many memories must 
 have surged up in the mind of the dying Cardinal when, 
 moved by a common sympathy, he stopped under the pines 
 to chat with a clever money-maker, or rather money-gainer, 
 a man after his own heart, yet without his vices — meanness 
 and avarice. And Gourville may well have been moved, for 
 who could tell what might befall after death had deprived 
 the whole band of public robbers of their chief protector and 
 patron ? 
 
 Though sometimes hard hit by his plain language, and a 
 little irritated by a sensitiveness on the point of honour 
 which the Cardinal, himself exempt from such weakness, 
 could not well understand, Mazarin always trusted the honest 
 Governor of Sedan, whom he found "so capable, so faithful." 
 Treasure, ever since the days of the Fronde, was deposited in 
 the safeguard of Fabert, and when the Cardinal died, there
 
 246 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 still remained a million in specie, which was promptly handed 
 over to Colbert. It was only a fraction of the immense 
 wealth scraped together by Mazarin, who, said Fabert, " had 
 much more than he needed daring his life ; his riches did 
 him no service ; and the reckoning after death perhaps is 
 rude. Would that God had been pleased to let him leave 
 but little ! " The thoughts of the lonely veteran in his castle 
 on the Meuse were sombre and pathetic. Arnauld Andilly 
 had written to him words of sympathy on the death of the 
 Marechale. In answer the Governor said that his spirit 
 [esprit] could not be more submissive than it was, but that 
 the body was not under the dominion of the will. His pains, 
 physical and mental, were great, for he went on, " I ask from 
 God neither consolation, nor that He should end my anguish ; 
 I desire to bear it as long as it pleases Him, and even that 
 He should increase it, if that would help to lessen the 
 torment which, perhaps, is endured by the person whom I 
 have lost. . . The courtiers will attribute to weakness 
 of mind that affliction which my heart holds fast ; I believe 
 that it proceeds from a tender nature which could bind itself 
 up with that of another." He saw no remedy for what he 
 called his body, his earthly tenement as opposed to his 
 esprit, and asked pardon for speaking of weaknesses which 
 he should have hidden, but he touchingly said, "I was forced 
 to open my heart as soon as I began to speak to you " — an 
 old friend whom he had known for a quarter of a century in 
 war and peace. " My misery should excite your pity, as it 
 makes me know that I am good for nothing." So he felt, 
 yet oi)enly he never stayed his labours, as became one who in 
 youth had lived for " glory," in his prime and declining years 
 to obey higher moral dictates whether they might bring their 
 own reward or bring none. 
 
 Tlio death of Mazarin was the signal for a political revolu- 
 ti'jn as thorough as it was unexpected. The King had
 
 MARSHAL OF FRANCE. 247 
 
 reigned since 1643; he was now to govern. Louis had 
 determined to be his own First Minister, and to put his 
 resolve into act as soon as the Cardinal ceased to be. The 
 courtiers could not be readily brought to believe that tlie 
 young man who had so patiently waited for the fulness of his 
 inheritance would suddenly, once and for all, become a Master, 
 who held firmly by the pregnant phrase — V^tat cest moi — a 
 dogma which probably he never uttered in that concrete 
 shape. Eager friends, relatives, and idle gossips whispered to 
 the solitary veteran in Sedan, first that he was to be Mazarin's 
 successor, next that he was to have the high i^ost of Superin- 
 tendant of the Finances. But although the King, and still 
 more his mother, apparently had some wish to seat him 
 among the principal ministers, his Majesty had no notion 
 whatever of making him First Minister or chief of the 
 Treasury. The mere rej)ort troubled his peace and filled 
 him with anxiety. He had no love of the Court at any time. 
 " All my life," he wrote, " I have stood in dread of the Court," 
 where persons, he found, were condemned on the strength of 
 appearances, so artfully arranged as to deceive almost the 
 accused themselves. Moreover, experience had taught him, 
 that his frank temper unfitted him for the life of a courtier. 
 " An open character like mine," he wrote, " supplies too many 
 arms against itself." So he stood out against his friends, 
 wdiose counsels were not wholly disinterested. " I have no 
 intention of quitting Sedan to reside at the Court," he said 
 firmly, "and I do not believe any one could make me change 
 my mind." Yet had his King commanded he would certainly 
 have obeyed, although obedience, as he said, would lead to his 
 speedy death. And he was perfectly sincere. 
 
 The alarm died away, but another speedily arose of a more 
 serious kind. Colbert, who having lived behind the scenes 
 with Mazarin, knew intimately the profound corruption which 
 ran through the entire Finance Department, had become the
 
 248 ABRAHAM FABEKT. 
 
 confidential agent of the King, and he relentlessly exposed 
 the accounts and laid bare the practices of Fouquet, the 
 Superintendant. Colbert, a great constructive as well as 
 administrative genius, thirsted for power, was indeed " more 
 ambitious than he knew " ; but he also loved order, and 
 detested the roguery which custom had domiciled in the 
 French financial offices. Fouquet, like Mazarin, had filched 
 for himself, and both had been the centre of a host of money- 
 lenders and jobbers, who thrived on loans, advances, farmed 
 revenues, contracts, and even had contrived, in one case, so 
 bold were they, to secure the repayment of a large loan which 
 was altogether fictitious — a mere entry in a book ! With 
 Colbert on his track, Fouquet was a lost man, since the King 
 had other grounds for anger; and thus Fouquet, arrested at 
 Nantes, had what was called a trial, and ended his days a 
 prisoner in Pignerol. Now it chanced that when his papers 
 were seized at St. Mande, a document was found which bore 
 upon Fabert. He was named in it as one of several Governors 
 who were pledged to take up arms on behalf of Fouquet, 
 should that worthy be arrested. The mere idea that Fabert 
 could betray his Sovereign was preposterous ; but he writhed 
 under it, and quitting his country house in the village of 
 Barricourt, he hastened to Court, where Le Tellier told him 
 that the accusation " was certainly written on paper, but 
 that no one believed it." And so it proved : for when the 
 troubled Marshal saw the King, Louis spontaneously cried 
 out, "Fear nothing; Fouquet's disgrace does not affect you at 
 all " ; and Queen Anne said promptly, " I will be your bail, 
 if you should want one." Soon after Fabert took leave of 
 the King, who repeated his former language, and added, " I 
 shall be vexed should I learn that the mad writings of 
 Fouquet give you the least chagrin." 
 
 Quitting Fontaineblcau, and picking up his family at 
 Barricourt, he returned to Sedan, and there soon received a
 
 MARSHAL OF FRANCK. 249 
 
 further proof of the esteem in which he was held. The birth 
 of a Dauphia in November 1661 was celebrated by an 
 addition to the roll of Knights of the St. Esprit, and the 
 Marshal was included among those who were to be decorated 
 witli the coveted Cordon Bleu. It was not the first time 
 that the great distinction had been offered to him. Mazarin 
 asked him to accept tlie collar in 1653, but Fabert pointed 
 out that, being only the first gentleman of his race, he could 
 not satisfy the requirements of the statutes, and therefore 
 would be excluded even if nominated. The well-meant effort 
 of Louis to honour the Marshal met with a similar fate. 
 A man was required to have three ancestors who were 
 gentlemen by name and arms, and to furnish adequate proofs 
 of his descent, in order to merit this dignity. Fabert had 
 them not, and he would not forge a genealogy. The Count 
 of Noailles delicately expounded the nature of the difficulty 
 to the King, who said that such was his regard for the 
 Marshal, that he would accept, without examination, any 
 proofs handed in. The concession was of no avail. He 
 would not condescend to trickery. Willingly would he accept 
 the Order, but it must be unstained by baseness. " Never," 
 he said, " will I permit my mantle to be honoured with a 
 cross, and my soul, at the same time, dishonoured by an 
 imposture." Examples in that line were paraded before him. 
 These " could not," he said, " set aside the laws of probity. 
 There is but one justice, one truth, one reason, and those 
 whom they condemn are rightly condemned, even should 
 they be absolved by all the politicians." To cut the contest 
 short, he wrote a manly letter to the King declining the 
 Order, saying that to obtain it he must " become a forger " — 
 a forger to his King, the mere thought of which he abhorred. 
 He did not ask that the rigid statutes should be relaxed on 
 his behalf, but the drift of language implied a hope that his 
 services might have obtained him that favour. It could not
 
 250 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 be. Louis, who would not, perhaps dared not, suspend the 
 statutes in his case, tried to make amends by exalting the 
 act of refusal in characteristic words which the Pere Barre 
 copied from the original — 
 
 " My Cousin, I cannot tell you whether -it is with more 
 esteem than sorrow that I have seen from your letter on the 
 7th of this month how you exclude yourself from the Cordon 
 Bleu, with which I had resolved to honour you. This rare 
 example of probity appears to nie so admirable that I confess 
 that I regard it as an ornament of my reign. But I regret 
 extremely to see a man wlio, by his valour (valeur) and 
 fidelity has attained so worthily to the first offices of my 
 kingdom and crown, deprive himself of this new mark of 
 honour by an obstacle which binds my hands. Not being 
 able to do more in order to render justice to your virtue, I 
 assure you that never would a dispensation have been 
 granted with greater joy than that which I should have 
 spontaneously sent you, could I have done so without over- 
 turning the foundations of my Orders ; and that those on 
 whom I am about to confer the Order, will never receive 
 from it greater lustre in the world, than the refusal, which 
 you have based on so generous a principle, will confer on you 
 in my eyes. For the rest I pray God, that he may have you 
 in his Holy and worthy keeping. Written at Paris, 29th 
 December, 1661. Louis." 
 
 This letter is an honour both to the young monarch Avho 
 wrote and the honest veteran who received it. The courtier 
 world was divided in opinion on the quality of Fabert's 
 action, but it was only ascribed to degrading motives by the 
 baser sort ; and after the King's letter there was more risk of 
 loss than profit in open detraction. Their shabby censures 
 did not weigh upon the Marshal, but he still fretted indig- 
 nantly under the malicious gossip which took Fouquet's 
 astonishing memorandum for a text. The Bishop of Rodez, 
 formerly the King's tutor, warmly, as his wont was, undertook
 
 MARSHAL OF FRANCE. 251 
 
 the defence of his friend, " You know me uadly," said Louis, 
 " if }'ou think I am credulous enough to put any faith in 
 these rumours, the authors of which I would punish if I 
 knew them." Then grew up fresh stories. Fouquet had 
 said in prison, that if the King would let him be at large he 
 was certain that Fabert would be his bail." Thereupon the 
 town began to talk. The Marshal was angered by these 
 calumnies. He even requested that he should be imiDrisoned 
 in the Bastille until his innocence was proved — a request not 
 listened to. In vain Le Tellier begged him not to worry 
 himself. His irritation and also his courage may be inferred 
 from what he said and wrote. " I should be a criminal if, 
 observing any malversation or disloyalty in Fouquet, I had 
 failed to inform the King, And if, to-day, I condemn his 
 administration of the finances, may I not, in conscience, 
 solace him in his misfortune without failing in respect or 
 fidelity to the King ? " The depth of Fouquet's misdeeds was 
 known only to a few, hardly at all to the Marshal, who was 
 not the man to desert a friend in distress ; and he was by no 
 means the only one who did not swim with the stream. 
 
 Throughout the summer of '61 he had to maintain as best 
 he could the interests of Sedan. The King had given his 
 sanction to au edict abolishing the sovereign council, and 
 substituting a presidial court dependent on the Parlement of 
 Metz. The change threatened the status of the Protestants, 
 who shared in the government, and injured the Governor, 
 who forthwith took steps to defend his people. He remon- 
 strated so strongly that the Court offered a compromise — a 
 larger jurisdiction, the paid post of Grand Seneschal for him- 
 self, and honorary advantages for his male descendants. He 
 saw then, that the superior power was in earnest, and tried to 
 make the best bargain he could, by declining the proffers of 
 place and pelf, on condition that he should nominate to the 
 new offices. The proposal was accepted, but clogged with
 
 252 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 the restriction that the offices, as usual, should be bought 
 from the State. Against this Fabert made a stand, and 
 \\hen the money-lenders offered to advance the sums required, 
 he gave the project a fatal blow by saying that he would pay, 
 out of his own purse, what was in reality a fine, qualified by 
 the power to sell, inflicted on the persons he might select. 
 That stroke of personal disinterestedness brought the King 
 to his side ; and the State demand was abandoned. We may 
 finish the story here by adding that an attempt, made by the 
 Metz Parlement in the following spring, to meddle with 
 appointments in Sedan, was sharply repelled by the Governor 
 and Council, who were sustained by the King. Thus to the 
 day of his death Fabert kept faith with the Sedan Calvinists, 
 protected them from persecution, and upheld them in office. 
 When he was dead, their adversaries gained the upper hand. 
 With him the reign of toleration expired.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 The contest with the grasping lawyers of Metz was the 
 last labour of the wearied Governor, except one. Ever since 
 he came to Sedan he had shown a solicitude to deal fairly 
 with the Protestants, which, good policy as mere policy, har- 
 monized with his sense of what was right. It was a percep- 
 tion of his equity, a knowledge of his firmness, which made 
 Richelieu select and Mazarin uphold him. The great 
 Cardinal at least believed in his (Church ; the less great 
 Cardinal, who was not a priest, seemed, as Madame de 
 Motteville said, indifferent alike to vice and virtue. Mazarin 
 was not a persecutor, and the conciliatory conduct observed in 
 Sedan suited his political views. But the Governor had a 
 finer moral sense. While he restored liberty of worship to the 
 Roman Catholic Church, as in duty bound, he did not permit 
 anything approaching to ascendency ; and to the last he 
 cherished a hope that the religions rupture might be healed 
 by just and gentle means. The sterner Calvinists, who had 
 found refuge in Sedan, unable to endure the loss of pre- 
 eminence, shook the dust from their feet and wandered into 
 foreign lands ; the greater number, less rigid, remained, 
 and the justice of Fabert won their hearts. His early associa- 
 tion with Vincent de Paul, his comradeship with Arnauld 
 Andilly, the hearty welcome he gave to the famous Letters of 
 Pascal, letters which he read, as they came out, with a youthful 
 enthusiasm and fine appreciation of their form as well as
 
 254 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 their spirit, does not prepare one for that leaning towards the 
 Jesuit Fathers which he subsequently showed. But the 
 truth seems to be that he grew bewildered with the clash of 
 opposing theologians, and took refuge in authority. The 
 violence, the want of charity and fairness on all sides dis- 
 gusted him, and made him say, " the more one reasons, the 
 less one persuades and the more one raises doubts." So he 
 cut the knots which neither he nor the disputants could untie. 
 "I correct, by faith," he said, "the weakness of my sense and 
 reason. Amid the clash of dogmas, I hold to that which has 
 been believed by all, everywhere, and always." If the Jesuits 
 in the end triumphed so far as to gain his good-will and to 
 educate his children, it was perhaps because singularly 
 discreet and diplomatic specimens were sent to Sedan. Do 
 wdiat they might, they never made or tried to make him a 
 persecutor, but rather fell in with his maxims of conduct, and 
 even supported at Court his liberal system of dealing with the 
 Protestants. To him, of course, it was a matter of simple 
 honesty and the keeping of promises, and in that old-fashioned 
 faith he lived and died. He could not be got to think that 
 the suppression and punishment of "heresy" was the chief 
 duty of man. After peace was made in 1659, he wished to 
 lead an army against the Turk. Thereupon the sage of Port 
 Royal suggested heretical England as a foe ; and Fabert 
 answered that his King was an ally of England, and that if 
 he were not, the devouring Turks, " the enemies of Jesus 
 Christ," were far more to be feared than "heresies" which 
 have existed in every age. "I do not fear the heretics," he 
 added, " so much as the infidels." His steadfast belief that 
 those who had f[uitt(;d the Roman Church would, if she 
 thought more of sp'ritual and less of earthly things, slide 
 back into her arms was childlike in its simplicity, though 
 somewhat justified after his death by so many conversions 
 which were not all at the point of the sword.
 
 THE END. 255 
 
 These friendly contests with the grand solitaire of Port 
 Royal, who had himself a keen eye to place and power, as 
 became a man of uncommon ability, occurred in 1659, a period 
 when the Marshal was at the height of his fortune. Yet at 
 that moment when Andilly was urging him to put off his 
 extreme modesty and strive for political power, he drew a 
 picture of himself which shows plainly enough how great was 
 the distaste for the world which had come upon him. He 
 desired to retire from all affairs, but duty to his family 
 compelled him to lead a life for which he had no liking. 
 "For sixty years," he wrote, "I have been in this world. I 
 have risen step by step to the point attained. God has given 
 me wealth I know not how. I have almost no birth, no relatives 
 of consideration. I, alone, have made my fortune. Neither my 
 wounds nor any disease give me any inconvenience [so liglitly 
 he treated his bodily pain]. I have no enemies, no mauvaise 
 affaire, nor in my household anything which gives me pain. 
 How many men in France would think themselves happy 
 were they as I am ! Yet, how often do I think every day of 
 the happiness I should enjoy, could I spend the short time 
 left me remote from business which must be done for others 
 as well as for myself." It was all true ; the glittering prizes 
 won brought him little satisfaction ; but the real source of his 
 grief was that no effort availed to achieve any serious diminu- 
 tion of the grievous social evils around him. Posts were 
 sought because they conferred honour, and poAver because it 
 commanded fear. He held that a man, entrusted with an 
 office, was bound to perform the duties pertaining thereto, 
 and that the King's delegated authority should never be used 
 to secure personal gain. That was not the common practice 
 whatever was the formal belief, and hence the abuses which 
 were so glaring and so inexpugnable. The sight thereof 
 filled him with melancholy, perhaps despair, at times ; and 
 made him hunger for the peace which the wearied always
 
 256 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 hope to find in seclusion. Later, as we have seen, private 
 afflictions fell upon him, death smote and pain racked him ; 
 but still he stood fast by the plain duty which was nearest, 
 and continued faithful to the end. That was his characteristic. 
 
 His love of knowledge led him at one time to look closely 
 at the poor chemistry of the day, and even to dabble in 
 astrology ; he found nothing in either except amusement. 
 The ignorant or malicious accused him of confabulations with 
 the devil, to whom of course he had sold his soul ; and the 
 Pere Barre, who imputes to him a belief that he should not 
 survive his sixty-third year, hints that he got it from a 
 horoscope drawn by a certain Moutluisant, an astrologer and 
 an alchemist as well, who was an experimental chemist. But 
 after trial had, Fabert dismissed both the " sciences " in a 
 tone which shows that they did not impose on his strong 
 sense. He speaks in one letter rather contemptuously of the 
 "jargon " of his chemist, and adds that the science is not a bit 
 more certain than that of astrology, " the decrees of which, 
 thank God, are not immutable." Not at all the language of 
 a convert. " Beyond the pleasure of seeing, in a sort of way, 
 the composition of bodies, I do not believe anything can be got 
 out of this kind of work." ^ The accusations of sorcery and 
 intimacy with Satan were so silly that he only alludes to them 
 in one place with a fine tone of disdain. Yet the calumny 
 stuck to his memory in Champagne, where the villagers of 
 Esternay, his estate, averred that every night his ghost was 
 seen walkinj; in the hall of the chateau and on the roads 
 beside the lake. The superstition was operative during the 
 Revolution, when the shade of Fabert saved his former abode 
 from destruction. 
 
 Whotlicr tlio story of his presentiment is true or not, 
 
 ' Those who may be curious about the jargon can gratify their curiosity 
 by reading tlie specimens whieli the indefatigable Bourelly has dug up 
 out of the French archives.
 
 TUE END. 257 
 
 certain it is that he died in his sixty-third year. The sprin^r 
 found him deeply engaged in a vigorous effort to bring the 
 Calvinisls back into the fold. It was his main purpose, but 
 of course did not draw him away from those worldly duties 
 which he always largely interpreted and zealously performed. 
 He had soon perforce to stay his active hand, for on the 
 evening of May 10th a violent outbreak of fever obliged him to 
 take to his bed. Day by day he grew Avorse, and feeling that 
 death was on him, on the fifth day of his mortal sickness he 
 demanded and received the Sacrament in the most solemn 
 form ; took farewell of his servants, embracing and blessing 
 them as he lay on his bed ; and talking calmly to his friends 
 and his youngest daughter, the sole member of his family 
 present at the moving scene. At night, he said to the Presi- 
 dent Morel, "in two days, if it please God, I shall know much 
 about the things concerning which we have so often con- 
 versed " ; and early the next morning, having imploi-ed the 
 President to press on the work of reconciling the Protestants, 
 and finding him disinclined, and full of grave doubts respect- 
 ing its success, the old ardour burned up afresh in the 
 Marshal's breast, with striking results. " Well, then," ex- 
 claimed the dying man, " summon hither the best among 
 them, and in bidding them farewell, I will talk to them in 
 your presence." He was obeyed. The Huguenots came 
 readily, for they loved the man. The curtains at the foot of 
 the bed were drawn back, revealing the pathetic figure of the 
 Marshal, who, by a strong effort of will, strove against and 
 overcame a bodily weakness so severe that it often restricted 
 his breathing. Yellow with bilious fever, emaciated, almost 
 fainting at times, he reclined there, all about him feebleness 
 except his bright eye and firm voice. So he made good his 
 purpose, valiant as if in battle, and spoke to these friends and 
 companions of many years with a simplicity and earnestness 
 
 Avhich reached their hearts. A most singular death-bed 
 
 s
 
 258 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 scene, affecting, impressive, and well worthy of remembrance, 
 not more for the action of the man than for the words which 
 he spoke from the very brink of the grave. Both act and 
 words are in full accord with the noble character which we 
 have seen severely tried and proved by the stern tests of a 
 convulsed and sanguinary age. When the heat oppressed 
 and the exertion and fervour of speaking made him feel faint, 
 he took off his cap and caused a windoAV to be opened. Read 
 straight through there seems no halt in the flow of his 
 touching appeal ; yet it was broken here and there, and his 
 struggles with his malady for breath, distressed the cluster of 
 his friends and fellow-workers. Much that he said is now 
 dead and gone, but much remains alive and pertinent to all 
 time, and some of that we may give. 
 
 No time was wasted in compliments. " To you," he said 
 simply, " I am indebted for some good advice, and you will 
 do me the justice to confess that I have lived with you as 
 brothers." Then he went directly to the solemn matter in 
 hand. 
 
 " If anything could now make me regret to die it would be 
 to leave imperfect the work of religious re-union, towards the 
 accomplishment of which God inspired me to labour twenty 
 years ago, from the very moment when the late King 
 honoured me with this government ; since which time I have 
 been constantly bent on it ; and at length there seemed to me, 
 on both sides, a disposition favourable to the success of this 
 pious design. I tell you frankly that, on many occasions, I 
 have not found much help could be had from the doctors of 
 the one party more than those of the other. Each one sought 
 to support his side and fight the adversary. If a book be 
 read, the Protestants fasten on whatever goes to support their 
 opinions ; the same thing is done by the Catholics. Why? 
 Because neither is animated by that spirit of charity which 
 tends to concord ; neither will take any steps towards recon-
 
 THE END. 259 
 
 ciliation. I expected aid of that kind, and trusted that I 
 should be seconded in this charitable design by persons who, 
 although not doctors in theology, are not wanting in ability 
 or repute, and I will not despair of obtaining it." 
 
 Then, reviving old exiDcriences, he became autobiographical 
 to show how great a change had come over his own mind. 
 
 " I know well," he said, " that a man born, bred, and 
 instructed in Protestant beliefs does not readily change or 
 modify them in order to join the Catholic Church. If that is 
 the case with private persons, how much more so with those 
 who have passed through the hands of the doctors ; the more 
 the knowledge, the greater the resistance. But, gentlemen, 
 let us do something for the glory of God and the peace of our 
 families. We do not differ so much in our beliefs as some 
 would make out. Before I had a full knowledge of yours, I 
 was taught that you were disloyal persons, men without fear 
 of God, without law or faith, the enemies of the King and 
 the State. I was nourished, and quitted the care of a mother 
 who had bred and confirmed me, in these opinions concerning 
 you and your religion. Whenever in that time a chance 
 offered of injuring those who held your faith, I wrought with 
 ardour against foes whom I res^arded as enemies of God and 
 the King. I have been engaged in the siege of places held 
 by the Huguenots (so they w^ere called), and have been often 
 wounded ; judge, gentlemen, if in tliat state and prejudice I 
 could love you. 
 
 " The late King having honoured me with this government, 
 and engaged me to live with you, I was determined to bottom 
 the matter, and learn whether what had been said of you was 
 true or not. I obtained the needed instruction and a know- 
 ledge of your faith, not by the method of disputation which 
 only produces ill effects, exasperates the mind, and feeds 
 hatred, but by the conversation and familiar talk which I l»ave 
 had with you. In the end I found that we were agreed with
 
 260 ABEAHAM FABERT. 
 
 regard to the principal points wliicli make the essence of 
 religion, that you believe as I believe, that I believe as you do. 
 You are all witnesses that after our familiar interviews, after 
 having laid bare and explained to you my opinions on the 
 fundamentals of religion, and you having made me compre- 
 hend yours, you have said openly that you would sign all the 
 points of my belief as I had set them before you ; and I also 
 said that I would subscribe my name to yours as you had 
 explained them to me. Eh, gentlemen, what more can be 
 needed to bring you back to us ? . . . Remove all bitterness, 
 consider calmly the things which are practised in both 
 religions, but let the considerations be charitable, having for 
 their main end the removal of the obstacles which sejmrate 
 us. Distinguish between things essential to religion and 
 articles of faith which none can doubt without heresy, and 
 those which are accidental and indifferent. If we agree on 
 the first, the second should not keep us apart. Much rubbish 
 has been spoken and printed by some monks, reject it; bat 
 your ministers must also act with good fiuth, and exert them- 
 selves to remove the impressions conveyed to the people 
 respecting many things which are never done in our religion." 
 
 And so he continued, varying the same theme and almost 
 the same argument, which he reinforced by touching appeals 
 to their higher worldly interests, the tranquillity of the realm, 
 the peace of families, the fair and worthy attainment and 
 enjoyment of public offices — and reminded them, as he had 
 a full right to do, that ho had this very year risked his fortune 
 rather than abandon them. And he implored them to grant 
 his prayer, " by the affection," ho said, " which I have for 
 you, and which I owe you as friends who, as I have always 
 declar(jd, have laboured with me in the service of the King 
 
 and the State with a fidelity absolute and comjilete 
 
 In tlic name of God consider well what I say." 
 
 Among the men so simply and earnestly aildressed were
 
 THE END. 20 1 
 
 some who wept, and certainly others who controlled their 
 emotion. Several, by their language of hope, filled the 
 Marshal with gladness; only one chilled his warm feelings 
 by saying that he would do all permitted by his conscience. 
 This was stout Colonel Banda, a hardy veteran and steadfast 
 Huguenot of the Thirty Years' War, once, in a time of peril, 
 recommended to Mazarin by Fabert himself, as " very experi- 
 enced, courageous, and skilful in war." He could not take 
 the broad, benevolent view of his old commander, but clung 
 to the faith for which he had so often fought beside Conde 
 and Turenne. But when the moment of parting came, and 
 the sick Marshal, suffering from his exertion, bade them 
 farewell, Banda, like the rest, knelt beside the bed and kissed 
 the hand of the dying chief, who laid both hands upon the 
 head of each and besought him to perform his duty in the 
 service of the King. " We all wept like children," says one 
 witness of this scene whose narrative has been preserved. 
 
 During the day Fabert was employed in anxious thoughts 
 for the future of his family, desiring M. Voisin, to whom he 
 dictated a letter, and M. de Termes, his trusted man of busi- 
 ness, who had hurried from Paris, to watch over the welfare 
 and act as the guardians of his children. " I make you, sir," 
 he said to De Termes, " the father of my children. It is true 
 that the charge will give you trouble ; but why have I loved 
 you, and why have you loved me ? " It was night, and the 
 Marshal had need of rest ; yet the next morning he actually 
 rose from his bed, and was found arranging papers in his 
 study, so strong was the habit of ceaseless industry. But he 
 grew worse as the hours went by, and after recovering from 
 a violent spasm, begged to be left alone. In the afternoon, 
 De Riviere, his surgeon, peering between the closed curtains 
 where all was still, called to him, and receiving no reply, 
 touched his breast and found that he was dead. He had 
 glided peacefully away, and near his corpse lay his Book of
 
 262 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 Hours, open at tlie Psalm Miserere mei Deus. He died about 
 five o'clock on May 17, 1662, "died as lie had lived," wrote 
 Bourlement, Governor of Stenay, who saw him alive and 
 thought that he had recovered on the very midday of his 
 death ; died " with the greatest firmness, and without any 
 apprehension of death which he felt assured was near at 
 hand." 
 
 His body, enclosed in lead, was buried, as he willed it 
 should be, without any pomp in the crypt under the choir 
 of the Church of the Irish Capucins, beside that of Claude 
 de Clevant. The black marble of their tomb still remains 
 visible, but the church is now a military hospital ; and the 
 ashes of the noble dead, torn from their resting-place in '93, 
 have long ago been swallowed up in the ditch of one of the 
 horn-works built by the patriotic Marshal. Of their two sons, 
 one, the eldest, fell in Candia fighting the Turks; the other 
 died in his bed still a youth. Their three daughters were 
 married — Anne to the Marquis of Vervins, and after his early 
 death, to Francois de Merode, Marquis de Trelon; Claude to 
 Charles Henry Marquis de Caylus ; and Angelique first to a 
 Marquis de Genlis, and next to a d'Harcourt, Marquis de 
 Beuvron. It was, however, the posterity of Francois de 
 Fabert, the marshal's elder brother, which has survived in 
 direct descent to our own day. 
 
 Abralmm Fabcrt, says the Pore Barre, was of middle height, 
 AvcU made, having a bold and easy carriage. His complexion 
 inclined to the brunette, flushed with red ; his forehead was 
 high and broad, his eyes bright and piercing ; and he moved 
 with head erect, and gave the impression of a stern earnest 
 ■iiiiiii. We have seen that, in youth and manhood, he was 
 bold, resolute, and brief in speech, that lie had no polish and 
 paid little attention to the outward forms of politeness; but 
 was still loved and trusted by great and small, because he 
 was sterliiii; metal, really generous, and always a man of his
 
 THE END. 2G3 
 
 word. He was a great worker all his life, in camp, battle, 
 and quarters, especially studious and painstaking in all that 
 concerned his profession, upon which he placed a large in- 
 terpretation — holding, for example, that geograiiliy was as 
 necessary to an officer as arms were to a soldier. He wrote 
 much, but burned most of his compositions, especially those 
 concerning his own time, saying that the events and incidents 
 had been so altered and disguised, that the common notions 
 of them were almost the opposite of what they were as he 
 knew them. Fearing lest his children, in order to defend 
 his good name, should be involved to their detriment in 
 painful controversies, he destroyed contributions to history 
 which would have been most valuable. Literary renown 
 evidently had no attraction for him. He was proud, a little 
 exacting, and sensitive to excess ; but he had no vanity. 
 When he Avas called to the chief post in Sedan his great 
 qualities had fair scope, and came more visibly into play. 
 He governed as well as reigned in his little realm, where he 
 was a terror to evil-doers ; yet he drew a distinction between 
 one sort of delinquent and another, tempering his severity 
 with mercy, wherever he could without injustice. As a 
 soldier he paid his way throughout all his campaigns ; as a 
 governor he insisted on honesty and order. Yet, dismissing 
 a valet who had robbed him, he gave him money wherewith 
 to start afresh in life ; and when another servant lost, in 
 gambling, a sum entrusted to him, the offender was provided 
 with the means of learning a trade ; he thought that these 
 men yielded to temptation, but the inveterate sinners, the 
 dissolute of both sexes, were sternly banished from his domains. 
 Therein, as in all places where he commanded, he exacted 
 discipline from his troops, and looked for fair dealing, 
 temperance, and industry, among what we may call his 
 people. His own daily habits were a bright example to all. 
 He rose very early, summer and winter, and worked until
 
 2G4 ABRAHAM FABERT. 
 
 the sun had risen ; then, going forth, inspected his military 
 and other works ; returning, he heard mass, and dined at half 
 past ten in the forenoon, " putting much water in his wine." 
 He talked freely at table, and said laughingly to a critical 
 friend that he liked to babble nonsense himself because he 
 could not patiently listen to the foolishness of other people. 
 About midday he gave audience to all and sundry who chose 
 to come ; at four he withdrew to his study, where he was 
 busy until supper-time, after which he spent some time with 
 his family. Then he went to bed at nine, to rise at four in 
 summer and six in winter — soldiers' hours, no doubt, but 
 also the hours of a great and active man of business. 
 
 The defects of Marshal Fabert. Yes, he had his defects ; 
 but they injured no one except himself, and only in his 
 >vorldly fortunes. I shall be content if I have conveyed some 
 approximately correct conception of a hard-working, ingenious, 
 valiant, and honest man, who, in essentials, is an example 
 to all time ; who had the good fortune to figure in youth as 
 a printer and publisher of books — " Abraham Fabert, Icjcune" 
 may still be read on title-pages — and who, in old age, became 
 a Marshal of France, the first of his class who attained to 
 that splendid and coveted dignity, and one of the worthiest 
 by whom it has ever been borne.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AcQUEviLLE, M. DE, luakes Fabert 
 
 take fooil, 103 
 Anionton, William, inventor of 
 
 the semaphore, 129 
 Andilly, Eobert, his frank sjjeeches 
 
 to tlie King, 52 
 Arquien, Commandant of Metz, 11 
 Arriere-ban, its failure as a military 
 
 institution, 105, 106 
 
 Baireuth, Albert of ("Alcibiudes "), 6 
 
 Balance of power, 5 
 
 Bastille, the, as a State Treasure- 
 house, 5, 15, 22 
 
 Brunswick, Cliristian of, 44 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of, his mission 
 to Paris, 55, 57 ; gallantry at 
 Rochelle, 57 
 
 Cadastral survey of Champagne be- 
 gun by Fabert, 232 
 
 Casale, Spinola besieges, 67 
 
 Champagne, Regiment of, its dis- 
 cipline under Pierre Arnauld, 37 
 
 Charles Emanuel of Savoy, his 
 death and character, 72 
 
 Chavigny, Fabert's friendship for, 
 214 
 
 Chavigny and Pere Joseph, 151 
 
 Cinq Mars, 123 ; at Arras, 164 ; his 
 plot, 176 ; threatens Fabert, 178 ; 
 is rebuked severely by Louis, 
 178; his schemes discovered, 180; 
 executed, ib. 
 
 Clevant, Chxude de, becomes wife of 
 Fabert, 80 
 
 Cloud, M., refuses a bribe to release 
 Fabert, and is complimented by 
 the latter, 90 
 
 Colbert and Fouquet, 248 
 
 Concini, the, favourites of Marie de 
 Medici, 25 
 
 Coneino, Marechal d'Ancre, assas- 
 sinated, 25 
 
 Conseil, M. de, promoted in place 
 of Fabert, 46 ; killed by Fabert 
 in a duel, 47 
 
 Constable of France, the last (Les- 
 diguieres), 41 
 
 Cordova, Gonzalez of, 44 
 
 Discipline, looseness of, in French 
 army, 88, 98 
 
 Dole, attempt on, by Conde, frus- 
 trated by the Archbishop of 
 Besan^on, 117 
 
 Duelling, the frequency of, 21, 47 
 
 Du Perron, Cardinal, his audari us 
 speech, 24 
 
 Effiat, father of Cinq Mars, 68, 69, 
 83 
 
 Epernon, Duke of, the patmn uf 
 Abraham Fabert tlie elder, 3 ; 
 his "natural ferocity,'' 21 ; aids 
 Marie de Medici, 27 ; his narrow 
 escape at Rochelle, 43 ; visited in 
 prison by Fabert, 170 ; his death, 
 171 
 
 Fabert, Abraham, father of the 
 Marshal, printer, iron-master, 
 Maitre Echeviii of Metz, 2, 3 
 
 Fabert, Abraham (the Marshal), his 
 birth, 1, 3, 4, 7 ; called Ic jenne 
 on a few title-pages of books 
 printed at Metz, 264 ; his ances- 
 try, 2 ; his posterity, 262 ; early
 
 266 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 inclination for military service, 
 9, 11 ; his education, 13 et sq. ; 
 noticed by Epernon, enters the 
 French Guards, 16 ; goes to Paris 
 with his regiment, 17, 19 ; serves 
 in Regiment Piedmont, 18 ; 
 cashiered by Luynes from Regi- 
 ment Piedmont, but reinstated 
 by Epernon, 27 ; at Beam and 
 Rochelle, 35, 36, 37 ; wounded at 
 Rochelle, 43 ; at siege of Montpel- 
 lier, presented to tlie King, 45 ; 
 not promoted ; his disappoint- 
 ment, 46 ; kills his rival, M. de 
 Conseil, and hides, 47 ; takes 
 refuge in Moulins, 48 ; meditates 
 taking service in Germany, 48 ; 
 dissuaded by Epernon and posted 
 to Regiment Rambures as Ser- 
 geant-]\Iajor, 49, 50 ; at second 
 siege of Rochelle, 56, 58 ; noticed 
 by Richelieu, 59 ; ordered to 
 Dauphiny, 61 ; turns the Pas de 
 Suze, 62 et sq.; his audacity 
 when reconnoitring, 62, 71, 89, 
 103, 114, 120, 162, 202 ; com- 
 mer.ded by the King, 64, 65 ; his 
 bravery at Privas, 65 ; made cap- 
 tain but refuses the post, ib.; re- 
 turns to Metz, 66 ; rejoins Ram- 
 bures, ib. ; at Lyons, 67 ; in the 
 Alps, defends rear-guard, 69 ; at 
 Saluzzo, 70 ; becomes a cajstain, 
 71 ; his generosity to a comrade, 
 ib.; at Metz, 78; domestic troubles, 
 ib.; manages ironworks at Moy- 
 CEUvre, ib. et sq.; transfers Moulins 
 to liis brother Fran9ois, 78 ; his 
 marriage, 80 ; reconnoitres Moy- 
 envic disguised as a peasant, 81; 
 liis daring j)]aii for its capture, il>.; 
 in Lorraine, 83 ; trusted by the 
 King in Lorraine, 87 ; claims 
 right to punish his own men, 88; 
 wliile recDniKiitring Tliinnvillc is 
 made prisoner by the Sjianiards, 
 89 ; is set free, 90 ; Commandant 
 of Metz, 90 ; liis diligence in his 
 duties, 91, 95 ; appointed aide- 
 de-camj) to La Valette, 97 ; his 
 ruply to I'ernhard of Saxe 
 Weimar, 101 ; reprovisions La 
 Valette's army, 102, 107 ; care- 
 
 lessness of his own health, 103 ; 
 resumes his post in Rambures, 
 107 ; humane treatment of 
 enemy's wounded, 108 ; proposes 
 reforms in army, 109 ; saves the 
 Count of Guiche at Saverne, 113; 
 his skilful use of the artillery, ih.; 
 aids in relieving St. Jean de 
 Losne, 119 ; in campaign of 1637, 
 123 sq.; becomes a captain in the 
 Picardy Regiment, 124 ; asked 
 for by La Valette, ib.; Fabert 
 and '■'■Vhomme iV esprit,^' 125, 127, 
 134-37; at Landrecies, ib.; his 
 skilful use of mines, ib. ; daring 
 proposal for a retreat, 133 ; 
 Fabert and Pere Joseph, 137 ; 
 Fabert and the King, 135 ; de- 
 nounces the charlatan Vercour, 
 136 ; intrigues against Richelieu, 
 138 et sq.; fortunately does not 
 suffer thereby ; 142 ; Fabert and 
 the famine, 145 ; organizes relief, 
 146; endeavours to prevent seizure 
 of implements for taxes, 147 ; in 
 Italy again, 149 ; his remarks to 
 La Valette on the Court, 150 ; at- 
 tempts to relieve Vercelli, 153 ; 
 death of his father, 154 ; returns 
 tothearmyinltaly, 154; wounded 
 at Turin, 155 ; his quaint speech 
 regarding proposad amputation 
 of his leg, 156 ; his aid is sought 
 by Richelieu, 157 ; madegovernor 
 of La Capelle ; his generous con- 
 duct to another otficer, 157 ; re- 
 turns to Italy as Iwinme du lioi, 
 158 ; revictuals Casale, 159 ; re- 
 turnsto Paris, 161 ; advises seizure 
 of Arras, ib.; examines it in dis- 
 guise, 162; his energy, 163; works 
 at armv organization, 164; with 
 Marshal Chatillon, 166 ; well- 
 known mut attributed to him 
 among otliers, 166 ; covers the 
 rout of Cliatillon's army, 167 ; 
 lakes I'apaume "in eight days," 
 168 ; his rebuke to over-digni- 
 fied comrades, 168 ; his adven- 
 ture with two brawlers, 169 ; goes 
 with the King and Richelieu to 
 Roussillon, 172 ; siege of Colli- 
 oure, 173; quarrel with La Meil-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 2G7 
 
 leraye, ib.; appeased by Turenne, 
 174 ; warns De Thou to keep 
 aloof from Cinq Mars, 177 ; liis 
 remark on tlie insolence of Cinq 
 Mar.s, 178; tries to visit De Thou 
 in prison, 181 ; made governor 
 of Sedan, 183; becomes MarecJial 
 de Cam]), 196 ; trusted by tlie 
 Protestants of S .dan, 19G ; ar- 
 ranges with neighbouring states 
 for the suppression of raiding, 
 198 ; aids tlie French, lb.; forms 
 a regiment, ib.; has to abandon it, 
 199, 202; in Catalonia, 199; is 
 taken prisoneratKosas, 200; draws 
 Act of Capitulation for that place, 
 ib.; returns to Sedan, 200 ; ad- 
 ministrative ditliculties, 201 ; 
 iiominateil to the Council, ib.; 
 fighting in Elba, 202 ; encourages 
 manufactures in Sedan, 203 ; his 
 money difficulties with Mazarin, 
 203 ; during the Fronde, 206 ; 
 his health impaired, 206 ; goes to 
 Paris to aid Chavigny, ib.; escorts 
 Mazarin's nieces to Sedan, 207 ; 
 maintains order against partizans 
 of the Frondeurs, 208 ; opposes 
 Turenne at Mouzon, 212 ; his de- 
 pression of mind, 209, 213 ; 
 letters to Chavigny, ib.; garden- 
 ing, 213; helps M:izarin during his 
 flight, 215 ; excludes from Sedan 
 the deputies sent by the Parle- 
 ment, 216 ; defends local institu- 
 tions, ib.; works with Mazarin, 
 219, 220 ; cannotrecoveradvances 
 of money, 222, 224 ; offered post 
 of Superintendant of Finances, 
 222 ; offer withdrawn, ib.; given 
 command of an army to operate 
 at Liege, 223 ; at tiege of Stenay 
 employs zigzag trenches, 225 ; 
 Fabert and Vauban, ib.; his 
 energy, ib.; returns to Sedan, 226 ; 
 extended duties, 227 ; made a 
 marquis, 213 ; claims a Mar- 
 shal's baton, 227 ; makes Sedan 
 a "nursery of good officers," 
 228 ; as an administrator, 229 ; 
 improA^es the system of winter 
 quarters, 230 ; tries to improve 
 fiscal system, 231 ; begins a 
 
 cadastral survey, 232 ; marriage 
 of his daughter Anne, 238 ; is 
 made a Marshal, 240 ; growing 
 Aveaker, 243 ; insists on prece- 
 dence over ambassadors, ib.; death 
 of his wife, 244 ; his grief, 246 ; 
 his refiections on the death of 
 Mazarin, 246 ; Fabert and Fou- 
 quet, 248, 261 ; ottered the Cur- 
 don Bleu, 249 ; refuses it, ib. ; 
 Louis's letter, 250 ; defends the 
 Protestants of Sedan, 251, 252, 
 and also the Jesuits, 254 ; thinks 
 of war with the Turks, ib. ; his 
 dislike of politics, 255 ; remarks 
 on alchemy, 256 ; astrology, ib. ; 
 death-bed, 257; endeavour to 
 reconcile Protestants and Catho- 
 lics, 257 ; his death, 261 ; his 
 jersonal appearance, 262 ; char- 
 acter, 263 ; reason given by him 
 for "talking nonsense'' at table, 
 264; hisconsideration for the poor, 
 111 ; his advanced economic 
 ideas, 233 ; proposes that the 
 bishops should prepare statistics 
 of their dioceses, 234; Fabert 
 and Louis XIV., 235, 237. 
 
 Fabert, Fran<^ois, brother of the 
 Marshal, 10 ; his posterity, 262. 
 
 Fiscal system of France, its bad- 
 ness, 231 
 
 Fontrailles joins Cinq Mars and 
 intrigues with Spain, 177 ; en- 
 deav(nirs to win over Fabert, ib. 
 
 Fort Louis, at Rochelle, 37 
 
 France, after death of Henry III., 
 4, 5 ; its confused state after the 
 assassination of Henry IV., 19 et 
 sq. 
 
 French Guards, 12 
 
 French nobles, their contempt for 
 study, 17, 67 
 
 Fronde, the, 205 ct sq. 
 
 Gallas, Count, his proverbial ill- 
 luck in war, 120 
 
 Gaston of Orleans, his meanness, 
 84,85 
 
 Gourville, the Sienr de, taken as a 
 prisoner to Sedan, 216 ; his 
 speech about strawberries, 217 ; 
 at Arras, 226
 
 268 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Grandees {Les Qrandts), not an 
 
 aristocracy, 23, 29 
 Grat.loup, Baron of, shelters Fabert 
 
 after liis duel with Conseil, 47 ; 
 
 aids Fabert when in the hands 
 
 of the Spaniards, 89 
 Guise, the House of, 423 
 Gunpowder, the monopoly of, 125 
 
 Harcourt, the Pede des Cadets, 160 
 
 Henry III. assassinated, 3 
 
 Henry of Navarre becomes a Catho- 
 lic, 4 ; visits Metz, 9 
 
 Hepburn, Colonel, his ability and 
 valour, a pupil of Gustavus, 114, 
 116 
 
 Herald, last employment of, in con- 
 veying a declaration of war, 92 
 et sq. 
 
 Huguenots, their political action, 
 28, 32, 34, 44 ; unwise treatment 
 of, 45, 46 ; renew the contest with 
 the Crown, 55 
 
 Joseph, le Pere (Son Eminence 
 Grise), 36 ; imagines himself a 
 tactician, 88 ; liis dislike of Fabert, 
 97 ; his ridiculous illusions as to 
 war, 134, 137 ; his death, 154 
 
 La Capelle, first use of parallels at 
 siege of, 131 
 
 La Hilliere, commandant at Loches, 
 his sjige advice to Fabert, 50 
 
 La Meilleraye, Marshal, 130 ; his 
 insidence to Fabert, 173 ; makes 
 amends, 174, 202 
 
 La Rota, combat of, 159 
 
 La Valette, Bernard, Duke of, son 
 of Epernon, 15 ; promotes Con- 
 seil insteadof Kabert, 46 ; is angry 
 with Fabert, but rectmciled, 48 
 
 La Valette, Louis, the "soldier car- 
 dinal,'' 15 ; liis fear of the Court, 
 101, 111 ; his trust in Fabert, 
 132 ; his deatli, 157 
 
 Lace industry of Sedan, taught by 
 Madame de Fabert, 2 44 
 
 Leipzig, Gustavus' victory at, en- 
 ables Louis to invade Lorraine, 
 82 
 
 LesdiguiJjres, ruler of Daiiphiny, 
 35 ; wifli the King at Mnnlauban, 
 
 38 ; becomes Constable, 41 ; his 
 character, ib. 
 
 Lorraine secured for France, 86 
 
 Lorraine, the Duke of, shelters 
 Fabert, 47 
 
 Louis XIII. neglected as a boy, 25 ; 
 his courage, 42, 43 ; his personal 
 knowledge of his soldiers, 64 ; his 
 compliment to Fabert on the tak- 
 ing of Arras, 163 ; rebiikes Cinq 
 Mars for his arrogance, 178 ; his 
 death, 184 ; his character, 51, 53, 
 182, 188, 191, 192 
 
 Louis XIV. attains his majority, 
 218 ; crowned, 224 ; takes the 
 reins, 247 ; Louis XIV. and 
 Fabert, 235, 237 
 
 Lux, Baron de, murdered by the 
 Chancellor of Guise, 23 
 
 Luynes, Duke of, some time favour- 
 ite of Louis XIII., 25 ; opposed 
 by the Grandees, 27 ; sarcastic 
 remark of Conde on, '69 ; his 
 death, 40 
 
 Mansfeldt, Ernest, 44 
 
 Mars la Tour, 7 
 
 Mazarin, 3, 68 ; at Casale, 72 ; .ap- 
 preciates Fabert, 192 ; succeeds 
 Richelieu, 195 ; his quarrel with 
 Conde, 210 ; aided by Fabert flies 
 to Germany, 215 ; in exile, 218 ; 
 secures Turenne, ib. ; enters 
 Sedan, 219 ; his triumph, 220 ; 
 makes a marriage between the 
 Marquis of Vervins and Anne 
 Fabert, 238 ; promises Fabert the 
 baton., 227, 239 ; deatli of, 245 ; 
 his character, 195 
 
 Medici, Marie de, 22 ; her banish- 
 ment, 25 ; escapes from Blois, 
 and takes the field, 27 ; on the 
 " Day of Dupes," 74 ; her defeat 
 by Richelieu, 77 
 
 Metz, siege of, by Charles V., 6 ; 
 becomes French, 6 et sq. Louis 
 XIII. and Richelieu at,82 ; chief 
 magistrate of, his right to address 
 the King with his hat on, 92 
 
 Montauban, siege of, 37 ; heroic 
 defence, 40 
 
 Montjudlier, siege of, 45
 
 INDEX, 
 
 2G9 
 
 Mouliiis, the jn'operly of tlie 
 
 Faberts, 2, 48, 78 
 MoycEuvre, ironworks at, managed 
 
 by Fabert, 78 et sq. ; their value, 
 
 80 ; their destruction by Spanish 
 
 raiders, 95 
 
 Nogaret, Jean Louis de, Duke of 
 Epernon, his hostility to Sully, 
 14, 15 
 
 Orleans, Gaston, Duke of, 30 et 
 passim. 
 
 Parallels, use of, at sie<;es, first in- 
 troduced by Fabert, 131, 225 
 
 Padements, the, their limited 
 powers, 30 
 
 Parlement of Paris, coerced by 
 Epernon, 15 
 
 Passau, Treaty of, 6, 8 
 
 " Paulette," the, 30 
 
 Perpignan, Fabert at, 178, 181 ; 
 taken, 182 
 
 Philip II. of Spain, his death, 5 
 
 Piedmont, Regiment of, ;Fabert 
 serves in, 18 
 
 Puysegur, at liochelle, tries to cap- 
 ture Buckingham, 57 
 
 Qiieteur de coups de inofisqnet, a 
 nickname of Fabert in La Val- 
 ette's army, 103 
 
 Biimbures Regiment, Fabert ap- 
 pointed Sergeant-Major of, 49 ; 
 becomes a "model regiment," 
 56 
 
 Rambures, Colonel, his dying 
 speech to Fabert, 131 
 
 Rantzau, Colonel, 116, 119 
 
 Regiments, French, ditl'erence be- 
 tween old and new, 50 
 
 Richelieu, 3, 26 ; obtains a seat in 
 the Council, 52 ; his relations 
 with the King, 53 ; leads an 
 army to Italy, 67 ; the intrigues 
 against him in his absence, 73 ; 
 the "Day of Duties," 74 et sq. ; 
 his schemes regarding Germany, 
 83, 91 ; crushes his opponents at 
 home, 84 ; orders Montmorency's 
 execution, 85 ; at first suspicious 
 
 of Fabert, 97 ; failure of his cam- 
 paign schemes in 1635, 104 ; his 
 remarks on the levity of the 
 French, 105 ; plot to murder him 
 at Amiens, 121 ; begins to appre- 
 ciate Fabert, 131 ; asks for 
 Fabert's help, 157 ; his needless 
 fears of the conspiracy of Cinq 
 Mars, 175, 179 ; his death, 184 ; 
 his character, 85, 184 et sq. 
 
 Rochelle, the Huguenot assembly 
 at, defies the Crown, 35 ; the 
 blockade of, raised, 45 ; the great 
 siege of, 56 et sq.; surrenders, 60 
 
 Rohan, Henry, Duke of, 29, 31 ; 
 defends Mcmtauban, 38, 39 ; de- 
 feats Conde, 59 ; accepts peace, 
 65 ; his mountain campaigns, 96 
 
 Rosas, Fabert a prisoner in, 200 ; 
 draws Act of Capitulation of, ib. 
 
 Sabatier, his gunpowder monopoly, 
 125 
 
 Sappers, Fabert's jiroposal to estab- 
 lish a corps of, 109 
 
 Saxe Weimar, Bernhard of, 44 ; his 
 answer to Pere Joseph, 88 ; kills 
 a mutineer, 100 ; dies, 157 
 
 Sedan, a Huguenot asylum, under 
 the Duke of Bouillon, 193 ; 
 Fabert made governor of it, 183, 
 193 et sq. ; his troubles with the 
 deposed Duke, 194; religious 
 toleration, ib., 197; lace industry 
 of, 244 
 
 Sedan Regiment, Fabert's, its excel- 
 lence, 198 ; abandoned, 199, 202 
 
 Sens, Archbishop of, refuses the 
 Cordon Blen, 2 
 
 Sergeant-Major, Fabert appointed, 
 importance of the post, 50 
 
 Siege-works, great improvements 
 in, introduced by Fabert, 131, 
 225 
 
 Soissons, the Count of, 29 ; his plot 
 to murder Richelieu, 121 ; frus- 
 trated by timidity of Gaston of 
 Orleans, ib. 
 
 Spimda, at Rochelle, 58 
 
 St. Evremond and the Peace of the 
 Pyrenees, 242 
 
 St. Jean de Losne, relief of, aided 
 by Fabert, 119
 
 270 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 St. Simon, remark on Fabert and 
 the Archbisliop of Sens, 2 ; his 
 opinion of Luynes, 40 ; on the 
 courage of Louis XIII., 42 
 
 Staff, defective organization of, 124, 
 125 
 
 States-General, 28, 31 
 
 Statistics, Fabert's endeavours to 
 obtain, 147 
 
 Stenay, Fabert's siege of, 224 ; em- 
 ployment of parallels and zigzags, 
 225 ; Vauban present at, ib. ; 
 capitulates, {6. 
 
 Sully, his retirement, 15 
 
 Suze, Pas de, fortified by Charles 
 Emanuel of Savoy, turned by 
 Fabert, 62 
 
 Tarascon, interview between Louis 
 XIII. and Richelieu at, 181 
 
 Teruel, an officer, employed by 
 Fabert in his survey of Cham- 
 pagne, 232 
 
 Tiers Mat, 31 
 
 Tilladet, retainer of Epernrin, sent 
 to seize Metz, 11 
 
 Turenne, his friendship for and 
 high opinion of Faliert, 160, 183; 
 joins the Fronde, 208 
 
 Turin, Fabert wounded at, 155 
 
 Vauban, Fabert the precursor of, 
 as a military engineer, 109, 225 
 
 Vercourt, tlie charlatan, persuades 
 Pere Joseph to believe in various 
 absurdities, 134 et sq. 
 
 War, declaration of, by a herald, 92 
 et sq. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 [Continued on next page
 
 A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE 
 
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 Edilion, Crown 8vo. 6s. Cheap Kdition, 
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 O'BRIEN— When we were Boys : 
 
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 Fly - Fisher's 
 
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 Ronalds. 
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 Froude's (J. A.) The Two Chiefs of 
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 [Ci)iitiiiutd on next page.
 
 A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE 
 
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