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.
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