LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH, AND THE COURT OF FRANCE, IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. BY MISS PARDOE. AUTHOR OF "THE CITY OF THE SULTAN," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES*. VOL. I. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, H2 CLIFF STREET 184 7. . RAflVARD COLLESE LIBRARY >p\ BEQUEST OF ARTHUR STUART WALCOT1 JUNE 1, 1923 DC fill ISH7 TO JOHN HEARNE, ESQ,, THIS RECORD OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV., AND THE MANNERS OF HIS COURT, IS SUost affectionately Knscrtoett, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. The reign of Louis XIV. of France, whether regard- 'ed politically, socially, or morally, was undoubtedly the most striking which that country has ever known. The magnificence of his court, the successes of his armies, and the number of illustrious names that embellished the century over which his rule extended, drew the at- tention of all Europe to the person of the monarch who had relieved the nation from the unnatural thrall to which it had so long been subjected by the domination of a grasping and imperious minister, and assumed the authority and power of regality, as well as its mere visible attributes. Louis XIV. was kingly from his birth. Even when deprived, by the penuriousness of Mazarin, not only of the luxuries which were his birthright, but even of the very necessaries which nine tenths of his subjects could command at will, his spirit remained unbent ; while his innate sense of the indignity offered to his person en- gendered a feeling of hatred toward the Cardinal, which enabled him patiently to await the hour of his emanci- pation. FjChild as he was, he spurned at pity, and con- sequently uttered no complaint ; but kept his eye firmly fixed upon that future whose perspective was a throne, and whose watchword was empire. That Louis XIV. was, throughout his reign, a great king, must be conceded at once ; but that he was ever VI FKEFACE. a great man is considerably more doubtful. Su premely egotistical, he never hesitated in compelling the sacri- fice of whatsoever opposed or impeded his personal interests, passions, or views : xecJdessly inconstant, he trampled unmoved upon the affections whicfi he had called forth; and, tediously and childishly minute in the observances and etiquet of his exalted station, he frequently frittered away the time, rendered precious by circumstances, in puerile elaborations and unmean- ing detail. We are not about to offer to our readers an histori- cal record of the century of Louis XIV., as the term would be understood by statesmen and politicians ; for we shall pass lightly over the campaigns, the battles, and the intrigues of the several European cabinets, upon which a firmer hand than our own has very re- cently been employed in this country. Our aim will simply be to display more fully than has yet been done the domestic life of the " Great Monarch," and to pass in review the wits, the beauties, and the poets of his court. For this purpose we shall select, from the stores of the many biographers of the time, all that may tend to perfect the portraiture which we have undertaken ; simply premising that we shall put forth neither fact nor anecdote which is not fully authenticated either by one of the chroniclers of the time, or verified by some competent recent authority. Perhaps, for a task like that now before us, no reign has afforded so many and such rich materials. The passion for personal narrative, of which Marguerite de Valois displayed so extraordinary an example in royal life, afterward spread like an epidemic in the Court of France; and, under Louis XIV., princesses, warriors, statesmen, courtiers, and beauties, vied with each other PREFACE. VJ1 in recording, not only passing events, but also the indi- vidual passions, interests, and prejudices by which they were influenced ; and, while amazed and breathless Europe saw only the working of the great monarchical engine, by whose movements it was affected through- out its whole extent, the denizens of the most gorgeous court the world had ever known, in the intervals of their devotions, their dissipation, and their intrigues, still found time to emulate the professional writers of the age, and to record the hidden and intricate springs by which it was forced into action. Not a word, not a gesture, not a weakness of the monarch escaped either his friends or his enemies, or was suffered to remain unchronicled ; the hopes or the attachments of the first made them dwell with adulation and delight upon every brilliant quality which they discovered in their idol ; while the jealousies and the vindictiveness of the last caused them to batten upon every failing, and to dilate upon every vice. It is from these materials, then, that we propose to work out a whole, which may enable our readers to estimate the character of Louis XIV., not merely as a monarch, but also as a man. The severe historian has to deal only with his conquests, the internal economy of his reign, and its influence over the other nations of Europe. His sterner pen traces only the broad outline of events, and condescends merely to portray the prom- inent personages who figure in its annals. Like the eagle, he embraces the whole glory of the orb upon which he gazes, and does not pause to cast a glance upon the inferior objects which are vivified and nour- ished by its warmth ; and it is, consequently, to the personal memoirs of the time that we are indebted for the power of looking more closely and more curiously Vlll PREFACE. at a phase of society as extraordinary as it is interest- ing, and of comprehending the minuter shades of indi- vidual character. To the historian the reign of Louis XIV. is like the kaleidoscope, of which every evolution presents a new phase of harmony and beauty ; but to the more humble chronicler, captivated as he can not fail to be by its general effect, it loses somewhat of its splendor — com- pelled as he is to dismount the machine, and by observ- ing analytically the concomitant atoms from whence proceed the marvelous combinations which, as a whole, produce such wonderful effects, to recognize the utter worthlessness of many of its details. Some indulgence must be conceded to the writer who is called upon to examine and to combine such in- congruous materials, especially when it is remembered that the familiar annals of a court three centuries ago bear no analogy with those destined to record the hab- its, the manners, and the morals of our own. The oaths ever upon the lips of the courtiers of Louis XIII. — and which Anne of Austria had, according to Dangeau, great difficulty in suppressing even upon those of her son — and the indecent masquerading of some of the first personages composing the royal circle of the Lou- vre in the " Great Century," would very rationally cre- ate consternation alike at St. James's and the Tuileries in the present day. February, 1847. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER I. 1615-24. Reign of Louis XIV. — Retrospective Glance — Children of Louia XIII. — Policy of Marie de Medicis — The Royal Favorite — His Pedigree — Matrimonial Exchange — Anne of Austria ; her Portrait — Royal Mar- riage — The Cardinal de Richelieu — Assassination of the Marshal d'Ancre — Ingratitude of Richelieu — Richelieu and the Queen-Mother — Anecdote related by Bassompierre — Escape of Marie de Medicis from Blois — Abortive Rebellion — Submission of the Queen-Mother — Subtilty of Richelieu — Madame de Chevreuse — Levity of Anne of Austria — Gaston, Duke dAnjou — Jealousy of Louis XIII. ; his fail- ing Health — Richelieu in Masquerade — The Discovery — Feud be- tween the Queen and the Cardinal — Disgraceful Rumors . Page 13 CHAPTER II. 1624-26. Embassy of the Earl of Carlisle — Lord Rich — Demand of the Hand of Henrietta-Maria for the Prince of Wales — Assent of Louis XIH. — Conditions — Lord Rich and the Duke of Buckingham — A new Em- bassy — Buckingham in Paris — The scattered Pearls — Passion of Buckingham for Anne of Austria — Price of a Court Lady — The Fete — The King's Present — Disguises of the English Duke — The Masque — The White Lady — The Royal Marriage — The Court at Amiens — Courtly Festivities — Tender Regrets — A garden Interview — Unhappy Result — Parting between Anne of Austria and Buckingham — Deten- tion of the Bride of Charles I. — The Messenger — Return of Bucking- ham and Lord Rich to Amiens — Interview of the Duke with Anne of Austria — The Aiguillette — New Leave-taking — Embarkation of the Bride — Intrigues of Marie de Medicis — A suspicious Argument — Surveillance of the young Queen — The missing Aiguillette — The Bride — The triumphant Minister — The City Ball — Tranquillity of Anne of Austria— Defeat of the Cardinal— The Secret revealed— vol. i. — A 2 CONTENTS. Distrust of Louis XIII. — The Romance of Chalais — The Conspiracy — The Duke d'Anjou — The Princess of Vendome — Proposed Assas- sination of Richelieu — The Cardinal at Fleury — The Hunt — Indis- cretion of Chalais — The Commander de Valance — The Interview — Rochefort — Remorse of Chalais — The Cardinal in his Closet — The King and his Minister — Guard at Fleury — The Plot defeated — The Duke and the Cardinal — Politic Politeness — Previsions of Riche- lieu 34 CHAPTER III. 1626. Question of the Duke d'Anjou's Marriage — Foresight of Gaston — Marie de Bourbon — Opposition — The Vendome Princes — The Grand Prior — Alarm of Louis XIII. — The Cardinal and the Grand Prior — Insid- ious Advice — Departure of the Grand Prior for Brittany — Dissimula- tion of Louis XIII. — Repentance of Chalais — Affected Alarm of Richelieu — The forty mounted Guards — Triumph of the Cardinal — Arrest of the Vendome Princes at Blois — The Count de Rochefort — The Capuchin Monastery at Brussels — The Plot at its Climax — Ar- rest, Trial, and Confession of Chalais — Marriage of the Duke d'Anjou — Madame de Chalais — Condemnation of her Son — Execution of Chalais — The Queen before the Council 61 CHAPTER IV. 1627-42. The Cardinal's Enemies — Projects of Buckingham — Death of the Duch- ess d'Orleans — The Count de Bouteville ; his Duels — The Challenge — New Executions — The King before La Rochelle — Court Treachery — Arrest of Lord Montagu — Famine in La Rochelle — Tragical Death of Buckingham — Laporte in the Bastille — Renewed Banishment of Marie de Medicis — Self-Expatriation of the Duke d'Orleans — Destitu- tion of the Duke d'Epernon and the Marquis de Vieuville — Execution of the Duke de Montmorency — Mazarin in France — The Siege of Landrecy — Birth of the Count de Guiche — The Duke de Grammont ; his Father — The Triple Alliance — Private Marriage of Gaston d'Or- leans with Marguerite of Lorraine — Estrangement of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria — Mademoiselle de la Fayette — Father Joseph — The 5th of December, 1637 — Morality of Louis XIII. — Visit to the Lou- vre — Pregnancy of Anne of Austria — The Count de Chavigny — Gen- eral Rejoicing — Indisposition of the Cardinal — The royal Hunts — Declining Health of Louis XIII. — The Cardinal and the Astrologer — Birth of Louis XIV.— -The Swaddling-clothes — Poverty of Louis CONTENTS. 3 XIII. — Social Position of the Kingdom — Partial Reconciliation of the King and Queen— M. de Cinq-Mars— Birth of the Duke d'Anjou— Execution of Cinq-Mars and De Thou— Death of Marie de Medicis at Cologne — Fatal Indisposition of Richelieu ; his Quarrel with Louis XIII. — The State Prisoners 80 CHAPTER V. 1642-44. Marriage of Mademoiselle de Breze — Increased Illness of the Cardinal — Indifference of Louis XIII. — Death of the Cardinal — Ancient and Modern Biographers — Liberation of State Prisoners — Reconciliation of the King and the Duke d'Orleans — Arrival of the Remains of Marie de Medicis — Illness of Louis XIII. — Recognition of Madame — Chris- tening of the Dauphin — Death of Louis XIII. — Anne of Austria Re- gent — The new Ministry — The Duke d'Orleans Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom— The Duke de Beaufort— The Three Days—" The Queen is so good" — Louis XIV. and the State Companies — Anne of Austria and Voiture — The Improvisation — The Count de Guiche and his Governess — Piety of Anne of Austria — Return of Madame de Chevreuse — Her Intrigues — Coldness of the Queen-Regent — Diplo- macy of Mazarin — The Duke de Beaufort a bad Conspirator — Escape of Mazarin — Arrest of the Duke de Beaufort — Renewed Exile of Madame de Chevreuse — The Duke d'Enghien — The Challenge — Death of Coligny — Mourning Balls 107 CHAPTER VI. 1645. The Palais-Cardinal — "What's in a Name?" — Establishment of Louis XIV. — Amusements of the royal Children — The Children of Honor — Education of the young King — Historical Readings by Laporte — Aversion of the King to Mazarin — M. de Mancini and the Bougeoir —The Grand Turk— The Wardrobe of Louis XIV.— A royal Fast- Campaign of Flanders — The Rodogune of Corneille — Arrival of Queen Henrietta in France — Avarice of Mazarin — Battle of Nordlingen — Selfishness of Mazarin — Contract of Marie de Gonzague and the King of Naples — The Cardinal de Retz — Madame de Sevigne — The Polish Nobles — A Contrast 135 CHAPTER VII. 1646-48. Fontainebleau — The Polish Envoys — The Forest — Darkness in a Pal- ace — Anger of the Regent — A Quarrel on Etiquet — The Coadjutor 4 CONTENTS. of Paris — A mistaken Word — Reconciliation between the Cardinal and the Coadjutor— Threat to the Queen of Poland — The Marriage — Munificence of Anne of Austria — The King and his Brother — Pre- cocity of Louis XIV. — Effeminacy of Philip d'Anjou — A Court-Ball — The first Campaign of Louis XIV. — Mademoiselle and the Emperor oi Germany — Death of the Marshal de Bassompierre — Feud between the Regent and the Parliament — Revolt of the United Provinces — The Duke de Guise at Naples ; his Capture at Capua — Mademoiselle and the Prince of Wales — Illness of the King — The Family of Maza- rin — Revolt of the Parisians — Richelieu versus Mazarin — M. d'Emery — Paris under Arms — Arrogance of the Queen-Regent — The King at Ndtre Dame — Dissensions in the Parliament — The new Edicts — Dec- laration of the Regent — Opposition of the Corporate Bodies — A new Leader 156 CHAPTER VIII. 1648 The Duke de Beaufort at Vincennes — The Prediction — La Ramee — Preparations for Flight — The Pasty — The Prince and the Valet — The Evasion — Discontent of Mademoiselle — The Archduke Leopold — Arrest of Saujon — The Retort courteous — Increase of Popular Disaf- fection — Popularity of the Coadjutor — Victory of Sens — Triumph of the Court — The Te Deum — Arrest of Broussel and Blancmesnil — Consternation of the Capital — The impromptu Council — Advice of the Coadjutor — The revolted Citizens — The Coadjutor and the Mob — The Coadjutor and the Faction — The Fronde — The Liberation of Broussel — Terror of Mazarin — Sudden Calm 176 CHAPTER IX. 1648. Removal of the Court to Ruel — Recall of the Prince de Conde — Arrest of Chavigny — Rivalry between Gaston d'Orleans and Conde — Dec- laration of the Parliament against Mazarin — Private Marriage of the Queen and the Cardinal — Madame de Beauvais — The Cardinal's Hat — Reply of the Marshal d'Estrees — Politeness of the young King — Mazarinades — Reconciliation of the Duke d'Orleans with the Court —The Abbe de la Riviere — Favor of the Prince de Conde; his ill- judged Advice — The Twelfth-Cake — Evasion of the Court from Paris —Mademoiselle in the Queen's Coach — The Court at St. Germain — Effect of the King's Flight upon the Populace . 209 CONTENTS. 5 CHAPTER X. 1648, 49. Tranquillity of the Coadjutor — Idle Rumors — Mob-Enthusiasm — Decla- ration of Louis XIV. to the Corporate Bodies — Interdict upon the Parliament — Attempt to create a Famine in Paris — Parliamentary Decree against Mazarin — Contempt of the Court — Madame de Longue- ville at the Town-Hall — Disaffection of the Princes — Intrigues of Madame de Longueville — Perplexity of the Coadjutor — Arrival of the Prince de Conti and the Duke de Longueville at Paris — The Prince de Conti and the Parliament — M. d'Elbceuf and his three Sons — The Princes offer their Services to the Parliament — Madame de Longueville and the Populace — Siege of the Bastille — A dangerous Witticism — The Citizen-Court — Measures of the Prince de Conde — Alarm at St. Germain — Intended Flight of Mazarin — Indignation of Conde — The Hunchback — Fronde-Pasquinades — Royal Retorts — Po- litical Scandal — The Duke de Beaufort in the Capital — " The King of the Markets" — Leaders of the Fronde — Tancred de Rohan . . 228 CHAPTER XL 1650. Prudence of the Parliament — Seizure of the Cardinal's Property — Mu- nificence of the City to the Queen of England — An exiled Princess — The condemned Prisoner — Exchange of Prisoners — Check of the Royal Forces before Rouen — The first Sortie — " The First of the Corinthians" — Death of Tancred de Rohan — Battle of Charenton — Death of Chanleu — The Ball and the Baton — Defeat of the Frondeurs at Charenton and Ville-Juif — The Herald — Treaty with the Princes — Turenne declares for the Parliament — Terms of the Treaty — Venal- ity of the Princes — The Citizen-Prince 254 CHAPTER XII. 1650. Return of the royal Fugitives — Reluctance of the Queen and her Minis- ter — Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Mademoiselle and Henrietta of England — The Duke of York — Return of Monsieur to Blois — The Duke de Beaufort and Madame de Montbazon — The Court at Com- piegne — Mademoiselle and Charles II. — Egotism of Mademoiselle — Character of the Prince de Conde — Ambitious Projects of Madame de Longueville — Disaffection of Conde — Libelous Publications — Res- cue of the Printers — Altercation between the Duke de Beaufort and the Marquis de Jarze — Arrival of Charles II. — Reconciliation of the 6 CONTENTS. Queen-Regent and Conde — The Coadjutor at Compiegne — Reception of Madame de Chevreuse — Entry of the King and Queen in Paris — Popularity of Mazarin — The Duke de Beaufort at the Palais-Royal — Death of the Empress of Germany — Renewed Hopes of Mademoiselle — The Courtship of Charles II. — Illness of Mademoiselle — Confirma- tion of the young Princes 264 CHAPTER XIII. 1650. Hollow Reconciliations — Arrogance of the Prince de Conde — Defiance of Mazarin — " Adieu, Mars !" — The Tabouret — A new Affront — Mar- riage of the Duke de Richelieu and Mademoiselle de Pons — The Cardinal and Madame de Chevreuse — A War of Wits — Meditated Arrest of the Princes of Lorraine — Autograph Letter to the Coadjutor — His Distrust of the Regent — Sincerity of Mademoiselle de Chev- reuse — Stipulations of the Coadjutor — Treachery of the Abbe de la Riviere — the Duke d'Orleans and Madame de Soyon — Adhesion of Monsieur to the Conspiracy — The Cardinal's Secretary — Apprehen- sions of the Dowager-Princess de Conde — Arrest of the Princes — The Journey to Vincennes — Public Excitement — Flight of the Duchess de Longueville — Separation of the Duchess and her Daughter — The Prin- cesses de Conde banished from the Court — The Queen-Regent at Rouen — Disgust of Madame de Longueville — Her Escape — Her Arri- val in Holland — Evasion of the Duke de Bouillon and Marshal Tu- renne — Return of the Court to Paris 286 CHAPTER XIV. 1650. Arrest of the Duchess de Bouillon ; her Escape with her Daughter ; their Seizure; they are conveyed to the Bastille — Evasion of the Princess de Conde and the Duke d'Enghien — Appeal of the Princess- Dowager to the Parliament ; her Banishment to Valery — Madame de Longueville and Turenne make a Treaty with Spain — Turenne at the Head of his Troops — The Court at Compiegne — Madame de Conde at Bordeaux — Danger of the royal Envoy — Mademoiselle and the Emperor of Germany — Court of Madame de Conde — The King's Troops march against the Princes — Journey of the Court to Bordeaux — Capture of Vayres — Execution of the Governor — Reprisals — Exe- cution of the Baron de Canolles — Siege of Bordeaux — Submission of the City — Interview of the Queen-Regent and Madame de Conde — Levity of Mademoiselle — Coldness of the Bordeaulese toward the Re- gent — March of Turenne and the Archduke on Paris — Preparations for a Renewal of the Fronde — The Regent sick at Poitiers — Exasper- CONTENTS. 7 arion of the Coadjutor — Madame de Rhodes, the Princess-Palatine, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Henry, Duke de Guise; his ro- mantic Career — The double Divorce — Procrastination of the Duke d'Orleans; his Indignation at the proposed Removal of the Princes to Havre ; his narrow Policy — The extorted Signature — Arrival of Charles II. — Coldness of the French Court — Retirement of the En- glish King to Jersey 313 CHAPTER XV. 1650, 51. The Battle of Rethel — Death of the Dowager-Princess de Conde — Re- monstrance of the Parliament on the Imprisonment of the Princes — Quarrel of the Duke d'Orleans and the Cardinal — Misgivings of Made- moiselle — Reconciliation between Mademoiselle and Conde — Maza- rin offers the Hand of Louis XIV. to Mademoiselle — The Cardinal foiled — The interpolated Factum — Energy of Gaston d'Orleans — Alarm of the Court — Evasion of the Cardinal — Riot in the Capital — Mademoiselle de Chevreuse and the Duchesse d'Orleans — Pusilla- nimity of Monsieur — Seizure of the City Gates by the Frondeurs — The Populace in the Palais-Royal — M. Desbuches in the Royal Cham- ber — Mazarin at Havre — Emancipation of the Princes ; their Arrival in Paris 336 CHAPTER XVI. 1650, 51. Reception of the Princes by the Court — Intrigue against the Coadjutor — Vanity of Mademoiselle — Projected Marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Proposition of Conde — Ill- ness of Madame de Conde — Mademoiselle indulges in a new matri- monial Speculation — Retirement of the Coadjutor — An armed Neu- trality — Pretensions of the Prince de Conde — The Queen makes Overtures to the Coadjutor — Fresh Intrigues — The Projected Assas- sination — Noble Resistance ofihe Coadjutor — Sentence against Maza- rin — Private Meetings of the Queen and the Coadjutor — Retreat of the Princes to St. Maur — The royal Envoy — Rage of the Duke d'Or- leans — Return of Conde to the Capital — Close of the Regency — Maiori ty of Louis XIV. — The Bed of Justice — Renunciation of the Regency by Anne of Austria — The King and Madame de Fron- tenac 355 CHAPTER XVII. 1651, 52. Youth of Louis XIV. and Philip d'Anjou — Early Associations — Igno- rance of the young King — Armaiid de Guiche — Subjection of the King 8 CONTENTS. to the Cardinal — State of the Kingdom — Discontent of Monsieur — Courage of Mademoiselle — Revolt of Cootie — March of the Court against Bordeaux — Return of Mazarin — Paris in Arms — Submission of Turenne — Declaration against the Princes — Sale of the Cardinal's Library — Charles II. after the battle of Worcester — The Duke de Nemours — Madame de Chatillon — Diplomacy of Mademoiselle — The City of Orleans declares for the Fronde — Cowardice of Monsieur — The Countess de Fiesque — Mademoiselle declares herself, and takes Orleans 379 CHAPTER XVIII. 1652. Koyal Progress through Orleans — Harangue at the Town-Hall — Defeat of the Duke de Beaufort — Ludicrous Struggle between the Duke de Nemours and the Duke de Beaufort — Arrival of M. de Conde at the rebel Army ; his Letter to Mademoiselle — State of the royal Army — Singular Quarrel between the King and his Brother— ^Anecdotes of the young King — The female Generals — Return of Mademoiselle to Paris ; she heads the Faction — Defeat of the Fronde at Etampes — Courage of Louis XIV. — Sufferings of the royal Troops — Monsieur refuses to act — Accredits Mademoiselle — Mademoiselle at the Town- Hall 412 CHAPTER XIX. 1652. _Ra , tt1g._nf the Porte St. Antoine — Mademoiselle turns the Cannon of the Bastille against the Royal Forces — Retreat of the King's Army — Ac- knowledgments of Conde to Mademoiselle ; her Suspicions of Conde — Flight of the Court to St. Denis — Meeting at the Town-Hall — Ex- traordinary Party Badge — New Dilemma of Monsieur — Project of a Union — Attack on the Town-Hall — The Provost of the Merchants — Removal of the Court to Pontoise — Monsieur declared Lieutenant- general of the Kingdom by the Parliament ; his Want of Authority in the Capital 438 CHAPTER XX. 1652. Divisions among the Princes — Quarrel of the Dukes de Nemours and Beaufort — Fatal Duel — Death of M. de Nemours — Forbearance of M. de Beaufort — The Prince de Cond£ receives a Blow — Answer of the President Bellievre — Death of the young Duke de Valois — Severe Indisposition of the Princess de Conde — Renewed Hopes CONTENTS. 9 of Mademoiselle — Reconciliation of Mademoiselle and the Duke de Lorraine — New Opposition of the Parliament — Resignation and Re- tirement of Mazarin — Resignation "of the Duke de Beaufort and M. Broussel — Return_of the King to Paris; ho Dislodges Mademoiselle from the Tuileries — Alarm of Monsieur : refuses to Lodge Mademoi- selle in the Luxembourg — Monsieur leaves Paris — Mademoiselle retires to Pons — Position of the Kingdom — Declaration of Lese- Majeste against the Princes — The Prince de Conde and the Duke do Lorraine continue their Military Operations in the Provinces. . 461 CHAPTER XXI. 1652. Imprudence of the Coadjutor — The Court are anxious for its Over- throw—Louis XIV. asserts himself — Resolves on his Arrest — Auto- graph Order to that Effect — Arrest of the Coadjutor — The Opiate-Paste — Termination of the Second Fronde — Return of Mazarin — Deaths of the Duke de Bouillon, the Marshal Caumont de la Force, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Marriage of the Poet Scarron and Frances D'Aubigny — Early History of Frances D'Aubigny . . 482 CHAPTER XXII. "^ 1652-54. Proceedings of the Prince de Conde — Position of Mazarin ; his first Measures — Marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle Mar- tinozzi — Condemnation of the Prince de Conde; his Retort — Marriage of the Duke de Richelieu and Mademoiselle de Beauvais — First At- tachments of Louis XIV. — Madame de Frontenac and Madame de Chatilion — Caution of the Cardinal — Mademoiselle d'Heudecourt — The Nieces of the Cardinal — Madame de Beauvais — Court Festivi- ties — The Etourdi j?f M ili. n — Louis XIV. an Actor and a Dancer— The Superintendent Fouquet — The Coronation of Louis XIV. — The Marquis de Fabert — The Coadjutor becomes Archbishop of Paris — M. de Bellievre as an Ambassador — Transfer of the Archbishop to Nantes ; his Evasion ; Order for his Arrest 500 CHAPTER XXIII. 1654-57 Court of Louis XIV.— Olympia de Mancini ; her Favor with the King- Henrietta of England and her Daughter — Rudeness of Louis XIV. to the English Princess — Misunderstanding between Louis XIV. and 10 CONTENTS. Anne of Austria — Attempted Opposition of the Parliament — Extraor- dinary Proceeding of the King — the Cardinal de Retz in Rome — Marriage of Laura de Martinozzi with the Duke of Modena — Capit- ulation of Landrecies — More Victories obtained by the Royal Forces — The Count de Soissons — Arrival of Christina of Sweden ; her Por- trait by the Duke de Guise — Jealousy of Olympia de Mancini — The Reception of Christina; her Destitution; her Portrait by Mademoi- selle; her Visit to Ninon de l'Enclos; her Departure — Ne w Campaipi of Louis XIV. — Death of Madame de Mancini and the Duchess de Mercoeur — Compliments of Condolence — Mortification of Olympia de Mancini ; her Resentment ; her Marriage — Coldness of the King — Courtly Conjectures — the Italian Opera — The young Stranger . 529 CHAPTER XXIV. 1654-57. Mary de Mancini — The Prophecy — The Portrait — Hortensia de Mancini — Presentation of the Sisters to the King — Secret Passion of Mary for Louis XIV. — Mademoiselle de la Motte d'Argencourt — Flight of the King — Return of Louis to Court — Insolence of Mademoiselle d'Ar- gencourt — Remonstrances of the Queen — Growing Attachment to Mary de Mancini ; her conversational Talents — Negotiations for the Marriage of Louis XIV. — Partial Reconciliation of Monsieur with the Court — Rival Princesses — Alliance with Cromwell — Arrival of the Princess of Orange — Departure of the Princess-Royal and the Duke of York — The Hand of Maiy de Mancini demanded by Charles II. — Refusal of the Cardinal — Return of Christina ; her Residence at Fon- tainebleau — The Murder of Monaldeschi 553 CHAPTER XXV. 1657, 58. Reconciliation of Monsieur and Mademoiselle ; her return to Court — Interview with Anne of Austria — Presentation to the King — Project of Marriage between Mademoiselle and the Duke d'Anjou — Christina at Court — Increasing Passion of Louis XIV. for Mary de Mancini — Uneasiness of the Queen — Overtures of the Duchess of Savoy — M. de Verue — The Lottery of the Cardinal — Insolence of Mazarin toward Anne of Austria — Influence of Mary de Mancini over the Mind of the King — Their literary Studies — Historical Misstatements relative to Louis XIV. — Mary de Mancini and Moliere — Opposition of the Qneen — Moliere at Paris . 569 hmmhh CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER XXVI. 1658. 'Slip fiS?£j rfi« M°l! ^P~ ^ DX ^ etv °^ tne Q ueen f° r ^ le King's Marriage — Hopes of Mazarin — Firm Opposition of Anne of Austria — Treason of Marshal d'Hocquincourt — Submission of the Duke de Beaufort — The King before Hesdin — Precautions of Mazarin — Serious Illness of the King — Mazarin conceals his Wealth — A Cabal — Madame de Fienne in the King's Antechamber — Recovery of the King — Mary de Mancini in the Sick-Room — Exile of the Conspirators — Journey of the Court to Lyons — Meeting of the Courts of France and Savoy — The Princess Marguerite — Coldness of the Royal Suitor — The Duke of Savoy — Determination of the King of Spain — The Hand of the Infanta offered to Louis XIV. — Departure of the Duke of Savoy — Rejection of the Princess Marguerite — Departure of Madame Royale and her Daughter 588 ILLUSTRATIONS THE FIRST VOLUME. PAQE Portrait of Louis XIV. (full length) . . . Frontispiece. ^3 « The Castle of Blois 13 Perspective of the Louvre 34 The old Chateau of Versailles 61 Palace of the Popes at Avignon 80 Notre-Dame and the Hotel-Dieu 107 The Palais-Cardinal 135 Grand Avenue of the Tuileries 176 The Palace of Chantillt 209 Castle of Vincennes 228 Palace of the Luxembourg 254 Inner Court of the Louvre 264 Palace of St. Germain-en-Late 286 Palace of the Tuileries 313 Porte St. Denis 412 Porte St. Antoine 438 Hotel de Ville 461 Pont Neuf 482 Louis XIV. Hunting 500 Portrait of Moliere 528 Cour du Cheval Blanc, Fontainebleau 529 Portrait of Lulli 552 Convent de l'Oratoire 553 Palace of St. Cloud 569 Portrait of Boileau 587 Val de Grace 588 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. CHAPTER I. Reign of Louis XIV. — Retrospective Glance — Children of Louis XIII. — Policy of Marie de Medicis — The Royal Favorite — His Pedigree — Matrimonial Exchange — Anne of Austria; her Portrait — Royal Mar- riage — The Cardinal de Richelieu — Assassination of the Marshal d'Ancre — Ingratitude of Richelieu — Richelieu and the Queen-Mother — Anecdote related by Bassompierre — Escape of Marie de Medicis from Blois — Abortive Rebellion — Submission of the Queen-Mother — Subtilty of Richelieu — Madame de Chevreuse — Levity of Anne of Austria — Gaston, Duke d'Anjou — Jealousy of Louis XIII. ; his fail- ing Health — Richelieu in Masquerade — The Discovery — Feud be- tween the Queen and the Cardinal— Disgraceful Rumors. The reign of Louis XIV. may be divided into three separate sections. From his succession, in 1643, at the early age of five years, to his majority, in 1651, the history H LOUIS XIV. AND of the country is that of the regency of Anne of Austria and the Fronde, when he was merely the puppet of the Queen-Mother and her minister: from his majority until the death of Mazarin, in 1661, it is that of the cardinal himself, who was the one prominent figure upon the na- tional canvas, absorbing in his own person all the authority of sovereign power ; and it is, consequently, only after the decease of that subtile and intriguing churchman that Louis XIV. can be considered as the real sovereign of France, wielding as well as grasping the scepter which had been bequeathed to him by his ancestors. It is, however, expedient, in order thoroughly to under- stand the position of the French nation at the period when this monarch was called to the throne, that we should turn a retrospective glance upon the reign of his predecessor, and give a hasty sketch of the prominent events by which it was distinguished. Moreover, throughout the two epochs which we have designated, circumstances bearing upon the future fortunes of the young sovereign, and shades of indi- vidual character, are to be detected, which, although oc- casionally trifling in themselves, still serve, like the first touches of a skillful artist, to indicate the physiognomy of the coming portrait ; while, blended with these, are, neces- sarily, facts and occurrences which tend to explain the pe- culiar nature and intricacies of the Franco-Italian-Spanish court, which, at the commencement of the " great century," offered all the romance and all the incongruity of an earlier age. The childhood of Louis XIII. had been one of constraint and disgust. The inherent cruelty of his nature was so great that his father, Henry IV., is stated to have twice inflicted upon him corporal punishment with his own royal hands, in order to correct him of this revolting and unman- ly vice ; and to have replied to the expostulations of his mother, Marie de Medicis, that she had need pray to God for her husband's life, seeing that her son would ill-treat her THE COURT OF FRANCE. 15 when she was no longer protected from his violence. The words were prophetic. On her side, Marie de Medicis, anxious to maintain the royal authority, instead of directing the studies of the young king, called prematurely to the throne by the crime of an assassin, suffered him to remain in complete ignorance of all with which it behooved him to become familiar, in order to reign worthily over a great people. Occupied by her own political aggrandizement, and devoted to the indul- gence of her own vices, she condemned the unformed and moody mind of Louis to the constant and familiar associa- tion of her two favorites, Concini and Galiga'i, both of whom were peculiarly obnoxious to him. She never saw him save when necessity compelled her to do so ; and his re- ception was generally cold and repelling. Thus he grew to manhood, a combination of opposing qualities. The royal blood which flowed in his veins endowed him with a pride, which the consciousness of his mental deficiencies obscured by a timidity almost painful; the ready and reck- less courage which he inherited from his father, was mar- red by an indecision readily traced to a coerced boyhood, and the non-inculcation of moral dignity ; a vindictiveness at once violent and lasting, which was compensated by no answering faculty of affection; and a dissimulation induced from constant companionship with persons displeasing to him ; patient and weak in the common commerce of life, but suspicious and even violent by fits ; such were the qual- ities of Louis XIII., of the son of the frankest, the bravest, and the most joyous monarch who ever swayed the scepter of France ; and of the boldest, the haughtiest, the most re- vengeful, and the firmest princess who ever bore the name of Medicis. To one favorite, and to one alone, Louis XIII. was faith- ful unto death, and that one was Charles-Albert de Luynes; the only companion of his own age who was permitted to associate with the young king, and who was considered by 10 LOUIS XIV. AND the Queen-Mother as a harmless and safe companion for the monarch, from his frivolity and insignificance. De Luynes accepted the privilege upon the proffered terms, and excited neither envy nor suspicion when he established himself and his two brothers at court, their birth being too humble to authorize any competition on their part with the haughty young nobles by whom they were surrounded. One word on their origin. Among the private musicians of Francis I. figured a cer- tain lute-player, a German by birth, named Albert, to whom the king was much attached, not only on account of his tal- ent, which was extraordinary, but because his intellect was no less remarkable. So greatly, indeed, was he in favor, that when the monarch made his entrance into Marseilles, where the brother of the musician was a priest, he present- ed to him a rich canonry which chanced then to be vacant. The said canon had two sons, one of whom he brought up to a learned profession, and the other to that of arms. The elder, who was a physician, took the name of Luynes, from a small estate of which he became possessed, and, having acquired considerable riches, attached himself to the for- tunes of the Queen of Navarre ; with whom he continued till her death, and to whom, in her season of necessity, he is stated to have lent the sum of twelve thousand crowns. The younger was one of the bowmen of King Charles, and by his extreme bravery attracted the attention of M. Danville, the Governor of Languedoc, who pushed his for- tune, and ultimately intrusted to him the government of Beaucaire, where he died, leaving behind him three sons and four daughters. The three sons, Albert, Cadenet, and Brantes, were in- troduced to the Duke de Bassompierre by La Varenne, who had been to Henry IV. what Lebel afterward became to Louis XV. ; and Bassompierre, who had incurred obli- gations to La Varenne during the reign of the deceased king, did not cease to acknowledge them after his court THE COURT OF FRANCE. 17 favor was at an end. He therefore placed Albert near the person of Louis XIII., and provided for his brothers about the Marshal de Souvre, who added them to the household of his son. The young king, who was at that period without a sin- gle friend, and reduced to the companionship of a hunts- man and a falconer, welcomed this new associate with de- light ; and hastened to claim his cooperation in his favorite pursuits. He could not have chanced upon a more able ally, for Albert was expert in all bodily exercises, and pos- sessed an indomitable energy, which proved a great and lasting relief to the dull and monotonous existence of his royal master. The amusements of Louis were few and simple ; his only luxury consisted of an aviary, which he had caused to be built in his garden ; while, to the care of his birds, he superadded the pleasure of driving, whip in hand, the loads of sand with which he constructed minia- ture fortresses. His home occupations were music, of which he was passionately fond ; and the study of some of the mechanical arts, which he pursued without any assist- ance. But that which tended the most strongly to attach Louis to his first favorite, was his skill in training jackdaws for the pursuit of small birds in the gardens of the Louvre and the Tuilleries ; a sport in which the young monarch took such delight, and to which he devoted so much time, that the Queen-Mother congratulated herself upon having procured for him, in Luynes, a companion who would occu- py his mind and divert his thoughts from his obligations to the state. It was at the commencement of 1615, just as he was about to attain his fourteenth year, that it was announced to the young king that his marriage was shortly to take place with the Infanta Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III. He received the intelligence coldly ; and far from congratulating himself upon an event which must necessa- rily change the whole current of his existence, and diver- 18 LOUIS XIV. AND sify alike his pleasures and his duties, he contemplated it with the distrust and self-love of one who resolves not to be duped. A species of royal barter was to take place between the two courts of France and Spain ; for, at the same time that Louis XIII. became the husband of Anne of Austria, the Infant Philip was to receive the hand of Henrietta of France, commonly called Madame ; and the young king no sooner ascertained that his affianced bride was on her way to Bidassoa, where the exchange of the princesses was to be made, than he dispatches Luynes to meet her ; ostensi- bly to convey a letter, but in reality in order to hear, from the lips of a man in whom he had firm faith, whether the beauty of the infanta were equal to the representations which had been made to him. The report of the favorite exceeded the hopes of the king ; but, still unable to overcome his natural distrust, he left Bourdeaux, whither he had been accompanied by the court, and mounting his horse, he galloped, accom- panied only by two or three persons, to a house which she must pass on her way, and entering by a back door, seated himself at a window on the ground-floor, where he awaited the coming of the cavalcade. A nobleman of the court, who had been previously instructed, stopped the Infanta, for the purpose of pronouncing a congratula- tory harangue, during which time Louis was enabled to convince himself of the extreme loveliness of his young bride ; a loveliness which, according to all the historians of the times, was of the highest order. They represent Anne of Austria, says Dumas, " as combining in her person sufficient to satisfy even the exactions of royalty. Beautiful with a majestic beauty, which subsequently tended admirably to assist her projects, and a thousand times compelled the respect and love of the turbulent nobility by whom she was surrounded ; as a woman, captivating to the eye of a lover; as a queen, perfect to THE COURT OF FRANCE. 19 the eye of a subject ; tall and well shaped ; possessing the whitest and most delicate hand that ever made an imperious gesture ; eyes of exquisite beauty, easily dila- ted, and to which their greenish tinge gave extraordinary transparency; a small and ruddy mouth, that looked like an opening rose-bud ; long and silky hair, of that lovely pale shade of auburn, which gives to the faces that it sur- rounds, at once the sparkling complexion of a fair beauty, and the animation of a dark one — such was the wife whom Louis XIII. received as his companion."* The royal marriage took place on the 25th of Novem- ber, 1615, in the cathedral at Bourdeaux ; and imme- diately on his return to Paris, the young king was fully occupied in terminating the quarrels of the princes of the blood, which had originated in the unprovided regency of Marie de Medicis, who, upon one pretext or another, was continually creating discontent in every part of the country, which, still writhing beneath the effects of the (miscalled) religious wars, could ill support these senseless and cease- less troubles. We must now turn aside for a while from our direct narrative, to introduce a personage who, at this period, made his first appearance at the court of France. Armand-Jean Duplessis was the son of Francis Duples- sis, lord of Richelieu, a man of high birth, notwithstanding all the doubts which may have been put forth upon that point ; for we have, in support of the fact, the testimony of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, than whom no better authority on questions of nobility and precedence ever ex- isted in any age.t He lost his father when he was five * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t " All that can tend to ornament a house," says Mademoiselle de Montpensier, on the occasion of a visit which she made to the estate of the cardinal, near Champigni, " is to be seen at Richelieu ; which will not be difficult to believe, when it is remembered that it is the work of the vainest and most ambitious man in the world ; and, moreover, of one who was first minister of state, and long possessed of 20 LOUIS XIV. AND years old, who died leaving three sons and two daughters ; Armand-Jean being the youngest of the former. The first entered the army, where he lost his life ; and the second, who was Bishop of Lucon, resigned his See, in order to enter a Carthusian community ; when the subject of our sketch, who had also been bred to the church, suc- ceeded to the bishopric. In 1607 he departed for Rome, in order to receive the consecration of his new dignity at the hands of Paul V., who inquired of him whether he had attained the age required by the canonical law, which is twenty-five years. The embryo prelate replied at once in the affirmative ; but, immediately after the ceremony, he requested the holy father to receive his confession ; in which, with the same composure, he admitted the falsehood of which he had just been guilty. The Pontiff absolved him of the sin ; but, in the course of the same evening, he pointed out the new bishop to the French ambassador, remarking that he would one day become a great impostor. On his return to France, the Bishop of Lucon formed a friendship with the advocate Boutheiller,* who was in con- stant communication with Barbin, the confidential agent of the Queen-Mother ; and it was under his roof that the Controller-General made his acquaintance. Struck by the great and varied talents of the young prelate, he instantly absolute authority. The furniture is handsome and costly beyond all description. Nothing can equal the immense profusion of beautiful things which are contained in this house. Among all that modern in- vention has employed in its embellishment, he has caused to be pre- served, in the chimney-piece of a saloon, the arms of the house of Kichelieu, as they were emblazoned there during the lifetime of his father, because they contain the collar of the Holy Ghost ; in order to prove to those who are accustomed to sneer at the birth of favorites, that he was born of a good race. Upon this point he deceived no one." — Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. * Claude Boutheiller was of an ancient family of Angoul6me, and subsequently at the head of the Finance department. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 21 foretold his future greatness ; of which he was so thorough- ly convinced, that, in order to hasten its advent, he pre- sented him to Leonora Galiga'i, who employed him for a time in certain unimportant negotiations, which he con- ducted with such ability, that she finally brought him under the notice of Marie de Medicis, who, judging of her young protege as favorably as herself, after sundry trials of his zeal and capability, appointed him to the responsible office of Secretary of State, in the year 1616. In 1617 Louis conceited and executed, through his agents, the assassination of the Marshal d'Ancre,* who was mur- dered on the bridge of the Louvre, on the morning of the 26th of April, 1617 — a crime of which the whole moral responsibility rests upon the king himself, while it gained for Luynes the sword of constable, and for Vitry the baton of a marshal.! In the month of July following, his wife, * Concino Concini, Marshal d'Ancre, was a Florentine gentleman who followed Marie de Medicis to France, where he married Leonora Galigai, the foster-sister of the queen, over whom she possessed extraor- dinary influence. He became the first equerry and house-steward of his royal mistress, and was the confidant of the intrigues of both the king and the queen ; was marshal of France, and governor of Norman- dy, at the death of Henry IV. ; but incurred the hatred of Luynes, who, when he became possessed of the constable's sword, resolved to effect his destruction. He was about to divorce Leonora, in order to many the heiress of the house of Vend6me, when he was assassinated by Vitry, captain of the guard, who succeeded to the baton of his victim. Leonora Galigai made many enemies by her hauteur and insolence. She was, upon the accusation stated in the text, beheaded, and after- ward burned, and her ashes scattered to the wind. She died with great courage. t An official and titled dignity, which existed in the Roman Empire, under the name of comes slabuli, and which was recognized as such during the first race. Under the two following, the constable had the chief command of the army after the king himself, whom he accom- panied into action, and whose sword he was privileged to gird on. He was also intrusted with the surveillance of the royal stables ; and held at court, as well as in the army, the first rank after the king. He car- ried the sword of state erect and unsheathed on all occasions of cere- 22 LOUIS XIV. AXD Leonora Galiga'i, was publicly, executed as a witch, in the Place de Grive : but the worst passions of the king, once awakened, were not easily appeased ; and his next act of authority was to deprive the Queen-Mother of her rank and honors, and to banish her to Blois, rather as a prisoner than as an exile. Upon this occasion two prophecies were verified — that of Henry IV., when he foretold the cruelties to which Marie de Medicis would be subjected by her son, and that of Paul V., who foreshadowed the future hollowness of Richelieu. The young secretary of state inhabited the house of the dean of Lutjon, at the time of Concini's assassination ; and it is well authenticated, that on the night before it took place, a packet was delivered to the dean, with strict injunctions that it should be forthwith placed in the hands of the bishop, as its contents were of the most serious and pressing importance. Although it was near midnight, the host ventured to disturb the slumbers of his guest upon so earnest an assurance ; and having been admitted, he trans- mitted to him at once the letter and the intimation he had received. The bishop broke the seal calmly, read the mis- sive to an end, and then fell into a revery ; at the conclu- sion of which he turned toward the dean, who stood still at his bedside, and, after thanking him for his zeal, remarked that he need detain him no longer, as the affair was by no means pressing, and that he always found the night bring counsel. After which he thrust the letter under his bol- ster, and again composed himself to sleep. And yet the fearful document was indeed of no common importance, for it apprised him that at ten o'clock on the morrow the Marshal d'Ancre would be assassinated ; while mony. Alberie (in 1060) was the first constable ; and the Duke de Lesdiguieres, who died in 1627, was the last; Louis XIII. having, at that period, suppressed the dignity, which Napoleon revived in our own times, in favor of the Prince of Wagram, who had no successor. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 23 the spot on which the deed was to be committed, the names of those who were intrusted with its execution, and the details of the whole enterprise, were given with a minuteness which forbade all doubt that it was written by one well acquainted with the truth that he advanced. Let not our readers overlook the fact, that the state secretary owed his elevation to the unhappy Marshal and his equally unhappy wife ; and they will assuredly be ready to concede that the term applied by the sovereign pontiff to the crafty and ambitious Bishop of Lucon, might rightly have been exchanged for one of far darker signification. On the morrow he remained in his closet until eleven o'clock ; and the first tidings which reached him when he emerged from it were those of the catastrophe of the pre- vious hour. Three days previously to this occurrence, and, as if he could have foreseen the ruin of his benefactors, and was anxious to secure himself from a participation in their fate, he had dispatched M. de Pontcourlay to Luynes, to request the latter would assure the king of his devotion to his person; but Louis vouchsafed no comment upon the circumstance, and it was generally believed that the bishop, known to have been in the confidence of Concini, had fall- en into disgrace in consequence. Apprehensive, himself, that such might be the case, he accordingly applied to the monarch for permission to follow the Queen-Mother in her exile — a favor which was at once conceded. He soon, however, repented the step that he had taken ; and after remaining only forty days at Blois, he affected to believe that he was suspected of disloyalty, and expressed his de- termination to retire to a priory which he possessed, near Mirabeau, desiring, as he asserted, to shut himself up with his books, and to labor, as become his profession, in the extirpation of heresy. But, notwithstanding the short- ness of his sojourn with the exiled queen, his purpose was attained ; for while, on taking leave, he represented to the 24 LOUIS XIV. AND mistress whom he was about to abandon, that the necessity which had arisen for his departure was a new persecution, to which he was subjected by his enemies, in consequence of his devotion to herself, he caused it to be represented at court as an act of obedience to what he felt to be the wishes of the king. The arrogance and despotism of Marie de Medicis had made her many enemies, and these w r ere not idle in nour- ishing the exasperation of the monarch against her. We have already stated that vindictiveness formed a strong feature in his character ; and having once roused himself to so extreme a step as that of her banishment, he lent a ready and willing ear to every insinuation which tended to justify its prolongation. Bassompierre relates an anecdote, which tends to prove that neither time nor absence had weakened this feeling, many months after her removal to Blois had taken place. On one occasion he entered the apartment of Louis when he was practicing the French hom, and ventured to expostulate with the young monarch, reminding him that it was injurious to the chest, and that it had shortened the life of Charles IX. " You are wrong, Bassompierre," was the reply of the king, as he laid his hand on the duke's shoulder; "it was not that which killed him. It was his having exiled his mother, Queen Cath- erine, from the court on the occasion of a misunderstand- ing between them, and his having afterward recalled her. Had he not committed that imprudence he would have lived longer." Acting upon an inverse principle to that of his predeces- sor, Louis XIII. not only continued the exile of his mother, but even increased its rigor to an extent which reduced it to absolute imprisonment ; and Marie de Medicis, at length convinced that neither time nor submission would lessen the determined estrangement of her son, resolved to eman- cipate herself from his severity ; and accordingly, during the night of the 22d of February, 1619, with the assistance THE COURT OF FRANCE. 25 of the Duke d'Epernon,* she escaped from the castle of Blois. The princes, always ready to seize upon every pretext for revolt, soon gathered round the royal fugitive ; and she found herself at the head of a rebellious force, which com- pelled the king to assemble an army in order to suppress it. Only one solitary engagement, however, took place between the opposing parties, in which the monarch charged the enemy in person, and at once terminated the war. " Thus," says Duplessis Momay, " a skirmish of a couple of hours put an end to the grandest game that had been played in France for two centuries." The Queen-Mother tendered her submission, and was admitted to an interview of recon- ciliation with her son, in which a hollow peace was made between them ; and this was scarcely done, w#ien, on the departure of M. de Sillery as ambassador to Rome, the first cardinal's hat which should become vacant was asked of Gregory XV., who had succeeded Paul V., for the Bishop of Lucon, and promptly conceded ; for on the 5th of Sep- tember, 1622, Armand-Jean Duplessis became a member of the Holy Conclave, and thenceforth assumed the name and title of Cardinal de Richelieu. * Nogaret de la Valette, Duke d'Epernon, or Espernon, the represent- ative of the younger branch of a Gascon family, went to seek his fortune at the French court, under the name of Caumont. After the death of Charles IX., he first attached himself to the King of Navarre, afterward Henry IV. He was subsequently admitted to the familiarity of Henry III., who caused him to study politics and literature, and made him one of his favorites (mignons). Created Duke d'Epernon, first peer of France, admiral of France, and colonel-general of the infantry forces, he held several governments. After the death of Henry III., D'Epernon again allied himself to Henry IV., who opposed him to the Duke of Savoy. During the reign of this king, he lived in a constant state of misunder- standing both with him and the court. He is even accused of having assisted in the assassination of Henry ; at whose death he convoked the parliament, caused the recognition of Marie de Medicis as regent, and placed himself at the head of public affairs, by forming a private coun- cil, of which he was the chief. Compelled to retire from the court dur- ing the influence of the Concini, he reappeared there after their fall. VOL. I - B 26 LOUIS XIV. AND History is silent as to the nature of the services which procured for the cardinal this two-fold protection ; but it is certain that he had not wasted his time in inaction since his affected return to Mirabeau ; for some time subse- quently to the flight of the Queen-Mother from Blois, M. d'Arlincourt, the governor of Lyons, having ascertained that he had left Avignon, where he had been residing in disguise, and inferring from this extraordinary precaution that he was about to rejoin his royal mistress, caused him to be arrested at Vienne, in Dauphiny. The composure of the bishop was, however, no whit ruffled by this circum- stance ; as, with perfect politeness, he drew from his pocket an autograph letter of the king, wherein it was ordered that all governors of provinces should not only allow him free passage*, but, moreover, assist him in every emergency. M. d'Arlincourt had not, nevertheless, been deceived in his suspicions. Richelieu was in fact on his way to the Queen- Mother ; but it had become extremely doubtful whether it were in her interests or those of the king. Return we now to Anne of Austria ; the " Little Queen," as from her arrival in France she had been called, to dis- tinguish her from the Queen-Mother. When composing the household of the Infanta, Marie de Medicis had placed near her person the celebrated Madame de Chevreuse, whose first husband was the Charles Albert de Luynes,* whose favor with Louis had pushed his for- tune so rapidly, and who had been at once enriched and ennobled by the blood of the unfortunate Concini. Histo- rians imply that this selection had been made for the vilest purposes by the Queen-Mother, who dreaded that the precocious intellect of Anne of Austria might overcome the lethargy of her young husband, and induce him to exchange his frivolous pursuits for the duties of his exalted station. Be this as it may, and the suspicions which rest * Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, Duchess de Chevreuse, was the daugh- ter of Hercules de Rohan, and was born in 1600. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 27 upon Marie de Medicis upon this subject by no means end in what we have here stated, it is certain that a more dan- gerous confidant could not have been chosen for the young and inexperienced bride of Louis XIII. Vain of her person, coquettish by nature, although vir- tuous in principle, and easily deluded by all that bore an appearance of mystery or romance, Anne of Austria readily fell into the snare which had been prepared for her ; and although she unquestionably never forgot what was due to her own honor, either as a woman or the con- sort of a king, she accustomed herself too easily to affect a disregard for that virtue which in her inmost heart she held at its proper value. To this fatal facility may be traced much of the unhappiness and mortification of her married life. Madame de Chevreuse was the more dangerous, that she was one of the wittiest, most beautiful, least scrupulous, and most intriguing woman of the age. During the life of her first husband, she occupied apartments in the Louvre, and her advances to the young monarch were so undis- guised, as to have awakened for a time the uneasiness of Anne of Austria ; but, soon convinced that she could not overcome the indifference of Louis, an enterprise to which she had probably been urged as much by her ambition as by any softer feeling, she turned, like an able tactician, to the young queen, who, isolated, and rigorously watched by Marie de* Medicis, was ever ready to welcome every ap- pearance of attachment ; and who, consequently, after a few reproaches, which the subtile Madame de Luynes re- ceived rather as a victim than as a culprit, forgot her just cause of resentment, and ere long they became inseparable. On the death of the constable, his widow found herself rich beyond her hopes ; for she inherited not only an im- mense fortune, but also all the diamonds of the Marshal d'Ancre, which the king had confiscated in her favor ; and at the end of eighteen months she remarried with Claude 28 LOUIS XIV. A N D de Lorraine, Duke de Chevreuse, the second and hand- somest uf the Messieui-s de Guise, but a man of double her own age. Some idea may be formed of the precocious spirit of intrigue possessed by this extraordinary woman, from the fact that she afterward passed into a proverb, as is proved by a passage in one of the letters of Bussy-Rabu- tin to his cousin, Madame de Sevigne, in which he urges her to pursue her correspondence with him during the period of his service in the army of the Prince de Conde. " The cardinal will never know it," he writes ; " and even if he should make the discovery, and send you a lettre de cachet, it is a fine thing for a woman of twenty years of age to be involved in matters of state. The celebrated Madame de Chevreuse did not begin earlier." Such was the intimate associate of Anne of Austria, whose continued sterility began to alienate the king, and to render him morose and distrustful, while it ?ave rise to rumors injurious to their object, whose natural levity tended, unfortunately, to strengthen the suspicions of the malevo- lent. The first tangible cause for complaint, upon which Louis could ground his displeasure and estrangement, was the friendship forme J between the young queen and his brother Gaston, Duke of Anjou, and subsequently of Orleans. The royal brothers had never loved each other, for they dif- fered alike in temperament and habits ; while Marie de Medicis did not affect to conceal her preference for her younger son, whose intellect partook of that of Henry IV., while his joyous spirits contrasted advantageously with the moody and unsocial nature of the young monarch. It was, beyond all doubt, to this habitual Lrayety that Gaston was indebted for the favor of Anne of Austria, and the delight which she evinced in his society ; it is possible, also, that ehe hoped, by giving free course to her flights of fancy, and exhibiting the fascinations alike of her person and her mind in the presence of his own brother, that she might ulti- mately succeed in inspiring the king with a greater taste THE COURT OP FRANCE. 29 for her society. It would be alike monstrous and unnatu- ral to impute to a woman just emerging from girlhood (for, be it remembered, that at the period of her marriage she had only attained her eleventh year) the wish seriously to captivate the affections of a stripling of fifteen, who was, moreover, the brother of her husband ! Here again, however, the machinations of Marie de Medicis were painfully successful ; for, with that love of in- trigue which she had imported from the court of Florence, she encouraged the demonstrations of the young queen, and aroused in the bosom of Louis a jealousy which deep- ened the hatred that he had long felt toward Gaston, whose vanity delighted in exciting the anger and annoyance of the monaixh, alike openly and in secret. Ere long the king, whose health, never robust, began to give way under the effects of his ungenial temper, had a new and more dangerous rival, of whom, however, he had not the most remote suspicion. We can do no more than allude to the first demonstration of this passion, which was destined to operate so powerfully on the after-fortunes of Anne of Austria. About three months subsequently to the receipt of the cardinal's hat by Richelieu, and when he had already begun to possess himself of the power by which he became aggrandized on the degradation of his royal mas- ter, profiting by the coldness which Louis felt toward his young consort, and which he did not make an effort to dis- guise, the new minister, impelled alike by his ambition and by the desire of gaining the affections of so beautiful a prin- cess, dared, says a writer of the period, to make proposals to her, unmeet for the ears of a princess, and unseemly from the lips of a churchman* * This declaration was productive of fearful results, according to M. de Montmerque, who asserts, in his notes to the Tales of Tallemant des Reaux, that the queen complained to the Marquis de Mirabel, the Spanish ambassador, of the insult to which she had been subjected by Richelieu; and the marquis, in his turn, informed the Count d'Olivares 30 LOUIS XIV. AND The increasing languor of the king had at this period cre- ated considerable apprehensions for his life ; and Richelieu was aware that, in the event of his demise, both the young queen and himself had every thing to fear ; the one from the hatred of Marie de Medicis, and the other from that of Gaston, should Anne of Austria continue childless ; nor was the latter blind to this alarming truth ; and whatever want of sympathy might exist between herself and Louis, she was quite conscious how heavy a misfortune her widow- hood must prove at such a crisis, from the fearful changes which it would necessarily produce in her position. Richelieu had, nevertheless, like most of those by whom she was surrounded, mistaken the real character of Anne of Austria ; and it is even asserted that, misled by his van- ity, he interpreted the patience and self-command with which the queen, fearful of changing into an enemy the powerful and crafty lover at her feet, compelled herself to listen and to temporize with his outrage upon her virtue into an encouragement of his hopes. How far he was jus- tified in this opinion may be gathered from the result of the experiment ; and we should not have ventured upon the record of such an anecdote, had not its veracity been thor- oughly authenticated. We give it, therefore, upon the faith of M. de Brienne. Anxious to devise some method of curing the cardinal forever of his presumptuous passion, Anne of Austria con- fided to Madame de Chevreuse the scene to which we have just made allusion ; and it was at length decided between them that the queen should affect to doubt the vows which he so profusely poured forth, and exact, as a proof of their sincerity, that Richelieu should dance a saraband in her presence, in the costume of a Spanish jester. The queen declared that she consented to the experiment, only because of the circumstance, who ordered him to effect the assassination of the cardinal, for having dai'ed to made such a proposition to the daughter of the King of Spain. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 31 she felt convinced that Richelieu, at once a churchman and the minister of a great nation, would never submit to such a degradation ; and that, consequently, she should secure a defense against the prosecution of his suit, in his denial to gratify her caprice ; while Madame de Chevreuse, on the contrary, maintained that they should see His Eminence, castanets in hand, at any hour which his royal mistress might deem expedient; and the favorite did not reason idly, for she was no stranger to the extent of Richelieu's passion for the young queen. Ten o'clock on the morrow was accordingly appointed ; for the cardinal at once verified the assurance of Madame de Chevreuse, only stipulating that no one should be present but Her Majesty during the travestie save Boccau, a musi- cian of his own band, of whose discretion he was assured. Anne of Austria, still half-incredulous, was nevertheless the first to declare to her favorite that the concession of the car- dinal was, should he indeed fulfill his pledge, at once too great or too trifling to effect her purpose, were no other spectator of the ecclesiastical masquerade to assist her in profiting by its absurdity ; and, accordingly, Madame de Chevreuse, Vauthier, and Beringhen, two of the gentlemen of her household, were concealed behind a folding screen in her cabinet ; the queen still persisting that the precau- tion was unnecessary, for that the cardinal would send to excuse himself, and Madame de Chevreuse resolutely as- serting that he would appear in person ; when, punctually to the moment, Boccau made his entry, armed with a violin, and announced that he should be speedily followed by His Eminence. All doubt was at an end. Ten minutes later a muffled figure appeared upon the threshold, advanced with a profound salutation, unfolded the enormous mantle in which it was enveloped, and the cardinal prime minister of France stood before the wife of its monarch in a tight vest and trowsers of green velvet, with silver bells at his garters, and castanets in his hands ! 32 LOUIS XIV. AND It required an immense effort on the part of Anne of Austria to restrain the mirth which, at this spectacle, caus- ed her to lose all apprehension of the consequences that it might involve ; she succeeded, however, in preserving suffi- cient gravity to receive her visitor with a gracious gesture, and to request him to complete his self-abnegation in cour- teous and fitting terms. She was obeyed, and for a time she watched with both curiosity and amusement the evolutions and contortions of the cardinal ; but the extreme gravity with which he ex- ecuted his task at length rendered the spectacle so supreme- ly grotesque, that she could no longer preserve her self- possession, and gave way to a violent fit of laughter. Her merriment was instantly reechoed from behind the screen ; and Richelieu, at once perceiving that he had been betray- ed, strode furiously from the room ; upon which the merry trio emerged from their concealment, delighted with the adventure of the morning. Little did they guess that they had roused a slumbering serpent, whose sting was sure and fatal ! Little did they understand, as they indulged in wit- ticisms of which the cardinal-duke was the subject, that he had, as he left the palace, vowed an undying hatred to Anne of Austria and her favorite, from the effects of which nei- ther the one nor the other was destined to escape. " This anecdote of the most austere minister ever known in France," says Dumas; "this condescension of the proud- est gentleman whom nobility ever counted in its ranks ; in fine, this error of the most serious man whom history has celebrated in its annals, will superabundantly indicate how high an importance the cardinal attached to the good graces of Anne of Austria." Now, however, all was over between them. Neither as a man nor as a minister could Richelieu forget that the queen had degraded him, not only in his own eyes, but in those of her private friends. Never, since he had knelt in confession at the feet of Paul V., had he felt his position to THE COURT OF FRANCE. 33 be so precarious. Should the king die, his fortune was at an end ; and the perspective of such an overthrow was ter- rible to one who had made so many sacrifices to attain to power. A ray of hope came, however, to his relief, when, in the spring of the following year (1623), a report of the pregnancy of the queen was promulgated ; but it was des- tined to be short-lived, for three months had scarcely elaps- ed when Anne of Austria, while at play with Madame de Chevreuse, had a violent fall, which destroyed the prospect that had filled the nation with delight. Certain writers of the time have endeavored to build upon this circumstance the most disadvantageous theories relative to the young queen, and affected to have good grounds for assigning the paternity of the expected infant to the cardi- nal; but we think that enough has been shown to excul- pate her from the accusation. They must know little of a woman's nature who believe that she can ever give her affec- tions to a man whom she has seen guilty of a gross absurd- ity. She may forgive a vice, but she never shows mercy to a ridicule. CHAPTER II. Embassy of the Earl of Carlisle — Lord Rich — Demand of the Hand of Henrietta-Maria for the Prince of Wales — Assent of Loui3 XIII. — Conditions — Lord Rich and the Duke of Buckingham — A new Em- bassy — Buckingham in Paris — The scattered Pearls — Passion of Buckingham for Anne of Austria — Price of a Court Lady — The Fete — The King's Present — Disguises of the English Duke — The Basque — The White Lady — The Royal Marriage — The Court at Amiens — Courtly Festivities — Tender Regrets — A garden Interview — Unhappy Result — Parting between Anne of Austria and Buckingham — Deten- tion of the Bribe of Charles I. — The Messenger — Return of Bucking ham and Lord Rich to Amiens — Interview of the Duke with Anne of Austria — The Aiguillette — New Leave-taking — Embarkation of the Bride — Intrigues of Marie de Medicis — A suspicious Argument — Surveillance of the young Queen — The missing Aiguillette — The Bride — The triumphant Minister — The City Ball — Tranquillity of Anne of Austria — Defeat of the Cardinal — The Secret revealed — Distrust of Louis XIII. — The Romance of Chalais — The Conspiracy — The Duke d'Anjou — The Princess of Vend6me — Proposed Assas- sination of Richelieu — The Cardinal at Fleury — The Hunt — Indis- cretion of Chalais — The Commander de Valance — The Interview — Rochefort — Remorse of Chalais — The Cardinal in his Closet — The King and his Minister — Guard at Fleury — The Plot defeated — The Duke and the Cardinal — Politic Politeness — Previsions of Richelieu. THE COURT OF FRANCE, So The next phase of the life of Anne of Austria involved still more serious results. Hitherto she had been guilty- only of the imprudence attributable, in a great degree, to her youth, and she was enabled, from the height of her own innocence, to look down with proud contempt on the malevolence of her enemies ; but the vanity of her nature, aided by constant association with a woman so unscrupu- lous and so venal as Madame de Chevreuse, was fated to induce her to acts of levity, which sullied the dignity of her character, and tended to justify the evil opinions of those whom personal feeling, or party spirit, actuated against her. In 1624, the Earl of Carlisle was sent as ambassador ex- traordinary to the court of France, to ask of Louis XIII. the hand of his sister, Henrietta-Maria, for the Prince of Wales, son of James I. ; and returned to England with the assent of the French king, provided that the same conces- sions were made to Henrietta-Maria which had previously been promised to the Infanta of Spain — to whom, before the rupture between that court and England, the prince had been betrothed. James, who had resolved that his son should not (as he expressed it) be degraded by an alliance with any princess who was not of the blood-royal, and ap- prehensive that if he hesitated to accept the terms of the French king, Charles would be altogether disappointed of a bride, meekly consented to comply ; forgetting or will- fully overlooking the fact, that the portion of Henrietta was very inferior to that promised with the Infanta, and that the peaceable restitution of the palatinate, which he had so much at heart, could not be promoted by this alliance. The concessions to which we have alluded were never made public ; or there can be no doubt that they would have created great national disaffection. The most excep- tionable among them was that in which the king engaged that the princess should herself direct and control the edu- cation of her children until they had attained their tenth 36 LOUIS XIV. AND y ear — which condition could evidently only have been stip- ulated with a view of imbuing their minds with Romanist ideas and principles ; but, beside this, there were several private articles to which the king pledged himself. Among others, to suspend the execution of the penal laws against the Roman Catholics; to cause them to be repealed in par- liament ; and to tolerate the popish rites in private houses. Moreover, as the prince had given a personal pledge to the Infanta, during his chivalrous visit to Spain, that he would commit to her the entire education of her children until their thirteenth year, this article was also inserted in the treaty by Richelieu, and accepted, as much by anxiety on the part of Charles himself, as by weakness upon that of his father ; for, while on his way to Madrid to ask the hand of the Span- ish princess, accompanied by Buckingham, the prince and his attendants had passed disguised and undiscovered through France, and had even ventured to attend a court ball, where he had an opportunity of seeing the Princess Henrietta, then in the first bloom of youth and beauty. The Earl of Carlisle was accompanied in his embassy by Lord Rich, afterward the Earl of Holland, whose beauty of person, elegance of manner, and profuse expenditure produced a very favorable effect upon the ladies of the court ; and it would appear that the English noble had been no less impressed by the beauty of the fair dames from whom he was so soon compelled to part ; for, on his return home, he expatiated to his friend the Duke of Buck- ingham, in no measured terms, upon the pleasures and mag- nificence of Paris, concluding his report by the declaration, that there was, nevertheless, one object at the French court which eclipsed all else, alike in beauty and in brightness, and that one was the young queen, of whom he drew a pic- ture which more than sufficed to excite the daring and reck- less fancy of the hot-headed George Villiers. Chosen, as the representative of Great Britain, to terminate the negotiations of marriage, Buckingham arrived in Paris, THE COURT OF FRANCE. 37 in his turn, magnificently attended, and at once became the idol of the people, the admiration of the ladies, and the aversion of every handsome cavalier, alike of the court and the city. We are not about to trace the mad and reckless career of the hot-headed envoy ; it is a page in the romance of the world's history, and must be familiar, in nearly all its details, to nine tenths of our readers ; we shall merely re- mark that, from the hour of his entrance into the presence, with his doublet of white satin embroidered with gold, and his mantle of silver-gray velvet, upon which the oriental pearls were so loosely sewn, that he scattered them at every step as he advanced, for the profit of the surrounding courtiers, the duke produced a powerful impression on the imagination of the young queen. His chivalric devotion and noble bearing were in accordance with her national associations, while his profusion was not without its effect ; for the wars which the princes of the blood had succes- sively waged against the state, had exhausted the treas- ure amassed by Henry IV., and reduced his successor to an income very inadequate to satisfy the necessities of royalty. Buckingham was by no means unconscious of his ad- vantages, but he was too able a tactician to intrust his hopes of success, in a cause in which he was so much in earnest as the subjugation of the heart of Anne of Austria, to mere adventitious superiority. He was soon aware that he was regarded with suspicion, both by the king and the cardinal, and he instantly felt the necessity of securing an able and efficient ally. He was not long ere he arrived at a decision. He knew that by half-measures he should be ruined, for he was playing for a desperate stake ; and he had heard enough from his friend, Lord Rich, to believe that he could select no confederate half so genial as Madame de Chevreuse. It is asserted that the court lady was purchased with a hun- dred thousand livres, and the loan of two thousand pistoles. "Whatever were her price, it is at least certain that it was 38 LOUIS XIV. AND paid ; and that Anne of Austria was betrayed into all her levity with Buckingham by her friend and favorite. Affecting to be enamored of the beautiful duchess, Buck- ingham was constantly beside her, save when the interests of his mission obliged him to visit the Louvre, or to wait upon the cardinal ; while the same pretext enabled him to approach the person of the queen in public, and to treat her with a respectful tenderness, which, although exaggerated in the subject of another sovereign, was protected by its veiy audacity. These demonstrations, however flattering though they might be to the vanity of Anne of Austria, by no means satisfied the views of 'Buckingham. His aim was a private interview ; but the queen was too closely watched to enable even her crafty and intriguing favorite to achieve his object. In this emergency, Madame de Chevreuse, prompted, no doubt, by the Mephistophiles at her elbow, proposed to give a fete at her hotel in honor of her royal mistress. The courtesy was accepted ; and the king, being unable to ad- duce a plausible reason for absenting himself upon such an occasion ; or, probably unwilling to leave the queen un- guarded to the familiar contact of the English ambassador, also signified his intention to be present. He did more, for he presented to her a splendid shoulder-knot, whence de- pended twelve diamond tags. During the evening, Buckingham assumed numerous dis- guises, danced in a ballet of demons, and lent the Chevalier de Guise* three thousand pistoles, and the diamonds of the English crown, to permit him to appear as his substitute in a masque in which the princes of the sovereign houses of France were to represent the oriental kings doing hom- age to Louis and his queen. In this disguise he was se- lected by Anne of Austria as her partner in the dance ; and had full opportunity, amid the noise and hurry of the festi- * Son of Henry, Duke de Guise, surnamed Le Balafri, and younger brother to M. de Chevreuse. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 39 val, to pour into her ear a tale of passion, for which Ma- dame de Chevreuse had, without doubt, previously pre- pared her. A report of the disguises assumed by Buckingham at the fete of the duchess soon reached the court, and it doubled the watchfulness and hatred of Richelieu ; who, well aware that she was the confidant and accomplice of this mad pas- sion, extended his surveillance to her also ; a proceeding which rendered the suit of the adventurous duke so des- perate, that he resolved to attempt any method, however hazardous, which afforded a prospect of meeting the queen, once at least, in private. The only means which could be devised, after the consent of Anne of Austria was obtained to this imprudence, was to introduce him into her apartmenta in the garb of a phantom, said to have haunted the Louvre for centuries, and known as the White Lady. Through the expert agency of Madame de Chevreuse this wild scheme was accomplished ; but Buckingham had scarcely been closeted five minutes with the queen, when an alarm was raised of the approach of Louis, and the duke was com- pelled to make a rapid retreat by a private stair-case. This new apparition of the White Lady (who had not succeeded in leaving the palace entirely unobserved) created no sus- picion in the mind of the king, as he put firm faith in the tradition ; but Richelieu was not so easily deceived ; and he soon ascertained through his agents that the advent of the phantom was another device of Buckingham. Chance, however, served him better than any measures which he could himself devise ; for, while these events were taking place, news arrived at the court of the death of James I. of England, and the accession of Charles I. Coupled with this intelligence, Buckingham received an order to hasten the marriage of his new sovereign by every means in his power ; and the cardinal, who desired nothing so earnestly as the absence of the English envoy, forthwith wrote to the Pope, to inform him, that if he did not immediately forward 40 LOUIS XIV. AXD the dispensation, the marriage would take place without his sanction; an announcement which produced its arrival by a special courier. Buckingham was in despair ; but no ingenuity could now suffice to prolong his sojourn in the French capital. In a few weeks the royal marriage was celebrated by the Car- dinal de la Rochefoucauld,* on a platform erected in front of the entrance of Notre-Dame ; M. de Chevreuse acting as proxy for the English king, with whom he claimed rela- tionship through Mary of Scotland, We have already stated that Charles had once seen his bride on the occasion of a state ball ; and the impression which he had carried away of her personal charms caused him to urge her immediate departure for England ; the court, consequently, without loss of time, started for Amiens, whither they were to accompany the young queen ; and it was in this city that the imprudence of Anne of Austria and the audacity of Buckingham reached their climax. Madame de Motteville,t Tallemant des Beaux, and La- * A descendant of one of the most ancient and illustrious houses of France, which was originally of Angoumois, and into which that of the counts of Roucy was merged in 1557. Francis V., who died in 1650, was the first duke ; and from the brother of his great-grandfather de- scended Anthony de la Rochefoucauld, who was general of the galleys in 1528, died in 1537, and was the ancestor of the branch of the mar- quises of Langeac. Another ramification, that of the counts of Randau, terminated in the person of John-Louis de la Rochefoucauld, killed at Issoire, in 1590. t Frances Bertaut, lady of Motteville, was the daughter of a gentle- man-in-w T aiting, and received an appointment about the person of Anne of Austria. She was, however, dismissed by Richelieu, and during her exile from court, married the First President of the Chamber of Rec- ords at Rouen, who, two years subsequently, left her a widow. Re- called to court in 1644, she remained with the queen until her death, and survived her royal mistress until 1689. Her Memoirs to elucidate the History of Anne of Austria, which extend through six volumes, in 12mo, are very curious, and full of the most minute details on the man- ners and cabals of the court at that period. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 41 porte,* alike relate an adventure which proves that even while Anne of Austria preserved her virtue intact (and, whatever were the opinions of the time, posterity has, upon this point, done her justice), she nevertheless occasionally placed it in peril ; and only extricated herself resolutely at the eleventh hour, from difficulties which it would have been at once more simple and more dignified to have avoided altogether. Such was the case at Amiens on the evening preceding the departure of Henrietta for England. This city, which had never before boasted the simulta- neous presence of three queens, and which now possessed Marie de Medicis, Anne of Austria, and Henrietta of . England, did not afford fitting accommodations for so many and such illustrious visitors, under the same roof; and thus each occupied a separate hotel. That assigned to Anne of Austria was situated on the bank of the Somme, and had large gardens, which descended to the river; an advantage which rendered it the favorite rendezvous of the other princesses, and consequently of the rest of the court, whose stay at Amiens had been prolonged, by every means in his power, by the Duke of Buckingham, who counted the hours which yet remained to him upon the French territory with jealous anxiety. Not a pleasure had been spared to induce delay ; and in every expedient the ambassador was eagerly seconded by the three queens, who found the diversions of Amiens a delightful exchange for the languor and ennui of the Louvre. The liberty was also rendered more perfect by the fact, that the king and the cardinal had, three days previously, been com- pelled to return to Fontainebleau. Thus nothing was thought of, nothing projected but amusement ; and there was probably no member of the courtly circle who did not witness with regret the advent of the last evening * Train-bearer to Anne of Austria, and afterward first valet-de-cham- bre to Louis XIV. 42 LOUIS XIV. AND which Madame Henrietta was to pass in the bosom of her family. Among these regrets there is little doubt that those of Anne of Austria and Buckingham were the most poignant. Deeply imbued with the romance of her native country, the Infanta was about to part from the only man who had realized in her eyes the poetry of her imagination ; to ex- change the chivalric devotion of an adventurous and high- hearted lover, for the society of a moody and distrustful husband ; and to find herself cast down from the proud elevation of a beloved and idolized beauty, to the chilling depths of a suspected and neglected wife. Let us at once admit that now, when party spirit is laid at rest, and individual prejudices are buried in the grave, some, indulgence may well be conceded to her youth ; and that while we are compelled to regret her imprudence, an imprudence the more reprehensible that she had to sup- port her station as a queen as well as her dignity as a woman, we may nevertheless infer that the trial was perhaps beyond her strength. Buckingham, moreover, was no common lover. The court of France offered no example of the reckless, uncalculating, and indomitable spirit with which he braved every danger and every diffi- culty, in pursuit of the one coveted object. To him kings and cardinals were alike indifferent ; he acknowl- edged no fear ; recognized no peril ; his whole soul was absorbed in his passion, and he deemed no sacrifice too great to insure its success. They were about to part, probably forever; and it is in this fact that we have en- deavored to find some excuse for the weakness of Anne of Austria ; who, according to the authorities already quoted, so far forgot her self-respect as a sovereign, as to separate herself from her court on the last evening of its sojourn at Amiens, and to wander alone with Bucking- ham, long after twilight, among the shades of the garden shrubberies. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 43 Ere long a piercing cry was heard, and the voice of the queen was at once recognized ; when instantly, M. de Putange, her first equerry, sprung into the shrubbery 6\vord in hand, and saw, as it is asserted, Anne of Austria struggling in the arms of the Duke of Buckingham. On perceiving Putange, Buckingham also drew his sword, but the queen rushing between them, and desiring the duke to retire lest he should compromise her, she was obeyed without hesitation ; and this had scarcely been effected, ere the whole of the courtiers were collected about their royal mistress, anxiously inquiring the cause of her teiTor. Anne of Austria called up her presence of mind, and answered, that the duke had suddenly left her alone in the darkness ; and that, terrified on finding her- self in so unusual a position, she had, without considering the alarm which such an expedient must necessarily create, cried aloud in order to summon some one to her presence. The idea did credit to her ingenuity, but it failed to convince her auditors ; and neither the ball of Madame de Chevreuse, nor the episode of the palace-phantom, bore so heavily upon the reputation of Anne of Austria as this adventure on the banks of the Somme. On the morrow, the Queen-Mother expressed her de- termination to accompany her daughter a few leagues on her way, ere she bid her a final farewell ; and when they ultimately parted, Buckingham rendered his leave- taking with Anne of Austria so conspicuous, that it served to strengthen all the prejudices which had been excited against her : while overcome, probably, by the memories of the past and the anticipations of the future, she, on her side, lost all her self-possession, and remained drowned in tears during the return to Amiens. This want of cau- tion was the more imprudent that she traveled in the same carriage with the Queen-Mother, the Princess of Conti, and a lady of the court ; and thus exposed herself to sus- picions which, without doubt, outran the truth. 44 LOUIS XIV, AND On his arrival at Boulogne, Buckingham found the ele- ments favorable to his passion. A succession of high winds had rendered the sea so rough as to preclude all possibility of the departure of Madame Henrietta; who easily consoled herself for the delay, by remembering that she was still upon her native soil. Nor was the English duke a whit less philosophical. If he did not possess the consolation which presented itself to the queen of Charles I., he had the still dearer one of knowing that he was yet within reach of the idol of his affections ; and that the feeling was reciprocated he had soon ample proof, by the ai-rival of Laporte at Boulogne ; ostensibly to inquire into the movements of Madame Henrietta and the Duchess de Chevreuse, by whom she was to be accompanied to England. It needed little discernment on the part of the by- standers to decide that the official inquhy of the messen- ger by no means laid bare the whole of his mission, but the exact nature of its duties never transpired. The rough weather lasted for eight days, and during that in- terval Laporte made three journeys to the coast ; while, in order to facilitate his movements, M. de Chaulnes, the provisional governor of Amiens, left the city gates open all night. On his return from the third journey, Laporte informed Anne of Austria that she would see Buckingham again that very evening. The duke had stated that the receipt of a dispatch from his sovereign would oblige him to have another conference with the Queen-Mother; and that he should leave Boulogne three hours after the royal messenger ; moreover, he privately implored Anne of Aus- tria, in the name of the love he bore her, to afford him an opportunity of taking leave of her alone. The request was one which agitated the queen with fear, and filled her with anxiety. She well knew the reckless and overbearing character of her English lover, and felt too late the danger to which her unmeasured THE COURT OF FRANCE. 45 condescension had subjected her safety. Only a few hours remained to her for decision ; and pressed by her consciousness of the peril to which she was exposed, and it may be also, by her innate feeling of tenderness for the duke, she determined at once to affect a sudden indisposition, and to request her ladies to withdraw in consequence. Her project was, however, rendered un- availing by the entrance of Nogent Bautru,* who publicly announced the arrival of the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Rich, to treat on some affair of importance with the Queen-Mother. In this emergency Anne of Austria felt that she had no alternative but to play out her personage to the end ; and accordingly she lost no time in sending for her physician and causing herself to be bled : but despite her entreaties, and almost her commands, she could not rid herself of the attendance of the Countess de Lannoy, who persisted in watching by her bedside ; and finding that she was resolved on fulfilling the duties of her office to the letter, the young queen did not venture to insist on her obedience, having already had occasion to suspect that the zealous lady of honor was in the in- terests of the cardinal ; and she was consequently com- pelled to await, in increased anxiety, the issue of the adventure. Her worst apprehensions were realized when, at a late hour, the Duke of Buckingham was announced. During the interview which ensued, the duke was more passionate and more unguarded than he had ever before been ; and replied to the remonstrances of the lady of honor by a vehement declaration of his love for her royal mistress ; ultimately rushing from the room in a state of agitation unbecoming alike to his own manhood, and the respect which was due to the exalted personage whom he quitted. * Nicholas Bautru, Count de Nogent, jester at the court of Anne of Austria. 48 LOUIS XIV. AND He was no sooner gone than the queen, aware that she could not be further compromised by the countess, in- sisted upon her immediate absence ; and without loss of time summoned Dona Estefania, a Spanish lady, who had accompanied her from her own country, and in whom she had entire confidence ; and, brushing away her tears, she wrote a letter to Buckingham, in which she besought him immediately to leave France. This done, she gave into the charge of her attendant not only the letter, but also a casket containing the aiguillette, with its diamond pend- ants, which had been presented to her by the king, and in which she had appeared at the ball of Madame de Chevreuse. The first she knew would inflict a pang ; and the second was intended to heal the wound, by serving as a memorial of their friendship. It may for a moment create surprise, that the queen should venture to dispossess herself of so recently acquired and so remarkable an ornament ; but be it remembered that her resources were scanty, that she had already done honor to the present of the king by appearing with it upon her person in public ; and that, while as a sovereign, she could not offer to the magnificent duke a remembrance without some intrinsic value, she was also enabled, by sacrificing the jewel in question, to gratify her softer feel- ings, by the conviction, that as this was a decoration worn indifferently by both sexes, Buckingham would be re- minded of her whenever it formed a portion of his dress. On the morrow Anne of Austria took leave of the En- glish envoy in presence of all the court, and his bearing was that of a finished gentleman and a respectful courtier. No eye could detect a glance, no ear gather up a sentence, which was not in accordance with the most scrupulous etiquet. Buckingham earned away with him a pledge of royal regard which almost consoled him for his de- parture. Three days afterward, Madame Henrietta and her suite THE COURT OF FRAKCE. 47 embarked for England ; and the cardinal, early informed by Madame de Lannoy of the scene between Anne of Aus- tria and Buckingham, lost no time in detailing, not only this, but also the adventure of the garden to Louis ; whose in- difference toward the queen was rapidly degenerating into hate, thanks to the imprudence of Anne of Austria herself, and the evil offices of the Queen-Mother; who believed that she saw, in this estrangement between the royal pair, the guaranty of her own authority. Richelieu profited, with his usual ability, of these two new causes of suspi- cion ; and the result of the impression which, by his repre- sentations, he produced upon the mind of the king, was the dismissal and disgrace of several members of the queen's household. Among others, Madame de Vernet met the former fate, and M. de Putange the latter. Louis was probably, in his secret heart, unable to forgive him, either his discovery, or the escape of Buckingham from the gar- den of Amiens. The levity of Anne of Austria had strengthened the hands of the Queen-Mother, acerbated the jealousy of Richelieu, and greatly injured her cause in the public mind ; and this at a moment when, deprived of the support of Madame de Chevreuse, she was less than ever able to contend against the increasing difficulties of her position. Marie de Medi- cis in this conjuncture put forth all her talent for intrigue ; and while she affected great anxiety to effect a reconcilia- tion between the royal pair, she nevertheless attempted no interference with the extreme act of the king in disorganiz- ing the household of his consort ; but when the arrange- ment was completed, and that she knew Anne of Austria to be without one confidential friend, she took her son apart, and endeavored to prove to him, that despite all appear- ance the queen was innocent ; that her regard for Bucking- ham had never exceeded the limits of propriety, and that she had been too well guarded to have had an opportunity of compromising his dignity. 48 LOUIS XIV. AND Louis listened moodily. He had no faith in the assur- ance ; nor was he inclined to give Anne of Austria any credit for the preservation of a virtue which, according to the view of the case now presented to him, was dependent upon the watchfulness of those by whom she was surround- ed. The master-stroke of the wily Florentine was, howev- er, still to come. As a climax to her argument, she declared herself to be the more anxious that he should overlook the past, as she felt that the position of the queen was precisely similar to her own, when the high spirits and thoughtless- ness incident to youth had occasionally caused her to ex- cite the suspicion and displeasure of her husband, Henry IV., although her own conscience acquitted her of all blame. The effect which such an argument must produce, even upon the mind of her own son, requires no explanation ; nor is it wonderful that, when they parted, Louis XIII. was more than ever convinced of the guilt of his royal consort. His next act of hostility toward her was the dismissal of the faithful Laporte, in whom she had the most entixe con- fidence, and who was devoted to her service. Madame de la Boissiere alone was retained near her person ; and no more efficient and repelling duenna could have been select- ed. The surveillance was complete. Coupled with this open persecution, a secret conspiracy was in action against Anne of Austria of which she had no suspicion. Madame de Lannoy, the zealous spy of the cardinal, had detected the disappearance of the diamond aiguillette from the queen's casket ; and, with the ready perception of malice, she sug- gested to Richelieu that it had, in all probability, been sent to Buckingham as a parting present. The cardinal lost not an instant in writing to one of the ladies of Charles's court who was in his interest — for, like the spider, he attached his web on every side — offering to present her with fifty thousand livres if she could succeed in cutting away a couple of the tags of the shoulder-knot, the first time that Bucking- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 49 ham appeared in it, and forwarding them forthwith hy a safe messenger to himself. A fortnight afterward, the two tags were in the posses- sion of Richelieu. The duke had worn the the aiguillette at a state ball, and the emissary of the cardinal had cut away a couple of its pendants unobserved. The vindictive minister gloated over his prize ! Now, as he believed, his revenge was certain. The first care of Richelieu was to cany the diamonds to the king, and to acquaint him with the method by which they had been procured. Louis examined them closely. There could be no doubt that they had indeed formed a portion of the ornament which had been his last present to his wife ; his pale brow flushed with indignant rage ; and, before the cardinal left the royal closet every precaution was taken to insure the speedy exposure of the queen. On the following morning, Louis himself announced to Anne of Austria that a ball, given by the civil magistrates of Paris, at the town-hall, would take place the day but one following; and he coupled this information with the request that, in order to compliment both himself and the magistrates, she would appear in the aiguillette which he had lately presented to her. She replied simply and calmly that he should be obeyed. The eight-and-forty hours which were still to intervene before his vengeance could be accomplished, appeared so many centuries to the cardinal-duke. Anne of Austria was now fairly in the toils, and still her composure remained unruffled. How was this apparent tranquillity to be ex- plained 1 Richelieu had already experienced that, aided by Buckingham and Madame de Chevreuse, she had pos- sessed the power to baffle even Ms ingenuity ; but she now stood alone ; and even had she ventured upon so dangerous a step as that of replacing the jewels, he well knew that on the present occasion she possessed neither the time nor the means. vol. i. — C 50 LOUIS XIV. AND The hour of the festival at length struck ; and as it had been arranged that the king should first make his entrance into the ball-room, accompanied by his minister, and that the queen should follow, attended by her own court, Riche- lieu was enabled to calculate upon commencing his tri- umph from the very moment of her appearance upon the threshold. Precisely an hour before midnight, the queen was an- nounced, and every eye at once turned eagerly toward her. She was magnificent alike in loveliness and in apparel. She wore a Spanish costume, consisting of a dress of green satin, embroidered with gold and silver, having hanging sleeves, which were looped back with large rubies, serving as but- tons. Her ruff was open, and displayed her bosom, which was extremely beautiful; and upon her head she had a small cap of green velvet, surmounted by a heron-feather ; while from her shoulder depended gracefully the aiguillette, with its twelve diamond tags. As she entered, the king approached her; avowedly to offer his compliments upon her appearance, but actually to count the tags. His arithmetic amounted to a dozen. The cardinal stood a pace behind him, quivering with rage. The twelve tags were hanging from the shoulder of the queen, and, nevertheless, he grasped two of them in his hand at the same moment. Ay, in his hand; for he had resolved not to lose an instant in triumphing over the proud and in- solent beauty who had laughed his passion to scorn, and made him a mark for the ridicule of her associates. The vow that he uttered in his heart, as he gazed upon her calm and defying brow that night, probably cost Buckingham his life ; for Richelieu was not duped by the belief that the shoulder-knot of the duke, from whence his own two tags had been severed, was not identical with that now floating over the arm of Anne of Austria. The plot had, nevertheless, failed ; and once more the cardinal was beaten upon his own ground. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 51 It is, however, time that we should disclose the secret of this apparently mysterious incident to our readers. On his return from the state ball, at which he had ap- peared with the aiguillette of Anne of Austria, Bucking- ham, who would confide to no one the care of this precious ornament, was about to restore it to its casket, when he perceived the subtraction which had taken place, and for a moment abandoned himself to a fit of anger, believing that he had been made the victim of a common theft ; an in- stant's reflection, however, convinced him that such was not likely to be the case, as he had upon his person jewels of greater value, which it would have been equally easy to purloin, and these all remained intact. A light broke upon him — he suspected the agency of his old enemy and rival, the cardinal-duke ; and his immediate measure was to place an embargo upon the English ports, and to prohibit all mas- ters of vessels from putting to sea, under pain of death. During the operation of this edict, which created universal astonishment throughout the country, the jeweler of Buck- ingham was employed day and night in completing the number of the diamond tags ; and it was still in full force when a light fishing-smack, which had been exempted from the general disability, was scudding across the channel on its way to Calais, under the command of one of the duke's confidential servants, and having on board, for all its freight, the aiguillette of Anne of Austria. In the course of the ensuing day the ports were again opened, and the thousand and one rumors which had been propagated by the people died gradually away, as no ex- planation of the incomprehensible and rigorous measure ever transpired ; whose result was the receipt of her shoulder-knot by the queen, the very day before the ball of the magistrates. Thus the apparent tranquillity of Anne of Austria, which had been for the first few hours the apathetic calmness of despair, ultimately grew out of the certainty of security ; 52 LOUIS XIV. A N D and the ready wit and chivalric devotion of Buckingham, which had so frequently threatened her destruction, for once supplied her aegis. Her trials were, however, far from their conclusion ; for although the king, reassured by the departure of the En- glish duke, and this failure of the accusation of the aiguil- lette, for which he could not in any way account, did not permit the memory of Buckingham longer to occupy his mind, Marie de Medicis renewed her efforts to disgust him with his young wife, lest a reconciliation between them should decrease her influence. Louis XIII., although he had, for a time, ceased to look upon his brother with the same suspicion as formerly (the episode of the British envoy having of late entirely occupied his attention), had by no means overcome his old misgivings ; and upon this foundation the Queen-Mother wrought. She again flung the vain young prince constantly into the way of her in- tended victim ; who, wearied by the monotony in which 6he lived, was indebted to his sallies for some of her least dreary hours ; and having accomplished a renewal of their familiar intercourse, both herself and Richelieu, united by one common interest, skillfully reawakened the slumbering jealousy of the king, and caused reports to be circulated on every side, which were calculated to ruin the queen for- ever in his opinion. Among others, it was officiously com- municated to him that Anne of Austria, weary of a life of ennui — young, beautiful, and passionate — was anxiously awaiting the death of a cold and melancholy husband, whose failing health appeared to give consistency to her hopes, in order to complete a marriage more in accordance with her peculiar tastes ; and thenceforward Louis XIII. believed himself to be surrounded by conspirators, eager to place the crown upon the head of the Duke d'Anjou. Marie de Medicis covertly encouraged his suspicions ; and the king, whose distrust of his wife increased with every succeeding day, brooded impatiently over his imagined THE COURT OR FRANCE. 53 wrongs, while be awaited the opportunity to revenge them signally. That opportunity was not long wanting ; and here again history supplies us with an episode which con- tains almost a romance in itself. Henry de Talleyrand, Prince de Chalais, of a junior branch of the illustrious house of Talleyrand, was master of the wardrobe to the king* He was young, handsome, and high-spirited ; remarkable for the extreme elegance of his attire ; and very popular with the ladies of the court. Thoughtless, sarcastic, and vain, he made many enemies ; but, thanks to a duel in which he had been engaged some time previously, and which had created great excitement, his position in society was assured and brilliant ; for the spirit of chivalry was not yet extinct in France ; and this, its last and worst observance, still turned the heads of all the young and idle cavaliers about the court. His antago- nist was M. de Pongibaut, brother-in-law of the Count de Lude,t by whom he believed himself to have been injured. * " lie was the grandson of the Marshal de Montluc, and connected on the female side with the family of the brave Bussy d'Amboise, whose sister was the wife of that marshal." — Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Bussy-Rabutin, Grand Master of the Artillery, in his malicious sketch of Madame de Sevigne, inserted in the most scandalous and the most popular of his works, draws the following picture of the Count de Lude : — " His face is small and ugly ; he has a profusion of hair, and a fine figure ; he was born to be very fat, but the dread of being incon- venienced and disagreeable has caused him to take such extraordinary pains to keep down his flesh, that he has ultimately succeeded. His fine figure has in truth cost him a portion of his good health, for he has ruined his stomach by spare and rigid diet, and the quantity of vinegar which he has taken. He is a clever horseman, dances well, is a good fencer, and fought bravely. Those who doubted his courage conse- quently did him injustice. The foundation of this calumny may be traced to the fact, that all the young men of his standing having shared in the campaign, he contented himself by serving as a volunteer; but this circumstance arose from his idleness and love of pleasure. In one word, he is brave, and has no ambition. His disposition is mild; he is agreeable in female society, has always been well treated by the ladies, but has never loved any one long. The causes of his success, beside 54 LOUIS XIV. AND He accordingly took his post upon the Pont-Neuf, and there awaited his enemy, who had no sooner appeared than he drew his sword, defied him to instant combat, and killed him. Bois-Robert wrote an elegy upon his death.* It was the fashion of that day to conspire against the cardinal, who had monopolized the sovereign power, and reduced the authority of the king to a mere cipher ; and Chalais, who loved nothing so well as the fashion, es- pecially when its worship involved a certain degree of danger, was therefore delighted to follow a mode so con- genial to his tastes. On this occasion, however, the conspiracy was far from contemptible, for at its head was the young Duke d'Anjou ; excited to this demonstration of hostility, not only by the hatred which he personally felt for Richelieu, but also by the instigations of Alexander de Bourbon, Grand Prior of France,! and Caesar, Duke de Vendome,| who had origi- nally suggested the assassination of the cardinal, and in- duced the cooperation of Chalais. Half-a-dozen other young men of rank joined the party of Gaston, and to these (including the prince himself, and Chalais) was to be intrusted the murder of the minister. Richelieu, who was by no means blind to the hatred his reputation for discretion, are his good looks, and, above all, his fac- ulty of weeping when he pleases ; for nothing so persuades women that they are loved as tears." — Histoire Amourev.se des Gaules. * Francois le Metel de Bois-Robert, born at Caen in 1592. A poet and a wit, he became the favorite of Richelieu, although he was a gambler, a glutton, and a rake. He was one of the founders of the French Academy, whose sittings were long held under his roof; and died in 1662. Bois-Robert left behind him poems, tales, and dramas. t Son of Henry IV. and of Gabrielle d'Estree. He married the daughter of Philip-Emanuel de Lorraine, Duke de Mercoeur, by whom he had three children — Isabella, married to Charles Amedee, Duke de Nemours; Louis, who died in 1669; and Francis, Duke of Beaufort. % Philip de Venddme, brother of Caesar, born in 1655, followed the profession of arms. In his person tenninated the posterity of the dukes de Venddme, descendants of Henry IV. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 55 with which he was regarded by a great proportion of the nation, and by a strong party at court, was in the habit of perpetually pretexting his weak health, in order to with- draw from Paris. He was shrewd enough to comprehend that, for an unpopular minister, the walls of a palace afford very inefficient protection ; while in a more retired and less official residence, precautions might be taken with a greater probability of success. Thus he had once more retired to the Benedictine abbey of Fleury,* where he busied himself in forwarding the affairs of state, and whence he directed the destinies of the kingdom. The Duke d'Anjou and his friends, pretexting that a hunt had brought them into the neighborhood, were to pay a visit to the cardinal, to claim his hospitality, and after- ward to seize the first favorable moment to surround him, and put him to death.t All was prepared ; when Chalais, either irresolute, and desirous of further arguments against his own reluctance, in doubt of the legitimacy of the act in contemplation, or anxious to include his friend in the plot, confided every * Fleury, or Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, an abbey of Benedictines, was situated in the little town of Fleury, near Orleans. It was founded in the seventh century, by Leodobold, abbot of Saint-Aignan, and only assumed the name of Saint-Benoit when the relics of that saint were transferred to its guardianship. It was an educational community, and both divine and human sciences were taught there. The number of pupils amounted to five thousand. It possessed a very fine library, containing from one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thou- sand volumes. The abbey of Fleury was united to the congregation of Saint-Maur in 1627. t " All these plots, which to-day appear to us so impossible, at least so extraordinary, were quite common at that time, and made, in some degree, the tour of Europe. Visconti had been assassinated thus in the Ddme at Milan ; Julian de Medicis in the cathedral at Florence ; Henry III. at Saint-Germain; Henry IV. in the Rue de la Ferronerie; and the Marshal d'Ancre on the bridge of the Louvre. Gaston, in ridding himself of the favorite of Louis XIII., was consequently imitating the example of Louis XIII. with regard to the favorite of Marie de Med- icis." — Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 56 LOUIS XIV. AND detail to the Commander Valance. The second supposi- tion appears to be warranted by the result ; for it is certain that, at the conclusion of their conference, De Valance had obtained sufficient influence over the mind and conscience of Chalais to induce him to see Richelieu, and to reveal the whole conspiracy. The cardinal was writing in his closet, in company with one of his most devoted adherents, the Count de Rochefort — a protean genius, who was incessantly at work in the interests of his patron, under all ages, names, figures, and costumes. He was long-headed and courageous ; and was, in one shape or other, involved in every state mystery ; consequently, it is almost needless to add, that he was one of the most favored and confidential agents of the minister. When Chalais and De Valance were announced on an affair of extreme importance, His Eminence made a sign to Rochefort, who retired behind a screen of tapestry that separated the chamber of the cardinal from the cabinet in which he was working ; and the visitors were admitted as he disappeared. Chalais was more dead than alive. He felt all the odium of his position ; and his vain and haughty spirit was probably more stung by a consciousness of his personal disgrace, than his moral feelings were wounded by the enormity of his projected crime. In his first error there had been some shadow of courage ; for, assassination as it was, the game which he had been about to play, if unsuc- cessful, involved his certain destruction ; while that which he was about to commit, while it tended to insure his own security, periled that of those who had confided in his honor. As his eyes fell upon the cardinal, who, cold and pale and stern, was seated at the table, with his hand sup- porting his chin, and his glance occasionally wandering over the mass of papers heaped before him, he could not utter a syllable. It was accordingly De Valance who un- dertook to lay before Richelieu all the details of the con- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 57 spiracy which had been formed against him. The counte- nance of the minister remained unmoved as he listened in silent attention to the narrative. No expression of either astonishment or indignation escaped him. He possessed in an eminent degree that passive courage which is the firmest defense of statesmen. No mask of wax could have continued more immobile ; and, at the conclusion of the interview, there was almost a smile upon his lips as he thanked Chalais for his zeal, and begged him to return and visit him alone. He was obeyed, and spared neither promises nor pledges to attach the young courtier to his interests. He flattered his self-love, and excited his ambition ; while Chalais, con- scious that he no longer merited the confidence and regard of his former friends, suffered himself to be seduced, upon the understanding that no steps should be taken by the minister against any of his late confederates. Richelieu conceded the point at once,* and then proceeded to inform the king of his discovery ; demanding, in his turn, impunity for a conspiracy formed only against himself, and affecting in no degree the safety of his royal master. This was an able stroke of policy, for it permitted the minister to display less lenity, should he ever detect any of its members en- gaged in a plot likely to compromise Louis ; while it im- pressed the mind of the king with the conviction, that the cardinal was more devoted to his individual interests than even to those which involved his own welfare. Moreover, it enabled Richelieu to accomplish a point which he had long desired; for when Louis, after having given the de- sired pledge, inquired in what manner the minister intended to act in this conjuncture, he replied, that he had already resolved upon his mode of action, but that having in his * " This was the more easy to him, as the heads of the Duke d'Anjou, the Duke de Vend6me, and the Grand Prior, being all royal, they were not such as habitually fell under the ax of the executioner." — Louis XIV. et son Siecle. «■* 58 LOUIS XIV. AND service neither guards nor armed men, he would ask the king to lend him a detachment of his gens d'armes. Louis immediately authorized him to take sixty cavaliers ; who arrived at Fleury in the night preceding the day fixed upon for the assassination, where they were at once con- cealed. At four o'clock in the morning the officers of the kitchen to the Duke d'Anjou arrived at Fleury in their turn ; stating that at the termination of the hunt their royal master would come to claim the hospitality of His Eminence ; and that, in order to obviate all inconvenience, he had sent them forward to prepare the dinner. In reply, the cardinal informed them that both he and his chateau were entirely at the disposal of the prince, who had only to command whatever he might desire ; and after this assurance, he im- mediately rose, dressed himself, and without apprising any one of his intention, he at once started for Fontainebleau to wait upon Gaston. It was eight o'clock when he ar- rived there ; and the duke was already putting on a hunt- ing-dress when the door of his room abruptly opened, and a valet de chambre announced His Eminence the Cardinal de Richelieu. It is probable that Gaston would, at any risk, have evaded this interview had it been possible, for, as his after-career amply proved, his courage was apt to fail in the face of danger, although at times he was capable of the most magnificent projects. He had also, upon this occasion, the consciousness of a projected crime to augment his repugnance as well as the natural distrust of discovery ; which, in a secret already confided to so many individuals, could terminate only with the accomplishment of his pur- pose. There was, however, no possibility of retreat in the present instance, for the cardinal had followed closely upon the heels of his conductor; and when the prince turned toward the door to announce that he was not visible, his eyes met those of his unwelcome guest. The bland smile of Richelieu contrasted strangely with THE COURT OF FRANCE. 69 the agitation of the royal duke, who could scarcely com- mand sufficient self-possession to utter a confused and hurried greeting; and his emotion sufficed to convince the cardinal of the truth of all that he had heard. Neverthe- less he advanced into the room with a calm and dignified composure, well calculated to dispel the ready apprehen- sions of Gaston ; who, gaining courage from desperation, was about to approach him, when the minister, with the same suavity in his voice which he had already exhibited in his features, declared that he had great cause of com- plaint against his royal highness. This assurance tended to renew all the terrors of the Duke d'Anjou, who inquired, in an unsteady accent, in what manner he could have in- curred the displeasure of His Eminence ] The cardinal explained with increased courtesy, that he alluded to the circumstance, that when the prince had determined to honor him by his presence, and to dine under his roof, and that it would have afforded him the most heartfelt gratification to entertain so distinguished a guest to the best of his ability, he should have sent forward his establishment to prepare his repast ; and the rather that he could only interpret this arrangement as conveying an inference that his royal highness desired to be relieved from all intrusion ; and thus, in order that his pleasure should be fulfilled in all things, he now hastened to assure him that he had quitted the chateau in order that it might remain at the complete disposal of the prince and his friends, so long as he should honor him by making it avail- able : and having terminated his address, the cardinal withdrew, wishing the duke a good day's sport. Gaston was too wily to be duped by this excess of courtesy, and felt at once that he had been betrayed. He, consequently, feigned sudden indisposition, and the hunt was abandoned. He could not conceal from himself that Richelieu, already predisposed against him, would hence- forward continue his implacable enemy ; and he well knew 60 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. the power of the cardinal over the mind of the king, who had by this time become the mere tool of his imperious will. He was not deceived in his conjectures; for the minister, although he had displayed so much apparent magnanimity, was far from feeling the forbearance which he professed. He was aware of the whole extent of the danger by which he was menaced, and he felt that he was lost if he did not succeed in overthrowing at once the for- midable league which the princes had formed against him. There might not always be a coward or a traitor in the ranks ; and he had now acquired the bitter experience that his agents, numerous and active as they were, could not in every case protect him against the machinations of his enemies, by a premature discovery of their plots. His first care must therefore be to divide their interests ; and that done, he felt no apprehension that he should be enabled to subjugate them individually. CHAPTER III. Question of the Duke d'Anjou's Marriage — Foresight of Gaston — Marie de Bourbon — Opposition — The Vendome Princes — The Grand Prior — Alarm of Louis XIII. — The Cardinal and the Grand Prior — Insid- ious Advice — Departure of the Grand Prior for Brittany — Dissimula- tion of Louis XIII. — Repentance of Chalais — Affected Alarm of Richelieu — The Forty Mounted Guards — Triumph of the Cardinal — Arrest of the Vendome Princes at Blois — The Count de Rochefort — The Capuchin Monastery at Brussels — The Plot at its Climax — Ar- rest, Trial, and Confession of Chalais — Marriage of the Duke d'Anjou — Madame de Chalais — Condemnation of her Son — Execution of Chalais — The Queen before the Council. . At this period the question became mooted of the mar- riage of the Duke d'Anjou, who received the proposition coldly, for his views in forming an alliance of this nature were by no means in accordance with those of the minis- ter. He never for a moment lost sight of the possibility which existed, that he might one dav inherit the throne of 62 LOUIS XIV. AND France ; and he was anxious .to unite himself to a foreign princess, whose family might serve him as a support in his time of power, and whose country might afford a refuge in the event of adversity. It is certain that these were by no means the views of Richelieu ; who desired that Gaston should marry Mademoiselle de Bourbon,* who would bring him an immense dowry, but who could not assist him in his ambitious projects. Still the cardinal urged upon the king the propriety, and in fact, necessity, of the alliance ; which he based upon the continued, and now, as he ex- pressed it, hopeless childlessness of Anne of Austria ; an argument which renewed all the bitterness of Louis toward his queen. Nor was he slow in representing to the king the dangers which must ensue from providing for his brother, in another country, a haven whence he might defy his authority ; and Louis XIII. , although he had suffered all power to be wrested from him by one of his own sub- jects, was morbidly alive to the dread of appearing to have ceded his prerogative, and to the risk of being compelled to do so. The substance had escaped him, but he only grasped the more tenaciously at the shadow. The queen still clung to the interests of Spain, and this consciousness gave him continual uneasiness ; a fact well known to the cardinal, and of which he dextrously availed himself to work upon the fears of Louis, while at the same time he widened the breach between the weak monarch and Anne of Austria. On the other hand, Gaston, too unstable to resist the will of the minister, without support, summoned his friends about him, and created a party, which declared itself in favor of the foreign alliance, at whose head were Anne of Austria, the Grand Prior of France, and the Duke de Vendome. Richelieu soon acquainted Louis that these two princes * Marie de Bourbon, daughter of Francis de Bourbon, Duke de Montpensier, &c, &c. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 63 had resolved to prevent the alliance with Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and the king evinced great irritation at the intelligence, although, with the dissimulation which was natural to him, he did not permit it to appear in their presence. Before the cardinal, however, he affected no disguise, and the subtile minister understood, at once, that he had awakened a hatred of his brother in the heart of the king which would be unextinguishable. His greatest difficulty was, how to profit by this consciousness. The position of the Grand Prior was one of great influence and power — without calculating upon the traditional pres- tige which attached itself to him as the son of Henry IV.; while that of the Duke de Vendome was still more formidable, inasmuch as he was not only the governor of Brittany, but might even pretend to the sovereignty of that province, in right of his wife, the heiress of the joint houses of Luxembourg and Penthievre. It was rumored, moreover, that the prince was about to effect a marriage between his son and the eldest daughter of the Duke de Retz, who held two strong places in the province, and, consequently, Brittany, which it had been so difficult to attach to the crown, might again emancipate itself. The cardinal placed all these considerations under the eyes of the king. He showed him Spain entering France at the bidding of Anne of Austria, the German Empire marching upon the frontiers, on the invitation of the Duke d'Anjou, and Brittany in revolt at the first signal of the Duke de Vendome.* And when Louis, alarmed by the possible perspective thus laid bare before him, eagerly inquired how such calamities were to be evaded, he was answered that the only remedy lay in the imprisonment of the two brothers. There was, however, little hope of arresting both at the same time, and the minister well knew, that should he secure the person of one only, he must inevitably * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. G4 LOUI3 XIV. AND create for himself an enemy whose power might ulti- mately overcome his own ; but fortune was on the side of Richelieu. The princes, after the failure of the con- spiracy of Fleury, had watched anxiously for some word or action which might betray a knowledge of their par- ticipation in the plot, on the part of those who were the most interested in its result, and finding that no allusion had been made to themselves calculated to excite sus- picion, and that the power of Richelieu continued to increase, the Duke de Vendome returned to his govern- ment, perfectly assured that the cardinal, although apprised of the danger to which he had been exposed, was ignorant of the identity of those who had paiticipated in the plot ; while the Grand Prior, strong in the same conviction, renewed his relations with the minister with greater ap- parent eagerness than he had ever before displayed. Richelieu met his advances in the same spirit ; and so thoroughly was the prince duped by the seeming sincerity of the wily minister, that in a moment of overweening trust, he requested him to demand for him from the king the command of the naval forces. The cardinal assured him, that should he not obtain it, the fact would arise from no opposition on his part ; and after many cajoleries, all uttered with so perfect an appearance of sincerity and good faith, that the Grand Prior (aware, as he had every reason to be, of the hos- tility of the cardinal toward him and his) was unguarded enough to be deluded by the idea that the danger from which he had lately escaped, as if by the direct inter- position of Providence, had shown Richelieu the necessity of securing the friendship and support of those whom he had hitherto defied. This mental sophistry consequently seated him on velvet with the minister, who had little difficulty in persuading him that the only obstacle likely to arise on the subject of his present request, would exist in the fact, that his brother had given great umbrage to THE COURT OF FRANCE. 65 the king, by listening to the advice of persons inimical to his majesty, and that it was requisite he should first remove this impression, before he ventured to solicit any favor for himself. Believing that if this were the sole impediment to his success, it was one which might be easily overcome, his immediate reply was an inquiry, if the cardinal would advise him to induce his brother to appear at court, in order to justify himself from these suspicions ; to which Richelieu, seeing his earnest desire likely to be accom- plished by this measure, answered in the affirmative, as- serting that nothing could be more judicious than such a proceeding. Nevertheless, the Grand Prior, jealous lest the duke should incur any risk by leaving his gov- ernment, and placing himself within the grasp of his enemies, upon his own account, desired to know if his brother would be guarantied from all danger, should he accede to his desire ; to which inquiry the minister re- plied, once more, by remarking that every thing appeared propitious to his wishes ; for that as the king was about to pass some time at Blois, in relaxation and amusement, he had only to start at once to Brittany, and explain the state of affairs to the duke, who, by meeting the court at that place, would be spared half the fatigue of the journey from his government, while, as regarded the required guaranty, it was for the king to offer it, who, most as- suredly, would not refuse to do so. It was then arranged that the Grand Prior should await, at his own hotel, the permission of an audience, after which he should forthwith start for Brittany. Nothing could be more amicable than the parting between Riche- lieu and his visitor, who left him, delighted with the change which had taken place in his feelings and man- ner, and in the belief that he should, ere long, become High Admiral of France. Nor was he less gratified when he waited upon the 66 LOUIS XIV. AND king, who received him with a gayety and familiarity which he did not commonly exhibit, talked to him of the pleasure which he anticipated at Blois, and invited himself and his brother to the hunts at Chambord.* The Grand Prior ventured to remind his majesty, that as the duke was aware that the royal anger had been excited against him, he would probably have some hesitation in leaving his government. The reply of Louis XIII. was worthy of his wily nature : " Let him come," he said, " let him come in all security ; I give him my royal word that he shall not be worse used than yourself." The Grand Prior asked no more, and, having taken a * Chambord, a small town in the department of the Loir-et-Cher, is remarkable for a celebrated chateau, situated on the Cosson, at the distance of a league from the left bank of the Loire, and four leagues from the city of Blois. This chateau was built by the famous Prima- tice,* during the reign of Francis I., on the ruins of an ancient castle, which had belonged to the counts of Blois. Its architecture is in the 6tyle of the renaissance; the principal turret is of quadrangular form, and is flanked by four huge towers, and surrounded by a rectangular building, one of whose fronts is on a line with the turret, and of semi- gothic architecture. The chateau stands in the midst of a park of twelve thousand (French) acres, which is surrounded by a wall, and of great beauty. Francis I. made this his favorite residence. Louis XV. presented it to Marshal Saxe. Louis XVI. gave it, in 1777, to the Polignac family. In 1804, it was given as an endowment to the Legion of Honor; it was afterward constituted the principality of Wagram, in favor of Marshal Berthier, whose widow sold it, in 1820, in order that it might be offered to the Duke of Bourdeaux, who is still its owner. * Francis Primatice, a celebrated Italian painter, born at Bologna in 1490, of a noble family. He was the pupil of Innocenzia da Immola, and of either Bagna Ca- vallo or Ramenghi. The fine casts in stucco which he executed in the chateau of T at Mantua inspired a high idea of his genius. Francis I. invited him to France in 1540, gave him the abbey of Saint-Martin de Troyes, and intrusted him to complete, in Italy, one hundred and twenty-six busts or statues, and to have the molds of them made. These statues, cast in bronze, were placed at Fontainebleau, where the cha- teau was also enriched by his paintings. Appointed commissioner of the crown build- ings by Henry II., and commissary-general of works throughout the kingdom by Francis II., he died, covered with honors, in 1570. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 67 grateful leave of the monarch, he left Paris in all haste, to join his brother in Brittany. So far the scheme of Richelieu had worked admirably ; but he was by no means unconscious of the risk which he incurred by entering the lists against the three sons of Henry IV., and he therefore deemed it expedient, before he accompanied the king to Blois, to ascertain, without the possibility of error, the actual amount of power which he possessed over the mind of Louis. For this purpose he addressed a letter to the monarch, wherein he asserted, although in terms rather of condescension than of sub- mission, that in serving his majesty he had never had any other aim than his royal glory, and the benefit of the state ; that, nevertheless, he saw, with extreme grief, the court torn by faction, and France threatened with a civil war, upon his account ; that he held his life as nothing, could its sacrifice serve his majesty ; but that the continual danger in which he lived of being assassinated before the eyes of his sovereign, was a fate which a man of his char- acter should more carefully avoid than any other; while so many strangers had access to his presence, that it was easy for his enemies to suborn some among them to destroy him. That should the king still, nevertheless, desire his services, he was ready to obey his will, as he had no other interests than those of the state ; but that he merely begged him to consider one fact, which was, that his majesty would regret to see one of his faithful servants perish by such means, and with so little honor, while, at the same time, his own authority would appear to be treated with contempt. For this reason he very humbly requested the king to permit him to retire ; by which con- cession, the disaffected, disconcerted in their views, woidd henceforward have no pretext of broil. He also wrote in similar terms to the Queen-Mother, en- treating her to solicit his retirement of the king ;* but he * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. G8 LOUIS XIV. AND well knew that his arguments were too specious to lead to such a result. "With admirable diplomacy, he had started by threatening Louis with a civil war, the greatest and most deplorable evil which could happen either to himself or his kingdom ; and he was only too well aware that he had so long accustomed the monarch to rely upon extraneous sup- port, and had so unfitted him to act with energy and deci- sion in such an emergency, that he had few misgivings of the result of his proceeding. As he had anticipated, both Louis and Marie de Medicis were alarmed at his design ; and the king so far permitted his apprehension to overcome his dignity, as to pay a visit to the crafty minister at his residence at Limours, for the purpose of entreating him not to abandon his post at the very moment when his' services had become more than ever essential both to his sovereign and to the state. He promised him, moreover, if he would continue in office, the most stringent protection against, not merely his other enemies, but also against the Duke d'Anjou himself; promising to reveal to him, without any reserve, all complaints and accu- sations which might be made against him, without requiring any justification on his part ; and offering him a guard of forty horsemen. The cardinal was now at the climax of his ambition. He saw the king, weak and powerless, in his hands — almost, indeed, at his feet ; and had ascertained the means by which he could, in every contingency, secure the supremacy of his own power. Wherefore, after some coqueting, which added to the anxiety of Louis, and strengthened his own position, Richelieu suffered himself to be overcome by the entreaties of his sovereign ; and declining with affected humility the armed guard which had been proffered to him, for reasons which require no explanation, he ultimately consented still to incur the peril of the assassin's steel, and the enmity of the Duke d'An- jou. Delighted by his success, Louis did even more than he THE COURT OF FRANCE. 69 had promised; for a few days afterward Gaston himself waited upon the cardinal ; while even the Prince de Conde, whom he had on one occasion imprisoned in the Bastille, where he had remained for four years, sent to assure him of his entire devotion ; and the minister received all these demonstrations with the calm civility of an individual who had ceased to interest himself in worldly greatness, and who was prepared to find that the sacrifice of his life must follow that of his liberty of action. This comedy played out, the king started for Blois, hav- ing intrusted the government of Paris to the Count de Sois- sons.* At Amiens he was joined by the Queen-Mother and the Duke d'Anjou ; while the cardinal had already pre- ceded him, having, according to his usual practice, alledged his weak health as a reason for declining to remain at Blois with the court, and taking up his residence at Beauregard, a pretty villa within a league of the town. The next arri- vals were those of the Duke de Vendome and the Grand Prior, and nothing could be more encouraging or more ur- bane than their welcome by Louis, who proposed to them to accompany him on the morrow to a hunt. The brothers, however, excused themselves, alledging as an excuse the fatigue from which they suffered, having traveled post from Brittany. The reason was admitted ; and the king, having embraced them both, took leave of them for the night. At four o'clock in the morning they were on their way to the castle of Amboiset as prisoners, having, an hour previously, been arrested in their beds ; while the Duchess de Vendome received at the same time an order to retire to her residence * Louis de Bourbon, Count de Soissons, Grand Master of France, son of Charles, Count de Soissons, was bora at Paris in 1604. t This castle, which was very ancient, stands at the extremity of the town, and is built upon the summit of a rock. It is remarkable for two enormous towers, having each a spiral stair-case, so constructed in the interior, that a carriage can be driven to the top. It was built by In- geldez, the first lord of Amboise, in 882, but was finally completed only toward 1450. 70 LOUIS XIV. AND at Anet. The king had not broken his word : the two brothers shared the same fate. The bad faith of the cardinal was made so evident by this double arrest, that Chalais, who had been, since the scene in the cabinet, in constant communication with the minister, and had informed him of all the movements of Gaston, im- mediately hastened to remind him of his promise ; when the only satisfaction which he could obtain, was an assurance that the princes had not been imprisoned for their partici- pation in the plot of Fleury, but for their opposition to the marriage of Monsieur with Mademoiselle de Bourbon. Chalais, who was aware that the Duke d'Anjou had no con- spiracy in view save the very harmless one of securing a retreat from the hatred of the cardinal, who had not now to learn his repugnance to an alliance from which it did not require the dissuasions of the two princes to decide him, and whom Richelieu had affected, during their conferences, rather to pity than to blame, received this answer with a just appreciation of its truth; and, indignant at the dissim- ulation of which he had been made the dupe, and his asso- ciates the victims, he wrote to the cardinal after this inter- view, to inform him that he withdrew forever from his service ; and as a proof of his sincerity he again attached himself to the party of Gaston, and renewed his intimacy with Madame de Chevreuse, who had returned to France. Nor was Gaston less indignant at the arrest of his two broth- ers ; and, beginning to have apprehensions for his own safety, he forthwith commenced a serious search for some refuge, whence he might dictate his own conditions, as other princes had already done, who had been menaced with the power of the cardinal-duke. Anxious to compensate for the past, Chalais offered himself as a negotiator either be- tween Monsieur and the malcontents among the nobility, or with any foreign princes likely to lend themselves to his views ; and in furtherance of this project he accordingly wrote to the Marquis de la Valette who held Metz, to the THE COURT OF FRANCE. 71 Count de Soissons who held Paris, and to the Marquis de Laisques, the favorite of the archduke, at Brussels. La Valette refused, because Mademoiselle de Bourbon was his near relative ; and that he had no inclination to pre- vent her marriage with a prince of the blood royal. The Count de Soissons sent a messenger to the Duke d'Anjou, to offer him five hundred thousand crowns, eight thousand infantry, and five hundred cavalry, if he would immediately join him in Paris.* The result of the appeal to Laisques will presently appear. While this negotiation was pending, Louvigny, a cadet of the house of Grammont, requested Chalais to become his second in a duel with the Count de Candale,t with whom he had a quarrel on the subject of the Countess de Rohan, to whom they both paid their court. He had, however, acquired a bad reputation from the fact that he had by un- fair means killed his antagonist, Marshal Hocquincourt, in a former duel ; and Chalais, who dreaded the repetition of such an adventure, refused in consequence ; which so piqued Louvigny that he instantly hurried to the cardinal and told him, not only all he knew, but much that he did not know.| The extent of his actual information amounted to no more than that Chalais had written to the persons already named ; and that which he asserted without authority was that Cha- lais had pledged himself to take the king's life, and that the Duke d'Anjou and his friends were to guard the door of the apartments during the perpetration of the crime, in or- der to assist him should he require their help. All these particulars the cardinal immediately committed to paper, and compelled Louvigny to sign. Richelieu now had the game in his own hands. He cared not to implicate either the Count de Soissons or the Mar- quis de la Valette, because their disgrace could produce no latent advantage ; but, with able management, much, he at * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Eldest son of the Duke d'Epenion. t Bassompierre. 72 LOlIo XIV. AND once felt, might be made of the accusation, against the Mar- quis de Laisques, in whose conspiration with the archduke the King of Spain might be involved ; and the King of Spain, let it not be forgotten, was the brother of Anne of Austria. The plot was no longer against the cardinal only, it now included the king also ; and the sword of Damocles hung above both their heads, poised by the same hair. Richelieu, in his secret soul, required no prompting fully to comprehend that the danger which now threatened Louis arose principally from the hatred that existed against him- self; but it was not so much this consciousness which obliged him to exert his best energies to avert it, as the no less for- cible conviction that the death of Louis XIII. would inevi- tably involve his own ; and thus he lost no time in adopting measures to counteract this new conspiracy. He at once dispatched Rochefort, his confidential agent, to Brussels, in the garb of a monk, giving him strict orders to watch every movement of the Marquis de Laisques ; and his myrmidon had little difficulty in executing his commis- sion ; for, having affected a hatred of the cardinal in the presence of that nobleman, who resided in the monastery where he had taken up his temporary abode, every one about him was deceived ; and the marquis among the rest, so thoroughly, that he requested him to return to France in charge of some letters which he was anxious to send by a safe hand, as they contained matters of importance. Roche- fort affected great fear of the commission, which only ren- dered Laisques more urgent. Then he represented that he could not quit the convent without permission from the superior ; but this objection was at once overruled bv the marquis, who forthwith procured the indulgence for the supposed monk on the plea of his weak health, and he was authorized to proceed to Forges for the benefit of the wa- ters. He then took possession of the letters ; and had no sooner arrived at Artois than he wrote to the cardinal to inform him of the whole transaction. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 73 Richelieu instantly dispatched a messenger, to whom Rochefort delivered the papers ; and they were no sooner in the hands of the minister than he broke the seals, took copies of all their contents, and returned them to his agent, who immediately wrote from Forges to desire the person to whom they were addressed to come and receive them. This was an advocate named Pierre, who, on receipt of the summons, never doubting that he had fallen under the sur- veillance of the cardinal's police, started at once for Forges, and, without halting upon the road, arrived at his desti- nation, received the packet from Rochefort, and returned with the same haste to Paris, where he alighted at the hotel Chalais. Upon these papers Richelieu founded his accusation ; for, according to his showing, they contained the double project of the king's death, and the marriage of Anne of Austria with the Duke d'Anjou ; a plot which fully explained the repugnance of the prince to an alliance with Mademoiselle de Bourbon.* Chalais was accordingly accused of conniving with the wife and brother of the king to effect his assassination ; and Louis, when the plot was imparted to him by the cardinal, wished instantly to arrest the prince, and to put the queen and the Duke d'Anjou upon their trial ; but from this de- sign he was dissuaded by his minister, who entreated him to suffer the conspiracy to ripen. Alarmed, nevertheless, lest Chalais should escape out of his hands, the king re- solved upon a journey into Brittany, accompanied by the court ; and the intended victim, without one suspicion of the fate that awaited him, followed with his fellow- courtiers. Chalais had also written a letter to the King of Spain, in which he entreated him to conclude a treaty with the disaf- fected nobles of France ; and the reply to this request fol- lowed him to Nantes, although it is probable that it had pre- * Louis XIV et son Siecle. VOL. I. — D 74 LOUIS XIV. AND viously passed through the hands of the minister. The day after its arrival he was arrested. It is certain that the queen, as well as the Duke d'Anjou and Madame de Chevreuse, were aware of the nature of the letter received by Chalais ; and although perfectly inno- cent of all designs against the life of the king — for they nev- er dreamed that the accusation of the cardinal could extend so far — they were nevertheless conscious that they must be seriously compromised if the letter had been intercepted, as it was decidedly a conspiracy against the state when they invited the Spaniards to enter France. The trial proceeded in vigorous silence ; and the pleas- ures which the court had anticipated at Nantes gave place to gloom and apprehension. The queen supported her ter- ror in silence, and made no effort to save herself from what she considered irremediable ruin ; but Gaston was less self- possessed, and gave way to fits of passion and useless blas- phemy ; while Madame de Chevreuse, less timid than either, preserved both her activity and her courage, and endeavor- ed on every side to create friends for the prisoner. No one, however, saw fit to incur the vengeance of Richelieu, by undertaking his cause; the arrest of the Vendome princes had rendered them cautious. Confronted with the fatal letters, Chalais at once admit- ted the validity of that of the Spanish king, but asserted that his own had been garbled. He declared that his dispatches to the Marquis de Laisques had made no allusion to the as- sassination of the king, nor to the marriage of his brother with Anne of Austria ; and boldly added, that it was easy for a man, so clever as the cardinal, and so well supplied with secretaries, to render the most innocent writing a mat- ter of life and death. This fearless derogation embarrassed Richelieu ; it was not enough for him to feel that the tribunal which he had himself formed would assuredly condemn Chalais. It was evident that the king's faith was shaken as to the extent of THE COURT OF FRANCE. 75 his guilt ; and if the cardinal did not succeed in proving the whole accusation against him, both the queen and the Duke d'Anjou must necessarily escape ; and credulous as Louis continually proved himself, it was nevertheless essential to convince his judgment upon so important a question as this, which involved the safety of those nearest to his person. Moreover, three individuals still opposed the marriage be- tween the Duke d'Anjou and Mademoiselle de Bourbon; and these were the Count de Barradas, who had succeed- ed Chalais himself in the favor of Louis ; Tronson, his pri- vate secretary ; and Sauveterre, his first valet-de-chambre ; and these represented to his majesty the danger which ex- isted in allying his brother with the Guises, who had long coveted the French throne ; and suffering him, by the ac- quisition of such immense wealth, to rival himself in re- sources, when, in times of such discontent and ambition as the present, money made power. Between the arguments of the cardinal, and those of his three favorites, Louis remained moody and irresolute, and Richelieu soon perceived that a great blow must be struck, or his vengeance would escape him. The same night he assumed the dress of a layman, and visited the dungeon of Chalais. He remained with the prisoner half-an-hour, at the expiration of which time he left the prison ; and, late as it was, proceeded at once to the apartment of the king, whom he approached in silence, as he tendered to him a folded paper. This paper contained the confession of Chalais, and the accusation of the Duke d'Anjou and Anne of Austria of the crime laid to their charge. Louis was overpowered by its perusal, and besought his minister to pardon the doubts by which he had been beset ; while the cardinal, satisfied with the success of his double denuncia- tion, only replied by requesting his majesty's silence on the subject of the document which he had laid before him ; and forthwith retired from the presence. Gaston, more and more alarmed by the aspect of affairs, 76 LOUIS XIV. AND again resolved to secure las safety by flight ; but he knew not which way to turn. M. de la Valette had refused to receive him into Metz ; he was suspicious of the Count de Soissons ; and he had nothing left but La Rochelle. He accordingly attended the lever of the king, and requested permission to visit the sea-side. Louis replied, affection- ately, that he had better apply to the cardinal upon the subject, but that, for his own part, he saw no objection to this little journey ; and reassured very considerably by the manner of his brother, Gaston set out without delay to Beauregard, to secure the consent of the minister. Richelieu received him with scrupulous respect ; but, upon his stating the reason of his visit, he advised him to postpone his journey until after his marriage. Gaston plead- ed the state of his health, and declared that sea air w r as essential to his recovery; upon which the cardinal, holding before his eyes the confession of Chalais, assured his royal highness that he would there find a prescription more effi- cacious than any change of climate. The duke turned pale as he recognized the writing ; and he had no sooner hastily perused the whole, than he declared himself ready to obey the will of the cardinal in all things. Upon finding that the united income of Mademoiselle de Bourbon and himself would amount to nearly 1,500,000 livres, he became more animated in the discussion, and finally stipulated that his consent should be consequent on the liberation of Chalais ; but to this condition Richelieu would not consent, alledging that it was not his province, but that of the king, to pardon great criminals ; and that there was no doubt his majesty would remit the execution of a gentleman for whom he had once felt so much affection. Moreover, to the continued entreaties of the duke, he re- plied that he should himself regret the death of a person who had rendered him essential services; and that his royal hio-h- ness might consequently rely upon his best energies in behalf of the prisoner, and dismiss all uneasiness on his account. THE C O U R T OF F It A N C E. 77 On the evening of the same day the duke was summon- ed to the presence of the king, where he found the Queen- Mother, the cardinal, and the keeper of the seals ; and was apprehensive of arrest, but he was merely required to sign a paper. It was, however, of a very serious nature, for it set forth that he had received offers from the Count de Soissons ; that the queen, his sister-in-law, had written him several letters to dissuade him from marrying Mademoiselle de Bourbon ; and that the Abbe Scaglia, ambassador in Savoy, had also meddled in this intrigue. The name of Chalais was not mentioned. The timid prince obeyed, and renewed his promise to marry Mademoiselle de Bourbon, on condition that he should be allowed to go to Nantes. This was conceded ; but a few days subsequently he was recalled in order that the marriage might be celebrated. Mademoiselle de Bourbon had already arrived, accompa- nied by her mother, the Duchess de Guise ; who, although immensely rich, having been the heiress of the house of Joyeuse, gave her daughter only a single diamond as her dowry — but that diamond was valued at eighty thousand crowns ! The marriage was a melancholy one ; and on the mor- row, the prince departed for Chateaubiiand, in order to escape from a town in which the trial of his confidant was about to be resumed. Meanwhile the mother of Chalais had arrived, and made several efforts to obtain an audience of the monarch, who resolutely refused to see her ; and on the condemnation of her son — which shortly supervened, and by which he was condemned to lose his head, to be quartered, and his property confiscated to the king — she made a last effort, by writing to Louis one of the most affecting letters ever penned; but which produced for all result merely the commutation of that portion of the sentence that ordained the quartering of his body. In the depth of her despair she thought for a moment of throwing * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 78 LOUIS XIV. AND herself upon the mercy of the cardinal ; but she soon felt that in him there was no hope ; and as a last resource she humbled herself to solicit the compassion of the execu- tioners, of whom there were at that moment two in the city : the executioner of the king, and the functionary of Nantes. She sacrificed her gold and her jewels, as well as her pride, in this final effort of a mother's love ; and the con- sequence of her success was fatal ; for on the day of exe- cution — after Chalais had recanted all the assertions which had been dictated by the cardinal himself, who had wrung them from him by a promise that his life should be spared ; and had demanded to be confronted with Louvigny, who was his sole accuser, and whom he compelled to deny the truth of the accusations which he had advanced — his hour of suffering was delayed by the fact that both the execu- tioners had disappeared. It was a short respite, however, for a rumor soon spread that a new headsman had been secured ; and such was unhappily the case, for a soldier condemned to the gibbet had been prevailed upon, by the promise of free pardon, to do the work of death. Even to the last moment Madame de Chalais would not forsake her son, but walked with him to the very foot of the block : nor dare we further portray the tragedy of which she re- mained a spectator, than by stating that the unhappy wretch who had consented to pay such a price for the pro- longation of his existence, overcome with honor at his un- wonted task, only destroyed his victim at the twentieth stroke ! When all was over, the supernatural strength of the bereaved mother still sufficiently supported her to en- able her to exclaim as she rose from her knees : — " My God, I thank thee ! I thought myself only the parent of a crim- inal, and I am the mother of a martyr !" Individual history contains no bloodier page then that which records the execution of Chalais. When the queen was summoned to the council to an- swer to the charges made against her, a simple stool only THE COURT OF FRANCE. 79 was provided for her accommodation. Throughout the reading of the deposition of Louvigny, and the confession of Chalais, she preserved a resolute silence ; but when she was reproached with having authorized the assassination of the king, in order that she might become the wife of the Duke d'Anjou, she raised her head, and answered with quiet scorn : " I should not have gained sufficient by the exchange." A reply which so wounded the spirit of the king, that to the latest hour of his existence he believed her guilty. CHAPTER IV. The Cardinal's Enemies — Projects of Buckingham — Death of the Duch- ess d'Orleans — The Count de Bouteville ; his Duels — The Challenge — New Executions — The King before La Rochelle — Court Treachery — Arrest of Lord Montagu — Famine in La Rochelle — Tragical Death of Buckingham — Laporte in the Bastille — Renewed Banishment of Marie de Medicis — Self-Expatriation of the Duke d'Orleans — Destitu- tion of the Duke d'Epernon and the Marquis de Vieuville — Execution of the Duke de Montmorency — Mazarin in France — The Siege of Landrecy — Bh-th of the Count de Guiche — The Duke de Grammont ; his Father — The Triple Alliance — Private Marriage of Gaston d'Or- leans with Marguerite of Lorraine — Estrangement of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria — Mademoiselle de la Fayette — Father Joseph — The 5th of December, 1637 — Morality of Louis XIII. — Visit to the Lou- vre — Pregnancy of Anne of Austria — The Count de Chavigny — Gen- eral Rejoicing — Indisposition of the Cardinal — The royal Hunts — Declining Health of Louis XIII. — The Cardinal and the Astrologer — Birth of Louis XIV. — The Swaddling-clothes — Poverty of Louis XIII. — Social Position of the Kingdom — Partial Reconciliation of the King and Queen — M. de Cinq-Mars — Birth of the Duke d'Anjou — Execution of Cinq-Mars and De Thou — Death of Marie de Medicis at Cologne — Fatal Indisposition of Richelieu ; his Quarrel with Louis XIII.— The State Prisoners. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 81 From this period Richelieu became the sovereign master of the kingdom. Little remained to embarrass his meas- ures save the city of La Rochelle, which had been ceded to the Huguenots by Henry IV., at the time of the publi cation of the edict of Nantes. He was aware that it was there Gaston had latterly intended to take refuge ; and he could not brook that any portion of the empire should be beyond the grasp of his authority. This city was, conse- quently, a perpetual subject of annoyance to the cardinal, who saw in it a hotbed of heresy, rebellion, and discord. The Duke de Soubise,* and his brother,! the Duke de * Benjamin de Rohan, Seigneur de Soubise, was born about the year 1549. He first served in Holland, under Maurice de Nassau, and in 1621 he was appointed, by the Protestant Assembly held at La Ro- chelle, GeneralrCommandant of the Provinces of Anjou, Brittany, and Poitou. Compelled to deliver up the town of Saint-John d'Angely, which he defended, he was soon set at liberty, and distinguished him- self by many acts of braveiy. He retired to England in 1629, where he died in 1641. t Henry, Duke de Rohan, Prince de Leon, was the head of the Prot- estant party under Louis XIII., and was the eldest son of Rene, the second Vicomte de Rohan. Born at Blein, in Brittany, in 1579, he commenced his military career under Henry IV., who had adopted him, and would have been his successor on the throne of France, but for the birth of Louis XIII. Henry IV. created him a duke and peer in 1603, Colonel-General of the Swiss forces in 1605, and the same year married him to Marguerite de Bethune, the daughter of Sully. After the death of that monarch, he entered into a struggle with the court, and sustained three wars against Louis XIII. The first terminated in 1622, by a treaty of -peace which confirmed the edict of Nantes, but which was soon violated. The second terminated in 1626, by a new peace. Hostilities then recommenced a third time; but Rohan com- pelled the court to sign (in 1629) the reestablishmeut of the same edict. He then entered into negotiation with the Porte for the pur- chase of the island of Cyprus ; became Generalissimo of the Venetians against the Imperialists ; then General of the Grisons ; and ultimately, dissatisfied with the French court, he attached himself to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, in whose service he was killed in 1638. He left only one daughter, Marguerite, who married Henry de Chabot, whose de- scendants took the name of Rohan-Chabot. 82 LOUIS XIV. AND Rohan, were in London, and the minister had ascertained that the purpose of their voyage was to importune Charles I. to undertake the cause of the persecuted Protestants, in which appeal they were supported by all the zeal and im- portunity of Buckingham. At home he had removed all immediate cause of uneasi- ness. Henry de Conde,* notwithstanding his royal blood, had passed three years in the Bastille,t and had never re- covered the blow. The Grand Prior and the Duke de Vendome were still prisoners ; and for a time the cardinal had hesitated whether he should not put them upon their trial, and make them share the fate of Chalais ; but one had pleaded his rights as a peer of France, and the other his knighthood of Malta, as exemptions, both of which were admitted, and the minister was compelled to satisfy him- self with their transfer from the castle of Amboise to that of Vincennes. The Duke d'Anjou (who had, on his mar- riage, become Duke d'Orleans), immensely rich, and over- whelmed with minor titles, had, nevertheless, sunk into utter insignificance. Never before had he fallen so low. Detested by the king, despised by the nobility, and sur- rounded by spies, he scarcely deserved the name of an en- emy. Not only his person, but even his conscience had been bought at a price; and the steps of his marriage-altar had been sprinkled with the blood of Chalais. The car- dinal could, for once, afford to pity the work of his own hands. The Count de Soissons had preferred to owe his * Henry II. de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, was born in 1588. He married, in 1609, Charlotte de Montmorency, to whom Henry IV. be- came tenderly attached. In consequence of this circumstance, he quar- reled with the king, and left France, where he only returned after that monarch's death. t It was during this period of imprisonment, which his wife, from whom he had been long estranged, insisted upon sharing with him. that she gave birth to Anne-Genevieve de Bourbon, afterward Duchess de Longueville, and Louis II. de Conde, who became, subsequently, the Great Conde. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 83 safety to his personal discretion ; and, satisfied that he was compromised, by his proposals to Gaston, beyond all hope of pardon, he had quitted Paris on the pretext of indisposi- tion, and had crossed the Alps to Turin; and thus La Ro- chelle alone remained, as we have before remarked, to thwart the power of Richelieu. Meanwhile, the king, who had been jealous of Anne of Austria with his brother, became more cold to her after her adventure with Buckingham ; and from the period of the trial of Chalais exhibited toward her not merely suspicion, but even hate. Her only consolation was in a correspond- ence which she continued to maintain with the English duke, sometimes through the medium of Laporte,* but more frequently through that of Madame de Chevreuse, whom Richelieu had exiled from the court, and who had retired to her husband's principality of Lorraine. It was at this period that the queen received intelligence of the speedy reappearance of Buckingham in Paris, whither he declared himself to be on the point of returning on a new embassy ; but this measure by no means entered into the views of the cardinal, who, on the first hint of such a project, sent a formal message from Louis to forbid the advent of the duke at the French court : which, says Ry- der, so exasperated Buckingham, that " he swore he would see the queen in spite of the whole power of France ;"t and forthwith he decided upon exciting a war between the two countries. We do not purpose entering upon the details of the short struggle which ensued ; suffice it that Buckingham, anxious to revenge himself upon both the king and the cardinal, commenced his operations by causing a misunderstanding * After the affair of Amiens, Laporte had, as we have stated, fallen into disgrace with the monarch, and been dismissed from the service of the queen, who obtained for him an ensigncy in the gendarmes of her guard. t Ryder's England. 84 LOUIS XIV. AND between Charles I. and his queen, which terminated in the dismissal of all the French portion of her household. Much, however, as both Louis and his minister felt this evidently premeditated insult, Richelieu resolved that it should not involve him in a premature war. Disappointed in his first attempt, Buckingham next permitted, and even encour- aged, the English ships-of-war and privateers to intercept vessels belonging to the French merchants, which he im- mediately condemned as lawful prizes* Serious as these aggressions certainly were, the cardinal was not yet satisfied ; and he accordingly substituted re- monstrances for reprisals, until a public declaration on the part of England in favor of the Huguenots, should afford him the means of becoming master of La Rochelle. The result of this diplomacy is matter of European history, and we therefore hasten to regain the current of our less general narrative. The royal troops had scarcely marched upon La Ro- chelle, when the young and beautiful Duchess of Orleans gave birth to a daughter!" at the price of her own existence ; and thus the fairest, and apparently the firmest, hope of the French nation was suddenly blighted ; and this misfor- tune was still new and unfamiliar to the public mind, when it was once more disturbed by the execution of the Count * Ryder. t Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orleans, known as Mademoiselle, and La Grande Mademoiselle. Capricious, intriguing, and impetuous, but nevertheless full of a truly royal courage, she attached herself to the party of the princes during the wars of the Fronde, and took possession of the city of Orleans, in the year 1652, accompanied only by two of her ladies. Oil the 2d of July, when the Frondeurs were in possession of Paris, she turned the cannon of the Bastille against the troops of Louis XIV. ; an act for which he never forgave her. Retired to her estate of Saint-Fargeau, she wrote the Memoirs of her life. She obtained, in 1669, the royal permission to marry the Count de Lauzun; but this was afterward withdrawn, and she consoled herself by a private mar- riage. She died in 1693. THE COURT OR FRANCE. 85 de Bouteville.* This nobleman, who had taken refuge in the Low Countries, from the consequences of two-and- twenty duels in which he had been engaged, and was bold enough to return to Paris, and to challenge the Marquis de Beuvron in the middle of the Place Royale, notwith- standing the severe ordinances of the king against this vice, which he was anxious to suppress. There can be no doubt but De Bouteville believed that his birth would protect him against any extreme measure ; he had, however, miscalcu- lated the risk which he thus voluntarily incurred, for he was arrested at Vitry, and imprisoned in the Bastille, as well as his second, the Count des Chapelles, who had pre- viously killed his adversary, the brave Bussy d'Amboise, in the same manner ; and finally, both the criminals were ex- ecuted at Greve, despite all the efforts made by the first and noblest houses in France to obtain a remission of their sentence ; while it is one of the most extraordinary features of the rule of Richelieu, that all this proud and turbulent nobility, who drew their swords upon the slightest pretext, not only permitted the execution, but witnessed it without one effort to revenge their order. The panic was univer- sal. Some solution of this mystery is, nevertheless, afford- ed by the fact, that at the particular moment of its occur- rence Louis was rallying around him all the nobles of his kingdom, whom he had declared his intention of leading in person against La Rochelle. We shall not, however, follow the king to the siege, but confine ourselves to circumstances more intimately con- nected with the court. Buckingham, who had sown dis- sension between two great nations, had done so only in furtherance. of his romantic passion for Anne of Austria; but the effects of his rashness were nevertheless calculated * Francis de Montmorency, Count de Bouteville, was governor of Senlis, and acquired great renown by his skill and intrepidity as a duelist. He was the son of Louis de Montmorency, and the father of the celebrated Marshal Luxembourg. 86 LOUIS XIV. AND to be extensive and important. He had first sought to embroil France with England, which point he had already- accomplished ; while, by another ramification, he sought to produce an alliance between Charles I. and the Dukes of Lorraine, Savoy, and Bavaria, as well as the Archduchess who governed Flanders in the name of Spain; and this intrigue, which had been prepared by Madame de Chev- reuse in her exile, Buckingham had intrusted to his most clever confidant and most trustworthy agent, the Lord Montagu. The cardinal was not idle, however ; and he possessed agents as sure, and confidants as secret, as those of his ad- versary ; and thus Buckingham had no sooner completed his scheme than it was in the hands of Richelieu, who forth- with submitted it to the king ; being at the same time careful to impress upon his mind, that all these present and pending troubles were alike attributable to the mutual pas- sion of Anne of Austria and the English duke ; an assur- ance which by no means rendered the announcement of this new difficulty more palatable to Louis, whose aversion to the queen grew daily more decided. The consequences of the cardinal's ill offices were soon painfully apparent to the queen ; for, on her hastening from Paris to Villeroi, in order to attend the sick-bed of the monarch, who had been arrested on his way to La Rochelle by severe indisposition, she was informed by M. d'Hu- mieres, his first groom of the chamber, that His Majesty had strictly forbidden all entrance to his apartment ; but that, as it was impossible the king could have included Her Majesty in the prohibition, being even unaware of her arrival, he should venture to infringe upon his orders. He did so accordingly ; and ten minutes after- ward Anne of Austria left the sick-room drowned in tears, and M. d'Humieres received an order immediately to leave the court. The queen only returned to Paris to learn the arrest of THE COURT OF FRANCE. 87 Lord Montagu, whom the agents of Richelieu had tracked from the frontier, and among whose effects they had dis- covered the secret dispatches of Buckingham ; and her terror was extreme, lest he should moreover have been the bearer of a letter to herself, which had also passed into the possession of the cardinal. In this extremity she remem- bered Laporte, and succeeded, through his medium, in ascertaining that her name had not been mentioned in the dispatches, nor had any letter been forwarded to herself. From the fortress of Coiffy, where he had first been lodged, Lord Montagu was subsequently removed to the Bastille ; but he made the journey well mounted, and with every appearance of liberty, save that he was well guarded, and deprived of both sword and spurs. Meanwhile, the garrison of La Rochelle were reduced to a state of fearful famine, and the Duchess de Rohan and her daughter had set a noble example, by confining themselves to a portion of horse-flesh and five ounces of bread daily between both ; but even this miserable diet, meager and re- pugnant as it was, could not be attained by the mass of wretched beings who had sought refuge in the city ; and at length, between two and three hundred men, and as many women, unable longer to contend against their suffer- ings, and driven to desperation, resolved to venture forth, and to throw themselves upon the mercy of the king. They did not, however, understand the vindictive nature of Louis ; who, exasperated by the refusal of the city to surrender, immediately issued an order that the men should be stop- ped naked, and the women denuded to their under gar- ment, and afterward flogged back to the walls from whence they had just emerged ; a command which was so effect- ually obeyed, that the unfortunates found themselves once more at the gate of the besieged city, sinking from famine, perishing with cold, and wounded and bleeding from the blows they had received, only to be refused readmission to the wretched haven thev had abandoned. In this condition 88 LOUIS XIV. AND they remained during three days and nights ; but, event- ually, the gate was flung open, and they were permitted again to share the misery of their fellow-sufferers. After this occurrence, the besieged felt that there was no clemency to be anticipated from the king, and they con- tinued to hold the city with all the tenacity of despair, still trusting to the arrival of the fleet announced to them from England, when the news of Buckingham's assassination crushed their last glimmer of hope ; and, accordingly, the city capitulated on the 23th of October, 1628, after sustain- ing a siege of eleven months ; during which time, the num- ber of persons who had been shut up in the town had di- minished, through famine and hardship, from fifteen thou- sand to four thousand.* On his return to Paris, Louis hastened to the queen, and, unaware that the news had already reached her, proceeded to inform her of the death of Buckingham, which he did in terms of self-gratulation, well calculated to imbitter her feelings toward himself. She, therefore, outraged by this premeditated insult, disdained all dissimulation, and, shut- ting herself up with those of her immediate circle, made no effort to conceal her grief. A rupture between the royal pair was the inevitable consequence of this mutual spirit of defiance, which endured throughout the ten following years ; envenomed, moreover, by the death of M. de Montmorency, the war with Spain, in 1635, and the secret intelligence be- tween Anne of Austria and ML de Mirabel, the Spanish ambassador. The faithful Laporte was the victim of this intelligence, and was consigned to the Bastille for his par- ticipation in the correspondence. About two years after the capture of La Rochelle, Marie de Medicis once more fell into disgrace, and was banished from France. This exile of the widow of Henry IV. caused great dissension at court, and at the head of the malcontents was the Duke of Orleans, who had violent words with the * Rvder. THE COUUTOF FRANCE. 89 king upon the subject ; and not being able to prevail against the influence of Richelieu, subsequently left the country, and joined the army in Flanders. Shortly afterward a Chapter of the Order was held at Fontainebleau, where the Duke d'Epernon and the Marquis de Vieuville were stripped of its insignia, and had their banners torn down and broken, in consequence of their having followed his fortunes. The Duke de Montmorency* fared still worse ; for, after having assisted Gaston to raise Lower Languedoc, he was beaten at Castelnaudry by Schomberg, received two pistol-wounds, and was taken prisoner (1632), conveyed to Toulouse, where he was tried, and finally executed on the 30th of Oc- tober. The reconciliation of the king with his brother was delayed by the ambition of the cardinal, who insisted that, as a condition of his pardon, he should be required to break off his projected marriage with Marguerite of Lorraine, and marry his niece (afterward Madame d'Aiguillon) ; but this concession was not made.t * Henry, the second duke, born at Chantilly, in 1595. He had for his sponsor Henry IV. ; was appointed admiral in 1612, and knight of the Holy Ghost in 1619. He succeeded his father in the government of Languedoc ; and in 1629 in Piedmont, where, serving as a lieutenant- general, he gained the battle of Veillane, carried the siege of Casal, and received the baton of a marshal. He was the last scion of the elder branch of the Montmorencys. t Madame d'Aiguillon was the niece of the cardinal, and was sus- pected of also being his mistress. In 1620, she had married Anthony Dubourg de Combalet, toward whom her aversion was extreme ; and when he was killed in the war against the Huguenots, she consequent- ly made a vow never to take a second husband, and to wear thence- forward the habit of a Carmelite. Although she had barely attained her twenty-sixth year, she dressed like a woman of fifty, wore a robe of serge, and never raised her eyes. She was dresser to the Queen- Mother, about whose person she performed her duties in this extraor- dinary costume ; but the cardinal her uncle becoming more and more powerful, she began to allow a few curls to be seen, wore ribbons on her dress, and finally substituted silk for serge. Richelieu having been appointed prime minister, many suitors offered themselves to the fair widow ; but all were rejected, although their number comprised M. de 90 LOUI9 XIV. AND In 1631-2, the name of Mazarin first made itself con- spicuous in France. At twenty years of age he had entered the service of the Cardinal Bentivoglio, who was so power- fully impressed by his extraordinary talents that he presented him to Cardinal Barberino ; and the introduction is worthy of remark, from a coincidence which was probably not alto- gether accidental. " Monseigneur," said his patron, as he led forward the young Jesuit, " I am under heavy obliga- tions to your illustrious family ; but I consider that I cancel them all by giving you this young man." It was in similar words that Mazarin himself afterward presented his suc- cessor, Colbert, to Louis XIV. From this period the young Italian rose rapidly. Sup- ported by so powerful a recommendation, he was intrusted with several minor negotiations, which he conducted with so much talent as to insure him more important employment ; and finally, when, in 1629, Louis XIII. compelled the sep- aration of the Duke of Savoy from the Spaniards, by forcing the pass of Suza, Cardinal Sachette, who was the Pope's representative at Turin, returned to Rome, leaving Maza rin with the title of Internuncio, and full powers to con- clude the peace. His new duties compelled the young diplomatist to un- dertake several journeys, one of which founded his fortune. He went to Lyons in 1630, was presented to Louis XIII., who was then in that city, and subsequently had an inter- view of two hours with Richelieu ; who was so delighted with a conversation in which the clever Italian had display- Breze, M. de Bethune, and the Count de Sault, afterward the Duke de Lesdiguieres. It is, however, asserted, that the cardinal, through jeal- ousy, prevented her second marriage. She was, nevertheless, near forming an alliance with the Count de Soissons ; and the match failed only on account of the low rank of her first husband. Reports were prevalent that she had, notwithstanding, become the mother of four children, whose paternity was ascribed to Richelieu. In 1638, the car- dinal purchased for her the Duchy of Aiguillon, of which she assumed the name. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 91 ed all the resources of his mind, that he immediately re- solved to attach him to his own interests ; and the result of this determination restored Mazarin to Italy, entirely de- voted to the French cause. In 1634 Richelieu caused him to be made vice-legate of Avignon. In 1639 he was sent to Savoy as ambassador-extraordinary ; on the 16th of De- cember, 1641, he was created a cardinal; and on the 25th of the following February he received the hat from Louis's own hands* In 1637, while the French forces under the command of the Cardinal de la Valette and the Duke de Veymar were about to besiege Landrecy, the Duke de Grammont,t who was serving as a lieutenant-general under those distinguish- ed leaders, was, on one occasion, when leaving the council- tent, greeted with the intelligence that he was the father of a son, upon which he immediately obtained permission to absent himself for a few days from his post, in order to assist at the baptism of the Count de Guiche, his heir. The sponsors of the infant were the Cardinal de Richelieu and the Duchess d'Aiguillon ; and the ceremony was no sooner terminated, than the duke at once returned to the camp. Both gallantry and ambition would have urged De Grammont to a career of military glory, even had he not recognized any still stronger impetus ; but such was far from being the case. Reared, as he had been, under the immediate eye of Louis XIII., and feeling toward him, as he did, almost the affection of a son, he never forgot that he was, in all probability, indebted to the monarch for his life, the king having withdrawn both himself and his brother, the * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Anthony, Duke de Grammont, was the descendant of an ancient family, and distinguished himself under both Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. The latter monarch appointed him Marshal of France. He died in 1678, at the age of seventy-four years. The Duke de Grammont was as witty as he was brave ; and left behind him his personal mem- oirs, containing his negotiations in Spain and Germany. 92 LOUIS XIV. AND Chevalier de Grammont,* from the authority and guardian- ship of their father (Anthony, the second of the name) ; who, having become satisfied of the infidelity of his wife (the daughter of the Duke de Roquelaure), exerted the light of High and Low Justicet attached to his principality of Bidache, and having tried and condemned her, at once struck off her head, before the messengers of the monarch had time to arrive and solicit her pardon. This adventure, which threatened to introduce a renewal of the barbarous customs of the middle ages, caused Louis to apprehend that the ferocious husband might become one day an equally savage father, and revenge upon his children the crime for which he had murdered their mother ; and therefore, acceding to the prayers of the Dukes of Roquelaure, he ordered the self-constituted widower to send his sons to court, in order that they might be brought up and educated under his special care. The devoted attachment of De Grammont for the king was well known to Richelieu, who considered all indi- viduals capable of such sentiments merely as noble dupes, who might be rendered extremely valuable to those pos- sessed of their regard and confidence ; and thus he did not fail to -pay his court to Louis, by attaching himself to his * Philibert, the Chevalier de Grammont, of whom Anthony Hamilton wrote the celebrated Memoirs. He also acquired considerable celeb- rity in arms ; and was, between his frequent periods of exile from the court, very welcome to Louis XIV., from the attractions of his ready wit and fertile imagination. He died in 1707. t There existed formerly in France, as a seigneurial privilege, the right of exercising what was called respectively the right of High, Central, and Low Justice. High Justice was the possession of power to condemn to death, save in cases where the criminal was of the blood royal, which at once removed him from such jurisdiction. Cen- tral Justice was that of deciding actions between guardian and ward, and awarding damages not exceeding sixty sous. Low Justice recog- nized the fines due to the noble for the trespasses of cattle, and injuries to property, for which the fine did not exceed seven sous six deniers. — Saint-Laurent. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 93 protege, on whom, after his eminent services at the siege of Mantua, he bestowed advanced rank, and the hand of one of his nieces, on the same day that he married two others to the Duke d'Epernon and the Duke de Puilaurens. The ceremonials of this triple alliance were so magnifi- cent, that they long afforded a subject of conversation to all the court ; but they were fortunate only to the Duke de Grammont ; for the Duke d'Epernon, whose haughty tem- perament irritated the cardinal, was shortly afterward com- pelled to exile himself from the capital ; and the Dvike de Puilaurens also died in prison.* While his father was absent with the army, Armand de Guiche was reared under the eye of Richelieu, and became almost the foster-child of Anne of Austria ; she had just given birth to Louis XIV., and she saw in the young Count de Guiche the same happy dispositions which she recognized in her own royal infant. Meanwhile the marriage of the Duke d'Anjou with the Princess Marguerite of Lorraine had taken place. He had first seen her during his residence in that province, when she was only fourteen years of age, and became so much enamored of her person, that he resolved to ask her hand from M. de Vaudemont, her father, who immediately consented to the proposal, merely warning him to conceal his intention from the Duke of Lorraine, her brother, as he was aware that he would refuse his consent ; and conse- * " As soon as I learned the return of Monsieur to France," says Mademoiselle, " I went to Limonrs to meet him. I was only four or five years old when he left. Having discovered that, on account of my extreme youth, I had not been invited to a ballet given by the king and queen, and that I wished to dance in one, he assembled some of the young people of the court of both sexes, to form the figure, where I greatly amused myself. Nevertheless, I was grieved that they profit ed by this opportunity to arrest M. de Puilaurens, the favorite of Mon- sieur; whom the cardinal, in token of reconciliation, had married to his niece. He was arrested at the Louvre, and carried a prisoner to Vincennes, where he died suddenly, a death of which the cardinal was accused." — M'cmoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier 94 LOUIS XIV* AND quently, in order to preserve the secret, with the consent of the Princess Marguerite, he married her privately in a Benedictine convent, at seven o'clock in the evening, in presence only of M. de Vaudemont, Madame de Re- miremont his sister, M. Morel, the natural brother of His Royal Highness, Puilaurens, the governess of the Prin- cess Marguerite, and the Benedictine father who united them.* Return we, however, to the king and his royal consort. At the period of the birth of the Count de Guiche (1637), Louis XIII. was almost entirely estranged from the queen, whom he saw only at infrequent intervals, when he was compelled to this cold and reluctant companionship by the necessities of state ceremony ; all confidence was at an end ; and they lived on in a state of moral warfare, which en- couraged the hopes of the cardinal, and appeared to realize the ambitious yearnings of the Duke of Orleans. The prayers (or neuvaines) offered up by the queen for the cessation of her childlessness had failed in their effect; and she had abandoned herself to the belief that she was destined to wear out her life in bitterness of spirit, and that isolation of heart which can only be appreciated by those who, like herself, are born with quick feelings and susceptible imaginations. The monarch had, how- ever, relieved his mental ennui by attaching himself to Mademoiselle de la Fayette,t whose favor might have endured to an indefinite period, had she possessed suffi- cient good sense to abstain from all interference in state * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. t Louise Motier de la Fayette was descended from an ancient Au- vergnat family. At the age of seventeen, she entered the household of Anne of Austria, as a maid of honor, where she soon attracted the attention of Louis XIII., who became attached to her. The virtue of Mademoiselle de la Fayette remained, however, unimpeached ; and she exerted her whole influence over the mind of the king to effect a reconciliation between himself and her royal mistress. She died in the convent of Chaillot, of which she was the founder, in 1665. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 95 affairs ; but Father Joseph,* with whom she was con- nected through her mother, Marie Motier de Saint-Ro- main,t having induced her to enter into a cabal against the cardinal, whom that ambitious monk was anxious to supplant in the royal favor, all tranquillity and happiness were at an end both for her royal admirer and herself. Contrary to his usual custom, Richelieu made no overt attempt to separate Louis and his favorite ; but, by brib- ing the confidential valet-de-chambre of the king, he suc- ceeded in obtaining and falsifying their letters; until, on the eve of a rupture, an explanation took place between them, which revealed the enmity of the minister, and so terrified the fair maid of honor, that she hastened to take refuge in the convent of the Visitation ; and, despite all the entreaties of the king, she refused to return to the world, which she finally renounced in the spring of 1637. Although the affections of Louis were no longer in the sole keeping of his cloistered favorite, whom Mademoiselle d'Hautefort, another of the maids of honor to the queen, had superseded, he could not forego her occasional society, which had become necessary to him from habit ; and it was one of his visits to this lady which changed the des- tinies of France. On the evening of the 5th of December in the year just named, the monarch left his retreat of 1 A Capuchin monk, the confidant of Richelieu ; commonly called His Gray Eminence, to distinguish him from the cardinal, who was known as His Red Eminence. t Marie Motier de Saint-Romain was the daughter of M. de Saint- Romain, ambassador in Switzerland, upon the occasion of whose de- cease, in 1694, Madame de Sevigne exclaims, in a letter to Madame Guitaud : — " The death of M. de Saint-Romain frightens me ; there does not appear to have been the interval of a moment between his liarsh and irreligious life and his demise. What can be addressed to God in favor of such a philosopher? As for me, I can think of nothing but what St. Augustin once said of a monk who had abjured Christ- ianity, — that he was not with us, for had he been with us, &c. You know the rest." 00 LOUIS XIV. AND Grosbois,* where he was then residing, and drove to the convent, where Mademoiselle de la Fayette had taken the veil under the name of Sister Angelica. One of the prerogatives of royalty in all Romanist coun- tries is that of entering into the monastic houses of both sexes, and conversing freely with their cloistered tenants ; and consequently no impediment was raised to the con- tinued intercourse of the king with his old favorite. More- over, the visits of Louis XIII. entailed no scandal upon either the novice or her community, as it was well known that the preference of that monarch never exceeded the bounds of principle and honor; and that the son of Henry IV. and the father of Louis XIV. could be accused neither of imitating the libertinism of the first, nor of prompting the licentiousness of the last. On this occasion Louis re- mained closeted with Sister Angelica for four hours ; and, on leaving the convent, he availed himself of the pretext of a sudden storm which had gathered during his visit, to drive to the Louvre instead of returning to Grosbois. On his arrival at the palace he at once proceeded to the apartments of the queen, who received him with an astonishment which she did not endeavor to disguise, and whose guest he remained until the morrow, ere he re- turned to his retreat. Four months subsequently the pregnancy of Anne of Austria was publicly announced, and created universal surprise and gratulation. Before the event became generally known, however, the queen summoned M. de Chavigny,t of whose attachment she was assured, and commissioned him to bear these * Near Fontainebleau. t Leon Boutheillier, Count de Chavigny, was the reputed son of Claude Boutheillier, Superintendent of Finance; but was commonly reported to be the natural child of the Cardinal Richelieu, who treated him with extraordinary favor, and zealously promoted his interests. He was, for a short period, secretary of state under Louis XIII., and sub- sequently minister of state, and a member of the council, during the Regency. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 97 unhoped-for tidings to the king ; and to request him at the same time, on so happy an occasion, to grant her the liberation of Laporte. The joy of Louis equaled his astonishment ; and after having conceded the pardon of her faithful servant, he hastened to the apartments of Anne of Austria to offer his congratulations, and to receive her own. Richelieu was, perhaps, the only individual throughout France who did not participate in the general rejoicing. Much as he hated Gaston, he hated the queen still more ; and after all the efforts that he had made to estrange her from the king; — efforts, moreover, which had been only too suc- cessful, for the minister was singularly able in overlaying with his own passions the heart of his royal but subjugated master ; to which fact he owed much of his greatness, I for the secret of his supremacy lay in that consummate, although questionable talent ; — after all these efforts, he saw the whole superstructure which he had built upon that estrangement, suddenly crumble into dust before these unexpected tidings ; and the chagrin which he felt, without being able to disclose it, so affected his health that he became ere long at intervals seriously indisposed. That he did not, however, yield without an effort, either to his annoyance, or its results, may be gathered from the memoirs of La Grande Mademoiselle; who states that she was invited to St. Germain after the distrust of the cardinal had been overcome (he having shown himself unwilling that any one in the interests of the Duke d'Anjou should be about the queen), and then proceeds thus : " The comt was veiy agreeable at that time, and the love of the king for Madame d'Hautefort, to whom he endeavored to make himself agreeable by the entertainments which he every day gave to her, contributed greatly to make it so. Hunting was one of the king's greatest pleasm - es ; we often went with him .... We were all dressed in colors, mounted on handsome hackneys richly caparisoned ; and vol. i. — E 98 LOUIS XIT.'AVD to protect us from the sun, wore hats covered with feathers. The chase was always directed toward the neighborhood of some handsome houses, where we found good collations, and on our return the king seated himself in my coach between Madame d'Hautefort and me. When he was in a good-humor he talked to us very agreeably on every subject. He permitted us at that time to speak very freely of the Cardinal of Richelieu, and as a sign that it did not displease him, he spoke of him in the same way. As soon as we reached home we went to the queen's apartments .... The king was sometimes in so gallant a humor, that, at the collations which he gave us in the country, he would not sit down to table, but waited upon nearly all the party, although his attention was only in- tended for one person. He ate afterward ; and did not affect to have more politeness for Madame d'Hautefort than for others, so fearful was he that his gallantry should be remarked. When they had any misunderstanding, the amusements were suspended ; and if, during these inter- vals, he visited the queen, he did not speak to any one, and no one ventured to address him ; he sat in a comer, where generally he yawned, and went to sleep. It was a melan- choly which chilled every one; and while it lasted, he passed his time in writing down all that he had said to Madame d'Hautefort, and all that she had answered; a thing so true, that at his death there were found in his desk long accounts of all the quarrels that he had had with his mistresses ; to whose praise, as well as his own, be it said, that he had never loved any who were not per- fectly virtuous." * But despite all these festive demonstrations, the queen was far from tranquil. The health of Louis was declining from day to day; the tomb appeared to be yawning for both him and his minister ; and Anne of Austria watched in anxious terror the progress of this double decay. She * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 99 knew that should Richelieu survive his sovereign only six months, she would be lost if childless ; and eager to satisfy herself, in advance, of the fate of the infant to which she was about to give life, she accordingly deter- mined, with the superstition common to that age, to cause its horoscope to be drawn by an able astrologer at the moment of its birth. That she should bear a son she did not suffer herself to doubt ; and having expressed her wishes to the king, he, in his turn, confided the care of dis- covering the required astrologer to the cardinal. Richelieu, although his own experience might have taught him that human will has more power over human fate than the stars can ever claim, was no less credulous upon the subject of occult lore than others of that day ; and having some previous knowledge of a certain seer, named Campanella, he immediately dispatched a messenger to command his presence. Campanella had, however, left France ; but the minister succeeded in tracing him to the dungeons of Milan, where he was awaiting his trial as a sorcerer, having been seized by the Italian Inquisition, and whence he had little difficulty in obtaining his release. Anne of Austria was sojourning at St. Germain-en- Laye when her hour of trial came ; where she occupied the pavilion of Henry IV., of which the windows opened upon the river. The public excitement was so great that many persons who could not procure accommodation at St. Germain, or whose private affairs detained them in Paris, had, as the period of the queen's accouchement approached, stationed messengers upon the high-road to the capital, in order to have the earliest intelligence of the result ; while every avenue to the palace was thronged with grave and anxious faces. Early on the 5th of September, Louis XIII. was sum- moned to the chamber of the queen ; when he immediately commanded the presence of the Duke of Orleans, the Princess de Conde, and the Countess de Soissons ; but he 100 LOUIS XIV. AND forbade ingress to the sick-chamber to every other person, except Madame de Vendome, to whom it was accorded as a personal favor, and the ladies who were in at- tendance upon the royal invalid. The three bishops of Lisieux, Meaux, and Beauvais, took their station in an adjoining room ; and in the one opposite were assembled all the officers of state, and the ladies of rank who had the privilege of entrance. At length the king was greeted with the welcome intel- ligence that he was the father of a Dauphin ; and in the excess of his joy, he took the royal infant from the hands of the nurse, and approaching the window, exhibited him to the crowd, exclaiming as he did so, " A son ! gentlemen, a son !" The satisfaction of the spectators broke forth in a loud cry of triumphant delight ; and the happy monarch forth- with carried the new-born prince into the apartment where the bishops were assembled round a temporary altar, putting up prayers for the happy issue of the queen's deliverance ; when it was immediately baptized by the Bishop of Meaux, in presence of all the great digni- taries of the kingdom. A Te Deum was then chanted in the castle chapel ; after which the king wrote an autograph letter to the corporation of Paris, which was dispatched on the instant. The rejoicings which took place throughout the capital exceeded all that had ever before been witnessed; and amid these the Jesuits were conspicuous in their demon- stration. The foreign ambassadors vied with each other alike in expense and invention, and the enthusiasm of the people was at its height. The cardinal, who was in Picardy, wrote to congrat- ulate the monarch, and to suggest that the Dauphin should be named Theodosius, or God-given, as an earnest of his future glory; he also dispatched a letter of felicitation to the queen, but it was cold and brief. THE COURT OP FRANCE. 101 Meanwhile the astrologer Campanella had arrived in France, and was invited to proceed with his task without delay. At first he endeavored to excuse himself, aware of the danger to which such a responsibility must expose him ; but as his excuses were not admitted, and he was commanded to speak the truth fearlessly, he ultimately, after the usual precautions, announced that his combina- tions had informed him that " the infant would be as luxurious as Henry IV., and of conspicuous haughtiness. That his reign would be long and laborious, although not without a certain happiness ; but that his end would be miserable ; and entail both religious and political con- fusion upon the kingdom." * In the month of July following, Sforza, the vice-legate of Avignon, and extraordinary nuncio of the Pope, arrived at St. Germain, to present to the queen the swaddling- clothes blessed by His Holiness, which he habitually sent to the Dauphins of France, in recognition of those princes as the elder sons of the church ; and to bless in his name both the august mother and her child. These garments, dazzling with gold and silver, were inclosed in a couple of chests of red velvet, which were opened in the presence of the king and queen.t At the birth of Louis XIV., although the court vied with each other in lavish and idle expenditure, their monarch was in receipt only of an income of a hundred * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Memoires de Madame de Motteville. — Frances Bertaut, Lady of Motteviile, was the daughter of a gentleman of the king's chamber. Placed about the person of Anne of Austria, and dismissed by the Car dinal de Richelieu, she married, in 1G39, Nicolas Langlois, Lord of Motteville, First President of the Chamber of Accounts at Rouen, who died two years afterward. Recalled to court in 1644, she never again quitted her royal mistress; and died in 1689. She left a work entitled " Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire d'Anne d'Autriche," in six vols., in l2mo. They are very curious, and full of authentic details of the court at that period. 102 LOUIS XIV. AND millions of livres, according- to the value of money in the present day ; and France had not yet attained any prom- inent rank among the European nations. Internally she was rent by faction, and her external strength was almost negative. Even the capital, and the great highways through the country, were in a state of neglect difficult to comprehend, the first individuals in the state having so much interest in the improvement of both the one and the other. The roads were scarcely passable, under no government authority, and infested by robbers ; while the streets, narrow, ill-paved, and choked with mud and refuse of the foulest description, were, immediately after night- fall, crowded with thieves, pickpockets, assassins, and all the filth of a great capital ; whose depredations were earned on to an immense extent, and with an audacity which received little check from a police that did not amount to fifty men, although it was intrusted with the whole safety of the city. Socially, the position of France was little better. The heads of the first nobles of the land had fallen, or been bowed by disgrace and imprisonment. Dueling had re- commenced with a resolution which more than ever defied the power of the monarch ; while the intellectual progress of the public tribunals is sufficiently marked by the fact, that Leonora Galiga'i had been burned as a witch in 1617, and Urbain Grandier as a sorcerer in 1634.* Literature and morals were alike at a deplorably low ebb. England, Italy, and Spain had each given birth to more than one gigantic talent, while France was as yet only * Urbain Grandier was the curate and prebendary of Saint-Pierre of Loudun. Some Ursuline nuns of that place, who were considered to be possessed, accused him, their confessor, of magic ; and the Coun- cilor Laubardemont, and the twelve judges appointed to preside at his trial, condemned him upon their testimony. He was burned alive on the 18th of August, 1634. His condemnation was attributed to the hatred of Richelieu, against whom a libel had just appeared, entitled The Shoemaker's Wife of Loudun, which was attributed to Grandier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 103 the nursery of that genius, which was to form so bright a galaxy in the succeeding reign. The two celebrated female wits of the day were Mademoiselle de Scudery,* and Ninon de l'Enclos ; while Madame de Sevigne, who was to found an epistolary school destined to endure as long as the language in which she wrote, had just attained her twelfth year. Meanwhile, although the queen still remained without political influence, she had acquired considerably more power over the affections of Louis. The birth of a Dau- phin had been a source of gratification to the king, which was naturally calculated to increase his regard for the mother. He had, moreover, as we have already stated, attached himself, in his peculiar manner, to Mademoiselle d'Hautefort, one of the ladies of the queen's household, whose wit and beauty were eminently calculated to awaken his lethargic sensibilities ; but his aversion to Richelieu, although it was craftily concealed, increased from day to day, and did not escape the observation of the minister ; who was, however, indifferent to the fact, from his having surrounded his royal master with his own creatures, who did not fail to acquaint him with every incident which could be profitable to his interests. Throughout the whole of his household Louis possessed but three personal friends ; and of the consolation which he found in the companionship of Mademoiselle d'Hautefort he was eventually deprived by the cardinal ; who feared that her influence would be exerted in favor of the queen, like that of her predecessor, Louise de la Fayette, from the great affection which Anne of Austria had always displayed toward her. The exiled favorite was, however, replaced by Richelieu in the person of M. de Cinq-Mars,t whom he introduced to * Madelaine de Scudery was born at Havre, in 1601. t Henry Coiffier, says Ruze d'Effiat, Marquis de Cinq-Mars, the sec- ond son of Antoine Coiffier, Marquis d'Effiat, and Marshal of France, owed his fortune to Cardinal Richelieu, who was the intimate friend 104 LOUIS XIV. AND the notice and favor of the king, and who became, ere long, the object of his entire regard. It is not our pur- pose to follow up circumstantially the career of this unfor- tunate young nobleman, which was one of an interest too absorbing to remain in obscurity. Even in the sober pages of history, it assumes the semblance of romance ; and the details which history did not condescend to supply have since been given to the world with an industry of research, and accuracy of narration beyond all praise, in the volumes of the Count Alfred de Vigny, which bear his name. During the period of Cinq-Mars's first favor, the queen gave birth to a second son, who took the title of Duke d'Anjou; this prince saw the light on the 21st of Septem- ber, 1640 ; and in 1642, Cinq-Mars and his friend De Thou* perished upon the scaffold. In February, 1642, the king quitted Paris for Roussillon, leaving the queen and her two children at St. Germain-en- Laye; the princes being under the especial charge of Ma- of his father, and who placed him about Louis XIII., of whom he be- came the favorite, and who made him successively Captain of the Royal Guard, Grand Master of the King's Wardrobe (1637), and, two years afterward, Grand Ecpierry of France. Irritated by the bearing of Richelieu, Cinq-Mars excited Gaston, Duke d'Orleans, to revolt, and seduced the Duke de Bouillon to his interests. They dispatched an emissary to Spain, to conclude a treaty, which was to admit the Span- ish forces into France; but the king, who went in person, in 1642, to conquer Roussillon, was accompanied by Cinq-Mars, while the cardinal remained sick at Tarascon ; when the latter, having discovered the in- trigue, immediately informed the king, who caused Cinq-Mars to be arrested at Narbonne. He lost his head at Lyons, in the same year ; and was executed, in company with his friend and confidant, De Thou. * Francis-Augustus de Thou was born in 1607. While still a youth, he was appointed Grand Master of the King's Library. He applied to be made military superintendent ; and the refusal of the cardinal threw him into the ranks of the opposition. He then endeavored to further his fortune by political intrigues ; adopted the profession of arms, and attached himself to the court, although he did not hold office ; but was finally involved, by his affection for Cinq-Mars, in the conspiracy against Richelieu, for which they both suffered death. THE COURT OV FRANCE. 105 dame de L ansae their governess ; while for all protection they had only one company of the French guards, com- manded by Captain Montigni. These two persons had each a separate order: that of Madame de Lansac was, that in case Monsieur, who lived in Paris, should visit the queen, she should desire the officers of the household to remain close to the Dauphin, and not to suffer Monsieur to enter, if he came attended by more than three persons. As to Montigni, the king gave him half of a gold coin, of which he retained the other moiety, with an express command that he should not abandon the persons of the princes ; and, in the event of his receiving an order to remove them, or to trans- fer them to other hands, he was forbidden to obey, even should the command be in the handwriting of His Majesty, if he did not at the same time receive the other half of the broken coin. The Prince de Conde commanded in Paris during the absence of the king ; and during that period married his daughter, Mademoiselle de Bourbon, to the Duke de Longueville, an alliance which proved most melancholy for the lady ; the duke being already in the decline of life, while his bride was young and exquisitely beautiful.* Shortly afterward, the court went into mourning for Marie de Medicis, who had died at Cologne in the house of her painter, Rubens, attended by only one faithful wait- ing-woman, and depending almost for her nourishment on the generous compassion of the Elector. At Paris she appeared to have become utterly forgotten, save by a few of her most attached friends. The cardinal was not, how- ever, destined long to enjoy the several triumphs which he had achieved. He returned in such impaired health from * Henry, second Duke de Longueville, was plenipotentiary at the Congress of Munster, in 1643. He was the son of Henry, the first duke, who loved the beautiful Gubrielle d'Estrec, and resigned her to Henry IV. Gabrielle having injured him in the king's mind, he threw himself into the opposite party, and was killed at the siege of Dourlens, in 1505. 106 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. Roussillon,* that he was compelled to halt several days at Narbonne, and during his sojourn in that town was not expected to survive. Finally, however, he arrived in Paris in a litter borne by four-and-twenty men ; but on expe- riencing some slight symptoms of amendment, he compelled Juif, his surgeon, to close the abscess under which he had been suffering, nor could the remonstrances of that skillful practitioner dissuade him from his purpose ; and it is be- lieved that a quarrel which took place a short time subse- quently between the king and himself, on the subject of some courtiers whom he considered as his personal ene- mies, and whom Louis had refused to dismiss from his ser- vice, tended to hasten his death. Wearied by his expostu- lations, the monarch at length consented to remove three of the number, and to consign them to the Bastille, but re- fused to appoint their successors ; and this resistance exas- perated the cardinal, who saw that his decease was antici- pated ; and that, when it had taken place, his adversaries would at once be reinstated in their respective employ. He consequently extended his persecution to M. de Tre- ville, their colleague, whom he had hitherto spared, and whom Louis dismissed in his turn ; but with an assurance that he might still calculate upon his favor; and a recom- mendation that he should go and serve for the present in Italy, as he would not long be absent from France. * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. CHAPTER V. Marriage of Mademoiselle de Breze — Increased Illness of the Cardinal — Indifference of Louis XIII. — Death of the Cardinal — Ancient and Modern Biographers — Liberation of State Prisoners — Reconciliation of the King and the Duke d'Orleans — Arrival of the Remains of Marie de Medicis — Illness of Louis XIII. — Recognition of Madame — Chris- tening of the Dauphin — Death of Louis XIII. — Anne of Austria Re- gent — The new Ministry — The Duke d'Orleans Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom — The Duke de Beaufort — The Three Days — " The Queen is so good" — Louis XIV. and the State Companies — Anne of Austria and Voiture — The Improvisation — The Count de Guiehe and his Governess — Piety of Anne of Austria — Return of Madame de Chevreuse — Her Intrigues — Coldness of the Queen-Regent — Diplo- macy of Mazarin — The Duke de Beaufort a bad Conspirator — Escape of Mazarin — Arrest of the Duke de Beaufort — Renewed Exile of Madame de Chevreuse — The Duke d'Enghien — The Challenge — Death of Coligny — Mourning Balls. In the course of the winter of 1642, the cardinal had the gratification of marrying another of his nieces, Mademoi- selle de Breze, to the Duke d'Enghien, son of the Prince de Conde ; and this alliance, which must greatly have sur- 108 L O L' I S XIV. AND passed ihe ambition of the cardinal, was formed at the so- licitation of the prince himself, who exerted as much energy to secure it, as though he had been seeking to marry his son with a sovereign princess. Moreover, to prove how sincerely he desired to make one common interest with the minister, he entreated him at the same time to unite Made- moiselle de Bourbon to the Mai'quis de Breze : Richelieu replied, however, that although he was willing to give young ladies to princes, he would not give princesses to men of inferior rank.* On the 30th of November, 1643, the illness of the minis- ter had so much increased that he was twice bled ; and on the 1st of December, he began to spit blood, and to breathe with difficulty. He was again bled in the night, but ex- perienced no relief; and his palace was filled with his near relatives and friends, anxiously awaiting the issue. On the following day the king visited the sick-chamber, and as he drew near the bed, Richelieu raised himself to a sitting posture ; during the interview he expressed his satisfaction that he had honestly and ably done his duty to the state ; entreated the king, in memory of his past services, to pro- tect his family ; and finally recommended, as his successors in the ministry, Des Noyers,t De Chavigny, and Mazarin. Louis readily replied that his recommendation should be sacred ; and added some commonplace remark, intended to express that he trusted their services would not be soon required. Then, affecting to believe that a more lengthy conversation might prejudice the invalid, he left the room ; but he was so utterly unimpressed by the scene from which he had just escaped, that as he traversed the gallery of the famous palace upon which Richelieu had lavished so many millions, and which he had, in his will, bequeathed to the dauphin, his eye glanced over the costly paintings by which it was decorated with evident delight ; and before he had traversed its limits, he once or twice indulged in a fit of * Mem. de Mdlle. de Montpensier. | Secretary of Stnte. THE COURT OK FRANCE. 109 laughter, notwithstanding the fact that he was attended hy the two favorite friends of the cardinal, the Marshal de Breze and the Count d'Harcourt,* who reconducted him to the Louvre. The king had no sooner withdrawn than Richelieu sum- moned the Duchess d'Aiguillon to his side, and gave her some secret instructions, at whose conclusion she left the room in tears. He then insisted upon knowing from his physicians how long a time he was still likely to survive, but finding them un willing to tell the truth, he sent for Chirac, who was the private physician of the king ; and having expressed to him his wish that he would be perfect- ly frank, was informed that he could not, in all probability, exist more than four-and-twenty hours longer; when, having thanked his informant, he desired to be left alone, and the chamber was immediately cleared of all his attendants. In the evening his fever augmented, and he was again twice bled. At midnight he demanded the Holy Viaticum, which was brought to him by the curate of St. Eustache, who was placing it upon a table which had previously been prepared for that purpose, when the cardinal said, sol- emnly : " Here is my judge by whom I shall soon be judged; and I sincerely implore him to pronounce my condemnation, if I have ever had any other intention save the welfare of religion and of the state." t * Henry de Lorraine, Count d'Harcourt, son of Charles de Lorraine, Duke d'Elbeuf, was born in 1600. He distinguished himself in 1620, at the siege of Prague, and afterward at those of Montauban, Saint-Jean d'Angely, and La Rochelle. Louis XIII. honored him, in 1633, with the collar of his order. He retook, in 1637, the islands of Lerins from the Spaniards, whom he beat at Guiers in 1639, at Casal and the siege of Turin in 1640, and at the taking of Coni in 1641. In 1642, he was appointed Governor of Guyenne ; in 1643, Grand Equerry of France, and ambassador to England; aud in 1615, Viceroy of Catalonia, where he beat the Spaniards on several occasions. Near the end of his life he was made Governor of Anjou, and died in 1666. * History 1 1' France. HO LOUIS XIV. AND On the evening of the 3d December, the queen having sent to inquire after his health, he said to her messenger : " I am very ill ; and tell her majesty that if, in the course of my life, she has considered that I have given her cause of complaint, I most humbly beg her to pardon me." The royal messenger had scarcely left the room, when the cardinal was seized with a giddiness, his head fell back upon the pillow, and he expired. Thus died, at the age of fifty-eight years, in the gorgeous palace which he had himself erected, Armand Jean-Duples- sis, Cardinal de Richelieu ; and it is curious to contrast, as a modern author has enabled us to do, the judgment passed upon him by his cotemporaries, and that which has been formed by posterity. "The cardinal," says one of the former, "had in him much good and much evil. He had intellect, but it was of a common order ; he was fond of beautiful objects, without understanding them ; and never possessed any delicacy of discernment for the productions of mind. He was fearfully jealous of all who had acquired a reputation. Great men, whatever might be their profession, were his enemies ; and all those who clashed with him have felt die weight of his vengeance. Every one whose life was beyond his reach has passed it in banishment. There have been several con- spiracies formed during his administration to destroy him ; his master himself has entered into some of them ; and, nev- ertheless, by an excess of good fortune, he has triumphed over envy and his enemies, and has left the king himself on the eve of death. Finally, he has been seen on his bed of state, wept by few, despised by many, and gazed upon by the mob in such crowds, that it was difficult, during a whole day, to approach the cardinal-palace."* Here, three centuries later, is the second resvme drawn of his career. " The Cardinal de Richelieu, placed at nearly equal distance between Louis XL, whose aim was to abol- * Montresor. THE COURT OF FRANCE. Ill ish feudality, and the national convention, whose attempt was to crush aristocracy, appeared to have, like them, re- ceived a mission of blood from heaven. The high nobility, repulsed under Louis XIII. and Francis I., almost entirely succumbed under Richelieu ; preparing, by its overthrow, the calm, unitarian, and despotic reign of Louis XIV., who looked around him in vain for a great noble, and found only courtiers. The eternal rebellion which, for nearly two centuries, agitated France, almost entirely disappeared un- der the ministry, we were about to say under the reign, of Richelieu. The Guises, who had touched with their hand the scepter of Henry III. ; the Condes, who had placed their foot on the steps of the throne of Henry IV. ; and Gaston, who had tried upon his brow the crown of Louis XIII. ; all returned, at the voice of the minister, if not into nothingness, at least into impotency. All who straggled against the iron will inclosed in that feeble body, were broken like glass. One day Louis XIII., overcome by the prayers of his mother, promised to the jealous and vindictive Florentine the disgrace of the min- ister. A council was accordingly assembled, consisting of Marillac,* the Duke de Guise,t and the Marshal de Bassompierre. Mai'illac proposed to assassinate Riche- lieu ; De Guise to exile him ; and Bassompierre to make him a state prisoner; and each suffered the fate to which * Louis de Marillac was gentleman-in-waiting to Henry IV., and was, in 1629, appointed Marshal of France. lie owed his fortune to Richelieu, whom he hoped to overthrow ; and it is said that he offered to take his life with his own hand. Richelieu, feigning to put faith in the reality of this conspiracy, which, however, was never proved, caused the marshal to be arrested in the midst of his troops in Italy, and put him upon his trial, which lasted for two years. Finally, Marillac lost his head in the Place de Greve, on the 10th of May, 1632. t Henry, Duke de Guise, son of Charles de Guise, and grandson of the Balafri, endeavored to effect a revolution in his favor in Naples, and died in 1664, without posterity. He was the last of his race. 112 LOUIS XIV. AND he condemned the cardinal. . Bassompierre* was shut up in the Bastille ; the Duke de Guise was driven from France ; the head of Marillac fell on the scaffold ; and Marie de Medicis, who had solicited his disgrace, dis- graced in her turn, went to die at Cologne, a death at once lingering and miserable. And all this struggle which Richelieu sustained, be it well understood, he did not sustain for his own sake, but for that of France ; all the enemies against whom he combated, were not his enemies only, but those of the kingdom. If he clung tena- ciously to the side of a king whom he compelled to live a melancholy, unhappy, and isolated life, whom he deprived successively of his friends, of his mistresses, and of his family, as a tree is stripped of its leaves, of its branches, and of its bark, it was because friends, mistresses, and family exhausted the sap of the expiring royalty which had need of all its egotism to prevent it from perishing. For it was not only intestinal struggles, there was also a foreign war which had connected itself fatally with them. All those great nobles whom he decimated, all those princes of the blood whom he exiled, all those royal bas- tards whom he imprisoned, were inviting foreigners into France ; and these foreigners answering eagerly to the summons, were entering the country on three different sides ; the English by Guienne, the Spanish by Roussillon, and the Imperialists by Artois. He repulsed the English by driving them from the island of Re, and besieging La Rochelle ; the Impei-ialists by detaching Bavaria from its * Marshal Francis de Bassompierre was born in 1579, and died in 1646. He was the friend and one of the favorites of Henry IV., who appointed him Captain-General of the Swiss and Grisons. Made Mar- shal of France in 1C05, he exercised great power over Marie de Medicis and Louis XIII. Richelieu, to whom he was obnoxious, caused him to be imprisoned in the Bastille, in 1631 ; and he remained there twelve years. A clever diplomatist, a brave and judicious general, and a gal lant courtier, he distinguished himself in several sieges, and left behind him the Memoirs of his Life. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 113 alliance, by suspending their treaty with Denmark, and by sowing dissension in the Catholic league of Germany; and the Spanish by creating beside them the new kingdom of Portugal, of which Philip II. had made a province, and of which the Duke of Braganza remade a state. His measures were crafty or cruel, undoubtedly, but the re- sult was great. Chalais fell, but Chalais had conspired with Lorraine and Spain ; — Montmorency fell, but Mont- morency had entered France with arms in his hand ; — Cinq-Mars fell, but Cinq-Mars had invited foreigners into the kingdom. Perhaps, without all these struggles, the vast plan, since resumed by Louis XIV. and by Napoleon, might have succeeded. He coveted the Low Countries as far as Antwerp and Malines ; he dreamed of a method of wrenching Franche-Comte from Spain ; he reunited Roussillon to France. Born to be a simple priest, he became, by the sole power of his genius, not only a great politician, but also a great general ; and when La Ro- chelle fell before the measures to which Schomberg, Mar- shal Bassompierre, and the Duke d'Angouleme were com- pelled to bow, he said to the king : — " Sire, I am no prophet, but I assure your majesty that, if you will now condescend to act as I advise, you will pacificate Italy in the month of May, subjugate the Huguenots of Languedoc in the month of July, and be on your return in the month of August." And each of these prophecies was accom- plished in its time and place, in such wise that, from that moment, Louis XIII. vowed to follow forever thence- forward the counsels of Richelieu, by which he had so well profited in the past. Finally he died, as Montes- quieu asserts, after having made his monarch enact the second character in the monarchy, but the first in Europe ; after having abased the king, but after having made the reign illustrious; after having, finally, mowed down re- bellion so close to the soil, that the descendants of those who had composed the league, could only form the 114 LOUIS XIV. AND Fronde ; as after the reign of Napoleon, the successors of the Vendee of '93, could only execute the Vendee of 1832.* Such are the extreme and conflicting judgments which have been passed upon Richelieu. The truth, in all probability, lies between them. The death of the cardinal opened the gates of the Bastille to many noble names. The king, who exhibited the greatest indifference at the death of his minister, at once restored to their commissions Treville, Des Essarts, La Salle, and Tilladet ;t called Mazarin to the council ; and placed such unlimited confidence in M. des Noyers, that he would not suffer any public business to be trans- acted in his absence. The latter did not, however, long retain his office ; for his coadjutors, having always been jealous of his favor with the cardinal, at once conspired to effect his ruin ; while Des Noyers on his side, taking umbrage at some annoyance to which they had gratuitously subjected him, demanded his dismissal of the king, by whom it was at once accorded. Cardinal Mazarin replaced him by M. le Tellier, super- intendent of the army of Piedmont, whence he was sum- moned express to be appointed Secretary of State.J * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t They were captains in the guard of Musketeers. The latter force originated in 1600, when Henry IV. organized, as his personal guard, a company of young men of birth, who were called the king's carbines, because they were armed with that weapon. In 1622, Louis exchanged it for the musket, whence the company changed their title to that of Musketeers. They were disbanded in 1646, and reestablished in 1657. A second company was raised in 1661. The first bore the name of Gray Musketeers, from the color of their horses, which were all dap- pled gray; and the second that of Black Musketeers, from a similar cause. During peace, the Musketeers attended the king in his hunts ; during war, they fought both mounted and dismounted. Reorganized in 1775, reestablished in 1789, suppressed in 1791, they were again formed in 1814, and definitively disbanded in 1815. X Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 115 Shortly afterward the Marshal de Vitry, the Count de Cramail, and the Marshal de Bassompierre, were also liberated ; and the latter, who had been " embastillised," for twelve years, was bewildered by the revolutions which had taken place in that fashion of which he was once the leader, and that Paris to whom his name had formerly been as a " household word." The great number of equipages contained in the capital especially astonished him ; while as to the men and horses, he declared that he could scarcely recognize either, the men having no beard, and the horses no manes and tails. Next succeeded the reconciliation of the king and Mon- sieur, which had awaited the death of Richelieu for its completion ; and the egotistical and unstable prince soon forgot, in his own renewed security, the fate of the gallant Cinq-Mars and De Thou, who had lost their heads in his service. It may be hoped, however, that it was partly owing to his influence, that the king at last remembered, at the eleventh hour, that his mother had died in neglect and penury in a foreign land ; for about this time he de- cided upon fulfilling her dying desire to be interred at St. Denis, a privilege which the hatred of Richelieu had refused to concede to her, and, accordingly, he sent to re- claim her body, which still remained in the chamber where she expired. One of the noblemen of the royal household was dispatched upon this lugubrious errand, and a religious service was performed at Cologne, on the removal of the corpse, at which four thousand of the poorer inhabitants were present. The black velvet coach which contained the remains of the once imperious Marie de Medicis then proceeded on its way to France, stopping at every town to receive the prayers of the clergy, but without permitting the body to be carried into a church, as the ceremony re- quired that it should proceed direct from the death-room to the royal vault, and finally the coffin rested at St. Denis * * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 110 LOUIS XIV. AND Great preparations were at this period in progress for a new campaign ; but the health of the king, which was rapidly failing, did not permit a hope that it could be undertaken ; and during this illness, of which Louis XIII. ultimately died, Monsieur received permission to return to court, was reconciled with the king, and obtained the royal recognition of his marriage, which had hitherto been withheld, as well as permission for Madame to rejoin him, on condition that, on her aiTival at Paris, they should both make their declaration to the archbishop, in order to secure the validity of the alliance ; a concession which the mon- arch exacted rather for his own satisfaction, and as a proof of respect and obedience due to himself from the Duke d'Orleans, than for any assumed irregularity in the original ceremony. Madame was at Cambray when this proposi- tion was submitted to her, and she had no sooner received it than she removed to a greater distance from the capital, declaring that where her honor was concerned she could make no concessions to any one ; and many messengers were dispatched to her before she would assent, which she did at last with unconcealed repugnance. She, however, returned to France before the death of the king. The duke met her at Meudon, where the archbishop, in full cos- tume, awaited her to receive the mutual declaration of the wedded pair, which was not tendered upon her part without expostulation, as she declared that nothing could be more unnecessary.* In the latter part of February, Louis XIII. had become seriously ill ; and although he appeared to re- vive for a time, at the commencement of April all his un- favorable symptoms returned upon him, and he began forth- with to devote himself to his religious duties. On the 20th of that month, in the presence of the Duke d'Orleans, the Prince de Conde, and all the leading nobility of the court, he declared the regency of the queen, who throughout the whole of the time stood weeping at the foot of his bed ; and * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE CUURT OF FRANCE. 117 on the 21st, the christening of the Dauphin took place with great state. The king had desired that he should be named Louis, and had chosen as his sponsors the Cardinal de Maza- rin and the Princess Charlotte-Marguerite de Montmorency, mother of the great Conde. The ceremony was performed in the chapel of the old palace of St. Germain, in presence of the queen ; and the prince was attired in the magnificent robes sent to him by the Pope. He had then l-eached the age of four years and a half. When, after the celebration of the rite, he was carried to the king, Louis, feeble as he was, caused him to be seated upon the bed, and then, in order to satisfy himself that his wishes had been fulfilled, de- manded, "What is your name, my child V " Louis XIV.," answered the Dauphin. " Not yet, my son, not yet," said the dying monarch ; " but pray to God that it may soon be so." * He, however, rallied once more ; and it was not until the 10th of May that Dubois, one of the valets-de- chambre, on perceiving the Dauphin enter the room, and drawing back the curtains of the death-couch, in order that he might be enabled to see his father, discovered the ex- traordinary change that had taken place in the royal coun- tenance, by which he was so much struck that he approach- ed the prince, and whispered, " Monseigneur, look at the king asleep, in order that you may remember him when you are older." On the 13th of the same month, Louis desired his physi- cians to tell him if he should live till the morrow; when, after having consulted together, they answered that they did not think it possible. " God be praised !" was his re- ply ; " I believe that it is now time to take leave of all I love." He then embraced the queen tenderly, and spoke to her for some time in a low voice ; he next pressed his lips to the cheeks and brow of the Dauphin, and his broth- er, the Duke d'Orleans, repeating his caresses several times; then he embraced the bishops of Meaux and Lisieux, and * Louis XIV. ot son Siecle. 118 LOUIS XIV. AND the other ecclesiastics who had assisted in preparing him to die ; and finally he summoned his physician, and asked him if all would soon be over. The reply was affirmative ; upon which the king requested the Bishop of Meaux to read the service for the dying ; and from that moment he never spoke again. In the afternoon of the 14th of May, 1643, he expired, after a reign of thirty-three years.* Faithful to the instructions which he had received from Richelieu in the guise of a request, the dying king had named to the Queen-Regent a council headed by the Prince de Conde, and composed of the Cardinal Mazarin, the chancellor Seguier,t the superintendent Boutillier, and his son, Chavigny, the secretary of state. It would appear, however, that she had received other secret instructions, from a passage in the Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz, which runs thus : " M. de Beaufort,! who had always been of the queen's party, and who even played the gallant to- ward her, had got it into his head to govern, for which he was less fitted than his valet-de-chambre. The Bishop of Beauvais, the greatest idiot in the world, assumed the sem- blance of prime minister ; and the first thing which he did * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Peter Seguier, Peer of France, was born at Paris in 1588, and was suc- cessively Counselor of Parliament, Mai/res des Requetes, and President a Morticr, both dignities peculiar to France, and not susceptible of an intelligible translation ; the former signifying a magistrate who present- ed the petitions of individuals to the council of the king, which was presided at by their chancellor; and the latter, a president of the an- cient parliaments, who was entitled to wear a peculiar cap, known as a mortier. Whence their title. In 1633, he was made Keeper of the Privy Seals, and two years subsequently Chancellor of France. He had the title of Duke de Villemot, Count de Gien, and Protector of the French Academy. X Francis de Venddme, Duke de Beaufort, was the son of C;esar de Vendome. " As this duke never expressed himself save in low and vulgar terms, and generally misplaced even those, and that he event- ually made himself master of Paris, he was always called the ' King of the Markets.' " — Dcs Maizeaux. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 119 was to demand of the Dutch that they should emhrace Ro- manism, if they wished to remain the allies of France. The queen was disgusted with this ministerial mummery, and ordered me to go and offer the post to my father.* When, seeing that he obstinately refused to leave his cell at the Oratory,t she placed herself in the hands of Cardinal Maza- rin Madame de Maignelais and M. de Lisieux asked the coadjutorship for me, and the queen refused it, saying that she would only grant it to my father, who would not make his appearance at the Louvre. He went but once, when the queen told him publicly that she had received an order from the late king, the night before his death, to be- stow it upon me." The Duke d'Orleans, whose disaffection Louis XIII. had forgiven, but by no means forgotten, was named lieutenant- general of the young king during his minority, under the authority of the regent and her council ; and thus Anne of Austria at length found herself beyond the malice of those who would fain have so poisoned the mind of her royal husband against her, as to have induced him to exclude her from the regency ; but that his suspicion still weighed heavily upon her, was sufficiently manifested in the reply which he made upon his death-bed to M. de Chavigny, who was endeavoring to convince him of her entire inno cence. " In my present state," said the expiring monarch, " I ought to forgive her, but I ought not to place faith in her." M. de Beaufort, indignant that the queen should have elected Mazarin to her confidence in his despite, conducted himself in the most imprudent manner. He rufused the abundant favors which she pressed upon him ; and behaved * Emmanuel de Gondi, General of the Galleys, who had resigned his rank in order to retire to the convent of the Oratory. 1 The Congregation of the Oratory was a religions community, estab- lished in Rome in 1540, and was introduced into France in 1611, by the Cardinal Peter de Berulle. 120 LOUIS XIV. AND most disrespectfully to Monsieur. He defied the authority of the Prince de Conde, and formed a party to oppose the measures of the council.* It will be remembered that the Duke de Vendome had been imprisoned by Richelieu, who on that occasion took possession of his government of Brit- tany, which, at his death, he bequeathed to the Marshal de la Meilleraye ; a transfer which the Vendome family refused to recognize ; and the Duke of Beaufort, young, popular, and relying upon ths support of the queen, had declared that at the death of Louis XIII. he would recover, either by fair means, or by force, the government which had been wrenched from his father. Thus, as soon as the king was believed to be dead, although such was not yet the case, the opposite factions at once declared themselves. The Mai-shal de la Meilleraye summoned his friends about him ; M. de Beaufort followed his example ; and Monsieur acted in the same manner. In this emergency, the queen sum- moned the Duke of Beaufort to her presence ; and, bestow- ing upon him the appellation of "the most honest man in the kingdom," intrusted to him the command of the Cha- teau-Neuf, in which the royal children were residing; a fa- vor which gave great umbrage to the Duke d'Orleans, and the Prince de Conde. On the day of the king's death, Anne of Austria had a private interview with Monsieur, in which every arrange- ment was mutually agreed ; and, three days afterward, she had so perfectly succeeded in effecting her purpose, that all the precautions taken by Louis XIII. to secure the fulfill- ment of his last wishes were rendered abortive. The Par- liament had declared the queen regent of the kingdom, "to hold the guardianship and education of the person of his Majesty, and the whole administration of affairs, while the Duke d'Orleans, his uncle, was to be lieutenant-general of all the provinces of the kingdom, under the authority * Memoires da Cardinal de Retz. — ■' It was called the party of the ' Important 's.' '" — Mademoiselle de Monlpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 121 of the queen ; and first councilor, also under her autho- rity. " In his absence, this presidency was transferred to the Prince de Conde, but always under the authority of the queen. " Moreover, it remained in the power of the queen to select such persons as she should see fit, to deliberate at the said councils on such matters as should be deferred to them, without being compelled to accede to the plurality of voices." Thus, it will at once be seen that Anne of Austria had wholly emancipated herself from the authority of the coun- cil, which remained entirely at her discretion ; and that she was in fact, as well as name, the Regent of France, which had already more than once been subjected to the same questionable rule. Even so early as 1160, Alix de Cham- pagne, daughter of Thibaut, fourth Count de Champagne, and widow of Louis VII., not only held the regency during the minority of her son, but subsequently during his prow- ess in the Holy Land. Mazarin and Chavigny were alike absent when this declaration was made ; and it was believed that they were both in disgrace ; but it was not so ; for, as we have already seen, after the decided refusal of M. de Gondi to accept office, the queen appointed the cardinal her prime minis- ter : and this was no sooner known than a host of old sus- picions, which had been forgotten amid the rapid march of events, were ag-ain revived. It was asserted, that ever since 1635 the cardinal had been the lover of the queen ; and it was by this circumstance that her enemies, unfortu- nately favored by her ulterior conduct, affected to account for the birth of Louis XIV., after so long and childless a period of marriage. All these great and important changes were effected in three days ; and on the fourth news arrived of the victory of Rocroy, by the army under the Duke d'Enghien. The vol. i. — F 122 LOU IS XIV. A N D event appeared prophetic to the Parisians, who were loud in their rejoicings, and the queen was hailed with accla- mations wherever she appeared. The whole nation par- ticipated in the general joy ; and the only cloud upon the horizon hovered above the head of Mazarin, whose sudden accession to power was repugnant to the princes of the blood. Anne of Austria, although she succeeded naturally to her high position, was, nevertheless, ill at ease. She had been unaccustomed to rule ; and although her natural in- stinct led her to desire it, she found less susceptibility of self-indulgence in her authority than she had anticipated. She had undergone much suffering; and this fact, in a person of her rank, is esteemed a virtue. Her very sorrows had made her a strong party in the nation ; and now that she had attained to almost unlimited power, a great deal was expected from her. M. de Bautru* was wont to say, that she had accomplished two miracles, because the bigots themselves had forgotten even her coquetry .t Those who had suffered like herself, and for her interests, were insa- tiable ; and there can be no doubt that, could she have satisfied all their demands, she would have done so freely ; in fact, even trammeled as she was, her gratitude was so visible, that she had difficulty in refusing any thing: and one of the courtiers declared that the French language was reduced to five words — " The queen is so good !" All the exiled were recalled, all the prisoners were set at liberty, all the criminals were acquitted, and all those who had been dismissed from office were restored.^ Madame d'Hautefort, exiled by the cardinal, was replaced in her rank of lady in waiting on the queen. The Marchioness * William Bautru, Count de Ceran, was born at Antwerp in 1588, and died in 1665. He was one of the wits of the sixteenth century, and a member of the French Academy. He was the partisan of both Kichelieu and Mazarin. t Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. t Ibid. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 123 de Senecey,* who had also been banished, was reinstated in her office of lady of honor. Laporte, who since the recovery of his liberty, before the birth of Louis XIV., had remained exiled at Saumur, was called to court, and ap- pointed first valet-de-chambre to the king ; and finally, Madame de Chevreuse, to whom Louis XIII. had inter- dicted all entrance into France during the war, was in- formed that she might return.f Louis XIV. was four years and a half old when he was muffled in a large mantle, and compelled to receive the salutations of the State Companies, as King of France. The Count de Guiche, who, as we have already mentioned, was a year his senior, stood upon one of the steps of the throne, where the queen had caused him to be placed as a pattern to her son, to induce him to remain quiet while the presentations were taking place. Both the children continued serious and silent : the composure of Louis arose from pride, and that of his playfellow from ennui. It was a scene almost prophetic of their future characters, for it exhibited in each the vice which was to cause his greatest errors. This ceremony over, the queen retired with her sons to Ruel ; and on one occasion, when she was driving in the park, accompanied by her children, the Princess de Conde, the Duchess d'Aiguillon, and the little Count de Guiche, she saw the poet Voituref in a deep revery, sauntering * Mary Catherine, Duchess de Randan, lady of honor to Anne of Austria, and governess of Louis XIV., married the Marquis de Senecey, and died in 1677, at the age of ninety years. She was the daughter of John Louis, Duke de la Rochefoucauld and Count of Randan, who was killed at Issoire, in 1590. Her daughter married the Count de Fleix. t Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Vincent Voiture, a celebrated writer of the seventeenth century, was born at Amiens, in 1598, and proceeded to Paris, where his talents gained him admission to the Hotel de Rambouillet, of which he became one of the celebrities. Gaston d'Orleans made him his Master of the 124 LOUIS XIV. AND under the shade of the trees ; upon which she ordered her coachman to stop the carriage, that she might ask her favorite bard the subject of his thoughts. Voiture, who, whatever might be the actual merit of his productions, pos- sessed, in common with almost every other poet of that period, the faculty of improvisation, at once replied : — " I thought of you, and almost said, That after all the ills you'd known, And Fate, upon your noble head, Had justly placed a royal crown ; It might be — so my fancy rove — That you your former lot preferred, When you were — I'd not say in love, But that the rhyme requires the word. I thought of Cupid, luckless boy, Who freely lent you all his arms, Flung from you like a worthless toy, Without his quiver and his charms ; And marveled what it might avail To me, who such devotion feel, If thus your gratitude can fail Toward those who served your cause with zeal. I thought — we poets have the power To dream strange dreams — of what would come, If, in this very spot and hour, You met the Duke of Buckingham ; Ceremonies and Introducer of Ambassadors. He was intrusted with a negotiation in Spain, of which he acquitted himself successfully. Elected a member of the French Academy, in 1634, he was appointed Maitre d' 'Hotel to the king, and Introducer of Ambassadors to the Re- gent. He died in 1648. His poems and letters are witty, but full of affectation; and are no longer read. He was the oracle of the pre- cieuses, the courtiers, and even the Academy, whose members went into mourning at his death. Madame de Sevigne, whose fame has out- lived his own, bowed beneath the yoke of his reputation, as well as her cousin Bussy, and many other writers. He revived at court the taste for ballads, roundelays, and triplets. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 125 And which would fall into disgrace, If such a thing could really be, And lose within your heart his place, Father Vincent* or he?" These verses, presuming and familiar as they were in more than one point of view, would probably have been treated as an impertinence by the regent, had not the name of Buckingham still possessed sufficient power to affect her feelings ; while the patronage bestowed by the Princess de Conde upon the poet, induced her to appear unconscious of their real meaning. She therefore desired him to repeat the lines, and then bade him transcribe them for her, but on no account to give a copy to any one. Voiture obeyed ; and no surprise and annoyance could be greater than that of Anne of Austria, when she found that they had traveled not only to the Louvre, but all over Paris. The queen reproached the poet angrily with his perfidy, nor could he succeed in convincing her of the fidelity with which he had observed her commands ; and the courtiers, meanwhile, * Saint Vincent de Paule, the queen's confessor. After terminating his studies with distinction, he entered holy orders in 1600. Having gone to Marseilles to take possession of a bequest, he was made pris- oner by some pirates, and carried off to Tunis, where he became a slave. He succeeded in effecting his escape, and returned to France in 1607. In 1610, he was appointed almoner to Marguerite de Valois, and became tutor to the sons of the Count de Gondi ; " but the holy confessor of Anne of Austria," says M. Audibert, in his French Plu- tarch, "could not form after his own model the unevangelic character of his pupil, the Cardinal de Retz, and made a saint of him in much the same way as the Jesuits made a devotee of Voltaire." Vincent de Paule originated the idea of foreign missions, and carried it out with such Mat, that Louis XIII. made him Almoner-General of the Galleys. He frequently visited the galley-slaves, consoling them with religious help ; and it is even said that, upon one occasion, he took the place of a galleyan, by whose despair he was deeply affected. France is in- debted to his pious zeal for the hospitals of the Bicetre, the Salp^triere, the Hospital of Pity, that of Marseilles for galley-slaves, and the Found- ling at Paris. He also instituted, in 1625, the Missionary Congregation. Called to the Ecclesiastical Council, he died in 1660. 126 LOUIS XIV. AND did ample justice to the bitterness of the epigram, of which the regent was so well aware that she was still brooding over the insult, when she chanced one day to hear the little De Guiche repeating the verses, verbatim, for the amusement of the boy-king, and boasting that he had learned them from hearing Voiture twice repeat them to Her Majesty. All was, of course, explained ; and the count severely lectured for having dared to mention any thing which had occurred in the presence of the queen. He had, however, as he confessed, made a similar display of memory to his governess, who, having satisfied herself that the child's version was a faithful one, took a copy forthwith, and forwarded it to a friend at the palace, whence, as a matter of course, it soon traveled to every quarter of the capital. During the first year of her widowhood, Anne of Aus- tria constantly frequented the churches ; and as some saintly festival is celebrated in one or other of them every day, she made a point of attending each at that particular moment. In the midst of this devout pilgrimage the ap- pearance of Madame de Chevreuse was hourly expected. For twenty years she had been the personal friend of the queen ; and for ten years she had suffered persecution on that account. She had been exiled, proscribed, and men- aced with imprisonment ; and she had made her escape in male attire to Rome, whence she had traveled over Europe, never for one moment ceasing to exert all the influence of her beauty and her wit in creating new enemies for Riche- lieu. Not content with returning to Paris quietly, she presumed upon these circumstances, and left Brussels with a suite of twenty carriages ; but when within three days' journey of the capital, she encountered the Prince de Mar- sillac, who had started from Paris to meet her, and to ex- plain how much circumstances had changed during her ab- sence. He informed her that the queen had become devout, and greatly altered in every respect since they parted ; and THE COURT OF FRANCE. 127 besought her to regulate her conduct upon this fact, of which he had traveled post to apprise her. Madame de Chevreuse was not, however, to be easily turned from her purpose ; and, having thanked him for the attention he had manifested, she continued her journey, only stopping at Senlis to be joined by her husband, and thence proceeding to the Louvre. The queen received her graciously, and appeared much pleased to see her once more ; but still the reception was not what she had anticipated — there was a shade of ceremony mingled with it, which disconcerted the duchess ; the truth being that the queen had not only become devout, as the Prince de Marsillac had stated, but also that she had about her person the once beautiful Charlotte de Montmorency,* the old rival of Ma- dame de Chevreuse, who had now passed her fiftieth year, and was less than ever disposed to tolerate the extrava- gances of the intriguing duchess, against whom she had already warned her royal mistress, who still retained the same ideas of gallantly and vanity, which are such bad ac- companiments to the age of forty-five.t Madame de Chevreuse was unaware of this circumstance, and was consequently highly displeased at the manner of her reception ; forgetting that she had been wandering over the world, and intriguing alike in Flanders, Spain, and Lorraine, and everywhere making herself inimical to the interests of her own country. She had, moreover, for- gotten to bear in mind the changes which time must natu- rally effect, and expected to find every thing in France as she had left it ; whereas, not only the private feelings of the queen had undergone a revolution, but even her politi- cal sentiments. Madame de Chevreuse was aware of the affection, perhaps not altogether disinterested, of Anne of * " Under heaven there was at. that time nothing so beautiful as Made- moiselle de Montmorency, nor more graceful, nor more perfect." [She was the mother of the Great Conde.] — Bassompierre. t Madame de Motteville. 128 LOCIS XIV. AND Austria for her brother, and her extreme attachment to her native country, to which she had more than once endeav- ored to sacrifice the interests of France ; but she had yet to comprehend how entirely the position of the queen was altered, and until this fact was forced upon her she was ut- terly unable to appreciate her own. The regent-mother of Louis XIV. was no longer a helpless, childless, and per- secuted woman, involved in the wild and ill-sustained plots of the Duke d'Orleans. She had become a powerful sov- ereign, upon whom depended, in an eminent degree, the welfare of a great nation. The politics of Madame de Chevreuse betrayed her sex. Her diplomacy was loud-voiced and transparent ; and she had now to contend with a man who struck, while she only threatened; and who, as was once said of a Hungarian king, if he had an iron hand, understood the secret of gloving it in velvet. She had not retired more than two hours from the apartments of the queen, when she was informed that Cardinal Mazarin requested the honor of an interview, and all her old and daring spirit, which had been damped by the reception of Anne of Austria, rose at the intelligence, while nothing could exceed the haughtiness with which she received him. The cardinal advanced toward her, with a smile upon his lips, and welcomed her in accents of the most perfect suavity. He stated that, having been informed of her ar- rival he had hastened to present his compliments ; and, aware that the assignations of the privy purse* were some- what tardy, and that after so long and expensive a journey 6he might probably be in want of money, he had ventured to bring her fifty thousand gold crowns, which he begged her to accept as a loan.t More and more self-deluded by the obsequious bearing of the minister, the duchess became convinced that she still retained all her former influence ; and desiring one of her ladies who was in the apartment * Epargnes. t Louis XIV. et son Siecle THE COURT OR FRANCE. 129 to withdraw, she resolved to ascertain the extent of her power, than which nothing could have accorded better with the designs of Mazarin, who was resolved to probe to the very depth her ambitious and daring spirit, which he was aware that he could subdue at any moment when he might conceive it to be expedient. They were no sooner alone than Madame de Chevreuse requested the restoration of M. de Vendome to his government. This was courte- ously refused, on the ground that it had been transferred to Monsieur de Meilleraye ; but the minister temporized by offering to give him the Admiralty, held by M. de Breze, who would be a less dangerous enemy than the present Governor of Brittany ; and, although only half satisfied, Madame de Chevreuse was compelled to abandon the point. Nevertheless she made sundry other demands upon the generosity of Mazarin, some of which were conceded ; and for some time she placed firm faith in his good-will ; but, misled by her long absence from court, and her conse- quent ignorance of the exact state of things, she was impru- dent enough, whenever she was in conversation with the queen, to speak slightingly and depreciatingly of the cardi- nal ; a want of caution which undermined the affection of Anne of Austria from day to day. Madame d'Hautefort, by a similar line of conduct, sub- jected herself to the same fate.* De Chavigny and his father, M. de Boutheillier, also fell into disgrace. They considered themselves ill treated by Mazarin, and resigned office, attaching themselves to M. de Beaufort, whose star had again failed, under the influence of that of the Prince de Conde, but whose faction strength- ened by degrees until it became formidable ; and a quarrel * From the period when the king, Louis XIII., during his passion for this lady, caused her to he appointed tiring-woman to the queen, and to be called Madame, all the ladies who succeeded to the same office availed themselves of the privilege, and thenceforward it was re- garded as a right. r* 130 LOUIS XIV. AND between two ladies of the court, the one, the daughter of the Princess de Conde,* the other, the mistress of the Duke de Beaufort,t which terminated in the banishment of the latter to one of her estates, caused it more prominently to declare itself. The Duke de Beaufort, who was seriously annoyed by the exile of Madame de Montbazon from court, and who was aware that it had originated rather with Ma- zarin than with the Condes, resolved to revenge it upon the minister, and it was decided that he and his friends should assassinate him. Bold as he was, however, the duke made a bad conspirator ; he was imprudent enough to exhibit ill-humor toward the queen, which occasionally degenerated from discourtesy into actual rudeness ; and, like the Duch- ess de Chevreuse and Madame d'Hautefort, he ere long entirely alienated her regard. The conspiracy, neverthe- less, proceeded, and the day of its execution was arranged, when the cardinal was saved by the simple circumstance of meeting the Duke d'Orleans, who took a seat in his car- riage, and by his presence thwarted the whole scheme. Another attempt was made ; but the minister, forewarned in time, absented himself from the place where the conspir- ators awaited him. On the morrow, the Louvre was rife with reports on the subject of the baffled plot, and the queen expressed her indignation in unmeasured terms, declaring that before forty-eight hours should have elapsed, she would avenge herself upon its authors.^ In the evening, the Duke de Beaufort, who had been hunting, arrived at the Louvre, and on the stairs he encountered the Duchess de Guise, and his mother, Madame de Vendome, who had passed the day with the queen ; and, aware of her resolution to visit with condign punishment the crime conceived against the cardinal, entreated him to retire, having heard him publicly * Madame de Longueville. t Madame de Montbazon, step-daughter of Madame de Chevreuse. t Memoires de Madame de Motteville. THE UOUCT OF FRANCE. 131 accused as the instigator of the plot ; beseeching him at the same time to listen to the advice of his friends, and to depart for a time to Anet. He, however, refused to listen to their suggestions, and when they assured him that his life would perhaps be sacrificed by his appearance at that moment, he merely replied, " They dare not !" and passed on. " Alas 1 my dear son," said his weeping mother, " the Duke de Guise uttered the same words on the very day of his as- sassination." M. de Beaufort answered by a laugh of doubt and defiance. He had seen the queen only on the previous evening, when he observed no change in her manner ; and confiding in this circumstance, he entered the royal apart- ments without one misgiving. Anne of Austria received him with a gracious smile, made several inquiries relative to the sport of the day, and was still calmly conversing with him, when Mazarin entered in his turn, whom she desired to attend her to her chamber ; upon which the duke, seeing his audience at an end, was also about to retire by another door, when he was arrested at the threshold by the captain of the queen's guards. He was conducted to the town of Vincennes, where he requested that servants of his own might be allowed to replace those who were assigned to him, but his applica- tion was refused ; and at the same time all his relatives were ordered to leave the capital. The arrest of the Duke de Beaufort, who had supposed himself, from the concession of the queen, already cited, to have been selected as the governor of the young king, created universal astonishment. People began to feel almost grateful to Mazarin when a few weeks elapsed without a new arrest ; and he obtained credit for forbear- ance on many occasions where his neutrality arose only from want of power. He caused it to be understood that he had been compelled to this extreme measure ; and that the advice of Monsieur and the Prince de Conde had prevailed with the queen over his own. His courtesy 132 LOUIS XIV. AND increased ; he became more affable, more accessible, more amiable than ever; and while the courtiers still esteemed themselves his equals, he, by this skillful conduct, was enabled to ascend to the very pinnacle of that eminence which was the object and aim of his ambition. The Parliament, delivered from the dictation of Richelieu, who had crippled their privileges, believed that the age of the new minister, by whom they were constantly assured that the queen would act only by their advice, was destined to renew the age of gold. The clergy preached nothing but obedience ; and all the world suddenly found themselves Mazarinites.* Madame de Chevreuse, indignant at the exile of so many of her personal friends, ventured to remonstrate with the queen, and to remind her of the gratitude which she owed to the very individuals whom she had since visited with her displeasure ; but Anne of Austria replied, in the cold and contemptuous tone which she so well knew how to assume, that she would beg the duchess to allow her to govern the state, and to settle the affairs of France according to her own judgment ; while she would also advise her as a friend to live peaceably in Paris, without meddling in any intrigue ; and so enjoy, under the regency, the tranquillity which she had never found during the reign of the late king. Unawed by this warn- ing, Madame de Chevreuse still continued to remonstrate ; and even uttered sundry reproaches, which Anne of Aus- tria resented by desiring her to return to Tours, where she had already been exiled under Louis XIII. The duchess obeyed ; but a short time afterward she left Tours in disguise, and embarked with her daughter for England. Of all the queen's former friends, none were now left at court save Madame de Senecey and Madame d'Haute- fort, while their tenure of favor had already become more than doubtful ; nor was it long ere the latter was in her * Cardinal dc Retz. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 133 turn exiled, for offering unpalatable advice to her royal mistress ; to which she had been induced, not only by her own anxiety for the queen's reputation, but also by that of several other individuals about the court, who saw with regret that the evil reports which were gaining ground of her undue attachment to the Italian minister, were undermining the respect and affection of the people. As to Madame de Senecey, although she found herself grad- ually overlooked, and finally deprived of all influence, ex- cluded from the confidence of the queen, and refused every favor which she ventured to solicit — she tacitly accepted the ungracious position assigned to her, and clinging to the court rather from habit than from incli- nation, subsided into utter insignificance. The famous faction of the hnportants was extinguished forever; and Mazarin ruled France in the names of the king, the queen, and the council.* At this period the Duke d'Enghien arrived in the capital with all his laurels gathered at Rocroy fresh upon him ; and his reception was enthusiastic. His own satis- faction was, however, decreased by the termination of the misunderstanding between his sister and Madame de Mont- bazon, who had not been compelled, as he considered, to make atonement equal to her offense ; and his first design on leaching Paris was to challenge the Duke de Beaufort, who had taken so prominent and hostile a part in the quarrel. Unfortunately for his project, he at once learned the arrest of the duke ; and finding himself without any adversary in the affair, of sufficient rank to justify a prince of the blood in drawing his sword against him, it was ultimately resolved that the issue of the disagreement should be confided to the friends of both parties. The Count de Colignyt no sooner ascertained this fact, than * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Grandson of the famous Admiral de Coligny, who was one of the victims of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. 134 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. he requested permission of M. d ! Enghien to call out the Duke de Guise, who had been one of the champions of Madame de Montbazon, and who was reported to have succeeded the Duke de Beaufort in her good graces. De Guise had at this period attained his twenty-ninth year; and had just been recalled to France by the queen. The Duke d'Enghien acceded to the request of Coligny, who selected as his second the Count d'Estrade ;* and his challenge was at once accepted. Coligny, grievously wounded, and previously enfeebled by severe illness, was compelled to surrender, and after lingering for a few months, ultimately died ; while the Duke de Guise ex- perienced no diminution of his favor at court, but was suffered to enjoy his triumph with utter impunity ; a fact which at once overthrew all the efforts that had been made by Richelieu to Suppress dueling, and restored alike its practice and its fashion.t " This duel," says Mademoiselle, " in some degree renewed the divisions at court ; but not sufficiently to in- terfere with its pleasures ; there was dancing everywhere, and especially in my apartments, although it was not con- sistent to hear the sound of violins in a room hung with black." X * Godfrey, Count d'Estrade, was born at Agen, in 1607, and became Marshal of France and Viceroy of America. He served a long time in Holland, under Prince Maurice, as the agent of France; and was ap- pointed ambassador-extraordinary in England, in 1661 . Having nego- tiated, in 1662, the purchase of Dunkirk, he was authorized to receive the city from the English. In 1666 he was again sent to London in the same capacity, and sustained, with great firmness, the prerogatives of the French crown. In 1667 he concluded, in Holland, the treaty of Breda. He died in 1686. t " Richelieu had based his extreme severity on this point upon a calculation made by M. de Lominie, in March 1607, who proved that since the accession of Henry IV., in 1589, to that period, four thousand noblemen had been killed in duels ; making an average of two hundred and twenty yearly." — Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. CHAPTER VI. The Palais-Cardinal — " What's in a Name V — Establishment of Louis XIV. — Amusements of the royal Children — The Children of Honor — Education of the young King — Historical Readings by Laporte — Aversion of the King to Mazarin — M. de Mancini and the Bougeoir — The Grand Turk — The Wardrobe of Louis XIV. — A royal Fast — Campaign of Flanders — The Rodogune of Corneille — Arrival of Queen Henrietta in France — Avarice of Mazarin — Battle of Nordlingen — Selfishness of Mazarin — Contract of Marie de Gonzague and the King of Naples — The Cardinal de Retz — Madame de Sevigne — The Polish Nobles — A Contrast. Near the close of the year 1643, the queen left the Louvre, and with the infant princes took up her abode in the Cardinal-Palace, which, it may be remembered, had been bequeathed by Richelieu to the young king ; but as it was suggested by the Marquis de Prouville, the con- troller of the king's household, that it was not expedient for His Majesty to inhabit the residence of a subject, under any circumstances whatever, the inscription above the door- way was effaced, and that of Palais-Royal was substituted in its stead. 1 36 LOUIS XIV. AND The Cardinal-Palace was originally a simple residence, situated at the extremity of Paris, near the wall of the city. It had been rebuilt in 1629, on the space occupied by the hotels of Rambouillet and Mercoeur, purchased by the car- dinal, and it had increased as his fortune became aggran- dized. More powerful than the sovereign the cardinal was anxious to be also magnificent. Consequently the wall had been thrown down, the moat had been filled in, and the garden, freed from all that had impeded the regu- larity of its dimensions, had extended itself to the meadows, upon which the rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, and the rue Vivienne have since been built. Moreover, Richelieu had opened the street which bears his name, and which led di- rectly from his palace to his farm of Lagrange-Bateliere, situated at the foot of Montmatre. All these acquisitions, including the price of the Hotel de Sillery, which he had purchased for the sole purpose of pulling it down, in order to have an open square in front of the new edifice, had cost the cardinal 816,618 livres ; an enormous sum at that time, since it corresponded to nearly 4,000,000 of the money of the present day.* It was, therefore, by no means extraordinary that when Madame d'Aiguillon, the niece of Richelieu, was informed of the removal of the inscription from the facade of this cel- ebrated palace, she should expostulate firmly, but respect- fully, with the queen upon the ungracious and ungraceful disregard to the memory of the cardinal, which was mani- fested by the change ; nor, that Anne of Austria, aware that but for the magnificent liberality of the minister to his young monarch, it could never have been effected, should instantly cause its restoration. Popular taste had, howev- er, decided against any further alteration, and although on stone it again became the Cardinal-Palace, on the lips of the Parisians it was still known only as the Palais-Royal. Louis XIV., then five years old, was installed in the apart- * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 137 ments of Richelieu ; his accommodations were confined, but conveniently situated between the gallery of Illustrious Per- sonages, which occupied the left wing of the second court, and that which ran along the wing of the front court, and in which Philip de Champagne,* the favorite painter of His Eminence, had portrayed the leading events of his life. The apartments of the Queen-Regent were much more spacious and elegant ; but still, not satisfied with what Richelieu had done, she added to the luxury of the ornaments of which he had already been so prodigal ; and confided the task of these interior embellishments to La Mercier, her architect, and to Vouet, who proclaimed him- self the first painter in Europe.t Her cabinet, which was considered as the marvel and the miracle of Paris, contained a work by Leonardo da Vinci ; the Kindred of the Virgin, by Andrea del Sarto ; an JEneas saving Anchises, by Annibal Carraccio ; a Flight into Egyjrt, by Guido ; a St. John mounted on an Eagle, by Raphael ; two pictures by Poussin ; and the Pilgrims of Emmaiis, by Paul Veronese. This cabinet was the wojk of the cardinal ; but the queen added to it a bath-room, an oratoiy, and a gallery. All which the taste of the time could combine of flowers, ciphers, and allegories, was scat- tered over a golden ground in the bath-room. The oratory was hung with paintings by Champagne, Vouet, and Bour- * Philip Van-Champagne, born at Brussels in 1602, went to Paris in 1621, where he became the pupil of Poussin. He obtained the appoint- ment of painter to the king, with a pension of one«thousand two hundred livres. On the formation of the Academy of Painting, in 1648, he was one of the first members received, and was named rector. He died in 1674. His finest works were, The Vow of Louis XIII.; the Appari- tion of Saint Gervais and Saint Protais to Saint Ambrose, and the Translation of their Bodies ; a Cena, &c. t Simon Vouet, a celebrated painter of the French school, was born in Paris, in 1582. He received a pension from Louis XIII. His school produced Lebrun, Lesueur, and Mignard. He died first painter and drawing-master to the king, in 1641. His works contain nothing re- markable, and appear unworthy of the vogue which they obtained. 138 LOl'IS XIV. AND don Stella,* representing the. principal events in the life of the Virgin. A solitary window, of which the -frame was silver, served to light it. As regarded the gallery, which was placed in the most retired situation, whose ceiling was painted hy Vouet, and whose floor was wrought by Mare, the regent appropriated it as a council-chamber.t Mazarin had also his apartments in the palace, looking upon the rue des Bons Enfans ; and he had an armed guard at their entrance, similar to those of its royal tenants. At this time Louis was still under the care of Madame de Senecey and his female attendants, who were to con- tinue their charge until he should reach his seventh year. The cardinal had the superintendence of his education ; while M. de Villeroi was appointed his governor ; M. Du- mont, his sub-governor ; M. de Perefixe,Jhis preceptor ; and * We can find but one painter of the name who flourished at that period — James Stella, born at Lyons, in 1596, of a family of artists, originally from Flanders. In 1616 he made a journey to Italy, and visited Rome and Florence. When he returned to France, he was ap- pointed first painter to the king, and Knight of the Order of St. Michael. He died in 1657. His works are much esteemed. Two of them, Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, and Minerva surrounded by the Muses, are in the gallery of the Louvre. This is, in all probability, the artist to whom allusion is made in the text, and who has been confused with Sebastian Bourdon, born in Montpellier, so late as 1616, and who was the Director of the Academy of Painting, and made himself cele- brated at the age of twenty-seven by his Martyrdom of St. Peter, which was his best work. He died in 1671. One of the principal paintings in St. Peter's at Rome*is the production of his pencil. t Louis XIV. et son Siecle. Extracted from the work of M. Vatout on the Royal Residences. \ Hardouin de Beaumont de Perefixe, born in 1605, was appointed preceptor to Louis XIV. in 1644, Bishop of Rodez in 1648, and soon afterward confessor to the king ; member of the French Academy in 1654, and Archbishop of Paris in 1662. He died in 1670, universally regretted both for his wisdom and for his high morality. He wrote, for the use of his royal pupil, a book, entitled Institutio Principis; but his principal work was a Life of Henry IV., which has been translated into almost every European laugnage. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 139 Laporte, his first valet-de-chambre. All the amusements of the infant king were of a military tendency. He delight- ed in handling arms, and drumming upon the windows and tables ; while the Duke d'Anjou, on the contrary, was gen- tle and quiet in his sports. Mademoiselle mentions in her Memoirs that she was in the habit of going generally twice a-day to play with the little princes; and that the Duke d'Anjou was the prettiest child in the world ; while the more martial tastes of the king do not appear to have made an equal impression upon her. Louis had his baby-court, of which the leader was the Count de Guiche. In 1636, Louis Henry de Lomenie,* then seven years of age, was added to their number; and it is to him that those who are interested in the childhood of the young sovereign are indebted for the earliest anecdotes which have been record- ed. De Lomenie was already installed as one of the " chil- dren of honor," for thus were the associates of Louis offi- cially called, when a reinforcement of the little court took place ; and his account of this ceremonial is too character- istic to be omitted. The new courtiers were the Marquis de la Chatre, the Messieurs de Coislin, the nephew of the Chancellor Seguin, M. de Vivonne,t the Count de Plessis Praslin, and the Chevalier, his brother. The queen-regent had placed about the person of the king, Madame de la Salle, one of her femmes-de-chambre ; and it was she who received the noble recruits, drums beat- ing, at the head of the troop of" children of honor" already on the establishment, in the gallery of the Louvre which contained the portraits of the kings of France. " She car- ried a pike in her hand, a gorget rested upon her tight-fit- ting and stiffly-starched neckerchief, and she had a man's hat upon her head, covered with a profusion of black feath- ers, and a sword by her side. She presented a musket to * Son of the Count de Brienne, who succeeded Chavigny as Secre- tary of State. f Afterward Marshal of France. 140 LOUIS XIV. AND each of the new comers, by whom it was received with a military salute, the order forbidding them to take off their hats. She then kissed them in succession upon the fore- head, gave them her blessing as cavalierly as the abbe de Gondi* himself could have done ; and this accomplished, ordered the drill which was performed daily." t The king and the children of honor were in the habit of exchanging trifling presents, and De Lomenie having, on one occasion, delighted his royal playfellow by some gift, and being desirous to amuse himself with a crossbow which was just then in favor with Louis, the latter consented in return to lend him the coveted plaything ; but anxious to repossess it, eventually held out his hand to take it back, when Madame de Senecey observed : " Sire, kings give what they lend." Upon which Louis, desiring his young companion to approach, said, calmly : " Keep the cross- bow, M. de Lomenie : I wish that it were something of more importance, but such as it is, I give it you with all my heart." It is not possible to suppose, even if this were a spontaneous movement, that it was equally an improvised address ; but it is evident that if Madame de Senecey were an able prompter, she had at once an apt and a docile pupil. At seven years of age, Louis suddenly found every thing changed about him. MM. de Villeroi and Perefixe, La- porte, and the other valets came into office, and all his fe- male attendants were withdrawn; but not even his little court could compensate to the royal child for the bereave- ment, when he found himself all at once surrounded by male attendants, and missed many of the most cherished indul- gences of his infancy. Laporte relates that the young king was greatly cha- grined on discovering the inability of those about him to relate the fairy tales with which he had hitherto been lulled to sleep ; upon which he ventured to suggest to the queen, * Afterward Cardinal de Retz. t Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 141 that should Her Majesty consider it expedient, he would substitute for these fables some work of more utility, that in the event of the king's continuing wakeful, he might at least retain impressions worthy to remain upon his mem- ory. He then obtained from M. de Perefixe, Mezerai's History of France, from which he each night read a chap- ter aloud ; and ere long, Louis, contrary to his expectation, became greatly interested in this new study, protesting that he would, when he grew up, emulate Charlemagne, Saint Louis, and Francis I. ; and exhibiting great displeasure when he was told that he would be a second Louis the Slothful As these historical readings proceeded, the pleasure which the little king evinced in their progress increased more and more ; but Laporte was not long ere he discov- ered that they by no means afforded equal satisfaction to the cardinal ; who, on one occasion, when Louis was in bed, listening to the Life of Hugues Capet, entered the chamber on his way to the Concicrgerie where he resided ; and in- quiring the name of the book from which he was reading, and being told that it was the History of France, shrugged his shoulders, and left the room abruptly, without making any remark. Louis, as soon as he was aware of the pres- ence of Mazarin, had shut his eyes, and affected to be asleep ; but on the morrow the cardinal observed publicly that he presumed the governor of the king put on his stock- ings, as he found that his valet-de-chambre was teaching him history. The policy of the wily cardinal had begun even thus early to prompt his antipathy to the mental pro- gression of the young sovereign. In all that related to his physical development he was zealous ; nor was he less will- ing to encourage the incipient vanity which betrayed itself in the bearing and actions of Louis ; his haughtiness and his egotism met with no rebuke ; it was the intellect, not the passions, or the bodily strength of the prince, which he desired to cripple ; he was willing that he should mount 142 LOUIS XIV. A N D rhe triumphal ear. provided the reins remained in his own hands : and to insure this, it was necessary that he should be rendered incapable of grasping them. The aversion of Louis, child as he was, for the cardinal, was at once strong and tenacious : and this aversion, far from being confined to the person of the minister, was ex- tended to all his family, whom he had sent for from Italy, and who were sufficiently numerous to give full scope to the hatred of the young king. One of the nephews of the Mazarin had been admitted into the ranks of the children of honor: and amiable and high-spirited as he was. Louis still included him in his distaste, of winch he gave a proof every night, when, as he was about to retire, the first valet- de-chambre presented, by his order, a candlestick containing two wax-fights to whichever member of his little court he desired to retain as his companion while preparing to 2:0 to rest : by desiring that the bougie should not be given to M. de Mancini. On one occasion, at Compiegne,* as the cardinal was passin? with a numerous suite alone: the terrace, the king turned away, savin g. without any attempt to lower his voice : " There is the Grand Turk going by.'* Deplessis, a gentleman of the sleeve.t who overheard the remark, im- mediately reported it to the regent, who sent for her son, expressed great displeasure, and insisted upon his declaring * This Chateau-Royal is one of the most remarkable in France, alike • xtent and ": It was rebuilt by Louis XV.. completed under Louis XVI.. and comr. te& by Napoleon. Near Com- piegne is a vast forest. In the fifteenth century, the English took - —.on of it: but Charles VII. drove them out; and Joan of Arc feU into their power during the siere. t The Gentlemen of the Sleeve were a corps of nobles attached to the personal service of the French princes from the period when they passed from the care of their female to that of their male attendants, until their majority. They accompanied them everywhere : and as etiquet did not permit them to hold the roval hand, they merely touch- ed the sleeve of their roval c: 1 « THE COCK T OF F a A A C >.. 1 13 to her the name of the person who had bestowed this ap- pellation upon the minister ; her threats, were, however, useless, for Louis persisted in asserting that no one had prompted him to bestow it, but that it had suggested itself to his own mind. He also made a remark of similar tend- ency some time subsequently at St. Germain, when, as the swords and spurs of the gentlemen in attendance upon Ma- zarin struck against the marble stairs when they retired, he said, dryly : " His Eminence the cardinal makes a great noise wherever he passes ; he must have about five hundred persons in his suite." And again, a few days afterward, as he was traversing a passage in which he observed one of the household of the minister, named Bois-Ferme, evi- dently in attendance, he turned to M. de Nyert and La- porte, who were following him, and observed : " So the cardinal is with mamma again, for I see Bois-Ferme in the passage. Does he always wait there V " Yes, Sire," answered Nyert ; " but in addition to Bois- Ferme, there is another gentleman upon the stairs, and two in the corridor." " There is one at every stride, then," said the young king. The state affected by the cardinal already jarred upon the natural haughtiness of the young monarch ; and boy as he was, it was impossible that he could contrast the exag- gerated magnificence of his mother's minister with his own neglected and almost destitute condition, without feeling how insultingly Mazarin had profited by his weakness and want of power. That those by whom Louis was surround- ed were equally inimical to the cardinal there can be no doubt ; and thus the aversion of the young king was per- mitted to grow on unchecked by expostulation of any kind ; save in the occasional conferences with the regent, during which he stood and listened with a swelling heart and a proud eye, and from which he retired only strengthened in his distaste. Nothing more, however, was requisite than 144 LOUIS XIV. AND that he should look around him, and remembering who he was, throw back the coverings of his bed, and reveal the sheets, worn and ragged, through which Laporte relates that his legs occasionally passed, and rested on the bare matress ; or take from the hands of an attendant the dress- ing-gown of green velvet, lined with squirrel-fur, which, made on the dimensions necessary for a previous year, fin- ished by reaching only half-way down his legs. Nor were uis equipages more magnificent than his wardrobe ; for wishing one day to proceed to Conflans to take a bath, La- porte gave the necessary orders, and a carriage drove up to convey His Majesty ; but as Laporte was about to enter it, in order to prepare the interior for the reception of his master, he perceived that the leather fittings of the doors had been removed, and that it was altogether in so dilapi- dated a condition that even the short journey which had been contemplated could not be undertaken without great risk of accident. Laporte was accordingly compelled to announce to the king that he must forego his project, as it would not only be attended with danger, but that, more- over, he would excite the mockery of the people by appear- ing in such an equipage. Louis, believing that there must be exaggeration in the report, insisted upon seeing the car- riage himself; when he no sooner discovered the wretched state of the vehicle, and the want of respect with which he was treated in being exposed to travel in such a style, than he became red with anger, turned away in disgust, and the same evening complained bitterly to the regent, to the car- dinal, and to M. de Maison, who was at that period the su- perintendent of finance. Thanks to this expostulation, the king had five new carriages.* Nor did the avarice of Mazarin display itself only toward the young monarch ; for the court of Anne of Austria her- self, to whom he owed alike his elevation and his power — whose very reputation had been sacrificed to the furtherance * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 145 of his ambition — was in so deplorable a state of penury and discomfort, that Madame de Motteville distinctly declares in her Memoirs, that the ladies attached to the person of the queen-regent had no table provided for them in the palace, and very frequently were without food of any kind until after her supper, when they devoured the fragments of the re- past, eating even the remains of her bread, and making use of her finger-napkin. A cotemporaneous writer states, that " the cardinal declared he desired nothing for himself; and that, all his family being in Italy, he would adopt as his re- lations the servants of the queen, and seek alike his great- ness and his security in overwhelming them with benefits !" * The sequel proved the sincerity with which he had put forth the assertion. The year 1644 was much less fertile in events. Mon- sieur had taken Gravelines, and won the battle of Fribourg ; and although, as a counterbalance to this success, the battle of Lerida and the siege of Tarragona had both terminated unfortunately in Spain, the court eagerly seized so legiti- mate a subject of rejoicing as the victory of the Duke d'Or- leans at Gravelines, to compensate itself for a revolt which had lately taken place in Paris, on the occasion of certain house taxes which the government had endeavored to im- pose, and which had no result beyond providing the parlia- ment with new subjects of complaint against the minister. Mademoiselle expatiates with great complacency upon these demonstrations, of which, as the daughter of the vic- tor, she was necessarily the heroine. " The day that the Te Dcum was chanted at Notre-Dame in gratitude for this victory," she says, " there were public rejoicings. The chancellor gave, the same evening, some very pretty fire- works in front of his hotel, to which I was invited by Ma- dame de Sully. Madame had a great bonfire on the morrow in the court of the Orleans Palace, while at all the windows there were paper lanterns, with the arms of their Royal * La Rochefoucauld. VOL. I. G 1 40 LUUIS X V. AND Highnesses painted upon them ; and to render the ceremo- ny complete, there was also a ball and a collation. Two days afterward, I did the same ; and then I took the violins to the queen, who was pleased to make us dance a tolera- bly long time on the terrace of the Palais-Royal."* In this year sprung to life the famous sect of the Jansen- ists, to which, however, we shall do no more than allude, as religious controversies are irrelevant to our purpose. At this period, too, Comeille completed his Rodogune — one of his master-pieces — of which he was himself so enam- ored that, in the Introduction, he exclaims : " It unites beauty of subject, novelty of fiction, poetical strength, fa- cility of expression, solid reasoning, ardent passion, and the tenderness of love ; and this happy assemblage is so min- gled, that it increases from act to act : the second surpasses the first ; the third is superior to the second ; and the last exceeds all the others. The action is single, great, and com- plete ; its duration does not go beyond, or scarcely beyond, the representation. The subject is one of the most illustrious that can be imagined ; and the unity of place is to be met with as I indicate it in the third of my discourses, and with the indulgence which I have requested for the theater." t * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. t Pierre Comeille, the celebrated tragic poet, surnamed the Father of French Tragedy, was born at Rouen, in 1606. Educated by the Jesuits, he appeared at the bar, where he was unsuccessful ; upon which he resolved to devote himself to poetry. lie wrote the comedy of McCain 1620; The Widow, The Palace Gallery, The Lady's Maid. The Place-Royale, Clitandra, &c. He took a higher flight in his Me- dea, and laid the foundation of his fame by The Cid, which was per- formed in 1636. The tragedies of The Horaces and Cinna, represented in 1639, revealed all the resources of his genius, as well as Polyeucte, Pompey, and Rodogune. The tragedies of Heraclius, Sertorius, and Nicodemus commenced the era of decline, consequent upon the old age of the Great Comeille. Theodosius, Perthurita, Attila, Agesilas, Pul- cheria, Otho, Sec., were those by which this father of tragedy terminated his dramatic career. He also translated the Imitation of Jesus Christ into French verse. He died in 1684, Dean of the French Academy. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 147 What Dryden did in England for his patrons, Corneille did in his own country for himself. A short time subsequently, the troubles in England, which had commenced during the ministiy of Richelieu, had so grievously increased, that the queen was compelled to quit the country, and to take refuge in France. She disem- barked at Brest ; but her health was so shaken by anxiety and suffering, that she found herself unable to proceed di- rectly to Paris, and consequently complied with the advice of her medical attendants, who had counseled her to try the waters of Bourbon. At the close of the season, when she announced her intention of joining the court, Mademoi- selle was sent by their majesties as far as Bourg-la-Reine, to meet and welcome her; and, in her turn, was met by Monsieur, who had already rejoined his royal and unhappy sister. As they were about to enter Paris on their return, they encountered the king and the queen-regent a little be- yond the faubourg ; and, after a mutual salutation, Henri- etta of England took her seat in the same carriage with their majesties, and so proceeded to the Louvre. Although she had made every exertion both to recover her health and to preserve her appearance, the overtaxed strength of the English queen had failed under her trials, and her faint and faded countenance excited general sympathy ; but, never- theless, a smile returned to her pale lips as she received, on the morrow, all the honors due to a princess of the blood- royal of France ; and saw herself once more beneath the roof of her father, Henry IV. For a time she maintained the state of a sovereign : her court was composed of numerous ladies of quality, maids of honor, guards, and footmen ; but this household grad- ually diminished, and, in a short time, nothing could form a greater contrast to her actual rank than her suite and her table.* She had fallen under the withering grasp of the cardinal-minister. Mademoiselle proceeds to say, with ♦ Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 1 48 LCL'IS XIV. AND the calm self-appreciation peculiar to her : " I assiduously visited the Queen of England, who, miserable as she was, never wearied of the pleasure she took in exaggerating all her past prosperity, the happiness of the life which she had led in England, the beauty and goodness of that country, the amusements in which she had shared, and, above all, the good qualities of the Prince of Wales, her son. She wished that I should see him, from which I guessed her in- tentions ; and the sequel will prove that I was not deceived in my judgment." * The year 1645 opened with the arrest of Barillon,t and the battle of Nordlingen, gained by the Duke d'Enghien and Marshal Turenne,| a victory which not only secured the inter- * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. + The President Barillon, sent a prisoner to Amboise for the remon- strances which he addressed to the Parliament. t Henry de la Tour-d'Auvergne, Viscount de Turenne, second son of Henry de la Tour-d'Auvergne, Duke de Bouillon, was born at Sedan, in 1611, and devoted himself to a military career. He first served under the orders of Prince Maurice of Orange, and was made a cap- taiu in 1626. In 1634 he passed into the French service, and obtained the rank of lieutenant-general. In Italy, in 1639, he raised the siege of Casal, and was wounded at that of Turin, in 1640. In 1643 he be- sieged and took Trino, for which exploit he received a marshal's baton. Appointed commander of the army of Germany in 1644, he reestablish- ed the Elector of Treves in his possessions; and drove the Elector of Bavaria entirely from his states in 1648. The civil war having broken out at that period, the Duke de Bouillon induced Turenne to join the Parliamentary party ; but, tired of fighting against his king, he became, in 1651, a general of the royal army, and overcame the forces of the rebel princes commanded by Conde, whom he forced to repass the Seine, and to retreat. He pursued the Spaniards through Flanders, took from them several fortresses, and made himself master of all the country between the Lys and Escaut. The peace of the Pyrennees terminated the war for a time; but it recommenced in 1667, and was concluded by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Louis XIV. having de- clared war against Holland in 1672, confided to Turenne the command of his army. In 1674, he commanded the forces in Germany, and was intrusted to defend the Rhine, and to cover Alsatia. He beat the Imperialists at Entzheim, at Mulhausen, and at Turkheim. and com- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 149 ests of France in Germany, but obtained for tbe duke the reputation never afterward forfeited, of being the first cap- tain of the age. The news of this success had no sooner reached him, than the cardinal hastened to report it to the queen-regent, who rose to meet him with the liveliest ex- pressions of delight ; but Mazarin, far from responding to her self-gratulatory demonstrations, retained his gravity of countenance as he replied : " Madam, so many individuals have fallen, that Your Majesty must not rejoice at this vic- tory."* The cardinal had, indeed, not only a long list of the slain to transmit to Anne of Austria, but also intelli- gence of the captivity of the Marshal de Grammont, who, after having made head against a body of the enemy's forces, and seen General Mercy, by whom it was com- manded, fall beneath his attack, at the head of only two regiments, had ultimately been made a prisoner after re- ceiving a severe and dangerous wound. His exchange was soon demanded, however, by the Duke d'Enghien, who, on his recovery, was anxious to reclaim him ;»and who threat- ened, should he be detained, to send the Count de Gleen, whom he had offered as his ransom, to France ; but the Elector conceded the point at once, and the illustrious captive was liberated, after having received every mark of consid- eration from his gallant enemies. Immediately after the battle the Duke d'Enghien became so seriously indisposed, that a courier at length arrived in the capital with the intel- ligence that his physicians considered his illness mortal ; but notwithstanding this fact, as a pyrotechnic display had been prepared in honor of the victory, Cardinal Mazarin determined not to deprive the court of their promised amuse- pelled them to repass the Rhine in 1675. His enemies opposed to him a rival worthy of his valor, in the person of Montecuculli ; and the two generals were about to come into collision, near the village of Sulzbach, when Turenne, while engaged in reconnoitering the posi- tion of the battery, was killed by a cannon-ball, on the 27th of July, 1G75. * Memoircs de Madame de Mutteville. 150 LOUIS XIV. AND merit; and, without reflecting upon the probable conse- quences of so glaring a demonstration of indifference to the loss of a piince who had invariably sacrificed himself to the interests of the state, and who had, moreover, covered the French arms with glory, he resolved not to defer the re- joicings ; while so heedless did he show himself even of the common rules of courtesy and feeling, that the fireworks were actually let off opposite the hotel d'Enghien, in which the duchess was then residing, whose grief must necessa- rily have been increased tenfold by a want of consideration insulting to herself, and the sounds of a festivity, built up, to all appearance, upon the ruins of her own happiness. Her sufferings were, however, fortunately of short duration, for news soon afterward arrived of the convalescence of the conqueror.* To this victory succeeded the marriage of the Princess Marie de Gonzaguet with the King of Poland ; and once more Paris was in commotion. Perhaps we shall find no opportunity more appropriate than that which is presented by this occurrence, to give a brief sketch of an individual who played a prominent part on the occasion, and whose name is intimately linked with the period of the Fronde. John Francis Paul de Gondi, afterward Cardinal de Retz, was born in 1614, at Montmirail. The nobility of his fam- ily was recent, but it occupied a high rank in the state. His father (as already stated in a note) had been general of the galleys, and afterward retired to the abbey of the Ora- tory ; but the first of his ancestors who acquired celebrity, was Albert, created Marshal of France under Catherine * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. t Louise-Marie de Gonzague, daughter of Charles, Duke of Nevers aud Mantua. She was brought up under the care of Madame de Longueville. Monsietir had sought to marry her, but the alliance was strenuously opposed by the Queen-Mother. She was afterward be- loved by the unfortunate Cinq-Mars. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 151 de Medicis, who was the son of a Florentine banker estab- lished at Lyons. This Florentine blood made itself appa- rent in Paul de Crondi, and doubtlessly endowed him with the spirit of intrigue which he displayed during the Fronde. His education was confided to Vincent de Paule; but the holy confessor of Anne of Austria had little cause to con- gratulate himself upon the evangelical progress of his pupil, whose repugnance for the ecclesiastical profession led him to commit acts of the most reckless folly, and the most im- moral nature, in the vain hope of emancipating himself from the trammels of a calling for which he was conscious that his tastes, his habits, and his principles had utterly unfitted him. The interest of his family existing principally in the Church, however, coupled with the fact that he was a younger son, caused him to despair of freedom save through his own means ; and in order to obtain it, he reluct- antly cast off every scruple, and became a duelist, a roue, and a conspirator ; in which characters he sent two chal- lenges, endeavored to run away with his own cousin, and conspired against Richelieu. Finding, nevertheless, that even enormities like these still left his gown upon his shoul- ders, and that he was condemned to live and die a church- man, he had too much energy of character to sink into insignificance, and he consequently resolved to distinguish himself in the career which had been marked out for him. He forthwith studied diligently and successfully, distin- guished himself by his erudition, and after some public conferences with a Protestant controversialist, converted his opponent to the faith of Rome. This conversion acquir- ed for him considerable celebrity ; and as we have already seen, Louis XIII., on his death-bed, appointed him Coad- jutor of Paris. He became a fashionable preacher ; but his eloquence must have been more admirable than the subject-matter of his sermons, those which remain in the MS. in the royal library being of very questionable merit. Like many other influential persons of the time, he displayed 152 LOUIS XIV. AND little moral worth, changing his party in accordance with his personal interest. His great object was a rivalry with Mazarin, and in order to effect this he did not confine himself to a mei'e endeavor to obtain the popular suffrages, but even had the boldness to attempt to supersede the cardinal in the affections of the queen-regent. His double failure is matter of histoiy. The Cardinal de Retz, despite his tem- porary importance in both parties, found his influence at an end on the reconciliation of the two factions ; and as he had lost ground despite his intrigues, although he had at one time held the destinies of the monarchy in his hands, he was suddenly consigned to the Bastille, and thence transferred to Nantes, whence he escaped, with every pros- pect of once more swaying the public mind ; but being a bad horseman he fell during his flight, dislocated his shoul- der, and was compelled to abandon the theater of his glory. He passed the remainder of his active life in wandering over Europe ; endeavoring in Spain, Italy, and Holland, to create new intrigues ; and, if report may be believed, soil- ing his holy office, and the Romish purple, which he had acquired " almost by surprise," by vulgar debauch. Nev- ertheless, he i-endered a great and solid service to his country, by energetically sustaining its interests in the con- clave during his exile, and securing the election of Alexan- der VII. ; an act of loyalty which once more opened to him the gates of France. Banishment had not, however, changed his character ; and he refused not only to the all- powerful minister, but also to the solicitation of the king, to retire from his episcopal seat ; but after the death of Mazarin he consented to exchange the archbishopric of Paris for the abbey of St. Denis. Thenceforward he aban- doned politics, and professed no interest in matters uncon- nected with religion. His last act of subtilty was an offer which he made to resign the cardinal's hat bestowed upon him during the Fronde, and to retire into a Carthusian monastery; but the project was negatived by the Pope; THE COURT OF FRANCE. 153 and there exists strong reason for suspicion that this appa- rent self-abnegation was a mere pretext for ascertaining the feeling of Louis XIV. toward him ; and that while the self-sacrificing recluse was laying his renunciation at the feet of the king, who received it very willingly, he had forewarned the court of Rome not to take him at his word. From that period he devoted himself entirely to his religious duties, and to the liquidation of the debts which he had contracted during the Fronde. His principal work was the memoirs of his life, from which we have already quoted a few passages ; and the history of this production is suffi- ciently singular to merit mention. He confided the MS. on his death-bed to an Abbe, who was his friend, requesting him to strike out whatever might tend to injure his reputa- tion ; and this person erased a considerable number of pass- ages, all relating to affairs of gallantry, in which the cardinal had been engaged in early life. A second MS. had been, it is said, placed in the hands of some nuns, and it is proba- ble that they were at least equally severe. A third MS., more complete than either of the preceding, was preserved in the archives of Epinal, whence it was withdrawn by order of the Directoiy, and confided to the citizen (after- ward Count) de Real for publication. M. Real, however, never published it ; he preserved the MS., and even took it with him into exile ; but it was only after his death that it was deposited in the royal library.* During his latter years, whenever his personal inter- ests, or the affairs of the church, drew him to Paris, he passed all his leisure hours in the society of Madame de Sevigne, whose affection for him was so great that she never could be induced to admit his faults ; and the last days of his existence were embellished by a friendship which she has immortalized in her imperishable letters. Return we now to the royal marriage, from which we have so lonoc digressed. The Palatine of Posnania and the * Geruzez, Notice sur le Cardinal de Retz. 151 LOUIS XIV. AND Bishop of Warmia had been chosen by the King Wladislas VII. as his proxies to espouse the Princess Marie; and the Duke d'Elbceuf was dispatched by the queen-regent, with a dozen persons of rank, and the carnages of the king, the Duke d'Orleans, and the cardinal, to receive them at the Porte St. Antoine. The cortege of the ambassadors was composed, first of a company of foot-guards, dressed in the oriental style, and commanded by officers splendidly attired and mounted, whose vests and mantles were enriched with rubies, dia- monds, and pearls; these were followed by two troops of horse, in the same uniforms as the preceding, but formed of richer stuffs, and having the caparisons of their chargers covered with precious stones ; and in the rear of these glittering cavaliers rode the French Academistes,* " who," says Madame de Motteville, "to do honor to the ambas- sador and dishonor to France, had gone out to meet them ;" and whose horses, covered with ribbons and feathers, looked poor and paltry beside the Polish char- gers, covered with embroidered housings, and surcharged with jewels. Nor did the carnages of the king fare better than his escort, when brought into contact with those of the ambassadors, of which portions were formed of massive silver, where those of France were only made of iron. Next in order came the Polish nobles, clad in gold and silver brocade, each with his train and livery ; the rich stuffs in which they were habited, the resplendent colors of which they were composed, and the str-eam of diamonds which covered their whole costume, were so dazzling, that the ladies of the court were lost in aston- ishment and admiration ; and compelled to admit, that, save at the entry of Buckingham into the capital, twenty years previously, nothing so magnificent had ever been seen in the French metropolis. Each of these Polish * A name given, at that period, to those who organized and con- trolled the royal stud. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 155 nobles had at his side a nobleman of the court, who accompanied him as a mark of honor. But all this pageant, brilliant as it was, was eclipsed by the appear- ance of the envoys themselves, who followed close after the Sieur de Belize, the master of the ceremonies. The Bishop of Warmia, draped in rich watered silk of a violet color, with a hat whence depended a cord of gold en- riched with diamonds, was on his right; and on his left the Palatine of Posnania, dressed in gold brocade, covered with precious stones ; having his cimiter, his poniard, and his spurs incrusted with turquoises, rubies, and diamonds, and his horse's saddle and housings of cloth of gold ; while the animal was also shod with gold so insecurely, that long ere he reached the palace its shoes had become detached.* The contrast of the comparative squalor of their recep- tion must have produced a disagreeable effect upon the minds of these magnificent representatives of majesty ; for although by the time they had traversed the streets of Paris and reached the palace the night had fallen, and that at this period the streets of the capital were, as we have stated elsewhere, totally unlighted, there were neither torches nor flambeaux to illuminate their march ; and al- though the king and the queen-regent, the princes, the princesses, and the ladies and nobles of the court, were assembled on the balconies to witness their entrance, it was merely a matter of ceremony, as they were unable to distinguish any thing ; while the Poles, on their side, com- plained of the omission ; and when M. de Liancourt, the first gentleman of the chamber, appeared to welcome them, they caused a request to be tendered to the regent, that on the occasion of their first audience they might be received in the same order as they had entered the city ; and this favor was, of course, at once conceded. The Hotel Vendome, vacant by the exile of its masters, was appropriated as their residence. * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 150 LOUIS XIV. AND CHAPTER VII. Fontainebleau — The Polish Envoys — The Forest — Darkness in a Pal- ace — Anger of the Regent — A Quarrel on Etiquet — The Coadjutor of Paris — A mistaken Word — Reconciliation between the Cardinal and the Coadjutor — Threat to the Queen of Poland — The Marriage — Munificence of Anne of Austria — The King and his Brother — Pre- cocity of Louis XIV. — Effeminacy of Philip d'Anjou — A Court-Ball — The first Campaign of Louis XIV. — Mademoiselle and the Emperor of Germany — Death of the Marshal de Bassompierre — Feud between the Regent and the Parliament — Revolt of the United Provinces — The Duke de Guise at Naples; his Capture at Capua — Mademoiselle and the Prince of Wales — Illness of the King — The Family of Maza- rin — Revolt of the Parisians — Richelieu versus Mazarin — M. d' Emery — Paris under Anns — Arrogance of the Queen-Regent — The King at N6tre Dame — Dissensions in the Parliament — The new Edicts — Dec- laration of the Regent — Opposition of the Corporate Bodie9 — A new Leader. The palace of Fontainebleau, in which the queen-regent decided upon receiving the Polish Envoys, on the day fixed for the signature of the marriage-contract, was at that period in all the pride of its regality. The vast and majestic pile, seated in a forest extending over a surface of 25,975 arpens, and in itself a model of architectural beauty, was well calculated to produce a fitting impres- sion upon the minds of these magnificent strangers ; and Anne of Austria, resolved to follow up the external ad- vantage thus gained, gave orders that a grand supper should be prepared ; but when the hour for the repast arrived, states Madame de Motteville, the queen was told that there had been a disagreement among the officers of the kitchen, and that the first course had failed. More- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 157 over, so little order had been observed, and so little preparation made, that when the sumptuous foreigners, who had been the gaze of all ranks in Pans, as speci- mens of oriental luxury, had taken leave, and were about to depart, it was discovered that the apartments through which they must pass before they could reach the great stair-case, were in utter darkness ; and they were com- pelled to grope their way as best they might. The anger of the regent was extreme, but the evil was beyond remedy ; and the court of France, which already loved to consider itself as the most polished and correct in Europe, was ruined forever in the estimation of a comparatively barbarous state. Anne of Austria felt this humiliating fact the more deeply, that she had been reared amid the punctilious etiquet of Spanish ceremony ; and in a court irrigated by streams of gold and jewels, the produce of both the Indies. But once more the avarice of Mazarin had triumphed over his sense of what he owed to the country which he governed, and the young king whom he dishonored. When signing the marriage-con- tract, the Bishop of Warmia had expressed a wish to perform the ceremony in the cathedral of Notre Dame, and, accordingly, Saintot, deputy -master of the ceremonies, was sent thither with a letter containing an order to the coadjutor (the Abbe de Retz), to have the cathedral pre- pared for the bishop, " in the same terms," says De Retz himself, " in which they would have ordered a municipal magistrate to prepare the town-hall for a ballet." It so chanced that the archbishop had left the capital for Anjou, only the previous day; and the coadjutor, aware that the archbishops and bishops of Paris had never ceded their right to perform ceremonies of this description in their own churches, save to cardinals of the royal house, and that his uncle had been severely blamed by all the clergy, for having permitted the Cardinal de la Rochefoucault to marry the Queen of England in his cathedral, at once 1 58 LOUIS XIV. AND communicated the contents of the letter to the dean and canons who were with him, telling them at the same time, that he had no doubt of its being the blunder of some clerk in the office of the secretary of state ; and that he would start in the morning for Fontainebleau, where the court were then residing, and have the mistake cleared up. Declining their pressing request to accompany him upon this errand, he next waited upon the cardinal, and offered an expostulation, alledging his reasons, and requesting that he would make them acceptable to the regent; but although evidently impressed by the arguments of the coadjutor, Mazarin nevertheless maintained his point ; and on being reminded by De Retz that he was uttering the sentiments of the archbishop and all the clergy of Paris, as well as his own, the cardinal lost his temper, and terminated the interview abruptly and uncivilly, by referring his visitor to the queen. With her the coadjutor fared no better than with her minister ; she listened dryly and angrily, and only replied that she would give audience to the chapter, without which he assured her that he neither could nor ought to come to any decision. The chapter was instantly summoned, and the dean ar- rived on the following day, with sixteen deputies. They Avere presented by the coadjutor, and they argued the disputed point calmly and forcibly. The queen desired them to see the cardinal, " who, to tell the truth," says De Retz, "uttered nothing to us but absurdities;" and, as he was still a very imperfect French scholar, and by no means aware of the exact force of the words which he employed, he terminated his answer by telling the coad- jutor that he had, on the previous evening, talked to him very insolently. De Retz replied only by a quiet smile ; and then, turning to the deputies, said, calmly, "Gen- tlemen, the word is amusing." Offended by the smile, the cardinal demanded, in a high key, " Who do you sup- pose you are talking with 1 I will teach you how to con- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 159 duct yourself." The temper of De Retz gave way before this intemperance, and he replied that he was individually quite aware it was the coadjutor of Paris who was talking to the Cardinal Mazarin ; but that it would appear as though His Eminence believed himself to be the Cardinal of Lorraine, speaking of the suffragan of Metz. After this explosion of anger on either side they parted ; and the deputation had commenced preparation for their re- turn to Paris, when the Marshal d'Estrees was announced, whose errand was to entreat of the coadjutor not to take serious umbrage at what had passed, as every thing might be arranged ; and at length, finding that his advice was disregarded, he was compelled to admit that his visit had been suggested by the queen, from whom he brought an order that the coadjutor should wait upon her. The Abbe de Retz did not hesitate, but at once obeyed the royal summons, taking the deputation along with him ; and they found Anne of Austria considerably more amenable and condescending than on the occasion of their first interview. She informed the coadjutor that she had desired to see him, less on the subject of the marriage ceremony, than to reprimand him for the manner in which he had spoken to the poor cardinal, who was as gentle as a lamb, and who loved him as though he were his own son. She then added several flattering remarks ; and ultimately desired the dean and deputies to attend the Abbe de Retz to the minister, in order that they might mutually decide on the steps necessary to be taken. The coadjutor made some oppo- sition to this suggestion ; and when he ultimately yielded, did so, as he declared, entii'ely to oblige her majesty. Mazarin received the deputation with even more courtesy than his royal mistress, and made a thousand excuses for his use of the word insolently, when, as he declared, he had simply purposed to say insolito. The difficulty was not, however, yet over ; though, on his return to Paris, 160 LOUIS XIV. AND the Abbe de Retz received a letter from his uncle, the archbishop, desiring him to offer no opposition to the wishes of the Polish prelate, but to allow him to perform the marriage ceremony ; for the coadjutor, convinced that he was indebted for the somewhat tardy courtesy with which he had ultimately been treated at Fontainebleau, merely to a desire on the part of the court to gain time to communicate with M. de Paris himself, once more con- vened the chapter ; and their definitive resolution was, that the archbishop was at liberty to dispose as he saw fit of the nave of the cathedral, but that the chasur appertained to the chapter, who would never cede it, save to M. de Paris, or to his coadjutor. The cardinal at once understood the true meaning of this empty distinction, and decided that the marriage should take place in the chapel of the Palais Royal, of which he asserted the grand almoner was the curate ; but here again the pertinacious coadjutor interfered and wrote to expostu- late. The minister, however, merely laughed at the letter ; and the Abbe de Retz, without further hesitation, repre- sented to the future Queen of Poland, that if she consented to be married in so irregular a manner, he should feel com- pelled to declare her marriage invalid, unless the ceremony was performed in the Palais Royal itself, and that the Bishop of Warmia should previously wait upon him to receive his permission in writing. The poor princess, terrified by this threat, and aware that there w T as not sufficient time to send for a new license from Antwerp, induced the court to com- ply ; the proposition of the coadjutor was accepted, and the marriage took place.* We have recorded this circumstance because it appears to us to throw considerable light upon the customs, feelings, and prejudices of the time. Its result was null, save as regarded the coadjutor himself, who fell into disfavor with the court for the hyper-tenacity with which he had de- * Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 161 fended his privileges ; while he acquired, at the same time, an extended influence over the clergy of the diocese. The royal marriage was solemnized on the 6th of Novem- ber, 1645; the Bishop of Warmia celebrating the mass, and the Count Palatine Opalinski acting as sponsor for his sovereign. Anne of Austria behaved most regally on the occasion, treating the Princess Marie like a daughter, and bestowing upon her a dowry of 700,000 crowns ; and, what produced still more effect upon the court, giving her precedence over herself throughout the evening of her marriage. The two following days were devoted to festivity, and then the newly made bride left the capital to join her royal husband, attend- ed by Madame de Guebriant, who was indebted for this honor to the fact that the marshal, her husband, had been killed two years previously at Rottveil. Meanwhile, Louis XIV. had completed his seventh year, and Philip, Duke d'Anjou, his sixth ; and Mazarin, with the sanction of the queen-regent, had so directed their tastes, as to render the first manly, and the second effemi- nate. The young king was tall, flexible, and muscular, and made rapid pi-ogress in all physical exercises ; but his mind remained, thanks to the caution of the cardinal, almost a blank. Already serious and self-confident, he inspired respect at an age when children usually can do no more than please ; while Philip attracted in an equal degree by the amability of his disposition. While Louis was engaged in manly pursuits, the Duke d'Anjou was, on the contrary, encouraged by the queen to dress himself in a female cos- tume, and even to show himself in that state in public, surrounded by a bevy of young courtiers, in the same unseemly masquerade. The tastes of Philip were thus rendered vain, frivolous, and ignoble, at the same time that his elder brother was encouraged to "play the king" betimes ; but, nevertheless, lest he should " escape from his leading-strings," the cai'dinal was still careful to surround 1 G2 LOUIS XIV. AND •him with amusements calculated to convey a feeling of de- pendence.* That both the princes were, however, equally accom- plished even at this early age, in the courtly grace required by their exalted rank, is manifest in the account given by a writer of the period, of their bearing at the marriage festiv- ities of the Princess Marie. " The king," says the chroni- cler in question, " with the gracefulness which shines in all his actions, took the hand of the Queen of Poland, and conducted her to the platform where his majesty opened the branle,] and was followed by nearly all the princes, princesses, great nobles, and ladies of the court. At its termination, the king, with the same grace and majestic deportment, conducted the young queen to her place ; and seated himself beside the Duke d'Anjou, to see the couran- tes\ executed. These were led by the Duke d'Enghien, as gentle in the dance as he was rough in battle ; and composed of the remaining nobles and ladies. The king then danced a second time ; and led out the Duke d'Anjou with such skill, that every one was charmed with the polite bearing of these two young princes." The beginning of the year 1646 was rendered memorable by what was called the first campaign of the king. The design of this campaign was to revenge on Flanders cer- tain reverses experienced in Italy. A council was held at Liancourt, where the Duke d'Orleans, Cardinal Mazarin, and Marshal Gassion,§ determined the plan of the cam- * Memoires du Due de Saint Simon. t A dance, very popular in France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was performed in two different ways; the one, which was an importation from Poitou, was very rapid, a species of jig. and was danced in a circle ; the other, which was considerably more stately, was an adoption from Brittany. X A dance formerly popular at the French court, but which has en- tirely fallen into disuse. (j John de Gassion, Marshal of France, was born at Fau, in 1609, and died at Arras, in consequence of a wound received at the siege of Sens, THE COURT OF FRANCE. 163 paign ;* after which the Duke d'Enghien proceeded to Com- piegne to take leave of their majesties, before he joined the army in Champagne ; and a few days subsequently Monsieur also arrived at court, where he did not long remain, but continued his route to Amiens, at the desire of the king and the queen-regent ; who were anxious that he should precede Louis XIV. to that city, where he was about to take up his residence during the operations. The court was, however, brilliant during his temporary sojourn, as he was accompanied by all the young men of quality who were to share in the campaign, and who were already equip- ped for service.t Louis XIV. had not yet attained his eighth year, and as the queen had determined not to allow him to leave her side, it had consequently been considered expedient that he should not proceed farther than Amiens. Preparations were ac- cordingly made in that city for the reception of the court ; and on the day succeeding its arrival there, the queen-re- gent received intelligence of the death of her sister, the Empress of Germany; upon which the Abbe de la RiviereJ lost no time in representing to Mademoiselle that it would be advisable for her to many the emperor ; but afterwaid recalling his words, he remarked that too much time must elapse before that alliance could take place ; and that as the Archduke Leopold was about to proceed to Flanders, it would be better to make him a sovereign prince, and to bestow her hand upon him. To this suggestion Made- moiselle, however, at once declared that she should prefer in 1647. He first served under Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, and contributed to the victory of Leipzig. After the death of that monarch, in 1632, he returned to France, and distinguished himself at the battle of Rocroy. Wounded at the taking of Thionville, he receiv- ed, in compensation, the baton of a marshal in 1643, and continued to give proofs of his valor at Gravelines, Mardick, Linck, Bourbourg, Be- thune, Saint-Venant, &c. * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Me.moires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. + The confidant and favorite of the Duke d'Orleaus. 161 LOUIS XIV. AND the emperor ; but she was not fated to become the wife of either.* When the army left Amiens to besiege Courtray, the campaign of Louis was over; and he returned to Paris to await the surrender of the city, which was delayed for a considerable time, although the Duke d'Orleans was at the head of a large force, the Duke d'Enghien having joined him with the troops under his command. The Spaniards were also strong in numbers during the campaign, and were commanded by the Marquis of Caracane, who had the Duke of Lorraine as his ally ; and consequently the French sol- diery were, in some degree, themselves in a state of siege when they sat down befoi - e Courtray ; a circumstance which was entirely attributable to the negligence of Mazaiin, who was improvident enough to leave the troops unprovided alike with ammunition and provisions, to such an ex- treme, that, when the city surrendered, the besiegers had exhausted all their powder and ball. From that time both Monsieur and the Duke d'Enghien lost all confidence in the minister ; nor did they subsequently see cause to alter their opinion. t At the close of this year died the Marshal de Bassom- pierre ; and he was shortly followed to the grave by the Prince de Conde, the father of the Duke d'Enghien, who thenceforth assumed the title of the Prince de Conde, or simply of The Prince. Time progressed, and the war continued ; while the hatred which had grown up between the queen-regent and the Parliament, which had made many abortive attempts to limit the absolute power that she arrogated to herself, became daily more virulent. The United Provinces had thrown off their allegiance to France, at the instigation of Spain ; the Piince de Conde had succeeded the Count d'Harcourt in the command of the army in that country, and had been repulsed before Lerida ; Marshal Gassion * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. t Idem. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 165 had been wounded at Sens, and had died of his wounds ; and finally, Naples had revolted at the signal of Massaniel- lo ; and all the petty princes of Italy were anxious to obtain the crown which had slipped from the brow of the fisher- man, which was also coveted by the Duke de Guise, who chanced to be at Rome when the news of Massaniello's death arrived; and who, remembering that Yolande d'Anjou, the daughter of the King Rene of Naples, had married one of his ancestors, immediately wrote to the rebel chiefs, to in- form them that he who had Neapolitan blood in his veins, and was then at Rome, offered himself as their sovereign. At the same time he dispatched a courier to the court of France with letters to the king, the regent, and the cardinal, in which he announced to them that the vice-royalty of Naples having become vacant, he was about to take possession of it; and should thus be enabled to act against Spain, and to further the interests of the war. This project was, however, received with indifference, and declared to be a mere harebrained extravagance ; and it is certain that all the resources of the duke at that moment consisted of four thousand gold crowns, and his army of six gentlemen attached to his household. Nevertheless, he wore the sword of his ancestor Francis, and in his breast the heart of his grandfather, Henry IV. On the 11th of November he left Rome in a fishing-boat, and eight days afterward he wrote to Cardinal Mazarin : " I have succeeded, Monseigneur ; I am Sovereign-duke of the republic of Naples ; but I have found every thing here in such disorder, and in such confusion, that without powerful assistance it will be difficult for me to maintain my position." The appeal was, however, disregarded ; and Mazarin abandoned M. de Guise, who two months subsequently was taken prisoner by the Spaniards at Capua.* Meanwhile, the disaffection having increased in England, the king sent * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 1Gb' LOUIS XIV. AXD his son, the Prince of Wales, to France, in order to secure his safety. The court was at Fontainebleau on his arrival ; and his reception was most gratifying. Their majesties went as far as the forest to meet him, and the Queen of England presented him in succession to the king, the queen- regent, the Princess de Conde, and Mademoiselle. " He was," says the latter, " only sixteen or seventeen years of age ; rather tall, with a fine head, black hair, a dark complex- ion, and a tolerably agreeable countenance ; but he neither spoke nor understood French, which was very inconvenient. Nevertheless every thing was done to amuse him ; and during the three days that he remained at Fontainebleau there were hunts, and every other sport which could be commanded in that season. He paid his respects to all the princesses ; and I discovered immediately that the Queen of England wished to persuade me that he had fallen in love with me ; she told me that he talked of me incessantly ; that, were she not to prevent it, he would be in my apart- ments at all hours ; that he found me quite to his taste ; and that he was in despair of the death of the empress, because he dreaded that they would seek to marry me to the emperor. I listened to all she said, as became me, but I did not place all the confidence in it which she would probably have wished."* While the Prince of Wales, either from inclination, or at the instigation of his mother, continued to pay an assid- uous court to Mademoiselle, seating himself, as she tells us, constantly beside her, during the dramatic representa- tions at the Louvre ; always attending her to her carriage when she visited the Queen of England, and remaining bareheaded until she had driven off; holding the flambeau while his royal parent dressed her with her own hands for a ball given in her honor by Madame de Choisy, the wife of her father's chancellor ; wearing her colors, while she herself was adorned with all the crown jewels of England ; * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 167 and following her step by step ;* the amusements of the court were suddenly interrupted by the illness of the king, who was attacked by the small-pox during the performance of a comedy at the Palais-Royal ; from which, however, he soon recovered. Meanwhile, the cardinal, seeing himself firmly seated upon the eminence to which he had now attained, summoned his relatives from Italy, in order that they might share in his prosperity, and profit by his elevation to secure their own. They consisted of his two sisters, Mesdames Marti- nozzif and Mancini ;$ his seven nieces, Laura, and Anna- Maria Martinozzi, and Laura- Victoria, Olympia, Mary, Hortensia, and Mary- Anne Mancini ; and his two nephews, the young Mancini, whom, as we have already stated, Louis XIV. had included in the dislike which he felt toward his uncle ; and Philip-Julian Mancini, who subsequently inher- ited a portion of the immense wealth as well as the name of the minister. The Sjgnora Anna-Maria Martinozzi figures but little in the boyhood of the young king, for she was on her arrival in France already of a marriageable age, and solely anx- ious to secure an eligible establishment. Her position, as the niece of the all-powerful cardinal, rendered this easy ; and accordingly she became ere long the wife of the Prince de Conti, brother of the great Conde (Duke d'Engh- ien), and a model to her sex, alike as a wife, a mother, and a Christian. The Signore Mancini, or as the minister, on naturalizing his family in France, caused them to be called, Mesdemoi- selles de Mancini,§ were still children, the elder not hav- ing attained her twelfth year; and they succeeded each other so regularly that the cardinal had every reason to * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. t Marguerita Mazarini, married to the Count Jerome Martinozzi. t Hieronyma Mazarini, the wife of Michael Laurent Mancini, a Ro- man Baron. § Gazette de France, 1657. 168 LOUIS XIV. AND hope he should succeed in providing for them in rotation, without being subjected to the annoyance of any domestic rivalry. The first who arrived in obedience to his summons were Victoria, Olympia, and Mary, with their elder brother ; and these reached Paris on the 11th of September, 1647, under the protection of Madame de Nogent, who, at the request of the cardinal, had gone to Fontainebleau to receive them. On the same evening the queen desired that they might wait upon her at the Palais-Royal, and they were accord- ingly conducted to her presence ; when Mazarin, with an affectation of indifference of which subsequent events reveal- ed the fallacy, retired for the night by one door, as they entered by another. Nevertheless, as the courtiers were quite aware that he had not removed his nieces from their home with any other design than that of marrying them in his adopted country, and that they could not better pay their court to the minister than by exhibiting an interest in his little relatives, they were soon surrounded by so dense a crowd, and overwhelmed with such a deluge of compli- ments, that the Duke d'Orleans remarked bitterly : " There is such a throng about those little girls that I doubt whether their lives are safe, and if they will not be suffocated ;" while the Marshal Villeroi, who had approached and overheard the words of the prince, observed in his turn: " Yonder are some young ladies who are not wealthy at present, but who will soon possess fine chateaux, good incomes, handsome jewels, costly services of plate, and probably high rank. As to the boy, as he must have time to grow, he will perhaps only see fortune in perspective."* The prophecy was fulfilled to the letter ; for the gal- lant youth was killed at the Porte St. Antoine during the Fronde. On leaving the queen, the children proceeded to the apartments of their uncle, who still maintained his appear- * Memoires de Madame de Motteville. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 169 ance of coldness ; and it is certain that any demonstration of affection would merely have tended to increase the dis crepancy which existed between his assertion and his acts ; for only six months previously, while exhibiting to a party of his friends some statues which had just reached him from Rome, he had observed : " Here are the sole relatives whom I shall ever permit to enter France." But, never- theless, his nieces had not been ten days in Paris, when he pointed them out to the Princess Anna Colonna, saying : *' You see those little girls ; the eldest is not twelve years old, and the others are barely eight and nine, and already the first men in the kingdom have asked me for them in marriage." They were subsequently joined by their mother, their sister Hortensia, their brother Julian, and their cousin Anna Martinozzi ; while Mary- Anne was born after the arrival of Madame de Mancini in France. Laura Martinozzi alone remained in Italy, where she married the Duke of Modena, and by her virtues and amability secured the esteem of the princely family of which she had become a member. The infant court of the monarch was now complete ; and the cardinal was careful that he should appreciate the add- ed charm which had thus been bestowed upon it. Every facility was given to his constant association with the young Italians ; and while Louis betrayed, without one endeavor to disguise it, his dislike of the brother, the courteous gal- lantly for which he was distinguished throughout life led him to receive the sisters with condescension and kind- ness. Such was the state of affairs when, in January 1648, the populace of Paris rose against the edict of the tariff, and a deputation of seven or eight hundred tradesmen waited upon the Duke d'Orleans at the Luxembourg, and deman- ded justice ; declaring that, strong in the support of the i parliament, they would not suffer themselves to be ruined by the imposition of old taxes which were continually in- vui.. i. — H 170 LOUIS XIV. AND creasing, and new ones which were as constantly invented. The Duke d'Orleans, however, although taken by surprise, with his usual indecision, would give no pledge ; but dis- missed them with the simple promise that their representa- tion should be considered. Richelieu had dealt with the French nation like an em- piric, and applied violent remedies which appeared to give it strength ; but this strength was merely that of excitement, by which it was exhausted individually and collectively ; while Mazarin, like an inexperienced physician, did not comprehend its depression. He continued to enfeeble it by exactions, without affording the same support which had been contributed by the skill of his predecessor ; and thus it fell into lethargy, while he was blind enough to consider this artificial rest as a proof of health. The provinces, abandoned to the rapine of their superintendents, remained bent beneath the pressure of their evils ; the parliaments were employed in remembering their past affronts, rather than in attending to present measures ; the nobles, who had nearly all been banished from the country, were too busy in congratulating themselves on their return, to disturb their soothing reveries by an examination of its actual condition ; and thus the evil grew. But human passions began to awaken ; Paris felt the shock of the coming storm, and as- certained its moral strength ; it uttered its complaints which remained unheeded ; and then roused itself with a bound from that torpidity which had been the supposed security of the minister.* The disaffection of the populace, far from diminishing, increased from hour to hour; and the Masters of Requests, whose privileges had been invaded by the minister, deeming the moment favorable, demanded an audience of Mazarin, at which one of them addressed him in the name of the whole body, with so much boldness, that His Eminence could not dissemble his astonishment. A council was held * Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. THE COURT OF PRANCE. 171 the same day in the queen's apartments, at which Emery,* the superintendent of finance, who was peculiarly obnoxious to the people, was ordered to attend. The first president and the gentlemen of the king's household were also sum- moned. The council occupied a considerable time and was very tumultuous ; but came to no decision. It may not be irrelevant, after the fulmination of M. de Retz, to give a brief outline of the history of M. d'Emery. He was the son of a banker of Lyons, named Particelli, who became a bankrupt to an immense extent ; a circumstance which determined his son to abandon the paternal name, and to adopt that of Emery. It would appear that Riche- lieu appreciated in the young man the very qualities which the coadjutor decried ; for he personally presented him to Louis XIII. under his adopted name, as a candidate for the superintendence of finance. The king looked at him for an instant, and repeating once or twice, " d'Emery, d'Emeiy, I never heard the name before ;" desired that the appoint- ment might be immediately made out, as he had been in- formed that the rascally Particelli intended to apply for it. The cardinal assured his majesty that such a fear was groundless, as the Particelli of whom he spoke had been hanged. "All the better!" said the king; "and since you an- swer for M. d'Emery, let him have the place." He was immediately obeyed. We return from our digression to the current of the nar- rative. * " Emery, in my opinion the most corrupt man of his century,'songht only for names in order to find edicts. I can not better explain to you i the spirit of this personage, who said in full council (I heard him), that : good faith was only suited to traders ; and that the Masters of Requests : who alledged it as a reason in matters relating to the king's service, | deserved punishment. This man, who had been condemned, in his j youth, at Lyons, to be hanged, governed Mazarin imperiously in all I that related to the interior economy of the kingdom." — Memoires du I Cardinal de Retz. 172 LOUIS XIV. AMD In the course of the night several shots were fired in different parts of Paris. The civil-lieutenant* was sent to ascertain the meaning of these shots, and he was in- formed in reply that the citizens were testing their arms, in order to see if they could depend upon them, as, in the event of the minister still persisting in his oppression, they were determined to follow the example of the Nea- politans. On the following day the queen, when on her way to hear mass at Notre-Dame, was followed to the very doors of the cathedral by a crowd of women, amounting to about two hundred, crying for justice, and endeavoring to kneel before her; but they were repulsed by the guards, and the regent passed on calmly and haughtily, vouchsafing no reply to their petition. Another council was assembled at mid-day, which de- cided that no concession should be made ; and the guards were, moreover, put under arms, and sentinels placed in every quarter of the city. Marshal Schomberg, who had recently married Mademoiselle d'Hautefort (the queen's old favorite, abandoned since the regency), was ordered to post the Swiss troops, and ere night Paris was changed into one vast camp ; while the firing of the previous even- ing not only continued, but became so much increased, and so widely dispersed, that an immediate attack upon the military was constantly anticipated. Nor did the evil diminish upon the morrow. The presence of the soldiers in their streets exasperated the people ; and the tumult deepened so rapidly, that the Prevot of the mer- chants presented himself at the Palais-Royal, and apprised The civil-lieutenant was the second magistrate of the ancient juris- diction of the chdtelet of Paris. He presided at the audience of the civil park ; collected the opinions of the councilors ; judged with closed doors the disputes relatively to the affixing and removing of seals and inventories ; drew up in his own hotel the reports, interdictions, de- mands in separation, and opening of wills after the decease of the tes- tator.?. &c. The revenues of the office amounted to 500,000 livres. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 173 the regent and her minister that the whole of Paris was ahout to take up arms. He was answered that all the military parade of which he complained had been drawn out for the purpose of escorting the king to Notre Dame, where he was about to return thanks to God for his happy convalescence ; and in accordance with this declaration the troops were withdrawn after his return. On the morrow, the king attended parliament, where the chancellor uttered a long harangue on the necessities of the state ; the obligation which existed that the people should assist in supporting the expense of the war, by which means alone a satisfactory peace could be obtained ; talked loudly of the royal power ; and endeavored to es- tablish as a fundamental law the unquestioning obedience of subjects to their sovereign. The Advocate-General Talon replied by a speech full of vigor and energy ; he besought the queen to remember, when she was kneeling in her oratory to supplicate God for mercy, that her people had knelt before her in like manner, and in a similar spirit. He reminded her that she governed free men, and not slaves ; and that these men, constantly harassed, drained, and ruined by new edicts, had no longer any thing which they could call their own, save their souls ; while they had arrived at the conviction that they still possessed these, merely because they could not be sold by auction, as their property had already been, by the government officials. He added, moreover, that the victories and the laurels about which so much exultation had been exhibited, were assuredly glorious trophies for the kingdom ; but nevertheless they would not give to the people either of the things they most needed — food and clothing. The result of the meeting was, that the king earned five or six new edicts, more oppressive than any by which they had been preceded; and on the same day the cham- bers assembled to discuss them. The queen, in her turn, 1 74 LODIS XIV. AND then summoned them to her presence by deputations; and expressed her astonishment and displeasure at their presuming to question any measure which had been con- secrated by the presence of the king. The first president insisted upon their light to act as they had done ; and asserted that the parliament had been instituted for the purpose of serving as a shield to protect the people from the exaggerated exactions of the courts; upon which the queen lost her temper, and insisted that all the edicts should be put into force without modification of any description. On the following day the Duke d'Orleans went to the Court of Accounts,* and delivered up all such records of expenditure as regarded himself personally ; while M. de Conti, in the absence of the Prince de Conde, who had left Paris to join the army, had already earned those which concerned the Assistant Court to that body.t The queen next summoned the Masters of Requests, with whom she was even less forbearing than with the parliament, telling them that they were extraordinary personages, to make such an attempt as that of limiting the king's authority; and adding, that she would show them she could create or annul whatever offices she pleased ; in proof of which she dismissed the whole of them from office. This measure, which was intended to intimidate the body, produced, however, a very opposite effect : some smiled as they listened ; others whispered among themselves ; and others again shook their heads with an expression of disdainful defiance ; after which they withdrew with a profound bow, more expressive of hostility than of reverence. " They felt," says Madame A tribunal by which the accounts of all public moneys disbursed were verified. t The Assistant Court was instituted under the old kings of France, to render justice, and to give the closing voice in all matters relating to taxes. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 175 de Motteville, " that there were vapors in the air, and that the weather was unfavorable for the court." On the morrow, instead of showing obedience, they presented themselves in a body to the parliament, to oppose the registration of the edict against them. Paris was ripe for revolt, and required only a chief; while the one whom nature and inclination had alike fitted for the post was soon to appear; and that too in a manner of which the romance added to the charm in such a moment of excitement. CHAPTER VIIT. The Duke de Beaufort at Vincennes — The Prediction — La Ramee — Preparations for Flight — The Pasty — The Prince and the Valet — The Evasion — Discontent of Mademoiselle — The Archduke Leopold — Arrest of Saujon — The Retort courteous — Increase of Popular Disaf- fection — Popularity of the Coadjutor — Victory of Sens — Triumph of the Court — The Te Deum — Arrest of Broussel and Blancmesnil — Consternation of the Capital — The impromptu Council — Advice of the Coadjutor — The revolted Citizens — The Coadjutor and the Mob — The Coadjutor and the Faction — The Fronde — The Liberation of Broussel — Terror of Mazarin — Sudden Calm. We left the Duke de Beaufort a prisoner at Vincennes, where he had been detained for the last five years, under the guard of De Chavigny, his personal enemy, when a rumor became current in the capital that an astrologer had predicted his escape from the fortress on the ensuing Whit-Sunday. This report reached the ears of the car- dinal : and as it occasioned him some uneasiness, he sum- moned the exempt who was the responsible guard of the LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. 177 duke (M. de Ramee), to inquire of him if he considered the flight irom his prison to be practicable. The func- tionary explained that M. de Beaufort was constantly- watched, save when in his bed, by an officer and seven or eight soldiers, who followed him wherever he went ; that he was waited upon by the king's officers, having no attendants of his own ; and that, as the best earnest of his security, the Count de Chavigny was his jailer. Maz- arin was at once tranquilized by this explanation, which La Ramee terminated by declaring that the duke could never escape from the tower save in the shape of a small bird ; his room was so high up, and his bars were so nar- row ; and such being the report of an official whose head was periled by the evasion of his prisoner, the cardinal, after having desired him rather to increase than to relax in vigilance, bade him immediately return to his post, and thought no more of the prophecy. For once, however, the jealous minister was in error. The duke, like every other captive, thought of little else than effecting his escape. Bold as he was, he at once recognized the difficulties which he should have to en- counter, and for a time was compelled to consider them as almost insurmountable : but, especially to such an or- ganization as his, nothing could compensate for liberty ; and although, save in the watchfulness of his guardians, his prison was by no means rigorous, still the very fact that it compelled him to an existence of inaction, rendered it 'terrible. He saw, moreover, no probability of its ces- sation before the death or the disgrace of the cardinal, who was still in the prime of life ; and whose hold upon the queen-regent was not merely that of a useful min- ister upon his sovereign, but also that of a lover upon his mistress ; and as these contingencies could not ra- tionally afford matter of speculation, he felt that he must depend almost solely upon his own ingenuity and re- sources to effect his object. He commenced operations a* 178 LOUIS XIV. AND by tampering with three or four of his guards, but their terror of Mazarin was more powerful than .even their cupidity, and his failure was signal. Then for a time he controlled himself, and remained passive; but to continue thus supine was an effort beyond his strength, and he next resolved on endeavoring to gain the valet of La Ramee, a man named Vaudrimont, whom he found more accessible to his golden arguments ; and who, being per- mitted to leave the fortress on various errands for his master, carried a letter to the duke's steward, by which he was informed of the attempt about to be made, and authorized to deliver to its bearer the sum agreed upon as the price of his cooperation. The pastry-cook of Vincennes was next brought over to the cause; and he promised to conceal, in the next pasty which should be prepared for the prisoner's table, a rope ladder, and a couple of poniards ; but when Vaudrimont had accom- plished thus much, he became terrified at his own suc- cess ; and compelled the duke to swear, not only that he should be made the companion of his flight, but also that in every difficulty he should be allowed to pass first; a point which the prisoner at once conceded, the cowardice of egotism forming no feature of his rash and uncalculating character. On Whitsun-eve the expected pie appeared at table ; when M. de Beaufort declined to sup, but desired that, as it was possible his appetite might return during the night, this savory pasty might be left in the apartment ; an arrangement the more readily permitted, as the attend- ants, who were accustomed to profit by the good cheer of the captive, saw themselves free to carry off the remainder of the repast. In a couple of hours, the duke was visited by the governor, with whom he exchanged his nightly salutation, which, cold and brief as it was, was rigidly observed ; fresh sentinels were posted, and he was at length alone. Nevertheless he suffered another hour to THE COURT OF FRANCE. 179 elapse ere he rose cautiously from his bed, lifted the cover of the pasty, and drew out, not the ladder of rope which he had expected, but a ball of silk, two poniards, and a gag. The next morning M. de Beaufort feigned indis- position, in order to remain in bed, and gave his purse to the guards that they might go and drink to his better health. Perfectly willing to obey the suggestion, they nevertheless asked permission of La Ramee to avail them- selves of the prisoner's liberality, who told them that, under existing circumstances, he saw no objection to their profit- ing by the indulgence, when they joyfully withdrew. The duke no sooner found himself alone with La Ramee, than he expressed a wish to rise, commenced dressing him- self, and requested that the exempt would be kind enough to assist him in putting on his clothes ; and he had just completed his toilet when Vaudrimont appeared at the door of the apartment, and made the signal which in- formed him that the moment for the attempt had at last arrived. M. de Beaufort instantly drew a poniard from beneath his bolster, sprang upon the exempt, and holding the weapon to his throat, swore that he would murder him if he uttered a sound; while, at the same moment, his accomplice thrust the gag into his mouth. They then proceeded to tie his hands and feet with the duke's scarf of gold and silver tissue ; after which they laid him on the floor, and escaped from the room, locking the door behind them. This done, they reached a gallery which overlooked the park on the St. Mark side, and whose windows opened upon the moat ; fastened their cord to the window-sill, and were preparing to descend, when Vaudrimont re- minded the duke of the conditions he had made ; upon which the gallant prisoner stepped back, and the valet preceded him. Unluckily, however, for the accomplice, he was a man of stout build, and tolerably corpulent, while the cord had been prepared only for the slight weight of M. de Beaufort ; and in consequence of this fact, ISO LOUIS XIV. AND the poor fellow was yet at a height of fifteen or twenty- feet from the ground, when the rope broke, and he fell heavily to the bottom of the moat. The duke, by whom he was followed, when he arrived at the extremity of the cord, let himself slip gently down the slope, and so arrived safe and sound at the bottom of the ditch, where he found Vaudrimont sorely bruised ; and immediately five or six of his people appeared on the other side of the moat, and threw a rope to the fugitives, when once more the valet insisted upon his light to be the first rescued. M. de Beaufort accordingly assisted him to make the rope fast under his arms, but being from his hurts unable to second the endeavors of his friends, he was nearly dead before they succeeded in drawing him out. The duke followed, and having arrived on the summit of the slope in good case, "Vaudrimont was instantly flung over one horse, De Beaufort mounted upon another, and the party galloped off to the Porte de Nogent, through which they compelled a passage. On the other aide of the barrier, the duke found a troop of fifty horsemen, who immediately sur- rounded him with great demonstrations of joy ; and the whole cortege disappeared like the wind. Meanwhile, the whole evasion had been witnessed by a poor woman and her child, who were gathering vegetables in a garden near the moat ; but M. de Beaufort's followers having threatened them with death if they did not remain quiet, they gave no alarm until the party were out of sight, when the woman ran and informed her husband of the circumstance ; while he, having apprised the garrison, who, unsuspicious of such an attempt, were spending the money of the fugitive, and drinking to his health, found considerable difficulty in obtaining credence. He, how- ever, persisted so tenaciously in his story, and his wife, by whom he was accompanied, gave them so many, and such circumstantial details, that they at length proceeded to the duke's chamber, where they found the exempt lying bound THE COURT OF FRANCE. 181 upon the floor, with the gag in his mouth, a naked pon- iard at his side, his sword tied to the scabbard by a ribbon, and his wand broken at his feet.* They hastened, in the first place, to relieve him of the gag, when he gave them an account of the whole occurrence ; but, as it was be- lieved that he had assisted in the duke's escape, and that the jeopardy in which he was discovered had simply been arranged to divert suspicion, he was committed to a dun- geon. His innocence was, however, subsequently proved ; but he was, nevertheless, compelled to sell his place at a considerable loss, which M. de Beaufort no sooner ascer- tained, than he caused the money to be immediately re- mitted to him. The news of this escape soon reached the court ; but it was difficult to judge of the effect which it produced. The queen affected to deem it of little importance, and the cardinal merely laughed when it was reported to him, observing that he should have made the same at- tempt under similar circumstances, and that his only cause of surprise was, that M. de Beaufort should have waited so long before he endeavored to obtain his liberty. In fact, the duke was considered to be innoxious from the fact that he was short of money, and held no fortresses which could enable him to offer defiance to the govern- ment ; while the offensive attitude assumed by the par- liament, and the spirit of revolt exhibited by the populace of Paris, gave tangible cause of alarm and preoccupation.t About this time, when Mademoiselle began to per- ceive that the cardinal, who had more than once en- couraged her in her hope of becoming an empress of Germany, was merely deluding her with a chimera to which it was by no means his intention ever to give con- sistency, it suddenly occurred to her mind that it would * The Exempts carried a small wand of ebony, mounted in ivory, as a symbol of their command, t Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 182 LOUIS XIV. AND accord with the interests of her father, who, being far from wealthy, had the guardianship of her enormous fortune, to prevent her marriage altogether, for the benefit of his second family ; and she became highly incensed at the double-dealing of those about her; her great ambition having always been the accomplishment of that marriage. Old and ill-favored as he was, she consulted her vanity rather than her passions, and could not forgive the mystifi- cation of which she had been made the victim, when the news reached her that the emperor was about to form an alliance with a Tyrolese arch-duchess. "Cardinal Mazarin," she says, "frequently spoke to me of my marriage with the emperor ; and, although he took no steps to effect it, he assured me positively that he was doing so ; the Abbe de la Riviere also profited by the same circumstance to pay his court to me, and gave me an assurance that he did not neglect to urge the point both upon Monsieur and the cardinal. But what has since tended to convince me that I was duped, is, that Monsieur one day said : ' I have been told that the proposal of marrying the emperor is agreeable to you ; and, if it be so, I will assist it as far as I am able, but I am convinced that you will not be happy in that country : they live in the Spanish style, and the emperor is older than me. For this reason, I think that it is not advantageous for you, and that you would only be happy in England; or, should things mend, in Savoy.' I told him that I wished to marry the emperor, and that the selection was my own affair: that I entreated them to agree to what I had decided ; that what I said was from propriety; that he was not a young and gallant man, and that they might consequently see what was the truth, that I thought more of the establishment than of the in- dividual. My wish produced, nevertheless, no effect upon those who were authorized to make the business suc- ceed, and the only result which I experienced was that of THE COURT OF PRANCE. 183 having the annoyance to hear the matter talked of still longer." Mademoiselle had about her person a M. Saujon, who was the intimate friend of Captain Villarmont, of the guards, who was taken prisoner in Flanders, by Piccolo- mini, and after a few months of captivity was permitted to return to France on his parole. Before he left the enemy's head-quarters, the general had given him a din- ner ; and while talking to him of his nation, had digressed to the French court ; and, in speaking of Mademoiselle, had said that they knew her well by reputation, and should be delighted to possess in their country a princess of her merit. Such a remark from the lips of a man in the confidence of the archduke, Leopold William, was more than an overture, and, accordingly, the words struck Villarmont forcibly ; and, on his arrival in Paris, he has- tened to repeat them to Saujon; who, in his turn, after considerable reflection, determined to confide them to Mademoiselle. At first they produced but little impres- sion upon her mind ; but, when she ultimately combined them with the image of the Archduchess of Tyrol, and the conviction to which she had brought herself of the disinclination of Monsieur, to see her form any alliance, however advantageous to her own interests, she felt piqued, and began to vouchsafe them more consideration. How far, however, the intrigue really progressed, can never now be known, for Mademoiselle, who alone could be aware of the exact extent to which it attained, reso- lutely denied its existence. Saujon was, nevertheless, ar- rested one morning ; and, in the evening, it was whis- pered that Mademoiselle was to have been earned off by the archduke ; though no one was sufficiently well- informed to be able to assert whether it were or not by her own connivance. What appeared, however, to decide the point, was the fact that she was confined to her apart- ments, and on the following day commanded to appear 184 LOUIS XIV. AND before the queen, the Duke of Orleans, and the cardinal; when she replied to the reproaches which were addressed to her in as high a key as they were uttered ; and when the recent, in allusion to Saujon, reminded her that she was incurring the risk of causing hira to lose his head in her service, retorted by remarking that, at least, he would be the first who had done so for her. The epigram was stinging, both to Anne of Austria and the Duke of Anjou ; and the family council soon after terminated, without hav- ing produced the slightest concession or acknowledgment on the part of the alledged culprit.* The sensation created by such an event as this, in a court where the queen set an example of the most rigid devotion may be imagined ; and it so completely ab- sorbed the minds of all the nobility, that they for a time lost sight of the more important progress of public events ; and while the delinquency of Mademoiselle was on the tapis, the coadjutor twice waited upon the regent and the cardinal, to apprise them of the increase of popular disaffection, without their conceding the slightest notice to his warning. This was, however, partially attributable, in all probability, to the fact that neither the queen nor her minister were able to comprehend the amount of influ- ence possessed by M. de Retz. They had either never known, or had forgotten the fact, that soon after he suc- ceeded to the coadjutorship, he had, in less than four months, disbursed six thousand crowns in donations and alms-giving, and had thus established a character for liber- ality, which was all-powerful with the people. In his person, he was singularly unimpressive, for he was short and ill-made, of dark complexion, extremely awkward and ungraceful ; wrote illegibly, could not trace a straight line, and was painfully near-sighted. Physically, there- fore, he was ill-calculated to become a popular favorite ; but he had blinded the eyes of the crowd by the shower of * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 185 gold-dust which he had flung among them; and was, in consequence, at once in the position to prove a valuable friend or a formidable enemy. The parliament continued its deliberations; and those who the most firmly advocated its rights against the court, were the Counselor of the Great Chamber, M. Pierre Broussel, and M. Blancmesnil, the President of Requests ; in consequence of which they became obnoxious to the royal party ; and, as a natural result, rose in the estimation and confidence of the people. Nevertheless, there ex- isted, for the moment, a species of truce between the opposing factions; for all eyes were turned in suspense toward the frontier. The prince (Duke d'Enghien) was with the army ; and it was evident, from the dispositions made by the two conflicting generals, that a decisive en- gagement was at hand, and could not fail to take place. The position of the French government at this period did not enable it to anticipate with tranquillity the issue of the impending combat ; nor were the people less interested in the result than their superiors; for should the prince be beaten, the court, that would require both men and funds to pursue the war, must find itself com- pelled to have recourse to the aid of the parliament, which would thus gain the ascendant; while, should the contrary event take place, they had the game in their own hands, and would be free to pursue the advantages which they had already gained. The first intelligence which reached the capital gave earnest of success ; for, on the 23d of August, a man, who arrived from Arras, announced that the report of artillery had been heard in that city, and that no stragglers had crossed the frontier ; which combined circumstances tended to prove the com- mencement of hostilities, and to afford the inference that so far, at least, the troops under the Prince de Conde had been fortunate. Vague as this information was, it sufficed to cause great satisfaction at court, for success 186 LOUIS XIV. AND was so necessary that they accepted probability almost as eagerly as facts. At midnight all suspense was over, the Count de Chatillon arrived as an extraordinary courier from the prince, by whom he had been dispatched from the field, to announce the complete defeat of the enemy, who had left nine thousand dead upon the place, and had retreated in utter disorder, abandoning all their baggage and a portion of their artillery. The French army had, in short, gained the battle of Sens. Mademoiselle, in her own egotistical style, pays a high compliment to the conqueror, where she says : — " News arrived of the battle of Sens, gained by the prince ; but as my aversion for him was well known, not one ventured to mention it to me. They placed upon my table the ac- count which had come from Paris (she was at her country- house of Bois-le-Vicomte) ; and on leaving my bed, I saw this paper, and read it with great surprise and sorrow. As I ought not to have mixed up my hatred with so con- siderable a state benefit, I did not know how to separate them ; and on this occasion I found myself less a good Frenchwoman than an enemy ; but I excused my tears by the grief which I declared to be occasioned by the death of some officers of my acquaintance who had been killed in the action ; and as good feeling is always praiseworthy, particularly in the great, who are accused of being devoid of it, I attracted praise instead of the reproach which I deserved. I do not know how I could be so much affected by the victories of the prince, for he so often gained battles that I ought to have accustomed myself to it." * Meanwhile the popular faction were all earnestly anxious to ascertain the effect which this great event would produce upon the court, and particularly upon the coadjutor, who, only two or three days previously, had waited upon the queen, and expatiated to her, according to his constant habit, on the popular disaffection which was hourly increas- * Mernoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 187 ing, when he was interrupted by the cardinal, with an apo- logue so individually insulting, that before its termination M. de Retz interrupted the minister in his turn, by making a profound bow and leaving the room. Although he was thus in bad odor with the court, he was anxious, from per- sonal considerations, to ascertain the impression produced by the important intelligence of the Count de Chatillon; and therefore, notwithstanding the affront which he had so re- cently received, he determined to present himself at the palace, and to judge from his own observation of the feel- ings of the adverse party. He found the queen wild with joy ; but the more self-con- trolled cardinal was as calm as usual ; and as he approached the coadjutor with more urbanity than he had latterly dis- played, he remarked that he was doubly happy at the fortu- nate event which had just occurred : first, for the public benefit of France, and secondly, in order to prove to the parliament how his royal mistress and himself would use the victory they had gained. The coadjutor, imbued as he was with the spirit of in- trigue, was for once duped by the words and manner of the minister, and retired perfectly satisfied that, by some extraordinary chance, Mazarin actually felt as he had spoken. The Cardinal de Retz also lays aside his cynicism for an instant to do justice to the conqueror : " The news of the prince's victory at Sens," he says, " arrived at court on the 24th of August ; Chatillon brought it ; and he told me, a quarter of an hour after he left the Palais-Royal, that the cardinal had exhibited a great deal less joy at the victory than annoyance at the circumstance of a portion of the Spanish cavalry having run away. Remark, if you please, that he was speaking to a man who was devoted to the prince, and that he was speaking of one of the noblest actions that was ever fought. I can not resist telling you that the battle being nearly lost, the prince recovered 188 LOUIS XIV. AND and gained it by a single glance of that eagle eye which embraces every object on the field, and is never daz- zled."* A Te Deum was appointed for the 26th of August; and, according to custom, a double line was formed by the guards from the Palais-Royal to the cathedral of Notre Dame ; and, as soon as the king had entered the church, the troops were formed into three battalions, who took up their stations in the square of the Dauphiness, and in that of the Palais- " Royal ; while the populace, surprised and displeased to see •*■ the soldiery remain under arms, became at once convinced, that hostile intentions were harbored either against them or their leaders. Then- impression was a correct one, for orders had been given to Comminges, one of the four captains of the guards, to arrest the presidents Blancmesnil and Chaiton, and the councilor Broussel. Comminges, however, remained quietly posted at the door of the cathedral until the close of the service, awaiting his final instructions, when as the regent appeared, she motioned him to her side, and said, in a low voice, " Go, and may God assist you." Comminges bow- ed, and was about to obey, when, as a further encourage- ment, Le Tellier, the Secretary of State, approached him, saying : " Courage ! all is ready, and they are in their own houses." Instead, therefore, of following the king with his troops, he remained motionless before the cathedral as the royal procession disappeared ; and the distrust of the people in- creased as they witnessed this unwonted immobility. The alarm spread ; the passers-by, the idlers, and the curious, began to collect in groups, to listen and to watch. The military and diplomatic tactics of Comminges, were, how- ever, an overmatch for their jealous apprehension; for while he remained passively at the head of his men, he had dis- patched his carriage with four of his guards, a page, and * Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 189 an exempt to the house of Broussel, ordering the exempt at the instant in which he saw him enter the street, to draw up at the door of the councilor, with the Winds of the car- riage closed, and the door secured. He had no sooner, therefore, waited the time that he considered necessary for the accomplishment of this order, than he rode away quietly from his men, and pursued his road alone to the house of the councilor. As he saw him approach, the exempt obeyed the directions which he had received ; while Com- minges rode up to the door, and rung the bell. It was opened without hesitation by a foot-boy, and Comminges instantly placed two guards upon the threshold, and ascend- ed with two others to the apartment of Broussel. He found the councilor at table, surrounded by his family, and the consternation created by his appearance was extreme. Of all the party, Broussel alone remained seated. The captain of the Royal Guards explained his errand ; upon which the councilor desired to know the nature of the crime for which he was arrested ; but Comminges simply replied by stating that a captain of the guards was not privileged to interfere in matters which regarded the gentlemen of the law, and that he had merely received the order to arrest him, which he was now come to execute. As he spoke he stretched out his hand toward him ; when an old female servant, who had nursed him in his boyhood, suddenly threw up the window, and shouted, at the pitch of her voice : " Help ! help ! they are carrying off my master !" And she had no sooner discovered that her cries had alarmed the neigh- borhood, than she sprung to the door of the apartment, vowing that her master should not be torn from his family while she lived to prevent it ; and this passionate declaration was intermingled with louder and more vigorous cries for assistance. The appeal had not been made in vain, for on reaching the door with his prisoner, Comminges remarked that about a score of persons had collected in front of the house, and 190 LOUIS XIV. AND they discovered upon turning a corner, to drive down the next street, that chains had been stretched across it, and they were consequently compelled to turn back and pursue another route ; which, however, they were not permitted to do without an exchange of blows between the guards and the people. Still the mob were rather boisterous than threatening; they had not yet measured their strength with the military in those metropolitan battle-fields, where every paving-stone supplies a weapon, and every house a fortress; and thus the guards felt the moral power which they still possessed over the crowd to be at least as valuable a defense as their arms. But, although the populace had permitted the carriage to reach the quay, they appeared to be resolved that it should advance no farther ; the servants and friends of Broussel were traversing the streets in all directions, call- ing aloud for assistance to effect his rescue ; and that dull roar of long-suppressed rage began to be heard among the multitude, which betrayed that its worst and fiercest passions were awakening. Stones began to cleave the air on all sides ; and at each instant powerful hands grasped the bridles of the horses. Comminges was, however, worthy of the confidence which had been placed in his courage and resolution; and having at length succeeded in effecting an opening in the crowd, he ordered the coachman to drive forward at ..a gallop. Unfortunately the command was no sooner obeyed than one of the wheels came in contact with a loose paving-stone, and the heavy coach fell over upon its side. It was instantly surrounded by the people, but the drawn swords of the soldiers produced their effect; and after considerable difficulty the carnage was righted, when it was discovered that it could proceed no farther, not only on account of the shattered wheel, but also because oppor- tunity had been taken in the confusion to cut the reins. In this emergency, Comminges detached ten of his men under the command of a sergeant, who, at a signal from him, sur- rounded a carnage in which half a dozen persons were sit- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 191 ting, who had stopped on their way to watch the proceed- ings, and to inquire into the cause of the tumult ; and, despite their remonstrances, compelled them to alight, and con- ducted the captured vehicle to his commander, who, finding the crowd increasing rapidly, both in numbers and in hos- tility, at once transferred his visitor to the carriage thus obtained, and drove off in all haste toward the Palais-Royal. By a singular fatality, the second carriage broke down in its turn in the rue St. Honore ; when the people seeing the op- portunity to be favorable for a new attempt at rescue, fell resolutely upon the guards, who were at length compelled to repulse them with the butt-ends of their muskets, and even with their swords. The sight of the first blood thus spilled urged the multi- tude almost to madness. Threats and wailings were heard on every side. Citizens began to issue from their houses, armed with their halberts ; others appeared at the windows, with arquebuses in their hands. One shot was fired, which wounded a guard ; and just as Comminges began to despair of the success of his mission, its failure was prevented by the approach of the carriage of his uncle, M. Guetant, into which he instantly removed his prisoner, and sprang in after him. The horses, which were fresh and vigorous, were urged into a gallop toward the Tuileries, where a re- lay was awaiting them, and, freed at last from the pressure of the crowd, the carriage drove rapidly toward St. Ger- main, whence the prisoner was to be transferred to Sedan. Meanwhile, two of the subalterns of Comminges had con- veyed Blancmesnil and Charton to Vincennes. The consternation created throughout the capital by these arrests was beyond description. For a short time the pop- ulace appeared to be paralyzed, but it was merely the threatening hush which precedes the tempest. Suddenly, and simultaneously, all the mighty mass sprang from its lethargy ; shouts and yells reechoed on all sides ; the shops were closed as if by magic, and a living tide pressed, and 192 LOUIS XIV. AND heaved, and jostled against each other along the great thor- oughfares, alimented, as it passed on, by new throngs, which poured forth from every lateral street and alley. Those who possessed arms tendered them freely to all who need- ed them ; and, in the midst of this tumult, the coadjutor, who sent to inquire into its cause, learned the arrest of the three citizens ; upon which, he immediately left his house in the costume in which he had just performed the mass, that is, with his lawn sleeves and cape ; and proceeded to- ward the palace, in order to ascertain the reason of a meas- ure so discordant with the assurances that he had lately received. As he reached the Pont Neuf, he encountered the Marshal de la Meilleraye, who, although he had as yet no opponents save a few children who were throwing stones at the soldiery, was nevertheless greatly perplexed ; for he not only began to foresee the gathering storm, but even rec- ognized its approach. The marshal informed him in detail of the proceedings of the morning, when he in turn confided to the marshal that he was about to proceed to the Palais- Royal, to confer upon the subject with the queen ; and it was mutually agreed that they should visit her together, in order that by their united testimony they might prevail both upon herself and upon her minister to take some steps to appease the people, and to avert the threatened revolt. As they passed along the streets, they were followed by an immense crowd, who shouted, without intermission, " Brous- sel ! Broussel! Broussel !" The name of a quiet citizen, subjected to the unjust tyranny of an unwise court, had sud- denly become the watchword of a revolted city. They found the regent in her great cabinet, surrounded by the Duke of Orleans, Cardinal Mazarin, the Duke de Longueville,* Marshal Villeroy, the Abbe de la Riviere, * The Longuevilles were a celebrated illegitimate branch of the house of Orleans, originating in the brave Jehan, Count de Dunois, bastard son of Louis, Duke of Orleans, brother of Charles VI. Henry, the second duke, mentioned in the text, was born in 1595 ; was pleni- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 193 Bautru, Nogent, and Gintant, the captain of her guards. She received the coadjutor coldly, for she could not compel herself to admit that she had acted with impolicy ; while the cardinal appeared to have entirely forgotten his pledges of the previous day. On his entrance, the coadjutor ex- pressed to the queen that he had considered it his duty to wait upon her, and to receive her commands, in order that he might, to the extent of his influence, contribute to her safety. Anne of Austria replied by a slight gesture of sat- isfaction ; but, as several of those by whom she was attend- ed persisted in declaring that the disaffection was a mere trifle, unworthy of the royal attention, she abstained from any expression of gratitude. Still the coadjator retained his calm and warning attitude ; but, as the courtiers amused themselves by making merry at the apprehensions of those who were to be daunted by a street row, which only re- quired the presence of the military to disperse its partisans, Marshal de la Meilleraye became exasperated, and appeal- ed to M. de Retz whether the subject was at that moment susceptible of raillery. The coadjutor, who had just been an eye-witness to the popular excitement, and who had no interest in suppressing the truth, testified that the public commotion was serious, and predicted that it would be- potentiary at the Congress of Munster, in 1648, and Governor of Nor- mandy. He embraced the party of the Fronde, in consequence of having been refused the government of Havre. In 1650 he shared the captivity of the princes of Conde and Conti. Having recovered his liberty in the following year, he withdrew from public life, and died in 1663. His second wife was Anne de Bourbon Cond6, famous dur- ing the Fronde. She was the daughter of Henry, the second prince of Conde, and of Marguerite de Montmorency. Eminently beautiful and fascinating, she attracted to the faction her husband and the princes of Conde and Conti, her brothers. She profited by the passion with which she had inspired the famous Turenne, to induce him to revolt with the forces under his command, and availed herself of intrigue of every description to effect her object. On the conclusion of the peace, she retired to Port-Royal, and ultimately to a Carmelite convent, where she died, in 1679, amid the most austere practices of devotion. VOL. I. 1 194 LOUIS XIV. AND come still more so ; but he had no sooner emitted this opin- ion, than the cardinal smiled . maliciously, and the queen angrily exclaimed that there was disloyalty even in believ- ing a revolt to be possible ; that such absurd histories were calculated Lo excite the rebellion which they affected to dep- recate ; but that all persons might make themselves tranquil upon the subject, as the authority of the king would soon restore order. The cardinal, who felt that the regent was going too far, and who had not failed to remark the expression of coun- tenance with which the coadjutor had listened to her intem- perate reply, said, in the soft and cajoling accents which were familiar to him on all occasions of difficulty, where he felt himself to be dependent upon extraneous assistance, that he only wished it might please God to make every one speak with the same sincerity as the coadjutor, who fear- ed alike for his flock and for the city, and for her majes- ty's authority; adding that, although personally he by no means apprehended that the danger was so imminent as M. de Retz believed, still he felt satisfied that the coadju- tor had taken the view of it which he represented, and that he spoke religiously according to the dictates of his con- science. The queen instantly understood the policy of her minis- ter, and smoothing her brow, and composing her voice, she thanked the coadjutor warmly for his zeal, who, affecting to be duped by this gracious manifestation, answered with a low and reverential bow. At that moment, every individual present, save one, was playing a part. The queen was affecting urbanity, and was swelling with concealed anger; the cardinal was striving to appear at his ease, and was internally trembling with fear ; the coadjutor was assuming credulity, and inwardly de- spising the inane and presumptuous obstinacy of the proud woman before whom he stood in respectful silence; the Duke of Orleans was expressing great zeal, and uttering a THE COURT OF FRANCE. 1 95 host of useless suggestions, while in his heart he cared little about the issue of the affair ; the Duke de Longueville look- ed grave, and indulged in audible lamentations over the misguided populace, rejoicing meanwhile in the depths of his spirit at a demonstration which must tend to lessen the arrogance of the regent and the cardinal; the Marshal de Villeroy laughed at the folly of the mob, and an instant af- terward declared, with tears in his eyes, that the nation was on the brink of a precipice ; and finally, Bautru and No- gent were jesting and caricaturing, for the queen's amuse- ment, the agonized excitement of the old housekeeper of Broussel, as she ran through the streets exciting the mob to liberate her master. The Abbe de la Riviere alone was calm and impassive, and persisted that the whole affair was too ridiculous for notice. The Marshal de la Meilleraye became infected by this atmosphere of real or affected se- curity, and began, notwithstanding his late alarm, to con- cede that he had perhaps exaggerated the actual amount of danger, and given to the popular outbreak an importance of which it was undeserving, when the door of the cabinet was suddenly opened, and the lieutenant-colonel of the royal guards entered to apprise the queen that the people were becoming bolder and bolder, and threatened to force the troops. As the marshal was, according to De Retz, a com- position of contradictions, he immediately turned his anger against the citizens ; and instead of resuming his original opinion, requested that he might be allowed to place him- self at the head of the four companies of the guards, taking with him all the courtiers who might be lounging in the antechambers, and all the soldiers whom he met on his way ; when he assured the queen that he would at once disperse this insolent rabble. The regent, who was always inclined to adopt violent measures, at once conceded the point ; but, as it was a grave measure thus to resort to ex- tremity while a chance remained of pacificating the people, the proposition of the marshal remained unseconded ; a fact 190 LOUIS XIV. AND which somewhat chilled the enthusiasm of both the queen and her adviser ; and at that precise moment the Chancel- lor Seguier presented himself, pale and trembling to a de- gree which so affrighted the regent, that she hurriedly in- quired what had happened. Little accustomed as the chancellor might be to tell the truth, his terror was on thi> occasion more powerful than habit ; and he related every thing he had witnessed, rather exaggerating than diminish ing events. He had no sooner finished his recital, than the court party began to look upon the real state of affairs with more prudence than they had hitherto evinced ; when he was in his turn succeeded by M. de Senneterre, as calm as the chancellor had been excited, who came to communicate the fact that the people were beginning to relax in vio- lence, that they had ceased to arm themselves, and that, with a little patience, all would go well. Immediately there was a general outcry in favor of the marshal's propo- sition, and assurances were poured forth to the queen that a proper display of severity would at once put down the revolt ; but, meanwhile, all these idle discussions were en- tailing great loss of time at a conjuncture when every instant was precious ; and old Guitaut,* who, although he bore no great reputation for intelligence, was nevertheless known to be a zealous and faithful servant to the crown, ventured to speak in his turn, and, in even a hoarser voice than usual, declared, that something ought to be done one way or the other ; adding that they could only be fools or traitors who remained inactive at such a moment. " And what is your advice 1" asked the cardinal (with whom the guardsman was no favorite), in a tone of pique. " My advice is, sir," replied Guitaut, abruptly, " that you give up that old rascal, Broussel, dead or alive." " The first measure," said the coadjutor, " would neither accord with the prudence nor the piety of the queen ; but the second might put an end to the disturbances." * Captain of the Queen's Guard. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 197 "I understand you, sir;" was the retort of the regent*, " you wish me to set Broussel free, but I would sooner strangle him with my own hands ;" and as 6he spoke, she thrust them almost into the face of the coadjutor, adding, "as well as those who "but here the cardinal inter- posed, and he had scarcely whispered a few words in her ear, when she recovered her self-possession, and fell back upon her chair with affected composure. The next intrusion upon the cabinet was that of the civil- lieutenant, M. Dreux d'Aubray, a living embodiment of animated terror, who recapitulated his own perils in trav- ersing the city so graphically, that he succeeded in once more spreading alarm in the royal circle. The excited populace began to assume a more formidable aspect in the eyes of the regent and her minister ; it was no longer a vile mob, as absurd as it was reckless ; but grew suddenly into consequence, as a menacing mass of human beings, resolved to throw off the yoke by which their shoulders had been galled, and the incubus which had weighed down their ener- gies. At length, therefore, it was admitted that the event required consideration, and a sort of council was improvised, at which each person was invited to state his opinion ; when as the coadjutor, the two marshals, and Guitaut, de- clared it to be their advice that Broussel should be liberated, the cardinal at length joined their party, but added, that as the prisoner was not in Paris, he could only be given up on the following day. The coadjutor at once understood that this clause was a mere pretext to gain time; and that if the people remained armed, Broussel would be restored to them ; but that should they disperse upon the faith of the promise, measures would be adopted to prevent a recurrence of the outbreak, while the pledge would, without hesitation, be falsified ; a con- viction in which he was strengthened when Mazarin turned toward him, and remarked, with a bland smile, that no one could with so much propriety as himself announce this 1 98 LOUIS XIV. AND concession to the citizens, being, as he was, in some degree their deputy. The coadjutor had Florentine blood in his veins, however, as well as the cardinal ; and although the demand was not flattering either to Anne of Austria or her minister, he required to be furnished with a written promise which might convince the crowd that he did not act upon his mere personal authority ; but the Marshal de la Meille- raye, more impetuous and less suspicious than himself, dragged him away, asserting that the words of the queen were better than any written document. M. de Retz was, nevertheless, far from convinced , and foreseeing the ruin of his popularity, should he be made the organ of a decep- tion, he withdiew from the grasp of the eager soldier, and was about to renew his demand, when he discovered that the regent had already retired to an inner apartment ; while Mazarin repulsed him with extended hands, saying, in his softest accents, " Go, Mr. Coadjutor, go, and save the State." The body-guards then lifted him from the floor in their arms, and carried him out of the palace, shouting, "You alone, Mr. Coadjutor, can remedy the evil ; go — go !" Thus M. de Retz found himself, without any volition of his own, once more in the street, in his lawn sleeves and cape, surrounded by a throng of people among whom he en- deavored to force a passage, showering blessings on all sides as he pressed forward. This, however, was not what the mob had come there to seek ; and accordingly he was assailed by new cries of " Broussel ! Broussel ! Give us back Broussel !" Resolved, nevertheless, to make no promise which he was convinced would not be ultimately performed, he continued to wave his hands with increased unction to the right and left, with all the solemnity that he could com- pel in such a situation, when the Marshal de la Meilleraye, at the head of the light-horsemen of the guard, advanced toward the heaving mass, brandishing his sword above his head, and shouting, in his turn, " Yes, yes — long live the king, and liberty to Broussel !" THE COURT OF FRANCE. 199 Unfortunately, although his drawn sword was visible on all sides, his words were rendered inaudible by the combined exclamations of the people, who became still more furious as they witnessed his apparently threatening gesture. The cry to arms was heard, and a street-porter, with a sword in his hand, rushed upon the marshal, who killed him by a pistol shot. Instantly the tumult deepened. The crowd, which had followed the coadjutor from the palace, where they had awaited his reappearance, drove, or rather earned him to the cross of Trahoir, where they found the marshal contending against a strong body of citizens who had ob- structed his passage, and who were returning the fire of the light-horsemen with considerable energy. The moment was critical, and trusting that his sacerdotal costume might inspire respect, where intimidation had failed, the coadjutor threw himself between the combatants ; when the marshal profited by the circumstance to extricate himself from the difficulty into which he had been betrayed by his own impet- uosity, and ordered his men to cease firing. The greater number of the crowd, who were near enough to understand the motive of this sudden termination of hostilities, imitated the example of the troops, but those who were on the out- skirts of the throng still continued their fire ; while twenty or thirty individuals who had forced their way from the rue des Prouvaires, armed with halberts and musketoons, not seeing, or affecting not to see, the coadjutor, pressed so closely upon the light-horsemen near whom he stood, that they broke the arm of M. de Fontrailles who was beside the marshal, wounded one of the pages who carried the cassock of the coadjutor, and knocked M. de Retz himself down with a stone. He had just risen to his knee when an apothecary's boy placed the ban-el of his musket against his head ; but as the prelate was thrusting aside the weapon, the young man fortunately recognized his opponent, turned aside his arm, and, while assisting him to rise, raised a shout of, " Long live the coadjutor !" The cry was re- 200 LOUIS XIV. AND echoed on all sides, and as the people crowded about their idol, the marshal profited by the movement to retire toward the Palais-Royal The coadjutor, on his side, directed his steps toward the market-hall, with a dense mob following closely upon his heels ; but there, to use his own expression, he found all the swarm of salesmen under arms, and it became necessary for him to explain himself. He had been seen to enter the Palais-Royal, and to leave it; and every one required to be informed of the nature of the queen's answer. Having no confidence in that which he had really received, and pressed upon on all sides by the crowd, the coadjutor was glad to be provided with an ex- pedient for escape; and consequently he volunteered to return once more to the palace. The proposition was eagerly welcomed ; and he accordingly retraced his steps at the head of about forty thousand individuals. At the gate of the sergeants, he found La Meilleraye, who embraced him affectionately, thanking him for the efficient assistance which he had rendered ; and as they entered the queen's presence the marshal exclaimed that he presented to Her Majesty the man to whom he owed his life, and to whom she herself was indebted for the safety of her city. Anne of Austria smiled ; but there was so much ambiguity in the expression of her thanks, that M. de Retz was not deceived for a moment. He did not, however, suffer this distrust to appear; but as the marshal recom- menced his panegyric, he cut it short by addressing himself, in his turn, to the regent, observing that it was not of him or of his services that it was expedient to speak at such a mo- ment, but of Paris, which, submissive and disarmed, had just thrown itself at her feet. The face of the queen flushed with anger as she exclaim- ed, that the city was rebellious and not submissive ; although had it really been in the state of revolt which had been rep- resented to her, she could not comprehend how it had THE COURT OF FRANCE. 201 become appeased in so short a time. The marshal, who understood the covert taunt conveyed in this remark, again insisted upon the truth of what he had advanced ; and losing patience at the pertinacity with which she sacrificed her interest to her temper, he declared that an honest man, seeing how much she was misled by those about her, was compelled in duty to speak the truth ; and he consequently assured Her Majesty that if she did not, in the course of the day, set Broussel at liberty, there would not be one stone left upon another in all Paris. The coadjutor was about to follow upon the same text, when Anne of Austria with a sarcastic laugh desired him to go and rest himself, as he must require repose after so much, and such effective exertion. M. de Retz, who did not re- quire a repetition of the hint, at once left the palace, indignant at the affront to which he had been subjected ; and although he commanded himself sufficiently not to utter a word as he walked homeward which might embitter the mood of the citizens, there was a feeling at his heart which argued no good to the court party, and especially to the queen-regent. Yielding to the clamor of the crowd, he mounted the driving-box of his carriage, to explain the issue of his visit to the palace ; and thence he acquainted them that he had communicated to his royal mistress the fact of their renewed obedience, and had assured Her Majesty that they had laid down their arms ; to which she had replied that this was the only line of conduct calculated to insure the liberty of the prisoners. He added, moreover, whatever he imagined might soften their excited passions ; and the supper-hour having fortunately arrived, the force of habit caused the throng to disperse, if not satisfied, at least tranquil. So far the coadjutor had acted, if not with, at least for, the court party ; but having found it necessary to lose blood, in order to counteract the ill effects of the blow which he had re- ceived upon the head, his friends gathered about his bed, and informed him that he had been made the butt of the 202 LOUIS XIV. AND courtiers, who had amused the queen throughout the even- in"- hy turning him and his exertions into ridicule. This information was as a spark dropped upon tinder ; self-rely- ing, proud, and ambitious, De Retz could better bear any thing than to see himself the subject of a jest; and he an- swered bitterly that he had at least spared himself the mortification of explaining his services, which was always insupportable to an honest man; but that had he remained quietly at home at such a moment, the queen, to whom he was indebted for his rank, would not have had cause to be satisfied with bis conduct. He was assured, in reply, that she was even now far from being so ; for that Madame de Na- vailles and Madame de Motteville had just told the Prince de Guemenee that the inhabitants of the Palais-Royal were convinced he had done all in his power to excite the people ; and finally a messenger reached him from the Marshal de la Meilleraye, urging him to leave Paris on the instant, as a suggestion had been already emitted and discussed at the Louvre, which had for its purport his arrest and imprison- ment at Quimper-Corentin,* while Broussel was to be sent to Havre-de-Grace ; and at daylight the chancellor was to interdict all future meetings of the parliament, and to com- mand its members to retire to Montarges. De Retz was far, however, from evincing any inclination to profit by the warning of the marshal. He saw himself at the height of his ambition — about to become the head of a faction — and, moreover, urged to revolt by the injuries * Quimper-Corentin was the ancient capital of Lower Brittany, and is now the chief city of the Department of Finisterre, at the junction of the Odet and the Fleyr, rivers which are navigable for vessels of 800 tuns. The city is. situated at three leagues and a half from the ocean. Its population amounts to 9900 souls. It has a bishopric suffragant to Tours, which was established in the early centuries of the Christian era ; tribunals of criminal and common law, two colleges, an agricul- tural society, a school of navigation, a library of 7000 volumes, and a theater. Quimper also possesses a very fine gothic cathedral, and other remarkable monuments. It is distant 136 leagues from Paris. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 203 and injustice of which he felt that he had been made the object. He accordingly marshaled his forces, exerted his influence, became the disloyal subject he had already been accused of being, displayed considerable military talent, and succeeded in revolting the city. Before eight o'clock on the following morning the disturbances had spread over the whole of Paris ; every one was armed, even to the women and chil- dren ; and almost, as if by magic, in an incredibly short space of time more than twelve hundred barricades were formed. The chancellor, hustled on every side, and seeing the excited populace appear to rise from the very pavement, fled with great difficulty, pursued by shouts and maledic- tions, to the Hotel d'O, at the extremity of the quay of St. Augustine ; where, accompanied by his brother, the Bishop of Meaux, he concealed himself in a small closet behind the tapestried hangings, and escaped, as by a miracle, through the cupidity of the mob, who soon became so intent upon pillaging the house, and on carrying off the magnificent fur- niture, splendid hangings, and rich chimney-ornaments, that they relaxed in their pursuit of the owner. Meanwhile a large circle had assembled in the apartments of the regent, among whom were all the princesses and the unhappy Queen of England, with her little daughter, who had fled from one revolted nation only to find themselves once more in an asylum which threatened to become equally unsafe. " I went to the Palais-Royal," says Mademoiselle, " where I found every one in great excitement, bewildered by this commotion, so inconsiderable in itself, but rendered important by the results which might ensue, and by past ex- amples with which all our histories are filled. As for me, I had never seen any thing of the kind ; while, not being of an age to reflect, all these novelties delighted me ; and, more- over, as I was not altogether satisfied with either the queen or Monsieur, it was a great pleasure to me to see them in a state of perplexity." * * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 204 LOUIS XIV. AND The disaffection, or rather the rehellion, soon attained to such a height that the memhers of the parliament proceed- ed in their robes to the palace, to expostulate with the queen, who did not, however, suffer the president to explain the purport of his errand ; but immediately that they appeared, addressed them with great vehemence, demanding if they did not consider it both extraordinary and shameful that during the time of the late queen, her mother-in-law, they had permitted the arrest and imprisonment of the Prince de Conde without exhibiting the least resentment, when for the miserable and obscure Broussel they and the people were guilty of proceedings which would make posterity regard them with horror as the cause of such disorders; while the king, her son, would one day have a right to com- plain of their conduct, and to punish it ] To this intemperate appeal the president replied, that it was no time for recrimination ; but that in the actual state of the population some remedy must be applied, in order to pacify the public mind ; adding, that he should advise Her Majesty to avoid compelling them to deliver her prisoner by force, and to give him up through her own will and clemency. Anne of Austria, however, critical as her position had become, disdained to yield ; and after the exchange of a few more words little calculated to increase her popularity, she abruptly turned her back upon the whole body, and withdrew into her cabinet, where Mazarin was already awaiting her ; whereupon the president dispatched a mes- senger imploring her to return, and to accord them a second brief audience. The queen did not, nevertheless, reappear ; but she was represented by the chancellor, who informed the parliament that if they exhibited in future more re- spect f< jr the will of the king, the regent would, on her side, concede them all the favor which might depend upon her pleasure. As this message was extremely ambiguous, the president demanded an explanation ; upon which the chan- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 205 cellor replied, that, provided the parliament would bind itself never to assemble in future for the discussion of state busi- ness, or attempt to control the edicts, the regent would deliver up the prisoners. The members then retired, declaring that they would deliberate upon the proposition ; but as they brought no pledge to the people that their reclamation had been con- ceded, the fury of the mob increased to such a height that they were assailed not only with reproaches but with men- ace; and at length an outcry was raised that they should be compelled to return to the Palais-Royal, and bring either Broussel in person, or Mazarin as a hostage. At this threat the alarm of the parliament became so great that, with the exception of the president, nearly all the members escaped by degrees among the crowd. He alone preserved his self-possession ; and rallying the few of his body who still remained near him, he retraced his steps slowly toward the palace. They were already aware in the royal apartments of what had happened ; and, moreover, the sounds of the not had reached the ears of the regent herself, while the shouts and threats which accompanied the return of the deputies were distinctly audible. She was consequently more disposed than before to listen to their arguments ; and the ladies of the court having thrown themselves at her feet to entreat her to yield, she attempted no further resistance. "Well, gentlemen," she said, with the best grace she could assume, " consider what it is expedient to decide." The parliament assembled in the great gallery, to deliberate, and at the expiration of an hour returned to her presence ; when the first president, in the name of the whole body, assured her of his loyalty and that of his colleagues, and then informed her that there should be no meeting held until after the festival of St. Martin, This was, of course, rather a trace than a peace, but the court was no longer in a position to dictate terms ; and 206 LOUIS XIV. AND accordingly the queen affected to be satisfied by the par- tial concession, and immediately gave a written order for the liberation of the prisoners, coupled with a command ihat one of the king's carriages should be dispatched to brino- Broussel back to Paris. " When it had been deter- mined to give up the prisoners," says Mademoiselle, "the deputies retired proudly, and with the air of peo- ple who wished you to believe that they had prevailed as a matter of course, and knew the persons with whom they had to deal. Henceforth they began to frontier the cardinal."* This word fronde, rendered so famous by the civil war which adopted it as its title, simply signifies sling; but a sling of peculiar construction, at that period greatly in vogue with the boys of Paris, who practiced it in the city moat, and occasionally terminated in bloodshed the rivalry which was begun in sport. The fronde, properly so called, was formed of a narrow strap of leather, ter- minated at each end by a cord ; some missile was placed upon the strap, which was then doubled, the two cords being held in the right hand ; the fronde was then re- volved, first slowly, but subsequently at speed, and when this could no longer be increased, one of the cords was suffered to escape, by which means the fronde opened and the missile was projected with great force. The fronde was the usual weapon of the foot-soldiers in ancient times, and during the middle agres. The inhabitants of the Balearic Islands (Minorca and Majorca) were cele- brated as the most expert frondeurs in the world. In their infancy, in order to render them proficient, bread was given to them which they were not allowed to eat until they had projected it from the fronde. The Greeks and Romans had frondeurs, as well as the Franks, and the other nations of the middle ages. The invention of' firearms superseded the use of this primitive weapon. * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 207 Mazarin had remarked a few days previously to the riots, that the parliament were like schoolboys fronding in the Paris ditches, who ran away upon the approach of the civil-lieutenant, only to meet again when he was out of sight; and this witticism was repeated to the deputies, who were extremely wounded by the comparison. On the morning of the barricades, the councilor Barillon, seeing the turn that affairs were taking, sang a couplet which he had improvised upon a popular air. It may be thus rendered : — " A wind of the Fronde This morning has set in ; I think it blows Against the Mazarin ; A wind of the Fronde This morning has set in." Poor as it was, it became instantly the fashion. The court party were called Mazarins, and those of the parliament Frondeurs. The coadjutor and his friends who had ex- cited the movement accepted the title, and adopted hat- cords which bore the form of a sling. Immediately bread, gloves, handkerchiefs, fans, and scarfs, were all a lafronde; and thenceforward the revolution might come when it pleased ; the name by which it was to be distinguished had been decided. The people were only appeased, on the return of the deputies, by the exhibition of the order which the nephew of Broussel displayed unfolded to convince them of the sincerity of the parliament ; while even then they still de- clared that, having already been duped, they would remain under arms all night; and that if, by ten o'clock on the following morning, Broussel had not arrived, they would sack the Palais-Royal, not leave one stone upon another, "and hang Mazarin over the ruins. All was alarm at court. The citizens continued their firing, and the advanced force of the rebels was so near 208 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OP FRANCE. the palace that it was within ten paces of the sentinels of the guard. The queen, bold as she was, never closed her eyes during the night ; and as Mazarin was quite aware of the threats which had been fulminated against him, he was even still less at his ease, and remained in his closet ready dressed for flight. He had one body of guards in his apartments, another at his gate, and a regiment of cavalry awaiting him in the Bois-de-Boulogne, in the event of his being compelled to leave Paris. On the following morning the riots increased ; nine o'clock had struck, and Broussel had not arrived. The citizens de- clared that they would liberate the Duke de Beaufort, and place him at their head ; and the regent and her minister made preparations for instant departure. In an hour, however, all the yells and execrations were ex- changed for shouts of joy and cries of triumph. Broussel had entered the city, and the people were carrying him in their arms, in the midst of lowered chains and broken barriers. Thus they bore him straight to Notre-Dame, where a Te Deum was sung; while the poor councilor, ashamed of the demonstrations of which he was made the object, did not await the conclusion of the mass, but escaped by a side door, and reached his own house, quite bewilder- ed to find himself suddenly endowed with a popularity of which he had previously entertained no suspicion. Meanwhile the parliament assembled, and issued a de- cree, ordaining the removal of all the chains and bar- riers, of whatever description, which had been erected in the city during the riots; and compelling the citizens immediately to return to their dwellings, and resume their avocations. They were once more masters of Paris, and felt that the regent and her party were in their hands. Two hours afterward every vestige of the late disturbances had disap- peared, and the capital was as tranquil as though the trans- actions of the two previous days had been a dream. M. CHAPTER IX. Removal of the Court to Ruel — Recall o{ the Prince de Conde — Arrest of Chavigny — Rivalry between Gaston d'Orleans and Conde — Dec- laration of the Parliament against Mazarin — Private Marriage of the Queen and the Cardinal — Madame de Beauvais — The Cardinal's Hat — Reply of the Marshal d'Estrees — Politeness of the young King — Mazarinades — Reconciliation of the Duke d'Orleans with the Court — The Abbe de la Riviere — Favor of the Prince de Conde ; his ill- judged Advice — The Twelfth-Cake — Evasion of the Court from Paris — Mademoiselle in the Queen's Coach — The Court at St. Germain — Effect of the King's Flight upon the Populace. Paris having become insupportable to the regent, the court removed to Ruel, under the pretext of a necessity which existed for renovating the Palais-Royal. The king, the queen, and the Duke d'Anjou were all just recovering from the effects of small-pox, and Mazarin from those of terror, when they decided on this change of residence. The Queen of England occupied St. Germain, and the Prince of Wales was in Holland. The Duke d'Orleans and 210 LOUIS XIV. AND Mademoiselle remained in the capital. Nothing, under ordinary circumstances, could have heen more simple than such an arrangement ; but it, nevertheless, at that pre- cise moment, bore greatly the aspect of a flight. The king entered his carriage at six o'clock in the moining, and took the cardinal along with him ; the Duke d'Anjou followed two hours later, with M. de Perefixe ; while the queen, " as the boldest of the party," says Madame de Motteville, " remained until the last, went to confession at the convent of the Cordeliers,* and took leave of her good nuns at Val-de-Grace, before she left in her turn." t As, during the residence of the court at Ruel, the parliament continued to assemble daily, to fronder the cardinal, and even took some steps which were obnox- ious to the regent, the Queen of England was compelled to vacate St. Germain, in order that the court might there take up its abode ; and she accordingly returned to Paris. The Duke d'Orleans remained behind, with a view to accomplish an understanding with the parliament, in the event of new difficulties. This prince, who had for some time passed nearly the whole of his life in retirement at Blois, began to emerge from his retreat, as timid, but as ambitious and as meddlesome, as ever. Notwithstanding that he was lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and, con- * Monks of the order of the Younger Brothers of St. Francis, who wore gowns of coarse, gray cloth, with a small cowl, a cape, and a cloke of the same stuff, girt with a girdle of cord knotted in three knots. On their feet they wore only sandals. They were sometimes also called Scotistes, because they followed the doctrine of the famous Scot. The Cordeliers were admitted as fellows of the University, and even as doctors. Their name originated as follows: — These monks having repulsed the infidels during the war waged against them by St. Louis, the king inquired by what designation they were distin- guished, and was answered that they were people of the cordes lids (knotted cords) ; and since that time the name of Cordeliers remained to them. The order was suppressed in 1798. t Memoires de Madame de Motteville. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 211 sequently, possessed considerable authority, he was con- stitutionally too weak and cowardly to place any reliance on his own strength ; and even while he ventured to remain thus almost isolated in Paris, and retained Made- moiselle near him, he caused Madame to leave the city with his two younger daughters, Mesdemoiselles d'Orleans and d'Alencon, who were both of tender age. The Prin- cess de Conde also withdrew her grandson, the young Duke d'Enghien ; and Mademoiselle, in her Memoirs, expresses her embarrassment on finding that she was the only junior member of the royal family who had not re- ceived an order to follow the court. "As no one should hesitate," she proceeds to say, " in doing what they feel to be their duty, even although their inclination may not urge them to it, I proceeded to Ruel, where I arrived as the queen was about to leave for St. Germain. She asked me where I came from, and I told her from Paris ; for that, when the report of her departure reached me, I had has- tened to have the honor of bearing her company; as it had appeared to me that, although she had not done me the favor to command my attendance, I ought not to fail in proving to her that I was aware of my duty, which I trusted she would be good enough to appreciate. She an- swered, with a smile, that she was not displeased at what I had done; and it was a great thing for me, after the manner in which I had been treated, even to see that I was borne with. I told Monsieur and the Abbe de la Riviere how greatly I was annoyed that even the little children should have been sent for, while I was forgotten. Their reply was embarrassed enough."* At this period the Prince de Conde, who, at the capture of Furnes, had been wounded in the hip, was recalled to Paris by the regent, who, apprehending mischief from the intriguing character of the Duke d'Orleans, was anxious to secure the support of the conqueror against his machinations; * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 212 LOUIS XIV. AND while, as a counterpoise to the triumphs of the popular party during the day of the barricades, she again exiled the old Marquis de Chateauneuf, and caused Chavigny to be arrested ; the former upon the pretext that he had taken part with the rioters, and the latter under pretence that, in conjunction with several of the deputies, he had fomented them. The parliament saw the return of the Prince de Conde with distrust ; nor did the Duke d'Orleans witness it with more satisfaction ; the prince being his rival, not only in politics, but also in the good graces of Mademoiselle de Vegean to whom Monsieur was paying his court, and who was much attached to him. M. de Conde found the capital in commotion on the subject of the arrests, and the parlia- ment assembled for the purpose of releasing De Chavigny ; while only two days after his arrival, during his absence at Ruel, where he had gone to pay his respects to the queen, a very stormy meeting took place, which terminated in the declaration of Blancmesnil, that all the discontent existing throughout the kingdom was attributable to the influence of an alien, and might at once be overcome by applying to the individual in question the decree which had been pro- mulgated in 1617, subsequently to the execution of the Marshal d'Ancre ; by which it was forbidden to every foreigner to hold office, dignity, sinecure, honor, or govern- ment in France. This was the most direct blow which had yet been struck against Mazarin, and its echo soon reached Ruel, whence a short time subsequently the regent promul- gated a declaration signed by herself, the princes, the cardi- nal, and the chancellor, to the effect that — " No officer could be dismissed even from the discharge of his duty by a mere written order ; that every officer arrested must be given up twenty -four hours to his proper judges ; and that even so it should be for all the king's subjects, unless from failure of proof, in which case the detention could not exceed six months." Moreover, De Chavigny, who had already been THE COURT OF FRANCE. 213 transferred to Havre, was set at liberty, but with an order to retire to his estates. This new triumph assured the position of the parliament, and tended to convince Mazarin that he had narrowly es- caped the effects of the decree issued in the year 1617 ; while it is almost equally certain that he owed his impunity prin- cipally to the fact of his private marriage with the queen- regent; a circumstance doubted by some historians, but affirmed by the Princess Palatine, the second wife of Mon- sieur, brother of Louis XIV.* Moreover, all the circum- stances of the marriage are now known ; and the secret way by which the cardinal was accustomed to reach the chamber still exists in the royal palace. The assertion of the Princess Palatine is also borne out by other chroniclers, who assert that when, in her turn, Anne of Austria visited Mazarin in his own apartments, he was in the habit of ex- claiming impatiently, " What does this woman want with me again 1" Madame de Beauvais, first femme-de-chambre of the queen-regent, was the confidant of the marriage, a fact which compelled her royal mistress to consult her wishes upon all occasions, and excited the astonishment of the courtiers, who could discover no reason for such an excess of favor. The court-newsman of his day, the Marquis de Dangeau.t re- * " The Queen-Mother, widow of Louis XIII., not satisfied with loving Mazarin, had finished by marrying him. He was not a priest, and con- sequently had not taken the orders which prevented his contracting marriage. He became terribly tired of the good queen, and treated her harshly; but it was the custom of the time to contract clandestine mar- riages." — Fragments of Original Letters, written by Charlotte-Elizabeth de Baviere, widow of Monsieur, only brother of Louis XIV., to H. R. H. Monseigneur Antoine-Ulric de Baviere. t The Marquisde Dangeau left behind him fifty-eight volumes of his Memoirs. " Every one has heard of these Memoirs. They are a MS. Journal of the Court from 1686 to 1720. I have read them all. If he did not write them from day to day, it can not be doubted that he must have revised them carefully ; and it may be said that, if they be not a 214 LOUIS XIV. AND marks on the subject of Madame de Beauvais : " She was a woman with whom the greatest men had been in com- munication; and who, old, hideous, and blind of an eye as 6he had become, still continued to appear from time to time at court in full dress like a nobleman's wife, and to be treated with distinction till she died."* The first trial of strength between the Duke d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde, was on the subject of a cardinal's hat which had become vacant, and which Monsieur had so- licited for the Abbe de la Riviere, his favorite, while Maza- rin asked it for the Prince de Conti. The duke resented this substitution loudly, sulked, and even threatened ; but the cardinal had carefully measured the strength of the two princes before he determined upon which he might best rely for support, and disregarded an anger which he knew to be as empty as it was loud. M. de Conde next increas- ed his influence by advising the immediate return of the young king to Paris, a step which gave general satisfaction ; and was immediately succeeded by the peace with Germany, on which occasion the Gazette de France announced, " That the French might henceforward fearlessly water their horses in the Rhine." Meanwhile the young king was beginning to give evidence of the development of an intellect which, if the chronicles of the age may be believed, required only proper assistance to be worthy of his rank. When the victory of Sens was announced to him, he is reported to have said : " Ah, ah, there is something which will not make the parliament laugh ;" while, child as he was, he deeply felt the contempt into which his authority had fallen. One day, when the true history of the court of France during thirty-five years, they offer at least good materials to compose it." — D' 'Argensan. * It was at this period that there appeared a shoal of lampoons writ- ten by each faction against its adversaries ; among others the celebrated Fronde pamphlets of " The Real Truth Hidden," " What have you seen at Court?" and "The Old Woman in Love." THE COURT OF FRANCE. 215 courtiers were discussing in his presence the absolute power of the Turkish sultans, and were giving examples of its ex- tent, he exclaimed, " That is as it should be : that is really reigning." " Yes, sire ;" replied the Marshal d'Estrees * who over- heard the remark ; " but two or three of those very emper- ors have been strangled in my time." The Marshal de Villeroy, who had lost neither the obser- vation nor the rejoinder, instantly made his way through the throng, and addressing D'Estrees said earnestly, " Thank you, sir ; you have just spoken judiciously to the king, and not as his courtiers are too apt to do." Nevertheless, either from a feeling of intuitive good breed- ing, or because he already understood the value of the Prince de Conde on one occasion when the latter entered the apartment where he was pursuing his studies, Louis XIV. rose, and began to converse with his visitor bare- headed. This excess of politeness, which was contrary to all etiquet, wounded Laporte, who entreated that either the preceptor, or the sub-preceptor, would desire the king to put on his hat, but neither the one nor the other would consent to do so ; upon which Laporte himself took the beaver of the young sovereign from the chair where he had left it, and presented it with a grave salutation : — " Laporte is right, sire ;" said the prince, as he remarked the action ; " Your Majesty should be covered when you converse with us ; you do us sufficient honor by a bow." * Francis Annibal d'Estrees, Duke, Peer, and Marshal of France, was born in 1563, and, having originally embraced the ecclesiastical profes- sion, was promoted by Henry IV. to the bishopric of Laon, which he left to follow the career of arms. He distinguished himself on several occasions, relieved the Duke of Mantua in 1626, took Treves, and won great reputation by his courage and ability. Appointed Ambassador- Extraordinary to Rome in 1636, he upheld effectively the interests of the Crown ; but his want of courtesy forfeited his favor with Urban VIII. Recalled to France, he refused to explain his conduct; and died in 1670. He wrote the Memoirs of the Regency of Marie de Mcdicis. 216 LOUIS XIV. AND At this period Prince de Conde appeared much attached to the king. His first question on his return from the army, had been to ask Laporte if the king would be an honest man, and if he possessed intellect; and on receiving an af- firmative answer, he had exclaimed, " All the better ! You delight me ; for there could be no honor in obeying a bad prince, and no pleasure in yielding to a fool." This was also the opinion of the cardinal Mazarin ; who, on one oc- casion, when the Marshal de Grammont was flattering him with the hope of long-enduring power, replied energetically, " Ah, sir, you do not know His Majesty. There is stuff enough in him to make four kings and an honest man." It was this same Marshal de Grammont, who, having sided with the Frondeurs, afterwards said to Louis XIV., " At the period when we served Your Majesty against Ma- zarin ;" a phrase which greatly amused the king. During this time the festival of St. Martin had arrived ; and the parliament had resumed its deliberative sittings, showing itself more bitter than ever toward the court party. Pamphlets against the cardinal were of constant recurrence ; and every day some new Mazarinade made its appearance. At first the minister had laughed as heartily as any one at these lampoons, and had given utterance to the famous words so often quoted — " They sing, and they shall pay for it ;" but at length the songs gave place to a production which caused an immense sensation, and which was entitled, " A petition from the Three States of the Government of the Isle of France to the Parliament of Paris." It was a furious attack upon the minister. " He was," said this pe- tition, " a Sicilian, a subject of the king of Spain, and of low birth, who had been a valet at Rome, and had made him- self serviceable in the most abominable debaucheries ; hav- ing been advanced by rascalities, buffooneries, and in- trigues ; — a man who had beenreceived in France as a spy ; and had, by his influence over the queen, governed every- thing for the last six years, to the great scandal of the royal THE COURT OF FRANCE. 217 household, and the great derision of foreign nations ; — who had dismissed, banished, and imprisoned princes, officers of the crown, members of the parliament, great nobles, and in short, the most faithful servants of the king ; — who had surrounded himself with traitors, exactionists, unbelievers, and atheists ; — who had assumed the office of king's gov- ernor in order to rear the sovereign according to his own ideas ; — who had corrupted the little truth and good faith which still existed at court, by introducing cards and games of chance ; had violated and overthrown justice ; pillaged and ravished all the finances ; and consumed in advance three years of the state revenues ; — who had encumbered the prisons with twenty-three thousand persons, five thou- sand of whom had died in a single year ; and although he had devoured near one hundred and twenty millions annu- ally, had not paid neither the army, or the pensions, or the maintenance of the strongholds; but had shared these large sums with his friends, having exported out of the country the greatest portion of his unholy gains as well in letters of change, and in specie, as in precious stones." At any other time this libel, although correct and truthful upon many points, would have been of little consequence ; but at that precise moment it corresponded so well with the feeling of the people, and the complaint of the parliament, that it became a matter of importance. Great researches was accordingly made to discover its author, but without success ; all that could be accomplished was the identifica- tion of the printer, who was condemned to perpetual ban- ishment by sentence of the Chatelet* It was, however, im- * A name given to the advanced fortress which defended a city. The two chatelets of Paris formed two fortresses, which, from the opposite banks of the Seine, closed the approaches of the citS. The head of tho Pont-au-Change, on the right of the river, was defended by the great chatelet; and that of the little bridge on the left, by the little chatelet. The construction of these forts was attributed to Julius Csesar. Tho last was demolished in 1782, and the fust in 1802. The little chatelet VOL. I. K 218 LOUIS XIV. AND possible that this state of things could endure ; and it consequently became important to ascertain which really- ruled the nation, the sovereign or the parliament; and if, as Anne of Austria herself expressed it, her son was merely a king of cards. The first prudential measure adopted by the court, was to make overtures for a reconciliation with the Duke d'Orleans, who had continued to resent the preference which had been shown by the minister to the interests of the Piince de Conde in the matter of the cardinal's hat ; and this was soon effected, by the appointment of the Abbe de la Riviere to the secretary of stateship, and a seat in the council, accompanied by the promise of the next vacant seat in the conclave. De la Riviere, whose interests wei'e thus deeply involved in this reconciliation, and who well knew how little re- liance could be placed upon the tortuous and vacillating spirit of his master, whose energy of purpose always failed at the moment in which it had become important, undertook the necessary negotiations himself; and the affair was amicably arranged during the Christmas festivals. A council was immediately convened, and resolutions were adopted relatively to the measures to be pursued; when the Prince de Conde being at that moment all- powerful, it was necessarily his opinion which prevailed ; but it unfortunately proved to be the advice of a soldier rather than that of a statesman, and was the germ of all the evil which succeeded. He recommended that the king should be removed to St. Germain, and that means should be adopted to prevent all bread reaching Paris from Gonesse,* in order that famine might be introduced into was used as a prison for the provost-marshal ; while the great ch&telet was the common judicial court of the city, which acted in the name of the provost. * The chief town of the canton of the Department of the Seine and Oise, three leagues from Paris, and seven and a half from Pontoise. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 219 the city. The people, in such a strait, he said, would naturally blame the parliament for their sufferings ; and the parliament, in their turn, would be too happy to re- ceive the pardon of the court upon its own conditions. This proposition found instant favor with the regent, to whom extreme measures were always welcome ; while, whatever might be the actual sentiments of the cardinal, he had too much interest in conciliating the prince, to offer any opposition to such unwise and dangerous counsel, and it was accordingly decided that the measure should be adopted ; but as it was simultaneously felt that perfect secrecy was necessary to its safe accomplishment, it was agreed that the Duke d'Orleans should not mention the subject either to Madame or to Mademoiselle ; nor the Prince de Conde to his mother, his brother, or his sister. The moment of departure was then arranged for the night of the 5th of January; and that Monsieur religiously respected the pledge which he had given we have evi- dence in the Memoirs of Mademoiselle, who relates; — "I had supped that evening with Madame, where one of my people came and told me, as a great secret, that the court would leave the capital the next day. I could not believe this, however, on account of the state of Monsieur;* and I mentioned the news to him as a joke. His silence upon the subject led me to suspect the truth of the in- telligence, and the rather as he wished me good night a moment afterward, without having made me any reply. I went to the chamber of Madame, who thought as I did, that the silence of Monsieur implied the fact of the depart- ure ; and I returned home tolerably late." t This borough, situated on the Croust, contains 2200 inhabitants, and celebrated markets for wheat, corn, and forage. Gonesse was renown- ed, during the middle ages, for the excellent quality of its bread, by which Paris was almost entirely supplied for many years. Philip Au- gustus was born in Gonesse, in 1166. * The Duke d'Orleans was suffering severely from gout. t M ('moires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 220 LOUIS XIV. AND Duvino- the days which intervened between the reso- lution and its accomplishment, all the disposable troops, to the amount of about eight thousand men, were con- centrated toward Paris; a movement which gave some uneasiness to the citizens, who became restless, and col- lected in groups about the streets, like persons who were awaiting the advent of some important event. Nor was the court more tranquil than the city. Orders and counter orders succeeded each other continually ; but, as we have already stated, no one was absolutely in the confidence of the arrangement, save the queen, the Duke d'Orleans, the Prince de Conde, the Cardinal, and the Marshal de Grammont. The day of the 5th of January passed in increased excitement; and in the evening, according to custom, the princes and ministers paid their respects to the regent, but retired early. The Marshal de Grammont being in the yearly habit of giving a grand supper on the eve of the festival of the Kings, every one proceeded to his hotel, and the queen, as soon as she found herself alone, passed into a small cabinet where the king and the Duke d'Anjou were engaged in their sports, under the charge of Madame de la Tremouille. When the queen entered, she seated herself in front of a table, upon which she leaned to watch their movements ; and an instant after- ward Madame de Motteville appeared, and took her sta- tion behind her royal mistress, who addressed her as calmly as usual, and then once more turned all her atten- tion upon her children. At this moment Madame de la Tremouille, who was seated in a corner out of sight, made a sign to Madame de Motteville that she wished to speak to her. The signal was obeyed, and, as her friend drew to her side, Madame de la Tremouille said, in so low a voice that the regent could not overhear her : " Do you know there is a report that the queen leaves Paris to-night ?" The reply was a silent shrug of in- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 221 credulity, as Madame de Motteville pointed to Anne of Austria, who was quietly contemplating the gambols of her sons ; but who was not, however, so absorbed by their infantile games as to remain unconscious that some whispered remark had been made in her presence, for she immediately turned and inquired of Madame de la Tre- mouille what she had said. As neither of the court-ladies put any faith in the rumor, they felt no hesitation in re- peating it ; upon which the queeji replied, with a careless laugh, " The people in this country are really mad, and scarcely know what to imagine. To-morrow I shall pass the day at Val-de-G-race." The Duke d'Anjou, who was at the moment going to bed, heard the words, and would not leave the room until the queen had consented to take him *vith her. She promised this, and the child withdrew in delight. " Now that D'Anjou is gone, ladies," said the regent, " we will, if you please, in order to amuse the king, draw for the bean* among ourselves. Call Bregy, and tell them to bring the cake." She was obeyed; the cake was brought, and Madame de Bregy having entered the room, it was cut into six portions ; one for the king, one for the queen, one for Madame de la Tremouille, one for Madame de Motteville, one for Madame de Bregy, and one for the Virgin. Each ate their portion without finding the bean, as it chanced to be in the reserved slice ; upon which the king took it, and gave it to his mother, thus making her queen of the evening; while she, as though she had no other occupation for her mind save the wish to amuse those about her, sent for a bottle of hypocras, of which her ladies first partook, afterward compelling her to do the same, in order that they might have the opportunity of exclaim- ing, according to the rules of the game, " The queen drinks!" * An amusement similar to that of our Twelfth-Night. 222 LOUIS XIV. AND The conversation then turned upon a dinner to be given two days afterward by Villequier, the Captain of the Guard ; and the queen named such of her women as she would allow to attend it ; adding, that the violin-band of the Prince de Conde should be sent for in order to add to their amusement. Ultimately Laporte was summoned, to whom she committed the young king, that he might go to rest in his turn; and all this was done so calmly and so naturally, that Madame de la Tremouille was the first to laugh at the report which she had been so eager to promulgate. About eleven o'clock, when the queen had retired to her chamber, and her ladies where preparing to assist her to unrobe, she sent for Beringhen,* the first equerry, who immediately presented himself, when she took him aside, and conversed with him some time in a low voice. It was to order out the king's carriages ; but, as she still feared any premature suspicion, she said aloud as he left the room, that she had been giving some instructions about certain alms which she wished to distribute ; and her self- possession was so perfect, that her ladies proceeded to their several duties without a single misgiving. These per- formed, they were dismissed ; and at the door they en- countered Comminges and Villequier, who were as uncon- scious as themselves of the intended departure. The ladies of the household had no sooner left the Palais-Royal, than the gates were closed ; and the queen summoning Madame de Beauvais, again dressed herself. Comminges and Villequier, who had been desired to re- main in the saloon, were next introduced, and received the necessary orders. After them entered the Marshal de Villeroy, who then also learned the intentions of the re- gent for the first time ; and immediately retired to make * James Louis, Marquis de Beringhen, Count de Chateauneuf, and du Plessis-Bertrand, Knight of the Order of the King, First Euueriy, and Governor of the citadels of Marseilles. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 22'S his personal arrangements, as well as those which were necessary to the comfort of the young king, who was left to sleep in peace until three o'clock in the morning. At that hour both the princes were awakened, and placed in a carriage which was in waiting at the gate of the royal garden, where the queen immediately afterward joined them, attended by Madame de Beauvais, and fol- lowed by Guitaut, Comminges, and Villequier, who had all descended by the back stair-case which led from the queen's apartments to the garden. The carnages then drove off without encountering any obstacle, and did not stop until they reached the Cours, which was the general rendezvous ; and there they awaited the Duke d'Orleans, the Prince de Conde, and all the other members of the royal family. Shortly afterward Monsieur arrived with Madame, then Mademoiselle, whom Comminges had been sent to summon, and the princes of Conde and Conti, with the princess ; and finally, the Demoiselles de Man- cini, who had been sent for from the hotel of Madame de Senecey, where they were residing. The tardy appear- ance of the cardinal completed the party. He had been engaged at cards, of which he was passionately fond, and having had a run of luck, he was with difficulty prevailed upon to abandon the game.* The account given of this royal flight by Mademoiselle is at once so characteristic of her own personage, and so graphic, that we will transcribe it. " While M. de Comminges was speaking, I was quite agitated with joy to see that they were about to commit an error, and that I should be a witness of the troubles in which they would be involved in consequence. It re- venged me, in some degree for the persecutions that I had suffered. I did not then foresee that I should find myself in a powerful faction, where I might do my duty and revenge myself at the same time ; nevertheless, in this * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 22 1 LOUIS XIV. AND Boil of vt'iigeance one is apt. to gratify one's self to one's own despite. I rose with all possible celerity, and drove away in the carriage of Comminges. Neither my own, nor that of the Countess de Fiesque,* was ready. The moon had disappeared, and day had not yet dawned. I desired the countess to bring me my equipage as soon as possible. When I entered the carriage of the queen, I said, ' I will be placed either in front, or at the back of the coach ; I am not fond of the cold, and I wish to be at my ease.' This was in order to make the princess change her seat, as she was in the habit of occupying one of these places. The queen replied, ' The king, my son, and I are in them, with the princess-dowager.' To which I an- swered, ' Let her remain then ; young people ought to give up the good places to the old ;' and I" remained near one of the doors with the Prince de Conti ; while at the other were seated the princess, her daughter, and Madame de Senecey. The queen asked me if I had not been very much surprised ? I said, No ; for that Monsieur had fore- warned me of her intention ; although, in fact, he had done nothing of the kind. She thought to detect me in a false- hood, for she asked, ' How then came you to go to bed V I answered, that I was very glad to lay in a stock of sleep, not knowing if I should have a bed to Ke in the next night. I never saw a creature so gay as she was ; if she had gained a battle, taken Paris, and hung all those who were obnoxious to her, she could not have been more 60 ; and, nevertheless, she was very far from having done all this."t Ere long the Cours became thronged with about twenty coaches, containing at least a hundred and fifty persons ; for the friends of those who were about to depart, informed of the circumstance at the eleventh hour, would not remain in Paxis, where they apprehended a new outbreak; and, * Governess of Mademoiselle. t Memoiree de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. T II E C C R T r 1' It A N C L. 225 meanwhile, all these fag >■ the few who were in the secret, were overcome with fear, and looked like peo- ple who were escaping from a beleaguered city. The queen expressed some surprise at the non-appear- ance of Madame de Longueville; but as she had no suspi- cion of the real motive which detained her in Paris, she declared herself satisfied with the reason assigned by the duchess, and communicated by the princess, her mother-in- law, and which was based upon her approaching confine- ment ; and having seen her household assembled, she gave the order to depart. We will again have recourse to Mademoiselle for a description of matters at .St. Germain. The picture is ad- mirable. " When we arrived at St. Germain we went straight to the chapel to hear mass, and all the rest of the day was spent in questioning those who arrived as to what they were saying and doing in Paris. Every one spoke of it in his own way, and all were agreed that no anger had been exhibited at the departure of the kinz ; that the drums were beating all over the city, and that the citizens had taken up arms. I was very uneasy about my equipage ; I knew that the Countess de Fiesque was so timid that she would not leave Paris during the commotion, nor forward my equipage, which was most necessary to me ; as for herself, I could have done very well without her. She sent me a coach, which passed through the rebels without remark, and the other3 could have come with equal ease ; those who were in it were treated with great civility, although it was by people who are not in the habit of showing it: and I was informed of the circumstance. She sent me in this coach a matress, and a little linen. As I saw myself in so sorry a condition, I went to seek help at the Chateau-Xeuf',* where Monsieur and Madame were * There were two palaces at St. Germain-en-Laye, where several kings had resided. That which still exists, and which was huilt several 226 LOUIS XIV. AND lodged. She lent me two of her women ; but she had not her clothes any more than myself; and nothing could be more laughable than this disorder. I slept in a very handsome room, well painted, well gilded, and large, with very little fire and no windows ; which is not agreeable in the month of January. My matresses were laid upon the floor, and my sister, who had no bed, slept with me. I was obliged to sing to get her to sleep ; and her slumber did not last long, so that she disturbed mine ; she tossed about, felt me near her, woke up, and exclaimed that she saw the beast; so I was obliged to sing again to put her to sleep, and in that way I passed the night. Judge if I were agreeably situated for a person who had slept but little the previous night, and who had been ill all the winter with sore throats and a violent cold; nevertheless, this fatigue cured me. Fortunately for me, the beds of Mon- sieur and Madame arrived ; and Monsieur had the kindness to give me his room. They had previously occupied one which the prince had lent him. As I was in the apart- ment of Monsieur, where no one knew that I was lodged, I was awoke by a noise. I drew back my curtain, and was much astonished to find my chamber quite filled by men in large buffskin collars, who appeared surprised to see me, and who knew me as little as I knew them. I had no change of linen, and my day-chemise was washed dur- ing the night; I had no women to arrange my hair and dress me, which is very inconvenient ; and I ate with Mon- sieur, who keeps a very bad table. Still I did not lose my gayety, and Monsieur was in admiration at my making no complaint; and it is true that I am a creature who can make the best of every thing, and am greatly above trifles. I remained in this state ten days with Madame, at the end centuries ago, and enlarged during successive reigns, but particularly in that of Louis XIV.; and another, erected by Henry IV., which has been, in a great measure, pulled down. The town is girdled by a for- est of six leagues in circumference, entirely surrounded by a wall. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 227 of which time my equipage arrived, and I was very glad to have all my comforts. I then went to lodge in the Cha- teau-Vieux, where the queen was residing; and I had re- solved, if my equipage did not reach me, to send to Rouen to have some clothes and a bed made ; and for that pur- pose to request some money from the treasurer of Monsieur, who might very well give it to me, as they were enjoying my property : and if, indeed, they had refused me a sup- ply, I should have had no difficulty in finding some one who would have lent it." * Notwithstanding, however, the assertion of Mademoi- selle's informants, the news of the king's flight had no sooner been circulated in Paris than it produced a terrible effect ; and from six o'clock in the morning the streets were loud with shouts and tumult. Immediately all the individ- uals who were in any way attached to the court attempted to escape and rejoin the royal party ; while at the same moment the people were closing the city gates, and stretch- ing chains in every direction, to intercept their flight. The chancellor made good his retreat, disguised as a monk of St. Lazarus; Madame de Brienne as a Gray sister; Bri- enne and his brother as students, with their books under their arms ; while their father, who attempted to force a passage with his relative, the Abbe de l'Escaladieu, was compelled to fire his pistol in order to effect his purpose ; and the abbe was wounded with a halbert. * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. CHAPTER X. Tranquillity of the Coadjutor — Idle Rumors — Mob-Enthusiasm — Decla- ration of Louis XIV. to the corporate Bodies — Interdict upon the Parliament — Attempt to create a Famine in Paris — Parliamentary Decree against Mazarin — Contempt of the Court — Madame de Longue- ville at the Town-Hall — Disaffection of the Princes — Intrigues of Madame de Longueville — Perplexity of the Coadjutor — Arrival of the Prince de Conti and the Duke de Longueville at Paris — The Prince de Conti and the Parliament — M. d'Elbceuf and his three Sons — The Princes offer their Services to the Parliament — Madame de Longueville and the Populace — Siege of the Bastille — A dangerous Witticism — The Citizen-Court — Measures of the Prince de Conde — Alarm at St. Germain — Intended Flight of Mazarin — Indignation of Conde — The Hunchback — Fronde-Pasquinades — Royal Retorts — Po- litical Scandal — The Duke de Beaufort in the Capital — " The King of the Markets" — Leaders of the Fronde — Tancred de Rohan. Meanwhile the cocdjutor remained perfectly tranquil, and found food for amusement in the terror which had taken possession of the citizens. Blacmesnil entered his cham- ber as pale as a ghost, to tell him that the king was march- ing upon the parliament-house w T ith eight thousand horse- LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. 229 men ; to which M. de Retz replied that His Majesty had left the city accompanied by only two hundred. To the affrighted president succeeded other visitors equally in con- sternation ; and this audience of alarm continued through- out the greater portion of the day, without in the least de- gree affecting the vigoi-ous nerves of the coadjutor, who at every instant received reports from the officers in his inter- est, asserting that the first movement of the populace had been one of fury, which requires time to degenerate into fear ; and he calculated that before night he should be able to allay all apprehensions in the minds of the citizens ; for, although the prince, who distrusted his brother (M. de Conti), had taken him from his bed and carried him off to St. Germain, the coadjutor never doubted that, as Madame de Longueville remained in Paris, he would soon reappear; and the rather, as he had himself received a letter from M. de Longueville on the previous evening, dated from Rouen, in which he gave an assurance that he should on the following night reach Paris. The coadjutor had, nevertheless, lost ground. Broussel and Blancmesnil had been set at liberty, and this was all that the people required. He had been summoned to court, where the queen had received him almost with affec- tion, and Mazarin had kissed him upon both cheeks ; but he was not duped by the hollowness of a welcome so over- acted ; and he had, consequently, remained quietly in the city, preserving his popularity, and awaiting patiently the progress of events. On the very day upon which the king left Paris, M. de Retz was awoke at five o'clock in the \ morning by the house-steward of the regent, who brought him an autograph letter from Anne of Austria, begging him to follow her to St. Germain ; to which he replied that he would not fail to obey her orders. That he could have done so, had he seen fit, admits of no doubt, as persons were continually leaving the city in disguise ; but such was not his purpose, and he accordingly ordered his carriage 230 LOUIS XIV. AND openly, took leave of his friends at his own door, and shout- ed to his coachmen, " To St. Germain" — being well aware that he should not be permitted to proceed. His calcula- tion was a correct one ; for, at the end of the rue Neuve Notre-Dame, a timber-merchant, named Du Buisson, who was very popular on the quays, raised the people, belabor- ed the postillion, beat the coachman, and declared that the coadjutor should go no farther. The carnage was lifted off its wheels, and the women of the New Market having raised a sort of litter upon them, they placed the coadjutor on this impromptu car, and, to his great joy, conducted him home in triumph. On his arrival beneath his own roof, M. de Retz imme- diately wrote to both the queen and the cardinal to express his regret at the popular interference, and to explain the impossibility of continuing his journey. Neither of them were, however, deceived by this subterfuge, and the turbu- lent prelate became more obnoxious at court than ever. Meanwhile all was confusion and uncertainty ; when it was suddenly announced that the municipal magistrates, as well as the magistrates of police and commerce, had re- ceived a letter from the king, copies of which were soon circulated. In this letter, Louis XIV. declared that he had been compelled to leave the capital in consequence of the pernicious designs of the parliament, who were in com- munication with the enemies of the state ; and that, by the advice of his honorable lady and mother, he had withdrawn from Paris to prevent the seizure of his person ; recom- mended to them the safety and well-being of the city, and urged them to continue in their duty of good and faithful subjects, as they had hitherto done ; while he, at the same time, expressed his confidence in their fidelity and affection. On the 7th of the month, De Lisle, a captain of the guards, delivered, on the king's authority, an interdict against the continued sittings of the sovereign courts, and an order for the parliament to retire to Montargis. The THE COURT OF FRANCE. 231 parliament, however, refused to recognize the order, assert- ing that it did not emanate from the monarch himself, but from those by whom he was surrounded, and who were endangering his safety by their evil counsels ; and this re- ply had no sooner reached St. Germain, than the queen sent to forbid the villages round Paris from supplying either bread, wine, or cattle ; from which moment the design of the court to cause a famine in the capital became evident. In this extremity the parliament decided that a deputa- tion should bear their remonstrances to the regent ; and accordingly it reached St. Germain, where it was refused admission ; when, having reported its failure to the body, in reply to the king's letter, a decree was issued, stating : " That, as Cardinal Mazarin was notoriously the author of all the disorders of the state, and of the present troubles, the parliament has declared, and does declare him, the dis- turber of public peace, the enemy of the king and the state, and enjoins him to retire from the court in the course of this day, and in eight more from the kingdom; and, the said time expired, calls upon all the subjects of the king to hunt him down (courre sus). Forbids every one to receive him. Orders, moreover, that a sufficient number of men- at-arms shall be levied in this city to this end ; commissions delivered for the safety of the city, as well within as with- out; both to escort those who bring in provisions, and to arrange that they may be brought and earned in all safety and freedom ; and the present decree shall be read, pub- lished, and posted up in every place to which it belongs ; and in order that none shall affect ignorance, the municipal, police, and commercial ministers are enjoined to lend a helping hand to its execution. (Signed) " Guiet." Both this obscure name, and the letter to which it was affixed, greatly amused the court ; but their gayety was shortly tempered by the intelligence that the Duke d'El- 232 LOUIS XIV. AND boeuf * and the Prince de Conti had both quitted St. Ger- main for Paris ; that the Duke de Bouillon had declared for the parliament ; and that Madame de Longueville had taken up her residence in the Town-Hall, having promised to the popular cause the support of the Duke de Longueville her husband, and the Prince de Marsillact her lover. A civil war was consequently declared, not only between the king and his people, but also between the princes of the blood.| The Duke d'Elbceuf was a man of confined intellect, and best known as the elder brother of the Count d'Har- court. He was disaffected, because it was the fashion of the house of Lorraine to be so, and that, moreover, the princes of this line held a bad position at court, not re- ceiving the same honors as those of Conde. M. de Bouillon was of better reputation, both in war and poli- tics ; but it may be remembered that during the lifetime of Louis XIII. he had been compromised in the affair of Cinq-Mars ; and, as he was sovereign prince of Sedan, had made his peace with the court by giving up his * Charles, grandson of Rene de Lorraine, Marquis d'Elbceuf, the sev- enth son of Claude, Duke de Guise. He married Catherine-Henrietta, the legitimized daughter of Henry IV. and Gabrielle d'Estrees. He died in 1657. t Francis, sixth Duke de la Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marsillac, Knight of the Orders of the King, and Governor of Poitou, was one of the wits of the seventeenth century. Born in 1613, he was still young when he involved himself in the intrigues which distinguished the last years of Richelieu. He played a prominent part in the wars of the Fronde, through his passion for Madame de Longueville. Restored to royal fa- vor at the close of the straggle, he occupied himself in writing the two works by which he has been immortalized. His Memoirs, an interest- ing and valuable production ; and his Maxims, a collection of moral re- flections, tending to prove that the motive of all our actions is self-love. The Duke de la Rochefoucauld died in 1680. He assisted, it is said, in writing the romance of " The Princess of Cleves," a work by Ma- dame de Lafayette, who was his intimate friend toward the close of his hfe. \ Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 233 city. When the king and the cardinal were both dead, he expected to hold it anew, but it was not restored to him ; and although he had been promised a pecuniary indem- nification, this had never been paid, and he began to per- ceive that his pretensions were laughed at. These were the reasons of M. de Bouillon's disaffection. The Prince de Conti was disaffected because younger brothers were always so at that period ; then, because he was hump- backed ; and finally, because he was required to go into the church ; and that although they might obtain for him the cardinal's hat, which had already produced such a dis- cussion between the Duke d'Orleans and his brother, he preferred a gray beaver with a white feather, and the vest of black velvet lined with minever, which was the costume of the time, to the red cap and the crimson robes. Madame de Longueville was disaffected, because her brother, the Prince de Conde, to whom she was tenderly attached, had been paying his court to Mademoiselle de Vegean, and that she could not endure a rival in his affections ; while she had become so embittered against him in consequence, that she had embraced the opposite party to revenge herself; M. de Longueville was dis- affected, only because his wife was so. The coadjutor was a great friend of the duke, but as he was not, according to M. de Retz himself, the man of the court who was on the best terms with his wife, he had not seen the duchess for some time. He now felt, however, that circumstances might occur in which her influence would be important to him, and he accordingly paid her a visit. He found her extremely enraged, both against the court and the Prince de Conde ; and there- upon inquired if she had any power over M. de Conti, to which she replied that he was entirely in her hands, and that she could make him do whatever she pleased. This was all the coadjutor wished for at the moment, as he only desired to have some one to oppose to the prince. 234 LOUIS XIV. AND The feebleness of the individual did not disturb him ; what he sought was merely a chief for the faction who would be governed by himself; and he accordingly re- quested the duchess to hold herself in readiness for what- ever might occur, to recall her husband to Paris, and not to leave the capital on any pretext whatever ; but she was, nevertheless, ill at ease, the prince having carried off M. de Conti almost by force, the Prince de Marsillac having left Paris to endeavor to bring him back, and M. de Longueville not having arrived from Normandy. She was, consequently, alone, and dared not venture into the streets, which were filled with uproar and confusion. The citi- zens had, at their own instigation, taken possession of the Porte St. Honore, while the coadjutor had placed a guard at that of the Conference ; and the parliament were again assembling. It was therefore finally determined between them that, in addition to the Prince de Marsillac, they should send M. de Saint-Ibal, a confidential friend of the coadjutor, to St. Germain, that he might endeavor to see the Prince de Conti, and press his return ; and Saint-Ibal accordingly left the city in disguise. Three days were consumed in all these arrangements. Neither M. de Marsillac nor Saint-Ibal returned ; but it was ascertained that the Duke de Longueville, learning that the court was at St. Germain, had turned his horse's head in that direction, and had gone to join the queen ; with what design no one could determine. The coadjutor was greatly embarrassed. He had answered to the Duke de Bouillon for the cooperation of the Prince de Conti and the Duke de Longueville ; and while they had no news of the former, those which they had received of the latter were any thing but encouraging. At this precise moment a new and unexpected event increased his perplexity tenfold. In the afternoon of the 9th of January, M. de Brissac, who had married the cousin of M. de Retz, entered his I THE COURT OF FRANCE. 235 apartment ; when, as they rarely met, the coadjutor in- quired to wllfet happy circumstance he was indebted for so unexpected a visit. In reply De Brissac stated that he wished to join the parliamentary army, the Marshal de la Meilleraye having given him offense, for which reason he was anxious to serve the opposite faction. The coadjutor, upon this assurance, invited him to be his companion to a meeting of the Deputies, and requested him to look from the window and ascertain whether his equipage had yet drawn up ; when M. de Brissac, while in the act of com- plying, uttered an exclamation of surprise, and announced the arrival of the Duke d'Elbceuf and his three sons. No circumstance could have been more unwelcome to the coadjutor, who endeavored to throw a doubt upon the accuracy of the statement ; but M. de Brissac rendered this impossible, by asserting that they had traveled to- gether from the bridge of Neuilly to the cross of Trahoir where he had left them ; and that throughout the journey the duke had sworn to him that he would render more efficient service to the Fronde than M. de Mayenne his cousin had ever done to the League.* * Charle8 de Lorraine, Duke de Mayenne, was the second son of Francis de Lorraine, Duke de Guise. Bom in 1554, he distinguished himself at the sieges of Poitiers and La Rochelle, and at the battle of Montcoutour. He overcame the Calvinists in Guyenne, Dauphiny, and Saintonge. His brothers having been killed at the States of Blois, in 1588, he declared himself Chief of the League, and took the title of Lieutenant-General of the State and Oown of France. He caused the Cardinal de Bourbon to be declared king, under the name of Charles IX., and inherited the hatred of his brothers for Henry III., and his successor, Henry IV. He marched, at the head of 30,000 men, against the latter monarch, and was beaten at the battle of Arques, and at that of Ivry. He extinguished the faction of the Sixteen, and was finally compelled to reconcile himself with the king in 1599. Henry IV. be- came sincerely attached to him, and gave him the government of the Isle of France. H? died in 1611, leaving by his wife, Henrietta of Savoy, the daughter of the Count de Tende, one son, Henry, who died without issue in 1621, at the age of forty-three. 236 L O L' 1 S XIV. AND The perplexity of M. de Retz was at its height. He dared not confide to any one the engagements into which he had entered with regard to the Prince de Conti and the Duke de Longueville, lest they should by some acci- dent reach the ears of the court party, and cause their arrest ; while, on the other hand, M. de Bouillon had declared that he would not commit himself, until he was assured of the cooperation of the former ; as did the Mar- shal de la Motte Houdancourt,* until he had consulted with the Duke de Longueville ; and meanwhile, M. d'El- boeuf, who enjoyed with the Parisian populace the old popularity acquired by the Princes of Lorraine, might, by causing himself to be chosen generalissimo, overthrow all his projects. The coadjutor consequently resolved to gain time by affecting to adopt his interest. When the duke and his three sons were ushered into the apartment of M. de Retz, the usual salutations were no sooner exchanged, than M. d'Elboeuf explained that he and his children had determined to embrace the cause of the parliament; and that knowing the influence which the coadjutor possessed over the citizens of Paris, he had re- solved to pay him his first visit. This politeness was fol- lowed by a crowd of flatteries, in which the sons joined whenever they found an opportunity of sharing the con- * Philip de la Motte-Houdancourt, Duke de Cardonne, was early initiated in the career of arms, and led the French forces in Piedmont in 1639. He commanded ha Catalonia in 1641, defeated the Spaniards before Tarragona, took from them several towns, and received for hi3 services the baton of a marshal, in 1642, the Duchy of Cardonna, and the title of Viceroy of Catalonia. Overcome before Lerida in 1644, and unfortuuate throughout the remainder of the campaign, he was ar- rested and imprisoned in the castle of Pierre-Encise at Lyons, until his innocence was fully proved by the parliament of Grenoble in 1648. Viceroy of Catalonia for the second time in 1651, he forced the enemy's line before Barcelona in 1652 ; and died at Paris in the following year. He left only three daughters, the Duchesses of Aumont, Ventadour, and La Ferte-Senneterre. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 237 versation ; and the coadjutor received all these courteous demonstrations with a great exhibition of gratitude and respect, inquiring, with marked interest, what steps the duke purposed to take. He was answered by M. d'El bceuf, that his intention was immediately to offer his ser vices to the police and commercial magistrates of the city ; and he asked whether M. de Retz were not of opinion that this was the best course to pursue. His host answered evasively ; rather recommending that he should wait until the next day, and then volunteer his assistance to the chambers collectively. The duke affected to be convinced ; and asserting that he would be ruled in all things by the advice of his newly-elected friend, took his leave, followed by his three sons. They had scarcely withdrawn, when the coadjutor, who believed that he had detected a peculiar smile exchanged between M. d'Elbceuf and his children, ordered one of his people to follow them, and to let him know where they went. It was as he had foreseen ; they had pro- ceeded straight to the Town-Hall. Neither had been the dupe of the other; and consequently there was no time to be lost, nor was M. de Retz likely to be a laggard in such a war of wits. He instantly wrote to the first police magistrate, Fournier, who was one of his friends, to caution him against allowing the municipality to send M. d'Elbceuf to parliament, a step that would have secured to him a position against which it would have been difficult to struggle ; and he next desired such of the curates of Paris as were the most devoted to his own interests, to excite among their parishioners sus- picions of the duke's good faith ; reminding them that he was capable of doing every thing for money, and that he was one of the intimate friends of the Abbe de la Riviere, the favorite of the Duke d'Orleans. Finally, he left his house in disguise at seven o'clock in the evening, 238 LOUIS XIV. AND and visited all the members of parliament with whom he was acquainted, in order to call to their recollection that M. d'Elboeuf was an unsafe partisan, and that the parlia- ment had a right to consider it as an affront that the duke should have offered his services to the municipal magis- trates, instead of to themselves, as he, the coadjutor, had advised. He continued this pilgrimage until two o'clock in the morning, feeling convinced that, on his side, M. d'Elboeuf would not lose his time ; and he had just re- tired to bed, worn down by fatigue, and almost deter- mined to declare himself openly against the duke on the morrow, when he heard a violent knocking at his door. He had hastily called his valet-de-chambre, and ordered him to ascertain the cause of the disturbance, when he detected rapid steps approaching his chamber; and imme- diately the Chevalier de la Chaise, who belonged to the household of M. de Longueville, entered unannounced, exclaiming that the Prince de Conti and the Duke de Longueville had arrived at the Porte St. Honore, but that the populace would not let them enter, saying that they were come to betray the city. The coadjutor sprang from his bed. This was the event which he had been awaiting impatiently for the last three days ; he was dressed in an instant ; and, as he had ordered his carriage directly the news reached him, it was ready as soon as himself. He jumped in, followed by the chevalier, and drove to the house of Broussel, whom he summoned to accompany him ; and then, preceded by torch-bearers, he advanced to the Porte St. Honore, where he found the prince and the duke, who had fled from St. Germain on horseback. The crowd which had collected was so great, that it was with difficulty he could make his way ; and it was broad daylight before the gate was opened, as in the excited slate of the popu- lace it was necessary to harangue them ; after which he conducted the princes to the Hotel de Longueville. Hav- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 239 ing had a short interview with the duchess, and entreated her to maintain her husband and brother in their present resolutions, the coadjutor next hurried to the residence of the Duke d'Elbceuf, to propose that he should unite his interests to those of the two brothers ; but he had already departed for the Palace.* On ascertaining this fact, M. de Retz galloped back to the Hotel de Longueville, to entreat the princes instantly to present themselves to the parliament : but M. de Conti, feeling fatigued, had gone to bed ; while M. de Longueville, who could never compel himself to haste, remarked that there was time enough. The coadjutor, whose vexation was extreme, then pro- ceeded to the chamber of the pi'ince, in order to compel him to rise ; but this attempted coercion only made him more determined to resist : he was overcome with sleep ; and to all the remonstrances of the prelate merely replied that he was very ill. M. de Retz, half mad with annoy- ance and disappointment, then had recourse to the duch- ess, who in her return made her way to the apartment of her brother, where she announced that the parliament had risen ; and that the Duke d'Elboeuf, still followed by his three sons, was on his way to the Town-Hall to take the oath. Thus the opportunity was lost ; and it was consequently arranged that the Prince de Conti should pi - esent himself to the parliament during the meeting of the following day The coadjutor promised to call for him ; and wishing to turn to account the few hours that remained, he busied himself in hiring persons to surround the house of parliament, and to shout, " Long live Conti !" As for himself, he required no such unstable assistance, for he felt that he had become more popular than ever. The Prince de Conti entered the carnage of the prelate without any personal suite, that of the coadjutor being, however, very numerous ; and on his way the prince evinced * The building in which the parliament assembled was so called. 2 10 LOUIS XIV. AND the most perfect confidence in the populace, although among the shouts of, " Long live the coadjutor," he could not detect the sound of his own name, until they arrived in the midst of the men hired by M. de Retz. They reached the palace before M. d'Elboeuf : but the coadjutor admits in his Me- moirs, that he perceived the people had by no means con- quered their distrust, and that he rejoiced when he had conducted M. de Conti in safety to the great chamber. The Duke d'Elboeuf, who had already been appointed general of the parliamentary forces, arrived immediately afterward, followed by all the city guards, who had accompanied him since the morning. The people shouted on all sides, " Long live His Highness ! Long live Elbceuf !" mingled with cries of, "Long live the coadjutor!" and in the midst of these acclamations the duke entered the palace, giving an order to the guard to remain at the door of the great chamber. The coadjutor, who dreaded some attempt against the prince whom he protected, also remained at the same door, with all his suite about him. As soon as the deputies were seated, M. de Conti ad- vanced into the hall and said with tolerable firmness, that having witnessed at St. Germain the pernicious counsels which were given to the queen, he had considered himself compelled, in his quality of prince of the blood, to oppose them, and was consequently come to offer them his ser- vices. He had scarcely ceased speaking when the Duke d'El- boeuf moved forward in his turn ; and, like all weak per- sons who believe themselves to have secured the vantage ground, he said harshly and haughtily that he was well aware of the respect which he owed to the Prince de Conti, but that he could not resist reminding him that it was he who had broken the ice, and had first offered himself to the party; that it had done him the honor of confiding to him the marshal's baton, and that he would never resign it while he lived. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 24 1 Vehement applause followed this declaration, for the par- liament, like the people, distrusted the brother of the man who had threatened their city with famine. The sitting was then terminated by a decree forbidding all troops, under risk of the crime of lese-majeste, to approach within twenty leagues of Paris ; and the coadjutor found himself com- pelled, after a bootless errand, to be satisfied with conduct- ing the Prince de Conti in safety to the Hotel de Longue- ville ; while even in order to effect this simple purpose, he was obliged almost to carry him through the crowd on leaving the great chamber. His cause appeared desperate, but M. de Retz was not to be easily discouraged ; and upon reflection he felt convinced that all was not yet lost ; for, as he himself says, " The confidence of the people which has been cultivated and nourished for a long period, never fails to stifle, if it only have time to germinate those slight and budding flowers of public good-will which chance some- times forces into growth.'.' Chance, however, on this occasion, rather favored him than his adversaries for on arriving at the Hotel de Longue- ville, the coadjutor found Quincerot, a captain of Navarre, who had been page to the Marquis de Ragni, the father of Madame de Lesdiguieres,* awaiting him as the messenger of the duchess from St. Germain, under a specious pretext relating to some prisoners ; but in fact to apprise M. de Retz that an hour after the arrival of the Prince de Conti and the Duke de Longueville in Paris, M. d'Elbceuf had written to the Abbe de la Riviere in these words : — " Tell the queen and Monsieur that this devil of a coad- * The wife of Francis de Bonne, Duke de Lesdiguieres, who was born at St. Bonnet, in Upper Dauphiny, in 1543, was appointed general of the Huguenots, and gained several victories over the Catholics. When Henry IV. became King of France, he appointed him lieutenant general of the forces in Piedmont, Savoy, and Dauphiny. Lesdiguieres gained great advantages over the Duke of Savoy, and was created marshal of France in 1608. He embraced Catholicism in 1612, and died in 1626, with the title of Constable. VOL. I. L 242 LOUIS XIV. AND iutor is losing every thing here ; that two days hence I shall no longer possess any power ; but that if they will give me their support, I will prove to them that I did not come to Paris with so bad an intention as they suppose." La Riviere showed this letter to the cardinal, who only laughed, and in his turn exhibited it to the Marshal de Villeroy. In the hands of the coadjutor, however, it became a dangerous weapon against the writer. He did not lose a moment,' but aware, as he declares, that nothing increases the value of a communication so much as an appearance of mystery, he showed it in strict confidence, before nightfall to between four and five hundred persons. At nine o'clock in the evening, several of the parochial clergy informed him that the confidence which the Prince de Conti had shown in the people, by venturing himself alone, and with- out his personal followers, in the carriage of the prelate, even when he knew that they were prejudiced against him, had produced a great and favorable impression ; while an hour later he received above fifty letters, informing him that both his clerical and military agents had succeeded ad- mirably in their efforts to produce a reaction in the popular feeling, and that proofs of this encouraging change were evident. The coadjutor, with all the perspicacity of a man who had thoroughly studied the nature of a Paris mob, felt that the moment was now come when he could thor- oughly disembarrass himself of the Duke d'Elboeuf, if he could only succeed in making him ridiculous. In all ages ridicule has been a formidable weapon against a Frenchman : he can resist poverty, disgrace, exile, or bereavement ; but once make him appear absurd, and he ventures upon no further struggle. It is confidently asserted that when Louis XVIII. was compelled to leave France, he thought less of the crown which was slipping from his brow, than of the epigrams which would succeed his departure. In the present emergency, the coadjutor had no occasion to seek for an associate in his purpose. Marigny was at THE COURT OF FRANCE. 243 his elbow ; who forthwith wrote the famous ballad of " M. d'Elboeuf and his Sons," * which was the first of a large family of similar pasquinades. A hundred copies were transcribed, distributed in the streets, and pasted up at the corners during the night ; and consequently, ere sunset the next evening, it was in every mouth, and might be heard in every thor- oughfare. Fortune had decidedly declared for the coadju- tor, for at this precise moment news arrived that the king's troops had possessed themselves of Charenton*. M. d'El- boeuf had been too much occupied in his own defence to remember that it was necessary to defend Paris ; and M. de Retz seized that opportunity of circulating copies of the letter which the duke had written to La Riviere ; nor did he fail to remind his partisans that if they desired a proof of his cooperation with the court, they had now se- cured it. A little after midnight, M. de Longueville, the Marshal de la Motte-Houdancourt, and the coadjutor went to the residence of the Duke de Bouillon, who was confined to his bed with the gout, and had consequently hitherto taken no share in their proceedings. At first he was reluctant to declare himself; but when they had thoroughly explained their plans, and proved to him the facility with which they might be accomplished, he consented to join the popular faction. Their proceedings for the morrow were arranged; and then each returned to his own home. The next morn- * The ballad in question may be freely rendered thus : — " M. d'Elboeuf and his sons Have done wonders all the four ; They are pomp and pride all o'er, M. d'Elbceuf and his sons ; For two thousand years and more, Will their triumphs be talked o'er ; M. d'Elbceuf and his sons Have done wonders all the four." t A town in the Department of the Seine, on the right bank of the Marne, two leagues distant from Paris. It is now celebrated for a lu- natic asylum of immense extent. 2 i 1 L O IT I & X 1 V. AND in"- at ten o'clock, the Prince -de Conti, his brother-in-law, and the coadjutor, left the Hotel de Longueville in the most magnificent of the duchess's equipages, followed by a nu- merous train in the livery of the prince. M. de Retz placed himself near the door, in order that he might be visible to the people, and thus they advanced at a slow pace toward the palace. They had not proceeded far ere the coadjutor began to reap the harvest which he had so sedulously sown, for shouts of " Long live the Prince de Conti !" resounded on all sides ; while at intervals might be heard snatches of the ballad of " M. d'Elbceuf and his three Sons," to which several more verses had already been appended. As they advanced, the crowd became more dense ; and when they arrived at the palace they were greeted with one unanimous peal of applause. On presenting themselves, the prince once more offered his sendees ; after which the Duke de Longueville entered; and having followed his example, and moreover tendered to the assembly the cooperation of Rouen, Caen, Dieppe, and in short of all Normandy, he proposed as his surety that the duchess and her children should reside at the Town-Hall. This offer was warmly and energetically received, both by the companies, and by the Duke de Bouillon, who, in con- sequence of his gout, was supported by two gentlemen of his household. Having seated himself near M. de Longue- ville, he expressed, as had been previously arranged during the night, the gratification that he should feel in serving the parliament under so great a prince as M. de Conti; upon which the Duke d'Elbceuf renewed his declaration that he would never resign the baton which had been delivered to him. A murmur arose in the assembly as this contestation com- menced ; while M. d'Elbceuf continued to speak with con- siderable talent, but with great want of judgment. He placed too much reliance on his own strength had, and not measured the amount of that which was opposed to him. THE C O U It T O F FRAN C E. 245 He was still pursuing the wax - of words into which he had entered, when, according to the arrangement made by the coadjutor and his friends, the Marshal de la Motte-Houdan- court presented himself in his turn ; and having taken a seat below the Duke de Bouillon, repeated the same offers of service which had been made by those who preceded him. The effect of this third apparition was all-powerful; the marshal, although not a man of much talent, was neverthe- less known to be a brave soldier, and one whose partisan- ship could not fail to be at once creditable and useful. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that the party of the Prince de Conti gained considerable ground ; but as, even in the parliament, there were certain individuals who still clung to the court, the verdict in his favor was not yet unanimous. The first impulse of the President Mole* was to profit by this struggle in order to weaken both parties and thus strengthen the cause of the regent ; in consequence of which he proposed that the decision of the chambers should be deferred until the meeting of the following day : but the President de Mesme, who was more long-sighted, leaned toward him, and whispered in his ear that he was acting with imprudence, as the princes would, in all probability, if left to themselves, come to some arrangement prejudicial to the authority of the parliament ; adding, that it was easy to perceive M. d'Elbceuf had been duped, and that his adver- saries were already masters of Paris. He was yet speak- ing, when the President le Coigneux, who was in the in- * Matthew Mole, Lord of Champlatreux, Lassy, &c, was descended from an ancient and noble family of Troyes, in Champagne, to which France is indebted for a great number of excellent magistrates. He was the most celebrated among them, and won universal esteem by his probity, his talents, and his zeal for the public welfare and the glory of the State. He was made Councilor to the Parliament in 1606, and be- came successively President of Requests, Proeureur-G&niral, and, final- ly, First President of the Parliament of Paris, in 1641. He was appoint- ed Keeper of the Seals at Chateauneuf; and died in 1656. Many traits of firmness and fearlessness are quoted of this exemplary magistrate. 2 It*. LOUIS XIV. AND hi. st of the coadjutor, raised his voice, and declared that some resolution must be adopted before they dined, even should their dinner be deferred until midnight; and that he should suggest that each of the gentlemen should pri- vately make known his intentions, after which the assembly would be enabled to decide which among them was best disposed toward the state. This counsel was at once acted upon. The Prince de Conti and the Duke de Longueville were conducted to one apartment, and MM. de Novion and de Bellievre (both friends of M. de Conti) and the Duke d'Elbceuf to another. The coadjutor perceived that the triumph of his cause was certain ; and, accordingly, he had no sooner seen the prin- ces thus closeted, than he hurried from the palace to the Hotel de Longueville, where he took up the duchesses de Longueville and de Bouillon with their children, and at once drove them to the Town-Hall. The small-pox, from which Madame de Longueville had but recently recovered, had added to the brilliancy of her complexion, although it had somewhat deteriorated her actual beauty ; while Madame de Bouillon, although on the decline, was still a strikingly handsome woman : and when they appeared upon the steps of the Town-Hall, each with an infant in her arms, the ef- fect produced upon the people was electrical. The Greve was crowded, even to the roofs of the houses ; and while the men shouted for joy, the women wept, for they felt the whole beauty of the spectacle. Ma- dame de Longueville put the finishing-stroke to this enthu- siasm by lifting her child above her head, and exclaiming, in a clear and silvery voice, " Parisians ! our husbands con- fide to you what is dearest to them on earth — their wives, and their children !" She was answered by a peal of joy- ous clamor, and cries of wild delight ; and as upon occa- sions such as these the coadjutor never suffered himself to fall into insignificance, he followed up her address by a shower of gold, which he poured down from the window T HE COURT OF FRANC E. 247 of the Town-Hall ; and then, having confided the ladies to the care of MM. Noirmoutier and Mizon, he retraced his steps to the palace, followed by a dense throng of men, many of whom had arms in their hands, and who kept up so incessant a strain of acclamation, that every other sound was drowned. The captain of the Duke d'Elbceuf 's guard, who witnessed the whole scene, had already preceded him to the palace, feeling convinced' that all the dukes hopes were at an end, and being anxious to apprise him of the circum- stance. He found him already prepared for failure ; and the president Bellievre had no sooner, in reply to his inqui- ry of the meaning of all the drumming and trumpeting without, been informed by the coadjutor in his most florid style, of the circumstances of the scene which he had just quitted, than M. d'Elbceuf declared that he would no longer offer any resistance to what appeared to be the general wish of the assembly, but was ready, like the Duke de Bouillon and the Marshal de la Motte-Houdancourt, to serve under the orders of the Prince de Conti ; requesting only that it might be himself to whom the privilege was ac- corded of summoning the Bastille to surrender, as the only equivalent which he would ask for his resignation of the sovereign authority. This was conceded, and accom- plished the same afternoon, for the Bastille had never con- templated offering any resistance ; and M. du Tremblay, its governor, had permission to march out, three days being allowed him to remove his property.* While M. d'Elbceuf was superintending the surrender of the Bastille, the Marquis du Noirmoutier, the Marquis de la Boulaie, and M. de Laigues, marched to the relief of Charenton. The Mazarins endeavored to hold the town, * " The Bastille surrendered, after having received, for form's sake, five or six cannon-shots. It was amusing enough to see the ladies who were present at this famous siege, carry their chairs to the garden of the arsenal where the battery was erected, as though they were going to hear a sermon." — Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. 'J IS LOUIS XIV. AND but they were driven out; and, m consequence, at seven o'clock in the evening, these gay cavaliers, still animated by the first smell of gunpowder, arrived at the Town-Hall, in their cuirasses, where they were enabled to be the heralds of their own success ; for the apartments of Madame de Lonoueville were crowded, and the mixture of blue scarfs, ladies, armor, and music in the saloon, blended with the trumpets which were pealing through the square, produced a spectacle rarely seen beyond the walls of a theater, or the pages of a romance. M. de Noirmoutier, who was a great admirer of Astree* remarked that he could fancy they were beseiged in Marcilly ; to which the coadjutor replied, that the comparison could not be borne out ; for that although it was certain that Madame de Longueville was as beauti- ful as Galatea, it was equally notorious the Prince of Mar- sillac was not so honest a man as Lindamor. The coadjutor mentions, that as he uttered the remark, he observed the " little shrimp" who was standing at a window near him, and must have overheard it ; to which circumstance he at- tributes the hatred which the prince thenceforward mani- fested toward him. Meanwhile, the real court of France was assuredly that which was assembled at the Town-Hall * A celebrated romance, written by Honore d'Urfe, Count de Chateau- neuf, who was born at Marseilles in 15G7, of an illustrious house of Forez, which was originally Swabian. He was destined by his family to become a Knight of Malta ; but, unwilling to incur the obligation of celibacy, and unable to conquer a passion which he had nourished from his boyhood for Diana de Chateauinorant, he returned home ; where, on his arrival, he found his mistress married to his elder brother. At the end of twenty-two-years, this marriage having been annulled, Ho- nore d'Urfe married Diana (1596) ; but, soon becoming disgusted with her, they separated, and he retired to Piedmont. He died in 1626. While there, he wrote his romance of Astrie, a pastoral, in four volumes, 8 vo, which delighted all Europe for more than half a century. It is af- firmed that the plot is based upon the history of Diana de Chateauino- rant, and the gallantries of Henry IV. This pastoral romance, almost unknown in our times, gave birth to those of the Scuderis, the Calpre- nedes, &c. THE COURT U F F R A N C E. 249 of Paris. There all was splendor, gallantry, and amuse- ment. The rank of the leaders of the Fronde gave conse- quence to the circle ; while the beauty of the ladies, and the high fashion of the two duchesses, lent it a crowning grace. On the other hand, the king, the queen, and the cardinal, were inhabiting an unfurnished palace, and sleeping upon straw, which became so scarce on their first arrival at St. Germain, that Madame de Motteville declares in her Me- moirs, it could not be obtained for money. The position alike of the crown and of the capital was extraordinary, unnatural, and threatening. The Prince de Conde was, meanwhile, as active as the leaders of the Fronde, and soon established his quarters. He posted the Marshal du Plessis at St. Denis ; the Marshal de Grammont at St. Cloud ; and M. de Palluau at Sevres. The alarm had been great at St. Germain, when the re- capture of Charenton and the surrender of the Bastille be- came known ; and it was heightened by the fact that the prince did not return until late from his outposts, a circum- stance which induced whispers that he had joined his broth- er in Paris. The cardinal, who never doubted that such was the case, was -on the point of quitting the court, when the prince reappeared, furious against M. de Conti, and still more so against the Duchess de Longueville, to whom the princess, her mother, who was also at St. Germain, wrote on the morrow a detailed account of the whole af- fair; and mentioned that, as the prince alighted at the pal- ace-gate, he chanced to see a poor hunchback, whom he compelled to accompany him to the presence of the regent, which he had no sooner reached than he thrust him for- ward, exclaiming, " Here, madam, I have brought you the general of the Parisians !" a piece of bitter wit which could only be excused by the excitement under which it was ut- tered. The queen laughed heartily at this sally ; and the contempt with which M. de Conde spoke of the rebels put the court into high spirits. ^50 LOUIS XI V. A N D On their side, the Frondeurs replied by new songs ; and they had no sooner learned the anger of the prince against M. de Conti, and that he was preparing to give him battle, than the streets rung with the following doggerel voice : " Conde, is yours a glorious trade, Even should you gain the victor}', Over the office and the trade 1 You will but make your noble mother Say, ' My tall son is very cross, For he has beat his little brother.' " In this extraordinary war, in which more words than shots were exchanged, such an attack could not be suffer- ed to remain unanswered ; and, accordingly, the Mazarins replied by a pasquinade against the Duke de Bouillon, of equal poetical value, and which ran thus : " The brave M. de Bouillon Is sadly troubled with the gout ; He is as bold as a Hon, The brave M. de Bouillon; But when he meets a battalion, He soon wheels to the right-about ; This brave M. de Bouillon Who is tormented with the gout." Nor did the ladies fare better than their champions m this war of wits ; as is amply proved by the collection of cotemporaneous scandal made by M. de Maurepas, and which fills no less than forty-four volumes* While these events were progressing, a new competitor for the government of Paris appeared in the person of the Duke de Beaufort, who, since he had escaped from Vin- cennes, had remained concealed in the Vendomois. On his arrival in the capital, he sent for M. de Montresor,t who, having received his directions, hastened to the coadjutor to inform him that in a quarter of an hour the prince would * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. t Afterward Marshal de Cluirenbault. THE COU R T OF FRAN C E. 251 pay him a visit. " I forestalled him," says M. de Retz, " and waited upon him myself. I did not find that his im- prisonment had given him any more sense, though it is certain that it had gained him more reputation. He had sustained it with firmness, and terminated it with courage : and it was even meritorious that he should not have left the banks of the Loire at a time when, in truth, it required both firmness and address to maintain his position.* * * * * Mon- tresor, who had faithfully reported to him all the obliga- tions which he was under to myself, had taken every step to insure a close intimacy between us. You will easily be- lieve that it was not disadvantageous to him from my posi- tion in the party ; and it was almost necessary to me, be- cause my profession impeding me on a thousand occasions, I required a man whom I could, in certain circumstances, place before rne. The Marshal de la Motte was so de- pendent on M. de Longueville that I never could answer for him. M. de Bouillon was not a subject to be governed. I required a phantom, but I wanted no more than a phan- tom ; and, fortunately for me, it happened that this phantom was the grandson of Henry the Great ; that he talked as they talk in the markets, which is not usual with the de- scendants of Henry the Great ; and that he had very long and very light hair. You can not conceive the value of these circumstances, nor can you imagine the effect which they produced upon the people."* On the very day of his arrival, the duke drove through the streets of Paris with the coadjutor, and they both seated themselves near the same door of the carriage, in order that they might be simultaneously recognized ; while M. de Retz moreover constantly pointed out his compan- ion to the populace, coupling his name with the most laud- atory epithets as they passed along ; until, on their arrival in the rue St. Denis, the enthusiasm of the citizens had ex- ceeded all bounds ; and while the men shouted " Long live * Memoires clu Cardinal de Retz. •2;>--l LOUIS XIV. AXD Beaufort !" the women pressed upon him to kiss his hands. When he reached the market-stalls all previous demonstra- tions appeared, however, to fade into lukewarmness, com- pared with the wild exhibition of delight indulged in by the saleswomen, who compelled him to alight from his car- riage, in order that they might embrace him at their ease. On the morrow, the duke presented a petition to parlia- ment, in which he demanded a hearing, in order that he might clear himself of the accusation brought against him of having conspired against the person of the cardinal ; a privilege which was accorded on the following day. Meanwhile, Paris was becoming populated with princes all eager to join the faction against the court, and with nobles who came to serve under them. Already the par- liament counted among its defenders the Prince de Conti, the Duke de Longueville, the Duke d'Elbceuf, the Duke de Bouillon, the Duke de Chevreuse, the Marshal de la Motte-Houdancourt, the Duke de Brissac, the Duke de Luynes, the Marquis de Vitry, the Prince de Marsillac, the Marquis de Noirmoutier, the Marquis de la Boulaie, the Count de Fiesque, the Count de Maure, the Marquis de Laisgues, the Count de Matha, the Marquis de Fos- seuse, the Count de Montresor, the Marquis d'Aligre, and the young and handsome Tancrede de Rohan, whom a presumed illegitimacy of birth had deprived of the illustri- ous name of his family by a decree of the privy council, at the instigation of the Prince de Conde. The blow was terrible, for he was a youth of high spirit, and reckless bravery, of great personal beauty, and noble aspirations ; and, thus constituted, he bitterly felt the blight, which, from the known frailty of his mother (Marguerite de Bethune-Sully), had settled upon his fortunes. He long- ed to shout the noble war-cry of his ancestors : " Roi ne puis, Prince ne daigne, Rohan je suis /"* He remember- ed, with a throbbing heart, that he was the nephew of that * "King I can't, Prince I scorn, Rohan I ami" THE COURT OF FRANCE. 253 Catherine de Soubise, Duchesse de Deux Ponts, who re- plied to the dishonorable overtures of Henry IV. : " Sire, I am too poor to become your wife, and too well-born to become your mistress." And he found himself an outcast from his race, nameless, homeless, and kinless, when he flung himself, in desperation, into the Fronde. " The prince," he said, proudly, " has beaten me in parliament ; but should I meet him on the road to Charenton, it will then be seen which of the two must yield." And when, on one occasion he was expostulated with by a friend for fatiguing himself unnecessarily in wearing his arms day and night, and figuring in every skirmish that took place, he answered, with a bitter smile : " Situated as I am, I have no time for rest ; if I make no personal effort to save myself, the world will soon be of the same opinion as the parliament." Madame de Rohan had but one daughter, who was the heiress of the duke, and who married the Count de Cha- bot, her husband assuming the name of Rohan ; which, without this privilege, would have been extinct in the per- son of Henry, the second duke, who was killed on the 13th of April, 1638, at the battle of Reinfeld. — CHAPTER XL Prudence of the Parliament — Seizure of the Cardinal's Property — Mu- nificence of the City to the Queen of England — An exiled Princess — The condemned Prisoner — Exchange of Prisoners — Check of the Royal Forces before Rouen — The first Sortie — " The First of the Corinthians" — Death of Tancred de Rohan — Battle of Charenton — Death of Chanleu — The Ball and the Baton — Defeat of the Frondeurs at Charenton and Ville-Juif — The Herald — Treaty with the Princes — Turemie declares for the Parliament — Terms of the Treaty — Venal- ity of the Princes — The Citizen-Prince. The measures adopted by the parliament were so pru- dent that its position became daily more stable. The royal army amounted only to seven or eight thousand men, while the organized militia of Paris comprised more than sixty thousand. The forces under the Prince de Conde had made an attempt to occupy Charenton, Lagny, Corbeil, Poissy, and Pontoise ; but before they could accomplish their object, the peasantry, in the anticipation of reaping a golden harvest, had conveyed all the provisions they pos- sessed to Paris ; and these, together with the small convoys which escaped the vigilance of the royal troops, sufficed for the supply of the capital. Moreover, in virtue of the LOUIri XIV. AND THE COURT OF 1'RANCE. 255 decree pronounced against Mazarin, all his property, both personal and real, had been seized, as well as his public income ; and, as if to prove to the court that there was no scarcity of money in the rebel city, forty thousand livres were sent to the Queen of England, who had remained at the Louvre, where, for several previous months, the cardi- nal had suffered her to exist almost in a state of famine. It was to the influence of the coadjutor that Henrietta- Maria was now indebted for this well-timed assistance. Five or six days before the court left Paris, he had been to visit her, and found her sitting by the bedside of her daugh- ter. On his entrance she said, with a melancholy smile, " You see, M. le Coadjutor, that I am keeping Henrietta company.* The poor child has not been able to leave her bed to-day, because we have no fire." The cardinal had, in fact, omitted during the last six months to pay the queen's pension ; the wood- merchants refused to furnish any fur- ther fuel, and there was not a morsel' of wood in the palace. M. de Retz afforded instant relief to the royal sufferer, at once the daughter, the wife, and the mother of kings ; and he no sooner saw the parliament possessed of sufficient funds to justify the suggestion, than he descanted indig- nantly and energetically upon this unheard-of abandon- ment ; when the sum which we have stated was at once voted to the granddaughter of Henry the Great. The faction having assumed strength and consistency, and requiring only a formal recognition through the medi- um of the cartel, once more found itself in the ascendant by the mere force of opportunity. A cornet of the Regi- ment de Retz having been taken by a party of the royal forces, and conveyed to St. Germain, the queen desired that he should immediately lose his head. The grand-pro- vost, however, who anticipated the sentence, and who was a friend of the coadjutor, no sooner recognized the prison- * The Princess Henrietta had been conveyed privately to France by her governess, the Countess of Dalkeith. 25(J LOUIS XIV. AND er, than he dispatched a messenger to apprise the latter of his capture ; and M. de Retz instantly sent a trumpeter to M. de Palluau, who commanded at Sevres, with, as he him- self expresses it, " a very ecclesiastical letter," but one which warned the royalist general of the certainty of im- mediate reprisals ; and afforded information, at the same time, that the parliamentary party had also made several prisoners ; among whom, moreover, was M. d'Olonne,* who had been arrested as he was endeavoring to escape from the city in the disguise of a lackey. M. de Palluau lost no time in proceeding to St. Germain, where he represented the inevitable consequences of the proposed execution ; but it was with considerable difficulty that the regent was prevailed upon to defer it until the fol- lowing day. In the interval she was, however, compelled to comprehend and admit the probably mischievous results of so glaring an act of hostility ; and an exchange was con- sequently made between the captured cornet and one of the royal officers, which established the recognition of the cartel. The court, meanwhile, experienced a check in Norman- dy. The Count d'Harcourt had been recalled from Spain, to take possession of Rouen in the name of the king, and to replace the Duke de Longueville in his government; but the parliament of the city, wrought upon by M. de Longue- ville, and following the example of that of Paris, closed their gates against M. d'Harcourt; and, as the count had gone thither without either money or troops, the only levers by * Louis de la Tremouille, Count d'Olonne, was born in 1626, was at the battle of Nordlinguin, in 1645, commanded the light-horse at the ma- jority of Louis XIV., and died, in 1686, without issue. He married, in 1652, Catherine Henrietta d'Angennes, a relative of the wile of the Marshal de la Ferte ; and the Countess d'Olonne, who died in 1714, ac- quired a scandalous notoriety by the laxity of her conduct. This branch of the Tremouille family became extinct in 1690, in the person of a brother of the Count d'Olonne, whose daughter conveyed the heredi- tary estates to the Montmorencvs. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 251 which gates may be either forced or opened, he was com- pelled to retire. All these events gave new courage to the besieged Paris- ians, who began to make sallies, carrying with them flags on which were inscribed, " We are looking for our king." On the first sortie they made with this extraordinary device they captured a drove of pigs, which they impelled tri- umphantly through the gates ; and this absurd adventure afforded ample mirth alike to the court and to the forces of the Fronde. Ere long, skirmishes between the two factions became of almost daily occurrence. The Duke de Beaufort marched out of the city to give battle to the Marshal de Grammont, but returned with the intelligence that the marshal had de- clined the challenge ; a fact which was almost equivalent to a victory. This advantage was, however, speedily com- pensated by a check experienced by the Chevalier de Sevigne, who commanded a regiment raised by the Arch- bishop of Corinth. On this occasion the defeat of the new recruits was complete, and the encounter was called "the first of the Corinthians." Compensation even for this mis- fortune was, nevertheless, afforded by the recapture of Cha- renton, which had been abandoned by the Prince de Conde, and which the Frondeurs strengthened with some pieces of artillery. But, as if the whole of the war was to resem- ble a game of chess, the Marquis de Vitry was attacked near Vincennes by two squadrons of German cavalry, who killed twenty of his men; and he was compelled to retreat, leaving on the field the gallant young Tancrede de Rohan, mortally wounded. The character of this brave youth was consistent to the last ; feeling that his condition was beyond hope, he would never reveal his name, and persisted in speaking Dutch till he died ; but as the enemy, nevertheless, suspected that he was a person of distinction, his body was exposed, in order that it might be identified ; and it was by these means that 258 LOUIS XIV. AND the Duchess de Rohan was apprised of his death, of which the news reached her at Romorantin, where she had re- tired. The Prince de Conde began, after a time, to weary of this futile and profitless war, and resolved to apply himself seriously to its termination. He accordingly suffered the Frondeurs to fortify Charenton, and gave them time to garrison the place with three thousand men ; after which he determined to take it. On the evening of the 7th of Feb- ruary, M. de Chanleu, who commanded the post, received intelligence that the Duke d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde were marching upon him at the head of seven or eight thousand infantry, four thousand calvary, and a bri- gade of artillery ; and he immediately sent to inform the Prince de Conti of the fact, and to request his orders. A council was held by the bedside of the Duke de Bouillon, who was again confined with the gout, and who, consider- ing the place untenable, advised that Chanleu and his men should march out, only leaving a detachment to defend the bridge. M. d'Elbceuf, however, w T ho was partial to Chan- leu, and wished to give him this opportunity of distinguish- ing himself, was of a contrary opinion, and he was second- ed by the Duke de Beaufort and the Marshal de la Motte. M. de Chanleu was accordingly directed to defend himself to the utmost, with a promise that he should receive help from the garrison of Paris ; but although the troops began to march out at eleven o'clock at night, they were not in the field until eight on the following morning. It was then too late. At daybreak the prince had attacked Charen- ton ; and the engagement had scarcely commenced when Gaspard de Coligny, Duke de Chatillon, received a ball through his body, and fell. The Prince de Conde imme- diately took his place, and flung himself into the intrench- ments, where the brave Chanleu was killed ; but Charenton passed once more into the hands of the Royalists. On the following day the Duke de Chatillon expired, holding in THE COURT OF FRANCE. 259 his hand the marshal's baton which Anne of Austria had forwarded to him only an hour previously. Favored by this engagement, the Marquis de Noirmou- tier, at the head of a thousand horse, left Paris unperceived, in order to meet a convoy which was arriving from Etampes ; and as on the second day he did not return, the Duke de Beaufort and M. de la Motte sallied forth in their turn to cover his retreat ; but in the plain of Ville-Juif they found the Marshal de Grammontwith two thousand infantry, Swiss and French guards, and two thousand horse ; the latter commanded by Charles de Beauvau, Seigneur of Nerlieu, one of the bravest nobles of the royal army, who had no sooner recognized the regiment of the Duke de Beaufort than he charged it. At the first fire Nerlieu fell dead ; but the engagement, nevertheless, continued with such fury that M. de Beaufort, while fighting breast to breast with an adversary, had his sword wrested from his grasp ; the Marshal de la Motte coming to his assistance, however, at that precise moment, the Mazarins were compelled to give way. Shortly afterward the convoy appeared in sight, but the marshal would not farther pursue his advan- tage, declaring that the enemy would be sufficiently beaten if he could succeed in securing its entrance into Paris ; and he did so without difficulty, under an escort of nearly a hundred thousand men, who had taken up arms on hearing that the Duke de Beaufort was engaged with the enemy. The day but one following, the commander of the Porte St. Honore apprised the parliament that a herald, clad in complete armor, and preceded by two trumpeters, de- manded admittance. He was the bearer of three letters, one for the parliament, one for the Prince de Conti, and the third for the municipal magistrates. This intelligence caused great excitement ; but, prompted by the cardinal, the councilor Broussel rose and said that heralds were only habitually sent to equals or to enemies, and that, conse- quently, as the parliament were not either the equals or the OtfO LOUIS XIV. A N D enemies of the king, they could not receive his herald. This declaration, subtil as it was, elicited great applause ; and it was decided that a deputation should wait upon the sovereign, to ascertain what overtures he desired to make to the parliament ; after which the herald was dispatched on his return with a request that safe conduct should be given to the deputation. On the second day the surety ar- rived, and the deputation left the city. These, however, were only the public measures of the court ; for, while the deputies were on their way to St. Germain, M. de Flamarens arrived in Paris, ostensibly to offer a compliment of condolence from the Duke d'Orleans to the Queen of England on the death of her husband, the intelligence of whose execution had reached the court only three or four days previously ; and during his residence in the city he paid a visit to the Prince de Marsillac, who had been wounded in a skirmish at Brie-Comte-Robert,* and who began to be tired of this petty warfare, to tender, on the authority of the Abbe de la Riviere, certain secret prop- ositions to the rebel leaders. In the first place they offered to the prince himself a seat in the council, and a fortress in Champagne, on condition that he would cede to La Riviere the contested cardinal's hat, for which M. de Conti had, personally, no ambition, as he desired beyond all else to abandon the profession of the church. To M. de Longue- ville, who was engaged to bring succor to Paris from Rouen, they proposed, in the event of his delaying this succor, to give him, in addition to the governments which he already held, that of Pont-de-l'Arche, and a place at court ; engag- * It was on the occasion of this engagement, that the Count de Bussy-Rabutin, then serving in the royal army, wrote to Madame de Sevigne : " I have just returned from our expedition of Brie-Robert as tired as a dog. For eight days I have not taken off my clothes. We are your masters, but, it must be confessed, not without difficulty. The war of Paris begins to weary me. If you do not soon die from hunger, we shall from fatigue. Surrender to us, or we must soon do so to you.'' It will have been remarked that M. de Sevigne had joined the Fronde. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 261 ing, moreover, to terminate definitively with M. de Bouillon the purchase of the city of Sedan, which had been so long a time in abeyance. All these promises, superadded to the gracious words in which the queen had expressed them, combined with the arrival of a Spanish agent, authorized to propose the mediation of the Aichduke Leopold, who, as he wrote, " would not again treat with the cardinal, but with the parliament," produced a species of truce, during which a hundred barrels of wheat were to enter Paris daily, and conferences to take place at Ruel. Three days subsequently these conferences commenced ; and while they were proceeding two startling pieces of in- telligence reached the parliament : first, that M. de Longue- ville was on his march to Paris with ten thousand men from Rouen, for the service of the capital ; and, secondly, that M. de Turenne had declared for the parliament. Upon the strength of this important news they immediately wrote to their plenipotentiaries to maintain their ground firmly ; but the latter, seeing on one side the Duke d'Orleans exas- perated, and the Prince de Conde menacing, and on the other the people excited, and the parliament resolved to push matters to extremity, with, moreover, Spain ready to profit by the intestinal divisions of the kingdom, took upon themselves to sign a treaty without further delay ; and, accordingly, fourteen articles were agreed upon and signed, which went to nullify all proceedings on both sides since the commencement of hostilities. There was, how- ever, one small defect in this treaty, which was so hur- riedly drawn up that private interests had been altogether overlooked ; and, after a stormy meeting of the parliament, it was decided that a second deputation should be sent to court, in order to secure the claims of the generals upon a solid basis. These generals were the Prince de Conti, the Duke d'El- bceuf, the Duke de Bouillon, the Duke de Beaufort, the Duke de Longuevillc, and the Marshal de la Motte Houdan- 262 LOUIS XIV. AND court. Something also, it was resolved, must be done for the Marshal de Turenne, who, although he had been tardy in his adhesion to the faction, had nevertheless, ultimately decided in its favor. Thus — and no circumstance throughout the whole reign of Louis XIV. serves, perhaps, more fully to expose the venality and the shamelessness of the time — these private stipulations were inserted in the general treaty, and publicly discussed ! The Prince de Conti obtained Danevilliers. The Duke d'Elbceuf the payment of moneys due to his wife, and a hun- dred thousand livres for his eldest son. The Duke de Beau- fort, his return to court, the full pardon of all persons who had assisted him to escape, the restoration of the pensions granted to the Duke de Vendome, his father; and an indem- nity for his houses and castles which the parliament of Brit- tany had caused to be demolished. The Duke de Bouillon, domains of equal value with the estimate which might be made of Sedan, an indemnity for the non-enjoyment of his principality, and the title of Prince to be granted to him and his descendants. The Duke de Longueville, the gov- ernment of Pont-de-1'Arche. The Marshal de la Motte Houdancourt, two hundred thousand silver livres, without prejudice to any other favors which it might please the king to accord him. And, finally, as the forces in Germany were about to be suppressed, the Marshal de Turenne was to be employed according to the esteem due to his person and services. These new conditions conceded, a peace supervened ; and on the 5th of April a Te Deum was chanted with great pomp at Notre-Dame, on which occasion the French guards and the king's Switzers reappeared as the representatives of absent royalty.* Thus terminated the first act of the most singular, boot- less, and, we are almost tempted to add, burlesque war, * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 263 which, in all probability, E urope ever witnessed. Through- out its whole duration society appeared to have been smit- ten with some moral hallucination. Kings and cardinals slept on matresses ; princesses and duchesses on straw ; market-women embraced princes ; prelates governed ar- mies ; court ladies led the mob ; and the mob, in its turn, ruled the city. The infant son of a prince of the blood, born during the revolt, was presented at the baptismal font by a municipal magistrate ;* a citizen court was held at the Town-Hall ; and an exiled queen was left to starve in the palace of the Louvre. t Madame de Longueville gave birth to a eon during her residence at the Town-Hall, who received the incongruous names of Charles-Paris- Orleans. .o ' CHAPTER XII. Return of the royal Fugitives — Reluctance of the Queen and her Minis- ter — Mademoiselle* de Chevreuse — Mademoiselle and Henrietta of England — The Duke of York — Return of Monsieur to Blois — The Duke de Beaufort and Madame de Montbazon — The Court at Com- piegne — Mademoiselle and Charles II. — Egotism of Mademoiselle — Character of the Prince de Conde — Ambitious Projects of Madame de Longueville — Disaffection of Conde — Libelous Publications — Res- cue of the Printers — Altercation between the Duke de Beaufort and the Marquis de Jarze — Arrival of Charles II. — Reconciliation of the Queen-Regent and Conde — The Coadjutor at Compiegne — Reception of Madame de Chevreuse — Entry of the King and Queen in Paris — Popularity of Mazarin — The Duke de Beaufort at the Palais-Royal — Death of the Empress of Germany — Renewed Hopes of Mademoiselle —The Courtship of Charles II.— Illness of Mademoiselle— Confirma- tion of the young Princes. Mademoiselle was one of the first of the fugitives who returned to Paris after the conclusion of the peace, for neither the queen nor the cardinal were in any haste to throw themselves into the midst of the shower of insulting pamphlets, pasquinades, and epigrams which were daily LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. 265 pouring upon them. Nor was the capital by any means so loyal as at the first glance it might appear to be. There was no longer any open rebellion, it is true ; but the reverse of the cards bore nearly the same impress as ever. The Duke de Beaufort was still the king of the markets, and the hero of the market-women ; those formidable Dames de la Halle who have, at every outbreak in the French metrop- olis, played so prominent and so extraordinary a part ; the coadjutor, the only leader of the Fronde who asked nothing for himself either privately or by treaty, was possessed of unbounded popularity ; Madame de Longueville had merely removed her court from the Town-Hall to her own hotel, where her grace, her beauty, and her wit retained about her not only her political adorers, but attracted to her shrine all that was noblest and most intellectual in the capital ; while Madame de Chevreuse had returned to the Hdtelde Luynes, substituting for her own beauty, which was now consid- drably on the wane, that of her young and lovely daugh- ter, at that period in the full zenith of her charms, and whose extreme intimacy with M. de Retz had already given rise to rumors which affected her reputation ; and amid all this, the whole city fronded more than ever ; for the Fronde had now ceased to be a faction, and had become a fashion. • Mademoiselle was then, as we have stated, the first to return to Paris. Not, as she declares, because she was weary of St. Germain, where, on the contrary, she was very happy, and would have liked to remain all her life, but because she was anxious to pay her respects to the Queen of Eng- land, and to offer her condolences on the death of her royal husband ; for whom, she says, the court had never gone properly into mourning, wearing black only upon their persons, but making no alterations in their equipages, " for want of money." Having received the permission of the regent and Monsieur, she accordingly proceeded to the capital, accompanied by Madame de Carigan, for whom vol. r. — M 266 LOUIS XIV. AND she had a great affection;* and they alighted at the Louvre. •' I .lid not find the Queen of England," she pursues, " so deeply affected as she should have been from the regard which the king her husband had for her, and the rather as he had always behaved perfectly well toward her ; for she was mistress of every thing: the manner of his death ought also to have added considerably to her affliction. For my own part, I think that it was strength of mind which enabled her to appear so calm." The queen had with her the Duke of York, her second son, who had just arrived from Holland, where he had resided with his sister, the Princess of Orange, since the time that he escaped from his prison in England, where he was confined for a considerable period. He was then about fourteen years old, very handsome, well-grown, and fair, and spoke the French language fluently. On her return to St. Germain, Mademoiselle was closely questioned by the regent as to what she had seen and heard in the capital ; of all which she gave a precise account ; and shortly afterward the palace of St. Germain became thronged with guests, all the principal actors in the Fronde having hastened to salute Their Majesties, except the Duke de Beaufort and the coadjutor. M. de Vendome, who, thanks to the treaties, had been recalled from his exile, and his eldest son, the Duke de Mercceur, had taken up their residence at court; and a report soon spread that M. de Mercceur was soon to give his hand to Victoria Mancini, the elder of the three sisters ; " a thing," says a modern author, "so apparently impossible that every one believed it." At this period the Duke d'Orleans, in his turn, visited " The society of Madame de Carignau was very agreeable to me, tor she was infinitely witty, although she had little good sense ; no one lied with more grace ; and her falsehoods, although improbable, always amused me. She was the sister of the Count de Soissons."— Mimoires de Mademoiselle de Moidpensier THE COURT OF FRANCE. 267 Paris ; but after a brief sojourn, retired once more to his retreat at Blois ; while Mademoiselle, having had an in- terview with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, who, with her mother, had been residing at the court of Flanders pre- viously to their recall to France, became again infatuated with the idea of marriage, and readily listened to the de- sire of the archduke to win her hand, and the almost cer- tainty which existed that he would be created a sovereign prince, like the Archduke Albert. During the revolt in Paris, the Duke de Beaufort had paid his court to Mademoiselle de Longueville, who was a wealthy heiress through her mother, who had been a Bour- bon, and the sister of the former Count de Soissons, de- ceased without issue. Thus no one was surprised at his devotion ; the only astonishment which the affair elicited was that Madame de Montbazon* would permit it ; as be- ing very beautiful, and constantly in his society, there was a general impression that she looked forward to becoming his wife at the death of her own husband. But the duke * " Madame de Montbazon was very beautiful ; but modesty was ■wanting to her attractions. Her haughtiness and flippancy would, during a period of less agitation, have been an equivalent for her want of intellect. She had little good faith in matters of gallantry, and none at all in politics. She loved nothing but pleasure, save, indeed, profit, which she preferred. I never saw any one who, even amid vice, had preserved so little respect for virtue." — Mimoires du Cardinal du Retz. This lady was the person who, receiving from the Marchioness de la Baume, a surreptitiously-obtained copy of Bussy-Rabutiu's celebrated " Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules," put it it into the hands of the print- er ; in revenge for which perfidy, the caustic count, who had been upon discreditable terms with her, caused to be inscribed beneath her por- trait, which was in his possession : " CECILIA, ISABELLA HURANT DE CHEVERXY, MARCHIONESS DE MONGLAS, WHO, BY HER INCONSTANCY, HAS RESTORED TO HONOR THE MATRON OF EPHESUS, AND THE WIVES OF ASTOLPHUS AND JACONDUS." 268 LUUIS XIV. AND also sedulously cultivated the good graces of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse ; and as she was, like Madamoiselle de Longue- ville, very handsome, and a rich heiress, many thought that he would demand her hand in marriage. Being con- sidered an eligible suitor, all the princesses felt an interest in his establishment ; Madame de Nemours* was anxious for it; Mademoiselle de Longueville desired it for the ad- vantage of her brother, and for fear he should ultimately marry Madame de Montbazon ; and Mademoiselle herself was taking an active part in the intrigue, when the regent once more summoned her to court, to attend her on a jour- ney which she was about to undertake with the young prin- ces to Compiegne ; while the Prince de Conde and the cardinal advanced to La Fere to review the troops which were shortly to march for Flanders. During the sojourn of the court at Compiegne, the unfor- tunate Charles II., who was dividing his time between Holland and Jersey, wrote to request permission of the king and the regent to visit France ; upon which the queen, Monsieur, and the cardinal urged Mademoiselle to give him her hand, assuring her that France should afford him powerful protection ; that he had already acquired several allies ; that there were even yet provinces which had re- mained faithful to him ; and that he was master of the en- tire kingdom of Ireland. Thus urged, Mademoiselle, designing her late dream of the archduke, replied to the regent (who confided to her that the Queen of England had declared her son to be passionately enamored of her person, and that he desired nothing so much as to make her his wife), that although the position of the king would not permit him to afford such assistance to the English monarch as would suffice to replace him on the throne, she was, * Mary d'Orleans, daughter of the Duke de Longueville, and wife of Henry de Savoie, the last Duke de Nemours, who died without issue in 1659. She was born in 1625, and died in 1707, leaving behind her some authentic and playfully-written Memoirs. THE COURT OF PRANCE. 2G9 nevertheless, ready to obey Her Majesty and Monsieur in all that they might command. Lord Germain then informed her that he was immedi- ately about to return to Holland to escort Charles to France ; and demanded a positive reply, because the affairs of his kingdom required his prompt appearance in Ireland; adding, that should she accept his proposal, the king would come to court, where he would remain two days, make her his wife, and after spending two other days in the royal circle, in order to afford her the privilege of taking prece- dence of the regent (as was usual on the occasion of royal marriages), conduct her to St. Germain, where the Queen of England had resumed her residence ; after which he would depart for Ireland ; while she should be permitted, if she desired it, to reside in Paris, as she had been accus- tomed to do. To this proposal Mademoiselle replied that the last condition was impossible ; that she was willing to accompany the king to Ireland, should he wish it, or to reside with the queen his mother, or even to retire to one of her estates ; but that she should not consider it seemly to remain in the gay world while the king was at the head of his army ; nor to incur the expenses which a person of her rank must inevitably do in such a position, when it would be her duty to make every exertion to afford him assist- ance ; that she could not divest herself of great anxiety while seeing him engaged in such a war ; and that, in short, if she became his wife, she must sooner or later make reso- lutions much more difficult of accomplishment, and was quite aware that it would be necessary for her to dis- pose of all her property to reconquer his kingdom ; all which reflections, she confessed, alarmed her a little, reared as she had been in opulence and luxury. To this sententious address the English envoy replied, in his turn, that all the remarks of Mademoiselle were un- doubtedly just ; but that he would venture to remind her that there was no other suitable match for her in Europe ; that 070 LOUIS XIV. AND the Emperor of Germany and the King of Spain were both married; that the King of Hungary was about to espouse the Spanish Infanta; that as regarded the archduke, he would assuredly never be sovereign of the Low Countries ; that she had declined to accept the sovereigns of Germany and Italy ; and that in France both the king and Monsei- gncur were too young to marry ; while the Prince de Conde had been settled for the last ten years, and his wife was in excellent health. To this last piece of information the granddaughter of Henry IV. responded by one of those extraordinarily coarse replies which would be inadmissible at this period from the lips of any woman, and far more from those of an unmarried princess ; and ultimately, after several more arguments on the part of Lord Germain, Mademoiselle finally remarked, that should Monsieur wish her to marry the King of England, and feel that the alliance was inevita- ble, she should prefer to give him her hand while he was unfortunate, because under such circumstances he would feel the obligation he had incurred toward her ; and when restored to his throne, would consider her as the main cause of his success, through the assistance which he would have received from her family.* On the morrow the court proceeded to Amiens, where Lord Germain followed it, in order to have another inter- view with Mademoiselle ; who, in reply to his extreme ur- gency, informed him that she had a profound respect for the Queen of England ; and, if she might venture to say so, an equal affection ; that for her sake she was ready to over- look all the disadvantages of her son's position; but that his religion was an obstacle which she could not surmount ; and consequently, if His Majesty had any regard for her, he would remove this difficulty, as she had made so many sacrifices on her side : but the envoy at once discouraged such an idea, by frankly declaring that the situation of the * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 271 king would not permit of his changing his religious tenets, for which he gave the most satisfactory reasons ; alledging, in conclusion, that were he now to become a Romanist, he would exclued himself foi'ever from the throne of Great Britain. Mademoiselle had, however, found a sufficient pretext for withholding a definite acceptance of his suit ; and she herself states that after she had taken leave of Lord Ger- main, the name of the King of England was not even men- tioned to her again before the day which preceded his arrival. We have stated that M. de Conde and the cardinal had gone in company to La Fere ; but the prince had pre- viously secured several interviews with Madame de Longue- ville which produced a great effect upon his mind. He was a man of considerable intellect, and of a lively imagi- nation ; brave as a lion, but fickle, greedy of distinction, and soon wearied of that which he had secured. Thus, at the age of twenty-seven he had gained the reputation of a great general, and his renown in arms rivaled that of Turenne ; there was little left to acquire as a soldier, and he was anxious to measure his strength as a politician with that of some opponent. " The Prince de Conde," says De Retz, " was born a warrior, a thing which never happened save to himself, Caesar, and Spinola ; he has equalled the first, and has surpassed the second. Intrepidity is one of the least traits of his character. Nature gave him an intel- lect as great as his heart ; and fortune, in assigning him to a warlike century, enabled the latter to display all its strength, while birth, or rather education, in a house at once attached and in submission to the cabinet, limited the former too narrowly. He was not imbued at a sufficiently early age with those vast and general maxims which are, and constitute, what is called consistency. He had not time to acquire them of himself, because he was forestalled in his youth by the unforeseen fall of high interests, and by 272 LOUIS XIV. AND the habit of success. This defect has been the cause that, with tlic lea* bitter tendencies in the world, he has been guilty of more than one injustice ; that, with the heart of Alexander, he has not been exempted, any more than him, of weakness ; that, with a wonderful mind, he has fallen in! (i imprudences; that, having all the great qualities of Francis de Guise, he has not, on certain occasions, served the state so well as he ought to have done ; while, having all those of Henry of the same name, he has not earned faction so far as he might have done. He could not render justice to his own merit, which is a defect, but one which is at once rare and beautiful."* Madame de Longueville soon succeeded in making him comprehend his position accurately. All those who had served against the court were restored to favor, and had, moreover, made then - own conditions before they returned to their allegiance. He, on the contrary, had adhered throughout to its interests, and had not even obtained the cardinal's hat, which he was so anxious to secure to his brother. This was bad enough ; but to a man jealous of power, as he was, there still remained something worse be- hind. His younger brother, feeble, deformed, of bad ad- dress — in one word, neither a warrior nor a diplomatist — had been, thanks to the name he bore, appointed generalissimo of the Parisian forces. For a brief period, M. de Conti, with all his disadvantages, had been one of the three or four individuals who had reigned in the capital of France. What, therefore, might not the prince himself have done had he filled the same position ] How proud a part might he not have enacted ? Alike a soldier and a man of genius, it was impossible to limit the range of probabilities. He would assuredly have reigned alone ; and who should say that the scepter, thus secured for an interval, could ever have been wrested from his grasp ? The duchess was eloquent ; while her favorite brother, * Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 273 newly restored to her confidence and affection, listened with avidity ; and Madame de Longueville had hy no means, even at this point, terminated her representations. She had felt too fully and too deeply the charm of her temporary regality, to lift the tiara of popularity and power calmly from her brow, and to see it deposited upon its cushion, awaiting another hand ; and it was consequently with flashing eyes and throbbing pulse that she proceeded to remind him how much the projected alliance between the house of Vendome and Mazarin must militate against his interests. M. de Beau- fort, a less accomplished soldier than himself, but quite as brave, and infinitely more popular, aspired to the post which he occupied ; and whatever obstacles might have before pre- sented themselves, were about to be rendered nugatory by the marriage of Victoria Mancini. All these arguments produced their effect ; and the result was, that during his sojourn at Compiegne, the prince had been moody and dis- contented ; and that when he arrived at La Fere with the cardinal, he took still less pains to disguise his ill-humor; which so visibly increased, that Mazarin at last grew weary of the assumption of the great captain, and lost temper in his turn. This was precisely what the prince desired : he only sought an opportunity to break with the court ; and when things had come to this extremity, he did so without hesitation. The Count d'Harcourt was then recalled from the army in Spain, and ordered to supersede M. de Conde in his command in Flanders ; upon which the prince retired to his government of Burgundy, thoroughly disaffected. During this time the pamphlets to which we have already alluded pursued their course. Those which merely attack- ed the cardinal caused laughter, and no one interfered with them ; but others which were written against the king, the regent, and the church, occasionally created great uneasi- ness. Two printers at this time published works in which the queen was so severely handled, that they were legally pursued. History has preserved at once the name of one X>74 LOUIS XIV. AND of these printers, and of the work which he put forth ; the culprit was called Marlot, and the pamphlet was entitled "The Guardian of the Queen's Bed." Both the delin- quents were put upon their trial, and condemned to be hanged, and the sentence was about to be executed, when the populace collected round the gibbet. While the cul- prit who was to be the first to suffer had the cord about his neck, and his foot upon the ladder, some one suddenly ex- claimed that both he and his companion were about to lose their lives merely for having written some verses against Mazarin. The mob caught at the words, uttered loud shouts of fury, rushed upon the gibbet, and earned off the two culprits in triumph ; who, at the first opportunity which presented itself, declining any further ovation, pru- dently disappeared. Mazarin was still more safe at Compiegne than at Paris. All these events greatly annoyed the partisans of the car- dinal, who had returned to Paris ; and among these was the Marquis de Jarze, who was one of the wittiest men at court,* and rivaled by his repartees and epigrams even An- gevin, the Prince de Guimenee,t and Bautru ! J Resolved to suppress the demonstrations of enmity which were ex- hibited against his patron, Jarze took an opportunity of in- sinuating that the Duke de Beaufort had purposely avoided a meeting with him and his friends in a public thorough- fare ; adding, that he would take the wall of him wherever they might chance to meet, even should it be within the precincts of the palace. This defiance was repeated to the Eerie Duplessis, Marquis de Jarze, and Lord of Plessy Bourre. He was appointed Captain of the Royal Guard in 1648. t Hercules de Rohan, Prince de Guimenee, Duke de Montbazon, bom in 1568. I William Bautru, Count de Ceran, born at Antwerp in 1588, died hi 1663. He was one of the wits of the seventeenth century, and a mem- ber of the French Academy. He was also one of the creatures of Richelieu, and afterward of Mazarin ; Grand Master of the Ceremonies, and Minister-Plenipotentiary in Flanders, Spain, England, and Savoy. THE COURT OP FRANCE. 275 duke ; and the result was that M. de Beaufort went, ac- companied by a pajfy of his intimate associates, to a tavern where Jarze was supping with the Duke de Caudale, Le Freton, Fontrailles, Ruvigny, the commanders of Jars* and Souvre, and some others of their friends ; and he had no sooner entered the apartment which they occupied than he seized one corner of the table-cloth, threw every thing on the ground, and overturned the table. Swords were drawn, and there was a great tumult, but no one was either killed or wounded. The insulted party instantly resolved to challenge the Duke de Beaufort, but they were aware that they could not venture to meet him and his friends in Paris, where his party was all-powerful, and where they would themselves have incurred the risk of being murdered by the fish women ; and in consequence of this fact they all went in a body to St. Germain, where Monsieur succeeded with some difficul- ty in making up the quarrel.f Their escapade, however, nearly proved an obstacle to the marriage of the Duke de Mercceur and Victoria Man- cini ; for the cardinal was enraged at the insult which had been offered to his adherents, and declared that he would not give his niece to the brother of a man who hated him. Such a resolution could not, nevertheless, be long entertained under the circumstances ; for Mazarin, little as he might be inclined to avow it, was too subtil not to feel the advan- tage which must accrue to himself from an alliance with a descendant of Henry IV. While this absurd contention was engrossing the court, Charles II. had arrived at Peronne, whence a courier was forwarded to apprise Their Majesties of the fact. The queen immediately communicated the news of his advent to Made- moiselle, saying with a smile, "Your suitor is coming;" * Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke de Mortemart, Peer of France, First Gentleman of the Chamber. He died in 1675. t Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montponsier. 276 LOUIS XIV. AND and it is evident, notwithstanding the disclaimers of the princess, that she was greatly excited ty his reappearance; for, blended with the morgue and egotism of her style, snatches of the most extraordinarily simple and straightfor- ward frankness may be detected. In the present instance she says, with almost girlish unguardedness : — Alien the Abbe de la Riviere spoke to me on the sub- ject, I told him that I was dying with anxiety for the En- glish king to say soft things to me, because I did not yet know what they meant, for no one had ever dared to ad- dress them to me ; not on account of my quality, since many had been said to queens of my acquaintance, but be- cause it was well known that I was not coquettishly inclined. " On the day of his arrival we all rose early to prepare for him : he was only to dine at Compiegne, and it was ne- cessary to set off betimes to meet him. I had caused my hair to be curled, which I seldom did : and as I entered the carriage of the queen, she exclaimed, ' It is easy to distin- guish those who expect their gallants. How she is dress- ed!' I was quite prepared to reply that those who had themselves had lovers knew how to act, and were aware of the trouble which it was necessary to take in order to please them; and I might even have added, that as mine was to be my husband, I had reason to be particular about my appearance ; but I did not dare to say any thing. We went forward a league to meet him. When he appeared, every one alighted; he first saluted Their Majesties, and then myself. I thought him very good-looking; much more so than when he left France ; and if his intellect had appeared to me to equal his person, perhaps he might have pleased me on that occasion. When he was in the carriage, the king questioned him about dogs, horses, the Prince of Orange, and the sport in that country ; to all which he an- swered in French. The queen wished to have some par- ticulars of his political position, but he did not reply to her inquiries; and when he was asked at different times to ex- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 277 plain several very sei-ious facts which wei'e of considerable importance to his personal interests, he excused himself from answering, by urging that he could not speak our lan- guage. I own that, from that moment, I resolved not to conclude the marriage ; for I conceived a very poor opinion of him, being a king at his age, and having no knowledge of his affairs. As soon as we arrived, dinner was served up. He ate no ortolans, but flung himself upon a piece of beef and a shoulder of mutton, as if there had been nothing else at table. After dinner the queen amused herself, and left him with me. He was a quarter of an hour without saying a single word ; but I am willing to believe that his silence was the result of respect rather than of any want of passion ; though on this occasion I frankly confess that I could have wished it to have been somewhat less plainly exhibit- ed. As his supineness began to weary me, I called Ma- dame de Comminges to my side, that she might endeavor to make him talk, in which she fortunately succeeded. M. de la Riviere shortly afterward approached me, saying, ' He looked at you during the whole of the dinner, and is looking at you still.' To which T replied, ' He has plenty of time to look at me before he will please me, if he does not speak.' ' Ah,' said he, f you will not admit that he has said sweet things to you.' ' Pardon me,' I retorted ; ' come near me when he is at my side, and you will see how he sets about it.' When the queen rose I approached the King of England ; and, in order to make him talk, I in- quired for some persons whom I had seen in his suite ; but he answered my questions without the slightest gallantry. When the hour of his departure arrived, we got into our carriages, and bore him company to the middle of the for- est, where every one alighted, as they had done on his ar- rival. He took leave of the king, and then approached me, accompanied by Lord Germain, saying, ' I believe that my Lord Germain, who speaks French better than I do, has explained to you my sentiments and my intention ; I am 278 LOUIS XIV. AND your very obedient servant.' I answered that I was equally his obedient servant. Germain paid me a great number of compliments; and, after they were over, the king bowed and departed."* We consider this description of the courtship of the " Merry Monarch" as sufficiently curious to afford its own apology to our readers for the length of the quotation. Meanwhile, much as she detested the Prince de Conde, the regent quite understood that she was not strong enough to dispense with his services. He had, as we have stated, declined the command of the army in the present campaign, and had retired in disgust to Macon, in Burgundy, the seat of his government; where he remained so long that the court at last became alarmed ; and the queen, finding it absolutely necessary to temporize, wrote him one of those autograph letters in which she was such an adept when she had an important point to gain, full of tender profes- sions, and pious affection. The prince was not proof against such an attention, but prepared at once to return to Com- piegne ; a concession which so delighted the cardinal, whose nerves had been considerably shaken by the effects of an estrangement of which he was himself the author, that he went to meet him ; and he was overwhelmed on all sides with homage and attention, which was bestowed the more lavishly as there was every reason to apprehend that he would be displeased with the regent for having appointed the Duke de Vendome to the rank of an admiral, in conse- quence of the marriage of the cardinal's niece with M. de Mercceur. The court party flattered themselves that the prince would be conciliated by fine words and empty hon- ors ; but as he was well aware that he had nobly earned whatever distinction might be accorded to him, he evident- ly did not feel himself under such an obligation as they had anticipated. The queen had only awaited his arrival to negotiate her Memoires de Mademoiselle de Moutpensier- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 279 reentrance into Paris; while the coadujutor, who considered this reentrance inevitable, resolved to appropriate the merit of it ; and accordingly set out for Compiegne, alighted at the door of the palace, and while ascending the stair-case, aiid on the landing, met, as he asserts in his Memoir es, a short man, dressed entirely in black, who slipped a paper into his hand, upon which was written, "If you enter the house of the king you are a dead man." M. de Retz was not, however, to be deterred by an anonymous threat, and accordingly he put the warning into his pocket and contin- ued his way. The queen received him admirably, and urged him sev- eral times to 6ee the cardinal ; but the coadjutor, who had no wish to sacrifice his popularity in Paris by any such con- cession, resolutely refused ; upon which the regent almost lost her temper. M. de Retz remained, however, perfectly unmoved, suffered her to say whatever she pleased, and when she at last ceased speaking, merely replied that, from the moment in which he should become reconciled with the cardinal all his influence would be lost, and he should no longer be in a position to serve her interests. A few days after the visit of the coadjutor, Madame de Chevreuse received permission to wait upon Anne of Aus- tria ; for she was still, although not personally, yet as re- garded her connections, an enemy whom it was necessary to conciliate. The duchess had, however, lost all confi- dence in her once royal friend ; and expressed so much re- luctance to venture herself at court, that the first president ultimately found it necessary to pledge himself that she should not suffer any annoyance, and his word was re-« deemed by her return in health and safety ; but her pride had been stung by the coldness of the welcome she had received, which, although reaching, as it did, the extremest limits of courtesy, was extended no further, while she had the mortification of being dismissed by the regent without the customary embrace. 280 LOUIS XIV. AND On the morrow it was the turn of the Prince de Conti, who went to Compiegne on the pretext of seeing his broth- er • and who, having been accidentally met by the cardinal, was invited to dine with him; an invitation which he at once accepted. About this time news arrived that the Count d'Harcourt had forced the Escaut,* between Bouchain and Valenci- ennes, overcoming a body of eight hundred of the enemy's horse ; and although this victory was comparatively of slen- der importance, it was so well-timed that the queen resolved to profit by the circumstance to return at once to the capi- tal, which she accordingly did in August, 1649, after an absence of six months. The accounts given of this cere- mony differ greatly in spirit, although not in substance. " The entry of the king that day," says Madame de Motte- ville, " was an actual prodigy, and a great victory for the minister. Never had so dense a crowd followed the car- riage of the sovereign ; and it seemed, by the public joy, as though the past had been a dream. The hated Maza- rin sat near one of the windows with the prince, and was so stared at by all who followed the king, that you would have declared they had never seen him before. They said to each other, ' Thei-e's Mazarin.' The populace, who im- peded the carnages which could not make way through them, blessed the king and queen, and spoke in praise of Mazarin. Some said he was handsome ; others held out their hands, and told him that they loved him ; while others again declared that they would go and drink his health ; * The Escaut (formerly called the Scaldis), the Scheldt of the Dutch, ft river belonging to France and Germany, takes its source in France, near the town of Catelet (Aisne), traverses the Departement du Nord, passing by Cambray, Valenciennes, and Conde ; and then entering Bel- gium, laves Tournay, Audenarde, Ghent, and Antwerp. The Escaut separates, at Fort Lillo, into two branches ; the Western Escaut (Hond, or Wester-Schelde), which throws itself into the Northern Ocean, near Flessingua; and the Eastern Escaut (Ooster-Schelde), which enters the same sea near Helvoetsluys. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 281 and at last, when the queen had retired, they began to make bonfires, and to bless Mazarin for having brought them back their king." * " " The court was received," states the Cardinal de Retz, " as kings have always been, and always will be : that is to say, with acclamations, which signify little enough to any save those who seek to delude themselves. An insignifi- cant king's attorney of the chatelet, who was a sort of mad- man, hired twelve or fifteen women, who at the entrance of the faubourg cried, ' Long live His Eminence !' when they saw Mazarin in the carriage of the king; and His Eminence forthwith believed that he was master of Paris. At the end of four days, however, he discovered that he had fearfully deceived himself." t " The king returned to Paris," writes Mademoiselle, in her turn, " and all the city companies went as far as St. Denis to meet him. It was an unexampled confusion of people, and I never was so wearied in my life. I was in the carriage of the queen ; it was excessively hot ; and we were from three o'clock in the afternoon to eight in the evening getting from Le Bourget to Paris, although the distance amounts only to two short leagues. The cries of 'Long live the king!' were continuous; and the people uttered them with the more joy because they had not seen His Majesty for a long time, and that his return at the con- clusion of a war appeared to compel them to exhibit their delight in a greater degree. Although it gave me a good deal of gratification, I was, nevertheless, stunned ; and had a terrible headache." $ It must be mentioned, however, that, at the close of her glowing description, even Madame de Motteville is frank enough to confess that Mazarin had caused money to be distributed to the populace ; while other authorities assert * Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire d'Anne d'Autriche, par Madame de Motteville. t M6moires du Cardinal de Retz. t Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. •JS-J LOUIS XIV. AND that, despite his avarice, the minister devoted as much as a hundred thousand livres to the preparation of this transi- tory triumph. Be this as it may, it is certain that it had one very injurious effect upon the regent : for, while she received all these acclamations as genuine, she believed them to be a sign of the approbation accorded by the peo- ple to all her previous measures. In the evening there was a grand reception at the Palais- Royal; and while the cardinal went, as he said, to repose himself in his own apartment, Monsieur conducted the Duke de Beaufort through the private rooms, and presented him to the queen, when he gave her repeated assurances of his loyalty and devotion ; and as he was the only leader of the Fronde who had not yet been to pay his court, either at Compiegne or at St. Germain since the peace, every one was anxious to see how he would acquit himself. Nothing could exceed the urbanity with which the queen received his homage, nor the kindness with which she assured him that all the past should be forgotten : and ultimately each retired, without attaching the slightest faith to what the other had said. It was, perhaps, unfortunate for both the actors in this scene that the interview took place in the very room in which M. de Beaufort had been arrested seven years before ; but, nevertheless, on the following day, the regent was evidently so well satisfied with herself, and with every thing about her, that she did not appear to remem- ber that she had ever left Paris. The festival of St. Louis occurred a short time afterward ; on which occasion the king went on horseback to the Jes- uits' convent in the rue St. Antoine, accompanied by all the princes and great nobles who were in the capital, ele- gantly attired, and mounted upon horses covered with rich housings ; while the cardinal, who was not celebrated for his personal courage, actually joined him there, after having traversed the whole city in his coach, almost without at- tendants ; and stranger still, without meeting with the least THE COURT OF FRANCE. 283 annoyance. Mademoiselle also followed the queen, and upon reaching the convent was informed by Her Majesty that news of the empress's death had arrived, and that on this occasion every thing should be done to secure her own marriage with the Imperial widower. Mademoiselle thanked her with great humility, and confesses that the tidings gave her considerable pleasure. When the court returned to the Palais-Royal, the cardinal had, in his turn, a long conversation with the princess, and told her deci- dedly that he should send an envoy to Germany, to offer a compliment of condolence to the emperor from Their Maj- esties ; and that he would be careful that the messenger should be a personal friend of her own, who would be zeal- ous to forward her interests. Charles II., in the mean while, who was only to have re- mained a fortnight in France, had lingered there for three months ; but, as the court were at Paris, and he resided with his mother at St. Germain, he was very seldom in the society of the princess. When his approaching departure was announced, Mademoiselle went to pay her respects to the queen, and to take leave of himself, upon which oc- casion the queen said that she felt she ought to rejoice with her niece at the death of the Empress of Germany, as, although the negotiation for her marriage had failed with the emperor on a former occasion, there was no doubt but it would now be successful. The princess replied, with affected carelessness, that she bestowed no thought upon the subject ; when the queen immediately and earnestly rejoined, that there was a young man then present who fan- cied that a king of eighteen years of age was better than an emperor of fifty with four children ; and indulged in a great deal of banter of the same description ; remarking, somewhat bitterly, in conclusion, that her son was too poor and too unfortunate for so great a princess; after which, sud- denly softening, she whispered, as she pointed to one of the English ladies of her suite, that her son was in love 284 LOUIS XIV. AND with her, and that he was fearful lest Mademoiselle should hear it, and bade her remark how disconcerted he was to see them thus brought together, lest she should mention the circumstance. When Charles withdrew, the queen re- quested Mademoiselle to accompany her to her closet, where, having previously closed the door, she said that her son had requested her to apologize to the princess, if the offer which she had made to her at Compiegne had excited her displeasure — an idea of which he could not divest him- self — that, as to herself, she had endeavored to decline the commission, but that he had so earnestly entreated her to fulfill it, that she could not refuse ; that she thought, as the princess did, that she would have been miserable with him, and she loved her too well to wish it, although it would have been fortunate for him personally if she could have been induced to share his unhappy fate ; but, meanwhile, all she could hope was, that he might ultimately be success- ful in regaining his kingdom, and that Mademoiselle might then be prevailed upon to accept his hand. The princess, somewhat embarrassed by this exhortation, replied as well and as gratefully as she could under such circumstances, and then took her leave, in order to proceed to the Abbey of St. Louis, at Poissy, where her two elder sisters had been placed during the Fronde. The young Duke of York having volunteered to accom- pany her, if she would afterward leave him at St. Germain, Charles proposed also to join the party ; but to this arrange- ment she would not consent, alledging that the duke being a mere youth, she could consent to his wish without impro- priety, but that in the case of His Majesty she felt herself compelled to refuse. Charles, however, was not to be so readily denied; and having prevailed upon his mother to accompany Mademoiselle, all feasible objection was re- moved ; and accordingly, the queen, the princess, and the two princes all traveled in Mademoiselle's coach ; and her royal aunt profited by the opportunity to dilate, through- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 285 out the whole journey, upon the admirable terms on which her son would live with his wife when he should many ; loving only her, and dismissing from his mind all his pre- vious follies ; an assertion which he gravely confirmed, declaring that he could not understand how any rational man who loved an agreeable woman could attach him- self elsewhere ; that, as for himself, whatever inclination he might previously have felt for any other person, it would be at an end from the very moment in which he became a husband. The princess remained but a short time at Poissy, as it was getting late ; and, after taking leave of the queen, was led to her carriage by Charles, who paid her many com- pliments, without, however, for an instant divesting himself of his reserve; and she drove off quite satisfied; for having, as she expresses it, once more fallen into the snare of the imperial marriage, nothing that he could have said would have made any impression upon her. It is curious to contrast both the demeanor and the pro- fessions of Charles II. at that period, with his bearing and principles in after-life. Some time subsequently Mademoiselle was attacked, in her turn, by small-pox ; and except the Prince de Conde, every one evinced great anxiety for her recovery. He alone failed to leave his name at her door, which augmented the hatred she always felt toward him ; and her health was no sooner reestablished than she attended the confirmation of the two young princes ; Monsieur and Mademoiselle being the sponsors of the king; while the Prince de Conde and the Princess-Dowager, his mother, acted as those of the Duke tl'Anjou. >-ri- CHAPTER XIII. Hollow Reconciliations — Arrogance of the Prince de Conde — Defiance of Mazarin — " Adieu, Mars !" — The Tabouret — A new Affront — Mar- riage of the Duke de Richelieu and Mademoiselle de Pons — The Cardinal and Madame de Chevreuse — A War of Wits — Meditated Arrest of the Princes of Lorraine — Autograph Letter to the Coadjutor — His Distrust of the Regent — Sincerity of Mademoiselle de Chev- reuse — Stipulations of the Coadjutor — Treachery of the Abbe de la Riviere — tbe Duke d'Orleans and Madame de Soyon — Adhesion of Monsieur to the Conspiracy — The Cardinal's Secretary — Apprehen- sions of the Dowager-Princess de Conde — Arrest of the Princes — The Journey to Vincennes — Public Excitement — Flight of the Duchess de Longueville — Separation of the Duchess and her Daughter — The Prin- cesses de Conde banished from the Court — The Queen-Regent at Rouen — Disgust of Madame de Longueville — Her Escape — Her Arri- val in Holland — Evasion of the Duke de Bouillon and Marshal Tu- renne — Return of the Court to Paris. All these seeming reconciliations at court were, how- ever, as will be readily understood, merely conventional, and had no solid basis. There were too many and too LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. 287 virulent jealousies beneath the surface ; too many remem- brances of past power on the part of the pardoned, and too many memories of mortification on that of the pardon- ing. Moreover, the equality of rank among the principal actors was so great, that, supplying by their influence the slight difference which existed, they were in no mood for implicit and unquestioning submission in the one party ; while presuming upon the royal prerogative and the time- hallowed privileges by which they were built in, they had no inclination to offer concession in the other. The Prince de Conde was especially irksome to the court ; as aware of the large share he had taken in the preservation of that throne which made the strength of his adversaries, he be- came every day more haughty and more exacting. He considered that he had fulfilled all his engagements when he brought the king back in safety to Paris, and continu- ally threatened to withdraw to his government. The pro- jected marriage of the Duke de Mercceur and Victoria Mancini, moreover, annoyed him bitterly. He had learned the private reception of M. de Beaufort, and he saw minis- terial favors about to be showered down upon the house of Vendome, which he detested ; while, urged by his sister the Duchess de Longueville, to exact the government of Pont de l'Arche which had been promised to her husband, he could not compel compliance with his demand. His pretensions, well-founded as they were, alarmed and an- noyed both the regent and the cardinal ; and at length, one evening, when he was persisting in his claim even more resolutely than usual, Mazarin, contrary to his general custom, answered him very abruptly ; upon which he in- quired if His Eminence desired that there should be war between them ] " I do not seek to excite hostilities," replied the minister ; " but if you commence them, Prince, I must necessarily de- fend myself." This calm defiance was too much for the forbearance of 288 L U U I S XIV. AND M. de Conde, who, taking up his hat, and looking at the cardinal with the sarcastic smile which was peculiar to him, ho wed profoundly ; and saying, " Adieu, Mars," — quietly left the room. The rejoinder had been overheard ; and on the following day all Paris called the cardinal nothing but the God Mars. It was now universally believed that the prince was defin- itively embroiled with the minister; and the most zealous of the Frondeurs were already leaving their names at the door of M. de Conde, when the Duke d'Orleans, urged by the Abbe de la Riviere, who was trembling for his seat in the conclave, succeeded in effecting at least a seeming reconciliation between them. One of the clauses of this new treaty of peace was, however, that the Princess de Marsil- lac and Madame de Pons* should have the honors of the tabouret ;t and in virtue of this concession made to the friend of his sister, and to the wife of her lover, the prince consented to go through the comedy of another peace- making. But even here he was destined to be deprived of his triumph ; for this affair of the tabourets was of more im- portance to the French court than a new campaign, and presented, in point of fact, an unheard-of innovation upon its venerable etiquet ; for neither the wife of the Prince de * Mademoiselle de Pons was a charming and witty person of the queen's household ; admirably shaped, with a very pleasing face, al- though, perhaps, of somewhat too high a complexion; and had been loved by the Duke de Guise who caused the revolt in Naples. t The tabouret was a small four-legged stool, without back or arms. To have the tabouret was, in the old French court, a right possessed by certain persons to place themselves on this stool, or on a folding-seat, in the presence of the queen. The tabouret was originally conceded only to princesses or duchesses ; but it was afterward allowed to all such la- dies as occupied the first rank in the queen's household, and whose husbands had a right to an arm-chair in the king's apartment ; especially when they were dukes and peers. From the reign of Francis II., car- dinals, ambassadresses, duchesses, and ladies whose husbands were grandees of Spain, as well as the wives of chancellors and of keepers of the seals, were permitted to occupy them. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 289 Marsillac, nor the widow of Francis Alexander d'Albret, could advance a claim to so marked a distinction. All the nobility, consequently, rose against this presumption, and held meetings upon the subject, at one of which, in the hotel of the Marquis de Montglat, Grand-Master of the Ceremo- nies, a protestation against the grant was signed. This was a new cause of displeasure for M. de Conde against the queen ; as, in order to prove that the concession had been forced from her, she permitted her most intimate friends to join the opposition, which soon acquired so much importance that she considered it necessary to assure the prince that she felt herself compelled to yield to so general a demonstration ; and, in consequence, four mar- shals were appointed to announce to the assembly of the nobles that the regent withdrew from Madame de Pons and the Princess de Marsillac the favor which she had conceded to them. An opportunity of revenge soon offered itself to the Prince de Conde, who did not fail to make it available. The Duke de Richelieu, second nephew to the late cardinal, had fallen in love with Madame de Pons, from whom the queen had just wrested the tabouret ; but his passion was disapproved by the court, for M. de Richelieu being governor of Havre, his marriage with Madame de Pons became a matter of serious importance. She was, as we have already stated, the intimate friend of the Duchess de Longueville, who already had, through her husband, too much influence in that province ; and for this very reason the prince resolved upon the accomplishment of a union which every one de- clared to be impossible. He conducted the lovers to a house which the duchess possessed at Trie, where their marriage took place, he himself acting as the witness of the bridegroom ; and the ceremony had no sooner taken place than he started them to Havre, in order that the duke might take immediate possession of his government ; and having done this, he returned immediately to court, and openly vol. i. — N •JIM LUU1S XIV. A N U boasted that M. de Longueville now possessed another for- tified town in Normandy. This last exploit cruelly wounded both the queen and Mazarin, who thenceforth vowed the ruin of M. de Conde ; and they were still writhing under the blow, when Madame de Chevreuse, who had been in a great measure restored to favor, went to pay her New-year's visit to Anne of Austria, where she found the cardinal, who, as she was about to retire, led her into the the bay of a window, remarking that he had just heard her make great professions of regard to the queen, and was anxious to know why, if they were sincere, she did not induce her friends to espouse the interests of Her Majesty. The duchess replied that it was impossible, as the queen was no longer a sovereign, but merely the very humble servant of the Prince de Conde. The cardinal retorted that the regent could not do im- possibilities ; but that if she could assure herself of certain persons, she could do a great deal ; that, as it was, the Duke de Beaufort was at the disposal of Madame de Mont- bazon ; Madame de Montbazon at that of Vigneul;* and the coadjutor at that of . Here he paused, for he had not assurance enough to complete his sentence ; but the duchess Avas less delicate, and she finished it for him by pronouncing the name of her daughter. The cardinal laughed somewhat sarcastically ; and when he had enjoyed his jest, Madame de Chevreuse rendered it still more palatable by adding that she would answer both for the one and the others. Mazarin took her at her word : and upon this understanding, desired her to keep their se- cret, and to return to the palace in the evening. The duchess was punctual. She had retained all her passion for intrigue, and had been so long compelled to remain in- active, that she was delighted when the queen confided to * Vigneul was one of the gentlemen of the Prince de Conde's house- hold, and entirely devoted to his interests. THE COUKT OF FRANCE, 29 1 her the desire she felt to arrest the prince, his brother, and M. de Longueville simultaneously. One thing only deterred her, as she declared to the duchess, and that was her uncer- tainty a6 to whether the coadjutor would lend himself to this arrest ; and if the Duke d'Orleans, without whose coopera- tion it could not be ventured upon, might be persuaded to keep the secret ; not from the prince himself, but from his confidante, the Abbe de la Riviere, who was exerting all his energies to maintain a good understanding between M. de Conde and Monsieur. After a moment's reflection, Madame de Chevreuse an- swered for this also; only asking from the queen some written document which she might show to him, should he doubt the authority under which she acted. On a gesture from the cardinal, the request was granted ; and Anne of Austria wrote with her own hand the note that follows : — " I cannot believe, notwithstanding both the past and the present, that the coadjutor is not in my interests. I beg him to wait upon me without the knowledge of any one, save Madame and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. This name will be his surety. Anne." Armed with these credentials, the duchess ultimately left the palace radiant with new life. She had now an important secret in her keeping, and was about to become herself an actor in a scene which must convulse the entire nation. She was no longer the powerless and forsaken exile ; the wheel of life had turned once more, and she was again the trusted favorite of a powerful sovereign. It, however, now remained for her to redeem the pledge that she had given ; and she could not conceal from her- self that in answering for the actions of the coadjutor, even under any circumstances, stringent and binding though they might be, she had entailed upon herself a great risk of failure. 292 LOUIS XIV. A N U On her return from the Palais-Royal, Madame de Chev- reuse found M. de Retz awaiting her, who at once discov- ered that she had some important communication to make, from the fact that her daughter, whom she had tutored during her drive, began immediately to speak of Mazarin, and to question him as to his resolution should the cardinal propose a reconciliation. Nor did he remain long in doubt that this attempt was about to be made, for Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, who did not dare to speak openly before the duchess, affected to let her handkerchief fall to the ground ; and when M. de Retz stooped and restored it to her, she pressed his hand emphatically, in order to make him under- stand that she was acting merely under coercion. The coadjutor began to reflect, and his first impulse was a decidedly negative one ; for some time previously he had refused to participate in a similar negotiation to which the duchess had endeavored to urge him ; and had subsequently been informed that the advances made by the regent toward a reconciliation were a mere snare, the intention having been to conceal the Duke de Grammont behind a tapestry screen, in order that he might be enabled to inform the prince that famous Frondeurs, whom he was occasionally inclined to support, were only anxious to save themselves individually by abandoning their party, when, by so doing, they could advance their own interests. The plot had signally failed, it is true, but it had engendered increased distrust and sus- picion ; and of this fact the duchess had been aware when she required a written evidence from the queen which must exonerate herself. Nevertheless, the coadjutor having reason to place implic- it faith in the exasperation of the regent against the Prince de Conde (which was by no means unfounded, as he had encouraged the Marquis de Jarze in a boast which he had made, of being essentially, rather than creditably, in her favor), he felt inclined to believe that on this occasion her intentions were sincere. When she saw him waver. Made- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 293 moiselle Chevreuse could forbear no longer, but exerted all her influence to induce him again to refuse the over- tures of the court, which she declared would entail certain ruin both upon his person and his fortunes. The duchess, however, persisted in her importunity ; and the coadjutor at last prevailed upon her daughter, who had thrown herself, drowned in tears, upon a sofa, to trust to his discretion ; and when she had conceded thus much, he began seriously to consider the bearings of the case. The eloquence of Ma- dame de Chevreuse was persuasive, but not convincing ; and at length he terminated the discussion with his usual diplomacy, by declaring that he would not move a step without a written invitation to that effect from the queen herself. We have already seen that the duchess was prepared to meet this objection ; and, accordingly, she placed in the hands of the coadjutor the letter of the regent ; which he had no sooner read than he inquired if she would personally be the pledge of its sincerity. She assented without hesitation ; and upon this assurance M. de Retz took up a pen, and wrote a reply in these terms : — " There has never been a moment in my life of which I have not been equally in the interest of Your Majesty. I should be too happy to die in your service, to seek to give one thought to my own safety. I will present myself where- ever Your Majesty may command." Having written this concise but important answer to the royal missive, the coadjutor, with a high-heartedness which assuredly did him honor, inclosed both the notes in the same cover, and committed them to the care of Madame de Chevreuse, by whom they were on the morrow delivered to the queen, who received them with every demonstration of satisfaction and confidence. In the course of the day M. de Retz; received an intimation from the duchess to be in 294 LOUIS XIV. AND the cloisters of St. Honore at midnight, and he had remained there only a few minutes, when he was joined by Gabouri, the queen's cloke-bearer, who conducted him by a back stair-case to the private oratory of the queen, where he found her alone. This was the apartment in which great political questions were generally decided, " and where at rare inter- vals," says a French author, cynically, " they prayed to God from sheer want of presence of mind." * He was received as men always are who are essential to their receivers ; and M. de Retz was the more welcome be- cause the queen knew him to be personally inimical to the prince ; but as he himself declares, great and earnest as was her hatred of M. de Conde, throughout the whole interview her attachment to Mazarin was still more manifest ; of him she spoke continually as the " poor cardinal," both when discussing the late faction-war, and while trying to impress upon the coadjutor the great attachment of the minister to himself. At the end of half an hour the cardinal entered the ora- tory ; and requesting that the queen would permit him for an instant to fail in the respect which was her due, by em- bracing in her presence a man whom he both esteemed and loved, he threw himself into the arms of the visitor, declar- ing that he had now but one regret, which was, that he could not at that very moment transfer to M. de Retz his own seat in the conclave ; and at length, after a multitude of other professions, all without doubt equally sincere, he paused for a reply. That which he received from the coadjutor was brief and simple. The prelate said that the honor of serving the re- gent was the only recompense to which he aspired, and that he requested none other might be offered, in order that he might retain the proud satisfaction of feeling that he had not been influenced by any merely personal considera- tion. This text was a safe one for Mazarin ; who, there- * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 295 upon, became still more urgent, and insisted that when M. de Retz was about to render such essential service to the state, the queen was bound to confer upon him some signal favor ; and he particularized an application for the next cardinal's hat, in opposition to the claim of the Abbe de la Riviere, which he declared to be both unfounded and pre- sumptuous ; but the coadjutor stood firm, and positively refused to accept so high a dignity upon any political plea ; while, in like manner, he declined the offer which was made to pay his debts, to make him grand-almoner, and to give him the abbey of Orleans. But as Mazarin still insisted that the honor of the queen would compel her to some act of beneficence at such a conjuncture, M. de Retz at length said that there was one point upon which Her Majesty could serve him more essentially than were she even to bestow upon him the triple tiara itself. She had informed him of her intention to arrest the Prince de Conde ; but he was well aware that the imprisonment of a person of his rank and services could not be eternal ; and that on its cessation, when he reappeared, his anger would be the ruin of those who had assisted in effecting his disgrace. He added that there were several other persons of distinction who had as much zeal for the queen's service as himself, and who had assisted her as effectually ; and that should Her Majesty see fit to confide to one of them some considerable trust, he should feel more individually obliged than by the pos- session often cardinal's hats: upon which Mazarin at once remarked to the regent that nothing could be more reason- able, and that he himself would arrange the matter with M. de Retz. The queen then impressed upon the coadjutor the neces- sity of maintaining a profound silence on the subject of this interview with the Duke de Beaufort ; as Madame de Montbazon, to whom he would not fail to confide her in- tention of arresting the prince, would immediately commu- nicate it to Vigneuil, who was the firm friend of M. de 29(5 LOUIS XIV. AND Conde. The coadjutor at once gave the required assurance ; and then added, that as a secret of this nature withheld from the duke, whose interest was bound up with his own, was a failure of confidence which would dishonor him in the eyes of the world if it were not compensated by some com- petent service, he would consequently entreat Her Majesty to allow him to remark, that the superintendence of the navy, which had been promised to his family at the com- mencement of the regency, would produce a most benefi- cial effect if bestowed upon M. de Beaufort. As he ceased speaking, the cardinal observed, with some abruptness, that the place had only been promised to the father and the elder son ; but the coadjutor had anticipated the difficulty, and replied, with a low bow and a meaning smile, that he had a strong conviction that the elder son in question was about to contract an alliance which would elevate him far above even that dignity ; upon which the minister, whose vanity was flattered by the inference, once more smiled ; and turning toward the queen, repeated that they would arrange the matter between them. M. de Retz, fully aware that he had now the game in his hands, readily acquiesced in this arrangement, and his diplomacy did him credit ; for he stipulated that — The Duke de Vendume should have the superintendence of the navy during his life, and M. de Beaufort the rever- sion of the same post. That M. de Noirmoutier should have the command of Charleville and Mount Olympus. That M. de Brissac should have the government of Anjou at a fixed price, and with a discretionary patent for the whole sum. That the Marquis de Laigues* should be captain of the guard to the Duke d'Orleans. And that, finally, M. de Sevigne should receive twenty- two thousand livres. * Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. THE COURT OF PKANCE, 297 These terms accepted, he guarantied to the queen that she should be left at full liberty to arrest the princes at her pleasure ; but he endeavored to intercede in behalf of M. de Longueville, offering himself as his security, and under- taking to answer for his loyalty. Upon this point, however, both the regent and her minister maintained their ground ; and as the coadjutor was still persisting in his importuni- ties, the cardinal drew from his pocket a letter written by the Abbe de la Riviere to the Chevalier de Flamarens ; and, pointing to a particular passage, M. de Retz read these words : — " Thank you for your information ; but I am as sure of M. de Longueville as you are of M. de la Rochefoucauld ; the decisive words have been said." All expostulation was of course useless after such conclu- sive evidence, not only of the adhesion of the Duke Longueville himself to the party of the prince, but also of that of Monsieur's favorite. In a second conference, at which the queen was again present, a long discussion arose as to the best method of inducing the Duke d'Orleans to consent to the arrest of the princes. The regent anticipated very little difficulty, saying that she knew him to be heartily tired of M. de Conde, and still more so of La Riviere, whom he had dis- covered to be devoted, body and soul, to the prince ; but the cardinal was far from entertaining the same confidence. It was, therefore, resolved that all should be left to the management of Madame de Chevreuse; who, enchanted by the confidence reposed in her, only awaited a favorable opportunity of undertaking her mission. It was not long wanting. Monsieur, although, as it will be remembered, he had run away with his second wife, and had persisted in marrying her against the inclination both of her family and his own, was, nevertheless, from time to time guilty of sundry infidelities with the ladies of the court ; and it so chanced that a short time previously he had formed an at- 298 LOUIS XIV. AND tachment for Madame de Soyon, one of the ladies of honor to Madame, who suddenly disappeared from the court, and shut herself up in a Carmelite convent, whence neither threats nor promises could induce her to emerge. The duke, in his despair, appealed both to the queen and the cardinal upon the occasion ; but as at that particular moment they had no interest in exerting their interference in his favor, they had excused themselves upon the plea that both the royal will and the ministerial power were useless against a religious vocation ; while that of Mademoiselle Soyon was declared to be extraordinary. Monsieur was, consequently, in despair. Nothing could have more effectually assisted the projects of the duchess. She waited upon him while he was still indulging the bitterness of his grief; and after a demonstra- tion of indignant sympathy which excited his gratitude, she confided to him the exasperation of the queen against M. de Conde ; declaring that, notwithstanding the many reas- ons which Her Majesty assuredly had for feeling annoyed with the prince, her anger was more excited by his inter- ference with the interests of the Duke d'Orleans than from any consideration for herself When this adroit flattery had taken firm root, she exaggerated, with all her well-tried skill the immense advantage which he must necessarily de- rive from restoring to the king's sendee a faction so power- ful as that of the Fronde ; and then, with an admirably- acted shudder, she confessed to him the terror in which she lived, and which was shared by all her friends, at the idea of once more seeing Paris delivered over to bloodshed ; an argument which was, perhaps, the most powerful that she could have advanced, as His Royal Highness invariably shook with fear upon every occasion when he was com- pelled to traverse the streets, and to attend the parliament. But her culminating point of genius was yet to be at- tained ; and when she found that she had so worked upon the alarm of the duke that he had become plastic in her THE COURT O F FRANCE. 299 hands, she offered to reveal to him the secret of* the cahal which had deprived him of his mistress ; and, on condition that he would take an oath upon the Gospel to keep what she was about to reveal a perfect secret, even to induce Mademoiselle Soyon to leave the convent. Monsieur swore whatever she directed, for he made light of such a ceremony at all times ; and, for once, he kept his word. She told him that the plot had originated with the Princess de Conde and the Abbe de la Riviere, both of whom were jealous of Mademoiselle Soyon : the former because she feared that her enemies might avail themselves of the influence of this new favorite to perpetuate the enmity of Monsieur and her husband ; and the abbe for reasons which are sufficiently obvious. The detail was so incredible that the duke asked for proofs of its truth. Madame de Chev- reuse had provided them, and they were at once exhibited ; upon which the despair of Monsieur turned to anger. This point gained, the duchess next put into his hands a letter, in which Mademoiselle Soyon declared that she was ready to leave the Carmelites, if she could be assured that the queen would protect her against her enemies ; alluding to the princess and La Riviere. This was too much; and the anger of Monsieur at once degenerated into fury. Roused suddenly from his lethargy, like a lion from his lair, his violence became so great that the duchess trembled lest she should have gone too far, and accoi'dingly exerted all her efforts to restore him to composure, eventually so far succeeding that he promised to allow her to arrange the whole affair, and once more swore to keep it secret. As two of the oaths of His Royal Highness might be allow- ed to bear the same weight as one from any other person, Madame de Chevreuse had no alternative but to trust to them ; and she did so with the better faith, that the duke would not risk his own safety by consenting to the arrest, until Madame de Chevreuse, on her side, procured from the coadjutor a written promise that he would second him : 300 LOUIS XI V. A N D to which she readily consented — when, having reported her success to the regent, the arrest of the princes and their brother-in-law was fixed for mid-day on the 18th of Janua- ry, when they were summoned to attend the council. The Duke d'Orleans, proud of the diplomacy which he had displayed, lost no time, not only in assuring the regent of his cooperation in her design, but also of his having in- duced M. de Retz to join the conspiracy; and as a proof of this feat, he displayed to her the note of the coadjutor, pluming himself upon the point which he had gained ; while, as a necessary consequence, no effort was made to undeceive him. On the evening of the 17th, as a matter of course, Mon- sieur was suddenly taken ill, for such was always the case upon the eve of any transaction which involved danger, or by which he might be compromised ; and in the course of the following morning, the Prince de Conde paid a visit to the cardinal, whom he found in conversation with Priolo, the body-servant of M. de Longueville, sending sundry kind messages to his master, mingled with entreaties that he would not fail to attend the council. On the entrance of the prince, Mazarin was about to dismiss his companion, but M. de Conde made a sign that he should not disturb himself, and approached the fire. Close to the mantle-piece, Lyonne, the secretary of state, was writing ; but, as the prince drew near, he concealed the papers upon which he was engaged under the table- covering; the inteiTuption was, in fact, inopportune enough, for he was just then drawing up the warrants for the treble arrest. M. de Conde remained nearly a quarter of an hour, chatting with the minister and his secretary, and then took leave of them to fulfill a dinner-engagement with the prin- cess-dowager. He found her in a state of great uneasi- ness. She had been, in the course of the morning, to the Palais-Royal, to pay a visit to the queen ; and as she had the entree at all hours, she had been admitted to her sleep- THE COURT OF FRAN C E. 30 1 ing-chamber, where she found the regent in bed, and com- plaining of indisposition, although her appearance belied the assertion. Nor was this her only cause of alarm. Anne of Austria was embarrassed and ill at ease with her friend ; and this friend had not yet forgotten that she had seen Her Majesty in nearly the same state on the day of the Duke de Beaufort's arrest. She therefore earnestly cautioned her son to be careful of his person, for that she had a foreboding of evil. M. de Conde was, however, in no mood to start at shad- ows ; and, for all reply, he drew from his pocket a letter which he held toward his mother, declaring that she had no cause for distrust, as he had seen the queen on the pre- vious day, when she was full of kindness ; and that only four-and-twenty hours before, he had received that letter from the cardinal. The princess read the communication with a beating heart. It was, in truth, well calculated to allay her fears, had she not been a mother. These were its contents : " I promise the prince, under the good pleasure of the king, and by the command of the queen-regent his mother, that I will never abandon his interests, but will sustain them toward all, and against all ; and I entreat His Highness to consider me as his very humble servant ; and to favor me with his protection, which I will merit by all the obedience that he may desire from me. To which I have signed in the presence, and by the command of the queen. " Cardinal Mazarin." Madame de Conde shook her head doubtingly as she re- folded the letter. Its formality and precision alarmed her. More than ever convinced that she had serious cause for misgiving, she at once proceeded to expostulate with her son ; declaring that it was not only her own idea that there was a conspiracy against him, but that the Prince de Mar- 302 LOUIS XIV. AND sillac, who had opportunities of ascertaining most of the movements of the court, had begged her to prevent, should it be in her power, the simultaneous appearance of the princes at the council. Her entreaties were, however, vain ; M. de Conde had too much faith in his own strength to apprehend violence; and all which the princess could induce him to concede was, that she should be allowed on the morrow to precede him to the presence of the queen, of whose health she was about again to inform herself. A quarter of an hour afterward, the prince was, in his turn, ushered into the royal chamber, where the regent was still in her bed ; but the curtains were drawn closely round her, probably to conceal the emotion which she was unable altogether to suppress. The prince approached and enter- ed into conversation with her, when her replies were so calm and unembarrassed, that he felt convinced, even if he were not at the extreme height of favor, that he was at least very necessary to the well-being of the court; and, after the customary compliments, he took his leave. As her son was about to pass her, the princess-dowager extended her hand, which M. de Conde earned with re- spectful tenderness to his lips. How different would have been their parting could they have foretold that it was des- tined to be a final one ! The poor mother never saw that son again : her death-bed was to be embitterred by the re- membrance that the gallant representative of her noble house was the inmate of a prison. From the apartment of Anne of Austria the prince passed through a small cabinet, which gave entrance to a second, opening both into the room of the cardinal, and the gallery in which the council held their sittings, and he was about to proceed to the apartment of Mazarin, when the minister suddenly appeared with his most winning smile upon his lips. While they were conversing, they were joined by M. de Longueville, and finally by the Prince de Conti; and the cardinal had no sooner ascertained that the three THE COURT OF FRANCE. 303 brothers were at last within his grasp, than he desired one of the door-keepers to inform the queen that the princes and M. de Longueville had arrived, that all was ready, and that she might proceed to the council-chamber. This was the signal concerted between the regent and her minister, and the door-keeper departed on his errand. As he withdrew the Abbe de la Riviere entered, upon which the cardinal requested the princes to excuse him, as he had to confer on business of importance with the abbe, adding, that if they would enter the council-room he would shortly follow them. They complied without suspicion, and were immediately joined by the other members of the ministry ; and, mean- while, the cardinal withdrew to his apartment, accompa- nied by La Riviere, where he amused him in an extraordi- nary manner. He had provided a number of patterns of cloth of different shades of crimson, and took this opportu- nity of desiring him to select that which he conceived would be the most becoming to his complexion when he obtained the cardinalate. This was the bait with which he had for the last two years deluded the favorite of Monsieur ; and the abbe, enchanted with every thing which seemed to ap- proach him to the object of this ambition, had just chosen a charming shade, which could not fail to be effective, when a great noise was audible from the gallery. Mazarin smiled one of his treacherous smiles, and grasping the arm of the ecclesiastic, asked him if he could guess what was taking place at that moment. Of course he replied in the negative, upon which the car- dinal informed him of the arrest. La Riviere became as pale as ashes, let fall the piece of cloth which he held in his hand, and inquired if the Duke d'Orleans was aware of the intention of the queen. Mazarin replied that he had not only been acquainted with it for the last fortnight, but that he had assisted in its execution. This was a cruel blow to the favorite, who at once felt that his influence was 304 LOUIS XIV. AND at an end if Monsieur, who had never been celebrated for his discretion, could so long withhold a matter of this im- portance from a man for whom he affected the most ex- treme regard. During this time the queen, so soon as she was informed that the princes were at length within her grasp, dismissed Madame de Conde, on the plea of preparing to attend the council ; upon which the princess, having kissed her hand, courtesied, and withdrew. In the gallery, meanwhile, another and a more striking scene was enacting. While the Prince de Conde was talk- ing with the Count d'Avaux, with his eyes fixed upon the door by which the queen was to enter, it opened, and Gui- taut, the captain of the guard, appeared upon the thresh- old. As he was a great favorite with the prince, the latter immediately imagined that he had some favor to request ; and in order to spare him as much embarrassment as pos- sible, he left the count, and approaching the worthy soldier, asked what he could do to oblige him. Guitaut hung his head. He had nothing to ask, he said, his errand was of a different nature. He came with an order to arrest His Highness himself, the Prince de Conti, his brother, and M. de Longueville, his brother-in-law. The thing appeared so impossible that it was with a smile, half doubt and lialf gayety, that the prince repeated his words. Guitaut, however, persisted, though with evident cha- grin, and extended his hand toward the sword which M. de Conde wore at his side. Still the prince would not yield : he felt convinced that there must be some misunderstand- ing, and he desired the captain of the guard to return to the queen, and entreat her to grant him an audience. He was obeyed ; but his messenger cautioned him not to an- ticipate the acquiescence of the regent, asserting that he only complied with His Highness's directions in order to satisfy him of his respect and good-will. This warning THE COURT OF FRANCE. 305 was well-timed ; for on his return he announced that Her Majesty refused to see the prince, and that it was her posi- tive pleasure that he should be arrested forthwith. M. de Conde merely bowed, in reply, and gave up his sword to the disconcerted Guitaut; while the Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville, following his example, simultaneously resigned theirs to Lieutenant Comminges, and Ensign Cressy. As they were about to leave the gallery, M. de Conde inquired the place of their destination, alledging that he had contracted a violent rheumatism in the camp, and that the cold and damp were very prejudicial to him. He was informed that the order dnected his transfer to Vincennes, to which arrangement he offered no objection, but calmly turned to take leave of the noblemen by whom he was surrounded, begging them to bear him in remembrance though he was about to become a prisoner, and desiring that the Count de Brienne would embrace him, as they were relatives. M. de Conde and his brothers then descended by a pri- vate stair-case, and found a carriage awaiting them, sur- rounded by a troop of gendarmes, under the command of M. de Miossens,* who could not conceal his astonishment when he discovered who were to be his prisoners. The three princes entered the carriage, Guitaut transferred his charge to Comminges and Miossens, and they were driven off at a swift pace ; but as they were conducted by a cross road which was at once bad and intricate, in order that they might not be recognized on their journey, in turning a sharp corner the carriage was upset. The prince, whose agility was incomparable, was in an instant upon his feet, and at a distance of twenty paces from his escort; when Mios- sens, who apprehended that he was about to attempt mak- ing his escape, hurriedly approached him, beseeching that he would not be his ruin ; whereupon M. de Conde assured * Afterward Marshal d'Albret. 300 LOUIS XIV. AND him with a amile that he would not profit by the accident which had occurred ; but remarked at the same time that Miosscns would do well to remember that he was only a younger son, and that such an opportunity of making his fortune might never again occur throughout his life. The young soldier only shook his head, and replied that notwith- standing all the respect and admiration which he felt for His Highness, and all the repugnance which he experienced to the execution of his present task, no temptation should induce him to fail in the duty and obedience that he owed to both the king and the regent. No one was more capable of appreciating such a principle than the conqueror of Rocroy ; and it was consequently with- out any further effort to shake the loyalty of his guard that the Prince de Conde seated himself once more in the car- riage, which had been restored to its original position ; and his example had no sooner been followed by his brothers and Comminges, than the journey was l'esumed. On the road M. de Conde inquired of the count if he had any sus- picion of the cause of his arrest. " The crime of Your Highness," replied Comminges, " appears to me to be that of Germanicus, who fell under the suspicion of the Emperor Tiberius, because he was too valuable, too much loved, and had made himself too great." When they arrived at the foot of the fortress, Mios- sens, approached to take leave of the prince, when, for the first time, the noble prisoner appeared somewhat affected. He thanked Miossens for the courtesy with which he had acted toward him; and bade him say to the queen, that, despite her injustice, he was still her humble servant. The count and his prisoners then entered the tower. As the authorities were not prepared to receive any new inmates, the garrison had no beds to offer them ; and Comminges, who was to remain eight days as then- guard, desired that caids might be brought, as the best expedient for getting THE COURT OF FRANCE. 307 through the night, and that which was the most consonant to the general taste of the court-nobles. The party accord- ingly played till daybreak ; at which time preparations were made for the comfort of the illustrious captives, in which Comminges was an active agent, for his attachment to the prince was beyond the reach of misfortune ; and he afterward frequently declared that, thanks to the cheerful wisdom and experienced judgment of M. de Conde, the eight days which he passed with him as his fellow-prisoner at Vincennes were the happiest of his life. When he at last took leave of the noble brothers, he in- quired whether there were any books that they would wish to have ; to which the Prince de Conti replied that he should be glad of the Imitation of Jesus Christ. " And Your Highness V inquired the count, addressing the prince. " I, sir ;" was the ready answer ; " should be glad of the Imitation of the Duke de Beaufort." * The escape of M. de Beaufort from the same fortress will be fresh in the memories of our readers. The coadjutor was faithful to the promise which he had given to the queen ; and, having made his own terms, kept the secret of the treble arrest, until at mid-day Madame de Chevreuse sent to request both himself and the Duke de Beaufort to visit her at her hotel, when she revealed to them, as a profound secret, the intention of the regent, which was to be executed at six o'clock in the evening, and which she received the royal command to communicate to them only. The coadjutor earned off M. de Beaufort to dinner, and amused him the whole afternoon by playing chess, even preventing his waiting upon Madame de Montbazon, as he was anxious to do ; in consequence of which circum- stance the prince was arrested before she had an idea that such a project was in agitation, and her anger was excessive. She told the Duke de Beaufort that whatever explanation * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 308 LOUIS XIV. AND he might see fit to offer, it was evident that he had been duped; when he, in his turn, accused the coadjutor, who at once, and in her presence, explained every thing, and drew from his pocket the patent of the admiralty. On sight of this talisman, M. de Beaufort embraced him ardently, and Madame de Montbazon threw herself on his neck, and rewarded him in the same way. The last difficulty was overcome. Thus was accomplished a great event, which, in the course of a single day, changed the whole face of affairs. M. de Bouteville* made an effort to excite the Parisians to revolt, by galloping to the Pont-Neuf immediately that the news reached him, and shouting to the people that the Duke de Beaufort had been arrested. The crowd sprang to their arms ; but the coadjutor who had apprehended the possibility of an outbreak, put an end at once to this de- monstration by walking through the streets of the city, pre- ceded by five or six torch-bearers, while the duke followed his example ; and from that moment all was joy and exul- tation. The Parisians forgot that the Great Conde, had, in all probability, not only preserved their beloved capital it- self, but also their country, and remembered only that he had been in arms against the city ; their delight accordingly amounted to intoxication ; and while bonfires were blazing on all sides, they erected a new idol for popular worship, * Francis Henry de Montmorency, Duke and Marshal de Luxem- bourg, was the posthumous son of Francis de Bouteville, whose name he originally bore. Born in 1628, he was a pupil of the great Conde, and served as a lieutenant-general at the conquest of Franche-Comte, in 1668. He was commander-in-chief during the celebrated campaign in Holland, at the conclusion of which he made the famous retreat so admired by the enemy, where he passed through a hostile army of 70,000 strong with 20,000 men. In 1675 he obtained the marshal's baton; in 1690 he gained the battle of Fleurus; in 1691 that of Stein- kerque ; and in 1693 that of Nerwinde. He died in 1695, with the rep- utation of being the greatest general in France. He was both deformed and humpbacked. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 309 and that idol was Mazarin ! Only on the previous day the minister had been ridiculed, hated, and execrated; but suddenly he became the object of general admiration and regard ; a fact which the mob somewhat wittily explain- ed by declaring, with that sarcastic pleasantry peculiar to their order, that it could not be otherwise, as His Emi- nence had ceased to be a Mazarinite, and had joined the Fronde. The epigram was a happy one. Something was, however, yet left undone. The court had rid itself cleverly of the three princes ; but the Duchess de Longueville was still at large, and 6he was no less danger- ous an enemy than M. de Conde himself. When the news of the arrest of her husband and her two brothers reached her, 6he at once started for Normandy, where she antipated that her authority would be supreme. She was accompanied by her daughter, who did not, however, long share her wanderings : for, in consequence of a quarrel which occur- red between them at Dieppe, Mademoiselle de Longueville refused to proceed ; and having applied to the court for pro- tection and safety, she was allowed to retire to an estate which belonged to her father. The Princesses de Conde had already received an order to retire to Chantilly ; and the queen had no sooner learned the flight of Madame de Longueville to the government of her husband, than she announced her own departure for Rouen with the young princes. Only a year before Normandy had risen at the bidding of the duchess ; but twelve long and eventful months had since elapsed, and now she spoke in vain ; not a hand was outstretched to uphold her. Disgusted and disappointed, she left Rouen, where the queen arrived shortly after her departure, and thence she proceeded to Havre. She felt sure of the Duke de Riche- lieu, for she had herself obtained for him his appointment ; but the duke shut the gates against her, little anticipating that he should, ere long, see thorn closed against himself. 310 LOUIS XIV. AND Neither as a protector, nor as a pretty woman, could the duchess prevail against his decision ; and yet this was the same Duke de Richelieu who had ordered his servants to burn one of his carriages, in which Mademoiselle de Saint- Amaranthe, of whom he was enamored, had refused to allow him to drive her to her hotel. Finding that he was peremptory in his refusal to offer her an asylum, Madame de Longueville pursued her jour- ney to Dieppe ; but this resource signally failed ; for the regent forthwith appointed the Count d'Harcourt to the government of Normandy, and sent some troops, under the command of Plessis-Bellievre, against the fugitive. Ma- dame de Longueville did not await the siege of the castle ; but when she ascertained the advent of the soldiery, fearing that she might be given up by M. de Montigny, the gov- ernor, she escaped by a back door ; and, followed by a few women who had possessed sufficient courage to share her fortunes, and a few gentlemen who would not forsake her, she traveled two leagues on foot to the little port of Pour- ville, where a vessel, which she had freighted in the event of necessity, was awaiting her. When she reached the sea-shore, the tide was so strong, and the wind so tempest- uous, that the sailors entreated her not to embark in such unfavorable weather; but the duchess feared less to en- counter the tempest than to see herself in the power of the regent, and she consequently persisted. The state of the tide rendering it impossible for a boat to approach close to the shore, one of the mariners lifted her in his arms to con- vey her on board; but he had scarcely advanced twenty paces, when an enormous wave carried him off his feet, and he fell. For an instant Madame de Longueville believed that she was lost, as in falling he had lost his hold and she sunk into deep water; but after some exertion she was dragged on board the boat. On recovering, she again expressed a wish to reach the vessel, but the sailors refused to make another attempt, declaring that it was only flying THE COURT OF FRANCE. 311 in the face of Providence ; and being consequently compel- led to adopt some other expedient, she sent for horses to proceed along the coast. These procured, the party mount- ed, and rode all night and the following day, when a noble of Caux received her and her followers with great courtesy, and faithfully concealed them. While under his roof she learned that the captain of the vessel which she had been anxious to reach was in the in- terest of the cardinal, and that had she once set her foot on board, she would have been arrested. At length she found herself once more in Havre ; and having gained over the captain of an English ship, to whom she introduced herself in male attire as a nobleman who had just been engaged in a duel, and was obliged to leave France, she succeeded in obtaining a passage to Holland, where the Prince and Princess of Orange received her as though she had been a fugitive queen.* The Duke de Bouillon, who had entered into a close alli- ance with the Prince de Conde since the peace, left in all haste for Turenne ; the Marshal de Turenne, who had fol- lowed his example since his return to France, threw himself into Stenay, a strong place which M. de Conde had con- fided to La Moussaye; the Prince de Marsillac returned to his home at Poitou ; and the Marshal de Breze, the father of the princess, retired to Saumur, of which he was the governor. The parliament published and registered a declaration against each and all of these individuals, by which they were commanded to present themselves within a fortnight to the king ; or, in default, were declared from that time to be disturbers of the public peace, and guilty of lese- majeste. At the same period the court left Paris to make the tour of Normandy, where it was apprehended that Madame de Longueville, who had been received into the castle of * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 312 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. Dieppe might create some disaffection. All, however, gave way before the approach of royalty ; and the duchess left Holland and proceeded to Arras, where she tampered with M. la Tour, who was a pensioner of her husband ; but who, even while he proffered to her his personal services, refused either to give up his command, or to involve the city. She accordingly moved on to Stenay, where she was met by M. de Turenne with all the force he had been able to collect since his departure from Paris, among the friends and fol- lowers of the princes. Not having encountered any opposition in Normandy, where all the military authorities and governors of fortress- es hastened to convince him of their loyalty, the king and his mother proceeded to Burgundy, where they were simi- larly received, and having established the Count d'Har- court as Governor of Normandy, the court returned to Paris. CHAPTER XIV. Arrest of the Duchess de Bouillon ; her Escape with her Daughter ; their Seizure; they are conveyed to the Bastille — Evasion of the Princess de Conde and the Duke d'Enghien — Appeal of the Princess- Dowager to the Parliament ; her Banishment to Valery — Madame de Longueville and Turenne make a Treaty with Spain — Turenne at the Head of his Troops — The Court at Compiegne — Madame de Conde at Bordeaux — Danger of the royal Envoy — Mademoiselle and the Emperor of Germany — Court of Madame de Conde — The King's Troops march against the Princes — Journey of the Court to Bordeaux — Capture of Vayres — Execution of the Governor — Reprisals — Exe- cution of the Baron de Canolles — Siege of Bordeaux — Submission of the City — Interview of the Queen-Regent and Madame de Conde — Levity of Mademoiselle — Coldness of the Bordeaulese toward the Re- gent — March of Turenne and the Archduke on Paris — Preparations for a Renewal of the Fronde — The Regent sick at Poitiers — Exasper- ation of the Coadjutor — Madame de Rhodes, the Princess-Palatine, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Henry, Duke de Guise ; his ro- mantic Career — The double Divorce — Procrastination of the Duke d'Orleans ; his Indignation at the proposed Removal of the Princes to Havre ; his narrow Policy — The extorted Signature — Arrival of Charles II. — Coldness of the French Court — Retirement of the En- glish King to Jersey. VOL. I. O 314 LOUIS XIV. AND Previously to leaving the capital the regent had given an order for the arrest of the Duchess de Bouillon in her own house, the duke having joined M. de Turenne, whom he knew to he the firm friend of the princes ; hut even after she was under strict surveillance, with a party of soldiers in her hotel, as no mention had been made of her daughter, Mademoiselle de Bouillon was left free to come and go as she pleased. One evening she, as usual, entered her moth- er's apartment, and feigning to have found her asleep in bed, said that she would return to her own room, request- ing the sentinel, who was in the antechamber, to light her to her door. She was obeyed without hesitation, and the man accordingly preceded her, carrying a lamp, without remarking that the duchess was walking close behind her daughter. When they reached the hall Mademoiselle de Bouillon pursued her way, but the duchess turned down a stair-case which led to the cellar, where she concealed her- self until the sentinel had resumed his post, when she was again joined by her daughter. This done, with the help of some ropes thrown to them by friends without, they both escaped through the ventilator, and hid themselves in a private house until they could devise some method of quitting Paris. Unfortunately, however, on the very day which had been fixed for their final evasion, Mademoiselle de Bouillon sickened with the small-pox, and as her moth- er refused to leave her, the police discovered their retreat, and they were both seized, and conveyed to the Bastille. The Princess de Conde, the wife of the prince, was more successful. An order had been given that while in arrest at Chantilly she was to be constantly kept within sight ; but as she was aware of the fact, she took measures to deceive the vigilance of her guardians ; and when about to be com- pelled to permit the visit of the officer appointed to watch her, on an occasion of alledged indisposition, she put one of her ladies into her bed, disguised by a headdress which almost concealed her features ; and while this person con- THE COURT OF FRANCE, 315 versed with her jailer, the princess fled with her son, the Duke d'Enghien, and reached Montrond, a secondary town, of which the partisans of M. de Conde had possessed them- selves. Here, however, she did little more than halt, for the place was not capable of sustaining a siege, while negotia- tions were entered into with Bordeaux, where the inhabi- tants were extremely discontented with the administration of the Duke d'Epernon, its governor, who had fallen into disrepute both with the parliament and the magistrates ; and when this intelligence reached them, the court ordered the Marshal de la Meilleraye to assume forthwith the com- mand of the troops at Poitou. But they had still another female enemy to contend against, for the princess-dowa- ger — the daughter of the old constable, the sister of that Montmorency who was decapitated at Toulouse, the last object of the love of Henry IV., the mother of the great Conde, with whom the regent was conversing affectionately while she was causing her son to be arrested under the same roof — resolved to do what none other had ventured even to contemplate, but which, in her maternal love ap- peared to her to be a holy duty from which she could not shrink : she resolved to demand justice from the parliament for the conqueror of Sens and Rocroy. Until the departure of the queen from Paris, the prin- cess-dowager had remained in concealment in the city ; and while the court were still in Burgundy, she presented her- self to the councilors of the upper chamber, as they were about to assemble, accompanied by the Duchess de Cha- tillon.* She urged that her sons should be put upon their trial, that they might be condemned if they were guilty, and set at liberty if they were innocent ; and she was lis- tened to with the respect which was her due, while it was decreed that she should remain in all safety in the house * Sister of the Marshal de Luxembourg, and subsequently Duches9 of Mecklenburg. UU) LOUIS XIV. AXD of the controller of accounts, and that a request should be made to the Duke d'Orleans, who, in the absence of the king, the queen, and the cardinal, was at the head of af- fairs, to come and assume his place at the palace. The reply of Gaston intimated that the princess had re- ceived an order from the king to proceed to Bourges, and that, in his opinion, she should at least show herself willing to obey, by retiring to some place outside the capital, where she might await the return of the court, which was expected in a few days ; and as this temporizing measure relieved the parliament from serious embarrassment, the princess was constrained to acquiesce in the suggestion. She consequently left Paris the same evening for Berny, from whence the king, who arrived shortly afterward, com- manded her to remove to Valery. Heart-struck, hopeless, and broken-spirited, the princess endeavored to obey, but at Angerville she fell ill, and was unable to proceed.* Meanwhile, Madame de Longueville and the Marshal Turenne — we place the name of the lady first advisedly, for this struggle was indeed destined to be, as it was after- ward aptly denominated, " the women's war" — made a treaty with Spain, and the marshal joined their army, then in Picardy besieging Guise, which held out for eighteen days, when, from the failure of provisions, the archduke was compelled to raise the siege. M. de Turenne had collected a few troops with the money which the Spaniards had accorded to him by treaty, and increased their strength by the remnants of the force which had garrisoned Bellegarde, upon which he was soon joined by a host of men of rank and mark, who enabled him to assume a threatening attitude. The court, upon ascertaining this movement, forthwith departed for Compiegne ; and the cardinal, once more dis- abused of the security with which he had so lately nattered himself, went forward to St. Quentin, to discuss with Mar- * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 317 shal Duplessis the means of effectively opposing M. de Tu- renne. While he was thus engaged, news arrived of seri- ous disturbances in Guienne, where Madame de Conde had attracted to her interests the Prince de Marsillac, become Duke de la Rochefoucauld by the recent death of his father ; and the Duke de Bouillon, who, after having secured Marshal Turenne, had made an appeal to the no- bility of Auvergne, and Poitou, which had been answered by the formation of a little army of nearly two thousand five hundred men. A rendezvous was appointed at Mau- riac, where the princess, with her son in her arms, was re- ceived with vehement acclamations, and by a general vow that the soldiers would not lay down their arms until justice had been done to the imprisoned princes. Madame de Conde and her son descended the Dordogne on board a boat, while the troops marched along the bank, drums beating, standards flying, and every thing in strictly war- like array ; and, after sustaining a few skirmishes, the little army arrived at Coutras, where they learned that, as they had already anticipated, the city of Bordeaux was ready to receive the princess and the Duke d'Enghien, on condi- tion that their escort, which appeared to the citizens to be too numerous for admittance within the walls, should re- main outside the town. The concession was made, and the illustrious fugitives entered Bordeaux, amid cries of" Long live the Prince de Conde ! Long live the Duke d'En- ghien ! Long live the Princess !" At this moment a courier from the court passed through an opposite gate, and also arrived in the city, when a messenger was dispatched in great haste to Madame de Conde, to inform her that the royal envoy was in danger of being torn to pieces by the populace if she did not exert herself to save him. For an instant her friends remained undecided whether it might not be politic to sacrifice this unhappy man, in order to give the court a just idea of the state of public feeling in Guienne; but the princess, who could not endure that the a 18 LOUIS XIV. AND first step which she took to liberate her husband should be in blood, overruled the momentary hesitation, and it was publicly declared that she requested the life of the messen- ger as a personal favor; upon which he was suffered to withdraw in safety from the city. As regarded the princess herself, the parliament decided that she was welcome to Bordeaux, and free to remain there in all surety, provided she attempted nothing that was contrary to the service of the king. About this time Mademoiselle, again deluded by her hope of becoming Empress of Germany, granted an inter- view to M. de Montergue, one of the confidential friends of the cardinal, who had just returned from that country, where he informed her that she was much wished for ; and, although when she pressed him upon the subject, he replied vaguely enough that the ministers had not conferred with him upon the subject, nor made it a matter of conversa- tion — a fact which he considered to arise simply from their knowledge that he was in the interests of His Eminence — she still accepted his unauthorized, and almost meaningless communication, as a symbol of success ; and, with unex- ampled weakness, held a long conference with the cardinal on the strength of his friend's report, which terminated in his inducing her to send a dependent of her own to Ger- many, with full instructions to further her marriage ; and the departure of this new messenger, she says, gave her great joy.* The news received by the regent from the south became daily more alarming. The princess was enacting over again at Bordeaux the role winch Madame de Longueville had played in Paris during the first act of the Fronde ; and her little court, although confined in number, was brilliant in rank and renown. She received the Spanish ambassa- dors and treated with them ; refused to recognize the let- ters of the Marshal de la Meilleraye ; caused the parlia- * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 319 ment of Bordeaux to communicate in writing with that of the capital; and confided to the dukes De Bouillon and De la Rochefoucauld, whom it had at first been decided were to remain without the walls, the two most important commands in the city. These circumstances determined the regent, immediately that she should be in a position to do so, to act vigorously against the Bordeaulese and their new idol ; and, as a precautionary measure, Monsieur and all the ministers, most of whom were at that moment in Paris, were sum- moned to the king's presence. The chancellor had been exiled, and M. de Chateauneuf was keeper of the seals. At this meeting it was resolved that the court should pro- ceed immediately to Bordeaux ; that the Duke d'Orleans should remain in command of Paris, and that he should re- tain near him the secretary of state, Le Tellier,* to super- intend the dispatches, M. de Chateauneufit and sundry * Michel le Tellier, son of a councilor, was born at Paris in 1603. He was first councilor of the Grand Council, then (1631) King's Advo- cate at the chatelet of Paris, and Master of Requests. Appointed Steward of Piedmont (1640), he gained the favor of Mazarin, who ap- pointed him Secretary of State and War-Secretary. Throughout the troubles he clung to the faction of the cardinal. He was intrusted with all the negotiations between the court and the princes, particularly those with Gaston d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde. He effected the conclusion of the treaty of Ruel. After having been minister of the regent, he retained the same office under Louis XIV. He worked with Colbert the overthrow of Fouquet; and obtained the reversion of his charge for his son, the Marquis de Louvois. In 1677 he was created chancellor and keeper of the seals ; and in this capacity was one of the principal movers of the convocation of the Edict of Nantes. He died in 1685, and his funeral oration was delivered by Bossuet. t This nobleman had been for ten years a prisoner at Angouleire, for the share which he had taken in the cabals of Anne of Austria and Monsieur; and it was expected that, upon the establishment of the re- gency, he would not only be restored to liberty, but that he would be- come a prominent member of the queen's court. Such was, however, far from being the case ; he was liberated, it is true, but with the inti- mation that he was to retire to one of his estates; and as his emanci- ;}-JU LOUIS XIV. AND other of the ministers. The Duke de la Meilleraye had accepted the command of the army, and had preceded the kino-. The Duke d'Epernon was recalled, and after hay- ing paid his respects to Their Majesties at Angouleme, proceeded to Larches. " The Marshal de la Meilleraye," says Mademoiselle, " met Their Majesties at Coutras, a spot rendered very remarkable by the battle gained there by the king my grandfather, when he was sovereign of Navarre. The place belongs to the prince. The marshal returned to the army, and did not find it so efficient as he had anticipated ; but he did not tell the queen the truth : he said that it was the finest in the world, although it was very weak ; and there was no artillery, although cannon were indispensable for a siege." The relief of Guise by the royalist army gave the court a slight respite ; and when it was resolved that the king's forces should march against the Princess de Conde as they had done against the Duchess de Longueville, the Duke d'Orleans was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom within the Loire ; and the king, the queen, and the cardi- nal commenced their journey, although not without certain misgivings which they were not able altogether to conceal. The reluctance with which they separated themselves from Paris was, in fact, so great, that while the journal of the court announced that they were advancing toward the seat of rebellion by forced marches, they actually wasted a month between the capital and Libourne ; where, upon their arrival, the first act of the regent was one of such severity as to excite serious reprisals. pation took place immediately after the victory of Rocroy, and that M. de Chateauneuf had presided at the commission which adjudged the death of Montmorency, the brother-iu-law of M. de Conde, it is proba- ble that the court dared not, at such a moment, make any other dem- onstration in his favor. The disgrace of the prince, and the troubles of the Fronde, having emancipated the regent from these considerations, M. de Chateauneuf was appointed chancellor. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 32 1 About two leagues from Bordeaux there stood a build- ing, half mansion, half fortress, which was commanded by a governor named Richon, an ancient valet-de-chambre of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, who, never anticipating that Vayres (for the little citadel was so called) would become an object of hostility, had settled his old domestic in the fort as in a comfortable sinecure. Vayres was, of course, very soon taken ; and a council of war condemned the unlucky Richon to be hanged, as guilty of the audacity of endeavoring to hold his fortress against the king, when he was not even of gentle blood. This ill-omened execution spread universal terror among the Bordeaulese, who began to feel that they could hope for no mercy at the hands of the court ; and they al- ready spoke of offering conditions, when the leaders of the Conde faction resolved, by an immediate display of rigor, to put the whole city within the pale of the law ; and, in order to do this, they only required to hang one royalist officer. Several had been already made prisoners in the first sallies which the citizens had ventured beyond the walls ; and, among the rest, the Baron de Canolles, who was a major of the Navailles regiment, and had been the commandant of St. George's Island. He was a hand- some and courageous young man of about six-and-thirty ; who, since his imprisonment at Bordeaux, had been received by the leading families, and had become an object of universal esteem. He was at the house of a lady to whom he was paying his addresses, quietly engaged at cards, when he was arrested, and informed that he was about to be tried by a council of war, presided by the princess and the Duke d'Enghien. The fact that his fate, in a great degree, depended upon a woman and a young child, was not calculated to excite much apprehension, either in himself or his friends ; but their presumed security was bit- terly terminated by his unanimous condemnation. He died like a brave man, the victim of policy rathor thnn of crime. 322 LOUIS XIV. AND With the life of Canolles terminated, as a natural conse- quence, all idea of capitulation on the part of the Bordeau- lese ; for the deputies, the jurists, and the public compa- nies, had alike given their assent to this act of retaliative cruelty. Bordeaux was accordingly besieged. The cardi- nal, who was present, witnessed the operations from the belfry of Saint Yvon in the suburb ; and it was believed that M. de la Meilleraye had an understanding with the enemy. Be that as it may, however, and there is no authentic authority for the assertion, it is certain that this pigmy war was fated to terminate like all those of the same period. The queen wearied of the siege, and so did the city; and after a very respectable display of valor on both sides, propositions of reconciliation were received, ready drawn up from Paris, which were submitted, in the joint names of the Duke d'Oiieans and the parliament, to the regent. They were submitted to the Bordeaulese, by whom they were accepted; and a treaty was concluded, by which a complete amnesty was granted to the inhabi- tants and citizens ; the princess was permitted to retire to one of her estates ; the dukes De la Rochefoucauld and Bouillon were restored to favor, with all surety both for their lives and properties; the Duke d'Epernon was re- called; and, moreover, the princess was compelled imme- diately to leave the city, in order to make room for the queen, who desired to command there in her turn, though it should only be for four-and-twenty hours* Conquered as she was, the spirit of Madame de Conde was, nevertheless, still unsubdued ; she was struggling to obtain the liberty of her husband, and to secure the inter- ests of her son ; and she had, moreover, although only for a brief period, tasted the sweets of popularity and power, and was anxious to regain a portion of the advantages which she had lost. Nor was her hope altogether un- founded or extravagant, for she had seen the leaders of the * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE -COURT Or FRANCE. 323 Fronde selling and not proffering their renewal of obe- dience : and she resolved to profit in so far at least by her own display of disaffection, as to make one bold effort to render it subservient to the restoration of her husband. She had received permission to remain for a few days at Coutras, and had already embarked in her little galley to gain that town, when she met the boat of M. de la Meille- raye, who approached her to offer his salutations, and to whom she stated, acting upon a sudden impulse engen- dered by the resolution we have named, that she was about to proceed to Bourges to pay her respects to the queen, as she could not consent to retire to Coutras till she had secured the honor of a personal interview with both the kinsr and the recent. The marshal, believing that such a step might tend to terminate the affair without further difficulty, did not seek to turn her from her purpose ; but immediately hastened himself to Bourges, and publicly announced to Her Maj- jesty that the princess was awaiting her permission to throw herself at her feet. The queen instantly replied that she could not receive Madame de Conde, having no apart- ments to offer her ; but M. de la Meilleraye having resolved, in consonance with his own views, that the meeting should take place, answered as promptly, that rather than be de- prived of the honor which she solicited, the princess would have consented to sleep on board her galley, had it been requisite ; but that such a necessity did not exist, as he was ready to offer his own residence for her reception. The regent had, consequently, no alternative ; and a messenger was accordingly sent to the water-side to bid her welcome, accompanied by Madame de la Meilleraye ; and meanwhile the queen dispatched a gentleman of the court to summon the cardinal, who, as soon as he arrived, was closeted with her to arrange the manner in which the princess should be received. When they had decided upon their line of action, Madame de Conde was conducted to 324 LOUIS XIV. AND the presence of the king, the queen, and Mazarin ; and a9 soon as she had passed the threshold, holding her little son by the hand, she fell upon her knees, beseeching the liberty of the father of her child ; appealing to the mother rather than to the queen, to the brother rather than to the sov- ereign ; and expatiating upon the misery of a bereavement too terrible for her to sustain. Drowned in tears, and elo- quent in all the dignity of a holy and womanly sorrow, she admitted the error into which she had been deluded by despair; but her humility and her submission were alike fruitless. The queen approached and raised her from the ground with a courteous and inflexible gentleness, which betrayed the firmness alike of her nerves and of her resolu- tion ; but, even while in the act of doing so, resolutely refused to grant her prayer, although she displayed great urbanity and forbearance toward herself. The account given by Mademoiselle of this interview is, however, too characteristic of the trifling and egotistical character of the court to be omitted. " The princess enter- ed," she says ; " she had been bled the night before, which compelled her to wear a scarf, and this was put on in so ridiculous a manner, as well as all the rest of her dress, that the queen and myself had great difficulty in restraining our laughter. The Duke d'Enghien, the prettiest child in the world, was with her, as well as the dukes of Bouillon and La Rochefoucauld." * Nor was the cardinal less demonstrative in his politeness; but hastened to invite the dukes of Bouillon and Roche- foucauld to sup with him, and conveyed them to his residence in his own coach. Louis XIV., boy as he was, had looked on during the affecting scene which he had just witnessed, almost unmoved, for he already felt extraordinary resent- ment at the mock which had been made of the royal author- ity ; and it is even asserted by the Count de Bi-ienne, that he declared with tears in his eyes, during the siege of the * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 325 city, that he should not always be a child ; and that he would one day chastise the rascally Bordeaulese as they deserved. Two days after the departure of Madame de Conde, the court entered Bordeaux ; but the queen was not fated, anxious as she had been to replace the princess in her tem- porary reign, to find the hearts of her citizens so accessible as their gates. During the ten days which she passed in the city, scarcely an individual attended her receptions ; and when she traversed the streets no notice was taken of her presence ; while the parliament, after having sent a deputation to the Duke d'Orleans, to testify their gratitude to him for having negotiated the peace, paid a similar mark of respect to Mademoiselle, which greatly annoyed the cardinal, who dispatched one of his friends to entreat her to induce them to pay him the same compliment; but it is probable that she did not testify much zeal on the occasion, as her request met with no success. During these move- ments in the rebel city, M. de Turenne had not been idle elsewhere. He had advanced to Dammartin (within eight leagues of Pans), while the archduke had arrived at Fimes; intelligence which so alarmed the court that the princes were immediately removed from Vincennes to Marcoussy, an old fortress belonging to M. d'Entragues. The next difficulty was to raise money ; and in order to effect this, it was, after long parliamentary debates, decided that all who held public property, of whatever description, should pay one year's income to the state, by which means a tolerable supply was immediately procured, as well as a great prospective resource. Among others, the Duke d'Orleans contributed sixty thousand livres to the public assessment. Nevertheless, although they had consented to this impost, the parliament of Paris were by no means blind to the fact that it had been entailed upon them by the wrong-headed- ness of Mazarin, who had dragged the sovereign and the 320 LOUIS XIV. AND court, as well as the troops, to the distance of a hundred and fifty leagues from the capital, merely to make war upon a provincial city ; while, on their side, the parliament of Bordeaux had presented a petition for the liberation of the princes ; and despite the earnest opposition of the Duke d'Orleans, who was terrified at the bare idea of seeing M. de Conde again free, the petition was received and deliber- ated upon. A second edition of the Fronde was rapidly preparing, composed of the ancient malcontents, who had gained noth- ing, or, not sufficient to satisfy them, by their late submis- sion, and Mazarinites, who had not, in their own estimation, been satisfactorily remunerated for their adhesion to his cause ; and thus it will at once be seen that both parties were likely to make virulent and pertinacious adversaries. As a natural consequence, the coadjutor was the main-spring of this new movement, for he was not a man likely to forget the affronts offered to him on different occasions by the car- dinal ; while M. de Beaufort, intoxicated by his popularity, although reestablished in court favor, preferred his mob- royalty to the glitter of a more legitimate circle, where he found himself only a subordinate. If, indeed, the duke had entertained any suspicion of the decline of his popularity, it was soon removed, when, on a night-encounter with thieves in the streets of the city, his carnage was stopped, and one of the gentlemen of his suite killed by a pistol-shot ; for although such adventures were common enough to pass almost without remark at that period, the people refused to believe that the circumstance was, in this case, accidental ; and openly accused the cardinal of having instigated the assassination of their idol. Three days afterward every street and corner was pla- carded with effigies of Mazarin suspended from a gibbet ; and the walls were still covered with these manifestations of the popular feeling, when, on the 15th of November, THE COURT OF FRANCE. 327 1650, the court again returned to Paris. On her arrival at Poitiers, while on her way to the capital, the queen was seized with fever, and was reluctantly compelled to lose blood ; hut the disease continuing, she was obliged to re- main for eight days at Amboise, where the disease increased to an extent that excited considerable apprehensions for her life. This delay greatly annoyed the cardinal, who had serious reasons for wishing to find himself again in Paris, as he was anxious to persuade the Duke d'Orleans to consent to the removal of M. de Conde to Havre, a measure which he had hitherto refused to sanction ; and to satisfy himself by personal observation, if it were true, as he had been in- formed, that His Royal Highness was deeply implicated with the new faction. The partial reconciliation which had taken place at Bor- deaux between the queen and Madame de Conde, as well as between the cardinal and the two rebel dukes, had in some degree alarmed the Frondeurs ; who, by allying them- selves with the court had sufficiently strengthened the hands of the regent to enable her to accomplish the arrest of the princes ; and they accordingly awaited the advent of the minister with a petition, by the nature of whose reception they should be at once enabled to judge of his intentions and to regulate their own. This petition, which contained a demand for a seat in the conclave for the coadjutor, was presented to the queen by the Duchess de Chevreuse, but was instantly and haughtily rejected ; and even on the ex- postulation of the Duke d'Orleans, who strongly advocated her compliance, she refused to concede more than that she would submit the demand to her council, and be guided hy their decision ; a reply which was merely a civil way of ridding herself of all further importunity, as she was aware that it was composed of three of the most implacable ene- mies of M. de Retz — the Count de Servien, Le Tellier, and the Marquis de Chateauneuf, the new chancellor. This last offense sufficed to exasperate the coadjutor, 328 LOUIS XIV. AND who thenceforward resolved to keep no further measures with Mazarin. His was no inactive hate, and in this case the weapon lay ready to his hand. He joined the faction of the princes, at the head of which were three women : for the singularity of this national struggle was to endure to the last. These women were Madame de Rhodes, the Princess Anne de Gonzague, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. As these ladies were destined to occupy so conspicuous a position as that of the leaders of a great national faction, we shall, without apology, delay for a brief space the cur- rent of the narrative, in order to introduce them to our readers. Madame de Rhodes was the widow of a simple esquire, a natural son of the famous Louis, Cardinal de Lorraine, whose bigoted intolerance made him the terror of the Cal- vinists of his day ; and who was himself the son of Claude de Lorraine, the first duke de Guise, and was bom in 1525. As a specimen of the ecclesiastical pluralist he was probably never surpassed in any church or in any centurv. He was Archbishop of both Rheims and Narbonne; Bishop of Metz, Tour, Verdun, Therouane, Lucon, and Valance ; Abbe of Marmoutiers, Cluny, St. Denis, Fecamp, &c. He was admitted to a seat in the conclave in 1547, and in 1561 distinguished himself at the conference of Poissy, where his arguments are stated by his party to have triumphed over those of Theodore de Beze.* He was also con- spicuous at the Council of Trent. In 1573 he founded the University of Pont-a-Mousson; and in the following year he died. * Theodore de Beze was a celebrated minister of the Eeformed relig- ion, who was born at Vezelay, in Nivernois, in 1519, and died at Ge- neva in 1605. He took an active part in all the events of the civil and religious wars in France, and particularly at the colloquy of Poissy. He was, after Calvin, the head of the Genevese Church. He left a great number of works; elegies, epitaphs, and poems; some of them of a li- centious character. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 329 The Princess Anne de Gonzague, or, as she was com- monly called, the Princess-Palatine, who now appeared politically for the first time, was a genuine heroine of ro- mance. She was the second of the three daughters of Charles de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers and Mantua, of whom the elder (as we have already stated) married Uladislas VII., king of Poland ; while the younger became Superior of the Abbey of Avenay, in Champagne, where the Duke Henry de Guise, archbishop of Rhiems, fell in love with her. but subsequently abandoned her after an accidental meeting with her sister Anne. Withdrawn from France by his father, Charles de Lorraine, the hare-brained young prelate, passed several years in Italy, and accomplished, as has been already shown, the conquest of Naples ; but soon wearied by the monotony of his exile, he proceeded to Germany, where he joined the army of the emperor, and conducted himself with such marked and chivalrous cour- age, that the Knights of Malta, who had formed a project for conquering the island of St. Domingo, chose him as their leader. Exile as he was, however, the young prince declined to embark in such an expedition without the con- sent of the Cardinal Richelieu, which was refused; when, as both his elder brothers had died, he next solicited per- mission to return to court, in which application he was more successful ; and being now the last representative of his family, he reappeared in France with a firm determina- tion to conduct himself in a way which would compel the cardinal to deprive him of his archbishopric. Such a pro- ject offered little difficulty, for the reputation for gallantry which he had acquired before his departure was by no means consistent with his profession ; while circumstances also appeared to second his design ; for, although the poor young Abbess of Avenay had already been dead two years, he found on his return the Princess Anne, if possible, more beautiful than he had left her, and quite inclined to return his affection ; upon which M. de Guise, archbishop as he 330 LOUIS XIV. AND was, paid his addresses to her without scruple, and at length succeeded in convincing her^ or, at least, in inducing her to appear convinced, that by virtue of some peculiar dispensa- tion, he could legally become her husband ; and this point gained, one of the canons of Rheims united them in the private chapel of the Hotel de Nevers. The conspiracy of the Count de Soissons,* which hap- pened soon afterward, proved too great a temptation for the turbulent spirit of the married churchman to resist, and he was accordingly present at the battle of Marfee ; but he subsequently withdrew to Sedan, and thence passed into Flanders, where he again entered into the service of the emperor. The Princess Anne on his departure also resolved to absent herself; and, adopting male costume, she proceeded to Besan^on, in order to follow him into Flanders ; where, as well as elsewhere, she caused herself to be called Madame de Guise, writing and speaking of her " husband," and defying the assurances which were constantly advanced of the illegality of her marriage. She did not, however, long pursue her journey ; for while she was residing at Besancon, and the prince at Brussels, she learned that he had fallen in love with the Countess de Bossut,t whom he had, moreover, married ; upon which the princess returned at once to Paris, and resumed her name of Anne de Gonzague, as though nothing had occur- red ; while her faithless lover, declared criminal of lese-ma- jeste, quietly awaited the death of Louis XIII. and his minister, to resume his court career. * Louis de Bourbon, Count de Soissons, when compelled to fly from France for an abortive attempt to destroy Richelieu, took refuge in Sedan, where he entered into a treaty with the house of Austria against the French king, and defeated the Marshal de Chatillon at the battle of Marfee; but his victory availed him nothing; for, near the close of the fight, he was found dead upon the field, under a serious suspicion of having met his death by unfair means. t Honoria de Glimes, daughter of Geoffry, Count de Grimberg. and widow of Albert Maximilian de Henrien, Count de Bossut. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 33 1 Recalled by the queen, lie required no second summons, but immediately quitted Brussels, leaving a letter for the countess, in which he stated that he had been anxious to spare her the pain of a last interview, but that when he had formed an establishment worthy of her in Paris, he would at once write to her to join him. He did in fact write again ; but instead of appointing a period for their meeting, he informed her in the most courteous terms, that he had really believed himself to be her legal husband at the period of their marriage, but that since his return to France, so many of the most learned and competent au- thorities had assured him that she was not his wife, that he had at length been compelled to admit the fact. A few years subsequently, the Princess Anne, in her turn, con- tracted a second, and an equally secret marriage, with the Prince Leon or, one of the younger brothers of the Elector- Palatine, by which she excited the displeasure of the court. She was, however, pardoned through the intervention of the Queen of England, and again returned to the capital ; where, as her husband was extremely ugly, and violently jealous, she was obliged to represent to him that it was essential to his interest for her to appear in the gay world, before she could induce him to permit her to return to the life of pleasure and dissipation which was essential to her happiness. As he was wretchedly poor, he yielded to this crowning argument; and during the Fronde, she attached herself warmly to Madame de Longueville and the Prince de Conti. The identity of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse has been shown elsewhere ; and the fact, that, after having assisted her mother in the arrest of the princes, she had now joined their faction, arose from circumstances which will be pres- ently explained. The other leading members of the cabal were the Duke de Nemours, the president Viole, and Isaac d'Arnaud, the colonel of the carabineers ; while Monsieur, with his usual 332 LOUIS XIV. AND cautious cowardice, had quietly insinuated himself into the interests of the party, in order to provide for himself a means of escape from the vengeance of the prince when he should recover his liberty ; and the coadjutor was placed in correspondence with the Princess-Palatine by Madame de Rhodes, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. Their plans were arranged in one meeting : Mazarin was to be over- thrown, the princes released from prison, the coadjutor cre- ated cardinal, and the hand of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse given to the Prince de Conti. A treaty was signed to this effect ; but it of course remained nugatory, until ratified by the additional signature of the Duke d'Orleans.* The court did not find Monsieur at Orleans to meet them as they had anticipated, nor even M. le Tellier, whom, however, they afterward encountered on the road ; but he brought them little consolation, for he could not even as- sure them that His Royal Highness would come as far as Fontainebleau, or that his views coincided with their own ; and they had already been domesticated in that palace for four days before the arrival of M. de Chateauneuf, who brought an assurance that Monsieur would follow him, and who, as he was in the interests of the coadjutor (now rap- idly becoming a favorite with the unstable prince), prided himself upon a knowledge of the movements of Gaston. Satisfied that he was in fact coming, although somewhat tardily, the cardinal went to meet him ; and feeling how greatly the adhesion of the prince must affect the welfare of his party, Mazarin overwhelmed him with respect and attention ; but Monsieur no sooner found himself in the presence of the queen, than he vehemently expressed his displeasure at the removal of M. de Conde from Vincennes; which had taken place without his sanction, and in express contradiction to the plighted word of the regent, who had, in his presence, commanded M. de Bar, to whose custody the princes had been committed, not either to liberate, or * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 383 to remove them without the joint authority of herself and His Royal Highness. Moreover the duke, whose distrust- ful nature often rendered him clear-sighted, readily under- stood that their projected transfer to Havre, which had just been mooted, was merely with a view of placing them where they would be in the absolute and undivided power of the cardinal, who could accordingly make them service- able in a moment of necessity ; a precaution which was, at least, a wise one ; as in the very probable contingency of a new want of popularity, he would thus be enabled to se- cure the services of the prince by restoring him to liberty ; and his previous career had rendered him too formidable an enemy for the city to contend against. Mademoiselle relates that, when she went to visit him in his private apart- ments at Fontainebleau, she found him in a state of great excitement and anger; so much so that he emptied his heart to her without reserve, and told her that whatever means were adopted to obtain his consent to such an ar- rangement, he would never give it ; and that the suspicions which were entertained of the cardinal's motives for the proposition were calculated to augment the disaffection al- ready existing; that the parliament would become more determined Frondeurs than ever ; and that he was resolved henceforward never to interfere in any public measures. He also refused to visit the queen throughout the day ; but, ultimately, after several messengers had been dispatched to urge his presence, he consented to wait upon her in the evening. This interview, however, far from producing the effect which, from his known vacillation of character, had been anticipated by the regent, only tended to increase the bit- terness on both sides ; and they separated mutually dissat- isfied. The cardinal sent at daybreak to Mademoiselle to en- treat her to see Monsieur, and to endeavor to detain him at court; but she failed in her mission, as, for once, he re- 334 LOUIS XIV. AND mained firm to his purpose. At his parting interview with the queen, she informed him that she had dispatched Count d'Harcourt to escort the princes from Marcoussy to Havre ; adding, that although he would not give his jonsent to the measure, the interest of the king exacted it, and it should be earned out. In reply, Monsieur coldly remarked, that the king had a right to act as he saw fit, but that such was not his own opinion ; and in this spirit he departed for Paris, thoroughly out of temper with the court, which followed the next day. Angry and irritated as he was, however, the duke by no means wished seriously to commit himself with the oppo- site faction ; and, accordingly, when the treaty, to which we have alluded above, was placed in his hands, he en- deavored to elude the necessity of rendering it valid by his own signature. But he had to deal with women who were well acquainted with the most salient points of his charac- ter ; and who were well aware that, so long as he remain- ed uncommitted, they and their friends were in peril from his vacillation and perpetual perfidy ; and, at length, after watching, pursuing, and tracking him, they surprised him at a moment when he could not escape, and put a pen into his hand ; when, finally, " Gaston signed," said Mademoi- selle de Chevreuse, " as if he were ratifying the compact of a witch's sabbath, and was afraid of being detected by his good angel." Charles II., who had just been compelled to retire from Holland, arrived about this time (13th Sept., 1650) at Paris, attended by one solitary nobleman, who acted at once as his chamberlain, valet-de-chambre, equerry of the kitchen, and cup-bearer; nor had he changed his linen since he commenced his journey. Lord Germain lent him a shirt on his arrival ; but the queen, his mother, did not possess money enough to supply him with a second for the next day. Monsieur having paid him a visit, the coadjutor en- deavored to induce him to supply the imhRppy fugitive with THE COURT OF FRANCE. 335 funds ; but he was unable to wring a sous from him for such a purpose. A little, he said, would not suffice, as such an offering would be unworthy both of himself and the En- glish monarch ; while, if he gave a large sum it would com- promise him for the future ;* and thus disappointed and unaided, Charles, after spending a short time in France, where he received no assistance, and very little civility, again retired to Jersey, where his authority was still ac- knowledged.t * Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. t Ryder's England. CHAPTER XV. The Battle of Rethel — Death of the Dowager-Princess de Conde — Re- monstrance of the Parliament on the Imprisonment of the Princes — Quarrel of the Duke d'Orleans and the Cardinal — Misgivings of Made- moiselle — Reconciliation between Mademoiselle and Conde — Maza- rin offers the hand of Louis XIV. to Mademoiselle — The Cardinal foiled — The interpolated Factum — Energy of Gaston d'Orleans — Alarm of the Court — Evasion of the Cardinal — Riot in the Capital — Mademoiselle de Chevreuse and the Duchesse d'Orleans — Pusilla- nimity of Monsieur — Seizure of the City Gates by the Frondeurs — The Populace in the Palais-Royal — M. Desbuches in the royal Cham- ber — Mazarin at Havre — Emancipation of the Princes ; their Arrival in Paris. Mazarin, whom the war in Guienne had infected with 3 thirst for triumph, shortly afterward left Paris for Cham- pagne, and was present at the retaking of Rethel, of which Marshal Turenne had rendered himself master; but, sub- sequently, M. du Plessis-Praslin,* who was in command of the troops, fought the battle of Somme-Puy, where he made a great number of prisoners ; while Turenne himself escaped with considerable difficulty. Mazarin insisted that this encounter should be designated as the Battle of Rethel ; because, as he was himself in the town, it might be believed that the victory had been obtained through his agency, al- though Rethel was, in fact, at the distance of two leagues from the field. The warlike cardinal had, however, scarcely passed the gates of Paris, when fresh hostilities commenced against * Caesar de Choiseuil, du Plessis-Praslin, Duke and Peer of France, was created marshal in 1645, and gained, in 1648, the battle of Fran- cheron; and in 1650, that of Rethel against Marshal Turenne, who at that period commanded the Spanish army. He died at Paris in 1673. LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OP FRANCE. 337 him ; and a petition was presented to the parliament by the princess, praying that the princes might be set at lib- erty, or, at least, put upon their trial, and transferred for that purpose from Havre to the Louvre, where they might be guarded by an officer of the king's household. This was the precise moment in which the Duke d'Orleans could, with the greatest dignity, have declared himself, but his heart failed him ; and he caused it to be reported that he was indisposed. At the same period, news arrived of the death of the Princess-Dowager at Chatillon, after a long period of suf- fering. The report was general that she had died heart- broken, and pining once more to embrace her children ; but Mademoiselle, with the flippancy for which she was pro- verbial on all serious subjects, asserts, that " she died in the most beautiful and Christian sentiments imaginable ; she had lived during her last years with great devotion, which even caused her to abandon the interest of her son, cither because she was quite resigned, or that she cared less for him. The prince," she adds, " knew the real cause ; and, as for me, I shall give no opinion." And this was all the regret expressed at court for the old, and tried, and affectionate friend of the regent, whom she had sent to her grave, solitary, childless, and heart-broken ! The deliberations on the petition of the younger princess had just commenced, notwithstanding the absence of Mon- sieur from the meeting ; and the deputies were busy in at- tributing to the foreign minister all the troubles, both public and private by which the country was harassed, when a courier arrived in Paris, bringing tidings of the victory of Rethel, and the defeat of Turenne. Monsieur, so soon as they reached him, roused himself sufficiently from his sud- den attack of illness to pay a visit of congratulation to the queen, whom he found rejoicing in the belief that the friends of M. de Conde would be terror-stricken on learning that his forces had been defeated ; but she had miscalculated the vol. i. — O yytj LUU1S XIV. AND effect which the event really tended to produce, and this was a dread lest Mazarin should avail himself of the circum- stance ; an apprehension which strengthened them in their resolution to support the prince, in order to be relieved, through his agency, of their most obnoxious enemy. On the 30th of December, a decree was passed that very humble remonstrances should be made to the king and the regent, on the subject of the imprisoned princes, and that their liberty should be demanded ; but the cardinal, who had been warned by the queen that a new cabal was form- ing against him in his absence, returned with all speed to Paris, which he entered on the following day, full of triumph and exultation, and in the highest spirits. Anne of Aus- tria was still suffering from the same illness which had attacked her at Poitiers, and could not leave her bed. Nevertheless, there was great gayety at court ; and Made- moiselle expatiates with considerable complaisance upon the balls and galas, as well as on the renewed intention of Monsieur to accomplish her marriage at the first convenient opportunity. Meanwhile the parliament continued to urge the emancipation of the princes -with such untiring energy, that the court was at length compelled to reply ; and Mon- sieur, whose views had once more changed upon the sub- ject, expostulated so pressingly with the queen upon the danger and impolicy of continuing their captivity, that the alarmed and exasperated cardinal made a speech in reply, which so enraged the duke, that he declared to the regent he would never again set foot in her council-chamber while that person was admitted there. The feud was now an overt one ; the swords had been drawn, and nothing remained but to fling away the scabbards. The following morning, Goulas, the secretary of Mon- sieur, who was about to accompany M. de Lionne to Havre, to treat with the prince on the subject of his liberation, waited upon Mademoiselle, and complained bitterly of the bad policy of his master in quarreling with the cardi- THE Cut" R T U F F R A N C E. 339 nal at such a moment ; a proceeding by which he had complicated the difficulties of the question, and compelled the ministers to liberate M. de Conde, who would feel no obligation to the court for a concession to which he must be aware that they had been forced. Mademoiselle hurried to her father to represent this fact ; but the only reply which she could extort from him was to the effect that he would never again sit in council with Mazarin, be the consequences what they might. Mademoiselle con- fesses that she was by no means sorry he had come to such a resolution, although she was inimical to the prince personally ; for she loved Monsieur so much that she was glad to see him undertake two such important matters as the release of M. de Conde, and the overthrow of a minis- ter from whom he had received an affront. " But," she, says, as if still doubting whether this sudden belligerent impulse would stand the test of time and difficulty, " the fear that I felt, lest he should grow tired of the trouble which such an affair must necessarily engender, and that he would not carry it through, gave me the greatest uneasi- ness."* Resolved, however, to throw no extra impediment in his way, she made a resolution to overcome her puerile and causeless animosity toward the prince ; and, in conse- quence, exerted all her courtesy in order to render herself agreeable to his friends, who, at this conjuncture, crowded to pay their respects to His Royal Highness ; in this spirit, she also sought an interview with Guitaut, who was, as she knew, devoted to the interests of M. de Conde, and much in his confidence, and who had been of great service to him during his imprisonment ; and to him she expressed her firm resolution to live upon more friendly terms in future, not only with the prince himself, but also with all his family, than she had hitherto done, regretting that she had not before decided on the same line of conduct. This * Mernoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. ,'j 1 J L O L 1 ri XIV. A N D assurance was joyfully received ; and Guitaut, in his turn, impressed upon her the respect and friendship with which the whole house of Conde had invariably regarded her person, and the grief which they had felt at her previous coldness and disinclination toward themselves. The cardinal had not been many hours in Paris before he was quite conscious of the ground that he had lost during his absence, and of the defections which had taken place in his party, among which that of Monsieur was the most important ; and he resolved in consequence to direct his first efforts toward a reconciliation with that prince ; but Monsieur was always firm when his firmness involved neither danger nor exertion, and he was, therefore, thor- oughly inaccessible to all his overtures. Either His Royal Highness was sick, or he was sulky, or he was dis- satisfied ; and these were not the moods in which he could be driven from his purpose. Mazarin, consequently, felt that he must strike a grand blow in order to overcome this unwonted persistence ; and in the extremity of the moment he could think of nothing moi'e likely to conduce to his object than that of reviving the everlasting subject of the marriage of Mademoiselle, in a manner which he believed could not fail to produce an immediate reconcilia- tion. "With this view, therefore, Mademoiselle de Neuillant,* one of the maids of honor to the queen, was ordered to wait upon Mademoiselle, and to offer to her, on the part of His Eminence, the hand of the young king, on condition that she should prevent Monsieur from joining the faction of the princes. Whether Mademoiselle was really too keen-sighted to be duped, and suspected the sincerity of the proposal ; or whether, as is extremely possible, she consid- ered that the great difference of age between herself and Louis XIV. rendered such an alliance almost impossible, it is certain that the ambassadress could not induce her to * Afterward Duchess cle Navailles. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 341 be serious upon the subject ; but, after having exhausted all her eloquence, was answered only by a light laugh, and the remark that His Royal Highness and herself had pledged their word to M. de Conde, and were resolved to keep it. This " incredible levity," as Madame de Motte- ville designates it, produced from Mademoiselle de Neuil- lant the spirited retort of — " For heaven's sake, Mademoi- selle, first make yom-self a queen, and then you can release the princes." But she urged in vain : Mademoiselle would vouch- safe no other reply ; and thus once more, despite all her innate ambition, the princess suffered a crown to escape her. The cardinal was foiled ; and his uneasiness increased tenfold as he reflected that Monsieur must indeed be deeply compromised to resist such a proposition. For the first time in his life, Gaston d'Orleans remained faithful to the party he had adopted ; and M. de Retz had all the credit of his inflexibility. Meanwhile the illustrious prisoners were made promptly acquainted with every event which occured in Paris, and themselves directed the measures which were progressing to effect their release. Their cor- respondence with their friends was carried on by means of double louis-d'ors hollowed out, in which the letters were concealed ; but every requisition of the parliament for their release was met by subterfuge and evasion ; until the regent finally referred the deputies to the keeper of the seals, who, chancing to have a severe cold which greatly impeded his articulation, handed his factum to the president to read, without remarking that it had been interpolated by the queen herself; and that, among other accusations against sundry individuals, there occurred a violent vituper- ation of the coadjutor, in which she had inserted the words, " he lied." The reading of such a document in a public meeting naturally produced a formidable effect ; it was oil flung 342 LOUIS XIV. AND upon flame, and the struggle thenceforward became one of life and death between the cardinal and M. de Retz ; who, at length goaded beyond his patience, sprang into the tri- bune, and made a violent speech against Mazarin ; which he concluded by exhorting the parliament to offer their humble entreaties to the king, immediately to forward an order for the release of the princes, as well as a declaration of their innocence ; and, moreover, to banish alike from his presence and his councils the Cardinal Mazarin. He also urged the propriety of holding a new meeting on the following Monday, to receive whatever reply it might please His Majesty to make to the deputies; a proposal which was welcomed with acclamation, and met with a unanimous assent. In this emergency, the queen sent the Count de Brienne to Monsieur, to invite him to an interview ; but the coadju- tor, who for the moment had entirely subjugated the will of the unstable prince, caused him to reply that he would perform his habitual duty to the regent when the princes were liberated and the cardinal banished from her presence. Nor did he stop there ; for he summoned the Marshal de Villeroy and the Secretary of State, declaring to the former that he should hold him responsible for the safe keeping of the king, and commanding him, by his authority as lieuten ant- general of the kingdom, to obey no orders but his own ; while he imposed at the same time upon Le Tellier a strin- gent injunction not to forward any dispatch, of whatever description, until he had himself taken cognizance of its con- tents, and directed the civic officers to hold their arms in readiness for the king's service ; absolutely forbidding them to obey any orders save those which they would receive from himself. The queen had been totally unprepared for demonstra- tions such as these ; and the whole palace was in conster- nation. Many of the courtiers advised Mazarin to retire to a fortress; while four of the marshals, who were in- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 343 debted to him for their dignity, and who would not desert him, proposed to march a strong body of troops into the city, to garrison the whole neighborhood of the Palais-Royal, and to hold out against the Duke d'Orleans ; but all these violent measures were rejected both by the queen and the cardinal, as involving a risk far greater than the probability of success. In the midst of this uncertainty the Duchess de Chev- reuse arrived at the Palais-Royal. As the extent of her intrigue with the coadjutor was unknown ; and as in their embarrassment the regent and her minister were asking advice of all around them, she was appealed to in her turn ; and without an instant's hesitation she counseled the cardi- nal to absent himself from Paris until the danger with which he was then threatened should have passed by : adding that, during his temporary absence, she would exert all her in- fluence with Mojisieur to effect a reconciliation between them ; and that she did not despair, when the release of the princes had once taken place, of rendering the duke much more favorably disposed toward His Eminence. This advice, perfidious as it was, appeared to be so much the most reasonable which they had yet received, that both the queen and Mazarin resolved to adopt it; and the latter, whose terror had rendered him almost imbecile at this conjunct- ure, and who had lost all power of self-reliance, was so delighted with the idea of escaping from the neighborhood of his enemies, that he declared his intention of starting that very night for Havre to effect the liberation of the princes ; for which purpose he received a private order from the queen to M. de Bar, commanding that functionary punctu- ally to credit and to obey all that the cardinal should declare to him touching her intention of releasing the prisoners; and enjoining him to attend to no other and subsequent order which he might receive, whether from the king her son, or from herself. Furnished with this authority, the cardinal contrived to .'ill LOUIS XIV. AND recover at least external composure ; and when he waited upon the queen in the evening, as was his custom, he con- versed with her for a considerable time without betraying any extraordinary uneasiness ; while the self-possession of the regent was less remarkable, as she, on every occasion, manifested considerable presence of mind. Nevertheless, the calm within the palace must have been more than once disturbed by the riot without, for the populace were swarm- ing in the streets, and cries of no favorable omen reechoed on all sides. Warned by these hostile demonstrations, and anxious to escape their threatened results, at ten o'clock the cardinal took leave of the queen and her circle ; but still without any more apparent demonstration than he would have exhibited had he anticipated that he should rejoin them the next day ; and this done, hastened to his apartments, where he exchanged his ecclesiastical costume for a scarlet vest and gray trunk hose, and taking in his hand a hat and plume, left the Palais-Royal on foot, followed only by two of his suite. At the Richelieu gate, another gentleman of his household was awaiting him with horses ; and two houra afterward he was at St. Germain, where he halted for the night* The regent played her part admirably. Surprised and alarmed as she was, she never suffered these feelings to appear, but remained in conversation with those about her until the usual hour of their dismissal; while Mademoiselle, who was aware of the flight of the cardinal, but who had risen early on that day in order to have an interview with Monsieur before the meeting of parliament, at once pro- ceeded to the Tuileries ; and was about to retire to rest, when she was informed that there was a great disturbance in the city, and hurrying to one of the terraces which com- manded a view in several directions, she saw (for the night was clear and the moon bright), that a gate by the water's side at the end of the street was crowded with horsemen, * Louis XIV. et eon Siecle. THE COURT OP FRANCE. 345 posted there to protect the departure of the cardinal, who had decided to leave the city by the barrier of the Confer- ence, and that these mounted guards had been attacked by the boatmen, her own band, and several of her valets. As the firing increased, she sent to withdraw her people ; but as all her household believed that she had retired for the night, she had no means of enforcing obedience ; and in the melee they made a prisoner of M. de Roncerolles, the governor of Bellegarde, a circumstance which much embar- rassed the princess, who caused him to be supplied with a strong escort that he might leave the city without further molestation. Before his departure, he confided to her that the cardinal had originally arranged to escape from Paris by that route, but that he had induced him to adopt another direction. M. de Roncerolles was not, however, her only capture ; " for the " irregular troops" had also possessed themselves of the person of M. d'Estrades, the governor of Dunkirk, who was the confidential friend of Mazarin, and whom Mademoiselle, on that account, resolved to detain a prisoner until she should learn the wishes of the Duke d'Orleans as to his disposal. She consequently consigned him to the large pavilion of the Tuileries, in order that should he be demanded of her in the king's name, she might be enabled to declare that he was no longer in her apart- ments. All her diplomacy, however, proved supererogatory, for Monsieur, who never desired to take the initiative in any hazardous affair, desired her forthwith to set him at liberty ; which she did with considerable reluctance, being conscious that had he been detained, her father would have secured Dunkirk, as M. de St. Quentin, the king's lieutenant, had formerly been attached to his household, and would have embraced his interests. The coadjutor was also apprised during the same night of the disparition of the minister, and hastened to commu- nicate with Monsieur, whom he found surrounded by a crowd of courtiers. As M. de Retz did not appear so triumphant p* 340 LOUIS XIV. AND as those about him, the duke observed, with a smile, that he would pledge himself the coadjutor was prepared to hear in the next place of the departure of the king. The truth of his suspicion was admitted ; when he rallied the prelate upon his folly, and assured him that had the cardinal con- templated such a measure, he would have carried the sovereign away from Paris under his own charge. Above all things Monsieur protested against any warlike demon- stration, and forbade every manifestation of suspicion or mistrust; he cared not though the evil should come, but he would not permit it to be said that it had originated with him ; and thus, although above all things he trembled at the event of a civil war, which must become inevitable should the king be removed from the capital, he resolutely refused to authorize the measures by which such an attempt would have been rendered impracticable. On the evening of the second day after the cardinal's flight, as the coadjutor, satisfied that the supineness of the duke would involve some new difficulty, had retired to bed, wearied and irritated, and was already half asleep, his cur- tain was suddenly drawn back by a gentleman of Monsieur's household, who announced that His Royal Highness desired to see him immediately. M. de Retz, anxious to ascertain the cause of this hasty summons, questioned the messenger as he prepared to rise ; but he could learn nothing more than that Mademoiselle de Chevreuse had been to the palace, and had already awoke Monsieur. While he was dressing, a page brought him a note in the handwriting of that lady, containing only the words, " Come quickly to the Luxem- bourg, and take care of yourself by the way." His in- creased curiosity urged him to exert the utmost haste in order to reach the palace ; and when he arrived there, he found her seated upon a chest in the antechamber ; and she hurriedly informed him that her mother, who was indisposed, had sent her to the duke to confide to him the fact that the king was on the point of leaving Paris ; for that although THE COURT OF PRANCE. 34? he had gone to bed at his usual time, he had afterward risen, and had even drawn on his boots. This intelligence had reached Madame de Chevreuse through the Marshal d'Aumont, the captain of the guard, who had, in concert with the Marshal d'Albret, informed her secretly of the circumstance, in order that steps might be taken to prevent a measure which would once more plunge the kingdom into confusion and revolt ; while the Marshal de Villeroy had at the same time given a similar intimation to the keeper of the seals. Mademoiselle de Chevreuse added, however, that she apprehended there would be consid- erable difficulty in inducing Monsieur to come to any resolution, as the first words which he had uttered after she awoke him with the news, were — " Send for the coad- jutor. As for me, I do not see that any thing can be done in it." They entered the chamber together, where they found the duke and duchess still in bed ; and as they appeared, Monsieur exclaimed, " It is just as you said ; what shall we do 1" The coadjutor replied that there was no alterna- tive but to take possession of the city gates. The duke objected that it could not be done at so late an hour; but both the duchess and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse persisted that nothing could be more wise or more possible ; and at length Monsieur was so far shaken as to concede that he would send M. de Souches, the captain of the Swiss guard, to the queen, to beseech of Her Majesty to reflect on the consequences of such a proceeding ; declaring that, in his opinion, nothing further was necessary, as when she found her resolution was discovered, she would not venture to persist in it. The coadjutor still lingered, alarmed and almost an- gered by the weakness of the duke, who had exhausted all his energy in words ; and now, when the time for action had arrived, had once more relapsed into weakness, and threatened by his incrlness and egotism to sacrifice ;{ IN L GUIS XI V. ANJ) the whole of his party ; when 2Iadame suddenly desired him to bring her a desk which stood upon the table in her cabinet ; and taking a large sheet of paper, she wrote hastily, — " The coadjutor is commanded to take up arms, and to prevent the creatures of the Cardinal Mazarin, now under condemnation of the parliament, from removing the king out of Paris. Marguerite de Lorraine." As she was about to deliver this order to M. de Retz, the duke snatched it from her hand ; but she contrived to whisper in the ear of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse that she authorized her to desire the coadjutor to act as he thought right, and that she would answer to him for the approbation of the duke the next day, whatever he might then say. Reconciled by this assurance, M. de Retz at length prepared to leave the room, when the timid Gaston ex- claimed hastily, "At least, Mr. Coadjutor, you must con- ciliate the parliament. I will on no account quarrel with them."* M. de Retz instantly wrote to the Duke de Beaufort, en- treating him to hasten to the Hotel de Montbazon, while Mademoiselle de Chevreuse went to awaken the Marshal de la Motte ; and in a very short space of time the whole city took the alarm. All the gates were seized ; and so great was the popular enthusiasm, that the commandant of the Porte St. Honore being absent from bis post, his wife sprung from her bed, and without waiting to do more than fold a dressing-gown about her, made the drum beat to arms, and secured the barrier. The Duke de Beaufort and the Marshal de la Motte took command of the mounted patrols, and all egress from Paris became thenceforward impossible. * M6moires du C i-.lumT. de Retz. 'J' HE C O U B T OF P RANCE, 349 As the outbreak commenced, all the friends of the princes mounted their horses, and traversed the streets, urging the citizens to arms ; and the call was at once answered by an immense mass of the populace, who rushed toward the Palais-Royal. The queen was no sooner apprised by this tumult that her design had been discovered, than she caused the young king, whose traveling dress was already adjusted, immedi- ately to take off his clothes and to retire to bed ; which he had scai-cely done ere one of the officers of the guards an- nounced to her that the mob was threatening the palace, in its exasperation on learning that the king was again about to leave the city ; and that they insisted upon seeing him in order to convince themselves that he was not actually already gone. While the officer was yet speaking, a mes- senger arrived from the palace sentinels to request new orders, the mob which had collected about the Palais-Royal having threatened to tear up the palisades ; and before the regent had time to answer the appeal, the messenger of the Duke d'Orleans arrived in his turn, and was conducted to her presence ; when he informed Her Majesty that he was deputed by Monsieur to request that she would terminate the popular commotion which had been excited by a report that she was about to remove the king from the city ; a measure which he begged to assure her was impossible, for that the citizens were resolved not to permit it. The queen replied with great haughtiness that it was the Duke d'Orleans himself who had occasioned the tumult, and that, consequently, it depended upon himself to allay it, should he see fit to do so ; that she was well aware he had merely acted upon the advice of the coadjutor ; while, as regarded the alarm excited by the supposed departure of the king, nothing could be more unfounded, both His Majesty and the Duke d'Anjou being then asleep in their beds, as she had herself been before the outcry compelled her to rise ; and in order to convince him of the futility of 350 LOUIS XIV. AND the report, she desired him to follow her to the chamber of the king. As she ceased speaking, she moved forward ; and De Souches saw, as she had declared, the young sovereign apparently in a profound sleep. He was about to retire, when suddenly the outcry of the populace became more violent ; and shouts of " The king ! the king ! we must see the king !" penetrated even to the royal apartment. The regent reflected for an instant ; and then, turning toward the envoy of Monsieur, she desired him to command in her name that all the doors of the palace should be flung open, and every one admitted to the chamber of the king who desired to enter it ; directing, however, at the same time, that the citizens should be in- formed that His Majesty was sleeping, and requested to make as little noise as possible. De Souches hastily obeyed ; and having transmitted the order of the regent to the guard, afterward repeated her message to the people. All the doors were immedi- ately opened, and the mob rushed into the Palais-Royal. Nevertheless, contrary to all expectation, they had no sooner reached the royal apartments, than the individuals who appeared to act as their leaders, remembering that the queen had assured them the king was sleeping, desired the untimely visitors to proceed in perfect quiet ; and as the human tide moved onward, their very breathing was sup- pressed, and they trod as though they dreaded to awaken every echo with their footsteps. The same mighty mass that had howled, and yelled, and threatened without the gates, like some wild beast about to be bereft, of its young, now, as the chamber of the sovereign gradually filled, had become calm, respectful, and cautious, and approached the royal bed with a feeling of affectionate deference, which restrained every intruder from drawing back the curtains. It was the queen herself who performed this office. She had maintained her post near the pillow of her son ; and THE COURT OF FRANCE. 351 pale, but calm and dignified, as though she were merely going through some courtly ceremonial, she extended her hand, and gathering back the velvet folds which had inter- vened between the people and their sovereign, revealed him to their eager gaze in all the beauty of youth and apparent slumber. By a simultaneous impulse, the whole assemblage dropped upon their knees, and put up a prayer for the pres- ervation of the noble child, who lay sleeping before them ; after which they retired through an opposite door, to give place to those who were waiting to succeed them. This living stream continued to flow on until three o'clock in the morning ; and still the queen never faltered. Like a marble statue she retained her position, firm and motion- less, her majestic figure drawn haughtily to its full height, and her magnificent arm resting in broad relief upon the crimson draperies. And still the boy-king, emulating the example of his royal parent, remained immobile, with closed eyes, and steady breathing, as though his rest had remained unbroken by the incursion of his rebellious sub- jects. It was a singular and marked passage in the life of both mother and son.* On the afternoon of the same day, the queen caused the household of the king, and the municipal magistrates, to be summoned to her presence, in order to assure them that she had never entertained an idea of removing His Majesty from Paiis, and to command that the gates of the city should continue to be guarded as they then were, in order to efface so erroneous an impression from the minds of the people. Whatever credence her hearers were inclined to concede to her assurance, they at least readily obeyed her order. The gates were still strictly watched ; and Louis was, in point of fact, a prisoner in his own'capitai. According to the statement of Mademoiselle, however, the distrust of the popular faction was still so great, that * Louis XIV. et son Sicclo. 352 LOUIS XIV. AND Mo //.si cur, at the close of each day, dispatched one of his gentlemen, named Desbuches, to offer his nightly greeting to the queen ; who was, moreover, ordered not to leave the Palais-Royal without seeing the young sovereign, upon the pretext that the duke would not, without this ceremony, be enabled to undeceive the citizens, who still persisted in putting faith in the reports which continued to be spread of his intended evasion. This proceeding was most obnoxious to the regent ; but as she had no alternative, she was compelled to permit the nightly intrusion of M. Desbuches into the royal chamber, where he even occasionally repeated his visit a second time, drawing back the curtains of the bed, and arousing Louis from his sleep. The cardinal traveled slowly toward Havre, each day anticipating that he should be joined by the queen and the princes, as it had been privately arranged before his de- parture ; but, instead of the royal party, he was overtaken by a courier, who announced to him the events which had taken place in the capital, and the utter impossibility of their evasion. He therefore resumed his journey with more expedition, being anxious to secure the liberation of the princes through his own agency, before they were wrested from his authority by the forces of the Fronde. On his arrival at the fortress, he lost no time in personally announcing to them their release ; and he did this amid sal- utations so humble, that M. de Conde declared he was prepared to see him even bend his knee ; while, the meet- ing once over, he made a thousand protestations of his own innocence in the affair of their imprisonment, assuring them that it was effected by Monsieur and the Frondeurs ; while, as regarded their release, it had only been accorded to his earnest entreaties by Their Majesties, which fact had induced him to be himself its herald. The prince listened with courteous incredulity, and answered every civility with perfect self-possession ; but THE COURT OF FRANCE. 353 still the cardinal was baffled in the fond hope of deluding him either by his words or actions. Of the faith which might be placed in the former, M. de Conde had long been enabled to estimate the extent ; while his constant corre- spondence with his friends in the capital had already made him aware, that far from acting upon his free will, the car- dinal had been compelled to the step which he was now taking, by the very individuals whom he was accusing as the instigators of his own measures. After a considerable time had been consumed in this hollow and ineffectual dis- course, Mazarin requested, as an honor, the company of M. de Conde, the prince de Conti, and M. de Longueville, at dinner, an invitation which they accepted; and during the repast the prince exerted all the fascination of his intel- lect, and by his high spirits and good-humor rendered the embarrassment and uneasiness of his host the more con- spicuous. The dinner over, the princes took their depart- ure ; and having passed the gates of the fortress, and girded on their swords, they raised their hats with dignified court- esy to their discomfited entertainer, struck spurs into their horses, and galloped out of town. Three days afterward they arrived in Paris ; Monsieur, the Duke de Beaufort, and the coadjutor went in the same coach as far as St. Denis to meet them, followed by the whole of the court save the ladies and a few of the car- dinal's private friends. The entire road from Paris to St. Denis was lined with carnages ; the populace testified even more joy at the return of M. de Conde than they had exhibited at his imprisonment ; and the king, the regent, and the Duke d'Anjou alone remained in the palace. When the two carnages containing Monsieur and his friends, and the prince and his brothers, at length met, M. de Conde alighted, and, with his party, entered that of the Duke d'Orleans ; which arrangement had no sooner been made than the pressure of the crowd compelled them to proceed at a foot's pace. Their progress was consequently 354 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. slow ; and it was already late in the day when the princes reached the Palais-Royal, where they immediately has- tened to pay their respects to the king and queen. They were accompanied in their visit only by Monsieur ; for the Duke de Beaufort and the coadjutor were aware that their own appearance at such a moment would only tend to exasperate the annoyance of the regent; a conviction which induced M. de Beaufort at once to return to his post at the Porte St. Honore ; and M. de Retz to attend the evening service at the Oratory. CHAPTER XVI. Reception of the Princes by the Court — Intrigue against the Coadjutor — Vanity of Mademoiselle — Projected Marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Proposition of Conde — Ill- ness of Madame de Conde — Mademoiselle indulges in a new matri- monial Speculation — Retirement of the Coadjutor — An armed Neu- trality — Pretensions of the Prince de Conde — The Queen makes Overtures to the Coadjutor — Fresh Intrigues — The Projected Assas- sination — Noble Resistance of the Coadjutor — Sentence against Maza- rin — Private Meetings of the Queen and the Coadjutor — Retreat of the Princes to St. Maur — The royal Envoy — Rage of the Duke d'Or- leans — Return of Conde to the Capital — Close of the Regency — Ma- jority of Louis XIV. — The Bed of Justice — Renunciation of the Re- gency by Anne of Austria — The King and Madame de Frontenac. The poor queen had, meanwhile, passed a wretched day ; and as the time of M. de Conde 's arrival in the capital approached, she became greatly irritated by the presence of the crowd of courtiers who collected in her apartments to witness his presentation, and complained unceasingly of the extreme heat. She, nevertheless, made a powerful effort to appear cheerful, although not with sufficient suc- cess to conceal her real feelings. At length the prince reached the palace, and was no sooner announced than he entered, and was received, according to the statement of M. de la Rochefoucauld, rather like one who was in a po- sition to grant forgiveness than to demand it. His address to the queen was brief, and haughtily re- spectful ; while those of his brothers were modeled upon iris own; and, this ceremony performed, they fell back nto the circle, jesting, not only with those about them, mt even with the regent herself, like men wholly without •are or fear of any sort. The queen supported the trial 356 LOUIS XIV. AND bravely ; and after a few moments passed in this reckless triumph on the one hand, and concealed torture on the oth- er, the princes took their leave, and proceeded to the Luxem- bourg to sup with the Duke d'Orleans ; where Mademoi- selle had an explanation with M. de Conde, and they vowed a friendship for the future as sincere as their past aversion. The day succeeding that on which the cardinal left Paris, the parliament had passed a decree, in which they presented their acknowledgments to the regent for his ab- sence, and requested from her a declaration that she would henceforward exclude from her council all foreigners, or persons who had taken the oath to any other princes than the king himself; and she lost no time in publishing this declaration, which deprived the coadjutor forever both of a seat in the council, and of the cardinal's hat, since, should he be admitted into the conclave, he must necessarily take an oath to the Pope. Just at this period, M. de Saujon, the envoy whom Ma- demoiselle had dispatched to Germany, reappeared in Paris; but she did not make the slightest allusion to his journey or its object. She was already aware that the ne- gotiation had failed, the emperor being about to form an alliance with the Princess of Mantua. " I thought no more about it," she says, with a charming self-complacency quite unapproachable, " save to feel great regret that I had ever taken it so much to heart ; and it is, as I have already said, the least beautiful passage of my life; while I may add, without vanity, that God, who is just, would not bestow a woman like me upon a man who is not worthy of her.* The projected marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse created a great sensation in Paris. Couriers were dispatched to Rome for a dispensa- tion ; and the prince lived entirely at the Hotel de Chev- reuse, where he was frequently joined by M. de Conde. At the same time, a second dispensation was requested of * Memo-ires de Mndemoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 357 the Pope, which would enable the Duke d'Enghien to hold the ecclesiastical livings about to be resigned by his uncle, and which were very considerable. Only a month subsequently, however, the president Viole disengaged M. de Conti from his promise; which, so far from exciting his displeasure, appeared to afford him infi- nite satisfaction ; but the failure of the marriage originated, in fact, with the Duchess de Longueville, who exerted all her influence ever the prince to prevent its completion, from a dread that when once she had become his wife, Mademoiselle de Chevreuse would deliver over M. de Conti without mercy to the coadjutor, her lover. The seals were at the same time withdrawn from the Marquis de Chateauneuf, and given to M. de Mole, the first president, who was a declared enemy of the coadjutor; but this arrangement was not made without involving con- siderable disaffection in the opposite party. On arriving at the Palais-Royal, Monsieur learned that the Count de Chavigny, who was the intimate friend of M. de Conde, had been recalled by the queen from Touraine ; and, as I he hated him mentally," he complained to the regent of her having adopted such a measure without previously con- sulting him ; and the rather as it was reported that she was about to make him a member of the council ; to which re- monstrance Anne of Austria haughtily replied that he had, on his side taken many and more serious steps without requesting her own sanction ; a reply which so irritated Monsieur, that he immediately left the palace and the prince followed him. At the close of the council, the queen sent M. de la Vailliere to demand the seals from M. de Chateauneuf; and at ten o'clock at night she transferred them to M. M0I6, and dispatched M. de Sully in search of his father-in-law, in order that he might assume the seat of the chancellor in the council. These proceedings were instantly reported to Monsieur; and at the same time, Madame de Chcv- 358 Louis xiv. a .\ o reuse and her daughter impressed strongly upon him the consequences which must result from such a display of in- dependence on the part of Anne of Austria ; nor was their eloquence wasted, for as lieutenant-general of the state, he deeply felt the affront which had been offered to him ; and in the first paroxysm of his annoyance, assembled the chiefs of the faction, and, having laid the circumstances before them, requested their opinion. It was proposed by M. de Montresor, that His Royal Highness should send and demand the restoration of the seals by the president ; and this suggestion was seconded by the coadjutor ; with the amendment, however, that, instead of making their restoration a popular question, he should claim them through the captain of his guard ; adding that, meanwhile, the Duke de Beaufort and himself could remain on the quays at the two extremities of Paris, to keep the people in good humor, whom, fortunately, the name of Monsieur would suffice to pacify. At this point he was, however, interrupted by the duke, who remarked that he would speak for himself when he considered it necessary, but that he did not wish to be quoted, and by no means felt prepared to say that the populace could be restrained, or prevented from throwing the president into the river; in which declaration he was joined by M. de Conde, who, moreover, asserted that he did not understand how to con- duct a conflict of this nature, and that he always felt like a coward on occasions of popular sedition ; but that, if Mon- sieur considered himself to be sufficiently aggrieved to com- mence a civil war, he was quite ready to mount, and start for Burgundy, and levy troops for his assistance. M. de Beaufort followed in the same spirit; and Monsieur be- came alarmed, lest on seeing that the duke was so thor- oughly in the interests of the prince, the people should be divided between the two parties ; and, in consequence, the proposition fell to the ground.* * Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. THE CUUKT OF FRANCE. 359 Mademoiselle adverts slightly to these facts; and the remainder of the paragraph in which she alludes to the matrimonial dissolution, is occupied by the record of an attack of erysipelas, during which the Princess de Conde was confined to her bed ; and which, having struck iu- wardly, placed her life in such danger, that " many persons thought," says Mademoiselle, in her usual style, " that if she died I might very well marry the prince. The report reached my own ears, and I began to reflect. In the even- ing, when I was walking up and down my room with Pre- fontaine,* I conversed with him upon the subject. I con- sidered that the thing was very feasible, from the excellent terms upon which he lived with Monsieur ; while the aver- sion of the queen toward His Royal Highness rendered my marriage with the king impossible. Moreover, I ar- gued that the noble qualities of the prince, and the reputation which he had acquired by his great deeds, supplied all that might have been wanting on his side ; as, with regard to birth, we were both of the same blood. I reflected also, that the court would not consent to the union of our two families (or rather, I should say, of our two branches, since we are of the same name), because Monsieur, in addition to his own position in the state, if supported and rendered more prominent by the prince, would be extremely formi- dable. During the three days that Madame de Conde remained in danger, this was my constant theme of con- versation with Prefontaine, although I mentioned it to no one else. We agitated every question which could arise upon the subject ; and what gave me reason to do this, in addition to the reports which perpetually reached me, was the fact that the prince visited me daily. The recovery of the princess, however, ended the chapter; and from that moment no one thought any more about the matter." t Meanwhile the coadjutor, who had brooded over the affront offered to him by the Duke de Beaufort, and who * Her Secretary. t Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 300 LOUIS XIV. AND was not a man likely to remain supinely in a false posi- tion, while fully conscious of his power, resolved to make a cover of his ecclesiastical duties, and to render the court better aware of his value by withdrawing into retirement. He consequently waited upon Monsieur, to whom he said that having had the honor of being of service to him in the two things which he had the most at heart — the banish- ment of the cardinal, and the release of the princes, his cousins — he now requested the permission of His Royal Highness to return calmly and quietly to the duties of his profession; and the rather, that as the Holy Week was approaching, he was anxious to withdraw himself entirely from worldly affairs, which he could do with the greater tranquillity, as his assistance was no longer necessary to the duke, whom his presence rather tended on the contrary to embarrass ; and of whom he therefore entreated the con- sent that he should retire to his cloister of Notre-Dame. Despite his remonstrances with M. de Retz, and the argu- ments which he used to detain him, the joy of Monsieur at this appeal was too great even for his extraordinary powers of dissimulation ; his eye sparkled, and his cheek flushed with gratification. The struggle was over, and the coadju- tor was an inconvenient ally. After quitting Monsieur, who embraced him at parting, M. de Retz proceeded to take leave of the princes, whom he found at the Hotel de Conde, in company with the duchess and the Princess-Palatine. M. de Conti only laughed at the extraordinary resolution of the prelate, and called him a reverend hermit; Madame de Longueville made no comment whatever; the Princess-Palatine looked disconcerted and disappointed; but the prince, who foresaw all the consequences of the step meditated by the coadjutor, made no attempt to conceal his surprise. Nevertheless, M. de Retz persisted in his design, and retired to Xotre- Dame ; " where, however," he himself says, " I did not abandon myself so entirely to Providence as to neglect THE COURT OK FRANCE. 361 human means of defending myself from the insults of my enemies." It is certain that these were far from contemptible ; for M. d'Annery, with the nobles of Vexin, shared his retreat ; and MM. de Chateaubriant and De Chateau-Regnaut, the Viscount de Lamet, M. Argenteuil, and the Chevalier d'Humieres, also took up their abode in the cloister ; while M. de Balau and the Count d'Orafort, with fifty Scottish officers who had served under Montrose, were distributed among the houses of the rue Neuve ; and the colonels and captains of the different stations, who were in the interests of the ambitious and restless prelate, had each their signal and their watchword ; and thus protected, the coadjutor abandoned himself entirely, at least to all appearance, to the exercise of his religious duties, receiving no one publicly save the canons and curates of the diocese ; and only leav- ing his retreat at night to visit the Hotel de Chevreuse. All was raillery and witticism upon this subject, both at the Palais-Royal and the Hotel de Conde ; and as M. de Retz had established an aviary in one of his windows, Nogent, the court-jester, remarked that no one need longer be anxious with regard to the coadjutor, as he had now only two occu- pations on earth — those of securing his salvation, and of whistling to his linnets. Once rid of the importunate prelate, M. de Conde began resolutely to assert himself, and to urge his claims upon the court. He had been promised the government of Guienne, which had been wrenched from the Duke d'Epernon ; and M. de la Roucbefoucauld, the rank of lieutenant-general, as well as the command of the citadel of Blaye. Moreover, he demanded the government of Provence for the Prince de Conti ; which, as he already held in the interior Cler- mont, Stenay, Bellegarde, Dijon, and Montrond, and that M. de Longueville still kept in view his old government of Normandy, would, should his claim be conceded, create for him almost the position of a sovereign prince ; and afford VOL. I. — Q ;:<;j luuis xiv. and the means of sustaining, should his ambition tempt him to the trial, a struggle in which royalty itself might chance to fail. Mazarin, meanwhile, who in his exile maintained a con- stant correspondence with the regent upon state affairs, be- came terrified at the exactions of the prince, who, in his eagerness to secure himself individually, had not on every occasion been equally zealous in the cause of his friends ; and who, when reminded of his omission upon this point, was wont to say that M. de Beaufort had been very fortu- nate to require only a ladder to escape from his confinement — Mazarin, Ave say, alarmed at his increasing demands, resolved to check the assumption of M. de Conde by any means, however desperate ; and, in pursuance of this deter- mination, he caused the Viscount d'Autel to wait upon the coadjutor in the middle of the night, accompanied by his brother, the Marshal Duplessis, who, however, remained at the door in his carriage. As the viscount entered the apartment of M. de Retz, he flung his arms about his neck, saying that he was anxious to be the first to salute the new minister ; but such a salutation, however it might astonish the coadjutor, did not on that account startle him out of his self-possession, and he merely smiled as he returned the embrace. M. d'Autel, perceiving his incredulity, only the more earnestly persisted in his assertion ; and added, that he had received the commands of the queen to inform him that she placed in his hands not only her own person, but also the life and crown of her son. He then recapitulated to his attentive listener all the decis- ions of the regent and His Eminence relatively to the claims of M. de Conde ; and he was still expatiating upon the self- immolation of the cardinal at so critical a moment for the kingdom, when the marshal entered in his turn ; and, draw- ing a letter from his breast, placed it in the hands of M. de Retz, who instantly recognized the handwriting of Mazarin. It terminated with these words : — THE COURT OF FKANCE. 363 " You know, madam, that the greatest enemy I have in the world is the coadjutor: nevertheless make use of him, madam, rather than enter into any treaty with the prince on the conditions he demands. Make him a cardinal, give him my appointment, and lodge him in my apartments. He will perhaps be more in the interests of Monsieur than in those of Your Majesty ; but Monsieur does not seek the ruin of the state, and his intentions at bottom are not bad. In short, do any thing, madam, rather than grant the demands of the prince. Should he obtain them, there would be noth- ing left to do save to conduct him to Rheims." The coadjutor had, however, no desire to become prime minister ; his ambition tended rather to a seat in the con- clave ; and he did not, moreover - , altogether trust to the perfect sincerity of the court. He accordingly replied to the marshal, that he was deeply sensible of the honor con- ferred upon him by such a proof of Her Majesty's confi- dence, and that in order to prove his gratitude for so signal a mark of favor, he begged of her to permit him to serve her without any view to his own personal interests ; adding, that he was altogether incapable of fulfilling the duties of her minister for many reasons ; nor would it be consistent with her dignity to elevate to such an office, a man who was, so to say, still " warm and smoking" from the opposite faction — a fact which would of itself render him useless to her ser- vice as regarded Monsieur, and still more so as regarded the people, while these were the two most important points to secure at such a crisis. As the marshal still persisted, without effecting any change in the determination of the coadjutor, he at length exclaimed that the prelate ought to see the queen. M. de Retz affected not to have heard the remark ; upon which M. Duplessis repeated his declara- tion with still greater earnestness, as he threw a paper upon the table desiring him to read it, and saying he would perhaps place faith in that at least. It was a document signed by the regent, in which she promised al] surety to 304 LOUIS XIV. AND the coadjutor, if he would present himself at the Palais- Royal. M. de Retz raised the paper to his lips ; and then approaching the fire, threw it into the flames, as he asked when the marshal would conduct him to the queen's presence. It was agreed that M. de Retz should meet him the following midnight in the cloisters of St. Honore, where he was accordingly punctually waiting at the stipulated hour ; and they at once proceeded together to the private ora- tory of the regent by a back stair-case. A quarter of an hour afterward the queen entered; upon which the mar- shal retired, and M. de Retz remained alone with Her Majesty. Although Anne of Austria used all her powers of per- suasion to induce the coadjutor to assume the office, and to install himself in the apartments of the absent minister, she succeeded no better than her envoy ; for M. de Retz easilv perceived that, even while she urged him to this step, her heart and mind were still full of the cardinal; and although she declared that, much as she esteemed and loved His Eminence, she would not peril the safety of the state upon his account, he detected symptoms in her manner which convinced him that she was by no means unwilling to do so, despite her assertion to the contrary. In consequence of this conviction he steadily maintained his position ; and the queen ultimately became so much exasperated by his refusal, that she told him to act as he saw fitting, for that God and the innocence of her son would protect her, since she was abandoned by the whole world ; and for a time she continued to exhibit considerable resentment. Gradually, howevei-, she became more calm, and again consented to hear the propositions of the coadjutor; who promised, should he have her sanction for such a measure, that he would with- draw Monsieur from the interest of the prince in the course of the following day, and compel M. de Conde himself to leave Paris within a week. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 365 The queen, overcome with delight, extended her hand to her late antagonist, declaring that if he could effect this measure, he should be a cardinal in eight-and-forty hours, and moreover, one of the dearest of her friends. She then endeavored to induce M. de Retz to become reconciled to Mazarin ; but upon this point he once more excused him- self, affirming that were he to appear in the character of a partisan of His Eminence he should no longer be able to serve Her Majesty. As he was about to retire from the oratory, she recalled him, and desired him to remember that it was the cardinal who had suggested his nomination to the ministry ; to which he replied that he felt all the ex- tent of his obligation, and that he would testify his gratitude by every means consistent with his honor; but that he would not deceive Her Majesty by leading her to believe that he should take any steps tending to the reestablishment of His Eminence in the ministry. Anne of Austria remained for an instant buried in thought, and then said, cheerfully, " Well, get you gone ; you are a real demon. Good-night. Let me know the day before you attend parliament." In the course of the following night the coadjutor visited Monsieur, who expressed the most lively joy at the reci- tal of his interview with the queen, but blamed him very seriously for his refusal of the office and the lodging of the absent cardinal ; remarking that the regent was a crea- ture of habit, into whose good graces he might possibly have insinuated himself. From the Luxembourg M. de Retz proceeded to the residence of the Princess-Palatine, the queen having assured him, during their conversa- tion, that Her Highness was more interested in his favor than he had imagined ; and that she was also exasper- ated against the prince for reasons that she would herself explain. He was warmly welcomed by the princess, with whom he remained, in fact, until dawn ; when, at the close of a 366 LOUIS XIV. AND long and confidential conversation, he pledged himself to forward the marriage between the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse ; and she, on her side, to sec- cond his views of obtaining the cardinalate, for which he was eventually mainly indebted to her exertions. The interview already narrated between the queen and M. de Retz was followed by several others ; and meanwhile the latter resumed his seat in parliament, as well as his ne- gotiations with the papal court ; and the sensation which he created on his reappearance at the assembly so delighted the regent that she wrote the same day to the Princess- Palatine to desire that he would again await her messenger in the middle of the following night in the cloisters of St. Honore. When he arrived at the palace he found her trans- ported with joy upon ascertaining that a party had been ostensibly organized against the prince, an event which she had not conceived to be possible in so short a time, and which M. de Tellier could not, she said, yet bring him- self to believe ; while Servien maintained that the coadjutor must have had some secret understanding with M. de Conde. Nevertheless, in this conference, which lasted until two hours after midnight, the queen evinced great alarm at the idea of a reconciliation with the prince, under whatever cir- cumstances it might be attempted ; and admitted that the shortest method to deliver the court from his pertinacity would be to arrest him ; but when M. de Retz proposed that this should be accomplished by Monsieur at the Lux- embourg, she decidedly negatived the suggestion, declaring that the Duke d'Orleans did not possess sufficient resolution to undeitake such a measure, and that it would be too haz- ardous to communicate it to him; and, finally, she said that the Marshal d'Hocquincourt w r ould confer with him upon the subject ; and would prove to him that he knew a safer method of accomplishing the end in view than that which he had himself proposed. On the morrow he accordingly had an interview with the THE COURT OF FRANCE. 367 marshal, who informed him that he had proposed to the queen to effect the assassination of M. de Condc, by attack- ing him in the streets ; a suggestion which had apparently struck Her Majesty as the most ready and decisive method of ridding herself of a dangerous enemy. To such an ex- pedient the coadjutor, however, instantly refused to lend himself; and it is a remarkable fact, that Anne of Austria, whose diplomacy in this instance was more conspicuous than her right feeling, only upon the following night, when in conversation with M. de Retz and the Duchess de Chev- reuse (although upon the previous evening she had referred the marshal to the former, as a man who had put forth a rational proposition), declared that she highly approved the scruples of the prelate, which she felt sure would be excited by an attempt of such a nature ; and, moreover, absolutely denied that M. d'Hocquincourt had so ex- plained himself to her. It however transpired, within half an hour afterward, that Madame de Chevreuse had declared to the queen that the coadjutor would never consent to such an expedient : upon which the regent had remarked in her turn to M. de Senneterre, that if that were the case, M. de Retz was not so bold as she had believed him to be. Whatever were the disclaimers of the queen, her mind was, beyond all doubt, strongly biassed in favor of the assassination; while just at that moment every thing ap- peared to conspire in bringing all her sterner feelings into play. Backed by the prince, the parliament pursued its measures against the cardinal unrelentingly; and in the course of the criminal proceedings which it had instituted against him, found him guilty, according to the registers of Cantarini, of having embezzled nine millions of the public money. Deeply mortified by such a decision against her minister, Anne of Austria could only fly for refuge to the more prom- ising prospects held out by the coadjutor ; but her patience 3U8 LOUIS XIV. AND was not proof against the difficulties by which she was sur- rounded ; and alarmed by the continued popularity and in- creasing influence of M. de Conde — who had, despite the resistance of the president, compelled an assembly of the chambers, for the purpose of promulgating a new decree, by which all persons in and about the court were forbidden to maintain any intercourse with the exiled cardinal — she fastened more eagerly than ever upon the prospect of escape held out by the project of M. d'Hocquincourt ; but as she could not consistently recur to the subject herself with the coadjutor, it was M. de Lyonne who a second time brought it forward, asserting that, sooner or later, if his life were spared, the prince would remain master of the field. Again and again he reminded the prelate of his promise to rid the court of the obnoxious conqueror ; and on each occasion M. de Retz, while he steadily main- tained his resolution never to recognize the treacherous act to which he had been urged, still repeated his former offer to arrest the prince at the Orleans palace ; or, should the regent retain her objection to that arrangement, to leave him at large ; while the coadjutor himself should, so strongly attended as to secure him from personal violence, meet M. de Conde on every public occasion, and oppose all such of his measures as might be contrary to the interests of the queen. It was precisely at this period that the prince himself arrested, near Chantilly, a valet-de-chambre of the car- dinal, who was intrusted with a large packet of letters for the court. These he immediately forwarded to the par- liament, while the messenger was imprisoned ; but the letters were not read, the assembly having forthwith decid- ed that the respect due to the persons to whom they were addressed must prevent them from investigating their con- tents. A few days subsequently the messenger was set at liberty ; but this new offense still rankled at the heart of the queen; and her indignation was increased by a suspicion that THE COURT OF FRANCE. 369 M. de Lyonne was unfaithful to her cause, and was giving private information to M. de Conde of all the proceedings at court. At this conjuncture the regent again summoned the co- adjutor to a nightly conference ; but as it had become necessary to avoid the observation of Lyonne, the meeting between Gabouri (who was intrusted with his introduction) and himself took place in front of the Jacobin convent; whence, instead of proceeding as before to the private ora- tory of the queen, they passed into a small gallery, where M. de Retz found Her Majesty in a state of extreme ex- citement against both M. de Lyonne and the prince. She reverted cautiously to the proposition of Marshal d'Hoc- quincourt, and endeavored to justify it ; but the coadjutor replied that, however desirable such a proposal might appear, its execution could never be considered justifi- able. Ultimately she became provoked by his pertinacity, and in the excess of her anger threw out doubts of his sincerity ; to which M. de Retz listened in respectful silence until the storm had spent itself, when he said, grave- ly, " Madam, Your Majesty can not wish the blood of the prince ; and I take the liberty of asserting that you will one day thank me for having opposed its being shed against your inclination, which it would be, madam, ere two days are over, if the proposal of M. d'Hocquincourt were entertained." It is probable that more blood than that of M. de Conde would have been spilled, if the second project of the mar- shal had indeed been carried into execution ; for it was no less than to take possession, at daylight, of die Hotel de Coiide, and to seize the prince in his bed; and when it was remembered that his house was filled by his most faithful adherents, who were all distrustful of the court, and whose suspicions were perpetually alimented by the intelligence which they secretly obtained of the nightly audiences given by the regent; while he was himself one of the Ci* 370 LOUIS XIV. AND bravest men who ever existed, it will at once be perceived that the attempt must have entailed a fearful amount of bloodshed* Conscious of the intrigues which w r ere fomenting against him, M. de Conde shortly afterward retired to St. Maur, about three leagues from Paris. The court were greatly startled by this unexpected proceeding, and negotiations were immediately put on foot to induce his return. He was perhaps a more inconvenient adversary within the walls of the capital than without, but still he was incomparably less dangerous ; and Monsieur, with whom he had contin- ued to live on friendly terms since his liberation, undertook to negotiate his reappearance. The sensation created by this retreat was an ill omen for the court party, in the event of his refusing to compromise ; for the Duchess de Longue- ville, although seriously indisposed, immediately followed him ; and she was accompanied by the Prince de Conti, the dukes de Nemours, Bouillon, La Rochefoucauld, and Richelieu, and the marshals Turenne and La Motte. Thus surrounded by his friends, he dispatched the Duke de la Rochefoucauld to inform Monsieur of his reasons for leaving the capital ; at which Gaston did not conceal his surprise, even while he expressed great regret at the intelligence ; and when he found that the regent had decided to send the Marshal de Grammont to St. Maur to assure the prince that she had never contemplated any design against his person, he highly approved her intention ; at the same time that, never believing for an instant Monsieur de Conde would be induced by any representations to return to Paris, he compromised himself unwittingly by instructing the marshal to give the prince every assurance of his own re- gard and support in this and every other emergency which might occur. M. de Conde had no sooner received the royal envoy than he requested the Prince de Conti to wait upon the * Memoires clu Cardinal de Retz. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 371 parliament, and clearly to explain so them his reasons for the step that he had taken, which were moreover the same already given to Monsieur, declaring that his brother could not consider himself safe at court until the regent had dis- missed Le Tellier, Servien, and Lyonne. He also com- plained bitterly of an attempt which had been made by the cardinal to possess himself of Brisach and Sedan ; and he concluded by announcing to the assembly that the prince had dispatched one of his household to their body with a letter to the same effect. The queen had been equally provident ; and at five o'clock in the morning had forward- ed a letter to the president, commanding that the meeting should not come to any division without awaiting her sanc- tion ; upon which the Duke d'Orleans, anxious, according to his usual policy, to maintain his position with both par- ties, declared that his conscience compelled him to testify that Her Majesty had never conceived an idea of arresting the prince, nor had she taken any part whatever in the proceedings at Brisach. He spoke, in short, as though he had only the interest of the regent at heart. It was decided that the letter of M. de Conde should be referred to her Majesty ; and, as the meeting broke up, the coadjutor ventured to inquire of Monsieur if he had not felt some apprehension that the assembly would demand from him a guaranty for the safety of the prince, after the positive assurances to that effect which he had given ; but Gaston, like the lion who had braved his own shadow in a mirror, and became scared by the reflection, had already began to repent his own energy, and merely desired M. de Retz to follow him, when he declared that he would explain his reasons. He accordingly led the way to his library, drew the bolts, and throwing his hat violently upon a table, exclaimed, with an oath, that either the coadjutor was a great dupe, or that he was himself a great fool ; demanding if the prelate be- lieved that the queen really wished the prince to return to •?72 LOUIS XIV. AND court 1 M. de Retz replied that he had no doubt upon the subject, provided he returned in a position to admit of his arrest or of his destruction. The duke laughed bitterly, declaring he felt convinced that the regent desired him back upon any terms ; for that, only two days previously, she had told him that either M. de Conde or herself must give way ; and that now she required him to procure his return at any price, and even to engage his own honor to the parliament for his surety ; that the prince had left Paris on the previous morning to secure himself against arrest*, and that he would make a heavy bet in favor of his being back again in two days, from the turn which affairs were taking ; while, as for himself, he should start for Blois, and leave both parties do as they pleased.* The prince fulfilled the prophecy, but without abating one particle of his dignity. He insisted on the dismissal of the three individuals already named, whom he designated as " the creatures of Mazarin ;" and his demand was sup- ported by the prayer of the parliament, who sent a deputa- tion to the king to entreat him to recall M. de Conde ; and, for that purpose, to remove all impediments to his return. The queen was, however, a considerable time before she could bring herself to such a resolution ; and meanwhile vehemently declared that she would not dismiss the three persons who had been named. Nevertheless, she event- ually conceded the point, and the prince returned to Paris; but for some time he refused to present himself at court, to the great surprise of every one. On one occasion, as the king was returning from his bath, they accidentally met, which extremely displeased the regent, who declared that she considered M. de Conde to have committed a great in- discretion in frequenting the same localities as the king before he had presented himself at the palace ; and, finally, on one solitary occasion, overruled by the advice of his friends, he went l here accompanied by Monsieur. * Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 373 This ceremony was no sooner over than the Duke d'Or- leans took offense at some trifling annoyance to which he was subjected, and in his turn left Paris, and withdrew to Limours; which so alarmed the queen, who could not afford at such a juncture to lose any support, however weak, that she forthwith commanded Mademoiselle to follow him, and to induce him to return ; while so great was her anx- iety upon the subject, that she even lent her own coach and her cream-colored horses, in order to expedite the de- parture of her niece. The prince followed shortly after- ward, and, more successful than herself (for Monsieur had refused to listen to her in her character as envoy of the queen), he brought him back in triumph to the capital. The next schism was that of the Princess-Palatine and M. de Conde, of which the pretext was that he had absented himself from the courts on the occasion of a trial in which her interests were involved ; and she forthwith attached herself to the interests of the queen and Mazarin. The regency was drawing to its close amid all these pro- ceedings ; and the queen forwarded two declarations to the parliament, one of which declared that Mazarin was ban- ished forever from the kingdom, and the other that the innocence of M. de Conde was fully recognized, and that he was acquitted of all which had been imputed to him against the authority of the king. Her last act of exclusive sover- eign authority was worthy of her previous tergiversations and double policy.* The declarations above recorded were registered on the 5th of September (1651), and on the following day the minority of the king ceased. During the evening, the Sieur de Rhodez, grand master of the cer- emonies, apprised the parliament that the king would re- pair to the palace on the 7th, to hold his Bed of Justice,] as * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. t A name given to the throne, or seat, upon which the king took his place during the extraordinary meetings of parliament. The bed was furnished with five cushions, and stood under a canopy. Upon one of 374 LOUIS XIV. AND the declaration of his majority ; and, upon the same night, the Marquis de Gesvres, captain of the body-guards, the grand-masters, and masters of the ceremonies, and the Sieur de Reaux, lieutenant of the guards, having made the tour of the whole palace, took possession of the keys, and remained within the gates to make the necessary prepara- tions for the next day's ceremonial. On the morning of the 7th, the whole court left the Palais- Royal, with the royal trumpeters in the van. Then came a troop of light-horse, succeeded by that of the grand-pro- vost, closely followed by two hundred individuals, represent- in^ the nobility of France. These were succeeded in their turn by the governors of provinces, the knights of the several orders, the first gentlemen of the chamber, and the great officers of the king's household ; in whose wake rode six of the king's trumpeters dressed in blue velvet, preceding six mounted heralds in complete armor, with accoutre- ments of crimson velvet, powdered with fleurs-de-lis in gold, bearing their staves ; and behind these advanced the mar- shals, two abreast, all richly attired, and mounted upon tall war-horses, whose housings were overlaid with gold and silver embroidery. Behind them rode the Count d'Harcourt alone, as Grand- Equerry of France, wearing in a scarf the sword of the sover- eign attached to his shoulder-belt, and resting upon his arm in its scabbard of blue velvet, studded with golden fleur-de-lis. He was attired in a doublet of cloth of gold and silver, and and wore similar embroidery wrought all over the remain- der of his dress. He rode a mottled-gray charger, whose housings were of crimson velvet, laced with Spanish point in gold ; and instead of reins he guided his horse by two these cushions the king seated himself, extending his arms and legs upon three others, and using the fifth to lean against. The word gave its name to the meeting at which it was used. The Beds of Justice were originated by Philip the Tall, in 1318. On these occasions all the great officers of parliament appeared in crimson robes. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 375 scarfs of black taffetas. An immense crowd of pages and footmen, succeeded in new liveries, and covered with white, blue, and red feathers, and bare-headed, who followed im- mediately behind the count, and separated him from the foot-guards, as well as his train-bearer, the door-keepers, and the mace-bearers. After these came the king himself, calm, dignified, and grave, to a degree astonishing for his years; and securing by the premature majesty of his deportment, say cotem- poraneous writers, the admiration of all ranks, who loaded him with prayers and blessings as he passed along. His dress was so entirely overlaid with gold embroidery that neither the color nor the material could be distinguished ; and he was already so tall that it was difficult to believe that he had only just attained his fourteenth year. This circumstance acted greatly upon the feelings of the crowd, who seeing one of the young nobility riding near him, who was of the same age as himself, but considerably smaller in stature, began with increased enthusiasm to peal forth their cry of " Long live the king!" a demonstration which so startled the cream-colored charger upon which he was mounted that it reared and plunged violently ; but the boy- king managed it with so much ease and self-possession that the incident only tended to give the populace a still higher idea of their young monarch. Having been received at the door of the holy chapel, where he was harangued by the Bishop of Bayeux in full episcopal costume, Louis XIV. alighted to hear mass, after which he proceeded to take his seat in the parliament ; where, covering himself, he addressed the meeting in these terms : " Gentlemen, I have attended my parliament in order to inform you that, according to the law of my kingdom, I shall myself assume its government ; and I trust that, by the goodness of God, it will be with piety and justice. My chancellor will inform you more particularly of my intentions." 376 LOUIS XIV. AND On receiving this command, the chancellor, who had hitherto remained standing, took his seat, ard spoke at considerable length, expatiating with much detail upon the declaration of the sovereign. When he had concluded, the queen made a slight inclination ; and addressing the king, said, in a firm and clear voice, " Sir, this is the ninth year in which, by the last ■will of the deceased king, my much honored lord, I have been intrusted with the care of your education and the govern- ment of the state. God having, by his will, blessed my endeavors, and preserved your person, which is so dear and precious to all your subjects, now that the law of the kingdom calls you to the rule of this monarchy, I transfer to you, with great satisfaction, the power which had been granted me to govern; and I trust that God will bestow on you the grace to assist your measures with his strength and prudence, in order that your reign may be rendered fortunate." To which the king replied, " I thank you, madam, for the care which it has pleased you to take of my education, and the administration of my kingdom ; I pray you to continue to me your good counsels ; and I desire that, after myself, you should be the head of my council." As His Majesty ceased speaking, the queen rose from her seat, and approached to salute the new monarch ; but he, descending at the same instant from his Bed of Justice, walked toward her, and embraced her ; after which they both returned to their places. The Duke d'Anjou next rose, approached his royal broth- er, and sinking upon his knee, kissed his hand, and made declaration of his fidelity. He was followed by the Duke d'Orleans, the Prince de Conti, and all the other princes save M. de Conde, who had, as was soon ascertained, absented himself from Paris. The chancellor, the dukes and peers, the ecclesiastical dignitaries, the marshals of France, the officers of the crown, and all who were present THE COURT OF FRANCE. 377 at the meeting in like manner rose, and tendered their alle- giance to the king ; and although the absence of the Prince de Conde had created a vague feeling of apprehension among the court party, the populace fully compensated for this partial gloom by the unanimous acclamations which accompanied the royal procession to the gates of the Palais- Royal ; where the stripling who had left it a few hours be- fore in subjection to more than one authority, as well indefinite as defined, threw off his gorgeous mantle as the sovereign of one of the proudest thrones in Europe. Mademoiselle, attended by the Queen of England, who was incognita, wit- nessed the march of the procession from the Hotel de Schom- berg, and afterward attended the meeting of the parliament, where she occupied the sky-light. We must not, however, conclude this chapter without remarking that the young king, only a short time before his majority, had, boy as he was, given a proof of that fond- ness for female society, and that passion for female beauty, which was to be his leading characteristic throughout the greater part of his life. Mademoiselle accompanied him several times on horseback, on all which occasions she was attended by Madame de Frontenac ; and Louis derived so much pleasure from these excursions, " that the queen," says Mademoiselle, whose vanity easily misled her upon subjects of this nature, " imagined that the king was in love with Madame de Frotenac ; and in consequence, put an end to these parties which greatly annoyed him. As no reason was given for the interference, he offered the queen a hun- dred pistoles for the poor, every time that he should go out on horseback ; for he imagined that a motive of charity would overcome her indolence, which he believed to be the cause of the prohibition ; and as she refused the offer he said angrily, ' When once I become my own master, I will go where I please ; and I shall soon be so.' After which he turned on his heel, and walked away. The queen wept bitterly, and so did Louis himself, but they were soon reconciled ; 378 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. and Her Majesty forbade him to speak to Madame de Fron- tenac, telling him that she was the relative of M. de Cha- vigny, who was a friend of the prince. I believe," adds Mademoiselle sententiously, "that the true reason of this prohibition existed in a fear that the king would accustom himself too much to my society ; and that in time, either through the arguments of Madame de Frontenac or by the force of habit, he would end by loving me ; and that when once he did so, he would understand that I was the best match he could find in Europe with the exception of the Infanta of Spain. Madame de Choisy informed me of all that had passed between the king and queen ; she had been told of it in order that I should not again pro- pose to ride, for fear of displeasing the queen. Neverthe- less, one more riding party was formed, but the king did not come near either Madame de Frontenac or myself, and cast down his eyes whenever he passed near us. I confess that I was greatly annoyed ; for I placed more dependence upon the manner in which the king conduct- ed himself toward me, and the pleasure which he took in my society, than on all the negotiations ; and this way of becoming a queen was more agreeable to me than any other." * * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. CHAPTER XVII. Youth of Louis XIV. and Philip d'Anjou — Early Associations — Igno- rance of the young King — Armand de Guiche — Subjection of the King to the Cardinal — State of the Kingdom — Discontent of Monsieur — Courage of Mademoiselle — Revolt of Conde — March of the Court against Bordeaux — Return of Mazarin — Paris in Arms — Submission of Turenne — Declaration against the Princes — Sale of the Cardinal's Library — Charles II. after the battle of Worcester — The Duke de Nemours — Madame de Chatillon — Diplomacy of Mademoiselle — The City of Orleans declares for the Fronde — Cowardice of Monsieur — The Countess de Fiesque — Mademoiselle declares herself, and takes Orleans. Having now traced the stream of events which flowed so rapidly from the birth of Louis XIV. to his majority, and which it was incumbent upon us to define, in order to render intelligible the position and identity of the per- sons by whom he was immediately surrounded, and the peculiar circumstances amid which he succeeded to the throne, we must be permitted to occupy ourselves more exclusively than we have yet done with the young sover- eign himself. We have already made some slight allusions to the prin- ciples upon which both his own so-called education, and that of his brother, Philip, were conducted ; and nothing could have been more melancholy in the result to both. Naturally egotistical, haughty, and overbearing, Louis was encouraged in these very qualities; and he, as a matter of course, revenged the submission which he was com- polled to assume rather than to feel at the court of the regent, upon those who composed his own ; while the Duke d'Anjou, who required a stimulant to self-assertion 380 LOUIS XIV. AND and manly tastes, was applauded for puerile habits and conceits, which were discordant both to his sex and his high station. From his earliest youth Louis XIV. exhibited great dis- cernment, and gave evidences of that correct judgment which led him in after years to show favor to men who were distinguished for high and noble qualities ; but even while he lauded and appreciated the courage or the intel- lect which must hereafter tend to illustrate his reign, he began, even while yet a boy, to show himself jealous of those social qualifications in which he believed himself capable of excelling, and wherein he was aware that he could not brook any rivalry- Reared in the conviction that he would be the handsomest man of his court, and without dispute the most idolized, he, as a natural conse- quence, soon learned to distrust and dislike all those who by their personal beauty, their wit, or their intellect, threatened him with even a far-off competition. Nor was this weakness combated by Anne of Austria, who, far from seeking to teach him contempt for so ignoble a feel- ing, shared it with him to its fullest extent; and soon looked chillingly upon such of the young nobles about her son as appeared likely to become his rivals. The greatest misfortune attached to a regency is the effort made by those in authority to prolong to its utmost extent the infancy and helplessness of the royal minor. The least guilty of these exalted guardians content them- selves by maintaining their charge in a perfect state of ignorance concerning those duties whose knowledge is imperative to individuals hereafter to be intrusted with the government of a state, and the welfare of a people ; and in order to carry this point they are not only careful to avoid every opportunity of mooting questions likely to lead to such a knowledge, but also to remove from about the persons of their royal pupils all such companions as are likely to inspire a taste for study and inquiry. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 381 This was precisely the position of Louis XIV. With the exception of his devotional exercises, sufficient milita- ry skill to review his troops, and a perfect familiarity with court etiquet, the young monarch, when he took posses- sion of the throne of France, was utterly ignorant ; and could not have competed with the most shallow school- boy of his age. This effect the regent and her minister had been anxious to accomplish. Louis, as we have else- where said, " enacted the king" to perfection ; his personal grace entranced the populace ; his polished self-possession was the proverb of the court ; and his innate pride pre- vented all assumption of equality on the part of his custo- mary associates ; while in every question of state he was a cipher, helpless and dependent upon the intellect and energy of others; and, although possessed of a strong will, which under other circumstances might have enabled him to throw off with a bound the shackles that had been wound about him, so conscious of his own deficiencies that he could not command sufficient courage to trust in his mental resources, such as they were. Of all the young nobles who had been placed about his person, none caused so much uneasiness to the regent as the Count de Guiche. Independently of his great physi- cal beauty, his frank fearlessness led him to speak without reserve both of persons and occurrences; and the queen and her minister soon discovered that by this very incon- venient quality, he was teaching the king to think, the most dangerous habit which he could acquire under the circumstances, as regarded their particular interests. Armand de Guiche had been the first friend of Louis, and as he grew to boyhood, the king exhibited more par- tiality toward himself, the Prince de Marsillac, and the Marquis de Vardes, than to any other of his young court- iers ; and this increased so greatly as time wore on, that Anne of Austria determined, if possible, to diminish so inconvenient a regard ; and for this purpose expatiated 382 LOUIS XIV. AND before him on the good qualities of the Prince de Marsil- lac, who, being plain in his person and dull in his intel- lect, appeared to her to be a safer associate for the young king ; whose determined character and somewhat roman- tic temperament were not likely to be influenced by a nature at once so gentle and so insignificant as that of the prince.* It is probable that had no attempt been made to alien- ate the regard of Louis from Armand de Guiche it would, like his other partialities, have worn itself out before the dreaded consequences had been accomplished ; but this opposition rather tended to make the young monarch over- look the discrepancies of their respective characters, and to increase his estimation of his friend's companionable qualities. We have, moreover, already shown that the will of Louis was peremptory where he could exercise it ; and the society of De Guiche was consequently no sooner interdicted than he found the favorite indispensable in all his amusements ; and his resolution not to submit to the required estrangement assumed so determined an air of affection, that the queen became more alarmed than ever. The father of the young count was in the field fighting the battles of the state, and this fact rendered her position still more embarrassing ; while the friendship, for which she was herself deeply indebted to the Duchess de Grammont, prevented her from taking any step which might imply an affront to his family. This apparent regard consequently continued, but it was not destined to last. The rivalry was too close and too dangerous ; and the young count soon learned to esti- mate at their just value the demonstrations of which he was the object. It was with the qualities and the defects which we have endeavored to describe, that Louis XIV. attained his ma- jority ; but, conscious of the intellectual inferiority, to * Meinoires de Madame de Motteville. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 383 which allusion has been already made, he did not attempt to assert himself, save on particular occasions when his temper gave way before opposition, but suffered himself still to be guided by the will of his mother and the counsels of Mazarin, whose influence over the mind of Anne of Austria proved more powerful during his exile than it had been at the period of his sojourn in the capital. The king had, on his Bed of Justice (described in the last chapter), published three declarations. The first against blasphemy ; the second against duelling ; and the third to recognize the innocence of the Prince de Conde, who had not, how- ever, awaited this royal exoneration in order to become guilty, at least in design, of a second crime of the same nature with that of which he had been formerly accused. At the same time the council was reorganized. The Mar- quis de Chateauneuf assumed the principal direction of af- fairs, which he had so long awaited ; the seals lately with- drawn from the president Mole, were restored to him ; and, finally, M. de Lavieuville, who twenty-seven years previously had opened the door of the council-chamber to Richelieu, then a young man, and by whom he was after- ward himself excluded, was created superintendent of finance, through the interest of his son with the Princess- Palatine. He ably seconded the influence which had been exerted in his behalf; for his first ministerial meas- ure was that of advancing four hundred thousand crowns as a loan to the queen. If this were, as it was generally considered, an error in judgment, and a solecism in econ- omy, it could not in any case be designated as a youthful act of folly, for the president Mole, who was the younger of the three ministers, had already attained his sixty-sev- enth year. Meanwhile France was apparently tranquil, but it was easy to judge that the calm was a mere breathing-space; a transient rest between two civil wars. The first, save as regarded individuals, had been of little import in its 384 LOUIS XIV. AND results ; the issue of that which was to succeed was yet to be computed. The king could not be said to possess an army ; while the two bodies of troops on the frontiers of the Low Countries were doing infinitely more injury to their own countrymen than to the Spaniards. The force commanded by the Marshal d'Aumont* was his own ; and the other belonged to the Prince de Conde, and was commanded by Saulx-Tavannes ; the first made a few demonstrations which led to no result, while the latter remained passive, and menacing from its very neutrality. The Marshal de la Ferte-Senecteret was in Lorraine with another corps, where he gained several slight advantages, which served to keep the court in spirits, although their result was unimportant. In Italy the troops were inac- tive, as the King of Spain was occupied for the moment with Catalonia, where the Count de MarchainJ had shut himself up in Barcelona, which the Marquis de Mortare was besieo-incj on the land side, while Don Juan of Austria blockaded it by sea. In the south, where the * Anthony d'Aumont, de Rochebaron, Marquis d'Isle et du Ville- quier, Marshal of France, in whose favor Louis XIV. raised the estate of Aumont to the dignity of a duchy-peerage. t Henry de Senectere, called the Marshal de la Ferte, was of a very ancient family of Auvergne, and was the son of Henry de Senectere, the king's lieutenant in Champagne, and ambassador in England. He displayed his courage at the siege of Rochelle (162(5), at the capture of Mayenne, and Treves, and at the battle of Avesnes. Appointed adju- tant-general, he distinguished himself at Rocroy and Sens, and defeated the Duke of Lorraine in 1650. Made Marshal of France in 1651, he saved Nancy, and took Chaste, Mirecourt, Vaudrevauge, Montmedi, and Gravelines (1651-58). He died in 1681, at the age of eighty-two years. X The Count de Marchain was liberated from a long imprisotiment at the same period as the princes, and was immediately elevated not only to the rank of a general officer, but also to that of a vice-roy. Such a sudden revolution of fortune would, at any other period, have excited unbounded astonishment; but during the early years of Louis XIV. it occurred so frequently, that it occasioned little comment. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 385 disbanded corps which had served under the Duke d'Epernon and the Marshal de la Meilleraye during the last campaign, were scattered over the country, there still existed considerable excitement ; and a great desire to resume a war by which many had profited, while few had suffered. Navy there was none. England, Spain, and Holland were the three great maritime forces of Europe.* Monsieur was as discontented and as helpless as ever ; while, as time wore on, he became more conscious of the moral defects which had rendered him powerless at a moment when he should have occupied a prominent position on- the national canvas. Always occupied with trifles, and greedy of securing every personal advantage, he so thoroughly embarrassed his private affairs, that he only succeeded in alienating the very persons whom he was anxious to attach. Thus he contrived nearly to break with the coadjutor without remaining upon terms with M. de Conde ; and he distrusted the parliament, which repaid him by a like compliment. He exhibited sulkiness towards Mademoiselle, who expressed, with consider- able vivacity, her regret at the insignificance to which he was reduced by his own weakness; and in order to give himself some appearance of movement, he set on foot twenty different negotiations to bring about an alliance between the king and herself, always retiring a pace as any advance was made toward him. There can be no doubt, however, that he contemplated the possibility of this marriage with at least as much repugnance as pride ; for if, on the one hand, it was destined to make his eldest daughter a queen, on the other it deprived the younger children of every hope of her immense inheritance ; which would, as a natural consequence, be entirely absorbed by so august an alliance. His great dependence, when he dwelt upon this phase of the subject, was based on the " Louis XIV. et son Siecle. VOL. I. R 386 LOUIS XIV. AND coolness of the queen toward Mademoiselle, whose assiduity in paying her court to her royal aunt, did not remove from the mind of Anne of Austria a certain feeling of avoidance, which she only contrived to conceal when she could render the agency of her niece profitable to her own projects ; while that niece, wearied in her turn with constantly awaiting a husband who never came, and of being made the puppet of state expediency, lost no oppor- tunity of seconding the endeavor of Madame to rouse the Duke d'Orleans from his apathy; and to induce him to assume an attitude which would enable him to compel the terms he appeared to be inclined only to solicit. Despite her persevering and futile weakness on the article of her marriage, and the paltry and puerile atten- tion which she bestowed upon petty observance and empty etiquet, Mademoiselle possessed a fund of courage both mental and physical, which betrayed the descendant of Henry IV. more than the daughter of Gaston of Orleans ; and this she exerted in favor of her darling ambition, by prompting her father to some serious act of rebellion which might tend to establish him in a more suitable position, and enable her to secure an alliance commen- surate with her wishes. The Prince of Wales, the arch- duke, and even the emperor, had less attraction in her eyes than the boy-king, who was only just emerging into manhood ; but whom, from the period of his majority, she began to regard with other views than she had previously been willing to admit even to herself. The emergencies of the state rendered her enormous revenue a matter of extreme importance ; and as she was accustomed to magnify all her advantages, she had no difficulty in esti- mating this fact at its full value ; wearied, however, as we have shown, by the delays, subterfuges, and intrigues which presented themselves as obstacles to the marriage, she boldly determined to extort from fear what she had been unable to command from a milder feeling ; and THE COURT OF FRANCE. 387 thence her continual attempt to awaken the stagnant spirit of Monsieur. The Prince de Conde had, as we have shown, left Paris on the evening preceding the declaration of the king's majority, and immediately proceeded to Trie, where the Duke de Longueville was then residing, in the hope of inducing him once more to share his fortunes. In this attempt he however failed ; for the duke was no longer young, and his imprisonment had augmented his infirmities. Finding that he had no prospect of success with M. de Longueville, the prince accordingly hastened to Essonnes, where he was joined by the Dukes de la Rochefoucauld and Nemours : halted for a day to await a letter from Monsieur which never arrived ; and then pushed on to Bourges;* where he was overtaken by a delegate from the parliament, who came with a proposal that he should remain quietly in his government of Guienne until the assembly of the states-general. Tran- quillity was not, however, the project of the prince, and he consequently rejected the proposition with contempt ; moved on to Montrond, where he left the Prince de Conti and the Duke de Nemours in command of the town ; and attended only by his councilor, M. de Lenet, continued his route to Bordeaux. He was received with enthu- siasm, and the city instantly became the nucleus of rebel- lion. The princess, and her son the Duke d'Enghien, immediately joined him ; and they were quickly followed by Madame de Longueville, who probably anticipated a second civic throne. The Count Foucaut du Doignon, governor of Brouage, declared in his favor, which was the more important as * A town of Central France, in the Department of the Cher. It was in old times the capital of Aquitaine, and afterward that of Berry ; and was moreover the birthplace of Louis XI. and of Jacques Cceur. The distance from Paris to Bourges is fifty-seven leagues. The cathedral and the town-hall arc both very fin'; buildings. 388 LOUIS XIV. AND he held the whole line of coast from Rochelle to Royau. The veteran Marshal de la Force and his friends in Guienne, offered him their services ; the Duke de Riche- lieu joined him with the levies that he had made in Sain- tonge and the neighborhood of Annis : the Prince of Tarento, who held Taillebourg on the Charente, for- warded his pledge of allegiance ; and M. de Conde finally awaited only the arrival of the Count de Marchain, who had promised to abandon his vice-royalty, and to join him with such of the regiments as he should be able to attach to his cause ; while Lenet had already departed for Madrid to negotiate with the court of Spain ; a task of which he acquitted himself so satisfactorily, that he concluded not only a treaty with the most Catholic king, but also with the archduke, who commanded in the Low Countries, and who had just taken Bergua. Other proposi- tions were made and accepted, which ultimately cost France both Dunkirk and Gravelines ; and, moreover, compelled the court to maintain a body of troops on the frontier at a time when they were very essential in Guienne. Nevertheless, the progress of the prince was not such as from his personal bravery, his past services, and the professions of his friends, he had been encouraged to anticipate. His adherents were lukewarm ; and even the old Marshal de la Force did not act in a manner consistent with his antecedents. But we must not antici- pate events. The cardinal, on his side, had not been idle ; and as he well knew that one common feeling animated all ranks and all parties in France, whatever might be their other dis- crepancies of opinion, and that this one was nothing less than an inveterate hatred of himself; he employed his exile in raising a body of troops from the neighborhood of Liege and on the borders of the Rhine, in order to be ready to return into France despite all the decrees then or there- after to be promulgated against him. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 389 A few days after he attained his majority, the king had sent for the coadjutor, and publicly delivered to him the authentic act by which the nation pointed him out as the chosen candidate for the cardinalate ; but as M. de Retz was not apt to place the strongest reliance upon these royal recommendations, he personally dispatched a courier to Rome, to solicit the hat which had so long been the object of his ambition. The court were soon apprised of the arrival of the prince at Bordeaux, and of the reception which he had met with, both from the nobility and the parliament ; when a resolu- tion was made that the king should undertake against the husband a similar expedition to that which, a few months pre- viously, had been organized against the wife. It was, more- over, resolved that the sovereign should march upon the capital of Guienne by the same road which M. de Conde had followed, in order to neutralize the impression which he had produced ; and the king forthwith left Fontaine- bleau, where he had taken up his residence, and proceeded to Berry. Mademoiselle was not commanded to accom- pany the court, for her father had recently had a new mis- understanding with the queen, who, when the princess attended her reception on the evening before the departure, expressed her regret that, in her then position of affairs, it was impossible for Her Majesty to claim her company. Nothing could be more promising than the commence- ment of this journey. On arriving before Bourges, the fortress scarcely made a show of resistance ; while Mon- trond opened its gates, after having afforded time to M. de Longueville (who had repaired thither after the departure of the princess for Bordeaux), the Prince de Conti, M. de Nemours, and several other persons of rank who were assembled within the walls, to secure their escape. When the court had possessed themselves of Bourges, the fortress was immediately destroyed ; and after a so- journ of seventeen days in the town, they proceeded to 390 LOUIS XIV. AND Poitiers; while the army, under the command of Count d'Harcourt, and composed of the best troops that the king possessed, was opposed to a handful of raw militia, headed by the prince in person. They had several engagements, and took and retook the bridges over the Charente ; the military genius of M. de Conde enabling him to sustain himself even against a regulai'ly disciplined force, which, had it contended with a less experienced leader, must have crushed so unequal and half-trained a body of men in the first struggle ; and it was during these opening hostilities the news arrived that Mazarin had reentered France with an army of six thousand men. He had progressed cautiously ; commencing by Huy, thence advancing to Dinant, then to Bouillon, then to Se- dan, where he had been well received upon displaying a passport from the queen ; and thence, followed by his troops, all wearing the green scarf which was the badge of his house, he had passed the Meuse, reached Rethel, and was advancing through Champagne, escorted by two French marshals, the Marquis d'Hocquincourt, and the Marshal de la Ferte-Senectere. Paris was shaken to its center ; but the emotion was not one of fear. All was forgotten save vengeance ; the par- liament hastily assembled : and although a letter from the king was read, in which he desired them not to encourage any anxiety with regard to the movements of His Emi- nence, whose intentions were well known to the queen, they nevertheless hastened to proceed against him as a rebel. It was declared that the cardinal and his adherents had alike infringed the prohibitions contained in the declaration of the sovereign, and were, in consequence, from that moment to be considered as disturbers of the public peace, and, as such, to be pursued by the corpora- tions ; while it was, moreover, ordained that the library and movable property of the cardinal were to be sold, from the proceeds of which sale the sum of one hundred THE COURT OF FRANCE. 39 1 and fifty thousand livres should be set apart as the reward of whomsoever should deliver him up, dead or alive. The coadjutor attempted, without success, to render the decree less severe ; but as he ran considerable risk of losing his popularity by such an endeavor, all that he could do was to retire from the assembly, asserting that, iu his ecclesias- tical character, he could not assist at a deliberation in which a question of life and death had been mooted. Some days previously a similar declaration had been made against the prince, the Prince de Conti, Madame de Longueville, and the Dukes de Nemours and de la Roche- foucauld ; but this was soon forgotten iu the excitement created by the outlawry of the cardinal. Each of the other culprits had some personal regard, or some individual interest to link them with the community ; but Mazarin was a common enemy, for whom M. de Retz alone had ventured to raise his voice ; and his magnificent library was mercilessly submitted to public auction, sold and dis- persed, despite the offer of a bibliopolist of the period, who volunteered to purchase it, as it stood, for forty-five thou- sand livres. Fate appeared to favor Mademoiselle amid all these embarrassing events. While M. de Gaucour was busied in endeavoring to induce Monsieur to declare himself openly for the prince, the King of England arrived in France, on his way to Scotland ; and his mother hastened to Beauvais to meet him. He had just fought the battle of Worcester ; and, for some time previously, she had been in a state of wretched anxiety, not having received any assurance of his safety. Despite the fact that he had, in order to effect his escape, cut his hair close, and as- sumed a dress which was not consistent either with his rank or the fashion of the time, Mademoiselle was de- lighted to find him greatly improved in appearance, as well as in his knowledge of the French language. He gave her a detail of all his sufferings ; and what she found 392 LOUIS XIV. AND of still greater interest, he expatiated to her. while travers- ing the gallery which connected the Louvre with the Tuileries, as he reconducted her to her apartments, upon the miserable existence which he had led in Scotland, where there was not a woman of quality ; and the people were so uncivilized, as to consider it a sin to listen to music; adding, that he had felt less regret at the loss of the battle, from the hope which he entertained of returning to France, and to persons who were so dear to him. In short, the unthroned king had become at once a lover, and affected to hold lightly his reverses at home, in order to play the courtier to the great heiress of the Tuileries. As Mademoiselle was never ungrateful for such demon- strations, and was glad of any incident which tended to relieve the monotony of her existence, she met his ad- vances in the most amiable spirit ; putting her violin-band into requisition, and amusing the fugitive monarch with impromptu balls, in which he acquitted himself with as much grace, in a courante or a has de basque, as though his kingdom were not at stake, and his very existence a mat- ter of marvel. But, above all, the princess was deeply touched by the fact that it was only in her society that Charles thus threw off his natural reserve and taciturnitv, and assumed the manner of a man sincerely enamored ; keeping his eyes constantly fixed upon her, and conversing with her, in such a manner, as to convince her that " love was rather a native of France than the product of any other nation ; and, that while he spoke her language, he forgot his own, of which he lost the habit only with her- self."* Nevertheless, the idea of becoming Queen of France had so thoroughly taken possession of the mind of Made- moiselle, that she merely treated the advances of Charles as an agreeable interlude, and by no means desired to commit herself. The Princess-Palatine, whose husband * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 393 was the cousin-german of the English king, used all her eloquence upon the subject ; and she was succeeded by Madame de Choisy, who remarked that the princess ought not to be seen so constantly in the society of the King of England, as the circumstance produced a bad effect at court ; to which the Princess-Palatine replied, that nothing could be more absurd than such a restriction ; and that Mademoiselle had nothing to do but to live on in her usual manner. Madame de Chatillon, who was then in Paris, but who had always been estranged from the prin- cess, in consequence of the great attachment which she had felt for the late Princess-Dowager de Conde, sent to re- quest that she might be permitted to pay her respects to Her Royal Highness ; while the Queen of England, on one occasion, renewed the subject of her son's marriage, and observed to Mademoiselle that she wished him to owe her hand to her own generosity, and not to the authority of Monsieicr; to which assurance the princess answered, that she was so happy in her present position, she never thought of marriage ; although she received this propo- sition with all the respect to which it was entitled ; and requested that time might be allowed her to reflect. The queen said she would wait a week for her decision ; only begging her to remember that she would remain the sole mistress of her property, even after her marriage. Charles skillfully seconded the advances of his mother ; and the unfortunate princess, who, with the most ardent and persevering desire to obtain a husband, always con- trived to be occupied by one alliance, when she had an- other within her grasp ; finding that she was probably fore- going the substance to clutch the shadow, and amusing herself with a head which had not yet fitted on the crown that was its birthright, when she might be, by these means, lessening her chance of sharing a diadem already secured; considered it necessary to modify her extreme courtesy to the fugitive monarch; and, consequently, when urged anew R* 31) i LOUIS XI V. A N D by the English queen to pledge her hand to Charles, in the event of her marriage with Louis not taking place, she affected to consider the latter a mere chimera, and con- sented that Henrietta should confer with Monsieur. The queen thus authorized, at once proceeded to the Luxem- bourg, and was shortly afterward followed by Mademoi- selle, who was anxious, although by no means alarmed at the anticipation of her father's reply ; for she was too well aware of his weak and wavering nature to apprehend, for a moment, that he would venture upon a definitive answer. She had argued justly ; His Royal Highness had con- tented himself by declaring to the English queen that he could not move in such a matter without the order of the sovereign; a reply which delighted Mademoiselle, who thus saw the ungracious responsibility of a refusal re- moved from herself individually ; and who had no inclina- tion to share the misfortunes of a dethroned monarch, or to reign over a country in the convulsed and unhappy state in which England still remained. On her return home she found Charles II. awaiting her, who believed that the affair was already concluded, as he did not anticipate any obstacle from the court. As she entered he expressed his delight at the favorable answer which had been given to the queen his mother; and added that he should now hope to be enabled, ere long, to recover his throne, in order to share his prosperity with Mademoiselle, which would render it doubly valuable. To this gallantry the princess coolly replied by the re- mark, that if he did not return to England to support his own cause, it was highly improbable that he would ever attain to the dignity which was his due; but, nevertheless, the weak and trifling temperament of Charles was suf- ficiently callous to the rebuke to induce him to exclaim, " How ! madam ; after having married me, should you wish me to take my leave V The reply was fully as THE COURT OF FRANCE. 395 characteristic as the inquiry. " Yes, sire," answered the princess, proudly, "should such an event occur, I shall be compelled to make your interests my own ; and I should be grieved to see you dancing triplets here, and amusing yourself, when you ought to be upon the spot where you might either get your head broken, or place a crown upon it."* After this conversation, which did not tend to the satis- faction of either party, Mademoiselle desired Lord Germain to request the King of England not to visit her so constantly, as his marked attention excited comments which were calculated to injure her in the world ; and, despite his solicitations, she refused to withdraw her entreaty; at which Charles took such serious offense that he remained for tlrree weeks without seeing her ; but, naturally inclined to gayety, he could ill brook the privation entailed upon him by this exile from a circle so gay as that of the princess ; who, during his absence, rather increased than diminished the number of her fetes; a circumstance which so excited the anger of Lord Germain, that he was incautious enough to remark, in public, that when she had once become the wife of Charles, they would diminish her outlay, and dispose of her estates; a liberty which Mademoiselle resented so deeply, that she immediately resolved never to contract an alliance which appeared to be so securely anticipated by the interested parties. Meanwhile, the cardinal continued his journey without any obstacle ; and ultimately, at the end of January, one month after he again entered France, he arrived at Poitiers, in the carriage of the king, who had gone him- self to meet him ; and was received by the whole court with the greatest demonstrations of delight. The Duke de Nemours about the same time arrived in Paris, on his way from Guienne to Flanders, where he was * Memoires cle Mademoisello do Montpensior. 396 LOUIS XIV. AND about to place himself at the head of his troops, and to receive those which had been sent to him by the King of Spain, and which were then at Maries, whence they could, without difficulty, pass into Flanders. He remained some days in the capital; and as Monsieur was at that period in the full flush of his hatred toward Mazarin, the rebel duke was a constant visitor at the Luxembourg, where his personal beauty and engaging manners ren- dered him the idol of the circle. " This duke," says Bussy-Rabutin, " had very light hair, a well-shaped nose, and a small and finely-colored mouth. He had also the neatest figure in the world ; and displayed in his slightest movements a grace which could not be sufficiently admired, combined with a disposition at once joyous and playful."* It was at the first of these assemblies at the Luxem- bourg after the arrival of M. de Nemours, that " Madame de Chatillon arrived," writes Mademoiselle ; " dressed most magnificently, and as beautiful as an angel ; which was the more remarked, as during the whole winter she had not appeared in full dress."* Madame de Chatillon was the daughter of the Lord de Bouteville, who lost his head for having fought a duel in opposition to the edicts of Louis XIII. We supply her portrait from the same gallery which afforded that of the Duke de Nemours. " Madame de Chatillon had bright black eyes, a low fore- head, a handsome nose, a small, fresh, and arched mouth ; the complexion which it pleased her to adopt, generally it was white and red ; and a charming laugh which went to the hearts of her hearers. Her hair was jet black, her figure tall, her bearing graceful, her hands thin, dry, and dark ; her arms of the same color and long ; she was mild, courteous, and flattering in manner; faithless, in- terested, and incapable of friendship in disposition; never- * Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules. t Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 397 theless, however you might be forewarned of her bad qualities, when she resolved to please it was not possible to defend yourself: she had some habits which were charming, and others which drew down upon her the contempt of all the world. For money or ambition she would have dishonored herself, and sacrificed father, mother, and lover."" We have devoted a certain space to the mention of this lady, as we shall have occasion to recur to her ere long. She had married M. de Chatilion, with the assistance of the Prince de Conde, while he was yet a boy, and despite the decrees of the senate ; when the prince, after escort- ing them to Stenai, which he had lent to them as a resi- dence, made the bridegroom a loan of twenty thousand livres. After the lapse of a few days, however, M. de Chatilion left his wife, and joined the army (1643) ; while she withdrew to a convent of nuns two leagues from Paris, where several of her friends, aware that she was penniless, advanced her loans which, in her after prosperity, she omitted to return. Her moral conduct was still more questionable than her gratitude. Exiled from the court after the arrest of the princes, she retired to her estate of Chatilion, where she was followed by the dowager Madame de Conde, who ultimately died beneath her roof; bequeathing to her, thi'ough the agency of a priest, whom the fascinations of the duchess had enthralled, the value of a hundred thousand crowns in precious stones, and a life tenure of the lordship of Marlou, which was computed at twenty thousand annual livres. According to her usual custom, she had no sooner secured the bequest than she dismissed the unfor- tunate priest to whom she was indebted for its possession ; while the prince, who had become enamored of her in his turn, only succeeded in his pursuit by changing the life tenure of Marlou into an actual gift. * Hietoire Amoureuse tics Gaules. 398 LOUIS XIV. AND While these festivities were taking place at the Luxem- bourg and the beautiful widow was putting forth all her fascinations in order to retain the young duke in her chains, the intelligence of Mazarin's triumphant return and reception at court created great commotion in the capital ; but the individual who most keenly felt the blow was the Duke d'Orleans ; who, on this occasion, at least, appeared resolved not to forego the vow of vengeance which he had taken against the cardinal. Mademoiselle triumphed in his unhoped-for resistance ; for, although she had been careful to maintain her own connection with the court, by sustaining a correspondence with the queen, and even occasionally writing to her uncle, the Duke de Guise, and expressing great interest in the success of the royal cause (because, as she admits, with her usual somewhat tardy frankness, she believed that her letters would be opened by the way, as they had been during the journey to Bordeaux, and that thus the court would give her credit for her good intentions) ; * she had, nevertheless, not lost sight of her darling project ; and became daily more convinced that her marriage with Louis XIV. could only be accomplished through fear. M. de Conde profited by the intelligence which soon reached him of the anger of Monsieur, to dispatch to him the Count de Fiesque, with the proposition of a treaty, by which the Duke d'Orleans was to pledge himself to unite the troops over whom he had authority, to those which M. de Nemours was about to bring from Flanders ; and from that moment to assist, even ostensibly, should it be- come requisite, the interests of the prince against those of the cardinal. Madame entreated and expostulated in vain ; his hatred to Mazarin was more powerful than her influence, and Monsieur signed the treaty. He had no sooner succeeded with the father, than M. de Fiesque asked and obtained an audience of the * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 399 daughter, whom he entertained with lengthy assurances of the great regard in which she was held by the prince, who was, as he declared, anxious that she should feel their interests to be in common, and understand how much he desired to see her Queen of France ; which would be an immense advantage to himself, should she be kind enough to place more confidence in him than she had hitherto done. This assurance having been graciously received and answered, he next delivered to her a letter from M. de Conde, which contained a ratifi- cation of the words of his envoy, but couched in a style of devoted attachment to which few persons were more susceptible than Mademoiselle. An opportunity soon occurred which enabled Monsieur and his daughter to prove their good faith in this new engagement ; for after the unimportant encounters to which we have already made allusion between the Count d'Harcourt and the lieutenants of the prince, as well as with the prince himself, the king had in person besieged Poitiers, which was defended by M. de Rohan ; but at the moment when succor arrived M. de Rohan had surren- dered. This was consequently a valid advantage to the royal cause, especially at a time when the court ascer- tained the constantly-increasing animosity of the capital toward the cardinal, and the treaty into which Monsieur had entered with the prince. Both these circumstances created uneasiness ; but the greatest evil existed in the fact that Paris was abandoned to the united influence of the parliament and the Duke d 'Orleans; and, desperate as was the measure, it was soon decided that the royal family must return to the capital without delay. It is probable that this courageous resolution would not, how- ever, have been formed, had not the Marshal Turenne, at that precise moment, finding himself unable to come to a satisfactory understanding with M. de Conde, offered his own services and those of his troops to the cardinal ; an 400 LOUIS XIV. AND example which was followed by the Duke de Bouillon. On their arrival in Paris, the princes lived in great seclusion, and saw scarcely any one save their particular friends, among whom was the coadjutor; who, well aware of the importance of their partisanship, made the most strenuous endeavors to induce Monsieur to comprehend it ; and to compel the two brothers to enter into his interests. The aversion of the Duke d'Orleans toward the elder (M. de Bouillon), for which he could give no rational reason, prevented him, however, from acting as he should have done on such an occasion; while the con- tempt which the younger did not conceal for himself, and of which he was by no means embarrassed to explain the motive, rendered the negotiation one of great difficulty. As has already been shown, it was unsuccessful ; while their own endeavor to attach M. de Retz to the court party proved equally abortive. The king commenced his march ; but when he reached Blois, where he remained for a couple of days, and was concentrating his troops at Beaugency, he learned the ap- proach of the Duke de Nemours at the head of a Spanish force; and that he was about to operate a junction with the Duke de Beaufort, in order to march against the royal army. At such a crisis it became imperative to ascertain the temper of Orleans ; for although Louis XIV. was King of France, it was no less certain that Monsiem- was the suzerain of Orleans ; while it was also publicly known that His Royal Highness had signed a treaty with the the princes. A demand was in consequence made to the authorities of the city, that they should declare for which party they intended to pronounce ; when, without hesita- tion, they decided for the Duke d'Orleans ; while the court had a more formidable enemy than ever in the coadjutor, who at this period obtained his seat in the conclave. The Marquis de Sourdis, who was governor of both the THE COURT OF FRANCE. 401 province and the city, was very unpopular, and consequent- ly anxious that Monsieur should arrive and assume the com- mand in his own person ; and to expedite this measure the Count de Fiesque retm-ned in great haste to Paris, to ex. plain to His Royal Highness how essential his presence had become at Orleans, which was an important post during a period of civil war. A free communication with Guienne was so imperatively necessary to the party and interests of the prince, that he had been careful to direct that every exertion should be made to secure the city from loss 01 damage — a piece of intelligence which in all probability served even better than the arguments of his friends to wring a promise from Monsieur that he would set out for Orleans on the evening of Palm Sunday, to request the dukes of Beaufort and Nemours to furnish an escort to ac- company him from Etampes to the end of his journey. Mademoiselle, who had arranged to retire during the Holy Week to the Carmelite convent at St. Denis, and who went to take leave of her father in consequence, de- ferred her intention until the following day, in consequence of the arrival of the Duke de Beaufort, who had followed M. de Fiesque, in order to second him in his endeavor to decide Monsieur upon an immediate appearance in Orleans; and who, during a visit which he made to the princess, re- marked, in the spirit of a prophet, that if His Royal High- ness should eventually decline the journey, she must re- place him. No proposal could have been more congenial to her tern perament; and the ambition of Mademoiselle fired at the first word. She immediately went to the Capuchin con- vent in the Rue St. Honore, where Father Georges, a de- clared Frondeur, was to preach before Monsieur; and, at the close of the service, informed him that she had delayed her own journey in consequence of his departure. She then followed him to the Luxembourg, where she found him in one of those irritable humors which were sure to 402 LOUIS XIV. AND result from his adopting any important resolution. He spared neither friends nor enemies, declaring that he was persecuted on all sides; and that if he listened to the par- tisans of M. de Conde, and left Paris, all would be lost ; and, finally, he exclaimed angrily that he would not go, murmuring against the violence which was exerted to turn him from his own quiet and retired tastes and habits, and envying the happiness of those who had no connection with public affairs. Mademoiselle listened with more annoyance than sur- prise to all these puerile complaints, which led her to dread a renewed exile from the court, and the utter destruction of her own prospects, as their result ; and wept bitterly over the unconquerable pusillanimity of her father. Her only consolation existed in the belief that those about His Royal Highness would induce him, in the event of his ad- herence to this last unworthy resolution, to permit that she should become his representative ; and she was not de- ceived in her hopes ; for, after having left the Luxembourg, and returned home to supper, she was visited by the Count de Tavannes, one of the lieutenant-generals of the prince, who informed her, in a low voice, that he was delighted to be able to assure her that it had been arranged for Her Royal Highness to proceed to Orleans in the name of Monsieur; bidding her, at the same time, to be silent upon the subject until the news should be officially announced to her by the Count de Rohan. The latter shortly afterward appeared; and Mademoi- selle, with a beating heart, hastened to signify her obe- dience to the orders of Monsieur; requesting the Count and Countess de Fiesque,* and Madame de Frontenac to accompany her, an invitation which was at once accepted. The princess could not have selected two more fascinating * Gillona d'Harcom-t, widow of the Marquis de Piennes, who re- married with Charles Lionel, Count de Fiesque, was commonly known in the world as " the Countess." THE COURT OF FRANCE. 403 companions for her somewhat chivalrous expedition than the two ladies above named. We have already shown that the latter had been able to captivate the affections of a mere stripling ; while of the former, even the cynical Bussy says, with enthusiasm, " The Countess de Fiesque was an admirable woman. Her eyes were brown and brilliant, her nose well made, her mouth agreeable and ruddy, her complexion fair and smooth, and the shape of her face long ; she was the only person in the world who was ever rendered more beautiful by a pointed chin. Her hair was light; she was always consistently and elegantly attired; but she derived more grace from her personal deport- ment than from the magnificence of her apparel. Her manner was cheerful and unaffected : her disposition can not be described ; for, with all the modesty of her sex, she accommodated herself to the mood of all about her. By dint of reflection, people generally think more justly upon a subject in the end than they did at the commencement : it was just the contrary with Madame de Fiesque — her re- flections injured her impulses."* This social arrangement made> Mademoiselle next gave the necessary orders in her household ; and, on the follow- ing day, dined at the Luxembourg, where she found Mon- sieur in high spirits at the able manner in which he had emancipated himself from a disagreeable responsibility by fastening it upon her; nor was she by any means inclined to diminish his self-gratulation. During the repast he in- formed Her Royal Highness that he had already dispatched a messenger to announce her early arrival, by whom he had also forwarded an order to the authorities, desiring them to show the same obedience to her wishes as they would have done to his own — an assurance which seated Mademoiselle on velvet, for she was fond of power, and did not readily brook opposition. When she took her leave, Monsieur embraced her tenderly ; and then said that the Bishop of * Histoirc Amonreuse des Gaules. 404 LOUIS XIV. AND Orleans would give her every information as to the condi- tion of the city ; and that he wished her to ask advice of the Counts de Fiesque and de Grammont, who had been long enough upon the spot to know what had best be done ; but, above all, to prevent, at any price, the passage of the army across the Loire, which was the only order that he should himself give her. She then entered her carriage, followed by Madame de Frontenac, and the Countess de Fiesque and her daughter; while Monsieur, hugging himself in his recovered insignifi- cance and safety, watched her departure from a window, and listened very complacently to the blessings which were showered upon her by the people as she passed along, un- der the escort of a lieutenant of his guards, two exempts, six guardsmen, and six Swiss.* As the party did not quit Paris until a late hour, Made- moiselle halted the first night at Chartres ; and just as she bad resumed her journey on the following morning she was met by the Duke de Beaufort, who thenceforward al- ways rode beside her carriage. A few leagues farther on she encountered a mounted escort of five men, commanded by M. de Valon, the adjutant-general of Monsieur. The escort was composed of gens-d'armes and light horse ; the latter moved to the van, and the former surrounded the carriage, both rear and flank ; but even this military dem- onstration did not satisfy the ambition of the princess, who, anxious to prove herself worthy of the dignity of her rank as chief of the expedition, no sooner reached the plains of La Beauce than she alighted from her carriage, mounted a horse, and placed herself at the head of the troops, who expressed the greatest delight on seeing her thus promptly assume her command, which she commen- ced by the arrest of three couriers, one of whom was the bearer of a letter from the authorities of Orleans to Mon- sieur, announcing that the king had sent to inform them that * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 405 he should sleep that night at Clery, and then proceed direct to their city, preceded by his council. The little army of Mademoiselle had consequently no time to lose in order to prevent this danger ; and they con- tinued their march with increased celerity until they arrived at Toury, where they found M. de Nemours, who welcomed the princess most warmly, and declared that thenceforward she must preside over the war councils — an announcement which only excited her amusement ; but as the duke still persisted, alledging that she should accustom herself to such topics, as nothing could be done without her authority, the council was accordingly assembled, at which Mademoiselle insisted upon the desire of her father that the enemy should not be allowed to cross the Loire : and measures were im- mediately taken to oppose their passage. The next morning they again started, shortly after day- break, and at Artenay were joined by the Marquis de Flamarens, who had come to meet the princess, having important business to transact with her. Mademoiselle alighted at an inn ; where she was informed, to her great mortification, that the authorities of Orleans had refused to give her ingress to the city, from the fact that her own ap- proach in one direction, and that of His Majesty in another, placed them in an embarrassing position; and that they in consequence besought her, in order to prevent their be- coming rebels either to the will of the king or to the orders of the suzerain, to affect indisposition until the court had passed by, promising not to open their gates until such was the case, after which they would receive her with all the honors which were her due. But Mademoiselle was not constituted like her father : she remembered that she was the grandchild of Henry IV., and she Was resolved that they should also be reminded of the fact. She dec- lared, therefore, that she entirely disregarded such a de- laration, and rejected the advice, as unworthy alike of her rank, her mission, and the blood which filled her veins ; and 406 LOUIS XIV. AND that she should forthwith march upon Orleans. Nor did she lose any time in verifying her words, for she ordered her equipage to be instantly brought to the door ; and leaving behind her the escort, which would have impeded her progress, she only consented to be accompanied by the guards of Monsieur, on condition that they should travel at her own pace. As the little party proceeded, the most discouraging rumors reached them at every stage : some said that the authorities were resolved not to permit the princess to pass the gates of the city, and others that the king was already in Orleans, which had declared in his favor. But Mademoiselle had not quitted Paris to start at shadows, and she persisted in pursuing her journey with a sang-froid and composure which in the opposite sex would have been designated as heroism ; and which her father, who had been striving at such a demonstration throughout a long life, died without emulating. She had sent forward to Orleans the lieutenant of Monsieur's guards, whom she met on his return. He bore a second entreaty from the authorities that the princess would not continue her journey, as they should be compelled to re- fuse her entrance ; and he had traveled rapidly to com- municate this information, leaving the parliament assem- bled, in consequence of the fact that the keeper of the seals, and the king's counselors, were already at the gate opposite to that by which Mademoiselle was approach- ing, and had demanded admission. The princess saw that she had no time to lose, and paid little attention to the other particulars of the message. She therefore proceeded by a forced march, and at eleven o'clock in the morning reached the Banniere gate, which was not only closed, but barricaded. This point gained, she sent to inform the municipal magistrates that she had arrived, and then waited patiently for the space of three hours, in an inn outside the walls, during which time the governor of the city, who was totally powerless, sent her THE COURT OF FRAN C E. 407 a present of sweetmeats, which she received graciously, but with a resolve that so puerile a politeness should not af- fect her resolution. Worn out at length by a delay which accorded ill with her natural energy, she decided upon leaving the inn ; and despite the entreaties of those about her, she directed her steps toward the city moat. She had scarcely arrived there, when the citizens and the mob who were collected on the ramparts recognized her, and point- ing her out to each other, raised a shout of " Long live the king ! Long live the princess ! No Mazarin !" Made- moiselle had no sooner witnessed these demonstrations than she advanced to the extreme edge of the ditch ; and, raising her voice, exclaimed, " Hasten to the Town-Hall, good people; and, if you wish to see me among you, open the city gates." This address produced considerable commotion, but the only reply was a repetition of the same cry ; and when she had ascertained that she was merely answered by words, Mademoiselle continued her way, until she ar- rived at a gate where the guard sprung to their arms, and arranged themselves in file along the rampart. Anxious to profit by this movement, the princess shouted to the com- manding officer to open the barrier, but he replied by sig- nifying that he was not in possession of the keys. Wear- ied by the inutility of her entreaties, the princess next pro- ceeded to threats, for she could not condescend to entreat for what she considered to be her right ; and her suite, who regarded this measure as dangerous, expostulated in vain — asking her what she could anticipate from menacing people upon whose good feeling toward her she was utter- ly dependent for success ; but she laughed at their terrors, declaring that it was good policy to ascertain if she could not do more by threats than gentleness. Mademoiselle, as she confessed to the Countess de Fiesque, was emboldened in this attempt by a declaration of the Marquis de Vilene, who was esteemed one of the 408 LOUIS XIV. AND most accomplished astrologers of the time, that whatever she undertook between mid-day on Wednesday the 27th of March, and the following Friday, was certain to succeed ; and that, confiding in the science of the marquis, whose per- diction was then in her pocket, she felt confident that she should either force the gates of Orleans or escalade its walls. Terrified as they were by this display of resolu- tion, the two countesses could not suppress their merri- ment at the menacing attitude assumed by their female commander-in-chief; who, nothing daunted by this display of their incredulity, calmly pursued her way along the ramparts, until she arrived at the river-bank ; where the boatmen, who at Orleans form a considerable body, ap- proached her, and offered their services, which she imme- diately accepted, haranguing them in a style which excited them to such enthusiasm that she saw her point was gained ; and accordingly proposed that they should row her as far as the Porte de la Faux, which opened upon the river : they, however, proposed a gate upon the quay, which they said would be more easily forced, as well as much nearer; and that, should she desire it, they would instantly go to work. Mademoiselle bade them lose no time ; showered money among them ; and in order to superintend the progress of their attempt, and to animate them by her presence, ascend- ed a hillock whence she could command the gate, to effect which she was compelled to climb upon her hands and knees, defying alike flints and brambles ; nor could the ex- postulations of those about her induce her to abandon her position. Careless as she was of her personal safety, the princess was, nevertheless, a sufficiently able diplomatist to forbid all her own people from assisting in the violence that she had authorized, in order, as she confesses, that should the enterprise have proved unsuccessful, she might deny that it was undertaken by her order ; one light-horseman only, who was a native of the city, disregarded her injunction, THE COURT OF FliANC E. 409 and during the operations was slightly wounded by a stone. The princess had left the troops who formed her escort at the distance of a mile from the walls, that she mio-ht not alarm the citizens by a military force ; and they were order- ed to await and conduct her to Gergeau, in the event of her being unable to make good her entrance into Orleans. Ere long, however, Mademoislle was informed that the work was getting on well; and upon this assurance she at once approached the scene of action, attended by an equerry and an exempt; as the quay was invested, and that between the princess and the gate the river washed the walls, a bridge was formed by a couple of boats ; and, as the opposite bank was extremely steep, a ladder was placed in the second boat, by which Mademoiselle, with some difficulty, mounted to the assault ; for it unfortunately chanced that, in addition to its somewhat unstable tenure on its floating foundation, one of the steps was broken. By these means she reached the quay, and had no sooner ar- rived there than she ordered her guards to return to the carriages, that she might prove to the authorities of Orleans the confidence with which she entered their city, unac- companied by a single armed man. Her appearance among them tended, as a natural con- sequence, to animate the boatmen to increased exertion, while a party of the citizens assisted them from within ; and the guard, which was under arms, stood by in perfect neutrality, neither aiding nor preventing the aggression which threatened the destruction of their post. At length two of the center planks of the gate were forced, and it was soon discovered that it could not be open- ed more effectually, being traversed by two weighty bars of iron ; upon which the princess desired one of her attendants to take her in his arms, and to push her through the aperture, whence her head had no sooner emerged than the drums beat, and the captain of the guard drew her into the city. In an instant she was on her feet, and extending her hand to vol. i. — S 410 I. vi a XIV. AND him, exclaimed, with perfect composure, " You shall have reason to rejoice that it was you who effected my entrance." Cries of "Long live the king and the princess, and down with Mazarin!" resounded on all sides; and as on many oreat occasions the sublime and the ridiculous overpass the one pace by which they are said to be separated, so it proved upon this also ; for while the princess was radiant with the triumph of her successful exploit, two men ap- proached her with a wooden chair, upon which they almost compelled her to seat herself, and thus bore her exultingly toward the Town-Hall, where the municipal authorities had congregated to discuss their measures at so difficult a crisis, not having yet been able to decide whether the gates should be opened to the king or to herself; and as bold actions always involve the sympathies of the million, she was escorted by the whole of the populace, who pressed about her in order to obtain a look, or to kiss the folds of her dress. Mademoiselle submitted to this somewhat equivocal honor, and advanced five or six hundred paces in her im- provised equipage ; but the ovation became at length un- endurable, and she requested her bearers to permit her to alight, as she preferred finishing her walk on foot in the midst of her faithful citizens. The procession accordingly halted, and the ladies of her suite profited by the circum- stance to rejoin her. One of the city companies arrived at the moment, and preceded her, with its drums beating and all the customary military honors, to the palace, which was the ordinary residence of Monsieur when in the city. Midway the princess was met by the governor, who was greatly embarrassed, being aware that his presents of sweetmeats had been but an inefficient proof of his devo- tion to her cause. To him succeeded the municipal au- thorities, equally ill at ease, who began to stammer forth an harangue, which Mademoiselle, with admirable tact, cut short by addressing them, and remarking that they were, THE COURT OF FRANCE. 411 no doubt, surprised to see her enter their city otherwise than by the usual gate ; but that, being naturally impatient, and having found the Porte de la Banniere closed, and another open, she had passed through that ; at which they had every reason to congratulate themselves, since the court, who were at Clery, could not accuse them of her admission ; and that all responsibility being thus removed from themselves, they were consequently exonerated from whatever results might ensue, since she herself became answerable for every thing; for where persons of her rank entered a city, they became its masters, as was their right, and as she had an especial privilege to be considered in a town which belonged to Monsieur. They replied by an abundance of compliments, to which they found the princess ready with the rejoinder, that she was quite convinced they were about, as they stated, to open their gates ; but that, for the reasons which she had already advanced, she was unwilling to leave them time to do so; after which she turned the conversation to other subjects, and continued to converse with them as though nothing remarkable had occurred — merely stating that she wished to proceed at once to the Town-Hall, to attend the meeting which was to deliberate upon the entrance of the royal counselors into the city. She then sent an exempt to desire that her equipages might immediately join her; and from that moment she assumed the command of Or- leans, without comment or opposition. CHAPTER XVIII. Royal Progress through Orleans — Harangue at the Town-Hall — Defeat of the Duke de Beaufort — Ludicrous Struggle between the Duke de Nemours and the Duke de Beaufort — Arrival of M. de Conde at the rebel Army ; his Letter to Mademoiselle — State of the royal Army — Singular Quarrel between the King and his Brother — Anecdotes of the young King — The female Generals — Return of Mademoiselle to Paris; she heads the Faction — Defeat of the Fronde at Etnmpes — Courage of Louis XIV. — Sufferings of the royal Troops — Monsieur refuses to act — Accredits Mademoiselle — Mademoiselle at the Town- Hall. On the following morning Mademoiselle was awakened at the early hour of seven, and advised to show herself as soon as possible in public, in order to rally around her all such of the citizens as yet remained undecided whether to adopt her interests or those of the royal counselors, who were still awaiting entrance into the city. The princess, who instantly perceived the value of this advice, lost no LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. 413 time in making her toilet ; and, while this was proceed- ing, sent to summon the governor and the mayor to accom- pany her in her progress. The chains which had been stretched across the streets, as was, at that period, usual in all cities threatened with siege, were still in their places: and when it was suggested that they should be removed, Mademoiselle objected, observing that she would make the tour of the streets on foot. She did so accordingly; commencing her pilgrimage by attending mass at the church of St. Catherine, near the bridge ; after which, she ascended one of the towers com- manding the faubourg, whence she saw M. de Champla- treux walking in front of the Augustine convent, in com- pany with a number of the court lords ; and, as she was anxious that the royal party should be made aware that she was in possession of the city, she rallied all her officers about her, whose blue scarfs were necessarily sufficiently conspicuous at once to arrest the attention of the Mazarin- ites, and to reveal to them the hopelessness of their errand, even without the shouts of the populace who were collect- ed upon the bridge, and who rent the air with cries of " Long live the king and the princess !" and " Down with Mazarin !" These shouts were echoed by the inhabitants of the fau- bourg; the guard upon the bridge fired a volley; and then the exclamations became so vehement and so persevering, that the princess, delighted with the effect produced by her presence, and, at last, perfectly in her element, ordered the guards to be doubled, in order to prove to the council that they had nothing to hope ; and, in consequence, the king left Clery the same day, and passed the night at Sully. From the church, Mademoiselle, after traversing the principal streets, proceeded to the palace of the bishop, with whom she dined ; and thence to the Town-Hall, where she was considerably less at her ease than when surround- ed by the troops and the mob. When she found herself 411 LOUIS XIV. AND seated in a great chair, in the midst of the most profound silence, she confesses that she was extremely embarrassed, never having spoken in public, and being, moreover, very ignorant ; but the exigency of her position gave her cour- age; and she made a long speech, in which she dilated upon the great interest taken by her royal father in his good city of Orleans ; which he had felt that he could not better testify than by sending, as his representative, the person who was most dear to him, when prevented by im- jjortant business in Paris from hastening himself to protect it from the evil designs of the cardinal ; and that she had, consequently, accepted the mission in the same spirit ; and had come, either to assist the citizens to defend themselves, or, should this unfortunately become impossible, to perish with them. At the conclusion of her harangue, the princess received the thanks of the meeting ; and, on leaving the Town-Hall, she saw the windows of the prison crowded with soldiers, who entreated her to grant their release. She inquired of the authorities the nature of their crime, and was informed that there were several accusations against them ; upon which she offered to hang them all in the public squares of the city ; but the magistrates refused to profit by her proposal, and left them entirely to her mercy. Mademoi- selle had calculated upon this concession, and instantly releasing the whole number, desired that their horses and arms should be restored to them, and that they should forthwith join the army, to which, by this circumstance, she added a body of between forty and fifty horsemen. It was late in the evening before she returned to the palace ; and, shortly afterward, a letter was delivered to her from the Duke de Beaufort, in which he announced that he had been unable to meet Her Royal Highness ac- cording to his promise, having been anxious to capture the king, who had ascended the opposite bank of the river ; in which view he had attempted to pass the Loire by the THE COURT OF FRANCE. 415 bridge of Gergau. He had, however, signally failed in his object, Marshal Turenne having checked his advance by a magnificent defense ; and, without having accom- plished one object of usefulness or advantage, he had sacrificed a great number of brave men, and among the rest, Sirot, Baron de Vitaux, who was one of the lieuten- ant-generals of the prince at Rocroy — a man of birth, merit, and great military reputation, who was mortally wounded in the lower jaw, and whom Mademoiselle caused to be transported to Orleans, in order that no ex- ertion might be spared to save him. All her care was, however, unfortunately of no avail, as he only survived his hurt a few days. The Baron de Vitaux was a serious loss to the party of the princess, being a soldier of great experience, who had been reared in the army of the Emperor of Germany ; where he had, by a singular fatality, exchanged pistol- shots with three kings — those of Bohemia, Poland, and Sweden — and had even perforated the hat of the latter. He had served the king faithfully for years, and was covered with wounds ; but his claims having been over- looked, he abandoned the court, and retired to his estates in Burgundy, whence Monsieur had induced him to emerge in order to join the Fronde. The annoyance of Mademoi- selle was, consequently, great when she learned the ill- advised Quixotism of M. de Beaufort, with its fatal results; and she wrote to both himself and the Duke de Nemours to desire them to attend her at a hotel in the faubourg, in order that no future step might be taken without the general concuiTence of herself and her council. They met accordingly ; but as the two noble brothers-in-law were at variance, they profited by this opportunity, greatly to the terror of the princess, to quarrel as to the direction in which the army was to march, and disregarding the pres- ence of Mademoiselle, proceeded from words to blows, M. de Beaufort striking the Duke de Nemours on the face, 410 LOUIS XIV. AND and the duke replying by pulling off the wig of his oppo- nent. Each then drew his sword ; but the princess caused them to be instantly separated, exacting, as some repara- tion for the disrespect which they had exhibited toward herself, that they should instantly become reconciled. It was, however, much more easy to will such a reconciliation than to compel it ; and it was not without extreme diffi- culty and long expostulation, that Mademoislle succeeded in inducing the two princes to embrace in her presence ; when she says that M. de Beaufort advanced toward his brother-in-law, with open arms, and his eyes filled with tears, while that brother received and returned his em- brace as he would have done that of a footman. Nothing was, consequently, decided at this interview ; which had, nevertheless, absorbed so much time, that the inhabitants of Orleans were becoming uneasy at the long absence of the princess ; and she considered it expedient to explain to the principal authorities the cause of the de- lay ; after which she retired to her apartments, and wrote to the two belligerents, beseeching them to live more ami- cably for the future, not only for their own sakes, but also for that of the common cause ; and to order the army to march immediately upon Montargis.* On the following Saturday the princess received the re- ply of Monsieur to a letter which she had written to him, an- nouncing her entrance into Orleans ; and she declares that her delight was great at the tenderness which it exhibited, * Montargis, situate seventeen leagues from Orleans, is the capital of the department of the Loiret, and commands both the Loire and the Yonne. The town stretches along the base of a lofty eminence, near a fine forest which bears its name. In its immediate neighborhood still exists the ruins of a castle, where, on one of the chimney-pieces of the great hall, is sculptured the history of the celebrated Aubry de Mont-Didier, whose dog is asserted to have attacked and overcome the assassin of his master, in the presence of Charles VIII. The town was founded in the reign of Clovis ; and in the twelfth century belonged to the Courtenay family. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 417 although our readers will probably attribute a very differ- ent feeling to the writer. Thus it ran : — " My Daughter, " You may believe the joy which I felt at the action you have just accomplished : you have saved Orleans for me, and insured Paris. It is a general subject of congratula- tion; and every one says that your exploit is worthy of the granddaughter of Henry the Great. 1 never doubted your daring; but, on this occasion, I have learned that you have even more prudence than courage. I must tell you, more- over, that I am delighted at what you have done, as much for your sake as for mine. Henceforward write to me through your secretary, for the reason you wot of. " Gaston." This reason, as Mademoiselle herself asserts, was the extreme difficulty experienced by every one in decipher- ing her writing, which was unusually illegible. At the commencement of the following month (April) the princess received the welcome intelligence that M. de Conde had assumed the command of the army — news which was on the morrow confirmed by a letter to herself, in which he complimented her upon the heroism of her conduct, and assured her of his irrevocable attachment to the interests of Monsieur, and his devotion to her own per- son. He brought, however, no reinforcement to the troops, being accompanied by only seven individuals; and having left Agen almost in a state of revolt against him in the rear, and his whole family divided into parties. He had made the whole journey from Bordeaux to Orleans in the short space of seven days, and had narrowly escaped be- ing taken at Cosne by a captain of the royal army, who only missed him by a quarter of an hour. He was also in great danger of discovery at an inn by the roadside; where, being disguised as a groom, he was ordered to s* 418 LOUIS XIV. A N li saddle and bridle a horse, a .task "which he could not accomplish. Despite all these drawbacks, however, the sole presence of M. de Conde was an incalculable advantage to the army, who relied upon his reputation as confidently as they would have done upon an augmentation of their force. When he reached the advanced guard he had been stop- ped by the sentinel, to whom his person was unknown ; and, irritated by the circumstance, he refused to declare his identity ; when, fortunately, a German colonel who commanded the guard, impressed with the conviction that it was the prince, alighted from his horse, and approaching that of M. de Conde, suddenly embraced his knees, pro- nouncing his name at the same time. In an instant it was echoed on every side, and a wild spirit of enthusiasm per- vaded all ranks. Only seven days subsequently, the princess received a second letter from the great general, couched in these terms : — " Mademoiselle, " I receive so many new proofs of your goodness, that words fail me to thank you ; I will merely assure you that there is nothing which I would not undertake for your ser- vice ; do me the honor to be convinced of this, and to rely upon it. I yesterday obtained information that the Maza- rin army had crossed the river, and had separated to differ- ent stations. I resolved instantly to attack them in these places ; and this measure succeeded so well, that I fell upon their first quarters before they had any warning. I first overcame three regiments of dragoons ; and then I marched to the head-quarters of Hocquincourt, which I also carried. There was some little resistance, but finally all were routed. We followed them for three hours, after which we moved toward M. de Turenne ; but we found him posted so advantageously, and our own troops were so THE COURT OF FRANCE. 419 weary with the long march, and so loaded with the booty which they had made, that we did not consider it right to attack him at a disadvantage ; all, therefore, passed in a cannonade; and, finally, he retreated. All the troops of Hocquincourt were routed ; all the baggage taken ; and the booty amounted to between two and three thousand horses, a number of prisoners, and their store of ammuni- tion. M. de Nemours did wonders; and was wounded in the hip by a pistol-bullet, but not dangerously. M. de Beaufort had his horse killed, and behaved very well; M. de la Rochefoucauld very well ; Clinchamp, Tovannes, and Valon, the same ; as did all the other adjutant-generals. Mare was struck by a cannon-ball ; but, beside these, we have not lost thirty men. I think that you will be glad to hear this news ; and will not doubt that I am, Mademoi- selle, your very humble and very obedient servant, " Louis de Bourbon." This intelligence was, indeed, most welcome to the princess, although she was deeply grieved on ascertaining that so many of her personal friends had suffered in the conflict. The count de Mare did not survive his wound ; and although the result of the engagement strengthened the faction at Paris, great uneasiness existed as to the ulti- mate fate of M. de Nemours, whose hurt did not, however, prove fatal. In the royal army all was consternation. The court was at Gien,* suffering every species of deprivation. The de- feat of the Marshal d'Hocquincourt had occasioned great alarm ; and the queen no sooner ascertained that the two armies had met, than she issued an order that all the * Gien is situated on the right bank of the Loire, at fifteen and a half leagues from Orleans. It possesses a fine castle, built, it is be- lieved, by Charlemagne, and which has been inhabited by several of the French kings, among others, by Charles VII., Francis I., and Louis XIV. 420 LOUIS XIV. AND equipages and baggage should be -transported to the op- posite bank of the river, in order that an immediate flight might be rendered easy, and the bridge destroyed after the passage of the king's suite. At dawn on the following moraine, all the carriages, filled with the ladies of the court, were accordingly collected on the other side the Loire; but the operation was so ill-conducted, that had M. de Conde pui'sued his advantage, he might have forced M. de Turenne, whose command was very inconsiderable, and captured the whole party, who ultimately arrived in such a state of bewilderment at St. Fargeau, that they neither knew what they were doing, nor what they ought to do.* M. de Senneterre asserts that this was the only occasion upon which he had seen the queen thoroughly hopeless and depressed, for she scarcely could decide in what di- rection to turn her steps ; and told him that she felt con- vinced, had M. de Turenne shown less firmness and abil- ity, and suffered himself to be defeated like the Marshal d'Hocquincourt, every city in the province would have fol- lowed the example of Orleans, and closed its gates against the king.f As the royal fugitives pursued their retreat to Monte- reau they were exposed, not only to privation, but to absolute robbery from each other ; nor was the young sovereign himself exempted from this pillage, but lost sev- eral of his best horses. From Montereau they next pro- ceeded to Corbeil,J where an adventure occurred which is too laughable to be omitted, and which we will give in the words of Laporte, who was an eye-witness to the quarrel. " The king," he says, "insisted that Monsieur^ should * Laporte. t Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. | Corbeil stands upon the right bank of the Seine, twelve and a half leagues from Versailles, and three from Melun. § The Duke d'Anjou. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 42 1 sleep in his room, which was so small that only one per- son could pass. In the morning, as they lay awake, the king inadvertently spat upon the bed of Monsieur, who immediately spat upon the king's bed; thereupon Louis, getting angry, spat in his brother's face ; and when they could spit no longer, they proceeded to drag each other's sheets on to the floor: after which they prepared to fio-ht. During this quarrel I did what I could to restrain the king; but as I could not succeed, I sent for M. de Villeroy, who reestablished peace. Monsieur lost his temper sooner than the king ; but the king was much more difficult to appease than Monsieur." The court diverged from its proper road, leaving Paris on the left ; and pursued its way to St. Germain, where it was ascertained that the Parisians had destroyed the bridges, a circumstance which shed gloom over every countenance ; as, after all their sufferings, the courtiers had looked forward to a compensation from the stores of the capital. No one possessed any ready money save the cardinal, who was suspected of having made a good pro- vision in case of need, although he declared that he was as poor as the meanest soldier in the ranks. Laporte gives several anecdotes of the young king at this period, which are eminently characteristic of the after man. The news of the battle at Etampes* reached the court * Etampes is distant thirteen and three quarter leagues from Ver- sailles, in the department of Seine and Oise. It is a very ancient town, and is mentioned during the first race of Frankish kings, under the 7iame of Stampa. Sacked by Rollo in 911, it was rebuilt by King Rob- ert, who founded there several religious houses. It shared in the events of the 14th and 15th centuries, which plunged all France into consternation, and was ravaged by the Orleans faction. Francis I. raised the county of Etampes into a duchy, in favor of John de Brasses. Etampes was several times taken and retaken during the religious w r ars ; and became, in 1589, the rendezvous of the forces of the League. Henry IV. took possession of it in 1590, and razed the fortifications of the castle built by King Robert, of which the ruins still remain. 422 LOUIS XIV. AND during the night, accompanied by the intelligence that the princess had been worsted ; and M. de Villeroy, to whom it was first communicated, hastened to inform the king and the Duke d'Anjou of the propitious event. They, as well as Laporte, instantly sprang from their beds, and rushed in their slippers, nightcaps, and dressing-gowns to the chamber of the cardinal, whom they awakened with the joyful tidings ; and who hurried, in his turn, and in the same unsophisticated costume, to announce them to the queen. This anecdote explains better than any labor- ed description the uneasiness of the court at that period, and the natural energy of Louis. About the same time another circumstance occurred, which, trivial as it was, serves to prove the perfect help- lessness of the king, although he had attained his majority, and was supposed to be the sovereign of a powerful nation. Birragues, the first valet of the king's wardrobe, had a cousin who was an ensign in the regiment of Picardy, and who, having been wounded at Etampes, petitioned for his promotion to the rank of lieutenant, his superior officer having been killed in the same engagement; and requested M. de Crequy, the first gentleman of the cham- ber on duty, to use his interest with the young monarch in behalf of his kinsman. Louis considered the request to be a just one, and readily promised to speak to the queen and the cardinal in his behalf; but as, after a lapse of sev- eral days, the king had not adverted to the circumstance, M. de Crequy, during his toilet, ventured to ask him if he had been good enough to remember the solicitations of M. de Birragues. Louis made no reply, and endeavored to appear as though he had not heard the question ; upon which, Laporte, who was arranging his dress, remarked that those who had the honor to serve His Majesty were very unfortunate, since they could not hope even to obtain justice. As he ceased speaking, Louis whispered in his ear : THE COURT OF FRANCE. 423 "It is not my fault, my clear Laporte, I spoke to Mm about it, but it was of no use." As the young king never mentioned the cardinal in any other manner, from the hatred which he bore toward him, the friends of the applicant were thus informed whence the obstacle arose. On a subsequent occasion, Laporte was summoned dur- ing his breakfast ; and on entering the chamber of Louis, the king drew out a handful of gold, saying that the super- intendent of finance had sent him a hundred louis as pocket-money, to enable him to be liberal to the soldiers ; and that he wished him to take care of them for him. Laporte respectfully remonstrated, suggesting that they were better in the keeping of His Majesty. Louis, how- ever, persisted, saying that with his high boots the money would be troublesome. This objection was happily over- ruled, by the attendant recommending that instead of car- rying it in his haut-de-chausses, the king should deposit it in the pocket of his vest ; and Louis, delighted with any any arrangement which enabled him to enjoy the novelty of bearing a sum of money upon his pei'son, at once adopt- ed the expedient. He was not, however, destined to be long burdened with the unaccustomed freight ; and the manner in which he became dispossessed of it, is quite as characteristic as his embarrassment on its receipt. During the sojourn of the court at St. Germain, Moreau, the first valet of the wardrobe, had advanced eleven pis- toles for the royal gloves ; and as, like all those about him, he was distressed for funds, the want of this hundred and ten livres had inconvenienced him considerably ; and he accordingly no sooner ascertained that the young king had come into possession of a hundred louis, than he en- treated Laporte to obtain for him the sum that he had advanced. As he was assisting the young sovereign in his arrange- ments for the night, Laporte accordingly reminded him of 424 LOUIS XIV. AND the debt, and informed him that he had promised to men- tion it to His Majesty; but the worthy functionary was too late in his application. Mazarin had ascertained that Louis was in possession of the money, and by some means or other had obtained it from him.* Meanwhile, Mademoiselle began to weary of her inac- tive life at Orleans, whence the tide of war had rolled away, and decided upon returning to Paris. She conse- quently dispatched a trumpeter to M. de Turenne, and to the Marshal d'Hocquincourt, who were encamped at Cha- tres, on the high road between Paris and Etampes, to request passports, as she was anxious to visit the capital without delay ; and, after leaving Orleans, she found at Angerville the escort which had been sent to meet her.; when, the weather being remarkably fine, she mounted on horseback, accompanied by the countesses of Fiesque and Frontenac, who still remained with her, and to whom, on that account, Monsieur had written shortly after their en- trance into Orleans, complimenting them upon their cour- age, and addressing the letter to The Countesses, Adjutant- Generals, in the Army of my Daughter against Mazarin. De Retz states that Monsieur felt so little confidence in the prudence of the princess, that when she offered to act as his representative at Orleans, he consented with great reluctance ; and on the very day when she took leave of him, and commenced her journey, he remarked that this exhibition of chivalry would have been very absurd if it had not been sustained by the good sense of the two ladies who were her companions. It is, however, extremely probable that the Quixotism of the adventure, so long as it ensured his own safety, would have been equally welcome to the Duke d'Orleans, even had Mademoiselle under- taken it without any extraneous support. Be this as it may, it is certain that from the arrival of the duke's letter, so superscribed, all the commanding * Laporte. THE COURT OF PRANCE. 425 officers of the army of the Fronde paid the two countesses the honor due to the rank which Monsieur, in a moment of unusual hilarity, had assigned to them ; and, in accord- ance with this arrangement, as they passed along the line of one of the German regiments, which was marching in front of Mademoiselle, M. de Chavagnac, who commanded her escort, halted corps, and desired the Count de Quinski, its colonel, to pay them the honors due to their military rank, which he did without hesitation ; entering into the jest, says Mademoiselle, as though he had been a French- man ; first causing the troops to draw their swords and salute them according to the German fashion, and then detaching a whole squadron in order to render the honor more complete : a homage the more flattering as the gal- lant count was the nephew of Wallenstein. The princess remained a day at Etampes, awaiting her passports, for which M. de Turenne had dispatched a mes- senger to St. Germain, where the court were then resid- ing ; and she employed it by holding a levee, where all the officers appeared in full costume. In the evening she received not only the required passports, but also an inti- mation that the two royalist marshals would meet her on the morrow outside their quarters with their army in battle array. Clinchamp, however, whose veteran experience led him to doubt this fact, asserted that they would do nothing of the kind ; but, knowing that she had not seen their own troops collected, and believing that they would leave their position on the same occasion, they were anxious to avail themselves of the opportunity to offer battle. The event proved the correctness of his judgment, for it was shortly afterward ascertained that the king's forces were marching toward them. In consequence, Mademoiselle ordered the whole of the troops to enter the town, a movement which was hastily accomplished ; and she then got into her carriage, and pursued her way toward Paris. At Chatres she found the Baron d'Apremont, who ex- 426 LOUIS XIV. AND pressed to her the great regret felt by the two marshals that they could not await her arrival as they had proposed to do, having been compelled to march upon Etampes. He then gave her a cornet and twenty men as her escort, and himself accompanied her for a quarter of a league on her journey. At Bourg-la-Reine the princess was met by M. de Conde, the Duke de Beaufort, the Prince de Ta- rente, M. de Rohan, and all the men of rank then sojourn- ing at Paris. As her carriage approached, the prince alighted, saluted her, and took his seat in her coach ; she next encountered the duchesses of Epernon and Sully, who also joined her party ; and they beguiled the remain- der of the journey by listening to a detail of all her pro- ceedings at Orleans. As Mademoiselle drew near the capital, she found half the population outside the gates to welcome her ; and the road, to the extent of a league, bor- dered with carriages of every description; nor was she by any means insensible to this popular demonstration, amid which she forgot the intelligence of M. de Conde, that Mon- sieur was seriously displeased by her departure from Or- leans without his permission. She alighted at the Orleans palace, where a great crowd had assembled ; and whatever might be the real feelings of His Royal Highness, whom she found in his bed, he re- ceived her with tolerable graciousness ; for which she was, without doubt, indebted to M. de Conde, who requested per- mission to be present at the interview, lest the Duke d'Or- leans should reproach her with her unauthorized return to Paris. Having given him an account of the leading circum- stances of her journey, and informed him of the projected at- tack on Etampes, she next proceeded to pay her respects to Madame, who greeted her with considerable coldness ; and as the princess was still accompanied by M. de Conde, whom the duchess had never liked, she expended the an- noyance which she felt at the advantage obtained over her by Mademoiselle on this occasion, when the popularity of T HE COURT OF FRANC E. 427 the one contrasted so painfully with the enforced insignifi- cance of the other, by exclaiming that the boots of the prince smelled so strongly of leather that she could not sup- port it ; and M. de Conde was consequently obliged to leave the room. After a very brief visit, the princess retired in her turn, and hastened to receive the congratulations of the court- iers who were assembled in the cabinet. Here she again found the prince surrounded by all the pretty women of the court ; and after an exchange of compliments, she pro- ceeded to the Cours* in the coach of Madame de Ne- mours, accompanied also by the duchesses of Epernon, Sully, and Chatillon, and the two attendant countesses ; the prince, the Duke de Beaufort, and other nobles follow- ing in a second ccrriage. On the morrow, a courier reached the princess with the news of the defeat of the forces of the Fronde at Etampes ; which, as we have already stated, the court had ascertain- ed during the night. Many prisoners had been taken, but few officers of rank had fallen. The event was, however, most unfortunate for the faction ; and Mademoiselle felt it the more keenly as it contrasted very disadvantageous^ with the ovation of which she was even then the object. All Paris, as she declares, visited her during the day ; and her apartments were so crowded that there was great dif- ficulty in moving. The King of England was among her guests, although he by no means sympathized in her inter- ests, having sent the Duke of York to serve as a volunteer under Marshal Turenne ; and he was, consequently, care- ful to avoid all allusion to the encounter at Etampes. The Queen of England on the contrary, spoke freely of passing events ; and when she learned the forced entrance of the princess into Orleans, remarked with somewhat bitter * The fashionable promenade and drive of the court, which extended in a straight line from the gardens of the Tuileries to the extremity of tlie Champs Elys6es. 428 LOUIS XIV. AND pleasantry, that she was not astonished to find that Made- moiselle had saved the city from the hands of her ene- mies, as Joan of Arc had done before her ; or that, like her, she had commenced by repelling the English — alluding to the objection which had been made by the princess to the visits of her son. As this caustic observation was ne- cessarily repeated to Mademoiselle, it engendered a cool- ness that induced Queen Henrietta to offer an apology ; which was, however, tendered rather upon the occasion of some impertinent remarks in which one of her personal friends had indulged on the subject of the Fronde, than supposed to be necessitated by her own words; and this done, the princess, continued to pay her respects to her royal aunt as usual. But while Mademoiselle thus found herself the idol of the capital, the court had proceeded to besiege Etampes, and this expedition may in truth be considered as the first serious campaign of Louis XIV. He acquitted himself well for so mere a youth, several bullets having passed close beside him without his evincing the slightest fear ; and as every one was congratulating him upon his courage, when he was retiring for the night he turned toward his favorite valet-de-chambre, and inquired if he had been frightened 1 Laporte replied in the negative. "You are a brave man, then;" said the king. "Sire;" was the clever rejoinder ; "one is always brave when one is pennyless." Louis laughed ; the epigram was as intelligible to both himself and Mazarin as to the ut- terer.* The young sovereign could scarcely have commenced the career of arms under more painful circumstances. On every side he was surrounded by sick and wounded soldiers, who implored the help which he was unable to af- ford. Not possessing a louis d'or which he could call his own, he was compelled to look on with a bleeding heart, * Laporte. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 429 perhaps, but certainly with a closed hand ; nor did the as- pect of the captured town afford any relief from the dreary picture presented by its captors. Wherever the court had passed, the peasants, believing that they must be safe un- der the protection of royalty, from the depredations of the army which was laying waste the neighborhood, had driven in their cattle, which soon died for want of food, as the owners dared not trust them beyond the walls to graze ; and their animals once dead, they began to die off' in their turn ; for, having neither bread nor wine, and finding no shelter save a few sheds, and the wagons and carts which encumbered the streets, they were attacked by malignant fever, and expired by hundreds. Thus the king was ex- posed to the most frightful spectacles ; and on one occa- sion, as he was passing over the bridge of Melun, he came upon a group not readily to be forgotten. It was that of a woman and her three children huddled closely together; the mother and two of the children dead, and stiffening in the morning air, and an infant still living, and straining vainly at the exhausted breast which could no longer afford it sustenance. The queen, who was greatly affected by the misery which she was condemned to witness, had per- petually upon her lips the account which would be required from God against the authors of so far-spreading and terri- ble an evil ; never appearing to remember that it principal- ly originated with herself; but, by a delicate sophistry more congenial to her sensibility, transferring the crime and the responsibility to those who had thwarted her pro- jects and curbed her ambition. The royal forces suffered more than those of the Fronde during this siege, from the fact of their not being enabled to surround the town, owing to the paucity of their num- bers, but merely to open the trenches on the Orleans side. To attack Etampes in circumvallation would have required considerably more than the eight thousand men who were brought against it ; and the king's army suffered severely 430 LOUIS XIV. A N E from the vigorous sorties made by the enemy. Among those who fell was the Chevalier de la Vieuville, a brave man, and a court favorite. The young sovereign was present during the whole of the operations ; and the cardinal sent an order to the be- sieged not to fire in the direction of the royal equipage ; an injunction which was disregarded as a matter of course, under the pretext that the officer to whom it had been communicated was a foreigner, and had not comprehend- ed the command. A few days after her return to Paris, Mademoiselle was informed that the prince had proceeded to St. Cloud, in order to quarter some of his troops there, and to make himself master of that post as he had already done of Neuil- ly ; but not satisfied with this step, he advanced to St. De- nis, which he took after a slight resistance, the garrison being weak, and the town ill-defended. He possessed himself of this place at daylight, but it was retaken by the royal forces at dusk, despite the reinforcement furnished by the Duke de Beaufort, who narrowly escaped being made a prisoner on his retreat toward Paris. Five hun- dred citizens who went to his rescue, were cut to pieces in the faubourg St. Denis, and it was only the advent of the darkness that prevented still greater loss. A movement upon Paris was forthwith determined by the king's gener- als, their strength having been greatly augmented by a body of troops which the Marshal La Ferte Senectere had brought up from Lorraine ; and the intention was to attack the forces of the Fronde which were scattered along the bank of the Seine, between Suresne and St. Cloud. M. de Conde did not, however, consider the position tenable ; and he accordingly raised his camp during the night, and retired upon Charenton. From this period the war of the Fronde may really be said to have commenced in earnest. The army of the prince, shut up in Paris, diminished day by day; and his THE COURT OF FRANCE. 431 power became weakened in an equal proportion. M. de Turenne, who was aware of this circumstance, detained the king and the court in the neighborhood of the cap- ital, which he attacked with his forces, insufficient as they were. About half-past ten on the night of the 1st of July, Ma- demoiselle hear'd the drums beating, and the trumpets, sounding ; and as her apartments were only separated by the moat from the Tuileries, she had no sooner opened a window than she could hear the troops of the prince filing off, and even distinguish the different airs to which they marched. She remained listening to these ominous sounds until midnight, in deep thought and with a vague presenti- ment that the following day would prove an eventful one to herself. During this time several persons came to pay their respects to her, and among others M. de Flamarin, of whom she inquired if he could guess the subject of her reflections. On his replying in the negative, she said she felt a conviction that on the morrow she should be called upon to take as active a part in Paris as she had played at Orleans. The idea amused De Flamarin, who re- marked that Her Royal Highness would display great ingenuity in discovering such an opportunity, because nothing remarkable was likely to occur, negotiations having taken place, which would only render it necessaiy for the armies to embrace when they met. To this conclusion the princess, however, calmly and firmly objected to concede any trust ; affirming that she was aware of the negotiations to which he alluded, and believed that they were all great dupes to suffer them- selves to be amused by empty words, instead of render- ing their forces more effective ; as, during the period of their own inaction, it was well known that the cardinal had collected his own troops, and had so strengthened his position, that any encounter must prove most disastrous to 432 L U U I rf XIV. AND the army of the Fronde. M. de Flamarin still, however, remaining incredulous, Mademoiselle followed up her prophecy by remarking, that it was not impossible that he who had been one of the negotiators, upon whose interference he placed such reliance, might, ere another sun set, boast a limb the less ; but her interlocutor saw only new cause for merriment in this second specimen of the princess's spirit of divination ; and left her with a jest upon his lips, asserting that it had already been predicted that he would die with a rope about his neck. At one o'clock Mademoiselle retired, but it was scarcely six when she heard some one knock at her door; and springing up, she called her women, who introduced into her chamber the Count de Fiesque. He had been dispatched by M. de Conde to Monsieur, to in- form him that His Highness had been attacked between Montmarte and La Chapelle ; and that, as regarded him- self, he had been refused entrance at the Porte St. Denis, which led him to fear that the prince would meet with the same impediment should he be compelled to retreat. His errand accomplished, he had entreated Monsieur to mount his horse, and to satisfy himself, by personal obser- vation, of the actual state of things ; but there was positive danger abroad ; and, whenever decision was required, Gaston was always indisposed; it was, therefore, not surprising that, on this occasion, especially, the prince had refused to leave his bed, asserting that he was seri- ously ill ; and finding that he could make no impression either upon the pride or the self-respect of Monsieur, the count had now come to Mademoiselle, to implore her, in the name of M. de Conde, not to abandon his cause. The princess had no such intention ; and, from a mingled motive which it would be scarcely fair to analyze, when we remember how nobly it prompted her after-actions, she dismissed M. de Fiesque, with a solemn promise that she would serve the prince to the whole extent of her T II E C O U R T U F P Jl A X C E. 433 power ; dressed herself in haste, and hurried to the Luxembourg, where she encountered Monsieur upon the steps. Delighted by such an apparition, Mademoiselle did not seek to conceal her joy, but expressed how truly glad she was to find that the fears of M. de Fiesque had misled him as regarded the health of His Royal Highness. It was, however, no part of Monsieur's intention to resusci- tate so inopportunely ; and he consequently hastened to moderate the self-gratulation of the princess by declaring that the count was quite correct in his report, for that, although not ill enough to keep his bed, he was uttei'ly unable to take any part in public business. Urged by the emergency of the moment, and ex- asperated by the contemptible inaction of her father, Mademoiselle, despite this assertion, ventured to expos- tulate, bidding him remember that all Paris had their eyes upon him at such a conjuncture; and that he would do well to mount his horse, and to take the lead in pro- ceedings in which his honor was so deeply involved. This burst of generous indignation was, however, with- out effect upon the dastardly spirit of Gaston, who could find no better reply than that the thing was impossible, that he was too weak, and that he did not believe he could walk a hundred yards. " Then, sir," said the princess, urged beyond her patience ; " you will do well at once to go to bed out of sight, for the world had better believe that you can not, than that you will not, leave it." There can be no doubt that the advice was good, but the duke was too egotistical to profit by it; and he still continued calmly to move about the palace, in the midst of his household, who all appeared to be perfectly un- affected by the threatened danger from without; and to treat it with a contemptuous disregard, which at length extorted from the princess the impatient remark, that vol. i. — T 431 LOUIS XIV. AND she could in no other way account for so ill-timed and ill-omened an indifference, than by supposing that His Royal Highness had a treaty in his pocket for him and his, bearing the signature of Mazarin. Monsieur made no comment upon this covert accusa- tion, and Mademoiselle was beginning to despair of her mission, when Messieurs de Rohan and de Chavigny were announced; who, instantly detecting her discomfiture, used their influence, which was considerable with the supine prince, to permit his daughter to represent him at the the Town-Hall, as she had done at Orleans ; to which he acceded with more feigned than actual reluctance ; and ultimately gave M. de Rohan a letter, in which he em- powered Mademoiselle to act as his substitute with the mayors and magistrates. Once possessed of this document the princess hastened to quit the Luxembourg with the Countess de Fiesque, who was her constant companion ; and in the Rue Dau- phine she encountered M. de Jarze, who was at that time in the interest of the prince, by whom he had been dispatched to request the Duke d'Orleans to give an order for the troops which had been left at Poissy to traverse the capital, as he was in great need of a rein- forcement, being furiously attacked, and finding that the royalist force was three times greater than his own. The troops were already awaiting this order at the Porte St. Honore ; while the marquis had left the field during the hottest of the fight, and had received a ball in his arm, which having grazed the bone near the elbow, subjected him to extreme pain. Nevertheless, Mademoiselle de- sired him to attend her to the Town-Hall, telling him that it was not to Monsieur that he must address himself, but to the governor of Paris, for whom she had a letter ; and on receiving this assurance M. de Jarze did not hesitate to obey. The streets were full of tumultuous groups : nearly all THE COURT OF FRANCE. 435 the citizens were armed ; and they had no sooner recog- nized the princess, whose exploit at Orleans was still fresh in their minds, than they shouted to her as she passed, telling her that they were ready to undertake whatever she might command. Mademoiselle replied with dignified affability to their eager greeting, and informed them that, for the moment, she was simply about to request the opinion of the gover- nor; but that she entreated them, should their services become necessary, not to withdraw from her the confi- dence which they now exhibited in her zeal and pru- dence ; and she asked it earnestly, for she was quite aware, should the authorities refuse the demand which she was about to make, that she should possess a powerful resource in the good-will of the populace, so long as they remained faithful to her interests. When she reached the Town-Hall the Marshal de l'Hopital, the governor of Paris, and the councilor Lefevre, provost of the merchants, ad- vanced to the top of the steps to meet her, apologizing for any failure in etiquet, not having been apprised in time of her approach. Mademoiselle thanked them for their courtesy, and told them that Monsieur, being indisposed, had sent her to them as his representative; requesting them to follow her to the council-chamber, to which they assented without difficulty. There M. de Rohan presented to them the letter of His Royal Highness ; and when it had been read by the registrar, and they had ascertained that it invested the princess with unlimited powers, they asked what she wished from them. "I desire three things," replied Mademoiselle firmly; " the first is, that all the citizens shall be called upon to take up arms." " That is already done," replied the marshal. " Secondly, that two thousand of these citizens shall be detached, and marched to join the forces of M. de Conde." 436 Louis x i v. a x d " That will be more difficult," - observed the marshal once more ; " citizens can not be detached like regular troops ; but be under no uneasiness, we will send two thousand men to the prince from the forces of His Royal Highness." " Thirdly," pursued Mademoiselle, who had judi- ciously reserved her most important demand to the last, " that the army shall be allowed free passage through the capital, from the gate of St. Honore to that of St. Denis, or St. Antoine." This requisition produced precisely the effect for which the princess had prepared herself. The marshal, the provost, and the other members of the council looked at each other in silence ; but Mademoiselle, aware that dur- ing all this delay M. de Conde was engaged with a supe- rior force, and that every thing depended upon the measure she had urged, unhesitatingly returned to the charge. " Gentlemen," she said, in a calm and authoritative tone, " it appears to me that this is no subject for your deliberation. His Royal Highness has always been so firm a friend to the city of Paris, that it is merely just, on an occasion when his preservation and that of M. de Conde depend upon your decision, that you should testify some gratitude for all his benefits. Moreover, you may be convinced, gentlemen, that the cardinal has returned to France with the most hostile intentions ; and that should the prince be defeated, there will be no quarter for those who have proscribed the minister, and set a price upon his head ; nor even for Paris itself, which will, without doubt, be put to fire and sword. It there- fore remains for us to evade so terrible a misfortune ; and we can not render a greater service to the king, than by preserving for him the most magnificent city of his king- dom, the capital of his country, and a population which has ever exhibited the greatest loyalty and devotion to its monarchs." THE COURT OF FRANCE. 437 " But, Mademoiselle ;" objected the marshal, " re member, that if our own troops had not approached the capital, neither would those of the crown have done so." " I only remember, sir," replied the princess, in an accent of proud rebuke, " that while we amuse our- selves by idle argument, M. de Conde is in danger in your very faubourgs; and that it will be an eternal grief and disgrace for Paris, if he should perish there for want of assistance. You can help him, gentlemen ; do so, there- fore, and forthwith." Her spirited remonstrance produced its effect : the council rose, and retired to deliberate ; while Mademoi- selle, agitated by exertion and anxiety, knelt down in the bay of a window, to pray for the success of her undertaking. Before the close of the deliberations she, however, became impatient, for she knew the value of the time which was so weakly lost in inaction ; when, as she was rapidly pacing to and fro the hall, inventing and rejecting a score of expedients in the event of a failure with the council, the members at length reappeared ; and the Marshal de l'Hopital announced to her that him- self and his colleagues were prepared to obey whatever order she miofht think fit to issue. CHAPTER XIX. Battle of the Porte St. Antoine — Mademoiselle turns the Cannon of the Bastille against the Royal Forces — Retreat of the King's Army — Ac- knowledgments of Conde to Mademoiselle ; her Suspicions of Conde — Flight of the Court to St. Denis — Meeting at the Town-Hall — Ex- traordinary Party Badge — New Dilemma of Monsieur — Project of a Union — Attack on the Town-Hall — The Provost of the Merchants — Removal of the Court to Pontoise — Monsieur declared Lieutenant- general of the Kingdom by the Parliament ; his Want of Authority in the Capital. Not another moment was wasted. De Jarze hastened to return to the prince, to inform him that the troops were to be allowed to enter the city ; while at the same time the Marquis de la Boulaie went at all speed to cause the Porte St. Honore to be opened to those who were awaiting ingress from Poissy. Meanwhile, hostilities had already LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. 439 commenced in the faubourgs, and the report of artillery re- sounded through the streets of Paris. Mademoiselle felt that the die was now cast, and was naturally anxious as to the issue. She consequently determined upon going to judge for herself of the progress of affairs ; and accordingly left the Town-Hall, and turned in the direction of the Porte St. Antoine, attended by the Marshal de l'Hopital, who was not, however, destined long to swell her suite ; for, as she descended the steps, a man approached, and pointing to him with his finger, asked the princess how she could permit that Mazarinite to follow her, adding that if she were not satisfied with his conduct she had only to say so, and they would drown him. Mademoiselle replied that, so far from desiring any thing of the kind, she had every reason to be extremely satisfied, the marshal having acceded to all her requests. " In that case," was the retort, " all's right ; let him go back to the Town-Hall, and be careful to walk upright." M. de l'Hopital awaited no second bid- ding; but, having respectfully saluted the princess, rapidly retraced his steps, while she pursued her way undauntedly toward the barrier.* Nor did this perseverance exact a slight degree of cour- age when the supineness of those who should have been the most active is calmly considered. The prince, despite his numerical inferiority, tenaciously maintained his ground ; and Turenne attacked him with the additional stimulus of emulation. The Duke d'Orleans had shut himself up in his palace, and the Cardinal de Retz had followed his ex- ample ; while the parliament remained neutral and passive, awaiting the termination of the combat before they ven- tured to fulminate their decrees. The populace, taking the tone from those who should have been their leaders, and being equally terrified at the incursion of either party, had closed the gates of the city, and would not suffer any individual, whatever might be his rank, to pass in or out. * Louis XIV. ct sod Sidcle. 440 LOUIS XIV. AND On reaching the Rue cle la Tixeranderie the princess was subjected to a frightful spectacle. The Duke de la Roche- foucauld had just been struck in the face by a musket- ball, which had entered the corner of his right eye, and escaped through the left, so that his eyeballs appeared to be dropping from their sockets, and the whole of his features were deluged with blood. His son supported him with one hand, and M. de Gourville, one of his most attached friends, by the other ; for he was deprived of sight. He was still on horseback ; but his white vest was so saturated with blood, as well as those of his supporters, that the original color of their attire could not be distinguished. Mademoiselle approached the wretched group, to as- sure the duke of her regret and sympathy; but while the young Prince de Marsillac and M. de Gourville an- swered her with their tears, the wounded man remained impassive, his sense of hearing having failed beneath the shock. She therefore left them to pursue their melancholy way, and was endeavoring to shake off the sentiment of horror which had taken possession of her, when, at the entrance of the Rue St. Antoine, she encountered M. de Guitaut, pale and sinking, with his vest thrown open, and supported by a soldier, who had great difficulty in enabling him to escape from the scene of carnage. The dialogue which ensued is characteristic. "Ha! my poor Guitaut," exclaimed the princess- " what is the matter ] what has happened to you V " A ball through my body," was the reply. " Is the wound fatal 1" " I think not." " Keep up your spirits then." And once more Made- moiselle passed on. The next victim whom she encountered was M. de Va- Ion, who had accompanied her in her expedition to Or- leans; he was badly wounded, and utterly disheartened. "Ah, Madam," he gasped out as she drew near, " we are lost !" THE COURT OF FRANCE. 44 1 "By no means," said Mademoiselle; "we are saved. I command in Paris to-day, as I commanded at Orleans." " There is still a hope then," murmured the stricken soldier; " all may yet be retrieved." This confidence augmented the ardor of the princess ; and she approached the barrier surrounded by the wound- ed, whom their comrades were removing in every direction. On all sides she heard the eulogy of M. de Conde, who was declared to have exceeded all his former feats. He appeared to be gifted with ubiquity, and his perpetual presence sustained the courage of the troops. Mademoiselle lost no time in giving an order to the captain of the guard to permit the free passage of the prince and his adherents ; and having done this, she entered a house in the immediate neighborhood of the Bastille, whence she could command all that passed in the street. She had scarcely seated herself when M. de Conde paid her a visit. He was covered with dust and blood, his hair matted, his cuirass battered with blows, and he carried his naked sword in his hand, having lost the scabbard. As he approached the princess, he put his weapon into the hand of her equerry, and exclaimed, despondingly, that he was wretched ; that he had lost all his friends ; for that the Duke de Nemours, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, and M. de Clinchamp were fatally wounded. Mademoiselle assured him that he exaggerated the evil ; for that, although grievously hurt, there was no fear for their lives. The surgeon had already answered for the safety of M. de Clinchamp ; M. de la Rochefoucauld was by no means beyond hope ; while M. de Nemours was still less injured than either of the others. Although greatly comforted by this assurance, M. de Conde, nevertheless, could not suppress his grief; but with a brief apology, he threw himself upon a seat; and there the hero of a dozen victories, covered as he was with the blood of his enemies, and surrounded by the plaudits 442 LOUIS XIV. AND of his troops, gave a free loose to his emotion : the war- rior was forgotten, while " the strong man wept." The weakness was, however, only momentary; and rousing himself by a powerful effort, he requested that the princess would give an order for the admission of the baggage which was outside the gates, and consent to re- main where she then was, that he might know where to find her on any new emergency, as he could not spare another moment from the troops. Mademoiselle urged him to retire with all his force into the city ; but he firmly refused to do so, declaring that he would rather perish than retreat before the army of Mazarin ; while she need feel no uneasiness for her friends, as he should henceforth confine himself to mere skirmishing ; and pledged himself that he would march all the troops of Monsieur in safety into the capital. He then reclaimed his sword ; and having taken leave of the prin- cess, sprung upon a fresh horse and galloped off. His presence had become requisite, for the battle was raging more fiercely than ever. The royal army had at- tacked simultaneously the gate of St. Denis and the fau- bourg St. Antoine. M. de Conde inquired where the Marshal de Turenne was acting; and upon being told that he commanded the attack in the faubourg, he instantly hastened in that direction, considering that the hottest of the fight must necessarily take place upon that spot, while he satisfied himself by sending some cavalry to the barrier. His judgment proved to be correct, for M. de Turenne was advancing- with his whole strength on that side, the other demonstration having simply been a feint. The royal force amounted to between ten and eleven thousand men, while the troops of M. de Conde did not exceed five thousand ; and he consequently commenced his operations by barricading himself as well as he could in the principal street within sight of the enemy, detaching a portion of his men to guard all the lateral avenues. This done, he THE COURT OF FRANCE. 443 no longer remembered the promise which he had so lately given to Mademoiselle ; and a most fearful engagement took place, in which those who followed his movements declared that his exploits were almost superhuman. He was suddenly informed that the enemy had forced the strong barricade of Picpus ; that the infantry had be- haved admirably, but that the cavalry had been seized with a fearful panic, and had fled in such disorder that they had swept back with them all they encountered on their way. M. de Conde accordingly placed himself at the head of a hundred musketeers, and rallying around him all the officers whom he could collect, and a few vol- unteers, made a rush upon the barricade, which he retook, and drove the enemy (consisting of four regiments) before him like a cloud of dust. Mademoiselle meanwhile retained her post, where she was joined by the President Viole, who assured her that Monsieur had entered into a treaty with the court, and that it was this circumstance which had induced him to remain passive. The indignation of the princess was ex- treme, and she immediately repeated the report to the Count de Fiesque, and the Duchess de Chatillon ; re- proaching the latter with the part which she had taken in the affair, and declaring that, for so clever a woman, she must be " easily misled if she suffered herself to be deluded by so absurd a rumor;" adding, that she sin- cerely believed, should Monsictir discover its authors, he would throw them all out of the window. That she regretted, as much as the duchess herself could do, that His Royal Highness had not made himself more promi- nent, a step which she had strongly urged him to take ; but it was not, therefore, to be inferred, that he had played M. de Conde false ; as he was incapable of such treachery.* This reproof silenced Madame de Chatillon ; although it failed to convince the bystanders of the accu- * Memoire.s de Mademoiselle de Montpensicr. 444 LOUIS XIV. A N D racy of the judgment which Mademoiselle had formed of the motives and principles of her father. The princess had already dispatched an accredited messenger to the Bastille, to demand the intention of the governor; and this functionary, who was no other than M. de Louviers, the son of M. de Broussel, replied, that if he were authorized so to do by an order from Mon- sieur, he would obey whatever commands she might give. Mademoiselle accordingly sent to the Count de Bethune to make this communication to the Duke d'Orleans, who forwarded the required order by the Prince de Guimene ; while, on his return, M. de Bethune announced to the princess that Monsieur was about to join her; a piece of intelligence which she immediately communicated to M. de Conde, who very shortly afterward arrived. He was still in the same disordered attire in which she had previously seen him, but his depression was at an end, and he entered the apartment with a smile upon his lips. The first care of Mademoiselle was to prevail upon him not to reproach her father with the equivocal part which he had played throughout the day ; which, after some difficulty, he conceded. Monsieur subsequently arrived in his turn, and met the prince as cheerfully as though nothing extraordinary had occurred, and that his own bearing had been immaculate. He then congratulated him upon his prowess, and asked a number of questions relating to the engagement ; after which he digressed to the dead and wounded, for whom he expressed much sympathy. Finally, it was resolved between himself and M. de Conde that the army should retire within the walls at nightfall ; and then Monsieur proceeded to the Town- Hall, to offer his acknowledgments to the corporate bodies ; and the prince returned to the troops. They had no sooner taken leave than Mademoiselle resolved to repair in person to the Bastille, which she had never previously visited ; and this done, she ascended to THE COURT OF FRANCE. 445 the towers, whence, by means of a telescope, she distin- guished a great number of people collected on the heights of Charon ne, as well as horses and carriages, when it in- stantly struck her that the king was there in person, as was indeed the fact. Toward Bagnolet, in the valley, she could also see the royal army preparing for a new attack, and recognize the staff of the different general officers. As she continued anxiously to watch their movements, she observed them detach a strong body of their cavalry to intercept the communication between the faubourg and the moat ; which, had they done it at an earlier period, must at once have decided the issue of the struggle; while, as she foresaw that even were it now accomplished it must create considerable annoyance to their own troops, she forthwith dispatched a page to M. de Conde, to inform him of the manceuver. Her messenger found him on the top of the belfry of the abbey of St. Antoine, where, profit- ing by a moinentary respite, he was also busy in reconnoi- tering the besieging forces ; and finding his own observa- tions confirmed by those of the princess, he sent an order for all his troops to march forthwith into the city. On the return of her page with these tidings, Mademoiselle com- manded the cannon of the fortress to be pointed in the direction of the royal army, and gave stringent orders that, should the measure become essential, they should be dis- charged without hesitation. Having done this, without paying the slightest attention to the consternation created by her words, she left the Bas- tille and returned to the house of which she had previously taken possession, in order that she might see the troops march in. Terror had spread through the ranks, as nei- ther officers nor men expected any quarter ; but when they found that Mademoiselle was at the gate, they raised a shout of joy, declaring that they would fight to the last; knowing that should they eventually be compelled to give wav, their retreat was assured, for that she would never 44G LOUIS XIV. AND suffer the barrier to remain closed against them when they had no longer any hope of success. At the same moment M. de Conde sent to request that the princess would cause some wine to be distributed, which she did without loss of time ; and as the troops passed under the window at which she stood, they hailed her with hearty acclamations. Meanwhile the situation of the prince himself was peril- ous in the extreme. Hotly pursued by the forces of M. de Turenne, the number who fell on all sides during this re- treat was frightful ; and as the royalist army had, more- over, been reinforced by the division under the Marshal de la Ferte-Senectere, the ranks of the Fronde tottered on every side ; the musketry resounded within a thousand paces of the house in which Mademoiselle was keeping her anxious watch, and for an instant the prince was com- pelled to give way, and was in the most imminent peril. With his back against the outworks, and contending with those by whom he was opposed with an energy which was rapidly exhausting his strength, in order to give his men time to retreat to the barrier, M. de Conde was about to be overwhelmed by a force that quadrupled his own ; when the summit of the Bastille suddenly flamed out, the cannon were discharged in rapid succession, and the ranks of the royalists tottered, swayed, and retreated in bewilderment. Mademoiselle had decided the fortune of the fight; and had just, to use the words of Mazarin, " killed her royal husband with the ordnance of the Bastille." It is certain that the heroism of the princess upon this occasion outweighed her policy ; for neither Louis nor those about him were ever likely to forgive so bold an act of disloyalty. So vigorous a measure, meanwhile, saved M. de Conde. The royalists, totally unprepared for such a demonstration of what they necessarily considered as the popular feeling, halted in a state of helpless indecision ; during which the prince rallied his troops, made a charge, and repulsed M. de Turenne; thus effecting his retreat with safety. The THE COURT OF FRANCE. 447 blow was terrible to tbe court party, which had felt so sure of success, that the queen, who had remained at St. Denis, sent forward a carriage to bring back M. de Conde a pris- oner ; and as the cardinal had friends in the city who for- warded to him intelligence of all that occurred, he no soon- er heard the cannon of the Bastille than he exclaimed, joy- fully, "Admirable ! there are the guns of the fortress firing upon the prince !" Some one ventured to suggest that the attack might probably be upon their own troops ; and this remark was followed up by another still more pertinent, namely, that Mademoiselle had arrived at the Bastille, and that the governor was firing a salute. The Marshal de Villeroy, who overheard the words, saw the truth at a glance ; and, shaking his head, said, gravely, " If your judgment be cor- rect, and that Mademoiselle is indeed at the Bastille, I know her well enough to be convinced that the salute, such as it is, has been fired by her own hand." An hour subsequently this was found to be the case, and the queen vowed an eternal enmity to the belligerent princess. The loss to the royalist army was considerable, especially as regarded the rank of the individuals. M. de St. Mesgrin, lieutenant-general, and second in command of the light cavalry, was killed ; as was also the Marquis de Nantouillet. M. de Fouilloux, an ensign in the guards, and one of the favorites of the young king, fell by the hand of the prince himself; and Paul de Mancini, the nephew of the cardinal, an amiable youth of sixteen, full of the most brilliant prom- ise, was wounded at the head of his regiment, and died shortly afterward. When the prince had seen the rear of his troops safely within the barrier, he entered in his turn ; and the gates once more closed, he hurried to make his acknowledgments to Mademoiselle for her bold and well- timed assistance ; who, in reply to his compliment, remark- ed upon the admirable appearance of his troops, Baying 448 LOUIS XIV. AND that she saw little difference between them when at Etampes, and now that they had just sustained a siege and two serious engagements ; terminating her eulogy by ex- exclaiming, " God preserve them after these perils from those of a negotiation !" M. de Conde flushed, and remained silent, which more than satisfied the princess that she had driven the arrow home ; for she had already been long enough involved in faction to discover that scarcely one individual with whom she was brought into contact was exempt from intrigue or double-dealing of some description ; but feeling that the pause which ensued must be painful to the prince, while it was impolitic as regarded her own interests, she hastened to add that she trusted he would at least pledge himself to her that there should be no more secret treaties. This he readily promised, and with apparent good faith.* Mademoiselle then inquired for the Marquis de Flama- rin, whom she had not seen since the morning, and learned with extreme sorrow that he was missing, and that all his friends were ignorant of his fate. As the princess was sincerely attached to him, and had not forgotten the serv- ices which he rendered to her at Orleans, she dispatched a number of her attendants to obtain tidings, and, after great exertions, his body was found pierced by a ball. By an extraordinary coincidence, for which it was impossible to account, he had a rope about his neck ; and thus the prophecy, which had turned to a jest upon his lips when he took leave of Mademoiselle, had met with a mysterious accomplish ment.t The populace of Paris were indefatigable. They carri- ed away the dead, and buried them; they gave wine to the soldiers who remained under arms, and refreshment and help to the wounded ; exerting themselves with all their energy, and shouting continually, " Long live the king, and * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. t Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF F R A N C E. 449 no Mazarin !" The cardinal had no sooner ascertained that the troops of the Fronde had reentered Paris in tri- umph than he carried off the sovereign to St. Denis ; hut even this flight was not effected without considerable panic; and the court party did not reach their destination until midnight, after many false alarms, and having several times halted and prepared to oppose an imagined enemy in pur- suit. Nothing of the kind was, however, attempted, the. troops of M. de Conde being overwhelmed with fatigue. The prince was now in possession of the capital, which, singularly enough, he had secured by a retreat; but, although his military position was undeniable, he had as yet attained no civil authority, which was absolutely neces- sary to enable him to retain the power he had acquired. It was, consequently, determined that a general assembly should be held at the Town-Hall, at which the civic digni- taries should be invited to delegate a portion of their au- thority to Monsieur and himself; and that a union should be formed between the two princes and the pailiament. The attempt was hazardous, but they had no alternative, as money was required to pay the troops and to make new levies. The assembly was therefore appointed for the 4th of July ; and, in order to recognize his own followers in the crowd, M. de Conde desired each of them to attach a few straws to his hat. The populace, attracted by this singular decoration, im- mediately adopted it in their turn, believing it to be the symbol of the faction ; and their zeal was so great that while the men, in imitation of the troops, affixed it to their hats, the women adopted it as a shoulder-knot ; and in a couple of hours every one who appeared in the streets without this appendage was assailed by cries of " The straw! the straw!" and where any were impolitic enough to resist the popular clamor, they were unsparingly beaten by the mob. This demonstration was sufficient to overthrow the mi- 450 LOUIS XIV. AND certain courage of Monsieur ; and, accordingly, when the hour of council arrived, he began to be indisposed, and furious against M. de Conde, who urged him to fulfill his promise. He declared he would do nothing of the sort, for that this device of the straw was quite sufficient to occasion a riot. The prince, in despair at this pusillanimity, ad- dressed himself to Mademoiselle, assuring her that it was ■ absolutely necessary to the safety of the faction that His Royal Highness should show himself at the Town-Hall ; and that, if he pei'severed in his refusal, he could not an- swer for the consequences. All remonstrances, neverthe- less, proved useless for a considerable time, and he was evidently ill disposed to M. de Conde ; but suddenly, at the eleventh hour, he determined on attending the meeting which had been fixed for two o'clock, probably remember- ing that his own interests were more deeply involved in the measures which might be adopted than those of any other individual in the capital, and that they would, be- yond all doubt, suffer from his absence. As he proceeded through the city he gradually regained his courage, for he soon perceived that every one was provided with a bunch of straw ; and that even Mademoiselle, whom he encoun- tered by the way, had a similar decoration attached to her fan by a bow of blue ribbon, which was the party color. He had lingered so long that the streets were choked by the mob, and he had great difficulty in advancing; while the whole of the populace were in a state of excitement, and were uttering fierce threats against the Marshal de l'Hopital, and the provost of the merchants, whom they loudly qualified as Mazarinites, and overwhelmed with threatening and insult. When Monsieur and the prince arrived, the chamber at once proceeded to business, and the meeting was opened by reading a letter from the king, which had just been received, and which demanded that the assembly should be delayed for the space of eight days. It was, however, THE COURT OF FRANCE. 451 unanimously rejected, and at once laid aside. His Royal Highness and M. de Conde then made their acknowledg- ments to the meeting for the assistance which had been afforded to them by the city of Paris at the engagement of the Porte St. Antoine, but both carefully avoided all reference to their anticipations for the future. Monsieur expected his full recognition as lieutenant-general of the kingdom, which had already been accorded to him by the parliament; as well as unlimited authority to issue such orders as he might deem expedient, by virtue of the power vested in him by the king, so long as His Majesty should remain a prisoner in the hands of Mazarin ; declared to be the enemy of the state, and the disturber of the public peace, to be banished forever from the soil of France, and to have a price set upon his head, by a deci'ee of parlia- ment ; which decree had since been confirmed by the king himself; while M. de Conde, also conformably to the dec- laration of parliament, looked forward to his nomination as generalissimo of the royal forces. The proposition of a union which was to have been made by certain of the councilors, was not even mooted ; nor were the individual interests of the princes alluded to by any person present, although it was for this precise purpose that the assembly had been convoked ; and conse- quently after lingering for a short time, in order to afford the different members an opportunity of suggesting the settlement of these claims, and finding that no effort was made on any hand to enforce them, M. de Conde ultimately lost patience, and rose, motioning to Monsieur to follow him; and immediately afterward, having saluted the meet- ing, they both retired by the great entrance which opened on the Place de Greve. As the princes left the Town-Hall much dissatisfied, it is probable that their countenances betrayed their annoy- ance, for some of the mob remarked their discomfiture, and loudly demanded its cause ; upon which they replied that 452 LOUIS XIV. A X D they had quitted the assembly, as .the Union had not only remained unsigned, but had actually not even been pro- posed. On receiving this intelligence the populace, who desired nothing more than a commotion, began to exclaim that all those who met at the Town-Hall were nothing better than Mazarinites, who, on the day of the battle at the Porte St. Antoine, would have left the prince to per- ish if Mademoiselle had not compelled them to assist him ; and in a few minutes cries of " The Union ! The Union !" burst from every quarter of the crowd ; and at the same time a volley of musketry shattered several of the windows of the Town-Hall. The terror which these shouts, and the balls, which, after having shivered the glass of the casements, buried themselves in the walls of the council-chamber, caused among the assembled functionaries was so great, that the greater number of its occupants threw themselves on the floor, believing that their last hour was come, and began to pray with the utmost devotion ; but matters became still worse when a fresh discharge of bullets, instead of striking diagonally like the first, entered the apartment horizon- tally. Some soldiers, more experienced than the mob, had taken possession of the opposite houses, and were firing point-blank into the building ; in consequence of which fact, two or three shots took effect; and the groans of the wounded, and the shuddering spasms of the dying, mingled with the general confusion. The universal idea was, thenceforward, flight ; but this was rendered impos- sible by the fact that the mob had invaded all the issues of the Town-Hall, and closed and barricaded all the doors, piling before them fagots of wood, to which they set fire, ' and thus, for a time, wrapped the whole building in flame.* While this was going forward the princes returned- to the Luxembourg, never suspecting the violent manner in which the populace were enforcing their demands ; and * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. T H K UUURT OF F R A N C E. 453 as Monsieur immediately retired, having suffered greatly from heat during the meeting, M. de Conde remained in the ante-room with Mademoiselle, the Duchess de Sully,* the Countess de Fiesque, and Madame de Villars, where he amused himself in reading some letters which had been brought to him by a trumpeter of M. de Turenne ; and he was still intent upon their contents, when a citizen, pale with terror, and gasping for breath, burst into the apart- ment, exclaiming that the Town-Hall was on fire, and that the people were shooting and killing each other. M. de Conde immediately informed Monsieur of the cir- cumstance, whose terror was so great, that, forgetting he was not dressed, and that there were ladies in the ante- room, he rushed out of his apartment in his shirt, imploring the prince to hasten instantly to the scene of the disaster, and to pacify the people. M. de Conde, however, replied with some haughtiness that, although there were few things which he should hesitate to undertake in order to serve His Royal Highness, his presence on the present occasion would be of no avail, as he understood nothing about se- dition, and was always a coward in a mob; but that he would advise him to send the Duke de Beaufort, who was well known and very popular with the people, a fact which would render him much more useful than himself in such an emergency. M. de Beaufort was accordingly dispatch- ed to the Town-Hall without loss of time ; and accepted the mission readily, declaring that he would soon bring all the rebels to their senses. Mademoiselle, who felt some doubts as to his success, and who was not sorry, moreover, to exhibit the extent of her own influence over the public mind, followed her father and M. de Conde to the cabinet of His Royal High- ness, and suggested that, should they deem it expedient, she would herself go, and endeavor to allay the tumult ; * The Duchess de Sully was the daughter of the Chancellor Seguier, and nicer to the Bishop of Mcaux 454 LOUIS XIV. AND adding that it would strengthen their party if this oppor- tunity were seized to induce the Marshal de l'Hopital and the provost of the merchants to give in their resignation, which would be a triumph for the people ; while His Royal Highness could not give a more stringent proof of his authority than by withdrawing them in safety from the hands of an infuriated mob. Monsieur, delighted by any expedient which did not involve his own safety or comfort, conceded the point at once ; and as he had by this time conceived a high idea of the generalship of the princess, he bade her hasten to accomplish her project, if, indeed, it could be achieved ; while M. de Conde, struck with the extent of the advan- tage to be gained, made no other reply than by offering to bear her company : a proposal Mademoiselle, however, declined, being desirous of reaping the laurels in her own person. All the household of Monsieur and the prince followed in her train ; and she was accompanied in her coach by Mesdames de Sully and de Villars, and the two countesses, her usual aides-de-camp, who were considera- bly alarmed at this new adventure. They had scarcely passed the gates of the Luxembourg when they saw a man lying dead in the street, which in- creased their distaste for the expedition ; but the princess, who had lately become inured to the spectacle of violent and premature death, bade them refrain from looking about them, and trust their safety with confidence to her prudence. Her first idea was to approach the Town-Hall by the square of the Greve, but she fortunately changed her mind, as the risk would have been immense ; and the party had scarcely reached the termination of the Rue de Gevres, in order to cross the Pont-Neuf, when they met the dead body of M. Ferrand, a parliamentary councilor, who was the personal friend of the princess, and whom she sincerely regretted. As the carriage moved slowly along, she questioned all THE COURT OF FRANCE. 455 the persons whom she encountered ; and learned that a controller of accounts named Miron, who was known to her, had likewise perished ; and, moreover, that the Vicar of St. John-in-Greve had, in his anxiety to save his cu- rate, who was in the midst of the mob, rushed from his church, lifting above his head the Host which he had taken from the altar ; but that, despite his holy aegis, the miser- able fanatics had fired upon him. On hearing the detail of this enormity, all the suite of Mademoiselle gathered about her coach, and implored her to forego her purpose; but, although she consented not to pursue her way, she equally refused to return to the Luxembourg without an effort to allay the storm ; and she, consequently, sent mes- senger after messenger to the Town-Hall, to bring her a precise report of the revolt. Not one of them, however, returned ; and she then determined to dispatch a trumpeter with orders to sound the appel, and thus attract attention to her message ; but her attendants were unable to find one ; and finally, after a considerable time had elapsed, she drove toward the Hotel de Nemours, when, on trav- ersing the Petit-Pont, the wh^el of her carriage became locked in that of the vehicle in which the dead were nightly conveyed from the Hotel-Dieu to their common grave. The death-cart was heavily laden with corpses, and the princess had barely time to throw herself to the other side of the coach, in order to avoid the contact of the arms and legs which protruded from between the rails of the wagon, and entered the window of her own vehicle. On arriving at the residence of M. de Nemours, she again failed in procuring a trumpeter ; and having inquired into the progress of his own convalescence, and learned that his wound had proved to be very slight, she finally return- ed with great reluctance to the Luxembourg to report her failure. Monsieur, whose terror was increased by all he heard, urged her to make another attempt, to which she consent- 456 LOUIS XIV. AND ed, and again set forth, accompanied by the Duchess de Sully and the Countess de Frontenac, who would not abandon her, and attended by an inconsiderable retinue ; for, as it was midnight when the princess returned to the palace, most of her attendants had imagined that she would make no further effort that night. She found the streets deserted save by numerous patrols, each of which afforded her an escort ; and as her carriage stopped in the Place de Greve, a man laid his hand upon the window, and asked if M. de Conde was with her. She answered in the negative ; upon which he immediately walked rapidly away, and by the light of the flambeaux which were in front of the vehicle, she discovered that he carried a weapon beneath his arm. Just at that moment, M. de Beaufort approached, caused the coach to be drawn up at the Town-Hall, and assisted the princess to alight. With his assistance, she passed across some beams which were still smoking, and entered the building. All was silent and deserted, and they traversed the lower portion of the edifice without meeting a single human being; but while Mademoiselle was examining with considerable curiosity the distribution of the council-chamber, the mattre-d'hotel of the city entered cautiously, and informed her that the provost of the merchants was in a neighboring apartment, and requested the honor of an interview with Her Royal Highness. This was precisely what Mademoiselle de- sired ; and leaving her ladies in the hall, she followed the messenger, accompanied by the Counts de Fiesque, de Bethune, and de Prefontaine. In a small dark room she found the provost, disguised by an enormous wig, but perfectly calm and self-possessed ; and informed him that she had been sent by Monsieur to his assistance, a commission which she had gladly under- taken, having always felt a great esteem for him person- ally. She would not, she said, moreover, enter into any unpleasant retrospection, as he had probably believed that THE COURT OF FRANCE. 457 he was doing his duty while opposing her interests, and that persons were frequently misled by those whom they considered as their friends. He expressed, in reply, how deeply he felt the honor of her good opinion, and declared that he should ever remem- ber the extent of his obligation to both herself and Mon- sieur ; assuring her that he had acted upon principle, but that, as he was quite conscious of his unpopularity, he was ready, if Mademoiselle would cause pens and paper to be brought to him, at once to place his resig- nation in her hands. This, however, the princess re- fused to permit, merely promising to mention his wish to Monsieur, who could send for the proffered resignation should he deem it desirable — but decidedly declining to become its medium. The Duke de Beaufort terminated the discussion by asking the provost how he intended to dispose of himself; and was answered that all he wished was to be enabled to return to his own house, where he believed that he should be safe ; upon which the duke left the room to reconnoiter a side door opening upon a retired street ; and finding it perfectly free, he returned in search of the discomfited functionary, who appeared highly delighted at his pros- pect of escape, and lost no time, after he had addressed a parting compliment to Mademoiselle, in profiting by the discovery. The princess remained in the apartment until the return of M. de Beaufort, when she returned to the hall, where she found the two ladies who were awaiting her in a state of great alarm, another musket having been fired in the square ; and they were no sooner pacified than she proceeded in search of the Marshal de l'Hopital, but learned that he had already succeeded in accomplishing his exit through one of the back windows. As the day was beginning to dawn, and the mob to reassemble, the princess thought it prudent to return to the palace, lest her lengthened sojourn at the Town Hall vol. i. — U 458 LOUIS XIV. AND should excite suspicion of her motives ; and she accord- ingly reentered her carriage amid the shouts and plaudits of the populace, who called down blessings upon her head, declaring that all she did was well done ; and with these flattering sounds ringing in her ears, she drove off at once to the Louvre, and hastened to secure a little rest after her fatigue and exertion. In the evening the Count de Fiesque waited upon Her Royal Highness, to inform her that he had given a detail of all her proceedings to JSIonsieur, who had commanded the Count de Bethune and himself to go to the provost, and to demand from him the resignation which he had proffered, taking with them M. de Prefontaine, who had been present at the time. The precaution was, however, unnecessary, as he tendered it without hesitation ; and on the following evening, M. de Broussel, whose sentiments were well known, was elected to the office. A meeting took place at the Town-Hall, in which his appointment was recognized, after which he proceeded to the Luxem- bourg, and took the oath to Monsieur as it was customary to do to the sovereign. The president De Thou was at the same time intrusted with the duties of secretary of state.* The cardinal no sooner learned these details than he removed the king from St. Denis to Pontoise, in order that he might be in the center of Turenne's army, and an order was dispatched to the parliamentary deputies to follow him ; but as they raised objections to this measure, they were commanded to remain at St. Denis. On the following day they, however, received renewed directions to join the court, which they immediately communicated to the authorities of the capital, who issued a decree enforcing their instant return to Paris; upon which Mon- sieur, the prince, and the Duke de Beaufort (who had succeeded the Marshal de l'Hopital in the government * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Moutpensier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 459 of the city), placed themselves at the head of eight hundred infantry and twelve hundred cavalry, to escort them into the gates, and to impress upon the populace that they were protecting them from an imminent danger; while the court replied to this demonstration by passing decrees in the council which annulled those promulgated by the parliament ; and in which they declared all their proceedings to be void, not only in the past but also in the future; even ordaining that the moneys destined to defray their expenses should henceforth be paid in such places as His Majesty should select for his residence. These were again answered in a proposition made by Broussel himself, that Monsieur should be declared lieutenant-general of the kingdom, as he had been during the minority of the sovereign, with full power to act as he saw fit ; and should retain this rank so long as the cardinal remained in the country, using every means to compel his expulsion ; while M. de Conde should be requested to accept the command of the army, under the authority of His Royal Highness. A copy of this proposition was, moreover, dispatched to all the parliaments throughout the kingdom, who were requested to pass a similar decree ; but, with the exception of that of Bordeaux, no such concession was made, nor was any deliberation held upon the subject ; while in Brittany a demurrer was even resolved to all those which it had pre- viously rendered, until the Spanish troops then in France should have left the country. Nor was Monsieur fated to experience a greater degree of obedience to his new dignity from the governors of the respective provinces, from whom, with one solitary excep- tion, he received no reply to his appeal ; the court having warned them by a solemn decree that the royal council did not recognize the act of parliament which established the office ; while, even in Paris, his authority was so far from being established, that two criminals, condemned to 460 LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. be hanged for having fired the Town-Hall, being about to suffer for their crime, the city companies who were ordered to attend the execution refused to sanction it by their presence.* * Memoircs du Cardinal de Eetz. — CHAPTER XX. Divisions among the Princes — Quarrel of the Dukes de Nemours and Beaufort — Fatal Duel — Death of M. de Nemours — Forbearance of M. de Beaufort — The Prince de Conde receives a Blow — Answer of the President Bellievre — Death of the young Duke de Valois — Severe Indisposition of the Princess de Conde — Renewed Hopes of Mademoiselle — Reconciliation of Mademoiselle and the Duke de Lorraine — New Opposition of the Parliament — Resignation and Re- tirement of Mazarin — Resignation of the Duke de Beaufort and M. Broussel — Return of the King to Paris; he Dislodges Mademoiselle from the Tuileries — Alarm of Monsieur: refuses to Lodge Mademoi- selle in the Luxembourg — Monsieur leaves Pans — Mademoiselle Retires to Pons — Position of the Kingdom — Declaration of Le;e- Majeste against the Princes — The Prince de Conde and the Duke de Lorraine continue their Military Operations in the Provinces. In this emergency a council was formed of which Mon- sieur was the president; an arrangement that renewed the old enmity between the Duke de Nemours and his brother-in-law, M. de Beaufort, who had some altercation as to precedence, in which M. de Nemours exhibited great irritability and haughtiness, while M. de Beaufort 4G2 LOUIS XIV. AND displayed considerable forbearance. As the former re- fused all concession, although still confined to the house from the weakness consequent upon his wounds, Monsieur and the Prince de Conde became alarmed at the possible consequences of his intemperance, and with considerable difficulty at length succeeded in obtaining his pledge not to proceed to any act of violence during the next four-and- twenty hours. Despite this arrangement, however, Made- moiselle received private information that a duel would take place ; and she forthwith dispatched a couple of her friends to seek out the Duke de Beaufort in the gardens of the Tuileries, where the quarrel was stated to have been renewed. Their report was calculated to allay her fears, for they asserted that he was quietly walking with four or five of his friends, and that nothing in either his conversation or manner induced a belief that he had gone there with any hostile intention. A different impression had, however, taken possession of Madame de Nemours, who had written in great haste to Madame de Chavigny, to entreat that she would closely watch the movements of the two brothers in-law ; and as the latter lady imme- diately communicated the alarm of the duchess to Made- moiselle, she mentioned the fact to Monsieur, who chanced at this time to visit her. His Royal Highness, to whom it was not convenient to give credence to such a rumour, treated the matter with contempt, and remarked with some bitterness to the prin- cess, that she was constantly fancying quarrels, which was the very way to engender them ; after which he proceeded in his turn to the Tuileries, to the celebrated restaurant of Renard, which had become the fashionable promenade. Mademoiselle followed him, but at some distance, having been detained in conversation with M. de Jarze ; and as she was ascending the steps which led to the terrace of Renard, one of the pages of Madame de Chatillon grasped her dress, and having attracted her attention, THE COURT OF FRANCE. 4G3 said hurriedly, that the duchess had sent him to apprise Her Royal Highness that M. de Nemours and his brother- in-law were about to meet at the Petits-Peres ; and that she entreated her to inform Monsieur of the fact. The princess instantly walked to the bench upon which her father was seated, and having communicated the intelli- gence, had the gratification of seeing him at length aroused into an alarm equal to her own. He hurriedly desired the Counts de Fiesque and Fontrailles, who were with him, to proceed immediately to the place mentioned, and to prevent the encounter; but they arrived too late; the procrastination of Gaston having, as usual, rendered his interference of no avail. The parties had met ; and M. de Nemours had fallen by the hand of his wife's brother. On receiving this fatal intelligence, Monsieur instantly returned home ; while Mademoiselle and the prince pro- ceeded to the residence of the unhappy duchess, whom they found in a state bordering on distraction; for not only the melancholy fact itself, but also the circumstances by which it was attended, were too well calculated to overcome her with wretchedness. Trusting to the pledge given by M. de Nemours, neither the Duke d'Orleans nor the prince had taken any precautions to avert the catas- trophe ; while M. de Beaufort had made every effort in his power to avoid the meeting, and even when he could no longer decline it, had raised difficulties as to its execu- tion, alledging that he had several gentlemen in his com- pany of whom he could not rid himself, and that conse- quently the encounter must be deferred until another opportunity. On receiving this last reply M. de Nemours had re- turned home, where, having unfortunately found an equal number of his own friends, he renewed his challenge to M. de Beaufort; and they all left the Tuileries ; after which the duel took place in the horse-market, behind 4G4 LOUIS XIV. AND the Hotel Vendome. Three of the Duke de Beaufort's witnesses were dangerously wounded, two of them so much so that they died within four-and-twenty hours ; and, as we have already stated, M. de Nemours himself fell. Even to the last the Duke de Beaufort had endeavored to appease the blind rage of his unnatural relative ; and when M. de Nemours approached him with pistols already loaded, and swords already drawn, he exclaimed deprecatingly, " Let us not be guilty of this shame, my brother. Let us rather forget the past, and be recon- ciled." The appeal, touching as it was, nevertheless produced no effect ; and the unhappy Duke de Nemours fell a victim to his own indomitable temper. The report of firearms drew to the spot several per- sons who chanced to be walking in the gardens of the Hotel Vendome ; and among others the Abbe de Saint- Pierre, who sprung toward the dying man, and raised him in his arms. He had, however, only time to press the hand of the horror-stricken ecclesiastic, and to mur- mur the name of the Savior, when he fell back upon the shoulder of his supporter, a lifeless corse.* On the following day there occurred a similar scene, save only that it was, fortunately, not attended with equally fatal results. Another dispute on the same con- temptible question of precedence took place between the Prince of Tarente, son of the Duke de la Tremouille, and the Count de Rieux, son of the Duke d'Elbceuf. M. de Conde, who chanced to be present, favored the pretensions of the Prince de Tarente, who was his near relative ; and during the discussion which ensued, the Count de Rieux having made use of a gesture which M. de Conde con- strued into an affront, he returned it by a blow, which was instantly met by another. The prince, who was without his sword, instantly seized that of the Baron de * Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. THE COURT p F PR A N C E. 465 Migenne, who was standing near him, and M. de Rieux as promptly drew his own; when the Count de Rohan, apprehensive of the consequences, sprung between the combatants, ordering M. de Rieux instantly to withdraw ; and he was forthwith committed to the Bastille by Mon- sieur. M. de Conde was not, however, to be so easily appeased ; he insisted that he would have satisfaction for the insult to which he had been subjected ; and it was with considerable difficulty that his friends could convince him that he had been the first aggressor; when, finally, aware that his courage could not under any circumstances be called in question, he consented to let the matter drop; but it, nevertheless, rankled deeply ; and in the afternoon of the same day, he remarked to Mademoiselle that she saw a man who had been beaten for the first time in his life. A similar circumstance had nearly occurred during the first war of the Fronde, and was only prevented by a witticism of the president Bellievre. M. de Beaufort, experiencing some difficulty in the success of his projects, through the interference of the Duke d'Elbceuf, lost his temper; and seeking some method to attain his purpose, exclaimed passionately, " If I were to strike M. d'Elbceuf, do you not think that it would change the face of affairs !" " No, Your Highness," replied the president, " I think that it would only change the face of M. d'Elbceuf."* After the spirited interference of the Count de Rohan, related above, Monsieur, the prince, and Mademoiselle, succeeded in obtaining from the parliament the registra- tion of his claims to a duchy, which were not, however, accorded until after long deliberation ; and thus the brave old family motto was negatived in its chivalry. About this time M. de Valois, the only son of Monsieur, expired after a few weeks' illness; and the blow was a heavy one to the prince, who caused the body to be re- * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 4G6 LOUIS XIV. AND moved to the Calvary until its interment at St. Denis, for which he anticipated the royal authority immediately upon the receipt of his letters to the court announcing the event. He was not, however, destined to experience even this inadequate consolation ; for the reply which he received to his communication was couched in the most harsh and unsympathizing terms, informing him that the death of his child was a visible judgment of God for the unjust war in which he was engaged; with several other comments quite as bitter, as insulting, and as ill-timed. Mademoiselle was much affected by this death, al- though the child, being strangely deformed, would never have been able to maintain his rank with that dignity required by the fastidiousness of the court to which he belonged. Her grief was, however, diverted by intelli- gence received by M. de Conde from Bordeaux, of the severe, and it was believed fatal, illness of the princess his wife, who was prostrated by fever : and as Mademoiselle was about to express her regret in the courtly common- place which she considered necessary to the occasion, she was interrupted by the Countess de Frontenac, who told her with a smile that she had learned from M. de Chavigny that the prince was already consoled, by the hope that she would herself accept his hand. Once more busy with the idea of marriage, the princess drove to the Tuileries, where she encountered M. de Conde himself, who imme- diately joined her, and they walked twice up and down the avenue together without exchanging a word, being apprehensive that they were observed. At the same period Monsieur sent for his daughter, with considerable mystery, desiring her to wait upon him at the Luxembourg, with no other attendance than that of the two countesses (Mesdames de Fiesque and de Frontenac) ; and she hastened to obey, feeling convinced that news had arrived of the death of the Princess de Conde, and that His Royal Highness and the prince were anxious to ac- THE COURT OF FRANCE. 4G7 complish her marriage before any interference could be offered by the court. Once more, however, she was des- tined to disappointment ; for the object of her hasty sum- mons was simply to communicate to her the receipt of a letter from the Duke de Lorraine, who, in reply to the entreaties of Monsieur and the prince that he should join them in Paris, had written to declare that he must ahstain from so doing until he had obtained the pardon of Made- moiselle, whom he had offended ; and receive her com- mands, as well as those of Madame de Frontenac, to return to the capital. M. de Saint Etiemie, who had been the bearer of the letter, also assured her that the duke could be induced to comply with the wishes of His Royal High- ness upon no other terms ; and, eventually, the princess was induced to write to M. de Lorraine, declaring that she forgave all that had occurred, in the hope that he would repair his fault; and that she should have great pleasure in seeing him. The countess also wrote; and the ladies were then permitted to retire, having accomplished a very different errand from that which they had anticipated.* We have already stated, that the king had issued an ordinance which transferred the parliament to Pontoise ; to which they had replied, that they could not obey the royal command, nor even give it a public reading, so long as the Cardinal Mazarin remained in France ; while they, moreover, put forth an ordinance of their own, by which every one of their members was forbidden to leave Paris; and all who were absent were enjoined to return there. The king immediately signified his acquiescence in their demand ; while the minister tendered his resignation, which was accepted, and retired to Bouillon. No conces- sion could have been ejther better judged, or better timed, although both parties at once felt it to be a mere comedy. The attack upon the Town-Hall, in which several magis- trates and nearly forty citizens lost their lives, had iudis- * Memoiros de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 468 L O U I 8 XIV. AND posed the parliament to the cause of the princes; while the nomination of Monsiewr as lieutenant-general of the kingdom had been carried only by a majority of five voices, leaving an opposition of sixty-nine members; and not only the provinces, but even the capital itself, were beginning to weary of a war, which, while it harassed, drained, and weakened the resources of the country, could be ultimately productive of no adequate result. The departure of Ma- zarin removed all pretext of discontent; for, his banish- ment once effected, parliamentary opposition degenerated into political rebellion ; and the union of the princes be- came a matter of high treason, against both the sovereign and the state. The declaration of the king which announced the de- parture of Mazarin produced, on its arrival at Paris, all the effect which had been anticipated. Monsieur and the prince proceeded to the meeting of parliament, and de- clared that the principal cause of their opposition no longer existing, they were ready to lay down their arms ; pro- vided that His Majesty should see fit to grant an amnesty, to remove the troops which were stationed in the environs of Paris, to withdraw those which were quartered in Guienne, and to give free passage and safeguards to the Spanish forces to return to their own country ; as well as to accord permission to the princes themselves to send en- voys to confer with His Majesty upon such points as might still require adjustment. While the parliament, on their side, issued a decree, by which it was ordained that His Majesty should be thanked for banishing the cardinal ; and very humbly requested to return to his good city of Paris. The negotiation proved a long one, for the princes de- sired guaranties, while the king stood firm, and refused to compromise his dignity. The princes stipulated that the past should be as though it had never been, while the king maintained that there were certain things which it behooved him to keep in remembrance. The Cardinal de Retz was T U E COURT OF FRAN C E. 409 the representative of Monsieur, and M. cle Chavigny that of the prince. Neither of them, however, succeeded as they had hoped ; Monsieur received only vague and evasive answers; and M. de Conde was equally unfortunate, and became the more intemperate under his annoyance from the fact of a severe indisposition obliging him to leave Paris. So great, indeed, was his irritation, that before his departure he threw himself into a violent passion with M. de Chavigny, whom he reproached with having neg- lected his interests, when the poor young nobleman be- came so alarmed as to fall ill, from which illness he died some days afterward. The reply of the king to the requisition of the princes was a refusal to grant the necessary passports to the Mar- shal d'Etampes, the Count de Fiesque, and M. de Goulas; while the answer to Monsieur individually, expressed that His Majesty was surprised the Duke d'Orleans should not have reflected, that after the departure of the cardinal there remained nothing more for him to do, than, in ac- cordance with his word and declaration, to lay down his arms, to renounce all associations and treaties, and to with- draw the foreign troops from the kingdom ; after he had done which, all those whom he sent to negotiate an ar- rangement with the court would be well received. The Duke de Beaufort and M. de Broussel mutually proffered their resignation — the one as governor of Paris, and the other as provost of the merchants. They preferred a voluntary tender to an official destitution, as heing at once more safe and less mortifying. On the 17th of October the king arrived at St. Germain, where the civic guard and the town deputation hastened to greet him, and brought back with them in triumph the Marshal de l'Hopital, and the Councilor Lefevre, who re- turned to their former offices ; announcing at the same time, that in two days the king would make his entry into the capital. 470 LOUIS XIV. AND On the 21st he accordingly did so, having slept the pre- vious night at Ruel ; whence" he dispatched two of his retinue to request Monsieur to meet him outside the gates, an invitation which was peremptorily declined, His Royal Highness preferring to remain shut up in the Luxembourg, where the acclamations of the populace were nevertheless distinctly audible. As they had shouted on the news of the victory of Rocroy ; on the advent of M. de Conde, and on his subsequent banishment ; on learning the precipitate flight of Mazarin from the capital, and on his reappear- ance in triumph by the side of the young monarch ; as they had shouted for Mademoiselle when she turned the can- non of the Bastille against their legitimate sovereign, so they once more pealed forth their rejoicings at the return of the boy-king whom they had shed both blood and money to deprive of his capital. In the regulation of the ceremonial which was made at Ruel for the entrance into the city, it had been decided that the king should ride beside the queen's carriage, and be surrounded by the Swiss guards ; but the young mon- arch objected to this arrangement, nor could all the argu- ments which were advanced in its favor induce him to adopt it. He would return to his capital, he said, as a sovereign should do, at the head of his army, and himself open the procession. As his will could not be opposed, he consequently did so ; and showed himself thus, amid the glare of ten thousand torches, to his so lately rebellious citizens, upon whom the boldness of the act produced an unhoped-for impression. There was more prudence in his precocious courage than in all the subtil diplomacy of his more experienced mother. While she was still engaged at her evening toilet, Made- moiselle was waited on by the king's steward, M. de San- guin, who informed her that he was the bearer of a letter from His Majesty, which he had been instructed to deliver into her own hands; and its contents signified that the THE COURT OF FRANCE. 471 king, being about to take up his abode in Paris, had no other residence to offer to his brother than the Tuileries, which he requested her to vacate on the following mornino-. The princess merely replied, that His Majesty should be obeyed ; but that it was necessary she should communicate the order which she had received to His Royal Highness ; and that if he returned in the afternoon, she would have the honor of answering the letter of the king. She then proceeded to the Luxembourg, where she found Monsieur extremely uneasy and out of temper ; who, on being in- formed of the purport of her visit, and consulted as to what should be done, told her that she had nothing to do but to obey. Finding that any thing more definite or sat- isfactory was not to be extorted from her father in his present mood, the princess accordingly returned home, and summoned to her assistance the president Viole, and the parliamentary counsel, Croissy, with whom, on his depart- ure, M. de Conde had entreated her to advise in every emergency ; assuring her that they were two of his best friends, in whom he had unlimited confidence. Viole, on his arrival, told her that it was reported Monsieur had an understanding with the court ; and he even showed her the articles of the treaty; upon which she replied calmly, that the president must know His Royal Highness, and that she would not be answerable for any of his actions; adding, that she only wished to ascertain how she could serve M. de Conde, as that was the most essential consideration. M. de Viole was of opinion that she should take up her abode at the arsenal, which would not fail to annoy the court, and M. de Croissy agreed with the suggestion. The princess consequently looked upon the matter as decided ; and in the evening mentioned it at the Luxembourg to Monsieur, who offered no objection. On her return home, the princess found the duchesses of Epernon and Chatillon awaiting her, and full of lamen- tation at her change of residence, which was at that period 472 louis xiv. and" the most agreeable in Paris. Having exhausted their re- grets, they at last inquired where she had decided to take up her abode. She replied, at the arsenal; upon which Madame de Chatillon exclaimed, that she could not con- ceive who had been so ill-advised as to propose such an arrangement; nothing being less expedient, or so useless to the interests of M. de Conde. Mademoiselle replied, that she acted upon the advice of Messieurs Viole and Croissy ; but this information, far from satisfying the duchess, only determined her to be frank. She therefore assured the princess, that if she contemplated another op- position to the court, she would inevitably subject herself to great annoyance — that the time was passed for demon- strations such as those which had been previously made ; and that all Mademoiselle now had to do was to consider how she could withdraw herself with the best grace ; finally declaring that, as her servant, she thought it her duty to inform Her Highness that Monsieur had reconciled him- self with the court ; and had asserted, that as he could not answer for her conduct, he consequently abandoned her fortunes. The princess, grateful for the confidence which Madame de Chatillon had placed in her, thanked her sincerely for her good faith ; and desired M. de Prefontaine to see the president Viole and M. de Croissy, early in the morning, to tell them what she had learned, and to solicit their ad- vice; stating at the same time her own opinion, which was, that under the circumstances, she ought to make another arrangement. In this sentiment both her counsel- ors agreed ; and it was then suggested by some of her friends that she should establish herself in the palace of Mazarin, a measure which would compel the court to offer her a handsome residence in order to induce her to vacate it ; but to this neither the princess hereslf, nor Monsieur would give their consent ; they had no ambition to seize the lion by the mane. The whole day was thus uselessly THE COURT OF FRANCE. 473 exhausted in seeking a residence which could not be found ; and the heiress of a score of duchies, divers principalities, and almost unlimited wealth, found herself compelled to accept shelter for the night from the Countess de Fiesque, her attendant ; which she did with somewhat ruffled tem- per, and still more uneasiness. Despite the assertion made to Mademoiselle by Viole, no treaty had actually been concluded between Monsieur and the court. The good faith of the president was, how- ever, perfect ; and he had full authority for believing it to have been completed. Such was, nevertheless, not the case, although the difficulty had not arisen with Gaston, who had proposed certain articles of arrangement which the king, or rather those about him, had definitely reject- ed ; and in a few days, to his infinite astonishment and mortification, His Royal Highness received an order from His Majesty to retire from Paris. During the embarrass- ment of Mademoiselle, his own daughter, he had selfishly resolved not to offer her a temporary asylum in the Lux- embourg, being aware of the strong feeling which existed against her in the court party, and being fearful of compro- mising himself by an act of paternal kindness; and now he found himself, in his turn, thrust across the threshold of the palace, and even beyond the gates of the capital. Monsieur had no sooner received the royal command, than, without betraying its purport to any one, he hastened to the parliament, to assure them that he had entered into no treaty whatever with the court ; and that he was re- solved, rather than separate his interests from their own, to perish with them. Perfectly unaware of the strait in which the prince found himself at the moment, and which had wrung from him this unusual burst of generous einhu- siasm, the meeting warmly thanked him for so flattering a demonstration of attachment; but His Royal Highness nevertheless returned to the Luxembourg in a very bad humor, which lie was anxious to exhaust upon the first 474 LOUIS XIV. AND persons who afforded him a pretext- for pouring forth upon them his " vial of wrath." Mademoiselle proved to be the victim ; for, having learned the exile of her father, and being anxious to ascertain the truth of the rumor, she entered the cabinet of Madame only a few minutes after Monsieur himself. We have already stated that Gaston felt no overween- ing affection for the daughter of his first marriage ; and for this there were many causes, for although his egotism would have alone sufficed to produce such a result, it was rendered more pronounced by his jealousy, alike of her wealth and of her courage. His second family, which increased rapidly, were comparatively beggars, and he still had enough of the father about him to feel anxious for their future position ; while he could not conceal from himself that, on several occasions where he had played the craven, Mademoiselle had enacted the heroine ; and how- ever convenient such a fact had proved at the moment when it was needed, it was gall and wormwood to his after-reflections. No one could, consequently, have been more welcome to him than herself, at the present crisis, for he could pour forth his bitterness in safety, and without risk of its subsequent consequences, upon one who owed him alike submission and respect. The first words to which the unlucky princess gave utterance sufficed, there- fore, to draw down the avalanche of his ill-humor upon her, as she inquired if it were really true that His Royal Highness had received an order to withdraw from the capital 1 To which question he replied, that he believed he was not called upon to account to her for his move- ments. Startled, but not surprised, for she was aware of the infirmity of her father, Mademoiselle declared that she could not give credit to the rumor of his thus tamely abandoning the cause of M. de Conde and the Duke de Lorraine — a remonstrance which only met with a similar THE COURT OF FRANCE. 475 rejoinder to the first. Mademoiselle next requested to be informed if she were also to be banished ; and this inquiry was still more bitterly answered. He said that he should not interfere in any thing that concerned her; for that she had conducted herself so ill toward the court, that he had ceased to feel any care for her interests, even as she had, on her side, rejected his advice. Mademoiselle, calmly as she always met the ignoble temper of her father, could not suffer such an accusation as this to pass without comment ; and she accordingly re- plied, with great firmness, that, if His Royal Highness alluded to her conduct at Orleans, she begged to remind him that she had acted entirely by his order ; and that although she could not produce written evidence of the fact, inasmuch as he had given her his commands by word of mouth, she still possessed several letters from His Royal Highness, couched in terms of approbation beyond her deserts, and so full of affection and tenderness, that they had not led her to anticipate his present reproaches. Beaten at Orleans, Monsieur, to whom the subject was always a bitter one, retreated upon Paris, and asked her, sarcastically, if she imagined that the affair at the Porte St. Antoine had tended to serve her at court ? She had, he said, been delighted to play the heroine, and to be called such by her faction, as well as to be told that she had twice insured its safety ; and that now, whatever might be the result, she had only to console herself hy the remembrance of the praises which had been lavished upon her. To this taunt Mademoiselle responded, by declaring that she had done him as good service at the barrier as at Orleans ; that both in the one place and in the other she had acted by his authority, blamable as he now considered her ; and that, were the opportunity to recur, she should not hesitate to do precisely as she had done, considering that such would be her duty, as he had a right to com- 476 LOUIS XI V. AND mand both her obedience and her services. She added, moreover, that if his Royal Highness were destined to be unfortunate, she considered it only proper that she should share his disgrace and his evil fortunes ; and that she was better pleased to feel that she had not been useless in the past, than to see herself punished without cause. She knew nothing, she said, about her being a heroine ; but she was aware that the privileges of her high birth en- tailed upon her the necessity of a noble and elevated line of conduct, which all were at liberty to designate as they pleased, but which she simply considered as pursuing her proper path, from not having been born in so mean a rank as to find herself compelled to adopt that of others. After a time the ill-humor of Monsieur began to evapo- rate ; when the princess again spoke of her difficulty in procuring a residence, and even so far conquered her pride as to entreat him to give her accommodation in the Luxembourg. He briefly answered, that there was not room to receive her; upon which she remarked, that no individual of his household had shown her the courtesy to offer her their apartments, although she believed that she had the greatest right to expect a home there ;* but even this hint failed in its effect upon the obtuse prince, who satisfied himself by observing, that all the present inhabi- tants of the palace were necessary to his comfort, and that he should not suffer one of them to be disturbed. " In that case," said Mademoiselle, resolutely, " I shall establish myself at the Hotel de Conde ; it is empty, and I can there command ample accommodation." So bold a resolution brought cold damps to the forehead of the quailing listener ; and he had only power to utter a peremptory command that she should immediately abandon such an idea. * The Luxembourg Palace was the property of Madkiioiselle. THE COURT UF FRANCE. 47 7 " Where, then, does Your Royal Highness wish me to go V asked the poor princess. " W lie re you please" — was the regal reply ; and as Monsieur gave it utterance, he turned upon his heel, and left the room. Thus uncourteously dismissed, Mademoi- selle returned to the Hotel de Fiesque ; and it was at length determined that she should pass the night under the roof of Madame de Montmort, the sister of the count- ess, where she awaited, with great anxiety, the permission of His Royal Highness to reside under his protection. No Sv'ch permission, however, reached her ; but early on the following morning, having received a note, from which she learned that Monsieur had already started for Limours, she immediately dispatched the Count de Holac, by whom he was overtaken near Berny. The Duke d'Orleans had no sooner recognized his daughter's messenger than, leaving liim no time to explain his errand, he exclaimed that he was glad to see him, in order that he might communicate his pleasure to Made- moiselle that she should retire to her estate of Bois-le- Vicomte, and cease to delude herself with the hopes held out to her by the Duke de Beaufort and Madame de Montbazon that she could in any way assist the views of M. de Conde, or repair his fortunes. She might learn, he said, that there was nothing more to be done, by the indif- ference with which the populace of Paris had suffered him personally to leave the capital, although he was so much better loved and more important than herself. She had, therefore, only to withdraw herself from the city, and not to anticipate impossible events. M. de Holac vent- ured to remonstrate, and to observe, that Her Royal Highness, aware of the route which he had taken, was already preparing to follow him. To this measure the prince, however, vehemently dissented, declaring, that she must immediately proceed to Bois-le-Vicomte, as he had already ordered, and as he once more repeated. Tho 478 LOUIS XIV. AND count respectfully, but firmly, again urged the utter impos- sibility of such a step, Bois-le-Vicomte being a solitary house, and surrounded in all directions by troops, who pil- laged every place near which they passed ; declaring that it would be out of their power even to procure neces- sary provisions ; and that, moreover, Mademoiselle had generously converted the chateau into a hospital for those who had been wounded at the battle of the Porte St. Antoine — a circumstance which, of course, excluded her from its occupancy. The retort of Monsieur, upon this announcement, was, that if such were the case, she might retire to another of her estates, or live anywhere she pleased, provided it were not with him. M. de Holac then suggested that the princess should take up her abode with Madame, who had remained in Paris, being too ill to venture upon a journey ; but this proposition met with no more encouragement than the last — Monsieur asserting that such an arrangement was impossible, for that Madame was in weak health, and that Mademoiselle would inconvenience her: upon which the count replied, with a profound bow, that he considered it his duty to infoi-m His Royal Highness that he apprehend- ed all opposition would be useless, as the princess had resolved upon rejoining him. " Let her do as she likes, then," said Monsieur, dogged- ly ; " but let her know, at the same time, that if she does come, I shall turn her out." It was, of course, useless to attempt further expostula- tion, and the Count de Holac accordingly retired to report the ill-success of his mission to Mademoiselle, who quit- ted Paris on the following day, without having made any definite arrangement. She left the city in a carriage, lent to her for the purpose by Madame de Montmort, drawn only by two horses, a few attendants in undress liveries, three femmes-de-chambre, and accompanied merely by the Countess de Frontenac ; and with this limited retinue took THE COURT OF FRANCE. 479 up her temporary residence at Pons, in the house of Madame de Bouthelier, the mother of the unfortunate Chavigny. On the very day of her departure the king published an amnesty, from which, however, were excluded the Dukes de Beaufort, de la Rochefoucould, and de Rohan; six parliamentary councilors, the president Perault, and all the followers of the house of Conde ; while in his suit he had nevertheless brought Henry de Guise, the archbishop of Rheims, lately a prisoner in Spain, who had been re- called a fortnight previously to France, at the solicitation of the prince. Let us give a brief glance at the situation of the king- dom at this period. The archduke had retaken Gravelins and Dunkirk : Cromwell, without any declaration of hostilities, had seized several French ships; Barcelona and Casal, the one the key of Spain, and the other that of Italy, were wrenched from the French crown ; Champagne and Pic- ardy had been ravaged by the passage of the troops of Spain and Lorraine, whom the princes had summoned to their aid ; Berry, Nivernais, Saintonge, Poitou, Perigord, Limousin, Anjou, Touraine, Orleanais, and Bauce, were ruined by the civil war ; the standards of Spain had floated over the Pont-Neuf, and flouted the proud statue of Henry IV. ; and, finally, the yellow scarfs of Lorraine had fluttered in the streets of Paris as freely as the blue and isabel, which were the distinguishing colors of the houses of Orleans and Conde. The Cardinal de Retz, who had remained neutral in all the recent movements, had hastened to congratulate the king and his illustrious mother on their return to the good city whence they had so long been banished : the Duke d'Orleans, having vainly proffered the most vehement professions of an unalterable fidelity for the future, had retired to Blois, with the con- sent of the court. Mademoiselle, after having wandered 480 L O C I S XIV. AND right and left, hoped and despaired a thousand times, and maintaired a correspondence with the prince, which, of course, tended to produce no result, finally took up her abode upon one of her estates at Fargeau ; the Duke de Beaufort, the Duchess de Montbazon, and Madame de Chatillon, had left Paris ; the Princess de Conde, the Prince de Conti, and the Duchess de Longueville re- mained at Bordeaux, no longer as the sovereign masters of the city, but as simple inhabitants; while the un- fortunate Duke de la Rochefoucauld, as yet barely con- valescent of the grievous wound which he had received at the Porte St. Antoine, had caused himself to be removed to Bagneux, nearly cured both of his fancy for faction and his passion for Madame de Longueville ; and, finally, the Duke de Rohan, who was believed to be one of the most faithful followers of the prince, and who was under weighty obligations both to him and Monsieur, had arranged matters so cleverly, that a week after their entrance into Paris, Their Majesties stood sponsors to his infant son.* Thus the court saw all their enemies dispersed and overcome, save one ; but of that one the very name was formidable, although, by the recent events, he found him- self shorn of at least three fourths of his strength. We allude, of course, to M. de Conde ; of whose diminished influence the royal council were so well aware, that they did not hesitate to urge the king, in a Bed of Justice which he held on the 13th of the following month, to pub- lish a declaration, setting forth that the princes de Conde and Conti, the Prince of Tarente, the Duchess de Longue- ville, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, and all their ad- herents, having rejected with contempt and persever- ance the favors which had been offered to them, and, by these means, rendered themselves unworthy of all pardon, had irrevocably incurred the penalties declared against * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 48 1 rebels, guilty of lese-majeste, disturbers of the public peace, and traitors to their country. The parliament registered this declaration, without comment or hesitation, while M. de Conde and the Duke de Lorraine continued their military operations in the provinces with varying success, but succeeded under every circumstance in harassing the forces which were opposed to them. VOL. I. X CHAPTER XXI. Imprudence of the Coadjutor — The Court are anxious for its Over- throw — Louis XIV. asserts himself — Resolves on his Arrest — Auto- graph Order to that Effect — Arrest of the Coadjutor — The Opiate-Paste — Termination of the Second Fronde — Return of Mazarin — Deaths of the Duke de Bouillon, the Marshal Caumont de la Force, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse — Marriage of the Poet Scarron and Frances D'Aubigny — Early History of Frances D'Aubigny. On the occasion of the decree just named, the king sent M. de Saintot, the master of the ceremonies, to the Car- dinal de Retz, to command his attendance at the meeting in which it was to be declared : to which summons the prelate replied, that he most humbly begged permission of his His Majesty to absent himself, as he conceived that it would neither be just nor courteous, when he was on friendly terms with M. de Conde, for him to vote in a deliberation in which it was question of his condemnation. Saintot had warned him of its having been suggested in the presence of the queen that he would avail himself of this pretext to refuse compliance with the king's summons ; LOUIS XIV. AMD THE COURT OF FRANCE. 483 and also that she had remarked the excuse was not valid, inasmuch as M. Guise, who owed his liberty to the solici- tation of* the prince, would be present; upon which M. de Retz retorted that, had he been of the same profession as the Archbishop of Rheims, he should have been de- lighted to emulate the noble feats which that prince had lately accomplished in Naples. This rejoinder exasperated the queen, and her anger was heightened by the comments of those about her, who declared that it was a convincing proof of his anxiety for M. de Conde's interests ; and what he thus simply decided upon principle, assumed, in her mind, the indication of measures inimical to the court either already taken, or about to be attempted.* Anxious, thenceforward, to be freed from an enemy whose popularity rendered him doubly dangerous, the court offered to M. de Retz the direction of their affairs in Rome for the space of three years, the liquidation of all his debts, and an ample income to enable him to make a brilliant figure in the capital of the Christian world; but, conscious that their motive, so far from being a desire to forward his interests, was only to effect his removal from the capital, he resolved to treat the proposal accordingly, and stipulated for certain conditions before he would consent to abandon his see ; all of which were for the purpose of enriching his friends rather than himself, but were not, on that account, the less impolitic or exorbitant. From that moment the council resolved to rid themselves of him in a more summary and authoritative manner; and the young king, who had begun to assert himself, gave such evident tokens of his distaste to the exacting and self-ap- preciating prelate, that his friends warned him to beware of the young but nervous will of the stripling-monarch, which he might find it difficult to oppose. M. de Retz, however, smiled at the caution ; and when the president * Mpmoires dn Cardinal de R«*tz 484 LUUIS XIV. AND Bellievre, among others, was expressing some apprehen- sion of the kind, he answered, calmly, that he had two oars which would prevent the capsizing of his bark : one was his cardinal's mace, and the other was the crosier of Paris.* The Princess-Palatine, who had made her peace with the court, without, however, withdrawing her friendship from the prelate, endeavored, in her turn, to convince him that he was tempting his fate, assuring him that it had been re- solved to remove him, even at the sacrifice of his life ; but, although he thanked her for the interest which she ex- hibited in his welfare, he nevertheless persisted in remain- ing quietly in Paris, although he consented not to risk him- self at the Louvre. As it was soon ascertained that he had come to this de- cision, it was determined to arrest him wherever he might be met with, and Pradelle, a captain of the royal guards, received a written order to that effect ; while upon his suggestion that the cardinal would never suffer himself to be taken without offering resistance, and that, in order to secure his seizure, he might, in consequence, be compelled to take his life, which he could not consent to do, without sufficient authority, the king seized a pen, and wrote with his own hand at the bottom of the order : — " I have commanded Pradelle to execute the present or- der on the person of the Cardinal de Retz, and even to arrest him, dead or alive, in the event of resistance on his part. " Louis." Divers measures were immediately taken to secure the capture of the obnoxious prelate. Spies were set upon his residence ; efforts were made to bribe his servants to betray his movements ; and no pains were spared to secure the execution of the arrest. While these things were taking place, M. de Retz was betrayed by his vanity into " Louis XIV. et son Sieolo. THE COCKI O F FRA N C E. 485 a folly well calculated to imbitter still more the virulence of his enemies. M. de Brissac having upon one occasion asked him if it were not his intention to ride the following day to Rambouillet, and receiving an affirmative reply, drew a paper from his pocket, and requested him to glance at its contents. It was an anonymous note, addressed to himself, begging him to caution the cardinal against the proposed journey, and asserting the consequences of such a step would be fatal. M. de Retz was not, however, to be turned from his purpose ; but he took the precaution to be accompanied by two hundred gentlemen, with whom he gayly set forth for Rambouillet. He states that he found there numerous officers of the guards, and does not know if their intention were to attack him, as he was not in a position to be attacked ; but that they saluted him most reverentially, and that he entered into conversation with those with whom he was acquainted, and afterward re- turned home as quietly as though he had not committed a folly. He still, however, remained self-exiled from the court, until he was reproached by Madame de Lesdiguieres, his cousin (who was a favorite of the queen, and greatly in her confidence, and in whose perfect good faith he himself placed the utmost confidence), with his persistence in a line of conduct which she declared would inevitably draw upon him a disgrace that he should be most anxious to avert, and who strongly advised him to make his appearance at the Louvre, which he might in all security. M. de Retz admitted the propriety of this measure, but demurred as to its safety ; whereupon she inquired if that were the only consideration which deterred him, and he frankly confessed that it was. In that case, she said, she trusted that he would go to the palace the next day, as she knew that a secret council had been held, at which, after great opposition, it was resolved that a reconciliation should be effected with him, and that he should even receive what 486 LOUIS XIV. A N D he had demanded for his friends. M. de Retz admits, al- though the result of his compliance with this dangerous advice proved so unfortunate, that he never entertained the slightest suspicion that he was willfully deceived by Madame de Lesdiguieres, whom he believed to have been misled by the Marshal de Villeroy. Be that as it may, however, it is certain that on the morrow when he entered the queen's ante-chamber, he was arrested by M. de Ville- quier, who was the captain of the guard on duty. He was then conducted through the great gallery of the Lou- vre ; and having descended by the pavilion of Mademoi- selle, found one of the royal carriages awaiting him, into which M. de Villequier and five or six officers of the body- guard entered along with him. The escort was composed of the Marshal d'Albert at the head of the gendarmes ; M. de Vaugauion at the head of the light-horse, and M. de Venne, lieutenant-colonel of the guards, in command of eight companies of his corps. In order to reach the Porte St. Antoine, the prisoner was compelled to pass two or three other barriers, at each of which was posted a bat- talion of Swiss, with their arms leveled toward the town ; and finally, between eight and nine in the evening, he found himself at Vincennes, where he was ushered into a spa- cious and dreary apartment, without either hangings or bed ; and he remained for a fortnight, in the middle of December, without fire.* This arrest produced a great sensation, although the populace, worn out by such constantly succeeding catas- trophes, contented itself by weeping over the fate of their beloved archbishop, instead of attempting his rescue. His friends were, however, less passive ; and, dreading that in order to disembarrass themselves of him quietly, the court might seek to dispose of him by poison, they held a coun- cil to devise some method of conveying an antidote to his prison. Madame de Lesdiguieres, who looked upon her- * Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 487 self, with reason, as the primary cause of his arrest, under- took to affect this ; and Villequier, who had conducted him to Vincennes, being her devoted friend, she requested him to take charge of a jar containing an opiate-paste, and to give it from her to the cardinal. Villequier consented ; but as he was about to execute the commission, he sud- denly deemed it expedient to secure the permission of the queen, who had no sooner learned the circumstance than she desired that the jar might be brought to her; and having caused its contents to be analyzed by a chemist, thus learned their nature. Extremely indignant at the suspicion implied by such a precaution, she immediately communicated the circumstance to the ministers, upon which one of them proposed that an actual poison should be substituted for the antidote ; but M. Letellier formally refused to recognize such a proceeding, and the council ultimately contented themselves with retaining the jar and its contents.* The arrest of M. de Retz terminated the second war of the Fronde ; and Mazarin only awaited its accomplish- ment to return to Paris. Let it not be imagined, howev- er, that he prepared to do so quietly ; and to be permitted to regain the capital on sufferance. He was too able a tactician to forget that the French were an impulsive peo- ple — that their watchword was " glory" — and he had con- sequently been smoothing his backward path by effecting a succession of petty conquests over the forces of M. de Conde and his allies ; to which end he left St. Dizier two days previously to the imprisonment of M. de Retz, and joined the troops then besieging Bar-le-Duc, who ulti- mately retook the town. After Bar-le-Duc, Ligny surren- dered ; and then the cardinal, in order that his reappear- ance might be heralded by victory, endeavored to regain St. Menehould and Rethel ; the severe cold, however, pre- vented this ; and he was compelled to content himself with * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 488 LOUIS XIV. AND. the capture of Chateau-Porcian, and Vervins, whence the Spaniards retreated under the Count de Fuensaldagne, without attempting any resistance. After these exploits, Mazarin knew enough of the mutable materials of a Paris- ian mob to feel that he might return, not only in all safety, but also in al! honor, to the Louvre ; and in fact the king drove three leagues beyond the walls to welcome him ; while even this demonstration, flattering as it was, did not satisfy the courtiers, who rode forward as far as Damartin. The cardinal-minister entered the gates of Paris in tri- umph, seated beside his sovereign and pupil ; bonfires blazed and fireworks were exhibited in his honor; and amid all these rejoicings there were but few in the capi- tal that night who thought upon their " shivered idols" — M. de Conde, the Duke de Beaufort, and the Cardinal de Retz. During the year 1652, which we have now traced to its close, the most note-worthy deaths were those of the Duke de Bouillon, who having deserted the Fronde to become the friend of Mazarin, did not live to reap the re- ward of his apostasy ; the veteran Marshal Caumont de la Force,* who had escaped almost by a miracle at the mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew; and the beautiful Mademoiselle * James Nompar de Caumont, Duke de la Force, whose family could be traced back to the 11th century, was the son of Francis, Lord of La Force, who was killed during the massacre of St. Bartholomew. He bore arms in the Protestant army of Henry IV., and placed himself at the head of the reformers under Louis XIII. He gave in his sub- mission to that king in 1622, and was ci-eated Marshal of France, and lieutenant-general of the forces in Piedmont. He took Pignerol ; de- feated the Spaniards at Carignan in 1630 ; passed over into Germany, where he took possession of several towns ; and finally died as we have stated, in 1652. He was the grandfather of Charlotte Rose de Cau- mont de la Force, bom in 1650, who devoted her life to the cultivation of literature, and obtained a place among the historians of the 17th century. She died in 1724, leaving behind her the Secret History of Burgundy, the History of Marguerite de Valois, The Fairies, the Tale of Tales, the Castle in Spain. Gustavus Vasa, &c. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 489 de Chevreuse, who was carried off by a fever in four-and- twenty hours, a short time previously to the disgrace of M. de Retz. In this year, also, a marriage was contracted which, although regarded at the time as a mere jest for the wits of the court, was destined to influence in a powerful man- ner the close of the brilliant reign which we are now re- cording. It was in 1652 that the poet Scarron* married Frances d'Aubigny, the granddaughter of the celebrated Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigny, who, at the age of six years, read the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages; and at that of thirteen embraced the military profession ; fought under the Prince de Conde, and afterward accepted service with Henry of Navarre (subsequently Henry IV.), whose friend and confidant he became ; and who appointed him suc- cessively a gentleman of the chamber, a general of brigade, and ultimately Vice- Admiral of Guienne and Brittany. He was the author of several works ; and among others, of a Universal History, from 1550 (the year of his birth) to 1601. The father of Frances was Constant d'Aubigny, Baron de Surimeau ; who having, without the consent of his parent, married Anne Marchand, the widow of John Courant, Baron de Chatellaillon, and surprised her in an act of infidelity, murdered both her and her lover, and took as * Paul Scan-on was the son of a councilor to the parliament, and was born in Paris, in 1610 or 1611. He assumed the ecclesiastical habit, but without entering into any religious order ; and was devoted to all the pleasures of his age, when a deplorable accident suddenly deprived him, at the age of twenty-seven, of the use of his limbs. Confined by his sufferings to an easy chair, he nevertheless preserved throughout all his privations his brilliant, lively, and sarcastic wit; and his sick-chamber became the rendezvous of the most distinguished men of all ranks. He was the originator of burlesque poetry. His princi- pal productions were the Eniide Travestie, Typhon, or La Giganto- machie ; and several comedies, such as Don Japhet of Armenia, and the Absurd Heir; but his most celebrated work was the Comic Novel, ID prose. All these writings were distinguished by perpetual sullies of wit and whimsicality, and breathe the most exuberant gayety. X* 490 l. u d ia \ i v. a n d his second wife Jane de Cardillac, daughter of the gov- ernor of Chateau- Trompette. who bore him a son, and subsequently Frances, the celebrated Madame de Main- tenon. BllSSJ-Robutin, who, notwithstanding his vanity and self- appreciation, never could overcome his jealousy of those who achieved their own fortunes, or who had " greatness thrust upon them," indulges, in his most popular work, in some scandalous anecdotes of the early years of this lady, with which we have no intention to sully our pages, and to which we only advert from a principle of duty as faithful historians ; neither shall we precisely follow the narrative which Madame de Maintenon has herself given in her Memoirs of her girlish recollections; for, correct as they may be in their general outline, it is easy to discover that they are recorded with considerable reservation, and that a doubtful light is thrown over many circumstances from which time and the evidence of her cotemporaries have re- moved the varnish of self-love. Frances d'Aubigny was born on the 27th of November, 1635, in the prison of Xiort,* where her father, who had rendered himself amenable to justice, was incarcerated. Her mother, who was at once amiable and high-spirited, was, as we have already stated, the daughter of the gov- ernor of the Chateau-Trompette, in which the noble pris- oner was expiating the crime of murder; and unable to resist the fascination of his manners, and, moreover, con- vinced by the arguments which he advanced in extenuation of his delinquency, she was at length induced to credit his assertion that he valued life only for her sake, and desired his liberty solely that he might devote it to her happiness ; and thus consented to effect his escape, and to fly with him, * N'iort is a handsome city, situated 10S leagues from Paris, and is the capital of the deparnnent of the Deux-Sevres. The chateau has been converted into a prison; and the ancient palace of Eleonora of Aquitain now serves as its towD-hall. T H L COURT <-r FRANCE. 491 provided he would pledge himself to make her his wife at the earliest opportunity. To thb he readily agreed ; and, through her means, his evasion was effected, and his pledge soon afterward fulfilled. The money which Madame d'Aubigny was enabled to raise upon her jewels sufficed for a time to their mutual support ; but she had scarcely become the mother of a son, when Monsieur d'Aubigny found that they were utterly without the means of existence ; aud, unable to support the sight of his heroic wife and his infant boy deprived even of the most common necessaries of life, he resolved to risk a return to France, and to endeavor to save some remnant of his former wealth, upon which, with strict economy, thev might contrive to exist. As he was thoroughly aware of the hazardous nature of the attempt, he left his wife with- out communicating his project, which he only confided to her by letter, at the cluse of his first day's journey. The terror of the devoted lady was intense, for she idolized the man for whom she suffered; and her alarm was only too well founded. M. d'Aubigny was recognized, seized, and once more conveyed as a prisoner to the castle of Niort. The agonized wife at once felt that a second evasion was impossible ; but her love and her conscience alike showed her that, if she could not once more effect his liberty, she could at least share and lighten his captivity ; and she ac- cordinglv set forth, in weak health and with a burdened heart, to become the partner of his prison. The family of M. d'Aubigny, revolted alike by his pre- vious crime, and by his second marriage, had all abandon- ed him, save his sister, Madame de Villette ; and the birth of a second child having taken place in the gloomy jail to which his errors had consigned him, this lady hastened to offer the consolation of her presence to the unhappy pair. The condition in which she found them was deplorable ; poverty and destitution met her on all sides ; and to so ex- treme a state of misery were they reduced, that Madame 492 I, O U I S XI V. A N D d'Aubigny, whom anxiety and deprivation had reduced to a degree of weakness which rendered her unable to afford nourishment to her infant of two days old, was anticipating every hour that she should see it expire in her arms ; while crouched at her feet lay her first-born, her boy, literally wrapped in rags, and already old enough to be conscious of his misery. Madame de Villette, unable to endure so painful a spec- tacle, after having afforded to her brother and his wretched wife every assistance in her power, took possession of the suffering child, and carried it home with her to the Chateau de Murcey, where it passed its infancy; but, at the close of that period, the prisoner having obtained permission to return to the Chateau-Trompette, he hastened to reclaim his daughter. In 1639 his imprisonment concluded ; but as he would not abjure Calvinism, Richelieu refused to allow him to remain in France, and he consequently embarked for Mar- tinique. During the passage Frances was taken seriously ill, and the sickness made such rapid progress that in the short space of a few hours she was declared to have expir- ed ; when one of the crew of the vessel, anxious, as sail- ors proverbially show themselves, to rid the ship of a dead body, lifted the child in his arms in order to throw her overboard ; upon which the wretched mother implored the privilege of one more parting embrace, and, as she strain- ed the infant to her heart, felt a slight movement, which convinced her that the hapless girl still lived. In this con- viction she was strengthened by the observation of every succeeding moment ; and ultimately her maternal tender- ness recalled the fleeting faculties of the predestined Fran- ces. Thenceforward M. d'Aubigny devoted himself en- tirely to the education of his children; while Madame d'Aubigny, with the strong good sense and resolution which had characterized all her married life, exerted her- self so strenuously in the management of the slender funds THE COURT OF FRANCE. 493 which they had been enabled to secure on their departure, that prosperity once more dawned upon the exiled family. Rendered sanguine by this success, her husband conceived the unfortunate idea of sending her back to France, to re- cover, should it be possible, some portion of his sequester- ed estates ; and she obeyed him, as she had ever done, with cheerful alacrity; but, during her absence, M. d'Aubigny, anxious to force fortune, was induced to gamble ; and when she returned, unsuccessful, to report the inutility of her voyage, she found him once more a ruined man. Overwhelmed by poverty, regret, and hopelessness, Con- stant d'Aubigny, in 1645, sunk into a foreign and ignoble grave; and in such an utter state of destitution did he leave his widow that, when she resolved upon returning to Eu- rope, she was compelled to resign her daughter as a pledge into the hands of her principal creditor, who, however, be- coming weary of supporting the poor child without any probable prospect of remuneration, embarked her on board a French vessel, without even intimating his intention to Madame d'Aubigny, who learned her arrival at La Rochelle, while she believed her to be still in Martinique. As her poverty had experienced no diminution, the unhappy lady reluctantly acceded to the proposal of Madame de Villelte, that her daughter should once more become her inmate ; for, like her brother, she was a Calvinist, and the mother trembled lest the aunt should tamper with the religion of her child ; nor were her fears groundless, as in a short time Frances adopted the creed of her protectors. She had been baptized by a Romanist priest ; and her sponsors were the Duke Francis de la Rochefoucauld, and Frances Tirequeau, Countess de Neuillant, who was attach- ed to the household of Anne of Austria, and who no soon- er learned the apostasy of her god-child, than she obtained an order to remove her from the house of her relative and to assume her guardianship. This accomplished, every effort was made to induce the young Calvinist to return to 494 LOUIS XIV. A N D her oritrinal faith ; but neither threats, exhortations, nor menaces had power to shake her principles ; and thus she, who was one day to cause the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, began life as the martyr of that religion of which she was destined subsequently to become the scourge.* The youth of the after-queen was cruel. At three years of age she crossed the Atlantic with her parents, who knew not how soon they might want bread ; and, at eleven, she returned to France alone, and surrounded by strangers, only to find herself, after a brief interval of ease and affec- tion, still more unhappy and more persecuted than ever; for when Madame de Neuillant found her invulnerable to persuasion, and firm in the new faith which she had adopt- ed, there was no species of humiliation to which she did not expose her. The most petty cares of the household devolved upon the young Frances ; she measured out the oats for the horses; summoned the servants when their services were required, bells being at that period unknown; and, as the countess was hypereconomical in all that re- garded her establishment, frequently suffered both from cold and hunger. At length her mother, who could no longer endure the sight of her despondency, reclaimed her in her turn, and placed her in the Ursuline convent at Niort. But, when there, neither Madame de Neuillant, whom she had quitted, nor Madame de Villette, who dread- ed her relapse to Romanism, would consent to pay her board ; and, finally, conquered by necessity, after having received the assurance of the confessor that, despite her heresy, her aunt, to whom she was fondly attached, might still be saved, she once more embraced the Catholic faith. The Ursuline nuns, proud of the conversion which had been accomplished under their roof, kept her in the com- munity for another year ; but, finding that her friends still * Louis XIV. et son Siocle. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 495 remained inexorable, they declined any longer to aTord her shelter ; and she returned to share the poverty of her heart-broken mother only in time to see her die a death of misery and despair. For three months after this fatal event the helpless orphan remained shut up in the squalid apart- ment in which she had thus been left destitute, without an effort or a wish to survive her lost parent, indebted to the charity of her neighbors for the pittance of bread by which she was kept alive, and without a caie or a thought for the future. Her extreme destitution at length touched the heart of Madame de Neuillant, who placed her once more with the Ursulines ; but, on her departure for Paris, re- moved her to her own house in the same subordinate posi- tion as before. Among the friends of the countess was the Marquis de Villarceaux, who was struck by the beauty of the desolate girl, of whom he in vain endeavored to make his mistress ; for, oppressed as she was, Frances d'Aubigny was too right-minded to encourage the addresses of a libertine. Nor was the profligate marquis the only person attracted by her loveliness ; for the Chevalier de Mere, who enjoyed the reputation of being a man of intellect and taste, having first paid homage to her personal charms, soon learned to appreciate the intelligence from which they derived their greatest fascination ; and becoming attached, with all the anxious tenderness of a brother, to the handsome Creole, took considerable pains to form her manners, and to ena- ble her hereafter to appear advantageously in society. Grateful as she was, however, for all the interest which the chevalier evinced in her fate, the young girl only shook her head with a sad smile, when he ventured upon some flat- tering prophecy of her future existence ; declaring that all she desired in this world was to meet with some good Christian who would be charitable enough to pay the re- quired dowry for her entrance into a convent. The poet Scarron inhabited the same street as Madame 496 LOUIS XIV. AND cle Neuillant ; and, poor as he was, occasionally indulged in some of those good deeds which are so frequently ne- glected, and even ridiculed, by the wealthy ; a fact so well known to M. de Mere, that he seized an opportunity of mentioning to him the position and wishes of his protegee-', a tale which so deeply interested the infirm invalid, that he eagerly promised to procure contributions from his friends, and to supply any deficiency from his own purse, to enable the orphan to effect her purpose. Delighted by his suc- cess, the chevalier hastened to communicate these good tidings to the persecuted girl, who, in the joy of her heart, hurried to the residence of Scarron to pour forth her grati- tude ; a step which was destined to change the whole cur- rent of her fate. Mademoiselle d'Aubigny, when she entered the apart- ment of Scarron, was conscious only of the weighty obli- gation which his ready sympathy had entailed upon her, and paid little attention to his grotesque and somewhat re- volting appearance. Her first impulse was to rush toward him, and to raise his hand to her lips ; and several minutes had elapsed ere she had time to discover that she stood be- side a man who, although still young, was contorted in the most extraordinary manner. His limbs were wasted and feeble, his large eyes buried deeply in his head, his teeth black and irregular, and his expression, save when illumin- ed by a flash of that joyous intellect which was, however, the light in which he lived, languid and suffering. No man, perhaps, ever endured more sharp physical suffering than Scarron, with so resolute a mental defiance as he ex- hibited. A moment sufficed to betray all this to the rapid eye of the tearful orphan, but those very tears blinded her to the most salient points of the picture. She saw Scarron, it is true; Scarron the cripple — Scarron the paralytic — Scarron the buffoon — but to her he was a benefactor, a friend, a deliverer ; and she could more readily have wept over THE COURT OP FRANCE. 497 his affliction than smiled at the eccentricity of his appear- ance. Meanwhile the dark and deep-set eyes of Scarron were not idle. With the cynicism of the period, he had no sooner heard of a " vocation," than he believed that the girl of fifteen by whom it was announced, must have felt a conviction that her appearance was not calculated to assist her progress in the world ; instead of which he saw before him a face beaming with expression, and a figure fashioned in the most exact symmetry which a sculptor might have desired in a model. Thus impressed, a cheerful smile diffused itself over his countenance, as he declared that, upon mature reflection, he recalled his promise, and could not undertake to procure the means for her admission into a religious community. The disappointed girl uttered a cry of grief. " Listen to me," said Scarron ; " you are not fitted for a nun. You can not understand the extent of the sacrifice which you are so eager to make. Will you become my wife 1 My servants anger and neglect me, and I am un- able to enforce obedience ; were they under the control of a mistress they would do their duty. My friends neglect me, and I can not pursue them to reproach them with their abandonment ; if they saw a pretty woman at the head of my household, they would make my home cheerful. I give you a week to decide." This extraordinary wooing prospered ; cripple as he was, Scarron was popular and witty ; the first shock of his appearance had been softened by the circumstances under which they met; and at the close of the given period, Frances d'Aubigny consented to become his wife. Scarron had not deceived himself. His bride had no sooner assumed the government of his house than his ser- vants returned to their duty, and his friends to their alle- giance; his saloon became the center of all that was witty and intellectual in the capital ; and, at the period of which 498 LOUIS XIV. AND we write, it was the fashion to appear in his circle. Never theless, great difficulties remained to be overcome. The war of the Fronde had afforded too rich and too tempting scope for the wit of Scarron, to enable him to remain in the neutrality which was dictated by prudence; and a con- siderable number of the satires which had appeared against Mazarin were traced to the caustic pen of the infirm poet. This fact was, moreover, the more natural, from the cir- cumstance that the pension which Anne of Austria had conferred upon Scarron in consequence of his infirmities, had been suppressed by the minister, who became thence- forward the victim of his satire. The position of the poet on the triumphant return of the cardinal was, consequently, worse than precarious; and Madame Scarron, after having succeeded in rendering his home happy, found herself under the necessity of under- taking the still more difficult task of insuring a continuance of the comfort which she had already shed over it. Hers, however, was not a spirit to quail under such a task ; and she forthwith commenced the undertaking of reconciling her husband to the court, with an energy which was only equalled by her good sense. She had united herself with a being, amiable, it is true, but helpless, incautious, and improvident ; who perilled his future existence recklessly on a bon mot, and could not be made to comprehend the extent of his imprudence ; but the reputation of both her virtue and her beauty had already made her powerful friends, among whom the most attached were Ninon de l'Enclos, and Madame de Sevigne — the two extremes of moral society — th^ courtesan and the prude; one of whom valued her for ,er intellect, and the other for her repu- tation. The numerous applications which she was constrained to make, opened to Madame Scarron all the doors in Paris ; and her anxiety to prevent the banishment of her husband developed all the resources of her mind, and all the charms THE COURT OF FRANCE. 499 of her eloquence. She was ultimately successful. The political offenses of the poet were forgiven hi consideration of his infirmities ; and his house became more frequented and more popular than ever.* * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. CHAPTER XXK. Proceedings of the Prince de Conde — Position of Mazarin ; his first Measures — Marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle Mar- tinozzi — Condemnation of the Prince de Conde; his Retort — Marriage of the Duke de Richelieu and Mademoiselle de Beauvais — First At- tachments of Louis XIV. — Madame de Frontenac and Madame de Chatillon — Caution of the Cardinal — Mademoiselle d'Heudecourt — The Nieces of the Cardinal — Madame de Beauvais — Court Festivi- ties — The Etourdi of Moliere — Louis XIV. an Actor and a Dancer — The Superintendent Fouquet — The Coronation of Louis XIV. — The Marquis de Fabert — The Coadjutor becomes Archbishop of Paris — M. de Bellievre as an Ambassador — Transfer of the Archbishop to Nantes ; his Evasion ; Order for his Arrest. After this long but necessary digression, we hasten to give a brief glance at the position of France at the com- mencement of the year 1653. M. de Conde, instead of retiring from Paris, might have made his peace advanta- geously with the court, who would readily have availed LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. 501 themselves of any pretext to terminate a war by which they were at once harassed and impoverished ; but after havino- opposed Turenne, and established his reputation as a sol- dier, as well as played the politician, and seen himself the idol of the populace, he determined to enact the partisan ; and so withdrew from the capital like a knight of ancient chivalry ; girt on his sword, mounted his charger, rallied around him all those who were attached to his fortunes, caused himself to be appointed generalissimo of the Span- ish forces, and set forth, taking on his way the towns which Mazarin afterward reconquered ; until, compelled to retreat before Turenne, he ultimately crossed the French frontier. The first care of the cardinal, after his final return to Paris, was given to the state of the public finances, which were in a deplorable condition ; and to his own, which had also suffered considerably by recent events. All was tran- quil in the capital; and having exerted himself strenuously in the reestablishment of his private fortunes, Mazarin found his position sufficiently stable to enable him to turn his attention to the advancement of his family. He gath- ered his relations about him accordingly ; and felt the greater confidence in so doing that the court had become shorn of its greatest ornaments by the result of the war. The Duke d'Orleans still resided at Blois in a position of honorable banishment, where he held a court twice a week. Mademoiselle, when she withdrew to St. Fargeau, carried with her in her train all her personal friends and ladies of honor; M. de Conde had swept away not only his brilliant staff, but also the ladies who were attached to his party; the four duchesses, de Chatillon, de Beaufort, de Rohan, and de Montbazon, had left Paris; all the friends of the Cardinal de Retz were exiled ; the Duke de Mon- tausier* and his wife were in Guienne; the Duke de la " Charles du St. Maure, Duke de Montausier, Peer of France, Knight , of the Order of the King, was the descendant of a family of toordne 502 LOUIS XIV. AND Rochefoucauld still convalescent at Dampvilliers ; the Princess de Conde and the Duchess de Longueville at Bordeaux ; Madame de Chevreuse remained ; in short, all the most celebrated nobles and beauties scattered far and wide ; and an ample field left vacant for the handsome nieces of the far-sighted cardinal. Nor had Mazarin great cause for apprehension from without. Conde had taken refuge in the Low Countries ; and the one cloud upon the horizon of the cardinal con- sequently lowered in that direction ; but, ere long, the princess and her son left Bordeaux to join the prince, as if conscious that all further anticipation of successful re- sistance was at an end ; the Cardinal de Retz was a fast prisoner; and Madame de Longueville, following the ex- ample of her sister-in-law, had also vacated the scene of her former triumph, and retired to the convent of St. Mary at Moulin, of which one of her relatives was the abbess ; while no great time elapsed ere the Duke de la Roche- foucauld, thoroughly sated with faction, and the evil chances of civil war, began to make overtures of reconciliation to the court ; being desirous to effect the marriage of his son, the Prince de Marsillac, with Mademoiselle de la Roche- Guyon, the heiress of the house of Duplessis-Liancourt. In order to effect his purpose, the duke sent Gourville,* and early distinguished himself by his valor and high character. During the civil wars of the Fronde he was Governor of Saintonge and Angou- mois, both of which he maintained in their allegiance. His austere probity caused him to be selected to preside over the education of Louis, the Dauphin of France. He died in 1690, leaving by his wife, Lucy d'Angennes, an only daughter, who married the Duke d'Uzes. * John Heraud de Gourville was bora in La Rochefoucauld in 1625. The Duke de la Rochefoucauld having discovered him to be a man of intelligence, made him his valet-de-chambre, and afterward his confi- dential friend. Involved in the disgrace of Fouquet, with whom he was on terms of intimacy, he traveled for some time abroad. He was afterward the king's envoy in Germany ; and was ultimately proposed as the successor of Colbert in the ministry. He died at Paris in 1703 ; and left behind him Memoirs from the vear 1642 to that of 1698. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 503 his confidential agent at Brussels, to ask the consent of the Prince de Conde to this marriage ; but as Gourville had made himself conspicuous during the Fronde, and had, moreover, recently taken prisoner the director of the posts, who only regained his liberty by paying a ransom of forty thousand crowns, the cardinal-minister never lost sight of his movements ; and having ascertained that he was for the moment in Paris, instantly resolved that he should not again leave it. Gourville was not long ere he ascertained that his arrival had been detected, and, without an instant's hesitation, he resolved to brave the danger to which he was exposed, by requesting an audience of Mazarin ; and, accordingly, to the surprise of the minister, who had just issued an order for his capture, he found himself about to be confronted, not with a prisoner, but with an envoy. Delighted by such a display of courageous presence of mind, the cardinal at once accorded the intei'view which Gourville had solicited ; and, ere it terminated, so justly appreciated the moral qualities of the clever and fearless agent, that he made proposals to him, which were accepted ; and while he attached to his own service the intellect and adroitness which had elicited his admiration, Gourville effected the reconciliation of the duke with the court, which entailed the entire pacification of Guienne ; and by his intermedia- tion, a peace was definitely concluded between Mazarin and the city of Bordeaux.* This great object accomplished, the cardinal resolved to strengthen and sustain the position which he had again acquired, by marrying his nieces to the most influential personages of the court; and, accordingly, profiting by a ! new misunderstanding which had arisen between the Prince j de Conti and his brother, he determined to profit by so ! favorable an opportunity to attach the former to his own interests ; and for this purpose he gained over a confiden- * Louis XIV. et son Siecle. 504 LOUIS XIV. AND tial friend of M. de Conti, to whom he promised the sum of twenty-five thousand livres, should he succeed in effect- ing a marriage between the prince and one of his nieces. The moment was, as the wily minister had seen, well chosen ; for, at once jealous and indignant, M. de Conti received the pi'oposition without repugnance, only stipu- lating that he should be free to select whichever of the ladies he might prefer; and this point having been con- ceded, to the great mortification of Mazarin the prince fixed upon Anna-Maria Martinozzi, who was all but affi- anced to the Duke de Candale; who, on his side, had been reluctantly led to contemplate the alliance of which he was still, under one pretext or another, deferring the completion, when he was startled to find his offered bride freely selected by a prince of the blood. It will readily be believed that the transfer which was made of her hand was by no means accordant with the taste of the lady; the Duke de Candale being one of the finest men at court, and so celebrated for the elegance of his attire, that he formed a model for those who were desirous to be distinguished for fashion and good taste. "The duke," says Bussy-Rabutin, "had large blue eyes, somewhat irregular features, a wide mouth, but garnished with very fine teeth, and exuberant light hair. His figure was admirable. He had the air of a man of quality, and filled one of the first stations in France, being a duke and peer of the kingdom. Beside this, he was governor-in- chief of the Gergovians ; and conjointly with his father, Bernard of England, of the Bourguignons also, as well as general of the Gallacian infantry."* When this description is contrasted with the deformed person and crippled position of M. de Conti, it will not be difficult to concede that the sacrifice made by Mademoiselle Martinozzi must have been a painful one. The marriage was, however, celebrated a few days subsequently in the * Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 505 king's private cabinet at Fontainebleau ; and the exem plary conduct of the Princess de Conti more than justified selection of her husband. At the same time, at a solemn convocation of the parliament, a decree was issued against M. de Conde, who, convicted of the double crime of lese- majeste and rebellion, and as such deprived of the name of Bourbon, was condemned to death, in whatever manner it might be the will of the king. The prince replied to this sentence characteristically by taking Rocroy ; while Turenne, who from want of troops, was compelled to evade a general action, could only retort by possessing himself of Sainte-Menehould. We must not, however, omit to mention another mar- riage which took place at this period, and which created a strong feeling at court. It was that of the Marquis de Richelieu with Mademoiselle de Beauvais, daughter of the first femme-de-chambre of the queen. The marquis was well made, young, full of intellect and courage, and had been reared in all the refinement of luxury. His elder brother being childless, the enormous wealth of the family was likely to devolve on him ; and thus it was an alliance which the proudest beauties of the court would not have disdained ; while the lady whom he had selected, although pretty and amiable, possessed no attraction sufficiently great to have induced a suspicion that she was destined to form so brilliant a marriage. The Duchess d'Aiguillon* was in despair ; and on the following day caused him to be carried off and conveyed to Italy, hoping by this extreme measure to weaken his affection for his plebeian bride ; an experiment which, however, signally failed, as on his return he exhibited toward her an attachment which absence had failed to * Marie Madelene de Viguerod, the niece of the Cardinal Richelieu, married to Antoine de Beauvoir du Roure de Cambalet ; for whom, as already stated, he had purchased, in 1638, the duchy-peerage of Aiguil- lon, was the aunt of the marquis. VOL. I. Y 506 LOUIS XIV. AND weaken. In her mortification, the duchess declared that her nephews were progressing from bad to worse, and that she had great hopes that the third would complete the ruin of the family by marrying the daughter of a clerk.* It is certain that, could the proud and haughty cardinal have risen from his grave, and seen the result to which his am- bition had attained, he would have shivered in his shroud. At this period, Madame gave birth to a fourth daughter, greatly to the chagrin of Monsieur, who had entertained hopes of another son ; and her life was in such extreme danger that Mademoiselle sent to request of Monsieur that he would allow her to see the invalid ; but she re- ceived the cold reply that her visit was declined for the present. The Countess de Fiesque also took this oppor- tunity of requesting the queen to permit her to pay her re- spects at the Louvre ; when Her Majesty answered, that simply as the Countess de Fiesque she had no objection to see her, but that she must decline receiving the governante of Mademoiselle. Madame de Fiesque accordingly paid her visit.t We have hitherto, owing to his tender age, been enabled to do little more than glance at the existence of the young king. It has now, however, become time that he should assume his fitting place in our narrative ; and to enable him to do this, it is necessary for us to revert briefly to the last two or three years of his life. Even as a boy, Louis XIV. was singularly susceptible to female beauty. His first passion, if such indeed it merits to be called, was for Madame de Frontenac, the attraction of whose society was so great to the young sovereign, that Mademoiselle, as we have already shown, built up a world of hopes upon attentions for which she was simply indebted to the com- panionship of her handsome lady of honor. This inclina- * The Duke de Richelieu had married Mademoiselle de Pons, attach- ed to the household of Anne of Austria. t Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpeusier. THE COURT OF FRANCE. 507 tion was, however, nipped in the bud by Anne of Austria, who was more far-sighted than her ambitious niece, and who discovered nothing but peril for her young son, in this intimacy with an experienced woman of fashion. His next favorite was Madame de Chatillon ; who, at the commencement of the Fronde, accompanied the royal circle from Paris, where the amusements of the court suf- fered no diminution from the menacing aspect of public affairs. The policy of the cardinal was to divert the mind of the king from passing events ; and for this purpose he was careful to conceal the whole extent of the evil even from the queen herself, and never to mention the subject of the war in the presence of Louis, save when he could make it serviceable, by expatiating upon the demerits of those who were opposing his own measures ; for he had already learned to mistrust the intuitive penetration of the boy-sovereign, of whom, even at this early age, he was once betrayed into declaring that, " There was material enough in him to make three kings, and an honest man ;" a libel upon royalty which seems strangely misplaced from the lips of a courtier. Thus Louis had no care save that of surrounding him- self with pleasure, and Madame de Chatillon was the con- stant associate of his sports ; while so agreeable and almost indispensable did she make herself, that the young king soon forgot in her society the attractions of Madame de Frontenac ; her bright eyes and ringing laugh producing an effect upon his affections which was as unwelcome as unexpected to the queen. Louis, however, was still a boy, and too timid to contend with so practiced a coquet, whose unconcealed indiscretion with the Duke do Ne- mours soon afforded a subject for the gossipry of the court. The young king had, moreover, to contend with the rivalry of Conde, then in the full blaze of his renown; and this fact, coupled with the death of M. de Chatillon, who held a command unde.'' the prince, where he received a musket- 5U8 LOUIS XIV. AND shot in his body, of whose effects he expired on the suc- ceeding evening, tended to emancipate Louis from his second peril. The despair enacted by the young and beautiful duchess on the occasion of her widowhood became a new theme for the comments of the court circle ; and was carried to such an excess, that its sincerity did not remain for one moment doubtful. Her subsequent exile on the termina- tion of the Fronde, however, removed her from all imme- diate contact with the sovereign, whose third inclination was for Mademoiselle d'Heudecourt, one of the maids of honor to Anne of Austria ; but his extreme youth had hith- erto been his best protection against the dangers by which he was surrounded. Meanwhile the nieces of the cardinal-minister, who were peculiarly favored by the queen, were accustomed to con- sider the Louvre as a second home ; and Anne of Austria, naturally affable where her feelings were interested, dis- pensed in their favor with all the usual ceremonials of court etiquet. They consequently played, laughed, romped, and sang, as girls of their age are wont to do ; and the young king lived gayly in the midst of them, as though they had been his sisters, without a thought beyond the pleasure of the hour; while he was fated to bestow his first serious affections upon a femme-de-chambre of the queen, Madame de Beauvais, the mother of the lady who was afterward fated to become the wife of the Marquis de Richelieu, bul who, at that period in her eighteenth year, was beloved by the Count de Guiche. This liaison, which ia said to have been prompted by the queen herself, to whom De Beauvais was devoted, lasted for three months, when it was abruptly terminated by a jest of the young count, which Louis never forgave. In a moment of confidence the king mentioned his con- quest to his friend ; and was repaid for the tale by a fit of laughter, as the count declared that His Majesty had taken THE CO R T F F ft A N C E. 509 an unfair advantage of so loyal a subject as himself, by su- peradding to the respect which he owed him as a mon- arch that which he must render to a parent, being himself in pursuit of the lady's daughter. Louis felt at the mo- ment when these unguarded words were uttered, that they must either be resented, or treated as a jest, and he at once resolved to affect amusement at the intelligence ; but it nevertheless rankled, for he at once perceived the absurdity of his position, and could not support the superiority of the count. The queen, as a matter of public expediency, affected a desire to remove Madame de Beauvais from the court ; but Mazarin, with his usual policy, protested against such a proceeding, which he declared to be at once unwise and unnecessary ; reminding her that what the king mistook for love would be the means of occupying his thoughts, and diverting his attention from more important affairs ; and that the young monarch had, during this hallucination, left an unlimited power in her hands, which, under other cir- cumstances, he would probably have disputed. Convin- ced by this argument, the queen forbore all interference ; which was, indeed, as we have shown, soon rendered un- necessary by the agency of the Count de Guiche. Louis XIV. was naturally a votary of pleasure; and the minister was, above all things, careful that amusement should never be wanting. Despite the penury of the court, every opportunity of dissipation was seized with avidity ; and throughout the whole of the winter Paris presented one long festival. The marriage of the Princess Louise of Savoy, and the Prince of Baden, was made the occasion of long-continued rejoicings ; the anniversary of St. Louis was celebrated with unusual pomp ; and theatrical enter- tainments were of constant recurrence. At this period Corneille produced his Pcrtharite ; which, however, notwithstanding the presence of the king at its first representation, proved an utter failure; while