Victor Cousin

“ The next morning, the Duke de Beaufort was conducted a prisoner to that same château of Vincennes where he had been but a few days before to promenade and to partake of a collation with the queen. The people of Paris, always friends to bold enterprises when successful, were in nowise excited by the disgrace of him whom they would one day adore; and on seeing the future king of the faubourgs and the market places pass on the road to Vincennes, they applauded, much to Mazarin's satisfaction, and cried with exultation, "Here is the man who tried to disturb our peace." ”

“ Satisfied with having separated her from Anne of Austria, would Richelieu have left her free and tranquil in Touraine? Is he really sincere when he affirms it, or is the old charm still acting, and is this iron heart, this inexorable soul, which beauty, however, more than once found impressible, unable to shield itself from a reluctant tenderness for a woman who joined in her person in the highest degree, those two gifts so rarely found united—beauty and courage? ”

“ She had seen all those whom she loved or hated fall successively around her—Richelieu and Mazarin, Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria, the Queen of England and her daughter, the amiable Henriette, Châteauneuf and the Duke of Lorraine. Her much loved daughter had expired in her arms in the midst of the Fronde. He who had first turned her aside from the path of duty, the handsome and frivolous Holland, had mounted the scaffold of Charles I., and her last lover, the Marquis de Laigues, though much younger than she, had preceded her to the tomb. She perceived that she had given her soul to vanity ”

“ As to Madame de Chevreuse, she shared to the fullest extent in the dangers and misfortunes of Châteauneuf, and never afterwards consented to separate his fortunes from her own. In all her aberrations, she at least preserved this remnant of honor, that when she loved, she loved with unbounded fidelity, and after the passion had passed away, she still maintained for its object an inviolable friendship. For some time, Richelieu had perceived that his keeper of the seals was no longer the same. ”

“ Chalais mounted the first scaffold erected by Richelieu, despite the tears of his aged mother. Monsieur extricated himself from the affair by espousing Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the queen fell more deeply than ever into disgrace, and Madame de Chevreuse, perfidiously denounced by the Duke of Orleans, and also by Chalais himself, who, with his dying breath, vainly denied his first confessions, was condemned to depart from France. What part had she had in this conspiracy? That which both love and friendship had forced upon her. Chalais was her lover, and she was devoted to Anne of Austria. ”

“ Madame de Chevreuse in truth [2] possessed almost all the qualities of a great politician, a single one was wanting, and it was the one precisely without which all the others ran to waste—she did not know how to propose to herself a just aim, or rather she never chose one for herself; it was another that chose for her. Madame de Chevreuse was a woman in the fullest sense—in this was her strength, and also her weakness. Her first impulse was love, or rather gallantry, and the interests of the one whom she loved became her chief aim. ”

“ Châteauneuf had therefore given bloody pledges of fidelity to Richelieu, and they seemed inseparable. The cardinal had loaded him with favors, as was his custom towards his friends. Châteauneuf had been appointed chancellor of the royal orders, and Governor of Touraine. He was a consummate man of business, laborious and active, and endowed with that quality which best pleased the cardinal, resolution; but he had an inordinate ambition which he retained through life, and which when joined with love, rendered him blind to all but his purpose. ”

“ But first a word of the beauty of Madame de Chevreuse, for this beauty had a great share in her destiny. All her cotemporaries unite in celebrating it. A portrait nearly of life-size, which is in the possession of the Duke de Luynes, and which he has courteously shown to us, [5] gives her an enchanting figure, a charming face, large blue eyes, fine and luxuriant chestnut-hair, a beautiful bust, and a piquant mingling of refinement and vivacity, grace and passion in her whole person. This indeed was the character of the beauty of Madame de Chevreuse ”

“ She hoped to find Queen Anne such as she had left her, disliking business and very willing to let herself be guided by those for whom she had a particular affection; and as Madame de Chevreuse believed herself the first affection of the queen, she thought to exercise over her the two-fold ascendency of friendship and of talent. ”

“ Monsieur, The continuation of my misfortunes obliging me to quit France in haste to preserve in a neutral country the liberty which the power of my enemies wished to take from me in my own, the only way by which I found it possible to avoid this disgrace was to embark at Saint-Malo to pass into England and thence into Flanders, in order to reach the country of Liege, where I might justify my innocence in safety if I could obtain a hearing, or at least shelter myself from the persecution to which the hatred and the artifice of the Cardinal Mazarin has subjected me for a year and a half past. ”

“ At the age of twenty-four, one does not trifle with a first attachment to the extent of giving one's own lover to another, and the rôle which the poor woman already plays in this affair is not so honorable as to make us delight to vilify her still more. Madame de Chevreuse fell ill, it is true, on hearing the news of the assassination of Buckingham. Nothing was more natural; she lost in him a tried friend, the confidant of her first love, and the chief and the hope of the enemies of Richelieu. ”

“ You do wrong to have this thought; the mind of Madame de Chevreuse is too noble for treacherous sentiments ever to enter it. This is why I regard the favor of the cardinal no more than his power, and I shall never do any thing unworthy of myself, either for the good which I may gain from the one, or the evil which I may suffer from the other. ”

“ Every thing there was extreme, vice as well as virtue. They attacked their enemies and defended themselves with the same weapons. The Marshal d'Ancre had been murdered, and the assassination of Richelieu had been more than once attempted, while he never hesitated to erect scaffolds in his turn. Was the trial of the Marshal de Marillac at Ruel under the cardinal's own eyes, his condemnation without conclusive proof, and his cruel execution on the Place de Grêve, any thing else than a judicial assassination? ”

“ One can easily imagine the mortal ennui which overwhelmed the beautiful duchess, thus buried at thirty-three in the heart of a province, far from the noise and the splendor of Paris, far from all the emotions which were so dear to her, far from all intrigues both of politics and of love. It was but a dull amusement to her to turn the head of the old Archbishop of Tours, [34] and to sustain herself she had great need of the visits of the young and amiable La Rochefoucauld, [35] who lived in her neighborhood, and of the letters of Queen Anne. ”

“ Time advanced, the Fronde broke forth; and the ardent duchess rushed again from Brussels in 1649, and brought to her friends the support of Spain and of her experience. She was then nearly fifty years of age. Years and sorrows had triumphed over her beauty, but she was still graceful, and her keen penetration, her decision, her boldness, and her genius, remained entire. ”

“ Now open his memoirs and you will see there all the details which fill the Garnets of Mazarin confirmed point by point. Nothing is wanting; every thing is in accordance with them; they correspond marvellously. It seems in truth as if Mazarin, in writing his notes, must have had before his eyes the memoirs of Henri de Campion, or as if Henri de Campion had copied verbatim from the Carnets of Mazarin—so well does he both complete and recapitulate them. ”

“ Such is the state of the cardinal's mind. Send me word what you think of all this, but feign to know nothing of it. I shall see the cardinal here, and will inform you of all that passes. Believe that whatever may happen to your master, he will do nothing that is unworthy of himself, or which shall cause you to blush for belonging to him. I am a little better in health, and more than ever resolved to esteem M. de Châteauneuf till death, as I have promised you. ”

“ Madame de Chevreuse, with Châteauneuf, defended the former policy of the party, and labored to win Anne of Austria back to it. "Madame de Chevreuse," says Mazarin, "causes it to be reported to the queen from every side that I do not wish for peace, that I have the same maxims as the Cardinal de Richelieu, and that to make a separate peace is both necessary and easy." He remonstrated often and earnestly against the dangers of such an arrangement, which would render useless the sacrifices of France during so many years. "Madame de Chevreuse wishes to ruin France!" ”

“ He writes thus to the Duchess de Montbazon, "You must not despair, madame; there are half a dozen honest men who have not yet yielded. Your illustrious friend will not forsake you. If it be necessary to renounce your friendship to be considered sane, there are some who will choose rather to pass for madmen all their lives." ”

“ She was mistaken; the queen was changed, or very nearly so.
If the time has come for restoring Louis XIII. to the place in history that belongs to him, it is also time to do justice to Anne of Austria. She was no ordinary person. Beautiful and needing to be loved, and at the same time vain and haughty, she had been deeply wounded by the coldness and neglect of her husband, and, in a spirit of vengeance as well as of coquetry, she had amused herself by exciting more than one passion in those about her, but without ever overstepping the limits of Spanish gallantry. ”

“ Beaufort and Madame de Chevreuse could not follow their example; to fly for them would have been to denounce themselves. The intrepid duchess did not hesitate, therefore, to appear at court as usual; and at the soirée of the 2d of September, she was found at the side of the queen with another person, a very different enemy of Mazarin, a stranger to these dark intrigues and even incapable in her innocence of giving credence to them, the pious and noble Madame de Hautefort. ”

“ Add to all this the mind and the manners of Mazarin; he was pliant and insinuating; always master of himself, of an immovable serenity in the gravest emergencies, full of confidence in his good star, and diffusing his confidence everywhere about him. It must also be said that—cardinal as he was—Mazarin was not a priest; that, nourished in the maxims of the gallantry of her country, Anne of Austria had always loved to please ”

“ He is certain that the cardinal designs to destroy him; from this you can judge of his intentions. He is on good terms with the queen, Monsieur, and yourself, and acts adroitly. No one knows that I see him, and if prosperity does not blind him, he is capable of undertaking something of importance. In any case, should you be pressed, and forced to take up arms to shield yourself from oppression, it is well to have for a protector near the king, an injured man, who, for his own interest, will not lose the occasion of destroying the one who wishes to ruin him. ”

“ But a good master never fears to err in obliging his servant, when he has proved himself full of fidelity and affection. The cardinal wishes to persuade Madame de Chevreuse that his heart is filled with both for her who will not believe his words. I would give my life to talk with you, but I know not how to manage this, for the cardinal must not know it. Consult with the bearer respecting the means for it, and believe that nothing but death can take away the sentiments that I feel for you. ”

“ There were the Count de Montrésor, the Count de Fontrailles, the Count de Brion, the Count de Fiesque, the Count d'Aubijoux, the Count de Beaupuis, the Count de Saint-Ybar, Barrière, Varicarville, and many others beside,—impracticable spirits, intrepid hearts, of an unbounded fidelity to their cause and to their friends, professing the most ultra maxims, with a sort of worship for the unfortunate De Thou, continually invoking ancient Rome and Brutus, mingling amorous intrigues with all these, and urging themselves on in all their chimeras by the desire of pleasing the ladies. ”

“ I am sure from my knowledge of your character that I shall have more trouble in holding you back than in urging you on, seeing the friendship which you have done me the honor to confess to me for a certain person, (evidently Châteauneuf;) but apart from this consideration and that of many other honorable men embarked in the same cause, I do not see the necessity of perpetuating a hatred so far as even to carry it beyond the death of our enemies. I have no love for the cardinal, but I wish no harm to any of his race. ”

“ But the affairs of this world cannot always remain in the same state, and this change natural to mankind caused Madame de Chevreuse, who was distrusted and vilified by those aspiring to the ministry, to find the queen changed in her absence, while this same change also caused the queen to find the duchess wanting in the charms which had formerly fascinated her. The sovereign had become more thoughtful and religious, while the favorite still retained her former tastes for gallantry and frivolity, which were bad accompaniments of a riper age. ”

“ The entreaties of the Abbé du Dorat and of Boispille, and the solemn promise which Richelieu renewed to her in a final letter of April 13th, 1639, might well have conquered her scruples, stifled her suspicions, and caused her to yield her secret instincts to the solicitations of her family.
Affairs stood in this wise; the proud duchess had bowed her head beneath the weight of exile and misfortune; she was about to depart; her adieus were already made to the Queen of England, and a vessel was ready to conduct her to Dieppe where a carriage awaited her ”

“ The good maid of honor, always careful to conceal or to deny all that might injure her mistress, and to point out every thing that may place her in a favorable light, delights here in displaying her gentleness and her humanity. We see above all a profound dissimulation in the conduct of Anne of Austria which even Madame de Motteville cannot fail to remark. It is evident that every thing was concerted in advance between the queen and Mazarin ”

“ I should not be the friend to you that I am, if I failed to tell you that if you love Madame de Chevreuse, you will prevent her ruin, which is inevitable in France, where they only wish her for her destruction. This is not merely an opinion; there is no other remedy than that of following this advice whereby to save Madame de Chevreuse, of whose connections with Spain and M. de Lorraine, the cardinal has already spoken too ill to permit him to be silent in the future. ”