Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/101

Rh and who seemed to her without support at the court and in France, while on the contrary she felt herself sustained by all its rank, its power, and its credit. She believed herself sure of Monsieur, who could easily rule his wife, the beautiful Marguerite, sister of Charles IV. Having just returned from Flanders, she could dispose of nearly all of the house of Rohan and of the house of Lorraine, particularly of the Duke de Guise and the Duke d'Elbeuf. She could count on the Vendômes, on the Duke d'Epernon, and on La Vieuville, her former companions of exile in England; on the Bouillons, if maltreated; on La Rochefoucauld, whose spirit and pretensions were known to her; on Lord Montagu, who had been her admirer, and who then possessed the entire confidence of Anne of Austria; on La Châtre, the friend of the Vendômes and colonel-general of the Swiss, on Tréville, on Beringhen, on Jars, on La Porte, and on many others who had lately quitted prison, exile, and disgrace. Among the women, her mother and sister-in-law, Madame de Montbazon and Madame de Guymené, the two great beauties of the day, who drew after them a numerous train of old and new admirers, seemed to her already gained. She knew, too, that one of the first acts of the new regent had been to recall near her person two noble victims of Richelieu, Madame de Senecé and Madame de Hautefort, whose piety and virtue would usefully conspire with other influences to give them a valuable support in the conscience of Anne of Austria. All these calculations seemed certain, all these hopes well founded, and Madame de Chevreuse quitted Brussels in the firm persuasion that she was about to enter the Louvre in triumph. 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