Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/106

92 queen. He therefore endeavored first of all to reach her heart, as Richelieu before him had attempted; but he possessed many more means of succeeding; and the handsome and pleasing cardinal did succeed. Once master of her heart, he easily guided the mind of Anne of Austria, and taught her the difficult art of always pursuing the same end under the most varied guises, according to the diversity of circumstances."

But how much time and pains were needed for Mazarin to bring Anne of Austria to this point, and to triumph over all her scruples! The history of the progress of Mazarin in the heart of the queen is the true history of the first three months of the regency. Anne commenced on the 18th of May, 1643, by easily persuading herself to retain, for a time at least, the minister whom Louis XIII. had bequeathed and commended to her. We shall see to what point she had arrived on the 2d of September of the same year.

It was impossible for her to preserve the order of the royal declaration which established Mazarin as prime minister and presiding officer of the council under the Prince, since she wished to have all this part of the testament of the late king broken by the parliament as limiting the authority of the regent, contrary to all usages. It was therefore agreed in preliminary cabals that Mazarin should renounce the sort of right which the royal declaration gave him, but that at the same time, the regent, freed from all fetters, should voluntarily offer him a similar place, so that he would hold his power, not from the will of the deceased king, but from the free gift of the queen. All this was concluded between them with such secrecy that the surprise was great and general when, on the 18th of May, the parliament was seen to invest the regent with the sovereign authority, while on the same day the Cardinal Mazarin was placed at the head of the cabinet. This was the result of a skilfully contrived plot which the queen had concealed from all her friends who were opposed to Mazarin.