Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/107

Rh And from this day, too, the cardinal could perceive that he had found in Queen Anne, in respect to dissimulation and diplomatic conduct, a pupil worthy of himself, and already far advanced in her studies.

Mazarin soon established himself in the favor of Anne of Austria by his double talent as a laborious and indefatigable statesman and as a finished courtier. He took all the cares of government upon himself, while he never hesitated to yield her all the honors of success. He employed wonderful skill and assiduity in instructing without ever wounding her. His great art was to persuade her that he only wished for power in order to serve her better; that, a foreigner, without family and without friends, he depended entirely on her and wished to draw his support from her alone. Such language, supported by ability of the first order, could not fail to please, and it can be said with truth that the widow of Louis XIII. had already another Richelieu near her in the beginning of June, 1643, when Madame de Chevreuse quitted Brussels.

The disciple and the confidant of Richelieu and Louis XIII., Mazarin had inherited their opinions and their feelings concerning Madame de Chevreuse. He understood her although he had never seen her, and he profoundly distrusted her as well as her friend Châteauneuf. A favorite of such talents and of such a character, full of persuasion and of courage, an open advocate for peace, and secretly attached to the Duke of Lorraine, to Austria, and to Spain, who had at her beck an ambitious and capable man, was utterly incompatible with the favor to which he aspired, and with all his diplomatic and warlike designs. He felt that there was not room enough for both in the heart of Anne of Austria, and he prepared to combat her in his own manner, stealthily and by degrees as occasions might offer.

Mazarin possessed a secret and powerful ally against Madame de Chevreuse in the new and growing taste of the queen for repose and for a tranquil life. She had formerly been