Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/117

Rh the young and valiant admiral, with the, Duke d'Enghien; so that Mazarin had little trouble in retaining the command of the fleet and of the principal maritime towns of France in faithful hands. But it was very difficult to preserve Brittany to the Meilleraies against the claims of a son of Henri IV., who had formerly possessed it, and who claimed it as a sort of family property. Mazarin therefore resigned himself to the sacrifice of La Meilleraie, but first he made it of the least possible value. He persuaded the queen to assume to herself the government of Brittany, and to appoint a lieutenant-general, evidently commissioned over the Vendômes, who should reside with La Meilleraie. The latter could not be offended at being second to the queen; and to arrange every thing so as to fully satisfy a personage of such consequence, Mazarin asked for him the title of duke which the late king had promised him, together with the reversion of the grand mastership of the artillery for his son—the same son to whom he afterwards gave with his name, his own niece, the beautiful Hortense.

Mazarin was much less inclined to favor the Duke de Vendôme, as he then had a dangerous rival with the queen in his younger son, the Duke de Beaufort, who was youthful, brave, possessing every appearance of loyalty and chivalry, and affecting a passionate devotion for Anne of Austria which was not at all displeasing to her. A few days before the death of the king, she had placed her children in his care. This mark of confidence inflated his vanity; he conceived hopes which he disclosed too plainly and which finally offended the queen, while at the same time to heighten his inconsistency, he assumed the chains of the beautiful but notorious Duchess de Montbazon. Besides, Beaufort did not even possess the semblance of a statesman; he had little talent, no secrecy, was incapable of application or of business, and only fit for some daring and violent deed. La Rochefoucauld portrays him