Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/119

Rh Beaufort were not thus openly known, and they seemed to be eclipsed by his virtues. The queen only lost her liking for him by degrees. In the beginning of her friendship for him, she had offered him the place of grand-equerry, which had been vacant since the death of Cinq-Mars, and which would bring him in daily contact with her. Beaufort had the folly to refuse this position, hoping for a better one; then, too late repenting his refusal, he asked it again, but in vain. The more his favor diminished, the more his irritation increased; and it was not long before he placed himself at the head of the enemies of the cardinal.

Madame de Chevreuse hoped to be more successful in asking the government of Havre for quite a different personage, of tried fidelity and the finest and rarest talents, La Rochefoucauld. She would thus have recompensed him for his services to the queen and to herself, have strengthened and enriched one of the chiefs of the party of the Importants, and have weakened Mazarin by taking an important command from a person of whom he was sure, the Duchess d'Aiguillon, niece of Richelieu. The cardinal succeeded in saving her without seeming to interfere in the matter. "This lady," says Madame de Motteville, "who, through her fine qualities, in many things surpassed ordinary women, knew so well how to defend her cause that she persuaded the queen that it was necessary for her own interests that she should leave her in command of this important place, saying that, having now none but enemies in France, her only safety and refuge was in the protection of her Majesty, who would always be the mistress of it; that, on the contrary, he to whom they wished her to give this government had too much talent, that he was capable of ambitious designs, and on the least discontent might join himself to some factious party, and that it was important for