Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/130

116 opposition. The Italian regiments of Mazarin were with the army; there were scarcely any troops in Paris, except the regiments of the guards, of which nearly all the commanders, Chandenier, Tréville, and La Châtre, were devoted to the party. The queen herself had not yet renounced her former friendship. Even her prudence was misinterpreted. As she wished to be politic towards all and to satisfy all, she gave good words to everybody, and these good words were taken as tacit encouragements. She had not hitherto shown any great strength of character; though they believed indeed that she had some liking for the cardinal, and did not doubt the increasing force of an attachment of some months' standing.

On his side, Mazarin did not deceive himself. He could not yet have been master of the heart of Anne of Austria, since at this time, that is, during the month of July, 1643, he shows extreme disquietude in his most confidential notes. The dissimulation with which every one accused the queen alarmed him, and we see him pass through all the alternations of hope and of fear. It is curious to seize and follow the varying emotions of his soul. In his official letters to the generals and ambassadors, he affects a security which he does not feel; with his intimate friends, he lets escape something of his perplexities, and they appear in his Carnets without disguise. In these we read the troubles of his mind in his passionate entreaties that the queen should declare herself. He feigns the most entire disinterestedness towards her, and only asks to give place to Châteauneuf if she has for him any secret preference. The ambiguous conduct of Anne of Austria drives him to despair, and he conjures her either to permit him to retire, or openly to declare herself in his favor.

"Every one says that Her Majesty has formed