Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/131

Rh with Châteauneuf. If this be true, let her Majesty tell me so. If she prefers to intrust her affairs to him, I will retire whenever she wishes." —"They say that her Majesty is the greatest dissembler living, that no one can confide in her, that, if she seems to set any value on me, it is from sheer necessity, and that all her real confidence is in them." —"If her Majesty wishes to retain me and to be benefited by me, she must throw off the mask, and give manifest tokens of the value that she sets on me." —"I seek only the pleasure and the satisfaction of her majesty, but truth forces me to say that I cannot serve her as I ought with this perpetual anxiety, though I labor night and day to fulfil my duties." —"It is certain that the Importants continue to assemble in the garden of the Tuileries, that those who style themselves the most devoted servants of the queen cry out against her government, that they are more than ever opposed to me, and always conclude by saying that, if they cannot destroy me by intrigue, they will attempt other means." —"I receive a thousand warnings to take care of myself." —"They inveigh against the queen more than ever. They are furious against Beringhen and Montagu. They say that the first practises a vile trade, and that they will give the second a beating; and that it is absolutely necessary to destroy all who are my friends." —"I am told that