Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/136

122 motives of which were apparent to every one, was revolting to all honorable hearts. The impetuosity of Beaufort on this occasion was also very blamable. He had formerly paid his addresses to Mademoiselle de Bourbon, who had repulsed them, so that his conduct bore an air of odious revenge. Besides, it was the policy of Madame de Chevreuse to deprive Mazarin of his supporters; it was for this that she had excited the devotees against him and made them act on the queen; now Madame de Longueville was not less the idol of the Carmelites and the devout party, than of the hôtel de Rambouillet. Lastly, the Duke d'Enghien, already covered with the laurels of Rocroy and on the point of adding to them those of Thionville, was so evidently the arbiter of the question, that Madame de Chevreuse earnestly insisted that they should rid themselves of Mazarin while the young duke was employed at a distance and before his return from the army. To wound him through a sister whom he adored, to incense him unnecessarily and hasten his return, was an extravagant folly; therefore all who were sensible among the Importants, La Rochefoucauld, La Châtre, and Alexandre de Campion, were anxious to pacify and hush up this unhappy quarrel; and Madame de Chevreuse, careful to make her court to the queen at the same time that she plotted a dark intrigue against her minister, had prepared a little festival at Renard, designed to dissipate the effects of what had just passed. But all her policy was foiled by the foolish pride of a woman as destitute of talent as she was of heart.