Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/141

Rh that he formed these assemblies and endeavored to give them an air of conspiracy. La Rochefoucauld especially constitutes himself the champion of Madame de Chevreuse, and professes himself fully persuaded that she was ignorant of the designs of the Duke de Beaufort. After the historian of the Importants, the memoirist of the Frondeurs holds nearly the same language. Like La Rochefoucauld, Retz has but one aim in his memoirs—that of giving himself a statesmanlike air, and of making a conspicuous figure in every thing, both good and evil. He is often more veracious, because he exercises less circumspection for others, and is more disposed to sacrifice everybody, himself excepted. We cannot comprehend his reserve or his incredulity in this instance. He knew very well that the most of those accused of having taken part in this plot had already been implicated in more than one similar affair. He has himself informed us that he had conspired with the Count de Soissons, that he had blamed him for not having struck Richelieu at Amiens, and that with La Rochepot, he, the Abbé de Retz, had formed the design of assassinating him at the Tuileries during the ceremony of the baptism of Mademoiselle. The coadjutorship of the archbishopric of Paris, which the regent had just granted him in consideration of the virtues and the services of his father, had pacified him, it is true, but his ancient accomplices, who had not been so well treated as he, had remained faithful to their cause, their designs, and their habits. Is Retz sincere when he refuses to believe that they attempted against Mazarin what he had seen them undertake and what he himself had undertaken against Richelieu? In his blind hatred, he throws all the blame on Mazarin, and pretends that he was or that he feigned to be afraid. According to him, it was the invention of Abbé de La Rivière, who, to deliver himself from the rivalry of the Count de Montrésor with the Duke d'Orleans, wished to persuade Mazarin that there was a conspiracy plotted against him in which Montrésor was concerned. It was also seconded by M. le Prince, who wished to destroy Beaufort in the fear