Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/146

132 The Count de Beaupuis, son of the Count de Maillé, he whom Mazarin designates in his Carnets and letters as the intimate confidant of Beaufort, and, after him, the principal person accused, found means of concealing himself during the first search; he succeeded in escaping from France, and sought an asylum at Rome under the avowed protection of Spain. Mazarin left no efforts untried to induce the court of Rome to send Beaupuis back to France, so that he might be legally adjudged. Not only did he make the demand officially through M. de Grémonville, then accredited to the holy see, but he wrote privately to all his sure friends, to the Cardinal Grimaldi, to his brother-in-law, Vincent Martinozzi, to Paul Macarani, and to Zongo Ondedei, urging them to do all in their power to obtain the extradition of Beaupuis; and suggesting to them the strongest reasons which he charges them to plead to the holy father; namely, that Beaupuis was the principal confidant of Beaufort, that he was the link between Beaufort and the rest of the accused; that, this link being suppressed, justice could no longer take its course; that a crime was in question which ought particularly to affect the sacred college and the holy fathers—an assassination attempted on the person of a cardinal; that it was the queen herself who reclaimed Beaupuis; that it was a demand for one of her servants, Beaupuis being ensign in a company of horse-guards, a confidential post which demanded especial fidelity; and that Beaupuis would not be delivered to his enemies as was pretended, but to the parliament, whose impartiality was well known.