Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/153

Rh after, he disclosed his plans to Henri de Campion, one of his principal gentlemen, to Lié, captain of his guards, and to Brillet, his equerry. There the secret rested. Many other gentlemen and servants of the house of Vendôme were to have participated in the action, but they were not made confidants; whence we understand the ignorance of Vaumorin and Ganseville, and the assertion which they may have made to Retz during the Fronde. The affair was well planned and worthy of Madame de Chevreuse. There were but five or six conspirators admitted to full confidence, all well capable of keeping the secret, and they kept it faithfully. Under them were the men of deeds, who were ready for action but knew not what they were to do; and beyond these were the men of the morrow, upon whom they counted to applaud the blow, when it had been struck, without deeming it proper to take them into the conspiracy. At all events, Henri de Campion does not even name Montrésor, Béthune, Fontraille, Varicarville, and Saint-Ybar, which explains why Mazarin, although having had an eye on them all, did not cause their arrest. Neither does Henri de Campion speak of Chandenier, La Châtre, Tréville, the Duke de Guise, the Duke de Retz, the Duke de Bouillon, and La Rochefoucauld, whose sentiments were not doubtful, but who were not ripe for imbruing their hands in an assassination; this also explains the silence of Mazarin in respect to them in all that concerned the conspiracy of Beaufort, although he did not deceive himself in the slightest degree as to their disposition and the part which they would have taken if the conspiracy had succeeded, or even if a serious struggle had been commenced.

The plot rested for some time with Madame de Chevreuse, Madame de Montbazon, Beaufort, Beaupuis, and Alexandre de Campion. The final resolution was not taken until the end of July or in the beginning of August; that is, precisely at the height of the quarrel between Madame de Montbazon and Madame de Longueville, which urged on the crisis and