Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/164

150 necessity, to brave the censures of a few devotees, and in short to give him permission to defend his life. Hitherto, Anne of Austria had hesitated for reasons which are self-evident. The insolence of Madame de Montbazon had already irritated her greatly; the conviction which she now acquired of the numerous attempts at assassination which had failed by chance, and which at any time might be renewed, at length decided her, and it is at the close of the month of August that we must fix the positive date of the declared, public, and unrivalled ascendency of Mazarin over Anne of Austria. He had never been displeasing to her; her partiality for him commenced in the month preceding the death of Louis XIII.; in the month of May she appointed him prime minister, partly from regard and more from policy; this regard increased by degrees until it grew strong enough to resist all attacks on it; these attacks, by proceeding to the utmost violence, and making her fear for his life, precipitated the victory of the happy cardinal, and on the day after the nocturnal ambuscade in which he was to perish, Mazarin became the absolute master of the heart of the queen, and more powerful than ever Richelieu had been after the day of Dupes.

We have sought in vain in the Carnets of Mazarin for some traces of the explanations which Mazarin must have had with the queen at this critical juncture. These explanations probably were not such as to be so easily forgotten as to require one to keep notes of them. However, we find an obscure passage written in Spanish, from which we glean the following words: "I ought no longer to have any doubts, since the queen, in an excess of goodness, has told me that nothing can deprive me of the post near her person which she has done me the favor to give me; notwithstanding, as fear is the inseparable companion of affection," etc. About this time, Mazarin being somewhat