Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/170

156 studying to show to the queen, to France, and to Europe, as in every way capable of conducting the affairs of State. Mazarin, therefore, did not hesitate; and on the third of September, the same day of the arrest of Beaufort, Châteauneuf was invited to make his adieux to the queen, and then to retire to his government of Touraine. The ex-keeper of the seals of Richelieu found that it was at least something to have been honorably extricated from disgrace and to have regained the high rank which he had formerly occupied in the service of the king, together with the government of a large province. His ambition, it is true, soared much higher, but he postponed its accomplishment, obeyed the orders of the queen, adroitly remained friends with her, and kept on very good terms with her minister while waiting an occasion to supplant him. He waited a long time, but he did not die without having seen again, for a moment at least, the power which an insane love had caused him to lose, and which a faithful and unwearied friendship again restored to him.

Madame de Chevreuse had not the wisdom of Châteauneuf. She did not know how to put a good face on a bad play, or else she was too far pledged to quit the party so soon. La Châtre, who was one of her most intimate friends and who saw her every day, relates that the same evening on which Beaufort was arrested at the Louvre, "her Majesty said to her that she believed her innocent of the designs of the prisoner,