Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/184

170 judicious Marie de Rohan gave her grandson, the Duke de Chevreuse, the friend of Beauvilliers and of Fenelon, to the daughter of a plebeian of genius, the greatest administrator that France ever possessed. She easily obtained all that she Madame de Chevreuse conducted it with ardor; it was the last of her life." Vol. ii., chap, iv., p. 178: "The Duchess de Chevreuse was at Fontainebleu with the Marquis de Laigues concerning this affair, (that of Fouquet.) She had forced the latter to ally himself with M. Colbert, the minister, who was then only controller of the finances. Having preserved sufficient ascendency over the mind of the queen-mother, she caused her to consent to the overthrow of M. Fouquet, although her Majesty had a friendship for him, because he had always willingly paid her dowry, together with some considerable pensions which the king, her son, had bestowed on her after his majority." To support these facts, we find among the papers of Fouquet which were in the famous casket, and which are now preserved in the armory of Baluze at the Bibliothèque Nationale, various letters of a secret agent of the superintendent, warning him that Madame de Chevreuse is working against him, and is endeavoring to deprive him of the protection of the queen-mother. This agent, who must have been a nobleman of the court, had indirectly gained the confessor of Anne of Austria, and learned through him of the manœuvres of Madame de Chevreuse. Letter of June 28, 1661: "Madame de Chevreuse continues closely to question this good man, (the confessor,) but this will avail nothing, and you shall be precisely informed of every thing that she shall say to him." Letter of July 21: "I have not been able to learn any thing more particular of Madame de Chevreuse, but the good confessor came here a short time since to see the person of whom I have had the honor to speak to you already. He related to him all that he knew, and told him, among other things, that some time ago Madame de Chevreuse questioned him closely, that she sent Laigues to him several times, and that she talked in a very devout strain to him in order to gain him, but above all, Monseigneur, that she talked against you. I did not hear in what manner, for this good man said that he had related it to M. Pelisson. It will suffice, therefore, for me to warn you that this good cordelier complains a little because you cited him on making an explanation with the queen-mother, saying that you told her that she went to Dampierre among your enemies, who said things against you to her, and when she denied that she had ever been spoken to in this manner, you told her to ask the father-confessor; and that the queen said to him the next day that she could not comprehend