Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/24

10 the Duke of Buckingham and Count Holland sustained her in them, Châteauneuf interested her in them. She abandoned herself to them as she would unhesitatingly have abandoned herself to any thing that pleased the one whom she loved, without choice, and simply because it was necessary to her nature that she should love some one. She was easily persuaded to accept of any lover, but when she had once taken him, she loved him truly and faithfully, and she has confessed to Madame de Rhodes and myself that, by a strange caprice, those whom she had most esteemed she had never loved, with the exception of the unhappy Buckingham. Her devotion to a passion which may be called eternal, however often she may have changed its object, did not prevent a patch upon her face from abstracting her attention, but she always returned to her subject with a fascinating grace that made this little break absolutely enchanting. Never did person care less for perils, and never had woman more contempt for scruples and for duties,—she knew no duty but that of pleasing her lover." Of this sketch, which might have moved Tallemant to envy, retain at least these striking and faithful traits—the prompt and sure penetration of Madame de Chevreuse, her indomitable courage, and her loyalty and devotion in love. Besides, Retz is entirely mistaken as to the order of her adventures, he forgets some, and he invents others; he seems to regard the events in which the passions of Madame de Chevreuse caused her to take part as trifles, while in fact there were none greater or more tragical. Let us throw aside this trifling and frivolous style, and seek in its stead to establish the truth.

The young queen, Anne of Austria, and her youthful