Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/29

Rh a most brilliant triumph. She dazzled, seduced and urged on the impetuous and adventurous Charles IV. She was not, as La Rochefoucauld has said, and as others have so often repeated, the primary cause of the misfortunes of this prince;—no, the true cause of the misfortunes of Charles IV. lay in his own character—in his presumptuous ambition, open to every wild fancy, which had to encounter such a politician as Richelieu. Let us not forget that these two personages were embroiled long before Madame de Chevreuse set foot in Nancy. Richelieu claimed several portions of the estates of the duke, who, being placed between Austria and France, began the warfare by declaring in favor of the former against the latter. He was the man the best fitted of all others to share the sentiments of Madame de Chevreuse, as she was admirably suited to second his designs. She found Charles IV. already pledged to Austria, she attached him to England, then ruled by Buckingham; she also established intelligence with Savoy, and thus formed a European league by which she secured to the interior the support of the Protestant party, controlled by her relatives, Rohan and Soubise. The plan was well laid; an English fleet, commanded by Buckingham himself, would disembark at the Isle of Ré and join the Protestants of La Rochelle; the Duke of Savoy would make a descent at the same time upon Dauphiny and Provence; and the Duke de Rohan, at the head of the Reformers, would stir up Languedoc, while the Duke of Lorraine should march towards Paris by the way of Champagne. The principal agent of this plan, charged with bearing