Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/36

22 not wish to embroil himself with Madame de Chevreuse. I shall see him to-morrow at two o'clock. I will send you word of all that passes. Rest assured that Madame de Chevreuse will only live for the world while she lives for you."

"I believe that I am destined to be the object of the folly of madmen. The cardinal is a good proof of this; but whatever trouble his ill-humor may give me, it does not afflict me so much as does that of 37, (probably Brion, or perhaps de Thou,) who, without listening to my entreaties, or to the reasons which I have given him, insists on visiting Madame de Chevreuse, and says that nothing shall prevent him, even though Madame de Chevreuse tells him that she does not wish it, for fear of offending the cardinal. Should he discover it, I confess to you that the language of 37 troubles me greatly, for I cannot suffer it. I am sorry that 37 should have given me so many causes of annoyance after having given me so many reasons to be pleased with him. I am resolved not to see him if he come against my wishes, and not to receive his letters if he does not repent of the manner in which he has addressed Madame de Chevreuse, who can suffer this language from none other than you."

"Madame de Chevreuse has had no news from the cardinal. If he is as satisfied with not hearing from me as I am with hearing no more from him, he is well pleased, and I am freed from that persecution from which may time and our good angel deliver us!

"The tyranny of the cardinal increases every moment. He storms and rages because Madame de Chevreuse does not go to see him. I have written to him twice with compliments of which he is unworthy, and which I should never have offered to him, had it not been for the persecution of M. de Chevreuse, who said that these would purchase my repose. I believe that