Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/47

Rh having commanded her through the archbishop to speak the truth in the name of the obedience which she owed to him, and under penalty of excommunication. The queen also had much to endure, and was in great danger. Let us hear La Rochefoucauld, who ought to be correctly informed, since he was at that time, with Madame de Hautefort and Madame de Chevreuse, the most intimate confidant of Anne of Austria: "The queen was accused of having had a correspondence with the Marquis de Mirabel, Minister of Spain. This was construed into an offence against the state. Several of her domestics were arrested, and her caskets were seized. The chancellor examined her as a criminal; it was proposed to imprison her at Havre, to dissolve her marriage, and to repudiate her. In this extremity, abandoned by every one, destitute of all aid, and daring to confide in no one but Madame de Hautefort and me, she proposed to me to fly with them to Brussels. Whatever were the difficulties and dangers involved in such a project, I can truly say that it gave me the greatest joy of my life. I was then at the age in which one has a passion for brilliant and adventurous deeds, and I could conceive of none more daring than to carry away the queen from her husband and from the Cardinal de Richelieu, who was jealous of her, and at the same time to take away Madame de Hautefort from the king, who was enamored with her. Happily, affairs changed, the queen was found not guilty, the examination of the chancellor justified her, and Madame D'Aiguillon pacified the Cardinal de Richelieu."

All this story seems to us very suspicious. We do not for a moment believe that the queen ever entertained the insane idea which La Rochefoucauld attributes to her; he mistook a pleasantry of Madame de Hautefort for a serious proposition, and relates it here according to his custom to give himself an air of importance. Besides, whatever he may say, he was not daring enough to undertake so rash an enterprise; and we shall see that he was exceedingly circumspect on much less perilous