Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/52

38 Madrid might take measures to hinder this adjustment. 3d. She had also informed them that there was reason to fear that England, instead of remaining allied to Spain, would break the league and enter into a treaty with France.

It seems to us either that crimes of state have ceased to exist in the world, or else that they are manifest in this affair. We see that it was with infinite pains that Anne of Austria had been brought to make these avowals. At first she denied every thing, and said that if she had written several times to Madame de Chevreuse, it had always been on indifferent matters. On Assumption day, after receiving the sacrament, she sent for her secretary, Le Gras, and swore to him by the Holy Communion, which she had just received, that it was false that she had had a correspondence with a foreign country, and commanded him to go tell the cardinal the oath she had just made. She also sent for Father Caussin, a Jesuit and confessor to the king, and renewed the same oath to him. Two days afterwards, finding that it was impossible to maintain so absolute a denial, she commenced by confessing to Richelieu that she had really written to Flanders to her brother, the Infant Cardinal, but merely to inquire after his health, and to ask about other matters of little importance. Richelieu having convinced her that he knew more than this, she ordered her maid of honor, Madame de Sénecé, Chavigny, and de Noyers, who were present, to withdraw, and, being left alone with the cardinal, upon the assurance that he would obtain a full and unconditional pardon from the king if she confessed the truth, she acknowledged all, exhibiting extreme confusion in respect to her false oaths. During this humiliating confession, calling to her aid the graces and arts of her sex, and concealing her real feelings beneath feigned demonstrations, she repeatedly exclaimed, "What goodness you must possess, M. le Cardinal!" Then, protesting an eternal gratitude, she said to him, "Give me your hand," at the same time presenting her own as a pledge of her sincerity; but the