Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/61

Rh Notwithstanding, whatever pleasure the declared favor of the king, the queen, and the prime minister may have given her in Spain, she did not remain long there. The war between the two countries rendered her position very delicate, her letters penetrated with difficulty into France, and her friends dared not write to her, so much did they dread the police of Richelieu, and so much did they fear being accused of corresponding with the enemy, and with Madame de Chevreuse. Even Boispille, her steward, on receiving a letter from her, said to the messenger, who asked for an answer: "We make no answers to Spain." To have more liberty, and to be nearer France, she resolved to go to a neutral and even friendly country, and in the commencement of the year 1638, she arrived in England.

Madame de Chevreuse was received and treated in London as she had been before in Madrid. She found there her earliest admirer, Count Holland, Lord Montagu, who was still enamoured with her. Craft, and many other noblemen, both English and French, who hastened to swell her train. She especially charmed the king and queen. She had always been a favorite with Charles I., and Henriette, on again beholding the chaperon who had escorted her to her royal husband, embraced her, and invited her to be seated in her presence, an unusual mark of distinction in the court of England.

The king and queen wrote in her behalf to Louis XIII., to Queen Anne, and to Cardinal de Richelieu. Madame de Chevreuse demanded the full and entire enjoyment of her property, which had once been granted her, and then withdrawn after her flight to Spain. In the spring of 1688, the