Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/68

54 policy, it is both captious and imperious. In the midst of somewhat affected demonstrations of politeness, he says to her, "That which you send me is couched in such terms that, being unable to consent to it without acting against your interests, I will make no reply to it for fear of displeasing you while wishing to serve you. In a word, madame, if you are innocent, your safety depends upon yourself, and if the frailty of human nature, to say nothing of that of your sex, has made you remiss in any thing of which his majesty may have reason to complain, you will find in his goodness all that you can expect from it." Madame de Chevreuse readily comprehended the artifice of the cardinal; but that she might leave no room for any equivocation, she addressed him a memorial in which she gave an account of all her actions, and of the reasons which had determined her to quit France. She had fled because, while lavishing fair words on her, they had endeavored to make her confess that she had written to the Duke of Lorraine in order to prevent him from breaking with Spain and entering into an arrangement with France, and being unable to confess a fault which she had never committed, and seeing that they were persuaded of it and that they even alleged intercepted letters, she had chosen to quit her country rather than remain suspected and in perpetual danger. Richelieu hastened to reassure her, but on the contrary he alarmed her, by seeming to be convinced of that which she was fully determined never to avow. Was it a judicious method of inspiring her with confidence to remind her of the affair of Châteauneuf, and plainly to intimate that he had proofs of it in his hands which would dispense with any avowal on her part? "When M. de Boispille went to seek you, I told him wherein I thought your interest and your safety lay: namely, in keeping nothing secret. I think you should the more readily assent to this, as experience has shown you by what passed in the affair of M. de Châteauneuf that, in whatever interests you, your friends are the most secret when they have the