Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/69

Rh proofs in their hands. It is so difficult to induce you to confess these, where one is not sure, that when he is sure, he would almost prefer to be in ignorance, that he may not be obliged to insist upon confession."

Can we wonder after this that Madame de Chevreuse drew back, or that she was at least much embarrassed? She wrote to the cardinal on the 8th of September to express to him her gratitude for the kindness he had shown her and, at the same time, the trouble which she felt at his settled conviction that she was really guilty. Her letter admirably depicts her perplexities.

"Consider the state in which I am; well-satisfied on one hand with the assurances which you give me of the continuation of your friendship, and deeply grieved on the other by your suspicion, or rather by your alleged certainty, of a fault which I never committed, and which, I confess, would be attended with another if, having committed it, I should deny it after the pardon of the king, which you would procure me upon confession. I confess that this so embarrasses me that I see no rest for myself in this position. If you were not so certainly persuaded of knowing my fault, or if I could possibly confess it, there would be means of accommodation; but as you suffer yourself to be carried away by so strong a belief against me as to admit of no justification, and as I am unable to make myself guilty without being so, I have recourse to yourself, supplicating you in the character of friend which your generosity promises me, to propose an expedient whereby to satisfy his majesty and secure my safe return to France, being unable myself to conceive of any, and finding myself in the greatest perplexity."

Now see the expedient which Richelieu devised to free Madame de Chevreuse from the anxiety that tormented her. He sent her a royal declaration by which she was authorized

1Manuscrits de Colbert, letter of July 24, 1638.