Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/70

56 to return to France with a full pardon for her past conduct, especially for her negotiations with the Duke of Lorraine against the interests of the king. On receiving this unhoped-for favor, Madame de Chevreuse protested against the pardon of a crime which she would not acknowledge at any price; only confessing herself culpable in respect to her precipitate flight from the kingdom. The means taken to dissipate her suspicions only increased them; she set about examining all the terms of this declaration with a zealous care, and she soon found ambiguity enough in that which related to her return to Dampierre. It was not said explicitly that she might remain there at full liberty. The only prohibitions to which she would consent were those of never seeing the queen, and of holding no foreign correspondence. Aside from these, she demanded a full liberty;—above all, she demanded that under a pretence of pardon she should not be charged with a fault which she pretended never to have committed.

On the 23d of February, 1639, she refused therefore the indemnity which had been sent her, and demanded an explanation of the manner in which she would be permitted to reside in France. The cardinal, irritated at seeing all his schemes discovered and eluded, flew into a passion, and disclosed the drift of his designs in a letter to the Abbé du Dorat, dated March 14th, in which he complained that Madame de Chevreuse would not acknowledge her negotiations with foreign powers, "as if," said he, "any one ever saw a sick man cured of a disease which he would not allow that he had." He did not intend to permit Madame de Chevreuse to remain longer than eight or ten days at Dampierre, after which she must retire to some one of her estates at a distance from Paris. He consented, however, to modify the royal indemnity which had so much displeased Madame de Chevreuse, and sent her another which was a little more lenient as a proof of his condescension and of the goodness of the king.

This new declaration was still very far from being what