Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/72

58 "I should not be the friend to you that I am, if I failed to tell you that if you love Madame de Chevreuse, you will prevent her ruin, which is inevitable in France, where they only wish her for her destruction. This is not merely an opinion; there is no other remedy than that of following this advice whereby to save Madame de Chevreuse, of whose connections with Spain and M. de Lorraine, the cardinal has already spoken too ill to permit him to be silent in the future. In short, at this moment, there is nothing but patience for Madame de Chevreuse, or sure destruction to her and eternal regret to the writer."

From whatever source this note may have come, we can readily imagine that it troubled Madame de Chevreuse. It responded to all the secret instincts of her heart, and to the knowledge which she had had of old of the implacable resentment of the cardinal. She suspended or prolonged her preparations for departure; and acting as frankly as prudently, she showed the letter which she had received to Boispille, and authorized him to transmit it to the cardinal. A month had scarcely passed, ere she received another letter of the same stamp, no longer anonymous, but signed by the man of all others the most devoted to her.

"I am certain that it is the design of the cardinal to offer you every possible inducement to persuade you to return to France,—then immediately to destroy you. The Marquis de Ville, who has talked with him and with M. de Chavigny, can give you further explanations, having heard it himself. I expect him every moment, but if I thought that I had influence enough over your mind to persuade you from taking this resolution, I would hasten to throw myself at your feet to convince you of the certainty of your utter ruin, and to conjure you by all that is most dear to you to shun this calamity, too cruel to the whole world, but most of all insupportable to me; protesting that if my destruction could procure your repose, I should esteem the