Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/74

60 in denying that she had counselled M. de Lorraine not to make terms with France. At this, M. de Chavigny also seemed very greatly surprised, and both said that the matter now was very clear, and that Madame de Chevreuse being once in France, they could make her speak plain French with the letters they possessed; that she did not believe it, but if she thought to deceive them she deceived herself. This the deponent affirms, having heard it himself. At London, this eighth day of August.

", Marquis de Ville."

This writing, as well as the preceding ones, was punctually sent to Richelieu.

We ask whether all this should not naturally have made the strongest impression on the mind of Madame de Chevreuse? Could she recall without terror the obstinate endeavors of the cardinal to draw from her by direct and indirect means a confession which could be of little importance to him, if he had no intention of using it against her? Did she not know his imperious temper, and his passion for holding the whole world at his feet, and for always having wherewith to crush his enemies? Whoever has felt the bitterness and miseries of exile will not be surprised that the unhappy duchess should have descended so far as to submit to hard and insecure conditions in her ardent desire of regaining her country and her home. But who can blame her upon such counsels as those which we have just quoted, for hesitating to take a step, which, should it prove a false one, would leave her nothing but eternal regret and useless despair.

Ere long another counsel, which was to her an order, enchained her to a foreign land. She for whom she had suffered every thing and braved every thing for the last ten years, her royal accomplice, Anne of Austria, warned her not to trust to appearances. The queen, meeting M. de Chevreuse one day at St. Germain, inquired after the duchess. He replied that