Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/80

66, she formed at London, with the Duke de Vendôme, La Vieuville, and La Valette, a faction of active and able exiles, who, supported by Count Holland, then one of the chiefs of the royalist party and of the army of Charles I., by Lord Montagu, a zealous Catholic and the confidential counsellor of Queen Henriette, by the Chevalier Digby and by other powerful lords of the English Court, and also maintaining direct correspondence with the Court of Rome through its English envoy, Rosetti, as well as with the Cabinet of Madrid, encouraged and inflamed the hopes of the exiles and the malcontents, planted obstacles in the path of Richelieu, and gathered dangers everywhere about him.

In 1641, we find Madame de Chevreuse at Brussels serving as a bond between England, Spain, and Lorraine. The fact is not generally known, but we can demonstrate that she took an active part in the affair of the Count de Soissons; that is to say, in the most formidable conspiracy that had ever been plotted against Richelieu.

The Count de Soissons, prince of the blood royal, was, however, of far more consequence than Henri de Montmorenci had been: he possessed his bravery and his military talents; his plan was better conceived, and the occasion more favorable in every respect. The prime minister, by straining all the springs of government, by perpetuating the war, by increasing the public taxes, and by oppressing both public and private individuals, had excited much hatred, and governed only by the force of terror. His genius was imposing, and the grandeur of his