Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/82

68 most solid hope of the Count de Soissons, rested on Spain; she alone could enable him to depart from Sedan, to march against Paris, and to break the power of Richelieu; he therefore despatched one of the bravest and most intelligent of his followers to Brussels, to negotiate with the Spanish ministers, and to obtain from them money and troops. This gentleman was named Alexandre de Campion. He met Madame de Chevreuse at Brussels, and confided to her the mission with which he was charged. She eagerly hastened to second it with all her influence. As we shall see this personage reappear more than once in the midst of the most tragic adventures in the life of Madame de Chevreuse, we must pause for a few moments to introduce him to our readers.

Indeed, he has taken care to draw his own portrait in a work entitled Recueil de Lettres qui peuvent servir a l'histoire, et divers Poésies, à Rouen, aux dépens de l'auteur, 1657. This work, designed but for a few persons and very little noticed at the time, and as little known since as though it had never existed, is, nevertheless, as the title asserts, very valuable to history. It is dedicated to the celebrated Gillonne d'Harcourt, Countess de Fiesque, one of the aides-de-camp of Mademoiselle during the war of the Fronde, a witty, intriguing, and brilliant woman. The book is pleasing. Alexandre de Campion there shows himself full of pretensions to wit and gallantry; he carefully collects all the little verses which he addressed in his youth to the belles of the time, and gives, without ceremony, the letters which he had formerly written under the most delicate circumstances, to the Count de Soissons,