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"That will do very well," said Aramis. "I have twenty visits to make and as many letters to write." They then separated. Athos went to pay a visit to Madame de Vendome, left his name at Madame de Chevreuse's and wrote the following letter to D'Artagnan: "Dear Friend, I am about to set off with Aramis on important business. I wished to make my adieux to you, but time does not permit.
There are Mazarin's friends, who, by the way, are not numerous; there are the Duke of Beaufort's clique; there is Conde's party. "Madame Chevreuse's party consists largely of herself. She is a power, but at present no one can say with whom she will ally herself.
Moreover, Madame de Chevreuse's every effort being directed towards depriving Mazarin of supporters, she incited the devotees of either sex who were about the Queen to act against him, and Madame de Longueville was no less the idol of the Carmelites and the party of the Saints than that of the Hôtel de Rambouillet.
On the 13th of April the Queen took the seals from Madame de Chevreuse's friend, Châteauneuf, the representative of the Fronde in the Cabinet, to give them to the gravest person of his time, the first president, Mathieu Molé, a worthy servant of the State, very little friendly to the Fronde, and who then was sufficiently favourable towards the Prince de Condé.
Beaupuis and Alexandre de Campion approved of the plot when communicated to them, "the former," says Henri, "believing that it would be a means for him of attaining to a position of greater importance, and my brother seeing therein Madame de Chevreuse's advantage and by consequence his own." Such were the two first accomplices of Beaufort.
Mazarin laboured to gain over the lady, and he proposed to the ambitious and enterprising Charles IV. to break with Spain and march into Franche-Comté with the aid of France, promising to leave him in possession of all he might conquer. Mazarin required of her especially to keep him apprised of Madame de Chevreuse's slightest movement.
She caressed it skilfully; and, with the art of an experienced conspirator, she fomented every germ of false honour, of quintessential devotedness, and extravagant rashness. Mazarin, who, like Richelieu, had an admirable police, forewarned of Madame de Chevreuse's machinations, fully comprehended the danger with which he was menaced.
The commencement and progress of this curious struggle for supremacy has been admirably depicted by La Rochefoucauld; and, while the autograph memoranda of Mazarin cast a fresh flood of light upon it, they enhance infinitely Madame de Chevreuse's ability by revealing to what an extent that Minister dreaded her.
"Oh, from some heartbroken waiting woman, some desponding GRISETTE; from Madame de Chevreuse's chambermaid, perhaps, who was obliged to return to Tours with her mistress, and who, in order to appear smart and attractive, stole some perfumed paper, and sealed her letter with a duchess's coronet." "What do you say?" "Hold!
She therefore had striven, in concert with Mazarin, to destroy or at least weaken Madame de Chevreuse's hold upon the Queen. Armed with the last will of Louis XIII., they had made it appear something like a fault in the Queen's eyes to disregard it so soon and so entirely.
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