from which, one must admit, the people and the bourgeoisie
got all the ills and the nobility all the profits.

As comptroller of the list of benefices, M. le Cardinal allotted the
wealthiest abbeys of the realm to himself.

Having made himself an absolute master of finance, like M. Fouquet, he
amassed great wealth. He built a magnificent palace in Rome, and an
equally brilliant one in Paris, conferring upon himself the wealthy
governorships of various towns or provinces. He had a guard of honour
attached to his person, and a captain of the guard in attendance, just as
Richelieu had.

He married one of his nieces to the Prince of Mantua, another to the
Prince de Conti, a third to the Comte de Soissons, a fourth to the
Constable Colonna (an Italian prince), a fifth to the Duc de Mercoeur (a
blood relation of Henri IV.), and a sixth to the Duc de Bouillon. As to
Hortense, the youngest, loveliest of them all,--Hortense, the
beauteous-eyed, his charming favourite,--he appointed her his sole
heiress, and having given her jewelry and innumerable other presents, he
married her to the agreeable Duc de la Meilleraye, son of the marshal of
that name.

Society was much astonished when it came out that M. le Cardinal had
disinherited his own nephew,

[De Mancini, Duc de Nevers, a relative of the last Duc de Nivernois. He
married, soon after, Madame de Montespan's niece.--Editor's Note]

a man of merit, handing over his name, his fortune, and his arms to a
stranger. This was an error; in taking the name and arms of Mazarin,
young De la Meilleraye was giving up those which he ought to have given
up, and assuming those which it behove him to assume.

Nor did he retain the great possessions of the La Meilleraye family.
Herein, certainly, he did not consult his devotion; since the secret and
fatherly avowal of M. le Cardinal he had no right whatever to the estates
of this family.

Beneath the waving folds of his large scarlet robe, the Cardinal showed
such ease and certainty of address, that he never put one in mind of a
cardinal and a bishop. To such manners, however, one was accustomed; in
a leading statesman they were not unpleasant.

He often gave magnificent balls, at which he displayed all the
accomplishments of his nieces and the sumptuous splendour of his
furniture. At such entertainments, always followed by a grand banquet,
he was wont to show a liberality worthy of crowned heads. One day, after
the feast, he announce