, without appearing to have any hand in it. And
herein, as in many other matters, the art of Mazarin was to wear the
semblance of merely confirming the Queen in the resolves with which he
inspired her.

In thus attributing these various designs, this connected and consistent
line of conduct, to Madame de Chevreuse, we do not advance it as our own
opinion, but as that of La Rochefoucauld, who must have been perfectly
well informed. He attributes it to her both in his own affairs and in
those of the Vendomes. Neither was Mazarin blind to the fact, for more
than once in his private notes we read these words:--"My greatest
enemies are the Vendomes and Madame de Chevreuse, who urges them on." He
tells us also that she had formed the project of marrying her charming
daughter Charlotte, then sixteen, to the Vendome's eldest son, the Duke
de Mercoeur, whilst his brother Beaufort should espouse the wealthy
Mademoiselle d'Epernon, who foiled these designs, and even greater
still, by throwing herself at four-and-twenty into a convent of
Carmelites. These marriages, which would have reconciled, united, and
strengthened so many great houses, moderately attached to the Queen and
her minister, terrified Richelieu's successor. He therefore sought to
foil them by every means in his power, and succeeded in prevailing upon
the Queen to frustrate them in an underhand way; having found that the
union of Mademoiselle de Vendome with the brilliant but restless Duke de
Nemours had caused him more than ordinary anxiety.

If the intricate details of those counter intrigues of Mazarin and
Madame de Chevreuse be followed attentively, we are at a loss to say to
which of the two antagonists the palm for skill, sagacity, and address
should be given. Whilst Mazarin was astute enough to make a certain
amount of sacrifice in order to reserve to himself the right of not
making greater--treating everyone with apparent consideration, rendering
no one desperate, promising much, holding back the least possible
_proprio motu_ of himself, and surrounding Madame de Chevreuse herself
with attention and homage without suffering any illusion to beguile him
as to the nature of her sentiments--she, on her part, paid him back in
the same coin. La Rochefoucauld says that during these _mollia tempora_,
Madame de Chevreuse and Mazarin actually flirted with each other. The
Duchess, who had always intermingled gallantry with politics, tried, as
it appears, the power of h