e that he was
compelled to treat the Duke with rigour. The Cardinal, despairing of
being able to persuade others of that of which he was entirely assured,
had a great desire to get me into his hands. He was nevertheless of
opinion that he must give me time to reassure myself of safety in order
to take me with the greater facility."

We may add to all this that Henri de Campion, sought after sharply, and
closely shut up in his retreat at Anet, under the protection of the Duke
de Vendome, having fled from France and joined his friend the Count de
Beaupuis at Rome, gives an account of the obstinate efforts made by
Mazarin to obtain the extradition of the latter, the resistance of Pope
Innocent X., the regard shown to Beaupuis when they were compelled to
confine him in the Castle of Saint-Angelo; all of which being equally to
be met with in the _carnets_ and letters of Mazarin and the memoirs of
Henri de Campion, places beyond doubt the perfect sincerity of the
Cardinal's proceedings and the accuracy of his information.

Are not these, we may ask, proofs sufficient to reduce to naught the
interested doubts of La Rochefoucauld and the passionate denials of the
chief of the Fronde, the very clever but very little truthful Cardinal
de Retz, the most ardent and most obstinate of Mazarin's enemies? It
would seem, indeed, either that there is no certitude whatever in
history, or that it must be considered henceforth as a point absolutely
demonstrated that there was a project determined upon to kill Mazarin;
that that project had been conceived by Madame de Chevreuse, and in some
sort imposed by her upon Beaufort with the aid of Madame de Montbazon;
that Beaufort had for principal accomplices the Count de Beaupuis and
Alexandre de Campion; that Henri de Campion had entered later into the
affair, at the pressing solicitation of the Duke, as well as two other
officers of secondary rank; that during the month of August there were
divers serious attempts to put it into execution, particularly the last
one after the banishment of Madame de Montbazon, at the very end of
August or rather on the 1st of September; and that such attempt only
failed through circumstances altogether independent of the will of the
conspirators.

CHAPTER V.

FAILURE OF THE PLOT TO ASSASSINATE MAZARIN. ARREST OF BEAUFORT,
BANISHMENT OF MADAME DE CHEVREUSE, AND DISPERSION OF THE "IMPORTANTS."

LET us now inquire how the last attempt against Mazar