ice with impunity, he had determined to
push matters to the uttermost, and was about to take energetic measures,
when the Duke de Vendome himself decided on quitting France, and went to
Italy to await the fall of Mazarin, as formerly he had awaited in
England that of Richelieu.

The arrest of Beaufort, the dispersion of his accomplices, his friends
and his family, was the first indispensable measure forced upon Mazarin
to enable him to face a danger that seemed most imminent. But what would
it have availed him to lop off an arm had he left the head
untouched--had Madame de Chevreuse remained at Court, ever ready to
surround the Queen with attention and homage, assiduous to retain and
husband the last remnant of her old favour, in order to sustain and
secretly encourage the malcontents, inspire them with her audacity, and
stir them up to fresh conspiracies? She still held in her grasp the
scarcely-severed threads of the plot; and at her right hand there was a
man too wary to allow himself to be again compromised by such dark
doings, but quite ready to profit by them, and whom Madame de Chevreuse
had sedulously exhibited not only to Anne of Austria, but to France and
all Europe, as a man singularly capable of conducting State affairs.
Mazarin, therefore, did not hesitate; but on the day following
Beaufort's arrest, Chateauneuf, Montresor, and St. Ybar were banished.
The first-named was invited to present himself at Court, kiss the
Queen's hand, and then betake himself to his government in Touraine.
Richelieu's late Keeper of the Seals deemed it something to have
escaped an open disgrace, to have resumed the eminent post he had
formerly occupied under the Crown, and the government of a large
province. Yet did his ambition soar far higher still: but he kept it in
check, and merely postponed its flight for a less stormy hour--obeyed
the Queen, skilfully remained friends with her, and likewise kept on
very good terms with her Prime Minister--biding his time until he might
displace him. He had to wait a long time, however; but eventually did
not quit life without once more grasping, for a moment at least, that
power which the indulgence of an insensate passion had lost him, but
which an inviolable and unswerving friendship in the end restored to
him.[6]

[6] Chateauneuf held the seals from March, 1650, when Mazarin went
into voluntary exile, until April, 1651. He died in 1653, at the age
of seventy-three.

Mada