x thousand Imperialists. France--all the
nationalities of Europe, were on the tiptoe of expectation. Richelieu
had never been menaced with a greater danger, and the loss of the battle
of Marfee would have proved a fatal event had not the Count de Soissons
met his death simultaneously with his triumph.

If Mdme. de Chevreuse were a stranger in 1642 to the fresh conspiracy of
Gaston, Duke d'Orleans, Cinq Mars, and the Duke de Bouillon against her
relentless foe, it would have been the only one in which she had not
taken a leading part. It is indeed more than probable that she was in
the secret as well as Queen Anne, whose understanding with Gaston and
Cinq Mars cannot be contested. La Rochefoucauld repeatedly remarks
touching a matter in which he seems to have been implicated, "The
dazzling reputation of M. le Grand (Cinq Mars) rekindled the hopes of
the discontented; the Queen and the Duke d'Orleans united with him; the
Duke de Bouillon and several persons of quality did the same." De
Bouillon also declares that the Queen was closely allied with Gaston and
the Grand-Ecuyer, and that she herself had invited his concurrence. "The
Queen, whom the Cardinal had persecuted in such a variety of ways, did
not doubt that, if the King should chance to die, that minister would
seek to deprive her of her children, in order to assume the Regency
himself. She secretly instigated De Thou to seek the Duke de Bouillon
with persevering entreaties. She asked the latter whether, in the event
of the King's death, he would promise to receive her and her two
children in his stronghold of Sedan, believing--so firmly persuaded was
she of the evil designs of the Cardinal, and of his power--that there
was no other place of safety for them throughout the realm of France."
De Thou further told the Duke de Bouillon that since the King's illness
the Queen and the Duke d'Orleans were very closely allied, and that it
was through Cinq Mars that their alliance had been brought about. Now,
where the Queen was so deeply implicated it was not likely that Mdme. de
Chevreuse would stand aloof. A friend of Richelieu, whose name has not
come down to us, but who must have been perfectly well informed, does
not hesitate to place Mdme. de Chevreuse as well as the Queen amongst
those who then endeavoured to overthrow Richelieu. "M. le Grand," he
writes to the Cardinal,[5] "has been urged to his wicked designs by the
Queen-mother, by her daughter (Henrietta Maria), by