THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE DRIVEN INTO EXILE FOR THE THIRD TIME.
WHEN in the summer of 1644, the Queen of England, the fugitive consort
of Charles I., sought an asylum in France from the fury of the English
parliamentarians, and went to drink the Bourbon waters, Madame de
Chevreuse eagerly desired to see once more that illustrious princess,
who had so warmly welcomed her when herself an exile, at the Court of
St. James's. Queen Henrietta, too, who like her mother, Marie de'
Medici, as well as the Duchess, was of the Spanish and Catholic party,
would have been delighted to have mingled her tears with those of so old
and faithful a friend. But the royal exile did not deem it right to give
way to her inclination without Queen Anne's permission, who at that
moment was according her such noble hospitality. Anne of Austria
politely replied that the Queen, her sister, was perfectly free to act
as she chose; but it was intimated to her, through the Chevalier de
Jars, that it was inexpedient to receive the visit of a person who,
through misguided conduct, had forfeited Her Majesty's favour. This
fresh disgrace, added to so many others, increased the Duchess's
irritation to the highest pitch. She redoubled her efforts to break the
yoke that oppressed her. Mazarin watched and was made acquainted with
all her manoeuvres. He had the comptroller of her household arrested
in Paris, and shortly afterwards even her physician, whilst accompanying
Madame de Chevreuse's daughter in her carriage for an airing. The
Duchess complained bitterly of this latter proceeding in a letter which
she contrived to have handed to the Queen. She asserted that
Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was forced to quit the vehicle, two archers
levelling their pistols at her breast, and shouting all the
while--"Fire! fire!" and they threatened, after the same fashion, the
female attendants who were with her. At the same time that she protested
her own innocence, she did not fail to challenge Anne's sense of
justice, with a view to neutralize the enmity of Mazarin. But the
physician whom he had had arrested, on being flung into the Bastile,
made avowals which opened up traces of very grave matters; and an exempt
of the King's guards was despatched to Madame de Chevreuse with an order
commanding her to retire to Angouleme, and the officer was even charged
to convey her thither. At Angouleme was that strong fortress used as a
state prison, in which her friend Chateauneuf had been confined on her
account for ten long years. This reminiscence, ever present to the
Duchess's imagination, terrified her sorely. She dreaded lest it should
be the same sort of _retreat_ which they now intended for her; and the
active-minded woman, preferring every kind of extremity to being
imprisoned, decided upon renewing the career of a wanderer and an
adventurer, as in 1637, and to tread for the third time the wearisome
paths of exile.
But how greatly were circumstances then changed around her, and how
changed was she also herself! Her first exile from France in 1626, had
proved one continuous triumph. Young, lovely, and adored by every one,
she had quitted Nancy, leaving the Duke de Lorraine a slave
henceforward to the sway of her charms, only to return to Paris and
trouble the mind of the stony, impassive Richelieu. In 1637 her flight
into Spain had, on the contrary, proved a most severe trial to her. She
had been forced to traverse the whole of France disguised in male
attire, brave more than one danger, endure much suffering and privation,
only to struggle in the sequel with five consecutive years of fruitless
agitation. But, at any rate, she then had youth to back her, and the
consciousness of the power of that irresistible fascination which
procured her adorers and suitors wherever she wandered, even among the
occupants of thrones. She had faith likewise in the Queen's friendship,
and a firm reliance that the time would come when that friendship would
repay her for all her devotedness. But now age she felt was creeping
upon her; her beauty, verging towards its decline, promised her
henceforward conquests only few and far between. She perceived that in
losing her power over Anne of Austria's heart, she had lost the greater
portion of her prestige both in France and Europe. The flight of the
Duke de Vendome, shortly about to be followed by that of the Duke de
Bouillon, left the _Importants_ without any chief of note. The Duchess
had found Mazarin to be quite as skilful and formidable an enemy as
Richelieu. Victory seemed to have entered into a compact with him. De
Bouillon's own brother, Turenne, solicited the honour of serving him,
and the young Duke d'Enghien won battle after battle for him. She knew
also that the Cardinal had that in his hands wherewith he could condemn
and sentence her to incarceration for the rest of her days. When,
however, almost every one forsook her, this extraordinary woman did not
give way to self-abandonment. As soon as the exempt Riquetti had
signified to her the order of which he was the bearer, she adopted
measures with her accustomed promptitude, and, accompanied by her
daughter Charlotte, who had hastened to her mother and refused to quit
her, she succeeded in reaching by cross-roads the thickets of La Vendee
and the solitudes of Brittany; until, approaching within a few leagues
of St.-Malo, she solicited an asylum at the hands of the Marquis de
Coetquen. That noble and generous Breton gave her the hospitality which
was due to such a woman struggling against such adversity. Marie de
Rohan did not abuse it; and after placing her jewels in his hands for
safety, as she had formerly done in those of La Rochefoucauld,[1] she
embarked with her daughter in the depth of winter at St.-Malo, on board
a small vessel bound for Dartmouth, whence she purposed crossing over to
Dunkirk and entering Flanders. But the English parliamentarian
men-of-war were cruising in the Channel. They fell in with and captured
the wretched little bark, and carried her into the Isle of Wight. There
Madame de Chevreuse was recognised; and as she was known to be a friend
of the Queen of England, the Roundheads were not loth to subject her to
sufficiently rough treatment; and afterwards hand her over to Mazarin.
Fortunately, in the Governor of the Isle of Wight, she met with the
Earl of Pembroke, whom she had formerly known. The Duchess appealed to
his courtesy,[2] and thanks to his good offices, she obtained--but with
no little difficulty--passports which permitted her to gain Dunkirk, and
thence the Spanish Low Countries.
[1] Subsequently, she requested the Marquis de Coetquen to hand over
her jewels to Montresor, who transferred them to a messenger of the
Duchess. But Mazarin was informed of everything from first to last.
He was aware of every tittle of the Duchess's correspondence, and
tried to seize with the strong hand the famous gems which had
formerly belonged to Marie de' Medicis' favourite foster-sister,
Leonora Galligai, created Marchioness d'Ancre. On the murder of the
Marshal d'Ancre, these diamonds and _parures_, valued at two hundred
thousand crowns, with a vast amount of other property confiscated by
an edict of Louis XIII., were bestowed by the king on his lucky
favourite, De Luynes, the first husband of Marie de Rohan. Failing
in his attempt to possess himself of these costly gems, Mazarin
arrested Montresor, and kept him upwards of a year in prison. See
"Memoirs of Montresor."
[2] See her letter to the Earl of Pembroke, dated Isle of Wight,
29th April, 1645, in "Archives des Affaires Etrangeres, France," t.
cvi. p. 162.
The adventurous exile took up her abode for a short time at Liege, and
applied herself to maintain and consolidate to the utmost degree
possible between Spain, Austria, and the Duke de Lorraine, an alliance,
which was the final resource of the _Importants_, and the last basis of
her own political reputation and high standing. Mazarin, however, having
got the upper hand, resumed all Richelieu's designs, and, like him, made
strenuous efforts to detach Lorraine from his two allies. The gay Duke
was then madly enamoured of the fair Beatrice de Cusance, Princess of
Cantecroix. Mazarin laboured to gain over the lady, and he proposed to
the ambitious and enterprising Charles IV. to break with Spain and march
into Franche-Comte with the aid of France, promising to leave him in
possession of all he might conquer. The Cardinal succeeded in winning
over to his interest Duke Charles's own sister (the former mistress of
Puylaurens), the Princess de Phalzbourg, then greatly fallen from her
former "high estate," and who gave him secret and faithful account of
all that passed in her brother's immediate circle. Mazarin required of
her especially to keep him apprised of Madame de Chevreuse's slightest
movement. He knew that she was in correspondence with the Duke de
Bouillon, that she disposed of the Imperial general Piccolomini by means
of her friend Madame de' Strozzi, and even that she had preserved
intact her sway over the Duke de Lorraine, in spite of the charms of the
fair Beatrice. By the help of the Princess de Phalzbourg he watched
every step, and disputed with her, foot to foot, possession of the
fickle Charles IV., sometimes the victor, but very often the vanquished
in this mysterious struggle.
The advantage remained with Madame de Chevreuse. Her ascendancy over
Charles IV.--the offspring of love, surviving that passion, but more
potent than all the later loves of that inconstant Prince--retained him
in alliance with Spain, and frustrated Mazarin's projects. By degrees
she became once more the soul of every intrigue planned against the
French Government. She did not always attack it from without, but
fostered internal difficulties, which, like the heads of the hydra, were
unceasingly springing forth. Surrounded by a knot of ardent and
obstinate emigrants, among others by the Count de Saint-Ybar, one of the
most resolute men of the party, she kept up the spirits of the remnant
of the _Importants_ left in France, and everywhere added fuel to the
fire of sedition. Actuated by strong passion, yet mistress of herself,
she preserved a calm brow amidst the wrack of the tempest, at the same
time that she displayed an indefatigable activity in surprising the
enemy on his weak side. Making use alike of the Catholic and the
Protestant party, at times she meditated a revolt in Languedoc, or a
descent upon Brittany; at others, on the slightest symptom of discontent
betrayed by some person of importance, she laboured to drive out
Mazarin.