day or other, Buckingham, who only continued in the Isle from
obstinacy, would be obliged to raise the siege.

But as M. de Toiras gave information that everything was preparing in
the enemy's camp for a fresh assault, the king judged that it would be
best to put an end to the affair, and gave the necessary orders for a
decisive action.

As it is not our intention to give a journal of the siege, but on the
contrary only to describe such of the events of it as are connected with
the story we are relating, we will content ourselves with saying in two
words that the expedition succeeded, to the great astonishment of the
king and the great glory of the cardinal. The English, repulsed foot by
foot, beaten in all encounters, and defeated in the passage of the Isle
of Loie, were obliged to re-embark, leaving on the field of battle two
thousand men, among whom were five colonels, three lieutenant colonels,
two hundred and fifty captains, twenty gentlemen of rank, four pieces
of cannon, and sixty flags, which were taken to Paris by Claude de St.
Simon, and suspended with great pomp in the arches of Notre Dame.

Te Deums were chanted in camp, and afterward throughout France.

The cardinal was left free to carry on the siege, without having, at
least at the present, anything to fear on the part of the English.

But it must be acknowledged, this response was but momentary. An envoy
of the Duke of Buckingham, named Montague, was taken, and proof was
obtained of a league between the German Empire, Spain, England, and
Lorraine. This league was directed against France.

Still further, in Buckingham's lodging, which he had been forced to
abandon more precipitately than he expected, papers were found which
confirmed this alliance and which, as the cardinal asserts in his
memoirs, strongly compromised Mme. de Chevreuse and consequently the
queen.

It was upon the cardinal that all the responsibility fell, for one is
not a despotic minister without responsibility. All, therefore, of the
vast resources of his genius were at work night and day, engaged in
listening to the least report heard in any of the great kingdoms of
Europe.

The cardinal was acquainted with the activity, and more particularly the
hatred, of Buckingham. If the league which threatened France triumphed,
all his influence would be lost. Spanish policy and Austrian policy
would have their representatives in the cabinet of the Louvre, where
they had as yet but parti