ock at night was of Chinese
taffeta, not at all the thing for winter furniture. I slept very well,
which must not be attributed to stout-heartedness, because misfortune has
naturally that effect upon me. I have on more than one occasion
discovered that it wakes me in the morning and sends me to sleep at
night. I was obliged to get up the next day without a fire, because
there was no wood to make one, and the three exons who had been posted
near me had the kindness to assure me that I should not be without it the
next day. He who remained alone on guard over me took it for himself,
and I was a whole fortnight, at Christmas, in a room as big as a church,
without warming myself. I do not believe that there could be found under
heaven another man like this exon. He stole my linen, my clothes, my
boots, and I was sometimes obliged to stay in bed eight or ten days for
lack of anything to put on. I could not believe that I was subjected to
such treatment without orders from some superior, and without some mad
notion of making me die of vexation. I fortified myself against that
notion, and I resolved at any rate not to die that kind of death. At
last I got him into the habit of not tormenting me any more, by dint of
letting him see that I did not torment myself at all. In point of fact I
had risen pretty nearly superior to all these ruses, for which I had a
supreme contempt; but I could not assume the same loftiness of spirit in
respect of the prison's entity (substance), if one may use the term, and
the sight of myself, every morning when I awoke, in the hands of my
enemies made me perceive that I was anything rather than a stoic."
The Archbishop of Paris had just died, and the dignity passed to his
coadjutor; as the price of his release, Mazarin demanded his resignation.
The clergy of Paris were highly indignant; Cardinal de Retz was removed
to the castle of Nantes, whence he managed to make his escape in August,
1653; for nine years he lived abroad, in Spain, Italy, and Germany,
everywhere mingling in the affairs of Europe, engaged in intrigue, and
not without influence; when at last he returned to France, in 1662, he
resigned the archbishopric of Paris, and established himself in the
principality of Commercy, which belonged to him, occupied up to the day
of his death in paying his debts, doing good to his friends and servants,
writing his memoirs, and making his peace with God. This was in those
days a solicitude w