CHAPTER LIV.

The Chevalier de Rohan.--He is Born Too Late.--His Debts.--Messina Ceded
to the French.--The King of Spain Meditates Revenge.--The Comte de
Monterey.--Madame de Villars as Conspirator.--The Picpus
Schoolmaster.--The Plot Fails.--Discovery and Retribution.--Madame de
Soubise's Indifference to the Chevalier's Fate.

Had he been born fifty or sixty years earlier, the Chevalier de Rohan
might have played a great part. He was one of those men, devoid of
restraint and of principle, who love pleasure above all things, and who
would sacrifice their honour, their peace of mind, aye, even the State
itself, if such a sacrifice were really needed, in order to attain their
own personal enjoyment and satisfaction.

The year before, he once invited himself to dinner at my private
residence at Saint Germain, and he then gave me the impression of being a
madman, or a would-be conspirator. My sister De Thianges noticed the
same thing, too.

The Chevalier had squandered his fortune five or six years previously;
his bills were innumerable.

Each day he sank deeper into debt, and the King remarked, "The Chevalier
de Rohan will come to a bad end; it will never do to go on as he does."

Instead of keeping an eye upon him, and affectionately asking him to
respect his family's honour, the Prince and Princesse de Soubise made as
if it were their duty to ignore him and blush for him.

Profligacy, debts, and despair drove this unfortunate nobleman to make a
resolve such as might never be expected of any high-born gentleman.

Discontented with their governor, Don Diego de Soria, the inhabitants of
Messina had just shaken off the Spanish yoke, and had surrendered to the
King of France, who proffered protection and help.

Such conduct on the part of the French Government seemed to the King of
Spain most disloyal, and he desired nothing better than to revenge
himself. This is how he set about it.

On occasions of this kind it is always the crafty who are sought out for
such work. Comte de Monterey was instructed to sound the Chevalier de
Rohan upon the subject, offering him safety and a fortune as his reward.
Pressed into their service there was also the Marquise de Villars,--a
frantic gambler, a creature bereft of all principle and all modesty,--to
whom a sum of twenty thousand crowns in cash was paid over beforehand,
with the promise of a million directly success was ensured. She
undertook to manage Rohan and tell him wh