e strenously opposed to the
domination of a foreign favourite, without fortune, of no birth, and as
yet without fame. The princes of the blood resigned themselves to
Mazarin rather than to liking him. The Duke d'Orleans was not remarkable
for great fidelity to his friends, and the politic Prince de Conde
looked twice ere he quarrelled with the successful. He coaxed all
parties, whilst he clung to his own interests. His son, doubtless, would
follow in his father's footsteps, and he would be won over by being
overwhelmed with honours. The day following that on which the blow
should be struck there would be no resistance to their ascendancy, and
on the very day itself scarcely any obstacle. The Italian regiments of
Mazarin were with the army; there were scarcely any other troops in
Paris save the regiments of the guards, the colonels of which were
nearly all devoted to the _Importants_. The Queen herself had not yet
renounced her former friendships. Her prudent reserve even was wrongly
interpreted. As it was her desire to appease and deal gently on all
hands, she gave kind words to everybody, and those kind words were taken
as tacit encouragement. Anne had not hitherto shown much firmness of
character; a certain amount of liking for the Cardinal was not unjustly
imputed to her, and undue significance already attributed to the
steadily increasing attachment of a few short months.

Mazarin, on his own part, indulged in no illusions. He was decidedly not
yet master of Anne of Austria's heart; since at that moment--that is to
say, during the month of July, 1643--in his most secret notes he
displays a deep inquietude and despondency. The dissimulation of which
everybody accused the Queen obviously terrified him, and we see him
passing through all the alternations of hope and fear. It is very
curious to trace and follow out the varied fluctuations of his mind. In
his official letters to ambassadors and generals he affects a security
which he does not feel. With his own intimate friends he permits some
hint of his perplexities to escape him, but in his private memoranda
they are all laid bare. We therein read his inmost carks and cares, and
his passionate entreaties that the Queen-Regent would open her mind to
him. He feigns the utmost disinterestedness towards her; he simply asks
to make way for Chateauneuf, if she has any secret preference for that
minister. The ambiguous conduct of the Regent harasses and distresses
him, and h