t being too generous to see Mazarin stabbed before his eyes
without defending him, and that the murder of Harcourt would raise
against them the entire house of Lorraine.

Some days afterwards information was given that the Cardinal was engaged
to dine at Maisons, with the Marshal d'Estrees, to meet the Duke
d'Orleans. "I made the Duke consent," says Campion, "that should the
minister be in the same carriage with his Royal Highness, the design
should not be executed; but he said, that if he were alone, he must be
killed. Early in the morning he had the horses out and kept himself in
readiness at the Capucins with Beaupuis, near the Hotel de Vendome,
posting a valet on foot in the street to tell him when the Cardinal
should pass, and enjoining me to keep with those whom I was accustomed
to muster at the Cabaret l'Ange, in the Rue Saint-Honore, very near the
Hotel de Vendome, and if the Cardinal journeyed without the Duke
d'Orleans, I should mount instantly with all my men, and intercept him
when passing the Capucins. I was," adds Campion, "in a state of anxiety
which may readily be imagined, until I saw the carriage of the Duke
d'Orleans pass, and perceived the Cardinal inside with him."

At length, Beaufort's irritation being carried to the highest pitch by
the banishment from court of Madame de Montbazon (which was certainly
on the 22nd of August), goaded by Madame de Chevreuse, by passion, and
by a false sense of honour, he became himself impatient to act. Seeing
that, during the day, he encountered incessant difficulties of which he
was far from divining the cause, he resolved to strike the blow at
night, and prepared an ambuscade, the success of which seemed certain,
and the details of which we have from Campion. The Cardinal went every
evening to visit the Queen, and returned sufficiently late. It was
arranged to attack him between the Louvre and the Hotel de Cleves.
Horses were to be in readiness in some neighbouring inn. The Duke
himself should keep watch with Beaupuis and Campion, during the time the
minister should be with the Queen, and so soon as he came forth, all
three should advance and make a signal to the rest, who, in the
meanwhile, should remain on horseback on the quay, by the river side,
close to the Louvre. All which could be very well done at night without
awakening any suspicion.

It must be remembered that the person who furnishes these very precise
details was one of the principal conspirators,