various
intrigues. With her De Retz treated directly, and in the whole course of
the negotiations she displayed a degree of penetration which baffled all
the subtlety of the Coadjutor; and while she foiled his devices against
herself, she directed them aright against their mutual opponents. By her
activity and energy five or six separate treaties were drawn up and
signed between the different personages whose interests were concerned,
each in general ignorant of his comrade's participation.

It would be presumptuous in any way to attempt, after Bossuet, a perfect
portraiture of this lady, but it may be interesting to glance at the
antecedents of her life up to this period.

Charles de Gonzagua-Cleves, Duke of Mantua and Nevers, had, by his
marriage with Catherine of Lorraine, three daughters: the oldest, Maria,
whom he preferred to the others, or rather that his pride sought to
elevate her alone to the highest destiny possible, was married
successively to two Kings of Poland, Ladislas Sigismond and Jean
Casimir. The second, Anne, who, as the Princess Palatine, became the
political opponent of Mazarin; and the third, Benedicte, who took the
veil and died whilst yet very young at the steps of the altar. It is the
romantic, agitated, and changeful existence of the second with which we
are concerned: passed in tumult and ended in silence. In it may be found
the invaluable lesson of that admirable antithesis afforded by error and
repentance. Bossuet, in his eloquent, fervent oration upon the life of
that princess, was enabled to derive from a contemplation of it the
highest instruction. He has therein retraced, with an imposing
authority, the errors of a woman exclusively engrossed, during many
years, with worldly interests and earthly vanities, and also made the
emphatic denial that, in their last hours, such awakened minds but
rarely give themselves up without profound anguish, fitful emotion, and
mortal struggle to the contemplation of imperishable joys. Anne de
Gonzagua experienced those extremes. She passed from incredulity and an
irregular life to the most lively faith and exemplary conduct.
Captivated in turn by earth and heaven, worldly and scorning the world,
sceptical and fervent, she had long centred her pride and happiness in
the political affairs of her epoch, until the day came when, wearied
with ephemeral pleasures and touched by grace, she finally renounced the
things of this life and gave herself wholly up