tion, they rather elevate it, and they are assiduous to cover her
faults and misconduct--faults which, after all, are centred in one
alone. In short, some writers cast the greater part of the blame the
young Duchess's conduct merits upon her husband, who, according to them,
knew not how to make amends for his own disadvantage, on the score of
disparity of age, by an anxious and indulgent tenderness.

Before their marriage was solemnised it was stipulated that the Duke de
Longueville should break off his _liaison_ with the Duchess de
Montbazon--then notorious as one of the most unrestrained among the
women of fashion at the Court of the Regent. This, however, the Duke
unhappily failed to do.

In declaring its adhesion to Mazarin at the commencement of the Regency,
the House of Conde had drawn upon itself the hatred of the party of the
_Importants_, though that enmity scarcely rebounded upon Madame de
Longueville. Her amiableness in everything where her heart was not
seriously concerned, her perfect indifference to politics at this period
of her life, together with the graces of her mind and person, rendered
her universally popular, and shielded her against the injustice of
partisan malice. But outside the pale of politics she had an enemy, and
a formidable one, in the Duchess de Montbazon. That bold and dangerous
woman having by her fascinations enslaved Beaufort, the quondam admirer
of Madame de Longueville, the young Duke through her intrigues became a
favourite chief of the _Importants_. Amongst the earliest to swell the
ranks of that faction were two other personages who had played a very
conspicuous part during the reign of Louis XIII. The first of these,
Madame de Montbazon's step-daughter, was the witty, beautiful, and
errant Duchess de Chevreuse, whom Louis had judged so dangerous that he
had expressly forbidden by his will, when on the point of death, that
she should ever be recalled from exile to Court. By the same prohibition
was affected the former Keeper of the Seals, the Marquis de Chateauneuf,
who had displayed considerable talent under Richelieu, but had
ultimately made himself obnoxious to that great Minister, after having
given many a sanguinary proof of his devotion to him. A glance at the
antecedents of that remarkable woman, Madame de Chevreuse, the early
favourite of Anne of Austria, will now be necessary in order to
understand clearly her relative position to the Queen and Mazarin at the
commencem