ent of the Regency, as well as to those incipient _Frondeurs_,
the _Importants_, at the moment of her dragging the Prince de Marsillac
(afterwards Duke de Rochefoucauld) into that party.

CHAPTER III.

THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE.

FROM the long-sustained, vigorous, and very eminent part played by Marie
de Rohan in opposing the repressive system of the two great Cardinal
Ministers, her name belongs equally to the political history as to that
of the society and manners of the first half of the sixteenth century.

She came of that old and illustrious race the issue of the first princes
of Brittany, and was the daughter of Hercule de Rohan, Duke de
Montbazon, a zealous servant of Henry IV., by his first wife Madeleine
de Lenoncourt, sister of Urbain de Laval, Marshal de Bois-Dauphin. Born
in December, 1600, she lost her mother at a very early age, and in 1617
was married to that audacious favourite of Louis XIII., De Luynes, who
from the humble office of "bird-catcher" to the young King, rose to the
proud dignity of Constable of France, and who, upon the faith of a
king's capricious friendship, dared to undertake the reversal of the
Queen-mother, Marie de' Medici's authority; hurl to destruction her
great favourite, the Marshal d'Ancre; combat simultaneously princes and
Protestants, and commence against Richelieu the system of Richelieu.
Early becoming a widow, Marie next, in 1622, entered the house of
Lorraine by espousing Claude, Duke de Chevreuse, one of the sons of
Henry de Guise, great Chamberlain of France, whose highest merit was the
name he bore, accompanied by good looks and that bravery which was
never wanting to a prince of Lorraine; otherwise disorderly in the
conduct of his affairs, of not very edifying manner of life, which may
go far to explain and extenuate the errors of his young wife. The new
Duchess de Chevreuse had been appointed during the sway of her first
husband, _surintendante_ (controller) of the Queen's household, and soon
became as great a favourite of Anne of Austria as the Constable de
Luynes was of Louis _the Just_. The French Court was then very
brilliant, and gallantry the order of the day. Marie de Rohan was
naturally vivacious and dashing, and, yielding herself up to the
seductions of youth and pleasure, she had lovers, and her adorers drew
her into politics. Her beauty and captivating manners were such as to
fascinate and enthral the least impressible who crossed her path, and