he Duke de Vendome, La Vieuville, and La
Valette, a faction of active and adroit emigrants, who, leaning on the
Earl of Holland, then one of the chiefs of the Royalist party and a
general in the army of Charles of England; upon Lord Montagu, an ardent
Papist and intimate adviser of Queen Henrietta Maria; upon Digby and
other men of influence at Court, maintained likewise the closest
intelligence with the Court of Rome through its envoy in England,
Rosetti, and especially with the Cabinet of Madrid; encouraging and
kindling the hopes of all the proscribed and discontented, strewing
obstacles at all points in the path of Richelieu, and accumulating
formidable perils around his head.

On the breaking out of the Civil War in England, Mdme. de Chevreuse
repaired to Brussels, where in 1641 we find her acting as the connecting
link between England, Spain, and Lorraine. Without attributing to the
Duchess any especial motive beyond seconding an enterprise directed
against the common enemy, she did not the less play an important part in
the affair of the Count de Soissons--the most formidable conspiracy that
had hitherto been hatched against Richelieu. Anne of Austria was
certainly privy to the plot and lent it her aid. She might have been
ignorant of the secret treaty with Spain; but for all the rest, and so
far as it menaced the Cardinal, she had a perfect understanding with the
conspirators. That high-handed Minister, by overstraining the springs of
government, by prolonging the war, by increasing the public expenditure,
and by oppressing all classes whilst he crushed some in particular, had
excited a hatred so bitter and widespread that at length he governed the
State almost entirely through terror. Whilst the grandeur of his designs
commanded respect and veneration from a select few, his genius towered
above the bulk of his countrymen. But that harsh rule, continuing
unrelaxed, and so many sacrifices being perpetually renewed, at length
wearied out the greater number, the King himself not excepted. Louis's
reigning favourite, the Grand-Ecuyer, Cinq Mars, undermined and
blackened the Cardinal as much as possible in his royal master's
estimation. He knew of the conspiracy of the Count de Soissons, and
without taking a share in it, he favoured it. He might therefore be
reckoned upon to figure in the next. The Queen, still in disgrace in
spite of the two heirs she had given to the crown, naturally breathed
vows for the terminati