hat which she could not prevent, she
asked as an especial favour that the Duchess might be estranged from her
person, and even from France. "The Queen," wrote Chavigny, Richelieu's
Minister for Foreign Affairs, "has pointedly asked me if it were true
that Mdme. de Chevreuse would return; and, without waiting for a reply,
she signified to me that she should be vexed to find her presently in
France; that she now saw the Duchess in her proper light; and she
commanded me to pray His Eminence on her part, if he had any mind to
favour Mdme. de Chevreuse, that it might be done without granting her
permission to return to France. I assured her Majesty that she should
have satisfaction on that point."[7]

[7] Archives des Affaires Etrangeres, FRANCE, tom. CI.

Poor Marie de Rohan! Her heart already bled from many wounds, but this
last was the "unkindest cut of all." Her position had indeed become
frightful, and calculated to sink her to the lowest depth of despair. No
hope of seeing her native land again, her princely chateau, her
children, her favourite daughter Charlotte! Deriving scarcely anything
from France, deeply in debt, and with credit exhausted, she found
herself entirely at the end of her resources. How thoroughly did the
banished woman then realise the woes of exile--how hard it is to climb
and descend the stranger's stair, experience the hollowness of his
promise, and the arrogance of his commiseration. And, finally, as though
fated to drain her cup of bitterness to the last drop, to learn that
she, her long-loved bosom friend and royal mistress, who owed her, at
the very least, a silent fidelity, had openly ranged herself on the side
of fortune and Richelieu!

In a condition of mental torture the most acute, resulting from such
accumulated misfortune, Madame de Chevreuse remained for several months
with no other support than that of her innate high-souled courage. At
length, towards the close of that eventful year, the golden grooves of
change rung out a joyous paean to gladden the heart of the much-enduring
exile. Suddenly Marie--all Europe--heard with a throb that the
inscrutable, iron-handed man of all the human race most dreaded alike by
States as by individuals, had yielded to a stronger power than his own,
and had closed his eyes in death (December 4, 1642). Within a few short
months afterwards the King also, whose regal power he had consolidated
at such a cost in blood and suffering, followed the great