s wish should be continued by
Richelieu's successor. "Forasmuch," ran the will, "that for weighty
reasons, important to the welfare of our State, we found ourselves
compelled to deprive the Sieur de Chateauneuf of the post of Keeper of
the Seals of France, and have him sent to the Castle of Angouleme, in
which he has remained by our command up to the present time, we will and
intend that the said Sieur de Chateauneuf remain in the same state in
which he is at present, in the said Castle of Angouleme, until after the
peace be concluded and executed; under charge, nevertheless, that he
shall not then be set at liberty save by the order of the Queen-Regent,
under the advice of her Council, which shall appoint a place to which he
shall retire, within the realm or without the realm, as may be judged
best. And as our design is to take foresight of all such subjects as may
possibly in some way or other disturb the precautionary arrangements
which we have made to preserve the repose and safety of our realm, the
knowledge that we have of the bad conduct of the Lady Duchess de
Chevreuse, of the artifices which she has employed up to this moment
without the kingdom with our enemies, made us judge it fitting to forbid
her, as we do, entrance into our kingdom during the war: desiring even
that after the peace be concluded and executed she may not return into
our kingdom, save only under the orders of the said Lady Queen-Regent,
with the advice of the said Council, under charge, nevertheless, that
she shall not either take up her abode or be in any place near to the
Court or to the said Queen-Regent."

Within a few days only after the decease of Louis XIII. that same
Parliament which had enrolled his will reformed it. The Queen-Regent was
freed from every fetter and restriction, and invested with almost
absolute sovereignty; the ban was removed from the proscribed couple so
solemnly denounced, Chateauneuf's prison doors were thrown open, and
Madame de Chevreuse quitted Brussels triumphantly, with a cortege of
twenty carriages, filled with lords and ladies of the highest rank in
that Court, to return once more to France and to the side of her royal
friend and mistress.

CHAPTER IV.

RETURN OF MADAME DE CHEVREUSE TO COURT.

AFTER ten years' absence from the scene of her former triumphs, social
and political, did the brilliant Duchess then once more find herself
safe and free in France. The _Gazette de Renaudot_--the _Moni