ted to carry out this order was a man such as those
whom Louis XI. had employed fifty years earlier to destroy the feudal
system, and Robespierre one hundred and fifty years later to destroy
the aristocracy. Every woodman needs an axe, every reaper a sickle,
and Richelieu found the instrument he required in de Laubardemont,
Councillor of State.

But he was an instrument full of intelligence, detecting by the manner
in which he was wielded the moving passion of the wielder, and adapting
his whole nature with marvellous dexterity to gratify that passion
according to the character of him whom it possessed; now by a rough
and ready impetuosity, now by a deliberate and hidden advance; equally
willing to strike with the sword or to poison by calumny, as the man who
moved him lusted for the blood or sought to accomplish the dishonour of
his victim.

M. de Laubardemont arrived at Loudun during the month of August 1633,
and in order to carry out his mission addressed himself to Sieur Memin
de Silly, prefect of the town, that old friend of the cardinal's whom
Mignon and Barre, as we have said, had impressed so favourably. Memin
saw in the arrival of Laubardemont a special intimation that it was the
will of Heaven that the seemingly lost cause of those in whom he took
such a warm interest should ultimately triumph. He presented Mignon
and all his friends to M. Laubardemont, who received them with much
cordiality. They talked of the mother superior, who was a relation, as
we have seen, of M. de Laubardemont, and exaggerated the insult offered
her by the decree of the archbishop, saying it was an affront to the
whole family; and before long the one thing alone which occupied the
thoughts of the conspirators and the councillor was how best to draw
down upon Grandier the anger of the cardinal-duke. A way soon opened.

The Queen mother, Marie de Medici, had among her attendants a woman
called Hammon, to whom, having once had occasion to speak, she had taken
a fancy, and given a post near her person. In consequence of this whim,
Hammon came to be regarded as a person of some importance in the queen's
household. Hammon was a native of Loudun, and had passed the greater
part of her youth there with her own people, who belonged to the lower
classes. Grandier had been her confessor, and she attended his church,
and as she was lively and clever he enjoyed talking to her, so that at
length an intimacy sprang up between them. It so happened