hatred for Cardinal Richelieu's administration. I was released in eight
days, and thought myself very fortunate to escape at a period when none
others were set at liberty.

But my disgrace was well repaid. The queen showed herself gratefully
aware of all that I had suffered in her service; Mademoiselle
d'Hautefort gave full expression to her esteem and friendship; and
Madame de Chevreuse was not less gracious. I enjoyed not only the favour
of those to whom I was attached, but also a certain approval which the
world is not slow to give to the unfortunate whose conduct has not
really been disgraceful. Under these conditions an exile of two or three
years from court was not intolerable. I was young; the king and the
cardinal were failing in health; I had everything to hope for from a
change. I was happy in my family, and enjoyed all the pleasures of
country life, and the neighbouring provinces were full of other exiles.

Cardinal Richelieu died on December 4, 1642. Although his enemies could
only rejoice at finding themselves free at last from so many
persecutions, the event has shown that the state could ill spare him. He
had made so many changes in public affairs that he alone was able to
direct them safely. No one before Richelieu had known all the power of
the kingdom, or had been able to gather it all up into the hands of the
sovereign. The severity of his adminstration had cost many lives; the
nobility had been humbled, and the common people had been loaded with
taxes; but the grandeur of his political designs, such as the taking of
La Rochelle, the destruction of the Huguenot party, and the weakening of
the house of Austria, no less than his intrepidity in carrying them out,
have secured for his memory a justly-merited fame.

_Under Mazarin's Rule_

I returned to Paris immediately after the death of Richelieu, thinking
that I might have occasion to serve the queen. In accordance with the
late cardinal's will, Cardinal Mazarin succeeded to his powers. The
king's state of health went from bad to worse, and the court was filled
with intrigues with regard to the regency which must so soon be
appointed. His death took place on May 14, 1643. The queen at once
brought her little son, Louis XIV., to Paris; two days later she was
declared regent in parliament; and the same evening, to the amazement of
his enemies, she appointed Cardinal Mazarin chief of the council.

Mazarin's mind was great, industrious, insinuating