r festivities, for their
diminished numbers. There were balls and tournaments, where the dress
and customs of the by-gone ages of chivalry were revived. Ladies of
illustrious birth, glittering in jewels, and proud in conscious
beauty, contributed to the gorgeousness of the spectacle. Still, in
the midst of all this splendor, the impoverished court was greatly
embarrassed by straitened circumstances.

Cardinal Mazarin, eager to retain his hold upon the king, did
everything he could to gratify the love of pleasure which his royal
master developed, and strove to multiply seductive amusements to
engross his time and thoughts.

But a few days after Cardinal de Retz had been conducted a prisoner to
Vincennes, his uncle, the Archbishop of Paris, died. The cardinal
could legally claim the succession. The metropolitan clergy, who had
been almost roused to rebellion by his arrest, were now still more
deeply moved, since he had become their archbishop. They regarded his
captivity as political martyrdom, and their murmurs were deep and
prolonged. The pope also addressed several letters to the court,
soliciting the liberation of his cardinal. The excitement daily
increased. Nearly all the pulpits more or less openly denounced his
captivity. At length a pamphlet appeared urging the clergy to close
all their churches till their archbishop should be released.

Mazarin was frightened. He sent an envoy to the captive cardinal
presenting terms of compromise. We have not space to describe the
diplomacy which ensued, but the conference was unavailing. The
cardinal was soon after removed, under an escort of dragoons, to the
fortress of Nantes. From this place he almost miraculously escaped to
his own territory of Retz, where he was regarded as sovereign, and
where he was surrounded by retainers who, in impregnable castles,
would fight to the death for their lord. These scenes took place early
in the summer of 1653.

In the mean time, the young king was amusing himself in his various
palaces with the many beautiful young ladies who embellished his
court. Like other lads of fifteen, he was in the habit of falling in
love with one and another, though the transient passion did not seem
very deeply to affect his heart. Some of these maidens were
exceedingly beautiful. In others, vivacity and intellectual brilliance
quite eclipsed the charms of the highest physical loveliness.

Anne of Austria, forgetting that the all-dominant passion of lov