The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz — Complete [Historic court memoirs] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 359 pages of information about The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz — Complete [Historic court memoirs].

The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz — Complete [Historic court memoirs] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 359 pages of information about The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz — Complete [Historic court memoirs].

On the 17th the Parliament ordered the thanks of the House to be returned to the Queen for removing the Cardinal, and that she should be humbly asked to issue an order for setting the Princes at liberty, and a declaration for excluding all foreigners forever from the King’s Council.  The First President being deputed with the message, the Queen told him that she could return him no answer till she had conferred with the Duc d’Orleans, to whom she immediately deputed the Keeper of the Seals, Marechal Villeroi, and Tellier; but he told them that he could not go to the Palais Royal till the Princes were set at liberty and the Cardinal removed further from the Court.  For he observed to the House that the Cardinal was no further off than at Saint Germain, where he governed all the kingdom as before, that his nephew and his nieces were yet at Court; and the Duke proposed that the Parliament should humbly beseech the Queen to explain whether the Cardinal’s removal was for good and all.  If I had not seen it, I could not have imagined what a heat the House was in that day.  Some were for an order that there should be no favourites in France for the future.  They became at length of the opinion of his Royal Highness, namely, to address the Queen to ask her to explain herself with relation to the removal of Cardinal Mazarin and to solicit orders for the liberty, of the Princes.

On the same day the Queen sent again to desire the Duc d’Orleans to come and take his place in the Council, and to tell him that, in case he did not think it convenient, she would send the Keeper of the Seals to concert necessary measures with him for setting the Princes at liberty.  His Royal Highness accepted the second, but rejected the first proposal, and treated M. d’Elbeuf roughly, because he was very pressing with his Royal Highness to go to the King’s Palace.  The messengers likewise acquainted the Duke that they were ordered to assure him that the removal of the Cardinal was forever.  You will see presently that, in all probability, had his Royal Highness gone that day to Court, the Queen would have left Paris and carried the Duke along with her.

On the 19th the Parliament decreed that, in pursuance of the Queen’s declaration, the Cardinal should, within the space of fifteen days, depart from his Majesty’s dominions, with all his relations and foreign servants; otherwise, they should be proceeded against as outlaws, and it should be lawful for anybody to despatch them out of the way.

I suspected that the King would leave Paris that very day, and I was almost asleep when I was sent for to go to the Duc d’Orleans, whom Mademoiselle de Chevreuse went to awaken in the meantime; and, while I was dressing, one of her pages brought me a note from her, containing only these few words: 

“Make haste to Luxembourg, and be upon your guard on the way.”  I found Mademoiselle de Chevreuse in his chamber, who acquainted me that the King was out of bed, and had his boots on ready for a journey from Paris.

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The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz — Complete [Historic court memoirs] from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.