The King thereupon acceded to the churchman’s wishes, who lost no time in acquainting the patient with her doom.

Anne of Austria was grievously shocked at so terrible an announcement, but she soon recovered her resignation and her courage; and M. d’ Auch made noble use of his eloquence when exhorting her to prepare for the change that she dreaded.

A portable altar was put up in the room, and the Archbishop, assisted by other clerics, went to fetch the Holy Sacrament from the church of Saint Germain de l’Auxerrois in the Louvre parish.

The princes and princesses hereupon began to argue in the little closet as to the proper ceremony to be observed on such occasions.  Madame de Motteville, lady-in-waiting to the Queen, being asked to give an opinion, replied that, for the late King, the nobles had gone out to meet the Holy Sacrament as far as the outer gate of the palace, and that it would be wise to do this on the present occasion.

Mademoiselle de Montpensier interrupted the lady-in-waiting and those who shared her opinion.  “I cannot bring myself to establish such a precedent,” she said, in her usual haughty tone.  “It is I who have to walk first, and I shall only go half-way across the courtyard of the Louvre.  It’s quite far enough for the Holy Wafer-box; what’s the use of walking any further for the Holy Sacrament?”

The princes and princesses were of her way of thinking, and the procession advanced only to the limits aforesaid.

When the time came for taking the Sacred Heart to Val-de-Grace with the funeral procession, Mademoiselle, in a long mourning cloak, said to the Archbishop before everybody, “Pray, monsieur, put the Sacred Heart in the best place, and sit you close beside it.  I yield my rank up to you on the present occasion.”  And, as the prelate protested, she added, “I shall be very willing to ride in front on account of the malady from which she died.”  And, without altering her resolution, she actually took her seat in front.

CHAPTER VIII.

Cardinal Mazarin.—­Regency of Anne of Austria.—­Her Perseverance in
Retaining Her Minister.—­Mazarin Gives His Nieces in Marriage.—­M. de la
Meilleraye.—­The Cardinal’s Festivities.—­Madame de Montespan’s Luck at a
Lottery.

Before taking holy orders, Cardinal Mazarin had served as an officer in the Spanish army, where he had even won distinction.

Coming to France in the train of a Roman cardinal, he took service with Richelieu, who, remarking in him all the qualities of a supple, insinuating, artificial nature,—­that is to say, the nature of a good politician,—­appointed him his private secretary, and entrusted him with all his secrets, as if he had singled him out as his successor.

Upon the death of Richelieu, Mazarin did not scruple to avow that the great Armand’s sceptre had been a tyrant’s sceptre and of bronze.  By such an admission he crept into the good graces of Louis XIII., who, himself almost moribund, had shown how pleased he was to see his chief minister go before him to the grave.