he had reason to complain of her majesty, who alone hindered his wife from returning. The queen told him that he was very wrong in reproaching her;[1] that she loved Madame de Chevreuse and wished much to see her, but that she should never counsel her to return to France. It seemed to Madame de Chevreuse that Anne of Austria ought to be well informed; and she resolved to follow advice that came from so high a quarter. She would not accept the money of Richelieu, and wrote to him for the last time on the 16th of September, representing to him her uncertainty and embarrassment, and asking time to calm her fears. On the same day she announced her definitive resolution to her husband, to Dorat, and to Boispille: "I ardently desire," said she to her husband, "to see myself again in France in a position to retrieve our fortunes, and to live tranquilly with you and my children, but I see so much danger in going there, as I understand affairs, that I cannot now risk it, knowing that I can neither work to your advantage nor theirs, if I am in trouble. I must therefore patiently seek some safe road which will finally carry me there with that repose of mind which I cannot now find. . . . I have heard of very important charges against me, of which I am positively innocent,—as perhaps they know at this moment,—and of which appearances indicate that they wish to accuse me. I cannot explain myself more clearly on this point." To the Abbé du Dorat, she said: "I am astonished that any one can accuse me of feigning imaginary apprehensions as an excuse for staying from the enjoyment of my lawful property, instead of pitying me for the perplexity to which my unhappy fortune reduces me." To Boispille, she said: "Since your departure, I have had so many new proofs of the continuance of my misfortunes in the suspicions which he entertains of me, that it is impossible for me to resolve to return and expose myself
- ↑ Letter of the Abbé du Dorat to Richelieu, Manuscrits de Colbert fol. 47.
