servants of the queen without being of the Vendôme cabal; such as the Marquis de Liancourt, the Marquis de Mortemart, Beringhen, and Lord Montague, an Englishman whom the queen had known in the days of Buckingham, and who retained a familiarity with her. The first two were recommended by the regard the late king had felt for them, and the last two by the confidence the queen reposed in them. They were all former courtiers who esteemed Cardinal Mazarin, having known him long before in France with Cardinal Richelieu, and they now gave all their attention to persuading the queen of his ability. They had not much trouble in succeeding, for the queen was already disgusted with the Bishop of Beauvais, so much so that by her own inclination she was quite disposed to make use of the cardinal, whose wit and person pleased her in the first conversation she had with him. During the life of the late king she had quite often signified, in speaking of Cardinal Mazarin, that she esteemed him, and to those in whom she confided she declared she was not sorry to see him in order to inform herself about foreign affairs, of which he had a perfect knowledge, and in which the late king had employed him. Following, therefore, her personal sentiments, the advice of some of her best servants, and the desire of the Duc d'Orléans and the Prince de Condé who declared they esteemed him, she willingly gave him her confidence, yielded her authority to him, and allowed him to acquire within a few days the highest degree of favour in her heart, while those who believed they possessed it solely never imagined that he dared to even think of it.
This insinuating process was so easily carried on in the soul of the queen that the cardinal became in short time master of the council, the Bishop of Beauvais diminishing in power in proportion as that of his competitor increased;
