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16
SECRET HISTORY OF THE FRENCH COURT
sages to all the interested parties, was Lord Montagu, an intimate friend of Holland and of Buckingham, who, it is said, also suffered himself to be captivated by the charms of Madame de Chevreuse.
Richelieu, forewarned by his own sagacity, and by his police, watched all the movements of Montagu, dared to cause his arrest on the Lorraine territory,[1] seized his papers, discovered the whole conspiracy, and faced it with his accustomed vigor. The principal attack upon the Isle of Ré was foiled, and Buckingham forced to an ignominious retreat. La Rochelle soon after yielded to the perseverance
- ↑ Queen Anne was so deeply involved in this intrigue, that she trembled for her own safety when news of the arrest of Montagu reached her, and she could not rest until she was well assured that she was not named in the papers of the prisoner, and would not be mentioned in his examination. La Porte, Memoires, p. 304: "The news of the arrest of Lord Montagu threw the queen into the greatest anxiety. She feared that she was named in his papers, and that when this came to the ears of the king, with whom she did not live on very good terms, he would treat her harshly and send her to Spain, as he assuredly would have done. So great was her disquietude, that she neither ate nor slept. In this embarrassment she recollected that I was in a company of gendarmes which belonged to the troops appointed to attend Lord Montagu. She therefore inquired for me of Lavau, who found me and conducted me after midnight to the chamber of the queen, whence all had withdrawn. She told me of her anxiety, and that, having no person in whom she could confide, she had sought me, believing that I would serve her from affection and with fidelity, and that her safety or destruction depended on the news which I should bring to her. She told me the whole affair, and said that I must endeavor in my attendance on Lord Montagu, to speak to him and to learn whether she was named in the papers which had been taken, and whether, in the event of his being examined while in the Bastille, and urged to reveal the confederates of this league, he would refrain from naming her.… I related the trouble of the queen to Lord Montagu, who replied that she was neither directly nor indirectly named in the papers, and assured me that, if he were questioned, he would die rather than say aught that might injure her. La Porte says that when he brought back this answer to the queen, she danced for joy.
