THE HISTORY OF FRANCE. CHAPTER I. BRANCH OF THE VALOIS BOURBON. Section I. LOUIS XIV. THE reign of Louis XIV. may be divided into three periods: the first, comprehending the king's minority, and the government of Cardinal Mazarinthe second, from the death of Mazarin to that of Colbert-and the third, from the death of Colbert to that of Louis himself. The King's Minority, and the Government of Mazarin. While yet Louis XIII. was living, Anne of Austria exhibited an indecent haste to usurp authority. She taught her son also, a child only five years of age, the first principles of ambition. Being brought to his father's bedside, the languid monarch interrogated him concerning his name. "Louis the Fourteenth," replied the child; showing himself alive, thus early, to the honours of this world. After the death of her husband, the first measure of the queen regent, was to shake off the restraint of the council, imposed upon her by his last will. The courtiers moved by self-interest, and the people sympathising with her emancipation from a state of exclusion, assisted her in this measure. The monarch's will was set aside without difficulty by the parliament, and surrounded by the duke of Vendome, his son, the duke of Beaufort, and by the duke of Orleans himself, Anne of Austria was enabled to assume, not only the name, but the authority of regent. By this obsequious act of the parliament, Mazarin and the prince of Condé were powerless. The former, who was an Italian ecclesiastic, of mean birth, prepared for retiring into Italy, judging, from the known opposition of the queen regent to Richelieu, that she would follow a line of policy essentially different, and that, therefore, his services would not be required. He was mistaken. No sooner did Anne of Austria find herself at the head of affairs, than she conceived this policy to be the only one consistent with the welfare of the state, and the security of its ruler; and placed Mazarin at the head of affairs. The announcement of the return of Mazarin to power, was received with deep mortification by the returned exiles, who had imagined that they possessed the confidence of the queen; and it became the signal and pretext for fresh intrigues. They complained that the regent who had formerly shared in their persecution, did not heap favours upon themselves; and they entered into a league against the government- -a league which is known in history as the "Cabal of Pretenders." At the head of this league were the Guises, the Vendomes, Augustin Potier, the Epernons, the duchess of Chevreuse, and her mother-in-law, the duchess of Montbazon. There were opposed to Mazarin, the old partisans of Richelieu, the nobles, the prince of Condé, and his gallant son, the duke of Enghein, and the duke of Beaufort. But the contest was not of long continuance. The regent banished several of them, and imprisoned the duke of Beaufort at Vincennes, by which rigorous measures she broke up the league, and procured internal tranquillity. The war against Spain and the empire of Germany still continued its desolations. Richelieu had carried on war against the latter, for some time, in the Netherlands. The Spanish general, count de Melos, taking advantage of his death and that of the king, took the field early in the spring, and laid siege to Rocroy, a frontier town of France, in the vicinity of Ardennes. This place was important as a defence to Champagne, and required active and decisive measures to save it from the besiegers. The duke of Enghein saw this, and, marching boldly towards the enemy, with an inferior force, defeated them with great slaughter, and took six thousand prisoners, with several pieces of cannon, and all their baggage and treasure. The consequences of this victory were important. It covered Champagne from further invasion; opened Flanders to the French; dispirited the enemy; and encouraged the victors to proceed to farther conquests. The duke, indeed, marched against Thionville, and besieged it with such vigour, that in six weeks the citizens surrendered. During the four years which succeeded 1643, the regent enjoyed tranquillity. Mazarin, perceiving that Richelieu's harsh policy had created him many enemies, by which his life was endangered, encouraged fetes and gallantry, and was prodigal of favours and money, in order to captivate the light-hearted society of France. His policy had the effect he desired. Bound in the silken chains of pleasure, many who had clamoured for independent governments, limited their ambition to a duke's title, while intrigue was well nigh forgotten. They were happy in their enervation, according to the current opinion which the world entertains of happiness. It is to be feared, however, that it was a happiness, which may be termed, "a prelude to misery;" for while the gross pleasures of sense engage the attention of the giddy race of mankind, the thought of an hereafter is forgotten, and no preparation made for the hours of reflection, and the certainty of removal by death. While historians, therefore, laud this act of Mazarin as a triumph over insubordination, and the demoniac feelings of revolt, the christian moralist must censure it as an act of despotism over the human mind. He knew the enervating effects of pleasure -that unfit a people not only for enterprise, but for the use of free and unbounded thought—and, therefore, he adopted this guilty line of policy. Even the sage La Rochefocault records in his memoirs, that he pleaded for a duke's title, that his wife might enjoy a seat at court. Such is one of the many guilty acts of policy adopted by statesmen, in order to preserve place and power. It has been well said : Man is a torch borne in the wind; a dream But of a shadow, summ'd with all his substance; |