Chapter 64 - Page 2

ambitious than herself, - a friend who had loved her, a rare circumstance
at courts, and whom some petty considerations had removed from her
forever. But for many years past - except Madame de Motteville, and La
Molena, her Spanish nurse, a confidante in her character of countrywoman
and woman too - who could boast of having given good advice to the
queen? Who, too, among all the youthful heads there, could recall the
past for her, - that past in which alone she lived? Anne of Austria
remembered Madame de Chevreuse, in the first place exiled rather by her
wish than the king's, and then dying in exile, the wife of a gentleman of
obscure birth and position. She asked herself what Madame de Chevreuse
would have advised her to do in similar circumstances, in their mutual
difficulties arising from their intrigues; and after serious reflection,
it seemed as if the clever, subtle mind of her friend, full of experience
and sound judgment, answered her in the well-remembered ironical tones:
"All the insignificant young people are poor and greedy of gain. They
require gold and incomes to supply means of amusement; it is by interest
you must gain them over." And Anne of Austria adopted this plan. Her
purse was well filled, and she had at her disposal a considerable sum of
money, which had been amassed by Mazarin for her, and lodged in a place
of safety. She possessed the most magnificent jewels in France, and
especially pearls of a size so large that they made the king sigh every
time he saw them, because the pearls of his crown were like millet seed
compared to them. Anne of Austria had neither beauty nor charms any
longer at her disposal. She gave out, therefore, that her wealth was
great, and as an inducement for others to visit her apartments she let it
be known that there were good gold crowns to be won at play, or that
handsome presents were likely to be made on days when all went well with
her; or windfalls, in the shape of annuities which she had wrung from the
king by entreaty, and thus she determined to maintain her credit. In the
first place, she tried these means upon Madame; because to gain her
consent was of more importance than anything else. Madame,
notwithstanding the bold confidence which her wit and beauty inspired
her, blindly ran head foremost into the net thus stretched out to catch
her. Enriched by degrees by these presents and transfers of property,
she took a fancy to inheritances by anticipation. Anne of Austria
adopted the same means towards Monsieur, and even towards the king
himself. She instituted lotteries in her apartments. The day on which
the present chapter opens, invitations had been issued for a late supper
in the queen-mother's apartments, as she intended that two beautiful
diamond bracelets of