Chateauneuf at that time stood in intimate relation with the notorious, perhaps still beautiful, certainly seductive and ever excitable Madame de Chevreuse. We cannot say whether she, like many other French ladies of that time, formed connexions from inclination uncontrolled by any regard to prudence, or from policy directed to very [A.D. 1633.] different ends. As Marie de Rohan she had already a very important position in the world, through her descent from a family related to the house of Bourbon, and itself among the most distinguished in France. Owing to the influence of her first husband, the Constable Luynes, the favourite of Louis XIII, she was appointed Mistress of the Household to the young queen Anne, whose favour she completely won as she cheered her otherwise melancholy days. After the early death of the Constable she married, while still quite young, the Duke of Chevreuse, son of the greatest of the antagonists of Henry IV, that Henry of Guise who was murdered at Blois. She thus became a member of the house of Lorraine, which at that time was endangered by Richelieu’s policy, and formed the centre of the European political combinations which countermined him. It was the chief ambition of the Duchess of Chevreuse to oppose the Cardinal, just because he was so powerful and was daily becoming more so, and because he imposed upon each and every one his own will as law. Her rank, her position, her connexions, her personal charms, resistless to the young and even to older men, gave her a variety of constantly fresh means of fomenting this opposition. She had already had the principal share in the conspiracy of Ornano: the unfortunate Chalais fell a victim to her; for no one could approach her without suffering for the connexion. At that time the Keeper of the Great Seal had the highest place in her regard, a man of adroitness and of great attainment, of industry and ability, who seemed well fitted to become the successor of the Cardinal, if he should once be overthrown. Richelieu accuses him of having betrayed to the lady the decisions of the Council, which had been directed against Lorraine. And as the Duchess of Chevreuse also had relations with the Queen of England, whom she had known from her youth, these machinations extended even across the Channel[132]. The attention of Richelieu was called by people in England to the efforts made to overthrow him, and [A.D. 1633.] to put Chateauneuf in his place. Queen Henrietta was said to have given out ‘that Chateauneuf, who was her friend, and had no share in the pernicious designs of the Cardinal, would manage the affairs of France better than he.’ Even in matters of religion Chateauneuf preferred to oppose the views of the Cardinal. But these projects were not restricted in their application to the administration of France. We have mentioned the various enmities which the Lord Treasurer Weston had to encounter at the English court. They originated to a great extent