[273] Antoine Eugène Chevillard, general treasurer of the gendarmerie of France. [274] Sully, _Mém_. vol. v. p. 161, quoted from Amelot de la Houssaye. [275] Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. p. 99. [276] Mademoiselle de Bueil became Comtesse de Chésy on the 5th of October 1604, and two months later she obtained a divorce. M. de Chésy died in 1652. [277] Péréfixe, vol. ii. p. 401. [278] Sully, _Mém_. vol. v. pp. 193-197. [279] Guillaume Fouquet, Sieur de la Varenne, was one of those singularly-gifted individuals who by the unaided power of intellect are raised from obscurity to fortune. On his first introduction to the Court of France, his position was merely that of cloak-bearer to the King; but his excessive acuteness and his genius for intrigue soon drew upon him the attention of the Cabinet. The event that originally procured for him the favour by which he so largely profited in the sequel was a voyage to Spain, voluntarily undertaken under unusual difficulties. The courier who was conveying to Philip the despatches of the Duc de Mayenne and the other chiefs of the League, having been taken by the emissaries of Henri IV, and the despatches opened by his ministers, it was decided that copies should be made, and the originals resealed and forwarded to their destination by some confidential person who might bring back the replies, in order that a more perfect judgment might be formed by the Council of their probable result. For such an undertaking as this, however, it was obvious that a messenger must be found at once faithful, expert, and courageous; and such an one offered himself in the person of La Varenne, who without a moment's hesitation offered his services to the King, and acquitted himself so dexterously of his self-imposed task that he succeeded, not only in procuring two interviews with the Spanish Council, but even an audience of Philip, without once exciting suspicion; and his arrival at Madrid had been so well timed that although a second courier was despatched in all haste by the League, to announce the capture of his predecessor, he was enabled to effect his return to France with the reply of the Spanish monarch, by which Henry and his ministers were apprised of the plans and pretensions of that potentate (Amelot de la Houssaye, _Lettres du Cardinal d'Ossat_, vol. ii. p. 17 _note_.) La Varenne was subsequently Master-General of the Post Office.