The history of the government of France, under the administration of the great Armand du Plessis, Cardinall and Duke of Richlieu, and chief minister of state in that kingdome wherein occur many important negotiations relating to most part of Christendome in his time : with politique observations upon the chapters / translated out of French by J.D. Esq.

The Marquis of Vieville is made Prisoner at St. Germans, and thence conducted to the Castle of Amboyse.

THose several agitations whereunto Fortune had exposed the Colonel d' Orna∣no, which sometimes seemed to throw him headlong down, and then again to raise him up to great Honours, were not the onely marks of the Inconstancy which that flattering Goddess made appear during this year: For after she had raised up the Marquis de la Vieville just to the Administration, and to the Superin∣tendance of the Treasuries, she was pleased so to cast him down, that the King caused him to be arrested at St. German en Laye about the beginning of August, and sent Prisoner to the Castle of Amboyse. To speak truly, it was no such great cause of admiration, seeing this Inconstancy seems to have chosen Princes Courts for the place to exercise her power in, & to have taken a great delight, as it were, to raise several men unto a high point of favour to expose them shortly after to the greater overthrows, every one had reason to attribute it to her most usual conduct, which accustometh all men to this Law, that being once mounted to a certain degree of Honour, they must then of necessity fall back again, and that sometimes with such violence, that they fall into as great a number of miseries as they formerly had of felicities. No one can be ignorant of this truth; but as Envy doth fre∣quently asperse the principal Ministers of a Prince, so she gave the impudence to a Pen envenomed by the Spaniards, to write, that the Cardinal was the cause of it,

by reason of the fear he was in, least the Marquis de la Vieville should rob him of the Ministerial honour.

But how little hath this Enemy of this King, as wel as of his Ministers, proved his discourse so contrary to the Truth? After the disrepute which they in whose behalf he writ, had of the Marquis, they made no long use of him, without be∣ing sensible that he was not an Instrument any way proper to raise their fortunes after the ruining of his own out of a Gallantry of Humour only. He went from St. Germans too with too much flowting, ever to invite his Majesty by his services, to make him the Minister of his Intentions. Besides, could he be so extream ignorant of the Cardinals high and eminent Genius, in perswading himself that the Cardinal could be any wayes suspitious of the Marquis's undermining his For∣tune? It were to perswade the Sun that the least Stars would obscure his light; it were also to accuse the King himself of great Imprudence, seeing it is to declare him incapable of distinguishing whether the Marquis of Vieville or the Cardinal were more proper for his Affairs. Certainly if the Sun discovers the deformity of a visage which had layen hid during the night, and maketh the Stars, which twinkle in the dark, to withdraw themselves upon his first approach. The Cardinal entering upon the Administration, and discovering to his Majesty the incomparable discretion of his Counsels, was enough to detect the little sufficiency of the Marquis, and to hide under the vailes of an obscure darkness, those advices which his vivacity and promptness of discourse did make appear with some splendor, might give his Majesty just cause to make no greater esteem of him: And who so would accuse him in this occasion, must also reproach the Sun for ha∣ving too much light, and to call that in Great Persons a Crime, which ren∣ders them the more to be admired. Every one then knew the true causes of the Marquis's disgraces, the King having given an Accompt of it to the Parlia∣ment the very day after his Arresting; that he might be accused, as his Majesty observed, to that Illustrious company for his evil conduct (which indeed was such, that all men of any sense thought him incapable of long subsisting) That he had changed those very resolutions which were made in his Majesties presence, without acquainting him with it: That he had treated with Ambassadors resident near him, contrary to his order: That he had oftentimes cast that hatred which he had contracted, in exercising his passionate disgusts against some particular persons, upon his Majesty; and that he had feigned several advices with design to induce him to be jealous of those, in whom hee might put a most intire confidence, all all which is so true, that the King, that he might not take him unprovided, had of∣ten given him advice to alter his behaviour, and to become more exact in prosecu∣tion of his Orders, and more reserved in his words, and in his procedure, as his Majesty had signified in the same Letter.

After all which, his faults were so much the more known to the King, he having contracted the enmity of most part of the Grandees of the Court, by those out∣rages wherewith he had provoked them, when they demanded those gratuities which his Majesty had granted to them, and by that excessive rigour wherewith he would cut off the Pensions and other Benefits, which they had formerly obtained of his Majesty, as soon as ever he was entred upon the Treasury. For they being once so provoked, wanted no address to acquaint his Majesty with it, and also to accuse him of divers other unhandsome Carriages by several informers, who offered to prove that he had diverted great sums from the Service of Spain, to his own profit and his Father in Laws, the Sieur de Beaumarchais, one of the Treasurers; all which carried on his Majesty to clap him up in Prison.