Отправлено: 16.12.09 20:48. Заголовок: Все о реальном Рошфоре(факты, перевод Мемуаров)

Здесь будет вся информация о Шарле-Сезаре де Рошфоре(1615-1687), реальном разведчике отца Жозефа, раскрывшем заговоры Шале и Сен-Мара. В теме выложены редкие и интересные источники, а также его Мемуары, ссылки на оригинал, обсуждается перевод их на русский.

 Отправлено: 16.12.09 21:03. Заголовок: http://www.archive.o..

http://www.archive.org/details/TheMemoirsOfTheCountDeRochefort

Для начала вот его Мемуары. Написано Сандра де Куртилем. Считается апокрифом. Но их реальность подтверждают Джулия Пардо и Джеральд Бренан. Их произведения "Агент кардинала" и отрывок из Мемуаров шевалье де Рамбюра будут выложены в ближайшее время.

http://ia301540.us.archive.org/1/items/TheMemoirsOfTheCountDeRochefort/Courtilz_de_Sandras_Gatien-The_memoirs_of_the_Count_de_Rochefort-Wing-C6600-177_24-p1to230_text.pdf

 Отправлено: 17.12.09 08:03. Заголовок: Пересказ 1й части по..

Пересказ первой части по-русски(английский вариант здесь)

COURTILZ DE SANDRAS (Gatien de);
MЁ¦moires de M. L.C.D.R. (le comte de Rochefort), contenant ce qui s'est passЁ¦ de plus particulier sous le MinistЁЁre du CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU, et du CARDINAL MAZARIN; Avec plusieurs particularitЁ¦s remarquables du rЁЁgne de LOUIS le GRAND.
La Haye, Henry van Bulderen, 1689


Согласно этой книге граф де Рошфор - родственник Марильяков. При крещении получил имя Шарль-Сезар, в честь отца. Его мать умерла при родах, и когда его отец женился снова(история второго брака сама по себе напоминает роман, и содержит, среди прочего, пресловутую историю с лилией, отличающуюся от Дюма кое-какими деталями, например, тем, что дама была не из дворян), он был практически заброшен. Ему еще не исполнилось восьми лет, когда он сбежал из дома. Он вступает в цыганский табор, но в конце концов решает, что такая жизнь недостойна дворянина. В 16 лет он поступает в армию простым солдатом. Отличился, поймав важного испанского пленника, за что его начальник, г-н де Аннэ, рекомендует его Ришелье. И Шарль едет в Париж.

В этом месте дано описание внешности Рошфора. Он выглядит маленьким и смуглым, его легко принять за испанца.

В доме Ришелье он становится пажом, и его верность постоянно испытывается. Например, другой секретный агент Ришелье, де Сов, подговаривает собственную жену соблазнить юного пажа. Та из жалости открыла ему суть интриги, и предупредила, что здесь верить никому нельзя. Как только Ришелье был удовлетворен результатом проверки, он стал давать Рошфору простые поручения. Его посылают с секретными документами в Англию. Там его арестовали, но писем не нашли, он их хорошо спрятал в седле. И довел порученное дело до конца.

Главной проверкой было доставить по назначению приказ об аресте часто помогавшего ему его родственника Марильяка. Рошфор понимает, что это опять проверка. Он пытается убедить Ришелье устроить ему другую проверку, но это ему не удается, и он вынужден отвезти приказ об аресте Марильяка куда надо.

Следующим поручением было всем известное дело Брюсселя.

Было очень много попыток подорвать доверие кардинала к Рошфору. В книге также много рассказывается об отношениях Рошфора с отцом, мачехой и сводными братьями. Что интересно, когда Рошфор вынужден защитить честь кардинала на дуэли, он приглашает в секунданты братьев. Обоих, к сожалению, убили, чего мачеха никогда ему не простит.

Еще известное дело, описанное также у Джулии Пардо в книге "Жизнь Марии Медичи"(цитируется отрывок из Мемуаров некоего Рамбюра, работавшего с Рошфором), это то, как Рошфор помог раскрыть заговор Сен-Мара. Он случайно узнает на улице человека, которого видел в Брюсселе.
Он переодевается нищим калекой и три дня караулит на той же улице, пока не узнает этого человека в компании с другим, в котором узнают Сен-Мара. Рошфору велят следить за этим человеком. Рошфор едет следом, и в подошве его башмаков находит оригинал договора с Испанией, подписанный от имени герцога Орлеанского. Он везет договор к кардиналу, тот посылает его с ним к королю, и изменников арестовывают.

Затем кардинал умирает, и для Рошфора наступили черные дни. Больше такой удачи у него не будет никогда. И в Бастилию он на 6 лет попадет, и будет разорен. И кончит жизнь в капуцинском монастыре на улице Сент-Оноре.

В целом книга куда сильнее Мемуаров д'Артаньяна. Здесь больше психологии и отношений. И видно, как щедр к нему кардинал, к нему и его родичам. И они становятся так близки, что Ришелье обращается к нему на "ты", кроме тех случаев, когда он на него сердит.

 Отправлено: 17.12.09 08:05. Заголовок: http://richelieu.for..

http://richelieu.forum24.ru/?1-0-0-00000043-000-0-0

Тема о нем в Гостиной Ришелье

 Отправлено: 17.12.09 08:07. Заголовок: Мемуары Рамбюра у Дж..

Мемуары Рамбюра у Джулии Пардо(по-английски):

"One evening," he says, "when I was in the buttery of the Cardinal,
where I was eating some sweetmeats, his Eminence entered and asked for a
draught of strawberry syrup. While he was drinking it the Comte de
Rochefort arrived in his turn, and informed him that during the
preceding night, as he was passing the Palace of the Luxembourg, he saw
a man come out whom he instantly recognized as a certain Florent Radbod
whom he had formerly met at Brussels, and whom he knew to have been
frequently employed in secret matters of state. The lateness of the
hour, which was, as he further stated, two in the morning, led him to
believe that an individual of this description would not be there save
for some important reason.

"'You were very wrong not to follow him,' said his Eminence.

"'I did so,' replied M. de Rochefort; 'but he was on his guard, and soon
perceived that he was dogged. Therefore, thinking it better not to
excite his suspicions, I turned aside and left him.'

"'You did well,' said Richelieu; 'but what description of person is this
Radbod? What is his age? his complexion? his height? Tell me every
particular by which he may be recognized. M. de Rambure, have you your
pencil about you?'

"'I have my tablets, Monseigneur.'

"'Write down then without loss of time,' said the Cardinal, 'the
portrait of this man.'

"I immediately obeyed, and my task was no sooner completed than his
Eminence gave orders that at every post-house where carriages could be
hired notice should be instantly given to himself if a person answering
the description should endeavour to secure the means of leaving Paris.
He also stationed men at every avenue leading from the city, who were to
watch night and day, lest he might escape in the coach of an
acquaintance. On the following morning his Eminence sent to summon me an
hour before dawn, and I was surprised on my arrival to find him pacing
his chamber in his dressing-gown.

 Отправлено: 17.12.09 08:08. Заголовок: "'Rambure,&#..

"'Rambure,' he said as I entered, 'I confess to you that I suspect some
conspiracy is on foot against the King, the state, and myself; and,
moreover, if I am not deceived, it is organizing at the Luxembourg with
the consent and connivance of the Duc d'Orléans; but as this is mere
suspicion, I am anxious, in order to see my way more clearly, to place
some confidential person as a sentinel near the palace to watch who goes
in and out.'

"After having hesitated for a time, I told his Eminence that I was
willing to undertake the adventure, and quite ready to obey
his commands.

"'I have faith in you, M. de Rambure,' said the Cardinal; 'I am
perfectly convinced of the affection which you bear, not only towards
the King and the state, but also towards myself; but I have determined
to desire M. de Rochefort to disguise himself as a cripple, and to take
up his position in front of the Luxembourg, where he must remain day and
night until he has discovered whether it were really the Fleming that
he saw.'

"Then, summoning a page who was waiting in the antechamber, his Eminence
sent for M. de Rochefort, who was not long in coming; and told him what
he proposed. Rochefort, who was always ready to comply with every wish
of the Cardinal, immediately declared his willingness to play the part
assigned to him; and a trusty person who had attended him to the
apartment of Monseigneur was instructed to procure without loss of time,
and with the greatest secrecy, a pair of crutches, a suit of rags, and
all the articles necessary to complete the metamorphosis.

"His Eminence having, on the return of the lackey, expressed his desire
to witness the effect of the disguise, M. de Rochefort retired to
another chamber, where, with the assistance of his servant, he exchanged
his velvet vest and satin haut-de-chausses for the foul garb of a
mendicant; this done, he smeared his face with dirt, and crouching down
in a corner, he requested me to announce to Monseigneur that he was
ready to receive him. His Eminence was astonished at his appearance, as
well as to see him act the character he had assumed as if he had studied
and practised it all his life. He told him to set forth, and that if he
succeeded in his attempt he would render him the greatest service which
he had ever received.

"As soon as the Cardinal had taken leave of Rochefort, he said to me:
'In the disguise the Count has on, and when he is crouched upon his
dunghill like a miserable cripple, it will be easy for him to look every
one in the face; and I hope he will make some discovery of that which
troubles me.' His Eminence then told me that he wanted my valet, to
place him in disguise in another direction. I therefore called him. He
was a very sharp fellow at everything that was required of him; and the
Cardinal made him put on a shabby cassock, with a false beard of
grizzled hair and eyebrows to match, which were all fastened on with a
certain liquid so firmly to the skin that it was necessary to apply
vinegar in which the ashes of vine-twigs had been steeped, when they
instantly fell off. My Basque was at length dressed in a torn,
threadbare cassock, masked by his false beard, with an old hat upon his
head, a breviary under his arm, and a tolerably thick stick in his hand,
and received an order to post himself near the little gate of the
Luxembourg stables. The Cardinal then desired me not to leave him, as he
had certain orders to give me which he could not entrust to every one on
such an occasion.

 Отправлено: 17.12.09 08:11. Заголовок: "M. de Rochefort..

"M. de Rochefort took up his station at the corner of the Rue de
Tournon, laid himself down on a heap of manure, and began, with his face
covered with mud and filth, to cry out continually and dolefully as if
he had been in agony and want; and he played his part so naturally that
several charitable folks were touched by his misery and gave him alms.
From his dunghill he saw numbers of carriages pass and repass, and he
began to be afraid that his prey would escape him. He consequently
resolved to approach nearer to the gates of the palace, where his
intolerable groans so harassed the Swiss guards of Monsieur that they
threatened to drive him away, but upon his promise to be more quiet they
permitted him to remain. He continued patiently at his post for three
days and three nights without seeing anything to justify the suspicions
of the Cardinal, and I was careful to visit him at intervals in order to
receive his report; but when I found that so much time had been lost, I
began to think that the Fleming would not, in all probability, enter the
palace by the gate facing the Carmelite Convent, and Rochefort agreeing
with me on this point, he resolved to change his station. The very same
night he saw him arrive, and let himself in with a key that he carried
about him; and an hour afterwards he observed another man stop at the
same door, and enter by the same means. He was wrapped in a cloak so
that the Count could not recognize him; but he desired my valet, who was
not far off at the time, to follow him when he came out, by which means
we ascertained that the individual who was thus tracked to his own
residence was the Grand Equerry of France, M. de Cinq-Mars; while
before the end of another week we discovered Radbod in the same
manner." [236]

[236] Rambure, Unpublished MS. vol. xx. pp. 6-13.

 Отправлено: 15.01.10 23:35. Заголовок: THE CARDINAL'S A..

THE CARDINAL'S AGENT.


Джеральд Бренан:


IT is one of the sorrows of those who
love romance that Dumas did not deal
more generously with the Comte de
Rochefort. The vague Sittings of
Rochefort through the pages of LES
TROIS MOUSQUETAIRES and VINGT ANS
APRES are, no doubt, quite in keeping
with the soldier's ideal of Richelieu's
agent, and with the stealthy nature of
his work as judged from the stand-
point of the Hdtel de Treville. To
have presented us with a palpable,
straightforward Rochefort in these
splendid gasconnades, to have un-
cloaked the mysterious Man of Meung,
in fact would have been a serious
artistic mistake. But Dumas might
have taken us behind the arras in
another story, or series of stories, and
given us Rochefort the hero in place
of Rochefort the villain. There is still
a romance to be written with Cesar de
Rochefort as its principal character,
and having for motive that masterly
scheme of plot and counterplot by
which the great Cardinal strove at
once to humble his bitter foes of the
haute noblesse, and to keep the eager
enemies of France at bay.

The world has seldom seen a better
organised or more successful system
of secret service than that of which
Richelieu was the master-spirit, and
Rochefort the adroit lieutenant. How
the superb imagination of Dumas
would have revelled in describing the
strifes and struggles of that devoted
lieutenant ! What pictures have we
not missed of midnight gallop and
duello, of great dames carried off, and
gallant gentlemen left cursing the
Red Duke in their death-agonies, of
the hero masquerading, now as priest



and now as post-boy, and riding
calmly through the enemy's country
with death on his horse's crupper, of
treasonable papers seized at the sword-
point, in the very nick of time, the
wanton traitor Cinq Mars brought to
justice, and the dying Richelieu's last
hours soothed by triumph, thanks to
the watchful courage of Rochefort !
A rich field lies fallow before the
romancer in LES MEMOIRES DE M. LE
C DE R , the very title of which
hints of state-secrets and deeds of
high emprise. That Dumas knew this
book we cannot doubt ; for not only
did he take his Richelieu and Mazarin
from its pages, but he was also to
it indebted for his account of Miladi's
early life, of the story of her marriage
to a great noble, and of the discovery
of the fleur-de lys branded upon her
shoulder. The real heroine of this
curious episode, by the way, was
Rochefort's step-mother.

The Rochefort Memoirs, with their
mysterious title, were first published
at Cologne in 1687, the editor of the
work having been Gatien de Courtilz
de Sandras, to whom we also owe
the biography of D'Artagnan. Their
general authenticity has never been
doubted ; and even in minor points
they can often be verified by reference
to contemporary documents, notably
the records of the Bastile and of
the judicial tribunals at Paris and
Orleans. The compiler of the work,
Courtilz, was (according to his own
express statement, since verified by
the genealogists) a near relative of
Rochefort ; and their family estates
were situated close together in the
same province of the Orleanais.



The Cardinal's Agent.



307



Courtilz, when proscribed and a fugi-
tive, was suspected of having sought
shelter in the elder Rochefort's chateau,
which was rudely entered and ran-
sacked in consequence, as may be seen
in these Memoirs, and (by way of con-
firmation) in the civil register of the
provincial court of Orleans. Rochefort
and his editor were in exile together
at Cologne, and for a time their
lodgings were in the same street.
Courtilz, therefore, had opportunities
of making LES MEMOIRES DE M. LE C
DE R at once intimate and accurate.
In his preface to the original edition
he says : " I publish here these Me-
moirs against the last will and inten-
tions of their author ; who, upon his
death, which happened a month or
two after his retirement, ordered me
to suppress them." Rochefort is not
the only autobiographer whose last
wishes to this effect have been dis-
obeyed, for good or ill, by his literary
executor.

Charles Cesar de Rochefort, the
secret agent of Richelieu, was born
in the year 1615. He came of a
house which could trace its descent
back to the year 1001, and which had
nothing in common, save the name,
with the family of Rochefort-Lu9ay,
represented to-day by the Marquis
Sans-culotte, Henri Rochefort. His
mother had died in childbirth, and
in a very few months his father began
to cast about for a new consort.
Negotiations were conducted secretly,
as he did not wish to offend the
Marillacs and other powerful connec-
tions of the lady just laid to rest.
As a result, the lord of St. Point was
cruelly trapped into marriage with a
convicted and branded felon. Here
it is that we encounter the germ of
the Miladi episode. A young priest,
or pseudo-priest, of his acquaintance
suggested to the simple Count that
he should be introduced to one of the
former's penitents, a young lady, so



he was told, of extraordinary beauty,
belonging to a great Huguenot family,
but who had fled from her people
with the view of becoming Catholic.
She was not yet twenty, added M.
1'Abbe, and vastly desired to ground
herself more thoroughly in the ancient
faith, by converse with noblemen of
understanding. M. de Rochefort
asked for the lady's name. After
some apparent hesitation, it was whis-
pered in his ear, Madeleine de
Caumont. The Count whistled, as
well he might, for this implied that
she was a member of the great Hugue-
not house of De La Force, a niece
perhaps, or even a daughter of its
celebrated chief, Jacques Nompar de
Caumont, who had cheated the bloody
sword of St. Bartholomew to become a
Marshal-Peer of France. Oue look at
the dazzling Madeleine completed the
work begun by the priest. A secret
marriage was hurriedly entered into,
under pretence of threatened interrup-
tion by the bride's powerful Protestant
kinsfolk ; and it may be supposed
that, as in the case of Athos, the
noble benedict's married life was for
a time sufficiently happy. When, one
unlucky morning, Rochefort discovered
the felon's brand upon his wife's
shoulder, he did not hang her out of
hand, as Athos did Miladi ; probably
he did not possess the right of High
Justice. But he at once applied for
annulment of the marriage contract ;
and he thus got rid of her, at the cost
of many pistoles, and no little ridicule
on the part of the merry gentlemen
of Berry and the Orleanais. Investi-
gation showed that her name was
really Madeleine de Caumont, in a
sense ; since she came from the village
of Caumont, where her father was a
respectable miller.

One would have thought an event

of this kind humiliating enough to

cool M. de Rochefort's matrimonial

ardour ; yet in a little while he was

x 2



308



The Cardinal's Agent.



once more wife-hunting. After nar-
rowly escaping the snare laid for him
by a Parisian of the worst reputation,
he at last found his fate in a lady
of no great beauty, but belonging to
a good family in Berry, one Anne de
Lucinge.

The first act of the new Countess
was to banish her little stepson to
his father's estate of St. Point on
the borders of Burgundy, where he
was placed under the charge of some
peasants. The Count seems to have
made no objection to this summary
method of dealing with his heir; from
the first he was completely under the
thumb of his third wife, who, in the
course of twelve years, presented him
with four additional sons and three
daughters. Meanwhile Cesar, by
right Vicomte de Rochefort-St. Point,
lived meanly in Burgundy, until by
a happy chance his godfather, M.
de Marillac, came to the neighbour-
hood and discovered him. Then it
was off with hodden grey, and on
with rich velvet. Righteously in-
dignant at the child's treatment,
Marillac had him well fed and hand-
somely clothed, after which M. le
Vicomte was sent back to his father
in a manner befitting his station. It
upset Madame de Rochefort's calcula-
tions not a little to have her stepson
return in this unexpected manner,
nor was her temper improved by the
stinging rebuke which Marillac saw
fit to administer. On the whole,
poor Cesar must have regretted his
life with the kindly peasants. He
was ignored by his father, forced to
eat with the servants, and scourged
publicly as if he were no better than
a lacquey himself. The only person
who showed him any kindness was
the village priest, who taught him
how to read and write.

At last the lad's spirit rebelled.
In his ninth year he heard that a
troop of Bohemians had camped in



the neighbouring forest of Orleans,
and with these wanderers the little
Viscount desperately threw in his lot.
To the gipsies he proved an invaluable
ally, for he knew the skirts of the
forest thoroughly, as well as all the
chateaux and farm-houses of the canton.
Geese, hens, and ducks disappeared
with extraordinary celerity thereafter;
and it was noticed that M. de Roche-
fort and his tenants were especially
favoured by visits from the marauders.
No doubt Madame had a shrewd idea
of the whereabouts of her missing
stepson, and was glad to get rid of
him at the cost of a few fowls, for
no attempt was made to capture the
Bohemians, and for months they lived
upon the fat of the land, with the
little Viscount as their guide and
protector. But the roving instinct
soon asserted itself, and, in spite of
their comfortable quarters, the gipsies
resolved to take to the road again.
Charmed by the free life Rochefort
resolved to travel with his new friends ;
and so, for five years, he roamed
hither and thither like an earlier
George Borrow, sleeping under the
stars and sharing the strange life of
this strange people. The ties of
brotherhood thus established after-
ward stood him in good stead, when
through his agency the Bohemians
became exceedingly useful to Richelieu
and himself as messengers and secret
agents. Thus, too, he gained an
exhaustive knowledge of French high-
ways and byeways, besides journeying
through Spain, Italy, Germany, and
the Low Countries. But, in the end,
while he was tramping across that
very Lorraine of which his ancestor
had once been chancellor, the authori-
ties made a sudden descent and
captured many of the band, hanging
them promptly without trial. The
remnant (including Rochefort, now a
sturdy fellow of fourteen,) fled through
Burgundy into France by way of



The Cardinal's Agent.



309

 Отправлено: 15.01.10 23:39. Заголовок: Dijon. Travelling on..

Dijon. Travelling only under cover
of night, sleeping in thickets during
the day, they reached Lyons ; and
thence they pushed southward over
Dauphine, into Languedoc, not resting
satisfied until, among the mountains
of Foix, they had put the breadth of
France between themselves and the
wrath of the Lorrainers.

The exceptional privations of this
flight, together with the aimless nature
of the life he was leading, now induced
Rochefort to take the second impor-
tant step of his career. He had heard,
as everyone in the country had heard,
of the wars which the great Cardinal
was waging north, south, east, and
west against the enemies of the
nation, as well as of the quick pro-
motion which awaited gentlemen of
brain and bravery in the Red Duke's
service. Accordingly he determined
to seek some sort of military employ.
It was the year 1628, and the Car-
dinal was busy putting an end to the
long siege of Rochelle ; but, on the
Pyrenean frontier, his lieutenants
maintained a constant garrison war-
fare against the Spaniards. Rochefort
bade good-bye to his Bohemians,
crossed the mountains by Capsi and
Villefranche, passed through Nar-
bonne, and eventually reached Locates
(now Leucate in the Department of
Aude) where he enlisted in the com-
pany of the governor, M. de St. Aunais.
Naturally swarthy, and tanned by
long exposure to sun and wind, he
was picked out by St. Aunais as
a suitable spy to send against the
Spaniards. Under the disguise of a
mountaineer he paid frequent visits
to the enemy's camp ; and in this way
he discovered that the commandant
of the Spanish garrison at Salses was
accustomed to steal out every evening,
slenderly guarded, to visit a fair dame
of the district. Rochefort surprised
tS^ lady's house at daybreak, armed
with a brace of pistols, forced the



governor of Salses and his guard to
lay down their arms, and single-handed
drove them before him into the French
lines, where they were made prisoners.
This exploit, as daring as it was
adroit, won the admiration of M. de
St. Aunais, who, on receiving assur-
ances of Rochefort's gentle birth, gave
the lad a pair of colours in the
Regiment of Picardy. Better still,
St. Aunais wrote to Richelieu, de-
scribing how this stripling of fifteen
had, without assistance, defeated and
captured a famous Spanish captain
and his veteran guard. The Cardinal,
fresh from his victory over Rochelle,
wrote at once to St. Aunais to send
the youngster to him without delay,
and enclosed a hundred pistoles for
the expenses of his journey.

One can well imagine the delight
with which Rochefort heard of this
characteristic command, and the
alacrity with which he made ready
for his voyage to Paris. His Spanish
prisoner brought him a considerable
ransom ; so that when he left Locates
M. le Vicomte de Rochefort-St. Point
had plenty of gold in his purse. He
bought a couple of horses at Narbonne,
invested in a valet, and set out for the
north with a light heart. At Briare,
on the borders of Orleanais, he could
not resist turning aside from the main
road to show himself in the paternal
domains, and air his new honours at
the expense of his stepmother. His
first visit, however, was to the good
priest who had taught him to read;
after which he rode to his father's
house. No doubt Madame was again
vastly disgusted at the sight of this
nuisance of a boy, who was not, appa-
rently, born to be hanged. At all
events the reception accorded to the
returned wanderer was cold in the
extreme; until, by chance, his valet
let fall that his master had been
specially summoned to Paris by the
Cardinal. Instantly the manner of



310



Cardinal's Agent.



Rochefort's relatives changed. No-
thing was now too good for their
dear Cesar ; and his stepmother, with
an eye to a friend at Court, gave a
grand breakfast in his honour ; all of
which, however, only disgusted Roche-
fort, who took no pains to hide his
feelings.

Two days later he found himself
in Paris for the first time, and has-
tened to the Palais Cardinal to pay
his respects. His fame had preceded
him ; and it was flattering to his
vanity to find everyone talking of the
brave cadet of Locates and his remark-
able exploit. At the least, he looked
for a place in the Cardinal's guards ;
but a bitter disappointment awaited
him. When he entered Richelieu's
cabinet, the Cardinal laughed heartily
at his youthful appearance. " Why,"
cried the Minister, " this cannot pos-
sibly be the terrible cadet of Locates !
This is but a little, beardless boy.
St. Aunais has been trying to play
me a trick." Then, to Rochefort's
intense chagrin, he ordered the young
hero to don his livery, and become
one of his household pages. From
full-fledged ensign to page seemed a
sad downfall ; but Richelieu consoled
him by assuring him that, while as
yet he looked far too boyish for a
military uniform, he might hope for
better things to come. Thus dis-
missed, Rochefort went to arrange
with the master of the household for
a livery. He found that he was
expected to give vails right and left,
as well as to pay a large sum for
clothing and accommodation. During
his journey to Paris he had lived in
princely fashion, as young men with
fine prospects are apt to do, so that
none of the Cardinal's gift or of the
Spanish captain's ransom remained ;
while his two horses, if sold, would
fetch no more than fifty pistoles. The
master of the household demanded at
least four hundred crowns. Matters



might have gone ill with Rochefort,
had not his patron heard of the affair,
ordered him a free outfit, and refilled
his pockets right generously. From
the first he became a favourite with
Richelieu, who had set on foot a
thorough investigation into the young
fellow's antecedents, and found that
his story was substantially true. The
Cardinal, like Napoleon, while opposed
by circumstances to the great bulk of
the nobles, chose to surround himself
as much as possible with persons of
good blood. The Vicomte de Roche-
fort became his cup-bearer, stood
behind his chair, and ushered his
visitors in and out.

Rochefort clears up at least one
mystery connected with his patron.
The scandal has often been repeated
that Richelieu was in love with his
niece, Madame d'Aiguillon, because
he went so frequently and so steal-
thily to her house. According to
Rochefort this was merely a subter-
fuge. Richelieu used the Hotel
d'Aiguillon, not for purposes of
amorous dalliance, but as a safe and
unsuspected headquarters for his
system of espionage. Even at the
Palais Cardinal he was watched by
the agents of Spain, of the Queen,
and of the great nobles. But nobody
followed him to the house of his
niece, believing that he went thither
solely for his pleasure. Thus, while
keeping up a deceitful show of state-
craft in his own cabinet, the wily
Cardinal met all his more important
emissaries and friends, Sauve, Father
Archer, the Scots Puritans, and others
in a small chamber overlooking the
D'Aiguillon gardens. This chamber
was furnished with a private staircase,
and it was part of Rochefort's duty
to guide thither through the gardens
many mysterious visitors to his
master. They came, he says, in every
imaginable disguise, monks, friars,
secular priests, merchants, pedlars,



The Cardinal's Agent.



311



grooms, and waiting-women. Before
entrusting his page with this delicate
office, Richelieu had caused him to be
tempted. Madame de Sauve, wife of
the Cardinal's chief spy and a very
beautiful woman, was commissioned
to make love to the boy, and to see
if he could be induced to betray
any of his patron's secrets. It was
a serious trial for one so young ; and
Rochefort would probably have been
found wanting in discretion, had not
the lady luckily taken a real fancy
to him and disclosed the plot. The
report which she subsequently made
to the Cardinal of Cesar's prudence
removed all his Eminence's doubts;
and the cadet of Locates became
keeper of the ministerial door. As
such he officiated while the Cardinal
was laying his plans for the supreme
triumph of his career, that memor-
able eleventh of November, 1630 (so
aptly called the Day of Dupes) upon
which he utterly routed his enemies
and became the virtual dictator of
France.

As Rochefort grew older Richelieu
began to send him on secret com-
missions, chiefly connected with the
payment of foreign agents and the
reception of reports from such as
did not dare to venture into Paris.
Some of these errands make curious
reading. On one occasion the Car-
dinal handed his page a very heavy
bag, containing both money and
papers, with the following instruc-
tions : " You are to take this bag,
and to stroll leisurely along the road
towards Pontoise. At the entrance
to the hamlet of Sanois you will
probably see a Capuchin asleep under
a poplar-tree, with his hood hanging
down over his shoulders. You must
not say anything, but simply slip the
bag into the open hood, and then,
after a detour, you had better come
back by way of St. Denis." A few
weeks later he was sent with a heavy



purse that clinked suggestively, and
which he was ordered to place under
a certain broad flagstone on the St.
Denis road, about a furlong and a
half beyond Montfaucon. This done,
he was to return by another way.
And again, he was sent to Notre
Dame ; " where " said his Eminence,
" you will walk up and down, until
you see a man leaning against a tree,
with his face hidden in his left hand,
and with the other hand held behind
him. You will then place these
papers and money in the right hand
of the unknown, and come away.
On no account are you to look in the
man's face, or seek to penetrate his
identity." Gradually Richelieu sent
him further and further afield, now
to Brussels, now to the Spanish
borders. Once, when hastening back
through Dauphine with urgent mes-
sages from M. de Montmorenci, the
governor of Languedoc, his horse
broke down in the midst of the great
plain beyond Peage. It was night,
the barren waste was infested by
gangs of robbers, and, to crown all,
he knew that the Cardinal's favour
depended on his reaching Paris in
time. Rochefort lost his way in the
darkness, and was only saved by the
chance arrival of a sick gentleman on
his way to Lyons in a horse-litter,
thanks to whose assistance he managed
to reach Paris in the very nick of
time.

In the meanwhile, Rochefort's loving
relatives, learning that his fine ex-
pectations had apparently ended in
a page's livery, saw fit to flout him
once more. He was told that his
presence at home was not desirable,
and the letters which he wrote to his
father were left unanswered. It had
been his intention to ask his patron
for a small benefice on behalf of his
half-brother, Pierre -Antoine- Claude,
who was about to take holy orders.
But this sort of treatment determined



312



The Cardinal's Agent.



him that the gift might be better
bestowed elsewhere ; and he thought
of his kind old friend, the poor priest
who had taught him his letters. The
Cardinal, as generous as Mazarin was
to be niggardly, readily granted his
page's request, and the good man was
duly promoted, as much to his own
surprise as to that of Rochefort's
kinsfolk. Immediately M. le Comte
de Rochefort and his wife posted to
Paris, full of reproaches. Why had
a country parson of no birth been
preferred to Cesar's own loving
brother 1 Rochefort reminded them
of the neglect which he had endured
at their hands ; but he finally melted,
and promised that in future he would
look after the advancement of his
brothers. The fame of his influence
with the Cardinal was trumpeted far
and wide by his stepmother, and he
was assailed by visits from cousins
and connections in search of prefer-
ment. " They came," he says, " from
the far end of Berry. Some of them
I had never seen or heard of before ;
yet they insisted on worrying me by
the hour with the ramifications of
our genealogical tree, making it out
quite plainly (for aught I knew) that
they were my third, fourth, or fifth
cousins ; a fact which, in their esti-
mation, rendered it incumbent upon
me to get them fat appointments as
quickly as possible." So great was
their importunity, that the Cardinal
heard of it, and came to his favourite's
rescue by threatening to give some of
them permanent situations in the
Bastile. This had the effect of send-
ing the whole pack scurrying back
to the Orleanais and Berry, grumbling
savagely over the unnatural conduct
of their cousin the Viscount.

Very shortly after this affair, Roche-
fort's influence with his patron was
suddenly arrested, and came within
an ace of being terminated entirely.
In 1630 the Marechal de Marillac



(Cesar's near relative, and brother of
his godfather and earliest benefactor,)
was arrested on a charge of high
treason, and shut up in St. Menehould
to await trial. Probably with a view
to testing his absolute fidelity, Roche-
fort himself was chosen by the Car-
dinal to make the arrest. The page
carried the warrant into Piedmont,
and formally took possession of
Marillac's sword ; but, this much
dutifully accomplished, he conceived
that he had earned some sort of right
to intercede for a kinsman to whose
family he owed so much. Accord-
ingly he took advantage of a private
audience with Richelieu to implore
that Marillac's life might be spared.
Without turning from the corres-
pondence upon which he was engaged,
Richelieu tossed towards him a report
clearly showing that Marillac had for
years been conspiring with the Queen
Mother's friends and the emissaries
of Spain and England. Still Roche-
fort had the temerity to continue his
plea. Not a word said the Red Duke ;
but he raised his head, and fixed upon
his page one look which spoke more
eloquently than many words. " He
glanced at me from under his eye-
brows," says the culprit, " and it was
as if I had been stricken speechless.
I turned, and went down the stairs,
feeling like a man who has fled from
a pitched battle."

The Vicornte de Rochefort was in
disgrace, and no letter of dismissal
was needed to tell him so. For two
whole years he hid himself in the
lowest quarters of Paris, helped at
times by some gipsy friends, but
starving for the most part, and never
venturing near the precincts of the
Palais Cardinal. In 1632 he heard
of Marillac's execution ; and it speaks
strongly for his fidelity that he bore
all his sufferings without even think-
ing of offering his services to the
enemies of Richelieu, who would have



The Cardinal's Agent.



313



been only too glad to welcome a
recruit with such intimate knowledge
of the apparatus of government.
This loyalty did not go unrewarded.
Richelieu had never lost sight of his
former page, hide he where he might.
One day Sauve, his Eminence's Span-
ish agent, came to Rochefort's lodgings
with a message. If Cesar had re-
turned to his proper senses, he was
to grease his boots forthwith, purchase
a good horse with the money sent
by M. de Sauve, and carry a letter
of importance into Catalonia. The
Spaniards had so far succeeded in
hanging every French agent sent
among the Catalans, and M. de
Rochefort might decline the com-
mission if he thought fit. But M. de
Rochefort had no desire to decline,
neither did he tarry to ask any
questions. Within three hours he
was already well on his way towards
the southern frontier. Unable to
purchase a good horse on such short
notice, but confidently expecting to
pick one up at a Bohemian camp he
knew of in the neighbourhood of Sens,
he performed the first stage of his
journey on a wretched brute which,
from the description, must have
closely resembled the famous Butter-
cup which D'Artagnan afterwards
brought with him out of Beam. The
Spaniards did not catch Rochefort ;
and in a few weeks he found himself
carrying a satisfactory report up the
familiar staircase to Rochefort's
cabinet. The Cardinal welcomed
him back to duty with unwonted
cordiality, and handed him then and
there his patent of promotion to the
post of gentleman-in- waiting. Roche-
fort saw with amazement that the
patent was dated from the very day
upon which he had fallen into dis-
grace, which signified that the
treasurer of the household owed him
more than two years' back pay. His
first thought was to reward the poor



taverners and gipsy-folk who had
helped him in his emergency ; for this
young man seems to have been an
exceptionally fine fellow in the matter
of gratitude for past kindnesses.

Richelieu's shrewd policy had long
been to keep the foreign enemies of
France busy by fostering discontent
and rebellion in their own domains.
He helped the Catalans against Spain
with arms and money, and lent vigor-
ous aid towards the stirring up of the
Irish Catholics. There seems little
doubt, too, of his active sympathy
with the Scots Puritans from a period
long anterior to Leslie's victory at
Dunse Law on that memorable seventh
of June, 1639. At any rate, almosb
immediately after Dunse Law, while
Scotland was in the early stages of
war, Rochefort tells us that the Car-
dinal sent him with cipher letters of
the last importance to the Covenanters'
camp. He landed at one of the
northern English ports, probably
Newcastle, and passed himself off as
a young French nobleman travelling
for his own amusement. The letters
he hid in an ingeniously contrived
saddle, specially made for the journey.
The plates of this saddle were of
double pieces of iron welded together,
and between each pair of welded
pieces a letter was laid.

In spite of his pretence of travel-
ling for pleasure, Rochefort fell under
suspicion. Hardly had he crossed the
Scottish border when he was arrested
by a body of Royalist horse, and,
his angry protests notwithstanding,
he had to submit to being searched ;
even his saddle was ripped up, but
the double plates kept their secrets
well, and after five days' detention
(during which he was cross-examined
by several different persons), he was
at length released with apologies.
He made a feint of returning into
England, evaded the Royalist out-
posts, and eventually succeeded in



314



The Cardinal's Agent.



delivering his letters safely to the
Puritan chiefs. A fishing -vessel
carried him back to France, where
Richelieu rewarded him with two
thousand crowns.

The Cardinal's message was almost
immediately followed by the visit to
Paris of some person who is only de-
scribed as one of the greatest of the
Scots leaders. Rochefort received
orders to go to the Faubourg St. Mar-
ceau, over against the Conduit, where
he would find a small tavern with the
sign of a Headless Woman. He was to
ascend the stairs without knocking, and
to enter a room up two flights, where
he would find a gentleman in a large
bedstead with yellow curtains ; after
certain signals had been exchanged,
he was to bid the gentleman be at
the H6tel d'Aiguillon shortly after
eleven o'clock that night without fail.
Everything was as the Cardinal had
said ; and when Rochefort had entered
the room described and looked behind
the yellow curtains, he saw that the
gentleman there concealed was the
expected leader of the Covenanters.
With considerable discretion he does
not disclose the identity of the
emissary, beyond saying that he was
a person of high rank, and that he
had already met him in Scotland.
It is quite possible that the guest at
the Headless Woman may have been
Argyle himself. Whoever he was, he
obeyed the Cardinal's mandate, and
came at the appointed time to the
house of Madame d'Aiguillon, dis-
guised as a man crying jumbles
{publics) in the street. He was at
once ushered into the private cabinet,
and remained there with Richelieu
until four o'clock next morning. Great
caution was evidently observed in
these negotiations, for, after leaving
the Cardinal, the Scots nobleman at
once changed his place of sojourn
from the Headless Woman to the
Spinning Sow in the Rue de la



Hachette beyond the Conduit. Two
days later Rochefort was sent to him
at the latter tavern with a large chest
clearly containing money, since it was
given to the messenger by the Superin-
tendent of Finances, and accompanied
by a bill of particulars which the Scot
was to receipt. A waggon was needed
to convey the chest ; but he for whom
it was destined absolutely refused to
accept the gift, when he perceived
by the bill that only five hundred
thousand francs had been sent. Riche-
lieu, it appeared, had promised him
six hundred thousand and not a
centime less would he take. Roche-
fort carted the money back to the
Treasury, and reported the matter
to his patron. The result was that,
before nightfall, the canny Northerner
received his full due, without paying
toll to the officials. It is to be pre-
sumed that the money arrived safely
in Scotland.

Meanwhile the charmingly dan-
gerous Duchesse de Chevreuse, baffled
in all her plots by Richelieu, had fled
to Brussels, and there surrounded
herself by that atmosphere of intrigue
so dear to her heart. Rochefort was
ordered to disguise himself as a
Capuchin, and to follow Marie Michon
to her new abode. To this end he
was to place himself temporarily
under the direction of the Cardinal's
confessor, Father Joseph, who, a
Capuchin himself, would see that the
pretended friar was properly accredited.
We find full confirmation of this in

L'HlSTOIRE DU P&RE JOSEF, a WOl'k

written by the Abbe Richard, con-
fessor to Louis the Fourteenth and
Censeur Royal. "The Pere Josef,"
writes Richard, "advised His Eminence
to send somebody to Brussels, where
the Duchesse de Che'vreuse was stir-
ring up all kinds of conspiracies.
1 Good,' replied the Cardinal ; ' under-
take the work yourself, and send the
man as a Qapuchin.' ' Will you lend



The Cardinal's Agent.



315



me a sure agent ? ' asked Pere Josef ;
and the Cardinal, assenting, gave him
the Comte de Rochefort, who left for
the north at once, with orders to
obey the Capuchin father's orders to
the letter." Rochefort says that,
before proceeding on his journey, he
spent some time in the Capuchin
convent in the Rue St. Honore'. He
then set out on foot, in company with
some priests and novices, and reached
the Brussels convent of the order
after fifteen days' travel, sadly battered
by the long tramp, as well as by the
hard beds of the country, so that he
shocked the community by refusing to
leave his cell for forty-eight hours
after his arrival. Once recovered,
however, he allowed no grass to grow
under his feet, and managed to make
the acquaintance of Geoffrey, Marquis
de Laycques, the personal agent of
the Chevreuse. Laycques took a
great fancy to this unusually enter-
taining friar, and wished to make
him his confessor, an honour which
Rochefort, not being a priest, had to
regretfully decline. However, he in-
gratiated himself so well with Laycques
that the latter sent him to the French
border with papers containing com-
plete details of a plot to murder the
Cardinal. Rochefort found means to
send word to Pere Josef : the papers
were seized on their arrival in Paris ;
and Henri de Talleyrand, Comte de
Chalais, who had laid the plot with
Madame de Chevreuse, was brought
to the scaffold. No suspicion rested
on Rochefort, who remained for two
years longer in Brussels upsetting all
Marie Michon's little schemes one
after another. It was no doubt
wearisome that, in order to avert
every doubt, he should have to dig
in the convent-garden like the other
friars, observe fast-days religiously,
wield the knotted scourge, pray till
his knees were sore, and beg through
the streets for the benefit of the poor.



He bore all these hardships with forti-
tude, until one day, when leaving the
house of Madame de Chevreuse, he
came face to face with two gentlemen
whom he had known in Paris. One
of them, recognising him, exclaimed :
"HJ maisl Tis Rochefort himself,
as sure as I live." Without waiting
to hear more, the pseudo-friar hastened
round the nearest corner, and took to
his heels. At the first tailor's shop
he came to he bought suit, sword,
periwig, boots, and cravat, having
taken the precaution to always carry
a well-filled purse concealed about
him in readiness for such an emergency.
Then, sauntering forth in his new
finery, he hired post-horses, and rode
out of Brussels. His Parisian ac-
quaintance had already given the
alarm, and orders had been issued to
seize the Capuchin spy ; but the
agents of the Chevreuse hurried to
the convent, instead of to the gates,
and while everyone was looking for
a friar on foot, the fine gentleman on
horseback escaped unnoticed.

After his return to Paris Rochefort
became a more important personage
than ever in the Cardinal's household.
Richelieu, feeling doubtless that his
own end was nearing, desired to re-
ward this most faithful of his ad-
herents before it became too late.
As a result, Rochefort obtained for
his brother, Pierre-Antoirie, the rich
parish of St. Martin de-Saumont, for
three other brothers commissions in
the Cardinal's Guards, and for a sister
admission without a premium to the
convent of Montmartre. Finally,
being bidden to ask for himself
rather than for his relatives, he ex-
pressed a wish for a small pension
to secure him against want ; and
Richelieu invested in the Bank of
Lyons a sum sufficient to ensure him
one thousand francs a year for life.

An untoward event put a stop to
this flood of good fortune. Encounter-



316



The Cardinal's Agent.



ing one of the English cavaliers whom
he had tricked with his false saddle-
plates while carrying the Cardinal's
cipher to the Scots insurgents, Roche-
fort allowed himself to be drawn into
a quarrel, and a duel in the Bois de
Boulogne ensued. According to the
fashion, the Englishman brought two
friends to keep him company with
their swords ; and Rochefort invited
his two older brothers to perform a
like dangerous office. Rochefort suc-
ceeded in bringing off his three adver-
saries' swords ; but the victory was
at the cost of one brother killed on
the spot, while the other died soon
afterwards of his wounds. Needless
to say, Rochefort's stepmother felt
the loss of her sons bitterly, and ac-
cused him of having seduced them
into a duel out of hatred of herself.
But the rage of the Cardinal was
more to be dreaded, for he abomi-
nated duelling; and for the second
time Rochefort was forced to hide
himself from his patron's presence.
This time, however, the term of
disgrace was much shorter, and a
reconciliation was effected after only
three months' concealment.

The Cinq Mars episode was at its
height, and Richelieu had fallen into
disgrace with the King. Suspecting
that his enemies were traitorously
plotting with Spain, his Eminence
sent the forgiven Rochefort to
Luxembourg, then a hotbed of in-
trigue, to discover if possible who
was acting as agent in the Spanish
negotiations. Rochefort tramped to
Luxenbourg disguised as a beggar,
and, to avoid suspicion, scraped an
acquaintance with many real mendi-
cants upon the way. Arrived in the
city, he took up his station in the
Rue de Tournon, not far from the
house of the Spanish agent. It was
not long before he saw the Grand
Equerry, Cinq Mars, enter the house ;
and this piece of successful espionage



gave Richelieu his first positive reason
for suspecting the King's arrogant
young favourite of treason. Through
his gipsy allies Rochefort next learned
that papers of importance had been
sent into Spain. These, as the Car-
dinal guessed, included the treaty
signed by the Dukes of Orleans and
Bouillon and by Cinq Mars, and for-
warded to the Court of Madrid for
ratification. This precious document,
as we now know, spelled nothing less
than the opening of the gates to
Spanish invasion, the ruin of Riche-
lieu, and the transformation of Cinq
Mars into another Buckingham. If
only the Cardinal could procure the
ratified treaty on its way back from
Spain, the King might yet be warned
of the truth, and France saved. It
was to Rochefort that the Red Duke
turned in this dire emergency ; nor
did Rochefort disappoint his patron's
trust. Learning, probably through
gipsy-sources, that the messengers to
Cinq Mars were likely to enter France
by the coast-road past St. Jean de Luz
and Bayonne, he hurried to the latter
town and hired himself to an inn-
keeper there as a guide for persons
posting to and fro. Many weeks
passed before any suspicious person
presented himself, but Rochefort's
vigilance was ceaseless. Day and night
he scoured the roads into Spain, os-
tensibly looking for travellers in need
of guidance across the Adour. No
wayfarer went north whose features
were not closely scanned ; and many
an honest merchant, or sturdy
smuggler, had his papers and effects
overhauled, while he slept, by Roche-
fort or his agents. For a long time
no fish came into the net ; but one
night the Flemish accent of a lonely
courier speeding towards the north
aroused the false guide's suspicions.
Probably he offered the Fleming his
services, and was denied, which would
have formed an excellent pretext for



The Cardinal's Agent.



317



picking a quarrel. At all events a
quarrel there was, out of which the
courier came second best ; and quilted
in his boots Rochefort discovered the
original treaty with Spain, with the
signatures of Orleans, Bouillon, De
Thou, and Cinq Mars attached.

No time was to be lost. The King
was at the siege of Perpignan in
Roussillon. The Cardinal, practically
banished from Court, grievously ill,
but still unconquered and undaunted,
waited silently in Languedoc. To
him went Rochefort as fast as horses
could bear him ; and at sight of the
incriminating documents the Red
Duke rose from his sick-bed, for he
knew that once more he held his foes
in the hollow of his hand. Hardly
had Rochefort time to change his
reeking horse for a fresh one, before
he was sent at the gallop to the
King's camp at Perpignan, with the
Spanish treaty enclosed in a reproach-
ful letter from Richelieu. History
tells us the sequel. Cinq Mars and
De Thou were executed as traitors :
the Due de Bouillon only escaped
death by presenting his principality
of Sedan to France ; and the Cardinal
came back to Court in triumph. This
victory was his last. An unconquer-
able enemy was upon him ; and in a
little while he passed away, with
Rochefort standing by his bedside.
" He told me as he lay a-dying," so
run the Memoirs, " that he had always
loved me above all his followers, and
that it grieved him greatly not to
have done more for me." Before his
death Richelieu sent a message to
the King praying him to employ the
Vicomte de Rochefort, or at least to
see that this trusty servant came to
no hurt.

Hardly had the breath left the
Cardinal's body, when Rochefort was
approached by the agents of the
Queen and of the Duke of Orleans,
offering him employment. He would



not trust either, fearing that they
only wished to betray him to his
arch enemy, Madame de Chevreuse.
For a time he attached himself to
the young Duke of Richelieu ; but,
finding him a very different person
from the Cardinal, left his train for
that of the Duke of Beaufort. This
step brought him into instant dis-
favour with the rising star, Mazarin.
Setting out from Anet to Paris, in
September, 1643, with a message to
Beaufort's bankers, he was suddenly
arrested and conveyed to the Bastile.
The name of the person who effected
the arrest was Charles D'Artagnan,
then a cadet in the Guards, but
afterwards the famous Captain of
Musketeers.

For nearly six years Rochefort
cooled his heels in the Bastile, his
stepmother preventing his father and
brothers from making any efforts in
his behalf. At last, hearing the roar
of the Fronde even in his cell, he
bribed a certain old book-dealer, who
visited the prison, into bringing him
a rope. With this he swung himself
into the Bastile ditch, swam as best
he could through the filthy water,
and succeeded in entering Paris
through the Porte St. Martin. This
exploit was performed under cover of
darkness, and Rochefort spent the
first hours of his freedom sleeping
under a stall in the markets. At
daybreak he found a lodging with
friends in the Faubourg St. Germain.
Paris was in an uproar, barricades
and chains being across every street.
The Duke of Beaufort, now the idol
of the mob, caused a bill of pardon
to be passed in favour of Mazarin's
late prisoner, and found for him a
lieutenancy in the Civic Guard. A
week or two later he was back at his
old trade of secret agent, sent by the
Fronde to Belgium to secure the aid
of the Archduke. But here he en-
countered Madame de Chevreuse, who



318



The Cardinal's Agent.



paid him back her old score by suc-
cessfully intriguing against him.

Meanwhile il illustrissimo Signor
facchino, as Conde nicknamed Mazarin,
had been practising a characteristic
revenge upon Rochefort. The Vis-
count's source of income, the money
lodged by Richelieu in the Bank of
Lyons, was seized by Bellinzani (the
Rochefort of the new regime) upon
forged evidences of debt. In order
to raise sufficient money to carry the
matter before the Privy Council,
Rochefort rode to the paternal home
in Orleans, but was flouted by his
stepmother. He next turned to his
brother, the Abbe Pierre-Antoine,
whose parish he had been the means
of securing. The Abbe kept three
packs of hounds, two huntsmen, and
a number of horses ; but he could not
spare one crown to the brother who
had made him what he was. Roche-
fort was about to sell his nag and
tramp back to Paris, when the village
priest on his father's estate, successor
to the old man who had taught him
to read, came forward voluntarily
with a loan of ten pistoles. By the
time the Viscount reached Paris,
Mazarin had fled with the Queen ;
and, through Beaufort's influence the
Bank of Lyons was compelled to
restore the full sum invested in
Rochefort's behalf by his former
patron.

In the fight at the Porte St.
Antoine, on July 2nd, 1652, our
hero led a company of the Civic
Guard ; but certain events causing
him to more than suspect the courage
of Beaufort, he took occasion soon
afterwards to make peace with the
devil, or, in other words, to offer his
services to Mazarin. The offer was
accepted, and he was sent to Bordeaux
to attempt to bring over the Prince
de Conti. In taking service under
the Signor Facchino, he informs us,
he was acting against the earnest



advice of two of his closest friends,
D'Artagnan and M. de Besmaux
(the latter afterwards governor of
the Bastile). Both of these worthies
warned him that they had served the
Cardinal for years without gain or
preferment, and that they had scarcely
enough to buy their dinner with, let
alone what would take them back
decently to Gascony. Yet, in spite
of sundry periods of disgrace (one of
them caused by a frolic highway
robbery, then a fashionable after-
supper amusement, in which Orleans
and the Comte d'Harcourt were ring-
leaders,) Rochefort appears to have
fared not ill at Mazarin's hands.
After a severe duel with M. de
Breaute', the Cardinal sent him his
own surgeon and a present of five
hundred crowns. He was given a
troop of horse in Turenne's army, but
only served two years, Mazarin send-
ing him to Brussels to detach M. de
Marsan from the Spanish service. On
this delicate mission he was captured
by the enemy, and remained a prisoner
at Rocroy until delivered by the
general peace on November 7th, 1657.
Reinstated in favour, he had the
misfortune to engage in a fatal duel
with one of Mazarin's Italian con-
fidants, and was forced to take refuge
in a convent (said to have been that
of the Capuchins) where he made
believe to enter the novitiate. After
the Cardinal's death, in March, 1661,
he emerged from the cloister, and
Louis the Fifteenth, hearing his story
through the Comte de Charost, restored
to him his troop of horse.

At the close of 1663 Rochefort
was summoned to the deathbed of
his father, and, in spite of his step-
mother's endeavours, some sort of
reconciliation was effected between
the two. After the Count's decease
in the following year Cesar entered
into possession as heir, and set his
seal upon the title-deeds, charters,



The Cardinal's Agent.



and other papers ; but, to everyone's
surprise, his stepmother suddenly
produced a number of acknowledg-
ments, signed apparently by her late
husband, of large loans from her
own sons, relatives, and certain
lawyers of her acquaintance. The
total amount of these alleged debts,
curiously enough, tallied almost to
a pistole with the Count's estate.
Naturally Rochefort took the case to
law, but, as his father's signatures
were genuine, Madame de St. Point
entered into possession of all, save
the bare title which remained to
her stepson. Not satisfied with this
victory, she got Rochefort clapped
into prison for the costs of the action,
which he could not, or would not,
pay. When he was released, it was
to go to the Low Countries in the
capacity of aide-de-camp to Turenne,
and he was recruitipg levies in Alsace
when his friend D'Artagnan was
killed outside Maestricht, on June
25th, 1673.

Rochefort was sixty years of age
when Turenne died in 1675 ; but he
did not abandon active service until
the signing of the Peace of Nimeguen
three years later. A small pension
from the King, and the income from
Richelieu's gift, enabled him to live
comfortably, and to cut a modest
figure at Court. His stepmother being
dead, her sons held out the olive-
branch, and acknowledged him as the
lawful head of the family. He was
soon able to do them an important
favour. His eldest nephew, (after-
wards Jean-Amedee, Comte de Roche
fort-St. Point,) had, through an error
of judgment, permitted some Spaniards
to slip through his fingers. For this
he was court-martialed, and sentenced
to be shot. Count Cesar hurried to
Paris, and interceded for the young
man to such good purpose that Lou-
vois gave him a free pardon.

And now certain twinges of con-



science began to afflict the old gen-
tleman ; "I commenced," he says, " to
frequent church, and to reflect upon
death." For his soul's sake he took
a trip to Gueldres, in order to hear
a sermon by the famous Capuchin
preacher, Father Marc d'Aviceno ;
but, unfortunately, while witnessing
the arrival of the holy monk, our
pilgrim fell from an insecure scaffold-
ing and broke his arm badly. Not
long after he had two experiences
which turned his thoughts more than
ever towards religion. In the first
place, he fell into the hands of the
notorious gambler and blackleg, the
Chevalier de Bragellonne, and was.
plucked of half a year's income ; in
the second, he fell in love, and love
at seventy is a serious matter. He
was accepted, for he was comfortably
off, and could not in the nature of
things live very long ; the marriage-
day had been fixed, when the aged
wooer accidentally discovered that the
young lady loved another. With his.
usual generosity, he released the girl,
presented her with a comfortable
dowry, and induced her parents to
consent to her union with his rival.
" And thus," conclude the Memoirs,
"ended this affair, which I should
still call unhappy, had it not very
much conduced to show me the vanity
of earthly things. Indeed, consider-
ing that nought is to be met with
here, save affliction, crosses, and dis-
content, I resolved to do that upon
which I had pondered so long. So,
at last, I am retired into a monastery >
where, burthened with years and
depressed with infirmities, I await
with patience the good time when it
shall please Almighty God to take me
to Himself."

The religious house in which the
shattered Comte de Rochefort found
refuge was, according to the anti-
quaries, that same convent of the
Capuchins in the Rue St. Honore" to.



320



The Cardinal's Agent.



which Father Joseph had sent him
to prepare for his campaign against
Madame de Chevreuse many years
before. He did not linger long at
this retreat. No doubt his reflec-
tions were for the most part upon
Heaven and eternity, but it is hard
to believe that the man's thoughts
did not sometimes stray from the
paths of pious meditation, that now
and then some flicker of fancy did not
light up for him the stirring past.
A stern face may have glanced at
him from beneath its red biretta, a
soldierly figure with spurs jingling
under priestly robes may have swept
through the penitent's dreams, and
brought back memories of Richelieu.
And the other Cardinal, Signer Fac-



chino of the close fist and furtive eye,
did not Rochefort think of him ?
Marie Michon de Chevreuse, was she
forgotten? Stout Charles D'Artagnan,
with his Gascon swagger, came he
never to curse Mazarin in the Capu-
chin's cell ? Be sure that all of them
were there, all the old foes and old
friends, to keep Brother Cesar's knees
from his priedieu, and to summon
forth his blood for a last sortie from
its beleaguered citadel.

During the early spring of 1687
the Comte de Rochefort died peace-
fully in his cell, and was laid to rest
among the brethren in the convent-
garden of the Rue St. Honore.

GERALD BRENAN.



MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE.



MARCH, 1901.

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