The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz — Volume 1 [Historic court memoirs] eBook
Jean François Paul de Gondi de Retz
It being his fate to be imprisoned by Mazarin, first
at Vincennes and then at Nantes, he made his escape
to Rome, and in 1656 retired to Franche Comte, where
Cardinal Mazarin gave orders for his being arrested;
upon which he posted to Switzerland, and thence to
Constance, Strasburg, Ulm, Augsburg, Frankfort, and
Cologne, to which latter place Mazarin sent men to
take him dead or alive; whereupon he retired to Holland,
and made a trip from one town to another till 1661,
when, Cardinal Mazarin dying, our Cardinal went as
far as Valenciennes on his way to Paris, but was not
suffered to come further; for the King and Queen-mother
would not be satisfied without his resignation of
the archbishopric of Paris, to which he at last submitted
upon advantageous terms for himself and an amnesty
for all his adherents. But still the Court carried
it so severely to the Cardinal that they would not
let him go and pay his last devoirs to his father
when on his dying bed. At length, however, after
abundance of solicitation, he had leave to go and
wait upon the King and Queen, who, on the death of
Pope Alexander VII., sent him to Rome to assist at
the election of his successor.
No wonder that King Charles II. of England promised
to intercede for the Cardinal’s reestablishment;
for when the royal family were starving, as it were,
in their exile at Paris, De Retz did more for them
than all the French Court put together; and, upon
the King’s promise to take the Roman Catholics
of England under his protection after his restoration,
he sent an abbot to Rome to solicit the Pope to lend
him money, and to dispose the English Catholics in
his favour.
He would fain have returned his hat to the new Pope,
but his Holiness, at the solicitation of Louis XIV.,
ordered him to keep it. After this he chose
a total retirement, lived with exemplary piety, considerably
retrenched his expenses, and hardly allowed himself
common necessaries, in order to save money to pay
off a debt of three millions, which he had the happiness
to discharge, and to balance all accounts with the
world before his death, which happened at Paris on
the 24th of August, 1679, in the 65th year of his
age.
HISTORIC COURT MEMOIRS.
CARDINAL DE RETZ.
BOOK I.
Madame:—Though I have a natural aversion
to give you the history of my own life, which has
been chequered with such a variety of different adventures,
yet I had rather sacrifice my reputation to the commands
of a lady for whom I have so peculiar a regard than
not disclose the most secret springs of my actions
and the inmost recesses of my soul.
