and then alone. This policy has not always been over-honest,
it must be allowed, but it has never been unskillful. Now
that which is proposed to your majesty is dishonest and
unskillful at the same time.”
“Dishonest, monsieur!”
“Sire, you entered into a treaty with Cromwell.”
“Yes, and in that very treaty Cromwell signed his name above
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mine.”
“Why did you sign yours so low down, sire? Cromwell found a
good place, and he took it; that was his custom. I return,
then, to M. Cromwell. You have a treaty with him, that is to
say, with England, since when you signed that treaty M.
Cromwell was England.”
“M. Cromwell is dead.”
“Do you think so, sire?”
“No doubt he is, since his son Richard has succeeded him,
and has abdicated.”
“Yes, that is it exactly. Richard inherited after the death
of his father, and England at the abdication of Richard. The
treaty formed part of the inheritance, whether in the hands
of M. Richard or in the hands of England. The treaty is,
then, still as good, as valid as ever. Why should you evade
it, sire? What is changed? Charles wants to-day what we were
not willing to grant him ten years ago; but that was
foreseen and provided against. You are the ally of England,
sire, and not of Charles II. It was doubtless wrong, from a
family point of view, to sign a treaty with a man who had
cut off the head of the king your father’s brother-in-law,
and to contract an alliance with a parliament which they
call yonder the Rump Parliament; it was unbecoming, I
acknowledge, but it was not unskillful from a political
point of view, since, thanks to that treaty, I saved your
majesty, then a minor, the trouble and danger of a foreign
war, which the Fronde — you remember the Fronde sire?” —
the young king hung his head — “which the Fronde might have
fatally complicated. And thus I prove to your majesty that
to change our plan now; without warning our allies, would be
at once unskillful and dishonest. We should make war with
the aggression on our side, we should make it, deserving to
have it made against us, and we should have the appearance
of fearing it whilst provoking it, for a permission granted
to five hundred men, to two hundred men, to fifty men, to
ten men, is still a permission. One Frenchman, that is the
nation; one uniform, that is the army. Suppose, sire, for
example, that, sooner or later, you should have war with
Holland, which, sooner or later, will certainly happen; or
with Spain, which will perhaps ensue if your marriage fails”
(Mazarin stole a furtive glance at the king), “and there are
a thousand causes that might yet make your marriage fail, —
well, would you approve of England’s sending to the United
Provinces or to Spain a regiment, a company, a squadron
even, of English gentlemen? Would you think that they kept
within the limits of their treaty of alliance?”
Louis listened; it seemed so strange to him that Mazarin
should invoke good faith, and he the author of so many
political tricks, called Mazarinades. “And yet,” said the
king, “without any manifest authorization, I cannot prevent
gentlemen of my states from passing over into England, if
such should be their good pleasure.”
“You should compel them to return, sire, or at least protest
against their presence as enemies in an allied country.”
“But come, my lord cardinal, you who are so profound a
genius, try if you cannot find means to assist this poor
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king, without compromising ourselves.”
“And that is exactly what I am not willing to do, my dear
sire,” said Mazarin. “If England were to act exactly
according to my wishes, she could not act better than she
does; if I directed the policy of England from this place, I
should not direct it otherwise. Governed as she is governed,
England is an eternal nest of contention for all Europe.
Holland protects Charles II., let Holland do so; they will
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