Mazarin had done well in supposing that there would be some advantage in intermarrying the junior branches as a means of ending the family quarrels.
I have learned from different sources [he wrote to the Queen] that Mademoiselle's marriage to the King would arrange everything. Le Tellier[155] came expressly to see me; he came from Retz and the Princess Palatine and for that very purpose. And the others also have written to me about it; but if the King and the Queen have the same feeling in regard to that matter that they did have, I do not think that it would be easy to arrange it (7th January, 1652).
Mazarin dared not insist; he felt that he was no longer in a posture where he could indulge in displeasing exactions. While Parliament was rendering decisions against Mazarin, the people close to the Queen were working to obliterate his image from her heart, and their efforts were successful.[156] They occupied the Queen's mind with other friends, the thought of whom filled Mazarin with the torments of jealousy. He was in retreat in Brühl. May 11th he wrote to the Queen: "I wish that I could express the hatred that I feel for the mischief-makers who are unceasingly working to make you forget me so that we shall never meet again."
The 6th July Mazarin had heard that Lyonne had boasted that he pleased the Queen, and he wrote:
If they could make me believe such a thing either I should die of grief or I should go away to the end of the world. If you could see me you would pity me ... there are so many things to torment me so that I can hardly bear it. For instance, I know that you have several times asked Lyonne why he does not take the Cardinal's apartments,[157] showing your tenderness for him because he gets wet passing through the court. I have endured the horrors of two sleepless nights because of that!
Mazarin spoke passionately of his love; he told the Queen that he was "dying" for her; that his only joy was to read and re-read her letters, and that he "wept tears of blood" when they seemed cold; although, as he said, he knew that no one on earth could break the tie that bound them. We have none of the Queen's answers, but we know that they called forth Mazarin's despairing declaration that he should return to Rome. Three weeks later the Queen caused the King to sign a declaration which the betrayed lover answered by a pathetic letter.
26th September. I have taken my pen ten times to write to you ... I could not ... I could not ... I am so wretched ... I am so beside myself at the mortal blow that you have given me, that I do not know that there will be any sense in what I say. By an authenticated act the King and the Queen have declared me a traitor, a public thief, a being inadequate to his office, an enemy to the repose of Christianity.... Even now that declaration is sounding all over Europe, and the most faithful, the most devoted Minister, is held up before the world as a scoundrel ... an infamous villain. I no longer hope for happiness or for rest. I ask for nothing but my honour. Give that back to me and let them take the rest.... Let them strip me, even to my shirt ... I will renounce all—cardinalates—benefices,—everything! if I can stand with sustained honour ... as I was before I dreamed of your love.
Time passed, and Mazarin regained his senses, "made arrows of all sorts of wood," raised an army, and entered France. As he drew near Poitiers, where the Court was staying, the Queen's heart softened, and when he arrived she had been at her window an hour watching for him.