[19] London, 1790. It is known that Soulavie used the notes and papers of the Marshal de Richelieu with such bad faith, that the Duke de Fronsac launched an energetic protest against his father’s ex-secretary.
[20] “Account of the birth and education of the unfortunate prince removed by the Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin from society, and imprisoned by order of Louis XIV., composed by the governor of the prince on his deathbed.” (Mémoires du Maréchal de Richelieu, vol. iii. chap. 4.)
[21] This story is closely reproduced in Grimm’s Correspondence, on the assumed authority of an original letter from the Duchess de Modena, daughter of the Regent d’Orléans, said to have been found by M. de la Borde, a former valet-de-chambre of Louis XV., among the papers of Marshal Richelieu, who was the Duchess’s lover.—See Corespondence Littéraire, Philosophique, &c., de Grunen et de Diderot, vol. xiv., pp. 419-23. Paris, 1831.—Trans.
[22] Mercure de France.
[23] Le Masque de Fer of MM. Arnould and Fournier, played with great success at the Odéon Theatre in 1831.
[24] Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, by Alexander Dumas.
[25] Histoire de France, vol. xii. p. 435. “If Louis XVI. told Marie-Antoinette that nothing was any longer known about him, it is because, understanding her well, he had little desire of this secret being sent to Vienna. Very probably the child was an elder brother of Louis XIV., and his birth obscured the question (important to them) of knowing if their ancestor, Louis XIV., had reigned legitimately.”
[26] I shall not examine in detail the hypothesis which makes him a child of Anne of Austria and Mazarin, since it is abandoned even by those who are the most eager to see a brother of Louis XIV. in the prisoner. “It is doubtful,” says M. Michelet, “if the prisoner had been a younger brother of Louis XIV., a son of the Queen and Mazarin, whether the succeeding kings would have kept the secret so well.” Moreover, the general arguments which I shall advance in Chapter V. will apply equally to a son of Mazarin, of Buckingham, or of Louis XIII.
CHAPTER II.
First Hypothesis—Portrait of Buckingham—Causes of his Visit to France—Ardour with which he was received—His Passion for Anne of Austria—Character of this Princess—Journey to Amiens—Scene in the Garden—The Remembrance that Anne of Austria preserved of it.