La
Rochefoucauld's support of the rebellion frankly and openly was based
upon it.
La Rochefoucauld brings the first part of his "Memoires" down to 1649.
In the second part he begins again with 1642, being very anxious to
show, to his own advantage of course, what the conditions were at
court after the deaths of Richelieu and Louis XIII., and in particular
to define the position of Mme de Chevreuse, the great intriguer and
seductress of the French politics of the age. The charm of this lady,
who was no longer young, faded before that of the Duchess of
Longueville, one of the most ambitious and most unscrupulous women who
ever lived. She was the sister of the Prince de Conti, and from the
time when her celebrated relations with La Rochefoucauld began, her
influence engaged him in all the unplumbed chaos which led to civil
war. When this finally broke out, however, in 1648, the Duke is found
once more on the side of the young king and his government, that is to
say, of Cardinal Mazarin.
Through the "universal hubbub wide of stunning sounds and noises all
confused," we can catch with difficulty the accents of literature, at
first indeed vocal in the midst of the riot, and even stimulated by
it, as birds are by a heavy shower of rain, but soon stunned and
silenced by horrors incompatible with the labour of the Muses.
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