yet know what he wants; we have a queen blinded by a belated passion; we have a minister who governs France as he would govern a great farm — that is to say, intent only on turning out all the gold he can by the exercise of Italian cunning and invention; we have princes who set up a personal and egotistic opposition, who will draw from Mazarin’s hands only a few ingots of gold or some shreds of power granted as bribes. I have served them without enthusiasm — God knows that I estimated them at their real value, and that they are not high in my esteem — but on principle. To-day I am engaged in a different affair. I have encountered misfortune in a high place, a royal misfortune, a European misfortune; I attach myself to it.

If we can succeed in saving the king it will be good; if we die for him it will be grand.”