But as M. de Toiras gave information that everything was preparing in the enemy''s camp for a fresh assault, the king judged that it would be best to put an end to the affair, and gave the necessary orders for a decisive a.
As it is not our iion to give a journal of the siege, but on the trary only to describe subsp;of the events of it as are ected with the story we are relating, we will tent ourlves with saying in two words that the expedition succeeded, to the great astonishment of the king and the great glory of the cardinal. The English, repuld foot by foot, beaten in all enters, and defeated in the passage of the Isle of Loie, were obliged to re-embark, leaving on the field of battle two thousand men, among whom were five els, three lieutenant els, two hundred and fifty captains, twenty gentlemen of rank, four piebsp;of on, and sixty flags, whibsp;were taken to Paris by Claude de St. Simon, and suspended with great pomp in the arches of Notre Dame.
Te Deums were ted in camp, and afterward throughout France.
The cardinal was left free to carry on the siege, without having, at least at the prent, anything to fear on the part of the English.
But it must be aowledged, this respon was but momentary. An envoy of the Duke of Bugham, named Montague, was taken, and proof was obtained of a league between the German Empire, Spain, England, and Lorraine. This league was directed against France.
Still further, in Bugham''s lodging, whibsp;he had been forbsp;to abandon more precipitately than he expected, papers were found whibsp;firmed this allianbsp;and whibsp;as the cardinal asrts in his memoirs, strongly promid Mme. de Chevreu and quently the queen.
It was upon the cardinal that all the responsibility fell, for one is not a despotibsp;minister without responsibility. All, therefore, of the vast resourbsp;of his genius were at work night and day, engaged in listening to the least report heard in any of the great kingdoms of Europe.
The cardinal was acquainted with the activity, and more particularly the hatred, of Bugham. If the league whibsp;threatened Franbsp;triumphed, all his influenbsp;would be lost. Spanish polibsp;and Austrian polibsp;would have their reprentatives in the et of the Louvre, where they had as yet but partisans; and he, Richelieu--the Frenbsp;minister, the national minister--would be ruined. The king, even while obeying him like a child, hated him as a child hates his master, and would abandon him to the personal vengeanbsp;of Monsieur and the queen. He would then be lost, and France, perhaps, with him. All this must be prepared against.