CHAPTER XII

The Villarceaux Affair


Party politics raged around Ninon, her "Birds" being men of high rank
and leaders with a large following. They were all her dearest friends,
however, and no matter how strong personal passion was beyond her
immediate presence, her circle was a neutral ground which no one
thought of violating. It required her utmost influence and tenderness,
however, to prevent outbreaks, but her unvarying sweetness of temper
and disposition to all won their hearts into a truce for her sake.
There were continual plots hatched against the stern rule of
Richelieu, cabals and conspiracies without number were entered upon,
but none of them resulted in anything. Richelieu knew very well what
was going on, and he realized perfectly that Ninon's drawing-rooms
were the center of every scheme concocted to drag him down and out of
the dominant position he was holding against the combined nobility of
France. But he never took a step toward suppressing her little court
as a hot-bed of restlessness, he rather encouraged her by his silence
and his indifference. Complaints of her growing coterie of uneasy
spirits brought nothing from him but: "As long as they find amusements
they are not dangerous." It was the forerunner of Napoleon's idea
along the same line: "We must amuse the people; then they will not
meddle with our management of the government."

It is preposterous to think of this minister of peace, this restless