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Thomas Jeegers

Understanding Crypto Fundamentals

Value Investing in Cryptoassets and Management of
Underlying Risks
Thomas Jeegers
Vienna, Austria

ISBN 978-1-4842-9308-9 e-ISBN 978-1-4842-9309-6

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9309-6

© Thomas Jeegers 2023

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively
licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is
concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in
any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
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dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks,

service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the
absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the
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The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the
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The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY
10004, U.S.A.
To you, the readers who take their financial future into their hands
Disclaimer
This book is not a recommendation to buy cryptoassets but rather a
structured analysis of what they are, why they may be appropriate for
some investors, and what such investors ought to consider. In this
regard, several disclaimers are necessary.
First, I am not a financial advisor. The contents of this book should
be regarded as educational, not as financial advice.
Second, cryptoassets are subject to high price volatility and more
legal uncertainty than traditional investments. Facing this volatility and
uncertainty is not appropriate for all investors.
Third, the cryptoasset space is evolving very rapidly. Every effort
was made to provide up-to-date sources at the time of publication.
However, it may no longer be the case when you read these lines. I can,
therefore, hold no responsibility for outdated information or decisions
(financial or otherwise) made based on the material covered in this
book.
Any investor, in cryptoassets or otherwise, should assess whether a
particular investment fits one’s specific needs. They include risk-return
characteristics, liquidity, time horizon, tax status, and other unique
features. Any investment should be considered as part of the investor’s
total portfolio, not as an independent investment. Furthermore, one is
responsible for doing one’s own investment research, especially in
regard to understanding the underlying risks. If you do not have the
ability or desire to perform such an assessment, refer to a financial
advisor who could tailor portfolio recommendations based on your
unique needs and characteristics.
Preface
I decided not to invest in cryptoassets—many times. However, recent
developments changed my mind.
On a Saturday evening in the autumn of 2012, I sat with friends for a
session of our newly-formed think tank in Brussels. It was my turn to
bring up a mind-provoking topic. Our group had diverse expertise
ranging from engineering to IT and physics. Leveraging my economics
background, that day’s topic was the revolutionary potential of
complementary currencies. Indeed, monetary systems working in
parallel to a traditional single-currency model can benefit local
communities in countless ways. At the time, I was not even aware of
Bitcoin’s existence. Still years ahead of cryptoassets becoming
mainstream, alternative currencies were an obscure idea that needed to
emerge.
This visionary concept would change everything. In the same way
steam, electricity, and the Internet triggered the first, second, and third
industrial revolutions, reframing society’s use of currencies could
initiate a fourth industrial revolution.
A couple of months later, I heard about Bitcoin for the first time
during an economic conference in Zurich. Yet, despite my unwavering
belief in alternative currencies’ potential, I considered that this new
digital currency was not worth its trading price, $70 apiece.
I then specialized in regulatory risk management and eventually
became the local expert on blockchain technology in Germany’s third-
largest bank. However, given the underlying risks, I still argued in April
2016 that $430 per bitcoin was grossly overpriced. Despite blockchain’s
promising future, this nascent technology could not be relied upon to
replace current ways of working in finance or our monetary system.
Yet.
Even after completing an MBA in Singapore in 2018, I doubted
investing in cryptoassets was worth the risk. I believed that past
returns orders of magnitude above the highest-performing traditional
asset class did not justify the lack of fundamentals. Ultimately, Bitcoin
and other cryptoassets relied exclusively on trust that a peer-to-peer
network would keep working. Too much could go wrong. While Bitcoin
was a fascinating use case of technology as a monetary system, its
likelihood of failure was exceptionally high.
During 2021’s market bull run, Bitcoin and other cryptoassets made
the headlines again. Thanks to recent developments in the cryptoasset
industry, their adoption skyrocketed. Institutions formerly loudly
advocating against cryptocurrencies changed their mind. Many of these
institutions started offering cryptoasset services; some even invested
considerable amounts in such assets.
Another increase in value ensued. By one order of magnitude. For
the seventh time in a decade.
The last few years passed multiple milestones in cryptoasset
history. We witnessed El Salvador become the first country to adopt
Bitcoin as legal tender, and the financial industry evolved to leverage
cryptoassets’ potential. It established cryptoassets as an asset class.
Regulatory uncertainty dropped, likely making cryptoassets the asset
class with the most attractive risk-adjusted expected return.
For a decade, I have been too risk-averse to dare set foot in the
crypto arena. However, still highly risk-conscious, I believe it is now
time to step in for most investors—even risk-averse ones like me.
And I am not the only one who feels this way.

I don’t think there is anything more important in my lifetime to

work on [than Bitcoin].
—Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Block (previously Square)
June 4, 2021, Bitcoin 2021 Conference

Bitcoin is a bank in cyberspace, run by incorruptible software,

offering a global, affordable, simple, & secure savings account to
billions of people that don’t have the option or desire to run their
own hedge fund.
—Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy December 17, 2020,
Twitter

Paper money is going away. And crypto is a far better way to

transfer value than a piece of paper, that’s for sure.
—Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter February 19,
2019, interview with ARK Invest
 Something like bitcoin is going to be successful, and it’s going to
enable a whole new way of doing finance.
—Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group October 21,
2016, Twitter

PayPal had these goals of creating a new currency. We failed at

that, and we just created a new payment system. I think Bitcoin
has succeeded on the level of a new currency, but the payment
system is somewhat lacking.
—Peter Thiel, Co-founder of PayPal, February 2015, interview
with The Buttonwood Gathering

[Bitcoin] is a remarkable cryptographic achievement. The ability

to create something which is not duplicable in the digital world
has enormous value.
—Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, March 2014, Computer
History Museum

Bitcoin is the beginning of something great: a currency without a

government, something necessary and imperative.
—Nassim Taleb, New York Times best-selling author March 20,
2013, Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit.com

I think the Internet is going to be one of the major forces for

reducing the role of government. The one thing that’s missing, but
that will soon be developed, is a reliable e-cash, a method whereby
on the Internet you can transfer funds from A to B without A
knowing B or B knowing A…
—Milton Friedman, Economics Nobel Prize laureate 1999,
interview with the NTU
This book started as my notes on the optimal crypto investment
strategy. It uncovers the exceptional potential of cryptoassets and their
specific risks. Debunk the myths, set up a meaningful investment
portfolio, and get to terms with this volatile new world.

Feedback
I welcome any feedback and suggestions for possible future editions of
the book. Please feel free to share any thoughts by emailing me at
[email protected].
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Introduction
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
—Benjamin Franklin

Fundamental analysis is the concept of thoroughly researching an

asset’s economic value and the drivers for its price. In the case of a
stock, it involves understanding the underlying company’s business and
financial statements. In the case of a commodity, it involves
understanding the commodity’s inventory and seasonal cycles,
government policies, and related markets, as well as the drivers of
supply and demand for it. The fundamentals of a stock and the
fundamentals of a commodity are therefore wildly different.
Likewise, the fundamentals of cryptoassets are also unique. They
involve understanding how digital information can have value, what
drives this value, and how the cryptoasset ecosystem impacts it.
However, similarly to any tradable asset, the market price of a
cryptoasset ultimately boils down to supply and demand.
Fundamental analysis is used for long-term investment. It differs
fundamentally from technical analysis, which analyses an asset’s
monthly, weekly, daily, or even intra-daily price patterns to predict
short-term moves. In other words, fundamental analysis is the
investor’s tool, the same way technical analysis is the speculator’s tool.
Assets subject to fundamental and technical analyses span debt to
equity, real estate to derivative products, currencies to traded funds,
and any security. Of course, cryptoassets do not escape scrutiny.
However, they differ in the type of asset at hand. In particular,
blockchain technology makes Bitcoin the first digital asset that is scarce
and cannot be counterfeit. It is achieved by decentralizing the asset,
meaning that there is no unique network owner. Through an ingenious
combination of multiple technologies, it enables worldwide transfers of
value settled in minutes and permanently, without requiring any
intermediary. These characteristics make Bitcoin and other
cryptoassets the logical next milestones in the development of a global
society’s monetary and financial system. It is not a revolution but rather
an evolution—the natural next step in the history of money and finance.
They not only offer monetary digitalization but also, and much more
importantly, decentralization.
As this book covers in detail, decentralization makes cryptoassets
the base for a strictly superior monetary model compared to paper-
based currencies emitted by governmental entities or private banks.
Indeed, with sufficient adoption, cryptoassets offer greater value in all
three core functions of money: unit of account, store of value, and
medium of exchange.
In addition, the consequences of this disruption reach far beyond
the monetary system. In an increasingly digital society, sharing digital
assets needs fair and transparent rules. It is not only valid for money
but also for identity, property titles, music, and art, among many other
use cases. As a result, virtually all industries will be impacted, directly
or indirectly, by cryptoassets and their underlying technology,
blockchain. In particular, Chapter 3 presents multiple ways blockchain
technology revolutionizes the world as a driver for the greater good.
This book primarily covers the potential of cryptoassets as part of
the next monetary system and as a new asset class for investments. In
particular, it analyzes cryptoassets from an economic and financial
perspective, following principles of value investing. In other words, the
aim is to identify what this new asset class is worth. The book identifies
and measures fundamental pillars of cryptoassets to help assess their
genuine value. It also balances the picture by highlighting the
underlying risks, both financial and non-financial. Specifically, it is
structured following critical questions that any investor, experienced or
new, should ask before investing. Why is this asset class valuable? What
is this asset class made of? When is the right time to invest? Where
should one invest? How should one invest in terms of investment
strategy and risk management? And finally, which valuation methods
exist and are appropriate for cryptoassets? This book does not
recommend any particular investment but provides the framework
necessary to make more informed cryptoasset investment decisions. It
enables an understanding of why they have true economic value and
hints at how to measure it. It is the starting point for serious long-term
cryptoasset investors rather than the answer for short-term
speculators looking for get-rich-quick schemes.
 Besides, outstanding cryptoasset resources already exist. This book
does not seek to replace but rather complement them with a focus on
value investing. Covering technical aspects of cryptoassets and
blockchain technology too deeply would divert the focus from this
book’s purpose. All intricacies behind this technology would barely
even fit in a book of their own. Therefore, this book only covers
blockchain technology’s high-level functioning. In particular, it does not
cover the following topics.
Advanced cryptography and dApps programming. Interested readers
and programmers should refer to the in-depth book Mastering
Blockchain by Imran Bashir [1].
Non-fungible tokens (NFT). Interested readers should refer to The
NFT Handbook by Fortnow and Terry [2].
Cryptoasset taxation. Tax considerations of cryptoassets are wildly
different for every country and rapidly evolving. Interested readers
can refer to the extensive book Taxation of Crypto Assets by Schmidt,
Bernstein, Richter, and Zarlenga, second edition (2023), covering tax
law for cryptoassets in over 40 countries [3].
Technical analysis (TA). The book focuses on the long term, not short-
term horizons considered in technical analysis. The macro thesis
presented here will likely take several years, possibly decades, to play
out. Short-horizon crypto traders should refer to books on swing
trading (short term) or breakout trading (medium term).
Since Bitcoin is the first cryptoasset and because its market value is
roughly half of all cryptoassets’ value combined, there is a
corresponding focus on this particular asset. Nevertheless, many more
cryptoassets followed in Bitcoin’s wake, with purposes extending much
beyond Bitcoin’s original value proposition.
As the author, I feel compelled to highlight that what I do not know
about cryptoassets is much broader than what I do know. In particular,
while I have superficial experience in these fields, I am neither a
programmer nor a professional investor with decades of experience. In
addition, the exceptional pace of development of the cryptoasset
industry makes it impossible to closely follow all things happening in
the cryptoasset space. Nevertheless, I believe this book makes a
compelling case for cryptoassets, their rightful place in a balanced
investment portfolio, and the risks investors face as of 2023.
Some readers may believe they missed the opportunity. Many
teenage cryptomillionaires made the headlines over the last decade.
Some early investors and innovators even became billionaires through
the early gains of the industry. As this book shows, it is not too late to
profit from the innovation, far from it. Actually, it is just the beginning.
If a human life represented the development of cryptoassets, it would
currently be at the toddler stage. It can barely stand on its own feet, but
it still has a lifetime of development ahead. Crises will surely pave its
teenage years, but the best is yet to come.
Regardless of one’s opinion on cryptoassets, their proof of concept
redefines how we think about trust. The technology behind them could
become the most transformational innovation for society since the
Internet—not big data, artificial intelligence, or self-driving cars but
blockchain. What was once in the hands of a powerful few, for better or
worse, can now be in everybody’s hands—or nobody’s hands,
depending on how one looks at it.
Table of Contents
Part I: Why Consider Crypto Investments?
Chapter 1:​A Brief History of Money
Chapter 2:​Complementary Currencies
Chapter 3:​Blockchain As a Force for Good
Chapter 4:​Portfolio Management Primer
Part II: What Are Cryptoassets?
Chapter 5:​Birth of a New Asset Class
Chapter 6:​Blockchain Basics
Chapter 7:​Cryptoasset Taxonomies
Chapter 8:​Cryptoasset Investment Types
Part III: When Is a Good Time to Invest?
Chapter 9:​Crypto Trends
Chapter 10:​Prime Time
Part IV: Where Should One Invest?
Chapter 11:​Investment Vehicles
Part V: How Should One Invest?
Chapter 12:​Investment Strategies
Chapter 13:​Non-Financial Risk Management
Chapter 14:​Financial Risk Management
Part VI: Which Valuation Methods Exist?
Chapter 15:​Assessment Framework
Chapter 16:​Value Investing in Cryptoassets
Chapter 17:​Concluding Remarks
Part VII: Appendices
Appendix A:​Precursors of Cryptoassets
Appendix B:​Bitcoin’s Replacement Cost Valuation
Appendix C:​Financial Products Applied to Crypto
Acronyms and Abbreviations
References
Index
About the Author
Thomas Jeegers
studied economics and computer
science, with master’s degrees from the
Catholic University of Louvain and
Maastricht University and an MBA from
INSEAD.
Specialized in financial risk
management and blockchain technology,
Thomas has worked in finance for the
past ten years. In parallel to his work, he
completed the advanced financial
certifications Chartered Financial
Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk
Manager (FRM), as well as multiple
blockchain certifications from
institutions including INSEAD and
Oxford University. He is now also a
frequent speaker at events on blockchain and cryptoassets.
About the Technical Reviewer
Yamini Sagar
is the founder/CEO of Instarails, a
company that provides instant global
payment rails. She has over 20 years of
experience in tech, blockchain, and
payments and has a track record of
building innovative products. Yamini has
worked at renowned companies like
Intercontinental Exchange NYSE, BitPay,
and Bakkt. She has been an amateur
investor in cryptos since 2018, and her
favorite is Bitcoin. When she’s not
working, Yamini enjoys reading about
emerging technologies and sharing her
insights on the latest trends.
Part I
Why Consider Crypto Investments?
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer
Nature 2023
T. Jeegers, Understanding Crypto Fundamentals
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9309-6_1

1. A Brief History of Money

Thomas Jeegers1
(1) Vienna, Austria

Central banks in their present form would no longer exist; nor

would money… The successors to Bill Gates could put the
successors to Alan Greenspan out of business.
—Mervyn King, 1999

The history of cryptoassets, like this book, begins with money. In

particular, with the established monetary system. Understanding what
makes money and how it has evolved is essential to understand the
value proposition of cryptoassets—Bitcoin in particular. Therefore, let
us start with the basics by going back several millennia to identify the
fundamentals of money. As you will see, they naturally make a case for
what is coming next.

What Makes Money?

As human societies emerged millennia ago, the need to exchange value
became crucial. Direct trades of value in a barter system, such as
individuals exchanging eggs for fruits, had severe limitations. A barter
system only works when one individual wants to buy what another
wants to sell, while the seller also wants something the buyer has to
offer. In addition, goods traded must have similar value. For example, a
seller would not want to exchange a house that took months to build for
a few eggs. Moreover, even if one could gather enough eggs, the trade
would still be unattractive since eggs are perishable and inappropriate
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Other documents randomly have
different content
 CHAPTER XL
Peace is signed with the Emperor at Ratisbon—The Queen-Mother deprives Richelieu’s
niece Madame de Combalet of her post of dame d’atours and demands of Louis XIII the
instant dismissal of the Cardinal—The Luxembourg interview—“The Day of Dupes”—
Triumph of Richelieu—Bassompierre’s explanation of his own part in this affair—His
visit to Versailles—“He has arrived after the battle!”—He gives offence to Richelieu by
refusing an invitation to dinner—He finds himself in semi-disgrace—Monsieur quarrels
with the Cardinal and leaves the Court—The King again treats Bassompierre with
cordiality—Departure of the Court for Compiègne—Bassompierre learns that the Queen-
Mother has been placed under arrest and the Princesse de Conti exiled and that he
himself is to be arrested—The marshal is advised by the Duc d’Épernon to leave France
—He declines and announces his intention of going to the Court to meet his fate—He
burns “more than six thousand love-letters”—His arrival at the Court—Singular conduct
of the King towards him—The marshal is arrested by the Sieur de Launay, lieutenant of
the Gardes du Corps, and conducted to the Bastille.

So soon as his health was re-established, the King is said to have warned
Richelieu of the hostile intentions of his mother, and when, on October 19,
the Court left Lyons, the Cardinal, with the object of regaining her
friendship, travelled with her in the same boat from Roanne to Briare—“in
complete privacy,” says Bassompierre, and appears to have spared no pains
to conciliate her. Marie dissembled so well that he believed that all
immediate danger was over; but scarcely had she arrived in Paris than she
called upon the King to carry out the promise he had made her at Lyons.
Louis pleaded the interests of the State, and demanded time to settle the
troubles. But it was necessary to find other arguments. Père Joseph and
Brulart de Léon, who had been sent to Ratisbon to settle with the Emperor
the question of Casale and Mantua, had concluded with him a general peace
(October 13). Schomberg was on the march towards Casale, which was in
the utmost peril, for the Spaniards had already captured the town and were
pressing the citadel closely, when he received news of the treaty. He paid no
attention to it and continued to advance. On the 26th he came in sight of the
place, and a cannonade between his forces and those of the besiegers had
actually begun, when the young Papal agent Mazarini, at the risk of his life,
rode in between the hostile armies, waving a paper and crying: “Peace!”
The proposals he brought for the evacuation of the town by the Spaniards
and of the citadel by the French pending the acceptance of the Ratisbon
treaty by Spain were acceded to, and the great siege of Casale came
suddenly to an end.
When this agreement was known in Paris, and the war regarded as over,
the Queen-Mother, refusing to listen to any remonstrance from the King,
promptly deprived Richelieu’s niece, Madame de Combalet, of her post as
dame d’atours, in an interview in which she is said to have heaped the
grossest abuse upon the unfortunate young woman, and demanded of her
son the instant dismissal of the Cardinal. The King demurred and, to escape
maternal importunities, withdrew to his hunting-lodge at Versailles; but
Marie was resolved to give him no rest until she had gained his consent;
and on the morning of November 10 Louis returned to Paris, and went to
visit the Queen-Mother at the Luxembourg.
On his arrival at the Luxembourg, whither he was accompanied by
Bassompierre, the King and his mother entered the latter’s cabinet, and
gave strict orders that no one should be allowed to interrupt them. They
then locked the door of the cabinet, and the Queen-Mother’s attendants
those of the ante-chamber.
Hardly, however, had the conversation begun, when a little door leading
from the chapel of the Luxembourg into the Queen’s cabinet, which their
Majesties had not thought of securing, gently opened, and the tall, scarlet-
robed figure and pale, thin face of the man whose fate they had met to
decide appeared to their astonished eyes. Richelieu, informed of the King’s
return to Paris and his arrival at the Luxembourg, had formed a shrewd
suspicion of what was in the wind, and had determined to be present at the
interview between mother and son. Finding the doors of the ante-chamber
locked, he had made his way to the cabinet along the gallery of the palace,
and, on discovering the door of the cabinet also secured, had bethought
himself of that which communicated with the chapel.
“All is lost; here he is!” exclaimed the King, looking as guilty as a timid
schoolboy detected by a stern master in some breach of discipline. The
Cardinal advanced with a smiling face. “I will wager,” said he, “that their
Majesties were speaking of me.” And then, turning to the Queen-Mother, he
added: “Confess it, Madame.” “We were,” replied Marie. And then, beside
herself with passion at the Minister’s audacity, she broke forth into a torrent
of accusations and reproaches, charging him, amongst other things, with
plotting to marry his niece to the Comte de Soissons and set him upon the
throne in place of the King. The Cardinal appeared to quail before the
tempest; he fell on his knees and protested his innocence; he wept; he was
in despair. But this pretence of humility, instead of disarming the wrath of
the Queen-Mother, served only to inflame it. “It is for you,” she cried,
turning to the King, “to decide whether you intend to prefer a valet to your
mother.” “It is more natural,” interposed Richelieu, “that it is I who should
be sacrificed.” And he demanded pardon and permission to retire. The King
remained silent; Marie overwhelmed him with a fresh storm of reproaches,
and he quitted the room, convinced that his power was at an end.
Louis XIII, dumbfounded by the violent scene of which he had been a
witness, informed his mother that he was quite unable to come to a decision
that day, and quitted the Luxembourg.
On the following morning the King signed a despatch which his mother
had extracted from him which gave the sole command of the army of Italy
to Louis de Marillac and recalled Schomberg and La Force, who were
adherents of the Cardinal. Then he departed for Versailles, without again
seeing the Queen-Mother, but the Keeper of the Seals, Michel de Marillac,
whom Marie had designated as Prime Minister in place of Richelieu, had
orders to follow him.
This order appeared decisive; all the Court believed that the Cardinal had
fallen. A crowd of courtiers invaded the Luxembourg, where the Queen-
Mother paraded her triumph and received their felicitations, without
deigning to inconvenience herself by following the King to Versailles, as
some of the more prudent of her friends urged her to do. She flattered
herself that she held the place of Catherine de’ Medici; but she had none of
Catherine’s finesse and intelligence; Catherine, in similar circumstances,
would not have allowed the King out of her sight for a moment.
Anne of Austria, Monsieur, the Spanish Ambassador, the grandees were
transported with joy; and couriers started to carry the good news to Madrid,
Vienna, Brussels, and Turin. It was reported that the hated Cardinal was
busy making his preparations for departure; that he intended to retire to the
government of Le Havre, and that his mules had been seen defiling along
the Pontoise road.
It would appear, in fact, that Richelieu, believing himself ruined, had for
a moment contemplated taking refuge at Le Havre, but that two of his
friends who had remained faithful to his fortunes, Châteauneuf and the
Président Le Jay, had strongly opposed this resolution and persuaded him to
remain in Paris. Anyway, he did so, and in the course of the afternoon he
received a message from the First Equerry, Saint-Simon, bidding him come
with all speed to Versailles.
Saint-Simon and the Cardinal de la Valette, who had followed the King,
had pleaded the cause of Richelieu; but it is probable that “reasons of State”
had pleaded still more eloquently for him. For Louis, with all his faults, did
not, as we know, lack intelligence; and now that the decision which for
weeks he had postponed had to be made, he recognised that the Cardinal’s
dismissal would mean his own reduction to impotence, disorder, corruption,
and intrigue at home and the triumph of the enemies of France abroad. His
hesitation was at an end, and he authorised Saint-Simon to send for
Richelieu.
The Cardinal came; he threw himself at the feet of the King, who raised
him up and praised the zeal and fidelity which he had shown in his service.
He knelt again and offered to retire, so as not to be a subject of discord
between mother and son. Louis declined to accept his resignation, and then
gave orders that they should be left alone together, and proceeded to discuss
with the Cardinal the measures to be adopted against the cabal. It was
decided that Michel de Marillac should be deprived of the Seals and
banished the Court, and that another despatch should be sent to the Army of
Italy, cancelling the one which was already on its way and ordering
Schomberg to have the Maréchal de Marillac arrested and sent a prisoner to
France. And so, while the Queen-Mother was triumphing at the
Luxembourg, Richelieu triumphed at Versailles. That day—November 11,
1630—has remained famous in history as “The Day of Dupes.”

“The Day of Dupes”! This name has been attributed to Bassompierre,

and no one was better able to appreciate its justice, since, whatever he may
say to the contrary—and he would fain have us believe that he was only the
innocent victim of circumstances—the marshal was undoubtedly one of
these dupes. But let us listen to his explanations.
He begins by denying most solemnly that before November 10 he had
any knowledge that the Queen-Mother and Richelieu were at variance,
except what he had gathered from “scraps of information,” and that he had
no idea until some time afterwards that Marie had actually demanded from
the King the disgrace of the Cardinal. He accompanied Louis to the
Luxembourg on the morning of the 10th, as we have mentioned, but he
assures us neither the King nor the Cardinal—whom he saw that evening—
said a word to him about the stormy scene in the Queen-Mother’s cabinet,
and that the matter was kept a profound secret between all the parties
concerned.
“This quarrel,” says he, “was kept so secret on all sides that no one knew
anything about it or suspected it.”
He then goes on to relate how on the evening of the 10th he
accompanied the King to the apartments of Monsieur, from whom Louis
had extracted a promise to be reconciled to the Cardinal.
“The King sent to summon the Cardinal, and, after saying a few words to
his brother, presented the Cardinal to him, and begged him to love him and
to regard him as his servant. This Monsieur rather coldly promised the King
to do, provided that he [Richelieu] would comport himself towards him as
he ought to do. I was present at this agreement, and afterwards, happening
to be near the Cardinal, he drew me aside and said to me: ‘Monsieur
complains about me, and God knows if he has reason to do so; but the
beaten pay the forfeit.’ I said: ‘Monsieur, do not attach any importance to
what Monsieur says. He only does what Puylaurens and Le Coigneux
counsel him to do; and when you wish to hold Monsieur, hold him by
means of them, and you will stop him.’ He said nothing to me afterwards
about his quarrel;[134] and may God confound me if I even suspected it!
After supper I went to visit the Princesse de Conti. I had previously
attended the King’s coucher, and he did not give me any cause to suspect it.
I inquired if he were leaving on the morrow;[135] and he told me that he was
not. I found the Princesse de Conti in such ignorance of this affair, that not
only did she not speak of it, but I shall certainly dare to swear that she knew
nothing about it.
“On Monday, the 11th, St. Martin’s Day, I came early to the apartments
of the King, who told me that he was returning to Versailles. I did not
imagine for what reason. I had arranged to dine with the Cardinal, whom I
had been unable to see at his house since his arrival [from Lyons], and I
went there towards midday. I was told that he was not there, and that he was
leaving that day to go to Pontoise. Up to then I did not suspect anything, nor
did I even do so, when, having re-entered the Luxembourg and the Cardinal
arriving there, I accompanied him up to the door of the Queen’s chamber,
and he said to me: ‘You will no longer take any account of a disgraced man
like myself.’ I imagined that he intended to refer to the bad reception which
Monsieur had given him the preceding day. I intended to wait to go and
dine with him; but M. de Longueville enticed me away to go and dine with
Monsieur at M. de Créquy’s house, as he had invited me to do. While we
were there, M. de Puylaurens said to me: ‘Well, it is certainly true this time
that our people have quarrelled, for the Queen-Mother said openly to the
Cardinal yesterday that she never wished to see him again.’ I was very
much astonished at this news, which was shortly afterwards confirmed by
M. de Longueville. I sent at once to the Princesse de Conti to beg her very
humbly to send me news; but she swore to my man that this was the first
that she had heard of it; and that she begged me to furnish her with
particulars concerning it. I knew nothing about it, save that Madame de
Combalet had taken leave of the Queen-Mother and that the King and the
Cardinal had left Paris. In the evening Monsieur le Comte took me to the
Queen-Mother’s, but she never spoke, except to the Queen and the
princesses.
“Tuesday, the 12th.—I went to Chaillot, where I spent the whole day,
and, on my return, I met Lisle, who told me that M. de Marillac had been
deprived of the Seals and sent under an escort of the Guards to Touraine.
“Wednesday, the 13th.—M. de la Vrillière, returning at a gallop from
Versailles; told me that M. de Châteauneuf had been appointed Keeper of
the Seals, and, in the evening at the Queen-Mother’s, I saw M. de la Ville-
aux-Clercs, who had come to inform her on behalf of the King.”
Now, Bassompierre is generally regarded as a singularly reliable
chronicler, but we must remember that his Mémoires were written, or rather
arranged and revised, during his imprisonment in the Bastille, and that there
was always a by no means remote possibility that they might be impounded
and placed under the eyes of Louis XIII and Richelieu. It was therefore
manifestly to his interest to make out as good a case for himself as he could,
and to pose as the victim of unfounded suspicions. When he declares that on
the evening of the 10th he had no suspicion of what had taken place at the
Luxembourg, and that he was positive that the Princesse de Conti knew
nothing about it, he is probably speaking the truth. For it was not until the
following morning that Louis XIII signed the despatch appointing the
Maréchal de Marillac to the command of the army of Italy, and until the
King had taken what appeared to her a decisive step against Richelieu, the
Queen-Mother may well have refrained from speaking of the matter to
anyone, even to so close a friend and confidante as the Princesse de Conti.
But when he asks us to believe that until the afternoon of the 11th, by which
time the affair must have been already known to half the Court, and, by his
own admission, was known to Monsieur’s favourite Puylaurens and to the
Duc de Longueville, both he and his wife were still in ignorance, and that
when the Cardinal said to him: “You will no longer take any account of a
disgraced man like myself,” he really believed that he was referring to

CHARLOTTE LOUISE DE LORRAINE, PRINCESSE DE CONTI.

From an engraving by Thomas de Leu.
his differences with Monsieur, we must entirely decline to do so.

On the morning of the 14th, the Spanish merchant Alphonso Lopez,[136]

who was one of Richelieu’s secret agents, came to visit Bassompierre and
“told him that he would do well to go to Versailles to see the King and the
Cardinal.” The marshal, however, learning that the new Keeper of the Seals,
Châteauneuf, with whom he was on very friendly terms, was coming to
Paris that day to pay his respects to the two Queens, thought it advisable to
defer his visit to the morrow, and, meanwhile, to go and offer his
compliments to Châteauneuf on his appointment and ascertain from him
what reception he was likely to receive.
“He told me,” says Bassompierre, “that he had not perceived that there
was anything against me, but that I should do well to go and present myself.
This I did on Friday, the 15th. I entered the chamber of the King, who, so
soon as he caught sight of me, observed, loud enough for me to hear: ‘He
has arrived after the battle,’ and greeted me very coldly. I assumed a
cheerful countenance, as though nothing had been the matter. Finally, the
King told me that he should be at Saint-Germain on the Monday, and that I
was to bring his Swiss Guards there. At the same time, I heard Saint-Simon,
the First Equerry, say to Monsieur le Comte: ‘Monsieur, do not invite him
to dinner, nor me either, and he will return as he came.’ The insolence of
this nasty little wretch (petit punais) put me in a rage inwardly, but I
concealed it, for the laughers were not on my side, though I knew not why.
Nevertheless, Monsieur le Comte said to me: ‘If you will dine with me, I
have three or four dishes above for us to eat.’ ‘Monsieur,’ I replied, ‘I have
asked MM. de Créquy and de Saint-Luc and the Comte de Sault to dine
with me to-day at Chaillot, and they are awaiting me; but I thank you very
humbly.’ Upon that the Cardinal arrived. He greeted me coldly and spoke to
me rather indifferently, and then went with the King into his cabinet. I
began to talk to Monsieur le Comte, when Armaignac[137] came from the
Cardinal to ask me to dine with him. But, as I had just refused Monsieur le
Comte, before whom he spoke, I made the same excuse as I had done
before; with which the Cardinal was offended, and said so to the King.”
On the 18th Bassompierre went to Saint-Germain, where the King “gave
him the worst reception in the world.” He returned two days later, and was
again received in the most frigid manner. He decided to remain there, in the
hope that his Majesty might relent, and stayed for three weeks, during
which the King never spoke to him, except to give him the password. The
two Queens were also in a sort of semi-disgrace, for though Louis treated
them with every courtesy, in public it was only on very rare occasions that
he entered their private apartments. Beringhen and Jaquinot, two of the
King’s first valets de chambre, who had been mixed up in secret intrigues
against Richelieu, were banished the Court, but for the present no further
steps were taken against the Cardinal’s more prominent enemies. On the
other hand, Montmorency and Toiras were created marshals of France, in
order to secure them; and, to keep Monsieur quiet, the Cardinal bought the
good offices of his two favourites, Puylaurens and Le Coigneux, the former
by the promise that he should be created a duke, and the latter by the charge
of Président au mortier in the Parlement and the present of a large sum of
money.
Meanwhile, efforts were made to persuade the Queen-Mother to be
reconciled to the Cardinal, and Louis XIII sent Père Suffren and the Nuncio
Bagni to Marie to offer never to oblige her to restore the relatives of
Richelieu to their posts in her Household, provided she would consent to
resume her place in the Council. This she refused to do, so long as the
Cardinal sat there.
With the New Year intrigues began again. The Président Le Coigneux,
under the impression that the new Keeper of the Seals, Châteauneuf, was
working to ruin him, persuaded Monsieur to break with the Cardinal and
quit the Court. On the morning of January 30, Gaston went to Richelieu’s
hotel, informed the Cardinal, in a threatening tone, that he renounced his
friendship, since he had failed in all the promises which he had made him;
then, refusing to listen to any explanation, he added that he was retiring to
his appanage and that, “if he were molested, he should defend himself very
well.” And, the same day, he left Paris for Orléans.
On learning of the abrupt departure of Monsieur, Bassompierre went to
the Cardinal for his orders, as the King was still at Saint-Germain, when
Richelieu told him that he had sent in all haste to acquaint his Majesty with
what had happened and to counsel his immediate return to Paris. Louis XIII
arrived that same evening and alighted at the Cardinal’s hotel, where
Bassompierre was awaiting him. To his surprise, the King greeted him most
cordially, presented him with a wild boar which he had killed that day, and,
after visiting the Cardinal, invited Bassompierre to enter his coach and
accompany him to the Louvre.
On the way Louis informed the marshal that “he was going to scold the
Queen his mother for having persuaded his brother to leave the Court.”
Bassompierre answered that, if the Queen-Mother had done so, she would
be much to blame, but he should be greatly surprised if she had counselled
such a thing. To which the King rejoined that he was positive she had, “on
account of the hatred which she entertained for the Cardinal.”
A few days later Louis XIII announced his intention of spending the
Carnival at Compiègne, whither the two Queens decided to follow him, for
Marie cherished the illusion that, with the aid of her daughter-in-law, she
might yet succeed in undermining the power of the Cardinal, and she was
determined not to repeat the fault she had committed on the Day of Dupes.
On February 16, the day before the Court set out for Compiègne,
Bassompierre, who had been given permission to remain in Paris, went to
take leave of their Majesties. The King received him very graciously and
promised him a gratification to compensate him for the heavy expenses
which he had incurred during his embassy to Switzerland. Afterwards the
marshal went to visit the Princesse de Conti, who was to accompany the
Court to Compiègne. Little did he imagine as he bade his wife farewell that
they were never to meet again!
In the afternoon of Sunday, February 23, as Bassompierre, who had been
dining with the Maréchal de Créquy, was on his way to the Place-Royale to
visit his brother-in-law Saint-Luc, his coach had to pull up, owing to the
road being blocked by a waggon on which was a sumptuous four-poster
bed. He sent one of his servants to inquire to whom the bed belonged, and
was told that it was the property of the Abbé de Foix, a meddlesome
ecclesiastic, who had been concerned somewhat prominently in the recent
intrigues against Richelieu, and that it was on its way to the Bastille,
whither its owner had been conveyed a prisoner that morning. From the fact
that Foix had been arrested Bassompierre inferred that the Cardinal had
resumed the offensive against his enemies; and this surmise proved to be
only too correct.
That evening, as Bassompierre was about to set out for the house of his
friend Saint-Géran, to witness a play, which was to be followed by a ball, he
received a message from d’Épernon begging him to come to him at once.
On his arrival, the duke informed him that the King and Court had quitted
Compiègne that morning for Senlis, leaving the Queen-Mother under arrest
at the château; that the Princesse de Conti had been exiled to her brother’s
estate at Eu, by a lettre de cachet; that Vautier, the Queen-Mother’s first
physician, had been arrested and conveyed to Senlis, and, finally, that he
had learned on good authority that it had been proposed to arrest
Bassompierre, Créquy, and himself. He added that no resolution had as yet
been taken against Créquy or himself, but it had been decided to arrest
Bassompierre when the King returned to Paris on the Tuesday, and that he
had sent for him to warn him of his danger.
Bassompierre asked d’Épernon what he advised him to do, and what he
proposed to do himself. The old noble replied that, if he were only fifty
years old—the age of the marshal—he would not remain in Paris a single
hour, and would make for some place of safety, from which he would be
afterwards able to make his peace; but that, since he was nearly eighty and
had no desire to play the courtier any longer at his age, he should employ
all the influence he possessed to disarm the resentment of the King and the
Cardinal, at least so far as to obtain permission to retire to his government
and spend the rest of his days there in peace. With Bassompierre, however,
the case was different. He was still comparatively young, and could afford
to wait until Fortune smiled again; and he therefore advised him to leave
France at once and offered him the loan of 50,000 écus to enable him to live
a couple of years abroad in a style befitting his rank, which he could repay
him when his exile was at an end.
“I thanked him very humbly,” says Bassompierre, “first for his good
counsel and then for his offer, and told him that my modesty prevented me
from accepting the latter and my conscience from following the other, since
I was perfectly innocent of any offence and had never committed any action
which was not rather deserving of praise and reward than of punishment;
that I had always sought glory before profit, and that, preferring as I did my
honour, not only to my liberty, but to life itself, I should never compromise
it by a flight which might cause my integrity to be suspected and doubted;
that for thirty years I had served France and applied myself to making my
fortune there, and that I would not now, when I was approaching the age of
fifty, seek a new country, and that having devoted to the King my service
and my life, I might as well give him my liberty also, which he would soon
restore to me, when he recollected my services and my fidelity; that, at the
worst, I should prefer to grow old and to die in prison, judged by everyone
innocent and my master ungrateful, than by an ill-advised flight to cause
myself to be deemed guilty and suspected of ingratitude for the honours and
charges which the King had bestowed upon me; that I could not believe that
I should be thrown into prison without having committed any offence, nor
retained there without any charge against me; but that, if both were to
happen, I should support it with great firmness and moderation.”
He concluded by declaring that, instead of taking to flight, it was his
intention to go on the morrow to Senlis to present himself to the King, in
order to justify himself, if he were accused, or to go to prison, if he were
suspected, or even to die, if his ill fortune or the fury of his enemies went to
that extremity.
When he had finished speaking, d’Épernon embraced him, with tears in
his eyes, and said: “I know not what will happen to you, and I pray God
with all my heart that it may be nothing but good; but I have never known a
gentleman better born than you, nor who better deserved all good fortune.
You have enjoyed it up to the present. May God preserve it for you! And,
although I fear the resolution which you have taken, nevertheless, after
having heard and considered your reasons, I approve of it and counsel you
to follow it.”
The marshal and d’Épernon then proceeded to Saint-Géran’s house,
where they found Créquy, whom the duke informed of the warning which
had reached him and of what Bassompierre intended to do. Créquy
expressed his approval of his resolution, and said that, for his part, he
should do what he could to avert the storm, but that he should not run away
from it. After the ball was over, they all three went to sup at Madame de
Choisy’s house, where they were presently joined by the Duc de Chevreuse,
who did not appear to be much affected by the exile of his sister, the
Princesse de Conti, and was as gay as usual. As they were leaving, the
Comte du Plessis-Praslin, who had been sent by the King to convey to
Chevreuse an official notification of his sister’s disgrace, arrived, and
informed the duke that the princess had been exiled, not from any hostility
which his Majesty entertained towards the House of Guise, but “for the
good of his service.”
 On the following morning Bassompierre rose before daybreak, and,
foreseeing that, if he were arrested his house would be searched, burned
“more than six thousand love-letters” which he had received from various
fair ladies during his long career of gallantry, “these being the only papers I
possessed,” says he, “which might be able to injure anyone a little.” This
task accomplished, he set out for Senlis, in company with the Cardinal de la
Valette, the Comte de Soissons, the Duc de Bouillon and the Comte de
Gramont. As they were on the point of starting, Soissons warned
Bassompierre that he had positive information that it was intended to arrest
him, and advised him to make his escape, which he offered to facilitate. The
marshal thanked him, but declined, declaring that, “as he had nothing
sinister on his conscience, he feared nothing,” and that he proposed to have
the honour of accompanying Monsieur le Comte to Senlis.
“On our arrival,” says he, “we found the King in the Queen’s chamber,
with her and the Princesse de Guymené. He approached us and said: ‘Here
is good company,’ and, then having talked a little to Monsieur le Comte and
the Cardinal de la Valette, he conversed with me for some time, telling me
that he had done what he could to reconcile the Queen his mother with the
Cardinal, but had failed. He said nothing to me about the Princess de Conti.
Then I told him that I had been warned that he intended to have me
arrested, and that I had come to him in order that he might have no trouble
in finding me, and that, if I knew what prison he designed for me, I would
repair thither voluntarily, without his having to send me. Upon which he
said these very words: ‘How, Betstein, can you have thought that I intended
to do so? You know that I love you.’ And I truly believe that, at that
moment, he spoke as he felt. Then they came to inform him that the
Cardinal was in his chamber, and he took leave of the company, telling me
to send the company which was on guard in advance early on the morrow,
in order that it might be able to mount guard in Paris. Then he gave me the
password.
“We remained for some time in the Queen’s chamber, and then all went
to sup at M. de Longueville’s, and from there returned to the Queen’s,
whither the King came after supper. I saw plainly that there was something
against me, for the King always kept his head bent down, playing on the
guitar, without looking at me, and during the whole evening he never spoke
a word to me. I spoke of this to M. de Gramont, as we were going together
to sleep in a lodging which had been made ready for us.”
The next morning the anticipated blow fell:
“On Tuesday morning, the 25th day of February, I rose at six o’clock,
and was standing before the fire in my dressing-gown, when the Sieur de
Launay, lieutenant of the Gardes du Corps, entered my chamber and said to
me: ‘Monsieur, it is with tears in my eyes and a heart which bleeds that I,
who for twenty years have been your soldier and have always been under
your orders, am obliged to inform you that the King has commanded me to
arrest you.’ I did not experience any particular emotion at these words, and
said to him: ‘Monsieur, you will have no great difficulty about that, seeing
that I have come here expressly for that purpose, because I had been warned
of it. I have been all my life submissive to the wishes of the King, who is
able to dispose of me and of my liberty as he wills.’ Upon which I inquired
if he desired my servants to withdraw; but he answered that he did not,
since he had no other orders than to arrest me and afterwards to send to
inform the King of it, and that I could speak to my people, write, and send
for anything that I wished for, and that everything was permitted. M. de
Gramont then rose from his bed and approached me weeping, at which I
began to laugh, telling him that if he were not more distressed at my
imprisonment than I was, he would feel no resentment, as in truth I did not
trouble myself much about it, not believing that I should remain there long.
[138]
“Launay did not permit any of the Guards who were with him to enter
my chamber, and, shortly afterwards, one of the King’s coaches, his
Musketeers and thirty of his Light Horse arrived before my lodging. I
entered the coach with Launay only, meeting as I went out Madame la
Princesse, who appeared touched by my disgrace. We preceded the King by
two hundred paces all the way to the Porte de Saint-Martin, where I turned
to the left, and, passing through the Place-Royale, was brought to the
Bastille. Here I dined with the governor, M. du Tremblay,[139] who
afterwards conducted me to the chamber in which Monsieur le Prince had
formerly been confined, where they shut me up with a single valet to attend
on me.”
 CHAPTER XLI
Bassompierre in the Bastille—He is informed that he has been imprisoned “from fear lest
he might be induced to do wrong”—Monsieur retires to Lorraine—The marshal’s
nephew the Marquis de Bassompierre is ordered to leave France—After a few weeks of
captivity, Bassompierre solicits his liberty, which is refused—He falls seriously ill, but
recovers—Death of his wife the Princesse de Conti—Flight of the Queen-Mother to
Brussels—Death of Bassompierre’s brother the Marquis de Removille—Execution of the
Maréchal de Marillac—Montmorency’s revolt—Trial and execution of the duke—Hopes
of liberty, which, however, do not materialise—Arrest of Châteauneuf—Arrival of the
Chevalier de Jars in the Bastille—A grim experience—Bassompierre disposes of his post
of Colonel-General of the Swiss to the Marquis de Coislin—The marshal’s hopes of
liberty constantly flattered and as constantly deceived—Malignity of Richelieu—The
ravages committed by the contending armies upon his estates in Lorraine reduce
Bassompierre to the verge of ruin—The marshal’s niece, Madame de Beuvron solicits her
uncle’s liberty of Richelieu—Mocking answer of the Cardinal—Some notes written by
Bassompierre in the margin of a copy of Dupleix’s history are published under his name,
but without his authority—The historian complains to the Cardinal—Arrest of Valbois
for reciting a sonnet attacking Richelieu for his treatment of Bassompierre—
Apprehensions of the marshal—His despair at his continued detention—Grief occasioned
him by the death of a favourite dog—The Duc de Guise dies in exile.

On the following day the Governor of the Bastille came to visit

Bassompierre, and told the marshal that he was instructed by the King to
inform him that “he had not caused him to be arrested for any fault which
he had committed, and that he regarded him as his good servant, but from
fear lest he might be induced to do wrong,” and that he should not remain
long in confinement. This assurance, Bassompierre tells us, afforded him
great consolation. Du Tremblay added that his Majesty had given orders
that the marshal was to be allowed complete liberty, save that of leaving the
fortress, and to take exercise in any part of the Bastille, while he was also to
be permitted to have with him such of his servants as he might choose to
attend him. Bassompierre, however, contented himself with sending for two
lackeys and a cook, who were lodged in a room adjoining his own.
A day or two later Bassompierre sent to inquire of the King if his
nephew, the Marquis de Bassompierre, eldest son of the marshal’s surviving
brother, the Marquis de Removille, who was on a visit to France, might be
permitted to visit him. His Majesty replied that, not only would he permit,
but even wished, him to do so, and that he loved him, both for himself and
on account of his uncle.
In the second week in March, Louis XIII quitted Paris and marched on
Orléans, in order to compel Monsieur, who was threatening civil war, to
return to his obedience. The Marquis de Bassompierre requested permission
to accompany his Majesty, which was readily accorded, and his uncle
furnished him with money to defray the expenses of this journey. On
learning of the King’s approach, Gaston fled towards Burgundy,
accompanied by the Duc de Roannez, the Comte de Moret, and some troops
which he had raised. Bellegarde, Governor of Burgundy, declared in his
favour, but made no attempt to raise the province in insurrection; and the
prince proceeded to Franche-Comté and thence to Lorraine. The King
followed his brother so far as Dijon, where he launched a Declaration
against his companions (March 30), and then retraced his steps. The fact
that Monsieur had again retired to Lorraine had incensed him against
Charles IV and all his subjects, and he sent to inform the Marquis de
Bassompierre that “it was not agreeable that he should follow him or even
remain in France.”
When, towards the end of April, Louis XIII returned to Paris, the
marshal solicited his liberty; but his request was refused. Soon afterwards
he fell ill “from a very dangerous swelling of the stomach, arising perhaps
from his not having taken the air,” for, for some reason which he does not
tell us, he had not left his room since he entered the Bastille two months
before. So ill did he become that he thought he was dying, but having been
persuaded to take daily exercise on the terrace, his health soon began to
improve.
About the same time, a loss more bitter even than that of his liberty
befell Bassompierre. The Princesse de Conti, to whom he was secretly
married and was undoubtedly most tenderly attached, died at the Château of
Eu on the last day of April, a victim, according to her contemporaries, to the
grief which the misfortunes which had overwhelmed those whom she held
dear had occasioned her. For, not only had the Queen-Mother been
disgraced and her husband sent to the Bastille, but her eldest brother, the
Duc de Guise, had deemed it prudent to go into voluntary exile in Italy, to
escape a worse fate.
 Very discreet in general concerning the names of the ladies with whom
he had successes—“Bassompierre fait l’amour sans dire mot,” writes a
Court poet of the time—the marshal preserves about his relations with the
princess a scrupulous reserve, and his restrained emotion when he
announces her death is the only indication of his sentiments for her which
are to be found in his Mémoires:
“I learned at the same time of the death of the Princesse de Conti, which
occasioned me such affliction as was merited by the honour which, since
my arrival at the Court, I had received from this princess, who, besides so
many other perfections which have rendered her worthy of admiration, had
that of being a very good and very obliging friend. I shall honour her
memory and regret her for the rest of my days. She was so overwhelmed by
grief at seeing herself separated from the Queen-Mother, with whom she
had remained since the latter came to France, so afflicted at seeing her
family persecuted and her friends and servants in disgrace, that she was
neither willing nor able to survive, and died at Eu, on Monday, the last day
of April, of that unhappy year 1631.”
Assured of the firm support of the King, Richelieu continued to carry
matters with a high hand. The Parlement of Paris refused to register the
Royal Declaration of March 30, which, without inculpating Monsieur,
stigmatised the accomplices of his flight as guilty of lèse-majesté. On May
13 the magistrates were summoned in a body to the Louvre, where Louis
XIII curtly reminded them that their duty was to render justice to his
subjects, and not to concern themselves with affairs of State. And, to give
point to this rebuke, several presidents and counsellors were banished from
Paris.
The excitement which the dissensions in the Royal family had aroused,
and the fact that public opinion was distinctly hostile to the Cardinal,
rendered it essential to remove the Queen-Mother so far as possible from
the Court and Paris. Louis XIII requested her to retire to Moulins, with the
government of the Bourbonnais, as a kind of honourable exile. She
consented, but quickly altered her mind, pretending that her son had fixed
upon Moulins in order to send her from there to Florence. Then the King
offered her Angers as a residence. To this also she objected, but agreed to
go to Nevers for a time. When, however, she learned that Monsieur had
quitted France, she declined to budge from Compiègne.
 Early in July, the King, finding that neither his entreaties nor his orders
had any effect upon his mother, sent her a kind of ultimatum. Instead of
obeying, Marie resolved to retire to a frontier town and from there dictate
her conditions. One of her adherents, Vardes, who commanded at La
Capelle, in the name of his father, offered to deliver the place to her; but the
King, warned of his intention, sent the old Marquis de Vardes in hot haste to
La Capelle, who won over the garrison and expelled his son and the Queen-
Mother’s friends from the town. When Marie, who had escaped from
Compiègne on July 18, approached La Capelle, she was met by the younger
Vardes, who informed her of the failure of their plans, which left her no
alternative but to cross the Flemish frontier and seek an asylum with the
Spaniards at Brussels.
At the beginning of 1632 some hope of his regaining his liberty was held
out to Bassompierre. “But,” says he, “I believe that this was done rather to
redouble my sufferings by deceiving my hopes than to alleviate my
misfortunes.” Anyway, he remained a prisoner, and soon afterwards another
sorrow befell him in the death of his brother, the Marquis de Removille,
from an illness caused by the hardships he had undergone while serving in
the Imperial army during the preceding year.
Early in May Bassompierre learned of the tragic fate of his fellow-
marshal, Louis de Marillac, who, after having been kept a prisoner at
Sainte-Menehould for several months, was brought to trial before a special
commission sitting at Richelieu’s own château of Rueil, on charges of
malversation committed while in command of the Army of Champagne,
found guilty, condemned to death and executed in the Place de Grève two
days later.
A still more striking example of the danger of crossing the path of the
terrible Cardinal—for no one doubted that had not Louis de Marillac been
so ill-advised as to desert Richelieu’s cause for that of the Queen-Mother,
little or nothing would have been heard of his weakness for enriching
himself at the expense of the State—was afforded in the following autumn.
In September Monsieur and his friends, counting on Austro-Spanish aid,
which, however, failed them completely, attempted an invasion of France.
The Duc de Montmorency, Governor of Languedoc, irritated by the
growing power of Richelieu and his determination to reduce great nobles
like himself to political impotence, took up arms in Gaston’s cause.
Defeated and made prisoner by Schomberg at Castelnaudary, he was
brought to trial for high treason before the Parlement of Toulouse.
Extraordinary efforts were made to save him, but all to no purpose, and on
October 29, 1632, the head of “the noblest, wealthiest, handsomest and
most pious gentleman in the kingdom” rolled on the scaffold.[140]
Richelieu took advantage of Montmorency’s revolt to remove all hostile
or suspected governors of provinces and replace them by his own friends.
He himself had already obtained the government of Brittany and been
created duke and peer. He was triumphing everywhere, at home and abroad.
At the beginning of the following year Bassompierre had again great
hopes of recovering his liberty. Schomberg sent him word that, on the return
of the King from the South, he would be released, and he learned that both
Louis XIII and the Cardinal had said as much to several persons. However,
he was again doomed to disappointment, the fact that Monsieur, after
making his submission, had quitted France again, this time for Flanders,
being the pretext for his continued detention.
“In place of liberating me,” writes the poor marshal, “they deprived me
of that portion of my salary which had been paid me during the two
preceding years, notwithstanding that I was a prisoner, amounting to one-
third of what I had been accustomed to draw every year. This made me see
plainly that it was intended to keep me eternally in the Bastille.”
On February 25—the same day on which two years before Bassompierre
had been sent to the Bastille—Châteauneuf, the Keeper of the Seals, who
had foolishly allowed himself to be drawn by Madame de Chevreuse, with
whom he was madly in love, into a fresh conspiracy against Richelieu, was
arrested at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and conducted to the Château of
Angoulême, where he remained in close confinement until the Cardinal’s
death, ten years later. At the same time, the gates of the Bastille opened to
admit his nephew, the Marquis de Leuville, and several other persons who
had been concerned in the affair, including Bassompierre’s old friend, the
Chevalier de Jars.
The Cardinal attached great importance to the arrest of Jars, as he
believed that he might be induced to reveal the part which Anne of Austria
had played in the conspiracy. But the chevalier, if a somewhat feather-
brained, was a brave and honourable, man, and, though he was kept in close
confinement for nearly a year and subjected to repeated examinations by his
Eminence’s myrmidons, he steadfastly refused to make the least admission
that might incriminate the Queen or any of her friends. Finally, he was
transferred to Troyes, and then brought to trial for high treason before a
special commission, at the head of which was the notorious Laffemas, who
was known as “the Cardinal’s executioner,” and made it his boast that he
could condemn any man, if he had but two lines of his writing. Laffemas
bullied and browbeat the prisoner and “did all the mean things that the base
soul is capable of suggesting,”[141] but to no purpose, for he could wring
nothing from him. Accordingly, the judges proceeded to pass sentence of
death on Jars, who was in due course conducted to the scaffold, “where he
made his appearance with a demeanour full of courage, smiling at his
enemies and prepared to meet death without flinching.”[142] But it was only
a grim farce after all, for Richelieu had nothing to gain by the removal of
such small fry as the chevalier, and the only object of the trial had been to
intimidate him into betraying his accomplices. And so, at the moment when
the condemned man was about to lay his head on the block, Laffemas
interrupted the proceedings by producing an order from the King which
remitted the capital sentence and directed that the chevalier should be
conducted back to the Bastille.
At the beginning of 1634 Bassompierre received a promise that his
salary as Colonel-General of the Swiss, which had been suspended the
previous year, should be paid, but this promise was not kept. In the
following September, however, he learned that the King had given orders
that he was to receive it, but, pressed by his creditors, who since his
imprisonment had given him no rest, and believing that, if he ceased to
command the Swiss, one of the chief reasons for his continued detention
would be removed, he begged Richelieu, through the governor of the
Bastille, to obtain the King’s permission to sell his post. This was granted,
and he also obtained permission to offer it to the Marquis de Rochefort, a
friend of Du Tremblay. Rochefort, however, would give no more than
400,000 livres, and the marshal, who while at liberty had refused double
that sum, declined to sell at this price. Thereupon Rochefort endeavoured to
persuade Richelieu to compel Bassompierre to accept his offer; but though
the Cardinal would not do this, the order for the payment of the marshal’s
salary was cancelled, and “he continued his miserable imprisonment in the
Bastille with great inconvenience in his domestic affairs.”
 Towards the middle of December, Du Tremblay came to visit the
marshal and told him that he was commissioned to make him an offer for
his post, which, if he accepted, his liberty was assured. The persons who
had empowered him to do this, whose names he was not at liberty to
mention at present, would not go beyond 400,000 livres, but they were
people of great influence at Court, who could powerfully assist him in
obtaining his release. Bassompierre consented, on condition that the arrears
of his salary were paid, and Du Tremblay promised that his brother Père
Joseph should go to Rueil and speak to the Cardinal about this. A day or
two later Du Tremblay informed him that Père Joseph and the two
Bouthilliers had undertaken to arrange the matter with Richelieu, and that
he thought that he would leave the Bastille before Christmas. And he gave
him to understand that the influential persons for whom he was acting were
the Baron de Pontchâteau and his son, the Marquis de Coislin, who was
married to a daughter of Pierre Séguier, Châteauneuf’s successor in the post
of Keeper of the Seals.
At the end of the year Louis XIII gave his consent to the Marquis de
Coislin succeeding Bassompierre in the command of the Swiss.
“And then it was divulged that the said Marquis de Coislin would be
Colonel-General of the Swiss, and the Keeper of the Seals sent me some
compliments on the matter through M. du Tremblay; and the rumour of my
release, which six weeks before had been very strong, augmented to such a
degree, that a number of persons came every day to the Bastille to see if I
were still there; and it was regarded as certain that I should be released at
Epiphany.”
Epiphany came and went, and Bassompierre still remained in the
Bastille, the population of which was about this time increased by the
arrival of several persons who were suspected of being concerned with
Puylaurens and Du Fargis, formerly French Ambassador at Madrid, in
treasonable relations with Spain. These two were imprisoned at Vincennes,
where Puylaurens died some months later.
On February 16 Bassompierre received a visit from the younger
Bouthillier.
“He assured me,” says he, “of the favour of the King and the affection of
the Cardinal, as also of my liberation, but without specifying the time. He
told me further that the King was nominating the Marquis de Coislin as
Colonel-General of the Swiss in my place, who would pay me, in
consideration of that, 400,000 livres in cash, and, as to that which
concerned my pay and salary due to me for the said charge, my friends,
namely his father, himself and Père Joseph, did not wish to make any
proposal on that matter, but would leave it to myself to negotiate after my
release. And in this I had no alternative but to acquiesce.”
The 400,000 livres was duly paid, the money being brought to the
Bastille, by Lopez and Séguier’s intendant Pepin, in instalments of 40,000
to 50,000 livres at a time, the whole transaction occupying several days, as
Bassompierre had insisted on being paid in livres instead of in pistoles, and
the money had, of course, to be counted and weighed in his presence.
Finally, the business was ended, and on March 8 he gave his receipt for the
sum and the resignation of his post to his successor’s agents.
“It was,” says he, “the same month, day and hour, that, twenty-one years
before, I had taken oath between the hands of the King for the same charge
of Colonel-General of the Swiss.”
A few days later the younger Bouthillier again came to see
Bassompierre, and informed him that the Cardinal had spoken to the King
of his liberation, that his Majesty had granted it, and that he was to leave the
Bastille almost immediately.
“Nevertheless,” says the marshal, “I pressed him strongly to name the
precise day on which I should be released, which he declined to do,
although he told me that I should be entirely free within a week.”
Several weeks, however, passed without Bassompierre hearing any
further news of his liberation; and it was not until the last day of April that
the Governor of the Bastille received a letter from Père Joseph, requesting
him to assure the marshal that he would receive his liberty on the return to
Paris of the younger Bouthillier, who was to bring him the order for his
release. (The Court, it should be mentioned, was then at Compiègne.)
Bouthillier arrived on May 5, but, as the marshal heard nothing from him,
he sent his niece, Madame de Beuvron, to see him, when the Minister told
her that he had actually had the order for her uncle’s release in his hands,
but that, owing to the intelligence that had arrived that Monsieur had gone
to Brittany, possibly with the intention of embarking for England, it had
been decided that the marshal could not be set at liberty so soon, and the
order had been cancelled. A few days later it was ascertained that Monsieur
had gone to Brittany merely to visit some friends of his, and that he was
staying with the Duc de Retz at Machecoul, and had not the least intention
of leaving the kingdom. However, this did not hasten Bassompierre’s
release, and it began to dawn upon the poor marshal that there never had
been any immediate intention of giving him his freedom, and that the
assurances which he had received were merely a bait to induce him to sell
his post of Colonel-General of the Swiss for about half its value.
Towards the end of May, Du Bois, Bassompierre’s maître-d’hôtel, who
was also commissary of the French and Swiss Guards, happened to go on
some business to Château-Thiery, where the Court then was. Louis XIII,
recognising Du Bois, for he had seen him frequently when he had been the
marshal’s guest, told him to come to his lodging and inquired when he was
returning to Paris. Du Bois replied that he intended to do so on the
following day. “Stay over Sunday,” said the King—it was a Friday—“and I
will give you an order for the release of the Marshal de Bassompierre,
which I will have made ready on Monday, after I have spoken to the
Cardinal.” Du Bois, greatly delighted, for he was much attached to
Bassompierre, readily promised to remain, and lost no time in sending off a
courier to bear the joyful tidings to the Bastille.
On the Monday, the elder Bouthillier went to visit the Cardinal, who was
staying at Condé, and, before starting, told Du Bois that, on his return, he
would give him the order of release, and that he could make arrangements
to leave for Paris the following morning. But when, on the Minister’s
return, Du Bois went to receive the despatch, Bouthillier informed him that
his Eminence had been so much occupied with important affairs that day
that Bouthillier had hardly been able to mention the matter to him.
However, he was coming to Château-Thiery on Wednesday to see the King,
when no doubt the order of release would be made out.
The Cardinal did not arrive until Friday, and when, after he had
concluded his business with the King and returned to Condé, Du Bois went
to Bouthillier, fully expecting to find the precious document awaiting him,
he was told that so many pressing affairs had had to be discussed that there
had been no time to deal with that of his master’s liberty, but that the
marshal might be assured that it would be decided on the earliest possible
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