The Memoirs of Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz | Page 9

there
was only one that knew anything of the matter, and so they went away
in a rage. You may easily imagine that when this was reported the
Court would highly resent it. And so it happened, for the license of the
Sorbonne being expired, and the competitors striving for the best places,
I had the ambition to put in for the first place, and did not think myself
obliged to yield to the Abbe de La Mothe-Houdancourt, now
Archbishop of Auch, over whom I had certainly some advantage in the

disputations. I carried myself in this affair more wisely than might have
been expected from my youth; for as soon as I heard that my rival was
supported by the Cardinal, who did him the honour to own him for his
kinsman, I sent the Cardinal word, by M. de Raconis, Bishop of Lavaur,
that I desisted from my pretension, out of the respect I owed his
Eminence, as soon as I heard that he concerned himself in the affair.
The Bishop of Lavaur told me the Cardinal pretended that the Abby de
La Mothe would not be obliged for the first place to my cession, but to
his own merit. This answer exasperated me. I gave a smile and a low
bow, pursued my point, and gained the first place by eighty-four voices.
The Cardinal, who was for domineering in all places and in all affairs,
fell into a passion much below his character, either as a minister or a
man, threatened the deputies of the Sorbonne to raze the new buildings
he had begun there, and assailed my character again with incredible
bitterness.
All my friends were alarmed at this, and were for sending me in all
haste to Italy. Accordingly, I went to Venice, stayed there till the
middle of August, and was very near being assassinated; for I amused
myself by making an intrigue with Signora Vendranina, a noble
Venetian lady, and one of the most handsome I ever saw. M. de Maille,
the King's ambassador, aware of the dangerous consequences of such
adventures in this country, ordered me to depart from Venice; upon
which I went through Lombardy, and towards the end of September
arrived at Rome, where the Marechal d'Estrees, who resided there as
ambassador, gave me such instructions for my behaviour as I followed
to a tittle. Though I had no design to be an ecclesiastic, yet since I wore
a cassock I was resolved to acquire some reputation at the Pope's Court.
I compassed my design very happily, avoiding any appearance of
gallantry and lewdness, and my dress being grave to the last degree; but
for all this I was at a vast expense, having fine liveries, a very splendid
equipage, and a train of seven or eight gentlemen, whereof four were
Knights of Malta. I disputed in the Colleges of Sapienza (not to be
compared for learning with those of the Sorbonne), and fortune
continued still to raise me. For the Prince de Schomberg, the Emperor's
ambassador, sent me word one day, while I was playing at 'balon' at the
baths of Antoninus, to leave the place clear for him. I answered that I

could have refused his Excellency nothing asked in a civil manner, but
since it was commanded, I would have him to know that I would obey
the orders of no ambassador whatever, but that of the King, my master.
Being urged a second time by one of his attendants to leave the place, I
stood upon my own defence, and the Germans, more, in my opinion,
out of contempt of the few people I had with me than out of any other
consideration, let the affair drop. This bold carriage of so modest an
abbe, to an ambassador who never went abroad without one hundred
musketeers on horseback to attend him, made a great noise in Rome,
and was much taken notice of by Cardinal Mazarin.
The Cardinal de Richelieu's health declining, the archbishopric of Paris
was now almost within my ken, which, together with other prospects of
good benefices, made me resolve not to fling off the cassock but upon
honourable terms and valuable considerations; but having nothing yet
within my view that I could be sure of, I resolved to distinguish myself
in my own profession by all the methods I could. I retired from the
world, studied very hard, saw but very few men, and had no more
correspondence with any of the female sex, except Madame de -------.
The devil had appeared to the Princesse de Guemenee just a fortnight
before this adventure happened, and was often raised by the
conjurations of M. d'Andilly, to frighten his votary, I believe, into piety,
for he was even more in love with her person than I