II. It was doubtless wrong, from a family point of view, to sign a
treaty with a man who had cut off the head of the king your father's
brother-in-law, and to contract an alliance with a parliament which they
call yonder the Rump Parliament; it was unbecoming, I acknowledge, but it
was not unskillful from a political point of view, since, thanks to that
treaty, I saved your majesty, then a minor, the trouble and danger of a
foreign war, which the Fronde - you remember the Fronde, sire?" - the
young king hung his head - "which the Fronde might have fatally
complicated. And thus I prove to your majesty that to change our plan
now, without warning our allies, would be at once unskillful and
dishonest. We should make war with the aggression on our side; we should
make it, deserving to have it made against us; and we should have the
appearance of fearing it whilst provoking it, for a permission granted to
five hundred men, to two hundred men, to fifty men, to ten men, is still
a permission. One Frenchman, that is the nation; one uniform, that is
the army. Suppose, sire, for example, that you should have war with
Holland, which, sooner or later, will certainly happen; or with Spain,
which will perhaps ensue if your marriage fails" (Mazarin stole a furtive
glance at the king), "and there are a thousand causes that might yet make
your marriage fail, - well, would you approve of England's sending to the
United Provinces or to Spain a regiment, a company, a squadron even, of
English gentlemen? Would you think that they kept within the limits of
their treaty of alliance?"

Louis listened; it seemed so strange to him that Mazarin should invoke
good faith, and he the author of so many political tricks, called
Mazarinades. "And yet," said the king, "without manifest of my
authorization, I cannot prevent gentlemen of my states from passing over
into England, if such should be their good pleasure."