More than a hundred persons, furious against the Cure, had compromised themselves in the hope of destroying him.

Their plot, instead of being abandoned, has gained strength by its first check; and here are the means that have been set to work by his implacable enemies.
"Do you know a man called 'L'Eminence Grise', that formidable Capuchin whom the Cardinal employs in all things, consults upon some, and always despises?
It was to him that the Capuchins of Loudun addressed themselves.

A woman of this place, of low birth, named Hamon, having been so fortunate as to please the Queen when she passed through Loudun, was taken into her service.

You know the hatred that separates her court from that of the Cardinal; you know that Anne of Austria and Monsieur de Richelieu have for some time disputed for the King's favor, and that, of her two suns, France never knew in the evening which would rise next morning.

During a temporary eclipse of the Cardinal, a satire appeared, issuing from the planetary system of the Queen; it was called, 'La cordonniere de la seine-mere'.