M A Z A R I N MA ZZO L A . 



735 



the isle of Pheasants. This peace of the Pyrenees 

 was followed by the marriage of the king with the 

 Infanta. Both negotiations did great honour to 

 Mazarin's policy. He was now more powerful than 

 ever : he appeared with regal pomp, being regularly 

 attended by a company of musketeer guards, in ad- 

 dition to his body-guard. The queen mother, on the 

 contrary, lost her influence. During this time of 

 repose, nothing was done by Mazarin for the admin- 

 istration of justice, for trade, naval power, and fi- 

 nances. Neither were his eight years of unlimited 

 dominion marked by a single honourable institution. 

 The college des quatre nations was first established 

 by his testament. The finances he administered 

 like the steward of an involved master. He accum- 

 ulated above 200,000,000 livres, in doing which, he 

 often made use of means unworthy of an honourable 

 man. According to Flassan, he had an income of 

 1,800,000 livres, and a property of twenty-two mil- 

 lions, equivalent to about double the sum of the money 

 of our time. This disquieted him, when he perceived 

 liis end approaching. Colbert therefore advised him 

 to make the king a present of all his treasures, who 

 would infallibly return them to him. The king ac- 

 cepted the present, and the cardinal had already 

 begun to feel uneasy, when the king returned it to 

 him, after the lapse of three days. Mazarin died 

 March 9, 1661. He left as his heir the marquis La 

 Meilleraie, who married his niece Hortensia Mancini, 

 and assumed the title of duke of Mazarin. He had, 

 besides, a nephew, the duke of Nevers, and four 

 other nieces, who were married to the prince of 

 Conti, the constable Colonna, the duke Mercosur, 

 and the duke of Bouillon. Charles II. (Stuart), in 

 the time of his embarrassments, had sued for one of 

 them ; his affairs having improved, Mazarin offered 

 her to him, but now received a negative answer. 



Mazarin and Richelieu have often been compared 

 together: "Mazarin," says Henault, " was as mild 

 as Richelieu was vehement. One of his greatest 

 talents was his accurate knowledge of men. His 

 policy was characterized rather by finesse and for- 

 bearance than by force. The last he made it a rule 

 to use only when other means were inadequate ; and 

 his understanding gave him the courage which cir- 

 cumstances required. Bold at Casal, quiet and 

 active at Cologne, enterprising, as when he accom- 

 plished the arrest of the princes, but insensible to 

 the ridicule of his enemies and the boastings of his 

 colleagues, he heard the murmurs of the people as 

 from the shore he would have heard the ragings of 

 the billows. In Richelieu there was something 

 greater, more comprehensive, less constrained ; in 

 Mazarin, more adroitness, more caution, and less 

 variation. The one was hated ; the other was de- 

 rided ; but both ruled the state." Mazarin flattered 

 the enemies whom Richelieu would have ordered to 

 be beheaded. His talents were not sufficiently pro- 

 minent to conceal his ambition, cupidity, timidity, 

 artfulness, and meanness. His greatest merit was 

 his skill in diplomacy. For this he possessed all 

 the necessary finesse, pliancy, and knowledge of 

 human nature, and exhibited them in the peace of 

 Westphalia and that of the Pyrenees. He added 

 Alsace to France, and perhaps anticipated that 

 France might some day give laws to Spain. The 

 outward appearance of the cardinal was very pre- 

 possessing: with the finest countenance, he united 

 the most agreeable tone in conversation, which won 

 all whom he wished to please. He allured men with 

 hopes. His heart was cold, equally destitute of 

 hatred and friendship. His composure was to be 

 disturbed by no passion, and no one could elicit 

 from him a secret. Towards private persons, he 

 often forgot his promises, but public treaties he con- 



scientiously observed, in order to restore the influ. 

 rnce of France, which Richelieu had neglected. 

 Mazarin's letters respecting the negotiations of the 

 peace of the Pyrenees have been several times print- 

 ed. (See Aubery's Hist, du Card. Mazarin (Am- 

 sterdam, 1751, 4 vols.); and Parallels du Card, de 

 Richelieu et du Card. Mazarin, by Richard (Amster- 

 dam, 1716) ; also Retz's Memoirs. 



MAZEPPA, JOHN; hettman of the Cossacks, 

 born in Podolia, of one of the many poor noble Pol- 

 ish families, who were obliged to seek for employ- 

 ments in the houses of the more wealthy. He was 

 page to John Casimir, who was fond of pleasure, but 

 at the same time, a lover of the arts and of literature. 

 Mazeppa had therefore an opportunity of acquiring 

 various useful accomplishments. An intrigue was 

 the foundation of his future elevation. A Polish 

 nobleman, having surprised Mazeppa with his wife, 

 bound him, naked, in revenge, upon a wild horse, 

 and committed him to his fate. The horse was 

 from the Ukraine, and directed his course thither. 

 Some poor peasants found him, half dead, and took 

 care of him. He remained among them, and their 

 warlike, roving life suited his disposition. He made 

 himself conspicuous and beloved by his dexterity, 

 bodily strength, and courage. His knowledge and 

 sagacity procured him the posts of secretary, and 

 adjutant to the hettman Samoilowitz, and, in 1687, 

 he was elected in his place. He gained the confi- 

 dence of Peter the Great, who loaded him with 

 honours, and he was finally made prince of the 

 Ukraine. His restless spirit now made him resolve 

 to throw off the yoke of subordination. He joined 

 with Charles XII., who had just given a king to 

 Poland, and aimed, by his assistance, to withdraw 

 himself from his allegiance to the czar, and to unite 

 the Ukraine, under certain conditions, to the crown 

 of Poland. These and other intrigues of Mazeppa 

 against Peter were at last revealed to the latter by 

 Kotschubey, general of the Cossacks, and Isra, gov- 

 ernor of Poltawa. Peter put no confidence in these 

 charges, but sent both the accusers to Mazeppa him- 

 self for punishment. He had the audacity to cause 

 them to be executed. At length the eyes of Peter were 

 opened : many partisans of Mazeppa were arrested 

 and executed, and he himself was hung in effigy. He 

 then went over, with a few adherents, to Charles 

 XII., and took an active part in the unfortunate 

 campaign in the Ukraine. After the defeat at 

 Pultawa, Mazeppa fled to Bender, where he died 

 1709. Lord Byron has made Mazeppa the hero of a 

 poem. 



MAZZOLA,or MAZZUOLI, FRANCESCO (called 

 II Parmegiano), one of the most distinguished paint- 

 ers of the Lombard school, born at Parma, in 1503, 

 was the son of Filippo Mazzola, a painter, surnamed 

 Dall' Erbette. In his sixteenth year, he executed a 

 T3aptism of Christ, which displays his remarkable 

 talents. Correggio's presence in Parma, in 1521, 

 gave him an opportunity of becoming acquainted 

 with the style of that master. In 1522, Mazzola 

 painted, among other works, a Madonna, with the 

 holy Children, a St Jerome, and a St Bernardin of 

 Feltri, a celebrated oil painting, which is preserved 

 in the monastery Delia Nunziata, but which has 

 suffered from time and unskilful hands. In Rome, 

 which the young artist visited in 1523, with the hope 

 of attracting the notice of the pope Clement, the 

 works of Raphael made a deep impression upon him, 

 the influence of which is perceptible in his subsequent 

 paintings, in which he aimed at a union of Correg- 

 gio's grace with Raphael's expression. On the 

 capture of Rome, in 1527, he suffered great losses, 

 and, after that event, went to Bologna. Among his 

 most celebrated paintings, executed in that city, art 



