264 MINING IN THE 



CHAP. X. 



the country people were satisfied with getting 

 up the lead, which they were enabled to sell in 

 the cities near them at a better price on account 

 of the silver which was found to be mixed with 

 that inferior metal. 



Henry the Fourth seemed to have been excited, 

 by the rumours spread through Europe of the 

 vast wealth of the mines of Peru, to entertain 

 projects for the discovery of similar sources of 

 wealth in his own dominions. He addressed 

 several efforts to the object; but the less san- 

 guine Sully, who viewed the whole with indif- 

 ference, if not with contempt, co-operated but 

 very faintly in the designs of his master 1 . 



1 Under the administration of Cardinal Richelieu, a Ger- 

 man adventurer, with his wife, excited his attention to the 

 mines of the precious metals in France. Both the Baron de 

 Beausoleil and Auffenbach and his wife, especially the latter, 

 traversed the kingdom in search of these treasures, and made 

 reports of extravagantly rich mines which they had discovered 

 and proposed to work. 



In consequence of their representations, measures were 

 taken to carry extensive plans into execution; but from a 

 variety of causes, which are ably pointed out in the " Metal- 

 lurgie de Grassin," the whole operations terminated in disap- 

 pointment, and the loss of the capital that had been expended. 



Madame de Beausoleil et Auffenbach appears to have been 

 a more accomplished charlatan than her husband the baron. 

 In a work she published, under the title of " La Restitution 

 de Phiton," addressed to the cardinal, in 1640, she professes 

 great skill in the discovery of mines, and asserts that, after 

 much experience in Hungary and in other parts of the world, 

 she had discovered in various parts of France rich mines, the 



