inno.] AX AMATEUR TOUT. 



275 



the secret negotiations relating to the Triple Alliance. The 

 object of his mission was twofold ; first, to charles II 

 impress upon the credulous people of England, 1669. 

 by means of his professed astrological predictions, Abbe Preg- 

 the idea that their national prosperity and glory '^^^' 

 were bound up by the fates in a union with France ; 

 secondly, he was to serve as a convenient and unsuspected 

 vehicle of correspondence between Charles and his sister, 

 Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, that they might carry on their 

 negotiations as they pleased, without the interference of the 

 Duke of Buckingham. But curiously enough, it so happened, 

 that the chief attendant upon the Queen-mother of England, 

 then at Colombes, was Mary Villiers, Duchess of Richmond, 

 Buckingham's sister. This lady, finding means to discover 

 much of what passed in the long conferences held between 

 Henrietta and her mother, communicated it to Buckingham, 

 and thus made him aware that, whilst he thought himself a 

 principal in the transaction, he was really but a tool in the 

 hands of the Duchess of Orleans. Buckingham was at first 

 extremely angry to find himself duped, and declared that he 

 wished he had never admitted Henrietta into the negotiation 

 at all, protesting that he could have carried it on without her, 

 if he had chosen. However, as it began to assume a more 

 tangible and definite form, otliers were cautiously, and by 

 degrees, let into the secret, among whom were Lady Castle- 

 maine, at this time the king's favourite mistress, who was pro- 

 pitiated by handsome presents from France, and the Earl of 

 Arlington, who, seeing his master committed to the affair 

 and content upon it, was too prudent now to oppose it. 

 During this meeting at Newmarket the Earl of St. Albans, 

 the Earl of Arundel, ^^^ and Lord Clifford, ^^* were first 

 admitted into the cabal,* and trusted with more or less 



* So called from the initials of members composing the cabinet in 

 which, according to the practice introduced by Lord Clarendon, every 

 measure was debated and determined before it was submitted, for the 

 sake of form, to the consideration of the Council. The Cabal ministers 

 were Clififord, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley-Cooker (created Baron 

 Ashley and subsequently Earl of Shaftesbury), and Lauderdale. 



