THE 8P0RT OP FORTUNE. £11 



were too painful and great for his friends to expect of 

 him ; but his enemies had reafon. to tremble : for as 

 exceflive as his complacency was on one iide, fo little 

 moderation was in his revenge on the other. He made 

 Jefs ufe of his authority for enriching himfeif, than in 

 making the fortune of numbers, who might look up to 

 him as the author of their profperity ; but humour, not 

 equity, felected the object. By a haughty imperious 

 demeanour he eftranged from him the very hearts of 

 thofe whom he had cherifhed moft, while he at the 

 fame time turned all his rivals into fo many fecret 

 maligners or implacable foes. 



Among the number of thofe who watched all his 

 fteps with jealous and invidious eyes, and were already 

 forming themfelves into the inftruments of his ruin, was 

 a count of Piedmont, Jofeph Martinengo, belonging to 

 the fuite of the prince, whom Aloylius himfeif had put 

 into this poft, as a harmlefs creature devoted to him, 

 that he might fill the place in the prince's amufements 

 which he began to feel too dull for himfeif, and which 

 he rather chofe to exchange for a more important em- 

 ployment. As he coniidered this man as the work of 

 his hands, whom, by a iingle nod, he could re-plunge 

 into the primitive nothing out of which he had drawn 

 him by the breath of his mouth ; fo he held himfeif 

 fure of him, as well from motives of fear as from grati- 

 tude ; and thus fell into the fame miftake, as Richelieu 

 did in delivering the young Le Grand as a plaything 

 to Lewis XIII. But, belides being unable to correal 

 this miftake with Richelieu's addrefs, lie had to do 

 with a more artful enemy than the french minifter had 

 had to contend with. Inftead of being vain of his 



fuccefsj 



