Colbert's good fortune. 549 



Jean Batifte Colbert, born at Rheims in 16 19. cams 

 very young to Paris to learn the buiineis of a counting- 

 houfe. From thence he went to Lyons, but difagree- 

 ing with his employer, returned to Paris, became fe~ 

 cretary to a rector and procurator, and then commii 

 to M. Sabathier, treforier des parties cafuelles. 



Another J. B. Colbert, feigneur de St. Pouange, our 

 Colbert's uncle on the mother's fide, got him in 1648, 

 into the fervice oF Le Tellier, fecretary of Hate, whofe 

 filter he had married. x The young man foon diftin- 

 gulfhed himfelf in this Htuation for his diligence and 

 punctuality. 



Le Tellier once difpatched him to cardinal Mazarin, 

 who then lived at Sedan, to deliver him a letter from 

 the queen-mother ; ItricTly enjoining him at the fame 

 time, to bring the letter back with him. Colbert, on 

 arriving at Sedan, delivered to the cardinal the queen's 

 letter, together with the note with which Le Tellier 

 had accompanied it. Going the next morning to fetch 

 the anfwer, the cardinal put into his hands a fealed 

 pacquet. But, as he did not give him the letter from 

 the queen, Colbert alked him for it, and was anfwered 

 by the minilter that it was put up in the pacquet ; ,and 

 that he had nothing to do but to take his departure. 

 Colbert immediately broke open, the leal, to convince 

 himfelf of the truth. The minifter, alronifhed at this 

 piece of affurance, called him an impudent fellow ; and 

 -fnatched the pacquet out of his hand., Colbert, with- 

 out being abafhed, told him, that, fuppoling the pacquet 

 to have been made up by one of his eminence's fecreta- 

 ■ries, he thought it poffible, that, in the hurry of bullnefs, 

 the letter of the queen-mother might have been forgot: 



that 



I 



