A new comedy, the _Grande Pastorale,_ was in hand.

"When he was purposing to publish it," says the _History of the Academy,_ "he desired M.Chapelain to look over it, and make careful observations upon it.

These observations were brought to him by M.de Bois-Robert, and, though they were written with much discretion and respect, they shocked and nettled him to such a degree, either by their number or by the consciousness they caused him of his faults, that, without reading them through, he tore them up.

But on the following night, when he was in bed, and all his household asleep, having thought over the anger he had shown, be did a thing incomparably more estimable than the best comedy in the world, that is to say, he listened to reason, for he gave orders to collect and glue together the pieces of that torn paper, and, having read it from one end to the other, and given great thought to it, he sent and awakened M.de Bois-Robert to tell him that he saw quite well that the gentlemen of the Academy were better informed about such matters than he, and that there must be nothing more said about that paper and print." The cardinal ended by permitting the liberties taken in literary matters by Chapelain and even Colletet.

His courtiers were complimenting him about some success or other obtained by the king's arms, saying that nothing could withstand his Eminence.