La Rochefoucauld §laroch_016: This clemency of which they make a merit, arises oftentimes from vanity, some...

This clemency of which they make a merit, arises oftentimes from vanity, sometimes from idleness, oftentimes from fear, and almost always from all three combined. [La Rochefoucauld is content to paint the age in which he lived. Here the clemency spoken of is nothing more than an expression of the policy of Anne of Austria. Rochefoucauld had sacrificed all to her; even the favour of Cardinal Richelieu, but when she became regent she bestowed her favours upon those she hated; her friends were forgotten.--Aime Martin. The reader will hereby see that the age in which the writer lived best interprets his maxims.]