' It has been
said that the object of their 'Titanic labour' was to ease the way for
the historian De Thou; but it is more likely that the brothers obeyed an
instinct for the acquisition of secret history; 'life would have been too
short to have decided on the intrinsic value of the manuscripts flowing
down in a stream to the collectors.' The surviving brother bequeathed
these State Papers to the Abbe de Thou (the fourth possessor of the
'Bibliotheca Thuana') who sold them to Charron de Menars; they were
eventually purchased by Louis XVI., and were deposited in the Royal
Library, where the printed books and certain other MSS. had been already
received under a legacy from Jacques du Puy.
When the historian died the brothers jointly undertook the trust that had
fallen to Pierre. 'Among all the French scholars,' said Gassendi,'these
two Puteani do most excel; and now, abiding with the sons of Thuanus,
they sustain by all the means in their power the library and the students
that have been committed to their care. Francois-Auguste de Thou, the
historian's eldest son, became Grand-Master of the King's books; he added
considerably to the 'Bibliotheca Thuana,' and his house became the
meeting-place of the Parisian _savants_. A brilliant career was cruelly
cut short by the malignity of Richelieu.
The young Cinq-Mars was in a plot with the Queen and Gaston of Orleans to
overthrow the Cardinal's power. His friend De Thou was aware of the
design, but had taken no part in the conspiracy.
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