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MINING IN THE

CIIAP. X.

the country people were satisfied with gettingup the lead, which they were enabled to sell inthe cities near them at a better price on accountof the silver which was found to be mixed withthat inferior metal.

Henry the Fourth seemed to have been excited,by the rumours spread through Europe of thevast wealth of the mines of Peru , to entertainprojects for the discovery of similar sources ofwealth in his own dominions. He addressedseveral efforts to the object; but the less san-guine Sully, who viewed the whole with indif-ference, if not with contempt, co-operated butvery faintly in the designs of his master 1 .

1 Under the administration of Cardinal Richelieu , a Ger-man adventurer, witli his wife, excited his attention to themines of the precious metals in France. Both the Baron deBeausoleil and Auffenbach and his wife, especially the latter’,traversed the kingdom in search of these treasures, and madereports of extravagantly rich mines which they had discoveredand proposed to work.

In consequence of their representations, measures weretaken to carry extensive plans into execution; but from avariety of causes, which are ably pointed out in the “ Metal-lurgy de Grassin,” the whole operations terminated in disap-pointment, and the loss of the capital that had been expended.

Madame de Beausoleil ct Auffenbach appears to have beena more accomplished charlatan than her husband the baron.In a work she published, under the title of “ La Restitutionde Pluton,” addressed to the cardinal, in 1640, she professesgreat skill in the discovery of mines, and asserts that, aftermuch experience in Hungary and in other parts of the world,she had discovered in various parts of France rich mines, the