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Beginning Adobe Animate CC: Learn To Efficiently Create and Deploy Animated and Interactive Content 1st Edition Tom Green
Beginning Adobe Animate CC: Learn To Efficiently Create and Deploy Animated and Interactive Content 1st Edition Tom Green
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Beginning Adobe
Animate CC
Learn to Efficiently Create and Deploy
Animated and Interactive Content
—
Tom Green
Joseph Labrecque
Beginning Adobe
Animate CC
Learn to Efficiently Create and Deploy
Animated and Interactive Content
Tom Green
Joseph Labrecque
Beginning Adobe Animate CC: Learn to Efficiently Create and Deploy Animated and Interactive Content
Tom Green Joseph Labrecque
OAKVILLE, Ontario, Canada Thornton, Colorado, USA
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-2375-8 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-2376-5
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4842-2376-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017934517
Copyright © 2017 by Tom Green and Joseph Labrecque
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the
material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
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with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only
in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the
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The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are
not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to
proprietary rights.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication,
neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or
omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein.
Managing Director: Welmoed Spahr
Editorial Director: Todd Green
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Technical Reviewer: Thomas Benner
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Artist: SPi Global
Cover image designed by Freepik
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Printed on acid-free paper
This book is dedicated to Jim Babbage and Doug Winnie, who, for the past 10 years, have embarked
on our annual Excellent Adventures across North America where deep conversation or silence
around a campfire is the mark of an “Excellent Friendship”.
A small dedication to those designers, developers, and digital artists around the world
who never abandoned what they love—instead choosing to persevere and adapt—
toward our present victories.
Contents at a Glance
Introduction�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xxv
■
■Chapter 1: Learning the Animate CC Interface������������������������������������������������������ 1
■
■Chapter 2: Graphics in Animate CC���������������������������������������������������������������������� 57
■
■Chapter 3: Symbols and Libraries��������������������������������������������������������������������� 123
■
■Chapter 4: Interactivity Basics�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 181
■
■Chapter 5: Audio in Animate CC������������������������������������������������������������������������ 249
■
■Chapter 6: Text in Animate CC��������������������������������������������������������������������������� 281
■
■Chapter 7: Animation����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 313
■
■Chapter 8: The Motion Editor and Inverse Kinematics�������������������������������������� 391
■
■Chapter 9: Animate CC and the Third Dimension����������������������������������������������� 457
■
■Chapter 10: Video���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 477
■
■Chapter 11: Components and External Media��������������������������������������������������� 519
■
■Chapter 12: Optimizing and Publishing Animate CC Projects��������������������������� 563
Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 589
v
Contents
Introduction�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xxv
■
■Chapter 1: Learning the Animate CC Interface������������������������������������������������������ 1
Getting Started����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 2
Creating a New Animate CC document���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 3
Managing Your Workspace��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5
Using Layers������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 28
Layer Properties����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 29
Creating Layers������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 30
Adding Content to Layers��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 32
Showing/Hiding and Locking Layers���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 34
vii
■ Contents
Grouping Layers������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 35
Where To Get Help�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 35
viii
■ Contents
ix
■ Contents
x
■ Contents
xi
■ Contents
xii
■ Contents
■
■Chapter 8: The Motion Editor and Inverse Kinematics�������������������������������������� 391
Animating with the Motion Editor��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 392
Getting Acquainted: Scaling and Moving�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 393
Applying Easing���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 399
Easing with Graphs����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 400
xiv
■ Contents
xv
■ Contents
xvi
■ Contents
Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 589
xvii
About the Authors
xix
About the Technical Reviewer
xxi
Acknowledgments
In a previous incarnation of this book, back when the subject was Flash CS3, I said, “Working with a co-
author can be a tricky business. In fact, it is a lot like a marriage. Everything is wonderful when things are
going well, but you never really discover the strength of the relationship until you get deep into it.” Strange as
it may sound, working with Joseph has been wonderful.
I have known Joseph for too many years to count and our paths have crossed as Adobe Education
Leaders, a rather extensive series of jointly-written articles around Animate CC for Adobe and at various
conferences where we presented. I have always enjoyed Joseph’s company as well as his dry sense of humor
and a way of explaining the intricacies of code that is awesome to witness. In fact, when I stepped away from
Flash for a couple of years, Joseph became one of the strongest advocates for Animate CC out there. There
were many times when I would gently tell him, “Dial it back, Joseph. Flash is dead.” I am so glad he never
listened because, when asked by Apress if I would undertake this title, I didn’t have to think twice about who
my co-author would be.
Next up is our beloved editor, Nancy Chen, who was relentless in her efforts to bring this book to life. It
is an odd relationship between an editor and an author because there seems to be this perception that it is
adversarial. In fact, it is just the opposite and and I am grateful to have that relationship with Nancy.
Another group of people who unwittingly had a profound influence on this book are my students and
two colleagues—George Paraventes and David Neuman—at Humber. George and David always look at
process and tools when it comes to development and much of the mobile stuff in these pages was sparked by
conversations we had. My students were unwitting beta testers. I tried out many of the exercises in this book
during our weekly classes and they rather forcefully let me know whether my idea worked or where I needed
to start again.
Finally, writing a book of this size means I hole up in my office and generally become moody and
difficult to live with as I mull over an exercise or the order of a chapter. How my wife and life partner, Keltie,
puts up with it, I’ll never know but it does tend to all work out in the end.
—Tom Green
I would first like to acknowledge Tom for bringing me into this project and for allowing me to run wild with
some of the assets and exercises we came up with. Throwing together Serbian vampires, Ernest Hemingway,
aural alter-egos, and the preparation of fine absinthe into a discussion on Animate CC, ActionScript, and
HTML5 Canvas makes for a great authoring experience!
I’d also like to mention Ajay Shukla and Rich Lee at Adobe, who are both widely responsible for the
revival of Flash Professional (as Animate CC) and the ongoing successes we all share.
Finally—as always—a thank you to my wife Leslie and our daughters Paige and Lily for dealing with my
seemingly constant occupation with ongoing extra-familial activities.
—Joseph Labrecque
xxiii
Introduction
This book marks the fifth time in 10 years that I have written a book for Apress about Animate CC when it
was still known as Flash. The first book was the scariest because the “Foundation Flash …” series was one of
Apress’ premiere titles and best sellers. It was both frightening and exhilarating to be the author and, I must
admit, it was one heck of a lot of fun. Then Steve Jobs stepped in with his infamous rejection of the Flash
Player on the iOS platform and … that was that. In fact, one of the most memorable conversations I had with
my editor at the time was when I had wrapped up the Flash CS5 title and he said, “Well, this is probably the
last Flash title we will ever publish.”
Here we are again and I can’t help but thinking, “Isn’t it funny how things turn out?”
This software has had some pretty dark years and in many respects, it needed them. Flash, now Animate
CC, was software looking for a market and really not succeeding. That started turning around a couple of
years ago when Adobe started slowly turned the application toward the HTML5 universe, removing a lot of
bloat—Device Central is a good example—and stripping it down to its current incarnation with a sparkly
new name —Animate CC. That is the subject of this book.
This book is quite a bit different from previous editions because waltzing between HTML5 Canvas and
ActionScript 3.0 documents creates some pretty interesting challenges when it comes to things like what
code snippet to use or what video format to use in the video chapter. Then it occurred to both of us that that
we were asking the wrong questions. The question should have been, “What do you need to know and why.”
That was when we realized, “Nothing has really changed, just how we talk about it.” Thus, the tone of this
book is friendly and inviting, and there isn’t a ton of what we call “techie talk.”
One thing we did notice as we started planning the exercises is that Animate CC is one seriously
cool, mobile prototyping tool. This explains the numerous exercises that demonstrate a technique but the
explanation takes place in an Android or iOS interface. As one of the authors has been saying for over two
years, ”You can’t talk about motion. You have to show it.” Animate CC has all of the tools you need to do just
that and in less time than you may think.
One other aspect of this book is that we had a huge amount of fun developing the exercises and
examples in this book. The word “fun” is important because if learning is fun, what you learn will stay with
you. Explaining 9-slice scaling is a lot more fun when applied to a Chinese Olive Seller. Explaining how
to “swap” movieclip instances is more understandable when you drop an anvil on a rabbit’s head. Nested
movieclips become more real when explained in the context of a Hostess Twinkie. Want an Animate CC
quick start? Welcome to Lake Nanagook.
As you may have guessed, we both continue to exhibit a sense of joy and wonder with Animate CC and
we hope some of that rubs off on you as well.
xxv
■ Introduction
We start by taking you for a walk through the Animate CC interface, pointing out important areas and
showing how they work. We finish up our stroll on the shores of Lake Nanagook and create a scene with a
moonrise and howling wolves. Chapter 2 introduces you to working with the graphic tools and finishes with
showing you how you can bring your Illustrator, Photoshop, and Sketch 3 work into Animate CC.
Chapter 3 introduces you to the all-important Symbols and Library features in Animate CC. In this
chapter, you learn about 9-slice scaling by meeting an olive seller in Guangzhou, China. We show you how
filters work by adding a realistic drop shadow to a dancing fool; you discover how to use the Animate CC
Library and your Creative Cloud Library as repositories for reusable content, including “bunny bits”. We then
turn you loose on Catalina Island off the coast of California to bring clear skies to a foggy day.
At this point in the book, you have been exposed to the fundamentals of Animate CC and the time has
arrived to dig into the coding aspect of the application. This is the focus of Chapter 4 and is ideal for those of
you who have never used ActionScript 3.0. Chapter 5 starts by explaining how to use audio in Animate CC
and finishes up with you creating a rather intense rainstorm. Chapter 6 reinforces the message that “text isn’t
the grey stuff around your graphics”. We show you how it is both serious and fun and how to use two of the
most extensive type libraries out there—Adobe Typekit and Google Web Fonts—right from Animate CC.
Chapters 7 and 8 are extensive overviews of the animation features of Animate CC. In these two
chapters, you will be dropping an anvil on a rabbit’s head, banging hammers, fixing a neon sign, learning
about bones with bones, and animating an fully rigged Inverse Kinematics model.
Chapter 9 is devoted to the 3D aspects of Animate CC. In this chapter, you use a vanishing point to put
an image on a wall-mounted computer screen, opening and closing doors and setting an astronaut loose in
space by using the new camera feature of Animate CC. Chapter 10 moves into the realm of video in Animate
CC. Here, you will learn how to create and deploy video in your HTML5 Canvas and ActionScript 3.0
projects. We even show you how to create a cinemagraph in Animate CC.
Chapter 11 is a rather extensive look at many of the HTML5 Canvas and ActionScript 3.0 components
that are packaged with Animate CC, along with an overview of XML and JSON data structures. We finish up
by answering the inevitable question, “How do I deploy my Animate CC projects?”
Finally, Joseph and I are no different from you in that we, too, are learning more about what you can
and can’t do in Animate CC. Although we may be coming at it from a slightly different level than you, the
constant stream of updates and feature additions to Animate CC makes this a pretty exciting time for us as
we discover where Animate CC fits into the mobile, app development, and web design fields.
Our final words of advice are these:
“The amount of fun you can have with Animate CC should be illegal. We’ll see you in jail!”
xxvi
CHAPTER 1
Welcome to Adobe Animate CC. We suspect you are here because you have seen a lot of the great stuff that
Animate CC can do and it is now time for you to get into the game. We also suspect you are here because
you discovered that Animate CC is more complex than you originally thought. The other reason you may
be here is because you were a former Flash Professional user and you need to get a handle on this new
stuff in relatively short order. Whatever your motivation, both authors have been in your shoes at some
point in our careers, which means we understand what you are feeling. So instead of jumping right into the
application . . . let’s go for walk.
What we’ll cover in this chapter:
• Exploring the Animate CC interface
• Using the Animate CC stage
• Working with panels
• Understanding the difference between a frame and a keyframe
• Using frames to arrange the content on the stage
• Using layers to manage content on the stage
• Adding objects to the Library
• Testing your movie
If you haven’t already, download the chapter files. They can be found at http://www.apress.com/us/
book/9781484223758.
These files are used in this chapter:
• 01_Magnify.fla (Chapter01/Exercise Files_CH01/Exercise/01_Magnify.fla)
• 02_Ad.fla (Chapter01/Exercise Files_CH01/Exercise/02_Ad.fla)
• 03_Timeline.fla (Chapter01/Exercise Files_CH01/Exercise/03_Timeline.fla)
• 04_Properties.fla (Chapter01/Exercise Files_CH01/Exercise/Properties.fla)
• 05_Layers.fla (Chapter01/Exercise Files_CH01/Exercise/Layers.fla)
• 06_MoonOverLakeNanagook.fla (Chapter01/ExerciseFiles_CH01/Exercise/Garden.fla)
• Nanagook.mp3 (Chapter01/ExerciseFiles_CH01/Exercise/FliesBuzzing.mp3)
We are going to take a walk through the authoring environment—called the Animate CC interface—and
point out the sights to give you an opportunity to play with some of the stuff we will be pointing out. By the
end of the stroll, you should be fairly comfortable with this tool called Animate CC and have a fairly good
idea of what tools you can use and how to use them as you start creating Animate CC movies.
As we go for our walk, we will also have a conversation that will help you understand the fundamentals
of the creation of an Animate CC movie. Having this knowledge right at the start of the process will give you
the confidence to build on what you have learned. So let’s start our walk right at the beginning of the process
. . . the Start page.
Getting Started
A couple of seconds after you double-click the Application icon to launch Animate CC, the Start page, shown in
Figure 1-1, opens. This page, which is common to all of the CC applications, is divided into six discrete areas.
2
Chapter 1 ■ Learning the Animate CC Interface
• Open Recent Item: The documents listed are the ones opened recently. Provided
you haven’t moved them to another location or deleted them, clicking one will open
it. Clicking Open will let you browse for files not contained in the list.
• Create New: The middle area is where you can open a variety of new documents.
It is broken into three distinct sections for a reason: They reflect the three
major document types you can create. In this book we will only be dealing with
ActionScript 3.0 and HTML5 Canvas documents. HTML5 Canvas can use detailed
artwork, graphics, animations, and practically everything else that can be created
in Animate CC. The other choice is WebGL (Web Graphics Library), which allows
you to to render plug-in free graphics on any compatible browser. The two groups
below it are for specific types of documents ranging from the code-only ActionScript
3.0 document to the three AIR plug-ins that allow you to package your Animate CC
projects into apps. The final four types are specific code-based options.
You may have noticed that the name is officially WebGL (Preview). The current version of Animate CC only
supports basic animations and has a limited set of interactivity features. Thus it is a work in progress.
• Introduction: Each item here will launch a browser that takes you to a series of
Animate CC tutorials that address the category you clicked.
• Learn: This area provides you with a series of Animate CC help documents that will
allow you to explore, in greater depth, topics and techniques aimed at the category
you selected.
• Templates: This category is a bit misleading. Double-clicking one of the choices
actually opens the New from Template dialog box. The purpose of these templates is
to give you the opportunity to dissect a variety of sample documents.
• Adobe Exchange: Click this and you are taken to a web page that gives you the
opportunity to purchase or download a variety of plug-ins and extensions for
Animate CC.
3
Chapter 1 ■ Learning the Animate CC Interface
This interface is the feature-rich authoring environment that is the heart and soul of Animate CC. Let’s
now step into that big white area on the screen and take a moment to look around. The stage, that large
white area in the center of the screen, is where the action happens. A good way of regarding the stage in
relation to Animate CC is this: if it isn’t on the stage, the user isn’t going to see it. There will be instances
where this last statement is not exactly true, but we’ll get into those later in this book.
On the far-right edge of the screen is a set of tools that allow you to draw, color, and otherwise
manipulate objects on the stage.
To the right of the stage are the panels. Panels are used to modify and manipulate whatever object you
selected on the stage or to even add an object to the stage. These objects can be text, photographs, line art,
short animations, video, or even interface elements called components. You can use the panels and the
menus to change not only the characteristics of the objects but also how the objects behave on the stage.
Panels can be connected to each other (docked), or they can float freely in the interface (floating) and can
be placed anywhere you like. To move a panel simply, click the Panel tab and drag it to a new location. If you
see a blue line, the panel will dock to that location.
From our perspective, one of the more indispensable panels is the Properties panel. We’ll talk about
this a little later, but as you become more comfortable with the application, this panel will become a very
important place for you. In fact, we can’t think of any chapter in this book where we don’t refer to this panel.
At the bottom of the interface is the Timeline panel, which longtime Animate CC users simply refer
to as the timeline. This is the place where the action occurs. As you can see, the timeline is broken into a
series of boxes called frames. The best way of regarding frames is as individual frames of a film. When you
put something on the stage, it will appear in a frame. If you want it to move from here to there, it will start in
one frame and move to another position on the stage in another frame a little farther along the timeline. The
box with the vertical red stem draped over the timeline is called the playhead. Its purpose is to show you the
current frame being displayed. When an Animate CC movie is playing through a browser or being tested,
the playhead is in motion, and the user is seeing the frame where the playhead is located. This is how things
appear to move in Animate CC. Another thing you can do with the playhead is drag it across the timeline
while you are creating the Animate CC movie. This technique is known as scrubbing the timeline and has its
roots in film editing.
4
Chapter 1 ■ Learning the Animate CC Interface
Figure 1-3. Panels can be collapsed to give you more screen space
• Show collapsed panels as icons only: Sometimes you need the extra interface room
taken up by the panel’s name. Roll the mouse pointer to the left or right edge of the
panel strip. When the mouse pointer changes to a double-sided arrow, click and drag
to expand and show the panel’s name, or shrink to the width of the icons in the strip.
5
Chapter 1 ■ Learning the Animate CC Interface
• Open and close drawers: Click an icon, and the contents of that panel will fly out,
as shown in Figure 1-4. Click it again, and it will slide back. These panels that fly out
and slide back are called drawers.
Figure 1-4. Click a panel icon, and the contents slide out. Click the icon again, and they slide in
• Minimize panels: Another method of buying screen real estate is to minimize panels
you aren’t using. Double-click the tab with the panel’s name, and the panel collapses
upward. Double-click it again, and it expands to its original dimensions.
• Close panels: Right-click (Windows) or Control+click (Mac) a panel, and select
Close from the context menu. This not only closes the panel but also removes it from
your workspace. To get it back, simply open the Window menu and click the name of
the panel you closed to restore it.
• Add panels to sets: A collection of panel icons, as shown in Figure 1-5, is called a
panel set. To create a customized panel set, drag one panel icon onto another panel.
When you release the mouse, the panel will expand to include the new panel added.
To remove a panel from a set, just drag the panel icon to the bottom of the stack.
6
Chapter 1 ■ Learning the Animate CC Interface
To save your customized workspace, select Window ➤ Workspace ➤ New Workspace and enter a name
for your custom workspace into the New Workspace dialog box. Click OK to add the workspace. If you want
to delete one of your workspaces, select Window ➤ Workspace ➤ Manage Workspaces. When the Manage
Workspaces dialog box opens, select the space to be deleted and click the Delete button.
Speaking of workspaces, at the top right of the Animate CC interface is a drop-down list of “prerolled”
workspaces that came with the application. The default is Essentials. If you click and hold down that button,
a drop-down list of the choices appears. If you want to return the workspace to its “out-of-the-box” look,
select the Reset Essentials item in the menu.
Now that you have learned to become the master of the work environment, let’s take a look at how
you can also become the master of your Animate CC document as we wander over to the Preferences and
Properties areas of Animate CC.
7
Chapter 1 ■ Learning the Animate CC Interface
Document Preferences
To access preferences, select Edit ➤ Preferences (Windows) or Animate CC ➤ Preferences (Mac). This
will open the Animate CC Preferences dialog box. There is a lot to this dialog box, and we’ll explore it
further at various points throughout this book. For now, we are concerned with the general preferences
in the Category area of the window. Click General, and the window will change to show you the general
preferences for Animate CC, as shown in Figure 1-6.
Figure 1-6. The General preferences can be used to manage not only the workspace but also items on the stage
8
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It was to the beauty of Louis XIV.’s hair when he was a little boy,
that the huge, hideous periwigs seem to owe their invention.
Nature’s ruling has its exceptions in the bestowal of naturally curling
head-covering, and desiring to offer the sincerest flattery of imitation,
the French courtiers and the ingenuity of the coiffeurs combined to
invent the huge periwigs, which in some sort of fashion even
contrived to live through the French Revolution and the Terror itself;
for did not Robespierre preside at the great Feast of the Supreme
Being in about the ugliest, primmest bobtail wig ever fashioned on
barber’s block?
As to the women’s dress in France, it varied somewhat according
to their rank. Middle-class bourgeoises wore the scantiest covering
out-of-doors on their necks and shoulders; not even in church was
their attire more modest. To so scandalous a length was this carried,
that it brought on them more than one remonstrance from the pulpit;
and Englishwomen, taking as always, their fashions from Paris,
followed suit. A Nonconformist English divine published a translation
of a French work by “A grave and learned Papist”—possibly the Curé
of St Étienne—who reprehended in no measured terms the
“shameful enormity,” as he phrased it, of this style of dress. The
ladies of the great world ordinarily went with more circumspection in
the streets, and nearly always, also, they wore a mask. It was
generally made of black velvet, lined with white satin. It fixed itself on
the face with a spring, and was fastened with a thin wire, which was
terminated by a glass button that could be dropped between the lips,
and so disguise the voice. The female style of dressing the hair was
to gather it up in a bunch at the crown of the head, leaving some
curls to hang on each side of the face; over this was placed a sort of
little linen hood, the points of which usually reached to the shoulders.
The gowns were wide-sleeved and long-waisted, with a skirt
embroidered or trimmed with lace. A small dog was almost
indispensable to a lady of fashion. The little creatures were very
pretty, generally having pointed muzzles and ears. Women took snuff
and smoked, and the traces of these habits were apt to leave their
ugly reminders about their persons and dress.
A great many new streets and houses were added to the city. The
increase in the number of public vehicles rendered the streets very
noisy, while the filth of the ways was indescribable; but this did not
hinder women from walking in velvet slippers, or pages and lackeys
from wearing bright, gold-laced scarlet livery.
The state of morals, from highest to lowest, was at a low ebb. Vice
permeated every class, from the clergy and nobility to the dregs of
the populace. Murder and barefaced robbery took place constantly in
the streets; the rage for gambling was boundless, and the cardinal-
minister made no attempt to check the shameful licence of the green
tables.
Yet Paris was fair and brilliant to the eye when Maria Théresa
made her entry in the most magnificent carriage of the cortège which
occupied three hours in passing. The princess was not beautiful; but
her expression was amiable, and her complexion very fair for a
Spanish woman. She wore a mantle of violet velvet embroidered
with golden fleur-de-lis over a robe of white brocade covered all
down the front with a splendid rivière of emeralds, and she wore her
crown with infinite grace and dignity.
The fierce light that beats upon the lives of kings and queens was
at its fiercest when cast upon the life of the Sun-King. His marriage
with the Spanish princess was one of policy and convenience, and
as such there have been unions more disastrous. If love played no
great part in it, at least the king was true to the dignity and a certain
gentle courtesy and good-nature underlying the pomp and
extravagant display with which he was pleased to surround himself;
and Maria Théresa’s record of a queen’s life bears no startling
evidence of unhappiness or discontent—something indeed to the
contrary.
CHAPTER XV
It was in the very presence of the dead Scarron that Ninon was
informed of the danger threatening St Evrémond. A lettre de cachet
had been issued for conveying him to the Bastille, for the offence he
had given in writing some satirical verses on the Peace of the
Pyrenees. St Evrémond was very far from standing alone in his
opinions on this treaty carried through by Mazarin; but he was
unapproachable in the expression of them. Biting invective and
caustic wit at the cardinal’s expense were graven in every line of his
couplets, addressed to the Marquis de Créqui. Nor did the mockery
cease at that point; it ridiculed the royal marriage itself, and the king
was furious. This was the second time that St Evrémond had
incurred the displeasure of Mazarin; on the first occasion, a
reconciliation had been patched up, after a three months’ sojourn for
St Evrémond in the Bastille, but this time he was past forgiveness—
possibly, as it has been surmised, that in addition to the verses, he
had given secret offence to the Court—and it was now but a matter
of tracking St Evrémond to his hiding-place; for he had been warned
of the letter of arrest for shutting him up in the Bastille, probably this
time for the rest of his life. He had found refuge in the convent of the
Capucins du Roule; but already his goods and money were
confiscated, and it was Ninon who carried him, from her own
resources, the necessary notes and gold for his getting away under
cover of the night to Havre, where he arrived safely, and took ship for
Dover, never to return to France.
The Majesty of Louis XIV. was as a thing divine; and the faintest
shadow could not be permitted to cross the glory of that sun he
chose for his double-mottoed device. Cardinal Mazarin, now at the
point of death, renewed his counsel to the young king never to let will
thwart his, but ever to bear the sceptre in his hand—in his own hand
alone. So Mazarin, dealing his parting thrust of revenge on the
queen-regent, died in the castle of Vincennes, unregretted by any,
tolerated of later years, but despised by all. Someone made his
epitaph, whose concluding lines were to the effect that having
cheated and deceived through life, he ended with cheating the devil
himself, since, when he came to fetch away his soul, he found he
had not one.
Madame Scarron, after her husband’s death, decided to live in the
same apartments, in preference to the home which Ninon offered her
in her own house. The widow’s friends obtained for her a pension of
two thousand livres, and she continued the old réunions, and soon
recovered from the loss she had sustained; for Françoise d’Aubigné
was ever distinguished by her calm, equable temperament.
After the fête at Vaux, Monsieur Fouquet, continuing his attentions
to Mademoiselle de la Baume, finally asked her hand in marriage of
her parents. They were well pleased, especially her father. Madame
de la Baume would have seemed more to favour another destiny for
her daughter. The king was enraged on learning the superintendent’s
proposal, but Fouquet braved the royal displeasure, and intended to
take his bride to Holland. So the man proposed; but the Fates had
otherwise disposed. Within a few hours, a letter was brought him; he
broke the seal hurriedly, recognising the beloved handwriting, and
when he had read the letter—but two lines long—he sank back in his
chair as if a thunder-stroke had smitten him.