religious liberties he had given.

He saw beyond his time, not only beyond Catholics, but beyond
Protestants. Two years after that great example of toleration in La
Rochelle, Nicholas Antoine was executed for apostasy from Calvinism at
Geneva. And for his leniency Richelieu received the titles of "Pope of
the Protestants" and "Patriarch of the Atheists." But he had gained the
first great object of his policy, and he would not abuse it: he had
crushed the political power of the Huguenots forever.

Let us turn now to the second great object of his policy. He must break
the power of the nobility: on that condition alone could France have
strength and order, and here he showed his daring at the outset. "It is
iniquitous," he was wont to tell the King, "to try to make an example by
punishing the lesser offenders; they are but trees which cast no shade:
it is the great nobles who must be disciplined."

It was not long before he had to begin this work--and with the
highest--with no less a personage than Gaston, Duke of Orleans,
favorite son of Mary, brother of the King. He who thinks shall come to a
higher idea of Richelieu's boldness when he remembers that for many
years after this Louis was childless and sickly, and that during all
those years Richelieu might awake any morning to find Gaston--king.

In 1626 Gaston, with the Duke of Vendome, half-brother of the King, the
Duchess of Chevreuse, confidential friend of the Queen, the Count of
Chalais, and the Marshal Ornano, formed a conspiracy after the old
fashion. Richelieu had his hand at their lofty throats in a moment.
Gaston, who was used only as a makeweight, he forced into the most
humble apology and the most binding pledges; Ornano he sent to die in
the Bastille; the Duke of Vendome and the Duchess of Chevreuse he
banished; Chalais he sent to the scaffold.

The next year he gave the grandees another lesson. The serf-owning
spirit had fostered in France, through many years, a rage for duelling.
Richelieu determined that this should stop. He gave notice that the law
against duelling was revived, and that he would enforce it. It was soon
broken by two of the loftiest nobles in France--by the Count of
Bouteville Montmorency and the Count des Chapelles. They laughed at the
law: they fought defiantly in broad daylight. Nobody dreamed that the
law would be carried out against them. The Cardinal would, they thought,
deal with them as rulers have dealt with serf-mastering la