French line
extended to the foot of this western barrier. A crowd of generals and of
great lords were on horseback behind the minister, but at twenty paces'
distance and profoundly silent.

Cardinal Richelieu had at first followed slowly the line of operations,
but had later returned and stationed himself upon this height, whence
his eye and his thought hovered over the destinies of besiegers and
besieged. The whole army had its eyes upon him, and could see him from
every point. All looked upon him as their immediate chief, and awaited
his gesture before they acted. France had bent beneath his yoke a long
time; and admiration of him shielded all his actions to which another
would have been often subjected. At this moment, for instance, no one
thought of smiling, or even of feeling surprised, that the cuirass
should clothe the priest; and the severity of his character and
aspect suppressed every thought of ironical comparisons or injurious
conjectures. This day the Cardinal appeared in a costume entirely
martial: he wore a reddish-brown coat, embroidered with gold, a
water-colored cuirass, a sword at his side, pistols at his saddle-bow,
and he had a plumed hat; but this he seldom put on his head, which was
still covered with the red cap. Two pages were behind him; one carried
his gauntlets, the other his casque, and the captain of his guards was
at his side.

As the King had recently named him generalissimo of his troops, it was
to him that the generals sent for their orders; but he, knowing only too
well the secret motives of his master's present anger, affected to refer
to that Prince all who sought a decision from his own mouth. It happened
as he had foreseen; for he regulated and calculated the movements of
that heart as those of a watch, and could have told with precision
through what sensations it had passed. Louis XIII came and placed
himself at his side; but he came as a pupil, forced to acknowledge that
his master is in the right. His air was haughty and dissatisfied, his
language brusque and dry. The Cardinal remained impassible. It was
remarked that the King, in consulting him, employed the words of
command, thus reconciling his weakness and his power of place, his
irresolution and his pride, his ignorance and his pretensions, while his
minister dictated laws to him in a tone of the most profound obedience.

"I will have them attack immediately, Cardinal," said the Prince on
coming up; "that is to say," he