orter
of Richelieu, who even called him his son; yet the cardinal's cruel
policy determined that he should die. There was difficulty in proving
before the judges that he had actually borne arms against the king. "The
smoke and dust," said St. Reuil, the witness, "rendered it impossible to
recognize any combatant distinctly. But when I saw one advance alone,
and cut his way through five ranks of gens-d'armes, I knew that it must
be Montmorenci."

This gallant descendant of five constables of France perished on the
scaffold at Toulouse. Richelieu deemed the example necessary to strike
terror into the nobility. And he immediately took advantage of that
terror, by removing all the governors of provinces, and replacing them
throughout with officers personally attached to his interests.

Having thus made, as it were, a clear stage for the fulfilment of his
great political schemes, Richelieu turned his exertions to his original
plan of humbling the House of Austria, and extending the territories of
France at its expense. He formed an alliance with the great Gustavus
Adolphus, who then victoriously supported the cause of religious liberty
in Germany. Richelieu drew more advantage from the death than from the
victories of his ally; since, as the price of his renewing his alliance
with the Swedes, he acquired the possession of Philipsburg, and opened
the way toward completing that darling project of France and every
French statesman, the acquisition of the Rhine as a frontier.

The French having manifested their design to get possession of Treves,
the Spaniards anticipated them; and open war ensued betwixt the two
monarchies. Richelieu in his wars was one of those scientific combatants
who seek to weary out an enemy, and who husband their strength in order
not to crush at once, but to ruin in the end. Such, at least, were the
tactics by which he came triumphant out of the struggle with Spain. He
made no conquests at first, gained no striking victories; but he
compensated for his apparent want of success by perseverance, by taking
advantage of defeat to improve the army, and by laboring to transfer to
the crown the financial and other resources which had been previously
absorbed by the aristocracy. Thus the war, though little brilliant at
first, produced at last these very important results. Arras in the
north, Turin in the south, Alsace in the east, fell into the hands of
the French; Roussillon was annexed to the monarchy; and