nably
might he appeal to those of the English their brethren for protection
against him.

This time the cardinal was ready; he had concluded an alliance with Spain
against England, "declaring merely to the King of Spain that he was
already at open war with England, and that he would put in practice with
all the power of his forces against his own states all sorts of
hostilities permissible in honorable warfare, which his Majesty also
promised to do by the month of June, 1628, at the latest." The king set
out to go and take in person the command of the army intended to give the
English their reception. He had gone out ill from the Parliament, where
he had been to have some edicts enregistered. "I did nothing but tremble
all the time I was holding my bed of justice," he said to Bassompierre.
"It is there, however, that you make others tremble," replied the
marshal. Louis XIII. was obliged to halt at Villeroy, where the cardinal
remained with him, "being all day at his side, and most frequently not
leaving him at night; he, nevertheless, had his mind constantly occupied
with giving orders, taking care above everything to let it appear before
the king that he had no fear; he preferred to put himself in peril of
being blamed or ruined in well-doing, rather than, in order to secure
himself, to do anything which might be a cause of illness to his
Majesty." In point of fact, Richelieu was not without anxiety, for Sieur
de Toiras, a young favorite of the king's, to whom he had entrusted the
command in the Island of Re, had not provided for the defence of that
place so well as had been expected; Buckingham had succeeded in effecting
his descent. The French were shut up in the Fort of St. Martin, scarcely
finished as it was, and ill-provisioned. The cardinal "saw to it
directly, sending of his own money because that of the king was not to be
so quickly got at, and because he had at that time none to spare; he
despatched Abbe Marcillac, who was in his confidence, to see that
everything was done punctually and no opportunity lost. He did not
trouble himself to make reports of all the despatches that passed, and
all the orders that were within less than a fortnight given on the
subject of this business during the king's illness, in order to provide
for everything that was necessary, and to prepare all things in such wise
that the king and France might reap from them the fruit which was shortly
afterwards gathered in."

Mean