pain. All Europe thought as the
young captain in the guards, afterwards Marshal Fabert, who, when the
king said to him, "I know that my army is divided into two factions,
royalists and cardinalists; which are you for?" answered, "Cardinalists,
sir, for the cardinal's party is yours." The cardinal and France were
triumphing together, but the conqueror was dying; Cardinal Richelieu had
just been removed from Ruel to Paris.

For several months past, the cardinal's health, always precarious, had
taken a serious turn; it was from his sick-bed that he, a prey to cruel
agonies, directed the movements of the army, and, at the same time, the
prosecution of Cinq-Mars. All at once his chest was attacked; and the
cardinal felt that he was dying. On the 2d of December, 1642, public
prayers were ordered in all the churches; the king went from St. Germain
to see his minister. The cardinal was quite prepared. "I have this
satisfaction," he said, "that I have never deserted the king, and that I
leave his kingdom exalted, and all his enemies abased." He commended his
relatives to his Majesty, "who on their behalf will remember my
services;" then, naming the two secretaries of state, Chavigny and De
Noyers, he added, "Your Majesty has Cardinal Mazarin; I believe him to be
capable of serving the king." And he handed to Louis XIII. a
proclamation which he had just prepared for the purpose of excluding
the Duke of Orleans from any right to the regency in case of the king's
death. The preamble called to mind that the king had five times already
pardoned his brother, recently engaged in a new plot against him.

The king had left the cardinal, but without returning to St. Germain. He
remained at the Louvre. Richelieu had in vain questioned the physicians
as to how long he had to live. One, only, dared to go beyond commonplace
hopes. "Monsignor," he said, "in twenty-four hours you will be dead or
cured." "That is the way to speak!" said the cardinal; and he sent for
the priest of St. Eustache, his parish. As they were bringing into his
chamber the Holy Eucharist, he stretched out his hand, and, "There," said
he, "is my Judge before whom I shall soon appear; I pray him with all my
heart to condemn me if I have ever had any other aim than the welfare of
religion and of the state." The priest would have omitted certain
customary questions, but, "Treat me as the commonest of Christians," said
the cardinal. And when he was asked to p