Those gentry," he said to his most confidential servants, "come to see
how soon I shall die. If I recover, I will make them pay dearly for
their desire to have me die." The austere nature of Louis XIII. was
awakened again with the transitory return of his powers; the severities
of his reign were his own as much as Cardinal Richelieu's.

He was, nevertheless, dying, asking God for deliverance. It was
Thursday, May 14. "Friday has always been my lucky day," said Louis
XIII.: "on that day I have undertaken assaults that I have carried; I
have even gained battles: I should have liked to die on a Friday." His
doctors told him that they could find no more pulse; he raised his eyes
to heaven and said out loud, "My God, receive me to mercy!" and
addressing himself to all, he added, "Let us pray!" Then, fixing his
eyes upon the Bishop of Meaux, he said, "You will, of course, see when
the time comes for reading the agony prayers; I have marked them all."
Everybody was praying and weeping; the queen and all the court were
kneeling in the king's chamber. At three o'clock, he softly breathed his
last, on the sane day and almost at the same moment at which his father
had died beneath the dagger of Ravaillac, thirty-three years before.

France owed to Louis XIII. eighteen years of Cardinal Richelieu's
government; and that is a service which she can never forget. "The
minister made his sovereign play the second part in the monarchy and the
first in Europe," said Montesquieu: "he abased the king, but he exalted
the reign." It is to the honor of Louis XIII. that he understood and
accepted the position designed for him by Providence in the government of
his kingdom, and that he upheld with dogged fidelity a power which often
galled him all the while that it was serving him.

CHAPTER XIII.----LOUIS XIII., RICHELIEU, AND LITERATURE.

Cardinal Richelieu was dead, and "his works followed him," to use the
words of Holy Writ. At home and abroad, in France and in Europe, he had
to a great extent continued the reign of Henry IV., and had completely
cleared the way for that of Louis XIV. "Such was the strength and
superiority of his genius that he knew all the depths and all the
mysteries of government," said La Bruyere in his admission-speech before
the French Academy; "he was regardful of foreign countries, he kept in
hand crowned heads, he knew what weight to attach to their alliance;
with allies he hedged himself against t