revenues
were confiscated to the Crown, and they at once found themselves without
pecuniary resources.[160] The calculations of Richelieu had been able,
for the faction of the fugitives was instantly weakened by so
unexpected an act of severity. Crippled in means, they could no longer
recompense the devotion of those individuals who had followed their
fortunes, many of whom had done so from a hope of future aggrandizement,
and who immediately retired without even an attempt at apology, in order
to secure themselves from ruin. When the unfortunate Queen would have
sacrificed her jewels to liquidate the claims which pressed the most
heavily upon her, she found the measure impossible, lest the King should
redemand them as the property of the Crown; and she consequently soon
saw herself reduced to the undignified expedient of subsisting upon the
generosity of the powers from whom she had sought protection.

While Louis was, to use the words of Mezeray, thus "dishonouring his
mother and his brother," and depriving them of the very means of
subsistence, he was overwhelming the Cardinal de Richelieu alike with
honours and with riches. The estate whence he derived his name was
erected into a duchy-peerage, and he was thenceforward distinguished by
the title of the Cardinal-Duke; while the government of Brittany having
become vacant by the death of the Marechal de Themines, it was also
conferred upon the omnipotent minister.[161]

At this period, indeed, it appeared as if Richelieu had overcome all
obstacles to his personal greatness; and although the crown of France
was worn by the son of Henri IV, the foot of the Cardinal was on the
neck of the nation. That he was envied and hated is most true, but he
was still more feared than either. No one could dispute his genius;
while all alike uttered "curses not loud but deep" upon his tyranny
and ambition.

The King had long become a mere puppet in his hands, leaving all state
affairs to his guidance, while he himself passed his time in hunting,
polishing muskets, writing military memoirs, or wandering from one
palace to another in search of amusement. Perpetually surrounded by
favourites, he valued them only as they contributed to his selfish
gratification, and abandoned them without a murmur so soon as they
incurred the displeasure of the Cardinal, to whom in his turn he clung
from a sense of helplessness rather than from any real feeling
of regard.

Bitterly, indeed, had Mari