iards, and
in whom the King had evinced the greatest confidence. Accused upon some
frivolous pretext--although M. de Saint-Preuil had been assured by Louis
himself that he was at perfect liberty to exercise his authority within
the limits of his government as he should see fit, without being
amenable to any other individual--he was arrested, tried, and executed,
despite the desire of the weak monarch to turn aside the iron hand by
which he had been clutched. In this instance the vindictive minister
could afford to satiate his hatred, and even to give to his merciless
vengeance a semblance of patriotism, for here at least his own safety or
interests were not involved; and thus to all the representations of his
royal master he replied by lamenting that he dare not overlook the
commission of crime, while the welfare of a great nation and the safety
of its sovereign were confided to his care. It was no part of
Richelieu's policy to tolerate any individual, however inferior to
himself in rank and station, who ventured to place himself beyond the
pale of his own jealous authority; and thus the overstrained indulgence
of the King to a brave and successful soldier had signed his
death-warrant.

Still did the fatal disease which was preying upon the vitals of the
Cardinal silently work its insidious way, and reveal its baneful power
by sleepless nights, burning fever, and sharp bodily pain; but his
powerful mind and insatiable ambition enabled him to strive successfully
against these enervating influences; and Saint-Preuil was scarcely laid
in his dishonoured grave ere the remorseless minister sought around him
for more victims. The Comte de Soissons, who had been exiled from the
Court for resenting the arrogance of the Cardinal, had found an asylum
with the Duc de Bouillon at Sedan,[231] where it had, after considerable
difficulty, been conceded that he should be permitted to remain
unmolested for the space of four years, after which time he was to
remove to some other residence selected by the King, or in point of
fact, by Richelieu himself. The period named had now expired; and the
Cardinal, anxious still further to humiliate the great nobles, to whom,
as he was bitterly aware, his own obscure extraction was continually
matter of contemptuous comment, exacted from the timid and yielding
monarch that he should forthwith issue his commands to M. de Bouillon to
deliver up his cousin De Soissons to the keeping of his Majesty; or