vileges. The Huguenots
were too grateful for the liberty that was left to them to menace the
French Government any longer. Most of them were loyal citizens and
helped the Cardinal to maintain peace. In any case they did not exist
as a separate political party.

Richelieu reduced the power of the nobles by relentless {122} measures
that struck at their feudal independence. No fortresses were to be
held by them unless they lived on the frontiers of France, where some
defence was necessary against a foreign enemy. When their strong
castles were pulled down, the great lords seemed to have lost much of
their ancient dignity. They were forbidden to duel, and dared not
disobey the law after they had seen the guilty brought relentlessly to
the scaffold. The first families of France had to acknowledge a
superior in the mighty Cardinal Richelieu. Intendants were sent out to
govern provinces and diminish the local influence of the landlords.
Most of these were men of inferior rank to the nobility, who found
themselves compelled to go to the wars if they wished to earn
distinction. The result was good, for it added many recruits to the
land and sea forces.

In 1629, the Cardinal donned sword and cuirass and led out the royal
army to the support of the Duke of Mantua, a French nobleman who had
inherited an Italian duchy and found his rights disputed by both Spain
and Savoy. Louis XIII accompanied Richelieu and showed himself a brave
soldier. Their road to Italy was by the Pass of Susa, thick with snow
in the early spring and dangerous from the presence of Savoy's hostile
troups. They forced their way into Italy, and there Richelieu remained
to make terms with the enemy, while Louis returned to his kingdom.

Richelieu induced both Spain and Savoy to acknowledge the rights of the
Duke of Mantua, and then turned his attention to the resistance which
had been organized in Southern France by the Protestants under the Duke
of Rohan. The latter had obtained promises of aid from Charles I of
England and Philip IV of Spain, but found that his allies deserted him
at a critical {123} moment and left him to face the formidable army of
the Cardinal. The Huguenots submitted to their fate in the summer of
1629, finding themselves in a worse plight than they had been when they
surrendered La Rochelle, for Richelieu treated with them no longer as
with a foreign power. He expected them to offer him the servile
obedience of conquered