rebels. Henceforth he exerted himself to
restore the full supremacy of the Catholic faith in France by making as
many converts as was possible and by opening Jesuit and Capuchin
missions in the Protestant places. "Some were brought to see the truth
by fear and some by favour." Yet Richelieu did not play the part of a
persecutor in the State, for he was afraid of weakening France by
driving away heretics who might help to increase her strength in
foreign warfare. He was pleased to find so many of the Huguenots loyal
to their King, and rejoiced that there would never be the possibility
of some discontented nobleman rising against his rule with a Protestant
force in the background. The Huguenots devoted their time to peaceful
worship after their own mind, and waxed very prosperous through their
steady pursuit of commerce.

Richelieu returned to France in triumph, having won amazing success in
his three years' struggle. He had personal enemies on every side, but
for the moment these were silenced. "In the eyes of the world, he was
the foremost man in France." For nineteen years he was to be the
King's chief minister, although he was many times in peril of losing
credit, and even life itself, through the jealous envy of his superiors
and fellow-subjects.

Mary de Medici forsook the man she had raised to some degree of
eminence, and declared that he had {124} shown himself ungrateful. The
nobility in general felt his power tyrannical, and the clergy thought
that he sacrificed the Church to the interests of the State in
politics. Louis XIII was restive sometimes under the heavy hand of the
Cardinal, who dared to point out the royal weaknesses and to insist
that he should try to overcome them.

Richelieu was very skilful in avoiding the pitfalls that beset his path
as statesman. He had many spies in his service, paid to bring him
reports of his enemies' speech and actions. Great ladies of the court
did not disdain to betray their friends, and priests even advised
penitents in the Confessional to act as the Cardinal wished them. When
any treachery was discovered, it was punished swiftly. The Cardinal
refused to spare men of the highest rank who plotted against the King
or his ministers, for he had seen the dangers of revolt and decided to
stamp it out relentlessly. Some strain of chivalry forbade him to
treat women with the same severity he showed to male conspirators. He
had a cunning adversary in one Madame