time his alliance was courted by
every power in Europe, anxiously courted the alliance of Sweden; and
he was fond of forming a confederacy with a Protestant power of such
renown, even though it threatened the whole north with conquest and
subjection.

The transactions of the parliament and protector with France had been
various and complicated. The emissaries of Richelieu had furnished fuel
to the flame of rebellion, when it first broke out in Scotland; but
after the conflagration had diffused itself, the French court, observing
the materials to be of themselves sufficiently combustible, found
it unnecessary any longer to animate the British malecontents to an
opposition of their sovereign. On the contrary, they offered
their mediation for composing these intestine disorders; and their
ambassadors, from decency, pretended to act in concert with the court of
England, and to receive directions from a prince with whom their master
was connected by so near an affinity. Meanwhile Richelieu died, and soon
after him the French king, Louis XIII., leaving his son, an infant
four years old, and his widow, Anne of Austria, regent of the kingdom.
Cardinal Mazarine succeeded Richelieu in the ministry; and the same
general plan of policy, though by men of such opposite characters,
was still continued in the French councils. The establishment of royal
authority, the reduction of the Austrian family, were pursued with ardor
and success; and every year brought an accession of force and grandeur
to the French monarchy. Not only battles were won, towns and fortresses
taken; the genius too of the nation seemed gradually to improve, and
to compose itself to the spirit of dutiful obedience and of steady
enterprise. A Conde, a Turenne were formed; and the troops, animated
by their valor, and guided by their discipline, acquired every day
a greater ascendant over the Spaniards. All of a sudden, from
some intrigues of the court, and some discontents in the courts of
judicature, intestine commotions were excited, and every thing relapsed
into confusion. But these rebellions of the French, neither ennobled
by the spirit of liberty, nor disgraced by the fanatical extravagancies
which distinguished the British civil wars, were conducted with little
bloodshed, and made but a small impression on the minds of the people.
Though seconded by the force of Spain, and conducted by the prince
of Conde, the malecontents in a little time were either expelled