massif of Mt. Blanc is broken
by a gentle downward curve with smooth upland slopes, over which a
footpath gives easy passage. The col is usually formed by the
head-waters of a stream eating backward and lowering the water-parting
at the head of its valley. In early military operations, the march of an
army was always over a col, which has at all times considerable
commercial importance in relation to roads in high mountain regions.

COLBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE (1619-1683), French statesman, was born at Reims,
where his father and grandfather were merchants. He claimed to be the
descendant of a noble Scottish family, but the evidence for this is
lacking. His youth is said to have been spent in a Jesuit college, in
the office of a Parisian banker, and in that of a Parisian notary,
Chapelain, the father of the poet. But the first fact on which we can
rely with confidence is that, when not yet twenty, he obtained a post in
the war-office, by means of the influence that he possessed through the
marriage of one of his uncles to the sister of Michel Le Tellier, the
secretary of state for war. During some years he was employed in the
inspection of troops and other work of the kind, but at length his
ability, his extraordinary energy and his untiring laboriousness induced
Le Tellier to make him his private secretary. These qualities, combined,
it must be confessed, with a readiness to seize every opportunity of
advancement, soon brought Colbert both wealth and influence. In 1647 we
find him receiving the confiscated goods of his uncle Pussort, in 1648
obtaining 40,000 crowns with his wife Marie Charron, in 1649 appointed
councillor of state.

It was the period of the wars of the Fronde; and in 1651 the triumph of
the Conde family drove Cardinal Mazarin from Paris. Colbert, now aged
thirty-two, was engaged to keep him acquainted with what should happen
in the capital during his absence. At first Colbert's position was far
from satisfactory; for the close wary Italian treated him merely as an
ordinary agent. On one occasion, for example, he offered him 1000
crowns. The gift was refused somewhat indignantly; and by giving proof
of the immense value of his services, Colbert gained all that he
desired. His demands were not small; for, with an ambition mingled, as
his letters show, with strong family affection, he aimed at placing all
his relatives in positions of affluence and dignity; and many a rich
benefice and important public