Catalonia
revolted from Spain. Richelieu might boast that he had achieved the
great purposes of Henry IV., not so gloriously indeed as that heroic
prince might have done, but no less effectually. This was effected not
so much by arms as by administration. The foundation was laid for that
martial pre-eminence which Louis XIV. long enjoyed; and which he might
have retained, had the virtue of moderation been known to him.

It was not without incurring great personal perils, with proportionate
address and good fortune, that Cardinal Richelieu arrived at such great
results. Constant plots were formed against him, the most remarkable of
which was that of Cinq-Mars, a young nobleman selected to be the king's
favorite, on account of his presumed frivolity. But he was capable of
deep thoughts and passions; and wearied by the solitude in which the
monarch lived, and to which he was reduced by the minister's monopoly of
all power, he dared to plot the cardinal's overthrow. This bold attempt
was sanctioned by the king himself, who at intervals complained of the
yoke put upon him.

Great interests were at stake, for Richelieu, reckoning upon the
monarch's weak health, meditated procuring the regency for himself. The
Queen, Anne of Austria, aware of this intention, approved of the project
of Cinq-Mars, which, of course, implied the assassination of the
cardinal. No other mode of defying his power and talent could have been
contemplated. But Richelieu was on the watch. The court was then in the
south of France, engaged in the conquest of Roussillon, a situation
favorable for the relation of the conspirators with Spain. The minister
surprised one of the emissaries, had the fortune to seize a treaty
concluded between them and the enemies of France; and with this flagrant
proof of their treason, he repaired to Louis, and forced from him an
order for their arrest. It was tantamount to their condemnation.
Cinq-Mars and his friends perished on the scaffold; Anne of Austria was
again humbled; and every enemy of the cardinal shrunk in awe and
submission before his ascendancy. Among them was the king himself, whom
Richelieu looked upon as an equal in dignity, an inferior in mind and in
power. The guards of the cardinal were as numerous as the monarch's, and
independent of any authority save that of their immediate master. A
treaty was even drawn up between king and minister, as between two
potentates. But the power and the pride of Richelieu