reached at once
their height and their termination. A mortal illness seized him in the
latter days of 1642, a few months after the execution of Cinq-Mars. No
abatement of his pride marked his last moments. He summoned the monarch
like a servant to his couch, instructed him what policy to follow and
appointed the minister who was to be his own successor.

Such was the career of this supereminent statesman, who, although in the
position of Damocles all his life, with the sword of the assassin
suspended over his head, surrounded with enemies, and with insecure and
treacherous support even from the monarch whom he served, still not
only maintained his own station, but possessed time and zeal to frame
and execute gigantic projects for the advancement of his country and of
his age. It makes no small part of Henry IV.'s glory that he conceived a
plan for diminishing the power of the House of Austria. Richelieu,
without either the security or the advantages of the king and the
warrior, achieved it. Not only this, but he dared to enter upon the war
at the very same time when he was humbling that aristocracy which had
hitherto composed the martial force of the country.

The effects of his domestic policy were indeed more durable than those
of what he most prided himself upon, his foreign policy. He it was, in
fact, who founded the French monarchy, such as it existed until near the
end of the eighteenth century--a grand, indeed, rather than a happy
result. He was a man of penetrating and commanding intellect, who
visibly influenced the fortunes of Europe to an extent which few princes
or ministers have equalled. Unscrupulous in his purposes, he was no less
so in the means by which he effected them. But so long as men are
honored, not for their moral excellences, but for the great things which
they have done for themselves, or their country, the name of Richelieu
will be recollected with respect, as that of one of the most successful
statesmen that ever lived.

As a patron of letters and of the arts, Richelieu has acquired a
reputation almost rivalling that of his statesmanship. His first and
earliest success in life had been as a scholar supporting his theses;
and, as it is continually observed that great men form very erroneous
judgments of their own excellences, he ever prided himself especially in
his powers as a penman.

[Illustration: A Concert At Richelieu's Palace.]

WILLIAM BRADFORD[15]

By ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS