Louis XIII, but nine years of age, became heir to the throne,
and Marie de Medici, his mother and widow of Henry IV, was nominated
Regent; her first act was to call into power all her husband's enemies,
which consisted of her own favourites, through whom she governed, and
when her regency ceased, her son followed her example and became the
instrument of others, until the power of governing was exclusively
acquired by Cardinal Richelieu, who devoted his extraordinary talents
in a degree to the interests of his country, but more especially to the
gratification of his vanity, and the promotion of his ambitious
projects; descending to the extremes of injustice, dissimulation, and
cruelty, to accomplish his object, he became the persecutor of Mary, who
had raised him from comparative obscurity, and caused her exile, in
which she died in poverty, which she certainly merited by her
misconduct, but not by the instigation of her _protege_ Richelieu. But
with all his sins, he effected much good; he founded the Royal Printing
establishment, the French Academy, also the Garden of Plants; he built
the _Palais-Royal_ and rebuilt the Church and College of the Sorbonne.
In this reign more religious establishments were founded than in any
preceding, amongst which were the Convent of the _Carmes Dechausses_,
No. 70, _Rue de Vaugirard_, the monks of which possessed a secret for
making a particular kind of liquid which is called _Eau des Carmes_, and
is still in demand; the church and building belonging to the
establishment are now standing, and were recently occupied by nuns. The
Convent of _Jacobins_ between the _Rues du Bac_ and _St-Dominique_, with
its Church, which still remains and is called _St-Thomas d'Aquin_, is
well worth notice, and the monastery is now occupied by the armoury
which is one of the most interesting sights of Paris. The _Benedictines
Anglaises_, No. 269, _Rue St-Jacques_, was formerly occupied by English
monks, who fled their country on account of some persecution in the
reign of Henry VIII.

In 1674, Father Joseph Shirburne, the prior of monastery, pulled down
the old building, and erected another in its place more commodious, also
a church attached to it in which James the Second of England was buried,
as also his daughter Mary Stuart. It has now become the property of an
individual, and is at present occupied as a factory of cotton. The
Oratoire in the _Rue Saint-Honore_, since devoted to protestant worship,
wa