favor of the queen-mother.  It was as the protege and organ of Mary de’ Medici that the cardinal wrote to the Prince of Conde, on the 11th of May, 1624, “The king having done me the honor to place me on his council, I pray God with all my heart to render me worthy of serving him as I desire; and I feel myself bound thereto by every sort of consideration.  I cannot sufficiently thank you for the satisfaction that you have been pleased to testify to me thereat.  Therefore would I far rather do so in deed by serving you than by bootless words.  And in that I cannot fail without failing to follow out the king’s intention.  I have made known to the queen the assurance you give her by your letter of your affection, for which she feels all the reciprocity you can desire.  She is the more ready to flatter herself with the hope of its continuance, in that she will be very glad to incite you thereto by all the good offices she has means of rendering you with His Majesty.” [Lettres du Cardinal de Richelieu, t. ii. p. 5.] On the 12th of August, however, M. de la Vieuville fell irretrievably, and was confined in the castle of Amboise.  A pamphlet of the time had forewarned him of the danger which threatened him when he introduced Richelieu into the council.  “You are both of the same temper,” it said; “that is, you both desire one and the same thing, which is, to be, each of you, sole governor.  That which you believe to be your making will be your undoing.”

From that moment the cardinal, in spite of his modest resistance based upon the state of his health, became the veritable chief of the council.  “Everybody knew that, amidst the mere private occupations he had hitherto had, it would have been impossible for him to exist with such poor health, unless he took frequent recreation in the country.” [Memoires de Richelieu, t. ii. p. 289.] Turning his attention to founding his power and making himself friends, he authorized the recall of Count Schomberg, lately disgraced, and of the Duke of Anjou’s, the king’s brother’s, governor, Colonel Ornano, imprisoned by the Marquis of La Vieuville.  He, at the same time, stood out against the danger of concentrating all the power of the government in a single pair of hands.  “Your Majesty,” he said, “ought not to confide your public business to a single one of your councillors and hide it from the rest; those whom you have chosen ought to live in fellowship and amity in your service, not in partisanship and division.  Every time, and as many times as a single one wants to do everything himself, he wants to ruin himself; but in ruining himself he will ruin your kingdom and you, and as often as any single one wants to possess your ear and do in secret what should be resolved upon openly, it must necessarily be for the purpose of concealing from Your Majesty either his ignorance or his wickedrnpss.” [Memoires de Richelieu, t. ii. p. 349.] Prudent rules and acute remarks, which Richelieu, when he became all-powerful, was to forget.