Cardinal Richelieu gave his age, whether admirers or adversaries, the idea which Malherbe expressed in a letter to one of his friends:  “You know that my humor is neither to flatter nor to lie; but I swear to you that there is in this man a something which surpasses humanity, and that if our bark is ever to outride the tempests, it will be whilst this glorious hand holds the rudder.  Other pilots diminish my fear, this one makes me unconscious of it.  Hitherto, when we had to build anew or repair some ruin, plaster alone was put in requisition.  Now we see nothing but marble used; and, whilst the counsels are judicious and faithful, the execution is diligent and magnanimous.  Wits, judgment, and courage never existed in any man to the degree that they do in him.  As for interest, he knows none but that of the public.  To that he clings with a passion so unbridled, if I may dare so to speak, that the visible injury it does his constitution is not capable of detaching him from it.  Sees he anything useful to the king’s service, he goes at it without looking to one side or the other.  Obstacles tempt him, resistance piques him, and nothing that is put in his way diverts him; the disregard he shows of self, and of all that touches himself, as if he knew no sort of health or disease but the health or disease of the state, causes all good men to fear that his life will not be long enough for him to see the fruit of what he plants; and moreover, it is quite evident that what he leaves undone can never be completed by any man that holds his place.  Why, man, he does a thing because it has to be done!  The space between the Rhine and the Pyrenees seems to him not field enough for the lilies of France.  He would have them occupy the two shores of the Mediterranean, and waft their odors thence to the extremest countries of the Orient.  Measure by the extent of his designs the extent of his courage.” [Letters to Racan and to M. de Mentin. OEuvres de Malherbe, t. iv.]

[Illustration:  The Tomb of Richelieu——­308]

The cardinal had been barely four months reposing in that chapel of the Sorbonne which he had himself repaired for the purpose, and already King Louis XIII. was sinking into the tomb.  The minister had died at fifty-seven, the king was not yet forty-two; but his always languishing health seemed unable to bear the burden of affairs which had been but lately borne by Richelieu alone.  The king had permitted his brother to appear again at court.  “Monsieur supped with me,” says Mdlle. de Montpensier, “and we had the twenty-four violins; he was as gay as if MM.  Cinq-Mars and De Thou had not tarried by the way.  I confess that I could not see him without thinking of them, and that in my joy I felt that his gave me a pang.”  The prisoners and exiles, by degrees, received their pardon; the Duke of Vendome, Bassompierre, and Marshal Vitry had been empowered to return to their castles, the Duchess of Chevreuse and the ex-keeper of the seals, Chateauneuf,