The mischief being thus fairly afoot, and war let loose again upon Europe, the Cardinal made a public entry into Paris, as legate of the Pope.  The populace crowded about his mule, as he rode at the head of a stately procession through the streets.  All were anxious to receive a benediction from the holy man who had come so far to represent the successor of St. Peter, and to enlist the efforts of all true believers in his cause.  He appeared to answer the entreaties of the superstitious rabble with fervent blessings, while the friends who were nearest him were aware that nothing but gibes and sarcasms were falling from his lips.  “Let us fool these poor creatures to their heart’s content, since they will be fools,” he muttered; smiling the while upon them benignantly, as became his holy office.  Such were the materials of this new combination; such was the fuel with which this new blaze was lighted and maintained.  Thus were the great powers of the earth—­Spain, France, England, and the Papacy embroiled, and the nations embattled against each other for several years.  The preceding pages show how much national interests, or principles; were concerned in the struggle thus commenced, in which thousands were to shed their life-blood, and millions to be reduced from peace and comfort to suffer all the misery which famine and rapine can inflict.  It would no doubt have increased the hilarity of Caraffa, as he made his triumphant entry into Paris, could the idea have been suggested to his mind that the sentiments, or the welfare of the people throughout the great states now involved in his meshes, could have any possible bearing upon the question of peace or wax.  The world was governed by other influences.  The wiles of a cardinal—­the arts of a concubine—­the snipe-shooting of an ambassador—­the speculations of a soldier of fortune—­the ill temper of a monk—­the mutual venom of Italian houses—­above all, the perpetual rivalry of the two great historical families who owned the greater part of Europe between them as their private property—­such were the wheels on which rolled the destiny of Christendom.  Compared to these, what were great moral and political ideas, the plans of statesmen, the hopes of nations?  Time was soon to show.  Meanwhile, government continued to be administered exclusively for the benefit of the governors.  Meanwhile, a petty war for paltry motives was to precede the great spectacle which was to prove to Europe that principles and peoples still existed, and that a phlegmatic nation of merchants and manufacturers could defy the powers of the universe, and risk all their blood and treasure, generation after generation, in a sacred cause.