Cardinal Mazarin (Twenty Years After) is greatly hated in Paris. This is because he has raised the taxes so much that everyone is starving and living in poverty. Mazarin is cruel and unjust. He often finds ways to have opponents arrested on some charge or another. Finally a group of organized citizens gather together to oppose him. He has them arrested, which later comes back to haunt him. While he's not above paying off people or using bribes, it does not work to give him peace where Beaufort is concerned.
