Vigorous foreign policy of Richelieu--The recovery of the Valtellina--His projected blow at the Spanish power in Northern Italy frustrated by a fresh Huguenot insurrection--Bassompierre sent to Brittany--Marriage of Charles I and Henrietta-Maria--Bassompierre offered the command of a new army which is to be despatched to Italy--He demands 7,000 men from the Army of Champagne--The Duc d’Angoulême and Louis de Marillac, the generals commanding that army, have recourse to the bogey of a German invasion in order to retain these troops--Bassompierre declines the appointment--Conversation between Bassompierre and the Spanish Ambassador Mirabello on the subject of peace between France and Spain--The marshal is empowered to treat for peace with Mirabello--Singular conduct of the Ambassador--News arrives from Madrid that Philip IV has revoked the powers given to Mirabello--Bassompierre is sent as Ambassador Extraordinary to the Swiss Cantons to counteract the intrigues of the house of Austria and the Papacy--His reception in Switzerland--Lavish hospitality which he dispenses--Complete success of his negotiations. Never had France stood more in need of such guidance than at the moment when Richelieu assumed the direction of affairs. At home, there was for the moment peace, though it was to prove but of brief duration; but abroad the position of affairs had become so threatening that even the dullest minds had begun to be alarmed. Spain and Austria, in closest harmony of religious and political aims, were trampling on the liberties of Europe; Germany seemed prostrate at the Emperor’s feet; Spain dominated all Italy, with the exception of Venice and Savoy. All the provinces which owed allegiance to the two Powers had been knit together; the subjugation of the Palatinate and the Lower Rhine secured their connection with the Netherlands and menaced the very existence of the Dutch; the Valtellina forts commanded the road between the Spaniards in the Milanese and the Austrians on the Danube and in the Tyrol. Richelieu at once resolved to assail the Austro-Spanish power at both critical points. In the North, he did not interfere in arms, but by subsidies and skilful negotiations he organised a Northern League, under the leadership of Christian IV of Denmark, and arrested the progress of the Spaniards in the United Provinces. In the Valtellina, however, he had recourse to more vigorous measures.