The Cardinal and his palaces--The château and town of Richelieu--The Palais-Cardinal--Richelieu’s household, daily life, and friends--The Hôtel de Rambouillet--Mademoiselle de Gournay--Boisrobert and the first Academicians--Entertainments at the Palais-Cardinal--_Mirame_. The restless, ambitious energy and the passion for detail which made Cardinal de Richelieu the hardest worker of his time in politics, were thrown equally into his characteristic amusements. His love of building and furnishing splendidly carried him far beyond such pleasant country-houses as Rueil, Limours, or Bois-le-Vicomte, luxurious as they were. The Palais-Cardinal itself, in the heart of Paris and almost royal, had certain limitations, the architect being blamed for a lack of height and dignity. Le Mercier excused himself, we are told, by the Cardinal’s own orders: he desired to give no cause for jealousy to the great ones of the kingdom who did not love him “because of the extreme hauteur with which he treated them, and to show moderation, even in the disposing of his palace, in the sight of those powerful persons who were envious of such prodigious credit and grandeur.” No scruples interfered in the lonely valley of the Mable, where for miles around the name of Richelieu now had no rival. Even Champigny, the once dreaded house of the Montpensiers, had come into the Cardinal’s possession by a more or less forced exchange with Gaston d’Orléans, his little daughter’s untrustworthy guardian. The fine old château was pulled down; its former outbuildings make the château of to-day; and the chapel, with its precious windows, its tombs and picturesque cloister, was only saved by the Pope’s refusal to consent to its destruction. The Cardinal-Duc, though First Minister of France and head of her army and navy, could not flatly disobey the Church in a private matter. [Illustration: CHÂTEAU DE RICHELIEU FROM AN OLD PRINT] There is more actually left of the old Montpensier buildings than of the magnificent palace, foreshadowing the splendour of Versailles, into which Cardinal de Richelieu transformed the river-fortress of his ancestors. Wide lawns, stiff alleys and avenues, still moats with water-lilies, one small pavilion looking sadly over the trees towards a high gateway where no one seems to enter; this is all that remains of the far-famed Château de Richelieu.