The wonderful friar had been much away from France during Richelieu’s exile. He had been to Rome and to Spain, travelling mostly on foot, as the rule of his Order required. He had been working hard on the details of a new crusade against the Turks, with the object not only of rescuing the Holy Places, but of driving Islam out of Europe. It was the favourite dream of Joseph’s life. He worked at its realisation in concert with the Duc de Nevers, Charles de Gonzague, who was descended, through his mother, from the Christian emperors of the East. These two, with the Pope’s sanction, founded a crusading order of chivalry, “La Milice Chrétienne,” and before the Thirty Years War broke out their scheme had become popular throughout Catholic Europe. But it was an anachronism, a mediæval romance, and as such it soon died away. The two camps of Christendom had each other to fight. The revolt of the Bohemian Protestants sealed the fate of Constantinople and Palestine. Père Joseph’s crusading ardour was equalled by his devotion to Richelieu. He and Bouthillier worked so well on the minds of Luynes and of the King that it was decided to recall the Bishop from his exile and to send him to join the Queen-mother at Angoulême, with the understanding that while faithfully serving Her Majesty he would counsel nothing against the King’s interest and the nation’s welfare. The letter of recall was written by Louis XIII.’s own hand, and was conveyed to Avignon by M. du Tremblay, Père Joseph’s brother. Riding post-haste, he arrived there on March 7, 1619. Here Richelieu may tell his own story. “As soon as I had received His Majesty’s despatch, though the weather was extraordinarily bad, the snow deep and the cold extreme, I posted away from Avignon to obey my orders, led both by inclination and duty. But my haste was soon interrupted, for in a little wood near Vienne I fell in with a troop of thirty men of the Sieur d’Alincourt’s guards, commanded by his captain of the guard, who met me with arms lowered, saying that they had orders to arrest me. I begged the captain to show me his powers, but he was provided with none. He replied to me that he was executing the orders of the Sieur d’Alincourt, who had his orders from the King....”