“Cardinal Richeleu (_sic_) was brought to the French Court by the Queen mother, who thought he would do as she wished, but she was mistaken, for he no sooner was there than he turned against her, for Louse (_sic_) took him into his favour and made him Prime Minister after he had been there a few weeks. Richeleu (_sic_) was a devoted Catholic, and was determined to put down the Hugenots (_sic_), or Protestants as we call them, so he laid siege to La Rochelle, the chief town of the Hugenots (_sic_), who applied to the English for help. Charles sent a fleet to La Rochelle under pretence of helping the Hugenots (_sic_)[27] but Admiral Pennington, who was in command of the ships, received orders when half way down the channel to take in French soldiers and sailors at Calais and to go to the French side. When Admiral Pennington ordered the ships to take in the soldiers, his men mutinied and he had to go back. Richelieu had thrown up earthworks across the harbour so that it was impossible to get in. Now Rochelle held out bravely, but at last it had to surrender, and out of 40,000, 140 crawled out, too weak to bury the dead in the streets. La Rochelle was razed to the ground, and never recovered its prosperity. One by one the Huguenot towns surrendered, and thus the Huguenots were destroyed. When Richelieu was made Prime Minister, the nobles did not like him, because they thought he had too much power, and now when Louis was ill, the Queen mother came to him, and in a stormy passion of tears begged Louis to send away his ungrateful servant. Louis promised he would do so, and Richelieu’s fall seemed certain. Now all the nobles crowded to the Queen mother to pay their respects to her, as they thought she would now be the most important person in the Government. But one noble, who was wiser than the rest, went to Richelieu and begged to plead his cause before the King. The King promised he would keep him if he would serve him as he had done before. The Queen mother was foiled, and returned to Brussels, where she died.” _Q._ What towns, rivers, and castles would you see in travelling about Warwickshire? (Book studied, _Geographical Reader_, Book III.) B. (aged 9½), answer dictated:— “Warwick, Kenilworth, Coventry, Stratford, Leamington, and Birmingham are all towns which you would see if you travelled through Warwick. “The Avon stretches from north to south of Warwickshire. It has its tributary the Leam, upon which Leamington is situated. “There is a castle of Warwick and Coventry and Kenilworth. “Warwick is the capital of the county. It has a famous castle, whose high and lofty towers stand upon the bank of the river Avon.