Character of Richelieu--The principles of his government--Defects of his policy--Character of Louis XIII.--Position and organisation of the Huguenots--The rising of 1625--Edicts against the nobles--Conspiracy of Vendôme--War with England--Siege of La Rochelle--Destruction of the political power of the Huguenots--Administrative reforms--The Day of Dupes--Rising of Montmorency--Conspiracy of Cinq Mars--Centralising policy of Richelieu--The regency of 1643--Character of Mazarin--Outbreak of the Fronde--Constitutional claims of the Parlement--Unpopularity of the prime ministership--Weakness of the Parlement--The lead taken by the nobles--Factiousness of the movement--Flight of Mazarin--The Fronde in the provinces--End of the Fronde--Last years of Mazarin. [Sidenote: =Character of Richelieu.=] The well-known portrait of Richelieu in the gallery of the Louvre shows us the features of a man who under the outside of an aristocratic calm conceals a highly nervous and anxious temperament. There is not a trace of brutality, not a suggestion of coarseness, in the finely moulded features. At the first glance there seems almost a want of power in the delicate oval of the pale and attenuated face. Here is no Henry VIII. to trample on the laws alike of God and man in order to satisfy the demands of an imperious will, and rivet the chains of slavery on a panic-stricken people. Here is no Cromwell to march ruthlessly to his goal, over the constitution of his country, through the blood of his king, in the fervid enthusiasm of a divine mission. Here surely is no Napoleon to treat in callous selfishness human life and national faith as nothing in comparison to military glory and personal ambition. Yet the charges against Richelieu writ large on the page of history are precisely those which his portrait repudiates. Indiscriminate severity, ruthless barbarity, inordinate ambition, personal tyranny, such are the accusations levelled against him as a statesman and as a man. He is depicted as one who governed, and who preferred to govern, by terrorism and espionage, who struck down remorselessly and indiscriminately all who dared to oppose him, who established the ascendency of a gaoler over the weaker nature of the miserable king, who made France drink deep of the intoxicating potion of military glory in order that she might not feel the ever tightening chains of civil slavery. Even those who applaud his patriotism, and recognise him as the author of the greatness of France admit the charges of ruthlessness and barbarity made against his government by apologising for them. [Sidenote: =Principles of his government.=]