170 STATESMEN AND SAGES leges, and means of wealth and domination. One of these was the right of gov- ernors of provinces to raise the revenue within their jurisdiction, and to employ or divert no small portion of it to their use. Richelieu, to remedy this, trans- ferred the office of collecting the revenue to new officers, called the Elect. He tried this in Languedoc, then governed by the Due de Montmorenci, a noble of the first rank, whose example, consequently, would have weight, and who had always proved himself obedient and loyal. Moved, however, by his private wrongs, as well as that of his order, he now joined the party of the nobles and the king's brother, Gaston, Duke of Orleans. That weak prince, after forming an alliance with the Duke of Lorraine, had raised an army. Richelieu lost not a moment in despatching a force which reduced Lorraine, and humbled its hitherto independent duke almost to the rank of a subject, Gaston then marched his army to Languedoc and joined Montmorenci. The Marechal de Breze, Riche- lieu's brother-in-law, led the loyal troops against them, defeated Gaston at Cas- telnaudari, and took Montmorenci prisoner. This noble had been the friend and supporter of Richelieu, who even called him his son ; yet the cardinal's cruel policy determined that he should die. There was difficulty in proving before the judges that he had actually borne arms against the king. "The smoke and dust," said St. Reuil, the witness, " rendered it impossible to recognize any combatant distinctly. But when I saw one advance alone, and cut his way through five ranks of gens-d'armes, I knew that it must be Montmorenci." This gallant descendant of five constables of France perished on the scaffold at Toulouse. Richelieu deemed the example necessary to strike terror into the nobility. And he immediately took advantage of that terror, by removing all the governors of provinces, and replacing them throughout with officers person- ally attached to his interests. Having thus made, as it were, a clear stage for the fulfilment of his great po- litical schemes, Richelieu turned his exertions to his original plan of humbling the House of Austria, and extending the territories of France at its expense. He formed an alliance with the great Gustavus Adolphus, who then victoriously supported the cause of religious liberty in Germany. Richelieu drew more ad- vantage from the death than from the victories of his ally ; since, as the price of his renewing his alliance with the Swedes, he acquired the possession of Philips- burg, and opened the way toward completing that darling project of France and every French statesman, the acquisition of the Rhine as a frontier. The French having manifested' their design to get possession of Treves, the Spaniards anticipated them ; and open war ensued betwixt the two monarchies. Richelieu in his wars was one of those scientific combatants who seek to weary out an enemy, and who husband their strength in order not to crush at once, but to ruin in the end. Such, at least, were the tactics by which he came triumphant out of the struggle with Spain. He made no conquests at first, gained no strik- ing victories ; but he compensated for his apparent want of success by persever- ance, by taking advantage of defeat to improve the army, and by laboring to transfer to the crown the financial and other resources which had been previously
