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The first important conspiracy was that in which the count of Chalais and Marshal Ornano were the chief outward factors. It culminated in the death of both of them. Nov. 11, 1630, was the famous "Day of Dupes." The king, who never liked, but who feared the cardinal, had been persuaded to close his private cabinet to the minister. For a moment Richelieu thought himself lost. But the duke of St. Simon, father of the great writer, brought about an interview between the king and Richelieu at Versailles, where Louis XIII. had a shooting box. The great palace was not yet built. In the presence of the cardinal, Louis XIII.'s opposition oozed away. Richelieu's enemies paid dear for their short triumph. Chancellor Marillac was deprived of office; his brother, Marshal Marillac, was arrested in Italy at the head of his command, tried before a commission which sat in the cardinal's own house, and put to death. Marie de Medici, exiled from court, fled to Brussels, became a wanderer in Flanders and England, and died miserably poor and despised at Cologne. Gaston fled to Duke Charles IV. of Lorraine, whose sister he married. He attempted, with a small army, to reenter France and join the duke of Montmorency, governor of Languedoc, who had espoused his cause, but the royal army defeated the rebels under the walls of Castelnaudary, Sept. 1, 1632. In spite of his wonderful popularity in the country the duke was executed at Toulouse. Less important plots were crushed in the ensuing years. The most important of them was the conspiracy of Cinq-Mars in 1642.

Similarly, the provincial governors who behaved like sovereigns in their governments were rigorously crushed; e.g., the duke of Vendbme in Brittany, Marshal Vitry in Provence, the duke of Epernon in Guyenne. Richelieu reduced the governors to mere military commandants and took from them the administration 'of justice and the finances. The offices of constable and grand admiral, to which was attached a power which might be dangerous, were suppressed. Two edicts abolished some inveterate abuses; the first, the practise of dueling, which was remorselessly enforced; the second required the destruction of the fortifications of towns, castles, and fortresses, unless situated upon the frontier. A final step in the destructive policy of Richelieu was the overcoming of the provincial parlements, the historic opposition of which was crushed by an edict of 1641, which required them to register all acts sent to them without deliberation and without change.

In his conflict with the Huguenots and the nobles Richelieu was not content to destroy; he also built up. In the theory of the law the royal authority was absolute; Richelieu made it so in fact. Ad-

ministration had become loose during 4. Construct- the wars of religion and the troubles

the unfinished monarchical policy of Francis I. and Henry II. The council of state had acquired a great importance during the sixteenth century, but during the regency its organization fell into confusion. A series of regulations rendered during the ministry of Richelieu fixed its rank in the administrative hierarchy, its competence, its com-

position. It became the center of all administration. The councilors of state no longer purchased their seats like the officials of justice and finance. They were chosen and held office at the pleasure of the king. The secretaries of state, who executed the decisions of the council, became the agents of the cardinal and lost much of their independence. Under Louis XIII. a permanent division began to be made in their attributes. After 1619 general affairs of war and correspondence with commanders of the army corps were entrusted to a single secretary of state. The same change was made in the administration of foreign affairs in 1626. Before that time the foreign affairs of each important country had had each its particular secretary. In order to execute the king's will in the provinces, Richelieu made great use of agents chosen from among the masters of requests (mattres des requ6tes), ordinarily known as intendants. Richelieu was not, as was once almost universally supposed, the creator of the intendants. They first appeared in the middle of the sixteenth century as special commissioners of the crown in designated provinces, but they did not then become a regular institution, and recourse to them was only occasional. Such as it was the institution went to pieces during the Huguenot wars and was revived and made universal for France by the cardinal. The intendants were employed, sometimes in the ggndraldtW (revenue districts), sometimes in the armies, where they were responsible for the commissariat, the ambulance corps, and the pay of the soldiers, and were required to suppress pillage and mutiny. Richelieu found in these functionaries, who were revocable at will, devoted agents of his policies. Those who were permanently established in the g64ralitks took the title of intendants of justice, police, and finance, and concentrated in their hands a large part of the provincial administration. Under Louis XIV. the intendants became the regular and omnipotent agents of the absolute monarchy.

Every part of the state was the object of Richelieu's activity. He is one of the creators of the French navy. In his "Political Testament" he says: "The sea is the heritage over which all

sovereigns claim sovereignty," but that g. Achieve- "one must be powerful to claim such a

meats for heritage." Again he says: "It seems Marine, In- that nature has wished to offer the dustry, and empire of the sea to France when we Commerce. regard the position of its two coasts,

equally provided with harbors on two seas, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean." Richelieu sought to profit by the natural advance of the country to establish ports and arsenals, construct vessels, recruit sailors. He improved the harbors of Havre and Toulon; he created those of Brest and Brouage, south of La Rochelle. He Made the French navy a material fact. The king, who in 1621 and in 1626 had been obliged to purchase or to hire vessels from the Dutch in order to combat the Huguenots, in 1642 possessed sixtythree vessels of war and twenty-two galleys. The French fleets, commanded by the archbishop of Bordeaux, d'Escoubeau de Sourdis, met victoriously those of Spain. In regard to commerce and