The war still continued, notwithstanding the Pope en deavoured to bring about a reconciliation. The Duke of Bohan, not being properly supported, lost the Valteline. On the other ,hand, the Count D'Harcourt recovered the isles of St Margaret and St Flonorat, on the coast of Pro vence, which had been taken by the Spaniards in 1635; the Duke of Valette reduced several forts, which the Spaniards had seized in Guienne ; Marshal Schomberg raised the siege of Lucat, and defeated Serbillon, the Spa nish general ;- Cardinal de La Vallette reduced Capelle again under the dominion of France ; the Marshal de Cha tillon obtained possession of Damvilliers in Luxemburgh ; and the Duke of Longueville successfully advanced in Franche Comte. The Marshal Crequi, aided by the Duke of Savoy, defeated the Spaniards in Italy, under the com mand of the Duke of Modena ; while Breda was obliged to surrender to the Prince of Orange. , In 1637, Ferdinand II. died, and was succeeded in the Imperial throne by Ferdinand III. who pursued the same line of politics as his father : hostilities therefore were continued. In the following year, the Duke of Saxe-Wei mar, supplied from the treasures of France, took the field again; but he was surprised and routed in the siege of Rneinfeld, where the Duke of Rohm, who served as a vo lunteer, from a friendship to the Duke of Saxe-\Veiwar, was mortally wounded. The latter, impatient to wipe off the disgrace of his defeat, collected all his force, and ex crted all his talents and skill ; and soon conquered in his turn. General do Savelli, and the famous John de Wert, who led the Imperialists, were taken prisoners ; and the towns of Rheinfcld and Fribourg, the capital of the Bris gaw, were reduced. The siege of Brisac was afterwards un dertaken with the greatest confidence of success ; during which, the Duke of Lorraine, and the imperial general Go entz, attempted in vain to check the success of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar ; and Brisac was forced to surrender, after it had been reduced to such an extremity that the governor was under the necessity of setting a guard on the burial-places, lest the inhabitants should dig up and devour the dead.
As soon as Richelieu heard of the reduction of Brisac, he immediatety formed the scheme of annexing it to France ; and accordingly made the proposal to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. But this general would not part with his conquest : " To part with my conquest," was his re ply, " would be to sacrifice my honour : ask a virgin to give up her chastity !" In 1639, the Duke died, not with out suspicion that his death had been hastened by the Car dinal, who certainly, as soon as it happened, succeeded in procuring from his successor, not only Brisac, but Fri bourg also. Thus was the King of France, by the abilities and intrigues of his minister, rendered sovereign of almost all Alsace, and a great part of the Brisgaw.
To retaliate on the Spaniards for their invasion of Pi cardy, the Prince of Conde was ordered to lay siege to Fonterabia ; but he was defeated by the Admiral of Cas tile, and with the remainder of his army, escaped with difficulty to his ships.
In 1641, the Emperor, though he pretended to be desi rous of peace, convoked a diet at Ratisbon, for the pur pose of concerting measures for carrying on the war. Upon this the Swedish general Bannier, having joined the French army at Erfurt, formed the design of dispersing the as sembly, and even of surprising the city. His march was ra pid and well planned. He arrived at Hoff on the 5th of January, and proceeding with the same celerity, he the Danube on the ice, and took above 1500 of the enemy's cavalry. The Emperor himself narrowly escaped being made prisoner. As Ratisbon was utterly unprepared for a siege, the approach of the Swedes and French created great alarm : They had planned to take advantage of the frost, and starve the town into submission ; but the weather changing, it was resolved to repass the Danube, before the ice thawed. Bannier, however, ordered the general of the French troops to advance as nearly as possible to Ratisbon, and to salute the Emperor with 500 shot ; an insult which nearly deprived Ferdinand of all the powers of reason and recollection. After this ineffectual attempt, the French se parated themselves from their allies, and marched towards Bamberg. After the death of Bannier, they again united, and under the command of Guebriant, defeated the impe rial army, led by the Archduke and Piccolomini, at the bat tle of \Volfenbuttel. As soon as Tortensten assumed the
command of the Swedes, the French again separated from them, by order of the Cardinal, and Guebriant entered Westphalia.
In the mean time, a new treaty was concluded between Sweden and France, and the most vigorous resolutions ta ken for prosecuting the war. Guebriant crossed the Rhine, and understanding that Hasfeld was on his march to join Lamboy, another Imperial general, he resolved to at tack the latter in his entrenchments before their junction. After an obstinate struggle, the Austrian infantry were bro ken, the camp forced, Lamboy made prisoner, and of the whole Imperial army not above 500 escaped. The conse quence of this victory was the reduction of the whole electorate of Cologne by the French. Their allies, the Swedes, were equally successful in Germany; so that the Imperial court was filled with consternation.
On the side of Spain, a French army entered Ronsillon, and reduced Colonna and Perpignan. Louis himself was at the head of this army, by the advice of Richelieu, who accompanied him as far as Narbonne, where he fell dan gerously ill. During his illness, a confederacy was formed against him, at the head of which was Cinq Mars, whose lively temper, agreeable address, and handsome pet son, seconded by the recommendation of the Cardinal, had made him a great favourite with the king. Thus fot tunate, he aspired to be made a Duke; and on the Cardinal opposing his wishes, he became his secret enemy. Cinq Mars was a man of very weak intellect, and it is probable that his in trigues would have been immediately frustrated by his in capacity, had he not been counselled by the son of the ce lebrated historian De Thou, by whose advice he connected himself with the Dukes of Orleans and Bouillon, and soon afterwards formed a secret alliance with the court of Spain, which promised to supply the conspirators with money and a formidable army. But Richelieu's system of vigilance and detection was so well organised, that, even during his ex treme illness, it operated as powerfully and completely, as if he had been able to superintend it himself. He was informed of the plot long before it had assumed a danger ous aspect ; and lie immediately persuaded Louis to return to France, even before the fall of Perpignan, putting into his hands a copy of the treaty which the conspirators had en tered into with Spain. Cinq Mars was arrested in Narbonne, and the Duke of Bouillon in Italy, where ho had the com mand of the French army. The proceedings against the conspirators were carried on at Lyons, under the eyes of the minister. Additional proof was necessary to condemn them ; the Duke of Orleans was mean and base enough to furnish it, in order to save his own life. The Duke of Bouillon purchased his pardon, by giving up the princi pality of Sedan ; but Cinq IN-Iars and De Thou were con demned to death, and executed in 1642. Almost immedi ately after the exception, the Cardinal having received in telligence of the fall of Perpignan, wrote to the king, " Sire, your enemies are dead, and your troops are in Per pignan." It is said that Louis looking on his watch, about the time when Cinq Mars was to suffer, said, " Within an hour, the great man will pass his time very disagree ably." Richelieu having thus triumphed over his enemies, at the very moment when he was himself approaching the grave, returned to Paris; and as lie was obliged to be carri ed in a litter, a breach was made in the walls of that city to allow it to enter. He survived a very few days. On his death-bed, he protested to Louis, that his counsels had ever been directed to the honour of the crown, and the welfare of the kingdom. The character of the statesman must have sufficiently appeared from his actions. His plans were un doubtedly comprehensive and profound, and in the execu tion of them he displayed wonderful vigour ; but lie was stained with the vices of ambition, hypocrisy, cruelty, pride, and avarice. The Emperor Peter the Great of Russia, however, considered him as such a complete statesman, that on his visit to France in 1717, he is said, on viewing the monument of Richelieu, in the church of the Sorbonne, to have exclaimed, " Oh, great man, if you had been alive now, 1 would have cheerfully given you the half of my empire, if you would have taught me how to govern the other half !" Mary de Medicis died soon afterwards in exile and poverty at Cologne.