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315 pages

English

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George Payne Rainsford James was a British writer who produced a remarkable number of historical novels and romances over the course of his thirty-year career. The sweeping epic Richelieu unfolds amidst the cultural tumult and political shifts of seventeenth-century France.

Informations

Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 juillet 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776583072
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

RICHELIEU
A TALE OF FRANCE
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G. P. R. JAMES

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Richelieu A Tale of France First published in 1829 Epub ISBN 978-1-77658-307-2 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77658-308-9 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Dedication Preface VOLUME I Chapter I - Which Shows What a French Forest was in the Year of Our Lord 1642, and by Whom it was Inhabited Chapter II - In Which New Characters Are Brought Upon the Stage, and Some Dark Hints Given Respecting Them Chapter III - Which Shows What a French Forest was at Night, and Who Inhabited It Chapter IV - In Which the Learned Reader Will Discover that it is Easy to Raise Suspicions Without Any Cause, and that Royalty is Not Patent Against Superstition Chapter V - A Chapter of Mighty Import, Which May Be Read or Not, as the Reader Thinks Fit, the Book Being Quite as Well Without It Chapter VI - The Marquis de Cinq Mars, the Count de Fontrailles, and King Louis the Thirteenth, All Making Fools of Themselves in Their Own Way Chapter VII - In Which is Shown How a Great King Hunted a Great Beast, and What Came of the Hunting Chapter VIII - Showing How the Green-Eyed Monster Got Hold of a Young Lady's Heart, and What He Did with It Chapter IX - Containing a Great Deal that Would Not Have Been Said Had it Not Been Necessary Chapter X - Shows How the Count de Blenau Supped in a Place that He Little Expected Chapter XI - Containing a Conference, Which Ends Much as it Began Chapter XII - "An Entire New Comedy, with New Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations" VOLUME II Chapter I - The Motto of Which Should Be "Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire" Chapter II - Which Gives an Example of "the Way to Keep Him" Chapter III - Which Shows a New Use for an Old Castle; and Gives a Good Receipt for Leading a Man by the Nose Chapter IV - Intended to Prove that Keen-Sighted Politicians Are but Buzzards After All, and to Show How Philip the Woodman Took a Ride Earlier than Usual Chapter V - Which Shows that Diadems Are Not Without Their Thorns Chapter VI - Containing a Great Many Things Not More Curious and Interesting than True Chapter VII - Which Shows What They Did with de Blenau in the Bastille, and What He Himself Did to Get Out of It Chapter VIII - Which Shows that Accident Holds Wisdom by the Leg, and Like a Pig-Driver with a Pig, Often Makes Her Go Forward by Pulling Her Back Chapter IX - Which Gets Pauline Out, and Philip in, and Leaves de Blenau in the Middle Chapter X - Showing What it is to Be a Day After the Fair; with Sundry Other Matters, Which the Reader Cannot Fully Comprehend Without Reading Them Chapter XI - In Which de Blenau Finds that He Has Got the Rod in His Own Hand, and How He Uses it; Together with a Curious Account of a Tremendous Combat and Glorious Victory Chapter XII - The Bureau of a Counsellor of State, or How Things Were Managed in 1642 VOLUME III Chapter I - Showing How a Great Minister Made a Great Mistake Chapter II - In Which de Blenau Gets Out of the Scrape Chapter III - Which Shows the Truth of the French Adage, "L'habit Ne Fait Pas Le Moine" Chapter IV - Being a Chapter of Explanations, Which the Reader Has No Occasion to Peruse if He Understands the Story Without It Chapter V - Which Evinces the Necessity of Saying, No; and Shows What it is to Hunt Upon a Wrong Scent Chapter VI - The Consequence of Fishing in Troubled Water Chapter VII - Wherein de Blenau Finds Out that He Has Made a Mistake, and What Follows Chapter VIII - Which Shows that the Moment and the Manner Have Often More to Do with Success than the Matter Chapter IX - Which Shows How a King Made Reparation, and What Came of It Chapter X - How Chavigni Rode Fifty Miles to Ride Back Again Chapter XI - Which was Written Expressly to Prove that there is Many a Slip Between the Cup and the Lip Chapter XII - Which Shows that a Man Who Has Climbed a Mountain May Stumble at a Pebble; or the Consequences of One Oversight Chapter XIII - Containing a Journey, a Discovery, and a Strange Sight Chapter XIV - Giving a Good Receipt for Proving a Man Guilty When He is Innocent Chapter XV - Which, if the Reader Can Get through it, Will Bring Him to the End of the History Notes Endnotes
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I advise you that you read The Cardinal's malice and his potency Together: to consider further, that What his high hatred would effect, wants not A minister in his power. SHAKSPEARE.
Dedication
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TO
MY DEAR SIR,
YOUR name is too great a one to be trifled with, and therefore, I do notput it at the head of this page. Should your anticipations in favour ofthis work be realized, and its success be equal to my utmost hopes, Idedicate it to you in testimony both of my gratitude for your kindness,and my admiration for your genius; but should the hand of criticism cutit short hereafter, or the frost of neglect wither it in the bud, I takea humbler tone, and beg you only to accept my thanks for your goodwishes and kind encouragement. If it should succeed, you will, I amsure, receive the work with some pleasure on my account;—if it fail,you will still accept it as the only means I have of expressing myfeeling of obligation towards you; and, at all events, you willunderstand my motive for not prefixing your name to the Dedication of abook, the fate of which is yet doubtful.
THE AUTHOR.
Preface
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DEARLY BELOVED READER,
ALTHOUGH I call the following pages mine , and upon the strength ofthem write myself Author, yet I must in truth confess, that I have verylittle to do with them, and still less to do with the story they record;and therefore I am fain to treat the world with something of my ownexclusive composition, in the shape of a preface. The facts of the caseare as follow: I one day possessed myself of a bundle of manuscriptnotes—no matter when or how, so that they were honestly come by, forthat is all that you, or I, or Sir Richard Birnie, have to do with thematter. Now I say they were honestly come by, and the onus probandi must rest upon the other party. So no more of that.
My dear Mr. Colburn, where was I? I quite forget—Oh, now I have it!Having one day possessed myself of a bundle of manuscriptnotes,—honestly come by,—I proceeded to read them, and although thehand was small and crooked, with all the k 's shaped like Laocoons, andevery g like a pair of spectacles, yet there was something in the talethere written, that made me read it through before I rose off my chair,although I did not then know, what I have since discovered, that everyword of it was true. Now this is an advantage which you, my dear reader,have over me in perusing this history for the first time; forunquestionably even upon my pure ipse dixit , you will believe that thewhole of the three volumes which follow, is neither more nor less than aplain and simple narration of facts. Nevertheless, in case there shouldbe in the world any person so sceptical as to doubt the assertion, evenof a novelist, I will refer my reader to the well-known authorities ofthe day, and merely observe, that though there may be some discrepancyin the dates and some difference in the names, yet every individualcircumstance recorded in these pages, will be found to be collaterallyverified by contemporary writers of good repute, who, however, did notknow so much of the detail of the events in question as are disclosed inthe old manuscript alluded to, nor were they, like the writer of thatdocument, acquainted with the real causes of those movements which shookthe whole of France, and which, originating in the heart of the Court,could only be detected by one who was himself a resident there. To you,my dear reader, whose confidence in my word I know to be as unbounded asthe conscience of a tailor, or the stomach of an alderman, I have onlyto remark, that the Hero of my tale is by no means a fabulous person.
My story opens with the latter years of the reign of Louis XIII. King ofFrance—a period memorable in English annals from the civil wars whichthen raged between Charles I. and his rebellious Parliament, and no lessmemorable in the history of France, as the most terrific portion ofRichelieu's bloody domination.
At the death of Henry IV. the Regency of the kingdom during her son'sminority, was seized upon by Mary de Medicis, a woman of considerabletalent and of vast ambition, whose primary object seems to have been, soto secure the sovereign power to herself, that Louis during her lifeshould remain in a state of tutelage.
In such projects, but still more in her obstinate partiality for thecelebrated Marechal d'Ancre and his wife, originated a thousandfactions and civil wars, which kept the country in a continual state oftumult during the King's minority. These factions, and the circumstanceswhich they engendered, necessarily gave rise to various rapid changes inthe Queen's ministry, and amidst these, for the first time, appeared onthe political stage Richelieu, then Bishop of Luçon. His prospects yetdoubtful, and his ambition still in its infancy, Richelieu made mildnessand courtesy his first steps towards pre-eminence. He contented himselfwith an inferior station in the Council: his urbanity and his talentsproved equally agreeable and useful; and no one beheld in the calm andpolished Bishop of Luçon, any promise of the aspiring and remorselessCardinal de Richelieu.
A circumstance, however, occurred almost in the outset of his career,which had nearly thrown him for ever from the destined scene of hisaggrandizement. This