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246

RICHELIEU.

I. THE POETS.

1

All she-creatures that exist
Power can subdue,
Save the Muse,—that could resist
Cardinal Richelieu.

2

He the War of Thirty Years
With his right hand led:
Struck the turbulent French peers,
With his left hand, dead.

3

Mad-dog Luther loosed to bite
Emperor Charles and Rome:
But the Huguenots held tight,
Kennel-chain'd, at home.
247

4

Greatest man of many great!
When to see him came
The Queen Mother, forced to wait,
Stood the royal dame:

5

Round him he, with haughty mien
Rome's proud purple wrapp'd:
Trembling stood the bare-head Queen:
Richelieu sat capp'd.

6

Only little poets were
Gombault, Desmarets,
Colletet, and Boisrobert:
Yet, whenever they

7

Came to see the Cardinal,
Each kept on his hat.
Proud as princes, one and all,
These small poets sat:

8

And, while they in critic mood
Did his rhymes review,
Trembling and bare-headed stood
Cardinal Richelieu.
248

II THE THREE ESTATES.

1.

The Cardinal to the Clergy cried
“Six millions for the State!”
The Archbishop of Sens replied
“God save the King! the great
And ancient rule hath been alway
That for the Public Good
The Clergy pray, the People pay,
The Nobles give their blood.”

2.

‘Good!’ said the Spirit of the Age,
‘Give and take is a doctrine sage.’

3.

So, when the Royal Power had need
Of more than priestly prayer,
The Nobles for the Throne did bleed:
And then the Nobles were
The masters. When the Royal Power
Said to the People ‘Pay!’
It was their dower that, from that hour,
The masters rested they.
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4.

‘Good!’ saith the Spirit of the Age,
‘Give and take is a doctrine sage.’

III. WALLENSTEIN'S DEATH.

When Richelieu learn'd that Wallenstein was dead,
His thin face sharpen'd to an edge. He said
“Soon as the great tree falls, the rabble run
To strip him of his branches one by one.”
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