The Earl of Strafford is condemned to death." "To death! Horrible!" "I will read: 'His Majesty Charles I has not had the courage to sign the sentence, but he has appointed four commissioners.'" "Weak king, I abandon thee! Thou shalt have no more of our money.

Fall, since thou art ungrateful! Unhappy Wentworth!" A tear rose in the eyes of Richelieu as he said this; the man who had but now played with the lives of so many others wept for a minister abandoned by his prince.

The similarity between that position and his own affected him, and it was his own case he deplored in the person of the foreign minister.

He ceased to read aloud the despatches that he opened, and his confidant followed his example.

He examined with scrupulous attention the detailed accounts of the most minute and secret actions of each person of any importance-accounts which he always required to be added to the official despatches made by his able spies.
All the despatches to the King passed through his hands, and were carefully revised so as to reach the King amended to the state in which he wished him to read them.