Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

CARDINAL RICHELIEU.

Cardinal Richlieu, who said that unfortunate and imprudent are two words which signify the same thing, seems to have founded this maxim on the singular happiness of his own administration. He was certainly a very great politician; but he had all the power as well as the whole revenue of France at his disposal. He had a regiment of guards for his own person; and the favors which he was constantly conferring on his officers and domestics attached them to him, and secured their fidelity. It must further be considered, that he made no scruple of removing any man out of the way who would not implicitly submit to his will, or who seemed in any respect to disapprove his measures. "Volez vous etre a moi?" was the question he asked Mareschal Bassompierre, which because the Mareschal did not readily and directly answer, he was sent the next morning to the bastile, where he was a prisoner until the cardinal's death, about eighteen years.