The Fighting Governer : A Chronicle of Frontenac by Charles William Colby
page 16 of 128 (12%)
page 16 of 128 (12%)
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confines of Spain and France. There, in the year of
Richelieu's death (1642), he fought at the siege of Perpignan. That he distinguished himself may be seen from his promotion, at twenty-three, to the rank of colonel. In the same year (1643) Louis XIV came to the throne; and Conde, by smiting the Spaniards at Rocroi, won for France the fame of having the best troops in Europe. It was not the good fortune of Frontenac to serve under either Conde or Turenne during those campaigns, so triumphant for France, which marked the close of the Thirty Years' War. From Perpignan he was ordered to northern Italy, where in the course of three years he performed the exploits which made him a brigadier-general at twenty-six. Though repeatedly wounded, he survived twelve years of constant fighting with no more serious casualty than a broken arm which he carried away from the siege of Orbitello. By the time peace was signed at Munster he had become a soldier well proved in the most desperate war which had been fought since Europe accepted Christianity. To the great action of the Thirty Years' War there soon succeeded the domestic commotion of the Fronde. Richelieu, despite his high qualities as a statesman, had been a poor financier; and Cardinal Mazarin, his successor, was forced to cope with a discontent which sprang in part from the misery of the masses and in part from the ambition of the nobles. As Louis XIV was still an infant when his father died, the burden of government fell in name upon |
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