Already her independence was threatened on all sides; the bastions and new fortifications had to be demolished; no armed vessel of war might be stationed in her harbor.

"The way was at last open," said the cardinal, "to the extermination of the Huguenot party, which, for a hundred years past, had divided the kingdom." [_Memoires de Richelieu,_ t.

iii.
p.

17.] [Illustration: Demolishing the Fortifications----244] The peace of 1626, then, was but a preliminary to war.

Richelieu was preparing for it by land and sea; vessels of war were being built, troops were being levied; and the temper of England furnished a pretext for commencing the struggle.