All the cardinal's foreign policy, his alliances with Protestants, are there described in verses which do not lack a certain force: Germanique (the emperor) pleads the cause of Ibere with Europe:-- "No longer can he brook to gaze on such as these, Destroyers of the shrines, foes of the Deities, By Francion evoked from out the Frozen Main,[1] That he might cope with us and equal war maintain.
EUROPE.
O, call not by those names th' indomitable race, Who 'midst my champions hold honorable place.
Unlike to us, they own no shrine, no sacrifice; But still, unlike Ibere, they use no artifice; About the Gods they speak their mind as seemeth best, Whilst he, with pious air, still keepeth me opprest; Through them I hold mine own, from harm and insult free, Their errors I deplore, their valor pleases me.
What was that noble king,[2] that puissant conqueror, Who through thy regions, like a mighty torrent, tore?
Who marched with giant strides along the path of fame, And, in the hour of death, left victory with his name?
What are those gallant chiefs, who from his ashes rose, Whom still, methinks, his shade assists against their foes?
[1] The Swedes.

[2] Gustavus Adolphus.
What was that Saxon heart,[1] so full of noble rage, He, whom thine own decrees drove from his heritage?
Who, with his gallant few, full many a deed hath done Within thine own domains, and many a laurel won?
Who, wasting not his strength in strife with granite walls, Routs thee in open field, and lo! the fortress falls?
Who, taking just revenge for loss of all his own, Compressed thy boundaries, and cut thy frontiers down.
How many virtues in that prince's[2] heart reside Who leads yon free-set[3] people's armies in their pride, People who boldly spurned Ibere and all his laws, Bravely shook off his yoke and bravely left his cause?
Francion, without such aid, thou say'st would helpless be; What were Ibere without thy provinces and thee?
GERMANIQUE.
But I am of his blood:--own self same Deities.
EUROPE.
All they are of my blood:--gaze on the self-same skies Do all your hosts adore the Deities we own?
Nay, from your very midst come errors widely sown.
Ibere for chief support on erring men relies Yet, what himself may do, to others he denies.
What! Francion favor error! This is idle prate: He who from irreligion thoroughly purged the state! Who brought the worship back to altars in decay; Who built the temples up that in their ashes lay; True son of them, who, spite of all thy fathers' feats, Replaced my reverend priests upon their holy seats! 'Twixt Francion and Ibere this difference remains: One sets them in their seats, and one in iron chains." [1] Bernard of Saxe-Weimar.

[2] Prince of Orange.

[3] The Hollanders.
Already, in Mirame, Richelieu had celebrated the fall of Rochelle and of the Huguenot party, bringing upon the scene the King of Bithynia, who is taking arms "To tame a rebel slave, Perched proudly on his rock washed by the ocean-wave." As epigraph to Europe there were these lines:-- "All friends of France to this my work will friendly be; And all unfriends of her will say the author ill; Yet shall I be content, say, reader, what you will; The joy of some, the rage of others, pleases me." The enemies of France did not wait for the comedy, in heroic style, of Europe in order to frequently say ill of Cardinal Richelieu.
Occupied as he was in governing the affairs of France and of Europe otherwise than in verse, the cardinal chose out work-fellows; there were five of them, to whom he gave his ideas and the plan of his piece; he intrusted to each the duty of writing an act, and "by this means finished a comedy a month," says Pellisson.

Thus was composed the comedy of the _Tuileries_ and the _Aveugle de Smyrne,_ which were printed in 1638; Richelieu had likewise taken part in the composition of the _Visionnaires of Desmarets,_ and supported in a rather remarkable scene the rule of the three unities against its detractors.