192 STATESMEN AND SAGES acter of Frederick, both in public and private life, has always been highly es- teemed. He was kind, generous, fond of society, and, though rather quick in his temper, extremely placable. He was the real founder of the Prussian mon- archy ; and as a sovereign he appears to have justly merited the surname of the Great Elector. LOUIS XIV.* BY OLIVER OPTIC (1638-1715) O N September 16, 1638, Paris was in a state of intense excitement and rejoic- ing. The booming of cannon resounded through the city, the people gave thanks in their churches, all the palaces of the nobility were illuminated, and so brilliant were the bonfires and torches in the evening that one could see to read on both sides of the Seine. The poor were feasted as never before, and there was no limit to the enthusiasm. The occasion of this unbounded rejoic- ing was the birth of an heir to the throne of France. Louis XIII., the son of Henry IV., the first of the Bourbons, was king. He had married the daughter of Philip III. of Spain, who was called Anne of Austria, after her mother. She was one of the most beautiful women of her time ; but for twenty- two years she had lived nearly in a state of separation from her husband, and no living heir to the throne had been born. The king and the queen were not harmoni- ous ; and after the lapse of this long period, the birth of a son was regarded as an extraordinary, if not a miraculous event, especially by the devout people of the nation, who called the child the " God-given." Louis XIII. was personally a brave man, and had some good qualities; but as a ruler he was weak and incapable of governing his kingdom. He admitted Cardinal Richelieu to his cabinet, and the astute politician became his prime- minister, and was the actual ruler of France. The king fully appreciated the vast abilities of his great minister, even while he feared, if he did not hate him, and became but a pliant tool in the hands of the greatest statesman of his time. It is said that Richelieu was fascinated by the beauty and grace of Anne of Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.
