The book by Kondraty Birkin (P.P. Karataev), an almost forgotten Russian writer, offers readers a rare opportunity to feel the atmosphere of palace secrets, intrigues and scandals in Russia, England, Italy, France and other states in the period of the 16th–18th centuries. Among the few companions who accompanied the exiled queen to Blois was Bishop Armand du Plessis Richelieu. This commitment to the disgraced Marie de Medici would have been worthy of praise and surprise to posterity, if the venerable prelate had not been guided in this case by caution and self-interest.... A hunter, a mechanic, a gardener, a cook, a barber, a musician... all this is very good, you say, “But where are the king’s virtues?” “Here they are all,” we answer. “Louis XIII had no other virtues.” Peace to his ashes!