Henri d’Effiat, Marquis de Cinq-Mars, leaves his family’s château as a young man, rises to become favourite of Louis XIII, and plots with the king’s brother against the all-powerful Cardinal Richelieu, partly for love of Princess Marie de Gonzague. Along the way Vigny depicts the burning of Urbain Grandier at Loudun and the fierce politics of the court.
The pioneering French Romantic historical novel of 1826, a forerunner of Dumas. Download the free EPUB.