Alfred de Vigny

France, 1642: a young marquis of great family comes to court in love, joins the conspiracy against Richelieu, and learns what the Cardinal is - and what Louis XIII is worth as an ally. Vigny served thirteen years as an officer without seeing a battle and made that disillusionment his subject; this 1826 novel is the first French historical novel after Scott, and the scaffold at the end is history, not invention.