The letters now produced by De Selles confirmed his positions completely.

The King said not a word concerning the appointment of a new governor-general, but boldly insisted upon the necessity of maintaining the two cardinal points--his royal supremacy, and the Catholic religion upon the basis adopted by his father, the Emperor Charles the Fifth.
This was the whole substance of his communication: the supremacy of royalty and of papacy as in the time of Charles the Fifth.

These cabalistic words were repeated twice in the brief letter to the estates.
They were repeated five times in the instructions furnished by his Majesty to De Selles.

The letter and the instructions indeed contained nothing else.

Two simples were offered for the cure of the body politic, racked by the fever and convulsion of ten horrible years--two simples which the patient could hardly be so unreasonable as to reject--unlimited despotism and religious persecution.