Great offices of justice were sold to the highest bidder, and that which was thus purchased by wholesale was retailed in the same fashion.

Unhappy the pauper client who dreamed of justice at the hands of law.

The great ecclesiastical benefices were equally matter of merchandise, and married men, women, unborn children, enjoyed revenues as dignitaries of the church.

Infants came into the world, it was said, like the mitre-fish, stamped with the emblems of place.
"'Twas impossible," said L'Etoile, "to find a crab so tortuous and backsliding as the government." This was the aspect of the first of the three factions in France.

Such was the Henry at its head, the representative of royalty.
Henry with the Scar, Duke of Guise, the well-known chief of the house of Lorraine, was the chief of the extreme papistical party.