It was a duty, they said, "to depose a prince who did not discharge his duty.

Authority ill regulated was robbery, and it was as absurd to call him a king who knew not how to govern, as it was to take a blind man for a guide, or to believe that a statue could influence the movements of living men." Yet to the faction, inspired by such rebellious sentiments, and which was thundering in his face such tremendous denunciations, the unhappy Henry could not find a single royal or manly word of reply.

He threw himself on his knees, when, if ever, he should have assumed an attitude of command.
He answered the insolence of the men, who were parading their contempt for his authority, by humble excuses, and supplications for pardon.

He threw his crown in the dust before their feet, as if such humility would induce them to place it again upon his head.

He abandoned the minions who had been his pride, his joy, and his defence, and deprecated, with an abject whimper, all responsibility for the unmeasured ambition and the insatiable rapacity of a few private individuals.