He admits as much himself; and yet he does not mend." Seignelay died on the 3d of November, 1690, at the age of thirty-nine.

"He had all the parts of a great minister of state," says St.Simon, "and he was the despair of M.de Louvois, whom he often placed in the position of having not a word of reply to say in the king's presence.

His defects corresponded with his great qualities.

As a hater and a friend he had no peer but Louvois." "How young! how fortunate how great a position!" wrote Madame de Sevigne, on hearing of the death of M.
de Seignelay, "it seems as if splendor itself were dead." Seignelay had spent freely, but he left at his death more than four hundred thousand livres a year.

Colbert's fortune amounted to ten millions, legitimate proceeds of his high offices and the king's liberalities.