He had put his trust in a class of men who hated his office, his family, his person, with implacable hatred.

He had ruined himself in the vain attempt to conciliate them.

He had relieved them, in defiance of law and of the unanimous sense of the old royalist party, from the pressure of the penal code; had allowed them to worship God publicly after their own mean and tasteless fashion; had admitted them to the bench of justice and to the Privy Council; had gratified them with fur robes, gold chains, salaries, and pensions.

In return for his liberality, these people, once so uncouth in demeanour, once so savage in opposition even to legitimate authority, had become the most abject of flatterers.

They had continued to applaud and encourage him when the most devoted friends of his family had retired in shame and sorrow from his palace.