g six years
three millions six hundred and sixty thousand livres; the Prince and
Princesse de Conti above one million four hundred thousand; the Duc de
Guise nearly one million seven hundred thousand; M. de Nevers one
million six hundred thousand; M. de Longueville[67] one million two
hundred thousand; MM. de Mayenne, father and son, two millions and
several thousands; M. de Vendome near six hundred thousand; M. d'Epernon
and his children near seven hundred thousand; and M. de Bouillon near
a million.

"All the Marshals of France, of which the number was increased one half,
received four times as much as formerly, their pensions being augmented
twenty-four thousand livres, which, in six years, allowing to each one
hundred and forty-four thousand livres, and calculating them at eight in
number, as they have always been, make, one with the other, one million
one hundred and fifty-two thousand livres.

"Six other dukes, or officers of the Crown, received the same allowance,
augmenting the outlay in six years by eighty-six thousand four hundred
livres. Hence it is easy to see how the treasury of France was
exhausted, since eleven or twelve articles in favour of the great nobles
of the state carry off nearly seventeen millions, without including all
that was paid to them in the shape of salaries and appointments, the
_deniers du talion_[68] for their companies of men-at-arms, grants for
the maintenance of the garrisons of their fortresses, and finally,
without calculating the troubles occasioned by several among them;
troubles which, having compelled us on three several occasions to take
up arms, have cost us, upon a strict computation, more than twenty
millions of additional outlay." [69]

We have copied this document at full length, and in this place, in
order, in so far as we are enabled so to do, to exonerate Marie de
Medicis from the charge of reckless extravagance unsparingly brought
against her by the Duc de Sully. Richelieu himself, at the period at
which this report was furnished to the ministers, was little disposed to
extenuate the errors of the Regent; and cannot, consequently, be
supposed to have volunteered any palliative circumstances. Moreover, it
is worthy of notice that the enormous sums registered above were not
lavished upon the personal favourites of the Queen, but were literally
the price paid by the nation to purchase the loyalty of its Princes and
nobles; a frightful state of things, which exhibits