course, his tenure of office would, had he
still desired to contend with the cabal which had already been formed
against him, become utterly impossible.

Nevertheless Sully did not shrink from what he considered an imperative
duty; and accordingly he resolved no longer to trust the lip-deep
assurances by which he had been beguiled since his return to Court, but
immediately to declare his resignation of office, and to follow it up by
the most resolute and determined opposition.[96]

He had no sooner, therefore, irrevocably arrived at this decision, than
he addressed a letter to the Regent, in which he requested her
permission to retire from the Government; and, satisfied that his suit
must prove successful, he calmly awaited her reply. Meanwhile, resolved
that no reproach should be cast upon him after his departure, he
demanded an audience of the King, in order to explain to him the exact
state of the royal treasury, and the manner in which its contents had
been diminished since the demise of his royal father; but as a private
interview with a mere child would not have satisfactorily sufficed to
accomplish this object, Sully produced his papers before all the members
of the royal household; and while engaged in the necessary explanation,
he remarked that the antiquated fashion of his costume, which he had not
changed for years, had excited the hilarity of the younger courtiers. He
suddenly paused, and after glancing coldly round the giddy circle,
looked fixedly at the young monarch, and said with a dignity which
chased in an instant every inclination to mirth in the bystanders:
"Sire, I am too old to change my habits with every passing wind. When
the late King, your father of glorious memory, did me the honour of
conferring with me upon state affairs, he was in the habit of previously
clearing the apartment of all buffoons and mountebanks." [97]

To the Princes of the Blood, the ministers of state, and the nobles of
the Court, Sully that day added to the list of his enemies the
boy-courtiers of the royal circle.

Thus in heart-burning and uncertainty closed the year which had
commenced with the assassination of the King. An arrogant and unruly
aristocracy, a divided and jealous ministry, and a harassed and
discontented population were its bitter fruits.

FOOTNOTES:

[73] Richelieu, _La Mere et le Fils_, vol. i. p. 91.

[74] _Mercure Francais_, 1610, p. 505.

[75] L'Etoile, vol. iv. pp. 191, 192.

[76] Mezeray