en all the necessary
steps to secure the decree of the Parlement declaring her regent. The
judicious administrative measures of the Bearnais were to be reversed,
the reign of Italian favorites was to begin, events were to be
subordinated to persons, "as is nearly always the case when queens are
kings." Nevertheless, the Parlement remembered, when it was too late,
that she had recognized its right to dispose of the sovereign power.

The last reunion of the _Etats Generaux_ before the famous one of 1789
was held in 1614, and was marked by the usual dissensions among the
three orders. The nobles complained to the king of the insolence of the
_tiers etat_ in asserting themselves to be the younger brothers of the
same great family; "there is between them and us the difference between
master and valet." The clergy refused to assume any portion of the
public burdens; "that would be to diminish the honor due to God."
Consequently, the president of the upper bourgeoisie, the _prevot_ of
the merchants of Paris, Robert Miron, declared boldly to the king: "If
your Majesty does not provide for the reforms which the nation demands,
it is to be feared that despair will make the people aware of the fact
that the soldier is only a peasant bearing arms; that when the
vine-grower has taken up an arquebus, from the anvil which he was, he
will become the hammer." Nothing was done; the king's great minister,
Richelieu, was too much occupied with the direction of the foreign
affairs of the nation to occupy himself with reforms at home.

Louis XIII was but eight and a half years old at the date of his
father's assassination, and his melancholy, reserved, and suspicious
character bore the traces of that tragic event through life. His early
education was greatly neglected, excepting in the matter of floggings
for obstinacy and disobedience; as a king, it was said of him that "no
man loved God less, or feared the Prince of Darkness more." The weakness
and irresolution which are generally attributed to him were conspicuous
by their absence in his retention of his minister, notwithstanding the
constant cabals, intrigues, and menaces of his mother and her
adherents, and the famous "Day of the Dupes," in which they thought they
had finally attained their end, was followed by dismissal of the
Chancellor Marillac, and the trial and execution, on the Place de Greve,
of his brother, Marshal of France, for the misappropriation of funds for
the army,--"a