matter of some hay, straw, stone, and chalk," he
exclaimed, "not enough to whip a valet for!"

[Illustration: DEPUTIES OF THE THIRD ESTATE, WAITING AT THE DOOR OF THE
SALLE DES SEANCES, JUNE 23, 1789.

From a painting by M. Melingue.]

One of the most recent of the works on the great cardinal, that of the
Abbe Lacroix, presents us with a Richelieu but little known,
administering his diocese of Lucon, at the age of twenty-two, firmly and
justly, regular in his habits and conciliatory in his character,
ambitious, preparing himself, during eight years of obscure study and
skilful intrigue, for his accession to power, and having already
selected the men whom he would designate to carry out his great designs.
"The bishop prepared the minister," says this biographer.

It was no part of his plans to have the Parlement oppose them, and that
body was forced, during this reign, to swallow some of its bitterest
mortifications. In 1631, having refused to verify a royal decree, the
king returned from Fontainebleau hastily, and ordered the members to
present themselves in a body at the Louvre, the greffier bringing with
him the register of their debates; in the grand gallery of the palace
they were obliged to kneel before the throne, and the monarch, rising,
took the register which was presented to him, tore out the page on which
was the record of their deliberation, and ordered that there should be
inserted in its place the decree of the royal council which had been
refused the _enregistrement_. Ten years later, in the midst of the
Thirty Years' War, the magistrates having declined to approve of certain
new taxes, Louis XIII held a "bed of justice," and again brought them
to terms. The Parlement was formally forbidden to put forth any
remonstrances regarding the edicts which concerned the government and
the administration of the State. Only on those relating to the financial
decrees were they to be permitted to have a voice. These wearisome
episodes were repeated at intervals during the reigns of all the later
kings of France.

Neither was there any contemplation of the _Etats Generaux_ in the
administration of the king and his minister. A few assemblies of
notables were held, one in 1625 on the subject of the Valteline and the
rupture with the Pope, and another in the latter part of the following
year, to which were admitted only magistrates, ecclesiastics,
councillors of State, and the _prevot_ of the merchants of Paris.

A