doubloons, as they say themselves almost publicly, dancing and feasting;
that they may take a castle to-day, and to-morrow a city, and the day,
after a province, and so on indefinitely. What matters it to them that
blood flows, and that the miserable people are destroyed, who alone are
good for anything?"

"The immediate cause of the ruin of France," continued the Jesuit, "comes
from two roots which must be torn up; the one is the extreme ignorance
and scandalous life of the ecclesiastics, the other is the tyranny and
the abominable life of the nobility, who with sacrilege and insatiable
avarice have entered upon the property of the Church. This nobility is
divided into three factions. The first, and not the least, is heretic;
the second and the most pernicious is politic or atheist; the third and
last is catholic. All these, although they differ in opinion, are the
same thing in corruption of life and manners, so that there is no choice
among them." He then proceeded to set forth how entirely, the salvation
of France depended on the King of Spain. "Morally speaking," he said,
"it is impossible for any Frenchman to apply the remedy. For this two
things are wanting; intense zeal for the honour of God, and power. I ask
now what Frenchman: has both these, or either of them. No one certainly
that we know. It is the King of Spain who alone in the world has the
zeal and the power. No man who knows the insolence and arrogance of the
French nature will believe that even if a king should be elected out of
France he would be obeyed by the others. The first to oppose him would
be Mayenne; even if a king were chosen from his family, unless everything
should be given him that he asked; which would be impossible."

Thus did the wily Priest instil into the ready ears of Philip additional
reasons for believing himself the incarnate providence of God. When were
priestly flatterers ever wanting to pour this poison into the souls of