"Sire," replied M.de Bellievre, "I am of opinion that you would do well to give the young lady the hundred thousand crowns in order that she may secure the match." And when Sully, with his usual prudence, remarked that it was more easy to talk of such an amount than to procure it, the Chancellor continued, heedless of the interruption: "Nay more, Sire; I am equally of opinion that you had better give two or even three hundred thousand, if less will not suffice.

Such is my advice." [134] It is needless to say that it was not followed.
The only amusement in which Henri IV indulged freely and earnestly was play; and he was so reckless a gamester, that at no period has the Court of France been so thoroughly demoralized by that frightful vice as throughout his reign.

Not only did his own example corrupt those immediately about him, but the rage for gaming gradually pervaded all classes.

The nobility staked their estates where money failed; the citizens trafficked in cards and dice when they should have been employed in commerce or in science; the very valets gambled in the halls, and the pages in the ante-chambers.

Play became the one great business of life throughout the capital; and enormous sums, which changed the entire destiny of families, were won and lost.