issued a decree interdicting all Reformers from the chairs of the University and the offices of the judicature; L'Hospital refused to seal it: "God save us from the chancellor's mass!" was the remark at court.

L'Hospital, convinced that he would not succeed in preserving France from a fresh civil war, made up his mind to withdraw, and go and live for some time at his estate of Vignay [a little hamlet in the commune of Gironville, near Etampes, Seine-et-Oise].

The queen-mother eagerly took advantage of his withdrawal to demand of him the seals, of which, she said, she might have need daily.

L'Hospital gave them up at once, at the same time retaining his title of chancellor, and letting the queen know "that he would take pains to recover his strength in order to return to his post, if and when it should be the king's and the queen's pleasure." From his rural home he wrote to his friends, "I am not downhearted because the violence of the wicked has snatched from me the seals of the kingdom.

I have not done as sluggards and cowards do, who hide themselves at the first show of danger, and obey the first impulses of fear.