This plan is lengthily and approvingly set forth, several times over, in the _OEconomies royales,_ which Sully's secretaries wrote at his suggestion, and probably sometimes at his dictation.

Henry IV.
was a prince as expansive in ideas as he was inventive, who was a master of the art of pleasing, and himself took great pleasure in the freedom and unconstraint of conversation.

No doubt the notions of the grand design often came into his head, and he often talked about them to Sully, his confidant in what he thought as well as in what he did.

Sully, for his part was a methodical spirit, a regular downright putter in practice, evidently struck and charmed by the richness and grandeur of the prospects placed before his eyes by his king, and feeling pleasure in shedding light upon them whilst giving them a more positive and more complete shape than belonged to their first and original appearance.
And thus came down to us the grand design, which, so far as Henry IV.

was concerned, was never a definite project.