The conditions which secure to you our allegiance form a part of the positive laws of your realm." Contrary to all received usages during the session of the states, the royal troops marched into Rennes; the noblesse refused to deliberate, so long as the assembly had not recovered its independence.

The governor applied to the petty nobles who preponderated in their order; ignorant and poor as they were, they allowed themselves to be bought, their votes carried the day, and the subsidies were at last voted, notwithstanding the opposition on the part of the most weighty of the noblesse; a hundred of them persistently staid away.
Internal quarrels in the cabinet rendered the comptroller-general's situation daily more precarious; he gave in his resignation.

The king sent for M.d'Ormesson, councillor of state, of a virtue and integrity which were traditional in his family, but without experience of affairs and without any great natural capacity.

He was, besides, very young, and he excused himself from accepting such a post on the score of his age and his feeble lights.

"I am only thirty-one, Sir," he said.