"We declare," said the representation, "that our zeal is boundless, and that we feel sufficient courage to fall victims to our fidelity.

The Court could not serve without being wanting to their duties and betraying their oaths." Indolent and indifferent as he was, King Louis XV.

acted as seldom and as slowly as he could; he did not like strife, and gladly saw the belligerents exhausting against one another their strength and their wrath; on principle, however, and from youthful tradition, he had never felt any liking for the Parliaments.

"The long robes and the clergy are always at daggers drawn," he would say to Madame de Pompadour "they drive me distracted with their quarrels, but I detest the long robes by far the most.

My clergy, at bottom, are attached to me and faithful to me; the others would like to put me in tutelage.