"Yes, Sir." "So much the better," and he showed the minister out.

A few hours later, M.Turgot received his dismissal.
[Illustration: Turgot's Dismissal----367] He was at his desk, drawing up an important decree; he laid down his pen, saying quietly, "My successor will finish;" and when M.de Maurepas hypocritically expressed his regret, "I retire," said M.Turgot, "without having to reproach myself with feebleness, or falseness, or dissimulation." He wrote to the king: "I have done, Sir, what I believed to be my duty in setting before you, with unreserved and unexampled frankness, the difficulty of the position in which I stood and what I thought of your own.

If I had not done so, I should have considered myself to have behaved culpably towards you.

You, no doubt, have come to a different conclusion, since you have withdrawn your confidence from me; but, even if I were mistaken, you cannot, Sir, but do justice to the feeling by which I was guided.

All I desire, Sir, is that you may always be able to believe that I was short-sighted, and that I pointed out to you merely fanciful dangers.