[77] The King was bitterly mortified by the large amount of the collection which had been made in obedience to his own call.

He knew, he said, what all this liberality meant.

It was mere Whiggish spite to himself and his religion.

[78] He had already resolved that the money should be of no use to those whom the donors wished to benefit.

He had been, during some weeks, in close communication with the French embassy on this subject, and had, with the approbation of the court of Versailles, determined on a course which it is not very easy to reconcile with those principles of toleration to which he afterwards pretended to be attached.