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Under Henry IV courtiers remained each one at home; they had not entered into ruinous expenditure to belong to the court; favors were not thus due to them as at the present day.

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The court is the sepulcher of the nation." Many noble officers, finding that high grades are only for courtiers, abandon the service, and betake themselves with their discontent to their estates.

Others, who have not left their domains, brood there in discomfort, idleness, and ennui, their ambition embittered by their powerlessness.