measures to limit her power in the
disposal of the public funds.

Sully, meanwhile, like a generous adversary, had not only endeavoured to
restrain the liberality of the Queen, but had even ventured to
expostulate with many of the applicants upon the ruinous extravagance of
their demands; a proceeding which was resented by several of the great
nobles, and by none more deeply than the Prince de Conde, who was upheld
in his pretensions by his adherents, all of whom alleged that as the
royal treasury was daily suffering diminution, and must soon become
entirely exhausted, he had a right to claim, as first Prince of the
Blood, the largest portion of its contents after their Majesties. They
also reminded him of the offices and honours of which he had been
despoiled by the late King, when he would not consent to retain them as
the price of his disgrace; and, finally, they bade him not to lose sight
of the fact that liberal as the Queen-Regent might have appeared on his
return to France, he did not yet possess the revenues necessary to
maintain his dignity as the first subject in the realm. M. de Conde was
haughty and ambitious, and he consequently lent a willing ear to these
representations; nor was it long ere he became equally convinced that
his power was balanced by that of Sully; that a Bourbon was measured
with a Bethune; a Prince of the Blood with a _parvenu_ minister; and
that such must continue to be the case so long as he permitted money to
be poised against influence.

The effect of these insidious counsels soon made itself apparent in the
altered manner of the Prince towards the man whom he had thus been
taught to consider as the enemy of his greatness; for although he
endeavoured to conceal his growing dislike, his nature was too frank,
and moreover too impetuous, to second his policy; and Sully, on his
side, was far too quick-sighted to be easily duped on so important a
matter. The resolution of the Duke was therefore instantly formed; eager
as he had been for office under the late King, he had, at the death of
that monarch, ceased to feel or to exhibit the same energy. He already
saw many of the favourite projects of Henry negatived; much of his
advice disregarded; and as he looked into the future he taught himself
to believe that he contemplated only a long vista of national decline
and personal disappointment. While he had preserved the confidence and
affection of his sovereign, he had held popularity lightly