the 4th of November, 1596, with these words, full of
dignity, and powerful in their vivid simplicity: "If I desired to win the
title of orator, I would have learned by rote some fine, long speech, and
would deliver it to you with proper gravity. But, gentlemen, my desire
prompts me towards two more glorious titles, the names of deliverer and
restorer of this kingdom. In order to attain whereto I have gathered you
together. You know to your cost, as I to mine, that when it pleased God
to call me to this crown, I found France not only all but ruined, but
almost entirely lost to Frenchmen. By the divine favor, by the prayers
and the good counsels of my servants who are not in the profession of
arms, by the sword of my brave and generous noblesse, from whom I single
out not the princes, upon the honor of a gentleman, as the holders of our
proudest title, and by my own pains and labors, I have preserved her from
perdition. Let us now preserve her from ruin. Share, my dear subjects,
in this second triumph as you did in the first. I have not summoned you,
like my predecessors, to get your approbation of their own wills. I have
had you assembled in order to receive your counsels, put faith in them,
follow them, in short, place myself under guardianship in your hands; a
desire but little congenial to kings, graybeards, and conquerors. But
the violent love I feel towards my subjects, and the extreme desire I
have to add those two proud titles to that of king, make everything easy
and honorable to me."

L'Estoile relates that the king's favorite, Gabrielle d'Estrees, was at
the session behind some tapestry, and that, Henry IV. having asked what
she thought of his speech, she answered, "I never heard better spoken;
only I was astonished that you spoke of placing yourself under
guardianship." "Ventre saint-gris," replied the king, "that is true; but
I mean with my sword by my side." [_Journal de Pierre l'Estoile,_
t. iii. p. 185.]

The assembly of notables sat from November 4, 1596, to January 29, 1597,
without introducing into the financial regimen any really effective
reforms; the rating board (_conseil de raison_), the institution of which
they had demanded of the king, in connection with the fixing of imposts
and employment of public revenues, was tried without success, and was not
long before, of its own accord, resigning its power into the king's
hands; but the mere convocation of this assembly was a striking insta