inheritances, which was
to be payable by the vendors, of whatever rank they might be, whether
ecclesiastics, nobles, or others, and also a salt tax to be levied
throughout the whole kingdom of France." The King promised as long as this
assistance lasted to levy no other subsidy and to coin good and sterling
money--i.e., _deniers_ of fine gold, _white_, or silver coin, coin of
_billon_, or mixed metal, and _deniers_ and _mailles_ of copper. The
assembly appointed travelling agents and three inspectors or
superintendents, who had under them two receivers and a considerable
number of sub-collectors, whose duties were defined with scrupulous
minuteness. The King at this time renounced the right of seizin, his dues
over property, inherited or conveyed by sale, exchange, gift, or will, his
right of demanding war levies by proclamation, and of issuing forced
loans, the despotic character of which offended everybody. The following
year, the tax of eight deniers having been found insufficient and
expensive in its collection, the assembly substituted for it a property
and income tax, varying according to the property and income of each
individual.

[Illustration: Fig. 282.--The Courtiers amassing Riches at the Expense of
the Poor.--From a Miniature in the 'Tresor of Brunetto Latini, Manuscript
of the Fourteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal, Paris.]

The finances were, notwithstanding these additions, in a low and
unsatisfactory condition, which became worse and worse from the fatal day
of Poitiers, when King John fell into the hands of the English. The
States-General were summoned by the Dauphin, and, seeing the desperate
condition in which the country was placed, all classes freely opened their
purses. The nobility, who had already given their blood, gave the produce
of all their feudal dues besides. The church paid a tenth and a half, and
the bourgeois showed the most noble unselfishness, and rose as one man to
find means to resist the common enemy. The ransom of the King had been
fixed at three millions of _ecus d'or,_ nearly a thousand million francs,
payable in six years, and the peace of Bretigny was concluded by the
cession of a third of the territory of France. There was, however, cause
for congratulation in this result, for "France was reduced to its utmost
extremity," says a chronicler, "and had not something led to a reaction,
she must have perished irretrievably."

King John, grateful for the love and dev