een will
never banish me, and even were I obliged to yield to the populace she
would yield with me; if I fly, she will fly; and then we shall see how
the rebels will get on without either king or queen.

"Oh, were I not a foreigner! were I but a Frenchman! were I but of
gentle birth!"

The position of the cardinal was indeed critical, and recent events had
added to his difficulties. Discontent had long pervaded the lower ranks
of society in France. Crushed and impoverished by taxation--imposed
by Mazarin, whose avarice impelled him to grind them down to the very
dust--the people, as the Advocate-General Talon described it, had
nothing left to them except their souls; and as those could not be sold
by auction, they began to murmur. Patience had in vain been recommended
to them by reports of brilliant victories gained by France; laurels,
however, were not meat and drink, and the people had for some time been
in a state of discontent.

Had this been all, it might not, perhaps, have greatly signified; for
when the lower classes alone complained, the court of France, separated
as it was from the poor by the intervening classes of the gentry and the
bourgeoisie, seldom listened to their voice; but unluckily, Mazarin had
had the imprudence to attack the magistrates and had sold no less than
twelve appointments in the Court of Requests, at a high price; and as
the officers of that court paid very dearly for their places, and as the
addition of twelve new colleagues would necessarily lower the value of
each place, the old functionaries formed a union amongst themselves,
and, enraged, swore on the Bible not to allow of this addition to their
number, but to resist all the persecutions which might ensue; and
should any one of them chance to forfeit his post by this resistance, to
combine to indemnify him for his loss.

Now the following occurrences had taken place between the two contending
parties.

On the seventh of January between seven and eight hundred tradesmen had
assembled in Paris to discuss a new tax which was to be levied on house
property. They deputed ten of their number to wait upon the Duke of
Orleans, who, according to his custom, affected popularity. The duke
received them and they informed him that they were resolved not to pay
this tax, even if they were obliged to defend themselves against its
collectors by force of arms. They were listened to with great politeness
by the duke, who held out hopes of easier