n the name of God, Sire, do away with this criminal and dangerous
memento of old passions, unjust hatreds, and the spirit of impiety which,
after having led astray magistrates devoid of light, serves to-day only
to beguile new generations, whom excess of light blinds," etc., etc.

When this letter was finished, the King said:

"I have never seen, the famous pyramid; one of these days I will escape,
so that I can see it without being observed." And then his Majesty asked
me what I thought of the petition. I answered that I did not understand
the inconsistency of M. de Sully, who, after consenting to the return of
the Jesuits, had left in its place the monument which accused and branded
them. I put it on Sully, the minister, because I dared not attack Henri
IV. himself.

The King answered me: "There are faults of negligence such as that in
every government and under the best administrations. King Henri my
grandfather was vivacity itself. He was easily irritated; he grew calm
in the same way. For my part, I think that he pardoned the Jesuits, as
he had the Leaguers, in the hope that his clemency would bring them all
into peaceful disposition; in which he was certainly succeeding when a
miscreant killed him."

Madame de Maintenon, begged to give her opinion, expressed herself in
these terms: "Sire, this petition cannot be other than extremely well
done, since a society of clever minds have taken the work in hand. We
have not the trial of Jean Chatel before our eyes, with his
interrogatories; it is impossible for us, then, to pronounce on the
facts. In any case, there is one thing very certain: the Jesuits who are
living at present are innocent, and most innocent of the faults of their
predecessors.

"The sentences and anathemas which surcharge the pyramid, as they say,
can in no way draw down upon them the anger of passers-by and the
populace, for these inscriptions, which I have read, are in bad Latin.
This monument, which is very rich and even elegant in itself, is placed
upon the site of the destroyed house of the assassin Chatel. The most
ignorant of your Parisians knows this circumstance, which he has learnt
from family traditions. It is good that the people see every day before
their eyes this solitary pyramid, which teaches how King's assassins are
punished and what is done with the houses in which they were born.

"King Henri IV., for all his gaiety, had wits enough for four; he left
the pyramid standing, like