desiring no
employment from the Government, maintained their places at court by their
own weight, existed upon their own foundation, and might say, as one of
them did say, 'The Prince condescends not; I am Rohan.' It was the same
with every noble family, to which its own nobility sufficed; the King
himself expressed it in writing to one of my friends: 'Money is not a
common thing between gentlemen like you and me.'"

"But, Monsieur le Marechal," coldly, and with extreme politeness,
interrupted M. de Launay, who perhaps intended to anger him, "this
independence has produced as many civil wars and revolts as those of
Monsieur de Montmorency."

"Monsieur! I can not consent to hear these things spoken," said the fiery
Marechal, leaping up in his armchair. "Those revolts and wars had nothing
to do with the fundamental laws of the State, and could no more have
overturned the throne than a duel could have done so. Of all the great
party-chiefs, there was not one who would not have laid his victory at
the feet of the King, had he succeeded, knowing well that all the other
lords who were as great as himself would have abandoned the enemy of the
legitimate sovereign. Arms were taken against a faction, and not against
the sovereign authority; and, this destroyed, everything went on again in
the old way. But what have you done in crushing us? You have crushed the
arm of the throne, and have not put anything in its place. Yes, I no
longer doubt that the Cardinal-Duke will wholly accomplish his design;
the great nobility will leave and lose their lands, and, ceasing to be
great proprietors, they will cease to be a great power. The court is
already no more than a palace where people beg; by and by it will become
an antechamber, when it will be composed only of those who constitute the
suite of the King. Great names will begin by ennobling vile offices; but,
by a terrible reaction, those offices will end by rendering great names
vile. Estranged from their homes, the nobility will be dependent upon the
employments which they shall have received; and if the people, over whom
they will no longer have any influence, choose to revolt--"

"How gloomy you are to-day, Marechal!" interrupted the Marquise; "I hope
that neither I nor my children will ever see that time. I no longer
perceive your cheerful disposition, now that you talk like a politician.
I expected to hear you give advice to my son. Henri, what troubles you?
You seem very absent