was content to await the progress of events.[65] It is probable that he was the more readily induced to exert this forbearance from the extreme generosity of the Queen, who, remembering the abruptness with which he had been deprived, on the occasion of his marriage, of the many lucrative appointments bestowed upon him, hastened to present him with a pension of two hundred thousand livres; to which she added the Hotel de Conti in the Faubourg St. Germain, which she purchased for that purpose at a similar sum, the county of Clermont, and other munificent donations.[66]

Nor was M. de Conde the only recipient of her uncalculating generosity, as may be gathered from the following document from the pen of Richelieu: 

“The good management of the savings fund of the late King left us, when he was taken away, five millions in the Bastille; and in the hands of the treasurer of the fund from seven to eight millions more, with which he had intended to pay the army that he had raised in order to extend the limits of his glory, which would admit no others than those of the universe itself.  The uncertainty in which we were left by that fatal event rendering it necessary that we should secure the safety of the state by the counterpoise of a certain body of troops, we found ourselves constrained to employ a portion of the finances in maintaining during a few months a large military force which had already been raised; so that this outlay, the funeral of the King, and the coronation of the Queen, of which the expenses were not paid, reduced these savings very considerably.  After the death of that great Prince, who was the actual ruler of the state, it was impossible to prevent a certain disorder, which even went so far as to induce several individuals, who measured their deserts by their ambition, shamefully to seek, and pertinaciously to persist in demanding, benefits which they could never have hoped to secure during his lifetime.  They profit by the difficulties of the period, offer to serve the state, declare how they have it in their power to injure the national interests, and, in short, make it clearly understood that they will only do their duty upon the most advantageous terms; and so conduct themselves that even those who had assisted the King in amassing his treasure advise the Queen to yield to the exigences of the time, to open her hands, and to give largely to every one.

“In accordance with these counsels she increases the pensions and establishments of the Princes, the nobles, and the old servants of the Crown; she grants new ones; she augments the garrisons of her fortresses, as much to satisfy those who hold them as for the safety of the country, and maintains a greater number of troops than formerly; the increase of these pensions amounting on an average to three millions annually.  The expense of the light horse and infantry is at present (1617) three millions three hundred thousand livres; while in 1610 it amounted only to fifteen hundred