retained, was a merely nominal dignity whence he derived neither income
nor influence; and so unpopular was he in the province that the citizens
of Bordeaux refused to admit him within their gates.

Nevertheless, the young monarch who held his court alternately at Pau
and at Nérac, the capital of the duchy of Albret, expended annually upon
his household and establishment nearly twelve thousand pounds, and that
at a period when, according to the evidence of Sully, "the whole Court
could not have furnished forty thousand livres;" [13] yet so
inadequately were those about him remunerated, that Sully himself, in
his joint capacity of councillor of state and chamberlain, received only
two thousand annual livres, or ninety pounds sterling. This royal penury
did not, however, depress the spirits of the frank and free-hearted
King, who eagerly entered into every species of gaiety and amusement.
Jousts, masques, and ballets succeeded each other with a rapidity which
left no time for anxiety or _ennui_; and Marguerite has bequeathed to us
in her memoirs so graphic a picture of the royal circle in 1579-80, that
we cannot resist its transcription. "We passed the greater portion of
our time at Nérac," she says, "where the Court was so brilliant that we
had no reason to envy that of France. The sole subject of regret was
that the principal number of the nobles and gentlemen were Huguenots;
but the subject of religion was never mentioned; the King, my husband,
accompanied by his sister,[14] attending their own devotions, while I
and my suite heard mass in a chapel in the park. When the several
services were concluded, we again assembled in a garden ornamented with
avenues of laurels and cypresses upon the bank of the river; and in the
afternoon and evening a ballet was performed." [15]

It is much to be regretted that the royal biographer follows up this
pleasing picture by avowals of her own profligacy, and complacent