He accosted me
with the air of a conqueror, and proposed to me to be present at a
ceremony where he flattered himself he should shine with such powers of
reasoning as would dissipate the profoundest darkness. "Sir," I replied,
"all I have to do by being present at your disputes is to examine which
side produces the strongest and most effectual arguments. The state of
affairs, your number and your riches, require that yours should prevail."
In effect they did. There was a numerous court at St. Denis, and all was
conducted with great pomp and splendor. I may be excused from dwelling
upon the description of this ceremony here, since the Catholic historians
have been so prolix upon the subject.
I did not imagine I could be of any use at this time, therefore kept
myself retired, as one who had no interest in the show that was
preparing, when I was visited by Du Perron, whom the Cardinal of Bourbon
had sent to me to decide a dispute that had arisen on occasion of the
terms in which the King's profession of faith should be conceived. The
Catholic priests and doctors loaded it with all the trifles their heads
were filled with, and were going to make it ridiculous, instead of a
grave and solemn composition. The Protestant ministers, and the King
himself, disapproved of the puerilities and trifles with which they had
stuffed this instrument; and it occasioned debates which had like to have
thrown everything again into confusion.
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