IF we examine closely the records of the past, we shall find that the
principal source of the public morality, or vice, springs in most cases
from the acts or institutions of the government; and this was especially
remarkable at the commencement of the seventeenth century, in France.
The youth of Louis XIII.; the feebleness of his character, even in
advanced age; his incapacity, and that of his regent mother, gave rise
to all kinds of imperfections, and opened the career to excesses of
feudality, and all sorts of lawless ambitions. Evil, departing from this
centre, spread amongst all classes of people: the organization of the
clergy affected the position of the laity; and the intrigues of the
Count de Soissons, Condé, and others, favoured the general corruption.
Things stood thus when, one fine spring morning, two horsemen in
military attire were slowly traversing one of the large tracts of forest
land which then stretched between Compiègne and Beauvais.
[_At this point search the British Museum, and get up the costumes from
pictures. The "low countries" is effective._]