"'This labour was the model of another affecting the police, by which the king would have been able to see, to an individual, the number of the nobility of the whole realm, divided into classes, and specified by the difference of titles, estates, &c.; an idea the more agreeable to the King, as he had been meditating for a long time the plan of a new order of knighthood, together with that of an academy, a college, and a royal hospital, destined for the nobility alone, without this useful and honourable institution being chargeable to the public or burdensome to the finances. It was proposed at the same time to form a camp or permanent corps of six thousand infantry, a thousand horse, and six pieces of artillery, completely equipped. Twelve ships and twelve galleys kept in good order, corresponded in the naval department to this new military establishment. The close of this glorious and beneficent reign is thus described:-- "Certain it is that Henry's mind was filled with gloomy anticipations which neither business nor pleasure could banish; for the moment he was unoccupied dark and bitter meditations fell upon him, from which he found it impossible to rouse himself. Intimations of coming danger, too, were frequent; a courier from France carried news of his death to Germany eight days before it happened. On the altar, at Montargis, was found a paper, announcing that in a few days he would perish by the hand of an assassin. Public prayers were offered up in some parts of the Spanish territory for the success of a great enterprise to be carried on in France; and many warnings were given to Henry himself. The monarch, however, would pay no attention to them, notwithstanding the presentiment with which he himself was filled; and it is said that when, on the day of his death, his son, the Duke of Vendome, came to tell him that La Brosse, the astrologer, had predicted that great danger menaced him that day, Henry merely laughed, saying, 'La Brosse is an old fox who wishes to have your money, and you a young fool to believe him. Our days are counted before God.' Perhaps more attention might often have been paid to astrologers by great men if they had recollected that such intimations may sometimes come from other sources than the stars, and that many of those persons looked upon it as a part of their trade to obtain intelligence of meditated designs in support of their pretended science.