In this address L’Hopital spoke the sentiments of a small but increasing party which, under the name of the “politicians,” tried to hold a balance between the Huguenots and the Romanists. They might indeed be called “constitutionalists,” for there is no doubt their secret desire was to put an end to the ministerial usurpation and despotism of the Guises. They maintained that the dissidents had a right to be heard; but their arguments would have been ineffectual had the exchequer been in a flourishing condition. The government was in extreme want of money, the annual expenditure exceeding the income by nearly three millions of livres. Loans could only be raised at exorbitant rates of interest, and to impose new taxes would only increase the disorders of the country and perhaps drive the peasants into another Jacquerie. Thus all parties came at last to agree in the necessity of calling the States-General together; preliminary to which letters patent were issued, convening an assembly of Notables at Fontainebleau, these Notables being persons of rank and influence among the nobles and clergy, knights of the order of St. Michael, and lawyers. The king was escorted to the place of meeting by a strong guard, in addition to the troops under the command of the Guises. The general distrust and insecurity were shown by the number of armed men who accompanied the great chieftains of each party. The constable was attended by his two sons, Marshals Montmorency and Damville, and followed by eight hundred gentlemen on horseback. Coligny, Andelot, the Vidame of Chartres, and Prince Porcien entered with nine hundred of the inferior nobility. The meeting was opened on the 21st August, in the apartments of Catherine de Medicis. Grouped around the young king were his brothers and their mother; the Cardinals of Bourbon, Lorraine, Guise, and Chatillon; the Dukes of Guise and Aumale, the Constable and the Admiral; Marshals St. André and Brissac, the knights of the order, and other privy councilors. The two princes of the blood (Navarre and Condé) were absent, having (it is said) come to an arrangement with Coligny never to be present at the same place with him lest they should all be caught in the trap at once. Francis II. opened the proceedings with a few complimentary phrases, and then deputed his chancellor to lay before the members the condition of the country. L’Hopital, who had succeeded Olivier through the influence of the Duchess of Montpensier, a special favorite of Catherine’s, was not a man of illustrious birth; but by industry, integrity, and learning, he had risen step by step to the highest office in the state. On this occasion, with rather less prolixity than was customary in those days, he described the state as being sick, the Church corrupted, justice weakened, the nobles disorderly, and the zeal and loyalty which the people were wont to show the king wonderfully cooled; and that the remedy for all these evils was hard to find.