Had this king lived long, and kept with him those who were then of his council, without dispute he would by this time have enlarged his dominions very considerably; but, considering what has already occurred, and what is likely to follow upon it, he has laid a great load both upon his own soul, and the souls of his successors, and has given his kingdom a cruel wound, which will bleed a long time; namely, by establishing a terrible band of paid soldiers, in imitation of the princes of Italy. King Charles at his death had laid taxes upon all things in his kingdom, amounting to one million eight hundred thousand francs, and maintained about one thousand seven hundred men at arms, constantly in pay, and in the nature of guards, to preserve the peace, and secure the provinces of the kingdom; by which means, for a long while before his death, there was no free quarter, nor riding up and down the country, which was a great ease to the people. At the death of our master, he raised annually four million seven hundred thousand francs; and had about four or five thousand men at arms, and above twenty-five thousand foot soldiers; so that it is no wonder if he entertained such jealousies and fears of his subjects, and fancied he was not beloved by them. Yet he made one very great mistake: he had no confidence in those who had been brought up and received their preferments under him; of whom he might have found many that would have died before they would have forsaken him in anything. In the first place, nobody was admitted into the Plessis du Parc (which was the place where he resided) but his domestic servants and his archers, who were in number four hundred, some of whom kept constant guard at the gate, while others patrolled continually about to prevent its being surprised. No lord nor person of quality was permitted to lodge in the castle, nor to enter with any of his retinue; nor, indeed, were any of them admitted but the Lord de Beaujeu, the present Duke of Bourbon, who was his son-in-law. Round about the castle of Plessis he caused a lattice of iron bars to be set up, and spikes of iron to be planted in the wall, with several points projecting along the ditch, wherever there was a possibility for any person to enter. Besides which, he caused four watch-houses to be made of thick iron and pierced with holes, out of which his archers might shoot at their pleasure; and these were a very clever invention and cost above twenty thousand francs; in them he placed twenty of his crossbow men, who were upon guard night and day, with orders to fire upon any man that ventured to come near, before the opening of the gate in the morning. He also persuaded himself that his subjects would be apt to divest him of his power, and take the administration of affairs upon themselves, when they saw their opportunity; and, indeed, there were some persons about the court that consulted together how they might get into the Plessis, and despatch