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Colbert, nor take any better cours to obtaine his friendship by any servis whatsoever, than by using all my skill & industry in drawing all the natives of thos Northern parts of America to traffick with & to favor the French, & to hinder & disswade them from trading with strangers, assuring me of a great reward for the servis I should render the state upon this account, & that Mr.

So home, and my wife shewed me many excellent prints of Nanteuil's and others, which W. Batelier hath, at my desire, brought me out of France, of the King, and Colbert, and others, most excellent, to my great content.

Young, ardent, warlike, the king of France might inflict some serious mischief on Holland, especially if he were to get near her." "I perfectly understand, M. Colbert, and you have explained it very clearly; but be good enough to tell me the conclusion you have arrived at." "Your majesty's own decisions are never deficient in wisdom." "What will these ambassadors say to me?"

"And yet, monsieur, you will not prevent me," replied the latter, "from endeavoring to find out the miserable fellow who has intervened to the advantage of M. Colbert in this so well-arranged affair; for, if it is good policy to love our friends dearly, I do not believe that is bad which consists in obstinately pursuing our enemies."

"Monsieur," she said, "when the king acts well, whether, in doing so, he does either myself or those who belong to me an injury, I have nothing to say; but were the king to confer a benefit either upon me or mine, and if he acted badly, I should tell him so." "But it appears to me, mademoiselle," Colbert ventured to say, "that I too love the king."

The preservation of the woods was one of the wise measures recommended to France by Sully, in the time of Henry IV., but the advice was little heeded, and the destruction of the forests went on with such alarming rapidity, that, two generations later, Colbert uttered the prediction: "France will perish for want of wood."

"The governor being gained, the two prisoners escape; once clear of the fangs of the law, they will call together the enemies of Colbert, and prove to the king that his young justice, like all other monstrosities, is not infallible." "Go to Paris, then, Pellisson," said Fouquet, "and bring hither the two victims; to-morrow we shall see." Gourville gave Pellisson the five hundred thousand livres.

Possibly Colbert only sought to define anew the relations which ought to exist between governor and intendant. Whatever the motive, Duchesneau's instructions gave him a degree of authority which proved galling to the governor. In its earliest phase it concerned the right to preside at meetings of the Sovereign Council.

It is true that he took a pleasure in rebuilding his archiepiscopal palace and cathedral out of a huge and ancient treasure, which he discovered whilst pulling down some old ruin to make a salon. One might say that there was some force of attraction attached to this family and name of Colbert. Treasures arose from the earth to give themselves up and obey them. Mesdemoiselles de Mazarin.

The king did not wholly abandon his mistress; from a material point of view, she was more powerful than ever, for Louis XIV. gave orders to his minister, Colbert, to do for Mme. de Montespan whatever she wished, and her wishes caused a heavy drain upon the treasury.