The Queen-Regent had promised to convoke the States-General, and he
explained to us both how all would come right there. The bourgeois
element from all the Parliaments of the provinces would be strong
enough to make a beginning towards controlling the noblesse, divided
as it was, and at feud with the Crown. Some of the clergy at least
would be on their side, and if the noblesse would bear part of the
burthens of the State, and it could be established that taxes should
not be imposed without the consent of the people, and that offices
should not be sold, all would be well for the country. Meg herself
took fire, and began to hope that a new state of things would begin
in which she might do some good to those unfortunate peasants of her
son's who weighed so heavily on her tender heart. Eustace told him
he would be another Simon de Montfort, only not a rebel. No; he was
determined to succeed by moral force, and so was his whole party (at
least he thought so). They, by their steady loyalty, would teach the
young King and his mother how to choose between them and the two
selfish factions who were ready to fight with the King himself,
provided it was also against a Conde or a Mazarin.
It looked very beautiful indeed. I was roused from my selfish ill-
humour, felt what my Clement was worth, and went heart and soul into
the matter, and we all four were just as happy over these hopes as if
we had not seen how things had turned out at home, and that no one,
either Kings or Parliaments, or nobility either, know where to stop;
but that if you do not get an absolute tyrant, you run the risk of a
Long Parliament, a ruling army, a 30th of January, and a Lord
Protector.
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