Note 72 — Chapter I

The avarice and dishonesty of the cardinal, it is said, even went so far as to force Catherine de Medici to divide with him the fees arising from the confirmation of offices and the privileges accorded towns and municipal corporations in the time of Henry II, which sums lawfully went to her; and even then he is said to have fraudulently estimated them in livres instead of écus d’or.—La Planche, 208. The écu d’or was worth two livres tournois in the reign of Francis I, so that the cardinal’s little trick cut the sum in half.