rance, who will reign after this madness passes: abandon Versailles, and re-establish the Court in the Louvre, or in any case in Paris. I never liked Paris. But had I been living in Paris while I ruled, I think that I might have had more of a sense of the mood of the people, and might have been more able to judge rightly how to deal with it. I would say, too, that the system of the Court should be reduced to the most modest level of simplicity consistent with the dignity of the Crown. My great-great-grandfather, Henri IV, first of my line, lived in simplicity, and was no less a King for it--indeed, his closeness to his people made him a greater King. He restored France, after the wars of religion; I have lost it. I must note a further benefit to simplicity; it would greatly reduce expenses, which were one great source of these troubles.
Now I must speak of myself, and my own conduct, and first of all of my marriage and my unhappy Queen. I was never the sort of Frenchman that foreigners imagine all Frenchmen to
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