Before four days had passed, he had. There was one time when the royal apartments were not exposed to unannounced intrusions of Guisards. The Royal Council met in the ante-chamber which opened directly from the great circular staircase giving access to the royal suite. During its meetings all unauthorized persons were excluded; councillors were expected to enter unattended; the ushers of the Council kept the doors. And there was one body of men whose loyalty the King could count on absolutely – the Forty-five. Epernon had recruited them four years ago. They were all noblemen, but petit-noblesse of Gascony, whose whole wealth each was a horse, a sword, a ragged cloak and a few rocky acres to starve on. They had no friends or connections at Court, and no one to rely on except the King.

Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish A…, loc. 857