FRUITLESSNESS • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Fruitlessness

... prosecute his rights by course of justice, and if Ferdinand refuse to submit thereto we will declare against him; but we cannot promise more. If the French who are at our court wish to withdraw, the gates are open to them." The king, a little ashamed at the fruitlessness of his concession and of his threat, had for an instant some desire to re-establish the Pragmatic Sanction, for which the parliament of Paris had taken up the cudgels; but, all considered, he thought it better to put up in silence with his rebuff, and pay the penalty for a rash ...

— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume III. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot