are come hither with so many trauailes some on foot some alone other some in the night and the greatest parte at your owne costs and charges Doe not you wonder at the heroicall actes of our Louchards Gentlemen of the new stampe Bussis Senaulds Oudineaux Morreliers Crucez Goudards and Drouarts who haue so well come by the feather What thinke you of so many Caboches as are found and God hath raised vp at Paris Roan Lions Orleans Troyes Toulouze Amiens where you see butchers taylors fillipers iuglers tumblers cutlers and other sortes of persons of the very drosse and scumme of the people to haue the first voyce in councell and assemblies of the estate and to giue lawe to them that before were great of race of riches and of qualitie who now dare not cough nor mutter before them Scripture rightly applied Is it not in this that the prophecie is accomplished which saith hee raiseth the poore out of the dungehil Should not this be a crime to passe ouer vnder silence that holy martyrfryer Iames Clement who hauing been the most vnorderly and wicked of all his couent as all the Iacobins of this citie knowe well inough and hauing many times had the chapter and the diffamatorie whip for his thieueries and wickednesses is notwithstanding sanctified at this daye and now is alofte to debate and dispute with S. Iago of Compostella Affections fit enough for such a fact and fellow who shall haue the first seate O blessed confessor and martyr of God How gladlie would I bee the paranimph and encomiast of thy praises if my eloquence could attaine to thy merits But I loue better to holde my peace therein than to speake too littlethereof And continuing my discourse I will speake of the strange conuersion of mine owne proper person although that Cato saith Nec telaudaris nec te culpaueris ipse A great clarke good latinist and singulat versifier thou shalt neither praise thy selfe neither shalt thou blame thy selfe yet I will freely confesse vnto you that before this holy enterprise of the vnion I was no great deuourer of the crucifix and some very neare about me and that haunted me most familiarly haue had in opinion that I did a little smell of the faggot because that being a yong scholler I tooke pleasure in reading the bookes of Caluin and being at Tolouze I had mingled my selfe to preach and teach in the night with the new Lutherans and afterwardes made no great conscience nor difficultie to eate flesh in Lent nor to he with my sister A beast for abusing thy sister and Gods word also following the examples of the holy patriarches of the Bible Bur since that I had signed the holy league and the fundamentall lawe of this estate accompanied with double duckets and of the hope that I had of a redde hatte no man hath doubted touching my beliefe neither hath there any further inquirie been made touching either my conscience or my cariages Verily I confesse that I owe this grace of my conuersion next after God to Monsieur the Duke d'Espernon who hauing vpbraided me in the Councell with that whereof none doubted in Lions touching my sister in lawe was the cause that of a great politike and a very slender Caluinist that I was From euill to worse I became a great and coniuredleaguer as I am at this present the director and ordainor of secret affaires and such as importe the estate of the holy vnion neither more nor lesse than blessed Saint Paul who of a persecutor of christians was made the vessell of election This is the cause wherefore hee faith where sinne hath abounded there shall grace also abounde Doubte not then any more to continue firme and constant in this holy partie full of so many miracles and of strokes from heauen of which you must needes make a fundamentall lawe As touching the necessities and oppressions of the clergie you shall or may aduise thereof if it please you for for my regarde I will put paine that my great pot bee not ouerthrowne and I shall alwaies haue credite with Roland and Ribault that will not fayle to pay mee my pensions from whatsoeuer part siluer come Euery one will aduise to prouide for himselfe if he thinke it so good and for my patte I desire not peace vnlesse first I may be a Cardinal as they haue promised mee If thou maiest be iudge and as I my selfe haue well deserued For without mee Monsieur the Lieutenant could not be in the degree where he is because it was me my selfe that retained the late Duke of Guise his brother who woulde willinglie haue gone from the estates of Bloys distrusting of some deafe deuise and ambushment of the tirant but I caused him to remaine and to waite for a dispatch from Rome which should be brought me within three dayes and that was the cause why Madame his mother here present hath many times reproached me that I was the cause of his death whereof Monsieur the Lieutenant and all his ought to yeelde mee thankes because that vpon this pretext and to reuenge this goodly death of his Whot passions and bad perswasions we haue stirred vp the people and taken occasion to make another King Courage therefore courage I say my friends feare not to expose your liues and that which remaineth of your goods for Monsieur the Lieutenant and for them of his house These are good princes and good Catholikes who loue you to the full and on the ridge Speake not here of abrogating from him his power which some murmur and mutter that it was not giuen him but vntil some next holding or assembly of the Estates but these are the accountes of the Storke They that haue tasted this morsell they will neuer bite Would you demaund a more goodly and braue king and one that is more grosse and more grasse or fattie than he is Good parts to commend to a kingdome Hee is by S. Iames a faire peece of flesh and I thinke you cannot finde one that ouerweigheth him Messieurs of the nobilitie that keepe the townes and castles in the name of the holy vnion are you not very glad to leuie and gather vp all the taxes tenths aydes shoppes fortificatious watches imposts and that which is giuen for all wares as well by water as by land and to take your rights and customes vpon all prices ransomes and pillages without being bound to make an account thereof to any man Vnder what King would you finde a better condition You are Barons you are Counties and Dukes in the proprietie of all the places and prouinces which you hold You command absolutely therein Right as can be of clubbes spades and all saue the harts and as it were kings of the cardes What would you haue better Leaue and forget these glorious names of French monarchie and remember no more your ancestors nor them who haue inriched and inobled you To be briefe
spirits intermingle and cast the thunder betweene and within the clowdes in which they make these straunge and fearfull fires that doe very farre and much passe the materiall and elementarie fire I will not say that you were he that chose particularly that wicked fellowe which hell created He meaneth Frier lames Clement to goe and giue that execrable blowe which the very furies of hell themselues would haue feared to haue done But it is very euident that before he went about this accursed enterprise Sometimes it is not amisie to be a blabbe of a mans tongue you saw him and I could well tell the places where and the times when if I would You incouraged him you promised him Abbeyes Bishoprickes mountaines and meruailes and ye left the rest to bee done to Madame your sister to the Iesuits and to the Prior of his order who passed somewhat further promised him nothing lesse thē a place in paradise aboue the Apostles if it fell out that he were martyred That it was so that ye were very well aduertised of all the mysterie or secret you caused the people that spake of yeelding themselues to be preached vnto and taught Good reason all lead by one murthering spirit that they would yet haue patience but seuen or eight daies and that before the ende of the weeke they should see some great matter that should set vs in our former rest and quietnes The preachers of Roan of Orleans and of Amiens preached it at the same time and in the same tearmes Afterwarde so soone as your Frier possessed with a diuell was departed you caused to bee arrested and apprehended for prisoners in this citie more than two hundred of the principall citizens and others whom yee thought to haue goods friends and to be of credit with them of the Kings side as a precaution or forewarning wherwith you purposed to serue your selues The name of some diuel signifying therby the murtherer Clement to redeeme that wicked Astaroth in case he were either taken before the facte or after the facte For hauing the pledge of so many honest men you supposed that they durst neuer put that murtherer to death because of the threatning which yee had giuen out that yee would cause to die in the way of change for him those whom you kept prisoners who in truth are much bound to them that in a headlong heate or choller slewe with the blowes of their rapiers that wicked wretch after hee had giuen his stroake And you your selfe ought not lesse to thanke them For had they suffred him to liue as they might haue done and put him into the hands of iustice It is almost as wel discouered now we had had the whole thread of the enterprise naturally and liuely deducted and you had beene there incouched in white clothes for a marke of your disloyaltie and felonie that neuer would haue beene blotted out But God did not so permit it and we know not yet the end wherto he keepeth you A very large assertion but yet for the most part true For if the examples of former times doe carrie with them any consequence to iudge of the affaires of the time present wee neuer sawe yet vassall or subiecte that enterprised to driue his Prince out of his kingdome to die in his bed I will not strengthen this maxime or rule by many histories nor resute those which our preachers alledge to defende and iustifie that horrible act I will speake of no more but two the one out of the Bible and the other out of the Romane histories You haue heard it may be some preach that those that slew Absalom though he were vp in armes against his father his King and his countrie were notwithstanding punished with death A man shall hardly see such justice in Frāce or Spaine by the commaundement of Dauid against whom hee made warre If you haue read the conflicts that were made between Galba Otho and Vitellius for the Empire of Rome you haue read found that Vitellius put to death more then sixe hundred men who bragged that they had slaine Galba his predecessor had presented a petition to be recompenced therfore It may be he meaneth Machiuel which he did not as saith the author who at this day serueth insteede of an Euangelist to many for the friendship that he caried to Galba nor for the honour that hee ment to doe him but to teach all princes to assure their life and their present estate and to cause them that shuld dare to attempt any thing against their persons to know vnderstand that an other prince their successor though perhaps their enemie after some one sort or other would reueng their death And this is the cause wherefore you Monsieur the Lieutenant had great wrong to make shew of so great ioy Woe to them that laugh now for they shal weepe hauing knowne the newes of that cruell accident that befel him by whose death you should enter into the waies of the kingdome You made bonfires or fires of reioycing where you should indeed haue obserued funerals you tooke indeed a greene scarfe in token of reioycing whereas ye ought to haue doubled and redoubled your blackes in signe of mourning Good imitable exāples You should haue imitated Dauid who caused Saules bones to be gathered together and to bee honorably buried although that by the meanes of his death he remained a peaceable King and lost thereby his greatest enemie Or to haue done as Alexander the great who caused sumptuous obsequies to bee made for Darius or as Iulius Caesar who wept with hotte and bitter teares vnderstanding of the death of Pompey his competitor and deadly aduersary and put them to death that had slaine him What could a man of a base and bad mind doe els But you cōtrarie to the practises of these great personages did laugh make feastes and bonfires and all sortes of ioy when you vnderstoode of the cruell death of him from whome you held all that you and your predecessors had or haue of wealth of honour and of authoritie And not content with these common reioycings which did sufficiētly witnesse how much you approued this accursed acte you caused the murtherers picture to be made shewed it publikely abroad All this whatsoeuer is but the reward of iniquitie as if it had beene of a canonized saint You caused his mother and kinred to be sought out that you might enrich them with publike almes to the end that this might be a lure and a baite for others that would vndertake to giue yet such an other blowe to the King of Nauar vnder hope assurāce which they might receiue by the example of this new martyr that after their death they shuld be so sanctified their kinred wel recōpensed But I wil not further examine your conscience nor prognosticate vnto you A plaine and true speech that
hatte had a head like the Poet Aeschilus in so much as their common speech was that in the said Estates there was none but three scuruie or scalled persons and one that was pilled or balde and if the Inquisition of Spayne had been in good time brought in A holie house I sawe more than fiue hundred of them what say I fiue hundred yea fiue thousand which by their blasphemies deserued nothing lesse then the colling and imbracing of the president Brisson But the lot fell not vpon any of them but vpon a certaine poore miserable man an Asse leader who to hasten forward his miserable dullard altogether wearied and tyred with blowes and burthens spake with a very high and vnderstandible voyce these offensiue and blasphemous words Let vs go grosse Iohn to the Estates which wordes being taken at the pond head He meaneth the fauourits of Spayne as wee say and ere euer they were fully fallen by one or two of the number of the foure squared Cuba and brought to two Inquisitors or Promoters of the faith namely Machault and de Here this blasphemer was holilie and Catholikelie condemned to bee beaten and scourged naked with rods at his Asse tayle thorowe all the foure corners or quarters of Paris which was an infallible prognostication and a very famous and plaine prelude to testifie to all the people that were assembled for that solemne action that the proceedings of all the orders and States should be full of iustice and equitie A scabbed horse good enough for a scalde squire as the sayd iudgement it selfe which was the scantling of the great peece of the iustice of the Estates that were to come But whilest men were making preparations and scaffolds in the Louvre the ancient temple and dwelling place of the Kings of France while they were looking for the Deputies of all quarters Pomp enough for so paltrie a meeting who from moneth to moneth should come thether with small noyse and without pompe or shew of traine as men were wont to doe in old time before the pride and corruption of our fathers had brought in ryot vicious superfluitie The French word signifieth such as play legier de maine and vse sleights to deceiue mens sights and bringing drugs cut of farre countreys would perswade mē the excellencie of them by receiuing them themselues there were in the Court of the sayd Louvre two craftie Iugglers or Apothecaries the one a Spanyard and the other a Lorrain which it would haue done a man meruailous much good to see them vaunt their drugges and to play their iuggling trickes all the liue long day before all thē that would go to see them and that without paying any thing The Spanish Iugler or Apothecarie was very pleasant and mounted vpon a little scaffold playing rex as we say or shewing his knacks and rugling tricks and keeping the bancke or seate much like to many of those that a man may see at Venice in the place of S. Marke Vpon his scaffold there was tyed or set vp a great skinne of parchment written in diuers languages and sealed with fiue or sixe seales of golde of lead and of waxe He meaneth the Cardmall of Plaisance power Legantine from the Pope with certaine titles in letters of gold hauing therein these wordes Letters touching the power of a certaine Spanyard and of the meruailous effects of his drugge called Higuiero of Hell or a Catholicon compounded The summe of all this whole writing was that this treacle maker the young sonne of a certaine Spanyard of Grenado banished into Africke for Mahometisme the Phisitian of Ceriffa who made himselfe King of Marroco A fit instrument for the Pope and the Spanyard by a certaine kind or sort of Higuiero his father being dead came into Spayne caused himselfe to bee baptized and put himselfe to serue at Tolledo in the Colledge of the Iesuites there who hauing learned that the simple Catholicon of Rome had no other effects but to build vp soules and to cause saluation and blessednes in the other world only being wearie of so long a terme or time tooke counsell and was aduised by the counsell of his fathers will or testament A word much vsed amongst Phisitians Apothecaries and Distillers to sophisticate this Catholicon so well that by meanes of handling of it of remouing and stirring of it drawing it thorow a Limbecke or Stillatorie and bringing it into powder he made thereof within that Colledge That is a soueraigne and choyse thing such a soueraigne electuarie as surpassed all the Philosophers stones of what sort soeuer the proofes and triall whereof also were diducted and layd out by fiftie articles such as insue hereafter I. That which that poore vnhappie Emperour Charles the fift could not doe with all the vnited forces and all the cannons of Europe The principall of Dame Venus Knights his braue sonne Dom Philip by the meane of this drugge hath been able to performe it seruing himselfe therein but with a simple Lieutenant ouer twelue or fifteene thousand men at the most II. That if this Lieutenant haue of this Catholicō in his Ensignes Cornets And into what towne will not an Asse laden with golde pearce he wil enter without giuing blow into a kingdome that is enemie vnto him the people there will meere him and will goe before him with crosses banners Legats and Primats And though he destroy rauine Witnesse the West Indies and the Low Countreys vsurpe murther and sacke all yea though he carrie away rauish burne and make all a wildernesse yet the people of the countrie will say These are our people these are good Catholikes they doe this for peacesake and for our mother holie Church The name of his place or house at Madrill Let a King who is a sluggard and keepeth at home but assay and endeuour to affine or trie this drugge in his Escuriall write but one word to father Ignatius the ingrosser and close keeper of this Catholicon he will finde him out a man who his conscience kept safe or as wee say with a safe conscience will murther his enemie whom hee was not able by force of armes to vanquish in twentie yeares III. If this King purpose to assure his Estates and territories to his children after his death and to inuade another mans kingdome with small expenses let him write but one word thereof to Mendoza his Ambassador It is against the order of the Alphabet to set a lier before a lesuite or to father Commolet and that beneath in his letter he write with Higuiero of hell I the King they will furnish him with some one religious Apostata or other who will goe vnder some godly shew as a Iudas to murther and that in colde bloud a great King of France He meaneth Henrie the 3. his brother in law in the middest of his Campe without any feare of God or man
and his traiterous counsellors had wrought in him hindred him from vsing the aduantage which hee had in his hand or power causing all his men of warre to be forbidden to strike or hurt any person and to keep themselues quiet without enterprising any thing or offering violence to any of the inhabitants which was the cause that the mutinous taking heart and courage vpon the waies of their plotted enterprise had leasure to arme themselues and to shut vp as it were betweene two gulfes or streames those that before they durst not looke in the face And your brother also seeing that they were so slow to come to take him there came vnto him and that from all quarters people in armes whome those of the Kings side did let freelie passe because they had no charge giuen them to looke to him and knowing that they of his part began to acknowledge him and to make head in the quarters A dastard in the faint hartednes of his foe gathereth strength according to the order that they had before plotted of a desperate man that he was he became fully assured and resolute and sent his appoynted gentlemen through the streetes and quarters of the citie to assist and encourage the inhabitants to take the gates and places For his part after that he was hartened by a great number of men of armes who had their meeting at his lodging he went out of his house about tenne or an eleuen of the clocke that he might be seene in the streetes and by his presence giue them the signe of a generall reuolt which presently set fire in the head of all the conspirators who as madde and furious people fell vpon the Kings Swissers They that spare others are smitten themselues and cut them all in peeces and the other men of warre seeing themselues shut vp betweene two barricadoes before and behinde without daring to defend themselues because that the King had forbidden it them yeelded themselues to the mercie of your brother Crueltie couered with clemencie who caused them to bee conducted in safetie out of the towne which hee did not so much of clemencie and gentlenes that was naturall in him as by sleight and subtiltie the better to come to his last but which was to seize himselfe of the King whom he sawe to be in armes and vpoÌ„ his guardes in the house of Louvre hardly to be forced so readily without great murther His cuÌ„ning therfore was to spin gently to counterfeite a man of poore estate saying that he was greatly grieued with that that had fallen out in the meane season he visited the streetes ' to incourage the inhabitants hee assured himselfe of the strong places hee made himselfe master of the arsenac where he had good in telligence with Selincourt Who it should seeme was as it were the master of the ordinance that he might haue the Cannon the pouder bullets at his deuotion He besotted with faire words the poore knight that kept the watch who yeelded him the Bastille because he lacked good furniture for defence of it He lacked nothing but the Louvre He had the palace but that was no hard thing because it held not the master who had a backe gate to withdrawe himselfe And this was the cause why step by step they aduanced the barricades that so they might gaine the new gate that also of S. Honorus He was sure in a pittifull taking But the poore prince well aduertised of that which they purposed to do that they ment nothing against others but him neither daring to trust his mother neither the gouernour of Paris that then was that intertained him with speech with agreement tooke a couragious resolutioÌ„ and such a one as was approoued by many good people which was to flie away and to leaue the place and al with which your brother thought himselfe much astonished Some mens feare spoyles other of then hope A vehement exclamation and worthie wish douâ—â—â—es seeing the praye that hee supposed hee had in his shares was escaped from him O memorable feaste of the barricades Let thy eeuens and thy octaues be long From that time hitherto what haue wee had but wretchednes and pouertie But anguishes feares tremblings onsets ouerthrowes defiances and all sortes of miseries These were nothing else but subtilties craftes dissimulations and counterfeitings on the one side and on the other practised and managed by him that could best take it and that could deceiue his companion yea began to goe cheeke by iole with your master and because you were not able to take him by open force you tooke counsell to set vpon him by crafte and subtiltie You made shew as though you had been heauie and sad for that which fell out The Crocodiles teares specially to theÌ„ whom you sent vnto him but to straungers you braued it and vaunted your selues Out of one fonntain commeth sweet sowre water that you were masters of all and that there was no let but in your selues that you were not Kings and that in that day of the barricadoes you had gotten more then if you had gained three battailes or soughten fields Concerning which matter your owne letters and those of your agents giue large credit You sent diuers times sundrie sorts of Ambassadors to the King as well to Roan as to Chartres to make him beleeue that the people of Paris were then more at his deuotion then euer and that they did desire to see him and to welcome him into his good citie and you indeuoured nothing but to draw him thither that so you might perfit the busines begun But he would doe nothing in that matter and so he did well In fine after manifold declarations which you drew from him whereof he was no niggard in which was shewed how he did forget and remit all that was past wherein you would neuer suffer to bee vsed the word of pardoning you went and carried your selues very churlishly and vnciuilly in the promoting of the Estates The more the wicked are forborne the worse they are wherein you promised vnto your selues that all should passe at your pleasure by the meanes of your running vp and downe and suites that you made in the election of the deputies of the prouinces In which neuer did any man see such shamelesnes as you vsed that sent from citie to citie and from towne to towne to cause men of your faction to bee chosen Fie vpon such sree election that they might come to the foresayd estates prepared with notes and furnished with remembrances fit for your purpose whereof some were chosen by violence othersome by corruption of money or briberie and othersome thorowe feare and threatnings Amongst others from this towne you sent the president de Nully la Chapelle Marteau Compan Rowland and the aduocate of Orleans who were euen in open shewe the principall authors of the rebellion and the instruments which you
thou shalt be sure Its virtue that makes kings A worthie sentence their crowne alfor to indure In Latin and translated out of it Vnconquered prince and of thine age the glorie eke alone Euen GOD himselfe doth set thee vp True for kings reigne by him vpon thy grandsires throne And with a happy hād doth reach to thee two scepters braue Which takē from the Spanish foe thou shalt vphold haue In daies past one of the sisters three did spin this goodly thred But though they should denie to thee the gold crowne of thy head And eke the holie oyle that was vouchsafed of France to the King Which messenger both swift and faire from heauen high did bring That shal not let but rule thou maiest after thy fathers rate Virtue crowns the king virtue I say the king doth cōsecrate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 T.W. THE FRENCH PRINTERS DISCOVRSE TOVCHING THE exposition of these words Higuiero of hell and concerning other matters which he learned of the Author himselfe MY masters and good friends the profite that I haue made by the imprinting of this treatie and that which Iowe to this discourse haue made mee very desirous to knowe who was the author hereof For after that the French copie was first giuē me at Chartres at the consecration of the King by the gentleman of whom I haue heretofore made mention I did perceiue that sundry learned men yea and I my selfe did very easily iudge by the stile and language of the booke that an Italian was neuer able to make so good a french worke and so well polished as this is that sheweth an absolute knowledge of all the affaires and of the very natural disposition of all the most famous men of Fraunce Wherefore we must of necessitie conclude that hee was a French man that made it yea such a French man as had good vnderstanding and intelligence and was well trained vp at court that the Florentine which was about to cary it into his countrie from whom his seruant stole it together with the male had but only turned it out of French into Italian that so hee might cause it to be seene and read in Italie And this was the cause why I my selfe trauailed with a certaine wonderfull care to discouer and finde out him who had made vs indebted vnto him for this worthy worke that hath giuen so great pleasure contentment and liking to all good and honest people But not withstanding all the inquirie that I was able to make thereabout I could not finde a man that told mee any very certaine and assured newes touching the same but speaking only by presumptions suspitions and coniectures till one of these dayes last past when I was almost past hope to knowe any thing touching the matter there did by fortune come vnto me in the street a very aged man very leane also and pale which since I haue heard to bee called Master Polypragmon That is Master busie bodie who abruptly and vpon the sodaine demaunded of me if it were not I that had printed the Catholicon of Spaine At the first I made some difficultie and doubt to consesse it vnto him fearing that hee had bin some one of them that had bin named therein and had felt himselfe moued therewith as diuers had done no no saith he keep not close from me that that all the world knoweth I was at Tours when you first imprinted it and knowe andeed the name of them that gaue you the originall copie thereof but for all that it may bee that neither your selfe nor they which gaue you it knewe who was the author thereof Perceiuing then that he knewe so much of this matter I could not but confesse that in trueth I had printed it at Tours but that I was not able to finish it but in the very time that I must trusle vp my baggage to come in to this citic after that the Parisiens were returned to their former good vnderstanding and brought into the obediēce of the King That fell out well for you sayd he for before that you had set it abroad diuers men had seene sundrie imperfect and defectiue copies which had very much stirred vp their desire to see the rest well polished and published But you are much out of the way when in your Epistle set before the booke you sayd that it was an Italian that made it at the assēbly of the Estates of Paris For I know very well the name of him that composed it who also lodgeth not farre from hence Whereupon I was very glad of this encountring and I did very earnestly pray him to name him vnto mee at the least wise if it were lawfull for me to know him because that I had very many thinges of great importance to tell him for his benefit and honor I will sayd he tell you his name and wil also shewe you his lodging vpon condition that you will not disclose it to any man for he is a person that doth not loue to be so much visued as many doe now a daies Those that told you that hee was of Italie were deceiued by one letter only he is not of Italie but of Alethie That is Truth which is farre differing from the other That is Libertie That is Free speakers That is Louers of mony That is Desirers of honor That is Vnknowne That is a hater of gardens and he was borne in a little towne that men call Eleuthere inhabited heretofore and built by the Parresiens who haue continual warre against the Argytophiles Timomanes a very puissant populous natiō His name is the Lord Agnoste of the familie and stocke of Misoquenes a gentleman of good estate and no deceiuer which loueth the counsell of wine better than the councell of Trent You shall know him by this that he is alwaies attired after one maner and neuer changeth his apparell or garments as if hee had nothing els but to thinke vpon and to gouerne Lions Hee is a great little man that hath his nose between both his cies his teeth in his mouth his beard vpon his chinne and willingly wipeth his mouth and his nose vpon his slecues You shall find him at this presem lodged in the streete of Good time at the signe of the Rich labourer and he goeth very often to walke in the blacke Friers because hee loueth them very well And hereupon I recommend me vnto you for I haue to deale in other places by reason of certaine packets that are come from Rome which assure vs that our absolution hangeth by no more but a twisted thread at this time of the yeere As hee had very brutishly thickly spoken these words he went his way and left me yet in suspence nor withstanding I was somewhat better satisfied than I was before sith I knewe the name and the lodging place of mine author And at the same time I went thorow all the quarters of Paris and inquired of
trade vpon him take Notwithstanding if any are to be found that at the beginning suffered themselues to be caried away with the flood of the League whether it were for feare to forgoe their religion or for some particular affection that they bare to the heads of that side or for some displeasure and hatred that they had conceiued against the late King they are they themselues that submitted themselues to and that acknowledged the present King so soone as they saw him to become a catholike and haue brought into his power the places that they helde without marchandise or entring into composition with their master and these are more excusable for their first error or fault than the other yea they deserue recommendation and praise and to be put in our chronicles for that they haue deliuered their countrie from the Spanish crueltie as we see to haue bin done to them that haue freed France from the English men Frō whence haue proceeded so manie goodly priuiledges to families to townes and to communalties who of themselues did shake off the strange yoke that they might the better submit themselues to the sweet power of their naturall Kings But that which most grieueth all honest and virtuous people is to see that they that haue not done it but by force and necessitie are yet notwithstanding ioyfully entertained receiued and welcommed and boast that they are the cause that the King is conuerted These men cause mee to remember a certaine answer that Fabius the great gaue to a Romane captaine gouernor of Tarentum who after that hee had suffered the towne to bee lost by the treason of the citizens bragged of this that hee was the cause that Fabius tooke it againe Truely sayd Fabius I had not taken or recouered the towne if thou hadst not lost it euen so may these people bragge and boast here that they are the cause of so many Trophees triumphes as the King hath atchieued in conquering his realme againe for without their treason and rebellion he had not gained so much honour as he hath done by bringing them vnder and ranging them to reason I saw also others that haue not so much as stirred out of their houses and from their quiet rest to rent and teare the name of the King and of the princes of the blood of France as much as they were able who also not being able any longer to withstand by reasō of the great necessitie that pressed them because they had two or three daies before the reducing of their towne to the Kings obedience some good sighing and sense to doe better and yet notwithstanding at this day those that speake most loftily and haue great estates offices and recompences and bragge that they haue done more seruice to the King to Frāce it self thā those that forsooke their houses their goods and offices for to follow their prince and who did willingly indure all maner of needs rather than so much as to winke at the tyrannie of these strangers whether they bee Lorraines that is of the Guysian faction or Spaniards But this complaint deserueth an other Satyre Menippized But for this time I will tell you no more but two small quartains or verses which two of our good countrie men made by the way or vpon the sodaine as wee say at a certaine time when we discoursed vpon this matter If French men Lewd in Fraunce recompensed bee And the best men aduanced to no degree Let vs somewhat be lewd men will forget the offence He that hath not done ill shall haue no recompence The other euen at that very instant time also pursued the selfe same matter and to no lesse purpose than the former verses were To be welcome indeed and our affaires well to do During this tedious time and miserable to Agnoste my friend canst tell what way we shall take Some place le ts surprise and then our peace we will make I know very wel that there are many people that take no delight to heare men speake and write thus freely and are offended at the first worde that any man mentioneth our afflictiōs alreadie past as though after so many great losses they would take away from vs our feeling and our tongue our speech and libertie giuen vs to complaine withall But herein they should doe worse vnto vs than Phalaris did vnto them whom he stifled and choaked in his brasen bull for hee did not hinder them from crying but this rather that he would not heare their cries as the cries of men lest he might haue pittie vpon them but as the bellowings of bullockes and buls the better to disguise the sound of mans voice This is a hard case that they that haue beene pilled robbed imprisoned in the Bastile ransomed and driuen from their townes from their charges should not cast out some euill speech against them when at their returne they find their houses voide forsaken ruinated wherein there is nothing but the bare wals whereas they left them richly stored with moueables and handsomely trimmed vp with all maner of things Who can euer stop the mouth of the posterity and hinder them from speaking of the third part and of them that haue brought it out nursed it which keep it yet shut vp in a chamber nourishing it and sustaining it with good meate one day to bring it forth vnto light and to cause it to be seene well sauoured and very great when they shall see time and commoditie fit for it It was neuer yet heard of neither shall it euer bee what lawes or ordinances soeuer men may make therefore that euill speech should not be better receiued than praise specially when it is drawn from the trueth it selfe and that there is not a hundred times more pleasure to speake euill of some slothfull person than to praise an honest man This is the punishment that wicked men cannot escape and though they haue all their pleasures beside yet at the least must they haue this dipleasure this worme about their hearts to know that the people teareth them in pieces secretly curseth them and that writers wil not spare them after their death Thanks be to God we are not vnder any Tiberius that spied out the speeches of his subiectes or that made of all offences newe articles of high treason against the Prince He giueth to honest people as much libertie as they should desire hee knoweth the naturall disposition of French men as one that cannot indure neither all bondage nor all libertie Likewise it were not reasonable continually and for euer to stirre vp our olde quarrels and to vse iniurious fashions that might hinder the kitting together againe of his people in one and the same deuotion vnder his obedience For it were better to endeuour to sweeten our euils than to make them more sharpe to the ende that we may all of vs range our selues to the ancient fidelitie and humilitie which wee owe vnto our