beasts as hee hath done the shippe of Paris I will say that he hath skill to doe more than Master Mousche or flie These beastes forget some times their gouernours speciallie if they change their habite or attire hee shall not bee ill parted with if hee come to his pretentions whereto you Monsieur the Lieutenant and Monsieur of Lyons will doe him I beleeue very good offices The whole summe Messieurs you are too many dogges to gnawe one boane you are iealous and enuious one of another and you can neuer tell how to agree or liue without warre that would put vs into worse estate than before But I will tell you let vs doe Deepe counsell as they haue done in the consistorie for the election or choyse of a holy father when two Cardinals sued and laboured for the popedome the other Cardinals for feare they should incurre the hatred of the one or of the other chose one amongst themselues the weakest backed of them all and made him Pope Let vs doe so you are foure or fiue robbers in the realme all great Princes and such as haue no want of appetite and stomacke I am of aduise that not one of you should be king wherefore I giue my voyce to Guillot Fagotin the keeper of Gentilly a good vine dresser and an honest man who singeth well at the deske and knoweth all his office or seruice booke by heart A worthie example This will not be found without example in such times as this is witnesse the Harelle of Roane where they made king one named le Grasse or the fatte one as wee would say who was much worse aduised than Guillot And thus you see whereupon I founde and grounde mine aduise I haue read sometimes the great and diuine Philosopher Plato who saith that those realmes are happie where Philosophers are kings and where kings are Philosophers Now I know that it is little more than three yeares since that this good gardian of Gentilly and his familie together with his kine meditated day and night Philosophie in a hall of our colledge in which there is more than two hundred good yeares that men haue read and treated and disputed publikely philosophie and all Aristotle The place sanctifieth the person with these men in all matters and all sortes of good morall bookes It is not possible that this good man hauing raued slumbred and slept so many dayes and nights within these philosophicall walles where there haue been made so many skillfull lessons and disputes and so many goodly wordes vttered that there should not something thereof abide that hath entred pierced and penetrated into his braine as it did to the poet Hesiodus when hee had slept vpon mount Parnassus And this is the cause why I persist and meane that he may as well be king as another Now as Monsieur Roze ended these wordes there sprong out a great murmuring amongst the deputies some approuing other some reprouing his opinion and the princes and the princesses were seene to whisper in the eare one of another yea it was hard that Monsieur the Lieutenant saide very basely to the Legate this foole here will marre all our misterie A prophesie and no lie Notwithstanding the foresaid Roze would haue continued his speech but when hee sawe the noyse to begin againe with a certaine generall clacking of hands he rose vp in choler and cried with a very loude and outstretched voyce How now Messieurs Is it permitted here to speake what one thinketh Haue not I libertie to speake and conclude my arguments as Monsieur of Lyon hath done I know well that if I had been a courtier as he I should not haue named a person for he hath charge from the clergie to name Countie du Bouchage Frier Angell for the hope that this Prince louing change would change also our miseries into stroakes or blowes from heauen But I pray you keepe him to beare the golden torch in the battailes for it ought to be enough for him that he hath quite forsaken the bagge and the wallet At these wordes euery one began againe to crie to whistle to hisse and though the heraulds the vshers porters and all cried aloude Hush and be still the word peace is a bull-begger let euery man holde his tongue not dating to speake the worde peace there and that Monsieur the Lieutenant sundrie times commaunded them to make silence yet it was not possible to appease the bruite and noise in so much that the sayd Lord Rector sweate fret fomed and stroke with his foote and seeing that there was no more meane to take his theame againe cryed as loude as hee could Messieurs Messieurs I see well that you are in the Court of King Petault where eueryone is master I leaue it to you and you to your selues let another speake I haue spoken And thereupon he set himselfe downe againe mumbling very much and wiping the sweate from his forehead and there scaped from him as some say certaine odoriferant belchings of the stomacke that smelled of the perfume of his choller with certain words in a low note complaining that they had defrauded the assignation sent out of Spayne for my masters the Doctors Good stuffe but there can come nothing els from thēce and that others had made their profite of it but that this was the gold of Tholouze which should cost them very dearely At the last the rumour beginning a little to bee reappeased Monsieur du Rieu the younger Countie and gardien or keeper of Pierre-font deputie for the Nobilitie of France apparrelled with a little cape after the Spanish fashion and a certaine high coppin tancked hat lifted vp himselfe to speake and hauing twise or thrise put his hand to his throate which did itch he began in forme following Or Roration rather as you shall perceiue by the things contained herein and the manner of the handling thereof The Oration of the Lord of Rieu Lord of Perrierefont for the nobilitie of the vnion MEssieurs I knowe no cause why they haue deputed me to beare the word in so good a companie for all the Nobilitie on our side I must needes say that there is some diuine thing or matter in the holy vnion seeing that by the meanes thereof of a commissarie of the artillerie poore miserable enough I am become a gentleman and the gouernour of a very faire fortresse yea that I may equall my selfe to the greatest and am one day to mount very high either backward or otherwise I haue good occasion to followe you Monsieur the Lieutenant and to doe seruice to this noble assemblie by black or by white He dwelleth by euill neighbours by wrong or by right seeing that all the poure Priests Friers and good people deuout Catholikes I assure you doe bring mee candles and adore mee as a S. Maccabee of times passed This is the cause wherefore I giue my selfe to the liueliest and quickest of the diuels that
lowe countries is the cause that his separaâ—e and disioyned Lordships cost him more than they are worth For aboue all nations hee feareth the French No lie surely Beare with bragging and lying a little as that which he knoweth to be most noble and to haue the greatest valure and impatience against the rest and rule of a strange people And that is the cause why being wise prouident and well counselled as hee is since that hee was constrained to make that miserable peace which was sealed and signed by the death of our good King Henry the second Ah wilie foxe but yet well discouered subtiltie and not daring either openly to gainesay the same or beginne waire whilest that France was flourishing vnited agreed and of the same minde and will together hee indeuoured to sowe diuision and discord amongst vs our selues and so soone as hee sawe our princes to be miscontent or to iarre amongst themselues he did secretly and closely conueigh himselfe into the action and incouraged the one of the sides to nourish and foster our diuisions and to make them immortall and to busie our selues to quarrell and fight one with another yea to kill one another that whilest these troubles were amongst vs hee might bee left in peace and so long as we did inweaken our selues to grow increase without losse and lessening Plaine pregnant proofes This was the course and proceeding that hee held after that hee sawe the princes of Vendosme and of Condie malecontent who also drew and caried with them the house of Montmorencie and of Chastillon and to set themselues against the aduantageable aduancements and proceedings of your father and of your Vncles Monsieur Lieutenant who had inuaded and vsurped all authoritie and kingly power Bleare eyed men and barbers as it is in the prouerbe are acquainted therewith in the time of young King Frauncis their nephew I speake nothing but that all Fraunce euen to the smallest and basest of them yea that the whole worlde knoweth For all the bloudie tragedies which since that time haue been plaied vpon this pitifull scaffold of France haue all of them been borne and proceeded from these first quarrels and not from the diuersitie or difference of religions as without reason men doe yet to this day make the simple and idiots to beleeue I am old and haue seene the affayres of the world as much as another yea by the grace of God and the goodnes of my friends I haue been Sheriffe and prouost of the merchants also in this citie in the time that men proceeded thereunto by free election and that they did not constraine nor vse violence to men for their suffrages and voyces as you haue done Plaine speech and particular application Monsieur Lieutenant not long sithence minding and purposing to continue Monsieur Boucher at your deuotion But I remeÌ„ber yet those old times as if it were but yesterday past or this day present I can remeÌ„ber well from the beginning of the quarell that fell out betweene Monsieur your late father and late Monsieur the Constable which proceeded from no other cause but from the iealousie of one of them ouer another both of them being the great minions and fauourits of Henrie the second their master Figulus figuluÌ„â—dit as it is in the prouerbe as wee haue seene also Messieurs de Ioyeuse and d'EspernoÌ„ vnder King Henrie the third his sonne Their first falling out was for the estate of great Master which the King had giuen to Monsieur your father when he made Monsieur of Montmorency Constable who had been great Master before and who had the Kings promise that the sayd estate should be reserued for his sonne Another cause of their ill husbandrie or bad carriage of themselues was the Countie de Dampmartin which both of them had gotten after diuers sorts Sum ego mihi metipsi proximus I loue my selfe best and being entred into suite about the same Monsieur the Constable got it by an arrest or decree This did so alter and chaunge them that either of them indeuored to cast his coÌ„panion out of the saddle or as we say to set him beside the cushion And from thence proceeded the voyage that Monsieur your father made into Italie where he did no great matter because that Monsieur the Constable who caused him to bee sent thither that so he might the more quietly wholly and alone possesse the King it may be hindred or slacked the affayres but he remained not long vnpunished for it for he was taken afterwards on S. Laurence day while your father was absent who being returned did by a certaine good happe and the same indeed very wonderfull It was well done of the Guise to ouercome euil with well doing take againe the townes of Picardie which wee had lost and Calais besides And that he might the better reuenge himselfe of the euill dueties that he knew were done against him in his voyage caused also the imprisonment of Monsieur the Constable to bee prolonged and forgot no arte that might hinder or delay his deliuerance which gaue an occasion to my Lords of Chastillon to desire the ayde and to cast themselues into the armes and protection of the King of Nauarre this Kings father and of Monsieur the Prince of Conde his brother who had married their neece Also these two great houses fell into factions and partakings which were yet stirred vp and incensed by the contention begun betweene the Prince of Conde Monsieur d'Aumale your vncle for the office of the colonel of the light horse there was as yet no meÌ„tion of religion or Huguenots Hardly did any know what was the doctrine of Caluin and Luther A little fire maketh a great flame but by the death of them that we sawe burne stiffe in their opinions and yet notwithstanding the matter of the warres and of the enimities that we haue seene were then in preparing and hath continued vntill this present time But the trueth is that when my Lords of Chastillon very couragious men and not able to indure the iniuries offered them saw that the fauour of your house did ouertoppe theirs and that they had not any meane to finde credite and fauour about the King by reason of the lets that they of your race house cast in the way they were counselled to withdraw themselues from the Court and as they were in their retraite they shewed themselues but whether it were in good earnest or of policie and prudence I know not to fauour the new Lutherans who till then preached no where but in caues and dennes and by little and little ioyned themselues with them in faction and intelligence It is not good to fall into the clawes and pawes of vnreasonable men the rather to defend and keepe themselues from your father your vncle then to attempt any stirring or bringing in of noueltie except then when the King at the prouocation of your
or leaue off till they had driuen her out of the realme and sent her into Italie to her kinsfolkes God pardon that good Ladie A deuout praier for a holie woman But for the apprehension and conceit that she had of these things I feare much that she was the cause of many euils that we saw in her time For vpon this matter she did so hate thē that she neuer ceased till she had destroyed them as she did the one of them in the battaile of Iarnac and the other at the massacre of S. Bartholomew where if all they of Montmorency had been found they had had no better market of it then the rest To which poynt Messieur your vncle did very nimbly put his hand and valiantly pushed or lifted at the wheele that so he might put fire in the head of that young King Charles without whose death wee neede not doubt but that he had had the like scorne that Monsieur the Mareschall of Montmorency gaue him and Monsieur your brother in this towne whē he made them do all in their breeches Doubtie Dukes and very cleanly because they bare weapons and armour forbidden them without his passeport and leaue But it seemeth that the sodaine death of these their Kings one after another did alwaies breake set out of square the goodly attempts of your house and saued or at the least prolonged the liues of your principall enemies Now let vs come to that which fell out afterwards for it is time to speak of you and of Monsieur your brother who began from that time forward to appeare in armes and to walke in the footsteps and tracts of your predecessors A fardle of frumps against Duke du Mayenne You haue alreadie caused your valours and valiances to appeare in the siege of Poictiers which you brauely defended contrarie to the aduise of the first husband of Madame la Lieutenant Monsieur of Montpezat your predecessor who counselled you to forsake all and to get you packing thence Afterwards you were at the battaile of Montcontour and after that at the iourney or exployt done vpon S. Bartholomews day where the companions on the other side were taken napping if not on sleepe and prouoked to say whence come you Cardinall of Lorraine And though Monsieur your vncle at that time was turning ouer his portuise in Italie yet the play was not performed without his intermedling and seeking to haue the King of Spaynes approbation of it the Popes absolution touching the marriage which seemed for a lure and a trappe also to the Huguenots Afterwards you continued your blowes at the siege of Rochel where mē did perceiue that he that is at this day the King of Nauarre and Monsieur your brother were but one heart one soule Men may maske but dissimulation wil break out and their great puritie and familiaritie ingendred ielousie and suspition in all the world But we must come to the matter When you sawe that King Charles was dead who otherwise did not loue you very much had sundrie times repeated the saying of the great King Francis For he had no cause so to do whereof he himselfe had made these foure verses now very rife and common in euery mans mouth King Francis was no whit beguiled When he foretold that the Guisian race Would spoyle his sonnes of all they had And leaue his subiects in worse case A steppe to the scepter as they thought When you saw him I say dead without children and the late King his brother married with your barren and vnfruitfull cousin you began Monsieur your brother and you I meane to attempt and assay many practises and plots which many people sayd were the cause of all our miseries I am not of that number which beleeue that Messieurs your father and vncle had from their time layd the foundation of the building that your brother you haue builded since though there bee that speake of the notes of Dauid and of Piles who haue better then Nostradamus prognosticated foretold all that which we haue seene since their death and though some assure vs that Monsieur your vncle Cardinall of Lorraine had framed a certaine forme of all the order that was to beheld therein But I cannot beleeue that he that had as much vnderstanding as a mā could haue could hope to make his nephewes kings of France seeing as yet three brethren children of the Kings house in the right line all of thē very puissant and in the floure of their age readie to be married and he could not diuine or gesse that they should dye without issue as they did afterwards Besides hee sawe a great number of the Princes of the royall bloud that kept not themselues warme with the robe of heretikes that should haue cut off all hope from his desires I knowe very well that in his time he was the author that the Archdeacon of Thoul writ this much that those of the house of Lorraine were descended from Charles the great by the males A pedigree published but to small purpose that is to say of Charles Duke of Lorraine to whom the kingdome appertained after the death of Lewes the fifth king of France and that Hugh Capet hauing taken him at Laon and brought him and his wife prisoner to Orleans he had a sonne or male child of whom he affirmed the Dukes of Lorraine are descended this was vnder hand cast amongst the people As all did well perceiue and you were neuer a whit grieued with it though that the common and true histories doe plainly enough shew and witnesse that there was an interruption breaking off of males in the race of Lorraine by two women and namely in the wife of Godfrey of Bouillon named Idain So the sayd Archdeacon made an honourable amends for it A worthie Archdeacon according to the arrest and sentence giuen against him and like a lewd fellowe and sloathfull or fainthearted man vnsayd that he had spoken But in fine there was small appearance that at that time my sayd Lord your vncle could aspire to the kingdome hauing so many hinderances and heads either to fight against Two worthie waies to work by or to cause to dye by the sword or by poyson It is very true that euen from his beginning he was very ambitious and desirous of greatnes and of the gouernment of the state more then any other of his age and I make no doubt of it but that he desired to possesse the Kings and to haue held them had hee been able in tutorship and vnder gouernment as in olde time the Maiors of the palace did that so he might dispose of all according to his pleasure and set vp or pull downe those whom hee had listed Wicked mens purposes and practises are vaine which is the thing whereto commonly the greatest aspire Notwithstanding being almost come thereunto while he was liuing he gathered together and
prepared for you the materiall stuffe with which you haue built this proued attempt with your foot to hold the crowne of France hauing left in your hand first great riches great estates the chiefe offices charges of the kingdome great gouernments many souldiers bound by good turnes done them many seruants also great intelligences with the Pope the King of Spayne and other Princes your kinsfolkes and allies and which is more a great opinion amongst the common people that you were good Catholikes and sworne enemies to the Huguenots You knew very well how to make great profite to your selues by these preparations and sundrie sorts of stuffe which ye found after his death all readie to bring vnto the worke When I say you I meane your self brethren and cousins After King Charles his death many things succeeded well to you one after another Diuers deuises to strengthen the Guisian faction and to very good purpose First the barrennes of the King or of your cousin his wife then the retraite and absence of the King of Nauarre of which you were in part a cause for the distrusts into which you brought him and after that the diuision and dissention between the King and Monsieur the Duke his brother whereof you were the onely authors and promoters vnder hand and closely sharpening the spirits of the one against the other and secretly promising them to ayd them Another thing wherewith you thought to strengthen your selues well was the assistance that Messieurs the Princes of Conty and of Soyssons yeelded for a time to the King of Nauarre their cousin germane when they sawe that the things you went about were directly against all their familie and that you boasted you would supplant or vndermine them for thereupon you vndertooke the matter which you haue neuer since forsaken or forgotten namely to cause to be comprehended by and vnder the Popes bull If Spayne play not a part in this pageant nothing can be done and by oths and protestations of the King of Spayne neuer to approue hereticall princes nor the children of heretikes and then ye found out and first deuised these goodly names of adherents and fautors of heretikes After all this ye made your practises with the King of Spayne more openly and assured your conditions and couenanted then for your pensions promising him the kingdome of Nauarre Bern for his share with the townes that should serue his turne in Picardie and Champagne and ye communed with him concerning the meanes that you would vse to get hold of the estate And the pretext that ye pretended thereto was the wicked gouernment of the king Good pretexts to countenaÌ„ce a bad cause the prodigalities which he bestowed vpon his two minions Esperon and Mercurie whereof you drew one to your owne line which was thought neuer a whit the better You imployed all your diligence to make the poore prince odious to his people you counselled him to raise the taxes to inuent new imposts to create newe officers by which you your selues profited for some did maintaine to Monsieur your brother at Chartres after the barricades that he had receiued halfe the money of three edicts made to fill the purse and which also were very pernicious or hurtfull Fine deuises to shred him of his kingâ—ome whereof notwithstanding you cast and layd the hatred vpon that poore king whom you made to muse vpon and dwell in ridiculous deuotions whilest you your selues sued for the good fauour of the people and contrarie to his liking tooke vpoÌ„ you the charge and conducting of great armies drawing vnto you the heads and captaines of warre courting and making much of in words the very simple and meane souldiers that ye might get them to bee on your side practising the townes buying the gouernmeÌ„ts and putting into the best places gouernours folke at your owne deuotion And this was then that you conceiued the kingdome present almost euen as the appetite commeth many times by eating when you sawe King Henry without hope of issue the chiefe Princes accounted for heretikes He must needs goe that the diuell driueth or fautors of heretikes the Consistorie of Rome to lay the raines or bridle in your necke and the King of Spayne to giue you the spurre You had no more to hinder you but the late Monsieur who was a shrewd hollow dreamer and who vnderstood well with what wood you warmed your selues He must be dispatched out of the way and Salcede his testament discouered vnto vs the meanes of it Who can staÌ„d against such deadly atteÌ„pts but force preuailing not poyson did the deede All your seruants foretold this his death more then three moneths before it came to passe Afterwards ye made no more small mouths or spake closely for the dissembling of your purpose you went no more creeping as cunnies nor in secret but you plainly layd open your selues And yet notwithstanding the better to set forward your affayres you would make honest people beleeue that this was for the publique benefite and for the defence of the Catholique religion Catholike religion a fayre pretext which is a pretext and cloake that seditious persons and stirrers vp of nouelties haue alwaies taken to couer themselues withall Into this insensible net you drew that good man Monsieur the Cardinall of Bourbon a prince without malice and ye were able so cunningly to turne and wind him that yee seized him with a foolish and vndiscreet ambition that in the end ye might deale with him as the cat doth with the mouse that is to say after ye had plaied with him to eate him vp No vnapt coÌ„parison No vntrue exposition You drew thereunto sundry Lordes of the Realme diuers gentlemen and captaines many cities townes and communalties and amongst others this miserable citie which suffered it selfe to bee taken as it were with birde lime partly by reason of the hatred that they had against the misdemeanours of the late King partly also by reason of the impression which you put into them that the Catholike religion would vtterly be ouerthrowne if the King did die without childreÌ„ the succession of the kingdom shuld come to the King of Nauar who called himself the first prince of the blood Hereupon you forged framed your first declaration or manifestatioÌ„ that had not in it so much as one only word of religioÌ„ but you did indeed demaund therein They will hardly agree with others that dissent froÌ„ themselues that al the states gouernments of this kingdome shuld be taken from them that possessed them and were not at your deuotion which escape you amended in your second declaration by the counsell of Rosne who to the end hee might set al on a fire said that there needed nothing else but the setting out of religion and then you preached vnto vs of a Synod at Montauban A fine deuise to foster the fire of faction in Fraunce and of
regarde or rather his naturall goodnes together with the impressions that his mother 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 quarâ—ers 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 and cut them all in peeces and the other men of warre seeing themselues shut vp betweene two barricadoes They that spare others are smitten themselues 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 intelligence 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 their hope A vehement exclamation and worthie wish doubtles seeing the praye that hee supposed hee had in his snares 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 â—ole 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 ore fountain 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 foughten 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 free 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
nor prognosticate vnto you A plaine and true speech that which may fall out vnto you for this fact But Gods word must needes be false and ful of lying which it is not nor cānot be if you do not very quickly receiue the wages hire that God promiseth to manquellers and murtherers as your brother did for hauing slaine the late Admirall But I will leaue this matter to the diuines to treate hereof that so I may come to put you in minde of a great and stale faulte which you committed at the very same time For sith you feared not in so many places to declare that your speciall marke was to raigne and be a King you had then and by reason of the blow a good occasion offered you to cause your selfe to be chosen King and you might better then haue attayned thereto than you can at this present when you sue Many deuises are in mans heart but the Lords purposes shall stand for euer ride runne corrupt and all to get it The Cardinall of Bourbon to whom vnaduisedly you gaue the title of the King was a prisoner Your nephew vpon whome they did bestowe all the commendations and glorie of his father was so likewise and neither the one nor the other could hurte you therein or hinder you as your nephew doth at this day you had yet the people harmed earnest and running after noueltie and change who had a great opinion of your valour from which you are much fallen since and I make no doubt but that you had caried it away thorow the hatred of the lawfull successor who was notoriouslie knowne to be a Hugue not And besides you had diuers preachers who had laide out a thousand reasons to perswade the people that the Crowne did belong rather to you than to him Nay foule and false The occasion for it was faire namely the changing of it from one line to another And although it bee all but one familie and of the same stalke as we may say notwithstāding the distāce of more than ten degrees in which the doctors say there ceaseth all the bond and right of consanguinitie made a goodly shew although that Doctor Baldus hath written that this rule faileth in the familie of the Bourbonians Wherunto adde that you had the force and the fauour of the time in your hand wherewith you could not serue your owne turne or helpe your selfe but rather thorough a certaine fainthartednes and very foule and grosse cowardise you would obserue forsooth some little modestie and forme of the ciuill lawe giuing the title of the King to a poore priest that was a prisoner The Cardinall of Bourbon although that in all other things you did shameleslie violate all the lawes of the realme and all lawe besides of God and of man whether it were naturall or ciuill You forgot all the maximaes and rules of our great masters touching the matter of enterprise vpon the estates of an other man euen that of Iulius Caesar which oftentimes for his excuse and defence spake these verses out of a certaine Greeke Poet. If that thou must needes wicked be be so a kingdome to obtaine But yet in other things be iust and eke the lawes maintaine You were afraide to take the title of a King Stumble at a straw and leap ouer a blocke and yet you were not afraide to vsurpe the power of it which you disguised and masked with a qualitie or estate altogether new such a one as was neuer heard spoken of in Fraunce And I knowe not who was the author thereof yet some attribute it to the president Brisson or to Ianin But whosoeuer inuented this expedient fayled in the termes of Grammer and of Estate also A fitte and good reason They might haue giuen you the name of Regent or of Lieutenant generall of the King as they haue done sometimes heretofore when the Kings were prisoners or absent off their kingdome and realme But Lieutenant of the estate and Crowne is a title vnheard of very strange which also hath too lōg a taile as it were a chimer or mōster against nature that maketh little children afraid Whosoeuer is a Lieutenant is Lieutenant to another whose place he holdeth who is not able to do his functiō or office by reason of his absence or some other hinderance or let and a Lieutenant is the Lieutenant of some other mā but to say that a man shuld be the Lieutenāt of a thing without life as the estate or crowne of a King is a very absurd thing such a one as cannot be mainteined And it had bin more tolerable to say Lieutenant in the estate and crowne of France than Lieutenāt of the estate But this is but a smal matter to faile in speech or words A true assertion in cōparison of failing in deeds When you were clothed and cloaked with this goodly qualitie you did so rudely roughly empty our purses that you had the meane to raise vp a great armie with the which you promised to pursue besiege take and bring prisoner He that reckoneth without his host must count againe this newe successor to the crowne who did not call himself Lieutenant but in plaine termes King You had made vs then to gard and keep our places to hire shops in S. Anthonies street that we might see him passe in chaines whē ye brought him prisoner from Diepe what did yee withal this great armie very grosse indeed by al your strāge succours of Italie of Spaine of Germanie The horse and man are prepared against the day of battell but victorie is from the Lord. but to lay opē and cause to be knowne your own reachles weaknes vnorderly gouernment not so much as once daring with thirtie thousand mē to set vpon fiue or sixe thousand which gaue you the head at Arques and in the end constrained you shamefully to turne your backs you your selues to seeke surety safety in the riuer of Somme We were greatly deceiued when in steede of seeing this new King in the Bastile wee beheld him in our suburbs with his armie as a certaine lightning or clap of warre that preuented our thoughts yours also But you came and succoured vs A needlesse worke then when we were assured that he would do vs no hurt And we must confesse that without the resistance that one who is at this day his seruant made against him at the gate of Bussy he had taken vs before you arriued From that time hitherto you haue done nothing in your Lieutenancy worthy the remembrance but the establishment of your councell of fourtie persons and of sixteene If this be his commendation praise him for tyrannie which you haue since reuoked and scattered as much as you could And whilest that you laboured the aduancement and estate of your owne house and that you suffered your imagined King to wast weare away in prison
and Ambassadors of Spayne we are wearie with seruing you as fencers to vphold your pride with killing our selues to shew you pleasure Let vs goe Messieurs of Lorraine with your great companie of princes wee hold you but for shadowes of protection defence the horseleaches of the bloud of the Princes of France bapelourdes little ships or foists without wares reliques of faints that haue neither force nor virtue They are but feare-bugges in such mens mouthes And let not Monsieur the Lieutenant thinke either to hinder vs or to backward vs by his threats we tell him aloude and plainly yea wee declare it to all you Messieurs his cousins and allies that we are Frenchmen and that wee will goe with the Frenchmen to hazard our life and that little that is yet left vnto vs to assist therewith our King our good King our rightfull King who will also very quickly bring you vnto the same confession either by force or by some good counsell A necessarie addition which God will inspire into you if you be worthie of it I know very well that before I depart from this place you will either giue me some little pretie pill or it may be you will send me from hence to the Bastille where you will cause me to bee murthered as ye did Sacre-More S. Maigrin the Marques of Menelay and diuers others But I shall account it for a good peece of fauour if ye will cause me to dye quickly Feare cannot put out fidelitie to prince c. rather then to let me languish a long while in these anguishing and grieuous miseries And yet before I dye I will shut vp and finish my verie long oration with a poeticall epilogue or conclusion such as I haue made long agoe Messieurs the princes Lorraines You are full weake in your reines For the crowne thus to quarrell You cause your selues to be beate well You are valiant and strong amaine Yet your indeuours are all but vaine No force can be like in any thing To the puissance of a King And reason this is not indeede That on the children which succeede The seruants base should make warre Out of their land to driue them farre Great folly he doth performe and make That from his master ought doth take God against rebels and their maine Kings and their good causes will sustaine To the Nauarrias then leaue and lay downe Of our mightie Kings the noble crowne Wrongfully by your selues pretended So well haue you it molten and ended If any right you had had thereto You should not haue molten it as you doe Or els you must haue for name of renowne The title of Kings without a crowne Our Kings from God set vp renownd Are alwaies borne to vs well crownd The Frenchman true neuer doth range To King or prince that is but strange All the villaines or the greatest part Haue made you their head with all their hart They of the nobilitie that doe your part take Are such as with haste their owne wounds doe make But the very King of Frenchmen hard In steed of his poore and Scottish gard Is now assisted with none but great Princes Or els with Barons and Lords of Prouinces Wherefore then my friends let vs rise and goe Our blessed S. Denis all vnto There deuoutly to acknowledge and confesse This great King our master he is no lesse Let vs all goe together as thicke as the raine Of him to craue peace and the same to obtaine Vnto his table without feare we will goe A prince so familiar he is and gentle also All the princes of the Bourbon race Haue euer had in them this rare and good grace Very meeke for to be and gentle also And yet couragious in all whereabout they goe But ô you princes that to vs are strangers And daily vs thrust into thousands of dangers And with nothing but smoake still doe vs feede Keeping warre kindled and vpholding it indeede Get you soone packing into your owne land Very hatefull to vs here doe you stand And reckon your race from Charlemaigne pardie Vpon the bounds and borders of vpper Germanie Proue thee by your Romans or men of Rome That from Charles the great you descend and come That good people after the depth of their drinke Of that mysticall matter somewhat may thinke I haue sayd Plain speeches hath good effects This oration being finished which indeede was heard with great silence and attention many people remained very flat nosed and much astonied and a good while after there were no coughing hemming spitting nor any noise made as if the hearers had bin striken with a blow from heauen o◠brought into some deep dreame or drowsines of their spirite vntill a certaine Spaniard one of the mutinous crewe first rose vp and sayd with a very loud voice Let all of vs kill these villachoes Take a Spaniard without pride and mutinie and the diuel without a lye or villaines which when hee had sayd hee departed out of his place without shewing any reuerence to any man Whereupon euery one was willing to arise to depart But the Admirall de Villaris the present newe King of Iuetot did beseech the estates in the name of the catholik cantons of the leaguers of Catillonnois Lipans The firebrand of contention Gualtiers other zealous communalties not to make peace with the heretikes vnlesse he might remaine admirall of the East and of the West part and were paide his costs with the detaining of such benefites and fauours as hee thought belonged vnto him also that they would not chuse a King but such a one as shuld be a good cōpanion and a friende of the Cantons Afterwards there rose vp Ribault and Roland and besought the assembly Two honest men I warrāt you to frustrate and abrogate the law de Repetundis that is a lawe made against such as were accused of extortion or money vniustly taken in time of their office because this law as they tooke it was neither catholike nor fundamētall This being done euery one rose vp with a certaine marueilous stilnes in going out the herauld aduertised them at the gate as they went out to returne to the councell againe at two of the clocke in the after noone At which houre I that now speake ment not to faile Goodly things to be seene heard at Paris garden for the great desire that I had to see rare and singular things and the ceremonies that should bee kept there to the ende I might the better aduertise thereof my master and the Princes of Italie which with an earnest desire waite for the proceeding and issue of these famous estates held against all order maner vsed and accustomed in France Wherefore I came againe to the Louvre after dinner and that in good time also You might do so for your fare was but short and offering my selfe to enter into the vppermost hall as I had done
receiued in their place Vices in playes but the more wise and wittie Poets vsed them to content therewithall their owne bad spirit of euill speaking which some of them thought to bee the chiefe goodnes And there are great numbers of them found in our countrie of Parresie who loue rather to lose a good friend then a good word or a merrie iest applied well to the purpose Wherfore it is not without cause that they haue intituled this little discourse by the name Satyre though that it be written in prose being yet notwithstanding stuffed and stored with gallant Ironies pricking notwithstanding and biting the very bottome of the consciences of them that feele themselues nipped therewithall concerning whom it speaketh nothing but trueth but on the other side making those to burst with laughter that haue innocent hearts and are well assured that they haue not strayed from the good right way As concerning the adiectiue Menippized it is not new or vnusuall for it is more then sixteene hundred yeares agoe that Varro called by Quintillian and by S. Augustine the most skilfull amongst the Romanes made Satyres of this name also which Macrobius sayth were called Cyniquized and Menippized to which he gaue that name because of Menippus the Cynicall Philosopher who also had made the like before him al ful of salted iestings poudred merie conceits of good words to make men to laugh and to discouer the vicious meÌ„ of his time And Varro imitating him did the like in prose as since his time there hath done the like Petronius Arbiter LuciaÌ„ in the Greek tongue since his time Apuleius and in our age that good fellow Râ—belaiz who hath passed all other men in contradicting others and pleasant conceits if hee would cut off from them some quodlibetarie speeches in tauernes and his salt and biting words in alehouses Wherefore I cannot tell what manner of men these daintie ones are that thinke some doe euill that according to the example of these great personages ment to giue vnto a like worke a like title vnto that of theirs which is now become common and as we say appellatiue whereas before it was proper and particular as not long time since a learned Flemming and a good Antiquarian hath vsed the same And this is al that I can tell you in this respect If you desire any other thing I will tell you my aduise or opinion Then sayd I vnto him I am sufficiently satisfied as touching the title but there is very great disputation amongst some what the author should meane by these tearmes Higuiero of hell for there are very many persons that knowe not what it meaneth and make thereof sundrie horned and ill fauoured interpretations such as in my minde the author himselfe neuer thought of I knowe very well sayd he that there are diuers that desire to play about the affinitie of the words some to make themselues merrie therewith and others to draw the author into enuie but there is much oddes betweene eight and eighteene and a great difference betweene breathing and whistling I haue heard my cousin a hundred times say and I knowe it also as well as hee that Higuiero of hell signifieth no other thing in the Castillian or Spanish tongue but the Figge tree of hell For the Spanyards as also the Gascoignes turne the F into H as hazer harina hijo hogo higo for faire that is to do farine meale fils a sonne feu fire figue a figge And this at this time is but too common in Paris where the women haue learned to speake as well as to doe after the Spanish manner Where he sayth then that the drugge of the Spanish Iugler or Apothecarie was called Higuiero of hell it is for diuers reasons First because the figge tree is a wicked and an infamous tree the leaues whereof as we may see in the Bible haue serued heretofore to couer the priuie parts of our first parents after that they had sinned and committed high treason against their God their father and creator euen as the Leaguers to couer their disobedience and ingratitude against their King and him that hath done theÌ„ all good haue taken the Catholigue Apostoligue and Romane religion and thinke therewith to hide their shame and sinne This is the cause also why the Catholicon of Spayne that is to say the pretext which the King of Spayne and the Iesuites and other preachers wonne by the double duckets of Spayne haue giuen to the seditious and ambitious Leaguers to rebell against their naturall and lawfull King and to fall away from him and to make in their owne countrie warre more dangerous than ciuill may very properly bee called the Figge tree of hell in steed that that wherewith Adam and Eue did couer their open sinne was the Figge tree of Paradise And euer since that time this tree hath alwaies been accursed and of euill name amongst men bearing neither flowers nor any buddes nor any thing els to garnish it withall and the very fruite it selfe hath from thence been drawne to name the most dishonest part of women and the most filthie and foule disease that breedeth in the parts that wee cannot well name You are not ignorant of this also that the ancient people did account this tree amongst the gibbets or gallowses as for example wheÌ„ Timon the Athenian would haue plucked vp one of them that did him some anoyance in his garden and whereupon sundrie had in former time been hanged he caused to bee proclaimed with the sound of a trumpet that if any were willing to be hanged he should dispatch and come thither quickly because he ment to cause it to bee pulled vp by the rootes Plinie teacheth vs that this tree hath not any sent or sauor no more hath the League Againe that it easily casteth her fruite and so hath the League done that it receiueth all manner of corruptions as the League hath receiued all sortes of people and that it doth not last or liue long no more hath the League done and that the greatest part of the fruite which appeareth at the beginning neuer commeth to ripenes no more hath that of the League But that which yet better agreeth with it and hath many more conformities with the League than S. Frauncis hath with our Lord is the Figge tree of the Indies which the very Spanyards themselues haue named the Figge tree of hell Concerning which Mathiolus sayth thus much for truth that if a man cut but onely one leafe from it and set but the one halfe thereof within the ground it will take roote there and afterwards vpon that lease there will growe an other leafe and so leaues growing vpon leaues this plant becommeth hie as it were a tree without bodie stalke branches and as it were without rootes in so much that we may reckon it amongst the miracles of nature Is there any thing so like and so much resembling the League which of one leafe that is
therewithall doe sell their honor and their life Yet neuer did honest man this 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 fauoured 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
without any feare of God or man Nay they will doe more they will canonize that murtherer and place that Iudas aboue S. Peter Worthie fruitâ— of a right religion and wil baptise this prodigious and horrible misdoing or offence with the name of a blow or a stroake from heauen and the gossips at this baptisme shall be Cardinals Legates and Primates IIII. Let a great and a mightie armie of pitiful and yet feared and renowmed Frenchmen be prepared and made readie to aduenture honorablie or to do well for the defence of the Crowne and countrey and to reuenge so fearefull an assault and murther let them cast in the midst of this armie but halfe a dramme of this drugge A strange metamorphosis but yet no vntrue tale it will benumme all the armie and strength of these braue and noble warriors V. Serue for a Spye in the Campe in the trenches at the cannon in the Kings chamber and in his councels yea though men knowe you for such a one yet if you haue taken in the morning but one graine of Higuiero whosoeuer shall taxe reproue or accuse you for it A sound iudgment shall be taken for an Huguenot or a fauourer of an Heretike VI. Fight and play on both sides as we say be vnfaithfull and traiterous yea so farre that you touch and take the kings coyne to make warre euen against himselfe also be not grieued any whit at all for so vngracious a deede practise with the enemie c. yet if you glew your sword within your scabberd with this Catholicon you shall be taken to be a very good man VII Will you be an honorable scoffer and newter cause your house in euery part to be painted not with the late S. Anthonie but with the crosse of Higuiero and behold you shall be exempted from armour proclamation proscription c. VIII Haue about you but halfe an ounce weight of this Catholicon you neede no more strong or auaileable passeport to procure you as good entertainment and to be as well welcome to Tours These are leaguer townes as to Mante to Orleans as to Chartres to Compaigne as to Paris IX Be acknowledged and taken for the pensionarie or feed man of Spayne seeke priuate profite betray change sell barter disioyne and set Princes at iarre so you haue one graine of Catholicon in your mouth Strange 〈◊〉 cts they will imbrace you and will enter into as great distrust against very faithful and ancient seruitors as against Infidels and Huguenots how free and faithful Catholikes soeuer they haue alwaies been before X. Though al goe from euill to worse though the enemie aduance his purposes and practises and departeth not from peace but the better to bring in againe assault it considering the goodly shewes that men make him though the Catholike Church it selfe runne at randon as we say though there be peruerting of all order ecclesiasticall or secular A small matter to moue such stirres through default of speaking good French doe but closely and cunningly sowe a little of Higuiero thorowe the world no man will regarde what you say or doe nay no man dare speake of it fearing least he should be accounâ—ed a Huguenot XI Make your selues Cantons and install your selues tyrannously in the Kings townes euen from Newhauen to Meziers and from Nantes euen vnto Cambray be a villaine a runnagate or traytor obey neither God nor the King nor the law haue notwithstanding thereupoÌ„ in thy hand a little of this Catholicon and cause it to bee preached or commended in your canton or towne you shall be a great and catholike man XII Haue a dishonest and shameles face and a blistered forehead For euill example as we say as haue the vnfaithful Iailors of Pontheau de mer and Vienne rubbe your eyes but a little with this diuine or heauenly electuarie you shall be taken and reported to be a very honest and rich man XIII If a Pope as for example Xistus the fift doe any thing against you you shall bee permitted Papists against the Pope and that without hurting the conscience to execrate curse thunder out against him yea to blaspheme him so that there be in your incke neuer so little of this Higuiero XIIII Haue no religion mocke in sport and as much as you will the priests and sacraments of the Church and all law both Gods and mans eate flesh in Lent in despight of the Church you neede no other absolution nor better pardon then halfe a dramme of this Catholicon XV. Would you very quickly become a Cardinall rubbe one of the hornes of your cap with Higuiero An easie stepping stone to promotion it will become red and you shall be made a Cardinall though you were the most incestuous and ambitious Primate of the world XVI Be thou for any thing as guiltie of death as Mothe Serrant be conuicted for coyning and counterfeiting money as Mandreuille be a Sodomite as Senault A meruailous chaunge yea contrarie to all reason and religion a wicked person as Bussie an Atheist and vngratefull as the Poet of the Admiraltie wash thy selfe with the water of Higuiero behold thou art become an vnspotted lambe and a piller of the faith XVII Let any sage Prelate or Counsellor of the estate being a true Catholike Frenchman thrust in and oppose himselfe against the woluish or foxish enterprises of the enemies of the state so you haue a graine of this Catholicon vpon your tongue God make it to prosper euerie where as there there and elsewhere better as he shall see good They are good by excellencie or in the superlatiue degree you shall be permitted to accuse them yea to haue a will and desire so long as God will let you alone to let religion perish and decay as it doth in England XVIII Though some good preachers not able to teach children doe goe out of the rebellious townes to ayde the simple people elsewhere to arme themselues if he haue but a corne of Higuiero in his cowle or hood he may very well and safely returne backe againe XIX Let Spayne set his foote vpon the throate of the honour of France let the Lorraines striue to take or robbe rather the lawfull inheritance from the Princes of the bloud royall let them debate and discourse vpon their owne no lesse furiously then subtilly and affirme that the Crowne is their owne vse but thereupon a little of this Catholicon and you shall perceiue that men will more meruaile to see some question out of season moued concerning a Bishops cope or about Plessis monument then to trauaile with oares and sailes as they say to make sottish and foolish tyrants that tremble for feare to forgoe or let loose their pray This is almost the halfe of the articles which the whole writing of the Iugler or Apothecarie of Spayne did containe time shall cause you see the residue XX. As concerning the Iugler or Apothecarie of Lorraine
to the present stāpe of Paris hauing the left hand tied to the crosse and the right hand free or vnbound holding in it a naked sword about which was written this saying Vpon thee and vpon thy bloud Without the three coasts or sides and before there were the falles of Icarus and of Phaeton very well wrought and it made a goodly shew to see the sisters of this young fellow by metamorphosis to be turned into popular trees one of which who had broken her hippe in running to succour her brother did naturally liuely resemble the Dowager of Montpensier all her haire hanging about her eares The first peece of tapistrie nigh to the cloath or chaire of estate was the historie of the golden calfe as it is described in the 32. chap. of Exodus where Moses and Aaron were there represented by King Henry the 3. lately dead and Monsieur late Cardinall of Bourbon Some fitnes in these representations or expositions but the golden calfe was the figure of the late Duke of Guise lifted vp on high and adored by the people and the two tables signified the fundamentall law of the Estates of Blois and the Edict of Iulie made in the yeare 1587. and in the lower part of the peece these wordes are written In the day of vengeance I will visite euen this their sinne The second peece was a great countrie as it were of diuers histories both old of this age distincted and separated one of them from another and notwithstanding very wittily referring themselues to the same perspectiue In the vpper part of it there was to bee seene that goodly entrance by night which Iohn Duke of Burgundie made into Paris and when the Parisiens cryed Christmas from the feast of all Saints At one of the corners was Harelle of Roan where a Merchant called le Gras A good choise and a meet mā for that place that is grosse or fatte was chosen King by the common people At the other corner were the Iacke men of Beuoisin with their Captaine Guillaume Caillet at the corner below were the pretie pigges or hogges of the league of Lions and at the other corner were the noble acts of the ancient Maillotins vnder these Captaines Simonnet Caboche and Iacques Aubriot the Kings of Buchers and Pillers and the whole in men cut short and seruing for nothing but for the countrey But at the bottome and in the midst of the peece there were expressed by figure and liuely set out the barricados of Paris where men might behold a King who was simple plaine and a good Catholike and who had done so many good turnes and giuen so many priuiledges to the Parisiens to be driuen out of his owne house and beset on all sides with tunnes and barrels to take him There were represented also diuers braue stratagems or warlike deuises Meet men to manage such matters of the Sirs or Knights who did leade Tremont Chastigneray Flauacourt and other rammers of the pauement we call them pauiers to the place of honour and in the lowest part of the sayd peece were written these foure verses Iupiter with his tunnes or fats Doth bring vs good and ill also But by these new vpstarts he doth The whole cast downe and ouerthrowe The third peece contained the historie of Absalom that with barricados distressed his father and draue him out of the citie of Ierusalem hauing by vnworthie entertaining and making much of gained and corrupted the most base and beggerly porters of the common people Afterwards there was shewed the punishment that he receiued therefore and how Achitophel his wicked counsellor did accursedly finish his daies all the faces and countenances approched nigh vnto or were like to some of the sayd Estates and there were easily knowne the President Ianin Marteau Ribault others to whom the late Duke of Guise made so many goodly shewes in the assemblie of the Estates at Blois Faire words make fooles faine also there were seene Choulier la Rue Pocart Senault and other butchers and horse coursers euen as base and low as dike-clensers and kennell rakers all people and persons of honour in their occupations which the foresayd dead martyr did kisse on their mouthes for zeale of religion The fourth represented in grosse the feates of armes of the murthers done in old time and in our age also otherwise called Bedouins and Arsacides who feared not to goe and kill euen in the chamber and in the bed those whom their imagined Prince Aloadin It seemeth to me he meaneth the Pope or some that hold that part surnamed the olde of sixe or seuen mountaines should commaund them Amongst others there were two very apparant figures the one of a certaine Countie of Tripoli murthered by a Sarazin zealous of his religion whilest he kissed his hands the other of a King of France and Poland trayterously striken with a knife by a wicked Monke or Frier yet pretending zeale vpon his knees presenting vnto him a letter sent him and vpon the forehead of the sayd Monke or Frier there was written in great letters the transposition of the letters of his name Frier Iames Clement IT IS HEL THAT HATH CREATED ME. In the fift men might behold the battaile of Senlis where Monsieur d'Aumale was made Constable and had giuen him for his labour the winged and hot spurres by Monsieur de Longueville a politike Prince and an arme of yron by la Nouē and Givry his suffragan About the same were written these verses by foures as we say or one foure after another Nature giueth to euery one Feete to succour them from fall Feete saue the man and he Needes but to runne well withall This valiant Prince d'Aumale Though he runne full well in breath And though that he did lose his maile Yet could he not ouerrunne death They that were of his traine Did not sleepe in any place Sauing by their happie flight Of their doublets the fine case When the barricade is ope For feare of blame to come Tarrie not I say behind It needes but well to runne To runne is worth a crowne Runners men honest are Tremont Balagny and Congis The same can well declare To runne well is no vice Men runne to get that is aught It is an honest exercise A good runner was neuer caught He that runnes well is able man And hath God for his stay But Chamois and Meneville Did not runne enough away Oft he that doth abide Is cause of his owne paine But he that fleeth in good tide Perhaps may fight againe It s better to fight with feete To riue the aire and winde Then to be killed and beaten For comming slow behind He that in life hath honour Should therefore death sure shunne When out of life he goeth There needes but well to runne And at the corner of the sayd peece there was to bee seene Pigenat in his bed sicke inraged mad and furious with this fortune and waiting for an
had ordinarily incomparable processions who haue obscured the glittering and glorie of the goodliest mummeries that euer were seene Wee haue caused to bee sowen vnder hand and that throughout all France the Catholicon of Spayne yea some such Doublons or double Duckets as haue had meruailous effects euen to the blew politike cords What could I haue done more but to giue my selfe to the diuels for the pledge and aduancement of Hyrie as I haue done Reade Iosephus bookes touching the warres of the Iewes for that is as it were such another fact as ours is and iudge whether those hote fellowes Simon and Iohn haue had more inuentions and disguisements of their matters to make stiffe and obstinate the poore people of Ierusalem to dye thorowe the rage of famine then I haue had to cause to dye with the same death a hundred thousand soules within this citie of Paris yea to proceed so farre that the mothers should eate their owne children as they did in that holie citie Reade this historie I pray you and for the cause aboue specified and ye shall finde that I haue not spared any more then they did the most holie reliques and things of greatest vse in the Church that I could cause to bee molten for my affayres I haue a hundred times broken my faith particularly sworne to my friends kindred that I might come to that which I desired without making shewe of it and my cousin the Duke of Lorraine and the Duke of Sauoy knowe well what to say concerning this poynt whose affayres I haue alwayes set behinde the cause of the French Church and mine owne matters And as touching publique faith I haue alwayes supposed that the ranke or degree which I holde did sufficiently dispense with me therefore and the prisoners which I haue held with mee or caused to pay raunsome against my promise or against their composition that I made with them cannot any whit at all vpbrayd me because I haue absolution for it from my great amner and confessor I will not speake of the voyages which I haue caused to me made against the Biarnois to astonish and at once to amaze him where I neuer thought it The cunningest on my side haue been imbarqued therein and haue felt nothing thereof but the freshnes of the rasor Neither should this displease Ville-roy who went not thereto but in good faith as you may beleeue I haue indeede allured others that bragge not of it neither and who haue treated for me to two diuers ends or purposes as well to hasten forward our friends to succour vs as to astonish and amaze our enemies with mustard And if the Biarnois would haue beleeued some one or other of his Councell who haue a graine of this Catholicon vpon their tongue and who haue alwayes cryed out that they must make nothing more sharpe for feare of making all desperate wee should now haue faire play in stead that we see the people euen of themselues disposed to wish and demaund peace a thing that wee ought all of vs to feare more then death and I for my part would loue a hundred times better to become a Turke or a Iewe with the good grace and leaue of our holy father then to see these same relapsed heretikes to returne and to enioy their goods Long prescription which you and I now enioy and that by iust title and good faith a yeare and a day and aboue to O God my friends what will become of vs if we must render all back againe If I must returne to my old condition how shall I maintaine my plate and my gards Must I passe thorow the Secretaries and treasurers of the Exchequer and warriors altogether new fellowes wheras ours passe thorowe mine owne hands Let vs dye yea let vs dye rather then come there It is a braue buriall euen the ruine and destruction of so great a kingdome as this is vnder which it is better for vs to be buried if we be not able to graspe or catch that which is aboue There was neuer man that ascended so high as I am that would come downe but by hie force There are many gates to enter into the power which I haue but there is but one onely issue to get out of it and that is death This is the cause why I seeing that a heape of politikes that are amongst vs would offer vnto vs the head of their peace and of their French monarchie haue aduised my selfe to present vnto them a maske and mummerie of the Estates after that I had differred it as long as I could to illude and make to waxe cold the present pursuites of their deputies and I haue called you here together with you to giue order thereto to turne ouer together their quiers that so I may know where the disease holdeth them and who are our friends and who are our enemies But yet not to lye vnto you herein A mā of good conscience I doe it for no other purpose then to shut vp their beakes and bils and to make them beleeue that we trauaile very much for the publike good and minde very willingly to make an agreement for the good people notwithstanding all this shall not pisse much better contented I know there are none here but our friends no more thē there was in the Estates at Blois by cōsequent I assure my selfe that al of you would do as much for me as for euery one of you namely that I or some one Prince of our house might be King If you be not deceiued and you shall finde that the best for you Yet so it is that this cannot be done so soone and there is yet a Masse to bee sayd and there must be made a great breach in the kingdome because it will be conuenient that we giue a good part of it to them that should helpe vs in this busines On the other side you well foresee the daungers and inconueniences of peace which setteth all things in order and yeeldeth right to whom it appertaineth and therefore it is much better to hinder it then to thinke of it And concerning my selfe I sweare vnto you A holie and religious oath by the deare and welbeloued head of mine eldest sonne that I haue no veine that reacheth not thereto and I am as farre from that as the earth is from heauen for although I haue made shewe by my last declaration by my subsequent answer that I do desire the conuersion of the King of Nauarre I pray you to beleeue that I desire nothing lesse and that I loue rather to see my wife my nephew and all my cousins and kinsfolkes dead then to see this Biarnois at Masse that is not the place where I itch I haue not written and published it but with a purpose and deuise euen no otherwise then Monsieur the Legate maketh his exhortation to the French people And all those escripts or writings which Monsieur of
Fie for shame that you will sweare by such great and holy things that of my faith credit and honestie it is a pleasant sight for you yea Monsieur Lieutenant it is a pleasant sight for you to bee seene sit there where you are ye haue a goodly shew ye fit your place well and it will not be euill for you to bee made the King and you lacke nothing but a good pegge or pinne to hold you well therein You haue euen the very selfe same fashion and manner I alwaies reserue and except the honour which I owe to the Church that some Saint Nicolas of a countrie towne or village hath By the faith that I owe to God me thinketh that we celebrate here the feast of Innocents or els the day of the three Kings of Colen If you had now a full glasse of good wine and that it would please the maiestie of your Lieutenantship to drinke to all the companie wee would all crie the King drinketh Thē he might be Hugo bon compaignion euen as well that it is not long sithence that the * He meaneth the twelfth day Kings are passed where we did very much let that they should not make a king of the beane for feare of inconuenience and of euill presage or prediction but if ye were here in the midst of this Lent comming wee would ride all with you about the streetes and would keepe there midde Lent on horsebacke if wee could retaine vntill then all this Catholigue assemblie to which I will now addresse my speech in generall and that all the world may vnderstand me Messieurs A sore protestation and a great losse if he should forgoe it hold me not for an honest man and a good Catholike if the maladie of France I minde not to speake of the French disease I would say your miseries and pouerties haue not caused me to come this farre where I haue carried my self as a very hypocrite Correct it not for it is no lie I would haue sayd Hypocrate but my tongue hath made me to trippe This great Phisitian seeing his countrie afflicted with a certaine epidemicall disease and cruell pestilence that did roote out all the people counselled them to cause to be lighted great store of fires throughout all the countries to purge and driue away the euill ayre And me altogether of the same manner A medicine to expell poyson to the end I might come to the butte of all my Catholigue deuises and purposes and for an antidote to our holie vnion which is smitten with the plague I haue been one of the principall authors I speake it without vaunting of all these fires and flames Neither neede you boast of that that breake foorth and burne now all France and which haue euen alreadie brought and consumed into ashes the brauest and best that the Goths and Visigoths left therein If the late Cardinall of Lorraine my good master were aliue he would giue you a good testimonie therof for hauing drawne me from the great pot of the hooded Friers of Montague and afterwards placed me in the Court of Parliament where I well discouered the colledge or tolde tales out of the schoole where he made me Bishop afterwards Archbishop and in the end Cardinall and this was alwaies vpon this expresse and plaine condition that I should bring this busines to his perfection and should obliege my selfe my soule for the aduancement of the greatnes of Lorraine and the detriment of the house of the Valois and of the Bourbons whereunto I haue not been wanting in all that was possible to me and that my braine or skonse could stretch vnto And in these latter daies the presidents Vetus and Ianin haue ayded me with notes Like will to like quoth the diuell to the collier remembrances and practises and haue as it were vpheld my credit with their foote and somewhat before them my collegues Dauid and Piles could not haue done any great matter without me He meaneth their practises nor I without them Poore Salcede knewe somewhat of our secrets but not all and he had not a good bill or beake for he discouered the pot with the roses whereupon he missed but a little to destroy vs together with himselfe notwithstanding wee haue well had reason from all these Valesiens and shall haue God helping vs from these Bourbonists if euery one of you will play the gallant man As for me Messieurs behold me at your commandement to set and to sell to spend and dispend so that as good zealous Catholikes you subiect your selues to the Archcatholikes Princes Lorraines This eloquēce almost passeth intelligence to the supercatholikes the Spanyards who do so greatly loue France and doe so much desire your soules health that euen of catholike charitie they would therefore lose their owne whereof there is great pitie and I pray you in good time to aduise lest this Biarnois doe not play vs or giue vs a tricke or a badge of his occupation For if he should go to conuert himselfe and heare a wicked Masse onely ah ha ah ha we should be striken downe and we should euen at one blow haue lost all both our double Duckets and our paines or trauaile also But though these honest people of Luxenburgh and Pisani doe promise it to our holy father it may bee that there will no such thing fall out This is the reason wherfore in doubt He would or should haue sayd without doubt ye ought to make haste to put your selues into the hands of Phisitians these good Christians of Castile who are skilled in your sicknes and know the cause thereof and by consequent are so much the more proper to heale it if you will beleeue them for they which say Phisitians dealing by practise rather then skill that the Spanyards are dangerous empirikes and do as the wolfe that promised the sheepe to heale her of her cough that is false they are all heretikes that say it and euery good Catholike ought to beleeue vnder paine of excommunication and the censure of the Church that the faithfull and valiant King of Spayne would haue lost his kingdomes of Naples Portugall and Nauarre And why not the Indies and all as well as these yea his Dutchie of Millan and the Countie of Roussillon all the rights and titles that he hath in the Low Countries which the Estates keepe for him and that all the Frenchmen should be good Catholikes and would willingly and in haste receiue his garrisons together with the holy Inquisition which is the true and only touchstone to know the good Christians and zealous Catholikes children of humilitie and obedience Beleeue not then that this good King sendeth you so many Ambassadors and causeth to bee sent vnto you these good persons the Legats of the holie father of any other intention but to make you to beleeue that he loueth you aboue all nothings As right as
part of the Prelats and of the Magistrates yea the most cleere sighted who make shewe to haue in horror As they should indeed this holy and miraculous chaunge For what is there in the world more admirable And what can God himselfe doe more strange then to see all turned vpside downe in a moment valets and varlets to become masters small ones made great ones the poore rich the humble insolent and proude to see them that obeyed to command those that borrowed to lend to vsurie those that iudged to bee iudged those that imprisoned to bee imprisoned and those that were faine to stande to sit O meruailous case O great mysteries What man wither wilt thou O the secrets of the profound casket of God vnknowne to mortall caytifes The yards elles of shoppes are turned into partisanes the penners into muskets the breuiaries or portuises into targets the copes into corselets and the hoods into beuers and salades Is it not another great and admirable conuersion of the greatest part of you Messieurs the zealous Catholikes among whom I will name for honours sake the Lords de Rosne de Mandreville la mothe Serand the cheualier Breton Mo then a good many and fiue hundred others of the most famous of our side which would make me make a hyperbaton and ouer long parenthesis and that they whom I name not would not take it well at my hands Is not this I say a great matter that you were all not long sithence in Flaunders bearing armes politikely and imploying your persons and goods against the archicatholike Spanyards in the fauour of the heretikes of the Low Countries and that you are now so catholikely ranged euen all at once into the lap of the holie Romane league Fit fellowes for such seruice that so many good sots or fooles banquerouts saffron sellers desperate persons hault-gourdiers forgers or counterfeiters all people giuen to the spoyle and worthie of the rope should so couragiously set themselues forward and be of the first in this holie part to doe their affayres and should become Catholikes with double eares very long before others Very passionate exclamations O very patternes of the prodigall childe whereof the Gospell speaketh O deuoute children of the Masse at midnight O holy catholicon of Spayne that art the cause that the price of Masses is redoubled the holie candles and lights cherished againe and made more dead offerings augmented and saluez multiplied that art the cause that there are no more traitors robbers burners falsifiers cutthroates and theeues sith that by this holie conuersion they haue changed their name and haue taken this honorable title of zealous Catholigues Quid non mortaâ—ia pectora cogis auri sacra fames and of souldiers of the Church militant O deified double Duckets of Spayne that haue had this efficacie to make vs all young againe and to renue vs into another better life this is that which our good God speaking vnto his father sayth in S. Matthew the 11. Thou hast hid them from the prudent and wise and hast reuealed them to babes Certainly Messieurs me thinkes I see againe that good time in which the Christians to expiate and satisfie for their offences crossed themselues and went to make warre beyond the sea as pilgrims against the miscreants and infidels O holie pilgrims thou of Lansac and thy good brother the bastard Bishop of Comminges who haue caused to be inrolled by throngs and troupes in your quarters so many honest people who being like vnto minstrels had nothing in so great hate as their house I will not here comprehend many Gentlemen and others who are of the wood whereof some haue made them whatsoeuer it be and haue the shewe of it and shewe themselues valiant cockscombes vpon the pauement of Paris who hauing been pages on foote or seruing the Catholike princes or their adherents haue bound themselues in liuelines of heart If this bee not good tell vs what is to followe their parte yea if they should become Turkes liking better to bee traytors to their King and countrie then to fayle of their word to a master who is himselfe a seruant and subiect of a King In trueth we are greatly obliged to these people loe as well as to those who hauing receiued some storme or dammage of the tyrant or his followers haue thorough indignation and a spirite of reuenge turned towards vs and haue preferred their particular wrong to all other duetie and we ought also as much to thanke them who hauing committed some murther or notable wickednes and robberie on the enemies side haue catholikely cast themselues into our armes to escape the punishment of iustice and to finde amongst vs all freedome and impietie Hee would haue saide impunitie for these more than none other are bounde to holde good and that euen vnto death for the holy vnion And this is the cause why you must not distrust the baron d'Alegree nor of Hacqui ville gardien of Ponteau on the sea nor of the Iailor of Vienne and others who haue giuen so faire blowes and stroakes to gaine paradise with the dispensation of their oath nor likewise those which haue couragiouslie put their hand to blood and to the imprisonment of politike magistrates in which Monsieur the Lieutenant hath a great deale of dexteritie to ingage them and to cause them to doe things irremissible and which deserue not euer to haue any pardon no more than that which he hath done Cursed counsell But let vs take heede of those nobles that say they are good Frenchmen and that refuse to take pensions and double ducketts of Spaine and haue conscience to make warre against merchants and labourers these are dangerous people I cannot tell you and are able to make vs false sleuces For they brag that if the Biarnois would goe to Masse their swordes should neuer cut against him or his Remember you the enteruiewes and parlements which some make so often at Saint Denis and of the passeports that they receiue and that they send so easilie on the one side and on the other These people Messieures heare not masse but on one knee A heinous offence neither take they holy water in entring into the church but in their bodie forbidding it O would to God that they were all like to that holie pilgrime confessor and catholike zealous martyr Monsieur de la Mothe Serrand who being in the prisons at Tours for yeelding testimonie to his faith refused to dine and take his refection of porridge vpon a friday fearing least they had put some fatte in his soppe and this champion of the faith Stumble at a straw leap ouer a blocke this Macabee this deuoute martyr protested to suffer death rather than to eate any other soppe than that which was catholike O famous assistants chosen and tried at all aduentures for the dignitie of this notable assembly the very pure creame of our
father and of a good mother one whom the prophecies haue of long time destined to kingdomes and empires and haue surnamed you Pepin the short or curtalled You behold you vpon the poynt to be another great Charles the great your great great grandfather if the fayre or market hold But regard I pray you that you suffer not your selfe to bee deceiued These Messieurs of Spayne Spanyards paynted out although they be our very good friends good Catholikes be not merchants at one word and buy sell with no more and that is found true in them not at this time only for there are almost two thousand yeares since that they haue medled with more matters then they should and that men haue giuen them this name to bee fine and cunning in doubling of poynts They promise you this diuine damosel or daughter in mariage to make her a Queene in solidum that is altogether and wholly with you but take you heede that the Duke de Feria haue not filled his seates signed without charge He hath a boxe full of such things wherewith he serueth himselfe vpon all occurrences as of a last for euery shooe and as one saddle for all horses he dates them or he antedates them with his chamber pot when pleaseth him I haue feare something that he hath propounded vnto vs that this is nothing but arte and subtiltie to amaze vs withal when he hath seene that we will not vnderstand or be of minde to breake the law Salick If you haue but neuer so little nose you shall smell it For we knowe in good part that the marriage is alreadie accorded of her and of her cousin the Archduke Ernest Adde that is ioyne hereunto that those of the house of Austrich doe as the Iewes doe that doe not marrie but in their tribe or familie and hold one another by the tayle as hannekins and hannetons doe Leaue of therefore this vaine hope of Gynecocratie That is gouernment of women together and beleeue that little children mocke at it and goe from it to mustard I heard the other day one that comming verie brauely from the tauerne did sing these foure verses The League finding it selfe flat nosed And the Leaguers much without repose Aduised themselues of a fetch which is To make a King without a nose But if I had been able to haue made him to haue been caught by the commissarie Bazin who ranne after him he had had no lesse then the miller that mocked our Estates What wil you say to these impudent politikes that haue put you in a shape in a faire leafe of paper A prety deuise alreadie crowned as a king of the cardes by anticipation and in the same leafe haue also put the figure of the sayd infant or daughter crowned for Queene of France as you you regarding huze a huze one the other And in the neather part of the sayd painture haue placed these verses which I haue kept by heart because that therein it goeth as on your side The French Spanalized haue made a King of France To the daughter of Spayne they promised haue this King A royaltie very small and of slender importance For their France is comprised within Paris a strange thing O Hymen mariage god for this cold mariage Thy quiet torch I pray at this time doe not bring Of these disioyned corps men set out the image That make the loue of eyes both two within one thing It is a royaltie onely in shew most sure Deceit and not true loue hatched hath this mariage Good cause that being King of France in portraiture They cause him to espouse of a Queene the image If Monsieur of Orleans in the qualitie of Aduocate general would cause to be searched out these same wicked politike Printers it is his charge and they might bee knowne by their caracters and his good gossips Bichon N. Niuelle Chaudiere Morel and Thiere will discouer the matrice Touching my selfe I willingly forbeare it for these heretikes are euill speakers as diuels I should feare they would make some booke against me as they did against the Catholike Doctor and Lawyer Chopin vnder the name of Turlupin And neuer mend it is like lie Messieurs of the hall or place of hearing will therein doe their duetie more loco solitis after their wonted manner and place I will hold my selfe content to preach the word of God to maintaine my Beadles and carefully to solicite my pensions Let all this be spoken by a parenthesis But Monsieur de Guise my good child beleeue me and you shall beleeue a very foole stay no more vpon that Neuer better spoken it is not foode for our foules or birds Lift not vp your traine for all this we doe not inlarge or make longer your table by reason of this There is hay there are none but beasts that delight in it but doe better obtaine of the holie father a croisade or an expedition and voyage against the Turkes and goe and reconquer that goodly kingdome of Ierusalem which appertaineth to you by reason of Godfrey your great vncle euen as wel as that of Sicilie and the kingdome of Naples How many scepters and crownes are prepared for you if your horoscopus lie not as you your selfe are wont to say that you haue not a limited fortune Leaue this same wretched and miserable kingdome of France to him that will vouchsafe to take the burthen of it It is not fit that your spirit borne for Empires and the vniuersall monarchie of the habitable world should stoope to so small morsels or matters and vnworthie of you and of your late father A carefull caution whom God absolue if it be permitted to speake so of Saints And you Monsier the Lieutenant to whom I must needes now speake What thinke you to doe you are grosse and fully panched you are heauie and deformed you haue head big enough in deede to beare a crowne But what you say you will none of it and that it would too much ouer burthē you The politikes say that the foxe sayd so touching mulberies which he would faine haue had The foxe will eate no grapes You hinder vnder hād that your nephew shuld not be chosē you forbid the deputies that none of them bee so bold as to touch this great string of the royaltie or kingdom What shall we do then We must haue a King who as the politike doctors say is better takē thē sought You make the K. of Spaine beleeue that you keep the kingdom of Frāce for him for his daughter vnder this hope you sucke draw from the honest man all that that the Indies and Peru can send him he maintaineth vnto you your plate he sendeth you armor armies but not at your deuotion or disposition For he looketh to himselfe for all you and hee distrusteth you both one and other as though ye were blinde A iust iudgement and taketh you as
of Aubray which had in charge to speake for the third estate and contested that it did belong to none but to him to speake that day of the barricades and that they were neuer accustomed in Fraunce to make more than three estates and so hee let that the deputie of the new nobilitie was heard as being but a dependence and a member of the saide third estate The said Lord of Angouleuent disputed long time on his part saying that euery one was there for his money and began againe sundry times these three wordes Monsieur the twelfth and at euery time he was interrupted At the last as the rumor increased and this factions for the one and the other were alreadie heate so farre as to come for it to the blowes of the fist the aduocate of Orleans remonstrated that it was no more time now to rest vpon the auncient formes which were but for shoe makers and coblers nor yet vpon the ceremonies of times past saue onely in the fact of faith and religion A strong exception or else that will down also and that the assembly of the said estates should be vnprofitable if they did not all things therein after the new manner And as for him that hee had seene the remembrances and instructions of the new nobility which deserued very well to bee considered of Notwithstanding considering now that it was somewhat late and that Monsieur the Lieutenant was fresh and fasting and the houre of Monsieur the Legates dinner was past hee required Well added for it is not easilie done that the said Lord of Angouleuent should put his speech in writing and deliuer it vp and should holde his tongue if he could otherwise and for defaulte thereof he should be sent to the Countie de Choysie which thing Monsieur the Lieutenant approued with his head And the rumor being by 〈◊〉 and little ceased and the foresaide d' Angouleuent hardly set downe againe the saide Lorde d' Aubray deputie of the third estate hauing laid aside his sword spake his oration very nigh after this manner The oration of Monsieur d' Aubray for the third Estate BY our Ladie Messieurs A patheticall exordium you haue giuen vs a goodly speech There is no neede now that our Curats should preach vnto vs that we ought to drawe our selues out of the mudde and to make our selues cleane As touching that which I see by your discourse It is a maruaile if euer they can come out the poore Parisiens haue enough of it already within their bootes and it will bee very hard to pull them out of the mudde and mire From henceforth it is time for vs to perceiue that the false Catholicon of Spayne is a drugge that taketh men by the nose and that it is not without cause that other nations call vs little quailes because that as poore quailes that are hooded and very credulous the preachers and Sorbonists No vnfit resemblance by their inchaunting quaile pipes haue caused vs euen to giue our selues into the nettes of tyrants who haue afterwards put vs into a cage and shut vs vp within our walles to teach vs to sing wee cannot but confesse that wee are at this time taken and made greater seruants and slaues than the Christians in Turkie or the Iewes in Auignon We haue no more either will or voyce in the chapiter or assembly We haue no more any thing proper or that wee may well say this is mine You Messieurs that set your foote vpon our throate and fill our houses with garnisons haue and possesse all Our priuiledges franchises freedomes and auncient liberties are ouerthrowne and taken away Our towne house which I haue seene to bee the sure refuge of the succors of our kings in their vrgent and weightie affaires A sore change is become a butcherie our court of Parliament is none at all our Sorbonne is a brothell house and the vniuersitie become sauage or wilde And yet the extremitie of our miseries is this that in the middest of so many mischiefes and needes it is not permitted vs to complaine nor to demaunde succor and hauing death as it were betweene our teeth we must of necessitie say that we are in good health A pittifull and iust complaint and that we are very happie to be so wretched for so good a cause O Paris that art no more Paris but a denne of outragious beasts and a citadell of Spaniards Wallons and Neapolitanes a sanctuarie and sure retrait of robbers murtherers and killers Wilt thou neuer thinke againe of thy dignities and remember thy selfe what thou hast been in comparison of that thou art Wilt thou neuer cure thy selfe of this frensie that for a lawfull and gracious king hast begotten vnto thy selfe fiftie little kings or wrens rather and yet fiftie tyrants Beholde thou art in irons The spanish Inquisition beholde thou art in the inquisition of Spayne more intollerable a thousand folde and more hard to bee borne and indured of spirits that are borne liberall and free as French men are than the most cruell deaths that Spaniards can deuise Thou wast not able to beare a small augmentation and increase of taxes and offices or some new edicts The fruites of senseles treason that did not much import thee and yet now thou indurest men to poll thy houses to pill and to sacke thee euen vnto blood to imprison the Senators to driue away and banish thy good citizens and counsellors yea to hang and to murther thy principall magistrates Thou seest this thou indurest this yea thou doest not onely indure it but thou doest approue it and praise it and thou darest not neither canst thou tell how to doe otherwise Thou couldest not support and beare with thy king so gracious so gentle so easie so familiar that made himselfe a fellow citizen with thee and burgesse of thy towne that hee inriched thee that he hath garnished thee with glorious and sumptuous buildings increased thy forts and stately ramperts and adorned thee with honorable priuiledges and immunities What say I couldest not support and beare with It is much worse Kindenes rendred for good Thou hast chased him out of his owne towne out of his owne house out of his owne bed What say I chased him thou hast pursued him what pursued thou hast murthered him and canonized the murtherer for a saint and made bonfires for his death And now thou seest how much that death of his hath profited thee For that is the cause why another is ascended into his place much more watchfull much more laborious and a far better warriour that knoweth better to keepe thee in somewhat more straitely as to thy damage and hurt thou hast alreadie proued I pray you Messieurs if it were permitted to cast yet these last abois in libertie let vs a little consider what good or what profit hath come vnto vs by this detestable death which our preachers did make vs beleeue was the
sole and the onely meane to make vs blessed The great difference betweene good gouernement and tyrannie But I cannot discourse vpon this poynte but with very great griefe to see things in the estate in which they are in comparison of that they were then At that time euery one had yet corne in his garner and wine in his seller euery one had his vessell of siluer or plate as we call it his tapistrie and his costly moueables the women had then their girdles halfe of siluer the reliques were hole and sound they had not so much as touched the iewels of the crowne But now who is there that can boast that he hath whereof to liue for three weekes vnles it be these theeues and robbers that haue made themselues fat with the wealth of the people and that haue on all hands pilled and polled the moueables both of present and absent Haue we not by little and little consumed all our prouisions sould our moueables molten our vessell and pledged all that wee haue to the garments on our backs to liue not onely poorely but verie wretchedly and caytife like Where are our halles and our chambers so well garnished and so decked with diaper and tapistrie Where are our feastes and bankets and our licorous and daintie tables Loe we are brought to milke and white cheese like the Swissers Our bankets are of a bitte of biefe yea the biefe of a cowe for all the messes and seruices wee were wont to haue and happie is he that hath not eaten the flesh of horses and of dogges and happie is hee that alwaies hath had oaten bread and coulde make a little paste of it with the broath of brawne sold at the corner of the streetes in the places where heretofore they did sell the delicious and daintie tongues young quailes and legges of mutton And it hath not been long of Monsieur the Legate and of the Embassador Mendoza that we haue not eaten our fathers bones as the sauage and wilde people of new Spayne doe If he can he is a man of no sense Can any man thinke of or remember all these things without teares and without horror And they that in their conscience knowe well inough that they are the cause thereof can they heare speake of these things without blushing and without apprehending the punishment that God reserueth for them for so many euils and mischiefes whereof they are authors Yea when they shall represent vnto themselues the images of so many poore citizens as they haue seene fallen in the streetes all starke and stone dead through famine the little infants and sucking babes to die at the breasts of their languishing mothers drawing the breast for nothing and not finding what to sucke the better sorte of the inhabitants and the souldiers to goe through the towne leaning vpon a staffe pale and feeble more white and more wanne than images of stone resembling rather ghosts than men If they be so good how bad are the rest and the inhumaine and discourteous answer of some euen of the Ecclesiasticall persons who accused them and threatned them in steed of succouring or comforting them Was there euer barbarousnes or crueltie like to that which we haue seene and indured Was there euer tyrannie and domination matchable to that which we see and indure Where is the honour of our vniuersitie Where are the colledges Where are the schollers Where are the publike readings and lectures to which people did run from all the partes of the world Bookes turned into blades a good change Where bee the religious students in the couents They haue all taken armes and beholde they are become all of them vnruly and wicked souldiers Where are our chaffes Where are our precious reliques Some of them are molten and eaten vp other some are buried in the grounde for feare of robbers and sacreligious persons Where is that reuerence that men caried once to the people of the Church or Clergie and to the sacred mysteries The diuell a lie it is Euery one now maketh a religion after his owne manner and diuine seruice serueth for no other vse but to deceiue the world through hypocrisie the priests and preachers haue so set themselues on sale and made themselues so contemptible by their offensiue life that men regarde them no more nor their sermons neither but when they are to be vsed to preach and spread abroade some false newes Where are the princes of the blood that haue been alwaies sacred persons euen as the pillars and staies of the crowne and of the French Monarchie Where are the Peeres of France that should be the first here to opē to to honor the Estates Al these names are no more but the names of porters wherof some make litter for the horses of the Messieurs of Spayne and of Lorraine Where is the Maiestie and grauitie of the Parliament heretofore the defender of Kings and the mediator betweene the people and the Prince A prison as we would say here the Fleete or Tower You haue caried it in triumph to the Bastille and authoritie and iustice ye haue led them captiue more insolently and more shameleslie than the Turkes woulde haue done You haue driuen away the best sorte of people and retained none but rascals or of scourings who are either full of passions or else base minded Besides euen of them that doe remaine ye will not suffer so few as foure or fiue to say what they thinke and you threaten them also Hee meaneth some kinde of torture or torment to giue them a billet as vnto heretikes or politikes And yet you would make men beleeue that that you doe is for no other respect but for the preseruation of religion and of the estate This is well said but let vs a little examine your actions and the cariage or behauiour of the King of Spayne towards vs and if I lie one word A fearefull execration let Monsieur Saint Denis and Madame Saint Genuiefue the great patrons of Fraunce neuer helpe me I studied a little while in the schooles and yet not so much as I desired but since I haue seene diuers countries and trauailed into Turkie and thorow out all Natolia and Sclauonia euen vnto Archipelagus and mare maior A good touchstone indeede and Tripoli of Syria where I found the saying of our Sauiour Christ to bee true By their fruites yee shall know them Men knowe sufficiently enough what are the intentions and inuentions of men by their works and by their effects First I will speake it and yet with an honorable preface that the King of Spayne A mannerly man is a great prince wise subtill and very aduised the most mightie and hauing the greatest territories of all Christian princes and that he should be yet so much the more if all his lands countries and kingdomes were sure and ioyned one of them to another But France which is betweene Spayne and the
our ciuill warres would ouerthrow the Catholike religion the Church all ecclesiasticall order causing the priests religious men and religious women and all to fall to wicked life wasting benefices and abolishing Gods seruice throughout all the plaine countrie and notwithstanding we persisted as before without hauing any pitie of so many desolate and straying soules forsaken also of their pastors which languished and pined away without religioÌ„ without feeding and without administration of any Sacrament In fine sith we agree together Like sinnes like punishments and are like in so many meetings of things to the citie of Ierusalem what other thing can we look for than a whole ruine and vtter desolation as theirs was vnles God by an extraordinarie miracle giue vs againe our right wit and sense For it is impossible that wee can any longer time indure thus being alreadie so beateÌ„ down fainting sluggish with loÌ„g sicknes that the very sighs and groanes which we fetch are nothing els but the very hickcockes or pangs going before death We are shut vp pressed inuaded And that is not very good coÌ„passed in on all sides and wee take not the ayre but the stinking ayre that is within our walles from our myres and sinkes for all the rest of the ayre from the libertie of the fields is withheld from vs. Wherfore ye free cities learne learne I say by our damage and losse to gouerne your selues from this time forward after another fashion suffer not your selues to be mislead and haltred as you haue been by the charmes and inchauntments of the preachers who are corrupted with money with some hope which some princes giue theÌ„ who aspire nothing but to ingage you and to make you so weake so souple easie to bee bent that they may play with and enioy at their own pleasure your selues your riches your libertie and all For concerning that which they would make you beleeue touching religion An apt comparision it is but a maske or visor wherewith they busie the simple as the foxes couer their footing with their long tailes that so they might catch them eate them vp at their pleasure A common vse indeede Haue you euer seene any other respects in them that haue aspired after tyrannous gouernment ouer the people than this that they haue alwaies made taken and vsed some goodly title and shew of the common wealth or of religion And yet when question hath been of comming to some agreement their particular interest and profit hath alwaies been in the vantgard and they haue set the benefit and good of the people behinde as a matter that did not touch them Or else if they were victors and did ouercome their end was alwaies to bring vnder and churlishly to vse the people by whome they were ayded and assisted to come to the very top of their desires But so are not they that defend such things And I am abashed seeing that all histories as well olde as new are full of such examples to behold that yet there are found men so poore in vnderstanding as to rush vpon and to flie vnto this false lure The historie of the ciuill warres and of the reuolt which was made against Lewis the eleuenth is yet fresh and as wee say bleeding new An example The Duke of Berry his brother and certaine Princes of Fraunce raised vp and hartened by the King of England and yet somewhat more encouraged by the Countie of Charolois vsed no other colour for leuying of their armies than the benefite and comfort of the people and kingdome But in the ende when they were to come to composition or agreement they intreated of nothing but to increase to one his yearely pension and to giue offices and friendly conditions of agreement to all those that had assisted them without any more mention of the commoÌ„ wealth than of the Turke If you will wade somewhat higher in the French Chronicles you shall see that the factions of Bourgongne and of Orleans were alwaies coloured with the comforting or easing of the taxes or of the euill gouernment of the affaires and yet notwithstanding the intent of the principall heads thereof was nothing else but to keepe vnder the authoritie of the kingdome and to giue one house aduaÌ„tage against another as the issue hath alwaies made plaine proof of it Though hee should haue done it did it indeed sometimes yet of late you haue vniustly detayned the same For in the end the King of EnglaÌ„d caried alwaies away some part of it for his share the Duke of Bourgongne did neuer depart without some citie or countrie which he tooke for his bootie Whosoeuer will finde leasure to reade this historie shall finde therein our miserable age naturally and liuely set out vnto vs. He shal see our preachers the blowfires and bellowes of contention that ceased not to intermeddle therein as they doe at this daye though at no hand there was then question touching religion they preached against their King they caused him to bee excommunicated as they doe at this present They set vp propositions and vsed disputations in Sorbonne against the good citizens and common wealths men as they doe now A man might haue behelde then murders and slaughters of innocent people and of furies and outrages committed by the people themselues euen as ours doe Our mynion the late Duke of Guise is there represented and set out in the person of the Duke of Bourgongue False and spoken like a Frenchman for our Kings had and haue a lawfull right and our good protector the King of Spaine in that of the King of England You therein see our easines to beleeue and simplicitie accompanied with ruines desolations sackings burnings of townes and suburbes such as we haue seene and see continuallie vpon vs and vpon our neighbours The common good was the charme or witcherie that stopped vp our predecessors eares but indeede the ambition and the reuengement of these two great houses was the true and first cause as the ende discouered it And thus haue I deducted and laide out vnto you that first the iealousie and enuie of those two houses of Bourbon and of Lorraine and since the onely ambition and couetousnes of these of Guyse haue bin and are the only cause of all our mischiefes miseries But as for the catholike Romane religion It is the cup of fornication mentioned in the Apocalyps it is the drinke wherewith they haue infatuated vs and caused vs to fall on sleep and a poyson wel sweetned with sugar and which serueth for an obsâ—upatiue or benumming medicine to astonish or benumme all our members which whilest we are on sleepe wee feele not when they cut away now one piece then an other euen one after an other and that which remaineth be but as a truncke which very quickly will leese all the blood and the heate and the very life it selfe thorow ouermuch
because that the aforesayd peece was not large enough to couer the doore of the entrie or cōming in there was tacked vnto it halfe a peece of the Apotheosis or canonization of the foure Euangelists and Martyrs Saints Louchard Ameline Anroux and Aymonnot making a long letter or writing at their feet was writtē these 4. verses You crack ropes lewd wicked mē that Iudges hang on hie Impunitie vnto your selues you doe pretend thereby But you ought cleane the cōtrarie attēd wait again A wicked wretch neuer yet could put his righteous Iudge to pain The twelfth and the last neere vnto the windowes did containe at length and that very well drawne the portraiture of Monsieur the Lieutenant attired as Hercules Gallicus holding in his hand innumerable bridles wherwith also there were haltered mousled calues colts without number Ouer his head as if it had bin a clowd there was a nymph which had a writing cōtaining these words Looke that you play the calfe A goodly poesie promise And from the mouth of the said Lord Lieutenant there issued another wherein were written these proper termes I will doe it And this is that as neere as I was able to obserue and marke it which was in the sayd tapistrie As concerning the benches seates where Messieurs or my Lords the Estates should sit they were couered al with tapistrie be sprinkled with little crosses of the Lorraines some blacke and some red and with armes parted in two of true and false argent the whole being more emptie then full for the honour of the feast Touching the order held and obserued for their seates or places AFter that the assembly was entred somewhat forward within the great hall drawing neere vnto the steps where the cloath or chaire of estate was exalted and the chaires were prepared there was place assigned to euerie one by a Herault of armes intituled Courte ioy A fine fiction for the same or as we say short ioy S. Denis who called them very lowd three times together after this manner Monsieur the Lieutenant Monsieur the Lieutenant Monsieur the Lieutenant of the estate and Crowne of France come vp on high into this kingly throane in the place of your master Monsieur the Legate place your selfe at his side Madame representing the Queene Mother or the grandmother set your selfe on the other side Monsieur the Duke of Guise Peere of the Lieutenancie of the estate and Crowne of France place your selfe very finely the first for this time without preiudice or dammage of your right to come It may be it shall neuer be so againe Monsieur the most reuerend Cardinal of Pelue Peere though but for a while of the Lieutenancie place your selfe right ouer against him but at no hand forget your Calepin or Dictionarie Madame the Dowager of Montpensier as a Princesse of your estate seate your selfe vnder your nephew Madame the Lieutenant of the Lieutenancie of the estate without preiudice of your pretenses claimes set your selfe ouer against her Monsieur d'Aumale Constable Peere of the Lieutenancie aduaunced into Peereship by reason of your Countie of Boulongne place your selfe side to side by the most reuerend Cardinall but beware that you rend not his cope with your great spurres High and mightie Countie of Chaligny that haue this honour to haue Monsieur the Lieutenant for your younger brother take your place and feare no more Chiquot that is dead Monsieur the Primat of Lyons and without doubt he that shal be Cardinall of the vnion and now is Peere Chancellor of the Lieutenancie He kept her as his concubine leaue your sister there and come hither to take your place in order Monsieur de Bussie the Clerke heretofore the great penitentiarie of the Parliament and now the great Steward spirituall of the towne and castle of Paris set your selfe at the feete of Monsieur that Lieutenant as the great Chamberlaine of the Lieutenancie Monsieur de Saulsay Peere and great Master of the Lieutenancie Yea of a better for default of another take this staffe and goe very gently to sit in this soft seate prepared for you And you Messieurs the Marshals of the Lieutenancie de Rosne Dom Diego Bois-daulphin and Seignior Cornelio loe here is a bench for you foure sauing that you may bee augmented or diminished if the case so fall out and require the same Messieurs the Secretaries of the Estate Marteau Pericard de Pottes and Nicolas A tall man belike this fourme below is for you foure if Monsieur Nicolas buttocks or breech can reach so high Monsieur de S. Paul Countie of Rethelois but yet vnder the title of hiring it and hauing it at a price come not so nigh Monsieur de Guise least you ouerheate him but keepe your selfe nigh to the Lord de Rieux Messieurs the Ambassadors of Spayne Naples Lorraine and Countie of Bourgongne this bench on the left hand is for you and the bench on the right hand appoynted for the Ambassadors of England Portugall Venice the Lords Counties and Princes of Germanie Suisserland and Italie and are absent or appeare not shall be for the Ladies and Damosels according to the date of their impression Furthermore let all the deputies take place according to their pensions And this was almost the sitting of Messieurs the Estates all without disputation or debating by reason of the great presences Churchmen striue for high places sauing that the warden of the Franciscane Friers and the Prior of the Iacobins made some small protestation which of them should goe formost but Madame de Montpensier rising vp A goodly drudge and a worthie reason of conclusion gaue the first place to the Prior of the Iacobins for remembrance as she sayd of S. Iaques Clement There was also a little garboyle betweene my Ladies of Belin and of Bussie by reason that the one of them hauing let goe a certaine euil pseudcatholike winde Madame de Belin spake very loudly and loftily to Ladie Bussie Let vs go Mistris Proctoresse the taile doth befume vs you come hither belike to perfume the crosses of Lorraine But Monsieur the great Master of Saulsay hearing this noyse knowing the cause thereof cried vnto them holding his staffe in his hand Good words Mes dames ye come not hither to trouble and disquiet our estates It is an euill bird that defileth his owne neast as mine owne sister not long time since daunced the galliard of the late king in this very hall it selfe The noise being pacified and the ill sent or sauour past Monsieur the Lieutenant began to speake after this manner with the great silence and attention of Messieurs the Estates The speech of Monsieur the Lieutenant MEssieurs you shall all be witnesses that since I haue taken armes for the holy League I haue alwayes had mine owne preseruation in such great recommendation and respect No lye that I haue with a very good
heart courage continually preferred mine owne particular interest before the cause of God who knoweth wel inough to keepe himselfe and it without mee and to reuenge him of all his enemies Yea I can say further and that in trueth that the death of my brethren hath not so farre caused my passions to breake forth whatsoeuer goodly shew I made thereof as the desire I haue to walke in the waies and paths that my father and my good vncle the Cardinall had traced out before me and which my brother the Balafre was happily entred You knowe that vpon my returne from my expeditiō of Guyenne which the politikes call vp and downe vp and downe I did not effect in this citie that which I thought by reason of the traytors The Duke de Maynne was none who aduertised the tyrant their master and I receiued no other fruite by my voyage but the taking of the inheritresse of Caumont whom I did appoynt for wife vnto my sonne but the chaunging of my affayres haue made me at this presēt to dispose otherwise therof Moreouer you are not ignorant that I would not ingage mine armie to any great exployte or hard siege wherein notwithstanding Castillon deceiued mee which I thought to take and carrie away in three daies to the end that I might keepe my selfe more whole and sound and the better able to execute my Catholike purposes Concerning mine armie in Daulphin I caused it alwaies to stop and stay and I kept me on my skoutes to attend and waite whether in the Estates of Blois ye should haue neede of me But the matters there hauing taken the left foote and falling out crosse to our wishes and attempts you sawe with what great diligence I came to finde you in this citie and with what dexteritie my cousin the Constable d'Aumale here present So holy a man could not but giue so holie a thing caused likewise the holie spirit in haste to come downe vpon a great part or companie of my Masters of Sorbonne For as soone as it was said it was as soone done And frō thence haue proceeded all our goodly exployts of warre from that haue taken their first originall these hundred thousands of holie French Martyrs which are dead by the sword by famine by fire by rage by desperation and other violēce for the cause of the holie vnion from thence hath come the correction of so many braggers and boasters which would play the galants and compare themselues with Princes from thence hath proceeded the ruine and ouerthrow of so many Churches Monasteries which hurt the safetie of our good townes from this hath flowen such great sacke and pillage as our good souldiers free archers and nouices haue committed in many cities townes and villages who also haue serued in stead of a Curat for the faith to the deuout children of the Masse at midnight yea from hence hath it been that so many faire daughters and women without marriage and against their wils haue been filled with that which in marriage they loue best of all And God knoweth whether these young Monkes and Friers A great doubt their chastitie considered newly turned out of their frocks or gownes these disordered priests haue therein deuoutly turned the leaues of their portuise and gotten plenarie pardons To be short Ful cups make men of sharpe iudgement this is the onely cause of the prompt and zealous decree of my Masters of our mother Sorbonne after that they haue drunke wel which hath caused in the end many stroakes from heauen to clatter and sound And through our good diligence wee haue brought to passe that this kingdome which was nothing els but a pleasurefull garden of all pleasure and aboundance A very good change is now become a great and large vniuersall buriall place full of all violences faire painted crosses coffins gallowses and gibbets As soone then as I was arriued in this towne after that I had sent to heale the citie of Orleans of too much ease and to forbid the trade and traffique of the Loire The name of a ruine passing by it which maintained their delights I ment to doe as much in this towne also And it fell out well in which Madame my mother my sister my wife and cousin d'Aumale who are here to giue mee the lye for it if I doe not speake true did very catholikely assist me For they and I had no more great paine and care then to lay a ground worke for the warre and in so doing to comfort and discharge all the deuout habitants good Catholikes of the weight of their purses and to giue them leaue curiously to roue vp and downe with their feete and their hands to seeke and to seaze for vs the rich iewels of the Crowne belonging vnto vs in the collaterall line and by the forfeiture of Lord of the fee. We found much vnprofitable treasure we discouered with a little expence by the reuelation of a catholike mason and the holie innocencie of Monsieur Machaut whom I name here for honours sake the goodly and large muguot of Molan Because he serued your turne notwithstanding his diuels and familiar spirits that kept it whom the sayd Machaut knew powerfullie and skilfully to coniure secretly filling the bottome or soules of his host with crownes of the summe And without this diuine succour Messieurs you know that we knew not yet of what wood to make arrowes for which the holie vnion is greatly indebted to the painfull labour and great good husbandrie of the sayd Molan who did so honestly refuse his master and all his friends to aide them with money and to preserue it for vs A right recompense of treason namely idolatrous seruices Adde drunkēnes vnto thirst and glorie in your owne shame so fitly for our purpose And forget him not to cause to be sung to him a salue or good morrow whatsoeuer it be forget not to promise him a Masse to be sung with holding vp of hands when he shall bee constrained to make his will quite and cleane contrarie I will not forget the costly moueables of gold siluer tapistrie and other riches which wee made to bee taken sold yea to make port sale of them appertaining to these wicked politikes fauouring the King wherein my cousin d'Aumale did her dutie very well foyling her selfe in the coffers and caskets yea stouping so low that she went to the ditches and holes where she knewe that there was vessell of siluer hidden In so much that afterwards our dearly beloued cousin her husband she her selfe and her chiefe page did greatly performe their businesses and were healed of their catholike iaundise wherewith they were made yellow from the time of the warres that they had for their Countie of Boulongne catholikely lawfully deuolued vnto them by the merite of their Pater-nosters and deuout processions and not by vsurpation or domestical the euerie as these relapsed heretikes say This being done
vncle who had made the Pope to write vnto him thereabout did himselfe take Monsieur d'Andelot at Crecy and sent him prisoner to Melun After this imprisonment and that also of the Vidame of Chartres and of certaine counsellors of parliament fell out the violent and miraculous death of the King Whē the wicked rise vp mē hide themselues which exalted your house to the soueraigne degree of power neere about the young King Francis and on the other side did abate and almost altogether beate downe the house of Monsieur the Constable and of all those that did belong vnto him And this was then when his kindred voyde of all hope of ordinarie meanes because that all was executed vnder the fauour of your allies ioyned themselues in secrete intelligence with the Lutherans here and there scattered in diuers corners of the kingdom And though they had as yet but little credit with them as who were people vnknowne vnto them and had not partaked neither in the Supper nor in Synode or Consistorie notwithstanding by the meanes of their agents well skilled and practised in secrets they made that memorable enterprise of Amboyse and assembled from all the quarters of the world Taciturnitie a good virtue and that with meruailous silence such a great number of people that they were readie at the day named to accomplish a cruell execution vpon your side vnder this pretext to deliuer the King out of the captiuitie A Iudas amongst the twelue wherein your fathers and your vncles held him But these good people could not keep themselues from traitors whereupon followed the execution done at Amboise which discouered also the authors of the faction And thereupon insued the rigorous commaundement which they gaue to the King of Nauarre and the imprisonment of Monsieur the Prince of Conde in the estates at Orleans and sundrie other heauie accidents too long now to recite Mens malice ouerthrowne when God will which had continued and increased farre worse if the sodaine death of the young King had not altered the course and broken the blow which some went about to cause to light vpon these chiefest princes of the bloud royall and vpon the familie of Monsieur the Constable and of the Chastillons A man may easily iudge how much your house was shaken and tossed as it were by this vnlooked for death and you may beleeue Monsieur Lieutenant that Monsieur your father and Messieurs your vncles played all at one time at one kinde of game or blushing A fit comparison as you might do if a man should bring you newes of the death of your two brethren But they lost not their courage no more then you doe and had afterwards very good counsels and consolations from the King of Spayne of whom we will speake by and by who during these first dissentions was vpon the skoutes and watched to whom hee might offer his fauour and how he might blow and stirre the fire on the one side on the other to make it to increase to that power and greatnes in which we haue seene it Holy purposes for so catholike a prince and doe yet now see it burne and consume all France which is the finall but of his pretensions Vpon hope then of the support of so great a prince which would not spare to promise men money your father without being astonished with so lumpish a fall perceiuing the King of Nauarre to be placed in his ranke of the first prince of the bloud for the sauegard of young king Charles and Monsieur the Constable put in his charge or office againe knew so well rightly to play his ball that he practised them both and drew them to his lure against their owne brethren The recouerie of Nauarre some such conceits and against their owne kinsmen feeding one of them with a hope that I dare not speake of and flattering the other by submissions and honors that he bestowed vpon him And this he did so artificially and wel that entring againe into the paths and waies that he had forsaken and taking his old aduantage after that Monsieur the Prince of Conde was set at libertie who had fairely preuented him but two or three daies onely he went with a number of men of warre and in great troupes to seize the young King and the Queene his mother at Fountainebleau brought them to Melun And this was then when my sayd Lord the Prince and Messieurs of Chastillon perceiuing themselues neither by their head nor by their houses strong enough to resist so puissant enemies couered with kingly authoritie and power became Lutherans at one clap and declared themselues to be heads protectors of the new heretikes whom they called to their succour and by their meanes did in open warre seaze and take many great townes of the kingdome without making yet any mention of their religion but onely for the defence of the King and of his mother and to deliuer them out of the captiuitie bondage wherein Monsieur your father held them And you Monsieur Lieutenant know that these people alwaies boasted that what they did as in this behalfe it was at the request and commandement of the Queene Mother whose letters written and sent by her to them for that purpose they haue caused to be published and imprinted You are not ignorant of that which passed in this warre and how afterwards the King of Spayne sent your father succour but yet the same such Fit fellowes to fight a field as I am ashamed to speake of it al labourers and handicrafts men gathered together who would neuer fight at the battaile of Dreux but couered themselues with the wagons and carriages appoynted for the baggage Notwithstanding this was a baite to inkindle the courage of the partakers and to cause them to hope that they should indeed some other time doe some aduantageable thing if they would yet once again come to fight together But afterwards the diuers changings and alterations of our affayres did indeed offer vnto the Spanyard another sport For your father being dead and peace being made knowing notwithstanding these mightie families animated and stifly set one of them against another and that without hope of reconciliation When a bad cannot preuaile a worse will be prouided he practised Monsieur the Cardinall your vncle which on his behalfe did not sleepe to maintaine the troubles and diuisions in this realme vnder the beautifull name of religion of which in former time mē made little or no account Monsieur your vncle Cardinall of Lorraine commended being as he was indeed wittie and pleasing whom he would had skill in such sort to gaine the heart of the Queene Mother and the Queene Mother the heart of the King her sonne that he perswaded them specially the Queene mother that Messieurs the Princes of Bourbon ayded by them of Montmorency and Chastillon sought nothing but her ruine and would neuer bee quiet