seeke for another kinde of world then this and for more perfect creatures then Mortals There will euer be poysnings beyond the Alpes Treasons at Court and reuolts in this Realme Howsoeuer my Lord there will be loue euen in spite of you so long as there are eyes and beauties in the world yea the Wise themselues will loue if they finde Clorindaes Dianaes and Cassandraes to be beloued Fire seazeth somtimes on Churches and Pallaces God hath framed Fooles and Philosophers of one and the same matter And that cruell Sect which seekes to bereaue vs of the one halfe of our selues in seeking to free vs from our passions and affections instead of making a wise man haue onely raised a Statue I must therefore once againe tell you that I loue since Nature will haue it so and that I am of the progeny of our first Parent but I must withall informe you that all my affections spring not from the distempers and diseases of my soule my inclination to serue you hauing immortall reason not momentary pleasure for its foundation one day happily I shall no more be amorous but will alwayes remayne My Lord Your most humble and most affectionate Seruant BALZAC To the Lord Cardinall of Valete Sonne to the Duke of Espernon LETTER II. My LORD AT length they haue done you right and you now enioy what you deserued from the first day of your Natiuity if there could bee any thing added to a man who reckoneth Kings among his Predecessors and whose inclinations happily are ouer-great to liue vnder the power of another I should aduise you to reioyce at this newes but being extracted as you are from one of the most illustrious Origines on earth and begotten by a Father whose life is loaden with Miracles it sufficeth that you pardon Fortune since it hath so happned that present necessity hath gained of her what she in right owed to your name I know well that some will tell you you are created Prince of such an Estate as is bounded neither by Seas nor Mountaines and how the extent of your iurisdiction is so illimitable as were there many worlds they ought all of them to depend thereon as well as this But I who suffer not mine eyes to be dazeled by any other luster then that of Vertue and who doe not so much as bestow the looking on what most men admire if I should esteeme you either more great or happy then you were I should not haue sufficiently profited vnder you in the true vnderstanding of you Doubtlesse in the opinion of the Vulgar it is an extraordinary Honour to be a prime person in a Ceremony and to weare a Hat of equal esteeme to Crownes and Diadems Yet I presume you will pardon mee if I make bold to tell you it is an honour can neuer oblige a wise man to enuy you For had you this point onely aboue me I should still be my owne Master Nor had I for your sake renounced that liberty which was as deare to mee as the Common-wealth of Venice Vpon the matter to haue none other Iudge on Earth saue onely your reputation and conscience and to haue a great trayne of followers some whereof are imployed in the procuring your spirituall pleasures others in the conduct of your temporall affaires all this shal be still the same with you and diuers others whom you slight but to performe good and vertuous actions when you are assured they shall neuer come to the worlds eye to feare nothing but dishonest things to beleeue death to bee neither good nor bad in it selfe but that if the occasion to imbrace it be honourable it is alwayes more valuable then a long life to haue the reputation of integrity in your promises in a time when the most credulous haue enough to doe to confide on publique faith This is it which I admire in you my Lord and not your Red Hat and your fifty thousand Crownes Rent yet I will say that for the honour of Rome you ought to esteeme of what she sends you The time hath bin when she would haue erected Statues for you and affoorded you sufficient subiect to haue merited Tryumphs but those dayes being past and since that Empire is no longer maintayned by such meanes yet ought you to rest satisfied with the honours of Peace and accept as a high fauour a Dignity the King of Spaine's Sonne hath made suite for If there were nothing else in it but that it causeth you to quit your Mourning-robes to reuest your selfe with the colour of Roses you can doe no lesse then reioyce at such a change Howsoeuer the nearest obiects to your eyes will not be so dolefull as formerly they were since there will be nothing vpon you which shall not be resplendent and glorious I would willingly dilate this discourse but the speedy departure of the Post will not suffer me and besides I being well assured that if you esteeme any thing in my Letters it is not the multitude of words I ought to be contented to end this after my humble suite vuto you to loue me alwayes since I am passionately My Lord Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull seruant BALZAC To the Lord Cardinall de Valette from Balzac J here send you two Letters which were deliuered mee to bee conueyed vnto you the one from the Duke of Bauaria the other from the Cardinall of Lerma My Lord you shall thereby perceiue that your proposition hath affoorded ioy both to the Victorious and to the Afflicted and that the World receiueth a notable interest therein since it augmenteth the contentment of Triumphes and sweetneth the harshnes of retyrement LETTER III. MY LORD I Suppose you haue vnderstood of the Election of the Pope some two dayes iournies from Paris and that you will make no great hast to adde your approbation to a thing already dispatched I had sent a Post on purpose to aduertise you thereof but my Lord Embassador thought it not fit but hath encharged his owne Messenger to aduertise you of all things in your Voyage this way and to giue you accompt of all occurrents This makes me thinke that the subiect of your voyage ceasing and the time of yeare being as yet some what troublesome for the vndertaking thereof you will rather reserue it for a fitter season when you may performe it with lesse disorder and more aduantagiously for the Kings seruice My meaning is that I would haue you set forward about the end of Autumne that you may spend here with vs one of these warm and springing Winters laden with Roses wholy reserued for our admirable Italy And my Lord though herein the consideration of my priuate interest may seeme to make me speake thus rather then my affection to your seruice yet would I willingly tell you that all kinde of contentments attend you here and if your great Spirit aspire to glorious things for the keeping it in action it shall infallibly finde them at Rome In
Reuerend Bishop of Ayre from BALZAC LETTER XIIII My LORD SInce you haue as much care of me as of your Diocesse and in that I perceiue you would imagine some defect euen in the felicities you expect in Heauen should you be saued without me I will vse my vtmost indeauours to cause that your desire of my Spirituall good prooue not vnprofitable and to make my selfe capable of the good Counsell you gaue mee by your Letter True it is I haue beene so long habituated in vice I haue almost vtterly forgotten my state of Jnnocency so as a particular Jubile for my selfe onely were no more then necessary On the otherside the pious motions I haue are so poore and imperfect that of all the flames the Primatiue Christians haue felt and endured I should hardly support the meere smoake Yet my Lord euen in this bad state wherin I now stand doe I expect a Miracle from my Maker who is onely able to raise Children out of the hardest Quarries nor will I beleeue his Mercy hath finished what hee intendeth to effect for the good of Mortals For since hee hath placed Ports vpon the shoares of most dangerous Seas and giuen some kinde of dawning euen to the darkest Nights it may be there is yet something reserued for me in the secrets of his Prouidence and that if hitherto I haue ranged out of the right way he will not any longer suffer me to stray or tire my selfe in the tracke of vice And truely I must here though much to my shame acknowledge the truth vnto you with those few drops of corrupt blood which is all I haue left I am plunged in all those passions wherewith the foundest bodies are pressed yea Tyrants who burne whole Citties vpon the first motion of rage and choller and who allow themselues to act what vnlawfull thing soeuer doe nothing more then my selfe saue onely to enioy those things I desire and to execute those designes remayning onely in my will I wanting their power to perpetrate the like Nor can the Feauer the Stone nor the Scyatica as yet tame my rebellious spirit or cause it to become capable of Discipline and if time had added yeares to the rest of my infirmities I verily thinke I should desire to behold vncleane sights with spectacles such I meane as you vtterly auoide and cause my selfe to be carried to those lewd places whither alone I were vnable to goe Insomuch that as there are diuers paintings which are necessarily to bee cleane defaced to take away the defects so I much feare nothing but Death can stay the current of my crimes vnlesse by your meanes I enter into a second Life more fruitfull then the former I therefore speake in good sadnesse set your whole Cleargy to prayer and commaund a publique Fast in the same strictnesse as though you were to impetrate at the hands of God the conversion of the great Turke or of the Persian Emperour Propound to your selfe Monsters in my will to be mastred and an infinity of enemies to ouercome in my passions and after all this you will beare me witnesse I haue not made matters greater then they are and saue onely a certaine imperfect desire I haue to repent and a kinde of small resistance I sometimes make against the beginnings and buddings of vice there is not any difference at all betweene my selfe and the greatest sinner liuing But take not I beseech you this I write as a marke of my Humility for you neuer read a truer relation and what St. Paul spake in the person of Mankind accusing himselfe of other mens offences is my owne simple deposition which I deliuer into the hands of the Diuine Justice I hate my selfe yet true it is I finde so great coldnesse in the performance of pious actions that my mind seemeth to be imprisoned when at any time my Duty draweth me to Church and when I am there I rather seeke diuertions and temptations then instruction or edification Euen mentall prayer being an Oblation for all houres and which may bee performed without either burnt Jncense OF bloody Sacrifices and the finishing whereof is so neere the first motion is to me as laborious as the Pilgrimage of Mount Serrat or of our Lady of Loretta would be to another I am alwayes sad but neuer penitent I loue solitarinesse but hate austerity I side with honest men but reside with the wicked if at any time some small rayes of Deuotion reflect vpon my crazy conscience they are of so short continuance and so weake as they neyther afford me light nor heate so as all this being but accident and meere chance doth not any way merit the name of good and it were great wrong to Vertue to ranke it in the number of casuall occurrents You are therefore necessarily to labour for my conversion which I am vnable to effect of my selfe and that for my part I onely affoord matter whereon to make an honest man If there bee certayne Saints whom we owe to the teares and intercession of others and if some Martyrs haue made their very Executioners Companions of their Glory I may well hope you will be a powerfull meanes to saue me with your selfe and that one day happily I may be mentioned among the rest of your Miracles Sir I know your life to be so spotlesse as though you were incorporeall or neuer loued any other then that Supreame beauty from whence all others are deriued Wherefore there is no question but so rare a Vertue may easily impetrate at Gods hands any supplication you shall exhibite nor is there any doubt hee hath for you allotted other limits to his bounty saue his onely omnipotency You shall yet at the least finde in me Obedience and Docility if I haue not attayned any stronger habitudes You shall haue to doe with one who amidst the corruption of this Age wherein well nigh all Spirits reuolte from the Faith cannot be drawne to beleeue any truth to be greater then what he hath vnderstood from his Nurse or Mother If in what concerneth not Religion I haue sometimes had my priuate Sence and Opinion I doe with my very heart leaue the same to the end to reconcile my selfe with the Vulgar and least I should appeare an Enemy to my Countrey for a slight word or matter of small importance If φφφφ had held himselfe to this Maxime he might securely haue liued among men nor had hee beene prosecuted with all extreamity as the most sauage of all beasts But he rather chose to make a Tragicall end then to expect a death wherewith the World was vnacquainted or to execute onely ordinary actions So farre as I can learne or if the report which passeth be current he had a conceite he might one day proue to be that false Prophet wherewith the declining age of the Church is threatned and though hee be but of meane extraction and poore fortunes he was notwithstanding so presumptuous as to imagine himselfe to be the
the interim how short a while soeuer you stay here you shall haue the contentment to see France change some fiue or sixe times At your returne you will hardly find any thing answerable to what you left there they shall not be the same men you formerly saw and all things will appeare vnto you as the affaires of another Kingdome But before the matter be growne to that head it is fitting you reigne here in Soueraignty and become the Supreame Iudge of three or foure Conclaues And truly it might so happen my Lord that I should do you some acceptable seruice in those great occasions if I had my health but to my great griefe it is a happinesse for which I enuy my Grand mother and howsoeuer I haue heretofore beene little or much estimable I confesse that at this present I am but the halfe of what I was It is therefore in vayne to expect workes of any great value from me or that you importune me to take paynes for the Publicke for in Conscience what high defignes can a man haue betweene the affliction of diseases and the apprehension of Death The one whereof doth neuer forsake me and the other daily affrights me or how can you imagine I should conceiue eminent matters who am ready to dye at euery instant True it is that the necessity to obey you which I haue alwaies before mine Eyes is an extraordinary strong motiue but not to dissemble the impossibility of my performance is yet more forcible and so long as I continue in the state I now am I can not promise you so much as the History of the Kingdome of Yuetot nor that of the Papacy of Campora though it continued onely one halfe quarter of an houre From Rome this 27. of February 1622. Another Letter vnto Cardinall de la Valete from Balzac LETTER IIII. My LORD YOur Cash-keeper hath newly brought mee the summe you commanded him to deliuer vnto me I would willingly shew sufficient thankefulnesse for this high fauour but besides that your benefits are boundlesse and that you are so gracious an obliger that it doth euen augment the value of your Bounty I should seeme ouer presumptuous to thinke any words of mine valuable to the least of your actions It shall therefore suffice me to protest vnto you that the bounty wherewith the Letter I receiued from you is so stored being of force to infuse Loue and Fidelity in the hearts of very Barbarians shall worke no lesse effect in the spirit of a person who hath learned both by Nature and Philosophy not to be ingratefull Since I finde my interest within my duty I must necessarily loue you if I hate not my selfe and be an honest man by the very Maxime of the wicked Yet is not this last consideration the cause chiefly obliging me to your seruice For though I acknowledge diuers defects in my selfe yet may I without vanity affirme I was neuer besotted with so base an attraction as that of gaine I therefore reflect vpon your fauours in their naked purity and the esteeme you make of me is to me by so much a more strong obligation then all others in that it regardeth my merit and not my instant pouerty and proceedeth from your iudgement which is farre more excellent then your fortunes are eminent Herein my Lord it is manifest that all your inclinations are magnificent for you knowing me neither to be fit to make the Father of a Family nor to solicite causes at the Counsell-table nor well to ride post you make it appeare you are of the right blood of Kings who are onely rich in superfluous things Truely it were a hard matter to guesse what in this world is the true vse of Pearles and Diamonds or why a Picture should cost more then a Pallace but onely pleasure which to satisfie the inuentions of Art are dayly imployed and Nature to that end produceth whatsoeuer is rare being indeede a thing more noble then necessity shee being contented with small matters euer preferring profit besore pleasure And I will here stop lest I speake too much to my owne aduantage And if I haue already incurred that crime I beseech you to beleeue it hath not beene with purpose to praise my selfe but onely to extoll your liberality Yet will I make bold to acquaint you how I imploy your money and yeelde you a more particular account of the affaires I dispatch for you here at Rome First in this hot Moneth I seeke all possible remedies against the violence of the Sunne I haue a Fanne which wearieth the hands of foure Groomes and raiseth a winde in my Chamber which would cause shipwracke in the maine Sea I neuer die but I dye Snow in the Wine of Naples and make it melt vnder Mellons I spend halfe my time vnder water and the rest on Land I rise twice a day and when I step out of my bed it is onely to enter into a Groue of Orange-trees where I slumber with the pleasant purling of some twelue Fountaines but if occasion be offered to goe further once in a Weeke I crosse not the street but in Carroach passing still in the shade betweene Heauen and Earth I leaue the smell of sweetest flowers vnto the Vulgar as hauing found the inuention to eate and drinke them The Spring time neuer parts with me all the yeare either in variety of distilled Waters or in Conserues I change perfumes according to the diuersity of Seasons some I haue sweeter others stronger And though the Ayre be a thing Nature bestowes for nothing and whereof the poorest haue plenty yet that I breath in my Chamber is as costly vnto mee as my house-rent Besides all this I in quality of my Lord your Agent am almost daily feasted and there whilest others fill themselues with substantiall and most ponderous cates I who haue no great appetite make choice of such Birds as are crammed with Sugar and nourish my selfe with the spirit of Fruites and with a meate called felly My Lord these are all the seruices I yeeld you in this place and all the functions of my residence neare his holinesse and I hold my selfe particularly obliged now the second time to thanke you for this fauour for by your meanes I enioy two things seldome suiting together a Master and Liberty and the great rest you allow mee is not the least present you please out of your Noblenesse to affoord me Your Graces most humble most obedient and most faithfull seruant BALZAC From Rome the 15. of Iuly 1621. To the Lord Cardinall de Valete from BALZAC LETTER V. My Lord VVIthin the Deserts of Arabia nor in the Seas intrailes was there euer so furious a Monster found as is the Scyatica And if Tyrants whose memories are hatefull vnto vs had beenestored with such instruments for effecting their cruelties surely I thinke it had beene the Scyatica the Martyres had indured for Religion and not the fire and biting of wild Beasts At
bee very hard for me to be of a fooles minde though he were a Monarch Iintend not to steale your fauours but to purchase them legally and hauing euer beleeued flattery to bee as mischieuous a meanes to gaine affection as charmes and sorcery I cannot speake against my conscience and were not this true I tell you I would not assure you that I am Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull seruant BALZAC From Rome this 10. of December 1622. To the Lord Cardinall de Valete from Balzac LETTER VI. My LORD HOw great soeuer the subiect of my sorrows be yet doe I finde in your Letters sufficient to make mee happy in my hard fortune The last I receiued hath so much obliged mee that but for the displeasing newes comming vnto me which tempered my ioy my reason had not beene of sufficient force to moderate it But at this time the death of my poore Brother being incessantly before mine eyes taketh from me the taste of all good tidings and the prosperity euen of the Kings affaires seeme displeasing vnto mee finding my selfe to beare vpon mee the mournings of his Victory Yet since in this fatall agitation of Europe it is not I alone who bewayle some losse and since your selfe haue not beene able to preserue all that was deare vnto you I should seeme very vnciuill if I presumed to preferre my priuate interest before yours or reflect vpon my particular affliction hauing one common with yours It is long since I haue not measured either the felicities or fatalities of this world but by your contentments or discomforts and that I behold you as the whole workmanship God hath made Wherefore my Lord I will lay aside whatsoeuer concernes my selfe to enter into your resentments and to tell you since you cannot make vnworthy elections it must needes be that in the death of your Friends you can suffer no small losses Notwithstanding as you transcend sublimary things and in that all men draw examples out of the meanest actions of your life I assure my selfe they haue acknowledged vpon this occasion that there is not any accident to surmount against which you haue vse of all your vertue Afflictions are the gifts of God though they be not of those we desire in our prayers and supposing you should not approue this proposition yet haue you at all times so little regarded death as I cannot beleeue you will bewayle any for being in a condition your selfe esteemes not miserable My Lord it sufficeth you conserue the memory of those you haue loued in consequence of the protestation you pleased to make vnto me by your Letter And truly if the Dead be any thing as none can doubt they cannot grieuefor ought in this world wherein they still enioy your fauours In the meane time I take this to my selfe and am most happy in hauing conferred my dutifull affections vpon a man who setteth so high a value vpon those things he hath lost For any thing my Lord I perceiue there is small difference betweene good workes and the seruices we offer you they hauing their rewards both in this life and the other your goodnesse being illimitable as is the desire I haue to tell you I am Your most humble and most faithfull Seruant BALZAC From Rome the 29. of December 1621. To the Lord Cardinall of Valete from BALZAC LETTER VII MY LORD THough I be not in state either to performe any great exploite vpon the person of any man nor haue any great force to defend my selfe yet cannot I touch vpon the Count Mansfield without taking it to heart and ioyning my good affections to the Kings forces If this were the first time the Germans had exceeded their limits and sent their Armies to be ouerthr owne in France the nouelty of these barbarous faces and of those great lubberly swat-rutters might easily haue affrighted vs But vpon the matter we haue to doe with knowne enemies and who will suffer vs to take so sufficient aduantages ouer them besides those we naturally enioy as without being forced to make vse of Armes we may defeate them onely by their owne euill conduct I doe not wonder there are men who willingly forsake Frost and Snow to seeke their liuing vnder a more pleasing and temperate climate then their owne and who quit bad Countreyes as being well assured the place of their banishment shall bee more blissefull vnto them then that of their birth Onely herein it vexeth me in the behalfe of the Kings honour to see him constrayned to finish the remainder of the Emperours victories vpon a sort of beaten Souldiers and who rather fly the fury of Marquesse Spinola then follow vs. These great Bulwarks whose neighbour I am seeming rather the Fabricks of Gyants then the fortifications of a Garrison-towne will not euer be looked vpon with amazement one day I hope there will appeare nothing in their places but Cabbins for poore Fishermen or if it be requisite the workes of Rebellion should still remaine and the memory of these troublesome some people indure yet longer we shall in the vpshot see them remoue Mountaines and diue into the Earths foundations to prouide themselues a Prison at their owne charge But withall my Lord I beseech you let there be no further speech made of occasions or expeditions and let a Peace be concluded which may continue till the Worlds end let vs leaue the Warre to the Turke and King of Persia and cause I beseech you that wee may lose the memory of these miserable times wherein Fathers succeed their Children and wherein France is more the Countrey of Lansknights and Swisses then ours Though Peace did not turne the very Desarts into profitable dwellings as it doth or caused not the quarries or flints to be come fruitfull though it came vnaccompanied without being seconded with security and plenty yet were it necessary onely to refresh ourforces thereby to enable vs the longer to endure Warre As I was ending this last word I heard a voyce which desired my dispatch oblieging me to end what I supposed I had but begun It is with much reluctation my Lord I am depriued of the onely contentment your absence affordeth me But since you could not receiue this Letter were it any longer J am resolued to lose one part of my content to enioy the other and to say sooner then I supposed that I am euer absolutely Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull seruant BALZAC The 16. of September 1622. To the Cardinall de Valette from BALZAC LETTER VIII My LORD YOu should oftner receiue Letters from me could I ouer-master my paine but to say truth it leaueth me not one thought free to reflect vpon any thing else and what desire soeuer I haue to giue you content yet am I not able to doe any thing but at the Physitians good pleasure and at the Feauers leasure whilest the Court affoordeth you all content and prepareth whatsoeuer is pleasant for you reseruing distrusts
double as rich as thou desirest to be I haue long since beene assured thy thoughts are not inthralled to the earth or that thy passions onely exceede those of the vulgar Let me intreat thee to cherish them my deare Hydaspe and though I be continually sad and at all times ill affected in my health yet remember that the very rauings of my Feauer are sometimes more prizeable then Philosophicall meditations and we see beautifull faces often weepe so gracefully that some haue beene enamoured of their teares I haue fully acquainted thee with our occurrents here by my last Letters nor will I let any opportunity passe without giuing my selfe the content of discoursing with thee in that kind binde me so much vnto thee as to doe the like on thy part But if thy Letters be so short as vsually they are I will now betimes tell thee I will read them so often as they shall become long enough in spite of thee I know well how in the place where thou art thou oughtest not lose any minute of time since opportunities last no longer and resolue thy selfe to take a thousand vnprofitable iournies to thy Lords Chamber before thou makest one to purpose Great men vse not to keepe Registers of the absent nor remembrancers of them they vsually forget but rather to the contrary they imagining there is no other thing on earth but themselues and what concernes them prouided they finde any who looke like men they neuer trouble themselues to enquire for others since with them assiduity often workes more then seruice yea and those whom they would not affect for merit they will loue by custome It is therefore necessary you be still in sight and alwayes at hand for the entertainment of Fortune It is a tradition the subtle Gascoynes at their deathes leaue to their Children and truely as choler assumeth Armes out of whatsoeuer it encounters so is it true that occasion taketh hold of all such as present themselues We ought to contract perfect loue with honest men but yet not to be at oddes with others Poysons themselues are necessary in some cases and since we are forced to liue among sauage creatures wee had neede haue the industry either to familiarise or force them I aduise thee not to looke before thee behinde thee and on euery side when thou speakest or to be in so great feare to be taken at thy word as thou darest not tell what a Clocke it is if one askes thee Thou shalt gaine much by being silent the dumbe shall at all times therein exceede thee For my part I neuer make question of speaking when I haue any thing in my head better then silence I doe not hereby meane that wee ought to discouer our intentions by our lookes or that our interiour conceptions appeare outwardly with all their passions namely of feare hatred or distemper This were to betray our selues and to giue ill example to others But herein you are to make election of place and persons and not wilfully to depriue thy selfe of the most pleasing fruite of mans life there being not any in whose breast we may securely deposite either our griefes or ioyes Besides I would not haue thee of that Spaniards humour who tooke for his deuice Que fi que no but consider with thy selfe that Reason is a sacred thing whereto thou art to yeeld where euer it appeares I confesse that most things are inuolued in vncertainties and that humane Sciences haue very slender and vncertaine foundations yet are there some truths so perspicuous and so absolutely receiued into the Worlds approbation as it were no lesse then to lacke common sense to call them into question for hee who should say my Lord the Constable d'Esdiguieres were not valiant or my Lord the Cardinall of Richelieu were not a man of able parts doubtlesse all men would wonder at him as at one who sought to introduce some new Sect or indeauour to ouerthrow the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Nay I tell you yet more you are piously to beleeue diuers sots to be sufficient men since the World will haue it so and that Kings are not the onely men who desire complasency since if we meane to liue among others we must sometimes necessarily flatter and frame our selues to their opinions Let vs then follow the iudgement of the wise and the customes of the vulgar let vs keepe our thoughts to our selues and allow them our actions and out-sides As J haue aduised thee not to be ouer silent so would I not haue thee ouer talkatiue nor to weary any one with thy discourse of Mountauban or the exploits thou hast there seene performed I assure thee to auoyde the company of these boasting companions I would take poste goe to Sea or fly to the Worlds end They seeme to me to haue gotten a patent for prating and that it were no lesse then to take their purse if one should offer to speake a word in their presence But aboue all it is very death to me when these fellowes come fresh out of Holland or when they begin to study the Mathematicks From Millan to Sienna I was haunted with one of these Chapmen whose company I shall so long as I haue life reckon among my greatest misfortunes Hee would needes reforme all the fortifications of those strong places wee passed by bee trode on no earth at which he carped not nor trauailed ouer any Mountaine on which hee had not some designe he set vpon all the Citties in the Dukedome of Florence he desired onely a certaine short prefixed time to take in all the States of Medena Parma and Vrbin yea I had much adoe to draw him from casting his designes vpon the lands of the Church and St. Peters Patrimony These be diseases the roots whereof are not to be cut vp without taking away the tongue withall Nay J feare when all this is done there will be yet neede to passe further into the cure and to vse meanes to bereaue them of voyce for the generall good of such as can heare There is yet another sort of importunate people whose number doth so multiply in France it is almost arriued to an infinity These haue not one halfe houres intertainement for thee without telling thee the King is raysing puissant forces how such a one is out of credit with his faction another is a great searcher into and medler in State-matters and how a third diueth into all the intricacies of Court-businesses If you can haue the patience to heare them yet a while longer you shall straite vnderstand how the President Iannin was the man who had the truest intentions of all the ministers of Justice That it is expedient to shew a Master-peece of State to giue reputation to the present current of affaires That the Kings authority was interessed in this action and that those who sought to cry downe the present gouernment rather aimed at their particular aduantages then redresse of disorders See here the