heretofore Moreouer we do neuer so sensibly esteeme of other mens losses as of our owne All those peeces were indeed lost for vs not by vs they were taken from our Fathers vpon some colour of right at least right of warr which as our Brennus was wont to say is the most auncient and vniuersall Law The griefe thereof is past long since But if any would encroch now but one foot of land vpon our Borders in what an other sort would we stirr for it then for all those kingdomes And will wee not stirre for the death of our Kings who woulde not without feare vnder-take against their sacred liues if wee valued them cheaper then their Lands Yet haue wee a kinde of comfort in those losses they were so deerly solde that the possessors dare not much boast of it And shall we not make them pay more deerly for the pricelesse life of our deere Prince Shall they laugh it out to our faces whilst we sit basely weeping And shall not their insolency sharpen our anger O French-women no more French men if that might euer be reproched vnto vs But now what relation what proporcion of the losse of some land to the losse of a King and of such a King as he was Neuertheles who knowes not but the least of those peeces hath often set all Christendome in fire and bloud our Kings them-selues not sparing their owne liues for them Againe I neuer spoke in the yong daies of your Maiesties raigne Then we could not choose but greatly be amazed at the greatnes at the suddennes of our blow and somwhat yeild to the fury of the storme Then were we rather to looke to assure our selues then to trouble others rather to defend then to assaile and panting vnder the waight of our ruyne take holde as it were for a time of that hand that had drawen it vpon vs as not knowing or rather not seeming or rather not striving to knowe our enemies But now since there is nothing to be apprehended since in their lowest degree of weakenes misery they had no further end then onely to take him away esteeming they had gotten enough if we might but loose him as to his perpetuall glory they feared him alone more then all France besides or els thinking that he being gone all things would go away after him of themselues be turned vpside downe Since it pleased God in his diuine mercy to confound their thoughts shewing them and vs and all the world that he can scourge and haue pitty wound to death with one angry hand hauing the other still ready to apply the plaister and against all hope to heale that he can kill and make aliue bring downe to the graue and raise vp againe since we are now as strong and as strongly setled as euer in your fathers time if not more Why should we not speak boldly Why should we not point at our enemies with the finger and call them by their owne names Why should we not goe and yet more boldly fall vpon them all There is no more doubt no more difficulty who hath forged that parricidious steele we know alas now we know to much their doctrine and practise and cannot say worse against them then they haue written themselues Time was and in King Henry the thirds time it was when we feared only secret confessions priuate conferences hidden chambers of Meditacion All these works of darknes were as yet done in the darke and could catch none but some weake and brain-sicke soules But now Time is that he that can transforme himself in an Angell of light hath set an open schoole thereof and sent his black Doctors thorough all nations more safely to deceiue falsely carrying the sweete name whose person they persecute because when he put them out of hell he told them A Iesu ite Now it is publikely taught and as a thirtenth article of faith maintained and commanded to be added to the Creede vnder paine of eternall damnation And if we do not at last open our eyes if wee doe not set our selues against it if we let it coole any longer and not put it downe in hot blood Time shall neuer be nor so good nor so fit as it is now Mariana was the first who was bold to reduce it in art and precepts in three set bookes De regis destructione And though many almost as pestilent as he both of his owne nation and Society both before and after him haue written vpon that vnhappy subiect as Ribadeneyra Toledo Valencia Vasquez Azor Sa and others yet because with them he that can worke most mischiefe is worthy of the highest title this most vnworthy villaine shall goe in the fore-front since he without them and aboue any of them or rather aboue all them hath wrought most villany and kild so great a King That execrable monster could not be borne very far from Affrick And Indè prima mali labes Yet because Spayne shall not be disgraced alone by breeding such royall Dragons such venemous Basiliskes which kill not men simply but kings not with their sight being not otherwise so resolute or religiously minded as to venture so neere but with their breath only and a farre off And whose infectious stinck can still murther not during their liues onely but a thousand yeares after their death very farre from those old Prophets whose dead carkases did raise others to life There is no Nation in the world but hath a share in the shame Germany euen honest Germany that golden Latium of old Saturnus and who hath kept herselfe more vnspotted of this newer world wil acknowledge she hath no small part therin There you shall find one of those doting indeed and yet no lesse proud yet no lesse wicked serpents who dares not onely vomit his venome against kings but inueighing against them vsurpe euen their very title and phrase as in a kinde of comparison or as if he would play the king himselfe But oh how farre commest thou short impudent Gretzerus No Iebuzit but one only Araunah could euer bring forth a Royall Gift and farre better hadst thou done to keepe thy selfe within thine owne rancke adding the most crooked letter of the Alphabet and most like thy serpent-like dealing to thy title more fitly call it Basiliscon Doron But God would not haue thee both wicked and wise at once for when thou hast broke thy head at the very head and first word of thy booke it is not enough but thou must needes break thy neck also in thy foolish dedication to such a one as thou neuer sawest to such a one as thou shalt neuer see for that great soule being departed penitent no doubt but where she is Gretzerus there shalt thou hardly come finally to such a one as shall neuer heare of it and if she should could neuer but greatly abhorre to be cogged from heere below perswaded to make a party there aboue for the Loyolists and Cabalise with
and a name which can neuer dye and is able stil to win battels as a new Scanderbeg after his own death He hath left vs a successor who as another Phoenix sweetly raysed out of those Ashes and rysing vpon our darkned Horizon as a new Sunne in his Oryent faithfully promiseth to dry our moystned eyes and cleere vp all the mists of our sorrowes And as a Great one said once since more adore the Sunne rysing then declyning no doubt but this new Planet now so happily beginning to shine vpon our heauen shall one day be saluted and worshiped by many more subiects then that whose course was of late so vnhappily shortned And indeed if we may iudge of the fruit by the flowers his buds are so many and so faire already that when it shall once please God to spread them they cannot but exceed the most perfect beauties and euen the very Gold of his own Lillies Nothing can be imagined greater then the motions of that yong Prince and me thinkes I see already in him a picture in litle of that worth of his father which doth promise I know not how much more in this hopeful abridgement then in the original as though God reuiuing in him not only all those former vertues would ad to his number some other more as yet to the world vnknowne It is wonderfull to see him at this age send out so many liuely sparkes of that powerfull Genius within him saying already such things as would contend in excellency with all those old sayings of Plutarch as though he would put to schoole againe those famous men that fatherd them taking it of the father as wel as his kingdomee For who was there in the world more quick more sharpe and of a more present wit then he who could put down at his pleasure the most solid iudgments by the readines of his answers This young sonne of his is actiue stirring couragious as he was so delightfull as one would neuer be weary to looke vpon him Of such a natural towardnesse to al his exercises as you would thinke Art can teach him no more Of a man-like fairenes and drawing already to be a man before mens expectation through which manly lineaments yet shines a royal greatnes It was a sorowfull Essay yet very comfortable to all his subiects in that publike desolation to see his gratious fashion at the Parliament sitting the first time on his royall Throne of Iustice assisted with the Queene his Mother Princes Peeres and Officers of his Crowne and to heare him speak with such a Maiesty as did gaine-say his Age and ouer-reach our reason yet all that nothing like to his faire presence to his royall countenance at his happy coronation as though moneths had ben yeares for his prentiship and he had perfectly learned to be a King afore he be a man He is carefully trayned vp vnder the vigilant care of a wise mother who could giue a good proofe euen in the brunt of this generall mischance and in euery action since how well her great minde was fitted to the greatnes of her charge And will not be lesse blessed in the gouernment of this Empire and in bringing vp our lawfull king in all vertues meet for his great rancke then in the bringing him into the light of this world A Princesse indeed most accomplished in euery thing and whose heroycall quallities surmount the ordinary feeblenes of her sex beyond proportion He is seconded with two young brethren who as two strong Pillars of the Realme shall without wearynes faithfully lend their shoulders to the weight of his charge He hath three faire Princesses to his Sisters whose happy mariages wil strengthen more and more the firmnes of his Scepter Besides so many great and ancient alliances of his fathers approued friends whose only name will suffice to beate downe the power of such enemies as would rise against him He hath a mighty Army at hand at all times many treasures to maintaine it and many braue Generalls to commaund it which like so many thunders are ready to fall vpon all that would offend him So that if any had but the least knowne thought thereof I do not say of his subiects onely but euen among his greatest Enemies he should sooner be crushed with the force of the blow then heare the noise of it Away therefore goe and hide your selues for shame ye vaine bablers blacke soules infamous remnants of the League infernal matches of our ciuill fires poysoned springs of all our miseries be neuer seen be neuer heard in the world with your Syren-Songs that our enemies are moued with pitty through the strange cruelty of our accident and that although their hatred were yet in his heate it will now be cooled in the depth of our mischiefe as though we were ready to call for their mercy as though it were in their hands to be good to vs and feare had taken such impression in our harts as France were glad to kneele to the next Conqueror O God! what a base slackenes what a fayned faintnes what an open treason yet you dare mis-call it Policy and skill of State Good Lord what a hurtfull Policy to show weakenes in this great body where there is none when rather if there were any it were true skill to conceale it And how farr is that from emboldning vs by the very weakenes of the enemy himselfe who by that vnhapy remedy wherwith he was constrained to put by for a time his euil to come hath so basely vncouered his shame bewrayed the sores of his estate All their safetie was set vpon the point of a bad knife which if it had missed our Kings royall bosome our swords could not haue missed their execrable brests vnlesse they had preuented vs with cutting their owne filthy throats O braue French-men Those that in the sharpest of their sickenes in the extremity of their weaknes and irresolution carryed the fire and the sword into the very hart of Cleue-land brauely to succour their friends should they not be able in the best of their health in the height of their strength and when the state hath taken firme roote and forme should they not be able now more brauely to defend themselues against their Enemies Nay but there is another reckoning to be made If we may euer smel out that this mischieuous blow hath ben sent vs by any one in the world either from the East the West or the South the North we need not feare it is to white and to pure to vse such black remedies and hath no cause thereof We must we ought and we will dye men women children and all in our reuenge we will goe and fetch them downe from the very tops of their hills search them into the deepest holes of the earth if they runne hide them-selues thither wee will pul them out to their deserued slaughter If not we will rather destroy our whole seed then leaue a generation which might
all his Enemies to pouder Good Lord how many high dissignes ouerthrowne how many threds cut with that of his life and what a wretched Remora staies now a great ship He was so full of life and vigor he had so many friends and so many meanes so many men and so many horses so many armes and so many cannons besides so much courage and valour so much iudgment and dexterity so much resolution and wisedome so much experience and readines in warre in state Campe Counsell and euery where as it is vnpossible to discerne whether he was more valiant or more wise more polliticke or more martiall being a like excellent and perfect euery way And all that could not helpe but a forlorne wretch a man of nothing a nothing and not a man hath stayed the course of so great so mighty and so matchlesse a Monarch to whom euen the most dreadfull elements had yeelded who sent a trembling Ague into the harts of all those who were conscious to haue deserued his anger At Melun he shunned the attempt of Barriere At Fontainebleau that of a Spanyard who would haue rewarded him with a trecherous death euen when he healed him of the Kings euill At Paris that of a mad fellow yet liuing and whom he would neuer suffer to be punished so naturally was he giuen to compassion and clemency Al these attempts thogh missing indeed together with that which really and effectually did beat out his very teeth were sufficient to prouide him against this last and fatall blow But alas that to braue minde could neuer learne how to feare And yet the very day of his death had he some secret feeling of his end Hee laye downe twise or thrise vpon his bed against his custome rysing againe as oft kneeled and prayed hartely to God that morning as if he had foreknowne it would be his last For that morning he was intreated not to stirre abroad and fore-warned by a learned Astronomer called La Brosse that that day was dangerous to him but he trusting his owne goodnes and after so Christian a preparation resolued to any thing his maker would lay vpon him made so small account thereof as going after noone to the Arsenall even he refused to take any Guard Neuerthelesse an hower before he could not well frame with himselfe if he would goe or tarry being deuided between the with-drawing counsell of his good Angell the impulsiue force of his destiny a thing altogether vnvsuall to the promptnes of his wit neuer before hauing ben seen to stagger vpon any occasion At last his courage and our mischance got the vpper hand When he receaued the blow he was reading a letter from the Arch-duke who offered him passage for his Army and to defray all charges through his Country And in the very feeling of his ioy our sorrow ouertooke him Oh! how farre was he in the world when he went out of it But sure those cruell blowes were more against our selues then against him and God in his wrath took that inestimable iewell from vs whose worth wee neuer rightly valued Yet O Lord stay heere at the least we indeed are worthy of a sharper punishment but altogether vnable to beare it Giue vs leaue now to lament for our worthy Prince for whom forgiue vs ô father if perhaps our sorrow be more then is due to any mortall And yet deere Country men thus farre may we ioy in our sorrow and thanke God for many comforts which cannot easily be taken from vs we suffer a great losse indeed most senceles stony were we if we should not feele it But I pray you looke ouer me with mee both the fortune and nature of our state Whensoeuer any new line of our Kings hath ben about to set vp it selfe by his own strength these great changes haue neuer ben without great troubles and some extraordinary great conuulsion For as in the naturall so in the Politicke body as a chiefe bone cannot be broken without much violence but when it comes once to knit againe there growes a certaine hardnes callosity more strong then euer the bone it selfe was So when after such aebreach the Kingdome hath once taken root ben well established the father euer left it surer to his fonne and a fonne greater then his father aboue whome as per excellentiam he alwaies got the surname of great indeed We had but three lines since our stories began to be written by our owne men for in those times our fore-fathers more carefull to do then curious to speake rather gaue then tooke occasion of writing So that if euen those that most would haue concealed it had not ben forced to tell it vs we should haue knowne nothing of our selues afore Faramond But looke how soone came in our first Clovis but the second after Merouee from whom the first line tooke name and how iustly deserued he the surname of great if in that golden age of simplicity those swollen titles had ben in vse And afterward was not our Charles great indeed the second of the second line to which euen in double respect he gaue name Now in the third was not our Robert both King and surnamed great euen during his fathers raigne who neuer so worthy had but a sorry surname as though his sonne had ben the very soule of the Kingdome and the father could not truly be a King without him And howsoeuer the accession now of Bourbon to the Crowne cannot rightly be tearmed the change of a line no more then that of Valois being iust both alike after the successiue decease of three brethren without heire male successiuely Kings after their father but only the ingrafting of a natiue bud vpon his owne stock yet the example may hold because it is a new branch and name and more especially because one braue Prince was more stood against more powerfully and more passionately then euer any of all those before or euen all they together He had wonderful smal meanes whē he came to the crown and no better friend but Dieu son droit with his owne sword he was of a religion contrary to that which was formerly professed in his kingdome he had not only the bodies but which is worse harts mindes and soules strongly preoccupated wholy bent against him all which oppositions he must needs ouercome one by one And howbeit in the end he setled his affaires was a better Catholique then the Pope himself yet the weake faith of some incredulous soules could not as yet well receaue it and the wily craft of those deceitful Foxes or rather rauenous Wolues accustomed to make aduantage as ill of silly mens weakenes as of desperate wretches resolutions and whose wide clawes nothing escapeth be it neuer so hot or cold light or heauy dissembling their owne knowledge did foster and further the others vnbeleefe made away to make him away Yet his vertue strength are not dead but with a fame