THE MEMORIALLS OF MARGARET de Valoys First Wife to HENRY the Fourth King of France and Navarre Compiled in French by her owne most Delicate and Royall hand AND Translated into English by ROBERT CODRINGTON Master of Arts. LONDON Printed by R. H. 1641. TO THE TRVE LOVER OF ALL GOOD LEARNING The truly Honorable Sir Anthony Vincent Knight and Baronet c. SIR THe workes of Royall Authors are onely fit to bee lodged in noble hands to whom then more justly could I devote this service then unto YOU to whom all learning owes for a Patron and the world for an Example This is that which hath invited me to this Dedication besides an ambition which a long time I have nourished that poynteth at no other happines then to study out some way to make my selfe knowne unto YOU and if my devotion to your service can winne on your goodnesse to pardon my presumption the glorious endowments of this most illustrious Lady who in her time was one of the greatest Princesses of Europe shall winne on your Iudgemeut to entertaine this everlasting Issue and MEMORIALL of her in which there is no other errour to be found but that it is presented to the world and you by this rude hand Sir of your most humble and most devoted servant Robert Codrington An Advertisement to the Reader WHO is to understand that the Addresse of this Book in the Originall is supposed to be to Monsieur de Hardslay chief in attendance on the Duke of Alenson at what time he was chosen by the Lords of Flanders for their Protector The Argument of the First Booke THE Infancy and Education of this Lady Her attendance in ordinary on the Queen her Mother and her removall from that place by the same Power which did preferre her to it The beginning of her love with her Brother the Duke of Alenson which was continued to his death Her Marriage with the King of Navarre on which ensued the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew The resolutions of her Husband and the Duke of Alenson to joyne with the Huguenots wisely descovered and prevented The death of King Charles her Brother The close Projects and Practises at Court to plant dissention betwixt the Duke of Alenson and her Husband and betwixt the King her Husband and her self occasioned partly by the malice and aspertions of Du Guast partly by the beauty and temptations of Madame de Sauva and countenanced by the too eager beleefe of the King of France her Brother to blast this Ladies Honor. THE MEMORIALLS of QUEENE MARGARET The first Booke I Should have extolled your work the more if it had not praised me so much being unwilling to have those praises conferred on me which might sway me more to self conceit then reason for so I may be thought like Themistocles to esteem that man to speake best who doth extoll me most This is a weaknesse incident to women to be taken more with praises than deserts for this I doe condemn my sex and would not be ranked in this condition with them neverthelesse I doe account it a great glory that so deserving a Gentleman as your self have drawn my picture with so rich a pencill In this pourtraict the ornament of the table doth farre surpasse the excellence of the figure which you have made your Subject had I any part of those graces which you impute unto me my afflictions having wiped them away from outward observation have wiped withall their rememberance from my memory In a manner that beholding my selfe in your discourse I could doe willingly as sometimes the old Lady of Rendan who after her husbands decease having a long time forborn her looking glasse and having afterwards a sight of her self in another glasse by chance she demanded who it was she saw there And although my friends that see me would perswade me to the contrary yet I doe suspect their judgements as having their eyes charmed with too much affection I believe when you shall come unto the proofe that in this you will be on my side and will say as I doe often write out of the verses of Bellay Thus Rome in Rome was sought for round And nothing of Rome in Rome was found But as we take delight to reade of the destruction of Troy of the glory of Athens and of such mighty Cities when most they flourished although the signes of them are now so small that we hardly can discern where heretofore they stood so you take pleasure to describe the excellence of a beauty of which there remains no witnesse nor appearence but only in your writings Had you done it to represent the contention of Nature and of Fortune you could not have made choice of a more remarkable Subject they both in me having to emulation made essay how far their powers could extend In that of Nature your selfe being an eye witnesse doe not need instructions but in that of Fortune being unable to make description but by report which is subject to be delivered by persons ill informed or ill affected and who cannot represent the truth either through ignorance or through malice I presume that you will take pleasure to receive these MEMORIALLS from her who hath most reason to know them best and who having greatest interest in them can with greatest truth describe their Subject I have also been invited to it by five or six remarkable observations in your discourse which I have found defective as when you speak of Pau and of my voyage out of France when you speak of the late Marshall of Biron when you speak of Agen and of the Marquis of Canillac I will runne over my own Memorialls to which I will not give a more glorious name although they well deserve the title of a History for the truth which they nakedly contain being without any ornament of language for which I have now neither the ability nor the leasure This work then of one afternoon shall repaire to you in a rude and mishapen lump like Bears new whelpt to receive from you their beauty and proportion It is a Chaos from whence already you have drawn the light It is indeed a story well worthy to be written by a Knight of Honor a true Gentleman of France born of the Illustrious family which was cherished by the Kings my Father and my Brothers and Cosin and familiar friend to the noblest and most accomplished Ladies of our time it being my happinesse to be the Induction and the Tye in the Society and the Union of them The occurrences of the precedent with those of the succeeding times doe inforce me to begin in the reign of King Charles in the first time that in my remembrance there fell out any thing worthy of observation For as the Geographers in the description of the Earth when they are arrived to the utmost bound of all their knowledge doe tell us that beyond that there are nothing but sandy Deserts inhabitable Lands and Seas innavigâ—ble in
the like manner will I say that beyond that first rememberance of mine there is nothing to be discovered but a wilde of my first Infancy an Infancy wherein we live rather guided by Nature after the manner of plants and other creatures then of men perswaded and counsailed by reason and I will leave unto those who were the governours of my nonage that superfluous enquiry where peradventure among those actions of my Infancy there will be found some as worthy to be recorded as that of the Infancy of Themistocles and Alexander the one exposing himselfe in the middle of a Street to a Carters horses who would not stay himselfe at his intreaties the other despising the rewaâ—d of the Olympique Race if Kings might not contend with him for the honor or it Of which number may be the answer that I made the King my Father some few daies before the fatall blow that deprived France of peace and our house of happinesse Being then but foure or five yeers of age my Father holding me on his knee to hear me prattle demanded â—f me whom I would choose for my servant Monseiur the Prince of Joinville who hath been since the great and unfortunate Duke of Guise or the Marquis of Beaupreau the sonne of the Prince of Roche-sur-yon in whose spirit fortune having made too great a proofe of the excellency of it conspired with envy to become his deadly enemy depriving him by death in the fourteenth yeer of his age of the honours and the Crowns which were justly promised to the vertue and magnanimity that shined in him they were both at play with the King my Father and with a fixed eye I did behold them I made answer to my Father that I would have the Marquis wherefore so replied the King for said he he is not so handsome for the Prince of Joinville was of a ruddy colour and fair to look on and the Marquis of Beaupreau was of a brown complexion and haire I told him because he was the wiser and because the other would never live in peace but would be working mischiefe to one or other and one who ever would strive for masterdome a true presage of what we since have seen and the resistance which I made to persevere in my Religion at the time of the Colloquy at Poissy when all the Court was inclined to the new Religion by the imperious perswasions of many Lords and Ladies of the Court and especially of my Brother of Anjou since King of France whose Infancy could not avoide an Impression of that Religion who with incessant importunity did call upon me to change my Religion casting oftentimes my Howres into the fire and giving me instead of them the praiers and psalmes of the Huguenots constraining me to take them which as soon as I received I gave them to Madame de Curton my governesse whom God in mercy to me had preserved still a Catholick and who oftentimes would goe with me to that good man the Cardinall of Tournon who did counsaile and encourage me to suffer all things for the maintenance of my Religion and gave me new Howres and Beades in the place of those which my Brother of Anjou had burned And some other friends of his who were â—ealous to pervert me observing me againe to weare them transported with choler would offer injury unto me affirming that it was meer childishnesse and folly that made me doe so saying it did well appear that I had no capacity that all those who were of any discretion of whatsoever age or sex they were hearing grace preached were retired from the abuses of the old Superstition but I they said was as very a foole as my governesse And my Brother of Anjou adding threats to his reproaches would tell me that the Queen my Mother should cause me to be whipped but this he spake of himself for the Queen my Mother knew not of the errour into which he was fallen and as soon as she did understand it she did extreamly check him and his governours and causing them to re-instruct him she constrayned them to return to the true holy and ancient Religion of our Fathers from which she never did depart But I replyed to such threatnings of my Brother melting into teares as the age of seven or eight yeers at which I then was is tender enough that he might cause me to be beaten and if he pleased he might cause me to be killed that I would rather suffer all the torments that cruelty could invent then pull damnation on my Soule Many more such answers of mine and notes of resolution and of judgement might be found in the discovery whereof I will no longer travaile intending to begin my Memorialls with that time when I waited in ordinary on the Queen my Mother to depart from her no more For presently after the Colloquy of Poissy that the warrs began my Brother of Alenson and my selfe by reason of our tender age were sent unto Ambois whither all the Ladies of that Country retired themselves with us there was your Aunt the Lady of Dampierre who then received me into her friendship which she continued to her death and there was your Cosin Madame the Dutchesse of Rais who in that place knew the favour that fortune had done her by delivering her at the battell of Dreux from her afflicting husband Monsieur de Annebaut a person too unworthy to possesse so perfect and so divine a Subject I speak here of the beginning of the friendship of your Aunt with me and not of your Cosin which we have preserved so inviolate that it continueth yet and shall doe evermore But then the age of your Aunt had a greater complacence with my Infancy it being the nature of ancient people to make much of little children and those who are of perfect age as was then your Cosin to be weary of them and to hate their importunate simplicity I did continue there untill the commencement of the great voiage when the Queen my mother caused me to return to Court to depart from thence no more of which I will not speake at all being then so young that I cannot retain the remembrance of it but in grosse the particulars being vanished from my memory like a dreame I leave therefore the description of it to those who being then as you in a riper age can remember in particular the magnificent triumphs that were made especially at the Duke of Barrs at the Christening of my Nephew the Prince of Lorrain at Lions at the welcome of Monsieur and Madame de Savoy at Bayons at the enterview of the Queen of Spain my Sister and the Queen my Mother and of King Charles my Brother There I assure my selfe you will not forget to represent that stately banquet which the Queen my Mother made in the Iland with the mask and manner of the hall which Nature it seems had appropriated to that effect there being discovered in the middle of the I le
she commanded me very roundly to go to bed My Sister weeping bad me good night not daring to tell me any thing and I went away as a thing lost in amazements and in fears As soone as I came into my closet I betooke my selfe to Prayer and besought Almightie God that he would be pleased to take me into his protection and to defend me not knowing from what or whom By and by the King my husband who was in bed desired me that I would hasten to him which I did and found his bed encompassed with thirty or forty Huguenots which till then I not observed for but a few daies were passed since I was married to him they did nothing else but talke of the Accident that befell Monsieur the Admirall resolving as soon as it was day to demand justice of the King on Monsieur de Guise and if the King would refuse to right them they would then right themselves All that night my sisters teares were soaking into my heart and I could not sleep for the apprehension into which she had put me not knowing whom to feare The night in this manner passed away without shutting of my eyes About the break of day the King my husband said that he would goe play a game at Tennis attending till King Charles were stirring resolving with all speed to demand justice of him he went out of his chamber and all his Gentlemen with him I seeing it was day beleeving the danger which my sister did imply was now passed being overcome with sleepe commanded my nurse to make fast the doore that I might sleep without disturbance about an houre after I being in a sound sleep Behold a man knocking with his hands and feet at the doore and crying out Navarre Navarre My Nurse thinking it to be the King my husband ranne presently to the doore It was a Gentleman named Monsieur de Teian who had received a cut with a sword on the elbow and a thrust with a halberd through the arme and was pursued by foure of the Guard who came rushing into my chamber with him He endeavoring to save his life did cast himself on my bed and I perceiving the man begin to take hold of me did throw my selfe towards the wall and he flung himself after me taking fast hold behind me I did not know the man and could not tell if he came thither to violate me or whither those of the Guard would have him or me we both cryed out and were both equally affrighted At length it pleased God that Monsieur de Nansay Captaine of the Guard came in who finding me in that estate although he was touched with compassion could not refraine from laughter and very sharply reprehended those of the Guard for Indiscretion and made them depart giving me the life of that poore Gentleman who tooke hold of me whom I caused to remaine in my closet untill he was well recovered and changing my linnen because he had covered it with blood Monsieur de Nansay related to me all that had passed and assured me that the King my husband was in the chamber of the King and that he should receive no hurt and causing me to throw a night-gowne on me he did leade me into the chamber of my Sister Madame de Lorraine whither I came rather dead then alive and passing through the the Presence chamber whose doores were all open a Gentleman called Borse saving himselfe from the pursuers was struck through with a Halberd some three paces from me I fell downe on the other side fainting away and thought that the same stroak had run us both thorough And being a little recovered to my strength I entered into the chamber where my Sister lay I was no sooner there but Monsieur de Miossans chiefe Gentleman to the King my husband and Armagnack chiefe groome of his chamber came and besought me to begge their lives I presently made haste and fell on my knees before the King and the Queen my Mother beseeching them to grant me this suite to which in the end they condiscended Some five or sixe dayes after they who had begun this game knowing that they had fayled in their principall designe not ayming so much at the Huguenots as at the Princes of the Blood did impatiently indure that the King my husband and the Prince of Conde were yet alive and knowing that no man durst attempt against the King of Navarre because he was my Husband they began to weave another web perswading the Queen my mother that it was necessary to dissolve the Marriage In this resolution being one morning at the rising of the Queen my mother on a day in which we were to receive the Sacrament she took on oath of me to tell her the truth and demanded of me if my Husband were a man or no telling me if he was not that she had then means to disanul the mariage I besought her to believe that I understood not what her demand was for I might well have answered as the Roman Lady whose husband being angry with her that she never told him of his evil breath she made answere that she thought that every mans breath did smell as his But I told her howsoever it was since she had placed me with him it was my resolution there to stay perceiving very well that this separation which she spake of was only to procure a mischiefe to the King my husband After this we accompanyed the King of Polonia as farre as Beaumont who some moneths before his departure from France having laboured by all meanes to make me forget the cvill offices of his Ingratitude and to reduce our friendship to the same perfection as it was in our younger yeers obliged himselfe in a thousand oathes and promises at his farewell to me His departure out of France and the Kings sicknesse which began almost at the same time did rouze the spirits of the two parties of this kingdome making diverse projects on the State the Huguenots having at the death of the Admirall by sealed writings obliged the King my husband and my Brother of Alenson to revenge his death gaining my brothers heart a little before the feast of Saint Bartholomew with the hope to establish him in Flanders perswaded them as the King and Queen my mother came back to France to steale away into Campagne where certaine troupes should bee ready to attend them Monsieur de Miossans a Catholike Gentleman having heard of this designe so pernicious to the King his Master advertised me of it to prevent the bad effects which might prove so prejudiciall to themselves and to the State I made haste immediately to the King and the Queen my Mother telling them that I had a certaine thing to communicate unto them which did much concerne them and which I never would discover unlesse they would assure me that it should not prove hurtfull to whom I named and also provide a remedy without making show of knowing any
thing I told them then that the next morning my Brother and the King my husband intended to joyne with some troupes of Huguenots which came to seek them by reason of the oath and obligation for revenge which the Huguenots had made at the Admiralls death which obligation being for their fathers slaughter was now excusable by their children I besought them to pardon my brother and the King my Husband and to hinder their departure without out making it apparent wherefore it was done this they accorded to and it was carried with so much wisedome and dexteritie that without the knowledge of the cause they had not the means to escape This being passed we arrived at Saint Germans where we stayed a long time by reason of the Kings sicknesse during which time my Brother of Alenson laboured by all suits and services to render himselfe so agreeable unto me that in the end I vowed him friendship as I had done before unto King Charles for till that time because he had alwayes his education out of Court we had scarce the knowledge of each other and therefore could not be familiar In the end perceiving my selfe invited by such obsequiousnesse by so many observances and protestations which he daily did expresse I did resolve to imbrace his love and to be mindfull of all good offices that might concerne him neverthelesse with this caution that it should be without prejudice to the duty which I owed to King Charles my Brother whom I honored above all things in the world he continued this his affection to me having witnessed it with perseverance to his end During this time the sicknesse of King Charles daily increasing the Huguenots never ceased to raise new troubles by raysing new projects and indeavored again to retire my Brother the Duke of Alenson and the King my Husband from the Court which came not to my knowledge as at the former time neverthelesse it pleased God the mischiefe should be disclosed to the Queen my Mother so neer to be put in practise that the troupes of the Huguenots were to arrive that day neere unto Saint Germans in so much that we were constrained to remove from thence at two a Clock after midnight and to put King Charles into one Litter to recover Paris the Queen my Mother disposing of my Brother and the King my Husband in her own Charriot who were not now so gently handled as before For the King did goe to Bois de Vencennes from whence it was not permitted him to depart again And time continuing the sharpnesse of his Evill produced daily new occasions to increase his discontents and the distrust he conceived of them to which the combination and the plots of those who alwaies desired the ruine of our House did as I believe lend too much help These distrusts were carried with so much violence that the Lords Marshals also de Montmorancy and de Cosse were retained prisoners at Bois de Vencennes and la Mole and the Count of Cocanas were put to death nay to such an extremity and height of perfect danger the affayres were brought that the Commissaries of the Court of Parliament were deputed to hear my Brother and the King my Husband who were both restrained of their liberty The King my Husband having none to Counsell him commanded me to draw in writing that which he had to answer to the end that he might not trouble himself nor any other God gave me the grace to draw it so to purpose that he remained well satisfied and the Commissaries were amazed to see him so well prepared And seeing by the Death of la Mole and the Count of Cocanas they found themselves so charged that they were in danger of their lives I resolved although I was in such favour with King Charles that he loved nothing more then me to venture my own fortunes for the preservation of their lives having deliberated and determined with my selfe seeing that not any of the Guard looked in nor caused my women to unmask as daily I went into my Coach and lighted from it to disguise one of them into a woman and to take him with me into my Coach And although they were well cleared of the Guard and that the enlargement of the one was sufficient to assure the life of the other yet they could never agree which of them should come forth either of them desiring to be that person and neither of them being willing to stay behinde so that this designe could not be put in execution but God did provide a remedy by a means too grievous to me for he deprived me of King Charles who was all the comfort and supportance of my life a Brother from whom I never received but good and who in all the persecutions which my Brother of Anjou brough upon me had alwayes assisted advised and directed me briefly I lost in him what ever I could loose After this disaster fatall to France and me we went to Lyons to meet the King of Polonia who still possessed by le Guast rendred of the same causes the same effects and believing the advice of that pernicious Spirit which he had left in France to maintain and make good his part he conceived an extream jealousie against my Brother of Alenson suspecting and impatiently bearing the Union betwixt my Husband the king and him and beleeving that I was the only chain that united and preserved their love and therefore contrived as his aptest and most expedient course on the one side to traduce and set me at distance with the King my Husband and on the other to procure that the Lady de Sauva to whom they both were servants should handle them in such a manner that the one might grow extreamly jealous of the other This abhominable plot the fountain and beginning of so many Crosses and Afflictions which my Brother and I have since endured was pursued with as much heat and subtilty as it was with wickednesse contrived Some are of opinion that God hath an extraordinary and particular protection of Illustrious personages and into those spirits where the raises of his excellence doe more brightly shine he gives them by their good Angels some secret advertisements of the accidents which are prepared for them be they good or evill In which number I may justly place the Queen my Mother who hath proved many examples of it The very night before that inauspicious turnament she dreamed that she saw the King my Father wounded in the eye as the next day he was and being awaked she often times besought him that he would not tilt that day but content himself with the pleasure of seeing the Turnaments without being an Actor in them inevitable destiny permitted not so great a blessing to this kingdome that he should receive such saving Counsell neither did she ever loose any of her Children but a little before she saw the apparition of a great flame whereat she suddainly would cry out God blesse my
Children and immediately after she understood the sad news which by that fire was presaged In her sicknes at Metz being in great extreamity by a pestilent feaver which she took by going to see the Religious Houses of women whereof there were many in that City which a little before had contagiously been infected from which desperate malady miraculously she was recovered God then restoring her to this state which had so much need of her by the diligence of Monsieur de Castelan her Physitian who like a new Aesculapius made an admirable proofe of the excellence of his art She raving and attended by King Charles my Brother and my Sister and Brother of Lorraine with many Lords of the Counsell and many Ladies and Princesses who were round about her bed and although conceiving her past recovery would not abandon her she continued those raging fits as if she had beheld the battell of Jarnac Look how they fly My Sonne hath the victory O my God my God assist my Sonne he now is fallen on the earth See where the Prince of Conde lyes slain under yonder hedge those that were then present cryed out she raved and knowing that my Brother of Anjou was about to joyn in battel with the enemy they thought that she had nothing but the Battell in her head but the night following Monsieur de Losses brought news of it as a desired message by which he thought to merit much to whom she said you have done me wrong to waken me for that which I knew before for said she Did I not see it yesterday then they understood that it was not the raving of her feaver but a particular prenotion which God doth give to rare and Illustrious persons The Histories doe furnish us with many like examples of the ancient Heathen as the apparition of Brutus and many more which I will not now rehearse it being not my intention to beautifie my Memorials but only to relate the truth and to advance them forward that you may receive them with greater speed Of these divine presages I doe not account my self worthy neverthesse not ungratefully to conceale the graces and gifts of God which I have received and which I ought to confesse and will doe throughout all my life to give thanks unto him for it and that every one might praise in me the wonderfull effects of his power his bounty and his mercy I professe that never any remarkable accident hath befaln me either good or evill of which I had not before some advertisement either in a dreame or otherwise and I might well repeat that verse My minde doth still prophetick see All good or bad that fals on me The truth whereof I proved then at the arrivall of the King of Polonia when the Queen my Mother met him although it were so hot a season that we were even stifled with the throng while my Brother and the Queen my Mother were imbracing each other and expressing their reciprocall indeerments yet so strange a cold and universall a trembling in every limbe and joynt possessed me that they who attended on me did perceive it I had much adoe to conceale it when the King having left my Mother came to salute me This presage did touch me to the heart howsoever there passed some few dayes before the King discovered his hate and badde intention which this malicious Guast had made him to conceive against me He reported to him that ever since the death of the King I took in his absence the part of my Brother of Alenson and had indeered him to the King my husband wherefore watching an occasion to arrive at their designe which was to break the friendship of my Brother of Alenson the King my Husband by planting dissention betwixt my Husband and my self and by tormenting them both with jealous pangs for their common love and Mistresse the Lady de Sauva one afternoon the Queen my Mother being retired into her closet to make some little stay your Cosin Madame de Nevers Madame de Rais Bourdeille and Surgeres desired me that I would goe forth into the City on this motion the young Lady de Monâ—igny the Neece of Madame de Vsez told us that the Abbey of Saint Peters was a goodly Covent we resolved to goe thither because she had an Aunt there and because there was no admission for her unlesse with persons of eminent degree We took her with us and as we mounted into the Charriot although there were six of us in number besides Madame de Curton a Dame of honour who was alwaies with me there was Liancourt the Kings chief Esquire and Camillus with him who threw themselves on the bearing staves of Torignyes charriot where holding as fast as they could and playing and jeasting where they sate as they were of a sportfull and frolick disposition they said they would goe with us also to see those faire and religious Ladies the company of the young Lady of Montigny who was a meere stranger to me and of those two who were the Kings associates was as I beleeve an especiall mercy and Providence of God to acquit me from the imputation of the insuing slander We came to that religious house and my charriot which was easie to be knowne being guilded over the ground-worke being yellow velvet and garnished with silver did attend us at the doore neere unto which place were the lodgings of many Gentlemen While we were in the Abbey the King going to see Quelus who then lay sick having with him the King my Husband de O and Rufus passed by that place and seeing my charriot empty he turned towards the King my husband and said See heere where your Queens charriot is and heere doth Bidus lodge I will lay a wager that she is there and commanded Rufus a fit instrument for such malice being a friend to le Guast to goe in and see who having found nothing there yet unwilling that the truth should hinder the Kings project spake alowd before the King my husband The birds were there of late but they are now flowen this was sufficient to administer a subject to them for discourse till they returned home The King my husband testifyed in this the Goodnes of his Nature and Understanding with which he shewed himselfe to be alwayes accompanied and detesting in his heart this malice did easily discover wherefore it was done The King made haste to returne before me to possesse the Queen my mother with this Invention and to make me receive an affront I arrived presently after he had the leisure to doe me this ill office when the Queen my mother had spoken strangely of me before the Ladies partly for beliefe and partly to please her Son whom in all things she idolized On my returne not knowing any thing at all as I was going downe unto my chamber with all the troupe that accompanyed me to Saint Peters I did meet my husband who as soone as he beheld me
my Mother and was as desirous as her selfe to have a Peace established intreating her that she would be pleased to be a means thereof She presently prepared her self to goe unto my Brother demonstrating unto the King that it was necessary to take me with her but the King would not consent unto it believing that I did serve him as a sufficient hostate thereupon she took her journy without me and without so much as speaking to me when my Brother seeing that I was not with her represented the just discontents which he received and the indignities and rough usage which he found at Court adding thereunto the injuries which were done to me by keeping me in durance and the cruelty which to displease me they more then offered to Torigny protesting that he would lend no â—are to any overture of peace untill the wrongs which they had done me were redressed and till he saw me satisfied and free The Queen my Mother hearing this returned and declared to the King what answer my Brother sent unto him and that it were requisite if he desired a peace that she should go back again but for her to goe without me her journey would be so unprofitable that it would rather increase then mitigate the Evill as also to take me with her without having first contented me it might doe more hurt then good and that it was to be feared that I would return no more but from thence would repaire to the King my Husband that it was necessary to take away the guard that was set over me and to finde a means to make me forget the rough usage which I received This the King found good and seemed as much affected to it as her selfe Immediately she sent for me and told me that she had prevailed so much that she had prepared things to a way of peace that she knew that my Brother and my self did ever desire the benefit of the State that she could conclude a peace so advantagious to my Brother that he should have occasion to rest himself content and be free from the tyrany of Le Guast or whatsoever other malicious Spirit did possesse the King against him and that if I would assist her in making the accordance betwixt the King and my Brother I should deliver her from a great and insupportable calamity shee being unable without a griefe as strong as death to receive the tidings of the Victory of the one or other of her sonnes she desired me that the injuries I received might not transport me rather to thoughts of vengeance then of peace she told me that the King was sorry that she had seen him weep and that he would give me such satisfaction that I should remaine contented with it I replyed to her that I never would preferre my private Good to the Benefit of the State for the improvement and safety whereof I would willingly sacrifice my life and that I desired nothing more then a happy peace to the effecting whereof I would devote my self and all my indeavors on this the King came into her cabinet and with a multitude of faire words did labour to give me satisfaction and incited me to his friendship finding that neither my deportment nor my words gave him any apparence of the injuries I received which I did more in contempt of the offence that he had done unto me then for any satisfaction to him having passed the time of my captivity in the pleasure and exercise of reading in which I then began to delight my self owing this obligation not to Fortune but to the divine Providence which then began to provide me so great a remedy to relieve my self in the afflictions which were prepared for me which served me also as an introduction to devotion reading in that fayre and universall booke of Nature so many wonders of the creator of it for every well tempered Soul rearing to it self a ladder by this knowledge of which GOD is the last and highest round ravished thereat doth addresse himself to the adoration of the admirable light of that incomprehensible Essence and making a perfect circle delighteth not in any thing but to follow that Homerick chaine that exquisite Ring of Knowledge which proceedeth from God himselfe the beginning and end of all things And sadnesse contrary to Joy which giveth us not leave to consider our own actions rouzeth up the Soul in its self which uniting all her forces to reject the evill and to imbrace the good thinkes and thinkes againe incessantly to choose this Soveraigne blisse in which we may finde peace with confidence and these are those pious dispositions that prepare us to arrive at the knowledge and the love of God I received these two benefits from the solitude and griefe of my captivity to addict my selfe to reading and devotion of which before I scarce had tasted amidst the vanity and pompe of my prosperous Fortune The King as I have said seeing in me no apparence of discontent told me that the Queen my mother should return unto my Brother in Champagne to mediate a peace and besought me to accompany her and to doe there all the good offices I could for he knew he said that my Brother reposed more trust in me then in any other in the world and that whatsoever Good should arise from thence he would give me the honour of it and professe himselfe obliged to me I promised him what I resolved to performe for it conduced to the Benefit of my Brother and the State so to imply my self as he by it should receive contentment The Queen my mother did depart and I with her and comming to Sens the conferrence was held in a Gentlemans house a mile from thence The morning following wee came to the place of conference my Brother was there in person accompanyed with some of his owne troupes and with the principall Lords and Catholike Princes of his Army among whom also was Duke Casimire and Colonell Poux who brought unto him sixe thousand Reisters by the means of those of the Religion who were joyned with my Brother in the behalfe of the King my Husband For many dayes they treated on the peace and the conditions of it having many disputations on the articles especially on those which concerned the Huguenots and the agreement was made with conditions more advantagious to them then they themselves could wish as presently after it appeared The Queen my mother the peace being concluded perswaded my Brother to send back the Reisters and to retire himselfe from those from whom being ever a good Catholick he had a great desire to separate himselfe not willing to be served by Huguenots but only for necessitie In this peace there was an Estate assured to my brother for his maintenance according to his qualitie in which my Brother would have me comprised being very earnest that the assignation of my dowry in Lands might be established and Monsieur de Beauvais who was deputed there a party for him
and with many protestations that he would remain a most constant servant to my Brother and my selfe But false and treacherous fortune not able to support the glory of this so happy a condition which in my voyage hitherto did attend me gave me two crosse presaâ—es which on my return to content her envy she had prepared for me The first was that my Boat had no sooner removed from the shore but Madamoisâ—lle de â—â—urnon a virgin indowed with many virtues whom I intirely loved took so strange a sicknesse that on a suddain she burâ—â— forth into strong and loud shreiks by reason of the violence of the grief she felt which did so oppresse her heart that the Physitians could provide no remedy but within a few daies she was ravished by Death I will relate this tragicall story in its own place it being so remarkable The other was that arriving at Huy a town scituate on the declining of a hill there brake forth on a suddain so impetuous a torrent falling from the Mountain waters into the river that ingrossing and devouring all at once we could no sooner leape to land and run with all the speed we could to recover the top of the Hill but the floud was there as soon as we My lodgeing was on the upper and highest part of the Town where that night we were content with what provision the Master of the House had of his own who had not means to get Boats or people to send down into the Town which seemd overwhelmed in that vast Deluge from which it was wonderfully delivered as it was seized by it for on the dawning of the day the waters were all returned and retired within their proper channels On my departure thence Monsieur and Madame de Aurec returned to Namur unto Don John and I took Boat to goe that day to Leige where the Bishop who is a great Lord received me with all the honour and demonstrations of good will that a courteous and well affected person could expresse He was a Lord attented with great virtue wisedome and bounty and who spake very good French agreeable with his person which was honorable and magnificenâ— He was attended with a Chapiter and many Canons all sonnes of Dukes and Counts and great Lords of Germany The Bishoprick is of a soveraigne estate and of great revenue and filled with many goodly Towns The Canons obtain their places by election and they must continue a yeere probationers that are received into their Society The town is great as Lyons and almost of the same scituation the river Mosa passing in the middle of it excellently builded there being no Religious House which seemeth not a faire palace the streets long and large enriched with curious fountaines the Churches adorned with so much marble which they have there at hand that worthily they challenge the observation of the passinger and may be as well the wonders as the pleasures of his eye The Clockes made with German industry singing and representing all variety of Musick and of Persons The Bishop received me as I came out of my Boat and conducted me into a faire and stately Palace so richly painted and set forth with so much Gold and Marble that there is nothing more magnificent or delightfull The waters of Spa were three or foure miles from thence and there being no Town neer but a Village only of three or foure houses Madame the Princesse of Roche-sur-yon was advised by her Physitians to stay at Leige and to have the water brought thither to her assuring her that it would loose no virtue being brought unto her before the Sun was up of which I was very glad having our aboad in so fit a place and in so good a Company for besides his Grace for so they stile the Bishop of Leige as we give the title of Majesty to a King or of Highnesse to a Prince the rumour flying that I passed that way most of the Lords and Ladies of Almaine were come thither to attend me and among others Madame the Countesse of Aremberg who was she that had the honour to conduct Queen Elizabeth to her mariage at Meziers when she was espoused to King Charles my Brother and who conducted my eldest sister at her mariage to the King of Spaine she was a woman that was in great account with the Empresse and Emperour and with all the Princes of Christendome there was also her sister Madame de Lantgrave and her Daughter Madame de Aremberg and Monsieur de Aremberg her sonne a brave and worthy Gentleman the lively image of his Father who bringing heretofore auxiliary Souldiers from Spaine to King Charles my Brother returned with great honour and reputation This arrivall being full of joy and honour had been yet farre more delightfull were it not interrupted by the Death of Madamoselle de Tournon whose history being so remarkable I cannot here but make digression to relate it Madame de Tournon who was then my Dame of honour had many daughters the â—â—â—est whereof was maried to Monsieur â—e Bâ—â—anson Governour for the King of Spaine in the County of Burgundy who returning to his own Country intreated Madame de Tournon his Mother to let him have another of her Daughters to associate his wife being to live now in a place removed from her kindred her Mother consented to it and she staying there some yeers in improving her selfe though her cheifest beauty was her virtue and her gracefull carriage Monsieur the Marques of Varambon a man designed to the Church being resident in the same house with his Brother Monsieur de Balanson by ordinary society of discourse and conversation with Madamoiselle de Tournon became very amorous of her and being not yet obliged to the Church desired to espouse her he propounded the motion to his own friends and to hers they of her side did well approve it but his Brother Monsieur de Balanson thinking it more profitable for him to have him of the Church prevailed so farre that he brake off the Marriage designing to him the habit and formality of the Gown Madame de Tournon offended thereat took from thence her daughter Madamoiselle de Tournon with her sister Madame de Balanson and being a rough and severe woman without regard of her Daughters age and disposition which deserved a more gentle usage she daily did torment her with vehement and invective language insomuch that she was never seen to have her eyes dry though all her actions were most commendable so ungentle was the nature and severiâ—y of this Mother Her Daughter desiring nothing more then to be released from this tyranny entertained a certain joy when she saw I was going into Flanders truly conceiving that the Marques of Varâ—bâ—n would meet me there and being now in the estate of Mariage for he had altogether abandoned the gown would peradventure demand her of her Mother and that by the means of this Mariage she should be delivered from her