Princess Mary came insensibly to discover all that she had concealed in her thoughts At this time it was that the Duke of Suffolk found himself raised to the top of felicity He confessed himself very far short of the discretion she allowed him and by transports of gratitude which could never with good grace be employed but on that occasion considering the state of his fortune showing himself as ambitious as she desired he should be he obliged her twice to tell him that if he were not it behoved him to become so The good thoughts of the King her Brother whereof he had given her an account in her sickness and the reflexions that since that time she had made thereon which very seasonably she called to mind were of great advantage to her modesty in an entertainment of that nature She easily thought that having the approbation of her Brother and King on whom she solely depended she had no distances to stand on She intreated him to make his advantage of that and Brandon made no difficulty to obey her But fortune allowed them only this calm of hope and joy that she might more cruelly expose them to the fury of the storm she prepared for them The End of the first Part. THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The Second PART THE DUKE of Longueville with some other French being at London Prisoner at large under no other Confinement but his word lived at Court in Princely Magnificence and having occasion daily to see the beautiful Princess Mary though his arm which he carried in a scarf since his hurt still pained him had nevertheless but too many easie minutes to consider all the charms of her Beauty For nine or ten Months time he had endeavoured by all probable arguments to resist the vanity of such thoughts the Quality of Daughter and Sister to a King promised already in marriage to the heir of the Crown of Spain and the open War betwixt France and England allowed him no great hopes But he became at length passionately in love by frequent representing to himself the reasons that should have hindered it He thought it no error to take pleasure in beholding the fairest Princess in the world He looked upon the frequent occasions that he sought of entertaining her to be but the amusement of a Prisoner and thinking to secure his heart from love by the many impossibilities of enjoyment he fancied there was no great danger in desiring to please her In the mean time it befel him as he would have foretold to any other in the like disposition He came even to forget that he was a Prisoner and as love delights in mystery and intrigues entering into confidence with Mary of England he gave her a full discovery of the secret of his King and Masters Court The aversion that the late Queen of France had against the Duke of Valois and the fear that she was in lest the Dutchy of Bretannie should be for ever united to the Crown of France afforded him ample subjects of discourse He told her all the attempts which that implacable Queen had made to hinder that Union from taking effect by the marriage of her eldest Daughter to a Prince whom she could not endure She added that though the matter was accomplished yet the Duke of Valois seemed not much satisfied therewith and that having no Children by Madam and most people doubting whether ever he should have any he was already perhaps projecting to do with her as the King his Father-in-law had done with Jane of France so that the Daughter was very like to undergo the same fortune and usage which her Mothers beauty had occasioned to the Sister of CHARLES the Eight that the King was very infirm and gave no hopes of long life and by the instance of the Princess her self to whom he was speaking who had been ineffectually engaged to the heir of Spain making no account of the marriage of Claudia of France with the presumptive heir of LOWIS the Twelfth he easily concluded that if she would accept of his service in that negotiation without any long expectation she might see it succesfully brought to a period And thereupon giving way to his own thoughts he cryed That his greatest happiness would be to see her Queen of France and though to say the truth his intentions were neither the most sincere nor discreet that might be imagined yet it was not so easie for the young Princess to penetrate into the folly of them What vivacity and briskness so ever she had mischief and disorder were far from her thoughts Her tender and passionate air was sometimes injurious to her virtue and as she was every way obliging so it was most commonly imagined by all that had the honour to see her that the Conquest of her was not very difficult In this then the Duke of Longueville as well as many others found himself deceived who in stead of a lawful hope feeding his love with the vain expectations which his desires and appearances shaped for him by making Mary of England Queen of France he entertained hardly any thought for her which he expressed not under so fair a pretext Though the Princess was not affected by his Discourses in the manner that he could have wished she was nevertheless well-pleased to hear them His truely French humour and gallantry had so great a resemblance to her own that she still entertained the Duke of Suffolk with all that he said to her and he who had received no disquiet from his former Rivals was but at first slightly moved with this last He imputed this new correspondence to the natural freedom of the Princess and did not condemn her jollity But jealousie that began to work in him began likewise to shake his confidence and the disquiet of mind by little and little following the emotions of his heart he took the allarm at last and grew so jealous that he became uneasie to himself The care and means that the Princess essayed to reassure and compose him wrought no great effects and his grief encreased so much that he having refused all the gentle remedies which with greatest sincerity she offered to him she resolved without speaking a word at length to employ the strongest For that end she denied the Duke of Longueville any more access to her and because he continued obstinate to the contrary she was about to have spoken to the King that he might send him back into France upon his word or confine him to some of his houses in the Countrey The noise of that would have been great without doubt and the King who could not prevail on the mind of Suffolk by other means would not have spared that way of curing him had she but in the least proposed it The repose of that favorite was now become as dear to the King as his own and if the Princess had not been promised to the young Arch-Duke by a solemn treaty the breach whereof had not
even with some kind of admiration and in fine every one conforming their Sentiments to theirs their true joy became the greater by approbation The lovely Queen was conducted by all the Court as far as Compiegne from whence the King still transported with Love resolved in person to convey her to Boulogne where he had first received her The Duke of Suffolk who kept purposely by the Queens Consort all the way from Paris to Compiegne where she lived that he might give the King the greater liberty did the same from Compiegne till they arrived at Boulogne and was always in company with the Dukes of Alencon and Bourbon from whom he received all sorts of civility The Duke of Longueville frustrated of his idle thoughts and reflecting on the ransom which he owed in England used all his endeavours but in vain to procure his protection The Queen had often declared against him and Suffolk durst promise nothing without her Approbation Though there be great antipathy betwixt the two Nations yet in all appearance their Adieus were friendly and that of FRANCIS the First to the Queen was so tender and passionate that she could not forbear to condole the affliction that he lamented That unseasonable and fruitless sensibleness rendred him somewhat more afflicted than he was He regrated the loss of her the more that judging of her heart by some Sentiments which on that last occasion she scrupled not to discover to him he found her more and more worthy to be beloved But at length they must part and the grief that thereupon he conceived so deeply affected him that it would have lasted much longer than it did if he had not soon after met with great affairs that first suspended and by degrees removed it at length In the mean time the fair Queen arrived in England after a passage as fortunate as carried her from thence and the King her Brother received her at London with a countenance full of the kindness that he had always had for her resolving immediately to compleat Suffolks bliss but finding that the decorum of the Widow-hood of a Queen of France would not for some time allow it that he might of a sudden cut off that and all other difficulties which might be raised by his subjects he caused them to be privately married reserving the publication thereof until he thought it time to celebrate the Solemnity They were married by the old Cardinal of York and few were present there being none on the part of the Duke of Suffolk but the Marquess of Dorset and Earl of Kildare It would be now time to speak of their great and mutual satisfaction were it not very easie to be conceived that the possession of a desired happiness is so much the more pleasant that it hath cost dear in the purchase Never was Queen so satisfied to strip her self of Royalty nor man so pleased with a Queen To conclude they deserved as they enjoyed a Soveraign felicity on earth They were from their infancy the sole delight of one another They loved to the utmost extent of love and their humours and inclinations suited so perfectly in all things that notwithstanding the difference of their fortunes their souls had all the Qualities that might contract an indissoluble Union And therefore have they deserved the glorious name of true Lovers and in my judgment there are but few that can aspire to the Honour of such a Character FINIS Postscript THE design that I proposed to my self in Writing of the English Princess and Duke of Suffolk suffers me not to proceed any farther Yet if any desire to know the rest of their Lives I shall endeavour to satisfie them About the time that they were married HENRY the Eighth giving way to the bad counsels of Bishop Woolsey the most part of the Grandees of England conspired against that Minister The Duke of Suffolk was one of the first and Woolsey declared against him with the greater heat that looking on him as the most considerable of his Enemies he found occasion to charge him with the restitution of certain sums of money that had been furnished him out of the Treasury for his Embassy in France It was a Largess of the Kings but that Minister who then had all the power in his hands alledged it was but lent Insomuch that the young Queen Dowager having offered for Suffolk a part of her Jewels whereof Woolsey immediately made use to procure a Cardinalship their marriage came thereby to be declared in an unseasonable time which obliged them both to retire into the Countrey to the shame of the Soveraign that suffered it without taking notice thereof There for the space of three years they led a most happy life notwithstanding the little rubs which sometimes they met with from Court and with regret they lest their solitude when the King of England recalled them to accompany him at that famous Interview which he had with the King of France betwixt Ardres and Guines in the year One thousand five hundred and twenty The King of France had a great desire once more to see the lovely Queen with whom he had been so much in love and the King of England who in the inconstancy of mind wherewith he is charged repented that he had consented to her retirement omitted not that occasion to put an end to it Vpon this return they began at London to call her the Dutchess-Queen in opposition to the French who at Ardres and Guines called her always the Queen-Dutchess The King of France seeing her at that time in a Beauty to which nothing could be added though she had already had two Children felt his old flames revive again The action which one morning he did when he went almost alone to visit the King of England and which some Historians have taxed with imprudence was an effect of his love His design was not to see the Brother the Sister was his object though he had no ground to promise himself success and though he had not so much as any intelligence about her But so soon as he was known the Seigneur de Chalbot and another that waited on him advised him to come off as well as he could which he did and the matter past for a frolick of FRANCIS the First who intended to give the King of England a clean shirt and the King of England himself was thereby so deceived that two days after without any other design he rendred him the like frolick If I had continued the History so far it would have been pleasant to have enlarged upon that adventure and upon all the Gallantries that then passed between the two Nations where by prodigious expences they displayed all their Glories The King of France for love of the fair Queen made at that time the Duke of Suffolk a Knight of his Order and that illustrious Husband was so far from taking that for a subject of jealousie that being so well perswaded of the virtue of his Wife
THE Illustrious Lovers OR PRINCELY ADVENTURES IN THE COURTS OF ENGLAND and FRANCE CONTAINING Sundry Transactions relating to Love-Intrigues Noble Enterprises and Gallantry being an Historical Account of the Famous Loves of Mary sometimes Queen of France Daughter to Henry the 7th and Charles Brandon the Renown'd Duke of Suffolk Discovering the Glory and Grandeur of both Nations Written Original in French and now Done into English LONDON Printed for William Whitwood next door to the Crown-Tavern in Duck-Lane near West-Smith-Field 1686. Advertisement of Books lately Printed 1. REflections upon Ancient and Modern Philosophy Moral and Natural together with the use that there is to be made thereof Treating of the Egyptians Arabians Grecians Romans c. Philosophers as Thales Zeno Socrates Plato Pythagoras Aristotle Epicurus c. Also the English German French Spanish c. As Bacon Boyle Des Cartes Hobbs Van-Helmont Gassendus Gallileus Harvey Paracelsus Marcennus Digby Translated from the French by A.L. 2. A Collection of Apothegmes or Sayings of the Ancients Collected out of Plutarch Diogines Laertius Elian Atheneus Stobaeus Macrobius Erasmus and others Wherein the Manners and Customs of the Greeks Romans and Lacedemonians are Represented To which is Added several pleasant Apothegmes from Modern Authors 3. A Rich Cabinet of Inventions being Receits and Conceits of several Natures containing more then 130. Natural and Artificial Conclusions all Profitable and Pleasant Collected out of Alexis Mizaldus Wecker and the Practice of John White Practitioner in the Mathematicks THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The First PART THE Monarchy of England having been long in dispute betwixt the two Roses the Red of the House of Lancaster and the White of that of York fell at length to the peaceable inheritance of the former and never appeared in greater splendour than in the time of Henry the Eighth This Prince being of a most sharp and piercing wit by study and learning advanced daily more and more in knowledg and was no sooner at the age of eighteen Crowned King but that he seemed already to hold in his hands the Fate of all Europe All that was to be blamed in him was his love of pleasures which in progress of time got the Dominion over him and some kind of sickleness the blemish of several of his Family he had a delicate and well-proportioned body a countenance of singular beauty and shewed always such an Air of Majesty and Greatness as inspired both love and reverence in all that beheld him At his Assumption to the Crown when his heart was not as yet subjected to the pleasures of sense it was but a meer scruple of conscience that made him unwilling to marry Catharine of Spain his Brothers Widow to whom the late King his Father had betrothed him three years before his Death no engagements in love with any other Mistresses at that time being any ways the cause of his aversion But two of his chief Ministers who had been formerly private Pensioners of Isabel of Castile having represented to him the losses that he was likely to sustain by a mis-understanding with Spain easily cleared all his doubts so that at length he made use of the dispensation which with much difficulty had been obtained at Rome for his marriage and 〈◊〉 League which at the same time King Ferdinand his Brother-in-law proposed to him with Pope Julius the Second the Emperour Maximilian and the Swisses against Louis the Twelfth King of France filled him with so high an opinion of himself that there hath been nothing more lovely than the first years of his marriage and Reign And indeed he gave himself so wholly to jollity and mirth amidst the great designs which he contrived that his Example being a pattern to his Court it became so compleatly gallant that the Ladies themselves thought it no offence to decency publickly to own their Votaries The Princess Mary his younger Sister as she excelled in Quality so she exceeded the rest in Beauty Margaret the eldest married to the King of Scotland had only the advantage of her in Birth for in Beauty her share was so great that there was never any Princess who deserved more to be loved The qualities of her mind and Character of her Parts will 〈…〉 â—ppear in the sequel of this 〈◊〉 â—â—â—se and as to her body nothing was wanting that might render it perfect her complexion was fair her soft skin enriched with that delicate whiteness which the Climate of England bestows commonly on the Ladies of that Countrey and the round of her face inclining near to a perfect Oval Though her eyes were not the greatest yet they possessed all that could be desired in the loveliest eyes in the World They were quick with mildness and so full of love that with a single glance they darted into the coldest breasts all the flames that sparkled in themselves Her mouth was not inferiour to her eyes for being very little and shut with lips of a perpetual Vermilion in its natural frame it presented an object not to be parallel'd for Beauty and when again it opened whether to laugh or speak it always assorded thousands of new Charms What has been said of her pretty mouth may be likewise said of her fair hands which by their nimbleness and dexterity in the smallest actions seemed to embellish themselves but more might be spoken of the Soveraign Beauty of her Neck which when age had brought it to perfection became the master-piece of Nature Her Stature was none of the tallest but such as Ladies ought to have to please and delight and her gate address and presence promised so much that it is no wonder that the Charms of Nature accompanied with a tender and passionate heart gained her before the age of fifteen the Conquest of most of her Fathers Subjects Before she was compleat twelve years of age she was promised in marriage to Prince Charles of Austria heir to the Kingdom of Castile and since named Charles the Fifth For Lowis the Twelfth of France having frustrated that young Prince of the hopes of marrying the Princess Claudia his daughter by designing her for the Duke of Valois his presumptive heir notwithstanding the natural aversion that Anne of Brittanie his Queen had against him Henry the Seventh no sooner understood that the alliance of the house of Austria with France was unlikely to succeed but he began to think on means of contracting it with England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester was therefore sent to Calais to negotiate in his name that marriage with the Deputies of Flanders who thereupon concluded a Treaty to the satisfaction of all Parties But the alteration of the King changed all these measures Henry the Eighth having in a manner against his will married the Aunt of the young Arch-Duke found not in that second Union with Spain all the advantages which his Father seemed to foresee and whether it was already an effect of repentance as some termed it or that he had in it
the particular design which men had ground to suspect since he many times in discourse approved the ancient custom of his Kingdom of not giving in marriage the Daughters or Sisters of the Kings out of the Island for which he was so applauded by all that even those of his Council who were the least complaisant made it by little and little as he did a reason of State to forget the proposals of Calais So that now the Princess Mary being free from the engagement of the late King her Father and the great Men of England eying her as a blessing to be enjoyed by the most happy she found her self amidst a croud of lovers who in the peace and quiet of the Kingdom made it their whole business to disquiet themselves Amongst the most sparkling and assiduous pretenders Edward Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset and Henry Bourchier Son to Thomas Earl of Essex appeared the chief Charles Son to Sir Charles Sommerset Lord High Chamberlain came next and Thomas Howard Son to Thomas Earl of Surrey Lord High Treasurer with William Talbot Son to George Earl of Shrewsbury Steward of the Kings Houshold put in amongst the rest These five Rivals being already very considerable by the Quality of their Fathers all chief Ministers of State immediately declared their pretensions with magnificence suitable to the Dignity of the fair Princess to whom they made love they were all alike well received and the courteous and obliging humour of the Lady Mary made every one of them easily believe in a short time to become her greatest favourite But love blinded their eyes for a sixth and more secret Rival gained the prize that all contended for and though his Quality did not seem to capacitate him to contest with them in any thing yet the Kings favour and his own worth largely supplied what otherways he wanted His name was Charles the pretended Son of Robert Brandon of a noble Family in Suffolk and an unblemished life Yet he had greater respect given him as being the Nephew of William Brandon and Edward Hastings the former of great Renown in the Battel of Bosworth where carrying the Standard of Henry the Seventh he was killed by Richard the Usurper himself as he endeavoured to stop his flight and the other still alive was no less famous in the Battel of Black-heath where the seditious Flammock with the Rebels of Kent and Cornhil were overthrown To this Uncle by the Mother it was that he owed the greatest part of his merit having had from him a most ingenious and liberal education for after the death of those that were believed to be his Parents who died in that fatal plague which made so great havock in England in the beginning of that Age he was always the sole object of his care His supposed Mother named Anne Hastings a woman of great Parts and sufficient Beauty to make her the subject of some slanderous and detracting Tongues had been pitched upon for Nurse to the King not only because of the noble blood of which she was descended but also of that to which she was allied but at first she made some difficulty of accepting the charge which was then only imputed to the haughtiness inspired into her either by the nobility of her extraction of which she seemed always a little vain or by the remains of some self-love which she still retained though she had other reasons for it Nor would she undertake that care till she had assurance that the child whom she called her Son should be bred with her at Court And Henry the Seventh having afterward entertained her at Court in consideration of the services that he had received of her Brother-in-law and did daily receive from her own Brother and finding the young Henry much more vigorous and healthy than Arthur Prince of Wales and the Princess Margaret his two first Children which gave him reason to congratulate his having so good a Nurse it happened luckily that six years after she having proved with child at the same time that the Queen was big of the Princess Mary he would have her employed again in the bringing up of that fourth child that was to be born to him notwithstanding that Robert Brandon her Husband being at that time troubled with some peevish fits of jealousie designed to carry her back into the Countrey By this means Charles having known the Princess Mary from the Cradle had always as being her Nurses Son freer access unto her than his Rivals with all their greatness could pretend to Besides this during the absence of Edward Hastings who alone remained alive to take the care of him the Dutchess of Bedford chief Governess of the Children of the Royal Family having taken him into protection allowed him free liberty at all hours of the day to visit her appartment and the Lady Latimer Sub-governess who desired still to be thought young and fair and was not far beyond the bounds of either entertained for her part somewhat more than esteem for the lovely Brandon All put together gave him great Priviledges with the young Princess and Henry the Eighth by promoting daily the affairs of Old Hastings to whom he was to be sole heir seemed sufficiently to authorise all the ambition that the young Nephew was capable of He had already great intimacy with the Prince and was the Confident of his most secret Pleasures and as he daily heaped Favours and Honours upon him he was often heard say That he could not do too much for the handsomest Gentleman in his Kingdom besides he was beautiful like himself and of the same age and stature his Meen and Presence shewed even somewhat more accomplished and by the sweetness of his disposition and generosity in many rancounters he gained the very esteem of his envious competitours The too young age and immaturity of Princess Mary of England was the reason that during the Reign of the late King and until the project of her marriage with the Prince of Spain he had not discovered to her his love but by looks and sighs whereof in all probability she understood not as yet the secret language but in a conjuncture so troublesom to a lover as that was taking counsel only of his passion that he might bewail his destiny he spake to her in a more intelligible strain This happened at Windsor where Henry the Seventh drawing toward his end desired only to be attended with a small Train The satisfaction that the Princess might have to be one day Wife to a King of Spain served for pretext to Brandon who passionately told her That as it was most reasonable that she should rejoyce to marry a Prince who was to carry so many Crowns so it was no less that he should grieve to lose her for ever at length lifting his eyes and hands to Heaven he mournfully cryed That it was very terrible and cruel for such a wretch as he to love the Daughter of his King more than
himself Neither the vehemency of this Action nor the boldness of the Discourse at least surprised the young Princess for being so little accustomed to keep her distances with Brandon she dreamt of no more but wonted familiarity and fancied as he might well wish that his expressions proceeded only from fear of being separated from her so that without diving farther into the mystery wherein as yet she was not very skilful and finding nothing in his discourse but what was obliging she had the goodness to answer him that it was possible the Propositions of Calais might not take effect and that he ought not to be afflicted before the time Some days after she started to him again the same discourse and soothed him by all the ways that her age could possibly imagine in so much as she vowed and protested against the marriage that he was in fear of and it must indeed be granted that she omitted nothing that might give content to his mind or fewel to his passion though it cannot be imagined that her innocent age at that time entertained any thoughts of love Henry the Seventh in the mean time returned to spend his Winter at London where dying in the spring he made place for his Son who being Crowned by the name of Henry the Eighth began with many favours to testifie his esteem for Brandon The first instance of the confidence that he shewed him which he imparted to none but him alone during the Ceremonies of his marriage and which appeared the more satisfactory to this favorite that being then honoured with the office of chief Ranger of England he found himself in a condition of making his advantage of it was the design he had not to marry the Princess his Sister to any out of his Kingdom He told him that it was one of the ancientest maxims of State and possibly the best and to hint to him that he himself might have some interest in that design he added looking on him with a favourable air that he should endeavour to chuse a person whose Family was not so considerable as to become suspected so that the marriage projected between his young Sister and the young Arch-Duke should not take effect and that he having with much reluctancy married the Aunt of that Prince he desired him not for a Brother-in-law But the matter beginning to be divulged and the general applause wherewith it was received by all opening the eyes of the most part of the young Court-gallants BRANDON perceived not at length that facility in it which appeared to him at first Love is a great Master and there is no virtue wherein it instructs not true Lovers when it intends to render them acceptable to the person beloved He then so far from flattering himself with the pleasant thoughts that he had entertained and which so many others seemed to entertain as well as himself laying aside all consideration of self-love and not reflecting on his danger in speaking to the Princess contrary to the Sentiments of the KING told her that she should no more dream of the Crowns of CASTILE and ARRAGON and that the designs as to her were far different from that He immediately discovered all as a person really devoted to her Service he protested against that State-policy to which she was to be sacrificed told her that he had rather dye than see her a Subject in England when one of the greatest Princes of Europe desired her in marriage and with a Resentment equal to the favour received reflecting on the complaisance wherewith she was once pleased to conceal from him all her ambition he subjoyned that he was become ambitious for her and that desiring at what rate so ever to restore to her again what she had so liberally bestowed on him he disowned all that he had had the boldness to say at Windsor against her marriage with the Prince of Spain His sighs spake the rest with more passionateness than at that time he desired and although Mary of England was not full Twelve years old yet she so well understood the language of that passionate Lover and her heart was so disposed to admit a flame that having wiped away the Tears that trickled from her lovely eyes and done as much for BRANDON she prayed him not to torment himself for the future adding with glances that sparkled goodness that she had rather see him afflicted at Windsor for the project of her marriage than in London vexed at the rupture of it It may be thought strange that at such an age she was so sensible But it may be likewise said that she being of a soft and sweet disposition and inclined naturally to mirth it was but an agreeable surprize that triumphed only on her gentle and cheerful humour The pleasure of being beloved was the only thing that made her love her views went no farther and love which is in that manner communicated betwixt young persons makes the delusions of sense sometimes so powerful over them that by that means alone it betrays them before they know what it is It is not then to be wondered at that if the Princess Mary being by a first Lover drawn into some pleasant mistake the other pretenders who made love to her after that the intention of the KING became known appeared not in her eyes to be so deserving as they were who with great assiduity having served her for the space of two years with all the gallantry and pomp that the Tranquillity of the Kingdom enabled them to employ at length discovered the root and fountain of their misfortune and seeing love sometimes breaks off upon a slight and is sometimes converted into fury the wiser desisted from their suit and the others united against their common Enemy Of the first sort were Howard and Talbot but Gray Bourchier and Sommerset vowed the death of BRANDON They considered not that such an attempt would expose the lovely Princess to publick Calumny and themselves to inevitable disgrace or perhaps to something worse Jealousie that reigned in them suffered them not to make any such reflections and they had never escaped the risk they ran had not fortune by forsaking them in their enterprise taken greater care of their lives than they themselves were able to do The love that the King had for Cecile Blunt Daughter to the Lord Latimer which began before his marriage and grew greater daily by enjoyment possessed the chief place in his heart notwithstanding of the distractions occasioned him by the League into which after many delays he entred at last against the KING of FRANCE yet whether it was for the sake of the QUEEN whom he would not put out of humour whilst the troublesom inconveniencies of an imaginary conception renewed her grief for the loss of her first Child or because that young Lady lived in the retinue of the Princess his Sister he gave but very few marks of it On the contrary he seemed to make Courtship to the young Countess
publick pomp whilst the preparations for a War with France were vigorously carried on there was nothing to be seen at London but Plays Horse-races Balls and Dancing where the Ladys in rich dresses setting off the beauty which might procure them praise and esteem obliged likewise their Lovers to imploy their greatest advantages On these occasions the lovely Brandon gained signal honour and whether it was for his good meen or his dexterity in all the exercises of body there was no Gentleman in the Kingdom that seemed not his inferiour So that amongst so many competitors who contended with him for the favour of the Princess there was not any so fortunate as to gain the least of it to his prejudice and though Edward Strafford the young Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Kildare Son to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland both of them lovely and handsom Gentlemen had newly declared themselves his Rivals yet it was without either jealousie or disquiet to him Mary of Lancaster adored by all had no passion for any but him But amidst the pleasures by which the Court of England the most gallant and pompous of that age prepared so sumptuously for the War of France the death of Cecile Blunt Daughter to the Lord Latimer occasioned there great alteration Her Mother seeming comfortless as women of her humour affect always to appear retired into the Countrey The Dutchess of Bedford falling deaf and oppressed with many other infirmities of old age took likewise the occasion to withdraw The Countess of Pembrock was put in her place until the Arrival of Princess Margaret of York Dutchess of Salisbury Daughter of the unfortunate Duke of Clarence and her self as unfortunate in the sequel as her Brother the Earl of Warwick The King sometime before for reasons of state had designed her for that charge and the Lady Dacres was ordered to supply the place of the Lady Latimer until she were recovered from her grief so that there remained of the ancient servants of the Princess hardly any but Judith Kiffen who being the most dexterous person in the world for that service and lying commonly at the foot of her bed she was become too useful to her to let her be removed and that revolution in the Family of the Princess Mary was a forerunner of the disorder which shortly appeared in the mind of the King What care soever he had had to conceal his love for his late Mistris he had not the power to dissemble his affliction for her death He began to condemn the intrigues of his Court with which he had always used to make himself merry He went so far as to defeat the measures of several Lovers by giving them new employments under pretext of the War of France and though Brandon met not with so great crosses yet he was one of the first that perceived the King to be out of humour when being no more the Confident of his affliction as he had been of his pleasures he saw a new favourite admitted into his place one Thomas Woolsey Bishop of Lincoln to whom Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester had left vast riches at his death This man of low Birth but sublime Parts as sometimes bad men are knew very well that HENRY the Eight notwithstanding the great Qualities which rendered him formidable to his neighbours was a restless Prince and that being unable after the hurry of business to remain idle and unactive he stood in need of some amusing toy that might refresh his mind by seizing his heart In a word he understood that repose being uneasie to him without pleasures and wantonness he must needs be provided of women and that possibly was the reason that it was said that to comfort him for the death of the Mistris whom he had just before lost he made no scruple to advise him to bestow his affection with all expedition on some other It was besides alledged that he himself being smitten with the lovely eyes of the Princess Mary and not so foolish as to expect any enjoyment of her had wrought him to fix his eyes upon her But I think that that is to be looked upon as a Calumny of those who reproached him with all kinds of crimes because he had pursued them with all sorts of evils Ambitious men such as Woolsey are either not very sensible of love or would not be so tame as to give to another what they love themselves However it be whether it was an effect of the counsel of that bad Minister or that the Beauty of Mary which daily encreased had awakened some desire in the mind of HENRY the Eight it is certain that that Prince after the death of Cecile Blunt did speak of love to the Princess his Sister She understood him not at first or to say better she would not understand him but the account that she gave of it to Brandon had almost killed him with grief And although he never dreamt of any such thing yet the indifferency wherewith the King for some time had used him gave sufficient evidence of the change of his fortune and as till then he had doubted what might be the cause of that disgrace imputing it sometime to some fault of his own and sometime to the natural inconstancy of the King so he believed that he had then found it out So that to remove himself from trouble and following no other counsel but that of his jealousie or fear he beg'd leave of the King to go to Calais with the first Troops that were then drawing out for the War of France Though the King had not altogether the Sentiments which Brandon suspected yet he well understood his thoughts and without any farther discovery he thought it enough to answer that it behoved him to moderate that impatience seeing he intended to have him by him the first time that he drew his sword But notwithstanding of this obliging answer Brandon's disturbance had no end insomuch that some days after finding occasion to speak again to the King he renewed to him the same suit adding that if he could a little train himself in the matters of War before he undertook it he would deserve better to follow His Majesty Upon this the King by a return of affection for a man whom he had so much loved being willing wholly to undeceive him told him smiling That he well perceived what he had in his thoughts but that sure he was not more dangerous than another and that he should not take the allarm so hot for a little gallantry which he used with his Sister only to divert him from thinking on poor Cecile Nothing certainly in that juncture of affairs could have been better said and it answered all objections Nevertheless diffidence which is natural to all true Lovers made Brandon think these words the more to be suspected the less that they appeared so He imagined that his dangerous Rival under an affected repugnancy cloaked a real desire to see him at a
to say for his satisfaction But yet he stopped not there for finding in himself some secret joy which added somewhat to his natural debonairity and that it concerned the health of his Sister that Brandon should reassume his former jollities that with more success he might employ himself in her Service he thought it not sit to dismiss him before he had dissipated the smallest mists which great affairs how well soever concluded leave commonly behind them No forrain nor remote matters disturbed him at that time and he had just then received good news from the Emperour who to begin the War against France promised to act on the Frontiers of Picardy which the wary King of Spain deferred to do on the side of Guyenne So that finding his mind in great liberty he gave Brandon a review of the life they had led together and laying before him almost all the Testimonies of Friendship that he had shewed him he forgot not amongst the rest to take special notice of the merit of that obliging manner whereby he had countenanced his love With that desiring a suitable return of Justice he cryed that it was his part to render it him adding that he knew not how he could after so powerful obligations suspect that he would take the Earl of Kildare's part against him and far less how he could believe him to be in love with his own Sister and the Rival of a friend of whose passion he himself had laid the foundation and at length concluded that he well perceived that love was always accompanied with infirmities and that lovers could not guard against them when their friends had the art to foresee them At these last words which he could not pronounce without a smile Brandon was so fully convinced of his sincerity that he lost all the remains of distrust and trouble which he could possibly retain And to confirm him in the just perswasion that he was of the King gave him his hand as an evidence of a perfect good correspondence then thinking it needless to intreat him to take care of the Princess recovery knowing it to be his greatest concern he thought it enough to tell him in the most taking way imaginable that they ought both to contribute their utmost endeavours for that effect and that he himself being guilty of much imprudence in that conjuncture would grant her for her comfort without exception whatever she pleased to desire But Brandon who understood but too well the meaning of that discourse was so much the more affected with it that by an excess of love and virtue he began of himself so to be disposed as not to be flattered with any thing The hopes that had dazled him in his younger days dazled him now no more in the age that he had attained to Time and reason made him daily discover new impediments His true birth seemed likewise to object secret hinderances which appeared invincible and whatsoever affection the Princess was preingaged in in his favour and what goodness soever the King might evidence to him yet he saw no appearance to promise himself that he would one day give her to him in marriage nor did he find it even reasonable that he himself should desire it He very well knew that the Daughters and Sisters of Kings are always married for reasons of State and that it was to much purpose indeed for him to ballance the ancient custom of England and the design that the King had to establish 〈◊〉 with that universal maxim Neither 〈◊〉 ancient custom nor the re-establishment that the King gave out he intended to make of it appeared to him any thing but a vain phantasm raised against the treaty of Calais or at most but a specious reason to temporise for some years in expectation of some better alliance against the house of Austria To that it may be added that though it had been true that the lovely Princess had not been intended in marriage to any Forraign Prince there were yet many other great Lords in England Scotland and Ireland who might be chosen for that purpose and all those who pretended to her as he did be excluded So that finding himself at that time filled with these great and hard thoughts which sometimes had made him resolve to forsake the Kingdom and sometimes to withdraw out of it for a time he thought he could never find a more favourable occasion to open himself to the King And therefore he broke his mind to him as he had been desirous to do and reflecting on the zeal for the Princess which that Prince endeavoured to inspire in him he told him That as to that he had more need of a curb than a spur and that the sentiments of his heart were but too publickly known That he saw on all hands but too many who were envious of a blessing which he owed only to his Approbation and not to the goodness of her who was reproached therewith That after so much rumour it was very fit to raise no more That rather than his respects should cost the greatest Princess of the world so dear he would renounce the honour of her Presence and that seeing he was unable to do her any service he ought at least to be careful of her Glory And that to succeed in that design there was no other expedient but flight That though he made no difference betwixt dying and leaving of London yet he was fully resolved to do it if his Majesty would give him leave That in begging it of him he could assure his Majesty that he had never flattered himself with any foolish hope in reference to the Princess That what goodness soever she might have for him yet he never framed any disadvantageous notions of her and that if he durst ever make a wish when he saw her it was only that he might be able to serve her so long as he lived But that he was so far from that that it behoved him for the future to renounce the honour of seeing her and that the innocence of his intentions sufficed not to preserve him in the enjoyment of so precious a blessing That to conclude he beg'd his pardon for the disorders which he might have occasioned in his Court that he acknowledged himself altogether unworthy of the favours that he had conferred upon him but that nevertheless he did not think he deserved the character of ungrateful and that if he found him in the least guilty of that he prayed him to take from him that odious name by taking away his life This was the substance of what the passionate Brandon expressed in no less passionate terms and the King the more touched with his virtue that he was sensible enough that he had not used him kindly since the death of Cecile had no way to defend himself His heart was wholly again inflamed for a man of so sublime a soul and in a nice emulation which Kings seldom condescend to with their subjects he
storm which he foresaw from England having already dealt with the King of Scotland to make a diversion and Pregent his Vice-admiral in the Mediterranean who had no more to do with the Genowese being ready to pass over the Channel with Primanget Commander of the British-Ships to ravage the Coasts of Ireland he had a great many good Troops on foot and Officers of extraordinary merit Lowis de Halewin Marquess of Pienne a man of consummated Valour who was their General had Rendezvouzed them at Hedin The Marquess de Potelin of a boyling hot Courage commanded the Cavalry and after him in several charges were the Count de la Plaisse a warlike man the Chevalier Bayard characterised without fear and without reproach The brave Aimard de prie Imbercourt Clairmont D'anjou Bussy D'amboise Bonnivet Bonne-val Fonterailles and a great many more all capable to command Armies not to reckon those who in respect of Birth were above them as the Counts of Guise and Vendosme and the Duke of Alencon whom the affairs of State obliged to remain with his Person But the loss of the Milanese put him in great Consternation and the King of England being Landed at Calais at the head of thirty thousand foot and six thousand horse with the greatest Artillery that had been seen for a hundred years he promised himself no favourable success in his War-like preparations The Emperour followed by four thousand Peistres and between five and six thousand Burgundian Faintassins had already begun the Fight in Picardy so that it was not difficult to the English to perfect it Brandon and Talbot who led the Vanguard under the Conduct of Colonel Windham whom the King had given them to moderate a little the heat of their Courage acted at first all that two young men who sought nothing but honour were capable to perform and chiefly Brandon by his love animated to glory and rendering all things easly to his guide made the prudence of that ancient Warriour so yield to his good fortune that having perswaded him to advance as far as the City of Therowenne they invested it Francis de Deligny Seneschal of Rowergue and Anthony de Crequy Pontdormy Commanded in that place with a Garrison of two thousand Lanskenets and five hundred Lancers and being both vigorous and stout Commanders they made several salleys upon their enemies It was only the wilfulness of Brandon that kept the Town blocked up whither the King of England immediately hastening with long marches and being as yet of no great experience ran great Riske in the plain of Tournehan where he had with him but ten thousand foot The Chevalier Bayard was already Master of one of the twelve Culverines which he carried with him and the English were put into great terrour but the too great prudence of the Marquess de Pienne marred all the advantage which the French might have made of that occasion Brandon who marched to meet the King his Master had time to joyn his Army and to change the face of affairs and that Prince well instructed by the engagement how useful that favorite was to him found hardly any other way to acknowledg his Valour but by praying him to husband it better The esteem that he conceived of him became equal to his former affection and during that War wherein all that belonged to him behaved themselves well he was almost never heard to speak but of Brandon It is no less true that he daily deserved new praises and that the siege of Therowenne being formed there was no corner where he did not show himself a terrour to the enemies It is not my design to give a particular account of all his actions nor to relate the secret sentiments of his heart no more than the Letters which he wrote to the English Princess and those he received from her Such particularities would lead me too far besides there is nothing more easie than to imagine that being separated from one another they failed not in the duties which a mutual tenderness prescribes to true lovers In effect absence served only to make them know one another they felt by experience the effects of all sorts of longings impatiences and fears and as the Princess Mary heard not without trembling of the dangers to which she knew he exposed himself only that he might merit her in the same manner he never ran any risk but that he had the Image of that beautiful Princess before his eyes It was to no purpose for his friends who saw him so resolute to tell him that he tempted his fortune too often to have it always favourable It was Brandon's design either to prevent by a glorious death all the evils that he thought himself threatned by or to raise himself to so great a reputation amongst men that he might have no more cause of fear from them and that thirst after glory which Henry the Eighth understood very well to be the effect of his love was oftener than once the subject of their entertainments But what moderation soever the King advised him to use that way though he told him every day that he did precipitate himself without any reason into dangers for a blessing which was already wholly his own yet he remitted nothing of that Warlike heat but endeavoured if it may be so said to make his King and the Kingdom of England obliged to him for every thing And in that he succeeded so well that having gained as many Victories as he fought Battels there was not so much as one even to his most jealous Rivals who acknowledged not that as they could not any more contend with him in any thing so nothing likewise ought to be denied him but the bravest of all his actions and which in the decision of that War cost him so dear in the sequel was the taking of the Marquess of Rotelin who began then to be called Duke of Longueville The design of the French was to re-victual Therowenne and though the Emperour and King of England streightly pressed the place yet Teligny and Crequy promised themselves in time to make them consume their Forces before it provided they could have Ammunition and Victuals whereof they began to be in want put into the place The King of France upon the word of these two Valiant men Commanded the Marquess de Pienne to omit nothing that could be done for that end and he wrote to him daily from Amiens where he lay a-bed of the Gout to that purpose In so much that what difficulty soever there might be in the enterprise Pienne resolved to undertake it The Orders were given to bold Fonterailles Captain of the Albanians who being loaded with Powder and Provisions slipt quietly by as far as the Town-ditch But as till then the design had been very well carried on so the imprudence of the Volunteers who would not joyn with the Troops which La Palisse commanded to make good Fonterailles's retreat was the cause that it took no effect
contradict such Propositions as any one judged fit and the Shields or Argent Sable and Gules were only to distinguish what Combats were to be on foot what on horseback what at lance and what at sword And the fifth of Azure in the middle of the other four denounced the defence of the triumphal Arch which was contrived by way of a Fortress where twenty Champions were to defend the Assault against sixty There was no difficulty in ordering the Courses and Combats for they were not to enter the Lists but in Squadrons where they had placed themselves according to their inclination and the Duke of Valois the Counts of Vendosm S. Poll and Guise that led the four first having their march regulated by their Birth the Duke of Suffolk and Marquess of Dorset who conducted the other two under the devices of the Queen easily ordered theirs There was no contest but about the chusing of the Defendants and Assailants of the Fortress by which the Carrousel was to conclude because every one desired to be first as in the place where there was greatest honour to be acquired But at length the Duke of Valois who must have had the place had he still persisted in the dispute having taken upon him the part to attack by order of the King that he might the better represent the Siege of Milan which he had in his head the matter was referred to Lot amongst the other Competitours and it fell upon the Count of Guise and the Duke of Suffolk of whom the latter in the sequel amidst the troubles that oppressed him had some particular reasons to be better satisfied than another The new Conquests that the young Queen made so soon as she appeared in France occasioned him quickly new vexations and though in seeing him suffer and she suffering perhaps as much as he a part of his cares were suspended yet that admirable Beauty which had so soveraingly triumphed over the subjects of the King her Brother to his continual disquiet had no less efficacy on those of the King her husband It would be too great an enterprise to speak of all those who were smitten by her Many sighed and few durst complain so loud as they would willingly have done for besides that Kings cannot endure the declared Lovers of their Queens the Duke of Valois who was one of the first was not of an humour to suffer Rivals This young Prince of an heroical stature and of a constitution as amorous as his age and eyes testified him to be returned not from Boulogne in the same tranquillity that he went Mary of England at first sight made a powerful impression on his heart and after he had entertained her some time he was no sooner retired with the Seigneur de Chabot one of his favorites but that repenting his marriage with Claudia of France he told him that he came from the sight of one who would have been far more acceptable to his heart and that considering the age and infirmity of the King it was cruelty to give him so young and beautiful a wife Acquaintance and conversation smothered not these first Sentiments The tender and passionate air of the young Queen which promised that which she never bestowed daily quickened them and as she thereby diverted her self that she might have occasion by such a confidence to divert the pensive Suffolk so the Duke of Valois mistaken by an outside which deceived all people gave many times the reins to desires that led him farther than was fitting for his repose To this may be added that the Duke of Longueville provoked by the aversion which the Queen expressed to him after the treaty of her marriage instigated that young Prince by the pretended facility of the Conquest The foolish thoughts which he entertained at London turned into despight at Paris where by means of a ransom payable within a certain time he found himself at liberty and whilst his arm which he carried still in a scarf since his fall at Therowenne suffered him not to be of the Carrousel all his thoughts were how to create her trouble So that having procured to be admitted into the confidence or the Duke of Valois as a person who could instruct him better than any other in the ways of satisfying his passion he was the boutefeau that incessantly pushed him forward to the utmost enterprises In fine he inflamed the heart of that Prince who was naturally very susceptible of such flames to that pass that the young Queen could no longer doubt but that he was in love with her and as she was neither fierce nor ungentle so she appeared neither surprised nor offended thereat There was none possibly in all the Court but the King who perceived it not and Madam being already accustomed to palliate the youthful disorders of her husband never spake of it but to enjoyn silence to others But the Protonotary Du prat who governed all the house of Angoulesm was not so easie He was astonished at that which charmed the Duke of Valois his Master and judging as rashly of the virtue of Mary of England as the Duke of Longueville had done he sensibly represented to him that he having the greatest interest in the world not to solicite her to incontinence she had the like not to be chaste so that as if no body but he could have hazarded with the Queen what Du prat feared he himself began likewise to dread it Besides he would not have gone to Boulogne to espouse her for the King his Father-in-law but upon the word of Francieres his chief Physician who had assured him that he would have no Issue by that marriage so that the matter was of highest consequence The passion that LOWIS the Twelfth had always to have a Son would have hindered him from prying into any mystery It is possible he would have been glad to have been deceived as he smiling told the General of Normandy upon the first proposals that were made to him of marrying so young a Princess and besides he had a pretty good opinion of himself still to think that he could not be mistaken that way Moreover considering the zeal that the French have for the blood of their Kings and the joy that they would have to see a Dolphin there were none in France who could not take all that could be said on such an occasion for a meer Calumny Insomuch that these important considerations having slackned the pursuit of the Duke of Valois and being unwilling to lose a Crown for a Song he only retained the delightful notion of a good fortune which he thought very easie to be attained and which was perhaps in the highest degree of impossibility But though he left off speaking of Love yet he ceased not to be amorous His flame encreased by the desire he had to quench it And he became even so much the more jealous of his desired bless that not daring himself to pretend to it it continually ran in his head
that another who might not have the reasons that he had to refuse the same would upon the least attempt be fure to obtain the enjoyment thereof and in this manner the fear of losing a Kingdom fomenting his jealousie whilst during the Carrousel he carefully avoided the occasions which would have at length undeceived him as to his thoughts concerning the Queen he fell so strictly to examine all things that within a few days he discovered the inclinations that she had for the Duke of Suffolk He perceived the distinction that she put betwixt him the Marquess of Dorset and young Gray notwithstanding of the dexterity she had always to joyn these two last in the favours which she showed the other and the troublesom Duke of Longueville joyning to these things what he had heard though but confusedly at London failed not to confirm all his suspicions Thus then you see the Duke of Valois in great perplexity It is not now jealousie that torments him The fear of losing a Crown seems to have destroyed his love and his thoughts tending only to prevent the consequences wherewith Du prat had threatned him the Queen and Suffolk appeared to him every moment as two sprights coming to dethrone him But being of an open and frank soul he quickly discovered his pain to him that was the cause of it My Lord Suffolk said he drawing him aside one evening in the Kings Anti-Chamber you love the Queen and the Queen does not hate you but I would desire your love might not cost me a Crown Suffolk amazed at this discourse however dissembled his surprise He asked with a great deal of respect what the matter was and by questions wide of the purpose endeavoured to hide the emotions of his heart But the Prince who desired to sift him by his discourse resolved not to ramble and returning to his design Yes my Lord Duke of Suffolk replyed he you love the Queen and the Queen loves you and though I be no enemy to Ladies and their Gallants yet certainly I shall be one to the Queen and you if your Gallantry take the liberty that I suspect Wherefore continued he oblige me not to become so The King cannot live long and when the Queen is a Widow I promise not to oppose your desires So smart an expression such peremptory words and the discomposed air that the Duke of Valois spoke them in permitted not Suffolk longer to dissemble the Queens Honour which he saw so openly struck at but obliged him to take measures by himself So that to do the best that possibly he could in the secret disturbance he found himself in he began immediately to complain of those who raised-so injurious reports of the best and most discreet Princess in the world He would not say that he spake only so to her disadvantage because he found that her virtue disappointed the hopes which he might have conceived against it That would have shewed him to have been more acquainted than he ought to have been with the affairs of her whom he intended to justifie To praise her he thought was enough by affirming still that she was not well known and that he having the honour to have served her from the Cradle had known worthy persons in England over-shoot themselves as well as some in France mistake the meaning of her condescending behaviour And finding himself afterward sufficiently re-assured to venture on a piece of railery upon the account that the Duke himself raised his honour by his fear of losing a Crown he concluded that for the future he should take care not to give him any Umbrage and that for that effect and to give him full satisfaction he would take the first occasion to pray the King his Master to recal him To this the Duke of Valois a Prince of a close disposition and sometimes a little too credulous answered That he desired not so much but that his jealousie was pardonable that he was handsom that he had already occasioned some discourse at London and that he would take it very ill if he made it worse at Paris that he had reason to suspect after the freedom that he had used with him that he would urge matters too far but that to repeat what he had already said he gave him his promise not to cross his happiness when the fit time was come Suffolk that he might not put a new edg on the jealousie of the Duke of Valois let him speak as much as he thought fit without seeming concerned at what he said He made it his business rather to undeceive him by an indifferency which in so delicate a juncture himself ought to observe as well as he and if he affected it not so well as he desired at least he had that influence upon him as to make him sometimes doubt of what he had believed before But though he left him sufficiently satisfied yet he found no reason to be so himself for the reputation of the Queen was so dear to him that he would have rather banished himself from her Presence than have occasioned the least stain to her honour Insomuch that having no body but her to complain to of the discourse of the Duke of Valois and having measures to take in regard thereof which he judged convenient to agree upon with her he rendred her an account of all exact enough to create her much affliction notwithstanding of his care to soften what was hard and injurious in the terms But that which touched her nearest was the resolution that he had taken of returning to England that he might prevent the detraction which he saw ready to break out Her Glory was not so dear to her as the Presence of Suffolk and relying on the great stock of her virtue she cared not much to lose a little of its Odour provided she might retain him But being interrupted before they could conclude any thing and separated with great impatience to meet again the means of that became daily so difficult that they found themselves in a short time reduced to great perplexities Though the Queen entertained a grudg against the Duke of Valois yet she thought less of doing him any ill office with the King than to secure her self from the Spies that he employed about her She seemed even afraid to provoke him so circumspect did Love make her that she might enjoy the Presence of her dear Suffolk and as she went to bed every night much dejected in the apprehension that she should hear of his departure so there was easily to be observed in her some little glimpse of joy when she saw him again next morning To that continual tossing were joyned likewise other agitations that encreased her pain Then it was that she rendered full justice to the merit of Suffolk the Quality of Queen of France had not at all changed her She continually lamented that she was not his Wife and all the advantages of her Crown all the complaisance of a Husband
and every Champion omitting nothing of the finest and most regular practices of War and as the Assailants made inconceivable efforts so the Defendants maintained it with so much vigour that the Queen who was always in fear for Suffolk representing to the King that Courage incited by emulation might sometimes be exasperated in a matter of pleasure and recreation he sent the Judges of the Field to put an end to the Combat by declaring that the Glory was equal on both sides The health of the Prince which was thought somewhat restored invited all the Gallants to begin some new feats afresh But seeing the Queen although she strove against her humour seemed not at all taken with such kind of Divertisements he was glad being desirous to oblige her more and more by resigning himself wholly to her pleasure to delay the proposed solemnities of rejoycing until the month of January This offered a reason to the Duke of Suffolk to speak to him of his departure and though that good King who loved to see him made some difficulty to let him go yet the matter went off exceeding well under the common pretext that every one took to withdraw from Court in a time when there was nothing to be done there He pretended some affairs that called him back into England He promised to be back before the Carnaval and two days after that his equipage was gone having taken his leave of the King and Duke of Valois to whom he thought it not convenient to express himself any more and having no occasion to take leave more particularly of the Queen he took horse accompanied with young Gray Brother to the Marquess of Dorset and six in train Not that he desired his company On the contrary it would have rejoyced him to have been alone and though he was abundantly satisfied that his fair Queen loved him with all her heart yet he looked upon himself but as a wretch who desired to be abandoned of all the world seeing he was forsaken by himself He never thought more of seeing Mary of Lancaster again He was already plodding into what Countrey remote from her he should go end the miserable remainder of his days and as the vehemency of his affliction prompted him to that design so the imperious idea of his secret extraction presenting it self to his imagination to encrease his pain began likewise to tempt him thereto All the little displeasures which he had effaced at the Court of England took place again in his memory He could not excuse himself for having carried the name of Brandon there so long when he had one so illustrious to bear The favours of HENRY the Eighth appeared to him but ignominious trifles In fine having no mind to return into England but that he might declare what he was and like a sick person who turns and tumbles every way to find a more easie posture which he meets with no-where giving way to I know not what piece of vanity that seemed to mitigate his grief because it was an effect thereof he imployed in thoughts as vain as ambitious that severe reprieve which he owed only to the Greatness of his misfortune O! Mary of England what kind of love is this that does in such a manner oppress your Empire over the Duke of Suffolk was never so great as when he durst think that you had none and the revolt of that lovely soul gave you greater proofs of its subjection than all the testimonies of love and respect which he had given you heretofore True it is also that that revolt lasted not long enough to be thought of any consequence Fortune that preserved to you so worthy a Conquest was upon the dawning to Crown its merit But as she never bestows any favours and chiefly such as may be called Soveraign and Supreme without the price of an extreme affliction which seems to compleat all her other crosses so she resolved to reduce the Duke of Suffolk to the utmost extremity before she put you in a condition of being his Having departed from Court in a disorder of mind that cannot be well expressed he continued by very easie journeys his way to Calais wherein a design of wandring over the world desiring to retain but two of his servants he was thinking with himself already of means to give young Gray the slip when at the Towns-end of Ardres entring into a little Cops which leads to Guines ten men well mounted broke forth upon him and his train At the first charge they gave his horse having received a Carbine-shot in the head after some bounds fell into a kind of Lake which the Winter-rains began to make on the side of the high-way and he was so engaged under his horse that that fall would have determined all his fortune if three other Gentlemen coming from Guines and joyning young Gray had not given Bokal his Valet de Chamber time to come to his assistance Seeing he was not at all hurt he got quickly out of the water and mounted another horse and despair or anger encreasing his natural strength though the match was then petty equal the engagement lasted not long Two of the most desperate who thought to overthrow him were themselves knocked down by the weight of his blows Young Gray and the three unknown Gentlemen whom fortune had guided into that place did as much to those that bore head against them and of the remaining four who bethought themselves only of flight one being fallen about a hundred paces off the faithful Bokal who suspected that the Duke of Longueville had suborned these Assassines against his Master thought best to make him Prisoner That wretch gave them sufficient information of the truth of the matter that they were some of the Emperours Reistres who came from their Garrison of Dunkerk as far as that Countrey to commit Pillage and Robberies Nevertheless the unjust supicion of Bokal produced very troublesom consequences for the Duke of Longueville who was in no way capable of a bad action It was the cause that he was very rigorously dealt with about the ransom which he owed still and as he thought to have payed it by the ransom of Peter de Navar taken Prisoner at the Battel of Ravenna which LOWIS the Twelfth had given him so these dispositions altering under the Reign of FRANCIS the First who received that Spaniard into his service the King of England pressed the Duke of Longueville the more that knowing him to be in a necessity of ransoming himself he would have him punished for that pretended Riot and for every thing else that he had done against the Duke of Suffolk But though this bad Rancounter had nothing extraordinary in appearance since it happens very frequently that Robbers set upon Passengers on the High-ways who are succoured by others yet in this their befel one of the oddest adventures that perhaps can be imagined when the Duke of Suffolk having discovered that the chief of the three that had