at the head of four thousand horse eight hundred foot and six pieces of Cannon passes the River Lis near to Derlet and lyes in wait for the Enemies at the passage of Hutin They retreated with great assurance marching in confusion as he had foreseen for being pursued by none after the false allarm which was purposely given them was over and missing none of their number but the young Count D'anton Son to the Seignior of Bouchage and some others that could not get out of Therowenne they dreamt not of any greater mischief when Brandon appearing of a sudden so sharply charged them that having no leisure to mount their great Horses again nor to put on their head-pieces they began to be in disorder The brave la Palisse notwithstanding of the stout resistance he made was already taken and the undaunted Chevalier Bayard having almost singlely defended the bridg of Hutin became companion in the bad fortune of Clairmont D'anjow and of Bussy D'amboise to whose assistance he came There remained none but the Duke of Longueville to head the subdued who being mounted on a stout charging-horse compleatly armed it seemed no easie matter for one man hand to hand to get the better of him and besides a considerable body of the French Army advanceing in order of Battel those that had been put to flight began to rally So that Brandon perceiving that the total rout of the Enemies depended on the overthrow of this Warriour and by the riches of his arms taking him for a French Prince he left la Palisse in the hands of some Gentlemen who kept him not long and with sword in hand set upon him whose resistance hindered his Victory The Duke of Longueville received him valiantly but at length after the interchanging of many blows Brandon with the danger of a wound which he received in the thigh dismounted the Duke who disjoynted his shoulder by the fall The French upon this turned back upon those that were coming to their aid and put their own men in as great disorder as the Enemy would have done and seeing in this Battel their horses heels had done them better service than the points of their swords it was called the Battel of Spurs But it had been far better for Brandon that the Duke of Longueville had escaped with the rest for the injury that he did him afterward was so great that all the Glory he obtained in overcoming him and all the praise that he gained thereby was not enough to make amends for it Time sensibly discovering to him that fortune by great evils can be repayed of her greatest favours After this there happened no more considerable action on either side Brandon's wound kept him a fortnight a-bed and the King of France though he had lost but very few men being unwilling to expose his Kingdom to the danger of a Battel thought it best to give Therowenne to the fortune of his Enemies Teligny after two months siege rendered it on composition Victuals and Ammunition failing him before his Courage and the King of England and the Emperour not agreeing betwixt themselves about the propriety of the place the one claiming it by right of Inheritance and the other by Conquest it was presently demolished In the mean time Lowis the Twelfth that he might put a stop to his bad success by employing a General in whose safety all his Subjects might be concerned caused the young Duke of Valois to advance to Blangy But neither the merit of that Prince nor the great Forces that daily joyned him hindered the progress of the King of England for whilst the Duke Longueville and the other Prisoners were on their way to London he lay down before the City of Tournay which having no hope of relief as lying in the midst of the Low-Countreys made no long resistance And having now reduced that place under his Obedience and beginning to have some jarring with the Emperour who in many things was chargeable to him and in others unfaithful he returned back into England Never was Prince better satisfied for besides his own Conquests of Therowenne and Tournay the Victory which the Earl of Surrey's Lieutenant had just then obtained over the Scots raised him to the highest pitch of fortune that he could almost pretend to and though his Fleet had received some ruffle in the Bay of Brest yet the death of the King of Scotland killed in the Battel of Floudon which he fought only for the interest of France though he was his Brother-in-law revenged him fully of that and of the damage which Pregent and Primanguet had done him on his Wastes Insomuch that he entred London in triumph where to reward those who had fought so valiantly for his Glory he made Brandon Duke of Suffolk gave the Title of Duke of Norfolk to the Earl of Surrey and to his Son the Admiral that of Surrey and Talbot Gray and Sommerset who had behaved themselves stoutly on all occasions were created the one Earl of Shrewsbury in the place of his Father who desired it the other Marquess of Dorset his Father being lately dead and the last Earl of Worcester But these are matters wide of my Subject and I should not remark them by the by but for avoiding confusion in the names of those who may have some share in the sequel of this History My business should be to relate the joy that the English Princess conceived upon the return of Brandon to which the title of Duke of Suffolk as from henceforth he must be named added but little for a real virtue once known needs no other Ornaments And the affectionate rebukes she gave him for having so often exposed himself to dangers would without doubt require a more exact description than I make were it not that the tenderness of these Lovers is sufficiently known and that their pains rather than pleasures are to be related since that amidst trouble and difficulties the greatness and power of Love appears more conspicuous After so fair beginnings they wanted not crosses and all that had befallen them before the War from the competition of Gray Bourchier and Sommerset from the Kings indifferency after the death of Cecile Blunt or from the aggression of the Earl of Kildare followed by an Imprisonment which the secret Quality of a Prince of York rendered the more dangerous All this I say bears no proportion with what they endured afterward Upon the return from the War of France all people imagining that Brandon who had acquired so much Glory there should espouse the Princess Mary when they saw him only made Duke of Suffolk and nothing else talked of they believed that his fortune was at a stand and that in that respect there had been more policy than friendship in the Conduct of the King There is but little certainty in the opinions of men all is but whimsey There was no more discourse therefore of his Intelligence with Mary of England nor of the services he rendered
The English PRINCESS OR THE Dutchess-Queen A RELATION OF ENGLISH and FRENCH ADVENTURES A NOVEL In Two PARTS LONDON Printed for Will. Cademan and Simon Neale at the Popes-Head in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange and at the Three Pidgeons in Redford-street in Covent-Garden 1678. 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 the 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 sufficiently appear in the sequel of this discourse 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 afforded 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
that therefore he would not have him be troubled at the fopperies and idle talk of people That he should suffer his jealous Rivals to speak what their own jealousie would sufficiently hinder from being believed That it ought to suffice him that he knew the virtue of his Sister That he was willing he should love her and that he pretended that whatsoever was done with his approbation was above obloquy and censure In a word dear Brandon said he I will not that your virtue be the reason why you leave me My honour is concerned that I retain you and after all this what would be said of the King of England if it were known that a wise and discreet man could not live with him I shall not then comply with your desire your virtue has revenged you on my imprudence and my favours shall revenge me on your diffidence and though now you see some in my Court that create you trouble it is possible that shortly seeing none above you but my self you shall see nothing there but what may give you content At these words Brandon casting himself at his feet would have answered that he could never deserve the favours which he mentioned but the King embracing him no more of this said he we shall never make an end Delay your thanks for what I say until you have seen what I can do return to me with as sincere an heart as I desire you to do it and let nothing take up the cares of us both but my Sisters health I wish the time were come that I might give you her In this manner the illustrious Brandon escaped the shipwrack wherein most people thought him over-whelmed He grew greater after his disgrace than he had been before and the King to keep his word to him having repealed all the proceedings of the Mayor of London against him and given Woolsey a severe check for the violence he had used in that Rancounter condemned the Earl of Kildare in the charge of maintaining two Fregats in the Irish-Seas Of all the Rivals of Brandon there was none but the officious Gray exempted The generosity that he had shewed for an unfortunate enemy was of no small use to settle the good opinion which in the sequel he was held in But Bourchier Sommerset young Buckingham and the rest met with sharp Reprimands from the King and his Majesty having exprest himself with discontent against the scoffers and libellers which spared not so much as his own Palace men became more reserved and spake no more of the affairs of others In the mean while the Princess having been in great danger of her life gave shortly assured signs of a speedy cure Besides her young age and good constitution that which contributed much to it was the relation that Brandon gave her of the long discourse which he had had with the King the day that he was released Though he persisted in the design that the King had endeavoured to divert him from yet at that time he gave no signs of it On the contrary in the necessity of pleasing her he himself was willing to seem flattered with the things that he thought no more on but with grief and that complaisance working its effect the tranquillity of her mind recalled so effectually her bodily health that she recovered from her sickness more beautiful than before But as the King had only delayed his expedition to the War of France for her sake so he hastened his departure so soon as he knew her to be out of danger and used the more precipitancy because knowing better than any other the trouble that she and Brandon would have to bid adieu he would not have them have time to prepare for it nor to revive their passions Few arms have marched out with a more victorious air than that of England The King the Commanders Soldiers and every thing else seemed to go in triumph and there was no appearance as the affairs of Lowis the twelfth stood that he could be able to withstand them The League formed against him by the intrigues of Pope Julius the Second who had resolved at what rate soever to be revenged of him because that by his Ambassadours he had maintained the Council of Pisa where his life had been so severely examined raised him as many enemies as he had neighbours His allies had already felt the cruel effects of his misfortune And amongst others poor John D'albert lost the year before his Kingdom of Navar for Ferdinand of Arragon who desired nothing more than to joyn it to Spain failed not to lay hold on the specious pretext offered him by the Interdict of Rome and though that Pope a man of a froward and turbulent spirit upon his recovery from a great fit of sickness seemed to repent his bad designs yet he had engaged so many other potentates that he was now no more the Master of Peace All Italy was in arms The most part of the small Princes hoping to raise themselves to greatness in the disorder and running to the noise that had awakened them joyned themselves to the party of the League though they knew not why so that what secret attempts so ever Julius the Second made at that time to make an end of the War yet the loss of the Battel of Navar which drew after it all the Milanese that the French then sustained was nevertheless a chick of his hatching The sad news of this came to Paris at the same time that the English embarked for their passage and many cross accidents together befel the King of France during the joys that his Court could not refuse to the marriage of the Count of Guise with Anthonet of Bourbon Sister to the Count of Vendosme Not but that in the apprehension of the 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
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 successfully 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 as yet been approved by the two Houses of Parliament it is certain that he would have bestowed her on him upon his return from France when he made him Duke of Suffolk But he had measures to observe in that affair by reason of the King of Spain who would not have failed to have complained of such a marriage to the contempt of his Grandson He had the like to observe with his Queen who was Aunt to that Prince and being divided betwixt so important considerations he found it one of those thorny affairs wherein Kings are in some manner afraid to make use of their absolute power And that was the reason that he spake no more of it which at first troubled all the Court and gave grounds of believing that he entertained other thoughts But the removal of the Duke of Longueville would have cost him nothing so that Suffolk no sooner understood that the Princess intended to propose it but he prevented her and resolving to over-come himself or to dye rather than to admit of such a remedy the interest of the person whom he loved wrought on his heart what he was unable to perform for his own repose Matters then reassumed almost
to speak as long as she pleased and even affected to put her in some kind of impatience for an answer and when he thought that she had expected it long enough he gently replyed That not having foreseen the reproach she made to him it was not in his power to justifie himself on the sudden and that seeing his Crime was discovered she had no more to do but to punish him And then beholding her with so much the more calmness that she had spoken in passion but Madam continued he let mo be delivered into the hands of the executioner and let me dye you shall be Queen of France and it shall be to me a delightful comfort when I mount the scaffold to know that I am no more an hinderance to you to mount the Throne About a year ago you knew not what reason might make you become mine enemy now you have found it out I am desirous you should be a Queen Ah! Madam cryed he I cannot be guilty of a lovelier Crime With these words he would have departed but the Princess stopped him and being more out of countenance and more afflicted for the unjust reproach that she had cast upon him than for that she had drawn from him bursting forth in Tears at the door of the Closet she gave but too evident signs of her trouble and repentance Suffolk on the other hand being deeply smitten with that new expression of grief which compleated his own had no thoughts of insulting over it He stood with his eyes fixed on the floor directing thither his sighs as well as looks and very far from telling her that she should let him go to the death to which she had condemned him which another perhaps might have done in a profound silence he considered how he might mollifie the deplorable condition which he saw her in though he did not endeavour it for fear of reducing her to another as bad He well perceived that his love disguised it self under all kinds of shapes and that when it should glance forth under the colour of respect and pity that would but revive in her the flames which he desired to smother by making it appear But as he clearly saw into the heart of the Princess so she likewise penetrated into his So that retracting of a sudden the unjust reproach which vexation had made her charge him with Why do ye force me said she to speak what I do not think And why must I be constrained seeing I cannot bend you by a real tenderness which you know so well to be rooted in my heart to attempt to terrifie you by an imaginary hatred which I affect as well as I can What is become of us Suffolk continued she that your virtue makes me despair and my affection oppresses you At these words animated by throbs sighs and tears which love being reduced to the utmost extremity forced from the loveliest mouth and fairest eyes in the world it was not in the power of poor Suffolk any longer to resist his strength failed him and he fell down upon a Couch The Princess affrighted to see him look pale and faint began to be in the same fears for him that he was daily in for her And as he had omitted nothing that might perswade and overcome her so then it fell to her turn to spare no means that could satisfie and bring him again to himself She told him that she yielded promised to do whatsoever he would have her and what could she indeed deny him in that sad condition And what was she not obliged to do to relieve him However their conversation could last no longer the Duke of Suffolk must withdraw and having with much ado crawled out of the apartment of the Princess the Marquess of Dorset who met him was obliged to Conduct him home The disorder nevertheless that appeared in his countenance was neither so considerable nor dangerous as that which no body saw But the one suspended the other The oppression of the mind hindered the distemper of body and though he had had a Fever all night long yet the Earl of Shrewsbury who went next morning in the Kings name to visit him found him up He went himself likewise to Court the better to cloak all appearances and having discoursed on several things with the King Suffolk finding his virtue supported by secret advantages which his master promised himself from the marriage of his Sister with the King of France they agreed between themselves on the means to bring her to comply But it was now no more necessary to come to extremities She began of her self to resolve on it and the death or flight of the Duke of Suffolk which she found to be otherways unavoidable won by little and little from her fears a condescension to the negotiation of the Duke of Longueville to which her Love could never have consented So that that worthy Lover but the most unfortunate of all Lovers seeing he was too well beloved being come to her apartment after that the King and he had agreed what could not be in any other way concluded found her still in the same disquiet for his health that he had left her in the day before But she spake no more to him of any thing which she knew might put him in trouble She fell rather into a kind of Lethargy and whilst she used violence with her self to conceal it for fear of stirring up his compassion he fell softly to entertain her with those wild and chimerical hopes which the worst of fortunes cannot take from the unfortunate when they have a mind to imagine them She made a shew of being flattered therewith as well as he She began to spare him as he spared her and whilst with a hard curb she checked her more tender passions giving the reins to the most violent that she was capable of the Duke of Longueville became the object of them She did nothing but detest the day of his Captivity and with so much the more violence that he revenged himself so cruelly on him that had taken him In a word she could not look on him but as a mortal enemy whose sight she protested she could never endure and it may be said of that French Prince that desiring by indirect ways to gain all he lost all and that as there was never any Lover whose notions were more foolish so likewise was there never any who took falser measures However his negotiation succeeded according to the orders which he had received and the General of Normandy extraordinary Ambassadour of France came to London to conclude the marriage and peace in the treaty of which the young King of Scotland was comprehended with excommunication against the breakers because it was authorised by the Pope After this the King of England and Duke of Suffolk made it all their care to recover the cheerful humour of the Princess which seemed to be banished from her soul for the rest of her days The Marquess
of his But that was a day that produced strange adventures for the fury of the Earl of Kildare ceased of a sudden and that fiery man was so affected with Suffolks action that throwing his sword into the same place of the Wood as he had done he came running towards him with open arms crying with tears That he would never be any more his enemy After which there was no kind of friendship which they showed not to one another and this days adventure having interrupted the design which Suffolk had to wander over the world he yielded to go to Calais with the Earl of Kildare saying sometimes within himself by a tenderness of heart which makes true Lovers know the force of their love that he went only to London to endeavour the re-establishment of his defender And in effect the procedure of that generous enemy was the first thing he told the King his Master and that Prince who loved rare and singular adventures the more admired that action of the Irish Earl that he thought him not capable of such generosity So that he gave him a very favourable reception and restoring him again into favour by that means united these two Rivals into so strict a bond of friendship that nothing could afterward dissolve it In the mean while as the return of the Duke of Suffolk was in agitation and that upon the complaints which the Queen made by her Letters the King of England intended to stand on his points with the Court of France hardly had he projected the measures he was to take in that conjuncture when the Marquess of Dorset wrote an account of the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth It would be hard to give an exact relation of what the Duke of Suffolk conceived upon this great news It wrought a new change in him not to be expressed only after he had done all that could be done for Mary of England after that he had sacrificed her to her self by an excess of Virtue by sacrificing himself for her in an excess of Love nothing else can be said but that the reward which so high and extraordinary an action deserved began to shine in his eyes There was nothing able to moderate his joy but a false report that was spread abroad of the Queens being with Child For besides that this would have left him no hopes it being unlikely that the Mother of a Dolphin of France could leave her Sons Kingdom or enter into a second marriage with a person such as he was taken to be he dreaded likewise that the Duke of Valois whom she would thereby disappoint of a Crown might not revolt against her He likewise feared the Calumnies which the Favourites of that Prince would not fail to publish after that they had already slandered her and that fatal conception at length seemed to rob him of all that he thought was left him by the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth But it happened to be a mistake And the Queen having her self declared the contrary that the Proclamation of the Duke of Valois might not be held in suspense it was quickly perceived that she was the first who acknowledg'd him King of France by the name of FRANCIS the First and the Marquess de Sanferre who in the name of that Prince arrived shortly at London to renew the Treaty of Peace which the King his Father-in-law had concluded the year before put an end to the troubles of the Duke of Suffolk So that his heart being filled with joy HENRY the Eighth whose care it was also to render him happy would no longer delay his bliss He condescended to all that was proposed to him for the continuation of the Treaty and because with the interests of the two Crowns it behoved him likewise to regulate the concerns of the Queen his Sister in Quality of Dowager he took that pretext to send Suffolk into France with the title of Ambassadour Plenipotentiary which he discharged with so great splendour that Prince Henry Count of Nassaw who came to Paris at the same time in name of the Arch-Duke about the affairs of the Low-Countries was somewhat troubled to see a subject of England so highly out-do him But as there was nothing in France that could equal the Magnificence of the English and all the Court of FRANCIS the First were envious at it as well as the Flemings so there was nothing in the same Kingdom at that time comparable to the Beauty of the Queen The air wherewith she received the Duke of Suffolk at the Palace des Tournelles made the wits at Court say That she needed not too much virtue to comfort her for the death of a husband and it must be acknowledged that under her mourning Veil and Peak which by the light of a vast number of Torches set more advantageously off the delicate whiteness of her skin nothing was to be seen in her that day which might occasion melancholy or grief That raillery was carried as far as possibly it could be whilst the necessity of the affairs which they had to regulate with the King of France and his Ministers obliged them often to speak together and to be by themselves But whatever hath been said of them and whatsoever reports have been raised of their mutual complaisances or the joy that they had to meet again yet it is still true that they never gave any ground for Calumny and Reproach If they were so near to make a slip as men imagined yet they were cautious and in dangerous occasions when they might have done otherways they virtuously resisted temptation The new King of France was not of that temper for that Prince naturally very free with women would have made no Ceremony to have perswaded the Queen had she been in the least inclined to hear him He had many times much ado to leave her when the affairs of his Kingdom required it and for all the Grandure and Magnanimity which hath appeared in the course of his life yet being at that time too weak for his passion he appeared sometimes so peevish and out of humour that the same detracting tongues which have endeavoured to sully the reputation of Mary of England have given it out that his amorous fever made him so light-headed as to detest his marriage with the Daughter of LOWIS the Twelfth and to protest more than once that he had rather have enjoyed his Widow than his Kingdom Whether it was an effect of the Queens sweet disposition or that she was pleased to revenge her self for the troubles that he caused her before he was King she appeared not altogether inexorable Yet she was still the same at the heart and never what he took her to be So that one day when her beauty so surprised him that he forgot some of his measures thinking to take her on the right side he told her That since he himself could not expect to be happy it behoved him at least to endeavour to make her so that therefore he
would marry her to the Duke of Suffolk whensoever she pleased that he feared no consequences of that marriage that he would be Guarrantee of it to all men and that he would take upon him to perswade the King her Brother to consent thereto To this proposition he added many marks of affection and dextrously insinuated how much it had cost him before he could bring himself to that resolution so that the fair Queen perceiving him in appearance exceedingly moved and suffering him to speak all that he pleased by gestures and looks affected several times not to be altogether insensible But having done so and judging that he thought her sufficiently touched she rose from the chair and looking on him with an air which might at first falsifie all the applause that she had given to his discourse she answered That he had never well known her and that he knew her not as yet That in France she was taken for a strange person but that the French themselves were a strange-humoured people and that she well perceived that amongst them a young Queen who would be thought virtuous and discreet though she were naturally affable and courteous must not show her self to be so That as to the Duke of Suffolk she saw very well that it was known that she had an esteem for so worthy a Gentleman and that she was willing he should be so far in her secrets as to tell him somewhat more particular that she had sometimes wished he had been born a King But that that being but a vain wish Suffolk must be satisfied with her esteem and for the rest that there were Soverains that demanded her and Kings who having demanded her from her Child-hood might still demand her This brisk answer not being understood did the more vex the King that he thought he had found a sure way to render the Queen pliable Yet for all that he gave not over He believed her to have been surprised or that she made it strange to be free with him and from time to time renewing the discourse of the marriage with the Duke of Suffolk though it was uneasie to him to speak good of a Rival yet as at that time he showed himself a moft passionate Lover so he had at least the advantage of a favourable hearing In the mean while he got no ground upon her and the affairs of the Queen being now concluded she made it her business to prepare for her return into England Then was the time that the Love of FRANCIS the First which before was always but a gentle heat in his heart became a furious passion Many hours he restlesly spent a thousand violent thoughts he hatched and if he had not had as tractable and pliable a mind as he had a high and generous Courage probably he had run upon strange extremities But at length he took counsel of the wise in whom he confided and his love and despair changeing into pure Gallantry all his intentions were to give signal proofs of the command he had over himself But all the advances that he had already made in that laudable design and all the pomp and magnificence wherewith he had ordered the lovely Queen whom he was so loth to quit to be conducted out of his Territories were nothing so obliging to her nor so great for himself as the Letter which after the signing of all the Treaties that had been concluded by the Ministers on either side he wrote with his own hand to the King of England to this effect That there being few Kings who in personal worth excelled the Duke of Suffolk he ought to bestow on him so much of the Grandure of his Kingdom as might put him in a capacity to marry the Queen his Sister That if there were nothing on his part that might hinder such a lovely union for his own part he freely consented to it and that having besides proposed to the Arch-Duke the marriage of the Count of Nassaw with the Princess of Orange he should much rejoyce to hear that the two Ambassadours who had procured him the friendship of his illustrious neighbours had received in recompense the one the most beautiful Queen in the world and the other the richest Princess of the Low-Countries Thus did FRANCIS the First Crown his Love by a truely heroical action whereof another King slighted in his Love as he was would hardly have been capable It was the first action but not the least laudable of his Reign though that might afford matter for a continued Elogy There is nothing so great as for a man to conquer his own passions There are few that desire much less atchieve it And Kings especially when they are amorous and young are not accustomed to put their virtue to such a tryal The Queen found her self infinitely obliged to the sincere procedure which followed so generous an effort but durst not profess so much for fear of exposing her self to new troubles She thought it enough to correspond with it by all the civilities which might evidence her acknowledgment without reviving smothered flames and that Conduct of the most charming Princess of the world gaining intirely the esteem of a King who craved no more from her but friendship so fully re-placed her in the respect of all the Court notwithstanding of envy and detraction that there was not so much as one that belonged to it who seemed not troubled at her approaching departure The less polished Gallants lamented it and the others having understood the merit of the Duke of Suffolk during the time of his Embassie were almost all of opinion following the example of the King that the Queen had reason to love him All the discourse therefore at Court of their mutual affection was with respect and 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 left 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 his 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 he wore always the Chain and Medal even at that time when being General of the English Army he took from the French the Towns of Mont-didier and de Roy. Brandon Duke of Suffolk as he was one of the greatest Captains of his age so was he likewise one of the wisest Councellors of his King and whether in the affairs which that Prince had at the Court of Rome and with the Emperour CHARLES the Fifth when he intended his divorce with Catherine of Spain or otherways when the business was to ruin Cardinal Woolsey or in the domestick disorders which obliged him to put to death Ann of Bolen his second Wife in all these he received from him very considerable services though on that last occasion when there was a necessity of condemning a beautiful Criminal for whom he had always entertained a great esteem the generous Suffolk was very loth to engage And the truth is after that time he never enjoyed himself more Queen Catherine dying a little before that cruel execution which would have but too much revenged her on her Rival if it had been performed in her life-time the Dutchess-Queen died shortly after to wit in the twentieth year of her marriage with
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 of Derby and some other Beauties at Court thereby to divert the observation of the more curious and although the Lady Latimer more ambitious than prudent was accessary to her Daughters slips yet that afforded him not all the possible advantages he desired It behoved him often to steal his opportunities by night and to pass in disguise through a great part of his Palace in London and House of pleasure at Greenwich where the apartment of the Princess his Sister happened always to be cross to his designs in which he never trusted any but one domestick Servant two of his Guards and the faithful BRANDON He made even commonly use of that favorite to conceal himself under his name and without considering the wrong he might do to the Princess these Night-rambles passed for the feats of BRANDON that went to visit the Princess Mary However he would not that any should say so much when his company were surprised and could not avoid the eyes of some watchful spie and as it behoved him to colour these proceedings with some intrigue of love because it would have been hard to have perswaded men that any thing else was in play orders were given to insinuate that it was the lovely
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 it with that universal maxim Neither that 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 answered Brandon that he perceived he was well informed of what he had written to his Sister and that he made great matters of it though it deserved no such construction for the truth was that he being willing to try the effects of love in a case of adversity had made use of the first word that appeared proper for his design That there was no more in that note and that in fine as to himself it was but a trifle as well as the rest but not so on his part seeing his memory was so good and he so touchy that he could not pardon some small inequalities which appeared in his humour since the death of Cecile That he had had some doubts that Woolsey might give him some Umbrage but that he never thought the impression could have been so deep and that the same appearances that had deceived him before deceived him still That notwithstanding he could not but excuse two errors into which he let himself only be led by an excess of affection That to undeceive him he would endeavour to proceed to an equal excess and that there was nothing in his Kingdom so great to which his heart and eyes might not aspire And
their former face and the Duke of Longueville who knew nothing of the disorder which he caused nor of the evil wherewith he had been threatned continued his Gallantries but with this difference that the Princess concerned at the troubles of Suffolk seemed not to him to have the same freedom of humour as formerly He judged of that sometimes in her favour and sometimes to her prejudice according to the freakishness of Lovers who for one and the same thing are many times both glad and sorrowful and as he had a good conceit of himself so he enclined rather to the one side than the other But hardly was that disorder appeased when it broke out again more cruelly than before for some Letters by a strange fatality being come to London which gave advice that the King of France designed a new marriage with an Italian Princess that bad rumour which seemed not in the least to have any relation to the fortune of Suffolk was the utter overthrow of all his hopes The Duke of Longueville who found no fairer pretext to Colour his Love for the English Princess but that of seeing her Queen of France and considering that all that he had said in respect of the Duke of Valois heir of the Crown was but a dull notion wherewith he was not himself much flattered seeing that he knew several things of the marriage of that Prince with the Princess Claudia that were far different from what the pleasure of discourse and his passion had made him say on that subject so soon as he was informed of the news from Paris without examining whether it was false or true he conceived a more sensible and specious notion and the interest of the Kingdom joyned to that pretended desire of a new marriage which was published of his King perfected in his mind that Image The age of LOWIS the Twelfth afforded him new delights whensoever he reflected thereon and if it be free once to declare what he had always in his thoughts he imagined that the lovely Princess in the embraces of an old Husband oppressed with the Gout and many other infirmities might be very well allowed some liberty This idle fancy then made his flame sparkle so that having rendered her a visit upon occasion of the report that went of the King of France with eyes glanceing with the joy that he desired to raise in her having premised such circumstances as he judged proper for his design he expressed himself with so prepossessed and contented an air that he left her hardly the liberty to say any thing against his overture The Princess only seemed not at all surprised and as if she had thought on nothing less giving him a cold answer that he designed her for every body she allowed him no opportunity of insisting in his discourse The jealousie of Suffolk created her too much trouble to entertain him on such a subject and she was so far from giving the least check to the hopes which she desired him to continue in by so vain a consideration that for all the Crowns of the World she would not have disturbed the quiet of his heart So that the Duke of Longueville finding her not so easie to be perswaded in respect of LOWIS the Twelfth as he believed she might have been in favour of the Duke of Valois and imagining that the old age of the former caused in her that aversion and as he was not much concerned whether she was satisfied or not to be Queen of France provided she were so he thought it best in that conjuncture to make a matter of state of it But the King with whom he was to negotiate being prepossessed to the contrary as well as the Princess gave him no more satisfaction than she had done and when he was pressed to speak his mind he answered him That a proposition wherein all Europe was concerned sounded not well from the mouth of a Prisoner Yet for all this the Duke was not discouraged He wrote to the King his Master and with his Letter sent the Picture of Mary of England and being a more successful negotiator at distance than in presence the affairs of Italy being now somewhat composed by the death of Pope Julius to whom LEO the Tenth succeeded and the Ministers of France finding their advantages in an alliance with England he received an answer according to his desire Then it was that poor Suffolk perceived his ruin manifest The Duke of Longueville was the first that drew his blood at the Battel of Spurs he was the first that infected his mind with the sullen poyson of jealousie which troubled all his delights at London and as a fatal enemy was now to disquiet the rest of his days And indeed he strove no more to resist the matter nor did he so much as seek ease by complaining lest that by flattering so his grief it might break out against his will and that his virtue whereof he then stood so much in need should be weakened thereby It was to no purpose for the Princess to discourse him about that subject It was to no purpose for her to employ all her Charms with him and to upbraid him with the sharpest cuts of Love that she found he loved her no more since that he yielded her to another for he had not only the power to be silent before her but he maintained to the last that rigorous conflict wherein nothing but the love oâ— her made him resist and the King his Master with all his dexterity and goodness produced but still less effects on him Never was there so much constancy in so tender and afflicted a soul He entertained the Princess Mary no more but with the Grandure and Beauties of France He urged to her by solid reasons that the most glorious passion was the desire to reign over the most illustrious people of the Universe He went farther to encourage her by pretending that his own interest was therein concerned and as if he had been the most covetous of all men who was indeed the most liberal he seemed only then possessed with the hopes of the great riches that he expected from her Crown The soul must without doubt be great which can love in that strain and ordinary passions are unable to renounce themselves in that manner But the fair Princess to whom he rendered so rare an instance of a perfect love repayed it by another no less wonderful on her part The Crown of France seemed nothing to her in respect of Suffolks heart and being sensible to the utmost of the unspeakable pleasure that is found in being loved as one loves that was to her so Soveraign a blessing that no other earthly advantage could equal it She disputed therefore with him the possession of his heart which she desired still to enjoy as he contended for the loss of hers which he was willing she should deprive him of and her lovely eyes bore already the marks of the wrong which the