enough to have made him fall down and worship him In One of those Towers there is a Ring of Bels in the other two onely but those for worth equal to all the rest The bigger of the two is said to be greater than that of Roven so much talked of as being eight yards and a span in compass and two yards and an half in depth the bowl also of the clapper being one yard and a quarter round Of a great weight it must needs be and therefore Multorum manibus grande levatur onus there are no less than four main ropes besides their several tayl ropes to ring it By reason of the trouble it is never rung but in time of thunders and these no mean ones neither Lesser Bels will serve the lesser tempests this is onely used in the horrider claps and such as threaten a dissolution of Nature But how well as well this as the smallest discharge that office experience would tell us were we void of reason yet so much do the people affiance themselves to this conceit of the power of them that they suppose it inherent to them continually after the Bishop hath baptized them which is done in this manner The Bell being so hanged that it may be washed within and without in cometh the Bishop in his Episcopal robes attended by one of his Deacons and sitting by the Bell in his chair saith with a loud voice the 50 53 56 66 69 85 and 129. Psalmes or some of them then doth he exorcize severally the Salt and the Water and having conjured those ingredients into an holy water he washeth with it the Bell both on the inside and the outside wiping it dry with a linnen cloath he readeth the 145 146 147 148 149 150 Psalms he draweth a cross on it with his right thumb dipped in hallowed oyl chrysome they call it and then prayeth over it His prayer finished he wipeth out the cross and having said over it the 48. Psalm he draweth on it with the same oyle seven other crosses saying Sanctificetur consecretur Domine Campana ista in nomine c. After another prayer the Bishop taketh another Censer and putting into it Myrrh and Frankincense setteth it on fire and putteth it under the Bell that it may all receive sume of it this done the 76. Psalm read some other prayers repeated the Bell hath received his whole and intire Baptisme and these vertues following viz. Vt per illius tactam procul pellantur omnes insidiae mimici fragor grandinum procella turbinum impetus tempestatum c. for so one of the Prayers reckoneth them prescribed in the Roman Pontifical authorized by Clement 8th A stranqe piece of Religion that a Bell should be baptized and so much the stranger in that those inanimate bodies can be received into the Church by no other ministery than that of the Bishop the true Sacrament being permitted to every Hedge-Priest Not farre from the West-gate of the Church of Nostre-dame is the Hosteldein or le grand Hospital de Paris first founded by King Lewis Anno 1258. It hath been since beautified and inlarged Anno 1535. by Mr. Anthony Prat Chancellor of France who augmented the number of the hospitallers and gave fair revenues for the maintaining of Surgeons Apothecaries and religious men amongst them Since that time the Provost and Eschevins of Paris have been especial Benefactors unto it At your first entrance into it you come into their Chappel small but handsome and well furnished After you pass into a large gallery having four ranks of beds two close to the wals and two in the middle The beds are all sutable the one to the other their vallance curtains and rugs being all yellow At the further end of this a door opened into another chamber dedicated onely to sick women and within them another room wherein women with child are lightned of their burden and their children kept till seven years of age at the charge of the Hospital At the middle of the first gallery on the left hand were other four ranks of beds little differing from the rest but that their furniture was blew and in them there was no place for any but such as were some way wounded and belonged properly to the Chirurgion There are numbred in the whole Hospital no less than seven hundred beds besides those of attendants Priests Apothecaries c. and in every bed two persons One would imagine that in such a variety of wounds and diseases a walk into it and a view of it might savour more of curiosity than discretion But indeed it is nothing less for besides that no person of an infectious disease it admitted into it which maketh much for the safety of such as view it all things are kept there so cleanly and orderly that it is sweeter walking there than in the best street of Paris none excepted Next unto those succeeded la Saincte Chapelle scituate in the middle of the Palais a Chappel famous for its form but more for its Reliques It was founded by Lewis the ninth vulgarly called St. Lewis Anno 1248. and is divided into two parts the Vpper and the Lower the Lower serving for the keeping of the Reliques and the Vpper for celebrating of the Mass It is a comely spruce Edifice without but farre more curious within the glass of it for the excellency of painting and the Organs for the richness and elaborate workmanship of the Case not giving way to any in Europe I could not learn the number of Chanoins which are maintained in it though I heard they were places of three hundred Crowns revenue As for their Treasurer le Threasurier as they call their Governor he hath granted him by especial priviledge the licence to wear all the Episcopal habits except the Crosier-staffe and to bear himself as a Bishop within the liberties of his Chappel In the top of the upper Chappel it is built almost in the form of a Synagogue there hangeth the true proportion as they say of the Crown of Thorns but of this more when we have gone over the Reliques I was there divers times to have seen them but it seemeth they were not visible to a Hugonots eyes though me thinketh they might have considered that my money was Catholick They are kept as I said in the lower Chappel and are thus marshalled in a Table hanging in the upper Know then that you may beleive that they can shew you the Crown of Thornes the bloud which ran from our Saviours breast his swadling Clouts and a great part of the Cross they also of Nostre-dame have some of it the chain by which the Jews bound him no small peice of the stone of the Sepulchre Sanctam taelam tabulae insertam which I know not how to English some of the Virgins milk for I would not have those of St. Denis think the Virgin gave milk to none other but to them the head of the Launce which peirced our Saviour
from hence might he have made an escape into England and at this door was the entrance made for the English forces which gave him the first step to his Throne The Town hath been pillaged and taken by our Richard the first in his warrs against Philip Augustus and in the declining of our affairs in France it was a moneth together besieged by the Duke of York but with that success which commonly attendeth a falling Empire The number of the Inhabitants is about 30000. whereof 9000. and upwards are of the Religion and have allowed them for the exercise of their Religion the Church of Argues a Village some two miles distant The Remainder are Papists In this Town I met with the first Idolatry which ever I yet saw more than in my books Quas antea audiebam hodi◠video Deos as a barbarous German in Velleius said to Tiberius The Gods of Rome which before I onely heard of I now see and might have worshipped it was the Hoast as they call it or the Sacrament reserved carried by a couple of Priests under a Canopy ushered by two or three torches and attended by a company of boyes old people which had no other imployment Before it went a bell continually tinckling at the sound whereof all such as are in their houses being warned that then their God goeth by them make some shew of reverence those which meet it in the street with bended knees and elevated heads doing it honour The Protestants of this bell make an use more religious and use it as a warning or a watch-peal to avoid that street through which they hear it coming This invention of the Bell hath somewhat of Turcisme it being the custom there at their Canonical hours when they hear the cryers bawling in the steeples to fall prostrate on the ground wheresoever they are and to kiss it thrice so doing their devotions to Mahomet The carrying it about the streets hath no question in it a touch of the Jew this Ceremony being borrowed from that of the carrying about the Ark upon the shoulders of the Priests The other main part of it which is the adoration is derived from the Heathen there never being a people but they which afforded divine honour to things inanimate But the people indeed I cannot blame for this idolatrous devotion their consciences being perswaded that what they see pass by them is the very body of their Saviour For my part could the like beleif possess my understanding I could meet it with a greater reverence then their charge can enjoyn me The Priests and Doctors of the people are to be condemned onely who impose and inforce this sin upon their bearers and doubtless there is a reward which attendeth them for it Of standing it is so yoūg that I never met with it before the year 1215. Then did Pope Innocent ordain in a Council holden at Rome that there should be a Pixe made to cover the Bread and a Bell bought to be rung before it The adoration of it was enjoyned by Pope Honorius Anno Dom. 1226. Both afterwards encreast by the new solemn Feast of Corpus Christi day by Pope Vrban the fourth Anno 1264. and confirmed for ever with multitudes of pardons in the Council of Vienna by Clement the third Anno 1310. Such a punie is this great God of the Romans Lactantius in his first book of Institutions against the Gentiles taxeth the wise men of those times of infinite ridiculousness who worshipped Jupiter as a God Cum eundem tamen Saturno Rhea genitum confiterentur since themselves so perfectly knew his original As much I marvail at the impudency of the Romish Clergy who will needs impose a new God upon their people being so well acquainted with his cradle It is now time to go on in our journey to Roven The Cart stayeth and it is fit we were in it Horses we could get none for money and for love we did not expect them we are now mounted in our Chariot for so we must call it An English man thought it a plain Cart and if it needs will have the honour of being a Chariot let it sure I am it was never ordained for a triumph At one end were fastened three carkasses of Horses and three bodies which had been once Horses and now were worn to dead Images Had the statue of a man been placed on any one of them it might have been hang'd up at an Inn door to represent Saint George on horse-back so liveless they were and so little moving yet at last they began to crawl for go they could not This converted me from my former heresie and made me apprehend life in them but it was so little that it seemed onely enough to carry them to the next pack af Hounds Thus accomodated we bad Farewell to Diepe and proceeded with a pace so slow that we thought our journey to Roven would prove a most perfect Emblem of the motion of the ninth Sphere which was 49000. years in finishing But this was not our greatest misery The rain fell on us through our Tilt which for the many holes in it we would have thought a net The durt brake plentifully in upon us through the rails of our Chariot the unequal and unproportionable pace of it startled almost every bone of us I protest I marvel how a French-man durst adventure in it Thus endured we all the diseases of a journey and the danger of three several deaths drowning choaking with the mire and breaking of the wheel besides a fear of being famished before we came to our Inn which was six French miles from us The mad Duke that in the Play undertook to drive two Snails from Millaine to Musco without staffe whip or goad and in a bravery to match him for an experiment would here have had matter to have tired his patience On the left hand we saw Argues once famous for a siege laid about it by our Richard the first but wasted speedily by the French It is now as before I told you the Parish Church of Diepe Protestants their Preachers were Mr. Courteau and Mr. Mondeme who had each of them an yearly stipend fifty pound or thereabouts A poor pay if the faithful discharge of that duty were not a reward unto it self above the value of gold and siver To instance in none of these beggerly Villages we past through we came at last unto Tostes the place destinate to our Lodging a Town like the worser sort of Market Towns in England There our Charioter brought us to the ruines of an house an Alehouse I would scarce have thought it and yet in spite of my teeth it must be an Inn yea and that an honourable one too as Don Quixot's Host told him Despair of finding there either bedding or victuals made me just like the fellow at the Gallows who when he might have been repreived on condition he would marry a Wench which there sued for him having veiwed
Quilleboeuse and other places of importance but upon his death they were all razed What were his projects in it they know best which were acquainted with his ambition Certainly the jarrs which he had sown among the Princes one with the other and between them and the King shew that they were not intended for nothing There are in Roven thirty two Parish Churches besides those which belong to Abbeys and Religious Houses of which the most beautiful is that of St. Audom or Owen once Arch-bishop of this City The seat and Church of the Arch-bishop is that of Nostre-dame a building far more gorgeous in the outside than within It presents it self to you with a very gracious and majestical front decked with most curious imagery and adorned with three stately Towers The first called La tour St. Romain the second La tour de beaurre because it was built with that money which was raised by Cardinal D' Amboyse for granting a dispensation to eat butter in the Lent and a third built over the Porch or great Door wherein is the great Bell so much talked of Within it is but plain and ordinary such as common Cathedral Churches usually are so big so fashioned Behind the high Altar at a pillar on the left hand is the remainder of the Duke of Bedford's Tomb which for ought I could discern was nothing but an Epitaph some three yeards high in the Pillar I saw nothing in it which might move the envy of any Courtier to have it defaced unless it were the title of Regent du Rojaume de France which is the least he merited Somewhat Eastward beyond this is our Ladies Chappel a pretty neat piece and daintily set out There standeth on the top of the Screen the Image of the Virgin her self between two Angels They have attired her in a red Mantle laced with two gold laces a handsom ruffe about her neck a vail of fine lawn hanging down her back and to shew that she was the Queen of Heaven a Crown upon her head In her left arm she holds her Son in his side coat a black hat and a golden hat-band A jolly plump Lady she seemeth to be of a flaxen hair a ruddy lip and a chearful complexion 'T were well the Painters would agree about the limming of her otherwise we are like to have as many Ladies as Churches At Nostre dame in Paris she is taught us to be brown and seemeth somewhat inclin'd to melancholy I speak not of her different habit for I envy her not her changes of apparel Onely I could not but observe how those of St. Sepulchres Church en la rue St. Denis hath placed her on the top of their Screen in a Coape as if she had taken on her the zeal of Abraham and were going to make a bloudy sacrifice of her Son They of Nostre-dame in Amiens have erected her Statue all in gold with her Son also of the same mettal in her arms casting beams of gold round about her as the Sun is painted in its full glory Strange Idolatries On the contrary in the parish Church of Tury in la Beause she is to be seen in a plain petticoat of red and her other garments correspondent In my mind this holdeth most proportion to her estate and will but serve to free their irreligion from an absurdity If they will worship her as a Nurse with her Child in her arms or at her breast let them array her in such apparel as might beseem a Carpenters Wife such as she might be supposed to have worn before the world had taken notice that she was the Mother of her Saviour If they must needs have her in her estate of glory as at Amiens or of honour being now publikely acknowledged to be the blessedness among Women as at Paris let them disburden her of her Child To clap them thus both together is a folly equally worthy of scorn laughter Certainly had she but so much liberty as to make choice of her own clothes I doubt not but she would observe a greater decorum And therefore I commend the Capouchins of Boulogne who in a little side Chappel consecrated unto her have placed onely an handsom fair looking-glass upon her Altar the best ornament of a Female Closet Why they placed it there I cannot say onely I conceive it was that she might there see how to dress her self This Church is said to have been built I should rather think repaired by Raoul or Rollo the first Duke of Normandy Since it hath been much beautified by the English when they were Lords of this Province It is the seat of an Arch-bishop a Dean and fifty Canons The Arch-bishoprick was instituted by the authority of Constantine the Great during the sitting of the Council of Arles Anidian who was there present being consecrated the first Arch-bishop The Bishops of Seas Aurenches Constances Beaux Lysieaux and Eureux were appointed for his Diocesans The now Arch-bishop is said to be an able Schollar and a sound States-man his name I enquired not The Revenues of his Chair are said to be ten thousand Crowns More they would amount to were the Country any way fruitful of Vines out of which the other Prelates of France draw no small part of their Intrado The Parliament of this Country was established here by Lewis the twelfth who also built that fair Palace wherein Justice is administred Anno 1501. At that time he divided Normandy into seven Cathes Rapes or Baliwicks viz. Roven Caux Constentin Caen Eureux Gisors and Alenzon This Court hath supreme power to enquire into and give sentence of all causes within the limits of Normandy It receiveth appeals from the inferiour Courts of the Dutchy unto it but admitteth none from it Here is also Cour des Esleuz a Court of the general Commissioners for taxes and la Chambre des aides instituted by Charles the seventh for the receiving of his subsidies Gabels Imposts c. The house of Parliament is in form quadrangular a very graceful and delectable building That of Paris is but a Chaos or a Babel to it In the great Hall into which you ascend by some thirty steps or upwards are the seats and desks of the Procurators every ones name being written in Capital letters over his head These Procurators are like our Attourneys to prepare causes and make them ready for the Advocates In this Hall do suitors use either to attend or walk up and down and confer with their pleaders Within this Hall is the great Chamber the Tribunal or Seat of Justice both in Causes Criminal and Civil At domus interior regali splendida luxu Instruitur As Virgil of Queen Dido's dining room A Chamber so gallantly and richly built that I must confess it far supasseth all the rooms that ever I saw in my life The Palace of the Lou're hath nothing in it comparable The seiling all inlaid with gold and yet did the workmanship exceed the matter This Court
bought it giving in exchange an Office in the Treasury worth 400000 Crowns to be sold Two leagues from Ruall is the Kings house of St. Germanenly an house seated on the top of an hill just like Windsore The Town of St. Germain lyeth all round about it the River Reine of the same breadth as the Thames is at the place mentioned runneth below it and the house by reason of the scite having a large command of the Country round about it The Town is poor and hath nothing in it remarkable but the name which it took from St. Germain Bishop of Auxerre who together with St. Lupus Bishop of Troyes sailed into Britain to root out Pelagianisme The Castle or Seat royal is divided into two parts the old the new The old which is next unto the Town is built of brick and for form it is triangular Founded it was at the first by Charles the first since strengthened and beautified by the English when it was in their possession Francis the first added to it the upper story and the battlements and in memoriam facti hath left a Capital F. upon every of the chimneys The new house distant from the old about a furlong and to Which you descend by a handsome green Court It was built by Henry the fourth It consists of three several parts all joyned together the two outermost quadrangular that in the middle almost round and in the fashion of a Jewish Synagogue Here we saw the Volatory full of sundry forrein Birds and in one of the lowest rooms great store of out-landish Coins but these were but accessories The principal was the majesty of the house which is indeed worth the observation The Palace of the Lou're so much famed is not to be named the same day with that The rooms are well ordered and well roofed gorgeously set out with the curiosity of the Painter In some of the Chambers they shewed us some poetical fictions expressed by the pencil in the windows and on the wainscot and seemed to glory much in them I confess they might plentifully have possessed my fancy had I not seen the Window in Gorrambury gallery belonging to the right Honorable Francis Viscount St. Albons a Window in which all the Fables of Ovid's Metamorphosis are so naturally and lively resembled that if ever Art went beyond it self it was in that admirable expression Let us now take a veiw of the Water-works and here we shall see in the first Water-house which is a stately large walk vaulted over head the effigies of a Dragon just against the entrance An unquiet Beast that vomiteth on all that come nigh it At the end toward the right hand is the statue of a Nymph sitting before a pair of Organs Upon the loosing of one of the pipes the Nymphs fingers began to manage the keys and brought the instrument to yeild such a musick that if it were not that of an Organ it was like it as could be and not be the same Unto the division of her fingers her head kept a proportionable time jolting from one shoulder to the other as I have seen an old Fidler at a Wake In the same partition were the counterfeits of all sorts of mils which before very eagerly discharged their functions but upon the beginning of the harmony they suddenly stood still as if they had ears to have heard it At the other end toward the left hand we saw a shop of Smiths another of Joyners and backsides full of Sawyers and Masons all idle upon the first command of the water they all fell to their occupations and plied them lustily the Birds every where by their singing saving the Artificers the labour of whistling Besides upon the drawing of a wooden curtain there appeared unto us two Tritons riding on their Dolphins and each of them with a shell in his hand which interchangeably and in turns served them instead of Trumpets A very happy decorum and truly poetical Caeruleum Tritona vocat conchâque sonanti Inspirare jubet Afterwards follows Neptune himself sitting in his Chariot drawn with four Tortises and grasping his Tricuspis or threefold Scepter in his hand the water under them representing all the while a Sea somewhat troubled Thirty six steps from the front of the house we descended into this Water-house and by sixty more descended into a second of the same fashion but not of an equal length with the other At the right hand of this is the whole story of Perseus and Andromeda and the whole lively acted the Whale being killed and the Lady loosed from the rock very perfectly But withall it was so cunningly mannaged and that with such mutual change of fortune on the parts of both the Combatants that one who had not known the Fable would have been sore afraid that the Knight would have lost the victory and the Lady her life At the other end there was shewed unto us Orpheus in silvis positus silvaeque sequentes I say there appeared unto us the resemblance of Orpheus playing on a treble Violl the trees moving with the force of the musick and the wild Beasts dancing in two rings about him An invention which could not but cost King Henry a great sum of money one string of the Fiddle being by mischance broken having cost King Lewis his Son 1500. Livers Upon the opening of a double leafed door there were exhibited unto us divers representations and conceits which certainly might have been more graceful if they had not had so much in them of a Pudpet-play By some thirty steps more we descended into the Garden and by as many more into a Green which opened into the water sides In which the goodliest Flower and most pleasing to mine eye was the statue of an Horse in brass of that bigness that I and one of my companions could stand on the neck of him but dismounting from this Horse we mounted our own and so took our leaves of Saint Germain Upon the other side of Paris and up the River we saw another of the Kings Houses called Saint Vincent or Vincennes It was beautified with a large Park by Philip Augustus An. 1185. who also walled the Park and replenished it with Deer In this House have died many famous personages as Philip the fair Lewis Hutin and Charles the fair but none so much to be lamented as that of our Henry the fifth cut down in the flower of his age and the middest of his victories A man most truly valiant and the Alexander of his times Not far from thence is an old Castle once strong but time hath made it now unserviceable The people call it Chasteau bisestre corruptly for Vincester which maketh me beleive it was built by the English when they were Masters of this Isle CHAP. IV. Paris the names and antiquity of it The scituation and greatness the cheif strength and fortifications about it The streets and buildings King James his laudable care in beautifying London King
repair to have their audience and dispatch and hither were the Articles agreed upon in the National Synods of France sent to be confirmed and verified Here did the Subjects tender in their homages and oaths of fidelity to the King And here were the Appeals heard of all such as had complained against Comtes at that time the Governors and Judges in their several Counties Being furnished thus with the prime and choisest Nobles of the Land it grew into great estimation abroad in the world insomuch that the Kings of Sicily Cyprus Scotland Bohemia Portugal and Navarre have thought it no disparagement unto them to sit in it And which is more when Frederick the second had spent so much time in quarrels with Pope Innocent the fourth he submitted himself and the rightness of his cause to be examined by this Noble Court of Parliament At the first institution of this Court it had no settled place of residence being sometimes kept at Tholoza sometimes at Aix la Chapelle sometimes in other places according as the Kings pleasure and the case of the people did require During the time of its peregrination it was called Ambulatorie following for the most part the Kings Court as the lower Sphears do the motin of the Primum Mobile But Philip le Belle he began his raign An. 1280. being to take a journey into Flanders and to stay there a long space of time for the settling of his affairs in that Countrey took order that his Court of Parliament should stay behind him at Paris where ever since it hath continued Now began it to be called Sedentary or settled and also peu a pen by little and little to loose much of its lustre For the Cheif Princes and Nobles of the Kings retinue not able to live out of the air of the Court withdrew themselves from the troubles of it by which means it came at last to be appropriated to those of the long Robe as they term them both Bishops and Lawyers In the year 1463. the Prelates also were removed by the Command of Lewis the eleventh an utter enemy to the great ones of his Kingdom onely the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of St. Denis being permitted their place in it Since which time the Professors of the Civil Law have had all the swaying in it cedeunt arma togae as Tully The place in which this Sedentary Court of Parliament is now kept is called the Palaâ—e being built by Philip le Belle and intended to be his Mansion or dwelling house He began it in the first year of his reign Viz. Anno 1286. and afterwards assigned a part of it to his Judges of the Parliament it being not totally and absolutely quitted unto them till the dayes of King Luwis the tenth In this the French Subjects are beholding to the English by whose good example they got the ease of a Sedentary Court Our Law Courts also removing with the King till the year 1224. when by a Statute in the Magna Charta it was appointed to be fixt and a part of the Kings Pallace in Westminster allotted for that purpose Within the Virge of this Pallace are contained the seven Chambers the Parliament That called le grand Chambre five Chambers of Inquisition or des Enquests and one other called la Tournelle There are moreover the Chambers des aides des accompts de l'ediect des Monnoyes and one called la Chambre Royal of all which we shall have occasion to speak in their proper places these not concerning the common Government of the People but onely the Kings Revenues Of these seven Chambers of Parliaments le grand Chambre is most famous and at the building of this House by Philip le belle was intended for the Kings bed It is no such beautiful place as the French make it that at Roven being farre beyond it although indeed it much excells the fairest room of Justice in Westminster So that it standeth in a middle rank between them and almost in the same proportion as Virgil between Homer and Ovid. Quantum Virgilius magno concessit Homero Tantum ego Virgilio Naso Poeta mâ—o It consisteth of seven Presidents Councellers the Kings Atturney and as many Advocates and Proctors as the Court will please to give admission to The Advocates have no settled studies within the Pallace but at the Barre but the Procureurs or Atturneys have their several Pewes in a great Hall which is without this Grand Chambre in such manner as I have before described at Roven A large building it is faire and high roofed not long since ruined by casualty of fire and not yet fully finished The names of the Presidents are 1. Mr. Verdun the first President or by way of excellencie le President being the secâ—nd man of the long Robe in France 2. Mr. Sequer lately dead and likely to have his Son succeed him as well in his Office as his Lands 3. Mr. Leiger 4. Mr. Dosammoi 5. Mr. Sevin 6. Mr. Baillure and 7. Mr. Maisme None of these neither Presidents nor Councellers can goe out of Paris when the Lawes are open without leave of the Court It was ordained so by Lewis the twelfth Anno 1499. and that with good judgement Sentences being given with greater awe and business managed with greater Majesty when the Bench is full and it seemeth indeed that they carry with them a great terrour For the Duke of Biron a man of as uncontrolled a spirit as any in France being called to answer for himself in this Court protested that those scarlet Robes did more amaze him than all the red Cassocks of Spain At the left hand of this Grand Chambre or golden Chamber as they call it is a Throne or Seate Royall reserved for the King when he shall please to come and see the administration of Justice amongst his people At common times it is naked and plain but when the King is expected it is clothed with blew purple Velvet semied with Flowers de lys On each side of it are two forms or benches where the Peers of both habits both Ecclesiastcal and Secular use to fit and accompany the King but this is little to the ease or benefit of the Subject and as little available to try the integrity of the Judges his presence being alwayes fore-known and so they accordingly prâ—pared Farre better then is it in the Court of the Grand Signeur where the Divano or Counsell of the Turkish Affaires holden by the Bassa's is hard by his bed Chamber which looketh into it The window which giveth him this enterveiwe is perpetually hidden with a curtaine on that side of the partition which is towards the Divano so that the Bassa's and other Judges cannot at any time tell that the Emperour is not listening to their Sentences An action in which nothing is Turkish or Mahometan The authority of this Court extendeth it self to all Causes within the Jurisdiction of it not being meerly Ecclesiastical It is a Law
onely of Amiens could I meet with any antient Character which also was but a Gothish Dutch Letter and expressed nothing but the name and vertue of a Bishop of the Church in whose time it was So little also did I perceive them to be inclining to be Antiquaries that both neglects considered si Verbis audaciadetur I dare confidently averre that one Cotton for the Treasury and one Selden now Mr. Camden is dead for the study of Antiquities are worth all the French As for these five peices in La salle des Antiques they are I confess worthy our observation and respect also if they be such as our trudgeman informed us At the further end of it the Statua of Diana the same as it is said which was worshipped in the renowned Temple of Ephesus and of which Demetrius the Silver-smith and his fellow Artists cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great is Diana of the Ephesians Of a large and manly proportion she seemeth to be Quantum quale latus quam juvenile femur As Ovid of his Mistriss She is all naked save her feet which are buskin'd and yet she hath a scarfe or linnen roul which coming over her left shoulder and meeting about her middle hung down with both ends of it a little lower In the first place towards the right hand as we descended towards the door was the Statua of one of the Gods of Aethiopia as black as any of his people and one that had nothing about him to express his particular being Next unto him the Effigies of Mercury naked all except his feet and with a pipe in his mouth as when he inchanted Argos Nam que reperta Fistula nuper erat Saith the Metamorphosis Next unto him the portraiture of Venus quite naked and most immodestly apparreld in her hand her little Son Cupid as well arrayed as his Mother sitting on a Dolphin Last of all Apollo also in the same naked truth but that he had shooes on He was portrayed as lately returned from a Combat perhaps that against the Serpent Python Quem Deus arcitenens nunquam talibus armis Ante nisi in damis caprisque fugacibus usus Mille gravem telis exhausta pane pharetra Perdidit effuso per vulnera nigra veneno The Archer-God who e're that present tide Ne're us'e those arms but ' gainst the Roes and Deer With thousand shafts the earth made to be dy'de With Serpents bloud his quiver emptied cleer That I was in the right conjecture I had these reasons to perswade me the Quiver on the Gods right shoulder almost emptied his warlike belt hanging about his neck his garments loosly tumbling upon his left arm and the slain Monster being a water-serpent as Pithon is fained to be by the Poets All of these were in the same side of the wall the other being altogether destitute of ornament and are confidently said to be the statues of those Gods in the same forms that they were worshipped in and taken from their several Temples They were bestowed on the King by his Holiness of Rome and I cannot blame him for it It was worthy but little thanks to give unto him the Idols of the Heathen who for his Holiness satisfaction had given himself to the Idols of the Romans I beleive that upon the same terms the King of Enggland should have all the Reliques and ruines of Antiquity which can be found in Rome Without this room the Salle des Antiques and somewhat on the other side of the Louure is the House of Burbon and old decayed fabrick in which was nothing observable but the Omen For being built by Lewis of Burbon the third Duke of that branch he caused this Motto ESPERANCE to be engraven in Capital Letters over the door signifying his hopes that from his loyns should proceed a King which should joyn both the Houses and the Families and it is accordingly happened For the Tuilleries I have nothing to say of them but that they were built by Catherine de Medices in the year 1564 and that they took name from the lime-kils and tile-pits there being before the foundation of the house and the garden the word Tuillerie importing as much in the French language I was not so happy as to see them and will not be indebted to any for the relation CHAP. X. The person age and marraige of King Lewis Conjectural reasons of his being issueless Jaqueline Countess of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all married and his alliances by them His natural Brethren and their preferment His lawful Brother the title of Monsieur in France Monsieur as yet unmarried not like to marry Mont-Peusiers Daughter That Lady a fit Wife for the Earl of Soisons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the Line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a Child may be born in the eleventh moneth King Henry the fourth a great Lover of fair Ladies Monsieur Barrados the Kings Favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinal of Richilieu The Queen Mother a wise and prudent Woman THe King is the soul of the Court without his presence it is but a Carcass a thing without life and honour I dare not so farre wrong the Louure as to make it but a common house and rob it of the fruition of its Prince and therefore will treat of him here though during my aboad in France he lay all the while in Fountain Bleau For person he is of the middle stature and rather well proportioned than large His face knoweth little yet of a beard but that which is is black and swarthy his complexion also much of the same heiw carrying in it a certain boysterousness and that in a further measure than what a graceful Majesty can admit of So that one can hardly say of him without a spice of Courtship what Paterculus did of Tiberius Quod visus praetulerit principem that his countenance proclaimed him a King But questionless his greatest defect is want of utterance which is very unpleasing by reason of a desperate and uncurable stammering which defect is likely more and more to grow upon him At this time he is aged twenty four years and as much as since the 27 day of September last which was his birth day an age which he beareth not very plausibly want of beard and the swarthiness of his complexion making him seem elder At the age of eleven years he was affianced to the Lady Anna Infanta of Spain by whom as yet he hath no children It is thought by many and covertly spoken by divers in France that the principal cause of the Queens bartenness proceedeth from Spain that people being loath to fall under the French obedience which may very well happen she being the elder Sister of the King For this cause in the seventh article of marriage there is a clause that
the Country though I casually saw much Gold I could onely see two pieces of French stamp the rest coming all from Spain as Pistolets Demi pistolets and double Pistolets Neither is France onely furnisht thus with Chastilian Coin it is happiness also of other Countries as Italy Barbary Brabant and elsewhere and indeed it is kindly done of him that being the sole Monopolist of the Mines he will yet let other Nations have a share in the mettal Were the King as Catholike as his money I think I should be in some fear of him till then we may lawfully take that ambitious title from the King and bestow it on his pictures the soveraignty of the Spanish gold is more universally embraced and more seriously acknowledged in most parts of Christendom than that of him which stampt it To this he which entituleth himself Catholike is but a prisoner and never saw half those Provinces in which this more powerful Monarch hath been heartily welcommed And yet if he will needs be King let him grow somewhat more jealous of his Queen and confess that his Gold doth royally deserve his embraces whom before this extent of its dominion the ancient Poets stiled Regina Pecunia True it is that by the frame and shape of this Empress you would little think her to be lovely and less worthy your entertainment the stones which little boys break into quoyts are a great deal better proportioned If a Geometrician were to take the angles of it I think it would quite put him besides his Euclide Neither can I tell to what thing in the world fitter to resemble it then a French Cheese for it is neither long nor square nor round nor thin nor thick nor any one of these but yet all and yet none of them No question it was the Kings desire by this unsightly dressing of his Lady to make men out of love with her that so he might keep her to himself but in this his hopes have cozened him for as in other Cuckoldings so in this some men will be bold to keep his Wife from him be it onely in spite These circumstances thus laid together and considered we may the clearer and the better see our own felicities which to exprese generally and in a word is to say onely this that the English subject is in no circumstance a French-man here have we our money made of the best and purest matal that onely excepted which a charitable consideration hath coined into farthings here have we our King royally and to the envy of the world magnificently provided for without the sweat and bloud of the people no pillages nor impositions upon any private wares no Gabels upon our Commodities Nullum in tam ingenti regno vestigal non in urbibus pontium vae discriminibus publicanorum stationes as one truly hath observed of us The moneys which the King wanteth to supply his necessities are here freely given him he doth not compel our bounties but accept them The Laws by which we are governed we impart are makers of each Peasant of the Countrey hath a free voice in the enacting of them if not in his person yet in his Proxie we are not here subject to the lusts and tyranny of our Lords and may therefore say safely what the Jews spake factiously that We have no King but Caesar the greatest Prince here is subject with us to the same law and we stand before the Tribunal of the Judge we acknowledge no difference here do we inhabit our own houses plow our own lands enjoy the fruits of our labour comfort our selves with the Wives of our youth and see our selves grow up in those Children which shall inherit after us the same felicities But I forget my self to endeavour the numbring of Gods blessings may perhaps be as great a punishment as Davids numbring the people I conclude with the Poet. O fortunati nimium bona si sua norint Agricolae nostri THE THIRD BOOK OR LA BEAVSSE CHAP. I. Our Journey towards Orleans the Towne Castle and Battaile of Montliherrie Many things imputed to the English which they never did Lewis the 11th brought not the French Kings out of Wardship The Towne of Chastres and mourning Church there The Countrey of La Beausse an old People of it Estampes The dancing there The new art of begging in the Innes of this Countrey Angervile Toury The sawcinesse of French Fidlers Three kindes of Musick amongst the Ancients The French Musick HAving abundantly stifled our spirits in the stink of Paris on Tuesday being the 12. of June we took our leave of it and prepared our selves to entertaine the sweet aire and winde of Orleans The day faire and not so much as disposed to a cloud save that they began to gather about noon in the nature of a Curtaine to defend us from the injury of the Sun the winde rather sufficient to fan the aire then to disturb it by qualifying the heat of that celestiall fire brought the day to an excellent mediocrity of temper You would have thought it a day meerly framed for that great Princesse Nature to take her pleasure in and that the Birds which cheerfully gave us their voices from the neighbouring bushes had been the lowd musick of her Court in a word it was a dâ—y solely consecrated to a pleasant journey and he that did not put it to that use mis-spent it Having therefore put our selves into our Waggon we took a short farewell of Paris exceeding joyfull that we yet lived to see the beauty of the fields againe and enjoy the happinesse of a free Heaven The Countrey such as that part of the Isle of France towards Normandy onely that the Corne fields were larger and more even On the left hand of us we had a side-glance of the Royall house of Boys and Vincennes and the Castle of Bifectre and about some two miles beyond them we had a sight also of a new house lately built by Mr. Sillerie Chancellor of the Kingdome a pretty house it promised to be having two base Courts on the hither side of it and beyond it a Parke an ornament whereof many great mansions in France are altogether ignorant Foure leagues from Paris is the town of Montl'herrie now old and ruinous and hath nothing in it to commend it but the carkasse of a Castle without it it hath to brag of a large and spacious plaine on which was fought that memorable battaile between Lewis the 11. and Charles le Hardie Duke of Burgoyne A battaile memorable onely for the running away of each Army the Field being in a manner emptyed of all the forces and yet neither of the Princes victorious Hic spe celer ille salute Some ran out of fear to dye and some out of hope to live that it was hard to say which of the Soldiers made most use of their heels in the combat This notwithstanding the King esteemed himselfe the Conqueror not that he overcame but because not vanquisht
and humanity certainly they much exceed the Parisians I was about to say all the French-men and indeed I not grudge them this Eulogie which Caesar giveth unto those of Kent and verifie that they are omnium incolarum longe humanissimi my selfe here observing more courtesie and affability in one day than I could meet withall in Paris during all my abode there The buildings of it are very suitable to themselves and the rest of France the streets large and well kept not yeilding the least offence to the most curious nostrill Parish Churches it hath in it 26. of different and unequall beeing as it useth to be in other places besides these it containeth the Episcopall Church of S. Croix and divers other houses of religious persons amongst which is St. Jacques of both which I shall speak in their due order Thus much for the resemblance of the Townes the difference betwixt them is this that Orleans is the bigger and Worcester the richer Orleans consisteth much of the Noblesse and of Sojourners Worcester of Citizens and Home-dwellers and for the manner of life in them so it is that Worcester hath the handsomer woman in it Orleans the finer and in my opinion the loveliest in all France Worcester thriveth the most on Cloathing Orleans on their Vine-presses And questionlesse the Wine of Orleans is the greatest riches not of the Towne onely but of the Countrey also about it For this cause Aâ—dre dis Chesne calleth it the prime Cellar of Paris Est une pars saith he si henreuse si secunde sur tout in vins quon la pent dice l'unde primiers celiers de Paris Those Vines wherein he maketh it to be so happy deserve no lesse a commendation than he hath given them as yeilding the best Wines in all the Kingdome such as it much moved me to mingle with Water they being so delicious to the Palate and the Epicurisme of the taste I have heard of a Dutch Gentleman who being in Italy was brought acquainted with a kinde of Wine which they there call Lachrymae Christi no sooner had he tasted it but he fell into a deep melancholy and after some seaven sighes besides the addition of two groâ—nes he brake out into this patheticall Ejaculation Dii boni quare non Christus lachrymatus esset in nostris regionibus This Dutchman and I were for a time both of one minde insomuch that I could almost have picked a quarrell with Nature for giving us none of this Liquor in England At last we grew friends again when I had perceived how offensive it was to the brain if not well qualified for which cause it is said that K. Lewis hath banished it his Cellar no doubt to the great grief of his drinking Courtiers who may therefore say with Martial Quid tantum fecere boni tibi pessima vina Aut quid fecerunt optima vina mali This towne called Genabum by Caesar was reedified by Aurelian the Emperour Anno 276. and called by his name Aurelianum which it still retaineth amongst the Latines It hath been famous heretofore for four Councels here celebrated and for being the seat royall of the Kings of Orleans though as now I could not heare any thing of the ruines of the Palace The same of it at this time consisteth in the Vniversity and its seat of Justice This town being one of them which they call Sieges Presidiaux Now these Seiges Presidiaux Seats or Courts of Justice were established in divers cities of the Realme for the ease of the people Anno 1551. or thereabouts In them all civill causes not exceeding 250 Liu'res in Money or 10. Liu'res in Rents are heard and determined soveraignly and without appeale If the summe exceed those proportions the appeale holdeth good and shall be examined in that Court of Parliament under whose jurisdiction it is Their Court here consisteth of a Baille whose name is Mr. Digion of twelve Counsellors two Lieutenants one civill the other criminall and a publique Notarie When Mr. Le Compte de St. Paul who is the Governour or Lieutenant Generall of the Province cometh into their Court he giveth precedency to the Baille in other places he receiveth it This institution of these Presidiall Courts was at first a very profitable ordinance and much eased the people but now it is grown burdensome The reason is that the offices are meere saâ—â—able and purchased by them with a great deale of money which afterwards they wrest againe out of the purses of the Paâ—sant The sale of Offices drawing necessarily after it the sale of Justice a mischief which is spread so far that there is not the worst under Officer in all the Realm Who may not say with the Captaine in the 22. of the Acts and the 28. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With a great summe of money obtained I this freedome Twenty yeares purchase is said to be no extraordinary rate and I have read that onely by the sale of Offices one of the Kings had raised in twenty yeares 139 millions which amounteth to the proportion of 7 millions yearly or thereabouts of all wayes to thrift and treasure the most unkindly In the yeare 1614. the King motioned the abolishing of the sales of this Market but it was upon a condition more prejudiciall to the people than the mischiefe For he desired in lieu of it to have a greater imposition laid upon Salt and upon the Aides which those that were Commissioners for the Câ—mmonalty would not admit of because then a common misery had been brought out of the State to make their particular miseries the greater and so the corruption remaineth unaltered This Towne as it is sweetly seated in respect of the aire so is it finely convenienced with the walks of which the chief are that next unto Paris gate having the wall on the one hand and a rank of Palm trees on the other the second that neere unto the bridge having the Water pleasingly running on both sides and a third which is indeed the principall on the East-side of the City it is called the Palle Malle of an exercise of that name much used in this Kingdome a very Gentleman-like sport not over violent and such as affordeth good opportunity of discourse as they walk from one mark to the other Into this walk which is of a wonderful length and beauty you shall have a clear evening empty all the towne the aged people borrowing legs to carry them and the younger armes to guide them If any young Dame or Monsieur walk thither single they will quickly finde some or other to link with them though perhaps such with whom they have no familiarity Thus do they measure and re-measure the length of the Palle Malle not minding the shutting in of the day till darkness hath taken away the sense of blushing at all houres of the night be it warm and dry you shall be sure to finde them thus coupled and if at the yeares end there