Sheriffs takes Possession of the Bastille and Arsenall seizes upon all the Cities of Picardy except Boulogne which would not admit him as the Cardinal of Guise did upon Rheimes and Chaalons in Champaigne and by his other Friends had made himself Master of the greatest part of Normandy had not the Duke of Espernon prevented him All this while the Queen-Mother ceased not to treat with the Duke of Guise making use of the Dutchess of Montpensier whom she put in hopes of Marrying the old Cardinal of Bourbon and both together perswaded the Duke a reconciliation with the King To which purpose they also oblig'd the Sixteen after several Processions made to appease the Wrath of God to go in the Habit of Penitents to Chartres and there implore the King's Pardon Some days after the Parliament sent their Deputies to testify to the King their Grief for his departure from the Louvre and to supplicate him to return and to divert his just Indignation from the rest of his Subjects To the first he answered That if it were in his Thoughts to ruin the Parisians it was in his Power to reduce the City to Ashes To the latter That he would use the Citizens of Paris as Children that had offended a Father and not as Slaves After Dinner he sent for the Parliaments Commissioners and charged them to tell the Parisians that he would remove their Soveraign Courts if they persisted in their Factious Humour and three days after sent to the Parliament to let them know that he intended an Assembly of the General Estates at the end of the year to reform the abuses of the Realm and secure them a Catholick Successour The Duke of Guise took his advantage of this Message and caused a Request to be forthwith presented to him in the name of the Princes the Citizens of Paris and all the good Catholicks to send the Duke of Mayenne with an Army into the Dauphinate to March himself with another into Guien to forgive what was past to confirm the alterations of the City Magistrates and to remove Espernon and his Brother la Valette from his Person The Enemies of Espernon especially Villeroy took hold of this occasion to ruin him the Queen-Mother set her helping Hend and both together so entirely vanquish'd the Kings Resolution that the king sent to him to forbear coming to Court and at length commanded him to his Government of Angoulesme Upon his departure the King seemed more inclinable to an Accommodation whereupon an agreement was patch'd up very advantagious to the Princes of the League who had now an extraordinary Power in their Hands and the Magistrates of Paris at their Devotion In Confirmation of which the King renewing his Coronation Oath swore to extirpate all Schisms and Heresies and never to make any more Edicts in Favour of the Hugonots and Commanded all his Subjects to swear the same upon pain of High Treason This done the Queen carries the Duke of Guise to kiss the Kings Hands at Chartres Where nothing appear'd either in Discourses or Carriage of one or the other but all the marks of Confidence and Cordial Affection imaginable so that all the Court was overjoy'd to behold such a perfect Reconciliation But after all the publick Ceremonies of Re-union and Reconciliation the Council of the Arch-Bishop of Lyon was the Dukes Destruction in advising him to keep firm and not to stir as he had thought to have done from Court For the Lustre of the Dukes Popularity made too great a dazle in the Kings sight He was also offended that the Pope in a certain Letter had called the Duke and the Cardinal of Bourbon the two Macchabees that had saved the People of Israel Nor were the Duke of Nevers and Lâ—gnac wanting incessantly to provoke his Indignation the first because he mortally hated the Duke of Guise the latter because he hoped to succeed the Duke of Espernon in the Kings Favour and knew that the Guises were professed Enemies of Favourites Other unhappy Accidents there were that still concurred to put the King out of Humour At the opening of the Assembly of Estates he surmised that there was a Party made to clip his Prerogative and advance the Authority of the States to their former degree of Light which the King in his Speech attributed to the Duke of Guise of which the Duke made such vehement Complaints by the Mouth of the Archbishop of Lyon that when the Speech came to be Printed he was forc'd to blot out and change many Passages which were however nevertheless deeply Engrav'd in his Mind He was Exasperated that the Duke had constrained him to Swear to the performance of the Edict That the League had compelled the Count of Soisons after he had quitted the King of Navarre's Partie to take Absolution from the Pope and yet had wrought with the Holy Father to deny it him He was still more highly offended that the States made continual Complaints against his Government and demanded abatement of Taxes the Punishment of Favourites and made it their business to bound absolute Dominion and to re-establish the Power of the Law All which things made him look upon the Duke of Guise as a dangerous Rival whose Actions tended all to the ruin of his Authority Another Incentive was this tho not so much taken notice of in the World The King well knew that Mary Queen of Scots was the reputed Heiress to Queen Elizabeth and younger than she was and therefore it was not only probable but a thing very likely that she might inherit the Crown of England which made him desperately afraid if such a thing should happen lest the Guises being strengthened by such a powerful Niece over whom they had an absolute Command should make use of her Assistance to aid that Potent Faction which they had in France already and so accomplish their Work to his utter Ruine And therefore tho he sent Bellievre pretendedly to Intercede for Queen Mary's life yet his private Instructions were to press Queen Elizabeth to put her to Death as the Common Enemie both of their Persons and their Kingdoms All which Considerations crowding with the several Distempers of Body daily increasing upon the King which he believed to spring from those Vexations of Mind of which the Duke of Guise had been all along the occasion so that at last tho in the feebleness of his irresolution he had confirmed his friendship with the Duke by Solemn Oath upon the Sacred Altars where they had taken the Sacrament together immediately after the remembrance of what was past the fear of what was to come and the continual reports and insinuations of the Forty Five sometimes true sometimes feign'd rekindled his Indignation and confirmed his Resolution Those of his Counsel and Servants the most Generous and among the rest Marshal d'Aumont were of opinion that he should bring the Duke to the Bar of Justice and cut off his Head Publickly Grillon Master of the Camp of the
The TRUE HISTORY OF THE DUKE OF GUISE EXTRACTED out of Thuanus Mezeray Mr. Aubeny's Memoirs and the Journal of the Reign of Henry the third of France Published for the undeceiving such as may perhaps be imposed upon by Mr. Dryden's late Tragedy of the Duke of Guise Together with some Remarks upon the same LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin 1683. TO THE READER T IS a mad World my Masters The fiery Crape-Gowns vex the Pulpit and the hot brain'd Poets wrest prophane History For certainly the Tragedy of the Duke of Guise was a thing set on foot meerly to try how far the limits of Poetica Licentia might extend Whether it might be lawful for a Man to give an ill Character of his Sovereign in Verse and to parallel a vertuous Prince and belov'd of his subjects with a Prince disesteem'd and almost forsaken by his People for the ill management of his Government because it is a hanging matter to do it in Prose Or whether it might be lawful for a Poet to expose the Majesty of his Royal parallel and bring him in upon the Stage of a publick Play-House Courting and kneeling to his Rebell 's Misiress in Verse which could have hardly enter'd into the thought of the most vile Associated Ribald to have done in Prose True it is the Historians tell us of a certain Charming Lady to whom the Duke of Guise was reading Ovids de Arte Amandi all the night long before the Tragical Morning and that she kept him so long a led to exercise the practical part that she made him the greatest Truant in the whole Assembly but whether this were the Vertuous Marmontier or no is the Question If it were she it shews the damnable ill conduct of the Poet to compare the paillardise of French Tyranny with the gravity and Sobriety of English Sovereignty But if it were the unspotted and resolv'd Marmontier then the Poet did most ungraciously to make his Royal Parallel chafing and teazing the Honour and Chastity of an unblemished Maiden upon the publick Theater To tell the truth Gentlemen it was neither the one nor the other for it was Madam de Montpensier that interceded for the Duke her Brothers coming to Paris to justifie his Crimes and gave the Sixteen notice of the Kings just indignation against them only the Poet was resolved to bring the Duke of Guise Mistress in to make her honest if he could for Decorum's sake tho it had been more proper to have whor'd her considering his propense malice to the Duke And then 't was a cursed mistake to bring the King in so passionately Courting a Woman whom all the Histories report to be another way inclin'd He had his Quelus's his D' O's his Villequiers and his Valete's and a peculiar way of hampering the Refractory by letting down the Lid of a great Chest upon their reins while they were stooping and searching by Command for what was known to be never there Certainly the Poet might have found out some far more stainless Pattern of Heaven's lending to the World in honour of his Royal Parallel if it may not be thought his Play was rather intended for a Libel than a Tragedy Which the Poet therefore call'd a Tragedy because he would not be said to jest with edg'd Tools And then again what a pleasant thing it is to see the Poet make his Duke of Guise newly recover'd from the Agonies of fore-boded mischief in the midst of a hundred amusing thoughts sending his passionate recommendations and Caresses to his Strumpet by the mouth of a Cardinal the higest dignity of his Religion However Monsieur Grillon is monstrously indebted to the Poet for advancing his supposed Daughter to the Dukes love and the Kings Courtship tho God be thanked as the Poet has ordered the matter she withstands 'em both A man would admire at it at first she being but of mortal composition But when you hear the Poet hyperbolizing at such a rate and swearing by the Powers that made him that were it possible we could be damn'd again by some new Eve her vertue might redeem us 't is no wonder the King and the Duke lost their labour However Grillon was mightily pleas'd and but for the roughness of his Arms he would have kiss'd her beauty to a dissolution Who would not now wish to see the Poets Temples bedeck't like a Barbers Window at Christmas for two such Enthusiastick Ebullitions In good sooth they were two most soaring raptures Alamode de l' esprit rampant as the French Man call's it in short two strain'd points between God Almighties Providence and flat nonsense But Grillon is yet more oblig'd to the Poet for bringing him in swaggering and domineering over the Baricaders who were themselves the Triumphant party Nay the Sheriffs which Grillon beats were the Kings own friends too and displac'd by the Barricaders themselves when they got the power in their hands so little did the Poet consider what he was doing But two Sheriffs were to be beaten right or wrong tho they were the Kings friends yet being Sheriffs they were to be bang'd and who so fit as Grillon the Kings Friend to do it Yet when you consider Gentlemen that this was a Tragedy made to be laugh'd at 't was well enough Had the Poet exercis'd his pains upon the Popish Plot he could not but have bin much more successful in his fancy For he would have found the Plot of the Barricaders and the Popish Plot so like as if it had bin spit out of the very Mouth of it The contrivance of both was by the bigoted Roman Catholicks They both design'd the Destruction of their lawful Prince they both assur'd themselves of a Popish Cheiftain The discovery also of both was in the same manner the one by Nicholas Polaine the other by Titus Oates their motives the same an abhorrency of the Villany's intended Their Opportunities the same as being both confederates and admitted to the private meetings and consults of the Complotters The same difficulties the same obstructions in being beleiv'd Only the person that took the First depositions of Polaine had the good luck to escape Cravatting or being Sr. Edmund Bury Godfrey'd which was the peculiar signal difference between the Popish Plot and the Barricaders Plot carry'd on by the D. of Guise But as the Poet has manag'd his Tragedy 't is true a man may guess what he intends but there is no more of Head nor Tayl in his Tragical contrivance of botching and fitting the Story to his purpose no more of truth or resemblance in his Characters then if he had brought the Fable of Endymion to prove the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea The Papists had better have given him the Poets third Day to have held his peace for he has so reviv'd the Storyes of the Parisian Massacre and the memory of the Barricaders most damnable Contrivances against their Soveraign that he has put new life into the
drooping Credit of the Popish Plot rais'd almost from the Grave the Horror of Popish cruelty and disloyalty destroyed all that R. L. has been labouring to make good almost these two twelve months and may truly be said to be another Titus Oates bringing new Lights into the World and new Discoverys of Jesuitical Massacre and Treason However it is a Tragedy For that all the World must grant because 't is Lamentable all over of which there needs no more be said then what the Poet himself has been pleas'd to say of it in his Epilogue with a little small Amendment Much Time and Trouble this Poor Play has cost And faith I doubt me that the Cause is lost THE HISTORY OF THE Duke of Guise FRANCIS the First King of France was the first who Erected the County of Guise into a Dukedom and Peerdom in favour of Claudius of Lorrain in the year 1527. In the Reign of Henry the Second his Successour the House of Guise grew into Splendour more and more by the Accession of new Honours and Dignities and the increase of its Power and Authority in the Court of France at what time Duke Claudius and John his Brother Bishop of Metz called the Cardinal of Lorrain being dead Francis Duke of Aumale took upon him his Fathers Title and Charles his Brother whom they called the Cardinal of Guise assumed both his Uncles Title and all his Benefices The Duke in that Estate advanced his own and the Power of his House not so much by his own merit which however was very high in esteem as by his Complacency and Observances toward the King's Mistresses by whose assistance he easily depriv'd Peter Lizet first President of the Parliament of his Employment for presuming to thwart his Designs and brought him upon his Knees to beg some small Benefice for his subsistance in the World But that which much more added to the Fame and Renown of this growing Family was the great Prosperity of Charles the Son of this Frances in seats of Arms as being the Person who had first defended Metz against the Emperour who after he had lain two Months before the City in the extremity of Winter was forced to raise his Siege with the loss of 30000 men His next Exploit was the recovery of France from that Consternation it was in after the loss of the Battel of St. Quintin with the Title of Lieutenant General of the Armies of the King both within and without the Kingdom After that he took Calice from the English and utterly expell'd them out of France so that the Misfortune of France was his Happiness and the waining of the Constable's Reputation was his Exaltation it being then the general Opinion that the Armes of France could prosper under no Mans Conduct but that of the Duke of Guise But that which mounted his Authority yet higher was the Marriage of his Sisters Daughter the young Queen of Scots with the Dauphin afterwards King for a short time Henry the Second being unfortunately kill'd in a Tournament by the Earl of Montgomery the Breath was no sooner out of his Mouth but all the Factions which had been forming during his Reign began to shew themselves in Motion And unfortunately to strengthen them in their various Motions there concurr'd the differing Parties in Religion the great number of Malecontents sundry Desirers and Lovers of Novelty and great numbers of Military Persons who being out of Employment sought it at any price whatever On the one side the Princes of the Blood and the Constable of France united in Interest on the other side the Princes of the House of Guise between which two Parties the Queen-Mother chaffer'd the best she could for her own advantage flattering now this then the other Party while the King as Feeble in Mind as Body lay expos'd to the first Occupant and the Prize for which they contended was the Government of the Kingdom The Princes of the Blood were Anthony of Navarre Voluptuous and Timerous more considerable for his Quality than his Power Lewis Prince of Conde Bold and Hardy whose Courage and scantness of Fortune were sufficient Motives to incite him to great Enterprizes Of the Guises there were six Brothers the Duke of Guise the Cardinal of Lorrain the Duke of Aumale the Cardinal of Guise the Marquis D'Elbeuf and the Grand Prior but the two first were the most considerable and had the other four at their Devotion The Duke was Signal for the Reputation of his Valour his Liberality and Affability the Cardinal of Lorrain for his Eloquence and Learning The one had all the Greatest and most Eminent Souldiers the other the chiefest part of the Clergy at his Command The Guises seiz'd upon the Person of the King as having Married their Niece Mary of Scotland under the specious pretence of the Catholick Religion The Princes made sure of the Malecontents and Disbanded Officers under pretence of protecting those of the Reformed Religion whose despair was more formidable however than their Number With the Guises join'd the Marquis of St. Andre Valiant and Witty but Prodigal and in Debt and the Constable Montmorency who having been Chief Minister of State could not well brook to be the Second but bearing the Title of First Christian Baron of France took part at length with the Guises as Defenders of the Catholick Religion To the Princes adher'd the Admiral Coligny with his Brother Dandelot Colonel of the French Infantry In the mean time the Guises together with the Queen-Mother were Masters of the King and all the Authority at Court the King declaring that he had given up the Administration of the Government into the Hands of his two Uncles The Constable finding his Authority was quite marching sends away in all haste to the King of Navar to come and assume that Authority which he claimed by his Birth and Quality but he being slow and irresolute and diffident of the Constable made no haste which was look'd upon as one of the principal Causes of the Troubles and Misfortunes of France While he delays the Guises banish the Dutchess of Valentinois the late King's Mistress the Constable is sent home to his House and by various and specious Pretences the rest of the Princes that stood in the way of their Designs are honourably dispatch'd abroad and the Duke of Guise made Grand Master of the King's House which Employment was taken from the Constable on purpose to bestow it on the Duke To make themselves the more formidable or rather to root themselves more deeply in the Favour of the Catholicks they persuaded the young King to publish an Edict prohibiting the Protestants to meet in publick or private upon the score of Religion on pain of Death and erected a new Court to take cognisance of their Crimes which was called by the name of Chambres ardentes The Burning Chambers because they sent all to the Fire that were convicted of the Reformed Religion These outragious Proceedings caused them
first to betake themselves to their Pens and to publish several of their Writings against the Queen-Mother and the Duke of Guise but at length the Prince of Conde the Admiral and Dandelot united together to consult of a way to extinguish these Flames that threatned such a general Conflagration Thereupon they sent to all the Reformed Churches to send their Deputies to Nantes where it was agreed That they should send a certain number of Persons unmarried to present their Grievances to the King and to endeavour to seise the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain to the end they might be brought to answer to such Articles as should be exhibited against them But the Imprudence of la Renaudie discovered the Design which made the Guises provide for their own Safety with all the Care imaginable The Duke caus'd the Title of Lieutenant-General to be confirmed to himself as well in the Presence as Absence of the King and rode always accompanied with a chosen Guard of Horse by which means the Conspiracy intended to have been put in execution for seising the Duke and the Cardinal at Amboise came to nothing onely that abundance of poor People were thereby destroy'd and ruin'd of which near 1200 were hang'd drown'd and beheaded in the Streets of Amboise that can with Blood while the Queen-Mother her three young Sons and all the Court-Ladies beheld the fatal Tragedy from the Battlements of the Castle The Prince of Conde was accus'd for being guilty of this Design urg'd further upon him with an intention to have surpriz'd the King But being admitted to his own Defence he not onely made it with a wonderful Eloquence but gave the Lie to all that durst assert him Culpable Which tho the Duke of Guise heard and knew at whom the Prince aimed yet with a profound Dissimulation he prais'd the Princes Generosity and told him he would be the first that should maintain his Innocence himself tho in private he had a little before given the Queen Advice to arrest him Soon after another Design was detected by the Weakness of la Sayne for which the Prince of Conde was arrested and condemned to lose his Head and all by the Power of the Guises Nor did any thing protect the Prince from being executed but the imprudent Carriage of the Cardinal toward the Queen-Mother who thinking his Capital Enemy was now irrecoverably lost began to contemn her as one of whose Assistance there was now no longer need So that she perceiving her own Authority so much in danger first deferr'd the King's signing the Warrant and then the King's Death immediately ensuing set the Prince at full Liberty To Francis the Second Charles the Ninth succeeded at ten years of Age and a little more than five Months And now in stead of destroying others the Guises had enough to do to preserve themselves For the Prince of Conde is restor'd and takes his Place in the Privy-Council and by Order of the Parliament of Paris is declared Innocent of all things laid to his Charge And at the same time the Admiral Colligni was also restor'd to Favour The Courage of the Guises was not at all abated by the Advancement of their Enemies being upheld by the Catholick Party Navarre takes a slight occasion to quarrel with the Dake of Guise and carried it so high that he was about to have departed for Paris with the Princes of the Blood and the Constable there to deliberate about the Government of the Kingdom This alarms the Queen and the Guises Thereupon she closes with the Constable and causes the King to lay his Commands upon Navarre not to leave him and the more to please Navarre enlarges the Power of his Lieutenancy The Constable thus half gain'd was at length quite brought over from the Princes Party by the Persuasions and Importunity of the Dutchess of Valentinois and some others and so joyns again with the Guises and the Marshal de St. Andre And this Union was by the Hugonots call'd The Triumvirate However Honour not permitting the Constable to joyn openly with the Duke of Guise while the Prince of Conde was his Enemy thereupon they were by the King commanded to embrace each other and to promise one toward another most sincere and cordial Friendship Now as for the Admiral as it was by his means that the King of Navarre had confirmed the Regency to the Queen-Mother she did not suffer her self to be altogether guided by the Triumvirate but gratefully submitted likewise in several things to his Advice and for his sake procured several Favours in behalf of the Hugonot Party which was the thing he aim'd at And indeed the Services which the Admiral did her were so considerable that she gave order to her Embassadour at Rome to desire Liberty of the Pope and the Cardinals that the Communion might be administred in both Kinds and Mass said in French within all the King's Dominions The Triumvirs could not endure the great Credit which the Admiral had with the Regent and therefore retire from Court but in a short time after they make themselves Masters of the King's Person upon which ensu'd a Bloody War between the Hugonots and the Catholicks in which War Conde was taken Prisoner at the Battel of Dreux and the Duke of Guise having laid Siege to Orleans the Head Quarter of the Hugonots was assassinated by one Poltron with a Pistol discharg'd through his Shoulder of which he died in six days after And thereupon follow'd a Treaty and then a Peace Not long after the Death of Charles his Son Henry Duke of Guise appears upon the Stage of the World newly returned from Poland whither he went to serve his first Apprenticeship in War first at Saumur next at the Seige of Poitiers which he defended against the Admiral Coligny for the War now broke forth again between the Hugonots and Catholicks with a Courage equal to what his Father shewed at the Seige of Metz. The next thing we hear of him not so much to his Honour was that the Parisian Massacre which was resolved upon at the Instance of this young Duke of Guise was first taken into deliberation in that very Chamber at Blois where the Duke was afterwards murdered himself No question but he was signally engaged in the Massacre and took particular care concerning the Admiral and his Son in Law Teligny that they should neither of them escape a thing so well known to the King and Queen-Mother that it was afterwards concluded in the Cabinet Council to throw all the Odium of the Massacre upon the Guises as being the most proper Subjects to bear the Reproach However the Duke and his Brother apprehending as well they might lest the Queen-Mother should one day lay the Accusation of the Massacre upon their Backs to their Destruction insisted upon it so powerfully having the Power in their Hands the Catholick Nobility the Duke of Mompensier and the Parisians on their sides that they constrained the King
Regiment of Guards refused to Assassinate him but offered to Fight him assuring the King that he would kill him upon peril of his life But the latter Advice best pleased the King's humour at that time troubled with the Fumes of the Spleen which rendred him extreamly severe and sowre The King having resolv'd upon the Fact calls for Alfonsus Ornane Entragues Bonivet Montigny and others of the Forty Five and causes them to be brought to him by a Back Door into the Room where he was whither being come This day said he either I or Guise must die which you think best for you or most profitable for the Kingdom is in your Breasts to Judge That he is the Author of all the troubles that have tormented the Kingdom you know and no Man is ignorant That which was thought would have prov'd the End of his Wickedness was but a step to it Even against my life which formerly he only aim'd at covertly through the Misfortunes of others now openly and with an unfolded breast he levels mischief yea he threatens yours and the Ruine of all the Gallic Honour Nor is there long time to deliberate I am here kept up as you see within the Narrow Walls of this Chamber To free my self and the Common-Wealth which is in equal danger with me from a Siege so full of miserie requires a Vigorous Sallie nor is there any possibility of my escape but by your Vallor That you know I have long since set apart and selected as the Guard of my safety upon all sudden and unexpected occasions with this Confidence that your Courage would never at any time forsake me Should I have call'd you to a Private Revenge I am assured you would none of you be wanting now in my extream distress I challenge your fidelity To watch in the Trenches to keep firm Station and venture on the Canons Mouth are the daily Tryal of Gallican Virtue wherein no Man suffers himself to be out-done Now I require the Tryal not of your Valour but of your Loyaltie and Faith while the contest is not about the Limits of your Country but the life of your Prince whose safety is this day to be rescu'd from the Plague of Guise and his followers I might add that you are destin'd to the same Slaughter with my self did I not believe your love toward me and your affection to your Country a more noble incitement to your Courage than either your hatred of them or the fear of your own danger This said when he observed the Spirits of the young Men already Examined apart vigorously enflamed to dare and perpetrate after he had extolled their Fidelity and Constancy he gave to each a long Dagger made as it was thought for the same purpose And these said he are the Assertors of yours and my Liberty and consequently of the Gallican Renown which the Spaniards by means of those Religious Confederate under the Command of Guise would trample under Foot which I the lawful King of France give you full Power and Commission to make use of for the Publick safety against Traytors and Rebels without hazard of your Consciences Having thus said he planted them all to the number of Nine in a narrow Nook upon the left hand of the Passage leading into his inmost Cabinet the rest of the Forty five being hid in little Cells which he had built up against the Sides of his Chamber Before Day-break the Members of the Sacred Consistory met among the rest the Cardinals Bourbon and Gondy Marshal d Aumont Albert Gondy the Duke of Rais Rambuliet Francis d'O After them Lewis Cardinal of Guise Peter Espinac Archbishop of Lion and last of all appear'd the Duke of Guise himself who having been indulging himself that night in the stoln Embraces of a Lady belonging to the Chamber of the Maids of Honour whom he passionately lov'd came later than the rest The Report went That he was some days before admonish'd by his Friends to beware of the King 's abundant Patience for that his over-great Kindness was much to be suspected and how far it might tend the wiser sort were fearful That he look'd with an ill Eye upon the Guisian Splendour as was apparent by certain Evidences and therefore that what he despaired to do by open Force he would accomplish by Treachery To which the Duke still returned the same Answers which he had done to Gasper Schombergh before for Schombergh Count of Nantoile tho infinitely Loyal to the King and a great Lover of his Country yet out of the Respect which he bare the Duke of Guise had often admonish'd him to observe Moderation and not to provoke the King's Patience too far That his Power rested onely upon the Favour of the inconstant Rabble and that he should make a modest use of his Fortune with regard to himself and those that depended upon him For what would become of his Wife and Children of tender Age if he plung'd in Debt should be swallow'd up by the Fury of Popular Seditions Tho he valued not his own Life yet that Charity to his Wife and Children should oblige him to fear the King's Revenge To which the Duke To me said he who from my Childhood have been always bred up in War Death has frequently appear'd but never terrified me for this is that we are born to to seek Honour with the hazard of our Lives The Misfortunes of those that belong'd nearest to me I never valued and yet methinks at this present I set a higher value on them so much the more since I find that the exasperated King if any thing unhappily take me from the World will impotently wreck that Hatred which he cannot satisfie upon my Person on my Wife and Children Yet when I remember that I my self far younger at that time than any which I now enjoy was with the rest of my Brothers left by my Father perfidiously slain by the Sectaries and yet that I sprung up in the midst of my Adversaries recover'd the Reliques of my Father's Fortune and afterwards reveng'd his Death I think it enough to recommend them young as they are to the Protection of that God who preserv'd my Life For I begat them not to discompose the Methods of my Resolutions If before they grow to mature Years the Fate of War snatch me away they will be the Architects of their own Fortune as I was of mine and shew themselves worthy of their Ancestors As for the Danger which you threaten from the King lest his injur'd Patience should turn at length to Fury I judge him to understand so well his own and my Concerns that he will be careful of precipitating his own and the Kingdoms Safety into manifest Danger while he indulges his own private Revenge for trivial Causes and slight Reports Nor am I ignorant how nearly my Cause which is the Cause of Religion is espoused by all the Cities of the Provinces and the Estates of the Kingdom so that he can
determine nothing against me but that they will not onely revolt from him but rise up as one Man against him And that is a Comfort to me now fix'd in my purpose that I foresee there will not those be wanting that shall revenge my Death if it prove violent and that the King himself if he design any thing of Cruelty against me shall end his days more miserably than any of his Predecessors These were the Duke's Words to Schombergh Another time being at a certain Entertainment with his Brother the Cardinal and the Archbishop of Lion he was there prudently forewarn'd by Stephen Nouel and his Son-in-Law Martel Capel to beware of the King's Ambuscado's and to consult the Preservation of his Life by speedily withdrawing from the Court With whom the Cardinal joyn'd in serious Advice to the same purpose Nevertheless he still persever'd in his former obstinacy telling them That as frequently in Combate so in this Affair he had so far engag'd himself that he could not honourably retreat That his Fortune interwoven with the King 's was like that of Armies rang'd for Loss or Victory who no sooner come in view of each other but there is a necessity presently to engage or else of keeping their Ground otherwise the retiring of the one surrenders the Conquest to the other That he scorn'd by his Departure resembling Flight to yield a Victory which he held certain to a timorous Enemy nor do an Action which should render him more sollicitous for his Life than his Honour and the Safety of his Friends For what would his Detractors say or rather not say should be at such a Conjuncture depart from the Assembly of Estates No question the several Cities of the Provinces would look upon it as the Confession of a Crime and fall from those generous Resolutions to which such auspicious Omens had given a Being That the Dye was cast and that he would rather with the hazard of his Life await the Issue than be wanting to the Expectation of his Friends and his own Fortune by embracing safer Counsels When notwithstanding all this Nouel insisted and with a showr of Tears besought him to abandon his rash Resolves of staying turning to the Cardinal his Brother and the Arch-bishop of Lyon he sternly declared his Mind which was not to take notice of fond Advice that proceeded from the Infirmities of Old Age or the Maudlin Kindnesses of more than usual Compotation Which Words when the fierce and haughty Old Man heard These Tears of mine said he are seasonable had Fortune to whom you are much in debt granted ye this one Favour more to understand aright the Admonitions of your Friends Which since you now deride there nothing else remains but sincerely to implore Heavens Mercy to avert the Danger and that the Almighty would be pleas'd in a short time to make us sensible that it was an Apprehension onely of Danger that made us weep for fear The Report is That the Duke was confirmed in this obstinate Resolution contrary to the Advice of all his Friends by the Archbishop of Lyons for that he being in hopes through the Recommendation of the Duke to be advanced the next Lent to the Cardinal-Dignity was afraid lest if the Duke should withdraw from Court the King by his Embassadour might disturb his Design so likely and in such a fair way to succeed and for that Reason preferr'd his own Ambition before the Danger of his Friend So that the next day when some Person unknown had thrust into his Napkin which he was to make use of at Dinner a certain Billet giving him to understand That the King had laid a Train for him as soon as he found the Billet by unfolding the Napkin he presently took a Pen and writ these Words He dares not and then threw the Billet under the Table that so it might return to the Hands of him that wrote it This was not all The very Morning that he went to the Assembly one of his Guard that attended him either understanding or conjecturing something of the Plot which was contriv'd against him when he could not come to speak with the Duke press'd in among the Croud and got so near him as to tread upon his Foot by way of Item and dutiful Caution which he either not understanding or not regarding bid the Person not trouble him But when he was once seated in the Assembly then he began to dread the Aspect of that Danger which before he so contemn'd and calling to mind the Admonitions of his Friends was sensible too late that now he was alone destitute of all his faithful Assistants in the King's Power surrounded with all his Guards However acknowledging his Errour only to himself he resolved to cover his Fears with the constancy of his Countenance especially before his Brother Cardinal whose prudent Monitories he had hitherto despis'd Nevertheless a vehement Consternation prevailing over his dissembled Courage notwithstanding he sate with his back to the Chimney a sudden chillness seiz'd his Limbs attended with a violent flux of Blood from his Nose which caused him to call for some Sweet-meats to recruit his Spirits However some there were that attributed this Accident not so much to Fear as the expence of Natural Strength occasioned by his Nocturnal pleasures already mentioned While the Duke was sitting in this condition between fear and faintness comes Lewis Revol the Kings Secretary ignorant of the Tragedy to give him notice that the King had sent to speak with him and that he must come to him Thereupon the Duke rises forthwith and with a serious Countenance goes directly to the Kings Bed-Chamber into which being presently admitted and the Bar as it is usual let down he proceeds forward to the Kings private Cabinet on the left-hand There as he was putting the Hanging aside with his Hand and going to enter Sanmalin one of the Fatal Tragedians stops him and laying hold of the Duke's Sword with his left Hand with the other gives him a slanting Stab from the Throat down into the Breast which presently filling his Mouth with a stream of Blood deprived him of his Speech so that he could only fetch a deep Sigh which was heard by the Standers by with no small Horrour Presently the rest surround him and as he was vainly struggling in his own Defence some lay hold of his Hands others having given him several Wounds in the Head and Hips after they had so disabled his Strength direct at last their deadly stroaks into his Breast and Belly Finding himself lost all he said was only this Oh my God I am a dead Man have pity on me all this befalls me for my Sins Yet notwithstanding he had received many mortal Wounds he did not presently fall but being got loose from his Murderers turning his Face he went still upright to the other opposite Chamber upon the right hand with his arms extended and his Fists clench'd seeming to direct his steps against Lognac