Beare with bragging and lying a little cost him more than they are worth For aboue all nations hee feareth the French as that which he knoweth to be most noble and to haue the greatest valure and impatience against the rest and rule of a strange people And that is the cause why being wise prouident and well counselled as hee is since that hee was constrained to make that miserable peace which was sealed and signed by the death of our good King Henry the second Ah wilie foxe but yet well discouered subtiltie and not daring either openly to gainesay the same or beginne warre whilest that France was flourishing vnited agreed and of the same minde and will together hee indeuoured to sowe diuision and discord amongst vs our selues and so soone as hee sawe our princes to be miscontent or to iarre amongst themselues he did secretly and closely conueigh himselfe into the action and incouraged the one of the sides to nourish and foster our diuisions and to make them immortall and to busie our selues to quarrell and fight one with another yea to kill one another that whilest these troubles were amongst vs hee might bee left in peace and so long as we did inweaken our selues to grow increase without losse and lessening Plaine pregnant proofes This was the course and proceeding that hee held after that hee sawe the princes of Vendosme and of Condie malecontent who also drew and caried with them the house of Montmorencie and of Chastillon and to set themselues against the aduantageable aduancements and proceedings of your father Bleare eyed men and barbers as it is in the prouerbe are acquainted therewith and of your Vncles Monsieur Lieutenant who had inuaded and vsurped all authoritie and kingly power in the time of young King Frauncis their nephew I speake nothing but that all Fraunce euen to the smallest and basest of them yea that the whole worlde knoweth For all the bloudie tragedies which since that time haue been plaied vpon this pitifull scaffold of France haue all of them been borne and proceeded from these first quarrels and not from the diuersitie or difference of religions as without reason men doe yet to this day make the simple and idiots to beleeue I am old and haue seene the affayres of the world as much as another yea by the grace of God and the goodnes of my friends I haue been Sheriffe and prouost of the merchants also in this citie in the time that men proceeded thereunto by free election and that they did not constraine nor vse violence to men for their suffrages and voyces as you haue done Plaine speech and particular application Monsieur Lieutenant not long sithence minding and purposing to continue Monsieur Boucher at your deuotion But I remēber yet those old times as if it were but yesterday past or this day present I can remēber well from the beginning of the quarell that fell out betweene Monsieur your late father and late Monsieur the Constable which proceeded from no other cause but from the iealousie of one of them ouer another both of them being the great minions and fauourits of Henrie the second their master Figulus figulū odit as it is in the prouerbe as wee haue seene also Messieurs de Ioyeuse and d'Espernō vnder King Henrie the third his sonne Their first falling out was for the estate of great Master which the King had giuen to Monsieur your father when he made Monsieur of Montmorency Constable who had been great Master before and who had the Kings promise that the sayd estate should be reserued for his sonne Another cause of their ill husbandrie or bad carriage of themselues was the Countie de Dampmartin which both of them had gotten after diuers sorts Sum ego mihi metipsi proximus I loue my selfe best and being entred into suite about the same Monsieur the Constable got it by an arrest or decree This did so alter and chaunge them that either of them indeuored to east his cōpanion out of the saddle or as we say to set him beside the cushion And from thence proceeded the voyage that Monsieur your father made into Italie where he did no great matter because that Monsieur the Constable who caused him to bee sent thither that so he might the more quietly wholly and alone possesse the King it may be hindred or slacked the affayres but he remained not long vnpunished for it for he was taken afterwards on S. Laurence day while your father was absent who being returned did by a certaine good happe and the same indeed very wonderfull It was well done of the Guise to ouercome euil with well doing take againe the townes of Picardie which wee had lost and Calais besides And that he might the better reuenge himselfe of the euill dueties that he knew were done against him in his voyage caused also the imprisonment of Monsieur the Constable to bee prolonged and forgot no arte that might hinder or delay his deliuerance which gaue an occasion to my Lords of Chastillon to desire the ayde and to cast themselues into the armes and protection of the King of Nauarre this Kings father and of Monsieur the Prince of Conde his brother who had married their neece Also these two great houses fell into factions and partakings which were yet stirred vp and incensed by the contention begun betweene the Prince of Conde Monsieur d'Aumale your vncle for the office of the colonel of the light horse there was as yet no mētion of religion or Huguenots Hardly did any know what was the doctrine of Caluin and Luther A little fire maketh a great flame but by the death of them that we sawe burne stiffe in their opinions and yet notwithstanding the matter of the warres and of the enimities that we haue seene were then in preparing and hath continued vntill this present time But the trueth is that when my Lords of Chastillon very couragious men and not able to indure the iniuries offered them saw that the fauour of your house did ouertoppe theirs and that they had not any meane to finde credite and fauour about the King by reason of the lets that they of your race house cast in the way they were counselled to withdraw themselues from the Court and as they were in their retraite they shewed themselues but whether it were in good earnest or of policie and prudence I know not to fauour the new Lutherans who till then preached no where but in caues and dennes and by little and little ioyned themselues with them in faction and intelligence It is not good to fall into the clawes and pawes of vnreasonable men the rather to defend and keepe themselues from your father your vncle then to attempt any stirring or bringing in of noueltie except then when the King at the prouocation of your vncle who had made the Pope to write vnto him thereabout did himselfe take
Monsieur d'Andelot at Crecy and sent him prisoner to Melun After this imprisonment and that also of the Vidame of Chartres and of certaine counsellors of parliament fell out the violent and miraculous death of the King Whē the wicked rise vp mē hide themselues which exalted your house to the soueraigne degree of power neere about the young King Francis and on the other side did abate and almost altogether beate downe the house of Monsieur the Constable and of all those that did belong vnto him And this was then when his kindred voyde of all hope of ordinarie meanes because that all was executed vnder the fauour of your allies ioyned themselues in secrete intelligence with the Lutherans here and there scattered in diuers corners of the kingdom And though they had as yet but little credit with them as who were people vnknowne vnto them and had not partaked neither in the Supper nor in Synode or Consistorie notwithstanding by the meanes of their agents well skilled and practised in secrets they made that memorable enterprise of Amboyse and assembled from all the quarters of the world Taciturnitie a good virtue and that with meruailous silence such a great number of people that they were readie at the day named to accomplish a cruell execution vpon your side vnder this pretext to deliuer the King out of the captiuitie A Iudas amongst the twelue wherein your fathers and your vncles held him But these good people could not keep themselues from traitors whereupon followed the execution done at Amboise which discouered also the authors of the faction And thereupon insued the rigorous commaundement which they gaue to the King of Nauarre and the imprisonment of Monsieur the Prince of Conde in the estates at Orleans and sundrie other heauie accidents too long now to recite Mens malice ouerthrowne when God will which had continued and increased farre worse if the sodaine death of the young King had not altered the course and broken the blow which some went about to cause to light vpon these chiefest princes of the bloud royall and vpon the familie of Monsieur the Constable and of the Chastillons A man may easily iudge how much your house was shaken and tossed as it were by this vnlooked for death and you may beleeue Monsieur Lieutenant that Monsieur your father and Messieurs your vncles played all at one time A fit comparison at one kinde of game or blushing as you might do if a man should bring you newes of the death of your two brethren But they lost not their courage no more then you doe and had afterwards very good counsels and consolations from the King of Spayne of whom we will speake by and by who during these first dissentions was vpon the skoutes and watched to whom hee might offer his fauour and how he might blow and stirre the fire on the one side on the other to make it to increase to that power and greatnes in which we haue seene it Holy purposes for so catholike a prince and doe yet now see it burne and consume all France which is the finall but of his pretensions Vpon hope then of the support of so great a prince which would not spare to promise men money your father without being astonished with so lumpish a fall perceiuing the King of Nauarre to be placed in his ranke of the first prince of the bloud for the sauegard of young king Charles and Monsieur the Constable put in his charge or office againe knew so well rightly to play his ball that he practised them both The recouerie of Nauarre some such conceits and drew them to his lure against their owne brethren and against their owne kinsmen feeding one of them with a hope that I dare not speake of and flattering the other by submissions and honors that he bestowed vpon him And this he did so artificially and wel that entring againe into the paths and waies that he had forsaken and taking his old aduantage after that Monsieur the Prince of Conde was set at libertie who had fairely preuented him but two or three daies onely he went with a number of men of warre and in great troupes to seize the young King and the Queene his mother at Fountainebleau brought them to Melun And this was then when my sayd Lord the Prince and Messieurs of Chastillon perceiuing themselues neither by their head nor by their houses strong enough to resist so puissant enemies couered with kingly authoritie and power became Lutherans at one clap and declared themselues to be heads protectors of the new heretikes whom they called to their succour and by their meanes did in open warre seaze and take many great townes of the kingdome without making yet any mention of their religion but onely for the defence of the King and of his mother and to deliuer them out of the captiuitie bondage wherein Monsieur your father held them And you Monsieur Lieutenant know that these people alwaies boasted that what they did as in this behalfe it was at the request and commandement of the Queene Mother whose letters written and sent by her to them for that purpose they haue caused to be published and imprinted You are not ignorant of that which passed in this warre and how afterwards the King of Spayne sent your father succour but yet the same such Fit fellowes to fight a field as I am ashamed to speake of it al labourers and handicrafts men gathered together who would neuer fight at the battaile of Dreux but couered themselues with the wagons and carriages appoynted for the baggage Notwithstanding this was a baite to inkindle the courage of the partakers and to cause them to hope that they should indeed some other time doe some aduantageable thing if they would yet once again come to fight together But afterwards the diuers changings and alterations of our affayres did indeed offer vnto the Spanyard another sport For your father being dead and peace being made knowing notwithstanding these mightie families animated and stifly set one of them against another and that without hope of reconciliation When a bad cannot preuaile a worse will be prouided he practised Monsieur the Cardinall your vncle which on his behalfe did not sleepe to maintaine the troubles and diuisions in this realme vnder the beautifull name of religion of which in former time mē made little or no account Monsieur your vncle Cardinall of Lorraine commended being as he was indeed wittie and pleasing whom he would had skill in such sort to gaine the heart of the Queene Mother and the Queene Mother the heart of the King her sonne that he perswaded them specially the Queene mother that Messieurs the Princes of Bourbon ayded by them of Montmorency and Chastillon sought nothing but her ruine and would neuer bee quiet or leaue off till they had driuen her out of the realme and sent her
attempt with your foot to hold the crowne of France hauing left in your hand first great riches great estates the chiefe offices charges of the kingdome great gouernments many souldiers bound by good turnes done them many seruants also great intelligences with the Pope the King of Spayne and other Princes your kinsfolkes and allies and which is more a great opinion amongst the common people that you were good Catholikes and sworne enemies to the Huguenots You knew very well how to make great profite to your selues by these preparations and sundrie sorts of stuffe which ye found after his death all readie to bring vnto the worke When I say you I meane your self brethren and cousins After King Charles his death many things succeeded well to you one after another Diuers deuises to strengthen the Guisian faction and to very good purpose First the barrennes of the King or of your cousin his wife then the retraite and absence of the King of Nauarre of which you were in part a cause for the distrusts into which you brought him and after that the diuision and dissention between the King and Monsieur the Duke his brother whereof you were the onely authors and promoters vnder hand and closely sharpening the spirits of the one against the other and secretly promising them to ayd them Another thing wherewith you thought to strengthen your selues well was the assistance that Messieurs the Princes of Conty and of Soyssons yeelded for a time to the King of Nauarre their cousin germane when they sawe that the things you went about were directly against all their familie and that you boasted you would supplant or vndermine them for thereupon you vndertooke the matter which you haue neuer since forsaken or forgotten namely to cause to be comprehended by and vnder the Popes bull If Spayne play not a part in this pageant nothing can be done and by oths and protestations of the King of Spayne neuer to approue hereticall princes nor the children of heretikes and then ye found out and first deuised these goodly names of adherents and fautors of heretikes After all this ye made your practises with the King of Spayne more openly and assured your conditions and couenanted then for your pensions promising him the kingdome of Nauarre Bern for his share with the townes that should serue his turne in Picardie and Champagne and ye communed with him concerning the meanes that you would vse to get hold of the estate And the pretext that ye pretended thereto was the wicked gouernment of the king Good pretexts to countenāce a bad cause the prodigalities which he bestowed vpon his two minions Esperon and Mercurie whereof you drew one to your owne line which was thought neuer a whit the better You imployed all your diligence to make the poore prince odious to his people you counselled him to raise the taxes to inuent new imposts to create newe officers by which you your felues profited for some did maintaine to Monsieur your brother at Chartres after the barricades that he had receiued halfe the money of three edicts made to fill the purse Fine deuises to shred him of his kingdome and which also were very pernicious or hurtfull whereof notwithstanding you cast and layd the hatred vpon that poore king whom you made to muse vpon and dwell in ridiculous deuotions whilest you your selues sued for the good fauour of the people and contrarie to his liking tooke vpō you the charge and conducting of great armies drawing vnto you the heads and captaines of warre courting and making much of in words the very simple and meane souldiers that ye might get them to bee on your side practising the townes buying the gouernmēts and putting into the best places gouernours folke at your owne deuotion And this was then that you conceiued the kingdome present almost euen as the appetite commeth many times by eating when you sawe King Henry without hope of issue He must needs goe that the diuell driueth the chiefe Princes accounted for heretikes or fautors of heretikes the Consistorie of Rome to lay the raines or bridle in your necke and the King of Spayne to giue you the spurre You had no more to hinder you but the late Monsieur who was a shrewd hollow dreamer and who vnderstood well with what wood you warmed your selues He must be dispatched out of the way and Salcede his testament discouered vnto vs the meanes of it Who can stād against such deadly attēpts but force preuailing not poyson did the deede All your seruants foretold this his death more then three moneths before it came to passe Afterwards ye made no more small mouths or spake closely for the dissembling of your purpose you went no more creeping as cunnies nor in secret but you plainly layd open your selues And yet notwithstanding the better to set forward your affayres you would make honest people beleeue that this was for the publique benefite and for the defence of the Catholique religion Catholike religion a fayre pretext which is a pretext and cloake that seditious persons and stirrers vp of nouelties haue alwaies taken to couer themselues withall Into this insensible net you drew that good man Monsieur the Cardinall of Bourbon a prince without malice and ye were able so cunningly to turne and wind him that yee seized him with a foolish and vndiscreet ambition that in the end ye might deale with him as the eat doth with the mouse that is to say after ye had plaied with him to eate him vp No vnapt cōparison No vntrue exposition You drew thereunto sundry Lordes of the Realme diuers gentlemen and captaines many cities townes and communalties and amongst others this miserable citie which suffered it selfe to bee taken as it were with birde lime partly by reason of the hatred that they had against the misdemeanours of the late King partly also by reason of the impression which you put into them that the Catholike religion would vtterly be ouerthrowne if the King did die without childrē the succession of the kingdom shuld come to the King of Nauar who called himself the first prince of the blood Hereupon you forged framed your first declaration or manifestatiō that had not in it so much as one only word of religiō but you did indeed demaund therein They will hardly agree with others that diffent frō themselues that althe states gouernments of this kingdome shuld be taken from them that possessed them and were not at your deuotion which escape you amended in your second declaration by the counsell of Rosne who to the end hee might set alon a fire said that there needed nothing else but the setting out of religion and then you preached vnto vs of a Synod at Montauban A fine deuise to foster the fire of faction in Fraunce and of a diet in Germanie where you saide that all the Huguenots of the worlde had
most vsed to deceiue the people What neede is there to rehearse here that which passed in the sayd Estates of Bloys The Lord is knowne by executing iudgement the wicked is suared in the workes of his owne hands Marke this mark◠this and how God blinded the eyes of them of your familie that they might goe and throwe themselues into the ditch or pit which they had prepared for another man Then when ye thought to be aloft euen aboue the winde after that goodly fundamentall lawe by which you declared the late Cardinall of Bourbon to bee the first prince of the bloud and the King of Nauarre vnworthie euer to succeed to the crowne as also his cousins adheronts fauourers of heretikes euen thē I say behold a great storme that tooke away those two great pillers of the faith Messieurs your brethren the one naming himselfe Lieutenant generall great Master and Constable of France and the other the Patriarch of the French Church and cast them into such a deepe gulfe of the sea that they were neuer seene not heard of since Was not this thinke you Yes surely was it a great stroake or blow from heauen and a wonderfull iudgement of God that they that thought to hold their master in a chaine and made an account to leade him within three daies by force or otherwise into this towne to cause him to be shauen for a monke and shut vp in a Cloyster should sodainly finde and feele themselues taken and shut vp by him whom they thought to intrap and take Some are of this mind and haue not spared to speake it that you Monsieur the Lieutenant being iealous of the greatnes and high fortune of Mosieur your brother If he did so was well though that he a med at therein was euill did aduertise the King that dead is of the enterprise they had in hand to leade him away and that you admonished him to make haste to preuent it Whether this bee true yea or no I report mee to your selfe but this is a matter very vulgar and common that Madame d'Aumale your cousin was expresly at Bloys to discouer all the secret to the King where she lost not her labour and some say that her husband she would from thence forward haue been banqueroute to the League if the King would haue giuen him the gouernment of Picardie and of Boulongne A charitable but whether a true iudgement it is vncertaine and haue payd his debts Concerning your selfe I thinke not that you had so dastardly and wicked a minde to betray your brethren and men know wel enough that you were called to come and to bee present at the mariage where they would haue made you of their liuerie But whether it were that you distrusted the inclosing or that you would not hazard all three together you kept your selfe at Liōs vpon the scoutes to watch the issue and execution of the enterprise which was farre otherwise then you hoped for and it missed but a very little that you your selfe had not been of the play sauing that Seigneur Alphonsus Corse was somewhat before you or indeed a little too forward Madame your sister had the same feare that you had A shrewd womans wit who knowing the newes thought not her selfe sure enough in the suburbes but got her selfe into the towne Oh how had we been now at peace and quietnes if this prince had had the courage to haue proceeded further and to haue continued these blowes and stroakes Bitter effects following wāt of execution of iustice Then surely we should not haue seene Monsieur of Lions sit so nigh you and seruing you for a gunner or instrument to performe your practises and his owne by at Rome and in Spayne and to hinder by his sermons and his reasons coloured with religiō that we cannot haue peace which we stand so much in neede of Then we should not haue seene the furious administrations and gouernments of Marteau Nully Compan and Rowland who haue brought the people to desperation if that instice the credit and renowne wherof we haue carried hitherto should after their apprehension be executed as indeed it ought Then should we not haue seene all the other great cities and townes burne with the fire of rebellion as they doe if their deputies had passed by the same order But the gentlenes of that King who in no sort was bloudie was content to see his principall enemie and competitor beaten downe and ouerthrowne A pitie marring all and then he rested or staied when he should most liuely and quickly haue pursued his way Notwithstanding if the Lord d'Antragues had done that which hee promised for the reducing of Orleans which he thought to heale as he had indeede spoyled it and had he not suffered himselfe to be out runne and preuented by S. Maurice and Rossieux As haste many times maketh waste so there is a foreslowing that worketh great mischiefe matters had not been so farre out of square as they were for want of giuing order to that first tumult whither you came vpon the very beginning of their first reuolt and incouraged them to rebell and to be in good earnest obstinate and according to their example you caused vs to doe as much Afterwards euen as it were very sodainly this fire inflamed all the great cities and townes of this kingdome there are very fewe thereof that can boast they were exempted therefrom so skilfull were you Wilie and wicked perswasions may doe much men are so inclined to the worst nimbly to practise men of all sides And thereupon to make vs without hope of reconciliation to our Lord and Master you caused vs to make out our processe against him you caused vs to hang and to burne his picture you forbad vs to speake of him but in the qualitie of a tyrant you caused him to be excommunicate you caused him to bee execrate detested and accursed by the Curats by the Preachers and by little children in their prayers And can any thing so horrible and fearful be spoken or alleadged A fit instrument for such a foule fact as that which you caused to be done to Bussie the Clerke the pettie aduocate accustomed to kneele vpon his knees before the court of parliament of which he had the heartie affection and loue and the great rage to goe and take him from the venerable seate of soueraigne iustice and to leade him captiue and prisoner in triumph thorow the streetes euen vnto his fort and denne of the Bastille from whence he came not out but in peeces with a thousand concussions exactions and villanies which he exercised against honest and good people besides I cease to speake of the pilling of sundrie rich houses the selling of precious moueables the imprisoning and raunsoming of the inhabitants and gentlemen New baptisms in poperie besides them that are done at the font that they knewe to haue money and to be
Things graunted for a time are not so easily reuoked then the grauitie or waight of the charge but for a time and till such time as there were other prouision made by the Estates and generall In so much that now it is time that you bee put downe therefrom dispossessed therof and that we aduise now to take another gouernment and another gouernour You haue liued sufficiently enough in anarchie and disorder Is it your minde that for your pleasure Necessarie demaunds to make your selfe and yours great against all right and reason wee should for euer continue miserable and wretched Will you proceed to destroy that little that remayneth How long will you be sustained and nourished with our bloud and our bowels When wil you bee full with eating vs and satisfied with seeing vs to kill one another to cause you to liue at your ease Let not thine owne mouth praise thee but anothers Doe ye not suppose that you haue to doe with Frenchmen that is to say with a warrelike nation which though it be sometimes easie to be deceiued yet very quickly returneth to their duetie and aboue all things loueth their naturall Kings and therein cannot be passed You will be altogether astonished when you shall finde your selfe abandoned of all the good cities and townes who will make their agreement and composition without you You shall see ere long As fell out in Villeroy Vitry and others now one then another euen of them whom you take to be your most familiar friends that wil treate without you and will returne themselues to the hauen of safetie because they haue knowne you to bee an vnskilfull pilot that could not tell how to gouerne the ship whereof you had taken charge and haue made shipwracke of it or cast it away very farre from the port Haue you then the name of peace so much in horror that you will not conceiue any whit at all thereof They that are able to ouercome doe yet demaund it To what end then haue serued so many voyages so many goings and commings which you haue caused Monsieur de Villeroy and others to make vnder this pretext to speake of agreement and to bring the matters to some tranquilitie if it might bee You are then a cogger and an abuser that deceiue both your friends and your enemies and against the naturall disposition of your nature vse nothing but crafts and deceits to hold vs alwaies vnder your pawes at your owne pleasure A politike course to vphold their corruption You neuer yet would haue publique affayres handled by publique persons but in corners and secretly by people of meane place made by your owne hand and depending vpon you to whom you whispered a word in the eare altogether resolute to do nothing of that which should be agreed By this meanes you haue lost the credit and good will of the people which was the principall stay of your authoritie and haue caused to be slandered the proceedings of sundrie notable men that you haue imployed therein in manner of purchase and to graunt some thing vnto them that intreated you therefore You haue feared to offende strangers that affisted you Ill works deserue ill words at the least who yet notwithstanding did not take it very well at your hand For if you knew the speeches that they vse of you and in what termes the King of Spayne writeth concerning your deedes and manners I thinke you not to haue so slauish and abiect an heart to entertaine him and to seeke after him as you doe There haue been seene letters surprised and deciphered in which he nameth you hogge and sometimes swelling toade and in others Locho profiado and generally their king mocketh you and plaieth with your nose and commaundeth his agents to entertaine you with sweete and pleasant words Faire words make fooles faine yet voyd of effect and to regard that you take not ouer sure footing and too much authoritie vpon you Your aduersaries on the Kings side beleeue that you demand and seek for truce to no other end but to waite for your forces the better to prepare your partie at Rome in Spaine wee say that it is to make the warre to continue and the better to dispatch your priuate affayres This being so how can you so feeble and weake as you are hope to make men beleeue that you either would or could saue vs It cannot be done but by a publique and authentical negotiation which iustifieth authoriseth and giueth credite to a right meaning This is the thing that you might doe vnder the good will or pleasure of the Pope If he did he shewed not himself a man of peace to the end that ye may yeeld his holines the respect which you owe him Could he take it ill that you had a minde to hearken vnto peace with your neighbours with your King For though you would not acknowledge him for such a one yet you cannot deny but that he is a prince of the bloud of France and King of Nauarre who hath alwaies held a higher degree and state than you and hath continually gone before and aboue you and all your ancestors On the other side A good perswasiō touching a bad person we would beleeue that the holie Father imitating the example of his predecessors would stirre you vp to that good worke if he sawe you inclined thereto that so he might quench the fire of ciuil warre which consumeth so goodly a flowre of Christenstome and ouerthroweth the strongest piller that vpholdeth the Christian Church and the authoritie of the holy seate neither would he stand any longer vpon this terme heretikes A reason but Popes may crosse one anothers perswasion and practise and yet neither of thē erre any way For Pope Iohn the second went indeed himself to seeke the Emperour of Constantinople and to intreate him to make peace with the Arrians worse than these and to commit and commend the whole quarrell into the hands of God who would accomplish that that men could not doe For mine owne part Monsieur the Lieutenant I beleeue that if you would take this way and course without coūterfeiting or dissimulatiō it could not but be very sure profitable to the generalitie of France and to you as in respect of your owne particular very honorable and to your great vnburthening and the contentment of your spirit Also that this is the one and the only meane and that there remaineth no other to stay or vphold the present fall of all our building I freely speake vnto you after this manner without feare of the racke or of proscription That is great braggers and boasters as Rodomont was neither doe I feare these Rodomontade Spaniards nor the sowre countenances writings of the mouthes of the sixteene which are but beggerly needy fellowes which I wil not vouchsafe euer to salute for the slēder accoūt that I make of thē I
and that into a grieuous ruine and decay Whither Gods wrath did carrie him and harry him away At S. God is known by executing iudgement the wicked is snared in the workes of his owne hands Higgaion Selah Denis he is founde starke and stone dead Fallen also into the snares that for others himselfe spread For his pride there fell vpon him this grieuous wrath and vengeance Neare vnto the tombes of the auncient Kings of France Whose brused and broken bones in that same place doe rest And seeme Gods iustice therein religiously to haue blest Who for the truth and faith that this wretch did violate Would haue this sacrifice to the Kings there to be immolate And that his bodie with mise eaten vp should be As Hatto the Archbishop of Mentz was deuoured with rattes while he liued As great a wanton of the dames of Paris as was he Before that to iust buriall men could in season bring His bodie full of filth and rottennes stinking To cause the greatest of the leaguers to vnderstand That thus dooing still they shall be punished by his hand Another touching the same matter written in Latine and translated out of the same As the virgine of Priamus did fall vpon the Phrygiā shore Two examples as before applied And at the marble of her foes tombe was constrained to dye therefore And as Caesar with many wounds at his son in lawes picture Hauing conquered others for all that fell at the feete of the conquered sure So at the tombe of his own Kings a foe to Kings in breath Falles dead and imbloodeth the ground with a iust de serued death Wherfore ye godly men euen now reioyce for why this offring odde Both at kingly tombes is punished sheweth there is a God Against the same Cheualier d'Aumale This man by mightie guile did take S. Denis towne of fame Oh how vnsearchable are Gods waies and his iudgements past finding out But taker he in taken towne was caught and perished in the same A Sonnet vpon the retiring of the Duke of Parma But where is now this power so huge so mightie so great An abrupt patheticall exdium but fitte for the purpose That when it came to vs it seemed all the Gods themselues to threat And that promised to itselfe to breake and downe to the ground to fling The famous french nobility with their armed prince or king This preparation great proud to smoke or winde is turnd And that great Duke that thought himselfe So God confoundeth pride of hart all the worlde to haue burnd Without dooing ought constrained is into Flanders to retire Hauing lost his people his time his fame that hee did desire Henrie our great king as a hunter good doth him pursue and chase He presseth him he followeth him and the fox flieth apace With his nose to the ground ashamd despised and blamed brought to danger Yee Spaniards proude learne this of mee Spaniards learne in time neuer yet did any stranger Intrap or take a Frenchman but with losse dāger shame The Frenchman is not vanquished but by one of the same name A Sonnet to all them of the League O ye vnnatur all Frenchmen To all French generally and bastards of this land That tamed cannot be but by your owne force and hand Now put ye off this courage inhumane and vnnaturall That puss you vp with pride by ignorāce destroyes you all Ye pettie princes of Lorraine To the Lorrainists He meaneth the Pope or the Spanyard or both To the Parisiens shake off your hope therefore The error of that Cumane asse follow ye not any more Who clothed with the skinne of the Romane lion great Seeing the very lion stout doth hart and hope forget And you ô ye Parisiens recourse whither will you haue You must needs whether you will or no voyd of hope your selues to saue Subiect your selues to that dutie to which the laws you bind But if against your selues you stirre your king that is sokind Chastened you shall sure be for on babes and fooles we spend Some chastisement or els indeed they will neuer sure amend Touching the Lords of Vitry and of Villeroy who haue acknowledged the King The vnion her selfe her force doth still vntie Vitry and Villeroy witnesse doe this thing To God therefore alone be infinite glorie Praise vnto them honour to the King This Lieutenant in false conceit This great piller sweld with wind and no more That thought the King to counterfeit Shall be grosse Iohn euen as before The Duke du Mayne The League it selfe to destroy goes about Wherewith confounded are the wicked race The seede thereof shall sure be put out A house diuided in it selfe can not stand By torture sharpe swords or some other strange case Ye people of bloud of spoyle and the rope And still will be named zealous as yet The Leaguers Cry the King mercie so may you haue hope Or els from hence ye shall goe to the gibbet Ye sixteene Mount-falcon calleth for you The sixteene appointed to gouerne Paris To morrow the crowes will crie very lowd The sixteene pillers of his chappell new Shall be your tombes wherein you shall be shrowd To the King concerning his very great clemencie Amongst the goodly virtues this is one very excellent Pitifull to be to the vanquisht and to pardon all But take heed of too much chieflly to rebels impenitent Too much pitie spoyleth a citie yea a kingdome For Caesar as great a prince as your selfe did thereby fall Concerning the same matter in Latin and turned into English Pitie in a great prince is a great virtue indeed A good thing can hardly be too oftē repeated And to be willing alwaies his enemies to spare But yet too much pitie is not safe as we may reade By the bloudie death of Caesar a prince very rare Vpon the same matter Heretofore it was a virtue fit for a cour agious king To the greatest of his foes grace and pardon to show But sith Caesar was murthered and that for this thing From a virtue to a vice it is become as many moe In Latin but translated out of it In former time for captains great pity was a virtuous trade But sith that Caesar was destroied this virtue a vice is made To the King O thou victorious prince and now the best of all that liue God out of his hand into thine two scepters great doth giue France Nauarre And in a throne of long'st indure hath placed thee againe In spite of all the sore attempts of that coniured Spayne The wishes of all Frenchmen good are heard yet at the last Thou race of Lewes S. shalt reigne in peace and sit full fast That which the heauens giue thee sure no man can take frō thee Though voyd of scepter and of crowne thou shouldst commād with glee Notwithstanding all this ô King a King