both parts exchanged some Broad-sides and the King being in person upon one of the Batteries caused about thirty to bee lovelled at them which did not a little indamage them Politique Observation ALthough shame be the Child of evil Parents yet it begetteth excellent effects It proceedeth from some Actions which have a certain infamy with them and leave behind them some ill tincture upon the reputation but then the grief which a generous mind apprehendeth at it when he findeth himself disgraced maketh him redouble his courage and carrieth him to glorious actions A thing very remarkable in the persons of Soveraigns who being jealous of their glory the fairest flower of their Crowns cannot indure that it should be sullied by any misfortune which may seem to carry a faith-heartedness with it It grieves them and not a little to find themselves deficient in those successes which have Crowned their equals Hereupon it was that Caesar reflecting on himself how that during two and thirty years time he had not signalzied his Courage by any one great exploit fell into tears before an Image of Alexander which seemed to reproach him by those great Acts which he had brought to passe in a lesse time But who can express the lively impression which it maketh when it hath been seen to inflame the most cowardly an faint-hearted with resolution and courage History affordeth us many examples of Armies which after a shamefull rout have been possessed with the Army of the Persians when they saw their wives come to them holding up their Coats faced about and charged the Army of Astyages which then pursued them with so much Courage that they gained the Victory and in the same manner the shame which the Romans conceived upon their defeat by the Samnites at the Forges of Caudine did so sensibly excite them that they could not rest till they had been revenged they marched to Capua but so sad that they could hardly speak which they of least understanding attributed to their despair but Offiliâ—â— Ascalanius more judicious then the rest told the Citizens that this silence and confusion which was in their Countenance did presage no great good for he could not be perswaded but that the resentments of such extraordinary grief would transport them to strange attempts for the recovery of that honour whereof fortune had bereaved them especially seeing shame when it spurs on a resolution is an hope of safety The Roman Consul Agrippa that he might incourage his Army would oftentimes take one of his Ensigns and cast it into the middle of his enemies to the end the shame which his Souldiers should conceive at it might animate them the more and oblige them for the regaining of them to shew all proofs of an extraordinary Courage The Fâ—ight between the Kings Fleet and the English AFter the English had stood in this Posture two dayes they sent out between Sunday even and Munday morn 10 or 12 floating Petards to set fire on the Kings ships The Composition of those Petards was of Lattin filled with Powder laid upon certain peeces of Timber crosse which there was a spring which touching any Vessel would flie off and give fire to the Petards but onely one took effect which did no great hurt onely cast water into the ship and that was all the rest being taken by the Kings Boats their Petards were answered by good store of Cannon from the Kings ships yet their Fleet continued still in the same posture insomuch that many beleeved that they would either return that day without any more ado or else land their men Now as he who commands an Army is obliged to foresee all accidents and to prevent them so the King commanded the Duke of Angoulesm and the Marshal de Scomberg to guard the Point de Coreille and the Duke de la Trimoville and the Comte de Alets to stand their charge with the Light-horse and the Cavalry and took his own station at the Point of the Chef de Bay with some foot and divers of the Nobility which he intended to defend in his own person His Majesty further gave order to several Voluntiers to go aboard the ships with his Souldiers and which was done in sight of the English Fleet which had no great mind that day to ingage but the day following being the 30 of October and considering that the reputation of their Master was too much ingaged in the defence of the Rochelois for them to go away without doing of any thing and having the Wind favourable they hoised Sails made ready and came up to the Kings Fleet which presently met them in good order The fight began at 6 of the Clock and in about four hours time they discharged between them near 5000 great shot but never came nearer one another then Cannon distance The Kings Fleet commanded by the Commander de Valencay did as much as could be desired and though the English had the wind of them yet were they but ill treated by the Cannon one of their great ships being so torn that they were forced to retire to the Isle of Oye to mend her A Cessation of Arms for some days between the two Fleets IN the mean while the King being in the Batteries of the Chef de Bay which he had but raised two days before caused his Cannons to be discharged by his particular Order without the least fear of the danger whereunto he did expose himself in regard of the many Bullets which fell at his feet and came very near him he took a great delight to see his Guns do that execution which he intended the Elements fight for him and the English betray their fear of his presence good fortune and courage And was it not much more glorious for him to give order for the standing of this assault and to be himself present in it by offering his life to God then to have been in his Chamber at Paris where those of Marillac's faction would have staied him Was it not a greater pleasure to him to behold the Sea all on fire bringing flaming Vessels to his feet as if they did him homage and to command in his own person amidst the Batteries then to have been idle in the Louvre In my sense he had been as much too blame to have been at Paris whiles these affairs were acting as it was now glorious to see him here reducing Heresie to his obedience And this was as much as was done the first day The next morning the wind being still fair for the English they set their Sails began to shoot but durst not come nearer the Kings Fleet then before they were answered in the same language and for four hours together the Ayr seemed to be all on fire The little more which they did worth observation was this they sent 9 Fire-ships seconding them with Ships filled with Stones and full of dung to which they had set fire with intent that the smoke of it driven by the Wind
by it will ingage them to master the Commonalty and to repel Mutineers by force and to bring them under the obedience which they owe to their Soveraign There are but a few who can resolve to lose their Goods to satisfie the rage of an unbridled People Commonly none but they who are like to get by it do follow any Revolter Man is naturally so carefull of his own Estate and Goods that there is hardly any thing which he will prefer before them But if Devastation bee not able to reduce Revolted Towns into their Obedience without using other force of Arms who knoweth not that by a close besieging of them too they will come to find themselves so destitute of Victuals that it will be impossible for them any long time to hold out And thus one need not doubt but that it will in fine bring them down unto their Obedience either by Force or for their own Interest As for Rules to be observed in Forraging there are not any onely to destroy all the Fruits thereabouts to Reap if possible all the Wheat else to burn it to make the Grapes into Wine or else to cut up the Stocks as also all other Trees that bear Fruit or from which they may make any advantage It should be done as near the Walls as possible might bee to take away all conveniences from them and whilest that the Pioneers are at Work the Army ought to bee at hand to defend and shelter them but in such places where the Cannon shot may not reach them A Victory Obtained by the Duke of Montmorency against the Hugonotâ— THese Victories which the King got against the Revolted were not inconsiderable but that which the Duke of Montmorency got assisted by the Sieurs de St. Luc de la Roche Foucaud de Thoyras was much beyond them all The Marshal de Preslin had been the most part of the year in the Country of Aunis and the Sieur de Thoyras had been in Fort Lewis before the Gates of Rochel both to pillage round about that Rebellious Town whereby to reduce them to such want that they might not long hold out as also to prevent their making of any attempts thereabout The Sieur de Soubize finding little assurance on the main land had fortified himself in the Isles of Ree and Oleron it was the more important to remove him thence because else it would be impossible to reduce Rochel into its obedience so easily and abundantly might he recruit them with necessaries from those fertile Islands But to give a good success to the business there was need of a Fleet To which end his Majesty got together good store of ships of which one twenty were lent him by the Holâ—anders according to the Treaty which had been concluded with them the fore-going year His Majesty committed the Government of it to the Duke of Montmerency Admiral of France with order to fight the Sieur de Soubize and to cause the Sieurs de St. Luc de la Roche-Foucaud de Thoyras to passe over with some part of their Forces into the Isle of Ree to drive out those Rebels who were in Garison in the Forts there and to fortifie themselves The Sieur de Soubize who had then great and small onely thirty nine Vessels would not expect the comming of the Admiral Montmorency to the Kings Ships though he had procured a promise from the Sieur Hautyn the Hollanders Admiral under favour of the conformity of their Religion and had likewise passed his own Parole that neither part should attempt any thing untill the Treaty of Peace which was agitating at Court were either absolutely concluded or broken off which he did not faithfully perform on his part for taking advantage of his promise given hee took occasion to come upon him unprovided and on the nineteenth of July he put forth to Sea and having the Wind and Sea favourable in half an hour he came up to the Hollanders Ships and sent two Fire-boats chained together full of Artificial Fire-works to fall on the Admiral whom they burned quite down in a very little while not giving liberty for to save any but such as could swim so that above a hundred were drowned in it This Action full both of Insolency and breach of Faith ingaged the Kings Navy to pursue them four hours together The Ayr did ring again with the Cannon shot which sunk some of their Vessels and killed divers of their men But the season was so favourable to him that he got into St. Martin de Ree and to Chef de Bay The Duke of Montmorancy after the first news of the Encounter was ordered to speed away and to give them Battel He was received with a great deal of joy by the whole Fleet who were very impatient to be revenged on Soubize for the affront he had put upon them The Duke put forth to Sea the Sieurs de Saint Luc de Roche-Foucaud and de Thoyras made themselves ready to go on shore under the favour of the Admirals Arrival And on Sunday the fourteenth of September about eleven at night the Duke having given the sign for falling on they went to Attaque Soubize's Fleet which lay at Anchor in Loys Channel under the Island of Re. Upon the first approach near the enemies Vessels there were so many Cannon shot discharged on them that they were forced to retire to the further end of the Channel and the Sea falling off they all stuck on the Shelf The Duke finding them in this Condition made his Ships advance to shelter the landing of the Sieurs de St. Luc de la Roche-Foucaude de Thoyras amid'st the smoke of the Powder which hindered the Rebels from discovering it There were also ten other Ships sent out who were to go to the Road of Chef de Bay to take order that the Rochelois might send no new Troops to the Isle of Re who forced back into the Port the Count de Laval who was going out upon that design The Kings Army being landed the Enemy quickly perceived it and as soon came to receive them and used their utmost to repel them The Combate lasted three days out-right with a great deal of obstinacy on both parts the Rebels defending themselves in every place that was never so little tenable but it ended to the great advantage of the Kings Army which must be ascribed to the Valour and Conduct of those who commanded it for that they presently made themselves Masters of the Isle of Re cutting some part of the Enemy in peeces taking other some Prisoners and letting the rest escape into their Ships The Sieur de Soubize was one of those who escaped into Oleron such care he had that he might not be taken that he never came into the Fight at all They who had got clear into their Ships would have tried one bout more to have had their revenge the wind being fair for them But the Duke kept the Army in a readiness
served to set off with advantage the wonders of his Conduct and he hath ever dispelled from us all those Tempests of Mis-fortunes which have threatned France He hath the Honour to be Son to a Father to whom a thousand ill strious acts have acquired the quality of Great And I think it may be said with truth if Fortune dâ—id set limits to Philips Conquests that there might be some subjects for his Son Alexander to shew his courage on Heaven did also set bounds to the glory of that grand Prince in suppressing civil wars that our Lews the Just might have occasion to triumph over Heresie and curb in the Ambition of the house of Austria In prosecution of these two designs he began to overcome as soon as ever he knew how to mount on Horse-back That he replanted the Standard of the Cross in Bearn that he disarmed Heresie over all the Kingdom that he hath so often made the Spaniard and King of Hungary to let go their Holds and that he forced them to relinquish the design which they had so long projected of universal Monarchy Heaven seems to have made a Bargain with him that he should overthrow whatever resisted him that his actions should be as so many miracles and that his reign should be full as happy in the obedience and love of his Subjects as illustrious by his victories and triumphs Which being so how can we pass by so many glorious Actions without publishing his Wisdome and Generosity were not that not onely to deny to his Valour the praise it justly vindicates but even to deprive Posterity of an example whereby it might learn what no books of Policy can teach It is not fit to publish the secrets of a Prince but it is just to declare his vertues And if the first be forbid by the Laws of Secrecy the acknowledgement which is due to their merit and the zeal of the Publick good obligeth us to the secoâ—d This is the principal reason which hath invited me to publish the glory of his reign and I would condemn my Pen to perpetual silence if it had been mute on this occasion so necessary will it be to those who shall govern France in future Ages to follow those footsteps which he hath left behind him I confess I am not able to find words equal to the greatness of his Actions but I had rather want words then acknowledgements for my King and affection for my Country but I shall nevertheless hope to acquit my self so much the more fortunately as the heroick Actions of great Princes have often rendred those eloquent who have undertook to write them A Prince who would signalize himself by an extraordinary conduct ought to chuse Ministers who are sufficiently able to assist him with their counsels and to put them in execution For the better choosing of whom I think it convenient to observe with T. Livy that there are three sorts of them The first Eminent who are able to govern all by their own discretions and who have a Prudence vigorous enough to advise of themselves whatsoever is necessary for Government without being beholding to others who see all penetrate into all judge of all and whose Genius is strong enough to bear up the weight of the greatest affairs The second may be called Indifferent who have not sufficiency enough to judge of all things or to execute them but have a good capacity to apprehend the judgements of others in their Counsel and so to govern affairs by their directions that they are often times successefull in the greatest enterprizes The third and last have so little Judgement that they are neither able to manage affairs by their own or the advices of others whence it happens that they are apt to commit very deplorable faults and to put all things into Confusion Of the first rank ought a Prince to choose his ministers if he would design any great attempts or carry them on to a good success If he himself too be of this number they will bring wonders to passe if he be not he hath so much the more need to have persons of this temper neer him For God who hath naturally subjected little things to great seems to have given Letters Pattents to eminent spirits to govern if not by their Authority at least by their Counsels the rest of Mankind It is a dangerous fault to choose Ministers at a venture and for that reason Aristotle blamed the Athenians who chused their Magistrates by Lot it being absolutely necessary to elect them by Prudence and still to prefer the most capable The Proverb saith Ex quolibet ligno non fit Mercurius a Sowes Ear wil not make a Silk-Purse and true it is that not all are proper for all affairs Men must be fitted to their Commissions least they not having abilities proportionable do not onely ruine the most glorious designs but withall make them end in great mis-fortunes If men have never atchieved any thing greater then States and Empires surely they cannot do any thing more glorious then to govern them well and since Causes ought to be proportioned to effects it is necessary to imploy great Persons in great places That sight which should pierce into the remotest Objects should be the sharpest That Arm which should throw furthest ought to be strongest that light which should shine in many places ought to be liveliest and generally all causes which should have most force in their operation should have most vigour in then power Which being so ought not the understanding of a Minister to be quicker then that of others seeing be is to dive into truths His Memory ought it not to be stronger seeing it ought to preserve more Species ought not his Soul to be more capable seeing it ought to be more Universal ought not his Wisdome to be greater since he must comprehend more reason and ought not his Prudence to be more perspicacious seeing he is obliged to provide for the greatest and most important affairs An ordinary capacity of mind is sufficient for the guiding of a private life but he who hath the charge of governing a State ought to surpass all others in the strength of his Genius God who is the first reason and mover of Nature may be his example in this kind and of necessity who so doth serve next under him in the Administration of a Kingdome ought to be indued with a more vigorous wisdome then others that he may be as the understanding Soul in a civil Society and a guider of all others motions by his own Councels Not to follow this rule were to put all into confusion and disorder and one of the greatest vanities which is under the Sun saith the Spirit of God in the Scriptures is To place Fools upon the Tribunal and to leave Wise men standing upon the ground It were to set a Sailor to the Helm and the Pilot to the Oar it were to commit the guidance of the Primum mobile to the
being come within a League of it they soon sent their desires to be admitted to Composition The Castle made some difficulty of surrendring but when the Governour had once seen a Battery raised on the points of the Rocks where five hundred Nissars had drawn the Cannon by the strength of their Arms he resolved to do as the Town had Thus in the moneths of March April and May did the Armies of Savoy over-run in the State of Genoa all that did resist them and made themselves Masters not onely of the places by us named but of divers others to the number of one hundred seventy four strong and weak so favourable is Fortune to those who undertake any thing with extraordinary boldnesse and courage Politique Observation FOrtune or to speak more properly Divine Providence doth commonly favour those who being truly generous do attempt any great enterprise Not that God worketh miracles for the crowning them with successe but indeed because couragiousness giveth them great advantages especially when it is accompanied with Prudence and that the Divine Providence co-operating with second Causes doth assist their indeavours Courage begetteth a certain hope which like a Spur stirreth up to great attempts from which Fear had formerly diverted them courage alone is sufficient to strike terrour into an enemy who fighting more by constraint then good will do usually give ground when once they find themselves vigorously assaulted Who knoweth not that it is courage which perswadeth to invade and subject other Countries Experience hath often evinced that an invading Prince hath a great advantage over him who is onely intent how to defend himself especially if he be Prudent in falling on him in a favourable conjuncture of time as when his forces are diverted into other imployments or worn out or unarmed They who have most judiciously weighed the Victories of Caesar do much ascribe them to his native Generousness which carried him on to attempt any thing without the least fear insomuch that he despised the un-relenting fury both of the Sea and Winds which spare no man and commanded the Pylot who conducted him not to fear since he carried Caesars Fortune in his Boat Never did his Souldiers shew their backs no danger could affright him well he knew death to be the end of life but not that it was a mis-fortune He built his Glory upon Conquests and the difficulty of his enterprizes re-doubled the Force of his Courage Fortune was alwaies his friend and he made it apparent that nothing was impossible to a man of Resolution The Prosecution of War in Italy FOrtune indeed did much adde to the Courage of the Arms of France and Savoy for the obtaining such great Conquests in so little time but much of the honour must be ascribed unto the Cardinal who first advised the expedition who issued out all Orders under the Kings Authority who executed them in so happy a conjuncture of time that neither the Spaniards or Genoeses could possibly defend those places which were assaulted by reason of their want of Forces And lastly who had so good intelligence in the States of Genoa that he did not a little contribute to the good success of this design Yet however Fortune or rather Divine Providence which over-ruleth Armies doth but laugh at mans Wisdome and seemeth to delight in distributing both good and bad success to their designs Thus was it with the French and Savoyards for the Scales seemed to turn against them and their Conquests came to a Period The Fame of these great Victories did so trouble the house of Austria that extraordinary preparations were made in Germany for the sending of a Potent Army under the command of Feria Governour of Milan for the assisting of the Genoeses The Marquess de St. Croix was likewise commanded to put to Sea a Fleet designed for that purpose who had imbarked neer four thousand Souldiers in twenty five Gallies and five Gallions of Sicilia These Forces of the Enemy came with a great advantage the Plague having consumed at least two thirds of the French since their arrival in Italy The Marshal de Crequy fell sick of it and not long after the Constable Besides divers Cities of Genoa seemed to shake off the yoke of their Obedience with joy and delight they turned about and before the end of June rise against their new Governours and Garisons with great violence as if Fortune had purposely done it to shew that misfortunes seldome come single And lastly the ill-management of the Artillery and want of Waggons for the Carriage of Provisions for the Army of all which the Duke of Savoy was in fault occasioned more disasters then all the rest besides the jealousies which grew between him and the Constable did not a little add to compleat them Things being in this posture did much incourage the Spaniards and the Duke de Feria that he might not lose the advantage of it entred into Montferrat about the beginning of July where he took Spione by force and not long after Acqui which the Constable had made his Magazine of Arms and had therin placed 3. Regiments to guard the munitions which he had there stowed up The taking of this place necessitated the Prince of Piedmont and the Constable to recall the Forces then marching towards Savonne that they might joyntly fall on upon the Duke of Feria but they found him incamp'd so advantagiously at Ferzo between Bistague and Acqui that they could not possibly come neer him the Passages being so narrow that onely two men could march a Breast At the same time the inhabitants of Albengua Novy and Acquy revolted against the French Garisons and shortly after divers other lesse places and six thousand Genoeses comming before Gavio the Governour and his son cowardly surrendred the place upon condition to be carried safely into France The Genoeses received them upon this Composition and conducted them accordingly but being there arrived their Treachery was not long unpunished by the Parliament of Provence Gonvernon the son being hanged the Fathers body taken up burned and his Ashes thrown into the Ayr death having prevented the execution of judgment upon him True it is Courage doth oftentimes compell Fortune to be favourable and the French Army though thus persecuted did yet make head against the Duke de Feria and prevented his further progress so that he was forced to make some other diversion by entring upon Piedmont and lying down before Ast with design to besiege it The Constable was yet there very weak it being thought he would have died so that he went off and the Marshal de Crequy upon the thirtieth of August came into his place with four thousand French The same day he made a Sally with the Prince of Carignan forced the enemy from a Bridge which they had kept six dayes and made them run away with shame though they had eighteen thousand foot and seven hundred horse Was not this a generous exploit of the French and
their designs subsist and end in glory whereas Ambition exposeth them to misfortunes losses and utter ruin Recruits sent to the Marquis de Coeuures in the Valtoline THe Cardinal was no less careful to send supplies to the Valtoline then to Italy For besides those several French Troops which had orders to march thither those others which were raised by the Grisons and those which after much ado were sent from Venice he caused two Regiments to be advanced in the Cantons of Vry and Vndernal making it appear that nothing could over-match his Prudence for that these two Cantons are close Leagued with the Spaniards and that the Marquis d' Ogliang the Spanish Ambassador as also Scagy the Popes Nuntio had used their utmost endeavours to prevent it These Recruits arrived very seasonably for the Spaniards had but very lately before received a very great supply which gave them the means to execute an enterprise which they made under the Conduct of Papenheim upon the Terze of Sotto of the Valtoline and to make themselves Masters of those Trenches which had been committed to the custody of the Albanois and Capelets amongst whom it struck such a terrour that there was no possible means to make them stand to it and besides the Army too was at that time very much weakned The Marquis de Coeuvres who could not let them go away with this advantage unreveng'd resolved with the Council of War to retake it and on the seventeenth of October having appointed Pont de Gâ—des for a Rendezvous he gave order for the Assault The Fight was stoutly begun and after two houres continuance the Intrenchments were re-taken which had been formerly lost but with greater advantage then the Enemies had when they first took them and with more honour for that they were at that time exceedingly strong After this Expedition was over the Duke of Candale received intelligence that eight hundred foot and four hundred of the Spanish party had seized upon the Fortress of Chaumont amongst the Grisons which being once known by the Marquis de Coeuvres he presently dispatched two thousand to reprise it The Duke mustered his Army the better to know his own forces and so went to invest Chaumont and the Spaniards within it made shew of defending themselves but the Duke having finished a Battery of six peeces of Cannon soon made a Breach fit for an Assault and commanded whole showres of Musquet shot to be poured in upon them who should appear to defend the Breach and also clapt two Petards against one of the Gates which forced them in peeces so that two companies of French entred the Town and compelled them within to yeeld upon composition which was that they should march away with their Arms onely and leave behind them what Ammunition they had brought into the Town So accordingly they went out and left the Town to the Duke of Candâ—le There remained onely Morbeignâ— to take in the Valtoline and the Marquis de Cuvres had twice called a Council of War to contrive a means for the taking of it but the major part of them alledged and that very judiciously that the place was strongly scituated and very hard to be come to for any who would assault it guarded by good store of men both within and in the Country thereabouts that it was impossible to shut them up for want of Vessels upon the Lake of Come which was the way which they had all their provisions and withall they concluded it was not much material whether they had it or not seeing it did not at all help to serve the Spaniards either to shut up or open the Passes Their advice was followed and their courages submitted to the Laws of Discretion which made it appear that it was not wisdom at all time to attempt great Enterprises Others did wish that the Conquest of the Valtoline had been begunne in this place as afterwards it was done for that it is the most important of all the other places not in relation to the Passages but the securing of the Valley and to keep all the rest in their dutyes for the Allarm being once taken in the Vale there are immediately store of Forces clapt into it for the keeping of it as being the most considerable of all and that once done impossible to be taken Politique observation THE greatest Courages are bound to submit to the Laws of Prudence when there is a question in hand for the attempting of any great Enterprise Their Glory is not considered by the successes of their Victories or the taking of Towns which many times have no dependencie upon them but by their Resoluteness and Constancy which they make appear without the least dread in doing all that can be done to vanquish Impossibilities defend them from all blame when as they have done their utmost for no one can be obliged to do that which is above his power In the making of War in a Forraign Country it is needful if possible it may so be done to begin it by assaulting of the strongest place first especially if it may not otherwise be taken then by a surprise The reason is clear for what ever assault is made elswhere gives an Allarm to the whole Country so that that the Prince who stands upon his defence presently claps in both Men and Ammunition into the principal place that afterwards it will become impossible to surprize it Let us first seize on Rome said the Enemies of the Roman Empire in Herodatus which is the heart and Castle of the Empire and we shall quickly have the rest with ease The like did Caesar say that the Romans could never promise themselves any security in Gaul untill they had become Masters of Authun which was the chief City and on which the Conquest of all the rest depended And as it 's true that the chief Head of an Enterprize having once made himself Master of the City Gates may at his own pleasure enter upon the whole so it is likewise most certain that he who hath once taken the chief Fortress hath a curb on the rest so that he may do what he will himself especially if he can but so order his business that he may keep it in his power The Duke of Rohan excuseth himself from accepting of those Articles which were granted to those of his party THese were the most remarkable passages both in Italy and the Valtoline during that year but let us now return to the Affairs at home The Duke of Rohan could not be drawn to conclude a Peace without making some advantage by it so that he desired to be excused from giving his final Answer unto those Articles which the King had granted to those of his party untill he had conferred with an Assembly which he pretended to make of the high and low Languedoc insomuch that his particular Interests and private Ambition were the causes which retarded the Peace In the interim he did his very utmost to surprize
exactly observed that it was impossible any more to abuse the Kings Monies as formerly they had done so that the Treasury was not only acquitted of those advances which had been made but was afterwards filled with such great sums that France had never seen the like Politique Observation THe King who designs great matters and wants store of monies to execute them doth onely attempt vain enterprizes The most part of Politicians have alwaies been of opinion that the Riches of a Prince are the Nerves of War because as it is impossible for a man to go or stand without Sinews so it cannot be expected that an Army should subsist or that Souldiers should do their duties if there be not good store of monies to pay them and to provide all necessaries for them There is not onely Machiavel who denieth this Position against the Authority of Dion Quintus Curtius Vegetius Cicero and Plutarch who is of opinion that money is not a Nerve in War But besides that the Judgement of these great Sages of Antiquity is at least as considerable as his opinion So I find not that those reasons of his are solid enough to overthrow so commonly received a maxime I must confess with him that War may sometimes have a good successe though the Souldiers be but ill payed because the Authority of a grand Commander and their own Courages may very much animate them but as that doth but seldome happen so there cannot be any certain conclusion deduced from it There is hereof a notable example in the Battel of Pavy where the Imperialists despairing to perswade their Army to fight by reason they were so ill paid the Marquesse of Pescaire took the resolution on himself to exhort them and infused such mettle into them that they went on with great Courage and got a great honour over the French But that Prince who would deduce an absolute Rule from this example or any of the like nature and shall follow them in his Conduct shall onely prepare himself for his own Confusion and Ruine Experience having made it evident on a thousand occasions that it is unreasonable to hope for a happy success in matters of War though never so inconsiderable without great practice I know that it is not money onely which conduceth to the carrying on of great exploits but that good Souldiers are also necessary an experienced old Commander courteous generous able in Counsels quick in executions beloved by the Souldiers and indued with several other qualifications necessary for command But besides all this though a General and Souldiers should be thus accomplished yet unlesse there be good sums of monies nothing can be really attempted For how can a Prince without this satisfie several Souldiers and Commanders How can he without this make his preparations of Victuals Provisions Ammunitions Artilleries and other things which cannot be had without great expences And in case his Forces shal be cut off or destroyed how can he make Recruits or new Levies Charles the eighth having great occasions for Souldiers to raise the Siege of Navar sent the Bayliff of Dion to raise it but having no money he could procure no Souldiers In the mean while the King accorded with the Florentines for the restitution of Pisa and several other Towns in Hostage by which means he received great store of monies of which he sent a small part into Swizzerland and the Bayliff who onely demanded ten thousand men brought twenty thousand with him The Assembly of the Clergy for the Condemnation of certain Libels sent abroad by the Spanish Ambition ALL the rest of the year at least after May the Bishops and Clergy of France were assembled at Paris The chief intent of this meeting was for the renuing of that contract which they made every tenth year with the King for the payment of those Rents which are imposed upon them But this was not the onely worthy imployment which entertained them the affection which they alwaies had for the King would not let them give way to the permitting those infamous Books abortives of the Spanish Ambition which had been sent into France There need no more then onely to read them and it would soon be apparent that they were full of seditious Doctrine That they were published onely with design to diminish the Kings Authority to detract from his Majesties glory to raise Wars amongst strangers to stir up the people to sedition and to kindle a flame of War in France The Contents of them were replenished with a thousand specious pretences of Religion These generous Prelates soon discovered their designs and made it apparent that they were like Apothecaries or Mountebanks Boxes which are marked on the outside with the title of some healing Medicine but have within nothing but what is very dangerous and hurtfull They condemed the Authors of them as enemies to the publick quiet and seducers of the people to sedition putting them in mind that God had commanded them to honour Kings as Lieutenants of his power and required them to be in a straight obedience by shewing honour and respect to his designs and Justice whom God had placed over them for the good and happiness of France and not contented with having thus verbally expressed their affections to his Majesty they testified their zeal and fidelity to him by granting him six hundred thousand Crowns upon the Churches of France as a contribution toward the Wars in which the State was ingaged as also to preserve Religion in its splendour and to maintain the glory of the Crown It cannot be denyed but that many poor low spirits grumbled at it who considering but one of those ends for which Lands were given to Churches began to oppose it as if the Church which is part of the State were not bound to contribute to the good of those Corporations of which they were members and as if the publique necessities were not more considerable than the private profits of some particular people who often employ their Revenues to bad uses Politique Observation KIngs may lawfully compel Eccleasiastiques upon an important occasion to contribute to them some part of their Revenues for the maintenance of the State seeing the goods of the Church are upon such necessities in the same condition with those of others They are not exempted from ordinary contributions either by the Son of God or his Apostles for when as they lived on the earth the Church had not any immovable Goods and it is from the favours of Emperours and Kings that she hath since obtained that priviledge it was never granted to her but only that they might be employed on the publique extraordinary necessities of the State They are only tyed by Religion not to exact it though they may by absolute authority force it for if they might not make use of the Churches Goods in a case of urgency their Soveraign power would be of little worth And Soveraigns not compelling them in this harsh manner doe so much
be forthwith demolished but the Pope made some difficulty of charging himself with the doing of it and onely desired that the Forts might be delivered up into his hands for reparation of the injury which had been dore him as he perswaded himself when as the Marqueis de Coeuvres took them from him and that afterwards he would cause the Spaniards to rase them France did not at all stand upon reâ—â—oring them into the Popes hands but the King would be well assured that the Pope should not deliver them over into the Spaniards hands to be by them demolished to which effect he desired that his Holiness would only send in so many Souldiers that in appearance only they might seem to be Masters which his Holiness would not be drawn to and the Spaniards too disswaded him from it as hoping that when his Holiness should have them in his absolute power they might find some way or other to get them into theirs and so demolish them which many amongst them thought to be very honourable though divers others were of a contrarie opinion as imagining it to be a work ignoble for their Master who had first caused them to be built The Final agreement for the demolishing of the Forts in the Valtoline AFter many contestations off and on the King to end all differences gave full power to the Sieur de Bethune to conclude at Rome with the Pope and Spanish Ambassadours any thing that was reasonable to be do and between them it was at last concluded that the Forts should be delivered into the hands of Torquatus Conty who commanded the Popes Forces that in the mean while the Kings Forces were to quarter in such places as were not included in the deposite That as soon as ever the Forts were delivered up they should presently demolish them That the Arms Artillerie and Ammunitions of war which belonged to the Spaniards should be restored to them and that the discharges being granted his Holiness Forces as also those of the two Kings should withdraw themselves at the same time from the Valley and the Earldoms of Bormio and Chiavâ—nnies These were the principal Articles resolved upon for execution of the Treaty which after it was ratified by the King the Marques de Coeuvres presently trealed with Torquatus Conty and Don Goneales de Cordua whom the Spaniards had sent in Ferra's place as a man more enclined to peace concerning the form of the redemise and demolition of the Forts There were Commissaries likewise appointed for the giving in of true Inventories of the Artillerie Ammunitions of war victuals and the deposit and to make a general discharge which ought to be given to the Pope upon his entrance into those Forts which had formerly been delivered to him in deposit Upon the fifteenth the demolition was began and so many labors came to finish it that in six dayes it was all ended The Marquis de Coeuvres gave order to the Marquis ae Tequiers to retire with his Majesties Forces towards France and his Majesty for a just and worthy recompence of his services bestowed in him the Honour of Marshal de Campo and thus the respect and reference which the two Crowns made to the Pope were an assured means for settling them in peace with one another The Reasons which oblige great Princes to shew an extrardinary honour to the Pope THere are divers Reasons which invite great Princes to pay an extraordinary respect so the Pope They are bound to it by duty seeing as St. Bernard saith he is the high Priest the Soveraign Bishop the Prince of Bishops Heir to the Apostles that he is like Abel in his Priority Noah in his Government Abraham in his Patriarch-ship Melchisedech in his Order Aaron in his dignity Samuel in the excellency of his Judgement St. Peter in the Power which he received from the Son of God seeing he is the cheef of Christians the Shepheard of the people the Rod of the Mighty the Hammer of Tyrants the Father of Kings the Light of the World and the Lievtenant of God upon Earth And who seeth not that all these eminent qualities do make him amongst other Potentates here below the same that the Sun is in comparison of the rest of the Stars And then looking on his Person and beholding the Object whom he doth represent which is no other than God himself ought not every one be perswaded to treat him withall imaginable respects for the love of God the Almighty Lord who governing States by the hand of Providence doth most commonly blesse them in that proportion as Princes respect those for his sake who belong unto him To speak truth this honouring them is a Loadstone which draweth down all kind of blessings from Heaven which conduce to the Happiness of Kingdomes And if neither of the two considerations should be potent enough over the minds of Kings to perswade them to bear a great reverence to the Pope yet in my opinion they are bound to it by a very Politick and considerable reason which is to preserve themselves in Peace For that it hath been alwaies judged necessary that amongst Princes there should be an Impartial chief and a general father of Jesus Christs family who might accommodate their differences and might by his Counsels moderate the violence of those who make unjust attempts and who might unite their Arms and Powers to defend the from the violences of its enemies If it should so happen that the Pope should become contemptible by the little respect which is rendred to him what credit could he have to conclude or effect such things amongst them what esteem could he have to end their differences They might force him to contain himself within the limits of his spiritual jurisdiction without medling in temporal affairs but in the interim the fire of war would often break out amongst them with such fury that both themselves estates would be consumed in the Flames of it Whereas did they but receive his Counsels with respective honour and admit of his perswasions with esteem his dignity would then become venerable amongst them all and he might with ease accommodate their divisions by his allotting to each one what belongeth justly unto him he might restore peace to the Nations and stop the course of all violent proceedings Articles of Peace granted to the Rochelois AS Peace is the most sure Foundation of the happinesse of Kingdomes so the Cardinal was not satisfied to have setled it abroad but indeavoured the procuring it for those of Rochel and to establish it in France both for the greatest good of the people and the highest glory of his Majesty that could be aimed at Hee quickly set on work divers persons of the Town whom he had gained by opening their eyes and who were potent enough with several others to perswade them to follow the example of the rest of their Party So that the Deputies who had been sent by the Assemblies of the Hugonots comming to Court
his wickednesse to be found out and himself severely punished and it were needlesse to produce any the like examples for that History is full of them The Marshal of Ornano Arrested at Fountainbleau and carried Prisoner to the Castle of Bois de Vincennes â—T were a dangerous folly to give them who contrive against the State time to execute their designs Accordingly the King resolved with advice of his Councel to secure the Ring-leaders of the conspiracy yet still pretending ignorance both of the persons and their intentions He had been ever since the beginning of the Spring at Fountainbleau not so much for his recreation as because it was easier to dive into the bottome of those Intreagues in such little Towns then at Paris the vastnesse and confusion of which is sufficient to hide and shelter the greatest wickednesses The whole Court attended him and the cheef of that Faction failed not to be there But his Majesty needed no other witnesse then his own eyes to discover their frequent meetings nor other proofs but his own ears to convince the Marshal de Ornano to be the chief of that Cabal and of the extream Passion that they had to hinder Monsieurs match by his frequent discoursing with his Majesty whole hours together upon that Subject He was not ignorant that Princes were jealous of no one thing more then of their own authority and upon that ground it was that he principally indeavoured to incite the King by making him beleeve that those who perswaded him to marry Monsieur were not very affectionate to his service that this marriage of Monsieur would quickly raise him up Children and as soon as hee should have a Male every one would consider him as a rising Sun that the Grandees would forsake his Majesty to follow him and that he would soon find a power set up in the State able to confront his own Authority This Artifice was subtle and fitted to cast a Myst before his Majesties eyes had he not been before hand well informed of his design and if after mature consideration of the reason he had not concluded it of lesse consequence then the breaking of his wicked devices His importunities the true witnesses of his excessive Passion made his Majesty conclude that it was not safe any longer to defer the securing of his Person and he thought it so much the more necessary from the rule which he had learned in Tacitus that for the hindering the progresse of a Conspiracy against the State it would be needfull to make sure of the cheef because most commonly all the others are then left with as little motion as the Members of the body after the head is once cut off besides imprisoning of him Monsieur too was in a manner secured accordingly his Majesty returning from hunting upon the fourth of May gave command to some Companies of his Life-guard to beset the wayes between Fountain-bleau and Paris to seize upon those of the Cabal if they should indeavour to save themselves by flight in fine his Majesty caused him to be Arrested by the Sieur de Hallire Captain of his Guard he was imprisoned in the Castle and from thence guarded to the Bois de Vincennes where a few moneths after he died of a stoppage in the Bladder In the mean while his Majesty who never speaks openly any one sillable which may be of consequence in affairs kept close the reasons which obliged him to restrain him neither did he shew any coldnesse in his carriage to his Complices as well that he might prevent their running into extremities and oblige them to quit themselves of wicked designs as also that hee might have an opportunity to seize on Monsieur de Vendosm who was suspected to be of that party his Majesty was pleased to signifie to the Queen his Mother that he had imprisoned him by reason of-some broyls he had intended to raise between him and his Brother Monsieur having notice of it went presently to wait upon the King who assured him of the truth of it and told him the same reason which he had sent the Queen his Mother to which Monsieur answered that if he should be convinced of the truth of it he would be the first that should prosecute Justice against him but withall that it were proper to consider whether his enemies had not made this contrivance against him but he could not contain himself upon this occasion as in divers others from testifying his displeasure at it Politique Observation â—T is expedient after the discovery of a Conspiracy to wink at those who are guilty for the better preventing of them and seising on their chief instruments The reason is because they soon draw their necks out of the Collar if they have the least suspicion of being detected and sometimes so fortifie themselves that it becomes almost impossible to hinder the execution of their intentions or to secure their persons Lewis the eleventh was very dexterious in this particular as Philip de Consinus relates in several places of his History particularly in the reception he gave the Constable of St. Paul when he came to him near Noyon in the year one thousand four hundred seventy three he received him with so many endearments and gave him so many fair words that the Constable thought himself bound to beleeve him The King dissembled for two years together the hatred which hee bore unto him because his other affairs did not concur with his resolution of chasâ—ising him but at last he cut off his head it is likewise reported that hee would let his son Charles the eighth learn any other Latine then the Proverb Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare so much did he esteem dissimulation to be a quality necessary in a Prince which amongst private men passeth most commonly for a Vice The wise Fowler spreadeth not his Nets for one or two Birds but expects until the whole flight or the greatest part of them light together that he may take a great many at once and so a wise Prince who would secure himself of the chief heads of a Conspiracy knows well how to dissemble with them till such time as occasion presents it self that he may snap them all together or at least those without whom the rest are not able to attempt any thing considerable that he may bring in practice the saying of Seneca the Tragedian that hee who takes notice of a Conspiracy before the Complices bee imprisoned looseth the occasion of punishing them The Cardinal beseecheth the King to permit his retirement from the Court. THE Soul of Monsieur the Cardinal did like the Palm undergo with Courage all those burthens which were imposed upon him neither was he much moved at those pernicious contrivances though he knew his own ruine was the principal which they aimed at However to remove all pretences which his enemies might raise to asperse him That his fortune was built upon the losse of divers men of quality if they should be
hatred into admiration Lucullus finding that the glory of his Triumph had laid him open to the hatred of some leading men in the Common-wealth withdrew himself from the management of Publick affairs to spend the time in studying of Arts but he was instantly intreated by the wiser sort not to follow his own inclinations in that particular and at such a time for it was not unknown that he was only able to curb the ambition of Pompey And Augustus as Suetonius reporteth did often desire to quit the Empire when he found how difficult it was to deal with the people of Rome The Pope St. Gregory the Great in the like manner knowing that the course of his life did offend many persons who could not indure that his example should oblige them to live retiredly and reservedly and had designed to chuse another Pope in his place he declared to them that he for his part should be very much afflicted to find any storms arise in the Church upon his score and that he would much more willingly surrender the Government then see any Schism arise amongst them But this his modesty and humility represented him so venerable a person that those very men who did not resent his Government were obliged to acknowledge the greatnesse of his worth Lastly although it be commendable in a great States man to make shew of such moderation to the end he may silence that Envy to which he is exposed yet a King is bound to make some difficulty in ascenting to his retirement on such an occasion No Counsel can better bee followed then that of the wise man who said he who hath found a faithfull servant ought to cherish him like his Soul and to esteem him as a brother and it cannot be denied but that to deprive a Kingdome of the assistance and guidance of a Soul highly generous and understanding were to take away the Sun from it and to fill it with horrour and confusion The Imprisonment of the Duke de Vendosm and the Grand Prior of France his Brother at Blois IT had been little to the purpose barely to have imprisoned the Marshal de Ornano if some others too of the chief Complices had not been secured and especially the Grand Prior who was much to be feared he being a person of greater abilities to carry on a design then all the rest His Brother too the Duke of Vondosm was not to be neglected considering the intelligence which his Majesty had but newly received of his indeavours to withdraw the people from the obedience which they owe to his Crown That he had caused himself to be called Monsieur the Duke without any other Title That he had commanded this form of Prayer to be used in the Church Pro famulo tuo duce domino nostro That he had sundry times attempted by money to corrupt the Sieur de Cange then Lievtenant of the Castle of Nants That he felt the Pulse of the Nobility the Parliament and Chamber of Accompt that he might the better fortifie himself in the Province an intelligence which ought so much the more to be looked into in regard two brothers do not usually enter upon any great design but by a joynt consent that some pretensions they might have though weak ones upon Britain and that nothing doth sooner ingage great men in the Factions of a Court then Ambition Now although it was very needfull to arrest him yet it was difficult to be done in Brittain by reason of the great Power he held there so it was thought fit to withdraw him and ingage him to wait upon his Majesty upon some pretence or other No way was imagined to be more expedient for it then to work upon the Grand Prior by feeding him with hopes of the Admiralty concerning which he was to treat with the Sieur de Montmorancy or at least by perswading him that in case that charge were taken away as it was then intended he was the onely man who should have the Commission to discharge that Office These Proposals were made to him with so much addresse that they made sure of him and absolutely convinced him that there was not any suspicion in the least of him and the King going to Blois where it was not known that he intended to passe on any further his Majesty told him how glad he should be that the Duke of Vendosm would come to him so hee presently tooke upon himselfe to goe to him and to perswade him to come and pay all signes of obedience â—o his Majesty Some have said that hee being doubtfull lest his Majesty had already conceived some apprehensions against the Duke of Vendosm did demand assurance for his bringing him to his Majesty at Blois and that his Prudence returned such an answer which though it obliged him to nothing yet it gave the Grand Prior satisfaction enough to ingage the Duke to undertake the journey I passe my word to you quoth the King as is reported that he may come to me and that he shall have no more hurt done him then your self though for my part I cannot but much doubt of this particular passage but true it is he went from the Court and shortly after brought the Duke his Brother with him to Blois where his Majesty received them with so many embraces and endearments that they could not in the least suspect the resolution which was taken for securing of their persons Before I proceed to the manner of their being taken I cannot but observe how very recessary it is that the Chief Offices of the administration be supplied with persons of courage as well as of Integrity The King sent for the seal to the Lord Chancelor Haligie the very same day that the Grant Prior went to fetch the Duke of Vendosme The Honestie of his Minister was not unknown to all the world but it could not be denied that his mind was low and full of fear which he did sufficiently make appear wen as upon the taking of the Marshal d'Ornano he had not the courage to justifie his Majesties counsels in that particular before Monsieur although the thing it self were one of the most important accidents that had a long time happened for the good of the State This passion of timerousness is a very improper quality in a supream Minister of Justice who is bound to make head against all wickedness and not only that but also to use courage and force to resist and overcome it this was it which obliged his Majesty to take the seal from him and to intrust it with the Sieur de Marillac superintendent of the treasury whose loyaltie was then in great credit amongst all well affected men and who had testified a great deal of resoluteness in the dispatch of those affairs which presented themselves unto him The super-intendency was bestowed on the Monsieur d'Effiat whose judgment and discret conduct was well known in sundry occasions particularly in the late affair of the Match with England
giving Laws to his Country Thales one of the Sages of Greece made no difficulty to imploy part of his time therein and Plato himself did the same thing to get the charges of his voyage into Egypt by carrying Oyls thither to sell that he might purchase knowledge Withall we live not now so much by the Commerce of Elements as by that of Gold and Silver those are the great Springs which more all the rest and without them Kingdomes can neither be Potent in War or flourish in Peace Politicians acknowledge them for the Sinews of War and as for Peace never any poor State was yet considerable or ever came to any great height and what brings greater riches then Commerce France aboundeth in many sorts of Grain but wanteth Gold and Silver Now the onely means which it hath to come by it is to send abroad to its neighbours who want many of those commodities what it can well spare by way of Commerce a means so powerfull that sending onely what is superfluous it may bring in the greatest part of their wealth Monsieur the Cardinal is made by the King grand Master and Super-intendent of the Traffique and Commerce of France IT was necessary upon setling the Company of Trade to appoint them a head who might have a full power amongst them and whose reputation and knowledge might countenance their undertakings it being most certain that such designs as are out of the common road fall to nothing if not upheld by some particular favour or an extraordinary understanding To the Admirals care it could not be committed unlesse their speedy ruine had been intended for that he assumed of late so great a power over all Traders that instead of assisting he undid them The onely difficulty was that it being fit the head of this Company should be absolute there would every day arise some disputes between the Admiral and him but the King to avoid this inconvenience was of opinion rather to cease the Admiralty then to break off the setling of Trade for that the Admirals were no lesse chargeable to the State then to the Merchants they drawing at least one hundred thousand Livres out of the Treasury every year without any advantage by it Hereupon the King resolved about the beginning of the year to take the Admiralty out of Montmorency's hands who seemed willing enough to part with it by his readinesse to treat thereupon and in conclusion he had a good round sum paid him for it This resolution was of such concernment that without it not onely the Trading of France had been quite broke but the Kings Subjects had been lyable to dayly Inroads and Pillagings for that of late years above four thousand Christians had been been made Slaves by the Turks above one hundred Vessels taken sunk and burned by which means a great many families were brought to Beggery The King too good just and generous to suffer such injuries which by diminishing his Peoples goods did no lesse take off from his reputation and glory resolved to contrive some remedy for it It was ordered that the Admiralty should be suppressed and that a chief grand Master and super-intendent of Commerce of France should be set up instead of it endowing him with full power to execute the Office of Admiral in such cases as might advantage the benefit of Trade or the Kingdom and cutting off all other power which might prejudice either of them There was now onely wanting a person of quality to execute this charge who ought to be resolute and clear from all private Interest in regard of honour or the publick good The Cardinal had made it apparent that these qualifications are eminent in himself so his Majesty made choice of him who accepted of it but in receiving the Office he would not take those Allowances and Pays which had formerly been due to the Admiralty for that his Majesty had suppressed that Office partly to save the expence of it so that instead of contracting any charge in this new Office his Majesty saved above one hundred thousand Livres per annum heretofore assigned to the Admiralty besides he had now the power of commanding his Fleets wheresoever he pleased but before the command of them was annexed to the Admirals though they were not indued with qualifications necessary for such a charge and which is most to be observed that though the Cardinal might as easily have obtained the Office of Admiral and executed it with the same advantage for the King the benefit of France and Trade as that of super-intendent of the Sea yet he waved that honour and contended himself with the means to serve him in a condition lesse honourable and lesse subject to emulation Politique Observation IT is great discretion in a Minister to wave those Titles which onely serve by reason of their noise to expose him unto Envy They are but low Souls which affect ayry Titles neither do they consider how that by ambition they do provoke Fortune and instead of making their authority respected they do most commonly render themselves ridiculous in the eyes of all wise men Modesty is the thing which makes greatness honoured whereas ostentation offending every one atracts the hatred of all the World and becomes insupportable Who so is advanced to any eminent pitch of Honour ought to imitate great Rivers which glide a long with little murmuring though great profit to the people whereas torrents being lesse profitable do perpetually vex the head with their noise Great men ought more especially to shun such titles of Honour as may render them odious Scipio Affricanus a man who wanted neither courage nor discretion gave us a notable example of this particular as Titus Livy hath observed when as the Spaniards called him King and he refused that little which he knew would be dis-rellished by the Commonwealth and told them that that of General of the Army was the greatest Honour he did aspire to That having indeed a royall soul he should not much take it amisse if they thought him worthy of that Honour but he beseeched them to forbear the other least that might breed a jealousie upon his Person Did not Augustus in the same manner testifie a great deal of Prudence when in taking upon him the Emperial Crown he refused to be called Emperours and contented himself with the name of Prince which could not exasperate the Roman people it being a name in use amongst them and a fashion to create a Prince of the Senate his discretion told him That the Romans would easilier undergo slavery it self then the name of it and therefore he would prudently sweeten the displeasure which they might apprehend at their being brought under his command by a Title full of modesty He also aimed at the names of Consul Father of his Country Tribune and High Priests only because the people did not mislike them designing rather to add a new power to an old Title then to assume upon himself such odious
the State into Factions They also proposed to his Majesty to admit into his Council a certain number of Gentlemen to bring them up to do him the more service by the knowledge which they might get in State affairs and in conclusion they gave his Majesty most Prudent Counsel concerning the ordering and decreasing of the taxes for the suppressing of divers useless Officers for the redemption of his Lands which were in Mortgage by paying them in whose hands they were the monies lent upon them or full Interest out of the account of the Revenue to settle an order in the Treasury to prevent all future relapses for the settlement of Commerce both by Sea and Land for the distribution of charges as well millitary as others which have dependance on the Chief Officers of the Crown it being improper that they should be bestowed by any but the King himself And these were the Chief things then brought into debate before them and resolved on So their was a Paper drawn up of those things which they proposed to his Majesty the most part of which appeared so reasonable and judicious that they have ever since served for Maximes and a Rule for the Goverment of the State The Cardinal having put them in practise one after another as fast as ever the Civil warres the Factions at Court and the attempts of the house of Austria upon France and it's Allyes would give way for it Politique Observation HE who would settle a discomposed Kingdom must resolve upon the course whereby to do it with the advice of the States or at least of them who have gotten a great reputation of by experience in Affairs by their qualities and conditions or the great understanding they are Masters of On such an occasion divers have had recourse to an Assembly of States which because they are ordinarily accompanied with confusion by reason of the multitude besides the great expence which they draw on I should think it much more proper to make use of a selected Assembly who are the only persons whose opinions serve for guides to the rest now no one can doubt but that their advices will be very necessary for a State on such an occasion for that those great persons are like so many twinkling starres whose counsels are replenished with so much light that they soon make their Judgments of with is fit to be done to shine forth Not to need Counsel is to be more then man and not to make use of Counsel in affairs of concern is to be lesse then man God is not contented only with overuling the Elementary World and to make it fruitful in all kind of Science by the influences and light of the Sun but he hath imparted some share of his Luster to the other starres and hath asigned so considerable a proportion of work to them that every one reputeth them in part to be the universal causes of all sublunary things so it may safely be said too that God creating a Minister in a Kingdom whose Souls he replenisheth with any extraordinary part of understanding doth not however forbear to bestow some light upon others too though peradventure inferiour both for sufficiency and quality that they may contribute with him to the General good by the particular knowledge which he may infuse into them and by the Counsels wherewith he may inspire them And if their advices may be of use in a Kingdom they cannot be lesse advantageous unto a Minister on such an occasion in which the angring of divers persons cannot possibly be avoided There never yet was any reformation for the publique good but many particular private persons were angred at it They who Judg of all things by their own private Interest are ever discontented and conceive no little ill will against that Minister who is guided only by his own will and direction Whereas if it were done by those whose wisdom is esteemed and whose Prudence is respected it would silence all men and make that sweet and easie which else would be bitter and insupportable It is very dangerous it for a Minister to undertake great enterprises upon his own head only For good successe is not inherent in any man seeing all are subject to Deficiencies in Actions and inconstancy withall it is not to be doubted but that the greatest part judging of things by the event would charge him home with blame if any misfortune should happen How many great men who promised themselves high matters have seen the successe fall contrary to their expectations and have been exposed to the disgraces of their King and People for their ill successe which might have been secured too had they but proposed their designs and taken good advice upon them in a Counsel of the most considerable Grandees in the State Hee who attempts nothing without good advice secures himself from any ill accident whatever Tiberius thought in no derogation from his honour to acquaint the Senate with every affair though never so little considerable Anthony the Debonair never took any thing in hand either in Peace or War which he did not first communicate to several wise men protesting that it was more reasonable to accommodate his opinion to their advices then to oblige them to follow his Will The Sieur de Baradas removed from Court ABout this time was Baradas removed from the Court a person who had been much in favour with the King He had been the first Gentleman of his Chamber and chief Querry of his Majesties little Stable And as great favours puff up the mind and destroy the judgement of many if not qualified with a great underâ—â—anding he did so much forget himself that he would oftentimes make himself Master of the Kings Will and interpose in matters of concernment in which he had neither ability or authority His Majesty was much grieved at it being a Prince who did not delight to see that they whom he favoured should abuse themselves and be defective in that respect which is due unto him but it one day fell out that he being too importunate to perswade his Majesty to bestow a very great place upon a certain Kinsman of his who must of necessity be dayly attending upon his Majesty being a person too whom his Majesty did mislike his Majesty resolved to deprive him not onely of his Offices or Charge which he held neer his person but of that extraordinary familiarity wherewith he had formerly honoured him and accordingly commanded him to retire to his employment in little Bourbon of chief Querry an Office of no small advantage But as nothing is so displeasing to Favourites as to find themselves cast off he was so transported by it that he suffered himself to be deprived by despair of that little judgement which he had There need no other indiscretion be alledged but that one thing which he did in his Majesties Chamber when the Governour of Souvre came in thither whom he supposed one of the causers of his
with reason declared by giving him his eldest Daughter to wife that she should be the true Inheretrix of his States and that he should only enjoy them in her right He also made his entry into Nancy with Balls and publique rejoycings in his Court and all that he might celebrate with the more Honour his arrival to the Crown of Lorrain hereupon he pretended to do Homage to the King in his own name for the Dutche of Bar as appertaining to him in Fee and not in right of his wife but he therein met with greater obstacles then in that of the Bishop of Verdun It was presently given him to understand that he had not a little offended his Majesty in that he had upon his own head assumed upon himself the Investiture of Bar and not expected his Majesties introduction to whom the Soverainty did belong That he had expedited all letters Patents in his own name without mentioning that of the Dutchess his wife for that no vassal hath any thing by descent in his Fee until he be invested by his Soverain to whom he doth Homage That he gave a just ground to be disseised of it if he should possesse himself thereof before he were lawfully introduced That he had also committed no small fault when as he attempted to alter the quality of Tenure of Bar and so create it Masculine whereas the Chief Soveraign could only alter the nature of Fees and dispence with Customes The inconsiderate and lofty humour of this Prince was such that he could have wished he had not been dependant on any other and gave him not leave to consider the Justice of these reasons he answered those Ministers with whom he treated that it being indifferent to his Majesty whether the Homage of Bar were Masculine or Feminine he imagined that Râ—ynard King of Sicily his great Grandfather had lawfully constituted it upon the Males in exclusion of the Females and that in consequence it was become his own right that he was ready to pay unto his Majesty that homage which is due unto him and lastly he added that in his judgement he had no power to annul the right which he had acquired He made use of the Duke de Châ—ureuse who made many journies too and fro to make his argument passe amongst the Ministers for good and some others too which being inconsiderable I shall passe by But he was ever told that his Majesty had reason enough and interest withall to oppose that an Homage dependant upon his Crown might be altered in quality that the Customes of Countries and succession of States were not at all altered seeing such changes are reserved in his onely power and in no other whatever That he ought to know the Customes of Bar were never changeable but by his Majesties permission and moreover on condition that they were confirmed by the Parliament of Paris That he could not be ignorant how the custom of both Bar and all those lands bordering upon the Rhine did grant the succession to daughters in exclusion of any Males descended from a second Brother they beâ—ng daughters of the eldest and that he had so much the lesse reason to change this custom without the Kings Authority in regard this one Article was of greater concern then all the rest that such a change was contrary to the fundamental Laws of Lorrain and that he debarred the Dutchesse his wife of the right which indubitâ—bly belonged to her Now as he could not possibly make any satisfactory answer to these objections so he was forced to return without doing any thing at all in it onely he procured some time to make out his pretensions and to furnish himself with Titles and Reasons to second and uphold them Politique Observation THE wisest Politicians have thought it dangerous to the good of the State to alter any Laws without urgent occasion or unlesse the change carry some great advantage with it Aristotle saith it makes subjects slight rules and powers and doth much diminish their Authority Thucydidâ—s hath gone a little further thinking it safer and more proper inviolably to continue the Laws of a Country though ill ordered rather then set up new ones and better in their place St. Austin saith that as in sicknesse it is good to continue the use of those medicines which till then the sick person had used so likewise it is the effect of a great discretion to preserve the observation of those Laws which had formerly enough in them to remedy any inconveniences in the State Which if true of Laws in general is then much more necessary in Fundamentals which have been the establishers of a State seeing they are no lesse conducing to its preservation then the Foundation of a house for the subsistence of it To speak ingeniously such Laws are the Pillars which uphold Authority and as a building if the Foundation be undermined and shaken soon falls to the earth so a State too quickly comes to ruine if those Laws upon which it is established once come to destruction or alteration For this reason Adrian ordained that no one should intraduce any new Customes into Rome Plato in his Common-wealth prohibiteth the changing of any thing in it even Childrens-play for novelties alter manners and bring antiquity into dis-esteem a thing of great consequence I should like well of the alteration of some rules of Justice because the manners of men are variable and the punishing of Crimes too may admit of change according to the disposition of men and times But it is not the same thing in fundamentals which rule the government and which settle the election which God hath made of a Soveraign which do authorize the order established by former Princes for the ordering of the people and which are the known rules for the preservation of the common good indeed such ought no more to be changed then the Laws of nature for both are equally founded upon Gods Law He it is who divideth the earth amongst Nations who establisheth Kings families and inheritances so that without his will no alteration may be intraduced to change those Customes which have been anciently in use The Dutchess of Orleans death upon her lying in of a Daughter THE King was much troubled soon after the Duke of Lorrain's departure for the Dutchess of Orleans his Sister in Law We have in the former yeart related how many broils the marrying of this Princess did raise at Court and how most of the Princes of Christendome indeavoured to hinder it now we are come to wonder at the blindnesse of Grandees who turmoil themselves in extremity who move heaven and earth by their broils and all for those things which death and the inconstancy of humane affairs cause to vanish in a moment The marriage was concluded but more for discretion than love in his part yet God so blessed it that Love had quickly united both their affections very strongly notwithstanding all the indeavours or devices of Monsieurs Favourites
the intended siege of Rochel The Major part of them foresaw that in case Rochelle were taken they must then of necessity live in an exact obedience That it would carry with it an absolute ruine to all the Hugonot party and that there would be no more means left them to rise up against the Kings authority in future when they had a mind to procure any thing by force neither were they a little startled at the assurance of the design his Majesty had resolutely taken of carrying the place The Grandees have alwayes thought the encrease of the Royal Power a diminution to their own private authorities and they of France were not ignorant that in case the Hugonot party were destroyed they had then no game left to play but that of submission This induced some of the most factious to cast out such discourses as could only be deemed the Symptoms of a Revolt though as yet there had not been any apparence of a formal contrived design The King had learn't from some of the old Court that that which hindred the taking od Rochel when as Charles the ninth besieged it was only the little inclination which many of the Grandees then at the siege had that it should be taken as the Marshal de Montlue testified on the place by divers letters So that he resolved to prevent this inconveniency neither was it lesse needful to prevent the growing of this cabal least they should by joyning themselves with the Hugonots and strangers force his Majesty to draw off his Armies and to attend their motions The wise and discreet resolution which his Majestie took to give an assured remedie hereunto was to clap up in the Bastille several sedicious turbulent persons who began to speak aloud such things as neither the Laws of obedience or respect could allow of but with order that they should be well treated and want nothing it being his Majesties desire only to prevent them from doing any hurt The Marquis de Rouillat de Bounivet de Montpinson d' Oy were first of all secured and shortly after Fancan and La Milletiere with other inferiours to keep them Company which made them perceive who had the good Fortune not to be interressed in any of these Broyles that the King was no more to be dallyed with and that it would become them to live within their limits and that they could not avoyd lodging in the same place if they gave any cause of suspition by their behaviour Thus every one for love or fear was quiet and the King had the freedome to continue his preparations for the siege of Rochelle Politique Observation A King is no lesse obliged to search after those who are able to trouble the repose of his State then those who are able to serve him It is needful for him to have certain marks both for one and t'other that he may judg of either Now amongst them who are able to ingage in a Faction he ought to make little account of such who have great stirring Spirits but little Prudence for they of his Temper are usually wicked ambitious Lovers of Novelties insurrections and all sorts of intreagues Grobus would needs have us esteem Alcibiades for a person of this condition when he represented him to be as exquisite in his vices as his virtues and T. Livy puts Hannibal amongst the same number when after a recital of his vertues he addeth that his vices were full as eminent On the other side he ought to be vigilant over those who are ready to undergo any meannesses upon hopes of getting any advantage or greatnesse as Caesar did according to Dions report who condescended to bestow imbraces beneath the quality of his person on mean and base men if he found them any ways conducing to the advancing of his Power In this last age Mâ—nsâ—eur ae Guise hath done the same thing in the eyes of all men but was slain at Blois in his attempt of making himself Master of the French Crown Withall he ought no lesse distrust those persons of quality who are grown poor or who have been laid by from imployments and affairs For Tacitus on the life of Ottho saith there is not any one thing which persons of Courage and Quality do suffer with more regret then that of poverty do we not read that poverty was it which gave so much boldnesse to Sylla in his attempts That Cneus Piso was ingaged in all his undertakings by his being reduced to extream necessity and of doing those things which were unworthy of his Birth Then hee ought to be no lesse watchfull of those who comporting themselves to the present times change their Fashions when they please who of Lyons turn to be Lambs and from Lambs become Lyons again and this with much facility all to make advantage of whatsoever comes uppermost to swim with the stream and to join their Interests with those onely from whom they have expectations of gain and advantage He had need be jealous of those who under pretence of their own private Affairs passe from one Country to another without any apparent reasons for it of such as onely converse with turbulent minds of such as seem to be discontented at affairs of such as are in debt or have received some distasts in their private interests I could produce examples to fortifie the reasonablenesse of all these several propositions and how that all these sorts of persons ought to be suspected if the brevity of these Maxims would give way to it But making profession of being short I shall onely for conclusion say that both Prudence and Justice oblige to make sure of such persons especially on the least occasion given to suspect that they are disposed to ingage themselves in any Intreague The least delay which shall be given them will onely fix them so much the more whereas the dispatch in securing of them rather sooner then later is a kind of Pitty for that it warranteth them from a more severe chastisement by preventing them from falling into greater Crimes Ambition Covetousnesse Revenge and Poverty meeting in a turbulent Factious Soul never let him be at rest or free from some embroyl or other if he be not curb'd in either by force or necessity And when it shall so happen that he may be of himself perswaded to keep within his duties yet it will be lesse inconvenient to make sure of him by a just rigour then to leave him in a licentiousnesse of ill-doing by too imprudent a compassion Differences between the Duke of Espernon and the Parliament of Bourdeaux reconciled by the discreet fore-sight of the Cardinal THere was about the same time ground enough to suspect lest the bitternesse which had about a year since disunited the Duke of Espernon Governour of Guyenne and the Parliament of Bourdeaux might prejudice his Majesties service in this juncture where it was needfull that all his Arms and Justice might concenter to stifle rebellion in its birth and to keep
which is intrusted with them in prejudice of the Kings royal authority What care ought he to have to maintain the chief Officers of the Crown the Governours of Provinces and Towns and generally all the Grandees of the Kingdome in their duties doth it not concern him to know what ever considerable thing is done amongst them their designs Cabals Interests Abilities and their very inclinations that he may take order with them according to their dispositions and the common good and to divert such Mutinies as they may in time raise ought not his duty lead him to look into the Commerce and Trade that it be preserved in it's greatness as the Fountain of the Kingdomes wealth The Common Rabble will call upon his thoughts sometimes to be resetled in the duties they owe their King and Country But what proportion of his time then will the affairs of war take up when there is a necessity of raising Forces Will it not behoove him to give all necessary dispatches either for quarterings or marching of Regiments or to lead them on to fight with courage either for amunition or the exact observation of militarie discipline It would need a long discours particularly so set down the great duties of a principal Minister but the Briefness which I have proposed to follow gives me not leave to describe them These are enough to guesse that he will have somewhat to do to go through with them and that upon these considerations a Chief Minister ought to be satisfied and totally to acquiet himself of the Burthens which accompany both the Justice and Treasuries The English Fleets arrival before Ree DUring his Majesties sickness about six in the morning upon the 28 of July the English Fleet appeared about Olonne between 18 and 20 Ships At first it was supposed they were Dunkerkers who might have perchance some design upon the Dutch Fleet then in the Road. But when they were perceived to draw neer the I le of Ree that their number encreased and the Hollanders not affraid of them it was easily concluded that they were the English Fleet of which there was quickly a greater assurance when they saw all their Ships at anchor at the mouth of Breton neer the Cape d' Ars. The rest drew neer one of the Forts in the I le of Ree called La Pree against which they shot very much all day long and the next day too until night in so much that the Ships encompassed the Point of Sablanceau within half musket shot of the Land and some of them adventured within Pistol shot Which made the Sieur de Thoyras then Governour of the Cittadel St. Martin in the I le of Ree Judg that they intended to there abouts so he drew out as many of his men as he could well spare to prevent their designs and carried them as neer as possibly he could to that place that he might fall on them in their disbarking But their Landing being favoured by above two thousand peeces which shot continually They had the oportunity to set on shoar about ten thousand men The Sieur de Thoyras had not with him above two hundred Horse and eight hundred foot yet it being for his Majesties Honour to welcome them at their first footing he resolved to assault them notwithstanding the incredible violence of the Cannon which beat down every thing that did but appear upon the shore He hoped for a good successe from the Justness of his cause and that his Souldiers would force Fortune to be favourable unto them He divided his Horse into seven parties five of which were commanded to give the Charge and break the English ranks and the foot had order to follow on the two other parties were to keep off for a reserve upon the first signal of the Fight The first went on in good order but were forced to Gallop off again for that the English Cannon put them in such confusion that the most part of them were routed before ever they came to engage some killed some wounded and others unhorsed but their courage who were in a condition to march on stood firm so they advanced up to the English Battalions and there did what ever could be expected from high resolutions The English astonished to see the French come thundring in that manner upon them thorough the midst of the Flames and Cannon shot were put into such disorder that many of them swam to their Ships The French now finding they were not pursued and seeing that they were not in condition to fight they rallied together and charged them once more before ever the foot came up but at last they came and fell in doing more then could be expected but the violence of the Cannon was such that it was fit to sound the retreat and to expect a more favourable occasion to fight with them Rostaincler the Sieur de Thoyras his Brother the Baron of Chautail Navailles and divers other Gentlemen and light Horse and about one hundred and fifty Souldiers were slain in the excounter most part of the Officers being wounded neither had the English a lesse loss Fifteen Officers of their Army were killed besides divers Livetenants and Ensigns They likewise lost one of their Collours and upon a vew taken they found between five and six hundred killed and wounded So they had but little stomack for that present to advance any farther into the Ilaud but in 3 dages time they fortefied themselves on the shore side keeping under shelter of their Ships neither would they stir one foot till they were informed that the French intended to defend the Cittadel of St. Martin and not meet them any more in the field Politique Observation I Think it impossible to prevent a strong Fleet from landing in an Iland where they may come on shore in sundry places unfortefied The night alone is enough to favour their landing and admitting there were Forces enough to meet them in all places yet the Canon would make such havock that at last there would be a necessity of giving them leave to come on shore Thus hath Machiavel and the wisest Politions observed That it seldome happened that ever any Fleet especially if accompanied with a good Army was hindered from opening any passage if undefended by a good Castle When Francis the first undertook the war in Italy The Spaniards being on t'other side the River Beuchamby with very great Forces to hinder his passage were forced to make way for him when they saw Monsieur de Guise with his Sword in his hand followed by all the Troops to take water that they might come fight with them In the like manner Philip de Valois having commanded Godemar du Fay to keep the Passage of the River Somme at Blanchetacque with a thousand men at Armes besides the Bowman of Genoa and six thousand foot did quickly notwithstanding all this see the English Army force the passe and in lesse then six howers to be all over whilst the Sea
De Nostre Dame des Ardelliers The King knew that victory was the gift of Heaven that it is rather Gods than the Souldiers hands which procure it and that men do in vain attempt if not favoured by his providence He commanded publique prayers to be made over all Francâ— for the imploring of Gods assistance He rested one day at Saumer where he fasted with such devotion and confidence that every one hoped for an happy successe from his fervent prayers Neither was it in vain for shortly after Audouin got into the besiedged Cittadel the newes whereof came to his Majesty then at Niort upon the 9 of October from whence he forthwith departed toward Rochel Politique Observation AS God is the Authour so his Providence is the Governour of Kingdomes His wisdome is an all seeing eye to look into whatever is necessary for them and his hand is omnipotent to provide all waves for their glory That Creature which is born in the Sea finds his livelihood there The Tree which grows on the earth is nourished there The Fruit which owes it's birth to the Tree owes also it's maturity The Sun compleateth the Gold which he formeth and thus States established by God ought to expect all their happiness and good successes from his providence That is it which infuseth into Kings the knowledge of what is proper to be done both in Peace and War It is he who holdeth the hearts of all subjects in his hands who inspireth them with respects due to their Authority and keepeth them in obedience How easily can God humble at his own pleasure the minds of Rebels abate their Fury pull down their courage and force them to live within their limits And is he not the God of Battailes too who bestoweth victory where he pleaseth defendeth Justice by the Arms of the Souldier striketh terror amongst his Enemies and many times gives greater successe then reason and the means would admit to be hoped for To him it is Kings ought to have recourse in matters of concernment David never went to war but he consulted with God Constantine the Great in that war which he made with the Persians caused a little Oratory in form of a Church to be carried with him that in it he might do his devotions and every Legion had its Templum Mobile wherein the Priests and Deacons said Masse to implore Gods assistance By Prayers is Peace continued and Enemies by it are overthrown Every Prince who is ingaged in any great enterprise is bound to believe it and to have recourse to God by Prayers by works of Piety and Religion assuring themselves upon his promise of giving them what ever they shall heartily request because he is just and will be near them who shall call upon him that he will fulfill their desires who fear him Exalt the faithful who hope in him and keep those who love him Ree is relieved UPon the Kings arrival all thoughts were bent to execute the resolution taken at Paris to send a strong relief into Ree not only that the English might be forced from the siedge but quite driven out of the Island The Kings courage would have carried him to go fight his enemies in person at Sea but the Cardinal and his Generals by their intreaties foreseeing into how great danger he run perswaded him to the contrary His Majesty would not by any means give leave that the Cardinal should go but desired he might stay behind to take the Chief care of sending the relief upon him it being easie to judg that if his counsels were so succesful in his absence he might obtain by his presence what ever could be desired Hereupon the Cardinal commanded that some of the vessels designed for the business should be made ready with whatever was necessary for the sick and the sound with store of Munition and the day following the Sieur de Beaumont commanded them to Fort Delapree which place the English did not much secure for they had victuals sufficient for six months for one hundred men that kept it the same day he likewise sent order to Oleron for the conveighing part of the Regiment of Plessis-Prasilin to begin certain Trenches and to draw certain lines and redoubts about the port which might favour the comming of the great relief They all got safe in and lost not a man this good successe put the rest of the Souldiers in heart who were to passe thither Without loosing more time the Duke of Orleans was sent by the King to Plumb that he might put aboard the Ships Le Sieur de Canaples seven hundred men of the guard the Regiment of Beaumout some Voluntiers and good store of Munition who though he were then only eighteen year old yet disposed all things so prudently as if experience had made him grow old in arms After the five and twentith of October the King who knew the names and persons of most of his old Souldiers had filled up all the Troops the Masters of the Camp Captains and all the rest who were to go His Majesty knew that it is not the number which gets the victory but courage and therefore he would not have one man amongst them of whom he had not some experience These Forces commanded by the Sieur de Canoples came all safe within two howers to the Fort De La Pree The aire was of a light fire with the shot which were made at them but not a Ship persued them so they received no losse St. Previll seeing them approach went out to discover who they were and told the Sieur de Canoples that the enemy informed of their imbarking were in ambush behind certain old houses with intention to fall upon them at their Landing hereupon he commanded the Sieurs de Fourille de Malicy de Tilladat and de Porcheus presently to Land their Souldiers he shewed Serjant Major Brierees the several Posts where every one should be and gave orders for the fight The Duke of Buckingham who commanded in his own person hearing the noise of their landing drew out his Forces into three divisions and leading them towards the Port they were not discovered until they came just upon the Kings Forces and that only by the light of their Matches so dark was the night Tillades's Chief Serjant who led on the forlorne hope first espying them gave them a salute which laid some of them on the ground however the rest came on The Sieur de Canoples seeing them not above fifty paces from Fourilles Squadron resolved after he had proposed it to the other Captains to fall on them which put an end to the business Fourille went up and that so near them that not a Musquet was shot off but at push a Pikes The two Battalions of the French and English discharged at the same time the fight grew hot Both Commanders and Souldiers were at emulation with one another to shew that it was not without reason the King had made choise of them in this occasion
Their Courages saved them for the Enemy was much more numerous then they were Indeed the Sieur de Canoples good conduct did not a little further the business for knowing the strength of the English he had commanded the Captains to draw all their Souldiers into the Counter Scarps of the Fort but he had not so ordered his businesse had it not been in the night for Buckingham seeing his first Battalia in disorder and thinking he had onely met with the Forlorn Hope commanded a retreat He left six and thirty on the place and of his Majesties party there were onely six and twenty killed and wounded amongst the rest Mausan Tourilles Lievetenant was found dead of a Musket shot and two cuts with a Halberd Politique Observation WHen there is a necessity at first dash to fight an enemy it is more discretion to fall on him then to expect him and especially being inferiour to him in force for then pure valour must carry it Souldiers are ever more couragious in assaulting then receiving an enemy An assault distracteth an enemy maketh in suspect some further stratagem and puts him often into disorder Julius Caesar made an experiment hereof when passing the Hellespont in one onely Galliot he met Crassius Captain of the contrary Faction with ten Gallies A courage lesse resolute then his would have endeavoured to save himself by the lightness of his vessel but in stead of flying be put himself into a posture of defence went directly up against Crassius and so terrified him that Crassius delivered up himself When such encounters are foreseen it is needful to be accompanied with choise resolute Souldiers such as know not what fear is for fear is repelled by any the least resistance A timerous Souldier never yet did any thing worth notice but to a resolute man every thing makes way It is said of Cajus Marius that in his youth he was so hardy in all his enterprises that nothing could resist him but that in his age his Vallour decreased with the heat of his Bloud which lost him some part of his reputation Bertrand du Gueslin was both one of the most valiant and Fortunate of his times But every one doth ascribe those great advantages which he obtained in Battails to that resolution of his which would sometimes so transport him that he would with a dozen Souldiers fall into the midst of his Enemies who unable to withstand the effects of so admirable a vallour would presently be put to disorder Robert de La March hath afforded us one more notable example of the successe which attendeth on vallour it was in the Battail of Navarre where being touched with a fatherly affection he rushed into the Battail of the Swisses then victorious that he might save his Sons Florange and Jamets who lay upon the ground much wounded Which resolution of his was so succesful that though seconded but by a few Horse yet it so terrified the Swizzers that they could not prevent his bringing of them off in safety Prosecution of the Subject THe Duke of Buckingham finding it would be a difficult thing for him in future to prevent the accesse of relief to the Island as well because divers Vessels of his Fleet were lost as also by reason of the small successe he had hitherto had resolved to make his last attempt upon the Cittadel of St. Martin He was not ignorant of those other and greater preparations which were in agitation upon the main land to send a stronger supply then any yet so that there was a necessity of taking the place or hazarding a sharp conflict The Sieur de Thoyras had divers conjectures of his design and that he might put himself into a condition of defending himself he sent advice to the Fort de la Pree desiring them to have their Forces in a readinesse to assist him when he should discharge three Canon shot for a sign that the enemy began their assault Presently hereupon the Sieur de Canaples called the Officers together to consult of what was proper to be done and it was unanimously concluded that all their Forces should be put into Battalia by break of day That they should march towards Abbay and that upon hearing of the Signal they should go directly to the enemy to divert them from the Assault This Order was exercised accordingly and they were no sooner drawn up together but the Cannons gave them notice of the assault the Sieur de Canaples went directly towards the Cittadel It is reported that there were between four and five thousand English at the assault However they made but two considerable attempts one upon the Bastion de Thoyras which was not quite finished they got up upon the Rampars but were so ill treated by the Besieged that they were forced to give back and to make such hast down their Ladders that some of them never touched but the last round The t'other Attempt was at the Bastion Antioch where the English had no better successe for many of them were killed with Musket shot Stones and long Staffs which were in the Half Moon so they fled and were pursued home to their Trenches That which forced them most to fall back was to see the Forces which were come out from Pree so neer them The Duke of Buckingham guesâ—ing their design was to fall upon his Trenches and to charge them in the Rear drew off his forces and set them in order to receive them But the Kings forces finding the assault given over and the enemy embattailed made an halt the Sieur de Canaples being unwilling to undertake any thing but the defence of the Cittadel until the great relief were arrived that he might not hazard his men to no purpose The two Armies lay in view of each other the rest of the day without doing any thing and night comming on they of the Kings party withdrew to Pree In the mean while the Sieur de Canaples unwilling as hath been said to attempt any thing was inform'd how the besieged had taken all the Ladders of the English fifty Prisoners most of which were Captains and Officers that they had killed between five and six hundred without losing above eighteen or twenty men and some few wounded amongst which were the Sieurs de Sardaignes and Gran Val who being shot through the Bodies died in a few dayes after This Victory did much rejoyce the Kings Army and his Majesty himself too who was diligently informed of it The English doubting their Trenches would not secure them forsook the one half of them and shortly after resolved to go back for England Politique Observation TWo things are chiefly necessary for the repelling of an assault men and fortifications It cannot be denied but that fortifications are needfull for it were a vanity to beleeve that a few men blocked up in a place should be able to resist a whole Army if they be not defended with Bastions half Moons and other Forts raised up to a sufficient height
Town to be lost without injuring of his own glory they being thus under his protection withall to provoke him to it by a sense of pitty to which end they acquainted him with the extream necessities and miseries to which they were reduced and to perswade him that there was not any such impediment in the Channel which his Fleet might not have overcome if they would but have attempted it that for their parts they had not been wanting to make a Salley if his Forces had but once began the fight and lastly they astonished the people by the thundring noise or the Cannon which they discharged more in six days then they had done in six weeks before to perswade them that they had now found an infallible way to break the Bank and to destroy all the Kings ships that lay in the Channel In the mean while his Majesty that he might not lose the advantage which their divisions offered to him sent to summon them by an Herald but they rejected all proposals of a surrender however famin pressing-hard upon the poorer sort som of the better too they began to murmure insomuch that a Counsel was summoned to satisfie them and to consider of what was proper to be done the Counsel being met most of the members were of opinion to accept of his Majesties bounty and one amongst them openly said that they were now within six weeks of their last provisions that every one had reason to rejoyce seeing it pleased his Majesty to be so gracious as that he would preserve the exercise of their Religion to them the enjoyment of their goods and the walls of their City all which they had reason to hope for from his Majesties clemencie and goodnesse That on the other side he saw no reason to expect any relief from the English as well by reason of the losses they had already sustain'd as by the little courage they had testified to fight for them as also by those great difficulties which were to be remooved in the Channel and so saying he did much settle and confirm the rest in their resolutions of Surrendring But the Mayor hearing this discourse came to him and gave him a Box on the ear in answer of which another of the Connsellors did so much for him and thus they had falled into some greater sedition had they not bin dissolved very quickly The Councel was much offended with the Mayor and issued out an order to seize on him but he encouraging the people made them rise and take arms so away he went to the houses of those two Counsellors to have slain them as doubtlesse he had done had it not preserved by their escape out of Rochel unto his Majesty at whose feet they cast themselves imploring his protection which was not denied unto them These divisions did not a little advantage his Majesties affaires the Cardinal perswaded his Majesty to foment them as much as possible he could by sending another summons to them to yeild whereupon Breton Herald at Armes was commanded to do it in Form with his Coat of Armes who went into the Citie required them to lay down their weapons assured them of pardon for their past crime follies and threatning them with the contrary in case they should now refuse it It made no little impression on them who were reduced to want and extremity but they being animated by their Preachers the town still continued resolute in their insolencies The obstinate wilfulnesse which is natural to such people feeding them with fair hopes until the last Politique Observation THE people saith T. Livy unable to govern themselves by reason soon run into extremities and dangers they are ever either too low or too high too forward or too backward Another and for the same reason likens them to the fool-hardy who know no medium between the extreams of fear and audaciousnesse as soon as ever they despair of effecting their designs to advantage they break out into mutinies but in case they find them in a condition of bringing them to a good issue Oh how fierce are they how insolent in their expressions actions There need no other reason for it but onely this Passion is naturally the Mistress of popular spirits which are neither capable of reason or generousness the two known causes of civility modesty and valour Experience too hath made it evident that they who are born with narrow low hearts are terrified at the least dangers and care not what evils they commit if they have but the power to defend them It is the property of passion either to yeild to soon or not at all and by the impetuousnesse of their motion it is that many people have chosen after the suffering of a thousand miseries to dye within their City wals rather then open their Gates to their besiegers Calagurva a City of Spain being besieged by Pompey the inhabitants of it were so obstinate in defence of their Walls in Sertorius his behalf that after they had eaten up all their living creatures they were so sencelesly cruel as to kill their Wives and Children that they might eat them And the Saguntines too who were of the same Nation after they had suffered the utmost extremities turned their rage upon their own selves insomuch that their fame became a proverb for having nothing left to eat they made a great fier in the publike place where they first burnt whatever they esteemed rich and then threw in themselves choosing rather to perish in the flames then to let the Carthaginians become Masters of their Town and Persons rather to follow the impetuousnesse of that fury which tormented them then to be guided by reason which would have taught them that it had bin no infamy to yield to a Conqueror when he hath reduced such as resist him to an impossibility of escaping A Feigned Treaty between the King and the Rochelois THE Mayor of Rochel seeing this fury of the people who seemed unable longer to endure the extremities whereunto necessity had reduced them and that that party who were enclined to surrender the Town were grown strong he resolved to feign a treaty with the King He had wit enough to know that the people love rather to be deceived than forced upon which thoughts he prayed the Sieur Arnoult by the Sieur de Fenquieres a prisoner that he would come into the City to advise upon such wayes of accomodation as might he thought reasonable The Sieur Arnoult procured leave for it and upon discourse had with the Mayor he spent two dayes time in going coming after which he purposed to the besieged to have recourse to his Majesties mercy as the most assured way of pardon which they could fancie to themselves so the Sieur Arnoult went to meet the King at Tailbourg Monsieur de Cardinal at Chastâ—liers near Fontenay to give them notice of what had passed These apparent submissions brought them both back to the Camp from which they were
to the Kings Fleet might cover them and give the English means to passe the Channel But his Majesties small Boats went to the Fire-ships at the mercy of the great shot seized on them and diverted their execution onely losing one man without any greater hurt and the Vessels which followed them durst not advance which the English Fleet seeing and how much the Forts did trouble them they drew off to the Road not without great disoder leaving the Rochelois to despair Neither was this the onely mis-fortune that befell them for at that very instant so great a storm arose that they were forced to let themselves be carried at the mercy of the wind The English finding how unlikely they were to do any good proposed under hand that some accommodation might be made they thought it would bee more advantagious to retreat after the making of a Peace then to run the hazards of a worse successe Monsieur the Cardinal desired his Majesty to observe that his onely aim being the taking of Rochel this accommodation would much contribute to it for then the Rochelois would remain without any succour at all which induced him to give ear to those Proposals which should be made But their souls being yet exasperated the Peace could not so suddenly be resolved on and all the conferences which were had to that purpose ended in a Cessation of Arms for some few dayes Politique Observation ALbeit they who have been once vanquished in War may recover the advantage which they have lost either when their forces are recruited with a sufficient strength or when shame shall excite their courages yet so it is that when neither of these two conditions happen there is a great reason to apprehend the successe of their second attempt Fortune hath sometimes smiled on those who formerly never saw but her frowns but after she hath been once and again discourteous it will be needfull to imploy more force and greater courage for she is a professed friend to the bold and prudent Great Routs are attended with dangerous consequences whence Titus Livy speaking of a certain faction of Marcellus against Hannibal at Nola said that it was much more difficult to worst an Army fleshed in Victory then that which begins to lose its credit He gives the same reason for that victory which the Romans under the command of Consul Manlius obtained against the Gauls in Asia where he saith that as Victories do heighten the courage of the Victorious so they do much abate that of the vanquished and withall the Victorious are desirous onely to fight as may be observed in the example of Pompey's Souldiers after the advantage which they had of Caesar as Plutarch reporteth upon the life of Pompey whereas they who are worsted are hard to be drawn to the Battel for being seised with their usual fear and the most part of them fighting by constraint they behave themselves with so little mettle that they are easily overcome a second time Thus the Duke of Guise returning from Italy after the Battel of St. Laurence to command those French Troops which had been rallied and new listed writ to his Majesty that he had more ado to put them in heart and courage then to beat the victorious enemy and therefore he judged it necessary before he hazarded a second Battel to cure them of their first baffle by getting some little advantage upon the enemy an advice which he well knew how to execute as he did in the taking of Calais Guines Thionville The Deputation of Montague to the King from the Earl of Denbigh General of the English Forces DUring the cessation of Arms the French Rebels who were in the English Fleet finding they had lost their courages and despaired of forcing the passage concluded themselves utterly lost without obtaining the Kings grace To which purpose they beseeched the Earl of Dexbigh to employ his power with their King in the behalf of his Master the Earl of Denbigh thought it reasonable and upon deliberation had with the Officers of the Army what was fit to be done to procure them this satisfaction they agreed to send Montague to his Majesty in the behalf of the King their Master to endeavour the making their peace for them Mâ—â—tague came to his Majesties quarter and having audience declared that he was sent from the King of Great Brittain his Master to begge a pardon for the Rochelois that he would be pleased to promise them the liberty of their conscience to forgive the Sieur de Soubize and the Comte de La Val and to give quarter to those English which were in Rochel The King answered them that as for those of Rochel they were his own subjects and that the King of England need not intermeddle in their interest and as for the English who were there in garrison that they should receive the like usage as the French prisoners in England yet his Majesty received him with a great deal of honour shewed him the Forts of the Camp the Batteries the Bank the Pallisadas and the range of Vessels which over-spread the Channel The truth is it was not done so much to gratifie him as that upon the relation of what he had seen the rest of his party might be discouraged from making any further attempts After he had been an eye-witnesse of those things he returned to England to the King his Master to reduce him to some accommodation A Treaty between the King and the Rochelois THE Cessation of Arms being expired the English to testifie it was not out of fear that they retreited or had made those proposals renewed the fight on the twenty third of October which lasted above two houres yet all this while had they not the courage to come up to his Majesties Fleet whereupon those French who were with them resolved to send some Deputies to the King in their behalf to cast themselves at the Kings Feet and to emplore his mercy First of all they sent four to Monsieur the Cardinal who humbly requested him that he would be pleased to obtain the Kings favour and grace for them which they heartily beseeched with all real acknowledgements of their faults The Cardinal answered them he would speak to his Majesty concerning it and commanded they should be kindly entertained and put into some place apart that they might not enter into discourse with any one The King was easily perswaded to grant them what they demanded the Cardinal having told him how necessary it was to win them off from the English which if he could once bring to passe the English would withdraw of their own accord and leave Rochel to shift for it self He then acquainted them how his Majesty had granted them the mercy and favour which they had beseeched of him yet however he thought good that two of them should remain with him whom he would make use of as I shall hereafter declare for the regaining of the Rochelois to their former duties and
him up and restored him his Crown and the Emperour Titus seeing the calamities of Jerusalem caused by his siedge the multitude of dead carkasses which filled up the Citie protested he was not the Author of it and that he was onely the instrument of Gods justice His Majesties Entrance into Rochel VPon the thirtieth of October the Duke d' Angoulesme the Marshal de Scomberg the Sieurs de la Curee Vignolle Hallier St. Chaumont and divers other Lords fourteen Companies of the Regiment des Gardes and six of Swisses began about six in the morning to enter into Rochel The Cardinal perswaded his Majesty for prevention of any confusion which might arise in the Town by reason of some curiosity or other that the people might have to go into it to command that none but they who were appointed should presume to go within the Gates or into any Houses until leave obtained both to secure the inhabitants from being pillaged as also for purifying of the place and men who were most infected by dead Bodies insomuch that the ill air bred many diseases The King placed himself upon the Fort de Beaulieu to see the Forces march into the Town and having seen a certain Souldier not belonging to the Companies appointed to take possession of the Town but of that of Sourdis he commanded him to withdraw testifying by this procedure that he had a most particular knowledg of most of his Souldiers They who commanded these Forces seized on all the Gates of the Town the Ramparts Cannon and munition and sent away the Souldiers the English by Sea the French by Land who looked more like Ghosts then Men. There were as many Citadels as Gates and as many Castles as Towers and this was it as made the City be esteemed impregnable especially seeing it had an out-let by Sea which could never have in broken up but by his Majesty extraordinary power and prudence yet all served but as Trophees raised to his Majesties glory Monsieur the Cardinal entred the same day with divers Lords and Gentlemen without any fear of infection because his presence was very necessary both for his Majesties service and to settle things in order but he beseeched his Majesty to forbear his own entrance untill All Saints day that his Quarters might be purged from all ill ayr and that every thing might be made ready to receive him according to his quality and that occasion The day being come his Majesty made his entrance not with that magnificence which the ancient Emperours and Kings used into such Towns as they had taken according as History hath observed but cloathed with Piety and the Mercy of a most Christian King Virtues however which made him shine with so much splendour that those poor Rebels prostrated themselves as he rid by them that they might the more acknowledge the mercy and favour he had done them He had his Arms on and rid in on Horseback without any Ceremony onely four Companies of his Guards two of Swisses his two Troops of Light-horse arm'd Cap-a-pe his Dragoons and the Life-guard marched before him all the Nobility following him without any order to avoid the disputes of Precedency The inhabitants cast themselves on their knees as his Majesty passed along the streets crying God save the King who hath been so gracious unto us And he frequently saluted those who seemed to be of the better sort amongst them They redoubling their cries and acclamations protested they could not sufficiently admire his Majesties Bounty who instead of putting them all to death as their Preachers had perswaded them he would did even receive them with respect and honour But those submissions and acknowledgements were much more increased when they received the tend thousand Loaves of Bread which his Majesty distributed amongst thē the same day together with divers other Alms which his Ma. bestowed on them but when they beheld that there came three thousand Carts laden with Wheat and Provisions into the Town with a proportionate number of Beasts Cattel which his Majesty commanded to be brought as sold at the usual rates of the Army they could then no longer forbear to confesse that he knew how to pardon as well as vanquish They did not so much admire that his Majesty should be victorious as that he should Crown it with an Olive branch of so great mercy The King went and alighted at Saint Margarites Church which had been consecrated by the Bishop of Bourdeaux and where Monsieur the Cardinal with divers Ecclesiastiques had that morning celebrated Masse by way of Thanksgiving for the happy Victory which Heaven had bestowed on the Crown of France he was received by the Arch-Bishop assisted by the Clergy and divers other religious who sung the Te Deum and he himself too sung it with so great devotion that a certain Gentleman who saw him and one of the Townsmen professed they would shake hands with Heresie protesting they could not beleeve but that so fervent a devotion must needs be the Index of a better Religion then that in which they had till then lived About two days after his Majesty caused the Holy Sacrament which had of late been so much scorned and neglected in the Town to be carried in Procession which was performed with as much Devotion as Pomp. Last of all that he might render thanks unto God whom he looked on as the chief giver of this Victory he writ to the Arch-Bishop of Paris that a publique Thanksgiving might be made and himself returning to Paris passed by Nostre Dame des Ardilliers that he might pay his vows there for to his devotions there he ascribed his first Victories as that of the releeving Ree upon which the whole successe depended Politique Observation JT is but reasonable to give God thanks for a Victory which is his own gift But he much more loveth those who do it in effects not by words There can be no greater return of thanks then to imitate his bounty which is pleased to do good unto us A generous Conquerour ought not to spill the Bloud and destroy the lives of those whom he hath overcome Amongst the Pagans it was a usual thing to succonr and assist the wounded to relieve them with their own hands and do good unto them how much more reason have Christian Princes then to imitate so Christian like a verrue It is not lesse glorious to overcome an Enemy by Clemency and meeknesse then by Force and Prudence Jesus Christ hath promised a reward to such as do good for evil and he saith Mercy is that which maketh men known for the Sons of his Father who hath made the Sun to shine both upon the good and bad and Kings had need make themselves acceptable to God whose Image they are by reason they have a greater accompt to render him then the rest of men God Almighty saith With the same measure that you measure will I measure out to you again insomuch that the vertue
of exception For if a Soveraign hath the least suspicion that they may revolt a second time he is then bound to deprive them of all possible means to effect it be it either by disarming the inhabitants or dismantling their Fortifications nay by levelling their very Walls too if they are of any considerable strength Thus did the Romans destroy Velitre by reason of their frequent revolts turned out the Senate and commanded them to live on the other side of Tyber The strength and Fortifications of a Town do often invite the people to rebel as Tacitus observeth speaking of Hierusalem To which same purpose did Xerxes prohibit the use of any Arms to the Babylonians and Cyrus to the Lydians both of them commanding those people to study Arts which might divert them from War It were not much amisse to deprive them of the means of making assemblies The Romans have shewed the way of it by destroying all form of Government amongst those of Capua after they had overcome them whereby they had not any occasion of assembling any more together as formerly they had used To this same end too hath the Turks inhibited the use of Clocks amongst the Christians or any others over his whole Empire to prevent the meeting of any Assemblies which might be contrary to his will and the obedience he requireth from them But they who are Victorious ought alwaies to accompany their commands with some sweetnesse which may tollerate to them the exercise of their Religion the assurance of their goods or the like but then at last he must be sure to take from them all possible means of a future Revolt and Insurrection The Honour which his Majesty got by the taking of Rochel THE most ingenious of men even the Pope himself extolled the glorious â—tchievment which his Majesty had obtained indeed he could not be praised enough considering he had defeated three English Fleets releeved the Isle of Ree and overcome a City which through all Christendome was thought impregnable and by such a means too as was no less admirable then the taking of the Town it self and without the losse of almost one man although Charles the ninth lost the lives of many great Commanders and shot ten thousand great Guns at it and could do no good upon it How glorious was it for him to have restored this Monarchy to its ancient splendour and lustre by destroying a Faction which had so often armed some of his Subjects against the rest which hindred him from being assisting to his Allies and prevented him from regaining that honour and esteem in Europe which his Predecessours had held as their due This rebellious Town had for above two hundred years banded against their Kings whenever they were upon any great expedition as against Lewis the eleventh during the broyls of the Duke de Guienn his Brother against Charles the Eighth when all Italy expected him at Fornove against Lewis the Twelfth whilest he was in the Wars for the Milanois against Francis the first whiles he was ingaged with Charles the fifth against Francis the second and Charles the ninth doth in his minorities against Henry the third arming his brother to oppose him against Henry the Great just as he was ingaging against the Duke of Savoy And lastly against his Majesty himself upon whom they had thrice mad War but now their strong Walls being overthrown served for Monuments of his eternal glory Monsieur the Cardinal did much contribute to the taking of Rochel THe Cardinal being the chief Minister in this Affair as well as that of the State it were unreasonable to deny him some part of the credit They who writ concerning those Subjects made the lesse difficulty of it in regard his Majesty attributed the whole management of it to his Councils as by divers Declarations published abroad was apparent neither could it indeed be denied unto him seeing he it was that advised the besieging of Rochel who had contrived the means of releeving Ree who had beaten off the English who had first laid the Foundations of the siedge who had drawn the Lines and Works who had preserved them in good order who had kept the Forces from disbanding who had made them live in such a Discipline as was formerly unheard of in France who had contrived the Bank and at last concluded a League with the English who were come a third time to releeve the place But as the most glorious acts expose men to most envy so some malignant Pens there were who dis-esteemed and spoke lightly of him nay would have made his greatest services have been esteemed for attempts against his Majesties Crown yet all would not do some impression indeed they made upon them of the Cabal who could not behold without envy so shining a Star they who are well acquainted with him cannot but know how that he always and upon all occasions avoided what ever might expose him to envy that he did ever ascribe all the glory of his conduct and government to his Majesty and that on the other side the most that he ever pretended to in his greatest Actions was onely the honour to have served him faithfully and not improfitably they cannot but know he could not more fitly be compared to any one then unto Germanicus Nephew and adopted son of Tiberius who having obtained a great Victory in Germany prepared a fair Trophy at the foot of which was inscribed The Army of Tiberius Casar as Tacitus hath observed after the reducing of the people between the Rhine and Elbe raised a Monument to Mars Jupiter and Augustus but mentioned not himself And thus the honour of doing those glorious actions which he every day atchieved was by him esteemed both his satisfaction and reward Politique Observation WHat ever honour is attributed to second causes upon the effecting of great things yet the chief glory redounds unto the first not onely because he communicates all the power which second causes have to operate but withal because those effects depend upon his particular influence It cannot be denied but second cause deserved commendation and indeed without injustice it cannot be gain-said but that they have likewise much contributed The Sun in the Universal Principium of the generation of all Plants he it is who extracteth the Germinative quality wherewith the earth is replenished who produceth the Flowers and Fruits wherewith it is adorned it being most assuredly true that without his influences the earth would remain fruitlesse dry and barren Which though it be so yet what Philosopher did ever deny that the earth was not one of the chief causes of all those effects Have they not all confessed that the earth produceth Lillies and Roses And was not that Sophister esteemed a Novice who denied the Title of Mother to her In the same manner God is doubtlesse the first Authour of every thing done in the World yet no Philosopher will deny but that the Sun and Man beget Man that the Sun
Joncales began to lose his former hopes of so speedily taking it The Sieur de Guron was likewise sent by his Majesty thither presently after who so got the good Will of the people there that they parted willingly with any thing they had nay the Women would deliver up their Rings and Jewels that the Souldiers might not want their pay The Spaniards in the mean time were not idle but used their best indeavours to gain the place but were alwaies repulsed with such courage that they never went off but to their great losse The Marquesse de Bâ—uuron made divers Sallies upon them and did as often put them to disorder but was at last killed after he had on many occasions testified that fear had no corner in his heart and that his courage could have make him withstand a Puissant Army with a handfull of men The Sieur de Guron commanded in the town after his death where he so behaved himself that the Townsmen were perswaded to hold out in expectation of relief from France The King having give leave to the Marquess d' Vxelles to make Levies for Monsieur de Mantua he had at last raised as many as he thought would be sufficient for the business which was about fifteen of sixteen thousand men effective The Rendezvouz was appointed in the Bailiages of Ambrun Gap and Briancon where being all come together they who had the orders to make the muster and pay them and make provisions necessary for their passage over the Mountains were so neglectfull that they were forced to stay thereabouts in those Bailiages about twenty dayes time during which they committed many insolencies and wasts which the Marquesse de Vxelles finding he was almost in despair to see such disorders all that he could do to remedy it was he procured the Country people to provide a certain quantity of Provisions both for Man and War and to carry them after the Army over the Mountains some part of their money he paid them down in hand and for the residue he obliged himself in his own name to pay them upon the first Muster Whereupon he began to march and on the twenty seventh of July entred into the Mountains where he no sooner appeared but the Duke of Savoy came up to them and opposed them where-ever they went The resistance which he here met did not very much trouble him for he often beat them before him but it was his mis-fortune that the Provisions promised by those of Dauphine did not follow the Army insomuch that the Souldiers having marched some dayes without any bread he was at last forced to resolve upon returning back again their retreat indeed was honourable enough for the Sieur de la Ferte Marshal de Campe facing the enemy with three Regiments upon the tops of two Mountains gave opportunity to the rest of the Troops to retire into Dauphine which the Duke of Savoy could not perceive untill they were quite gone Politique Observation THE Laws of military policy require the preparing of great Magazines near the places designed for an enterprize before the first attempt and especially not to enter upon an enemies Countrey without making sure of a dayly provision for the Souldiers that they are not brought to want Armies are oftner ruined by hunger then by Battel whence it happens that he who is not very carefull of carrying his Provisions with him or sure of finding them where he comes will soon see himself destitute of Troops and in such confusion as will render him contemptible to his enemies and despicable to his friends This was one of the rules Cambises taught his son Cyrus as Xenophon relateth it and Cyrus was no lesse carefull to practise it in the Wars which he made against the Assyrians as the same Author observeth The Turks are very exact at it indeed their temperance gives them one great advantage because the carriage of them is not very difficult amongst them who use neither Wine nor other dainties It were to be wished that ours would follow their example because the plenty in which most of our Commanders have used to live renders them unable for labour or to make any great enterprizes upon the Spaniard by reason of the difficulty of carrying provisions with them The Romans were not ignorant of this truth when their Empire was in its most flourishing condition and for this reason it was that they accustomed their forces to great abstinency and those Nations which were least brought up in delicacies were alwaies by them esteemed the most war-like Thus Julius Caesar thought the Flemmings more valiant then the rest of the Gauls because they lived upon harder fare Hannibal to his cost found what losses befell his Army after they had been accustomed to a lithe ease and plenty when after the battel of Cannes warring with lesse fear of the Romans he permitted them to live in all pleasure and abundance and afterwards being to make use of them he found that by that means they had lost their courages A Captain however in avoiding this delicacy ought not to be defective in carrying that which is necessary for his Souldiers The inconveniences which will follow by such neglect are not onely as hath been said that he will see them disband but withall he will find them to run to his enemies Quarters in hope to find there better maintenance Thus did the most part of Afranius and Petrius souldiers flie to Caesars Camp and those of Caesar upon the like necessity went unto Pompey besides all this want occasioneth diseases as the French found at Carignan as Guieciardin reporteth and sometimes causeth a Mutiny In fine it is impossible in such occasions but a Commander must soon see his forces in confusion among themselves and vanquished by their enemies as Vegetius hath very judicially observed The King takes care of the Affairs of his Allies the Grisons ALthough his Majesty was carefull of Monsieur de Mantua his affairs yet did he not abandon those of the Grisons his ancient Allies but indeavoured to put them into the enjoyment of that which had been accorded them by the Treaty at Mouson He had about the end of the last year sent a Declaration to the Sieur Nesmin his Embassadour with those people which imported that according to a Clause of the first Article in that Treaty the agreements made at Lindan and Coire between the Arch-Duke Leopold the Governours of Milan and the three Cantons of the Grisons in the year 1617 until the day and date of the Treaty at Mouson ought to be null and void and that all the Embassadours assembled in Treating with the Spaniards were promised as much yet now the Spaniards would needs give other interpretations for their own advantage to that first Article though in it self nothing could be clearer upon which great contests did arise between the Grisons the Spaniards and the Arch-Duke Leopold Now the Grisons desiring his Majesty would clear the doubt he could not onely not
to their Princes Interests by sure and strong obligations when things are once at this pass there is no danger well may the people grumble and stir but all will soon end in nothing They are then like Ivy which indeed grows close together but yet creeps on the ground or like the Boughs of Trees newly cut off which bear no fruit and in two or three days wither to nothing or like a Ship which though it have a Mast Cords and Sails yet without a skilfull Pilot she runs at randome where-ever the Winds will carry her and at last dashes upon some Rock and is there split in peeces Or I may well compare them to those lofty raging storms which for a time seem to threaten Heaven but at last weary out themselves upon the sides of the Rocks which are not moved at it or to those thick black Clouds which hang in the Ayr and are driven by the Winds this way and that way but are soon dissipated by the weakest Rays of the Summers Sun The Chief is the Head amongst a mutinous rabble who if once he leave them they have no more life or motion then a Carkasse He is the Primum mobile who draweth them after him like so many little Stars and he is called their Head onely in consideration that as the parts of the body are without motion or life if that be â—â—ken off so are they without him unable to go or stand His Majesty entreth into Usez Nismes and other Towns with the Edict of Peace SOon after the accommodation was concluded his Majesty made his entrance into Vsez and Nismes to the great joy of the inhabitants During his stay there he caused an Edict to be published containing that Order which he required to be observed in all the Hugonot Towns who untill that time denied the exercise of the Catholick Religion amongst them He pardoned the Sieurs de Rohan Soubize and all others who had born Arms under them He ordained that the Roman Catholick and Apostolick Religion should be established in every place That the Goods of the Church which had been taken away should be restored to the Ecclesiasticks together with their houses Churches and Monasteries that every Parish should be provided with good and able Curates And in fine that the Religion pretended to be Reformed should be allowed as free exercise But to secure them from all future Revolts the Fortifications of all their Towns and strong Holds were to be rased and thrown down onely leaving them their Walls standing and that for security of their Peace and good behaviour until their works were demolished accordingly they should deliver Hostages unto his Majesty to be by him kept untill the execution of it This Edict being thus finished and according to the Articles and Conditions which had been agreed on gave a great deal of satisfaction to the Hereticks who all of them now thought on nothing else but to live in Peace and Quiet excepting those of Montauban who proud of their strong Walls became so insolent that they refused to accept of those conditions which the rest had with so great joy and gladnesse They imagined themselves able a second time to resist his Majesties forces but considered not how things were altered and that affairs were not now managed as formerly they were how that his Majesty had by a Prudence eternally happy for France committed the Conduct of all things to the Cardinal who had furnished him with all the means of taking Rochel a place lately thought impregnable who had broken all the designs of Spain who had repulsed the English force so often who in one hours discourse had reced the Prince of Piedmonts Spanialized soul to become absolute French wo had perswaded the Duke of Savoy to whatever he had a mind and upon whose onely word all the rest of the Hugonot Towns were resolved to have suffered their Walls and Fortifications to be demolished and thrown down The obstinacy of the Town was such that his Majesty thought himself obliged to go before it that he might overcome it with force seeing no fair means would work upon it But the Cardinal considering how the sicknesse began in the Army and in divers Towns of Languedoc beseeched his Majesty not to hazard his person which was of greater concern to France then any other thing whatever and that he would be pleased to leave him to fight with the rest of this Rebellion with much ado his Majesty was at last overcome and resolved to return to Paris as he did after he had in six moneths time taken Suze saved Cazal forced Privas and reduced the most part of the Hugonot Towns under his obedience Politique Observation HEresie and Obedience are inconsistent with one another whilest there is any hopes left of force The Poets seem to have alluded to it in a Fable which they tell of Juno who being angry that Jupiter had gotten Pallas on himself she would needs breed something on her self too but instead of a Child she brought forth Typhon a mighty ugly Serpent who making War against Jupiter himself was looked on as a Monster of Rebellion just so it is with Heresie who having seperated it self from God who in his Church begetteth children full of respect and obedience would needs have children of its own but what are they Children of revolt and incapable of any subjection never did a perfect Heretick yet love his King And I wonder who can doubt or think it strange that they are such enemies of Temporal seeing they cannot indure any spiritual Monarchy Heresie hath never any sound solid reasons or arguments to defend its beleef and therefore the next thing it flies to is force Besides they finding that Kings have both an Authority and Power to punish them und that they do allow and approve of the true Doctrine in all Schools which is in prejudice to their false Tenents they presently become their mortal enemies and do their utmost to shake off the yoke of their Obedience How many wars and jars have they raised on every hand of us No one but knoweth that the Arians filled all the East with troubles That the Macedonians raised a great party in Greece and that the Donatists put Affrick into confusion How many Revolts and Rebellions have been in processe of time set on foot in the West by the Iconomiques by the Albigeois by the Lutherans by the Calvinists France Germany England and Holland have been theaters where they have played their pranks They pretend that Gods cause and their Religion goeth hand in hand and they do therefore the easilier beleeve that Heaven will protect assist and go along with them and upon this ground-work do they build any insurrection revolt or rebellion But why do they not remember that the Laws of true religion published by the son of God himself do onely permit them to die or flie but never to break the ties of their obedience or to take up Arms against their
Honour to encounter the Duke of Savoy's Forces they being reâ—ired with him to Thurin and not daring to attend the first charge of the French Valour which nothing is able to withstand so the Army passed the â—oria without any trouble and quartered at Rivol where the Duke of Savoy hath a house of Pleasure which the Cardinal preserved with a great deal of care and respect and the Country people were treated with much kindness and the Army contented to be served with such provisions as were brought from Suze Then began the Duke to declare himself openly and did many Acts of Hostility amongst the rest he seized upon all the French in his Territories not so much as excepting the Merchants and Religious Orders An Act very strange against both the Laws of Traffique and Piety The Cardinal he did the same seeing it was no time to hope for any thing by fair means The Glory of his Majesty the Honour of France and his own reputation ingaged him to pursue his resolutions with his Arms of reducing the Duke to Reason It was then concluded on in a secret Counsel between himself and the Marshals of France that the Army should sit down before Pignerol and make themselves Masters of it Stratagems do many times entitle men to great advantages So that the Cardinal with more ease to take in Pignerol upon a surprise made as if he would march directly to beleaguer Thurin if self Accordingly the Cannon and Army began to bend towards it which the Duke of Savoy perceiving presently dispatched orders to withdraw those Forces from Pignerol which he had that morning clapt in there The Marshal of Crequy advanced directly to Pignerol with a 1000 Horse 6000 foot and some Cannon and upon the 20 of March about Sun set lay down before the Place leaving the rest of the Army to ingage any party that might attempt the relieving it upon the 21 about 4 in the morning the Cardinal came up with the Marshals of Crequy La Force and Schomberg and they so belaboured themselves that about 10 the next morning there were 3 piece of Cannon mounted upon the very Ditch ready to make a Breach Politique Observation STratagems have been much used and commended by great Commanders skill and craft do many times as much as force and strength and are so much the more to be esteemed because they shed lesse blood This Prudence hath no certain rules to be learnt by but must be acquired by it self It 's true we are made capable of it by nature but it is formed and confirmed by use and Experience So Sciâ—io that valiant Commander who being desirous to take in a strong hold in Africk which was well provided by the Carthaginians made as if he had other designs and caused his Army to march another way by this means he surprised Haribal who drawing forth all his Garrison to pursue him with the more strength left the place undefended and gave Scipio an advantage of facing about and sending a party under the Conduct of Massanissa to surprise and make himself Master of it which he effected with a handfull of men the inhabitants not having strength enough to defend themselves The Reducing Pignerol under the Kings Obedience THus stood the State of Affairs in Pignerol they saw their Town besieged and found the Cardinal did summon them to render if they would not hazard the force of his Majâ—sties Army which had reason to treat them with more rigour then indeed they afterwards did they found the Canon ready to make a breach by the Prudent Conduct of the Cardinal and a resolute Army of men who seemed to wish for nothing more then to be brought on to the breach that they might carry the place by assault The Presence of the Cardinal redoubled their fear and they had learnt that his Majesties Army under his command had vanquished and overcome all enemies for the last six years in which the King had done him the honour to commit it to his care that particularly the last year he did onely appear upon the top of the Alps and that was enough to force the Spaniards to raise their Siege of Cazal Upon the 22 of March they sent seven Deputies to make an honourable surrender and after they had obtained such conditions as they desired their lives and goods saved their Priviledges and Franchises preserved to them they yeelded themselves the same day with much joy and content to his Majesties obedience and the same time the French army marched and took possession of the Town Politique Observation HE that commands an Army ought to think himself very happy if his first attempt have good successe with it Just as in the Orbs of the Heavens the Primum mobile gives motion to all the rest so if the first enterprise end advantagiously it hath so great an influence on the spirits of the vanquished that they are more then half stagger'd to give way for their second overthrow Fortune doth most commonly adopt ends to their beginnings and as the Fountain head doth much contribute to the cleernesse and purity of those Waters which flow from it so the first good successe is a happy Omen of a prosperous issue even to the very end of the War Tacitus saith they are the first chances which beget and breed either courage or cowardize in the hearts of the Souldiers Orators in their pleadings use to place in the Front their strongest reasons and arguments knowing that by it they do so arrest and commit a force upon the minds of their Auditors that when they have but once inclined and perswaded them by those their prime and principal motions and inductions the rest appear too much the more plausible and effective A General ought to imploy his very best forces in the assaults of his first siege or in his first ingagement of Battel and rest confident that his first Action will give a great stroke in the successe of the rest of the War Thus Charles the Eighth came into Tuscany by the Road of Pontremole and being neer Serezzanella which was in his way seated on a most impregnable Rock he resolved to take it that he might give a reputation and credit to his Army that the World might conceive an opinion that there was not any thing which could withstand the courages and resolution of his Souldiers and Commanders in a short while he carried it and by it gained so great an esteem and wonder that his enemies were astonished at the report of it The bringing of the Cittadel of Pignerol under the Kings Subjection AFter the Town of Pignerol was yeelded the Count Vrban Lescalanga who was Governour retired into the Cittadel with 800 Souldiers but the Cardinal pursued him to his Trenches and raised works so quickly that upon our Ladydaies Eve one of the Bastions of the Castle was entred the circumvallation finished and the Camp so strongly fortified with Lines of Communication Redoubts and Forts that all the strength
approaches unto must not be neglected for such a deficiency were to put their Armes for a prey and to render their being taken infallible There is no need of a surprisal for in such assaults as are made the Enemy not finding any to resist them do as it were seize upon it The slighting which we make of our Enemies in neglecting to fortefie our selves against them exposeth us to the danger of receiving a far greater losse and in consequence the shame to be overcome by them which is almost inevitable Cazal assaulted by the Marquis of Spinola THE Cardinal had too much Prudence and Generosity not to secure Cazal against such an accident though exposed to a far greater danger But for the better understanding of his Conduct it will be good to look back upon the beginning of the Siege After the taking of Pignoral both the Cardinal and Spinola had the same designs of quitting Piedmont the one that he might joyn with the King at Grenoble and accompany him in the Conquest of Savoy the t'other to lay siege to Cazal and to recover if possible the honour he had there lost the precedent year when he drew off at the same time that he had the news of the Kings arrival at Suze without abiding that his Majesties Army might approach his neerer then six great dayes march He was provoked in point of Honour in the design his courage inflamed his passion and the shame he had to find the glory which he had got by so many victories blasted with this disgrace gave him an extream impatiency to repair that fault which occasioned it He resolved either to perish or carry the place not being able to survive the losse of his Honour and in prosecution thereof there was no Stratageme or force omitted which might render him Master of it Never was place so vigorously assaulted as never more stoutly defended Few dayes passed without fresh assaults or sallies Nothing which the Cannon could do was left unassayed almost continually the Place was undermined on every side wild-fires were made use of in such abundance that the Town had been sundry times burn't to Ashes had then not taken a very great care to hinder the effect of them In a word the discontent which accompanied his Courage suffered him not to forget any invention that the art of War or Passion could suggest to overcome Politique Observation SHame is a venemous root from whence we sometimes see excellent effects produced and it cannot better be compared then to certain plants which we observe in Nature whose roots are deadly and whose leaves on the contrary proper to cure many diseases Is it not that which hath often excited the courages of the greatest Commanders to that height that perceiving Victory to encline to their Enemies they have precipitated themselves into the fight and goared their Weapons and their hands in the Blood of their Enemies by which they have ingaged their own party to make new endeavour and fortune hath thereupon accorded them that glory which they were upon the very point of loosing Have we not seen the like amongst Souldiers who after they behaved themselves ill one day have presently after appeared like so many Lions in the pursuit of their Enemies and so have defended themselves from that disgrace with which they had been branded The shame which the Persians had as Justin reports to see their wife 's come towards them with their Coats trust up made them face about and charge the Enemy before whence they fled And T. Livie writes how that the Roman Consul Agrippa did commonly use to throw some of Ensigns among the middest of his Enemies to the end the shame the Souldiers should have had to loose them might oblige them to redouble their courages and regain them Both the Greek and Roman Histories are fall of such like examples needless to the rehearsed The shame that Caesar had seeing the the Image of Alexander who had won so many remarkable victories as soon as ever age had made him fit to bear Armes so touched him that afterwards he never ceased bending his mind to generous actions which have eternized his glory A Treaty to renew the Alliance with Holland NOw for the perserving of this place notwithstanding Spinola's extraordinary passion to take it two things were necessary First to hinder the Spaniards from having such numbers of men as they would have desired Secondly that the Kings Army might want nothing but be recruited from time to time by the supply of new Troops in the place of those whom the plague had wasted The Cardinal had foreseen and provided for the first before he parted from Paris giving such exercise to the Spaniards in the Low Countries that they had much a do to furnish themselves with the Troops there requisite without diverting them to new enterprises especially seeing the King of Swede of whom we shall speak hereafter began to give them employment in Germany The Cardinal having discovered about the end of the Precedent year that the Sparniards were upon the design of offering great advantages to the Hollanders to bring them to a truce whereby to have means to draw Troops out of the Low Countries to send into Italy acquainted the King how much this truce was prejudicial to the rest of Europe giving way to the Spaniards to maintain themselves in the injust user patation of the States of many Princes of Germany as well as of the Duke of Mantua's The King apprehended that danger and his Majesty thereupon impowered Monsieur de Bangy his Embassador in Holland to renew with them the ancient Treaties of alliance upon condition that they might not for some years come to any truce with their Enemies That power was given him from the month of December of the Precedent year 1629. and yet as affairs of that nature are not so readily determined the Treaty was not signed till the month of June of the Present year The Cardinal thus preventing by his unparralel'd Prudence the most crafty subtilities of the Spaniard Politique Observation AS it is glorious for a Minister to prevent the force of the Enemies by a contrary force as we have said so is it very honourable to prevent the effects of their Prudence by an opposite Prudence He ought to be like a good Pilate who have attained great experince at Sea can discover a Tempest before it comes and prepears all that is necessary to resist it or I will compear him to a wise Physician who preserves those he takes into his care not only from sickness but even from the danger of falling-sick and to say the truth therein consists one of the highest points of Politique wisdome and I have alwayes esteem'd that one of the greatest services he can render that Governes a State is to prevent by his Prudence the craft from which the Enemy pretends to draw advantage to avoid his undermining by a Counter-mine and by his good conduct to slight all the works of
about with fury It snatcheth away all fears and there is not any thing which it doth not perswade and lead him to The Events of War are incertain and it is in fights as in other affairs of the World sometimes he who negotiateth findeth himself reduced in certain conjunctures to put himself upon an eminent hazard of losing all to gain all the advantage to himself so he who in a combat would carry away all the glory by a high hand doth often see it reaped by his enemies for that he attempted to reduce them to too great an extremity The King falls very sick and disposeth of his State-affairs DUring the Treaty God Almighty who hath not made Princes of any other temper then other men permitted the King to fall into a violent disease the issue whereof being incertain put the affairs of the Kingdom into a strange confusion But as all the sicknesses wherewith he doth afflict men are not to destroy them his love alwaies guiding and conducting the order of humane affairs so he would not deprive France of a King who was so necessary for them nor the Church of her eldest son who fought for her Liberty He restored him his health and imployed the sickness to let him know that he was liable to the Laws of humane frailty as well as the least of his subjects He gave him this occasion to make known that vertue and extraordinary Piety wherewith he had invested his Soul His Courage evidenced to all the World that he did not fear death but considered it as an easie passage from the miseries of this life to the eternal happinesses of Heaven his thoughts were not fix'd upon any thing but how to render his Soul worthy of the divine mercy which he did hope to obtain The onely regret which he testified was not the leaving his Crown but the having committed offences which humane weaknesse cannot avoid and for which he desired pardon of God which all bathed in his tears he begged those who were present to assist him in Politique Observation KIngs are not exempted by the lustre of their Crowns from the necessities either of sicknesse or death If their Birth and Scepter have advanced them sicknesse and death render them equal The greatest part of adversities do not spare them at all during their lives But it should rather seem on the contrary that the greatnesse of their birth hath obliged them to undergo the greater afflictions The divine Prudence having so ordain'd it to let them know they are but men The valiant Alexander bewitched with his Conquests suffered himself to be perswaded by his flatterers that he was of the Race of the Gods and he was not undeceiv'd of this presumptuous opinion untill he was wounded and saw the blood run down from his wound There is indeed nothing more ordinary with great men then to forget themselves amidst those extraordinary respects which are payd to them God hath left them subject to the same afflictions with the rest of men which serve as so many calls to advertise them that their Felicity is not on earth and that their Kingdom is but a place of exile where God hath left them liable to the same inconveniences That true greatness doth not so much consist in the power to do whatsoever one would as in the will to do what one ought That it is blindness to measure their power by the licentiousness of satisfying their Passions and that the greatest Princes in subjecting all things have first subjected themselves to reason shewing in all their actions that though they could do any thing yet they would attempt nothing but what were fit and worthy of Gods Lieutenant that greatnesse doth not acquit them from well-doing but on the contrary as it hath furnished them with more opportunities so more is expected from them that their surest Revenue is the good and love of their people and that they ought not so much to fear to suffer evil as to do evil The gentleness of the Cardinal towards his Enemies THe Kings sicknesse produced several occasions by which the Cardinal perceived but with great grief the extremity of the hatred which the Queen Mother had conceived against him which made him redouble his care to do all things which might render him agreeable to his spirit There was no one quality or thing able to beget good will in the hearts of men with which he did not study to furnish himself that he might render himself deserving of the honour of his Majesties good favour Good Offices make a man acceptable and it cannot be related with how much Passion he imbraced his Majesties Interests We usually love them that love our relations and the Cardinal had so great a desire to pleasure his Majesty that forgetting all the injuries which he had received from the Marshal de Marillac he got ten thousand Crowns to be presented to him and a Command given him equal with that of the Marshals of Force and Schomberg to go to the relief of Cazal It is impossible to hinder our wills from loving them who love us it being very true that there is no stronger charm to oblige others to love us then our first loving them Now there is not any person can better testifie them the Queen Mother her self and those who were neer her both at Lyon and in her return to Paris how much zeal and affection the Cardinal vowed protested and shewed to her in a thousand actions which concern'd her service Great submissions reclaim the most brutish natures Now nothing could be added to those which the Cardinal made to his Majesty at Lyon and in the same journey to Paris when he begged his pardon in behalf of his most just intentions as if they had been most grievous offences and in such a manner as was able to allay the fury of a Lyon Was it needfull to imploy so many cares to use so much industry to make him be beloved who was the chiefest of men and the most amiable Those eminent qualities wherewith the Creator of the Universe hath inriched him as a Master-piece of his Power and which he form'd but once in six ages and so many glorious exploits which have immortalized his honour are not these I say such efficacious charms that it is impossible to see him and not to love him It is true that they were sufficient to have wrought upon any spirit which had not been cemented in its Passion for above two vears together And though it were so he for his part did never forget any of those things which are imagined to be capable of re-estating himself in her good thoughts The ordinary discourse with which he entertained her was that he could never do enough to recover that place which he had heretofore had the honour to possesse in her good opinion and to confesse and acknowledge to her those great favours for which he was still ingaged to her though indeed and by the strict Laws of Equity
they were procured and bestowed upon him as so many just recompences of his services or to ingage him to do others of more importance as the effects of a pure liberallity But after all either these indeavours these cares these services these respects or these submissions could mitigate that sharpnesse which had taken possession of her spirit They wrought for some time so much upon her reason that she kept all fair and seemed not to be displeased but assoon as she was arrived at Paris her Passion revived and to that height that she removed out of her family Madam de Combalâ—t and Monsieur de la Meâ—lleray and in prosecution her passion carried her to commit and act unheard of violences upon the Kings disposition to induce him to destroy this incomparable Minister without whose Prudence France it self had been destroyed Politique Observation AS Women do not ordinarily love men though the most amiable with or by reason the only instinct of their passion making a deeper impression in their souls then the merit or worth of those whom they address themselves to love so there is no reason which is able to root out any hatred which they shall once conceive They easily passe from one extremity to another upon those Wings of Inconstancy which nature hath given them with their births and the changeableness of their humour is easily known by the pride which they take to hate such persons against whom they have once taken any impression and of which there is not any hopes to cure them by any lawfull waies The strongest reasons of truth passe in their opinions for Artifices and the most humble submissions do not at all touch their high minds and the greatest in stances make them the greater Rebels They being of the same humour with fortune who doth ordinarily bestow her favours upon those who least seek after them The constancy of the Cardinal against those who would remove him out of the Kings Favour JT cannot be denied but that the Cardinal was affected with such apparent grief on this occasion as cannot be imagined and as it is not generosity but a poorness of spirit to a shew an insensibleness on such occasions so in the Cardinals face one might see all the lively marks of displeasure It was not the apprehension of losing his fortune that did touch him for he had learnt by a long experience that the greatest happinesse of this life is not confined to the greatest honours and that those who govern an Estate are like the Celestial Bodies which receive much honour from the earth but have no rest at all so that he had most readily renounced all according as he supplicated his Majesty if his Majesty would have thought it fit who too too well knew of what concernment he was to his State It could not be that he did suspect his Majesties goodnesse or constancy to whom hee knew his fidelity was better known then to all the rest of France and of whose affection he had so many daily testimonies that he could not but without great blame have him in any doubt at all But as Innocence cannot without trouble passe for guilty so the vice of ingratitude with which the Queen Mother did strive to sully his glory made it so much the more insupportable by how much lesse he had deserved it He was not to learn that the power of Grandees was potent enough to insinuate into the peoples minds their particular thoughts for infallible truths and that she might in France and to posterity make him passe for an ungratefull servant of those favours which she had conferred upon him It was for this that he could not imagine no more then he Kings loyal servants that after he had given canse to the whole World to admire him the Artifices of some seditious spirits would be able to counterpoise his glory Ingratitude is a deficiency of that acknowledgement which one ought to have for good Offices so that who so confesseth himself to be indebted cannot be accused But surely he cannot be called ingratefull who hath no greater desires then of paying eternal service to those from whom he hath received obligations and who hath no more apparent grief then to see the malice of his enemies able to remove him from the opportunities of so doing But what appearence can there be of casting this infamous quality in his teeth who hath paid all imaginable services to his very enemies onely that he might make ' them Mediators of his Reconciliation which would inable him to imploy the rest of his life to serve her who had obliged him Can he be called ingratefull who would lose the first place of Honour in a State to preserve that which he had formerly possessed in the good opinion of his Benefactâ—ix seeing he could not make a more perfect demonstration of his acknowledgement And now cannot the whole Court bear witnesse that all this was but one part of the care which the Cardinal took to recover some part of the honour of the Queen-Mothers good opinion He whom she made his principle accuser never durst disavow it in his writings But not welâ— knowing how to describe his ingratitude he would fain make him passe for ingratefull because he did not adhere to and follow all the Queen Mothers sentiments in State affairs as if a Minister could with Justice prefer the opinion of such a person as she was before the Kings service And as if the condiscendence which he should make to the Queen Mothers will would not be one of the greatest defects in a person of his Trust It is true that her birth might oblige him to extraordinary services but they never ought to run counter to the fidelity due to his Master which commands him to passe by no occasion of preserving or augmenting his glory He is obliged to know what is due by way of recognition to those who favour him and what is due by Justice to the King his Master and never to prefer the acknowledgement of of particular kindnesses before the Interest of the State which is entrusted to his conduct He would perchance have him pass for ingrateful because he did not discover some important secrets to the Queen-Mother which was only in matters contrary to her opinion as if secrecie were not the soul of counsel as if to reveal a thing were not evidently to obstruct the execution of a Designe The sagest Polititians have said He is the wisest King who after he hath caused divers expedients to be proposed communicates his resolution of what shall be done but only to a few persons Politique Observation HAtred which hath no just foundation is so inconsiderate that it proposeth Chimeras for very plausible nay strong reasons without regarding that they will not be credited but by such spirits as she hath got the possession of when Truth doth not furnish it with solid reasons it attempteth to make pretenses pass for currant lawful causes There are no
Imperial Commissary entred in their place Politique Observation IT is not without great reason that God hath called himself in the Mosaick Law The â—ord of Hosts seeing he holdeth in his hand the Courages of those who conduct them as he himself thinks fit he gives them Peace or War and when they think that they are upon the very point of fighting then it is that he compels them to lay down their Arms to teach them that it is his gift and that it is not in the power of all humane wisdom if he himself doth not lend a helping hand to it His Providence guides things to their ends by means which to appearance are contrary to it But his Power is always Master and it is in vain for us to endeavour or labour to resist him It is worth looking on the Sun in a storm and to behold the Ayr cut with lightning and thunder the Clouds cleft asunder the impetuousness of the Winds and Thunder calmed the Ayr cleered and in a while all that dissipated which hindred the shining of his rayes But how much better is it to behold the Sun of Justice who over-ruleth Hosts to make the force of his power to appear just when Battels are joyning to cover the earth with dead Bodies to dy the Fields and Rivers with blood to obscure the Sky with the smoak of Cannons and Muskets and to fill the Ayr with lamentable Cries and then to allay their rage to cause their Arms to drop out of their hands to fill their souls with gentleness and in a word to give a happy Peace After such an affair seeing all things fall out contrary to our expectations may not one conclude that God laughs at our Designs and that his just Power over-rules the Order and Conduct of all humane Affairs The re-victualling of Cazal AFter all this the Spaniards whose arrogant humour could not well away with the disorder they were now put to had much ado to march out of Montferrat and they did not only delay the time by pretending that their Ammunitions of War and Victuals could not so soon be drawn off but began to take up new Quarters about Cazal which the French when they retired had left This made the Generals resolve to dispatch three Regiments of French to Cazal under the Mareschal de Marillac and accordingly it was effected The Mareschal gave an account to the Imperial Commissary of the Reasons which occasioned his return and that he pretended not to stay longer in Cazal then till the Spaniards and Germans should withdraw from Montferrat at which the Commissary could find no exceptions it being reasonable that both should march off at the same time Some of the Enemies were so much netled at this that the Generals having divided the Army in two parts one Division marching by the Coast of Livorn and Byanzay they were advised to follow them with intention to fall upon them This breach of Faith did more affright then hurt them They ranged themselves into Battalia and so stood one whole day expecting when they would come on In the mean time there were six thousand Quarters of Wheat clapt into Cazal and the French marched off at the same time that the Spaniards and Germans went out of Montferrat c. Thus the War ceased for that year though the Treaty were not as yet absolutely concluded on Politique Observation JT were great rashness in a General after a Victory or the taking in of any Place so to despise his Enemy as to let his Forces be in disorder or to give them any opportunity to regain what they had lost The Anger which an Enemy is possessed with after he is either beaten or forced from his Siege should induce him still to be ready for a fight his enemy waiting only for an advantage to take his revenge If they be once beaten out of one quarter of their Trenches they should be so look'd after that they do not enter in at another part they should never be thought to have left a Country so long as there remains but one place which may make any resistance not so much as a Castle which may quickly be fortifi'd or the Gate of a Town which one may suppose to be secure by a Treaty ought to be left unregarded Desperation doth somtimes re-double an Enemies courage and even when an Enemy is absolutely routed there ought to be a strict watch kept seeing a broken Army doth often rally and rush in upon the Conquerors and do them so much the greater mischief by their not being prepared to make defence The King of Swede enters into Germanie WHilst the King carried his Arms into Italy for the just defence of Monsieur de Mantua's Interest several Princes of Germany and amongst the rest the Dukes of Pomerania and Mecklebourg the Marquis of Brandenburgh and divers Common-wealths oppressed by the House of Austria imagining that the King of Swede's Nobleness would defend them from this violence called him in to their assistance They sent sundry Deputies to him to engage him with all earnestness to assist them whom they found so much the more enclined to it in regard he thought himself justly offended with the Emperour for his unworthy dealing with him for he had caused his Letters to be broken open his Characters deciphered and interpreted imprisoned his Subjects trading upon the Baltique Sea after he had taken away their Merchandises prohibited the Commerce though it were a natural right and free to all the World had by several means hindred the conclusion of that Peace which had been treated on with Poland had sent whole Companies under his own Colours into Prussiia to fight against the Swedish Army to destroy him under pretence of assisting the King of Poland had in a worse then barbarous manner refused the Embassadours whom he had sent to him to treat a Peace and had openly and under-hand spoiled and deprived his kindred and Allies of their States so that some of them were even brought to Beggery without being able to get any reason or satisfaction to their just complaints These are the true causes which stirred up his Courage not able to suffer such injuries and which at last made him imbark on the Sea a most puissant Army About July he came before the Island of Rugen which he made himself Master of in a few days notwithstanding those great oppositions which he met with thence he went to Stralzund a Hans Town seated upon the Baltique Sea in the Dutchy of Pomerania which he had taken into his protection in the year 1628 and there he landed The Imperialists had kept the Town close blocked up untill March and did still belabour it with all Acts of Hostility though they were constrained to raise the Siege after the losse of above twenty thousand men but they quickly drew off for altogether not thinking it possible to resist him in a field who had so easily taken in the Forts of the Island Rugen Politique
this But without making of comparisons it shall only suffice to say this complaint was ridiculous seeing the Cardinal had at that time only two places which were of any importance and his Kindred as many whereas some great Houses of France had more Besides what cause of Jealousie could there be seeing he was every week twice or thrice at least with his Majesty and still brought with him a surrender of his Offices it being in his Majesties power not only to dispose of his Charges but of his Person likewise He had indeed over and above the Government of Bretagne But how Was it not at the earnest intreaties of those of the Country who considering themselves to be invironed with Ports concluded that he could most effectually establish their Trade by means of his Superintendency upon the Sea which had been much decayed during the late Governours times because of the frequent differences between them and the Admirals of France each of them pretending to command upon the Sea coast That which made these factious exclaim more loud then all the rest was because his Majesty had discharged some Governours from their places and committed them to him But what Was not his Majesties so doing a piece of great Discretion when he foresaw the ruine of the Kingdom by the little obedience of such Governours who having the possession of Towns and Places in their Families a long time together would hardly be perswaded they were beholding unto his Majesty for continuing them unto them but would presently fly out into Rebellion upon the first noise of any insurrection Hereupon his Majesty resolved to punish them according to their deserts and deprived some of them of their Offices and Governments with intent of bestowing them on such persons of whose fidelity he was well assured as upon those of the Cardinals Family who were never seen to intermeddle in any Cabal against his Majesties service and who knowing the honour of his Majesties favour to be the only support of their Fortunes were careful of not being ingaged in such Designs as might make them unworthy of it The advantage which this alteration brought with it was soon after apparent for how would it have been if one had continued Governour of Brest if another had kept his Government of Brouage and if Calais had not been dispossessed of its Commander would they not have served for so many Citadels and Magazins to countenance all Revolts which they designed And what I pray is become of all those places which were entrusted with the Cardinal or his Allies Have they not continued in their Obedience to his Majesty and those who engaged the Queen-Mother and Monsieur in their differences could not dispose of any of them according to their own desires And that indeed was the only and chief motive of their complaints Politique Observation NOthing gives greater tranquility to a State then the disposal of Governments into the hands of such persons whose affection and fidelity are well known unto their Prince The experience which France hath so often had hath been too sad to be forgotten seeing the most part of Civil wars nay of Forraign too had not been broached but by the defect of Governours more solicitous of their own Interests then of their Masters glory and service Few are the Grandees who are not discontented if they have not Governments conferr'd upon them nay if they have not some kind of assured settlement in their Commands that their Authorities may be greater A King therefore is obliged to be the more inquisitive whether with their Gandeur they have loyalty and zeal for his service otherwise it were only to give them the means of combining one with the other to raise Factions and to diminish the Soveraign by advancing their own private power Admit they be discontented 't is without cause for no one hath any right to prescribe a Law to his Prince how he shall chuse such persons as he is pleased to employ in his service It is prudence not to regard such discontents they are inconsiderable when the publike Peace is in question A King cannot distribute his Governments with more discretion then by intrusting them with such persons whose loyalty is impregnable and who he is assured will never interest themselves with any party but his own if any Division should arise Now of whom can he better be assured then of such a Minister of whose fidelity he receives daily testimonies and who when he sees him brings with his Person all the Governments and Charges which have been conferred upon him As for those related to him seeing they absolutely depend upon him and that their Power is as his own dependant upon his Majesties good favour they are equally obliged to be faithful For this reason it is that the greatest Princes have not only not been backward to bestow the chief Governments upon them but have looked upon it as a thing very necessary for their service Touching the distribution of Governments I add That a King is obliged what he may to displace those persons who have enjoyed their Offices any long time unless he be very well assured of their fidelity they are so used to hold them when long continued that the fear of losing them doth oftentimes engage them in some Faction which gives them hopes of a longer continuance Besides when not received by his Majesty but his Predecessors they are the sooner ingaged in a Faction because they think not themselves beholden to him for them Withal in processe of time they get so absolute a Power that somtimes it exceeds their Masters it being usual that long command is accompanyed with pride and insolence Hence it is that in the most politique States their Governments were never but temporary Rome lost her Liberty by continuing her Magistrates too long in their Power and Caesar could never have mastered his own Country but by acquiring too great a Power over the souldiers by his long command The Cardinals Riches not to be envied NExt of all these factious spirits would have the Cardinal 's possessing of his Majesties favours to pass for a great crime although his free humor acquits him to every one from the guilt of covetousness and concludes him to be so naturally generous that he values not all the goods of the world but only in order to the well disposing of them The place which he holds under his Majesty in the State necessitateth him to great expences and without them sure it is that both he and all those who are in the same employment would fall into dis-esteem and that inevitably unless they be accompanied with some splendour and extraordinary magnificence else how should they cause his Majesty to be obeyed Those charges once defrayed the rest he doth employ in good uses to the poor oâ— some actions becoming his virtue and bounty Ought his moderate estate to be envied who hath done so great services for France We have in our times beheld a
the depths of the most great and mysterious affairs But they only publish these things for a pretext of their mutiny by the example of some in the last age at Rouen and Valence O strange fury to render that a weaknesse in the most puissant King of the World which is a true effect of his wisedom when he saw in the Government of his estate that no affair whatever presents it self of which the Cardinal doth not fore-see the end consequences and causes that there is no inconveniency which he doth not remedy no danger which he doth not both prevent and secure that there is no difficulty which he finds not the means to compasse and that he never proposed any enterprise which he did not happily bring to passe Why then should not his Majesty follow his Counsels seeing his spirit is as it were forced by the solidity of his reasons to apprve them Politique Observation AS a King cannot too much confide in a Minister when he is throughly assured of his prudence and fidelity and if himself be of excellent parts he will not scruple it it being an assured signe of judgment to conform a mans actions to the counsel of wise men so he ought to trust him the more cheerfully in affairs of mean consequence when the temper of his genius assures him that he will acquit himself with honour And that is unbeseeming a great Monarch to trouble himself with trivial matters He who is not happy enough to have a Minister thus able is compelled to take the conduct upon his shoulders but surely he is much to be pityed God having not put the Crown upon the Head of Sovereigns to entertain their minds with trivial affairs Tiberius one of the greatest Monarchs that governed the Romane Empire being retired for his greater quiet into the Isle of Cherreâ— writ a Letter to the Senate wherein as Tacitus observeth he complains that he was troubled with all sorts of affairs and gave them to understand that neither Aedile nor Praetor nor Consul should have any access unto him but in matters of great concernment Thus Themistocles one of the greatest Statesmen of of his time said as Plutarch acquaints us that as the Ship of Salavere which may be likened to the Bicentaure of Venice never Launched out into the Sea but for the reception of Princes or some extraordiniry occasion So the Common-wealth of Athens should not make use of him but in high and difficult matters Now as for matters of great consequence it will be his advantage to be directed by his Counsel he having often made appear that his prudence is furnished with most infallible means to bring them to an happy issue The honour which herein he doth him is so far from taking off from his own authority that on the contrary it doth rather raise his greatness and advanceth his affairs to that pitch which himself would most desire for his glory It is dangerous presumption in any Prince to be wilfully bent upon his own judgement such an one is in a Road that leads directly into ruine The necessity of counsel is not to be avoided they ought to remember that God who is solicitous to keep the greatest Monarks within the bounds of modesty and humility hath as well subjected them to the necessity of Counsel as the rest of men unto them The most Prudent are alwaies the most stayed and it is generally agreed that to be wedded to ones own opinion contrary to the sences of great men is an assured mark of want of discretion because every one is blind in his own affairs I may hereunto adde that this stayednesse is a bond which themselves impose upon their own absolute power whereby they are bond which themselves impose upon their own absolute power whereby they are preserved within the limits of their duty not suffering themselves to be transported by the impetuousnesse of their passions Nature hath not formed Princes more then other men so perfect that they should alwaies swim in the right stream and never erre unlesse they have some one who may serve them for a guide The greatest Princes are most subject to be singular in their own opinions they having more authority it being most certain that a great power doth easily transport the mind into licentiousnesse It is my opinion that no greater harm can betide them then to want some person neer them whom they respect and who may have the liberty of advising them as he shall find most expedient whose advice they may follow with a respectfull condiscention Prosecution of the Subject THese Factious persons were not backward to hit the Cardinal in the teeth with the impositions charged upon the people noâ— that he was either the cause of them or that they were excessive but because they knew that this complaint was a fit Trumpet to raise sedition and such as all they who had ever raised any revolts in France had made use of True it is they were charged with some impositions but besides that they were not excessive they were absolutely necessary Never was there yet that time when the people dâ—d not apprehend their burthens to be extream It is a burthen to them to demand part of that for the King which they got not but with pain nor do injoy in any great plenty But it is without cause for that the impositions were necessary and there was not any mis-government in the disposal of the treasures Now that those Impositions so much cried out upon were unavoidable cannot be doubted because those Wars and Designs began after his comming to the Administration In consideration whereof those Charges imposed where absolutely necessary They were ingaged to allay the factious insolency of the Hugonots to succour Allies to suppresse the ambition of the house of Austria who after the invasion of our neighbours would assuredly have made their attempts upon this State This being so who can deny them to have been necessary which admitted the Impositions could be no lesse and I may safely add that those very factious spirits themselves were oftentimes the causes of raising the Taxes by causing more by half to be expended in the Wars of Piedmont by the delays they gave the Troops in detaining them so long besides they forced his Majesty to keep an Army a long time on foot purposely that he might watch and prevent their designs Wars and Taxes do constantly march hand in hand and the same pace poverty serving only to bring an Army into disorder if it be a fault to make the people contribute to the charge it is much more blame-worthy to see a State laid open to their enemies The peoples misery is an incommodity which is soon outworn in a good Country where a good Harvest puts them in statu quo prius but it is not the same in the advantaâ—es which the enemies of France are permitted to have there is need of a sufficient foundation to maintain the charge of the War I assure
their rage but a wise Prince will easily be inclined to quit his Arms when those three grand causes do cease which are the usual occasions of War The Philosophers say the effect is no longer necessary when the cause ceaseth to act which ought not only to be understood of the efficient but also of the final cause it being reasonable to abstain from such actions when the end which first stirred us up doth no longer ingage us besides he is compelled as it were to make peace abroad when any intestine War calls him to look home The discreet Physitian gives the same counsel by his example when he is much more solicitous of those evils ingendred within the body then those which only appear upon the skin Civil Wars concern the preservation of a State forraign Wars are only usefull for glory or power Now as that which is necessary is still to be preferred before that which is profitable he ought so much the sooner to recal such forces to remedy that disorder which threatens him within it being almost impossible to give order at the same time both for one and the other in fine â—e ought to make peace after the obtaining those advantages which he could expect either from fortune or his own conduct The successe of War is not alwaies the same and it is difficult to make good fortune to last alwaies Victories do not alwaies depend upon Prudence Fortune hath her share in them It is not to be avoided but that after a long Calm the Vessel should meet with a Storm maugre the Prudence or the Pilot so likewise it is impossible that after divers advantages obtained in War some misfortune should not happen Hannibal was alike couragious both in Affrick and Italy yet after his return to Carthage he was no longer successefull in his Arms. This is one of the reasons which hath induced the Sages to advise great Captains to withdraw upon their advantage lest they lose the glory which they had formerly obtained What it is that makes Cazal considerable to the Spaniards THis advice were fit for the Spaniard to follow that he might stop himself in the enjoyment of those great successes which fortune hath bestowed upon them under Ferdinand Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second but their Ambition will hardly give them leave so to do They made it apparent in this particular where they shewed themselves totally averse from Peace unto which his Majesty was so easily inclined they testifying by their actions that their chief design was to hinder the Duke of Mantua's peaceable enjoyment of his States They perswaded themselves that the Court being divided by those Tares which they had sowed and which they manured with such care in the minds of the Queen-mother and Monsieur France neither would nor could long sustain the War in Italy and withall as they could not imagine but the Queen-mother would in fine attain her wil in the Cardinals destruction they concluded that that once effected Cazal would easily be reduced to their obedience which his discreet conduct kept safe from them Montferrat of which Cazal is the strongest place is a Country of small extent yet of great importance to the design which they have a long time had upon Italy Untill this present they have been forced to sit still in the out-bounds Naples and Millan and true it is this is one of the principal objects which hinders the conquest of the rest could they but once joyn their German with their Italian power they would soon be Masters of the whole therefore have they indeavoured it for so many years but without Cazal all their attempts are vain that place alone being a Bul-wark to block up the passage of any Troops which passe from Germany to Millan This is indeed that which makes Cazal so considerable the not having whereof is the more important in regard their power is bounded in at the Fort of Fuentes which being so they resolved to give their Embassador in Savoy full power to conclude any thing in his Master's behalf an artifice full of injustice but which ceased not to be very proper for their design for that he not being party to the Treaty it will still be free for him to break it by refusing to subscribe those Propositions which concerned his interest However as Princes never want pretences for the most unjust designs they would not own this Artifice and the Cloak with which they covered it was that fighting under the Emperours Colours there was no need of any one to treat in their behalfs but after all their indeavours to prevent the execution of the Treaty then concluded they made it apparent that this reason of theirs was only a pretence and that their true design was to hinder the peace that they might make new attempts upon Cazal Politique Observation THat Ambition which is sometimes favoured with good successe hath much much ado to relinquish its enterprises though unjust It is an errour to think Fortune is blind because she distributeth her favours inconsiderately and without forecast for that God himself whose eyes are clearer then the Sun is the Author of whatever befalls man-kind Well may she be painted without eyes when as she doth usually blind those whom she doth at any time oblige with the least extraordinary successe A Prince accustomed to conquer proposeth no law in prosecution of his Will though that right be inherent in God alone Little doth he consider the condition which his birth hath given him and the passion of growing great at his neighbours expence doth so transport him that he thinks he hath right enough if he have but power to conquer them he flatters himself in the belief that those Monarchies which are this day held with most justice are grounded upon no other Titles then the swords of those that first founded them The desire of Dominion which transporteth him rendreth him careless of dying the earth with blood if he may but subjugate more people to himself and of making the world groan under the violence of his arms if he may but get a new addition to his authority It makes him forget that he is a man and consequently that he is subject to the Laws of Death and equally liable with the meanest Cottager to render an account of his actions that the usurpation of anothers right shutteth the gates of heaven against him and that ambition it self is a punishment to those whom it possesseth augmenteth their inquietudes with the encrease of their powers Who knoweth not that it is not the greatness of Kingdoms which maketh Kings greatly happy that the desire of conquest is accompanyed with more pain and hazard then pleasure that those Princes who will subjugate all men are hated by all men and are oftentimes reduced to a non-plus just when they think to extend the bounds of their Empire to the utmost That it is no more just to usurp the power of a Soveraign Prince then to commit murder
one of the greatest marks of their Authority God entrusting them to dispence Justice hath not only appointed them to chastise the people but likewise to make Laws and Statutes which may serve for a Rule of their Government Hence the Lawyers say That Princes Will is Law Democracy ascribeth this power to the People but Monarchy restraineth it to Kings only and acknowledgeth no Laws but what are signed by their Majesties Now as the power of making Laws is in them so is that of changing and adding according as they shall think fit if they had not this power we should have no other Laws then those of Nature imprinted in the heart of man by the meer instinct of reason or such as were made by the first Father of Mankind All the Volumns of Theodosius and Justinian might be burnt and those of our Kings too as so many attempts against the liberty of the people because they have been but of late Creation there being none so ancient but what did once savour of Novelty Were not this to put the people into an extream licentiousnesse and to shut our eyes against reason which teacheth us that the Kings of this age have no lesse power then those of old who in their Laws have included what-ever they thought necessary and which could not tye up their Successors hands from following their examples left unto them It is a vulgar error to imagine that to alter Laws must needs be dangerous Without just consideration indeed it ought not to be done but when there happens any such to be the alteration of them cannot but be advantagious it being impossible that the first Law-makers should foresee all inconveniences which being so their Successors have power to change or abrogate them as occasion shall require Absolutely to reject Laws because they are new is but a Cynical humour seeing the antiquity of them cannot be a just denyal to the use of several others which have since been ordained neither can novelty be a sufficient reason to impower those which are at present in use Vlpian saith Kings may change any Laws into better and Cicero pleading against Verres very boldly saith That the ancient ought to be left and the new received when there is a probability of advantage by it All France hath commended Hugh Capet for changing that law which called all the male children to the succession of the Crown and stiâ—l will approâ—e of those changes which tend to preserve the Royal Authority in its luster The Cardinal is created Duke and Peer of France THe King having established all things so firmly in France that none of the factious Caballists could trouble the Peace and restored the Princes and People of Italy to their Liberties by the Treaty of Queraâ—que it was but just that the Cardinals services should be rewarded with some new Titles of Honour in regard those important affairs had been managed by his discreet counsels No one can doubt but that the Quality of Duke and Peer was his just due seeing he had so gloriously acted the part of a Duke and Peer which as the French History relates is either to govern the Affairs of State or some particular Province by his Majesty's Order or else to command his Armies Was it not in these two employments that his prudence and courage so eminently appeared that all Strangers were no lesse terrified then the true Frenchmen rejoyced His Majesty who admires more then any one the eminence of his Genius having made the greatest experiments of him was not defective to confer this honour upon him His Majesty dispatched his letters unto him which carried in them an extraordinary recommendation it being seldome conferred on persons of his worth and after so many glorious actions They were confirmed by the Court not only without any difficulty but with high eulogiums and a particular acknowledgement of the good offices he had done in France In fine he went to take his Oath at the Palace on Sept 15. accompanied with Monsieur le Prince the Dukes of Montmorancy Chevreuse Rets Crequi Vantadour and Montbazon the Marâ—schal d' Estree Vitry and d' Effiat and many other Lords who desired to follow him to testifie by their presence how great an esteem they had of his services which rendred him worthy of so eminent a quality The Chambres were all assembled and coming into the great one he took his Oath to serve his King well and faithfully in his highest greatest and most important affairs to do Justice impartially both to poor and rich and to behave himself in all things like a most vertuous most generous and most magnanimous Duke and Peer of France and then he took his place beneath all the rest of the Dukes Amongst these great honours I cannot omit one remarkable passage that as the greatest Genius are the most modest and scorn inferiour men who esteem of nothing but an extraordinary honour so he would not pass by the great Gate of the Palace where many thousands attended him but by a private door where he might not be seen because he desired not to be publikely commended as the custome alwaies was on such occasions and indeed the most eloquent of the Barreau would have found themselves gravelled to have done it his Actions and Qualities being above expression Politique Observation A King ought never to forget the rewarding of extraordinary services with marks of honour for glory is the Nurse of Vertue and reward ought to follow all Actions accompanyed with Courage and Valour so that it is unjust not to reward those advantages which a grand Minister procureth to the Crown It is likewise true that honourable Qualities cannot more justly be conferred on any then those that do honourable actions seeing the most significant names are given to Subjects only in consideration of their ordinary Actions Now the name of Duke most properly belongeth to him who leads an Army in War and manageth affairs of State in peace under the King's Authority In this sence the primitive Gauls took it and it is most conformable to the Etymologie of the word Those are the Offices which Justâ—nian ascribeth in his Institutes to a person of this Quality Ancient Authors do not observe that this was taken for any constant Honour until Diocâ—esian and Constantine in whose time the Governours of Provinces and Frontiers and Generals of Armies were called Dukes and Masters of War as may be seen in Amienus Marcellinus Tacitus indeed who lived under Trajane called Generals of Armies Dukes but it was only a temporary Quality which lasted no longer then their Commands It was under the later Emperours and our first Kings that this qualification was annexed to any particular person and made permanent as may be seen in Gregory de Tours the most ancient of our Historians where it is observed how Kingâ— â—â—ntram gave the Dukeship and Government of the whole Kingdom for five years unto Eudistus At that rime indeed this quality was not so fixed but
Germany to shew them that they might safely put themselvs under his protection although he wanted not Forces who were already advanced unto the Borders of their Country to secure them in a case of need and to defend them from any violences which they might apprehend from the Emperonr if the wheel of Fortune should turn about This Army consisted of about twenty four thousand men commanded joyntly by the Mareschals de la Force and d' Effiat The Elector of Treves adhering unto the Neutrality under the Kings protection it was thought requisite for his greater security that his Towns should be delivered into his Majesties power for that the Imperialists hold all for enemies who do not countenance their ambitious Designs and consequently would force the rest as they had already done part of his Towns out of his hands which if they should effect what were it but to run upon one Rock by endeavouring to avoid another He was soon perswaded of the necesity of this advice which easily induced him to admit French Garrisons into his Cities During these things the Generals of the Army press'd him to conclude the Treaty in order to his promises which he seemed but coldly to receive having already been assured from the Swedish King that for his Majesty's sake nothing should be attempted against him whilest he was under his protection They press'd him to be as good as his word telling him it was dishonourable for their Master to receive him into his protection and that others should hold his Towns from him whereupon he deposited the Castle of Hermesteine into their hands a place considerable both for its Form and Scituation which is such that it may block up the River Rhine at the foot whereof it is seated Twelve Companies of French marched into it under the command of Saludie who had long treated with the said Elector as well as the Sieur de Charnace The like he would have done with his chief City had it been within his power but the Chapter being gained by the Imperialists had forced him to quit it to the Comte d' Ysembourg who kept it with a Garrison of Spaniards sufficient for its defence The next thing he did was to deliver Philipsbourg into their hands but his Governour in stead of obeying his commands in receiving the Garrison protested he would not deliver the Places unless unto those whom the Emperour did appoint Hereupon the Spaniards apprehended the Elector being in this humour that Goblens might also be designed for his Majesty to prevent which they found means to clap a Garrison into it This place was more important then strong is scituate upon the mouth of the Rhine and Mozelle where they joyn their waters so that the Rhine only parted the French and Spaniard which had been enough to have kept them at peace had not the Elector of Treves Interests given them occasions of falling out The King was engaged to project him neither could the waters of that large River quench the heat of their Fury which egg'd them on to skirmish as often as occasion required which was the cause that they continued not long so neer together without engagements on either party and their emulation had increased had they continued their Neighbourhood any longer together The City of Treves besieged and the Arch-Bishop established by the Kings Forces THe Cardinals advices and indeavours still tended to preserve a good correspondency between the two Crowns neither was he to seek for an effectual means to continue it at this time which he did by the King of Swede's interposition who perswaded them to march forth from thence and divers other places The Design was concluded and the Marshal Horn advanced thither from Mayence with eight thousand Horse and six score Companies of Foot all well appointed The Rhinegrave had a particular Commission for the re-taking of Coblens before which he came about mid June invested the place and soon forced the Garrison to surrender upon composition which once delivered he restored unto the French having first dealt with the inhabitants to discharge the expences of the siege and his march thither The taking of this place strook such a fear and terror into the Spaniards that they resolved to quit divers others at least there needed but little perswasion to intreat their removal only they made some difficulty in relinquishing the City of Treves which they hoped to keep by the means of some new fortification they had there raised and a sufficient Garrison to defend it The Marshal d' Effiat was commanded to besiege it but whilest he was drawing his Army thither Death which excuseth neither Alexanders nor Caesars deprived him of his life at Lutzelstein but could not rob him of the glory of having served the King his Master with an extraordinary Prudence both in his Councels and Embassies with an approved integrity in the management of his Treasuries and with an illustrious courage in the command of his Armies The King received the news hereof with grief and there being no time to be lost in preventing the Spaniards fortifying themselves his Majesty soon dispatched the Marshal d'Estree into his place whose Prudence and Courage had been experimented in several occasions and had acquired him the quality of Marshal de France ever since the year 1624. He departed from Paris by Post towards the Army where he found the Vicomte de Arpajon and the Comte de la Suze Marshals de Camp who had undertaken the command of the Army since the Marshal d' Effiats death already advanced near Treves which they had summoned to deliver the garrison refused being resolved to sustain the siege and defend the place Hereupon the Vicomte de Aspajon made his approaches with the Army and gave orders to invest the place which was performed with such expedition that the inhabitants found themselves unexpectedly surrounded the very next day The Comte de Yemsbourg had not confidence enough in the strength of the place to suffer himself to be pent up in it but quartered at Grafeumacher neither had he furnished it with above eight hundred men which considering the French power he thought to augment by clapping three hundred horse and twelve hundred foot into it together with a good convoy of Ammunition In order to which he made his approaches but the Marshal d' Estree comming to the Army just as intelligence was brought of this design he took such course that they could not effect it for he no sooner received the news but he commanded the Comte de la Suze and the Vicomte de Apajon to a place by which they were of necessity to passe thither they went and perceiving the enemy sent to discover their Forces by Lievtenant Alexis and twenty light horse who advancing further then was requisite were quickly ingaged by five squadrons of horse who forced them to give ground but were not long unseconded by the Sieur de Moulinet with five and twenty Gallants by the Companies of
divers Provinces in his absence AS in times of Revolts there ought alwaies especial eye to be had upon the Insurrections which a Rebellious party may make especially in the absence of heir Soveraign His Majesty before his removal from Paris thought good to commit the Government of that place and the adjacent Provinces unto the management of some Princes of the Blood Accordingly he dispatched his letters unto Monsieur le Prince de Conde to impower him to command in Nivernois Berry Bourbon Tourain Poictou Aunis Zainctonge Haut and Basse Marcke Limosin and Auvergne to preserve them in peace and quiet which he intrusted with him especially in confidence that his loyalty and zeal for his service as also his Prudence and good Conduct would effectually cause him to be very sollicitous and diligent in preventing any troubles what ever The Letters were accompanied with an extraordinary and unlimitted power which did a little surprize some people of small understanding who think a King never ought to intrust so great a power with any Prince of the Blood But indeed it was an effect and that a very remarkable one of the Cardinal's Prudence who knew there is not any cause to fear the power of a Grandee where there is any assurance of his being discreet The Laws of Gratitude and Submission do both oblige them to oppose any thing which incroacheth upon their Kings glory and it cannot be denied but that they preserve their own in particular by preserving their Kings Authority Whilst the Duke of Montmorency was disposing all things in order for the war Monsieur marched into Albigieis and the Bishop delivered Alby into his hands He rested there some time to refresh his Army and from thence he went leaving five hundred horse behind him unto Carcassenne where he held some intelligence but having been inform'd of the Sieur Mangot Villarceaux his great care to preserve the Inhabitants in their duties he passed on Beziers and gave order for a new Fortification From thence he designed to march to Narbone and make sure of that place by the help of some Intelligence which he there had which would have been a Port at command to have received any assistance from Spain as likewise to retire unto in case of necessity But he was presently discomfited to hear that those of his party had been over pow'red by the Arch Bishop and some other of his Majesty's servants who under pretence of assisting him got into the place and so mastered it Now the King being informed of all these proceedings The Result of the States she Revolt of Cities and of the inclinations of some Lords thought his presence would be necessary about those parts The Cardinal was of the same opinion and assured his Majesty that if he would undertake the trouble of the journey all those storms would pass away in fix weeks time as it fell out accordingly Hereupon the King concluded upon the expedition and before he left Paris caused the Parliament to publish a Declaration in common form against all those who followed Monsieur or favoured his designs proclaiming them to be Rebels guilty of high Treason and Disturbers of the Publike Peace commanding all Officers to proceed against them according to the Rigour of the Law yet with so particular a testimony of affection unto Monsieur that his Majesty would not have him declared guilty but it s the Declaration published That he would totally forgive him if he acknowledged his error within six weeks after publication thereof His Majesty likewise made a Declaration sent unto the Parliament of Tholose to proclaim the Duke of Montmorency guity of high Treason degraded from all honours and dignities the Dutchy of Montmorency extinct and re-united in the Crown and all his goods confiscate enjoyning the Parliament of Tholose to make his Process and requiring all Prelats Barons Consuls and Deputies of any Cities who had assisted subscribed or assented unto the Result of the States to appear before the Parliament at Tholose or the next Presidial to their dwelling houses within fifteen days after publication thereof to dis-own their Actions and Consents and in case of non-obedience to be deemed as Rebels and Traytors degraded from all honour and dignity prohibiting the imposing of any Taxes by vertue of any order from the said States Moreover his Majesty expresly commanded the Mareschals de la Force and de Schomberg to be careful that Monsieurs levies might not draw into a Body together but that they should fall upon them upon their first appearance These things thus setled he departed from Paris the eleventh of August The very news of his march out of Paris so encouraged his Majesties servants and disheartned the Rebels that all their contrivances did forthwith begin to fall The first thing which befel them but which was a great good Fortune for France was a division between their Leaders which gave the two Mareschals a great advantage upon them The Sieur de Puy-Laurens had been accustomed to command all who came neer Monsieur and could not now well endure that the Duke of Montmorency should issue out Orders for the carrying on of the War whereupon there grew a great jealousie between them Moreover the Duke d' Elboeuf being of another quality then the Duke of Montmorency pretended to be Monsieurs Lievtenant General which however the Duke would not admit off in regard he was Governour of the Province where all the Tragedy was to be acted Hereupon it being hard to make any accommodation between them it was thought requisite to part them and to assigne every one what he should command who being thus divided by and amongst themselves were easily overcome by his Majesties Forces Politique Observation THere is not any thing which giveth more advantage against Revolts and in general all enemies then the division of their Commanders and Forces if unexpectedly they fall into this disorder fortune is to be thanked and if it be possible to contribute in the least thereunto it ought the more industriously to be attempted in regard the effect cannot but be advantagious All great Captains have been chiefly solicitous of this one thing Coriolanus warring against the Romans destroyed the possessions of all their principal men but saved those of the people that so he might provoke the one against the other Hannibal on the contrary he preserved those of Fabius but burnt all the rest The Thebans advised Mardonius to send great Presents to the most eminent of the Grecians that the rest might be jealous of it And Cleomenius the Athenian assaulting the Fraezenians cast certain darts into the City with Letters fastened to them which served to raise a sedition amongst them in the heat whereof he fell upon them and became Master of the City To prevent this disorder the wisest Politicians have ever thought it proper that there should not be several Heads of an Army of equal power unlesse every one so commanded in particular that there should be only one
you will do me the honor to believe me This Rhetorique had been powerfull enough to have retain'd them in their devoirs had not their souls been pre-possessed by Passion that alone prevented it insomuch that most of them persevered to run on in their Rebellion Hereupon the King finding them who should have preserv'd the people in obedience both by exhortation and example to excite them to Rebellion could not put up such disorders but appointed Collectors in their several Bishopricks to receive their Revenues and to employ them in reparation of Religious Houses and Episcopal Seas and thinking it improper to intrust the care of Souls with such disloyal persoâ—s he procured a breviat from the Pope address'd to the Arch-Bishop of Arles the Bâ—shops of St. Flâ—ur and St. Malo to draw up their process against them His Majesty might have made use of his own power and have punished them by his ordinary Justice inasmuch as it was Treason from which there is no exemption neither could it have been thought strange by themselves seeing Jesus Christ himself and the two Apostles whom we acknowledge for the chief of Ministers of the Gospel refused not to be judged by the Laiety Yet his Majesty ever a great respecter of Ecclesiastical men would not commit their judgment but unto persons of their own Coat who deposed the Bishops of Alby and Nismes only death preventing the Bishop of Vssez from receiving the like punishment the rest they restored to their Bishopricks having not evidences enough to condemn them although they might peradventure be sufficiently guilty Politique Observation ALthough Bishops by their places are raised to an high degree of honour yet they wrong themselves if they think they are exempted from their Kings Authority seeing the Popes have in their writings as Gelasius to the Emperor Anastatius Pelagius to Childebert one of our first Kings and St Gregory to the Emperor Manritius acknowledged themselves depending upon their authority It is moreover true that Bishops are more especially obliged beyond any other Subjects to live in an exemplary Loyalty and by their indeavours to preserve the people in peace Upon their promotion to that spiritual dignity the take a new Oath of Allegiance which as it were a second Chain tieth them to the yoke of obedience but admitting that were not so yet the Ministers of the Church conforming themselves to the temper of their Mother which is a spirit of peace are bound to appease and pacifie the people when they are tumultuously given and much more not to blow the Coals of their dissention Savanarola was exceedingly condemned for exasperating an insurrection in Florence against the Medicis when he publiquely preached that it was Gods Will and Pleasure to have a popular Government established to the intent the chief of the City might have no longer power to dispose of the safety of some and the Libertie of others They who are so inconsiderate as to follow such sedicious tracts do render themselves the more unworthy of their callings by how much the Church doth abhor War and Blood We should think it very strange if Heaven which was created by the eternal Providence of God to inlighten the World with its stars to produce nourishments by its influences for the preservation of all creatures to enamel the earth with all sorts of Flowers and to overspread it with a thousand kinds of Fruits should in a sudden alter its nature and only fill us with darknesse terrifie us with Thunders and load the Earth with Briars and Thorns And would it not be more wonderfull to behold the Son of God having not more strictly charged his Disciples with any one thing then to be obedient and to preserve that Peace which he had brought unto Man-kind Bishops their Successors indeavouring to their utmost to destroy and die the land with blood to divert people from their duties to arm them against their lawfull Prince and by their power of Souls to ruine that Authority which Christ their Master hath given to their Soveraigns This were absolutely repugnant to the Orders by him established and directly opposite to the Laws to them prescribed If any of them should be so forgetfull of their duties the Ministers of State are the more obliged to punish them in regard the reverence wherewith they are esteemed and the opinion which men have of their sanctity and Doctrine rendreth their example of a more dangerous consequence and their discourses more powerfull to perswade whatever they are disposed to inculcate For this very reason was it that Giles Arch-Bishop of Rheimes was deposed by Childebert that Pretextatus was deprived of the Arch-Bishoprick of Rouen In the time of Childery that Theodor lost that of Arles by the command of Clovis upon this score it was that Lewis the Debonair forced the Arch-Bishop of Milan to give an account of his disloyalties Abon Arch-Bishop of Rheims Volsphod Bishop of Cremone and Theodolph Bishop of Orleans accomplices in the Conspiracy of Bernard King of Italy Did not Hugh Capet cause Arnoul convicted of Falshood and Treason to be drawn from the Sea of Rheims It is the ancient politique custom of France a Right belonging to our Kings and which Pope Zachary himself advised Pepin to put in execution without any scruple when and so often as occasion should require And what probability I pray is there that the Bishops and Church-men of a Kingdom should have a priviledge to ingage men in Rebellion and not be punished for so doing to instill sedicious Tenents in the minds of men and that Magistrates should not call them to accompt for it or depose them from their functions after they had rendred themselves unworthy of them by their evil deportment Divers Cabals made by the Duke de Guise THe King having secured the Peace in Languedoc Monsieur le Cardinal invited him to have an eye after the establishment of it in Provence where the Duke of Guise held divers practices tending to Rebellion and which were depending upon the same design with Monsieur de Montmorency The King having been inform'd of his evill deportment for at least a year before had often moved him to surrender the Government of that Province in consideration of other recompences offered unto him and upon his refusal had commanded him to come to Court that he might fairly and handsomly dis-ingage him without taking notice of those contrivances in which he was then imbarking It having ever been the Cardinal's advice unto his Majesty not to proceed unto the extremities of rigor but when he should be as it were inforced it by the extremities of dis-obedience But the Duke of Guise kept himself in Provence being fearfull lest his actions might be a means of stopping him at Court and laying him up in a place where he could not be capable of imbroiling whereupon instead of waiting upon his Majesty he caused his Mother the Dutchesse of Guise to beg leave of his Majesty that he might passe away two
difficult He much blamed the Marquesse de St. Chaumont for suffering himself to be surprized especially after he had been advis'd by the Cardinal to have a great care of all those who should travel upon the Road because she might probably passe by him in some disguise to which he return'd this answer that they should rely upon his diligence Monsieur Duc d'Orleans received no great satisfaction from it fore-seeing that this Princess would be a new Obligation to tie him to the Low-Countries but the Laws of Civility and the consideration of the Spaniards who he was forc'd to content perswaded him to seem very glad of it He presently dispatch'd the Sieurs de Fontain Chalendre de Rames and de Lavaupot to Thionville who were followed by the Duke d'Elboeuf and the Sieur de Puy-Laurens they met her upon the way and Monsieur in person went with much affection to receive her as far as Marshe and accompanied her from Namour to Bruxelles with all the honour and endearments she could desire That day that she was to go into Bruxelles the Infanta with the whole Court went to receive her half a League from the Town and meeting they both alighted from their Coaches to salute her the Infanta kissed her and then taking her by the hand led her into her own Coach where she alwaies gave her the right hand Comming to the Gate of Bruxelles the Companies of the City gave her a Volley of small shot and the Magistrates went to welcome her she alighted in company of the Infanta at the Queen-Mothers who testified much joy for her arrival and kissed her and after half an hours entertainment the Infanta carried her to her own lodgings which she had prepared two dayes before with very rich Furniture her soul being no lesse replenished with Magnificence then Piety The Princesse Marguerite could not forbear the expressing her content so sweet it is to attain any eminent point of honour after the running of great hazards but often repeated that she could never have beleev'd what History relateth concerning fugitive Princesses had she not her self experimented it The Infanta did dayly indeavour to augment her joy by her great care and the Presents she sent her in which the quaintnesse of her fancy was no lesse admirable then her liberality Nothing is more ingenious then Women to attain their Designs VVOmen of all creatures are the most dexterous in contriving their designs their natural sprightlinesse of imagination furnisheth them with a thousand expedients and proposeth all kinds of overtures with such probabilities of happy successe that they are easily inflam'd with a desire of trying them This desire maketh so great an impression upon their Passions that in case any obstacle present it self to divert them they never want anger which so disturbeth them that they admit of no rest untill they have surmounted it and obtain the ends which they propose to themselves This their violent apprehension augmenteth the fruitfulnesse of their conceptions and as the heat of the ayr doth every day disclose new productions in the bosom of the earth so their ardent desires beget new expedients in their minds carrieth all their thoughts conducteth all their motions guideth all their affections and so disposeth of all their power that they neither think desire discourse or do any thing but what tendeth to their ends they sleep with the consideration of those means which may conduce to their own ends the desire of executing them awakeneth them in the morning and as they have little diversions in the day time they have no greater delight then to discourse with them in whom they put their confidence Men who are imploy'd in great affairs have their imginary faculties more barren and granting them to be as fertile as those of Ladies yet the diversity of their imployments doth so divert them that it is impossible for them ever to be ruminating upon the same Subject but otherwise it is with Ladies especially those of quality who have nothing to do but to please their own fancies I might likewise adde that the defect of Prudence which is evident in most of them is in some sort to their advantage because it gives them more courage to execute than the wisest of men whose judgement makes them fore-see many inconveniences which women do not at all apprehend Besides the respect which every one beareth to their Sex seemeth to take away alâ—â—ear from them by perswading them that the worst that can befall them is but to discover their Sex and quality and that once known not any person of quality will use them uncivilly Amongst the many inventions which they have used to save themselves by flight or to obtain their desires that of changing their habits is one of the most frequent So Laodice the wife of Mithridates unwilling to forsake her husband when vanquish'd by Pompey cloath'd her self like a man and follow'd him a long time as if she had had an indefatigable body and courage Semiramis knowing most people impatient of the Government of women left off her usual habit after her husbands death and assum'd that of the Kings the better to preserve the government in her hands during the nonage of her son Ninus Doth not History record the same of divers Persian women who in the habit of Souldiers followed their Husbands to the Wars between the King of Persia and Selim the Turkish Emperour We read that divers Germans went to the Holy War with the Emperour Conradus cloath'd and accoutred like Cavaliers with as much valor as Amazons The Treaty made with Monsieur de Lorrain and how after all his difficulties he was forced to put it in execution THe advantages which the Kings Army had obtained upon the Duke of Lorrain produc'd those effects of which the Cardinal had given his Majesty great hopes He dispos'd himself to grant all that could be desir'd according as the Army made its progresse He was forc'd to send to Cardinal of Lorrain to his Majesty at Neufville to offer him the new Town of Nancy but his Majesty being not ignorant that leaving the City in his hands would give him the occasion and means to re-commence his imbroyls when ever those who had ingag'd him should send him a powerfull assistance would not be perswaded to assent thereunto He then sent again the same Cardinal with full power to deliver him both the Towns of Nancy in Deposite upon such conditions as should be resolv'd between him and Monsieur the Cardinal This was as much in apparence as could be desired but Monsieur the Cardinal too too well inform'd of the Dukes wavering homour to trust him was not backward to tell the King that he thought it not fit to rely upon it or to be certain of any thing untill the Gates of Nancy were opened that his forces might take possession of it so that the works of the Siege were prosecuted with all diligence yet at last the Cardinal having full power from
thoughts were enclined rather to surrender than to gain time in hopes of relief The Duke of Buckingham supposing it impossible that they should be relieved considering his engines and the great number of his Ships which lay in the Roade before the place sought rather to face the besieged by famine than to run new hazards by assaulting them after his first ill successe In the mean while as necessity doth quicken industry so the Sieur de Thoyras found means to send three Soldiers to the Main Land by swimming to give his Majesty notice of the condition in which he was to hasten away relief One of them called Le Pierre passed the Sea forcing its waves to yeild to his resolution He came to the Army before Rochel and delivered the Letters which he had for the King and others the Sieur de Thoyras his friends The Duke of Angoulesme dispatched that to his Majesty then at Villeroy and his cares for sending the relief were doubled so that the Sieur de Thoyras his friends knowing in what condition he was and how important it was to the Kings honour to assist him did use their utmost endeavours to heasten away his relief Politique Observation ONe of the greatest difficulties to which a man can be brought in ordinary seiges is the inability of sending intelligence to them from whom he doth expect relief and one of them greatest cares of the who besiege a place is to stop all wayes that nothing way passe in or out Some have made use of the night for this purpose as the Goths did when they would send news to Vitigez being besieged in Ormuz by Belligarius they made a great noise at one of the Gates pretending as if they would sally out upon their enemies to the intent that Bellisarius might draw all his Forces theither and leave but a few at that quarter by which they designed to send away their Messenger A Stratagem indeed very advantagious when managed with prudence The same Goths as Procopus reports used another devise upon the same occasion to send news to Vitigez which was They corrupted some sentinels for mony an invention easy to be practised in civil wars where both parties are acquainted with one another But that which is the most certain way which they who are besieged may make use of to send a broad intelligence ought to be guided by discretion according as occasions present themselves and executed them with all possible addresse for it is an art not to be laid down by certain Rules neither can it be learned by precepts but natural industry infuseth it by diverse instincts and experience teacheth it in war I shall onely add that there are sundry and divers means to be met with in History which great Captains have used on this occasion The Campany being besiged by the Romans sent a man who counterfeyted himself mad with letters for the Carthaginians in his girdle Hircius Consul writ to Decius Brutus then besieged in Modena by Antonius and sent his Letters made up in lead fastned to the Arms of those who swam over the River The same man did some times keep up Pidgeons in the dark without giving them to eat and then finding them almost famished carried them as near the place as possibly he could then let them go which flying to the houses with their letters about their necks were either taken down or killed by Brutus Justine reports that Harpagus that he might conveigh Letters to Cyrus put them up in the belly of an hare and sent them by a faithful Servant who passed through King Arbactus guardes for an Huntsman Others have used as many different devised as their wits and opportunities could attaine to That which ought to be observed is this that such Letters ought not to be writ in Characters or such cyphers which are legible We are not now in Caesars dayes who designing to send Cicero word that he was at hand to relieve him writ to him onely in Greek At this time there are no cyphers which are not easily found out It were fit that they were like the Characters of Chinenses which signifie things not Letters who writing as many different Characters as there are things it must needs be an hard matter to decypher them These Characters too for the greater security should be writ with the juyce of Limmons or Onyons between the Lines of Letters in which there is nothing of concern because that which is writ with this juyce cannot be read but by water or fire It were not amisse too if he who is Governour before the siedg agree with him to whom he would send intelligences of the manner he would write to him and there might be onely certain words in each line which composed together should discover his thoughts and yet taken with the rest would be thought to treat of other businesse than that which is really intended The I le of Ree relieved THE Relief of the Island was due to the Cardinal after his great or rather extream care One of the chiefest means he used to effect it was this He sent to Bayonne for 15 flat vessels called Primaces built both to sail and row and withal very fleet and able to endure a storm He judged by his prudence that the English having none of this fashion they might easily get to Ree in the night without being discovered The order was dispatched to the Count de Grand-Mont with command to put them under the conduct of the Sieur de Chalar Captain of one of the Kings Ships then in Spain and in case he should not be come back then to whom he thought fit The Count provided the 15 Primaces with all haste he armed then with Musquets and piks the best he could in each of them he put 20 seamen and took care if nothing was wanting The Sieur de Chalar not being returned he committed the conduct of them to Captain Baslin one of the most experienced and stoutest Sea Captain in those Parts About the end of August he came with his Primaces to the Sands of Olonne where the Abbot of Marsillac received him with great joy and his vessels being well stored with victuals add ammunition he lent him six score men of the Regiment de Champany with some Voluntiers to put off upon the first occasion Upon the fifth of September he set sail in the head of his little Fleet about 6 of the clock at night Soon after he knew that he was near the Enemies Fleet he spead abroad his great sailes and was presently discovered But the Primaces going very swift could not be stopped by the English Vessels they went without losse onely some sails and one or two Masts were shattered and one shot through with a bullet Baslin having thus passed the Enemies fell upon the Baracado which they had made to hunder relief which consisted of great Masts linked together with iron chains and tied with Cabels fastned to great Anchors however many of
the Primances by reason of their lightness and swiftness passed over the rest as it pleased God did light upon a certain place where the foregoing night a tempest had broken part of their Baracado through which they passed without difficulty so that about two in the night they ran ashore near one of the Bastilions of the Cittadel a place where the English could not hurt them The relief was great both for their reputation and assistance It came so opportunely that it gave them new courage who were till then hardly able to breath and it may safely be said that this one action was the deciding of the controversie The passage was afterward clear The besieged perswaded themselves that they should now want nothing and the English were so astonished at it that they sent to his Majesties Habâ—rin the Duke of Buckinghams Kinsman to see if he would make any propositions of Peace but he was sent back as he went without speaking with the King who could no more resolve to see him than to suffer the English to go away without treating them as they deserved that they might have no great will to come another time Diverse other vessels attempted to passe unto the Island but being heavier than the Pinnaces they were forced to go off some one way and some another through the English Fleet. It was then resolved that 10 other Pinnaces should be got from Bayonne which the Count de Grant-Mont rigged out and sent under the Command of Captain Audoum upon the 4 of October they came upon the Sands of Olonne They were soon laded and accompanied with 25 other little Vessels 300 Soldiers went abroad them and 60 choice Gentlemen Upon the 6 of October they put off The Sieur de Cusar and Captain Audouin were Commanders of the Squadron But the wind changing as soon as ever they were at Sea two dayes past before they came to Ree and that by day too The English Fleet soon discovered them and engaged them in a rough fight Musquet and Canon shot were not spared but their courage surmounting their danger 29 of the Vessels got clear to the Cittadel where they run ashore on Friday morning the 8 of October five of their Vessels were forced to give back One onely in which were the Sieurs de Beaulieu and Râ—zilly was taken by the Enemy The English were so incensed at it that they made in 24 hours above 2000 great shot upon the Port St. Martin so that there were onely 5 Pinnaces and one Traversin in condition to sail but the vessels were unladed and the Gentlemen and Souldiers happily landed in the Cittadel Politique Observation THE Relieving of a place is of such importance that without it no place is able to hold out when the besiegers appear to be resolute before it He who relieves them is acknowledges for their deliver and does considerable service to his Prince Although Sea-Ports are more easily assisted than Inland Towns especially with a strong Fleet because it is hard if the winds which with their inconstancy have an absolute Empire over the Sea should not at some one time or other present a favourable occasion to break through all the obstacles which their enemies Ships can make yet it is not the same thing when there is a want of great Ships to fight with those of the Enemy When it happens thus Prudence joyned with Fortune must surpasse all those difficulties which oppose the relief of the place There must of necessity be an expectation till Fortune presents a favourable wind without which what were it but rashly to run into danger But when the wind sits right the opportunity ought not to be lost and then a wise Pilot guided by his industry may hope for a good successe from his enterprise The Chief points which he ought to observe are to provide store of light vessels which may passe the quicker For besides that deligence the Mother of good successe it is particularly needful when a strong Fleet is to be broke through and it gives great advantages in regard the Enemies great Ships cannot sail so nimbly It is true the light ones may be stopped by the Enemies which are of the same bulk but it is an hard matter if carrying a great number for the succour some should not escape especially because the smaller vessels of the enemy are usually dispersed abroad upon the guard and cannot so quickly come into the fight for that wind which is good to some is contrary to others and the succours having no great number of Ships for fight one part advanceth through whiles the others bears the brunt Besides it were necessary to be very secret in providing the Convoy and lading the Barques and if it be possible to prevent the Enemies knowledge of it they will not be so strict in their watch a dispersing their small vessels abroad Withal an Enemy taken unprepared is not so terrible as when advised and in readinesse The night gives a great help and ought chiefly be made choise of as well for its darkness which hinders their being discovered as because then great Ships dare not be too bold lest they run on ground so that the little ones are they which must pursue the fight But above all the Command ought to be given to a couragious prudent Captain followed by choise Soldiers Victory being obtained more by vallour then multitude Such men ought to be chosen who neither fear Musquet nor Canon but are resolved to run the hazard Canons indeed are not much to be feared in the night because they can hardly be levelled a right by reason of the darkness and the swiftness of the vessels motion Prosecution of the subject THe King unable to come to Rochel so suddenly as his courage perswaded him resolved to send thither Monsieur the Duke of Orleans his brother those succours conducted by Andonin were an effect of his care and vigilance to serve the King on this occasion for having seen that the first Pinnaces guided by Baslin had happly arrived at the Island he thought it would not be amisse to procure others to send a fresh supply and therefore he dispatched away a Servant of his one Sainct Florent to the Count de Grant-mont to entreat him to make ready ten others and to send them by some Captain of whom he had a particular knowledge The Gentleman departing the 14 of September arrived the 4 of October with them to the Sands of Olonne To speak some thing of the power which Monsieur had before Rochel it was an effect of the Kings Prudence and the Cardinals councel who was not ignorant how that certain persons whom he confided in had craft enough to raise some discontent in him if he had not been employed in the war And the King thinking it necessary to send a Chieftain in his absence of such quality whose presence might animate the Souldiers and whose condition might oblige the Grandees to obey him without jealousie chose Monsieur