of crownes and haue offered this of Fraunce to him that would giue most They make books of this to your preiudice wherein they discipher all your actions They say that you haue close practises with the Biarnois and cause wordes and messages to be caried vnto him by Villeroy and Zamet to lull him a sleepe and to cause him to vnderstand that you are a good Frenchman and will neuer be a Spaniard and that you can giue him Paris backe againe and make peaceable vnto him all his kingdome when hee shall haue been at Masse and acknowledged our holy father and vnder this baite and deceite you haue drawne or gotten fortie thousand politike crownes for three moneths which indeede should bee rated for foure A good arithmetician euery one tenne thousand crownes a peece making you to vnderstand that the Spanish King would pare and clip your distributions if he knew that you treated concerning accord and agreement with heretikes But it is discouered that secretly you send your agents to Rome and into Spaine to lette that the Pope should not giue him absolution if hee demaunde it and to stirre vp the King of Spayne to send new forces towards the frontiers you thinke you are very subtile but your subtleties and fetches are sowen together with white thred And therefore easilie discouered in fine all the worlde seeth them For these politikes haue dragons in the fieldes that take all your packets and by diuelish arte diuine and decipher al your ciphers as also those of the King of Spaine and of the Pope though they bee neuer so subtile and craftie so well that they know all your affaires both at Rome and at Madrill and in Sauoy and in Germanie You iuggle and deale craftily with all the world and all the world doth deale so with you likewise Danger there is that you become not that that the Countie Saint Pol constable of France in the time of King Lewis the eleuenth was who after that he had abused his master and the Duke of Bourgongne That is lost his head in the place of execution as wee would say at Tiburne or the tower hill and the King of England all at one time in the end was made Cardinall in Greue As for being King of your head looke not for it your parte is perished frozen or runne into the fire all your elders set themselues against it Your cousines competitors would rather goe and departe to the other sides than to indure it the sixteene make no more account of you for they say that they haue made you that that you are and you hang them vp and diminish their number as much as you can the people had hope vpon your word that you would vnlock and open the riuer and make the wares and trade free but they see to the contrarie that they are more locked vp and straitned than before and that the bread and the small good they haue to liue of commeth not thorow your well dooing nor by your valour but of the liberalitie of the Biarnois and of his good nature or of the couetousnes of the getters of it which drawe out of it all the profit Briefelie the greater parte beleeueth that you will prolong as long as you can the Lieutenancie in the which men haue placed you and liue alwaies in warre and in trouble and yet well to your ease well serued well intreated well guarded of the Swissers and of the Archers that there lacketh nothing but the coates of armes and the applause of the people to be King whilest all the rest of the people dieth starke mad through famine You will keepe the pledges and bee the perpetuall person who will haue the charge of and looke well to the goods that are vacant which hindereth and prolongeth as much as hee can the deliuerance of the things cried least hee should render an account Mōsieur Lieutenants lets Besides you cannot be King by the mariage of the infant or daughter of Spaine you are maried alreadie and would you put your finger in the hole For you haue ridden the olde one that keepeth hir selfe well from the hee Coate and besides there must bee another more lustie fellow than your selfe for this girle of thirtie yeres blacke as pepper and of an oken appetite Moreouer though we should haue chosen you King yet you should haue to doe with the Biarnois who knoweth a thousand feates or prankes of Basque and who sleepeth not but as much as he will and at the houre that hee will who making himselfe a catholike as he threatneth you hee will doe will drawe on his side all the potentates of Italie and of Almaine and withall the heart of all the French gentry or gentlemen of France of which you see alreadie the greatest parte with so many poore afflicted townes wearie of their warre and of their pouertie part to shake in the haft and to make a writing of their retraict that demaunde nothing else but that colour and good occasion to withdrawe themselues from the couple therewith to couer or colour their repentance Doe you dreame thereof Monsieur the Lieutenant for the like you haue counterfeited the King and yee haue farted against or like the Biarnois in edicts and declarations in seales in guardes and great prouosts and masters of requests of your house Though you would burst and would blow vp your selfe great as an oxe as doth the female frogge yet shall you neuer be so great a Lord as he although some say that he hath not so much fat vpon all his bodie as is able to feede a larke But doe you knowe what you doe I would counsell you but that you haue been Bigamus or haue had two wiues to make your selfe an Abbot A good preferment for so great a seruice whosoeuer shall be King he will not refuse to bestow vpon you the Abby of Clugny which is of your house you loue a fatte soppe or brewis as wee say and you thrust your selfe willingly into the kitchin you haue a very ample and spacious belly and so you shall be crowned I say crowned with the same crowne and your crowne made with the same cissers It needeth not an honest man may be taken vpon his word that Madam your sister saide hung at her girdle to make the monkelike or frierlie crowne of the late Henrie of Valois You will not demaund of me neither fidelitie nor oath for this matter but I am of this aduise I will not speake here of Monsieur of Nemours your vterin but the politikes say adulterin brother Speake cleanly for shame he hath done his caca or needes in our little chests he hath his purposes and attemptes by himselfe and is like to Picrocolus that by discourses well reasoned of made himselfe Monarch of the world foote by foote If he can gouerne the King of beasts as hee hath done the shippe of Paris I will say that he hath skill to doe more
these horseleaches exacters and greedie guttes we will remoue these foule and shamefull imposts which they haue deuised in the towne house set vpō the moueables and free marchandise that come into the good townes where there are committed a thousand abuses and disorders the profite whereof redoundeth not to the publik good but vnto them that manage the money and giue it away cheek by iole as we say and without discretion Wee will haue no more of these caterpillers that sucke gnaw the fairest floures of the garden of France Notable comparisons and resemblances and paint themselues with diuers colours and become in a moment of little wormes that creepe vpon the ground great butterflies flying painted with gold and azure wee will cut off the shamelesse number of treasurers that make their owne benefite of the taxes of the people and turne to their owne vse the best and the last pennie of the treasure and with the rest cut and lash out at their pleasure to distribute it to them onely from whō they hope to receiue the like and inuent a thousand elegant and fine termes to shew the neede of the state It is not alone in France but it may be foūd elswhere and to refuse to shew curtesie or fauour to an honorable person We will haue no more so many gouernours that play the little Kinges or wrens rather and boast that they are rich enough when they haue a peece of a riuer of sixe foote long and large at their commaundement We wil be exempted from their tyrannies and exactions and we wil bee no more subiect to watchings and wardings and night scouts in which we lose the halfe of our time and consume our best age and get nothing but catarrhes reumes and diseases that ouerthrow our health Do it and doe wel We wil haue a King who shall giue order to all shal keep all these pettie tyrants in fear duetie that shal chastice the violēt that shal punish the stubborne that shal roote out thieues and robbers that shall cut off the winges of the ambitious that shall cause these spunges and thieues of the common treasures to cast their gorge that shal make euery one to remaine in the boundes of his office and shall keepe all the worlde in peace and tranquillitie A fable but yet applied to good purpose To be short wee will haue a King that so wee may haue peace but yet we will not doe as the frogges did that waxing weary of their peaceable King chose the storke who deuoured them all We demaund a King and a naturall head not an artificiall a King alreadie made and not to be made If you doe wo to you and therein we will not take the counsell of the Spaniards our olde and ancient enemies who by force would become our tutors and teach vs to beleeue in God and in the christian faith in which they are not baptized and haue not known it past three daies We will not haue for Counsellors and Phisitians those of Lorraine who of a long time haue breathed and thirst after our death The King that wee demaund is alreadie made by nature borne in the very plot of ground of the floure deluce of Fraunce a right branch and flourishing and springing from the right stalke of Saint Lewes They that speake of making an other deceiue themselues know not therein how to come to an end Men may make scepters and crownes A wise and godly speech but not Kings to weare them and beare them Men may make an house but not a tree or a greene bough Nature must needes bring it foorth in time out of the iuice and marrowe of the earth that maintaineth the stalke in her bloud and vigor A man may make a legge of wood an arme of yron a nose of siluer but yet not a head So we may make Marshals Peeres Admirals Secretaries and Counsellors of estate and that in grosse also and many at one time as wee say but yet not a King He alone must spring onely from himself that so he may haue life and lustines in him That one eyed fellowe Bourcher A familiar example and fet from a bad person the pettie schoolemaster of the most wicked and lewd people of this citie and land wil confesse vnto you that his eye enammeled with the gold of Spayne seeth not any thing Euen so an elected and artificiall King should neuer bee able to see vs and so he should bee not onely blind in our affayres but also deafe insensible vnmoueable in our complaints And this is the cause why wee will not heare speech neither of the daughter of Spayne whom we leaue to her father If he can doe any thing against them nor of the Archduke Ernestus whom wee recommend to the Turkes and to Duke Maurice nor of the Duke of Lorraine or of his eldest sonne whom wee will leaue to treate of the matter with the Duke of Bouillon and with them of Strausbourgh Yea shame him also in the warres against him nor of the Duke of Sauoy whō we put ouer to the Lord of Diguieres that doth not much helpe him That fellowe should bee content with this that by fraude and treason he hath taken from vs the Marquesdome of Saluces in danger to yeeld it very quickly and that twise told if we may haue but a little time to take our breathe in In the meane season he shall haue this fauour to call himselfe King of Cypres and to draw his antiquitie out of Saxonie A fine frump but France is not a morsell for his mouth how double footed and large mouthed soeuer he be no more then Geneua Genes Finall Monaco and the Figons which haue alwaies giuen him the figge or garbumble as we say Besides he will make a goodly molehill and a braue shew indeed He meaneth King Philips daughter with the disdainfull highnes of the daughter he hath maried who will serue rather to ouerthrowe him with expence and sumptuous pride thē to make him waxe great Concerning the Duke de Nemours for whom the Baron of Tenecay hath remembrances and instructions by which he mindes to make him more worthie to bee preferred then the Duke of Guise we would counsell him for the good he hath done vs by freeing vs from warre and for his valiant deedes Scoffe on and that drily standing I tell you vpon very good proofe if he be well there where he is that he hold him there and keepe him from the beast I will say nothing touching the Duke of Guise You may trust him therein but in nothing els Monsieur the Lieutenant shall speake for himselfe and he will commend himselfe to his sister But so it is that these robbers and theeues of the kingdome are neither fit nor sufficient nor seruing for our taste to command vs besides we minde to keepe our ancient lawes and customes we will not at any hand
had written and sent in poste to Madame Saint Geneviesue a very good Frenchwoman if euer there were any In the sixt was painted out the miracle of Arques where fiue or sixe hundred discomforted weake men readie to passe the sea and to swimme nodded their heads at them mocked them and put to flight by the inchantments of this Biarnois He meaneth the Duke du Maynes forces who bragged as much as euer did he twelue or fifteene thousand Rodomonts renders of small ships and eaters of yron chariots And which was the goodliest thing that could be to be seene the Ladies of Paris were in the windowes and others which had kept place tenne daies before in the shops and working houses of S. Anthonies streete to see this Biarnois brought prisoner in triumph bound wheras he came decked with iewels as he gaue it thē beautifull also because he came in another habit or kind of apparell by the suburbs of S. Iaques and S. Germaine The seuenth contained the battaile of Ivry la Chaussee where a man might haue seene the Spanyards Lorrains and other Romish Catholikes in mockerie or otherwise Those that tooke part with the king to shew their bare breech or taile to the Maheustres and the Biarnois altogether heate who with his bridle abated carried the vnion behind him on horsebacke There a man might well haue seene Monsieur the Lieutenāt cursing the hindermost leauing the Countie d'Aiguemōt for pledges being deceiued with more then the moitre of the iust prise to run away vpō a Turkie horse to get Mante by a wicket or posterne gate and to say to the inhabitants in a very lowe note or voyce My friends saue me and my people all is lost but the Biarnois is dead Aboue all it was a wonderfull pleasure there to see them wisely to make an Inuentorie of his coffers and chests and to see them also religiously to reach out of his coffer and to spread abroad the standard of the faith wherein was painted a Crucifix vpon blacke taffeta with this inscription Christ being guide such a one as a man may see hanging in the Church of Mante This good Christian people is that standard which should haue serued for a golden flanke for the Kings successors in time to come if the cord had not broken At the corner of the sayd tapistrie there was a daunce of shepheards and peasants and behinde or neete vnto them as it were a table in which was written this song following Let vs begin the daunce Let vs goe it s very well Spring time begins in France The Kings are passed we can tell Let vs take a little truce Forwe are full wearie By Kings chosen by beane Still vext and tired are we One King alone remaines The sots are chast away Fortune euen at this time With broken pots doth play You must yeeld all againe I say ye hindered Kings That would take what you can And yet possesse no things A captaine great and stout Hath brought you downe I say Let vs goe Ieane du Mayne The Kings are past away The eight was a representation of the Paradise or rather Paradises in the plurall number of Paris within which and ouer the holie Pixe were the images of three Saints newly printed since Pope Gregorie his calender bringing with them double fasts Iames Clemēt One of them was cloathed with blacke and with white Fit resemblances bauing a pricking or sharpe foote and a little knife in his hand as it were a cutpurse farre different from that of S. Bartholomew The Popes Legate The second was cloathed with a red gowne and a curate or breast-plate vpon it and a hat of the same colour with long cords or strings to it hauing in his hand also a cup full of bloud whereof he made semblance as though he would drinke and out of his mouth came forth a writing in these tearmes Stand with your head-peeces polish your speares and put on your coates of maile The third was a Saint on horseback as it had been S. George The Cardinall Pelue hauing at his feete a great many Ladies and Damosels to whom he reached out his hand and shewed them a crowne in the aire towards which in sighing he aspired with this deuise or saying The things that are faire are hard The people brought them store of candles and sayd new Suffrages and Letanies seeing that they did miracles but the winde carried away and blew out all The borders of the sayd peece were of white processions and of sermons and Te Deums strengthened againe where men might see in a small volume the faces of Boucher Lincestre the little Fuillant frier exhorting the people to peace by a figure named Antiphrasis That is contrary meaning The ninth set out to bee seene as it were naturally a great giantesse lying vpon the ground which brought forth an infinite number of vipers and monsters of diuers sorts some called Gualtiers other some Catillōnois Lipans Leaguers zealous Catholikes and Chasteauverds and vpon the forehead of the sayd giantesse there was written This is that goodly Lutetia or Paris who that she might commit whoredome with her minions and darlings hath caused her father and his wife to be slaine Madame of Spayne serued her in stead of a Midwife and a nurse to receiue and to nourish her fruite or to giue it sucke In the tenth there was very well described the historie of the taking of the towne of S. Denis by that worthie Knight d'Aumale and there appeared the Lord of Viq and the holie Apostle of France who did strengthen his leg or thigh of wood and S. Anthonie of the fields who put fire to the powder to make the Parisiens afrayd Aboue vpon the same peece was a writing contayning these words Saint Anthony being robbed by a head of the leaguers conioynd Went as to one more strong to S. Denis to lay open his mind Who to reuenge this wrong hath giuen him sure promise Some little while after this great robber did assay To take S. Denis but S. Dents tooke him by the way And reuenged vpon him both the one and the other enterprise And below was the epitaph of the sayd Knight d'Aumale That needeth not for it is here mentioned euen as it followeth sauing that it maketh no mention that he was eaten with rats and mice He that lieth here a taker was Right bold and hardie sure Against S. Denis who a fine Enterprise did procure But yet S. Denis more subtill Then this taker of renowne Did take him and both slay him eeke Within his taken towne In the eleuenth there was to be seene and that nigh at hand the piteous countenance of poore president Brisson as also of his Deacon Subdeacon when one spake vnto them of confession in giuing them the order of the vnion also their eleuation and lifting vp in charge And because that the aforesayd peece was not large
seruing you as fencers to vphold your pride with killing our selues to shew you pleasure Let vs goe Messieurs of Lorraine with your great companie of princes wee hold you but for shadowes of protection defence the horseleaches of the bloud of the Princes of France hapelourdes little ships or foists without wares reliques of saints that haue neither force nor virtue They are but feare-bugges in such mens mouthes And let not Monsieur the Lieutenant thinke either to hinder vs or to backward vs by his threats we tell him aloude and plainly yea wee declare it to all you Messieurs his cousins and allies that we are Frenchmen and that wee will goe with the Frenchmen to hazard our life and that little that is yet left vnto vs to assist there with our King our good King our rightfull King who will also very quickly bring you vnto the same confession either by force or by some good counsell A necessarie addition which God will inspire into you if you be worthie of it I know very well that before I depart from this place you will either giue me some little pretie pill or it may be you will send me from hence to the Bastille where you will cause me to bee murthered as ye did Sacre-More S. Maigrin the Marques of Menelay and diuers others But I shall account it for a good peece of fauour if ye will cause me to dye quickly Feare cannot put out fidelitie to prince c. rather then to let me languish a long while in these anguishing and grieuous miseries And yet before I dye I will shut vp and finish my verie long oration with a poeticall epilogue or conclusion such as I haue made long agoe Messieurs the princes Lorraines You are full weake in your reines For the crowne thus to quarrell You cause your selues to be beate well You are valiant and strong amaine Yet your indeuours are all but vaine No force can be like in any thing To the puissance of a King And reason this is not indeede That on the children which succeede The seruants base should make warre Out of their land to driue them farre Great folly he doth performe and make That from his master ought doth take God against rebels and their maine Kings and their good causes will sustaine To the Nauarrias then leaue and lay downe Of our mightie Kings the noble crowne Wrongfully by your selues pretended So well haue you it molten and ended If any right you had had thereto You should not haue molten it as you doe Or els you must haue for name of renowne The title of Kings without a crowne Our Kings from God set vp renownd Are alwaies borne to vs well crownd The Frenchman true neuer doth range To King or prince that is but strange All the villaines or the greatest part Haue made you their head with all their hart They of the nobilitie that doe your part take Are such as with haste their owne wounds doe make But the very King of Frenchmen hard In steed of his poore and Scottish gard Is now assisted with none but great Princes Or els with Barons and Lords of Prouinces Wherefore then my friends let vs rise and goe Our blessed S. Denis all vnto There deuoutly to acknowledge and confesse This great King our master he is no lesse Let vs all goe together as thicke as the raine Of him to craue peace and the same to obtaine Vnto his table without feare we will goe A prince so familiar he is and gentle also All the princes of the Bourbon race Haue euer had in them this rare and good grace Very meeke for to be and gentle also And yet couragious in all whereabout they goe But ô you princes that to vs are strangers And daily vs thrust into thousands of dangers And with nothing but smoake still doe vs feede Keeping warre kindled and vpholding it indeede Get you soone packing into your owne land Very hatefull to vs here doe you stand And reckon your race from Charlemaigne pardie Vpon the bounds and borders of vpper Germanie Proue thee by your Romans or men of Rome That from Charles the great you descend and come That good people after the depth of their drinke Of that mysticall matter somewhat may thinke I haue sayd This oration being finished which indeede was beard with great silence and attention many people remained very flat nosed and much astonied Plain speeches hath good effects and a good while after there were no coughing hemming spitting nor any noise made as if the hearers had bin striken with a blow from heauen or brought into some deep dreame or drowsines of their spirite vntill a certaine Spaniard one of the mutinous crewe first rose vp and sayd with a very loud voice Let all of vs kill these villachoes Take a Spaniard without pride and mutinie and the diuel without a lye or villaines which when hee had sayd hee departed out of his place without shewing any reuerence to any man Where upon euery one was willing to arise to depart But the Admirall de Villaris the present newe King of Iuetot did beseech the estates in the name of the catholik cantons of the leaguers of Catillonnois Lipans The firebrand of contention Gualtiers other zealous communalties not to make peace with the heretikes vnlesse hemight remaine admirall of the East and of the West part and were paide his costs with the detaining of such benefites and fauours as hee thought belonged vnto him also that they would not chuse a King but such a one as shuld be a good cōpanion and a friende of the Cantons After wards there rose vp Ribault and Roland and besought the assembly Two honest men I warrāt you to frustrate and abrogate the law de Repetundis that is a lawe made against such as were accused of extortion or money vniustly taken in time of their office because this law as they tooke it was neither catholike nor fundamētall This being done euery one rose vp with a certaine marueilous stilnes in going out the herauld aduertised them at the gate as they went out to returne to the councell againe at two of the clocke in the after noone At which houre I that now speake ment not to faile Goodly things to be seene heard at Paris garden for the great desire that I had to see rare and singular things and the ceremonies that should bee kept there to the ende I might the better aduertise there of my master and the Princes of Italie which with an earnest desire waite for the proceeding and issue of these famous estates held against all order maner vsed and accustomed in France Wherefore I came againe to the Louvre after dinner and that in good time also You might do so for your fare was but short and offering my selfe to enter into the vppermost hall as I had done before in the morning the