the blessed Virgin with S. Brigid S. Andrew why not S. George to with a high hand to carry from God such things as she now vpō better information knowes most to be eschewed Together of the same feather you haue there one Becanus the more wicked because the more witty so apt are these monster-men to turne to ill vses the very blessings of God A little lower there is Carolus Scribanius who most iustly ashamed of his trayterous name hath ben faine to faine another in his Ample Theater of dishonour yet neuer forgetting herein the ambitious pride naturall to the society in taking of the best when they choose One who as though he were not able of himselfe to be wicked enough therein is he more wicked that he praises the wickedest Poland Sweth-land Trans-siluania Bohemia at their owne cost will contribute to the publicke shame those by whome they haue receaued and stil receaue so much smart though some haue paide deere enough for it And after these farther countries the remotest part of that famous Iland penitus toto orbe remota will not be ashamed to stake her peny Haies and Hamilton though not a peny worth to the common reproch of Nations But belike her sister would be too proud if she could not name for herselfe or rather against herselfe red-hatted or rather red-harted Allens Campion Hart Parsons Creswell Hall Tesmond Gerrard Hammond all bloody or fiery Traytors and their superior in all Garnet And now Sir among all them perhaps you thinke your Fraunce will escape free But alas shall we not finde within our owne bowels one Kakodemono-zannes apoligising for this Garnet and Franciscus Verona for Ian Chastell both which we know whence they are but since they themselues condemne their owne deeds by counterfeiting their names and therein the onely thing they haue done well in some sort redeeme their Countries shame let them dye for euer vnknowne indeed and vnnamed let those that haue any part in them disclaime it let them perish in their blood let me not haue their names within my lips But oh but we haue such as glory in their owne infamy those cursed ones that call euil good and good euill who least they and their villanies should not be knowne enough by their writings haue preached it openly from Towne to Towne before all the world and shamelessely taught it with a brazen face in their publicke lessons to showe that Fraunce owes nothing to the rest in treason wickednes But because holy father Cotton was come of late as it were with a blast of his sweete breath and in a sheete of paper to gainesay and disanull all his predecessors mis-doings and seeme to recouer the honor of the society though if his Amphibologious Equiuocations be rightly tryed he speakes as trayterously as any of them all yet least they should take to much hold of him and interpret his double meaning in the better part or rather to checke him as a false brother one that had yeelded to much to the time Behold out of Italy the great Iebuzit Cardinalised the great Cardinall shortly to be Papised who not contented with that which he hath formerly written as well he might for any new thing hee sayes but because it was onely done by the way and among his other controuersies a load to big for any man to carry comes out now as the Triarij in that great Army of forlorne hopes with a booke by it selfe and of set purpose sounding and denouncing from the Vatican to al Princes they are subiect to the Pope in temporalibus True it is that in Atheus tOrtus that is he himselfe had first made the way before him but it was vnder an obscure name that could not carry great waight But since the Chapleine was so bold as to vndertake no lesse then a great king for his share to write against Do you thinke Sir that his Illustrissime Lord and Maister hath it against Barclay onely No no poore Barclay is but the poorest part of his booke yet his sonne takes it in hand as his fathers cause and I am sure will not leaue the Cardinall vnpaid Neither is it against the king your braue father They haue his hart fast and haue don as some Barbarians were wont They haue executed him first then comes forth this sentence of death against him But there is nothing more to be had of him but your selfe your selfe Sir It is against your selfe directly that this booke is written against all kings aliue against al kings yet vnborne The haukes of a Cardinall will not flie for lesse then at the birds of Paradice And you holy father oh is it after that maner you wil haue your sons harts Sure sure that great father of mankind of whom you pretend your self so wrongfully to be the general Vicar did neuer meane it so when he said My son giue me thy hart But you sweet childe since you see two Barclaies two priuate men none of them a Protestant nor nothing neere the one vndertake it so vertuously against the Pope vpon no other particuler offence but the meere loue of the truth the other follow it so dutifully against Pope Cardinall and all onely as his fathers quarrell which yet is no such matter you I say which are so great so noble so auncient and so mighty a king will you not reuenge your fathers death will you not reuenge your owne quarrel against one that was but a Cardinall fiue yeares ago one that was but a base priest once It is he It is he that speakes in that booke it is he that made it Bellarmin is vnworthy of your anger He is but a meane instrument he is but a slaue and dares not do otherwise then his master bids The Pope himselfe the great Lord the great God of al not Acquaviva a slaue too hath viewed it corrected it allowed it caused it to be printed at his owne charges vnder his owne nose least there should be any fault in the print To what end then tarry any longer what will you haue more when they haue kild you also you shal no more be able to take reuenge Take it while you can and while you may Yet am not I of those hot-burning spirits though a strong Protestant I confesse that would set Rome all in blood and fire and dig vp her foundacions a thousand fathomes vnder the ground I would haue Rome reformed not Rome ruyned And what can the poore walls do withal for the inhabitants sinnes Yea I will vnparcially deale with the Pope and with more kindnes then he dares looke for at any Protestants hand Let euery Prince according to the law of God of Nature and of Nations establish a good and holy Patriarch within his owne dominions to whome all his Church men shall answer to none els without and he answer for them Let the Bishop of Rome reduce himselfe or be reduced to that estate wherein he
wide extending it selfe euen to those that thinke they haue no interest in it euen to those that beleeue they haue gayned by it That we may boldly affirme all the world knowne and vnknowne subiects and strangers friends and foes yea his greatest enemies and who so trecherously furthered his end haue lost in him for where they thought to escape his victorious hands which had no further end of Glory then the sweetnes of his wonted clemencie they must needs fall into ours who more fierce now then otherwise we had ben not as a Lyonesse not as a Tygresse rob'd of their deere yong ones but as deere children trayterously depriued of their deerest father will neuer graunt them that pardon which they might easily haue obtained at his hands Cursed ô cursed and dismall day wherein we see the face of our Fraunce so sorowful so glad but the day before our Queene so pittifully lamenting the day before so gloriously crowned our Court so deepely mourning the day before so highly reioycing wherein ô mischiefe wee see a great King dead which not onely the day before but euen the same and many after made the furthest parts of Europe to tremble at his greatnes that could not so distinctly haue heard the bruit of his fal Cursed once more ô cursed no more worthy to be called day but black and dismall night where Frenchmen lost their King Fraunce her father the Church her sonne the Nobility their maister the people their protector the whole world his ornament wherein the greatest person of the world was most vnluckily murthered by the least the best by the worst the most honored by the most infamous And thou ô eternall staine to the French name scandall of mankinde abhomination to the times execrable Fury let out of hell to commit so haynous a parricide remaine ô sempiternally remaine in the deepest of thy darke dungeon thou incarnate diuell for euer and euer accursed And may thou neuer come out of those flames wherein thou art so deseruedly tormented but only to receiue the last doome of thy euerlasting and dreadfull damnation But thou oh my deere Country heretofore so glorious now a shamefull and bloody Stage of so pittifull a Tragedy wilt thou euer be a fruitfull mother of trayterous King-killers must cruell Affrica yeeld vnto thee both in quantity quality of monsters which now of late thou bringest forth who neuer before didst beare any wilt thou neuer haue a King but with this prouiso thou shalt kill him with a knife Good Lord what an ouersight what a blindnes in a Prince otherwise so sharp-sighted to haue seen a like blow giuen to his next Predecessour yea to haue receaued himselfe another vpon his owne face besides so many other desperate attempts which he might haue reckoned for so many warnings and yet make no more vse of other mens mis-haps nor of his owne feeling The knife of that perfidious in Clement alas must I againe bring to memory those sacrilegious caytifs was yet scarce dry from the blood of the last VALOIS when that of desperat Chastell was dyed in the blood of the first BVRBON the same was yet reaking hot when this sauadge Bedlem imbrued his in the best blood of his hart Ah wretch what hast thou done ô Guard where were you French men whereof dreamed you Cresus had but one son and he dumbe yet seing the life of his father indaungered hee could cry aloud Saue the King Nature at that extremity vntyed the strings of his tong and a silly childes affection stronger then the very destinies could effect with a simple word and against many that which so many men so many French-men truly vnworthy of so great a Prince could not with-stand neither with tong nor hand opposing themselues against the weake attempt of one onely And yet France lackes not a million of white soules which would rather haue wished that impious steele red-hot in their owne bowels But no man can saue where God hath once decreed to destroy and surely we must looke for no lesse since he hath taken to himself that valiaunt instrum̄et which was able to preuent our destruction Celestiall gardians and thou ô mighty Angell which hadst so happily led him through so many daungers returned him victorious out of so many battells why did yee not put by that blow like the former had yee so faithfully kept him hitherto now to giue him ouer to the fury of this enraged beast Lord how the measure of our sinnes must needs haue ben heaped vp and running ouer since thou thoughtst it fit to strike vs with so mighty a thunderbolt of thine anger Lord how much is that man voyd of iudgement who knowes not this to be a iudgement of thine owne most iustly giuen out against the fulnes of our iniquities Poore Prince but more poore people wee had ben so often threatned with a blow from heauen now alas now it is burst out vpon our miserable heads who told it not who heard it not that thou shouldst dye when thy Gallery should be at an end Who red not the to true and no lesse vnhappy predictions that expressely said thou shouldst receaue a wound behind how many most vnfortunate most vnlucky Cassandraes had written vnto thee vpon the murther of thy predecessor that thou mightst take it as a looking-glasse and a lesson and the consideration of his so vntimely death might be the preseruation of thine owne life yet all that could not so worke but that noble courage of thine enemy to all mistrust thine owne goodnes to-to accessible thine owne easinesse haue ben so many kniues to pierce thy bosome If death had found this great king in his bed and by a naturall way it is an ordinary thing which scarce one would wonder at If he had found it in a battaile least of all for there euen most he sought it which then most fled before him But to be murthered in his owne Paris in his Caroche in the midst of his neerest seruants by a base Pedant not by one but by two seueral wounds with a short knife as though it had ben at his full choyce It is so wonderful so prodigious an euent so far frō all likelyhood that hitherto beliefe can scarce lay hold of it me thinkes yet I am in a dreame or for a while enchaunted when I remember it and that mine eyes and eares only deceaued for the time by some strong illusion will presently be freed of their error and I shall see my King againe How is so great a Monarch the feare and terror of his Enemies and who vpon the preparation of so great an Army held the whole world at a bay How is so great a Monarch passed euen in a moment from this world to another He that had but the day before crowned his Queene he that was the day after to lead her tryumphant into Paris he that was immediatly to march forth with that fearefull Army which threatned to stampe
all his Enemies to pouder Good Lord how many high dissignes ouerthrowne how many threds cut with that of his life and what a wretched Remora staies now a great ship He was so full of life and vigor he had so many friends and so many meanes so many men and so many horses so many armes and so many cannons besides so much courage and valour so much iudgment and dexterity so much resolution and wisedome so much experience and readines in warre in state Campe Counsell and euery where as it is vnpossible to discerne whether he was more valiant or more wise more polliticke or more martiall being a like excellent and perfect euery way And all that could not helpe but a forlorne wretch a man of nothing a nothing and not a man hath stayed the course of so great so mighty and so matchlesse a Monarch to whom euen the most dreadfull elements had yeelded who sent a trembling Ague into the harts of all those who were conscious to haue deserued his anger At Melun he shunned the attempt of Barriere At Fontainebleau that of a Spanyard who would haue rewarded him with a trecherous death euen when he healed him of the Kings euill At Paris that of a mad fellow yet liuing and whom he would neuer suffer to be punished so naturally was he giuen to compassion and clemency Al these attempts thogh missing indeed together with that which really and effectually did beat out his very teeth were sufficient to prouide him against this last and fatall blow But alas that to braue minde could neuer learne how to feare And yet the very day of his death had he some secret feeling of his end Hee laye downe twise or thrise vpon his bed against his custome rysing againe as oft kneeled and prayed hartely to God that morning as if he had foreknowne it would be his last For that morning he was intreated not to stirre abroad and fore-warned by a learned Astronomer called La Brosse that that day was dangerous to him but he trusting his owne goodnes and after so Christian a preparation resolued to any thing his maker would lay vpon him made so small account thereof as going after noone to the Arsenall even he refused to take any Guard Neuerthelesse an hower before he could not well frame with himselfe if he would goe or tarry being deuided between the with-drawing counsell of his good Angell the impulsiue force of his destiny a thing altogether vnvsuall to the promptnes of his wit neuer before hauing ben seen to stagger vpon any occasion At last his courage and our mischance got the vpper hand When he receaued the blow he was reading a letter from the Arch-duke who offered him passage for his Army and to defray all charges through his Country And in the very feeling of his ioy our sorrow ouertooke him Oh! how farre was he in the world when he went out of it But sure those cruell blowes were more against our selues then against him and God in his wrath took that inestimable iewell from vs whose worth wee neuer rightly valued Yet O Lord stay heere at the least we indeed are worthy of a sharper punishment but altogether vnable to beare it Giue vs leaue now to lament for our worthy Prince for whom forgiue vs ô father if perhaps our sorrow be more then is due to any mortall And yet deere Country men thus farre may we ioy in our sorrow and thanke God for many comforts which cannot easily be taken from vs we suffer a great losse indeed most senceles stony were we if we should not feele it But I pray you looke ouer me with mee both the fortune and nature of our state Whensoeuer any new line of our Kings hath ben about to set vp it selfe by his own strength these great changes haue neuer ben without great troubles and some extraordinary great conuulsion For as in the naturall so in the Politicke body as a chiefe bone cannot be broken without much violence but when it comes once to knit againe there growes a certaine hardnes callosity more strong then euer the bone it selfe was So when after such aebreach the Kingdome hath once taken root ben well established the father euer left it surer to his fonne and a fonne greater then his father aboue whome as per excellentiam he alwaies got the surname of great indeed We had but three lines since our stories began to be written by our owne men for in those times our fore-fathers more carefull to do then curious to speake rather gaue then tooke occasion of writing So that if euen those that most would haue concealed it had not ben forced to tell it vs we should haue knowne nothing of our selues afore Faramond But looke how soone came in our first Clovis but the second after Merouee from whom the first line tooke name and how iustly deserued he the surname of great if in that golden age of simplicity those swollen titles had ben in vse And afterward was not our Charles great indeed the second of the second line to which euen in double respect he gaue name Now in the third was not our Robert both King and surnamed great euen during his fathers raigne who neuer so worthy had but a sorry surname as though his sonne had ben the very soule of the Kingdome and the father could not truly be a King without him And howsoeuer the accession now of Bourbon to the Crowne cannot rightly be tearmed the change of a line no more then that of Valois being iust both alike after the successiue decease of three brethren without heire male successiuely Kings after their father but only the ingrafting of a natiue bud vpon his owne stock yet the example may hold because it is a new branch and name and more especially because one braue Prince was more stood against more powerfully and more passionately then euer any of all those before or euen all they together He had wonderful smal meanes whē he came to the crown and no better friend but Dieu son droit with his owne sword he was of a religion contrary to that which was formerly professed in his kingdome he had not only the bodies but which is worse harts mindes and soules strongly preoccupated wholy bent against him all which oppositions he must needs ouercome one by one And howbeit in the end he setled his affaires was a better Catholique then the Pope himself yet the weake faith of some incredulous soules could not as yet well receaue it and the wily craft of those deceitful Foxes or rather rauenous Wolues accustomed to make aduantage as ill of silly mens weakenes as of desperate wretches resolutions and whose wide clawes nothing escapeth be it neuer so hot or cold light or heauy dissembling their owne knowledge did foster and further the others vnbeleefe made away to make him away Yet his vertue strength are not dead but with a fame
and a name which can neuer dye and is able stil to win battels as a new Scanderbeg after his own death He hath left vs a successor who as another Phoenix sweetly raysed out of those Ashes and rysing vpon our darkned Horizon as a new Sunne in his Oryent faithfully promiseth to dry our moystned eyes and cleere vp all the mists of our sorrowes And as a Great one said once since more adore the Sunne rysing then declyning no doubt but this new Planet now so happily beginning to shine vpon our heauen shall one day be saluted and worshiped by many more subiects then that whose course was of late so vnhappily shortned And indeed if we may iudge of the fruit by the flowers his buds are so many and so faire already that when it shall once please God to spread them they cannot but exceed the most perfect beauties and euen the very Gold of his own Lillies Nothing can be imagined greater then the motions of that yong Prince and me thinkes I see already in him a picture in litle of that worth of his father which doth promise I know not how much more in this hopeful abridgement then in the original as though God reuiuing in him not only all those former vertues would ad to his number some other more as yet to the world vnknowne It is wonderfull to see him at this age send out so many liuely sparkes of that powerfull Genius within him saying already such things as would contend in excellency with all those old sayings of Plutarch as though he would put to schoole againe those famous men that fatherd them taking it of the father as wel as his kingdomee For who was there in the world more quick more sharpe and of a more present wit then he who could put down at his pleasure the most solid iudgments by the readines of his answers This young sonne of his is actiue stirring couragious as he was so delightfull as one would neuer be weary to looke vpon him Of such a natural towardnesse to al his exercises as you would thinke Art can teach him no more Of a man-like fairenes and drawing already to be a man before mens expectation through which manly lineaments yet shines a royal greatnes It was a sorowfull Essay yet very comfortable to all his subiects in that publike desolation to see his gratious fashion at the Parliament sitting the first time on his royall Throne of Iustice assisted with the Queene his Mother Princes Peeres and Officers of his Crowne and to heare him speak with such a Maiesty as did gaine-say his Age and ouer-reach our reason yet all that nothing like to his faire presence to his royall countenance at his happy coronation as though moneths had ben yeares for his prentiship and he had perfectly learned to be a King afore he be a man He is carefully trayned vp vnder the vigilant care of a wise mother who could giue a good proofe euen in the brunt of this generall mischance and in euery action since how well her great minde was fitted to the greatnes of her charge And will not be lesse blessed in the gouernment of this Empire and in bringing vp our lawfull king in all vertues meet for his great rancke then in the bringing him into the light of this world A Princesse indeed most accomplished in euery thing and whose heroycall quallities surmount the ordinary feeblenes of her sex beyond proportion He is seconded with two young brethren who as two strong Pillars of the Realme shall without wearynes faithfully lend their shoulders to the weight of his charge He hath three faire Princesses to his Sisters whose happy mariages wil strengthen more and more the firmnes of his Scepter Besides so many great and ancient alliances of his fathers approued friends whose only name will suffice to beate downe the power of such enemies as would rise against him He hath a mighty Army at hand at all times many treasures to maintaine it and many braue Generalls to commaund it which like so many thunders are ready to fall vpon all that would offend him So that if any had but the least knowne thought thereof I do not say of his subiects onely but euen among his greatest Enemies he should sooner be crushed with the force of the blow then heare the noise of it Away therefore goe and hide your selues for shame ye vaine bablers blacke soules infamous remnants of the League infernal matches of our ciuill fires poysoned springs of all our miseries be neuer seen be neuer heard in the world with your Syren-Songs that our enemies are moued with pitty through the strange cruelty of our accident and that although their hatred were yet in his heate it will now be cooled in the depth of our mischiefe as though we were ready to call for their mercy as though it were in their hands to be good to vs and feare had taken such impression in our harts as France were glad to kneele to the next Conqueror O God! what a base slackenes what a fayned faintnes what an open treason yet you dare mis-call it Policy and skill of State Good Lord what a hurtfull Policy to show weakenes in this great body where there is none when rather if there were any it were true skill to conceale it And how farr is that from emboldning vs by the very weakenes of the enemy himselfe who by that vnhapy remedy wherwith he was constrained to put by for a time his euil to come hath so basely vncouered his shame bewrayed the sores of his estate All their safetie was set vpon the point of a bad knife which if it had missed our Kings royall bosome our swords could not haue missed their execrable brests vnlesse they had preuented vs with cutting their owne filthy throats O braue French-men Those that in the sharpest of their sickenes in the extremity of their weaknes and irresolution carryed the fire and the sword into the very hart of Cleue-land brauely to succour their friends should they not be able in the best of their health in the height of their strength and when the state hath taken firme roote and forme should they not be able now more brauely to defend themselues against their Enemies Nay but there is another reckoning to be made If we may euer smel out that this mischieuous blow hath ben sent vs by any one in the world either from the East the West or the South the North we need not feare it is to white and to pure to vse such black remedies and hath no cause thereof We must we ought and we will dye men women children and all in our reuenge we will goe and fetch them downe from the very tops of their hills search them into the deepest holes of the earth if they runne hide them-selues thither wee will pul them out to their deserued slaughter If not we will rather destroy our whole seed then leaue a generation which might