this Subiect You are a King the light of Kings an excellent Title a holy Title Seeing that Kings be the liuely Images of the greatnes of God and that Truth an incorruptible Virgin ought to be their eldest daughter we doe promise our selues that your Maiestie who haue alwaies entirely cherished it and who in that condition and a thousand others haue made your selfe admirable will not reiect it Giue then if it please you some time from your employments to our holy remonstrances to our aduise to our plaints for the common safetie Permit vs to speake truely you are obliged thereunto by this faire qualitie of King and by Magnanimity the capitall enemie of vntruth The Subiect is of the most important and most notable of the Realme but yet which regards that more properly then all the rest Your Maiestie giues euery day pardons for murthers committed in Duell If wee did respire againe in mortall bodies wee would craue one of you which without doubt you would iudge equitable that is to pardon vs speaking freely thereupon It is a libertie not insolent animated onely with zeale to the good of the State and whose motions doe carry nothing but Obedience and Iustice In the time of Tiberius they held their finger on their mouthes but Augustus permitted them to tell him his faults Hee thanked the Censors did them good and which is more he corrected himselfe This Crowne hath had no Tiberiusses but many Augustusses Hee which hath begunne to make the most magnanimious Branch of Bourbon to waxe greene and flourish will succeed as well in goodnesse and iustice as in the Scepter A man cannot speake more mildely of so great a mischiefe Some haue said of old that Kings must haue words of silke But in this matter there must bee words of gall of wormewood tart pricking And what can be said too sharpely too boldly thereupon Euery one knowes that your Maiestie hath found this miserable disorder of Duells and haue gone about to remedie it by holy Ordinances as your Maiesties Predecessors Henry 2. Charles the 9. Henry 3. haue done Euery one knowes how your Maiestie is displeased at it Euery one knowes that this violence is produced by the libertie which so long and so wofull ciuill wars as haue been these forty yeares in this Kingdome hath brought which haue been spunges sucking all sorts of confusions especially in these last times the very sinke of times past and of all humane malice So wee doe assure our selues that your Maiestie will take in good part what wee shall present vnto you in this behalfe seeing that your Maiestie doth desire withall your affection and power to redresse it Sir when any man offends you he is accused of high Treason and presently punished and there is nothing more reasonable If any Prince of your Realme or Stranger would be so presumptuous to giue pardons he had need bee stronger to vsurpe that Iurisdiction vpon your Maiestie and so hee should be a Tyrant If he were weaker hee would be mocked Yet that is not all hee should be rigorously punished for it You would bee loath neither were it iust that any should encroach vpon your Authoritie why because you are the Image of God that doth represent his greatnes and iustice The symmetries of his Image and of his principall Type ought to be obserued In the meane time you giue pardons against the Law of GOD and Man against the Diuine Law for the Commandements doe expressely forbid them against the humane Law for as much as it cuts the knot of publike societie and is quite contrary to the order of all the Estates of Christendome Wee speake that which your Magistrates your Confessors and all the pillers of the Catholique romish Church are bound especially to admonish you of It is for your seruice it is for the common good it is for the safetie of your soule Pardon great King giue vs leaue if it be your pleasure to tell you Your Pardons are grounded neither vpon Reason Example nor Authoritie Vpon Reason not at all nay on the contrary they doe destroy and demolish the magnificent edifice built by diuine Iustice in all her proportions and dimensions Vpon example In no wise for no Kingdomes no Common-wealths doe suffer these bloody and horrible acts fitter for the most barbarous heathen then for them that vaunt themselues to be the most Christian Christians Vpon Authoritie No all the Ciuill and Canonicall Lawes are directly repugnant thereunto and these were established for the common good Let vs looke into the profit of this spirituall madnesse Let vs enquire of experience what commoditie comes of it to the Common-weale So many houses desolated wholly ruinated so many widowes so many orphanes so many sutes so many quarrels or rather an eternitie of Quarrels These are the fruites of this mortall tree most bitter fruits and a lamentable tree which groweth continually by his losse flourisheth in his winter and whose greennesse will drie vp his rootes There is not almost any house in France where this marke of the wrath of God is not read in great Characters in Characters of blood Nothing but teares mournefull lights sighes and tombes In what time euen when all the Kingdome els are at quiet In what age euen in the most flourishing age of life For what subiect For false imaginations for fantasies Euery thing is sufficient to make these quarrellers goe into the field be the occasion great or small They be like the Naphta of Babylon which takes fire as farre off as it is presented They haue their hearts and spirits full of blood For a glasse of water for gloues for silke stockins for a feather for a crabbed looke for a thing of nothing they are ready to cut throats They which haue receiued great hurts are mooued vpon the least change of the time and these wretches bee prouoked by the least occasion to go loose their bodies and soules not knowing how nor why Doe they not goe about to kill one another for that which is not yet in nature and which they as little know as the day of iudgement It is an exorbitant frensie Whosoeuer would consider all should enter into a profound depth one folly hath so begotten others what vanitie what presumption what brabling language what brauadoes of ostentation wherefore is all this good The words are foolish and the effects prodigious we are ashamed to speake it There haue been some who hauing their enemie vnder them haue held their weapon at their throat and with execrable blasphemies bidding them pray to God haue therewithall killed them what Christian vertue is this call you this Gentilitie count you this to be aboue the common sort The most eager are lost by these light occasions many times the most valiant and almost at all times the most happy and most at hearts ease What pitty what desolation is this After so much care had to bring them vp euen when they beginne to know the light and
cunning among these people that they make subtill shewes but it falls out commonly that they are countermined by a iust iudgement of God Let a man well and wisely weigh the quarrells of these times he shall see that pride and vanity are the two great supporters thereof Are not these excellent markes of a magnanimious courage The most part doe avowe that that which they doe is to aduantage themselues at an other mans cost a weaknes of iudgement for if they whom they offend be not in reputation there is no glory If they be naughty fellowes as they say a man incurres a danger to continue in it After death there is no more speach of that action if a man liues the aduantage is not very great as we will shew hereafter They are of opinion that if they escape they shall be in better estimation with the Prince and with all others This false imagination is one of the mortall poysons which venometh which bewitcheth their soules and rauisheth them to this despaire Here is a wonderfull consideration Vanitie blindeth them and carrieth them to Iniustice feeding them most daintily with a hot throat this is vanity indeed If the Prince in the most noble assemblies would blame and despise them they would stay the torrent of their follies but it happens that in the presence of him and others of the greatest they praise such actions tell stories of them they extoll them with applause with admiration See say they how handsomely he hath challenged him how freely the other iumped with him and being hindred after they had giuen their faith not to fight an heroicall prowesse see how gallantly they broke it to goe peirce their carkasses with ioy of heart without any occasion of quarrell so they do magnifie a thousand wayes a beastly barbarisme baptizing it with the most specious names of vertue It is a winde that soundeth within these empty heads and fils them with false imaginations which takes away their wits To be esteemed of the Soueraigne Prince and of the great ones is a charming flash of lightening which doth penetrate their soules It is a magicke which surpasseth all the characters of the Cabalists which dazeleth and decayeth their eyes and iudgements and teareth a man violently from himselfe We haue called these effects Despaire and not greatnes of Courage What will you say of them which do hang themselues precipitate themselues poyson themselues runne themselues through with a rapier starue themselues Doe they it not in despight of death It cannot be denied some will answer that all this is imbecillity blindnesse rage because the punishment doth not make the Martyr but the cause of the punishment It is well said what difference put you betweene those desperate men and the others which kill one another without iust cause you cannot find any in the least appearance That it is a rage proceeding from feeblenes of iudgement it may be prooued by a thousand arguments and especially by the combate of two new Pateuine Amazones who sixe or seauen yeares since did fight in a list or place railed in for a combate Oh what an vnnaturall accident It should bee the Crysis of quarrels of this time Crysis sent from Heauen if France would make it selfe worthy of such a blessing This History is a shame for both Sexes but it is a discourse by it selfe If it be Courage it is very common beeing practised by imbecilitie it selfe if Desperation it is come by example and that example is reprooueable and punishable Yet there are found amongst the Iewes the Egyptians the Persians the Greekes the Romanes and the French women of qualitie generous bred aboue the infirmitie of the sex equall to men by the fauour of nature and of nourture But to shew how vile and abiect this desperate action is it is knowne that base Porters haue been in the field with the same ceremonies vsing like curtesie as they do that thinke themselues Samsons This doth much extenuate the glory of these actions which the ignorant doe so vnworthily exalt The Lord de la Noue in one of his discourses blames Amadis for decyphering with a loftie and as it were a magicke style a false Valour and Chymera's of Valour And some which bee neere your Maiestie and elsewhere doe put forward vpon this matter things more extravagant and fantasticall then the tales of Melusina and of the Roman of the Rose In the meane time all the dispersion falls vpon the Nobilitie which is the basis of the Estate Your Maiestie by your excellent Vertue haue saued your Kingdome raised it again and remitted it by the very same and now that it is in the harbour your Maiestie lets them suffer shipwracke who haue helped your invincible courage to take land All the rest of the Kingdome doe enioy the benefit of peace euen to the beasts It is one of the praises that Strangers doe giue with admiration to your Maiesties vertue and fortune And the Nobilitie who haue so great a share in so faire a Conquest at least the greatest number are onely depriued of this good couered with blood enwrapped in a warre more then ciuill or rather in many intestine warres There is more mischiefe and iniustice in these Combates then in ciuill warres Because that in ciuill warres they flie they saue themselues they retire into the forts in the other to shunne occasions is cowardize to seeke out the least is extraordinary Honour All is open all is sure to them that say They beare not a word but like a Caualier That which is done most commonly in ciuill warres by chance is done in these combates of set purpose likewise the ruine thereby is almost alwayes ineuitable Ciuill warres be against enemies the other against friends neighbours neere kinsfolkes brothers In briefe in ciuill warres there is alwaies some honour for the particular some profit for the generall In the other there is neither honour nor profit for one or other When there bee any quarrells all the world runnes to hinder the mischiefe the King is disquieted with it his Guard are much troubled What is all this It is a very stage-play for to hinder all these furies there needes no more but an Edict well obserued To say that they doe but counterfeit to hinder them is against experience To say likewise that the King doth not desire it is repugnant to his good nature What is it then a sencelesnesse a madnes which hath seized and transported the Frenchmen A sencelesnesse not to be mooued by the consequence of these follies a madnes to follow with so much furie that lamentable way of miserie From whence comes so great a disaster From Pardons without which all the World iudgeth that this wild-fire would soone be extinguished The birth of these Monsters and their increase bee from the exquisite workes of flatterers which hauing finely slid and as it were melted themselues into the soules of Kings since Henry the 2. haue perswaded them that it is a
marke of Soueraigntie to giue Pardons It is so without doubt but they must be conformable to the Iustice of God who hath established Lawes therein as is seene by the Townes of Refuge which were aunciently amongst the Israelites which were for accidents proceeding of ignorance chance-medley and other notable circumstances following which all Soueraigne Princes may iustly and with good conscience giue life But for the Pardons which are forged now a dayes there can bee found no example either in holy Bookes or in prophane But if they take that for a marke of Soueraigntie the Assyrian Monarchs Persians Greekes and Romanes were by that reckoning no Soueraignes The Kings of England of Spaine Swede Denmarke c. be then no Soueraignes they haue for all that the markes of Soueraigntie common with our Kings To giue letters of Nobilitie of Naturalitie to mint money to create new Estates to confirme them to leuie impositions c. Bee not these faire markes and well raised There is no speach of giuing Pardons of this qualitie It followeth that Soueraigntie is not founded vpon that What is then her foundation that the Soueraigne doe depend vpon God onely and not to acknowledge any man liuing for his Superiour So he is inferiour to God onely But how say you to this Sir He doth absolutely forbid that which you permit God will be angry we speake it for the health of your soule And if wee did conuerse still among men wee would beseech you with knees to the ground to waigh these words if you take not a better order God will be angry Wee will not speake of Strangers from Spaine Italie Almanie England Poland Denmarke who hold the French for mad-men and possessed with deuills and doe speake of the Kings of France for this occasion very strangely and which is worse with too great truth We alleadge onely your Auncestours Clouis Charlemagne Sr. Louis and so many other excellent Princes A man shall not finde that they haue permitted these combates of the Nobilitie so ill grounded And if they haue permitted them it hath been twice or thrice in a thousand yeares and for very important considerations onely capable of offence and to make a distinction of great and small things The Subiect touched 1. The honour of God 2. The honour and seruice of the Prince and consequently of the Commonwealth 3. The honour the conscience and the life of euery particular man It was also a Gordion knot a quarrell without any meanes of attonement and a mischiefe without any remedie but extremitie which ariueth very sieldome for there is not almost any offence but may be reconciled These principall points are so pertinently deduced by a Discourse intituled of Quarrels and of Honour that the Author deserueth much glory thereby as a man that hath set downe the true and solide foundations of Honour If they say that it is an inueterate furie because that quarrells haue Honour for their foundation we answer first of all that vntill King Francis the 1. they knew not what quarrells were in the manner vsed now adaies and that France before that time was all heaped with honour bowed vnder the burthen of glorious victories gotten vpon strangers when as there was no speach at all of this mortall contagion nor any imagination thereof It had as many magnificent Trophies as Captaines as many triumphant Palmes as Gentlemen and as many crownes of Oake as simple souldiers we will marke onely one of those times When Charles the 8. as a winde a torrent a thunder tempestious furious pierceing ouerthrew spoiled vanquished Italy with so great and fearefull a swiftnes was there in all the earth a Nobility like to the French was there any thing so generous so vertuous and then there was no speach of Duell We forbeare to speake of all the other ages past which haue had valiant men Demy-Gods so renowned so redoubted through all the world who neuer knew this folly Secondly we say let there be meanes found to tie vp fooles and desperate men There hath beene no fault but in your moderne Predecessors there will be no fault but in your Maiestie you haue the cables and the chaines to stay these frantickes and how We haue already told you Not to giue any more Pardons Yet that is not all You must make known and publish throughout the Realme your Maiesties intention make a solemne Oath before God neuer to giue any vnlesse they be conformable to the Lawes of God as we haue remarked and let it be a perpetuall Edict irreuocable and another Law Salicke for your Successors There is yet more and that is the knot of the matter It must be made knowne wherein true Honour doth consist and Lawes established therein and that they which shall violate them be punished without remission without exception Beleeue it will be very easie to stay the most ticklish or to speake better the most hairebraind Others will be bridled by apprehension of the confiscations and mulcts which waighes them so downe that they be constrained to say That they which die in Duell are in better case then the vanquishers It is a Cadmean victory a lamentable victory lamentable for all Christendome a fearefull marke of the anger of God and an infallible presage of his vengeances neare at hand There are not any how euill soeuer they be but would be very well content that there were Lawes for the point of Honour and that there might be no cutting of throates continually for a flies foote They dare not speake for feare to be reputed cowards or that they are prouident for themselues they incline to the corruption of the time notwithstanding not any of good iudgement and truely generous doe esteeme or feare them the more It is iustly a worthy recompence for Hypocrites and euill Christians Surely we must particularly cull out what Honour is seeing it is the spring of so many mischeifes Amongst a hundred that fight for this faire quality there will not be found two that know what it is An argument of their ignorance and beastlines a worthy basis of such a pillar They are killed they know not why We say then that Honour is a quality raised vp attributed to persons according to the knowledge that is had of their merit Place is giuen to Authority and to few merit to all sorts of persons that haue it Honour is enclosed as we haue said with these sowre tearms God the Soueraigne Prince the Countrey and Vertue all the rest is but smoake Let vs see if in the Duells which be so ordinary in France we can finde these fowre lights which should conduct the actions of men There is not one of them For the three first it is most euident that such actions are wholly repugnant thereunto God is thereby grieuously offended the Prince looseth his Subiects the Countrey her children Let vs examine Vertue by her kindes it may be we shall finde it there Is Prudence there not at all Hath it beene
meete with hazards beeing therein engaged either for their ranke or by reason of their places or by some other occasions they encounter-with who goe to blowes gallantly in shew yet would be glad to be out of it what aduantage soeuer might come vnto them thereby Be it that they be borne great enough of themselues and happy without aspiring further or that their inclination doth not agree with this troublesome trade They watch perpetually that their play may not be discouered What a miserable life is this It is to giue a great aduantage to fortune ouer them making themselues subect to a thousand troublesome accidents in which men truely vertuous and desirous to doe wel haue no share For marke you how they worke They beleeue they are borne to doe well not to be of the common sort of men to serue their Prince and their Countrie to assist the weake to punish the wicked to maintaine iustice They know that they are obliged thereunto by diuine and humane Lawes as also by the Lawes of nature What they doe is voluntary hauing no other end but to doe well expecting no recompence carrying this incorruptible modell of true Honour in their vnderstanding which lifts them vp inflames them and transports them with all the gracious inchauntments with all the amarous bates of Vertue which is the most rauishing figure that can be imagined They goe to death without feare and without apprehension so much as humane nature can permit not onely because duty doth oblige them that is too common but because they will produce a faire action Others doe keepe themselues from failing and doing euill by carrying themselues vertuously because duty doth constraine and straightly binde them therunto and these doe not expose so precious a gage as life onely for the consideration of that effect but for the desire they haue to profit others and to approach the nearer by such actions to the diuinity Not to faile in things of great importance not to fall into shame and to keepe themselues from reproach is a common thing with the most part But to make himselfe remarkeable by doing well to goe about to make himselfe famous by faire actions is not proper but to them onely that are wholy Vertuous Those soules girt about with the diuine beame can bring forth nothing that is common base or vnworthie Great things doe appertaine vnto them and it is for them that the Cedars be planted The third pillar that sustaineth the holy worke of the most worthy Vertue that is amongst men is Habitude that is to say An action repeated and done many times which ought to be considered as the true touch of armes and the Soueraigne Iudge which iudgeth in the last resort of all faire actions It is not all to know the danger and to goe thereto willingly as I haue said with all the circumstances but a man must goe many times one masters tricke onely how bould soeuer he be makes not a good artizan neither doth one onely act of Vertue make a man vertuous It is this Soueraigne sounding plummet of hearts that makes a man sweat blood and water It is it that culleth out most curiously it is the expert workman which endeth this triumphant portall with all the dimensions There be an infinite number who for that they haue not ballanced this high consideration or to speake better not hauing conceiued or imagined it after one vertuous action only haue sounded the retreate and so contented themselues There be others after two or three faire actions besides their owne particular contentment haue come to a presumption measuring themselues by their shadow full of pride for the opinion they haue that they are of a good stampe not knowing that the end iudgeth of all our life and that there is no time limited to vertuous effects but that which commeth with the coffin and the burning torches Not that I wil say that they which are heaped vp with Honour by a thousand sufficient testimonies of their Valour haue been made famous shall seeke all occasions and hazard themselues like young men or such as haue done no great extraordinary matter But whē occasion shall be offred that the losse which they may make of themselues shall not be so preiudiciall as the profit of the Common-wealth shall be thereby great they must doe like other men This Carreere of Glory is infinite a man must find no end of it but by the last end nor euer be weary or filled therewith so long as his hand can furnish his courage We must not for all that come to such vnmeasurable passions and vnruly motions of such a blind and madde ambition as Marius had who ouerloaden with many yeares as well as with victories and buried as a man would say with the multitude of his Triumphes did notwithstanding beare enuy to young men Too much is alwaies to be blamed Habitude then is the last peice in order and in perfection it is one of the principall There bee some that once in their liues before their Prince haue done wonderfully They were prepared for that blow They would die or goe out of the mire of their auncestors enrich and put themselues to ease The artifice was not euil if they saued themselues and reaped the fruit of hope vnlesse death had fastened a nayle to their designes from which beeing escaped they had yet at the least this pleasure to haue once in their liues done wel and to hold that in common with the most honest men Those people flie at nothing but the Larke They should haue been in danger many times furnished with all things requisite with all the armes of vnderstanding and courage heauenly armes of the proofe of shots of death despising the graue and not esteeming any thing equall to the desire of doing well if they would haue been honoured with the triumphant Crowne which is giuen to the vertuous Among the muske of Canon-powder all couered with the Aromatique perfumes which the smoake of Harquebuzes doth cast vpon the points of swords and pikes the generous spirit doth exercise it selfe there she takes her measure at this rigorous schoole shee learnes a diuine Mistrisship there she gets her durable orders not once nor thrice nor fowre times but a thousand times euen as often as need is for the Common good They which doe not measure themselues by this ell are friuolous shadowes and if I may say so fantasies of true Vertue whereof they haue but a vaine appearance That likewise doth not endure All these things being exactly waighed I am of opinion that the cleare-sighted wil pronounce a sentence which cannot be retracted that is That there be very few men adorned with this incomparable vertue in perfection Notwithstanding some do approach thereunto more then others and an infinite number may haue some seeds and sprigs thereof like weake beames from so supernaturall a light Thou that goest seeking by the constellation of starres by the composition of humours
then soone or late God doth chasten the Princes which doe suffer such mischiefe among their people This consideration ought to be graued in letters of gold in the hearts of Kings That it is true that Duells doe thrust the French to conspire against the State we wil alleadge among so many lamentable examples but onely the last complot which constrained your Maiestie to goe take order therein Is it not better say they to die in a Ciuill warre going about to aduance and dignifie a mans selfe then to kill one an other foolishly euery day without any hope of a better condition So likewise all the rest doe enioy the benefit of peace but we Ah wretched men you spit against heauen you enterprise against yout naturall Prince to whom you doe owe all Ye perturbers of the publike rest where is your iudgement To contend with this excellent Monarch so long a time in possession to destroy his enemies there wants nothing but his presence to put all at his feet It is the fable of the Pigmies and Hercules Who be the chiefe of your side what bee your meanes The Duke of Sauoy saith Luke-warme water to a scalded cat The Arch-Duke hath a sute in hearing which is not ready to be decided The King of Spaine with his faithfull Counsell takes the height of the Astrolabe and attends an other season The wise and magnanimious King of England holds his finger on his mouth who should be then your Captaines And put the case that they that call themselues friends of France would put themselues in collar what should be your meanes what Townes what Comminalties would assist you They will tell you with a cōmon consent that they will not eate of it They sweat and pant yet with trauels past Likewise your designes haue had as much vanity as iniustice and presumption Now all these pestilent feauers be growne by the iniquitie of Duells which makes their courage barbarous and accustoming them to blood makes them enemies of humane societie and consequently of all pietie Doubtles your Maiesty may very easily take away these pernicious and deplorable confusions Would your Maiesty make it selfe culpable of so much blood shedde for want of making obedience They meddle with an imaginary Honour Is it not in the Soueraigne Prince to make this errour knowne and to take the Honour of his vpon himselfe Belongs it not to the head to guide the body when as from the conduct of the other members a man can expect nothing but miserable falls When as the resolution of your Maiesty to giue no more Pardons shall be knowne and published we say a zealous resolution with a solemne Oath before God there is no man will dare to importune it when you are displeased they dare not looke vpon your cabinet doore they dare not breath within your Chamber they dare not so much as imagine that there is any thing to say to you although it concernes you From whence comes this humble respect From the Honour that they beare to your Vertue which they reuerence acknowledging it for that it hath conquered saued and relieued this Estate Behold the sweete fruits that Vertue brings that faire tree of life But after that your Maiesty hath made Lawes they goe and humble themselues they cast themselues at your Maiesties feet they presse your Maiesty and your Maiesties nature which is gentle not regarding the consequence is very often carried away at the prayers of such a one as is sheltered from blowes and hazard So your Maiesty doe breake the precious tables of your iust decrees or rather of the decrees of heauen To let ones selfe be vanquished at the particular importunity of iniust supplications which absolutely doe import the Commonwealth and to haue the magnanimity and clemency of Henry the 4. who hath subdued and restored this Estate is incompatible That cannot agree To derogate from ones owne ordinances is like Penelopes webbe and the Castles of sand which they faine to be done and vndone vpon the sea shoare by little children It is to be alwaies beginning So the authority of the Prince is despised and all good gouernement troden vnder feet likewise they say aloude when they publish them that it is for foure dayes The importance is that the King must answer for all and that should awaken them that are most drowsie What must hee doe then let him be firme and inflexible in these ordinances There must be none if they be not iust and equitable If they be so they must obserue them exactly Two or three examples after the publication of them will stay will extinguish these spoiles these fires which haue ouerthrowne which haue consumed the faire polices and the good customes of this Realme A worke worthy to blot out a multitude of sinnes a ladder to climbe heauen a triumph which will make all your fore-passed Victories to shine will re-aduance them and be as it were a second birth vnto them Two moneths after a rigorous obseruation of your Edicts there will be no more speach of quarrells It was seene by experience after the publication of that which was made at Fontaine-bleau that they stayed foure moneths throughout the whole Realme and not a man budged Not one durst sound the forde for feare hee should be lost and serue for an example They kept sentinell to see what would be the crackes of this threatning thunder Folly slept what a notable thing is this The first desperate man that hazarded the packet hauing obtained his pardon opened the doore of the Temple of Ianus which had been shut foure moneths wherby entred greater disorder and more fearefull then before on the contrary this example alone this only bleeding so seasonably would haue kept all this great body from a pluresie Quarrells beeing taken away your Maiesty should be at rest and not in disquiet as it is so often for furious folkes Strange Princes haue a great aduantage ouer your Maiesty They be dayly busied to know what victories their subiects haue had vpon the common enemy of the faith or against the particular enemies out of their Dominions And your Maiesty is in a continuall alarum with your owne subiects who are alwayes ready to fight at feasts at dauncings at play at hunting yea euen in the holy places presently after they haue receiued their Sacraments O malediction and wherefore for spiders webs Your Maiesty is brought to a meruailous seruitude it may redeeme it selfe by making her ordinances to be punctually executed The apprehension of punishments will stay them and there will be none so desperate to put themselues into an infinite Labyrinth of miseries for a fantasie of honour If there be any as hath been said he shall serue for an example Is it not better to cut off an arme then to let all the Bodie perish That shall not be rigour it shall be clemencie it shall be the most high and most profitable Iustice that can be imagined The great ones whose counsell you
shall haue taken to make good lawes seeing this holy resolution will be ashamed to sue vnto you to destroy that which you shall haue built by their owne iudgement If they do importune you they shall be worthy to be denied and that deniall shall deserue the glory due to your vertue But how would they dare to presse you to doe that within your Realme which they would not suffer in their owne houses Knowing and detesting the malediction of this custome if we could returne how happy should we be to offer our selues in sacrifice for all France and that your Maiestie would put vs to death vpon condition that that which we propound might be exactly obserued How glorious would this curse be to giue two liues to saue so great a body It would surpasse all renowned deeds both auncient and moderne But if the death of some few seem cruell we say it is reasonable that a small number should bee sacrificed for an infinite some must necessarily suffer for the publique It is to preuent a thousand inconueniences Your Nobilitie is wholly diuided by means of quarrells If your Maiestie had occasion to raise armies as it may ariue let men iudge what mischiefes would come thereby At the meeting of the friends kinsfolkes and allies of them which be daily killed with the homicides What coyles what outrages what furies would there be By this counterpoise a man might know that it would bee a very Christian pitty to cause so great a gaine by a little losse If your Maiesty do not redresse these disorders we must neuer hope for it This worke with many others is reserued for your goodnesse and good fortune Alas for so many Gentlemen as die in France there are made so many bone-fires in Spain and amongst the other enemies of the French name They set vp their Trophies with your blood they build with your ruines and make themselues great with your losses We know with all the world that you are not a Nero you haue pardoned euen those that haue attempted your owne person It is certaine that you neuer loose any one of yours but you haue great sence of it aboue all you are sensible of the losse of them that haue hazarded their liues to defend yours and to maintain your Lawes That is not enough you must not stay in so faire a way What is to be done more to make it appeare by the effects which doe speake of themselues There be certaine laughers that fight not who lets escape this saying that there is no hurt to draw blood from a body full of euill humours It is the most caniball and bleeding maxime of the world Which sauours with a full throate the Democrasie of the Switzers an impious maxime and full of ignorance Impious for it is against all Lawes diuine and humane Full of ignorance for as much as it is not onely the choler and sleame that goes out it is the good blood let vs say the best oftentimes They answer that quarrells arise commonly from the rash and insolent and that modest men who vsually are most valiant doe not begin them It is a worthy obiection Is not the world fuller of fooles then of wise men The French Nobility who accompts Valour her summum bonum is she not as ready as a flash of lightning It comes to passe then that the peaceable by beeing in company either for that they are friends kinsfolkes allies or neighbours be wrapped in these disorders not of their owne motion but by the instigation of others So the â—ood blood is mingled with the euill It were a high secret to know how to separate them No Alchimist is capable of it See how France is wounded and torne with her owne hands behold how she fills her selfe with desolations in such sort that there is not a house in this kingdome exempt from one of these two miserable scourges or from both together from suite or bloodshed A lamentable thing worthy of commiseration But who craues the remedy which is denied him by an euill destiny what meanes is there to abate these fumes to temper these dog daies We haue said it so often good Lawes and well obserued to busie and content great mindes and to imploy them There be many iust occasions and faire meanes enough Let vs now consider the euent of our misery and let vs waigh the good that comes of it Ah! how remarkeable it is the faire schoole the fearefull example God hath shewed in this prodigious effect two things worthy to be noted The one that he is iust and true in that which he hath said Who killeth shall be killed Alas we had rooted out the soules of others from their bodies with an vnmercifull iron against the Law of God and we haue beene punished by our selues by the same wayes Iudges and parties executioners and criminalls infringers of mens repose and in danger to be depriued of the heauenly rest The other point remarkeable is that it must be a vowed by force that nothing is so detestable before the Maiesty of God as the Duell as it is practised in this Realm Oh iust oh admirable oh redoubtable iudgements Doe not you enter into this consideration Yes you doe Sir it penetrates all your soule Though you did not yet should you cast your eyes vpon this lamentable vessell your Nobility peirced from ribbe to rib which takes water at all sides which perisheth by little and little in all mens sight ready to make a pitifull strip wracke The heart cannot faile but the other members must be without force and all the world knowes the inuincible heart of this great Body cannot be subdued but by it selfe You are the Head you are the eies succour this noble part which beeing weakned by so many conclusions by so much losse of blood you can haue neither moouing nor light nor conduct nor vigor against the mischeifes which grow so often within the entralls of this Realme nor against them which may ariue from without Whosoeuer will narrowly marke to what a brutishnes the furies of the French are mounted he will tremble in the soule he will finde himselfe turned topsie turuy quite out of himselfe When they speake of causes which doe engage to Duell they confesse that according to God it is damnable wickednes and yet for all that they goe to it So as to practise Honour as they doe in these dayes it is iust not to be a Christian to make a glory of homicide is to loue Vertue to heape vp whole families with misery with desolation it is to be a light of men to conclude it is to be the image of all gentlenes to know well how to efface without cause from the world the image of God They that haue the dropsie of pride that are puffed vp with vanity and ignorance will say this is spoken like Diuines In the estimation of this age it is an ill argument to alleadge God or to be a Christian That is too