which may fall out vnto you for this fact But Gods word must needes be false and ful of lying which it is not nor cānot be if you do not very quickly receiue the wages hire that God promiseth to manquellers and murtherers as your brother did for hauing slaine the late Admirall But I will leaue this matter to the diuines to treate hereof that so I may come to put you in minde of a great and stale faulte which you committed at the very same time For sith you feared not in so many places to declare that your speciall marke was to raigne and be a King you had then and by reason of the blow a good occasion offered you to cause your selfe to be chosen King and you might better then haue attayned thereto than you can at this present when you sue Many deuises are in mans heart but the Lords purposes shall stand for euer ride runne corrupt and all to get it The Cardinall of Bourbon to whom vnaduisedly you gaue the title of the King was a prisoner Your nephew vpon whome they did bestowe all the commendations and glorie of his father was so likewise and neither the one nor the other could hurte you therein or hinder you as your nephew doth at this day you had yet the people hartned earnest and running after noueltie and change who had a great opinion of your valour from which you are much fallen since and I make no doubt but that you had caried it away thorow the hatred of the lawfull successor who was notoriouslie knowne to be a Huguenot And besides you had diuers preachers who had laide out a thousand reasons to perswade the people that the Crowne did belong rather to you than to him Nay foule and false The occasion for it was faire namely the changing of it from one line to another And although it bee all but one familie and of the same stalke as we may say notwithstāding the distāce of more than ten degrees in which the doctors say there ceaseth all the bond and right of consanguinitie made a goodly shew although that Doctor Baldus hath written that this rule faileth in the familie of the Bourbonians Wherunto adde that you had the force and the fauour of the time in your hand wherewith you could not serue your owne turne or helpe your selfe but rather thorough a certaine fainthartednes and very foule and grosse cowardise you would obserue forsooth some little modestie and forme of the ciuill lawe giuing the title of the King to a poore priest that was a prisoner The Cardinall of Bourbon although that in all other things you did shameleslie violate all the lawes of the realme and all lawe besides of God and of man whether it were naturall or ciuill You forgot all the maximaes and rules of our great masters touching the matter of enterprise vpon the estates of an other man euen that of Iulius Caesar which oftentimes for his excuse and defence spake these verses out of a certaine Greeke Poet. If that thou must needes wicked be be so a kingdome to obtaine But yet in other things be iust and eke the lawes maintaine You were afraide to take the title of a King Stumble at a straw and leap ouer a blocke and yet you were not afraide to vsurpe the power of it which you disguised and masked with a qualitie or esstate altogether new such a one as was neuer heard spoken of in Fraunce And I knowe not who was the author thereof yet some attribute it to the president Brisson or to Ianiu But whosoeuer inuented this expedient fayled in the termes of Grammer and of Estate also A fitte and good reason They might haue giuen you the name of Regent or of Lieutenant generall of the King as they haue done sometimes heretofore when the Kings were prisoners or absent off their kingdome and realme But Lieutenant of the estate and Crowne is a title vnheard of very strange which also hath too lōg a taile as it were a chimer or mōster against nature that maketh little children afraid Whosoeuer is a Lieutenant is Lieutenant to another whose place he holdeth who is not able to do his functiō or office by reason of his absence or some other hinderance or let and a Lieutenant is the Lieutenant of some other mā but to say that a man should be the Lieutenāt of a thing without life as the estate or crowne of a King is a very absurd thing such a one as cannot be mainteined And it had bin more tolerable to say Lieutenant in the estate and crowne of France than Lieutenāt of the estate But this is but a smal matter to faile in speech or words A true assertion in cōparison of failing in deeds When you were clothed and cloaked with this goodly qualitie you did so rudely roughly empty our purses that you had the meane to raise vp a great armie with the which you promised to pursue besiege take and bring prisoner He that reckoneth without his host must count againe this nowe successor to the crowne who did not call himself Lieutenant but in plaine termes King You had made vs then to gard and keep our places to hire shops in S. Anthonies street that we might see him passe in chaines whē ye brought him prisoner from Diepe what did yee withal this great armie very groffe indeed by al your strāge succours of Italie of Spaine of Germanie The horse and man are prepared against the day of battell but victorie is from the Lord. but to lay opē and cause to be knowne your own reachles weaknes vnorderly gouernment not so much as once daring with thirtie thousand mē to set vpon fiue or sixe thousand which gaue you the head at Arques and in the end constrained you shamefully to turne your backs you your selues to seeke surety safety in the riuer of Somme We were greatly deceiued when in steede of seeing this new King in the Bastile wee beheld him in our suburbs with his armie as a certaine lightning or clap of warre that preuented our thoughts yours also But you came and succoured vs A needlesse worke then when we were assured that he would do vs no hurt And we must confesse that without the resistance that one who is at this day his seruant made against him at the gate of Bussy he had taken vs before you arriued From that time hitherto you haue done nothing in your Lieutenancy worthy the remembrance If this be his commendation praise him for tyrannic but the establishment of your councell of fourtie persons and of sixteene which you haue since reuoked and scattered as much as you could And whilest that you laboured the aduancement and estate of your owne house and that you suffered your imagined King to wast weare away in prison without succouring him either with mony or with meanes to maintaine
attempt with your foot to hold the crowne of France hauing left in your hand first great riches great estates the chiefe offices charges of the kingdome great gouernments many souldiers bound by good turnes done them many seruants also great intelligences with the Pope the King of Spayne and other Princes your kinsfolkes and allies and which is more a great opinion amongst the common people that you were good Catholikes and sworne enemies to the Huguenots You knew very well how to make great profite to your selues by these preparations and sundrie sorts of stuffe which ye found after his death all readie to bring vnto the worke When I say you I meane your self brethren and cousins After King Charles his death many things succeeded well to you one after another Diuers deuises to strengthen the Guisian faction and to very good purpose First the barrennes of the King or of your cousin his wife then the retraite and absence of the King of Nauarre of which you were in part a cause for the distrusts into which you brought him and after that the diuision and dissention between the King and Monsieur the Duke his brother whereof you were the onely authors and promoters vnder hand and closely sharpening the spirits of the one against the other and secretly promising them to ayd them Another thing wherewith you thought to strengthen your selues well was the assistance that Messieurs the Princes of Conty and of Soyssons yeelded for a time to the King of Nauarre their cousin germane when they sawe that the things you went about were directly against all their familie and that you boasted you would supplant or vndermine them for thereupon you vndertooke the matter which you haue neuer since forsaken or forgotten namely to cause to be comprehended by and vnder the Popes bull If Spayne play not a part in this pageant nothing can be done and by oths and protestations of the King of Spayne neuer to approue hereticall princes nor the children of heretikes and then ye found out and first deuised these goodly names of adherents and fautors of heretikes After all this ye made your practises with the King of Spayne more openly and assured your conditions and couenanted then for your pensions promising him the kingdome of Nauarre Bern for his share with the townes that should serue his turne in Picardie and Champagne and ye communed with him concerning the meanes that you would vse to get hold of the estate And the pretext that ye pretended thereto was the wicked gouernment of the king Good pretexts to countenāce a bad cause the prodigalities which he bestowed vpon his two minions Esperon and Mercurie whereof you drew one to your owne line which was thought neuer a whit the better You imployed all your diligence to make the poore prince odious to his people you counselled him to raise the taxes to inuent new imposts to create newe officers by which you your felues profited for some did maintaine to Monsieur your brother at Chartres after the barricades that he had receiued halfe the money of three edicts made to fill the purse Fine deuises to shred him of his kingdome and which also were very pernicious or hurtfull whereof notwithstanding you cast and layd the hatred vpon that poore king whom you made to muse vpon and dwell in ridiculous deuotions whilest you your selues sued for the good fauour of the people and contrarie to his liking tooke vpō you the charge and conducting of great armies drawing vnto you the heads and captaines of warre courting and making much of in words the very simple and meane souldiers that ye might get them to bee on your side practising the townes buying the gouernmēts and putting into the best places gouernours folke at your owne deuotion And this was then that you conceiued the kingdome present almost euen as the appetite commeth many times by eating when you sawe King Henry without hope of issue He must needs goe that the diuell driueth the chiefe Princes accounted for heretikes or fautors of heretikes the Consistorie of Rome to lay the raines or bridle in your necke and the King of Spayne to giue you the spurre You had no more to hinder you but the late Monsieur who was a shrewd hollow dreamer and who vnderstood well with what wood you warmed your selues He must be dispatched out of the way and Salcede his testament discouered vnto vs the meanes of it Who can stād against such deadly attēpts but force preuailing not poyson did the deede All your seruants foretold this his death more then three moneths before it came to passe Afterwards ye made no more small mouths or spake closely for the dissembling of your purpose you went no more creeping as cunnies nor in secret but you plainly layd open your selues And yet notwithstanding the better to set forward your affayres you would make honest people beleeue that this was for the publique benefite and for the defence of the Catholique religion Catholike religion a fayre pretext which is a pretext and cloake that seditious persons and stirrers vp of nouelties haue alwaies taken to couer themselues withall Into this insensible net you drew that good man Monsieur the Cardinall of Bourbon a prince without malice and ye were able so cunningly to turne and wind him that yee seized him with a foolish and vndiscreet ambition that in the end ye might deale with him as the eat doth with the mouse that is to say after ye had plaied with him to eate him vp No vnapt cōparison No vntrue exposition You drew thereunto sundry Lordes of the Realme diuers gentlemen and captaines many cities townes and communalties and amongst others this miserable citie which suffered it selfe to bee taken as it were with birde lime partly by reason of the hatred that they had against the misdemeanours of the late King partly also by reason of the impression which you put into them that the Catholike religion would vtterly be ouerthrowne if the King did die without childrē the succession of the kingdom shuld come to the King of Nauar who called himself the first prince of the blood Hereupon you forged framed your first declaration or manifestatiō that had not in it so much as one only word of religiō but you did indeed demaund therein They will hardly agree with others that diffent frō themselues that althe states gouernments of this kingdome shuld be taken from them that possessed them and were not at your deuotion which escape you amended in your second declaration by the counsell of Rosne who to the end hee might set alon a fire said that there needed nothing else but the setting out of religion and then you preached vnto vs of a Synod at Montauban A fine deuise to foster the fire of faction in Fraunce and of a diet in Germanie where you saide that all the Huguenots of the worlde had
all ecclesiasticall order causing the priests religious men and religious women and all to fall to wicked life wasting benefices and abolishing Gods seruice throughout all the plaine countrie and notwithstanding we persisted as before without hauing any pitie of so many desolate and straying soules forsaken also of their pastors which languished and pined away without religiō without feeding and without administration of any Sacrament In fine sith we agree together Like sinnes like punishments and are like in so many meetings of things to the citie of Ierusalem what other thing can we look for than a whole ruine and vtter desolation as theirs was vnles God by an extraordinarie miracle giue vs againe our right wit and sense For it is impossible that wee can any longer time indure thus being alreadie so beatē down fainting sluggish with lōg ficknes that the very sighs and groanes which we fetch are nothing els but the very hickcockes or pangs going before death We are shut vp pressed inuaded And that is not very good cōpassed in on all sides and wee take not the ayre but the stinking ayre that is within our walles from our myres and sinkes for all the rest of the ayre from the libertie of the fields is withheld from vs. Wherfore ye free cities learne learne I say by our damage and losse to gouerne your selues from this time forward after another fashion suffer not your selues to be mislead and haltred as you haue been by the charmes and inchauntments of the preachers who are corrupted with money with some hope which some princes giue thē who aspire nothing but to ingage you and to make you so weake so souple easie to bee bent that they may play with and enioy at their own pleasure your selues your riches your libertie and all For concerning that which they would make you beleeue touching religion An apt comparision it is but a maske or visor wherewith they busie the simple as the foxes couer their footing with their long tailes that so they might catch them eate them vp at their pleasure A common vse indeede Haue you euer seene any other respects in them that haue aspired after tyrannous gouernment ouer the people than this that they haue alwaies made taken and vsed some goodly title and shew of the common wealth or of religion And yet when question hath been of comming to some agreement their particular interest and profit hath alwaies been in the vantgard and they haue set the benefit and good of the people behinde as a matter that did not touch them Or else if they were victors and did ouercome their end was alwaies to bring vnder and churlishly to vse the people by whome they were ayded and assisted to come to the very top of their desires But so are not they that defend such things And I am abashed seeing that all histories as well olde as new are full of such examples to behold that yet there are found men so poore in vnderstanding as to rush vpon and to flie vnto this false lure The historie of the ciuill warres and of the reuolt which was made against Lewis the eleuenth is yet fresh and as wee say bleeding new An example The Duke of Berry his brother and certaine Princes of Fraunce raised vp and hartened by the King of England and yet somewhat more encouraged by the Countie of Charolois vsed no other colour for leuying of their armies than the benefite and comfort of the people and kingdome But in the ende when they were to come to composition or agreement they intreated of nothing but to increase to one his yearely pension and to giue offices and friendly conditions of agreement to all those that had assisted them without any more mention of the commō wealth than of the Turke If you will wade somewhat higher in the French Chronicles you shall see that the factions of Bourgongne and of Orleans were alwaies coloured with the comforting or easing of the taxes or of the euill gouernment of the affaires and yet notwithstanding the intent of the principall heads thereof was nothing else but to keepe vnder the authoritie of the kingdome and to giue one house aduātage against another as the issue hath alwaies made plaine proof of it Though hee should haue done it did it indeed sometimes yet of late you haue vniustly detayned the same For in the end the King of Englād caried alwaies away some part of it for his share the Duke of Bourgongne did neuer depart without some citie or countrie which he tooke for his bootie Whosoeuer will finde leasure to reade this historie shall finde therein our miserable age naturally and liuely set out vnto vs. He shal see our preachers the blowfires and bellowes of contention that ceased not to intermeddle therein as they doe at this daye though at no hand there was then question touching religion they preached against their King they caused him to bee excommunicated as they doe at this present They set vp propositions and vsed disputations in Sorbonne against the good citizens and common wealths men as they doe now A man might haue behelde then murders and slaughters of innocent people and of furies and outrages committed by the people themselues euen as ours doe Our mynion the late Duke of Guise is there represented and set out in the person of the Duke of Bourgongue False and speken like a Frenchman for our Kings had and haue a lawfull right and our good protector the King of Spaine in that of the King of England You therein see our easines to beleeue and simplicitie accompanied with ruiues desolations sackings burnings of townes and suburbes such as we haue seene and see continuallie vpon vs and vpon our neighbours The common good was the charme or witcherie that stopped vp our predecessors eares but indeede the ambition and the reuengement of these two great houses was the true and first cause as the ende discouered it And thus haue I deducted and laide out vnto you that first the iealousie and enuie of those two houses of Bourbon and of Lorraine and since the onely ambition and couetousnes of these of Guyse haue bin and are the only cause of all our mischiefes miseries It is the cup of fornication mentioned in the Apocalyps But as for the catholike Romane religion it is the drinke wherewith they haue infatuated vs and caused vs to fall on sleep and a poyson wel sweetned with sugar and which serueth for an obstupatiue or benumming medicine to astonish or benumme all our members which whilest we are on sleepe wee feele not when they cut away now one piece then an other euen one after an other and that which remaineth be but as a truncke which very quickly will leese all the blood and the heate and the very life it selfe thorow ouermuch euacuation In the same historie doe yee not find also as it were
hatte had a head like the Poet Aeschilus in so much as their common speech was that in the said Estates there was none but three scuruie or scalled persons and one that was pilled or balde and if the Inquisition of Spayne had been in good time brought in A holie house I sawe more than fiue hundred of them what say I fiue hundred yea fiue thousand which by their blasphemies deserued nothing lesse then the colling and imbracing of the president Brisson But the lot fell not vpon any of them but vpon a certaine poore miserable man an Asse leader who to hasten forward his miserable dullard altogether wearied and tyred with blowes and burthens spake with a very high and vnderstandible voyce these offensiue and blasphemous words Let vs go grosse Iohn to the Estates which wordes being taken at the pond head He meaneth the fauourits of Spayne as wee say and ere euer they were fully fallen by one or two of the number of the foure squared Cuba and brought to two Inquisitors or Promoters of the faith namely Machault and de Here this blasphemer was holilie and Catholikelie condemned to bee beaten and scourged naked with rods at his Asse tayle thorowe all the foure corners or quarters of Paris which was an infallible prognostication and a very famous and plaine prelude to testifie to all the people that were assembled for that solemne action that the proceedings of all the orders and States should be full of iustice and equitie A scabbed horse good enough for a scalde squire as the sayd iudgement it selfe which was the scantling of the great peece of the iustice of the Estates that were to come But whilest men were making preparations and scaffolds in the Louvre the ancient temple and dwelling place of the Kings of France while they were looking for the Deputies of all quarters Pomp enough for so paltrie a meeting who from moneth to moneth should come thether with small noyse and without pompe or shew of traine as men were wont to doe in old time before the pride and corruption of our fathers had brought in ryot vicious superfluitie The French word signifieth such as play legier de maine and vse sleights to deceiue mens sights and bringing drugs cut of farre countreys would perswade mē the excellencie of them by receiuing them themselues there were in the Court of the sayd Louvre two craftie Iugglers or Apothecaries the one a Spanyard and the other a Lorrain which it would haue done a man meruailous much good to see them vaunt their drugges and to play their iuggling trickes all the liue long day before all thē that would go to see them and that without paying any thing The Spanish Iugler or Apothecarie was very pleasant and mounted vpon a little scaffold playing rex as we say or shewing his knacks and rugling tricks and keeping the bancke or seate much like to many of those that a man may see at Venice in the place of S. Marke Vpon his scaffold there was tyed or set vp a great skinne of parchment written in diuers languages and sealed with fiue or sixe seales of golde of lead and of waxe He meaneth the Cardmall of Plaisance power Legantine from the Pope with certaine titles in letters of gold hauing therein these wordes Letters touching the power of a certaine Spanyard and of the meruailous effects of his drugge called Higuiero of Hell or a Catholicon compounded The summe of all this whole writing was that this treacle maker the young sonne of a certaine Spanyard of Grenado banished into Africke for Mahometisme the Phisitian of Ceriffa who made himselfe King of Marroco A fit instrument for the Pope and the Spanyard by a certaine kind or sort of Higuiero his father being dead came into Spayne caused himselfe to bee baptized and put himselfe to serue at Tolledo in the Colledge of the Iesuites there who hauing learned that the simple Catholicon of Rome had no other effects but to build vp soules and to cause saluation and blessednes in the other world only being wearie of so long a terme or time tooke counsell and was aduised by the counsell of his fathers will or testament A word much vsed amongst Phisitians Apothecaries and Distillers to sophisticate this Catholicon so well that by meanes of handling of it of remouing and stirring of it drawing it thorow a Limbecke or Stillatorie and bringing it into powder he made thereof within that Colledge That is a soueraigne and choyse thing such a soueraigne electuarie as surpassed all the Philosophers stones of what sort soeuer the proofes and triall whereof also were diducted and layd out by fiftie articles such as insue hereafter I. That which that poore vnhappie Emperour Charles the fift could not doe with all the vnited forces and all the cannons of Europe The principall of Dame Venus Knights his braue sonne Dom Philip by the meane of this drugge hath been able to performe it seruing himselfe therein but with a simple Lieutenant ouer twelue or fifteene thousand men at the most II. That if this Lieutenant haue of this Catholicō in his Ensignes Cornets And into what towne will not an Asse laden with golde pearce he wil enter without giuing blow into a kingdome that is enemie vnto him the people there will meere him and will goe before him with crosses banners Legats and Primats And though he destroy rauine Witnesse the West Indies and the Low Countreys vsurpe murther and sacke all yea though he carrie away rauish burne and make all a wildernesse yet the people of the countrie will say These are our people these are good Catholikes they doe this for peacesake and for our mother holie Church The name of his place or house at Madrill Let a King who is a sluggard and keepeth at home but assay and endeuour to affine or trie this drugge in his Escuriall write but one word to father Ignatius the ingrosser and close keeper of this Catholicon he will finde him out a man who his conscience kept safe or as wee say with a safe conscience will murther his enemie whom hee was not able by force of armes to vanquish in twentie yeares III. If this King purpose to assure his Estates and territories to his children after his death and to inuade another mans kingdome with small expenses let him write but one word thereof to Mendoza his Ambassador It is against the order of the Alphabet to set a lier before a lesuite or to father Commolet and that beneath in his letter he write with Higuiero of hell I the King they will furnish him with some one religious Apostata or other who will goe vnder some godly shew as a Iudas to murther and that in colde bloud a great King of France He meaneth Henrie the 3. his brother in law in the middest of his Campe without any feare of God or man
I wil therefore that you know and yet let these things be spoken to godly eares alone that there hath gone out an edict or if you will rather a rescript from our Lord the Pope by which it is permitted vs to choose create sacrate and annoynt a new King what a one shall please you A shrewd limitation so that he be of the stocke of Austria or Guise You haue therefore to prouide a Prince of whether nation you will for of these Bourbonians there are no speeches nor words how much lesse of this heretike relapsed whom the same our Lord the Pope by the foresayd rescript affirmeth to bee euen now damned in hell A sober iudgement So it appeareth and that his soule shall shortly serue Lucifer for an afternoones beuer Indeede I am a Frenchman neither will I denie my countrie but if this choise might goe according to my liking verily for my good and the good of mine yea and for your good to I would willingly pray you that you would giue your voyces to some of the Lotharen familie whom you knowe to haue done so well in the Catholike common-wealth and Church of Rome But peraduenture my Lord Legate hath another intent Who doubteth of that to please the Spanyards but he speaketh not all the things hee hath in the ambrey or chest of his breast In the meane while hold you this firme An egge not more like an egge then this lewd fellow like the Legat. that you must at no hand speake or heare concerning making of peace with these damned politikes but rather arme your selues and prepare your selfe to suffer all extremities yea euen death famine fire and the ruine of the whole citie or kingdome For ye can doe nothing more gratefull and acceptable to God and to Philip our most Catholike King I know well enough that Luxenburgh and Cardinall Goudiu and the Marquis Pisanus are gone to Rome to prepare the minde of our Lord the Pope to heare the legation of this Biarnois treating of his conuersion But looke how safe the Moone is from the monkies or woolues Speake again and speake better if can be so much auerse is the heart of our Lord the Pope from such businesses Bee strong and secure euen as I so I bee within the Parisiens walles Verily I had prepared some good thing to say vnto you concerning the blessed Paul whose conuersion was yesterday celebrated because I did hope that yesterday it should bee my good happe to speake in my order But the ouer long oration of my Lord de Mania A right name if it be well vnderstood deceiued me and therefore I am constrained to put vp the sword of my good Latin into the sheath or scabberd which I would haue whet and sharpened against this conuersion concerning which sundrie politicians sowe I cannot tell what into the common people which notwithstanding I neither beleeue nor desire For blessed Paul did much differ from this Nauarre for he was noble a citizen of Rome that he was noble descended of a noble race appeareth by this that at Rome he had his head cut off Belike none be beheaded but noble personages But this fellowe is infamous for heresie and all the familie of the Bourbonians doth descend from a poultrer or if you had rather haue it so from a butcher that solde flesh in the butcherie of Parisijs as affirmeth a certaine Poet greatly a friend of the holie Apostolike sea and therfore because he would not lye Thou art iudged by thine owne mouth vnthriftie seruant Paul also was conuerted with a miracle but this not vnles some would say that he did by besieging inclose this citie about some foure moneths with sixe thousand men whilest there were within more then a hundred thousand and that this is a miracle that he tooke so many cities and strong holds without the subuersion of walles but by place without wayes by holes and straight caues that could scarcely bee pearced by one onely souldier Adde ye that Paul feared and was affected with great feare by lightning from heauen but this man is feareles neither is afrayd of any thing neither thunder nor lightning nor flashings nor showres nor winter and yee or heate no not our set battailes nor our armies so well surnished and ordered as they are More miracles yet which hee dare expect and come before with a handfull and small force and either ouerthrow them or put them to flight Let this swift and vnsleeping diuell perish ill which doth so labouriously wearie vs and letteth vs from sleeping as much as we list But this much concerning Paul least Policarpus whose feast is kept this daye may perhappes enuie whom yet I will pretermit Vnskilfull in vitas patrum because I haue foreseene or premeditated nothing concerning him I remember indeede when I was at Rome in the time of Pope Gregorie that I propounded in the Consistorie fiue protests or problemes to bee disputed of which all respected this most holie congregation concerning the choosing of a King of France For from that time wherein this dead Henry the fautor of heretikes spoyled mee of my Bishopricke of Senon and put my rents and benefices which I had in his kingdome in in his owne hand and purse I alwayes had a minde and intention of reuenging myselfe A holy prelate ouercome euill with well doing and did all that I could and will doe for euer though I should giue my soule to the diuell that this most notable iniurie might fall vpon the head of all the French that suffered it neither did oppose themselues against my sname opprobrie which when I had often protested I did at the last effectuall and you knew well what to say A notable beholder of formes and a singular flatterer But these men Princes and these women the famous pearles and meruailous genis of all the world call me else whether to whom both men and women now the matter requireth that I should speake as also to the rest of the troupe of deputies deputing for whom it is behouefull that they should vnderstand mee disputing and reasoning in the French tongue which I haue almost vnlearned to speake I haue so greatly forgotten mine owne countrie Then I will returne to you Monsieur the Lieutenant and I will tell you that if I had found in France the affayres to haue passed according to the practises and intelligēces which I haue managed for these fiue and twentie yeares space with the Spanyards at Rome A good Frēch man I should now see the late Monsieur your brother in this royall throane and wee might haue occasion to sing with that good Patriarch Nunc dimittis But sith that this was not the will of God that it should be so patience perforce he goeth farre enough that passeth beyond fortune Yet by the way I will tell you Fie for shame that you will sweare by such
to kingdomes and empires and haue surnamed you Pepin the short or curtalled You behold you vpon the poynt to be another great Charles the great your great great grandfather if the fayre or market hold But regard I pray you that you suffer not your selfe to bee deceiued These Messieurs of Spayne Spanyards paynted out although they be our very good friends good Catholikes be not merchants at one word and buy sell with no more and that is found true in them not at this time only for there are almost two thousand yeares since that they haue medled with more matters then they should and that men haue giuen them this name to bee fine and cunning in doubling of poynts They promise you this diuine damosel or daughter in mariage to make her a Queene in solidum that is altogether and wholly with you but take you heede that the Duke de Feria haue not filled his seates signed without charge He hath a boxe full of such things wherewith he serueth himselfe vpon all occurrences as of a last for euery shooe and as one saddle for all horses he dates them or he antedates them with his chamber pot when pleaseth him I haue feare something that he hath propounded vnto vs that this is nothing but arte and subtiltie to amaze vs withal when he hath seene that we will not vnderstand or be of minde to breake the law Salick If you haue but neuer so little nose you shall smell it For we knowe in good part that the marriage is alreadie accorded of her and of her cousin the Archduke Ernest Adde that is ioyne hereunto that those of the house of Austrich doe as the Iewes doe that doe not marrie but in their tribe or familie and hold one another by the tayle as hannekins and hannetons doe Leaue of therefore this vaine hope of Gynecocratie That is gouernment of women together and beleeue that little children mocke at it and goe from it to mustard I heard the other day one that comming verie brauely from the tauerne did sing these foure verses The League finding it selfe flat nosed And the Leaguers much without repose Aduised themselues of a fetch which is To make a King without a nose But if I had been able to haue made him to haue been caught by the commissarie Bazin who ranne after him he had had no lesse then the miller that mocked our Estates What wil you say to these impudent politikes that haue put you in a shape in a faire leafe of paper A prety deuise alreadie crowned as a king of the cardes by anticipation and in the same leafe haue also put the figure of the sayd infant or daughter crowned for Queene of France as you you regarding huze a huze one the other And in the neather part of the sayd painture haue placed these verses which I haue kept by heart because that therein it goeth as on your side The French Spanalized haue made a King of France To the daughter of Spayne they promised haue this King Aroyaltie very small and of slender importance For their France is comprised within Paris a strange thing O Hymen mariage god for this cold mariage Thy quiet torch I pray at this time doe not bring Of these disioyned corps men set out the image That make the loue of eyes both two within one thing It is a royaltie onely in shew most sure Deceit and not true loue hatched hath this mariage Good cause that being King of France in portraiture They cause him to espouse of a Queene the image If Monsieur of Orleans in the qualitie of Aduocate general would cause to be searched out these same wicked politike Printers it is his charge and they might bee knowne by their caracters and his good gossips Bichon N. Niuelle Chaudiere Morel and Thiere will discouer the matrice Touching my selfe I willingly forbeare it for these heretikes are euill speakers as diuels I should feare they would make some booke against me as they did against the Catholike Doctor and Lawyer Chopin vnder the name of Turlupin And neuer mend it is likelie Messieurs of the hall or place of hearing will therein doe their duetie more loco solitis after their wonted manner and place I will hold my selfe content to preach the word of God to maintaine my Beadles and carefully to solicite my pensions Let all this be spoken by a parenthesis But Monsieur de Guise my good child beleeue me and you shall beleeue a very foole stay no more vpon that Neuer better spoken it is not foode for our foules or birds Lift not vp your traine for all this we doe not inlarge or make longer your table by reason of this There is hay there are none but beasts that delight in it but doe better obtaine of the holie father a croisade or an expedition and voyage against the Turkes and goe and reconquer that goodly kingdome of Ierusalem which appertaineth to you by reason of Godfrey your great vncle euen as wel as that of Sicilie and the kingdome of Naples How many scepters and crownes are prepared for you if your horoscopus lie not as you your selfe are wont to say that you haue not a limited fortune Leaue this same wretched and miserable kingdome of France to him that will vouchsafe to take the burthen of it It is not fit that your spirit borne for Empires and the vniuersall monarchie of the habitable world should stoope to so small morsels or matters and vnworthie of you and of your late father A carefull caution whom God absolue if it be permitted to speake so of Saints And you Monsier the Lieutenant to whom I must needes now speake What thinke you to doe you are grosse and fully panched you are heauie and deformed you haue head big enough indeede to beare a crowne But what you say you will none of it and that it would too much ouer burthē you The politikes say that the foxe sayd so touching mulberies which he would faine haue had The foxe will eate no grapes You hinder vnder hād that your nephew should not be chosē you forbid the deputies that none of them bee so bold as to touch this great string of the royaltie or kingdom What shall we do then We must haue a King who as the politike doctors say is better takē thē sought You make the K. of Spaine beleeue that you keep the kingdom of Frāce for him for his daughter vnder this hope you sucke draw from the honest man all that that the Indies and Peru can send him he maintaineth vnto you your plate he sendeth you armor armies but not at your deuotion or disposition For he looketh to himselfe for all you and hee distrusteth you both one and other as though ye were blinde A iust iudgement and taketh you as theeues In the meane while yee haue prouoked the sixteene who accuse you to bee a marchant
Monsieur d'Andelot at Crecy and sent him prisoner to Melun After this imprisonment and that also of the Vidame of Chartres and of certaine counsellors of parliament fell out the violent and miraculous death of the King Whē the wicked rise vp mē hide themselues which exalted your house to the soueraigne degree of power neere about the young King Francis and on the other side did abate and almost altogether beate downe the house of Monsieur the Constable and of all those that did belong vnto him And this was then when his kindred voyde of all hope of ordinarie meanes because that all was executed vnder the fauour of your allies ioyned themselues in secrete intelligence with the Lutherans here and there scattered in diuers corners of the kingdom And though they had as yet but little credit with them as who were people vnknowne vnto them and had not partaked neither in the Supper nor in Synode or Consistorie notwithstanding by the meanes of their agents well skilled and practised in secrets they made that memorable enterprise of Amboyse and assembled from all the quarters of the world Taciturnitie a good virtue and that with meruailous silence such a great number of people that they were readie at the day named to accomplish a cruell execution vpon your side vnder this pretext to deliuer the King out of the captiuitie A Iudas amongst the twelue wherein your fathers and your vncles held him But these good people could not keep themselues from traitors whereupon followed the execution done at Amboise which discouered also the authors of the faction And thereupon insued the rigorous commaundement which they gaue to the King of Nauarre and the imprisonment of Monsieur the Prince of Conde in the estates at Orleans and sundrie other heauie accidents too long now to recite Mens malice ouerthrowne when God will which had continued and increased farre worse if the sodaine death of the young King had not altered the course and broken the blow which some went about to cause to light vpon these chiefest princes of the bloud royall and vpon the familie of Monsieur the Constable and of the Chastillons A man may easily iudge how much your house was shaken and tossed as it were by this vnlooked for death and you may beleeue Monsieur Lieutenant that Monsieur your father and Messieurs your vncles played all at one time A fit comparison at one kinde of game or blushing as you might do if a man should bring you newes of the death of your two brethren But they lost not their courage no more then you doe and had afterwards very good counsels and consolations from the King of Spayne of whom we will speake by and by who during these first dissentions was vpon the skoutes and watched to whom hee might offer his fauour and how he might blow and stirre the fire on the one side on the other to make it to increase to that power and greatnes in which we haue seene it Holy purposes for so catholike a prince and doe yet now see it burne and consume all France which is the finall but of his pretensions Vpon hope then of the support of so great a prince which would not spare to promise men money your father without being astonished with so lumpish a fall perceiuing the King of Nauarre to be placed in his ranke of the first prince of the bloud for the sauegard of young king Charles and Monsieur the Constable put in his charge or office againe knew so well rightly to play his ball that he practised them both The recouerie of Nauarre some such conceits and drew them to his lure against their owne brethren and against their owne kinsmen feeding one of them with a hope that I dare not speake of and flattering the other by submissions and honors that he bestowed vpon him And this he did so artificially and wel that entring againe into the paths and waies that he had forsaken and taking his old aduantage after that Monsieur the Prince of Conde was set at libertie who had fairely preuented him but two or three daies onely he went with a number of men of warre and in great troupes to seize the young King and the Queene his mother at Fountainebleau brought them to Melun And this was then when my sayd Lord the Prince and Messieurs of Chastillon perceiuing themselues neither by their head nor by their houses strong enough to resist so puissant enemies couered with kingly authoritie and power became Lutherans at one clap and declared themselues to be heads protectors of the new heretikes whom they called to their succour and by their meanes did in open warre seaze and take many great townes of the kingdome without making yet any mention of their religion but onely for the defence of the King and of his mother and to deliuer them out of the captiuitie bondage wherein Monsieur your father held them And you Monsieur Lieutenant know that these people alwaies boasted that what they did as in this behalfe it was at the request and commandement of the Queene Mother whose letters written and sent by her to them for that purpose they haue caused to be published and imprinted You are not ignorant of that which passed in this warre and how afterwards the King of Spayne sent your father succour but yet the same such Fit fellowes to fight a field as I am ashamed to speake of it al labourers and handicrafts men gathered together who would neuer fight at the battaile of Dreux but couered themselues with the wagons and carriages appoynted for the baggage Notwithstanding this was a baite to inkindle the courage of the partakers and to cause them to hope that they should indeed some other time doe some aduantageable thing if they would yet once again come to fight together But afterwards the diuers changings and alterations of our affayres did indeed offer vnto the Spanyard another sport For your father being dead and peace being made knowing notwithstanding these mightie families animated and stifly set one of them against another and that without hope of reconciliation When a bad cannot preuaile a worse will be prouided he practised Monsieur the Cardinall your vncle which on his behalfe did not sleepe to maintaine the troubles and diuisions in this realme vnder the beautifull name of religion of which in former time mē made little or no account Monsieur your vncle Cardinall of Lorraine commended being as he was indeed wittie and pleasing whom he would had skill in such sort to gaine the heart of the Queene Mother and the Queene Mother the heart of the King her sonne that he perswaded them specially the Queene mother that Messieurs the Princes of Bourbon ayded by them of Montmorency and Chastillon sought nothing but her ruine and would neuer bee quiet or leaue off till they had driuen her out of the realme and sent her
into Italie to her kinsfolkes God pardon that good Ladie A deuout praier for a holie woman But for the apprehension and conceit that she had of these things I feare much that she was the cause of many euils that we saw in her time For vpon this matter she did so hate thē that she neuer ceased till she had destroyed them as she did the one of them in the battaile of Iarnac and the other at the massacre of S. Bartholomew where if all they of Montmorency had been found they had had no better market of it then the rest To which poynt Messieur your vncle did very nimbly put his hand and valiantly pushed or lifted at the wheele that so he might put fire in the head of that young King Charles without whose death wee neede not doubt but that he had had the like scorne that Monsieur the Mareschall of Montmorency gaue him and Monsieur your brother in this towne Doubtie Dukes and very cleanly whē he made them do all in their breeches because they bare weapons and armour forbidden them without his passeport and leaue But it seemeth that the sodaine death of these their Kings one after another did alwaies breake set out of square the goodly attempts of your house and saued or at the least prolonged the liues of your principall enemies Now let vs come to that which fell out afterwards for it is time to speak of you and of Monsieur your brother who began from that time forward to appeare in armes and to walke in the footsteps and tracts of your predecessors A fardle of frumps against Duke du Mayenne You haue alreadie caused your valours and valiances to appeare in the siege of Poictiers which you brauely defended contrarie to the aduise of the first husband of Madame la Lieutenant Monsieur of Montpezat your predecessor who counselled you to forsake all and to get you packing thence Afterwards you were at the battaile of Montcontour and after that at the iourney or exployt done vpon S. Bartholomews day where the companions on the other side were taken napping if not on sleepe and prouoked to say whence come you Cardinall of Lorraine And though Monsieur your vncle at that time was turning ouer his portuise in Italie yet the play was not performed without his intermedling and seeking to haue the King of Spaynes approbation of it the Popes absolution touching the marriage which seemed for a lure and a trappe also to the Huguenots Afterwards you continued your blowes at the siege of Rochel where mē did perceiue that he that is at this day the King of Nauarre and Monsieur your brother were but one heart one soule Men may maske but dissimulation wil break out and their great puritie and familiaritie ingendred ielousie and suspition in all the world But we must come to the matter When you sawe that King Charles was dead who otherwise did not loue you very much had sundrie times repeated the saying of the great King Francis For he had no cause so to do whereof he himselfe had made these foure verses now very rife and common in euery mans mouth King Francis was no whit beguiled When he foretold that the Guisian race Would spoyle his sonnes of all they had And leaue his subiects in worse case When you saw him A steppe to the scepter as they thought I say dead without children and the late King his brother married with your barren and vnfruitfull cousin you began Monsieur your brother and you I meane to attempt and assay many practises and plots which many people sayd were the cause of all our miseries I am not of that number which beleeue that Messieurs your father and vncle had from their time layd the foundation of the building that your brother you haue builded since though there bee that speake of the notes of Dauid and of Piles who haue better then Nostradamus prognosticated foretold all that which we haue seene since their death and though some assure ys that Monsieur your vncle Cardinall of Lotraine had framed a certaine forme of all the order that was to beheld therein But I cannot beleeue that he that had as much vnderstanding as a mā could haue could hope to make his nephewes kings of France seeing as yet three brethren children of the Kings house in the right line all of thē very puissant and in the floure of their age readie to be married and be could not diuine or gesse that they should dye without issue as they did afterwards Besides hee sawe a great number of the Princes of the royall bloud that kept not themselues warme with the robe of heretikes that should haue cut off all hope from his desires I knowe very well that in his time he was the author that the Archdeacon of Thoul writ this much A pedigree published but to small purpose that those of the house of Lorraine were descended from Charles the great by the males that is to say of Charles Duke of Lorraine to whom the kingdome appertained after the death of Lewes the fifth king of France and that Hugh Capet hauing taken him at Laon and brought him and his wife prisoner to Orleans he had a sonne or male child of whom he affirmed the Dukes of Lorraine are descended this was vnder hand cast amongst the people As all did well perceiue and you were neuer a whit grieued with it though that the common and true histories doe plainly enough shew and witnesse that there was an interruption breaking off of males in the race of Lorraine by two women and namely in the wife of Godfrey of Bouillon named Idain A worthie Archdeacon So the sayd Archdeacon made an honourable amends for it according to the arrest and sentence giuen against him and like a lewd fellowe and sloathfull or fainthearted man vnsayd that he had spoken But in fine there was small appearance that at that time my sayd Lord your vncle could aspire to the kingdome hauing so many hinderances and heads either to fight against Two worthie waies to work by or to cause to dye by the sword or by poyson It is very true that euen from his beginning he was very ambitious and desirous of greatnes and of the gouernment of the state more then any other of his age and I make no doubt of it but that he desired to possesse the Kings and to haue held them had hee been able in tutorship and vnder gouernment as in olde time the Maiors of the palace did that so he might dispose of all according to his pleasure and set vp or pull downe those whom hee had listed Wicked mens purposes and practises are vaine which is the thing whereto commonly the greatest aspire Notwithstanding being almost come thereunto while he was liuing he gathered together and prepared for you the materiall sluffe with which you haue built this proued
haue a king by election nor by lot as the zealous and not men of Ierusalem that chose for their prieft a countrie man named Phanias contrary to the good manners and contrarie to the ancient lawes of Iudea In a word Plaine dealing â—â—est wee would that Monsieur the Lieutenant should know that wee acknowledge for our true King and lawfull naturall and soueraigne Lord Henry of Bourbon heretofore King of Nauarre This is he alone who for a thousand good reasons The person 〈◊〉 power of the King commended we doe acknowledge to bee capable of and able to vphold the state of France and the greatnes of the reputation of Frenchmen he alone that can relieue and lift vs vp from our fall that is able to put the crowne in her first beautie and honor and to giue vs peace It is he alone and no other that can as a natural Hercules borne in France discomfite these hideous monsters that make all France horrible and fearfull to her owne children It is he alone and no other that will roote out these pettie halfe Kings of Bretaigne of Languedoc of Prouence of Lyonnois of Bourgongne and of Champagne that will scatter these Dukes of Normandie of Berrie and Solongne of Reims and of Soissons all these vaine visions shall vanish away at the glorie of his presence when hee shall be set in the throne of his auncestors and in his bed of iustice which waiteth for him in his kingly palace You haue nothing To wit either of trueth or of shew of truth Messieurs nor you Monsieur the Lieutenant haue nothing that ye can obiect against him The Pretext of the Vnckle before the Nephew is taken from you by the death of Monsieur the Cardinall his Vnckle I will not speake of him either by flattery or in slanderous sort A very worthy sentence the one sauoureth a flauish minde the other is proper to the seditious But I can tell you in trueth which thing also you your selues and all those that trauaile in the world will not denie that of all the Princes which France hath set before vs marked with the floure deluce and that appertaine to the crowne yea of all those that desire to come nigh it there is none deserueth so much as hee nor that hath so many royall virtues nor so many aduantages and prerogatiues aboue the common sort of men I will not speake of other mens wants A pretie preterition but if they themselues were all set out or written in the table appoynted for election and choyse he should bee found by very much the most capable and the most worthie to be chosen One thing indeede hee wanteth which I coulde tell in the care of some if I lifted I will not say it is his different religion from ours which you so much vpbraide him with for in some good measure we knowe No GOD wrought not that work but his owne corruption that God hath touched his heart and that he is willing to be taught and doth alreadie applie himselfe to instruction yea that he hath caused word to be sent to the holy father concerning his very nigh conuersion of which I make such account as if I had alreadie seene it he hath alwaies shewed himselfe to haue such regarde of his promises and to be so religious a keeper of his words Put the hardest the best will saue it self as we say But though it were so that he should continue in his opinion must we therefore put him by his lawfull right of succession to the crowne What lawes what councels what Gospell teacheth vs to dispossesse men of their goods Good reasons why Kings of erromous and corrupt religions are not to be deposed and Kings of their kingdomes for diuersitie of their religions Excommunication stretcheth not but vnto the soules and not vnto mens bodies and goods Innocent the third exalting the most proudely that possibly he could his popelike power said that as God had made two great lights in the firmament to wit the sunne for the day and the moone for the night so hath he made two in the Church the one for mens soules which is the Pope whom he compared to the sunne and the other for mens bodies which is the King Mens bodies enioye outward goods and not their soules The right ende of excommunication excommunication therefore cannot take them away for that is but a medicine for the soule to heale it and to bring it to health and not for to kill it it is not to condemne it but to make it afraide of damnation Some say that men would not feare it if it did not take from them some sensible or worldlie coÌ„moditie touching this life as for example their goods A bsurdities insuing the abuse of excommunication and conuersation or companie keeping with men but if that might haue place they must when they excommunicate a drunkard forbid him wine and strong drinke and when they excommunicate whoremongers they must take from them their wiues or women and forbid the leprous to scratch and rubbe Saint Paul to the Corinthians forbiddeth men to eate and drinke with fornicators backbiters drunkards theeues but yet hee faith not that they must take their goods from them to make them afraide and to drawe them backe from their vices I woulde willingly demaunde when they haue taken the kingdome and the crowne from a King because hee is excommunicate or an heretike whether then they must choose another and put that other in his place for it is not reasonable that the people shoulde remaine without a King as you Messieurs would worthilie indeede prouide for it A question not easie to be absolued But if it should so fall out afterwardes that this King being excommunicated and destituted of his estates should come to repentance and be conuerted to the true faith obtaine his absolution either of the same Pope or of another succeeding him as they are very much accustomed to reuoke and vndoe that A girde indeede which their predecessors haue done how could it bee that that poore King spoyled of his kingdome should enter into it againe Those that should bee seized of it and holde it by iust title as three yeares possessors thereof The Duke de Mayn may speake to this would they put themselues from it againe thinke you and yeeld him the places forts treasures armes and ordinances which they withheld These are but the reckonings and accounts of olde doting men neither is there reason nor shew of reason in all of it or in any parte thereof It is long since this axiome or sentence generall was concluded that the Popes haue not any power to iudge of or concerning temporall kingdomes Good authorities And it is long agoe also since S. Bernard saith I reade that the Apostles stoode to be iudged but that they sate and iudged others I neuer reade The Apostles appeared very humbly before iudges
from hand to hand at a good reckoning There was also an other sorte of victuall in paper whereof some made great account so that euery one that would could not haue of it which the retailers caried vp and downe the streetes and they cryed newes newes Newes described as men crie haue you any mise or rats to kill The foresaide Lady furnished the counter-cariers therewith for from her they came out in abundance from vnder her coate or gowne and there was great pleasure to beholde the diuers deformed countenances of them that rooted as hogges doe vnder her taile to tast thereof The rest of the countrie of the saide table was full of windmils turning emptie and hauing fanes or weather cocks in the aire together with sundry cocks of the Church And at the foure corners It shuld seeme he meaneth troubles from Spaine there was the foure winds reft into two whereof it seemeth that the southeast was the greatest and blowed most mightily and sent the cloudes towards the North north East In the neather part of the said table there was written this little quartaine Lo here you may see the new found land Where the queene feedeth herselfe with wind He that gladly would newes know or vnderstand Let him smell to hir forepart and not behind Whilest I was rauished in the contemplation of this third table and before that I had cast mine eies vpon the other that followed the princes and princesses aforesaid passed by and I must needs runne after A pretie fictiō that I might enter as one of their followers but because that the prease was not very great the herauld or porter that had once alreadie put me backe marked me and did more roughly and rudely thrust mee backe than at the first which made me to be fully resolued to withdraw myselfe and to leaue there the Estates very close and shut vp That was the first session wherein at the euening I vnderstood that they were in consultation with what wood they should warme themselues the next lent and vpon what foote the vnion should goe High poynts in a low house I also vnderstood that the issue of the councel was that men should obserue sundry lents in a yeare with often commandings of double fasts which in continuance would turne themselues as double tertian agues doe Also they there forbad to sell speckled egges after Easter because that children had plaied with thē before which was a matter of very ill example They forbad also the plaies and games of Bourgongne and the nine pins or nine holes of master Iohn Roseau Specially gentles nobles Likewise they enioyned women to weare great bums and in all safetie to increase vnder the same without fearing the babble and vaine speech of midwiues Some whispered and murmured also that dauncings should be censured and mules banished Paris It was aduised also to turne the lodging house or Inne of Bourgongne into a colledge for the Iesuits Iesuites well deciphered who had neede of recreation by reason of the great quantitie of bloud where with they were swollen and puffed vp as a filled bagge and had neede of a surgeon to let them bloud Sundrie other holie and praise worthie ordinances were made at the beginning of the play whereof one promised to giue mee the list or catalogue But aboue all other things they commended the paines of Monsieur of Lions A necessarie law among many needeles before who framed a fundamental law by which it should be inacted that whosoeuer within Paris or within any other towne brideled by the vniō should speake of peace for twentie yeres space or should demaund for traffique and trade or should lament for the good time past he should bee sent into exile to Soissons as an heretike or Maheuter or should pay to the bagge or purse of the vnion a certaine quantitie of dales towards the maintenance and entertaining of the Doctors For there must alwaies be an opposition or else their state cannot stand Some also propounded this that if the King of Nauarre became a Catholike Monsieur the Lieutenant must needes become a Huguenot and that his late brother had indeede a minde to bee so if they would haue receiued him As touching the choise of a King altogether new some say that it was readie to be adiudged and determined but yet that it was not without great disputation because that some spake to this purpose that it was better to haue a Common-wealth as the ancient French had That is a confused gouernment by the people A state of gouernement consisting of sew othersome demaunded an anarchicall democratie othersome would haue the Athenian Oligarchie othersome spake of a perpetuall Dictator yearely Consuls which was the cause that by reason of the diuersitie of opinions they could not resolue any thing thereof Notwithstanding there was some appearance that they spake to haue a King For one named Trepelu the vine dresser of Suresnes stoutly and stiffely defended that the king was the very starre and the very sunne which so long since had gouerned and inlightened the kingdome of France and with his heate nourished Necessitie of a king notwithstanding corruption in him that executeth the office fostered and sustained the same And what though sometimes the sunne comming after a frostie night it caused the vines to freeze yet it did not thereupon insue that we should spit against it and not vse it any more nor for all that to leaue the good quaffing of quarts at a time though that wine were very deare And this is almost all that I could learne and that I can report of that which passed in the estates of Paris from whom notwithstanding men looke that there will come out very fearefull clappes and noyses I would it were so that that Babylonian kingdom diuided might come to ruine For they say that Kings and Popes will intermingle one with another and that the Primate of Lions sleepeth not day nor night to hatch a writing that will make all the world to lay downe weapons and armour and constraine all the Maheutres to flie from hence into England or els that way Wee shall in short time see what it will bee God is aboue all The rest of the wordes and speeches A pretie iest though I approoue not therein the vse of scripture words and all the things that were done there are they not written in the booke of the words of the daies of the Kings not of Iudah but of Spayne Whilest these sayd estates were assembled there were certaine little verses made both in Latin and in French which did runne vp and downe the streetes where of I haue made a collection that the Italians who are curious and desirous of such things may see them AN EPISTLE OF THE LORD OF ENgoulevent to a certaine friend of his touching the oration that the Cardinall of Pelve made to the Estates of Paris MY great good friend
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