which hath beene the dishonour of Charles the fift and which affoordeth France a reuenge for all the affronts he offered thereto He who defended it against him had no more then two armes as you haue and one single life nor was hee madé of any other matter then other men are It is true he fought by the Kings succours but it sufficeth you fight for his seruice and that all men know you are resolued not to suruiue your fortunes Were you borne to performe ordinary actions I should hold it fit to speake vnto you in another straine but since you purpose not to exercise any idle dignity in this world nor are at this present in case to make vse of the hands of a great Army or expect reputation in your bed speake as high as you please prouided you act accordingly and that out of your particular forces since those of the State faile you you make good vnto the King the last conquest of his Ancestors One only worthy man hath heretofore beene the whole Republicke of Rome and hath resisted the fury of a victorious Army So though there were no more true Frenchmen but my Lord your Father your selfe and my Lords your Brothers I could no way dispaire of Publique affaires nor of the fortune of this Kingdome My Lord I am so weary that I am forced to defer the continuation of this discourse till another time and to rest awhile to make a more ample relation I will content my selfe for the present to passe my promise vnto you of that History the subiect whereof I require at your hands and to assure you it is impossible to be more then I am Your most humble most obedient and most affectionate Seruant BALZAC The 9. of February 1619. To the Signiour of Plessis Gouernour of Tollemount from BALZAC LETTER II. SIR SInce it appeares you haue a will to lose euery hour what you can in truth spend but once and that you so slightly esteeme your life as though it were another mans me thinkes the Warre hath dealt very kindly with you in being contented to leaue you halfe a face and that you may well account what is left as gotten goods The Duke de Mayne and the rest were not quit at so easie a rate and it hath pleased God to shew examples in this kinde to make it appeare that he approoueth not vanity nor that he needeth the aduise of men for the defence of his owne and his Churches cause Truely if these men had practised with the enemy they could not haue beene more confident nor haue gone more naked to Warre had they fought against women And in truth I am so farre from praising their desperate courses as I doe not so much as pardon them their deathes and if my opinion had passed I should haue thought it fit to haue accused them as culpable of their owne deathes and as such who had committed the greatest Parricides It becomes mee ill in this place to prescribe rules to my Master for should I attempt to tech your courage how farre it should extend it selfe I might seeme to doe no lesse then prescribe lawes to what is illimitable Yet bee pleased I pray you to be informed that valour is so tender and delicate a vertue that if it be not sometimes well shielded and conserued by some others it becommeth more hurtfull to him who hath it then healthfull for the State often endamaged by it or to the Prince who maketh vse thereof And surely without the assistance of Reason which ought to be its Gouernnesse and Prudence as a guide vnto it there is not any passion more blinde nor which doth lesse differ from the fury of Beasts and the bruitish ferocity of Barbarians The latter of these thinke it cowardise to quit the place though the breach of a Riuer rowle vpon them or not to stand firme though they see a house falling on their heads But these wretches and wee haue not the same pretentions for as they propound to themselues onely to kill and to die so should we onely aime at victory and neglect the rest otherwise to what end is the knowledge of Vertue vnto vs and of the limits which boundeth it or to be borne vnder a more happy Climate then that of Polonia and Muscouia if we draw no aduantage either from the excellency of our institutions or extractions I doe not at all wonder why there are men who preferre death before indigence and who not finding any contentment in their owne Countries are well pleased to passe beyond the Ice of their naturall ayre as willing to forgoe the infelicity of their fortunes But a man of worth who at all houres inioyeth both perfect and pure contents and who hath a great share of this Ages vertue to lose is a Traytour to the Publick and a Tyrant to himselfe if he forsake all this for a meere fancy and depriue the world thereof onely for a flash of Fame and vaine Glory You know this better then I can tell it you and if you suppose the Philosophy you haue heretofore so highly esteemed be yet wise enough to instruct you shee will tell you that Life is the ground-worke of all other good that can here befall vs since by meanes therof one may recouer Kingdomes though vtterly lost and remaine Victor after hauing beene defeated in foure battailes There is no question but a dead Lyon is lesse worth then a liuing Dogge or that the most part of those Princes of whom there hath beene so much speech and those valiant Captaines with whose Heroicke acts so many Histories are stored would not willingly change their Laurels for our liues Reioyce therefore good Sir together with Nature in that you are as yet in the number of men and comfort your selfe with Haniball and the Father of Alexander the great for the losse you haue receiued whatsoeuer you can say you haue yet sight enough to cause you to turne loue-sicke and to contemplate the beauties of Heauen and Earth But suppose you were wholy blinde yet is it true that the Night hath its pleasures as well as the Day yea and such as you best loue Yours BALZAC The 18 of December 1622. Another Letter to Hidaspe from BALZAC LETTER III. MY deare Hidaspe thou canst not imagine the content I take in thy Letter and in the good newes it brings me it is the onely way to cause me to contradict my selfe when I account my estate miserable since I heare thou art in health and louest me Were I not confident thereof I should the next day drinke poyson or if not valiant enough to attempt so hardy an enterprise I should dye with sorrow Thou art then as necessary for my liuing as life it selfe so as if thou desirest my estate thou needest not for that any other meanes then to depriue me of thy good opinion But truely I neuer had the least apprehension of such a losse and I assure my selfe if J were dead thou shouldest be
or vapours of the Earth This being true God forbid that by the estate of your present constitution I should iudge of that of your Condition or that I should not esteeme him perfectly happy who is superlatiuely wise You may please to consider that howbeit you haue shared with other men the infirmities of humane Nature yet the aduantage resteth soly on your side since vpon the matter there is onely some small paine remayning with you instead of an infinity of errours passions and faults falling to our lots Besides I am confident that the terme of your sufferings is well nigh expired and that the hereafter prepares right solide and pure contentments for you and a youth after its season as you are become old before your time The King who hath vse of your long liuing makes no vnprofitable wishes Heauen beares not the prayers that the Enemies of this State offer We know no Successor that is able to effect what you haue not yet finished and it being true that our Forces are but the Armes of your Head and that your Councels haue beene chosen by God to re-establish the Affaires of this Age we ought not to bee apprehensiue of a losse which should not happen but to our Successors It shall then be in your time my Lord I hope that oppressed Nations will come from the Worlds end to implore the protection of this Crowne that by your meanes our Allies will repaire their losses and that the Spaniard shall not be the sole Conquerour but that we shall prooue the Infranchesers of the whole Earth In your time I trust the Holy Sea shall haue her Opinions free nor shall the inspirations of the Holy Ghost be oppugned by the artifice of our Enemies resolutions will be raised worthy the ancient Jtaly for defence of the common cause To conclude it will bee through your Prudence my Lord that there shall no longer be any Rebellion among vs or Tyranny among men that all the Citties of this Kingdome shall be seates of assurance for honest men that nouelties shall be no farther in request saue onely for colours and fashions of Attire that the People will resigne Liberty Religion and the Common-wealth into the hands of Superiours and that outof lawfull gouernment and loyall obedience there will arise that felicity Politisians search after as being the end of Ciuile life My hope is my Lord that all this will happen vnder your sage conduct and that after you haue setled our repose and procured the same for our Allies you shall enioy your good deeds in great tranquility and see the estate of those things endure whereof your selfe haue beene a principal Author All good men are confident these blessed euents will happen in your Age and by your Aduice As for me who am the meanest among those who iustly admire your Vertues I shall not I hope prooue the slackest in the expression of your Merits Since therefore they of right exact a generall acknowledgment if I should fayle in my particular contribution I were for euer vnworthy the Honour I so ambitiously aspire vnto the highth whereof is to be esteemed Your Lordships most humble and most obedient seruant BALZAC To the Lord Bishop of Aire LETTER VIII My Lord IF at the first sight you know not my Letter and that you desire to be informed who writes vnto you It is one more old like then his Father and as ouer-worne as a Ship hauing made three Voyages to the Indies and who is no other thing then the Relickes of him whom you saw at Rome In those dayes I sometimes complayned without cause and happily there was then no great difference betweene the health of others and my infirmity Howsoeuer be it that my imagination is crazed or that my present payne doth no longer admit of any comparison I begin to lament the Feauer and Scyatica as lost goods and as pleasures of my youth now past See here to what tearmes I am reduced and how as it were I liue if it may be called liuing to be in a continuall contestation with Death True it is there is not sufficient efficacy in all the words whereof this World makes vse to expresse the miseries I indure they leaue no place eyther for the Physitians skill or the sicke-mans Patience nor hath Nature ordayned any other remedies for the same saue onely Poyson and precipices But I much feare least I suffer my selfe to be transported with paine or endure it lesse Christianly then beseemeth me being a Witnesse of your Vertus and hauing had the meanes to profit my selfe by your Example My Lord it is now time or neuer I subdue this wicked spirit which doth forcibly transport my will and that the old Adam obey the other Yet doth it not a little grieue me to be indebted to my misery for my Soules health and that I much desire it were some other more noble consideration then necessity should cause me to become an honest man But since the meanes to saue vs are bestowed vpon vs and that we chuse them not it is fitting that reason conuince our sensiblities causing vs to agree to what is otherwise distastefull vnto vs. At the worst we must at all times confesse that we cannot be sayd to perish when we are safely cast on shore by some Ship wracke and it may be if God did not driue me as he doth out of this Life I should neuer dreame of a better I will referre the rest to be related vnto you at your returne from Jtaly with purpose to lay open my naked Soule vnto you together with my Thoughts in the same simplicity they spring in me you are the onely Person from whom I expect Reliefe and I hold my selfe richer in the possession of your good Opinion then if I enioyed the fauours of all earthly Princes and all the Wealth of their Territories and Kingdomes Truely this is the first time since I writ vnto you from Lyons I haue made vse of my hands and I haue receiued a hundred Letters from my Friends without answering one Hereby my Lord you see there is no other consideration your selfe excepted of force to cause me to breake silence since for all others I haue lost the vse of speaking Yet I beseech you to thinke notwithstanding all this my affection to be neyther penurious nor ambitious The Riches I craue at your noble hands are purely spiritual and I am at this present in an estate wherein I haue more neede to settle some order for the affaires of my Conscience then to reflect vpon the establishment of my worldly Fortunes But my Lord to change Discourse and a little to retire my selfe from my paines what doe you thus long at Rome Doth the Pope dally with vs and will he leaue to his Successor the glory of the best Election can be made Is he not affraide lest it be giuen out he hath some intelligence with his Aduersaries and that he taketh not the aduice of the Holy
man who is to come with armed forces to disturbe the quiet of Consciences and for whom the infernall Ministers keepe all the Treasures yet hidden in the Earths intrailes So long as he contented himselfe in committing onely humane faults writing as yet with an vntainted Pen I often told him his Verses were not passable and that hee was in the wrong to esteeme himselfe an vnderstanding man But he perceiuing that the rules I propounded to him for bettering his abilities to be ouer-sharpe and seuere for him and finding small hope of arriuing whether I desired to conduct him he perhaps thought best to seeke out some other way to bring himselfe into credit at Court hoping of a meane Poet to become a mighty Prophet So that as it is generally reported after he had peruerted a number of silly Spirits and long shewed himselfe in the throng of the ignorant multitude he in conclusion did as one who should cast himselfe into a bottomlesse pit on purpose to gayne the reputation of being an admirable Iumper My Lord you remember I doubt not what our ioynt opinion hath beene of such like persons and the weaknesse you shewed there was in the principles of their wicked Doctrine Now truely how extrauagant soeuer my Spirit hath beene I haue yet euer submitted the same to the authority of GODS Church and to the consent of Nations and as I haue alwayes held that a single drop of Water would more easily corrupt then the whole Ocean So haue I euer assured my selfe that particular opinions could neuer be eyther so sound or sollid as the generall Tenets A silly man who hath no further knowledge of himselfe then by the relations of others who is at his wits end and wholly confounded in the consideration or reflection vpon the meanest workes of Nature who after the reuolution of so many Ages is not able to assigne the cause of a certayne Riuers ouer-flow nor of the interuals or good dayes of a Tertian Ague How dare he presume to speake confidently of that Infinite Maiesty in whose presence the Angels themselues couer their faces with their Wings and vnder whom the very Heauens crouch euen to the Earths lowest concauities There is no other thing remayning for vs saue the only glory of Humility and Obedience within the limits whereof we ought to contayne our selues And since it is most certayne that Humane reason reacheth not to so high a pitch as to attayue the perfection of Knowledge we ought insteed of disputing or questioning poynts of Religion to rest satisfied in the adoration of their Mysteries for doubtlesse if we striue to enter further thereinto or search for a thing vtterly vnknowne to all Philosophy and concealed from the Sages of this World we shall by such prophane curiosity gaine onely the dazeling of our Eyes and confusion of our Sences God by the light of his Gospell hath reuealed vnto vs diuers Truths whereof we were vtterly ignorant but he reserueth for vs far greater Mysteries which wee shall neuer comprehend but only in that Kingdome which he hath prepared for his chosen Seruants and by the onely vision of his Face In the meane time to the end to augment the merit of our Faith and the more to perfectionate our Piety his pleasure is that Christians should become as blind Louers and that they haue not any other desires or hopes but for those things aboue the reach of their vnderstandings and which they can no way comprehend by Naturall reason So soone as the time you haue prefixed me shall be expired and the Prime-roses make the Spring appeare I will not faile to wayte vpon you and diligently to addresse my selfe to the collection of your graue and important Discourses and to become an honest man by hearing since that is the Sence appointed for the apprehension of Christian vertues and whereby the Sonne of God was conceiued and his Kingdome established among men But it is needlesse to vse any artifice or that you paint the place of your abode in so glorious colours thereby to inuite mee to come For though you preached in the Desart or were you hidden in such a corner of the World where the Sunne did onely shine vpon the sterile Sands and steepe Rockes you well know I should esteeme my selfe happy where you are Your Company being of power to make either a prison or proscription pleasing vnto me and wherein I finde the Loouer and the whole Court will adde to the description you haue made of Aire diuers beauties which Geographers haue not hitherto obserued as being far greater then others though more secret Those Mountaines which will not allow France and Spaine to be one mans and vnder which the Raine and Thunder are framed will appeare to me more huge then they formerly did when I first saw them your waters which heretofore cured diuer Diseases will euen raise the Dead if you once blesse them and doubtlesle this people alwayes bred vp to beare Armes and who as the Fire and Jron is onely destinated for the vse of Warre hath ere now mollified their fierce humour by the moderation of your mild conduct For my part Sir I make account to become a new man vnder your hands and to receiue a second Birth from you Truely it would be a thing right happy to me and in it selfe famous if the like Spirituall health proceeding from the garments and shadowes of the Apostles might happen vnto me by approaching so holy a person and if being your workmanship and the Sonne of your Spirit I should instantly resemble a Father so happily endowed with all those rare qualities and perfections which are wholy deficient in me BALZAC To Mounsieur de la Motts Aigron LETTER XV. YEsterday was one of those Sunlesse dayes as you tearme them which resemble that beautifull blind Maide wherewith Philip the second fell in Loue. Truely I neuer tooke more pleasure in so priuate a solitarinesse and though I walked in a large and open Plaine wherof man could make no other vse but for two Armies to fight in yet the shade the Heauens cast on all sides caused mee little to regard the shelter of Caues or Forrests There was a generall and quiet calme from the highest Region of the Ayre euen to the Superficies of the Earth the waters of Riuers seemed as euen and smooth as those of Lakes and surely if at Sea such a calme should for euer surpriseships they could neuer bee eyther safe or sunke This I say on purpose to make you repent the losle of so pleasant a Day for not comming abroad out of the Citty as also to draw you sometimes out of your Angoulesme where you treade leuill with our Towers and Steeples to come and take part of those pleasures wherein the ancient Princes of the World tooke delight who vsually refreshed themselues in Fountaines and liued on those fruites which Forrests affoord Your Friends here are in a small circle enuironed with Mountaines and where is yet
am well satisfied with the affection of my Friends and doe willingly leaue their iudgements free to themselues One Good-night is more worth then all our Eloquence and not to know the miseries of this life is to be more learned then the Sorbonists and lessits For my part despising the world as I doe I cannot much esteeme my selfe who make vp one of the sickliest parts thereof and I haue so poore an opinion of my owne sufficiency as I little esteeme the Talents of others Thinke not then I adore the workemanship of my hands though I take as much paines therein as did the ancient Caruers in counterfeiting their gods Butcontrariwise it is the reason why I dislike them and had I beene a man of ten thousand Crownes rent I would haue giuen the halfe of it to a Secretary onely to hire him not to indite those Letters you haue so much admired The 15. February 1624. THE LETTERS OF MOVNSIEVR DE BALZAC To my Lord Cardinall de la Valete from Mounsieur D'BALZAC THE SECOND BOOKE LETTER I. My LORD VVHilst you imploy your houres in gayning hearts and Votes and happily lay the foundation of some eminent enterprize I here enioy a reposednesse not vnlike that of the dead and which is neuer rouzed but by Clorinda's kisses If the Duke of Ossona be chosen King of Naples as you write the report runneth I finde no strangenesse in it The world is so old and hath seene so much it can hardly spie any new matter nor is there at this day any lawfull authority whose Origin for the most part hath not beene vniust And on the other side the ill successe of reuolts are far more frequent then are the change of States and the same action which hath no lesse then a Diademe for the ayme hath often an ignominious death for its end Howsoeuer this happens it shall not much trouble me since the issue cannot be other then aduantagious to this State For God herein will either make it appeare that he is the protector of Kings or it falling out otherwise yet at least it will weaken the enemies to this Crowne But I hope you will not aduise me to beat my braines vpon those politique considerations for should I doe so it were no lesse then to retract the resolution I haue taken to looke vpon things passing among vs and our neighbours as I doe on the History of Japon or the affaires of another World I ought to surrender this humour to vulgar spirits who interest themselues in all the quarrels of States and Princes and who will alwayes be parties on purpose to put themselues into choler and bee miserable in the misfortunes of others Truely we shall neuer haue done if we will needes take all the affaires of the world to heart and be passionate for the publique whereof wee make but a very small part It may be at this very instant wherein I write the great Indian Fleete suffereth shipwracke within two Leagues of Land happily the great Turke hath surprised some Prouince from the Christians and taken thence some twenty thousand soules to conuey them to their Citty of Constantinople It may be the Sea hath exceeded its limits and drowned some Citty in Zealand If we send for mischiefes so farre off there will not an houre passe wherein some disconsolation or other will not come vpon vs. If we hold all the men in the world to be of our affinity let vs make account to weare Mournings all our life As mine experience is not great so are my yeares not many yet since I came into the world I haue seene so many strange accidents and haue vnderstood from my father such store of incredible occurrents as I suppose there can nothing now happen able to cause admiration in me The Emperour Charles the fist his Grand-child borne to the hopes of so many Kingdomes was condemned to death for hauing ouer-soone desired them The naturall subiects of the King of Spaine doe at this day dispute with him for the Empire of the Sea nor will they rest satisfied with their vsurped liberty Surely wee should hardly bee drawne to beleeue these things vpon the credit of others and those in succeeding ages will with much difficulty bee perswaded to receiue them for truths yet are these the ordinary recreations of Fortune taking pleasure in deceiuing Mankinde by euents farre opposite to all appearance yea and contrary to their iudgements Hath shee not deliuered ouer to the peoples fury the man whom she had formerly raysed aboue the rest to the end we should not presume in greatest Prosperities And hath she not at the same time taken out of the Bastile a Prisoner to make him Generall of a Royall Army thereby to oblige vs not at any time to despaire I do here consider all this with a reposed spirit and as Fables presented on the Stage or Pictures in a Gallery Now since the late Comet had like to haue beene as fatall vnto me as to the Emperour Rodolphus in that my curiosity to see it caused me to rise in my shirt which gaue me a cold all the Winter after I am heereafter resolued not to meddle with any thing aboue my reach but to referre all to GOD and Nature So as Clorinda suffer me to serue her and that I vnderstand from her owne mouth that she loues me I will hearken to no other newes nor search a second Fortune I therefore most humbly beseech your Lordship to excuse me if vpon these occasions lately presented I cannot affoord you my personall attendance or refuse to follow you whither your resolution leades you my Mistresse hauing commanded me to render her an account how I shed my bloud and enioyning me neuer to goe to the Warres but when Muskets are charged with Cypres-powder I am rather contented you should accuse mee of Cowardize then she iustly to charge mee with Disobedience And after all this tell me whether or no you thinke me to be in my right wits and that I haue not lost my reason together with the respect I owe you I herein doe as a delinquent who fearing he should not be soone enough punished puts himselfe into the hands of Justice not staying eyther for the Racke or examination of Iudges for the discouery of a crime whereof he was neuer accused I am well assured that of all passions you haue onely those of Honour and Glory and that your Spirits are so replenished therewith as there is no place left eyther for loue hate or feare Yet doe I withall consider that it is a part of a wise mans felicity to reflect vpon other mens follies howsoeuer if any word hath escaped me which may offend your eyes take it I beseech you as a meanes sent you from God for your farther mortification in causing you to read things so distastefull vnto you You are necessarily to endure farre greater crosses amidst the corruption of this Age if you cannot liue among the wicked you must
fairer fortune to be cast on shore by a storme in a craised Vessell then to be still in the power of Windes and Seawrackes The word of Kings ought not to contradict the functions of Regality nor can they oblige themselues to leaue their Subiects in miserable estate or to doecontrary to what they ought And in conscience since the ruine of Rebellion is written in Heauen in the same sort as is the Day of Judgement and the Worlds dissolution were it not as much as to resist Gods will and to oppugne his prouidence should we so soone grow weary of well-doing or refuse to finish a worke the euent whereof is infalliable There is nothing so easie for a great Prince as either to finde or conceiue faults nor doth any man doubt that dissimulation is iust when it rends to the aduantage and auayle of the deceiued If a mad man were capable of remedies were it not lawfull to cure him without asking his consent were it fit a Father should suffer his Son to be drowned for feare of pulling him out by the haire Are we to suffer the State to perish for that we cannot preferue it by ordinary wayes No my Lord we ought not there is no consideration can cause that thing to change its nature which of it selfe is iust and the Lawes of necessity doe dispence with vs for those of formality Now to returne to my first discourse and to what particularly regardeth your Lordship seeing your absence from Court hath at all times threatned more miseries vnto vs then the apparition of Comets and other irregularities in Nature and since to be miserable it is sufficient to be at odds with you There is not any of your enemies can escape the Diuine iustice nor is there any doubt but you will generally finde all those spirits fauourable vnto you whom you haue formerly conuinced or that your propositions shall not be receiued as assured Conquests The best is there are now no more any vsurpers neare the King who seeke to ingrosse his fauours to their owne aduantages bereaue men of those benefits which ought to be as common to them as the Fire or Ayre His Maiesties heart is open to all his Subiects hee receiues trueth at what hand soeuer it comes vnto him This being so my Lord may wee not rest confident you shall not lose one word and that your Vertue whereof the World is vncapable shall at length be found the onely meanes the King hath to redresse and re-establish his affaires Neither time trauaile nor cost ought diuert him from this designe It is a worke will be nothing so costly as to raise a Fauorite and it being a thing all Christendome exacteth of him as an Hereditary debt the King his Father hath left to be discharged And truely it is most certaine that the face of States hath beene changed and whole Prouinces conquered with lesse cost then diuers Pagan Princes haue imployed in erecting of Idols and causing them to be adored by their people But to leaue this Jtalian seuerity you formerly reprooued in me and lest you should accuse me for warring against the dead I will for your sake pardon their memory nor will I farther dilate my selfe vpon so odious a Subiect Yet is this but halfe of what I intended to speake vnto you at Coignac if in that short abode you made there and the continuall presse hindring the freedome of my Speech vnto you it had beene permitted mee to haue had a longer Audience But my Lord what I could not performe by word of Mouth I will continue by my Letters if you please to doe mee the honour as to command them or if my words which you haue heretofore made choyce of for the conception of your High thoughts in bewayling present miseries and publique ingratitude be as pleasing vnto you as I am perfectly Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull seruant BALZAC The 18 of Nouember 1623. The Duke of Espernon his Letter to the French King penned by BALZAC LETTER XVIII SIR I Vnderstand by the Letter it pleased your Maiesty to doe me the honour to write vnto me that vpon the opinion wherewith some haue possessed you concerning the continuance of the German Warres you iudge it expedient for the good of your seruice I should not as yet leaue this Frontire Whereunto Sir I can giue your Maiesty no other answer but that hauing at all times gathered out of your commands what my duty obliged me vnto and hauing neuer proposed other end to my actions then the good of your state I should be carefull of straying from that designe in an occasion wherein J might imagine your seruice depended on my obedience But at this present Sir the tranquility of France groweth to be so generall your affaires so powerfully established and the Honour of your Amity so precious among all your neighbouring Princes that as there is nothing in this Kingdome which doth not bend vnder your Authority so is there not any Prince abroad who doth not respect your power or who conserueth not himselfe by your Iustice And as concerning the troubles of Bohemia besides that time hath euaporated the first heat of spirits and that they begin to retire from those extreamities wherein formerly they inuolued themselues the imagined danger is so farre remoued hence as we cannot conceiue the least apprehension euen for those who are not our next neighbours that way It is certaine Sir that on this side the Rhine all things seeme to bee at rest vnder the shade of your State and the ancient Allies of this Crowne who are nearest any danger expect the end of Warre with our fearing it should come any further towards them or that out of all this noyse there will arise any more then one Warre These considerations then doe no way oblige me to stay in these parts where things are in so good estate as they may well nigh subsist of themselues besides the residence my Sonne of Valette shall make there in my absence being sufficient to giue order to all occurrents concerning the good of your affaires I assure my selfe your Maiesty will be so impartiall as to be pleased to reflect vpon the necessity of my particular occasions and that suffering me to retire my selfe to my owne house you will at least permit mee to enioy a fauour vsually inflicted on others as a punishment I doubt not Sir but you will condiscend to the desire I haue to vndertake this Voyage and I presume you will be pleased to consider that I being ingaged in two hundred thousand Crownes for your seruice after the sight of your royall bounty in all sorts of hands it were small reason I receiuing nothing should still in this place stand as a meere cypher for the honor of France or that I ruine my selfe with a rich shew only to continue strangers in the opinion they haue of the magnificent greatnesse of your Crowne Yet Sir hauing neuer beleeued J could