The last is hardly treated as well by the king as
the privileged. The Emperor Maximilian said
of the French monarch that he was king of the
asses, since his people carried peaceably, and
without any complaint, any weight laid
them."

upon

turally harsh and severe, according to Suriano; but it being difficult to accomplish this design,-under the direction of the Cardinal of Lorraine, who was unmatched for dissimulation, he threw them off their guard, arrested the Prince of Condé, and tranquillized Suriano states that the profession of arms the country through its fear. Had he lived had remained a privilege of the nobles from he might have extinguished the flames which various reasons, and among the rest, that the devoured France,' adds Suriano! who deplebeians if armed might rise up against their plores that Charles IX. should be too young, masters and take revenge for the oppression and the queen mother too little confident in they had suffered. Still the third estate supplied herself; and who certainly would have heartsome holders of important offices; either be-ily applauded, had he foreseen, St. Barthocause they were disdained by the nobility, or in lomew! He goes on to specify the mistakes obedience to ancient custom: the chancellor committed by the administration as regarded of France, the secretaries of state, presidents, this 'plague.' judges, receivers-généraux, and treasurers, were all men of the long robe.

"Therefore," adds Suriano, "every noble sends one of his family to the schools, whence the number of students in Paris is greater than elsewhere. Latterly even princes have done so with younger sons; not to qualify them to hold these plaees, but designing them for the church; wherein the ignorant no longer obtain ecclesiastical honors with the same facility."

The droit d'ainesse kept up the grandeur and power of the noble. But the remark of St. Bernard was remembered, that princes only should inherit by right of primogeniture, that citizens should divide equally, and that the peasantry should possess every thing in common ! And Suriano describes the spread of the Huguenot heresy.

mass.

"There was first published an edict, pardoning all inculpated in matters of religion, and this should never have been done! it was with a view to recall French fugitives; but for one who had gone there came back ten. And as if those of the country did not suffice to corrupt it, they arrived from England, Flanders, Switzerland, and many from Italy; and each went about preaching here and there, all over the kingdom; and though they were mostly ignorant men, and preached mere folly, every one had his suite of hearers.”

He praises the queen mother for having prevented the Admiral Coligny from becoming governor to Charles IX.; judging her to be a woman of sense and merit, from whom great things might have been expected had she possessed more experience and a 'firmer character.' But she was at this

was accused of giving too much authority to Marshal Strozzi, who had neither faith nor creed. It was known that many of the women nearest her person were tainted with heresy, and that the chancellor was an enemy to the pope and church of Rome; yet Suri

"It is about twenty years, or a little more, time, in truth, only wavering as to the rule since this contagion of heresy spread over which would best secure her own. As to France. It was mere pleasantry first; papers called placards, being pasted at the corners of her feeling on subjects of religion, it would the streets, denouncing the solemnities of the seem that opinions were divided. She But the progress of the evil was determined by bringing the French people in contact with others; notably with the Germans and Swiss, who came in 1536 to defend France against the invasion of Charles V. The freedom they affected in their lives, speech, and belief, infected the kingdom: not only the soldiery, but entire towns. The king sought a remedy to the disorder in severe measures, putting many to death, and confiscating the property of more who could not be taken, laying waste whole districts, and turning their inhabitants forth to wander. Terror maintained tranquillity till the time of Henry II. The king, occupied by a war, given up to pleasure, and a man of little talent, neglected the disease, and failed to employ the caution and diligence of his father to purge his kingdom of the poison. He perceived its ravages too late, and when he had concluded a disadvantageous peace with the most catholic monarch, in order that he might find time to arrest them, he died."

Francis II. had formed the project to assassinate the principal leaders. He was na

ano affirms that if she did not manifest her
displeasure by her actions, it was not from
want of faith, but lack of authority. He adds
a few touches to the portrait already drawn
of Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre:
who, he says, wore rings and earrings; de-
spite his white beard was ruled by his wife,
(who had inherited the high qualities of
Margaret of Angoulême and Henri d'Albret ;)
and, inconstant and irresolute, believed im-
plicitly in his favorites, who assured him he
ored by Germany!
was adored by France, feared by Spain, hon-

The next of these writers, Marc Antonio Barbaro, ambassador in 1563, is as intolerant in his views, and sanguinary in the cure

he proposes to the woes of France, as his lence in the people; revolt and impiety predecessor Suriano.

"Would to God," he exclaimed, "that the remedy of Francis I.-that of burning the heretics-had been continued! It was good and suitable, but not administered with fitting constancy !"

We quote his complimentary and most curious portrait of Théodore de Bèze.

among the nobles.

Giovanni Correro, ambassador to France in 1569, found the state of public affairs still aggravated, the bonds of blood and affection broken, and each with his ear anxiously turned to guess whence the next echo of disturbance should proceed. The Huguenots assembled nightly in private houses; the signal which brought them together, being not the ringing of bells, but the firing of their arquebuses; the queen alarmed, no longer showed them suspicion, but apparent favor; the catholics seemed cast down. It was now that the conspiracy of Meaux took place. Its extent and secresy were surprising, many thousands being concerned therein, but not a

danger incurred in going to Paris, and the conty, and to depart was not less perilous; the fusion which reigned in that town: it may suffice to say that a thousand horse proved enow to lay siege before the largest city in Europe."*

"I must remind your serene highness that he was born in Picardy, which was Calvin's birthplace also, and is now aged fifty. He is of low birth; his father a good catholic, who would fain see this perfidious son dead. He is of handsome appearance, but of hideous soul, being, besides a heretic, stained with vices and villainies, which, for brevity's sake, I will not mention singly. He is apt and acute, but wants judg-syllable having transpired till all was ready for ment and prudence. He appears eloquent be- execution. cause he has fair and spontaneous phrases, and a subtle method of deceiving; but he is super- paint by words the flight and the fear of Meaux; "It would be difficult," observes Correro, "to ficial and devoid of science. He professes to be the irresolution which prevailed among them at a scholar, but he has rather collected laborious-Monceaux-for in remaining there was no safely, than made a wise and judicious choice. He pretends to a knowledge of theology, but his perverse opinions and the false authorities he quotes prove how small it is. This villain enjoys the protection of the Prince of Condé, and others preaching the false doctrine; and has done so much with his tongue, that not only has he per suaded an infinite number, principally of the high placed and noble, but he is adored by half the kingdom, who keep his portrait in their chambers. He urges to arm against the catholics, and pillage and profane the churches, and to other injuries and seditions; all this is in his sermons. The king, the queen mother, the King of Navarre, and others, who take part in the government, heard his horrible blasphemies at Poissy; and these conferences, which have done so much evil, and added to the reputation of Bèze and the sectarians, were permitted and provoked by the King of Navarre, the Prince of Condé, the chancellor, the admiral, and others."

By no means leaning to the Huguenot persuasion, we find Correro at least wiser and more humane than his predecessors, advocating another policy and viewing parties with less passion. Two hundred thousand persons had already perished on this theme, he wrote to the senate and the bell of St. Germain l'Auxerrois had not yet rang in the festival of St. Bartholomew. According to him, bishoprics and abbeys had become merchandise in France, as were pepper and cinnamon in Venice; and he began to think it would be well to name for pastors men competent to teach the doctrine, and whose lives might efface the evil impression made by priests and monks heretofore, since steel and fire would without this change be unavailing. His sketch of Catherine de Medicis seems drawn with more than common care.

"She is still in robust health, though adhering to her habit of eating so immoderately as often to bring on maladies which lay her at death's door. She is mild and amiable, and

It would appear, from all these memoirs, that Charles IX. of bloody memory was the best and mildest of the four princes brought up by Catherine. He was fourteen years old when described by Barbaro; gentle and clever, fond of violent exercise, but also of the arts of painting and sculpture, and having no will in opposition to his mother; who, though still ruling in apparent concert with the King of Navarre, personally conducted all the affairs of the kingdom, held secret "I was present at the memorable day of correspondences with the Duke of Guise, and Meaux, as afterwards in the city, when all there was disorder; and in obedience to the comwas well pleased to show her authority as mands of his majesty, and following the example mainspring of all. And this all' is summed of other ambassadors, priests, and monks, who all up by the ambassador as lawless administra- doffed the gown and took up arms, I myself armed tion, violated justice, mortal enmities; pasthe persons of my suite. I had water always ready sion and caprice urging the powerful; self-in the street, since there was fear of being burned interests of princes ruling their actions; confusion in religion; disobedience and turbu

alive. I had sentinels on foot during the night, and I acquired the habit of waking at the slightest noise or signal.”—Relazione di Francesco Giustiniano.

makes it her business to content all those who eighty horses and twelve baggage mules: noapply to her, at least in words, of which she is thing spared in the beauty of their steeds, dress not parsimonious. She is most assiduous to bu- and liveries. The unsafe state of the country siness, not the smallest thing being done without her knowledge; interrupting therefore her necessitated an escort from Lyons, but they armeals and sleep; following the army without rived without accident; having been received care for her health or life, doing all which men with due honors on their way, deputations commight be bound to do; and yet loved by nobody. ing forth to meet them and offer flasks of wine, The Huguenots accuse her of deceiving them, a present made in France to princes only. At the catholics of allowing these first named to go the gates of Paris three noblemen in the too far. I do not say she is infallible, sometimes king's service waited with the royal carriages: she relies on her own opinion too entirely; but I have pitied more than blamed her. I said this bringing for him, Michele, one all over gold, to herself one day, and she often reminded me of used by his majesty himself, and followed by it since, when speaking of the misfortunes of a suite of six hundred horses. They were France and her own difficulties. I know more thus accompanied to the palace of Monsieur than once she has been found weeping in her de Guise, chosen as one of the most splendid closet, and then suddenly would wipe her eyes of the city. Michele numbers the rooms and show herself with a gay countenance, not to which composed his apartments, and dealarm those who might judge of the march of scribes them hung with cloth of gold and affairs from its expression. She sometimes will follow one counsel, sometimes another. Every silver, and his bed rich with gold and embroidone fears her. The king, who is now nineteen, ery. His table was served with splendor and is tall and stoops much, and from this and his profusion. They had five courses of five pallidness, one would not judge him to be strong. Public affairs do not interest him, he hears their details patiently sometimes during three or four hours in the council. In all decisions he rests on his mother, whom he honors with a respect most admirable. There are few sons so obedient; few mothers so fortunate. But this filial respect, which might be called fear, detracts from his reputation in as much as it agments hers: otherwise he is mild and affable to every one."

The Duke of Anjou (Henry III.) is again described. He had some years been cured of the fistula near his eye; he was of better complexion and more agreeable countenance than his brother; and his authority was great, since he had always been Catherine's favorite. It is known that he aided her in urging Charles IX. to sanction the night of St. Bartholomew.

The embassy of Correro took place in 1569. The next correspondence is dated 1575. Purposely or otherwise the massacre of St. Bartholomew, which took place in 1572, is passed over in silence. Giovanni Michele was named in 1575 with Andrea Badoaro, ambassadors to France to felicitate the king on his coronation and marriage. The phecy of Nostradamus seemed likely to attain fulfilment. Henry III. had ascended the throne, whence Charles IX. had sunk down into his grave, a victim to grief and remorse in his twenty-fourth year.

pro

dishes each; and besides game and poultry, little wild pigs called' marcassins,' and some fat birds from Flanders, whose names are unknown to him; and on maigre days there were always pikes, much esteemed in France, and sometimes costing each fifteen golden crowns. Such were the details thought right to be set down for the doge. Michele also self-satisfactorily tells how he received with other visitors the provost of Paris, who came with his officers to proffer his services in the name of the city, and to present flambeaux of white wax and boxes of sweetmeats, gifts the town make only to royalty. He was at last presented at court, and well received by Henry III., who remembered him. They had met in Venice, when he was Duke of Anjou, and saw the young Queen Louisa of Lorraine, and Elizabeth of Austria, the youthful widow of Charles. The following sentence gives a specimen of the manner of the court.

"I saw," he says, "as we were about to enter the queen's apartments, a woman, who had been, we were told, the king's nurse. As soon as she perceived us, she came to meet me, and said joyously, Oh Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, you are welcome! You who treated so well and showed

so much honor and friendship to the king my son and my master!' I must also inform your serene highness that a song full of the praises of our excellent senate has been composed on the reception of the king, and sung publicly."

Another and most memorable passage will Etat: judging from its tone, it might have prove the growing importance of the Tiers

borne another date.

The close of our task, comprehending the narrations of Michele and Lippomano, is perhaps the most interesting part of it. Commencing his reports to the doge, Michele ap"In the same mode that in the beginning the plauds himself for the dignified manner in which his mission had been graced and attend- those called Huguenots, so at present religion is war had broken out in the interest of religion of ed by the company of twelve gentlemen, no- little spoken of, and the general denomination is ble in conduct and origin, with a suite of no longer Huguenot, but Malcontent. The

number of these is great: composed of some of hood of the opposing faction: neither prince the nobility, and of the citizens, and men of all nor noble finding esteem in France, if wanting conditions, whether Huguenots or Catholics: in warlike propensities. At his accession he the combat no longer engaged in the name of re-caused displeasure by certain manners, strange ligion but of the public good. The malcontents and unwonted, particularly to the nobility. They, have shown forth their claims in a writing, pub-as every one knows, live in great familiarity lished after Monsieur the Duke of Alençon had with the king; and he, not content with their quitted the court. They demand full and com- assisting at his dinner with their head bare, conplete reform in the head and members; in all formably to propriety and the custom of other which concerns religion, justice, policy, the army monarchs, surrounded his table with a barrier and the government of the state. They protest to prevent any from speaking to him, as was against the alienation of royal property always easy to do in all liberty before. But as he perforbidden heretofore; against the numerous and ceived, and was even made aware, that this intolerable charges which weigh down the offended deeply, he returned to the old habits of kingdom; against other taxes invented by for- those who preceded him.* The choice of the eigners. They insist on the examinations of young queen, his wife, pleased no one; bringing the accounts of those who have managed public neither gain nor honor; and it was feared that expenses and royal revenues. They would have the crowning a princess of Lorraine would add inquiry made into the affairs of such ministers to the already overweening authority of the and officers as have enriched themselves during Guises, so envied and hated. The king wished their period of office from Henry II.'s time this marriage, since she was a beautiful woman, down to ours; such as the Connétable, and the but it is a curious fact, and told me by a great Cardinal de Lorraine; and would have the personage, that it would not have taken place heirs of those lords pursued. They hate the if the Cardinal of Lorraine† had lived. The Guises, as being of foreign and almost German queen mother did all in her power to prevent it, house; they murmur against the queen mother, fearing the cardinal's credit might lower and not on account of her possessions, but because supplant her own. His death calmed all doubts: she interferes in the government and adminis- since she esteemed the other princes of his house tration. To end all these disorders the malcon- too little to dread them, and she hastened to actents demand the convocation of the states gene-complish the king's desire. I might here speak ral, and, in order that the sectarians may be in- at length of Catherine de Medicis, who governs cluded in the benefits obtained, the free exercise alone and absolutely. She is accused as cause of the new religion till the holding of a council of all the misery which desolates the country. general composed of natives, and not of foreign- A foreigner and an Italian, she was never loved, ers." and is now detested; since every one knows fomented division and discord, making use of that to maintain herself in her authority she one and the other party by turns according as it fell in with her own private passion; and holding her sons, grown to manhood, aloof from serious affairs or thoughts, that they, being weak and inexperienced, might turn for aid to her. Her power over the king is so great that he dares contradict her no more than the rest; she cares neither for hate nor accusation; and, knowing that books against her are sold in the shops almost publicly, nothing disconcerts her. Hardy and intrepid, she braves fatigue and danger, undertaking long journies, and occupied more than ever with the state of the kingdom, since both country and king are indeed in immi

The ambassadors seem to have thoroughly followed, as regarded Venice, Charles V.'s advice to his son- Try to know the humors and characters of the principal ministers of the king of France, that you may make the knowledge useful in case of necessity!' Here is a remarkable despatch:

"Messieurs de Guise find civil war their interest, since they hold the most eminent places on his majesty's part; on the other hand, Monsieur d'Anville is sold to Spain. As to the king, he is little changed since you saw him; but that little is in his favor; his complexion is not livid as formerly, it has grown white and animated, and he is even a little fatter. It is believed by every one in France he cannot live long, hav. "Henry III., the present king of France and ing, it is said, several hidden and severe mala-Poland, is now twenty-eight years old, born Sept. dies, among the rest a continual indigestion, and 19, 1551. At the font he was named Alexander for this he has been advised to drink wine, which Edward; but his mother, in memory of the dead he had given up from his early youth. He pos- king, called him Henry. He is tall, rather than sesses intelligence and judgment, for they are of middle size; thin, rather than well-proportioned. apparent in his conversation; and those who His face is oval, his lower lips and chin pendant like know him well say he does not want ambition; those of his mother; his eyes handsome and soft, but he is of a nature inclined to quiet and repose, his forehead broad, his carriage graceful; and he truly far removed from the liveliness of spirit delights in being superbly dressed, and loaded with common at his years, which are twenty-four, and jewels and perfumes; he has almost always his beard shaven, and wears rings, bracelets, and the impetuosity which seems peculiar to the earrings. Bodily exercise does not amuse him, youth of France; averse to all wearisome exer- though he succeeds in managing a horse and in cise, such as hunting or horsemanship, he has fencing. If he take exercise, it is rather to dance no love for tilt or tournament. The knowledge and play at tennis than hunting. Thus he is thought of his feeble nature, and the belief that his life more inclined to peace than war.”—Lippomano's will be brief, weaken his authority, while they Relazione. augment his brother's influence, and the hardi

† Died in 1574.

*

nent danger. It is affirmed by those who see | reports of the duke, which induced Charles IX. most closely and best, that these troubles, should also to detest him. On the subject of monsieur's they last much longer, will divide the kingdom escape from court, which took place in the Sepirreparably between those who head them: it is tember of this same year, I will only say that if feared Monsieur and the Prince of Condé. Pre- he had not prevented it by departure he would dictions having been made on the brevity of the have been flung into perpetual prison. His king's life and his death without heirs, the queen mother had averted this before, but it was again mother, who puts faith in them, is seriously in deliberation, and would have been accomalarmed for herself; for she knows that monsieur, plished had he delayed a day. And although who would succeed, does not love her, as hav-where he is now he seems free and honored, he ing been most ill-treated of the brothers. Now, may say and do only what is prescribed to him. therefore, she strives to conciliate his good-will, He is more bound and captive than ever; and and draw him more near the king; she pro-as to his trusting himself at court and with the mises him riches and power, and her own large king, no one believes he will do so, having the inheritance; and calls to her aid the cunning admiral's* example before his eyes. It remains peculiar to her; trying to separate him from his to me to give you some account of the King of partisans, and, as she knows his hatred to the Navarre. This prince and monsieur are about chancellor and others, promising that the king the same age; he is well made, but not tall; his shall on his return disgrace and exile them from hair is black, and he has yet no beard. He is court, even though they be her own creatures. brave and full of vivacity like his mother; most To show you the extent of her calculations-as pleasing and amiable, familiar in his manner, the astrologers announce to monsieur also a life and very liberal; loving the chase well, and atshort and childless, and as the crown would thus tending little to aught beside. He is of enterrevert to the King of Navarre, (Henry IV.,) she prising spirit, and asserts, perhaps too openly, makes use of her daughter Margaret, who is his that he will one day recover his provinces held wife, to win him over to her, and says she has by his most catholic majesty. He is now free succeeded already. With the same view to and goes where he will: on the word of Monconciliate she attaches to herself his uncle, the sieur de Guiset pledged secretly for him, that Cardinal of Bourbon, a man wholly inoffensive; he will not leave the court without the king's and also to the Duke of Montpensier, being permission." nearly related to the King of Navarre. All this in the hope of remaining mistress and in possesWe take our leave of Michele here, passsion of the regal power, even when her son-in-ing over with but a few words the long comlaw shall come to the throne! as if she believed plaints which, in common with the rest of that she would never die, though being now these writers, close his recital. The dangers fifty-nine years old. Monsieur (the Duke of Anjou, formerly Duke of Alençon), is two years younger than the king, being, as your serene highness knows, in his twenty-second year; he is short of stature but well made, and strong and squarely built, and, unlike the king, fitted to bear corporeal fatigue and violent exercise. Those who know him best say he is not of evil nature, but has some fine qualities: being liberal, considering his means, a man of his word and gentle with every one, and as yet uncorrupted in his religion. But he never was on terms with his brothers; least of all with this one now king; neither with his mother. The fault is hers, from the difference she made between them; lowering monsieur and elevating the other, whom she held dear as her eyesight. Hence their hatred is deadly: and it is said that beneath the walls of La Rochelle, having commenced by outrages, they had well nigh come to blows. The dislike deepened most when monsieur became apprised of the ill offices his brother rendered him at the time of his own de

parture for Poland, when he entreated the late king Charles not to bestow on their younger brother the lieutenant-generalship of the king dom, which himself left vacant, adding evi!

Her credulity is well known. In one of her letters, lately published, she speaks of a conspirator who had fabricated a waxen figure, to the head of which he gave many blows. She says he intends it for the king, and desires, if he has done aught to injure his majesty's health, he may be made to revoke his enchantments.

and fatigues of his mission, which lasted five months; his journeys through the heat of summer and the cold of winter, accelerated, he says, the death of his companion Badoaro. His expenses were heavy, since he was obliged to light many and continual fires, and the journey from Paris to Venice, through Burgundy, occupied fifty days, without reckoning those lost through accidents to horses, or the sickness of any of his suite. The king sent him indeed, after his last audience, the twenty pieces of gilded silver which he himself in turn presented to his serene highness, as being by right his own.

Coligny murdered at St. Bartholomew.

:

t He is mentioned but once before in the narrations of the ambassadors, as being a fine youth, carefully brought up by his mother, and in the reformed religion. Jeanne d'Albret died a few days before her son's marriage and the massacre.

with the king of Navarre, taller, better made, hav"The duke Henry de Guise is of the same age ing great majesty of countenance, bright eyes, and curled light hair; and a beard not thick, and fair; also with a scar of the face, which he received gloriously from a traitor soldier who fired his arquebuse, as the prince, seeing him at his feet, called to him to yield. In all exercises, he is admirable from ease and grace. In swordmanship none can resist him. He is poor, spending more than his revenues; not quite content with the march of affairs, since he also is of the Catholic race which maintains the true religion of France."—Lippomano's Relazione.