But their value did not even attain that of ordinary presents made in other times to Venetian ambassadors. And if the liberality of his serene highness and the most gallant lords would accord this gift to him to pay his expenses in part, they might feel it given to the republic itself, since its ambassador would be ever ready to expend it in its service. Poor Michele ! came up to say, 'If you are as I believe Venetians, I will tell you what it concerns you to hear. To-day passing forth from Aissez le Duc, near the Fontaines Amoureuses, there rode up to me four horsemen, asking if I had seen five mules bearing the red housings of a Venetian ambassador, and when I replied, I had not, I heard them say among themselves, Certainly we have missed them on the road, but we will come up with them at Mussy l'Evêque,' and leaving me they galloped into a road near.' Shortly after arrived in the same Inn of the Lion d'Or, another person, a lackey of the Grand Ecuyer on his way to Dijon, came to say that a league and a half beyond Chatillon he had seen a troop of horsemen, about twenty-five in number, ford the Seine; that one of them, well-mounted and armed, detached himself from the rest, and rode covered with red clothing; and this man appeared to him a spy of robbers-that species of poor gentleman, who hold the highways, plunder the travellers, and then take refuge in their neighboring houses and castles." Girolamo Lippomano was ambassador to France in the year 1577. The narrative before us, given with all possible detail, is by his secretary's hand, and entitled, 'Viaggio del Signor Lippomano.' The French roads were at this date far from safe, and the ambassador dreaded alike to fall into the hands of highwaymen, or those of soldiers of the dis-up to ask whether he had met various mules banded army which had just besieged and taken La Chareté. We quote an amusing and characteristic adventure which occurred to him at Dijon. But notwithstanding the demoralized and impoverished country, they arrived with their horse and arquebuse-men in safety at Barleduc. At Mussy l'Evêque, indeed, they excited fear themselves: for the inhabitants closed their gates, mistaking the ambassador and his suite for the banditti! They were besides in peril from their own escort, who said openly that the ambassador carried with him a sum of 800,000 francs, lent by Venice "The first magistrate of the city of Dijon (I do not speak of those of the parliament) is called mayor, as in all the other towns of Burgundy, and of several provinces of France. He is elected annually either from the class of nobles or of citizens; he has a guard of halberdiers, and his authority is of some importance. I went to him as I am accustomed to do elsewhere, and politely requested, beside the usual bills of health, a passport for all Burgundy, that the ambassador's progress might suffer no obstacle. The good inan commenced by doubting that I was really an ambassador, saying I might be a private per- to the king, and at last so bitterly assailed sonage who had taken the title. I showed him the Venetians in Nagent on this ground, vainly the letters patent of his serene highness, that had it been in a less considerable town, of the governor of Milan, the Duke of Savoy, their escape from thorough fleecing would the governor of Lyons. At last he said, 'How have been impossible. The court was at is it possible that this can be a Venetian ambassador, since last year at Venice all the inhabitants died of plague?' (!!) I replied this was not exact; that the fullest extent of the loss had been of between forty and fifty thousand per sons. 'Well,' said he, am I not right then? there can be none or very few remaining? I was forced to say that the death of thousands in Venice left less vacuum than would that of ten in Dijon, and so left him adding, I cared little for his passport, and that the king should know of it. So he hastened to deliver me one in good and due form." The ambassador and his train passed on not without fear and peril. The 'lieutenant du roi' of the province, being of higher authority than the mayor, gave an escort of foot and mounted men. At Chatillon sur Seine, they had stayed to see the town and sleep at the Lion d'Or, and it would seem they dined here in a public apartment. The account of this narrow escape on the road, is highly dramatic. "While we were at table arrived a traveller on foot, who hearing some of us speak Italian this time in Touraine, and Lippomano remained but a day or two in Paris ere he departed for Amboise: passing four leagues from Orleans through the village of Clery, where he found the ruins of the church raised by Louis XI., whose devotion to our lady of Clery is well known, and in the centre of which stood the miraculous waxen torch, too heavy to be moved by ten men, but which shook with a heavy sound whenever, in shipwreck or other danger, a vow was made to this virgin. The day, hour, and minute of the shock noted, were always found to accord with the vow! Presented to his majesty, Lippomano accompanied him to Tours and Poitiers, the state of the roads preventing their travelling more than four leagues a day. The queen mother was now desirous of peace; the King of Navarre and Prince of Condé had severally retired to Perigord and La Rochelle. The worst plague of this time arose from the undisciplined state of either army. It was imposible to ride two leagues beyond Poitiers without the risk of meeting Jing him to yield to circumstances, and since he this uncurbed soldiery, who pillaged friend was resolved to go, to dissimulate and wait a and foe, sacking each village in turn, and favorable opportunity which could not fail him. following the shores of the river to seize on majesty, excused himself, promised to be henceThe duke accepted her advice, asked to see his horses and on the grooms who brought them forth a true brother and servitor, and to do_nothither to water. Peace was at last conclu- thing which could trouble the kingdom. The ded, though the public exercise of the re-king and queen mother embraced him tenderly; formed religion was forbidden at court, and Bussy and Monsieur de Caylus were reconwithin a circle of two leagues, as well as in ciled." Paris, and ten leagues round. The memory But Monsieur in reality placed small conof Coligny, and other victims of St. Bar-fidence in the king, and made his escape a tholomew, was rehabilitated, and their heirs few days after; his thoughts turned to Flanexempted from taxes during six years; while ders, which he determined to deliver from Henry III., in his edict called the massacre 'the disorders and excesses of the 24th August and following days, which took place to our great displeasure and regret.' The winter had passed tranquilly in fêtes and tournaments, in which the king himself joined. But there took place quarrels between the king's 'mignons,' and a nobleman high in the Duke of Anjou's favor; the Bussy d'Amboise, so often named in the memoirs of the time. Eighteen or twenty of the former attacked Bussy unawares; two of his suite were wounded, and one died. Hereupon the duke made furious by this event, and by the king's backwardness to avenge it, threatened to retire to his own estates, in spite of the prayers of Queen Louisa of France, and the queen mother. Spanish oppression; while at the same time Spain protested against France, and threatened invasion with an army, if she did not interfere to calm the Flemish rebellion. The duke having gone to Flanders, the queen mother, disregarding her own age and infirmities, conducted her daughter Margaret to her husband, Henry of Navarre, occupying herself on her way with the re-establishment of the Catholic rite, wheresoever she tarried : so that,' says the ambassador, 'it was she who raised once more the almost-crushed religion.' The project of a marriage between the Queen of England (Elizabeth) and the duke of Alençon, was now negotiated more warmly than heretofore: precious gifts, and even portraits were exchanged, so that its accomplishment seemed sure. Lippomano's scribe thus gives an account of the duke's expedition to England: "The king," says the recital, "went himself to Monsieur at the moment he drew on his boots, and repeated the same arguments. But as the duke would not renounce his determination, the 'Monsieur crossed the sea, arrived in London, king rose up in anger and said, 'since you are and lodged the first day with the ambassador of resolved to depart, go then if you can.' He France, and afterwards in the royal palace, at called a captain of his archers, and ordered him the queen's expense, who saw him the second to guard the duke in his chamber. He arrested day, two miles without the town. It is said that, at the same time various favorites of his high- relating to the marriage, there were rather vague ness, and ordered the arrest of Bussy, who was words spoken, than any likely to lead to a conhid in Monsieur's palace, and in his own closet, clusion, though presents were exchanged. It is where he had remained all the preceding days, said also that every morning the queen carried though it was said he had left the city. He was him a cup of broth with her own hand, and that found between the wool and straw mattress of the duke showed himself to her in a doublet of the bed, and brought before the king, trembling flesh-colored silk to prove he was not humpbacked at the idea of instant death, for it was believed as had been told her. But from all we heard, he had urged Monsieur's departure. He talked they negotiated any affairs rather than those of like one out of his senses, asking the king if he the marriage; or to express myself with more chose to take his head, or that he should ask propriety, the sage queen held out this bait to pardon of Monsieur de Caylus. The king re-keep Monsieur in check, and strengthen him in plied by a reprimand paternal rather than se- his hatred to Spain. It was believed that the vere; reminding him how often he had offended Queen of England, the Duke of Alençon, the the royal dignity, and adding, that he had not King of Navarre, the Prince Casimir, and the yet decided on his own course, but that the faults Prince of Orange, were all agreed to carry the should be exceeded by the clemency, and that war into Spain. But this report was unfoundhe should have a chamber for prison. Mon- ed, though the king himself communicated it to sieur's attendants were all greatly alarmed, and the foreign ambassadors, excusing himself by hid or disguised themselves as if the storm had declaring he had not been in the secret of the been destined to crush them; and as the house enterprise, and was sorry for it: whence we may of the Venetian ambassador was their only asy-see the precipitancy or rather the levity of the lum, they all crowded there. Some extreme French, who at times give wind to projects ere measure was expected: when the queen of Na- they execute, then at others execute without varre went to visit Monsieur about noon, advis-previous reflection." During the duke's absence, the king fell her defence, one of these being pregnant ill of a dangerous malady, and the French also! Thus, among his murders, murdering court feared lest Queen Elizabeth, in the two innocent creatures who had not seen the event of his death, should keep Monsieur as his career as if nothing had happened, or as if light; and yet he is unmolested, and pursues hostage till the delivering to England of Bou- he had killed five animals hunting. logne and Calais, which she claimed still. The queen mother was absent, also, employed in soothing, if she could not put a stop to, the disturbances in the south of France. We must here insert a recital of the tragic end of Bussy d'Amboise. It is amusing to find the whole indignation of the writer concentrated on the injured husband, and to observe his exquisite allusions to some lady beloved by himself. This wild mode of obtaining justice was not uncommon in other offences of the age, though extraordinary at a time and court whose license was unbounded. * "About this time Bussy d'Amboise was killed. He was the first gentleman and the favorite of Monsieur, and the lover of a fair lady whom he saw very often. Her husband, though 'homme de robe, yet held a post of importance in Brittany. He became apprized of her conduct, and told her she could save her own life but in one manner, which was to summon the Seigneur de Bussy to her house at the hour he should command, and without previous warning. The lady, (if indeed she deserve the name,) either in fear for herself or love for another, wrote to Bussy that she was going to the country, and would expect him the following day, and that he should come in all confidence, since her husband could not arrive to molest them. Bussy d'Amboise came fearlessly with but two gentlemen. As soon as he was in the court, and the gates closed and barred as was the order, he was assailed by twenty arquebuse men, who shot himself and his comrades. The woman who thus caused her lover's murder, was left with the perpetual stain of an impurity and a cruelty unexampled. She might have warned her friend and warded off this misfor tune; and if she were, as was affirmed, forced with a dagger to her throat to write this letter, she should have chosen a thousand deaths rather than such a treason. Not thus would have acted my most glorious lady the Signora N-, whose soul is generous as her blood is noble, and as decided in her divine actions as unhappy in being in the power of a husband so unworthy of her. But this crime served this poor husband nothing: it was a weak and dishonorable vengeance. For a fault, of which the blame was not his, and which few people knew, is now published to the world. Little noise was, however, made about it, and although Bussy was a great personage, the assassin went unpunished. It appears that in France, in these affairs of honor. every man is permitted to right himself, as did Monsieur Villequier of Poitiers. After a long absence from court, returning to his wife he found her about to give birth to an infant; he therefore killed her instantly, and with her two female attendants, who rushed forward in * See Brantome, with whom the writer seems to have some sympathies. But for considerations of space, we might be justified in quoting another description of the court, as it had become in Lippomano's time. There is a mournful interest cast over the person of the beautiful young queen, Louisa of Lorraine : perfectly without influence, (since Catherine would have borne with no power in a daughter-in-law ;) adoring her unworthy and effeminate husband, serving him herself on all solemn occasions and sitting with her eye turned on him ever, as on one beloved, of which he takes no note;' pious and charitable in church and hospital; while his time was occupied in his private apartments, sometimes indeed with alchemists and with mechanics, oftener still with the dogs, birds, and dwarfs, kept there for his disengaged hours. The queen mother, grown old, still preserved a certain freshness, and showed no wrinkle. She always wore her mourning habits, and a black veil which fell on her shoulders, but not her forehead, and when she went out, a woolen bonnet over it. As in the former time, with a view to keep power in her own hands, and render herself always necessary, she fomented troubles and kept private hatreds alive, so now, it was Lippomano's belief, she tried to pacify all parties. Since the king disliked public concerns, and left them to her, she had henceforth no motive for irritation, and she preferred that her dexterity and prudence should now only be made evident. We transcribe a portrait, not elsewhere drawn, of Margaret of Navarre, and a curious anecdote of Henry IV., husband. her "The queen is not tall, of figure well formed and rather full, and though her features are less delicate than those of the reigning queen (Louisa), she is yet esteemed beautiful from her vivacity of countenance, and her hair bright as gold; though she also, like her brothers, fails in the defective shape of the lower lip, which is pendant; but some esteem this an additional grace, and that it makes the throat and neck appear to more advantage. Of a masculine spirit like her mother, she is clever in negotiation, and during the time she stayed at the baths of Spa, undertook and nigh concluded the treaty between monsieur and the Flemish lords; and this without waking suspicion in Don Juan of Austria, with whom she dined daily at Namur. It does not appear that she has the sainted disposition of her sister-in-law, since she delights in things which usually please women, such as dressing superbly, and appearing beautiful, and all which follows. Her husband, Henry of Navarre, is thought to believe in nothing, and it is said he makes sport of his own Huguenot preachers, even while they are in the pulpit. Once, he being eating cherries while one of these villains preached, he continued shooting with his finger and thumb, the cherry stones in his face, till he well-nigh put out his eye." Prejudice against France seems strong in Lippomano, as in others of these writers. And from the corruption of court and city, we can believe his criticisms to be for the most part just. The prodigality of the king to his unworthy favorites, with the disorders of the administration, had ruined the kingdom. The court was always in a state of privation. The army wanted pay and supplies, and pillaged the villages. In Paris the prisons were numerous, and filled; while every day, in some part of the town, malefactors were seen in the hands of justice, the greater part being hanged.' His remarks on dress and manners are richly worth extracting. The and shoulders are slightly veiled with gauze. The head, neck, and arms, are ornamented with jewels; the headdress differs widely from that of Italy, as on the top of the head are ornaments and tufts of hair which apparently increase the breadth of the forehead. They commonly wear black hair, since it sets off the paleness of the cheeks, and this paleness when not occasioned by malady is looked on as a charm. but in fact very free. Each chooses to be treatFrench females are seemingly full of devotion, ed as worthy esteem, and there is none, whatever her conduct, who does not find something to say against that of her neighbors. They are very insolent, and the cause is their husbands' over confidence, and allowing them to govern not only their households but themselves. They converse publicly with those they meet in the streets, and also go alone to church and market, remaining absent three or four hours without their husbands' asking whither they are gone. Very agreeable in their manners, they have perhaps but one fault, avarice; it is said that gold is omnipotent with all the women in the world, but with French women silver suffices. A gentleman asserted, not without reason, that three things are proper to the nation- never to do what they promise; not to write as they speak; and to remember neither benefit nor injury.' In trade and business the Frenchman is of faithless nature, willing to promise largely when anxious to obtain any thing, but having obtained, at once repenting. And thus he either will refuse payment or defer it as much as possible. The ceremonies of the holy week resemble ours, and if more care were given to the church, or rather if all benefices were not bestowed on women, children, or incapable men, it might recover its splendor. We follow their example in eating meat the four or five Saturdays which follow Christmas, since we should otherwise have passed for Huguenots. They aver that during these weeks the Holy Virgin, having lately lain in, did not fast. The French priest is not much addicted to debauch; he has no vice but that of gluttony; which is common to him, with the remainder of that people. It would thus be less difficult to ameliorate this clergy than that of other nations where excesses are more extreme. They have good and clever preachers, capable of preachiug three and four hours in succession as they do on Good Friday, not resting a moment, and hardly ever spitting: a thing incomprehensible...... It was then," he says, a little farther on, "that the ambassador, In mourning for parent or husband, they my master, took leave of their majesties, to have also robes trimmed with hair or swan's whom he was singularly dear, since surnamed down. Men wear mourning only on the day by all il deletto Ambasciatore. At his departure, of burial. It is easy to recognize unmarried the king created him knight of his own order; women in the street; they follow closely their and besides this, gave him a very fine diamond mothers' footsteps, and the domestics male or set in gold, of the size of a nut, and a beautiful female again come after. French women have Turkish dog, which was his delight; but the generally the waist slightly formed, and using little dog jumping back on the king, the king as they do hoops and other artifices to increase took him in his arms, kissed him, and offered the circumference below, their appearance be- him to the ambassador, saying, 'Accept him comes more elegant still. The cotillon is of for my sake.' The 26th of November, 1579, great value. As to the gown which is worn we quitted Paris to return to Italy.” over all, it is usually of coarse serge or ordinary stuff, since the women at church kneel down anywhere and sit upon the ground. The bosom "From the salubrity of the climate, the natives would live long, if they did not ruin their stomachs with over-eating, spending on food and habiliments without rule or measure. Male dress so various in form, that to describe it were impossible. A hat whose broad brim falls on the shoulders, or a 'beret' which hardly covers the top of the head; a cloak which descends to the ankle, or barely reaches the loins; the manner of wearing these habits not less curious than the habits themselves. One sleeve but toned, the other open, and the cloak pendant from one shoulder; and the change of costume usual among men, necessitating an extraordinary expense in woolen stuff and cloths of silk and gold; since no man is esteemed rich if he has not twenty or thirty suits of different kinds, so that he may change daily. The women have a mode of dress more modest and less variable. The noble lady wears a hood of black velvet, or a coiffe, wrought in ribbons of silk or gold, or in jewels, and has a mask on her face. The citizen's wife wears a cloth hood, the mask and silken head-gear being denied to her rank. All wear gowns and cotillons as they please. Noblewomen distinguished by the size of the sleeves and variety of colors, while other females wear black only. Widows have veils, and the clothing high to the throat, and over all a spen ser. We believe it not necessary to excuse the length of our article, or the number of our extracts. Since the taste for literary curiosities' began, there have appeared no volumes whose contents so well deserve the name. They are precious to the historian, for their sketches of character and policy were so studied as to guide and enlighten a subtle and cautious state. They are amusing to the lover of lighter literature, for the closeness of their personal details. And they are important to the philosophical observer, who studies their dissertions on national habits and failings, and contemplates how these have been much or little modified by other governments and the lapse of three hundred years. Though long my list, though great my store, I'd ever seek to add one more. Old songs! old songs!-ye fed, no doubt, The ballad still is breathing round, Old songs! old songs!-I should not sigh- Hope, youth, love, home-each human tie And where the heart that would not dare 6 |