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One in a Thousand; or, The Days of Henri Quatre

Chapter 42: FOOTNOTES
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About This Book

The narrative follows the closing years of the French Wars of Religion, depicting the rivalry between the Catholic League and Henry of Navarre's forces. Political intrigue centers on a wealthy heiress used by rival factions to bind powerful nobles, while battles, assassination plots, and shifting loyalties unfold in camp and Paris. Close, characterful portraits of Leaguer leaders, notably the Duke de Mayenne, are interwoven with romantic entanglements and military episodes, producing a complex plot that balances historical set pieces with melodramatic personal drama.




FOOTNOTES


Footnote 1: The passion for dwarfs as attendants in great houses was so universal in France at this time, that the most extravagant sums were given for them. Henry III. is reported to have had no less than nine at one time; and at his court there was a regular tailleur and valet des nains.


Footnote 2: This speech of the dwarf applies to various modes of travelling then known in France, which it might be tedious to explain more fully in this place.


Footnote 3: The Duke of Guise, who held the throne of Henry III. and was afterwards barbarously assassinated by command of that monarch, had been his bosom friend in youth.


Footnote 4: In English, a mortgage. This sort of encumbrance was but too frequently created in France during the wars of the League and the epoch of debauchery which preceded, accompanied, and followed them.


Footnote 5: I have, in another romance, published long since this work was written, given a description of the phenomenon here mentioned, and have in that tale attempted to depict it as it appeared to the Royalists.




WOODFALL, AND KINDER PRINTERS, LONG ACRE, LONDON.