[1] Most of the places of the German part of Lorraine had two names, of which one was the approximate translation of the other. The future marshal’s family would not appear to have adopted definitely the French form of the name until the end of the sixteenth century; but, for the sake of convenience, we propose to use it throughout this work.

[2] Agrippa d’Aubigné, in his Histoire universelle, cites a letter from Guise to Christophe de Bassompierre, dated May 21, 1588, which is signed “l’amy de cœur.”

[3] She was the daughter of George le Picart de Radeval and Louise de la Motte-Bléquin.

[4] Of Bassompierre’s two brothers, the elder, Jean, Seigneur de Removille, after serving as a volunteer in Hungary against the Turks, entered the service of France, and took part in the invasion of Savoy, in 1600. In 1603, having quarrelled with Henri IV, he quitted his service for that of Philip III of Spain, and died the following year of a wound received at the siege of Ostend. The younger, George African, was destined for Holy Orders, but renounced this intention on learning of his brother’s death, and assumed the title of Seigneur de Removille. He married in 1610 Henriette de Tornelle, daughter of Charles Emmanuel, Comte de Tornelle, by whom he had six children. He died in 1632, on his return from the campaign of Leipsic, on which he had accompanied Charles IV of Lorraine.

[5] See the author’s “The Brood of False Lorraine,” Vol. II., p. 545.

[6] Don Cesare d’Este, grandson of Alphonso I and Laura Eustachia, had caused himself to be proclaimed Duke of Ferrara on October 29, 1597. Pope Clement VII claimed the duchy as devolving on the Holy See by the extinction of the legitimate line of Este.

[7] Pietro Aldobrandini, nephew of Clement VII. He had been created cardinal in 1593 and subsequently became Archbishop of Ravenna. He died in 1621.

[8] By a capitulation, signed on January 13, 1598, Don Cesare renounced the duchy of Ferrara in favour of Clement VIII and remained only Duke of Modena and Reggio.

[9] The Archduke Albert, who had taken Holy Orders and been created a cardinal, had renounced that dignity in order to marry the Infanta.

[10] Peter Ernest, Count von Mansfeld. He was subsequently created a Prince of the Empire by Maximilian II. He died in 1604.

[11] Daughter of René, Vicomte de Rohan, and Catherine de Parthenay, Dame de Soubise. She married in 1604 Johann of Bavaria, Duke of Zweibrücken.

[12] Claude de Lorraine, younger son of Henri I de Lorraine, Duc de Guise, and Catherine de Clèves. He bore at first the title of Prince de Joinville, but in 1606 became Duc de Chevreuse, in consequence of his elder brother having resigned that duchy to him. He died in 1657.

[13] Charles, Comte d’Auvergne (1573-1650), natural son of Charles IX and Marie Touchet. He was created Duc d’Angoulême in 1620; but before this period Bassompierre, in his Mémoires, frequently speaks of him as M. d’Angoulême.

[14] The Grand Equerry, the Duc de Bellegarde.

[15] Charles Auguste de Saint-Lary, brother of Bellegarde, whom he succeeded in the post of Grand Equerry.

[16] Annibal de Schomberg, second son of Gaspard de Schomberg.

[17] In April, 1599, this boy was legitimated by letters-patent, which were duly registered by the complaisant Parlement of Paris.

[18] But she had, nevertheless, condescended to ask favours of “the woman of impure life,” and to regard her as a sister. “I speak to you freely,” she writes to Gabrielle, on February 24, 1597, “as to one whom I wish to keep as a sister. I have placed so much confidence in the assurance that you have given me that you love me, that I do not desire to have any protector but you near the King; for nothing that comes from your beautiful mouth can fail to be well received.” She had also, shortly before signing the procuration, transferred to Gabrielle her duchy of Étampes.

[19] See the excellent work of Desclozeaux, Gabrielle d’Éstrées, Marquise de Monceaux (Paris: 1889).

[20] Alphonse d’Ornano (1548-1610), son of the celebrated Corsican patriot. He was colonel-general of the Corsicans in the service of France, and had been created a marshal of France in 1596.

[21] Gabrielle, as we have just stated, survived until the following day (Saturday, April 10); but La Varenne, either to spare the King the sight of his mistress, whom, Bassompierre tells us, he himself had seen on the Thursday afternoon, “so changed that she was unrecognisable,” or to prevent a scandal, had taken upon himself to announce in advance the event which he knew to be inevitable and close at hand.

[22] The Parlement of Paris also sent a deputation to condole with the grief-stricken monarch.

[23] Bassompierre says “a few days”; Tallemant des Réaux “three weeks.” In point of fact, it was not until the following June that Henri IV., while on his way from Fontainebleau to Blois, broke his journey at the Château of Malesherbes, where resided François de Balsac d’Entragues, governor of Orléans, who had married as his second wife Marie Touchet, mistress of Charles IX, and mother of Charles de Valois, Comte d’Auvergne, and there saw Henriette, then a girl of eighteen, for the first time.

[24] Although so young, Mlle. de Entragues was very much alive to her own interests, and, counselled by her parents, determined that the brilliant destiny of which fate had deprived her predecessor in the royal affections should be hers. The enamoured monarch loaded her with costly gifts and employed every persuasion he could think of to overcome her resistance; but the damsel was adamant, until, in despair, he placed in her hands the following remarkable document, which Henriette carried about in her pocket and triumphantly exhibited to all her friends:—

“We, Henri, by the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre, promise and swear by our faith and kingly word to Monsieur François de Balsac, Sieur d’Entragues, etc., that he, giving us to be our consort (pour compagne) demoiselle Henriette Catherine de Balsac, his daughter, provided that within six months from the present date she becomes pregnant and bear us a son, that forthwith we will take her to wife and publicly espouse her in the face of Holy Church, in accordance with the solemnities required in such cases.”

Once more, however, the unexpected came to save the situation. One night, the room in which the sultana—now become Marquise de Verneuil—lay, was struck by lightning. The shock caused a miscarriage, and the King, whose marriage with Marguerite de Valois had been solemnly annulled, on December 29, 1599, by the commission appointed by the Pope, holding himself released from his promise, thereupon decided to send a formal demand to the Court of Tuscany for the hand of Marie de’ Medici.

[25] Charles de Lorraine, Duc d’Elbeuf (1566-1605).

[26] The Prince de Joinville was, or had been, in love with Henriette d’Entragues, who, until the King appeared upon the scene, had been far from insensible to his admiration, and he believed that the Grand Equerry was endeavouring to prejudice his Majesty’s mind against him on that account.

[27] Achille de Harlay. He was First President of the Parlement of Paris from 1583 to 1611.

[28] The brother, mother, and sister of the Prince de Joinville.

[29] Henri, Duc and Maréchal de Montmorency (1534-1614).

[30] Yolande de Livron, demoiselle de Bourbonne, daughter of Erard de Livron, Baron de Bourbonne, and Yolande de Bassompierre, and cousin-german of the future marshal, who tells us that he would probably have married the young lady and “might not have lived unhappily with her,” had it not been for the opposition of his mother, whom he did not wish to displease.

[31] Mlle. Quelin. She was the mother of Nicolas Quelin, counsellor to the Grande Chambre of the Parlement of Paris, who claimed, wrongly it is said, to be the son of Henri IV.

[32] Marie Babou de la Bourdaisière, daughter of Georges Babou, Seigneur de la Bon, Comte de Sagonne. She was one of Queen Louise’s maids-of-honour.

[33] La Côte-Saint-André, on the road from Vienne to Grenoble.

[34] The cause of this quarrel was in all probability the famous promise of marriage which Henri IV had given to Madame de Verneuil and the approaching arrival of Marie de’ Medici—“la grosse financière,” as Henriette disrespectfully called her—who was to become Queen of France.

[35] Basing House, Hampshire.

[36] William Pawlet, Marquis of Winchester.

[37] Madame de Verneuil gave birth to a son a month later, and, in the pride of her motherhood, scoffed at “la grosse financière,” who, said she, had indeed got a son, but not the Dauphin. For the King was her husband—she had his written promise—and it was SHE who held the Dauphin in her arms.

[38] Jacques de la Guesle, procurator-general to the Parlement.

[39] The Comte d’Auvergne showed the most craven terror, and offered—king’s son though he was—to play the part of a spy and to continue to communicate with his confederates, in order to disclose their plans to the Government.

[40] The Prince de Joinville, having become the lover of Madame de Villars, who had aspired to succeed Gabrielle d’Estrées in the affections of Henri IV, and was bitterly hostile in consequence to Madame de Verneuil, had been cajoled by that lady into handing over to her the love-letters which he had received from Henriette, some of which contained expressions of great tenderness and had been written at the very time when the King was paying the damsel his addresses. These letters Madame de Villars had the meanness to send to Henri IV, who was naturally furious at the discovery that his mistress had had two strings to her bow. Eventually, however, his Majesty allowed himself to be persuaded by Madame de Verneuil and her friends that the letters were forgeries, the work of one Bigot, whom Joinville had suborned; and Henriette was forgiven, while the prince received orders to leave France.

[41] Rossworm had distinguished himself in 1601 at the capture of Stuhl-Weissemburg, and in 1602 had taken by assault the lower town of Buda and the town of Pesth.

[42] Presumably, Ladislaus’s Hall, or the Hall of Homage, constructed towards the end of the fifteenth century by Rieth.

[43] Lorraine, though its independence had been recognised in 1542, still contributed its share to the charges which had for their object the peace and security of the Empire; and, as the troops which Bassompierre proposed to raise were intended for service in Hungary against the Turks, it was on this fund, called the landsfried, that the order was drawn.

[44] Jacqueline de Bueil was an orphan who had been brought up by Charlotte de la Trémoille, widow of Henri I, Prince de Condé. She was a very astute young lady indeed, and demanded, as the price of her surrender, a large sum of money, a pension, a title, and a husband, all of which the amorous monarch conceded. The husband chosen for her was a needy and complaisant noble, Philippe de Harlay, Comte de Cess, a nephew of Queen Margaret’s old lover, Harlay de Chanvallon, who raised no objection to his sovereign exercising le droit de seigneur. Subsequently, the King created the lady Comtesse de Moret in her own right.

[45] Henri de Lorraine, Duc d’Aiguillon, eldest son of the Duc de Mayenne, and brother of the Comte de Sommerive.

[46] Among the members of Queen Marguerite’s suite, was a youth of some twenty summers, the son of one Date, a carpenter of Arles, whom her Majesty ennobled, “avec six aunes d’étoffe,” and who forthwith blossomed into a Sieur de Saint-Julien. This Saint-Julien, if we are to believe the chroniclers of the time, was passionately beloved by his regal mistress, though perhaps, as a charitable biographer of Marguerite suggests, her affection for him may have been “merely platonic and maternal.” However that may be, he stood on the very pinnacle of favour, and was regarded with envy and hatred by his less fortunate rivals. One of these rivals, Vermont by name—not Charmont, as Bassompierre calls him—either because he was jealous of the privileges which Saint-Julien enjoyed, or, more probably, because he believed that the favourite had used his influence with the Queen to procure the disgrace of certain members of his family, suspected of having aided the intrigues of the Comte d’Auvergne, swore to be avenged. Nor was his vow an idle one, for one fine morning in April, 1606, at the very moment when Saint-Julien was assisting Marguerite to alight from her coach, on her return from hearing Mass at the Célestines, he stepped forward, and, levelling a pistol, shot him dead. The assassin endeavoured to escape, but was pursued and captured; and the bereaved princess, beside herself with rage and grief, vowed that she would neither eat nor drink until justice had been done, and wrote to the King “begging his Majesty very humbly to be pleased that the assassin should be punished.” The King sent orders for Vermont to be brought to trial without an hour’s delay; and he was condemned to death and executed the following morning in front of Marguerite’s hôtel, “declaring aloud,” writes L’Estoile, “that he cared not about dying, since he had accomplished his purpose.”

[47] Although he had resumed his relations with Madame de Verneuil, and seemed more infatuated with her than ever, his Majesty continued his attentions to Madame de Moret, and had also fallen in love with a certain Mlle. de la Haye, with whom he spent a honeymoon at Chantilly, obligingly placed at his disposal by the Connétable de Montmorency, under the pretext of enjoying the fine hunting which the neighbourhood afforded. This affair, however, only lasted a short time. The young lady, it appears, had persuaded his Majesty that he was the first who had gained her heart, but, in point of fact, she had begun her career of gallantry by a liaison with M. de Beaumont, the late French Ambassador in England, who, however, had soon broken off his relations with her. Mlle. de la Haye had not forgiven him for this rupture, and, believing herself more in favour than she was, she endeavoured to prejudice the King’s mind against him. Beaumont, learning of this, promptly sent his Majesty the letters which Mlle. de la Haye had written him when she was his mistress; and Henri IV, indignant at having been deceived, broke with her in his turn.

[48] Tallemant des Réaux, in his Historiettes, gives some details concerning this liaison of Bassompierre and the part played therein by Henri, who appears to have been made a fool of, as in several analogous circumstances. “Bassompierre,” he writes, “had the honour to have for some time the King as rival. Testu, Chevalier of the Watch, assisted his Majesty in the affair. One day, when this man came to speak to Mlle. d’Entragues, she hid Bassompierre behind a tapestry, and said to Testu, who reproached her with being less cruel to Bassompierre than to the King, that she cared no more for the former than for the latter, at the same time striking with a switch which she held in her hand the place where her gallant was concealed.”

[49] Men whose duty it was to remove the bodies of persons who had died of the plague or other contagious maladies. During several months of that year Paris was ravaged by an epidemic, which was either plague or a virulent form of typhus.

[50] Nearly two centuries later, this adventure of Bassompierre so impressed the romantic imagination of Chateaubriand, then a young man of twenty, that he made a pilgrimage to the Rue Bourg-l’Abbé and “the third door on the side of the Rue Saint-Martin.” But, to the great disappointment of the future author of René, he found himself confronted, not by the old gabled house which Bassompierre must have entered and quitted so abruptly, but by a hopelessly modern residence, the ground-floor of which was occupied by a hairdresser’s shop, with “a variety of towers of hair behind the window-panes.” And “no frank, disinterested, passionate young woman” was to be seen, but only “an old crone, who might have been the aunt of the assignation.”

“What a fine story, that story of Bassompierre!” he writes. “One of the reasons which caused him to be so passionately loved ought to be understood. At that time, France was divided into two classes, one dominant, the other semi-servile. The sempstress clasped Bassompierre in her arms as though he were a demi-god who had descended to the bosom of a slave: he gave her the illusion of glory, and Frenchwomen alone amongst women are capable of intoxicating themselves with that illusion. But who will reveal to us the unknown causes of the catastrophe? Was the body which lay upon the table by the side of another body that of the pretty wench of the Two Angels? Whose was the other body? Was it the husband or the man whose voice Bassompierre had heard? Had the plague (for the plague was raging in Paris) or jealousy reached the Rue Bourg-l’Abbé before love? The imagination can easily find matter for exercise in such a subject as this. Mingle with the poet’s inventions, the chorus of the populace, the approaching grave-diggers, the ‘crows’ and Bassompierre’s sword, and a magnificent melodrama springs from the adventure.”—Mémoires d’Outre Tombe, Vol. I.

[51] Louise Pot, second wife of Claude de l’Aubespine, Seigneur de Verderonne.

[52] Mlle. de la Patière, daughter of Georges l’Enfant, Seigneur de la Patière, and of Françoise du Plessis-Richelieu. The La Patières were friends and neighbours of Bassompierre.

[53] Jean Louis de Nogaret de la Valette, born 1554; created Duc d’Épernon, 1581; died 1642.

[54] The Duc de Montpensier died on February 27, 1608; the ballet appears to have been danced about the middle of January.

[55] Charlotte de Montmorency, daughter of the Connétable Henri de Montmorency, by his second wife, Louise de Budos. She was born in 1594 and was at this time only fourteen. By his first wife, Antoinette de la Marck, the Constable had two daughters: (1) Charlotte de Montmorency, married in 1591 to Charles de Valois, Comte d’Auvergne, died in 1636, at the age of sixty-three; (2) Marguerite de Montmorency, married in 1593 to Anne de Lévis, Duc de Ventadour, died December 3, 1660, aged eighty-three.

[56] Jean du Fay, Baron de Pérault, lieutenant of the King in the Bresse. He was married to Marie de Montmorency, a natural daughter of the Constable.

[57] See the author’s “The Fascinating Duc de Richelieu” (London, Methuen; New York, Scribner, 1910).

[58] The exception was Renée de Lorraine, Mlle. de Mayenne, daughter of Charles, Duc de Mayenne.

[59] Charles de Montmorency. He was at first known under the title of Seigneur de Méru, then as Baron de Damville, and, in 1610, was created Duc de Damville. He died in 1612, after having filled the offices of Colonel-General of the Swiss troops in the French service and Admiral of France.

[60] Henri II, Duc de Montmorency and de Damville, only son of the Constable by his second wife, Louise de Budos; born August 30, 1595; beheaded for high treason at Toulouse, October 3, 1635.

[61] Gabrielle Angélique, legitimated daughter of Henri IV and the Marquise de Verneuil, married December 12, 1622, to Bernard de Nogaret, Duc de la Valette; died December 24, 1627.

[62] Diane de France, Duchesse de Montmorency and d’Angoulême, legitimated daughter of Henri II by a Piedmontese girl called Filippa Duc, whom he had met during the campaign of 1537 in Italy. Born in 1538, she was brought up at the Court of France, and married in 1553 to Orazio Farnese, Duke of Castro, who was killed a few months later, whilst defending Hesdin against the troops of Charles V. In 1559 the young widow married François, Duc and Maréchal de Montmorency, elder brother of the Constable, who died in 1579. A beautiful, accomplished and highly intelligent woman, and a singularly loyal friend, Diane was greatly esteemed by the last Valois sovereigns and also by Henri IV. Her half-brother, Henri III, gave her the duchies of Angoulême and Châtellerault, the county of Ponthieu, and the government of the Limousin; and it was she who in 1588 brought about the reconciliation between that monarch and Henri of Navarre. She died in 1619, at the age of eighty, having seen no less than seven kings on the throne of France.

[63] As son of Éleonor de Montmorency, a sister of the Connétable Henri de Montmorency.

[64] Henri II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, son of Henri I, Prince de Condé, by his second wife, Catherine Charlotte de la Trémoille. He was officially styled Monsieur le Prince, and as such is always referred to in Bassompierre’s Mémoires.

[65] Catherine Charlotte de la Trémoille, Princesse de Condé, was a daughter of Jeanne de Montmorency, sister of the Constable, who was therefore Condé’s great-uncle.

[66] Anne de Lorraine, Duchesse d’Aumale, daughter and heiress of Charles de Lorraine-Guise, Duc d’Aumale, and of Marie de Lorraine-Elbeuf; married in 1618 to Henri de Savoie, Duc de Nemours; died in 1638.

[67] The favour which Henri IV was offering Bassompierre consisted, strictly speaking, not in the re-establishment of the duchy of Aumale, of which the title remained by right to Mlle. d’Aumale, but in uniting once more the peerage to the duchy, the old peerage having become extinct through the failure of male heirs.

[68] Although the King always alluded to the Prince de Condé as his nephew, he was really only a nephew à la mode de Bretagne, a first cousin once removed.

[69] Pierre de Beringhen, Seigneur d’Armainvilliers et de Grez, first valet de chambre to the King.

[70] Jeanne de Scepeaux, Comtesse de Chemillé, Duchesse de Beaupréau, only daughter and heiress of Guy de Scepeaux, Comte de Chemillé, Duc de Beaupréau. She had married early in that year Henri de Montmorency (Monsieur de Montmorency, as he was officially styled), only son of the Constable; but Henri IV, being desirous of marrying the heir of the Montmorencys to his daughter Mlle. de Vendôme, caused this union to be declared null and void a few months later. In May, 1610, Mlle. de Chemillé married Henri de Gondi, Duc de Retz.

[71] On March 25, 1609, John William, Duke of Clèves, Juliers and Berg, had died childless. The question of the succession to his dominions was of vital importance, as they connected the bishoprics of Münster, Paderborn, and Hildesheim, with the Spanish Netherlands, and, during the reign of the late duke, who was a Catholic, had interrupted the communications of the Protestants of Central Germany with the Dutch. Their transference to a Protestant prince would be a fatal blow to the North German Catholics and would threaten the security of the Spanish Netherlands. A number of claimants appeared, the most prominent of whom were two Protestant princes, the Elector of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of Neuberg, who claimed through the two elder sisters of John William. They came to an agreement to occupy part of the country and establish a provisional government; but the Emperor maintained that the duchies were male fiefs which could only descend in the direct male line, pronounced them sequestrated, and called upon the two princes to submit their claims to him as “feudal lord and sovereign judge.” On their refusal to do this, he placed them under the ban of the Empire, and ordered the Archduke Leopold to take possession of the territory as Imperial Commissioner (July, 1609). Henri IV protested vigorously against the Emperor’s action, declaring that he was determined not to permit any such addition to the power of the House of Austria, and that, if it came to war, he would prosecute it with all the resources of his kingdom.

[72] Alexandre d’Elbène, gentleman of the chamber-in-ordinary to the King, colonel of the Italian infantry in the service of France, and first maître d’hôtel to the Queen. It was he who, with the Captain of the Watch, had been the first to break the news of the flight of the Condés to Henri IV.

[73] Damian de Montluc, Sieur de Balagny. He was governor of Marle.

[74] Brulart de Sillery.

[75] Henri IV had meanly stopped the payment of Condé’s pensions.

[76] For a full account of this episode, see the author’s “The Love Affairs of the Condés.” (London; Methuen. New York: Scribners. 1912.)

[77] The Queen’s entry was to have taken place on May 16.

[78] Bassompierre carried at the Sacre the train of the Princesse de Conti, who herself carried that of the Queen.

[79] But, according to a contemporary account of the ceremony, Henri IV was in an unusually sombre mood, and, on entering the church and beholding the vast silent assemblage, observed: “It reminds me of the great and last judgment. God give us grace to prepare well for that day!” (Cérémonial français, Tome I., p. 570.)

[80] Pierre Fougeu, Seigneur d’Escures, Quartermaster-General of the camps and armies of the King.

[81] Bernard Potier, Seigneur de Blérencourt. He was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Light Horse of which Bassompierre was Colonel.

[82] Méry de Vic, Seigneur d’Ermenonville. He was appointed Keeper of the Seals in 1621.

[83] This was no idle threat, for Madame de Bassompierre’s will contains a clause providing that, in the event of her son espousing the demoiselle Marie Charlotte de Balsac, “she disinherited him and deprived him of all her property, having expressly forbidden him to contract a marriage with her.”

[84] “Five giants took part in the procession, of the race of those whom Hercules slew in the war which they waged against the gods, in the valley of Phlegra, in Thessaly.”—Laugier de Porchères, le Camp de la Place-Royale (Paris, 1612).

[85] “The five challengers styled themselves the Knights of Glory. M. de Bassompierre made his entry among them under the name of Lysander. He had for his device a lighted fuse, with these words: Da l’ardore l’ardire (De l’ardour la hardiesse), in allusion to a love avowed.”—le Camp de la Place-Royale.

[86] The Prince de Conti’s troupe called themselves the Knights of the Sun; the Duc de Vendôme’s the Knights of the Lily.

[87] François de Noailles, Comte d’Ayen (1584-1645). He was governor of Rouergue, Auvergne and Roussillon.

[88] Jacques du Blé, Baron, afterwards Marquis d’Huxelles. Bassompierre, conforming without doubt to the pronunciation, writes the name sometimes d’Ucelles and at others Du Sel.

[89] Henri II, Duc de Longueville, Comte de Dunois (1595-1643). He married in 1642, as his second wife, Anne Geneviève de Bourbon-Condé, who was the celebrated Duchesse de Longueville, of the Fronde.

[90] Under the name of the Knight of the Phœnix.

[91] The Nymphs were: the Comte de Schomberg, hamadryad; Colonel d’Ornano, wood-nymph; Créquy, dryad; Saint-Luc, naiad; and the Marquis de Rosny, oread.

[92] Antoine Coeffier, called Ruzé, Marquis d’Effiat, who was created a maréchal de France in 1631. He was the father of the ill-fated Cinq-Mars.

[93] This entry is called, in le Camp du Place-Royale, that of the illustrious Romans. According to this relation, there were but seven of them: Trajan, Vespasian, Paulus Æmilius, Marcellus, Scipio, Coriolanus and Marius. There also entered on this day a troupe of Knights of the Air, which, however, was incomplete, owing to one of the “Knights,” the Seigneur de Balagny, having been wounded in a duel.

[94] The young Duc de Mayenne, son of the old chief of the League, who had died in October, 1611.

[95] Saint-Paul, a soldier of fortune, was one of the four marshals created by the Duc de Mayenne in 1593. He was lieutenant of Charles, Duc de Guise in his government of Champagne, and rendered himself intensely unpopular with the inhabitants of Rheims by various acts of oppression. Guise killed him with his own hand, in the Place de la Cathédrale there, on April 25, 1597. For a full account of this incident and also of the affair of the Chevalier de Guise and the Baron de Luz, see the author’s “The Brood of False Lorraine” (Hutchinson, 1919).

[96] The Duc de Guise was Governor of Provence.

[97] After the death of his elder brother, the Cardinal de Bourbon, the Prince de Conti had been placed in possession of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which had been one of the cardinal’s benefices. The Queen was offering to the Princess de Conti, in the event of her widowhood, the reversion of these revenues.

[98] Histoire de France jusqu’en 1789.

[99] They did not fail of their reward, Bassompierre tells us, for one of them, Masurier, was presently appointed First President of the Parlement of Toulouse, while the other, Mangot, became First President of that of Bordeaux, and was afterwards made Keeper of the Seals.

[100] “This dignity, formerly so respected, had been conferred lavishly since the Wars of the League, but it had not been degraded to this point. Concini having never borne arms, they were obliged to renounce in his case the ancient custom of the new marshal of France presenting himself to the Parlement, accompanied by an advocate, who expounded his claims and his valiant deeds. There is a limit to everything, even to the impudence of flatterers.”—Henri Martin.

[101] Malherbe’s letters contain some interesting observations concerning the Queen and Bassompierre: “20 October [1613]. I am told that 51 [the Queen] has not spoken to him [Bassompierre] for a week. It is believed that 65 [Concini] has done him a bad turn. The affair is patched up to some extent, to which 59 [Guise] has contributed much. I have seen him [Bassompierre] to-day in the cabinet, but much less impudent than he usually is, and 51 [the Queen] never spoke to him at all. It will pass.

“27 October. The disfavour of 66 [Bassompierre] continues visibly; the cause is the alliance of 55 [Concini] and 69 [Villeroy], who have both told 51 [the Queen] that, when they were on bad terms, 66 [Bassompierre] betrayed them both, and, besides, had given her to understand that he boasts of her favour.

“24 November 66 [Bassompierre] is in less disfavour; but I fear that he will never be again as he has been.

“27 November. I have seen 66 [Bassompierre], so that I believe the disagreement is patched up, or will be patched up.”

[102] The Duc de Rohan was not a prince, but he was descended on his mother’s side from two sovereign houses, those of Navarre and Scotland.

[103] Gaspard Gallaty had fought as a captain at Moncontour and as a colonel at Arques and Ivry. He was ennobled in 1587.

[104] The Duc de Guise and his brother the Prince de Joinville.

[105] Gabriel de la Vallée-Fossez, Marquis d’Everly. He was governor of Montpellier.

[106] The Commandeur de Sillery, chevalier d’honneur to Marie de’ Medici, had been disgraced shortly before his brother, the Chancellor, was dismissed.

[107] Créquy was Colonel of the French Guards.

[108] He was Captain-Lieutenant of the Gensdarmes of the King’s Guard.

[109] La Curée was Captain-Lieutenant of the company of Light Cavalry of the Guard instituted by Henri IV in 1593.

[110] In response to the summons he had received from the Queen-Mother, Condé was making his way along a narrow passage which led from her Majesty’s chamber to her cabinet, when he was suddenly confronted by Thémines, at the head of several of the King’s Guards “Monseigneur,” said the old noble to the astonished prince, “the King having been informed that you are giving ear to sundry counsels contrary to his service, and that people intend to make you engage in designs ruinous to the State, has charged me to secure your person, to prevent you falling into this misfortune.” “What?” cried Condé, “do you purpose to arrest me? Are you then captain of the Guards?” And he laid his hand upon his sword. “No, Monseigneur,” rejoined Thémines, “but I am a gentleman and obliged to obey the command of the King, your master and mine.” His followers forthwith surrounded the prince and led him into an adjoining room, where he found d’Elbène and a party of soldiers, each of whom held a pistol in his hand. Never remarkable for his courage, though in his youth he had once been provoked into challenging the Duc de Nevers to a duel, Condé believed that his last hour had come. “Alas,” cried he, “I am a dead man. Send for a priest. Give me time at least to think of my conscience!” His captors, however, assured him that his life was in no danger, and conducted him to an upper apartment of the palace, where it had been arranged that he should be confined, until it had been decided what should be done with him.

[111] In the Rue de Chaume, at the corner of the Rue de Paradis.

[112] Charles Alexandre, Duc de Cröy, Marquis d’Havré. He was related to Bassompierre through his mother, Diane de Dommartin.

[113] Enrico Concini, who was at this time a boy of thirteen. Arrested after the tragic end of his father, he remained five years in prison, and then returned to Florence, where he lived until 1631, under the name of the Count della Penna.

[114] This refers to the manifesto issued by Condé in July, 1615, in which he had stigmatised Concini, the Chancellor Sillery, his brother the Commandeur de Sillery, and the Counsellors of State, Bullion and Dolet, as the authors of the evils which afflicted the realm.

[115] The word is, of course, here used in the sense of a man who owed his fortune to him, and not in its vituperative sense.

[116] Fedeau appears to have been a banker or usurer of the time, the terms being often synonymous.

[117] Lavisse, Histoire de France.

[118] Probably Gilles de Souvré, Marquis de Courtenvaux, who was also Baron de Lézines.

[119] Charles de Lameth, Seigneur de Bussy. He was killed at the siege of La Capelle in 1637.

[120] Richelieu assures us that Luynes showed Louis XIII forged letters purporting to have been written by Barbin, “full of designs against the person of the King,” and, considering the position occupied by Déageant, this appears very probable.

[121] Vitry had been created a marshal of France the day after the assassination of Concini. “Thémines had recently been given the bâton of marshal for having adopted the trade of a bailiff; Vitry had it as his reward for plying that of a bravo. Who would have thought that this high dignity, after having been abased to Concini, would have descended yet lower still?”—Henri Martin.

[122] François de l’Hôpital, Seigneur du Hallier. He was created a marshal of France in 1643, under the name of the Maréchal de l’Hôpital.

[123] Luynes had two younger brothers: (1) Honor d’Albert, Seigneur de Cadanet, afterwards Duc de Chaulnes and Marshal of France; (2) Léon d’Albert, Seigneur de Brantes, afterwards Duc de Piney-Luxembourg.

[124] Journal historique et anecdotique de la Cour et de Paris. MSS. of Conrart, cited by Victor Cousin, la Jeunesse de Madame de Longueville. The chronicler speaks frequently of the prince’s ill-treatment of his wife, for which he appears to think there was no justification.

[125] Bournonville was brought to trial and condemned to death, while Persan was sentenced to be banished from France; but both were subsequently pardoned.

[126] Journal historique et anecdotique de la Cour et de Paris.

[127] It would appear, from an anecdote related by Bassompierre, in March, 1618, that Luynes had not hesitated to falsify history in his efforts to inspire the King with fear of his mother:

“At that time, the King, who was very young, amused himself with many little occupations of his age, making little fountains in imitation of those of Saint-Germain, with pipes of quill, and little inventions for hunting, and playing on the drum, in which he succeeded very well. One day I told him that he was clever at everything which he undertook, and that, although he had never been taught, he played the drum better than the master of that instrument. ‘I must begin to blow the hunting-horn again,’ said he, ‘which I do very well, and will blow it for a whole day.’ ‘Sire,’ said I, ‘I do not advise your Majesty to blow it too often, for it causes ruptures, and is very injurious for the lungs; and I have heard that, through blowing the horn, the late King Charles broke a blood-vessel in his lungs, and that caused his death.’ ‘You are mistaken,’ he rejoined; ‘it was not blowing the horn that killed him; it was because he quarrelled with the Queen Catherine, his mother at Monceaux, and left her and went to Meaux. But, if he had not been persuaded by the Maréchal de Retz to return to the Queen-Mother at Monceaux, he would not have died so soon.’ As I answered nothing to this, Montpouillan, who was present, said to me: ‘You did not think, Monsieur, that the King knew so much about these matters, but he does, and about many others besides.’ This convinced me that he had been inspired with great apprehension of the Queen, his mother, whom I took care never to mention to him in future, not even in common discourse.”

[128] Asked what spell she had employed to make herself mistress of the Queen-Mother’s mind, the prisoner is said to have replied: “Only those which a clever woman employs towards a dunce.”

[129] The Duc de Mayenne quitted the Court, which was then at Saint-Germain, on March 29, 1620, and went to Guienne, of which he was lieutenant-general.

[130] Louis de Bourbon, son of Charles de Bourbon, Comte de Soissons and Anne de Montafié. Born May 4, 1604; killed at the battle of la Marfée, on July 6, 1641. He was called Monsieur le Comte, as his father had been.

[131] There were two kinds of regiments in the French Army at this period: permanent regiments, which usually bore territorial designations, Champagne, Picardy, and so forth, and temporary regiments, which might be disbanded in time of peace, and which bore the names of their commanding officers.

[132] Luynes and his two brothers.

[133] Nerestang died some ten days later, a victim, if we are to believe Bassompierre, to the professional jealousy of the surgeons:—

“The King went to visit M. de Nerestang, who, seeing how severely he had been wounded, was not doing badly, and would have been cured if they had left him in the hands of the surgeon Lion. But the other executioners of surgeons importuned the King so much, when he was at Brissac, that seven days after he was wounded, when he was going on well, they took him out of Lion’s hands to place him in those of the King’s surgeons; and he only lived two days longer.”

[134] Créquy was colonel of the French Guards, and in this action was in command of a brigade.

[135] The property of the Catholic Church in Béarn and Lower Navarre had been confiscated by Jeanne d’Albret in 1569, and applied to the maintenance of pastors of the Reformed faith and works of public utility.

[136] Jacques Nomper de Caumont (1558-1652). He greatly distinguished himself in the Thirty Years’ War, and was made a marshal of France and subsequently duke and peer.

[137] This son, who received the names of Louis Charles and to whom Louis XIII stood godfather, became the second Duc de Luynes, and enjoyed some celebrity in the latter part of the seventeenth century through his connection with Port-Royal. He translated into French the Méditations of Descartes, wrote under a nom de guerre several books of devotion, and was the father of the pious Duc de Chevreuse, the friend of Fénelon.

[138] Don Diego Zapata.

[139] Doña Maria Sidonia, second wife of the count.

[140] Don Pedro Acunha y Tellez-Giron, third Duke of Ossuña (1579-1624). He had been Viceroy of Naples, and one of the three chiefs of the conspiracy against Venice which was to have delivered the city into the power of Spain on Ascension Day, 1618. Suspected of having aspired to make himself King of Naples, he was recalled in 1620. He died in prison in 1624.

[141] The late King, Henri IV.

[142] Enrico de Avila y Guzman.

[143] Antonio de Toledo, fifth duke of Alba, grandson of the celebrated Duke of Alba.

[144] Rodriguez de Mendoza, second son of Diego de Mendoza, Count of Saldagna. He became sixth Duke del Infantado by his marriage with Anna de Mendoza, Duchess del Infantado, daughter of his elder brother.

[145] The office of mayor-domo mayor was equivalent to that of Grand Master of the King’s Household in France.

[146] A convent of the barefooted Carmelites in the centre of the town.

[147] He was a Dominican monk and filled the office of Grand Inquisitor.

[148] Philip III’s eldest son, afterwards Philip IV. Born on April 8, 1605, he had not yet completed his sixteenth year.

[149] The King’s second son; born September 14, 1607; died in 1632.

[150] Fernando, Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, third son of Philip III; born May 17, 1609; died in 1641.

[151] The new Queen, Élisabeth of France.

[152] A convent of Hieronymite monks, situated a little way from Madrid.

[153] Gaspard de Guzman, third count, and afterwards Duke, of Olivarez. Favourite of the new king, he shared power with his uncle, Don Balthazar de Zuniga, until the latter’s death in 1623, from which time up to 1643 he was Prime Minister. He died in 1645.

[154] Charles de Clermont d’Amboise, Marquis de Bussy. He was killed in a duel in the Place-Royale in Paris, in April, 1627.

[155] The loba was a long sleeveless robe; the caperuza a hood; and the caperote a short cloak fitted with a hood.

[156] The Crowns of Spain and Naples, etc.

[157] Don Carlos.

[158] To demand lugar of a lady was to request permission to pay one’s respects to her at a time and place to be named by her.

[159] Diego de Sandoval y Rojas.

[160] Aloysia de Mendoza. She was Countess of Saldagna in her own right, and her husband assumed the title of Count of Saldagna.

[161] Saldagna had been a widower since 1619.

[162] Catherine de Zuniga y Sandoval, widow of Fernando de Portugal y Castro, sixth Count of Lemos.

[163] See p. 287, supra.

[164] The celebrated Duke of Alba.

[165] The fourth Duke of Alba.

[166] “I have paid the compliment of condolence with which the King charged me, so well, that, save that I did not weep, my countenance presented every indication of grief and sadness. Now it lays aside this false mask, since nothing can further retard my return to France, whither I am going with infinite joy, and infinite desire to serve my master well in war, or my mistress, if we have peace.”—Bassompierre to Puisieux, May 10, 1621.

[167] Titled persons; that is to say, noblemen who were not grandees of Spain.

[168] Municipal officials.

[169] The principal magistrate of the town.

[170] In July, 1639, during his captivity in the Bastille, Bassompierre was obliged to part temporarily with Philip IV’s gift, which is described as “the diamond of the King of Spain,” as security for a loan of 6,300 livres. He redeemed it in May, 1641, but as, after his death, it does not figure in the inventory of his jewels, he would appear to have pledged it again, or perhaps have sold it.

[171] Louis de Marillac, Comte de Beaumont-le-Roger. He was created a marshal of France in 1629, and was executed for high treason on May 10, 1632.

[172] This faubourg had been called Ville-Bourbon, since Henri IV had surrounded it with fortifications.

[173] This was the old fourteenth-century bridge already mentioned.

[174] Bassompierre received next day a letter from the King, complimenting him on the courage and resource he had shown.

[175] The Duc de Luxembourg, the Constable’s youngest brother.

[176] The Queen had established herself at Moissac, on the right bank of the Tarn, where she remained during the greater part of the siege.

[177] Louis XIII., in a letter to Noailles, bears testimony to Bassompierre’s services in this affair: “In this defeat and action we may recognise, as I have told you, the Providence of God, Who has so fortified the courage of my men that they have performed wonders, and notably the Sr. de Bassompierre, the colonel, and the Swiss and the Regiment of Normandy, who have boldly sustained the charge.”