fail him. The duke accepted her advice, asked to see his majesty, excused himself, promised to be henceforth a true brother and servitor, and to do nothing which could trouble the kingdom. The king and queen mother embraced him tenderly; Bussy and Monsieur de Caylus were

reconciled."

But Monsieur in reality placed small confidence in the king, and made his escape a few days after; his thoughts turned to Flanders, which he determined to deliver from 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:

Monsieur crossed the sea, arrived in London, and lodged the first day with the ambassador of France, and afterwards in the royal palace, at the queen's expense, who saw him the second day, two miles without the town. It is said that, relating to the marriage, there were rather vague words spoken than any likely to lead to a conclusion, though presents were exchanged. It is said also that every morning the queen carried him a cup of broth with her own hand, and that the duke showed himself to her in a doublet of flesh-coloured silk to prove he was not humpbacked as had been told her. But from all we heard they negotiated any affairs rather than those of the marriage; or to express myself with more propriety, the sage queen held out this bait to keep Monsieur in check, and strengthen him in his hatred to Spain. It was believed that the Queen of England, the Duke of Alençon, the King of Navarre, the Prince Casimir, and the Prince of Orange, were all agreed to carry the war into Spain. But this report was unfounded, though the king himself communicated it to the foreign ambassadors, excusing himself by declaring he had not been in the secret of the enterprise, and was sorry for it: whence we may see the precipitancy or rather the levity of the French, who at times give wind to projects ere they execute, then at others execute without previous reflection."

During the duke's absence, the king fell ill of a dangerous malady, and the French court feared lest Queen Elizabeth, in the event of his death, should keep Monsieur as hostage till the delivering to England of Boulogne and Calais, which she claimed

Death of Bussy d'Amboise.

131

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 licence was unbounded.

*

"About this time Bussy d'Amboise was killed. He was the first gentleman and the favourite 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 misfortune; 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 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 dishonourable 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 honour, 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 her defence, one of these being pregnant also! Thus, among his murders, murdering two innocent creatures who had not seen the light; and yet he is unmolested, and pursues his career as if nothing had happened, or as if he had killed five animals hunting."

But for considerations of space, we might be justified in quoting

* See Brantome, with whom the writer seems to have some sympathies.

6

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 woollen 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. her husband.

"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 and that it makes the throat and neck appear grace, to more advantage. Of a masculine spirit like her mother, she is clever in negotiation, and during the time she staid 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 wellnigh 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 well believe his criticisms to be for the most part

just. The prodigality of the king to his unworthy favourites, 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.

เ

"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 buttoned, the other open, and the cloak pendant from one shoulder; and the change of costume usual among men, necessitating an extraordinary expense in woollen 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 colours, while other females wear black only. Widows have veils, and the clothing high to the throat, and over all a spenser. In mourning for parent or husband, they have also robes trimmed with hair or swan's down. Men wear mourning only on the day of burial. It is easy to recognise unmarried women in the street; they follow closely their mothers' footsteps, and the domestics male or female again come after. Frenchwomen have generally the waist slightly formed, and using as they do hoops and other artifices to increase the circumference below, their appearance becomes more elegant still. The cotillon is of great value. As to the gown which is worn 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 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. The French females are seemingly full of devotion, but in fact very free. Each chooses to be treated as worthy esteem, and there is none, whatever her conduct, who does not find something to say against that of her neighbours. They are very insolent, and the cause is their husbands' over confi

dence, 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 whether 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 splendour. We followed 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 preaching 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, my master, took leave of their majesties, to whom he was singularly dear, since surnamed by il deletto Ambasciatore. At his departure, the king created him knight of his own order; and besides this, gave him a very fine diamond set in gold, of the size of a nut, and a beautiful Turkish dog, which was his delight; but the little dog jumping back on the king, the king took him in his arms, kissed him, and offered him to the ambassador, saying, "Accept him for my sake.' The 26th of November, 1579, we quitted Paris to return to Italy."

all

We believe it not necessary to excuse the length of our article, or the number of our extracts. Since the taste for 'literary cu riosities' 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 dissertations 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.