when it suits their purpose, are the interpreters of languages, who act, as M. Villemain, the present Minister of Public Instruction, says of Voltaire's studied vituperation of Shakspere, that the more effectually to traduce, he translated, the English poet. Just so, in order to enhance the odium of the deed, M. Walkenaer perverted the meaning of the English words, though there can be no doubt of the satisfaction of the French Bishop and our Earl at the condemnation, which declared the enthusiastic maid-" relapse, excommuniée, et rejettée du sein de l'Eglise ; but the sense ascribed to the prelate's expressions is not more correct than if we were similarly to resolve their equivalent-Adieu into its original elements, and render it -To God. It is, however, more likely that the language used on this occasion was French; and the words that passed, as I find elsewhere, were"C'en est fait; nous la tenons." The fatal sentence, be it observed, * Amongst the monuments that decorate the newly-instituted Museum of Versailles, that which cannot fail to arrest and detain the visitor's eye in delighted contemplation, is the statue of Jeanne d'Arc, or Pucelle, by the late Princess Mary of Orleans, wife of Prince Alexander of Wirtemberg. Nothing can be more chaste in design, more natural in expression, or more faultless, altogether, in simple felicity of execution. Nor is the recognition of genius the sole impression which it is destined to produce, for, in viewing it, we yield to the pleasing, the almost necessary conviction, equally imparted, we are told, by the Madonnas of Raffaelle, that this perfection of taste has its source as much in the heart as the mind; and most just would be the conclusion, for the lamented princess was as good and amiable as she was accomplished. Unquestionably the early talent, here so eminently displayed, would have been an unerring prelude to the first order of excellence, had the pursuit of the art been compatible with her exalted station, and had it pleased heaven to prolong her days. Like her royal father, no pressure of circumstances could have deprived so gifted a lady of ample and honourable bread. Ο Ζέυ! Ολα τεχνίτης παραπόλλυται -may an enthusiast of the arts here exclaim, as of old, though applicable to a far different personage. received the sanction of the University of Paris. (Lingard, Henry VI. chap. ii.) "Guy (11) Comte de Laval" (same year,) was the seventh in descent from Mathieu de Montmorency, by his second wife, Emma de Laval, and forefather of the present Duke of Montmorency-Laval. (See Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1840, p. 249.) This Guy died in 1484. "Bertrand de Beauveau was brother of Louis, chief favourite of Réné d'Anjou, titular sovereign of Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem, and father of our Margaret, wife of Henry VI. The house of Beauveau latterly assumed the title of Prince de Craon. (Gent. Mag. for November, 1838, note.) " "Guillaume Cousinot was one of Louis XI's council of state, as may be seen in 'Les Mémoires de Comines," particularly in that monarch's hostile declaration in 1470, against Charles the Bold of Burgundy, (tome iv. ed. 1727, p. 313,) and elsewhere. It would be little interesting, I apprehend, to the English reader, and cannot be necessary, to pursue in detail many of the succeeding persons, generally attendants, and not principals, even within the abridged limits which I have assigned to the foregoing, and which I offer as a specimen, though a very imperfect one, of what the subject is susceptible, were it desirable to enter more minutely in illustration of it. I therefore, pass on to 1490. "Tristan de Salazar, Archbishop of Sens," and his associates; of whom I shall cursorily notice, Philippe de Crévecœur, Seigneur des (not de) Cordes, of whom it is related that when, after the capture of various places for Louis XI. this searching prince demanded a rigorous account of the sums expended in the achievement, de Crêvecueur indignantly replied-"Give me back my cities, and you shall have your money."-" Par la pasque-Dieu!" replied Louis, "il vaut mieux laisser le moustier où il est."-Crêvecueur died in 1494. It is thus (Crêvecueur) his name is written in Comines. The unnamed "First President of the Parliament," who follows, was Jean de la Vacquerie, previously the subject of Mary of Burgundy, for whom he had determinatedly defended his native Arras against Louis; but, on the surrender of the town in 1477, he attached his fortunes to the French King, by whom he was much esteemed, and in 1483 advanced to the high station of First President of the Parliament of Paris. "François Seigneur de Luxembourg, Vicomte (not Viconte) de Martiga," or rather Martigues, the grandson of Pierre Comte de Saint Pol, who died in 1435, by his second son Thibault, whose brother, the eldest son and successor of Pierre, was Louis de Luxembourg, the famous Constable de Saint Pol, executed for treason in 1475, and whose grand-daughter, Marie de Luxembourg, carried the unforfeited estates of the Constable into the house of Vendôme, on her marriage with François de Bourbon, ancestor of Henry IV. of France. (See Comines, iv. 504.) He "Robert Gaguin" was general of the monastic order of the Mathurins, and employed by Charles VII. and Louis XI. in various missions. wrote a history of France in Latin, (Lugd. 1525, folio,) with other works. 1514. "Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville." He was grandson of Dunois, the bastard of Orleans, son of Louis Duke of Orleans, the brother of Charles VI. It was therefore with his great-grandfather that, according to Mr. Holmes, he was confounded in the Cottonian Catalogue. The family became finally extinct in 1694, on the demise of its last male representative, an ecclesiastic; but it was virtually so on the premature death of Louis de Longueville, in June 1672, so deplored by Madame de Sévigné, (see Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1840, p. 269,) and whose mother, the sister of the Grand Condé, was certainly one of the most remarkable characters of her period. 1518. "Guillaume Gouffier, Seig. neur de Bonnivet." See Robertson's Charles V. and Brantome's Hommes Illustres, (tome ix. des Œuvres.) The present Duke of Choiseuil is of the same family. " Etienne Poucher, Bishop of Paris, afterwards Archbishop of Sens." Until 1622, under Louis XIII. the see of Paris was suffragan of that of Sens: it was then raised to the metropolitan rank, and its possessors made Dukes and Peers of France, of whom the ecclesiastical number continued, until the Revolution, to be seven. "François de Rochechouard" was ancestor of Madame de Montespan,—of the Mortemars, generally so celebrated for their wit-and of the Dukes of Vivonne, &c. "Nicolas de Neuville" was the founder of the Villeroys, previously almost unknown. Omitting several intervenient and uninteresting, or sufficiently known names, I must observe, that in 1537 " Gaspard de Châtillon, Comte de Coligny, afterwards Admiral of France," born in 1517, was only twenty years old; rather premature for encountering our bluff Henry VIII. The authority for his mission must, therefore, be strong to make it credible. He was the most conspicuous victim, I need scarcely say, of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 1553-1559." François and Gilles de Noailles," &c. Relative to these brothers, see the Gentleman's Magazine for Nov. last, page 470, where it is necessary to correct a mistake similar to that which I have here to note of Mr. Holmes, who says "that their negotiations were printed by the Abbé de Vertot in 1763;" for this Ábbé had ceased to live in 1735. He had only prepared the papers for the press, to which they were not committed, or rather they were not published until 1763, in five volumes 12mo, and not quarto, (I believe,) as stated by Mr. Holmes. 1560. "Jean de Montluc," &c.For a short advertence to the variegated fortunes of this singular personage, see Gent. Mag. for August 1837, page 151. 1562. "The Vidame de Chartres." Vice-Dominus. Originally the title of the temporal representatives of the bishops in the execution and adminis tration of justice, and commander their forces, (see Ducange, Gloss vocem,) but latterly, on the being stripped of their tempe the dignity, denuded of it cific functions, may be assimilated to that of the Scotch lairds, inferior to lords, as the Vidames were to the Counts, or even Viscounts. Our Irish Knights of Kerry, and of Glin, &c. may offer a similar ground of parallel, as well as the nominal Barons of Galtrim, Loughmoe, and other titular lords, not of royal creation, p. 238. (See Smith's Kerry.) 1566. "Nicolas d'Angennes," greatgrandfather of Julie, wife of the Duc de Montausier, who derived from this marriage the Hôtel de Rambouillet, in the rue St. Thomas du Louvre, that celebrated nursery and hot-bed of affectation and literary conceit, shortly before introduced by the followers of the Queens Catharine and Mary of Medicis. Of these, one of the most influential in propagating these false canons of taste, fully exemplified in his own writings, was "Il Cavaliere Marino (or Marini), author of L'Adone (Elzev. 1678), and other works, in which he thus defines the object and merits of poetry: "E del poeta il fin la mariviglia; Parlo dell' eccellente e non del golfo, Chi non fa stupir vada à la striglia." But, fortunately for the fame of their country, Molière and Boileau interposed the arms of ridicule and satire, battered in breach this citadel of vitiating taste, and succeeded in substituting the natural for the extravagant. -"La Guirlande de Julie," or Wreath of Sonnets, by all the wits of the day, in honour of this lady, now preserved in the Royal Library of Paris, is esteemed the most perfect piece of penmanship in existence. It was executed by N. Jarry, and in 1769, at the Gaignat sale, (Catalogue, No. 1867,) only produced 780 livres, while a few years after, in 1783, it sold at the Duc de la Vallières' auction (Cat. No. 3241) for the large sum of 14,510 livres. It is described in De Bure's Bibliographie Instructive, No. 3153. Nicolas d'Angennes was again ambassador to Elizabeth in 1578.-De Thou (lib. 106) bestows marked praise on him; but the widow of the Duke of Guise accused him of having been accessary to her husband's (Le Balafré's) murder. 1568. Mr. Holmes here remarks that, at this time, the different partics in France had their several agents at the Court of Elizabeth, as indeed the succeeding list shows; for the Huguenots, acting as an independant Statea truly imperium in imperio-were as regularly represented as the French monarch; nor were the discontented of Scotland, or the persecuted of Belgium, less countenanced; while the Queen's own subjects, who, on any occasion, appealed to a foreign potentate, were mercilessly banded and executed as traitors. 1568-1575. Bertrand de Salignac," &c. He was great-grand-uncle to the "" Vie author of Telemachus.* (See *The respect paid to this accomplished prelate in 1709, by Marlborough and Eugéne, in forbidding all injury to his diocese during that victorious campaign and disastrous season, reflects equal ho nour on them and him. It is recorded in sarum alumni: vivunt tamen, æternum- This Cardinal's Biography of the two great ornaments of the Gallican Church, may be presented as models of composition in that line. From his Life of Bos suet, (tome i. 435,) I borrow the ensu ing most useful admonition, one which it is desirable all writers should attend tode Louis XIV. (Voltaire,) d'avoir privé "On peut reprocher à l'auteur du Siécle l'histoire de ses appuis, et de lui avoir ôté tout droit à la confiance publique, en se dispensant toujours de citer ses garanties, et ses autorités. Exemple funeste," de Fénélon," by Cardinal de Bausset, of Henry IV. He died of poison, for tome i. Appendix.) 1571. "François de Montmorency." The son and successor of the Constable Anne, and, together with his father, a Knight of the Garter, among the very few foreign noblemen who have enjoyed that honorary title; but the combat of his affections and ambition, or obedience to his father, who compelled him to repudiate the wife of his choice and love," Jeanne de Halluin, demoiselle de Pienne," in order to espouse the daughter of Henri II. and Dianne de Poitiers, widow of Ercule Farnese, has shed around his name an interest beyond his public history. (See Bayle, art. De Pienne.) He died without issue in 1579. which his widow, Charlotte de la 1573. "Albert de Gondi, Maréchal de Retz," to which Mr. Holmes parenthetically, as a distinction, subjoins "brother of the Cardinal de Retz." So few general readers are at all aware that there existed two Cardinals of this name, that to almost every one it will appear an anachronism, and no other will occur than the renowned author of the Memoirs, the hero of the Fronde and Barricades, altogether a protagonist character in some of the most agitating scenes of his country's history; while the Cardinal alluded to by Mr. Holmes, Pierre de Gondi, who died in 1616, is comparatively of little historical notoriety. The more celebrated Cardinal, Jean François de Gondi, born in 1614, was the other's great-nephew, and grandson of Albert, who followed his patroness and countrywoman, Catharine of Medicis, to France, and who, in conjunction with the sanguinary Tavannes, (Brantôme, vol. xii.) was reputed the principal adviser of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The elder Cardinal, as Mr. Holmes, to prevent misconception, should have called him, is generally named de Gondi, and not de Retz, by De Thou, and L'Etoile; a designation which would also have sufficiently discriminated them here. 1581. "The Prince of Condé." Henri de Bourbon, the cousin german "Barnabé Brisson" is a person of historical fame-at first the idol, and afterwards the victim, of popular passion. He was hanged by order of the Sixteen Chiefs of the Holy League, four of whom were subsequently condemned, for this act, to the same death. Brisson's execution is minutely related by De Thou (15 May, 1591). His writings are numerous. &c. None, except an eye-witness of a fact, has, in truth, a right to demand confidence for any statement, unless supported by an authentic reference. 1586." Philippe de Mornai, Seigneur de Duplessis Mornai." But this last name I find constantly written Marly, which, I presume, is the proper one. This eminent man "Non moins prudent ami, que philosophe austère, Mornai sut l'art discret de reprendre et de plaire." Henriade, ix. 262. the friend and counsellor of Henry IV. the sage of Voltaire's Epic, the by many) reputed author of the Vindicia contra Tyrannos, (Gent. Mag. for March 1840,) and above all, the ardent enemy of Catholic Rome—“ Fier ennemi de Rome, et de Rome estimé," (Henriade, i. 156,) can demand no elucidation from me that will not be derived from books of general use and easy access; but I may observe that, as the head of the Huguenots, whose Pope he was called, he has been succeeded by a regular series of chosen chiefs in that body, until the last, Rabaud de St. Etienne, fell a sacrifice, in December 1793, to the revolutionary cause, which he had fervently embraced. De Mornai was maternal grandfather of the Marquis de Dangeau, whose Memoirs have been published, and to whom Boileau addressed his fifth satire, "Sur la Noblesse," though St. Simon (tome xviii. p. 260,) describes that of Dangeau as of no remote date ("fort courte "). 1590. "Henri de la Tour d' Auvergne," &c. This nobleman's second son was the great Turenne, by his second wife, the daughter of William the first, Prince of Orange. Her predecessor, Charlotte de la Marck, brought him the titles, with a large proport of the estates of that princely house, though he had no issue by her. His successors, consequently, had no claim of descent from the family; but Baluze fabricated, it was asserted, or, at least, admitted into their genealogy, (2 vol. folio, 1708,) other princely claims, much, as St. Simon alleges (tome v. 242), to his discredit. Bouillon was again in 1596, I find, despatched by Henry IV. to Elizabeth, with whom, on the twenty-sixth of May, he concluded an alliance, defensive and offensive, which has been overlooked by Mr. Holmes. Subsequently, in 1612, he appeared for the third time at the English Court, on a special mission, to announce to our James the marriage of Louis XIII. wilh Anne of Austria; a very youthful union, for the King was only eleven, and his consort not more than ten years old. This last embassy will no doubt appear in Mr. Holmes's promised continuation; but that of 1596 is an omission. In 1602, Bouillon was involved in Biron's conspiracy,-of which hereafter. 1592. "Nicolas Harlay de Sancy," a prominent character in his day, but now principally known by D'Aubigné's (Madame de Maintenon's grandfather) rough satire-"La Confession Catholique de Sancy,"-usually forming part of the Journal de Henri III. with Duchat's notes. His conversion to the Catholic faith from Calvinism, roused D'Aubigné's wrath; but Sancy's religion was very variable. Nor, in that æra, did the ardour of religious feeling, that is, an exclusive assertion of truth and intolerance of dissent, by every party, preclude, on either side, the loosest indulgence of thought, or impurity of expression, as not only this coarse invective of D'Aubigné, or the poems of Marot, Beza, and others, but the Heptameron, or Nouvelles, &c. of a royal female and reformer, Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre and mother of Jeanne d'Albret, to whom, indeed, the second and complete edition (1559, 4to.) is dedicated, will redundantly prove. These tales are scarcely less free in language than those of Boccaccio; though this Queen, the refuge of the reformers against the persecution of her brother, Francis I. had so anxiously impressed her principles on her daughter, the mother of Henry IV. that, when urged by Catha rine of Medicis to abandon the new religion, she enthusiastically replied, "Madame, si j'avais mon royaume (Navarre) et mon fils à la main, je les jeterois tous les deux au fond de la mer plutôt que d'aller à la messe :" pretty much as we learn from Dr. M'Crie, (Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 24,) that, to the great Scotch reformer, one mass was more fearful than ten thousand armed enemies." This zeal, however, of Jeanne d'Albret, if we are to credit Brantome, who knew her well, had not always been so fervent ; for, speaking of her immediately after her marriage with Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, then far more impassioned in the cause of reform, which he subsequently relinquished, the old quaint biographer says, "La reine de Navarre, qui etoit jeune, belle, et très honnête princesse, et qui aimoit bien autant une danse qu'un sermon, ne se plaisoit point à cette nouveauté de religion, "&c. (Dames Galantes-Euvres, tome. iv.) A little anecdote, connected with this embassy of Sancy, will not be here displaced. In a private audience granted by Elizabeth, he took the liberty of uncovering, and, on his knees, kissing her withered arm (she was then nearly sixty): at which act of boldness she expressed displeasure, genuine or feigned, which, however, soon yielded to his prompt apology,-"Madam, I have only done what the King, my master, whom I represent, would not fail to do, were he happy enough to be in your Majesty's presence." 1593. "Le Commandeur de Karanton," probably Charenton, near Paris, at that time the principal locality of the Huguenots, where they had a college, &c. now a lunatic asylum. 1593 "M. de Mouy." This was Isaac Vaudré-See Mémoires de Sully, tome i. p. 200, ed. 1763; and, for his father and brother, Claude and Arthur, see De Thou, lib. 46; also Confession de Sancy, p. 490. 1595. "Antoine de Lomenic," the creator of the family of Lomenie de Brienne, one of the last of whom was the Cardinal Archbishop of Sens, Prime Minister in 1788, who died, whether of apoplexy or by suicide is uncertain, in 1794. 1am in possession of a curious little volume of a northern journey by one of his ancestors, grand |