terests, and to acquit ourselves of the oath by which we are bound. It is then for your Serenity to endeavour seriously to complete the treaty which is begun; and we pray you with that object speedily to send your deputies so that we do not uselessly lose the time which they have taken for so great a good, upon which depends the happiness and general felicity of the two crowns. We assure you for ourselves, that we desire nothing with more zeal, than that peace; to which we shall contribute so warmly, that we protest before God and all men, that we prefer on this occasion the public advantage, to that by which we are personally affected, and also that our heart is so opposed to the cruelties of war, and has so much horror of the effusion of christian blood, that it only depends upon you that we establish a good and perpetual peace between us and our successors, to the honor and praise of him who has chosen us for the government of two such great states, and to whom we shall have to render an account of their conduct, that we increase their prosperity by peace; and above all, God forbid that they should ever be disunited. Do not let us be the imitators of the shepherds of Lot and Abraham, between whom avarice excited discord. Render us a justice porportionate to the loss which we suffer, and do not allow either of us to be borne away by the passion of dominion, or by the evil counsels of minds enemies to peace. We shall have to answer before God for that which we retain by force of the property of another, and more particularly the prevention of this peace. The thoughts and means which he has given us, are marks of a grace which we ought not to abuse, and if we neglect to render ourselves worthy we shall become amenable to his justice for having resisted the inspira a ( "qu' on a pris." tions with which he has endued us, for the purpose of establishing the tranquillity of the people under our government. Given under our Signet, at our Palace of Westminster, the 7th of the month of April." 66 TO THE MOST SERENE PRINCE, CHARLES, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, OUR VERY DEAR COUSIN OF names, "Most Serene Prince, our very dear cousin, we have seen the letters from the very illustrious prince, your very dear uncle, the Duke of Berry, by which we have perceived, that you intend soon to dispatch to us a solemn embassy on your part for the benefit of peace, of which we pray God to give us a happy conclusion for his glory. We have also seen the copy of the safe conduct which you desired for the ambassadors, specified with their and the term for which you wish the prolongation of the pass-ports, and we are sufficiently content with the number of persons. As for the period, we have shortened it, not believing that so many days were required; but if on their arrival they bring us good news, if they proceed frankly, and if we find their intention right, and their powers sufficiently ample upon the two principles of justice which we have asked, and of the alliance which we have proposed, we will extend it as far as shall be necessary. This abridgement of useless days, should not make your Serenity believe that we are therefore the less disposed to the conclusion of peace: so far from that being our intention, we have done it to prevent that delay, (enemy of such affair) may not retard it, nor cool our desires for so great a benefit. We passionately wish it, but if it cannot be attained, we should be sorry to have uselessly consumed the time which would assist the prosecution of our right. We appeal to the tribunal of divine justice, where we shall both have to appear to render a most exact account of our conduct on the subject of this pacific overture, that the blindness of avarice, that glory, that vanity, or the pretext of wordly honors, and that the vain desire to reign can in nothing divert us from our good intentions. "We shall propose nothing to you, which we have not a right conscienciously to demand; and we advise you, most Serene Prince, with all sincerity and by a pure love, to entertain those happy thoughts of peace which you have always observed from your most tender youth, and not to neglect or abandon them in so mature and so advanced an age. Reflect upon the years which you have passed; think of eternity, in which they must terminate, and bear in memory the noble actions and the triumphs which ancient ages have seen arise from the union of the kingdoms of England and France, as also the massacre and slaughter which their divisions have caused, and how much they have shed of christian blood, which cost such sufferings to JESUS CHRIST for its redemption. If the prophet of the prophets, the great Jeremiah, lived to day, what tears would he shed on the torrents of blood which have inundated so many plains, after having so wept over the miserable state of a single city! and what would he not say of the misfortune This expression is not a little singular, for at that time Charles the Sixth was but a few months more than forty-six years old, he having been born on the 3rd December, 1368a period of life which does not appear to justify so serious an admonition respecting eternity. Lydgate also speaks of the French monarch as being then "so old." See p. xiv. of so cruel an hostility between two crowns! It is this which obliges me to chose a favourable time, it is this which constrains me to knock with importunity at the door of your conscience to invite you to peace. It is a long time that I have knocked, and that you have deferred to open it to me; and in the mean time the quarrel increases, and they form pernicious designs of invasion, who support schism in the church, and who foment the crimes of this world. The Pope even has made a divorce from the universal church, he whom they hoped would redeem it, and re-establish Israel; and so many years of possession have rather induced them to resist the union than to submit to it. This Holy Sion, formerly without rust and without spot, has lost all hope of regaining her ancient liberty, if the Princes do not join together to deliver her from the yoke of her bondage. Let us not therefore obstinately persist in encroaching one upon another, nor allow ourselves to be prompted by imaginary pretexes of honor to debate upon titles and pretensions, so much more condemnable in their vanity, because they serve as obstacles to the most praiseworthy designs. Rather let us undertake, for the glory of God, to assist our desolate mother, which has regenerated us in the light; let us render truth triumphant over force and violence; let us govern and judge by our conscience, and do for the church that which she would do for us, if she were free from her oppression. Given under our signet in our Palace of Westminster, the 15th of the month of April." To the first of these letters Charles is said to have replied on the 16th of April, and to the last, on the 26th of ww с that month; it is therefore evident that Henry did not wait for the answer to the first, before the second was written.a Upon the authenticity of these singular documents, which are likewise referred to by another contemporary, but little is to be said. The writer to whom we are indebted for them, does not state, from whence they were taken; hence excepting the fact, that if they were actually despatched, the originals would of course be in France, and the great probability that Mons Le Laboureur had access to archives in which it is likely they would be preserved, the only evidence on the subject is that which arises from internal proof; and which seems so strong as to amount nearly to conviction. Assuming then, a Laboureur states that both these letters were sent by Dorset Herald, which can scarcely be true, unless we suppose that he could have conveyed the first to the French monarch, and returned to London in eight days-a celerity of travelling not very probable at that period. b Des Ursins, p. 288. |